Article Response: 9

Who Will Liberate Liberia? By: Charles Quist-Adade

Dialectic Response

 

 

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
This article raised questions on the justification on Bush’s actions in Iraq and whether he is really invading in search of the imaginary ‘weapons of mass destruction’.	In the article, the author speaks about “Iraq’s imaginary weapons of mass destruction but they cannot see the real ones in Israel, India…” Furthermore, Bush was in Iraq because of the oil in Iraq. It would benefit the Bush administration to invade Iraq under the misguided term of Weapons of Mass Destruction when the real motive was oil. The Bush Doctrine would spend $4 billion to defeat international terrorism but would not liberate Liberia. Liberia does not have oil and therefore does not interest the US.	This answer would match my own ideas and experiences because of the world we live in. The world we live in is dictated by profit and motive. Business members and rich people are always out to seek more profit no matter what the cost was. The best interests of America are never looked out for instead looking to always profit. Bush and his administration were looking to seek profit even if it came at the expense of hurting and killing other people.

 

Article Response: 8

Negotiation, Not Retribution By: Charles Quist-Adade

 Dialectic Response

 

 

What question did the text/chapter raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
This article raised questions on trusting what we deem correct and incorrect and if we can really trust our perception of what we hear and see before us and what is presented by our governing bodies.	The text used the quote “politics are only permanent interests, not permanent friends”. Osama bin Laden was “courted, trained, and armed by the US to kill Russians soldiers and Afghans…”.Nelson Mandela was labelled “terrorists” by the US yet today he is described as an “international ion”.	This article relates to the way I perceive news and information. Since the rise of the internet we have been bombarded with so much information that is easily accessible to us. Now, how do we know what information we are getting is true or not? For example, with the Stop Kony 2012, a video that went viral in 24 hours had so much information about an event in Africa. As we all know now, most of this information is false. We cannot be sure of facts we hear over the internet or media. It is better to look at both sides of a story and to do some research with credible information before we form an opinion on it.

 

 

Article Response: 7

Forgiveness is Not Part of the Lessons Learned By: Charles Quist-Adade

Affective Response

       Basically, the article talks about the events that occurred on September 11^th 2001. As we all know of the events that occurred on this day, this article talks about the revenge that George Bush sought to take out on Iraq. Bush is seen as a terrorist because it was said he forgave and moved on yet the war on Iraq was still maintained. In the war on terror it was said that George Bush was seeking justice. This is hard to believe because it seems like he is seeking revenge. If it was justice he was seeking than why would he not “support the call for reparation”. It was mentioned that China and North Korea’s human rights record were worse than Iraq’s yet Bush did not target them. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction but so did China and North Korea. This is proof that Bush was seeking revenge rather than seeking justice. Of all the lessons that we were able to extract from the events that occurred on September 11^th, forgiveness was not one of them. However, looking back at the people who perished on this tragic event we learned that terror whether it is Al-Qaeda or any other group is a threat to the rest of the world. Their actions must have been condemned but the way George Bush went about it was wrong. He could have handled the situation better and phrase his words differently.

Social Justice in a Local and Global Contexts: Journal 6

Chapter 1: Key Concepts and Reoccurring Themes

Dialectic Response

What question did the text raise?	How did the text answer this question?	How does the answer match my own ideas and experiences?
What is Social Justice?	Social Justice allows equality to take place for groups and individuals in our society. It enables equal distribution of rights, opportunities and resources and reconstructs society in order to eliminate the injustices present.	This idea matches my personal beliefs and experiences because I myself can see the partition between certain groups of people. Many people are denied certain rights. For example, when I went to India last year and I went into a high end store, I walked in and there was a poor person behind me and the store clerk saw him and didn’t let him in. This was wrong because anyone should be able to go anywhere they want and not be stopped and deprived of their rights. This example here shows that injustices take place due the way someone looks, who they are, where they are from and that all ties into the status they hold.
What is the Global Sociological Imagination?	The Global Sociological Imagination is the ability and state of mind that allows individuals to understand and incorporate his/her life to external forces that impact it. This affect can be presented on a local and global level. In the global aspect individuals recognize that the actions of an individual can have a global impact.	The Global Sociological Imagination is a very important concept. It follows the ideals of providing change in the global aspect from a local effort. If people take the step of trying to make a difference on a local level, it can and will make a world wide difference. An example of this would be people who raise money locally for fundraisers, for events, and other ways and send it to a different country to help them. By this we can see that the local effort we make by raising money through fundraising will make an effort to those far away, on a global scale. We then can see that if we put this concept into practice we can change a lot in the world. This concept truly grasps the idea of individual efforts providing change in the world.. To think locally and act globally is an efficient way to motivate people to make a difference.

