When Afghanistan Was at Peace

In the Journal, When Afghanistan Was at Peace by Margaret Atwood, she talks about all of the positive things that her and her family saw and or see in Afghanistan. Margaret and her family visited Afghanistan before the war with the United State broke out, but the truth was the country had been at war with itself for a long time. Her family is composed of a lot of history buffs, and they were inspired to go to Afghanistan for the culture they felt it could offer. Although they were previously warned about the tribal wars taking place there, they continued overseas. They expressed the kindness the people of Afghanistan gave them, and her journal is a great representation of how kinda the people are. She wonders, after the way broke out how people could be so hard, on those people who were so kind.

In my opinion I wasn't shocked by the material she spoke about it this journal. I was always aware that many of the people overseas are kind to their visitors. I believe at the end of the day people are just people and the majority of us don't all agree with the wars we fight against one another. However, in places like Afghanistan, there is a country filled with violent people and people who hate those of us in the United States. However, this does not ever mean EVERYONE. Traveling overseas myself I experienced the kindness she speaks about from a lot of people there. In cases like that it is sad when a war is going on, because innocent kind people like the ones she is talking about are injured. However, I believe we should compare this act with the event that occurred on September 11th, 2001. Thousands of innocent kind hearted people were killed that day, all because of the act of one man. When we compare it to situations like that we are reminded that the world is far from fair. We can never have a perfect world if we never stop the violence. Nonetheless, every country is comprised of people who simply have hatred in their hearts and that violence can not be contained. I believe that we should always think to ourselves that no matter how mean some people might be, the world is consumed of billions of others who are simply kind. I try to look past wars and remember that a lot of citizens are kind and our reaching out for US aide. I just hope that one day the violence will cease to exist and we can all get along, the reality behind that seems little to none.

Technology Won't Feed the World's Hungry

In the journal, Technology Won't Feed the World's Hungry, by Anuradha Mittal he speaks about the advances western civilizations have made with bioengineered food. However the truth is, the people that were meant to use these bioengineered foods want nothing to do with them. The people of the third world countries are expected to want to use these foods, but they are unable to. Mittal mentions the problem with most third world countries is not they don't have enough food, but that they can not afford to purchase these foods. We learn that farmers throw away a large amount of their crops each year simply because the people cant afford to buy them. This journal focusses mentions how although bioengineered foods can be a good things people are wasting their time inventing things, instead of really looking at the needs of the people in the third world countries.

In my opinion I agree with the opinion of the author of this ariticle in the sense that many people attempt to create things to make people's live's easier, but in turn they rarely consider the actual preferences or needs of the people. I know that many rich people in western civilizations thought it would be a good idea to help some third world countires by "helping them unlock the potential of biotechnology." Many farmers however in third world are focused on producing not only higher yields, but food of great nutrional value. Therefore, I can understand why they are not as accepting of this bioengineered foods. They have no proof of the healthiness of this food, and like ourselves we probably want real food as well. After reading this journal I feel like people in third world countries would appreciate it more if we made food available for them. Many people have the food to provide for their countries, but the people aren't coming to purchase it. However, this does not seem to open up their acceptance to the bioengineered foods. Another issue that we must think of is the majority of the people in those third wheel countries can barely afford to buy two meals a day if that. However, this bioengineered foods are rich in certain vitamins and nutrients, but how can people afford these bioengineered crops. I liked this article because it showed that even thought there are good intentions to help people, the key thing to remember is the people.

Arranged Marriages Get a Little Reshuffling

In the journal, Arranged Marriage Get a Little Reshuffling, by Lizette Alvarez she mentions a newer form of arranged marriages and the older one. It used to be that parents who pick out a mate for their child and would host a large family dinner for the meeting. Most often times the family would pick the mate and the children would have little say. All they could do is present themselves as a wonderful candidate for a husband or wife. However, now what is becoming more popular is something like speed dating. Hindus would be one night and Muslims the next each participating in approximately three minute meetings at restaurants or bars before the next date. With this age of evolution, the necessity to change of some of the older customs like arranged marriages is becoming more and more popular. This way potential candidates have a chance to evaluate one another more than just one time before they are forced into marriage. Instead of possibly allowing a child to go unwed they are encouraging this new way so that their child has a way to adapt to a new culture.

