Sixth ISU Blog Post

           Elsewhere is a book all about the death of a girl named Lizzie and the adventure that comes afterwards. Lizzie is in an alternative universe called Elsewhere, filled with every other dead person. As the story progresses we learn that there is a sort of exception or condition to this alternative universe. You age in reverse and when you become the age of seven again, you are simply reincarnated. So, now in this book we have the aspect of an after life and Reincarnation. These are two things that a lot of people in today's society believe in, because it brings them comfort and relief.

             Since I believe that there is not life after death or reincarnation I found this picture to be very funny. It made me think about whether someone who believe in a life after death would actually knowingly want to die. If they are not ready to die in order to go live another life, then do they actually believe in it? If they are not ready to die in order to live this other life they think that will be given to them, then I think it is fair to say that it is just a comfort tactic.

Fifth ISU Blog Post

Video: http://wgntv.com/2015/02/05/ohio-family-convinced-son-lived-another-life-as-a-chicago-woman/

          The link I have posted above is to a video showing a boy whose family that believe he was once a female who died in a house fire. He seemed to recall who the female was, how she died, and even how she looked. In the book Elsewhere, the author writes that when people hit the age of 7 they will be reincarnated
and live another life. Personally I believe that this is not true and that the video of the child is simply a hoax. The book is based on common beliefs that our society has and you can really see the influence it had on the author. There is not a lot of originality, the author is just taking unproven ideas and creating a story out of it. This is fine considering it is just a book that is not meant to be taken literally, but when we do take it literally we can see the flaws it has. You may be thinking about who would be willing to go through all the trouble of creating a hoax like that video, but I think we've all heard of crazier lies. This ties into my belief that you should not make assumptions on things like life after death or reincarnation, until you have facts that prove it.
           

Fourth ISU Blog Post

            Coping with death and grief can often times be very difficult. It can cause the strongest of people to break down. People can blame themselves, develop bad habits, convince themselves that their loved ones are in a better place, and etc. In my book, we can see these ways of coping with the death of a loved one. First we have Lizzie's parents who find comfort in thinking that Lizzie's death was a quick and painless one. They don't know this for a fact, but they are really convincing each other and portraying it as a fact. Lucy, who is Lizzie's dog, doesn't realizes that this is just a way of finding comfort for the parents, chooses to deal with the death in her own way. Lucy chooses to act as if Liz has just gone off to college and doesn't want to come back to visit. She knows that this is not the case but it is just another way of coping with the death.

               This picture is showing the five stages of grieving, which was created by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist. These 5 stages are shown as hurdles that we must get over in order to be okay with the death of a loved one. From reading the book, I believe that Lizzie's loved ones are still in the denial stage. They are not thinking clearly and are blocking out the facts. This is true especially with her dog Lucy who knows that she is death but chooses to convince herself that Lizzie is alive.

Third ISU Blog Post

Slam Poetry Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAq6VpmgB0

              The video that I have chosen is showing a slam poem written and presented by Michael Lee that is called "Pass On." The poet has great delivery as he manages to show his emotion thoroughly but still keeps himself controlled so that he enunciates effectively. What he is saying is personal but easy to relate and sympathize with. It's powerful and convincing but he is not speaking with facts, he is only speaking using what he believes is true and correct. For example he speaks about a friend of his that was murdered and how he was searching for "him" in someone else for nine years. The person he found was a young male that was playing basketball. As Michael asked him how many years he had been playing basketball for the basketball player responded, "nine years." This is something that does not prove a life after death as it could merely be coincidental. Michael Lee is essentially talking about how the dead live on through random people all over the world, whom haven't even met the deceased. I guess you could say that he is speaking about one possible form of life after death. In the book Elsewhere, which is my ISU book the author writes about another possible form of life after death which consists of you staying yourself but travelling to another world, with other dead people. The video and the book present two different perceptions of the issue that is life after death. This is one of the reasons that I personally don't believe in life after death. It is something that is easy to start believing in to comfort yourself but when you take a step back and look at it you can see the flaws in the idea.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Retell: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a movie based around the time period of the holocaust. It focuses on a boy named Bruno whose father is promoted in the military to a concentration camp commandment in Berlin, where he does not currently reside. When Bruno and his family move to Berlin things change drastically for them. Bruno no longer has any friends and is constantly bored, as he is living in a very rural area. His boredom causes him to explore and this is when he discovers the concentration camp that lies just past the large forest next to his house. Here he meets another boy named Shmuel who is around the same age as him and as he talks to the boy through the guard fence he realizes the realities of concentration camps. Shmuel tells Bruno that his father is missing and would like to find him. As a result, Bruno takes his place in the camp and unluckily the same day all the Jews are sent to the gas chambers and joining them in their deaths is Bruno.


