Final Revision

Throughout the second semester, Public Speaking has really helped me develop my writing skills in was I thought unimaginable. Now, whenever I see someone deliver a speech, I am focused on everything that we covered in the class, such as the speaker's posture, dictation, and enunciation; this change in my mind truly shows me how much this class has done for me. I am now much more well spoken, making sure to pronounce my words and pace my sentences, helping me to make a better speaker and presenter. The debates we did in class really helped my argument skills, as well as realizing the power that the implementation of logos, pathos, and ethos in my script, as well as speeches. In the first class, I was very nervous and doubtful of how the class would go, however now I can look back and say that this made me a better student and a class I don't regret taking with confidence. Although sometimes the class was not very active, I think we all made major improvements in the long run, as everyone's speeches and speaking has improved since our first assignment. When I signed up for the class, I honestly thought it was going to be easygoing, however I quickly found out that I was wrong. As I spent more time in class, I realized that this class was a challenge, so I began to dedicate myself to it; something which has clearly paid off in the end. This was one of my most enjoyable classes of the year, and for that I thank you Ms. Guarino.

Final Speech Video

https://youtu.be/jYXnWs4XktE

Final Revised Draft

     "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right." This sentence was spoken by the so called liberator of South America, Simón Bolivar, who liberated Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. For 206 years of sovereignty, the Venezuelan people have always looked to Bolivar as a symbol of patriotism and unity. Yet some cruel minds resorted to him as a method of manipulation and brainwashing. The socialist leaders of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) used our liberator as propaganda and as justification for its blatant abuse of our constitution. Basing the country's 5th republic on their socialist agenda, and stating that socialism is what Bolivar would have wanted and that the people must unite through patriotism, that there will always be love for the mother land.

  The manipulation not only worked, it worked brilliantly. Throughout 15 years, corruption and the mismanagement of funds flourished. The government decided that it was a good idea to make its most profitable export, oil, its only one. This decision came back to haunt them in throughout the past 9 years, where oil prices have been on a steady decline. Because of the drop, money began to spiral out of the Federal Reserve, as the corrupt spending continued, but the earnings diminished.

This led to no money, which in turn led to food shortages, so much so that people have to wait in line day and night to do their grocery shopping, which they can only do once a week. The average food basket costs the same as 17 minimum wages, so many of those who wait cannot afford what they so desperately need. People have to revert to the black market to buy things as simple as toilet paper, diapers and eggs, for 10 times the price. The currency, ironically called the Bolivar, is now carried in backpacks and suitcases rather than wallets, as a single unit is worth less than a penny.

  On December of 2015, the opposition finally saw a glimpse of hope seep through the cracks, when they won the majority vote of representatives in the National Assembly, their first major political victory in 16 years. The momentum began to build up, however the government saw the threat that this posed to their regime, so the president Nicolás Maduro demolished democracy in Venezuela by making each of the three branches of government independent. So again, "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right."

  Ever since conditions worsened, protests have been a regular occurrence in the capital city of Caracas, and unfortunately the police brutality and abuse of rights came as well. After Maduro disassembled the governmental structure, unrest began to surge like a wildfire.

  207 years ago, on April 19th, 1810, the patriotic revolutionaries of a Spanish colony decided to take the first step in becoming an independent nation; this date has been celebrated as a national holiday for hundreds of years.

  Because of the importance of the date, and the Venezuelan government's recent actions, the opposition showed up in massive numbers to show their discontent on a demonstration on April 19th, 2017. However, the government did not take kindly to these peaceful protests and met the protesters with crowd control weapons such as tear gas and rubber bullets.

   Everyday, I receive new on how my friends and family are too scared to leave for school or work because protesters are getting killed on the streets. This Tuesday, a 31 year old man named Diego Arellano was shot in the chest while protesting, and died hours later in a hospital. These murders committed by the National Guard have to be stopped and other nations need to intervene, and not allow the Venezuelan government to continue to abuse the people and their constitution with no repercussions. The government calls the opposition violent terrorists who are bringing chaos to the country, but as their idol once said: "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right." The opposition is fighting for the end of an 18 year long oppression and have been made to watch our beautiful country fall from grace and burn just because the leaders wanted bigger pockets.

Final Speech Draft

     "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right." This sentence was spoken by the so called liberator of South America, Simón Bolivar, who liberated Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. For the 206 years of sovereignty, the Venezuelan people have always looked to Bolivar as a symbol of patriotism and unity. Yet some cruel minds resorted to him as a method of manipulation and brainwashing. The socialist leaders of the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) used our liberator as propaganda and as justification for its blatant abuse of rights. Basing the country's 5th republic on their socialist agenda, and stating that socialism is what bolivar would have wanted and that the people must unite through patriotism, that there will always be love for the mother land.

