Letter to the Prez

Write a letter to President Obama in which you address American foreign policy in the Middle East and North Africa, with the Marshall Plan as a basis for your ideas. Please quote from, cite, or otherwise reference at least three article from major publications or websites!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8409871/Middle-East-needs-a-Marshall-Plan-says-Dr-Nasser-Saidi.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/16/barackobama.uselections2008

note, you must have an account to access this article, but it's worth making a free account for:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/08/13/think_again_aid_to_africa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/jun/03/internationalaidanddevelopment.hearafrica05

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1298.pdf

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1296.pdf

exciting document on foreign aid: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/31987.pdf

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/apr/13/barack-obama/barack-obama-says-foreign-aid-makes-1-percent-us-b/

Good Article Comment:

"Africa doesn’t need a Marshall Plan, rather George Marshall

I’ve enjoyed reading this article and I agree with the authors’ view that, as far as Africa is concerned, the current aid paradigm is flawed, for the reasons that the aid system is on government or NGO projects, rather than local businesses. Still, I’m not quite sure whether a Marshall Plan type of external intervention can ever work in Africa. Here are my reservations and views.

First, in addition to its political aim, the Marshall Plan was a reconstruction (not a construction) plan, which implies the pre-existence of knowledge and human capital require to re-build the devastated Europe. After the WW2 Europe was devastated, but its entrepreneurs/local business class, which built and maintained its prewar infrastructure/institutions, were still able to re-build their economies. Africa has been poor for decades or centuries and has yet to develop an adequate human capital able to absorb huge inflows of Marshall Plan type. Since entrepreneurship is known to be crucial in stimulating economic growth through the creation and transformation of knowledge, it could make sense to think that certain types of government and NGO projects can still help.

Second, as a catalyst, there is no doubt that the financial resources made available by the Marshall Plan were important. Yet, related conditionalities were also a key element in breaking up structural rigidities and bringing about economic growth and prosperity. We know well how reluctant most African leaders are when it comes to creating a business friendly environment.

Third, simply purring huge financial flows in the end of a government that doesn’t know how to build a road (i.e. absence of the required knowledge or entrepreneurship) will only fuel the most favorite sport of African leaders: corruption and all kinds of wastes. While European leaders didn’t divert US fund into their own pockets, very few African leaders would miss such an opportunities “from heaven”.

[In] breif, Africa doesn’t need a Marshall Plan, rather the like of George Marshall.

~Jean-Claude Maswana"

---------------------------------

Dear Mr. President,

The United States of America is the world's protector of the freedoms of expression and worship, and freedom from want and fear. Our vast resources and influence should ensure that those freedoms are upheld worldwide. This has led to government agencies dedicated to providing economic and humanitarian assistance to people and countries worldwide. However, these programs--such as the United States Agency for International Development--have received a great amount of criticism due to, simply, mismanagement of funds. There have been outcries against the cost of foreign aid because the USA is spending in the range of 45 to 50 billion in foreign aid every year. This only makes up a little over 1% of the federal budget, however, that fact does not relegate such amounts to pocket change. The issue here is not the amount of monies spent on foreign aid, but their management and, consequently, their effectiveness in the countries that America assists. An effective foreign aid policy needs to be implemented, modeled after the best success story of the 20th century--the European Recovery Program. Although the Marshall Plan was not perfect, it remains the optimum example of an economic program that set the foundation for the strong economy, infrastructure, and democracy-based political systems that the majority of Europe enjoys.

Strong support of the small business sector in the United States is a necessary element in order to stimulate the economy, foster an entrepreneurial mindset in the American people, and support and strengthen the middle class, which is the bastion of democracy in any free nation. In Africa, our aid and support philosophy should be no different. Our aid monies need to go directly to the people and small businesses instead of African governments and N.G.O.s that are either corrupt or ineffective. The success of the Marshall Plan was founded in the management, tracking, and strategic distribution of the billions of dollars allocated for European Recovery, which were intended to stimulate business, commerce, and infrastructure, and help rebuild, feed, and supply Europe with the necessary resources and tools for long-term restoration.

Africa can be set up for success in a similar fashion, despite the fact that "recovery" would be, in fact, mostly laying the building blocks--the necessary elements--of a thriving country from scratch. Several facts that stem from the knowledge that Africa will be starting at zero are merely acknowledgements of their limitations and susceptibilities. Many African governments are, admittedly, just as corrupt (if not moreso) than their previous Imperialist rulers. The continent's countries, even though rich in natural resources, have no domestic means of utilizing them and often Western mega-conglomerates step in and exploit that country's resources, providing a minimal amount of economic or developmental stimulus in that nation in comparison to the benefits a domestic business staffed by Africans who have been trained in that area for that express reason and employing only locals might bring.

