Blog #19 Chapter 23

It was really interesting reading about the part how the Islam refers to American culture. How they described the West as seductive and poisonous culture. I could see how they can refer to the West as seductive, because in their culture they have arrange marriages, while in the West people have many different partners and can remarry as many times as the want. Also our clothing is very revealing compared to how their culture dresses. My mom’s friend she is from the Middle East and when she first came to American she was really shocked how peopled dress. She was shocked about the amount of skin we showed especially when wearing tank tops and shorts. Now that she lives in America she wants to follow the American culture, but she only wears a shirt and pants, she won’t wear a tank top or shorts because it is a little too much for her. I think the view about the Islamic culture and the American culture has been influenced by the war, and the terrorist attack. Due to these horrific outcomes and the war we both find ways in order to make the other culture seem bad then how they really are. Since there are terrorist that emerge from that culture the American culture depicts the Islamic culture full of acts of violence and everyone is a terrorist. That is not true at all. When reading about the part of Osama bin Laden it reminded me of what my teacher had said about him. He told yes he was a bad man, but when the navy seals had killed him it displayed differently. He said it was not right to kill an elderly man who was handicap and enables to fight back, so it was basically just like shooting grandpa. Many would disagree with this but that was his view. Now that the world is becoming more globalized and we have access to various parts of the world I think it is important to try to understand other people’s cultures and religion. When we encounter conflict with another religion or culture then we can understand where they are coming from. It keeps us from being biases and gives a different perspective and understanding.  I really enjoyed reading the section Green and global. The world is starting to become more industrialized than it is green. When reading this it reminded me when I go home. When I go over the Altamont pass to go home there is this view that oversees the valley. It looks like a disease referring to the urbanized part attacking the beautiful green landscape. Also it reminded me of the movie Wall-e where the earth became so industrialized that it became unhealthy and people had to move to outer space. The ending where he saves a plant and to people they described it as the most beautiful thing they seen because they haven’t seen a plant in decades. It is just ashamed how what we described as beautiful we end up destroying.

Blog #18 Chapter 22

When reading the section about the fight for independence, I automatically reflected back to the enlightenment period. Mandala and Gandhi were both leaders in this period in order to gain independence for their nation. The reason it reminded me of the enlightenment era was because they were fighting for equality in order for a society to become fair, a path to a more perfect human society. The enlightenment era is still echoing through out many decades, and people are still using the enlightenment ideas in order to start a revolution or many protests to make a change. The only sad part about reading this and reflecting throughout history the people, who stand up against a society in order to make change, change for the better always get assassinated. For instance Gandhi got assassinated for standing up to stop the violence; to make a change for the best, as well as Martin Luther King got assassination when he demanded change for the people of his nationality. These intelligent, brave, and who want to change the world for the better, end up getting their lives taken away. It just ashamed to hear about the leaders for change lives gets taken away, that had big idea that could impact the world greatly, and their ideas plus influence disappear by people who don’t want to accept change for the best. They always encourage a peaceful protest to get their views across, but it seems like the violence gets the best of them and end up taking away their lives. Also when reading the section about Africa the different communities that fought against each other. Mainly the term Afrikaner, reminded me of a book I read in high school my senior year called The Power of One. If I could remember correctly the book is about a boy who is an Afrikaner who wants to be a boxer and his innocence toward the war happening in South Africa against the Afrikaner and the Africans. The boy was not raised as an Afrikaner, but at the end he managed to bring together these to groups. It is a very powerful book and I really enjoyed it I would definitely recommend it to anyone. Also the movie Hotel Wanda is about the division of South Africa. This issues happening all around the World the violence and the violence that the world experience in the past have been made into a lot of movies in order to get a message across to people without it being direct. Race and ethnicity are a major factor in starting protest through change, this is not happening only in on nation but  many nation experience this, and people have not realize this. I think racism is the leading factor in starting this violent protests, this violent protest are ending many peoples life and are hurting/ affecting innocent people. These only create ripples that grow throughout the world and influence and affect other countries. Reading this chapter got the impression the world is in a fight against racism. 

