Below is a video presentation by Weinlein and Dwyer that investigates Tim O'Brien's perspective of the Vietnam War through his work, "The Things They Carried". I think this is an interesting video , it gives out some specific information such as 61% of the men killed were 21 years old and younger. The pictures shows how brutal the war was, it doesn't only take away many life on both Vietnam and American soldiers but a lot of young men that haven't even start to live their life. The war caused nearly 200 billion for America and many innocent life. I can never think of being in the war not knowing what are the purpose of the war, it must be hard for the soldiers and unfair that they didn't know why they are fighting Vietnam for. I'm glad I watched this clip, it gives me better understanding of how the life was like in Vietnam war.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Survivor's Guilt
Below is an article by Gregory Ross, a navy veteran served on the gun line off the coast of Vietnam(1968-69), graduate of a VA drug, alcohol and PTSD program. I think his experience are closely related to "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. Because in the book it has many story that can related to what Gregory Ross went through , the survivor's guilt which many soldiers from Vietnam war are haunted by it. What the survivor felt is emotional and is almost impossible to forget what had happen and what they have seen. And many can't overcome their guilt and ended up taking their own life to relieve themselves. We need to understand what the soldiers had went through, they need help from love one to overcome their problems and fears after the war. Over the years, the suicide rates are going up in the military and the number is shocking , it went up 82 percent since 2009. To help reducing the rates, there are still many areas that they need to work on , to help the soldiers to overcome their fear and guilt.
Upon first meeting my not yet wife's parents, I was marginally employed and in her parents estimation the latest mistake she was making in regards to men. Her first husband turned out to be a disappointment to them. Now she was taking up with a long haired crazy veteran freak who always wore a Vietnam Veterans Against The War pin and that embarrassing Billboard Back Pack. Eventually I won her mother over but her father and I were locked into the "useless, no good, boy friend/father protecting his rebellious daughter" scenario. Even when we got married he died before he and I could finish the work we had started of getting out of the stereotypical "father-in-law/son-in-law" hostile roles. Though her mother accepted that I was going to be a part of their lives and even began to like me, she couldn't understand why I had to carry that Billboard Back Pack everywhere. Truthfully, I didn't totally understand the reason then either; it just felt wrong to be without that visible statement at all times.
The first few years with my wife, who wasn't my wife yet, was one of the most emotionally active periods of my life. I had met the woman whose love I was convinced would save me. I worked Child Care which involved relating to a large group of 5 to 9 year olds. I was part of a group of men called Men Against Sexist Violence [MASV], learning from and working in conjunction with San Francisco Women Against Rape [SFWAR]. We did outreach in schools to offer boys another view of relationships and the committee I worked with did counseling with Significant Others of rape or sexual trauma victims. I also worked with the War Resisters League [WRL]. A man in MASV once pointed to my Billboard Back Pack and said, "That is a heavy load to carry." I replied, "Not as heavy as when I don't carry it." A revelation to me, the first acknowledgment of "Survivors Guilt."
Eventually, with the exception of my wife, who married me anyway; it all imploded. I would break down crying at work when boys insisted on playing "War Games." The relief on my boss's face when I quit confirmed my guess that she was struggling with my continued employment. MASV self destructed when the Socialist, Communist and "Feminist Male" factions endlessly argued over the "Primary Contradiction: Classism versus Sexism" and polemics ground the group down. I am still friends with a few of the original founders but we are scattered all over Northern California. I left WRL as our small group was successfully taking on recruiters in the schools. I left because I brought up that as we got more successful we needed to be more careful. This was after all the age of Co-Intelpro. The other two working class members agreed but the middle class people thought we were just paranoid. Soon, PTSD and drugs put me over the edge and I went down to the VA Program in Menlo Park, CA to clean up and heal enough that my wife actually did marry me in March, 1982.
For a long time I went back to keeping my Veteran status a secret, telling only people I loved or trusted for some other reason. I have no idea what happened to the Billboard Back Pack but, over the last few years I have not left the house without a Veterans For Peace patch sewn onto my hat. Total strangers come up to me and say, "Nice Hat." I figure they mean the sentiment of the patch. It is not such a heavy load anymore, but I feel anxious without my hat.
Survivor's Guilt: A Life of Atonement?
