On June 8, 1972, children and their families fled the village of Trang Bang down Route-1, their bodies seared by napalm. The young girl screaming, in particular, was etched onto the world's mind by the photograph of Huynh Cong 'Nick' Ut, an AP photographer.
The girl was Phan Thi Kim Phuc.
The picture was taken near the village of Trang Bang in South Vietnam on June 8, 1972, thrust the burned, screaming youngster into photographic history. The London "Observer" Sunday paper calls the photograph "the most haunting image of the horror of war since Goya" in their review of the exhibit (by science writer Deyan Sudjic).
What do you think happened to her now?Visit this site to find out.
http://www.geogr.uni-goettingen.de/kus/personen/vn/vn-1972-napalm.htm
Here is another iconic picture taken in 1963. A buddhist monk set himself on fire. Why do you think he did that? Can you use the web to find the answer?
American photographer Eddie Adams, also shot one of the Vietnam War's iconic images.
His picture of a South Vietnamese colonel executing a communist North Vietnamese Vietcong prisoner in Saigon earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1969.
His picture shows the exact moment when the bullet enters the prisoner's head. It was taken on 1 February 1968, the second day of the communists' Tet Offensive in Saigon's Chinese quarter.
Reflection Question.
1. Is there any value in studying History?
2. What happens when the collective memory of a society is wipe out, modified by the internet or controlled by the media?
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10 comments:
Tan Wei Chun
4Justice
1.Is there any value in studying History?
Yes, there is value in studying history. I sincerely feel that studying of history is actually the decision-making step onto our future.
Why do I say so?
Let us look at Singapore during the World War 2. Due to over-dependence on the British colonal maste to defend us, Singapore at that time do not have any defence force that belong to ourself, neither do we have any government organisation that does R&D on defence technology. However, after the fall of Singapore, we've learnt. We've learnt the importance of defending ourselves. Thus, at this point in time, we have all high-technology warfare equipment and a well-trained army.
Thus, History is important. It is the learning step we take to our future.
Another point that I would like to empahsize is that learning history of many neighbouring countries would help us in our lives.
In our glorified future, we would have chances to visit country like Japan. However, if we do not know their history, if we do not know how they were brutally demolished by the atomic bomb during the world war 2, we might offend them someway. Imagine a ignorant buisnessman entering the Japanese warshine with their counterparts and complimenting and aweing at the massive power of the atomic bomb with a broad smile. Isn't this disrespect? Would the counterparts still willing to work with him? No. This, is the value of studying history.
History is important. There's a common saying : History repeats itself. Why not we change, for the better, to embrace certain events in a different manner?
You Yue
4A
1.Is there any value in studying History?
This question is dependent on various circumstances, whether you are being taught history made by the victors or learning history from every source available so that you can make a judgement for yourself.
There is value in studying history. Studying history is interesting to some people and also teaches us some valuable lessons. Examples such as the French Revolution tells the people of France that an absolute monarchy will ultimately lead to some disaster. The failure of the League of Nations in WW1 lead to the world establishing the UN, a better organisation than the League of Nations. Even history teaches us that some way of governance is eliminated for our globalising world. This is communism, that leads to the rise and fall of the USSR. As USSR has collective farming, farmer has little incentive to work on the fields, hence agricultural production for USSR decreases. Furthermore, USSR practises isolationism, which causes widespread hunger as ther is no food import from other countries.
History has actually taught us that we have to globalise in order to survive.
However, we must not always trust our history textbook. In Japan, students are misinformed of WW2, so the history they studied has actually leave them unapologetic for their mistakes of WW2. For a person in North Korea, he will be taught on how good his leader is, failing to recognise his tyranny. The textbook of today is also a bit too pro-western. The World Bank may seem to be helping developing countries like Brazil but it always send out loans with interest rates (banks always do that for their own good), pushing Brazil into further poverty. Which bank in its right mind will give free lunch! This is also not mention in the Geography textbook at all. Hence, what we are studying now, which is the history of the future, is not valuable as to teach the future on how to prevent developing countries from sinking into further debt.
Hence history is only valuable when you get the full story.
In response to You Yue,
Perhaps you might want to read up more about World Bank policies for Latin American countries like Brazil. The loans are not the only reason, and arguably, nor is it the main reason that pushes Brazil further into poverty.
A more recent example would be the loans to Indonesia during the '97 Economic Crisis.
As for the interest thing, you might want to find out more about Grameen Bank. How is it possible for a bank that charges up to 20% interest to poor farmers with hardly any assets and yet achieve a repayment rate of more than 95%?
Jasmine Tan
4Gallant
1.Is there any value in studying History?
Yes,there is value in studying history. i felt that studing history help us understands more about how our forefather came by and what they do to make the world we lived in now...
Why do I say so?
Takes world war two in singapore as an example,because of over depending on British colonalmaste to protect us,(as that time singapore has no defence force that belong to ourself neither do we have government and technology) however after singapore falls,we learn the importance of protecting ourselves...from this we can see how history benfit us as we moved forward to our future
There is definite value in studying History.
History, undoubtedly serves as a platform for us to gain insight on past happenings and learn from them. I'm certain, no one would want a war much like the ones we've learnt about in our text-books to take place in this generation especially. What with the superficiality and competition that is prominently on the rise in our society. History allows us to learn from past experiences and improve.
Besides, History is way more interesting than Geog.
Effa Rizan
4 Formidable
1.is there any value in studying history.
Of course, there is a value in studying history.History is interesting to some people as it helps us to understand more about the past,how our forefathers live their lives and the difference between the world in the past and present.there are so many value lessons to be learnt.For example,the world war 2 in Singapore,Singapore were too dependent on the British colonal who defended Singapore as Singaporeans did not have any armed force belong to them.singapore also did not have defence technology.Now, we, Singaporeans, have learnt how to denfend ourselves and how to prepare ourselves in times of war,blackout and terrorist attack..However,eventhough Singapore is now a very safe place to live,we must learn not to be too complacent.If not,there will be problems in Singapore that we are facing now.like,the the escape os Mas Selamat..if the officers were not too complacent and slacking around,Mas Selamat would not have escape from that cubicle.However it is good that now Singaporeans have learnt a valuable lesson not to be complacent even if our country is very safe.we have to be prepared.
thus history is very importat because is is the learning step to our future.
In the past,it takes several months to communicate with people from overseas through letters as the technologies were weak.Now,in the presence of living,it takes a day communicate due to the advance technology such as emailing,SMS,and more.therefore it also takes a day to go abroad.
Effa Rizan
4 Formidable
I LOVE MRS ESS! :)
1.Is there any value in studying History?
Yes.i think that studying history is very important today.
For example,an investor,i feel that an investor needs to study about the past,about the failure that others had invested on and study why is it so.For an investor to succeed,they would have to learn about the past leaders did and not follow the wrong path as it may lead to failure and millions of dollars could be lost.
Wong Wen Liang Nicholas
3Formidable
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