Blog #17- CST labor and property

It was really interesting reading CST section 5 and 6. I just think overall it is very interesting and makes good points. I would definitely recommend the CST to any catholic, I think it is important to have knowledge of it. Not only for people who are catholic but anyone with a religion. I believe it’s good to have a diverse knowledge of each religion; it makes you a better-rounded person. Anyway section 5 and 6 really caught my attention due to my family owning a business. I do know a little about supply and I was always taught to always take care of your items so they will last longer as well as save more money. My dad’s business consist of fixing windshields, so he makes sure his labor and fixing the windshield of a car is done a appropriate in order for longer lasting for the customer. Reading section 5 got my mind reflecting back to slavery when it was a business and slaves were consider basically items, their supply. The statement “offers people an incentive to be productive and to care for the goods God has created”, (CST, 92). This statement really had me thinking about the slaves how in America people who wanted to be productive really took care of their slaves, as if they were in a way family, because they took care of their slaves, the slaves lifespan lasted longer and they were able to increase production in addition save money. Unlike the people in Brazil or the Caribbean the owners did not take very good care of the slaves. The slaves lived a short life-span, thus affecting their production. Slavery was probably not a good example to relate to Catholic social teaching, although people are God’s creation, people should not be dehumanized into a single item. A quote that I really love was “…the goods of this world are equally meant for all. The right to private property is valid and necessary, but it does not nullify the value of the principle, in fact, is under a social mortgage”, (CST, 94).  I just really enjoy the part the goods of this world are equally meant for all, I think anyone can take away from this part especially if one is religious. In today’s society we experience with a lot of greed, I think greed can be taken away if people think as “the goods of this world are for everyone”. No one should be able to decide who deserves what. Although the good of the world is meant for everyone, the goods all have a pretty penny to pay for it. I found it funny reading from this quote that private property is under a social mortgage. So the owner of the private property is not really the owner not until their social mortgage is paid off, it is like there is an owner of the owner of the private property. I can see why ownership of property can create many challenges for the owner.

Blog #16- Chapter 21

I remember learning a lot about communism in high school, but like some high school students I did not pay attention. I do remember watching videos about it, reflecting back on those videos helped me with the reading. When reading about Vladimir Lenin Russia’s dictator I immediately reflected back to the videos in high school. In one of the videos it talked about how Lenin was one of the most popular dictators and his ideas were well liked. I may be wrong on this fact, but what I remember and found most interesting was the country froze Lenin’s body and wanted to examine his brain because they found him intelligent. I also remember when they had the summer Olympics in Russia they included a segment of when Lenin ran and that was an important part of history for them. Just reading this chapter I got the impression that communism was just over all bad and turned into an outrage. I know that America was so frighten of communism; Americans basically treated it as a disease. One of my teacher made a statement that communism was similar to the accusing of witchcraft. For example that people would blame other people of witchcraft because they were either greedy, jealous, revenge, or wanted their land. When the idea of communism came to America, people began to start accusing abundant of people, with any reason they can come up with, which is similar to the accusation of witchcraft. I really found that comparison very interesting. I really enjoyed reading the segment about communist feminism. I sort of found it funny due to America adopting the communist feminist idea, and most of those ideas are still exercised today. America was so afraid of communism and did not want any influences or the thought of it, but the adopted numerous idea from it. America exercises equality in politics, legalizing divorces, abortion (still iffy among stated), women did not have to take their husband last name, and pregnancy leave while women work. Due to America exercising the communist feminist idea does that mean we are living a partial communist lifestyle? Overall women benefited the most from communism. I feel like just over history women are greatly affected the most, they are either limited or they benefited from it, but over time it seems like women are only benefiting more throughout history. It was sad to read how many of people died or was sentenced to labor camps. It seems like labor camps was a big practiced used in World War II or the period leading up to the War. Russia used labor camps for people who seemed like enemies to them, Germany used labor camps to house the Jews and others that did not qualify for the Aryan race, and America used labor camps to house the Japanese after the attack of Pearl Harbor. Labor camps just feels like an excuse where they can either torture people, work people to death, or do mass murders. 

Blog #15 - Chapter 20 Collapse at the Center

This was one of my favorite chapters I read so far. I like how Strayer had included the World Wars in one section instead of separating them in to their own sections. I always like reading about the World Wars especially how they got started, as well as the movies that evolved from them. The World Wars had influence a creation of many great movies that are romantic or have a great message behind time. From the top of my head I could think of Pearl Harbor, The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas, Swing Boys, and Saving Private Ryan. When reading this section of the Wars I thought of it as a domino effect, that lead up to each war. Even the domino effect I think of it as, World War I cause World War II. This domino effect started off with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, thus creating a cascade of events, and mass murders. It made me wonder what if the Archduke was not assassinated, would there still be a World War, would America still have endured a Great Depression, or would there be such a thing as genocide. It just amazing to think how one little thing can create all this chaos in the World, it was like a ripple in the pond, how the ripple continues to get bigger. I was really surprised to read how the Second World War began in Asia before it started in Europe, I always thought it originated in Europe and then Japan got involved, but Japan initiated the War. Reading about that really caught me by surprised, I was not expecting it, and it totally changed my ideas or views of World War II. It was also sad to read about the Jews how the Nazis created genocide with them and put them in concentration camp. When Strayer was talking about the concentration camps I was surprised there was no mention about how the United States practiced the use of concentration camp toward the Japanese. It is really ironic how America stressed a lot on the concentration camps and helped fight to end it and save the Jews, but America had the Japanese in concentration camps. I feel like that part of history is never mention, and the concentration camps are only referred to the Jews, when it should be referred to the Jew and Japanese. Although America did not go to the extreme with the concentration camps like the German and Nazi, but they still enforced this practice and the Japanese was not treat fairly. I believe in every war every Nation has to blame someone for their downfall or reason to disaster. In most wars the nation would blame the whole race, when it was out of the action from particular people. Nation should not blame nor torture a whole race for an action of particular individuals. For example Germany blamed ALL Jews for the downfall of their economy, the world blamed ALL Germans for the genocide of Jew, American blamed ALL Japanese people for the attack on Pearl Harbor, finally America blame ALL middle eastern race for the attack of 9/11. Nations need to learn that not every one of that particular race had an affect or contribution of disasters happening in the world.

