Shift happens

                                                  Shift happens

After watching this clip, I was very startle for I discovered that it is letting one know that we need to adapt ourselves and terms to a world of invariable and hasten change. People are said to be going to school and yet are not sure of having a job tomorrow, population increasing at the speed of lightening in America, China, and India . Technology too seems to be another problem.

Here, the question is how can people get students ready for jobs that are not even yet existing? Furthermore, what is also very frightening to me is the fact that students are not sure of having jobs after they get out of school, then what is the need acquiring  education? Yes it is understood that education is always necessary or useful at all times but must people acquire it in order to use it at their job sites.

It is also terrifying that in 2002, the money that was put in Nintendo research and development was that high while only less than halve as much was being put on research and innovation in educational system. If a country can think that investing on video games will be a better idea than investing on education, that is alarming. These are two things that I don’t think even do go together. My son was doing well in school until I got him a Nintendo Wii. Now he spends most of his time playing video games and don’t think about doing his home work. I have received a lot of notices from his teachers about his negligence in his work yet he knows all the names of the newest video games. How can the government think that playing video games is going to be of any help to the kids or their parents? Anywhere, I believe very well that they only think about the financial aspect of it: how they are going to have a high market demand and how money is going to be coming in rather that what it is going to do to our kids and parents alike.

This is one of the sociological problems because kids from low or middle class families are the ones who are enthralled in this problem. Since their parents are always mostly out there working, the kids spend their time on the video games and forget about school work. While in the upper class families, the parents are always there to prompt the kids to do what is right.That is the issue with poverty, you are being punished for being poor because it affects everybody in the family plus the grand kids.

RURAL AND URBAN LIFE

 

The density of population in either the rural or urban area has an effect on the way people behave and interact with each other. The smaller the population, the easier it is for the people to become very friendly. Rural area where I lived most of my life when I was young has a life that is full of fun with houses that are well spread out and good enough space for gardening. People turn to know each other very well and interact regularly with them. In the rural area, people are being rooted in a particular place and they obviously become long term friends. That is why in the rural area, a lot of emotional connections exist and people bond with their friends and neighbors. There is also a lot of community participation existing in the rural area more than in the urban or suburban area. I am saying all this out of experience because I have lived in the two areas.

In the rural area, when somebody is having a problem, he/she is willing to seek the advice of the neighbor because they are very supportive, direct and emotional. People know almost everybody in the neighborhood. They look out for everybody and behave like a family. When one person is bereaved in the rural area, the whole neighborhood is kind of bereaved because everybody will be mourning with that particular individual.
On the other hand, urban areas are so crowded with a lot of house. People are also found everywhere but everybody kind of mind their business. While on the street as our book did mentioned, people are either on their phones talking or listening to music on their iPods. People are not emotionally connected to each other like in the rural areas. They stay far apart from each other and make friendship only for business purposes. That includes friend ship at the jobsite, schools, church, or at the stores. That is because most of them are mostly visitors who are in the city for a purpose. They don’t belong as is the case in the rural areas simply because they are there because of one reason or the other.
Furthermore, there is a lot of pollution in the urban area due to the availability of so many industries. These industries are crowded in the cities because of their dependency. They kind of depend on each other or on the people around them for their growth or survival.
With the rapid growth of technology in the urban areas, the cities are become over crowded with so many people as well as industries. Sociologist seems to have a lot of concern for this growth is becoming very alarming. I have never lived in a suburban are but I always kind of envy life in that area.

 

Alcoholic fly larvae need fix for learning

Alcoholic fly larvae need fix for learning

WEEK 14

This week we studied theories of democracy and many other things. There is democratic elitism which to me fits very well with what we are looking for in our homework. There is also power elite which according to C. Wright Mill have to do with the way power is being distributed in America. This could also play a role because even though it is not very evident, power is truly distributed differently. There are those people who are found at the top and if you do not know anybody in the company, you will never find yourself at that topmost level. Also, is the pluralist theory which has to do with the balancing situations so that everybody should at least benefit.

Going back to democratic elitism according to Weber, since it will be very cumbersome for a country to depend on everybody’s share of solution to a problem, they decided to elect one person like the president who will be like the mouth piece for everybody. This is because with a big society like America, it will be very difficult for such a system to function. That can only work well with small organizations where everybody will come together to brainstorm their problems and came up with solutions.

In this country, everybody elect the president and because he is a president, he cannot just sit and pass out laws. He uses the congress which is also made up of the house and the senate. If the senate agrees on something and the house is not okay with it, the senate will ask the house to come up with their proposals and if everybody is fine with it, the president will then pass it in to law. If the president is not okay with that idea, he will veto it and then, the judicial branch will came in to see if the idea is lawful. With all these checks and balances, put in place, one can understand that even though it is the president who finally passes a law, they make sure that everybody gets involved. That is why it is considered a true representation and not a popular democracy.

We are using the theory of democratic elitism because at the end of the day, it is the place of the president to pass the law and he has all the rights to veto it if he is not okay with the final decision from the house and the senate.

