Living in London is great! (Comment)

Living in Greater London

Some people think living in London would be or is great, some think it wouldn’t or isn’t. But what are the different aspects of living there? What makes the people want to live there? Or the other way around, why don't they want to live there? These are difficult questions and I’m going to answer them by discussing the pros and cons in the following text.

The first thing I want to mention is that many people pass their exams in London. Nearly everyone passes. So it looks like there are very good schools and also good teachers. So if you go to university or even just to school there you can be sure that your graduation will be valued by the future employers you want to work for.
Another point are the high earnings. You’ll be paid very well for jobs you would maybe get less money in another city. So also people who didn't graduate well or something like that are able to earn enough money to live in a good way.
Also a positive aspect of London are the sights. London has many interesting and beautiful sights to visit. So you won’t get bored. For example you can visit the Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London or one of the beautiful parks. This is also a good way to escape from the city-life for some hours, so you won’t get sick by living in such a big city.

So these are the good things about living in London, and now I'll sum up the bad things.

London has got a very high level of air pollution because of the huge number of cars, busses and so on. It’s not healthy to live in a city with that amount of air pollution. You can become ill and also get some heavy ailments because of the exhaust emissions and other bad things in the air.
Also the houses in London are very expensive.Only a few people are able to buy a house in London. They could just rent a house but even this is very expensive, so most people who come to London rent an apartment.
The last point against living in London is the high rate of unemployment. Lots of people have a good graduation and apprenticeship but they can’t find a job. So they were evicted to move away. Or if they don’t want to they have to sell their ownings or houses or something like that.

In the end I come to the conclusion that I think that London is, in my opinion, not a really good place to live at. I think it is nice to visit and everyone should visit it once, but I wouldn’t want to live there. Maybe just a year or something like that, for going to school there, but not for a longer time.

Pretty good comment, Denise! I think I agree: Cities are expensive and noisy, still, I'd move to a bigger city than Heidelberg any day.

Comment: Hurricane Kathrina

Q: How could Hurricane Katrina become such an immense political issue in the U.S.A?

C: In the past years the amount of tropical cyclones or hurricanes has dramatically risen and so has the standard of the warning and evacuating system...one should think. But when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana, in August 2005 it demonstrated the raw force of nature by breaking through the levees, destroying buildings and connections and taking the life of 1464 people among those which weren’t evacuated. The flood covered eighty percent of the city with at least 15 ft (4.5 m) of water and people were forced to remain on their roofs. Truly a disaster of natural causes but was it really unstoppable. As the shocking pictures and videos of abandoned mostly Afro-American people struggled to survive, doubts came up and an issue of inequality began that was fought all over America.

There are different aspects to explain the extent of this argument with different reasons. One is that the victims of the hurricane in New Orleans almost only consist of poor Afro-American people. They are part of the “second “New Orleans, notorious for its high poverty and criminality rate. So the government was accused of abandoning these people due to their skin colour and their social status. This is a huge guilt for a land affirming to declare and to treat all men equally.

Another factor had been the miserable preparations for the catastrophe. The levees built to protect broke even though the force of the hurricane, against expectations, had decreased. The evacuation was not fast enough and many people were soon cut off from the outside of the city. These mistakes not only resulted in huge damages and the relevant cost but also in deaths. The responsibles were heavily criticized by the public.

The last aspect is about the insufficient help of the government after the crises. Many victims of the loss of property were helpless and unable to continue a proper life. And so they waited for help. And waited. And as they got impatient, they started looting. The criminality rose in order to survive and people died of exhaustion. The media showed the” black people looting” and “the white looking for food” and the public protested and demanded help for the falsely accused victims.

These and other aspects caused the controversial question of inequality to once again separate the public and heat their moods and show that the problem as old as America itself, is not solved yet. Sadly it took over 1000 lives to realise that, but hopefully the next step towards the promised land of Martin Luther King has been taken.

There is an excellent series of articles on race in the New York Times (they won a Pulitzer Price, which is like the Nobel prize for journalists in America). You can access it here. Very good job on the comment!

Pearl Harbor (by Laura and Coleen)

Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was on December 7th 1941 on Hawaii, that's why it is also called the "Hawaii Operation".
Over 2400 Americans died and more than 1200 were wounded aswell, but only about 70 japanese people died
The Japanese attacked the United States surprisingly with a total of 353 japanese military planes and after this attack the United States definitely joined World War II.
During the 1930s tensions between the two countries steadily increased and in 1940 the United States warned Japan aginst marching in Indochina and when Japan did it anyhow the United States stopped importing oil and steel to Japan.
In eleven days the japanese planes flew unnoticed to Hawaii. The main goals of this attack were: neutralization of the pacific navy, elimination of the base Pearl Harbor and the elimination of the american air force. The attack was arranged by Kido Butai.
Because the United States didn't reckon with an attack from Japan everything wasn't locked.

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki(by Colin and Hendrik)

Hiroshima & Nagasaki were two japanese cities, which were destroyed near the end of the second world war by american atomic bombings. In Hiroshima 90.000 to 200.000 people died by the immediate effects and the long-term effects. In Nagasaki, more than 80.000. Both cities were nearly complete destroyed. They were the soley cities which were ever bombed by atomic bombs. After the bombing the japanese capitulated immediantly.

The battle of Betio

Ishmael Chambers lost his arm during the battle at Betio, a tiny island in the Tarawa Atoll in the South Pacific.
The Battle was fought from November 20 - 23, 1943. 35.000 American troups fought against about 4500 Japanese. The Americans thought it was critically important to get a hold of this island in the central pacific. Up to this point, landing with amphibious vehicles hadn't met with a lot of resistance. But this time, the Japanese were very well equipped and prepared for battle. They fought almost to the last men. The US Marines (always more of an elite unit, I think Ishmael was a part of them) lost 1000 men, the US Navy about 700, and more than 3000 were wounded. In the end, the U.S. prevailed because of their overwhelming advantage in manpower and equipment.

The U.S.

Manzanar

Manzanar
Manzanar—the Spanish word for “apple orchard” -> "Apfelplantage"

History
10,000 years ago native americans settled in the valley, today known as Mazanar .
1,500 years ago the Owens Valley Paiute settled there, fished, hunted and conduct agriculture there.
In the 1860´s Miners and Ranchers settled in the valley and about 1,000 Paiutes were forced resettled by the military to Fort Tejon.
In 1929 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power purchased all land and water rights.
The culture of the village was manly the developing agriculture. The increasing tourism has it termination with the outset of World War II.






For further informations click the link below
Manzanar National Historic Site

Japanese culture part 2

Cuisine

The Japanese have a specific food culture. It is a healthy and delicious fare. The japanese cuisine becomes to be very famous in the U.S., Europe and Australia. Favored foods are: Sushi, Terijaki chicken and Tempura.






Sushi