The reason I picked his paper to revise was because it was our first paper, and it only seemed write to go back to the original work. Another reason for picking this peace is because I hold his topic very near my heart. I am not Palestinian, but justice is something that I am a bigger supporter of, something I believe the Palestinian’s are getting the short end of. This paper was written before the elections, and now we have a new president, Obama. Only time will tell what changes he brings, but I still believe that if he is to follow his old policies, and not handled well, this conflict is going to get out of hand and out of control.
The changes I made to the paper were ones that the Professor thought that I needed to add to the paper. I personally do believe that to get the full effect of the situation I could have even made a novel out of it, something I think about often. Talking about the fictiious life of a family living in such a place and weaving bits and peaces of history and how in that part of the world it does effect each and every individual. Apart from that I really hope that peace comes to this part of the world soon, because I have heard one too many stories about families such as the one described, who don’t know if they are going to have their loved ones with them the next day, let alone their homes. It’s a tough life, I know I can’t relate to it too well, but I do want to do something about it.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Peace One Day revised
Peace One Day
Yet another day of my miserable life! How many more days do I have to make the same vegetables and bread stretch for six people? It is so hot today, and no fans working. “Can I go out to play please, Mom?”
“Why love? Stay inside and watch some….get your sisters and your brother, get them under the bed!”
“But mom…”
“Now!”
Seriously, right now. Where are you? I told him not to go to work today, I knew something was going to happen and he had to go. Why don’t people let others live in this part of the world? No, he will come home, pull yourself together for the kids. “Is everyone okay?” Everyone is okay, but for how long. Why us, oh God why us?
**********************
The displacement of the Palestinian people is thought of as the greatest displacement of refugees in history and yet their cries fall on deaf years. The conflict has become perhaps an old problem, one that does not require immediate attention, but some would beg to differ. Michael Freidman of The New York Times wrote in one of his articles that, "the outcome of the war now underway between the Israelis and the Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe to all of civilization" (The New York Times). This statement was made by Friedman after his trip to the region in 2002. He had taken the trip to see how the area had been affected after September 11th, and what he saw made him come to the realization that this might just be the next battleground or battle igniter of the twenty-first century.
So when does the world start paying attention to this "war"? This is a social problem of its time and one that is affecting many countries. Since the United States is the leader in diplomacy I believe that it is our job to get the voice of innocent Palestinians heard. As time has passed on, our Presidents have increasingly thought it necessary to take a closer look at the matter because not only does it make a social impact on the world but an economical one for the United States as well. From President Carter, to Clinton, to President Bush, each has tried to make the two sides negotiate, make the two sides talk, but nothing so far has come out of it. As a Muslim this conflict seems to be one of utmost importance. Like the Holocaust to the Jews, this treatment of refugee’s and innocent civilians are having crimes committed against them, and no one speaks against this injustice. Too many people have died in that small strip of land for no one to notice. I care because no innocent person should have to die a silent death, an unjust death.
The people of Palestine and Israel have been fighting for land, resources, and their holy city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the most important aspect of negotiations to both states, states which are heavily directed by their religious affiliations. For people that hold this city as one of their most sacred sites, you cannot take it away without a fight. This problem would have been resolved had Israel accepted the original protocol of having Jerusalem become an international zone. This growing problem is now going to be put on the shoulders of the new president, Obama or McCain.
Obama has said that he would want Jerusalem to remain an undivided capital of the Jewish nation. “Obama said the concept of a Jewish state is ‘fundamentally just,’ and his commitment to Israeli security is ‘non-negotiable’. If elected, Obama says he would ‘insist on fully funding military assistance to Israel’ (JPost) and continue to cooperate with Israel on the development of the Arrow missile defense system” (Council on Foreign Relations).
McCain implied how he wants to stay out of Israeli affairs as much as possible (Council on Foreign Relations). This is a violation of justice. It is not fair to have so much money put into a country’s defense while people a couple of miles down the street are starving. No nation is going to accept another if they are being oppressed, as is the case of the Palestinians.
Israel is a nation that is a lone star within a cloud of darkness, some might argue, and that it needs as much light as possible to help it sustain itself. Israel has to defend all of its borders against other states that have been around longer then them and are possible threats. Israel has to do everything in its power to try to fight off the “terrorists” in Palestine and protect its citizens. But what about the innocent civilians the Israeli army is killing every year? Are the attacks instigated by the Palestinian “terrorists” groups justified? “All men recognize the right to revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau). The men of Palestine are not blind or stupid, they know that they can’t endure the cruelties any longer. This is an international social problem that is going to be in the hands of the next president, and I believe that a lot more thought needs to be given to it. No attention is given to this part of the world, because hardly do we see it in the news, and when we do, it sounds like mater of factly news. No breaking news needed, because it’s an old problem. If analysts are correct, our political moves in this part of the world can make or break our relationship with the rest of the world.
**********************
Please let this night pass without any disturbances, oh God. Thank you for letting him come back home safely. Thank you for sparing the life of me and my children for another day my Lord. But how much longer do I have to do this? How much longer do I protect them, how much longer do I feed them the same food, and how much longer do I watch their future slip away from their fingers…
As she lay on the damp mattress, next to her husband, she stroked her daughter’s hair. I want them to become something, to get married, to see the world, to have dreams, to change the world, to bring peace to my world, bring peace to this sacred land, peace to these people, peace one day…
Yet another day of my miserable life! How many more days do I have to make the same vegetables and bread stretch for six people? It is so hot today, and no fans working. “Can I go out to play please, Mom?”
“Why love? Stay inside and watch some….get your sisters and your brother, get them under the bed!”
“But mom…”
“Now!”
Seriously, right now. Where are you? I told him not to go to work today, I knew something was going to happen and he had to go. Why don’t people let others live in this part of the world? No, he will come home, pull yourself together for the kids. “Is everyone okay?” Everyone is okay, but for how long. Why us, oh God why us?
**********************
The displacement of the Palestinian people is thought of as the greatest displacement of refugees in history and yet their cries fall on deaf years. The conflict has become perhaps an old problem, one that does not require immediate attention, but some would beg to differ. Michael Freidman of The New York Times wrote in one of his articles that, "the outcome of the war now underway between the Israelis and the Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe to all of civilization" (The New York Times). This statement was made by Friedman after his trip to the region in 2002. He had taken the trip to see how the area had been affected after September 11th, and what he saw made him come to the realization that this might just be the next battleground or battle igniter of the twenty-first century.
So when does the world start paying attention to this "war"? This is a social problem of its time and one that is affecting many countries. Since the United States is the leader in diplomacy I believe that it is our job to get the voice of innocent Palestinians heard. As time has passed on, our Presidents have increasingly thought it necessary to take a closer look at the matter because not only does it make a social impact on the world but an economical one for the United States as well. From President Carter, to Clinton, to President Bush, each has tried to make the two sides negotiate, make the two sides talk, but nothing so far has come out of it. As a Muslim this conflict seems to be one of utmost importance. Like the Holocaust to the Jews, this treatment of refugee’s and innocent civilians are having crimes committed against them, and no one speaks against this injustice. Too many people have died in that small strip of land for no one to notice. I care because no innocent person should have to die a silent death, an unjust death.
The people of Palestine and Israel have been fighting for land, resources, and their holy city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the most important aspect of negotiations to both states, states which are heavily directed by their religious affiliations. For people that hold this city as one of their most sacred sites, you cannot take it away without a fight. This problem would have been resolved had Israel accepted the original protocol of having Jerusalem become an international zone. This growing problem is now going to be put on the shoulders of the new president, Obama or McCain.
Obama has said that he would want Jerusalem to remain an undivided capital of the Jewish nation. “Obama said the concept of a Jewish state is ‘fundamentally just,’ and his commitment to Israeli security is ‘non-negotiable’. If elected, Obama says he would ‘insist on fully funding military assistance to Israel’ (JPost) and continue to cooperate with Israel on the development of the Arrow missile defense system” (Council on Foreign Relations).
McCain implied how he wants to stay out of Israeli affairs as much as possible (Council on Foreign Relations). This is a violation of justice. It is not fair to have so much money put into a country’s defense while people a couple of miles down the street are starving. No nation is going to accept another if they are being oppressed, as is the case of the Palestinians.
