Outsourcing Improves Our World

“30 Little Turtles” by Thomas Friedman is about the controversies of outsourcing, and how he believes there are more favorable positives then negatives.

Companies want to reduce all costs by as much as possible in order to gain a high profit, which is why they look at setting up bases in third world countries.  I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for people who would make less money in other jobs in their country to have a better future for their families, instead of having to lead lives of drug dealing, stealing, and prostitution.  The people in the countries of “India and Pakistan, view these jobs as high-wage and high-prestige jobs” (Friedman, 170), compared to North American people where these jobs are considered to be in the lower career opportunity category.

I can see how setting up companies somewhere else is disagreeable when it is argued that there are barely any jobs in our own country, and we should keep companies solely where they have started.  I found it alarming that they’re teaching people with accents to hide them so when a Canadian calls, we can understand them and know that they aren’t located in North America.  “The instructor was teaching the would-be Indian call center operators to suppress their native Indian accents and speak with a Canadian one” (Friedman, 176).  I think its North Americanizing people too much, and it seems like they have no choice in the matter because they are presented with a job that can lead their families to a better life.

Friedman wants the reader to be open to ideas about outsourcing through examples of the proud people he has encountered excited about their jobs.  He believes that this is the right way in order to “not only to be a more prosperous world, but a safer world” (Friedman, 177).  Do you believe Friedman has the right idea that outsourcing is valuable to the world?

A Hidden Life

“Code Breaker” by Jim Holt is about the life of Alan Turing, a true genius making an impact on society yet ridiculed because he was homosexual before his  death.  Jim Holt writes in a respectful way of Alan’s incredible achievements of break through technology that led to saving many human beings lives.  Alan “broke the German Enigma code during the Second World War, an achievement that helped save Britain from defeat in the dark days of 1941” (Holt, 337).  Jim wants the reader to know as much as possible about Alan, so that one can make their own conclusions on the reasons of his unexpected death.  The author shares pieces of important information gradually through his writing that possibly adds to the readers answer of why at the young age of forty-one was he found dead.

The time era Alan lived, was not an open society towards race, sexuality, and gender equality.  He had struggled for years emotionally with a secret that would be frowned upon by coworkers, friends and family.  “Two years before his death, he was convicted of “gross indecency” for having a homosexual affair” (Holt, 337).  The final ending paragraph creates a mystery to the reader because there is no conclusion on if Alan Turing lost his life due to homicide or suicide.  Although he did not get the proper recognition when he was alive, “he invented, as a by-product of his advance in logic, was the store-program computer” (Holt, 340).  I am glad Alan is receiving the acknowledgment, but I am wondering how much further he could have gone in his life.  Even though he had many downfalls he clearly still had a future ahead of him, and possibly could have added more world advancements.  Do you think Alan Turing’s death was a homicide or suicide?

The Media Makes Crime Statistics Worst Then It Really Is

In “There Are No Lessons To Be Learned From Littleton” by Gary Kleck, he tells us that the media is trying to tell the public what can be learned from the massacre murders and what can be done to fix them. As well as how it causes the public to draw conclusions that in society there is increasing problems with crime rates, as well as how media based solutions makes them feel that crime situations are fixed.  This is due to news only conjugating facts about the outside world of what they think interests the public, as well as events that are unique and unheard of.  Writers try to give reasons why these events happen, by doing this it “draws the conclusion that violence in schools is a growing problem or that youth violence, gun violence, or violence in general has been increasing.” Yet Gary Kleck tells us the recent facts is that in general most violence is declining.  His “main point is that it is generally a mistake to diagnose the cause of violent and crime, or to identify effective ways to reduce violence and crime.”  When the media focuses on certain events, it draws attention from other issues that are more important to improve the way we live, as well as good things done in our society.  Schools are supposed to seem like a safe place to send students, but school killings are perceived to the public that they aren’t as generally secure as they used to be.  I found this to be a staggering example that Gary Kleck mentions, “less than one in 400 adolescent gun homicides in 1994 occurred in school or in school grounds.”  This statistic just shows how the media tends to make crime in our lives seems worst then it really is.  Why do you think there is more mass student massacres in the United States then in Canada?

Will there ever be a study done to investigate the true impact of media violence?

“Aggression: The Impact of Media Violence” by Sissela Bok is about the much debated controversy on the true impact of media violence.  It is questioned if it really affects the people who watch it to act in more aggressive ways. I believe it’s up to parents to do their job and communicate with children on controlling what they watch on television.  Sissela Bok writes, “the television screen is the lens through which most children learn about violence.”  Of course that isn’t going to stop a child from viewing all media violence, but it will cut the amount of media to do with violence seen and heard tremendously.

