"Thank you for calling..."

“30 Little Turtles” is a piece written by Thomas Friedman, a well known author for the New York Times. He tells us a story of his experiences in Bangalore India, where he met many young Indians in the process of training and preparation for their new and exciting jobs: American call centers (Friedman, 2008, p.176). I found it very interesting that such young students – many with degrees – would so keenly like to work at a call center, that they go through the entire process of an “accent neutralization class” so they can “soften their t’s and roll their r’s” to make their accent sound more Canadian (p.176). Friedman’s main idea is clearly stated at the end of his piece, saying that although our economy is getting rid of what we consider as low-wage and low prestige jobs, they may be considered as the complete opposite and much more valuable to the people in countries like India, bringing geopolitics into play (p.177).

It sounds to me that Friedman is trying alter the typical American outlook on these so called low prestige jobs, such as working in a call centre. What he wants his audience to realize is that having a call centre job may be the turning point in some 20-year-old Indian’s life, that they consider themselves privileged to have such a job. Friedman achieves this by providing examples of some responses he got from these young people, including a engineer who was working tech support for an American software company, who told him “how cool it is to tell his friends that he just spent the day helping Americans navigate their software” (p.176). Friedman describes other positive responses, such as feeling valued as an Indian in the tech support field and gaining self-confidence, which is always an important asset as a professional and a human being (p.177).

One of the quotes I found very effective was Friedman describing what three young Palestinian men he had met, expressed about their future: “Having no hope, no jobs, no dignity, and each one of them nodded when one of them said they were all “suicide bombers in waiting” (p.177). This quote was meant to create pathos for the reader as it is a great trigger for sympathy. This piece also establishes the rhetorical appeal of ethos, through Friedman’s credibility as a writer and his many prestigious experiences including being a visiting professor at Harvard University, receiving honorary degrees from several universities, and winning three Pulitzer Prizes for his writing. This all seems very logical, as this piece was extremely well written and sufficiently proved his point. It has changed my views on the way I see the people who spent their days (or nights) persistently calling me during dinner, asking me to do some survey. Although, I still may be inclined to ignore their calls. Sorry, India! Don’t take it personally.

What was your response to Friedman's piece? Have you ever called tech support and got an Indian person on the phone? What was your internal response? Has this changed at all from reading this story?

Alan Turing: Man of Secrets

“Code-Breaker” by Jim Holt is an incredible story of the life and achievements of the great Alan Turning. Holt (2008) describes the many secrets of his life, including his homosexuality; his breaking of the German Enigma code during WWII and creating a machine that would eventually evolve into the modern computer (p.337). I found it so interesting that a man with such unique achievements, only got the recognition he deserved in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, long after his death in 1954. I personally was unaware of Turing and his achievement until this reading. Now I find it hard to believe that someone of this modern, technological age wouldn’t know him!

Holt does an impressive job of informing the unaware readers like myself, with great depth and description, of his life and journey from university to the invention of the legendary Turing machine, to his time at Bletchley Park where he worked on cracking the Enigma code. “Turning set about devising a machine that would automate the search for logical consistency, eliminating contradictory chains rapidly enough for the codebreakers to deduce that day’s Enigma settings before the intelligence became stale” (Holt, 2008, p.342). It’s descriptions like this, as well as Holt’s (2008) use of imagery - such as referring to this machine as the size of several refrigerators and resembling a Fair Isle sweater with its coils of colourful wiring – that bring this story to life in the minds of the readers (p.342).

Besides recognizing Turing for his incredible achievements during his life, Holt achieves his purpose of also showing the readers an inside look of the person behind these achievements. Who was Alan Turpin? What was he like? Holt (2008) supported these questions by providing the reader little tidbits of information regarding Turing and his quirky personality, such as how he used to chain his tea mug to the radiator to ensure no one took it, and how he wore a gas mask while riding his bicycle to work (p.342). It’s these examples of his personality that create pathos and trigger an emotional response when reading about Turing’s conviction of “gross indecency” for having an affair with a man, the horrible hormonal treatment as a condition of his probation, and more than a year later, his death: ruled suicide (Holt, 2008, p. 345). It was his suicide in 1954 that started off Holt’s story and it was there that the story ended. It was a most curious death, as Turing was known for his love of the Disney animation “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Holt, 2008, p. 339). Found beside his body, was an apple with a few bites missing, apparently laced with cyanide (Holt, 2008, p. 337). Was this indeed a suicide? Or was this a brilliant murder? Whatever the intention, this was Alan Turing’s fairy tale ending.

