THIS IS THE END. MY FRIEND, THE END.

The first time I logged into Camosun Online I was in Salt Lake City in Utah. My wife and I had just started our three week vacation, a road trip across America with planned stops at the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Fransisco and Portland. I didn't know how often I would be able to log on and complete any of the assigned tasks but I had my textbook and lots of time to read it. Luckily for me, you can no longer escape the internet. Literally everywhere we stayed had internet access. I completed the first assignment while sipping a cup of joe at the Grand Canyon cafe....AMAZING!!!Throughout the rest of the trip I continued to log on whenever I could; usually in my hotel room after a good days sightseeing. Vegas was great, in Hollywood we got to attend a taping of the very funny Late Show with Craig Ferguson among other things and while in San Fransisco we even took a fascinating tour of Alcatraz. All in all a great trip but the icing on the cake was that because of the simple and easy way this course is presented, I did not fall behind on any of the assignments.

English 150 was a new experience for me in two ways. Not only was it the first university/college credit course I have ever taken, it's also the first online based course I've ever completed. After registering, I was both excited and nervous about what I had gotten myself into. It had been nearly 8 years since I had graduated high school and aside from completing a few self paced math courses to upgrade my dismal marks, the most educational thing I had done since was a silly online aptitude test. The marks I had earned in high school english were not very flattering and the idea of writing anything more than a post card greeting was unsettling to say the least. But when we were asked to set up a blog I thought "What a brilliant idea." and the fact that the first assignments were summarizations of short stories was extremely beneficial to me because it brought me back to high school book report mode and had me brushing up on my pre-existing writing skills.

I also loved the discussion board; thinking about the questions and reading my classmates opinions was fantastic. I found that when I wasn't quite sure about my own approach and thoughts, reading someone elses perspective often helped me to look at the question from a new perspective.

The schedule and checklist were both brilliant and extremely helpful in tracking my progress. Also the dropbox made it incredibily easy to submit my completed assignments. I really appreciated Laurie's timely responses to any of the questions that were asked in the general discussion thread and it was really cool to see everyone reading eachothers responses and commenting.

I don't really have anything negative to say about this course. I loved the delivery method and structure and would not hesitate to enroll in another online course offered. In fact I think I may just sign up for English 160 online this very day.

Thank you - Its been a blast

Richard 

  

For this week's blog entry (#10), I'd like you to write a reflection on your learning in the class this term.  What was the most valuable thing you learned or discovered?  Which was your favourite of the readings?  Least favourite?  Was there anything you wish we had covered or spent more time on?

The Ultimate Sacrifice

In "Japan's Kamikaze Pilots and Contemporary Suicide Bombers: War and Terror" Yuki Tanaka attempts to compare the mindset of modern day suicide bombers with that of the Japanese kamikaze airmen during WWII.

By digging through their private records, Tanaka identified five psychological themes he thinks the kamikaze used as "bases for accepting or responding to a kamikaze attack mission."(pg 296). He breaks these down one by one citing personal letters, diaries and Japanese customs as evidence for the themes he believes the young airmen shared. Defending the country and its people, the bond held with their kamikaze brethren, honor and respect for their parents and the contempt for cowardice are all motives that I found I could easily identify with and had I been in their shoes, are probably reasons I would base my sacrifice on. Therefore I could easily see them crossing over to the suicide bombers mindset of our day. The last theme however, "A lack of an image of the enemy"(pg 297), is one that in my opinion does not cross over to the modern suicide attackers.

According to Tanaka, the kamikaze did not have a clear concept of who they were fighting. After reading their letters and diaries, Tanaka noticed that there were virtually no references to the enemy written. This is strange. You would think that in order to commit to taking your own life in such a violent way that you would have to develop some kind of hatred toward your adversaries. Some sort of understanding as to why you would make the ultimate sacrifice. In my opinion, this is where the contemporary suicide bombers mindset seems to differ from the kamikaze.

The men and women of today who choose to turn themselves into weapons do have a clear concept of their enemy. It is a very warped and distorted one, but it is there. They know why and believe their sacrifice is not only necessary, but that they will be rewarded for it. The extremist faction of islam has created a clear concept and has convinced them that their sacrifice is a holy one that their God will be pleased with. Tanaka believes that "religion is not the decisive factor..."(pg 299) that makes someone decide to become a suicide attacker and I agree with him. However, what it has done, is created a clear concept of who the enemy is and why they must be defeated.

As far as I know the kamikaze had no religious reasoning for their attacks and Tanaka does not present any in his analysis of their reasoning. But when I looked up the word "kamikaze", I was struck by its meaning.  According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/kamikaze, the Japanese meaning of "kamikaze" is "divine wind". Interesting no? Was their also a "divine" purpose?