Israel is a nation that is a lone star within a cloud of darkness, some might argue, and that it needs as much light as possible to help it sustain itself. Israel has to defend all of its borders against other states that have been around longer then them and are possible threats. Israel has to do everything in its power to try to fight off the “terrorists” in Palestine and protect its citizens. But what about the innocent civilians the Israeli army is killing every year? Are the attacks instigated by the Palestinian “terrorists” groups justified? “All men recognize the right to revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau). The men of Palestine are not blind or stupid, they know that they can’t endure the cruelties any longer. This is an international social problem that is going to be in the hands of the next president, and I believe that a lot more thought needs to be given to it. No attention is given to this part of the world, because hardly do we see it in the news, and when we do, it sounds like mater of factly news. No breaking news needed, because it’s an old problem. If analysts are correct, our political moves in this part of the world can make or break our relationship with the rest of the world.
**********************
Please let this night pass without any disturbances, oh God. Thank you for letting him come back home safely. Thank you for sparing the life of me and my children for another day my Lord. But how much longer do I have to do this? How much longer do I protect them, how much longer do I feed them the same food, and how much longer do I watch their future slip away from their fingers…
As she lay on the damp mattress, next to her husband, she stroked her daughter’s hair. I want them to become something, to get married, to see the world, to have dreams, to change the world, to bring peace to my world, bring peace to this sacred land, peace to these people, peace one day…
Sunday, December 7, 2008
the 11th Hour
As more and more movies come out about saving the environment, one wonders when is it actually time for the world to go through its cycle without it being someone’s fault. Leonardo DiCaprio did a really good job putting together this documentary and showing the world the things that we need to do not only to slow down global warming, but to make the environment cleaner for the inhabitants of it. The movie used star power well to try to get their point across to a wider range of people.
Though the evidence presented seemed really good, I also know that there is sufficient evidence against the common belief that humans are responsible for the global warming state the planet is being thrust towards. Actually according to many scientists, a heating or cooling phase of the Earth has been long due, and that its about time that something of the sort happens now.
The imagery and techniques of the movie along with the soundtrack were wonderful and perhaps had a more dramatic effect on the audience then they would have had if it was just another documentary.
The one question I have after the movie is if we are to do everything that the environmentalist expect us to do, will we be able to stop global warming? Will we be able to undo so many years of harm that has already been done to the planet? Though we keep telling individuals to recycle and use less fossil fuels, not everyone is going to change their way of living. If not everyone decides to change their ways then the work of one might begin to make a small dent in the situation but at the same time the dent is not going to be big enough. So is it worth the time and effort to make a difference in the world, when its not making a difference in the world.
With the rapid growth of the world population there is no way to slow down this emission of carbon dioxide in the air, the biggest difference that we could then perhaps make is somehow reducing our population, rather then worrying about recycling and energy conserving. The possibility of doing such things seems more appealing when we realize that such actions much just have direct environmental aspects on each person surrounded by the pollution caused by the rest of us.
The documentary was impressive and Leonardo DiCaprio made the movie a lot easier to see. It was informative in an entertaining way and it captured an Audience’s attention.
Though the evidence presented seemed really good, I also know that there is sufficient evidence against the common belief that humans are responsible for the global warming state the planet is being thrust towards. Actually according to many scientists, a heating or cooling phase of the Earth has been long due, and that its about time that something of the sort happens now.
The imagery and techniques of the movie along with the soundtrack were wonderful and perhaps had a more dramatic effect on the audience then they would have had if it was just another documentary.
The one question I have after the movie is if we are to do everything that the environmentalist expect us to do, will we be able to stop global warming? Will we be able to undo so many years of harm that has already been done to the planet? Though we keep telling individuals to recycle and use less fossil fuels, not everyone is going to change their way of living. If not everyone decides to change their ways then the work of one might begin to make a small dent in the situation but at the same time the dent is not going to be big enough. So is it worth the time and effort to make a difference in the world, when its not making a difference in the world.
With the rapid growth of the world population there is no way to slow down this emission of carbon dioxide in the air, the biggest difference that we could then perhaps make is somehow reducing our population, rather then worrying about recycling and energy conserving. The possibility of doing such things seems more appealing when we realize that such actions much just have direct environmental aspects on each person surrounded by the pollution caused by the rest of us.
The documentary was impressive and Leonardo DiCaprio made the movie a lot easier to see. It was informative in an entertaining way and it captured an Audience’s attention.
Changing Winds
“Look at that rag on her head”.
“Diaper Head”!
Not many people have experienced being a target of outward hate, but I’m lucky enough to have experienced it. But if you had asked me a couple years before, I would have told you that I had not been granted an experience of the sort. Looking back today, maybe the racist slurs had escaped my senses. I am still an American despite what anyone says to me, because I believe that it’s their personal ignorance that keeps them from knowing people, amazing people. I know I am different, my religion, my culture, my looks, but then I question who am I different from? Who set the norm for what an American has to be? I didn’t read up on any of that, and until then, hey I am an American like everyone else, not better, not worse.
I was born in the United States. In California, Los Angeles-the highlight of American culture. I grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by “all American” families-parents, two kids, and a pet. I, like many of those families, lived in a beautiful house with my parents, my little sister, and my goldfishes. I grew up near Hollywood, the epitamy of western culture. Was I different then? I guess so. Most of our family friends were from the Indian subcontinent, we would have to wear decorative, itchy clothing to parties, my parents tried to speak to me in Urdu most of the time, I celebrated different holidays. I was different. What about religion? Religion was something my family leaned on, on matters of morality and on matters of behavior, the usual “God says…” comments.
After two moves from my childhood heaven, Michigan happened. Changes were in the air for our family. The biggest change that I still remember was the simple fact that I couldn’t wear shorts any longer. I thought about the age factor, but I know that if I had stayed in California I would have been wearing shorts for a couple years longer. But rather I went to a totally different side of a the spectrum in a matter of one year. My mom and I began wearing the headscarf and instead of talking about religion on a rare occasion, religion became a part of daily life. It was so strange in the beginning. When you’re a kid, you live for day to day pleasure and it became weird to think that, I, an eleven year old, had a bigger purpose in life. I loved the feeling of belonging to something bigger and meaningful. Despite all of this, being all American and all Muslim was strange for me, but a feeling I learned to embrace and pride myself of. Nothing is impossible I would tell myself, and I’m going to prove it. Then September 11th happened.
“Are you related to Usama-Bin-Ladin”?
“ Why do you hate us”?
“What do you think about what happened?”
“Your religion is so twisted”!
Ask a eleven year old questions like that, and see what she says. Let’s see, my responses were along the lines of, “Are you related to Hitler or Stalin? I don’t hate you. Politicians are still trying to figure out what happened, why are you asking me? My religion is not twisted”! It was hard, especially when I was outnumbered, one to about twenty-four other students at a charter school. At least I had the comfort in knowing that my endeavors of seeking religious knowledge had now left me with the confidence of saying that my religion did not endorse such actions. But the pride and the outward religious affiliation was something my father did not approve of. He believed that behavior like mine would draw unwanted attention during tumultuous times. But I thought that my dad had it all wrong. I thought to myself, oh daddy, it’s just because you are different. You didn’t grow up here. No one is going to treat me different because I was born in the United States. I am an American and no matter what I wear and what I believe in, I will be more accepted because I am American. Maybe he had encountered racism in this country, but I had not and I wanted to keep it that way. Last year though, I realized, it didn’t matter what I wanted.
High school was an experience of its own. I wanted to change all stereotypes about Muslim women, and I believed I finally had the playing field to do so. The high school was one of the largest at the school, referred to as the Park. Sports was a way to help break some stereotypes, I thought, and for that reason I played soccer for my high school team. After four years I realized that it wasn’t something that I alone was striving for, but something every Muslim girl was striving for. This became one of the many bonds that we would end up sharing. My love of sports had continued throughout high school which led to an enrollment in girls basketball the first semester of my senior year. This one class taught me more about myself and the world around me then perhaps any other class I had taken throughout my high school career. Ironic. I know.
