Gapminder analysis

http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=8.25419354838709;ti=2006$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0NpF2PTov2Cw;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=pyj6tScZqmEdIphYUHxcdLg;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=2;dataMax=420$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=1.453;dataMax=230$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=

Unsurprisingly, infant mortality rate is linked directly with the number of teenage pregnancies. The graph is shaped exponentially, and the highest infant mortality and adolescent pregnancies are mostly comprised of African countries. Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest amount of teenage pregnancies, with 224 per 1000 young women, and Sierra Leone has the highest infant mortality rate, with 159 out of 1000 infants dying. Iceland and Singapore have the lowest infant mortality rate, with 2 deaths per 1000 births.  There are no real outliers, except that a few african countries have really high infant mortality rates but not really high teenage pregnancy rates.

One thing that is important to keep in mind is that just because there is a higher rate of both pregnancy and infant deaths, does not mean that one is the cause or affect of the other. They could both be factors changed by something else, such as poverty.  Especially in Africa, the high rates of death aren’t necessarily because people are having more children at a younger age, but because the country is poorer overall.  Also, if you increase or decrease one, it might not affect the other at all.  They don’t need to depend on each other.

However, it is important to note what this graph is showing us.  There is a clear relationship between teenage pregnancy and infant mortality rates, which narrow out at the top. There are no countries which have high teenage fertility, but low infant mortality. There are countries, though, that have low fertility, but high infant mortality.  Clearly teenagers aren’t the only ones with dying offspring, but it is likely that if adolescent pregnancies decreased, so would the number of dying newborns.

My awesome self study guide to WWII, part 3

I think that today, awareness about the horrors of battle has definitely increased. Especially in America, people are hypersensitive about the duties that their soldiers are fulfilling, and how important it is that they be supported, both while over there, and on arrival home as well. I personally had never thought about WWII as one in which there were particularly bad cases of PTSD, but I think that it’s because there is a general consensus that the Second World War had to be fought, unlike Vietnam or WWI. The idea that there is a morally good purpose in this war kind of prevented me from seeing that it was as terrible to the people who fought it as the other wars were.
The idea that the kamikaze fighters would drive people crazy was also something that I hadn’t thought of. It makes sense in relation to the movie, Letters from Iwo Jima. Young American men, plenty who had never been off their own soil before, were coming in and clashing with a completely different culture than their own. While, as the movie said, Americans would die for each other, the Japanese considered this weak, and preferred to use the idea that the soldiers were fighting for their country instead. In the movie, Flags of our Fathers, one of the main characters makes a point in saying that they weren’t really fighting for America out on the battlefield; they were doing it for each other. With that kind of mentality, it’s understandable that the Japanese tactics such as using kamikaze soldiers would be mind-boggling. The knowledge before hand that you were on a ship in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to go, and will probably die when the ship is bombed by explosives with live people attached to them is enough to drive anyone crazy. The problem is, a lot of people didn’t want to commit suicide, as Saigo, the main character, showed in Letters from Iwo Jima. He felt that a lot of what they were doing was pointless, and maybe that sort of morale weakened the Japanese rather than strengthened them.
In Flags of our Fathers, the soldiers who raised the flag go back to America and are welcomed heartily, but after the initial gusto wears off, they find that they have no where else to go. While some tried to find jobs, others such as Ira Hayes, wandered for years until they died. In the USA today article, it seems that men who are experiencing PTSD today have a similar issue. While people appreciate the service they did, no one who wasn’t in the same situation can understand just how terrible it was. It makes it hard in the first place for the soldiers to realign their values with those of the world back home; many things that Americans find important now seemed trivial compared with the experience that they had in the war zone. But if they did manage to continue putting an effort into their work, there was still the issue of finding a job. Since a lot of people were really young when they went into the war, many of them didn’t go to college and therefore had no credentials to work from.
One of the problems with PTSD is that it’s not physical, so there’s no way of confirming a diagnosis. This could partially be the reason that it wasn’t acknowledged as an actual disorder until recently. It’s a real wound, though, and the fact that it can’t be seen makes it all the more dangerous. When the vets arrive back home, they are immediately put into social situations, which can be influenced by the PTSD. Some people might not think of it as a real problem, and as the article about Iraqi vets said, 6 in 10 thought they would be treated differently if they talked about their stress. Repression is one of the worst ways to deal with this, it seems, because it comes out later if not handled with properly in the beginning. The Medicinenet.com article about PTSD said that it can be sometimes confused with ADHD, which is less likely in war vets, but still shows a bit of an uncertainty as to what is going on in these people’s heads. When people experience flashbacks and nightmares about what happened, there’s no one to share them with except for other people who have experienced the same thing. Its possible that in Flags of our Fathers, the soldiers kind of adopted the idea that no one was a hero because the stress they were getting from the whole thing failed to let them put things in perspective. What they had known to be a hero through out their whole lives was changed because the lens that they looked at life under was different, due to the war.

