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The Heat: Arctic natural resource race pt1

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Ships in the (Polar) night – sustainable Arctic shipping

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The new cold war: The race for Arctic oil and gas - Counting the Cost

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The Arctic had once been a largely peaceful zone, harboring cooperative international scientific research. But today, it is swiftly becoming one of militarized power politics.

Heavily armed nations surround the melting Arctic Ocean, with its unstable environment of eroding shorelines, accessible natural resources, and contested maritime passages.

This February, the U.S. launched little publicized, month-long military exercises in the Arctic, hosted by Finland and Norway.

The Pentagon's European Command described the exercises - named Arctic Forge 23, Defense Exercise North, and Joint Viking - as a way "to demonstrate readiness by deploying a combat-credible force to enhance power in NATO's northern flank".

The exercises bring together more than 10,000 military personnel from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.

Actual hostilities could have potentially broken out earlier in February, when the U.S. military shot down an unidentified object over Alaska, soon after a U.S. fighter jet brought down an alleged Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic.

The balloon over Alaska turned out to belong to a U.S. hobby club, but a sense of menace was maintained.

One way people become aware of impending conflicts is through the entertainment industry, which is important in the process of manufacturing consent.

Right now, a Danish series called "Borgen - Power & Glory" is doing just that, revealing the growing importance of the Arctic as a " geopolitical hotspot in world politics."

Borgen addresses the topic of natural resources in the Arctic, which roils up contention between the United States, Russia and China.

The series centers on Greenland, a Danish possession with an independence movement that gains strength from the discovery of a vital resource. In the drama, that is oil. In reality, it is rare earth elements.

In the drama, this creates tension for the Danish government, caught up in a great power struggle between the U.S., China, and Russia. In reality, Greenland is only one part of a looming conflict in the Arctic, not only about resources, but also about passage through the ocean, which has become more navigable due to accelerated climate change.

The sinister presentation of China's representative in Borgen creates the fear of China's actual presence in the Arctic. It has a uranium and rare earths mining joint venture with Australia in southern Greenland, which allows two Chinese firms to lead in processing and marketing the materials. China is also exploring zinc, iron and oil deposits in Greenland.

Not only has this activity raised concerns about competitive access to rare earths, but, in the case of Greenland, it has raised security issues for Denmark, a member of NATO.

As a result, Denmark has revised its security policy, in what Foreign Policy magazine described as a new " geopolitical battlefield ".

Echoing U.S. security concerns, Denmark has increased its military budget with a so-called " Arctic capacity package " to enhance surveillance with drones, satellites, and radar.

Greenland is relatively autonomous from Denmark and shares a seat with the kingdom at the Arctic Council, but it does have an independence movement that could fulfill its goal with the wealth offered by the mines.

This would cost Denmark its seat in the Arctic Council, and, with it, the presence of another NATO member.

The Arctic Council, established in 1996, defines itself as "the leading intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the Arctic States, Arctic Indigenous peoples and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues".

Thus, a bid by China to build an airport in Greenland was prevented by the Danish government. This was despite the fact that Greenland's fishing industry was open to the marketing opportunity it presented, and to the eventual promise of independence.

China, however, having its own concerns over foreign intervention in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Taiwan, is unwilling to interfere politically in Greenland.

Furthermore, intervention from the U.S. was likely - as dramatized in Borgen - given the U.S. air base at Thule, which is home to the U.S. Space Force and a global network of missile warning sensors.

A successful independence movement in Greenland would cause Denmark to lose its status as an Arctic State, as well as potentially threaten Washington's continued use of the base.

Climate change impacts the geopolitics of the Arctic

Besides the question of Greenland, the navigability of the Arctic Ocean, due to its thawing, has created several geopolitical issues. It now greatly shortens China's trade route with Europe and offers a backup to the Malacca Straits, which U.S. warships could blockade in case of a conflict.

Indeed, in 2012, a Chinese icebreaker made full transit through the Arctic to Iceland. And in 2023, China tested its third trip, proving its trading capability and enhancing scientific cooperation between the two countries.

While China is not itself an Arctic state, it has laid out its claims in international terms in its Arctic Policy of 2018: "The Arctic situation now goes beyond its original inter-Arctic States or regional nature, having a vital bearing on the interests of States outside the region... with global implications and international impacts."

Beijing claims "rights in respect of scientific research, navigation, overflight, fishing, laying of submarine cables and pipelines in the high seas and other relevant sea areas in the Arctic Ocean, and rights to resource exploration and exploitation in the Area."

It further claims that, geographically, China's climate system and ecological environment are affected by Arctic events, and therefore deserves to be consulted in matters of security and global governance.

More assertively, China expects to play a major role in expanding the network of shipping routes in the Arctic in the form of a Polar Silk Road "to facilitate connectivity and sustainable economic and social development of the Arctic."