WEEK 13

 

After watching the Front line exercise about Wal-Mart and Americans, it is hard to determine whether WalMart is good for Americans or not. The retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts presenting in the exercise had a lot of reasons to justify why it was good or bad for Americans. Some says it is good because it is meeting the market test with their low prices while others are not  instead happy with the fact that the Chinese who are the producers of Wal-Mart's products are not paying their workers well. In this case, it actually depend on each individual because what is good for A cannot necessarily be what is good you B.

As far as I am concern, Wal-Mart is not a bad place in the sense that they have helped reduce the rate of unemployment by employing a lot of people. Even though their pay rates are not really that high, they are always hiring hence creating jobs for many people. Their products are also relatively very cheap,  that is the reason why they are having a very high demand. Even though people complain  about their products not being as good as compared to those of other competitors, people can't still stop shopping from them because  of their low prices.

Also, some people complain of the pay rate that the Chinese are giving to those who are producing the goods ($100 a month). They failed to understand that the living standards are different from those in America. That $100 could be equivalent to $ 1000 here in America. That is why those workers are still there and not leaving. I f you look at it keenly, you would realized that those workers might still be able to get all their necessities and still have enough money left in their bank account from their monthly pay. So, I think that that should not be an aspect to grumble about.

One reason why somebody could say that Wal-Mart is bad is due to the fact that they send away smaller businesses from some neighborhoods with their low prices. When they are available in some neighborhoods, everybody turn to shop but with them since they have everything that somebody will definitely need in the house. Since other smaller businesses cannot compete with  their low prices, they will be forced to run out of business.

Some of them are grumbling because they happens to lost their jobs at US manufacturing plants because Wal-Mart decided to go with a Chinese supplier instead. Yes, I agree that it is bad, but then, that is their choice. Since they are making profit from it that is what business is all about. That is also one of the advantages of globalization.

WEEK TWELVE

Division of Labor in households

Comparing the experience I had as a child when we were going up in the 70s with our parents, with what is going on now in my family, so much has change in the way work is being distributed within each family. I might be mistaking, maybe the differences exist but between the developed and less developed world since I grew up in Africa. When we were growing up, my dad’s responsibility in the family was only to go out and fetch money. He was the one paying for our tuition in schools. In fact, any thing that concerns finances, he was the one handling them. My dad was like our family treasury. Mowing the lawn was my dad’s responsibility because in my country, women do not feel comfortable mowing the lawn. So, he did not have any option when it comes to mowing the lawn.

When it comes to my mother, she was responsible for things like cleaning the house, cooking, attaining conferences in our schools, helping in our home work and any other house chore. My mother was also the one doing all the shopping for the house. She was like the house manager because she was managing everything in the house. In fact, that was the tradition by then that was being followed by every household in my country.

When I came to America, I discovered that the house chores are being distributed almost equally within each family. For example, in my family when I am at work, my husband takes care of anything that is supposed to be done at home. He prepares breakfast for the kids on the days that I have to leave the house early and after that, he gets them ready for school and if the house needs some cleaning, he will go ahead and do the house cleaning. It goes the same for shopping. Any of us will shop at anytime we are chanced to shop. There is nothing that is supposed to be done specifically by a particular person. When it comes to the payment of bills, we pay according to what you are earning. Since I am in school and I don’t work that much, I contribute the least when it comes to paying bills.

There are some of the things that we do like cleaning the bathrooms, straightening up and many others that we don’t look at them as work. When I looked at the list of things that are being done in our households after work, I discovered that a lot is being put in second shift without us realizing .In this case, Single parents I assume most be going through tough times.

WEEK ELEVEN

It is very clear that society, and /or the world, is secularizing because of the fact that days that were set aside for practicing Christianity are now being replaced by things like sports partying and many other activities. Even though with that in mind, as the book did mention, many people turn to embrace Christianity because of the worries in their lives. They need something to look up to especially in the times of troubles. In this case, Christianity becomes a safe haven for everybody.

I had a friend who was always falling sick all the time. It was a head arch, stomach arch, or one thing or the other. She was always in the doctor’s office. One day she called and told me that she has had a solution to her problem. She invited the pastors and Christians from one of the born again churches and they came and prayed for her and told her the wonderful work of God if she can starts worshiping with them. What I am trying to say here is that when we believe in anything, it will work well for us. My friend believed that her cure was going to come from church and started going to church. Since then she stopped going to the doctor and stopped complaining of her ill health. So many people have their individual reason for going to church. Church is like a safe haven for most of the people who attain it.

I am a catholic Christian from birth as well as my kids. I believe very much that there is a supreme being somewhere who controls the universe. If I fail to go to church on Sunday, I will feel as if my life is incomplete. When we were kids, going to church was something that we use to look up to every Sundays. It was a good thing because as kids, we were told in church that there are certain things that when you do them, you will die and go to hell. Of course, nobody wants to go hell. All these help to strengthen up kids from going astray.

Nowadays, many people don’t go to church as much as before. Now instead of using church as a safe haven, some people turn themselves to sport while some attain parties and others turn to drinking. Church is no longer a solution to people’s problems as before. In my country, there is a lot of crime wave going on among the teenagers and many people are of the opinion that it is because children are no longer going to church.