assignment 6 The Canary Effect

Why is it called the canary effect? 

It is called the canary effect because back in the old days the miners would take a canary into the mineshafts, because when there was poisoned gas around the canary would fall down on the ground and the miners would know that they had to get out as soon as possible. Looking at this you can say that the native Americans were the 'fresh air' but after America was 'discovered' they are seen as the poisoned gas.  

Why is it ridiculous to say that Columbus discovered America? 

It is ridiculous because of two reasons:

 

1) you can't discover something that is already discovered. For example, when you go to someone’s house you don't go in their living room and claim it yours and say that you've discovered something that nobody has never seen. This may seem weird because who does that? But if you think about it this is exactly what Columbus did. 

2) Columbus' intension wasn't even to discover America, he was looking for India. That's also why native Americans are called Indians. 

What have you learned? 

Tirza: I've learned that there was a genocide in America. I never associated America with genocide, I always immediately think of WW2. But I never knew that it was so bad in America and that the native Americans were treated so badly by the government and that they were forced to act more like western countries. I guess I was blinded by the image the media puts out. 

Leanne: I did know that Columbus wasn't a good man, but after I saw the Canary Effect I have learnt that Columbus was a really bad man. I also didn't know that there was a big genocide. A lot of People were killed. In the documentary was said: "Kill and scalp all people; little and big", "Kill the Indian, save the man". It was a big shock to hear that there were so many people killed. 

Evy: I have learned a lot about the canary effect from this assignment. I did not know that Columbus was actually an evil/heartless man, he came to America and wanted to have it for his self so he wiped out all the native Americans. I also did not know that it was called the canary effect and why it was called the canary effect, but I think it is an appropriate title for this event.

Denise: I have learned from the canary effect, that Columbus is a bad man, he started a genocide towards native Americans. They were being scalped and murdered or they would cut them into pieces. Some native Americans were enslaved for money. A president in the 1800's wanted to remove the Indians, place them in camps. They were even sterilizing Indian people just to make sure that no new Indian can be born. The white people were so cruel. It is ridiculous how native Americans are treated. Nowadays Indian people don't get hired and the majority of the suicide actions in the USA are among native Americans. native American teenagers hanged themselves and it didn't even make the news. White people just don't seem to understand the pain that they were causing.

Sanne: I didn't know that much about Columbus. I only knew about the fact that everybody said that Columbus discovered America, but it wasn't the truth. I didn't know that the native Americans were treated so badly and that there were so many native Americans dying. I also never heard about the name "the canary effect". Before I didn't know about the name and why the effect was called like that.

Discussion:

The conclusion of our discussion is that we all agree that genocide is an awful thing but we shouldn’t ignore it. We need to acknowledge what happened in the past and learn from it today. At first we didn’t understand why it was called the canary effect but from reading reviews we found out the meaning behind the name. We also never thought that the racism against the native Americans was that bad and we were quite shocked by the images from the film, we had never thought it was an actual genocide. So we were happy to have seen this documentary and to be informed about this topic.