Last Blog

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/archive/2/2a/20090218175200!Vietnam_war_memorial.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vietnam_war_memorial.jpg&usg=__YiLOtWsuLOLeIewIMjUraHdrwAo=&h=2112&w=2816&sz=2419&hl=en&start=37&zoom=1&tbnid=jck0trthY9xgwM:&tbnh=120&tbnw=163&ei=ZUwGTrLbJuHYiAKJ38naDQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvietnam%2Bwar%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1138%26bih%3D555%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=440&vpy=63&dur=0&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=130&ty=117&page=3&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:37&biw=1138&bih=555

I feel this picture represents ALOT of emotion. It shows shame for our country as well as some sort of symbol of heroism. It's crazy to me how Vietnam should be a terrible image in our heads about NOT butting into other countries business, yet we still seem to do the same thing!!! It is shameful that we went in there for a reason to help...yet it turned to be for unknown reasons, that just wasted innocent lives. It is horrible to remember all those that died innocently out of cause of America's what to be on top of the world in some way. I feel like it is also a good picture, symbolizes our aid. It is confusing all the emotions and symbols mixed in, and one really has to think deeply about it!

JEREMMMYY SORRY IT"S ONE DAY LATE!!! :(

Comparison Between the Two Readings on War

In comparison between the two I see a big similarity. A similarity that shows that going away to war is harder than it may seem. These soldiers that go on and put their life on the line for others, yes, they may be "tough" on the outside and whatnot but secretly perhaps there is that fear. That fear is portrayed through different objects and pieces of "artifacts" that different soldiers carry in order to cope with the fear of losing their life as well as dealing with the trauma of being out in the front at war. In Sturken's article she states the very pieces of artifacts such as photographs and whatnot and in the book O'Brien he shows what different soldiers had and carried along their trip at war. Each person carries something different that they feel would help them survive.

I feel like with war, it's difficult for everyone especially because we are all in different situations. If I was out at war I would be extremely terrified and would probably hold on to pictures and a diary just to list my stories about being out on the battle front, and pictures of my loved ones.

Those who risk their lives for the sake of countries, well we should all really appreciate them and realize what they are doing, cause I know if I chose to be out there, I would want ALL the support I could get!!! :)

Final Thoughts! :)

I never really thought about immigration a lot until I was really exposed to it now. It was really nice to learn about SB1070 cause I had learned about it, but didn't know to understand it. It was SUPER eye-opening to learn about that state, Arizona going about immigration and getting our whole classes inputs on it. I think that I am still in the same position I was in in the beginning of this. I still believe that immigrants should be given a fair and equal chance at getting legal rights..but there should be limits/regulations and etc. I mean, technically if you REALLY think about it, we are just a bunch of immigrants who got lucky to be granted with legal papers. I feel like everyone should have an equal opportunity at things... especially a strive for a better life, cause heck...isn't that what EVERYONE wants/deserves?

Knowing What We Know...

Knowing what we know about SB1070 Immigration Law is Arizona, it seems like a "legal" tactic to get rid of all those illegals. Those living in Arizona perhaps who have heard of this law, can easily just flee the state and head on out to another one. It DOESN'T really seem like we are getting RID of illegal immigrants, seems like we are spreading them around the country, don't ya think? Anyways, regarding jobs, illegal immigrants can only do certain jobs, they can't just apply at Google for example without a degree or anything and work there, they have to do jobs that for example require not much background in education, perhaps not even speaking English just to communicate slightly, and doesn't include being paid minimum wage because they aren't declared to the Gov't. I don't think anybody in America that has a degree for example, or maybe is legal would WANT to work those jobs, so they are left to the illegal immigrants. They aren't really taking jobs away, they are just working the jobs no one honestly wants to work. I don't think many Americans would want to work in a field picking strawberries or something as such, but an illegal immigrant who isn't very lucky would accept it gladly because heck, it's not the greatest job in the world, but it's a job and their goal is to survive and strive for a better life....it's a start for them. I don't think the recession plays much on this topic...still not many Americans would be willing to work in a field for money. I think this bill stirs up a lot of unnecessary controversy. It's a federal problem, I feel like them taking action to enforce it in the WHOLE country would be at best. Because now, all those illegal immigrants have actually spread across the country...doesn't that make it more difficult to fix this issue?

