LAIR: Catch-up/Make-up (November 1 & 2)

We will use this couple of classes for you to catch up with any activities you didn't do this month and/or make up for any previous mistakes by improving any activities that you feel you could improve.

Now, do not think we are doing this because you need it, or because we have to. All of you are doing well this partial, and there is no reason why you should do worse next partial. However, part of this new model's flexibility is that if you know you can do better, you should have the chance to show it.

Just so I don't lose my mind, we need to be organized about this. If you want to catch up or make up, you will have to upload one .docx Word file to Blackboard, before midnight on November 2. If you upload more than one document, I will only look at the first one that appears. If it is not a .docx document, I won't check it. Why? Because doing this is already extra work for me, and I don't think it's fair for you to make me go through the same old excuses ("no se subió", "no entendí", "no leí las instrucciones", "no sé mandar e-mails", "no sé escribir González", "no tengo Word", etc) the second time around. Be prepared. Make it work. 

The file may have the following activities, specifically in this order:

1. Impacts of the Industrial Revolution (Individual)
2. Causes of the Industrial Revolution (Individual)
3. Answer to your UNODC question (Individual)
4. Weekly Questionnaire 1 (Individual)
5. Weekly Questionnaire 2 (Individual)
6. Weekly Questionnaire 3 (Individual)
7. Weekly Questionnaire 4 (Individual)
8. UNODC video (Teams)
9. State-building & nationalism comic (Individual)
10. Sab & Los empeños de una casa videos (Teams)

You don't need to re-do all the activities, but the ones you do improve need to be in the above order, and each activity should have the title I gave it in this blog post. If I can't figure out which activity you remade or who is in your team, I won't check whatever you uploaded. 

Anticipating some questions:

1. Will I be extremely demanding while grading your improved activities, expecting real improvement and not just the same old mistakes?

Yes. Would you check the same activity twice for no reason? Ain't nobody got time for that.  

2. Do I recommend that you ask for help if you didn't understand how to do something the first time and never really took the time to do it?

Yes. Give yourself the opportunity to use this time to improve.

3. What happens if you're satisfied with your performance, or don't really feel like redoing anything?

That's up to you. If you don't have anything to do in class, we may talk about any topics you have an itch about, or you may work on other stuff while your classmates take advantage of this opportunity (and I take the time to help others or grade your activities). Either way, stay with us during the class hour, and please be patient. Patience, take each other by the hand. 

4. Would I recommend doing this, or the extra points video?

Definitely this. None of you need extra points. Unless you know your video is gonna be REALLY GOOD, I suggest focusing on the things that aren't extra.

Ligas y Charolas: ¿Cuántos disfraces tienes? #Halloween

LAIR 304 & 301: Classrooms for our week in Colegio Alemán

We will be in room 3.06.

Remember: 3.06. 

I repeat: 3.06.

LAIR 302 & 303: Classrooms for our week in Colegio Alemán

We will be in room 3.36.

Remember: 3.36. 

I repeat: 3.36.

LAIR: "Sab" by Getrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (October 27)

1. "Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Homenaje)".

2. "Was Abolitionism a Failure" by John Grinspan

"Today, we point to abolition as proof that we can improve society by eliminating one glaring evil. This is what unites “new abolitionists” across the political spectrum, whether they’re working to end the death penalty or ban abortion. We like the idea of sweeping change, of an idealistic movement triumphing over something so clearly wrong.

The problem is, that’s not really how slavery ended. Those upright, moral, prewar abolitionists did not succeed. Neither did the stiff-necked Southern radicals who ended up destroying the institution they went to war to maintain. It was the flexibility of the Northern moderates, those flip-floppers who voted against abolition before they voted for it, who really ended 250 years of slavery.

Abolitionists make better heroes, though, principled and courageous and seemingly in step with 21st century values. But people from the past who espoused beliefs we hold today were usually rejected at the time. We can only wonder which of today’s unpopular causes will, in 150 years, be considered the abolitionism of 2015."

3. "Symbiosis between slavery and feminism in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's Sab?" by Brigida Pastor

"Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's novel Sab (1841) has been subject to many interpretations. Early criticism considered it as little more than a sentimental and shocking romantic story: the impossibly unconventional love of a black slave for a white woman. Later critics have sought to establish Sab as a pioneering antislavery novel. This article will attempt to demonstrate that Avellaneda's main purpose was not to narrate a doomed love, nor to present a denunciation of slavery, but to express her feminist ideology, establishing the parallelism between the situation of black slaves and the oppression of white women in the bourgeois society of her time. However, we cannot say that Avellaneda created a symbiosis between slavery and feminism; the theme of slavery is only a metaphor, doubly shocking because it exposes her own emancipating ideas in an oppressive society that did not forgive those voices which dared to transgress its norms."

