Post Conference Analysis (France)

As France, I thought we did a pretty decent job by taking most of the major ports. Although Britain took Suez Canal as well as Gibraltar, they were forced to take at least three inches of farmland. Therefore, it allowed us to take the remaining ports. I think Britain won because by taking the Suez Canal and Gibraltar, they can basically control every trade that is going through Africa. I think Germany lost in the "scramble" because Britain and France took every vital part of Africa and they were forced to take the average leftover lands.
I think colonizing and making boundaries throughout Africa will bring about a very negative effect on African culture. The African tribes interact with each other and by splitting them up, their culture becomes destroyed. Different countries were formed as a result. There is still an effect seen today in Africa because now there are not as many African language speakers as there were before.

Scramble for Africa

When I think about "Scramble for Africa," I first think about the Berlin Conference. The Berlin Conference was held by various European countries to split up Africa into their own territories. Since the voyage by Portugal, many European countries were in need of natural resources and raw material, and Africa was the perfect place to settle on. In order to "fairly" split up Africa, the European countries held a meeting to discuss this matter.

Do Now

I believe that the Europeans became interested in Africa because of cheap labor. In the movie Roots, the European merchants wanted to round up all the African people and ship them back to Britain. That time, Britain was starting to imperialize different territories. Then Britain had to look for cheap human resources to grow more efficiently.
I think slavery will have a very negative effect on the African society. All men are created the same, and the British did not have any right whatsoever to "use" these African people as slaves. I think this tragic history prevents interaction between whites and blacks. The African tribe will now view the white Europeans as adversaries. Also, the society will fall apart because almost everything in the society are ran by men.

Roots and African Elements

The most unique element of Africa presented in "Roots" was that a warrior must have respect another warrior, and only kill if his family is in danger. The warrior leader stated that the purpose of war is to win, not to kill. For example, he said that if you surround your enemy, then you will ultimately have to kill all your enemies because they become desperate. On the contrary, if you surround from three sides and leave one side open, then the enemy will leave peacefully. This stood out to me because I never knew that the African warriors were such refined and intelligent people. These people are trained to go to war. However, to have respect towards your enemy is an astonishing philosophy and mindset.
In society, being generous to your adversaries can come back to you as a great asset. For example, when I forgave my little brother for eating my food, he thanked me and cooked me an instant cup noodle.

African Folklore Reaction: The Spirit (Rainforest)

"The Spirit" is about a boy hunter who decides to hunt down an elephant for his starving village. He succeed in killing the elephant, but decided that it was not enough. So he set up more traps to hunt more goods. After he was done setting up the additional traps, two spirits wandered around in the rain forest, a mother spirit and a child spirit. The child spirit got caught in the boy hunter's trap, and was eaten by him. After that, the boy hunter returned to his village. Later on, the villagers head weird moaning from the rain forest, and figured it to be the mother spirit. Knowing that enraged spirits are dangerous, the villagers loaded their guns and shot down the mother spirit. In the end, the villagers cut her body and scattered around the rain forest.
African myths contain many supernatural elements, such as spirits. "The Spirit" had two spirits killed by the savage villagers. This also showed interaction between the African villagers and the spirits throughout the story. This is one of the most common elements of African folklore.
The story was very disturbing. I did not enjoy this gruesome folklore at all. Chopping up a child's body then the mother's sounds extremely barbaric. This was the most disgusting folklore I have ever heard.
Even though the story was very bloody, it did point out some African cultures. A boy hunter decided to take responsibility to feed his village and came back with an elephant. This shows the strong males of Africa as well as their leadership. It appears very odd, but when the mother spirit let her child roam around freely in the rain forest seemed to have a morale saying that a mother should never leave his child by himself for his/her own safety.
In conclusion, this story taught me to be a man and take responsibility for my actions.

