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.

WEEK TEN. JAPANESE

If I can still remember the history I did some times back, then the Second World War seems like it was very devastating to many countries. During this period, Japan attacked China and they were using up their resources. America placed an embargo on Japan which made Japan to face some difficulties in getting material to continue with the war. Japan then turn to Dutch East Indies for raw material. Japan knew quite well that their action on Dutch East Indies will attract America and they decided to attack Peal Harbor in order to disturbed America from stopping them from continuing with Dutch East Indies.

All these made America to respond by capturing those Japanese in America and detaining them. The worst part is that most of them were children who were even American citizens. In this case, one can say that sometimes when people are angry, they turn to take some decisions without thinking. It did not make any sense for the U S to be detaining Japanese who are already Citizens. They argued that those Japanese were considered as potential threats to national security. Yes one can understand but not kids.

When I read that article, I felt terrible because I did not know before that kids were also picked up in that case. I began to imagine if I were in their position, how would I have felt? I have been in the country for long and I gave birth to my kids here. They are citizen as well as I and if such a thing were going to happen to me and my kids, I will be the saddest person in the world. Sometimes, it is really hard to accept certain decisions being taken. We turn to ask a lot of questions in such cases.

On the other hand, Americans were just angry and had to react. So they just did what they thought could work best for them.

WEEK NINE

Is gender inequality a product of nature or nurture?

From my point of view, gender inequality is more of nurture than nature. There are many things that society imposes on us. To begin with, when a child is born, people believe strongly that a girl child should dress on pink and purple cloths while a boy should have blue. Furthermore, the way people take to boys even at young age already signifies authority. There are a lot of things that when people do, others looked at them as abnormal because of the way society looks at them.

Let’s begin from the way new born babies are being talked to even in the hospitals. People talk to boys in a hard and commanding voice, calling them soldiers indicating that they are supposed to be strong and fighters. But when it comes to girls, they are even handled with care and talked to in a soft and caring voice and are called princess demonstrating the fact that they are supposed to be protected at all time. According to our society, boys are supposed to be tough. If a boy comes out and starts crying too much, they will say she is a woman and not a man that he is supposed to be. This demonstrates the way society starts molding gender inequality with kids from birth.

Also, in some societies, certain things are only supposed to be done to men and not women. For example, in my country Cameroon, fire fighters are only supposed to be men and not women. If a woman finally succeeds to become one, everybody will like at her as if she is regretting the fact that she was a woman. Men will try to challenge her and talk to her in a dreadful way. When we as kids witnessed all these happen, and when we grow up instead of us questioning the inequality, we just accept it and the cycle continues.

On the other hand, some schools of thought believe that gender inequality is a product of nature. They said men because of their testosterones turn to behave the way they do. Some goes ahead to talk about the influence of hormones. To a greater extent, nurture is a product of gender inequality rather than nature.

WEEK EIGHT

GLOBAL INEQUALITY

Global inequality affects every country since it is seen as the difference in wealth and power between countries. The world is progressively more interconnected with the idea of globalization. If inequalities exist between any countries, it will affect the world at large. That is why it is very important that developed countries should step up to help the less developed countries when they are in need.

The governments in third world countries also have a lot to do when it comes to the idea of inequality. The governments have to help promote the economic development and subsidize certain things for their citizen, give out loans and promote the country’s literacy rate. Some of the governments in the third world countries instead interfere in the country’s economic development which intends keeps the country behind.

Wealth, education, health care, and technology constitute what brings inequalities in the world. In this case, if developed countries like America, France, Britain and others can step in to assist third world countries from their illiteracy level by providing schools and the learning materials, they will move a step away from inequality. Some of these countries are suffering from Epidemics, such as AIDS, Tuberculosis and malaria that are killing most of the individual citizens. If that is not solved, I am of the opinion that they might mutate and become the world’s problem.

To round it up, global inequality is something to care about because it is affecting but the whole world

WEEK SEVEN

                                               Social Class in America

Social class in America matters a lot because once you found yourself in any of the class; it becomes very difficult to get out of it. The most interesting part is that some or if not, most of those classes are being inherited. The upper class in America mostly are those people who successfully inherited their wealth via a particular folkway and if they use it wisely, they pass it to their kids and their kids pass it as well to their children too. The upper middle class usually made their own money. Just like the upper class, those at the lower level of the scale (lower class) also inherit poverty from their parents. They turn to follow the same style of living that their parents have been living and fail to understand that they find their way out of it either by getting education.

