Tuesday, October 03, 2006



Well y'all, I'm back. I had a very surreal experience flying dowwn to California for a meeting with a client and getting back Sunday night after ten o'clock and getting prepared to be able to lecture for two hours beginning at 8 AM the next morning. Time whizzed by and here I am. I have written extensively about what went down in Cal, because there were some mind bending events, but I think I'm going to publish that at another time. I need to digest it and edit it before letting all that out. But, in the meantime, I hope you will find this challenging!

Tom’s Challenge #3

There’s not much to say by way of introduction this time, so I guess I’ll just dive right in.

A country had just won its independence after a long fought battle. In their victory, they wrote a declaration of Independence that began, “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the aftermath of the war, the leader of the country wrote 8 letters to the leader of another country seeking help. Below is an excerpt of one of those letters, with key words, dates and identities edited so as not to give away information that might make this too easy:

“I wish to invite (the ) attention of your Excellency for strictly humanitarian reasons to (the) following matter. Two million (of our people) died of starvation during the Winter of (year) and spring of (following year) because of (the) starvation policy of (the enemy) who seized and stored until it rotted all available (crop)… three-fourths of (our) cultivated land was flooded in the summer of (year), which was followed by a severe drought; of (our) normal harvest five-sixths was lost….Many people are starving… Unless great world powers and international relief organizations bring us immediate assistance we face imminent catastrophe…”

Here are the questions:

1) Who wrote the above letter (and the other 8 letters) and what country was he/she the leader of?
2) To whom did he/she write the letters?
3) What was the response to the letters?
Bonus question: What year did the country in question gain its independence and write the Declaration of Independence referenced above?

This one may be more difficult than the previous ones, but if no one is getting it, I will begin to give out hints, so hang in there and check back if you are at a loss.

Thanks for playing.

8 Comments:

At 9:42 PM , Blogger Charlene Amsden said...

Wheeee!

Oh, and welcome home, Tom!

 
At 11:42 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Tom, Ho Chi Minh wrote to Pres. Truman, repeatedly between Oct of 1945 and Feb of 1946 to no avail. Pres. Truman NEVER replied.
The phrase you mentioned was used by Ho Chi Minh to write their constitution, it was borrowed from the U.S.A.
In 1954 the French left Veit Nam and Ho Chi Minh to form their own northern counrty government which they voted on and finalized in 1956. (I had never read that particular article before although I had read about the majority of its contents over the years. Always food for thought and reflection.)
Love ya, AC

 
At 6:13 AM , Blogger Bazza said...

auntie caryl has kind of buggered it up I think! (excuse my french, as they say). In the hope that I might get 2nd place again my answers are:-
1. Ho Chi Minh wrote the letter, he was leader of Vietnam.
2. He wrote the letters to President Truman.
3. The letters were ignored
Bonus. Independence was declared in 1945 and recognised in 1954.

 
At 7:07 AM , Blogger Just Tom said...

Yeah, sorry guys. I forgot to post the rules of engagement this time and this is the first time my dear Auntie Caryl has played the game.

The answers are supposed to be e-mailed to me so that I can collect them all up and announce the winners (we usually have first through third with honorable mentions).

But, I didn't post those rules.

Anyway, since she didn't know I will let it slide and I will accept Bazza's anwers as well. We already had number one and number two submitted and so I will give Auntie Caryl and Bazza equal rights on third place. I'll make an official announcement later today and we can begin our usual, enlightening discussion that follows the challenge. See you then! Cheers, Tom

 
At 7:58 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the light of day I would redo some of my answer, Tom. So this 1st entry was a learning experience for me and I will gladly accept rejection and pay much more attention to detail on the next entry. Love ya, AC

 
At 12:39 PM , Blogger Charlene Amsden said...

Caryl, I told Tom to disqualify me because I was family -- he said if he did that he'd lose most of his audience. He's right, you know. In this particular case, 3 out of 4.

 
At 3:18 PM , Blogger Jackie's Garden said...

Tom, so glad you are back. But you have to make these a little harder. I didn't play this a.m. when I saw what Caryl did (for God's sake, woman, I TOLD you to read ALL the blogs!) but it was tooooooo easy. I 'googled' the last quoted sentence - and it pulled up excellent reference that had all the answers! LOL

 
At 4:02 PM , Blogger Nessa said...

Well, I hesitated because I was tired when I first read the challegne, which I guess is good cause I didn't know all of the rules either. Will play next time.

This was interesting none the less. Imagine learning history in my dodage.

 

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