Reflections and War Speak

1. What Went Well As A Class

As a class, I thought that we had a wide variety of interesting topics, that almost every one was to explain and cover successfully. There were topics, from the 2008 Olympics, to Foreign Fashion Ads, to The Gaza War. Everyone was organized and prepared: most people had powerpoints, with outlines or some other form of easy organization. Most people managed to fit into the time slot, or only went over a little bit.

2. What Went Well As An Individual

In my presentation, I was able to fit in all my information in the given time slot, and still explore my knowledge issue throughly (I think.) I rehearsed my presentation and timed it and was able to know what I had to do to have a good presentation. I had an introduction, I talked about what my presentation was about.

3. 'Not So Much' As A Class

I think that in general, each person in the class had too much information for ten minutes, and many people were rushing to squeeze it in. The topics explored were more factual, and not as much about ToK. Also working on conclusions, for future, maybe use the implications or a counterclaim, instead of just saying "that's it."

4.'Not So Much' As An Individual

I think that I rushed a lot of my speaking, and it might have been hard to understand everything I was trying to express. In my introduction, I could have said a little bit more about the two sides of the argument.

"TEL AVIV - As Israeli soldiers pull back from the Gaza Strip and Hamas's rockets go silent, Israel's dormant election campaign has come back to life.
With just three weeks before voters go to the polls, the center-left government is getting high marks from the Israeli public for its pounding offensive in Gaza. But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and her ruling centrist Kadima Party may fall victim to the military's success.
Polls show that the conservative opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party have opened up a bigger lead, based on a public concern that the offensive left the Hamas regime intact while failing to free an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, imprisoned in Gaza for 2-1/2 years.
"That's one of the interesting paradoxes of the war," says Mitchell Barak, a pollster who runs the survey group Keevoon. "It restored the Israeli public's confidence in the Israeli army, and in Israel's leadership's ability to defend its citizens ... but it didn't go far enough [to weaken Hamas]."
On the third day of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, there were rival allegations of violations. The Palestinians said that a farmer was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip, a charge denied by a military spokeswoman. Israel's army said that it returned fire after one of its units inside Gaza was shot at near the border fence.
The three-week Gaza war has shifted the focus of Israel's truncated parliamentary campaign toward the best approach in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and the threat of rockets on southern Israel.
Already, Ms. Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the Labor Party are back on the campaign trail hailing the war's achievements. They're touting Israel's restored deterrence against militants and the international support expressed by US and European leaders.
Addressing Israeli college students in a Tel Aviv suburb Tuesday, Livni bragged that European leaders came to Jerusalem to work with Israeli leaders despite the international uproar over the Palestinian civilian toll during fighting. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed, many of them noncombatants and children, according to health officials.
"If Hamas fires a Qassam rocket at Israel, they will get hit again, just like they got hit now, and they know that," Livni said in an interview with Israel Radio on Monday.
Mr. Netanyahu, who had the awkward role of defending the government to the international press during the Gaza offensive, has resumed his criticism of this government's Gaza policy. Right-wing allies of Netanyahu have warned that the military operation has left Hamas in a position to threaten Israel in the future.
Just a few weeks ago, before the fighting, the campaign focused on good government, economics, and leadership.
"Today it's a different world. Security and leadership, mainly in times of crisis, have moved center stage," wrote Yossi Verter, a political commentator in the Haaretz newspaper. "Netanyahu is feeling good – Hamas was always his preferred playing field. In 2006 he was talking about 'Hamastan,' and nobody wanted to listen."
To be sure, the biggest single winner from the war has been Mr. Barak and his Labor Party, which seemed to be fading into irrelevancy with polls indicating a fourth or fifth place finish prior to the war. Labor's 50 percent jump in popularity puts it in third place and makes Barak a leading candidate to continue as defense minister in the next government, but he's still far behind in the race for prime minister.
Netanayhu's Likud party continues to lead Livni's Kadima party by a range of three to six seats, according to recent polls. What's more, right-wing and religious parties are projected to control a 10-seat majority over a coalition of center, left, and Arab parties in the 120-seat parliament. That would allow Netanyahu, who first served as prime minister for three years in the 1990s, a leg up in forming a coalition.
Netanyahu has said that before negotiating a final peace deal can be reached with the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority needs to build up the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and implement further political reforms. Critics say such a delay in the peace process comes when many fear that the window of opportunity is closing for a two-state solution.
Livni's prospects as prime minister looked more promising at the start of the Gaza war, when several polls showed a coalition of center-left wing and Arab parties pulling even with the right wing. Livni is now coming under fire from those who were unhappy with the UN Security Council Resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire and the international pressure to withdraw from Gaza.
She is also criticized for the failure to force Hamas to negotiate over Corporal Shalit, the Israeli soldier taken hostage.
Political analysts note, however, a fragile cease-fire with Hamas means the fighting might not be finished, creating a volatile environment for public opinion leading up to the Feb. 10 vote. "It's very fluid," says Avraham Diskin, a political science professor at Hebrew University. "If something happens and the Israeli army retaliates, [the fighting] won't be over."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0121/p11s03-wome.html

