College Preparation

I am studying a course called “Economics”, and this is my first Action Project. For this project, I had to weigh all the pros and cons of going to college by developing an elaborate investigation to learn the “true” cost of college, and deciding whether it would be worth attending. I must admit that this project put me face to face with a series of questions which I was putting off, but needed to answer. I am most proud of the fact that even if I don’t end up picking the carrier I chose for this action project, I have a much bigger picture and further understanding of all the things I need to take in consideration when making a budget for my college preparation, as well as all the things I need to have clear before choosing a College as a future option.

I’d like to study Music Production & Engineering in Berklee College of Music, in Boston, MA

I like the Music Production & Engineering carrier Berklee offers precisely because it provides knowledge in both Music Production and Music Engineering, which may sound the same but are different lines of work. Music Producers usually are the “managers” of a recording, making sure things such as the creation of a record and the logistics where it will be recorded are planned out neatly, as well as working with the musician by making sure the exact sound the musician wants for his record is achieved. The music engineer, on the other hand, works on all the technical side of the creation of a record.

When studying music engineering, you learn many basic and complex principles that may be applied in other lines of work, such as media production, engineering sound for live performances, etc. I consider music engineering to be especially valuable, because it broadens my working possibilities in the future. It also gives me a baseline that might permit me to choose my future specialization studies in a wise way. I am not sure what I’d like my occupation to be in the future yet, but both music production and media engineering are jobs that interest me.

For this Action Project, however, I chose my  future profession as a music producer.

I believe media is a very powerful weapon in all its different forms. Everyday, media we listen to and watch tell us how we should dress, talk, behave, etc. Most of the time, media influences us in negative ways. I ask myself, what would happen if we were to use media, in all its different forms and expressions, to influence in positive ways only? Surely wonders!

I’ve had the amazing opportunity to serve in projects whose whole mission is to experiment on how to use media to influence in positive ways, and these experiences have helped me realize that those of us who use media to express an idea, such as music in my case, must be aware of its immense potential and power. Therefore, I’d like to study music production and engineering to experiment and make a living off of making music that may influence positively to as wide as a group as possible!

For this Action Project I created a presentation where I further developed the case scenario of studying in Berklee. All the investigations and calculations I did reinforced in me the social argument that states that attending college is a great decision, and a possible one.

The Meaning Of Life Through Roslyn's Eyes

I am studying a course called Journalism and this is my first Action Project. In this first unit I focused on photojournalism; studying iconic photographs that have been the images that in many cases represented remarkable events in world history, and learning to identify what it was that made them what they were. I also studied deeply about the purpose behind journalism itself, as well as objectivity, its importance and the means through which we can achieve it. I also learned about the basics of photography.

For this Action Project I had to portray someone’s meaning of life in one portrait and 1000 words.I portrayed Roslyn Cameron, Galapagos Development Officer for Galapagos Conservancy. She is 58 years old, and was born in South Australia. I photographed/interviewed Roslyn on Monday, September 18th, 2017 at her office at the Galapagos Conservancy headquarters, on Santa Cruz Island.

I decided to photograph/interview Roslyn because, as she put it, I had a journalistic “hunch”. I had only met her briefly during a couple of social meetings; and to be truthful, I barely knew much about her. But there was something that seemed very interesting to me; she has lived in the Galapagos Islands for the last 30 years of her life. It felt to me as if the main reason behind her decision to stay here for so long must have been one that transcended many things, including both work and economic status. This made me very curious.

I also felt  to me as if the meaning she gave to her life must have been strongly linked with the fact that she lives in these Islands, so far from her homeland. For this reason, I decided to introduce the topic of the meaning of life on questions related to why she lived here.

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Roslyn believes that we are not always born in the place where we can best develop our potential. Given that traveling is much easier now, more and more people get to find the place for their best growth.

“Australia was not that place for me. I am a woman; born at a time when women still didn’t have rights, when aborigines didn’t have rights, when we were still very much under colonial rule. You didn't educate girls, you didn’t send them to university; what a waste they are only going to marry and have babies!”

