The "Car"

I have chosen the "car" or automobile, as the subject of my final blog because I believe it to be one of the inventions that has had one of the most positive impact on our lives during the 20th century. The first steam powered car was built in 1672 by Ferdinand Vebiest and the concept progressed to the Model "t" Ford that became the first affordable automobile due to the invention of assembly line production. From these beginnings the automobile has evolved into the efficient speed machines that are on our roads today. Cars have revolutionized transportation around the world. They have completely wiped out travailing by horse and buggy, have almost made the passenger train extinct and have even gave buses and street cars a run for their money. However for many people cars are much more than just a mode of transportation. Their car is an extension of themselves, their pride and joy, and a hobby to invest their time and money into. For many such people their car is their life. They belong to a subculture that revolves around speed, looks and noise. Modifying cars has been around for as long as cars have, however it was not until the 1950's that hot roding became popular. A hot rod was considered any car that had been modified to the point that it no longer fit in with other main stream cars. During the 19560's-60's hot rods were often older ford models that had been modified by removing body parts, lowering the car and of course installing a bigger more powerful engine. Many owners of these hot rods would gather at "car shows", (a meeting of a large group of hotroders), to show off their custom rides. Many would also race their cars to determine who had the biggest and baddest machine. This subculture has remained almost unchanged since they began. The only things that have changed are the cars and if you go to a car show now, instead of seeing older modle T's, you will most likely see newer modified cars. These newer cars have much smaller engines that are tuned to have close to the same amount of power as the old hotrod. The newer cars are also lowered with many modifications to the body. People still gather to show and race of their new "tuner cars". If you happen to be looking for this subculture you don’t have to go any further than the car show at the Place d'Orleans mall any Wednesday night. There you can see a variety of cars from the modern “tunners” to the classic hotrods.

The holocaust

The term holocaust comes from the Greeks and it means completely burnt. It is often referred to as the mass murder of non racial minorities. A large percentage of which were Jews murdered by Adolf Hitler during World War II, 1939-1945. The holocaust was the result of a mentally unstable leader who believed that Jew's were the root of all of Germany’s problems. Hitler wanted to rid the country of them and all other non arians, (not of pure German decent). from their gene pool. To achieve this, Hitler, the leader of the ruling Nazi Party, constructed enormous death camps, which were devoted to the mass murder of these people. This mad, horrific idea took millions of innocent lives for no good reason. I believe that the world must learn from the holocaust and take steps to ensure that this can never happen again.
Hitler started his purge of the Jews slowly and increased his mission of mass murder progressively. He began by getting the German people to boycott all businesses and professions. He then labeled them with the Star of David. Then he separated them from the rest of society by placing them in Jewish Ghettos. From the ghettos they were loaded onto freight trains and sent to the deplorable death camps. To ensure that this never happens again, I strongly believe that the world should act extremely quickly on any major group or leader that is trying to discriminate against another race or group. If this is done, never again will this sort of mass murder happen and our world will be a safer place to live.

D-Day

The success of D-Day can be attributed to the masterful planning of the Allies or to their incredible luck. Personally I belive that it is the result of there ingenious planning. The Allies knew that they had to invade France and had been planning the invasion for many years. They were aware that this would be no easy task as the Germans had been heavily fortifying the coast line of France. The Allies also knew of its great importance to the outcome of W.W. II. In the beginning stages of the planning for the France invasion the Allies went as far as to launch an intelligence gathering test mission known as the Dieppe Raid. It was a horrible failure and they learned that their intelligence was terribly inaccurate. However they also learned many valuable lessons that would help them with their “Operation Overlord”. The Allies’ plan of attack was extremely elaborate; it included the use of diversions, decoys, involvement of the French resistance and of course extreme secrecy. The attack on France was going to be so enormous that it was impossible for the allies to hide all of their equipment and therefore the Germans knew a large scale attack was coming. In order to trick the Germans and try and catch them off guard the Allies hid many of their ships and tanks to make it appear like their army was much smaller than it actually was. Another tactic that the Allied Forces used was distracting the Germans by placing fake tanks and guns across the ports of southern England, causing the Germans to believe that the attack would be from that location. The Allies also carried out many bombing runs across the beaches of France, in order to keep the Germans guessing. The hardest place for the allied forces to attack would be the beaches of Normandy because the water is often rough and land is uphill from the beach. The Germans would not expect an attack here and as a result that’s exactly where the allied forces attacked. The Allies also got the France resistance on their side and gave them targets to take out and capture as soon as they received their code which was often hidden in radio broadcasts. In order to make sure that the allied attack was kept secret, the invasion force was not informed of the plan until the day before the attack. There is almost no question in my mind that with all these and many other ingenious plans the attack on Normandy was a success. There may have been some strokes of luck that made it easier for the Allied Forces, however it was the planning that won the battle.

