PB&J’s Blog

HW Last Podcast

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HW44 Holiday talk

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HW42Podcasting- anew experience

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#88

HW41 Dates and Evening tea

After reading this section in Baghdad Burning I have learned a lot about the Iraqi culture and many things that they do or have that are important to them.  One thing that I learned was why the date palms are so important to the Iraqi people.  They are so important for many reasons, one being that “just seeing the orchards brings a sort of peace.”(Riverbend,103) The farmers take pride in their date palms because they are so beautiful looking and now that they are being cut down they are very unhappy.  The date palms are also important to the Iraqi people because they are resourceful.  In the summer they provide tons of dates for eating and they can store them also for later times.  Every part of the palm tree can be used, the dates for syrup or just for eating and the leaves to make things, such as baskets.  Riverbend’s favorite part is also using the pits of the dates to make beads.  Another part of the Iraqi culture that I have learned about is the custom of evening tea in Iraq.  I have learned that most of the families sit around every-night and drink tea.  “No matter how busy the day, everyone sits around in the living room, waiting for tea.”(Riverbend, 108)  I feel that it is a sense of comfort and coming together for them since everything is so horrible and hectic for them.  {The tea is a three part process, first they put the kettle on the stove to boil, then tealeaves and the boiling water are put into another pot and put on another part of the stove until the tealeaves rise to the top, as to an almost boil.  After that the teapot is put on the tea kettle and sits there to settle, then the tea is served in 8 shaped glasses.}(Riverbend, 108-109)  They sit there ans talk about their days but they are not like a normal day, they talk about different topics that are going on.  Reading this section I have learned a great deal about the Iraqi culture and hope to keep learning more as I keep reading.

HW40 Podcast On Schools

The podcast that i viewed was titled “Challenges at a Girls School in Baghdad” and it is part of the series Alive in Baghdad.  This episode was published on 5/21/07 and the link to it is: http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/.  In this podcast the topic that is covered is the challenges the schools face.  Some of the challenges are the ability to attend classes.  It is hard for them to get to school because of the searches and the road blocks.  If they cant attend then they cant keep up with their studies.  This doesn’t just go for the students its also the teachers that risk themselves getting to class.  The people that appear in this podcast are some of the students, the Director of the school, and also a physics teacher.  One person in general that does a lot of the explaining is the director.  She explains the troubles about getting to school and how everyone risks themselves in trying to get to class.  She know about her students and the teachers and their struggles.  The scenery in this podcast is very plain most of it is in the class rooms with desks and students or just a plain white wall.  A viewer might learn more about how hard it is to attend school in Baghdad and how hard it is for some students to gain an education.  This video compared to others I’ve seen of Iraq is sort of the same because both are very plain with not a lot around and all of the people in them are scared and are having a tough time.  The things i found most memorable about this podcast was the statement that the physics teacher said at the end about how they cant quit because it is a “exceptional experience and they don’t know what will happen tomorrow” 

HW35B Al Capone

After reading Riverbends blogs for august and September in Baghdad Burning i found that she mentioned a lot of interesting people.  She mentioned Al Capone on page 52 and i know he was a mob boss but i wanted to learn a little more about him, so i researched him on the internet.  When i researched him i found out that he was born in Brooklyn, New York and was an American Gangster who’s nickname was Scarface.  He was the boss of a criminal organization called the Chicago Outfit, but his cover-up job was a used furniture dealer.  His career ended in 1931 when he was convicted for income tax evasion by the federal government.  Al Capone has to do with Riverbend’s blog because she was talking about Donald Rumsfeld and saying how she loved what he said about Iraq being like Chicago.  When she talks about this she is saying that he hasn’t completed the sentence and that he should have have said that its “like Chicago ….during the 1920’s, when Al Capone was running it:”(52) and then she goes on to describe what it was like back then when he was running it.  It is described like how Iraq is described today according to Riverbend. 

