GPHC Blog 2020-2021

Using the Galtung conflict model, I want to analyze the January 6th Insurrection of the Capital.  The Galtung model is shaped as a triangle and has three vertices - Behavior (what you saw), Attitudes (Why it happened) and Context (How it happened).   I want to first talk about the Attitudes and basically why I think it happened.  Over the past many years, probably more than I have lived, there has been an increasing level of distrust of our federal government.  Because of this, Donald Trump used this distrust as a platform to get elected in 2016. In fact, during the 2016 election, Trump used sayings like “drain the swamp,” “crooked Hillary,” and MAGA “Make America Great Again” to further remind voters of the distrust of government and its officials.   In addition, the racial mix of the US population is changing. The white population is declining while minorities are increasing.  Additionally, the use of social media has increased where misinformation a...

  The Galtung Triangle - BLM Protests Over the summer, much of white America was shocked at the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests that were taking place in America’s major cities, and even America’s smaller cities. A lot of articles and blog posts were written about why the protests were happening in order to give Americans more ignorant of their history and understanding of the anger among the Black community. Analyzing the conflict through the Galtung Triangle is a good way to understand its roots.  The primary contradiction behind the BLM protests is the inequality in wealth between white Americans and Black Americans. The racial wealth gap is close to the highest it has ever been. This is a result of America’s history and its systematic oppression of African-Americans. During America’s founding, Africans were brought across the ocean by the slave trade and were then enslaved in Southern cotton plantations and other farms. They were brutally treated there, and slav...

 Fabrício Guerra Mr. Zhou GPHC 13 February 2021 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict      Today the Middle East is often portrayed as a mess ruled by three main superpowers: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. All of the instability of the area is mostly due to the world power's partitioning of the area after World War II, when decolonization was encouraged. They failed to make borders so that they were in accordance with cultural groups, and this led to governments having minorities, which always leads to instability. One of these more famous examples is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which began in 1947 as part of the United Nation's Resolution 181 which divided the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. In 1948, the State of Israel was created and this created the First Israeli-Palestinian War. The war ended in 1949 as a victory for Israel, but there ended up being over 750,000 displaces Palestinians, and so the territory was divided into three parts, Th...

Boko Haram is one of the largest Islamist militant group in Africa and has been a significant source of conflict in Nigeria since 2011. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates more than 37, 500 people were killed, 2.5 million displaced in the Lake Chad Basin and nearly 244,000 nigerian refugees as a result of the Boko-Haram-led terrorist attacks and kidnappings. The source of Nigeria’s corruption and injustice was the contradiction that led to this conflict. Boko Haram holds the ideological belief that Western influences are at fault for the corruption and wealth disparity. Boko Haram sought to instead impose the islamic law, sharia. The name Boko Haram literally means “Westernization is sacrilege” in Hausa. When this Islamist militant group first emerged its operations consisted of relatively peaceful protests but a violent encounter with the police force in 2009 killled their leader Muhammed Yusuf, inciting rage and radicalization. In response to the police force’s alleged excessi...

John Mazziotti Mr. Zhou GPHC February 3rd, 2021 Ukraine and Russia: Annexation of Crimea Conflict With Galtung’s Triangle In 2013 and 2014, Ukraine and Russia had a conflict that was sparked by a dispute over economic reform. The Ukrainian president at the time, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected an economic deal with the European Union. This, in-turn, sparked protests in the Ukranian Capital of Kiev. The state security forces of Ukraine engaged violently with the protesters involved, which sparked even more wide-spread protests in Ukraine. Feeling the effects of the backlash of the - then intrastate - conflict, President Yanukovych fled to Russia in early 2014. Even this first stage of the entire conflict can be analyzed using Galtung’s triangle. First - before Russian involvement - , the contradiction. The contradiction rests in dispute over Ukraine’s economic reform with the European Union and NATO. Since Ukraine chose Eastern influence over Western influence, this sparked protests. Uk...

 Instability in Egypt  Recently, Egypt has been facing a lot of instability. Some of this instability has been caused by a group called Wilayat Sinai. This is a terrorist group that surfaced from the Sinai Peninsula after President Hosni Bubarak was overthrown in 2011. Wilayat Sinai declared allegiance with the Islamic State in 2014. They have since been responsible for several attacks in religious buildings that have killed numerous people. Some of these attacks include an attack on a Mosque in November of 2017 that killed at least 100 people as well as  two attacks on Coptic churches in April of 2017.  In February of 2018, Abdel Fata al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, ordered the Egyptian military to defeat Wilayat Sinai, and the military announced widespread counterterrorism measures in both the Sinai Peninsula and parts of the Nile Delta and Western Desert.  These operations included destruction of homes, commercial buildings, and farms. These operations have ...

