Humanities Projects
Poetry Project
Music,
Clear indicator of a society
Amazing description of an identity
Fancy rythme of a family
Why should we change that...for this?
What is this?
Isn't it an effect of the globalization?
Isn't it a drama from our organization?
Which goes by and comes in
like the sun in an autumn day.
So,tell me
Why should this be done?
Who tells us that this is the truth?
Why can't anyone just do what they want?
Hear, my darling
I won't let you fall
I will not let people in a stone
because whatever you do
is what you want to do.
Artist Statement.
This poem was inspired by the “Jihad vs. McWorld” text that we read at the beginning of the semester. That text really helped me to change my point of view about the world; because after all, I realized how the globalization, which I had always thought that it was the best, might not be that good because it is making the countries lose their identities. That is how that text inspired me because it made me think about the world in another way. And I applied my feelings in the poem in the sentence that says: “Would you change this……for this?” because what I really want is if you would change your real; identity for a fictitious one.
I used several different devices in my poem, such as metaphor, personification and repetition but the one that I think helps me the most is the repetition. My repetition is in the second stanza and it says “Isn't it an effect of the globalization? Isn't it a drama from our organization?” (Stanza 2) and in my opinion this repetition has a huge impact on the reader. I think that when you read "Isn't it" twice your attention to the poem increases and makes you think want to answer the question.
My poem is a basic 4 stanza poem that I decided to create based on what I wanted my video to look like. There is a turn after the first stanza that in the video is a broken glass sound. After the turn the stanzas go from being very aggresive to being more calmed and at the end I could say that the poem turns into an ode: "I will not let people in a stone because whatever you do is what you want to do."
Clear indicator of a society
Amazing description of an identity
Fancy rythme of a family
Why should we change that...for this?
What is this?
Isn't it an effect of the globalization?
Isn't it a drama from our organization?
Which goes by and comes in
like the sun in an autumn day.
So,tell me
Why should this be done?
Who tells us that this is the truth?
Why can't anyone just do what they want?
Hear, my darling
I won't let you fall
I will not let people in a stone
because whatever you do
is what you want to do.
Artist Statement.
This poem was inspired by the “Jihad vs. McWorld” text that we read at the beginning of the semester. That text really helped me to change my point of view about the world; because after all, I realized how the globalization, which I had always thought that it was the best, might not be that good because it is making the countries lose their identities. That is how that text inspired me because it made me think about the world in another way. And I applied my feelings in the poem in the sentence that says: “Would you change this……for this?” because what I really want is if you would change your real; identity for a fictitious one.
I used several different devices in my poem, such as metaphor, personification and repetition but the one that I think helps me the most is the repetition. My repetition is in the second stanza and it says “Isn't it an effect of the globalization? Isn't it a drama from our organization?” (Stanza 2) and in my opinion this repetition has a huge impact on the reader. I think that when you read "Isn't it" twice your attention to the poem increases and makes you think want to answer the question.
My poem is a basic 4 stanza poem that I decided to create based on what I wanted my video to look like. There is a turn after the first stanza that in the video is a broken glass sound. After the turn the stanzas go from being very aggresive to being more calmed and at the end I could say that the poem turns into an ode: "I will not let people in a stone because whatever you do is what you want to do."
Veteran's History Project
In this project we interviewed a Veteran of the Vietnam War and then we sent the video to the Library of Congress of the United States where everybody will check the video when they upload it (You will find the link to the video in a couple of months here).
Reflection:
As a Spanish person I have always thought that the American people werevery proud of their job in the different wars; but what a surprise; after interviewing our Veteran Michael Elliot I discovered that I was very wrong and that the Anerican not only don't like the war, they don't support it. One of the most interesting things that I learned thanks to our Veteranwas that the US troops had such a good relationship with the S.Vietnamese people, of course, before killing all of them.
If I were an historian I would really learn a lot from Mr.Elliot's interview; bacuse basically, the most of the stories that he says on it are amazing . The most valuable part of this interview in my opinion is the final product, bacause after having a lot of troubles with the edition of the video, we finally finished it.
TONKIN WRITING
Aitor Barrantes
"Although some evidence point to an attack on the USS Maddox, in fact, the Maddox was never attacked even thought that it was provoking a lot”
On August 7, 1969, the US passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. This resolution was approved because the "Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Chapter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters" (Doc.1) This resolution was created by the US congress, which means that the text is very subjective and that there is another argument for going to war with Vietnam hidden after these. If we read the silences in this resolution it doesn't explain why the US ships were in Vietnam and what they were doing there which can probably be the motive for what the Vietnamese attacked.