Thoughts on SB1070

I feel like after reading it, it made me want to question why they input this bill in the first place. Yeah, I know it's to eliminate illegal immigration but there has to be some sort of deeper meaning, at least that is what my gut feeling is telling me. I don't know it seems a bit odd to me, the bill itself. I feel like there are already laws against immigration, that won't REALLY stop people from being illegal. And the part about "having some sort of suspicion" seems quite unclear. What defines suspicious, and etc? Is it just cause the officer wants to? I don't seems a bit unfair, but then again nothing is fair :/

Essay on our Crisis, Who is to Blame?

                                                                Who’s to Blame for the U.S Crisis?

                Imagine yourself having a debt of over 2 trillion dollars, or maybe even a debt that is continuously rising? Imagine having a whole country to maintain and people continuously arguing about what you should do and that perhaps you are the blame for the deficit. Ever since Obama has come into power there was the need for change, the need for changing the way Americans think and trying to make the US better. But sadly in 2008, the largest recession ever known the American History rose. Many like to think it is the fault of Main Street, others like to think Wall Street, and others think old President Bush. Many have their opinions, but facts can only prove and point to one who is the cause of this entire problem. The CEO’s of the largest banks planned everything according to their benefit, and forgot the rest of the world, creating debt to Americans, and hoping that their plan would go accordingly, but nonetheless it failed, and those who have to pay are the citizens of the state.

                The Obama Administration has long been working on a plan in order to salvage the economy and make it better, while the CEO’s are getting large bonuses and regular citizens are now asking for Food Stamps. Families were cheated, “the resulting stock market decline wiped out many people’s savings and retirement funds, and the values of homes dropped nationwide” (Johnson 138). Americans thought that by investing in homes and saving up money they would one day see it in progress, yet they were only cheated out of their money. The CEO’s had a plan instilled; a plan that would make them richer, yet as selfish as they were they forgot the rest of the nation and how to help them. In order to be able to purchase a house, one must be able to afford it, that’s typically the rule. But these banks were approving loans to people who would never be able to pay back what they received for the house. The banks were thinking that perhaps they would get more money out of the interest that the people had to pay rather than the loan itself. This is where they were wrong, how could a couple let’s say that just wanted to start a family that have never saved be approved for a maybe 500,000 loan and be expected to pay it back over a certain time working regular jobs? That in itself is an act of stupidity on behalf of the banks performing acts as such, ruining a whole country in its entirety.

                These financial institutions have long been trading and performing transactions in large risks. These are what the banks are known for, more or less gambling and hoping for a large sum back, but this time that game failed on them, and Americans are ones having to pay. These are the ways that the banks have always done it, it seems like to me it was more a long luck stroke for them. But officially in the end all they actually received were large paychecks for themselves and Americans with no money in their bank accounts. How could a group of people or persons even think of doing such a thing? Risking people’s lives for themselves? Seems like a careless, selfish act to me, but one day they will pay for that they have caused. These banks functioned exactly like this:  

“Structured finance that involved lending without using capital (money), enabling a small amount of money to leverage (control) bigger and bigger investments. Investors also embraced securitization: Banks would sell car loans, credit card debt, mortgages, music royalties, and other assets- all involving regular payments-by packaging them in trusts that pay bondholders principal and interest.  Investors could opt for low risk and low returns or greater risk, potentially yielding the largest profits. Derivatives, contracts, based on stock, bond, or commodity and specifying the selling future cash flows, became another means to buy and sell risk. Derivatives and securitizations have been sold and resold around the world” (Johnson, 139).

These are exactly what the banks performed up until the recession and market crash of 2008. Having these banks literally gamble with people’s money putting on insurance for themselves so they would not lose money and when they did lose their money, perhaps that man that was really excited about his new car loan was actually worth nothing and ended up losing it not having enough to re-pay it.