pull back-retreat, stop attacking

offensive- attacking

ability to defend- attack after being attacked

cease-fire- when enemies agree to stop attacking each other, temporarily

returned fire-shooting or attacking on the return

deterrence-when a military has enough strength and weapons to show that can it defend against any aggression

militants-soldiers, or military personal, usually enemies.

noncombatants-civilians

military operation-an attack

peace deal-when enemies try to negotiate a peace, usually where one enemy surrenders. a treaty.

peace process-negotiation of a peace deal or treaty.

Language Notes

1. The Three Components of Language: Rule-Based, Intentional, and Open-Ended.

- Rule based (governed)

-Grammar (rules)

-Vocabulary

-Examples from Class:

- In English, Noun before Verb. In Korean, Verb before Noun.

-There is no "correct" word for dog; it's different in all languages. 

-Intentional

-All language is communication but not all communication is language. Communication can happen but it can be misinterpreted, which is not language.

-Example from Class:

-Body Language can or cannot be language depending on whether there is   intent to send a message. 

-Open-Ended (Creative)

-Language evolves

-Examples from Class:

-Language evolves in form: from handwritten to blog

-Language evolves in the form of new words: -Elbow, -Muggle, -Obscene, -Hoodie, -Kindergarten

Theories of Meaning

2. Definition Theory: A word has to have a definition to it, that you can look up in the dictionary.

-Examples from Class:

-Triangle (a strength of this word was that, through the definition we could draw it.)

-Table

-Desk

-Love (a weakness of this word is that it is more of an idea than an object like "triangle," so it's definition gets more complex and circular [From Love-> Profound<->Deep])

3. Denotation Theory: The Literal meaning of the word. Meaningful words are distinguished from non-meaningful words.

-Examples from Class:

-France:

-A place/country in between Spain and Germany and it borders the Pyrennes and the Atlantic.

-Gamazi:

-It means nothing, it has no meaning to us; random, made-up by Mr. Steedman.

-Hitler:

-dictator, killed people. "a bad bad man," which refers to a specific idea (which sometimes comes from being famous or infamous), but when it's used as "he's another Hitler," it's not the literal meaning.

-November 27, 2008 in Mumbai, India: That was "their 9/11." The use of the American tragedy, September 11, 2001 or 9/11, has become a term.

-Freedom:

-Harder to denote because it's an idea, not a physical object.

4. Image Theory: The meaning of a word lends a mental image. The image depends on the context.

-Examples from Class:

-Freedom:

-An eagle, a flag, the Statue of Liberty

-Tree:

-brown bark, green leaves (often the image of a child's drawing of a tree in conjured) 

-Question about Image Theory: How do we understand the meaning of another person's word? What if we don't have the same mental image?

-My answer: If possible ask for explanation, description, and/or  conformation of the same image.