Do you think that the only difference between someone dropping a bomb from a fighter plane onto a crowded street and someone blowing themselves up on a crowded street is technological superiority?

OUTSOURCING FOR PEACE

During these dark economic times, losing jobs to foreign lands is the last thing an hardworking Canadian wants to hear. But in "30 Little Turtles", Thomas Friedman argues that while the outsourcing of north American jobs may be difficult to accept, it is helping to make the world a safer place.

The article begins in Bangalore, India where Friedman (a Minnesota born American), is sitting in on an "accent neutralization" class for call centre employees. Strangely though he is there to teach these young Indians a Canadian accent. Yet another job that was outsourced I guess. The title of the article, "30 Little Turtles", is taken from a rather tongue twisting anecdote the instructor was using to teach proper Canadian pronunciation. As he observes the enthusiasm these young people are putting in to the class, Friedman is "uplifted". He hears stories from some of the veteran call centre employees about the incredible effect their job has had on their life. "All of them seem to have gained self-confidence and self-worth", he says. This seems strange to the average Canadian who sees working in a call centre a mundane and unwanted job.

Friedman continues with some more mind boggling information. Not only do these young Indians want to work at a call centre, a lot of them are educated and have college degrees. This is quite puzzling to the reader. Why would someone who went to college want to work at a call centre? Unless they were in charge of course. The answer is simple. The $$$. These jobs pay upwards to $300.00 a month and in India that is pretty good dough.

The call centre Industry is a broad one. Credit cards, phones, lost airline luggage and computer software trouble are just some of the customer services provided. Friedman is especially taken back by a young engineer working tech support for a unnamed American software giant. A man who takes so much pride in his work and brags to his friends about how cool it is helping Americans sort through their computer trouble.
As someone who does this at my own job from time to time, I can tell you that it is not the easiest job and being enthusiastic about it can be quite hard.

For the young women in these call centres, these jobs are a godsend. Friedman points out that the outsourcing of these jobs has help to liberate them. Providing them with a decent local wage and allowing them more freedom to pursue an education and giving them more say in whom they will marry. This is fantastic. In Canada, women have had these opportunities for a while now and they have become easy to take for granted. Friedman makes the reader start to think about the good that has come from the outsourcing of these jobs. Not for us here in North America, but for those who are still behind us in equal rights.

Friedman gathered a small group of these young Indians together to ask them why the enjoy their jobs so much. The answers he got all seemed to revolve around self confidence. As strange as that may seem to us Friedman notes, "There is nothing more positive than the self-confidence, dignity, and optimism that comes from a society knowing it is producing wealth by tapping its own brains - men's and women's...".

On the other side of the spectrum, Friedman describes what he heard from talking to three young Palestinian men in Ramallah just 5 months earlier. Telling him they had "no hope, no jobs and no dignity...". Even calling themselves "suicide bombers in waiting." This is an area that outsourcing has not yet reached I guess. Friedman seems to be hinting at an idea for peace in the middle east. One that I think is worth a shot. Hell we've tried everything else with no success.

Friedman tells us that he is not saying that jobs in India are more important than jobs here in North America. His point is that as we here in the west continue to progress, our "low-wage, low-prestige jobs" are bound to be moved to new and cheaper locations. Locations where they are considered "high-wage, high-prestige jobs". Jobs that are pumping up the youth of these countries with self-confidence and enabling them to fulfill their dreams. If the loss of a few unwanted jobs here in Canada is having such a positive effect on the rest of the world, then I as a humble Canadian say take em'. 

Women of War

"Women Confronting War" by Jennifer Turpin is an article on the atrocities of war that focuses on the horrifying effects war has had and continues to have on women around the world. 

Armed conflict has primarily always been a male profession. In Canada for instance, women were not eligible to serve in any combat related trades until 1989. Turpin is not talking about female soldiers though. She is talking about the innocent. The bystanders caught in the crossfire of these deadly testosterone filled conflicts. "Women suffer from war in many ways," she says and she has the proof to back up her statement.

As the old saying goes, WAR IS HELL, and this statement is as true for the civilian as it is for the uniformed combatant. Turpin has some chilling statistics on the casualties of war. Half of the casualties of WW2 were civilians. This means women and children. What is even more appalling is that as the accuracy of our weapons increases, so to does the death rate of civilians. At an alarming rate of almost 10 percent every decade. These are wars that for the most part are started by the western world either directly through military intervention, (see Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam) or indirectly through the exporting of weapons to the developing world, (see the entire continent of Africa).

