User:TienChi

=Analytical Writing=

Statement of Intent
Creating a model is like creating a action figure with little pieces of plastic that are instructed through a manual. A hobby that followed me since i was 13 till this day on. Blood, sweat and tears is what defines the building process, but the reward is plenty more.

Overview
I was having trouble finding my center of interest, or at least something I’m interested in writing about. My curiosity does run pretty wild leaving me with a wide range of things. I tried looking around my room for inspiration and I think I found it. When I was 13 my father had bought me my first Mobile Suit Gundam Model. It is a scale of 1/100 meaning if the actual size is 100 feet the model is 1 feet. Toy models are similar to an action figure, except for the fact it’s not for playing, it’s for displaying. Gundams are basically giant Japanese robots control by a human pilot. The cockpit is located in the center chest area. The price usually ranges from 10-1000 dollars depending on the scale you decide to build. My first model came with about 300 little pieces and I was required to snap and glue every piece together. This is all instructed through a 30+ page manual with nice detailed pictures. It is very easy to make a mistake because a lot of parts look alike so you must rely on the naming convention. After the model is assembled it’s ready for paint and texture. Once everything is finished it is ready to be put on display.

Rationale
Time Management

Publication
The Killing Field is known to be a large massacre of over 2million Cambodians during the 1970's. After the migration to the US a gang mainly of Cambodians was formed in California to protect themselves but is now known to be one of the most ruthless gang in the US.

Schedule



 * 1) week 2 -Research/Studies
 * 2) week 3 -Research/Studies
 * 3) week 4 -I talked to Steve Arntson (New Topic)
 * 4) week 5 -Research on the Gang (TRG Tiny Raskal)
 * 5) week 6 -Research on the Culture (Cambodia)
 * 6) week 7 -Research on the Killing Fields (Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge, Massacre)
 * 7) week 8 -Interview Family, Friends relate to the Killing Fields and Tiny Raskal Gang
 * 8) week 9 -Gather and revise information and begin writing
 * 9) week 10-Finish rough draft
 * 10) week 11-Final due

Anticipated Problems
1. There are many things that can go wrong in the process, mistakenly using the wrong joint parts that may look similar to other joints may cause a whole reconstruction of the model. But most of the time the models are so tightly snapped together they are not easy to unsnap, and even if you some how unsnapped it the plastic may break and not be able to snap back in.

Problem: I lost interest in my original topic which was gundam model construction and my love for this hobby. I never thought writing a paper about gundam was going to be so boring. Since it was so boring to my maybe my reader would be getting the same feeling.

Answer: I started to look for a new topic, and by doing so I went on youtube to find anything that might interest me. But this time I was going to search for a topic not just interest me but relates to me in more ways than just a hobby. Maybe something that related to my culture or a culture I want to learn more about. I stumble across a show called Gangland on History Channel, Gangland is a documentary about gangs spread across the US. The episode I decided on is called "The Killing Fields in California." This particular episode is about a large Cambodian gang that started in means to protect themselves.

Week 6 Project Review
<On the third week of the quarter I began writing my paper on the gundam models, but slowly I lost interest. Now this was not out of the ordinary for a person like me. I lose interest fast especially on a writing assignment. The following day at work I was browsing the the large list of videos on youtube and came across a show called Gangland on the History channel. It was a particular episode that caught my interest titled "The Killing Fields in California." Gangland is a documentary on gangs all across America, every episode reviews a new gang, a new culture, a new structure. This episode of Killing Fields in California talks about a large gang of mainly Cambodians that started in Long Beach California and spread through out the US in late 1980's. The actual Killing Fields in Cambodia was what lead the migration of the Cambodians to America. During the 70's a man by the name of Pol Pot had a vision for Cambodian, striped of religion, education, and free will. In order to have his vision come true he lead a massacre which we all know as the Killing Fields. More than 2million Cambodians were brutally murdered. The refugees migrated to America only to escape the violence but only to find more of the same. >

Response 1, to PEAK WATER>
We are not running out of water, we are running out of clean water. Clean water we all take for granted everyday, we must all better manage our use of water. 97% of the world’s water is in the ocean. If removing salt from water is that easy we would never come to the terms Peak Water. Our population is growing everyday and more clean water is require. Our water cycle is slowing down due to the pollution we are putting into the air we breathe. According to the Thirst of Nation’s chart, more than half of the world is using up the water their country has. I think the only way we can help is to turn off our sinks when we’re not using it. Fix leaking pipes and just be conservative. Not just to water but also to everything else, like recycling, finding other ways of transportations. Everything can serve a purpose to having clean water. The population is growing; the water cycle is slowing down and the word Peak Water is being used more commonly. What can this mean for us in the future? War perhaps? We have fought over Peak oil before.

