The Final Blog...

The one thing that surprised me in this class is how open everybody was to expressing their opinion. Many times people are not willing to put themselves out there. Class discussions there just consist of the teacher asking a question and the dead silence answering back. But people in this class were willing to share their opinions which were refreshing. I liked hear what different people thought even if i didn't agree with it. The presentation that really surprised me was the presentation of health care and actually the numbers involved. I knew that are health care system wasn't working but it hits you harder when you actually see the figures.
The different types of negative peace made me think. There are so many. You can find negative peace almost anywhere. It is such a big thing and many times people just think of it as part of the society we live. They don't consider what is actually happening to the people that the negative peace is impacting.
I think that peace is an almost impossible thing to accomplish. In order to get peace we are going to have to eliminate everything that makes us different. If that is every done then there is no point in living. The great thing about being human is that we are so different with different opinions and experiences. It would be like painting with only one color. Sure you could paint a picture but the picture will not have its own personality. You would have a hard time telling one picture from another. I would rather have people be unique than have an ultimate everlasting peace. My hope is that eventually everybody will get along despite their difference.

A Silent Problem

I started thinking about how people within the United States are missing out on an education. Most of the time people think that everybody in the US has access to an education. This is all true. The Appalachian Mountains is one of the poorest places in the US. The people who live are descendents of miners. As the mines are being shut down it is leaving them without any income. The schools then suffer too. Without families bringing money into the house the children are less likely to go to school since they will have to work to support the family. The most abundant jobs available in the mountains are in the mines but when the mines shut down there are no more jobs. It is a cycle that does not end.
Almost every person there does not know who to read or write. This made working in the mines easy. When working in the mine they did not have to know how to read and write. They learned how to mine from their fathers and their fathers pasted it down to them.
Since the people of the Appalachians do not have the tools to get an education it prevents them from getting higher paying jobs. Once they got higher paying jobs it would allow them to get better health care. The health care for people there is minimal. Most of them have to wait for an annual health fair to get basic medical treatment. Even then some of the people do not receive treatment due to the high demand for help.
The Appalachians are the most forgotten area within the US. When you think of the poorest areas in the States Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia do not come to mind. More people need to start becoming aware of the problem in the Appalachians. One way to help this problem is by supplying books and teachers to the little villages in the mountains. The more awareness people have the more help the Appalachian citizens will receive.

Shangri-la

I was reading through National Geographic magazine the other day when I read an article about Shangri-la. The article was about how this religious site is being affected my business and the progression of land development. Over the past decade this route has been transformed from just a humble dirt path to a tourist attraction.
Every year thousands of faithful Buddhist followers make the journey that usually takes around two weeks to climb a pass between Yunnan and Tibet. Along the way the pilgrim’s can place prayer flags which already cover the area. The airport road now has bill boards that promote cars and luxury travel. The increase tourism has helped many of the local people. Now there are more people to buy their products. Normally there would just be pilgrim’s that are going for religious reasons to Shangri-la but tourists are willing to spend money on products the local people are selling.
The lands that are fertile croplands are being threatened by the local government. The government proposed to build 13 dams in 2003 it has been reduced to 4. The dams would flood the fertile croplands which are few and far between. The dams would also flood the thermal pools which are public baths used by people to celebrate the coming of spring. Most of them are now being used by tourist resorts.
On the opposite side it has allowed for the people of Shangri-la to have better villages and more stable income. The people of the villages can now go to school and skills to help them find better jobs. These advances in the area have allowed for the people there to have dreams of a better life. Many of them now can go to the malls and shop where as before they could only shop in their local market.
With all of the new changes in Shangri-la there are both positive and negative ones. As the people around have more access to better homes and medical supplies their own traditions are being absorbed by the new culture entering the area. Only time will tell how much of their culture truly gets lost with the new advancements.
Jenkins, Mark.“Searching for Shangri-la”. National Geographic. May 2008.