By living in the Galapagos Islands, Roslyn transcends social, familial, and cultural constraints that limit intellectual  and spiritual growth. She receives constant mental stimulation through her work, and the conversations with the never ending opportunities to talk to the occasional scientist studying iguana intestines or the tourist who’s a Stanford Professor studying human behaviour  genetics. Roslyn also values communities that understand, merit, and benefit from differences. She believes that Galapagos, as a generalization,  is just that, where cultural differences collide and meld.

Coming to live in these Islands was certainly not something she had planned. When she described how she came to live here, she mentioned that “...I don’t believe in luck, but it was the right time and the right place”. Roslyn believes in life paths, and that people and places are brought together at an important time in their development. This is Galapagos for her.

Roslyn is also a single, devoted mother. She has a colored child, and for her the thought of raising her child in Australia was simply unacceptable. The Australia of her youth  was only recently  repealing the White Australia migration policy, which restricted  migration based on skin colour. And this was the Australia she knew.

“Those are  my memories of the Australia I grew up in, which may or may have not been true 25 years later… This is something that probably only a mother would understand.. On becoming pregnant the thought flooded through me that my child needed to be raised in Galapagos. He could have been as white as I am, but the minute I knew I was pregnant instinctively  I knew he had to be raised in Galapagos.”

Roslyn believes that part of the meaning of life is the constant search for truth. The everlasting quest for knowledge and understanding. And Galapagos is a unique place which offers her an environment where living up to this ideal is possible.

Slowly the topic on the meaning of life began to take form in the interview as we explored more deeply through conversation and a few basic questions. At first Roslyn pointed out that the meaning of life sometimes changes with the decades. For example, she recalled that when she was my age (17), her life expectations were very much molded by the political situations of the time. Had a lot of social reform movements not happened in Australia in the 1970’s, she believed that she certainly wouldn’t be sitting with me here in the Galapagos Islands.

“There is liberation in the changing of decades that also allows you to speculate what your life path might be, or the meaning of life.”

However, she believed that as much as her meaning of life had changed over the decades, the core had always remained the same.

“The meaning of life for me has been about the pursuit of happiness. Not happiness itself but about the challenges the path and everything else along the way. Happiness is that sense of calm that you’re doing your best and no matter what is going to happen- maybe it’ll happen the way you wanted it to, maybe it won’t -but that there’s a flow to what’s happening.”

Some people have religious support to that theory, but she wasn’t raised in a religious culture. “I don’t like to label the feeling” she said, “but there’s something bigger than me and I have a role to play”. Roslyn has traveled over the years, and she’s got Jewish, Buddhist, Chinese Buddhist, Atheist, Catholic friends, and many more. And she believes that the basic principles of all religions are the same. It’s about being a decent human being, doing the right thing for yourself, for your family and for your community. Roslyn was also raised with country values. You don’t steal from the neighbour, you don’t talk badly about the neighbour, as well as many other familiar, social, and cultural structures that are very ingrained in her.

Roslyn was raised by two very different family structures. She described her mother’s family as working class white that intermarried with people of aboriginal descent. So she grew up with mixed race people that were her cousins and aunts, and that itself set her apart from most Australians. Her father’s side was very cultured; her grandmother, which she described as her biggest influence on her father’s side, came from  a wealthy family . She was educated and sophisticated, and everything she did was immaculate.

Her father was a policeman and one of the  good ones. He would go to work everyday to protect and help the community. So Roslyn was raised to investigate, to be aware, to verify. Growing up her career  trajectory was forensic science or law but for a “whole bunch of silly circumstances during high school, it just didn’t happen”.

“But that’s where my skill base lies, and so it’s in me to verify. It’s in me to double-check things, it’s in me to memorize certain things and ask  ‘are you sure  Raji? Did you check that?’ ”

She believes that because of this innate skill her meaning of life is related to verifying things, hoping to make other people think beyond the obvious, and sharing whatever it is she finds out, or knows. Storytelling. 