4. "A Legacy to the World: Race and Gender in Sab" by Brigida Pastor

"Avellaneda’s purpose is to disguise her feminist views under the pretext of an abolitionist novel, but that she resorts to the anti-slavery theme to establish an analogy between the position of women and slaves, thus highlighting her feminist concern, which is repeated and treated more explicitly in her other early novel Dos mujeres. Sab arises from the need of women to express their feminine identities within the prevailing social structures. Avellaneda’s later works confirm the depth of her commitment to justice and freedom, explaining why she had to use a variety of strategies to survive in a society that condemned those who dared to transgress its norms. In Sab, the contemporary problem of slavery allowed the author also to affirm the rights of women and her desire for social equality.10 But I hope to show that Avellaneda’s powerful portrayal of her "feminised" male slave Sab and of her female characters constitutes an even greater form of rebellion, in that they constitute authentic feminine voices, who in one way or another articulate the problematic relationship between the sexes in a patriarchal society."

LAIR: "Los empeños de una casa" by Juana Inés de la Cruz (October

1. "Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, la peor de todas" by Canal 22

2. Fragment from "Puro amor, que ausente, y sin deseo de indecencias, puede sentir lo que el más profano" by Juana Inés de la Cruz

"Ser mujer, ni estar ausente

no es de amarte impedimento

pues sabes tú que las almas

distancia ignoran, y sexo."

3. "En perseguirme, mundo, ¿qué interesas" by Juana Inés de la Cruz

"¿En perseguirme, mundo, qué interesas? 

¿En qué te ofendo, cuando sólo intento 
poner bellezas en mi entendimiento 
y no mi entendimiento en las bellezas?

Yo no estimo tesoros ni riquezas,  
y así, siempre me causa más contento 
poner riquezas en mi entendimiento 
que no mi entendimiento en las riquezas.

Yo no estimo hermosura que vencida 
es despojo civil de las edades  
ni riqueza me agrada fementida,

teniendo por mejor en mis verdades 
consumir vanidades de la vida 
que consumir la vida en vanidades."

4. Excerpt from "The Silent Protest" by Jason Parker

"Inequality between men and women greatly concerns Sister Juana in her writings, a theme that directly springs from her own history. These writing implicate that she can not reconcile the intellectual discrimination of the era, which gives men ample prospects for academic study while almost entirely neglecting the cultivation of the female mind. While some claim that Sister Juana was a revolutionary feminist for demonstrating such ideas during this time period, this argument is difficult to believe. Sister Juana undoubtedly desired an amplification of the educational and academic roles of women (Paz 1982, 537), but she wanted them in order to complement the roles of the religious system of the period by adding the abilities of women to those of men. She did not intend to revolutionize the religious intellectual system in order to liberate women. Instead of creating a separate feminine system, she attempted to create a place for herself within the masculine system. Sister Juana criticizes the arrogance and superiority of men (Sábat-Rivers 1997, 14), characteristics that lead them to exclude women from higher intellectual pursuits, in works such as the poem “Redondillas:” 

"Hombres necios que acusáis

a la mujer sin razón,

sin ver que sois la ocasión

de lo mismo que culpáis:

si con ansia sin igual

solicitáis su desdén,

¿por qué queréis que obren bien

si las incitáis al mal?

Cambatís su resistencia

y luego, con gravedad,

decís que fue liviandad

lo que hizo la diligencia.

Parecer quiere el denuedo

de vuestro parecer loco

el niño que pone el coco

y luego le tiene miedo.

Queréis, con presunción necia,

hallar a la que buscáis,

para pretendida, Thais,

y en la posesión, Lucrecia."

LAIR: Integration, State-building & Nationalism in 19th Century Mexico (October 26)

1. "Alegoría de la Constitución de 1857" by Petronilo Monroy (1869)

LAIR: El Porfiriato in Context (October 25)

1. Excerpt from Plan de la Noria, 1871:

"La reelección indefinida, forzosa y violenta, del Ejecutivo Federal, ha puesto en peligro las instituciones nacionales.

