Propaganda 4 Corner Reflection

"Deception is just as bad as telling an outright lie"

First of all I agree with this claim in some extent, but I still believe that deception is still identical to a lie. By looking at the definition, "Deception" means to cause someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage. I think that to say whether Deception is just as bad as telling an outright lie depends on situations and intentions.

Let's say that a man, whose mother is very old, sick, and has to stay in hospital for a long time , is sentenced to death with an act of crime. His family decides to deceive his mom in order to not make  her health getting worse. In this situation, I think it is acceptable because the action is benefiting the one being told. Therefore it can be said that "Deception" is not bad in this case, in fact it might be seen as a good decision since it prevents a sudden shift in mother's emotion which can potentially kill her. 

On the contrary if someone is deceiving the fact so as to portray one-sided view and distort the actual fact, I think it is unacceptable and can be seen as a worst deed. Referring to the article "The truth about Jessica", I believe the act of American media, which is distorting and choosing to inform certain facts so as to satisfy people's expectation and change the value of the action, is exploiting people's right to know truth. Some people might enjoy such a report while some people still want to know what is actually going on. By reporting certain or selected information, people's ideology might be shaped into bad way. Someone might see a footage from war is something to enjoy because the authority chooses to present in a thrilling way (act of heroic by real life actors). However, the reality is totally different because war is a situation where people are fight, injuring and dying. Choosing to portray one-sided information is unethical. So I think that in this case Deception is just a lie which is worst deed.

Media Biased Ideology Rewrite

Originial Source: New security measures considered amid continuing violence in Israel 

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/13/middleeast/israeli-palestinian-violence/

The original source contains some biased view regarding the violence within Israel and also further criticizes the violence in Middle East Region as a whole. The news is representing in a way that lead the audience toward one-sided view to understand that Israel will use forces to reduce and end the violence. It [the new agency] also interviewed a man who involved in the conflict, and later implies that the Palestinian [attackers] had tried to negotiate but it didn't work. Although CNN did interview, they interviewed "a youth" who might not able to comprehend things as adult. So his/her notion or ideology might only follow the majority of Palestinians who take part in a violence.

Furthermore the claims made by Israel authorities to Palestinians are mostly describes as "terrorist" which provides a negative perspective from the Israel's side. The negative words such as "bloody, terrorism" are used quite a lot within the article. This and other aspect used to describe the situation potentially makes the aspect of the news to be in a negative side as a whole.

Pastiche: 

So what I'm trying to create here is to rewrite similar news article but biased to Israel side. I will try to write in a way that what Israel is tring to do is to create peace negotiation and to reduce the tension in Jerusalem as well as to settle through dispute diplomatically. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urges negotiations for peace in Jerusalem violence

Although there were many clashes between Israeli police forces and Palestinian that injured dozens of people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu is showing clear sign that he is willing to move toward peace amid questions from people "when, how, or will the violence stop?"

Mr Netayahu has urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to hold negotiations to settle the conflict that led to deadly violence. He said he was "perfectly open" to a meeting that might be potentially "useful"

Tensions between Isarelis and Palestinians have been gradually increased after several attackers - mostly Palestinians - had been wounded recently. However Mr Netanyahu clarifies that a security deployment in Jerusalem to cope with the assault carried by Palestinians was to calm the tensions between the two sides and control a situation within Jerusalem. 

"Right now as we can speak, we can meet - I have no problem with that - and we shall stop immediately this wave of incitement and attacks against Israel," Mr Netanyahu told a news conference. 

Furthermore the Israeli leader said he was also willing to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordan's King Abdullah for diplomatic talks to defuse and seduce the tension. In this case the White House and US state department confirmed that Seretary of State John Kerry would travel to the region soon.

Some critics have also suggested that the violence is the consequence of the absence of any progress toward peace. Mr Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian President, likewise accused Israel of using unnecessary force against Palestinians that resulted in the death of 13-year-old and 15-year-old boy killed. He said Israel was carring out "execution of our children in cold blood". 

However Mr Netanyahu rejected this as a "new big lies" in the news conference saying that the police was merely trying to end an act of violence. He said the two boys were carrying a knift and had stabbed two Israeli policemen already. 

Israeli authority said new measures, such as homes of attackers would be demolished and families would be expelled from Jerusarem, have also been implemented to penalize those who use violence

Though Human Rights authorities comdemned the new measures, Mr Netanyahu emphasized that such measures need to be implemented to deal with "people wielding knives, meat cleavers, axes, trying to kill people on the street".

IOC 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxNWYnuaMNBRUzk0aVptWmpPVjg/view?usp=sharing

Practice IOC Boys and Girls

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxNWYnuaMNBRQWZzUnN1U0NZOHM/view?usp=sharing

Women's Literature Reflection

I think the purpose of studying literature, especially English literature, is to learn history and culture through books. For example, Alice Munro’s books provide insight of woman culture within society throughout her life. By learning literature from different authors, we also would be able to perceive different aspects of the English culture. The benefits from this are the abilities that can be used in daily life such as comprehension skills. When studying literature, we can learn the aspect of language which can be used in specific branches. It also provides the skills of writing appropriate English structure or grammar. Apart from those skills, literature enhances emotional and imaginative feeling provided by character and themes. These will help us to become more creative in every aspect.

Women’s literature is a portrayal of women’s lives and relationship between them and societies. It explores many aspects of their life such as relationship with family, friends, and lovers that may end happy or sad way. The importance of studying women’s literature can lead us to explore about gender, literary history, oppression as well as criticism to people especially women. It allows us to know the aspect of culture in particular time when the poem(s) was written. I think that it also shows the relationship or social importance between men and women in the past.

