Blog Entry 23

My Project: Nopal Salad, Steak and Rice

The nopal (cactus) is originally from Mexico and its consumption dates back in the pre-Hispanic time when the Aztecs arrived to La Gran Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City) and the Senorios, (other kingdoms) that had already been established there, didn’t let them to stay in their towns so that they had to live in the arid areas where all they could eat were snakes and nopales. I don’t know about snakes, actually I think that that part is just a legend, but I can say that nopales are very tasty. In Mexico, we usually eat the nopal salad with beans and tortillas but since I had to share with my husband, I had to cook some meat and rice instead. I went to the Farmer’s Market at 14^th street/Union Square, Trade Joe’s where I bought almost everything but I couldn’t find tomatoes and I bought the nopales at Tulcingo Grocery which is my local store and where they said that the nopales came from Mexico, so they are organic.

Prices

Meat   $7.79

Nopales  $6.50

Onions  $1.00

Garlic  $1.00

Cilantro  $1.50

Carrots  $2.00
 

                                                                                     

List of ingredients

Nopal Salad

1 ½ of pound of nopales

½ onion

1 tomato      

1 tea spoon of olive oil                                                 

Oregano

Crushed pepper                                                                         

Rice

2 cups of rice

4 cups of water

2 tomatoes

1/8 of onion

A clove of garlic

1 carrot

Steak

                                       Nopal Salad Preparation

     Nopales are very easy to cook but not to peel. Luckily, they are sold already peeled and cut. First, wash and boil them with water and salt until they have become soft and the mucilage has completely come out.

  

Second, strain, and wash them with cold water. Strain them again and let them cool down.

Once they’re cold, chop half onion and some cilantro. Then mix them.

Sprinkle oregano and crushed pepper. Mix them.

Lastly, cut the tomato in slices of half and add it on the top of the salad as decoration.

                                               Rice Preparation

     First, blend 2 tomatoes, 1/8 of an onion, a clove of garlic and salt in 2 cups of water.

Second, fry 2 cups of rice with olive oil until its color starts to change. Then add the tomato sauce previously blended. I recommend to cook it slowly, so the rice won’t be overcooked. Also make sure to cover the pot.

Once the rice has become dry, add a chopped carrot and two more cups of water. You can also add other type of vegetables like stream beans, green peas,  corn and potatoes just to mention some.

Then when the water is half way in to the rice add some cilantro or parsley to add a nice touch of flavor and let go until the water disappear and it’s ready.

      The steak is the easiest part of the meal. Just add salt and pepper as you like an fry it on olive oil or cook it as you pleased.

     The total meal cost was about 20 dollars without counting the tomatoes and rice because I used what I had at home since I didn’t find them in the places that I went. I enjoyed the whole process starting from the shopping because the people at the Farmer’s Market are very friendly plus the weather was so nice. Then to come home and cook which I don’t really like to do but this time I did. I noticed the difference because the smell of the organic food was stronger than the food that is not organic. Those delicious smells brought me back to my childhood and reminded me to my family in special to my grandma who used to cook as angels and love to do it. Also my tree year old nephew  came to join me while cooking as usual and I did the same as my grandma did with me which is to explain everything step by step without mentioning that he keept asking why for everything.  Therefore, what I have learned  that media and people behind are ending with things we should care about such as our alimentation an environment in order that we human beings and our planet be healthy. Finally I have realize that organic food is a bit expensive but completely worth it because it’s tastier and healthier and yes, you eat less which means the enough portion. My husband and I started to have lunch about 4 o’clock and we end about 7 because the food made us think about our countries, food, traditions and family. The meal was extremely tasty and I don’t know if it was because I cooked or because of the real natural flavors.