With death also comes destruction. As their homes and communities turn to ruble, these women are quickly displaced and become fleeing refugees trying to find cover. Turpin points out that more than four-fifths of war refugees are either women or young girls. Some of them mothers just trying to find a way to raise their children safely.

As if these women haven't yet suffered enough, they also become targets for sexual violence. Rape is a disgusting side effect of war that we seem to turn a blind eye toward. Turpin grabs your eyelids and makes sure they are open as you read some statistics on wartime sexual violence. History does not lie and Turpin lists several accounts linking the brutality of war with the hideousness of sexual violence towards women.  Forced prostitution and genocidal rape have and continue to happen to women as I write. These women are surrounded and have no where to turn for help. Even the United Nations peace-keepers have committed these atrocities. We are regularly receiving reports of rape and sexual crimes being committed by the occupational troops stationed in the middle east.

While the conflict continues, the women of war not only suffer in the hands of the enemy. Turpin points to recent research that seems to indicate a rise in domestic violence during times of war. Husbands and sons suffering form Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the sudden availability of dangerous weapons and an increase in the consumption of alcohol are all factors that could play into this. This hits a little closer to home as it is generally the only unique effect that war will have on women living in the western world. Soldiers coming home to their families often have a hard time adjusting back to everyday life here and are often haunted by the horrifying experiences they have lived through.

Turpin covers the most profound and unique effects of war on women. As a male I can't help but feel this article was directed towards me. She wants men to see that these conflicts do not just effect those who choose to fight, but even more so the ones who have no choice at all. In the western world, war is portrayed as a heroic and very macho endeavor. We are seldom reminded of the atrocities that go along with it. This article was a stabbing reminder of the ugliness war brings out in us.  

As women become more involved in politics and decision making on world issues, will we see a decrease in world conflict?

The television made me do it!

After reading "Aggression: The Impact of Media Violence" by Sissela Bok, I was immediately overcome with violent rage and felt a disturbing urge to come to fisticuffs with the first person I saw. This is not true of course. In reality I just felt a little thirsty. What "Aggression" did make me do, however, was think. Does seeing violence on television desensitize my reaction to violence in real life? Bok seems to think so. In fact she argues that the glamorization of violence by the media is in direct correlation to the rise in violent crimes.

At first this idea seems a little silly. I mean we all grew up laughing when Wile E. Coyote perpetually blew himself up trying to catch that pesky roadrunner. We cheered when Hulk Hogan repeatedly smashed Macho Mans face off of the uncovered turnbuckle. We even saw Luke Skywalker get his hand chopped off with a lightsaber (by his own father none the less). We witnessed all this violence but it never made us want to harm anyone ourselves. But then I remembered breaking my arm jumping off of my uncle Bill's bar pretending to be the Ultimate Warrior and giving my cousin a flying elbow drop. Yeah, that sucked. But hey, I was just a kid and you got to learn somehow right.

Well it turns out going through puberty doesn't help. Bok tells of a teenage couple who after watching the cult classic film "Natural Born Killers" by Oliver Stone, went on a murderous rampage as they acted out the story of the fictional psychotic killers Mickey and Mallory Knox. Another and perhaps the most famous case of media enacted violence is of course the assassination of John Lennon by the now ironically famous Mark David Chapman. Chapman of course professing he had been pushed to kill after reading J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye". These are some extreme cases and for the most part are carried out by people who are crazy. right? Well sort of.

Bok refers to psychological studies that show that the more accustomed viewers become to seeing violence, the more they will see violence as being acceptable. The viewer will find ways to identify with the aggressor and develop a lack of pity for the victim. Another study showed that within 10 - 15 years after the introduction of television, the rate of violent social crime nearly doubled.

Another cause for concern is what Bok refers to as an "epidemic of children killing children". She uses statistics to prove this pointing to the fact that homicide is now the second leading cause of death for young Americans between the ages of 15 and 35. For African Americans between 15 - 24, it is the leading cause of death. This of course begs the question. Is all this violence in the media creating actually making us aggressive?

Their are of course other factors that come into play when talking about violence. Gun control, drug abuse and broken homes are a few that come to mind. But Bok's goal is to put onus on the media for their part and she makes her point heard.

The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking about the grotesquely violent video games kids are playing these day. Grand Theft Auto comes to mind. It is also no secret that the U.S. Military has teamed up with some game makers hoping to convince kids that real combat is as cool as button mashing their controllers. This apparently has worked as they have even put out their own games depicting the ongoing conflicts in the middle east.

Do you think we are dishonoring our Veterans when we create and play video games depicting the atrocities that they had to experience in order to preserve our freedom?









