What do these videos have to do with escape?
All the videos we watched in class are related to a form of escape. The guy that seeks for the extinct bird is always after a goal that puts him out of life. The prisoners literally try to escape from the prison, although not from a state of mind like the other examples of escape. The man who photographs little dolls also tries to escape from reality. He had a traumatic episode in his life that changed his mind and put him in “other” world where he can do whatever, even revenge the people that beat him up. The kid with disability, Mike, is a life escape by himself. All his issues block him from having a normal life, and he tries to escape to the opposite direction of all the other examples; he tries to escape to the real world where he can have a girlfriend and have a normal life.
What does these videos have to do with writing
Writing itself is a form of escape. To a estate of mind and spirit which allow you to turn your mind off from the reality and travel to your imagination and ideas. Everybody that has read a book that catches your attention for hours or when you are completely concentrated in writing you feel senseless for the real world; blind and deaf to what is happening around you.
quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2011
segunda-feira, 14 de novembro de 2011
Ghost Story
The long border between Mexico and the US state of Texas is dotted with little towns. They are towns of adobe walls - towns out of legend, with names such as El Paso, Juarez, Del Rio, Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros.
They line both sides of the Rio Grande, the river that forms the boundary between Texas and the U.S. There was a time, not too long ago, when life could be very good on 'the border. However the illegal immigrants and the drug cartels brought up many problems to this area.
People in the border of the two countries had no fear of drug-related violence; however they were soon to discover how wrong they had been.
A certain day one of those small towns woke up around the fear and horror of a murder. Juan Mario, a 30 years old men had been brutally killed while trying to cross the border. His body was founded without his 2 legs and arms by the main road that connects the town to the next village. But the unusual was the fact that his chest had the phrase written by knife cuts: “ tu eres el proximo” (you are the next).
The mystery covered the small town and all the habitants were wondering who could have done such thing and who the next victim could be. The drug cartel has been actively acting in the border and bringing horror to the habitants and citizens that illegally try to leave Mexico.
Story continues when the next immigrant tries to leave Mexico to cross the American border
End Note: I am not a good storyteller, however I want to add this paper in me research paper to give an example of how the violent the life in the border is and how that could be described as a ghost story. I used information from news websites that show the stories of many people that had their end in the hands of drug cartels.
They line both sides of the Rio Grande, the river that forms the boundary between Texas and the U.S. There was a time, not too long ago, when life could be very good on 'the border. However the illegal immigrants and the drug cartels brought up many problems to this area.
People in the border of the two countries had no fear of drug-related violence; however they were soon to discover how wrong they had been.
A certain day one of those small towns woke up around the fear and horror of a murder. Juan Mario, a 30 years old men had been brutally killed while trying to cross the border. His body was founded without his 2 legs and arms by the main road that connects the town to the next village. But the unusual was the fact that his chest had the phrase written by knife cuts: “ tu eres el proximo” (you are the next).
The mystery covered the small town and all the habitants were wondering who could have done such thing and who the next victim could be. The drug cartel has been actively acting in the border and bringing horror to the habitants and citizens that illegally try to leave Mexico.
Story continues when the next immigrant tries to leave Mexico to cross the American border
End Note: I am not a good storyteller, however I want to add this paper in me research paper to give an example of how the violent the life in the border is and how that could be described as a ghost story. I used information from news websites that show the stories of many people that had their end in the hands of drug cartels.
domingo, 13 de novembro de 2011
Journal 4
That is what I think about my English class:
It has been intensive, hard and instructive. We have been through a process to learn how to write a research paper. In the beginning of the semester when we had to experience different readings and videos in which we were required to give responses to those, creating the bases that we needed to finally begging our research paper.
The process we have been through is not easy, I confess, however it can be fun because it turns the capacity of expressing yourself on, and in my opinion for the advancement of the mankind is very important that individuals research about subjects of their interest and also create conclusions about the subject so future generations can have a more advanced and sophisticated source for their studies. For example if Charles Darwin never made a research on the origin of the species how would be our knowledge today in terms of evolution and understanding ourselves?
That is why this class has been so useful and is building the bases that I need to become an expert expressing and researching in my field, which is finance. Hopefully I will turn into a professional that can to contribute to the future of our society through research and creation of new thoughts.
End note: I want to include this genre in my paper because I can explain people why I made a research paper and demonstrate the importance that a research paper has.
It has been intensive, hard and instructive. We have been through a process to learn how to write a research paper. In the beginning of the semester when we had to experience different readings and videos in which we were required to give responses to those, creating the bases that we needed to finally begging our research paper.
The process we have been through is not easy, I confess, however it can be fun because it turns the capacity of expressing yourself on, and in my opinion for the advancement of the mankind is very important that individuals research about subjects of their interest and also create conclusions about the subject so future generations can have a more advanced and sophisticated source for their studies. For example if Charles Darwin never made a research on the origin of the species how would be our knowledge today in terms of evolution and understanding ourselves?
That is why this class has been so useful and is building the bases that I need to become an expert expressing and researching in my field, which is finance. Hopefully I will turn into a professional that can to contribute to the future of our society through research and creation of new thoughts.
End note: I want to include this genre in my paper because I can explain people why I made a research paper and demonstrate the importance that a research paper has.
Commercial Script 3
Song - (Adagio in G minor, Albioni)
(First Scene)
An elder Asian man is waiting in an airport. He hears the announcement that the flight with his daughter and his grandkids coming from china has arrived, he smiles and goes buy some flowers in an airport store. Then, through the window he sees his family in the immigration but something is wrong. They get their entrance to the country denied and a federal officer aggressively takes them away while the elder watches everything desperately.