By Gregory Ross
Upon first meeting my not yet wife's parents, I was marginally employed and in her parents estimation the latest mistake she was making in regards to men. Her first husband turned out to be a disappointment to them. Now she was taking up with a long haired crazy veteran freak who always wore a Vietnam Veterans Against The War pin and that embarrassing Billboard Back Pack. Eventually I won her mother over but her father and I were locked into the "useless, no good, boy friend/father protecting his rebellious daughter" scenario. Even when we got married he died before he and I could finish the work we had started of getting out of the stereotypical "father-in-law/son-in-law" hostile roles. Though her mother accepted that I was going to be a part of their lives and even began to like me, she couldn't understand why I had to carry that Billboard Back Pack everywhere. Truthfully, I didn't totally understand the reason then either; it just felt wrong to be without that visible statement at all times.
The first few years with my wife, who wasn't my wife yet, was one of the most emotionally active periods of my life. I had met the woman whose love I was convinced would save me. I worked Child Care which involved relating to a large group of 5 to 9 year olds. I was part of a group of men called Men Against Sexist Violence [MASV], learning from and working in conjunction with San Francisco Women Against Rape [SFWAR]. We did outreach in schools to offer boys another view of relationships and the committee I worked with did counseling with Significant Others of rape or sexual trauma victims. I also worked with the War Resisters League [WRL]. A man in MASV once pointed to my Billboard Back Pack and said, "That is a heavy load to carry." I replied, "Not as heavy as when I don't carry it." A revelation to me, the first acknowledgment of "Survivors Guilt."
Eventually, with the exception of my wife, who married me anyway; it all imploded. I would break down crying at work when boys insisted on playing "War Games." The relief on my boss's face when I quit confirmed my guess that she was struggling with my continued employment. MASV self destructed when the Socialist, Communist and "Feminist Male" factions endlessly argued over the "Primary Contradiction: Classism versus Sexism" and polemics ground the group down. I am still friends with a few of the original founders but we are scattered all over Northern California. I left WRL as our small group was successfully taking on recruiters in the schools. I left because I brought up that as we got more successful we needed to be more careful. This was after all the age of Co-Intelpro. The other two working class members agreed but the middle class people thought we were just paranoid. Soon, PTSD and drugs put me over the edge and I went down to the VA Program in Menlo Park, CA to clean up and heal enough that my wife actually did marry me in March, 1982.
For a long time I went back to keeping my Veteran status a secret, telling only people I loved or trusted for some other reason. I have no idea what happened to the Billboard Back Pack but, over the last few years I have not left the house without a Veterans For Peace patch sewn onto my hat. Total strangers come up to me and say, "Nice Hat." I figure they mean the sentiment of the patch. It is not such a heavy load anymore, but I feel anxious without my hat.
Artifacts
In "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien, it describe the items that the soldiers carried with them during the war. And they all carried a lot of different things along with them , sometime they carried personal things with them which are the things that are meaningful to them. In the book, it talked about how the soldiers were taking turns carrying a 28 pound mine detector and it is extremely stressful for them to carry with. But they insisted to have it with them because it made them feel save and give them the comfort they were looking for even though they know it is not really a helpful object to have with them.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Thesis
Tim O'Briens’ book, “The Things They Carried” provides valuable insight into the minds of soldiers, and enlightens us to the emotional and psychological costs of war. Specifically, the stories of Mary Anne, the baby water buffalo and the chapter “In the Field” help us to relate to the metamorphosis that soldiers undergo.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
How I feel about SB1070
I have a mix feeling about SB1070, I think SB1070 in some ways are trying to protect American citizens but at the same time it created issue with racial profiling and human rights. I do not think migrant workers are taking jobs away but helping US economy, it is because most of the migrant workers are in the field of agriculture which many American are not willing to work in this area. The migrant worker often received low-wages, no health benefits and work under harsh condition for long hours. On the other hand, even in other area such as technology, many technology companies in United States have founded by migrant worker and have created many job opportunity to all American citizens.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Arizona Senate Bill 1070,
Arizona Senate Bill 1070, this act is to enforce illegal immigration and it brought a lot of attentions nation wide as well as international. The Bill requires all alien to have their documentation with them when they are in Arizona, they claim the reason this bill needs to be done is to protect Americans and to help lower crime rates. Which I personally do not think that is the real reason for it, because many illegal immigrants came to the US to improve their life and living condition and from what I see they are very hard workers and are willing to do jobs that many American refuse to do. I think the idea of having alien to carry their documentation is reasonable, is a similar law to many Asian country that everyone should carry some sort of documentation to prove you are not an illegal immigrant. Overall, I think Bill 1070 needs to be reconsidered and make changes to become actually helpful for the protection of Americans.
Greed brings failure
People all over the world are discussing who and what causes the global financial crisis. Some blame the government, while others blame financial institutions. To me, the global financial crisis happens because of the greedy bankers, the government, and us as consumer. People all around the world are affected by the global financial crisis. It causes many people to face unemployment, business failure, debt, and many other negative impacts. In order to get out of this recession, many rules and system need to be change such as government regulations, the financial institutions system, and us as consumers.
