The Podcast.

How did this course change my view on climate change? Well, this class really did help me understand more what really is at stake here. Pretty much everything is in danger. Us, the animals, and the Planet. But really the biggest fault is on us, the common folk. We have the power to change everything in a split second, but we choose to look the other way because it seems so hard to battle this colossal problem. We can just shut down everything if we are made aware of how powerful we are. The people who we claim that are in power just make us believe that they're powerful when really it's all just one big illusion. Of course, they have some concrete power, like the military, but I consider the military common wealth as well. We just have to let them know that they're not part of the "powerful" world. We will change the world when we learn that the true power that lies within in each and one of us. Climate change is not a debatable thing, the science is behind it is clear and understandable. However, I do think that the solution side should change how they deliver their information. The method that they have been using is not very effective, that's why it is still a debatable subject. Climate change is as real as us and we need to act fast. We're near the tipping point of irreversible consequences. That's why we need to change radically how we think and how the people who are trying to help change their methods. I believe we need to make climate change something casual although it isn't. We can't drown the people with all the information at once, it has to be one slow process that doesn't feel forced on the average folk. We need to combine the science with art to make it more bearable for the common folks. People just really get scared because of how much information we try to feed them at once. It seems it is an exhausting problem to solve, I know it is, but we need to make it look like it is something doable.

In-class blog: Summarizing and Interpreting a graph.

The graph that I'm going to discuss is titled  "Anti-Islamic Hate Crime Incidents". The graph shows the amount of Anti-Islamic crime throughout the years. From 1995 to 2008 to be precise. From the graph we can see that the crimes from 1995 to 2000 ranged from 21 to 32, which in a way is low given the fact that it is a different religion in a mostly christian country (although the chart doesn't mention where did these crimes take place,which to me it's a problem because people can get confused if they read this in another country, I assumed they took place in the US). On the other hand, from 2001 to 2008 the crimes went through the roof. In 2001 it reached its peak, reaching the amount of 481 Anti-Islamic crimes committed. Then the years that follow, we can say that the crimes plateaued, but still at a high rate of crimes. The crimes from 2002 to 2008 ranged from 105 to 156. In my opinion, the amount of crimes increased at a ridiculous level because of the disastrous event that took place in 2001, which was the attack on the world trade center, commonly referred as 9-11(because of the date that the attack happened). That's why we can see that the peak of the chart was on 2001(which is also the year 9-11 occurred), reaching an amount that make the other years seem irrelevant. Now to move on to a more concrete evidence, I'm going to use the book "Zeitoun" written by Dave Eggers , a book that it is mainly about a man named Zeitoun who is a believer of the Islamic religion, decided to stay in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina hit which in turn were the cause of many misfortunes for Zeitoun. In a class discussion for my English 101 class, me and a group of classmates came up with a keyword which in a way relates to the graph. "Cultural Fear" is the word that  we came up with. Cultural fear meaning the fear of being treated cruelly due to your difference of culture. Or, the fear of someone who has a different cultural background (for a deeper explanation, I posted a blog on May 12 entirely on  "Cultural Fear"). Since Zeitoun is a Muslim, he had always feared he would  be object of mistreatment for being Muslim. That's because he was living in the US being a Muslim in the post 9-11 era. After 9-11, many people relate Al-Qaeda to Islam, this being the main cause of Anti-Islamic crimes in my opinion, which to clarify, I think that is just plain ignorant. Anyhow, in the book when Zeitoun was being processed to go to jail, the guards kept yelling Anti-Islamic comments, the line that stooud out for me was "you guys are al Qaeda " when Zeitoun asked why he was being held captive (Eggers, 212).


Notes: ( Not finished nor revised)

In class Zeitoun blog #2.

The presence of cultural fear is evident in "Zeitoun". First of all, let me define what I mean by cultural fear. Cultural fear is the fear of being treated in a hateful way due to cultural reasons. We can see an example of cultural fear when Eggers wrote about Zeitoun's interrogation. In this interrogation Zeitoun was horrified because he did not know what would happen to him for being Muslim, especially when the soldiers started showing their hatred towards Zeitoun's race (212). Cultural fear can also mean the fear of someone else's culture. Eggers gave us an example of this when he wrote about the case of a tenth grader of Iraqi descent whose teacher was being racist because of her cultural background. He would call Iraq "a third world country", and also was worried the student would "bomb us" (45). In these two situations we can see how our cultural background may have some extreme effects on our lives. In my opinion this senseless battering of different culture just because we fear them makes no sense, no one can choose where they are born. That also means that our cultures may differ from one another, but to condemn people for something they did not have a choice in is preposterous; and because of that people sometimes fear what would happen to them for having a different culture.