Project
Deep In The Killing Fields Saloth Sar had a twisted utopian vision, a simpler way of life striped of religion, education and ultimately free will. As the leader of the communist Khmer Rouge Regime, he was responsible for nearly 2 million deaths in Cambodia. However, for some reason Cambodian Americans seem to blame the Killing Fields on the Vietnamese. Saloth Sar was born in 1925 in central Cambodia. He had eight siblings and his father was a prosperous landowner. At the age of nine he was sent to the capital, Phnom Penh, to further his education. Here, he saw his cousin performing the royal dance. Through her dance he saw a royal family that was a shadow of its former greatness. Corrupted by French colonial rule. At the age of 20 he earned a scholarship to Paris for the studies of radio electronics. At the age of 24 he arrived in Paris. During this time international communism was at its peak and the whole city of Paris was alive with revolution. He developed an interest in Marxism and began to neglect his studies and soon lost his scholarship. In 1952, Saloth Sar wrote an article on a student magazine denigrating the Cambodian monarchy. When on November 9, 1953, Cambodia gained their independence from France he still thought the country was Western. Prince Norodom Sihanouk was known to be a French puppet. After Cambodia gained its independence, the prince took credit for the freedom of Cambodia. Freedom which in reality Saloth Sar fighting side by side with the Vietnamese communists had a big hand in creating. He then began to work underground. He worked as a teacher during the day, and at night he would hold special meetings to discuss the unfairness of society. Slowly, more and more people were joining the communist revolution party and soon chose Saloth Sar as their leader. In 1960 Saloth Sar helped form the "Workers Party of Kampuchéa" (WPK). 1963 he adopted the name Pol Pot and moved the WPK into the Jungles of northern Cambodia. It is there where he met simple village farmers, which he came to believe defined communism at its purest form. Around this time prince Sihanouk (who gave the WPK their nickname Khmer Rouge) agreed to allow communist Vietnam’s building of base camps just on the Cambodian side of their mutual border. In 1969 Pol Pot and other Khmer Rouge leaders prepared overthrow Sihanouk. But the Cambodian military beat them to it, overthrowing Sihanouk in March 1970 and bringing Lon Nol to the presidency. During the mid 60’s America had become the main foreign power in South East Asia in part because of its escalating war with Vietnam. In 1969 President Nixon believed Vietnam had established camp on Cambodian soil and he gave orders to secretly bomb at the Cambodian jungle near Pol Pot’s CPK camps. This caused the war to spread into Cambodia. Pol Pot’s communist revolutionaries emerged from the ashes and dust galvanized for action. Though they were still dismissed by the establish powers in the upcoming years they would show the world the true face of the Khmer Rouge which was made up of many types of men, from peasants to former royal officers. The Khmer Rouge started off as a secret political communist revolutionary group and slowly turned into a killing force. In late April 1975 a loose mix of communist and pro-Sihanouk forces overthrew the young government of Democratic Kampuchéa. And the streets of Phnom Phen were filled with celebrating civilians. The people of Phnom Penh were very much celebrating in joy but not much caring who had won. Five years of civil war, Cambodia can finally be at peace. But the celebrations turned ugly when the Khmer began telling people that the US was going to bomb the cities and forced a mass evacuation. With the cities evacuated, the almighty Pol Pot was ready to follow up on his dreadful utopian vision. First to die were the educated: the teachers, lawyers, doctors and anyone with political experience. Ultimately anyone who wore glasses was considered an intellectual, anyone who knew how to ride a bicycle was considered a western. Which was a capital offence. It did not matter if you are a tailor, a civil servant or a monk. Those are all consider embodiment of capitalism and that means enemy to communism. Communication with the outside world was banned, family relations dismantled, all jobs and responsibilities striped. This is now Democratic Kampuchéa, the beginning of year one for the new Cambodia. Many were sent off to work camps, as they labor 12 hours a day in the rice fields. This was the goal of new Cambodia. The focus was on “agricultural success” with a developed four-year plan for Cambodia to produce an average 1.4 tons per acre. The conditions were harsh, the food allowance were so low as to cause people to actually starve to death. The new lives were seen to have little to no free will, if any minor infraction, they were sent to the killing fields. “The best and brightest of Cambodia’s society is systematically killed and was buried in what is known as The Killing Fields.” The work of the utopian vision is well underway, big brother they called him. Pol Pot has over powered the Cambodian government; Cambodia is now under Pol Pots control. Even as powerful he became, people inside his own camp started to unfold. Gradually, they became untrustworthy, and one by one he purged his own regime. An abandon high school known as Tuol Sleng, located in Phnom Phen, was repurposed as a torture compound to get confessions, give tortures, and condemn to death. In his paranoia, Pol Pot thought Vietnam was going to invade so he launched a small Khmer Rouge force and killed a village of people in Vietnam. This cause Vietnam to launch a full-scale attack in December 1978 and within days of the attack they took control of the capital of Cambodia. Pol Pot’s own arrogance paved the way for his enemies to take over his nation. A simple mistake causes his whole life’s worth of work to crumble. Everyone who was once victims became free and started to flee. Some fled to Thailand, Vietnam, and Phnom Penh. Pol Pot became more and more paranoid and eventually lost the faith from his remaining troops. In 1979, the Khmer Rouge arrested their broken leader. As the killing stopped, the pain and memories still lies in the survivor’s eyes. I was lucky enough to sit down with speak to some of my friend’s parents, who were there throughout the whole tragedy. Being able to get a close up glimpse of what I have just been studying about for the past 2 weeks. I can truly appreciate my life a lot more than I use too. Aside from all sad stories, I kept getting a strange feeling they were blaming the Vietnamese for all of this. Now, I can see why they could think that the Vietnamese could be at fault: during the Vietnam War Cambodia was bombed by the Americans because of the Vietnamese camps located just outside of Vietnam. The Vietnamese came into their home and basically “invaded our country” as they quote. I can understand the why they think Vietnam at fault, but the true blame is the terrible utopian visionary, Pol Pot. Even when he was finally sentenced to prison in 1998, he shortly died before he could serve his time. Ultimately for the Khmer Rouge Killing Fields no one was brought to justice. Even after the Killing Fields, many Cambodians stand proud of their culture, religion, and history. Cambodia today still suffers, however, never again like the Killing Fields. Indeed, blood has been shred but Cambodia has a bright future ahead of them. There are still many years to make great memories when visiting Cambodia. Even though there are many damages done, we look at Ang Kor Wat and the Lying Buddha, not as ruins, but as pieces of our history.

