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I thought I was very observative with my surroundings. I thought I knew why certain people acted a certain way. I learned that much more through taking the class. The first mind blowing lesson was about stereotypes. I was always taught they were a negative thing. However, they protect us and allow us to react based on past experiences. Another big lesson that Sal always tried to push on us is there is no difference in race, gender, or creed on this earth. We are all part of the Human Race. We act like people are of different species sometimes, creating barriers between us and them. Such as African's are different than Asians. This is not the case we have the same type of genes. Another lesson is about social deviance. We see this all around us. People who have more money or more social status often get away with their deviance, while the poor and stupid do not. We see this with students all the time. This class has the reputation of being a blow off class. This class has the reputation of no work. Yet it shouldn't. The class has a easy workload yes, but it teaches invaluable lessons about people. I learned not to shy away from differences through Sal's way of seeing things. Usually people become ignorant of the unknown, but I feel prepared for life after SHS because of this class. This class was extremely beneficial and I really enjoyed learning all the different sociology lessons.

Then we crashed

The movie Crash extremely interesting and relevant to today's society. This movie showed inter racial conflict, but the main portion of the movie was intra-racial. The best example of this was Chris "Luda" Briges' character. He made comments such as "why do white people get scared when blackmen walk by?" He was very suspicious of racism, but then he only furthered the cycle when he robbed people. Also, the policeman that tried to do the right thing and save the black director, only got hurt in the end by accidentally killing Don Cheadle's brother. His character shows that even those who try to do good and fix the descrimination cycle only get bogged down in it, and eventually participate in the cycle. This was a very pessimistic film and looked to only show the negative (explicit and implicit) racism. However, this film definetly needs to be shown in schools and cultures!

BCS

For this blog I decided to be less political and less idealistic. Instead of trying to change the world, let's start small. Let's change the BCS. As it is right now the top two teams play for the championship, and the others get shafted. Both of the teams this year are one loss teams, both of the teams have scored more than 600 points, but the problem is there are 4 other teams with the same credentials. The BCS is completely off point by saying that there are two "better" teams. This is politics at its finest. Florida and Oklahoma are great teams, and they have the biggest followings. Their fans are known to travel all over the country, bringing millions of dollars with them. There are game time local economy "booms" when these fans enter the college communities. So the BCS chose the two teams that would make the BCS the most money. Additionally, these colleges are some of the largest in the nation with the most viewers. So ratings would sky rocket. These teams are way sexier than say the underfeated Boise State University Bucking Broncos. Even though BSU is undefeated, even though Texas Tech has potentially two top draft picks at qb and rb. The BCS no longer works.

Coaches tell their players to play hard and to win everygame. That's exactly what Boise State did, their players played hard, they won every game they were asked to. Yet Boise State is playing in the Poinsetta Bowl. The Poinsetta Bowl! That's a joke.

We need to install a playoff system. The coaches are so old and need their power. SO let them rank the colleges. Same as now. The top 8 rankings will play in a playoff system. This would allow the outsiders like Boise State and Utah to have a chance to not only get national coverage, but also to have a chance to win. This 8 team playoff would allow other teams to share the lime light for atleast a game. Let's follow Barack Obama's lead and create this system!

The Number 1 Threat to Southern Asian stability: Indian/ Pakistanian relations

The terror attacks in Mumbai were truly tragic. Since 9-11 this was one of the most deadly attacks. This is similar to previous attacks in tactics, weapons, and the fear that it invoked through out the billion people in India. A conspiracy has sort of been uncovered consisting that the attack was orchestrated by Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshian nationals.

However, again the media are focusing on the wrong aspects of this attack. They are focusing on the few Americans that passed away. The media and even to some extent the U.S. gov't are focusing on the tactics of this attack, even going as far as sending an FBI team to India. There are reports saying the motive of these attacks was because of the Kashmir region. The Kashmir region has been a pain in the side for India and Pakistan for 50 years. These countries both claim ownership of this region, but to make the situation even more "hairy" is that some of the citizens of Kashimir want independence. There have been hundreds of terrorist attacks in this region yet the world barerly cares. If a major attack like this were to be linked directly to the ISS (Secret Police of Pakistan) or to even worse the governement, this could mean destabilization of a region that has had little stabilization. Additionally, both of these countries have nuclear weapons. While India's are bigger and have greater capabilities, any nuclear weapon obviously would cause millions of deaths. Especially with a country of 1.1 billion people.

