Amandla! A Four Revolution in Four-Part Harmony

South Africans have always expressed themselves through music, dancing, very up-lifting beats and ritual dances.  Amandla! is a documentary was made in 2002 that truly depicts how much South Africans suffered during the Apartheid and really does show how much injustice there was against the South Africans. Many playwrights, poets, and activists came together to give their story and experience during the Apartheid during the 1940s through the 1990's.  The Apartheid in total simplicity took every single human basic right from the black citizens of South Africa and separate them from society and what they were used to.  Throughout the Apartheid many Africans were stripped of their homes and relocate to certain "designated" areas like camps with many little houses next to each other.

The biggest issue during the Apartheid, other than rights being removed from the Africans and living in complete misery, was the fact that they took their leader, Nelson Mandela and imprisoned him for "life".  Many of those who gave their testimony in Amandla! show the complete gratitude for making through the Apartheid and shared their most vivid memories about their experience.  

One thing that they all agreed on was the thing that kept them sane and intact, was expressing themselves through music, dancing, and poetry.  Many turned to expressing their sorrows and pain through songs that later became famous and almost every African would know a certain song and begin singing from their soul and heart.  Singing and composing songs of meaning and of what describe what they were going through and how they felt, was the one and only thing Africans could hold on to during the Apartheid.  Through all the segregation, many Africans turned to simply just singing about their feelings and the everything that was surround them.

This movie for me was extremely meaningful and emotional because i actually watched this movie while i was in South Africa this past summer.  I watched this movie during one of my seminars i had to attend for my program that i went through and seeing this movie in class, made me have flashbacks and it has an emotional connection to me.  I went to lectures and seminars that discussed the Apartheid and what South Africa went through and how the people there have suffered tremendously throughout the years. I also went to a village where i learned about the Xhosa people and i met a lady who was called "Mama Zulu" and she taught me a lot of different new things about the culture and rituals of South Africa.  

Goldstein Chs: 5,6,7,& 8

In chapter five, Goldstein discusses the issues of the UN and how its reforms were going through quite a lot in the 1990s in order to try and restore peace.  "Having gone from famine to feast in the mid-1990s, the United Nations had a bad case of institutional indigestion."  Throughout 1995 and 1999, the UN had put together and ignited two peace operations in eastern Croatia and Haiti.  Goldstein also discusses a story about a UN worker and his experience within the UN, Kofi Annan. Throughout this chapter, Goldstein revolves it around peacekeeping and how the peace was kept and how it was tried to be kept.

In chapter six, Goldstein discusses the fourteen UN peacekeeping missions worldwide in 2011 and how much each one of them have varied up till this present day.  Goldstein brings up the mission that occurred in Sierra Leone and how it was removed from the list because the peacekeepers from there basically quit.  Along with Sierra Leone, Goldstein mentions that the five big African missions are slowly going to become like Sierra Leone and the peacekeepers are going to leave and chaos is going to break out.

In chapter seven, Goldstein introduces a story about his friend, Jerry Bender visiting Angola's while the war was going on there.  He mentions that everything there was quite unsettled and the price valued had depreciated greatly.  "The war and the government's misguided economic policies had destroyed the money economy, despite the funds pumped into each side by exports of oil and diamonds, respectively." Angola had suffer from a civil war and has up to this day, continued suffering.  Goldstein also discusses how the world's task in trying to reduce war, has been greatly undone and something that the UN has not considered or at least, their tactic aren't really working.

In chapter eight, Goldstein focuses more on the aims for peace movements being worked on.  "I have lived through four waves of peace activism in the United States."  If peace is really wanted to its fullest potential, then you must work incredibly hard for it because it is by far, not going to be served on a silver platter. Goldstein recalls his first big peace movement in San Francisco when tens of thousands of people went screaming into the streets to end the Vietnam war.

Invisible Children/KONY 2010

What has been going on in Northern Africa is devastating and horrible.  It has not just "recently" happened; it has been going on for 29 years now.  Since Joseph Kony came into power in Uganda, he has started his militia called the "rebels" and the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) with a main sole purpose, to overthrow Uganda's government.  Invisible Children: Rough Cut is a documentary film that was made in 2006 by three friends who decided to basically backpack through Africa to find a story.  Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole adventured to Northern Africa in the spring of 2003 and captured their footage on film, that has internationally become an overnight deeply moving phenomenon.  The war situation in Northern Africa is out of control and there is no infrastructure to help stop the chaotic "rebels" from lashing out and continuing their unspeakable crimes.  Invisible Children: Rough Cut shows first hand the situation of the children in Uganda.  Jason, Bobby, and Laren documented how bad things are in Uganda currently and most shocking of all, their footage is uncensored, unedited, and unscripted; their video is all real footage with sad evidence of the children's turmoils.  Africa has been known for it's poverty, wars, and unstable government, but this documentary takes the truth of what's really happening in Africa to a whole another level.

