Category: Critical Reflection

I have finished my website and all the planning and testing for it. In this paper, I am going to evaluate my website to see if I have met all the client requirements for the website. Firstly, I had to develop a multi-page website that will contain a minimum of five pages and provide digital games for my chosen target audience.

I can quite confidently say that I have met all the requirements as I have included 5 pages on my website which are full of detail about the games that I have chosen to review for my target audiences. My target audience is gamers of all ages, and I have supported my audience by reviewing games of different genres that have different age ratings. I have structured my website through a home page, 3 pages of different game genres, and a contacts page. Every page on my website is full of detail and maintains a consistent look across all pages. My website contains an appropriate navigation system. My navigation system follows the mesh structure navigation system. I have added a navigation bar to my master page and navigation buttons to each page so that the viewer of the website can navigate themselves around the website. My website contains a range of images which have been sourced from the Internet and I have personally edited all of these images as my own. I have used appropriate text as required and followed my own house style in order to do so. I have used many multimedia assets within my website such as videos, music, different types of rollovers, hyperlinks, HTML, and much more. I have used these multimedia assets as they are interactive and display the website in a professional manner. Assets such as music and videos provide the viewer of the website with more information about each game. Overall, I have given a short introduction to each game, explaining the basic outline and summing up the game based on its overall quality.

Furthermore, I have reviewed what platforms the game can be accessed through the introduction, and I have supported this by rating the platform availability using the star graphics. Platform availability is important because it informs the viewer of the website about the number of platforms and consoles the game can be accessed on. In addition, I have also rated the games based on gameplay and cost. I have chosen these 2 key points to accompany the platform availability because they are very significant. Rating the cost through star ratings is important as it gives the viewer of the website an estimate of the overall cost and is a persuasive method to get the viewer to buy the game. I have rated the overall gameplay also as it persuades the viewer of the website and informs them on how good the game really is. I have also followed my page plans.

My website could be further improved if I change my logo. This could be improved as it does not live up to the quality of the rest of the website. I created my logo myself through Microsoft PowerPoint and Fireworks. It does not look as professional as the rest of the website and could be improved by replacing it with another image. In addition, it could possibly be improved by shortening the introductory paragraphs to each of the games. There is possibly too much information and it can be shortened to be a more appealing display to the viewer of the website. Furthermore, it could also be improved by adding more music to the website. I have added 2 music files to my website and I have displayed the music through a web graphic using Web Plus. Music is an interactive asset and appeals to the viewer of the website, therefore, the addition of extra music can instantly impact my website to make it more of a higher quality.

If I was to start my website again as a completely new website, I would not use Serif WebPlus X7 as it crashed numerous amounts of time. This has had a large impact on my website as I have lost some time from developing and creating it. WebPlus also made my pages take quite a long to load up and was not loading up some images and text on my website. If I was to start the production of my website again, I would use another software instead of WebPlus as it would save me a lot of time and would allow me to create a more improved website than my current one. If I was to do this, I would meet all the requirements to a higher quality.

I think the relationship in Seurat’s work, between the project to “restore painting’s cultural significance,” and the “mass culture” that he sought to address is the demonstration of alienation in his paintings of society. This theme greatly connects with two paintings by Georges Seurat, which are A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, 1884-6. Oil on canvas and Chahut 1889-90, Oil on canvas. Seurat’s painting of the Grande Jatte shows women, men, and children from all classes at a suburban park where they are having picnics, fishing, and doing other things. Alfred Paulet, states a very significant point in the painting by stating Seurat gives the women, men, and children automatic gestures of lead soldiers and makes them move in the same slow, banal, and identical step. Therefore, Eisenman states that the Grande Jatte is an “ingenious image of Impressionism with the recreation of a suburban picture of the artifice and alienation of modern class society ”(Eisenman 391). 

Going more into this point of the painting demonstrating the alienation of modern class society, Eisenman proclaims that Seurat placed, “curves, vertical, horizontal, or crisscrossed strokes of not mixed, blended paint to illustrate the dominance of alienation”(Eisenman 392). Another important point made by Eisenman is Seurat was subjected to make,“ his landscape and figures have a strict proportional Classical schema that was based on Vitruvius”(Eisenman 392). In terms of Vitruvius, the painting shows, “ the heads of the figures half the height of their bodies and their faces are in a position where their heads are full frontal as well” (Eisenman 392). Even another critic in response stated that the painting was perceived to be “less luster”(Eisenman 395) and there was a lack of luminosity in the painting. It shows that society was dominated by alienation and everyone is positioned where they can’t move in their own ways than moving in a similar pattern. In Seurat’s other painting Chahut, the canvas shows two women performing on stage and there are two men as well. 

The picture demonstrates a very interesting fact in regard to utopia and dystopia because Eisenman states that the dancers on the stage are, “ having the utopian experience of freedom and enlightenment whereas the audience is described as the dystopia of evil spirits, bad food, and lewd display”(Eisenman 398). Eisenman even says that the opposite can also be shown by displaying, “the performers on stage with their body parts and smiles alienated and isolated from their bodies and minds in a dystopia of fetishism and objectification”(Eisenman 398). Whereas the audience is “ treated to the utopia where they have the pleasures of light, music, and sexual stimulation”(Eisenman 398). It illustrates the point that the painting shows the alienation from the performers where they have dominance over those who are in the dystopia and therefore make those who are in the dystopia feel inferior. Also, the performers also have their alienated bodies and attitudes on display and therefore they bring that alienation to the audience of the dystopia. I think Chaut does a very good job of highlighting the contradictory forms of culture of a “ dream unrestrained pleasure and a nightmare vision of vulgarity” (Eisenman 398). Seurat claims that the painting is a paradox of both the delight and alienation of mass culture because the painting shows the performers on stage displaying very harsh grins on their faces and how their body parts are alienated from the audience and have superiority over them. Grande Jatte also does a very good job of addressing the contradictory forms of culture because it shows a society where women, men, and children are placed in a utopian world where they are free, yet everyone in the painting is positioned to be very emotionless and less expressive to each other and not have the freedom to move in their own ways.    

INTRODUCTION

No matter what age we are, everyone relish chocolates and candies but whenever we bite a chocolate bar or sip a cup of hot cocoa did we ever consider where it comes from? Chocolates make a person smile when they are sad, it can cheer up anyone at anytime and at any given situation, it is a token of love and symbol of friendship. But who knew that this sweet confectionary can also be bitter for many, and little did we know that chocolate has a dark side. ‘The Dark Side of Chocolate’ is a documentary that highlights the plight of African children in cocoa plantations. The film dives into the miseries of African children who are forced to be labors in the cocoa plantations. The Documentary shows it audience the bitter side of chocolates. Danish journalist Miki Mistrati takes us down the lanes with his international and under cover journey to investigate the allegations of child labour and trafficking in the cocoa plantations. The title itself hints at the documentary showing negative side of chocolate industries; of what hidden truths lay behind the production of a cocoa coated sugar bar and giving us a glimpse into a notorious world of cocoa plantations.