 Reference in MLA Format

Andy, Carvin. "From Sideshow to Genocide: Stories of the Cambodian Holocaust". March 1, 2010 . The History Place, "Genocde in the 20th Century". March 1, 2010 . A&E. “Investigative Reports.” Return to the Killing Fields: 1-5. Creng’s Channel. You tube, 19 Sept 2008. 22 March 2010.  Phim, Tiem. “Cambodia.” The Life of Pol Pot:1-5. Creng’s Channel. You tube, 17 Aug. 2008. 22 March 2010. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgkkmOnwoE> Joffe, Roland. The Killing Fields (1984). Prod. Puttman, David. Perf. Waterston, Sam. Warner Bros. 1984. Interviews in MLA Format Heng, Dam. “Khmer Rouge” Interview. Heng’s Resident. 17 March 2010 Soun, Reth. “I Suffered.” Interview. Heng’s Resident, 17 March 2010 Heng, Rem. “What I Remembered.” Interview. Heng’s Resident. 20 March 2010

reflective assessment
•	"What did I learn in this class, and what do I have left to learn?" I learned that great work can be completely free minded. Being able to write about almost anything can really produce a great paper. Like Steve once said “if your not interested in what your writing. You are not writing.” At least that’s what I think he said but it make sense to me and I spent along time researching and finding what I wanted to do. I wish to work on my spelling, grammer and writing, at least to a point where I am not always writing the way I speak. •	"What did I do well in this class, and what could I have done better?" I think I respond to the class well, I find having the freedom to write about almost anything can let the mind wonder but eventually it will end up in the write place. I wish to better my research in the future. •	"How do I feel prepared, or unprepared, to continue my studies at this point?" Unprepared is the defitinition of laziness, I do not consider myself lazy for school and industry work. I am always trying to push myself to work one step ahead of what I need to do, but if my pace to keep up I can fall tragedy because of Finals. Right now I feel okay between prepared and unprepared, I feel distracted from my focus but I still maintained my firm standing. •	"How did I contribute to the experiences of other students in this class?" I share anything and everything that can contribute to me making this fellow student a better artist, writing, and person.