The life of a conflict diamond
Spoken word
on Category: Grade 12
on Happiness and Capitalism
on A history of happiness explains why capitalism makes us feel empty inside written by Sean Illing is a short transcript between him and Carl Cederström. They talk about happiness and how society promotes “a culture of extreme individualism and extreme competitiveness and extreme isolation” with capitalism. I was intrigued to read this article because of how relevant the contents are, because they talk about the society that WE live in. The human condition that this article addresses is is emotion obviously because it is about happiness. I enjoyed the rich vocabulary in this article because it forces you to be a little more engaged to understand its contents. This article is connected to pretty much every capitalist country and is definitely worth a read because of the insight it gives into your own life that you may not have realized yourself.
My Brief Thoughts on Black Hawk Down
on The story Black Hawk Down written by Mark Bowden, is a non fiction story about the battle of Mogadishu, a conflict between Somali militias and the US army. I was intrigued to read the story because I have already seen the movie already and I wanted to see if the story gave any additional insight to the battle. The story did give more insight than the movie in fact, there was some perspective from a Somali civilian which I enjoyed reading and was insightful. The fact that it is also a true story that happened not that long ago also makes it more interesting. The language in this story is super descriptive. Here is just one example from the first page, “Hanging from a hovering Blackhawk helicopter, Eversmann was a full 70 feet above the streets of Mogadishu. His goggles had broken, so his eyes chafed in the thick cloud of dust stirred up by the bird’s rotors. It was such a long descent that the thick nylon rope burned right through the palms of his leather gloves.” This story has lots of imagery which comes from the very descriptive texts. When the author is telling the story I can easily imagine the corresponding scene from the movie. A text to world connection is that this really did happen in Somalia in 1993, the event was known as the battle of Mogadishu. I recommend checking this story out, as it is a very good read.
Facts and Opinions
on I took a look at this article (https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/03/opinion/sunday/in-praise-of-art-forgeries.html) and I sorted out some facts and opinions.
Fact:
”In the last decade, reported revenues from the Chinese auction market have expanded ninefold, now higher than those of its American counterpart.” this is a fact because the writer KNOWS this.
”IN Queens, a guy working in his garage churned out “Pollocks” and “Rothkos” that fooled the experts, sold for millions of dollars and helped destroy the Knoedler & Company gallery, as we learned in recent months.” this is a fact because this really happened.
Opinion:
“We may also want to bless forgers for helping to tame our absurd art market. If speculators eventually are scared off by the danger of being stuck with fakes, prices may fall,” this is an opinion because it is why the writer THINKS about forgers.
“Our current market, geared toward the ultra-wealthy” this is an opinion because it’s what the writer thinks about the market.
which one was hardest to identify? I think the quote “Our current market, geared toward the ultra-wealthy” was most difficult to identify. This quote is pretty much true, or factual but it isn’t completely true, making it an opinion.
In conclusion the ratio of facts and opinions is pretty balanced which says to me that the article isn’t all speculation or opinion. It could even make the article taken more seriously because of the numerous facts.