THEME

Child Labour- Linking it to the Issue of Human Rights

The broader theme of the documentary is the pressing issue of child labour in the cocoa plantations of Ivory Coast. The children between the age of 7 to 16 work for the plantation workers, who ruthlessly exploit the child force without paying a penny for their efforts and labour. A child is thrown into a myriad where escape is near to impossible; they unwillingly become part of the horrendous network and have no other option but to provide their service to their master, thus leaving them to suffer emotional and physical abuses. The documentary highlights the plight of the children who work for long hours under exploitative conditions, often beaten and abused. It is undisputable that the issue of child labour is a human rights problem. There basic rights and dignity, by the virtue of being a human is hampered. Although, the main document on human rights, Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), does not have a separate article mentioned on children, thus, even today a human rights understanding of child labor is not widespread. Yet there are prices to be paid—often steep prices—for human rights myopia or quiescence. However, it will be wrong to say that the issue cannot be addressed as a Human Rights problem; instead Human rights orientations to child labor are now found with the International Labour Organizations (ILO) paying great amount of attention to the problem.

Child Trafficking, Slavery and Domestic Violence

Children are commonly trafficked from one country to another; hence trafficking and slavery form the underlying themes to the main issue being addressed in the documentary. The children are tricked into the promise of being paid, who along with their parents fall into the trap. However, the reality remains altogether different and sad. They are made to work all day and tend to live in state of misery, falling in a myriad from where escape is impossible for those who succumb to the situation, whereas for those who dare tend to escape; for example the two boys that Mistrati and his crew found dared to escape. One instance in the film also highlights the issue of domestic violence; where Mistrati has tried to focus on the wounds of the girl who was rescued from the bus station in Mali. What is thought provoking is the fact that these inhumane activities are a result of a greater social problem of poverty that is prone in various African countries. Parents give consent to their child being taken away, with the hope that they will earn and shoulder the burden of responsibilities with them. An activity like Child trafficking is based on a vast nexus involving everyone from the families of the children to the, local people and the local authorities, hence not dreading and fearing the law and therefore the crime reaching its peak.

Capitalism

Another micro theme that I drew from the film was the heights of capitalism accelerating child labour practices. Mistrati has not failed to pinpoint the ‘ devil in the heaven’; clearly explaining how tons of cocoa is bought for only $1 a kilogram and on the final stage 1 kilo cocoa makes 40 chocolate bars, and one bar alone is sold for a massive price. Hence the chocolate manufactures earning the huge profit. Another instance is of the third largest cocoa suppliers ‘Saf- Cocoa’ who pay only a tiny bit of the amount to the cocoa planters, and in return does not pay the labours (mainly being children) because they wish to keep whatever little they get to themselves; and the vicious cycle continues with the cocoa suppliers and chocolate manufacturers being the major beneficiaries and the labours being the ones in the most disadvantaged situation. In this entire scenario it’s the children who work in these cocoa plantations that continue to suffer with no escape from this circle.

ANALYSIS

Unquestionably the film has been successful in pointing at the unethical ways of the industry, but ultimately fails to provide the basic information about trafficking, child labor, and ethical sourcing that its intended lay audience is likely to require. While a more comprehensive documentary could have examined migrant smuggling as a social problem, discuss relevant international laws and organizations, and outline civil society initiatives for ethical sourcing of cocoa, yet the film should be considered an important element of a more comprehensive toolkit for educating ethical chocolate lovers.

The documentary starts with Mistrati and his crew visiting a chocolate fair in Cologne, Germany. His satirical stare at the hoarding on the entrance, a white man posing happily with chocolates, makes him think of the bliss that a chocolate provides to the first world consumers, unaware of the darkness within the chocolate industries. Further, Mistrati question the producers of renowned chocolate brands of the malpractices in cocoa industries. While few were unaware of what goes inside the cocoa plantation stating that it is altogether a different industry, others were reluctant to talk about the problem and issue. CEO of ‘Barry Calleboat’ largest suppliers of cocoa from Ivory Coast had a casual approach to Mistrati’s question stating “I am unaware of the issue of trafficking and if it exists then it may be exceptional”. To investigate further Mistrati and his crew takes the audience to Mali and Ivory Coast; the sending and receiving countries of trafficked children, respectively. There he follows the smuggling route from native village, to border crossing and to cocoa plantation. The coverage is satisfyingly comprehensive, and the images captivating. We meet children at various stages of trafficking, interview mothers of missing children, interrogate conspirators, and follow the buses, taxis, and traffickers that make it all possible. Mistrati and his crew also visit various international and local offices of INTERPOL, the ILO, the Ivoirian president, cocoa suppliers, and chocolate manufacturers, where he questions officials’ awareness of and responses to trafficking and child labor. In the film’s final scene, Mistrati screens footage on a large surface outside of Nestlé’s headquarters. With a clear message: consumers should be outraged at the unethical sourcing of cocoa, and their activism should target the chocolate industry. This act is symbolic of taking a dig at large chocolate manufacturers and their casual approach to a much serious issue that needs their undivided attention.

In appreciating film, we can undoubtedly say that it is successful in avoiding two pitfalls common to documentaries on developing countries. First, it delivers compelling on-the-ground footage without engaging in ‘poverty porn.’ The film is tasteful in using images of Africa and Africans to tell a story and evoke interest in working for change. Second, Mistrati does not reduce actors to simple “heroes,” “villains,” and “victims,” but instead allows them to reflect the complexity he finds on the ground. For example, the General Secretary of the Malian bus drivers’ union could have easily been “the hero,” as he has “rescued” children for nearly a decade. However, a moving image of him weeping for the fate of these children is countered by a scene in which he vehemently censures a young girl for crossing the border to find work. He threatens, “Never come back!” and sends her back to a family that she says will be angry with her for not earning money. The audience cannot help but wonder: Will she be punished for returning home empty handed? Was she wrong to seek work? Was he right in his decision to intervene? How do we adjudicate between a family’s need for income and labor of a child? Throughout the film, the audience is pushed to grapple with the idea that complex social and economic issues overlap to create the problems of child labor and trafficking. These debates, however, are rightly the background noise to the main message: Children should be at school, not work. They should not be smuggled across borders, nor misinformed about the terms of their employment. Most obviously, they should not be held captive and unpaid for their labor.