The Earth and You

Earth Day was last Wednesday. In past years it hasn’t seemed as big as it was this year. That could possible be because I was helping out at Earth Day on campus but every where I looked there were Earth Day ads. Almost every channel had their own campaigns to go green for the day. Nickelodeon advertised that for one minute every kid would turn off all of the electronics and lights in their house to show how much kids can affect the earth.
I thought all of these campaigns were a great idea. Earth Day reminds us that we are apart of something bigger then just humanity and that we need to take care of everything around us. But I started wondering if the effects of Earth Day would only last 24 hours. The things people did to help the Earth should be done every day not just for one. Most of the time they are only little things that can be done such as recycling everything you can, turning off the lights when you leave the room and changing the light bulbs so they don’t require as much electricity, cutting down your shower time be a minute or two. All of these things will help and they don’t require that you drastically change your life.
Also there are more things to learn about when it comes to the environment. There are things that we do that we wouldn’t think is actually hurting the environment. One of those things is light pollution. Light pollution is any adverse effects that come from artificial lights. An example of this is in a big city when you look up into the sky at night you can’t see the stars. Other forms of light pollution are lights that shine into someone’s window or property. At my house we have a light that is right above the back door it is supposed to according to my dad protect us against crime. It is really bright and a lot of the light shines onto our fence and into the neighbors yard. I’m working to fix our light pollution problem. You can fix light pollution by getting shields for your lights so they reflect down in a certain area and spreading out your lights so they aren’t in a concentrated area.
The more knowledge we get about the environment the better off we will be. We need to protect the only earth we have because once is gone we are gone.


To better understand light pollution follow this:
http://www.need-less.org.uk/simulator.html

Does the End Justify the Means?

Every where there is evil. In the movie Watchmen it takes place in an alternate 1985 where vigilantes roam the streets keeping the peace. Richard Nixon is still president and the US won the Vietnam War. The US and the Soviet Union are closing in on nuclear war. Throughout the course of the movie the vigilantes are being targeted. The remaining Watchmen are on their guard. Eventually they unite to fight against the assassin attempting to take their lives. They are shocked to find out that it is one of them.
In the end they are not able to stop his plan for attacking all of the major cities in an attempt to prevent nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. The plan works and peace is reached but at the cost of thousands of lives. This is a secret the Watchmen must keep in order to keep the peace. If the secret is revealed then nuclear war will happen and everything in the world would be destroyed.
If that situation ever occurs in our future will that be the only thing to prevent countries from wiping out the world? Would you have to kill thousands to save millions? Those are hard questions to answer. I do not know what I would do if I was in the Watchmen’s situation. I would like to think that I would tell the truth no matter what. But the truth would have worse consequences than if you hid it. The truth would mean the destruction of everything. While the secret means life. Also if you kept a secret of that magnitude would you be able to survive with the truth and the guilt of knowing everything.
I hope that nothing like this ever has to happen. The leaders of every nation must understand the consequences that will occur if there is a nuclear war. That consequence is the end of everything. The citizens of the world will have to make sure that does not happen.
The Comedian: …Our days are numbered. Till then it's like you always say, we're society's only protection.
Night Owl: From what?
The Comedian: You kidding me? From themselves.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/quotes


Here is the trailer for Watchmen:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VLA0tg5yI0&feature=related

Topless Men

In the video we watched in class, Sexism in Multimedia, it showed the stereotypes that are usually portrayed in the media especially among men and women. Women are usually the ones being objectified by men. In some shows it is the men that are the ones be objectified.
Sex in the City is a good example of this. The four main women in the show (Samantha, Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda) all talk about men as objects of their desire. They love them and use them all at the same time. The character who does this the most is Samantha. She is the sex crazed one who will use men for awhile and then toss them aside. Through out the show there are many times when the women will be walking by a man and everything will go into slow motion. (I guess for greater women audience enjoyment) An example of this is when Charlotte is going to change for tennis at her husband’s family’s estate. They have been having problems with their sex life. As she is walking down the path she spots the gardener, who of course has his shirt off, and the slow motion begins.
There are numerous more examples of this in movies and TV. The best in my opinion is in the movie Australia when Hugh Jackman dumps a whole bucket of water over himself. And of course he doesn’t have his shirt on.

Women in movies and TV have had the same experience for many years. At the beginning of cinema women were show in risqué clothes for the time. Today women have less and less clothes on. Many times for a woman to be considered sexy by a male audience standard, she has to be super skinny and with little to no clothes.

This trend of men and women being objects of the others desire will continue. The only thing that could be changed would be the standards of beauty. People could be judged on who they are and not how hot they look. Even though this is contradictory, it is nice to look especially if they are Hugh Jackman.

This is an example of women being objectified. This PETA commercial was banned from this years Super Bowl:

She's ugly enough, she wins

In the movie Dogfight, starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor, the soldiers on the night before their deployment all get together at a bar. Upon entering the bar each soldier has to have a date. The catch is they have to be ugly and each soldier is being judged on which one of them has the ugliest date. During Eddie Birdlace's quest to find his date he meets Rose, a young girl working at her mom's coffee shop. Eddie talks her into going to the bar with him. While there Rose finds out about the competition and is crushed. Eddie tries his hardest to make it up to her. Along the way they fall in love. When Eddie returns from Vietnam he goes back to Rose.
Throughout the movie you get to see a young soldier’s mentality. When the soldiers get a chance to leave the base they let loose. All they want to do is get laid and drink till morning. The soldiers haven't been around a woman in a long time so that is the only thing they can think about. The dogfight is only encourages drinking and sex. The soldiers look for women who are most likely to sleep with them by the end of the night. Their whole training is to stay focused and complete their mission. When they are let loose in the real world the focus they had is on other things besides drills and how to stay alive.
On the other hand their womanizing and drinking is a way for them to get their minds off the horrors that await them on the battlefield. When they are in battle they see their friends get shot and blown up. Those are things that civilians will hopefully never have to see. So that brief escape might be the only way that the soldiers can keep sane.