(Second Scene)
Two kids, a Palestine boy and a Jewish girl meet every day to watch the sunset in a beautiful field somewhere outside of Jerusalem. They smile and put their arms on each other shoulders while watching the sunset with the city of Jerusalem in the back. However, one day at the same time and same spot they were there again to meet, but there is a huge wall separating them now, and the smile has disappeared from their faces.
The screen becomes black with the phrase in white: “Break down the borders”. The screen becomes black again and a new phrase appears: “The world is yours”
Lastly, the commercial ends with the phrase: “Contribute to the end of borders and differences in our society” and below that phrase we conclude with the website of the entity “World Unification Organization – www.WUO.com”
End Note: The organization created is fictional but the commercial represents the anguish and sadness that borders can bring to the citizens of our world. In the first scene the elder has the right to see his family deprived. He has been gracefully waiting for them and because of some apparent bureaucratic issue he has this right denied. It is incredible the number of people that have their entrance in a foreign country denied. For example, if you want to acquire an U.S Visa the chance of you being denied to receive it is around 50% or even higher in some cases (Guru Immigration Law Blog). I understand that the individual might not have good antecedent in his/her home country; however in many of the occasions the visa applier has not criminal records or anything that can actually corrupt his image. And I say that by my own experience with friends that have their visas refused in the process of trying to travel for tourism to certain countries.
The second scene represents the innocence of two children living in a society where the religion indifference is big but it does not affect the friendship and purity of them. However the ignorance and lack of love between adults build an obstacle between the friendship of those kids. And the message that the fictional WUO organization wants to show is that borders bring suffering for people and they should be ended.
(First Scene)
An elder Asian man is waiting in an airport. He hears the announcement that the flight with his daughter and his grandkids coming from china has arrived, he smiles and goes buy some flowers in an airport store. Then, through the window he sees his family in the immigration but something is wrong. They get their entrance to the country denied and a federal officer aggressively takes them away while the elder watches everything desperately.
(Second Scene)
Two kids, a Palestine boy and a Jewish girl meet every day to watch the sunset in a beautiful field somewhere outside of Jerusalem. They smile and put their arms on each other shoulders while watching the sunset with the city of Jerusalem in the back. However, one day at the same time and same spot they were there again to meet, but there is a huge wall separating them now, and the smile has disappeared from their faces.
The screen becomes black with the phrase in white: “Break down the borders”. The screen becomes black again and a new phrase appears: “The world is yours”
Lastly, the commercial ends with the phrase: “Contribute to the end of borders and differences in our society” and below that phrase we conclude with the website of the entity “World Unification Organization – www.WUO.com”
End Note: The organization created is fictional but the commercial represents the anguish and sadness that borders can bring to the citizens of our world. In the first scene the elder has the right to see his family deprived. He has been gracefully waiting for them and because of some apparent bureaucratic issue he has this right denied. It is incredible the number of people that have their entrance in a foreign country denied. For example, if you want to acquire an U.S Visa the chance of you being denied to receive it is around 50% or even higher in some cases (Guru Immigration Law Blog). I understand that the individual might not have good antecedent in his/her home country; however in many of the occasions the visa applier has not criminal records or anything that can actually corrupt his image. And I say that by my own experience with friends that have their visas refused in the process of trying to travel for tourism to certain countries.
The second scene represents the innocence of two children living in a society where the religion indifference is big but it does not affect the friendship and purity of them. However the ignorance and lack of love between adults build an obstacle between the friendship of those kids. And the message that the fictional WUO organization wants to show is that borders bring suffering for people and they should be ended.
Poem 2
What is my Crime?
What is my crime?
Where one becomes not more pure
The blindness is in you
And for the whole world, this is fine
I know you are not mine
And I wish I had the words
To explain for you, and everybody
that without you my sun is not longer shining
But we write our own life line,
For what is left, we keep the specials
Out of yours I know I am
And I will be away with my rhyme
End Note:
I wrote this poem to express the feelings of an immigrant being denied to have citizenship in a particular country. I tried to show the lack of interest which the world presents about an immigrant. In addition it is stated the immigrant's sadness for having the right to be in a land that he/she loves deprived, and lastly the poetry ends with the immigrant's inevitable exit from the foreign country
The immigrant in my poetry actually symbolizes any immigrant being in a situation in which he/she does not have the legal right to be in a country that is not originally his/her. The closest example is the situation of many Mexicans that immigrate to the United States and after having built a family in this country they are sometimes obligate to return to Mexico because of the bureaucracy that manages the entrance of foreign people to the USA or any other country with a similar system.
What is my crime?
Where one becomes not more pure
The blindness is in you
And for the whole world, this is fine
I know you are not mine
And I wish I had the words
To explain for you, and everybody
that without you my sun is not longer shining
But we write our own life line,
For what is left, we keep the specials
Out of yours I know I am
And I will be away with my rhyme
End Note:
I wrote this poem to express the feelings of an immigrant being denied to have citizenship in a particular country. I tried to show the lack of interest which the world presents about an immigrant. In addition it is stated the immigrant's sadness for having the right to be in a land that he/she loves deprived, and lastly the poetry ends with the immigrant's inevitable exit from the foreign country
The immigrant in my poetry actually symbolizes any immigrant being in a situation in which he/she does not have the legal right to be in a country that is not originally his/her. The closest example is the situation of many Mexicans that immigrate to the United States and after having built a family in this country they are sometimes obligate to return to Mexico because of the bureaucracy that manages the entrance of foreign people to the USA or any other country with a similar system.
sábado, 5 de novembro de 2011
World Citizenship Menu
Appetizer
Freedom Appetizer – Taste the flavor of liberty and feel free to do whatever is in your mind
Pizzas
Unification Pizza – Mix of well known ingredients that will give you autonomy, freedom, and civil rights.
