Female Leader: Angela Merkel

       The political leader I chose to write about was Angela Merkel, who is the chancellor (head of government) in Germany. She grew up in the rural area of Northern Berlin, and she was born to a pastor and teacher. She was born on July 17th in 1954, and was born in Hamburg. She went on the study physics at the University of Leipzig. She then later on went to work as a chemist in the Academy of Sciences in the Physical Chemistry unit.  For introduction to politics actually occurred when she a political party named the Christian Democratic Union and then went on to be a cabinet minister for women and youth. She then ran in 2002 for her current position, yet she failed. She was then victorious, in 2005, when she then beat Gerhard Schroder by three seats, so a very close defeat. She then gained her current position and has been the first female leader of Germany since it became a modern state. She is broke tradition by being divorced, but then remarrying a chemistry professor from Berlin named Joachim Sauer and she also has no children and has been on the Forbes list peaking at #1 most powerful women and #4 most power people. Her earliest award was in 2006 called the Vision for Europe Award for he contribution toward more integration is Europe. One of the latest awards she received for her achievements, is the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was given to her by Barack Obama in 2011. This award is awarded specifically to those who people who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavours. She has been compared frequently to Margaret Thatcher, a British Prime Minister who was also known as the "The Iron Lady". 

  

Catholic Saint Blogpost

 Maria Los

Humanities

March 15^th 2012

                                                 ST. MARTHA

          St. Martha, who is the patron of cooks, is known from an excerpt of John’s gospel, in the quote “Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus” we hear of this special relationship between Jesus and Martha. She lived in a small village, which was about 2 miles away from Jerusalem. Jesus often was a quest at her house. In a story about Martha it is taught that she is extremely hospitable, so when Jesus comes to pay a visit, Martha is angered by her sister Mary who only pays attention and listens to him, forgetting her duties. She asks Jesus if this is right, and he tells her that, what matters is that she listen to him. This story teaches to not be worried and distracted by the things we must do in our daily life, but to always make time for Jesus. In stories after this we learn that she has learned her lesson. We learn about the about her faith and courage, and how she never doubts Jesus. The rest of what happens to Martha is not known; she is now known as the patron of servants and cooks. The pray that is now said for St. Martha is as follows; “Saint Martha, pray for us that we might serve Jesus better. Help us overcome our distractions and worries to listen to his words and be present to him this day. Amen” The feastday of St. Martha is July 29^th.

Blogpost #3: Mosaic Reflection

Upon completion of your mosaic, explain the meaning of your symbol, reflect on the process of making a mosaic, and imagine what it would have been like to create a large scale mosaic in a church over 1500 years ago.

      The symbol I chose to represent was the Christian Dove. In Christianity the Dove represents the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. This is because when the Holy Spirit came down while Jesus was being baptized in the Jordon River, in the form of a dove. I think masking this mosaic is the most painful thing I have ever done. This is because the curved edges of the bird made it so had to fit the squares perfectly in. So, where there were little spaces where the squares wouldn't fit, I had to cut out tiny triangles or rectangles to fill in these spaces. Then when the glue stuck to the paper squares and then to my fingers, it was terrible. Another thing that was quite time consuming was the facts that I had to cut the little squares out. Yet even though with a process that is quite dreary and slow, I found the final product to be quite satisfying and pretty. I feel it turned out quite well, and I was very proud of my work. The colors that I used were light green, dark green, light blue, white and black. The colors I believe symbolize certain aspects of the picture. The light green and dark green, which make up the border, represent the earth and nature. While the background behind the dove, which is light blue, symbolize the sky. Finally the light, which is the dove, is used because white is usually the traditional color of a dove, and also represents peace. The black though, which outlines the dove, actually has no meaning.
            For me just this little, simple paper on mosaic was quite difficult and frustrating to do. So, if I had to do a whole, large scale mosaic, I would probably be driven to insanity. Another factor that would have made it even more difficult is the mortar has a certain period in which it is pliable then it hardens. This means the mosaic had to be done in certain sections but also quite quickly, which when making mosaics is definitely not my strong point. So to conclude, I found this project hard but interesting and in the end quite satisfying.

