HW 25: The Iraqi People and Senseless Wars

A girl called Riverbend who is placed in the middle of the Iraq War in Baghdad writes “Baghdad Burning”. Riverbend started writing online on her blog when the United States invaded Iraq and she tells the true events that occurred to everyday innocent Iraqi men, women, and children. Back during the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States, I will admit that I knew very little about Iraq and its people. I have come to learn that Iraqi people are not all that different from people like me from the United States and as Ahdaf Soueif describes this about "Baghdad Burning,” This book should shame all those with lingering imperialist bent of mind who see Iraqis (or Arabs, Muslims, or 'third-worldeans') as somehow lesser or, at best, developing" (Soueif ix). The Iraqi people and all people of the world should be viewed as equals regardless of how powerful or poor a country is. Soueif's forward for Riverbend's book is precise and to the point and he directly tells readers exactly how to interpret it, "Baghdad Burning makes for painful reading. It also makes for enjoyable-even fun-reading. It is certainly necessary reading" (Soueif ix). This novel is important for learning about Iraq and its people and it will also spark emotions within the readers. While Soueif informs us more on Riverbend herself, James Ridgeway focuses on Iraqi people as a whole and the daunting history of Iraq. Ridgeway goes into detail about the struggle Iraq has had for decades over its oil and how it has caused the of death of so many innocents lives throughout Iraq for decades. Children have suffered greatly because of the chaos of war, "About 100 children a day (died) due to the Gulf War and the subsequent sanctions...(these) figures do not include the second, or 2003, war" (Ridgeway xv). This is a disturbing revelation and I had no idea that the number of children deaths was so staggering. Ridgeway really puts into prospective the amount of pain Iraqi's have been through in the past and that they have been pushed even further back because of the 2003 war. Thousands of schools have to be rebuilt, electricity is unreliable, and sanitation conditions are despicable and this is all due from the U.S. war on Iraq. I believe the saddest part of all is the death of loved ones for an unnecessary war.

HW 24: A Room of My Own

My grandmother is a fun loving and vibrant woman. When Virginia Woolf was writing her book, "A Room Of One's Own," my grandmother was a little girl that was growing up in the same society that Woolf depicts. As her mother was raised to be second to men, so was she. My grandmother married when she was 20, raised seven children and she was the homemaker of the family. As Woolf put it, "For all the dinners are cooked; the plates and cups washed; the children set to school and gone out into the world. Nothing remains of it at all. All has vanished. No biography or history has a word to say about it" (Woolf 89). In other words, women for centuries have played the role of the typical housewife and nothing has been written about it. Because of the way history shaped the position of men and women in the world, men were unfairly favored and given the upper hand in life. For this reason, men's writing, "Indicated such freedom of mind, such liberty of person, such confidence in himself. One had a sense of physical well-being in the presence of this well-nourished, well-educated, free mind, which had never been thwarted or opposed…" (Woolf 99). Men were the superior sex and because of that they were able to write and express themselves freely without question. In today’s time, however, women have gradually overcome suppression and the lack of rights. Starting back in Woolf’s time, “there have been at least two colleges for women in existence in England since the year 1866; that after the year 1880 a married woman was allowed by law to possess her own property; and that in 1919…she was given a vote” (Woolf 112). Steadily over time, women have gained rights and access to a higher quality of life. Thankfully, I was born in a time that I have a room of my own. I view this room of my own not as a physical room but as a place in humanity that I am allowed the same opportunities and education as men. I am able to go to school, have a profession and have a voice. These are all qualities that make up my own room. Although there are still aspects of our society that are male dominated, we as women have certainly come a long way from past centuries.

HW 23: "More World of Warcraft Players In America Than Farmers"

"With Apologies to Virginia Woolf."

