Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Six- Current Event Notes

Article:
Vatican Bank faces money laundering Probe
by the CNN Wire staff
posted September 21
from CNN.com

There is an investigation by italian authorities over a violation of the money laundering regulations in the vatican. A different Italian bank alerted investigators that they had found 2 vatican transactions that did not fit into their requirements. The Vatican Bank is the most secret bank in the world, and no one actually knows how much money it controls. The requirement that was not met in the transaction was that the bank did not give enough information about the transfers, the transfers were one for twenty million euros and one for three million euros.
it gets tricky because vatican city is technically a sovereign state- italy only has
certain powers over them
pope created the account for only holy causes
the two transactions did not give enough detailed information

i i thought it was interesting how there is a top secret bank account, and since the vatican is its own state how it has its own special regulations.

it was slightly biased because not much information is being given from the vatican, not enough to give reasonings for the two transactions, or even what rules the bank has, and where and what is the money directly going to.

Monday, September 20, 2010

FIVE- First Small Group Discussion

I was really pleased with how the discussion went. I finally felt like I could voice my opinion and everyone was very respected and listened to. A lingering thought about the discussion I have, is the question of King Leopold's ghost. It was interesting to see how we have individually figured out an answer, and after discussing, I feel like we have a really good understanding of what the ghost might be. No one felt the feeling like they wouldn't be listened to or respected, which really created a good environment in which every one shared their thoughts.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Four- King Leopold's Ghost First Response

It was really interesting reading about Stanley and how he wants to recreate his history. It was just an interesting idea.
“Stanley not only gave himself a new name;he tried for the rest of his life to give himself a new biography” (23)
It made me curious if any other people in history have done this. Is this a common thing? It was really interesting to read about, and I'm excited to learn more.
What other parts of history have been twisted?


Why is there a need for Stanley to twist his biography, when he is the main character?

What does the slavery of Alphonzo's nephews say about the culture?

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Three- Thoughts on Imperialism Lecture

I learned what imperialism was in general, which was pretty neat. I want to learn more about the effects of the imperialism or colonialism on the country was. After the mini research I did on Rwanda, it was interesting to see why the genocide happened. I would be very interested in seeing the other effects on different countries.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Two- Current Event Practice

1. What's being discussed in this article?
The one child policy in China is being discussed. A law lecturer had a second child, and was fired from his job. It is also discussed whether the law should be changed because scholars and the public all thought that giving birth was a basic right and should not be punishable.

2. When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)
The event occurred in March of 2010. This is something that has been analyzed and discussed for a while, not breaking news.

3. What questions do you have that would help make this article make more sense to you? What more do you need to learn about to be able to report on this event?
What are they 'overdoing'? I don't understand the new thought that it should change, and why should the replacement level be 2.1?

One


Blogpost Entry:
When I spoke to my mom, I was surprised that none of her historical events matched up with mine. Her top three were

  1. When Elvis died

  2. When the Challenger blew up

  3. When Ronald Reagan was shot
My top three were very different, mine were

  1. 9/11

  2. When Princess Diana died

  3. When the plane landed in the water in New York on January 15, 2009

The things I remembered were not the exact events, but more what I remember from where I was when they happened. When 9/11 happened, I was in the third grade. My cousin Drew had just been born just two days before and we were at my aunts house in Illinois. Being a third grader, when word of this happened I was much more interested in watching the cartoon show “Recess”. But my mom made me change the channel, and now I know how silly I was for not wanting to watch it. When we got home later that day, I called my friend to see if volleyball practice was still on since of all that was happening. I then found out that at my grade school, they were not allowed to talk about what happened, and if they did they got sent straight to the principles office.

When Princess Diana died, I was very small. But I remember being in the family room at our house at the time very, very early in the morning watching the funeral with my mom. I remember that my mom was crying, and that I was infatuated by the gorgeous dress that the princess was wearing when they were replaying moments of her life.

When the plane landed in the Hudson River, it was my sixteenth birthday. I got home from school and my family and I watched on the tv in the kitchen. We were so amazed by what was happening, and I knew that I would always remember this because it was my sixteenth birthday.