Top 5 gangster movies

Gangster movies are a genre so popular among movies, and many of the greatest directors have produced movies that would fall in that category. I tried to put together a list of the best gangster movies I have ever watched, and here is what I came up with:

5- Pulp fiction: one of the best movies Quentin Tarantino ever made.

Favorite scene: Vincent and Jules, two gangsters roaming the city to find their boss’s bag end up killing a bunch of guys in their apartment because they didn’t deliver the package on time.

4- Scarface: A Cuban immigrant moves up in the crime world and ends up having his own cocaine empire.

Favorite Scene: In the restaurant, Tony Montana gets drunk then angry and starts swearing at the people in the restaurant and gives a –one of a kind- speech.

3- Heat: A professional robber and his gang are being chased by cop and his team.

Favorite Scene: Neil McCauley (Robert de Niro) and Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) face each other at the restaurant and have a conversation about their lives.

2- Good fellas: Exploring New York’s Italian Mafia scene through the eyes of Henry Hill, a wise guy.

Favorite Scene: Tommy Devito( Joe Pesci) along with Jimmy Conway (Robert De niro) beat a guy to death in Henry’s bar because he Insulted Tommy.



1-The Godfather: The tale of an Italian Mafia family that controlled a big Part of New York.

Favorite Scene: Michael Corleone is the Boss of the Family after eliminating all his rivals, and Corleone family members are kissing his hand, as a sign of respect to the new boss.

The Battle of Yarmouk (Podcast)

Script:

In this pod cast I’m going to talk about one of history’s most influential battles, the battle of yarmouk.

Yarmouk was a decisive battle between the arab muslim army and the Byzantine empire. It was fought in August 636 and included a series of engagements that lasted for six days. The battle took place near the Yarmouk river, which is today the border area between Syria and Jordan. It is an example in history where an inferior force defeats a superior force by the use of intelligent, well organized military tactics.

After prophet Muhammed’s death (prayers and peace be upon him) Abu bakr, the muslim caliph started the first Islamic conquests after suppressing the Arabian revolting tribes in the redda wars. Abu Bakr deployed an army to start moving north towards Iraq and Syria acquiring new land for the caliphate. After successfully conquering Iraq, the richest province of the Persian Empire at the time, Abu bakr ordered his troops to move into Syria.

Khalid Ibn al walid was the army commander appointed by Abu bakr to fight the Byzantines in Syria. After a few battles won by the Muslim army in Syria, they conquered Damascus and Palestine. The Byzantine Empire then ruled by Heraclius, prepared an army to reacquire the lost regions. By May 636, they had a large force concentrated at Antioch in northern Syria. Vahan was the overall commander of the army that was divided to 5 units, each with its own leader.

The Arab Muslim force was positioned in four areas, Palestine, Jordan, Damascus, and Emesa. The plan Heraclius meant to apply was to divide his forces and defeat each of the four Muslim armies alone, depriving them of the chance to unite their forces. The Muslims discovered their plan, and Khaled advised his fellow commanders to pull their troops back from Palestine and Syria and to concentrate them in Dar’a, near the Yarmouk plain. As a result, the Byzantine armies had to gather forming one army that faced the Muslims.

After a series of long to medium rage maneuvers, Heraclius Decided to attack the Muslim Army. The battlefield was 65 kilometers south-west of the Golan Heights, and the two armies fought on the Yarmouk plain. Negotiations between the two sides delayed battle for about a month; Meanwhile, Umar then the Muslim Caliph sent reinforcements of about 6000 men to Khalid. Vahan alerted by the growing strength of the Muslim army decided to attack on 15th of August 636.

Estimates of the size of the two armies vary; estimates for the Byzantine forces are between 80,000 and 120,000. Estimates for the Muslim army are between 25000 and 40,000.

The battle lasted for 6 days. In the first day, champions from both sides engaged in fights and many of the Byzantine commanders were killed, destroying the army’s morale. Vahan ordered a limited attack to test out the strength of the Muslim army and exploit any weak points. The fighting wasn’t fierce and both armies broke contact at sunset.
In the second day, Vahan ordered an attack just before dawn as the muslims were unprepared and praying. His armies pushed at the centre of Muslim army and pressed at the wings. The Muslim army was pushed back, but Khalid used his light cavalry unit to support the weak right flank. In day 3 of the battle, Vahan ordered his troops to press upon the Muslim right flank and deployed his cavalry units around the Muslims right side. The light cavalry unit lead by Khalid struck the Byzantine left flank and saved the Muslim right flank.

The battle continued for two more days and on day six, Khaled implemented an intelligent attack plan. He gathered all his cavalry and pressed hard on the left flank of the Byzantine army, while the Muslim infantry pushed forward at the centre. This strategy separated the Byzantine left flank infantry from the cavalry units. The Cavalry units of the Byzantine army soon routed and their left flank was completely exposed. General Byzantine retreat started after the left flank was destroyed. Khalid then deployed his cavalry around the Byzantine army to eliminate their chances of escaping the battlefield. After this Muslim victory, the Byzantine Empire abandoned Syria and Muslim forces established control over the rest of the Syrian land.

Project #2: Narrative / Nat Sound

Along the day we hear many sounds, those sounds put together are a big portion of our day. Here are some of them:



1- Islamic Call to the prayer at dawn.
2- Students talking and preparing before class starts
3- Sound of the traffic in the street.
4- Construction workers cutting material on campus.
5- Sound of a bus’s engine in a stop.

