November 18, 2009
Kroger Boy
The other day I went to Kroger with one of my roommates. As we waited to purchase our goods, the lady behind us was screaming at her young boy. From what I saw the boy did not do anything wrong. I think he might have moved in front of his mother in line and she was upset for him "running away." The mother constantly yelled at the top of her lungs how he needed to "just stop" and that he was such an "embarrassment" to her. Meanwhile, the step father was in the background trying not to pay attention to the distraction. It was pretty strange that the only yelling you heard that could possibly be defined as "embarrassing" was from the mother.
As we left the store, we witnessed the mother yelling at her child to hurry up and when he dropped his sweatshirt on the floor she grabbed his arm and yanked it. This was the first time I heard the child actually yell back. He was in pain and told her not to pull on him, but the mother replied saying she wasn't even hurting him and she would really show him pain if he didn't hurry up.
It is a terrible thing to witness--a child who is constantly put down. It saddens me even more that I just walked away from the situation without being able to help. I'm sure this is not the first instance that the child has been verbally and physically abused. As a result, this child's potential identity of a high self-esteemed and even achieving student has been greatly reduced. Without support from a loving family, both mother and father, his future can consist of bad behavior or feelings of helplessness/lonesomeness in the world. It is important for parents to recognize the effects of their behavior and speech on a child's development. I feel guilty for not saying anything to the parents or doing anything about the situation because isn't it our responsibility as citizens in a community to protect the child in danger? Or is it not our place?
There are so many instances in the news of children being abused and people witnessing the abuse and not doing anything about it. One of my roommates shared a story of a lady who witnessed a father shoot his son in plain sight--the front of his yard. There must have been some instances before where the father had shown some irrational anger towards his son that witnesses could have seen. If something was done prior to the shooting, would the 12 year old boy be alive today? Could it have been prevented if someone would just step up for a child?
Posted by asami at 10:59 AM | Comments (2)
Hijras
In New Dehli there are intersex individuals and “eunuchs” which are people that have conditions where there is a discrepancy between the individuals external and internal genitals. Recently, the “hijras” and eunuchs finally won the issue to be listed as “other” instead of male and female on voting forms. This is a huge step in identity for these people.
In India, the hijras are invited to give blessings and dance at celebrations and earn their living doing that. Some even live together in nice homes near businesses and temples. However, hijras are still not fully accepted in the Indian community. The CNN article, “New Delhi’s ‘eunuchs’ forge lives in conservative nation” states that many third-gender people end up begging in the streets and lead to prostitution.
The change in the voting rights allows for hijras to have more option. It is also a step up in society accepting these third gender people. Hijras are still banned from the rights to inheritance, marriage and the adoption of children. It is interesting that they are accepted to give blessings and help celebrate important moments in people’s lives, and possibly live in beautiful homes, but their privileges as a normal human being are so delayed. Society perceives them to be almost like jesters. Yet, some of them are still making more money than “normal” individuals. Hopefully with this new change, society will be able to see hijras as equals and will not be demoralized for something they were naturally born with.
article: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/14/india.third.gender/index.html
Posted by asami at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2009
Friends Light Friend on Fire. The New Identity perceived (Caution: Sad story)
On October 12th five kids, ages 13 (2 kids), 15 (2 kids), 16 (1 kid), went over to their friend's house, Michael Brewer (age 15) and poured alcohol on his body and set him on fire. Brewer ran 100 yards and jumped into a local apartment pool to save his life, yet, over 65% of his body has been critically burned. Brewer has spend the last month on a ventilator and unable to speak to police officers today. After being horrified by the description you just heard you're probably wondering WHY did this happen?
This tragedy resulted from Michael Brewer telling a cop that one of his friend's stole his dad's bicycle. One of the friend's, Matthew Bent, justifies stealing the bike because Brewer never paid $40 for a video game he purchased from him...After being upset that Brewer snitched on him, the boys met up with Brewer to get revenge...
As a result, the two 13 year old boys have been charged as juveniles for aggravated battery (but could still be charged as adults later) and the two 15 year old kids and the 16 year old has been charged as adults with attempted second-degree murder and are being held without bail until they enter their pleas at their arraignment next week.
The identity of these boys are no longer the same as they used to be. After hearing this story these boys no longer seem human to me. How could a teenager be so cruel to think that dousing his friend on fire and setting him on fire with a lighter was equal justice? It is such a horrific event that some of the boys, although identified as juveniles, are being tried as adults. It is sad that these boys are being tried as adults, but it is an important message that needs to be sent out to the rest of the United States. This message will hopefully prevent any other kids from making the wrong choice and prove to them that all of society will see you in a different way.
