TED Talks review analysis

Prince Among Slaves considered as a historical documentary directed, written and produced by Andrea Kalin.

This film is a story of Abdul Rahman Sort, a prince from West Africa who had become a slave in the United States and got freedom 40 years later. Abdul Rahman was a prince ofa kingdom in Futa Jallon, West Africa. In 1788, at the age of 26, his father sent him in war, where he captured and sold to English slavers. A slave- ship headed for American shores from West Africa with hundreds of men, women and children and Abdul Rahman was among them.

Eight months later the survivors came with other goods in Mississippi for sale. Abdul Rahman was purchased by a struggling Mississippi farmer named Thomas Foster.

Foster hoped that the strong African would help establish his farm. Sori tried to tell Foster that he was a prince and he stole from his familybut foster didn’t listen to him. He cut Suri’s long hair, which was a sign of nobility and made him to work. Once Abdul Rahman escaped from Fosters firm but after several weeks, he realized that he never could go back to Futa Jelon. So he voluntary returned and started working in Fosters firm as slave.

With Abdul Rahmans hard work, Foster quickly became one of the wealthiest men in Mississippi. In the mean time, Foster brought another woman slave named Isabella who became Abdul Rahman’s wife later and together they had nine children. Twenty years later, at a crossroads market Abdul Rahman met Dr. John Cox whose life had been saved by Abdul Rahman’s father many years ago in Africa. Coxoffered to buy Abdul-Rahman from Foster, but he refused. Two decades later Cox’s son William with the help of local newspaper editor Andrew Marschalk wrote articles about Abdul-Rahman’s cause.

Articles caught the attention of then Secretary of State Henry Clay, who convinced President John Quincy Adams to free Abdul-Rahman. Abdul Rahman set out on a quest to raise enough money to purchase his familys freedom and immediately purchased the freedom of his wife for $200. Later he succeeded in raising only enough money for two of his children and their families. He forced to leave America witout his children. In 1829, he returned to Africa.

In Africa he continued to press for his children’s freedom, but died only four months after his return. He never went back to his kingdom in Futa Jallon.

Prince Among Slaves based on true story which tell us that Muslims first started coming in America by those African slaves. Today our Muslim position in America is the sacrifice of African Muslims. TED Talks review analysis By Justinzzz TED Analysts The TED presentation that I viewed was, Jason Pontin’s: Can technology solve our big problems? Jason Pontin is currently the editor-in-chief and publisher of MIT Technology Review, and routinely investigates to find out what technologies currently in our world are going to “get us there.

” Pontin has been editor-in-chief of the MIT Technology Review since 2004 and publisher since 2005.

After 2005 Pontin begin a transition to digital-first magazines and reduced the number of annual print issues rom eleven to six, also refocusing the energy toward original daily content. From 1996 to 2002, Pontin was the editor of the Red Herring magazine. Pontin believes that we are not currently utilizing our current technology to solve these “big problems” and instead are using technology to enrich and expand our personal lives. Pontin’s perception on technology and our advancement of mankind is very interesting and raises a big question and awareness as to where we are going as a society.

To begin the presentation, Pontin starts off by discussing the 1969 expedition to the moon and the background of the mission. He states that it cost a total of 180 billion dollars of federal money that as 4% of the entire federal budget at the time. There was over 400,000 people employed and 20,000 different organizations that were part of the Apollo mission. A total of 24 people flew on Apollo and some people died. Pontin then explains how this was all a collective effort from everyone involved and ended up being the biggest technological advancement of our time.

Pontin asks, why did we go? Many would say because Kennedy wanted to, to beat the Soviets in the race for space during the Cold War. But he says that all of this is not true, that we as a nation anted to go simply because it was a big thing to do. It created lots of excitement and hope in the nation and opened a lot of people’s eyes to where we could go and what we could do with the advancements in our technology. Pontin listed some other advancement in technology starting off with the assembly line in 1901 and how it vastly changes the game in manufacturing.

The next advancement was airplanes, in the year of 1903, which now allowed us to travel and cover much more ground than ever before. After, were vaccines for tuberculosis in 1921, and then penicillin in 1928, both contributed to saving and helping a lot of people’s lives.