Blog Entry 22

 

Course Reflection

 I have chosen blog entries 4, 11, and 15 because they show how my vision about reality was at the beginning of the course, how it is now and what I have experienced from it. In blog entry 4 part 2 the class was asked to describe it place in cave in compare with “The Allegory of the Cave” from book 7 of The Republic by Plato. I describe myself as getting out of the cave which means stopping being ignorant, arguing that I’m getting educated in college. However, I have realize that I’m far away from it because through the course I have learned  that I didn’t even know what I’ve been eating. Also that media is more than television is actually everywhere and that to go school is not enough to aware of what is happening around us. Then Blog Entry 11, in “Does Knowledge Make You Happier” which I consider my best writing and on what I started to understand what both reality and CATW were about. Therefore, I went a bit farther using my own reasons, even though it took me about 4 hours to finish that assignment.   Lastly, Blog Entry 15 “Manufactured Demand” on what we were supposed to give a suggestion or solution that we were able to do in order to stop the myth about “the bottle of water” because most of people believe that bottled water is cleaner and the bottles are recycled when in reality none of those beliefs are true. In my response I wrote that I had a sort of a solution that included my friends and Facebook, but it wasn’t easy. I tried by doing what I wrote, but my friends and also my friends on Facebook completely ignored it. They pretended to be listening, but they took it as boring stuff to hear or to continue telling it to others. That situation brought me back to “The Allegory of the Cave” where Socrates tells to Glaucon to imagine if the prisoner were put it back to cave; the other prisoner would see him as crazy that they would end killing him. It also reminds me the passage of “I know the Truth, SoDon’t Bother Me with Facts” because both readings show the difficulty to make people believe the truth even when faced with facts. It seems that people don’t care about our environment which is the same as no to care about ourselves and it seems that we don’t want to face reality where other people are suffering because our unconsciousness while others, called media governments and investors are taking advantage of it. Therefore, if I were asked about my place in the cave again, I would say that I’m still in it, and someone has broken my chains, but I’m still trying and hoping to reach the stairs one day since unfortunately a red pill doesn’t exist or there isn’t a white rabbit to follow in order to reach freedom to reality.

Definitely, this class was completely different from others because I had never had to write on blog online. Usually the writings of other classes had to be typing it or writing by hand, and my closest experience online was to do grammar exercises online that are similar to “free rice.” But it was good because it made me work harder since I knew that is a public blog and every one can see it. Also I was able to see my improvement through the course and it was easy instead of having a battle between me and a bunch of papers. I could take a look on my classmates’ blog when assigned or when I needed to get an idea of what to do which it was very helpful, and I hope that somebody did the same with my beside the assigned activities.

I believe that the main lesson from this class is to think deeply, to go farther, to look all around us, to catch every detail and no to believe in everything, so our critical response and academic writing would be better. Moreover, not only our academic life would improve but also our daily life. On the other hand, I don’t know if there’s something more that we should have covered because I’ve been busy with all the assignments, but I can say that I get the basic understanding academic writing. The most memorable moment about this class was when I started to think on this last reflection and the response on “My Place in the Cave”… I felt so stupid, so ignorant… And every single response came to mind, but the good news is that now I know my reality… hope so! My recommendation to any other student would be to be ready for “tumbling down in the rabbit hole.”

 

Blog Entry 21

                                                     

Planned Obsolescence

     In The Story of Stuff video, Annie Leonard explains how the economy works by extraction, to production, to distribution, to consumption, to disposal; however, I believe that all this wouldn't work if it weren't for the consumption by people. Leonard also mentions that President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisor Chairman said that "The American economy's ultimate purpose is to produce more consumers’ goods." In addition, Leonard says that idea of consumption works by two strategies which are "planned obsolesce" and "perceive obsolesce" that makes people think that they have to buy useless stuff continuously and put their priorities aside such as healthcare, education and justice. We live in a world where the most important thing is money and what for people want money? People don't want money because they worry about food of everyday. Moreover, they are worry about fashion and to have luxuries that only money can gives, so people will feel "happy."