Walking into a warm September room, I can sill remember. The coach didn’t show up till half an hour later and when he did he sized up every girl. It was the scariest experience I had had with a teacher thus far. Looking around it seemed like the five percent population of Muslim girls had landed in this one class. I thought it was really cool. Bonding with your fellow sisters. The class used to take place in a gym that comprised of about six different basketball courts. It was also the last class of the day and because of that perhaps, the coach used to be extremely tired and wouldn’t bother coming out of his office to give directions as to what we should do until about half of the class time was over. I blame the situation I was put into for all those spare minutes that the girls were left with. In those extra minutes we had people make cliques and given the size of the gym the different bodies of people were very far away from each other on the court.
I had a friend, Sundus, in the class who was perhaps my opposite in many ways. One of the most prominent differences was that she always thought that the world was out to get her. She felt racism in that class before any of us, and frankly there were times where she had it wrong, but she was quick to judge and one with a quick temper. She got in a couple of fights with a girl by the name of Brittany and they had to deal with the principal together on many occasions. As the year progressed the class became more and more tense in between, what appeared to be two different groups of people, the non Muslim girls and the Muslim girls. Nothing hit quite as home though until we first picked our teams.
************
“We have been working on skills for a while now, and now I want to put them all to use. Lets see what you guys can do in teams. I have already picked the captains. When I call their names, I want them to step on the blue line and pick your teams. Any questions? Okay Lauren and Brittany on the line.” It wasn’t that I didn’t like the girls, it was just that most fights would start because of the two of them and it seemed from that stand point that these girls were the racist girls in the class. I knew the picking of the teams was going to be painful to say the least, but hey I wasn’t that bad, so I would definitely not be picked last.
Brittany picked first and then Lauren. The first couple of rounds was a war to get the best players in the class. That was fine with everyone. They were good. Then they started picking the girls that were worse than I was, that was definitely not fair, and what made it worse was that the girls Brittany and Lauren were picking were girls that they hadn‘t said a word to all year. That was not fair. I couldn’t keep the disbelief from showing and looked at the girls next to me. Could people tell how mad I was, because I was really mad? Ironically enough all the girls that seemed to be left were girls that also wore headscarves. I could hear some of the girls saying, “Are you kidding”?! Frustration could be sensed in their voices and in their faces. What made it more annoying was that the captains were now taking longer to pick team members. The coach was standing on the line with the girls that had already been picked, his grade book and pen in hand. He seemed to be keeping record of teams. He would move from captain to captain, listening to their request and penciling it in his grade book. As he moved to Brittany’s group, I saw the girls smiling and discussing. It was obvious that they were trying to figure out who they should pick next. Brittany stood next to the coach and began to point at different girls in the line, “ What’s her name”?
“The tall one”? So I guess the coach didn’t know our name either. Perfect.
“No no the tall one. The one with the pink scarf”?
“ Oh, her name is”, he looked down at his list, “ umm Sajdah”.
“Alright that’s the one I want”. The coach put a mark on his sheet and Brittany yelled, “ Sajdah”.
**********
The rest of that day seems almost like a blur. I don’t remember who was on what team, how many girls were picked after me, and what happened in the locker room that day when I was changing. Something had broken inside me. The one thing I remember about that day is the anger and frustration that I developed, the hostile feelings I developed, if only temporary, toward the girls that made me feel inferior. What I remember about that day is feeling like an inanimate object being picked for my looks rather than who I was. If I was expected to know their names, they should know my name, because it was a mater of respect and courtesy. I had never thought that this could happen to me, and it did.
All my life, I had heard thing about the civil rights movement, and to me it seemed like it was a movement for the African Americans only. I loved history, everything except the civil rights movement. Something about it bored me. Racism was something that other races had to deal with, the ones that looked really different. I didn’t look that different and I was raised with American ideals therefore I believed in my heart that I would never be a target of such a thing. I was really wrong. I was of a different race and of a different religion, obviously I would be a target of such a thing, especially after the whole War on Terror shenanigan.
I now knew that I too would be a victim of racism because whether I liked it or not. I have to come to grips with that and something about knowing it makes me feel a sense of empowerment. I know I’m different, but I also know what it means to be an American. It definitely doesn’t mean that I have to believe in everything our lawmakers tell us or even the media. Being American is whatever I make it because this is a country of individuals. I would like to believe that I am an individual in the truest sense of the world. I don’t have to rely on the individualism that the media things I should be striving for but the individualism that comes from my intellect and religious beliefs. These two things I believe are strong molders of individualistic ideology. This experience made me come to terms with my cultural heritage as well. Sure I was born in the United States, but there was nothing wrong with keeping a part of where my parents and grandparents are from, my true roots. It stills strikes me as ironic that racism would exist in a country that is supposed to be one of the biggest “melting pot” nations in the world. Maybe I have more to thank those girls for then to be mad at, and thinking back I forgive them for their ignorance. Sometimes you don’t get to understand people until you really get to know them, and perhaps that’s exactly what happened with us.
Our high school was pretty diverse compared to most schools. We had many foreign exchange kids come to our school and students from different ethnicities which made it more surprising to sense this feeling of racism. Analyzing the situation I was put in, I would have to say that maybe those girls didn’t have racism on their mind, maybe they didn’t realize what they were doing at all. Coming to the University of Michigan seemed almost like a continuation of what I had left behind. I was already used to seeing people of different backgrounds, but having more Muslims here makes things a little different. People seem more understanding and friendly because perhaps they are more aware about my religion.
Racism is something every country has been fighting since the beginning of its time and something that has still stuck around with us. Its obviously not going to change overnight or even a period of 10 years. There will always be people that don’t like those that are different, but I will not let that keep me down. There is a whole world of people, and a whole world of experiences, I want to be a part of it all and the crude opinions of a few will not stop me.
“Diaper Head”!
Not many people have experienced being a target of outward hate, but I’m lucky enough to have experienced it. But if you had asked me a couple years before, I would have told you that I had not been granted an experience of the sort. Looking back today, maybe the racist slurs had escaped my senses. I am still an American despite what anyone says to me, because I believe that it’s their personal ignorance that keeps them from knowing people, amazing people. I know I am different, my religion, my culture, my looks, but then I question who am I different from? Who set the norm for what an American has to be? I didn’t read up on any of that, and until then, hey I am an American like everyone else, not better, not worse.
I was born in the United States. In California, Los Angeles-the highlight of American culture. I grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by “all American” families-parents, two kids, and a pet. I, like many of those families, lived in a beautiful house with my parents, my little sister, and my goldfishes. I grew up near Hollywood, the epitamy of western culture. Was I different then? I guess so. Most of our family friends were from the Indian subcontinent, we would have to wear decorative, itchy clothing to parties, my parents tried to speak to me in Urdu most of the time, I celebrated different holidays. I was different. What about religion? Religion was something my family leaned on, on matters of morality and on matters of behavior, the usual “God says…” comments.
After two moves from my childhood heaven, Michigan happened. Changes were in the air for our family. The biggest change that I still remember was the simple fact that I couldn’t wear shorts any longer. I thought about the age factor, but I know that if I had stayed in California I would have been wearing shorts for a couple years longer. But rather I went to a totally different side of a the spectrum in a matter of one year. My mom and I began wearing the headscarf and instead of talking about religion on a rare occasion, religion became a part of daily life. It was so strange in the beginning. When you’re a kid, you live for day to day pleasure and it became weird to think that, I, an eleven year old, had a bigger purpose in life. I loved the feeling of belonging to something bigger and meaningful. Despite all of this, being all American and all Muslim was strange for me, but a feeling I learned to embrace and pride myself of. Nothing is impossible I would tell myself, and I’m going to prove it. Then September 11th happened.
“Are you related to Usama-Bin-Ladin”?
“ Why do you hate us”?
“What do you think about what happened?”
“Your religion is so twisted”!
Ask a eleven year old questions like that, and see what she says. Let’s see, my responses were along the lines of, “Are you related to Hitler or Stalin? I don’t hate you. Politicians are still trying to figure out what happened, why are you asking me? My religion is not twisted”! It was hard, especially when I was outnumbered, one to about twenty-four other students at a charter school. At least I had the comfort in knowing that my endeavors of seeking religious knowledge had now left me with the confidence of saying that my religion did not endorse such actions. But the pride and the outward religious affiliation was something my father did not approve of. He believed that behavior like mine would draw unwanted attention during tumultuous times. But I thought that my dad had it all wrong. I thought to myself, oh daddy, it’s just because you are different. You didn’t grow up here. No one is going to treat me different because I was born in the United States. I am an American and no matter what I wear and what I believe in, I will be more accepted because I am American. Maybe he had encountered racism in this country, but I had not and I wanted to keep it that way. Last year though, I realized, it didn’t matter what I wanted.
