Slam Poetry

Colonization
Why do they think they can just takeover our land?
That's not fair
But why would they care

These people just want land
They don't care about us
But they ain't going to get away with this
They ruined our space
And now they are going to get chased

Author's message in The Sniper

I think Liam O’Flaherty’s message in this story is quite clear and very important. His message is that that conflicts can make us do actions that we won’t regularly do and will end up regretting after.  This is evident when the sniper had to kill three people because that was the only was he could survive. Also, after he killed the people on the street he felt bad but he overcame that guilt by realizing that killing them was the only option to survive. After, when he saw that the man he killed was his brother the story ended but afterwards the sniper was probably regretting his decisions. But what could he do, it was the only option. This shows what actions that we will have to make in a conflict and what the consequences or outcomes of our actions maybe.

The Sniper Summary

The short story "The Sniper" is filled with thrill and a lot of unexpected events. It starts off with a sniper on a rooftop where he was just minding his own business until  two bullets from the opposite side of the street almost hit him. He looks on the opposite side of the street and he sees another man with the intentions of shooting at him. Soon after an armored car pulls up on the street below him where an old woman tells the enemy where the sniper is located. To defend himself the sniper shot the man who was driving the car and the old woman. But the other enemy on the opposite rooftop was still alive and he continued to shoot and eventually the sniper was shot. He healed his wound on his forearm by putting iodine on it and then wrapping it up. Now the sniper’s main objective was to only kill the enemy and he had come up with a plan to do so. He was going to make it appear as if he was dead and when the enemy was satisfied that he killed the sniper, the sniper would fire back at the enemy. The sniper was successful in executing his plan and the enemy was now dead as he fell off the rooftop. The sniper was quite impressed to see how good his enemy was at shooting and was curious who this person could be. As a result the sniper went down to the street to see his enemy’s face who turned out to be his brother. The author’s purpose in writing this story would be that you will have to do anything if you want to survive in a war or conflict.

ISHAMAEL BEAH VIDEO ANALYSIS

Connections

There are many similarities and differences between the Ishmael Beah video and the article “Teaching Kids to Kill.” First of all, the main similarity is violence and how children are being forced or being “brainwashed” to do these terrible acts. Ishmael Beah was forced to kill but others are being influenced to do this and the reason behind this is media violence.  Children try to understand and mimic what is on television and this leads to them being unable to discern the difference between fantasy and reality. This is where they get the knowledge and skill to do violent acts like killing. To stop this we should start regulating what the violence industry is selling to kids, controlling the sale of visual violent imagery to children. Just like Ishmael Beah children are being led into the violent direction. The thing that differentiates the children from the article from Ishmael is that he didn’t have an option, was forced to kill and become a child soldier while other children were being influence by the media to do violent actions. Children’s being violent is not acceptable and it needs to stop.  

                                                                                           

Challenges

Ishmael Beah’s story was truly captivating but how can a person go from being a normal twelve year old boy to being a child soldier so quickly? He mentioned how he was forced to kill and how he was drugged and traumatized to lose himself so he can kill, but how does all this happen so fast? He also said that it was easy for him to kill people and killing became his life and when he went to rehab he regained his humanity, how does all this happen so quickly? At first it may have been a little difficult to stop killing him but after a while he probably just returned to being his normal self.

Concepts

From Ishmael Beah’s story we must learn about why having child soldiers is wrong and how we should prevent this from happening again. Violence and witnessing murders can ruin a child’s life and they can probably never be the same again. After all that violence it is very difficult for a child to regain his humanity so we should stop the use of child soldiers. UNICEF and other organizations are rescuing child soldiers and we should support them because what they’re doing is very important. 

Changes

After watching this video my knowledge about child soldiers has increased because now I understand what really happens to these innocent children. After listening to an actual child soldier’s experience my thinking and attitude towards child soldiers has changed drastically. With a greater understanding on this topic I realize that we should prevent and stop innocent kids from being brainwashed to become child soldiers.

THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES- blog entry #2

Social Issue

It seemed as if the entire martian race was wiped out due to chicken pox that was given to them by one of the astronauts on the previous expedition but there are still some martians that are still alive, which means that humans are not the only ones on Mars. The social issue is still the same and still remains to be colonization because humans continue to come to Mars as settlers. The is evident because at first there were only a few humans on Mars but now the human population on the this planet continues to grow because humans need more space. Another social issue arises of careless humans destruction when humans start to set up dozens of towns all across Mars. They make the towns look like the ones on Earth because they want to feel at home. The carelessness of humans is evident when they destroy the naturalness of Mars for their own well-being and comfort when they set up Earth like towns on Mars.

Connection To A News Article

http://www.ncsu.edu/project/treesofstrength/benefits.htm

This article is relevant and connects to my novel because of one main reason. This reason is that when humans first came to Mars they had lots of difficulty breathing so one settler named Benjamin tried to solve that problem. This led to him planting oxygen producing trees everywhere  but he didn't know if they'll grow. Then one morning, after it finally rained he sees that the once-barren landscape is now covered with green trees. The article and my connection relate because they both show the importance and benefits of trees and also show how trees make living so much more easier. Living on Mars was at first difficult but with these trees now planted life on this planet became so much more convenient for the humans.

Picture

This picture depicts and shows how humans are taking over Mars and making it their planet.

Poem

http://sciencepoems.net/sciencepoems/mars.aspx#.VRTZ4eHsfNk

Martians are coming,
Martians are here,
They're from the 4th planet,
Oh-my and oh-dear!
Their planet looks red,
From iron oxide,
What should we do?
Run, fight, or hide?
Their planet's named Mars,
Half of Earth’s size,
But those Martians look giant,
Have lasers for eyes!

Martians are here,
A fact we can’t hide,
They came in a spaceship,
A long, long, long ride!
But news is now out,
From Fiji to France,
Martians are friendly,
They came here to dance!

THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES- blog entry #1

 Social Issue

 After reading about half of the book, there seems to be one main social issue that keeps on repeating itself. This social issue is colonization and it is evident by how humans keep coming to Mars to explore and trying to start a colony so they can settle down there. So far in the book there have been four expeditions to Mars three of those were unsuccessful and the fourth is still in progress. When the first rocket landed on Mars the astronauts were killed by the Martians and the same thing happened on the second expedition. The reason behind the Martians killing the astronauts is because they were shocked and a little sacred that another race of species exists. Also, they wanted no one Mars but themselves because they didn't want anyone starting a colony on their planet. Four years later another rocket landed on Mars, this time one of astronauts named Jeff Spender is fascinated by the civilization that the Martians have created, at one point he kills some of the crew members because he now doesn't want humans to settle on Mars because he wants to protect it from them. Spender believed that humans ruin everything, an example would be Earth, and he did not want the same thing to happen to Mars.

All this shows why humans keep on trying to start a colony on Mars which is probably because they are probably trying to get away from a conflict or issue that is happening on Earth. I predict that more and more people will continue to come to Mars to get away from Earth.

Nobody on these expeditions wants to destroy Mars or ruin the Martian civilization while the Martians don't want anybody else on Mars but them. So far in the book humans have only started to explore Mars but they haven't started a colony but they soon will because that is why they are exploring Mars in the first place.

Connection to a News Article

http://www.slmc.uottawa.ca/?q=european_colonization

This article shows another example of colonization that happened with the Europeans and First Nations in Canada. With the Aboriginals already settled in what is now Canada, the British and French came explored and just took over. They had so much control and power that they started to settle there and start colonies there. This led to the creation of a lot of problems between the Europeans and First Nations. This connects to my novel because this time it was the humans who were exploring Mars and it may be them who take over the land of the Martians. In this connection the Martians are in the same situation as the First Nations were in because their land will probably be taken over and colonized by other people.

These pictures show how humans are planning to colonize Mars and change everything about the Martian civilization.  

Poem

Mars Mystery by Kayleigh 

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/mars/kids/poetry.html

Why? Why does Mars stand out from the crowd. Why does his color say
aloud. "I am different, I am strange, but don't worry about keeping your
range. Although I have no air with me to share, I can't help it that
it's just plain not there. My face screams aloud I'm red with fury, stay
away. But truely I say come to play. Me and my moons have so much of
fun, it would be more better to play with everyone. So learn about me
with sertany, not mystery, please know I want you to be with me." Mars
is a place where somewhere you'll find the beauty of it's features shown
to mankind.