The Final Test and Final Blog!

This is officially my last Human Geo blog ever along with my last Human Geo test! I remember how awful I thought these were going to be but I actually kind of liked writing them. They really help me remember my lesson by typing the notes out. I just now finished taking the last Human Geo test on North Korea and it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I studied mostly the powerpoint last night and a little bit in between classes today. I think this helped out a lot because everything on the test was in the powerpoint. I think everyone had a hard time with the question on propaganda and the cult of personality. At least that's what I had some trouble with because they are both kind of a hard concept to explain. I was really happy we didn't have an essay because I did not want to write about this awful country. Sounds weird but it makes me so mad how blinded these people are by their countries leaders. I just got to see my grade and I'm pretty satisfied with my 87%! I know I probably screwed up the cult and propaganda questions but I still think I did pretty well. Compared to what other people said they got in other classes I'm pretty proud. Also we got to eat cookies after the test! This wasn't my best blog for my last blog but I think it's okay. I'm so glad I got this class for my first Social Studies course and I'm sad to see some people changing courses. This was by far the best class I've ever had and I'm so glad I got Mr Schick again for my West Civ teacher.

Class Takeover

Today I took control of our Human Geo class as Cody did last week when Mr. Schick's daughter was visiting! I was kind of nervous because I'm really not as funny or outgoing as Cody so I just went along with it. I think I did a pretty okay job for someone who usually doesn't get up and present things very often. We mostly just reviewed the slides we went over yesterday in the powerpoint on the leaders of North Korea. Cody was not there yesterday so he was surprised to hear about the myths of the leaders. He also gave his strong opinion about North Korea's threat to us when we got to the military slide. He brought up the fact that they aren't doing anything to help any other countries out so we should just bomb them with nuclear bombs. This brought up a huge controversial discussion amongst the class about their opinions on it. Mr Schick said that bottom line, we should stop turning to killing people as a solution to our problems. We talked about this a couple of chapters ago with Obama and how people just wanted to take him out because they didn't like him. Killing everyone isn't the best solution even though it might seem the easiest way to solve problems. Killing the 3.2 million people who are already oppressed by their government would just be cruel. Outside of that how would the United States look if we just dropped the deadliest bomb in the world on innocent people for the third time. I mean we are already the only country in the world that has actually used nuclear bombs on people. Do we really want other nations to fear us anymore. We need allies and countries to trade with so I suggest not. We came up with the conclusion that once again killing millions of people or the leaders is not the answers to all of our problems. Then after all of this Mr Schick brought up that our last Human Geo test is tomorrow on North Korea and that we needed to study tonight. I plan to go and make cards on quizlet and then go on his website and look over the power points and videos he has uploaded on there. I am so happy I have Mr Schick next semester for Western Civ but I'm really gonna miss some of my classmates who are leaving. This and Friday's blogs may be my very last Human Geo blogs.

The Three Leaders

Today we went over a new powerpoint on the three leaders of North Korea. The very first leader after WWII was named Kim Il Sung who ruled from 1912 to 1994. He was first the Prime Minister and then became president until he died and the country was absolutely devastated. Then his son Kim Jong Il took his place as president and his people viewed him and is father as almost a god. These people of North Korea may seem like they are over exaggerating when it comes to their leaders. That's because they have to or they'll be sent off to concentration camps or even killed. When something happens involving the leaders you better give an Oscar worthy performance if you want to survive there. You have to act like you are encountering an experience with God himself because that's who they consider themselves as. Kim Jong Il's father took down over 2,000 churches in North Korea because he thought the real God was too big of a competition. Then once Kim Jong Il died his son Kim Jong Un was put into office. He is 32 years old and is the world's youngest head of state. People thought he was going to change the oppressive government his family created. Why would he? Well he was sent to one of the most neutral countries in the world for school, Switzerland. People thought since he got around and got to see stuff he would want to share this with his country. Wrong. Some people even say that he is worse than his father and grandfather. His first move in office was announcing a threat to the United States to start a nuclear war. Even though he would never be able to follow through with it with their lack of air force. These leaders are squeezing every ounce of power out until they are dry because they don't want to admit how horrible of a mistake they made in the beginning.