Side Dish
Old Views Toasted – Combination of things that nobody wants anymore toasted and almost burnt exclusively to our clients not to feel the original flavor.
Salads
Salad “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” – Delicious salad that increases self-esteem against the powerful ones that rule all world.
Desserts
The Fall of the Cake – Inspired by the Germans, this cake knocks down any indifference.
I just wanted to make a satire against the not unification of the world.Through the insertion of vocabulary related to the world citizenship; both words that are associated to the unification of the word and words that go against it.
Appetizer
Freedom Appetizer – Taste the flavor of liberty and feel free to do whatever is in your mind
Pizzas
Unification Pizza – Mix of well known ingredients that will give you autonomy, freedom, and civil rights.
Side Dish
Old Views Toasted – Combination of things that nobody wants anymore toasted and almost burnt exclusively to our clients not to feel the original flavor.
Salads
Salad “give to Caesar what is Caesar’s” – Delicious salad that increases self-esteem against the powerful ones that rule all world.
Desserts
The Fall of the Cake – Inspired by the Germans, this cake knocks down any indifference.
I just wanted to make a satire against the not unification of the world.Through the insertion of vocabulary related to the world citizenship; both words that are associated to the unification of the word and words that go against it.
terça-feira, 1 de novembro de 2011
quarta-feira, 26 de outubro de 2011
Research Log 4
Kenen, Peter. "The Benefits and Risk of Financial Globalization." 179.
Peter B Kenen explores the benefits and risk of a world economically globalized. He shows what are the mistakes that governments have done that contributed to many financial crisis in our modern era and the ways to be followed for a successful integration of the world’s economy.
Our best example of almost fully integrated economy is the Euro Zone. They share a common currency, no requirement of visas to cross each other boarders and a central government called the European Union (although every country has their own central government). The benefits of this union were clarified before the accord was taken. Economist believed that the integration would promote commerce through the decreasing of shipping costs among members, more number of merges of European companies consequently strengthening their business against other business from foreign economies and so on.
However the financial unification also has its adverse side. In a union such as the European, a crush in a single member economy could cause a domino effect which other members become susceptible to a crush of their economies as well. The European Union is the world’s experiment regarding a future completely globalization and since our planet is becoming everyday much more globalized the mistakes and benefits of this experiment should be carefully analyzed so we can be ready and not surprised in future events
Kenen wisely describes the subject “It is also worth noting that the gains from financial integration have not been as large or widespread as many economists expected when they confronted the data. A remarkable paper by four economists, Kenneth Rogoff and three of his former colleagues at the International Monetary Fund (Kose et al. 2006), has surveyed the very large body of research on the gains from integration—whether and to which extent it has fostered economic growth in the developing countries. To some significant extent that large body of research is flawed analytically. Much of it, for example, relies on overly simplistic measures of the degree to which countries restrict international capital flows, and much of it also fails to distinguish between the effects of capital controls and of other institutional features of the countries under study”
I will probably focus big part of my research paper in the financial globalization as well. First of all I am a finance major, and I have been reading about the subject every single day of my life in the past 3 years. Second, the world economics is the driver of our today’s world, if the economy does bad, everything else does bad as well. The gas gets too expensive, the value of your house drops considerably, that new car becomes only a dream, and it becomes hard to pay your kids college tuition. So for great world unification we need a great unified economy, in which policy takers and householders think on the same direction, to avoid generalized collapses in the world economy.
Peter B Kenen explores the benefits and risk of a world economically globalized. He shows what are the mistakes that governments have done that contributed to many financial crisis in our modern era and the ways to be followed for a successful integration of the world’s economy.
Our best example of almost fully integrated economy is the Euro Zone. They share a common currency, no requirement of visas to cross each other boarders and a central government called the European Union (although every country has their own central government). The benefits of this union were clarified before the accord was taken. Economist believed that the integration would promote commerce through the decreasing of shipping costs among members, more number of merges of European companies consequently strengthening their business against other business from foreign economies and so on.
However the financial unification also has its adverse side. In a union such as the European, a crush in a single member economy could cause a domino effect which other members become susceptible to a crush of their economies as well. The European Union is the world’s experiment regarding a future completely globalization and since our planet is becoming everyday much more globalized the mistakes and benefits of this experiment should be carefully analyzed so we can be ready and not surprised in future events
Kenen wisely describes the subject “It is also worth noting that the gains from financial integration have not been as large or widespread as many economists expected when they confronted the data. A remarkable paper by four economists, Kenneth Rogoff and three of his former colleagues at the International Monetary Fund (Kose et al. 2006), has surveyed the very large body of research on the gains from integration—whether and to which extent it has fostered economic growth in the developing countries. To some significant extent that large body of research is flawed analytically. Much of it, for example, relies on overly simplistic measures of the degree to which countries restrict international capital flows, and much of it also fails to distinguish between the effects of capital controls and of other institutional features of the countries under study”
I will probably focus big part of my research paper in the financial globalization as well. First of all I am a finance major, and I have been reading about the subject every single day of my life in the past 3 years. Second, the world economics is the driver of our today’s world, if the economy does bad, everything else does bad as well. The gas gets too expensive, the value of your house drops considerably, that new car becomes only a dream, and it becomes hard to pay your kids college tuition. So for great world unification we need a great unified economy, in which policy takers and householders think on the same direction, to avoid generalized collapses in the world economy.
segunda-feira, 24 de outubro de 2011
Research Log 3
"World Unification?." Now Puublic. N.p., 07/02.2009. Web. 24 Oct 2011. .
