Blog+Reflection+4

__**Final Marking Period**__

__Week #1__

This week Charlie Rose sat down with Fredrick Kempe. He’s Charlie Rose’s long time friend, he’s the president of the Atlantic council and has a book coming out titled, __Berlin 1961, Kennedy, Khrushchev And The Most Dangerous Place on Earth__. Mr. Kempe’s book analyses Berlin in 1961 and the forces that lead to high tensions and ultimately the construction of the Berlin wall.

Mr. Kempe had been inspired by the book __Paris 1919__, a historical book depicting the events that occurred in that city that ultimately changed the world. Having lived through the cold war, and having German relatives whom lived in Berlin during the time he has strong feelings toward the conflict and has a perspective on the matter that differs from most Americans.

Despite being such an important year Mr. Kempe felt as if there hadn’t been a sufficient amount of literature written on the matter. He was allowed permitted access to both American and German documents that have been hidden for fifty years. Through his investigating he dug up information Kruschev that hadn’t been known by American scholars.

Kennedy’s first year in office he considers the worst first years in presidential history. Kennedy’s foreign policy was disaster after disaster, first the bay of pigs, then the Vienna summit which in an interview Mr. Kennedy describes as the worst day of his life. The building of Berlin wall grew from both events and Kruschev’s hatred towards Kennedy and his destructive foreign policy.

What’s great about Mr. Kempe’s book is how he talks about what went on the Russian side of the wall. Kruschev had wanted to reopen negotiations with American, negations with Eisenhower had only resulted in higher tensions, he was looking forward to making eace with the new president. Prior to Kennedy’s inauguration Kruschev spoke to Russia and published his controversial speech that described his desire mend the relationship between American and Russia. To prove he meant what he said he had shut down Russian military airports as a sign of peace. If Kennedy had reacted properly he could have prevented the Cold War from continuing for another thirty years. What’s ironic is that same day Kruschev’s speech was published Kennedy made his inauguration speech. It depicted Russia as an evil world power and America would stop at nothing to end it’s reign. Kennedy’s apocalyptic speech only further angered the Russians and ended any chance of coming to an common understanding between Kruschev and Kennedy.

Mr. Kempe focused a large portion of his book on Kennedy and his devastating mistakes. Kennedy is compared to Obama and George Bush Junior, three of which presidents who were too young for the job and lacked the knowledge to have a successful term. I never thought of these presidents as inexperienced but looking at their track records as president Mr. Kempe brings up a good point. President Kennedy especially, he’s praised as being one of the best presidents despite having making decisions that had devastating results. My Grandmother hadn’t voted for President Kennedy and hadn’t agreed with his decisions as president but following his death she had a portrait painted of him that hangs above her fireplace to this day. Looking at how my Grandmother’s perspective of Kennedy had evolved over time it makes me question, if he hadn’t been assassinated would he have been still remembered so fondly?

__Week #2__

Michael Spence, Professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU, is publishing his latest book is entitled, “The Next Convergence.” It’s a looks at the future as a result of economic growth in our multi-speed world. The word convergence refers to the low income and less developed countries will become more like America, developed and prosperous.

Countries uprisings are very resembling of the Industrial revolution, the difference between America’s industrial revolution and that of emerging nations is that population plays a role. As a result of population playing it’s predicted that the two future economic giants are in Asia, being China and India. There are two ways to look at population growth in relation to economic growth. If population growth is too rapid and becomes greater that per capita income, it will eat away all the money and growth resulting in destructive results. But at the same time a larger population provides a larger market of consumers increasing demand. Multi-speed meaning that every country is at different stages, America is still in crisis level where as India and Asia are at a pre-crisis economic stage. Micheal Spence clarifies that both countries will not just keep growing, they will quickly slow down, an advanced country doesn’t continue to grow at such fast rates.

“The global economy will triple,” Michael Spence boasts but I for one worry about how fast natural resources will be eaten up, yes the economy will be a little stronger but to sustain such a huge population it will take a toll on mother earth.

It seems as if Michael Spence isn’t too worried, Asia and China aren’t as big a threat as the media is making both countries to be, he believes that America won’t be dominant anymore but it will be technologically superior in comparison to the rest of the world. This though can only be achieved through upping our opportunities for America’s middle class.

Michael Spence’s prediction is calming in comparison to other economists’ predictions of the future. He sees America still be a world power but so will Asia and India. It’s reassuring but at the same time I still worry regarding the new population, will resources and the economy be able to support such a huge population?

__Week #3__

Last month a group of Navy Seals were responsible for the death of Osama Bin Laden, Obama week following his Osama’s assassination has praised the Seals highly calling them America’s quite businessmen. The Navy Seals carries are a group of elite soldiers that carry out some of the most dangerous operations in the world. Eric Gretiens this week sat down with Charlie Rose to speak about his book, “The Heart and the Fist.” Mr. Gretiens was a Navy Seal who was stationed in both Iraq and Afghanistan; his book depicts the daily life of a seal and what they have to endure for the America’s protection. The title of his book is very interesting, one doesn’t think a peacemaker holds a gun but that essentially is the job of the Navy Seals. They are suppose to be humanitarians, who have both compassion and courage. Relating back to the title of his book, the heart provides a path or direction, a purpose and a passion but to follow that passion one needs perseverance and with that combination one can win the ultimate fight.

Eric Greitiens went to Oxford and got a PhD and felt as if he was blessed to be living in a country that provided such great opportunities that he owed it to his country to do something in return so as a result he enlisted into the navy. He speaks about his childhood and how his heroes were war veterans which gave him an immense pride for his nation but presently heroes are sports athletes and celebrities so children aren’t as patriotic or as willing to fight for their country children in past decades.

