100 people population report

We discussed in class a lot about what 100 people would be like if they made up the whole population of the world. I found a great youtube video that puts the statistics into a visual aid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdOY5fGKE7w

This video is put out by a website www.100people.org. It's purpose is to find 10,000 people and schools that represent what the world is really like. They encourage people to nominate others in hopes to find a sample of 10,000 people that really embody what the population is representative of. I thought this website and video was really cool because they took some simple statistics and turned them into a whole idea about community and uniqueness.

I also thought that this link was really interesting:
http://persquaremile.com/2011/01/18/if-the-worlds-population-lived-in-one-city/

it talks about how if all the people in the world fit into certain cities they would be certain sizes based on their density. For example if everyone in the world lived in NYC it would be the size of Texas because it is a really dense city. This website shows us a visual description about population density and the population in the world. I thought it related to our class because we talked a lot about population and the effects that migration, density, and relations have on different cultures. It would be really interesting if everyone in the world lived in one city.

Life History Project

I am really glad that I got to do this assignment. It really gave me an idea of who my grandmother was back when she was younger. I dont think that we take enough time to get to really know who are grandparents are. In reality they have so much wisdom and experience about life. By hearing the stories my grandmother told me I have such a better understanding about why she is the way she is today. I knew that my grandmother had a really interesting and event life but I never knew about all the stuff they went through during the war. My grandmother must be a really strong person because she had to go through things that no one should ever endure. I have a ton of respect for her and her family. Overall this project was great! I'm really happy that I could hear those stories from my grandmother, she truly is an inspiration to me!

White Privilege

I thought this article brought up a few very good points about how we still have some segregation between races even though we might not recognize it. One of the quote was really interesting to me it said: "If these things are true, this is not such a free country;
one’s life is not what one makes it; many doors open for certain people through no virtues of their own." I like this quote from the article because it is really true. Some people especially white people are offered more opportunities solely based on the fact that they are white! This is a terrible injustice and one that I dont think a lot of people really think about. The list of about 26 opportunities that white people are afforded really made me think. I would have never thought about the color of bandaids as being a race segregation but it really is. Overall this article did a really good job making me think about how different opportunities are afforded to different races and how this hurts us all in the end.

Race

I would agree that "Race evolved as a world view, a body of prejudgements that distorts our ideas about human indifference." this statement truly defines for me what I consider to be a huge problem in our society. We know the perceptions that are associated with every race and we instantly judge these people because of it. I think that we should get rid of the term "race" and instead use the word ethnicity. A person who is known as "white" has the possibility to be thousands of different ethnicities. Instead of "african- american" "white" "asian" and "middle-eastern" we should look at people based on their ethnicity and not on their race. It can't be denied that people are different but we need to label them differently and then we might have a better interaction between people.

Federally Sponsored Mexican Migrants

I thought It was really interesting about how the latino population was ever growing in North Carolina. The static that says, "In North Carolina the migrant population doubled between 1990 and 1997" really supports this fact. I am from Durham, NC. I live in what is known as "the triangle" which is three cities: Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. The amount of Mexican Immigrants living in the triangle is astounding. There are a lot of jobs in the area and the cost of living (especially slightly outside the triangle) is relatively low. Because of the high amount of mexican immigrants in the area a new "business" has opened in the triangle. there are now countless mexican grocery stores, authentic mexican restaurants and other services directly marketed to the Mexican population. There is a public elementary school near my house that has a majority of latino children. I think the influx of mexican people in my area is a really great thing! It provides a lot more diversity and new things to learn or try!

Just Another Job?

I thought this article on domestic help was really interesting. It is too often true that people hire the illegal immigrants to do their household chores and then treat them poorly. My family has a maid that comes in twice a week to clean our house. While my family is well off enough to pay for a maid we hired her on the basis that my parents dont have time to clean the house due to the time that their jobs require. Our maid is a part of our family like described in the article. We pay her well and refer her to our neighbors. It had been really interesting to see how her business has bloomed over the years. When she first started cleaning our house she would come by herself or with her son. Now she has two other ladies that she has employed because her demand and business has grown. I wouldn't like to have a maid if I didn't feel like we treated her well and paid her well also. Like described in this article our maid has grown to be a part of the family and is truly valued in it.

Tourism Matters

I thought the reference to tourism in Cuba was really interesting in this article! I took a class on Cuba last year and we discussed how tourism affects the communist country in depth. In a country where everyone is supposed to be an "equal" the tourism industry sets people apart from each other. The people who work in the tourism industry are automatically of a higher class level because they get tips and paid in American dollars. This creates a huge class divide. There is the really poor (which is the majority of the country) and the really rich (which is the tourism workers). I think this is a huge problem with the tourism industry. Tourism does matter though because it does provide a huge economic impact on the country! As mentioned in the article the tourism industry in the dominican republic provides a lot of income for the government a its people.