Blog 14

It is interesting to know that Chinese officials that governed China were elected through examinations. If this kept occurring, the governmental institutions would be all over the place because they might have gotten a leader that was corrupt and maybe a benevolent and understanding leader next. With governments, there must be stability and they must keep in mind the best interest of the people. Further, the examination system that it was based on was very conservative as a result making the people be more conservative not allowing them to express. Further, a document written in 1898 that critiques the examination system states that the way exams were programed were very corrupt and students found it difficult to balance out their social life and responsibilities with these examination systems. Further, they saw themselves falling behind in comparisons with other countries. It is nice to know however, that citizens oppose and express their concerns. The document that I found most interesting was Qiu Jin's document on women's rights. She mentions foot binding and explains that on a woman's wedding day, people compliment the father on doing a good job on his daughter's feet not really the daughter or the mother. This is interesting because he may not have even played a part in the foot binding other then ordering that the mothers do it yet he still gets credit. This is patriarchy taking its course. Further, women were seen as someone else's property in the 1900's. With the roaring 20s on the rise and the abolition of slavery in the United States, it is hard to crazy to know that women were seen as property still being treated that way in other parts of the world. Women in China had no say in what their future would look like. Women in China were not living, they were surviving. It is also brave and courageous that Qiu tells her readers to no longer depend on men and to stop binding their daughters feet.

Blog 13

I found it interesting that although some believe they are helping by donating to third world countries, it turns out that the best way to help third world countries is through developing programs and provided jobs and resources in place of bandaging the issues. In addition, it is believed that one of the reasons third world countries have issues is due to historical colonialism. Colonialism itself was damaging however, the attitude behind colonialism such as the hunger for power, domination a  has been passed on through generations. Today, it seems that competition is becoming more and more of an essential key to success. Further, as John Paul II explains, sinful greed and evil structures are largely contributing to poverty in third world countries. Advice


- resource exploitation destabilizes especially when factories are destroying their enviro
- forced religion
Although research shows that many preachers and ministers denounced injustices including slavery, this was more than conversion this was about control
- understanding is important
2: the church repeatedly insists that all people should care about poverty and do all they can do address this as part of common humanity bc all members of human family. Church believes all people in first world countries should donate a bit to help third
- far away so not relevant to individuals life
- inviting believers to ponder causes of poverty and offer suggestions for improvement
- advice by church leaders changes over time which is not good because no concise
- bishops Vatican council on how to change poverty
- chuches concerns in maldistribution
- what should be done by church and nations to address global development

- some blame put on colonialism
- need vs wants of affluent
-more concerned in profit for the few not for most useful for the many
- most efficient: micro development self improvement is how to fix (ex: employment opportunities) not put a band aid over and donate because that makes them dependent
- faith based organizations
- christians must provide opportunities to disinherited
- John Paul II wasteful materialism "super development"
- evil: arms race, debt, economic domination = neocolonialism
- global probs: thirst for power and materialism
- modern day christians: guilt but probably struggle for suggestions for immediate solutions
- no individual can change so each person has to pitch in
- call to all christians to help poor inhabitants of the world
- official voices of the church
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Blog 3

The fur, spice and silver trade was beneficial to many nations however it gave rise to slavery. Although we still benefit from these trades today, enslaving others was detrimental to humanity and society then and today. Further, it led to competition and the desire for control between nations. Perhaps this was where racism and/or prejudices all started. The desire to control people and use them in order to make an individual’s life easier was desirable. It seems that humanity took steps leading up to this. In other words, control over the living progressively got worse. For example, it might have first started with Paleolithic people’s taking advantage of nature and the environment. One example could be seen in the burning of plants in order to keep warm. Although this was vital to their survival, it still harms the oppressed group that cannot speak for itself, nature. Then, perhaps the next step was controlling another oppressed group that cannot speak for themselves, animals. For example, the domestication of animals, such as horses. Then perhaps, it led to the control over humans. Perhaps there is something within us that feels the need to control something whether it is humans or the way we look. Perhaps the control of fire was where it all started… who knows?