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This is a photograph I took of Roslyn right after our interview outside her office. I asked her if she had any suggestions concerning the portrait I was going to shoot and she reminded me of the power of expression of our eyes with the phrase, “The eyes are the windows to the soul”. I find that phrase very convincing because I know for certain that eyes can tell us a lot about what a person is really feeling, as well as give hints related to a person’s personality. I decided to shoot it in black & white because I wanted to highlight the sharp, piercing and deep look her eyes transmit, rather than the color of her skin, eyes, and hair as well as her age, which can be perceived much easier in color.

I shot this photograph with my smartphone (HTC One). The main focus is set on the eye. It was noon when I shot this photograph, and the sun was blazing. I set the aperture of the camera rather low, as well as the shutter-time, permitting me to take the photo in back light and making sure the photograph doesn’t get blurry from the movement of Roslyn’s hair from the breeze. Roslyn’s eye is also set on the left vertical line in the imaginary grid, centered right between the two horizontal lines. Roslyn’s skin, as well as the detail in both her eyelashes and her eye add texture to the photograph, as well as the blurry trees in the background. 

The only manipulation I did to the photograph after shooting it was cropping it a bit closer to the eye, removing a small portion of the beginning of the nose which was present in the original photograph.

How Can I Reduce The Ecological Footprint Of My Home?

I am studying a course called “Urban Planning”, and this is my second Action Project. This Project is about designing my own energy-efficient electrical plan for my house.This Unit was about electricity, and about how, when used effectively, it can do wonders. I learned about AC and DC power systems, about how humans linked lightning to electricity thanks to Benjamin Franklin, and about circuits, volts, amps, resistance, among other principles.

For this Action Project, I had to: sketch a circuit diagram, construct my circuit representation, build a case to house my diagram, connect my circuit to real energy-efficient solutions, calculate my design's impact, and explain my eco-friendly plan.

 However, I began encountering problem after problem in the process of developing this Action Project. First of all, there isn’t a detailed hardware store where I live (Galapagos Islands) where I could buy the materials I needed, and so I had to find my materials through other means. I spent several days riding my bike around town, asking people where I could find resistors and small LED lights. I finally arrived upon an electrical recycling shop a nice man owned, who I became friends with. He gave me a piece of a broken TV where I could retrieve both resistors and LED lights. These materials however, weren’t working so well. Some of the resistors I retrieved weren’t exactly functioning the way they should’ve, and they also weren’t quite the ones I needed.

Also, I needed technical assistance on how to use materials such as the soldering iron, etc. There is a teacher from the school where my Dad is Principal who was willing to help me, but he is usually very busy and can only offer small periods of time per day.

Given the circumstances, I decided to propose to my teachers an alternative Action Project. A co-worker of my dad’s and great friend of mine, Reina Oleas, owns what I believe to be the first and only completely self-sustainable house in the history of Ecuador. She decided to set this project up on her own with the help of her family. Now, given that she lives on the Galapagos islands (there is absolutely no history of anyone trying to set up a project here similar to hers, and therefore no architects that could help or no market to buy from), she had to engineer most of her house on her own. She uses all of the natural resources (sun, rain, wind, etc) that predominate in the region where she lives to make her house work, while her house is connected to no cable and no pipe. She also had to engineer her whole electrical system!

I proposed that my action project be to interview Reina and to focus mainly on her whole electrical system engineering process, to finally think about how I can apply some of the principles she used on my own house. And my teachers agreed!

And so I began developing my proposed Action Project. I told Reina about my proposal to my teachers, and she told me she would be marveled to help. However, she said that if I wanted to focus mainly on the whole electrical system of her house and the journey to fully develop it as it is seen today, I would have to talk to her husband, Mr. Roberto Plaza, given that he was the one in charge of that part of the project. Roberto works as a guide for tourists that come to the Galapagos Island in search for knowledge about these wonderful islands, and has a very busy schedule were he leaves on tourists boats that voyage around the islands for weeks at a time. Thankfully, I managed to contact him and he was only hours from embarking yet again to another tourist trip! He agreed on interviewing him while on his way to being embarked.
I interviewed him for about 30 minutes, and I asked him mostly about his experience in designing his own electrical plan.

