Binta-
I just read your final paper and i just wanted to say that i really like how you touched alot of different topics from the semester such as sicko and the health insurance topics. Then you also brought up our food unit. it was a good combination of everything put together. Reading it was a good review of what we did over the semester!
-margaux
lauren-
After reading you paper i realized that i could relate to the introduction and the second paragraph so much !
It made me realized that andy really touched among all of the topics of our everyday life and go deeper into each. I also agreed with the 2nd paragraph because i think that mostly everyone found the first unit on government a little boring because we dont use that topic as much in our every day lives. at our age we dont really talk about that stuff , its more about food and the industry , etc.
-margaux
Sam-
i really like how in the beginning of your paper you where so honest in telling everyone that you really didn't like andys teaching ways. I think it is good though that you challenged yourself the second semester because as you can see , you learn way more by coping with his style and just listening. good job this year,
margaux
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Collapse Assignment #2 (mini essay)
In today's world , everything is revolved around oil , and i literally mean EVERYTHING! If you notice, we are even made of oil because we eat food that is processed by oil, or use body soap that is processed with oil, and much more. We live in houses that revolve around oil, for heating , lighting, electricity,etc. If there was no oil, we wouldn't survive, the world would collapse.
Now when you think of collapse, people always think of it in different ways, there are many different types of collapses. There is the one where its the end of the world and everyone and everything dies out. there is the collapse where we run out of oil and our way of living totally changes. there is the collapse where there is a huge scare of the "end" of the world and everyone goes green and does a complete 360'. When i think about it, that last collapse would be a good collapse. That is what America is trying to do right now but doesn't seem to work out. i feel like right now "going green" is just a fashion statement. celebrities and people are just buying these little hybrids to look "cool" and "oh i care about the planet" , but really that 5% of the world doesn't mean much unless we ALL do it.
And there is alot of us on this world today to try and change, and the reason why there is so many of us is BECAUSE OF industrialization. ever since oil was founded, the population was growing by millions every year, and sooner or later we have a population of billions the planet. leaded to having to use more and more oil to keep things running and providing food and necessities for everyone. Which leads to more people trying to show off their wealth and buying EVERYTHING which leads to a different kind of collapse, a wealth one.
Which connects back to Easter island about how the people on the island tried to show off their wealth by building theses statues. The island doesn't have much trees, which is a very important resource to have on their land, but then you later find out that they used their trees and resources that they needed to survive, on these statues. It was basically a contest to see who can build the biggest statue on the island. So each and every one of them used up ALL of their resources to build these statues, which mean nothing and aren't needed on the island. Due to this "race" to show their wealth and strength, the island ended up collapsing and becoming non existent except for its statues.
When looking at this situation , i right away think of America because when you think of it , these Easter island people where trying to show off their wealth by trying to see who can build the biggest statue. it was a way of showing themselves off and trying to climb the social ladder. This connects to the American way of living because today so many people are trying to climb the social ladder and show off their wealth by buying huge houses and all of these expensive things and technology that they can LIVE WITHOUT. Its just a pointless way of showing yourself off. Just like the people on Easter island, no one on the island NEEDED to have those statues on the island.
Overall , sooner or later this world is going to collapse (any collapse you think it will be) and we are going to have to change our American way of living!
Now when you think of collapse, people always think of it in different ways, there are many different types of collapses. There is the one where its the end of the world and everyone and everything dies out. there is the collapse where we run out of oil and our way of living totally changes. there is the collapse where there is a huge scare of the "end" of the world and everyone goes green and does a complete 360'. When i think about it, that last collapse would be a good collapse. That is what America is trying to do right now but doesn't seem to work out. i feel like right now "going green" is just a fashion statement. celebrities and people are just buying these little hybrids to look "cool" and "oh i care about the planet" , but really that 5% of the world doesn't mean much unless we ALL do it.
And there is alot of us on this world today to try and change, and the reason why there is so many of us is BECAUSE OF industrialization. ever since oil was founded, the population was growing by millions every year, and sooner or later we have a population of billions the planet. leaded to having to use more and more oil to keep things running and providing food and necessities for everyone. Which leads to more people trying to show off their wealth and buying EVERYTHING which leads to a different kind of collapse, a wealth one.
Which connects back to Easter island about how the people on the island tried to show off their wealth by building theses statues. The island doesn't have much trees, which is a very important resource to have on their land, but then you later find out that they used their trees and resources that they needed to survive, on these statues. It was basically a contest to see who can build the biggest statue on the island. So each and every one of them used up ALL of their resources to build these statues, which mean nothing and aren't needed on the island. Due to this "race" to show their wealth and strength, the island ended up collapsing and becoming non existent except for its statues.
When looking at this situation , i right away think of America because when you think of it , these Easter island people where trying to show off their wealth by trying to see who can build the biggest statue. it was a way of showing themselves off and trying to climb the social ladder. This connects to the American way of living because today so many people are trying to climb the social ladder and show off their wealth by buying huge houses and all of these expensive things and technology that they can LIVE WITHOUT. Its just a pointless way of showing yourself off. Just like the people on Easter island, no one on the island NEEDED to have those statues on the island.
Overall , sooner or later this world is going to collapse (any collapse you think it will be) and we are going to have to change our American way of living!
Collapse Assignment #1(Easter Island)
In class we had to read an article about this island called "Easter Island". It once was an island with a people living on it , but then collapsed. I actually found the article interesting because i learned so much about the island and how something like this little island could related to America, its kind of scary.
In the article it mentions that the island didn't have many resources for the people living on it. Which is hard to question because when you look at the island i has these HUGE statues around the land, so you ask your self, if there is hardly any resources, how did they make these statues? Well the island doesn't have much trees, which is a very important resource to have on land, but then you later find out that they used their trees and resources that they needed to survive, on these statues. It was basically a contest to see who can build the biggest statue on the island. So each and every one of them used up ALL of their resources to build these statues, which mean nothing and aren't needed on the island. Due to this "race" to show their wealth and strength, the island ended up collapsing and becoming non existent except for its statues.
When looking at this situation , i right away think of America because when you think of it , these Easter island people where trying to show off their wealth by trying to see who can build the biggest statue. it was a way of showing themselves off and trying to climb the social ladder. This connects to the American way of living because today so many people are trying to climb the social ladder and show off their wealth by buying huge houses and all of these expensive things and technology that they can LIVE WITHOUT. Its just a pointless way of showing yourself off. Just like the people on Easter island, no one on the island NEEDED to have those statues on the island.
One other connection i was able to make off of the reading to the American way of life, is a quote i heard Andy saying about fossil fuels ""Fossil Fuel is like the trees in Easter Island" . It is true because in America we use our fossil fuel in ways that they should not be used, we use it to be made into gas for these huge hummer cars, we use it to make all this industrialized foods we eat instead of organic, we use it to keep on our electricity for WAY longer then needed, etc. we basically use it in ways that it shouldn't be use. This all connects to how the Trees on Easter island where like the fossil fuels of America. They would use their trees in a bad way , for their statues, when they couldn't not been killing them all!
