Three is a Crowd

Three issues in St. Louis that I have researched are AIDS, homelessness, and education. These three topics interest the most because I feel that they are the largest problems in St. Louis and cause St. Louis to have the dangerous reputation it has. Organizations such as A Better World and America SCORES are non-profit organizations that have camps in St. Louis and are willing to help. Furthermore, in regards to AIDS, the AIDS Foundation of St. Louis' mission is to assist all those with AIDS who seek help. There are also several organization, all non-profit, that assist the homeless and the hungry. Some of those organizations are Catholic Charities, Adequate Housing for Missourians, and Doorways all make it their mission to assist anyone with the lack of food and shelter.

Freedom Riders Presentation

Research Question

How did the Bosnian Serb use dehumanization as a means to justify their cause?
What were some of the hate-propaganda that focused on dehumanization?
What were some of the methods to spread the dehumanization during the genocide?

In order to answer these questions, I would first need to know the two sides in the genocide and how they differ. This includes the cultural and religious differences. I would also need to know what even sparked the genocide to occur or what event sparked the need for some action against the victims to occur. This would help me understand the view point of the oppressors.

International Human Rights

1. The topic that i am interested in researching is the Bosnian Genocide because the genocide was an attempt to exterminate the Bosnian Muslims and, being a muslim, this is a topic i feel passionate about.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre
http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_bosnia.html

3. Who were the oppressors? How are the classifications of genocide reflected with this event?

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/drcongo_56342.html
This article is a UNICEF report on the conditions in the Congo. It talks about the progress they are making in the Congo with the deprived children and how they are helping some out, but a large majority of the children is still in need. This reflects the country's wealth and its current economic status. This could reflect the colonization of King Leopold in that he left the country in such a distressed state, that it has been struggling for the country to take care of itself.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/2010/10/2010105234252457348.html
This article is about a mass rape that is occurring in the Congo. A short synopsis of the article would be that rape has been used by groups of fighters in the Congo as a means of intimidation and it has successfully caused panic in the country. The UN force has stepped in to help out determined not to let this injustice slide. They claim that there will be some consequence for those fighters. This can be reflected in the colonization of King Leopold because during his regime in the Congo, rape occurred to many women and children of the region and this injustice caused mass hysteria in the country. Now, modern day fighters in the Congo are utilizing these methods to cause that same mass hysteria and ultimately gain control of the region

Short Seminar Reflection

1. Ideas or question thats lingering after the discussion?

Some questions or ideas that i have after our discussions are what happened to the elephant population after the Ivory obsession. Also, an idea that I would like to find the link between is the Slavery in the United States and the Congo events. I would like to know if the two are related and how.

2. Evaluate the small discussion

The small discussion went extremely well in my opinion. It was productive, covered a lot, and even the mechanics of the seminar went well because every one spoke multiple times and no one interrupted each other.

Chapter 1: King Leopold's Ghost

The introduction, prologue, and first chapter all set up what feels like a memorable book. In the beginning, I began to see slavery in a different light. In previous lessons, it seemed like the Europeans came to Africa and took men, women, and children from their homes. However, the book shows of how the leaders of the villages from which the future slaves were taken were aware of this human trade and actually encouraged it. Previous history teachings presented Africans in a very innocent light, however, through the depiction of the ManiKongo and how he treated his people, I now believe that it is not as simple as that. Among the Africans there were those who were corrupt as well. This particular topic interested me more than other parts of the readings, like the life of John Rowland. While his childhood was interesting because it was so unfortunate and sad, his adulthood was not as compelling to me for reasons I don't quite know. The final thing I wanted to talk about is the Congo itself. On page 3 of the book it says, "Statistics about mass murder are often hard to prove. But if this number turned out to be even half as high, I thought, the Congo would have been one of the major killing grounds of modern times". This quote really stuck out to me because before this year, I never heard of the Congo and the fact that such killings took place there is very surprising and makes me want to learn more about this huge historical event that I know so little about.

Omar Karadaghy

Discussion Questions:
How did the people of the Congo develop such a system without the help of Europeans?
Why have we not heard of the Congo before?