Why do civilazations have Laws???

During Humanities today we talked about why civilizations have and need laws.
we asked the question "why do civilizations have or need laws?"

I think that civilizations have need laws to protect their people. Lets say that there is no law in Malaysia saying you can not drink and drive. what would happen? Well people would probably drink and drive at the same time, which could mean accidents occurring and of course the person driving, would get hurt. This doesn't only effect the person driving, but also the people around him/her who are driving. All of this would happen if we as civilizations didn't make laws. Laws are also needed to perhaps decide what is right. Governments and every day people use the laws to decide from right and wrong. Even if the country/civilization has laws or not, it doesn't mean they are always fair. This is like part 2 of what we discussed in Humanities. we talked about the Mesopotamian times, the laws that Hammurabi (the king) made, and whether they were fair or not. I personally thought that Hammurabi's code of laws were unfair and not appropriate according to the crime done. For example one of the laws that he made was "if a son shall strike his father the sons hands must be cut of." I thought that this was unfair because no one really knows who did the wrong thing. I mean for all Hammurabi knew, there might have been a good reason for the son to strike his father. I also think that if a son strikes his father the father must either teach him about respect or discipline him, but definitely not cut of his hands. There are many more laws where I think that don't discuss the situation or reasoning of the crime.

Changes in Civilization

Today in Humanities class I watched a movie called "Guns, Germs,and Steel." This movie was basicly about differences and similarities in the history of civilization. After the movie I was asked to make a headline summerizing what I learned from the movie. My headline was "Changes in Civilization." I thought that this was a good headline because this movie was about how different places had different kinds of civilizations. Jared Diamond tries to answer why different places are behind in civilization while others aren't, such as New Guinea and the Middle East. Jared thinks that the Middle East is ahead of New Guinea in terms of civilization because of the different environments, and different resources. For examplae the Middle East is ahead of New Guinea in civilization because New Guinea to depend on gatherings and wild sago trees, since hunting wasn't very reliable. Unlike the Middle East where people had farming skills to make wheat and barley 2 cereal grasses that could be stored for a long time, they also had more productive crops. Another huge reason the Middle East is ahead of New Guinea is domestication. The Middle East domesticated animals. This allowed them to have food(people would gather animal, feed iet kill it, and eat it), make use of the animal by making it either carry weights, or even plow the ground. Animals like sheep could be shaved and the wool would be made into clothing, or a cow being milked for milk. In New Guinea though all work is done by hand. There are hardly any domesticated animals except the pigs. There were 14 animals that were domesticated. Most of them came from Asia, Europe, and North Africa. People recommended that animals that were human friendly, big (over 100 pounds) and plant eaters were the best to domesticate. Since the environment was hard to adapt to New Guinea was still at a state of using stone tools, and were too busy growing food and feeding themselves to be at the same level as other places like the Middle East, America, Europe, and etc...

Survival- Early Human vs. Civilazation- kuala Lumpur

Our class in Humanities discussed about how our modern day tools/ resourses are different from the early men tools/ resourses. We made a chart called the "Wall of Thoughts" showing general categories for early men and Kuala Lumpur, with specific examples.
Here is the "Wall of Thoughts"
The Wall of Thoughts

Categories	Kuala Lumpur	Early Man
Food	Cold Storage Fruit from backyard Buy ingredients/make food	Berries and leaves Hunt Raw meat Plants that aren’t poisonous insects
Water	Bottled water Filtered water Bought water Fountains, ice boxes	Rivers Lakes Dig holes in ground Streams, rain
Nature/Environment	We ruin it-global warming Trees Use fruits and edible plants Tools Food water metal	Edible plants Oxygen Trees Rivers Caves Sticks Animal bones
Resources	Tools Oil, Steal, Metal Bricks, Plastic Rubber Lead Tin copper gold Wood stones	fire rocks pot for cooking bones fire, rocks, wood mud plants
Shelters/buildings	apartment, house condos supermarkets cabins, huts, shopping malls	caves, huts, simple huts lean-to trees and branches
Technology	computers protection equipment tools factories electricity television stairs, tables, oven, clothes, safes, refining	rocks, spears hand axes fire hammer bones, stones
Education	schools, tutors, jobs, parents, others, “Does a learning environment have to be in a school?” Like Mafatu, knew about nature	learning from elders taught each other learned from experience hunting making tools
Communication	languages, road signs hand movements, gestures talking writing, reading internet books, movies, video, letters, email, body language, IMing	cave paintings hand gestures sign language grunts noises
Transportation	bicycles, trucks, cars, etc. bikes, horse, carriage walking, jogging, trains wheelchairs, cable cars, skateboards, rollerblades, speedboats, sailboats, surfboards	feet walking, running
Economy	stock markets government community/cooperation tourism/traveling money, currencies jobs	bartering trading jobs
Government/Politics	court, jury people in charge minister, president, king mayor placed ruler vs. elected ruler teamwork Law	chief no designed ruler families teamwork
Belief System	Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, religions Believing in yourself, not giving up	Consequences Ceremonies They did not have religions
Entertainment/Art	Games, tv, internet, movies, clothing, amusement parks, cinemas, Music, artists, museums, books,	Dancing Hunting ceremonies Making necklaces, drawing on walls Jewelry Cave paintings
Culture	way of cooking, eating, dancing dances, ceremonies way of life anthem accessories different values, food	dancing, cooking, hunt animals celebrate for dead people tribes

I thought that the Wall of Thoughts was a great way to express what you felt. Another reason I like the Wall of Thoughts is that once youu gather all the info/ opinions you can start commenting on others thoughts, and soon it becomes a huge conversation with everyone sharing their thoughts. In our conversation, a lot of my peers came up with great things such as my peer Krithika said that we have such an easy life compared to the early humans. For ex. if you were to have fish for dinner, and you were an early man you would have to go to the river, kill a fish, come back, clean it ect. As for us- modern humans, I can just go to the market, buy fish, come home, and cook it... in moments you have dinner. I added on to that comment by saying that our lifes have gotten a tiny bit harder in a way because back then the early humans didn't catch desieses from eating something like termites. as for now you could almost die. So ny final statement was that as we adapted to new things and we invented, we put less, and less effort into something like having fish for dinner. So in return our body kind of became more vulnerable to simple things like even fever.

