Education in Lesotho

Education in Lesotho

Lesotho is a country surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. An estimated 85 percent of citizens over 15 years of age are illiterate. because of these findings the country of Lesotho has one of the highest illiteracy rates in Africa.  According to a study by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality in 2000, 37 percent of grade 6 pupils in Lesotho are at or above reading level 4.

Moliehi Sekese

With a total of seven hundred students and a hundred students in one tiny classroom, Moliehi Sekese teaches her subjects. Theres 2 computers at her school. 2 computers and 700 students, seems unbelievable. Moliehi Sekese does something amazing when she teaches, she manages to teach the students through technology in on of the poorest countries in the world. She created a project about indigenous plants. A project she involved her students in and even got the attention of the community. She asked the parents of the students to borrow their cellphones so the students could take pictures and text her the data and results they acquired through the project. At a conference in South Africa Moliehi Sekese was one of many teachers presenting some of the projects they have completed with their students. The teachers at the conference were supposed to vote for the best project and Moliehi Sekese was voted the teacher with the best project. The teacher later went to Brazil at a similar conference and was voted the winner of the Microsoft Innovative Education Forum, which is a great honor in the world of teaching. Moliehi Sekese travelling around to other countries to tell her story to teachers and students.

Different Varieties of English

India

Indian English or South-Asian English is a distinctive dialect spoken mostly in the Indian sub-continent. According to the 1991 Census of India, Ninety million people speak English in India. English is one of India's official languages. Less than a quarter of a million speak English as their first language, these people are most likely Anglo-Indians, consisting of less than a million people in India. Most other Indians use English as their second or third language. These people often need English to work. 

In general, Indian English has fewer peculiarities in its vowel sounds than the consonants, especially as spoken by native speakers of languages like Hindi, which in fact has a vowel phonology very similar to that of English. Most pronunciations of Indian English are rhotic, but many speakers with higher education are non-rhotic. The Indian people often use the "ing" ending more often than the normal English speakers.

China

English spoken in China is often referred to as Chinglish, often containing bad spelling

and may have pejorative or deprecating connotations.

The degree to which a Chinese variety of English exists or can be considered legitimate is disputed. A normal issue with Chinglish is the wrong word order. Some people might say "Up your bottoms!" instead of the familiar expression "Bottoms Up!"

Indian English and Chinglish does not have many similarities. One of the few is that both varieties of English is hard to understand for a English speaker from England or America. Indian English has one big difference from Chinglish and that is that Indian English have most of the right words, they just pronounce it differently from Normal English While Chinglish has changed several words and then makes it incredibly hard to understand.

How do Hollywood films portray people of different races and ethnicities?

I have chosen do complete this task a little bit different from the way i was probably supposed to. I have done this because i have come to the conclusion that most Hollywood movies portrays people of different races and of different ethnicities different from each other. I have then decided to focus on how the movie Gran Torino portrays these people, since the main character of the movie has several issues with people from different races than himself. 

The movie contains a series of racial issues. These issues are mostly between the main character, an old man who served in Korea, and the Hmong people living in his neighborhood. The main character is portrayed as the stereotypical old man: always angry, not wanting anybody on his property and a little racist would be an understatement. He is always sitting on his front porch watching the neighbors who just happen to be only Hmong people. He cant pronounce any of the names and he doesn't really care if he says anything racist to or around them. 

The Hmong people are portrayed as the average stereotypical Asian family with their big families living in the same house or in the houses next to them. They often have barbecues, diner parties and other festivities. The Hmong people are also described as a very traditional people. One of the Hmong girls says in the movie that the girls grow up to go to college while the boys end up in jail. The boys thought of in the last sentence is the boys in the neighborhood gang. These people are portrayed as the classical wannabe gangster. They always carry their weapons, talk down to women, force others to join their gang and give each other cheap nicknames like "Snake". Another gang is also portrayed in this movie. this gang contains African Americans and act as if they are better then everybody else. They are against the Hmong gang as gangs usually is against each other. 