One of the reasons I chose this journal was because I have always had interest in cultures outside of my own. I remember when I first learned about arranged marriages I wondered how parents could ever get their children to accept such wishes. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago I attended my next door neighbours arranged marriage. It seemed slightly strange, but I was told they grow to love each other. However, in this new article I was interested in this newer form of almost speed dating. At times it is hard to believe that you will actually find your true love in that way, but it does present the opportunity for you to decide who you think would be a good fit for yourself. Often times with an arranged marriage you might meet your future spouse once or twice before the big day and it gives little room for a relationship to be formed before they actually get married. With speed dating you don't necessarily have to find someone who is your true love, but you know better than your parents who you would be willing to spend the rest of your life with. The journal was based of of Muslims and Hindus living in Britain where there is a much smaller selection than there is in their home countries. This being said, by allowing your child to go out and find what they want, there is less of a chance that they will go unmarried. The abiding principles behind an arranged marriage are still powerful in such that there should be no sexual activity before marriage and that one must always remember family knows best. But this new way of flexibility gives their child a chance live their life without any misery and so that they may live a happier life, and hopefully a wed one. I believe this story is showing a lot of culture adaption and its interesting to see how the world is transforming all around the world.

Whose Culture Is It, Anyway?

In the journal "Whose Culture Is It, Anyway," author Henry Louis Gate Jr. outline the connection between race/ethnicity and secondary education or higher learning institutions. However, that is that topic is more geared towards the opening part of the purpose of his journal entry. Henry is more focused on opening Americans eyes to the fact that there is no one culture in America like many people desire. America is comprised of people who ancestors are from all around the world. He states, "To demand that Americans shuck their cultural heritages and homogenize themselves into a 'universal' WASP culture is to dream of an America in cultural white face, and that just won't do." Therefore I believe he was encouraging us to see multiculturalism as being American, and recognizing that there can't be one accepted culture for all Americans to practice. As Americans author Henry Gates Jr. would like us to recognized that America is comprised of multiple cultures and we should work on integrating all of them into an overall American culture. Simply saying its is a predominately white culture will never be accepted.

One of the reasons I chose this article is because I believe that the message has a great value for all Americans. I believe that part of the reason, as mentioned in the article, that a lot of the cultures are overlooked is because they are simply trying to meet certain quotas and only consider other ethnicity's and cultures when trying to meet certain diversity requirements. In my opinion the United States should all be considered a diverse continent and I believe we should all be accepting of all different cultures as being an American culture. Multiculturalism is what makes America who they are. Everybody has a certain culture from which there ancestors came from. People are Scottish, African, Mexican, Polish, Asian and much more and there is no such culture as being just American. Therefore I believe we should all work on exploring more cultures as Americans. I am partially frustrated when the only thing most people think of when giving me certain jobs or offering me certain positions is the fact that I am an African American female. As a nation we all need to be more focused on learning how to have values of tolerance and understand and accept culturally based issues that arise in our nation. As stated in the article we should all attempt to explore the complexities of our culture and discover what it may actually be composed of. We would all get a lot of of our American experience once we look past the fact that we are all different and have something different to contribute based on our gender or ethnicity.

Besieged by "Friends"

In the article besieged by "Friends," written by Heather Havrilesky she identifies the problems with the western influence in the Muslim world. Like many American companies, when trying to catch the attention of citizens in other countries they target children. Before 9/11 occurred Heather made a trip to the Muslim community in the Middle East and asked their opinion about the western influence. The majority of the adults present, didn't agree with the influence and were unhappy with the way it was drowning out their own culture. By targeting children, they know they have little clue of cultural relevance and their minds can be easily molded into whatever you may want them to be. She says that places like McDonald's and Dunkin Doughnuts rarely attract adults in the Middle East which is why they stick to reaching out to children. She identifies with the citizens in saying they shouldn't be forced to watch American television all the time. In all honesty, "If we were forced to watch reruns of "Shabab Online" on every channel, we'd be angry too."

After reading this article I couldn't help but to agree with the opinions of Muslims in the Middle East. Often time as a teenager I am unaware of the actions and the influences the United States spreads to the world around us. I believe that when I was in high school, and even now that I am in college, I had very little tendency to watch the news of concern myself with the actions of the United States. I believe most students at the high school age and below, and I would like to venture and say that people in the United States, have a little clue to what the United States is doing. Personally, outside of large events, I usually have no idea what the US is doing. Therefore I would like to say, that even though people might hate the people of the United States, most citizens are unaware of what we the people of the United States are doing. In my personal opinion, I believe I would also be aggravated if lets say the Asian culture was forced onto the majority of us. I am used to practicing certain things, and am very strong in my culture and religion. However, if we were bombarded by the Asian culture I believe we would also have to agree that we aren't happy with the way that the we are forced to do certain things, and that our culture was being wiped out and we were forced to live a lifestyle that we were unaccustomed to. However, the majority of the children in the United States, wouldn't have much of a complaint simply because they haven't gotten to the stage of knowing certain cultural practices and what we necessarily do here. That is why it always seems easiest to target children. Then when the children reach into adulthood they are fully accustomed to the lifestyle you have been instilling in them. This being said I don't agree with the forced American culture we instill in countries all around the world.

