LAZY PEOPLE!

I know this is off the topic but, for some strange reason this caught my attention because I feel that people are becoming more lazier everyday! This is my own opinion... but seriously come on people a luggage cup holder. Why can't you hold you on cup with your own hands!

The Dew Breaker

The first few chapters that I have read so far are intriguing. It was so compelling, I could not predict what was going to happen from one page to another.

It is amazing how the father's character changed from an adorable father to someone who the daughter does not know at all. In an instant he became a total stanger. This should make readers think about the people they are close to. Is anyone really ever who he/she says he is?

It is evident that the father tried to convince himself, that he was allowing the daughter to have a glimpse into his past, to see the true man, by the type of books he had her read as a child.
This was very unusual, it appears as though her was trying to live through the innocence of his daughter and that was the only way he could have survived with the guilt.

I am still dumbfounded as to why the mother after finding out about the heinous crimes that the husband committed, still remained with him and for that reason lived an isolated life. I guess she would declare that it was because of true love. I could not have done that myself. I hesitantly applaud her for her devotion, even though I think she was absurd to be so devoted. He belonged in prison.

Mona in the Promised Land

It is a very sweet, coming-of-age story about a girl who grows up in the New York suburb of Scarshill. This novel does the best job of talking about multiculturalism. It is kind of humorous take on serious questions. Mona was born in America. This book rises a question about how much flexibility do we have to define our own identity. Mona's parents are Chinese, therefore Mona is Chinese. But it is not that simple. She was born in America, she identifies herself as American. At the same time, she demonstrates to her friends in school that she knows karate and Chinese language. In reality she doesn't know any of it, but she wants to be popular and distinct. However, this is not an authentic expression of her true self. She doesn't really know how to speak Mandarin and she has no idea about the karate, she just saw it on TV the same time as her friend Barbara did. Mona lives in Jewish community and she does the same things as the Jewish kids do. She decides to become Jewish. It is kind of strange decision. For example, I love Jewish music. It has such a sweet melodic structure. However, it doesn't mean that because of that I can change and become Jewish. Even though I don't like a lot of things that are related to my own culture, it doesn't mean that I can change my nationality or religion. It is in my blood. I won't be better person if I start telling people that I became Jewish or French, or Native American. My nationality is a part of who I am. It doesn't matter if I like it or not. For me it sounds the same as if somebody says: "I don't like how my aunt (mother, father, sister, brother) talks to me, she has such an unpleasant manner to talk. I want to change her for this nice lady who lives next door. She is so nice and she makes the best pies in the world." Does it sound ridiculous? Oh yes, it does.

Lone Star

Lone Star is the history of Texas and the United States. This film illustrates the diversity and the uneasy interaction of racial groups along the Texas-Mexico border. Texas is unique among the United States in that it was once its own country. It was a republic formed in a controversial and bloody way. And its struggles didn't end with the Civil War. There is a kind of ethnic and racial war that has continued. That continuing conflict comes into the clearest focus around the border between Texas and Mexico. There are several communities that concerned in the movie - Chicano community (Mexican-Americans), Anglo community (Gringo), African-American community, and a few Native Americans. Each group has contributed significantly to the unique border culture.

There are many Latino characters in the film. The two most complex characters are Pilar and her mother, Mercedes. Pilar is intelligent and independent. Her mother is totally assimilated, wealthy woman. She is the most stereotypical character in the film. She drives a luxury car and she also directs traffic in the kitchen of her restaurant. Her wealth is the result of her own labor. Politically and socially, she is the opposite of her daughter. Mercedes is very uncaring to the troubles of lower-class Mexican-Americans. Even thought she was an illegal immigrant herself, she complains that the town is full in wetbacks. She represents a conservative Mexican-American attitude concerning immigration issues.

African-Americans comprise smaller percentage of the town's population and they are carefully drawn characters rather than stereotypes. In one of the scenes, we are introduced to Chet, young man who enters the club, looks around, and slowly reaches his hand into his jacket pocket. In another film, he would probably have drawn a gun, but here he pulls out a barbecue sauce label instead. The movie makers use audience's preconceptions to make subtle points about stereotyping.

The Anglo characters in the film realize that they can no longer control the city economically and politically, because the majority citizens are Mexican-Americans. The main bad character in the movie, Charlie, seems to have no particular political or racial views. He is exercising power over those weaker than himself, and his victims happened to be mostly African-Americans and Mexican-Americans. The town has its share of racists reluctant to accept the Mexican-Americans' rise to power. The Native American character has long before accepted the fact that his people carry no political clouts in the town. He just makes his living by selling souvenirs to white tourists.