En el Congreso una mayoría regimentada por medios reprobados y vergonzosos, ha hecho ineficaces los nobles esfuerzos de los diputados independientes y convertido á la Representación Nacional en una cámara cortesana, obsequiosa y resuelta á seguir siempre los impulsos del Ejecutivo."
"Que la elección de Presidente sea directa, personal, y que no pueda ser elegido ningún ciudadano que en el año anterior haya ejercido por un solo día autoridad ó encargo cuyas funciones se extiendan á todo el territorio nacional.

Que el Congreso de la Unión sólo pueda ejercer funciones electorales en los asuntos puramente económicos, y en ningún caso para la designación de altos funcionarios públicos.

Que el nombramiento de los Secretarios del despacho y de cualquier empleado ó funcionario que disfrute por sueldos ó emolumentos más de tres mil pesos anuales, se someta á la aprobación de la Cámara.

Que la Unión garantice á los Ayuntamientos derechos y recursos propios, como elementos indispensables para su libertad é independencia.

Que se garantice á todos los habitantes de la República el juicio por jurados populares que declaren y califiquen la culpabilidad de los acusados; de manera que á los funcionarios judiciales sólo se les conceda la facultad de aplicar la pena que designen las leyes preexistentes.

Que se prohiban los odiosos impuestos de alcabala y se reforme la ordenanza de aduanas marítimas y fronterizas, conforme á los preceptos constitucionales y á las diversas necesidades de nuestras costas y fronteras.

La convención tomará en cuenta estos asuntos y promoverá todo lo que conduzca al restablecimiento de los principios, al arraigo de las instituciones y al común bienestar de los habitantes de la República.

No convoco ambiciones bastardas ni quiero avivar los profundos rencores sembrados por las demasías de la administración. La insurrección nacional que ha de devolver su IMPERIO á las leyes y á la moral ultrajadas, tiene que inspirarse de nobles y patrióticos sentimientos de dignidad y justicia."

2. Plan de Tuxtepec

"Que la la República Mexicana está regida por un gobierno que ha hecho del abuso un sistema político, despreciando y violando la moral y las leyes, viciando á la sociedad, despreciando á las instituciones, y haciendo imposible el remedio de tantos males por la vía pacífica; que el sufragio público se ha convertido en una farsa, pues el presidente y sus amigos por todos los medios reprobados hacen llegar á los puestos públicos á los que llaman sus "Candidatos Oficiales", rechazando á todo ciudadano independiente; que de este modo y gobernando hasta sin ministros se hace la burla más cruel á la democracia que se funda en la independencia de los poderes; que la soberanía de los Estados es vulnerada repetidas veces; que el Presidente y sus favoritos destituyen á su arbitrio á los Gobernadores, entregando los Estados á sus amigos, como sucedió en Coahuila, dOaxaca, Yucatán y Nuevo León, habiéndose intentado hacer lo mismo con Jalisco; que á este Estado se le segregó para debilitarlo, el importante cantón de Tepic, el cual se ha gobernando militarmente hasta la fecha, con agravio del pacto federal y del derecho de Gentes; que sin consideración á los fueros de la humanidad se retiró á los Estados fronterizos la mezquina subvención que les servía para defensa de los indios bárbaros; que el tesoro público se dilapida en gastos de placer, sin que el Gobierno haya llegado á presentar al Congreso de la Unión la cuenta de los fondos que maneja."

3. Creelman-Diaz Interview

4. "The Porfiriato: The Stability and Growth Mexico Needed" by Travis Evens

• " In 1875, less than 580 kilometers of track had been laid in Mexico, but by 1896 this number had increased over 1000% to 11,500 kilometers of track and continued to grow as the new century approached "
• "Díaz revitalized and expanded the industry such that the export of minerals jumped by 650% during his rule, as the new railroad system made it possible to transport ore to other parts of the country for processing, as well as to the United States for sale [6]. Díaz also increased the amount of titles given for mining operations and altered mining laws to encourage foreign investment in this capital-intensive industry and as a result, silver production more than doubled from 1886 to 1900 [4]. "
• " He ordered the establishment of 3 new consulates along the border with the United States to better regulate trade, an average annual construction of over 1 thousand kilometers of telegraph line to improve communication, and a drastically improved postal service that distributed over 5 million pieces of mail in 1878 [4]. In addition, Díaz abolished the old alcabalas internal tax system between provinces that was hampering commerce and ordered the construction of a canal to drain the Valley of Mexico in order to solve the persistent flooding problem in Mexico City [5, e]. Indeed, Díaz’s contribution to the economic revitalization of Mexico is due in no small part to these infrastructure improvements and innovations. "

