Q3 Blog #15 final outside reading post of the Q

This post had to be about someone overcoming odds, so I decided to talk about the movie In the Name of the Father. In the Name of the Father is about an Irish father and son who were wrongly convicted by the British government of bombing a pub where many British soldiers went. The main character is sentenced to life but he overcomes odds and gets out after many years. Unfortunately his father died in prison, but his son clears their name. This movie was based on a true story which to this day shakes the foundation of the British legal system. The father and son were easy scapegoats for the bombing because they were Irish. The case also included several other Irishmen and woman who were also wrongly convicted. The convicted were tortured physically and mentally, basically forcing them to confess to a crime they did not commit. Also evidence was illegally kept from the defendants attorney so that they could not win the case. It amazes me that this story actually happened. It is incredible to think that a government would actually wrongly convict someone just to "close the books" on a case. It is like catching the real perpetrators isn't important, its just about PR. They would just cast away peoples lives because they know they can get away with it because they have an easy scapegoat, in this case the a couple of Irish. In the Name of the Father is a powerful film that I would recommend to anyone, it is certainly one of my favorites.

Q3 Blog #14- alternate X.C. assignment

For this blog my group has decided to do the alternate assignment which is to blog about our topic. Before I must express my disappointment about not getting to blog about this weeks normal topic which was love. Only because I thought I had a good idea. I was going to blog about a song thus making music a new form of "text" to be blogged about. Unfortunately I could not do this early because not many songs I have heard relate to things like colonization and gender roles. Anyway oh well I guess I wait until the next good topic. However for this blog I will write about the article "The Scramble for Africa" that Sam posted on his blog. Africa was the most largely colonized continent in the world. It went from only a couple of its countries being under foreign control to all but two. Ethiopia was free because they succeeded in fighting off the Italians, and Libya was free because of its ties to the U.S. Today none of the european powers hold any of these colonies. Unfortuanately the effects of the european colonies is still felt today. The poorly drawn european borders have plunged the continent into war and violence. It also didn't help that the europeans took much of Africa's natural resources and exported them. It turns out that none of the African colonies ended up being profitable because of the money the europeans had to spend for keeping order and fighting revolutions.

klein, sam. "scramble for africa." wikipedia. 16 feb 2009. wikipedia. 17 Mar 2009 .

Q3 Blog #13

This outside reading is supposed to be about a text about war. So I read an article in the L.A. Times called "West Bank Shooting Kills 2 Israeli Police." Although Israel is not currently at war but that area of the globe has been torn by war since humans settled there. Recently however formal war is not under war, but it is things like police shootings that can pull it back into war. That is why this is an important article. An event like this could be a small spark to set off another war. Of course the underlining cause is religion. It disturbs me that people can be so blinded by religion that they could wish death on millions of people who don't belive the same thing as them. If it weren't for religion no one would care were a guy named Moses or Jesus or Muhammad stood. They certainly wouldn't shoot each other to own it. Think of all the people who have lost there lives because of religion. Religion is stunting the growth of human kind so we must be rid of it. Then again what would we have left to kill each other over?

Boudreaux, Richard. "West Bank Shooting Kills 2 Israeli Police." The L.A. Times. March 15, 2009. March 15, 2009.

Q3 Blog #12

This outside reading was supposed to be about imperialism or colonization. So I decided to write about the movie Zulu. Zulu is about the British trying to colonize Africa. The mighty Zulu tribe stands up to them and tries to fend them off. The main story focuses on a small British fort that undergoes multiple Zulu attacks. You watch as hundreds of Zulus are cut down by the British breach loading rifles. Several Zulu attacks are broken by the defenders. It was a good movie, but I didn't like how the British were the heroes. Instead of showing the Zulu as people defending their homeland they were shown as savages that must be rid of. The British are the real villains but instead they are shown as heroes. The film gathers sympathy for the British by showing brutal killings of the main character's friends, and directs hate towards the Zulu by way of the same tool. I think it would have been better to show the struggle of the Zulu in fighting off the British from their homeland.

Q3 Blog #11

For this outside reading we were supposed to find a text about a global issue. So I read an article on The New York Times website about international economic problems. The article is called Appeal of the Dollar Adds to Woes of Ailing Nations by Peter S. Goodman. It talks about how due to recent economic troubles investors are investing in less risky endeavors. This makes it harder for entrepreneurs in poorer nations to raise money. This article shows the great effects that the U.S. economy has on the rest of the world. As it has been said when the U.S. sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. Foreign investment has dropped significantly in recent years. This drop is causing a profound effect on other nations. They are hitting even worse times than we are. This article shows the huge effect the U.S. economy has on that of other nations. As it has been said the U.S. sneezes and the rest of the world catches a cold. It is important not to forget that we are not the only ones struggling in the world.

Goodman, Peter S. "Appeal of the Dollar Adds to Woes of Ailing Nations." The New York Times. 3/15/2009. 3/15/2009. .

Q3 Blog #10

This blog post was supposed to be about holidays. So I decided to blog about a hilarious Onion podcast I watched, that I downloaded from itunes. It was four people discussing the meaning of Halloween. They were all very disappointed about how many Americans had lost sight of what it was really about, which is of course protecting virgin souls from demonic spirits. I though it was a very funny and very clever joke on when people talk about America loosing sight of the meaning of Christmas. I thought it was funny because both were originally pagan holidays but because of Christianity ties to Christmas people care when we change the meaning of Christmas, but no one cares about the meaning of Halloween. honestly I enjoy what Halloween and Christmas have become, because they fit right into my purpose for them, which is to have fun and relax. It really bugs me when people complain about the meaning of Christmas being lost in the marketing machine and then go out and buy tons of presents. I mean the hypocrisy is astounding.

Q3 Blog #9

This text was supposed to be about Bollywood, but we had the option to switch this one with the one on last Wednesday. So now this text is supposed to be about any aspect of a culture other than your own. So I decided to watch the show Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. For this episode Bourdain held a competition for people to send in videos about themselves and the place they wanted Bourdain to do a show in. The prize was he would do a show at their place of chose and they would get to go with him. He ended up choosing a girl from Saudi-Arabia. He decided to go to Saudi-Arabia because he decided it was probably the place he would least want to go to, because of all of the misconceptions he knew he had. He wanted to prove to himself and the rest of the western world that these misconceptions were wrong. I think he made the right choice, because he got to explore the Saudi-Arabian culture which turned out to be much more exciting than he thought it would be. I thought it was very interesting that they have family sections, and single men sections in their resteraunts. This was interesting to me because of what the Saudi girl that had won said about it. She ssaid it was more like segregating the men instead of the women. The show certainly showed me a much more true picture of Saudi culture than I had previously known. I think the show was a very valuable look into Saudi culture.

"Saudi Arabia." Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Travel Channel.