Pinkie's Realm

HW 40: The Hardships of Iraqi Students

pinkie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:15:31 +0000

A podcast I’ve recently viewed is “Challenges at a Girls’ School in Baghdad” from the Alive in Baghdad online series, published 5/21/2007. The episode investigates the middle school of Al-Safina located in Adhamiya, Iraq, which serves young girls from all over Baghdad. It focuses on the hardships and continuing violence in the area, and how it affects the students. Despite the challenges of learning in a violent and dangerous atmosphere, the students are still so dedicated to their education. The school director, a teacher, and multiple students all speak about their experiences in the video. One particular student who was memorable to me was an eigth grade girl who describes the difficulties she encounters when the Americans search the area while she’s on her way to school. She is of Iraqi origin, just as the other students are, except that she seemed to be one of the few not wearing the piece of fabric that covers her hair. She was however dressed in black and white school uniform, just as all her other classmates are. The director of the school discusses how her school is not the only one suffering from violence and danger, and she also mentions how staff members are even unable to make it to the school at times. She goes on to complain how the poor students often fall behind when they are unable to make it to school for whatever reason, including road and bridge blocks, or when the district is under search. Another student who was interviewed describes the checkpoints and road blocks, and how they cause many accidents (which she has experienced firsthand). Due to these challenges, including sectarianism and displacement, the number of students enrolled in the school has been decreasing. It is so sad when students have the motivation and desire to excel and learn, and are prevented from doing so. I think American students, especially those in richer and nicer areas, should watch these videos and try to learn from these girls. So many American children hate school, don’t do their work, drop of out school due to pure laziness or lack of motivation, and complain constantly about what they should be grateful for. Education is truly a privelidge, not to mention our educational system is one that is far more complex and technologicall advanced than of that which I observed in the video. I’ve seen American classrooms filled with laptops, computers, internet access, television, and even “smart boards” rather than chalk boards. These students are trying their hardest and doing the best with what they can just to learn and attempt to get the best education they can, and I think that many of us should try to learn from their example.

HW 35b: Who is Salam Pax?

pinkie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:53:29 +0000

In numerous entries of Baghdad Burning now, Riverbend has mentioned another Iraqi blogger, Salam Pax, who she sometimes disagrees with but respects. I was curious who he was, and what his blog was all about. Considering I’d never before heard of him until I read this book, I was surprised by how much information about him was available via Internet. Not only did I find a few of his own personal blogs [all accessible from this address: http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:-2Q-S9NxQrAJ:www.blogger.com/profile/735733+salam+pax&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=us]. I found many other blogs that he has posted on, websites that mention him, and discovered that he has written books, and created movies as well.

Looking more into how he began, it turns out that one of his original blogs entitled “Where is Raed?” gained him notable media attention–before and after the Iraqi invasion. What was also interesting to me, something I may not have caught onto if not for my high school Latin class, is that his name “Salam Pax” is not really a name at all, but a pseudonym. Both parts of his name mean “peace”, but in different languages (Arabic and Latin). I think it’s also interesting that he is nicknamed “The Baghdad Blogger” now, and that he and Riverbend communicate through their blogs. Though I was intrigued by his blogs, I still prefer Riverbend. I like her style, her humor, and her honesty. To me, Riverbend will still be the Baghdad Blogger I choose.

HW 35a: An Open Letter for Riverbend

pinkie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:52:07 +0000

Dear Riverbend,

I will not pretend to understand what it is like to be you. I grew up in middle class suburbia in northeastern America. Therefore, I will never know what it’s like to be constantly checking the water tank, electricity, and cooking gas…I’ll never know what it’s like to live in fear of raids, looters, troops, bombs, and bullets…and I will never know what it’s like to be forced to dress a certain way, and always be accompanied by a male. What I am trying to say is, I may know what things you are going through, but I will never truly know what it is like. As an American, I can only apologize for the ignorant insults other people from my country have thrown at you, even going as far as to accuse you of not being a real Iraqi, because they are so horribly uninformed.

At one point in your blog, you were worried that the troops all felt the same way as your foolish American critics, before they occupied your country. I sincerely hope you do not truly believe that, because many Americans (like myself) do not feel this way at all… And whereas you have every right to bitter, I just want you to know that many of us now hate our own government for the things they’ve done, including what they’ve done to your people. Just like you, we (referring to the more “enlightened” Americans, if you will) resent news-reporting institutions like CNN and Fox, which were originally supposed to be honorable, helpful, and honest, but proved to be an untrustworthy circus of actors and puppets. And I personally, especially resent Bush…I resent how he repeated the words “Terror”, and “Terrorist” over and over like a broken jukebox, beating the words into our impressionable American minds, until most of the country was scared into supporting his cause.