The portrayals in this movie are not very original and you can see the same type of characters in several other movies. The way the characters is portrayed is not the movies greatest qualities while the way they act towards each other is incredible. While the gangs act tough when they around their own people, you can see how this attitude changes when they are alone or with somebody else than their normal social circle.

Withing the traditions of the Hmong family, respect for the elders is very important. Every character in this movie has a different way of treating these elderly people. There is a family Shaman who has the respect of every family member, probably because to have him read you is a great honor. The gang containing Hmong people does not respect anyone but themselves if i understood it correctly.

Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Sherlock Holmes is the character of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I have read the book "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The book follows Dr. John Watson as he and Holmes solve a crime. This is the book through chapters 1-5:

Sir Charles Baskerville is found lying dead in the grounds of Baskerville Hall. The cause of death is found to be a heart attack. Fearing for the safety of Sir Charles’ nephew and only known heir, Sir Henry Baskerville—who was coming to London from North America to collect his inheritance. Dr. James Mortimer travels from Devon to London and appeals for help to Sherlock Holmes.

Mortimer, Sir Charles' doctor comes to Holmes and Watson. Traditionally, the Baskerville family is said to be afflicted by a curse. Mortimer reads to Holmes and to Watson a description of the origin of the curse, as written down by a descendant of one Hugo Baskerville, who had lived some 200 years earlier. According to this old note, Hugo Baskerville became infatuated with a woman's daughter, kidnapped her and imprisoned her in his bedchamber. She managed to escape while he was talking with his friends. A drunken and furious Hugo cried that he would give his soul to the Powers of Evil if he could only overtake her. He rode a horse after her, his hunting hounds upon her scent and his friends in pursuit. Sometime later, his friends came upon the bodies of Hugo and the girl. She had died from fear and fatigue, while a giant spectral hound stood over Sir Hugo's body. With his friends watching, the hound plucked out Hugo's throat and disappeared into the night.

Apparently, prior to his death, Sir Charles had become fearful of the legendary curse, with its scary hellhound. Furthermore, Mortimer has deduced that Sir Charles had been waiting for someone at the time of his death. Sir Charles' face was contorted into a ghastly expression, too, while his footprints suggested that he was desperately running from something. It was known that Sir Charles' heart was not strong, and that he planned to go to London the next day. Mortimer also reveals that he observed the footprints "of a gigantic hound" near Sir Charles' body, a fact that he did not reveal at the inquest.

I have read the whole book but as the task was to write about the first chapters i did so and i look forward to presenting the book in its entirety.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born the 22 of may 1859. He died in 1930. through his 71 years of life he managed to be a renowned physician and a critically acclaimed writer. He´s most recognizable work is his stories of Sherlock Holmes. He wrote 56 short stories and four novels about this character and his assistant Dr. John Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will always be known as one of the worlds greatest authors of all time. The first novel about Sherlock Holmes has been made into a movie several times. The most critically acclaimed is the 2009 film simply named Sherlock Holmes.

5 Step Program To Writing About Statistics

When you write about statistics you should follow these 5 points:

1. Write an introduction about the statistics.

2. Write about the kind of statistics it is and how valid it is.

3. Write about the organisation or people who wrote the statistics.

4. Follow the statistics to the full extent of your capability.

5.  Stay to the facts you present.

Graphs On Urban Population

 Growth of the urban population living in urban areas.

In 1800 only 2 percent of the world lived in the city, in 1950 30% lived in the city and in 2000 47% lived in the city. This shows a growth of 45%. This is clearly a giant leap in the urbanisation of the world. Who would have thought in the eighteen hundreds that only a hundred years from now, 50% of the world would live in the big city?  But of course, you have to think about how many cities existed in 1800. It is also expected to be an increase of 13 percent more within the year 2030.

