KyrgyzBala Weblog

What I’ve learned from and taught to Wikipedia.org

ubekisho — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:51:46 +0000

Wikipedia.org is an incredible website. Whoever came up with it is a genius. It made my life so much easier. Before history class I didn’t know that this site is being monitored and supervised by administrators. I thought that anybody can write anything, and even though it’s wrong wikipedia would accept it. However, I found out that it is not like that. It is actually very strict and everything has to be sourced and cited. The amazing part is that the girl from our class got her article deleted within twenty four hours. Amazing in a sense that there are real administrators and they don’t fool around. My wikipedia article was on the third mayor of Washington D.C., James Heighe Blake. When I found this article somebody was trying to create it. It had one image, some sentences and some links. But it was still a stub. Throughout the semester after my theme of article was accepted by professor Boggs, I forgot to check on it. I didn’t visit the website for almost three weeks. One day it hit me that the person who started the article might continue editing it. So I open the website the next day and see more sentences. This time it actually had paragraphs. That was a very worrying moment.

Next step for me was to write an article and getting accepted by Wikipedia. It was very hard to find book sources about James Heighe Blake. Fortunately, the biggest library in the world, Library of Congress, had few books about him. There were several obstacles that I had run into. Posting the pictures was difficult because you had to go through all the details of copyright protection. The other obstacle was publishing the article itself. It is like an HTML coding script. Editing is not user friendly feature of Wikipedia.

It’s been 3 weeks since I published the article. Nothing happened to the article and nobody has edited since. You can see that in the history of the website. I don’t know what is the exact reason or reasons for my article not being edited. One of the possibilities is that there were only five people editing it before me.
Hence, it is possible that the third mayor is not known, and nobody visits it. The other reason is that it might be well written which I doubt. It is because I’m not a very good writer, but I did have supporting sources. So it is for you to judge whether my article needs improvements or not.

I learned that contribution is well paid. First time I heard about wikipedia was from my english professor, who told me not to rely on wikipedia because it had some false information. But by writing this article I found out that wikipedia is somewhat a reliable source. People can’t just publish articles unless they are supported with reliable sources. It is a give and take relationship with wikipedia. You publish something on wikipedia and learn something from it. I definitely would try to contribute more from now on.

Class Reflection (5/5)

ubekisho — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:34:11 +0000

“Fog of War” is a very interesting documentary. Robert Mcnamara got his chance to justify his actions to some extent. He didn’t want to blamed on all the mistakes that country did during his period as a Secretary of Defense. He said that Vietnam war is “President’s fault”. It is true though. He just did what he was told to do by the higher government. This movie doesn’t describe him as a bad guy, nor it depicts that he is a good guy. His work and life are fascinating though.

In the end of class we were listening to songs that were popular during and after Vietnam War. In the song by Bruce Springsteen Professor Boggs noted that this is a song about the veteran of Vietnam War. Veteran was sent to war. After the war was over he tried to find himself in the world, but was unsuccessful when came back home. He couldn’t find a job even at his own town. It relates to the veterans of USSR vs. Afghanistan War. My uncle actually served during the war against Afghanistan. He is a veteran and he never wants to talk about it. I’ve seen a lot of veterans losing their motivation to live. Nobody cared enough to help them out after the war was over. Government was facing other issues and completely abandoned them. It is a very similar scenario. US went to Vietnam for several years and was unsuccessful. USSR went to Afghanistan and was unsuccessful, too.

Women and Postwar Film (Post #4)

ubekisho — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:47:06 +0000

After watching the videos from 1950′s, I found it hard to believe that women in America have come such a long way. “Choosing for Happiness” and “Cooking Terms” videos portray women as inferior beings in comparison to men. Media treated women as if they were incapable of performing common sense tasks. “Cooking Terms” serves as an educational video to a newly-wed wife that is learning how to cook. It teaches her the terms that are used in the cook book. However the emphasis stands mostly on the point that wives were obligated to learn how to cook for their husbands. It seemed to me as if they were trying to prove that the wife has to be ashamed if she does not know how to prepare everyday meals. “Choosing for happiness” is a video that advises young girls to make a good decision picking a husband. The most important quote that shocked me is when one of the girl’s boyfriends says, “You are not like other girls. You are smarter, almost like a man.” This shows that men were thought of being the superior gender. They were the once that are smarter, more educated, and the once whose opinion actually did count. On the other hand women were uneducated housewives that were in charge of raising kids and taking care of the household. Another thing that I got out of these videos is that women took them positively as well as the men.

