The Diary of Finn O'Leary, an Irish Monk in 843.

Finn O'Leary-Irish Monk (Papar)
Donegal, Ireland. 843

It is almost winter and times are getting tough for the people around St. Mark's Monastery. I talk to some people and they say this could be a very harsh winter. I try to share what I have with the other people. Other of my fellow monks have told me to conserve what food I have so I can survive. I gave out some of my old robes to the poorer of my town today. As i was strolling about, a pagan man came up to me and same a cold wind will come from the northeast and destroy our town. "How do you know this sir?" I asked him. "I saw it in my dreams!" He spat back in my face. I felt bad for the old pagan man, for I believe he was homeless, and gave him a robe. I patted him on the shoulder and bade him farewell. I then walked back to the monastery for dinner. I discussed what the old man had told me in the street with the other monks. They told me that he was an old drunkard and to heed him no more. "You have to stop giving out your clothes Finn, its going to be a cold winter, and you going to need all the warmth you can get." Pat O'Sullivan, my good friend, warned me. "I have none left to give Patty." After we had finished up dinner and talking, I went off to my chambers for the night and pondered on the prophecy the pagan had told me.

Finn O’Leary

It’s been a week since the old man told me about his prophecy, and so far nothing bad has come. Although the weather has gone for the worse. People are burning their furniture just to stay warm. I mostly stay in the Monastery, only going out for minutes at a time. Yesterday when I went out side I could feel the biting cold against my face. I grew a beard to keep my face warm but it didn’t matter. While I was waling around checking up on some of the elder of the community, I saw a young boy walking along alone. I went up to him and sought to find out why he was out when it was so cold. “Why are you out little one? Where are you parents?” The boy didn’t answer me. “Where do you live?” Still nothing from the boy. “Hmm, would you like to walk with me?” The boy nodded his head at this and I felt good that I finally got him to respond and now I made it my job to befriend the young boy. He must have only been about 10 or 12 years old, stood only about 5 feet tall, had dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes. His eyes looked to be filled with sorrow, more sorrow than a young boy should ever endure. We walked to the rest of my visits and once done I asked him again where he lived. This time he started walking away and so I followed him. We walked for quite a long time and I grew very cold. I wanted to go back for the sun was also going down but I didn’t want to leave this young boy. My superior would also be mad at me for I was late to come back for prayer. We came upon a small shack. It had cracked boards and broken windows. Part of the roof had caved in and I wondered if this was where the boy lived. The boy stopped and looked up at me with his dark sorrowful eyes. I have to go, I’ll write again later!

Finn O’Leary

Sorry about that. It was time for night prayers and I had to go. Where was I, oh yes the house. I slowly walked over to the front door and timidly pushed open the door. What I saw inside astounded me, 10 kids about the same age as this boy and one young man of about 17. “What are you all doing here?” I yelled in shock. The younger kids kept their heads down but the young man came up to me and privately talked to me. “We are all orphans, papar, we have nothing but each other. The young boy who brought you here is Bryan, his family died during a fire last year and he walked 10 miles from his house to our city. I took him in and have cared for him, I care for all these kids.” He was tall, gaunt, long curly dark hair, freckles, and looked much older than he was. He also had a small beard. “By the way, my name is Sean.” The young man said and put his hand out for me to shake. I shook it then told him we had to get the children out of here. “Some do not have the strength to get up, let alone walk.” I looked around and saw that it was true. “We’ll carry the ones who can’t walk then. We will bring them to the Monastery.” The young man said no more and went over to the children. He told them what we were to do and then showed me the ones we needed to carry. I prayed to God that I would have the strength to carry them, and took 2 kids on each shoulder and another on my back. The young man then grabbed the last two who couldn’t walk. We went out the door and the rest of the children followed. They must have been confused; I would be if I just suddenly left my home with a stranger.

Finn O’Leary

Sorry about the abrupt ending there, I had to give care to one of the children. This answers what you probably thought; we made it back to the Monastery. Even though I was dead tired, I felt happiness in my heart for I had helped these kids. The monks and I have been caring for the children and I convinced the other monks to share their rations with the kids. The Monastery was also very warm for the kids because we had fires in every rooms going at all times. We have a tree garden in the back of the church, where we grow trees and cut them down for firewood. We replant every year. We do not give out much wood to the public for our town is surrounded by woods, but we do teach to replant trees after cutting them down so we never run out of firewood. The children have started to talk more and we are teaching them to pray, read, and write. This is a privilege for them because most people don’t learn read or writing. We teach the kids because they have nothing else and learning excites them. I even taught a few to juggle. They are starting to really like it here and we appreciate them here too. While we teach them, they teach us to have fun. We often go outside to play with them in the snow when the weather is mild. The snow is picking up and it has gotten so cold that it is unsafe for me on occasions to check up on the community. I pray for them often. I still think about that pagan man and how he is doing. I pray to Mary, the mother of God, to help the man. Sean often plays with the kids but doesn’t want to learn, saying he would rather work with his hands in a garden or building things. 

Finn O’Leary

Today we got a visitor, a young nun from a convent in Dublin. Her name was Kaitlyn, she was a quite a pretty girl, long red hair, and was average height. She came with news that some monks were coming back from the main land of Europe after a long evangelization journey. We were happy about this because we needed more help around the Monastery. They were to come back during the summer. While walking the halls I came upon Sean and the young nun talking. I overheard him say, “Thank you so much, I will make sure to be your very best student.” I found this odd because he didn’t want to learn. I hoped it wasn’t because of the girl’s beauty that he wanted it, because that’s the wrong reason. Although the young woman, as I should call her, is very new, maybe the convent wasn’t God’s path for her. We’ll just have to wait and see. At dinner we ate but I realized that Kaitlyn was not present. I excused myself and went to find her. I was lucky and found her in a few minutes at the chapel. She was praying out loud and noticed me coming in. She immediately got up and came to me. “Paper Finn, I need your help. I don’t know hat to do, I’m so confused.” She said to me. “What is the problem child?” I asked with care. She responded telling me of how she had joined the convent because her parents told her it was the only way she would get an education and live a good life. She said that she liked the convent but now that she met Sean wasn’t sure if it was the right choice. She didn’t want to disappoint her parents, but she said she wanted to be around Sean. I told her the only solution was to pray to God for the answer, and wait. While waiting I told her to get to know Sean and teach him because a good man like him shouldn’t go without an education.    