KONY 2012 is a 29 minute long video that was posted on YouTube by one of the three boys who made Invisible Children: Rough Cut, Jason Russell.  After his experience in Africa, and what he had discovered, he felt compelled to truly help and put Joseph Kony out into the light for the rest of the world to see him and know who he is and he's been doing in Uganda for the past 29 years.  All this was inspired by a boy named Jacob, who Jason met while being in Uganda.  Jacob forever impacted Jason's life and left him speechless when Jacob told Jason a story about his older brother being killed by the rebels and he remembers his brother everyday.  Since that night in Uganda with Jacob, Jason made it his mission to help Jacob and other kids just like him who are running for their lives from the rebels and Joseph Kony's militia.  Joseph Kony has been abducting children from the ages of 5-14 years of age.  Kony uses the young boys as soliders and the young girls as sex slaves.  He completely brain washes them and has them do tremendous horrible things to make sure they follow him and obey him.  Kony brain washes them completely to the point where they kill their own parents.  Russell documented this film in hopes to help raise awareness for the young children of Uganda who are currently struggling to survive and stay out of the reach of the rebels.  By making Kony famous and exposing him, Russell's plan is to cover America with posters, flyers, t-shirts, etc. and make the government see that the people care enough to make this issue noticed and heard.

All this truly affected and impacted me because ever since i came back from South Africa this past summer, i was truly touched by the children there and i couldn't ever imagine anything happening to them like what's happening to the children in Northern Africa.  Even though Uganda is being runed basically by the rebels, it's spreading and if we don't help, it will eventually spread down to South Africa.  Kony's mission is to overthrow Uganda's government and i fear that if that day ever comes, all of Africa will be in great danger.  The children of Uganda are crying for our help and this video and youtube document both are evidence an proof of what's happening overseas.  Joseph Kony needs to be arrested and needs to put to an halt with his crimes.  He is the world's #1 Crime Lord in the world. His army the LRA is number one and needs to be stop.  I know the United States has several issues of its own, but we as a united country, i believe that we need and should reach out and help those who don't have a voice, don't have a safe environment, don't have a childhood, and especially, those who are living in fear every second of every minute of every day.  

Parenti Part IV: Ch. 13,14,15,&16

In chapter thirteen Parenti opens up and discusses the issues that are going on in South America, specifically Rio.  In Rio, the crime rate is insanely high and the violence, gangs, mobs, and drug industry is basically out of control and the government is trying its best to somewhat "restore" Rio.  The police has been involved and have started their own groups in midst to try and protect Rio, some have been good and some unfortunately have been bad.  Gangs have formed left and right and have been in a complete sheer violent uproar against the police and armed forces of Rio. " Vidigal is hostile, under the control of Comando Vermelho (CV), one of Rio's gangs known to shoot at police helicopters."  Parenti was first hand experiencing the violent gangs and seeing how bad of a condition Rio is.  "Indeed, the gangs of RIo run the favelas and the city's retail drug trade. Inside the communities they carry machine guns openly as if they were the police, tax local economic activity as if they were the revenue service, and operate informal courts and mete out punishments as if they had a legal code."  Parenti also discusses how climate change is actually contributing to Rio's violent chaotic runs, "Rio allows us to forecast political issues linked to climate change because, in many ways, it is a city produced by extreme weather elsewhere. A brutal rhythm of drought and flooding hundreds of miles away in Brazil's arid Northeast, or Nordeste, has fueled Rio's growth. As weather patterns grow more chaotic and extreme due to global warming, outmigration from the countryside will increase."

In chapter fourteen, Parenti drifts from South America and goes onto Mexico and discusses the issues going on south of California. Parenti discusses how there is somewhat of a war in Mexico, "close to thirty thousand people have been killed here since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon deployed the military into the border cities to fight the drug war. By 2009, more than eleven hundred of the dead were soldiers, police, and security officials."  Parenti spent some time researching and doing studies close around the border of Juarez.  Climate change has been a great issue, and Parenti is beginning to discover we're all connected in a sense that climate change is and will continue to affect us, whether we want to accept the fact or do anything about it.  "The meltdown of northern Mexico provides another illustration of the catastrophic convergence: policies that create poverty and violence are now colliding with the new realities of climate change, and together these three fores are creating socially destructive forms of adaptation." Parenti addresses the issue that in recent December of 2008, Forbes magazine called Mexico a "failed state" and that basically climate change is affecting it greatly and the narco world is taking advantage and trying to take control of the governmental world.

In chapter fifteen, Parenti discusses his experience meeting and being able to shadow Jose Romero around Mexico for his research.  An issue was brought up that many Mexican citizens are wanting to come to America even more because of the climate change and it's affect on Mexico.  "Climate change will increase the number of people trying to enter the United States. Recall the estimates that by 2050 as many as 250 million to 1 billion people will be on the move due to climate change."  Parenti discusses how America itself, is basically becoming the image of a failed stated because civilization is turning into ruins with violence all over the place and countries are fight each other.

In chapter sixteen, Parenti discusses how our civilization is in crisis because of this big issue that many have turned away and put under the rug.  Climate change is happening and it's only getting worse and worse as days go by.  Countries have already expressed their sincere proof of climate change affecting their environment by violence and creating a huge amount of chaos.  Ultimately, Parenti has addressed the issue of how climate change is affecting everyone in general.  And whether or not, administrators want to do something about it, plans needs to be put forth to restore our earths normal habitat/environment.

Quiz Question: What is one of Rio's biggest gangs that shoots down police helicopters?

Research Proposal:  In terms of climate change, is aggression and violence different for different countries due to culture?