There is a hypothesis regarding the logo of Apple Computers being influenced by Turing and his death. The logo was apparently created to represent knowledge, similar to Newton discovering gravity when an apple fell on his head. Do you think the creators of this logo were aware of the similarities to Turing’s cause of death? Is this a tribute hidden under the other concrete reasons for the logo?

War: Gender Biased

“Woman Confronting War” by Jennifer Turpin is an informative piece around the profound effect that war has on woman. As an author, dean of a University and faculty of the European University Centre For Peace studies, Turpin has much knowledge in this area, giving her great credibility and an impressive, easy to read piece of writing. Turpin starts by stating the conventional views of gender relationships to war: Men make war, women make peace (324). She then provides us with an in depth look at the many impacts that war has on women including being direct casualties of war, war refugees, wartime sexual violence and domestic violence.

Turpin is opening up our eyes to capture the truth about the lives of women behind this clouded shield of war and the brave soldiers of our country whom we are so proud of. The fact that as civilians, woman are more likely to be killed in war than soldiers (325), is extremely depressing. For myself, the most horrifying piece was around the wartime rape, genocide and forced prostitution. I had no idea that this was something that happened so frequently and was viewed as something of commonplace. How horrifying! What is this world coming to when even the United Nations peacekeepers are committing rape and sexual abuse against women and young girls. Turpin shares an example of a statement from the head of a U.N mission regarding sexual abuse of women and girls. He states, “eighteen-year-old, hot-blooded soldiers had a right to drink a few beers and chase after young beautiful things of the opposite sex,” (327). This is just another example of how rape is considered to be an accepted part of military life.

Turpin did a great job of supporting her argument though her use of pathos, which undeniably will pull at the heartstrings of anyone who reads it. Learning that a Serbian soldier would rape a Muslim woman just so she could bear a Serbian child, as an attempt to exterminate another group, is devastating. This psychological torture causes the woman to be humiliated and ashamed for carrying the enemy’s child, but also may be shunned by her own family and community (326). This was one of the many effective examples that left me with the feeling of a rock at the bottom of my stomach. Turpin also supports her examples with stats including, “Soviet soldiers raped approximately two million woman in eastern Germany in 1945,” (327). Not only is wartime rape a thing of the past, but it is also still happening today. Turpin has written an effective piece, which I can say has honestly moved me and has left me questioning why this is still happening and why no one is doing anything to prevent it or help these women of wartime violence. My heart goes out to them.

Do you think that wartime sexual violence against woman is something that Canada’s troops are involved with in Iraq? Does this influence your trust or respect for our military?

Mass Killings: No Diagnoses Necessary

“There Are No Lessons To Be Learned From Littleton” is an essay by Gary Kleck that reminds us of an incident back in 1999, where two young men armed with guns and explosives murdered 13 people, wounded 31 then committed suicide in a high school in Littleton, Colorado. Kleck follows this example to support his main idea of how it’s highly publicized violent events like this that suddenly make everyone want to take action to prevent any similar murders, yet making a diagnoses of the key problems could be irrelevant to the motives or causes of “ordinary” violence.
Kleck supports his argument with many stats of the declines in homicides and gun violence over the years and states, “If there is no increase in youth/school/gun violence, it is fruitless to search for contributing factors that have been increasing in recent years.” He explains to us that gun violence is schools is extremely rare, and that the media coverage of these rare event has eroded our perception and has taken much attention away from the “ordinary” violence.Kleck helps clarify these terms with the reader by explaining the crucial difference between mass killings and “ordinary” violence. He states, “Mass killings are almost invariably planned, while other homicides and assaults are rarely planned.” He covers other differences including the necessity of firearms in mass killings, how these killers often come from a middle-class background and have little prior record of criminal behaviour.
The purpose of Kleck’s essay is to create a greater understanding of these differences and create awareness around the unlikelihood of such bizarre events ever happening again in quite the same way. He wants us to broaden our horizons to more commonplace forms of violence, rather than tailor preventative measures to such a specific event. By writing this essay intended towards the mass media viewers of America, he is trying to reach out to the people in fear and concern, and provide them the information to settle their minds and not feel the need to jump into any decisions in the aftermath of a crisis.
In his conclusion, Kleck states, “But we will be best able to separate the issues that matter from the ones that do not if we learn our lessons from careful analysis of “ordinary” crime and violence rather than from the freakish events chosen for our attention by the news media.” I found this last statement extremely effective, as it explains his purpose and how we can achieve it.