     A modern example of the Galtung's Triangle I wanted to explore was the ACT UP organization. In case you are unfamiliar with ACT UP, it stands for AIDS C oalition to Unleash Power. They are an activist group on a mission to stop the AIDS pandemic. Within this organization, they would host protests, fundraisers, teach proper sex education, and even learn more about HIV/AIDS treatment to teach patients about their medications. This organization was formed because they felt that this issue was not getting proper attention.      When choosing between Latent and Manifest analysis level, I struggled with this because the AIDS/HIV pandemic could be considered both. Manifest, because of the lack of funding, representation, and research, caused thousands of deaths. If people in higher potions (politicians, authors, so forth) gave this issue the proper attention, millions of people wouldn't have died and suffered for the years the US knew about it. However, thi...

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  Adrián Pérez  Me. Roddy  GPHC  January 29th, 2020 Galtung’s Triangle Blog  Gaultung’s Triangle is an amazing way to analyze a conflict situation. The majority of the situations are violent based and sometimes the conflict never resolved keeping the triangle never ending. It starts off with contradiction, leading to behavior and finally Attitudes/Assumptions. In the middle  we have the Latent And the Manifest Levels. For my analysis of a situation, I chose the conflict between Mexico and The United States about immigrants.  For Contradiction, I was able to research some information for that. President Trump had restricted immigration on multiple fronts. Which incited controversy and legal challenges. Most of the immigrants in the country try to apply for asylum but are turned away and forced back into their own countries. This is very significant for mexico, but this has also happened in many latin american countries such as honduras. The United State...

      Ukraine has struggled to escape Russian control for the majority of its life after the Soviet Union's collapse. Even when it was under Russia the country has been racked by consistent disasters including but not limited to the collapse of the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor. The reason why Russia is so desperate for Ukraine is that, from the days of 1920-1991, Ukraine was a major part of the Soviet economy. While Ukraine has suffered a lot of problems with Russia and other factors, the conflict I'll be speaking of today is specifically The Russian Occupation crisis that went from March 2014 onwards.     It all started back when Russian special forces occupied the eastern area of Ukraine, specifically the Crimean peninsula. This was an example of violent behavior, though it was done under the (likely false) pretense that Russia was "protecting its port access to the Black Sea". Over the next four years, a conflict in that area would break out, killing a total of ...

      Follow up with your in-class example of the Galtung triangle conflict model with a blog of 400-500 words that explains any conflict through that model.  Focus on analyzing the conflict, but use the model to do so.  You don't need to draw it on the blog, though you could draw it for yourself.  The blog should be in paragraph form and it should be analysis.  Thus you should use terms such as latent, manifest, contradiction, attitudes, assumptions, behaviors.  You may use the same conflict that your group explored in class or pick a new one.  The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an large area in northern Alaska free from development that had been under scrutiny for decades. This is a conflict over access  to resources  and protections of land. Large oil companies and certain Congress members have been fighting to open this land for oil and gas development. This land is vital for the animals of the region including bea...

      I believe that a good example of Galtung's triangle can be the BLM protests that happened over the summer. This is because the systems that were being protested against are actively against people of color. The protests that occurred were just things coming to a boiling point after having no way to express the anger of systemic oppression.       On the latent level, there are many different things that in place that make sure people of color, and especially black people aren't treated fairly by the system. In terms of contradiction, most statistics show that police disproportionately arrest black people despite white people committing an equal amount of crime. On top of that sentencing for black people tends to be higher than the sentences given to white people. That is only the tip of the iceberg of the systemic racism in America, and it goes far deeper than just what I mentioned.     Before the protests happened, there was already the...

 Andreas Cantu  The Metekel conflict is an armed conflict in the Metekel area of the   Benishangul-Gumuz Region  in  Ethiopia which has been a reoccurring conflict since 2019. This conflict consists of three ethnic groups of people in Ethiopia. The Gumuz People, and the Amhara and Agaw agricultural settlers coming from the highlands of the region, these specific groups of settlers also constitute minority ethnic groups.  Within the latent level of is conflict lies the attitudes and assumptions the Gumuz people have towards the ethnic minorities of the Amhara and Agaw people. It has been very clear that the Gumuz people dislike the settling of the minority groups on what they call "their land." This attitude has remained the same ever since the ethnic groups arrived in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region and there seems to be no end in sight. It is presumed that the Gumuz people assume that the ethnic groups wish to expand their villages throughout the entirety of ...

