HW 42: Third and Final Podcast

Third and final podcast! http://itw101.blogspot.com/2007/12/blog-of-one-own-57.html

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.

HW 27: First 2 Blog Posts

Works Cited:
Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.

This book so far seems really interesting. It is written by an Iraqi girl who goes by the name Riverbend. She made an online blog to share with the world her day to day life living in Baghdad during the war. This book/blog fits into our course work because it is, as I said, a blog and our class is based on blog writing and the importance of blogs on our country and world today. It ties in with women in the digital revolution because the book is in fact written by a young girl today. Riverbend explains that she made this pretty much just to rant and complain about the war, (Riverbend, 5). From reading this book I will learn to have a more open mind about this war and what it feels like to be living in Baghdad. I learn about life in Iraq as a woman and how it feels to live in the middle of a war, since none of us have had to deal with that. I think overall I will just learn more about this war going on, on the other side of the world. It will provide many benefits for me because I will learn more about our world and other cultures.

HW 25: Intro & Forward of "Baghdad Burning"

I thought the Forward and Introduction of Baghdad Burning was very interesting and it has already begun to open my mind and see the war in a different perspective. The forward, by Ahdaf Soueif, was a very brief description of the blog written by “Riverbend.” He uses many good quotes from her blog about the war and it helps bring his forward together. He talks about the recent war, and the invasion in 2004 to Iraq and how Riverbend approached her new lifestyle because of this.
The introduction of Baghdad Burning, by James Ridgeway, goes into much more detail about war and how Riverbend’s family is dealing with it. He talks about American politics and how the Bush administration wanted to send troops into Iraq even before 9/11. He talks about the American Government and how Riverbend refers to it as “the puppet show.” Ridgway talks about the Gulf War and World War II and how they built up to the 2003 war in Iraq. Riverbend also had to deal with the Gulf War by her home. He goes into depth about the Riverbend’s culture and the background of her culture like how it is “one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world,” (Ridgeway, xii). Riverbend comes from a good part of Iraq where she was able to have a job, but unfortunately had to stop working after the war began. She now lives at home with her family and in fear of American Troops. There is also much talk about Saddam Hussein, Sunni Muslims, Shiites and many other different groups of Muslims living throughout Iraq.
The forward and introduction were very informative and well written. They each had a lot of emotion and passion about Riverbend’s blog and they have made me want to start reading this book/blog and learn more about this girl’s life.

HW 24: Then and Now

Woolf explains deeply as to how far history has come by the end of her book. Women have come very far and are not treated so inferior to me. Woolf notices that women and men are more equal as well. “I had come at last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which hold books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men,” (Woolf 79). Women also were not only writing novels they were writing information books such as books on Greek Archeology and aesthetics. This compared to now has completely changed. Women are very equal to men, we can do whatever work men can do, we can write whatever men can write. Women don’t sit at home raising a family and cooking like they use to do in Virginia Woolf’s time. I would definitely say we’ve come a long way.
Woolf says, “…if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think…” (Woolf 113) and to me, that is what a room of one’s own is. In comparative to this quote I believe that I do have a room of my own and I think anyone can have one. Back in Woolf’s time I think she was lucky to have a room of her own because where women were treated inferior to men she wrote exactly how she felt in this book. She wasn’t afraid of what other people think and I think Woolf would love to see our world now.

HW 23: Woolf and Jezebel

"With Apologies to Virginia Woolf"

I have been reading blogs online lately and it seems that everything revolved around gossip. The blog Jezebel has many blog posts about women celebrities and the gossip going around about them at that specific time. I do enjoy all this dubious gossip (Woolf 61) though. Where do I find information about Lucia Moses? Hair? Comediennes? Movies? Angelina Jolie? The latest celebrities? Why all my questions can be answered on www.jezebel.com. Women getting noticed about the new film Smiley Face is wonderful in the post “Living Dolls: The Stepfordization of Hollywood’s Comely Comediennes.” I love how this blog does not agree with patriarchy. They are trying to show people that films with a girl protagonist in a comedy film can be a good thing. I should fondly agree with them about this. Overall Jezebel is a great feminist blog and I should continue keep myself updated with it.