Problems with Language

5. Vagueness-No clear or descriptive meaning. The vagueness of a word or statement depends on the context.

-Examples from Class:

-Slow, fast close, a lot, bald

There are disadvantages, such as not knowing exactly what one means, but vague words can also be useful, especially in generalization. It is impossible to make words completely precise.

6. Ambiguity- Words have more than one meaning, but how they are interpreted depends on the context.

-Example from Class:

-"The Duchess cannot bear children." This can be taken to mean that she cannot give birth to children, or that she despises children.

7. Second Meaning (i. e. denotation, connotation, and euphemisms)

-Denotation: "the explicit or direct meaning of a word or set of words."

-Example from Class: see the Number 6 example.

-Connotation: "The associated or second meaning of a word or expression, in addition to its explicit, or primary meaning.

-Example from Class: none given.

- Example: Home, in addition to meaning, the place where one lives, can also have second meaning in that it is the place where one often feels comfortable, surrounded by friendliness and affection.

-Euphemism:"the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh or blunt."

-Example from Class: none given.

-Example: Someone who has died is often said to have "passed away." This phrase is usually used in delivering the news of death so as to soften the blow.

8.   Metaphor: A phrase used to compare two things without using "like" or "as."

-Example from Class: none given.

-Example: "You are ice cold." The speaker is comparing one's warmth to ice, without using like or as.

9. Irony: "The use of words to convey a meaning opposite of its literal meaning."

-Example from Class: Sarcasm

-A more specific example:"a free ride when you've already paid."

Problems with Translations

10. Untranslatable Words: Some words that are so complex that the can't be understood in a different language, so that a phrase is needed.

-Examples from Class:

-Mamihlapinatapi (Terra del Fuegan)-to look at each other hoping that the other will offer to do something that both parties greatly desire, but neither is willing to do. 

- Aware (Japenese)-femoral beauty

11. Idioms: Colloquialisms (Common phrases, better used in speech in one language, than in writing.)

-Examples from Class:

-Beat around the Bush

- The French: "Don't sell me onions," translates to the English: "Mind your own business," but if translated back to French, is "Go attend to your own affairs, your own matters," and the wittiness of the original idiom is lost.

12. Labels- Something marked, physically or verbally, to differentiate, or to organize.

-Example from Class: For differentiate

-to show accomplishment and/ or responsibility: Harry Potter's Scar.

-Examples from Class: For organization

-Groups: Non-fiction books vs. Fiction books

-To help get us through the day: "This is my Physics book, and it goes before my French book, because I have Physics and then French."

-Problems with Labels: they usually generalize, which can be problematic.

13. Stereotypes- "a set form; convention." Stereotypes are much like labels.

-Example from Class: In class, stereotypes were briefly mentioned stating that they were much like labels: to differentiate, and to sometimes show organization.

-Examples: "She wears dark lipstick, dyed her hair black, wears dark and heavy eyeliner, and wears only black clothing, so she must be a goth, so she belongs over there, at the goth lunch table."

14. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Language determines our experience of reality. Linguistic Determination. 

-Examples from Class:

-For the hypothesis the Hopi Indians were studied, and it was found that they had no words for time: past, present or future, nor past or future tenses.

-Pol Pat-1920s Cambodia and the Year Zero

-Peter Farm tested housewives by asking them the same questions in 2 different languages. The answers in both languages differed. Does this show that thought occurs before language?

Emotionally Laden Language

15. Emotive meaning: certain words evoke certain emotions.

-Examples from class:

-1st class/ 2nd Class vs. Business/Coach

-Gassy water

-Tax Hike vs. Stimulus Plan

16. Weasel Words: vague words, they can't be pinned down.

-Examples from class:

-"tomorrow," "soon," "later," "probably"

17. Grammar: Semantics of language, using it in sentence structure to reveal and conceal.

-Examples from Class:

-See number 18

18. Revealing and Concealing: Certain words which evoke emotion, can conceal meaning, or reveal it.

-Examples from class:

-The village was bombed. --> more tragedy

-We bombed village.-->either prideful or regretful, has more of a patriotic tone.