The video that I picked to compare the 1950′s women to today’s women is Hilary Clinton’s advertisement for presidential elections. Women have gone from housewives to being the most powerful person in America. Take for instance Hilary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Oprah Winfrey and so on. The role of women has definitely changed over time. The family roles are not as traditional anymore. Wives do not have to necessarily cook and clean all the time. Moreover, husband is no longer the main source of family income. Women have become independent of their husband. It is normal for a woman to be the head of the household, whereas in the old days that would seem abnormal and strange.

Class reflection (4/28)

ubekisho — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:20:34 +0000

It is amazing how few people can bring so much change into the society. Rosa Parks, African American students from Greensboro sit-ins, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X pretty much made the history of civil rights in postwar America. Mass Media played the most significant role during that time. If it wasn’t for them nobody would even know about the events that happened about racial segregation throughout the US. Newspapers, radio, and television transmitted all the information about Montgomery Bus Boycott, Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins, and others. After people found out about these events more protests and boycotts arose. These boycotts led to a crucial economic impact of the country. Owners of businesses started losing money. This led to desegregation of the lunch counters in a lot of states.

The idea of Martin Luther King, Jr. for nonviolent resistance was a very smart move. I didn’t know that it was borrowed from Gandhi, a spiritual and political leader of India and Indian Independence movement. He was a pioneer of phylosophy of ‘resistance to evil through active, non-violent resistance’.

Class Reflection 4/21

ubekisho — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:31:17 +0000

The Cuban Missile Crisis was one the closest moments in our history to escalate near the point of nuclear war. It was one of the moments when, basically, two people could end our civilization and existence, Kennedy and Khrushchev. It was interesting to observe the actual discussion of McNamara with ex-president John. F. Kennedy and generals of that time; what they had decided about Cuba and what were their justifications biasing them towards that decision are very interesting facts that I didn’t know as a majority of people in our class I assume. The lessons that McNamara was talking about during the movie I think were based on decisions he made throughout his career as Secretary of Defense. One of the lessons was “empathize with your enemy”. It led to the smartest decision in my opinion that was made by the US government, removing all the missiles in Turkey in exchange of Soviets removing all the missiles in Cuba. It stopped the tension between the two most powerful countries of that time that could put our whole world into misery of big casualties due to the bombs blast and then blast of neutron radiation and radioactive contamination of the Earth. I’m very thankful to those who didn’t let this happen!

Class Reflection 4/14

ubekisho — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:28:56 +0000

World War II is the most widespread and deadliest war in history. First time I heard about that war was from my grandfather from my mother’s side. He was only 16 years old when Germans invaded Poland. He was trained as a pilot during the war , but they never send him to battles. Instead he was a mentor for new students in the pilot school. I remember one day I asked him about the war, and he didn’t have much to say except it was a very scary and difficult time. He is an honorary pilot of USSR and Kyrgyzstan, my home country. Another person who was telling me stories about WWII is my grandmother from my father’s side. She was 14 when it all started. Throughout the war she was working in the communist party. She was in charge of administrative work. This relates to what we discussed in class, women taking over jobs. My country’s culture is very traditional. Before WWII women would not work on regular basis. For instance, my great grandmother was a housewife. She never worked. All she did was raising kids, cleaning the house, and cooking food. So it was a big change when women took over some jobs that were done mostly by men. I guess it was common all over the world, in the US, USSR, and other allies for women and take over men’s jobs.

Class reflection 4/7

ubekisho — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:29:14 +0000

It was a very interesting class with a different approach of the theme. We were comparing and relating consumerism back in the days with today’s. It was interesting to see how over time people were able to choose between convenience and reuse. We had a good discussion on why or what did lead people to make decision between convenience and reuse. My point to this whole convenience vs. reuse argument is that , although there a lot of factors influence it, everything has to do with culture and wealth of a society. As professor Boggs said that nobody reuses their cloth or inexpensive goods nowadays. Even expensive goods sometimes are not tried to be fixed and be reused. For some people it’s easier to get rid of it and buy new one. I remember when I was a kid, I would wear cloths of my older cousing because they would grow out of them. It wasn’t because my parents didn’t have any money, in fact, my family was well of. However, it was common in my family to wear cloth of elderly and nothing was wrong with it. I would say this lasted till I grew up and became bigger than my cousins. Needless to say that my younger cousins would wear my close that I would grow out of as well. So it was like a never ending chain. It is, however, changing slowly, but you still can find this in some families. It could be because some people don’t have enough money to buy new cloths. The US, on the other hand, has passed this period a while back, and people now make enough money so they can buy basic needed goods without worrying about reuse of old. It is an arguable and interesting point. It was cool to see how my third world country, even though we (US and Kyrgyzstan) live by the same calendar, is behind US cultural timing wise.

