HW 37: Podcast Number 2

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #31

HW 36: Podcast Number 1

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #9

HW 35: Dear Blog Readers…

So blog readers, the end is coming… well the end of the semester is coming. This is one of my last blog posts for the class and we were asked to write a letter to all of you letting you know what our experiences were using the internet as a means of communication. I have learned over the past 13 weeks that blogs can be a means of empowerment for well, anyone. You can be an anonymous writer and write what you feel instead of everyone knowing who you are. I hope everyone could learn about all the things I have learned about in class from reading my blog. Hopefully everyone who has read my blog has learned something new and could understand where I come from with my opinions. I feel very proud of all my work. I was so nervous about putting my writing on the internet where everyone could see. I usually don't like people reading my work but with this blog it has helped me be more confident with my writing. Once this class is over I think I will keep my blog going. Not with answering reading prompts but maybe with things that I enjoy and hope you would too. I'm not sure how many readers I have out there but I hope there are some, and I would like to say thanks for reading…. And yah, I don't know what else. Ha-ha.

Sincerely,

Lindsay

HW 34: Tea Time in Baghdad

Reading about the custom of tea in Iraq from Baghdad Burning this week was really interesting. I learned that in Baghdad you don't use teabags when you drink tea. "If you serve "teabag tea" to an Iraqi, you risk scorn and disdain—a teabag is an insult to tea connoisseurs. It speaks of a complete lack of appreciation for the valuable beverage." (Riverbend 108) This shows me that they don't mess around with teatime there. They use actual tea leaves boiled in water for their tea. Riverbend speaks very highly of their tea. She talks about the glass cups they drink the tea out of called "istikans" that are shaped like the number 8. She also says that the color of the tea needs to be the perfect deep red-brown color. Another thing she points out is the amount of sugar each person gets. "2 spoons for dad and I, 3 for E. and one for mom." (Riverbend, 109) they talk about lots of things such as hijackings, demonstrations, gas, or empty water pumps. This tea Riverbend and her family talk about the Turkish troops. This is not normal for us to see talking about at the dinner table, but to them it is everyday conversation.

Lindsay

HW 33: Iraqi Podcasts

I recently watched a podcast called "Challenges at a Girls School in Baghdad" from the Alive in Baghdad series. This podcast was published on May 21, 2007. You can view this podcast at http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/. This podcast is about the trouble they are having at a school in Iraq because of the war going on there. They talk to a director of the school, a teacher, and some students at the school. There is one girl that stuck out to me in this podcast. She is an Iraqi girl that is wearing a white headscarf. She talks about hearing explosions near her home and having to have her whole street and she could not get to school. She says she has lost the day's lesson because she couldn't be there. She also talks about how her family is nervous about sending her to school because it is far from her home and she needs to continue to go to school to keep up with her studies and do well. She also says that her family wants her to quit school but she insists on going. She says she could switch to a school closer to home but she is familiar with the school she is at and the teachers that are there. The opening shot is of a schoolyard. There are trees and other buildings behind it. It is bustling full of girls chatting and being together. As they go inside the building looks very old and worn down. There are some decorations and a poster on the wall. The walls are white or grey. The teachers have a blackboard and chalk to teach with. They share their desks with one other girl. There are some girls that wear head scarves in the school and some that don't. A viewer of this podcast might learn what people have to go through on an everyday basis and that women do go to school and they are not confined to the household. This is not what you see on the news. You don't see children getting an education or anything. The buildings do look similar as in broken because of the war. What is most memorable thing about this podcast is that it opened my eyes to see how many girls are in school and want to be there.

Lindsay

HW 30b: Citizenship Symposium #2 – Guest Scott Ritter – Citizen Soldier and Global Warriors: Challenges of Iraq

The second Citizenship Symposium session I went to was called "Citizen Soldiers and Global Warriors: Challenges of Iraq." Scott Ritter was the presenter of this session. Scott Ritter is an American Patriot. He was a Chief Weapons Inspector and was in the Marine Corps. He is also an author and is from New York. He told us that he would first talk to us and then he would flip it around and let us direct questions to him. "Without debate, dialog, and discussion we have nothing," Scott tells us. He really focused on what it meant to be a citizen, a soldier, a citizen soldier, to be global, a warrior, and a global warrior. Each at their separate times were explained with great detail rhetorical questions and an expressive voice. He emphasized the phrase "We the people" a lot. That phrase is from the preamble. He told us that the constitution was for "We the people" not for anyone else. "I love my country," Scott says near the end of his presentation, and I believe him and he was greatly appreciated for coming to Keene State College.

Lindsay

HW 32: School Supply Time!

The next section that I read from Baghdad Burning by Riverbend was really neat. She talked about many different topics but my favorite was when she talked about shopping for school supplies. She went with her cousin and E. to pick out some school supplies for her cousins two daughters. Her daughters were 7 and 10. "So we packed into the car and headed off for a shopping area in the middle of Baghdad." (Riverbend, 94) They don't have malls like we do here in the United States, they have smaller shops on the sides of streets. Riverbend had a little bit of trouble choosing notebooks for the younger of the two girls. She had to choose between Winnie the Pooh and the Lion King. She eventually chose Winnie the Pooh. Choosing school supplies in Baghdad is just like buying you supplies here. They have notebooks with characters on them that you want when you were their age. She got back to give the notebook to the younger of the girls and she was mortified that she had Winnie the Pooh and she wanted Barbie. We can see the similarities from Baghdad to the US and it is really neat how they compare.

