Egypt leaves the Internet, citizens revolt. Update: Internet's back, still revolting.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

Tunisia has no history?

Ever heard of Carthage?

Carthage got razed to the ground and the lands salted so nothing would grow for awhile...

Modern Tunisia and the old Carthaginians are far removed in history and culture at this point. Egypt is a little different. Tho.... no history is pushing it you're right.

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

As a off topic, I was talking to the education coordinator at the Miltary museum a few months ago, and she mentioned that Alberta schools would no longer be studying WW1 and WW2 and Korea.

Pretty sad if you ask me.

Wtf? Way to go Alberta education... What are we going to teach the children now? Pop culture and the war on terrorism?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

As a off topic, I was talking to the education coordinator at the Miltary museum a few months ago, and she mentioned that Alberta schools would no longer be studying WW1 and WW2 and Korea.

Pretty sad if you ask me.

You gotta be F*#$ing kidding me . . .

[GirlySports]

Egypt is famous, all the way back to ancient Egypt. We studied Hieroglyphics! Right now it's important because it's the strategic power of the Arab world. Tunisia isn't that famous unless you're a real history buff (which I am not). When was the last time anyone went to or talk about Tunisia?

[FlameOn]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Egypt is famous, all the way back to ancient Egypt. We studied Hieroglyphics! Right now it's important because it's the strategic power of the Arab world. Tunisia isn't that famous unless you're a real history buff (which I am not). When was the last time anyone went to or talk about Tunisia?

Footballers talk about it all the time. They have a half decent club.

[transplant99]

Man... have been trying to stay away from watching this continuously, but switch over every once in a while to see if anything has really changed. Unfortunately it has...and not for the good.

It is starting to get dark there right now, and it appears likely this is going to get really really REALLY ugly in the next 8 hours or so. As someone on TV mentioned, the Iran playbook for squelching an uprising is in full effect and the most ominous page before heavy bloodshed has been played. The military is rounding up all journalists and getting them far away from the epicenter of this thing for "their own safety". This almost assuredly means that the thugs and/or the military is going to open up on the demonstrators when night falls.

Very rarely in history has a revolution occurred without a lot of violence and death, and I fear we are truly on the precipice of seeing it occur once again. Mubarek is defiant, his opposition even moreso, and the guys in the tanks are going to have to point their weapons towards one side or the other. Either way, thousands stand in harms way when/if that happens.

Scary stuff for not just the Egyptian people, but all over the middle East and by default the rest of the world.

[fanman]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

As a off topic, I was talking to the education coordinator at the Miltary museum a few months ago, and she mentioned that Alberta schools would no longer be studying WW1 and WW2 and Korea.

Pretty sad if you ask me.

Words cannot express how pathetic that is, if it's true. It's not like they were major events that reshaped the world in every way or anything like that. Not to mention that in IMO the veterans of those wars deserve a little more respect. Sad, sad, sad. Who the hell decided to drop it from the curriculum anyway, they should be fired.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm just going by what I was told, so I've never bothered to check it out. But from my conversation with her the justification was that the curriculum for history or social science was to study other cultures, which is fine, but I think its wrong to forget not only history but major events that signaled major political changes on a global scale.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Man... have been trying to stay away from watching this continuously, but switch over every once in a while to see if anything has really changed. Unfortunately it has...and not for the good.

It is starting to get dark there right now, and it appears likely this is going to get really really REALLY ugly in the next 8 hours or so. As someone on TV mentioned, the Iran playbook for squelching an uprising is in full effect and the most ominous page before heavy bloodshed has been played. The military is rounding up all journalists and getting them far away from the epicenter of this thing for "their own safety". This almost assuredly means that the thugs and/or the military is going to open up on the demonstrators when night falls.

Very rarely in history has a revolution occurred without a lot of violence and death, and I fear we are truly on the precipice of seeing it occur once again. Mubarek is defiant, his opposition even moreso, and the guys in the tanks are going to have to point their weapons towards one side or the other. Either way, thousands stand in harms way when/if that happens.

Scary stuff for not just the Egyptian people, but all over the middle East and by default the rest of the world.

Quote of the day:

“The street is not afraid of governments anymore,” said Shawki al-Qadi, an opposition lawmaker in Yemen, itself roiled by change. “It is the opposite. Governments and their security forces are afraid of the people now. The new generation, the generation of the Internet, is fearless. They want their full rights, and they want life, a dignified life.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/wo...b.html?_r=1&hp

and Fareed Zakahria in Newsweek with the headline: "How Democracy Can Work In The Middle East."