The Diving Bell and the Butter Fly #5

1. One place I know by smell is the beach. I can smell the ocean in the air, from the stinging wind that always accompanies open water, bringing the smell of salt, and see-weed, and  especially at low tide, the smell of the bodies of dead mollusks, and other sea animals. This is probably not explaining it very adequately, because it is not a bad smell, but it is mostly a salty smell, that whips around your face and is stinging sharp.

I think Bauby's situation's is more horrific than Jean-Paul K.'s. For Jean-Paul K., he had something that he knew would keep him sane, he knew he had a chance of being rescued, that there were people trying to rescue him, he had full use of all his body parts, and though he will always live with those memories, he can move on with his life. For Bauby, he must hope that his imagination and memories will keep him sane, and tethered to the real world, although they may not. He knows that the doctors are trying to slowly progress him toward normality, but he also knows that he will never be exactly the way he was before "the accident." Bauby doesn't have control of his body, besides his left eye, and he can't move on with his life, he is stuck in the Naval Hospital in Berck-sur-Mer.

2. I think Bauby is "fond of all these torturers" because over the months he has come to know them, and slowly appreciate their care of him, whether or not he was in a good or bad mood, before or after he could communicate. Even if things they do annoy him ("for a few minutes or a few hours I would have cheerfully killed them"), he realizes that they just try to help him through his condition as best as they can, "eas[ing] our burden a little when our crosses bruised our shoulders a little too painfully."

3.  I think Bauby has admiration for Olivier because he is able to tell stories beautifully. Humans always admire those who have the qualities they don't have/don't believe they have. Bauby admires Olivier for being able to tell such extravagant stories, always willing to back them up, whereas if Bauby was to tell such a story in his conditions, it would not be believable.

Our emotions effect the way we remember things. If I am having a bad day, I may remember the way my teacher asked for an assignment as rude and snappy, rather than how it was really asked, simply a teacher asking a student to hand in an assignment.

4. I think Bauby likes the song "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles, because it sort of describes what happened his life after the "accident." Also, it was the last song heard, or rather he really listened to before the "accident."

Humans alway wait for the crescendo because it's usually the most important part of the song, its the biggest part, most meaningful part. 

I think Bauby puts this chapter at the end of his book because it is the book's crescendo's. It's most important part, the day of the "accident." We learn what happened that way, and that's when I truly get the sense of who Bauby is, before and after his "accident." We, as readers have followed Bauby through his journey from when he first learns to communicate, through the end of his life, although Bauby does not know it is the end of his life. This is the crescendo of the book where his old life and his new one come together.

5. Bauby is savoring the last week of August because he doesn't "have that awful sense of a countdown--the feeling triggered at the beginning of a vacation that inevitably spoils a good part of it." He is happy because people will be coming back from vacations, and they will have stories to tell him, and news to tell him. What we can learn from Bauby here because of his reaction to the end of the vacation is to be gratful to hear others' stories and news of things  that happened over vacations, and let your imagination take flight and delight in hearing about others experiences because there is a chance you may never get to relive them or have experiences or your own that are similar to theirs.

The Diving Bell and the Butter Fly #4

1. I think its necessary for humans to put people in categories because it helps us make judgements, even though those judgements may not even be correct. I think that our language is not so limiting that we must organize people into categories, but rather we do it for our own comfort. "Oh, he's a vegetable." Doing that puts us at ease, as if it helps us to know how the person really is, even though it doesn't. It only helps us understand only one characteristic of a person, if any at all.

2. I hoard almost every letter and card that is sent or given to me. I have three boxes full of all the cards and letters that I have ever gotten. I think I hoard these because it tells me that people love me, or care about me enough to send me a card or a letter, even if its just for my birthday, or Christmas. I think I feel like this particularly because both of my parents are sort of estranged from their families, specifically their siblings, so it's nice when I get a card from them wishing me good thoughts, even if I have received the same card from them before.