Population in regions around of the world from 1995 to 2015

When you look at the continents in the world you see how Asia's urban population has increased with 790 million people while the rural population has increases with as little as 131 million people. North America and South America have both increased with 100-200 million people while Europe have and increased urban population with 14 million. Africa has had a steady increase by doubling their urban population and increasing their rural population with around 200 million.

Megacities

Tokyo has 33.4 million citizens, New York has 24.1 million, Mexico City has 21.7 million and Seoul has 20.2 million. You see here that these are cities in the countries with the highest population count. While Sao Paulo, Los Angeles and Jakarta has around 18-19 million citizens, Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe, Delhi and Mumbai all has a population count of around 17 million. These major cities have the same situation as the previous since all of these cities are located in countries with a high population count. 

After reading the graphs

After reading and interpreting these Graphs i must say i become a little bit nervous. With The 6.9 billion people living in the world today, more than half live in the big city. I then think about the other cities, the villages and all the space in the world not being used. It makes me nervous to think about how the country life is slowly decreasing and possibly causing the world to lose contact with the nature we all know and love. I do hope this will never happen but when looking at these graphs i see that this is an actual possibility.


                                                   A regular road in Saigon 

                                     

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Nelson Mandela.The first black president in South Africa. A uniter of people. Most of all, a great man. Mandela was born 18th July, 1918. He served as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. One of the many awards won by Mandela is the great Nobel Peace Prize that he won in 1993. 

He was born in Mvezo, a small village located in the district of Umata, the Transkei capital. After the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner-dominated National Party, which supported the apartheid policy of racial segregation, Mandela began participating in politics actively. In 1952 he prominently led the African National Congress(ANC)' Defiance Campaign and in 1955 the Congress of the People. Mandela was arrested with around a 150 other activists in 1956. He was arrested for treason. While serving time in prison he was accused of sabotage and other felonies. He was sentenced to life in prison on Robben Island. While in prison he¨s reputation grew around South Africa and he became known as one of the main black leaders. on Robben island black prisoners and political prisoners were kept away from the other prisoners and received fewer privileges. Since Mandela was both black and a political prisoner, he was treated terribly. 

In 1989, South Africa reached a crossroads when current President Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced as president by Frederik Willem de Klerk. De Klerk was not against the ANC like the previous presidents. He announced Mandela's release in February 1990. South Africa's first multi-racial elections in which full enfranchisement was granted were held on 27 April 1994. ANC won most of the votes and Nelson Mandela was elected President of the Republic of South Africa. Nelson Mandela decided to retire after his 5 years in office. He was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki. After his presidency he continued to fight for human rights. Mandela has made several appearances in human rights movements and other occasions like the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.

South Africa was a country filled with Apartheid and racial segregation. Black individuals were treated worse than white. this happened all around the country. Blacks were not allowed to vote until the 1994 election when Mandela won. In 1994 the 300 year long apartheid of racial segregation were ended. Some say this is only because of Nelson Mandela.

The racial segregation in South Africa was a global challenge. It was, because South Africa was not the only country suffering from this. The United States was also a country ruled by apartheid. the UN opened ratification for people responsible for apartheid. Apartheid is now illegal in every UN country. this law was set to prevent: inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.

9/11 - The Movie

Summary

A few months before the tragedy on 9/11 occurred two brothers from France went to a New York fire station to film a documentary about a rookie starting out as a fireman, to become a man as they said in the movie. During the first months they were following their rookie, Tony, no fires occurred. One day, when tony was off work, one of the brothers practiced his filming technique on a routine gas leak. The gas leak happened a few hundred feet from the World Trade Center. Since planes don`t fly over New York often, every person in the street looked to the sky when a plane flew over them. As did the brother covering the gas leak. Suddenly, they see the plane crash into one of the towers. The firemen ran into the building with the camera man filming what he saw. The firemen in the building spent every breath they had saving the people that could be saved. 

