Third Quarter Reflection

This quarter I have enjoyed talking and learning about imperialism. I have always been interested in American Politics and the chapter of imperialism was the start to American politics. Analyzing a documentary was probably one of my most difficult challenges this year. I get distracted easily by what the documentary is trying to tell me and get interested about other things, but analyzing a film requires me to constantly ask myself "what is the purpose of this scene?". I'm looking forward to hopefully talk more about politics and learn how government officials have an impact on specific groups of people in America.

Progress

Dictionary.com defined progress as the development of an individual or society in a direction considered superior or more beneficial than the previous level. I would consider progress as a change of a previous state that aids or raises the expectation of an individual or society.

The progressive era was mostly associated with the early twentieth century. This was a time where progressives were trying to expand large business and hold them more responsible through various regulations. Also progressives worked hard to try to clean up corrupt cities and let people have better living that were previously in slums.

Achievements of the Progressive Era
1. Ban on Alcohol
2. Regulation of Child Labor and Sweatshops
3. Scientifically Managing Natural Resources
4. Americanize Immigrants or Restrict Immigration
5. Regulate Business
6. Address Health Hazards
7. Eliminate Corruption in Government
8. Expand High Schools

Above is just a few achievements and goals of the progressives during this time period. All of the ideas that the progressives had most commonly had the theme of eliminating corruption and ensure a better standard of living. The essential goals were the regulate child labor, address health hazards, and to eliminate government corruption. These goals needed to be achieved so that there was fairness in society and it gave people a better and more enjoyable life. After the essential goals are managing natural resources, regulate businesses, and expanding high schools. These are not top priority but if they are addressed then the standard of living for everyone will be significantly improved. Lastly the ban on alcohol and dealing with immigrants are two issues that can be looked at but are not at the most important issue. These two goals may affect a few people but not a large number so they should held till the end.

100 year predictions

There were many predictions about year 2000 that actually became true like television, flying machines such as UAVs, mobile phones, and color photography. There are also somethings that will be far from coming true like weather machines and ship railways, but ideas like space travel are still at reach and are still changing. Traveling to Mars is still a real possibility but we have already reached to moon. Most of the predictions that came true were based off of ideas or technology that was already present that might aid humans. The ones that didn't come true were combinations of technology that ended up be redundant.

In the future I believe that there will be more automated transportation. The fact that most accidents on the ground are caused by human errors I believe that this trend will be a leading cause to convert to automated transportation. Robotic technology will be more pervasive and most likely in homes for everyone. 

I believe the control of the future has to start with individuals. If individuals bring up or out issues that are "flaws" or need correction then the future will be shaped to so in two paths. One, the issue will be resolved or two, the issue will be ignored and it won't matter and the future will go on bring out the flaw and over use it.

How do you Analyze a Political Cartoon?

According to a political cartoon analysis guide, political cartoons tend to have some type of irony and exaggeration so that it is easier for the audience to grasp what the message of the cartoon is. Some items are labeled in the cartoon so that it gives the reader some basic guidelines and the topic for the cartoon. I found out that cartoonists like to use analogies to help readers understand complex ideas by showing them a simple and more familiar one. Cartoonists also use simple objects, or symbols, to represent more complex ideas.

The best way to understand political cartoons if to first look at the picture and read and words that are in the cartoon. Once you have an understanding of the topic and the guidelines of the cartoon you can start to look for the irony in the cartoon. This can be done by looking at the symbols used and some of the objects that help show the irony or exaggerate some parts of the image. Most importantly keep in mind that the cartoon isn't meant to require a lot of thinking if you are looking at the whole picture and see the things that are funny most of the time you understand the message.

US and Caribbean Political Cartoon

In the cartoon to the right the man with the gold club represents the United States of America. This cartoon resembles the period of time when the United States began colonizing the Caribbean islands like Cuba and Puerto Rico. The artist drew the man walking in the Caribbean because the US was practically in control of any island that it colonized. The US had set Cuba up for American economic domination and the sugar economy in Puerto Rico quickly became under the control of the United States. The line of navy ships behind the gentleman represents the ties that each of those countries had to the US.

Philippine War Cartoon

                                                                             In the cartoon to the left Uncle Sam is standing in front of Puerto Rico and Cuba. Both countries are depicted as to be happy and praising Uncle Sam who represents the United States. The Philippines who is looking at Uncle Sam is scared for what is about to happen but Cuba and Puerto Rico is portrayed as everything will be fine and that the Philippines will be happy once they are colonized.

Emilio Aguinaldo Elimination

The cartoon to the right depicts the United States of America, shown as Uncle Sam, trying to capture Emilio Aguinaldo from the Philippines. The US felt that Emilio the legitimate leader of the Philippines was a "thorn in their side", which is why he is shown as the bee. There is an irony of the sign at the bottom of the cartoon. The US was trying to strip Spain form its colonies so they took the Philippines and then remained on the island being hypocritical of the sign.

Potential Documentary

Topic: Elihu Root

Focus: Elihu rise to create international peace

Angle: Elihu Root's background of being a lawyer allowed him to successfully create peace between countries nationally, but when called upon to be a political figure, he was wary to stay away from office so that his judgement would not be clouded by doing what the people want.

Elihu Root

Eddie Aikau Documentary Analysis

The film Hawaiian, The Legend of Eddie Aikau was named this way because Eddie Aikau became a person to look up to in the Hawaiian culture. Eddie Aikau, being a true Hawaiian, worked hard to protect the identity of the whole Hawaiian culture, from surfing to proving how their ancestors found Hawaii. The sport of surfing was beginning to fade in to the image that Californians and Australians were the best surfers. People did not believe that the Polynesians actually found Hawaii, most believe that they stumbled on it upon luck. The ESPN's filmmakers assumed that the audience watching this film would be into surfing so they used his surfing career to hook the audience. If PBS or the History channel were to make a documentary about Eddie it would leave out his exciting surfing career and may very easily lose their audience.

Phrenology

We looked at a bust with parts of the the head colored and were asked to figure out what it was. I noticed a name L.N. Fowler and researched it. It brought me to a website with a biography of Lorenzo Niles Fowler. I then learned about phrenology and how it became popular and how it died out. The provenance of this replica was made by Authentic Models in Oregon. Provenance is the origin of something or the earliest history. Though this is a replica and considered as a secondary source for phrenology it could be a primary sourced if you were to find what types of products Authentic Models make.