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.

The Kayapo Resistance

I thought this article was really interesting because of the resistance and fight the kayapo tribe put up to keep their land. I have never heard about this tribe before but It is amazing to me that such a tribe still exists. We see this a very primitive but in a way it is cool that on the same planet we have highly developed and not developed at all cultures. We view our culture as the best one. The one that everyone should model because we think its the best. And while I dont this this is a necessarily bad thing I think its important to remember that we live in a world with many different cultures. The fact that the kayapo tribe is still so present is a true testament to their strength and the ability of the culture.

T-shirt Travels

I never knew that the clothes we donate to good will and the salvation army are then sold off to someone in Africa! This movie really surprised me and made me somewhat upset. I understand that people are using second hand clothes as a business but the fact that the clothing manufacturing/infrastructure in Africa is completely gone makes me angry. With out this business Africa would be able to create an industry and help the funds in their country. Even though I had no idea this business went on as I thought more about it I realized that on a recent trip to Nicaragua I found the same thing! The school children had shirts on that ranged from football teams to cartoon characters, all of them were american t-shirts. I imagine that the same thing in Nicaragua happens as it does in Africa. This industry does nothing but hurt the small companies and the people and boost the large companies that sell the used clothes!

Cell Phones and Africa

I thought the point about how people infer cellphone use was a really interesting one! They talked about how people would become upset if the person they were dating or had a friendship back only texted them because they didn't have the credits to call them. This seems kind of crazy to me but at the same time the more I think about it the more it seems like some of the cell phone etiquette we have here. First of all I know that when I text someone I expect a response within about five minutes. I know that I expect an immediate response because I usually give an immediate response. Also when it comes to calling someone like my mom I tend to get annoyed if she doesn't pick up. She usually picks up when I call so want her to pick up the phone every time I call. Another interesting thing about the article was the "flashing" aspect. I think its really creative of the people to think about something like flashing. The culture of cell phones has drastically changed our perspective of the world and its crazy to think that it has only happened in the past 8 or 9 years!

Globalization and Culture

I thought the article about globalization was really interesting because it brought up a bunch of different ideas. The most interesting. I thought it was interesting how they mentioned that every culture shouldn't necessarily blend with every other culture. I feel like a lot of time everyone thinks that every culture needs to be a part of every other culture.That was should live in a world where everyone knows or believes a part of every culture. And yes, while I think its important i dont think that we should lose site of the fact that each culture brings something different to the table. Each different culture is what makes our world unique. I think every culture should be respectful of every culture but I don't think every culture needs to be similar to every other culture. If each culture is the same then our world would be extremely boring.