What is your opinion on the motives behind gun violence in schools?

Media Violence: Monkey See Monkey Do???

“Aggression: The Impact of Media Violence” is piece by Sissela Bok, from her book Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment. Bok writes about the continuing issue of media violence and it’s relation to real violence. She says that it “glamorizes aggressive conduct, removes inhibitions towards such conduct, arouses viewers, and invites imitation.” This is something she tries to prove by numerous examples of researched numbers and studies, which turn out to not be as accurate as one thought.

Bok is trying to send a message through her writing to adults, teens and especially parents, of the dangers of media violence and the copycat crimes that follow. She goes on to explain how one man took legal action against Oliver Stone and his production company for their film Natural Born Killers, after his friend was murdered by a nineteen-year-old girl and her eighteen-year-old boyfriend who had viewed the movie repeatedly, prior to the event. Long story short: we never learn who won that battle. Was that story even necessary? She moves straight into the topic of sexual aggression towards woman, from male subjects who watch violent pornography. This transition caught me off guard as a reader.

I believe the purpose Bok is trying to achieve in her writing, is to raise awareness of the causes of aggression through media, but also inform us that there is not enough research to prove the precise effects of exposure to media violence, considering all the other factors contributing to societal violence. “We may never be able to trace, retrospectively, the specific set of television programs that contributed to a particular person’s aggressive conduct,” she states. “The same is true when it comes to the links between tobacco smoking and cancer, between drunk driving and automobile accidents, and many other risk factors presenting public health hazards.” This statement just confirms the uncertainty of her argument.

Bok’s writing did not affect me the way I thought it would. If her purpose was to confirm uncertainty, she achieved it. Her writing seemed very jumbled, with many examples of narrow research that didn’t really pull her point through. The writing didn’t seem to focus on a topic, but rather, give a slim amount of information on various aspects of a broad topic. Unfortunately, this was not enough to sway me on her argument, although I do believe that media does have some influence on violence, but I do not believe it’s a large factor. It was Bok’s closing statements about children that resonated with me the most. “The basic nurturing and protection to prevent the impairment of this ability [to cope with the knowledge] ought to be the birthright of every child,” she writes as her final statement. This I can say, I agree with. I love children and have learned about the importance of their development in their early years. Children are easily influenced and I’m sure most parents, out of instinct, would want to protect their child from some of the things on TV these days, which is completely understandable. I would too. Mind you, I watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles every day as a child, and look at me: I’m anything but a ninja. ☺

If you are a parent, (or plan on it) did you (or would you) put a TV in your child’s bedroom? If you have, were there any negative or violent repercussions?

To My Beloved Africa, With Love

Stephen Lewis’ piece “Pandemic: My Country Is On Its Knees” is an amazing story of one man’s journey though the many countries of Africa.  It starts in the early 60’s when Africa was “a continent of vitality, growth and boundless expectation.”  There was still poverty, but hunger was never an issue.  When the HIV/AIDS virus spread through Africa, his beloved country was reduced to desperation and was literally dying right in front of him.

I think Lewis could not have made his point more clear.  This is a serious situation.  It’s reality and it’s still ongoing.  “In Swaziland, it’s expected that up to 15% of the entire population will be orphans by 2010” Lewis stated.  He continues by telling heart-wrenching stories about grandmothers he has met, who had to bury all 5 of her children and a 14-year-old girl having to be the mother of the house and all her younger siblings.  I know that it is a common known fact that Africa is greatly suffering from the AIDS pandemic, and Stephen Lewis knows that too.  But what he is trying to achieve is to give a closer, more personal look.  It is proven that we are more likely to care about something, if we can relate to it on a more personal level.  That is exactly what Lewis did.  He was building empathy within his readers by describing to us, in great detail, some of the tragic sights and situations he came across on his many journeys. 