The author chronologically explains the progress of the world unification. He gives many examples of events that allowed a world more unified and also ideas that emerged more than a millennium ago and effectively contributed to states unification, evolving from the old political style based in a tribal government to the world that we know today.
The ideas of unification mentioned by the author are practically the same that I mentioned in my issue paper: wars are in the opposite side of world unification, in the very begin of the path that takes the men to a closer world. He cites Hugo’s Grotius book The Laws of War and Peace as a view of the effects of war in the people’s union; however, the American civil war revealed a flaw in the system proposed by Hugo according to the author of the article.
He shows another factor that our class readings did not make me realize: the human’s greed. The explanation of this factor contributing to the distance of people is the looking for power and luxury. People do not know how to handle power it becomes a reason to see the other as inferiors, consequently a view of people not being equal do not results in a world unified. Those in the power decide who will be the lord and who will be the slave.
It is also explored, although briefly, the power that the unification creates. The Roman Empire is a good example in which they unified one third of the planet and became the one of the most powerful empires that we have ever heard about. In fact, the extensive lands conquered and the bigger variety of resources acquired after those conquers could be linked to the success of the Roman Empire, although it is relevant to discuss the impact caused by the people’s unification in the process of domination performed by the Romans.
Lastly, the religion indifferences are another major issue that does not help in the world unification. We will not be able to achieve the ultimate level of unification if events such as the holocaust against the Jewish people, hate between Islam and Christianity continue to happen in the future. Independently of the fact that religious hate commonly leads to conflicts, at least a mutual respect should be present as a an essential factor for a “closer” world.
World’s citizenship is a delicate issue that it can be seen from many different perspectives as well as the the benefits of it. I feel more comfortable to talk about this theme after finding more historically examples of the process of unification that the world has been living in the past centuries. The article “World Unification?” will add great information in my final research paper and every information found by me about the subject is very valuable since I realize that not that many citizens discuss the subject deeply as other themes.
The author chronologically explains the progress of the world unification. He gives many examples of events that allowed a world more unified and also ideas that emerged more than a millennium ago and effectively contributed to states unification, evolving from the old political style based in a tribal government to the world that we know today.
The ideas of unification mentioned by the author are practically the same that I mentioned in my issue paper: wars are in the opposite side of world unification, in the very begin of the path that takes the men to a closer world. He cites Hugo’s Grotius book The Laws of War and Peace as a view of the effects of war in the people’s union; however, the American civil war revealed a flaw in the system proposed by Hugo according to the author of the article.
He shows another factor that our class readings did not make me realize: the human’s greed. The explanation of this factor contributing to the distance of people is the looking for power and luxury. People do not know how to handle power it becomes a reason to see the other as inferiors, consequently a view of people not being equal do not results in a world unified. Those in the power decide who will be the lord and who will be the slave.
It is also explored, although briefly, the power that the unification creates. The Roman Empire is a good example in which they unified one third of the planet and became the one of the most powerful empires that we have ever heard about. In fact, the extensive lands conquered and the bigger variety of resources acquired after those conquers could be linked to the success of the Roman Empire, although it is relevant to discuss the impact caused by the people’s unification in the process of domination performed by the Romans.
Lastly, the religion indifferences are another major issue that does not help in the world unification. We will not be able to achieve the ultimate level of unification if events such as the holocaust against the Jewish people, hate between Islam and Christianity continue to happen in the future. Independently of the fact that religious hate commonly leads to conflicts, at least a mutual respect should be present as a an essential factor for a “closer” world.
World’s citizenship is a delicate issue that it can be seen from many different perspectives as well as the the benefits of it. I feel more comfortable to talk about this theme after finding more historically examples of the process of unification that the world has been living in the past centuries. The article “World Unification?” will add great information in my final research paper and every information found by me about the subject is very valuable since I realize that not that many citizens discuss the subject deeply as other themes.
segunda-feira, 17 de outubro de 2011
Research Log 2
Engber, Daniel. "What's a world passport?." Slate.com. N.p., 24/03/2006. Web. 16 Oct 2011. .
This article tells the history of the world passport. Every nation has its own passport that gives the holder an identification of his identity and nationality; however, an organization based in Washington has been issues world passports, meaning that you are a citizen of world and can have free access to all the countries in the earth. Therefore, that does not work as its creators planned.
The world passport is issued by the World Service Authority, a non-profit organization founded 1953 by Garry Davis, an activist and also the world’s passport creator. Garry has been more than 20 times imprisoned for trying to cross national borders only carrying his world passport. He states that “free travel is a fundamental human right and that world peace is only possible with the creation of a world government in opposition to the system of national-states” (Davis). All his romanticism and ideology has produced some progress in the process of a world citizenship, although it is a very modest advancement. It is truth that individuals holding Mr. Davis passport have been successful in crossing the borders of 150 countries at least in one occasion, therefore only 5 of those countries officially accepts it as a legal form of identification.