I hope you are at least beginning to see our point of view, if not only a little bit. And please understand how much I sympathize and respect you. As one last plea, please do not hate all the troops…but rather hate our corrupted government who appointed them leaders that worked hard to brainwash them. I’d know…I’ve watched my own friends enter the world of becoming a mindless military robot, to the point where they even started referring to all their own best friends as “civilians”. Hate our government, if anything, for allowing these 18 year old boys to sign up for something they can’t understand…causing pointless, and countless deaths.

I wish the best for you,

Pinkie

HW 33: Annotating Iraq

pinkie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:51:18 +0000

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

This book is an autobiography, except it is uniquely formed from live blog entries. Written by a young woman who herself grew up in Iraq, it truly sheds light into not only the young, weak, and unstable government as well as the political aspects of Iraq, but also the dangers and difficulties of everyday living. This book will helps those on the outside finally understand the emotional aspect of growing up in such an environment. Riverbend will grab the reader with her honesty and beautiful writing style, as she describes her Iraqi culture as it is interrupted and destroyed by explosions, electrical outages, looting, and more horror. This may be the book that will finally make enough people realize the truth to actually make a difference.

HW 32: Meeting Riverbend

pinkie — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:50:45 +0000

I’ve been fortunate enough to have already read a bit of the book Baghdad Burning by the blogger only known to her audiences as ‘Riverbend’. After scanning the book and reading the foreword and introduction, I think I’ve jogged most of my memory and brought up some of the same emotions I felt back when I read the book the first time. Blogging, as I’ve already discussed throughout my own blog, has in the past few years emerged as a new means of communication amongst people across America who believe the media doesn’t offer the raw truth behind what is really going on in the country (and more importantly, the world). Because of the way the media portrays Iraq, we have subconsciously dehumanized the Iraqi people. We tend to think of them as a barbaric culture as a whole—who can’t speak English, who are violent and animalistic, and can’t even use computers or the internet. In reading Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq by the Iraqi female known only as Riverbend, I have come to realize that the only way to truly understand just how similar we Americans are to the suffering people of Iraq, is by hearing about their life, first hand, from an Iraqi citizen. Riverbend has helped shed light on the going-ons of Iraq, the corruption, the horrible living conditions, the dangers of daily life, and the unstable setup of the government with its 9 equally unstable presidents. By reading her blog entries we can only begin to understand what the daily life is like for an Iraqi woman, and we can finally begin to understand that they are just as human as we sheltered Americans are.

HW 30: females of the 21st century

pinkie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:44:50 +0000

In Virginia Woolf’s last chapters in her book “A Room of One’s Own” she thoroughly examines women writers throughout history, as well as examining their societal role in the era she was living in (early 1920s). As she mentioned earlier in the novel, she restates how a woman can’t write fiction without money and a room of her own. Virginia Woolf is of course a writer, and finally touches upon how she relates to her own theory. She then describes her own personal room as “a place that she can be in without the discriminating eyes of society”, and she speaks of her inheritance (of 500 pounds per year). That of course was a different amount of money in those days, and is worth far less in Britain now. She also mentions how further back in historical times, woman would not even have a room of her own unless her parents were exceptionally wealthy. She then describes how women writers, in the earlier times, were generally aristocrats who had resources and “the right kind of husband”. In chapter 5 she moves on to discuss the women of her time, and how there are nearly as many women who have written books now than men. Women now were also capable of writing books on many subjects, rather than just fictitious novels. Most importantly, she observes a book written by Mary Carmichael and addresses something Mary accomplishes in her novel that is quite rare: women’s relationships with each other. Until then, women were mainly depicted only in relation to men. What if men, however, were only ever represented as just the lovers of women? And were never “the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers…?” Virginia Woolf points out (page83). And soon after she closes off her entire novel in chapter 6, which also happens to be my favorite chapter. It is the most fun, and the easiest of all, to read. She discusses how women treat each other, and how often they are hard on each other. But then she states how she as a female is very fond of her female friends, and describes this further when she says, “I like their unconventionality. I like their subtlety…” (page111).I too would describe myself as enjoying other females, and I never claim to “hate girls” like so many girls do. Often the most melodramatic females are the ones who claim to hate other girls for that very reason. Most importantly though, I need to discuss whether or not I have “money and a room of my own”, as Virginia Woolf would put it. I have always had money, whether or not it is from my multiple jobs or from my parents. Unlike women in her time, I wouldn’t consider my parents wealthy at all, and yet I have had a room of my own since I was a child. I do find comfort and solace in my room, but it doesn’t change how I act or how I express myself. In the world today I am able to do those things just about anywhere. No, I would say my room is simply where I know I am safe and can relax. I don’t necessarily I owe it to my room, nor the money I have made or received, for what I have accomplished in this day and age. The world is simply a different place now. I’m sure Virginia would approve of how I’m living my life, and would be pleased to see that nearly every woman nowadays in this country has money as well as a room of her own.

