Into the Wild

It was impossible to determine exactly when McCandless had died

(13).

It was concluded that Chris McCandless had died of starvation, but I would have to disagree. I think the starvation was simply a side-effect of his loneliness. He felt alienated from society because he knew that he wasn't like them. He didn't feel they shared the same viewpoint on what it means or how it feels to be human. I don't think Chris really knew how he wanted to be, but he knew that he wanted to make a change in his life. He died because on his journey to find himself, he found that only having himself is the loneliest feeling. It seems to me that he really didn't like who he was or his life, considering the fact that he let it all waste away, rather than taking his fresh start and making a new life that he could enjoy. He let himself die long before he passed away. I guess, McCandless forefeited his life to the higher power of misery.

I was explaining the "perilous Paper" to my dad and I mentioned that I wanted to include Japanese internment and how racism was heightened throughout the country due to the message that newspapers projected. He told me that his foster mom was a direct victim of this racism, as she was put in an internment camp. Ironically, her brother was overseas serving in the US Military at the time. Everything was taken from her family. They had a productive farm in Fullerton, California, which they lost. They lost their house, all their money, and almost all of their possessions...none of which they ever saw again, forfeited to the government and white landowners. She was compensated with $20,000...which she used to take a trip to Japan.

Bottom line, Japanese-Americans were psychologically tortured with the help of newspapers because when you think about it, trusting readers are lemmings to their favorite journalist or to whatever stories spark the most controversy because humans are hungry for something to stir them up and give them something to talk about. If there is something interesting to talk about, the world is more connected by altercations in society, in this case, the "formidable" Japanese.

It seems to me like people come together in a stronger way when something bad happens, rather than when something good happens. For example, 9/11 brought America together in the strongest way I've seen it in my lifetime. when is the last time you saw people unite over something bigger than a football game?

Sounds of Silence

I was listening to WNYC's Radio Lab podcast about a week ago that focused on the power of sound. Anne Fernald was interviewed about how mothers speak to their babies. The thesis was, "sound is kind of touch at a distance." When someone makes a sound, the soundwaves go on a journey, traveling through space as pulsating air and end up in the ear, touching and vibrating a few small bones.

A slap or a gentile gesture convey a physical outlet of emotion, whereas a sound touching a person is always about something, just as speech is always about something. Now that the world is more connected through the internet, text messaging, blogging, etc., the world is more dis-connected on a personal, even physical level.

Let's say a friend or family member moved away or went to college. Sure, you could text and e-mail that person all you want, but it's not the same as being with them. Talking on the phone with them and hearing his or her voice is a much greater connection than an email could ever represent, because feeling their sound is like a slap in the face or a pat on the back.

Even the sounds in songs that have been passed on for centuries touch the present with the past. Sound connects and influences the world more than people realize.

"Fast food naiton"

In class last week we discussed the issue of the power fast food chains have over our society. These fast food restaurants don't make it easier to eat right. They cloak their "effort" to improve the nation's health with product design and inviting advertisements that make the public really think they're making the healthy choice. Like I said in class, when someone orders something "healthy" at McD's they package the food in a nice green and crisp plastic bag rather than the crunchy red and white classic bag, making the consumer think that they made a healthy change in his or her diet. The change in packaging, in this case, would be symbolic of a change in his or her life. The consumers keep feeding into the palms of these big corporations that are doing nothing but damaging the health of the nation. The big corporations feed powerful men and women who do nothing but create more schemes to make another buck.

send me on my way

Today I was watching Matilda and there was this one scene in the movie where Ms. Honey's class has to hide almost everything in the classroom from the vile principal, Ms. Trunchbull. The students pulled down sheets to cover up all the art projects hanging on the walls, anything colorful, or anything that could be of sentimental value. The classroom transformed from a fun learning environment into a dreary, colorless, lifeless room. When Ms. Trunchbull came in the classroom she made it clear to the students that she knew/saw everything and whatever she said what the final word...basically if she said up was down, then up was, in fact, down. Ms. Trunchbull reminded me of Big Brother from the book 1984 by George Orwell. In this book, Big Brother tells the people what to believe and how they should lives their lives. It was interesting to see this figure in another context (other than cultural revolution/communism) and think about how lucky we are to have all the privilages we do...but what about the controversy over the moment of silence in advisory and its voilation of the first ammendment...though not as extreme as the customs that Ms. Trunchbull enforces, maybe our school isn't so different from hers after all?

Censorship

Today in class we discussed the issue of how common censorship is in the world around us, and how unaware people are of the history that is being erased right before their eyes.

Most of this censorship is issued by the government (FCC). Radio is very censored because in many situations, parents don't have control over what their child listens to because the radio is so easily accessible. If radio stations are blasted for having vulgar dialogue, then they lose listeners...causing the station to lose advertiseres, which can only result in one thing...failure. The only way to keep the station going would be to keep it clean and acceptable for all ages (an ex. of censorship for big money). For example, Howard Stern, who had so many issues with the FCC on public radio that his only outlet was Sirus Satellite Radio (TM). Eminem's hit, "The Real Slim Shady" was prohibited from various radio stations because of the song's crude content.