The world passport does look like a regular, national passport, except it is issued in seven different languages. If you want to get yours, a fee of $45 should be paid with an expiration term of 3 years. It wouldn’t be recognized by countries such as Great Britain and Japan but you would be able to get your entrance allowed in countries such as Ecuador and Tanzania.
It is a quite interesting fact that Garry Davis is a former World War II bomber pilot. As mentioned before (in the issue essay) the world citizenship has the wars as it opposite. A man that saw the horror of a war, specially a war between so many different nations, probably awakened the idea of having a united world after experiencing the disgrace of people killing each other only because they were from different nationality, race or religion. Hence, the feeling of wanting to see all people united inspired Garry in his project of creating an organization that was going to fight for people’s freedom, starting through the creation of the world passport.
I researched about the world government on the internet and randomly found Engber’s article. I want some examples of people, organizations or even states that fight for the world’s citizenship so I can build a research paper more solid and rich in information. I hope this is the first of many more examples that I will have to add to my final paper. Weather I have or not enough examples an emphasis in interviews with common people, the ones that do not publicly manifest their desires of freedom will also be part of my paper so I can give a better idea to the reader about the progress and people’s opinion whether supporting or not the world citizenship.
This article tells the history of the world passport. Every nation has its own passport that gives the holder an identification of his identity and nationality; however, an organization based in Washington has been issues world passports, meaning that you are a citizen of world and can have free access to all the countries in the earth. Therefore, that does not work as its creators planned.
The world passport is issued by the World Service Authority, a non-profit organization founded 1953 by Garry Davis, an activist and also the world’s passport creator. Garry has been more than 20 times imprisoned for trying to cross national borders only carrying his world passport. He states that “free travel is a fundamental human right and that world peace is only possible with the creation of a world government in opposition to the system of national-states” (Davis). All his romanticism and ideology has produced some progress in the process of a world citizenship, although it is a very modest advancement. It is truth that individuals holding Mr. Davis passport have been successful in crossing the borders of 150 countries at least in one occasion, therefore only 5 of those countries officially accepts it as a legal form of identification.
The world passport does look like a regular, national passport, except it is issued in seven different languages. If you want to get yours, a fee of $45 should be paid with an expiration term of 3 years. It wouldn’t be recognized by countries such as Great Britain and Japan but you would be able to get your entrance allowed in countries such as Ecuador and Tanzania.
It is a quite interesting fact that Garry Davis is a former World War II bomber pilot. As mentioned before (in the issue essay) the world citizenship has the wars as it opposite. A man that saw the horror of a war, specially a war between so many different nations, probably awakened the idea of having a united world after experiencing the disgrace of people killing each other only because they were from different nationality, race or religion. Hence, the feeling of wanting to see all people united inspired Garry in his project of creating an organization that was going to fight for people’s freedom, starting through the creation of the world passport.
I researched about the world government on the internet and randomly found Engber’s article. I want some examples of people, organizations or even states that fight for the world’s citizenship so I can build a research paper more solid and rich in information. I hope this is the first of many more examples that I will have to add to my final paper. Weather I have or not enough examples an emphasis in interviews with common people, the ones that do not publicly manifest their desires of freedom will also be part of my paper so I can give a better idea to the reader about the progress and people’s opinion whether supporting or not the world citizenship.
segunda-feira, 10 de outubro de 2011
Research Log 1
Myers, John. To benefit the world by whatever means possible’: adolescents’ constructed meanings for global citizenship. 36. British Educational Research Journal, 2010. 483.
John Mayers article is a report on a research leaded by him in which 77 students are the sample of an experiment that has as its finality to indentify patterns of student’s thoughts about global citizenship and its complexities; how students understand the relationship of national and global citizenship. Mayers used data collected from online discussion boars, written essays and 20 interviews.
It is said that the focus of the research was not in the acceptance or not of a global citizenship but on the meaning of this topic to all the students studied. It is pointed that all the researches done before did not examine the relationship between adolescents and the global citizenship; everything written by many scholars are related to the adolescents increasing responsibilities in this globalised world but not in how this generation of adolescents interact with this theme. I like how the author puts the globalization as a challenger to the national citizenship, and he indentifies one of the challenges as the increase of individuals taking on global affiliations that extend beyond a single nation. It is obviously noticeable that in the today’s world we are much closer to each other than we were 100 years ago. As I said in my issue paper the technology has put us much closer, and after the Great War 2 the world pass through a re-organization process in which the creation of the United Nations, for example, was one of the main global affiliations mentioned by Mayers.
It is also mentioned in the article that the global citizenship process is sometimes covered by the education provided in the schools when we are still young. The fixation in a national patriotism builds individuals that will have a pre-concept about anything that comes from beyond the national frontiers. It is not the case of some countries such as England and Canada which they have the global citizenship as part of the school curriculum. This makes me believe that the world citizenship process is irreversible even though some cultures refuse it drastically. For example generation Y, the same generation studied by Mayers, shows strong signs that they will be carrying the global unification flag. Adolescents have a more opened mind than their parents and grandparents, and the contact that they have today with different cultures is greater than ever, especially because of the creation of internet and development of airplanes.
I chose this article because it talks exactly about the theme I picked for my research paper which is the World Citizenship. The article explores this theme in a more specific form, it does not covers the relationship of all the population with the global citizenship but specifically the adolescents that are the future of our world and the main responsible for a possible world unification in the near future.