We, as global citizens, need to bring those who were associated with this attack to justice. More importantly is that we need to solve this Kashmir region dispute. We should allow the people of Kashmir to vote upon which country they would like to be a part of. Further there should be an open migration period following this vote. This would ensure that people can peacefully choose where they would like to live. No migration is warranted and will possible create a refugee flow, but under U.N. supervision and the world watching, this plan could work.

The one big taboo.... Social Classes

In learning about the difference between classes it is tough to overlook how hard it is to change social classes. Yet, that is all we seek. The poor seek to become middle class, possibly going off to college. The biggest class in America seek to become part of the wealthy class, including some "higher" tastes. And the wealthy classes' goal is just to put down the other classes to make sure they are still superior. However, the most surprising part is how others of the same group mock those trying to change social classes. The key example that I've seen and that was highlighted in the movie is with African Americans. Those who try to act with some class, or try to make their lives better are called names including being "white". This is awful because usually the true motive of this person is to better their own life, yet they are being ridiculed. Similarly, the boy we saw in the movie that lives in a trailer in rural Ohio is embarrassed because he tries hard in school. Furthermore, his mother is embarrassed because he has potential and is not just ok with taking welfare checks like his relatives and friends. At the end of the day it is extremely hard to change social classes, but sometimes half the battle is against your family and friends.

The Number 1 Threat to Middle East Stability is..... Pirates!

Arrrrrrrr.... Ye Mate, come a board mi vessel and yo ho ho ho... Ok i'm done with that. Pirates are pretty cool, I guess. The American preception of pirates are guys with eye patches and a wooden peg or it's Jonny Depp swinging across his vessel. However, the problem with pirates today is they like to take over oil tankers. Somalian pirates have a nasty habit of taking over ships with in Pirate Alley (Southern portion of Gulf of Aden).

While the world is looking at this problem in economic terms, we need to look at this at this through a humanitarian lens. People are dwelling on the fact that the pirates took over a ship with reportedly 100 million dollars worth of oil, but how bout focusing on why they did that. Time magizine has ranked Somaila as the worst country in the world. In order to see why the pirates are such a nuisance today, we have to go back some years. Once Somalia gained their independence civil war broke out between Christians and Muslims. Fast foward 30 years to the late 80's and 90's, Muslim factions began all out war on the public. Shelling cities, stockpiles of weapons, and a weak government became the norm in Somalia. Then comes Black Hawk down. American intervention in a gang run nation fails. And terrorist organizations gain a foothold in the country including Osama Bin Laden in the 90's. They instill a very anti-American/development mentality. With this mentality the social dynamics collapse, and violence erupted. Fast forward to now, and the whole world has given up on this country. Somalia is overshadowed by the Darfur crisis, the Iraq situation, and even to some extent the destabilizaiton of Saudi Arabia. Somalia has one of the lowest GDP's and have tons of weapons. Hm... What are we gonna do with weapons and no money? How bout holding parts of the developed world hostage! This can be seen with the acts of piracy. However, the pirates are only the tip of the iceberg. In Mogidishu alone, it is run by drug, religious, and other types of gangs. There is no real industry in Somalia, and no real hope. The first thing that the U.S. and world can do for this coutry is give it aid in the form of food. More importantly make sure this food is getting to the people and not to the gangs. If this occurs, the citizens of Somalia will have enough food and water to survive without the help of the government. Additionally, the U.S. needs to either help or even (cough cough Guatamala, Bolivia, 1960-80's) install a pro-U.S./pro-World governemnt. The people of Somalia need help, and as global citizens it's our duty to help them. Piracy must be taken seriously and needs to be stopped, but once we look at the reason why the piracy started, we can clearly see that this country needs help, food, and hope.

Perception is key

The other day I heard the quote, "It is impossible to fail out of school, if you sit in class and shut up." At first I thought this was a crude way to look at things. However, this quote goes back to the idea of deviance. Deviance is perceived, so basically if a student gets on the teachers bad side, regardless if the student did anything, he will therefore not do as well in class. This idea can clearly be seen at SHS. The students that don't get in trouble, dress normally, and act respectfully, will usually get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to homework, and will have their grades rounded up when it is close. However, the student that arrives late, dressed differently then the average student, and inturrupts class, will never get the same benefits as the respectful student. This is assuming the students do the same amount and quality of work. Perceiving that someone is a "roughneck" means that people act differently towards them. This is not neccessarily stereotyping, but it is in all aspects of our society. It's all about perception. SO at the end of the day do I believe that quote, I guess so, as long as you look, dress, and act respectable, people will believe you to be respectable, regardless of what you do.