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

Man[goes] to Germany

Heute besuchen wir Deutschland. Wunderbar!

(German for: Today we visit Germany. Wonderful!)

Why don't we start off with a meme (Ich habe es selbst gemacht.)

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You didn't see that coming did you! Did you!

Such a clear depiction of the Nazi regime.

However, this week's post is dedicated not related to persecution of the Jews nor the war itself, but the destruction of non-German and anti-Nazi books.

You can check out the specific details of the books that the Nazis burned (according to the Nazis) in sites like Wikipedia. 

More than the Nazis, it was the students of more than 400 universities that burned around 25,000 volumes in the square at the State Opera, Berlin. If you think about it comparatively, this event is not so bad or at least not the worst. There are lot of restrictions in China, North Korea, and a few other nations. The Soviets placed more restrictions and burned books.

But I will say Hitler was a sort of hypocrite. Some of his favorite books were burned. 

Going back to the students, this event really showed that the people would listen to the Nazis. Hitler would actually set many similar tests to see if the people would listen to him. Kinda smart eh! These tests allowed him to gradually increase grip around Germany.

Sometimes I wish I could be in Hitler's position. He had such a good position. And what did he do! Persecute the Jews and destroy a country because of the ideological with Stalin. I will talk about this in a later post. The psychological war between the world leaders in WW2 was a big part that is not often discussed.

Also, Trump should be really careful of what he says. I mean like I don't like him (except for the fact that he is a big meme) or hate him, but seriously!

Ich habe es auch selbst gemacht.

FBI please no! Let me finish my b t8=[ yioy0h.l..]

This is the FBI. We will be shutting this blog down for treason. Do not listen to this BS.

Instead look at some Deutsch scenery:

Do you prefer having the memes?

Please just some topics that you would like to read about.

The End

This post was dedicated to Matthew's lost

Synthesis Essay (9/23/19 - 9/23/19)

😭R.I.P😭

Man[Goes] to Norway

Henry David Thoreau wrote in his essay Civil Disobedience that he is freer (free + er) in jail than outside. So, he'd rather be in jail?

Well, most of us would rather not go into jail or prison right. Especially not PRISON! At least, not with the traditional prisons we see in America. Enter "humane" prisons.

The "humane" prison concept was designed to provide more freedom for the prisoners and a "real world" feel. "Humane" prisons have mostly been implemented in western Europe and Scandinavia. These prisons focus more on rehabilitation than punishment. 

The most important aspect of "humane" prisons is the layout. Most prisons are designed with the idea of fitting the most prisoners and easier transport of prisoners. These prisons often come in the "courtyard," "telephone," or "radial" layouts. Meanwhile, "humane" prisons built in the "campus."

This layout separates the different facilities, forcing the inmates to move around. Even the trees inside the prison perimeter are carefully. For example, tall birch trees are planted to distract from the perimeter walls.

 The above layout is of Halden Prison, Norway. No[r]way. No, yes way. It "detains" around 250 individuals, close to its maximum capacity. Most of the ideas that I presented earlier were voiced by the governor of this prison. Even though it is a maximum security prison, its inner guards are unarmed. This facilitates a more communal environment. There are game rooms, communal rooms, etc. The prison has often been criticized for being like a hotel. The prisoners are are even served steaming tall stacks of heart shaped waffles with jam.

(Hopefully it's not mango, because believe me, mango jam does not taste good.)

 

I mostly agree with the ideology behind "humane" prisons. These prisons allow prisoners to be released ready for the world. If prisoners continue to be violent, they can be moved to other places. However, the implementation of these prisons don't come cheap. The Halden prison cost about $130 million. Also, Norway has a lower proportion of criminals than other countries, about a sixth of the United States.

So, what's your opinion?

 Now, here's some Norwegian scenery:

 

 

 

 The End

Note: Most of the textual edits are intentional. I am addressing this because there were a couple of complaints. For example, I made the knife with blood dripping from it using words in the last blog post. I also split the countries I gave as examples and colored them red.

(Ex: So      uth             S   uda   n)

Hint: What happens to a country when a civil war breaks out.

Man[goes] to Rwanda

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it" 

- Mark Twain

But what if "your country" is not really your country. What if somebody else that has no relation to your people or culture created your country? What if the people your culture were separated due to the creation of this country? What if your country is composed of tribes of people who were and are hostile to each other?

Such divisions occurred with much of Africa, British India, and others after the era of colonialism.
We will look at one such example, Rwanda.




 

Beautiful, right?

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But what if you saw it in June of 1994, during the Rwandan Genocide. Warning!

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That escalated quickly.

Well, that's real exposure.

 For example, if Charles

Winston, CEO of Tropical

Smoothie Cafe, was exposed 

to my type of mangoes, he 

would immediately order 

all locations start using 

Indian mangoes instead of those Costa Rican mangoes, or whatever they use. 

My point is that being a mango is scary.

This is the same fear that people living in

countries like Rwanda face, especially if

you are a minority. During the Rwandan

Genocide, between 500,000 to 1,000,000

 people were killed, including children

and babies. The uncertainty in those

numbers itself shows how carelessly

and ruthlessly people were slaughtered 

like cattle. About 75% of the Tutsi

 population was killed. The people

targeted were people of the Tutsi

 and Twa tribes. The population of

 the Tutsi tribe is split between

several countries just like

many other tribes. So, are

 the Tutsis supposed to

feel patriotism for

 a country that

 is not theirs

 and has

 jeopardized                                              
                                                   
                                   their



existence?      

These conflicts have appeared everywhere in the world:
The               De     mocra tic     Rep  ublic      of   the     Co   ng o
 Su       dan                  
So      uth             S   uda    n
Y           em                  en                           
Sy                    ria
I       ra           q
Cen            tral     A       fric            an         Re        pub           lic

 This kind of proves the saying "Survival of the fittest"
The conflicts in Africa started with the colonialism of Africa. However, the division of continent without regard to the culture and voices of the people residing there was outrageous. Now we must help those countries gain stability.

Now back to some Rwandan scenery:


 


 

 

 The End!