HW 28: Woolf ain’t no jezebel

pinkie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 03:31:57 +0000

With apologies to Virginia Woolf

” Upon awakening from my decrepit grave, I saw it fit to investigate the modern culture of women across the world. I have since discovered a whole new world of technology in which women may utilize, to take charge of their lives, and rightfully fill their place in higher society. To my utter dismay, however, I have come to realize that whereas women may have the same lawful rights of men, they are in no way treated with the same respect that they should be. Unlike my views of the early 1900s, my views now are that women are not respecting themselves in the manner that they should. Regardless of available outlets to display their feminine strength and intelligence, one can easily gather that they are instead prancing around like jezebels in costume-like attire, essentially making jesters of themselves. I, of course, am referring to television shows, which I unfortunately and painfully admit, watched when observing this new device called a “TV”. So I have come to realize that perhaps women, with their money and their freedom, haven’t come quite as far as I had initially hoped. Women are calling to each other using derogatory terms like “bitch”, “slut” and “jezebel”. In fact, a source I found ‘online’ on a ‘computer’, is a virtual magazine entitled (shamefully enough) “Jezebel”. What kind of a message are females projecting to the males of the world, when even they now, refer to each other with such terms? Upon reading this Jezebel, I could feel my ever-present anger I’ve felt in the past towards men, welling up inside me now, except for modern women instead. In an article called “Being in debt from your boob job can make it difficult to rock Bret’s world“, the website Jezebel discusses one woman named Daisy (with her long fake hair extensions, lip injections, boob implants, and tattoos), who is a front-runner on the show. Despite being in debt, Bret “let” her stay on the show. I find this simply apalling. I was hoping the area of relationships and dating would be different, nearly a century later, but it seems it is still just a patriarchy…a world run by men, and the women competing for the love of these powerful and worshipped men. “

OK now speaking as myself (and not the ghost of Virginia Woolf), let me say that I actually have no problem with Jezebel or the magazine Bitch. In fact, they are some of the most entertaining sources of media and culture and feminism I’ve come across. I couldn’t pass up discussing the article about Rock of Love 2, of course. Though I can’t deny that sometims I sit and watch it, laughing and secretly rooting for some of the contestants, I simply will never be able to identify with their mind set. I could never compete with several women for one man, hoping he might like me in comparison to 20 other women…praying to stay another week, begging to stay when he says good-bye. I couldn’t do it, I have way too much pride…and I couldn’t treat other men in the same way. Men shouldn’t idolize women like Daisy with their huge silicon breasts, and puffy silly looking collagen lips–they should look for women who are confident, secure, and willful. That’s my opinion at least…and it’s also my opinion that women should seek out men that won’t just ‘let’ them stick around, but a man who will fight for them, protect them, and need them in return.