These ambitions have alarmed Western countries, despite China's disclaimers of intent: respect, cooperation, win-win result, and sustainability.

On the other hand, even some Western military observers validate China's interest in and contribution to resource development and scientific cooperation in the Arctic. They assuage fears of China's use of the right of passage through Arctic waters.

Furthermore, China has yet to invest in any Russian Arctic port, and no joint naval exercises have been held in Russian Arctic waters.

Finally, China's position as an accredited observer to the Arctic Council constrains any political challenges it may mount. As a 2022 academic article published by the U.S. Air Force put it: " China Is Not a Peer Competitor in the Arctic."

China-Russia partnership

The growing closeness of China and Russia, nevertheless, raises new questions about a shifting balance of power in the region.

Russia's northern border occupies over half the shoreline on the ocean, which gives it claims to offshore resources like oil. The North Sea Route, hugging the length of Russia's northern border, offers a shipping lane for Chinese trade with Europe.

Historically, Russia has seen the route as within its sphere of influence and has not accepted China's term of a Polar Silk Road.

The Ukraine war, however, has made Russia more dependent on China. Their partnership may change the balance of power in the region.

As of 2021, Russia chaired the Arctic Council for a two-year term stint. But the Arctic Chiefs of Defense meetings and the Arctic Security Forces Roundtable have excluded Russia since a democratic referendum with more than 90% approval led to the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Claiming to perceive a threat, NATO has revived an old Cold War expression, referring to the "northern flank" for this area, and exploring its potentially conflictual relationship with Russia in that context.

For Moscow, defense of its northern border is a prime security issue. But with the revival of Cold War tensions, the U.S. and NATO consider Russia's militarization to be a threat, and they are remilitarizing as well.

As Vijay Prashad has shown, NATO's so-called " Centre of Excellence - Cold Weather Operations ", based in Norway, brings Western allies together for biannual military exercises in the Arctic.

Should Finland and Sweden join NATO, Russia would be confronted with a phalanx of opponents on the Arctic Council and be encircled north and west by hostile forces.

Consequently, the stability of the Arctic region is now endangered.

The Arctic: a treasure trove of natural resources

In addition to its geostrategic location, the Arctic is crucial for its natural resources.

90 percent of Russia's current gas production and 60 percent of its oil production take place in the Arctic. The region has a staggering 60 percent of Russia's gas and oil reserves.

The Russian Arctic also has large deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas, as well as diamonds, gold, nickel, cobalt, copper, palladium, platinum, zinc, and rare earth metals.

In addition, Russia aspires to make the region more hospitable, even tourist friendly. It plans to build new cities, as well as harbors, airports, and IT equipment.

These plans include ways of preventing the negative impacts of this development on climate change, to which the Arctic is highly vulnerable.

Finally, the Northern Sea Route, made passable by the Russian fleet of 40 icebreakers, including four nuclear-powered ones and a new series planned, is a bone of contention in maritime law.

Russia considers this a national waterway. But if foreign ships are to pass through for trade, it would have to become an international route, possibly open to hostile warships as well.

The conflict in Eastern Europe, on Russia's western border, has increased Moscow's fear of encirclement, including in its north.

U.S. and NATO threaten to upset the balance in the Arctic

Denmark, with its autonomous region Greenland, as well as Norway jockey for position in the Arctic. As members of NATO, they have participated in maneuvers they consider a form of deterrence.

Should Finland and Sweden also join NATO, Russia's northern border would face a militarized front including Canada, the United States, and Iceland.

A delicate balance to avoid war has so far been maintained within the Arctic Council. However, this equilibrium is increasingly being challenged by a heightened diplomatic and military presence of the U.S. in the Arctic, which has created the position of " Ambassador-At-Large for the Arctic Region," and is developing Army Arctic Special Operations Forces.

A stated mission of these U.S. Special Forces is to leverage the specialized Arctic knowledge of Indigenous peoples for military purposes and to prevent their "vulnerability to other influences."

Given the malign neglect suffered by Alaskan and Canadian Inuit people and by Sami people in the other Arctic nation-states, this is a real concern.

A 2021 U.S. Army document announced that Washington must " regain Arctic dominance " and "win" in the region.

The chief of staff paper anticipated northern routes from which troops could be deployed from Alaska to points around the globe. It also recognized the importance of Arctic resources, like rare minerals needed for components of aircraft engines and advanced weapons.

A new NATO Arctic Command expects to establish a formal Arctic Security Forum that includes the U.S.-led military alliance.

While civilian observers acknowledge Russia's right to defend its northern border, and urge case-by-case management of disagreements to maintain stability, the U.S. military recommends serious strategizing in the Arctic Council with its NATO allies, which may soon include Sweden and Finland.