Finn O’Leary

It’s been a few days since I last wrote in here. I had been spending time with the children. Sean and Kaitlyn had been developing their relationship. I went outside and went for a check up on the community when I saw the old pagan running around wildly. I came up to him and grasped him by the shoulders and yell, “What is the matter sir?” “The cold wind is here.” At this I started hearing screams from all over the place, coming from houses, the woods, and far off. Then I saw them, the Vikings. “Everyone come! Come! Follow me! Get over here!” I started yelling, but for some it was too late. A Viking ran into a house and I could hear screams coming fro inside it. Several came running to me, and I grabbed the pagan and told him to run back to the monastery and warn the monks. “Everyone follow him!” I stayed back and tried holding off the Vikings. I was trained when I was younger as a squire but decided to become a monk instead, but I still remember the moves. A Viking ran up to me and swung at me and I ducked and punched him in the kidney. He fell to the ground crippled and I grabbed his sword and fought off four more Vikings before they swarmed my position. I ran back to the monastery and looked up and saw Sean with a bow aiming at the Vikings. I kept running and made it to the door. “How are we going to keep them out?” Yelled one of the monks. “Grab a sword and a bow, and barricade the doors. We are not losing this monastery.”  

Finn O’Leary

“We cannot fight, we are just monks, we must save the children and the sacred texts. We must find a safe route out.” Said Pat O’Sullivan. The other monks agreed and ran off to fetch the children and the bibles and other holy objects. Sean came running down the stairs to me and yell, “There’s too many of them, we will never make it out!” “We must keep them back as long as we can then, you and I Sean.” He nodded in agreement, and we both looked at the main door, which was now shaking madly and had a few ax heads in it. We backed up and took our stance, shield and sword in hand, and a bow on our backs. Behind us we could hear the scuffling of feet as the monks scrambled to get out. “Are you coming?” Yelled one of them. I shouted back that we meet up with them later. He ran out, and then all hell broke loose. The door blew open and the Vikings rushed towards us, more than I can count. Long beards on all of them, they had axes and lances and swords, shields, and helmets with horns. They had rage in their eyes, and wanted blood. Sean and I waited for them to take the first move, ducking then slicing them in the ribs. We’d slam others with our shields and pierce their amour with our swords. They were about to over take us so we ran up the stairs, some followed while others ran off to sack the monastery.   

Finn O’Leary

We fought off those who followed us, throwing them down the stairs to their death. We killed off around 30 of them before the stairs were clear again. I motioned to Sean to be quite and that he should follow me. I walked over to the Chapel, there were at least 12 inside. I walked slowly in and motioned to Sean to take them out quietly. We took out our bows and were able to take them out without a sound. They didn’t have enough time to realize what was happening before they too got an arrow through their back. We then went and retrieved the arrows. “Where to next? There are so many of them.” “We must find the small groups and eliminate them first.” I answered back. From there we went around to all the small rooms, taking out Vikings one by one. Retrieving the arrows and reusing them. We must have killed 50, maybe even more by then. I made sure to ask God for forgiveness after killing everyone of them. These men were savages and did not have good will in their hearts. We ran into the rooms of the monks and found Kaitlyn in there, dead. She had several bruises and broken limbs, stab wounds and cuts, and was lying askew across a bed with her dress ripped open.  This threw Sean into an angry rage, I tried to quite him but he ran out of the room to find the men responsible. I followed him all the way into the main hall where there were at least 60 Vikings destroying things and eating food.       

Finn O’Leary

Sean immediately started fighting them; I stood back and shot at them with my bow, used up all 20 arrows taking down 20 men. Then I got into the fight, slashing away at my right and left. A wild looking man with an orange beard hacked at my arm with a small ax. I yelled in anguish then returned the blow with a mighty swing that took the man’s arm off. We fought them like we were many men, taking out 2 or 3 at a time.  It felt like we had been fighting for hours when the largest of the Vikings came forward, breaking through the crowd, and stabbed his huge sword straight through Sean’s chest. He then lifted Sean up and threw him off his sword. I yelled as loud as I could, then ran back to the end of the hall and broke open the barrels of oil we used for lanterns. I then grabbed a stick from the fireplace and threw it in the oil. It lit up the whole place as I ran forward, and the barrels started exploding. I had anger in my eyes as I ran towards them. I had struck fear into them, and they now stood perplexed. I starting knocking them over with my shield and slashing their chests open with my sword. They finally realized what was going on and started fighting back but by now almost the whole hall was on fire. The walls were collapsing around us as our epic battle was going on. I had slain 20 men when I saw the large one. I ran towards him, he picked up his sword and brought it above his head ready to slice me in two. I was too quick for him and slid under his legs, blocking his sword with my shield as I sliced his leg off with my sword. Everyone stopped moving after this, not because the large Viking was dead but because we could hear a ferocious wind. Then it happened, the breath of God came and blew the walls down.

Finn O’Leary

I got up, opened my eyes and saw around me the rubble of the great hall. It was freezing and the cold wind blew hard against me as snow fell to the ground. The rest of the monastery was still standing, but barely. I looked around and saw that I had been almost killed, when the walls fell down, the piece that flew towards me hit the ground and was stuck deep in the earth. I thanked God for saving me, and went off into the woods where I found the rest of the monks, the children, and the townspeople that had survived. It was a very somber feeling and no one said a word. I lead them all to the ocean where we had our boat. We all got on and cast off. As we left we heard the crashing noise of the rest of the monastery falling. People were crying, others were praying, some sat shivering from the extreme cold and one man sat stooped over in the corner of the cabin. It was the pagan man; he had lost an arm in the raid. I went over to him and sat down next to him. “Don’t worry sir, we are off to Thule, where we have some monks stationed.” 

Epilogue

            Northern Ireland was attacked and raided by the Vikings during the 800s and 900s. Thule was an old name for Iceland, and in the early 900s, it was attacked by the Vikings and taken over. It is said that the Irish monks had come to Iceland before the Vikings did though. 

Can Wisdom be Taught?

            Can wisdom be taught? All throughout Siddhartha, Siddhartha is trying to acquire knowledge; he wants to learn how to reach nirvana. When he was younger he was a very bright boy. He learned things much easier and quicker than other children. Because of this he was ahead of many other kids and knew more then they did. This created the thirst for more knowledge that would control over most of Siddhartha’s life.

            Siddhartha leaves his family when he is young and goes off to live with the Shramanas. His father didn’t want him to go but Siddhartha believed that not one of the Brahmins could teach him anymore and that he must move on and find a new teacher. His best friend, Govinda also went along with him but not because he wanted to but because of his loyalty to Siddhartha. After spending a few years with the Shramanas, Siddhartha realizes that none of the Shramanas have reached nirvana. He does meditation to separate himself from his inner I and try to get to the dream like state, which is supposedly what heaven is like, but always ends up coming back to his body. Siddhartha tells Govinda how he has had a thirst for knowledge and that none of his teachers has been able to quench that thirst. Siddhartha does not believe that what his teachers do will lead them or him to nirvana. Siddhartha later leaves the Shramanas with Govinda by bewitching the eldest of the Shramanas and making him perform the necessary rituals to let them leave. Siddhartha showed the old man what he had learned by bewitching him. 