LAIR: Foreign Intervention in 19th Century Mexico (October 24)

1. Excerpt from "Maximilian in Mexico" by Phil Leigh

"On Oct. 3, 1863, a Mexican delegation arrived in the Austrian port city of Trieste to officially offer Mexico’s imperial crown to the 31-year-old Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, a scion of the Austrian branch of the Hapsburg royal family and the brother of the Austrian emperor, Franz Josef I.

For 300 years the family’s Spanish branch and its successors had, by virtue of its seat in Madrid, ruled over colonial Mexico and much of the Western Hemisphere. After Mexico won independence in 1821, it fell into a constant state of near anarchy; There were 75 government successions by the time the American Civil War started. Conservative Mexicans and wealthy ex-patriots longed for the stability that a European monarchy might provide, and some of them recalled wistfully the steady hand of the Hapsburgs.

Maximilian was interested for two reasons. The liberal-minded archduke felt he could improve Mexico. Perhaps more important, there was nothing for him at home: his brother was just two years older, and was looking forward to a long reign (in fact, he ruled until his death during World War I).

Still, Maximilian would never have ascended the Mexican throne were it not for yet another emperor, Napoleon III of France. Since Napoleon III’s famous uncle sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803, France had no major stake in the Western Hemisphere. With the advent of America’s Civil War, the French monarch sensed an opportunity to change that, with Maximilian as his puppet.

In early 1862, as America convulsed through the first year of its Civil War, France began placing troops in Mexico to collect customs duties on goods, in order to force the country to make payments on a defaulted debt to several European countries. But the Mexican government was too poor to concurrently make the payments and at the same time support the army of President Benito Juárez. Initially, soldiers from Spain and Britain joined the French, but were withdrawn once they realized Napoleon was scheming to establish a puppet monarchy. As a result, Maximilian would have no power without the presence of the 40,000-man French Army.

Napoleon had hoped to get Maximilian installed a year or so earlier, but he did not capture Mexico City until June 1863. Additionally, the archduke’s October ’63 acceptance of the crown was conditioned on “a vote of the whole country,” which was quickly achieved by gathering signatures under the glitter of French bayonets.

Still, Napoleon knew how drawn out the war was becoming and reasoned that President Abraham Lincoln would be too focused on suppressing the Confederacy to oppose him. The Monroe Doctrine would be temporarily impotent, while the future offered possibilities to render it permanently ineffective.

Although Juárez was forced out of Mexico City, he remained in the country opposing Maximilian during the entire American Civil War. Juárez quickly sided with Lincoln. Early in the war he granted the United States the right to land troops on Mexico’s west coast, where they could march rapidly into Arizona territory if needed to confront a possible Confederate drive westward. On doubtful authority the first Confederate minister to Mexico, John Pickett, countered by offering to support Mexico in the reoccupation of territories lost in the Mexican War, including the present states of California, Arizona, and New Mexico, if Juarez would cancel his deal with Lincoln.

Although Juárez declined, Washington realized that the Confederates could make a similar offer to Maximilian, turning the Mexican crisis into a proxy war. As one visitor to the archduke’s castle in Trieste wrote the Confederate minister in Paris,

Maximilian expressed the warmest possible interest in the Confederate cause. He said he considered it identical with that of the new Mexican Empire … that he was particularly desirous that his sentiments upon this subject should be known to the Confederate President.""

2. Encyclopedia Britannica's article about La Reforma:

"La Reforma, ( Spanish: “The Reform”) liberal political and social revolution in Mexicobetween 1854 and 1876 under the principal leadership of Benito Juárez.

La Reforma period began with the issuance in 1854 of the Plan de Ayutla, a liberal pronouncement calling for the removal of the dictator Antonio López de Santa Anna. After Santa Anna’s fall in 1855, Juárez and the liberals enacted the Ley Juárez, abolishing the fueros (special privileges of the clergy and the military); the Ley Lerdo (1856) ordered the sale of all church lands not used for specifically religious purposes. In 1857 the congress, in which the moderate liberals held sway, drafted a liberal, federalist constitution; it ended special jurisdiction for the clergy, limited the power of the church, placed the army under ultimate civilian control, abolished hereditary titles and imprisonment for debt, and gave Mexican citizens their first genuine bill of rights.

