Russia Posts Katyn Massacre Documents on Internet

On Wednesday, Russia's archives posted documents about the massacre of over 20,000 Polish officers and citizens during World War II. This was the first time the documents had been posted by Russia since the war, although they had been public for many years. They did so as as gesture towards Poland to mend relations because the case looms large in Polish history and has soured relations between the two countries for decades. The documents were posted to show that Russia was finally excepting responsibility for the killings in Katyn and else where in the 1940s. The documents show signatures giving permission to Soviet soldiers to kill Polish prisoners of war. The document do not reveal the names of the officers that carried out the executions, but Russia plans to make those documents public on a later date. The release of these documents is playing a positive role in helping Russia come to terms with its painful history under Stalin. Since the tragic plane crash on April 10 that killed the President of Poland and 94 other on boards, relations between Russia and Poland have grown warmer.

Link:

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/28/russia-posts-katyn-documents-internet/ 

Niger's Crop Failure

In Niger, they are facing a huge drought that is drastically affecting their economy. A lot of the crops that Niger normally produces are not growing due to the lack of water. Nearly 8 million people are affected by this drought and the UN is trying to help. They have stated that it would take nearly 13 million dollars to get the Niger crops and economy back on track, which is looking like something that cant be done. The UN is hoping they can adress this issue much earlier unlike what happened to Niger in the 1980s where millions of people died due to a drought that wasnt addressed. Niger's economy went under the tank and great controversy arose as the UN and many other nations did not act to help the Nigerians. People in Niger are only able to have about one meal a day and sometimes people dont even eat. The UN is doing everything to prevent another food crisis like they have seen in history.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8648215.stm

Russia posts Katyn massacre documents

In this article, Russia's state archive posted documents on the internet about the Soviet Union's massacre of 20,000 polish officers and citizens. Russia posted these articles to calm Poland in case they were still pissed from the massacre in WWII. This relates to our WWII unit because we studies the cold war and the tension between soviet union and eastern europe. These massacres were under the title "Joseph Stallin" and it seems that alot of europe is mad at the way the Soviet Union and Stallin ruled during the Cold War.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100428/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_poland_wwii_massacre;_ylt=Ar2RqQ6_J94jJhDKeU5GNWZvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTMzMmRraHV2BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDI4L2V1X3J1c3NpYV9wb2xhbmRfd3dpaV9tYXNzYWNyZQRwb3MDMQRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA3J1c3NpYXBvc3Rzaw--

"Homeless good Samaritan left to die on NYC street"

I found this link to an article about a man who died on a street when he was trying to help a woman who was being attacked. He saw this woman and a man fighting and it began to get physical so this guy stepped in to help her but he ended up getting stabbed and was then laying on the side of the sidewalk. It was reported that 7 people walked by before an ambulance actually came and an hour or two had already passed and so it was too late.

I thought this was just awful because people could have had the opportunity to help but they didn't and so they basically killed him. I understand that seeing someone stabbed may be shocking but I wouldn't just leave him and walk by.

This made me think of how people judge others and how they don't always think of how they can help. Some people are too nervous to take a stand and others are too selfish to help anyone but themselves. To connect to this to history, it can sort of tie to people being to afraid to help someone who is in a different situation. In history, there have been many instances where people are not being treated fairly but the people who are treated fairly don't have the guts to stick up for the other side because they are worried that will hurt them and make them be treated unfairly. In this case, the guy was stabbed and bloody on a street and people may have been frightened that they might be killed if they helped or that the blood would get on them and cause a disease or infection. I think that someone should have helped earlier on by at least calling 911 or getting someone else to help if they couldn't. Personally, I would feel awful if I found out I could have saved someone's life but instead I chose not to be late for work or something.

Article URL:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_dying_and_ignored

"Dancing Across Borders"

Sokvannara Sar was just 16 when Anne Bass saw him preform in Cambodia as a ballet dancer. She was so inspired that she moved him to her sprawling Connecticut House and tried to enroll him in a New York Ballet school. However, she and Sokvannara soon learned that Cambodian ballet and western ballet are quite different. EVen though he was a performer in Cambodia, he was at the skill level of a 10 year old in the U.S. This is because the Cambodian dance style is "much closer to the ground" and does not have as many spins or leaps. Ms. Bass does a large amount of charity work in Cambodia, pushing the arts after the destructive campaign of the khmer rouge. Sy (nickname for Sokvannara Sar) did not make it into a ballet school right away and so Bass hired an instructor. He learned very quickly and Bass took a video camera to his practices to help him learn and perfect his techniques. He made it into the Seattle Pacific NOrthwest Ballet and now at 25 is looking for something new. Bass turned all the footage from when she first saw him in Cambodia and his practices in America into a video called Dancing Across Borders, which is an award winning documentary.

