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.

Serving ones country by getting rid of acne?

On the ad we have Julianne Hough and already famous woman who look perfect. She has pearly white teeth 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. The ad is about getting rid of acne. Viewers or people walking by see this flawless skinned woman before them and then think of their own skin problems. The ad obviously targets [people who feel insecure because of their acne. Obviously if she looks like that then the proactive works right.  But we forget that she is famous with money of course her skin is flawless. As a singer she has to maintain her beauty where it was 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. 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. And then two other things that pop right at you is free gift but then 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. The brand is so good that when you buy it it’s like your serving your country. 

You should all be ashamed of yourselves especially You Cartoonetwork

In all my eye opening examinations I’ve examined YouTube, Haiti’s unappreciative manner towards the disabled, and Steven’s Universe.  Through all my observations I look at everything in a new light. I’ve learned that everything can be analyzed and  seen differently. YouTube seems like a wonderful place you get to hear funny people and watch music videos. But then you don’t really think about what the person is saying. You watch it because you saw he had a lot of subscribers you laugh in the spur of the moment and don’t question anything. No one ever really pays attention to the comments. I mean  if your there for the music video you only need to watch the music video you don’t care who’s watching.  But once you scroll and see the comments it’s a whole new world. You learn things about people you don’t know all because they are so trusting of the internet. They let their business out for all to see no matter how old they are in reality. There is no age limit for YouTube but if there was no one would listen.

In Haiti you can see that people who walk are more valued than people who don’t but in Fairfield County I’d say we do a pretty good job of including the disabled. We have ramps people are usually driving if they are disabled but if they aren’t being driven in a car their special buses for them.

            I’ve seen that in cartoons they teach you young that of course white people are smarter. Whether its on purpose or just in their nature. They also start getting to know stereotypes at an early age. Black people don’t always rely on brute force and wear afros. We also don’t always follow the plans of the white man when they are wrong too. We speak up for ourselves and don’t stay silent while everyone contributes. Spanish people are not slow like Steven either.

            After making all these observations I will continue to watch children’s show with a closer eye because I feel the way the portrayal their races are ridiculous and I refuse to sit here and just let my friends and family watch such tomfoolery. I will point it out to people until I figure out an adequate way to get people to understand where I’m coming from with my opinions. But for now if anyone from Cartoonetwork is reading this I need you all to get it together you used to be so much better than this! Reevaluate yourselves please.

Duuh of course only white cartoons can be smart....

As a child I use to love Cartoonetwork it was my favorite channel now I’m really iffy on the channel watched 90 minutes of Cartoonetwork and I want those 90 minutes back. I ended up watching three episodes of Steven Universe (back to back to back mainly because cartoonetwork doesn’t have real shows they play the same shows over and over again until you want to scream) and at first I was really lost but then I got what was going on but I ended up comprehending. The characters were very interesting actually it’s about a little chubby Spanish looking boy, who isn’t exactly the brightest kid in the world. And he is half Gem half human so he has these powers but he can’t really control them. His mom died because she gave birth to him and she was Gem and I guess she wasn’t supposed to have a human boo and give birth I’m not really clear on that issue. But he has three Gem guardians. There’s Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst they are all Steven’s guardians. I don’t even know why but Garnet is black, Pearl is white and Amethyst is I don’t even know what race she is because she’s purple…Everyone else had a race but her. There aren’t many black cartoons so I was really excited to see what she would bring to the plate. And she was literally a black Ferb from Phineas and Ferb she didn’t speak and when she did she spoke in a British accent and said something really smart or useful in the situation. I mean she talked more than Ferb but it was like the same thing anyway. She was very curvaceous and had a big afro that’s why I feel most people identified her as black because for all I know she could have been Indian or Native American she was the brawns of the group also using brute force on most things. There was Pearl and not being racist but she seemed like a stereotypical white housewife. But without a husband she was constantly pouncing on Steven wondering where he was what he was doing worrying about his safety and babying him. She was always trying to figure out what was wrong and how she could fix it. She overthought almost every situation they were in. Then there was Amethyst she was very goofy didn’t use her brain much and just wanted to have fun. I had to say I was highly disappointed with the show mainly because after getting excited and seeing the black girl I had high expectations but I felt she wasn’t really significant even though she was a main character. Also all the main character except Pearl seemed to be not so smart so that kind of was a bust. It made me feel like so what your telling me is that only white people can be smart in this show. In the next episode I met another character and I couldn’t identify if she was black, Indian, or Native American it was kind of frustrating but I assumed she wasn’t black because she had no afro like Garnet but I’m not sure. She seemed kind of smart she was reading a book which was the first time I saw a book in the hour that I had watched the show and even she wasn’t the smartest cookie in the jar either.