Second “Lemon Tree” Response

Context: In the fight over Palestine, battles between the Jews and the Muslims have been breaking out everywhere. The Jews took over a-Ramla and Lydda, and forced thousands of refugees into Ramallah, where they lived under horrendous conditions. The Eshkenazi family decides to move to Israel, despite the pull from Bulgaria to stay.

It occured to me while I was reading this, that the Palestinians and the Israelis were fighting with completely different rules.  There was an excerpt which stated, “Lydda and Ben Shemen were were only a mile apart and a few miles from al-Ramla.  Lydda’s mayor ‘alleged that he was on good terms with the Jews and proposed to defent the town by diplomacy'” (59).  The fact that citizens of Lydda had tried to hold onto a scrap of civility and then were so brutally evicted obviously made it harder than if they had gone to all out war.  In that case, an act of self sacrifice was rewarded with the same people they were trying to protect, coming in and “shooting anything that moved” (61).  The incentive to try and prevent the war from starting was completely bashed by one battle.  The problem is, that the war has been taken to such a higher level than inhumanity.  It is not only about winning, but winning in spite of the other.

I also thought a lot about the significance of home in these few chapters.  When you think about it, a house really is someone’s greatest asset, not to mention that precious memories took place there.  Maybe that’s the reason that the war is so personal to both sides.  It isnt an issue of corporate greed, but its a yearning of both people to return to the place they consider their homeland.  They both think that the other doesn’t deserve it, however, which creates the conflict that is going on today.

Fifth “Lemon Tree” Response

The War between Israel and Palestine continues, with little prospect of ceasing.  Every time there is peace, a suicide bombing or murder of a civilian starts the cycle up again.  Towards the end of the book Dalia and Bashir meet up, and although good friends, continue their argument about what to do with the issue of their homeland.  The lemon tree dies, and Dalia and her now teenage students plant a new one, symbolizing rebirth for them.

“But if i knew or if we knew that you could make space for the state of Israel, first of all in your heart, then we could find a solution on the ground.  How much leass threatened my people would feel.  I say this understanding that i don’t even have a right to ask you for this” (259).  Through this quote, stated by Dalia, I realized some of the Israeli, Palestinian dynamic.  Because in the Jewish war for independence, Palestinian land was taken and never returned, the Jews are the aggressors.  Although both sides have done terrible things, because of the first initiative taken by the Israelis, if there is to be peace, Israel has to apologize, because they initiated the first offense.  Just saying sorry, however, is not enough of a compensation.  Israel cannot make up for what they did, but Palestine also has to be the bigger person and forgive them.  The fact is, neither group wants to play that part.  They both hate each other too much to make a point of compromise.  Although im sure that that statement isn’t completely true, the various factions that are willing to sacrifice the pride of their country are not effective enough to stop the cycle of violence.  Before political reconcilliation, the citizens have to open their minds and reach out to each other, the way that Dalia and Bashir did.  Although there were points during which Dalia felt hopeless about their relationship, she was right in that the understanding that she and Bashir had was one that was going to rectify the problem.  If Israel and Palestine reach an agreement, it is going to be because of people like them.

