Thursday, January 13, 2011

The News: Julian Assange, Hero or Troublemaker?

I thought we should bring the news into the classroom and who hasn´t heard about Julian Assange and/or WikiLeaks?
Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a controversial website which collects and posts highly classified documents and videos. As you may probably know, Julian Assange is being sought for questioning by US authorities. Right now, he has become a sort of celebrity -with the pros and cons that go with it; for example, here on the left you can see an ad of an Australian brand name of yoghourt (Julian Assange is Australian) using his image and his name.
In this video he talks to TED's Chris Anderson about how the site operates, some of the things it has accomplished, and what drives him. This interview was recorded in July 2010; it´s about 20 minutes long and it will come in useful for our class in different ways. First of all, it will be good for listening practice: the conversation is in English but at home you may choose the language of the subtitles, most of the translations are complete (that´s why you´ll see 100% after the name of the language). We will work with some up-to-date vocabulary and issues, which is always useful for your general knowledge. And, finally, we´ll work on the comprehension questions I handed out in class







Now you´ve listened to him and you have learnt about his point of view, do you think you could explain this cartoon on the left? In case you can´t read the message, it says, "WikiLeaks, they´re putting lives at risk." I´d love to read what you make of it. 



5 comments:

  1. I think that this picture reveals the thoughts of the USA. Wikileaks is a page where there are a lot of posts about secret and confidential information, and these secrets are not so good. They reveal what happens on the war in Irak, secrets about the well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico...
    The USA doesn´t like doesn´t like people to know that they are not so good...
    The planes on the picture represent a threat by the USA to Julian Assange for publishing this classified information. J.A wa prosecuted because the Swedish authorities say that he raped one girl. Who knows if this is true, or it´s simply a trick from the USA to control him.
    Gabriel

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  2. Gabriel, thanks for your comment! I know it wasn´t easy to write...

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  3. Carlos Robles 2ºB17 January, 2011

    Well, I almost agree totally with Gabriel, but I think the photograph, more than the thoughts of the USA (the whole population of the USA), shows the thoughts of some sectors of the country, such as the weapon industry, some politics and, of course, the army, the great army of the USA, world-wide known for being the "defender" of the "peace" and the "human rights".

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  4. Manuel Díaz Palmeiro19 January, 2011

    what the picture pretends, is that Wikileaks disappears because there are very important people who are not interested to know some secrets of state. In my opinion Wikileaks is a site that is really good, because if you know the secrets are more care will make these mistakes or not commit.

    A hug Manuel Díaz

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  5. Carlos and Manuel, thanks for sharing your opinions with us!

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