A little later, both of the towers fell down, tower two first and tower one not long after that. Everybody still in the towers died. The firemen the film focused on got out right before the towers fell. The rest of the film was about how the firemen spent their next days. Working in shifts of twenty four hours digging for survivors. All in all, they found one person. The movie ended with pictures of every fireman that lost their lives in the disaster. 

What i thought of the movie

I should start by saying that the movie was shot in real life, this was not a reenactment. This fact made the movie far better than it originally is. To see the firemen and the civilians with tears in their eyes, blood running down their faces and the firemen telling stories of the terrible things they saw was hard to watch. Every little detail in this movie actually happened. 

The movie in itself is filmed with small cameras and is therefore not a high quality film, still, this is one of the things that made this movie so good. I would say the brothers filming this did a great job, catching the reality in the situation. I like the movie. I loved the movie.

Narnia by C.S. Lewis + Comparing the author with J. R. R. Tolkien

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) is an author. He´s most famous books is the Narnia books. There are seven books. The lion the witch and the wardrobe, prince Caspian, The voyage of the dawn treader, the silver chair, the horse and his boy, the magicians nephew and the last battle. The Narnia books and all of his other books show influences by his religious beliefs. The author has sold over 100 million books.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Movie)

This is the first Narnia books made into a movie. The movie is about two brothers and their two sisters: Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. They leave to a professors house when their city is stricken by WW2. While they are at the professors house they find a wardrobe leading into a different world. In this world(Narnia), they meet a beaver who tells them to travel towards Aslan, their savior. Edmund, the second youngest of the siblings leave the group to go see the white witch and she captures him. The rest of the siblings decides to go see Aslan for help on getting their brother back. On the way to Aslan they meet Santa Clause and some other animals. The witch´s secret police(wolves) go to find the siblings and bring them back to the witch, but Aslans army Kills the wolves and follows one of them back to save Edmund. Later on, the witch travel to Aslans camp to explain to the group that Edmund shall die since he betrayed their brothers. Aslan sacrifices himself and the rest of the group goes to fight the witch and her huge army. The fight goes badly for the good guys until Aslan wakes up from the dead and brings an army to finally defeat the witch. They do, and the movie ends with the siblings (30 years later) returning to the real world.

My thoughts on the movie

I am a big fan of Narnia, so i love the movie. The actors does their parts perfectly, especially the actors that played the siblings Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. I certainly enjoy the religious influences in the movie and how their were perfectly placed within the story at the perfect places. I feel safe saying that this movie is a masterpiece, nothing less. I must also say that i am grateful for obtaining the opportunity to see such a great movie in class.

Comparing J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

Tolkien and Lewis were close friends throughout most of their lives. Tolkien was the one who converted Lewis to Christianity, which has always been a big part of his writing. Lewis repaid this by pushing Tolkien to expand his fictional writing, which you can see the result of by reading his book The Children of Hùrin. Both Tolkien and Lewis taught at Oxford university and they were both interested in literature(they were both members of a group called the inklings together with several other famous authors). One of the big similarities between these to authors is the Christian themes and principles. It has also been revealed over time that they often had disagreements. These disagreements were often about the quality of the Narnia books.

Though Tolkien liked the concept of the Narnia books, he did not approve of the obvious Christian references in the book, the way Lewis struck the reader over the head with Christian symbols. The character Aslan for example who sacrifices himself for a traitor and rises from the dad for a last battle against evil, and then saves the world. Tolkien`s books also contain several Christian symbols and references, he spent far more time hiding it withing the writing, and therefore made it more invisible for the reader. Tolkien also complained about the characters in the Narnia books,there are talking animals, children and witches, while Tolkien designed his own creatures and therefore made it more original. 

All in all, Tolkien did not approve of Lewis`s books, since it could give the reader a false interpretation of the his Christian beliefs and therefore giving people the wrong idea about Christianity and the beliefs it contains. Another conflict also came to fruition when Lewis became a protestant Christian instead of following Tolkien`s beliefs, which lay with the catholic church.