  The manipulation not only worked, it worked brilliantly. Throughout 15 years, corruption and mismanagement of funds and resources flourished. The government decided that it was a good idea to make its most profitable export, oil, its only one. This decision came back to haunt them in throughout the past 3 years, where oil prices have been on a steady decline. Because of the drop, money began to spiral out of the Federal Reserve, as the ludicrous corrupt spending continued, but the earnings diminished. No money led to food shortages, so much so that people have to wait in lines day and night to do their grocery shopping, and they can only go to the supermarket once a week. People have to revert to the black market to buy things as simple as toilet paper and eggs, for 5 times the price. The currency, called the Bolivar, is now carried in backpacks and suitcases rather than wallets, as a single unit is worth less than a penny.

  On December of 2015, the opposition finally saw a glimpse of hope seep through the cracks, when they won the majority vote of representatives in the National Assembly. The momentum began to build up, however the government saw the threat that this posed to their regime, so the president Nicolás Maduro demolished democracy in Venezuela by making each of the three branches of government independent. So again, "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right."

  Ever since conditions worsened, protests have been a regular occurrence in the capital city of Caracas, and unfortunately the police brutality and abuse of rights came as well. After Maduro disassembled the governmental structure, unrest began to surge like a wildfire.

207 years ago, on April 19th, 1810, the patriotic revolutionaries of a Spanish colony decided to take the first step in becoming an independent nation; this date has been celebrated as a national holiday for hundreds of years. Because of the importance of the date, and the Venezuelan government's recent actions, the opposition showed up in massive numbers to show their discontent on a demonstration on April 19th, 2017. However, the government did not take kindly to these peaceful protests and met the protesters with crowd control weapons such as tear gas and rubber bullets. Everyday, I receive new on how my friends and family are too scared to leave for school or work because college students are getting killed on the streets. This Wednesday, a 17 year old boy named Armando Cañizales was shot in the neck and bled out while protesting on an city street. This blatant abuse of human rights has to be stopped and other nations need to intervene, and not allow the Venezuelan government to continue to abuse the people with no repercussions. The government calls the opposition violent terrorists, but as their idol once said: "When tyranny becomes law, rebellion is a right."

Final Speech Sources

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-venezuelan-government-is-beginning-to-lose-the-poor-its-longtime-base/2017/04/28/c562cb86-2b5d-11e7-9081-f5405f56d3e4_story.html?utm_term=.154cae077261

http://time.com/venezuela-brink/?iid=sr-link1

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21721407-president-tries-come-across-cuddly-it-isnt-working-declining-quality?zid=305&ah=417bd5664dc76da5d98af4f7a640fd8a

http://time.com/4719076/ecuador-venezuela-latin-america-left-wing/?iid=sr-link3

http://time.com/4757061/venezuela-organization-american-states-protests/?iid=sr-link6

Final Speech Proposal

The topic for my final speech in the class will be the recent violent protests that have been taking place in Caracas, Venezuela since April 19, 2017. The reason behind the topic is that is is something that I hold very dear and has a large impact on my daily life, and being the only Venezuelan student attending this school, I feel like it is my responsibility to let others here at Cheshire Academy know about my country's struggles. Another factor that made me choose the topic is that there are not many people who are fully aware of what is going on in Venezuela, especially with all the other world problems that have been taking place out of late. Protests have been a regular occurrence in the capital city of Caracas, but the demonstrations that took place on April 19th, 2017 took a turn for the worst. On April 19th, 1810, the patriotic revolutionaries of a Spanish colony decided to take the first step in becoming an independent nation; this date has been celebrated as a national holiday for hundreds of years. Because of the importance of the date, and the Venezuelan government's recent actions, the opposition showed up in massive numbers to show their discontent. However, the government did not take kindly to these peaceful protests and met the protesters with crowd control weapons such as tear gas and rubber bullets. This abuse of human rights has to be stopped and other nations need to intervene, which is why I am trying to spread the word on the horrible acts that the Venezuelan government commit on a daily basis with no repercussions

Debate Unit Reflection

The past few weeks we have been focusing on the Debate Unit in Public Speaking class. Over these weeks, we did many debates and discussed over which techniques are more effective and useful in debates. Personally, I have always been interested in debates, I enjoy discussing a topic with peers and reaching a conclusion to see which point of view is the correct one. Throughout my freshman year, I had various debates in my English class and I also participated in 2 Model United Nations, so it is safe to say that I has already had some practice and context in debates. However, this class really helped me improve my skill because of the way how we were required to implement logo, pathos and ethos into our arguments, rather than just say whatever comes to mind. In the two main debates that we had in class, I was on the winning team, however the margin of which the team won by differed. The first debate was a much closer decision, as everyone in the class was still wrapping their heads around the debate and the topic. Although in the second debate my team had a much more organized and planned course of action, which I think is what allowed us to come out winning in the end. In the first debate, I did not include much logos or pathos, so my arguments were somewhat weaker and were easy to rebuttal, however in the second debate, I focused much more on the strength and credibility of my arguments in order to strongly get the team’s point across. The final day on the topic was spent doing mini debates, where we would pick a topic and discuss it 1 on 1 without any proper research. This activity was very fun and helpful as it taught me to be quick on my feet while arguing, and how you don’t really need to know everything about the topic you are discussing in order to come out on top.