Despite the successful story that the documentary has put forth, yet there are certain perils of the film. Firstly, it is a monotonous storytelling, doing a little to educate its audience on the main subjects that the film tends to highlight- ‘child labour’, ‘child trafficking’, and ‘slavery’. Inability in differentiating between these themes, failure in properly define them and placing it in a broader context of international laws, chocolate industry networks and advocacy organizations. The second shortcoming is a misleading account of which actors can, are able and also willing to bring change in the cocoa production in Africa. Specifically, the film underemphasizes the role of the state, overstates the efficacy of the private sector, and ignores civil society. However, it should be clear that labor rights and border security are the responsibilities of the state, and that the most effective way to regulate the cocoa industry would be for cocoa producing states to enforce efficient and strict laws. On that note everyone knows that states—particularly those in the stage of development, or on the brink of failure—is often unable to command the rule of law. However, if that is the case, then we can accept the ground argument of the film; that it is chocolate manufacturers, not states that should be held accountable for the conditions under which cocoa is produced. Another drawback that the film highlights is the link drawn between prevention of child trafficking and child labour could be possible with a simple and a non- abiding protocol signed among the CEO’s of top chocolate manufacturers, which stated ‘prohibition of child labour and child trafficking within the chocolate industry after 2008’. This seems a very reductionist stance towards a serious issue that cannot be eradicated merely with signing a protocol and hence it is misleading. An industry agreement cannot make illegal behavior “impossible,” and such protocols are often aspirational, serving more to placate critics than to change modes of production. These agreements offer no rewards for compliance, no consequences for deviance. The real engine of change—which is largely ignored in the film—is civil society, it is clearly known that for the last ten years, consumer activism has put a formidable amount of pressure on global companies to transform their practices by adopting voluntary social and environmental standards. Ethical supply chains are the result of civil society organizations developing voluntary ethical standards, and consumers creating demand for verified products. The film omits this critical piece of the story.

‘The Dark Side of Chocolate’ allows us to participate in an investigative adventure, and its message is clear: Consumers of conventionally sourced chocolate, your tasty treat is the product of child labor and trafficking. Although descriptions of these social issues and potential avenues for change are less clear, the film was likely intended to accompany additional educational materials. Indeed, several NGOs and campaigns include it in a broader toolkit.

Frankly speaking, when we came to know that we are supposed to take eight humanities courses in our four years of B.Tech, we all were shocked for the time being. We came to IIT to study engineering, not this illogical stuff. We had a question, after all why study these courses that are never going to play any role in our future life, we came up with our own answers without actual analysis of the need. We thought that college wants us to be “all-rounded”, well we don’t know what all-rounded means. Now after the completion of my first year, I believe that these courses will actually help me to be a better professional. Engineering and humanities are two completely different branches. Engineering gives us certain facts and tells us that this is how things are while humanities give us uncertainty, doubts, and skepticism. Engineering is more about solving problems and knowable answers while humanities are more about asking questions which in fact are the basis of the next set of questions, they create questions. Humanities in a way increase the range of experiences and also broadens the horizons of even the most educated person. Unlike engineering, humanities are not about finding the solution or getting an answer to every question. Usually, engineers need answers to every question, they are very curious to discover the reasons behind it but humanities taught us that it is impossible to answer every question and also that there are questions that do not have one correct answer in a way no single, final solution. Engineers are often perceived as nerds without any interpersonal skills and do only focused jobs based on the technical stuff and do not care about what happens in the society or outside world. No doubt engineers are good at solving problems but when the problem becomes large and more complex they require to communicate. Engineers are very good thinkers but they lack communication and interpersonal skills. And developing these skills becomes a necessity for engineers in order to express their ideas to society. Skills developed by learning the humanities and social science courses help engineers to fulfill cultural and civic responsibilities. Humanities strengthen the ability of engineers to work and communicate with others. They are more based on social skills and are rigorous in written and oral communication. This helps them to become better scientists and engineers and also allows them to use their knowledge and create innovation that is outside their field of study. Humanities give us knowledge about the outside world which we engineers shut down that is in respect of social, environmental, economic, and political domains of life. Not all people in the world are the same and hence they have different requirements and different perspectives engineers must know about the way people think and the psychology of human behavior. Courses like economics teach us the basics of how the market works and also provide us with the knowledge of how goods are transported and what difficulty they face during it and based on that thinking an efficient idea that also solves this problem and also looking in the other problem gives engineers an opportunity to help society as a whole. History reveals what our ancestors did to modernize this world and also what leads them to change the world that we see today. Political aspects of society are also necessary to broaden our thought process and help others. Philosophy makes us think and analyze the truth about the world and creates a more logical sense of this world’s existence one of the most important things about this course is that it made engineers realize that it is impossible to answer every question and in a way broke the ego of engineers that they must know everything that is to gain. Mastering all these skills can provide tools for expanding knowledge. Interdisciplinary learning in all adds value to one’s education. We have developed traditional technical skills developed on our own but now the industry wants engineers who can innovate and create new ideas and have the ability to work in a multicultural environment, one with leadership qualities and one who can understand the business context of engineering and one with the eagerness of lifelong learning. This requirement of industries to recruit peoples on the basis of not only technical stuff but also on the overall development of human in a sense who has a deeper understanding of the contemporary world is increasing day by day and to be better professionals these courses play a very important role in one’s life. Not only in getting jobs but also this teaches us to manage time, planning strategies which are usually based on people’s interface. Humanities are not limited to just discovering answers or asking questions but also tell us that every human is unique and each of us keeps changing in unpredictable ways. Knowledge of social sciences and humanities helps us to make changes to society in a better way. And this implementation of converging various courses and having a multidisciplinary approach to understanding things in a way made us better professionals. Socrates, one of the philosophers said that “ Wisdom means knowing how little you know”.

Humanities have revealed that by asking questions, how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of this world and also taught us togetherness. Also in a way prepared us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, and imperfect information. In a way taking these courses can change the way of thinking of engineers, they provide an environment that forces us to think and analyze every aspect of questions and also teaches us how to ask the right set of questions. The courses designed at IIT Gandhinagar are very well organized and analyzed in a way that will help us to be better professionals in our life. Learning all these courses will definitely be helpful in our future life and will give us not only knowledge about society but also will open doors to the dimensions of this world that one has never reached or are yet to be encountered.

