Great/ Infamous Moments in Olympic History

This moment is more infamous than great.

During the 1972 Olympics, held in Munich, Germany, the Israeli team was held hostage and eventually killed by a Palestinian group known as 'Black September.'

It was about mid way through the second week of the Olympics. The German organisers had tried to erase memories of the 1936 Olympics which had a large military presence, and image of warfare and the fact that Adolf Hitler had exploited the games for propaganda purposes. This time, there was a lack of security, to emphasise the goal of a "Carefree" games. In the lead up to the massacre, the Israeli delegation head, Shmuel Lalkin  was worried about the lack of security, but was reassured that everything was going to be fine. He also expressed concern over the team's lodgings. The team was in an isolated part of the Olympic Village where he feared that they would be vulnerable to outside attack.

During the early morning on the 5th of September, 8 members of Black September, wearing tracksuits carrying duffel bags with AK-47 assault rifles, pistols and hand grenades, they summoned the help of unsuspecting Canadian athletes to enter the Olympic Village. They used stolen keys to enter the rooms of the Israeli team.

They stormed into the rooms of the Israeli athletes and proceeded to take them hostage. They were taken to an an awaiting coach. They were then taken to a helicopter. From there, they were taken to an airport to a waiting plane. The reason for this hostage crisis was that the Palestinians wanted the release of numerous Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

By now, the authorities were acting, and they hurriedly hatched a plan to get the athletes back. Five snipers were to be placed around the aerodrome, where the terrorists were to land. Sniper 1 was positioned behind a low wall, sniper 2 behind a truck, and snipers 3,4 and 5 were placed on the control tower.

The plan went horribly wrong because of the following factors: it was intended that the terrorists would land side on to the tower giving the snipers a clear shot - but they landed head on - the helicopter obscuring the sniper's aim. Second, when the flood lights were mistakenly turned on, it dazzled all 5 snipers, preventing them from identifying their targets. Third, the snipers didn't have the right guns for the job; they used M16s, which were machine guns, instead of the better-suited rifles.

In the ensuing fire fight that followed, all 8 terrorists were shot. But, the helicopter with the athletes was blown up by hand grenades, killing the athletes, and in the second helicopter, 4 athletes were 'mown down' by a terrorist at the door. Also a senior member of the German armed police was shot dead.

As a result, on the 6th of September, a memorial was arranged with 80,000 in attendance; on the 8th, Israeli planes bombed 10 PLO  (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) camps, killing 200.

Ever since the 1972 Olympics, security has become much tighter, with the Olympic Village becoming one of the most heavily guarded places in the world, with armed guards being standard procedure.

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre

Collaborative Story Part 2

Read part 1 at georgiakellyac.

And shortly after that speech, Detective Jones was confronted with his first witness: Horace Bennett. He gave a vivid description of how an old French man driving a tractor, delivering some fruit to the market had gone to unload the fruit from his tractor, when the tractor began to move backwards without anybody in it. It proceeded roll and take out the old French man, then a queue of 7 people waiting to buy fruit were run over. Then the tractor reversed over the fruit stand to hit a building. The shock caused a person to fall out of a balcony.

Upon hearing this account, detective Jones ordered a thorough search of the tractor to identity the cause of it to reveres without human intervention. And soon enough, the investigation revealed that the old French man had left the parking brake off. So it seems that the old French man was to blame. But, upon further investigation, the hand brake was in fact on, just the lever to apply it had moved to the off position. But, how could this be? The tractor had moved backwards with it on!

Read Part 3 at  http://joelsblogggg.blogspot.co.nz/

Ancient Warfare 3 day Episode

In this 3 day ep, you will step back in time to experience how some of the greatest battles in ancient history were fought. Make your own swords, spears, bow and arrows and shields. Learn how to shoot a traditional bow and arrow and make it yourself while you're at it.

Day 1: Learn about some of the greatest ancient battles (eg Marathon) as well as plan your weapon and shield.

Day 2: Build your weapon using ancient tools techniques.

Day 3: Learn some of the old battle tactics and test your weapons out on the person next to you (NB no killing allowed. It's against the law).
 