Reflect: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a movie that does a great job at portraying the type of tragedies that occurred during the holocaust. It really has shocking and vivid scenes that make you realize how horrible the holocaust actually was. For example in the ending scene when all the Jews are taken into the gas chamber and killed it feels very real. The movie showed their naked bodies that portrayed there level of malnutrition, it showed how scared and hopeless the Jews felt. It has a way of making you want to put yourself in the Jews shoes and this causes you to think critically. The fact that this movie addresses something real and significant that occurred in our history and has an effective way of doing so, to me makes it an iconic movie that will never get old.


Relate: This movie revolves around the holocaust and the tragedies that took place. Just like the holocaust many other genocides have occurred in history. For example in 1762 thousands of Sikhs and people that helped the Sikh people were slaughtered and captured by afghan forces. While it may not be as large as the Jewish genocide, they contain many similarities. In the movie you can see that the Jews were captured by Nazis and held in concentration camps until they were most likely killed in the gas chambers. The afghan forces captured Sikhs and killed them after gaining any information they needed. Also in the movie you can see that anyone who helped the Jews was look at as a traitor and was also punished. The same thing happened to the Hindus who tried to help the Sikh people.

War Artifact

             I have chosen this picture to be my artifact related to war. It seems to show a young soldier who is lost in his thoughts while sitting on the train in the country he is fighting for. I chose this picture because it really made me think critically about war and brought a lot of questions to my mind, and I really thought it would do the same for everyone else. Is he going to war or has he just come back? Is he thinking about something horrible he has witnessed? What kind of stress is the war putting on him? How is his life different from mine? These are some of the questions that came to my mind and they really help me look deeper into the concept of war. War is sometimes glorified and we don't realize that it is people just like us who are fighting wars. Seeing this young individual really puts war into perspective and makes you question it.

Sniper News Article

The Sacrifices of War
By: Jaskaran Singh
January 20, 2012

             Last night In Dublin two snipers were seen fighting on rooftops across the street from each other, one had been killed.

            

The now barren block where the fighting occurred.

           The fight between Republicans and Free Staters is not showing any signs of slowing down and what happened last night's firefight proves this to be true. The sad part of the firefight is that the two snipers turned out to be brothers, but this was a fact discovered too late.

            

            In the dark of the night they could not tell it, but the two snipers were in fact brothers. If they had known this it is easy to imagine a very different outcome. Instead, the sad truth is that one of the brothers fighting for the Republicans has killed his brother who was fighting for the Free Staters.

            

            One civilian witnessed this fire fight in action from his city home. "The shots kept going and when they finally stopped, I had a feeling that something horribly bad had happened. Although I never thought it was be something this bad."

            

            There are a lot of opinions and point of views on this topic looming around. It is important to discuss things like this so that there is a larger comparison to the whole war. Please mail in your opinions and discuss this issue with us. We would love to hear your opinion!

The Sniper Summary and Thematic Paragraph

In your own words, summarize this text.

         The short story “The Sniper” depicts a civil conflict situation between Republicans and Free Staters. It focuses on a man who is a sniper for the Republican side. This sniper is pinned by another sniper that is across the street. Both take shots at each other one by one, in an endless battle. The Republican sniper moves around continuously trying to get the kill. The enemy lands a shot on him but luckily it is not fatal. The sniper quickly patches himself up and hatches a plan to fake his death and take out his enemy with the element of surprise. The plan worked and his enemy is dead, but the sniper feels remorse and loses his excitement of war. Curiously he moves to the enemies position and once it is calm he turns the sniper over, only to find out that it was his brother he was fighting.

What is the author's message? Provide evidence from the text and explain your thinking.

          I believe that the authors message is that war can distort your thoughts and make you think unclearly. It forces you to develop hatred and desensitizes you to inhumane things. In this story we have two brothers shooting and each other relentlessly and so cold heartedly. If they had realized the fact that they were brothers before it was too late, they would both still be alive. “Then the sniper turned over the dead boy and looked into his brother’s face.” I would imagine this to be very horrible and sad. He unknowingly killed his own brother, all in the name of a large scale war. There must be people from both sides that know each other and loved each other. Looking at this conflict on a smaller scale could help work things out without the senseless killing.

