Refugee Blues, WWII Poetry

1-As you read in the introduction, the poem was written half a year before the outbreak of World War II. However, the reader can pinpoint the three major protagonists whose paths will cross tragically in the course of the war. Complete the following sentences:

1. The victims are the Jews
2. The perpetrators are the Nazis
3. The bystanders are the Germans / Europeans

2 -What particular factors led an individual to be defined as belonging to this or that group?

Nazis had a model of the perfect citizen: it was blond with blue eyes. However, they accepted German citizens in their mayority; and christians too. They divided the bands of war into two groups; allies and foes.  The mayor division of groups were the Jews. Jews were pursuited and executed during many years, they were sent to the concentration camps too. Other group that was considered a foe were the homosexuals; Nazis executed them without taking them to a court. Black people and the ones with another religion were also considered a threat.

3- Of the three groups, which was the largest? Is their any connection between your answer and the term ‘The Silent Majority’?


The bystanders composed the larger group, and they relate directly to the term "The Silent Majority" because many of them just watched the events without having any intervention, any opinion; and the term "Majority" is applied because they were in a larger number

4- What possible relationships could have developed between the victims and the bystanders?

It's a fact that many victims established friendship with many of the bystanders. Some bystanders betrayed de refugees, but many of them protected them; sometimes even hiding them in their houses.

5-Auden presents different situations in which prohibitions against the victims multiply and effectively turn them into refugees. Identify and list some of these prohibitions. What does it mean to have these things taken away from you?
Among this prohibitions are that Jews couldn't go to many public places, such as meetings and churchs. Besides they were pirsuited by German soldiers. This basic things that are taken away make this refugees look like animals; even worse, treatment to them is beyond cruelty.

6-State bureaucracies are crucial in the lives of ordinary citizens, not to mention threatened population groups like the homeless or people evicted from their homes. Identify the different functionaries or objects that represent bureaucracies for Auden.

In the poem there are stated each of the objects that represent bureaucracies; such as the passport (the jews are stated to have "old ones" and being denied each time they show it), the  consul (which prevented them to leave), the committe (told them to wait), and the public meeting (that accussed them of stealing the food).

7-In your opinion, who is a refugee? Can one become a refugee in one’s own home?

In my opinion, a refugee is someone; and it could be anybody, who must hide in order to save his life. Of course that one actually CAN be a refugee inside his own house; in fact many jews were found hidden in their own houses when the nazis occuppied Europe.

8-How can state bureaucracies help refugees or hinder efforts to help?
By changing the laws that bring difficulties to their living conditions, or simply removing them. They can reduce the punishments too.

9-In your opinion, should governments today have the responsibility to take care of refugees in their country? 

Yes. In my opinion, refugee are a priority such as poor people in a country. Most refugees live in a way that many people will consider miserable; some would even prefer death before living like them. 

30's Letters

1)

Phillip Visuain

New York, August 10^th, 1931

                Dear Phillip

                I write to you as a response to your letter, I’m glad you asked how my house and neighborhood is. There’s a lot going on around here, plenty of happy things; but I’m afraid that the bad things exceeded them. First of all, we had to dismount the garage to help paying the food, I’m sad about it because I have a lot of memorable moments in there. I hope you are enjoying your garage in France. Our house now is definitively smaller, or at least it feels like that. We had to sole most of the Brazilian furniture we had; and my room upstairs is now for rent, leaving me on the sofa. I hope we don’t sell it too. The grass we have in the garden is taller than ever, because dad had to fire the gardener; “It was too expensive” according to him. In terms of electricity, dad says we are okay. I think he’s lying, because sometimes it suddenly cuts out and then comes back; and mom told us to turn the lights off past 7:00 PM, so we use candles. With the water we are fine, because dad had the smart idea of placing a well in the backyard. I have to say that although we are passing by this, I and my family are the lucky ones on the street. Mr. Walter, a neighbor and friend of dad, was fired, and so as many other people around here; and will have to leave his house. I wish we could host him, but mom says we need the rent. The police are chasing another neighbor, because he was fired too and start working as a drug dealer. The children that used to play in the park in front of my house stopped coming, because robberies are higher than ever. Also, I have eye-shadows because of the woman next door, Mrs. Abrahams. She cries all night, but I don’t complain because she lost her husband in the war; so that’s why the scandals. The only good thing that cares to me is that mom bought a better pillow to my sofa. But, as I already said, we’re the lucky ones in this neighborhood. I hope you are living better than all of us, after all Paris is the city of beauty, right?