Part of the issue with development in the third world is education and training, knowledge and access. The Western world cannot solve the problems of the third world for them; we can effect change where we are involved and ignite the elements necessary for a strong foundation of infrastructure and ideals that have allowed the United States and Europe to have solid footing even through all sorts of different global crises. Developing a plan that will create a new Africa that will be able to thrive next to the USA and the EU will require a reconsideration of what could be called aid "philosophies"--ideals that inhibit the very business, infrastructure, economy, and politic that we wish to establish in the third world.

Democracy--as the current political epitome of justice, liberty, free will, choice, opportunity, etc. in the civilized world--would be the natural conclusion to a successful, thriving nation with a strong middle class, low levels of poverty, and increasing levels of standard of living, education, and healthcare. Many have commented on the different things the U.S. should focus on and ignore when it comes to foreign aid policies. Glenn Hubbard, although not right in all his conclusions, has outlined in several different publications some misnomers of American foreign aid policy, about which he goes into greater detail than I will here. These are concepts great in intention, but not always effective in practice. Among them are the misconceptions that infrastructure must come before the business that are necessary to support the almost nonexistent infrastructure throughout Africa; that Democracy must be established before we can help countries that will never see its advantages if we don't start stimulating their economies and supporting the people; that microfinance will start up enough small businesses and promote enough entrepreneurs to plant the seeds of an innovated middle class;

BLOGHEELEVVEN

If you were President, how would you confront the multiple issues surrounding the Geneva Conventions that we have discussed in class over the past week? 

As President of the United States of America, in light of the ongoing debate surrounding the Geneva Conventions and political controversy generated by the publicity and accompanying hysteria of the ethically easy but politically touchy issue of Guantanamo's illegality, and the rights, liberties, and placement of its inmates, I shall resign the Presidency effective at noon tomorrow. To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American, with all of our migrant workers, even with the enemy combatants that have succumbed to our just interrogation methods. In leaving the Presidency, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead. God bless and good night.

Honors Blog Essay Paper Story Historical Fiction Letter

Dear Dotty,

It’s been too long since I’ve written anything that actually meant something. I wanted to tell you all that I’ve seen and done in the battlefield while the war was still raging, but my C.O. and I don’t get along well at all. So it seems like all the letters you’ve gotten have been scissored up by him or another officer—that or they give them back to me with a red stamp that unfailingly declares: “Loose Lips Sink Ships.” All the work the officers ever did was sit and read our letters to home—snipping and clipping and laughing. Now that the war’s over, they have absolutely nothing to do. Anyways, I don’t think anything in my letters would have cost us even one soldier, more or less the war.

Nonetheless, my current happiness comes from the prospect of coming home to the States and you and Ma and little Joey. The war was such a blur and everything happened so fast that all the good is mixed with the bad, and above it all is snow, lots of snow, and fog and cold and the sound of the buzz bombs overhead and the eerie swoosh of the German MG42 machine guns. Tex and I made it, both with purple hearts and scars to show for it, but we survived as well as any man could in those conditions.

While you read the papers and worried over me stateside, I didn’t fare any worse than any of the other soldiers.

I remember the start of the Ardennes-Alsace campaign in the biting cold of December, when the Germans started a bombardment along 80 miles of our line that didn’t seem at all out of the ordinary, just retaliation for a similar attack on our part the day before. My division’s lines weren’t being attacked, but by the end of the day the radio was humming with the messages and reports of the front lines. The Germans were heading a huge offensive attack, a final grab at victory. That same day it seemed like the snow wouldn’t stop falling. The Ardennes look like a Christmas card and the snow feels so light when it first falls, but it’s heavier than wearing iron weights—the cold that renders you immobile, the snow that rests on all of your clothing and equipment, the wet, cold melt that permeates your skin, and the fog that follows like a mucky brew of fate. Trudging and attempting to coordinate actions that would pass for fighting is agonizing.

On the 18^th we were told to move out. The day before we heard that the Germans had massacred tens of prisoners of war somewhere around Malmedy so we packed up quick and were on the move almost immediately; intel said it was all or nothing, the Germans weren’t taking any prisoners. Me and Tex were scared sick. We’d seen enough greenies get captured, wounded, or killed on their first day in action not to be a little sick to know that we were going to be fighting Nazis in this kind of weather, when the fog was so thick and the nights so black you never knew if the buzz bombs were going to land right next to you or miles away.

