History Quote

“History are peoples stories that determine our future” – my not so inventive quote

“The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” by Mark Twain  – I thought this quote was a very poignant defintion of history as it shows us just how bias history is. It is events that have been altered over time by generations and generations of people who have passed it down adding  their own twist to the event  

“History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is”. by Thomas Jefferson   – It seems that when studying history all we learn about is how certain people in power or in goverment make bad descisions which determine the fate of the people of that country.  For me everything is history what we did yesterday was history, past events which would affect us in the future – such as revising a particular topic will determine the grade we get the next day if we have a test on it. History for so many is the important big events which happened a long time ago but i beleive it is everything that is done in the past regardless of how important it is.

 

But for me “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

 

CHeconomics

University applications down, but is that a sensible response?

 

 

You will not need reminding that university tuition fees rise to at least £6000 next academic year. The predictable response is a fall in demand.

Applications are down by 8.7% overall. This is what we would expect from the law of demand, price up, quantity down. And in terms of price elasticity demand that’s pretty inelastic as the price change, at least on the surface, is at least 100% and in the ‘better’ universities 200%.

But should students turn away from a university education? The problem with education is that it is an imperfect information good. Consumers of education will not consider two aspects of university education:
1. The benefit to society generally of having a better educated workforce.
2. The full benefits to themselves of attending university.

Potential university students only consider the benefit they believe they will get and weigh them against the cost of attending university. However students rarely realise at the time how much extra income a degree brings them. Nor do they consider their increased productivity and the benefit to the countries productive capacity.

Overall this means that consumers by less education than is allocatively efficient. This is an argument for subsidising education not raising the costs. Indeed some of us got paid to go to university, but maybe I will stop at that!

I love my country, I no go lie

 

I love m
I love my Country
I no go lie
I work for my Country
I no go sigh.

Even though e dey sick
E go well
Even though e dey stink
Inside am I go dwell

Him good good things I do preserve
Him development and progress
I go sweat to maintain
My loyal service him deserve
Him good name I go defend and retain

Him peace and unity
I go protect and project
Him way o people
I pledge to expose and reprove
Dem yeye decisions
I promise to defiantly reject
Dem mago mago
I go fight to correct and remove

My people please
Make una plan our Country better
Make Katakata cease
Na this be my letter.

This is not my poem as it is not really igbo it is a mixture of nigerian and english which many nigerians speak called pidgin english. I love how the poem talks about loving their country Nigeria!!!, and doing everything they can, working so hard to see it succeed. Although i must say it does not really reflect the reality of Nigeria today. We have so much potential but because of the greedy goverment etc we are still suffering and enduring the unstableness that we see today. For example when they take light or as the Nigerians say “NAIPA HAS TAKEN LIGHT”. For people that are fortunate enough to have a generatour we can switch the lights back on but for others they have to reside in darkness. (MAKE NIGERIA GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Argumentum in terrorem (Appeal to Fear)

The fallacy of attempting to gain support for an idea by creating fear. Commonly used in politics and marketing and is meant to create support for a particular idea or product by creating fear of a political or buisness enemy.

One of the many examples to this are “Hell Fire Preaching” – where the preacher focuses on the terrible things that will happen to people who don’t accept his claims rather than anything positive about the religion in question (and, notably, without ever proving Hell exists in the first place, making this an appeal to consequences – leading to Pascal’s Wager.)  Although I am a christian i beleive that it is wrong on all levels to in a way blackmail someone into following your beleifs and telling them that if they dont something bad will happen. There is no proof that God for example exists so why do you have to threaten those do not follow that way of life – people are ABSURD!!!!!!

It is also often used politically, playing off the fear of whatever is the “scapegoat du jour” (foreigners and ethnic minorities are common targets), and basically saying that if you vote for them, they’ll pass legislation to “protect” the people from them – bribery but also threatening behaviour on all levels – imagine if you opted out of voting for that particular person – you will havew HELL to pay 😦

There are also some non political ones used in every day life such as :

• “If you continue to drink, you will die early as your father did.”
• “If you cannot graduate from high school, you will live in poverty for the rest of your life.”