Weddings: Now vs. Before

During the years that Stalin was the leader of the Soviet Union, the wedding rituals were much different than how they are today. The family life played out in the Soviet Union as if marriage was just as important as two people holding hands in public. As of today, abortions and abolishing their own wedding rings were not frowned upon. It rather seemed weak to have such a strong family unit. Compared to the family life today, a lot has changed. I found this article which talked about the marriage between Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon. They discuss getting their wedding vows renewed every single year. Most marriages that last until death, only get theirs renewed once. They believe that, "if you're happy and in love, why not celebrate it?" As you can see, the importance of marriage has escalated tremendously and people are now wanting to embrace their love rather than hold it in and keep it private.


Article Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/27/mariah.nick.wedding.vows.ppl/index.html

U.S. Senators Altering Facebook

The privacy issues Facebook arrises are not just spoken of by concerned parents, but now U.S. Senators are calling attention to them. Due to some of Facebook's latest updates, privacy precautions have been stressed less, resulting in users having "less control over private information, and it was done without the users' permission," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said on Capitol Hill stated. Due to the fact that Facebook's population has been consistently increasing, providing sufficient privacy settings for all 400 million users has been a struggle. Yet Facebook is making steady progress in ensuring all users that their information will be private. They are in the midst of converting the regular settings, where information is automatically shared with the public, to the "opt-in" setting, where no information is shown automatically, and instead one must choose what he/she wants to display to the public. "The way to go is opt-in," Schumer said. "The default position should be that the information is not shared, not that the information is shared. Amplifying his colleagues' concerns, Schumer called on Facebook to "reverse its policy so that users have to opt in to shared data, rather than opt out." With both parents, administrative figures, and now political figures on Facebook's case, they will surely clean up their act in terms of providing their users with more trustworthy privacy.

In terms of how this article correlates to an historical event, I feel as though this relates to when communication devices were first invented. Take the telegraph, for example. During the Industrial Revolution, inventors discovered a way to communicate via telegraph, sending messages from one location to another through a transporter and receiver. One of the biggest issues they faced with the telegraph was ensuring privacy amongst the messages being sent. In order for any messages to be received, they had to be decoded first, which was done most likely by someone who worked for the receiver of the message. This means that whatever information was being sent was not always kept private. Technical similarities between Facebook and the telegraph are scarce, yet the purpose they both hold is to make communicating and social networking possible. Also, they both have carried the same issue- ensuring privacy. Although it was difficult to provide much privacy for telegraph users, Facebook has and continues to search for new ways in order to ensure privacy to its users.

UKRAINE PARLIAMENT

In this current event, ukraine was having a debate on wether or not Russia can use a naval base in their country. The president of Ukraine was explaining and describing this law as betrayal to their country and it got ugly. Fist fights were present in parliament. I think that this relates to modern world history by portraying Nationalism. The president is just trying to get the picture out that they would be betraying their own country if the law past and that the people in Ukraine should have pride in their country. It is a very controversial subject.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/ukraine-parliament-fight-eggs

Iran's Nuclear Threat

This article talks about the problem that I believe we have all probably heard of, and its the problem of nuclear weapons and Iran. Iran claims to not having or making any nuclear weapons, and that the Uranium is just being used for medical purposes, but other people are 100% sure that the Uranium is actually being used to develop bombs. If Iran did develop nuclear weapons they could bomb Israel, and cause a massive nuclear war. This would happen because the US is allies with Israel, and they would have to protect the Israel people. One way that this article connects to some  of the stuff that we have been learning is that it could potentially be one big war crime for Iran to break the treaty that all countries currently have.

Somalia Rebels Battle Pirates, Government Troops

Islamist rebels made progress towards a pirate haven in Somalia and battled government troops in Mogadishu. Around ten died in the fight. Members of the al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda linked militia, were advancing towards Harardhere, a pirate stronghold on the Somali coast. Pirates had recently intercepted and captured a ship full of weapons and artillery that was intended for al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab continues to advance towards Harardhere as the pirates retreat from Harardhere towards a port town called Hobyo, in Somalia, with all their captured ships. Yemen has been identified as a source for weaponry coming into Somalia despite the U.N. embargo on weapons. Yemeni government was attempted to crack down on arms dealing within its territory, but is struggling on dealing with the influx of Somalia refugees.

link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/04/25/somalia.pirates/index.html?npt=NP1

Belgian Prime Minister Resigns

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme's resignation was accepted by the King of Belgium on Monday. The Prime Minister offered to step down after a "Flemish liberal party withdrew from a coalition government." Although the Prime Minister resigned Monday, he has agreed to remain in office until the King decides whether to call for new elections or finds another way out of the political crisis. The government will keep functioning despite his resignation, but it will have to display all big decision until the problem is solved. According to Charles Kupchan, a main source of political turmoil in Belgium is the split between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French speaking Walloons. Because of this continuing issue, governments in Belgium have been unstable and short-lived. Brussels, Belgium's capital, is the capital of the European Union, which is working on a rescue package for Greece's economy. People are becoming worried that when Belgium should be leading Europe, its government will be floundering. '

Link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/26/belgium.pm.resigns/index.html

Sudan's Recent Election

Sudan recently elected their 1st president in 20 years however, despite this election, they are still wanting to split between the North and South. The North consists mostly of the politicians while the South is the side with the rebels. Not suprisingly the South is the one who wants to cut ties with the North. This event is very similar to what I presented today about Vietnam how the US got involved with a country that has issues and it did not work out the way the US wanted it to. However, in Sudan the US used diplomacy, not violence. This article deals with both the culture and the policits of the Sudanese government.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/africa/27sudan.html?ref=world

"Muslim says mistresses are the French way of life"

This article is a case regarding a Muslim man's mistress charged a payment for driving a car with a veil because it blocks her sight. Following this, a discovery was made that the husband actually had four wives that were not under French law, but only done ritualistically. The head of the Muslim group in France, Mohammed Moussaoiu, had a meeting with the French officials to talk about the crisis. He mentioned how emphasis of the veil was not being given compared to other issues.