High school was an experience of its own. I wanted to change all stereotypes about Muslim women, and I believed I finally had the playing field to do so. The high school was one of the largest at the school, referred to as the Park. Sports was a way to help break some stereotypes, I thought, and for that reason I played soccer for my high school team. After four years I realized that it wasn’t something that I alone was striving for, but something every Muslim girl was striving for. This became one of the many bonds that we would end up sharing. My love of sports had continued throughout high school which led to an enrollment in girls basketball the first semester of my senior year. This one class taught me more about myself and the world around me then perhaps any other class I had taken throughout my high school career. Ironic. I know.
Walking into a warm September room, I can sill remember. The coach didn’t show up till half an hour later and when he did he sized up every girl. It was the scariest experience I had had with a teacher thus far. Looking around it seemed like the five percent population of Muslim girls had landed in this one class. I thought it was really cool. Bonding with your fellow sisters. The class used to take place in a gym that comprised of about six different basketball courts. It was also the last class of the day and because of that perhaps, the coach used to be extremely tired and wouldn’t bother coming out of his office to give directions as to what we should do until about half of the class time was over. I blame the situation I was put into for all those spare minutes that the girls were left with. In those extra minutes we had people make cliques and given the size of the gym the different bodies of people were very far away from each other on the court.
I had a friend, Sundus, in the class who was perhaps my opposite in many ways. One of the most prominent differences was that she always thought that the world was out to get her. She felt racism in that class before any of us, and frankly there were times where she had it wrong, but she was quick to judge and one with a quick temper. She got in a couple of fights with a girl by the name of Brittany and they had to deal with the principal together on many occasions. As the year progressed the class became more and more tense in between, what appeared to be two different groups of people, the non Muslim girls and the Muslim girls. Nothing hit quite as home though until we first picked our teams.
************
“We have been working on skills for a while now, and now I want to put them all to use. Lets see what you guys can do in teams. I have already picked the captains. When I call their names, I want them to step on the blue line and pick your teams. Any questions? Okay Lauren and Brittany on the line.” It wasn’t that I didn’t like the girls, it was just that most fights would start because of the two of them and it seemed from that stand point that these girls were the racist girls in the class. I knew the picking of the teams was going to be painful to say the least, but hey I wasn’t that bad, so I would definitely not be picked last.
Brittany picked first and then Lauren. The first couple of rounds was a war to get the best players in the class. That was fine with everyone. They were good. Then they started picking the girls that were worse than I was, that was definitely not fair, and what made it worse was that the girls Brittany and Lauren were picking were girls that they hadn‘t said a word to all year. That was not fair. I couldn’t keep the disbelief from showing and looked at the girls next to me. Could people tell how mad I was, because I was really mad? Ironically enough all the girls that seemed to be left were girls that also wore headscarves. I could hear some of the girls saying, “Are you kidding”?! Frustration could be sensed in their voices and in their faces. What made it more annoying was that the captains were now taking longer to pick team members. The coach was standing on the line with the girls that had already been picked, his grade book and pen in hand. He seemed to be keeping record of teams. He would move from captain to captain, listening to their request and penciling it in his grade book. As he moved to Brittany’s group, I saw the girls smiling and discussing. It was obvious that they were trying to figure out who they should pick next. Brittany stood next to the coach and began to point at different girls in the line, “ What’s her name”?
“The tall one”? So I guess the coach didn’t know our name either. Perfect.
“No no the tall one. The one with the pink scarf”?
“ Oh, her name is”, he looked down at his list, “ umm Sajdah”.
“Alright that’s the one I want”. The coach put a mark on his sheet and Brittany yelled, “ Sajdah”.
**********
The rest of that day seems almost like a blur. I don’t remember who was on what team, how many girls were picked after me, and what happened in the locker room that day when I was changing. Something had broken inside me. The one thing I remember about that day is the anger and frustration that I developed, the hostile feelings I developed, if only temporary, toward the girls that made me feel inferior. What I remember about that day is feeling like an inanimate object being picked for my looks rather than who I was. If I was expected to know their names, they should know my name, because it was a mater of respect and courtesy. I had never thought that this could happen to me, and it did.
All my life, I had heard thing about the civil rights movement, and to me it seemed like it was a movement for the African Americans only. I loved history, everything except the civil rights movement. Something about it bored me. Racism was something that other races had to deal with, the ones that looked really different. I didn’t look that different and I was raised with American ideals therefore I believed in my heart that I would never be a target of such a thing. I was really wrong. I was of a different race and of a different religion, obviously I would be a target of such a thing, especially after the whole War on Terror shenanigan.
I now knew that I too would be a victim of racism because whether I liked it or not. I have to come to grips with that and something about knowing it makes me feel a sense of empowerment. I know I’m different, but I also know what it means to be an American. It definitely doesn’t mean that I have to believe in everything our lawmakers tell us or even the media. Being American is whatever I make it because this is a country of individuals. I would like to believe that I am an individual in the truest sense of the world. I don’t have to rely on the individualism that the media things I should be striving for but the individualism that comes from my intellect and religious beliefs. These two things I believe are strong molders of individualistic ideology. This experience made me come to terms with my cultural heritage as well. Sure I was born in the United States, but there was nothing wrong with keeping a part of where my parents and grandparents are from, my true roots. It stills strikes me as ironic that racism would exist in a country that is supposed to be one of the biggest “melting pot” nations in the world. Maybe I have more to thank those girls for then to be mad at, and thinking back I forgive them for their ignorance. Sometimes you don’t get to understand people until you really get to know them, and perhaps that’s exactly what happened with us.
Our high school was pretty diverse compared to most schools. We had many foreign exchange kids come to our school and students from different ethnicities which made it more surprising to sense this feeling of racism. Analyzing the situation I was put in, I would have to say that maybe those girls didn’t have racism on their mind, maybe they didn’t realize what they were doing at all. Coming to the University of Michigan seemed almost like a continuation of what I had left behind. I was already used to seeing people of different backgrounds, but having more Muslims here makes things a little different. People seem more understanding and friendly because perhaps they are more aware about my religion.
Racism is something every country has been fighting since the beginning of its time and something that has still stuck around with us. Its obviously not going to change overnight or even a period of 10 years. There will always be people that don’t like those that are different, but I will not let that keep me down. There is a whole world of people, and a whole world of experiences, I want to be a part of it all and the crude opinions of a few will not stop me.
Peace One Day...
Fatima Idrees
Comp 110
September 29, 2008
Peace One Day….
Yet another day of my miserable life! How many more days do I have to make the same vegetables and bread stretch for six people? It is so hot today, and no fans working. “Can I go out to play please mom?”
“Why love. Stay inside and watch some….get your sisters and your brother, get them under the bed!”
“But mom…”
“Now!”
Seriously, right now. Where are you? I told him not to go to work today, I knew something was going to happen and he had to go. Why don’t people let others live in this part of the world…no he will come home, pull yourself together for the kids. “Is everyone okay?” Everyone is okay, but for how long. Why us, oh God why us?
**********************
This chaos is not something an average American is used to and something that an American politician has never perhaps dreamed of, but this chaos is the day to day reality for many Palestinians and Israelis. The displacement of the Palestinian people is thought of as the greatest displacement of refugees in history and yet their cries fall on deaf years. The conflict has become perhaps an old problem, one that does not require immediate attention, but some would beg to differ. Michael Freidman of The New York Times wrote in one of his articles that, "the outcome of the war now underway between the Israelis and the Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe to all of civilization" (Friedman, The New York Times)
So when does the world start paying attention to this "war"? This is a social problem of its time and one that is affecting many countries. Since the United States is the leader in diplomacy I believe that it is our job to get the voice of innocent Palestinians heard. As time has passed on, our Presidents have increasingly thought it necessary to take a closer look at the matter because not only does it make a social impact on the world but an economical one for the United States as well. From President Carter, to Clinton, to President Bush, each has tried to make the two sides negotiate, make the two sides talk, but nothing so far has come out of it.
