Media's influence

1. What roles does the media play in our life?     We are surrounded by different media, most people may not pay close attention to it because it has become something so normal that it's like a part of our life. They play a great role in our life, effecting our thoughts, emotions, and belief. The words and idea spread through media will somehow influence at least 20% of the people, because that may be the only way they receive news.
     There are always more than one side to view things, but most of the time people will only show a few side of it through different media to let people belief that it's the only aspect to view that thing. Without knowing a lot about it, people may be led to believe so too! Media is like a fast and efficient way to spread a new, even though it may not be accurate, people might still believe it, we see this often in real life and also the movie, Hotel Rwanda. That's why we need to be careful with what we say and listen through these media, because it may not be true. One way to prevent from being deceive by these media is to understand it more from different aspect, so that we will know the story from different view, which is more accountable than just knowing one view of it.

2. Have you ever read/watched a news that mad you angry and that you want to take action?There are a lot of times when I watch and just read news that make me angry, because I think is not true! Politic news, economy news, and just news, there are a lot of them that I think is opposite than the truth. People will often twist the truth or exaggerate it so they can hide the fact or just make the topic more interesting, so a lot stuff they say is not really accurate. Taking the example from the movie we watched today, they spread ideas that the Tutsi are like cockroaches and that they murder the president, which they actually have no evident to support their words, but people still believe so because they have been brainwashed with this idea for the pass few years. I was just so mad when I hear them saying this, but even though I was one of them, I can do nothing to prove our innocent. (I didn't take real life example because it will be quite personal)

3. Who's accountable for the media?Many people are accountable for different media, including those that spread it and those that allow these news being spread. It is obvious that people who spread their ideas and belief through media should be responsible for the effect of it on the people who heard it, but beside these people, I think those that allow them to spread these news are responsible. If they know what they are doing and how it will effect others, but they still let them spread the news, they are definitely responsible for it too, for they know it but didn't take an action to stop it. There is a Chinese idiom that describe people who "support the wicked to perform wicked stuff", so I think they are also responsible for the effect of media on the people.

Country briefing

 

Genocide in Uganda Websites

Facts:

1.http://www.blackcommentator.com/93/93_otika_uganda.html

- genocide against Acholi people in Northern Uganda

- children are abducted

- the world did not really know about this because they are busy worrying about the war between Iraq and Afghanistan

- the government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) displaced these Acholi people

- only about a million and a half survived
- happened since 1986 when Yoweri Museveni came to power
- he order troops to kill these Acholi people

- thay blamed these people for rebel collaboration are not proven and they punish them cruely

- Museveni band the local and international media so the community wouldn't know about this genocide against the Acholi
- in 1996, the government order the Acholi to leave their homes and move to concentration camp
- if you delayed, they will bombed your house

- the camp contain more than 500,000 people now, everyone is treated cruely

- the LRA is another group that stepped in the genocide against the Acholi people, they cut off the legs of Acholi to prevent them from reporting to the government about the LRA
- they cut off their arms because they used to work for the government, they cut off their limbs to prevent them from working on Sunday
- they turns children into soldiers as young as 5 years old
-these children will kill those who cannot work with machetes and pounding sticks
- the UN estimates over 20,000 children being abducted and turns into children soldiers
- different non-governmental and humanitarian organizations report to rescue these Acholi

- the UN representative weren't really serious about this issue

- USA and Britain have been supporting Yoweri as he came to power in 1986

-USA and Britain start to rethink their support

-Acholi people have been caught between the government troops under Museveni and LRA

2. http://www.essex.ac.uk/armedcon/story_id/000290.html

This is a lecture on saving the children from war, focusing mainly on the genocide in Uganda

- inant mortality rate in Uganda is 172/1000 live births

- kids under five: 276/1000 die

- 25 kilos of corn flour & 6 kilos of pulses per family (each family contain 6-8 people)

- 2500-3000 people share a water source, often takes 4-6 hours of waiting in line to collect water

- a family live in a tiny hut of 4.5 square metres (smaller than the size of Mr. Webb's classroom)

- 85% in the camp suffer from severe trauma and depression

- is entirely normal for the government soldiers to rape and generalized sexual exploitation to the people

- HIV/AIDS is use as a weapon to kill the people
- some 40,000 children sleep on the streets to prevent being abducted
- Joseph Kony is the accomplice of Museveni
- Uganda is under a one-party undemocratic rule for 20 years, now...still

3. http://uganda.blogspirit.com/archive/2010/01/22/african-genocide.html
- more people in Uganda died compared to the number in Rwanda genocide
- more than 500,000 were beaten up and arrested, raped girls under age 15 to kill them with AIDS

4.http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/genocides/uganda/UgandaWW2Melissa.htm#top

- the Lord's Resistance Army is made to overthrow the government

- leader: Joseph Kony

-95% of the population have been under violent abuse, the other 5% has been abandoned