Lindsay

HW 31: Baghdad Burning Terms

One term that I saw in Baghdad Burning was depleted uranium. I really didn't know what that was when I came up to it and how it got people sick so I went to investigate more. Looking at the Wikipedia for depleted uranium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depleted_uranium#Armor_plate I see that depleted uranium is the uranium after the removal of a certain isotope. They use this depleted uranium in aircrafts, radiation shields in medical radiation therapy machines and containers for them, while the military uses it for defensive armor plates and tanks. It is controversial to use in ammunition because it is very harmful for the environment. It has been known to be highly toxic to mammals, but is not known to cause cancer. It also can increase birth defects in children that are born from people who have been exposed to depleted uranium. This has been used in Iraq before, in 1991. Riverbend thinks it might have been used in this war too. Riverbend tells us "I remember seeing babies born with a single eye, 3 legs, or no face—as a result of DU [depleted uranium] poisoning." (Riverbend, 47) So I see that this is in the book because this happened in Baghdad during the war.

Lindsay

HW 30: Citizenship Symposium #1 - Guest June Cross – Secret Daughter

"Keene State College's 2007 Citizenship Symposium offers unique ways to consider enduring, vital, and necessary questions on voting integrity, how to define a citizen, U.S. Constitutional rights, and citizen responsibilities. The Citizenship Symposium is a four-day opportunity to come together to learn about and discuss contemporary problems involving immigration, race, the environment, campaign politics, and the media's role in informing citizens" (Symposium Pamphlet)

The first Citizenship Symposium session I went to was called Secret Daughter. Secret Daughter is a documentary about a woman named June Cross. June Cross also made the film. June Cross is a professor at Colombia University and won an Emmy for her documentary. June is a reporter, storyteller, journalist, and an editor. She has worked for CBS and PBS. She also wrote a book based on her documentary called Secret Daughter. June Cross's documentary was about her life growing up as black woman with a white mother and a black father. It aired on November 26, 1996.

June's mother was white and when she was born until she was around 5 June lived with her. When she was about 5 or 6 her mother sent her to live with her "Aunt" Peggy, who was a black woman, that lived in New Jersey. She grew up with mostly all black people except when she was with her mom, who told everyone she was adopted, she was with some white people. Her father was a black man named Jimmy. He was an entertainer from the Stump and Stumpy Show. Something I never realized is "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (Jimmy Cross) I now see how this can be. Her granny, June, could not get past her black skin and didn't care for her. "I don't want to be a secret anymore because my race is inconvenient," says June. Everything was fine with her father Jimmy and her mother for a while, until her mother didn't want to do it anymore, and her father's show was not doing as well as before. Jimmy became an alcoholic and abusive. One night June's mother called Jimmy the N-Word and he beat her and yelled at her. June's mother snuck out of a movie theater when her and Jimmy were there and left forever. She reconciled with her mother and her mother was interview throughout her film. Her mother passed away 7 years after the documentary aired. Her father passed away in 1963 from cancer.

Lindsay

Testing 1… 2… 3…

This is me trying to use a blog post feature on Microsoft Word 2007. I'm not sure how this is going to work… but it is worth a shot!

Lindsay

HW 28: An Open Letter to Riverbend

Riverbend:

I really now see myself as a misinformed American. For the first few days in your book I realized all the misconceptions that the news shows us about your country. Here in the United States Iraq is portrayed to us as dirty, has dusty roads, people live in shacks on these dirt roads, people in cultural clothing, and men and women have different things they are allowed to do. Reading your book you tell people that you have computers, jeans, sophisticated bridges and highways, and fast cars. You also said that you had a good job working with computers. I didn’t think that women in Iraq had jobs like that if at all. These things are shown to the US extremely different. I realize many people from the United States act like this. You said “And keep one thing in mind—tanks and guns can break my bones but emails can be deleted,” after seeing the e-mails from others criticizing you. I think you are so brave to be putting your view out on the web and in a book, and some people just can’t handle the truth of other views of the war. It’s ridiculous and I greatly appreciate what you have done by opening my eyes and other peoples by writing what you do and showing another view about the war and Baghdad itself.

Sincerely,
Lindsay

HW 27: What's Going on In Baghdad Burning

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq. New York: The Feminist Press, 2005.

The authors name is Riverbend. We only know her as Riverbend because she is a woman from Iraq that is writing in secret so she won’t get caught by her country. Iraq’s laws are different then the US’s and women aren’t allowed to do many things we do. She is in Baghdad and writes when she can because the war going on keeps making the electricity go out. This book will show me the behind the scenes effects of the war in Iraq. I will also learn a lot about the culture and what the war is doing to the country as a whole. This book seems very informational. It may be hard to process all the different things she says sometimes. Also a lot of the names of people are Arabic and I have a hard time pronouncing them. I am happy to be reading Baghdad Burning and I am up for the challenge.

Lindsay