BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706 - 1790)

Hello to everybody,

Benjamin Franklin was one the Founding Fathers of the United States.

He was born in a very poor family and he started to work at the age of eleven. Between seventeen and twenty-four years, he was working printing business and he became editor of Pennsylvania Gazelle. His most important clue is the following:

GOD HELPS WHO HELPS HIMSELF

Franklin gained international renown as a scientist for his famous experiments in electricity and for his many inventions, especially the lightning rod.

From 1785 to 1788, he served as Governor of Pennsylvania. Toward the end of his life, he freed his slaves and became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

The first part of Franklin's biography is to consolidate the ideas of myths and stereotypes, as he believed plenty on Enlightenment thoughts. Franklin's autobiography, begun in 1771 but published after his death in 1791, has become one of the classics of the genre, as this genre was so important in America. The main ideas in his works are:

• The self-made man
• To Go from Rags to Riches.  

In his biography, Franklin made a plan to achieve perfection. That is to make people themselves perfect, living in society. To make this possible he defined 13 virtues:

Benjamin Franklin's Grave. National Memorial

1. TEMPERANCE: Eat not to Dulness. Drink not to Elevation.
2. SILENCE: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoiding trifling Conversation.
3. ORDER: Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
4. RESOLUTION: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY: Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY: Lose no Time. Be always employ’d in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.
7. SINCERITY: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak; speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. MODERATION: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you thing they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS: Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.
11. TRANQUILITY: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY: Rarely use Venery but for Health or offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation.
13. HUMILITY: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Franklin, in his text Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, wants to aware people about what they called savages: “Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs”. With this he tried to say that people on society called them savages but if people put on society this savages, they might think the savages are the people. Having different life style is not enough to ensure that one or another is better than the other. Both are totally acceptable.

Ending with that, it is important and remarkable to mention that he is the only one whose face appears at the money not being president, because every face printed at money are presidents.  

Wyatt Earp

Portrait of Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp (March 19, 1848 – January 13, 1929) was an American Marshall who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, or saloon-keeper.

As I said above, he was sheriff in several towns as Dodge City (Kansas), Tombstone (Arizona), and Lamar (Missouri).

He is best known for his participation in the controversial "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral," which took place at Tombstone, Arizona, on October 26, 1881. In this legendary Old West encounter, Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and one of his best friends, the alcoholic and consumptive gunmen "Doc" Holliday faced a bunch of outlaw cowboys who were terrorizing the town. The criminals were twice their number, however they were killed and arrested by Earp. The 30-second gunfight defined the rest of his life and created Earp's modern-day reputation as the Old West's "toughest and deadliest gunman of his day." 

Henry Fonda

Wyatt Earp would become the fearless Western hero in countless novels and films. You can see several performances of the famous marshall in much appreciated films as "My Darling Clementine" ( 1946, performed by Henry Fonda), "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957, by Burt Lancaster), "Wyatt Earp" (1994 by Kevin Costner) and my favourite "Tombstone" (1993) where Earp is performed by Kurt Russel.

Kurt Russell

Kevin Costner

The last surviving Earp brother and the last surviving participant of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral died at home in the Earps' small apartment in Los Angeles, of chronic cystitis (some sources cite prostate cancer) on January 13, 1929 at the age of 80.

With his dead also died a big part of the Wild West history.

Goodbye mates!

Hi everybody!

In the last class we were talking about Frederick Douglass, a man who fought against the slavery and the racism, a symbol for the black race.
I asked Patricia if there was any film about his life as I think he is a really interesting person, a symbol for many people and a fighter for the freedom, the human rights and the equality.
I have looked for films about his life and I have found out that there are several documentary films, the latest one is called "Frederick Douglass and the White Negro"(2008) by John J Doherty.
I have found the trailer of this documentary film:

By the way I have found an entire documentary about F.Douglass, I adjunct it and hope you like it.                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                

Belle Star

Let's speak about a kind of people that were very famous during the Conquest of the Wild West: the outlaws. We have to think that in those days law was a very relative matter and women must have been very brave. Belle Star, "The bandit Queen", was born in 1848 around Carthage Missouri. She knew Jesse James and got married four times living as a bandit. Her marriage to bandit Jim Reed was said to have been performed on horseback, not by a priest, but by another member of the gang. Her third husband, Sam Starr was a Cherokee Indian and the fourth one was a Creek Indian. She was wanted by the law and the newspapers made her legend grow by exagerating her acts. She was compared to Robin Hood.She has been credited with stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, playing crooked poker games with her six-shooters, and galloping down city streets with pistols blazing. Riding home in 1889 Belle was shot. Her tombstone reads "Shed not for her the bitter tear, Nor give the heart to vain regret, 'Tis but the casket that lies here, The gem that fills it sparkles yet."

KENYA

KENYA

Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is located east of Africa, bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west and South Sudan to the northwest.

Its capital is Nairobi and its land area is 580,000square km. Kenya has 47 districts, each with a semi-autonomous government of the central government in Nairobi. 
Its population consists of 39 million people with many cultures and backgrounds.
In Kenya is Mount Kenya, which gives its name to the country, and is the second highest mountain in Africa.

Mount Kenya

Kenya has highly variable demographics: there are areas of savannas, arid and semi-arid, and a large Indian Ocean coastline. The central and western regions are forests and mountains while the northern regions are more arid.

Kenya's economy is also the largest GDP of the eastern and central Africa. The country has been a traditional producer of tea and coffee, and more recently has focused on the export of cut flowers to Europe. Kenya is also a world power in sports.

Tea plantation

HISTORY

The colonial history of Kenya begins with the establishment of a  German protectorate over the coastal possessions of the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1885, followed by the arrival of the British East African Company in 1888. Incipient imperial rivalry ended when Germany gave its coastal holdings to Britain in 1890.

It was the Kenya African National Union of Jomo Kenyatta the political force that formed the first government after independence in Kenya on 12 December 1963. Kenyatta became the leader of the country at first as Prime Minister and, from 1964, when Kenya became a republic, the first President of the Republic.

Jomo Kenyatta

Despite the fears of the settlers, the Kenyatta government was moderate, pro-Western and progressive. Although Kenya in the late 1960's was, in fact, a one-party state were allowed considerable freedom within the party and the government rarely abused in their performances. The moderate and stable political government of Kenyatta attracted a large number of foreign investors, established a new industrial area near Thika, and modernized central Nairobi. The tourism industry, based on the great national wildlife reserves, expanded rapidly to become the largest source of foreign exchange. Kenyatta was recognized at the time of his death in 1978 as Mzee (old witch), not only for its own people but by a wide range of world leaders.