KONY 2012

The film Kony 2012 wants to activate all the people to join the organization “Invisible children” that fights against the criminal Kony. For about 20 years, Kony has been kidnapping children in Uganda to make soldiers out of them and he still keeps doing it.

I think this film is so successful because it deals with emotions. The people feel sorry for Jackson especially in contrast to Gavin, the son of Jason Russell, and want to help him. The topic of the film is easy to understand when Jason Russell explains it to his son. A lot of images and comparisons make it vivid. A pyramid, for example, shows the influence of a few people with money on the policy, on the media and on the people. The new age of connection through the internet makes it possible for the people to turn this system upside down. Apart from this, the insights into Russell’s real life and his engagement give everyone the feeling to have the power to change something.

Garbage Warrior

The film “Garbage Warrior” presents the work and life of Michael Reynolds.

The architect, living in New Mexico, builds creative houses out of garbage. He uses recycled tyres, glass or plastic bottles and creates buildings in extraordinary forms based on his dreams, like thumbs or seashells. The special thing about the houses is that they use solar energy and the owners can produce their food on their own without going to the store. The gardens of Michael’s houses should become an amazon jungle so that the people can sit in it with animals.

In Reynold’s opinion, architecture can take us in the right direction concerning the environment. He thinks that we have to act now and change our behaviour otherwise we manage to make the planet uninhabitable. 

Is American culture ‘American’?

p. 187/11

The argument that the effectiveness of English led to the acceptance of American culture could be true because at first for most of the people all over the world it’s easy to learn English. The structure of sentences and the grammar of English aren’t as complex and difficult as of other languages, for example German or Chinese. But this can’t be the main point for the popularity of American culture.

In my opinion, the American culture just unites all the cultures in the world and the people from different cultures can find something familiar in it. American culture isn’t also that extraordinary and special, like the Chinese one, that it could be surprising or strange for anyone, so that almost everyone likes it.

In the 20^th century, America was also a superpower and encouraged countries with financial and military measures. This made America very popular, especially in the western world, and so American culture could spread over the world.

The influence of British culture isn’t that big, comparable to the French or German one. The British culture is part of the American one because most of the Pilgrims came from Britain. I can’t think of something special about British culture because it isn’t international known. Tea drinking could be one aspect but this is common in a lot of cultures.

Judy Garland (original name: Frances Ethel Gumm)

Judy Garland was born in Minnesota in 1922 but grew up in California. Her father Grank Avant owned a cinema. She was already a little star as a child because she played in a movie and had some performances in dance shows.

In 1938, Judy made her first film Broadway Melodie, followed by a lot of other movies like The Wizard of Oz. So she became an international famous actress and singer.

She had a lot of personal problems like financial instability, five divorces, alcohol abuse and drug addiction. Judy Garland died at the age 47 because of a drug overdose, leaving children Liza Minelli, Lorna Luft and Joey Luft.

Organic movement split over air-freighted food

Nr. 18

For the taste both aspects, the way food is grown and also how it is handled, are important. Vegetables from organic farms have more time for growing and ripening and as a consequence they can develop their intensive taste, while food from the Third world is often harvested too early. Bananas, for example, are put into airplanes when they are green and are ripening there, without sunlight and fresh air, until we can buy them in the supermarkets. It’s obvious that this food can’t taste as well as the one from the organic farmer.

The way food is grown is more important for the price because the transportation costs are so low that they don’t have much influence on the prices. Growing food on organic farms causes much more costs and the prices increase. Cheap products are often from the Third world countries and are transported over thousands of miles.

For the healthiness it is more important how food is grown because local farmers can use pesticides, too. The transportation of food can’t contaminate food in the way pesticides can.

The three eras of globalization

Nr. 10

l. (1-13): First globalization era based on the imperialism of countries from 1492 until 1800

l. (14-33): Second globalization era caused by multinational companies and technological breakthroughs from 1800 to 2000

l. (34-47): Third globalization era of the individual

l. (48.60): Diverse as a feature of globalization 3.0

The first globalization era from 1492 to 1800 is based on the imperialism of countries that want to compete with each other by comparing their forces. It is shrinking the world from a size large to a size medium. (l. 3f)

Globalization 2.0 from 1800 until 2000 is caused by multinational companies and the Industrial Revolution. Because of technological breakthroughs the transportation and communication costs fell and led to growing trade and connections between firms in foreign countries. This process is shrinking the world to a size small.

