HW 37: Thanksgiving and Eid

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #25

HW 36: First Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #20

HW 34: Iraqs Culture

In Iraq gold is seen different than here in America. As Riverbend states, “Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in “family savings” has increased since 1990”(Riverbend, page 100). In Iraq after the 1990’s people began to exchange the money they had for gold because the value of gold never will change, unlike money that was changing at the time. In Iraq when a couple gets married the husband will offer the wife a dowry filled with gold jewelry, and when a child is born into a family the gifts that the family will receive are often gold trinkets. In the Iraqi culture a lot of gold is more common to have than in our culture where money is often more common to posses. In Iraq palm trees are thought of as a big part of their culture and home. “They are a reminder no matter how difficult the circumstances, there is hope for life and productivity”(Riverbend, page 105). All of the parts of the palm tree can be used. The leaves can be used to make baskets, mats, brooms and much more. The dates that the palm trees produce might be the most useful and cherished part of the tree. The Iraqi people eat dates, produce syrup from the dates, vinegar can be made from the dates, and dates can be used in trading. Even the pits of the dates can be used, the cows and other pasture animals can eat them, and they can also be used to make jewelry.

HW 35: Letter to Blog Readers

Since this is my almost last blog post for the class A Blog of One’s Own, I would just like to say that I learned quite a bit of information. If I had not taken this class, I do not think I would have ever started a blog in my life. Blogging was something that I was completely unaware of before I entered into the course. Now that I am in the course, I hear about blogs and blogging a lot more, on T/V in the news, and I actually have one too. The material we have been reading and blogging on is once again material I never would have read or had knowledge about if I had not taken this class. I do not think I have a particular blog that I am the most proud of, but I do enjoy writing about Riverbend because it is something happening in the world right now and I find it very interesting to hear the other side of the story since we only get one. For any one who has read my blog, or will read my blog, I hope they just understand where I was coming from and understand my point of view on the various topics that I have blogged about. When the class ends I do not think I will end up continuing to blog, but I do not think I will go back and delete all of my blogs either, I think I will just leave them where they are.

HW 33: Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families

The podcast “Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families” was part of the Alive in Baghdad series. The podcast was published on October 15th, 2007. After watching the podcast, it is quite obvious that the message that the podcast is trying to get across is the simple message that most teens in Iraq must help their families with the work because the unemployment rate in Iraq is over half of the population, so those who are able to help their families do. Throughout the podcast three children are shown talking about their lives in helping out their families. The first is Hussein Kamal who tells us that he helps his father with carpentry. The next is Mustafa Malek Fathullah Ali who informs us that he has worked with his father in carpentry since he was a child. He is now fourteen and currently helping his uncle at his house. The final child that they show us is named Yousif. Unlike the other two boys, Yousif does not help his family with work; he is enrolled in the College of Agriculture. Yousif was born with a birth defect and is currently unemployed; he lets us know that a habit he has developed is just sitting at the computer. Yousif is sitting on a patterned dark couch with a white curtain hanging behind him. Outside there is a lot of clay stone structures and the streets look dry and dirty. Any viewer who may watch this podcast might feel a sense of pity towards the Iraqi people who were once able to live normal lives, but since the war are forced to be more cautious with their daily lives and help out their families by working with them instead of attending school. Although I have not seen many videos from Iraq, this video seems to be put together nicely. The boys they chose to interview were very honest and sweet. The most memorable thing I find about this podcast are the boys ending statements to the world. It is like a cry for help, saying please just fight terrorism and defeat it so I can go on with my normal way of life.

HW 32: School Supplies

While reading through Riverbend's posts in the book Baghdad Burning, she talks about going with her cousin, his wife named S, and E to go shop for school supplies for her cousins two younger daughters. The girls used to be able to go to pick out their own school supplies, but since the conditions have drastically changed in Iraq S does not feel that it would be safe for them to go along with her. Riverbend describes the stores that line the streets of Iraq and informs us that there are no malls, just stores that have a variety of things in them. The stationery shop is where they went to get the girls school supplies. It took them a while to decide what the girls would want according to their age, one was ten and the other was seven. After finally reaching a decision on the various supplies, they left the store and returned back home to see the girls. Shopping for school supplies has seemed to change drastically since the war has broken out in Iraq, and it's too bad that the children now have to be guarded at schools and bring their own chairs. Hopefully soon the life in Iraq will go back to being the way it was before the war occurred.

