Connection Blogpost, Guilhermo Gonzalez

While reading the book I was opened to see that many aspects of it relate to our 21 st century world. Upon my ideas I have gone further and connected some main points from the book to our daily basis reality. One very serious and deep topic that relates to the book is Brazil complex theft of money and corruption situation. My second point will be based in Child Labor and Slave Labor, in which are two situation present in the past but also very contemporary in todays community. 

Petrobras in a well known company on Brazil and around the world, a firm built from scratch and in which turned itself to one of the most profitable and money raiser firms in south America. Yet, recent investigations from the federal police and public prosecutors have turned not only Pertobras but Brazil’s Government résumé to a complete piece of  debris. This sad news to will slowly taint Brazils reputation. This major scandal has put Petrobras, a nation firm, into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Brazil’s history.

Petrobras has refused to announce their month earnings due to many money launderings in which that are mysteriously investigated. Billions and billions of reais have been fled to off shore accounts by famous business man, government official and well known companies. Brazil urges for change and many guilty criminals have been arrested. In my personal opinion this relates to the book since it shows how the government secretly acts, in the book it is well known that many people have been put to death and labour camps for crimes that are non sense, non reasonable and fake. The governments ability to forge essential material in the past is still present in todays society. Since Petrobras is a Governments company any mistake, misuse and miss understanding in the blame of the Government. Ivan, like many other prisoners have been suffering for the acts of others, and we Brazilians, investors and new entrepreneurs have been suffering for the ridiculous act of others.

                                                                    SOURCE

My second connection is child labour and slave labour. In the book there is both is these both aspect of inhuman labour. For example, prisoners been forced to work numberless hours in improper clothing and improper quality of materials. Another example, Gopchik, a 16 year old is been forced to repair, clean and suit the needs of others in return of nothing, he is put through experiences never the less though one kid should go through. Many may not know but these situations are still happening today. We are friendly and positive consumers of the products assembled by people in these situations. Many of our domestic products are being made people like Ivan or Gopchik. Many famous firms and companies that use peoples abilities and work are, NESTLE, FIFA, SHELLS, ETC.

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work cited:

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30129184

http://listverse.com/2013/11/09/10-famous-companies-with-a-shocking-human-rights-problem/

THE GULAG< ARCHIPELAGO, GUILHERMO PAGNANO GONZALEZ

During the initial first portion of the book I have encountered myself with some particular information that has made me seriously intrigued.  While reading and investigating the story I have learned and read some very interesting and exotic stories about the unsafe and insecure life the characters lived in the so known labor camps.  For so, I decided to do some research of The Gulag, which was a government agency that administered the Soviet forced labor camp chain systems during the Stalin era, from the 1930s until the 1950s.

To begin with, the man behind all this massacre, unsafe, harmful and truly vicious environment was Joseph STALIN. He was One of the most powerful and murderous dictators in history. He was the supreme leader and figure of the Soviet Union. His regime of terror caused the death and suffering of tens of millions. In the other hand, he was  a key element in the defeat and conquering of the Nazi’s.

The Gulag was a massive system of forced labor camps. 18 million young, old, man and female passed through the prisons and camps of the Gulag. Under Stalin, labor camp prisoners became an important resource for the construction of many industries. (mining, railroad, etc.) In other words, man would have to manually construct railroad systems across the USSR territory. They build train tracks, which horrifically carried millions of corpses to be cruelly buried.
In the eyes of the authorities, a prisoner had almost no value.  Work environment was harsh and dreadful, for so, millions died of hunger, cold, and hard labor.

Prisoners of a Labor Camp working with boulders.

The word archipelago is commonly used as a metaphor for the camps, which were scattered through the sea of civil society like a chain of islands extending “from the Bering Strait almost to the Bosporus.”

A string of aristocrats, merchants, and other people defined as potential “enemies” were duly imprisoned. The prisoners inside the Gulag camps varied from robbers and killers to political prisoners , "political prisoners" were actually innocent people

who were guilty in the mistrustful eyes of the NKVD.

1^st Image:

http://www.sanfranciscoarchive.com/ebay/4780Rw.jpg

2^nd image: http://www.dhm.de/archiv/ausstellungen/gulag/pics/galerie/5_DHM_Gulag_Steinbrocken.jpg

Citations:

http://www.thegulag.org/content/gulag-introduction-3

http://gulaghistory.org/nps/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/stalin_joseph.shtml

Post 1#: Word Whisperer Felipe Miyake

Job: Word Whisperer

Introduction + Forward + pg. 3-22

Book: One Day in The Life of Ivan Denisovich

Author: Alexander Solzhenitsyn


        Phrase number one: "a hard-bitten prisoner who had already been in for twelve years-who told the newcomers, just in the front...". This phrase shows flashback because the protagonist says what has happened in the past. The fact that the author used flashback helps the reader to understand the book better because the reader can understand why the protagonist felt strange when he wanted to lick the rest of food that was in another person,s plate because an old prisoner had told him that these kind of people don't survive very long in the prison.


        Phrase number two: It was foggy like Irish bath". This phrase contains simile, it helps the reader to understand the story better because it gives us examples of things that we probably already know. When the reader doesn't  understand the description that the author made, giving a real example to the description will help the reader to understand what is happening better.                                                                                          
        Phrase number three: "Push it up? No fucking literally.". This phrase shows irony. When one of the prisoners told the main character that if he breathed on the thermometer the temperature would go up. The irony, in my opinion, doesn't help the reader to understand the story better. It makes the story more humorous so it becomes more interesting for the reader.