John Mayers article is a report on a research leaded by him in which 77 students are the sample of an experiment that has as its finality to indentify patterns of student’s thoughts about global citizenship and its complexities; how students understand the relationship of national and global citizenship. Mayers used data collected from online discussion boars, written essays and 20 interviews.
It is said that the focus of the research was not in the acceptance or not of a global citizenship but on the meaning of this topic to all the students studied. It is pointed that all the researches done before did not examine the relationship between adolescents and the global citizenship; everything written by many scholars are related to the adolescents increasing responsibilities in this globalised world but not in how this generation of adolescents interact with this theme. I like how the author puts the globalization as a challenger to the national citizenship, and he indentifies one of the challenges as the increase of individuals taking on global affiliations that extend beyond a single nation. It is obviously noticeable that in the today’s world we are much closer to each other than we were 100 years ago. As I said in my issue paper the technology has put us much closer, and after the Great War 2 the world pass through a re-organization process in which the creation of the United Nations, for example, was one of the main global affiliations mentioned by Mayers.
It is also mentioned in the article that the global citizenship process is sometimes covered by the education provided in the schools when we are still young. The fixation in a national patriotism builds individuals that will have a pre-concept about anything that comes from beyond the national frontiers. It is not the case of some countries such as England and Canada which they have the global citizenship as part of the school curriculum. This makes me believe that the world citizenship process is irreversible even though some cultures refuse it drastically. For example generation Y, the same generation studied by Mayers, shows strong signs that they will be carrying the global unification flag. Adolescents have a more opened mind than their parents and grandparents, and the contact that they have today with different cultures is greater than ever, especially because of the creation of internet and development of airplanes.
I chose this article because it talks exactly about the theme I picked for my research paper which is the World Citizenship. The article explores this theme in a more specific form, it does not covers the relationship of all the population with the global citizenship but specifically the adolescents that are the future of our world and the main responsible for a possible world unification in the near future.
segunda-feira, 26 de setembro de 2011
Can There Be World Citizenship?
The author’s propose could be a utopia if it was presented 100 years ago. However, our world has changed to a direction that all its citizens are closer together. As it was discussed in the writing response about the different generations, I tried to show the proximity of people from different countries through the advancement of technology. Inventions such as internet and airplanes put us together as we have never been before. Because of those facts the mankind, on my opinion, is on the path to a kind of worldwide citizenship. The creation of the United Nations also can play an important role in this unification of people, as the author mentioned if we learned about the United Nations since elementary school and the position that each country has in the committee, would make our people aware of our union since very early.
Probably war is the biggest enemy of world’s union. It puts people away from each other, raises differences and hate among citizens. Humans have a hard time dealing with differences. Some of us do not accept for example religions or cultural differences, which can lead to conflicts between interests or merely because of this human difference that make all of our diversity. I am sure that when the proximity between people of different countries increases, everybody will have more opportunity to know each other better and the quantity of wars will consequently decrease; then we will be able to get our world citizenship.
Probably war is the biggest enemy of world’s union. It puts people away from each other, raises differences and hate among citizens. Humans have a hard time dealing with differences. Some of us do not accept for example religions or cultural differences, which can lead to conflicts between interests or merely because of this human difference that make all of our diversity. I am sure that when the proximity between people of different countries increases, everybody will have more opportunity to know each other better and the quantity of wars will consequently decrease; then we will be able to get our world citizenship.
domingo, 18 de setembro de 2011
Built by X -Generation Me and The Why-Worry Generation
Generation X worked hard; fought for their accomplishments. This generation faced the uncertainty of the coming future pos Second Great War. Their future was a mystery more than it is for the generation Y’s future. The cold war was always side by side with their lives; the dangerous of an atomic war to explode in American territory per example was imminent in their minds. Maybe all this stress made the Generation X more “man”, strong to grow in a suffered society. However, generation’s readings of this week, written by generation X members, tries to evidence how spoil generation Y is. I complete agree with many of the points presented by them, which described the spoiled kids, teenagers, and adults of the generation Y. Though, remember that we are a generation raised by the X’s. In addition I say that Generation Y has a much higher familiarity with communication, media and digital technologies than all the other generations have ever had. The proximity produced by airplanes, internet and cell phones has put this generation together as was never seen in the history of the mankind. A friend in Alaska can receive an email from you just right after you click on send; you can fly from Los Angeles to New York in less than an afternoon. More creations of generation X. The baby boomers gave us the easiness to acquire knowledge from the internet, where you can find explanations, biographies or any material for research much faster and practicable than any other book. The libraries used once by generation X can soon become obsolete. And that’s not a bad thing. I do not know if my generation will succeed, but I know we were raised by the ones that call us spoiled, made us like that. Even though we are spoiled, the possibilities to expand our intelligence in exponential levels are right in front of the screen of this laptop, created also by generation X. They can say anything about the Y’s but they were the ones that made us as we are.
terça-feira, 13 de setembro de 2011
The Ways We Lie
White lie
“I will repeat one more time: I didn’t kiss her
Façade
Wearing a Giorgio Armani T-shirt in a Hollywood club but having to get up early in the day after to go your Mac Donald’s job
Ignoring the Plain Facts
“My dog is happy even though it lives in a 160 square inches cage”
Deflecting
“He appeared from nowhere in front of me” – A drunk driver lying after running over a person on the side walk
Omission
A police seeing a co worker committing a crime and not reporting it to his superiors”
Stereotypes and Clichés
“She is Japanese; she will solve that equation easily”
Groupthink
A fraternity member lies to a court about a crime that one of his brothers committed
Out-and-Out Lies
A football coach asks his player why he came late to the practice; however, the coach saw the player in a bar at 4am of that morning.