In the article it mentions that the island didn't have many resources for the people living on it. Which is hard to question because when you look at the island i has these HUGE statues around the land, so you ask your self, if there is hardly any resources, how did they make these statues? Well the island doesn't have much trees, which is a very important resource to have on land, but then you later find out that they used their trees and resources that they needed to survive, on these statues. It was basically a contest to see who can build the biggest statue on the island. So each and every one of them used up ALL of their resources to build these statues, which mean nothing and aren't needed on the island. Due to this "race" to show their wealth and strength, the island ended up collapsing and becoming non existent except for its statues.
When looking at this situation , i right away think of America because when you think of it , these Easter island people where trying to show off their wealth by trying to see who can build the biggest statue. it was a way of showing themselves off and trying to climb the social ladder. This connects to the American way of living because today so many people are trying to climb the social ladder and show off their wealth by buying huge houses and all of these expensive things and technology that they can LIVE WITHOUT. Its just a pointless way of showing yourself off. Just like the people on Easter island, no one on the island NEEDED to have those statues on the island.
One other connection i was able to make off of the reading to the American way of life, is a quote i heard Andy saying about fossil fuels ""Fossil Fuel is like the trees in Easter Island" . It is true because in America we use our fossil fuel in ways that they should not be used, we use it to be made into gas for these huge hummer cars, we use it to make all this industrialized foods we eat instead of organic, we use it to keep on our electricity for WAY longer then needed, etc. we basically use it in ways that it shouldn't be use. This all connects to how the Trees on Easter island where like the fossil fuels of America. They would use their trees in a bad way , for their statues, when they couldn't not been killing them all!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Food Assignment 7
What I made was Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, and the response i got from my friends after eating my cookies was that they really liked it and thought they were delicious , even though in the photos they don't look too appetizing. Actually at first my sister and I were at our friends house in long island and her little sister was making these cookies and they were so good that my sister and I wanted to steal the recipe, then when we got home we went to the grocery store and got the ingredients. There was supposed to be a heath bar in the recipe but we couldn't find any in the store :( but either way they turned out good!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Food # 6 - Response to Pollan 1
I agree with Micheal Pollan's argument about his views on how Americans eat and the thinking process while eating or before eating. I do think that we always ask ourselves about " what are we going to eat today?" and i think that we ask this question so much because there are so many options to choose from. Like for example in the grocery store, there are so many different types of the same food to choose from. And another example is when I am going out to lunch, there are so many different options to choose from , that we all end up contemplating on which place to eat at.
Another aspect of Pollan's argument that I thought was interesting was when they described that people in France who eat all these cheeses and carbs, and not trying to diet are much healthier and weight less then us. While on the other hand, all the Americans care about their weight and are constantly dieting, end up way unhealthier and overweight.
My family doesn't really pay attention to any food experts , i guess that we just follow the "norms" of whats healthy and what is not. For example , we eat salad every night with alot of vegetables because we know that that's what healthy for us. Not that my dad is a food expert , but that is who i look up to when it comes to food. He always guides me with what to eat and whats healthy and whats not. I am pretty sure that he knows all of this from his nutritionist.
Another aspect of Pollan's argument that I thought was interesting was when they described that people in France who eat all these cheeses and carbs, and not trying to diet are much healthier and weight less then us. While on the other hand, all the Americans care about their weight and are constantly dieting, end up way unhealthier and overweight.
My family doesn't really pay attention to any food experts , i guess that we just follow the "norms" of whats healthy and what is not. For example , we eat salad every night with alot of vegetables because we know that that's what healthy for us. Not that my dad is a food expert , but that is who i look up to when it comes to food. He always guides me with what to eat and whats healthy and whats not. I am pretty sure that he knows all of this from his nutritionist.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Grocery Store and Habitual Food
I think that my family uses the grocery store in a positive way because both my father and mother shop at Whole Foods/Gourmet Garage meaning that all of our food in the fridge is organic and not processed and has a better quality then most other foods. I think that ever since i was little my father and mother did a good job raising me to eat my veggies and fruits, etc. Today in class we were talking about " what is a good way to raise your child to like and eat vegetables?" and there where some classmates saying that its not all about how one is raised, well i would like to argue and say that it does have to do with the way your raised and feed. If your brought up with a bunch of junk food and nothing healthy in the house, your child is most likely to grow up eating junk food. Well with my mom she made sure there was NONE of that in the kitchen and i think it worked out well because today i eat healthy.
I do agree that grocery stores push particular types of products such as what they put at eye level. if you notice all the name brands and "favorites" are at eye level so that people buy it because they see that product first. I think that they put all of the artificial products in the eye view because people tend to love the taste of artificial foods, and then come back to buy more = more business. It is actually funny that we are doing this unit right now because i have decided to go on a mini diet for the summer time. So its good that I'm learning all this new stuff about what is healthy and what is not , because i can take note of it and act on it! One bad habit that i have about my meals is that for lunch i tend to eat unhealthy because all my friends go to the food places around our school that aren't healthy and i end up going too and eat badly. But recently Ive gone to get a salad and meet up with them wherever they are eating.
I do agree that grocery stores push particular types of products such as what they put at eye level. if you notice all the name brands and "favorites" are at eye level so that people buy it because they see that product first. I think that they put all of the artificial products in the eye view because people tend to love the taste of artificial foods, and then come back to buy more = more business. It is actually funny that we are doing this unit right now because i have decided to go on a mini diet for the summer time. So its good that I'm learning all this new stuff about what is healthy and what is not , because i can take note of it and act on it! One bad habit that i have about my meals is that for lunch i tend to eat unhealthy because all my friends go to the food places around our school that aren't healthy and i end up going too and eat badly. But recently Ive gone to get a salad and meet up with them wherever they are eating.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Refrigerator Assignment
The Things in my Fridge:(everything is organic)
-Eggs
-parmesan
-turkey sliced
-lettuce
-water
-blackberries
-organic grape tomatoes
-yogurt
-pealed garlic
-bay leaves
-basil
-lemon
-rosemary
-potatoes
-left over pasta +salad
-orange
-sparkiling water
-hemp milk
-soy milk
-fresh squezed orange juice
-apple juice
-coconut water
-butter
-relish
-soy sauce
-ranch dressing
-mustard
-stawberry jam
-peace jam
-basamic vinaigrette
-olives
What this shows about my shows about food, your relation to food, our culture's food ways, etc:
-What the food in my fridge shows about my eating habits is that we always eat all organic and nothing processed! We always eat healthy and my parents always makes sure there is nothing fattening in the fridge. actually ever since i was little my mom always made sure that there was no junk food in the fridge so i wouldn't end up always wanting it. Now i wouldn't exactly compare my fridge to our cultures way of eating because our cultures way of eating is fatty foods, fast food, lots of meat, and junk food! And my fridge doesn't have any of that. MY fridge represents the few of us that actually eat healthy at home.... now I'm not saying i eat healthy all the time i do slip up at lunch time because of all the junk thats around our school :(
-Eggs
-parmesan
-turkey sliced
-lettuce
-water
-blackberries
-organic grape tomatoes
-yogurt
-pealed garlic
-bay leaves
-basil
-lemon
-rosemary
-potatoes
-left over pasta +salad
-orange
-sparkiling water
-hemp milk
-soy milk
-fresh squezed orange juice
-apple juice
-coconut water
-butter
-relish
-soy sauce
-ranch dressing
-mustard
-stawberry jam
-peace jam
-basamic vinaigrette
-olives
What this shows about my shows about food, your relation to food, our culture's food ways, etc:
-What the food in my fridge shows about my eating habits is that we always eat all organic and nothing processed! We always eat healthy and my parents always makes sure there is nothing fattening in the fridge. actually ever since i was little my mom always made sure that there was no junk food in the fridge so i wouldn't end up always wanting it. Now i wouldn't exactly compare my fridge to our cultures way of eating because our cultures way of eating is fatty foods, fast food, lots of meat, and junk food! And my fridge doesn't have any of that. MY fridge represents the few of us that actually eat healthy at home.... now I'm not saying i eat healthy all the time i do slip up at lunch time because of all the junk thats around our school :(
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Food Journal(#4)
Tuesday:
Dinner: For dinner i had penne alla vodka with parmesan cheese on top because it adds extra flavor. I also put salt on about everything i eat which is bad but i got the habit from my mother. We also had some cut up bread on the side to dip in the pasta sauce. We ate at 8pm because i had my tv show at 9pm so i wanted to be in my room by 9 and my mom doesn't let me eat in my room. We ate dinner at the dinner table just me and my mom. My mom cooked the meal and called me up when it was ready , i stopped doing homework and joined her. The pasta and sauce came from Gourmet Garage ( where we buy all of our food) so did the bread. We use silver wear when we eat, except when eating the bread. The tv was not on because we usually talk about my day/ hers, she likes to talk alottt. I think [if i can remember] at this dinner we talked about the swine flu , because it was on the news just before dinner time. Then we talked a little about whose going to move me into my dorm in arizona because both parents cant come. Before i felt really hungry because i usually feel most hungry at dinner time because i know my mom makes really nice home-cooked meals :) and afterwards i usually feel full and have to sit and watch some tv to digest before finishing my homework.