Second ISU Blog Post

POEM

Life after death

A great illusion

It creates a lot of confusion

Never has been proven
This Life is great
Carpe Diem my friends
And you shall need no other
This life is yours
Don't put it in the hands of something unproven
Take control and never take it slow
Live by what you know

Not by what you've been told
Come to your well educated conclusions
Forget about assuming
There are no guarantees in this life

Live like there is no tomorrow

Or for that matter a life after death

           The poem that I have written reflects my opinion on the issue of whether life after death exists or not. My opinion is that life after death does not exist and therefore nor does a god or higher entity. I also believe that everyday should be lived to the fullest because this life is guaranteed but one after death is not. My opinion is contrary to what the author of my book writes about. In the book the author has created this world where people live after they die. I talk about the lack of evidence there is supporting the theory of life after death to try to get my point across. In one line I wrote,"Don't put [life] in the hands of something unproven," and not only does this try to point out that god is a myth but it is also saying that since god is not proven why would you want to put your trust in him when you are capable and can put it in yourself. In another section I wrote, "Carpe Diem my friends and you shall need no other." Carpe Diem is Latin for "seize the day,"so what I am trying to say is that you should seize the each day you live and be content with your life to the point where you no longer care for a life after death. This all comes back to my opinion that you should just live the life you are guaranteed instead of worrying about what is next. By reading my poem I think that it will be very clear as to what side of this social issue I lie on.

First ISU Blog Post

Article: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/life-after-death-largestever-study-provides-evidence-that-out-of-body-and-neardeath-experiences-may-actually-be-real-9780195.html




           This article that I have chosen is written by Adam Withnall and is talking about a type of experiment scientists conducted in an attempt to see whether life after death truly existed or not. The experiment was conducted by talking to cardiac arrest patients and analyzing the experiences they had. The conclusion of this experiment was that 40 percent of the patients said that they had some form of awareness at a time when they were declared clinically dead. This article relates to my book because my book is based all around the theory of life after death being true. After reading the article my opinion on the matter stays the same. I do not believe in life after death. I don't think that this experiment was sufficient enough on proving me wrong and was more focused on hearsay rather than cold hard facts. A flaw in the experiment was the fact that they are saying that temporary death is still death because they simply don't have another word for it. Another flaw is that the people they interviewed may very well be lying and there is no way to prove whether they are or not.

Response to "Former child soldier Ishmael Beah recounts his past.Full"

Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kEL_LRBSqk

           This video is very eye opening and gives you a lot of insight into the horrible things that occur around the world. It reminds me of the movie "Blood Diamond", which showed the conflict in Sierra Leone over diamonds. A conflict which included the recruitment of child soldiers. In the video Ishmael describes the tactics the commanders used to get the children to kill. These were tactics like drugging them and blind folding them and then making them shoot people, and they did these things to desensitize the children. These same tactics were shown in "Blood Diamond" and in both cases proved to be very effective.

           The article "Teaching Kids to Kill" is similar and different to the video. To begin, there were tactics used by the army to desensitize children to the violence, in a way video games are doing this because they make it seem easy and nonpunishable. The article is different from the video because it is talking mostly about non military cases where children have fired weapons. These kids did not have adults directly telling them to commit these acts of violence, like in the case of Ishmael.

           From the video, I would challenge whether Ishmael is truly rehabilitated, because he has been through so much. I wonder if he is just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. I also challenge whether he should be given so much notoriety, because he has done inhumane things in the past.

           I think it is important to note the severity of the wrongful acts committed in conflicts. These are things that we are oblivious to, yet they occur all over the world. It really helps us to see the wrong in these situations when we can see someone affected by them.

           I think that the creators of this video want to raise awareness of the issue at hand. Raising awareness for it will make people realize how horrible it is, and this will result in change.

Response to "Damascus air strikes 'kill nearly 200 in 10 days'"

Refrence: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31427471

           This article is addressing the conflict between the Syrian government and rebel group Army of Islam. More specifically it talks about airstrikes that span over the period of ten days and are being used to gain control of areas in Syria, by both parties involved. These airstrikes were launched by both the Syrian government and the rebel group, and have killed almost 200 people. A representative from the rebel group was quoted saying that their airstrikes were a result of the Syrian army bombing civilian areas. There is not much of a medical effort being made for those who were wounded, and this conflict does not seem to be slowing down.

           I believe that history repeats itself and does so continuously. If we take a look back into World War One, we can see that it was a continuous effort for each opposing group of countries to take over their enemies countries. This article is talking about the same things, just on a smaller scale. The Syrian government and the Army of Islam want to control areas of Syria, just like the British(and allies) wanted to control Germany and the Germans(and allies) wanted to control Britain. This broadens my understanding of this article because I have spent great amounts of time looking back into World War One and I learned that it was a fight for control, and I now understand that the conflict in Syria is just a struggle for power, peace will not be achieved until control is gained by either of the parties involved.

           I enjoy action movies and the greatest action movies are the ones about war. A movie I recently watched was titled "unbroken." This movie showed the conflict between USA and Japan, and goes in depth to show one mans life as a soldier. He is captured by the Japanese and is treated in a cruel manner until the Americans infiltrate Japan and rescue him. My article reminds be of this because America couldn't free their soldier until they got into Japan and had control of it. In Syria one group cannot be the leading power in an area until they have control of it.This expands my understanding of this article because it shows me the two groups reasoning behind the airstrikes.