Week 2/9-13

On this week of school, we were focused on beginning the book the Kaffir Boy. Let's be honest this is one the only books that I actually read from the four years here. This book was really easy to get hooked into because there were many situations where you could almost feel what Johannes felt. Overtime in the book, it's really interesting to be able and compare you're own life to his. They are completely different worlds. In this book, I had a hard time believing many things that would happen. Especially things like the officers beating Johannes when he was 6 or like the shit men making him stand in the shit when being so young, even though he was making fun of them. It was also even weird to read about a culture that differed so much from our own. One thing I did take from this book that I could connect back was the fact that Johannes mother was always did everything that she could for her children and at the end of the day I think from all cultures, parents always strive for everything for their children.

Overall Experience in Class

I wanted to take the time and share my experience overall in this class. This class has really brought out different aspects in myself that I had never really thought about. As the class went along I realized that this class has made me think more than all my other classes in all four years put together.  It was at times really hard to follow along because at times it felt like you were even afraid to speak up at certain times, but it was only because this class brought out pure truths. From this class, I really began to understand how our world is shaped, but also how our world is still the same in many ways. I'd probably say that this class helped us expand on many world issues, but what's making me so interested is how many of us are actually going to use what we learned in this class. At least for me, from the lesson on stereotypes. It really helped me realize that you can't label someone on their appearance. Also, the ladder of inference definitely made me think about my decisions because that really helped me understand how easily you can jump to conclusions. Global connections also taught me so much about the law system and helped me figure out really what my stance is on the system itself. Which I think is important because in our world today, many people can demolish you if you don't know your rights or laws. I'm actually really interested in what you guys thought about the class, because I think at the end of the day we all took something from this class.

Class on May 28th

On May 28th, Jorge presented his senior project, which was on soccer. His project was focused on  why soccer teams were successful. He explored the two main reasons argued, which were economic status and love/passion for the sport. What was interesting to me was how it could even be argued that its because of the wealth of the team, but as his documentary went on I understood why that was such an important factor. Many of the coaches use their wealth to buy the most valuable players from around the world in order to make the best team possible. Another thing that was interesting was that some of the teams that won the world cup weren't the wealthiest, so it made me wonder whether the economic wealth even had any part to do with it. I liked his presentation because it actually made me think of the two perspectives.

Global Connections: A theory, and practice?

Last semester, I used Plato's allegory of the cave in order to illustrate the concept of becoming enlightened. Specifically, I wanted to illustrate power of enlightenment, because once you become enlightened, you cannot become unenlightened.  Over the course of the entire year, we have been enlightened and had our eyes opened to the issues that haunt our society. Now that we have been educated on the subjects of racism, bigotry, and the myriad of other social injustices that plague our society, it is our duty to be up-standers and to take a firm stand against the injustice. This reminds me of a quote from Thomas Jefferson; "... in matter of principle, stand like a rock." We must resist the flow of the general population and act as we are, enlightened.

Makinnon's senior project on adventure therapy

I thought the concept of adventure therapy was interesting so I decided to look into it more. Adventure therapy is a type of therapy treatment that is a more of a physical approach. Existing research in adventure therapy reports positive outcomes in effectively improving self-esteem, help seeking behavior, increased mutual aid, pro-social behavior, trust behavior and more.  However, there is still debate that the therapy directly causes these positive outcomes. There are many adventure therapy programs for troubled youth and teens and have great results. This type of therapy is also used in teens who have drug abuse and addictions problems. It can also lead to improved attitude and decrease in depression. After I swim, I am always in a better mood after which can relate to Makinnon and surfing. 

Civil Rights Post 3

One of the last documentaries we watched was about a family who lived in a small town in the midwest. This town was all white and very homophobic. The son got a blood transfusion at the hospital, and the blood was contaminated with the HIV virus. He contracted HIV, and soon shortly after passed away. The town shunned the whole family because at the time, HIV was seen strictly as a disease that only homosexuals could get. The family went on the Oprah Winfrey show, and people from the town came on the show. Tnhey told the family they had to move because they no right to live in the town anymore. The man who spoke out the most against the family wasnt even from the town, but came just to make sure the rest of the crowd heard his points. Then many years later, Oprah had the family come back and also the people who spoke out the most. One of the women seemed very sincere in her apology and raised her kids with the ideals that there is nothing wrong with being gay. However, the other man apologized for the way he acted, yet he still firmly believed that being homosexual is a sin and didn't seem sincere in any way. I thought this documentary was crazy because I cant even imagine a town ostracizing a whole family just because they though his son was gay. This would never happen in california especially in this time.

Civil Rights Post 2

Another documentary we watched in the civil rights unit was about Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson was a star basketball player for the LA Lakers. He was a phenomenal player, getting first pick in the draft out of college. He won MVP his rookie year and played for 12 more seasons after that. Magic slept around a lot during his career, mostly unprotected. Johnson and his rival from the Celtics Larry Bird made basketball much more popular. Their rivalry however became a race issue. Black people no matter where they were from supported the Lakers, and white people rooted for the Celtics. In 1991, Magic Johnson retired from the NBA after announcing that he had contracted HIV. At the time, this was considered a gay disease and also a death sentence. People called him Tragic Johnson. Magic Johnson is still alive, and spends his time educating the public on HIV and created a foundation after him.