Censorship isn't just in the media,it's also in history...or what we are told to believe history is. The Chinese government is a huge offender of censorship. The Chinese gov't is making a dyre effort to whitewash their history...with the assistance of such powerful search engines as Google (TM). For example, if you google "Tiananmen Square" in China, nothing pops up. If you google the same thing in the U.S., loads of information on the subject pops up. I find it strange that Google (TM), with all it's power, is not even reaching its full potential throughout the world.

Censorship is even at our school. Take the mass blocking of gaming websites, YouTube, etc. No matter whether you see it or not, censorship surrounds everyone because the world is forever under the influence of giants.

The Power of Podcast

Today I went to see one of my dance teachers perform with Inaside Chicago Dance Company. In this production, my teacher danced in a duet about the contrast between the ego and the higher self. They danced to clips of a couple podcasts, called 101 Ways to Transform Your Life and Spoken Word, both by Dr. Wayne Dyer. Seeing this reminded me of the Radiolab Podcast that we listened to last week. In this podcast, the guest on the show states,"I think of myself as a string of memories..." This quote stood out to me becasuse it was the first time I had heard of someone defining themselves as their memories, rather than their past or how they percieve themself. It was especially impressive, because it seems to me that most people are constantly in search within themselves of finding their higher self. At the end of the dance the music looped around and around, to the voice of Dr. Dyer uttering "I just feel so alone..." but in retrospect, you're never truely alone unless you've reached your higher self and you still have your thoughts to rake through in search for this ultimate being that has always been within you, or is that person just alone within their thoughts?

Lead Paint Scandal

Many parents try their hardest to provide the best childhood they can for their children. They do this out of pride, out of love, and out of the pure joy they feel from having a child. Parents childproof their entire homes with the hope of giving their son and/or daughter a secure place to live and play....but what if their home isn't as safe as they think it is.
Recently, there was an uproar in the childrens toy industry involving lead-laced paint for many products made by well-known and trusted toy companies, such as Mattel (TM) and Fisher-Price (TM). Millions of popular toys produced by these companies were recalled. There are serious quality control issues in China that need to be addressed. Hopefully this scandal will raise awareness and get a few laws made for the well-being of our ever-growing "Made in China" world.


UK STORY:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2147906,00.html

US STORY: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/business/worldbusiness/23suicide.html?ex=1189828800&en=4b163b1c742c0bab&ei=5070

Israel Helps Out Darfur

This afternoon I was reading an article in BBC World News about Darfur and two countries that are reaching out to the refugees. About 2,800 refugees entered Isreal illegally from Egypt, many of which were deflected by Israel and were accepted back into Egypt. Israeli Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit pointed out that "Israel, with its history, must offer assistance. It can't stand by and shut its eyes...". Therefore, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signed an agreement allowing a large sum of Darfur refugees who entered Isreal illegally may remain in the country illegally. I was impressed by the actions of the leaders of these countries for taking in the people that are in dire need of their assistance, especially the actions of Isreal. The Jews had help durring the Holocaust, and though Israel is not necessarily helping those who helped them, the refugees are in a similar situation. This occurrence reminded me of the movie, Pay It Forward. In this movie you do one good thing for three diffrent people, who do one good thing for another three people, and the chain continues. Sadly, at this moment, it's not very realistic for a chain reaction of kindness and assistance to other countries in need, but it is definately something to strive for on a local or even global scale in the future.

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Upon reading the excerpt from the Textbook, I became very confused with the word choice of the author. Instead of referring to the Native Americans as Native Americans, he or she referred to them as "Indians". This made me wonder how long ago this textbook was written because it is currently politically incorrect to refer to them as Indians. Later on, Mr. Bolos and Mr. O'Connor infromed the class that this was from an earlier version of the textbook that we use now. This makes me question how much we should depend on what we read in our textbook this year. This reminded me of how often we find things around us that we don't take a second look at where the information comes from or how acurate it really is.

Teen girls worship magazines filled with juicy gossip like Teen People and Star Magazine, even websites like http://perezhilton.com/ . Each of these are sources of information, but how acurate is this information? There are people who disreguard much of the information they obtain from these sources, and others who believe it. No matter what, in the back of their mind they're still thinking about it, maybe accepting the information as true. There's always a chance that they will second guess their doubts or beliefs. The fire was started, and it is up to the reader to put it out.

The fire of calling Native Americans "Indians" was started when the explorers who found America confused the Natives with people who lived all the way in India! The inacurate name was left uncorrected for far to many years that people have just come to accept "Indian" as these peoples' true identities. In many situations, it has become easier to refer to Native Americans as "Indians" to avoid sounding too politically correct. Various Native Americans even refer to themselves as "Indians". This could be to lesser confusion or tension in order to speak more comfortably in a situation. On the other hand, it's just too bad that people from India have to be referred to as "South Asians" for the sake of being politically correct because of this mix-up!