Residents Leaving South Africa

Many of South Africa’s residents are picking up and leaving according to Newsweek. This jump in emigrants is due to the countries drastic climb in violent crime, despite it being Africa’s most developed and progressive country. There were 50 deaths per capita which is makes it one of the highest in the world and there has also been a climb it the amount of rapes. Surrounding South Africa are many hostile countries. This constant violence is entering South Africa’s countryside. Most of the time it is the white farmers that the violence is being directed at and the violence is mostly race related. The attacks on white farmers if it continues will lead to an economic collapse of South Africa’s commercial food. Along with violence in the cities there is also political corruption. The front runner for the countries next presidential election in April is Jacob Zuma. He is facing numerous charges of corruption and is also accused of autocratic behavior. Zuma will have to focus on the crime rate in order to get his citizens to return to their country. If he does focus on getting the countries former citizens to return it will help take the focus off of his past discretion.

South Africa’s greatest problem is affirmative action which was set into place after the Apartheid ended in1994. It has lead to whites having hard times getting jobs. Most of the time is it the whites who are better suited for the job because they have had the opportunity at a high education. The citizens who are not able to find competitive jobs are leaving the country and going to Australia, Canada, and the US. Many of the students that are graduating from colleges in South Africa are leaving due to the lack of jobs. Another reason why these students are leaving is also the high crime rate. Medical students are leaving the country to practice medicine in others. This departure of medical professionals is leaving South Africa with many spaces available. Affirmative action does not have to be gotten rid of entirely. It just has to be rewritten so it makes it more of an equal playing ground. Once it is more likely that majorities will be able to find jobs just as much as minorities then South Africa’s citizens will come back.

If South Africa does not change the problems that it has the country will collapse. There will also not be as many tourists as there have been in the past. With South Africa hosting the 2010 Mens World Cup these problems need to be fixed for them to have a successful turnout. That could mean continuing problems for the country.

Here is the link to the article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/184783

What is Peace?

There are so many places where peace could potentially be found. It can be inside ourselves, among neighbors or other countries, with nature, or even in just the way people interact with each other. Where ever peace can be found it has the basic meaning of tolerance and understanding of others.
Generally kindness does coincide with peace. Once someone tolerates and begins to understand the other they will develop a liking to that person. By understanding the other person they might begin to see that they share the same interests. That link could eventually lead to a friendship. Once there is a friendship peace is more likely to last. An example of this is the United States and England. Originally we were bitter enemies and did not see things eye to eye. This led the colonies to take up arms against the red coats. For a few decades after the US was established there was bitterness between the two countries. Eventually the two discovered that they had a common interest and would benefit more if they were peaceful towards each other than not. This was the start if a peaceful treaty that has lead to a good partnership.
Some times peace and kindness do not go together. Many countries have peace between eachother but there is still hostility among them. They have been at war with eachother for so long that once they have reached peace they are still going to have that anamosity. Also many times this anamosity is due to a difference in beliefs. One will have a set of beliefs that goes against the others. That contradiction in beliefs can lead to future conflict. A way to combat this conflict is for all of the people in those countries to understand that they do have differences and know that they are allowed to have a difference of opinion.
Once peace is reached it has to be maintained. It can not be just left because then it will disappear. All the people involved must be willing to work hard to keep the peace. They might have to make sacrifices and not get what they want but what is best for everyone. Also if their is a difference of opinion they can not take up violence for people to agree with them. When peace is maintained and kept everyone will benefit. There would be less lives lost due to wars and genocide. People would be more willing to help others and improve the world around them. By people helping eachother out more people would be talking to eachother. It would lead to an exchange of information that could help solve problems that had been previously too difficult to solve.
People should strive for peace in their every day lives. It could be a simple as forgiving yourself for a wrong doing or trying to reconsile with a warring neighbor. If more people tried it would eventually spread and would benefit a massive amount of people. Another way to obtain peace would be to try and understand someone that is different then you. That can be done by reading up on where the other person comes from, their religion, or learning more about their hobbies. You will the understand the other person better. Which will then help you become more tolerant.