The people of Palestine and Israel have been fighting for land, resources, and their holy city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the most important aspect of negotiations to both states, states which are heavily directed by their religious affiliations. For people that hold this city as one of their most sacred sites, you can not take it away without a fight. This problem would have been resolved had Israel accepted the original protocol of having Jerusalem become an international zone. This growing problem is now going to be put on the shoulders of the new president, Obama or McCain. But unlike the ambiguity of President Bush, Obama has said that he would want Jerusalem to remain an undivided capital of the Jewish nation. “Obama said the concept of a Jewish state is ‘fundamentally just,’ and his commitment to Israeli security is ‘non-negotiable’. If elected, Obama says he would ‘insist on fully funding military assistance to Israel’ (JPost) and continue to cooperate with Israel on the development of the Arrow missile defense system” (Council on Foreign Relations).
McCain is also said to be on the same platform only he wants to stay out of Israeli affairs as much as possible(Council on Foreign Relations). This seems like a violation of the justice that the Untied States stands for. It does not seem fair to have so much money put into a country’s defense while people a couple of miles down the street are starving. No nation is going to accept another if they are being oppressed, as is the case of the Palestinians.
Israel is a nation that is a lone star within a cloud of darkness, some might argue, and that it needs as much light as possible to help it sustain itself. Israel has to defend all of its borders against other states that have been around longer then them and are possible threats. Israel has to do everything in its power to try to fight off the “terrorists” in Palestine and protect its citizens. But what about the innocent civilians the Israeli army is killing every year? Are the attacks instigated by the Palestinian “terrorists” groups justified? “All men recognize the right to revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau). The men of Palestine are not blind or stupid, they know that they can’t endure the cruelties any longer. This is an international social problem that is going to be in the hands of the next president, and I believe that a lot more thought needs to be given to it. If analysts are correct our political moves in this part of the world can make or break out relationship with the rest of the world.
**********************
Please let this night pass without any disturbances, oh God. Thank you for letting him come back home safely. Thank you for sparing the life of me and my children for another day my Lord. But how much longer do I have to do this. How much longer do I protect them, how much longer do I feed them the same food, and how much longer do I watch their future slip away from their fingers…
As she lay on the damp mattress, next to her husband, she stroked her daughter’s hair. I want them to become something, to get married, to see the world, to have dreams, to change the world, to bring peace to my world, bring peace to this sacred land, peace to these people, peace one day…
Work Cited
"The Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 19 Sept. 2008. Council on Foreign Relations. 29 Sept. 2008
Barack Obama. Speech. March 2007.
Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. England: Penguin Classics, 1981.
Comp 110
September 29, 2008
Peace One Day….
Yet another day of my miserable life! How many more days do I have to make the same vegetables and bread stretch for six people? It is so hot today, and no fans working. “Can I go out to play please mom?”
“Why love. Stay inside and watch some….get your sisters and your brother, get them under the bed!”
“But mom…”
“Now!”
Seriously, right now. Where are you? I told him not to go to work today, I knew something was going to happen and he had to go. Why don’t people let others live in this part of the world…no he will come home, pull yourself together for the kids. “Is everyone okay?” Everyone is okay, but for how long. Why us, oh God why us?
**********************
This chaos is not something an average American is used to and something that an American politician has never perhaps dreamed of, but this chaos is the day to day reality for many Palestinians and Israelis. The displacement of the Palestinian people is thought of as the greatest displacement of refugees in history and yet their cries fall on deaf years. The conflict has become perhaps an old problem, one that does not require immediate attention, but some would beg to differ. Michael Freidman of The New York Times wrote in one of his articles that, "the outcome of the war now underway between the Israelis and the Palestinians is vital to the security of every American, and indeed, I believe to all of civilization" (Friedman, The New York Times)
So when does the world start paying attention to this "war"? This is a social problem of its time and one that is affecting many countries. Since the United States is the leader in diplomacy I believe that it is our job to get the voice of innocent Palestinians heard. As time has passed on, our Presidents have increasingly thought it necessary to take a closer look at the matter because not only does it make a social impact on the world but an economical one for the United States as well. From President Carter, to Clinton, to President Bush, each has tried to make the two sides negotiate, make the two sides talk, but nothing so far has come out of it.
The people of Palestine and Israel have been fighting for land, resources, and their holy city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the most important aspect of negotiations to both states, states which are heavily directed by their religious affiliations. For people that hold this city as one of their most sacred sites, you can not take it away without a fight. This problem would have been resolved had Israel accepted the original protocol of having Jerusalem become an international zone. This growing problem is now going to be put on the shoulders of the new president, Obama or McCain. But unlike the ambiguity of President Bush, Obama has said that he would want Jerusalem to remain an undivided capital of the Jewish nation. “Obama said the concept of a Jewish state is ‘fundamentally just,’ and his commitment to Israeli security is ‘non-negotiable’. If elected, Obama says he would ‘insist on fully funding military assistance to Israel’ (JPost) and continue to cooperate with Israel on the development of the Arrow missile defense system” (Council on Foreign Relations).
McCain is also said to be on the same platform only he wants to stay out of Israeli affairs as much as possible(Council on Foreign Relations). This seems like a violation of the justice that the Untied States stands for. It does not seem fair to have so much money put into a country’s defense while people a couple of miles down the street are starving. No nation is going to accept another if they are being oppressed, as is the case of the Palestinians.
Israel is a nation that is a lone star within a cloud of darkness, some might argue, and that it needs as much light as possible to help it sustain itself. Israel has to defend all of its borders against other states that have been around longer then them and are possible threats. Israel has to do everything in its power to try to fight off the “terrorists” in Palestine and protect its citizens. But what about the innocent civilians the Israeli army is killing every year? Are the attacks instigated by the Palestinian “terrorists” groups justified? “All men recognize the right to revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist the government when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (Thoreau). The men of Palestine are not blind or stupid, they know that they can’t endure the cruelties any longer. This is an international social problem that is going to be in the hands of the next president, and I believe that a lot more thought needs to be given to it. If analysts are correct our political moves in this part of the world can make or break out relationship with the rest of the world.
**********************
Please let this night pass without any disturbances, oh God. Thank you for letting him come back home safely. Thank you for sparing the life of me and my children for another day my Lord. But how much longer do I have to do this. How much longer do I protect them, how much longer do I feed them the same food, and how much longer do I watch their future slip away from their fingers…
As she lay on the damp mattress, next to her husband, she stroked her daughter’s hair. I want them to become something, to get married, to see the world, to have dreams, to change the world, to bring peace to my world, bring peace to this sacred land, peace to these people, peace one day…
Work Cited
"The Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 19 Sept. 2008. Council on Foreign Relations. 29 Sept. 2008
Barack Obama. Speech. March 2007.
Thoreau, Henry David. Civil Disobedience. England: Penguin Classics, 1981.
Dear President Bush
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush,
About my family, which I referenced in my last letter, I believe I gave you a somewhat optimistic picture of them. I have two siblings, a sister who is 12, and a brother who is 10, and my parents who are not seperated. My dad works and my mother gave up her job to tend to "mom" stuff in the household. As I write this letter to you my sister laughs over my shoulder thinking you are not going to care about my daily life. But I know better than that. Sir, I know that you care about each and everyone of us Americans; please don't mind my sister.
How are things looking in the White House, sir? I'm sure you have some fun when you are done with all your work. I always dreamed of staying the night at the White House, going through all the rooms, playing with all the animals, just explore the place I guess. It looks pretty big; I've really never been there. I live in an average American family home that perhaps sometimes seems really small when your brother and sister want to make your life miserable.
Reminds me of today. I was at school all day and then I had to go tutor these bratty kids, the ones that give you a hard time for no reason. I come home, tired not wanting to entertain my siblings appetite for me and headed to my room to take a little nap. My brother was on my my bed sitting on top of me in no time, screaming about his soccer practice that evening. He then decided that he would tell me all about his wonderful school day and then went on to ask me for money for the new playstation he wanted to buy. Can't get peace and quite these days. They seem to be leaving the house at this time so I think I'll go catch up on some of that much needed rest.