But the truth of what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin is very different to what the US Government told their citizens. An evidence of this is the private conversation that President Johnson had with the Secretary of Treasury Robert Anderson on August 3, 1964. “There have been some covert operations in that area that we have been carrying on-blowing up some bridges and things of that kind…I imagine they wanted to put an stop to it…they fired and we respond immediately” (LBJ, Doc. 3) This is an extract of what President Johnson said so if we analyze that source we will probably finish thinking that he knows the truth. In that time, if we look to the context, we can see that the US ships had just been attacked so the President will know the truth about that. If we read closely, President Johnson says “I imagine they wanted to put a stop to it” which means that he really thinks that the US Maddox was provoking in Vietnam. In this conversation they don’t talk about how big the Vietnamese attack was, what probably makes us think that it was very small.
Inside the Maddox the things were also perceived differently, for example the Captain Herrick, the commander of the Maddox said “All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing ship’s own propeller beat” (Doc.7) this shows that the Maddox was no attacked and what is even worse, that they attacked the other boat. The source is the captain of the Maddox; so who can know better what happens inside it? The type of document clearly shows that it is an official document so it is very reliable. About the close reading we can read “Ship’s own propeller beat” which indicates that the Maddox was not attacked and about the silences that we can read in this document, the captain doesn’t explain how the other ship reacted to the Maddox attack. In conclusion, the Maddox was not attacked and they started shooting.
Reflection:
As a Spanish person I have always thought that the American people werevery proud of their job in the different wars; but what a surprise; after interviewing our Veteran Michael Elliot I discovered that I was very wrong and that the Anerican not only don't like the war, they don't support it. One of the most interesting things that I learned thanks to our Veteranwas that the US troops had such a good relationship with the S.Vietnamese people, of course, before killing all of them.
If I were an historian I would really learn a lot from Mr.Elliot's interview; bacuse basically, the most of the stories that he says on it are amazing . The most valuable part of this interview in my opinion is the final product, bacause after having a lot of troubles with the edition of the video, we finally finished it.
TONKIN WRITING
Aitor Barrantes
"Although some evidence point to an attack on the USS Maddox, in fact, the Maddox was never attacked even thought that it was provoking a lot”
On August 7, 1969, the US passed the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. This resolution was approved because the "Communist regime in Vietnam, in violation of the principles of the Chapter of the United Nations and of international law, have deliberately and repeatedly attacked United States naval vessels lawfully present in international waters" (Doc.1) This resolution was created by the US congress, which means that the text is very subjective and that there is another argument for going to war with Vietnam hidden after these. If we read the silences in this resolution it doesn't explain why the US ships were in Vietnam and what they were doing there which can probably be the motive for what the Vietnamese attacked.
But the truth of what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin is very different to what the US Government told their citizens. An evidence of this is the private conversation that President Johnson had with the Secretary of Treasury Robert Anderson on August 3, 1964. “There have been some covert operations in that area that we have been carrying on-blowing up some bridges and things of that kind…I imagine they wanted to put an stop to it…they fired and we respond immediately” (LBJ, Doc. 3) This is an extract of what President Johnson said so if we analyze that source we will probably finish thinking that he knows the truth. In that time, if we look to the context, we can see that the US ships had just been attacked so the President will know the truth about that. If we read closely, President Johnson says “I imagine they wanted to put a stop to it” which means that he really thinks that the US Maddox was provoking in Vietnam. In this conversation they don’t talk about how big the Vietnamese attack was, what probably makes us think that it was very small.
Inside the Maddox the things were also perceived differently, for example the Captain Herrick, the commander of the Maddox said “All subsequent Maddox torpedo reports are doubtful in that it is suspected that sonarman was hearing ship’s own propeller beat” (Doc.7) this shows that the Maddox was no attacked and what is even worse, that they attacked the other boat. The source is the captain of the Maddox; so who can know better what happens inside it? The type of document clearly shows that it is an official document so it is very reliable. About the close reading we can read “Ship’s own propeller beat” which indicates that the Maddox was not attacked and about the silences that we can read in this document, the captain doesn’t explain how the other ship reacted to the Maddox attack. In conclusion, the Maddox was not attacked and they started shooting.
The Truth of War
During these two first months of class we have been learning a lot about the WWI and the WWII. To improve our knowledge about these wars we have read two War Novels (You can check their seminars here ) and we have created a project which explains what the truth of war is for a soldier.