Wonders of Africa

Until now, I did not know that Africa used to be a such influential civilization. People of Africa built architectures that lasted for centuries. I never thought that Africa was so advanced in the architectural department. I was very stereotypical about African building because when I think of their residence, I only think about huts made of wood and grass. However, it is just magnificent to see solid structures built during the past reign of Africa. For example. The City of Great Zimbabwe had fascinating stone buildings that were used as fortresses. Wealthy African Pharaohs ruled upon a whole empire and had beautiful natural resources and a well developed capital city. This is also true for the City of Aksum because during this period, it was Africa's golden era. Now, I have huge respect towards the grand culture of Africa and its accomplishments.

When I Think About Africa

The first thing that comes to mind when I think about the continent of Africa is the wild life and natural habitat of all sorts of animals. The reason why wild animals pop up in my head when I think of Africa is because I watched many clips and documentations about African animals in Animal Planet. I also believe that the African continent is one of the few regions that has preserved natural habitats for its animals to live on, because places like Europe or America do not have many of those. When I think about Africa, wild animals come to my mind first.
The second thing that comes to mind is all the discrimination and ethnic violation happening throughout Africa, especially in Sudan. I did a paper on Darfur genocide, and I did not know how serious it was until then. I think that something should be done to make the victims' lives better.

Obsession Reaction Section 4

The Jihadists spread their radical ideas in the Middle East by gathering many people and preaching about how the United States is taking away what the Arabs deserve, which is liberty. They also made a music video that contained violent lyrics that said the United States should be destroyed as well. This is an absolute madness. Although there have been some conflicts between the West and the Middle East, that does not give the radical Islams to degrade on the United States. The video showed clips of people tearing and burning the American flag. The Islams have to realize that they are spreading the wrong idea. Instead of properly teaching other about the tension and conflicts between the West and the Middle East, the leaders are declaring death to America. This will eventually cause a domino effect throuhgout the entire Middle East and turn the remaining Arabs turn against the United States.

Obsession Reaction Section 9

The terrorists want to strike down the West and Christianity. They believe that Islam is far more superior than other religions. Islams want to see the whole world under Islam by the means of Allah. This sounds just absurd to me. First of all, there are no such religions that are right or wrong. Religion is based solely on faith and unification of its followers. The terrorists also need to realize that they are contradicting themselves. For example, Hizbullah is trying to destroy Israel so that it can establish an independent Palestinian state. However, they are giving the innocent Arabs more trouble from the United States military because they force the innocent Arabs to be associated with the barbaric terrorists. Worse, they are contradicting Allah, because some Arabs hate terrorism and are now protesting against it. Thus, this is going to bring separation between the Arabs. As of now, the terrorists are blinded by pure hatred to destroy anything on their path.

Obsession Reaction Section 5

The radical Islams, a growing population, are now everywhere. The 9/11 incident proves that these extremists can really deal a huge damage without having any geographical power. These people are really against the United States, and it must have taken them a tremendous amount of time to study the features of the World Trade Center and hijack a plane. I think that the terrorists are carrying out their "duty" as a Islam based on no sacrifice, no victory. This kind of alarming activities are forcing the United States to keep a closer look on the Middle East. However, this is causing more tension between the West and the Islams.

Obsession Reaction Section 3

Radical Islams hate the United States. They believe that the United States is an interference towards the unity of nations under Allah. In my opinion, the Islamic leaders are spreading false stereotypes. As the Palestinian lady said, the United States did nothing wrong to the Middle East people. Also, the Bill of Rights states that every one must be granted with a freedom of religion. I do not see any reason to see the United States as a Satan that opposes unity and freedom.

Obsession Reaction Section 2

Jihad is defined as a holy war waged to conquer the world for Allah. I think that is an unjustified excuse for destroying other countries. The radical Islamic leaders say that America is the cause for all the terrorism around the Middle East. However, what did the Americans ever do to enrage the Islams? Also, it just disgusts me to see that these so-called leaders are brainwashing the children of Middle East by educating them to die for Jihad. This culture of terrorism should be stopped, because rather than properly educating the children about the high tension between the West and the Middle East, they are teaching them to follow and support Jihad until death. The effects of these kind of wrongful education will eventually bring about a war driven solely by hatred and madness instead of rational reasons.