HW 30:Animation as Political and Social Constructions

The second session that I attended at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium was titled, Animation as Political and Social Constructions. The speakers of this session were Jiwon Ahn, Sander Lee, and Mark Timney. I unfortunately missed most of Ahn’s talk because I was coming from another class and it caused me to come in later and I missed the beginning. Lee talked about two different cartoons that compared the aspect of the German Nazi times. The first he talked about was a Disney cartoon that featured Donald Duck. In this cartoon Donald was working for Hitler at what seemed to be a sweat shop making different kinds of ammunition, he was tired and going insane, but instead of having one of his normal temper tantrums he continued to obey Hitler and work. At the end of the cartoon, Donald wakes up in American flag pajamas and discovers that what he thought was to be an arm in the air was just his statue of lady liberty. Lee thought that this cartoon made it out to seem that the only force able to defeat the terrible Nazis is the more powerful Americans. The other cartoon that he showed us was a Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. Bugs seemed not to be afraid of Hitler and posed as a Russian that the Germans feared and caused them to run away very scared. He compared these two cartoons and how they approached the idea of the German power. Bugs cartoon was more humorous and the Disney cartoon was a little more serious showing the power that the Nazi’s had over Donald. The second speaker that I got to see was Timney and he talked about a good citizen and compared it to South Park. He showed us a video clipping from South Park and showed that even though South Park is known for its violence and sometimes controversial material, it often shows a problem that most people have, and then a solution for solving the problem. All this happens while still including comedy. I thought this session was interesting and that it took very different views of cartoons that a lot of people do not go that deep into thought about, which was great to hear about.

HW 30: Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers

The first session I went to was titled, Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers. Steve Clark was the presenter and he did an outstanding job. This was one of the sessions that was offered at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. He made sure that we knew that it is important as citizens to know what to make of statistics because constantly the news and government are throwing numbers at us to prove a certain point, and we must be able to understand what they are getting at. Clark told us about his bias and about why he stands where he does, which is opposed to the war in Iraq. He has a son who is enlisted in the army and did so after 9/11, he was at age of the draft during the end of the Vietnam War and had two of his friends commit suicide when they returned from Vietnam. He informed us that statistics can be misleading, and virtually can say whatever we want them to say. He let us know some of the questions we should be asking when we hear a statistic. They included: “Who produced this statistic?”, “How was this statistic produced?”, and “Why was this statistic produced?”. He also talked about the actual war in Iraq and the number of Iraqi people who have died. He said that the number of how many Iraqis have died gets little attention. “We must be able to see them as less human than us to kill them” (Clark). Lancet came out with a study and found that six hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis have died as a result from the war in Iraq. Lancet did a cluster sampling and Iraqi doctors went door to door and asked families about deaths and asked to see death certificates. From this was calculated the astonishing number that no other study has come close to. Clark’s talk was very informative and I thought he did an excellent job keeping the audience’s attention and adding humor in here and there.

Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers

The first session I went to was titled, Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers. Steve Clark was the presenter and he did an outstanding job. This was one of the sessions that was offered at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. He made sure that we knew that it is important as citizens to know what to make of statistics because constantly the news and government are throwing numbers at us to prove a certain point, and we must be able to understand what they are getting at. Clark told us about his bias and about why he stands where he does, which is opposed to the war in Iraq. He has a son who is enlisted in the army and did so after 9/11, he was at age of the draft during the end of the Vietnam War and had two of his friends commit suicide when they returned from Vietnam. He informed us that statistics can be misleading, and virtually can say whatever we want them to say. He let us know some of the questions we should be asking when we hear a statistic. They included: “Who produced this statistic?”, “How was this statistic produced?”, and “Why was this statistic produced?”. He also talked about the actual war in Iraq and the number of Iraqi people who have died. He said that the number of how many Iraqis have died gets little attention. “We must be able to see them as less human than us to kill them” (Clark). Lancet came out with a study and found that six hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis have died as a result from the war in Iraq. Lancet did a cluster sampling and Iraqi doctors went door to door and asked families about deaths and asked to see death certificates. From this was calculated the astonishing number that no other study has come close to. Clark’s talk was very informative and I thought he did an excellent job keeping the audience’s attention and adding humor in here and there.