Its not like disabled people are people anyway....

When I went to Haiti everything was wonderful except I couldn’t figure out how disabled people were able to go around. But when I really looked and thought about it deeply I didn’t really see any disable people around and I understood why. It’s hard enough to walk around Haiti when you aren’t disabled. The sidewalks are crowded and bumpy everyone walks quickly. On top of the crowded sidewalks there are street vendors selling so you have to be careful not to bump into them. Crossing the street to me was like signing your soul off to death. There was like literally no streetlights whatsoever and all the drivers drove like maniacs. There were lines on the roads but they might as well have been invisible since no driver cared enough to follow them. There was also no ramps anywhere I don’t know how people did it especially because the floors were so bumpy and there was so many hills. It seemed nearly impossible for someone who couldn’t walk to be able to get by safely in Haiti. No one seemed like they would stop if a person on a wheelchair was coming through especially if they were crossing the streets. If you were crossing the streets you had to run for dear life to make it across the street and not be killed by some crazy driver. Also taking the bus was no easy task for people who aren't disabled because it wasn't and ordinary buss people didn't really sit and when they did it didn't look very comfortable either. I love Haiti but if I was disabled Haiti would not be the place for me. I also feel like Haitians wouldn't have the patience to deal with a person who can't walk considering mostly all the people walked everywhere so its not like they can be driven everywhere. Not being able to walk is really hard in Haiti because everyone relies on their legs. But since the earthquake I would have assumed they could have added ramps and made it more convenient

  for the disabled since the people of the country had been physically hurt alot. There was a lot of people who came out injured. So I thought that would give them a motive to add more effort into making it possible for the disable to get around but I guess not.

My whole life as a YouTuber was a lie...

I love music it’s not a shocking statement really. Most teenagers love music so we spend time on YouTube a lot. So my observation is on YouTube. I love going on YouTube to watch funny videos and music videos. But what I did differently is that I read the comments and that I tried to analyze the funny videos. Why were these videos so funny? Who is watching them? What I found out was very interesting actually. At first I started analyzing the funny videos I watched and when I kept in mind why? Do I find this funny? And so on I felt ignorant the video that I and many people claimed were so funny actually weren’t so funny. I’m always talking about female empowerment; women should have equal rights, yet the video I watched were degrading women. I thought they were funny but every time a male referred to a female in the videos I watched they were called b***hes. Not once did they say woman or girl. They were referred to as b***ches and a lot of time hoes. Also most of the comedians were males. There were some female YouTube comedians but not famous ones with like 2 million subscribers. Even so they also referred to their fellow comrades, women, as b***ches or hoes. It made me rethink what I was watching. Then another question popped up as I was scrolling down looking at the comments. Who is watching these videos? I was watching a Carrie Underwood video the video for Just A Dream because I love that song. The video was about a female who instead of getting married and having a happy ending, had to attend the funeral of her loved one just as life was getting good. As I scrolled to look at the comments I learned of a 12 year old and her 14 year old boyfriends struggle because he wants to join the army when he grows up. For me it was just like wow put your whole life out there why don’t you. Then it was pure bewilderment because your 12 why are you thinking about that? Another thing that bothered me also was that some music videos had nothing to do with the song like it literally was like saying how the weather is and answering your mama. It was so ridiculous and meaningless, why do we have music videos again there’s like no connection to the music whatsoever.