The life in us is like the water in the river.

"The life in us is like the water in the river. It may rise this year higher than man has ever known it, and flood the parched uplands; even this may be eventful year, which will drown out all our muskrats. It was not always dry land where we dwell. I see far inland the banks which the stream accidentally washed, before science began to record its freshets.......to enjoy its perfect summer life at last"(Walden, 271). 

Thoreau in this paragraph talks about this story about a bug that dropped his egg in a tree years ago. It hatches you can hear it as it gnaws through the tree that it was trapped in for years. At first I was confused but then realize that he uses this story to shed life to his use of the aphorism because when you think about it the hatching of the egg after all those years and surviving in the tree was unexpected. A bug still needs to see light and needs food so how it survived for all those years in the tree is beyond me.  But it’s like the river and people; unexpected. It goes by its own flow and it shows that you will never know what will happen in this life.

Thoreau starts the paragraph begins with the aphorism and then starts elaborating what the aphorism means. To me what I got from the paragraph is that are life is like the water in the river because it is so unexpected. You will never know where life will take you or what will happen in your life. Just like with a river the water can go to many places and you never know what will happen with the water one day it might be shallow the next deep.  We need to explore like the waters in the river. They never stay in one place and they never started off as rivers. They had to start off as dry land at some point. So like the river we have changed to and should continue changing.

To me the greatest part about this paragraph was when he asked the question “who does not feel his faith in resurrection and immortality strengthened by hearing of this?” After this question you really start to think what the significance of this story is and how you feel about the story.  

All this just to be in Customer Service. You would of thought!

It seems that little things people don’t take seriously or think too long about are the things that are the most complicated. No one ever thinks too deep into customer service calls. I mean when you call your worrying about your own problems. Sometimes you might occasionally realize that you keep getting an Indian speaker but you don’t question it. You’re calling for your own reasons not anyone else’s anyway.  No one is thinking of outsourcing when they call up customer service but that’s where it is at.

I feel that the authors claim is that Indians are being paid less for having their identity stripped by outsourcing. She warrants her claim by using Betty’s interview and Arundhati Roy’s quotes. Even when she talks about the pay I feel that it warrants her claim

Throughout Beth Dutt-Brown’s article she used a passionate, disappointed tone but it was calm. Her tone didn’t sound like she would have been yelling this at someone or was slamming it in your face. The article sounded calm and personal. She seemed really passionate and disappointed when she started talking about how Indians basically give up their identity when they go into customer services. She doesn’t try to hide how disappointed and unnerved she feels about the fact that Indians have to pretend they are American or British and basically deny themselves just to please the public.  And I felt upset with her. Americans have hard names that people can’t pronounce they don’t go around having to create a whole new identity. I think that is violating a person’s right like how are you going to sit there and tell them they have to change their whole identity to accommodate the needs of people they will never see in their life. That is basically making them ashamed of their own identity.

                She uses logos when she talks about the low pay that the Indians receive. Her whole argument to me has pathos in it I feel like she is just beaming disappointment and sounds really upset with what is happening to the Indians. She also builds ethos when she talks about Betty whose name isn’t really Betty. I feel like she does a good job of engaging the reader into this problem/struggle. I say this because I was genuinely annoyed and upset for the Indians. I understand that they need the money and low wages are supposed to be low but I feel that for what they are sacrificing they should be paid more for. Also the fact that they have to sacrifice their own self for people they will never meet is so preposterous. For example when Betty was talking about the life she made up I’m like who is going to sit on the phone with customer service and ask the person about their credentials? Also the fact that they have to master British/American accents is too much. They act like Indians can’t have jobs.  America is a melting pot of cultures anyway it’s not like the person would be that suspicious.  Honestly to me after reading this it got me really riled up.

Japan doing it the American way who would of thought.

There are many countries in the world but America offshores and outsources the most. Many people don’t really think about other countries outsourcing or offshoring but it happens all the time around us the really thing to think about is if all countries offshore or outsource like America. Well I’m here to tell you not all countries can be like America. Japans outsourcing and offshoring helps Japan out sometimes depending on the situation.

Japan is not a very large country; it is small so they do try to get other resources from other countries. Yet at the same time offshoring and outsourcing isn’t something they are too big on doing. There are people who are outsourcing themselves and some companies who outsource but not that many. And from what I’ve gathered Japan doesn’t offshore much either. But before I go on to a better understand of what I’m going to talk about let me explain to you the differences of offshoring and outsourcing. Offshoring is the practice of basing some of a company's processes or services overseas, so as to take advantage of lower costs. Outsourcing is to obtain (goods or a service) from an outside or foreign supplier especially in place of an internal source. From what I’ve researched it seems that both of these things are good for Japan but they don’t really do it much. I mean I guess that would have to do with Japan kind of sticking to themselves mostly. Or the fact that Japan is all about nature with the Shinto religion so maybe they would prefer to use their own resources instead of focusing on others resources.