 

Reflection on Term 1

Term 1 was mostly a big disappointment. Particularly on the grounds of learning. I've learnt virtually nothing over the past 10 weeks. I come to school to learn, not to waste my time! However, on the home work front, I enjoyed having almost no home work. And of that, it was all easy. Simply put: It was no skin of my nose. Not that I'm complaining though.

Novel Review

The novel I read was called "The Valley of Adventure" by Enid Blyton. It is an adventure book (as the title suggests).  The book doesn't say which time period it was written in. But, I guess it was either in the late 40s to the 50s. The entire series follows four adventurous tweens and teens. As where ever they go, they seem to have a massive adventure. Even when in one of the latter books of the series they promise their Mother that they'd wouldn't go for any more adventures.

This book is the four: Jack, Dinah, Philip and Lucy-Ann, going to visit their uncle Bill in Scotland. Uncle Bill wants to fly them to his bungalow in his new plane. But there is a mix up up at the aerodrome. Because Bill was a policeman, he'd been called to help catch a couple of crooks who robed a museum. There was a small shot-out. The four were frightened and got on to the wrong plane. It just so happened that the plane they got on to was that of the crooks! So they realised that pretty quickly. Over hearing the pilots, they crammed them selves into some crates at the back of the plane. Because the pilots were going to drop their crates into a valley. The survived the fall because the crates had parachutes. That's how they ended up having an adventure in a valley.

I'd rate this book 7/10 because the over all story line was good. The description of the environment was some-what realistic. The only down side to all of this is because of the language they use. Its not bad. But, is what I call "proper English." And I'm not use to it. Nor are a lot people. Most would be quite irritated. There were also some funny parts to it. Mainly when Philip tries to scare his sister Dinah with all sorts of bugs:)

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the dictator of the former U.S.S.R (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic) from 19 July 1941 – 25 February 1946. He was still in office until his death in March of 19 1953. He led the Soviet war against the Nazis in 1941-1945. He was one of the many Bolchevic revolutionaries that brought the end of the ruling of the Russian royal family in 1917.

Starlin was born on 18 December 1978 in Gori in the Russian Empire in what is now Georgia. He contracted smallpox at the age of 7 which left his face permanently scared. He attended Church school where he and the other Georgian children were forced to speak Russian. At the age of 12, two horsing accidents left his left arm damaged. When he was sixteen he got a scholarship into a Georgian Orthodox seminary; but was kicked out after rebelling against the imperial and religious orders.

When Stalin became the  dictator in 1941. He succeeded Vyacheslav Molotov, the man in which the Finish named their Molotov cocktail. After all, he was the one to blame or the Russo-Finish war of 1940.

Stalin formed a military alliance with Adolf Hitler. He and Stalin (was the premier, not quite leader of the U.S.S.R. yet) together invade Poland. But in the summer of 1941, Hitler breaks their alliance and invades the Soviet Union, on failing to invade Britain. After a bitter struggle, the Soviets push the Nazis back to Germany.

During his regime, Stalin has been suggested to have killed more people than Hitler. The exact figure is unknown. But it lies any ware between 10-60 million. The main cause of all these deaths is that Stalin had anybody who opposed or didn't support the communist party sent to the Siberian salt mines in the far east. Or if you were lucky, you'd be stood against a brick wall and shot by the K.G.B.(Soviet Secret Service).

The salt mines meant the same thing to the Soviets that Auschwitz meant to the Jews of the time. They were truly horrible places. It was cold. Temperatures rarely exceeding 10C. There were no toilets. If you had to use the "little opposer to the communist party's room", the only option is to dig a hole and dump. The food was much less than adequate. Sickness was common. The workers were over-worked. Added to that, the trip to the salt mines wasn't any better. They would be crumbed into boxcars for days at a time. There wars no food or water.

If the salt mines weren't bad enough, Stalin heavily persecuted the Soviets living in the South U.S.S.R. The countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kirghistan, were all looked down upon because they looked more Asian than European. Their protesting along with other Soviet states led Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin wall and let the Soviet Union fragment, in 1989.

Stalin's regime finally came to an end when he succumb to  atherosclerosis due to his heavy smoking. He suffered at least 10 heart attacks before finally having a stroke on March 5th 1953.

 

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin
                      Numerous documentaries over the years.

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