            Siddhartha and Govinda then traveled to the city of Savatthi. Here they found out that Gautama, the Buddha, is in the city. Govinda really wants to listen to the Buddha’s teachings but Siddhartha doesn’t want to because he’s heard them from other people. Siddhartha sees the Buddha and realizes that every part of the Buddha, even his fingers, radiate truth. Siddhartha now knows that the Buddha is a holy man. Siddhartha listens to the Buddha’s teachings but has a problem with it. He tells the Buddha that he teaches that all life is like a circle and that we are going around it constantly without stopping, but then there becomes a giant gap in this circle and that is what deliverance is, that is reaching nirvana. Gautama listens and Siddhartha goes on to tell how his followers will not reach nirvana because everyone has different ways of reaching it and they must find their own path. He then goes on to say that he will continue his journey and will not find another teacher for no one can teach him how to reach nirvana, only he can find his way. The Buddha then warns him to not become too clever. 

            This is a main turning point in the story. Ever since the beginning, Siddhartha has wanted to find a teacher so great that they can teach him how to reach nirvana. Now Siddhartha realizes that they are no such teachers and that he must find the way to nirvana by himself. Govinda does become a follower of Gautama but Siddhartha isn’t mad because that might be Govinda’s way and he must let Govinda find his own way. Siddhartha now believes wisdom cannot be taught and that he must find it himself. Siddhartha changes his path in life like has done before and now goes off to reach nirvana alone. Siddhartha gains the wisdom that there are no teachers that can teach him how to attain nirvana, he doesn’t learn this from the Buddha, he learns this himself from his past experiences and the Buddha’s teachings help Siddartha realize it further. Siddhartha does not want to get away from his inner I but now to know his inner eye.

            Siddhartha now knows he must center his thought on himself to reach nirvana. He thinks he got lost with all the teachings and went off track. He wants to get to know himself better to figure out what he is going to do. Siddhartha wants to center his attention on himself so he can become and know the fullest of himself. He no longer thought the world to be an illusion and to avoid it so now he learned much on his wonderings. He learned from nature and animals and everything under the sun. All this he was learning was knowledge, not wisdom. Siddhartha then takes a ferry across a river and the ferryman tells him that everything returns and that Siddhartha will too come back to this river.

             This is the beginning of a new chapter in Siddhartha’s life. After crossing this river he will not return to that state he was in. He was a young man ready to find nirvana but he did not know how. Because he did not know how and because he no longer believed the world was illusion he would learn many things from the child people, people who were not trying to reach nirvana. Siddartha first met Kamala who would teach him how to make love. Kamala taught him that he needs clothes, money, and shoes to make it in the world. Remember all this is just knowledge, Siddhartha does not gain knowledge until he leaves this city.

            Siddhartha gets a job as a merchant’s apprentice and makes money from that. At first he doesn’t care about the money and if he loses money or gains money, it doesn’t bother him. He lives in the city for quite a long time and after a while starts to forget his path and that he must reach nirvana. He starts drifting away from his path and becomes one of the child people; he becomes what he had always scorned. He had become rich from business and now cared about money. He gambled and now cared if he lost, which he never used to. He loved the feeling of fear while gambling, the fear of losing it all or winning it all. He never used to have possessions but now he did and this was a big change for him. He no longer begged for food but ate delicacies, he had parties with people, and still practiced love making with Kamala. The only thing that hadn’t changed in him was that he still didn’t love; he didn’t love Kamala like a wife and didn’t love anything else. Siddhartha was like a man that was living another man’s life and at first didn’t take much interest in it but later came to become engulfed in this other man’s life, but would never love this life because it wasn’t his own.

            After coming home from dinner, Siddhartha falls asleep in Kamala’s pleasure garden and has a dream; his dream is that the pretty little songbird that Kamala owns dies. The bird represents this life he has been living and that it is not the way and that it will end because it is human of nature. Siddartha then sits under the mango tree and thinks about his life. He has realized he has just been living this fake life, this life he considers a game. He had looked at everything of this life as being a game, getting money, losing money, becoming rich, living like a rich person, and now realizes he shouldn’t live to play this game, he shouldn’t play it over and over. He realizes that this game is at an end and that he must move on.

            Here is where he gains wisdom and no one taught it to him, he realized it on his own. He had been living this game of samsara, the game of the child people, and learned many things from it. He had learned how to live like a wealthy person but this was only knowledge that didn’t matter. Knowledge is good to know, but is useless in the long run. Wisdom is what helps you get through life and attain inner peace.

            Siddhartha gets up and leaves the city and goes to the river. At the river he wishes himself to be dead because he had became engulfed by samsara. It had almost become his life and now he couldn’t get back to his old ways. He grabbed onto a tree and was hanging over the river, ready to let himself go, when he heard it. The holy Om was coming from the depths of his soul. At the sound of the holy Om Siddhartha realized his wrong doings in trying to kill himself. He realized that death was not the right way to release oneself from the body. He then fell asleep and woke up later feeling better than ever. He realized that his sleep was just a long meditation of Om, of perfection. He had remembered all the divine things. He awoke rejuvenated, refreshed, and knowing that he has forgotten much of what he had learned when he was younger and that he must learn it again. He was not sad about it but laughed and found it ironic.

            Siddhartha was depressed and was ready to kill himself because he had forgotten so much and did not think he could get back to the way of life he used to have. After hearing the holy Om and sleeping he realized how divine life was and that he cannot kill himself to be released from his body. He had in that moment been able to go back to the way he was when he first entered the city. He now knew what to do, but this wisdom was not new to him. It had been in him but had just been covered up by years of living samsara. The Om that his soul uttered was like its last attempt at saving itself and it worked. It caused Siddhartha to realize what he was doing wrong. This wisdom he now had back was not taught to him but was always in him. This wisdom was that he does not know his way in life and that he may live one way but then change and change again and that is just the rule of things. He must live the life of many other people to find the path of his own life.

            Siddhartha learns from the river that it is ever flowing but is always there but at the same time is always new. He believes that the one who understands all of the river’s secrets knows also many more secrets, all secrets. He then works for the ferryman, Vasudeva. Vasudeva and Siddhartha both learn from the river, both have learned that nothing is past or future but everything is present. Vasudeva taught Siddhartha that the river has all voices and when you can hear all of the rivers voices at once, that sound is Om, perfection. Hearing all the voices is understanding all, so that is why you hear Om.