Greetings,

Vicente Jander

2)

Phillip Vusuain

New York, October 3^rd, 1932

                Dear Phillip

It’s been so long since our last communication. I apologize for that, I have been busy. You asked me how I relate with my family and what kind of activities we do, to help you with your homework. I will tell you happily. First I have to say that I don’t recognize dad anymore; I see my dog more than him on the week because of hi s job at the bank. “Being a manager isn’t easy, one day you will be the owner and understand”, he said to me. He says that otherwise, we would be living on the streets. I appreciate the effort that he’s doing for us, but honestly I would prefer living in the streets if that includes being with him. The only activity that involves both as a father-son is going to the church together. Mom says that in these hard times, we have to give thanks to God for being so gentle with us. I try to speak to dad while in the church, but he makes me shut up for “respect to the lord”. There is another aspect of dad that changed; he started giving us speeches about being polite and having good manners, and that with both of this attitudes we were making the difference between other families. After begging mom, I built a tree-house in the garden. Me and Britney, my sister; used it almost all day long. It was a quiet place to be, not so big and not so short. It was… comfortable, like a way to escape the familiar issues that were taking place, and wait until they solve. The only memorable day I have passed was last Friday; in which mom bought a goose and boiled it. Besides being the most delicious dinner I ever had, later that night I played chess several times with dad. It doesn’t matter that he won all the games; I had the opportunity to talk with him at last. He told me to be more polite at the table, because I ate in a “horribly mean way”; and after that he remembered his childhood and told me that he played chess with his father too, but with the difference that this time the son won all the games. After playing we went to bed, and I was so happy that couldn’t fell asleep until 2:00AM. I hope this information will be useful to you, send me your grade in the homework.

Greetings,

Vicente Jander

Podcast: To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapter 4

Summary of To Kill a Mockingbird, Chapters 6-7

Chapters 6-7

Jem and Dill followed the orders of Atticus, who orders them to stop bothering the Radley property and that poor man. Although this good attitude only lasts till the last day of Dill in Maycomb, in the moment when Jem and he plan to sneak over to the Radley Place and finds their way in through a loose entrance. Finally Scout gets involved too, and they crawl around the house. While crawling, the three of them see the shadow of a man with a hat on and run away, and they heard a shotgun being shot off behind them. They got away by passing under the fence, but suddenly Jem’s pants get stuck on the fence, so if he wants to get free he would kick them. The kids return home and encounter all the adults on the neighborhood: Miss Maudie, Atticus, and Miss Stephanie Crawford; known as the “neighborhood gossip”. Miss Maudie in his speech declares that Mr. Nathan Radley shot at a Negro in his yard. After that, Atticus asks Jem where his pants are; and Dill interrupts and says that he won Jem’s pants in a poker game. Worried about this, Atticus asks them if they were actually using cards. Jem answers that they were playing with matches. That night, Jem makes his way to the Radley Place, and manages to get back his pants.  School began few days later, and Jem tells Scout that he found the pants hanging neatly over the fence, like him someone had found them and just hung them. After school that same day, they found another object hidden in the middle of the knothole: a ball of gray twine. They left it there for a few days, but no one claimed it, so they took it for their own. Among this, Scout declares that he does not feel happy in second grade, so as he did in first, and Jem promises her that school gets more entertaining the farther along one stays. Late that season, another present appears in the knothole: now they were two figures carved in soap to represent Scout and Jem. The three figures are followed by the next objects: chewing gum, a spelling bee medal, and an old pocket watch. The next day, Jem and Scout find that the knothole has been fulfilled with cement, so no more presents are supposed to be delivered.

Interview: Language

Martín Elorriaga

Vicente Jander

Language change

According to the dictionary language is a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition. Humanity has always dealt with language; since cavemen with gestures until now with facebook. Language is the tool that allows us to express ourselves and to understand others. Since the British Empire expanded the English language almost world-wide, there have been more frequent language changes around the world, changing with internal and external attitudes in dialogs.  Language is in constant change because the society change and the people start having more needs. There are a lot of theories to explain language change, and for knowing more we want to interview an expert of this matter Mr. German Letelier.

“Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about.” Benjamin Lee Whorf

Interviewee: Germán Letelier

Interview:

Question: 1- What comes to your when we say the word “language”?

Answer: Language is the world, its reality. Language is different to all people. For example, when we talk about the word “home”, people will give to it different meanings. Someone will think about a house, others a place where you can relax and sleep, others a relief; it depends on the experience. So in consequence LANGUAGE IS REALITY is experience and according to that it forms itself and transforms itself.

Question: 2- Is the language you speak part of your identity? Why? Why Not?

Answer: Yes, because the language I speak it’s the language that I have decided to speak; besides I understand that different “moments” of language exist. The language I use in the school is not the same that the one that I use in my house and the one that I use in my house is different with the one that I use with my friends. This action obviously identifies me as a person.