He told me that, as they were working on their project to build their energy-efficient house, they realized that the predominant renewable resource they could retrieve electricity from was solar energy. Once they figured that out, they began planning how to install solar panels in their house. They got in contact with several companies from Quito, Ecuador’s capital, and finally agreed on employing one that seemed to fit best. However, they decided to to try installing the solar panels on a smaller house they had, as an experiment to see if this company’s job was efficient.

Once the company had finished their job on the smaller house, they moved into that house to try it out. 24 hours later the power went out, and it never came back. Apparently, the company had made a very basic mistake, and refused to accept that they had done so. The problem was, the Plaza family didn’t face much of a choice, because very few companies offer their services on the Galapagos Islands, and from those few the one they had already employed was by far the best. Also, given that the company had to import all of their material (there is no solar panel manufacturing company in Ecuador), send it all to the Galapagos Islands, and send people to install them, it was very expensive. Roberto contemplated all of these difficulties, and finally decided something that would mark a turning point in the project: He would learn how to design the whole electrical plan for the house and install the solar panels on his own, as well as learn how to provide maintenance. His main sources of knowledge in this process were a great friend of his who accompanied him throughout the whole proceeding and led him to friends who worked on the solar panel business and knew about how to install them, the internet, and a handbook called “Dimensionar tu equipo solar de acuerdo a tus necesidades” (Fashion your solar equipment according to your needs). With these 3 tools, he gradually learned and developed an electrical plan for his home. He realized that the amount of solar panels they needed to buy relied a lot on the type of appliances they were going to use, especially the ones that created heat. He told me about a very cool exercise he did with his family were they all sat together and made a personal plan of the amount of electricity they needed per day. They realized that most of the electricity they used came from appliances that could be substituted by more efficient ones. Something that I feel like makes this exercise very cool is that through it everyone became aware of the amount of electricity they needed, which is not always the amount of electricity we use.

Thus, they got rid of the toaster, the waffle maker, the coffee maker, etc. and found substitues such as the manual coffee maker. Another amazing thing that permitted them to reduce the amount of electricity they used was to take advantage of the wind regarding the architecture to control the temperature of the house. Most of the windows face the side of the house from where the wind comes from, and that way the wind keeps the house cool. However, when it gets a little too cool, you can control the temperature by closing some windows. Thus, the Plaza’s don’t use any air conditioners.

Also, the property in which the house is built is in the high (altitude) part of the island, where it's humid all of the time. Most of the other families that live in the area use de-humidifiers. However, the Plaza’s investigated and found a Chinese method which consists on a series of ventilation chambers placed below the house that permit air to flow below the house, not letting the humidity rise from the ground and reducing it by 20%. Thus, the Plaza’s don’t use any de-humidifiers.

The decided on an estimate of the amount of electricity they needed per day and bought the number of solar panels and batteries that would fit the description.

With the help of the 3 tools I mentioned earlier, Roberto installed the solar panels and batteries, and has given them maintenance ever since. With all the changes they made as a family to reduce the amount of electricity they use on a daily basis, Roberto was profoundly proud to express to me that if you were to turn on all of the lights and all of the appliances of his house at once, you’d be using the equivalent amount of energy of one average air conditioner. He also told me something that he proved in the development of this project: if any family decides to use only the amount of electricity they need, and substitute their appliances for other more eco-friendly ones, they can reduce up to half of the amount of electricity they were previously using. He says that even if you don’t decide to use natural resources to power your house such as solar panels, only re-thinking the way you are using electricity can drastically change your electricity bills and your ecological footprint.

From all of the amazing things this experience has taught me, I will apply in my own home:

• I’ll tell my family about the exercise the Plaza family did to analyze the amount of electricity they were using and the amount they needed, and I will persuade them to try it out. As a result of this exercise, I will consult with my family about which appliances we can substitute or give away.
• My house has some installed solar panels which haven’t been mantained in a long time and are currently not in use; I will ask Roberto to take a look at them and if possible help me with making a budget of how much money and effort it would take to make them work again. 
• We are in the cooler months of the year, and therefore never use fans in my house, but I will locate the direction from where the wind comes from, and find ways to take advantage of it to keep the house cool in the warmer months of the year (December through May). 
• I will make a budget of how much it would cost to change the light bulbs in my house for LED lights.

