Letter to BBC

BBC Complaints,
PO Box 1922
Glasgow
G2 3WT

To Whom It Concern:

As an American, I read your internet news now and then just to be updated about activities around the world. I read a story of the Berlin Wall artwork that is supposed to be re-furbished around the next few months. Unfortunately, there was only a few sentences explaining what was going on when I think something so big deserves a little more acclaim. It is implausible to think that something so big goes so unnoticed for a world news company.

Even though the Berlin Wall fell almost twenty years ago, does not mean it no longer effects. I just think there should be more hype and news surrounding the repainting of the Wall Artworks that have been degenerating over the years. This is a big deal and I think you should cover more of what is happening in Germany. I hope to read more about what is going on in Berlin within the next few months on your BBC News website.


Sincerely




David
High school Student

Graphing it Out

I deciphered a graph showing the relaionship between the year and the amount of nuclear weapons the U.S. and U.S.S.R. produced from the year 1945 and 2002. Obviously the Soviet Union didn't exist by 2000 so this graph shows how the amount of nuclear weapons decreased when the U.S.S.R. turned into Russia. This graph tells so much about the harsh times our world was in. As the Cold War went on, nuclear weapons increased dramaticly right after World War II until the mid 1960s right after the Cuban Missle Crisis occured. After the 60s the amount of nuclear weapons decreased slowly until 2002 and now Russia only contains a nominal amount of weapons for communism is out of the way. In this graph, you can really tell how fear was a large part in both countries, one country would go up with their amount in nuclear weapons, and the other country would follow. This is very valid information because it is the data that has been collected over decades and put into one report. This graph can help people understand how serious the Cold War was because even though there really wasn't too much fighting, there was a lot of threats and buildup of very serious weapons.
We can learn a lot from graphs like these because they tell us so much about our history and the way our governments acted out. We can fix our mistakes and act differently if something like this ever happens again.

NRDC's Nuclear Program,"Figure of US and USSR/Russian Nuclear Stockpile, 1945-2002",
11.22.02, <http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/nudb/datainx.asp>

Berlin Wall Artwork

The city of Berlin is constituting the rebirth of the Berlin Wall's most cherished artwork. After half of the wall was taken down in 1989, artists from around the world were commissioned to place events and stories of what had happened while the wall was up.
Now, in 2008, these artworks are very hard to make out from all of the vandalism and weather which have been destroying the works for the last 19 years. This article explains how the city is repainting and restoring these artworks in order to keep their history alive. I think this is a great idea, because if they didn't preserve these works, a predominant piece of German and socialist history may be lost forever. It's also important that we keep our history because we learn from it and will remind us what communism caused. These artworks are supposed to be redone by 2009 in the double decade anniversary of the wall falling. They hope to get the same artists who painted the originals to repaint the old ones unless if they are passed away or unable to contact. This restoration is great idea once it's complete because it will also show the youth of their history and roots.

BBC News, 10/20/2009,