 

Social Justice in a Local and Global Contexts: Journal 5

Chapter 3: Social Justice and the Social Construction of Inequality and Difference

Paraphrastic Response

     Chapter 3 takes a look at the core concept of the social construction of reality. The social construction of reality is the idea that our world, the social world we reside in, is not biologically determined. The social world is actually constructed by society itself. We are fed certain ideologies which lead us to accept certain norms and values which we continue to install into our daily lives and teach others. However, the norms and values we are taught may not always be just in regards to people in society. We are stuck in a cycle of manipulation. Those who are in charge of this manipulation are the elite.  The elite feed us certain ideals in order for there to be a set difference between people. By reinforcing these ideas we generate a minority and majority, good and evil and a superior and inferior. We create certain biological myths such as “race,” and fail to see that we in fact are the ones who socially constructed then. Even though we try to distinguish ourselves as the impartial third party in this battle of inequality, we still accept that these inequalities exist and therefore allow them to be accepted. If we have created an unjust social reality, we also have the power to deconstruct it and provide for a better, more equal, society. This passage summarizes the core idea in this chapter very well:

 

 “The social construction of difference is the process of promoting inequalities or unequal access to resources and opportunities. It is a social process, not natural or biological. It is described as otherizing, or othering, i.e., the process by which minority women and men are portrayed as people who are removed in time, remote in space, marginal to society, and undeserving of equal treatment because of their alleged inferiority or irrelevance.”


This passage stood out in particular because it really gets the main idea across. Also I really value the idea that we as individuals can step up and make a difference. The fact that this biological myth of inequality present in our society is really a social construction shows that we are inevitably equal. We are the creators, so we can also be the destroyers.  Like this passage states, some people are deemed undeserving of particular rights, but I believe that no one has the right to make this claim based on physical or cultural characteristics.

Social Justice in a Local and Global Contexts: Journal 4

Chapter 4: The Sociology of Human Rights and Social Justice

Affective Response

    Socialization makes us what we are and also make us flexible and unpredictable. Due to societal constructs such as norms, values and experiences, we become trained to act and think a certain way. When we look at things going on in this world and we focus in something certain like for example relationships, people can say certain things which evidently defames another’s character. People are so broad to the face that there is so much injustice present in our society as a whole. Its sad to hear on the news when they talk about people lining up and waiting long cold nights for the newest item to hit the shelf’s but when it comes to protesting against justice for racism and inequality no one will take the time due to the dear of being labeled as “corrupt youth” or “hipsters”. I believe in the world we live in today there is a lot of injustice which does need to be dealt with. I feel that if we as individuals take a stand and put in that effort and offer our support we can make a difference. If we can look past the socially constructed stereotypes of being “corrupt” or being a “hipster” we can actually change society for better.

Issues In Social Justice: Journal 3

   Chapter 6: “Public Space and Criminal Justice” by Charles E. Crawford

Paraphrastic Response

 In this chapter, Charles E. Crawford talks about the idea of “public space.” He questions whether public space is truly public or not. What we consider to be free may not be as ‘free’ as we think. Crawford contends that society is trying to remove the unwanted people to form a better society. In fact, society has taken the role as the sole decider of who is unimportant; the rich and middle class are wanted and the poor should be removed. Crawford describes public as anyone and everyone and public as anything and everything in a physical presence around us. So as we claim certain things to be public, we feel we can reside in those places as we please. However what we consider ‘public’ is not really public itself. There are many laws and many restrictions on certain places in society. Those who wish to enter certain areas are banned from doing so. Time and space has restrictions. For example, people are disallowed to sleep in public areas. Those who try to take advantage of the ‘so-called’ public space are mistreated, especially those in the lower class. There is a constant clash between the government and the lower class on the idea of public space. A passage from this chapter that I found particularly interesting was:

   “Jeremy Waldron ( 1991: 296)  has suggested that the use of laws to control property and space at their roots are about determining who is allowed to be in certain locations. Over the last two decades numerous American cities have sought to reclaim public space by passing dozens of laws restricting the actions of the homeless.”

   This passage talks about how American cites have taken so much of the public land and put in rules restricting the homeless from being there. I think this is not right because they should call it a public place when it has so many rules and restrictions. They should allow the homeless to be free and do so in the daily lives, not kick them out of the only place they can stay.