As I browsed through my blogs this morning, I FANCIED one that I came upon at Instapundit, http://instapundit.com/, titled "There are more world of warcraft players in America than there are farmers" (Woolf 48). I found this post quite disturbing because I am a lady who is fond of the outdoors and taking long walks. It is absolutely ABSURD THAT ONE WOULD find more pleasure in sitting in front of the computer screen then taking advantage of a beautiful fall day (Woolf 58, 71). One comment posted about this DEPLORABLE fact of farmers and game players was of interest to me, "I grew up around farmers...we have once again arrived at a kind of Middle Ages society where the least paid are those who actually feed, clothe, and shelter us. I don't know how to grow a crop. If the whole economy crumbled, it wouldn't be like people would be coming to me to explain factor analysis or something" (Woolf 45, Armbruster 15). As this gentleman finely stated, this country would be in ruins if something tragic happened to our dear farmers. We would no longer be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, which would severely damage our way of life. As such a vital part of our society, why, I ask, are there so few farmers? I WOULD VENTURE TO GUESS that the new generation of young people in this country are more drawn to playing with technology then get dirty in a corn field as a cow would (Woolf 49). BUT WHO CAN SAY this is what the future holds? (Woolf 49). FOR MY PART, I AGREE THAT unless all those computer people wake up one day and decide to work in the agricultural business, the United States is going to see a gradual decline in the population of farmers in the years to come (Woolf 48).

HW 22: "A Patriarchy Society in the US Today?"

Patriarchy is a society that is ruled and managed by men. Men had the sole responsibility of everything from money to how their household was run during Virginia Woolf’s time. Virginia’s beliefs that men hold unequal power over women is described through a newspaper she reads that is dominated by the opposite sex, “The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony, that England is under the rule of a patriarchy” (Woolf 33). In other words, it would be clear to any stranger that the male gender was favored over women. Men dictated every aspect of life down to the smallest detail and women had no say in money, the law, or films. The reasoning that men are so driven to be the superior sex is that they are power hungry and females are the fuel for their hunger. Virginia exclaims, “Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” (Woolf 35). Men have used women to feel confident and secure with themselves. If this inferiority is taken away from men then they would no longer have possession over women and as a result, men and females would be equal. Even today, there still would be signs to a transient visitor from another planet that the United States is a patriarchy society. Let’s look for example at the front page of today’s New York Times Newspaper. What sex is pictured here on the front page? Men! Two males that are both head’s of countries, President Bush and the Dalai Lama appear together as the first thing you see. If I were a transient visitor, it would be obvious to me that men were not only shown foremost on the page but also that males are in control of the government. It is interesting to view something like a newspaper as a stranger and interpret how a society is run and who has the upper hand.

HW 21: "A Woman Must Have Money"

Hey Little Cus,

Hopefully I can help you out with you reading of “A Room if One’s Own.” In the first chapter, the author, Virginia Woolf, tells about the events of her day. Our first glimpse into Virginia’s day begins at a river at Oxbridge college in England. Virginia makes her way to the school’s library but is not granted access into it because she is a woman. Following her library mishap, Virginia stands outside of the church and then makes her way to lunch. At lunch, Virginia is presented with the best meals and the luncheon generates lots of positive conversation. After lunch, Virginia lets herself into the garden before making her way to Fernham for dinner. At the dinner at Fernham Virginia is served plain gravy soup and there is little conversation during the meal. Virginia and her friend Mary Seton talk privately afterwards in Mary’s room. We learn that Virginia is given a task to write about women and fiction. Virginia’s initial thoughts to this assignment are, “a women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction” (Woolf 4). Virginia’s point is that to be a successful female writer, you have to be wealthy and have a room all to yourself. It is explained by Virginia the reasons why it is so hard for women to become writers. For generations and generations, it was the role of the woman to be the homemaker and to raise children. With all the time it takes to care for their children, women had little time to make and save money and even if they were able to, the money would be the property of their husband's. While for men it was so much easier to compile funds for education simply because men where the only sex that had money. Some consider this novel an important piece of work because it shows that women were against high odds when it came to getting an education or being a writer. I also believe that it is imperative that it is known how suppressed women were before they were granted an education and how hard we had to fight to get that. I think that perhaps it is sometimes taken for granted that each sex is allowed equally learning opportunities and we should also keep in mind that it has not always been that way.

