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