Since 2000 the individual is involved in the globalization 3.0 and the world has got the size tiny. Everyone has to compete and collaborate with humans all over the world. Apart from this the globalization process is more and more influenced by non-Western individuals and diverse.

Was ich bis zum Abitur hilfreich fände:

-Listen mit nützlichen Vokabeln

-Vorschlägen für Lektüren für Zuhause

-Besprechung weiterer Abituraufgaben

-Vorbereitung auf die mündliche Gruppenprüfung

-Listening-Übungen

A friend of the earth (Nr. 7

Der Ich-Erzähler, Ty Tierwater, war den größten Teil seines Lebens ein Umweltsünder wie der durchschnittliche Mensch der westlichen Welt. Neben dem verschwenderischen Verbrauch von Brennstoffen und der Orientierung am Konsumstreben der heutigen Gesellschaft, häufte der wohlhabende Sohn eines Bauunternehmers unnütze Dinge an. Seine Rücksichtslosigkeit zeigt sich vor allem in bewusster Umweltverschmutzung. Die Wende in seinem Verhalten kam durch die Freundschaft zu  Mitgliedern der Umweltorganisation „Earth Forever“. Durch deren Einfluss verkaufte Ty sein Haus, sein Auto, das Shopping Center seines Vaters und entwickelte sich zu einem Freund der Erde.

Eine unbequeme Wahrheit

Dear Sue,

To give you an impression of the German’s opinion of Gore’s documentary I want to tell you something about a film journal review by Thomas Arbeitshauser.

The author likes the way the director documents Al Gore’s speeches especially that the film is focused on Al Gore himself. Gore seems to fight for his ideas very enthusiastically, even though the use of tragic fates is sometimes inappropriate. The special thing about Gore’s work is the fact that he manages to inform his audience about the climate change in a very entertaining and comprehensible way.

In comparison to America, Germany is more progressive concerning environmental protection and so the topic of Gore’s speeches isn’t as new for Germans as for Americans. Gore’s work just can make the people conscious of the climate change because there is still a lot of work to be done.

I hope I could help you.

See you,

Bianca

Red alert! Climate change takes its toll on Scotland

Nr. 9

·         Rising temperatures and sea temperatures

Because of the release of greenhouse gases the rays of the sunlight can’t leave the atmosphere and so there was a rise in temperature in Scotland of 1 degree Celsius for every season except autumn in the past 40 years.

·         Decline of Biodiversity

Coastal erosion and flooding lead to habit loss and non-native species can replace the native ones, also because of the rising temperatures.

·         Rise in sea levels

The sea off Aberdeen has risen by an average of 0.66 mm a year since 1862.

·         Rising levels of winter rain

Up to 60 per cent more rain in the north and west of the country since 1961

Nr. 10 The author names the research of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency as a serious source. The results of this organization have to be true.                                                                                             Apart from this there are quotations of Dr Campbell Gemmell and Professor Colin Galbraith who are scientist. So this text is based on credible, current information. The quotation at the end especially emphasized the urgency of changing our lifestyle.

Let`s not worry about climate change!

The tone of this text isn’t objective because it just consists of the author’s opinion. In contrast it is insulting, aggressive and vulgar and also ironic for example when he says that man proved his dominance over nature, when he conquered the skies” (l. 3). 

The President of SPURT has no real arguments why there is no climate change. He just claims in a superior tone that there is no change. Because of this the advertisement seems ridiculous.

I think this advertisement isn’t serious because nobody could think that 150000 lives each year can be risked just for the aviation industry. It is also unusually to use such a vulgar language to advertise flying. This wouldn’t create confidence.

The fact that the text appeared in the Observer could lead to the conclusion that it criticizes the real aviation industry for being so disrespectful and irresponsible. There is also a critic about the Government’s policy because it supports the interests of the aviation industry and works against the environmental protection. The text is a call for the people to realize the dangers for the environment and to force the politicians to change their policy.