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.