To create this project, I have used a lot of perseverance, for example I stayed trying to write a paragraph at least 4 hours because I didn't know how to explain my feelings. I really think that this happens to me because English is not my first language and it clearly influence in my writing hability.
About the essay, I would like to say that it has changed a lot, it has even not comparision with the first essay that I wrote. In that first essay I focused so much in what the truth of war was for a CHILD which was not the topic for our project. When Lori made me realize that, I drastically changed my whole essay and I have improved it a lot.
If I had another week to work on the project I would probably expend it working in the connections between paragraphs, I really think that I have not had enough time to work on them, this is why this is the last point that would make it even more amazing!!!
SUPER-BABY
The children, who always want to be superheroes, go to war thinking that it is the place where they can complete their dream. During the World War II, many children enlisted the army, some of them died on it but a lot more “lost the opportunity for education and were forced to move into refugee or displaced person camps, where they waited for years in miserable circumstances for normal life to resume” (Joanna Santa Barbara). All of this show that while a child probably wants to be a soldier when they grow up,then, when they experience war, they realize the effects that it has in their lives.
Since they are born the children are taught that they must be someone important in the world, and a lot of them think that the best way to do it is becoming a soldier, for example in the page 11 of All Quiet on the Western Front Paul explains how their teacher Kantorek made all of them volunteer: “During Drill-Time Kantorek give us lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered” This statement of Paul shows how Kantorek tries to make them think that it is good to volunteer and it is bad not to do it, so, the children see that their friends are going to the war and even if they don't want to do the same thing, they feel like if they were less and it makes them do it. These beliefs of the children makes them go to the war.
Those children who wanted to be heroes and some governments who wanted the human race to disappear made a lot of children die. As Lewis D.Eigen says, “In some cases, orphans also unofficially joined the Sovietic Red Army” which explains how the government used the poor orphans to make them fight. in the fronts. Mr.Eigen also says that “The Germans equipped an entire Panzer Tank Division with 16 and 17-years old teenagers”, so it is incredible to imagine a teen manning a tank. But towards the the end of war Germans “Even drafted boys as young as 12 into military service” (Lewis D. Eigen) ; this explains that Germany didn't care the children, they just wanted to fight and this is why they put them in the Battle of Berlin. All of these pieces of evidence and the number of Jews children who died in the Holocaust (Some people state that about 1.5million) make us imagine the incredible number of children who died in the WWII. But the misfortunes for the children don't finish here because there were some who returned back to their houses; and what they found was an authentic disaster.
As we know the children who fight in war, loose all their childhood, and with it all the chances to be someone in their lives, which was just what they were looking for. For example “children are dependent on the care, empathy, and attention of adults who love them” and they lost the chance to have this during the war. Also, “ Their attachments are frequently disrupted in times of war, due to the loss of parents, extreme preoccupation of parents in protecting and finding subsistence for the family, and emotional unavailability of depressed or distracted parents” and with this we can analyze that even if they don't loose fiscally their family they will loose it psychologically. But,even the children who decided not to go to the war, suffered it.
For example in times of war, even if you stayed at home trying to protect it from the dictator of your country you will die. A clear example of this is what happened in my family in the year 1932 when Franco was trying to kill all the Basque people and “The women and the children used to go out of the country when the troops of the dictators were coming, so a 18 years old young man staid with his dad trying to protect their house, other wise it would probably be destroyed. When they heard the troops of Franco coming, the young boy tried to be safe under the bed so when they entered the house they saw an old man (the dad of the 18 years' old) and they started looking for someone else. Unfortunately, they found the young man and they made him a prisoner (they didn't want his father because they just wanted to kill young people to don't let the Basque people continue existing)...so after a lot of time his mum and the other children came back. The mum used to go every day to give her son food.. In the prisoner camp there was a list where the Spanish people used to put who they have killed that day and one day the mum found his child's name in the list, she couldn't believe it!!!! So she asked some people to read the name that was appearing there until she realized what had happen and went back home with the food for her son” (Antolin Goitia, 1932) This intense personal experience show that even if you don't look for war; the war will come to you and it can be easily compared with the Jews situation because hey didn't look for war they were just Jews and simply for this they were killed.
To conclude I would like to make you think about all these children who die in the war, innocent children who just have been unlucky, probably we should try to figure out something to do with them, specially, with those children who have no family and have lost everything. Maybe we should educate our children showing them that each person is special and that you don't have to be a soldier to be important. So, we educate our children trying to make them be the best and then we get surprised when we see what they can do just to make what we have told them to do.