HW 19: Blogs Creating Awareness For Genocide in Sudan

In the novel Blog! by David Kline and Dan Burstein, weblogs are not just talking about everyday American topics anymore but blogs are now taking on more serious issues that directly effect a group of innocent people that are dying everyday in another country. In the African country of Sudan, massive genocide has been going on and there has been minimal response from powerful countries like the United States to aid in this crisis. Some blogs, however, are desperately trying to gain attentiveness to this situation that has been ignored for long enough. People like the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, and Samantha Power, author and Pulitzer Prize-winner of "A Problem From Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, FOR INSTANCE, DEMONSTRATE that "some bloggers purposefully harness the medium (of blogging) to promote wider awareness of their causes" and experts like Roth and Power are "devoted to collecting news and information about genocide in Sudan" (Kline and Burstein 91). IN OTHER WORDS, there are those individuals out there that are fighting to get information to as many people as they can but most importantly, they want to get the media's attention. CONSIDER the explosive effect that the media can have when it believes that it has a headlining issue that will grab everyone's attention like a government official’s negative comments, FOR EXAMPLE. Blogger Ethan Zuckerman expresses the significance of the media exploiting a story, "blogs let us tell offline media what we want. When blog readers made it clear we wanted to know more about Trent Lott's racist comments, mainstream media dug deeper into the story,...what sort of effort would it take to choose an important issue-say the Sudanese government's involvement in Darfur?" (Kline and Burstein 92). IN SUM, THEN, it is clear that the media has a powerful impact when it comes to getting the facts out to the world and that the media listens to the bloggers to see what is important to them. I guess the real question here is, how much longer will it take or how many more lives have to be lost before the mainstream media pays attention to this genocide?

HW 18: Ann Coulter: "Personal Fantasy" To Take Away Women's Right To Vote

My least favorite post of the week can be found at The Democratic Party weblog at http://www.democrats.org/blog.html. Posted on Friday, October 4, Ann Coulter, a right wing Republican, made a highly disturbing comment about women's voting rights during an interview with the New York Observer. According to Coulter, "If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine...and it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women." Coulter is insisting that women are the reason for Democratic Presidents becoming elected into office and also she believes that American women are not intelligent when it comes to political decision-making. This appalling remark is sexist towards the female gender and expresses the belittlement and discrimination to about half of the American population. Coulter also makes a point about single women in particular which is greatly incorrect. In my view, women, single or not, are equally if not more intelligent then men and women's views on who should be elected to run our country's government is just as important as any man's. There is no logical reason why men should be the only gender allowed to vote and I am sure that most men and not just women would agree with this. Isn't the United States of America built on the principals of fairness and free speech? America would no longer represent what we stand for as a country if a significant right like women's right to vote is taken away. The way in which a President is elected is from the majority vote of the people, not just from one specific gender and this is how it should be and always remain.

HW 17B: Political Activists Over Sex Scandals

In comparing two opposite weblogs, Wonkette at http://www.wonkette.com and Daily Kos at http://dailykos.com, there is a clear winner in my eyes that would more likely influence the way I would vote in an up coming election. Daily Kos reveals and examines important political information on their blog while Wonkette writes about the latest gossip and dirt on Washington DC politicians. The writers of these blogs, Ana Marie Cox for Wonkette and Markos Moulitsas for Daily Kos, are both passionate writers but they both take very different views of the seriousness and impact of their blogs. In an interview with David Kline and Dan Burstein's novel Blog! Moulitsas stresses the significance of "influentials...the holy grail of successful marketing is to reach those 10 percent or so of the public who are the most passionate about-who are experts on-any given topic...we're trying to organize, we're trying to fund-raise, we're trying to win elections. They're the activists. They're incredibly influential. And they can be the key to winning elections" (Kline and Burstein 46-47). In other words, smart people are the dealmaker or breaker for the up coming elections. Moulitsas takes his blogging very seriously and his ideas are well thought out. On the other hand, Ana Marie Cox in her interview with Kline and Burstein comes across as quite careless and lazy, "I've been fired from or left every journalism job I've ever had. I couldn’t keep a job. I couldn't find work. I was even a lousy freelancer..." (Kline and Burstein 57-58). Ms. Cox doesn't care about what other people think about her and her space cadet comments. In comparison with each other’s blogs, Cox's blog mirrors her interview while Moulitsas blog does the same for him. Wonkette uses uncensored words and comments on her blog such as who hooked up with governor X last night. Daily Kos is more word friendly and includes more vital topics relevant for making a decision like who to vote for an up coming election. I would tend to lean toward a source that seemed approachable opposed to reading a blog about the freaks of Washington.