Dismissal
“The professor is wrong, I am right”
Delusion
“I killed her because I have mental problems”
“I will repeat one more time: I didn’t kiss her
Façade
Wearing a Giorgio Armani T-shirt in a Hollywood club but having to get up early in the day after to go your Mac Donald’s job
Ignoring the Plain Facts
“My dog is happy even though it lives in a 160 square inches cage”
Deflecting
“He appeared from nowhere in front of me” – A drunk driver lying after running over a person on the side walk
Omission
A police seeing a co worker committing a crime and not reporting it to his superiors”
Stereotypes and Clichés
“She is Japanese; she will solve that equation easily”
Groupthink
A fraternity member lies to a court about a crime that one of his brothers committed
Out-and-Out Lies
A football coach asks his player why he came late to the practice; however, the coach saw the player in a bar at 4am of that morning.
Dismissal
“The professor is wrong, I am right”
Delusion
“I killed her because I have mental problems”
domingo, 11 de setembro de 2011
Big Rant - Today's Music
People rant about and because many things. Any fact that confronts with your expectations or beliefs can lead you to intense anger followed by complaints and more complaints. Factors such as the price of gas, president policies, weather, babies crying, too much homework and all the innumerous examples that I could give can make a person explode in complaints.
Rant is totally acceptable; you have the right of complaining in most of the situations that drive you crazy, and it can also be very constructive for example complaints that increase the quality of a product or service. However ranting does not look good all the time. It is not nice in the society point view some cases of complaint. For example, a person complaining in a violent way or some people making their complaint a scandalous could look ugly.
As a human being, I also would like to leave my rant. Music in these days is crap. Justin Bieber? Snoopy Dog? In my opinion, we are going backwards in our musical evolution. After having the compositions of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, or enjoying the poetry of Jim Morrison and the Jimi Hendrix guitar solos now we are obligated to content ourselves with Brittany Spears and Lil Wayne. Our new musicians do not aggregate any specie of benefit to our society and in addition, they get rich because of us in exchange of a low level of pop culture that they throw in our heads. I agree that music’s finality usually is to make us dance, and some of today’s music really get us shaking. However, the quantity of terrible songs made by brainless musicians out there is huge and I just want to complain about it, people agreeing with me or not.
Rant is totally acceptable; you have the right of complaining in most of the situations that drive you crazy, and it can also be very constructive for example complaints that increase the quality of a product or service. However ranting does not look good all the time. It is not nice in the society point view some cases of complaint. For example, a person complaining in a violent way or some people making their complaint a scandalous could look ugly.
As a human being, I also would like to leave my rant. Music in these days is crap. Justin Bieber? Snoopy Dog? In my opinion, we are going backwards in our musical evolution. After having the compositions of Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, or enjoying the poetry of Jim Morrison and the Jimi Hendrix guitar solos now we are obligated to content ourselves with Brittany Spears and Lil Wayne. Our new musicians do not aggregate any specie of benefit to our society and in addition, they get rich because of us in exchange of a low level of pop culture that they throw in our heads. I agree that music’s finality usually is to make us dance, and some of today’s music really get us shaking. However, the quantity of terrible songs made by brainless musicians out there is huge and I just want to complain about it, people agreeing with me or not.
Small Rant - Soccer
Don’t ever disagree with me when the subject is my soccer team. As a good fan I root and defend my team until death. I watch every single game that they play; if I am away from a television I still find time to at least listen it on the radio. I read all the news on their webpage, every single day. What I want to say is that I really love my team. However, all my fellows do not run for the same team that I do, actually most of them run for our biggest rival. My team has won many more championships, beaten them many more times than they have beaten us and so on. All the enough reasons to make me the winner in any debate about which team is better are in my side. However, they also love their team, just as I love mine. That’s when the rant starts. They argue their team is better because they have more fans, or because they have more games transmitted on sports channels. Whatever! That does not say that your team is better; I rather have half of their number of fans but beat them in every game just as we already do, than having numerous fans. Who cares? They apparently do, and blindly keep the thought that they are better. We can argue for hours without getting anywhere else but the same opinions that we had in the beginning. However, there is one other situation that actually pisses me off the most in those soccer discussions. It is when certain annoying individual comes to make funny at my team for losing a final against some other team that is not even his team. His team did not even qualified to the playoffs but he has to make funny at me for our vice position. That drives me crazy. Sometimes they remind me of “trolls”. Doing everything possible to make me explode in anger (It doesn’t mean I will punch somebody in the face because of that though) .They try to speak louder than me, laugh at every argument I use, just like a child. The fact that my team just lost, added with irritating commentaries; it is the perfect mix to make me rant about you for a long time.
RULE
Write whatever you want as long it does not affect the feelings of other people. Vocabulary such as racist or disrespect religious commentaries will not be tolerated.
quarta-feira, 31 de agosto de 2011
"Reading Response for 'Why I Like Vicious Online Comments' and 'Make Our Ugly Discourse Better: Join the Civilogue.'
I really liked the two readings topic of this week. All the swears and dirty words are part of the internet in the today’s world, and all of this low level of expression became so common out there on the web that We ended up forgetting what internet was created for.