            Siddhartha then sees Kamala for the last time when she comes for the Buddha’s death but she gets bitten by a poisonous creature and dies. Siddhartha is left with her child, which is also his child. He tries being nice to the child and lets him get away with anything. Vasudeva sees Siddhartha’s wrong doing but does not tell him because he wants him to realize it on his own. Finally though Vasudeva tells Siddhartha that this boy does not want to live with them because this is not his path. Siddhartha loves the boy though and doesn’t want to let him go. Love, that is the thing Siddhartha thought he would never feel. One day his son runs away and Siddhartha goes into the city to try and find him. He does not see him and sits down and meditates on Om, trying to make the wound of love he felt for the child blossom and not hurt him anymore.

            He went back with the ferryman and it took a while before the wound blossomed. It blossomed when he realized the unity of the world, the unity of all life. He was able to breathe unity, feel unity, to think the thought of unity at every moment of life. This wisdom he gained through thinking about it but he first learned about the unity of all life from the Buddha’s teachings. Siddhartha’s wound still pained him and he went across the river but heard the river laughing at him and looked at it and saw his fathers face. At this he remembered how his father didn’t want to let him go but did because he knew he couldn’t hold back his son. Siddhartha never saw his father again. His father died alone without his son. Siddhartha wondered if that is what his life would be like, if his life was just a cruel circle and that all sufferings would come back. Siddhartha then tells Vasudeva about this and Vasudeva tells him he hasn’t heard everything. They go back to the river and look into it. Siddhartha sees the images of friends and family flowing into each other in the river, the rivers voice is of longing and pain. He sees the goals of all humans in the river. He saw the river striving to reach its goal, to go to the many lakes or rivers or waterfalls. To become vapor and to rise to the clouds only to come back down to the river. He then heard different voices of the river and then heard thousands of voices of the river. He listened harder and could no longer tell the difference between the voices, all the voices were now together. All the goals, all the voices, all the suffering and desire, all the good and evil, everything he saw and heard and felt in the river was the world. He didn’t listen to one voice of the river, but listened to all then he heard Om, perfection. He had heard it and now his wound blossomed and his inner I flowed into unity. He accepts everything and no longer toils with his fate. He has reached perfection, nirvana. Vasudeva then leaves him and goes into the forest. Vasudeva had nirvana too but only after Siddhartha had reached it.

            All that he has learned since he has come back from the city seems like he learned it from the river. This is somewhat true, the river did teach Siddhartha much wisdom, so much wisdom that he reached nirvana. But the river represents the world and all its feelings and goals so wasn’t it really the whole world that taught Siddhartha this wisdom? Wasn’t he part of this world so didn’t he also teach himself wisdom? The river brought everything together for Siddhartha to understand. So the answer is, no, wisdom cannot be taught, at least not by any teacher. It was through meditation and concentration that Siddhartha saw these things in the river. The river didn’t teach him perfection and wisdom, it only put the things before him to understand. He had to understand these things to gain perfection and perfection was knowing all wisdom.

                 This story is a lot like my life. I do not know what I will do when I am older and am constantly thinking about it. I do know one thing though and that is that is that small negative things that happen during my life will not affect my whole life. I do not see each day is its own, I see my whole life. I do not worry about a big test or project because I know I will get it done. I know the test will not last forever. Before an oral presentation I am nervous, but then think, “Tomorrow morning this will all be over, and will it really make a huge difference in my life? Is it so bad as to lose sleep over? No it’s not.” If I get a bad grade, I don’t worry because I know I can get my grade back up. I want to travel the world one day and maybe I won’t have the money or maybe I will. I don’t worry about my future because I know it will turn out well. This is what Siddhartha finally realizes at the end. You can’t make your own fate, you have to let fate guide you where it wants.                          

Tank man, the brave man who stood down five tanks that could have easily run him over. No one really knows who he is, or what happened to him after he stood down the tanks. Most young Chinese do not even know who he is or what he did. He fueled a revolution in the USSR, and what he did changed China forever. What he did changed the world forever.

On June 4^th, 1989 Chinese troops open fired on innocent civilians, killing hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people in the Tiananmen Square. There were tens of thousands of people in the Tiananmen Square, ranging from little children to old people, but mostly there were a lot of students protesting. The government would not have cared if it was just students, but since almost everyone was protesting the government got scared. They sent in troops to get rid of the protesters without causing any bloodshed. The troops started firing on the protesters though because they would not move. This got them to move.

This incident cost many people their lives and caused many more to get injured. The students decided to leave the square and not risk any more deaths. A day later five tanks came rolling down the street, and one man stepped out into their way, that man was tank man. The tank turned several times to pass him but he kept getting in front of it and once climbed on top of it. He was then pulled of the road by two people, who are also unknown. Tank man was a symbol, a symbol that showed that even a small force could stop a seemingly unstoppable force.

 The sad thing is that China has totally forgotten about this, actually it is more like they covered it up. They do not tell students about this, it is not on their Google. The Chinese government has basically covered the whole thing up pretty well. The only good thing that came out of this is that China gave freedom to economics; people can get as rich or as poor as they can. China has become paranoid about their people revolting against them, so they are very strict with the internet, cameras, what people say, like if your being interviewed you have to say things that will make China look like the best place in the world. Let us just say that if China had the ability to monitor what people think, they would. If the Chinese people could be shown what happened June 4^th and 5^th of 1989 I am sure that they would protest maybe even try to revolt against the government, like many other people are doing these days.     

There are over 182,000 solar panels at the Nevada Solar One. The solar panels heat oil in pipes up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit, then the hot oil pours into giant radiators, which extract the heat and turn water into steam. The steam then drives a turbine and dynamo, pushing as much as 64 megawatts onto the grid. That would be enough energy to power 14,000 households. The Nevada Solar One is the largest solar power plant built in the last 17 years.

Nevada Solar One can convert 21% of the suns rays into electricity. Although gas plants are more efficient, the solar power is free. Small motors move the solar panels so they will always be facing the sun. President Barack Obama promise to “harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." Energy from the sun is virtually unlimited.

There are two main ways to capture the suns rays. The first way is to produce steam, with either parabolic troughs or with a field of flat, computer-guided mirrors that focus sunlight on a receiver on top of an enormous tower called a "power tower." The second way to capture the sun’s rays is to convert sunlight directly into electricity with photovoltaic panels made of semiconductors, for example silicon. Solar power became popular in the Carter era but then died down.