Wednesday:
Breakfast: nothing, i never eat breakfast, only on weekends and when i do eat it its usually a muffin from the vender at school ad eat during gym period.
Lunch: for lunch on wednesday we got out of school early so i went home to my dads to eat to save some money instead of eating with my friends. What i ate when i got to my dads was a bagel with butter. I was home alone so i ate by myself with the TV on , watching a movie. I also had a glass of mango juice. The bagel was from Whole Foods and so was the juice. I ate with my hands because i don't know how else to eat a bagel. Before i ate the bagel i was just relieved that my dad even had food in the fridge because he always buys food the night OF dinner. and after i ate i felt satisfied nothing special. i had to go to the dentist after so i was just dreading leaving the house.
Dinner: Well when i got home from the dentist to my moms house, i had the WORST headache because the numbing in my mouth was going back to normal and i was starting to feel the pain from the cavities. So because of that i took a nap at about 5pm and then i woke up at 10pm and wasn't hungry at all for an odd reason so i just laid in bed and watched tv until i feel asleep again.
Dinner: For dinner i had penne alla vodka with parmesan cheese on top because it adds extra flavor. I also put salt on about everything i eat which is bad but i got the habit from my mother. We also had some cut up bread on the side to dip in the pasta sauce. We ate at 8pm because i had my tv show at 9pm so i wanted to be in my room by 9 and my mom doesn't let me eat in my room. We ate dinner at the dinner table just me and my mom. My mom cooked the meal and called me up when it was ready , i stopped doing homework and joined her. The pasta and sauce came from Gourmet Garage ( where we buy all of our food) so did the bread. We use silver wear when we eat, except when eating the bread. The tv was not on because we usually talk about my day/ hers, she likes to talk alottt. I think [if i can remember] at this dinner we talked about the swine flu , because it was on the news just before dinner time. Then we talked a little about whose going to move me into my dorm in arizona because both parents cant come. Before i felt really hungry because i usually feel most hungry at dinner time because i know my mom makes really nice home-cooked meals :) and afterwards i usually feel full and have to sit and watch some tv to digest before finishing my homework.
Wednesday:
Breakfast: nothing, i never eat breakfast, only on weekends and when i do eat it its usually a muffin from the vender at school ad eat during gym period.
Lunch: for lunch on wednesday we got out of school early so i went home to my dads to eat to save some money instead of eating with my friends. What i ate when i got to my dads was a bagel with butter. I was home alone so i ate by myself with the TV on , watching a movie. I also had a glass of mango juice. The bagel was from Whole Foods and so was the juice. I ate with my hands because i don't know how else to eat a bagel. Before i ate the bagel i was just relieved that my dad even had food in the fridge because he always buys food the night OF dinner. and after i ate i felt satisfied nothing special. i had to go to the dentist after so i was just dreading leaving the house.
Dinner: Well when i got home from the dentist to my moms house, i had the WORST headache because the numbing in my mouth was going back to normal and i was starting to feel the pain from the cavities. So because of that i took a nap at about 5pm and then i woke up at 10pm and wasn't hungry at all for an odd reason so i just laid in bed and watched tv until i feel asleep again.
Food Cultures: Home and Corporate(#3)
I would say that my family food ways is that we do eat a good variety of foods. When I'm at my moms we always eat something different. My mom loves to cook so she is always trying out a new recipe from African foods, Indian, Mexican, classic American, etc. One thing that stays constant is that she ALWAYS makes a big salad with every meal and always makes sure i have vegetables with each of my meals to stay healthy. Then when i am at my dads house which is two nights a week, he always shops at Whole Foods every night on his way home, he never gets enough food to last the week, just a meal for the night, that is because he cant cook :( So when I sleep at his house he calls me up on his way home and asks what I want from whole foods, I usually get Mac and cheese or chicken or a burrito or a salad / soup it all depends on the mood.
When comparing the way that I eat with the rest of the Americans, I would stay that I am partially like the others. When im at my mothers house, I think that I eat differently because she always has something new on the table and we hardly order in , but then again I see the way we eat similar to in movies and tv shows because its very “typical” for the parent to say to their child “always gotta eat your greens!” which is totally like my mother! She always has her side plate of greens. But when I am at my fathers house I do think we are “Typical” Americans because whenever I am there we eat typical American food and he doesn’t cook, which is the stereotype for husbands in the U.S, we also order in a lot, which represents the U.S as well because it shows how lazy we are that we order people around to make food for us. Also with my father we usually find ourselves watching tv at the same time, which is a habit that Americans have when they eat. But with my mom she finds that when sitting at the dinner table, the tv shouldn’t be on because it our time to converse and talk with out any distraction, over a nice meal.
going a little off topic , when i think of americans i mostly thing of fast food, like mcdonalds, burger king ,etc. that is one thing that i am happy my family never brought me into ! Because when i look around at all the people in new york/the rest of the country, a lot of the families are eating mcdonalds, and overweight. It represents such a bad picture for us because when people out of the country think of the US they think: fast food.