                Most would state maybe it isn’t that fault of the banks, it is actually the President of the United States who should be able to control and oversee the way these financial institutions are running. But many actually don’t understand is a President only has so much power. Generally there is the Senate that has to agree, as well as the House of Representatives. It shouldn’t be up to the President to truly overlook and manage these banks. There are laws and there are regulations, but obviously these banks did not follow them and landed us in a large hole of problems only having safety nets for themselves. “He [Bush] certainly presided over a widespread failure of regulation, and on his watch, the US authorities did little to prevent the sale of millions of mortgages to people who could never afford them” (Wood 2). These are the very arguments many seem to have about the Bush Administration causing this downfall upon the US, but many fail to see how the Bush Administration was caught up in other issues as well. How about the war with Iraq, the War on Terrorism right after September 2011? There were many issues surrounding Bush, though he had his defective ways of going about certain things, he still relied on the Banks to do their job correctly, and yet they failed causing a whole nation to fall.

Many would argue that Obama is to blame for the situation but as many the American people haven’t been educated enough about this problem enough to try to resolve it. They believe that we are just borrowing money we don’t have because of certain ideas, but that is not the case. In order to fix these problems we must change the laws against big CEO’s and change the laws against big corporations. As long as the tax code is, 80,000 pages including hundreds of thousands of loopholes for corporations that would be able to change our system for the better. Being able to raise the taxes for the rich and not allowing big bonuses for CEO’s to be continued. In order to fix this country we all must act together, or perhaps one day everything would really fall apart. It’s better to fix the problem now, then keeping the trench we are in until we are officially stuck. L

Last Thoughts on Our Crumbling Economy...

So, as this essay came to an end, and actually writing this essay, I thought A LOT about the US, and the world in general. I really like how my professor is having us learn about all this Real World stuff, and really understand deeply where the root of the problem is. I never really understood how or why the American Economy got so bad? I just knew that a couple of banks were cheating people and that's it. I think it's really interesting though how people can be so selfish, like those CEO's giving themselves bonus, I mean, it's not like they don't earn enough already ? But anyways, other than that, it seems to me this is not going to be in MY lifetime that things are going to be fixed, maybe in my kid's lifetimes or maybe further than that, but it seems like we are more and more in debt literally BY THE SECOND, so if we really don't start fixing things and REALLY trying to live by the "real" world rules...America will only go downhill from there... :/ and that's definatley not a good thing, not for America nor for any other country in that matter!

JP Morgan & Chase

Chase has recently become one of the top few banks, but before the recession there was a lot it went through in order to rise to its name. Before the recession it was one of the largest most strongest banks in the US.
JP Morgan and Chase was a couple of branches before it was officially named "CHASE". It was founded by John Thompson, Salomn P. Chase and many others. It was a slow fast growing company that bought Bank One and many others to officially buying even Washington Mutual and becoming Chase headquartered in Manhattan, NY. It is currently CEO'd by Jamie Dimon in his third term as being the CEO of Chase. He has seen a lot from the company from going to its negatives and positives.

Before the recession on 2008, stocks were at .47 cents each, and after they are now worth 47.15 and counting.
So instead of actually tanking after the recession it boomed, its stocks went up HIGH in price which is very interesting.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Chase_al.jpg This is post the recession, and after, its assets and liabilities in millions!

The company received more than 20 billion in TARP funds and at the end of 2009, it actually paid back 25 billion in TARP back to the government, stating "it never needed the bailout money in the first place".

The bank actually was involved in sub-prime mortgage lending during the recession and didn't admit to it, until of June 2010 it came out and stated that it had cheated Military Families and many of millions in dollars over losses and repaid more than 2,000,000,000 in money back to those who were cheated during the recession of 2008.

Before the recession CHASE reported its revenues to be 26.3 Billion dollars, and today it stands at 33.4 Billion dollars just recently!

I think every major corporation is related to the financial crisis occurring and that has occurred . They all lied and tried to cheat people in the system to make sure they got their share of money! James Dimon CEO actually got 17 Billion in Stock Bonuses, not cash after the recession while some were starving.

Seems like a crazy, un fair world to me. How can these CEO's cause such an issue, and recieve bonuses for them? Just does not make sense!

Affecting the U.S?