HW 17: "Bush Vetoes Children's Health Care Bill"

On the Democratic Party blog, http://www.democrats.org/blog.html, a blog was posted on Wednesday October third about President Bush vetoing a health care bill for poor children in America. The post shares that the program that the money would go is the Children's Health Insurance Program, that helps poverty stricken children gain health care. Bush's reasoning for his disapproval was made very clear in this blog. According to Bush, "the legislation (has been) "excessive" in its cost. In related news, the Iraq war has now cost taxpayers over $456 billion- and counting." In other words, the Democratic blogger who wrote this blog reveals what seems more important to Bush, spending a great deal of funds on a war many don't believe in is more crucial then a bill to help sick children. This really makes you see what Bush's priorities are. Bush allows so much money to be given to a war that people are dying everyday for but he can't give some compensation to a cause that is trying to nurture and save children's lives, he rather spend billons of dollars on killing innocent civilians and loved ones. I did not chose this blog because I agree with Bush's decision making, but I believe it is vital is understand what types of choices our current government is making for our country. Even though it is imperative that the legislature is careful with spending the funds of taxpayers, we also need to remember where the majority of the money has gone. Just because the Bush administration used an overwhelmingly amount of resources on the war in Iraq shouldn't mean that other aspects of our country like suffering sick children should receive less funds due to the stupidity of our government’s overspending.

HW 16A: Scobles' Rules of Engagement versus The Democratic Party Blog

In the novel Blog! David Kline and Dan Burstein did an interview with Robert Scoble who is a Microsoft tech evangelist. Shortly after joining Microsoft, Scoble created a list of rules for the corporate blogosphere called "The Corporate Weblog Manifesto." Scoble's rules consist of twenty guidelines to follow if you are thinking of being a successful company within the world of blogging. One weblog in particular for example is The Democratic Party (http://www.democrats.org/blog.html), that uses some of Scoble's regulations and they can be picked out of this blog. On this blog, multiple posts are written everyday with many more comments to respond to them. Frequent and fast responses are stressed quite a lot throughout the manifesto. Showing that there are daily posts on a blog lets people trust you which helps to maintain and gain more readers for the blog, The blog is very left wing and caters to the audience that is reading it which would be the American Democrats. The site is doing justice to it's Democratic readers with true and consistent information; another key part of Scoble's rules. Keeping with accurate information and not lying is also to adhering to Scobles' manifesto. At the opposite of the spectrum, there is also ways in which this Democratic Party weblog does not follow Scobles' principles. In Scobles' manifesto, he states that it is important to be nice and civil with your competitors but I do not see any of this for the Republican Party on the Democratic blog. Although the site offers a place in it's page for Republican candidates for the 2008 presidential elections, the opposing Republican party is not given the same positive ness and support that it does for the Democratic candidates. While the Democratic candidates' pictures are colorful and bright, the Republican candidates' photos are in black and white and accented with white, black, and red lettering. Since this weblog is dedicated to a specific part of society that it is known for unfair behavior towards each other, some of the principles of the corporate weblog manifesto are applicable to this blog. Also, I believe that these rules should be used for as just guidelines then strict regulations. However, it would be really interesting to see the Republican Party and the Democratic Party actually say nice things about each other on their blogs!