Histoire Geo

2001 War in Afghanistan till today;

2001 War in Afghanistan till today;

The Afghan war all started on October 7, 2001 mainly from the effect and the happening of 9/11. It’s main goal was trying to dismantle and stop the al-Qaeda terrorist group since it was based in Afghanistan. The Al-Qaeda, in translation, the base, is a militant Islamist organization created by Osama bin Laden in the 1980’s. It contains basically an army of radical movements, mainly the Jihad. They have not only been the source of 9/11 but also the 1998 UC embassy bombings and 2002 Bali bombings. Al-Qaeda continued to grow from 2001 to our day. Suicides, bombings are techniques they use to “prove a point”. They are not only violent towards other countries but their own as well with violence against muslims. 

It was the United States, UK Australia and the United Front (the northern alliance), which was an alliance created by the Islamic state of Afghanistan to fight against the Taliban. The Taliban, which means students, is an Islamist militant group that is supported by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The main leader is Mullah Mohammed Omar. They have very sexist views on women, they use terrorism as a tactic to prolong their political and ideological beliefs and goals. 

Today, with the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist al-Qaeda organization, the terrorists have separated into smaller groups and work more solo and therefore the danger risk has diminished but it continues to be popular. “On June 22, 2011, President Obama announced that 10,000 U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2011. An additional 23,000 troops will leave the country by the summer of 2012. After the withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops, only 80,000 are left participating in the war.” 

This war, or occupation, is one of the most important military conflicts of our time because of its duration. It has been the United States second longest military conflict besides the Vietnam War.

Here’s a timeline :

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/08/afghanistantimeline.afghanistan

and another interesting war update page: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

Rick Santorum

Republican candidate has a sick daughter that might be effecting his running for president?

“Polls show him trailing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich badly.

but campaign aides insist that he has no immediate plans to drop out of the race.”

also, if you want to get more of an inside scoop….

http://twitter.com/ricksantorum

“Tuesday’s deadly suicide attack targeting Afghan Shia just didn’t fit the pattern of what had come before in this troubled country.”

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/07/world/asia/afghanistan-questions/index.html

They think the culprit is Pakistan but they aren’t sure.

We still don’t know who did this and why… but as we see the tensions between central asia are rising. 

The Lives of Others

This movie is really great to watch after seeing Good Bye Lenin because of the similarities but also the differences. The fact that we can see the reality of life in East Germany, but the differences in the tone of the movie. The seriousness of  The Lives of Others is way more action packed then in Good Bye Lenin.

We actually see how East Germany was so oppressed and how controlled the citizens were. We actually learn about the Stasi and how this police force that is supposed to be for protection, ruins a lot of people’s lives. The Stasi are intruding on “the lives of others”. It shows us how fear can overpower a population. (Christa-Maria helping the Stasi). 

This movie was more of what I was expecting to learn about the limited freedom of Germany at the time. As opposed to Good Bye Lenin and You Only Live Twice, this is the realistic tragedy of the time. 

No matter how much this movie relates to the controlled East Germany, it’s about human nature, and how power can change people. Do we follow our hearts or do we let fear overpower us? 

This movie is interesting also because it’s the directors personal experience since he used to visit East Germany, and he noticed that people were controlled by fear. 

I found the Stasi a really interesting thing so I looked them up to learn more about them and it turns out that it seems like they were just a very bad group of police… “The Stasi censored the fact that Jews had been victims during the previous regime and in one instance, took gold from the bodies of Jews. The Stasi labeled Jews as capitalists and criminals.”

You Only Live Twice

Je vois comment ca fait partit de ce qu’on etudie au moment avec un attentat pour un troisième guerre mondial entre l’USA et Russie, mais ca ma un peut confus. je crois que c’etait a cause des accents. I didn’t really know who was on who’s side haha. There is a lot of small things, like the taste of each alcohol that James Bond points out to let us know who the enemy is, but this movie was sort of just a “cool action” movie. I guess it could be a message to show how quick the USA was to suspect Russia and visa versa, while it was actually a completely different conspiracy. The british were just concerned because they new that the USA and Russia weren’t actually behind the attacks. This movie concentrates also a lot on the Japanese culture which would suit us more in OIB class. 

Goodbye Lenin

(let me just announce to all the girls besides maybe tatiana, DIBS ON ALEXXXXXXXXXX lol)

ca ma beaucoup aider a comprendre l’histoire des deux cotes de berlin pendant ce temps la

In Goodbye Lenin, we see the true aspects of German history between the East of berlin and the West of berlin, but at the same time we see a sort of comedy that is added into the picture with Alex’s ways of hiding the truth from his mother. Little things are put into this movie to show us the rough times but also the good times that Germany faced after the war and during the Berlin Wall and after it’s fall.

We see that in that time, capitalism comes to East Berlin where the film is situated. Alex looses his job and his sister starts working for Burger King. We see the difference between west and east Berlin, before the destruction of the wall and after. Alex’s mother is a big character in the socialist party. She represents communism-fairness and equality. We see the difference between democracy and communism; democracy in the west having more business with the big enterprises or having more chances of being rich, as we can see with Alex’s father that escaped to the West.

The little things in the movie, like the trouble Alex has with finding a certain type of pickle that has been taken over by bigger enterprises of the West and their corporations. And the Coca Cola banner that the west brings in with it’s commercials. Capitalism is shown through Burger King, advocating the distribution of private ownership which seems to have a negative impact with a lot of people loosing their jobs, but also good things like lower prices. The establishment of capitalism and lack of Soviet aid meant that many people lost jobs. It was the GDF vs the FRG. The democracy that took over east berlin lead to a separation between rich and poor, but the fall the wall of berlin also led to freedom. For example when Alex and Lara go to the party and they seem to be care free living with their new apartment. We see the danger of the separation of two Berlins, how Alex’s mother didn’t want to follow her husband because she was scared she might be separated from her children and would have to wait a long time. We see the violence of the Police dealing with the people’s protests. Alex’s sister’s boyfriend is brought into the movie to show the difference between the West and East and their views, but their capability to get along just fine.

Podcast!!

http://youtu.be/Cc2ulZOxua4

the world that we live in….

“disturbingly intriguing”  

“This unscrupulous market — which consists of 27 million victims worldwide, according to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report — generates up to $32 billion annually, an amount rivaling that of the trafficking of arms and drugs. Of the 27 million, UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million are children who are trafficked every year to work as forced labor, in the commercial sex industry, in prostitution and in other forms of slavery.”