After reading this article, it made me think about the respect that should be given to all races of people around the world. The veil, in Islam, is very important to some women, but not all. The lady should not be charged of wearing a veil, because that is disrespect to the religion. Just like others, this women should be free to live a lifestyle she wants to. The government does not have the right to do that, unless she was actually crossing the speed limit during driving. We are all the same people, its just the factor of religion that draws a border among us. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100426/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_forbidding_the_veil;_ylt=AqApG9ayOY0FRjhFr2_DhYNvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTMyNnY0NTlzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNDI2L2V1X2ZyYW5jZV9mb3JiaWRkaW5nX3RoZV92ZWlsBHBvcwMxBHNlYwN5bl9hcnRpY2xlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDbXVzbGltc2F5c21p

 

'I can't afford surgery in the U.S.,' says bargain shopper

An Indiana man needed surgery on his nose, but could not find a hospital that would do it for less than $33,000. So, he looked for surgeons in other places and found that he could save about $30,000 by traveling to the UK. The number of people traveling outside the US to get medical assistance is greatly climbing as prices for medical aid continue to rise in the US. This trend can relate to many times in the past where trade with other nations became necessary during times of hyperinflation or general economic struggle. This also benefits less wealthy countries by giving them more business and allowing them to have a chance to bounce back from their financial deficit.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/26/cheaper.surgery/index.html?hpt=C1

iPad

While looking through Nytimes.com, I found this article about the iPad. Basically, it is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of this new Apple product. Simply put, this device is another evolution of technology that is changing the way people use older things like internet and books.

In relevance to modern world history, it can be compared to the industrial revolution. During this time, many new inventions and technologies were developed to better the lives of people and change the way people go about everyday tasks. Moving away from the iPad itself, technology in general is always improving and changing. It is a subject that has been around since the beginning of time and will continue to move forward everyday. It is one of the most important things in the world today and is relevant in every point in history.

Article

Humans: Not Advised to Contact Aliens

Stephen Hawking, a british scientist, says that there may be aliens and they may exist but humans should not be in contact with them because they could be harmful. People think that if we were to encounter them, then they may try to take over our planet because they liked some of the resources that Earth provides. They think that it may be like Columbus' discovery of "the new world" but in this case the aliens would be Columbus and we would be the Native Americans. The Native Americans were not treated very well and they had their culture and lives almost completely demolished and taken over by Columbus and his followers. Like Columbus, they think the aliens might feel the need to colonize or capture whatever land they find because they have exhausted their own planet. The aliens may be in a situation like Wall-E where they have used up almost all of the resources on their planet. IN Wall-E earthlings or humans let their planet be taken over by trash and so they sat in space in a spaceship which served as their planet because they had nowhere else to go. The Aliens could have nowhere else to go so they might take any chance they have to find a new planet to live on. There is also a new tv show I think that they mentioned about the Universe and aliens. Humans have made numerous attempts to contact "new life" but no aliens have been found yet. They sent a couple of ships with sculptures but they didn't come in contact with any other living things.

Article Found on...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking

MISSILES IN PAKISTAN

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/24/missile-strike-kills-militants-northwest-pakistan-officials-say/?test=latestnews

This website shares that the US sent a missile to the Pakistan and killed people, this relates to war and war crime and would be interesting. Also weaponry we have studied war weapons and how they had improved. So this could be very interesting.

Hubble Telescope

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/photogalleries/100424-hubble-telescope-20th-anniversary-pictures/#hubble-cloudy-nebula-ngc-602_19426_600x450.jpg

This website is about the Hubble Telescope and the photos it had taken. I think it would be interesting to compare and contrast from the first telescope to the hubble and talk about the industrial revolution.

Current Event

http://www.helium.com/items/1813038-report-states-obama-health-care-plan-will-cost-more-and-may-not-be-sustainable

This website share the new health care plan that Obama has created, and how it is not the brightest decision. I guess it would be social, but it is more political.

- 1 Possible connection to history would be how the government has changed. Also he is the president of the USA.

Current Event: Slaughter of Dolphins In Taiji, Japan

For my Current Event I was hoping to do something about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. I wanna look more into the history and see why we are unable to stop it. Here is a little background sort of article that may help you understand everything a little better. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/14/dolphin-slaughter-hunting-japan-taiji
This is a problem that needs to stop. Maybe I could approach this from a legal or UN point of view. I still need to find some way to connect it to other history. Unless I can just look deeper into this problem.