The main idea of the movie suggests that in order to live in the present, people must confront the past. It doesn't necessarily mean to accept or reject it. This means to learn from the past whether you like it or not. In Texas that past is often marked by racial conflict and violence. In final line Pilar says that people should start from scratch and history doesn't matter; a border is where you draw a line. She means that if rejecting the past is necessary to function in the present, then it supposes to happen. Since different races are still stuck together in Texas, people might try to get alone.

Mona in the promised land

Something interesting that I found in this book was that the writing style. Like someone had mentioned in class, it is written in the present tense, which is the way Asian languages are spoken. I found it interesting that while it is written in the Asian way, Mona's parents are referred to by their first names, and not as Mr and Mrs. Chang. All of the other parents in the novel are addressed by their last name. This choice that the author makes, seems to be because the parents are also looked at in the American way, as individuals rather than just as someone's parents. It is ironic that they are seen as individuals because for the majority of the book they keep reminding Mona that she is their daughter.

Mona in the Promise Land

The question of whether or not the Chang family is more typically American or Chinise is very complex. I see Samantha's point that Mona's parents are defnitely strongly influenced by their Chinese culture and this makes them more like traditional Chinese parents. However, I also agree that the conflicts between Mona and her parents are present in other cultures, even within the families in this book. For example, Mona and Barbara's mothers are both horrified about the Alfred situation. Although their mothers come from very different cultures, they both take similar drastic measures to punish their daughters for this incident. Although there are drastic differences between these two families, the parents are unwilling to understand what might have been behing their children's decision to help Alfred and automatically go to punishing them. Perhaps these are patterns we see in every family, making it difficult to categorize families as typically American or typically Chinese, or typically anything else. The complexities between child and parent are present in cultures across the board.

Mona in the Promised Land: A quote that I am ashamed of

As I was reading this book, I came upon a quote regarding one of Alfred's friends. "A field n****r, he called himself, even though he was one of the lightest Negroes Charlene did lay eyes on..." I feel like it is a shame that years after slavery, in the 1960s, a lot of African Americans ranked themselves based on where their ancestors woked on the plantations. It is even worst that some people still refer to themselves in that way today! I think once someone said I would have worked in the house in slavery days. If blacks are trying to escape the prejudice and the ostracizing in society, then why would they demote themselves this way? I absolutely hate when my brother and his friends call each other N***a this or N***a that. I strongly believe that we blacks will still refer to ourselves that way in the future, and nothing will change. The way that the African Americans in the book acted then is still the way that a lot of blacks that I know act today, which makes me feel ashamed sometimes.

mona in the promise land

this book is so hilarious!!!!! (great choice professor)... who would think the Japanese took their private life so serious... when Sherman was calling the hot line at the temple just to talk to Mona about the places he's been. i thought it wad so cute the way Mona and Sherman was acting like they didn't know who each other was on the phone...they had a good thing going on until Mona told Barbara who for some odd reason believed its Andy Kaplan (the boy Barbara was in love with in her early years) on the next line. she ended ruining Sherman and Mona relationship when she buts into the conversation and started yelling Andy's name. Sherman resulted into telling Mona once again that "She will never be Japanese!" ladies this is what happens when you go blab to your girlfriends about the guy you really like and your supposedly girfriend ruin your relationship.
i guess i wont ever be a japanes either :-)

Am i the only one who believes that Mona family is a typical American family? Her mother Helen flips over any and everything, her father is always analyzing every details on what is going on. Mona is just a typical confused teen, she is just going through puberty...

Mona in the Promised Land

I thought it was interesting how in this book there is so many "borders" (ha) between different ethnicities and religions being discussed, even amongst groups that many others on the outside view to be similar. First of all the difference between Mona (Chinese) and then the other white kids who are also Jewish. Then there is the Catholic (Mona) and the Jewish religous lines that are being crossed by Mona. But it is funny how everyone groups Sherman and Mona together because they are both Oriental and assume that they will be together because of that, but then even amongst them, Mona who is Chinese and Sherman who is Japanese, there are these lines that Sherman thinks cannot be crossed as he says to Mona more than once, "You will never be Japanese." Even though many of the others think there are no lines to cross between Mona and Sherman because they both are Oriental, even within their races there are differences, and enough differences that makes Sherman say Mona will have to switch and become Japanese at one point early in the book.
Another point in the book which I thought was funny was when Helen was discussing the French coming to China. It was clearly imperialism, which is a serious subject and has caused so many problems in so many parts in the world, but as Helen talks about, she refers to it as not a big deal and saying, "Oh, the missionaries just wanted to teach us some nice songs in French, and to tell us what nice food they eat in France," (42). I thought that was so funny that she was thinking of it in that way. Very different perspective than Negi has in "When I was Puerto Rican" in having to eat American food and their ideas of imperialism in that book.

