In my Global Issues class this week we did a lot of discussion based talks. We are still talking about some of the same issues as we did the previous week, but now we are more focused on the ethics of whether or not to implement EIT’s. Our teacher Mr. VanOrman told us to get on a certain side of the room based on what we thought about the issue, and I was surprised to see a majority of the class was pro implementation of these sorts of interrogation techniques. Only me and about five other people of a class of twenty were against EIT’s. We were then instructed to choose five reasons to argue our beliefs. The three our group came up with were 1. Inhumane 2. Doesn’t always work 3. Takes too much time The discussion didn’t really get anywhere, since everyone was pretty strong with their beliefs. Yesterday we started learning more about lone wolves, or people who do terrorist acts alone, or by themselves. Mainly we focused on the Oklahoma Incident. This bombing happened in April of 1995, and it involved a white supremacy fanatic setting off a bomb situated next to Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. One hundred sixty eight people died, including children who were staying at the daycare located in the building. We watched a video today, and it was just so hard to wrap my head around. That somebody from our country would be capable of setting off and bomb and killing people just because they were angry that the government was trying to regulate the people's possession of guns. It’s just so awful to think that there are people living in our very own country that would be willing to commit acts similar to those of ISIS or other terror groups. It’s scary to me, but also kind of depressing. In my AP gov class we started watching a documentary called Fed Up. The reason that we are watching this movie is because of government regulations, and interest groups, and how they cover things up and lead the public to believe things that are untrue. I’ve only watched about fifteen minutes of it, and I’m already super suspicious of things that the government has been covering up due to food processing and what goes into regular foods that we ingest daily. The intro said that it was going to somehow directly relate obesity to cancer, but I’m a little skeptical of the data they have. I think it will be a pretty informative movie though, and I’m looking forward to knowing more about what the government does behind our back, if not a little worried about becoming a conspiracy theorist. This week seemed to go by really fast though, and I’m looking forward to a little one week break. It will also be my birthday on Monday so I’m definitely ready to turn sixteen. I think that this was a really productive week, and I know from all the homework that I’m getting today and tomorrow there will be plenty to do over my break, which I am not looking forward to, but oh well.
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This week in Global Issues we focused on the subject of ISIS and other terror organizations. Starting on Monday we talked about the general term ‘terrorism’. I learned about some of the reasons why people do terror acts, and the difference between Freedom Fighter and Terrorists. It’s very interesting how people always seem to get these two terms mixed up, or they think that they mean the same thing. The truth is that Freedom Fighters protect civilians and want to overthrow a leadership, or oppressors. Terrorist don’t care for human lives, and will happily discard life as long as it brings them closer to their goal. On tuesday we started to talk about ISIS, and how they were formed from Al Qaeda. We watched a video about the founder, and first leader of ISIS. His name was Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As a kid he grew up in poverty, and oppression, and eventually found himself in prison where he was introduced to radicalism and came up with the idea of ISIS. A really interesting fact that the video revealed was that at first Osama Bin Laden turned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi away because he thought that he was only a lowlife thug. Wednesday was very interesting for we went in depth about interrogation techniques and whether they are torture or not. In my opinion, based on the videos that I watched and the knowledge that I already pertained on this issue, I think that some of the methods they used were torture. For example water boarding, which is a method where they take a cloth and put it over the person's mouth, then drown them by pouring water over their the towels. Watching the videos, it just seems so inhumane, and disgusting that we as a cultured people would be brought down to the low level of terrorists. After we finished talking about these methods, and the moral issues with implementing them we moved on to Osama Bin Laden and his involvement in 9/11. Everybody already has the basic understanding of what happened on that terrible day, so we focused more on how Osama Bin Laden was able to hide for so long. I think that he wasn’t forced out of hiding sooner was because of how loyal the people that he kept around him were. The only reason that he was found out was because one of his messengers slipped up and accidentally used a URL at an internet cafe. Today we started a movie called Zero Dark Thirty, which almost perfectly projects the events that led from the 9/11 attacks, to the killing of Osama Bin Laden. I think that it is pretty good so far, and shows a pretty good perspective of the interrogators, and how it messes with their lives. I really like learning about ISIS, because it’s a very important issue in our world today, and it feels really good when you are able to intelligently talk about this problem in adult conversations. Overall I’m really enjoying this class and can’t wait to learn about more issues dominating our world today. |
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May 2017
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