I learned so much from this experience and am very thankful to my school for permitting me to develop an idea I had in mind into an Action Project.

San Francisco Park & Main Puerto Ayora Dock Redesigned

I am studying a course called “Urban Planning”, and this is my third and last Action Project. In this unit I studied about cities as a whole, and about the different qualities that make a city great. I began with studying about why cities were built in the first place, and about how they progressed and grew into what they are now. I interviewed Mrs. Ivonne Torres, the director of Sustainable Development of the Autonomous Decentralized Municipal Government of Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. She told me all about how the town I live in (Puerto Ayora, Galapagos) grew into what it is today, as well as the different difficulties it went through in the process.

For this Action Project I had to choose a specific urban area and take everything I’ve learned about cities to improve its planning.I am most proud of the fact that this course gave me the opportunity of learning a lot about the town of Puerto Ayora, given that I have only lived here for the last 4 months ago and I barely knew anything about its organization and history.



I will redesign the main Park and Dock of the town. The park’s name is San Francisco, and it is situated at the end of Baltra St., in the furthest point South of Town. The dock is situated in the Southern end of the park, which is limited by the sea.

The park is shaped as a rectangle, with its longer sides curved southward.  The main dock is also shaped as a rectangle, a much thinner one, with four small docks shaped as rectangles as well that branch out from the dock (two on each side).The dock also divides into two rectangles at the very end. The total area is 3840 square meters.

There are several purposes for this area. All of the boats coming from the different islands across the archipelago arrive at the main dock, and all of the boats that leave from this island to others also leave from the dock, as well as boats that leave for scuba-diving, snorkeling and surfing trips or to other parts of the island for other purposes in general. In order to get to the dock you must cross the park, and therefore the park is usually full of tourists and residents going or coming from the dock throughout the day, carrying their luggage. San Francisco Park and the main dock are both situated in the “busiest” part of town (relatively; Puerto Ayora is a pretty small town and rather unbusy). Usually in the evening the men of the town meet to play a sport called “Ecua-volley”, an Ecuadorian variable of the Volleyball sport, along with their families who come to watch them play. Youth begin arriving mostly at night when the men have stopped playing Ecua-volley and they have enough space to skateboard and hang around. Rails and ramps are stored when men play Ecua-volley and are taken out by the youth at night, and stored back when they are done skateboarding. The park also counts with a 20 m. long stage in the East end of the park, where most of the social events in town occur, such as concerts, festivals, contests, etc., as well as a small section full of games such as swings and slides for kids. 

One of the main strengths of this area is the fact that it is always full of people, and that it is a place of great economic flow to the town. Sailors and their crews make their money taking passengers such as tourists and businessmen to other islands in the main dock, as well as making small trips to other parts of the island. Small businesses are scattered around the park as well, mostly providing tour guides and food. The street parallel to the park is also full of restaurants, tour guides, the biggest supermarket in town, and one of the main churches. Merchants also appear in the evening, selling food and drinks to tired Ecua-volley players and their families, as well as anyone else walking through the park. The park is also a very safe place, where kids come from their homes without their parents to meet with other friends to play in the evening. Very rarely is something stolen and if you leave something forgotten you have a good chance of finding it exactly where you left it or picked by someone for protection. It is also a very clean park and  counts with some small neat green spaces, as well as with an artistic statue of a Galapagos seagull with a message from the artist and a patriotic altar with the flags of the country, province, and town. The park also faces the sea along all of its Southern border, and it is a beautiful place to sit and watch the colors of the sea as well as the sunrise. Finally, the dock (even though it is not meant for this purpose) is just about the best place in town to go sightseeing for sea lions, smalls rays and baby sharks. At night, the lights of the dock inside the water are turned on which permit you to see all of the sea nightlife, which is simply stunning.