HW 26: The irony of Feminism

pinkie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:33:45 +0000

Something I’ve noticed throughout Virginia Woolf’s writing is that she tends to be very cynical and ironic, and uses very eloquent and elaborate figurative language as she writes. Finding specific examples of this irony, however, proved to be a bit more challenging than I previously thought. Though I picked up on the general feeling and mood of her writing, there were only a few instances in which I could demonstrate her usage of irony. On page 27, she is speaking of the books in the library that were about women, and how they were nearly all written by men (ironically). In chapter 2 she discuesses her experience there, and how she barely managed to contract any truth from these books at all. Here she sarcastically describes how long it will take her to write down real knownledge and truth within these books, when she says, “the aloe that flowers once in a hundred years would flower twice, before I could set pen to paper”. Clearly she’s being sarcastic, as no one will live for 200 years, she is merely making a point to show that she will never be able to write this truth down. And again, on page 29, she talks about important men and their opinions and writings about women. As she is doing so, she mentions Samuel Butler and inquries as to why he says ‘Wise men never say what they think of women’…and then she goes on to insist that, “Wise men never say anything else apparently.” I liked her attitude in this and thought it was funny. Woolf isn’t being serious when she says that wise men never say anything at all, she’s just saying that if wise men never say what they think of women, than absolutely none of the books on the Female (written by all men) were by wise men, in the least bit. Further on into the chapter she discusses mirrors and looking-glasses. She claims that mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action, in that men must always be right (superior to women) and that they must see themselves larger than the females. She says that without mirrors, a “man may die, like the drug fiend deprived of cicaine” (page 36). Now she isn’t really trying to say that mirrors are realy essential to a man’s vitality, but once again she is making an example by being ironic. Overall, I think she is a bit harsh towards men. She rarely talks about males in her life, and how any of them have affected her on more of a personal level. I understand she lived in a time where women were treated differently, but I don’t think men need to be generalized in that time any more than all white people should be blamed for slavery during that era. It’s also amusing to me that Virginia Woolf says that in a hundred years, “Women will have ceased to be the protected sex”. She thinks we as women in this new day and age, because we have the same rights and jobs as men, will stop being the longer-living sex, and things will have evened out. I think this in itself is ironic, because little does she know women nowadays do have nearly all the rights and jobs of men, and yet we still live longer!

HW 23: LifeHacker’s Life Advice

pinkie — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:13:38 +0000

I was looking through the recent posts of some of my favorite blogs (which as you may already know include TreeHugger, LifeHacker, and Jezebel) and I found LifeHacker’s most recent post to be very helpful. Being a bit of a computer-addict and being interested in going into a more technological field myself, their website if often useful and interesting. The post I read was called “Declutter your hard drive“. I am constantly playing games, writing, researching, chatting, and creating things using various programs on my computer so I’ve been known to clutter my computer fairly quickly. According to the post, they recommend deleting absolutely everything that isn’t needed and creating folders that mirror your own life. They even note another source that is credited with using this technique. They suggest using descriptive file names nad making liberal use of a temporary folder. The writer also includes his six-folder system for organizing your files, and lastly they recommend a few automated tools that will help clear out files from temporary folders. At the end of the post he encourages reader to comment on how they keep their hard drive clean. I browsed through the comments, and found some of them helpful and amusing. For instance, someone mentioned that they have a visible folder called “Legal” and two invisible folders entitled “Illegal” and “Really Illegal”. Other people just listed how they organize their files and data within folders. Whereas some people suggest deleting everything that isn’t necessary, some people insist on spending the extra cash on storage just in case you ever need those files again someday.

HW 22: A more Brooding look into International Blogging

pinkie — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:58:15 +0000

In Kline and Burstein’s Blog! there is an article by 2 assistant college professors that really led me to stop and think. Appropriately entitled “Web of Influence”, the authors Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell have certainly influenced me. The article was extremely professional, which isn’t surprising considering their backgrounds. Drezner is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago and keeps a daily weblog, and Farrell also is an assistant professor of political science, but also of international affairs, at George Washington University and is a member of the group blog found at crookedtimber.org. In the article they discuss blogging as a fifth estate, and the transformation many accomplished individuals have made through blogging, into becoming ‘public intellectuals’. They discuss the media’s coverage of important issues and the effects of blogging, backed up by examples, facts, and research statistics. Though there was much of this article that stood out to me, one paragraph in particular caught my attention: the second paragraph found on page 87 of Blog!. It discusses Juan Cole and his innovative blog called “Informed Comment”. My point is that his work is truly important, especially for the time when it first emerged, because it was something bold and refreshing that many regular citizens needed to read and relate to. For example, he expressed skepticism about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, that at the time differed greatly from the extremely optimistic media coverage of the events. Though a large percentage of the American population now strongly opposes the war and sees how wrong it was to begin with, they at first did not see things so clearly back in 2003. He also discusses the hatred of Americans in other parts of the world, and why it is they have been driven to feel this way. Above all else, I am glad the authors of this article discuss matters like the Iraq war, I think this paragaph in particular strongly demonstrates why blogging can be an important medium as communication as well as an outlet for opinions and vital information.

*Bold text indicates template suggestions from “They Say/I Say” by Graff and Birkenstein