      Although I'm sure this conflict will be used by 90% of the class, there is no better way to shine a light on the capital riots than through the Galtung Triangle, so therefore I will join the masses in analyzing it. Although Donald Trump definitely holds some of the burden for orchestrating the riots, the tale of the capital riot lies in its contradictions. These contradictions are the underlying conditions that lead to the capital riots: runaway income inequality, a distrust and disbelief in government, and racism.      It has been 48 years since wages stopped keeping pace with productivity, and since then, wages have flatlined while productivity has continued to soar. Forbes During this time, the supporters of Donald Trump have seen the effects of this. Stagnant wages have made recent generations the only ones to not see an increase in the standard of living over their parents, and income inequality has become one of the nations biggest issues. ...

  Adrian Perez  Mr. Roddy  GPHC  12 December 2020 How Race and Bicycling are connected  Race and Bicycling. Two things I felt had no connection with each other. But actually, they do have some correlation. The story I read about was of this queer black woman, who many identify as a male.  She was working on LGBTQ issues by leading a program for an organization. She says she commonly experiences anti-blackness and racism. She then learned about the executive director position at Los Angeles County Bike Coalition(LACBC). She was very hesitant about working there. She loves to bike because it provides a sense of freedom which in some cases could feel uncommon for a black woman working in a toxic workplace. Also since bike lanes are a common factor of gentrification in poorer neighborhoods. She went into the interview with the mentality of making it a social justice organization. And made it very clear if they didn’t like that, they shouldn’t hire her. They the...

 Fabrício Guerra Mr. Zhou GPHC 14 December 2020 Climate and Migration      As climate change is beginning to effect people with huge storms and devastating droughts, the opposite is being done to help the people who live in these areas. In the past couple of years, strong economic cities like Houston, Miami, and Orlando in the Gulf Coast Region have been seeing an increase in population from people in the north. Along with this population increase comes big spending in infrastructure and business subsidies. This is all normal, and if it was a normal circumstance it would be good. However, considering the climate estimations for the next 50 years show that this is not a sustainable investment. Right now in the United States there are certain Niche Zones, which are places that are perfect for human activity. The current niche zones are the forests of the southeast, and California Coast, and the Forests of Arizona. If the we continue to look after our environment, niche...

 Cross Border Water Wars  The Boquilla Dam is a dam on the Conchos river in the state of Chihuahua which flows into the Rio Grande River. It serves an important role in the transfer of water between the U.S. and Mexico. Due to climate change Mexico has been experiencing more and more droughts leading to postponements in their water delivery. This threatens a treaty written in 1944 between the U.S. and Mexico which controls the share of water between the Colorado River and Rio Grande River.  The Mexican government has proposed that they would continue trying to meet the demands of water delivery to the U.S. despite the ongoing droughts and continued water scarcity. Farmers had begun protesting because they were afraid that if their water on their land would be prioritized as an exported commodity instead of being used to support local agriculture, workers would leave and rural communities would be lost. Politicians responded by sending federal forces to occupy the dam in F...

  Blake Peterson Mr. Roddy  GPHC 9 December 2020  China and 14 Other Countries Agree to set up Worlds Largest Trading Bloc  14 countries have recently agreed to a trade bloc that is meant to help the economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus. The conclusion of RCEP negotiations supports ASEAN’s leading role in supporting the mutual trading system and the coronavirus recovery. The countries involved in the new agreement include the 10 member association of the South East Asian nations as well as China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand. The deal was signed during the annual summit of the 10 member association of southeast Asian nations. The deal represents Asia’s commitment to multination efforts towards free trade. With the new accords, the tariffs on goods between member countries will become even lower. China is especially benefiting from this deal because they now have greater influence over regional trade. Chinese officials have said that th...

Trumps Voter Turnout in 2020 Election This past election proved many of us wrong. For years now there has been this big idea that women and minorities fell on the left side of the political spectrum white men were the ones supporting Trump, however, the polling data from this election tells a very different story. Before I get into the data presented in the article and what I learned... I want to share some of my personal thoughts and opinions... about how insanely ridiculous this is. Below are some words that have come out of Donald Trump's mouth that are just not okay. On the topic of women: "Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” "If she were a man, I don't think she'd get five p...

 The article that I chose was about how Donald Trump won more votes from black and latino voters in this election than he did last election. More women voted for Trump this year than in the last election, in the last election he won the vote of white women by 9 percent but this year he won by 11 percent. The article also said “In 2016, Democrats won Hispanic and Latina women by 44 percentage points; in 2020 they won by 39.“ It also went on to say that Trump had support from 9% more black women than he had last year. AND this shift was also shown across men as well. With the Republican Party always being shown as the racist party, this was quite a surprise to me. The largest portion who shifted away from Trump were the people that are most frequently associated with being Trump supporters, white men. While this was a surprise to me it is apparently something that has been going on for years and it was expected by many that the republican party would have many white men leave its vot...