Case Study 4: It's Time For Africa!

Jambo~ Learning about Africa? Hakuna Matata! :)


Eyes on Africa:
My Presentation-Swahili


Swahili Prezi:

Swahili on Prezi

Cool site for learning Swahili: http://mwanasimba.online.fr/E_Chap00.htm

Use this site to learn swahili in 55 chapters! If you find this language interesting, there's a Swahili department in Stanford University. :P

I learned quite a bit of Swahili over the course of putting together this presentation. I researched the history, along with primary documents of how people felt during the rule of other nations. I learned about Swahili art, culture, traditions, and to step inside their shoes a little more, the language of Kiswahili.

I loved this assignment, and I couldn't wait to research and do my online Kiswahili lesson everyday, and I spent a short 30 minutes on this language everyday, going through the chapters on that website... :P

This presentation also helped me become more familiar with prezi, because I rarely draw that many pictures or include videos on my prezis.

Eyes on Africa:

Jasmine's Presentation-Lions

Jasmine's prezi:

Eyes on Africa on Prezi

Jasmine's presentation was a prezi like mine, she introduced lions in Africa, the decrease of lion population in the south Saharan desert area, and the change of lion population over the years.

What I learned:

I learned quite a few things from this presentation. I learned the difference between the sizes of male and female lions (that the male lions are a lot bigger and heavier than female lions), lions can live up to 20 years, live in grasslands and deserts, fast speed of 50mph can only be reached for short periods, strong back leg muscles, and that the population of lions decreased by a half since the 1950s.

Connection to my presentation:

Jasmine's presentation was a lot like mine in many ways. First of all, we both used a prezi. Second of all, we both inserted videos in our prezi to represent our topic clearer, and they consisted of music (mine being the jambo song and hers being our lion king song).

What I liked:

I liked the fact that Jasmine included three videos, one being a more scientific talking video, one being an experiment, and another being music from Lion King. This helps us understand more about lions (the talking vid), visualize (the lions jumping vid), and relax (music). I also liked the way she gave me credit for the site I found and the music that we created together. :P I liked her cute and simple way of presenting, and the information that she chose.

Hotel Rwanda:

Three perspectives: Paul, Gregoire, and the UN officials

Paul:

Paul had lots of things to deal with during this period of time. His own safety was at risk because of the war going on in the area, as well as his association with his wife and other Tutsi people. His family and neighbors were at risk because the Hutu were killing the Tutsi. Many people were sent to the hotel that he was in charge of, because there was no other place to go. He didn't just have to take care of himself, his family, his neighbors, his hotel employees, and hotel guests, but also everyone else sent to the hotel. He couldn't say no to the people being sent in, even though the hotel was overfilled with people, Tutsi people too. He had to keep calm for all the people who could easily be found and killed with him responsible for so many lives and can't show his fear but can only try to encourage the people. He had to actually save the people from being killed while calming them down and making things seem okay for the people who were afraid.

Gregor:

Gregoire may seem to be the slacker in this movie, the one that's hated by whoever's watching the movie because he caused even more trouble for Paul even though Paul had enough stress already. Still, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for him t0 act the way he did. He was just being a very loyal Hutu. He thought of Paul as a traitor, and for people with a strong feeling about their ethnic groups, he has a point. It may be brutal for him to help the Hutu out in telling them about the Tutsi in the hotel as well as Paul being a traitor, but he was just doing what he thought was the more conscionable thing to do, help his own "group", help the people who he is supposed to help.

UN official(s):

The UN and foreign aid people seemed brutal and couldn't live up to their promises in the movie. They give Paul and the other people at the hotel a lot of hope that they will help, but then retreat all of a sudden, telling them that there will be no foreign help. This reflects the modern society a lot. I can probably say that none of us would be willing to put our life on the line for Africans that we aren't associated to. As Paul said, the foreigners think of them as nothing, just Africans who have to go through revolutions and revolts everyday, nothing special. We often forget that they are people, and that they need as much help as they can get. But then again, we can't blame the foreigners for leaving them at the hotel. The generals risked their lives to save Paul and the people at the hotel, but it was still dangerous. They risked a lot already, and risking more is just too risky... They wouldn't want the UN to lose good generals, no matter how much they might want to help Paul. They did a lot, they didn't stay the whole time, but they helped as much as they can, and the came back in the end.