      The idea of consumption is not only about our needs, but also about fashion and luxuries. For example, people not only want a pair of shoes, a jacket, a bag or a cell phone, but they want all these items from brands like COACH, GUCCI, JORDAN  or Apple thinking that they would look better with them on it. In addition, they want the entire collection if it’s possible, so they continue buying stuff. Also I know people that buy shoes a lot, and they still have shoes from last year never wore it. Some of my friends change their cell phone every time that a new generation of the i Phone comes out and they don’t know what to do with their old ones. People buy a lot of stuff all the time without thinking on how much it cost because there are people who can afford it, and those who cannot would do anything until they do. Moreover, we are not conscious about where all these stuff comes from or where will go to.

     Annie Leonard states that the rate of happiness went down since the 1950’s at the same time that the “planned obsolescence” started to be on. Some German philosophers argue that people confuse happiness with pleasure. Therefore, they think that they are happy when buying stuff. For instance, Christmas holidays everyone thinks about presents to give and buy.  All the stores have publicity using images of families sharing and having good time, but presents all around. People are convinced that they need to buy and get stuff in order to have nice moments with family when in reality what it makes them happy is to share time without conditions of money or luxuries.

     In conclusion, we should start thinking not only what or how to get stuff but the consequences before and after in order to make sure that what we get makes us happy and not unhappy to others. As Annie Leonard said, “People created it, and we are people too, so let’s create something new.”

    

     

       

Blog Entry 20

Blog Entry 19

“The New Industrial Migrants”

Summarizing Part l

      According to the passage “The New Industrial Migrants” from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, it is stated that since 1980s people from Mexico, Central America and South Asia started to come to the United States to the rural area of Colorado, where meatpacking jobs where offered. Even though that type of jobs were once for middle- class American life now they offer poverty. The slaughterhouse offers thousands of jobs, but they continually have people quitting or being fired. Currently, 75 percent of people working at the plant in Greeley don’t speak English and mostly of them are Mexicans who live in the poorest areas close to the slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse pays $9.25 per hour, a third lower than forty year ago. In addition they only offer health insurance to workers who have been there more than six months, and vacation pay after a year. However, most of the workers don’t get any of them since the average of quitting and being fired is every three months. ”There is 100 percent turnover rate annually” Mike Coan said during a 1994 interview with Business Insurance, an industry trade journal, and he added that “…in some plants maybe a third of people cannot read or write any language.” In 1980s, Arden Walker explained some of the “advantages” of the high turnover. He said, “…insurance, as you know, is very costly. Insurance is not available to new employees until they’ve worked there for a period of a year or, in some cases, six months. Vacations don’t accrue until the second year. There are some economies, frankly, that result from hiring new employees.” Meatpacking turnover makes difficult to maintain the work force unionize.

Part ll

      IBP Company started to recruit migrant labor and it was one of the first companies to recognize that new immigrant would work for lower salaries. This company has recruited poor people in the country among them homeless from New York. Currently, IBP has a labor office in Mexico City, where it makes announcements by radio stations offering jobs in the United States. They bring all the recruited people by bus from rural areas in Mexico to the US. The Immigration and Naturalization Service [INS] estimates that the 25 percent of the meatpacking workers in states like Iowa and Nebraska are illegal. IBP refuse that they were hiring or looking illegal immigrants but they also say that there are no American people who would take that type of job. Moreover immigrant or poor people health insurance would be on very low-cost, so slaughterhouses such as IBP take advantage of it.

My Response

      In the passage “The New Industrial Immigrants” by Eric Schlosser from Fast Food Nation, it is stated that people from Mexico, Central America, and South Asia are coming the United States since 1980’s in order to work in slaughterhouses and most of them don’t speak English or worse don’t write any language. There’s 400 percent of turnover in the slaughterhouses due to the bad conditions. Moreover, meatpacking companies such as IBP are taking advantage of this phenomenon arguing that healthcare insurance, annual vacation and salaries would be on very low-cost for new immigrants and especially those who are illegal. Immigrants are easy to convince about false promises due to their economical needs and lack of education.