Africa

Before we started the unit on Africa, I saw Africa as a poor continent with little technology and with extremely poor living conditions. It was very interesting in our studies of Africa to discover that parts of it are in fact technologically advanced and that it has some thriving economically strong cities. Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is an excellent example of a vast city with over eleven million people. There are many very poor parts of Africa, but that is only half the story. Frequently people think of it either as a poverty stricken continent with vast deserts, severe health issues and political unrest or as a safari destination such as Kenya in the east, with elephants and rhinos and lots of very colorful wild life. I believe that movies such as Lion King and advertisements for charities such as the Christian Foundation have helped to paint these pictures. Africa did not always have as many poverty stricken areas. In fact at one point it was one of the most technologically advanced and richest continents in the world. This all ended when European countries began to colonize Africa. They moved in, took control and stole most of Africa's natural resources. They exploited their people as slaves and then left them with nothing. When the Europeans finally left the African people had no leaders Civil wars resulted as various groups attempted to seize power and control of the country. The same struggles for power continue today with wars ragging in many of its countries. I have learned that Africa is an amazing place in our world. It has beautiful rich areas along with very poor areas and a wide variety of different cultures. I believe that a lot of the poverty and the struggles for power would not have been as extreme if Africa had not been colonized by other countries.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution started in 1917, however there were many events leading up to it that played a major role in its creation. The first major move towards the revolution occurred in 1861 when the Russian government put the emancipation edict in place. It cancelled all of the debt from that the peasants had accumulated over the years. They were now "free of debt slavery." The emancipation edict was the first sign from the government that they recognized that there was a problem and that they were attempting to fix it, however it did not work. The next event leading up to the revolution occurred in 1905 when Russia lost a war against Japan. The people blamed the Tsar for this and as a result the Tsar put in place a Duma. The Duma was supposed to be the representative of the Russian people. It did not work as only the people with money were allowed to vote. So the peasants still had no say in their government. The next event leading up to the revolution was WW I. Russia got involved in a war that they were not ready to fight. As a result their soldiers were unprepared for battle and had little training, poor weapons and very limited food and clothing. The Russian people were also very unhappy with their extremely poor living conditions. A lot of these poor conditions had to do with a man called Grigori Rasputin. He was a very powerful influence on the Tsarina and had many laws passed that angered people and partly led to the revolution. The Russian people had rebellions to protest their horrible conditions. The government called in their army to help control the situation, however instead of fighting the rioters, the army joined them. Several small armies were sent in to deal with this pandemonium. However these smaller groups were too stubborn to unite. They insisted on fighting by themselves so that they could claim victory. The result was that they were all defeated and the Tsar was forced into giving up the throne. Between February 1917 and October 1917, two government parties were in control of the country. This two party rule ended in October 1917 when the Bolshevik took over power. The first order of business for the Bolsheviks was to purge the communist party by arresting and sending its leaders to work camps. Joseph Stalin eventually took power over the country and remained its leader until his death in 1953.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is the idea that richer more successful people are better than poorer less successful people. The idea of social Darwinism comes from Darwin’s theory of evolution which is the idea of survival of the fittest. In Darwin’s theory he believes that the better suited animals survive and the weaker animals will die off. Darwin’s ideas about the animal kingdom were adapted to the human social realm in the late 1800's. The fact of the matter is that Darwin himself did not even believe in the idea of social Darwinism, he believed that humans were to superior for this concept. However the elite of society embraced the idea with open arms. Across the world a large portion of high society believed in social Darwinism, as a result they thought they were better than all poorer or less successful people. This plays an extremely important role in the creation of racism. People did not look down on, or treat people from different countries inferior because they were different, but because they truly believed that they were lesser humans because they did not have money. Because high society believed that less successful people were a dying breed and inferior to them, they did not let them have any say in politics and how their country was run. As a result, it was high society that was in control of the world. Because of all of this, the average working man did not have any say in his country or his world. I believe that social Darwinism was a bad idea. I do not believe in social Darwinism at all, it is obvious that people who are rich can be rich for many reasons, none of which render them "physically more superior" to the average person. I believe that if the concept of social Darwinism had never been introduced to the world it would be an entirely different place today. The notion of racism would never have been introduced. Throughout human history there would have been a whole different variety of world leader, and this would probably have resulted in our World being a better place to live.

Journal Entery May 4, 1904

Today when I woke up I could tell that it was going to be a glorious day. I woke up and put on my morning cloths and then went downstairs for a large breakfast that our maid had prepared. I had a big day planned. After breakfast I went out with some of my gentlemen friends to play a round of golf. Naturally I had to change in to my golfing entire. I had a splendid time with my friends and enjoyed lunch at the club. After lunch I returned home and was extremely pleased to find my young son talking about his future in business. It pleased me greatly to hear that my son was looking forward to a future as a successful business man. As if this wasn't good enough, today my 16 year old daughter Eave, informed me that she was getting married to a very successful business man. He was new money, his family name was not good but he had lots of money and this would help our family. I now had to go and change into my evening cloths and get ready for dinner. Our servants were preparing a great meal with only the finest of foods from across the world, as we are having guests. Dinner was excellent and I had a splendid time informing all of my friends of my daughter’s wedding plans. After our guests had left, my wife and I proceeded to change into our night cloths, said our good nights and headed off to bed. I’m sure I will sleep well tonight after such a splendid day.