This area, however, also has several weaknesses. First of all, the men that play Ecua-volley enjoy betting and drinking, and therefore it is common to hear shouts and insults during their time playing, as well as fights. This also doesn’t permit other people who are not willing to bet to play (there is only two courts, and usually both are being used). Youth skateboarders at night also often drink, smoke, and use illegal drugs.

 Besides, the Eastern part of the park is the one that is mostly used, but the whole western side of the park is almost always empty, even though it has a lot of nice footpaths and seats. I believe that one of the main reasons why most of this side of the park is usually not used is because it is not lighted well enough at night. It also appears to be that its current design doesn’t seem so amusing for residents and tourists. 

Also, there are some bicycle parking racks throughout the park, but there is two problems with these parking racks: First, they are designed poorly; the space between them is too close and they also are too high and damage your bike. Secondly, there is too few; you always see bikes being parked against lamp posts and trees because there is no more space in the bike racks. 

There is also no sign that shows the name of the park (San Francisco).

Something that would make this area better is drinking and fighting restrictions. Guards could be posted along the park (even if it's only in the evening and night while men are playing Ecua-volley and youngsters skateboard, given that the park is very safe for the most part) that could help control fights and shouts from the men that play Ecua-volley, for the purpose of there being a better ambience in the park.

 Another important matter that I have had in mind ever since I began living here is that Galapagos has a simply astounding flora and fauna that only exists here, and there is so many information that most tourists and residents don’t know of. Taking in account the truth that this area is one of the most visited on a daily basis by both of these groups, I believe this area could be even better if it would take advantage of all of its footpaths to place signs full of information about the flora and fauna found in the park, which (even though it may seem as a very small percentage) is a lot of information. The park counts with many native (and only native) trees, as well as a grand variety of birds and other animals that live both in these trees and in the mangrove that grows in the shores of the ocean in the southern edge of the park. The main dock could include a path meant for users that would like to enjoy the view of the ocean and animal sightseeing only, and the dock itself could include signs full of information about the fauna found right beneath it, in the ocean. These signs could be written in Spanish, and include English translations. The western side of the park could also include more seats that could be placed along the footpaths, and these seats could have this type of design (image below), which is seen in other places around town and I believe work well for both lighting, shading and beauty purposes. 

Concerning the bicycle parking rack problems,  this design (image below) could be applied instead of the current one, and it could also be placed in other strategic places across the park for there to be more parking space.

The food & art fairs that take place in the park are also quite irregular. It would be good for these fairs to happen every Friday evening and night, every 15 days.

There is also a lot of very talented local artists who work with recycled materials. They could be employed to design and make the park’s sign with its official name: Parque San Francisco. The sign could also include a translation of the work “parque” for the English word “park”.

In summary, these are  7 alterations that I believe could help improve this area:

• Drinking, drug consumption, noise, and fighting regulations could be set, and post guards in the evening and night for the purpose of enforcing the law during Ecua-volley matches and skateboarding sessions.
• Signs full of information about the flora and fauna found in the park along the mostly unused footpaths in the western side of the park could be placed to encourage visitors to walk through them and learn. The signs could be in Spanish, along with English translations. 
• The main dock could be divided into 3 passageways: One for passengers leaving, another one for passengers arriving, and a final one for users who simply want to walk along the dock and enjoy the scenery. This third passageway could be full of signs placed along the way full of information about the fauna visible underneath the dock, in the ocean.
• More seats along the mostly unused footpaths could be placed, with a special design that works well for lighting. These seats could be placed strategically along the park's border to the sea, to offer users a relaxed view to the ocean, the mangrove, and the sunrise.
• Food & Art fairs could take place on Fridays (when most people go to the park) every 15 days instead of irregular dates.
• Local artists could be employed who work with recycled materials to design and create the park’s official sign, which would read its official name: Parque San Francisco. The sign could also include a translation of the word “parque” for the English word “park”.
• Current bicycle parking racks could be replaced for another more convenient and less damaging design, as more bicycle parking racks in convenient places along the park.