      It’s well known that immigrants leave their countries hopping to find a better life style and future for them and their families. Unfortunately, Latin American and South Asian countries don’t offer jobs to their people, due to corruption on those governments. Once they arrived here to the United States, they have to tolerate severe condition of living. For example, six people living in a room that it is suppose to be for two maximum so that they can save money and send that to their families. They go to work, even when they sick. These people would anything if they can save money and go back to their countries sooner. However, there are unbearable conditions to work such as meatpacking at slaughterhouses where the high quantity of toxins that the manure releases can bring side effects including asthma and cancer that make those people quit.

      IBP Company has been recruiting people not only around the country but also in Mexico promising a place to live, good salary, annual vacation and healthcare insurance. However these promises never come true, the reason could be that people quit within three months and these benefits start to accrue after a year. In addition most of the workers don’t speak English or write any language. Therefore, they can’t complain, all they want is a job. Moreover these people are illegal, so they feel afraid to be deported. Because of their lack of education, they don’t demand jobs to the government in their countries and when they come here they don’t demand anything due to their lack of English and documents.

      In brief, slaughterhouses should be strictly regulated so the condition of their premises would be good and at the same time employees should count with all their benefits since the first moment they star to work there.

 

Blog Entry 18

                                                    Let Them Eat Fat

[Re-writing CATW 3]

     In the passage “Let Them Eat Fat” by Greg Critser from Harper’s Magazine, It is stated by the author that despite of the strong criticism that fast –food restaurants have received by nutritionist and dietitians, they continue focusing on low-income families, and the most affected according to Cristser are young black men. Even though I agree with him about how aggressive fast-food restaurants have become, I disagree about black men are the most affected because I believe that teenagers in general are affected. The reasons can be that fast-food restaurants use media a lot, their food fast and cheap, and they don’t give enough information about the side effects.

     As Greg Crister mentions, McDonalds  is one of the biggest sellers of fast-food , and it’s the one that uses media a lot starting with fraise “I’m loving it” Even though people don’t like it, the media has already implanted the idea in people’s mind that says that they do like it. Also their TV commercials show good time with family and friends while people eating hamburgers. Moreover, they have the “happy meal” for kids, and it comes with a hamburger or chicken nuggets, a drink [mostly soda] french fries and the key of their success on kids, a toy. These toys are the most wanted characters for kids, so they’ll really want them. Another famous part of the menu is “the dollar menu”, so who wouldn’t be surrender, if it’s just a dollar, “I’m loving it.”

     McDonald’s, the most famous fast-food restaurant, offers the dollar menu that includes: cheeseburgers, DOBLEcheesburgers, mcChickens, chicken nuggets, french fries and soda. This menu is most attacked by teenagers. I can re-enforce Greg Cristen’s statement about that teenagers and low-income families are the main victims by fast-food because I used to work at McDonald’s and both young and adults could use their last penny, but they had to have a complete meal which includes sandwich, fries and soda, from there. In fact, teenagers asked for senior citizens discount that McDonald’s offers when didn’t have enough money to buy a meal. Sometimes they didn’t eat at school because they could save their money in order to go and eat at McDonald’s. Moreover, if they bought a meal, they would ask for supersize, so they could take the leftover of fries and a refill of soda to home. In addition , McDonald’s  policy says that the whole service has to be done in 90 seconds; otherwise, they aren’t covering the standards of good service, and people won’t be happy that they do everything is necessary in order to be fast and give “good service.”

     McDonald’s offers good time by media and fast service at the restaurant, so people will have good service. However, how they do it in just 90 seconds? Well, McDonalds’ doesn’t tell everything which means that doesn’t tell the truth. They  don’ t mention in their ads that the meat of their hamburgers are in the freezer for month, they don’t say that the eggs of their Mcmuffins arrive to the restaurant already cooked, their salads are already made it, their fruit salads are marinated with tons of sugar and of course everything contains a high quantity of preservative. All those things can bring side effects such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, liver condition, and obesity. Why? Because they won’t be famous as they are. Finally, teenagers don’t  realized any effect because they just feel sleepy all the time. They don’t know that the “dollar menu” and supersizing are the cause of these effects on them.