Europe is far ahead of us in renewable energy. In Germany, utility companies are required to pay for even the smallest producers of solar power of about 50 euro cents an hour. PS10 is probably the most spectacular showcase for future solar power. It is a 377-foot power tower surrounded by 624 sun-tracking mirrors that reflect light beams towards its crown. During the Great Depression the Hoover Dam was built and many other power plants were built. Maybe during this depression more solar power plants will be built or renewable resources used.     

Persia was a country that conquered other countries, but was also one of the more glorious civilizations of antiquity. Tehran, Iran’s capitol is an exciting, pollution-choked city beneath the Elburz Mountains. Guests in Iran are treated like royalty; they are given the best of everything. They do this while hiding their true feelings, and it is considered an enormous social asset. Iran is right in the middle of a main trading, culture changing area; between West Asia and East Asia and Africa and Europe.

You have to go through Iran to get to these places, because it is smack dab in the middle. Iran was right in the way of one of the most dramatic expansions of any people in history, the spreading of Islam. When countries invaded Persia, old Iran, they did not change the culture of the Persians but the opposite happened, the invaders became like Persians. The Persians got along with other people so well that others became like them, adopting their culture. This even happened to Alexander the Great; he married a Persian woman and wanted his troops to do the same.

The beginning of Iran dates back some 10,000 years. Persia was most likely the world’s first super power. Iran wants to become a superpower again, doing it by acquiring nuclear weapons. The U.S. government says that the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is sending weapons and munitions to extremist militias that are using these to attack Iraqis and U.S. forces. The Iranians mostly speak Farsi, one of the oldest languages in the world. The Iranians hold high esteem for their poets, who sometimes risked their lives writing the poems.

The Iranian New Year is a 13-day celebration focused around the spring equinox. Persians were probably the first people to worship one God. Iran claims to be sitting on 135 billion barrels of proven conventional oil reserves, the second largest in the world after Saudi Arabia. Iranians are not very good with getting along with new things like western culture or religion. Many Iranians thought the movie 300 portrayed the Persians in a bad way, and one man, Yas, rapped about it. Many Iranians still have a little bit of Persians in them and they are not going to give it up.      

      

The oil sand industry first moved into Alberta in 1963. Syncrude is Canada’s largest oil producer. There are 6 mines of different companies in a 20-mile radius, and they produce three quarters of a million barrels of oil a day. In one April around 500 migrating ducks landed in one of the tailing ponds thinking it was a lake, and died. Greenpeace then broke into the Syncrude facility and hung a banner of a skull and a sign that read “World’s Dirtiest Oil: Stop the Tar Sands” over the pipe discharging tailings. There’s always someone to protest things that go wrong in the world.

The United States of America imports more oil from Canada than any other country, and half of that comes from the oil sands. To move the sand from the oil sand mines, they use the largest dump trucks that can be made, towering 3 stories high. Some believe that producing oil from oil sand is just the tip of the ice burg, and that soon people will start making oil from oil shale and coal, which would greatly affect the atmosphere/cause global warming. The Alberta government believes that there is an estimated 173 billion barrels of oil that can be extracted with the tools of today.

If they could get most of the oil out then there would be a total of 1.7 trillion barrels of oil available for use. They aren’t planning on slowing down with the oil sand industry either because it has been gold for its economy.    The dump trucks used burn 50 gallons of diesel fuel an hour. It takes a stupendous amount of energy to create the hydrocarbons we use to fuel our gas tanks. One man who works for Alberta Environment says that the tailings ponds are his number one priority. The mines are somehow supposed to reclaim these ponds, but they have not fully reclaimed one to this day. The oil companies are trying to balance the needs of today and tomorrow but have been forgetting about tomorrow and just thinking about today.  

The conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis dates back to the time of Abraham. God told Abraham to take his son up on a mountain and sacrifice him. Abraham did so and right before he sacrificed his son an angel came and told him not to and that God was just testing Abraham’s faith. Then God promised Abraham and his son many descendants, land, and a kingship. Now this is where the conflict begins, Jews descended from Abraham’s son Isaac and Muslims (Palestinians) descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael and Jews and Muslims disagree on which son was supposed to be sacrificed. So they both think that God gave them the Holy Land and they do not want to share it.

            That started their forever long bickering. The Jews lived in the Holy Land for a long time until they tried overthrowing the Romans in 66 AD, where they were crushed by the Romans, and the Romans moved them out of the Holy Land and spread them all throughout their empire. Since the Jews were out of the Holy Land, the Muslims decided to move in. The Muslims then lived there for hundreds of years. Then almost 2000 years after the Muslims moved in the Jews started a movement called Zionism, where Jews move back to the Holy Land. The Jews just expected the Muslims to give back the land and move out, but the Jews had been gone for almost 2000 years so the land, in my opinion, rightfully belongs to the Muslims.

            After WWII (on May 14, 1948) the Jews decided to make Israel a country again, and who was going to refuse? They had just been hunted down and murdered in mass numbers by the Nazis, everyone felt bad for them. So now Israel is a new country, but the Muslims did not like this. Mainly, no one in the Middle East liked this. Immediately a couple of the countries in the Middle East declared war on Israel. Egypt and Israel always fought because of the Sinai Peninsula, which both countries wanted control of. There has been peace between the two countries but because of the recent revolution in Egypt, we do not know how long this peace will last. Also the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, wants to kill every Jew on the face of the planet. The conflict between the two races has lasted thousands of years and will most likely last thousands of years more.          

I turned to my brother and said, “I have to write a paper on why the Mid East hates America,” he then said “The whole world hates America.” That reminded me of the fact that my neighbor travels all over the world for his job, and he said he has learned to say that he is Canadian and not American. It is kind of true that most countries hate America. A lot of people see America as fat and rich, but then again a lot of people want to come to America and live here. A lot of foreigners see Americans as ignorant because when we travel to other countries we usually do not know their language and expect everyone to just understand us bend over backwards for us. Also we are not that nice to other races. The comedians in America make racist jokes all the time, and at my old school, Presentation of Mary Academy, the grade below us had around ten Indian kids. A lot of the kids in that grade made fun of and excluded the Indians, so the next year, not one came back.

Now, why does the Mid East hate us? Well, they absolutely hate western culture and the USA is the epitome of western culture. Iran does not allow people to wear neckties because neckties are western culture. I also think they hate us because we always jump into their wars. Some of them probably do not want us over there fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is like the line from the movie Green Zone  “It’s not for you to decide what happens here.” It is their country; let them decide what happens there.