It is easy to say whatever you want when you use the shield of anonymity. Nobody can find out your identity so you feel like you can say whatever you want even if that offends other people. The internet has created a legion of antisocial citizens that besides being away from the real world, also can infect the internet with their not constructive commentaries. In addition those commentaries can put children to unnecessary exposition. I know that we should always respect our human freedom, however we live in a society that does not welcome swear words. I agree with society. We know that children are a big part of the internet users and I do not like to see those youngsters mirroring and learning that kind of vocabulary. Maybe the censure of some words in determined websites could avoid the children exposition and it would be an easy way to solve this problem.
Another issue pointed by Matt Seitz is that, "…the protective force field of anonymity- or pseudonymity--brings out the worst in some people…They say things they would never say in the presence of flesh-and-blood human beings “ I must say that I agree with his statement. I am everyday on the web and always while watching a video on YouTube for example, I take a rapidly look at the video’s commentaries; what you see is exactly what Matt Seitz emphasizes: people make commentaries that they would never do in front of other people.
I agree people have the right to say about their conspiracy theory and use all the swear words they want on the web, however a limit has to be determined to filter the biggest source of knowledge that we have which is the internet. I do not want to see this huge ‘‘library” being contaminated with this unnecessary forms of expression.
It is easy to say whatever you want when you use the shield of anonymity. Nobody can find out your identity so you feel like you can say whatever you want even if that offends other people. The internet has created a legion of antisocial citizens that besides being away from the real world, also can infect the internet with their not constructive commentaries. In addition those commentaries can put children to unnecessary exposition. I know that we should always respect our human freedom, however we live in a society that does not welcome swear words. I agree with society. We know that children are a big part of the internet users and I do not like to see those youngsters mirroring and learning that kind of vocabulary. Maybe the censure of some words in determined websites could avoid the children exposition and it would be an easy way to solve this problem.
Another issue pointed by Matt Seitz is that, "…the protective force field of anonymity- or pseudonymity--brings out the worst in some people…They say things they would never say in the presence of flesh-and-blood human beings “ I must say that I agree with his statement. I am everyday on the web and always while watching a video on YouTube for example, I take a rapidly look at the video’s commentaries; what you see is exactly what Matt Seitz emphasizes: people make commentaries that they would never do in front of other people.
I agree people have the right to say about their conspiracy theory and use all the swear words they want on the web, however a limit has to be determined to filter the biggest source of knowledge that we have which is the internet. I do not want to see this huge ‘‘library” being contaminated with this unnecessary forms of expression.
segunda-feira, 29 de agosto de 2011
Freedom
Freedom is completely relative to the perspective of the human being in question. In my opinion, the definitions of freedom are equal to the innumerous different kind of citizens we have in this planet. Factors such as religion, income, region that you were born and family beliefs among other variables affect the final meaning of freedom for those specific individuals. I can define freedom following my family and community beliefs. I believe that freedom is the right of doing whatever I want to do as long it does not affect the freedom of other people.
I have my classification for the word freedom; however I believe that I cannot define it better than a person that was free and ended up being deprived of having the right of freedom. In my point of view those are the people that can explain this word better.
I have my classification for the word freedom; however I believe that I cannot define it better than a person that was free and ended up being deprived of having the right of freedom. In my point of view those are the people that can explain this word better.
domingo, 28 de agosto de 2011
"Talk to an Iraqi"
The main point of the movie or at least the personal point of the main character, the Iraqi, was stated by him in the very beginning of the video: He always wanted to meet people that are for the war and ask them “Why are you for the war?” However the movie clearly tries to show the worsening of the Iraq caused by the American invasion and the ignorance of the U.S people to the events occurring in that Middle East country.
I completely agree with the Iraqi when he wonders why the war started if so many people in the United States are against it. In addition, just as he said, the U.S was under attack performed by southern citizens of southwest Asia, not Iraqis. Also, the American government usually uses the “slogan” that they are in the war for the liberation of the Iraqi people, which I could realize through the information in the movie that actually the United States, has not given any freedom to those Arabs.
I do not agree with the opinion of some people that blindly believe that the American troops are there in Iraq bringing freedom to the Iraqi citizens. The only benefit accomplished so far by the troops is the fall of Saddam Hussein. His fall came in a costly way though, which thousands of lives were lost from both sides.
Another disagreement that I have is with a woman that talks to Haider and proclaims how good George W. Bush is. In my opinion he was not prepared to be a president and He made the United States a worse country, economically and specially in the view of people from other countries.
Finally the conversation with the 11 years old girl was my favorite part of the movie. She symbolizes what actually the wise, truly American people think about the war.
I completely agree with the Iraqi when he wonders why the war started if so many people in the United States are against it. In addition, just as he said, the U.S was under attack performed by southern citizens of southwest Asia, not Iraqis. Also, the American government usually uses the “slogan” that they are in the war for the liberation of the Iraqi people, which I could realize through the information in the movie that actually the United States, has not given any freedom to those Arabs.
I do not agree with the opinion of some people that blindly believe that the American troops are there in Iraq bringing freedom to the Iraqi citizens. The only benefit accomplished so far by the troops is the fall of Saddam Hussein. His fall came in a costly way though, which thousands of lives were lost from both sides.
Another disagreement that I have is with a woman that talks to Haider and proclaims how good George W. Bush is. In my opinion he was not prepared to be a president and He made the United States a worse country, economically and specially in the view of people from other countries.
Finally the conversation with the 11 years old girl was my favorite part of the movie. She symbolizes what actually the wise, truly American people think about the war.
quarta-feira, 24 de agosto de 2011
Assinar:
Postagens (Atom)