The movie Scarface, directed by Brian De Palma, in 1983, broke my heart. Naturally, I like movies with good endings, just as many other people do, so as the end credits finally ran across the screen in front of my eyes, I was beyond upset. I do not see the talk about drugs as a taboo subject, yet that does not mean that I find it easy to speak about. Because I do not think that it is easy to discuss. Admittedly, drugs are a serious subject, and in most cases, they are really bad too. In most places, drugs are illegal and people have different reasons for using and often abusing the use of drugs. What I want to come across, is that even though drugs can severely hurt many people in the process of simply placing an order within a community of drug lords and people involved in that business, it is so hard to have people stop making, selling, buying, and using drugs. Moreover as a way of sugarcoating someone’s pain, or another reason. Let us delve more into the actual movie then, shall we?

I read something along these lines somewhere: “Tony had nothing, then everything, and then nothing again.” My heart wrenched as I read that sentence. Subsequently, I read it again. I am pretty sure that when anyone watched a movie, everyone must have a theory about how the movie is going to end. Not everyone might be able to write a 200-page essay about how the movie is going to end, but I am pretty sure that everyone has the slightest idea. Perhaps not about the course of events, but at least they expect something from the main character. Certainly, I did. I had watched about an hour and a half of the movie when a thought crossed my mind: “Tony is going to die, is he not?” As soon as I fathomed what was going on inside my mind, I wanted to just stop watching. I did not want to know the ending, but I did, and therefore my heart is still burning as I am writing this ‘discussion’, or rather, my thoughts and feelings about the subject and message of the movie.

Okay, I am just going to say it as it is: I felt empathy for Antonio Montana. You see, it is not that I do not have anything in life, or that my life is miserable. It is not and I am very grateful, yet I keep hoping that my mind can come up with some explanation on the ending of Scarface because I truly do not think, that Tony deserved what he got. Conversely, I think it was wrong of him to shoot Manny. It was wrong of him to hit his sister when he saw that man grab her ass. Tony killed a lot of people too, and he showed no respect whatsoever toward Elvira as soon as they got married. Nonetheless, I feel so bad about the way Tony’s life ended. The fact that he had just done what Elvira told him from the beginning not to do: “never get high on your own supply” is exactly what he did likewise the discussion we had earlier about people using drugs when feeling down. I am not saying I understand Tony and accept all the wrongs he has done, for example, that he told Manny not to get near his sister, and because his best friend did not listen to him, Tony freaking shot Manny. Yes, Manny had not stayed in charge of the business as Tony had asked him to while he was gone, but when measured against Tony’s reaction when Manny opened the door and Gina was walking out in nothing but a silk robe, that action cannot be forgiven. Tony shot Manny as soon as his head could register the explanation for the scene in front of him. Manny had no time to explain or apologize, but at least Gina did as she ran toward her dead spouse. “We got married just yesterday. We were gonna surprise you.”

It really is stuck with me, the “Tony had nothing and worked his way to the top. Yet in the blink of an eye, he lost everything that he had worked his ass off for.” I really cannot express the amount of sorrow in my heart. It physically hurts so much to keep thinking about the movie and its shenanigans. The ending ripped my heart out of my ribcage and misplaced it with a melting ice pop.

In conclusion, I truly think Tony deserved to be happy; To have kids with Elvira that he could pick up at school, to have a healthier relationship with his sister and less of a father-daughter relationship with her, to respect Manny and see him as more than a “junior partner”, and most of all to get out of the dirty business demanding cocaine and instead find a real and paying job.

The Lion King is a popular children’s movie created by Disney in which a lion is the king. The story of The Lion King focuses on a young lion named Simba who grows up as the son of Mufasa who is the current king of an African savannah named The Pride Lands. This particular story follows the 14 steps of a hero’s journey, starting from the call to adventure and ending with the freedom to live.

The first step of the hero’s journey that’s seen in the movie is when Simba’s uncle, Scar, kills Simba’s brother, Mufasa, who’s also the king. After Simba’s father is killed, Scar tells Simba that the death of his father was his fault and told Simba to, “Run away and never return.” To this information, Scar’s hyaenas were set on a mission to kill Simba. At this moment Simba knew he must do something in order to avenge his father’s death. This was Simba’s call to adventure and the first time we see the hero’s journey come into play. From Simba’s ordinary world being The Pride Lands to suddenly being banished and blamed for his father’s death, Simba is left with no choice but to run away and plan his next move.

After Simba escapes The Pride Lands, Scar sends the hyenas after Simba. These hyenas do whatever Scar tells them to and works as a personal army for Scar. Luckily for Simba, he was able to lose the hyenas. As much as Simba wishes he could go back and take back his land, he does not want to take the journey thinking that he is not prepared or strong enough to defeat Scar. As Simba is sleeping, he is found by a meerkat named Timon, and a warthog named Pumba. At first, Simba does not want to talk to them and is very upset about what had happened. After explaining his situation to Timon and Pumba, they show him this paradise land that they live in. Simba chooses to stay with them as he grows up throughout the years. Years later, Simba is found by Nala, his best friend from The Pride Lands. Nala asks Simba to return but Simba does not want to at first and refuses the call to adventure. Nala then explains everything that has happened and changed since Simba left before realizing that since Simba is still alive, he is the new king of The Pride Lands. Since Simba’s “death”, Scar has told the kingdom that Simba was sadly killed in the stampede and that his father was also killed. Simba refused that he was the king as he believes it was something he was going to be, but not anymore. Simba was afraid to take on this journey because he felt like his father’s death was his fault and therefore he did not have any confidence to return to his ordinary world and overthrow Scar.

One night, Simba meets Rafiki while thinking about his call to adventure. Rafiki is a huge step in initiating Simba’s return to The Pride Lands. After Rafiki shares with Simba that he knows exactly who he is, he is able to give Simba the confidence to fight for his kingdom back. That same night, Rafiki brings Simba into an enchanted jungle of tangled trees where he shares that Mufasa is alive. He is guided to a small pool of water where he is instructed by Rafiki to look into the water and tell him what he sees. In the ripples of the water, he is able to see his father. Rafiki tells Simba that the spirit of Mufasa lives inside Simba. This is Simba’s realization that he was meant to be king. Mufasa’s spirit appears in the clouds where he tells Simba that he has forgotten who he was, meaning that he has also forgotten his father and that Simba must go back to The Pride Lands to take his place in the circle of life. He reminds him to remember who he is and to remember that he is the king of The Pride Lands. This interaction changes Simba’s perspective entirely as he has now learned that he needs to stop running away from the death of his father, and instead put it behind him and take back what is his. Simba wastes no time and departs back to Pride Rock. Rafiki exclaims that the king has returned and Nala, Timon, and Pumba all offer their support to help Simba take back his kingdom.