HW 31: Amiriyah Shelter

After reading Baghdad Burning, I decided to look more into the Amiriyah shelter (Riverbend, 46-48). The shelter was mentioned in the reading to act as a comparison to the tragedy that our country experienced on September 11th. Civilians used the Amiriyah shelter as an air-raid shelter during the Iraq-Iran war as well as the Gulf War. “It was destroyed by USAF two laser-guided “smart bombs” on 13 February 1991 during the Gulf War, killing more then 408 civilians”(Wikipedia, Amiriyah shelter). The United States says that their reasoning for bombing the shelter was because they thought that the shelter was a military command site. Riverbend's description of what happened on February 13th, 1991 would make anyone sit back and feel saddened. Although we mourn for all the lives we lost on September 11th, and for good reason, Riverbend points out that we are not the only ones in this war who are continually losing lives. Her example of the Amiriyah shelter is perfect, she explains that the people who were occupying the shelter at the time of the bombing were women and children, not military or higher intelligence, women and children. She goes on to describe the horrible scene that happened after the bombing, the frantic families trying to find their child in the mist of the burned faces of all those who died, the bodies that hardly resembled a body anymore being dragged out in hopes that someone would recognize them. Riverbend so truly states, “ all faces look the same when they are witnessing the death of loved ones”(Riverbend, page 48).


Works Cited


1. Wikipedia. 11 May 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. November 8, 2007.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiriyah_shelter>
2. Riverbend. Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq. City University of New York, New York. The Feminist Press, 2005.

HW 28:An Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,
It's hard to even begin to imagine what you must be going through living in a place that you used to call home but now is so completely different for you. As you know, a lot of Americans only get one side of the story in Iraq. We are only shown on television what seem to be the worst parts of your country and not the parts that were once so beautiful, like the highways and bridges decorated with flowers. I think that it is hard to be totally for or totally against the war. I think that most people have mixed feelings, and I for one still do not completely understand why we are still in your country. I feel pity for all the soldiers who have gone over to Iraq to do their parts. I know that it is not easy for them to be over there either, see all the horrible things that you see, and come back to the United States and not being able to sleep for days, weeks or months because things seem too quiet. I do feel bad for you and your family having to deal with raids and worrying about driving to your aunts house, having to carry weapons with you when you go outside, and being used to hearing guns, bombs, tanks and airplanes. Most people take for granted those little aspects of life that come so easily, and I agree with you that it is not fair that all the people in your country are being taken away from their families, and their jobs are being taken away from them in a split second. Although it is awful, I believe that it helps for Americans to read Baghdad Burning and understand what is happening in your country, to understand really what is going on from a person who is living their point of view and not from the news, because the news only shows a part of the story and certainly not both sides of the story. I enjoy reading your blog posts because they continue to inform me about what exactly is happening in Iraq. I wish the best for you and your family and I hope that this war soon comes to an end for both the United States and Iraq’s sake.

HW 27:Annotative Bibliography

Riverbend, “Baghdad Burning: girl blog from Iraq”. New York, NY: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
This book is a number of different blogs written by a twenty-four year old female that lives in Iraq during the war. She talks about political issues, what it is like living day to day during the war, the many misconceptions that Americans do not know about what is going on in Iraq. The female writing these blogs goes by the name Riverbend and she is primarily writing to rant about all the issues and things that she is sick of dealing with in Iraq since the war has been going on. A lot of people benefit from the blogs that she is writing because even though people might think they know all there is to know about the war that is going on in Iraq, however we only know what the government is telling us. It is always a benefit to have someone who is living through the war and experiencing it tell us what is happening to her and her family and how it is affecting their daily lives. The complications in writing a book like this involve, to a degree, the safety of Riverbend because the information she is giving out on the internet is information that her government or the United States government probably would not want to be disclosed. I believe that any person who would read this book would learn a great deal more about what is going on over in Iraq. This is important to know because it is happening now, as we speak, and it is always important to know what is going on especially when it involves your nation.