            I’m pretty sure outsourcing and offshoring helps Japans economy more than hurts them but in a way it could hurt the economy. It’s good because people who outsource themselves are working so it’s not like there aren’t any jobs for the people of Japan because people are outsourcing themselves getting jobs in other places then Japan but I guess at the same time this is bad because people are leaving Japan and their companies and going to another country like China. Offshoring seems like it doesn’t happen that much because I literally spent a while on google searching for places Japan offshoring other than India and some site mentioned China but they didn’t back it up or anything.  Japan’s Outsourcing Inc bought a majority stake in Bangalore-based hiring firm Alp Consulting so they could increase its reach in India’s fast growing employment market. Since India has a larger percentage of people they hope that their company can grow more.

 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-12/news/47269948_1_indian-staffing-federation-staffing-firm-majority-stake

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/business/global/22outsource.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

So paske mwen pale Kreyol mwen un moun fou?

Mwen pa janm konnen pou ki sa moun toujou vle pale angle. Tout moun vle pale angle epi le yo fin konnen ki jan pou yo pale angle yo kite kreyol.  tonkou yo pat janm pale lang lan nan la vie yo. Angle e pou moun blanc yo le ou pale avek moun blan ou parle angle. Angle ayisyen pa menm bon men yo fe efo.  Le ou parle deux lang li pas fasil.  Si ou ayisyen ameriken le ou pale ou gen yon aksan. lè ou pale avek aksan pafwa moun fè plezi a ou. Mwen menm gen de fwa le ti fre mwen pale kreyol mwen fe plezi avek li paske li pa pale li byen. Le Anzaldua pale de lang li e  li montre kouman lang li pa pou li mwen konprann li paske gen kek fwa mwen santi lang mwen pa lang mwen. Mwen pa kab pale lang mwen avek moun ki pa ayisyen yo pap ka pab konprann mwen. Si mwen di yon mo an kreyol yo gade mwn tonkou mwen mwen se yon moun ki fou. Mwen pa kab pale kreyol lekol mwen e mwen pa pale kreyo anpil  avek manman mwen paske li pale angle avek nou. mwen pale kreyòl lè m al nan legliz e le m te al ayiti. Mwen pap di mwen pa renmen lang mwen. Non mwen renmen pale an kreyol avek lot ayisyen zanmi mwen. Mwen juste pa renmen si mwen avek moun ki pa pale kreyol e yo vle mwen di yo ki sa m’ap di like retire ko ou nan konvesasyon mwen. So pou mwen le’m pale avek moun mwen code switch anpil mwen pale kreyol avek granmoun nan fanmi mwen men mwen pale angle avek fre mwen e zanmi mwen. Mwen rete nan un peyi ki garde ou tankou ou fou si ou pa pale angle selman avek yo.  Menm li pa confuse mwen. E juste jan mwen vive la vie’m. lang mwen se lang mwen. E mwen ta vreman epresye moun pa garde mwen dwol ou pale mwen mal paske mwen pa pale standard English. Si mwen pale angle mal e paske mwen leve nan un kay ki pa pale angle byen. E mwen noir so pou ki sa ou bezwen jije m '. kite mwen pale jan mwen vl. Epi dats it!

Reflection

Si ou mande mwen si mwen ka kominike byen avek moun konsa mwen

Ta di ou non. That’s impossible to speak to people like this. Yo pa kap konprann mwen yo tap use google translate for the the whole time mwen tap pale or tell me to translate. I think we don’t need standard English mein ou pa kap pale lot lang avek moun e exppecte yo konnen sa yap di. So se yon mechanste wap fe. Mwen ta di talking na lang pa ou should be more allowed and not frowned upon. Mein mwen pa kab di moun sispun pale angle and speak other languages.

My thesis is that just because you speak another language and have to learn English doesn’t mean that you have to completely terminate the other language.  You should be able to speak broken English if that’s best for you and be able to speak your own language without people looking at you like you’ve grown 5 heads. The fact that my family doesn’t speak English and I’m black so I know black English more than standard English should not be a flaw people find in me but a good thing.

America Possible call me beep me if you want to reach me!

As the World’s mom and personal police officer America always knows what’s happening with every country. To quote from the Kim possible theme song doesn’t matter where doesn't matter when will be there for ya til the very end. Danger or trouble I'm there on the double you know that you always can call Kim Possible (America in our case). It’s just what America does. America never actually sit down and say hey we should probably do something about our own country.  You know how about those college students and they debt they will have after college we should lower that or I don’t know work on jobs and the economy before rolling out to war. But hey what do I know I mean I am just 17. And Ukraine seems to be way more essential then my college life, or whether people have good jobs, or if our economy is doing well. But back to America being everyone’s mom we most likely will get involved but what about other countries?  If we are the mom and other countries are our babies that make them siblings/cousins so who will help who? Do other countries get news reports on Ukraine and Russia every day or do they get no news at all? Do they even care what’s going on with the two countries?