Although people may say that it is not always the case that these things will actually come true – the likes of Lord Alan Sugar and Richard Branson some of the two richest men in the world left school at 16 and are doing way better than anyone who graduated from high school and went on to further education. Instead of living in slums they live in million dollar mansions and are enjoying there wealth to the full – lucky chucks wish it was me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

Also not everyone  who drinks heavily dies so early it just depends on the person, of course i would advise them to stop as it does harm the body – but it is not certain you will die from it.

Some examples of Argementem in Terrorem can be justified for example;

Many old morality tales use this fallacy by focusing on the horrible things that happen when children or adults break the rules; for example, The Boy Who Cried Wolf is traditionally eaten by a wolf for lying.”If you tell a lie, then no one will ever believe what you say again.” This although used with fear is right and can be justified. It is wrong to lie and if you do many tend to not beleive what you say again – it is almost like a warning this quote.

I beleive the whole point of this fallacy is threatening behaviour used with blackmail. Although it can be justified in some examples as shown here, the majority of the time it is not. Argumentem in Terrorem does not allow anyone choice of situation or an oppinion accept the one they have given. They will get you to choose by creating a sense of fear if you do not calibirate with them and choose what they want.

Quite frankly i think this is shocking

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Language

Language mmmmmm where do i begin,

I have always loved the idea of speaking a different language may it be German, French or Spanish, as i have always known it would benefit me in later life as they say it is brilliant for job oppurtunities – oh how i wish i listened to my mother!!!!  Although i like the idea of doing a language i hate actually having to do a language that is the reason why i took latin. I couldnt stand doing oral tests but i could translate and listen very well.  This soooooooooo defeats the concept of  learning a language. Language is, from the discussion we had in TOK, words that allows people to communicate and express themselves. Someone also mentioned how language allows someone to plant an image or idea in someone elses head. This made me realise that the language is very important for every day interaction  and without it i beleive this world and us wouldnt be able to function properly, even animals have a language, we may not know what it is but they do something which allows them to communicte with one another – which i beleive we should also call language. As language doesnt just have to be the way humans talk to each other.

I was shocked and surprised to find out that a language around the world dies out every 2 weeks. This is so disheartening because when we lose a language we also lose culture. As most people are moving to the western world most people are choosing to speak the most popular language that is being spoken around there – English, French, German,  etc. I know for a fact this has happened to me – I am Nigerian but have lived in England all my life. I dont know my native language as my mother never taught me it and so when i have children due to not knowing my native language – Igbo – i wont be able to teach my children, and so there the cycle continues. Thank God there are still 6000, “living” languages still around!!!!

I think language is one the most fascinating subjects that we are able to discuss – it is so weird that as i talk to you i too am putting words that wouldnt have been there if there was no language into your head and you are able to understand me due to you knowing the same language as i do. Although language allows us to communicate with one another it also creates barriers. A barrier that is unable to be crossed unless we too understand the same language – yes it may be easier to have only 3 – 4 languages only in the world as everything would be so simpler but then again everything would be so boring. I love going to a different country and attempting to speak the language while making a complete fool out of myself. I love the sounds of the different languages and the dufferent ways they are able to express themselves

For now for economic purposes i am going to block out this hatred of oral exams and attempt on my own to learn a modern foreign language – probably mandarin as China is the new upcoming country – it will be soooooooo hard but soooooooooo worth it 

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Sense Perception

Perception is, in an important sense, attention dependent.You only see that to which you attend. If something occurs outside the scope of attention, even if its perfectly visible, you wont see it. – Inattentional Blindness

For some reason i really loved this quote. Probably because it has happened to me before and others around me. I can remember seeing something and telling people to look but they were unable to see it even if they were staring in the same direction as me. I remember accusing them of being blind and not seein what i saw. hahahaha now i realise.