I am terribly sorry for Michael Brewer and I'm sorry for the gruesome story, but it was so upsetting that I had to share. My freshman year of college I was in HSSP, where we had to shadow doctors in the Medical Hospital. One of my shadowings was with the trauma center. During my few hours there I met a man who was critically burned. We were taking him to get a showers to clean off his burns and re-wrap the wounds, which takes a few hours to do. The pain from just cleaning his wounds haunt me still today. When I was reading this story, all I could think of were the burns of the man I saw freshman year and it made me feel sick. I could never imagine this happening to a young teenager, especially by his friends. I am curious to see how the rest of the trials go, and how jury and the rest of the United States perceives the identity of these boys.
Posted by asami at 10:34 PM | Comments (2)
What's Your Favorite Commercial?
On Monday's class we discussed advertisements and in particular, the best advertisement. We looked at the different techniques each advertisement used in order to persuade the audience to buy their product. After leaving that class I thought about the most memorable ad that I could think of. I ended up thinking about so many, but the oldest one I could think of was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcroQsUN60s
For those of you who may not be able to click on the link, if you go to YouTube and type in "Cindy Crawford Pepsi COmmercial" you can find it. In this commercial these little boys are watching Cindy Crawford get out of her truck and buy a Pepsi and sip on it. The boys are not fascinated with Cindy, but instead they are in love with the new-designed can. I thought this was quite cute.
When I was younger, I loved Cindy Crawford. I had a poster of her in my room and I thought she was the prettiest person in the world. This commercial has stuck with me because of my love for Cindy. In this advertisement, the Pepsi Company is able to persuade an audience to think of their soda product and eventually buy it because they used a famous model. Although my family tends to by more Coke products than Pepsi, this commercial always makes me think of Pepsi. Whenever I hit the store on my own, in college, to buy some soda I consider Pepsi a choice. Sometimes I end up buying it and sometimes I don't. My choice of buying though is mainly on prices. Even though not all of my spending goes to Pepsi I believe this commercial was great in advertising Pepsi because I can still remember this commercial for several years. It captured a lot of different people for its audience. In fact, it was such a successful advertisement that they brought Cindy Crawford back to make a new re-do of the commercial when they got a new look for the can!
Anyways, I really enjoy commercials and I'm wondering what is YOUR favorite commercial??
Posted by asami at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 06, 2009
Fort Hood
Last night I was watching the news about the shooting at Fort Hood. When I heard 13 people were killed and 30 were injured, I felt extremely sorry about it. Yet that sadness turned into madness when I heard the shooter's name--Nidal Hassan.
Being a Muslim in the United States, I get mad about whenever I hear another devastation in America caused by another Muslim. It not only is a horrible event, but it creates more tension for Muslims in the United States. As you can see, every media source is quick to connect the event to the his religion. Hassan turns out to be a devout Muslim. When the media tells about his practices as a Muslim and his blogs that compare fallen soldiers to suicide bombers they are strengthening the stereotype against all Muslims. An article posted on CNN's website states that Hassan gave out copies of the Qur'an hours before the shooting and during the shooting a witness said that he yelled "Allahu akbar" -- Arabic for "God is great" -- during the rampage. All of these details are told, but they could possibly have nothing to do with the reason he did this or may not be confirmed about being true. However, the identity perceived by non-Muslim Americans of Muslims is affected by events like this. It creates the stigma that all Muslims hate non-Muslims or that we all are crazy terrorists wanting to kill enemies in the sake of God's name (a little dramatic, but true). Because of this problem, Nidal's own family members commented saying, "Our family loves America. We are proud of our country, and saddened by today's tragedy."
I imagine soon that the reason for this event will be connected to his religion--jihaad and all that jazz. Yet, I wonder if Hassan was not mentally stable himself. Reports do say that he had been complaining to his family that he wanted to get out of the army service, but had been unsuccessful. It also said that he had been taunted since the September 11th attacks, which could have lead him to be depressed and not in a stable state. Hassan was told that he was going to deployed soon. If he was not happy about being deployed soon, his reason for shooting fellow army men could have been due to his instable and depressed state of mind and not due to any religious sacrifice/terrorist attacks.
I would really like to hear the reason for this rampage. In either case, I believe the media will connect it to Hassan's religious background and only perpetuate the problematic relationship between Islam and America. :(
Posted by asami at 02:33 PM | Comments (2)
November 05, 2009
Exam Frustration
It is Thursday afternoon. I am finally done with my horrible week of jam-packed studying and writing. I can finally eat, sleep, and rest my mind...or so I think...
Whenever a "hell" week comes along I disregard any readings in all classes and I focus my attention on getting the best exam grades that I can. When all is done, I spend the next few days catching up on those readings. However, even when all that work is done and I should be relaxing until the next hell week approaches, I cannot help overload my mind on topics about my future. I have a hard time thinking I will be successful or even be able to complete my goal of going to medical school. While I take all the hard classes and work daily on my classes, all my exams end up being in the same week and as a result, I feel that I do not expell the information I learned in the class at the right time--the exam hour.
And this frustrates me. I always blame a bad grade on one exam to the fact that I had two other exams and a paper to write; however, shouldn' t I be able to handle this? Don't other Michigan students go through the same week as me and possibly get good grades on all of their exams, assignments, etc.? Isn't medical school going to be just the same? Should I have chosen a different major??
