What Are Espadrilles?

Espadrilles, not as serious as they sound but indeed, they are shoes. Espadrilles are canvas shoes with plated fiber soles. These shoes are rather popular in Islamic nations during the 80s, even though they were first originated in the Pyrenees mountains over 700 years ago. This foot wear was once considered made for the “poor man” but such celebrities as Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and even John F Kennedy made them the “got-to-have” footwear. People continue to wear these flat shoes today, as they are very comfortable,flexible and durable. 

Shiite

The shiite are a political party which are strictly loyal to Ali, son of Mohammad. The shiite make up a rather large branch of the musilms in Islam. This group believes that the only rightful other than Ali himself, who passed away long ago, is the 12th imam (12th, and descendant of Ali, believed to be hiding, and is believed by the shiites to be the messiah.) Any political action decided by anyone else, is believed by the shiite to be a fruitless effort. They’re a strict group, but they’re not extremists like the Taliban. The shiite are simple people, a minority, that believe the ruling of the land should be passed down to family.

Even The Rain

Over the last few hundred years, especially during the colonial period, Latin Countries have been oppressed and abused. This abuse continues today, though some don’t see it that way. People believe things have changed for the better, when in reality, it’s the same problems today as it was in the 1500-1900’s. It’s the same poison that trickled down the white man’s throat when they discovered the world. It’s greed that is the problem.

In the book, “The brief wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” the DR is run by gangsters that hold most of the power. Trujillo, who is believed to be the vicious, infamous leader, is involved with many cases of violence against the natives. The people all fear him, and do not challenge his followers. In many parts of the book, they mention murders tied to El Jefe’s hands. Beli, the “Was going to be a mother” of Trujillo’s brother-in-laws child, was forced into a cane field and beaten brutally till she was believed dead. So how does this relate to colonialism and the movie “Even the rain”?

It’s simple really. Ironically in the movie they are trying to film a movie based on Columbus’s discovery of the new world, a time where man was great. The crew have a few problems with the natives, and just assume it’s nothing at first. However, they come to find that the people are actually being charged for rain water. The director then argues that they cannot charge a man who makes next to nothing, a 300% increase on water. They even lead protests, while doing so, they look back at history as well.

This is a wonderful movie because it opens us to what most would like to keep shut the rest of their lives. The reality that man has raped, pillaged, murdered, forced upon their customs and religions upon the latin man, all this in the name of God, and the more powerful to mankind of the two, greed. 

Beli Blog post

Here in America, every day,we see women who respect themselves. Unfortunately we also see women who feel the need to show how as much skin and sexuality as possible as well. It’s almost as if it’s become a competition. But in the case of Beli, it was not how much skin she could show.It was whether or not someone loved her. 

Beli wanted love. It was plain and simple, but the problem was is she was always being used. When she met the gangster she knew he only wanted her for her body, but she slowly slipped into his charming was as she did with Jack. The gangster used her for sex and she used him to become pregnant in hopes that he would marry her. It’s a terrible way to string together a relationship, but she thought it would work, and when it didn’t, it led her down a lonely path of bitterness.

True the woman was always like a firecracker in an oven, but she was not this bitterly abusive to people, especially her own children. You have to give her credit, she was honestly looking for love. She was always looking for it too quickly and in the wrong places. Such mistakes led her to be dragged into cane field and receive a forced abortion, complete with bruised kidneys, missing teeth and a collapsed lung. So for Beli, she wasn’t too confident, if she was looking into the arms of torture for love.

Anti-Democracy blog post

Here in America, we experience the many freedoms of democracy. We can say what we want, post what we want, and choose what to do with our lives. This is the dream many people chase after. Of course though, there …

Joseph Stalin

History has seen its days of dictators. Of course through the course of this blog, I’d rather not discuss such figures, but they are important figures whether they’re good or bad. I will discuss not only the reign of Joseph Stalin, but his life before he was a dictator as well. I will also provide my own perspective of why Stalin was the way he was. Some of you may agree with these theories. However, whether you agree or not, these are the little known facts and historical events of Joseph Stalin.

Joseph Stalin, who’s legal birth name was Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, was born in December 18, 1878. This was a date that he would later change to December 21^st, 1878. Joseph was born into a very poor family. His mother was a laundress, and his father was a simple cobbler. On top of being a penniless child, who often went hungry, his father was an alcoholic, which sometimes led to random drunken beatings.

Although the facial scars that Stalin had earned from said domestic brutalities remained a permanent mark of abuse, Stalin carried on with his life. He managed to earn a scholarship, and began school to become a priest. However, he was often caught reading some of Karl Marx’s work. Stalin was kicked out of the seminary because he missed his exams. Obviously, it wasn’t a proud moment in his life, but it led to him becoming more interested in politics.

Before Stalin was a dictator, he was a criminal. Oddly enough though, he was a wanted criminal, because he was working for the Bolsheviks. They even nick named him Koba, after a popular fictional Russian outlaw, sort of their robin hood of the day. Stalin went as far as to perform bank robberies to gain money for the political party to succeed with, and in his late 30s, he changed his name to Stalin because it’s the Russian name for “man of steel.” He wanted to be the tough guy, and with his rise to power as dictator in the late 1920’s, he began his reign with strength and terror.

So how is Stalin similar to Trujillo? Both Stalin, the Russian dictator of the USSR from 1929-1953, and the fictional gang leader Trujillo ran fear into the hearts of their home lands. Trujillo and Stalin particularly enjoy murder as a factor of control. However, Stalin was more of a forced concentration camp leader, while Trujillo was a “put a hit on you” kind of guy. The only thing we can say may have caused Stalin to become as crazy as he was, was that he had a horrible childhood, not much can be said about Trujillo.