Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was a racial-segregation policy. It divided the black, mixed and indian natives from the white.

Nelson Mandela was a man that fought for Africa to have unity and liberty. He wanted to bring down the white man's violence. He was tired of racism and apartheid.

Nelson Mandela, went to jail for 27 years. Throughout his time in prison, he thought about all the freedom he wanted for everyone. These thoughts led to journals of ideas. He allowed to hear different ideas to free any race. He used civil disobedience and and served as president, for the countries he freed. He risked his life for thousands.

He is so admired by the authors of these articles and sites because there is no one out there like him. This man has a powerful uniqueness. No one can be like him.

African Independence

Tradition became a huge thing for West Indians (that originated from Africa) and other Africans. They wanted to express their traditions, Europe was ready to let go of Africa after WWII. Many Africans became well educated. Creating a middle class and following the independence of many other nations. People were sparked by outsiders to make sure Europeans were wiped out of Africa.

Africa had many leaders because there were so many provinces. These leaders were inspired by African-American leaders.

They had Leopold Senghor, who leaded Sengal and later became president. Kwame Nkrumah became Ghana's first prime minister. Marcus Garvey was jamaican born, but his goal was to lead Europeans out of Africa and have Africa ruled by Africans. Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya through a harsh independence. And many others.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was nuclear weapons that the Soviet Union had installed in Cuba. Cuba was a communist country just like the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union only had missiles that could reach Europe, but Western Europe was not the only capitalist continent. The Soviet Union had to reach America some how. Luckily for the Soviet Union, Cuba was a communist country and only 90 miles away from the shores of Florida.

After seeing pictures of the plans that Cuba had on the U.S., Americans started to get worried. So John F. Kennedy took the time to explain the Soviet Union had to remove their weapons. He also explained that he had built a navy blockade around the country. After seeing no change, Kennedy was ready to order the navy soldiers to attack. Which led to the Soviet Union coming up with a deal. If the U.S. would leave Cuba alone, then Russia would take out all its missiles in Cuba. But when a shot was saw and heard over Cuba, war was about to being. However another proposal was made instead, (although the first one was the one used). Keeping this situation a clean Cold War.

This is why this point in the Cold War is called the hottest point. Through out the whole Cold War no one fought. It was just one situation after another. When this happened and war almost broke out, this was considered the closes physical contact. Which made it the hottest point in the Cold War.

In the end, trust was the only thing left. Russia removed its missiles because they trusted the U.S. would not invade Cuba.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was made up of countries in Europe and North America. These countries together wanted to make a strong mutual defense alliance. If anything all the nations would have each other. The NATO led to the Marshall Plan, which led to the aide of all European nations in need. As the idea of communism increased, the NATO became more important and together by preventing Russia from increasing its communist ideas.

Since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization didn't involve Russia, Russia made its own organization. This Russian organization was made up of countries that could back up Russia. Baiscally, along the border of Russia. They were called the satellite countries. The Soviet Union was the leader of this alliance.

Film Lesson : "The Right Stuff"

"The Right Stuff" is a movie about the race to space, or the Space Race. Russia and America both wanted to have satellites up in Space. Both countries also wanted to have the first man up in Space, not only that but have the first man to land on the moon as well. This was all because of the tension on who had the better technology.

Russia had won the competition. Having the first man in space, but not the first man on the moon. We had the first man on the moon. But we were able to send the first monkey into space. Testing the experience on this innocent animal. Since our rockets kept blowing up.

The scene of trying and failing on so many rockets is something I would never forget. I keep that scene in memory because it helps me remember how hard it was to get into Space.

Film Lesson:"Schindler's List"

"Schindler's List" was a Hollywood version of the holocaust. Most of us know that Hollywood movies usually end with a happy ending. Although in this movie they do show horror and pain, it does end with the satisfaction that some people were able to survive. That was one thing that bothered me. A lot of people don’t believe that the holocaust ever happened and for someone to make a movie that had a little bit of a happy ending, shows they don’t understand the true meaning of the holocaust.

That’s why sometimes the Hollywood version of things isn’t that great. However, I still wanted to see the whole thing of “Schindler’s list” because it showed me what happened in a period of time were genocide was almost completed. It scares me to know that’s almost possible.

For me the most powerful scene was when the children were being taken away. As they rode in the cattle car they waved to their parents with extremely happy faces. Did they not realize that day would be their last? Of course they didn’t. They were just happy to finally have the feeling of seeing their parents. That’s all they cared about it. But they were so innocent and naive to not realize that in a few minutes or hours they would be thrown into a crematoria.

How could this actually be happening? I think watching these two movies I felt like if I was one of them, I would want to go to sleep and never wake up. Or just convince myself that I’m stuck in a nightmare. That none of this could be true...

Film Lesson:"Night and Fog"

What I liked about "Night and Fog" was that it was a documentary. You were able to see everything happen in the real locations of the holocaust, although everything happening in the movie was based on a true story. Many seems were pretty horrific but it was to get the meaning of what happened, at that time, across to the audience. I liked that Alain Resnais, the director of the movie, was not afraid to show things that could offend people.

Although I must agree the movie was powerful, I didn’t like that we had to see it with subtitles and that they didn’t have a translation for it. Unfortunately, for me movies with subtitles can sometimes start to become boring for me. I can even end up getting confused with the voice and the words. This leads me to getting distracted. That’s the only negative for me about “Night and Fog”. But this doesn’t take away from the meaning of the movie.

When you compare this movie to “Schindler’s List”, many say that “Night and Fog” wins by far. I believe that both are very hard hitting movies. I like the fact that “Schindler’s List” was in English though. But some scenes in “Schindler’s List” will probably never match up to those in “Night and Fog”. “Schindler’s List” had the basic shooting scenes with the blood and etc. But the whole point of Resnais documentary was to make you feel like you were there.

I guess that’s the difference between a documentary and a Hollywood movie. With a documentary you can feel Goosebumps because you know that actually happen. On the other hand the Hollywood versions are someone’s thoughts out in a big screen.