 Have you ever wondered if there is a connection between us getting into these wars that don’t matter to us in anyway except that they cause our gas prices to go up? I have, and sometimes I wonder if America stopped using oil and used some renewable resource if we would pull out of the Mid East. The sheiks over in the Mid East are probably laughing at us, the great country of America jumping into wars that they can never end just to drop the price of gas. Plus whenever we win a war we try making that country we beat, or helped liberate, a democracy. A democracy is western culture, and they hate western culture, so they hate when we come over and fight in their wars. They would probably like us to just stay in America and mind our own business.  

Some people feel that America should give back some if all of the land America gained by winning the Mexican-American War. I think that that is a totally ridiculous idea. First of all, we’ve had that land for around 200 years, why just give it back now? I’m pretty sure Mexico doesn’t care that we still have it. If they did, they probably would have started a war to gain it back along time ago. It’s just a horrible idea.

If we gave the Mexicans back that land we would most likely start another civil war. All the people in the states that were being given back would get angry and most likely revolt, and cause a war. It would not be just the people in those states fighting back; it would most likely be everyone in the United Sates fighting back. We also have most of our soldiers out in the Middle East, so there would not be enough to fight back against everyone. Also if the soldiers opposed it they would probably decide not to fight.

See that is the thing, I would think that probably 99.9% of Americans would oppose this idea. If they would support this idea, I would call them un-American, or commies. The only people who I can see supporting this would be the hippies. They are all about ant-war and all that peace and spiritual stuff. They probably want the entire world to be one big country.

If we gave back this land, we would lose California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and part of Colorado and New Mexico. I don’t think people would take too kindly to losing the Lakers, Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon, or really any of those states. It is just such a terrible idea and I don’t think many people would support it.   

2-17-11                      America, Found and Lost

Tobacco was very popular back during the 1600s. When bringing tobacco back to England the sailors would dump out stones and soil, which most likely contained English earthworms. The earthworms ate the leaves that had piled up on the forest floor. This caused many small plants in the woods to die because they used the leaves for food. America was worm free until the English came over.

On May 14^th, 1607, 104 colonists disembarked on Jamestown peninsula. These settlers arrived in the middle of a small but rapidly growing nation called Tsenacomoco. Its leader was Powhatan, and he had tripled his nations size to about 8,000 square miles and about 14,000 people. The people lived in villages with a couple hundred people in them, and large areas of cleared land surrounded the villages. In the fall the Native Americans burned the underbrush in the forests, which made the forests look park like.

The settlement at Jamestown was one of the only settlements that wasn’t destroyed by the Powhatan Indians. Jamestown was a very bad place to settle because there were lots of mosquitoes there and the water was gross and terrible to drink. Many people died at Jamestown but many more were brought in. John Smith took charge and Jamestown started going uphill but then he left for medical treatment in England and the death toll rose again that winter.

The colonists became friendly with the Native Americans and started using their “abandoned” land as farming soil for tobacco. The colonists also brought over lots of farm animals, which trod all over the Native Americans farmland, but they were not allowed to shoot them. The Native Americans ended up fighting for food with the animals. The Native Americans also didn’t like the honeybee because it was what helped the colonies survive. The colonists kept pushing the Native Americans farther and farther west, and Powhatan never fought back.

George Washington once said that when America was founded, it had two things going for it: land and good timing. I am not too sure about what this quote means but I can guarantee that once I research it, I will find out what it means. I know that America is a lot larger in land than England, so that is probably what that part means. I do not know how it had good timing though.

America is several times larger than England in land size, which means that America has more areas for farming and mining. Which means that we would have a large income from selling materials to other countries. We also had a lot of land in which to colonize. I believe we should have shared land with the Native Americans, instead of kicking them out. We could have learned a lot from them.

There are also many animals found in America that aren’t found in England or other counties. So hunters and trappers would sell fur coats to people over seas for lots of money. During the 1800s there was a gold rush and lots of people moved out west to search for wealth in gold. Having lots of land has helped our nation, like how Alaska produces lots of oil. Those silly Russians. 

It was good timing to form our country then because if we had waited longer we might have ended up like Canada, and have the Queen on our money. It was also good timing because after the Revolutionary War England and France went to war. If we were still part of England we would have been sucked into the war, and if we revolted then England would have to split their army to fight both France and us. We most likely would have sided with France and we probably could have taken England over. So it was also good timing for England.  

4-18-11                      Will we be in the Middle East forever?

There are many points of views on this, and many variables surrounding this. Some might say we will be there forever, and others think we will be out of there soon. It all depends on many factors. The main thing is terrorists, they are there, but we do not know exactly where. That is mainly why we are over, to kill terrorists.

Terrorists are mainly just radical religious people who murder people, blow buildings up, blow themselves up in order to kill other people, all in the name of God. A group of terrorists known as Al Queda hijacked four passenger airplanes on September 11^th, 2001. They crashed two of the airplanes into the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon, and one was headed for the White House but the brave souls in that last airplane fought back and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 innocent people died because of these attacks. This is why we went over there, to seek revenge.

Terrorists will most likely never go away, unless the countries that harbor them change their minds and put strict laws in place to stop the terrorists, and that will most likely never happen. At first we went over to fight the terrorists, then it turned into getting rid of Saddam Hussein, then putting in place a democratic government in Iraq, and I do not think it will end. Every time we invade a country and throw out their leaders we put in a democratic government and that is not easy, and if we keep doing that we will end up staying over there for a very long time.

I think we should stay over there and fight the terrorists and anyone who gets in our way, and like in Libya, if some government is oppressing their people/killing their people we should go there and fight against their government, but only after coming up with a legitimate plan that will simplify things and allow us to be in and out in a short period of time. The thing with Iraq is that they are like our child, and we do not want to let them go on their own, we want to keep supporting them because we do not want them to fail. But parents have to let go at some point, so we should let go of Iraq and wait and see how they fair. We can bring the troops back, let them rest for a few years, and then bring the ones, who want to go back, back to the Middle East to fight terrorists.

But while they are back, we should come up with a new game plan. It is like in sports, it is hard for the coach to get his players to perform a specific play, or show them a new play, without calling a time out. I think America should call a time out, write up a new playbook, put in the bench players, and then teach the starters the new plays. Once the starters are ready we should put them back in, and keep the bench players in too even though that is impossible in sports, and have them teach the bench players the new plays. I do not think we should leave the Middle East until we kill every terrorist and scared straight anyone thinking of being a terrorist.           

-         Time zones are different areas of the world. The time zones start at the prime meridian. Time zones are based off of when the sun rises in a certain location.

-         Demographics are characteristics or attributes of a place.

