June 17th 2021

 Today, we also worked on our websites. The day before yesterday, I couldn’t decide what to talk about and could not find out the topic, but today, I decided to work on the Fukushima Daichi Power Plant accident. In this case, the media concealed the danger of this accident. Now, I do not know about this case much, but I would like to have a research and write about it clearly. 

Also, we took a photo for the website. We all took the photo in the exactly same place, but we forgot to integrate the clothes, so maybe we would take it again. 

June 15th 2021

Today, we worked on the group work about making the website that introduces the case that people misunderstand because of the media. However, it was difficult for me to find the case like this, and I am researching about it now. I do not know how to research it, because the media is not reporting it. I looked up on Twitter but all of the information written there were abstracted and irresponsible. I would like to do more research and ask many people to find the topic that I can write about. 

June 9th 2021

 Today, we continued having a discussion about the meaningful class. We reached the conclusion to have a routine class, first watch the documentary, have a lecture, and have a discussion. I like the class that has a routine that is simple, organized, and it is clear what to do. The immersion class of Science has a class like this. 

We shared our ideas with the other groups, and we all had different ideas for the last activity to have the grade. It was fun thinking about the class, so I want to get many kinds of class thorough out my student life. 

June 8th 2021

Not having a perspective of each people

At the beginning of the class, we had an explanation that what is the bias and what is not. It said telling the truth is not a bias, but I think even though they are telling the truth when the information they use is completely partial, we could say it is still biased. For example, the media such as New York Times are biased but still reporting the fact too. They hide the inconvenient information and choosing the words, but they are still telling the fact. So, I still think we have to think about this conflict, having a perspective on the Israeli side. Maybe, there would be another fact that we can find out if we do this. 

After that, we got into groups and discussed how we can constitute a class that is meaningful for the student. I thought watching videos is essential to take the content of the lesson as their own knowledge, and their own experience. When I watched the documentary of Israel and Palestine, I was shocked about the cruelty of the war. I also thought it was important to have a lecture to have a common understanding of the fact. Ofcourse, having a discussion sould be the main part of the class. I enjoyed thinking about the class, having a discussion with friends. 

June 3rd 2021

   Today, we watched a video called "Palestine is still the issue" made by John Pilger. It showed the reality of Israel and Palestine from the Palestine point of view and witnessed the miserable and cruel reality of the conflict. Also, we watched a one short video clip before watching the long one in the group. 

    The video we watched before watching "Palestine is still the issue" had a huge impact on me. There was a gate between people's house and their schools, and they do not know whether the gate is opened now or not. They would be prisoned inside the gate, and not being able to go home from school. The shocking thing was, that this is their daily experience. Also, I heated the military man closing the gate shouted to the Palestinian woman “Animal”. I was shocked that many of the Palestinian people are not treated as a person from the Israel people. 

    In the scene that showed many Palestinian people waiting for hours, for few cars riding in the road. I can not believe that they can not live freely, as they need to wait for hours at the checkpoint, but it is their daily experience. They are controlled and restricted by the Israeli people, but that place is apparently their country. I was shocked that Palestinian people are not being free in their own country and occupied by Israel. This is not just a conflict, and it is even discrimination against Palestinian people. 

    The scene that I was inspired the most was that the Palestinian man was letting the  Palestinian student draw something about what are they thinking about.  In the video, many of the students were drawing about the conflict between Palestine and Israel, collapsed buildings, huge military vehicles, and crying children. Usually, when most of the Japanese children were asked to draw a picture, they would draw a car, house, smiling families, and friends. This is so far from the drawings of the war that Palestine children drew, but maybe, they are drawing them with the same sense. For the Japanese kids, cars, houses, families, and lauding friends are an ordinary scene, but for the Palestinian’s, the dead human, bombs, collapsed buildings, and the military cars are the usual everyday sight they see. We should let them see the happy scene, as an ordinary life. 

     I can not believe that these things are happening in this world, in this moment. Maybe, something like this is happening in the other place in the world too, not only Israel and Palestine. These cases are an essential news that we should know, but the media does not tell this to the people. I completely lost the reliability to the media. Now, I don’t where could I get the news and the information, and which media to trust. 

June 2nd 2021

    Today, we were divided into two groups. one group was told to research about Israel and Palestine by looking up on the major media (New York Times, Haaretz, etc), and the other for researching it on local media. Then, we became into pairs, who were researching on the different media, major, and local. I became a pair with Yuma. There were huge differences between the incident that the two types of media address, the words each media use, and what kind of impression of the Palestine people they provide to the readers. 

     When I shared each other's research with Yuma, she told me that she found news about America is lending a huge amount of money to Israel, but I could not find this news in any of the websites I looked up on, which was all a major American Newpaper. The amount of money was incredibly enormous, so of course, this is a news that all media must address. It is strange that many of the media are not writing about that. I was shocked about this, and I felt it is essential to read many types of media and earn information multilaterally. In Haaretz, I was able to find many kinds of article that writes Palestinian badly. These never wrote Israeli people too negatively and had attention to what the Palestinian people did to the Israeli people. Media having a bias leads to all of the population having a bias, and control their perspectives. I would like to not be controlled by that, so I would like to gather information from many types of media in my daily life. 

June 1st 2021

 https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/business/steven-donziger-lawyer-who-beat-chevron-in-ecuador-faces-trial-of-his-own.html?searchResultPosition=2

union carbide

Today, we shared what we learned about Steven Donziger, to the even number students. We sat in groups, and odd number students, including me, thought them about the Steven Donziger, and what happened about him. After that, we researched about the union carbide case. This was about a gas leak accident by the American company, Union carbide. It polluted India and killed about 20000 people.

When we shared the information about Donziger, I realized that I was not understanding the news sufficiently. I couldn't find the words to explain it, and it was difficult for me to find the words to explain. I felt it is essential for myself to understand it perfectly when teaching other people. Because I realized that I was not recognizing much about it, I read the article again, to organize the information. By reading this after the class (there were many things that other people taught me about this case even though I was a odd number student), I got much more information about Donziger, and recognized much about this case. 

Furthermore, I was surprised that mr Paterson said only a few people know about this union carbide case. I didn’t know about this too. It is too unusual that it is not known much even though it caused much damage. I am completely convinced to the claim that the media and the government is hiding the inconvenient news from the citizens. 

The overall thoughts that I had is that these accidents are very similar to Minamata disease in Japan. We learned about it last year, so I felt a bit of deja vu.