Civil Rights Post 1

The first documentary we watched for the civil rights unit was about Jack Johnson, the best heavyweight boxer of all time. He was extremely controversial, and did things that any other black man at the time would be killed for. However, he was so famous that he couldn't be killed. His style of boxing was different from all other men, it focus more or defense which led him to go completely undefeated until the last match of his career. His style was criticized by whites as lazy and cowardly. The current heavyweight champion at the time said he would only fight Johnson if he was paid ridiculous amounts of money, which someone ended up coming up with. Johnson beat him by a landslide, yet was still not considered heavyweight champion. He then played Jeffries, the heavyweight champion that was undefeated, but retired. Johnson beat Jeffries, yet many whites wouldnt give Johnson credit just because jeffries had past his peak. Jack Johnson was the most infamous black man during his career, and was a revolutionary figure in sports, especially because of his race.However, as the documentary stated, "Just because jack johnson won doesn't mean that anything has changed for the black man"(LA Times).

What I got from this class

In global this year, we covered a more diverse set of topics than I have ever done in any other class, from civics to morals and ethics, and all the way to just thinking how we think. Although most topics don't seem like they relate to each other, I have realized that everything we have studied is a piece to the pie of understanding the world.  Everything from mass systematic murders to our everyday lives,  and how we act as well as interact with the world around us. Although we have gone very deep into understanding how people have acted, and how the horrible atrocities were able occur in history, we have not come up with a solid way to prevent things like the holocaust from happening again. We have gone over how to see it before its coming, and the signs that can show if something bad is developing. From this I realized that Global-Connections is the way to prevent future atrocities, and improve mankind. Classes like this one teach students, in detail how such bad things can happen, and they educate us on how normal people can be brought into horrible acts. By doing so, it is creating a generation which is more educated on how to identify when something bad, like a genocide, is starting, and we will know how to prevent them before people and communities are hurt. Unlike most classes in school, global teaches us about the real world, and what is appropriate as well as not. It has taught me to think of my actions and my morals deeper than I did before. Overall, the class has taught me to stand up for myself, my rights, and when/if the time comes, be an upstander instead of a bystander.

Blog post-happiness

A few days back we were talking about the measurement of happiness, and it got me thinking whether or not it is possible to measure. In the film, they had statistics saying that many people who live in poverty are just as happy or even more happy than wealthy people, and other stats like it. The problem I see with this, is that happiness is something different to everyone. The people in developing, poverty stricken areas who are "more happy" could see being happy much differently than a wealthy person. If the person who is living in poverty lived in the wealthy persons shoes for a bit, I believe that their idea of what happiness is would somewhat change, and vise versa. Then I realized it might be possible to measure happiness scientifically, because happiness is just the feeling of the release of neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine in ones brain. If someone could figure out a way to track the amount of positive neurotransmitters released on a daily basis and set a value that determines happiness, then it could be done.  Until someone does that, I don't think you can label how happy someone is compared to someone else, because of their different ideas of what happiness is to them.

Jack Johnson Boxing vs. Current Boxing

I always wanted to comment on the fact that in the Jack Johnson documentary, I noticed how his fighting stance is COMPLETELY different than the one that they teach us in Martial Arts, his stance would be considered exactly what you wouldn't want to do. Without disregarding Johnson's skills, I must say that now a days, we are required to "keep your hands up" and close to your face and lover your chin in order to prevent any serious damages, like a knock out for example. I was surprised when I saw that not only was that how Jack Johnson fought, but every single boxer fought that same way. You could say that even fighting sports change over time. (:<

Our progressive Generation

"I take my case to trial, hire the Dream Team Robbie Kardashian, Johnnie Cochran, I seen things"
 Ali Bomaye,  Game ft 2 chains and Rick Ross

 The quote above is from a very popular rap song called Ali Bomaye. I quoted this line because I think its a good example of pop culture that affects us in a anti racist way. It's clear that our generation is very progressive and has been breaking rules from gay marriage to marijuana. I believe a huge part of why our generation is so progressive is because of our love for rap music which is made by people who have experienced the hardships that we are trying to understand. Not all rap music is made by African Americans who have had to deal with slavery and racism in their past and not all people in our generation listen and enjoy rap music, but its obvious that these ways of expressing oneself has effected a majority of us and the way we think. There are a plethora of songs like the one above that address the issues of racism or sexism and influence our way of thinking. There are multiple factors as to why our generation is trying to change the past and improve the future, but I believe a big part of why we began to do this has to do with the music we grew up with and the music we currently enjoy.

Cramming Blogposts

Hello class. So I've been noticing a lot of sudden activity on this blogger. Is it just coincidence that all these posts are popping up around the deadline? No. Procrastination has taken control of us this entire second semester along with senioritis. Therefore I decided to post this link to a TED talk about procrastination. You can watch it next semester though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD440CY2Vs0 In the end a way you can attempt to stop procrastination is by planning ahead to split your assignments up.