When Brett was referring to us, Michigan students, as the cream of the crop, I could not help myself to say I was not. I never feel quite successful or smart at Michigan. Despite people telling me that I am. It is an identity I'm stuck with. In most cases it is not a bad identity to hold onto, but lately it has made me feel considerably average.
Maybe it's just the fact that I just took my last exam of the week--Biopsych 434 (it turned out to be very long and a bit difficult) and being sick, food- and sleep-deprived, but I feel that I'm not quite sure I fit into the Michigan student identity..and because of that my overall feeling about this identity right now is UGH. This identity is driving me crazy...anyone else feel this way?
(this blog was not intended to sound so sad, I actually feel great cause I'm done with silly exams!) :)
Posted by asami at 03:18 PM | Comments (1)
October 30, 2009
Permanent Marker Changes Identity
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/29/iowa.marker.disguise/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/29/iowa.marker.disguise/index.html
When one is in a relationship he or she will do unique things to keep it going. In this case, a suspected affair and alcohol has led two men to change the characteristics of their typical self to make a point to another fellow.
In the link you will find a story of two men who streaked their faces with black permanent marker to disguise themselves when they tried to break into a home. One of them suspected his girlfriend was having a relationship with the fellow who lived in the house they were breaking into. There were no ski masks involved, simply a marker, some alcohol, and jealousy. Not thinking straight due to being intoxicated and wanting to scare the fellow, the two made some poor decisions.
These poor decisions have led the two men to be mocked by several people. The Police Chief laughs and jokes as he interviews with CNN about the weird incident. The readers of this article laugh as well and most likely believe these two men are idiots. From one night a person’s identity can be restructured into an entirely different identity. For all we know, these two men could have been smart respectable guys, but instead we perceive them as the opposite.
I find it interesting that not all identities a person is associated with are long term. In the past I have written about identities that never leave a person or are slow in discovery. Now I have found an example in which one’s identity changes in such a short amount of time. This article not only made me laugh but it made me realize that you have to be more careful with your actions. If not, your identity could be changed in a way you may not like.
Oh and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Be safe and keep your identity in tact
Posted by asami at 12:21 AM | Comments (1)
October 29, 2009
Thoughts on my paper
For those of you who do not know what my paper is about..
For my inquiry I wrote about how there are many pressures for racial and ethnic minorities who would like to pursue a career in the medical field. These pressures arise even before they are admitted to med school. Also, that there needs to be more diversity in the medical workforce in order to benefit the nations demographic.
For entry into the medical school, everyone takes the MCAT, provides letters of recommendation, and has interviews. Some research shows that letters of recs and interviews are unreliable predictors of a successful doctor. The MCAT is also biased against racial and ethnic minorities. Students living in a lower socioeconomic background are discriminated against because they may not be able to take the expensive prep course and pay for the MCAT which results in them studying on their own and possibly getting a lower score..however, this does not mean that they would be bad doctors. There are so many other pressures and reasons for change, but I'll spare everyone the 10 page blog.
I know that that summary was really rough, but there is so much information on my topic and I needed to write a quick review for the background of my blog.
NOW my blog..
At first, I didn't think that there was an underrepresentation of minorities in the medical field. Every Pakistani or Indian I know is basically a doctor; however, I failed to think about the Latinos, African Americans, South East Asians, and so many others that are clearly lacking in the medical field. The statistics I found surprised me. More importantly, they made me feel disgusted by how much money is needed to just APPLY for medical school. I know as a pre-health student that there were some fees you had to pay when applying to medical school, but I did not realize how many! It was clear to me now why there is a lack of diversity in the medical field.
It was clear to me what I wanted to convince my audience of. I believe that there should be more special programs and a change in preadmission variables to give everyone the potential to become good doctors, whether they are poor, a minority, or whatever else. That way, there will not be an underrepresentation of minorities in the medical field which will alleviate problems in the healthcare system.
Also, it is important that everyone wanting to apply to med school has a fair admissions system.
As I was discussing my paper with others, people started to ask me if I wanted affirmative action. I, like several other states in the USA do not want to have affirmative action programs. This changed my view on what the criteria for my special programs should be. I believe I want to present a program that does not take anyone's right to admittance to medical school just because their race is not the one admissions offices are looking for. Instead I want those at a disadvantage to be in a program that if they pass through their classes they will keep their seat in medical school.
My thoughts have truly changed while researching this paper. I know that even if my proposals don't benefit me as a future medical school student I know that it would bring more diversity to the medical workforce which is the main problem. I really believe that finding ways to reduce the pressures for racial and ethnic minorities, people of lower socioeconomic backgrounds will really help shape our healthcare system. This healthcare system will represent the entire demographic of a nation...Until I find some more research or ideas about my topic, this will have to do for my audience. I hope it was interesting and you should read my paper to learn more!
Posted by asami at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
