HW 37: Podcast 2

This is my second podcast comparing and contrasting Thanksgiving to Eid and explaining what has changed my view of Iraq: http://itw101.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-of-one-own-28.html

HW 36: My First Podcast

Here's the link to my first podcast. It's about what I learned about Ramadhan and the Iraqi culture: http://itw101.blogspot.com/2007/11/blog-of-one-own-14.html

HW 35: Letter to Readers

Over the past 13 weeks of blogging for this class I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot about not only writing and how to write a good paper or paraphrase, but also I have learned about different people, cultures, and the actual art of blogging and how it is changing our world. I have learned that maintaining a blog can sometimes be hard work but is sometimes in rewarding in the end if you get comments on your blog. Writing homework that people can view and learn things from you makes the homework more fun and encouraging to do. I have learned how to summarize, quote, respond, add my own voice to papers and writings that I have done, which has been really helpful. I definitely feel like a better writer after taking this class.
I hope someone reading my blog learns from it and becomes more open minded, as I have. Reading a variety of books has made me much more open minded to different people and cultures, and I hope other people can see that through my blogs. I think my best work on my blog is the posts that were about the book Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture combined with what I learned in They Say I Say. In those earlier blogs I was able to put what I learned in They Say I Say and intervene it with my thoughts about Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture. That is what helped me to become a better writer.
Once the class is over I don’t think I’ll keep up with the blog, but I may check it every now and then. I might post once and a while but not much. I’ll want to come back and see if anyone found my blog and left any comments.

HW 34: Gold and Date Palms

I have always found it interesting learning about different cultures. Learning about Riverbend’s culture from her perspective is great, and I love reading about it, because we don’t hear good things about her culture here in America. “Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in ‘family savings’ has increased since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar began fluctuating crazily” (Riverbend, 100). The value of gold didn’t change so Iraqi’s converted their money to gold jewelry such as bracelets and necklaces. Iraqi’s receive gold as gifts for marriage or have a child, and that gold can either be kept or sold. The Iraqi people often have gold because it is very important to them. Of course American troops don’t believe that Iraqi’s could possibly own something as nice as gold so they automatically think they have been looting (Riverbend, 100). Date palms are also an important aspect for the Iraqi people. “There are over 300 different types of dates--each with its own name, texture, and flavor” (Riverbend 104). Dates are used for many things such as syrup used for rice, syrup used for bread and butter, the main sugar source for Iraqi sweets, and vinegar. Families trade dates with other families in the summer and it’s a great accomplishment to show off your dates. Palm trees in general are taken very seriously in the Iraqi culture. You cannot find a garden in Iraq that doesn’t have a palm tree, for they are used to protect the flowers and other products in the garden. Even when a palm tree dies it is taken seriously, and the owner is devastated. The cutting down of palm trees in Iraq because of American Troops make the Iraqi’s very angry (Riverbend, 104-105). The section of Baghdad Burning that I have just read was really interesting. I like reading about Riverbend and her culture more than about what is going on in Iraq, even though that is interesting as well. I just enjoy reading about her culture, and comparing it to ours to see how different it is.

HW 33: Podcast

Episode: Challenges at a Girl’s School in Baghdad
Series: Alive in Baghdad
Date Published: May 21, 2007
Link: Challenges at a Girl's School in Baghdad

The general topic of this podcast is going to school and getting an education. They interview a few girls in 8th grade and a few teachers. The girls are asked if the school is near their home, how they get to school, and if they get nervous if there is any kind of explosions throughout their day at school. One girl explained that the school she is attending is far from her school and her parents try to discourage her from going because it is difficult to get to. He insists on going though, and she likes it. She does get nervous when she hears explosions near school though. The podcast is mostly filmed in the girl’s school, and the walls are just plain cement, with what seems to look like peeling white paint. Not very attractive or school looking. They girls each have a desk and most of the girls wear hijabs. The filming in the streets at the beginning made Baghdad look really nice. There was a huge building in the back that was really pretty, and there were trees and apartments.
After watching this podcast a viewer will learn how it feels to be a girl in school in Baghdad, and how it might be difficult to get to school because of American troops, and how some girls are even discouraged from going to school, which is different from America. Usually the footage I see of Iraq is of fighting, explosions, and all the bad things that go on. I’ve never seen a calm setting in Iraq with girls going about their normal day and going to school. The most memorable conversation in this podcast for me was the girl whose parents were trying to convince her not to go to school, and the fact that all these girls love going to school. In America we take our education for granted and most of us don’t even want to be in school, and seeing these girls who strive to come to school, even under the circumstances in Iraq and with their parents telling them to quit it makes me realize how lucky I am to be able to go to school.

HW 32: School Supplies

When you are little, in elementary school shopping for school supplies is usually a big deal. I remember being excited to start off the school year and being able to buy a bunch of new notebooks, pens, pencils, binders, and a backpack. For Riverbend and her cousin it is like the highlight of the year. Riverbend gets really excited to go out and shop for school supplies for her cousin’s young daughters. They go to a shop, because Baghdad does not have big shopping malls, they just have tiny or big shops, for all the new school supplies. Riverbend picks out notebooks, pencils, and erasers for her cousin’s daughters. She chooses amongst Barbie, Winnie the Pooh, and Lion King notebooks, which is quite similar to here. When you are little you can get notebooks with Barbie, Disney movies, Strawberry Shortcake, and any movie that is a hit at the time. The little girls cannot go shopping for their own necessities because their mother will not let them out of the house, except now for school. Riverbend insists on not buying generic supplies, like a plain pink eraser. She instead buys an eraser that looks like a strawberry because “kids don’t take care of their school supplies if they’re ugly” (Riverbend, 95). I thought that was funny, but I believe she is right. In the end, the younger daughter doesn’t like the Winnie the Pooh choice because she has outgrown him, and she wanted a Barbie notebook like her big sister. It’s sad that these girls could not choose their own school supplies because of the war in Baghdad and their mother was too afraid to allow them to come. It’s also sad that Riverbend, being an older girl, got so excited to be able to leave home to go shopping for something like school supplies for her cousin’s daughters.