Magic and Bird, Legends of the NBA

I wanted to go back to the Magic and Bird documentary that we saw and I wanted to comment about their development from Rivals, to very good friends. I hand't heard from Magic or Bird before this documentary and their stories honestly surprised me. Society had always depicted them as NBA Rivals but to them, they didn't regard everything that society threw on them. They both focused on their individual skills and attributes in order to improve as basketball players. But what I found the most interesting, is that Magic and Bird were equally skilled, but completely different in terms or personality. Magic being friendly and outgoing always sought out all the attention he could get, whereas Bird remained the simple, shy and quiet guy that mowed his lawn every Sunday morning.  At first one would imagine that such differences in character would never enable someone to become as close friends as they did, but I think that their constant desire to become better than the other slowly played a role in towards the development of their friendship. However they never stopped seeing the potential in each other as rivals. In some way I feel like I can relate to Magic and Bird since through rivalry is also how I met my best friend. He was what I would call extremely good at controlling the soccer ball, and so was I but unfortunately not as good as him. However when it came to playing a full on game I beat him in stamina. Me and my best friend would always compete to see who could dominate the ball longer, and better. It's really interesting to see how through a simple rivalry you can meet the best of people.

What we can do

One question that everyone in Global including Mr. Stewart have a hard time answering is the way we can solve and fix the problems of our past. Whether it is dealing with racism like in the L.A riots. Or sexism in the work place, which we still deal with today. Even the multiple Holocausts that we learned throughout the year, there is not straight answer to how we can fix this. But, I believe the class of Global Connections itself is one step toward fixing this. This class barely touches the surface as to why things like this occur, but it helps us try to somewhat understand why people did this which is something that most people will never have the opportunity to do. Although there might not be a clear cut answer as to how we can fix these issues or if they will ever be fixed, I truly believe the first step towards attempting to solve this seemingly impossible problem is by becoming aware that there is a problem.

Learning through Poetry

Mistakes in the past 

Will always haunt the present

 But teach the future

The point of this class

For a good portion of this class I believed we were learning about the atrocities that mankind has perpetrated so we could better understand what it has taken for us to get here today. It seemed to me that learning about the Holocaust, Rwandan Genocide, and the Armenian Genocide was taught to us so we could learn the cruelty and brutality of human kind. But after thinking about what I want to get from this class it has little to with that. The point of this class is to understand why and what drove people to do such things in order for us to learn, fix, and become better as people from these events. I have learned to become aware, to stand up, and to think deeper into the future of events that may effect me in and my kids, as well as understand and forgive what people have done in the past.

Why is it so hard to measure happiness?

I've seen a lot of my peers mention this topic about measuring happiness, since its the most recent documentary that we watched, I honestly had never thought about being able to measure something as "happiness." It's true that we have a whole branch in psychology dedicated to studying depression and all kinds of negative mental states of the mind, but it would also make sense that if we have such diverse definitions and study fields for people with depression, technically we should also have another branch that classifies all sorts of positive emotions right? Well we don't. But I think that it's not because we don't consider happiness as something important, but rather it is much harder to measure the happiness that a person is feeling, since depending on the person his levels of happiness might be extremely different than mine. For example, it's true that whenever we see a friend that we haven't seen in a while the first thing we ask him might be "Hey! how you've been?" and the obvious response from them will most likely be "Good man! How about you?" and of course you may also respond with another lie, "Good, Good." Lying about our emotional state is one of the most common things we as people tend to do in order to prevent involving other people into our personal life. But is this really the way that things are supposed to turn out to? For example, I feel the most happiest whenever I'm in Mexico, since I've always considered Mexico as my one true home. But whenever I'm here in the US I feel impatient to be on my way to Mexico again! Measuring the levels of happiness that a person can have is definitely more challenging than measuring their levels of depression, since happiness can easily be imitated.. whereas depression cannot.

Happy

A year of what seemed like only learning about the negatives and flaws in humanity had most of us in global down. Until we started watching "Happy" I started to believe that humanity was doomed. Once we started watching it I started to focus less on the wrong doings of humans in the past and more of what and how we can improve in the future. The documentary happy is a great way to end our year together because it ties up everything we have learned about the flaws in humanity by showing us the good in people as well as how to look past and overcome our brutal history. Throughout the year I believed that humans were driven only by money and power, but if I have learned anything from the documentary "Happy" its that your economic status has nothing to do with one being happy, and that everyone has something they can do that will ALWAYS grant them happiness.

