SumBlog 11

There’s a part of me—sometimes small, sometimes large—that positively loves documentaries. Solar Mamas definitely put me in the large love category. Seeing what so many women go through in the eastern countries (and comparing that to those in the west) was remarkably eye-opening. The way Rafea and her family had to live in Jordan, their entire village unemployed, makes me feel awful about myself. The next time I want to complain about something in my apartment I’m going to stop myself, think about this film and how Rafea and her family lived in a tent.

The global inequality between us in the United States and Rafea in Jordan is unbelievable. What’s even more ridiculous is that we rarely think about how hard life is in those countries. Most likely, the majority of American citizens are unaware of the lives Jordanians lead—or even Kenyans or Colombians. In this documentary we got to see women trying (and succeeding) to prove themselves to their families, their villages, their countries. These women wanted so badly to gain an education and make something of themselves. And here we are, skipping classes and complaining about doing homework. It makes me feel really sad how often we take things for granted here in the US.

http://jeffiscool.com/pictures/Foxtrot/foxtrot_homework.JPG

This comic is a very accurate depiction of most American high school, middle school, and college students. To us, learning and going to school becomes a bit of a burden. During elementary school, we’re usually excited to go to school. But after many years of doing so day after day, we get sick of it. We get annoyed with our teachers, impatient with our homework, and tired of being cooped up for eight hours a day. Once we get to high school, we only like school because we get to see our friends every day. Is this how Rafea felt? Nope. Sure, she was happy to see her friends, but that’s not the sole reason she wanted to go to school. She actually wanted to learn. And she was even learning in a totally different language. Can you imagine us going to school and learning everything brand new in a language we didn't know? We certainly wouldn't take it as easily as Rafea and her friends did. When Rafea was struggling, she laughed. If only we all had such a positive outlook on life and learning like Rafea.

SumBlog 9

The discussion we had on Wednesday really got me thinking about today’s society and how drastically things have changed over the years. When I compare my life and the things around me to that of my grandparents when they were my age, I can’t believe the differences. It really makes me wonder what things will be like when I’m a grandparent. Obviously everything is prone to change, and everything eventually changes, but it’s crazy how norms can change. If something is the “norm,” how can it change? Well, when people in the public eye start to push the boundaries, the rest of society begins to follow the leader, and eventually that becomes the norm. Boundaries keep getting stretched, norms keep being changed, and we get further and further away from the original.

One topic we talked about on Wednesday was music. Popular music now is nothing at all like it used to be. We went from classy, appropriate music to disrespectful, improper stuff. Like we said in class, it’s become acceptable and almost necessary for songs to be about sex and the male taking advantage of the female. Is this an example we really want to be setting for the younger demographic? But it’s too late now, there’s no going back. At this rate, things can only get worse. Maybe in a couple decades, things will make a circle back and music will be respectful again. Right now though, songs need to be bleeped out when played on the air because of swear words and parents need to be ready to switch the dial every time and inappropriate song comes on the radio.

When we listened to “Blurred Lines” I thought of another song that is similar in topic. “Do What U Want” by Lady Gaga. In this song, the main line is “do what you want with my body.” Even though this one isn't about rape like “Blurred Lines,” it is still giving all the power to the man and is a very unsuitable song for children and young-adults.

SumBlog 8

When we played Monopoly in class on Monday I was in Group 3 which represented single females. If I remember correctly, we were given $870 at the start of the game. The biggest issue we had was jail. Every time we rolled doubles, we were sent to jail. Apparently my teammate and I are prone to rolling doubles because we did so almost every roll. When we were in jail the only ways to get out were to pay $100 or wait three turns. At the beginning of the game, we were upset that we were in jail all the time, but then later we realized that it was kind of a good thing; we weren't spending any money in jail. However, after rolling doubles many times in a row, we started getting a little annoyed at how often it happened. Our experience was very roller coaster-like; we would be excited at getting out of jail, but then would immediately get thrown back in.

Sociopoly related to real life in many ways. Group 1, who represented whites, was privileged throughout the entirety of the game. They were given the most amount of money to start, and received the most amount of money for passing Go. I’m not sure how they got into jail without picking a card, but Group 1 at my game never went to jail. But I’m sure if they were sent to jail, it’d be pretty easy to get out. Certainly a lot easier than it was for Group 3 or 4. Group 1 was also given houses every time they passed Go. With all these privileges, it actually would have been difficult for Group 1 to lose or come close to bankrupt. It was easy for them to buy properties, and then they were given the opportunity to put houses on their properties. Group 2 also had a lot of opportunity throughout the game…definitely more than Group 3 or 4. I really enjoyed playing Sociopoly and I thought it did a really good job at representing groups in real life.