 Sissela Bok is effective in her overall appeal to the audience because she still manages to write examples on both sides of people’s views on media violence.  “Most investigators agree that it will always be difficult to disentangle the precise effects of exposure to media violence from the many other factors contributing to social violence.”  I believe there are way too many factors needing to be documented involved in weighing out all the influences, but there are some staggering statements made by people such as psychiatrist Brandon S. Centerwall.  “If television technology had never been developed, there would be 10,000 fewer homicides each year in the United States, 70,000 fewer rapes, and 700,000 fewer injurious assaults.”  More studies will clearly have to be done, especially ones in the long term of assessing children to adults who are more violent then others. 

I have experienced the impact first hand of someone seeing too much violence.  My brother plays violent video games on his Xbox 360 and he basically seems desensitized to real things in life such as when my family and I are talking about the news. We were talking about a shocking murder that happened in Victoria and he didn’t seem to show much care due to playing video games where he is supposed to shoot people with guns.  Is there a family member or friend in your life who plays violent video games and it impacts their life?

Past and Present Africa: A Man’s Love Affair

“Pandemic: My Country Is On Its Knees,” is written by Stephen Lewis about his love affair with Africa.  He writes an emotional appeal to the audience about the Africa he once knew, that has changed to a place of hardship but still the people are holding onto hope.

Stephen Lewis has a strong relationship with Africa, “in the 1950s and 1960s, when I was most impressionable, was a continent of vitality, growth, and boundless expectation.”  He wants the world to know that Africa once had so much potential, but over the decades it has endured a tragic ordeal that no country ever wants to face. “AIDS has taken countries by the throat and reduced them to spectral caricatures of their former selves.”  Reading this story reminded me of a book I read a couple years ago called, “28 Stories of Aids in Africa” by Stephanie Nolan.  Each chapter in the book told a different story, but each one had a common underlying truth about the turmoil the African people face against Aids, while providing true facts of current statistics.  I recommend the book because it really opened my eyes like Stephen Lewis’s story, on how each day is a fight for survival for many of the people living in Africa.

When I was reading Stephen Lewis’s story, it was an emotional rollercoaster. “If you ask almost anyone what they need most, including people suffering from full-blown Aids, they will not say drugs, they will say food.” It was heartbreaking to read how many hopeless people are just needing the simple necessities to get by, but yet have no way of attaining it.  Children are put into positions of taking care of their siblings because there is no one else to.  Grandmothers who Stephen Lewis refers to them as the “heroes of Africa,” have to watch their children die, then their grandchildren.  How much heartache can the people of Africa go through? I can imagine seeing the horror and tragedy of death in Africa, and I believe the author wants us to feel the realness of it all.  At the same time I feel enlightened towards the end of the story, Stephen Lewis still has so much hope for Africa to come forth from the past and become the present Africa. 

Do you think Africa will achieve all the MDG’s it’s trying to reach?

Letters to America

Margaret Atwood is a recognized international author who has been given honorary degrees and awarded for her countless pieces of poetry, novels, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books.  She wrote “Letter to America” in the spring of 2003, in a response to America’s presence in Iraq. Written in a Canadian perspective, Margaret once felt an affinity to American culture, but now feels the Unites States is going “down the slippery slope.”

Margaret Atwood glamorizes her childhood of the people she became acquainted with, and fails to mention the problems America faced during the time period she grew into an adult.  American culture has greatly impacted and changed the world from the music, political and heroic figures, authors, and actors and actresses they have embraced upon us. 

Over the years, United States unfavorable choices have changed much of the world’s outlook on them as a country.  “Letters to America,” shows the difficulty Margaret had writing this personal letter, since she once looked at the country in an admirable view.  The main content of the story, shares views that many people feel.  She writes “but I’ll take the plunge, because your business is no longer merely your business.”  It almost seems she is writing to warn the United Sates of the disappointments we have felt with their actions, and how it directly affects Canada but we don’t have a choice since we are so tightly interrelated to them. Canada’s economy relies heavily on the United States on account of them being a big buyer of our products.  We share a unique trading partnership with them, and since their sources are depleting faster then our own, a major concern is that they will take all of our natural resources.

Margaret Atwood states “people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you” to the Americans.  They are headed in the wrong direction, and if they keep on causing more negative impacts then positive ones, the world will not look towards America as an influential and leading country in the future.

In order for America to head in the right direction, what will need to happen?