How does religion get in the way of equality for women?

In Occidental religions the situation is probably not very bad. They view women as stay at home persons who should raise their kids and feed their husbands. But I don’t really think that anyone pays attention to these concepts today, even if they believe in God and go to church. Woman here have the freedom to choose having a career if they want to. They don’t get paid as well as men in a lot of professions, which has my husband worried because he wants to retire at 40.
But some Muslim women in the Arab world seem to get the worst part. Men have to tell them how to dress, they can’t show their face in public and have to stay at home and raise kids. They are not allowed to work. I think that in some cases they have to walk a few meters behind their husbands with the kids because they are not equal. These societies put women in a second place, distant from men which are in the first place. I am sorry for the women who have to live in this society.

Reflect on your writing progress so far

Since I came to America, my English has improved a lot. When I arrived to this country I didn’t speak or write a single word in English. After eight years and working very hard I’m now studying in a University.

I remember how hard it was for me to write one simple sentence in English. I had all the words in my mind but I could not put them together in a sentence. When I was able to write better, I wanted to start to go to college. I took an English exam to be accepted in Northeastern University where I had to write a short comparation essay about my generation and my parents generation. I thought that I did very good, but my score was very low and I had to take the first level of E.S.L. I started to study English grammar and my writing start to improve. I finished all the E.S.L classes and last semester I took English 101. However for me this class was a challenging. I was able to write about interesting topics and I could organize clearly my ideas. I put a lot of effort in order to write more academically and learned more about English grammar. In my opinion I did very well and I passed to English 102. There I have to learn a lot more techniques in order to write good essays. I have realized that I can write more complex papers now. My friends and professors have told me that my writing is so much better. But I still have to work more on it.

Define decolonization and explain its effects in your own words

The powerful countries established colonies in Asia and Africa in the past. But after the Second World War they started to leave from their old colonies. This is the decolonization process. The native people then take control of the new independent country. But the process is never easy, because the native people in most cases had never formed part of the government. So the big powers leave the country and now a group of inexperienced people take control. This probably created a lot of problems. Freedom is always good, but the powers should have helped the locals run their governments.

Interesting sources that you've come accross

When I did English 101 I had to do a homework on homeless people. So I decided to interview a homeless that lives close to my house. It was very interesting for me because I have never talked to one of them as I was afraid of them. But I realize now that they are people like us, that maybe had a lot of problems in life and ended in the street, but they are not bad people. This conversation was very good for me because now I see homeless people with different eyes and I am not afraid of them. And I also got the best grade possible in this class; this was very good. Unfortunately I never got another best grade, so I think the homeless person was my best source ever.

What makes argument by pathos successful?

Arguments based on pathos can be successful because we are human beings, not machines. People are emotional and can sometimes not pay attention to logical arguments because another one touches them at a personal level. For example, if I were invited to be in a jury where a person is in trial because he killed someone that did a horrible thing to his kid, there is a big chance that a lawyer can persuade me with a pathos argument. Anyone who had ever had a baby in their hands can understand what a person can do if anyone hurts their kid. Even if I know that killing a bad person is not right, I would think about my baby and what I would do if I were him. And then I will probably say that he shouldn't go to jail. Because we are human beings and we can relate to other peoples experiences, arguments by pathos can be very successful.

Is America Falling Behind?

I do not really know if America is falling behind or not. Some things that have happened over the last years make me feel like I am still living in Argentina. Decreasing taxes for the rich people when there are portions of the population with a lot of needs is wrong. What happened in Wall Street is also wrong: a lot of bankers made mistakes and then the tax payers have to pay the bill; some of those tax payers are very poor. So when I think about these things I probably have to say that America is falling behind.

But on the other hand, good things are still happening. People still want to come to America to earn a living. This must mean that even if things are not as good as we would like them, they are better than in other places. America is still the richest country is the world. The Chinese are growing a lot, but they are still far away. I think that America is still ahead of most countries, but that they are coming closer to us.

What media sources are reliable? How do you know?