Fall of Rome

        The reason for the fall of the Roman Empire is not give in one, definite answer. There are many different factors that led to the gradual decline and fall, all having the same potential impact as the other. These are aspects such as, geography, because of the shape of the Roman Empire, the western borders needed more soldiers and resources. This sucked away what was needed in Rome. Economic decline, the continuous import of luxury good from foreign lands started to break down the Roman economy. This is because it was not strong enough to support these activity. Growth of government, with this growth more people were needed. This allowed for the wrong types of people to come into power. Decline in the work force, the number of slaves was decreasing along with Roman death rates which were increasing. This meant a lack in workers and soldiers. Lack of technology, since there were fewer Romans, there was no one to produce more goods. Last but not least, Military defeat. Simply, the Roman army was not longer at strength, allowing it to fall to the barbarians.

      I believe the most important reasons to the decline of the Roman Empire would have to be the Geography and the Decline in work. This is because if you have an area of the Empire, the west, that needs protections, yet you have a lack of people who can help protect this weak link. This area falls prey to invasions, which is what ended up happening to the Romans. 

Jesus Christ Superstar

Maria Los

Ms. Moore

Humanities 8B

1/30/12

                                            Jesus Christ “Superstar”, not so super

Jesus Christ Superstar is such a particular type of movie that you either decide to fall completely in love with it, or dislike it strongly. Twisted into a more “modern” retelling of the religious Bible story of the last weeks of Jesus Christ’s life, this movie is truly unlike anything I have seen before. First of all, it’s a rock opera. This means no talking, at all. The entire movie consists of songs, not all very pleasing to the ear, all written by both Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber with the exception of Herod’s Song. Even though the storyline is supposed to follow the religious telling in the Bible, there are factors which created controversy among Christians. Such as when Judas is depicted wearing white, coming down on a silver cross to talk to Jesus after his death. This gives the illusion that he is perhaps an angel, which many Christians found offensive. Also, the movie is left hanging at the end, not showing the audience Jesus’ resurrection, almost as if questioning if it ever occurred. Supposedly this was to leave the audience to “interpret the ending their own way” yet I did not find it satisfactory.

                Jesus Christ Superstar was released on the 15^th of August in 1973, explaining the quirky and absurd choice of fashion throughout this film. Directed by Norman Jewison, along with writers Melvyn Bragg and Tim Rice, this movie was produced by Universal Pictures.  Ted Neely, Carl Anderson and Yvonne Elliman are main stars in this movie which is filmed mainly in Beit Guvin, Israel. This film is American, “spoken” in English and is supposedly “family-friendly” being rated at G. Jesus Christ Superstar gives us a small insight into the last few weeks of Jesus’ life, from his teachings to his crucifixion.

                The movie opens, and a group of what appears to be tourists, but are in fact the cast of the musical, exit from a van, dancing and singing, while parading a giant cross around.  For me, this was a confusing area of the movie, not a promising way to start. Yet as the first scene ended and the next started I was still hopeful.  In the following number Judas is obviously mad at Jesus for losing sight of the message he is preaching and making his popularity based on himself and his image rather than the teachings he offers. Played by Carl Anderson, I can honestly say that for me Judas’ character was the least aggravating out of this cast. His character’s songs were an improvement, not repetitive like others, and his portrayal of the character was true to the idea and got the emotion that was necessary across to the audience. This though cannot be said for the rest of the cast, neither for the songs. The movie continues to tell of Mary Magdalene’s (Yvonnes Elliman) feelings for Jesus, and whose song “Everything’s Alright” was something that regrettably I could not get out of my head for while, yet in a way that was quite bothersome. Scenes that show the Jewish Priests discussing that Jesus must die. Pontius Pilate telling about his dream of a man that shall be Jesus, Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and the Last Supper follow. All of this leads up to the surprising and controversial ending, which could not have been more insufficient and inadequate. To further give my view upon this movie, the main character should be mentioned. Jesus Christ, played by Ted Neely. Directing no offense to Ted Neely, fathoming that he has most probably done other movies where his performance was okay. Though this definitely was not one of them, this performance was whiny and actually made me dislike the Jesus portrayed in this movie.