Fourth “Lemon Tree” Post

Bashir has just been convicted of being part of an organization that bombed an supermarket in Jerusalem, after being tortured for information by the Israeli government.  Dalia feels betrayed by this, and cuts off all communication that she has with the Kahiri family. (Around Page 180)

To me, faith in one’s country is really important, especially when the justice system is involved.  It is for this reason that I understand Dalia’s feeling of utter faithlessness towards Bashir and her attempt to connect with him.  Having read the book, however, I can see that, while a citizen might be content in believing what Israel proclaims, it is obviously not a reliable source of information.  Dalia has placed trust in her government to find the truth and prosecute those who have committed offensive acts, yet she doesn’t know what they did to their prisoners.  I wonder, if she did know, what she would think of Bashir’s conviction.  I know that as a citizen of the United States, I would probably lose a lot of faith in my country if I knew that the government was intentionally using torture as an interrogation method.  The fact that it was part of Israel’s practice, and not a wrong that needed to be righted was what made it so henious.  It seems that, while a lot of Israeli soldiers don’t feel comfortable being the agressor, the government and actions of both sides have made the situation beyond reconciliation.  Despite the fact that the ruler of a country makes all the decisions, often it is greatly the people’s influence that has decided that actions that are taken.  So far, however, both sides have done as much as they can to alienate and offend the citizens on the opposite sides.  When Israel forced Palestinians out of their homes, and when Palestine bombed that supermarket, more so than those in power, people such as Dalia lost faith in peaceful coexistence.

Third “Lemon Tree” Response

The struggle over territory continues between Israel and Palestine, while in the town of Ramla, the Eshkenazi family is settling in.  The Kahiris, still devastated at the loss of their home, are feeling the pains of being a refugee.

In New York, a lot of Jewish people I know are very touchy about the atrocities that occured during the Holocaust, and comparing anything to it.  Because of this, I was somewhat appalled at the way Jews treated each other, both those who survived and those who did not experience it at all.  I thought that these, of all people, would encourage diversity and tolerance.  The fact that David Ben-Gurion called the survivors, “Human Dust” is very offensive and incredibly insensitive.    It reminds me of how, in some countries, the rape of a family member is shameful to the point that their own relatives kill them.  The leader of the Zionist movement, rather than feeling the deepest sympathy for the victims of the Holocaust, treated them like a sinful stain.  I was also surprised when Dalia’s friends tried to segregate lighter and darker skinned Jews.  Its almost ironic how they came to Israel to escape prejucide from people in their own country, yet basically replicated Hitler’s attempt for an aryan society.  Perhaps the children, not completely understanding what their own people endured, were looking for someone to blame or alienate for what had happened.  I always sort of assumed that Israel was something so looked forward to that it was started with complete harmony and elated redemption, but I can see now that it was obviously far more complex than that.  It seems like the stage that in the immediate aftermath, people made completely inconsiderate comments about the Holocaust, but nowadays the pledge of “Never Again” has become more of a principle that is taught to the future generations, rather than a mark of shame.

First “Lemon Tree” Response

Summary of whats been going on:  On Dalia’s side, the Bulgarians just went through and survived the struggle to protect the Jews of their country.  Tolan has been giving the full history of the birth of Israel, while jumping back and forth between the Eshkenazi family and the Kahiri family.  The Kahiri’s have established roots in al-Ramla, and built a house there.

The difference in culture between Bulgaria and places like Austria or Germany during the Holocaust really surprises me.  Not just in the reaction that the citizens had to the iminent deportation of their peers, but also the reason behind it.  First of all, Bulgarians spoke out with no reason to fear, whereas Germans who were against the Nazi movement had to do it in clandestine ways, and were often punished by death or deportation for their opinions.  What has spurned such a difference in the societies of these countries? Is it something deeply rooted in the way politicians conduct their nations, or is it the way that the Jews themselves were viewed in those countries?  I find it hard to believe that everyone secretly felt uncomfortable about Jews and therefore had no problem sending them to death camps, but i dont really know the answer.  Tolan mentioned that Bulgarians had a history of sticking up for Jews, but i dont think that it was the only reason that they appealed.  Perhaps it was the geographical location of the country itself.  As far fetched as that seems, maybe countries adjacent to Germany, such as Austria and Poland, didnt realize what Hitler’s intent was until they had been fully infiltrated. Bulgaria, having the advantage of being as far as the Black Sea, perhaps was able to realize the Nazi’s plans for the Jews.  That, in combination with a proactive populace, could have been whate made the Bulgarians unique.