Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Irish Republican Army (IRA)

Do you think the person who made this video supports or opposes the Irish Republican Army? Why? What do you think is the underlying message of this video?


Click Read More to access the lyrics of the song.

Northern Ireland: Conflict

Take a look at the following video.


This video shows you scenes from the height of conflict between Catholics and the Protestants. Click through to the Youtube site to look at the provenance of the video.

Do you think this video is reliable and useful in understanding who is to be blamed for the conflict in Northern Ireland?

If you read the comments you will realise that this conflict is not as simple as a clash between religion, but it is of differing loyalties.

The Protestants, who tended to be descendants from immigrants from Britain, want Northern Ireland to be part of the United Kingdom. These people we call the Unionists, who wants a union between Northern Ireland the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, we have the majority Irish Catholics, who have no sense of belonging to Britian and the United Kingdom. They identify largely with Republic of Ireland, seeing themselves as one people. Britain and United Kingdom were foreign and alien. Since they are Irish, and they want to be a part of the Republic Ireland, we call them the Loyalists.

Sri Lanka & Tamil Tigers

The Tamil Tigers were cracked down hard by the Sri Lankan government. After several victories by the Sri Lankan army, the Tamil Tigers admitted defeat in May 2009. Even then, Tamil Tigers continue to exist in small areas of Sri Lanka and remain active.

Although the armed conflict has ceased, look at the following videos to look at the displacement and disruption the conflict has brought to the people of Sri Lanka.


On the other hand, look at how some in Tamil Tigers believe that they are freedom fighters, that they have no choice but to take up arms.


While you look through these videos, I want you to click through to Youtube and look at the provenance of the videos. Do you think they are reliable? Do you think they are useful for you to understand what happened in Sri Lanka?

Monday, July 4, 2011

Sri Lanka

Colombo, Sri Lankan capital

Easy way to remember causes of the Sri Lankan conflict:

Citizenship rights
University admission
Resettlement
Sinhala Only Policy
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This is a highly probably SEQ which will ask you to evaluate the importance of 2/3/all of these factors.

Rank these factors by the most important to the least important, and come up with explanations for each of these factors and why one factor is more important than the other.

Apply this to the consequences of the Sri Lanka conflict.


Political
Armed Conflict
Foreign Intervention
Economic
Unemployment
Loss of foreign investment
No. of tourists dropped
Social
Sri Lankan Tamils driven out of their homeland

Come up with explanations for each of these factors.

Rank the consequences from most important to least important, and come up with explanations why one is more important than the other.


This would be a really good way for you to prepare fully for SEQs so that you do not need to think on the spot during exams, giving you more time to think through your SBQs. Hope these helps!