Well from what I’ve gathered in my research most countries are talking about it in the same way we are. I mean I highly doubt they post something new every 10 minutes like us but they still seem to be updating the people on the situation at hand and what is really going on with the two countries. In the Japan times news I felt they went in depth about the situation talking about the oil and basically the reason why people are worried about the war. They talked about how it would affect them and Nissans. The article was basically about companies and how the debacle between the two countries does affect them in some way and they continue to talk about it throughout the whole article. Whereas the Times of India’s article on the subject seemed less in detail about how it would affect them and more on background of what is happening. They sectioned the article nicely starting with talking about the president’s role in all this and even talking about Crimea. Of course countries aren’t as in depth with things as America and probably aren’t updating the status of the countries actions every two minutes like its Facebook, but they are reporting what is going on to the people.

Jamming to the blues? or to the Bluest eye?

When you listen to the blues, it’s sad, it’s slow, and it wraps you around someone’s story. It’s so beautifully painful. The artist pouring out their heart and soul into the song they have created. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye is like the blues. It’s a sad slow song that wraps you around someone’s story making you feel the emotions being portrayed but in her own style making sure you know its not you average story. Turning a book into a beautiful blues song.

            The book doesn’t speak of just anyone’s blues there isn’t one person going through a problem the book talks of everyone’s problems. Pecola, Freida, Claudia, Cholly, Mrs. Breedlove and even minor characters like Maureen had their problems reflected in the book. Their problems were not ass bad as Pecolas but they still brought out a sympathetic feeling out of the reader. We have Claudia and who is struggling to embrace her own colors in a way. You can see this in the way she gets upset at the white doll she is given and when Maureen was being put on a pedestal because of her skin tone. I feel like her anger and wanting to hurt people when she was upset was her way in coping with it. In a way I feel like she was having her own struggle even Maureen to me had her own little struggle because it seemed the she couldn’t even realize that she wasn’t white. Lighter than everyone she may be but one of her parents is still black and I feel that she doesn’t accept it. Sometimes when you hear a blues song it doesn’t just talk about that one person it has another party in the song and I feel every character in the book was another party that was added to make the story/song what it was.

            Ultimately though the song comes back to the one person that song or person was talking about. It may go to other topics but the song always comes back to the main point. To me the main point was Pecola because without her there would be no song. Her problems are so severe but it makes people feel better about their selves. It’s like their life may suck but at the end of the day as long as they aren’t Pecola they can survive. And like a blues song the story tries to make a good in that bad,  yes its bad they deserted Pecola and she was treated horribly but it helped others move on with their own lives. So in a way Pecola was a savior to the people.

To Have Flawless Skin is to Serve Ones Country take 2

Beauty is all about outer appearance. So when you have pimples gracing your face you’re not thinking damn I look good today. Your think Oh My Gosh this is gross I need to get rid of it. What is the best thing to use? What about America’s number 1 acne system Proactive!

  When you first look at the ad you see Julianne Hough (who you may or may not know of) an already famous woman who looks perfect. She has pearly white teeth, and nice blonde hair that seems like silk, high nice cheek bones. Her eyebrows are done so beautifully, and nice bright blue eyes staring back at you. After looking at her you think of your own face and think of your own skin it’s probably (no offense) not as flawless (but if it is props to you bro). The ad obviously targets people who feel insecure because of their acne. If she looks like that then the proactive works right.

Then after you see this beautiful lady your eyes roam to the #1 that just can’t get any bolder. It’s telling you its number one it’s going to work after all its number 1 in America. The number one is not only like the boldest thing there it’s also centered meaning they wanted you to see it (just in case you missed the bolding of the number).  And then two other things that pop right at you is free gift but of course the rest of the sentence is smaller because it’s not really free. Free comes with a price of $12. Then lastly you see the Thank you for serving your country. What makes proactive so good that it’s like serving your country. Because its number 1 is that why? Or they might just be adding some random patriotism in there.

I also feel maybe they make the name of the artist in small print so they can try to fool people. Julianne Hough to me isn't all that I would think she’s kind of ordinary. They want her to blend in and seem normal. So it’s like I’m famous but I’m still one of you.

But while looking at this ad it seems we forget that she is famous with money of course her skin is flawless. As a singer she has to maintain her beauty was it actually proactive that made her skin look like this or Photoshop people aren’t really thinking that. They are thinking about the fact that her skin is smooth so it must work. But it doesn’t seem to stop with perfect skin! Look at her she has straight pearly white teach and she’s beautiful. That tells people, hey, you can be beautiful too just use proactive.

This ad reinforces the idea that you beauty is everything. If you have blemishes don’t worry we can fix that. We can make you beautiful again. It’s like having a pimple isn’t normal it’s a disease that needs to be treated and we have the cure. I mean to me that’s what the background kind of gives off a sort of medical like feel. When I saw the #1 in America sign I thought of the doctors gloves because of the color and then the white background reminded me of the jacket. But hey, maybe that’s just me.