Nicole Mendez

Torture On Trial

 

 

The Torture on Trial project was our first main project that focused on the use of torture throughout history. While doing this project we would have to ask ourselves:

 

Are humans the real instruments of torture?

 

Is torture ever justified?

 

How can we practice resilience, reclaim strength, and celebrate vitality in the face of opposition?

 

What does it mean to be a "survivor"?

 

In order to properly answer these questions we had to learn more about torture, and what better place to learn about torture than the Instruments of Torture exhibit at the Museum of Man. There we learned about the different types of torture used during different time periods. It seemed as though earlier time periods preferred using physical torture to punish and receive confessions out of people, while the later time periods used psychological torture to elicit information out of suspects.

This project had originally consisted of two parts: an actual torture device and a court trial. My group had chosen 21st century - War on Terror so I decided to research the water-boarding that was used in prison camps on suspects of terrorism as the required torture device, but in the end we eliminated that portion of the project since it would be too much work to do. So we focused on gathering as much information as possible to help form our case arguments. We had learned all there was to know about how the war on terror started, what laws were in place during it, and what it essentially was. But what we lacked was the knowledge on how to execute it lawfully. And that was where our trip to the San Diego Superior Courthouse started. This trip helped us prepare for the acting part of the mock trial and gave us more confidence for exhibition day which went by smoothly.
 

 Final Project Binder

 

Here's a link of all that evidence that went into our case.
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Reflection

In all honesty, I'm a bit disappointed with this project. I remember starting it with excitement about sharing my opinions on whether or not torture is justified, but after going through this content- heavy project and managing the Dia de Los Muertos Exhibition, I was officially done with everything. But apart from that I could not have been happier with how well my group worked together and even though they may not know it I think they answered whether or not humans are the real instruments of torture. The answer is yes, torture would have never existed if it had not been humans who thought of it as a tool they could use. Torture is never a good thing and that is why we should send a message to others to help prevent torture from happening. Currently I feel as though this is the project I've had least growth in, but I was reminded that not everything will always come out the way you planned and there's nothing you can do to stop that except adapt to the situation and learn how to deal with be uncomfortable.
 

 

Family of Survivors Interview Narrative

The Family of Survivors interview narrative was our first writing assignment in humanities, consisting of five total drafts and four peer critiques. The point was to interview one member of your family that you believe is a survivor of anything. I interviewed my sister, Denisse. I had interviewed people before but for different reasons and what I wanted to speak about wasn't spoken of very often in our home. Luckily she was very cooperative and answered everything I asked her, most of the questions I already knew the answer to, but in interviews you always learn one new thing about someone no matter how small or big. 

This assignment taught me one important thing, when you write about the life of someone else write descriptively but true. Never alter their words cause if you do then what you write is not the truth.

 

Poisons, Toxins, and Chemical Weapons

The Poisoner’s Handbook is a book written by Deborah Bloom that details the first scientifically trained medical examiner, Charles Norris, and Alexander Gettler, New York City's first toxicologist's work on the poisoning cases of the Jazz Age. I, personally read the chapter on arsenic, an element often used through consumption it was difficult to taste. It was given the nickname "The Inheritance Powder" since many have used it to kill their wealthy predecessors. In 1875, one woman named Mary Ann Cotton killed 15 people, including all of the children of her five husbands, and many neighbors who annoyed her, using arsenic. After my peers had explained to me the chapters they had read I understood that in the 1920's many people weren't aware that poisonous substances could be found in easily attainable products but as time went on people realized these things were dangerous and added precautions and prohibitions to help save many peoples' lives. 

In the beginning of the year we were taught about chemical weapons by an EOD technician. The main thing I learned from the lecture was that there are two types of chemical weapons: incapacitating and toxic. Incapacitating weapons cause vomiting while toxic weapons cause victims to choke. While no good came out of the use of chemical weapons, the outcome allowed the creation of the Geneva Conventions, a series of documents that prohibit the use of chemical weapons in both war and peace time. I also separately researched the chemical weapon known as soman. Soman was created in 1944 by the German scientist, Richard Kuhn and its latest use was in the Iran-Iraqi War by the Iraqi government against Iran. Soman works by causing the inactivation of an enzyme that breaks apart another chemical that acts as a bridge between adjacent nerve cells, and so allows a nerve impulse to flow. Because the bridging chemical remains intact, nerve impulses cannot be controlled or turned off. The symptoms are watery and painful eyes, coughing, rapid breathing, diarrhea, confusion, headache, slow or fast heart rate, and in severe cases, unconsciousness, convulsions, and respiratory failure.

 

Flatland

Flatland is a satirical novel written by Edwin Abott under the psuedoname "A Square". Since it was written in 1884 it's no surprise the book is extremely old-fashioned and offensive. In this book Flatland is a place where the citizens are all shapes and they have a hierarchy based on this, with circles being the highest and women or 'lines' are not even considered worthwhile. Here in Flatand A Square, someone in the middle rank of the hierarchy, has been shown the truth of multiple dimensions by A Sphere, a spherical solid from Spaceland.  With this knowledge, A Square decides to enlighten the people of Flatland but once he finally speaks the truth he is arrested and no one believes him. So he spends the rest of his life in prison writing down the truth in futile hopes that some shape will read and understand the error of their ways.

 

Flatland juggles many themes and one of them is political oppression. The government in Flatland (the circles) was obviously aware of the existence of  Spaceland, something that the citizens of Flatland don't know. They used this intellectual advantage for their own personal gain by stating that if anyone spoke of this they would be arrested, keeping them in power. In other words Knowledge = Power, another example of that is how with each level of dimensions there comes with it a ertain amount of knowledge which equals more power over others.