  

A blind eye

While the western world entertains itself with apocalyptic tales of mutant zombie outbreaks on the big screen, "Pandemic" by Stephen Lewis reminds us of a real outbreak that is devastating the continent of Africa. In this exert from his book: Race against time (2005), Mr. Lewis first tells us about his love affair with Africa. On a whim he went there and he has called it his second home ever since. Though Africa he says had its fair share of problems in the 1960's when he first arrived, the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has ravaged the people of this soulful continent and nearly all have been effected in some way or another.

Lewis gets personal with this piece. Their are a number of things I believe he wants the reader to feel. First would be sorrow. He tells stories of the people he has met and their seemingly unending hardship and loss due to this disease. Grandmothers who have lost their own children and are now raising their orphaned grandchildren. Children (some as young as 8), who are forced to raise their younger siblings when their parents have passed on from this sickness. Mothers who are left crying as their infants are taken away covered in blankets. These stories I believe are meant to pull at the readers heartstrings. He wants us to realize just how nasty this is.

Throughout the piece, Mr. Lewis tells the reader about the types of treatment that are available to the suffering. By doing this in contrast to what is readily available here in the western world, Lewis points out the double standard we have imposed on the third world. We have said that we are more important than those people over there. They are not worthy of the treatments we have.

Next is food. When Lewis was living in Africa in the 60's, he says that people were hungary but for the most part could get by. Now when he returns, the cries for hunger are so loud he is barely able to talk about the need for better medicine. Food is the most important medicine needed and sadly there is none to be found.

Though this situation looks helpless, Lewis still has hope. Not a hope for a cure or an end to the suffering, but an end to the western worlds blind eye to the people of Africa.

Do you think that the same medical treatment should be available to everyone regardless of where they live?

A concerned neighbor...

Ever since my own so-called political awakening a few years ago, I have become increasingly concerned with our neighbor to the south. And after reading Margaret Atwood's "A letter to America", I now know I'm not the only one.

In her letter, Mrs. Atwood begins by going back and sharing some of her fondest memories of America. It seems as if she begins to daydream as she reminisces on the great american film stars, animated characters, historic authors and musicians. These people clearly had a profound effect on her. One that spawned her love and admiration for American art and culture. In doing so she seems to want the reader, (hopefully an american) to join in this daydream and think back to the fond moments these things brought to their childhood as well.

Next, the letter turns to a different message. What America stood for. Or what it used to stand for anyway. "You stood up for freedom, honesty and justice; you protected the innocent." she writes.  She states how much she believed they meant what they said. These are things that American politicians continue to tout almost every chance they get. "Give me your tired, your poor." she quotes, reminding the reader of what America stood for. Reminding them of the American idea. The idea that has drawn people from all over the world to look up to America as that "city upon a hill".

After taking the reader back to a better day the letter takes a different tone. That of a concerned neighbor.

She reminds the reader of how close we as neighbors actually are. Letting them know how much of a history and effect we have on one another. In a way telling them how much we, Canada, need the U.S.. They are our biggest trading partner and defensive ally. "If you go down..., we go down." she says. I'm sure most americans are aware of the unique relationship our countries share, but it never hurts to remind them.

After 9/11, a lot of things changed for america. Starting with the Patriot act. This act has taken away some of the basic rights given to american citizens through the constitution. This worries the author. "You're gutting the constitution" she writes, giving examples of some of theses violations, incarceration without cause, unauthorized search and entry of personal property. She then kind of teases by asking the reader how such a big and powerful country could be so scared to allow such things to happen. 

Next, the economy. She reminds america of its out of control spending and sweltering debt. A debt that I believe is now upwards of 7 Trillion dollars.

Then finally a warning that she as the concerned neighbor feels she cannot hold back any longer. The warning is simple, continue down this path and we are all in trouble. Big trouble. She states that the american reputation is at stake. That instead of being looked upon as a "city upon a hill", a standard the rest of the world strives to meet, America will be looked on as any other failed empire.  Even worse, the whole democratic system that they've worked so hard to build could be lost. 

Get back to your roots, I believe is the point she is trying to subtly get across. Remember the ideals your great country was based upon and turn things around before it's to late.  

Sadly as this letter was written in 2004, almost every warning that Mrs. Atwood gave seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The debt is still spiraling, the economy is in shambles with an unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent. America still finds itself entangled in two international conflicts with no clear end in sight.

Like Mrs. Atwood, I feel like the character Wilson on the sitcom Home Improvement. Peeking over the fence at our neighbor as they grunt and groan their way through the problems facing them just hoping that they will come asking for advice. Advice that we would freely give if only they would listen. 

If you knew they would listen what one piece of advice would you give america?