3. Bauby's statement, "I know who he is, but who is he really?" really relates to what I said earlier about putting people in categories. Bauby knows who this man is, but he doesn't know who he really is, what he likes, dislikes, what his thoughts are about. I don't think Bauby is really any closer to knowing what makes people tick, because I think that everyone has something different that makes them tick. It seems like Bauby is getting closer to knowing what the people who he knows, what makes them tick. Also, Bauby will never tire of the smell of french fries because the smell is so strong that he can probably come close to tasting them, especially if he adds his memories of what french fries taste like to his mental, gustatory, and olfactory  imagery.

4. A "small near miss" that I have had recently was on an English quiz. One question asked for me to name a certain question asked in the memoir "A Long Way Gone." If I had studied more properly I would understand exactly which question the teacher was asking for, and I could have answered correctly. Instead, I didn't study correctly and I paid attention to the less important question, which led to an incorrect answer, although I could have gotten the answer correct.

5.  When Bauby says he has "butterfly hearing" in Duck Hunt, he means in the silence, he thinks he can hear his heartbeat, and because of his heartbeat, he can use his butterfly to escape from his diving bell, so in the silence, he can take off into his imagination, he can hear when he is leaving his diving bell.

6. I think Bauby dreads Sundays because it is the day when he is least taken care of. Very few staff are around, and those who are don't really communicate with Bauby, and/or are hungover. The TV is left on the same station for 3-4 hours, and some of the programs hurt Bauby's delicate hearing. His bath "bears more resemblance to a drawing and quartering than to hydrotherapy. A triple dose of the finest eau de toilette fails to mask the reality: I stink." No one reads to him on Sundays, and even when a large black fly is on Bauby's nose, no one is there to get rid of it for him.

White Man's Burden

In class today, there were four things about the movie clip that we watched that really surprised me, making me think twice. When I first see the maid serving her master and his friends outside, I actually had to look twice at her to realize that she was white, not black. Another thing that really made me think was in the factory, almost all the workers were white. I hadn't thought that I believed that most factory workers were black, but I was still surprised to see that they were all white, except for the foreman, and he was doing a higher level job than the other workers. Another thing that made me think was how when the white character is driving through the rich neighborhood everyone is black. There were no white people anywhere, and none of the blacks would look at him.  The last thing that really surprised, was the racial profiling of the police in the movie. I was shocked at the way they treated John Travolta's character. They thought he was a criminal, but they didn't check before they basically started beating him up, and arresting him. It made me wonder if, in the real world, that really happens, like with white police officers and black suspects, which made me think back to Blink, and I realized that it does happen, which really made me think about the race issues our country still has.

The Diving Bell and the Butter Fly #3

1. In the last line of Guardian Angel, Bauby says "And I have to admit that at times I do not know anymore," in response to Florence question of "Are you there, Jean-Do?" This is significant because Bauby seems to be losing himself a little bit, like the diving bell is taking him over, and he can't connect to the real word anymore, he's just trapped in him mind, in his memories and imagination.

2. The ironic thing about the photo Bauby receives is that it is him as a boy, visiting the same town in which resides the very hospital he now lives in, 33 years previous to the present.

3. Bauby's dreams give us some insight to his condition. We see the heights of his imagination and how his past and his memories effect him in the present. In his dream he is walking with his best friend, Bernard, in snow trying to get back to France which is in the midst of some general strike (which was happening at the time of Bauby's "accident"). In Bauby's dream the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, performs a tracheotomy on him, because he's having trouble breathing, which is part of Bauby's condition.  Then he ends up in a study in a cellar having an amber liquid, presumably beer, poured into his mouth through a tube, like the way Bauby eats. In the end, he ends up hostage for an unknown cult and wishes to warn his friends so that they do not end up in the same trap, but he is unable to speak which "conforms [his dream] perfectly with reality. I am unable to utter a word." This shows Bauby's frustration his condition, as well.

