Final Project-1-info-graphic- time line of modern Israel History

• 1948- The modern state of Israel is formed.

• 1949- Israel sings peace deals with the Arab countries that attacked it after it was founded. Egypt controls the Gaza Strip.

• 1956- Israel tries to take over the Gaza Strip because of many attacks from Egypt. The French and British help them, but the UN opposes the war.

• 1957- Israel finally leaves Egypt but stays in the Gaza Strip; they argue that Gaza was never part of Egypt.

• 1967- The six day war happens when Israel attacks its Arab neighbors including Egypt, Jordon and Syria.

• 1979- Egypt and Israel sign a peace treaty ending 30 years of war. They also begin talks about giving the one million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and Gaza self rule.

• 1982- Here we enter modern Israeli / Palestinian history. President Regan tries to make an independent Palestine, but Israel disagrees saying it would hurt their security.

• 1987- The beginning of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism with the founding of Hamas. This was in response to Israel’s occupation of Palestine which is still going on today.

• 1992- Israel forces 400 Palestinians to leave Gaza and the West Bank. They are bound and blindfolded.

• 1993-Yasir Arafat (the Palestinian leader) sings a deal with Israel to start trying to end the conflict, but the radical Hamas tries to stop this by doing more suicide bombings.

• 1996- Israel’s Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, pushes for war against Hamas after two suicide bombings kill 27 Jews.

• 2000- The famous Camp David talks fail to bring peace.

• 2000- Hamas gets stronger and gets more support.

• 2001- Deadly suicide bombings at a Tel Aviv Disco by Hamas.

• 2004- Israel kills Hamas’s spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Israel believes this was as important as the Americans hunting down Al Qaeda.

• 2004-The moderate Yasir Arafat dies.

• 2005- Israel finally leaves Gaza after 38 years but they still tightly control how Palestinians can move in and out of there.

• 2006-Hamas wins the elections in Palestine. Many western countries are not happy but could do little because the process was democratic.

• 2007- Hamas takes complete control over Gaza and pushes out the more moderate Fatah.

• 2008- Israel and Hamas agree to a cease fire.

• 2008- Hamas ends the cease fire saying that Israel was not following it.

• 2008- Israel uses airplanes to bomb Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel with rockets.

• 2009- Another cease fire is started after 1200 Palestinians and 13 Israelis die.

Final Project-2-Documentary- photo

Islamic Jihad

Two Islamic Jihad members prepare to fire rockets over the wall at Israel.

                                                      West Bank settlement

This photo shows a normal Israeli settlement in the west bank. This is such a problem to the peace process because they are on Palestinian land.

                                                Suicide Bombing in Jerusalem Kills Six

In this photo we can see what happens after a suicide bombing in an Israeli café. Many Palestinians do suicide bombings to show their anger at Israel.

Suicide Bomber Destroys Bus

In this photo we see the result of a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Israel.

 

Palestinians and Israelis demonstrate against the wall

This is a special demonstration because Palestinians and Israelis are together. Many Jewish Israelis don’t like their government’s policies toward Palestinians and try to support the Palestinians.

                                           Palestinian children confronting soldiers 

Angry Palestinian children throw rocks at an Israeli tank.

Palestinian protesters

Here we see the Palestinian protesters trying to cross into Syria but they are stopped by Israel soldiers.

Security check

Here we see many young Palestinian men being checked by an Israeli soldier to look for bombs. Many times they are forced to check every day. 

The wall

We can see the famous wall that Israel is building around Palestinian territory to try to keep the militants out. This has made people think of the Berlin wall because it is very similar.

Security check

Here we see the Palestinians passing through a security check to get from Gaza into Israel. Sometimes they have to check every day.