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...045888,00.html

Cowperson

[burn_this_city]

Al Jazeera is reporting gunfire/snipers shooting at the protestors right now. My girlfriend sister's inlaws are in the square helping treat people.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Al Jazeera is reporting gunfire/snipers shooting at the protestors right now. My girlfriend sister's inlaws are in the square helping treat people.

Thoughts and prayers, man.

[burn_this_city]

Everyone in her family is a little less scared today. Last night we thought they were going to wage a war of attrition on the people until they gave up and went home. Thankfully it appears the army is finally separating the government thugs from the protestors.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Quote of the day:

“The street is not afraid of governments anymore,” said Shawki al-Qadi, an opposition lawmaker in Yemen, itself roiled by change. “It is the opposite. Governments and their security forces are afraid of the people now. The new generation, the generation of the Internet, is fearless. They want their full rights, and they want life, a dignified life.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/wo...b.html?_r=1&hp

and Fareed Zakahria in Newsweek with the headline: "How Democracy Can Work In The Middle East."

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...045888,00.html

Cowperson

Great quote. I don't think Internet generation is focused enough though, it's the social media revolution that's causing this, although I guess that's a product of the Internet.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

Everyone in her family is a little less scared today. Last night we thought they were going to wage a war of attrition on the people until they gave up and went home. Thankfully it appears the army is finally separating the government thugs from the protestors.

As long as that continues this thing may have an acceptable ending...lets all hope.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

As a off topic, I was talking to the education coordinator at the Miltary museum a few months ago, and she mentioned that Alberta schools would no longer be studying WW1 and WW2 and Korea.

Pretty sad if you ask me.

Yep, I just graduated last month from the UofA Edu program and am a SS major. This is true. The new curriculum just came in a couple years ago, its waaay more modern social issues based (genocide, identity issues e.g. Native/Francophone rights, nationalism, free trade/fair trade, etc) than historically based. Still has a lot of interesting subject matter, but as a huge history nerd, I agree, it really sucks they switched it up.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Yep, I just graduated last month from the UofA Edu program and am a SS major. This is true. The new curriculum just came in a couple years ago, its waaay more modern social issues based (genocide, identity issues e.g. Native/Francophone rights, nationalism, free trade/fair trade, etc) than historically based. Still has a lot of interesting subject matter, but as a huge history nerd, I agree, it really sucks they switched it up.

Thanks for the confirmation Saint. To me its sad not only from the perspective that it ignores several keys in time when Canadians stepped up, punched about our weight and established ourselves as a great and reliable nation.

But if you ignore history, you can never learn the lessons of history.

I don't disagree with what they're teaching now, even though I probably wouldn't have cared about it when I was in school, its just that all of those things that are being taught now have a basis in our history.

[Envitro]

Could not agree more ^

Not teaching WWI, WWII and Korea is a disgrace. The youth of this province will forever be dumber and unappreciative for it. Brutal decision

[Joborule]

I don't care what your teaching. WWI & WWII should be included. What were they thinking?

[SebC]

While we're on a tangent, high school needs way more economics.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Thanks for the confirmation Saint. To me its sad not only from the perspective that it ignores several keys in time when Canadians stepped up, punched about our weight and established ourselves as a great and reliable nation.

But if you ignore history, you can never learn the lessons of history.

I don't disagree with what they're teaching now, even though I probably wouldn't have cared about it when I was in school, its just that all of those things that are being taught now have a basis in our history.

Totally agreed. Especially on the WWI front, where we were pretty much born as as an independant nation, at least through international eyes. I think the switch is due to a big changing of the guard at the upper levels of Alberta Learning/universities. It seems the higher ups in the SS dept, at least the ones I've met, are of the very left, social activist variety (I'm not saying that's bad, just saying its a change from before).

My last semester consisted of 5 weeks at the U with all the other SS majors before we got sent off to our practicums the rest of the semester. In those 5 weeks, our prof was one of the higher ups at the U in the SS dept, and would've had a voice in the curriculum switch. He was telling us about it one class, and was relaying a convo he had with another longtime SS teacher who was disappointed about the move from mostly historical based to current social issues based. He said his retort to her disappointment was "We've taught SS the way you've wanted it for the past 50 years, now we're going to teach it the way I want it". Most people in the class were excited by this, as I find students in the education field in general mostly consist of the social activist types. I am not.

I'm not saying its bad to focus on social issues, as well as showing students about the huge disparity between "North" and "South" cultures/economies in the world. Hell its important to show the next generation these things. But to increase one doesn't mean you should completely minimize another. I'm with you in that we can learn a whole hell of a lot by looking at our own past, including finding out about who we are as a nation. I was bitterly disappointed with the curriculum shift.

Anyway sorry for the off-topic stuff, just saw your post earlier and I had to comment, as its been on my own mind a lot the past few months.