If someone could ask what class I fall in, I will say I fall in the lower class because even though you go to work every day and you are able to pay your bills and put fuel in you car, life to me is still so hard compared to what I had when I was with my parents. When we were young, my father was in one of the influential position in Government in my country. We were living a good life with butlers around helping us do a lot of things. We also went to good schools and my siblings ended up with good jobs. When I came to America, I discovered that life is so different; I had to learn how to do a lot of things by myself. Social class differ from country to country. In America, I discovered that I was found in the lower class since I could not even afford money to pay for butlers as we had in Africa and I had to start working seven days a week in order to muddle through. I was living from pay check to pay check.

It became very difficult for me to get a better job since my degree was from Africa. Some times one is tempted to say that this idea of social class is being affected by some degree of segregation. I have been at my job for five years now and been putting in application to become a manager but yet to no avail. People get hired and I train them with what they are supposed to do but still I am never qualified for that position so they said.

The Era of Technology and the Dead of Socialization as we know it?

The era of rapid technological advancement has held the world spellbound. For those who lived in a period when socialization was thought to be the process through which humans developed the skills to function as acceptable members of society, and that through socialization we could have a true learning experience, one in which not only biology but the environment also determined our culture and how we survived as human beings. No one I believe ever thought of the effect technology would have on us humans. I can attest and sincerely too, without an iota of doubt, that socialization as we knew it is slowly but surely evolving or could I say dead? Our social systems as we know them are gradually being taken over by monsters we hardly recognize. Now we are in a new epoch, a period when we have to reexamine what we generalized in the past as making sense which no longer makes sense.

While I really do love technology, I am beginning to think that the rate at which it is changing my life seems threatening indeed.  Nonetheless I find irresistible the nanoseconds it takes for me to communicate with my relatives in the interiors of Africa. In the past I use to go to the post office to send a mail to my mom and then have to wait weeks to get her reply that is, if no one ripped open the mail before it got to her. I am sure I would not like to go back to that! Nowadays I can get answers to my queries without even leaving the comfort of my bed by simply browsing from my phone. Though I know I have put on a few pounds ever since these “make-life-easy days” it makes no sense getting out of my comfort zone if I can avoid it. I assume I really adore life this way, and I am persuaded there are few people who don’t. Nevertheless I can’t help worrying at what price will we be getting all these easy days?

Yet while I am so amazed, I still know this high tech world still beats my imagination. My kids see their homework as a bore prefer to spend a lot of time on tinny gadgets that do amazing things, and tells me if they don’t watch television they might make A’s but would be social misfits. I know their definition of socialization is definitely not what I thought all these years it was. I keep on wondering why schools are not incorporating these new changes into their curricula to make learning more adaptive to the rapid changes we are now observing in our children’s world. So if you asked me, I would clearly state that technology is gradually but steadily establishing new relationships, but unfortunately not between humans, but between humans and high-tech gadgets in which we have buried our lives. We can unquestionably say goodbye to socialization and our society as we knew it, and welcome this new monster that we are just beginning to know.

 

 

Criminal Justice

Whenever we hear of the American Criminal System, what come to mind is a system that has a trusted procedure through which criminal conduct is investigated, arrests are made, facts are gathered, charges are brought, defenses are raised, trials conducted, sentences passed, and sentences passed in the most reasonable a manner as is possible so that there is this feeling in our inner core, that justice has been done. Unfortunately, this assertion for many may be troubling, and may not always be as true to itself as should be. The question therefore is, what went wrong with the justice system, or why is it that some people are more susceptible than others to be behind bars?

According to a Huffington Post blog titled Michelle Alexander: More Black Men Are In Prison Today Than Were Enslaved In 1850 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/michelle-alexander-more-black-men-in-prison-slaves-1850_n_1007368.html), it has become really nerve wrecking to revisit these questions every now and then. Shouldn’t the American Criminal Justice System be doing what it is suppose to do in a democracy? Has the system become what Michelle Alexander has described as The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness? How could the United States have stoop so low in this new age to allow one of the world’s trusted criminal justice system to be so undermined by special interest?  Tamar Birckhead in Delinquent by reason of poverty (http://jjie.org/delinquent-by-reason-of-poverty/91501) insinuate that this is a result of both institutional and structural causes, where the standard of proof in delinquency courts is determined in large part by the socio-economic class of the accused, and in my mind this scenario is applicable to other vulnerable demographic groups in the criminal justice system. The question we must ask and often is, how can we make this right? How can we avoid or intervene and to put a stop to what Michelle Alexander has positioned as the demise of Jim Crow and the replacement of the criminal justice system, as our society’s system of racial control?