Keep up the good work, sir.
Sincerely,
Fatima Idrees
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush,
About my family, which I referenced in my last letter, I believe I gave you a somewhat optimistic picture of them. I have two siblings, a sister who is 12, and a brother who is 10, and my parents who are not seperated. My dad works and my mother gave up her job to tend to "mom" stuff in the household. As I write this letter to you my sister laughs over my shoulder thinking you are not going to care about my daily life. But I know better than that. Sir, I know that you care about each and everyone of us Americans; please don't mind my sister.
How are things looking in the White House, sir? I'm sure you have some fun when you are done with all your work. I always dreamed of staying the night at the White House, going through all the rooms, playing with all the animals, just explore the place I guess. It looks pretty big; I've really never been there. I live in an average American family home that perhaps sometimes seems really small when your brother and sister want to make your life miserable.
Reminds me of today. I was at school all day and then I had to go tutor these bratty kids, the ones that give you a hard time for no reason. I come home, tired not wanting to entertain my siblings appetite for me and headed to my room to take a little nap. My brother was on my my bed sitting on top of me in no time, screaming about his soccer practice that evening. He then decided that he would tell me all about his wonderful school day and then went on to ask me for money for the new playstation he wanted to buy. Can't get peace and quite these days. They seem to be leaving the house at this time so I think I'll go catch up on some of that much needed rest.
Keep up the good work, sir.
Sincerely,
Fatima Idrees
Media and the geart "isms" of our Time
The 2008 movie, Iron Man was about a rich, innovative, billionaire- who like all other hero’s was trying to save the world. But in the begging of his movie he doesn’t have a worry in the world, not even his lonely life, for he has something other guys don’t have. Money, and because of this money he gets a lot of girls. In the beginning of the movie, the portrayal of women is something along the lines of gold diggers, and sex craving animals. The female that played a big role in the movie was his secretary Pepper and like the rest of the movie fit into the stereotype of the typical woman in the working world. She is a secretary that is extremely organized, nurturing, sweet, and pretty, not to mention someone a secretary that is in love with his boss.
There was an underlying tone of racism with the trustworthy black friend always there for Tonny’s aid but never really having a large part in the movie. Then their was racism
There was defiantly a sense of imperialism because it seemed like it was a government propaganda movie, because it did what our government had been doing for ages; making our country seem like they are a lot more dutifully good while other races are hateful and terrorists. There is a sense of dehumanization of the Arab race and making it seem like white was a supreme race.
What is the world’s image of someone with power? What characteristics describe them? Did Tonny Starks fit that image and was everyone simply there to serve him?
There was an underlying tone of racism with the trustworthy black friend always there for Tonny’s aid but never really having a large part in the movie. Then their was racism
There was defiantly a sense of imperialism because it seemed like it was a government propaganda movie, because it did what our government had been doing for ages; making our country seem like they are a lot more dutifully good while other races are hateful and terrorists. There is a sense of dehumanization of the Arab race and making it seem like white was a supreme race.
What is the world’s image of someone with power? What characteristics describe them? Did Tonny Starks fit that image and was everyone simply there to serve him?
Writing the Truth:Five Difficulties
We are inherently drawn to truth, for truth is the key to reality. But how often is truth actually unveiled by the writers of our time? Putting blame on the writers for keeping the masses in the dark is hardly sensible because according to Brecht they go through their own difficulties in discovering the truth and then relaying the truth to the masses. Some authors might identify these difficulties, but Brecht did a service to the world by actually putting these difficulties down on paper for writers of all ages to recognize and overcome. These common issues are materialized in the form of his essay, “Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties”.
Brecht was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria. He was attracted to the literary arts at an early age and was also a gifted student; in fact at the age of 16, his poetry was published. Later in his life he enrolled in the medical school in Munich, where he attended some seminars by famous playwrights. As World War I came around, Brecht served in the army as a medical orderly, and it was after serving in the war that he became famous for his plays “Baal” and “Drums in the Night”. In the 1920’s Brecht moved to Berlin to further his career, and in Berlin is where he found his love of politics. During this period he began studying the work of Karl Marx, and by 1929 he had embraced Communism. All of this work suggests that he was a playwright that was not just a writer for entertainment, but a playwright with a purpose to educate the masses about the reality of the world around them. Because of his ability to humor as well as educate the crowd, Brecht had won many awards and was becoming a notable writer in Europe. Brecht’s writing though did not stand well with the Nazi party and after they took over Germany, they made sure that Brecht’s plays were banned. Brecht left the country for Denmark in 1933 and constructed his first version of “Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties” in 1934 as part of an essay contest.
Looking into Brechts work one can draw the conclusion that not only were his works against facisism and capitalism, but his work, he was trying to relay the truth of events and of the world to his audience. This theme also carried over to the “Five Difficulties”, for it was a piece of writing that was supposed to inspire the writers of today and the future to go after the truth and portray it to the people that can change the world with that truth. Since the piece was written during World War II, the lack of truth during that era drove him to write about not only the difficulties that writers’ face but also he drew the realization that writers do not present the truth because they are cowards.
He had originally only proposed three difficulties with the name of his essay being “Poets Are To Tell Truth”. The second version was printed in German in April 1935 with two more added truths. The fourth truth was the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective and the fifth truth was the cunning to spread the truth among the many. Why did he print these in his second publication rather then the first? It could be that he was afraid of the consequences of his writing the first time around, for the world was engaged in violence. The second reason for Brecht to add the truths on a later publication could be that he was still working on the idea and had time to develop his writing. Another reason for this could be that his audience was different both times, or because he thought that the message was going to effect people differently depending on the time that it was published. The third publication was a translated version of the second that was published in the United States to yet another audience. This might have not had the same effect because the United States was a capitalistic nation.
Brecht, I believe created a piece of work that is different from that of many of his predecessors in the sense that its purpose is not only leave behind a classic but to actually ignite a search of truth till the end of time. I believe this writing is going to endure the test of time also because truth is something that is never fully exposed, no matter the state of the government as well. The five major points were once again, the courage to write the truth, the keenness to recognize the truth, the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon, the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective, and the cunning to spread the truth among the many. The perfect example of this to have ever taken place in the history of our country was the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. These two journalists worked together to overcome all five difficulties and unveil the biggest corruption scandal of the country. His reasons ring true to this day because even today we need the courage to write the truth, and also to be able to recognize the truth. If the truth is not recognized then your point and courage holds no meaning. The validity of the truth needs to be established before the next step is taken; the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon. This in its own a tricky thing to do, but what we have to know is that instead of making generalizations we need to attack exact points that we are writing against. Once these points have been made, it is also then up to the writer to try to find the right people that can bring change with this knowledge. Then, when it comes to the publication of the work, the writer should keep in mind that the only people that can read that are people that read that newspaper, so that the job of the writer becomes to somehow get their message to the masses instead of a select group of people. Though the Watergate example took place a while ago, there are still truths to be figured out and systems to be changed around the world and so this is something that is still relevant to today.
Brecht’s five truths can then be applied to the contemporary world in the form of the 2008 Presidential Debate. Obama and McCain are two political leaders that want to help the country during its tumultuous times and both believe that their plan is the best to fix the current situation. They both claim to be showing the truth of the opponent; what really the politics of the other are. According to the five truths, they are both courageous to speak the truth. But the truth is not something that can be proved in this election because each party wants to claim that they are right, but for the purpose of this paper we will say that they are both couragous enough to spread the truth. Both men are actually using their truth as a weapon against the other. Obama and Mccain are also politicians that know who they can supply with the truth, so that it becomes action; for the time being it seems to themselves as presidents in the near future. And as far as getting the information to the masses is concerned, we know that with mass media, that is no problem for any of the candidates. So that leaves with the last truth of Brecht, the keenness of recognizing the truth, and that is something that someone else has to catch the two candidates on. They both claim that they are correct right now and in their future plans but the world will only know when it comes into action.
“Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties”, an essay by Brecht, poses difficulties that are indeed not ones that you can overcome in a short amount of time, but overcoming them is going to be the key of our world and social systems. Galileo, one of the characters of Brecht and scientists that caused a scientific revolution, understood this and worked with it. I wanted to pursue the career or journalism and after reading this essay I know that this is a lot more difficult then what I had imagined before. Everyone can write about one’s feelings and statistics, but writing about the truth is truly a huge burden. One thing that I took away from his essay is to be straightforward with the truth because only then can you make your point and cause change. Keenness to know the truth is something that I envy people for, for I believe that there are very few people that have that characteristic in their writing. Writing the truth is not hard, and sugarcoating it is very easy. A strong writer, understands their goal, writes to the right audience, and goes straight for the truth. That is the writer I want to become a writer who can direct constructive discussions and questions; questioning the fundamentals of society and making people want to go find the truth rather than being beings that get “fed” their facts.
Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt. Galileo. Ed. Eric Bentley. Grove Press: New York, 1966.
Bertolt Brecht. October 20, 08. Theatre Database. Octover 20, 2008
Brecht was born in 1898 in Augsburg, Bavaria. He was attracted to the literary arts at an early age and was also a gifted student; in fact at the age of 16, his poetry was published. Later in his life he enrolled in the medical school in Munich, where he attended some seminars by famous playwrights. As World War I came around, Brecht served in the army as a medical orderly, and it was after serving in the war that he became famous for his plays “Baal” and “Drums in the Night”. In the 1920’s Brecht moved to Berlin to further his career, and in Berlin is where he found his love of politics. During this period he began studying the work of Karl Marx, and by 1929 he had embraced Communism. All of this work suggests that he was a playwright that was not just a writer for entertainment, but a playwright with a purpose to educate the masses about the reality of the world around them. Because of his ability to humor as well as educate the crowd, Brecht had won many awards and was becoming a notable writer in Europe. Brecht’s writing though did not stand well with the Nazi party and after they took over Germany, they made sure that Brecht’s plays were banned. Brecht left the country for Denmark in 1933 and constructed his first version of “Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties” in 1934 as part of an essay contest.
Looking into Brechts work one can draw the conclusion that not only were his works against facisism and capitalism, but his work, he was trying to relay the truth of events and of the world to his audience. This theme also carried over to the “Five Difficulties”, for it was a piece of writing that was supposed to inspire the writers of today and the future to go after the truth and portray it to the people that can change the world with that truth. Since the piece was written during World War II, the lack of truth during that era drove him to write about not only the difficulties that writers’ face but also he drew the realization that writers do not present the truth because they are cowards.
He had originally only proposed three difficulties with the name of his essay being “Poets Are To Tell Truth”. The second version was printed in German in April 1935 with two more added truths. The fourth truth was the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective and the fifth truth was the cunning to spread the truth among the many. Why did he print these in his second publication rather then the first? It could be that he was afraid of the consequences of his writing the first time around, for the world was engaged in violence. The second reason for Brecht to add the truths on a later publication could be that he was still working on the idea and had time to develop his writing. Another reason for this could be that his audience was different both times, or because he thought that the message was going to effect people differently depending on the time that it was published. The third publication was a translated version of the second that was published in the United States to yet another audience. This might have not had the same effect because the United States was a capitalistic nation.
Brecht, I believe created a piece of work that is different from that of many of his predecessors in the sense that its purpose is not only leave behind a classic but to actually ignite a search of truth till the end of time. I believe this writing is going to endure the test of time also because truth is something that is never fully exposed, no matter the state of the government as well. The five major points were once again, the courage to write the truth, the keenness to recognize the truth, the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon, the judgment to select those in whose hands the truth will be effective, and the cunning to spread the truth among the many. The perfect example of this to have ever taken place in the history of our country was the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. These two journalists worked together to overcome all five difficulties and unveil the biggest corruption scandal of the country. His reasons ring true to this day because even today we need the courage to write the truth, and also to be able to recognize the truth. If the truth is not recognized then your point and courage holds no meaning. The validity of the truth needs to be established before the next step is taken; the skill to manipulate the truth as a weapon. This in its own a tricky thing to do, but what we have to know is that instead of making generalizations we need to attack exact points that we are writing against. Once these points have been made, it is also then up to the writer to try to find the right people that can bring change with this knowledge. Then, when it comes to the publication of the work, the writer should keep in mind that the only people that can read that are people that read that newspaper, so that the job of the writer becomes to somehow get their message to the masses instead of a select group of people. Though the Watergate example took place a while ago, there are still truths to be figured out and systems to be changed around the world and so this is something that is still relevant to today.
Brecht’s five truths can then be applied to the contemporary world in the form of the 2008 Presidential Debate. Obama and McCain are two political leaders that want to help the country during its tumultuous times and both believe that their plan is the best to fix the current situation. They both claim to be showing the truth of the opponent; what really the politics of the other are. According to the five truths, they are both courageous to speak the truth. But the truth is not something that can be proved in this election because each party wants to claim that they are right, but for the purpose of this paper we will say that they are both couragous enough to spread the truth. Both men are actually using their truth as a weapon against the other. Obama and Mccain are also politicians that know who they can supply with the truth, so that it becomes action; for the time being it seems to themselves as presidents in the near future. And as far as getting the information to the masses is concerned, we know that with mass media, that is no problem for any of the candidates. So that leaves with the last truth of Brecht, the keenness of recognizing the truth, and that is something that someone else has to catch the two candidates on. They both claim that they are correct right now and in their future plans but the world will only know when it comes into action.
“Writing the Truth: Five Difficulties”, an essay by Brecht, poses difficulties that are indeed not ones that you can overcome in a short amount of time, but overcoming them is going to be the key of our world and social systems. Galileo, one of the characters of Brecht and scientists that caused a scientific revolution, understood this and worked with it. I wanted to pursue the career or journalism and after reading this essay I know that this is a lot more difficult then what I had imagined before. Everyone can write about one’s feelings and statistics, but writing about the truth is truly a huge burden. One thing that I took away from his essay is to be straightforward with the truth because only then can you make your point and cause change. Keenness to know the truth is something that I envy people for, for I believe that there are very few people that have that characteristic in their writing. Writing the truth is not hard, and sugarcoating it is very easy. A strong writer, understands their goal, writes to the right audience, and goes straight for the truth. That is the writer I want to become a writer who can direct constructive discussions and questions; questioning the fundamentals of society and making people want to go find the truth rather than being beings that get “fed” their facts.
Work Cited
Brecht, Bertolt. Galileo. Ed. Eric Bentley. Grove Press: New York, 1966.
Bertolt Brecht. October 20, 08. Theatre Database. Octover 20, 2008
Bottled Water. Think Again.
Bottled water-- ask your self these simple questions: do we drink it for the taste, for the health benefits, or merely for the sake of convenience? After answering these questions I ask you to step back and tell me if it tastes any different then what you have drank before and if you could gain the same convenience if you bought a bottle that you could reuse. Carrying bottled water has become a trend for roughly half of the American population. We have bought into the marketing campaigns of multinational companies trying to sell us water- water that we can easily get if we just opened the taps in our very own homes. In the commercials that we are constantly bombarded with, we see labels for their water such as: ‘pristine pools of spring water’, ‘majestic alpine peaks’; we see healthy people gulping down cold sips of this clean water while running or biking in the mountains or women coming out of their yoga classes. However, people are starting to realize that this water is not anything special. Yet we continue to buy it to the point that bottling company sales go up by 7 percent annually (Baskid)! In reality bottled water is truly needed in third world countries where there are sanitation issues in their water supply, not here in the United States where we have water that goes through many regulations to meet high standards. Bottled water benefits the industry that produces it and helps Americans because of our need for convenience. However, it is a problem that will fill up our landfills, increase carbon emissions, and drain our wallets.
Do you recycle your empty water bottles? About twenty percent of us recycle while the other eighty percent throw the bottles away. These bottles then turn into 1.5 million tons of plastic waste (Baskid), a tragic result caused by the beautiful water bottles that we drink out of. Millions more end up in the oceans, on the streets, and in our forests which then starts to harm other animals for they tend to eat this plastic, thinking its food. So what happens to all the bottles that do end up in the landfill? They should be decaying at a fast rate so that we have wiggle room to pollute some more, right? Wrong. The rate of decay for plastic is very slow. We have plastic lying around on our planet from years and years ago, although we don’t know where it is. However, this is the least of our worries: according to the ‘Bottled Water Campaign’ by the Sierra Club there are chemicals that are in those plastic bottles. When the bottles decay, these dangerous chemicals seep into the ground and in to our food and water supplies…nice.