Civilized Or Not?

There are a lot of civilized places in the world. One of them is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Now why is Kuala Lumpur civilized?

What does it have that makes it a civilized city

Some major/general things that K.L has are:

Food- Restuarants, Food..

Water

Buildings- KLCC, SPCA, Hotels, Houses, Apartments ect

Education-Schools, Teachers, Staff, Colleges, Universities, Students ect

Jobs- Engineers, Doctors, Chefs, Teachers, Arcitects, Managers ect.

Technology- Computers, Wii, i-pods, Cell phones, You tube ect

Transportation- Cars, Trains, Buses, Trucks. Monorails ect

Culture- Batik, Roti Chanai, ect

Economy- Currency, Government, Bartering ect

Cooperation/Communication- Jobs, Schools, Projects ect.

Of course all cities and countries have the basic things like food, water, clothing, and homes.

Kuala Lumpur also has other major things that make it civilized are education, technology, transportation, buildings, culture, and jobs. I think this because education can relate to almost all of these things. For example, to have buildings you need mechanics, and architects who need to learn how to do certain things from school. Another example is that we would need experienced engineers who have learned how to use, and fix computers to have technology. Education can also mean learning new things like how to ride a bike, or even learning how to use a Mac computer. Communication and cooperation is also important because you should be able to discuss things, and cooperate to work together and do jobs because without communicaton and cooperation you wouldn't be able to run a restuarant, have a strong government, or huge projects.

Appropriate Blogging!!

Appropriate blogging is very important when you have a blog. You have to be careful of what you publish because everyone can see what you write. It's really important that you don't give out too much info of yourself because people can "stalk" you and find out about where you live, how to contact you and other things that I bet no one wants other people to know. I think that when you publish things you should write, knowing that the world is judging you according to what you put on your blog. I personally recommend that you should imagine that whatever you publish, is somthing that you would write to your parents. I recommend this because if you are writing somthing it would obviously be appropriate, and you wouldn't write personal details such as address, e-mail address, phone number and ect because you know that they already know this much about you.

These are some basic things you want to do:

• Don't give personal info such as phone mumbers, e-mail address, pictures that look a lot like you, home address, school, whloe name like John Smith or somthing.
• Write appropriate things.
• Remember you have the whole world as your audience.
• Write or show things that reprsent your personality (Be yourself)
• Have Fun!!!

SPCA (Society Of Preventing Cruelty to Animals)

Today in school a worker from the SPCA came to talk to us about what happens in the SPCA. She told us about the process of neutering animals, why they nurture animals in the first place, problems they are facing, and the process of adoption. I have to admit I thought that I knew a lot about the SPCA but there was a lot more then just turning in stray animals, and then the adoption process.

At the end of the presentation I learned about the pros and cons about SPCA. I thought that it was really awesome how all these stray animals had a chance of finding a home. I didn't really like the thought of neutering though, although I knew it was for the best. You might be wondering what is neutering? Well, neutering is when animals are basically given "an operation" to prevent the animal to mate and reproduce. I kind of thought that it was unfair to the animal mother who couldn't have children now. Another pro about SPCA is that everyone can help raise money to help the animals. I was so shocked when I heard that almost 75% of the animals were put to sleep because not many people adopted them and the SPCA didn't have enough space. I also thought it was really sad that a lot of people abuse, and "neglect" their pets. Some owners are very irresponsible. Some owners never let their dog out of their cage, don't feed the dog well enough, and some even hurt them. (I don't even want to think about it!)

Overall, I think that its great that there is the SPCA to help the stray animals in this world. But I still think that everyone should chip in to help all stray animals. After this presentation I felt like helping these animals by doing what ever I can to make a change. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? -Viddy

I am...

I am me
I am a flower growing on a tree
I am a cousin and a sister
with a very annoying brother
I am summer, fall, winter, and spring
I am as precious as a diamond ring
I am a reader
I am a writer
I am an ice-cream cone on a hot summer day
I am special in every way
And most importantly...
I am me

"Call It Courage"

What is Call It Courage?
"Call It Courage" is a book by Armstrong Sperry. Call It Courage is about a twelve year old boy named Mafatu. Mafatu lives in Hikueru and is tired of people calling him a coward because he is afraid of the sea. To prove himself he sets out on the sea. During the journey on the sea he faces a huge storm that leads him to a inhabited island. Now Mafatu has to adapt to the his surroundings to survive. This wasn't very hard for Mafatu to do this because in Hikueru he had a job of making canoes, knifes, nets, etc. After a long time he finally returns to Hikueru, and shows himself to his father. Now his father is very proud of his son, as of before he was ashamed of him.

I thought that this book was good and bad. I thought it was bad because at the beginning, the book was confusing because the author used some vocabulary that I didn't know the meaning of. I thought it was good because it had a little adventure, and it was interesting to discuss about.

All About Me!

My name is Vidya, and I go to an International School in Malaysia. I am from India.
I like to play sports, read, hang out with my friends, draw, and go on the computer. My favorite book is "A Wrinkle In Time." Some of the sports I play are tennis, swimming, and soccer. I think of myself as a traveler. I have been to Indonesia, America, Laos, India, and now I am in Malaysia.