I think that free trade has A LOT of affect on the U.S and other countries it works with. It seems like a trend, certainly with the idea how with us in America, it's always about getting the cheapest prices for supplies. To me it seems like this affects the US worker on many accounts. It actually ruins jobs in America , especially the fact that we don't have a lot of jobs in the U.S especially through the struggle of the economy and the fact that we are exporting our jobs is even worse. It seems like free trade has more negative effects than actual positive affects. I think that if we as a country were to go ahead and open new factories, there are a lot of bright people here who come up with great ideas/inventions. We counld always produce them here, export them out and make a whole lot of money out of it. I think especially since the fact we are going through a terrible crisis it would make a lot of sense to do that. But I feel like a lot of the laws are getting in the way, but either way, we need to find a solution to fix sweatshops in other countries, and to be able to fix the economy and etc. It would only benefit our society. :)

Sweatshops and Their Effects on Our Society

Hello, this is my second response to my teacher's question. I really like what we are currently discussing in class as it has truly opened my eyes to many of the terrible things that are happening elsewhere in the world, systematically because of the U.S . It is interesting to learn about all these different things/problems that are going on in this world. It makes me think how problems that I might have and complain about are truly SMALLER than the rest of the world's problems. We learned about how their are sweatshops here, and in other countries, that other people make our clothes that we put on our backs. Yeah, we get to buy our clothes for cheap, but look at those people that are living in the other countries that are making our clothes don't even get half of what we pay to buy those clothes. You would think that those people that our making our clothes are getting paid good money and getting to work in regular working conditions, but we figure that truly is not the case and we learn that this society actually has some problems with it. We learn that those that make our clothes are actually of what we would call the very "lower class" in society, because quite simply they are the only ones that really take these jobs. They have no other options many would argue, and that we are actually helping them because otherwise they wouldn't have anything else to live and survive with. But what I would think is that, because these people are taking these horrible condition type jobs, we should at least pay them for what they work for. Most of these people are poor women who are living in the ghettos of their country that have absolutely no rights, trying to keep their family alive. But why should we be allowing this to happen? Why can't people be more thoughtful about these people? It's sad to think that this is what our society has come to. Some can argue, protesting by not purchasing, but we are hurting those who make the clothes, others argue to buy less, but we are still purchasing, maybe even boycotting the companies, holding protests. But how much of this is going to work since not many people would even consider doing that. Some might argue they have no time, or whatever the case may be. But to me, I feel like it should be more of an organized protest from the people, and the people working in our governments. This is a very big issue, it is about human rights. It does not matter if it's about paying more for items, because like a classmate of mine pointed out, if we mass produced Nike's in the U.S, how many people would truly buy them for their full price of let's say $900 or whatever they would go for, it would force the companies to re-think what they are doing. I feel like if more people would to learn about this topic, more people would help out. It's a matter about caring for one another in this world, and if we can't do just that, than honestly, what kind of people are we and what are we doing to our world?

Very First Blog!

Hello, this is my very first blog that I am ever posting. I think it's really neat that my Professor is asking us to do this. This will help me learn about other's ideas and thoughts and will give a chance for other's to see my ideas too :)
My name is Khouloud, and I am currently attending our local college. This is my very first year, third quarter. I like it very much, because of all the fun classes I get to decide to take, and all of the free time I get for myself! My career aspirations are hopefully to major in Political Science, to be a lawyer, or maybe even major in International Business. I really like the business aspect of everything, so that is why I would like to choose to be one of those. In English 1A, I hope to become a better writer. I really have enjoyed these past 2 quarters of English and feel that I am only getting better. I hope to be able to write more freely, especially because my Professor is asking us to write about really interesting topics, rather than other boring ones.

Our first articles that we read about were about how much of the items that we have here in America , are actually produced in other countries. We got to learn about many items are created elsewhere where they are people who are typically poor, seemingly uneducated as well as the way they work in harsh conditions. It shows how us in America don't realize that our clothes are actually produced elsewhere, and that is so we can get them cheap. I read about one lady who makes about 250.00 a month in U.S dollars. That would DEFINITELY not be enough to live with in the area we live in yet, we take things for granted. The companies are typically based in other countries, America, Canada etc.

I think learning about these was really eye-opening . It seems to me like we have to be more thankful and much more appreciative of what we have .