Moving to the new defensive lines in the Ardennes was slow work, especially for the vehicles and artillery. The roads were like slides of ice that the trucks, and even tanks and half-tracks slid and skidded off of. When the temperature warmed a little, it all turned to muck and mire. But we trudged on nonetheless. When we made it to the front lines, there were piles of snow that resembled fresh-dug graves in the winter. But they were just bodies in the cold, covered by the never-ending torrent of snow and sleet that would pile on top of them and hide their eternal slumber from our eyes. I never knew how many were ours or Germans, but at that point it didn’t matter, they would just be another tally mark to the hundreds already dead.

And me and Tex had barely made it to the front lines before the white around us became glaringly whiter. And that’s all I remember. They tell me it was a buzz bomb that landed over 25 yards away. But with a buzz bomb, that’s close enough to kill if the shrapnel pierces in all the right places. I’ve seen less kill a man.

But that’s all that happened to me since my last letter, which was probably snipped into innocence by my C.O.

You deserved to know how my time in action was cut short. I was one of the lucky ones in that battle. When they told me around 20,000 of ours died, I imagined thousands upon thousands of those freshly-piled snow graves across the terrain of the Ardennes; bodies being swept under the carpet of fresh powder.

Hope that you and Joey or anyone for that matter never has to see anything like that.

With all my love,

Chet













Sources:

http://www.army.mil/botb/

http://www.historyinperspective.org/node/307

http://www.military-collections.com/weapons.html

good letter to home:

http://www.aboutjonesfamily.com/PAGES/WAR11.HTM

this one is really good:

http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/memoirs.pages/ruth.pages/battle.bulge.htm

 

Semester-ay Dos, Blog Ten

After struggling through the Great Depression, Gerry Tedesco (my great-grandfather) joined the Navy and was stationed in Maine at the start of the war. During the glorified sequel to the Great War, he fought the U-Boats in the North Atlantic Theatre. When the infamous German submarines no longer posed a serious threat to the Allies, he was transferred to San Diego to help fight the Japanese in the South Pacific towards the end of 1943.

WW2 imagery

USA WW2 Propaganda:

Source:

One of a series designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company, Inc. under its material conservation program. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Description:

If the USA conserves material and doesn't waste her resources, we'll "trap the Japs" who are depicted by a brown mouse with buck teeth, round glasses, and a rising sun military cap. It's anti-Japanese propaganda.

Reaction:

That's not racist at all.

Nazi Germany WW2 photography, in a way. The Einsatzgruppen were German "police" who combed captured territory (after the army had taken it over) and searched, captured, and killed Jews:

Source:
From the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes.

Description:

In this photo, a German policeman shoots individual Jewish women who remain alive in the ravine after a mass execution. (1942) The Einsatzgruppen where special forces dedicated to finding Jews and bringing them to concentration camps; when transporting them proved too inefficient, the Jews where massacred outside of the towns and villages where they were found. 
Reaction:

It is astounding, shocking, and horrific that the Third Reich would dedicate special forces to killing Jews-- forces that would search through records and roam the defeated territories in order to find and murder innocent people--and then would take the time to make sure that none survived.

WW2 Photography (USA):

Source:

Arland B. Musser, US Signal Corps.

Courtesy National Archives, Washington D.C.

Decsription:

American Soldiers from the 45th Infantry Division lined up, shot, and massacred German Prisoners of War in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Dead German soldiers lay against the length of the white wall, one-fourth of which is shown here, and the soldiers still standing were shot after the picture was taken. U.S. soldiers killed tens of German soldiers, many during the liberation of the camp but at least a dozen after they had surrendered.

Reaction:

All's fair in love and war. Many of the American Soldiers were reacting to the mass killing of Jews they saw throughout the concentration camp, a massacre that far surpassed that of the U.S. soldiers themselves. I wouldn't justify their actions, but the way they reacted is certainly understandable. Dead bodies filled train, the gas chambers, and the crematory.

So it goes.

Life in a Glass of Dandelion Wine ***little Spoiler Alert***

Choice #3) In a well developed, thoughtful piece of writing that uses direct quotes, explain the use of symbols to develop a theme in your novel.

Through different symbols and character studies throughout the book it becomes obvious that the prevalent theme in Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury is that of Life. It seems like a broad, vague, very open-ended concept, but Bradbury looks at life from many different perspectives and in the course of interweaving stories about summer in a small town in Illinois, crafts a theme and a message to readers about how to live life, love life, and know that we are alive, and, most of all, accept life—accept who we are, who we need to be, accept change, accept death in the way of the Count of Monte Cristo, in which perhaps the most important, if not the only message is that we can get the most out of life—the most happiness, joyousness, love—we can drink in the magic of everything around us when we accept life by accepting death.

