I have become more knowledgeable about the World

A child soldier in Uganda

I am more knowledgeable about current events and global issues. The child army in Uganda is one of the current global issues we learned about in class, and it's been going on since the '80's. The LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) is a group in Uganda, opposed to its government, whose leader, Joseph Kony, kidnaps children and brainwashes them into child soldiers. They are taken at an impressionable age and exposed to violence and hatred so that they turn into tiny brutal killers who grow up to kidnap more children and try to overthrow places in Africa where the government is weak. Today, escaped ex-LRA soldiers are being recruited by the Ugandan government to track Kony down, where they think he's not only hiding but expanding his army. Uganda could use international help with resulting problems it's about to face: its new generation. These kids, even escaped, have been exposed to such bad things since they were little, it's all they know. You couldn't be put through the things they're put through on a daily basis and grow up without a warped perception of how things are supposed to be. They're going to need attention to enable them to prevent these problems from reoccurring when they're the grownups.

The World in the Twentieth Century

I have become more knowledgeable about the history of the Twentieth Century. The Industrial Revolution was just about over when the twentieth century started, but it still had a huge affect on the world after its time. The 1900's saw some of the worst wars and disasters in history but it also saw some amazing progress and advances. Nationalism played such a humongous role in how the world turned out---acting as a catalyst in times of war but also providing the competition and motivation for the progress that was made. We studied other things more in depth, like Japanese culture, WWI topics, and power hungry leaders in the New Imperialism (in a mostly Western-dominated world.) Fascism, invented by Mussolini, involves loyalty to state, violence, discipline, and dictatorship. It also, like communism, puts individual rights second to loyalty to the state. Both of them came into existence when the world was under economic stress. Totalitarianism also involved having a dictator. It used police spies and terror, and had lots of strict control of media and what got taught in schools. Nazism, another ideology, is totalitarian, anti-communist, and anti-Semitic. All of these came into existence during the twentieth century and brought a bunch of problems with them; they had a lot of involvement in all of the wars that happened.

All humans have a 99.9 % similar genetic content
I have become more knowledgeable about human diversity. What is race? It's not really quantifiable, tangible, or definable. Race is self-decided, pretty much. When census takers come to your door and ask what race you are it's not like they go back to their little offices and do a background check on you. A person's race is not something you can tell just by looking at them. "Race" hasn't even been a thing forever, it's something humans MADE UP and there is nothing scientific about it at all. Labeling people is what lets us un-humanize them. It has lead to tragic catastrophes like the Holocaust and slave-owning.

Jared Diamond, Author of GG&S

I am more knowledgeable about places on the Earth. To be "geographically lucky", a country would have these:

-Food-producing plants. All it took to grow wheat was a flick of the wrist, and that provided a lot of food. Not all countries are hospitable to this type of vegetation, which would give others a head start back in the day when nations were still developing

-Domesticable animals. These help with manual labor, manure, food, leather, and exposure to disease (creating immunity over time). There were no horses here when the Spanish conquered the Incas, it increased their advantages a lot

-Easily accessible land. This ensures the spreading of ideas, such as weapons from other cultures, and natural resources

-Natural resources. The Spanish's (copied) steel Rapierre gave them even higher advantage over the Incas, who still used bronze weapons

All of these things contributed to the global inequality today, where we have such extreme differences in standards of living between countries.

Cultures of the World

I have become more knowledgeable about cultures of the world's societies. A lot of cultures are very specific to their country or people. There isn't a lot that different cultures share. It is important to learn about and respect the cultures of other's, even if it differs from our own, as does the culture of the Japanese. The Japanese hold Wa, or harmony, very important to them. An important aspect of this is called "saving face", which means to do everything in your power to keep someone from being embarrassed. The Japanese stress importance on being accepted in the group, even if that means conforming, as opposed to individuality how we like it in America. Lots of little social rules can make a huge difference (like avoiding public flattery and sensitive or personal topics.) There are other things too. I'm a member of a military family who's been overseas. When we got to Germany there were a lot of rules about staying under the radar, trying not to stick out so that we wouldn't draw attention to the Army or Americans. One of the reasons is that Americans are already thought of pretty negatively by some people in European countries. When you're in a foreign country, you're representing your own. If you went to another country acting like an idiot, people could associate the things that you messed up with Americans in general. Everyone should just keep an open mind and have respect for people that are different than them. It could make or break a business deal, but it could also affect you personally.