Reflective Essay.
The choices one makes can affect the outcome of so many futures. Perfectly exemplified by Dr. Quist-Adade’s cocoa bean story. The choice made by his native villagers to help raise Charles, using the mantra “it takes a village to raise a child,” as well as offer him a scholarship; not only affected Dr. Adade, but ultimately affected myself, and others that I may share my knowledge with. Charles’ village raised him, he gained values and education, which lead to him going to school and becoming a professor, which lead to him teaching me. This is obviously a very positive example of globalization, where the actions of certain people, ensured that one day many would learn from a bright man such as Dr. Adade. Also, the chocolate we eat today might be from the cocoa beans Dr. Adade planted at one point. However, it is not always a happy ending when it comes to globalization. Communities have seen their culture diminish and just succumb to western culture, for example, in India people are so obsessed with acting “Western” that they often overlook or forget the beauty of their own culture. The ultimate negative effect of globalization has to be when it comes to global terrorism, as people’s lives are now in danger. The extreme example being the 9/11 attacks, where a Muslim extremist group, Al-Queda decided to give “western” culture, and the big bad USA what it thought it deserved, and ultimately resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people.
The course taught us about how terrorism is actually a social construct, which with reasoning and education can mostly be avoided. Terrorism is the final weapon of the weak. Greed, personal agendas, and ignorance are usually driving forces behind terrorism. However, the big elephant in the room all to often seems to be religion. Throughout the course, the discussion of religion came up many times, as many terrorist groups used religion as justification for their actions. Once again, I do not think religion is purely what causes wars or terrorism, but rather the people that use that religion to manipulate people for their own personal agendas. A very poignant discussion that we had in class was morality and religion. We discussed how the world could be moral and have many of the same values we cherish now, regardless of religion.
Ultimately, this course taught me how much certain decisions affect everything. It taught me how greed, manipulation, and violence runs rampant throughout the world. However, most importantly, it taught me how much education can play a role in stopping or at least decreasing terrorism. Ignorance is such a driving force in any conflict, and usually with simple reason many conflicts can be resolved without turning to the extreme. By debunking and bracketing, we can step into the shoes of others and see their point of view and come to a solution before guns are drawn.
In Class Assignment: Morality without Religion?
In class the discussion of “is morality possible without religion” came up and brought with it a very lively conversation. It is usually accepted that many of the morals and values we share as a society are rooted within religion. Many older laws were to accommodate Christian rules. Morality was thought to be a product of religion. However, after this discussion, it was apparent that morality can exist in a religion free society, exemplified by Atheists not going around killing and raping everything in sight. Morality existed before religion, and still exists amongst those who do not practice religion.
Video Response: Army of God
This video of the ‘Army of God’ extremist group from HBO, was very interesting as it showed this radical group glorifying and celebrating their terrorist attacks. The Army of God is a group of anti-abortionist extremist Christians. A very right wing group, they have a history of an “any means necessary” type of attitude. The main focus of the group is to stop abortions. The group has bombed clinics, killed doctors, sent out fake anthrax letters, and used violent and verbal threats to get their point across. The irony of the group is that they say abortion is murder, however, they have no problem committing actual murder to stop this murder.
Video 2: Flow: Water as a Commodity
We watched the trailer for a film, FLOW, which talks about water as a commodity. “Blue Gold” was the term used. The trailer discussed how water was being controlled by a small amount of corporations. Bottled water companies are starting to control the water, and water is going to those who can afford it, and not those who need it. Also aside from the fact that certain people are without water due to pure greed, the video touched on how people give into the commodity fetishism of bottled water, when in fact, there is no distinct difference between bottled or tap water. There is very little regulation from where the water comes from.
“Most people don’t think about where their water comes from. They just turn on the tap, and expect it to be there. Those days are ending”
The video talks about how the climate change is also limiting our fresh water sources. The privatization of water is discussed, as one man states “who owns the water, owns you.”
The video, I thought, was very truthful, as in fact water is taken for granted and needed to be preserved and made available to those who need it.
Video: Brainwashed child
Reflective Response: Brainwashed child video.
We watched this video in class. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3m3t87-dk
It is an adorable 2 year old little girl, with a face of innocence. She is being shouted questions such as “who are the misguided?” or “Who are strucked by Allah’s wrath?” to which she answers Christians and Jews. Now, a 2 year old girl obviously does not form these opinions by herself. Which is why it is disturbing to see this little girl being brainwashed and fed these ideas, some of them breeding hate. I found it hard to not laugh at how this little face of innocence was giving these answers, which if given by an adult religious extremist would be definitely taken much more seriously and seen as spreading propaganda and hate speech. Parenting involves sharing your values with your child, however, in this case sharing these extremist ideas to someone at such a young age is very harmful. To brainwash a child into being narrow-minded is unfair, and inhibits the human experience to learn and live your own experiences, and not just be chained down to the values that your parents or guardians shared.
Periphrastic Response: Chapter 2; Discrimination Faced by LGBT Community
This chapter is basically what the title suggests it’s about; Discrimination faced by the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community. Carrie Buist and Andrew Verheek discuss how members of this community face obvious discrimination throughout their everyday lives. It can range from economic discrimination to just flat out hate crimes such as gay bashing. The authors discuss the two big obstacles for the community. The first being the subject of same sex marriage, which has been perceived as a threat to the definition of traditional marriage. The second obstacle has been the fact that the lobbying for sexual orientation to be added for protection in federal hate crimes legislation was denied in 1999. The denial of ‘The Hate Crimes Prevention Act’ at the federal level demonstrated political resistance to change.
The authors also talk about gender roles, discussing how they play an important role in identities in society. Failure to live up to these roles ultimately result in some sort of discrimination. A passage that I found interesting on this subject was about how these gender rtoles can be easily deconstructed.
“Expectations of men and owmen have been on of the defining factors in sexuality research of the past, during a time when may people assumed that game men were men who should have been born women and lesbians are women whou should have been born men. These ideas are often not fulfilled by men and women. In reality, in what is described to operate on a gender continuum, individuals incorporate gendered traits that can be considered both masculine and feminine. The idea perceptions of what gender is supposed to mean to each individual or society is a stagnant idea that when examined more thoroughly and closely can be dismantled, if through nothing else, than the basic life experiences that each individual has had. Those experiences are what make gender roles static and dynamic.”
The authors then continue to talk about the discrimination these groups face. They are denied jobs, housing, marriage, and many basic human rights. It is outrageous with the gender studies that have been done to still say that gays should just go straight. Ultimately, people should be judged on their merit as a person, and skills rather than their sexual orientation.
Affective Response: Chapter 8; Minority Women in Violent Relationships
I found the chapter on ‘Minority Women in Violent Relationships’ very interesting. This is because I can sort of relate to the topic, being a visible minority myself, and on more than one occasion witnessing or knowing of abuse to women in the Indo-Canadian community. The chapter states that women who are abused often stay with the same partner. This is another point that I can relate to, as I have personally seen women of visible minority not leave their partner. A personal example of this being an instance where I witnessed a man beating his wife out on their front lawn, while I drove by. I of course stopped the car and hopped out to make sure this man didn’t harm the woman, he fled, and his wife, visibly distraught, went on to tell me how this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Obviously perplexed, I thought to myself why one would stay in such a situation?
And then I came to think in this certain instance how cultural difference can influence the situation, as separation and divorce are often frowned upon. Personally, I feel that women of minority are limited by their cultural differences, and lack of unity makes them more susceptible to such abuse.
