Blog 14

By 1912, China was unable to keep up with their internal expansion and growing population. They underwent a crisis where they were unable to effectively perform functions such as tax collection, flood control and public security. Eventually China lost its power as internal trade routes lead to a higher rate of unemployment and higher peasant taxes. The Taiping Uprising occurred alongside the crisis in China. Its leader, Hong Xiuquan claimed that he was Jesus' younger brother who was sent down to rid the world of demons. He called for the abolition of private property, prostitution and opium smoking. Hong believed that the Qing dynasty "poisoned" China. Differently from Confucian customs, the Taiping Uprising promoted equal rights for women. The Taiping Uprising then established their capital in Nanjing in 1853. From then, it took Chinas economy nearly a decade to recover from all its devastation. They also went through a phase of "self-strengthening" where they largely depended on foreigners for materials and machinery.
Opium had first been transported from Arab traders to Britain, American and China. It became a highly addictive drug known to relieve pain. Opium was traded illegal into China which dramatically affected their population growth. The legalization of opium became a hot topic for years but Commissioner Lin Zexu had opposed the legalization of such a drug. As the British defeated China in the second Opium war, the Chinese lost control over Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea. Western nations plus Japan and Russia then controlled all influence on China. Later during the nineteenth century, Japan became the leading force in the West. Japan's army became one of the most powerful as they were able to fight for and capture Taiwan, Korea and later on Manchuria. Japans big defeat of Russia became a huge wake up call and proved Japan's military strength.

Call to Action Day

Today was Call to Action Day and I decided to go to Fair Oaks Elementary school to read to the students. When we first go there it was bit awkward and I felt like the directions weren't very clear but once we got started with the kids, they helped us get a feel of their routine when they come into the reading center. For the first 10 minutes, we read a book to a student while asking them comprehension questions to make sure they're paying attention. After that we would use a white board to write out different letter combinations that form different sounds and try to help the student understand how to pronounce those set of letters and what words you can find them in. Once we were finished with that, we gave the student a book that emphasized that specific letter combination so they could get a feel of the different words you can find those vowel sounds in and why it is relevant. The last activity we did was we let the student read the same book they just read while timing them for a minute and seeing how many words they can read per minute. We completed that three times while setting goals for the student to reach. The first student I had a session with was such a sweetheart. He loved reading and he was good at it for a fourth grader. As we were leaving Fair Oaks, he ran up to me and asked when I would be coming next which made my heart melt. The second student I had was a second grader. He had a hard time focusing on the reading as he found everything to be a distraction. Towards the end of our session he was able to pronounce words that have the letter U with the letter E at the end (ex. Flute). He struggled in the beginning but during the session where he had to read the book twice, he started to get the hang of it. I really enjoyed today and found it very rewarding especially when one of my students came up to me which showed me that he really enjoyed our session. I am now starting to consider volunteering for elementary schools' reading center in Redwood City since I enjoyed having one-on-one time with the students and making a difference in their reading and comprehension skills.

Blog 13

the CST handout talks about how smaller nations are deprived of true self determination due to the fact that they were formerly controlled by larger countries and experience dependency. As European countries took over the New Word, Africa and Asia, they spread Christianity by forcing baptisms and conversions at gunpoint. These actions were hidden. Catholic teachings both taught others that they all have moral obilgation to care about world poverty and want to change the gap between the worlds richest and poorest lands. Catholicism also provided believers with suggestions and ideas on how to improve their struggles. Poverty in the cities mainly affected the bishops as they urged to make a difference and guide individuals towards the right path just as Pope Paul VI did.

Blog 12

The reading starts off by talking about Europe expanding their industries. Europe sold most of their products to foreign countries due to the fact that they were producing way more goods than their people could afford. In the early 1900s, investors realized that they could make more money by doing so and selling their products abroad. Over seas communication also became very popular to the Europeans. Steam-driven ships helped to transport products faster, underwater telegraphs made it easier for countries to communicate quicker and the discover of quinine helped to prevent spread of malaria. During this time period, Europeans also valued many other countries' customs. Diversity arose as Europeans began to marry individuals from countries such as Africa and China. Biologist began to compare and contrast physical appearances between those from Europe and others from Africa and China. Europeans were believe to have been the superior race at the time. After a while, the British attempted to take over parts of Africa and other independent countries. They successfully seized Australia and New Zealand and were nearly wiped out due to the fact that the British had brought in many diseases. As the United States attempted to expand, it disrupted the peace between them and Mexico creating an imperialist war. The United States also took over the Philippines which was formerly under Spanish rule. European men were believed to have been superior due to their "masculinity". In French Africa, "natives" were restricted from raising their wages and faced force labor. Many injured at work and others caught AIDS. AIDS was believed to have first been passed to humans by chimpanzees in Cameroon killing millions. Africans usually worked under white miners and make only a fraction of what the whites did. The Africans were forced to stay in barbed wired all-male prison like structures where they would occasionally return home to prevent them from starting a family by the mines. Asians were forced to take care of growing sugarcane, tobacco and tea, rubber, etc as well as working at mines. They were also paid poorly and forced to live under terrible conditions as death rates doubled due to disease. The ability to read and write was widely seen as a privilege. European culture was widely embraced as many followed their traditions when it came to marriage, housing and education.