HW 30: Citizenship Symposium 2

I was really interested in this speech by Tom Lantos because World War II and the Holocaust interest me, even though it was so awful. In school World War II is the most emphasized war so it is one that I know more about. Tom Lantos was introduced by his daughter, Katrina Sweat, who proudly presented her father, the only Holocaust survivor to be elected to serve in the United States Congress. Katrina gave some background about her father who came to America right after World War II when he was 19 years old. In 1980 he decided to run for congress. In 2006 he became a the head chair member of the foreign committee.
Tom is an immigrant from Germany, and is very, very patriotic of the United States. Tom’s main theme for his speech was “America did not teach men the idea of freedom, she taught them how to practice it,” a quote from the President of France who Tom is acquainted with. Tom spoke a lot about American History and the steps they took toward freedom, the equality of all men, and the equality of women.
Tom closed his speech telling us what our new, upcoming president, whomever it may be, has two responsibilities as our president. One is they must bring our country together domestically, and two they must rebuild the prestige, respect, and status for the United States internationally. Tom was very passionate about his ideas and thoughts and you could tell that he loves what he is doing. He wants everyone to keep their promises and he believes the United States will have a great future if this is done.

HW 31: Depleted Uranium

As I read about depleted uranium in Baghdad Burning I was speechless as to what it was and what it did to people. I have never heard of depleted uranium but Riverbend says that it is a household term in most Iraqi homes. It has damaged the environment and lead to higher cancer rates in Iraq. Depleted uranium poisoning has awful side effects which Riverbend reminisces about. She remembers babies being born with one eye, three legs, or no face at all (Riverbend, 47). How incredibly awful. After reading a brief description by Riverbend and how it has affected her and her people I decided to look up more information on it. Depleted uranium, commonly known as DU is “uranium remaining after removal of the isotope uranium-235 (wikipedia.com). It is a waste product that is weakly radioactive. It is often used in the military for defensive armor plate and other applications. The use for it in ammunition is controversial because of its harmful affect on the environment (wikipedia.com). At the end of the wikipedia article it has a little blurb about its affect on humans. University of Massachusetts and Tufts University concluded that anyone exposed to DU would increase the risk of birth defects in their children (wikipedia.com), which is what Riverbend so disgustedly writes about in her blog. Here is a link to wikipedia for more information on depleted uranium: http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium.


Works Cited
Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press, 2005.

Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation. 7 Nov. 2007. .

HW 30: Citizenship Symposium 1

The Citizenship Symposium I saw started with an opening speech by Emile Netzhammer, the Keene State Provost. He spoke a lot about our citizenship to New Hampshire and to Keene State College. He really encouraged people to go out an vote. The main speaker for the assembly though was Nancy Tobi. The title of her session was “Citizens Gone Wild: Taking Control of Our Democracy.” The racy, yet catchy name caught my attention and she led off her speech with a lot of good information. Nancy is related to Moses’ brother and something interesting is that she believes Moses started democracy, leading his people to freedom from Egypt. Nancy grew up in Lexington, MA. It was the only area in the fifties selling real estate to Jewish people.
The main part of her discussion was about our government and how our people run the government. “Government is the servant of the people, and not the master of them,” (Bev Harris). Nancy really stuck to this quote, and mentioned it often. She talked about the Declaration of Independence and what it means to us and our country. Nancy talked a lot about voting and how votes are counted. She believes that votes should be counted by hand and not by machines, especially Diebolds, which is the system used for 81% of New Hampshire towns and cities, including mine. There are many errors used with Diebolds and that is why Nancy believes that should discontinue the use of them.
Nancy was very passionate in her speech about voting in America, our government and how some things need to be changed. She wants to change the voting systems in New Hampshire and in America to make them more accurate. And she gave a lot of information for what we at citizens can do to help change that.

HW 28: Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,
First of all, I love the humor in your blog. It makes your blog more fluffy and light and makes such a terrible subject easier to read. I cannot even begin to imagine was life is like over in Baghdad and I can imagine humor is a way of getting away from it all. Your blog is great, very interesting to read, though somewhat hard to relate to, I am learning a lot.
From all the information you shared in your blog from pages 7 to 42 the worst I read was of course people dying for no reason. It is hard to imagine innocent people get frisked, and their hoses raided for no reason. The news on Henna Aziz being assassinated in front of her family is absolutely devastating. It is so unfair. I can’t imagine living in an area where innocent people are just taken away from their families so cruelly and abruptly.
Your list of reasons why at one point you hated the American Troops is completely understandable. They are reasonable and I don’t blame you for hating them at some points, especially for invading on unsuspicious people driving and looking through their bags and frisking them.
I think it is so unfair that you can’t go outside without “bodyguards” and you have to wear skirts to look less suspicious, which I don’t really understand. I never realized how much freedom women had in Baghdad, and it must be terrible to get that taken away. Not being able to work or just go outside and take a walk is awful. The fact that young children are being taken out of school is ridiculous and unfair, and that alone should not be allowed. I think you are a very strong girl and I have so much respect for you and the life you are leading.