Final Project-4-Local Problem and solution

Local Problem and Solution

William

The problem: The Israeli/Palestinian conflict

·        The Palestinians continue to be contained and controlled by Israel

·        Both groups believe they have a right to live in the holy land

·        Palestinians don’t enjoy freedom of movement

·        This makes the Palestinians angry which  has led to terrorist attacks against Israel and the rise of Hamas

·        Israel keeps building settlements in the West Bank very close to Palestinian territory

The best solution-Two States

·        There have been many solutions proposed by other countries, especially the United States

·        The most famous of these is the two state solution

·        With this plan the Palestinians will get their own country that would cover the current Palestinian territory

·        Israel will still control all of the other land

·        One of the main problem with this solution is the Israel West Bank settlements which are basically in Palestinian territory

·        There are only three other solutions if the two states plan fails, all of which are worse for both groups

Alternative solution one

·        Israel could just force out all the Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and all of Israel

·        This would appeal to Zionist Jewish people who dream about an “ethnically pure” Jewish Israel

·        This is of course a very bad and un fair solution for Palestinians and would not be supported by any other countries

·        It would basically be ethnic cleansing

Alternative solution two

·        In this solution things will stay almost like now

·        The Israelis will still control the West Bank and Gaza

·        The Palestinians would be given limited control over some other land in Israel

·        The Israelis would still control Palestinian movements in and out, and the air space

·        The Palestinians still would  not have real control or freedom in their territory

·        People say it would be similar to apartheid in South Africa before

Alternative solution three

·        Israel will still physically control all of the country but give the Palestinians full democratic rights and freedom of movement inside of Israel

·        This would be the end of special Palestinian territory

·        This is much better than the other two alternative solutions but still worse than the two state solution

·         Zionist Jewish people would have to give up their dream of an ethnically pure Israel

·        It is also not perfect for the Palestinians because they couldn’t directly control their future

Final Project-3-News paper

Dear Editor,

                                              William Hsieh

I am a grade nine student from Kaohsiung American School in southern Taiwan. For our final Humanities class project on “making the world a better place” we are trying to get our ideas published in a newspaper like the New York Times.

            For my topic I am doing terrorism and therefore the recent death of Osama Bin Laden is giving me a lot to think about. While I agree that it was important to find him and bring him to justice for what he did to America on September, 11, 2001 and on other occasions, I disagree that his death can really do anything to stop terrorism. In the news we already hear about renewed anger across the Muslim world because of killing Bin Laden and the disrespectful way his body was dealt with by dumping it in the ocean. If we look at history we can easily learn that when a leader like Bin Laden is martyred their followers get even more passionate about their cause.

Almost for sure it will only be a matter of time until the next Bin Laden comes forth to replace him, with thousands of radicalized terrorists who were all willing to die for him before. While in the short term we might be safer since he was the spiritual leader and therefore they might feel fragmented, in the long term the West will be in more danger after Al Qaeda regroups under new leadership. Thus this game of always trying to be one step ahead of the terrorists will never end and it is only a temporary solution.

            In my opinion, the only true way to stop terrorism is to get at the root causes of the Muslim world’s hatred of the West and try to bring more understanding to both sides of this conflict. A perfect example is Pastor Jones who recently led a small group of believers to burn the Koran, which is Islam’s most holly book. Are these actions not just as radical as many of the Muslim terrorists? We should be more careful to look for radicalization and hate among us and focus on teaching tolerance to children, because if we don’t, the same cycle of hate will repeat itself forever.

We should look beyond physical security measures like airport security checks and hutting down terrorists and instead try to understand the real reasons for hate. The Untied States should rethink its Middle East policy where it has had an unwelcome and often uninvited presence for many years, often trying to bring in democracy to countries that are not politically or socially ready. This can create conditions that are a perfect breeding ground for terrorism, and Iraq is a perfect example of this.

I hope that when people are celebrating they will realize the truth that terrorism is not going anywhere just because Bin Laden is dead and will try to address hate wherever they see it before matters get out of control.

Rwanda hotel - Reflection

Hotel Rwanda is about the civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis that happened in Rwanda in 1994. For many decades the Tutsis controlled the Hutus by force. Even through they were the minority, they had the power, enjoying many privileges the Hutus could not. European colonization was partly to blame for the inequity between these groups, although it was historically based.  This of course made the Hutus feels very angry and unfair. So in the 1990’s the Hutus began to fight back and rebel. Unfortunately, the Hutus took their revenge too far and tried to kill every Tutsi, even women, children and the elderly, creating a full genocide. The UN tried to step in but didn’t do enough. In fact it seemed the West did nothing to help Rwanda.