Juche

Today we finished the documentary movie on North Korea which was an exposé on the government forces. We left off with the team wanting to visit the home of a blind person to get an inside look on a regular family's life in North Korea. They ended up surprisingly being able to go and meet a family they were amazed to see how much the people worshipped the leaders. The blind grandmother wanted her sight back so badly so she could see her gracious leader. I mean that was the main reason for her fight for her sight back. The interviewer asked if the leaders of this country could do anything wrong and they looked at her like she had four eyes. These people are brainwashed by not only true blinded belief but in true fear of the government. Concentration camps have been set up for people who try to out think the government or change any customs. This might be the reason people follow their leaders so strongly. The fear is what drives them to worship so they are not sent to the cruel camps where no one has made it out alive. If you escape these concentration camps, you're family will be imprison and maybe even killed on the spot. Not many people have escaped these camps but the ones who have still have a rough time settling down in another country. Then the movie showed a scene where the doctor succeeded in his mission to cure over 1,000 people of cataracts. When these people's bandages were removed, not a single one thanked the doctor. Every person went up to the front of the room in front of the pictures of the master leaders and praised them. one man even went on saying how he would use his sight to kill every American on this earth. They have this crazy idea called Juche which means that they are self reliant and don't need anyone else's help. They feel so strongly about this that they make children think it's okay to kill people of other nations for no reason. They even have a nursery rhyme about killing many Americans. This is absolutely insane. The movie ended with the North Korean people praising their so called great leader who really is one of the most twisted leaders I've ever heard of. If you're so insanely obsessed with the power of the government, do a good job so people actually want you to stay. You don't have to scare people to keep power.

North Korean Documentary

In today's class we began watching a documentary on life as a North Korean "citizen". The reason I quote citizen is because the people living there are basically brainwashed slaves laboring around for the government until they break down. The documentary is an exposé group following a doctor performing cataracts surgery on people in North Korea. Cataracts is when the clear lens over the eye is clouded and it is cured by pulling out the clouded lens and replaced by a clear plastic. This is caused by horrible health neglect to the people of North Korea. This is just the start. There was a famine that caused at least 3 million people to die and still affects the children of the nation today. The average seven year old is 22 pounds underweight compared to it's neighboring country, South Korea. Speaking of which, the war between these two countries never officially stopped so there is still great hostility between the two countries. While South Korea is blossoming with new high technology and industrialization, North Koreans are shut off from nearly everything in the outside world. This is why people don't know any better than their horrible government at the moment. They were raised to praise the government like they're some type of god or supreme to them. The government controls almost everything the people do and don't let people in or out of the country. I would rather die than be forced to live in a country full of sickness, sorrow, and hunger all caused by the government and then have to sit there and praise them like the Lord himself. Does any of  this ring a bell to anyone and my question is why aren't we stopping it? It sounds like Hitler's run all over again and I'd hate to see that happen again to so many people. I mean South Korea probably would try to help if there wasn't a gigantic demilitarized zone dividing the two countries which is impossible to get through. Seeing stuff like this really makes me think how lucky I am to be living where I am. We are watching more of the video on Tuesday and I think that will be really interesting because Jon will be back from south Korea. Until then!

First Class of the New Year

Today was my class' first Human Geo class of the new year! We didn't meet Monday because we don't have his class on Mondays and we had a snow day yesterday. We kicked today off by introducing the new topic of the class, Korea. North Korea has been a very popular news topic lately so I think this will be a very interesting topic. In fact one of our exchange students, Jon, is still in his home country of South Korea so it will be interesting to hear his opinion on this topic when he returns. North Korea is an oppressive government run by a man named Kim Jong-Un who likes to keep his country quite secluded and isolated. Recently in our country, Sony was producing a movie called The Interview which was about taking down Kim Jong-Un. Kim Jong-Un didn't take a liking to this movie which basically made jokes about him and hacked Sony Pictures and shut down the movie. I was still able to order this movie online and I have to say even though I laughed throughout the entire movie, it was really offensive to Kim Jong-Un. That doesn't mean I condone Kim Jong-Un shutting it down but it makes me think about what and what not to joke about. I mean this country is so hostile to their border I don't even wanna mess with them all the way around the world. They are one of the few countries that has access to nuclear weapons and that's no joke. North Korea is the size of like Mississippi and has the fourth largest army in the entire world. Who do you think is right behind them? Yep, South Korea because they are so terrified North Korea could strike at any moment that they buff up their military. North Korea seems like some unexplored top secret case and I can't wait to research it even deeper. Wish us all luck!