Listening journal - "Too Poor to Marry"

Feature title:: Too Poor to Marry
Producer: World Vision Report
Length: 4:51
Link: http://www.worldvisionreport.org/Find-Stories/Week-of-February-13-2010/Too-Poor-to-Marry



This feature addresses the issue of poverty in Middle Eastern countries especially Egypt and how that affects marriage rates and the social life of Egyptians. The piece includes statements used from an interview with Tayeb Mohamed, an Egyptian man who can’t afford to get married. Other statement is included by Mohsen Salah, who also can’t afford to buy a house although he makes good money as houses are very expensive. The feature includes also the opinion of Madeha Al Safty, anthropology professor at the American university in Cairo and her perspective on the issue.

This feature was very interesting because it presented real people going through the problem and describing how it is. That validated the story and made it credible.
The quality of sound is good and the announcer’s voice was okay although a bit cheerful for a story about poverty.

The quality of sound was great. Also, The English translation by the reporter over the Arabic talk left space for Arabic speakers to understand what is being said.

Nat sound was well utilized. A picture of the place was drawn in my head as the Nat sound started: An Egyptian café where many men are smoking water pipes to blow off some steam, while playing dominos and cards to pass the time, leaving aside their problems.


The length of the feature was just right; the quotes were in place and enriched the piece.

Generally, this feature was interesting, and accurately descriptive of many angles of the problem. The sound quality was good, and Daniel Estrin, the reporter kept a moderate pace without being monotonous or boring.

Listening journal - Author overcomes fears In ‘Bag Lady Papers’

Feature title: Title: Author overcomes fears In ‘Bag Lady Papers’
Producer: NPR
Length: 7:18
Link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123749919



This feature is about the book called “The bag lady papers” written by Journalist and author Alexandra Penney about her experience of loosing all her savings in the Bernard Madoff scam. Roger Rosenblatt made the story vivid and closer to audience by exploring Penney’s emotions and fears when she lost her money.

The feature was composed of an interview with Penney after a brief introduction to the story. The introduction included a description by Penney of how she first knew about her loss. Her voice as she told what happened set the right tone for the piece, because with every word, she was sharing some of her true fears. Statements from her book were used by the reporter when asking questions. This was extremely helpful as it reminded the author of her experience and made her re-live the past; it also made her tell story sound real.

The feature revealed the different angles of the story by using Penney’s narration. For example, Rosenblatt made Penney read a part of her book where she said describing her fears “You are going to loose your edge I think, you will be walking around with swollen ankles, you will be holding around you moth eaten layers of old clothes together with rusted safety pins, your hair will be gray, yellow and dirty and stringy, and you will be cold and lonely and alone.”


There were no nat sounds and there was no need to include any. The quality of sound was great and the delivery was interesting throughout the piece.

The length was fine, but the information included wasn’t enough especially towards the ending. The story lacked a satisfactory wrap. Although the feature wasn’t supposed to summarize the whole experience, it could have had a better structure, and a better ending.

Generally, the piece was very inspiring and interesting, the reporter referred to the book constantly and that made the piece compelling and vivid.

Audio Essay 1

I believe in helping others. I believed in my ability to positively influence my community through good will and action ever since I met Mohamed.

Mohamed is an 11 year old kid living in one of Egypt’s many slums. He lives with his 12 family members in a tiny apartment, with no water, no heat and not even a solid roof above their head. He had to go to work to help support his family at an early age since his father is physically disabled and there isn’t enough money. He never had the chance to go to school, or play around innocently like other kids do; after work he spends his time in the street with other kids sniffing glue to forget about the fact that he has no home to go back to.
He sleeps in the street and goes home every 3 or 4 days; his mother beats him up every time he comes back, not because she is worried about him, But because he didn’t bring back the money he was supposed to give them. “I’m looking forward to the day god takes my life” Mohamed replied when I asked him about the things he looks forward to in the future. At that point I knew that I wouldn’t be able to live one more day without giving all I can to help Mohamed, his family and the thousands of others who really need some one there for them.

I believe that creating hope for the hopeless validates our existence and makes our time on this planet worthwhile.

All this took place about 3 years ago. Mohamed now is doing well in school; I teach him English and help him study for his exams. He wants to finish school and go to college to be a lawyer.

I never though one day I would judge my self based on how much of a help I am to others. But now, I could never imagine my life without helping other people around me and making their life better. Being there for people who need our help is the best way to positively change our communities and make the world a better place, This I believe.

Egypt: African cup holders

It was extremely thrilling when Egypt won the African cup of nations 2010 and I felt good to have such a fit national team but a lot of questions popped into my head; are we as a society engaging in a act of displacement? Are we directing all our emotions of love, pride, hate and anger towards football because we can’t do anything about the fact that we‘ve had the same president for almost 30 years?

It’s such a good feeling to sense superiority over the rest of the continent in that field, football, but with high unemployment rates, a declining economy, a corrupted political party ruling the country and tons of other major Egyptian problems; how come a football team gets all that attention?
Is this an unconscious defense mechanism put to work whenever our team gets into a big tournament because we can’t provide good education in our schools?

It sure takes a whole lot of work and involves major risks to try to change a corrupted political system, or improve the quality of education or even clean our streets, all acts that would display true patriotism and love for this country; however all you need is a flag and a satellite connected TV set, if even that to cheer for the Egyptian national team. There is a fine line between patriotism and total stupidity and in this case, it is really showing.