When comparing the way that I eat with the rest of the Americans, I would stay that I am partially like the others. When im at my mothers house, I think that I eat differently because she always has something new on the table and we hardly order in , but then again I see the way we eat similar to in movies and tv shows because its very “typical” for the parent to say to their child “always gotta eat your greens!” which is totally like my mother! She always has her side plate of greens. But when I am at my fathers house I do think we are “Typical” Americans because whenever I am there we eat typical American food and he doesn’t cook, which is the stereotype for husbands in the U.S, we also order in a lot, which represents the U.S as well because it shows how lazy we are that we order people around to make food for us. Also with my father we usually find ourselves watching tv at the same time, which is a habit that Americans have when they eat. But with my mom she finds that when sitting at the dinner table, the tv shouldn’t be on because it our time to converse and talk with out any distraction, over a nice meal.
going a little off topic , when i think of americans i mostly thing of fast food, like mcdonalds, burger king ,etc. that is one thing that i am happy my family never brought me into ! Because when i look around at all the people in new york/the rest of the country, a lot of the families are eating mcdonalds, and overweight. It represents such a bad picture for us because when people out of the country think of the US they think: fast food.
Internet Research (#2)
Question: Why are the serving sizes in America SO big?
I found some really interesting things when researching the topic of serving sizes in the USA. I am just going to go ahead and list a couple of my findings:
-That food companies are constantly competing with eachother, so that when one company makes their portions bigger, the other has to do the same. Once Mcdonalds creates supersize, so does all other fast foods, etc.
-When people see such a huge portion for a small price they think they are getting a bargin so they buy more of it. its a good value for the price!
-since we have been corupted by the big meal sizes, oversized portions start to look normal to us
-When we go to other countries and eat out we find that their portions are "tiny" but they are really actually normal.
-"In the 1970s, around 47 percent of Americans were overweight or obese; now 66 percent of us are. In addition, the number of just obese people has doubled, from 15 percent of our population to 30 percent."
-"A study comparing eating habits today with twenty years ago found that participants poured themselves about 20 percent more cornflakes and 30 percent more milk than twenty years ago."
- that the size of a plate, bowl, and cup sizes have grown bigger and bigger as the years go buy!
http://diabetes.about.com/od/doctorsandspecialists/qt/bigportions.htm)
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22178/49492-portion-size--now/3
I found some really interesting things when researching the topic of serving sizes in the USA. I am just going to go ahead and list a couple of my findings:
-That food companies are constantly competing with eachother, so that when one company makes their portions bigger, the other has to do the same. Once Mcdonalds creates supersize, so does all other fast foods, etc.
-When people see such a huge portion for a small price they think they are getting a bargin so they buy more of it. its a good value for the price!
-since we have been corupted by the big meal sizes, oversized portions start to look normal to us
-When we go to other countries and eat out we find that their portions are "tiny" but they are really actually normal.
-"In the 1970s, around 47 percent of Americans were overweight or obese; now 66 percent of us are. In addition, the number of just obese people has doubled, from 15 percent of our population to 30 percent."
-"A study comparing eating habits today with twenty years ago found that participants poured themselves about 20 percent more cornflakes and 30 percent more milk than twenty years ago."
- that the size of a plate, bowl, and cup sizes have grown bigger and bigger as the years go buy!
http://diabetes.about.com/od/doctorsandspecialists/qt/bigportions.htm)
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22178/49492-portion-size--now/3
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Break Homework : Health Insurance
Now is may not be what you want to hear but when i interviewed my family about our health care/ insurance we have, it turns out that we have only had positive experiences. When i asked my mom what is our experience with health care in the US she said that we are "very fortunate that your father's employer has a good health insurance plan for the entire family. which relates to the fact that yes we do have health coverage through an HMO, Medicare or CHIP.
I cannot answer the next question about having to wait a lot of time in the emergency room because no one in my family never had an emergency where we had to wait.
The only time that we had trouble with medical bills is when we had switched to a new dentist and they told us that they took our health insurance company and then when the bills came , let me just say it was a large amount of money just for cleaning! i think that it is ridiculous that they charge so much just to clean your teeth and show you an x-ray of your mouth!
Now the last question i asked my family was about their experiences with their doctors and surprisingly my dad had a great experience. My father had a 5 bypass surgery [open heart surgery] about two years ago and it was all covered by his insurance and he says that the doctors were all incredible and that the hospital that treated him was more then accommodating to him and let him stay afterwards for recovery.
im not going to use my families example when comparing to the families in the movie Sicko because our family is happy with our health care. What im going to compare is the fact that some family have no health insurance in the US and when they do get sick or have an emergency they end up having to pay a HUGE bill. but in contrast, people in Europe or Canada , they get free health care! i was so surprised when watching the movie because i learned so much about other countries, and from that i actually learned alot about the US . what i learned was that for example people in France are so lucky to have free health care and free child care because it really does make a difference in how one grows up . Then from this i learned that the US sucks when it comes to health care because they dont provide any for free! it can put a family in debt ! The US not having free health insurance is leading to 18,000 additional deaths due to lack of health insurance! I mean there isn't much to say about the subject except for the fact that i believe we should run under the government of another country because it seems that they are living the "better" life and when you compare the society we have to theirs you can see a HUGE difference in our appearances and just the way we act in general .
I cannot answer the next question about having to wait a lot of time in the emergency room because no one in my family never had an emergency where we had to wait.
The only time that we had trouble with medical bills is when we had switched to a new dentist and they told us that they took our health insurance company and then when the bills came , let me just say it was a large amount of money just for cleaning! i think that it is ridiculous that they charge so much just to clean your teeth and show you an x-ray of your mouth!
Now the last question i asked my family was about their experiences with their doctors and surprisingly my dad had a great experience. My father had a 5 bypass surgery [open heart surgery] about two years ago and it was all covered by his insurance and he says that the doctors were all incredible and that the hospital that treated him was more then accommodating to him and let him stay afterwards for recovery.
im not going to use my families example when comparing to the families in the movie Sicko because our family is happy with our health care. What im going to compare is the fact that some family have no health insurance in the US and when they do get sick or have an emergency they end up having to pay a HUGE bill. but in contrast, people in Europe or Canada , they get free health care! i was so surprised when watching the movie because i learned so much about other countries, and from that i actually learned alot about the US . what i learned was that for example people in France are so lucky to have free health care and free child care because it really does make a difference in how one grows up . Then from this i learned that the US sucks when it comes to health care because they dont provide any for free! it can put a family in debt ! The US not having free health insurance is leading to 18,000 additional deaths due to lack of health insurance! I mean there isn't much to say about the subject except for the fact that i believe we should run under the government of another country because it seems that they are living the "better" life and when you compare the society we have to theirs you can see a HUGE difference in our appearances and just the way we act in general .
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Wealth and Poverty in US -Internet Research [not finished]
1) Has poverty changed over time?
- After doing some research i learned that yes the poverty rate in the US has changed over the years. It states that in the 1950's the poverty rate was at 22% which represents about 40 billion poor people ! This was when the poverty rate was at its peek because after that the rates decreased to 15% and below. When it started to decrease a lot , it was around the time of 1959-1969 , thats when it became 12% . over the years the rate increased and decreases due to economic difficulties as we moved into recession. Over all the latest rate that this site shows is 2007 and it was 37.3 million people were poor. Which is 12.5% . Looking at this rate you can see how the rate changed from the 1950's to 2007!
[http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq3.htm#change]
2) Follow up question: Why was the rate so high in the 1950's?
- the rate in the US was so high in the 1950's because it was right after the great depression. the rates were actually the highest around the 1940's and 1930's because that was during the great depression. at that time the rates reached a peak of 40%! almost half of America! The reason for the "Great Depression" was because there was a sudden crash in the stock market and the country became poor. This all relates to today i feel like because our stock market is crashing and people are spending money in the wrong places, we might be reaching that peak in the poverty rates soon :(
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression]
3) How many children under 18 in the US in poverty ?
