Industrial revolution

Chapter 18

"Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for mankind.... God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the West. The economic imperialism of a single time island kingdom is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 millions took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.... Industrialization on a mass scale will necessarily lead to passive or active exploitation of the villagers.... The machine produces much too fast." -Mahatma Gandhi

This quote from chapter 18 stood out to me. The industrial revolution has lead to the disintegration of culture.  The more ahead you are in society regarding to technology, or things that make you more advanced than other societies when it comes to doing things easier or in a less amount of time you are given power to how advanced you are. Power such as Great Britain which started out as small but grew and grew until it almost dominated the entire world.

Chapter 14 Columbus and the world before

Columbus and the World before...
After reading Chapter 14 or Ways of the World, it painted a picture in my mind of how it must have been seeing Christopher Columbus for the first time, inspecting the homeland. To see someone more civilized, someone dressed, seeing guns for the first time, tasting alcohol for the first time, hearing a different language for the first time.
I remember traveling to Italy for the first time, not knowing the language and also trying to make my way around. It was difficult! A simple smile was our way of communicating-- if you were open to smiles, this worked magic.. but it you were closed off and bitter, there was NO type of communication exchanged. I can only imagine the people from the mainland to be welcoming, with open arms and smiles. I believe the society that was here before us, was a laid back, simple society. A society that was giving and humble. The Europeans had a few things in mind, and non of those things consisted of giving or being humble. Maybe the Europeans should have learned more from the Native Americans.
This link between the Americas and Europe opened so many new things such as food, people, ways of living, views of life, morals and not to mention diseases. Small pox, measles, Typhus, influenza, malaria and yellow Fever... In many cases, up to 90% of the Native American population died within 50 years of Columbus' arrival.
Back when I was in Elementary School and every year around Thanksgiving time, the teachers would make such a big deal about Christopher Columbus and how he was such a hero and looked at as someone of high stature. They left out the part how he enslaved the native americans or killed them off with the diseases the Europeans carried. This idea of slavery always makes me question weather power over things, greediness and selfishness are just natural qualities. I say this because these traits are possessed in animals as well. The difference between us humans and animals, besides the obvious is that us humans have the power to communicate and understand right from wrong.

Road of lost innocence

When I read the Road of Lost Innocence by Somali Mam It opened my eyes on how inhumane some people are. The part that stood out to me most was going to the extent of punishment with electric shocking. It baffles me how some think having sex with a virgin will help them  with diseases.  This book really made me realize what these girls go through and how hard they have life. I never was aware of human trafficking and sex slavery before reading this book. It made me want to be a little more involved. Somali Mam really inspired me by having the courage to share her story with  millions of people and also making other people aware of this issue.