As Simba prepares to take back his kingdom, he decides to come up with a plan. First, he wants the people of the kingdom to still believe that he is dead. Secondly, Simba wants Timon and Pumba to distract the hyenas while he and Nala sneak in. Finally, Simba tells Nala to rally up the other lions so that they have a chance to fight the hyenas. They split, and get their plan into motion. Once their plan is ready, they all go off to take back the kingdom. When fighting, Scar makes Simba walk to the edge of a cliff just like he made Mufasa do before his death. At this point, Scar takes time to admit that he is the one who killed Mufasa and that Simba had no involvement with it. Simba feels a burst of rage and jumps on Scar before attacking him. Simba holds Scar down by his neck and makes him admit that he killed Mufasa in front of the entire kingdom. This causes a huge fight between everyone in the kingdom including Simba and Scar. As Simba and Scar return face to face again, Scar begs Simba to not hurt him and blames his wrongdoings on the hyenas. The hyenas hear this through the ring of fire as Simba and Scar continue to fight. In the end, Simba throws Scar off a cliff. The hyenas then surround Scar at the bottom of the cliff and attack him after hearing him blame them for Mufasa’s death. Simba finally gets to reunite with his family after being away for so many years. Simba goes back to Rafiki who points to Pride Rock and says “It’s time” meaning it is time for Simba to take his rightful place on the throne as king. He climbs to the top of Pride Rocks and lets out a loud roar to let everyone know that the king has returned.

If Simba did not take on his call to adventure, he would have never returned to The Pride Lands to take his place as king. While thinking about going on his call to adventure, he is met by Rafiki who changes his heart and convinces him to view the situation from a different perspective. Rafiki becomes Simba’s mentor from here on out. After meeting with his father’s spirit, he experiences his initiation before returning home and taking back the throne. Along with his old and new friends, Simba returns home to The Pride Lands. Although he gets very close to death the same way his father died, he survives and overthrows Scar. Through this journey, Simba has had a change of heart and regained his place in the kingdom as king.

An is less than an able person and can feel othered because of their. There are over 650 million people throughout the world. Most of these people face difficulties when looking for work and obtaining a job, attending school, and enjoying access to public spaces simply due to the fact that they are disabled. These difficulties are caused by the lack of availability of facilities and assistance for disabled people which results in them being denied access to spaces and therefore being excluded. In some cases, disabled people are treated unfairly due to people having lack of knowledge about certain disabilities and associated limitations. The largest and most disadvantaged minority of the world’s population is made up of disabled people. Approximately 637000 000 disabled children do not attend school. About 20% of the poorest people around the globe are disabled. This is clearly a very big issue in our world. In South Africa, approximately 7,5% of the population have physical disabilities that’s 2.8 million people that are potentially being discriminated against because of something that they have no control over.

I have witnessed this type of discrimination being directed toward one of my family members. My uncle, Chris, is schizophrenic. He is 32 years old and has been denied many things in life due to his mental illness. When going to shopping malls with him I notice that not only does he get rude stares from people but I have occasionally heard people state that he has to leave the store because “he makes people uncomfortable”. Watching this take place is heartbreaking. Due to rude comments such as this one I have seen his self-esteem deteriorate over years to the point where he does not like to leave his house or interact with strangers. I have even noticed how this discrimination has impacted his mental health as he was recently put on anti-depression pills. My uncle has had to endure a lot of hardship throughout his life and people treating him like this adds to his hardships.

This type of discrimination will continue to take place if people are not educated on different disabilities and the associated limitations and if facilities and structures are not put in place to assist disabled people. Ignorance when dealing with this issue will cause problems. Many people may not see denying a person access to a building as a form of exclusion, but it is. This seemingly minor inconvenience may make this person feel as though they do not belong in the community and that they are unwanted. Not knowing the exclusion of the effects can have on people, can result in people feeling ignored, and irrelevant, and can impact their mental health negatively. I think that most often people are unaware of how hurtful their comments and actions can be and the impact that they can have on a person and their self-esteem. Therefore, is it important that we educate ourselves and others on this issue to prevent excluding people from society.

There is an organization that is helping solve part of this issue of discrimination against disabled people, it is known as Rebuilding Together. Rebuilding Together is a non-profit organization that is based in the United States of America. This organization rehabilitates homes and public spaces for movement-impaired people by providing ramps to allow for wheelchair access. Rebuilding Together has over 100,000 volunteers working for it each year and has managed to repair more than 10,000 homes across America. It was started 22 years by the CEO Caroline Blakey ago and is still operational. It has redesigned over 210,000 public spaces and homes for disabled people. This organization has been extremely effective in preventing discrimination against physically disabled people by allowing them easy access to public spaces and ensuring that they are not treated unfairly due to their disability. This results in disabled people being able to have more normal lives and ensures that they are not being excluded from the community. However, this organization is preventing the discrimination and exclusion of physically disabled people only and does not prevent the discrimination of mentally disabled people. However, it is a step in the right direction and may inspire more people to acknowledge the disabled more in general and be conscious of how they treat these people preventing the general mistreatment of disabled people.

There are a lot of opportunities for Rebuilding Together in South Africa. South Africa has a lack of facilities for disabled people. There are minimal ramps in shopping centers, schools, and offices. Therefore, Rebuilding Together could contribute a lot towards providing the assistance required by the physically disabled people in South Africa. This organization could be operated in South Africa by recruiting people who are currently unemployed. This would be beneficial since South Africa has access ramps and installing railing would not only provide access to public spaces for the disabled but would also provide job opportunities for the unemployed. However, in order for this program to be successful in South Africa donations from citizens and government would have to be made. South Africa has a painful history it is important that we as South Africans ensure that all forms of discrimination are prevented and that we as a community work together to love each other and all of our differences.

I will contribute to preventing the discrimination of the physically and mentally disabled by including and treating them with respect and kindness. I hope to solve this issue of exclusion and dehumanization of disabled people. I plan to do this by simply treating these members of our society as I treat all others and not staring or laughing at them and helping them in any way possible. In doing this I will hopefully make this person feel more valuable and included in the community and provide them with a sense of belonging. I also hope to set an example for the people around me as they witness how I am able to treat disabled people with kindness, respect, and care, the same as any other human being. Education and knowledge about this type of discrimination are vital. Therefore, I will do further research on the topic and continuously try to educate myself in relation to this discrimination and the hardships disabled people face on a daily basis. I will also try to raise awareness about this issue we see in our society. This type of discrimination is not discussed often and it is not very well known. I will use my social media platforms such as Instagram to post information about this discrimination and how society can help to prevent it, like through supporting organizations such as Rebuilding Together. This will hopefully help raise awareness and inform people about this issue and help encourage people to act against it by being mindful of disabled people and by treating them with respect.