- i found this website that tells me how many children are in poverty but its for the year 2007
- After doing some research i learned that yes the poverty rate in the US has changed over the years. It states that in the 1950's the poverty rate was at 22% which represents about 40 billion poor people ! This was when the poverty rate was at its peek because after that the rates decreased to 15% and below. When it started to decrease a lot , it was around the time of 1959-1969 , thats when it became 12% . over the years the rate increased and decreases due to economic difficulties as we moved into recession. Over all the latest rate that this site shows is 2007 and it was 37.3 million people were poor. Which is 12.5% . Looking at this rate you can see how the rate changed from the 1950's to 2007!
[http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq3.htm#change]
2) Follow up question: Why was the rate so high in the 1950's?
- the rate in the US was so high in the 1950's because it was right after the great depression. the rates were actually the highest around the 1940's and 1930's because that was during the great depression. at that time the rates reached a peak of 40%! almost half of America! The reason for the "Great Depression" was because there was a sudden crash in the stock market and the country became poor. This all relates to today i feel like because our stock market is crashing and people are spending money in the wrong places, we might be reaching that peak in the poverty rates soon :(
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression]
3) How many children under 18 in the US in poverty ?
- i found this website that tells me how many children are in poverty but its for the year 2007
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Social Welfare Systems and Taxes Analysis
In this unit we learned about the US social welfare systems and all about the taxes, we also had guests from Denmark come into our class and tell us about their systems. I would like to start off by talking about the US systems. In the US we have a lot of people in welfare, and they actually don’t know much about what we offer. For example we went on the NYC website and entered in some fake information for a poor person who was pregnant with a son and no job. When we went to see what was available for her, there were so many options to choose from , but the problem is that no one even know about them. There’s also the factor that a lot of poor people are embarrassed and ashamed to ask for the services because here in America everyone judges. Really quick to tie it the Denmark, everyone gets help from the government no matter how much you make, and the community in Denmark isn’t afraid to take advantage of those services! We also as a class called up 311 and pretended that we were the “family” in need of welfare, and the operator helped us out. It was actually interesting because we mentioned that she was homeless and pregnant, but the first thing she offered to us was health care for her child, but did not mention anything about housing or food stamps. So as a class we concluded that they should change the system of the “over the phone” 311 system and improve it. Another problem that there is, is that the poverty line is 14,000$ which is hard because when we calculated all the expenses for a woman with a child and is pregnant, it came up to 32,000$ a year, which is hard for her because if you want to get welfare, you have to stoop your self low to only make 14,000$ because if you make over, you wont get any benefits.
What I learned about taxes in this unit is that flat taxes is when everyone pays the same amount of taxes on things. This is applied to food, clothing, etc. then there is regressive tax, which is where poor people pay a way higher percentage of taxes then their income then the rich people. Then progressive tax is the opposite, what rich people pay a high percentage of taxes of their income then poor people. An example of regressive taxes is on sales tax because poor people may have to pay 20$ taxes on their groceries which is a lot for them while the rich man pays the same taxes and a 20$ dollar bill is like a penny to him. An example of progressive taxes is income tax, because the rich man ends up paying a lot of taxes because he makes so much, while the poor person pays none to nothing taxes because they don’t make anything. Effective tax is when you’re given all the tax brackets and how much you end up actually paying.
Now to move on to Denmark, what I learned from the students was that life sounds WAY better in Denmark! First off they offer a lot of services to everyone and they aren’t selective. This is called social democracy where is universal and not selective. One thing that they have is that they have free education after high school and actually get paid each month to go to college. Free day care is also provided in Denmark, no matter how much you make there is free day care all over the country. The Denmark community ensures equal rights and everyone has equal rights and access to public services as well. They also have a good health insurance policy; the government tries to pay for as much as it can when it comes to medication and visits, etc. another thing I learned that interested me was that if you were unemployed or laid off, they were subjected to place you in another job right away. So it’s impossible to get fired and not have a job in Denmark. It’s funny because Danish people are known to be one of the happiest people in the world. Shows how much a government and welfare system means to a country!
After making this conclusion about the Danish government, I beielve that the US should adapt to their type of government because I believe that the government has a whole lot to do with how the people in our country turn out, I think that we would be a way more happier country and everyone would be equal, there would not be “rich or poor”. And I think just having that not exists in a country is amazing! I think everyone should have that!
What I learned about taxes in this unit is that flat taxes is when everyone pays the same amount of taxes on things. This is applied to food, clothing, etc. then there is regressive tax, which is where poor people pay a way higher percentage of taxes then their income then the rich people. Then progressive tax is the opposite, what rich people pay a high percentage of taxes of their income then poor people. An example of regressive taxes is on sales tax because poor people may have to pay 20$ taxes on their groceries which is a lot for them while the rich man pays the same taxes and a 20$ dollar bill is like a penny to him. An example of progressive taxes is income tax, because the rich man ends up paying a lot of taxes because he makes so much, while the poor person pays none to nothing taxes because they don’t make anything. Effective tax is when you’re given all the tax brackets and how much you end up actually paying.
Now to move on to Denmark, what I learned from the students was that life sounds WAY better in Denmark! First off they offer a lot of services to everyone and they aren’t selective. This is called social democracy where is universal and not selective. One thing that they have is that they have free education after high school and actually get paid each month to go to college. Free day care is also provided in Denmark, no matter how much you make there is free day care all over the country. The Denmark community ensures equal rights and everyone has equal rights and access to public services as well. They also have a good health insurance policy; the government tries to pay for as much as it can when it comes to medication and visits, etc. another thing I learned that interested me was that if you were unemployed or laid off, they were subjected to place you in another job right away. So it’s impossible to get fired and not have a job in Denmark. It’s funny because Danish people are known to be one of the happiest people in the world. Shows how much a government and welfare system means to a country!
After making this conclusion about the Danish government, I beielve that the US should adapt to their type of government because I believe that the government has a whole lot to do with how the people in our country turn out, I think that we would be a way more happier country and everyone would be equal, there would not be “rich or poor”. And I think just having that not exists in a country is amazing! I think everyone should have that!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
AWOL PROJECT
for my project i chose to make a website about the awol BIRTH!
here is the link to my website i created:
http://sites.google.com/site/birthinamericaproject/
follow the links at the end of the page to move onto the next topic!
here is the link to my website i created:
http://sites.google.com/site/birthinamericaproject/
follow the links at the end of the page to move onto the next topic!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Response to "The Business of Being Born"
in class we watched a documentary called " the business of being born" and it was about the American way of births and how its corrupted. the movie was mostly about how a camera was following midwifes around during pregnancies. its about how having a midwife and a home pregnancy is WAY better then in the hospital. many people think it is safer to have your child in the hospital because if anything happens, your in close area to many doctors. but the truth is that the only reason why problems happen is because of the drugs that the doctors give you. when you are having a birth at home, you aren't taking any drugs that would cause you to have an emergency c-section. Americans think that it is a bad idea to have a midwife and home birth because they think that it is dangerous and that they would do anything for a FAST unpainful delivery. in japan and Europe midwifes attend over 70% of the births , while here in America , only 8% ! that just shows that the Americans aren't educated on the topic. i bet that if all pregnant woman watched this documentary they would change their mind , and get midwifes.
