It is acceptable for a government to try to shape public opinion through information campaigns

During the Iraq War, the Pentagon and the Bush White House controlled what went out to the world about what was happening through media centers such as CNN, BBC and Fox News. They did so by providing vague information about the location of the American troops and also by emphasizing the glory and might of the American army in Iraq.

Al Jazeera, a famous Doha-based news channel tried to provide a balance of stories by presenting the war from the perspective of a civilian in Iraq to tell the world that the Iraq war was not a clean one by any means but was rather messy and bloody. Pentagon officials called Al Jazeera the 'mouthpiece of Bin Laden'. For example, the story of Jessica Lynch was so dramatized  and the Pentagon was giving out false information of what had happened when Lynch was rescued. They told the media that Lynch had sustained stab and bullet wounds and had been slapped but it was later found out that Lynch only suffered injuries from the accident in which her team was caught. Also the Pentagon claimed that the US troops came under fire during the 'rescue' operation but the doctors at the hospital said that the Iraqi troops had fled the area two days prior to the arrival of the American special troops. So who fired at the American troops?

Personally, I believe that it is not acceptable for a government to try and shape public opinion through information campaigns. It is inevitable to some extent to glorify the American army based on patriotism of the people in power and of the people and reputation of America as the most powerful nation in the world but that is still not a good enough reason to provide biased information campaigns that can shape the public opinion to a massive extent. I was personally appalled by what the Pentagon did and i believe that this is why I disagree with this statement but yet I don't strongly disagree because it is tolerable to some extent.

Migrant Crisis: A BOON or a CURSE?

Rationale

The article that has been chosen was published recently on October 14, 2015 by Tom Porter, a reporter for the International Business Times UK who had previously worked for the BBC and the East London Guardian. It has a clear bias against the migrant crisis and provides facts and figures to concretely explain the negative impact of the crisis and the unpopularity of Angela Merkel's decision among the people of Germany.

This pastiche will look at how the influx of refugees may turn out to be advantageous for Germany. Personally, I believe in the ideology that although Germany may have had good intentions about helping people, it has now turned into a massive political and economic necessity to counter balance Germany's ageing population. This ageing population needs migrants to take the menial jobs in order for the economy to work efficiently, and this is going to be the basis of my pastiche.

FYI! This pastiche represents a perspective of a group of people and of myself on this massive world issue that is the refugee crisis caused by the Syrian civil war and the up rise of the extremist group, ISIS, or ISIL, or IS, or Da'esh.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY TOM PORTER, published on the IB times UK

Migrant crisis: Germans increasingly feel the country cannot cope with influx of refugees.

Most Germans believe there are too many refugees in the country and that Chancellor Angela Merkel was wrong to say "we'll manage this". Approximately 800,000 refugees and migrants are expected to arrive in the Germany this year.

The survey by YouGov, published on 13 October, found that 56% believe there are too many refugees in the country, a 10 point raise on the previous month.

It also found failing confidence in the German government's insistence that Germany could cope with the influx, with only 32% of respondents agreeing with Merkel's repeated insistence "we'll manage this", down by 11 points from a month ago.

Only 19% thought the country could take in more refugees, down from 28% in mid-September.

The survey comes as support for Merkel's Conservatives dropped to its lowest levels since June 2014 in the wake of the refugee crisis. The Forsa poll conducted for broadcaster RTL and Stern magazine showed that support for the party has slipped to 38%.

Merkel and Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Conservative's Bavarian sister party, are currently locked in dispute, with Merkel favouring an open door policy towards those wanting to enter the country, and Seehofer threatening to take the government to court unless it does more to stem the flow of refugees and migrants, with Bavaria often their point of entry.

PASTICHE

Many say that Germany's attitude towards the refugees stems from an event that happened in the dark history of Germany, the Holocaust of 1941 when the Germans were forced to be refugees themselves. But, realistically, that is just a load of nonsense, these scholars might have been on moonshine!

The way to look at it politically is from statistics that are completely entrenched in economic values and not in values of the general German populace. For a country like Germany to take in so many refugees there’s no two way about it. Of course, it is easy to fool the people and make them sympathize with the refugees, this will only benefit the German economy.

Generally in the EU, over 50% of the population is above 45 years old and as humans, the older people get, they become less active and therefore it becomes harder to do menial jobs that require no skill but a lot of physical labor. For countries like Germany, people inflow requirements can't be met just by policy changes that allow more migration to the country. The fact is that most western European countries need an inflow rate of 7x- 8x higher than the current rate. 

So what is the advantage of this influx of refugees?

Angela Merkel announced late in August that Germany is willing to accept a massive 800,000 refugees this year. Merkel's decisions are ones to be admired though as she is trying to make economic as well as political gains by taking advantage of this the crisis. She uses the ideology articulated by Michael Heppell in his book 'FLIT IT: How to get the best out of everything.' and turns this crisis into a massive boost for an ageing economy. 