Why blame the government? According to Niall Ferguson, a Harvard and Oxford historian and the author of The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World in article “Who’s To blame: Washington or Wall Street”, he says, “My third prime suspect is the congress that wholly failed to supervise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which on the eve of their destruction were leveraged 65 to 1.” It is important that the government realize they need to do a better job monitoring the big corporation and financial institutions. In order to prevent the same disaster, regulations and rules need to be applied. Also, creating a new monitor system is important to ensure big corporations are making the right decision.
On the other hand, banks also play an important role in the global financial crisis. In article “Trading Financial Risk and Job”, it states, “Banks and lending institutions such as
countrywide, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac adopted the idea of giving sub prime mortgages to people who had no down payments, poor credit, or inadequate regular income”(p.140). Because of the easy loans from banks, people are going over their limits and buying things they can’t afford such as houses and cars. It became a “popular” choice for many Americans to get bank loans when they have the desire of owning something they want, since it’s the easiest and quickest way to get what they want. The bankers show nothing but greed for money. They do not care about anything other than whether they are making profits or not. The bank needs to be monitored by the government and set new regulations. Giving loans to those who can’t afford them and who have bad credit is not going to make their life better. It will negatively affect others all around the world.
In addition, we us consumers are also responsible for the cause of global financial crisis. According to Rachel Tesfahun in “Student Voice: Thanking the Poor Economy”, “I used to be a “consumption whore.” I automatically pulled out my trusty, handy credit card for everything, from a latte at Starbucks to a sale at Macy’s”(p.147). We as consumers have the responsibility to keep track of what we are earning and to what extent can we afford the things we want. Economically, we should not be using credit card if we don’t have the ability to control over desire. Using a credit card and spending money are easy but when it comes to pay back is it going to be just as easy? Consumers are spending money recklessly, which only leads to more debt. We need to realize it’s not a good habit to buy things without thinking of the consequences. In this case, it leads us to finical crisis.
In conclusion, government, finical institutions and us consumers are all responsible for causing the global finical crisis. In order to avoid a further crisis, the government, and finical institutions and corporations needs to work together and establish a monitoring system.
Regulations will help in preventing the same causes. And of course, us as consumers have to be more aware of how to manage money and not spending money recklessly just because the bank offers.
Work Cited
Johnson, June. Global Issues, Local Arguments: Readings for Writing. Second ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. Print.
21, March. "Who's to Blame for the Financial Crisis? - Newsweek." Newsweek - National News, World News, Business, Health, Technology, Entertainment, and More - Newsweek. Web. 02 May 2011. .
Why blame the government? According to Niall Ferguson, a Harvard and Oxford historian and the author of The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World in article “Who’s To blame: Washington or Wall Street”, he says, “My third prime suspect is the congress that wholly failed to supervise Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which on the eve of their destruction were leveraged 65 to 1.” It is important that the government realize they need to do a better job monitoring the big corporation and financial institutions. In order to prevent the same disaster, regulations and rules need to be applied. Also, creating a new monitor system is important to ensure big corporations are making the right decision.
On the other hand, banks also play an important role in the global financial crisis. In article “Trading Financial Risk and Job”, it states, “Banks and lending institutions such as
countrywide, Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac adopted the idea of giving sub prime mortgages to people who had no down payments, poor credit, or inadequate regular income”(p.140). Because of the easy loans from banks, people are going over their limits and buying things they can’t afford such as houses and cars. It became a “popular” choice for many Americans to get bank loans when they have the desire of owning something they want, since it’s the easiest and quickest way to get what they want. The bankers show nothing but greed for money. They do not care about anything other than whether they are making profits or not. The bank needs to be monitored by the government and set new regulations. Giving loans to those who can’t afford them and who have bad credit is not going to make their life better. It will negatively affect others all around the world.
In addition, we us consumers are also responsible for the cause of global financial crisis. According to Rachel Tesfahun in “Student Voice: Thanking the Poor Economy”, “I used to be a “consumption whore.” I automatically pulled out my trusty, handy credit card for everything, from a latte at Starbucks to a sale at Macy’s”(p.147). We as consumers have the responsibility to keep track of what we are earning and to what extent can we afford the things we want. Economically, we should not be using credit card if we don’t have the ability to control over desire. Using a credit card and spending money are easy but when it comes to pay back is it going to be just as easy? Consumers are spending money recklessly, which only leads to more debt. We need to realize it’s not a good habit to buy things without thinking of the consequences. In this case, it leads us to finical crisis.