4. In My Lucky Day, Bauby's butterfly is hidden, inactive. His diving bell consumes him, pulling him down, as nothing is going right for him. The tape on his right eye has come undone due to his sweat,  the alarm on his feeding tube has ben incessantly beeping, and his urinary catheter has become detached, and he is soaked in his own urine.

5. After reading Our Very Own Madonna and Through a Glass, Darkly, I can think of a time in my life that I did not truly appreciate until it was over. In eighth grade,  my best friend at the time suddenly hated me for a month. I hadn't realized how much  I was depending on her, how much support I got from her. I no longer had anyone to talk to or sit with at lunch, I couldn't call her to get the homework, or talk to her about my problems. What was worse still is that when she started hating me, most of our mutual friends hated me too, thereby not becoming mutual anymore. I was shocked at how isolated I was without her. It was then I truly appreciated the support I had gotten from her, but it was also then that I truly appreciated some of my other friends, whom I did not see as much, and also how I used to be independent without her. She and I have since made up, but because of what happened, I don't put myself completely into my friendships anymore, and I try more to appreciate the friendships I have in the moment, rather than after we have to separate for some reason, benevolent or hostile, and I have to learn how to stand on my own again.

We can learn to live by appreciating significant moments by realizing that they're significant and why while they're happening or immediately after the fact. It might not be possible all the time, but it certainly helps, and works for part of the time, which is important.

The Diving Bell and the Butter Fly #2

1. In Bathtime, I think Bauby's statement about how clothes represent life, and proof that he still wants to be himself, and "If I must drool, I may as well drool on cashmere,"shows that even though he trapped in his own mind, he still has a life, is still himself, and if he must be "locked-in,"  at least he'll look somewhat like himself before his "accident."

2. I think that the fact that Bauby spoke French, instead of Japanese or Chinese, mattered a great deal in the writing of his book. There are so many more characters and letters in Asian languages, that I think Bauby would have had a much harder time communicating his thoughts and ideas. Also, because of the amount of characters I think that what Bauby would have been able to communicate might have been lost in translation. Even Bauby writing in French, and us reading it in English, some things maybe lost, like maybe the tone or language Bauby was using could be convey stronger in his native language.

3. Bauby finds his appearance humorous because "Not only was I exiled, paralyzed, mute, half deaf, deprived of all pleasures, and reduced to the existence of a jellyfish, but I was also horrible to behold. There comes a time when the heaping of calamities brings on uncontrollable nervous laughter--when, after a final blow from fate, we decide to treat it all as a joke."

4. After reading Cinecitta, if there was one place I could visit for an afternoon, because it was my last opportunity, I would go to New York City. I chose NYC because I have never been. I would love to go there to see the city, the people, all the tourist parts, but also the real part, the not so beautiful part. I'd go see a play on Broadway, go to a museum of Art and look at all the beautiful masterpieces, maybe do some drawings on my own, of the artworks there, or paintings, trying to mimic their style. I would go shopping in stores, both expensive and inexpensive. I would go to NYC for the experience of going to the big city. Plus I've already been to London and Paris. 

5. After reading Tourists, I think we don't make more of an effort to connect with those who might look or act differently from us because they have a different life path then us, they might not understand us, they might fear us, we might fear them, we might not understand them, that it might be impossible to fully connect with those who act or look differently from us. Because we're not connected by the way we look or the way we act, we live in different environments, which lead us down different life paths, to the lives we lead or want to lead, which makes it harder for us to understand each other.

6. After reading Sausage, if there was one meal I would miss the most it is my dad's shepherd's pie. It has my favorite combination of food: corn, mashed potatoes, and beef, with some herbs and spices mixed in. Everything about it is so fulfilling. The creamy mashed potatoes with some paprika on top, the sweet-and- salty corn, and the protein enriched beef seasoned with unknown herbs and spices, it come together to create the perfect, hearty, home-cooked meal.