Not only is the Northern Sea Route along Russia's coast contested in maritime law but so too are the Northwest Passage in the western Arctic, adjoining Canada, Greenland, and Alaska.

In this case, Canada agrees with Russia that maintaining national control is a matter of sovereign right.

Other states with heavy commercial maritime traffic, however, such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea, claim international right of passage under the UN Convention on Law of the Sea.

China could also claim this right, regarding the Northern Sea Route, though it would conflict with Russian interests.

The rights of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic

The heightened tension over the Northwest Passage has led the Canadian government to court its Inuit population, whose settlement area encompasses most of the Northwest Passage routes.

The land claims agreement of 1993, however, does not give the Indigenous people authority over marine areas, only consultation.

This agreement was successfully employed in the Inuit statement supporting Canada's rebuttal to former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who bluntly denounced Ottawa's claim over the Northwest Passage as "illegitimate."

Environmental issues and the lives of Indigenous peoples gain attention in this political whirlpool, but mainly rhetorically.

The damage wrought by the fossil fuel industry and more recently by new technologies of "green" mining continue to push First Nations further off their lands, imperiling their natural foods.

But they are assuming a stronger political voice in the upcoming rivalries between their respective nation-states.

Both the Inuit peoples of the western Arctic and the Sami of the eastern Arctic have developed circumpolar organizations that participate in the governance of the Arctic.

The states that colonized them and in which they are now minorities are taking a greater interest in maintaining their loyalty and in acquiring their knowledge of Arctic conditions in case of conflicts.

The Inuit of the western region of the U.S., Canada, and Greenland total an estimated 180.000 population.

16,500 are in Alaska, organized into the Alaska Federation of Nations. The resolutions of its October 2022 annual meeting reflect resentment of many hardships: the decline in stock of fisheries threatening native food security; a drug epidemic of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine; a high incidence of domestic violence, sexual violence, and missing and murdered people; waste and contaminants left by the military and other governmental agencies; ongoing seizure of native lands; and insufficient access to education and business.

Especially poignant is a resolution "imploring the state of Alaska to end its practice of requiring tribal waivers of sovereign immunity as a condition for receiving grant funds."

The more than 70,000 Inuit in Canada are largely urbanized, due to a long history of forced assimilation. With high unemployment, low wages and substandard housing, they have significant food insecurity, a high rate of imprisonment, and youth suicide.

In the 1970s, an organization of Inuit was formed to protect their individual and cultural rights, as well as land claims. It is part of the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which connects with Inuit in Alaska and Greenland, and has connections with the United Nations.

The Sami are a historically nomadic herding people who once roamed freely and are now divided with approximately 20,000 in Sweden, 50,000 in Norway, 8,000 in Finland and 2,000 in Russia.

In all of these states, they suffer from ongoing land grabs, which interfere with reindeer grazing routes; discrimination; and violent racism. The deliberate killing of reindeer herds have plagued the Sami in Sweden, despite government attempts at reconciliation and some funding.

The Sami in Finland similarly suffer loss of land, inhibition of reindeer herding, and lack of power over access to resources on their remaining land. Finland now touts cultural tourism of the Sami.

The Sami in Norway have organized against infrastructure projects that threaten even more land loss, to little avail.

The Sami in Russia, the smallest group, reestablished contact with the others in 1991. Their urban conditions are not better than that of the Sami elsewhere, but their reindeer herding has a unique problem.

They had been organized into cooperatives which now have difficulty readjusting to new conditions of ongoing industrialization. As elsewhere, this development continues to usurp their pasture lands. In addition, tourist fishing has reduced their food supply.

Like the Inuit, the Sami have a circumpolar organization for common interests, a Sami Council consisting of three Parliaments representing the indigenous peoples of Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The Russian Sami are represented by NGOs.

The war in Ukraine has created a split among the Sami. In April 2022, the Council suspended formal relations with the Russian group, which supported the Russian Federation, portending the incursion of sub-Arctic politics into the polar region.

The relatively peaceful days of the Arctic are over. Its warming is turning up the geopolitical heat in the polar region, bringing to mind an old adage: "What happens in the Arctic doesn't stay in the Arctic."

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The Arctic is the next frontier in the new cold war

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The Arctic had once been a largely peaceful zone, harboring cooperative international scientific research. But today, it is swiftly becoming one of militarized power politics. Heavily armed nations surround the melting Arctic Ocean, with its unstable environment of eroding shorelines, accessible natural resources, and contested maritime passages. This February, the U.S.

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AMC conseils pour préparer le grand oral

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AMC conseils pour préparer le grand oral

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Talk of God has been brought into and out of national politics throughout American history, with various partisan and non-partisan causes, but rarely in our history has any political group weaponized faith for political goals as comprehensively as today's Republican Party. Although the name of God has been used as a rallying cry for Republicans for decades, the party that claims to support Christian values has developed a twisted ideology where the mere mention of God has become a license for injustice. Consequently, his name is being thrown out in vain by Republicans who seek to avoid being held responsible for their actions, even when those actions go directly against the Scripture.

