20. We want to move from the wide world into exploring our own cultures (school, municipal, religious, home) so write a blog post connecting Sullivan in any way you can to the themes from Rwanda or your other chosen conflict/incident. Some questions you may want to consider: How did the two (or more) groups become divided or chosen originally? How do groups get chosen at Sullivan? What outside influences increased/decreased the tension between the groups? Are there "outside influences" on social circles here at school? What sort of things do different groups value? What do they describe as the reason for disliking another group? How much of there opinion of "others" is based on fact or personal experience? How much is based on rumours, half truths, and propaganda? How do these messages spread through Sullivan? What stops students from learning more about others rather than believing what they hear or read?

Finish with some personal stories of times when you found yourself believing things about others AND times when others believed things about you.



Every school has groups and cliques, almost like the Rwandans... When I look back at the movie I realized that the Rwandans aka Hutu's and Tutsi's were seperated and divided due to the way they were treated by eachother and outsiders. The Tutsi's were the Belgins "favourite" because they had the same similarities as them... the Hutu's on the other hand were absolutely nothing, this infuriated the Hutu's. 


The same goes on in Sullivan Heights Secondary. In my opinion I feel that people have to live upto other peoples expectations... Their is always that one Leader of the group that will order the followers around. People in Sullivan choose their groups differently... the popular kids will always want popular kids... the smart people will always want the smart people... Jocks want sporty people. The outsiders have an influence on groups alot because if its popular kids are hanging out with popular kids and theirs that one kid that doesnt fit in, the popular kids will start judging and this is were bullying comes into play... Popular kids will pick and name call. If groups in Sullivan ever got into a fight I know for a fact outsiders would get involved and increase the issue.


 A personal story: It was in 2011 of Janurary, it was my 16th partybus we all had a blast and a few people that i didnt know were on the partybus, so what? they were friends of my friends... i thought it was okay... We all had a blast. After the partybus we all went to tim hortans... all of a sudden I realized that my phone was stolen... My bestfriend Amaan and Kristy and I went looking for my phone... Then I realized that the people I didnt know took it.. I was furious I marched my way up too them along with Amaan and asked for it back... As usual they denied... I lost it... so did Amaan, Amaan was defending me and as a friend he helped me... The random people that came too my party called a bunch of outsiders to fight their battles. It escladed... I left with Amaan and my bestfriend Ashley. A couple of days later at school the girls that I thought were my friends called the same random people that came to my partybus came too our school to fight... We were so unaware of the fact these randoms were at a school... Amaan and I were walking in the hallways all of a sudden these randoms came running towards us with a mace can and brass knuckles... We ran as fast as we can to the office and stayed their until they got caught, the girls that go to our school and that called these randoms got caught.


 I believe at a certain extent, outsiders are a influence because... young children these days look upto outsiders and see what other people to do! These kids want to be cool and what outsiders do they will want to do and act like. Groups value: Loyalty, Honestly, Capablity, POWER etc... Groups in school have many reasons not to like eachother... the way they dress, religion, who their friends are, how they look like etc... I think alot of it is based on fact but turns personal somewhere along the line because during the years whatever you have shared to your friends and soon or later you guys got into a rift, they will do things to get back at you... like telling something that only they were suppose to know but just to get popular and make everyone hate you, they spread a rumour like rapid fire. ALOT of it is based on rumours, half truths because people want to be accepted into groups and some ways they get accepted is by telling lies about other people, telling secrets of other people, and to pretty much ruining someones life just to be accepted.


 Another personal story: In grade 10 I was friends with everyone and the one that i thought that was my BESTFRIEND turned on me, she told everyone my secret... it spread like rapid fire, people were calling me names, they were judging.. but they didnt realize i am only human and if i didnt experience this in life... i would never learn from them... People were constanly judging me... But sooner or later the rumours and bullshit faded away. I was glad it was over and done with and that everyone liked me for who i am not what i have done... now when i see younger groups doing that i tell them  how its not right and how it can effect their life... Messages spread through Sullivan by one person gossiping to a friend and then its a chain. The DETAILS of the story makes everyone believe what they had heard... And they would ask other people if it was true or not... people would never ask the person their talking about what had happened. 

19. Using the theme you chose from Assignment 18, write your own song lyrics, poem, or short story. As we may all choose to write different type of prose, we will not be spending entire classes on the structure of a short story. I have inserted a few helpful videos and you are encouraged to do your own research on the technical aspects of your chosen writing. Whatever you choose, it should reflect YOUR personal thoughts and/or feelings about the theme. More than any other writing so far, this will require you to be thoughtful, work hard, and decide for yourself how much is "enough". One of the best tips I can give you is to write about yourself or the things you care about. Find a way to connect one of the themes into your own life rather than random topics. If you love baseball include a theme from Hotel Rwanda into a baseball story. If you know about hip hop, or India, or muscle cars... connect one of the themes to a story about your passions. It will make your writing process easier because you have a base of knowledge and motivation about the subject. It will also make the writing more authentic as your "voice" will be more natural. Long boarders know how long boarders talk... I don't. When I try to pretend to be a long boarder it is obvious and awkward. As always, your reading and commenting on others work as a part of our network of "experts" will be a large part of your success in June.