ISCORE

The Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity (ISCORE) is a somewhat of a forum on issues of race and ethnicity at specifically Iowa State University, but can also be applied to students all over the nation who are experiencing college life as the minority. The local conference is designed to model the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity also known as NCORE. NCORE is the leading and most educationally based national forum on issues of race and ethnicity while obtaining a secondary education degree, bringing together students and experts from all over the world to a designated location on an annual basis. The main goal of the conference is to help promote racial equality in institutions of higher education and instill certain goals and ideas in students that can be practiced once they arrive back at their instituiton. Its also there to help increase the oppurtunites of minority students throughout the nation by promoting certain values.

At this year's ISCORE conference I attended the session called The Hidden Curriculum: Barriers to Success for Female Students of Color. I found this session to be very helpful for the fact that it showed me some of the steps to take as an African American female to become a more successful and open up more oppurtunites for success as a student. One of the things that I enjoyed listening about was the advisors and faculties opinion on the help we seek as minority students. They claim that they give us numerous oppurtunites to get help in school and oppurtunites so that we can perform better in the classroom, but it is our fault that we have not taken advantage of any of them. In their opinion they give us numerous chance to better ourselves as students, and that the reason there is a barrier is because we make one for ourselves. However, as a student I believe that just because there is an oppurtunity placed in front of us, there is often times a fear to utilize it. I have personally been reluctant to take advantage of the oppurtunites the faculty have given me at Iowa State simply because I have a fear to utilize them. Attending Iowa State University can be a big culture shock for a lot of students upon arrival. In my opinion, I myself wasn't used to being surrounded by people of the caucasian race at all points of the day. I believe it would also make a stand if some of the advisors and faculty were minority themselves. I believe a lot more students would have the tendency to reach out to them a little more. I believe there is a barrier for success for not only female students of color, but simply students of color as well at predominately white universities and colleges. I believe that some of the suggestions they gave us about seeking help from students who look like us, and by accepting some of those resources provided for us we will be a lot more successful. I must say since second semester, when I decided to get help with my classes from the dean of diversity for the college of engineering and take help from tutors and workshops offered in the evening, I have been a lot more successful and the majority of those barriers no longer exist.

We all Have Cultural Baggage

In the article, Cultural Baggage, by Barbara Ehrenreich she highlights her struggles with never knowing much about her cultural background. She states that she always ate ethnic food and was surrounded by a lot of culture but never specifically knew about her ancestors. By being deprived of certain cultural aspects throughout her childhood and life, Barbara is unable to bring cultural relevance to her children. She states how she hoped marrying a man from Europe would strengthen her sense of culture, however it in fact did nothing to brighten her cultural knowledge. However, at the end of the article she seems to be at peace with herself in the sense that once her children were grown, they don't feel like they lack any cultural knowledge or blame their mother for not knowing much about their heritage.

I really enjoyed this article because I felt that it was easy to relate to. It reminded me of a movie I saw a could of years ago, called Roots. It was about a man who was taken from his home in Africa and how he became a victim of slavery. However, he was determined to tell his story for every generation of children that he was alive for. He wanted the all of his descendants to know where they came from, and not allow the white people of that time to erase all of their culture from their brains. Although most of the people were born and raised during slavery time, he was determined not to have his family only identify themselves in that manner. All of this being said I have realized that I myself don't know many things about what one may call "cultural baggage." Although I was born and raised here in the United States, I am fully aware that this is not where my ancestors originated. I am of the African American descent, and know that my family also was a victim of slavery. All of this being said I know nothing of my cultural background in Africa. Another interesting fact that I learned as a child is that most African Americans have some form of white descent in them. The truth is most slave owners raped their women, and some of those women had children. Therefore, a lot of us have some white inside of us. Me personally I was also informed that my great grand grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee native American. However, outside of that information I know nothing else. In the more recent times, African Americans are starting to relate our culture with the actions of most people in the poorer neighborhoods and forgetting the more important things of what are people have done. I hope that one day when I am retired and have time, I would like to trace my ancestors back to our times in Africa.