The contradictory nature of devotional statements made by GOP members was put on full display in a recent scandal in Congress, when Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Florida, was forced to resign from a Christian organization's board after publicly exhibiting a behavior profoundly opposite to the values he claimed to stand for.

Yoho's non-apology

The sinister nature of an ideology that weaponizes faith to justify divisive and dehumanizing rhetoric left little to the imagination as Yoho laid out his non-apology speech on the House floor for calling a fellow member of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), a "f--g b-h" while standing in front of the Capitol building. Not only did he not acknowledge how his actions were antithetical to Christian values, he also doubled-down on denying that he ever said the words that both Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a reporter from The Hill, who was a witness at the scene, had clearly heard. In the end of his non-apology speech, Yoho remarkably argued: "I cannot apologize for my passion or for loving my God, my family, and my country."

As a Christian, I am disgusted that Yoho would appeal to his audience's love of God as he simultaneously refused to recognize his actions as an assault on the very letter of scripture. The Bible says, "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (NIV, 1 John 4:20-21)."

I am further appalled seeing the rest of the GOP members who call themselves Christians allowing themselves to overlook such disgraceful actions and remain silent, which not only make profane the very things believers hold dear, but also appear to endorse the dangerous rhetoric of hate and division in a time when our nation is severely plagued with both. At this time we should come together, united in standing up against inflammatory speech that incites violence and division, and stay vigilant in the face of disingenuous political leaders using faith to cover up hate and claiming to support the values they don't care to follow. Hate is not and has never been a Christian value.

A party with overwhelmingly hateful and divisive rhetoric has no grounds to claim association with Christianity, period. To claim such would be a blatant lie against the Scripture itself. Jesus called us to love our neighbor. "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; love is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth (ESV, 1 Corinthians 13:4-6)."

A powerful political tool

At this time, when the soul of our nation is at stake, I encourage fellow believers to ask themselves if the divisive and hateful rhetoric we see is what Jesus would stand for; if racism and prejudice are what Jesus would stand for; if lying for political benefit is acceptable when the policies fit your narrative. At this point, it is evident that claiming to support religious values has become a powerful political tool for right-wing politicians. The Christian faith has been distorted to fit longstanding political goals, while a dire state of racial and social justice is calling for strong moral leadership.

If we want to resemble a hope for uniting and healing within our nation, we must rebuke lies, hate and division. We must rejoice in the truth.
Jordan Rynning is a U.S. Navy veteran originally from Kennedy, Minnesota. He has a professional background in military intelligence analysis and is currently studying political science at the University of Hawaii. WANT TO ADD YOUR VOICE?
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Christianity for votes: How Republicans are using a religious facade to gain political power | MinnPost

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Talk of God has been brought into and out of national politics throughout American history, with various partisan and non-partisan causes, but rarely in our history has any political group weaponized faith for political goals as comprehensively as today's Republican Party.

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Article Tronqué Australia stolen generation

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Article Tronqué Australia stolen generation

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Article Tronqué Australia stolen generation

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fiche méthodo synthèse + relire sa copie

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fiche méthodo synthèse + relire sa copie

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AMC faire une synthèse fiche synthétique

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advanced version

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Hi everyone! It's Team Jilly Box here! If you didn't know, today marks the first day of National Truth and Reconciliation Week and in two days, on September 30th, it's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which also happens to be Orange Shirt Day; a day to commemorate the history and acknowledge the intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools.

To start the week off, we wanted to dive right into what Orange Shirt Day is (for those who may not know the history behind it!), share all about the beautiful Orange Shirt we designed in collaboration with Awasis Boutique this year, and talk about how we're supporting Indigenous organizations (and how you can too!).

Orange Shirt Day History

When Phyllis Webstad was six years old, she entered the St. Joseph Mission Residential School, which is located just outside of Williams Lake, BC. As a young First Nations girl excited for her first day of school, she wore a brand new shiny orange shirt, bought by her grandmother, but it was quickly stripped from her by the school staff. This was just one of the many things that were stripped from First Nations, Inuit and Metis children who attended Residential Schools. In 2013, Phyllis Webstad created the Orange Shirt Society, an organization that is committed to creating awareness of the individual, family, and community intergenerational impacts of Indian Residential Schools through Orange Shirt Society activities. Every year on September 30th, we wear an Orange Shirt as a way to honour the children who survived the Indian Residential School system and remember those that didn't. September 30th was chosen as Orange Shirt Day because it is the time of year which children were taken from their homes and brought to residential schools. Also, it is an opportunity to set the stage for anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the coming school year. To read Phyllis' full story in her own words, click here!

"September 30th has been declared Orange Shirt Day annually, in recognition of the harm the residential school system did to children's sense of self-esteem and well-being, and as an affirmation of our commitment to ensure that everyone around us matters." Phyllis Webstad

The Jilly Box Orange Shirt

If you've been following us over at The Jilly Box, one of our Fall 2022 Jilly Box add-ons was the Orange Shirt designed in collaboration with Indigenous-owned brand Awasis Boutique! This collaboration allowed us to reinvest 100% of proceeds from the sales of this shirt to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS), which was a total of $19,700 CAD!

Our team, along with Christine Marie, owner of Awasis Boutique, couldn't believe how fast the Orange Shirts sold out and the amount of people wanting to support this cause! "Once we saw the high demand, we worked with Team Jilly Box to offer another round of the shirts on my shop. There were over 6000 people ready to buy! With the additional units, we raised $14,000 on top of our original launch that was also donated to the IRSSS!", said Christine.

With the second round of sales, our fundraiser with Awasis Boutique reached $33,700 CAD, which was all reinvested in the IRSSS and will help provide essential services to the survivors of residential schools and their families!

Doing (More!) Good with The Jilly Box

Every season, The Jilly Box donates $2 CAD per box sold to a cause that is near and dear to our hearts. In addition to collaborating with Awasis Boutique on our orange shirt initiative, we wanted to raise more funds to reinvest in supporting Indigenous organizations.

With YOUR help, we reinvested an additional $20,000 CAD to the IRSSS and $20,000 CAD to The Orange Shirt Society from The Fall 2022 Jilly Box sales. We were also able to redirect a portion of sales from The Summer 2022 Jilly Box to support Phyllis and her team's mission, increasing the total we reinvested in her organization to $27,000 CAD. To learn more about the work they do, visit orangeshirtday.org!

How You Can Show Support

There are many ways to support both the Orange Shirt Society and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society. Christine, owner of Awasis Boutique urges people to take the time to learn by reading books, listening to podcasts, watching videos, and more from the Indigenous community. "Attend Indigenous-related community events, be a friend, and listen to the elders - their stories are ones that need to be heard and understood.", said Christine, who also recommends the University of Alberta's Indigenous Studies course to those who are looking for a more structured study.

While we are still learning and unlearning, we know the work is never done. If you are looking for ways to honour National Truth and Reconciliation Day, check out this blog post by Team Jilly. We would also love to hear from you, head on over to @thejillybox Instagram account and share how you are supporting Indigenous communities.

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Hi everyone! It's Team Jilly Box here! If you didn't know, today marks the first day of National Truth and Reconciliation Week and in two days, on September 30th, it's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, which also happens to be Orange Shirt Day; a day to commemorate the history and ackno ...

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kids version

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What is Orange Shirt Day? | Articles | CBC Kids

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Indigenous History

September 30, 2020

Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) is a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada. It's also a day to learn more about the history of those schools.

What are residential schools?

Residential schools were church-run schools where approximately 150,000 Métis, Inuit and First Nations children were sent between the 1830s and the 1990s.

The schools harmed Indigenous children by removing them from their families and forcing them to speak English or French instead of their ancestral languages. They were also disconnected them from their culture and traditions and forced to adopt Christianity in order to be assimilated into Canadian society.

The government has since acknowledged that this approach was wrong, cruel and ineffective, and offered an official apology to the Indigenous people of Canada in 2008.

Why is September 30th a special date?

September 30th falls during the time of year when Indigenous children were taken away to residential school. Today, it's also known as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Why is it an orange shirt?

The "orange shirt" in Orange Shirt Day refers to the new shirt that Phyllis Webstad was given to her by her grandmother for her first day of school at St. Joseph's Mission residential school in British Columbia. When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt. It was never returned.

To Phyllis, the colour orange has always reminded her of her experiences at residential school and, as she has said, "how my feelings didn't matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared."

What does Orange Shirt day represent?

The message that Phyllis wants to pass along on Orange Shirt Day - and every day - is that every child matters. Orange Shirt Day was started by Phyllis to educate people about residential schools and to fight racism and bullying.

What can you do?

There are many ways you can get involved!

Wear an orange shirt on September 30th

Read Phyllis' story "The Orange Shirt Story" with your classroom or your family. It's available in English, French and Shuswap.

Read books by Indigenous authors about residential schools.

Trace your hand and write something on it that you can do to help others feel like they matter.

Share Phyllis' story. You can watch it on YouTube or below:

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What is Orange Shirt Day? | Articles | CBC Kids

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Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) is a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada.

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Quizlet has study tools to help you learn anything. Improve your results and reach your goals today with flashcards, practice tests and expert-written solutions.

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B2 First for Schools preparation | Cambridge English

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How to prepare for a B2 First for Schools (FCE) exam, including sample papers, online practice tests, teacher guides, and tips for exam day.

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AMC sequ 1 vocab V ◼ Share EclipseCrossword

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AMC sequ 1 vocab V, a crossword puzzle by Mister T

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AMC sequ 1 vocab N ◼ Share EclipseCrossword

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AMC sequ 1 vocab N, a crossword puzzle by Mister T

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AMC sequ 1 vocab A ◼ Share EclipseCrossword

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AMC sequ 1 vocab A, a crossword puzzle by Mister T

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Quizlet has study tools to help you learn anything. Improve your results and reach your goals today with flashcards, practice tests and expert-written solutions.

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Mini-debates: 1- Should we change the first amendment/Should we reconsider secularism? 2- Should we get rid of the pledge of allegiance? 3- Teaching creationism Vs the theory of evolution. 

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Mini-debates: 1- Should we change the first amendment/Should we reconsider secularism? 2- Should we get rid of the pledge of allegiance? 3- Teaching creationism Vs the theory of evolution. 

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If you want to read more:
http://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise/P3333fa13/IntelligentDesign/

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and many more videos from this source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3G0HNLt1hw&list=PLBmyRq4mJO97sDCG6Hf6bi8R2jHqDHl6e

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And many more technics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6ZXtqUu4BY&list=PLBmyRq4mJO96BVxmqqvfuf93t5QaTzWBp

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Conquering Debating - Rebuttal Fundamentals

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a short version of this article was given in class

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At a time when America is straining under the weight and contradictions of its history, along comes the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower dropping anchor off these shores. Already this year the country has been forced to confront the baleful legacy of slavery, and the systemic racism that grew from that Original Sin.

Statues memorialising heroes of the Confederacy have been toppled and removed. New landmarks have emerged, such as the words Black Lives Matter painted in fluorescent yellow letters on the doorstep of the White House.

The recent death of the African-American congressman John Lewis, a hero of the Freedom Rides and Selma, has reminded us of the climactic battles of the civil rights era in the Sixties. So at a time when we've contended with the dystopianism of the coronavirus outbreak, this unnerving new world, we've also been shoulder-deep in the events of yesteryear.

The past is always the present in the United States of America. From the modern-day Tea Party to the protesters taking aim at the Confederacy's most celebrated general Robert E Lee; from the argument over whether Washington DC's American football team should call itself the Redskins to the dispute over whether we should still honour the Founding Fathers who owned slaves, no country in the world lives and contests its history with quite such passion and ferocity. The culture wars of contemporary partisan politics, the battles that make this country seem like shared land occupied by belligerent tribes, are so often truly history wars.

Only this week Donald Trump announced the creation of the 1776 Commission to promote "patriotic education" and "the miracle of American history". Yet another cultural salvo, it was intended as a counterblast to the 1619 Project conducted by the New York Times, an online educational series named after the year that the first slaves were brought to Virginia.

So where does the landing of the Mayflower fit within the American story? What significance should we attach to the arrival of these English dissenters? How does it inform the present?

On this 400th anniversary, do the Pilgrim Fathers even merit all the fuss?

After all, the Mayflower didn't bring the first English settlers to these shores. Nor was the Plymouth Plantation the inaugural settlement. Jamestown in Virginia had been founded 13 years before. In the west, the Spanish had already settled Santa Fe, the capital of what's now New Mexico. And maybe it's worth stating the obvious from the outset - that the Pilgrim Fathers should not be confused with the Founding Fathers, the patriots who fought against the British in the revolutionary war, the visionaries who in 1776 launched this rambunctious experiment in democracy.

George Washington was not a passenger on board the Mayflower, a confused conflation that on occasions has been mistakenly made - although nine US presidents can trace their bloodlines to those who did make the journey, including the Bushes and FDR.

It's also a mistake to view the arrival of the Mayflower as the first interaction between white settlers and indigenous North Americans. Contact with Europeans had been going on for at least a century, partly because slave traders targeted Native Americans. When the pilgrims came ashore, a few members of the Wampanoag tribe could even speak English.

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Plymouth Rock isn't Philadelphia, the cradle of the US constitution. The trans-Atlantic passage of the Mayflower is not steeped in the same national glory as the crossing of the Delaware or the storming of the Normandy beaches, despite the claims of local tourist attractions that it was the voyage that made a nation. There's no Mayflower equivalent on Broadway of Hamilton, the hip-hop homage to the father of America's financial system. If anything, the piety and theocratic tendencies of the pilgrims lend themselves more to a Book of Mormon-style parody.

Americans don't converge on Plymouth Rock with the same sense of pilgrimage as, say, Gettysburg or even Graceland. As a history student in nearby Boston in the early Nineties, I didn't even bother making the short journey myself. In the late 19th Century, there was a plan to erect a statue to commemorate the Pilgrim Fathers that would rival the Colossus of Rhodes and dwarf New York's Statue of Liberty. But this eighth wonder of the world never came to fruition, and a more diminutive memorial was built instead. As for the pavilion that encloses the lump of rock that marks the point of disembarkation, it is by American standards a modest marker - a canopy supported by 12 Ionic columns that could easily be mistaken for a municipal bandstand.

The Mayflower compact is a significant historical document, the "wave-rocked cradle of our liberties", as one historian evocatively put it. Signed by the Pilgrims and the so-called Strangers, the craftsmen, merchants and indentured servants brought with them to establish a successful colony, it agreed to pass "just and equal laws for the good of the Colony". The first experiment in New World self-government, some scholars even see it as a kind of American Magna Carta, a template for the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. Yet scholars at the Constitutional Center in Philadelphia suggest it had largely been forgotten by the time the Founding Fathers gathered at Independence Hall. Nor did the Pilgrims' belief in what Robert Hughes once called "the hierarchy of the virtuous" square with the more secular poetry of the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Besides, the Mayflower compact started with a declaration of loyalty to King James.

After Washington triumphed at Yorktown against the British, and this fledging nation started to assert itself in the world, the early drafters of the American story preferred to begin their histories with Christopher Columbus, even though the Italian explorer never set foot in North America. A new country that had just expelled the British did not want to be defined by its Englishness. Downplaying the Mayflower became an early act of decolonisation.

Modern-day politicians have appropriated some of the messianic language from the settler era. Ronald Reagan liked to talk of "the city on the hill", ventriloquising the language used by John Winthrop as he voyaged towards New England. But Winthrop was a Puritan rather than a Pilgrim, and set sail on board the Arbella rather than the Mayflower. It's a subtle but important difference. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans, who arrived 10 years later, were not separatists. They had remained in the Church of England hoping to banish its Catholic ways from within. The Massachusetts Bay Colony that they founded to the north, the settlement that became Boston, was far more influential in the shaping of America than the Plymouth Plantation.

Taken together, though, the legacy of the pilgrims and the puritans is foundational. The work ethic. The fact Americans don't take much annual holiday. Notions of self-reliance and attitudes towards government welfare. Laws that prohibit young adults from drinking in bars until the age of 21. A certain prudishness. The religiosity. Americans continue to expect their presidents to be men of faith. In fact, no occupant of the White House has openly identified as an atheist. Also the profit motive was strong among the settlers, and with it the belief that prosperity was a divine reward for following God's path - a forerunner of the gospel of prosperity preached by modern-day television evangelists.

All these national traits have traceable roots to the Puritans. The Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville even wrote in his seminal work, Democracy in America: "I think we can see the whole destiny of America contained in the first Puritan who landed on these shores."

The Pilgrim Fathers - or more accurately, the Pilgrim Mothers - also created a gene pool from which tens of millions of Americans continue to draw. So many US citizens claim to have ancestors who arrived on the Mayflower that you'd be forgiven for thinking this three-sailed vessel was the size of an aircraft carrier.

For all that, just about the only time the Pilgrim Fathers loom large in the national imagination is on Thanksgiving, that pre-Christmas feast of turkey and pumpkin pie when the whole of America comes to a calorific halt. This national holiday derives from the celebration marking the first harvest in 1621, when the colonists sat down with the Wampanaog Native Americans. It's been packaged up as an act of peaceful co-existence, a convivial banquet which suggests that the Pilgrim Fathers were welcomed by indigenous Americans with open arms.

Yet most of what American schoolchildren are taught about that holiday does not withstand close scrutiny. It's a mythology, not a history. There are the inconsequential inaccuracies. It's thought, for example, that venison was the main meat on offer. The modern-day menu of turkey and pumpkin pie was invented by a 19th Century magazine publisher, the Martha Stewart of her day, who had read about that first feast and lobbied Abraham Lincoln to turn Thanksgiving into a national holiday.

But it's the larger fiction that's more damaging. In a fraudulent retelling, the place of the Native Americans at that table has commonly been misappropriated and misunderstood. Thanksgiving has encouraged the idea that indigenous Americans gladly greeted white, European settlers; helped teach the new arrivals how to survive in the New World; lived together harmoniously; joined together for this slap-up celebration and then vanished from the story. It's a narrative of colonial validation; of contrived acceptance; of white comfort. It's a storyline that accepts at face value a colony seal designed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony which showed a half-naked indigenous American pleading with the English to "Come Over and Help Us." Thanksgiving has consequently become an American veil, an invisibility cloak under which the inconvenient truths of history have for centuries been concealed.

Though there was a sense of détente in those early years, largely because the Wampanoag were keen to enlist allies against a rival tribe, it quickly fell apart. Native Americans became victims of the colonists; prey to their land grabs, the exploitation of their natural resources and the fatal diseases imported from Europe from which they had no immunity. All these tensions erupted in a series of wars between the indigenous inhabitants of New England and the colonisers who robbed them of their land. This, then, is a story more of conflict than collaboration, of bloodshed, not brotherhood. Thanksgiving feasts were sometimes held to celebrate victories over the Native Americans.

As the historian David Silverman has shown in his book, This Land is Their Land, the notion that the Pilgrims were the fathers of America was seized upon by New Englanders in the late 18th Century worried that their cultural clout was not as strong as it should be as the early republic took shape. From then on, the primacy of the pilgrims, and myths of Thanksgiving, were repurposed whenever white Protestant stock felt its hegemony was threatened. This was especially true in the 19th Century, when waves of Catholic and Jewish European immigrants challenged the dominance of white Protestantism. The Pilgrim Fathers, then, were co-opted to assert the ascendancy of WASP culture - white, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. They were used to establish a cultural hierarchy.

That dominance persists to this day. A country colonised by Anglo-Saxon Protestants continues to favour Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Not until 1960 did America elect a Catholic president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a politician of Irish stock. Joe Biden is seeking to become only the second.

There's also a class dimension to WASP culture that means the Pilgrim Fathers are hardly regarded as populist heroes, the poster boys of the present incumbent of the White House and his Make America Great Again supporters. WASP culture has traditionally been an upper class preserve, reinforced through marriage, inheritance, patronage, and elite schools and universities.

The Pilgrim Fathers were the originators of an American class system that made Donald Trump, for all his riches, feel like an outsider. Though his mother was Scottish-born, Donald Trump is of German stock, and grew up in Queens, an unfashionable outer borough of New York. That made him "a bridge and tunnel guy" to the WASP blue bloods of Manhattan, who sneered at him as a nouveau riche property tycoon and mocked him as a vulgar presidential candidate. Those who came ashore at Plymouth Rock were the original East Coast elite, their descendants often the target of Donald Trump's anti-elitist invective.

The Pilgrim Fathers also asserted the dominance of the white race, often with murderous force. During these early years, in a cycle of reprisal killings, there were massacres on both sides. But the savagery of the white settlers was grotesque. They sought to terrorise their enemy through attacks on non-combatants, setting fire to wigwams and putting those who escaped to the sword. Then they shrouded this slaughter in the language of redemption, of how they had done the Lord's work by consigning these ungodly souls to hell.

The original inhabitants of this land came to be treated like marauding invaders. When in 1675, a group of indigenous Americans banded together to fight the settlers, the dead body of their leader Metacom - whom the English nicknamed King Phillip - was treated like a trophy. He was decapitated and his head was displayed on a pike in Plymouth Plantation.

Just as their brutality has traditionally been downplayed, the Puritans' embrace of slavery has been ignored. Not only did the colonists import African slaves, they exported Native Americans. By the 1660s, half of the ships in Boston Harbour were involved in the slave trade. At least hundreds of indigenous Americans were enslaved.

Racial division has long been the default setting of American life, and those first white settlers marked out the colour line in the blood of Native Americans. To this day, however, the Pilgrim Fathers continue to be portrayed primarily as the victims themselves of persecution, the original asylum seekers who fled the religious intolerance of their homeland.

The retelling of the Mayflower voyage as an origin story has also promoted and sustained the belief that American history starts at the moment of European settlement. This is not so much a whitewashing of the Native-American story but its complete obliteration. It's a framing of history predicated on the contemporary belief that the settlers arrived on vacant land rather than territory that had been occupied for thousands of years. This chronicle of the conquerors wilfully neglects at least 12,000 years of Native-American history, a complicated and often bloody narrative.

When you start reconsidering the story from the perspective of the vanquished, some ground-breaking historiographical possibilities become available. In her bestselling history of the United States, These Truths, the Harvard academic Jill Lepore argues, for example, that revolution in America began not with the English settlers who eventually rebelled against the king, but rather the people over whom they ruled. In this reframing, the American patriots who took on the British are cast as the revolutionary heirs of the Native-Americans who took on the English.

At least during this year's commemorations the story of the Wampanoag people will be acknowledged. This was not true 50 years ago, during the 350th anniversary. Though a Native American leader was invited to speak at a dinner in Plymouth, Massachusetts, he was not allowed to deliver his prepared text. It had described the arrival of the Mayflower as the beginning of the end for his people, a hard truth considered too unpalatable for the city elders attending a self-congratulatory banquet.

Giving the Wampanoag more prominence in these commemorations will be regarded as a long overdue corrective, turning the celebration of a voyage into more of a quest for understanding. But make no mistake - the American history wars will continue to wage and the Pilgrim Fathers will be proxies in that battle.

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