Blog #14 Chapter 19

I was really surprised reading about the Opium War, especially reading how the Chinese were involved with it. I also thought it was also funny to read how they looked back at that part of history and reflected it as a time of humiliation. Knowing about the stereotypes linked to the Chinese people today learning about history probably could never really imagine them getting into drugs, it was even shocking for me to read. Unlike any other drug, the involvement of drugs always has consequences, which was prostitution. I feel that drugs and prostitution goes hand and hand with each other, such as where there is a big problem of drugs, that area would have a problem with prostitution. Just like how opium was big during that century, opium is becoming a famous drug again mainly among young adults. Which is also call “brown bagging” where they put various types of opium in pill form and they just pick one and take it. It was interesting to me to read about this section about opium and the trade and how it affected China, because I am also reading about opium and other drugs in another class. It was good reading the background and history behind opium. Opium is commonly like by early adults, and adults tend to take opium for several reasons, the main reason adult take opium is their way to handle stress, anxiety, and depression, which is not the proper way of handling these issues. It was also interesting to read how the Opium War helped China evolved and it lead them into following industrial practice. I still feel like China still follows industrial idea based off what I heard. I think this because China is known to have various strict work factories and the workers are paid not enough. It reminded me a lot of the European Industrial practice between the middle and lower class. How terribly the lower class was treated when working in the factories, as well as the conditions they worked in. China was once known as having children working in sweat shops in these harsh conditions, just like the orphans in Europe. I watched a video about China social classes how children were in school for a certain period of time, and then after school they went to work in the factories located in their towns. This industrial revolution had such a big impact on China especially in today’s century. China is the main country that is involved with trading in addition multiple of big companies send their factories overseas for the people in China to work them. It is like the industrial revolution is the reason why China is doing so good economically. I found reading the document Memorial to Emperor Guangxu very powerful especially the statement “you will see that if we can change, we can preserve ourselves, but if we cannot change we will perish” (Strayer, 959). It is important for the community or a society to change, to evolve among other countries in order to be civil and understand the time the world is living in.

Call to Action: Experiments with Notre Dame elementry

I had a really great experience with the Notre Dame eighth graders from the elementary school. The science in action class was nice enough to include me with their activities for Call to Action. The eighth grader from the elementary school, came to the science labs to participate with us in conducting four different experiments. The experiment I conduct with them was the flame test. The kids stuck a cooper rod into six different compounds and then stuck the rod into a flame. When they stuck the rod into the flame it would cause the flame to change a different color. Before they conducted the experiment they made a prediction what color each of the compounds would produce based off of their observation. After they did the flame test we had them compare their predictions to the actual results. The purpose of doing this was to have them get familiar with the scientific method. It was really great seeing how excited these students were to do the experiments, as well as their eagerness to ask more questions. One of the questions that got the professor excite to do was “if we mix these two solutions will they make another color” due to this question it got everyone wondering so we took time to see if it was true. It was not true the flame had two different colors. From the experience I feel like we showed the eighth grader that learning can be exciting and it does not always pertain to learning straight out of the book. That learning can be really fun. The frustrating part about the whole experience was the students were asking us questions before revealing the correct results so it was hard explaining to them in a way that would not give up the correct answer. Then again we encourage them that it’s okay to get another answer because in science there is no correct answer everything is based off of your experience and your methods. It was fun talking to the students and seeing their excitement because they never get to do these types of experiments in elementary school. I also think today we also encourage them to continue their education and go to college to experience new things and have the opportunity to do things in their interest that can be exciting to them. Overall it is a good feeling to give back to the community, especially seeing how excited the students were made me excited and make the experience that much better. It good to give these types of opportunity to kids that don’t get the chance to do these experiences. I believe that they will remember this experience for a long time. If I was given an opportunity to do experiments when I was younger I would remember it to and encourage me more into what field of education to follow. Today I took a lot out of today not only did the students learn from us we learn from them too.