- children abducted by LRA were transformed into child soldiers

- in concentration camps, the people's clothes were replaced with prisoner uniform

- children hid at night to prevent being caught by LRA, if caught, they were trained to kill, sometime they are even forced to kill their families

- LRA did not use many propaganda campaign so they didn't gain country's support, but they also kept all these violent act in a secret to other countries

- kill people for religious motives, they want to convert the country into a nation whose government is based on the Ten Commandments
- LRA forced the people they abducted and even their own army to obey the Ten Commandment and to not work on Sunday, if they disobey, their hands will be cut off
- the LRA doesn't have a clear set of goals compare to the Nazi

New Tiki-Toki timeline address

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/28479/Betty.Ls-Holocaust-Timeline/

First they Came...

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
(Martin Niemoller)

     This statement of Martin Niemöller reflect on the attitude of the people before the war a lot, and it also seems like a sarcasm to them. When Hitler first come to attack the Jews, people who were not Jews wasn't concerned, because they are not the target! Many people just let it pass because they are afraid to speak up, so they just silently watch these things happening and allow these people, the Nazi, to take the Jews, Gypsies, handicaps, and homosexual into these concentration camps and be torture to death.

     Pastor Martin want people to realize that a community and individual are not opposite, a person cannot survive by its own, they'll need help from other too! So when problems are coming after you, you need to work together with others too! You need to act, even though the oppressive is not on you, otherwise you'll soon face everything alone. He want the people that time to understand, just sitting and watching the bad guys oppressing on the innocent yet they are still able to make no sound is not reasonable! That's not how a community works! Probably even the Nazi show more team work then them!

With this said, it's reasonable to say that it's not ALL Nazi's responsiblilty for such a tragedy like this to happen, the whole community has responsibility too. How can you even remain silent during such a horrible time? Plus, you can say the power of Nazi was given by the people, because they voted on Hilter. Since they chose Hilter, you can say that they are expecting something good for the society from him, right? Or else why did they voted for him? So now Hitler was elected, and he form the Nazi armies and plan all these kind of terrible punishment on these certain type of people, how can the rest of the people still remain silent? They should speak up, because this is who they voted for doing something they are not expecting from him. But instead of standing up for these people, they chose to ignore it. Probably they are afraid of the power of the Nazi or whatever, but this is not a good enough excuse for these people to remain silent...they allow these people to come back over and over again until over 12 million innocent people were killed! And the final end and rescue for these victim didn't even come from the people of German itself...how sad?

The same ideas apply til now, even in my own life, I feel like I have full responsiblilty for what is happening now in my family and school, but a little bit less for what's happening in this city and the world.
It is obvious that each family member have full responsiblilty in what is happening inside the house, because family unit is the first and the base unit of a person's life (mostly). For example, responsibilities like the cleaness of the house, different chores, and the attitude and emotion of each other(sometimes). Sometimes an attitude or a belief of a person was influence by our family member, since that is who we are closest to.

Now for my school, I feel like I have full responsibility in what is happening too! One reason is because our school is much smaller than normal academy. But things such as school events, rumors, and the reputation of the school, everyone is responsible. Sometimes it only take a person's action for a lot more others to do the same too! If one student decides not to go on SA Day, probably ten more students won't want to go, if one student decides to go to Saturday cinema, probably ten more students will go, this is how the responsibility of an individual comes in. If one person did something wrong and was kick out of the school, other people, probably other school or the parents will start wondering on the quality of the students in the school. The same way, if one student get to go to a really famous college, the parents and student from other school will start to think that the school is good! Same goes with rumor, if someone start a rumor of someone, it will pass to everyone's ear within a week! Another thing that I think we as a part of a school has responsibility for is the oppression inside the school . If a kid is bully by a group of students, we should stand up because it's wrong.

Now for a city and the world, I feel like as an individual, you have less responsibility. Because the world is too big you can't really know what is happening. Like the thing happening in Africa right now, you can't say a student in Taiwan has responsibility to it, because they don't even know about it! But the responsiblilty that I might give to the world is if I see and know about it but yet I chose to ignore because I believe my vote is not much of a deal, then it's my responsibility for whatever happens afterward. For example, now I know about this thing happening in Africa and I know that people are trying to let others to know through different media, if I chose to ignore, then I have a part of responsibility to what will happen in the future. Some other responsiblilty as an individual to the world are like the idea of littering and voting(I don't think I need to explain since we kind of discuss it after class). I think these three ideas also apply in a city and a country.

Anne Frank timeline

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/28479/Betty-Liao-English-II/

Point of View Videos

Group- Betty Liao, Kelly Chi, Eddie Jeng, Wade Feng

POV- First Person

POV- third Person Limited

POV- Objective

POV- Third Person Omniscient