I felt sad after I saw Hotel Rwanda because all the Hutus were killed by the Tutsis. The main charter, Paul, was a hotel owner who gave many free rooms to refuges on both sides. Even though he was a Hutu himself, he helped people from the Tutsi. I feel Western countries were afraid of Rwanda and also didn’t care about Africa. They wanted to see Africa destroy itself so it would be easy to go in and control things after.

Lions in Africa and the Maasai Tribe Summary

Summary- Jessica presented on lions in Africa and the Maasai Tribe. This tribe has a long relationship with lions going back for hundreds of years. Today lions are an endangered species with only 20,000 left compared to over 1.2 million in the 1800s. There are many reasons for this decline including climate change, human settlement and hunting.

My opinion is that we should change people’s mindset to not think it is fashionable to wear lion skins. We also need to create more national parks to give those lions a place to live. I don’t believe this tribe is the real reason for the lion decline because they have been hunting for hundreds years. Instead modern population pressure has almost killed all the lions in just the last hundreds years.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/big-cats/lion-decline-map/

What I learned about Somalia and piracy

Somalia was a very wealthy trading center before Europeans arrived. Far before Europeans however were Arabs who brought Islam in the seventh century. They set up many gold trading posts in the tenth century including Mogadishu which was the most famous trading city and was very rich by the thirteenth century. The Somali people were so influenced by Arabs that they joined the Islamic holy wars against Ethiopian Christians.

The first British explorer was Sir Richard Burton in 1854. Europeans got more interested in Somalia after the Suez Canal was built in 1869. Shortly after, Europeans carved up Somalia with British Somaliland set up in 1887 on the north Somali coast, French Somaliland on the west coast also in 1887 and Italian Somaliland in south Somali including Mogadishu in 1889.

Today’s pirates are not like what you see on the movies. They are a real serious social problem in the world now, especially in Africa. As we will see, civil wars, poverty, location and a sense of injustice has made Somalia a perfect breeding ground for pirates:

Civil War

·        In Somalia there has been civil war for decades

·        This means they don’t have any effective government to protect their coast line

·        They had no effective coast guard or navy

Poverty

·        Piracy is also a great way to make money for poor people with few opportunities

Good location

·        They are on the horn of Africa and have a huge coast line

·        It is a very good fishing area and so they have a lot of chances to catch international fishing boats

·        It is also a major shipping lane through the Suez Canal

Sense of Injustice

·        In the beginning the pirates were simply poor fisherman trying to protect their coast from illegal fishing by international firms

·        They even called themselves the “National Volunteer Coast Guard (NVCG)”

·        However, this quickly degenerated into piracy due to poverty

Japan 8.8 Earthquake

We Are The World :)

Somalia pirates

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/22/somali-pirates-hijacked-yacht-us

this shows the growing piracy probleam in Somalia. My project after spring break will talk about this

GIRL's EducationTanzania

http://www.africa.com/blog/blog,changing_the_future_and_redefining_education_for_at-risk_girls_in_tanzania_part_2,217.html

in poor countries it is always hard to get education for girl

African People & Culture

I found the list of every tribe in Afica.
http://www.africaguide.com/culture/tribes/index.htm

The change of European economy during the 19th century

During the 19^th century Europe was the first place in the world to experience the fundamental shift from agriculture to industrialization. In other words, they went from farming to factories. It was the birth of capitalism.  

It all began with new technology and processes that made farming more efficient and therefore one farmer was able to produce much more food than he needed for his own family, creating a surplus. At that point many people were free to do something besides farming since one farmer could feed many other workers. This created a surplus of labor which moved to the city to find work in the factories and thus the process of urbanization accelerated. People who worked in factories made more money than famers and so they could buy more goods. The production of goods in factories allowed entrepreneurs to build up a lot of capital which they reinvested in even more technology and capacity.

            The other major change in the economy of 19^th century Europe was the move to specialization of labor. This means that instead of a single craftsman making a product, the steps to make something are broken down with every worker on an assembly line given a small and very specific job. This broke down the old European guild system because most people only had to learn how to do a small task instead of mastering a life long skill.

            In conclusion, the move from farming to factories caused by technological innovation created an industrial and urban society from an agricultural and rural one.

Case Study Three:5

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2011/02/23/2003496592

Case Study Three:4

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2011/02/20/2003496332

Case Study Three:3

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2011/02/23/2003496604

Case Study Three:2

Case Study Three:1

http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html