Madi's Senior Project

I just wanted to comment on Madi's Senior Project since it really made me remember when I used to go to school in Mexico. Just like that one girl talked about her experience in a Japanese school I would also like to comment on my own personal experiences that I had in my school in Mexico. The school that I used to attend was called Collegio Bilingue Wilhelm Grimm and it was a little private middle school. I remember how classes started early in the morning, like around 7 and everyone had to be there on time, you couldn't even be a minute late, since if you were you would get sent back home immediately with no excuses. That being said even if you had a test that day, or even if you had finals week there were no exceptions. I remember that one time I was two minutes late and I had an important project to turn in, and since they wouldn't allow me into the school, I sneaked in by jumping over the school's fences (Unlike here in LAHS, the schools over there in Mexico are NOT open campus, they all have fences and are pretty much closed campus). It was a fun experience and fortunately I didn't get caught in the act. Also, whenever you arrive at school there is a person that awaits for you in the gate in order to check if you are wearing the proper attire, like the school uniform for example. Those people were called "perfectos" or perfects in english. Their tasks was to make sure that your uniform was clean, you had the right dressing shoes, the right polo shirt (yes, we had to wear polo's), and that our hair was nice, combed, and short. If the "perfecto" saw a flaw in your uniform, then you would be sent home. School in Mexico wasn't easy and it was really strict. However I loved every single year that I spent over there and if I could, I would gladly relive it over and over again!

A Haiku dedicated to Global

Making Connections

Think of what you think about 

O.J. and Cornfed 

Week 3/23-27 Post 1

I was scheduled to blog during the final week of March, and since we are almost in June it would be best if I provided some context as towards what we where supposed to be studying during that week. In march we were finishing the last chapters of Kaffir Boy and specifically, we were supposed to read chapters 48-49 from the book. In these chapters it is revealed that Steve Biko died under police custody and I wanted to talk about some of these things. I find it completely absurd that during the Apartheid era in South Africa, Biko was arrested, questioned and tortured for no real reason whatsoever. We also watched a movie in class, Cry Freedom, that played the scene of Steve Biko's arrest, death and supposed cause of death. We all know that the police didn't even bother to write a real reason for the deaths of the hundreds of people they detained and eventually, they stopped caring and labeled everyone that died under their custody as suicide. After the massive beating that Biko had received he had fallen into a state of coma and was supposed to be transported to a hospital 680 miles away, naked, without any protection or medical care. Due to the harsh road and the multiple hits to the head he died way before he had made it to the hospital, and what was the police report for his death? A hunger strike. I find these many "classifications" by the police completely absurd, along with the whole Apartheid regimen. However, Steve Biko ideology's of "Black is Beautiful" paved way for the younger generation of African Americans living in South Africa to fight for their rights as human beings.

Civil Rights

Civil rights are what define us as human beings. When we are granted them, we are free to enjoy the dignity and respect that come with our civil rights. When we are stripped of them, we are stripped of our humanity. The ways in which we still see civil rights abuses occurring throughout the country today show that we as a people are still struggling to see ourselves as equals, as one human being and another. External influences such as religion and racism skew our perception of equality, igniting debates over civil rights in which one side justifies stripping a person or group of people of their civil rights. This is how we have seen the issues of slavery and later segregation occur and why we continue to see civil rights abuses such as bans on gay marriage or denied services to gay people happen today. Civil rights are meant to be applied to all humans, regardless of their skin color, sexual orientation, etc., because what describes us should never get in the way of what defines us.

A year in review

Over the course of both semesters in Global Connections, we have studied a lot of interesting topics that are very relevant to us and our times. From all the legal case studies first semester to the socio-psycoloigcal concepts that we study and learned about during the Holocaust. Global has opened my eyes to view the world in such a different light. It exposed me to topics like O.J. Simpson, that I had very little knowledge about and expounded upon that knowledge ten fold. I am very appreciative for the opportunity to have taken Global and for the students and teachers alike who made the class so interesting and, at times, controversial. I think that the most brilliant part about the class is allowing us to be exposed to such heavy topics in such an informative and safe environment. This allowed us to begin a discussion and to let us ponder and question our own beliefs. As we have learned to think about what we think about, I hope that in the near future we will further this cause and act in a moral way that is both justice and merciful.

Racism in our generation

Although we do see that racism is much better today than in the 1900's, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Racism is still deeply rooted in today's society, but we are living inside a protective bubble that keeps us from seeing the full picture in our society and how racism is still running rampant. The only way to stop racism is to continue cutting racist ideas with each new generation of kids, that way as they grow up they won't know or be exposed to racism. This is currently happening with the newer generations as we are being told that everyone is equal and that be racist is bad and not socially acceptable. But of course, as long as there are different people from different cultures, racism will always be a part off everyone's lives, because it is very hard to kill the idea that different people are bad.

Are you happy?

The thing with happiness is that you can be happy but not show it. But when you are depressed, you can tell very easily that the person is sad. That's probably the biggest reason why it's very hard to diagnose someone as being happy. Some people are just perpetually happy, also making it harder to know if they are truly happy or if they are drugged or have a mental issue or something. And although there are studies on happiness, I still don't think we will find any sure fire way to diagnose someone with happiness, unless they tell you. But then again, people tend to lie a lot, making it harder to really know if they are happy.

Daniel Kharlamov's Senior Project

I really liked how daniel was able to address something about teachers that no one really thinks about. Yes, we know teaching is a hard job and requires a lot effort on the teacher's part to be successful, but we never really think about what traits they require to be that way. In Los Altos, we can see which teacher's are more successful than other's, and how they are successful. Teacher's such as Mr. Randall (Bob), Mr.Smith, and our global teachers love to teach, and are happy with their jobs. Their students respect them, although at times it doesn't seem like it, and are happy to have them as their teacher's. Others, won't say any names, you can clearly see they are not happy to be here, and those teacher's are the ones that students hate and wish they never had them. A student's emotions towards a teacher can clearly show how successful a teacher is.

Happiness

In the documentary "Happy", the idea of flow was introduced to me and I was intrigued by it. I decided to do more research and after reading a few articles, I came to the conclusion that flow is a state of mind that allows you to live in the moment and exert all your energy into one activity. I was particularly struck by the Brazilian surfer who decided to trade a life working in a city for a more humble living situation surfing. This decision is quite shocking, especially coming from silicon valley where people are highly driven and motivated to work long hours often sacrificing their current happiness in the hopes of obtaining it later down the road. This leads me to a very important ideal that my mother raised me on. My mom always told me that if I wanted to be happy, I should not push it off in the hopes of me becoming happy down the road. She instilled in me the importance of always being happy and showed me the power that a positive attitude can have in you life. I think flow and attitude are very interconnected because your attitude stems from your ability to enter into the state of flow. If you are constantly being negative, it will be hard for you to engage in an activity that bring you up. Conversely, the more positive your attitude is, the easier it is to engage in activities that make you happier.


"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." -- Winston Churchill 

Ted Talk- Happiness

In this TED talk, Dan Gilbert discusses the science of happiness and explores the concept of being happy even if 'things don't go as planned.' Dan Gilbert is a psychologist who teaches at Harvard. He is also the author of the book 'Stumbling on Happiness.' Amongst a variety of subtopics, his book discusses the human tendencies to plan out their future and their happiness. This ted talk explores Dan Gilbert's ideas and theories on happiness.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy?language=en

Gay rights

I found it very interesting that gay marriage wasn't legal until a few years ago. When you look at today's society, we are so open to people and their differences and most people, at least in our generation, don't really care if you're gay or not. But then again, there are still plenty of people who are still not open to that way of life. There are still hate groups around the world who are very anti gay, and even though they clearly are hate groups, they some how when lawsuits against their hate campaigns and protests. And even though we are moving forward, it doesn't look like they will be leaving anytime soon. Hopefully in the near future we will get rid of these hate groups, and promote gay campaigns in the states where gay marriage is still illegal.

Racism

After discussing the topic of racism in class, I searched for some websites devoted to the eradication of racism. The website, titled 'End Racism-This Generation', informs its viewers on the current state of racism in society and how we can reduce it. The website also allows its viewers to make a pledge against racism, donate to the cause, and participate in campaigns fighting racism. I found this source very informative and effective.

http://www.end-racism.org/

Happiness

To connect with the documentary we are watching in class, I decided to share a study on exercise and its connection to happiness. The study I read on The Daily Mail discussed the correlation between daily exercise and happiness levels. According to the article, employees who exercised before work or during breaks were better equipped to handle their work day. The article also says that, on days without exercise, employees were less calm. The piece supports the idea that exercise can greatly reduce stress and increase happiness.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1095783/People-exercise-work-days-happier-suffer-stress-productive.html

How Civil Rights are Expanding

Throughout the past few weeks we have been watching many different documentaries on Civil Rights. I think most of the time when one thinks "civil rights", their first thought is racism towards African-Americans. Even though, that is still a major issue involving civil rights, I was very curious and thought it was very interesting that we learned about a lot of other types of Civil Rights issues.

 By watching these documentaries, I learned how expansive the term "civil rights" is. There are now Civil Rights issues dealing with African-Americans, Latinos, Women and even sexual orientation. I think it is good progression that our society is making by really starting to deal with all of the other types of Civil Rights issues. Yes, civil right issues having to deal with race is still massively important, but there needs to be more talk about gender inequality and the lack of rights given to the LGBT Community. These issues are just as important. Everyone in American should be seen as equals and given the same opportunities and rights. And the same Civil Rights should be given to all citizens.  

Our Generation and Our View on Racism

Today in class, we talked about racism and the role it plays in our society. The article we were discussing, says that racism has always been a part of our culture and our class talked about whether or not racism will ever go away.
Racism has been in America since the very beginning and has always been an issue on our culture. However, I think our generation is one of the firsts to try to make a huge step forward. Making progress with issues like racism is difficult because it has to do a lot with how people think and the way they are taught to view others. I truly do not think racism will ever fully go away because it is hard to change the way people think. I do think, however, progress is being made because we are starting to talk about racism issues more openly and voices are starting to be heard. Racism has always been a part of American culture and even though I think it may always be there, I think we can try to limit it as much as possible.

Race in the Modern World

This is the full Foreign Affairs article that we looked at today in class: Race in the Modern World

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2015-03-01/race-modern-world

Happiness

Dan Gilbert's TED talk in which he discusses the science of happiness, delving deeper into some topics we learned of in class, in particular the extent that our environment does and does not play a role in our happiness. 

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy?language=en

Week of 3/9: Bantu Education

Bantu Education was the government organization that was in charge of the education of black South Africans. Beginning in 1953, Bantu Education worked to ensure that blacks receive the education necessary for their "rightful place" in South African society-- as servants and manual laborers. The ideals behind Bantu Education were rooted in the long-held belief that it was the duty of whites to "civilize and Christianize" native Africans. Full article here: 

http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?id=65-258-2&page=1

Week of 3/9- Soweto Uprising

The Soweto uprising depicted in Kaffir Boy occurred on June 16th, 1976. As in the book, the uprising was primarily a response to the implementation of Afrikaans in schools as the language of classroom instruction. Around 10,000 students marched towards a soccer stadium at which they planned to peacefully protest, but they were stopped by police en route. Police forces fired upon the crowd, causing a mass chaos and eventually riots that spread throughout over 100 townships. These events sparked the beginning of months of chaos, conflict, and police brutality throughout black South Africa. 

The uprising is particularly noteworthy because it followed a decade of relative calm in the resistance movements against apartheid that resulted from the arrest and repression of black leaders and organizations. One of the factors that is attributed to the cause of this uprising is the increased enrollment in black schools- creating a community of strong willed young men and woman with a collective identity. Full article on the Soweto Uprising here: 

http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/sidebar.php?id=65-258-3

On Video Game Violence

Video game violence: senior project made by Saul Bernal.

On the topic of violence caused by video games: Fingers are pointed at video games for violent acts, primarily mass shootings. Often, the case about shooters is that they most likely play video games as an outlet for their violent issues or loneliness. Adam Lanza was a disturbed young boy and found that his interactions with others was only possibly through a video game. If video games can be related to mass shootings, it is most likely something that helps since it allows a way to lose yourself in a world that is separate from your own. Gaming is an escape from reality and does not influence or encourage violence. They portray violence no differently than movies or TV shows. They add a more immersive experience that may be more appealing to someone with social issues or something of the sort. Video games can not be attributed to causing violence.

Happiness

Today in class we started watching a new documentary on the study of happiness and what it truly takes for an individual to be "happy". What I thought was very interesting was that the more money one earns, does not necessarily make the individual more happy. Once one earns enough money to pay for living expenses, the persons average happiness does not vary much no matter how much more wealth they happen to acquire. In fact some of the wealthiest people are less happy than people who have a substantially less amount of money. This is because there are two kinds of life goals. There are interior personal goals, as in building upon yourself and then exterior goals such as social status and money. Many who only work for these exterior goals, may have a lot of money but then never build on themselves, so in turn end up not as happy. The happiest people are the ones who have a job doing what they love everyday, not necessarily one that makes a lot of money but one that fulfills their true life aspirations.

Happiness

Abby's senior project on happiness reminded me of the documentary called "Happy". This documentary focuses on happiness and what humans can do to become 'happy'. The film explores the lives of many people and their happiness. I have attached a link to the documentary trailer. Definitely worth watching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDkv6Mi8JrI

The Case Against 8

The Case Against 8 is a film by Ben Cotner and Ryan White that documents the battle to overturn California's proposition 8. Proposition 8 is a California ballot proposition against same-sex marriage; stating that marriage is between a man and a women. In 2008, a majority of the voters voted to eliminate the right for same-sex couples to marry. The film focused on Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, two California governors that were not in support of Proposition 8. In order to challenge the fact that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, it reached to the Supreme Court as Hollingsworth v. Perry,which questioned whether the ballot was against the constitution; the Fourteenth Amendment, which fought for equal protection and due process. Holligsworth vs. Perry refers to the federal court cases that legalized same-sex marriage in California. Prop 8 was then found unconstitutional after the trial and now private parties are not able to replace the govt. officials duty-bound to act for the state in a federal lawsuit. Outlawing Prop 8 allows future generations to believe in the changed definition of marriage; the emotional connection and commitment between two human beings.

On the subject of monkey experiments...

When I saw the presentation about morality in animals, I was reminded of another experiment that showed pretty much the complete opposite.  If you want to read a summary, try this link:

http://www.zmescience.com/research/how-scientists-tught-monkeys-the-concept-of-money-not-long-after-the-first-prostitute-monkey-appeared/

If you read the article or know the experiment, I want to ask, does this mean that money easily corrupts people?

Hollingsworth v Perry

Today in class we started learning about this court case. Here is a simple, straightforward explanation to the case: http://www.bilerico.com/2013/06/the_hollingsworth_v_perry_decision_explained.php

Waco Shootings...

Ponder.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/18/opinions/kohn-biker-shooting-waco/index.html

Notes through Friday's class may 15

Today in class we continued watching the video with Oprah and started off with the "angry man" from an old show episode(1987). When asked if he was sorry for what he did, he stated he was sorry for what happened, but he didn't express anything about being sorry for his views. He continues to express an idea that Mike Sisco might've been happier in his own gay community instead of the community he was in(Williamson). It was a common idea that homosexuality was a disease and that's why many people wanted them to be separated, quarantined, or with their own community. In the end, he basically gets beat down and tries to express that his views in 1987 were only made extreme by the doctor's remark. We talked about how some people thinking being gay is a choice, but we obviously expressed facts of it not being a choice or a disease. Then Bob came out with a sporting blue suit, followed by a bright red suit in 1987, who came out and said he didn't even know what aids was in 1987 but, still talked about it. If someone says that they are ok with homosexuals, but just don't want them around or messing with them. Is that being a homophobe? Real big turning point in 1985, Rock Hudson suddenly died of aids so all his info came out. He was gay, died of aids, and was one of the most popular men at that time. A common fear created was that aids could kill hundreds and you couldn't find the killer, but you could easier find the killer that used a gun. Next week we'll start looking at California's Prop 8.

May 13th: The Struggles of Being a Young Girl

Today we continued watching the documentary "SexyBaby" and observed Winifred be Winifred. She was shown to have a sleepover with her friend, Olivia, when they decided to perk up for a homemade photo shoot. They prepped for the photo shoot with the complete outfit and tried to act older than they actually are by posing certain ways and giving off different facials. At the end of the photo shoot, Winifred's dad talked to her a bit about the pictures and to not post them on facebook, but being the young girl she posted them anyway. Her posting these pictures shows she is influenced by facebook because she later says how she knows facebook changes people. The next morning her mom gets very angry with her and Winifred throws a fit even though deep down she knows she was wrong. We talked about how maybe she's throwing a fit because she knows she was wrong and this is her way of coping in the beginning. Anyways she'd had her facebook deactivated 8 times, all since she became aware of boys. Later on in the film she is picked up by her parents from an 8th grade trip and it's obvious that she'd been getting intimate with a hickie on her neck. An opinion popped up about teens not listening as much because there's no punishment and this is somewhat true because she gets no punishment for the hickie. She continues with her life and a scene shows her in acting class where the teacher talks a little bit about how the character might be feeling bad about what their doing. The scene shows that Winifred feels equal is this character because she shows signs up thought when the teacher said this. Question for thought. At one point in the documentary she starts hating gymnastics. Have you ever started not liking something you were doing to the point of protesting it to a stop?

Class 5/13/15

Today in class we finished the documentary "Sexy Baby".  The documentary continued to a scene where we saw Winifred doing a "photoshoot" with her friend Olivia.  When I saw this, I was astonished for a second time.  First of all, I was surprised that Wini's father allowed her to do a photoshoot.  Then, after the photoshoot, I saw the photos.  Wini and Olivia were both caked in makeup to the point that I couldn't even tell how old they were.  They were 14 years old however, they looked 16.  This was shocking because I wondered how the parents could allow their daughter to again, post such revealing pictures.  Later on in the documentary, we also learn that Wini quits gymnastics when she is older.  When I learned of this, it made me wonder; Did Wini quit gymnastics due to Facebook and social networking?  To see how cyberspace can actually be dangerous to new generations who dont have the judgement on whether or not to post a "revealing" photo.  During the last part of the documentary, we also discussed an important point about how people can essentially create "fake" images of themselves.  For example, in the beginning of the documentary Wini seemed very smart and studious.  However, after seeing a glimpse of her Facebook page, I know that if I had not seen how smart she was earlier, I would have judged her and assumed she was not as smart as she truly is.  Simply put, young children can now appear to be vastly different online than they are in real life.  As class ended, we started watching Oprah.  In the documentary, a racist part of West Virginia was filmed in 1987, bashing Michael, a gay man for jumping into a public pool.  Then, Oprah went back many years later and talked to the perpetrator who was saying the most vicious words towards Michael.  Overall, this class period was very interesting as I was able to learn how social media is affecting the younger generation and also later learn about how we are entering a new era of Homosexual Rights.

Class 5/12/15

Today in class we watched a new documentary titled "Sexy Baby".   The documentary outlined the shift sexuality and how the new cyber age affects children.  In the beginning of the documentary we saw an outrageous act of a a 10 year old essentially "twerking".  She was also singing along to a Britney Spears/Lady Gaga song which included many cuss words.  The main character, 13 year old Winifred, uses the social media site facebook as well.  In the documentary, we saw comments on one Facebook picture of winifred.  Many of which, included terms such as "boobs", "slut", and "whore".  When I saw this, I wondered how a mother could knowingly let her daughter post such revealing pictures along with such provocative comments.  If I were a parent, I would not even allow my child to be on Facebook at such a young age.  Luckily, the parents finally took away Winifreds Facebook when they found out she posted a video of her younger sister singing a song with extremely profane lyrics.  I used to not be worried about how technology would affect the younger generation.  However, just watching the beginning of this documentary has really opened my eyes and makes me think twice about technology.

Class 5/8/15

Yesterday, on Friday, in class we continued watching more of the documentary Generation M: Mysogyny in Media and Culture.  The documentary examined more of the negative effects that the modeling and advertisement industry have on society.  One of the main problems was the emergence of eating disorders due to the modeling industry.  This industry glamorized extremely skinny models.  On posters, these images were heavily edited with Photoshop and did not portray a realistic standard of beauty.  One woman in the documentary stated that the modeling industry made it seem ok to have eating disorders just to remain skinny.  The documentary then shifted back to the discussing gender roles again.  They discussed how a large part of sexism may be due to the fact that men are generally "tougher" and "manly" where as women are stereotyped to be more "passive" and "feminine".  This was very interesting because in my family, the same stereotyping actually occurs.  Overall, I look forward to learning more about gender in our society and how the modeling and beauty markets affect gender stereotypes.