The introduction of younger, healthier refugees into the German workplace will surely benefit the German economy as it may be able to increase its output overall as an economy as the immigrants bring specific skill sets with them. The real tragedy here is that the pitiful plight of the persecuted masses might turn out to be an excuse to cause them still more pain and adversity.

GOOD LUCK TO THE ASYLUM-SEEKERS!

 

PS: I am sorry about the pictures if they aren’t displayed.

Random IOC- Act 1, The Tempest by Shakespeare

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Does the analysis of literature actually help people become more emotionally intelligent and empathetic?

David Foster Wallace explores how education leads to a better adult life due to the added benefits of having the ability to be adjusted, conscious, and sympathetic. He validates this by going into the intricate details of the essence of life, to know what to pay attention to and to know how to use experiences to your advantage by seeing the meaning in each and every one of them. He argues that everyone knows all the information they see around them already and that its "codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables" and to acquire true "freedom" it is important to see the truth up front in your daily conscious mind. Wallace unravels the truth behind how our minds work, how we have default settings that stop us from seeing the things that are important. He talks about a really important form of freedom where you truly care about other people and sacrifice for them and this kind of awareness is what is very essential to keep us going. He also reminds us that we have constantly remind ourselves of the present and the experiences within life.

David Foster Wallace uses examples of people around us, examples which can be relatable to an adult. He takes specific examples such as getting frustrated because a man dangerously overtakes you with a Hummer and makes us realise that there might be factors that are causing the man in the Hummer to do that. Maybe he has a sick child and is rushing her to the hospital? Who knows. He argues that if we think about every experience through a different perspective, not our own we might be able to become more happy, more adjusted, conscious and sympathetic. He also uses the example where a mother shouts at a child at the paying counter and tells us how people having boring, routine oriented lives get irritated quickly and do not understand that maybe that very same mother might have had a bad day at the office or he husband might be in the hospital. So it is important to see everything from a different perspective an it is absolutely essential to push ourselves to do it.

What David Foster Wallace talks about has great significance and connection to Part 3 of the English Language and Literature course as one fo the main things literature allows students to do is see different lives and experiences and makes connection their own lives and their societies and culture. One of the key inquiry questions in this part of the course is 'How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?' The Wikipedia definition for Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour.

Through critically analysing literature we can understand what it is to be a character within each story and we naturally empathise with them even though they might just be fictional. Alice Munro's stories gives a different perspective on life, a realist one. Through stories like 'Runaway', 'Passion', 'Boys and Girls', etc., we get to know what it was like to be a woman or just a normal poor or middle classed human back in her time and it is amazing that we can still relate to some of things she says. So, I believe that analysing literature is extremely important to understand people, to care for them and most importantly to make us better, more understanding human beings.

Royal Beatings- Excerpt IOC

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Excerpt from 'Boys and Girls' - Practice IOC

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Literature Reflection

Literature is a means through which we can understand different cultural perspectives. I believe that literature also teaches us life lessons as embracing each story will help us understand what is right and what is wrong. This will then help us(if we are smart) to not repeat it in our own lives. The topic of women's literature based on the notion that the experience of women, historically, has been shaped by their gender, and so women writers are known as group worthy of separate study. Women's literature enlightens the society about the difficulties women face around the world. It provides a perspective of women in order to let people understand the oppression that women have faced over the centuries.

During the 1950s-1980s the second wave of feminism had started and Munro's themes of social realism really stood out as it represented what the feminists were fighting against. Munro's depictions of what it was like to be a housewife in southern Ontario probably came out as being a way in which she was using the short stories as a resistance. Short stories like 'Boys and Girls' shows the real divide in how people were expected to do jobs that 'fit' their gender. 

What I enjoy most about Munro's stories is the flow and character development in them. She creates very complex characters like Clara in 'Runaway' in 35 pages and this makes her stories a delightful read as she jumps right into the heart of the plot. Her stories have made me realise the gender differences in society and how the first wave of feminism might have been based on. her narrative of each scene is very enjoyable and I like her use of language. All the short tories that i have read were an easy read and therefore it was far less time consuming and boring. 

To be honest, I am neither a fan of literature, nor am I a fan of fictional novels or short stories. But something about Alice Munro's stories makes me want to think about which otherwise would be waste according to me. I can relate a lot of her short stories to my mother as she has her own perspective on what a 'woman's job' is and what a 'man's job' is. For example, whenever I over-indulge in some work in the kitchen, she yells at me and tells me to just do a man's job. What she meant by that is that its a woman's job to clean the dishes and not mine. So I guess, literature is not all bad...