Aitor Barrantes
To create this project, I have used a lot of perseverance, for example I stayed trying to write a paragraph at least 4 hours because I didn't know how to explain my feelings. I really think that this happens to me because English is not my first language and it clearly influence in my writing hability.
About the essay, I would like to say that it has changed a lot, it has even not comparision with the first essay that I wrote. In that first essay I focused so much in what the truth of war was for a CHILD which was not the topic for our project. When Lori made me realize that, I drastically changed my whole essay and I have improved it a lot.
If I had another week to work on the project I would probably expend it working in the connections between paragraphs, I really think that I have not had enough time to work on them, this is why this is the last point that would make it even more amazing!!!
SUPER-BABY
The children, who always want to be superheroes, go to war thinking that it is the place where they can complete their dream. During the World War II, many children enlisted the army, some of them died on it but a lot more “lost the opportunity for education and were forced to move into refugee or displaced person camps, where they waited for years in miserable circumstances for normal life to resume” (Joanna Santa Barbara). All of this show that while a child probably wants to be a soldier when they grow up,then, when they experience war, they realize the effects that it has in their lives.
Since they are born the children are taught that they must be someone important in the world, and a lot of them think that the best way to do it is becoming a soldier, for example in the page 11 of All Quiet on the Western Front Paul explains how their teacher Kantorek made all of them volunteer: “During Drill-Time Kantorek give us lectures until the whole of our class went, under his shepherding, to the District Commandant and volunteered” This statement of Paul shows how Kantorek tries to make them think that it is good to volunteer and it is bad not to do it, so, the children see that their friends are going to the war and even if they don't want to do the same thing, they feel like if they were less and it makes them do it. These beliefs of the children makes them go to the war.
Those children who wanted to be heroes and some governments who wanted the human race to disappear made a lot of children die. As Lewis D.Eigen says, “In some cases, orphans also unofficially joined the Sovietic Red Army” which explains how the government used the poor orphans to make them fight. in the fronts. Mr.Eigen also says that “The Germans equipped an entire Panzer Tank Division with 16 and 17-years old teenagers”, so it is incredible to imagine a teen manning a tank. But towards the the end of war Germans “Even drafted boys as young as 12 into military service” (Lewis D. Eigen) ; this explains that Germany didn't care the children, they just wanted to fight and this is why they put them in the Battle of Berlin. All of these pieces of evidence and the number of Jews children who died in the Holocaust (Some people state that about 1.5million) make us imagine the incredible number of children who died in the WWII. But the misfortunes for the children don't finish here because there were some who returned back to their houses; and what they found was an authentic disaster.
As we know the children who fight in war, loose all their childhood, and with it all the chances to be someone in their lives, which was just what they were looking for. For example “children are dependent on the care, empathy, and attention of adults who love them” and they lost the chance to have this during the war. Also, “ Their attachments are frequently disrupted in times of war, due to the loss of parents, extreme preoccupation of parents in protecting and finding subsistence for the family, and emotional unavailability of depressed or distracted parents” and with this we can analyze that even if they don't loose fiscally their family they will loose it psychologically. But,even the children who decided not to go to the war, suffered it.
For example in times of war, even if you stayed at home trying to protect it from the dictator of your country you will die. A clear example of this is what happened in my family in the year 1932 when Franco was trying to kill all the Basque people and “The women and the children used to go out of the country when the troops of the dictators were coming, so a 18 years old young man staid with his dad trying to protect their house, other wise it would probably be destroyed. When they heard the troops of Franco coming, the young boy tried to be safe under the bed so when they entered the house they saw an old man (the dad of the 18 years' old) and they started looking for someone else. Unfortunately, they found the young man and they made him a prisoner (they didn't want his father because they just wanted to kill young people to don't let the Basque people continue existing)...so after a lot of time his mum and the other children came back. The mum used to go every day to give her son food.. In the prisoner camp there was a list where the Spanish people used to put who they have killed that day and one day the mum found his child's name in the list, she couldn't believe it!!!! So she asked some people to read the name that was appearing there until she realized what had happen and went back home with the food for her son” (Antolin Goitia, 1932) This intense personal experience show that even if you don't look for war; the war will come to you and it can be easily compared with the Jews situation because hey didn't look for war they were just Jews and simply for this they were killed.
To conclude I would like to make you think about all these children who die in the war, innocent children who just have been unlucky, probably we should try to figure out something to do with them, specially, with those children who have no family and have lost everything. Maybe we should educate our children showing them that each person is special and that you don't have to be a soldier to be important. So, we educate our children trying to make them be the best and then we get surprised when we see what they can do just to make what we have told them to do.
Aitor Barrantes