broadcast piece

In my humble opinion 2

I came across an article that was posted on the AOL website that really caught my attention. The article was entitled "Face of Outrage: Woman Protests Iran's Dress Code With Pots and Pans." What instantly caught my attention was "woman protest" and "Iran" in the same sentence. Most indivuduals are aware of the oppression that women endure in other countries and Iran is one of them, so for women to go as far as to protest says a lot to me.

As I read further into the article, I got a better understanding of what the women were doing and why. In the article there was a mural of women in full length veils but their faces were covered with house whold objects. the object that were in the womens faces were supposed to symbolize the objects that women are bound to. Women from this country are bound to these daily duties and are not given an opportunity to stray from what society tells them is ok to do.

Coming from a country that celebrates freedom, I can not imagine living in a world were I had no choices. A world where I could not go out with friends, socialize, work, get an education. I could not live in a world in which I felt oppressed but for these women, that is life. They have no wiggle room to do any thing other than what society tells them is ok to do, which is to stay home and do house chores.

The person who took the image is a photographer in Iran who happens to also be a woman. I commend her and I also commend the women who took a stand and were part of this protest. It may seem like a small thing for us but for these women, this was a huge step and I give them the most respect.

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/iranian-photographer-shadi-ghadirian-shows-women-without-their-faces/19460029

Fish out of water

The event that I went to this weekend was called "Of Love and Joy, Akbayan's 22nd Annual Pilipino Cultural Night." The event was definitely new to me since I don't know very much about the Filipino culture or history. The event was held at the San Jose Repertory Theater and was pretty packed. It was three hours long and incorporated everything from history, to cultural dances, singing and even a love story. The play gave me a better idea of certain things that were happening in the 70's in regards to political issues and how oppressed people were becoming with their political leader at that time. The play was organized by mostly students and young adults which made it even more enjoyable to watch since it was organized so well. The would have scenes that were "current day" and flash backs of the Philippines in the 70's. I wouldn't say the event had a huge impact on me per say but it definitely was interesting to watch and see different cultural dances and to see the different outfits that went with each traditional dance. Over all my experience was a good one. The event was very organized,very entertaining and fun to watch.

Blog 9 Japanese Internment Memorial essay

During our walk to the Japanese Internment Memorial, I had this vision in my head that the memorial would be this grand building or large area that we would walk to and explore but to my surprise, the Japanese Internment Memorial was neither a large area or a grand building or facility, it was a single marble like wall that stood next to a downtown courthouse. Now don't let this small structure fool you. Though the memorial is small in size, it holds a great amount on history and information in its structure. Ruth Asawa, a Japanese-American artist created this piece of art in such a way that the artwork can tell you the whole story of the Japanese internment from start to finish. Every portion or scene, if you will, gives the viewer a visual description on all the Japanese-Americans had to go through during their internment. The most memorable vignettes for me were of the families who had to stay in horse stables at the beginning on their journey to internments camps since there was little room more people to hold hem until they were taken off. There was a vignette of a man being beaten and next to this piece were people burning the belongings on the interns. There was a vignette of a train that was departing to a camp and you can see the people inside the train as well as their family members on the outside holding on to their hands. There were vignettes that basically told the entire story visually of what these individuals had to go through just because of their race and the anger people had towards them because of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Thought the whole memorial was interesting, it was very disheartening that innocent individuals had to suffer in such a way.

Word of the Week #9

The word that I came across was in an article in AOL News about allergies and pollen. The article titled "A Pollen Primer for Sneeze Season" by Katie Drummond had a word that was unfamiliar to me and that word was "tabulated." the sentence read:

To determine the best and worst cities for sufferers, the agency tabulated particles of pollen per cubic meter, along with mold spores, use of allergy medication and number of allergists per patient. "

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, to tabulate (v) means to:

1 : to put into tabular form
2 : to count, record, or list systematically

ex. I had to tabulate the amount of money that I had spent on my vacation this spring break.

Blog #8 IMHO #1

According to writer David Knowles for AOL news, a sheriff's deputy in Lake County Colorado was placed on a one week unpaid leave after he had used a taser gun on students at a career fair. Although tasers are said to feel like a bee sting, a student that was tased by this deputy was taken to the hospital and treated for welts that formed on his skin from being tased. There are no if, ands, or buts about the fact that this deputy was clearly not thinking when he tased the children at the job fair. Despite it feeling like a "bee sting" is it insane to use any tool or devise on a child that you use to catch run-away or resistant criminals. The deputy's lack of judgment placed a huge damper on what was supposed to be a positive event for the children. Not only do I find it crazy that this deputy would do such a thing, but that a taser is said to feel like a bee sting. According to an article on CNN.com, there have been reports of people suffering immediate cardiac arrests due to being tased. This issue should not be taken lightly, especially considering the fact that this deputy tased CHILDREN! Its unfortunate that people can become to absent minded or careless. we often refer to people who do such things as individuals with little or no common sense, but it makes me think. . Is there such a thing as common sense? Clearly what is common knowledge to one individual is not the same to another. The deputy was said to have used poor judgement in his decision to tase these children but that, in my opinion, should not have even been a question or even considered. Allowing children to see the inside of a fire truck or of a police car is acceptable, but using such a devise on a child is simply ludicrous.

article links:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/03/taser.cardiac.arrest/index.html

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/colorado-officer-uses-taser-on-30-students-at-career-fair/19433734

Word of the week #8

So I am currently sitting in class and as my professor is, as usual, lecturing and presenting the class with a power point presentation so we can copy down notes. Right of the bat, the first slide that he presents to the class has a word that I don't know.

The slide reads as follows:

"The focus on leadership in the dyad"

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, dyad (n) is

1 : pair; specifically : two individuals (as husband and wife) maintaining a sociologically significant relationship

Example:

The most important relationships are those between a dyad.