Growing up mother always told me" do well in school or else i'll end up on the wrong path like the kids that live on the streets on Eastside Vancouver"... Thats exactly what happened. Here's a summary of my life. Hi my name is Paul Douglas Jr, I lived in a happy home (well it seemed like it) life was great, a perfect home, perfect family, and perfect life. My mom was a housewive she loved being at home with the kids. My dad was a hardworker, he provided for the family... In my mind life was wonderful but in my parents eyes it wasn't, their marriage was falling apart, couple of months later the news hit us, the one news that can possibly change your life the " We are getting a divorce, and this is not your guy's fault" We lived with our mother, she had to start working to provide for us, she did double shifts and worked HARD. She was rarely home. In highschool I had a tough time adapting to new people, life got hard... I just couldn't bare the feeling. So I decided to hang out with the wrong people... yeah the ones that are into doing drugs, stealing cars, and trouble with the law. Everyday of my life it was the same routine... Skip school to get high and be a druggy. Sooner or later my other noticed the difference in my behavior , how I was acting with everyone at home. When I went to school my mother decided to raid my room, she went through everything, last thing to go through was my bed, my mom tossed over the bed and found the reason what was changing her son... Lots of drugs. I got home that day and I see my mom waiting in the family room with all the drugs laid out on the table, my heart was pounding, I was nervous and most of all scared. My mom asked me to be seated on the couch across her, she asked one question " why?" I was thinking of a good reason but nothing came to mind, all of a sudden I hear weeping and my mother just said it straight out... " Paul I feel we need to send you away to your fathers home..." Hearing that made me furious, why should I have to leave if I am going through teenage stuff, I stormed out of my house and decided that its my life I'll do whatever I want too, so I called up a couple of friends and asked of they wanted to get high... We went to a park and found a drug dealer who sold us some good sh*t, it got us high as f**k all of a sudden it hit me, I don't need to live with no one I can support myself by dealing drugs I could make a fortune... So the dealer who implied us with drugs I asked if I could start working for them. The next days took everything that belonged to me and left to the underworld the drug dealing world, I started off small with weed and sooner or later I started to deal crack, cocaine, heroine etc.. I was making big bucks... But then I started using all those drugs instead of selling I was ripping off the boss, one day the boss called me in and his men had their guns to my head... The boss gave my 48 hours to give back all his money, and I owe a lot of money... I agreed but had a plan that I would run away and leave... The next morning I left I went to Richmond and decided to stay there... But I never knew that I have people watching me, the boss sent people he was 2 steps ahead of me ... His people took me back to the boss and the boss had enough, and the boss pulled his gun to my head... The boss counted " 1-2-3 BOOOOM" my life flashed before my house, I saw how my life was as a child how happy I was and by the choices I made led me to a path of destruction this was bound to happen... I was left in the street dying until someone found me, I was rushed to the hospital all I saw was nurses and my brothers and my mom, until I went to the operating room, life has giving me a second chance, I was alive and recovering , I decided I didn't want my mom to suffer she dd everything to make us happy and our lives easier. I decided I was going to go to rehab and clean up. Now I am clean and volunteer to tell my story to young adults. When life gives you a second chance take it cause you never know where life's going to take you. 

18. Find a song, poem, or story about any one of the themes from our Hotel Rwanda discussions. (propaganda, lack of education, prejudice, social circles/creation of outsiders, calls to violence, or genocide). Link or post (giving copyright credit where due) and write a post about why your selected that piece and what it says to you. Then read and comment on others posts.



The movie I chose that kind of resembles the theme or story line of Hotel Rwanda is Boyz N the Hood Directed by John Singleton. Boyz N the Hood is a story of a young boy( Tre Styles) who lives with his struggling professional mother, Tre is a troublesome young boy who got into a few rifts at school with a few kids and begins to show signs of trouble. As soon as his mother notices the trouble, she sents him off to his fathers house, Who is a strict, hard headed, and disciplinarian. There while living with his dad, Tre befriends a few boys Ricky the Football player and Doughboy the Drug dealer. Soon when they grow older, they choose different paths... Tre decides to go to College, Ricky wants to pursue the football career and go to school, and Doughboy decides to stick to be a gang-banger,drug dealer, and in-out of Juvie. One day Tre and Ricky are walking until a rival gang chases down both of them, with tragic results. Once Doughboy heres this news, he immediately prepares for revenge and asks Tre to choose whether he chooses his future of becoming something in life and making clean money or takes the path of taking revenge on the rival gang and gain self respect from people in the hood. The movie portrays the life in the "Hood" how boys and men are struggling to escape the violence and drugs, and the poverty life. This is some what similar to the movie because alot of violence and killing was involved between the SAME COLOURED PEOPLE! They were exactly the same people killing eachother for what power? Thats exactly what happens in the "GANG" world they kill eachother for the power and respect or even revenge for a irrevelent reason. I chose this movie because, i have now watched it 4 times and everytime I see it I always have the same reaction... the "WOW" reaction, this movie had portrayed the hood life so well and the argument of why are we killing eachother for power and respect, when you can get that with doing good deeds. It also shows how some men are pressured on their man-hood when it comes to tough and traumatizing situations like this... Alot of songs have been written after this amazing movie.