Alien Menace

ubekisho — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:57:30 +0000

During the month of March, everyone on campus looks forward to Saint Patrick’s Day. It’s a day that celebrates Saint Patrick, one of the patron saints of Ireland. Most Irish people and non-Irish people celebrate it to this day, mostly in Ireland, United Kingdom, Australia and North America. Most people celebrate this day by wearing green cloths and drinking lots of alcohol, primarily beer. The stereotype that exists today is that Irish people drink heavily. The holiday that they celebrate by drinking beer and filling up Pubs, has turned into a stereotype that has stuck with Irish community.

On March 17^th, pubs are filled with people ready to drink across the globe. People are dressed up in green cloths which are the representation of Irish people and a shamrock, which was used by Saint Patrick to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish. Before it’s a feast day to celebrate the patron saint, but now it has become known as a big drinking “beerfest”.

The first picture I found is an image of a large gentleman in a green outfit. He looks somewhat intoxicated already by the look of his eyes and his smile. He also looks to be Irish because of his pale skin and green outfit that pays tribute to the old Saint Patrick. He is holding up a mug that looks to be filled with beer. Today, you can find images like this everywhere. Anytime a picture of a shamrock is displayed, people automatically associate it with Irish people, beer, and Saint Patrick’s Day. If you ask most people today what Saint Patrick’s Day is or why people celebrate it, they won’t be able to tell you. They would just know this day as a day for Irish people and everybody else to get drunk. People also have a stereotype about Irish people being able to drink a lot and have more tolerance for it. This is probably referenced to the Saint Patrick’s Day drinking habits.

Saint Patrick’s Day drinking leads to another stereotypical feature of Irish such as their drunken violent behavior. Another picture that I found is an image of Irish people celebrating a holiday by punching each other. It has become stereotypical because during the holiday everybody is drunk and don’t have control over their minds. Every Saint Patrick’s Day I see fights outside of bars where people dressed up in green cloth are beating each other up. Irish people are also known as the most violent fans in sports such as soccer. Since they heavily get drunk during the matches some European countries have special preparations for fans. Sometimes they wouldn’t even allow fans to come to the match because of the brutal violence they bring to the soccer matches.

Reflection on reading assignment (3/31)

ubekisho — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 21:48:04 +0000

Before reading this assignment I wasn’t aware of such term as “Guilded age”. Reading this article I learned a lot about society and history during that period of time. Second Industrial Revolution brought an exponential growth of wealth and knowledge for people during late 1800′s and early 1900′s. People like Henry Ford with his innovation such as assembly line for Model T, Cornelius Vanderbilt with his entrepreneurship skills in shipping and railroad industries, John D. Rockefeller founder of the Standard Oil Company, Andrew Carnegie and his steel company, Henry Flagler partner of John D. Rochefeller and a father of Florida East Coast Railway, and others made fortunes. This upper class people dominated and influenced in the country’s economy and politics.

The term originated from the Shakespear’s King John where he illustrates an excessive and wasteful “paint the lilly” which is beautiful as it is. From 1860 to 1905 number of farms tripled, value of farms soared from 8 billion to 30 billion which is excessive. So more people started migrating to the US. For instance, Chinese Exclusion Act that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the US. African American lost some of the civil rights. I guess what I’m trying to say is that even though everything was seemed good during that period, there were some setbacks that were “gilded” with the wealth of most influential people of America.

Wiki article Bibliography

ubekisho — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:35:45 +0000

Wikipedia article topic: James Heighe Blake

2 Book References:

1. “A portrait of Old George Town” by Grace Dunlop Peter.

This book has some general information about James Blake: what type of person he was, how did he serve to the community.

2. “James Heighe BLake, the third mayor of the corporation of Washington DC” by Allen Clark (Allen Culling).

This book contains about the years as a mayor of Washington DC, what achievements were reached, what happened during the British invasion as part of War of 1812.

4 Wikipedia articles

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Washington,_D.C.

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Washington,_D.C.

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_war_of_1812

2 External Websites:

1. http://www.citymayors.com/mayors/washington_mayor.html

This website is about Washington DC mayor’s news. It is not quite adequate as being an external website. But it has some good information and news.

2. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/civilwar/hrs1-2.htm

This website has a little bit of information about Washington DC surrender druing war of 1812.

3. http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/war1812/meigs/0066.cfm