HW 22: Chapter 2 Patriarchy

I think Woolf said the paper proved that England was a patriarchy because it mostly had to do with men. “Somebody scored big in South Africa (who I would assume to be a man.) Sir Austen Chamberlain was at Geneva,” and “Mr. Justice commented in the Divorce Courts upon the Shamelessness of Women,” (Woolf 33). The only bit of news that mentioned a woman was about a woman who hung herself. The paper and Woolf makes it sound like England thinks society will be better now that there is one less woman around. This paper had headlines about men, which proves the point that England is a patriarchy. Woolf also discusses throughout the chapter how men are said to be superior to women and they have all the money, knowledge, and education. It basically seems to be saying that women are stupid and pointless.
I took a look at The Boston Globe to see if it would give a transient visitor to our planet the impression that the United States is a patriarchy. In my opinion no, The Boston Globe does not give this impression. The front page of The Boston Globe had stories about high school students in Massachusetts, the unfortunate loss the Boston Red Sox had last night, Romney and Giuliani in the presidential election, and expected layoffs for Boston Scientific Corps. There are also many other stories and sections of The Boston Globe such as arts and movies, automotive, books, weather, and jobs that could interest people of both sexes. In conclusion I don’t think The Boston Globe shows patriarchy in the United States at all with its broad range of stories included in its paper.

HW 21 Dear Sissy

Dear Little Sister,
A Room of One’s Own is definitely a difficult read even I had some trouble reading the first chapter. In the first chapter the character, Mary, is heavily contemplating the importance of women and fiction. She talks about walking by a river and through a college and how she is inferior to the man she comes across. She compares two poets and their poems about war. A lot happens in the first chapter but the most important is the connection of women and fiction and also a woman having a room of her own to write this fiction. I think all this is meant to show the inferiority of women to men. Men can have money and a room of their own and women cannot. Mary shows her anger towards this idea in chapter one. Your teacher may find this important because it’s a lesson in the history of gender issues. Women were barely allowed to right because they weren’t as good as men. It is important to know what gender issues were like back in the early 1900s and this book is a really a good piece of literature to show this. I think this book is difficult and confusing, and I had some difficulty with the reading as well, but it’s an important essay of it’s time.

HW 19: Juan Cole

After reading the article by Drezner and Farrell in Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, Culture, the most important paragraph I found and easily understood was on page 86 to 87. It is the first paragraph under the title, “The Ties That Bind.” The paragraph is about Juan Cole and how he made a blog after September 11, 2001 called “Informed Comment.” He was not being heard by the people around him, because no one was interested. Being online and creating his own blog with his own thoughts helped Juan become heard throughout the United States and even throughout the world. Juan Cole knows three Middle Eastern languages fluently which allowed him to look at Muslim blogs and monitor reports throughout the Muslim Region. He kept his fellow American bloggers updated constantly. In other words, this paragraph is important because it proves that anyone who’s anyone can have a blog and express themselves on blogs. Blogs are great things to create and Juan Cole is a great example of this.

HW 18: Amy Winehouse Least Favorite Blog Post

I took a look through the Jezebel Blog and as I was scrolling down, and scanning through posts a couple of pictures caught my attention, and absolutely disgusted me. The headline of the post states, “Amy Winehouse never lets a good fag go to waste.” The headline sums the story up and the pictures show what no one wants or even needs to see. One picture shows the singer bending down to pick a cigarette up off the ground. The second picture shows her with the cigarette in her mouth and she’s lighting it. Check it out yourself: http://jezebel.com/gossip/snap-judgment/amy-winehouse-never-lets-a-good-fag-go-to-waste-307758.php. Right when I saw these pictures I knew nothing else could compare to this blog post. I thought it was gross and dirty. Smoking cigarettes in my opinion is gross to begin with, never mind picking it up of the dirty city street to smoke it. Although this cigarette could have been dropped by Amy the pictures make it seem less so. She has a bunch of things in her hands and it seems impossible that she would have the hands to pull a carton of cigarettes out of her purse. Therefore I’m convinced she found this cigarette on the ground from who knows who, picked it up, and smoked it. Ew.

HW 17B: Zuniga Influences Election

The first interview I read was the interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Although it was a little confusing to read, I could see that it was very political and that Markos is very passionate about politics and his democratic view. After Markos’s interview I went right to Ana Marie Cox’s interview and felt like it has absolutely no connection to politics. Ana seemed to blog for the fun of it, to make fun of people, because she had nothing else to do. I really couldn’t see how these two blogs connected with each other. Overall though, to answer the question, I chose Markos’s blog to make me more likely to influence the way I would vote in the coming election. Actually, Markos’s blog would actually make me want to vote in general. His interview was much more informative and I could really tell that he blogged to change people’s minds. His blog was to inform people about what’s going on in the political world and I could tell he really loved doing it. I looked at each blog on the internet as well. Markos’s blog is serious, informative, and formally written while Ana’s blog was more playful and used more everyday very informal language such as, butt hole. All in all Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s blog would influence my decision to vote and the way I will vote next month.