     In brief, we need to do more than just criticize fast food restaurants. We need to be more conscious about what we eat and to transmit that to our youth because low-prices are not always as good as it seems, so Don’t  let our youth eat fat.

Blog Entry 17

Blog Entry 16

                                           

“Happy Meals”

     In the passage “Happy Meals” extracted from In Defense of Food by Michael Polland the author gives a list of eight suggestions in order to have better habits of eating and to be healthier. As for me and family these suggestions would be easy or difficult to follow depending on who’s cooking. Nowadays, people prefer to buy fast food instead of cooking.

     “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” I believe this is the most useful, and it is all that I need to know if I want to eat healthy since my grandma followed the rest of the suggestions without knowing. My grandma used to cook vegetables everyday and if someone asked her what she was cooking, she would respond “meat” but in the pot wasn’t more than “beans”. The author mention that grandmas won’t recognize food such as Go-Gurt, so in the case of my grandma if someone offered her yogurt, she would say “No thank you, how am I going to eat something that I can’t pronounce” Therefore, I take this suggestion as the most useful and easy to follow.

    “Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting.” The most difficult suggestion to follow since I love junk food such as chips, chocolates, muffins and of course “Twinkies”. I’ve tried not to eat them especially because I gained a lot of weight, but sugar is my weakness.

     “Avoid food products that make health claims.” This one I follow all the time because everything that contains preservatives is fake, and it doesn’t really helps. However, for my family it will be difficult because they believe in everything that some products say. For example, they use to buy Honey Nuts Cheerios because they said that it lows the cholesterol until was announced in the news that wasn’t truth.

     “Shop in the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.” We only go for sugar. [at least nothing else]

     “Pay more, eat less.” This one has a good and bad side because the good side would be if you paying good for high quality food such as organic food which also makes people eat less meat because of the prices. However, not everyone can afford like some members of my family. In addition, we don’t know any place that sells this type of food that is close to our house.

  “Cook. If you can, plant a garden. Eat complete meals, at a table, if possible not alone. Eat slowly” I believe that I’ll change a little bit this suggestion by adding “Accept that you have to cook” Once I do that the rest would be easier and I consider that that is one of the main reason for people to go to McDonal’s, Chinese restaurant, Mexican tacos or any fast food restaurant because we don’t like to cook. On the other hand we do plant a garden produce at home every spring-summer season because everyone in the family like it. I agree with author about to eat at the table and not alone because if we do that we automatically eat slow and we don’t eat a lot just the enough ration.

     These suggestions are very useful yet I continue believing that the first one is the only one I need because by following my grandma I will vegetables, I’ll plant a garden, I’ll eat at the table, I’ll cook and I won’t eat junk food.

Blog Entry 15

                      

Manufactured Demand

          The myth “Plastic bottles are recyclable and are being made with thinner plastics making them increasingly GREEN” mentioned in The Bottle of Water Story, is one of the most famous one because people feel less guilty about the environment  when they dispose the bottle in a “green” trashcan. However, they ignore that the waste of bottles of water a day equal five laps around the globe. Also mostly of the waste of bottles are burned which produce the most dangerous dioxins that exist in the planet. Moreover, the very low percentage of the recycling bottles “is actually down cycling” that means the products made by this recycling plastic are lower quality and required virgin plastic and more toxins. On the other hand if it were true that they recycle the bottles, nobody has showed a product made of recycle bottles. I’ve seen some products that says “made of recycle paper” but not from recycle bottles or plastic at least.

     I have learned that media really influences people and I have the tools to promote “NO BOTTLE OF WATER” For example, all my friends, and I believe everyone has Facebook, so I can do is to post the video on it but constantly. In addition, I have contact with people at work and some of them work at very public places, so they can spread it. Also I have noticed that New York people complain a lot especially about money, so I can introduce the suggestion of a refill bottle of water. Lastly, the most important to be an example because people easily believed not only when they hear it but when they see that is true.