In my opinion i agree with the movie because i believe that it is healthier to give a birth with a midwife at your house. not only is it safer and has less risks, but it also provides that "special connection" with your child at first site. in the movie i learned that when the baby first comes out of the woman [in a hospital] and then the doctors show the mother the baby and then runs off with it, its not right because the mother is supposed to spend time with their child to get the special connection started, so that the mother can be attached to her child. with home births, the mother is able to hold her child for an hour , connecting with him or her , and creating that special attachment that creates a different kind of love for your child rather then when it gets run off to a completely different room.
another interesting fact that caught my eye during the movie, where these facts: in 1900 95% of the births were at home, in 1938 50% of births were at home, in 1955 1% of births are at home and it remains the same. At first back in the day mostly all births where taken place at home because that was the "norm" but then people starting thinking that midwifes were dirty and unsanitary and compared them to the "white pretty" hospitals. Which when you think about it, the hospitals have hundreds of sick people walking around with billions of germs , while your house only has YOUR germs [which are clean] and only the people you love around you. because the mothers where getting the wrong image, the percentage of births at home where decreasing rapidly!
In my opinion i agree with the movie because i believe that it is healthier to give a birth with a midwife at your house. not only is it safer and has less risks, but it also provides that "special connection" with your child at first site. in the movie i learned that when the baby first comes out of the woman [in a hospital] and then the doctors show the mother the baby and then runs off with it, its not right because the mother is supposed to spend time with their child to get the special connection started, so that the mother can be attached to her child. with home births, the mother is able to hold her child for an hour , connecting with him or her , and creating that special attachment that creates a different kind of love for your child rather then when it gets run off to a completely different room.
another interesting fact that caught my eye during the movie, where these facts: in 1900 95% of the births were at home, in 1938 50% of births were at home, in 1955 1% of births are at home and it remains the same. At first back in the day mostly all births where taken place at home because that was the "norm" but then people starting thinking that midwifes were dirty and unsanitary and compared them to the "white pretty" hospitals. Which when you think about it, the hospitals have hundreds of sick people walking around with billions of germs , while your house only has YOUR germs [which are clean] and only the people you love around you. because the mothers where getting the wrong image, the percentage of births at home where decreasing rapidly!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
break homework:looking at videos
Thoughts on video:
1.Giraffe giving birth: my thoughts on the giraffe giving birth is that I thought it was cool that they treat them some what like how they treat humans when we are in birth. They have a birth mother with them, and they make a comforting floor for the baby and even a separate special room for birth. For some reason I even feel as if their birth seems calmer and more relaxing then human birth. You don’t see the giraffe screaming or people crowding around her, she just walks around waiting for it to push out. Another thing that I found fascinating was when the baby was able to walk within the first half hour!
2. Dolphin giving birth: my thought on the dolphin giving birth wasn’t anything exciting. You just see her swimming around and then after a bit the baby dolphin pops out with some blood. One thing that I thought was cool was how the baby was automatically able to swim without any instruction or even seeing her mother swim to get an idea. It just happened instantly!
3: natural birth at home: the first thing I noticed was that she was in a different position then usual, and that in another scene she was hugging her husband while giving birth. I thought that that looking more comforting rather then spreading your legs out in front of everyone. The thing that I found extremely weird was that when she was sitting down with her legs open and the head started showing, a child [maybe her child] was talking and saying they see a head. That means that she let her kids watch her giving birth, that was really weird to see because I don’t think a child should watch that. Another thing I noticed was the birth mother constantly being there for her massaging her muscles, etc. it looked relaxing. When I compare the dolphin and the giraffe to the human baby, the one thing I notice is that the animal babies automatically adapt to their bodies by walking and moving instantly while a human baby takes a while to walk and talk etc.
1.Giraffe giving birth: my thoughts on the giraffe giving birth is that I thought it was cool that they treat them some what like how they treat humans when we are in birth. They have a birth mother with them, and they make a comforting floor for the baby and even a separate special room for birth. For some reason I even feel as if their birth seems calmer and more relaxing then human birth. You don’t see the giraffe screaming or people crowding around her, she just walks around waiting for it to push out. Another thing that I found fascinating was when the baby was able to walk within the first half hour!
2. Dolphin giving birth: my thought on the dolphin giving birth wasn’t anything exciting. You just see her swimming around and then after a bit the baby dolphin pops out with some blood. One thing that I thought was cool was how the baby was automatically able to swim without any instruction or even seeing her mother swim to get an idea. It just happened instantly!
3: natural birth at home: the first thing I noticed was that she was in a different position then usual, and that in another scene she was hugging her husband while giving birth. I thought that that looking more comforting rather then spreading your legs out in front of everyone. The thing that I found extremely weird was that when she was sitting down with her legs open and the head started showing, a child [maybe her child] was talking and saying they see a head. That means that she let her kids watch her giving birth, that was really weird to see because I don’t think a child should watch that. Another thing I noticed was the birth mother constantly being there for her massaging her muscles, etc. it looked relaxing. When I compare the dolphin and the giraffe to the human baby, the one thing I notice is that the animal babies automatically adapt to their bodies by walking and moving instantly while a human baby takes a while to walk and talk etc.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thoughts on Government controlling births and ETC
In todays class we had discussed how the government has say on different things when it comes to pregnancy. Like they are able to take a child away when they are in danger and its against the law to abuse your child otherwise its child abuse , etc. But then we were saying how they cant control how many kids a mother can have. like this one lady has 18 children and keeps having babies , and no one is stopping her. I do think that the government should step in at one point when it gets out of control because if you cannot support the children, you shouldn't have them because you dont want to put them threw a miserable life!
i dont think that the government needs to go to the extend like they do in China where they restrict only two children per a family . i think that if you can afford to take care of alot of children , so be it , but if you cant there should something to stop them from ruining more children's lives.
Another thing that we brought up in class today was the question of why woman go through so much horrible technologies and stuff during birth? as a class we agreed that it was to ignore the pain . a woman these days will do anything to get rid of the pain! When i asked myself this question i said to myself that i would love to have a natural birth and all but then in the end after i feel all the pain i would ask for the numbing to take act and do anything for the baby to come out faster and get it over with. like i mentioned in class earlier everyone is doing the "faster procedure" because it is now " normal" but still not natural... whats natural is become un-normal. when i think about this, i can relate it to many things, like its natural to have body hair but we shave it all off because its "normal" to. There are many things like this that are natural and once normal but have no became un normal!
i dont think that the government needs to go to the extend like they do in China where they restrict only two children per a family . i think that if you can afford to take care of alot of children , so be it , but if you cant there should something to stop them from ruining more children's lives.
Another thing that we brought up in class today was the question of why woman go through so much horrible technologies and stuff during birth? as a class we agreed that it was to ignore the pain . a woman these days will do anything to get rid of the pain! When i asked myself this question i said to myself that i would love to have a natural birth and all but then in the end after i feel all the pain i would ask for the numbing to take act and do anything for the baby to come out faster and get it over with. like i mentioned in class earlier everyone is doing the "faster procedure" because it is now " normal" but still not natural... whats natural is become un-normal. when i think about this, i can relate it to many things, like its natural to have body hair but we shave it all off because its "normal" to. There are many things like this that are natural and once normal but have no became un normal!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Pregnancy Experience Questioner
Birth Mother #1: She was in labor for 51 hours and was against c section's but towards the end when she was getting extremely tired she gave up and got a c section. She mentions that the pool was the most relaxing and comfortable place to be and would calm her down. She is planning on having a second child but wishes to have a natural birth the next time. Her one regret was having the c section, but she had to because she failed to progress.
