What is Power?

Power can be defined in many ways. My definition of power is when one person or group in a certain area that has more privileges than others and uses them to their advantage over everybody else. Over the course of this year, I have learned that power can be expressed through different actions. Three events in history that really defined and showed me what power really is were Imperialism in Africa, World War 2, and the Russian Revolution.

The Russian Revolution displayed a lot of power within it. My definition of power is shown a lot during this event and I can tell for a few reasons. One is that the upper class which was basically Tsar Nicolas II. During his rule he didn’t help Russia succeed in fact he brought it down. He gave the citizens of Russia bad living conditions and not many rights leading to inequality. The Tsar was influences by a man named Rasputin and under his wife’s control. This man with all the power over the country wasn’t doing anything at all. This lead to the Russian Revolution where there was lots of power in it.

Imperialism in Africa also displayed a lot of power during it. The British had all of the power while the Africans were under them. The British used their power to make the Africans their slaves and work for them. Since they had power, they were free to take any of the materials and important resources that they wanted. In return, however, they did give them school and jobs to help them survive.

During World War II, in Germany, the person with all of the power was Adolf Hitler. He started a group called the Nazis which was short for Nationalsozialists. World War II was from 1939 to 1945. Hitler and the Nazis used the technique OF Genocide during this time. First they used classification and discriminated the Jewish, gypsies, and other people by making them stand out wearing a star on the head. They dehumanized those people treating them like they were objects. After, they killed anybody who went against them, they used the process of denial so they wouldn’t get into any trouble.

So, altogether, I feel that power really is when one person or group in a certain area that has more privileges than others and uses them to their advantage over everybody else. Even though it may have its negative effects there are also positive effects that benefit others as well.

The Giver: Power or Control?

Throughout the book, The Giver, I identified the main theme as control. I say this for many reasons. One is that everyone in Jonas's community is being controlled by the Chief Elders. Their whole lives are being controlled and they don't even know. The Elders choose everything; gifts they get each year, their Assignment(job), who they marry, and one other is when to be released (killed) from the Community. They have no say in anything, but the good thing about that is that they don't know that they are being controlled. The only people aside from the Elders who know what is going on are Jonas and the Giver. Jonas knows that everything is wrong and really wants to help. He is very mad about this situation and doesn't like anything. On page 144, Jonas is talking to the Giver about what is going on.

Net Effect of Globalization

PROS:

• companies get cheaper labor
• more work gets done because of large population in poorer countries
  
• more people have the opportunity to get a job

CONS:

• people lose their jobs to others in a poorer country
• when people lose jobs, they have less money
• in order for some to get their job back, they must travel to apoorer country

So, overall, globalization has its pros and cons so it has good benifits and disadvantages.

Population Project: Thoughts

In my opinion, the three most valuable things I learned from The Population Project process are:

1. That due dates are very important and work needs to be turned in at a certain time or it is not graded. This can help me in the future because it will give me a stronger motivation to do work properly and on time.
2. How to write a proper data analysis, research paper, and create a digital story with information that says the same thing in a different way. This will help me in the future because I will know how to change my ideas around in a new and creative way.
   
3. That even though the population in India has been increasing, but at the same time diseases or otherwise my topic, infant mortality, has been decreasing. This will help me in the future because now I now that even a small contribution can help. This will motivate me more to help.

Overall, I can tell that the Population Project has really helped me understand the problems in India and how to solve them.