Blog Entry 13

The Meatrix Issues

Organic

     “The philosophy of organic food productions maintains certain principles: biodiversity, ecological balance, sustainability, natural plan fertilization, natural pest management and soil integrity.” According with The Meatrix website, around the time of WWII the intensive productivity of farming and technological advances put the manual labor aside, and synthetic fertilizers were affordable manufactured until “farmers reject the idea that this was advancement  in agriculture”, so they started to study other methods that improve the productivity ending with what we call organic. Organic farming or organic food is good not only for the environment but also for people because keeps us in balance and out of illnesses.

     Organic farming helps the environment since they don’t use pesticides or fertilizers that contaminate the soil and the environment. In addition animals such as cow, pigs and chickens are raised outdoors, fed with organic food and out antibiotics and hormones that promotes fast growing. As a result plants grow in a natural way giving more nutrients, and animal are raised happy far away from mutilations that makes them sick and that poisons their meat. Moreover, organic farming keeps sustainability which is good for people and farmers. To be mention farmers need to prove that their product is really organic, so they’ll be approve by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA). Therefore, consumers have to look for the “USDA” logo in order to be sure that the product they are buying is organic for real.

     To take out chemicals from food will give people a healthier environment because organic farming avoids water pollution, toxic free soil and since there are no mutilations on animals or antibiotics there would be no pandemics around. Moreover people won’t suffer of side effects such as pandemics, obesity and cancer.

     In conclusion, by following the principles of organic food production will keep us on an ecological and healthy balance that not only includes human beings but animals and plants. All these will be reached with the help of USDA and consciousness.

    

Blog Entry 14

Imitation of Film: Here’s Smoking at You Kid

[Re-writing]

    

     In the passage “Imitation o Film: Here’s Smoking at You Kid” by Nicholas Balakar, on which he states that children ages 10 to 14 tent to smoke more if they see actors smoking in the movies. Also researchers said that the 38% of children who start smoking do it because they trying to imitate what they have seen in the movies. I agree with the author because children ages 10 to 14 are looking for their own identity, they are very vulnerable and easy to be influenced by media when there no one to supervise them.

     Teenagers look for an identity everywhere, especially, when no one is there to supervise them, which occurs in most of the cases. Unfortunately, they find that sort of identity in the wrong places such as movies, where they favorite actors and actresses besides looking pretty, handsome, interesting and apparently having a lot of personality, have the habit of smoking. These characteristics are exactly what they looking for in order to be popular as them. In addition teenagers like to experiment with anything new or prohibited. Therefore, they are easy to be influenced by any type of addiction like smoking because of their vulnerability to the new things.

     Dr. James D. Sargent, the lead author on the study and a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School said that “R-rated movies contain twice as much smoking” and those are viewed for children from fourth and fifth grade. This only shows the range that media can have since everywhere. For instance, the movies rated R on theaters require ID because they can’t be viewed by anyone under 17 since the content is considered too mature for younger viewers. However, media is not only on theaters, but also in the black market which anyone can find on the streets, and it is easy to afford it. For example, last week my ten year-old nephew asked me to take him to see Paranormal Activity 3 movie, so I respond no because it was R-rated, so he couldn’t see it. Then he said that his friend had told him what happened in the movie because his friend’s parents bought a copy of the movie on the street, so the whole family saw it including this kid who is only 10 years old. In this case not only media but the lack of consciousness of parents makes teenagers and easy prey to catch.

     In conclusion, due to the vulnerability of teenagers while looking for an identity makes them easy to influence by media into an addiction as smoking. More over parents lack of consciousness that leave our adolescents out of protection and how Dr. James D. Sargent says “This association should be taken very seriously.”   