While it is easy to say that racism is simply the personal bias of one group of people towards another, I believe that racism is much more insidious and permeating than that. Camara Jones states that “racism is a system”(2002, 9), and I agree with her. The system of racism does consist of individuals, but it also includes policies, laws, structures, social norms, and structures. It flows through all parts of government, education, and the health care system, impacting where people live, how they live, and their health outcomes. The system of racism places individuals and communities at an unfair disadvantage while simultaneously giving other groups an unfair advantage.

Jones discusses the three levels of racism: Institutionalized, which are the structures, policies, and norms that keep racial power differentials in place; personally mediated racism, which can also be defined as discrimination and stereotyping assumptions about individuals or communities based on race, and; internalized racism, in which members of the group who are discriminated against begin to believe the negative messages about ability and worth that surround them every day. This can manifest in many ways, one being a feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, another being the embracing of “whiteness” or rejection of one’s culture (Jones 2002, 10-11). The “groundwater metaphor” (Green and Love 2018) is a very helpful way of explaining that racism exists on a structural level and impacts everything that it surrounds and flows through. The system of racism impacts all the people in the system, and therefore it is the system that much is changed, not the individuals.

According to Ford and Airhihenbuwa, race was first used to classify people by skin color by a French doctor names Francois Bernier, and was continued by Carolus Linnaeus’s Natural History in 1735. These racial groupings devalued those who were classified as “non-European”, and unfortunately became the structure on which many countries, including the US, built their racial policies (2010a). After this, various scholars such as Josiah Nott lent “scientific” credibility to these racist policies and reinforced white supremacy through articles written for well-respected medical journals (2010a). Additionally, “Prevailing notions about race shaped early scientific research, but because investigators were not critical about their relationships to their racialized social contexts, they were unable to perceive the insidious influence of racism in their work” (Ford and Airhihenbuwa 2010a, s30)

Alan Goodman states in the film “Race- The Power of Illusion”, that race is “a biological myth” (Adelman 2003). In America, we have a long history of searching for racial differences and trying to prove that there are differentials in performance and behavior that can be attributed to them. During the 20th century, white people were in power while black people, indigenous people, and immigrants were segregated into neighborhoods and reservations and lived under harsh, discriminatory laws (Adelman 2003). Because of these factors and many others, rates of illness and death were higher for these populations than for whites. It was easy for white people to look at this and blame inferior genetics and racial differences for the differences in mortality. Eugenicists in the 1920s used this “science” to advance racist agendas focused on breeding strong, healthy white children while doing everything in their power to keep “inferior” races from having children at all (Adelman 2003).

As explained in “The Color of Wealth”, “the most persistent racist ideologies tend to be those actively promoted by governments” (2006, 21). Even though the GI Bill was devastating to communities of color, to me, racial redlining in neighborhoods has had the greatest impact on the racial wealth gap in the United States. Redlining denies loans, mortgages, and insurance to residents of certain neighborhoods regardless of their qualifications. These loans are often essential for a secure home, retirement, and college education. Redlining destroyed economic opportunities for people in many neighborhoods, even when the US as a whole was going through periods of economic growth. Denial of these loans prevented people in redlined areas from building and having wealth, educational opportunities, job opportunities, and ultimately the chance to retire and have wealth to pass down to future generations (Medoff and Sklar 1994).

This kind of discrimination and inequality has been in the fabric of Massachusetts since its founding. Governor John Winthrop, exclaimed “In all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection” (Medoff and Sklar 1994, 7). Puritans had free reign to punish “blasphemers” and Native Americans, who, in their eyes, “had no legal standing in the colonial domain” (Medoff and Sklar 1994, 8). African slaves first came to Boston around 1638, and the slave trade in New England increased after 1644 but was abolished in 1780 when a Declaration of Rights was added to the Constitution. Despite this, Boston was the most segregated city in the northern US in 1850. (Medoff and Sklar 1994).

During WWI, fear of immigrants coming to the US increased and caused upper-middle-class people in Boston to flee to the suburbs while immigrants and other working-class people moved into multi-family units in different parts of the city. When southern agriculture became more mechanized, many blacks/African Americans moved north to Boston and the surrounding areas. However, Boston was just as discriminatory as the South. Black/African American folks in Boston were excluded from jobs and housing and faced job and educational segregation (Medoff and Sklar 1994). This was all reinforced by a lack of political power and representation. Mel King wrote “…the ghetto allowed the ruling elite to blame the Black community for what they had systematically imposed on us” (Medoff and Sklar 1994, 13).

“White Flight” from areas that had an increasing black population was subsidized by the government by moving private and public investment from those areas to follow white people wherever they went, simultaneously disinvesting in black communities and blaming the decay on people of color. In an effort to increase tax revenue in the city and “reverse urban decline” (Medoff and Sklar 1994, 17), the city of Boston essentially destroyed low-income neighborhoods in locations that were considered desirable, which made room for offices, stores, hotels, and upscale housing (Medoff and Sklar 1994). By 1985, Boston had areas of persistent poverty, unemployment, and a shortage of safe, affordable housing. The continuing disinvestment in communities of color and people of low SES was made worse by redlining and being denied credit from banks. These practices continue to this day. Johnson (2017) explains that in Boston, people of color are still being denied home loans and banks are still lending disproportionately to middle and upper-class people, exacerbating segregation and the racial wealth gap. Racism experienced by people of color in other neighborhoods makes some afraid to live amongst whites for fear of discrimination.

Racism also causes health disparities. Camara Jones explains that “racial” health disparities are created at 3 different levels: “Differential care within the healthcare system, differential access to health care, and differences in exposures and life opportunities that create different levels of health and disease” (2002, 8). There are interventions that can be made at each level. The most difficult to tackle is likely the differences in exposures and life opportunities which result in different levels of health and disease. To improve on this, there needs to be a national conversation about racism and the social determinants of health, and the structures and institutions that uphold racism in the United States need to be rebuilt.

Racism impacts health outcomes directly and indirectly, at the individual and community level. Long-term exposure to racism, hate crimes, and other forms of racially-violence can increase stress and raise cortisol levels in the body, which leads to various health issues over time (Adelman 2008c). Racism leads to segregation in cities and neighborhoods, forcing people of color to live in areas that are further from healthy food options, closer to pollutants, and do not have safe spaces to recreate. These areas often have worse schools, and therefore lower socioeconomic status and poorer health outcomes in the long term. Additionally, racism causes social exclusion perpetrated against individuals and communities. Strong community or social support has also been shown to improve and maintain health outcomes, so social isolation can make health outcomes worse for individuals and groups (Adelman 2008a). Racism can overpower other social determinants of health that generally improve health outcomes, like higher levels of education and socioeconomic status. For example, as explained by Greene and Love in the Groundwater Approach, infant mortality rates are lower for white women even when they have a lower level of education than black women (2018).