One of the examples that stood out in my mind was, “To the right of the door stood his two wives, one seventy-six, the other seventy-eight.  Between them they had given birth to nine children, eight of whom were dead.  The ninth was visibly dying in our presence.  In the interior of the hut, the orphans had gathered, and sitting on the floor, looking up at us expectantly, were thirty-six orphan children between the ages of two and sixteen.”  Another example that really made my heart break was, “There, kneeling by the side of a bed, embodying anguish and despair, rocking violently back and forth, was a young mother crazed by loss, watching a nurse firmly place a sheet over the body of an infant and take the child away.”  There were many examples similar to these, and I found all of them very effective.  There was nothing in his writing I found not effective.  It was brilliant.

This is a topic that is very close to my heart, as I was born in South Africa and therefore have citizenship.  I have been back twice since then, and have seen with my very own eyes, the poverty and suffering that resides there.  It was easy for me to fall in love with Africa all over again, the way Stephen Lewis did every time was there.  “Pandemic: My Country Is On Its Knees” is a beautifully written piece that re-opened up my eyes to the desperation of Africa, but also shows the readers that there are treatments and organizations out there, and that we CAN make a difference in the lives of people living with AIDS.  Lewis’ personal stories will remain with me forever, and I hope they had the same effect on you.

If given the chance to work along side with Stephen Lewis, on a project in Africa, which country would you visit, and what would be the focus? (Education, medication/AIDS treatments, nutrition, recreation, housing or clothing… anything.) J

I’ve attached a picture of myself (at age 11) in a town called Sowetho, just outside of Johannesburg, South Africa.  It’s a very rural area with much poverty.  Homes are made from scraps of tin and metal, about the size of a small dining room and usually sleep about eight people. 

You Say You Want A Revolution...

Letter To America: By Margaret Atwood

In this letter, Margaret wrote about the serious changes that are happening in America right now.  She wrote to clarify the identity of this country that she no longer knows.  Margaret expressed her confusion towards their current economic and constitutional path, referring it to the downfall of the USSR.  She wrote this letter to show America - from the view of a Canadian witness and caring neighbour - a glimpse of what they were, to what they are becoming, along with a passionate warning that change needs to happen.

 Margaret began her letter by referencing the wonderful memories she has of American culture, such as Mickey Mouse, Ella Fitzgerald and Humphrey Bogart; simply stating “You were a ton of fun.”  She went on to write about the American Constitution, saying “You stood up for freedom, honesty, and justice; you protected the innocent.  I believed most of that.  I think you did, too.  It seemed true at the time.”  Margaret used this positive historical evidence to further strengthen her argument of change, not necessarily change for the better. 

I believe the purpose of this letter was to open up America’s eyes to really take a look what they are doing to their country and who it is affecting.  As Margaret stated, “Because your business is no longer merely your business.  To paraphrase Marley’s ghost, who figured it out too late, mankind is your business.”  This statement brings America’s downfall to global proportions.  It resonates especially strong with Canada, as Margaret described our strong connection with them:  “As for us, you’re our biggest trading partner;  We know perfectly well that if you go down the Plughole, we’re going with you.  We have every reason to wish you well.”  Margaret achieves this purpose by providing the reader with examples of statistical evidence as well as “what-if” scenarios, letting the reader imagine the long-term consequences of the current path America is taking. 

Her insightful paragraphs of the statistical evidence I found very effective.  She began many of these paragraphs with a strongly stated fact, such as, “You’re gutting the Constitution”, “You’re running up a record level of debt” and “You’re torching the American economy.” Margaret continued by supporting these statements with facts and questions that led to her reasoning.  However, her least effective quote (in my opinion) was probably one of the earlier references, such as, “You were Hammett and Chandler, heroic walkers of mean streets” or “You were Lewis and Arthur Miller, who, in there own American idealism, went after the sham in you, because they thought you could do better”, simply because these references are before my time, so they did not resonate with me.  Perhaps they would support a stronger message to someone of that generation.  In all, Margaret Atwood’s letter was a very in-depth view of the American recession and her unique style of writing made it a pleasure to read.

What do you think of when you hear the word “Revolution”?  Does it need to be violent or irrational?  What about a Peace Revolution?  Do you think America would stand a chance for positive change if they could open their mind to a different understanding of this word?