In 1858 the conservative clergy, military, and landowners precipitated a civil war (known as the War of the Reform or Reform War), which was won by the liberal government by 1860. By the Laws of La Reforma (1859), church property, except for places of worship, was to be confiscated without compensation, monasteries were suppressed, cemeteries nationalized, and civil marriage instituted. Confiscated church property was to be allotted in small parcels to the landless; the land policy of La Reforma was its outstanding failure, however, because by the end of the period the number and wealth of large landholders increased while the condition of impoverished, landless peasants worsened."

LAIR: Liberalism & Conservatism in Mexico (October 23)

1. Excerpt from the profile of Benito Juárez in ThoughtCo.

"1854-1858 CONFLICT BREWING

The liberals had the upper hand for the moment, but their ideological conflict with conservatives continued to smolder. As minister of Justice, Juárez passed laws limiting church power, and in 1857 a new constitution was passed, which limited them even further. By then, Juárez was in Mexico City, serving in his new role as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The new constitution turned out to be the spark that reignited the smoking fires of conflict between the liberals and conservatives, and in December 1857, the conservative general Félix Zuloaga overthrew the government.

THE REFORM WAR 1858-1861

Many prominent liberals, including Juárez, were arrested. Released from prison, Juarez went to Guanajuato, where he declared himself president and declared war. The two governments, led by Juárez and Zuloaga, were sharply divided, mostly over the role of religion in government. Juárez worked to further limit the powers of the church during the conflict. The United States government, forced to pick a side, formally recognized the liberal Juárez government in 1859. This turned the tide in favor of the liberals, and on January 1, 1861, Juárez returned to Mexico City to assume the presidency of a united Mexico.

EUROPEAN INTERVENTION

After the disastrous reform war, Mexico and its economy were in tatters. The nation still owed great sums of money to foreign nations, and in late 1861, Britain, Spain and France united to send troops to Mexico to collect.

Some intense last-minute negotiations convinced the British and Spanish to withdraw, but the French remained and began fighting their way to the capital, which they reached in 1863. They were welcomed by conservatives, who had been out of power since Juárez’ return. Juárez and his government were forced to flee.

MAXIMILIAN AND JUÁREZ

The French invited Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, a 31-year-old Austrian nobleman, to come to Mexico and assume rule. In this, they had the support of many Mexican conservatives, who thought that a monarchy would best stabilize the country. Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrived in 1864, where they became crowned emperor and empress of Mexico. Juárez continued to war with the French and conservative forces, eventually forcing the emperor to flee the capital. Maximilian was captured and executed in 1867, effectively ending the French occupation."

2. Excerpt from Plan de Ayutla, 1854:

"Considerando:

Que la permanencia de don Antonio López de Santa Anna en el con exclusión absoluta de cualquier otro sistema de gobierno poder es un amago constante para las libertades públicas, puesto que, con el mayor escándalo, bajo su gobierno se han hollado las garantías individuales…

…sólo ha venido a oprimir y vejar a los pueblos recargándolos de contribuciones onerosas sin consideración a la pobreza general, empleándose su producto en gastos superfluos y formar la fortuna, como en otra época, de unos cuantos favoritos;

…debiendo conservar la integridad del territorio de la república, ha vendido una parte considerable de ella sacrificando a nuestros hermanos de la frontera del Norte,

…las instituciones republicanas son las únicas que convienen al país, con exclusión absoluta de cualquier otro sistema de gobierno;"

3. Excerpt from Plan de Tacubaya, 1857:

"Considerando: Que la mayoría de los pueblos no ha quedado satisfecha con la Carta fundamental que le dieran sus mandatarios, porque ella no ha sabido hermanar el progreso con el orden y la libertad, y porque la oscuridad en muchas de sus disposiciones ha sido el germen de la guerra civil:

Considerando: Que la República necesita de instituciones análogas a sus usos y costumbres, y al desarrollo de sus elementos de riqueza y prosperidad, fuente verdadera de la paz pública, y del engrandecimiento y respetabilidad de que es tan digna en el interior y en el extranjero:

Considerando: Que la fuerza armada no debe sostener lo que la Nación no quiere, y sí ser el apoyo y la defensa de la voluntad pública, bien expresada ya de todas maneras,"

LAIR: Optional Extra Points Activity that is extremely optional (please don't do it if you don't want to or don't have time)

I've been receiving questions about whether if there is an activity you can do for extra points in the second or final partial. My answer might surprise you.