Through the eyes of many different people in varying stages of life, through dandelion wine and nature, Bradbury shows different perceptions of how life should be lived and perceived. The concept of Life shows up in every single chapter and it would take a book longer than Dandelion Wine to elaborate on all the “living” symbolism, which is part of the beauty of the novel. Therefore, I will only talk about the Life symbolism that appears in the first couple of chapters. Nonetheless, the symbols that appear in the opening of the novel set the stage and the theme for the rest of the story as Douglas, our main character, along with the reader learns more about how life is perceived, lived, loved, hated, cherished, desired, lost, made, and coped with. Often, Bradbury’s words speak for themselves.

Douglas, who summons summer to life in the opening words of the book, first discovers that he is truly alive, not only that he is living, but that he will continue to live for “threescore and ten years,” years in which to enjoy every small facet of the world around him.

Then we learn about Dandelion Wine, which his grandparents make every year from flowers that “dazzle and glitter of molten sun.” There is a whole paragraph of the chapter dedicated to life—no, to living:

 “Dandelion Wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered. And now that Douglas knew, he really knew he was alive, and moved turning through the world to touch and see it all, it was only right and proper that some of his new knowledge, some of this special vintage day would be sealed away for opening on a January day with snow falling fast and the sun unseen for weeks or months and perhaps some of the miracle by then forgotten and in need of renewal….The medicines of another time, the balm of sun and idle august afternoons, the faintly heard sounds of ice wagons passing on brick avenues, the rush of silver rockets and the fountaining of lawn mowers moving through ant countries, all these, all these in a glass.”

I am in awe of the way Bradbury plays with the concept of life. Although we are alive, we may not realize it, heck, we may not even be living. I am amazed that all the life within Summer—sounds, sights, tastes, touch, smells—could be bottled and stoppered, stored away to bring summer back to life, to revive and reincarnate its gloriously precious days, when the world is in the throes of winter. Now that is what I call personification.

Similarly, Douglas wonders about man vs. nature and how no matter how hard we fight against the natural world, we ultimately lose the battle. “It was this then, he mystery of man seizing from the land and the land seizing back, year after year, that drew Douglas, knowing the towns never really won, they merely existed in calm peril, fully accoutered with lawn mower, bug spray and hedge shears, swimming steadily as long as civilization said to swim, but each house ready to sink in green tides, buried forever, when the last man ceased and his trowels and mowers shattered to cereal flakes of rust.” This was life and death in the grand scale, with the town symbolizing human life, the wilderness natural life, and the dark ravine the symbol of death (which is a symbol that is elaborated on when Douglas’s mother worries that he has been kidnapped or murdered one night).

The part of life that Douglas realizes is not only living but knowing that you are alive—not just having life, but living it—a sentiment that could be considered contagious as Douglas, in the pursuit of new sneakers for summer, makes Mr. Sorenson feel alive and young again when he tries to describe the wonders of new sneakers at the start of summer (“Antelopes. Gazelles.)” Sorenson’s captivation is so complete that when he breaks from his reverie and comes back into the store, Bradbury describes it as heading “back toward civilization.”

And those are the 4 main cameos of different concepts of life in the first 25 pages! Throughout the whole book, there is a veritable list of things that symbolize life and its many facets, and Douglas’s interpretation of life as him and Tom find out that happiness is contentment, that old people were never young, that memories make time machines, that life is not the guarantee he thought it was, and that life has magic and meaning only when you accept the concept of death.

Alas, the concept of life—through Douglas, dandelion wine, the ravine, Mr. Sorenson, summer rituals and porch-swings, discontentment and porch-swings, self-trimming grass and the sound of lawnmowers, the dusty patterns on a rug, Mrs. Bentley forever seventy-two, Colonel Freeleigh the Time Machine, the almost death of Mr. Quartermain, the death of the Green Machine, Mr. Tridden, the death of the trolley, and losing John Huff to name the first few symbols—is shown to be open to limitless interpretation—being alive, actually living, life that even inanimate objects possess (happiness granted through knowledge of the past, nostalgia; abstract life), life that we show and pass contagiously onto others, the abundance of natural life that will thrive as we turn to dust, life underappreciated, life and some of its secret riches understood, life and time fleetingly plotting moment after moment and barring the way from prior experiences, with life’s memories the only remnant of things that can never come again, a remembrance that is helpful and dangerous, threatening to be forgotten as moment upon moment assail us as we hurdle through time; life examined and contemplated and turned inside out only to discover that it can only be truly enjoyed when one accepts that, after all of our arguments, regrets, loves, hates, passions, remorse, apathy, enthusiasm, education, diets, sickness, sufferings, travels, fun, boredom, discoveries, laughter, anger, breathing, smelling, touching, tasting, hearing, watching, and waiting comes death.