Blog Entry 12

                                                     

                                                          The Meatrix

    The Meatrix part I is comperation a with The Matrix movie but with animals in a farm and their sad reality. The main character Leo who is a pig, seems to live happily as any other animal in  farm, suddenly a bull named Moopheus appeared telling him about the meatrix and asking if he wanted to know more about it. Moopheus offers him a blue pill which will keeps everything the same and a red pill which will show the reality of the meatrix. Leo chose the red pill and get in the reality where Moopheus show him how animals “live”, how they are abuse and mutilated. However Leo wanted to know how everything happened and started, so Moopheus explained him that since the 20^th century factory farmers found a way to to increase the production of meat for the consumerism of the entire country by reducing the space and putting the animals closer. Really close that they can even move, but this situation brough insanity between them, so to avoid the possible dieses factory farmers started to manipulate animals. For instance, They debeaking chickens and cut the cow’s tales. Moreover, they dosage them with antibiotics, to avoid dieses, but lately they’ve been overdosing them and this excess can end in an unstoppable epidemic. In addition the high quantity of pollutes the air and water of our environment   Moopheus tells Neo to help him to spread the word in order to stop the abuse to animals. So Leo responded to count him in it.

      SinceLeo “GOT INVOLVED”  with Moopheus , he had helped him to make more than 2 millions of people conscious about buying healthier meet, milk and eggs, but he needed to know more, and they get in to the meatrix. Once they get in, they appeared in a farm, but Leo who wasn’t wearing glasses saw that everything was beautiful , cows were well treated and a lady was getting milk from them manually. However, it wasn’t right, that Moophes told Leo to were his Glasses, so he could see the reality, which was that they were in a factory farm. In this factory farms the cows were always sick, even though they were dosage with antibiotics all the time. The antibiotics weren’t the only chemical the cows were dosage, but also an artificial growth hormone (RBGH) made it by Canada and the European Union. Moreover, calves were taken from their mother since they had born and factory farmers fed them with milk mixed with cow’s blood that would spread the mad cows desiese . At the end Leo recommended  people to by milk in some of the small family farms in order to stop the corporations of milk ut the agents capture Moopheus.

      In the meatrix II ½,  Leo and Chikity went to save Moopheus who is in a factory called “Happy Farms.” Inside the agents got Mopheus and show him how everything works in bad conditions such as the production is to fast that the employees hurt themselves and the meat get contaminated, also manure from the intestines were leaking on the meat. However, Leo and Chikity arrived on time to save Moopheus  but the fight will still continue. GET INVOLVED!!

        

Blog Entry 11

Does Knowledge Make You Happier?

     “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing” said Socrates meaning that despite of the vast knowledge we can get in our life, we will continue being ignorant in compare with the immensity of the universe. Therefore, I think that we would never get enough knowledge, but the more we get the happier we will become. On the other hand, there are some downs since everything is not perfect as we saw in Truman Show and in The Matrix. We can see these two sides of knowledge in our education in college and how it has influenced us as citizens and human being.

     “Te Allegory of the Cave”  in The Republic by Plato, Socrates sets up an scenario of a cave representing ignorance and to come out represents to come out to reality, to the enlightening while in The Matrix, to live in, it also represents ignorance and to come out represents knowledge but knowledge about the truth. In our daily life to get out of the cave is to get educated, or enlightened as Socrates said, so we can enjoy the beauty of the real world. This beauty is not only about nature if not the satisfactions that education brings which include a good job, competitive wages, and some luxuries that having a carrier can afford it. However, reality not always means a positive enhancement like in The Matrix, when Neo wakes up in the reality where the food is awful and barely has some clothes to wear.  In our reality, it is more than just to take a red pill because if we cannot afford to pay for school nobody is going to offer education for free, even though we are ready or willing to be enlightened. Moreover, some people in our community, who already has a degree, cannot qualify for a job or exercise the benefits of high education due to immigration status, and there is when people start to think that “ignorance is bliss” like Cypher, the traitor in The Matrix, who becomes frustrated about knowing the truth of the real world.