In conclusion, government, finical institutions and us consumers are all responsible for causing the global finical crisis. In order to avoid a further crisis, the government, and finical institutions and corporations needs to work together and establish a monitoring system.
Regulations will help in preventing the same causes. And of course, us as consumers have to be more aware of how to manage money and not spending money recklessly just because the bank offers.
Work Cited
Johnson, June. Global Issues, Local Arguments: Readings for Writing. Second ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. Print.
21, March. "Who's to Blame for the Financial Crisis? - Newsweek." Newsweek - National News, World News, Business, Health, Technology, Entertainment, and More - Newsweek. Web. 02 May 2011. .
Reality
After getting to know about the facts behind free trade and global finical crises, I am aware off what I have to face after I get out of college. To be honest, I’m not looking forward to it, since the past couple of years I have seen many graduated student looking for jobs and a lot of them fail to do so. Especially now we are in a recession and it’s going to take time to recover, it’s very frustrated to think about how competitive it is to get hired and have a steady job. It is hard to imagine what people are going through to earn a spot in any corporation. Many corporations are asking for experience and high-level skills which automatically eliminate many graduated students without working experiences. I think after the break down of subprime mortgage people are more aware of how to mange their money and no one should spent money they haven’t earn yet, because ultimately it will only hurt and affect your life.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
BOA
Bank of America have received $45 billion from TARP. Today Bank of American holds revenue of 134.194 billion. Bank of America was involved in subprime mortgage lending, they were reports on many approved loan without proper documents and no credit checks. House mortgage plays a major roll in relations to the financial crisis. Bank of America were giving out loans to people that could not afford to buy a house when they know based on their credit history but the bank still gives out the loan to them which most of them soon realize they could not repay the loan. In result of that ,the bank was force to take the house they purchased and put them up for auctions in that case the bank are going to lose a great deal of money.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Affects on US workers
Sweatshop labor have lead to many unemployment in US, it’s something that we can’t avoid because corporations are meant to make profits which in result of that are closing down factories in US and shift their factories and job positions to overseas because of the low wage labor. So said the quality of the product made overseas aren’t as good as the product they produce in US , that might be true years ago but since the technology improved so much through out the years. Today many of the products that are made oversea such as China, Indonesia ….. They are producing good quality products, such as apple they used to make their iPods in Japan, since Japan is very well known for their advancement in electronic devices but eventually now all the iPod are make in China. Why? Because they are able to offer lower coast, cheaper labor and produce the same quality of products. I don’t think trying to purchase more US goods as US consumers is going to help, especially the products they made in US are much more expensive than the products that are made in sweatshops but they don’t have any big difference on quality. People are always trying to save money today on products and cheaper products with decent quality are going to be favored by most of the consumers and that’s natural.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Sweat Shop
From all the readings about free trade, globalizations have make me wonder the issues of sweatshop. I have always check where the stuff I buy came from because sometimes I based on where the item is made to ensure if the price is fair and quality. But I never toke time to think who are the people that is making the products and what kind of working conditions and environment they are living in. When I read the article and the information are surprising. The laborers are working in harsh conditions and they are not being treated with respect. Personally, I will not change my consumer habits because of the sweatshop because in reality they produce the goods with a cheaper price for me to buy and there is no reason to buy something more expensive. Yes, the sweatshops are not treating the worker in the right way but they are providing them with jobs, as it states in many articles it is a natural stage of globalizations. Because of the sweatshop it opens up many opportunities for people to provide for their family, if there weren’t any sweatshop many will end up starving to death. Not buying the products that are from sweatshop is not going to help to solve the problems.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Hi Everyone!
Hi everyone! My name is Anthony, I haven't decide what major I want to go for yet.This semester I want to learn how to write better such as organizing arguments and making strong statement. English is my second language so I have a lot to learn.
For the consumer worksheet part 2, I found out the people who made my belongings are living in harsh condition. They do not have enough safety equipments for them to protect themselves from the machines that they work with day and night, and some might even be child that are making my belongings. The belonging I had with me was mainly made in China , Spain , Indonesia and France. The companies are making a ridiculous amount of money out of each item the laborers are making. But the laborers are not getting a good working condition or any rewards. They are being underpay by these successful companies. This is based on shoes factory in China , the laborers work 12 hours a day , they work every single day besides Sunday and they make around 120 to 180 so converting this to American dollar it would be around a dollar a day. Which is unbelievable, it is impossible for them to live a comfortable life with that kind of pay, especially everything is getting more expensive but the pay for the laborers stays the same.
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