Week 5 - Annika Altura

Week 5
Annika Altura
Section A01

The first article, "Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence" explores the effects of war. There were several mass murders, and so much behind the scenes that we don't know. We only know what history books tell us, however, what isn't exposed is the effects that take a toll on certain minority groups. For example, American imperialism has had several negative effects on the Vietnamese at the time of the Vietnam war. Many were raped, and sexually abused. There was also economic depression on several cities in Vietnam such as Hanoi and Saigon. This war was traumatic for the country. Despite the motives behind the war, and the notions behind protecting America, the bottom line is that several lives were lost, and there is no coming back. Yet, in the US we are still so unaware of the damaging effects on other countries.

The second article, "The Imperial University" explores censorship, and how the American motive embodies the notion of having to hide truth in favor of protecting image. This was depicted through our own University, when the school spent money to protect the image of the University during the tuition hike/Occupy Wall Street protest, due to the pepper spray incident. Its interesting to see how eager the University was to turn to violence with the interest of control, and how they are also eager to hide their tracks. It's almost as if they aren't willing to take the time to find more peaceful ways to handle conflict.

My question is, why is violence the first action of control?

This is an image for the musical Miss Saigon, a play that explores the life of a girl who fell in love, and later was dropped by an American soldier during the Vietnam war. This play tracks the traumatic events that have happened to a single girl's life due to the American imperialism.

References:
1.Chatterjee, P., & Maira, S. (2014). Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent. 

2.Hamamoto, D. Y. (2003). Empire of death and the plague of civil violence. In Boggs, C. (Ed.), Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire (pp. 272-296). New York, New York: Routledge.

MISS SAIGON The Musical | Official Broadway Site | Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 30, 2017, from http://www.saigonbroadway.com/