Birth Mother #2: She was in labor for about a day and a half, she had a midwife and her mid wife knew she hated c sections so se gave her an IV and she would sleep for five hours at a time only waking up for random contractions. And then 24 hours later her baby came out, while her second pregnancy was WAY easier, it only lasted about 5 hours and only took 10 minutes to push. She doesn't have any regrets because she was very aware of the process and what would happen so even though she was in complete pain she understood why.
Birth Mother #3: She was in labor for only about 6 hours, she was having her baby a week early, a premature. She arrived at the hospital and had her water broken by the doctor , about 3 hours later she was ready to push but she was completely numb so had to wait another our or two , when finally she was able to push and her baby came out an hour later. she claims that it was very easy and "is ready to do it again!" .
Birth Mother #4: She didn't have a positive experience , she found the nurses to be very unpolite and had a call in doctor, so she felt really uncomfortable already. The doctors told her that they lost her daughters heartbeat and they had to call in another doctor. she mentions that it was very tense in the room , and wasn't helping the process at all. They had to use a vacuum extraction because the baby wasn't coming out when she pushed and since they couldn't find the heart beat they needed to speed up the process. Finally when the baby came out the cord was around her neck , and when they cut it , she wasn't crying which freaked her out, but then a second later a little noise came out of her mouth. This mother mentions that it was the worst experience ever but the outcome was worth it !
Birth Mother #2: She was in labor for about a day and a half, she had a midwife and her mid wife knew she hated c sections so se gave her an IV and she would sleep for five hours at a time only waking up for random contractions. And then 24 hours later her baby came out, while her second pregnancy was WAY easier, it only lasted about 5 hours and only took 10 minutes to push. She doesn't have any regrets because she was very aware of the process and what would happen so even though she was in complete pain she understood why.
Birth Mother #3: She was in labor for only about 6 hours, she was having her baby a week early, a premature. She arrived at the hospital and had her water broken by the doctor , about 3 hours later she was ready to push but she was completely numb so had to wait another our or two , when finally she was able to push and her baby came out an hour later. she claims that it was very easy and "is ready to do it again!" .
Birth Mother #4: She didn't have a positive experience , she found the nurses to be very unpolite and had a call in doctor, so she felt really uncomfortable already. The doctors told her that they lost her daughters heartbeat and they had to call in another doctor. she mentions that it was very tense in the room , and wasn't helping the process at all. They had to use a vacuum extraction because the baby wasn't coming out when she pushed and since they couldn't find the heart beat they needed to speed up the process. Finally when the baby came out the cord was around her neck , and when they cut it , she wasn't crying which freaked her out, but then a second later a little noise came out of her mouth. This mother mentions that it was the worst experience ever but the outcome was worth it !
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Thoughts on Pregnancy
What are your opinions on birth?
- I believe that nothing is wrong with it, i think that if your going to give birth it should be the natural way though. another thing i thing i think about having a child is that i think you should be prepared for it , like you shouldn't be too young, not doing drugs , and you can support yourself, etc. I think all of these things are important when it comes to pregnancy because your baby should have a good life and to have a good life you have to be a stable person in many different areas. Which actually connects to what Cindy said in class " The american way of life is not family based, its work based" . this quote shows that the AWOL has brainwashed me because i think that in order for you to have i child i think that you have to have enough money to support both the child and yourself, which is kind of saying that work should come first and then the baby, which is a sad thing but when you think about it its true, even though i hate the way it sounds!
- I believe that nothing is wrong with it, i think that if your going to give birth it should be the natural way though. another thing i thing i think about having a child is that i think you should be prepared for it , like you shouldn't be too young, not doing drugs , and you can support yourself, etc. I think all of these things are important when it comes to pregnancy because your baby should have a good life and to have a good life you have to be a stable person in many different areas. Which actually connects to what Cindy said in class " The american way of life is not family based, its work based" . this quote shows that the AWOL has brainwashed me because i think that in order for you to have i child i think that you have to have enough money to support both the child and yourself, which is kind of saying that work should come first and then the baby, which is a sad thing but when you think about it its true, even though i hate the way it sounds!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
KARL MARX assignment
Karl Marx was a phylosper around the time of 1948 when he wrote his first book against capitalism. He was against capitalism for many different reasons. Those reasons being ; exploitation, alienation, base and structure, political economy , and more. Marx was really against how capitalism worked and he believed that it was draining out the workers souls and alienating them from what they really want to do and should be doing . one concept and metaphor he used that really caught my eye was when he mentioned that capitalism was like a vampire. the connection between the two is that capitalism sucks all the money and work out of the labor while the owners get EVERYTHING, this is just like vampires sucking out all the blood in a humans body , ending up with what THEY want. The more the capitalism exploits the works, the more blood getting sucked out of the humans! The capitalist are making all this money off of the labor workers while they only about a percent of what the capitalist are making off of THEIR WORK. this reminds me of when i was working at american eagle outfitters, and i would sell them about 10 jeans an hour while i was only getting 8$ an hour while each one of those jeans cost 50$ . it doesn't make sense at all . its crazy how people and even myself was up to getting paid such little amount of money. overall ` Marx was against all of this because he believed in humans creating their own ideas and not being ruled around by other people.
Inauguration Assignment
Well first off i was actually in Puerto Rico when the inauguration was going on , and was about to get on the plane, so i wasn't able to watch it . but i did read the text of his speech and found it moving.
What i was able to catch on TV was the very beginning of everyone walking in to greet. When i saw that i couldn't believe how many people where there for Obama to support him. It felt like a revolution because they had mentioned that it was the most people America has ever gotten at an inauguration. i wonder what as going on in Obama's mind when he saw how many people where there for HIM.
One thing i noticed about the speed was that when everyone compared Obama's speech to the past inauguration speeches, they said that his wasn't all about encouragement and such, but that it was like he was already in work , that he had been doing this for years. I liked that aspect about his speech because it had a calming sense to it , and made me very proud of who our president is.
One thing that Obama mentioned that caught my eye was "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." when i read that i was kind of confused because i believe that you cannot remake America, that that is a job that will take years a years to accomplish. i feel like by him saying that, he is putting so much pressure on his shoulders to make America "perfect", and that now people will be looking forward for the new America when i feel like that is not possible.
Which connects back to our AWOL unit because through out his speech he mentions all the bad things that America has going wrong such as "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred" and "Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered" and more. Those words coming out of his mouth show that this country is in danger and that it is a serious deal. By him stating all the things wrong with the country just shows how the American way of life is , everyone from around the world was probably watching the Obama inauguration and all they hear is this bad stuff about America, they must make opinions wrapped around what he said.
Obama must seem to emphasized the "the American Way of Life" as all these challenges he needs to complete while he is president, and i hope he will fix most of it before our reputation gets worse!
