Norma Cortez is fifty nine years old, she harvests lettuce heads in the fields of Yum, Arizona. Tough job little pay, but that's not the worst part. The worst part is the commute. The commute takes around seven hours. Most of the time is spent waiting to get across the border. “The life of a farm worker is hard enough,” Norma says, “but the waiting time to get to work is worse.”
Rush hour for the wait is at 4:30 a.m., eight to ten thousand people are sometimes waiting in line to get across the border to go work. You can just imagine what the scene must be like. People who step out of line lose there spot and will not get it back. There are no bathrooms available so before entering the long wait people urinate at the entrance of the tunnel. The whole area has a terrible stench of urine.
Because there are so many people waiting to get across eagerly, people are jam packed in line. A worker named Monica, 29, said she is often fondled in the crush of people. “The lines are so packed it’s hard to see who’s doing the touching to be able to do anything about it,” she says. “Sometimes we don’t even want to come to work because we know it’s going to happen. But we don’t have a choice.”
The question is this activity of all these people wanting to come work good or bad? I think its alright I guess because California's Imperial Valley and Yuma, Arizona have the highest unemployment rates in the nation (23-27%). United States citizens don't like to take the minimum wage harvest jobs. Therefore I think if they aren't going to do it might as well let the people who are willing to do it.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Monday, March 17, 2014
Animal Farm Round Up
Animal farm is a story made to give the animals in the story the characters of real people. For example Napoleon is Joseph Stalin, Mr. Fredickson is Hitler, Old Major shows sort of like Karl Marx.
When Old Major dies the pigs take over as leaders of the farm. At first it all starts out as a sort of fair farm. But as time goes on the pigs gain more and more power, led by Napoleon. They make ten commandments and at the end of the story many of them were changed and worded different, because the pigs changed them. Napoleon and the pigs just think about themselves not any of the other animals. They make them work all the time and keep food away from them and tell them lies. As a result animals die from multiple reasons and more and more animals die as the story goes on. Napoleon as a leader should try to keep everything going well for the whole farm but he does the exact opposite he just tries to make things go well for himself.
Conflict theory-
Conflict happens through out the story and the pigs use all of the conflict to keep their power. The pigs get everyone to think the humans are the biggest enemy to create conflict and pull all the animals together. To keep the animals working the pigs force the building of a windmill. Conflict always brings people together or tears them apart. In this case it was supposed to bring the animals together but it was actually tearing them apart.
Functionalist theory-
The pigs separate themselves from the other animals. This sort of shapes the animals into classes, as most of the animals besides the pigs are all working class and the pigs are upper class. Boxer worked the hardest out of anyone in the story and got very little. He deserved higher rewards but did not get them. No one was really given rewards because the pigs wanted all of the power. The animal's society never reaches a healthy balance.
At the end the pigs and the humans were sitting playing cards together and they couldn't tell who was pigs and who was a human. That describes the whole story, the humans started with all the power over all animals. Then the pigs gained power over all animals and at the end it shows how they both were controlling and power hungry.
When Old Major dies the pigs take over as leaders of the farm. At first it all starts out as a sort of fair farm. But as time goes on the pigs gain more and more power, led by Napoleon. They make ten commandments and at the end of the story many of them were changed and worded different, because the pigs changed them. Napoleon and the pigs just think about themselves not any of the other animals. They make them work all the time and keep food away from them and tell them lies. As a result animals die from multiple reasons and more and more animals die as the story goes on. Napoleon as a leader should try to keep everything going well for the whole farm but he does the exact opposite he just tries to make things go well for himself.
Conflict theory-
Conflict happens through out the story and the pigs use all of the conflict to keep their power. The pigs get everyone to think the humans are the biggest enemy to create conflict and pull all the animals together. To keep the animals working the pigs force the building of a windmill. Conflict always brings people together or tears them apart. In this case it was supposed to bring the animals together but it was actually tearing them apart.
Functionalist theory-
The pigs separate themselves from the other animals. This sort of shapes the animals into classes, as most of the animals besides the pigs are all working class and the pigs are upper class. Boxer worked the hardest out of anyone in the story and got very little. He deserved higher rewards but did not get them. No one was really given rewards because the pigs wanted all of the power. The animal's society never reaches a healthy balance.
At the end the pigs and the humans were sitting playing cards together and they couldn't tell who was pigs and who was a human. That describes the whole story, the humans started with all the power over all animals. Then the pigs gained power over all animals and at the end it shows how they both were controlling and power hungry.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Fight Club
The video we watched was about a guy who was troubled in his youth just like the kids he was helping. He opened up a gym for boxing, basically to keep these kids of the streets and keep them out of trouble. Some people may ask, well what happens when they stop going to the gym? Its hard to say if it's a temporary fix or a permanent fix. Each person is going to be different. My honest opinion is that if the kids had put there time into the boxing and stayed away from all of the negative stuff, they will be ok. If they know what it's like to work for something and how much better it is to be away from all the negative stuff why would they want to go back. But then there is always the worry that if it doesn't work out the kids will just be worse and be more violent.
Having these kids work for something is very important. After they are all done with boxing hopefully they have the working attitude to put there energy towards something positive like a job. Their instructor was in a troubled world when he was that age and he is doing good now. Like he said he wants his boxers to be people who can give their two cents to society.
So I think this is overall a good thing. It gets kids off the streets and keeps them out of trouble for a little time at least. A lot of them will maybe turn their whole life around just because of this. It shows them that when they work they can achieve. It gives them hope.