-         Solar Energy is a renewable resource. It is using the energy from the sun to power things that need electricity.

-         Lines of Latitude are the lines that go from east to west on a map. They measure how far north or south something is from the equator.

-         A Solstice takes place at the beginning of summer and winter. It is when the poles point towards or away from the sun.

-         23.44 Degrees is the degree at which Earth is tilted. It is the degree of tilt of the invisible like that goes through the center of Earth and to it poles.

-         Equinoxes are at the beginning of spring or fall. It is when neither the of the poles point towards or away from the sun but point sideways.

-         365 ¼ days is the amount of time it takes for Earth to revolve around the sun. Every four years we add an extra day to February because of the ¼ day.

-         Pangaea is the large landmass that all the continents used to be. It broke up because of the shifting plates in Earth’s crust.

-         The 5 circles of latitude are the Artic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle.

-         The seasons begin on March 21^st  (spring), June 21^st (summer), September 21^st (fall), and December 21^st (winter).

-         The 8 Planets in the right order from the sun are:

1)      Mercury

2)      Venus

3)      Earth

4)      Mars

5)      Jupiter

6)      Saturn

7)      Uranus 

8)      Neptune 

-         The equator divides the world into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

-         The Prime Meridian divides the Earth into the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere.

-         Parallels go east to west

-         It takes Earth 24 hours to rotate.

-         The Earth’s rotation causes day and night.

-         The Earth’s revolution causes seasons.

-         The seven continents are:

1)      South America

2)      North America

3)      Australia

4)      Asia

5)      Africa

6)      Europe

7)      Antarctica

-         The five oceans are:

1)      Pacific Ocean

2)      Atlantic Ocean

3)      Indian Ocean

4)      Antarctic Ocean

5)      Arctic Ocean

-         The US holds a census every year ending in a 0.

-         The south and the west are the two regions in the US that are growing the fastest, population wise.

-         The Americas were named after Amerigo Vespucci because he was the first to realize that this new land, the Americas, was a new continent.

-         New Spain existed in the western hemisphere from 1492-1848.

-         Spain had land in the Americas in Cuba, Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. They also had Mexico until the Mexican Revolution.

-         America got land from Mexico after the Spanish American war in 1898 and we got land from Spain after the Spanish American war, which was from 1846-1848.

-             Manifest destiny, endless possibilities, a new beginning, and overcrowding made Americans want to move west.

-         New France existed from 1521-1763.

-         France possessed land between the Mississippi and Appalachian Mountains and up to Quebec.

-         The French lost the French-Indian War and lost all their land in North America.

-         Quebec was allowed to keep their French culture.

-         The English were in the US from 1607-1783.

-         The English lost the Revolutionary War where they lost all their land in North America.

-         Provinces (Canada)

-         Aztecs (Mexico)

-         42,59’ (USA)

-         1776 (USA)

-         49,15’ (Canada)

-         1821 (Mexico)

-         19,26’ (Mexico)

-         1867 (Canada)

-         Parliament (Canada)

-         Tenochtitlan (Mexico)

-         The Queen of Canada is Queen Elizabeth, the Queen of England. She doesn’t act as queen in Canada, but is on their money.

-           Oil sands is a term used for oil that can be removed from the sand. It is up in Canada and causes a lot of pollution to get the oil out of the sand. It helps out many countries.

-         The Aztecs ruled Mexico until Cortez came and took it over. Montozumo ruled the Aztecs and Montozumo’s Revenge is that the water in Mexico is unsafe to drink.

-          36,30’ is the southern boarder of Mississippi, and anything above it could not have slavery and everything below it could have slavery.

-         Jamestown is the first English settlement in North America. Known for producing tobacco, and is in Virginia. At first people there struggled to survive but then were able to adjust to the conditions.

-         The Mexican American War took place from 1846-1848 and got America the land of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and part of Colorado and New Mexico.

-         Quebec is a major area of French influence in Canada. Most still speak French up there, and keep many French culture things.  

The Crab Fisherman and the Spirit

Once upon a time, there was a crab fisherman named Phil Harris. He was out fishing with his crew in the waters off of Alaska when they pulled up something strange. It was a little wooden box. It looked ancient, and the crew decided to bring it to Phil. He looked at it and, with curiosity, opened it, and out poured a green misty smoke. The smoke then took the shape of an Eskimo.

“You have freed me from this wretched box I’ve been in for a thousand years. I was put in it by my tribe’s leader. I tried overthrowing him, but failed and was cursed to live in this box for the rest of my life. He used the magic he had learned from the elders to take away my physical body and then turned my soul to smoke so I could never die, which meant I could never go to the after life. To make it worse he trapped me in this box and threw me into the sea. I’ve waited many years for the person who would have saved me, but they never came. I lost faith in mankind and decided that instead of giving them wishes, I would kill the man who freed me.”

Phil pleaded with the spirit to have mercy on them, for they did nothing. The spirit would not listen to him, so Phil said that the spirit can do what he pleases with them, but then asked if he could have a cigarette. The spirit said yes, but said that was all he could have. Phil then asked, “So spirit, you’re made of smoke? How are you going to control where you go?”

“I will let the wind carry me where it wants.” At this Phil pointed the cigarette he was smoking at the spirit and took a deep breath in, and the spirit got sucked through the cigarette into Phil’s lungs. Phil then blew the smoke of the spirit back into the box and shut it quickly. 

“You devilish man! You tricked me! You lied! You had not given up, and I am the creator of my demise by letting you smoke that cigarette. If you let me go I will not harm you in any way and will go on my way and leave you alone! I swear to it!”

“I will not let you out spirit, for you would show no mercy on us. You deserve to stay in that box for the rest of eternity! You deserve the fate Tiger Woods and the caddy.”

Trying to delay Phil, the spirit asked, “What is this story you speak of?”

Tiger Woods and the Caddy

Tiger Woods was a great golfer, actually the greatest golfer. He lived a lavish life, but went into a slump. He couldn’t win any competitions. All his caddies and trainers tried helping him, but none could seem to get him out of this slump. A caddy named Leo from upstate New York went and visited Tiger at his house; he said he could cure Tiger.

“I have these clubs. They were forged in a volcano by Arnold Palmer himself. If you use them, you will become the greatest golfer to ever live.” Tiger tried them and it worked. He started winning every competition he entered.

“I will give you half of every winning, Leo! You are my greatest help and friend!” Soon, Leo and Tiger became richer and richer. They drove the finest cars and lived in the most extravagant houses. They also partied a lot, and Leo began to notice that Tiger would go to private rooms with many different women. Leo knew that Tiger was married but didn’t want to think about him cheating because Tiger was his idol. Tiger’s old caddy became jealous of Leo. He told Tiger that Leo was just using him to get money and that soon he would take the clubs back and use them to become better than Tiger at golfing. Tiger thought this idea was ridiculous and asked his old caddy, “Do you want me to end up like Billy the Man and his trusty horse Betsey?”