Frankly, I wasn't on board the idea, because I've been dealing with way too many complaints about your current activities. I honestly don't have the energy to defend one more activity, or to deal with more weekly cases of "omg I can't use Blackboard", "omg it didn't upload", and my personal favorite (because it's not true): "omg it's too much work". Mark my words: I did come up with an extra points activity, I'm clearly saying it is optional, and yet I know someone will think it's mandatory, and I'll have to spend more hours talking about this activity to people who either have incomplete information about my class, or don't understand what "optional" means, or both.

But anyway, today I was looking for videos about the upcoming book presentations and I came up with a proposal.

If you want to do an OPTIONAL activity for extra points, you can make a 7 to 10-minute video like the book presentations, but about a book you already presented. That's right, I mean the ones you already presented in class before September 19. It would be graded exactly like the ones we'll have starting October 27, with this rubric. You can do it either in your original team or individually, but it must be improved after your presentation. If you just make a video with the same things you showed in the classroom, you will have exactly zero extra points.

Now, the due date... depends on a few things. If you want extra points in the Second Partial (which, frankly, I don't think you need, because the Second Partial is only 15% of your final grade), I must receive the video before midnight on November 3. 

However, if you want the extra points for the Final Partial (which I recommend, since the Final Partial is 55% of your final grade), I need to receive the video before midnight on November 17.

Notice my choice of words. I'm saying I have to receive it before midnight on those dates, not that you have to send it.

Since this activity is OPTIONAL and the points are EXTRA, there are no second chances to send me the link to your video. If you can't manage to use Blackboard this one time, that is on you, and there are no more chances. The reason for this is that I also have deadlines I need to meet, and this activity is sitting on the edge of two very important ones.

How does that sound? Any questions? For the record: I think most of you don't actually need extra points, but it's only fair for me to share this with everyone who may want to do it. That said, your videos better be GOOD. I want some quality, entertaining, yet surprisingly educational material. Think Crash Course mixed with a little bit of Adam Ruins Everything, a dash of Nerdwriter1, and (if you REALLY want me to like it) a light dusting of Ligas y Charolas.

Happy Youtubing, my hybridly flexible students.

LAIR Conference Call: The Independence of Mexico, in Context (October 20)

1. "Latin American Revolutions: Crash Course World History 31" by John Green

2. "War and Nation Building in Latin America: Crash Course World History 225" by John Green

3. Conclusion to "The Process of Mexican Independence" by Virginia Guedea

LAIR Active Reading: Colonial Mexico (October 19)

OPCVL Review, for your Weekly Questionnaire:

1. "The Spanish Empire, Silver, and Runaway Inflation: Crash Course World History 25" by John Green

2. "The Black Legend, Native Americans, and Spaniards: Crash Course US History 1" by John Green

3. Introduction to "The Seventeenth Century Crisis in New Spain: Myth or Reality?" by John TePaske and Herbert Klein

LAIR Conference Call: Partial Project (October 18)

We will use today's conference call to work on the final touches of your UNODC video.

To turn it in, upload your video to Youtube, set it as Public, and paste the link of the video on the correct Blackboard assignment.

I'll be on Zoom at the hour of the class and on Remind for the rest of the morning if you have any questions.

LAIR Active Reading: Work on your projects (October 17)

Use this active reading session to work on either your UNODC video or your comic. I'll be online on Remind, so let me know if you want my input at the hour of the class.

Remember to upload your comic to Blackboard before midnight.

LAIR Conference Call: Integration & Asesorías (October 16)

Today's conference call will be used to work on either your comic or your UNODC video, and to answer any questions you may have.

LAIR Conference Call: The American Concept of Nation-State & the American Civil War (October 13)

1. "Ask a Slave 2: Abolitioning"

2. "Drunk History: Harriet Tubman Leads an Army of Bad Bitches"

3. "Adam Ruins Everything: The Disturbing History of the Suburbs" by Adam Conover

4. "Women in the 19th Century: Crash Course US History 16" by John Green

LAIR Active Reading: American Civil War (October 12)

1. "The Civil War: Part 1. Crash Course US History 20" by John Green

2. The Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln (1863)

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

3. "The Civil War: Part 2. Crash Course U.S. History 21" by John Green

4. Excerpt from The Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln (1863):

"Now, therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief, of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days, from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit:

Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the Parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the City of New Orleans) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth[)], and which excepted parts, are for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued.