From this topic i realise that our senses help us to function more than ever – our brain i beleive is the most important organ in our body (aswell as the heart). But without these senses would we know anything about the world???????? What we cannot sense, we cannot perceive, so there are clear human biological limitations to this way of knowing. Would you have any idea of space if you could not see? Would you have any sense of objects if you could not feel??? Would you have any idea of causation????

If you are limited in one of these senses then your other senses are heightened for example when you are blind your hearing sense of smell and touch are all heightened so that you are  aware of your surroundings although you may not know the colour of the sky or who is in front of you, you can find out by other people talking to you. I believe if you had no senses you would be NOTHING……

The book discussses the idea about how our brain is so bad as it can only see a limited amount. Our eyes are constantly darting back and forth and our body hardly ever holds still. Yet despite all these alternating snapshots we usually percceive our world as perfectly stable. This is the problem faced by visual theory –

Questions: see so much on the basis on so little????

Does our brain conjure up accurate memories ???????

Answer : use a camera – a perfect invention which helps us to get accurate images and playback of previous events

xxxxxxxxx

 

Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder

“Higher Ground”

People keep on learnin’
Soldiers keep on warrin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long

Powers keep on lyin’
While your people keep on dyin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long

I’m so darn glad he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach my highest ground

Teachers keep on teachin’
Preachers keep on preachin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long
Oh no

Lovers keep on lovin’
Believers keep on believin’
Sleepers just stop sleepin’
Cause it won’t be too long
Oh no

I’m so glad that he let me try it again
Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin
I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then   
Gonna keep on tryin’
Till I reach my highest ground…Whew!

Till I reach my highest ground
No one’s gonna bring me down
Oh no
Till I reach my highest ground
Don’t let nobody bring you down (they’ll sho ’nuff try)
God is gonna show you higher ground
He’s the only friend you have around
[FADE]

Talking about how people are aware that there is war and people are preachin and learnin about it. Also highlightin the atrocities of war. When you die you will know and discover everything – theory. —– (highlighten that having knowlege is better than having know knowledge at all) ——–(Is it possible to have maximum knowledge)

My First Impressions

My first impressions of the IB, where do i begin. Errm well i must say it is certaintly not what i expected at all. From all the stories that I heard before i chose to do the IB, such as “your gonna die”, “why do u want to stress your life” etc, i must say the IB has proved wrong so far. Over the summer I thought long and hard over whether i wanted to do the IB, what was i actually getting myself into etc but now i have realised that doing the IB was the best descison i had made in a long time. During the first week, i was surprised that the teachers took the lessons at a steady pace, making it is easier for us to understand the vast amounts of work we have in the future. It made us less worried but also taught us that we have to be prepared  for the future. During these previous weeks i have changed my subjects to : Higher : Maths, Chemistry and Physics – and Standard Level : English, Latin and Economics. Although i am happy that i do higher maths as it will help me get into a better university as the best unis require higher maths with higher level sciences such as chemsistry and Physics; i still miss higher latin as it was one of my favourite subjects. RIP higher level Latin x

TOK  – theory of knowledge was and still is a distant idea in my eyes. Although I am trying my hardest to see the point in the essay as it is a very interesting topic, i am a beleiver that there is no point in questioning such suspicions and theories or in fact even making them up as you will only go round and round circles and end up with what you have started with – nothing. I am more the maths, science type of person who likes the subject beause there is always an answer and there is evidence to prove that that answer is right. Mr saha is doing a good job and will hopefully in time help me to understand so that i can do well in the essay – it is early days!!!

The CAS part of the IB is going well, with all of my activties being a great success- even my service – the hospice which i am really enjoying, surprisingly as i was a bit anxious of what it would be like. I keep tellling people such as Bertie and Olivia when i come back from the active how i wish it was longer as 1 hour goes so fast. I have even learnt to play backgammon which one of the patients taught me and which i beat afterwards – we are going to play a tournament

Cant  wait for the future !!!!

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