 

Billy the Man and his Trusty Horse Betsey

Billy the Man was a wild and crazy gunslinger back in the 1800s. He lived in California. He was hunting down Johnny G and found him sitting in bar. He kept trying to get his horse Betsey, who he had ridden all his life, to go towards the bar, but she kept turning away. He finally got tired of the horse’s games and got off her and, thinking that she had gone crazy, shot her. He then walked with swagger into the bar and shouted, “Johnny G! Your time has come.”

“No, I think yours has,” said Johnny G as he walked up from behind Billy. The man at the bar was just a look-a-like of Johnny G. Billy tried turning around and pulled his Smith and Western a few inches out of its holster when Johnny G blasted 3 shots into Billy’s back. As Billy lay there bleeding out all over the floor of the bar, Johnny G walked out and said, “You should’ve trusted your horse.” 

Now, the old caddy had to try harder to convince Tiger that he was going to betray him. So, the caddy started telling a story he had just made up about Leo being with Tiger’s wife. Tiger’s ego had gotten so big that, even though he cheated on his wife, he didn’t want anyone to be with her, because she was his. All the women were his in his mind.

The next day Leo was called over to Tiger’s party house. He was then ushered into Tiger’s personal ‘man-cave’.

“I hear you have something going on with my wife,” said Tiger and Leo tried talking, but Tiger shushed him. “Now, there’s only one thing that I can do now. I must kill you, for I also fear that you want to steal my clubs. You want my fame don’t you Leo? You want to be me.”

“No! No! I just want to help you! I don’t want the clubs or your wife, and I’ve never been with her, I swear!”

“I don’t want to hear anything from you. You have one day. Make your will. And be back here by dawn.” At this Leo left and went back to his house, followed by two of Tiger’s bodyguards to keep watch on Leo. Leo made out his will and emailed a copy of it to Tiger’s wife. The next day at noon, Leo showed up at Tiger’s and was met by a man with a Cadillac Escalade. He told Leo to get in, and when Leo got in, he put a brick on the gas pedal, and the Escalade drove straight into a pond and Leo drowned.

 The man then had a diver go down and retrieve the brick, and he then had Tiger call the cops and say that Leo just drove into a pond. They made it look like an accident. The SUV was laid out with stuff to make it look like it was Leo’s, and a CD was put under the passenger’s seat to make it look like Leo had gone to reach for it and wasn’t looking when he drove into the pond. They used latex gloves with Leo’s fingerprints on them.

Tiger spent the day at that house with a few women and then left to go back to his regular house. He got in and his wife started yelling at him.

“What are these pictures? Huh?!” She was holding up pictures of Tiger and other women. “Your buddy Leo sent these to me! He said I needed to know what my husband had turned into!” At this she took Tiger’s special clubs he had gotten from Leo, and she started throwing them around and snapping them. She then chased down Tiger with one and he hopped into his Escalade and tried driving away but crashed.

The whole world knew about this, and now Tiger couldn’t get any women, and his special clubs were all broken. He again went into a slump, but this time, there was no one to save him.

“Now you know what will happen to you, spirit.” Phil took a big puff from his cigarette and then threw the box way out into the ocean. “Drinks are on me boys,” Phil said to his crew as they went into the cabin to warm up.

“We don’t have to pay for drinks on this ship!” yelled back a crewmember. At this, Phil went into a fit of laughter, which turned into a fit of coughing.  

   

 

-         Saudi Arabia and Yemen are on the Arabian Peninsula.

-         Israel and Turkey are on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

-         The Gaza Strip and the West Bank are two territories inside the boarders of Israel.

-         Abraham is the father of monotheism.

-         Jews, Muslims, and Christians all worship the same God, they are monotheistic.

-         In 1000 BC Israel splits in two, Israel and Judah.

-         In 722 BC Israel was taken over by the Assyrians.

-         In 587 BC Judah was taken over by the Babylonians.

-         In WWI Britain and France got “mandates” in the Mid East.

-         Britain got a Mandate for Palestine.

-         Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948.

-         The Palestinians is Israel were taken out and put into their own little societies, away from the Jews.

-         Israel took the Sinai Desert, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golden Heights in the 1967 war.

-         Egypt was the first Middle Eastern country to make peace with Israel.

-         Israel still controls Golden Heights.

-         The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated right after he made the peace accords with Israel.

-         The Two-State solution is to make the Gaza Strip a country again and to make sure it is okay with Israel.

-         The West Bank cannot survive as a country without Israel because it does not have the needed resources.

-         Mahmoud Abbas is the president of the PLO or PA.

-         The Right of Return is the right for Palestinians to return to Israel and live there.

-         Cyrus the Great was the Persian Emperor who allowed the Israelites to go back home in 537 BC.

-         The USSR and Britain invaded Iran in 1941 because they were afraid that Iran would supply oil to Hitler. They took control of Iran and put the Shah’s son in charge.

-         Ayatollah Khomeini was sent into exile because he was criticizing and preaching against the Shah.

-         Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979 because that was when the Shah fled the country. The Shah fled the country because he was afraid of a rebellion.

-         The Ayatollah set up a theocracy when he went back to Iran. A theocracy is a government based off of religion. The laws are taken from laws and teachings of God/Allah.

-         52 American workers at the American Embassy in Iran were taken hostage for 444 days. (November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981). They were given back once Jimmy Carter was not president any more.

-         Sharia Law is a strict form of laws for criminals in Indonesia, it is a form of Muslim law that did not come from Indonesia.

-         Mohammed is the prophet of Islam. He started the religion and helped to spread it around the known world. He is said to have been visited by an angel.

-         The Islamic Revolution was started by CIA agents to get the people to go against their Shah because he nationalized oil.

-         The Promised Land is Israel. Supposedly Israel was promised to the Jews by God, but the Muslims claim it was promised to them by God.

-         During the 600s and 700s AD, Islam spread throughout the known world. Went from Africa all the way out to the boarder of India.

-         Mecca (Saudi Arabia)

-         Canaan (Israel)

-         Largest Muslim Nation population wise (Indonesia)

-         Persia (Iran)

-         Babylon (Iraq)

-         Sinai (Egypt)

-         Taliban (Afghanistan)  

-         Bethlehem (West Bank)

-         Saddam Hussein (Iraq)

-         Jerusalem (Israel)