Having these kids work for something is very important. After they are all done with boxing hopefully they have the working attitude to put there energy towards something positive like a job. Their instructor was in a troubled world when he was that age and he is doing good now. Like he said he wants his boxers to be people who can give their two cents to society.
So I think this is overall a good thing. It gets kids off the streets and keeps them out of trouble for a little time at least. A lot of them will maybe turn their whole life around just because of this. It shows them that when they work they can achieve. It gives them hope.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Social Status
This last week our class learned a lot about social classes and status. We watched a movie that showed the rich, the working class, and the poor. The part of the movie I enjoyed most was the family from Waverly Ohio. It was about a Tammy and her sons, a poor family and what they think about their class. The oldest boy was kind of the main focal point and he thought of himself as higher class and better than his family. But his mom Tammy kept saying he just thinks like that he's actually the exact same. The oldest boy wanted to graduate high school and go to college to be a lawyer or a architect. Tammy always wanted to be a school teacher. There is always a way to achieve your goals but its really hard for some people. I think that both of them would have a tough time achieving those goals just because they are already in the hole. The son has a better chance though because he could get through schooling and make more money. Tammy has to supply for her children and other things so it would be harder for her to achieve her goal. Once you are in poverty and low class it is very hard to ever get out of it.
When the older son cleans the house and tries to make himself look nicer he's just kidding himself. It is what is and he cant change it just by cleaning up a little bit. It doesn't hurt anything because it's good that he doesn't just slob it all the time.
High School and Social Class-
High School is a very rough play ground. People form cliques and groups and judgments are made all the time. I'm not really talking about our school right now. But from my point of view at big high schools, things can be rough for some people. Social classes are shown at high school and I think it does kind of fit kids in where they stand. Is that a good thing? I don't think its a good thing. For example, if a kid isn't as fortunate with money and other things as other kids in his school but is very smart. He might not even give himself a chance to build a great life for himself just because the social class he's been put in.
People at our school are mostly all in the same class. Most everyone in my school are all middle class people. There aren't many cliques formed, I don't think anyone is embarrassed of people they go to school (because of class).
Mixing classes is probably tough for some people that do it. Dating someone who is in a different social class as you or having friends that aren't in the same social class might be tough. There is always movies that show a relationship of a young boy and girl but one is rich and the other is poor. Who is it tougher for? I'd say that both situations would be tough. For the lower class person they would maybe feel uncomfortable spending time with upper class people doing upper class things. The upper class person would maybe not be used to some of the things the lower class person has to do or go through. I recently went to the movie Endless Love and it gave a good example of all this. There was a very rich girl and a boy who didn't have much. They loved each other but when he first came over for supper the girl's father gave him a hard time because of his social status. The two kids were madly in love and did everything together that summer. But the girls father tried everything to keep them apart just because he wanted his daughter with someone from her social class. I wont ruin the ending for you readers because I know you'll want to watch it.
People judge class on what people own and what things they have. But that's why it's called being judgmental. A person who makes two hundred thousand dollars a year might want to leave in a trailer house and not want a nice TV or a nice car. Someone who doesn't know them very well might think that person is a low class guy but really he has more money than they do! It all depends on who you are I think. Some people have a lot of money and like to spend it, some have a lot of money and don't spend it. Some people don't have very much money and still spend it, some people don't have very much money and don't spend it. We all think we know because we see but we really don't know.
Are social classes something that as people we just make up? We don't need to categorize people by how much money they make. It will always happen I know, but the question is why does it happen?
When the older son cleans the house and tries to make himself look nicer he's just kidding himself. It is what is and he cant change it just by cleaning up a little bit. It doesn't hurt anything because it's good that he doesn't just slob it all the time.
High School and Social Class-
High School is a very rough play ground. People form cliques and groups and judgments are made all the time. I'm not really talking about our school right now. But from my point of view at big high schools, things can be rough for some people. Social classes are shown at high school and I think it does kind of fit kids in where they stand. Is that a good thing? I don't think its a good thing. For example, if a kid isn't as fortunate with money and other things as other kids in his school but is very smart. He might not even give himself a chance to build a great life for himself just because the social class he's been put in.
People at our school are mostly all in the same class. Most everyone in my school are all middle class people. There aren't many cliques formed, I don't think anyone is embarrassed of people they go to school (because of class).
Mixing classes is probably tough for some people that do it. Dating someone who is in a different social class as you or having friends that aren't in the same social class might be tough. There is always movies that show a relationship of a young boy and girl but one is rich and the other is poor. Who is it tougher for? I'd say that both situations would be tough. For the lower class person they would maybe feel uncomfortable spending time with upper class people doing upper class things. The upper class person would maybe not be used to some of the things the lower class person has to do or go through. I recently went to the movie Endless Love and it gave a good example of all this. There was a very rich girl and a boy who didn't have much. They loved each other but when he first came over for supper the girl's father gave him a hard time because of his social status. The two kids were madly in love and did everything together that summer. But the girls father tried everything to keep them apart just because he wanted his daughter with someone from her social class. I wont ruin the ending for you readers because I know you'll want to watch it.
People judge class on what people own and what things they have. But that's why it's called being judgmental. A person who makes two hundred thousand dollars a year might want to leave in a trailer house and not want a nice TV or a nice car. Someone who doesn't know them very well might think that person is a low class guy but really he has more money than they do! It all depends on who you are I think. Some people have a lot of money and like to spend it, some have a lot of money and don't spend it. Some people don't have very much money and still spend it, some people don't have very much money and don't spend it. We all think we know because we see but we really don't know.
Are social classes something that as people we just make up? We don't need to categorize people by how much money they make. It will always happen I know, but the question is why does it happen?
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