Man[goes] to Airport?

Have you ever thought about spending most of your life flying, like Milkman did to Philly? No, not as a pilot, but as a passenger. Me? No. I feel like it would just be a loophole, even if I would be flying first class on all my flights. Irrespective of the class of the seat, I would still feel somewhat tired. Then that would cause me to sleep more. Then I would be tired and so on. Don't even mention the time zones! Oh and the food. And also my health. I would become like Baymax from Big Hero 6 but just brown.

Anyway, there are actually people who do this. Check out this article: Up in the Air . . . 

They amass massive amounts of membership points that they then spend on first class seats. They often find cheap flights or loopholes. There are a variety of "loopholes" that they use, though, they are legal. Some of these are mentioned in the article. These people often side jobs, like travel agencies. They use the money from these jobs to buy the cheap flight tickets, or buy coins using an airline credit card. They then sell the coins back, thus not wasting money and amassing membership points. These "hacks" are often shared among such enthusiasts in group chats. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention that it is important to pick a major airline.

I just realised while typing this blog that these people have a heightened chance of dying due to a plane crash (hmm... dark). Also, I might actually do what I just said I wouldn't do. I forgot about the lounges at the airport. Man! Some airports even let you have room if there is a big hangover time.

Anyway that's it. Here some airport scenery:

THE END

Man[goes] to WW2

We often remember the ending of WW2 as the courageous, justice-seeking, righteous American & British forces fighting off the racist, fascist, cruel Nazis, Italians, & Japanese forces.

However, in the European theatre, we mostly never give attention to the Nazis' self-made "blunders" that caused their defeat. For example, the delay of Operation Barbarossa. It was partly caused by Hitler's fears of facing the USSR. The psychological war between Hitler and Stalin was very important and is very interesting to read about. It was clouded by each others prejudices and fears. Both of them were scared of each other. This fear caused hesitation like did Hagar's love for Milkman in Song of Solomon.

 

Hitler was right. Winners do get to define everything, huh? It is ironic how he was the one who dreamt, but it was the enemy that succeeded.

Now, let's go back to some of the "blunders."

Many say that Hitler not being able to convince Turkey and Spain to join the Axis was a pretty devastating. However, Turkey was a new country with little or no previous interaction with the Nazis. Spain, on the other hand, was a bit of a different story. There was a recent civil and Germany had helped Francisco Franco win the war. So, they should have been able to convince him to join. There were some fears for Franco, of course. He was a new leader and the country had low resources and forces. However, the big player was head of German intelligence, who believed that Germany could not win a two front war. So he persuaded Franco to make absurd demands to Hitler that Hitler would definitely refuse.

 

If Spain had joined the Axis powers, they could have punctured Britain's main artery, via Gibraltar : the supplies that came from its African and Asian colonies - especially, India. It would have even made it really hard for Britain to supply the war in Africa, Hitler's soft underbelly.

 Unity was a big "blunder" in the Nazi regime. Hitler, himself, could be considered a big blunder. He had many diseases and took many drugs to fight them. This often deluded him.

THE END

 

Man[goes] to Ukraine

Famine - an extreme scarcity of food (Merriam - Webster)

Artificial famine - intentional famine by humans (I think)

 The Holodomor -  Artificial famine in Ukraine by the USSR

People easily talk about the Holocaust, but they never talk about all the other human "exterminations" that have been carried out: 

i) Mongol conquest of Western Xia (Half of pop. of Western Xia was killed - 1,500,000)

ii) Cambodian Genocide (1,500,000 - 3,000,000 killed)

iii) Indonesian Genocide (500,000 - 3,000,000 killed)

iv) The Holodomor (1,800,000 - 7,000,000 killed)

Let's briefly talk about the Holodomor. 

The harvest of 1932 only procured 4.3 million tons compared to the previous year's 7.2 million tons. Rations in Ukraine were heavily cutback and food was "collected" from the peasants to be put in the government depots. Most of the harvest was sent to Russia.

Peasants were the first to be heavily affected.

The urban population was shown agitprop movies, which showed the peasants hiding food and keeping it for themselves. Then came the very restrictive rations in the urban areas.
People, literally, starved to their death.

(↑)Map of the Depopulation of Ukraine & Southern Russia.
Territories in white were not part of the USSR.

(↑) Wikipedia

"Survival was a moral as well as a physical struggle. A woman doctor wrote to a friend in June 1933 that she had not yet become a cannibal, but was "not sure that I shall not be one by the time my letter reaches you." The good people died first. Those who refused to steal or to prostitute themselves died. Those who gave food to others died. Those who refused to eat corpses died. Those who refused to kill their fellow man died. Parents who resisted cannibalism died before their children did." (Margolis)

This shows how something can often overshadowed by something else. When we talk about world records, we don't really care about the 2nd or the 3rd or so on. We need to value these more than we are right now. We only care about what happened in the end. Colleges don't care why you don't have a 4.0 GPA. It sucks! Maybe a family tragedy happened. Maybe your parents got divorced. We only care about the end result because humane qualities limit or are harmful to us like in our extra credit assignment.
We need to give more value to humane qualities.
                                                                                                  

Now, time for some Ukrainian scenery:

 

 Tunnel of Love (Hey ↑ Varun)

That's a long JUUL (Jk)

THE END

Man[goes] to Auschwitz

I guess I have to go away from my usual blog style. And I seriously do not want to analyze series of panels from a comic.

(IT'S STILL BETTER THAN WRITING AN ESSAY!)

Most of us can relate to this feeling:

BUT, don't get me wrong. Maus is a very interesting book (Hats Off to the author).

Anyway, let's analyze the following panels:

 

                                                                    ↑

  This series of panels is from pg 49 of the 2nd volume of ↑ Maus.

                                                                    ↑

First I would like to point out the skinny dead bodies right ↑ here.

This is part of the motif of dead bodies we have seen throughout the book. However, in MOST panels with death, there has a been some sort of a repulsive response. On the contrary, here, the prisoners aren't weeping or horrified. Instead, they show no emotion and carry on about their business. It shows the growth and effects of all the events that have preceded this on the people.

Many times during the course of the volumes, I have seen that Spiegelman only included the outline of Vladek and himself. I noticed that this happens when there is an interruption to the past, but the conversation between Vladek and Art in the present is just adding additional detail. I also noticed that Art's drawings of the present are neater those of the past. So, I thought that by only including the outline of Vladek and himself, Art is trying to continue the flow of the past, taking away attention from the present figures. In general, the past is drawn darker (I think).

I also noticed something about the rat on pg 147 of the 1st Volume of Maus.

The rat seems to be bending its tail so the light from the present doesn't hit it. It is like the mice (Jews) in the book that trying their best to hid and not be found. It's like they are hiding in the dark from the darkness of the Nazi Regime. But a part of the rat's tail's shadow falls on the light side. This kind of represents how even a lit wrong step could mean being found / death for the mice / Jews.

This could have all been intended by Art Spiegelman or maybe I am just overstretching connections.

Now, enjoy some illustrated scenery:

THE END