                Something that completely, utterly confused me throughout this movie, were the props and the costuming. Even though I fully understand taking an idea and modernizing it the director of Jesus Christ Superstar, did not get the idea. If you leave half of the movie to be done in the middle of a desert around ancient ruins, this is not modernization-it is indecisiveness. If you were modernizing this tale it would make sense to include modern weaponry, such as tanks, guns, etc. but not against a backdrop that transports you back around 2,000 years.  Going along with this, some of the costume design for this movie rendered me, at times, quite speechless. The most out of place, were the purple muscle t-shirt worn by soldiers throughout this film. Along with the strange ensembles worn by King Herod’s  backup dancers for his dance number and Judas’ outfit when he comes down to speak to Jesus after his death. Maybe though, for these fashion horrors, we cannot blame Ron Beck, from the costume and wardrobe department, but the “out there” 70’s style during the filming of this movie.  

                So, what shall be the final decree of this movie? For me it was 180 minutes of distress, peppered with some moments where I found myself overwhelmed, wondering what had  just happened and why. Saying this, I would not recommend this to anyone, unless you are perhaps studying Christianity, and wish to delve deeper on the view that the entertainment industry had in 1973 of the Christian religion. All in all, I found this movie un-enjoyable and would not, ever watch again under my own free will. My opinion is this because of the music in this film, which I find irritating but humorous in a degrading way, along with the fact that not showing Jesus’ resurrection left it to be an unsatisfying ending, letting the plot line leave bitter feelings from the audience towards the film.

Bibliography

"IMDb - Jesus Christ Superstar (1973)." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070239/>.

"Jesus Christ Superstar - Rotten Tomatoes." Movies | Movie Trailers | Reviews - Rotten Tomatoes. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011028-jesus_christ_superstar/>.

Caesar v.s Augustus

      Who was a better and more important ruler, Caesar or Augustus? I believe that Augustus was a better leader than Caesar because of the accomplishments he had and the ideas and morals he carried. Augustus was born in Rome on September 23rd, 63 B.C. He was born Gaius Octavius,  yet when Julius Caesar who was his great uncle died and he became heir to the throne because in his will Caesar had adopted them. He changed his name to Augustus in 27 B.C. at the same time he became Rome's first emperor. Augustus decided that instead of naming himself to be a dictator, he would create the principate, which was a kind of monarchy where one emperor held control for life. Through his life Augustus had quite a few accomplishments, though expanding the empire of Rome, and reorganizing all aspects such and the military and the government, Augustus was able to provide a new era of prosperity. This era of prosperity turned out to be 200 years of Pax Romana (Roman Peace) which went on until A.D 180. Augustus also set out to make an empire that was strong AND safe.. He created an army of over 150,000 men that was permanent. In addition to this there was the Praetorian Guard, which was a force of 90,000 men which were all guarding the empire. Through Augustus' reign they conquered Spain, Gaul, and what is now present day Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. He took Rome and rebuilt it adding palaces, fountains and public buildings, the arts also flourished during this period. Augustus also had a kind streak, he fed the poor, he also reformed the legal system so that there were new rules for non-citizens. Augustus also created the proconsul or someone who governed each one of Rome's provinces, these replaced politicians. Augustus died in A.D 14 after ruling for 40 years. His influences on Rome though were not forgotten, and he was worshipped as if he was a god. 

Was Caesar a Reformer or a Dictator?

      There is a lengthy debate about the question wether Julius Caesar was a dictator or a reformer. Historians argue over this point, both sides with valid arguments. Yet I believe that Julius Caesar was a reformer. I believe this because of multiple reasons, such as:
Caesar gained the loyalty and support of his soldiers by having leadership skills and strategy.
He treated the people that he defeated well, and on some occasions he even included them inside the government.
Caesar ended the corruption within the society of nobles.
We know that Caesar brought a sense of order and peace to Rome.
Cities that had been destroyed by the republic, Caesar rebuilt.
He took Rome and strengthened and expanded it
Found jobs for the poor
Granted citizenship to people outside of Rome, from other cities and states.
Through all these improvements and achievement, I believe Julius Caesar bettered Rome. He had ambition to some this might have been taken as a sign of greed, yet it was a drive to better a republic.