I think that in general, information from the television or important newspapers is reliable. Their reputation is very important for their business; if it is damage, they can probably go bankrupt. That is why they need to be very careful with the information they decide to publish. If they are caught with a mistake they can be embarrased with the public and loose credibility, which means money too for them. So I trust these sources. The problem I have with them is that they may be biased and don't represent the point of view of different types of people. For example, I do not expect to see in Fox network a documentary on how the inequality in America has increased during the Republican government, because they support that party. What I want to say is that I trust the source but I also know where it is coming from...
I really don't know what to think about the information that is published in the internet, in sites like blogs or other types of pages. It is good that the internet give people the opportunity to express themselves. But the problem is that you can't really know if what they are saying is true or not.

American Culture

American culture’s influence around the world. Everybody has different perception about this country and its culture. Always it depends of the baggage that the person has before to know this Nation. I have personal experience with the American culture. Although Argentina has very similar culture than The United State; now I can understand more to American culture. I feel very comfortable in this country, its culture and I feel that U.S.A new my home.
Many people have another view about American culture that it changes when they live in this country or have more contact with Americans. I was surprised by some aspects from this culture. In Argentina people think that Americans are a little cold because they don’t have a lot of physical contact. But in my opinion Americans show their affection in a different way. Also, some people think that Americans are arrogant and they don’t know about about anything else but their own country. This is really not true (as most generalizations); I’m living here and I have discovered that people from this country travel a lot to different places and they are interested about different cultures. In additional, Americans have a strong sense of cummunity, and many people go to poor countries and help poor people. I think that many times people have preconceptions about American culture, but when they get to know it first hand they end up liking it.

Is There a Solution to Eradicate World’s Poverty?

I think that nobody has a perfect answer to eradicate poverty, but I know how difficult it is to live in a developing country. The percentage of poor people in my home country is increasing every year, and most children don’t even have a minimum chance to get a decent education, food or shelter. I don’t have a magical solution for this problem. But if government officials of developing countries were to eliminate corruption and people would abide by the law, things would be much better. A more progressive tax system based on taxation of income instead of consumption would also be very effective at providing aid to those who need it most. Everybody should have the opportunity to get a good education and a decent job. If everything were to work perfectly poverty would disappear, but it is a little naïve to think that it will be gone in a short period of time. Although if some of the suggestions described above were implemented, all developing countries will be better off and people will have a better quality of live.

China's Economy

In my opinion, China will have soon the largest economy in the world. This country has developed very fast economically. Actually China is one of the Asian countries that have very strong economies that surpass Japan. Economists say if China can continue growth 5 %- 6% annually in this 2020; this country will have a growing celebrated accumulated for 50 years. It will be a might in the economic world’s economic history. In addition, China has an important industrial development that not only gives working to millions people in China, but also substance to many countries of the world. This kind of economy has helped this lot of poor Chinese people to get out of poverty. This nation has good technology that makes them more advances and a modern country. I think that China will be the next potential in the world.

Globalization

Actually everywhere we hear the word globalization. In fact, the word is globalized. I remember when my niece Lucia was six years old; was watching TV and heard the word globalization. She speaks Spanish, and globo means balloon in Spanish. She didn’t know that language the meaning of this word, so she asked me. Globalization means that the world is inside of a balloon. Really, Lucia was almost right about this. Globalization is an economic, technologic, social and cultural process that consists of communication and interdependence between different countries of the world. This process unifies economic markets, cultures and societies through a series of social, economic and political transformations that make a global character. Globalization is a dynamic process that it is generated in societies where people live in democratic capitalism or liberal democracy. A lot people agree with this process because Globalization has opened its door to the technology revolution and it makes everything more connected, but many people think that globalization economic only benefits rich countries. In my opinion time will know if globalization is beneficial or not to developing countries.

About Me

Hi!
My name is Maria and I form Argentina. I love to travel and I have had the opportunity to visit a lot of countries. I enjoy learning about different cultures and meeting people from various countries.
My favorite country is Spain because it is an incredible country. You have a lot of beautiful places to visit and it has a long history. In addition, I have a special connection with Spain because my parents are from there and my sister lives in Malaga. I try to visit my sister and meet different cities very often. I also enjoy eating food from different ethnicities, and my favorite is the Indian food. I try to prepare different dishes; my favorite food is Spanish soufflé. Moreover, there are other things that I love to do, for example cooking, reading and swimming.