Question: 3- Do you agree with the claim that “The English Language is nobody’s special property”?

Answer: Of course, take another example: New Zealand. The English spoken there is not the same that the English spoken in England, or in the USA. All countries have the right of manipulating the English they speak, to give them their identities. A shared language is a better language.

Question: 4- Would you prefer the fact of having a multiple number of languages in the world or would you prefer English as the only language we should speak?

Answer: I think that the language, as experience, should exist in variation according to time and space. But, there must be a language that should be common world-wide so we can all understand it, and I consider that English is the language that should dominate in that sense.

Question: 5- Why do you think the language changes?

Answer: Because people change, because historical situations change, we change language because space changes. We must understand that the type and concept of language of our parents is different to ours, and that’s for a very simple reason: when our parents where young, for example, they didn’t know the word computer. Today is a universal word.  That kind of concepts, concepts those 20 years ago didn’t exist. So ask yourself a question: How will language be in 10 years?

Question: 6- Do you think language reflects power?

Answer: In most cases, it can be a clear proof of power. For example, when Barack Obama established his political party with the phrase “Yes, we can.”, he is giving power to the people, encouraging them to change. I want you to consider that this kind of power is not always going from top to bottom, but sometimes from bottom to top.

Question: 7- According to you should we all know how to use creoles and learn them?

Answer: No, in my opinion learning other alphabets is useless; you just got to stick to your language. Maybe culture will be interesting to learn, but other languages no. I consider it a waste of time.

To conclude, language according to Mr. Letelier identifies people, gives them the particularity of the human being so they can manipulate it at will. Without language, the human species would be considered as any other animal: without intellect and stuck in the same stage. So language in consequence changes constantly, changes with society; following our needs (each time more and more) leading the human evolution and adapting to it. Language makes the man a man. As he said at the end: “Imagine human being without language, the answer is impossible because there would be no human being”.

Text analysis: "Letter from a Birmingham Jail (King, Jr.)" page 2

Vehicle of information

     Approximately 50 years ago, Marthin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter. A letter mentioning the atrocities of racism, describing his endless battles against it. If we consider that those times were really hard ones to black people (to exemplify: black and white people couldn't even eat together), then King's letter would be a totally fair and just critic to society. If we take a look at page number 2 of the letter, we will find the reasons of why and how King's method complaining works, described as direct actions. Direct actions are established on the letter as a better method than negociations, because it causes more "tension" on society; but a peaceful one, and so is the pressure that community feels that it is forced answer fast. Before this, King writes an example of this: he had negotiated with the Birmingham's Economic Community, and some merchants promised certain things. Things like, for example, removing racist signs from stores. Unfortunately, after a short period of time sings returned to stores. Passed this event, King Jr. mention one of the influences of this difficulties: The mayor elections and it's candidate: Eugene Bull Connor. They were the reason of much delayment, postponing and postponing their actions; leaving clear that when someone tells you to wait for something, it's synonym of never. According to this conclussion, King then took the initiative of going to direct actions instead of negotiations for more efectiviness in the process. After this, King will only analyse and pray to the other mayor candidate, Albert Boutwell, to be more comprehensive to their wishes; inclusive the fact of being segregationist like Connor.

                             According to this in the context, King wanted to prove only one thing: black and white people are equal; thing that the society in which he was living ignored. Based on this idea he said, precisely on page 2 of the document, that direct actions dominate over negotiations; and that waiting was the same word (in those years) that never.

Short Story: "Never defeated"

I woke up that morning at 6 AM. ¿Why so early?, I honestly don't know, maybe the nerves consumed me. I felt sick, so I went to the bathroom and then vomited the toilet. After that, I went to the kitchen for some medication to sleep calmed. The time passed flying, and the bus was already outside my house. "¿Hurry up, we're late!" shouted coach McArthur, that was driving. I quickly grabbed my bag and ran to the bus. On the way, the team was so nervous that noboby said a word on the whole way to the stadium. When we left the bus, the coach guided us to the changing room, quickly as possible. Whe were all changed, the coach asked us to make a circle and listen to him. "Listen, I'm gonna be honest: this will be probably the toughest game that you will play as a team, ever. You have been training hard too, and travelled 300 miles to play this games, so lets prove that WE HAVE NEVER BEEN DEFEATED as a professional team! I want all of you with you head and your muscles in the game, no passed tackles, YOU WILL BE CRUEL, the other team will have nightmares with us, and they will fear us even when saying our names. SO LETS PROVE WHAT WE ARE MADE OF, LET´S GO TO VICTORY!" The moment arrived, and the corridor to the stadium was shining, I could hear the people's sreaming and singing our national hymn. I lost my nerevs, and felt happy. We entered the field...