Zeitoun

 In my opinion, after seeing the damage that hurricane Katrina had caused, Zeitoun started having some inner doubts about his decision of staying. Even though he never admits it to Kathy, I believe that the only reason he was staying in this chaos was because of his pride , which in my opinion it is kind of selfish given the fact that he has children. I believe Zeitoun should have left too with his family just to protect his children in case of emergency. David Eggers, on page 89 of his called "Zeitoun" wrote a passage that showed Zeitoun's insecurity about his decision. It is a conversation between Zeitoun and his wife Kathy followed by Zeitoun's thoughts at the moment. He wrote " "Please leave," she said. "Tomorrow." "No, no" he said, but even as he spoke, he was reconsidering"(Eggers, 89). This is what I mean when i say that he had his doubts about his decision. As stubborn and skeptical as he was, we can see that he has his moments were he contemplated if it was the right decision. Did he stay because he was skeptical about the storm?, or because he valued his possessions more than his family?. I don't know, but either way I believe he was mistaken, he should have been with his family in that moment of crisis.

Quote sandwich#2

Hello everyone this post is an in-class assignment for my ENG 101 class about New York's response to hurricane sandy. In my opinion the idea that was proposed in response to Sandy's destruction by Gov. Andrew Cuomo looked fairly well. the idea was to spend as much as 400 million dollars to buy and demolish  damaged homes, and turn them into parks, bird sanctuaries, and so on. However, these "buffer zones" in  past catastrophes, were often used by private companies to profit from it, instead of its principal purpose of preventing damage. Naomi Klein in "Blanking the Beach" used about a handful of times the words "Buffer zone" to show how the private sector used them to their advantage. Buffer zone is a zone where people are not allowed to inhabit, in other words, a boundary. the buffer zone conundrum in Klein's own words " on the surface it made sense , but there was a problem with that rationale"(66).

Sandy Storyline

Hello everyone. Today for my English class I will write about two stories that happened in real life. two horrible stories, but still, two stories that we can learn something from. The main purpose of this task is to show my "quote sandwich" and "critical thinking" skills.



The first story i will tell you about is Derek Prince's story. It's nice to see a person seeing the positive side of life no matter the circumstances. Derek was one of these persons. After the storm, Derek had an epiphany. Derek said  " In everyday life you kinda take certain people for granted. If i learned one thing from the storm it was that. that the memories, and the family time, and whatever moment you hold precious to you that you can't ever get  back if something like this happens, are the things that deserve your focus". Even though Derek lost everything to the storm, he realized that the things he lost are replaceable, but those memories that we can't relive, are still more important than every object that he lost. I believe that Derek will see life from a different perspective now, he will cherish every moment of his life that makes him happy, he now knows that those moments that make him happy are the things that really matter, everything else is replaceable.


The second story I will tell you about is Joe Lombardi's story. Joe went trough a horrible experience with his entire family. And what really struck me the most was his determination about not leaving. It was kinda foolish that he didn't leave given the fact that he has a two year old son and a nine month old daughter, and by not leaving he was putting them in great danger, but still that doesn't mean that we shouldn't take his story as serious as the other stories. Anyhow, back to the experience that he went through which was horrible, when he was telling the story i was shocked that he had to go through this with his entire family. To put it in Joe's words " When the waters reached to the top of my step obviously we didn't leave, we had to make a decision because i have my two kids, the electricity was going out, so i grab my two year old son and my brother in law grabs my 9 month old daughter and we walked, in the rain in the horrible wind with my children". just picturing this image image in a way makes me understand how serious this is, walking in the middle of a storm with your family, just walking up with no destination to get away from the water. But in the end he got out alive with his family and with his health still intact, I guess that's the positive side of the story.


Now that we heard these two stories, and we see how fast the tables can get turned, we have to look closely at everything William Nordhaus tells us in his book "Climate Casino", these storms are doing more damage because of climate change making  sea level  rise. If we keep acting irresponsibly toward this matter, these floods can get more horrible than they already are.

Quote sandwich practice

In my opinion New York isn't prepared for sea level rise because we are not acting proactively regarding global warming because as sea level rises, the risk of flooding and other disasters rise as well. On the article "New York is lagging as sea and risk rise, critics warn" Mireya Navarro said "The waters on the city’s doorstep have been rising roughly an inch a decade over the last century as oceans have warmed and expanded. But according to scientists advising the city, that rate is accelerating" (Navarro).This is sadly true because there is abundant  evidence to prove it.this acceleration is due to the rising in CO2 levels the we are irresponsibly dumping in our atmosphere and so on. I think New York has to be aware that the sea level will keep rising indefinitely  if we don't act fast. I believe that New York has the resources needed to prevent most of the damage that this atrocity will cause. However the city just decide to look the other way in my opinion because it will require a lot of work to prevent the damage that sea level rise might cause.