The assassination of Osama and Eric Gretians book come at the perfect time, because we now look up to celebrities American citizens have ultimately lost sight of whom the true heroes in our society are. Today being Memorial Day, for the town parade, it was a very small turn out and that’s because people of lost sight of what today really is. It isn’t just a day off from work it’s a day in which we give thanks to American soldiers and as years go on we see less and less of that.

__Week #4__

Early this morning it was announced that Europe’s most wanted criminal has been captured, former Serbian General Ratko Mladic. He was captured in an early morning rade by Serbian security forces in a small village outside Belgrade. He’s been sixteen years in hiding; he has been charged with the largest mass murder of European civilians since WWII, he now waits in a Serbian awaiting a war crimes tribunal.

Ratko Mladic was a top military general with command responsibility; he is accused of being responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebenica Massacre, which was the largest mass murder since the concentration camps in WWII. Since there has been a warrant for his arrest because it was concluded on reasonable ground that he has committed the crimes in question, including genocide. The reward for his arrest was five million dollars, in October 2010, Serbia intensified the hunt by increasing the reward for Mladić's capture from €5 million to €10 million. His capture was considered as one of the pre-conditions for Serbia joining the European Union.

Madeline Albright former was the former ambassador to Serbia during Bosnian War. Despite Ratko’s heinous crimes his capture was a priority but not a top priority. The current president of Serbia, Boris Tadić, had made it his top priority and it’s smart that he did. Serbians have been currently losing patriotism and also respect for the law. Ratko killed innocent civilians and got away with it, it seemed as if there is no one to enforce the law, which has resulted in riots and an increase in crime. Sirbia wants to be part of the European Union but what hung over their heads was the war indictments of criminals that were unable to be caught. President Boris Tadić understood if Sirbia was to enter the Union they needed to get rid of the indictments.

The search and capture of Ratko Mladic is very resembling of America’s search for Osama after 9/11. The speeches made by both Serbian presidents Boris Tadić and Obama are very similar, both speak of after years of searching both countries can rest easily, how the hurt that both men caused can finally be healed and all throughout their speeches thanking their country’s secret services. It seems as if though these captures came at very convenient times, for Serbia it came at a time which then will permit Serbia to enter the European union and the U.S. during a time where support for the war was decreasing and a boost of moral was needed to continue.

__Week #5__

The collapse of investment giant Bear Stearns in 2008 set the stage for the most devastating financial crisis in this country since the Great Depression. Since then America’s economy has been in free fall, a group of key players have been working behind the scenes to save the banking system including Secretary Treasurer Hank Balson, President of the U.S. Federal Reserve Timothy Geithner. Andre Ross Sorkin in his book “Too Big To Fail” chronicles these events, there is a HBO series coming out on his book.

Anre Ross Sorkin had been a journalist at the time of the crash and has official quotes and documents that helped him capture the true essence of Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Greenspan and other key players. It’s interesting how popular his book has become; he even said that, he believed that he was “writing a book that even my mother wouldn’t read.” I’m happy he did write the book and use his inside knowledge to capture this extraordinary moment in economic history. I attempted to read his book but the reader has to already have background knowledge of financial figures and how Wall Street works which are two subjects I know little about. His book has several other stories going on as well which makes it even more complicated to follow the book so by making his book into a T.V. show, his story will reach a larger audience.

I have trouble believing that a few people caused this depression, unless they are Greenspan and Bernanke. What caused it was simply China and other developing economies relying on the well-being of America’s economy and taking advantage of America to their own benefit. Instead of accepting the necessity of economic balance and dealing with it, we borrowed and printed and basically created a Ponzi scheme that blew up in our faces. There’s a famous quote, "success has many fathers but failure is an orphan". There are many failures in US society and institutions politically and economically and the next fiasco will truly tear apart the US because nothing at the core was done to reduce the potential risks in the financial markets. There was criminality and fraud and no one behind bars. The thing is the head officials of Wall Street had been forewarned by their staff, but they didn’t dare listen believing a crash of such magnitude could even happen.

__Week #6__

This week Charlie rose interviewed Salman Khan, founder of khanacademy.org. For no charge khanacamedy provides ten-minute tutorials on the web on math, science and finance. He has managed to become an online teaching sensation his videos have been viewed on more than 50 million times and his videos have been translated into seven other languages.

He is someone who has a passion for everything in addition to a passion for sharing his knowledge. He had started with the physics and math, subjects he knew and now that he’s expanding he’s learning new subjects and then teaching them.

His cousin who was living in New Orleans he had believed to be smart had been failing and dropped to a lower math class. He taught her via webcam everyday after school, she not only caught up but went above. He had enjoyed teaching so much that he then taught other children of his family and the family friend’s children. After getting tired of teaching the same thing several times to different children he uploaded his videos on YouTube. He got letters of people whom were so grateful for his services, he got numerous letters of children whom were failing and his videos helped them from failing out.

What amazes me is Salman Khan quite his job as a financial consultant to work on his videos. He is just a guy who loves to teach and help those in need. Despite having millions of dollars Bill Gates doesn’t just hand-out his money. He recognized what Khan was doing and donated several million to Khan to expand his website. I don’t know why the government doesn’t invest in such website because it’s helping America’s student population to advance in their studies which ultimately benefit the country as a whole.

My calculus teacher Mr. Poraño suggested I use Khan Academy both as reinforcement of the classes’ lessons and to clarify any difficult sections. His videos helped tremendously, he’s friendly, clear and makes it easy to understand what he’s teaching; he truly has a knack for teaching.