What i was able to catch on TV was the very beginning of everyone walking in to greet. When i saw that i couldn't believe how many people where there for Obama to support him. It felt like a revolution because they had mentioned that it was the most people America has ever gotten at an inauguration. i wonder what as going on in Obama's mind when he saw how many people where there for HIM.
One thing i noticed about the speed was that when everyone compared Obama's speech to the past inauguration speeches, they said that his wasn't all about encouragement and such, but that it was like he was already in work , that he had been doing this for years. I liked that aspect about his speech because it had a calming sense to it , and made me very proud of who our president is.
One thing that Obama mentioned that caught my eye was "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." when i read that i was kind of confused because i believe that you cannot remake America, that that is a job that will take years a years to accomplish. i feel like by him saying that, he is putting so much pressure on his shoulders to make America "perfect", and that now people will be looking forward for the new America when i feel like that is not possible.
Which connects back to our AWOL unit because through out his speech he mentions all the bad things that America has going wrong such as "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred" and "Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered" and more. Those words coming out of his mouth show that this country is in danger and that it is a serious deal. By him stating all the things wrong with the country just shows how the American way of life is , everyone from around the world was probably watching the Obama inauguration and all they hear is this bad stuff about America, they must make opinions wrapped around what he said.
Obama must seem to emphasized the "the American Way of Life" as all these challenges he needs to complete while he is president, and i hope he will fix most of it before our reputation gets worse!
Friday, January 2, 2009
big paper updated 1/2/09
When you look at americans , you can realized that theres definitely an " American Way of Life" you realize that we live a very specific kind of way. its hard to describe but when you analysis different situations such as thanksgiving, christmas, our economy and how it works, the constitution, etc. you notice that we are one of a kind, and not in a good way.
capitalism is broken up into many different parts, but overall what it means is that its "an economical system in which good services are produced , distributed,and consumed though the mechanism of free markets". meaning that its all about how products are bought and sold and the logic behind it . another point to add in would have to be that its all about the "free market" and "private property", meaning that it all depends if its free market and anyone can sell the product , or if its private and you have to have the right to sell the product.
the three main parts of capitalism is : land , labor , and capital . meaning that the land is literally the land that you sell your product on ( aka the store, the street, the grass). the labor is who you choose to MAKE sell the products for you , or the labor that you do to sell the products or to produce your products, and then the capital is the stuff that you use to sell you items like signs, advertisement, and then the wealth comes in !
the wealth is when you get profit from the products you sold and are able to increase your profit by upgrading ! the most fun of it all ! it all turns into a cycle sell,profit,upgrade,MORE profit, sell upgrade, EVEN MORE profit.. etc etc. its a way to get rich !
the main objective of the seller would be to make the most money possible while spending the least amount possible. meaning that he wants to buy the product for a cheap amount of money and make the buyer pay extra , so he gets profit. but then its not all up to him , he always has to relate back to the supply and demand chart. [Photo] the supply and demand chart lets you know the highest price you can sell the item for and the lowest amount of money the buyer will pay for the product, which is the market price. you have to revolve it all around the market price which ends up changing here and there, it all depends on the supply and demand if it shifts or not !
now going a little off topic, theres always going to be competition, if theres a free market, there will be way more competition because you'll have more competitors trying to sell along side of you while if its private , you don't have as much.
thats when the invisible hand comes in! the invisible hand is when you put your own interest ahead of your self so that you do stuff automatically , its kind of like your instincts. people use the invisible hand in these situations because they are competing with others so their first instinct is to do BETTer then their competitors and they do it without thinking about it . if one person is selling a coffee for one price, you sell yours with a donut for the same price etc. its all about the competition!
capitalism is broken up into many different parts, but overall what it means is that its "an economical system in which good services are produced , distributed,and consumed though the mechanism of free markets". meaning that its all about how products are bought and sold and the logic behind it . another point to add in would have to be that its all about the "free market" and "private property", meaning that it all depends if its free market and anyone can sell the product , or if its private and you have to have the right to sell the product.
the three main parts of capitalism is : land , labor , and capital . meaning that the land is literally the land that you sell your product on ( aka the store, the street, the grass). the labor is who you choose to MAKE sell the products for you , or the labor that you do to sell the products or to produce your products, and then the capital is the stuff that you use to sell you items like signs, advertisement, and then the wealth comes in !
the wealth is when you get profit from the products you sold and are able to increase your profit by upgrading ! the most fun of it all ! it all turns into a cycle sell,profit,upgrade,MORE profit, sell upgrade, EVEN MORE profit.. etc etc. its a way to get rich !
the main objective of the seller would be to make the most money possible while spending the least amount possible. meaning that he wants to buy the product for a cheap amount of money and make the buyer pay extra , so he gets profit. but then its not all up to him , he always has to relate back to the supply and demand chart. [Photo] the supply and demand chart lets you know the highest price you can sell the item for and the lowest amount of money the buyer will pay for the product, which is the market price. you have to revolve it all around the market price which ends up changing here and there, it all depends on the supply and demand if it shifts or not !
now going a little off topic, theres always going to be competition, if theres a free market, there will be way more competition because you'll have more competitors trying to sell along side of you while if its private , you don't have as much.
thats when the invisible hand comes in! the invisible hand is when you put your own interest ahead of your self so that you do stuff automatically , its kind of like your instincts. people use the invisible hand in these situations because they are competing with others so their first instinct is to do BETTer then their competitors and they do it without thinking about it . if one person is selling a coffee for one price, you sell yours with a donut for the same price etc. its all about the competition!
Holiday Assignment 1/2/09
Every year for the holidays i go to my grandmothers house in Canada where my whole family is. I love going to Canada because it is so different from the states, the way people act , eat, everything. People say that out of all countries canada and USA are the most similar, but i see them so different. Every year me and my family celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah because my father is Jewish while my mother is Christian. I find it weird that we dont just celebrate Christmas because one is supposed to follow your mothers religion , but im my family i guess we want to make my father proud of his children by saying the prayers and lighting the candles every night of Hanukkah. A little more description of my holidays in Canada is that we went skiing, spent a lot of family time with the cousins, bowling, went to a couple parties with a cousin my age, and stayed at my uncles cabin in the woods for a couple nights.
This year was the first time in a while that my father came with my sister and mom and i up to canada since their separation , and since he was there it was funny because our usual Canada exertions were americanized. Its kind of a stereotype when families go skiing during the holidays, and my moms family doesn't really go skiing but when my father mentioned it , to make him happy we all went. So i think that that little trip to the mountains made the trip different then others.
Its hard to connect how my holidays connect to the "American Way of Life" because i wasn't in america, but i can say how its different from New York City. What i can mention is that the teenagers in Canada think that living in nyc is like a dream and how they all wish they were my sister and i , it was weird hearing that because i dont find it that way at all, i feel like i have everything that they have. its just the fact that they are in the suburbs in the middle of the country were they dont see a lot , everyone lives the same in the town i go to in canada and that in NYC theres alot of diversity compared to them. THis connects to the american way of life and that us americans may not realized what we get to experience until others from another country tell us what we have. It pretty much goes along with the saying " you dont realize what you have until its gone" .
That we dont realized what we have until we loose it or something makes us realize it . that kind of shows a "selfish- ness" in our way of living , that we dont appreciate.
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