First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
-Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
-Martin Niemöller
UNIT 5 DISTANCE LEARNING ASSIGNMENTS:
PENNINO EMAIL: apennino@shufsd.org
Complete the following assignments at your own pace. All Genocide Class assignments will now be posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
7. POSTED 6/4:
There will be no Unit 5 test and no new assignments posted after today.
I will post some final thoughts Friday or Monday. Your final tasks:
1. Take the two Unit 4 quizzes if you haven't already!
2. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY: Email me or post as a doc on google classroom: What are the most important things you learned in Genocide class? What conclusions have you drawn from taking this course?
6. POSTED 6/2:
The final crimes against humanity we will look at happened in the past few years or are happening now. When ISIS controlled territory in Iraq and Syria, they carried out atrocities against religious minorities. This has been called genocide by many governments. The Muslim Rohingya are the largest religious minority suffering persecution right now in Myanmar (Burma) by Buddhist nationalists supported by their government; human rights activists are describing events there as genocide. In China right now, at least one million Uighurs have been forced into concentration camps for the purpose of "re-education" and "de-Islamization." While this has not devolved into genocide, it is clearly a massive and severe human rights violation. China today is a strict dictatorship and police state that is increasingly harsh towards political dissent and cultural minorities. Watch and think about these short videos:
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching.
5. POSTED 5/28:
The first acts of genocide of the 21st Century likely occured in Darfur, the western region of Sudan. What happened to the Malasit, Fur, and Zagawa peoples at the hands of government backed Janjaweed militia was well documented by the press. Many nations including the United States called out the genocide, took action to help the victims with humanitarian aid, put Sanctions on Sudan, but stopped short of military intervention. China, holding a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, loudly opposed any actions against Sudan for two reasons. One, China promotes a global standard of non-interference in domestic national affairs (no surprise when you consider the Uighurs, Hong Kong, human rights abuses...). Two, China had deep economic ties to Sudan and did not want a disruption of that country's oil exports to China. Meanwhile, the US had been attacked by al Qaeda and was waging a "global war on terror" that involved US occupation of both Afghanistan and Iraq; Americans did not want another military operation.
Tasks: watch the short videos and read the article below.
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching and reading.
4. POSTED 5/26:
While ethnic cleansing and genocide were occuring in former Yugoslavia, another genocide occured in the African nation of Rwanda. The world did virtually nothing while at least 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were murdered by ethnic Hutu countrymen.
Tasks: watch the short videos and read the notes below.
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching and reading.
3. POSTED 5/21:
After the events in the Cambodia killing fields, several genocidal massacres occured in other parts of the world during regional wars in the 1980s. In 1990, as communism was collapsing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the communist dictatorship of Yugoslavia broke apart along national and religious cleavages. "Ethnic cleansing" and mass murder in former Yugoslavia, mostly in Bosnia, led to 100,000 to 200,000 deaths.
Tasks: watch the short videos and read the notes below.
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching and reading.
2. POSTED 5/19:
Denial: for political and geostrategic reasons, most governments (and corporate media) are largely silent about the genocidal crimes of Mao Zedong and his hard line communist regime. Not so regarding Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge communists in Cambodia. From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot led a genocide against "enemies of the people" that resulted in the murder of nearly one quarter of the entire population of Cambodia. Pol Pot was inspired by no one more than Mao Zedong. Today the events that occured under the Khmer Rouge are recognized globally as genocide. Tasks: watch the short videos and read the article below.
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching and reading.
1. POSTED 5/14:
After the Holocaust, we heard "Never Again" - a promise that the world learned its lesson and no future genocides would ever be allowed to happen.
They did. We still haven't learned. In this final unit, we will briefly examine the genocidal and mass murder events after World War II. First, here's an introduction to the brutal dictator who founded Communist China: Mao Zedong. Mao possibly has the highest body count of all mass murderes in history. Here are two short videos to introduce Mao:
Next, read these two articles:
Class Participation: email Pennino your questions and or comments after watching and reading.