And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons."

LAIR Conference Call: European Concept of Nation State & The Congress of Vienna (October 11)

1. "Absolutism vs. Constitutionalsm" by Tom Richey

2. "Whaaat? - Community, Nation & State"

(Click on the diagram to make it larger.)

LAIR Active Reading: The Congress of Vienna (October 10)

1. "The Congress of Vienna: Metternich's Conservative Order" by Tom Richey

2. Excerpt from the Protocol of the Congress of Vienna, 1815:

"The objects to be treated in the Congress will be classed in two series:
1. The first will include the general arrangement of the affairs of Europe, territorial divisions, fixation of boundaries, the definite fate of the countries provisionally occupied and administered by the Allied Powers, and other questions of a general interest, such as that of the slave trade.
2. The second will be consecrated to the establishment of the political bases of the federative pact of Germany.
The preparatory work of the two classes will be confided to two committees, of which one,- composed of the plenipotentiaries of will be charged with the part relative to general questions, and the other, composed of the plenipotentiaries of with that relative to the organization of Germany.
The six cabinets desire that the plenipotentiaries of the other powers make known to the first committee and those of the states of Germany to the second, the propositions and the views of their governments, and when as a consequence of these communications the committee charged with the general affairs will have drawn up its plan and taken cognizance of that which the other committee will have formed for the establishment of the political bases of the federative system of Germany, the six cabinets will hasten to carry to the sanction of the Congress the result of their deliberations." 

3. Preamble to the Treaty of Paris, (1814):

"In the name of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity. His majesty the King of the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his allies, on the one part; and his majesty the King of France and of Navarre, on the other part; animated by an equal desire to terminate the long agitations of Europe, and the sufferings of mankind, by a permanent peace, founded upon a just repartition of force between its states, and containing in its stipulations the pledge of its durability, and his Britannic majesty, together with his allies, being unwilling to require of France, now that, replaced under the paternal government of her kings, she offers the assurance of security and stability to Europe, the conditions and guarantees which they had with regret demanded from her former government, their said majesties have named plenipotentiaries to discuss, settle, and sign a treaty of peace and amity"

4. Letter from Charles de Talleyrand, Prince of Bénévent, to King Louis XVIII of France, 1815:

"This project was clearly intended to render the four powers who call themselves allied, absolute masters of all the operations of the Congress, since, supposing the six principal powers were to constitute themselves judges of the questions relative to the composition of the congress, to the questions which it -as to regulate, to the procedure to be followed in order to regulate them, to the order in which they will be regulated, and were to name alone and without control the committees which were to prepare everything. France and Spain, even supposing they agreed on all questions, would be always only two against four."

Ligas y Charolas: ¿Las auditorías sirven contra la corrupción?

Link al video aquí. 

LAIR Conference Call: State Building Activity (October 9)

Activity: Create a new country by getting into your teams, and creating a flag, a national slogan, and a national history, and then locating yourselves in the map, in the land you believe should be yours. Put everything in a PowerPoint file and e-mail the information to your professor before midnight.

1. Design a flag here: Flag design app

2. Think of a national slogan and put it on a poster using Piktochart.

3. Create a national history using: Plot Generator

4. Choose an existing song as your national anthem.

5. Choose your location and territory in the following map:

Now make the following decisions, and wait for instructions. Put everything in the same PowerPoint as before.

6. Key roles:

• Head of State (must approve all decisions) 
• Head of Government (must execute all decisions)

7. Key decisions:

• Type of government (How are decisions made? Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, Socialist regime, Oligarchy?)
• Who is part of the country? (Just original members, immigrants, refugees, etc)
• What will be produced? (Decide on a resource you will exchange)
• Will you be defensive or ofensive? (How will you react to internal and external threats?)

8. Challenge 1: Hurricane Francisco has reached a category 5 and will make landfall in your country right now. WHAT WILL YOU DO? How will you do it?

9. Challenge 2: Your country has received a wave of illegal immigration from the United States of America. These illegal immigrants now form a minority in your country and want to participate in its politics. WILL YOU LET THEM? Why or why not?