As Kimbelé Crenshaw explains in her TEDTalk, without frameworks with which we can see how social problems impact all members of a targeted group, people will fall through the cracks and be left to suffer (2016). Intersectionality demonstrates how many different forms of discrimination (racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, etc) overlap and impact each other, and is a crucial framework for our work in public health and social justice because it shows that the causes of injustice are all connected. Intersectionality allows public health practitioners to see the whole picture of how discriminatory structures interact, overlap, and impact the health and well-being of multiple groups (Ford and Airhihenbuwa 2010b).

Critical Race Theory is a helpful framework to help with this as well. The goal of Critical Race Theory is to study racism, examine the historical and sociopolitical roots of current disparities, look at how structural forces and current paradigms within the field uphold those disparities and focus on the intersectionality and antiracism as educational tools and ways to examine white identity and fragility (Ford and Airhihenbuwa 2010a, s32). It is an iterative methodology that requires the investigator to ask questions of oneself and examine their role in upholding racist structures and practices (Ford and Airhihenbuwa 2010a). Critical Race Theory helps the public health practitioner and their projects remain focused on racial equity and the power imbalances that are both the cause and result of racial inequities. Public health practitioners must go further than simply documenting inequities, they must ask questions of themselves, their peers, and the structures and systems that have caused those inequities.

Reflection

My racial identity is white, and my ethnicity is an even split of one-half Polish and one-half Norwegian. Other people identify me racially as white, and most people even guess that I am of Scandinavian descent because of my blonde hair and light eyes. I realize that this is a privilege– I have never really had to explain my racial or ethnic identity to anyone, and I have never had my race or ethnicity misidentified or questioned.

I first became aware of my own racial identity when I went to college. I grew up in Boise, Idaho, which is a predominantly white city inside of a predominantly white state. Throughout elementary school, junior high, and high school, there were only 3 or 4 students of color in my class of several hundred people. I never confronted or was confronted with race or racism while I lived in Idaho. More recently I have reflected on what we were taught in our high school regarding the black history, indigenous history, Latinx history, and Asian history of Idaho and the West in general. We learned about manifest destiny, but not about the indigenous people that land was stolen from during that time. My history classes throughout my education were extremely whitewashed.

I was not truly forced to think about race or white privilege until my college years. There were many people in my life who were honest with me about their experiences as people of color and talked to me about my white privilege and how it impacted their lives. Unfortunately, I was not wise enough to see that was work that I needed to do for myself. For a long time, I relied on people of color to educate me, and I now look back on that with embarrassment, because it is not the role of the oppressed to educate the oppressor.

The field of reproductive health and rights has a long racist and unethical history. The founder of the organization where I work, Planned Parenthood, was a eugenicist and held twisted racist ideas about birth control and who should be allowed to have children. As a white woman that works in this field and at that particular organization, I have to recognize my part in this history and I must be very cognizant of my personal position, values, and biases surrounding race and the work I do. Through the work I do I have had some very uncomfortable moments with myself where I have had to think about my internalized biases because I did not want them to influence interactions with my patients. I have had to consider why I have certain thoughts and feelings about patients, and what the historical context of those feelings could be. It is really hard to admit to yourself and to others that you carry internalized racism and that it influences your actions, even when you don’t want it to.

Many people of color do not trust Planned Parenthood or the people who work there, and I consider it part of my job to help build that trust. I work extremely hard to make sure that all of our patients feel respected and informed, and that they know that they have the power to make decisions regarding their reproductive health. I hope to continue doing reproductive justice work, not just reproductive health work. The goal for my future public health career is to help change policy to create living conditions that create freedom for every person to make the right reproductive choices for themselves and their families.

White people need to talk about racism because racism is why we have power, money, and status. Race is a concept that white people came up with to control people that were different from us. We benefit from racism every single day. Because white people use racism as a tool to create a system that keeps us in power, white people are the ones that need to put in work to dismantle that system.

Introduction

The topic I chose to focus on over the three-week timetabled period was resilience. From part A of the assignment I learned different theories and interpretations surrounding resilience. Through part A and further research, I found a range of different activities focused on the development and improvement of personal resilience. The activities I picked to perform, track and interpret over the three weeks documented in my timeline each had different effects on me and those who were involved in the whole experience. The timeline shown below details the order things were carried out over the time period.

Implementation

I decided the best way to start the 3 weeks would be to get a gauge and good understanding of my personal level of resilience. The activity I did on the first day was a quick resilience inventory quiz. (Reference) After scoring myself on the test numerically I identified the lowest contributors to my score (the higher score the more resilient). Out of the nine questions in the quiz, I found the ones that contributed the lowest scores were; feelings of anger, loss, and discouragement don’t last long, and I’m playful. I find humor in rough situations and can laugh at myself. (Reference) After identifying these I then asked myself, “Is there any correlation or linking factor between these two particular questions?” I came up with one word that could summarise both questions, positivity, to be specific the lack of it. After identifying this I set out trying to find the best activity to develop and improve this aspect that was restricting or limiting my full potential to display resilience. I chose to only focus on one factor as I thought it would be more rewarding seeing the change from the start of the time period to the end as more time could be spent on one particular element rather than seeing minor changes over a different range of contributing factors.

After searching through a few different activities, I found one that would suit the three weeks I had to improve and develop my resilience. Titled Three Good Things Activity, it simply involves doing as the title says and writing down three good things that happened during the day. I decided I would do this every night for the three-week period except on the final night where I would redo the inventory quiz. The second activity I would do daily was reading a book. The book I chose to read and complete over the period was ‘When the Dust Settles’, by Rob Cook with Carl Curtain, my decision to choose this book was based on the fact it was extremely relatable to the topic and secondly, I am from a farm myself, like the subject of the book. It is an autobiography about a man who goes from running the most remote cattle station in Australia to being a quadriplegic and then on his road to recovery. This book showcases someone else’s resilience and also puts into perspective our own lives in comparison to others.

The third activity I included in the timetable is something that I do every winter which is play rugby. I decided to include this as personally I feel it provides me with great social connection and also a group environment that promotes teamwork and hard work, built by individual effort and involvement. Over the years I have found rugby a good way to stay fit but also grow and meet new people, these interactions as long as personal development I felt helped with my own resilience. Lastly, at one of the monthly meetings at work, I presented a small slide show on resilience as a way of cementing what I had learned over my three weeks of reflection and recording but also passing on some valuable knowledge to work colleagues.