It is these advancements in our technology that have helped changed and shaped our lives to how things are today. Since the Apollo mission, Pontin states that there haven’t been any of these big game changers in solving big problems in our world.

Pontin talks about how Apollo was able to travel at 25,000 miles per hour while not so long before that, we could barely maximize our speed by ships or horses. Since 1970, no one else has traveled faster than the crew of Apollo 10 and not a single person has been back to the moon. After the accomplishment of getting to the moon, many figured in Just a hort time we would be colonizing Mars.

Pontin said that when he saw these advancements in our technology he thought for sure, in his lifetime, he would see us on Mars, but thus far we have not even tried to attempt it.

Pontin asks the question why? What happened since then that no one has tried to attempt any of these big really gone with clean energy? Pontin said “we were promised Mars at the time but now we have Facebook. ” ‘phones, social media, and apps have without a doubt enriched and enhanced our lives as individuals but have not solved any big problems in humanity. What happened? Well according to the Silicon Valley, the markets are to blame, the way that venture capitalists offer to entrepreneurs now; funding incremental or fake problems over transformational ideas.

Pontin believes this explanation is not good enough and that people like to look for small investments that offer an easy exit in 10 years.

Venture capitalists have never funded transformational technologies like alternative energy to solve the big problems that exist in our lives today. To answer the questions as to why we have not tried to solve any big problems, Pontin believes the answer is simple and that we Just choose not to olve big problems. Pontin said that we could go to Mars right now if we wanted to, and that NASA already has a completed plan in place with the technology to get there.

The reason we choose not to go is because of popular appeal and political reasons. We still only have less than 2% of alternative energy sources right now because other forms like coal are much cheaper to use. It is because of this and also being easier that there hasn’t been much change.

Pontin believes that there is no hope in current political climate and states that Nixon had declared war on cancer in 1971 and to this day we have still not fixed it. Because we have not been willing to take risks and always seem to resort back to the simpler, less risky solutions to problems that they have yet to be fixed.

We are in desperate need for a large scale project like the Apollo mission to bring together the latest technology and organizations we have today to get to our next milestone moving forward. We need that sense of hope and excitement that was of abundance during the race to space, creating more Jobs and expanding our possibilities. Pontin thinks we are long overdue for this kind of advancement and believes we should start colonizing mars nd funding programs like this to continue the advancement of technology and do new and exciting things with it.

By starting such a project like going to Mars could boost a lot of confidence in the eyes of the people that we are taking that next big step. New industries would start up in the effort to get to Mars, giving new Jobs to many, getting together the brightest minds that exist in our lives today, to accomplish something big together. Pontin believes that it is possible, and that we can solve these big problems through technology but only if these four factors exist. The first eing, our current political leaders and the general public must all care to solve the problem.

After everyone cares enough to solve the problem it is essential that institutions must all support its solution. Next being that the problem must truly be a technology problem.

The last is that all of us must understand the problem. If one of any of these factors is not present then we cannot and will not solve these big problems. The Apollo mission met all of the criteria listed above and was the sole reason why we were able to get to the moon. Today, there is no competition that xists like the Cold War and no president in office like Kennedy.

Without the competition and a leader to bring everyone together, it makes it hard for people to get motivated and take on these challenges. Going to the moon was really not that difficult to accomplish for us and didn’t even necessarily solve a problem but Pontin points and ideas and think that our technological advances have really changed to technological improvements.

Whether it is Facebook, smart phones, or apps, that have all changed and shaped our technology today, it hasn’t really reached that life changing step.

All of the current technological advancement has contributed more to advancements in communication than advancements in mankind. I do believe that there should at least be more discussion and collaboration for projects like going to Mars, to motivate and bring together bright minds and ideas. This kind of technological advancements may not appear to worth it in the short term but its value to the people in the long-run would be very significant and life changing. Not only would it be life changing in the area of technology but also in the confidence of the people as a whole and their togetherness.

When you accomplish an enormous challenge it boosts morale and opens people’s minds outside of their ordinary life to be more innovative. I was not alive to experience the Apollo mission, and could only imagine how life was during that time. With everyone feeling like we were taking that next step in our lives and how the people viewed the future would be during that point in time. With the encouragement and incentives to solve the big problems and challenges that we face in our world, could spark light into the willingness and dedication in the people, to make them happen.