How much fuel is used up by these companies every year to get your majestic mountain peak water to you? And according to the Pacific Institute, it takes 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. According to Food and Water Watch, the plastic needed to make these bottles requires about 47 millions gallons of oil per year to produce. This is without adding the amount of gasoline required for transportation of the bottles to the filling centers and then to their consumers. Some of these consumers live half way around the world, which means so much more fuel is needed for ships, trains, and busses. Cutting the production alone of these bottles would be the equivalent of taking hundreds of thousands of cars off the streets for good, which would then lead to less green house gasses. Peter Gleik, an expert on water policy and the director of the Pacific Institute, mentioned that with the pollution caused with this industry its almost like a quarter of each bottled produced is filled with oil. But no, we have the cars and we have the bottles, and a growing population to add more bottles and cars every year.
How much money can you get bottled water for? Most bottled water is sold in vending machines, next to soft drinks for the same price. Each bottle has about twenty ounces of water, and if you were to buy a bottle for a dollar, each ounce would cost you about five cents. Local water supplies cost less then one cent per gallon. Now look at this comparison. Gasoline has to get pumped out of the ground in the form of crude oil, sent to refineries, and then shipped around the world to filling stations. A gallon of gasoline is now being sold to us for about 2 dollars and then some, which means that each ounce of oil cost less than 2 cents. This is black oil compared to something that comes out of your tap. Americans value their money; maybe they should spend it more wisely.
I propose we buy bottles that can be reused. There are a lot out there that are just as convenient, if not more so, than the plastic ones that we carry around. These bottles can also be personalized, something that is not the case with regular plastic bottles. Besides, America is a country all about individualism. Tap water is best alternative for this natural spring water that isn’t even all it’s made out to be. If you still want to make the water cleaner, you can buy a filter that would cost a fraction of the money spent on water bottles in a year.
“Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he's been given. But up to now he hasn't been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life's become extinct, the climate's ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day”(Lewis). Words of Anton Checkhov show us that when taking convenience into our hands humans can be mere destroys of this planet, in so many more ways that sometimes we might think, Bottle water companies are just one of the culprits that are destroying the planet and trying to dry up water supplies that are a man’s right. Water bottles might be convenient for most American’s, but convenience isn’t everything. It’s about time we started watching out for each other and the only way we can really make sure we do that is if we start reducing our intake of bottled water. By reducing our intake we might reduce carbon emissions and save our landfills from millions of bottles it definitely does not need. This change will not start in a day or a week, but over time I do believe we can rid the dependence Americans have developed of their Dasani and Aquafina. I suggest that we keep the dollar fifty in your pocket and while doing so save the planet one bottle at a time.
Work Cited
Baskid, Chris. "Five Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water." Lighter Footstep. 11 May 2008. 10
Nov. 2008 <http://lighterfootstep.com/2008/05/five-reasons-not-to-drink-bottled-water/>.
"Bottled Water and Energy." A Fact Sheet. Pacific Institute. 10 Nov. 2008
Lewis, Jone J. "Nature Quotes." Nature Quotes. 11 Nov. 2008
Water. 10 Nov. 2008. Food and Water Watch. 10 Nov. 2008
Journey to My Father's Past
Going through life my dad would like to stress in certain moments of life how good I had it; the good old “when I was your age” commentary. Like many other children, I would be thinking, there he goes again. I never really took time to sit down with my parents and find out about what life was like at their age, maybe because I didn’t have the time or because I wasn’t interested, or simply because I thought that they would compare their lives to mine. It wasn’t just that things are different from country to country, but times had drastically changed and like most of my peers I really don’t think our parents can relate to what we go through.
Despite all of this, it was interesting to step into another world with my father. He remembers everything like it was yesterday, and could still give good descriptions about his young years. He talked about how in Pakistan, school was a lot tougher than it was here and that at the age of eighteen he knew that he wanted to be an engineer and was already in his second year of third year of college. School systems overseas seem to be set according to the British school system, something that was beyond my comprehension. He talked about how weird it was having a two year old sister at the age of eighteen, and about his responsibilities as a big brother to six other siblings. I asked him if he was as uptight then as he is now, and he told me a story about how him and his friend had skipped a day of school and went on a trip to a town three hours away from the school on a motorcycle. He told me about the stuff him and his friend did, and how my grandma hadn’t even gotten wind of what had happened. My dad, who is nearly bald, talked about when he used to spent hours doing his hair in front of the mirror.
I think my dad was excited to tell me about his young days. When I had asked him, he asked me what it was for, when I told him it was for school I think I caught a flash of disappointment. I believe he thought that his baby girl was interested about his life for once. But after about two minutes of the conversation, I was genuinely interested in his life. It seemed so distant, but so amazing. He told me that when he was young, a person would enjoy the simple pleasures of life, but now everything is going so fast that either people don’t take the time to stop and realize them or if you do stop than you have lose something in your career. My dad came alive during our conversation. It was nice to have just me and him sitting on a couch together, enjoying a cup of tea, and it was nice to see him so happy. I realized how much my time means to my dad. He really enjoyed it and I heard great stuff about his youthful years.
Although, I have moments where I believe that it’s okay for me to not know things about my family, because I hear about them all the time, I think that it’s really important for the future generation to know where their family came from and what life was all about. Sometimes we get so caught up that we forget to realize the details of someone’s life, especially someone you care about, but those moments, those stories, make them who they are and that effects everyone that comes in contact with them.
I’m called the irresponsible child of the house. Every time I do something wrong, which happens often, I have to hear about it from my parents, and every time it feels like they don’t know what I am going through, almost as if they were never my age. Doing the transcript exercise made my father not just seem like the father that I had grown up knowing. The funny, caring, opinionated, authoritative, and rigid man was like me. I love him so much, and probably the more because I know that he has made mistakes, because he too was a child once, because he too is not always right, because he is always there when you need, because he is the rock of my life.
Despite all of this, it was interesting to step into another world with my father. He remembers everything like it was yesterday, and could still give good descriptions about his young years. He talked about how in Pakistan, school was a lot tougher than it was here and that at the age of eighteen he knew that he wanted to be an engineer and was already in his second year of third year of college. School systems overseas seem to be set according to the British school system, something that was beyond my comprehension. He talked about how weird it was having a two year old sister at the age of eighteen, and about his responsibilities as a big brother to six other siblings. I asked him if he was as uptight then as he is now, and he told me a story about how him and his friend had skipped a day of school and went on a trip to a town three hours away from the school on a motorcycle. He told me about the stuff him and his friend did, and how my grandma hadn’t even gotten wind of what had happened. My dad, who is nearly bald, talked about when he used to spent hours doing his hair in front of the mirror.
I think my dad was excited to tell me about his young days. When I had asked him, he asked me what it was for, when I told him it was for school I think I caught a flash of disappointment. I believe he thought that his baby girl was interested about his life for once. But after about two minutes of the conversation, I was genuinely interested in his life. It seemed so distant, but so amazing. He told me that when he was young, a person would enjoy the simple pleasures of life, but now everything is going so fast that either people don’t take the time to stop and realize them or if you do stop than you have lose something in your career. My dad came alive during our conversation. It was nice to have just me and him sitting on a couch together, enjoying a cup of tea, and it was nice to see him so happy. I realized how much my time means to my dad. He really enjoyed it and I heard great stuff about his youthful years.
Although, I have moments where I believe that it’s okay for me to not know things about my family, because I hear about them all the time, I think that it’s really important for the future generation to know where their family came from and what life was all about. Sometimes we get so caught up that we forget to realize the details of someone’s life, especially someone you care about, but those moments, those stories, make them who they are and that effects everyone that comes in contact with them.
I’m called the irresponsible child of the house. Every time I do something wrong, which happens often, I have to hear about it from my parents, and every time it feels like they don’t know what I am going through, almost as if they were never my age. Doing the transcript exercise made my father not just seem like the father that I had grown up knowing. The funny, caring, opinionated, authoritative, and rigid man was like me. I love him so much, and probably the more because I know that he has made mistakes, because he too was a child once, because he too is not always right, because he is always there when you need, because he is the rock of my life.
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