This is a drawing of what the area re-designed would look like:

Scale: 1cm:15m

This is a digital design of the redesigned area:

https://www.tinkercad.com/things/fRFrwhGTk2j-magnificent-esboo-uusam/editv2

A small problem I encountered along the process of making this AP was learning how to use Tinkercad to digitally recreate the area I redesigned. I had some trouble figuring out at first, bu slowly started getting the catch of it. I finished my digital design, and on the next day when I go back online I realized that it had never saved! It all got lost. I had to repeat it, but I did it much better the second time (and I made sure to save it and take a screenshot!).

"In re Gault" Analyzed

I am studying a course called "Policy", and this is my third and last Action Project. For this Action Project I documented a U.S. Supreme Court landmark case and analyzed its repercussions to this day, as well as my personal opinion on whether it was just or not. In this Unit I learned a lot about the Judicial Branch's purpose and about the US Supreme Court's powers, as well as of international law and how it works, among other things.

The U.S Supreme Court landmark case I chose is "In Re Gault". I documented the case in a Prezi presentation:

The Vietnam War, Was It Truly Justified?

I am studying a course called “Policy”, and this is my Second Action Project. It consists in researching a specific war and taking a position on whether the U.S. involvement in that war was justified or not. I decided to choose the Vietnam War, because my uncle is a Vietnam Veteran and I’ve always wanted to know exactly why it occurred and the repercussions it has in the present time.

The Vietnam War was fought in the countries of  Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, from 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975. The main countries involved in the Vietnam War were North and South Vietnam. South Vietnam was backed by anti-communist countries and members of the South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) which included the United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic (later overthrown by Khmer Rouge), Kingdom of Laos and Republic of China (Taiwan). North Vietnam was backed by the communist allies which included People’s Republic of China, Soviet Union, Pathet Lao (Laotian Communist insurgents), Khmer Rouge  (Cambodian Communist insurgents) and North Korea.

In short, the Vietnam War started as a result of the U.S.’s strategy of containment during the Cold War, which aimed to prevent the spread of communism throughout the world.It is considered that the US lost the Vietnam War.

The person serving as US President when the first troops were sent to attack North Vietnam was President Lyndon B. Johnson. However, it is believed that there were 5 Presidents involved in the Vietnam War. President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), President John F. Kennedy (1961-1963), President Lyndon B. Johnson (1963 – 1969), President Richard Nixon (1969 -1974), and President Gerald R. Ford (1974 – 1977).

President Dwight Eisenhower, following the French defeat in the first Indochina War and the division between North and South Vietnam, decided to support anti-communist leader Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. He created the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in an attempt to block communist spread to Southeast Asia, sent the first American military advisors to Vietnam to help build up Diem’s army in 1955.

President John F Kennedy was known for being a firm believer in the Communist “Domino Theory”, and supported Diem’s Army even further. However, he was conscious of Diem’s oppression and discrimination towards Buddhists and other religious minorities, and eventually decided that he could never unite South Vietnam to fight against the Viet Cong. Only 3 weeks before his death, President Kennedy approved a coup to overthrow Diem’s government.

In was during President Lyndon B. Johnson’s term that the Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred, which involved two separate confrontations involving North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Even though this incident remains controversial nowadays and is considered  false for varied reasons, at the time Congress, in response, passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, allowing the President to take all necessary measures against North Vietnam.
President Johnson, after winning the presidential election, ordered a sustained bombing of North Vietnam shortly after, which lasted 3 years. He then sent the first combat troops to South Vietnam, in response to a Viet Cong’s attack on U.S. air base in Pleiku. After this, the number of troops deployed in Vietnam only increased. During his last period however, President Johnson became more and more unpopular, given that the end of the Vietnam War was nowhere near, from either winning or reaching a peace agreement.

