Spaces and Exchanges: We can ask ourselves what drives people to leave their country to live abroad?

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For me a hero is someone who has a great courage, help others, fought for a good cause without expecting something in return. It is someone who is not looking for glory, acknowledgment, any award or money. At the beginning I would like to talk about Rosa Parks who is a great heroine for me. She is a courageous black woman who lived in USA and who fought for the civil right for black people. Indeed at that time (1955) the Blacks didn’t have the same right as the Whites, they were not allowed to sit in the front of the bus. One day Rosa Parks found the courage to sit in front of the bus and she refused to move despite the word of the bus driver. Rosa Parks got arrested but Black people continued the boycott. Finally the rules were changed thanks to Rosa Parks and Black and White people could sit wherever they wanted. So Rosa Parks stood up against racism and fought for freedom. I admire her for what she did as a woman for an equal living between black and white people.

The second heroine I would like to talk about is Marie Curie, a great physicist and chemist. She is the first women to win a Nobel Prize, the fist and the only women to win twice. She was born in Poland and she studied in Paris. She has Nobel Prize in Physic and in Chemistry and she developed the theory of radioactivity. During her work, Marie discovered radiation could kill human cells. She reasoned that if it could kill healthy human cells, it could kill diseased human cells and went about isolating radium for use in killing tumors. During World War I, she established the first military field radiological centers and she designing X-ray machine. Marie Curie is a great heroine for me because she shows determination, if we really want to do something, we will succeed. She wanted as a woman to become a great chemist and physicist and she became. She discovered polonium and radium and she invented the first mobile X-ray machine so that soldiers could be X-rayed in the field when they were hurt.

In class, we have studied a song of Bruce Springsteen that pays tribute to the blue-collar worker. All of them are American heroes because they have dedicated their lives to build the country.

They are also a lot of others heroes and a lot of them are unknown; everyone can be a hero if we want. A hero can be an ordinary person who with simple actions help others and make someone live better.

Locations and forms of power

The notion of locations and forms of power can be defined as a person, group or nation having great influence or control over others. To illustrate this notion I choose to talk about the domination of some population over others as the native population suffered from white people in South Africa and Australia. I will also present the right to bear arms and the death penalty as a very important form of power.

The first to migrate in South Africa were the Dutch and the French then in 1820 the British came. In 1948 was the birth of apartheid. The government separe the Blacks and the Whites. New laws have been created: B and W couldn’t live in the same places (township for the Blacks) and the crossbreeding was forbidden. Nelson Mandela a member of the ANC fought against racism. He was imprisoned in 1963 then he was liberated in 1994 and became the first black president of South Africa. So we can say that during the apartheid white people exercise a form of power over blacks.

In class we have studied a document about the stolen generation in Australia. The residents of Australia were the Aboriginal. In 1788 the European discovered this land and deprived the Aboriginal of their land. Whites exercise an important form of power over them. They gave themselves the right to brought up the Aboriginal children in 1901. The white settlers wanted to give these children a good education and a better live but they did that in a terrible way. They took the kids away from their families so the parents were desperate, upset. Adults, they were given a choice: they went back to their families or they could stay in a white community.

In both cases, blacks were under the yoke of whites however any population may be under the domination of the others. In class we have seen a video Barbakuiera where the roles are reversed and this is the blacks who arrived on the island and apply their laws. This shows that whatever their skin color people can be under the yoke of others.

Now I will talk about the right to bear arms in American which is also a form of power. The second amendment of the constitution gives each US citizen the right to bear arms which is a great security and a very important right in the American culture. They believe that a gun can save their lives. However this right is dangerous and can be responsible for mass shootings in USA. We have seen a poster of the Brady Campaign which wants to prevent gun violence. In the USA the number of victims due to gun is more important than in any other country. Unfortunately often in US young people kill others or themselves because they have easy access to arms. I think that the right to bear arms and so the right to take someone’s life is the most powerful form of power but it’s also a horrible form of power.

To conclude some person or population exercises important forms of power over others. Some population can be under the yoke of others. We must be careful with the right we own because sometimes having the “power” to do something can be very dangerous as the right to bear arms in the US.