Week Four

Nature vs Nurture

The nurture vs. nature debate has been an ongoing issue among scientists .Many of them think that people behave as they do because of their genes. This is therefore known as the “nature” theory of human behavior. On the other hand, some of them believe that people think and act in certain ways because they learn to do so. This is the "nurture" theory of human behavior.

It is undoubtedly clear that some physical characteristics are dogged by genetic inheritance. For example, Color of eyes, hairs, skin pigmentation and so on. But other things like weight, hair loss and susceptibility to specific illnesses like cancer are positively interconnected between genetically linked persons.

To the best of my knowledge, all of them have a greater role to play in our lives. For example, if you give birth to twins and separate them from day one, it will not change the fact that they will still look alike. They will end up having different behavior because most of our characters are being shaped by our environment. We learn a lot from the people around us. That is why if you give birth to a child and leave him/her to grow up only with animals, that child will end up behaving exactly like animals. He/she will have the features of a human being but will have characteristics of animals. Nature endows us with inborn abilities and traits but nurture takes these genetic abilities and molds them as we learn and grow. Nurture or nature, both of they have their individual roles to play in our lives.

 

HUGH LAURIE'S SHOW

Week Three

When I looked at that comedy, I had to look at it over and over to understand what was funny to the audience. They kept laughing at the guy repeating the same lyrics time and again. If  I happens to found myself in a concert like that, I will definitely fall asleep. In any case, the last part of the show was funny when the musician almost gets punched on the face or jumped over.

This situation clearly point out our cultural differences. What seems to be fun to you according to your norms will not implies to me some times. Fun differs according to societies. That is why the audience is able to see fun in that scenario while somebody from my cultural background will see it as boring.

 

The Zimbardo Prison Experiment

The Zimbardo prison experiment after watching the video indicates to me the nature of human behavior when given position of authority and power. Unequal power between groups of people can often lead to tyranny in the absence of a solid regulatory system that manages excesses that result from unequal relationships. This was the situation between the guards and the prisoners in this experiment, despite the fact that it was merely role playing, the prisoners became willing to take instructions from authority figures and were stressed up from routine sleep deprivation and constant yelling and physical punishment when the guards exaggerated their thirst for power. The experiment demonstrated situational attributions which may not necessary demonstrate the innate characteristics of the participants.  The individuals in this experiment, because of their association into the respective groups into which they were assigned, lost their individual sense of identity by becoming part of the prisoners group or guards group and behaving in a way that may be said to reflect the group identity.

Due to the human suffering that resulted from this experiment, it can be said that the ethics of this experiment were questionable on grounds that the participants were not adequately protected from unnecessary human suffering that became real during the experiment. Otherwise, specific guidelines were followed, including issues such as the purpose of the research, procedures that were to be followed, benefits of the research, the duration of the research, and other necessary criteria such as conditions of participation, which in this case were voluntary, with participants having the option to either participate or withdraw at some point in time. That notwithstanding as mentioned earlier, there was not enough oversight, to protect the participants from untold human suffering that became a reality of this experiment, and based on this alone, it can be said that this experiment lacked a solid ethical framework to accomplish the goals for which it was said and meet with basic tenets that protect human life.

About Jeroline Fai

I am Jeroline Fai, married and a mother of three. The first is a boy (12 years old), the second a girl (10years old) and the last is also a girl (just two months old). I am from Cameroon and I have been in this country since June 2006. I am taking Soc 200 as a prerequisite for a nursing degree and I am planning to transfer to Chamberlain College for a BSN program in nursing, everything being equal.  

I work in the mental health, developmental and intellectually disability field doing a job which can be demanding, but which nonetheless in my view is very rewarding, if one has the patience required and see the problem faced by the individuals we serve as not a health care problem but an educational and or developmental problem with an increasing component not only for advocacy but also for individualized support and a reservoir that requires a constant supply of learning opportunities for the individuals served but also one from which the support specialist can withdraw an enormous amount of knowledge useful in meeting the future demands of life.  Of course, that is my opinion from years of experience and relentless devotion in making a difference for those whom I have decided to serve.

In terms of hobbies, and what I love to do most, taking care of my family is my most utmost responsibility. While this is the first and most important job for me, it is also what I may entitle my default job. That is, if I am not working or studying I am taking care of my family. Of course, I also love watching the news and wrestling. These may be considered my favorite TV programs. Certainly, I do take walks in the neighborhood for exercise sometimes and increasingly now with my daughter. However, I really do look forward to Monday nights from 8 PM to 11 PM and Friday nights from 8 PM to 10 PM when my favorite sports program- wrestling comes on.