     “I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?” Morpheus said to Neo because he seemed confused and scared. The more Neo knew, the more he get impress. Similarly, when knowledge make people to understand things that couldn’t understand before but they are not capable of change them. For instance, knowledge makes people understand how the economy works and that the economists see people as number but not as humans that in determined situation they don’t care who die or lived. It also makes people understand that there are social problems such as poverty and famine. Because of knowledge, people get awareness about those situations and try to fix them which make them happy. However, we haven’t been capable to fix them which make us confused and scared humans beings.

     Indeed, knowledge makes us happier, but it doesn’t mean that reality it’s perfect because to know the truth, it also brings dissolutions that we aren’t capable to solve, so “all that I know is that I know nothing.”

Blog Entry 10

The Dangers of Reality TV

(Rewriting)

     Long time ago, the Romans invented the circus in order to entertain their population’s minds. Nowadays, we have something very similar to the Roman circus, and it is called reality TV. According to the passage “The Dangers of Reality TV” by Timothy Sexton, reality television minds in order to manipulate them. Sexton states that reality television is promoting competition as a key of success in shows such as Survivor and Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire. Another message is “image rather than ability” says Sexton, and the best example for that is American Idol, where no matter how talent a person can be if he or she has no personality, there will always be someone who is prettier. The last message to be mentioned by Sexton is that reality television doesn’t care about education and make the audience to believe in that. For reality TV there is no reason to go school for many years if people can get plenty of money by eating bugs and doing nasty things like in the show Fear Factor. I agree with the author, when he says that reality television promotes competition in order to reach success, image is more important than talent and education is not important because the people who are strongly influenced by these messages are teenagers who are inexperienced, and they are just developing their own criteria. Therefore teenagers are an easy prey for reality TV makers who want just block our way to education.

     Timothy Sexton says that reality TV is promoting competition in order to reach success, and we can see that in our daily life. For example, if a girl in the reality shows Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire has pretty hair, and she uses Pantene shampoo even when she is doing it just for publicity, a teenager girl who is looking for acceptance at high school and who wants to look prettier than other girls, will use it too because she wants to look pretty just as the girl in the reality show. Moreover, a teenager girl would think that she will win a handsome boyfriend or the most popular guy at school that can give her everything she wants, and she will grow up with the same idea in her head.

     Sadly, reality television not only influences teenagers with non-sense competitions but also adults, which is worse, with the idea of image rather than ability as Sexton says. It happened to two of my close friends who were absent at school for long time. One of them my friend Carlos who was a good student, but he became ill of kidney condition, which took him out of school for four months. When he came back to school, he tried to get on the same level with the rest of the class and took several tests. Unfortunately, he didn’t pass all of them. I have to mention that it was the la of three years of school, so it was the year of our graduation. Then Carlos asked for a second chance, so he would have time to prepare, but our professors said no to him. Carlos couldn’t graduate in that year. On the other side was my friend Joanna, who became pregnant, and she was absent in class for three months because she was ashamed. Joanna’s grades weren’t real good, but she was very pretty.  In fact everyone at school used to say that she was the most beautiful girl in the premises. The professors said that because it was the last year of school there was no reason to keep her stock in the same thing, and Joanna got her certificate without any challenge, and without any knowledge. This only proves that Sexton is right when he says that reality television transmits the idea that beauty is more important than any talent and people doesn’t even realize that they following it. Moreover, he is right about reality television promotes no education just as teaches at school did with my two friends. Carlos tried really hard, but Joanna didn’t have to. She only had to become pregnant and to be pretty in order to get the award as in reality TV where the pretty girl, even though she has no education or any talent, gets everything, nice and easy. Therefore people especially girls think that it would be that easy and not only at my school if not in my entire culture, but Joanna she didn’t even eat bugs.

     In conclusion, we should be smart and think twice about what we watching, so we won’t influenced by the circus  today called reality TV and we won’t be what the Romans meaning “reality” TV makers want us to be which is a “reality fan” without real education.