Alex Jones!

Back again!

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-ff-na-jade-helm-20150508-story.html

Class 5/8/15

In small period, we continued watching through Generation M, and were introduced to the story of the Fiji islands.  A study went out to investigate the effects of the media to this isolated island culture, and they were surprised to find that, in a culture where large women were a sign of beauty, many women thought that they were too fat and needed to lose weight in order to look good.  This was only about 3 months after TV was introduced to their culture, providing evidence that media does have a large effect on what we believe in.

However, I want to bring up a question.  I realize that this documentary is creating discussion, but our reason for watching documentaries is to answer our reflection question, which is about why discrimination still happens to this day.  I wonder, what does this documentary have to do with civil rights?  All I see is a man criticizing the beauty market, but is there a way to link this to long-standing stereotyping of women in America?

Class 5/6/15

Today in class we started learning about how genders are portrayed in the media.  Many people shared their personal stories about how gender roles have affected them.  Crystal discussed how she noticed how her boyfriend reacted when he found out that she got paid more than him.  We also started watching Generation M: Misogyny in Media and Culture. This documentary discussed how women are generally portrayed as objects and sexual symbols in the media. For example, we saw music video clips of stars such as Rhianna, Beyonce, The Pussycat Dolls, and Britney Spears, all of which, were extremely objectifying women. I was also shocked to see the 11-12 year olds dancing "dirty". To me, this shows how young children sometimes don't understand the actual meaning behind songs involving obscenity. I also hadn't realized how women are sexualized, and in some cases, are essentially using it as a form of marketing (commercials, etc.)

A More Perfect Union: Class 5-5-15

In small group today, we continued to watch "A More Perfect Union" which based off of racism in America and the key point was trying to figure out how it got that way by going back into history. I thought it was interesting when they showed the parts of when Barack Obama became president and many people thought that "racism is over"... but that doesn't change anything. In the documentary they claimed that racism is institutionalize and structural, meaning one large change is not going to change anything. This point got me thinking: is there ever going to be an end to racism or is it going to be a regular thing in our everyday lives? I was also wondering if the same thing could happen with the arguments of gay rights... do you think this can be similar to racism ending?

Hernandez vs. Texas

Hernandez vs. Texas (1945) was a US Supreme Court case deciding whether Latinos should be under the protection of the 14th amendment. The US took over many territories that belonged to Mexico and were offered US citizenship in order to work in the country. Mexican-Americans were later seen as white, but their citizenship continued to be challenged. They were never treated as first class citizens and received social isolation, negative commenting on their intelligence, and segregated school systems. During WWII, 300,000 Mexican-Americans were involved in the war and they believed that the successes they achieved would earn them the right to be treated as white; however, that wasn't the case. Felix Longoria was a hero from WWII and died during the war, he wanted to be buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. There were arguments about whether or not he should be allowed to be buried there and he luckily was buried in his ideal location. The 14th Amendment continued to not be acknowledged and the Supreme Court didn't believe that Longoria's case didn't justify their case, until the case of Hernandez and Espinoza. Hernandez killed Espinoza and was guilty of that, but during the trial he had to be given a jury of his peers and since Mexican-Americans are categorized as white then the jury they are given must be white and they must be treated with the same rights as them. Gus Garcia and Carlos Cadena, the lawyers on the case, challenged the double standards. The double standard was that Mexican-American were only considered white when it was in favor of the government. Hernandez had a retrial and the result was the jury was changed with more of his peers. This small step allowed them to challenge the school system, employment system, and the housing market.

Discussion on Friday

The discussion on Friday was about if offensive words can be used by a certain group of people or they should not be used in at all. We discussed that if a group of people gets offended by a certain word, they shouldn't use it themselves and say things such as "I can use this word because I am ____." However, if you don't approve of other people using the word, I believe neither should you. In our class, we discussed that if you are gay you can use the word, however, you can not use the "N" word. I don't agree with this, because if you believe that you can use a word because you use it to "define" yourself but don't allow other people to use it in the same manner, then I believe neither no one else should either. Especially if there are other derogatory words that offend you and you don't use than you shouldn't use any of them.

Class 5-1-15

Today in class we started watching A Perfect Union which was revolving around African Americans in the United States trying to fight for their rights because there were sick of being treated as second-class citizens. Martin Luther King Jr. was a major inspiration to all the African Americans in the U.S. at the time. However, when he was shot it had shattered the Blacks hearts and thoughts that they could protest peacefully. In class we discussed that even if a law is passed, if no one is there to enforce the law than is it actually relevant? If a law has been passed but there is nothing being done to enforce it people become frustrated and may even break out in acts of violence. I believe people used acts of violence in these cases because their voices were not being heard and the only way they could draw attention was through violence.