Mona in the Promised Land

At sixteen years old, Mona decides to become Jewish. At such an impressionable age, how do we know whether she genuinely believes in Judaism or if she's just being influenced by her friends? At one point or another in your adolescence, you must have experienced peer pressure, whether it was straight forward or not. Peer pressure combined with teenage rebellion can lead to some very irrational decisions. Will her decision just be another part of her rebellious adolescent phase or will it carry on throughout her adult life?

Immigrants held after 9/11 get cash settlements

The following Associated Press item was released the day of our class discussion on the article, "How Does It Feel to be a Problem?", by Moustafa Bayoumi. I find it to be oddly serendipitous in light of our debate about constitutional rights during war time.

These cases took seven years to settle. When considering the Inspector General's report which found "significant problems" with the treatment of nearly 800 detainees nationwide, I find it frustrating is that there are only five plaintiffs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33608129/ns/us_news-security/



Immigrants held after 9/11 get cash settlements

U.S. settles detention lawsuit by paying five men $1.26 million


updated 6:09 p.m. ET, Tues., Nov . 3, 2009



NEW YORK - Five immigrant men who were detained in roundups in New York and eventually deported following the Sept. 11 attacks have reached a $1.26 million settlement with the U.S. government.

The men were part of a lawsuit against the government over the roundups that put them in federal detention and the abuse they say they suffered while they were there. Two other plaintiffs are still 
part of the lawsuit.


Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the detainees, said she hoped the settlement would serve as a deterrent to prevent similar government practices.

"Our hope is that it will keep the government from rounding up individuals based on religion and ethnicity," she said Tuesday. "My clients were really treated as terrorists based on nothing more than their religion and where they came from.


The center notified the court Monday of the settlement. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday.

Ashcroft, others cited
The men were among more than 170 Arab and Muslim men jailed for immigration law violations at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The suit, filed in 2002, claimed that former Attorney General John Ashcroft, prison personnel, FBI supervisors and other officials violated the men's rights by imprisoning them on the basis of their race and religion.


The men said they were denied access to phones and lawyers for weeks at a time, locked in tiny cells where lights burned all night, kept awake by guards pounding on their doors, put in handcuffs and shackles whenever outside their cells, and beaten at random.


The case was bolstered by a 2003 report by the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, which found "significant problems" with the treatment of nearly 800 detainees nationwide, including abusive conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center.


Reached in Alexandria, Egypt, Yasser Ebrahim said that after seven years, "I just couldn't wait any longer." The settlement, he said, is "an end of one phase of my life and the beginning of a new one. This whole nightmare, we can just let it go."


The lawsuit is currently awaiting a decision from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether key claims should have been dismissed. Meeropol said a request has been made to amend the suit to add five new names to the remaining two plaintiffs.


Ehab Elmaghraby, a detainee who made similar claims in another lawsuit, settled his portion of that case for $300,000. He was held at the center for almost a year, and was deported in 2003 after pleading guilty to credit card fraud.

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? By Bayoumi

This reading by Bayoumi talks about the many Arabs and Muslims that are living in the United States and how they are treated since September 11, 2001. Since the attacks of 2001, many muslims have been the new "problem" in the United States. This article basically focuses on the many innocent arab muslims who were mistreated judging by thier religion and culture. A fine example was a girl named Rasha. Rasha was an arab muslim who was born in Syria. Rasha and her family moved to the United States through a tourist visa and she was raised here with her other siblings. From the reading, you can see that Rasha as well as her family were innocent people who had been living in Brooklyn for a while and they were picked upon just because they were muslims. Rasha and her family faced many problems as the FBI agents and the INS officials raided thier house. They had to go through many moments where they were mistreated very badly and forced to stay in harsh conditions until problems were resolved. I think that it is the right thing to make sure that the citizens of the United States are safe but it is also the wrong thing to just hold custody of someone who you dont even have proof of. Since the attacks of September 11, I have seen many issues in my life. I am also a muslim and I have also faced some similar problems in my life. I remember everytime I leave this country to visit back home or go to Europe, I am picked upon and called to a room, where I have to wait for hours to be interviewed and then released. I think it is the right thing to make sure that our nation is safe but it is a very harsh thing to pick upon a citizen like me just because I am a muslim. I think that picking on innocent people and putting them through harsh moments in their life wouldn't solve the issues that this nation has, but it would eventually make it worse for the people to live in this world.