Summary and reflection

After taking the resilience inventory quiz and scoring a 32 out of 45 (appendix figure 1.), my resilience was ranked in the adequate resilience band. I was not surprised that I showed a decent level of resilience as personally I feel I am quite good at trying again at things when they don’t work out the first time or even just moving past and forward past minor setbacks. After growing up on a farm and my family still living on a farm I would say a lot of my resilience comes from the way I was raised, working from a young age and completing jobs by myself of importance when no one else was around to do them.

After reflecting on my score in the resilience test I found an exercise to help me boost the factors that were letting me down the most which were both to do with positivity, the Three Good Things Activity. The first night came around and I wrote down three good things (appendix figure 3-5). To be quite honest it took me a while to find positives. I wasn’t surprised at this however as naturally, we find negatives to stick out more, and personally, I think I tend to dwell on things that go wrong when analyzing or reflecting on my day. As the week went on however I found it was taking less time to find positives. Moving into the second and third week I found there was greater diversity in the positives that I was recording. I felt this was progress and was impressed at how well the exercise had worked, it was easier to find positives when reflecting at night and also I found problems in the day were becoming less of a burden to me as I recalled past experiences and feelings from these that was boosted by my journal recording I had been making. I had underestimated this exercise at the start of the 3 week period but it actually works really well. Complementarily when re-focusing and sitting the inventory quiz my score went up 5 points to 37 (appendix figure 2.).

The journey that reading ‘When the Dust Settles’ (appendix figure 6-7) was probably the most powerful exercise throughout the 3 week period. Personally, I am not a big book reader, I’ll admit this is probably the fourth book I have ever finished. However, the powerful connection and feeling I developed to the main figure in this autobiography, really helped me develop strong empathy and perspective of all the tough situations I have ever encountered. To become a quadriplegic would be enough for most people to say that’s enough, I am nothing I don’t want to go on anymore just let me sit in bed and feel sorry for myself. However, Rob Cook, claws back to life, not a normal life but fully returns to his old home in the most remote part of Australia. He has faith in himself and cherishes the support around him. The boost and positivity I have drawn from this book I think will stay with me for a long period of time, not only for the sake of this exercise but just generally I am glad I read the book.

Summarising the three-week period of the rugby season I chose to include in the timetable was practical but also the three weeks that were included a lot happened and changed within this part of my life. I went from 1st grade to second grade and then back to first grade. This has happened to me before however it still usually does cause a little bit of personal disappointment. This time was no different I felt disappointed when getting dropped grades but then realized the reasons I play rugby such as the people I meet, the competitive nature, and the club aspect of the sport. I think my positive journal recording helped me realize this quicker than I may have previous times, prompting the realization of improved resilience.

Finally, the presentation I did at work (appendix figure 8-10). Reflecting on this exercise, its impact on me was not as great as the previously listed exercises. However, I think that its purpose is not to improve my resilience but just to remind me of everything I learned over the 3 weeks in the timetable. I presented to the work group about resilience in general but my interpretation when I think of the presentation will remind me of positive thinking in boosting resilience and also putting things into perspective. A short-term problem or setback is by no means the end of the world, it is important to note and mentally record the situation but dwelling on it and negative thinking doesn’t really help in any way.

When posed with the prospect of managing in the future and cultivating resilience in the workplace, I think it is very important to develop a strong environment that enables resilient people to improve but also to share and interact with those who may not have the same level of resilience as themselves either more or less. This 3-week exercise I have very much enjoyed and am grateful that I had to do it as part of my studies. In the future, it will help me try and promote positivity in workplaces as well as reflection. Reflection on personal resilience as well as the study of others’ journey and development of resilience which I found very powerful throughout the 3 weeks.

By taking a sociology course, I have grown psychologically and socially. During my learning schedule, I enjoyed and admired the fact that sociology is not much about unlearning but learning new things about different societies. In a civilized country such as America, it is easy to become blinded and consumed by the “idealistic lifestyle” that people are currently living without caring about how the changes are affecting society. Throughout this week’s learning, I can explore my thinking and take into consideration on reflecting the course because it has helped me to understand what makes societies misunderstand and ignore other people’s beliefs and culture.

One of the topics that has helped me to understand this concept is “Transnational Migrants: When “Home” Means More Than One Country” (Levitt, 1). For instance, transnational migrants in the United States fail to express their interests, such as politics and work in different contexts. Some of them will end up maintaining their cultural ties and form some political movements that might lead to conflict as they ignore the other’s culture. By analyzing this topic, I learned that emigrants abroad are not given the right to a political voice because they cannot handle the realities in their homelands (Levitt, 6). The subject leaves the question of “How can the federal government protect individuals who live between two different cultures?” Throughout the week, I also learned that the tension between different cultures in the world is significant to my life.

In the article “Theory, Culture & Society,” the author explores the central problem facing interaction in the modern world, which is the conflict between different cultures. From this topic, I learned about homogenization, which is more about Americanization. I also came across the term heterogenization, which refers to the process of adopting global culture elements into local elements (Appadurai, 295). The arguments presented in the article have helped me to understand where my thoughts and behaviors are derived. The reason why I found this item interesting is that different theorists have sharpened my mind through their arguments, and they have also challenged me to what I believe. Furthermore, the topic helped me to understand why things are the way they are as a society and helped me to reflect on “why the world is full of racial discrimination?” Lastly, I learned about representation and cultural identity.

When analyzing the article “Cultural Identity and Diaspora,” I discovered the group I belong to in society. I have learned about self-perception and self-conception and how it is related to the religion, locality, social class as well and nationality of a different group in the society (Mirzoeff, 222). In addition, the topic has helped me to build a positive feeling and has given me a sense of self-esteem. I can now use my cognition and what I have learned this week to have a good illustration of people. Through the theories that are analyzed in the topic and the argument presented, I can make a big difference in my life. Furthermore, when I was analyzing the three articles, I realized that what we learn in sociology helps us to learn about other people’s cultures and understand them so that we can better our lives. Finally, I appreciate the work of my instructor and the authors of these articles for their dedication to sharing their cognition with the world to make it better.

Works Cited

1. Appadurai, Arjun. ‘Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.’ Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 7, no. 2-3, 23 Apr. 2010, pp. 295-310.
2. Levitt, Peggy. ‘Transnational Migrants: When “Home” Means More Than One Country.’ Migration Policy Institute Online Journal, 1 Oct. 2004, pp. 1-10, www.migrationpolicy.org/print/4728#.XTcR6_ZuIRZ. Accessed 23 July 2019.
3. Mirzoeff, Nicholas. ‘Cultural identity and diaspora.’ Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing Africans and Jews, 1st ed., Psychology P, 2000, pp. 222-237.