Richard Nixon was elected, by the promise that he would bring “peace with honor” to the Vietnam War, which was growing more and more unpopular. However, President Nixon secretly intensified the war by involving Cambodia and Laos, in an attempt to destroy North Vietnamese supply through the Ho Chi Minh Trail to South Vietnam. There were side effects from his actions, which caused massive protests throughout the US. However, President Nixon made a historic visit to China, as well as a strategic Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviets, which secured his second elections victory. The same year of his re-election, Nixon ordered a bombing usually referred to as the “Christmas Bombing”, which’s purpose was to keep North Vietnam at the negotiating table as well as to convince South Vietnam to sign a peace treaty. The Paris Treaty was eventually signed that year, ending the American direct involvement in Vietnam. President Nixon then resigned, being the first to do so after a grand political scandal against his party called the “Watergate Scandal”.

During President Gerald R. Ford’s period, Congress considerably cut down the amount of military aid given to South Vietnam. Congress also internally forbade any direct involvement from the US in the Vietnam War. As South Vietnam was about to fall, President Ford made a final appeal to Congress asking for $722 million in military aid to essentially save the country. This appeal was rejected. On April 23, 1975, President Ford declared the Vietnam War ended “as far as America is concerned”, and only seven days later, South Vietnam’s capital was captured and fell to the communists.

It seems to me that one of the main things to have in mind when deciding whether this war was justified or not, is the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. As I previously said, President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed this policy after the Gulf of Tonkin incident, in which he claimed that U.S. ships in the Gulf of Tonkin had been attacked by the North Vietnamese. It was intended to allow the President to take any necessary measures against North Vietnam.

The application of this resolution seems wrong and illegal to me, given that what President Johnson did was declare war without doing so officially. It also seems to me as if this resolution brought a great deal of negative consequences and effects to the US, which were of course, the war itself, with its staggering death toll of an estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians, 1.1 million North Vietnamese troops, 200,000 South Vietnamese troops, and 58,000 U.S. troops (not counting the wounded in combat who lived).

 But I’d think, another consequence that is often obscured is the fact that the Vietnam War, along with the Korean War paved the road for future presidents to bypass the War Powers Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 11) and declare war without declaring it, as is the case with the War in Afghanistan and the Military intervention against ISIL. President Eisenhower in his final speech as president warned us of the military industrial complex, saying that “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.”. I believe that those words were very important, because he warned us of eternal war, and of war being the heart of the economy of our country, which are both things we are living through right now as a nation. He explained this concept more deeply in the same speech when he said that “Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions."

One of the things that disturb me most about this war is of how the US fought the war, but at the same time never invaded the North. It seems to me that the reason behind this is because the US was careful for this war not to become into a full world war against the communist countries, fighting yet not hard enough. I was able to interview my uncle, a Vietnam Veteran, and ask him about this matter. He shared with me about how much more suffering it brought to fight a war were you weren’t supposed to completely beat the enemy, but rather hit political blows every now and then. It is also known that the Vietnam War was one of the most expensive wars the US has ever fought, referring to both the amount of money used and the amount of casualties. To summarize my ideas, I believe the Vietnam War was a war that brought more cons than pros to the country, and therefore was an unjustified war.

Works Cited:

• ”Vietnam War”, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
• “What countries involved in the Vietnam War?”, Vietnam War. http://thevietnamwar.info/what-countries-involved-in-the-vietnam-war/
• ”Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964).”, https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=98
• "Ike's Warning Of Military Expansion, 50 Years Later", NPR. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later

Popsicle Sticks Bridge

I am studying a course called "Urban Planning", and this is my first Action Project. The main focus of this first Unit was bridges. I learned about how bridges are made, and what makes a strong or poor bridge. I also learned about the different things that can cause disasters, along with how the balance between tension and compression is the secret to keeping a bridge strong and steady. I also learned about triangles and of how great they work when it comes to bridges, among other topics. I am most proud of the fact that I can now make a decent analysis of any bridge I come across, noting which components are compressing and which are tensing, etc.

For this Action Project I had to design and create my own bridge out of only 50 Popsicle sticks and white glue. The bridge had to be able to support at least 10 pounds and had to have a span of at least a foot. I made a small slide presentation that shows my process of designing, building, and trying out my bridge: