Reply to Caitlin's Blog Post 11

Wow that video is really powerful. Good work in finding it. It made me angry that's for sure. As you said, I can definitely see how this one minute video could and did change peoples' view of Nicaragua. I also like your point that this is how media can be used for good. Nowadays, we see so much crap and pointless things from the media. Media definitely can be used for good, it just depends on the people and whether it will be good or just pointless crap. I would say that it is pretty lucky that the camera man also was not killed and that the footage survived. I wonder what would have been different if this footage was not taken. I definitely think that the U.S would not have withdrew their support as soon as they did if this footage was not taken. It is always interesting how one person or one small thing or event in history can influence the future in an enormous way. Thank you for finding this incredible footage! I am sure Prof. Stark will be very happy!

Blog 11- Two Poems

I guess for this blog I am going to just talk about the two poems we read over the last week, "The Heights of Macchu Picchu" by Pablo Neruda, and "In the Language of Memory" by Gioconda Belli, and the similarities and differences that I mostly saw between them along with what I liked and did not really like of the two poems. These thoughts are probably not going to be new to you but it just helps me to think it out and remember by talking (or typing) random ideas.

Obviously, the biggest similarity I saw was that both poets talked about and remembered the past indigenous culture. The way that my group and I saw them differ was that Belli seemed to express her emotion more in her poem than in Neruda's poem. Belli expressed more anger and showed that she was upset with what happened and the outcome of the Spanish Conquest while Neruda seemed sad and disappointed but did not seem to express it as anger as much as Gioconda Belli did. Also, Belli brings about the past indigenous culture through memory while Neruda actually visits Macchu Picchu and remembers and brings about the past indigenous culture through looking at the actual ruins. The poem "In the Language of Memory" also talks specifically about the Spanish Conquest and addresses the fall of the indigenous people while in "The Heights of Macchu Picchu", Neruda seems to be curious as to why and what happened, but does not specifically address it. The final similarity/difference is that both authors write about a journey and something that they are searching for, but Neruda is kind of searching more for the truth of life (his own life), while Belli seems to be more interested in learning more about her indigenous ancestry and their way of life. Obviously there are a ton of other similarities and differences, but these are a few that stuck out to me and a few that my group discussed in class.

Overall, I would say that I am slowly beginning to enjoy poetry more. I have always appreciated it, but never really liked it because of the difficulty it gives me. I enjoyed Gioconda Belli's "In the Language of Memory" more because of the simple fact that I was able to understand it better than the other poem. Both were a challenge for me, but I felt as though that in Neruda's poem, I had no clue what he was talking about and no clue what the general theme was... I would say it does help a lot just being given a broad direction in what the poem is talking about, but of course, there is an infinite amount of ways to interpret literature. That is why I like math and science, because there is one answer and it is not just guessing. Also, in Neruda's poem, I felt as though he was just throwing together random words with no meaning or reason... and it made me frustrated. These were just some random thoughts from the group discussion and from what I felt when I read these two poems.

Reply to Matt's Blog 10

Yeah this family was weird. I did not understand what the brothers were trying to accomplish. I was pretty impressed by Juan Yarur, the father, and his entrepreneurship skills . I remember in the book that his opponents even called him "the best business strategist that I have ever seen." I agree with you that when Jorge took over it was quite comical. Looks like his father did not have too good of a relationship with that son. He took his father's success and as you said, threw it out the window for his own style of business, where production and cost were everything. The Taylor System was also interesting and good for money, but a worker's worst nightmare. I also am kind of curious as to how the brothers got such different views, and although Amador was like his father, as you said, still lacked the charisma and ability to make connections like his father. These are good thoughts and I feel the same way you do. Kind of a comical situation and family.

Blog 10- The Heights of Macchu Picchu

This past week we read "The Heights of Macchu Picchu"by Pablo Neruda. I enjoyed some parts of it, but other parts I found to be extremely confusing and extremely random. For example, Section IX seemed like a just a series of completely random words thrown together that had no relation to each other and made no sense. Oh poetry... I will never understand. I always feel proud of myself when I figure something out, even if it is extremely easy. Like in the third section, I thought that when it talked about "eight to four or nine to five" that it must be talking about work, and that it somehow related to the death that he was talking about. I feel as though this suggests that the urban people and workers are the ones who experience many deaths. The many deaths would be just the struggles and repetitions of life that the ordinary worker experiences. Maybe Neruda is trying to inspire people to do something that they love instead of boring work, because that type of work eats away at people each day. I found Neruda’s description of Macchu Picchu kind of interesting specifically in section IX. Though confusing, a few words stuck out to me. I noticed that starting in line 5, he uses the word stone in 7 straight lines. This obviously has to be important if it repeated so much. He might use stone in reference to the buildings or solid foundation of the city. The phrase “bloody rock” also stuck out to me because it gives the reader a vivid image of what happened to the people of this great city. I think it would be awesome to travel there and see the ruins of Macchu Picchu. Well, I know it would be awesome actually. I feel like it is one place I really would love to see and seeing that I have never left the country in my life. Why not? That would be an awesome opportunity to visit a Latin American country and see an incredible historical site that I now know about and have learned about the culture of the people who lived there. 

Reply to Gabbie's Blog 9

I was also kind of surprised by the ending. I feel as though throughout the first part of the story you kind of get the feeling that Balthazar is a skilled and kind of smart and humble guy. I also felt as though Balthazar and his wife were very different people. He was caring and did not care too much about money and she was not caring but cared all about the money. I honestly would not have expected him in the end to blow all his money and be as irresponsible as he was, so that kind of confused me. I also wish that the ending was a little more epic and I like the way you wished it had ended!

Blog 9- Assassination Attempts on Fidel Castro

Don't laugh at me. I really do not know anything about Cuba or Fidel Castro's reign. When Professor Stark assumed everyone had heard of Che Guevara before. I have never even heard that name ever in my life... All I associated with Fidel Castro was bad. I did not really know why but that is all I ever thought. During the lecture, I honestly had no clue that assassination attempts were made on Fidel, but these attempts really intrigued me while reading a chapter in Chomsky which went into a little bit of detail behind these attempts. So I am decided to do a little more research behind these theories.

The one thing I keep seeing while researching this topic is "638 ways to kill Castro", which I believe is a film about the assassination attempts. My first reaction is that there is no way that this can be true and he could have survived all of these attempts. Apparently, there actually were around 600 assassination attempts according to a man named Fabian Escalante who was the head of Cuban Secret Service, and he has survived all of them... Hard to believe. His survival is really because of the protection and caution that his protectors and security people take. There are some very complex ways that people have tried to kill Fidel. The CIA has made an explosive cigar, a poisonous cigar, a syringe that looks like a pen, along with some more creative attempts like putting spores and bacteria in a wetsuit and making an exploding conch shell. The CIA also tried to bribe a mistress of Castro, Morita Lorenz, to poison Castro with special pills, but Fidel knew something was wrong and even gave her a gun to kill him, but she said that she could not do it. Even in 2000, there apparently was a plan to kill Castro during his visit to Panama by placing 200 lbs of high explosives under the podium from which he was going to speak. Again, this was foiled by Castro's security team. All of these attempts have desperately affected the way Castro lives his life. He is no longer able to talk with the people and wander the streets and he has moved his home around 20 different times.

Obviously we do not know all of the specifics on all 638 of these apparent attempts on the life of Fidel, but these are a few of the known ways that I found kind of interesting. It still amazes me how a man can survive over 600 assassination attempts. Either the assassins are complete failures or Castro is invincible...

Reply to Caitlin's Blog Post 8

This is really interesting! I am really intrigued by these specifics of this assasination. I agree with you that when I think of an assassin, I think of a person with no feelings, no heart, and not really caring about their own life. However, the fact that these assassins held off because there was a crowd of school children is interesting. I really wish that no one would ever murder anyone, but hey, this is a fallen world and the chances of that are basically zero... I would love to think that these men did not shoot Villa at this specific time out of the goodness of their heart, but it is kind of hard to believe that they really care about others when they are trying to murder someone. However, this story does lead one to believe that these assassins did take the children into account and did have some kind heart and caring feelings although their acts may prove otherwise. But maybe there was a risk that the assassins saw with the children, not necessarily because they cared about the children, but maybe like if they shot Villa in front of the children, then maybe the word would spread quicker and there was a higher chance that they would be caught (if they actually cared about that). Maybe... It is so hard for me to believe that murderers actually care, but that is just me. Again, as Gabrielle and Caitlin said, we will never know the true motives unfortunately, but thank you for the intriguing story!

Blog 8- Thoughts on "The South"

Before spring break, we read "The South", by Jorge Luis Borges. I thought it was a pretty interesting short story, and again, I really enjoyed the fact that it was fiction. With fiction, there are almost always many different ways to interpret the reading and many different ideas that can be taken out of a story. One thing that I believe became pretty clear to me by the end of this short story was that Juan Dahlmaan never truly left the sanitarium.

Dahlmaan is hospitalized by a pretty careless injury, hitting his head on something while running up the stairs. He initially talks about basically experiencing hell and the pain that he experienced with this injury. The surgeon actually told him that he was on the point of death from septicemia. First of all, I looked up sepsis and discovered that even today; sepsis takes the lives of millions of people each year. This is one fact that might lead the reader to believe that Dahlmaan never made it out... Another hint that Dahlmaan's wound was fatal is that in the beginning of the second paragraph, Borges states that "destiny can be ruthless at one's slightest distraction." This statement kind of foreshadows that this injury is going to prove to be fatal and that this is his unfortunate destiny. Also, later in the story (supposedly after he is released from the sanitarium), Juan rides a train and gets off at a general store where he recognizes the shopkeeper to be one of the male nurses from the sanitarium. This leads me to believe that he is actually just imagining this whole experience and that the shopkeeper is purely a figment of his imagination, and he is actually the male nurse. Finally, at the end of the story, Dahlmaan is able to choose his own death. He describes it being "a liberation, a joy, and a festive occasion" which to me seems quite an odd way to describe death. He also relates being stuck with the needle in the sanitarium to being killed with a knife and that "this would have been the death he would have chosen or dreamt." All of these signs lead to the main idea that Dahlmaan never really got better, and that the events he experienced after being released from the sanitarium were all just a figment of his imagination and a dream that would never truly come true.