HW35 “An open letter to Riverbend”

Dear Riverbend,

After reading your August 2003 posts i have learned so much more about the war and what is going on.  You have shown me a whole different side to it all.  By you doing this i have put the whole thing into a different perspective.  What i found interesting was that you can relate or see the good in both sides sometimes.  For example when you where talking about how you hate the troops for being over there, but yet you had some reasons for why you sympathised with them.  I haven’t really kept up to date with any of the war or whats going on over there, but when you described it and how you  feel at night sleeping in anxiety waiting for a gun fire or an explosion.  It really gets to me because no one should have to live like that.  From your posts we get to see how bad things over there really are for the towns people and how its like you are imprisoned in your own towns and homes.  I don’t think its right at all to have to have someone (male) go with you everywhere and that you have to dress differently than you want to because you are afraid that what you usually wear would attacked attention to attackers, hijackers, etc.  I find that your posts are very insightful into the whole thing and it gives us a different view on what is going on and if it is the right thing to be doing.

sincerely ,

Paige 

HW33 Baghdad Bibliogrophy

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog From Iraq. New York, NY: The Feminist Press, 2005.

This book is about a twenty four year old, Iraqi, female that has survived the war.  She wrote this book sort of as a rant log so she could get everything out and complain about things as well.  Throughout the book she refers to herself as Riverbend and that is all we really know about her.  She goes on and describes her days and by her doing this it gives everyone else and insight into the lives of the Iraqi people through out the war.  She doesn’t just describe the number of deaths and events, but she tells us how her life is and how she lives through everything.  From reading this book i feel i will learn a lot.  I don’t really know a lot about the war in Iraq because i don’t watch the news a lot, so by reading this i will learn a ton more about the war, but i will also learn about how she lives and how she gets through it.  The benefits of this book is that it lets people know the more detailed life of the war instead of the facts that you hear on TV.

HW32 educating about Baghdad

In the forward of Baghdad Burning by Ahdaf Soueif he talks about how the book really brings us into the war and shows us not only the casualties and main facts about it but also about what the people go through and how they feel.  He does this by in parts describing what Riverbend talks about.  He also talks about how “In fact, far from being anti anything, this book is firmly on the side of humanity and on the side of life.” (viii, Soueif)  In the Introduction of Baghdad Burning by James Ridgeway there are a lot of things being talked about.  Most of what is being said is background information about the wars and events that have happened involving Iraq, the British and the United States.  He gives a brief summary into what Riverbend talks about throughout the book, such as how its a way of living and not just the amount of deaths.  The gulf war and the 2003 war are discussed and he talks about what went on and all the politics behind them. Ahmed Chalabi was talked about as a puppet show and how the United States used him to get information.  He ended up being a “dud” because he didn’t have any power in Iraq and he couldn’t get all the supporters he promised.  When i read these both the forward and the introduction i found them very interesting and insightful.  To tell you the truth I’m not really into following any of the political news or anything like that.  As bad as it is i haven’t really followed any of the information about the war in Iraq, except for some major things.

HW30 My room of my own

The room that I have that I can call “my own” is my room in my Vermont house.  It is a loft type room and is a very quiet peaceful place.  When I go to Vermont it is my way of getting away so my room there is my place to get away and think about everything.  I do my best thinking there.  When I’m up there it feels like no one else is around and I sometimes just sit up there and think of everything.  When I say I think of everything I really do.  I have thought of things that cant really be answered like how did the alphabet become the alphabet? Like how do you know a would come first?  ” There is no mark on the wall to measure the precise height of women.” (Woolf, 85) Virginia’s view of a room of ones own is to be able to think as a woman like a man and not have any distractions so you can get the whole thought out.  Virginia believes women should be able to think about everything and have an opinion on it. I think that I use my room in a way that Virginia would have wanted me to.  “Intellectual freedom depends on material things.  Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom.”(Woolf, 108)  To have intellectual freedom you do not need material things anymore, you just need yourself and your space to be able to think freely of what you think is important.  My room in Vermont does just that it allows me to think freely about what I think is important and I can do it with no distractions.