I believe that the main theme of Munro’s social realism is the equality and inequality that deals mostly with women in the society. So the reason that her social realism theme was so significant during 1950s-1980s because during that period of time there were many gender equality movement (feminist movement) occurred in the society. The creation of her works might have sparked a notion or expressed the reality of what women had to face during that time. I think that her short stories might have expressed the conflicts metaphorically without triggered chaos. Hence, it was the reason why her works were so significant during that period of time.

Well I think that although she does not identify as a feminist writer, her short stories usually contribute with the threats to women metaphorically or sometimes explicitly. The works show express aspect of a reality of women, which if one of the women who faces with the problem directly read the books; it can be interpreted that her work might contribute to gender equality. Although her works do not raise gender equality intentionally, it can be seen to have raised some of the notions.

What I enjoyed when reading Munro’s stories is to know the aspect of women history. Although it does not show explicitly, some of the themes can be interpreted though short stories. However, it does not have a lot of impact on me because I do not face with the conflict by myself, but it does not mean that I did not get anything. I think it is quite important to know some of these aspects in the society because it might help our developing in the future. If we understand hindsight, our society might grow or develop faster.

Analytical Activity

Disturbed: “Another Way to Die”

"Another Way To Die"

The indulgence of our lives has cast a shadow on our world.
Our devotion to our appetites betrayed us all.
An apocalyptic plight.
More destruction will unfold.
Mother Earth will show her darker side and take her toll.

It's just another way to die.

There can be no other reason why.
You know we should have seen it coming.
Consequences we cannot deny will be revealed in time.
Glaciers melt as we pollute the sky.
A sign of devastation coming.
We don’t need another way to die.
Can we repent in time?

[Pre-chorus:]
The Time bomb is ticking and no one is listening.
Our future is fading.
Is there any hope we’ll survive?

[Chorus:]
Still, we ravage the world that we love.
And the millions cry out to be saved.
Our endless maniacal appetite.
Left us with another way to die.
It's just another way to die.
Can we repent in time?

Greed and hunger led to our demise.
A path I can’t believe we followed.
Black agenda’s rooted in a lie.
Will we repent in time?
Species fall before our very eyes.
A world that they cannot survive in left them with another way to die.
Are we dead inside?

[Pre-chorus]

[Chorus x2]

Can we repent in time?
It's just another way to die.
Can we repent in time?

The song “another way to die” is of a band named “Disturbed”. It comes with the central theme of world’s environmental problems that are created by human while stating some of the consequences. Overall, the tone of the song is quite sad and remorseful to what human did. The tone and the theme can be recognized while just read through the chorus.

By looking at the preposition used within the song, the author always uses “we” to refer to people in the song. This can be interpreted that it refers to human because human are responsible to most of the world’s environmental issues. Looking further on, “greed and hunger led to our demise” can also be used support this interpretation because “greed” is one of the characteristic that only human can have. Therefore, the main audience is human in general. The aim of this song is to review to what is caused by human’s action while trying to internally persuade people to resolve the problem as “can we repent in time?” question is asked. The effect of this rhetorical question, referring to the main theme, is for the audiences to realize what is happening now. The sentence “It’s just another way to die” is supporting the mood of sadness and regretful. By combining these two together, the effect becomes more powerful toward the audiences. Meanwhile these two sentences are repeating many times within the song, so the effect of repetition is adding more emphasis to the consequences of the main theme.

The author uses rhyme such as die, why, deny, and time, which create reflection to overall theme of the song. By looking in a sentence, it shows that some of the sentences are arranged to provide time frame of the conflict. For example, “another way to die” followed by “no other reason why” followed by “consequences we cannot deny will be revealed in time”. These sentences are arranged to express or abbreviate the larger theme into small point that the audiences can follow easily, and it makes audiences wanting to read or listen further. Meanwhile, metaphor is also used within the lyrics to express the idea of the theme in another perspective such as “The time bomb is ticking”. “The time bomb” in this case refers to the effect of global warming that is currently harming us which again emphasize the main theme. The sentences “Black agenda’s rooted in a lie” may also refer to the government who acted that they are trying to deal with the issue, but actually do not do anything. Therefore, it can be seen again that every human needs to step in a help in order to solve the problem.

Overall, the song is dealing with world’s environmental problem. The author uses rhetorical devices supported by general ideas in order to successfully create an effect to the audiences.

Summer #2

Hi, this is my second blog post. To be honest, I don't really have anything to say in This post. Throughout the summer, I have been eating, playing and studying for the entire time. Summer, for me, seems to be nothing but studying without teacher only. Actually, I think I gained weight a bit HAHA!, but that's not the point.

The point is when I heard that there was bombing in Bangkok, I felt very bad because Thailand's economy and tourism business have just started to improve. Furthermore, there were a lot of people dying and countless people injured in the incident. Although Thailand is a beautiful country where a lot of people are willing to visit, I think external threat such as politics, crime and pollution have ruined the beauty of nature and reduce the interest of the country. Bangkok used to be nicer in old days where there wasn't triffic congestion problem, crime rate was very low because most of the people had what they need. Well, I don't want to criticize my country too much because it's quite bad. So I'm just going to end it there. 

As I said before, I don't really have anything to say. What I can say now is that throughout the summer, I cooked many dishes. Some of them tasted not too bad and not so delicious, but I still tried to get the best out of it. I just kept cooking what looks interesting. Every time I cooked, I felt relaxed, clam, and so enjoyable. So what's the point of saying these things? The point is just "do what you want while you can" because you might not be able to do it in the future.

That is the quote of the day... HAHAHA!. Keep smiling !

Summer #1

It's almost the end of the summer now, and it's time for me to write blog post. Summer has been quite busy for me. Although I stay in Abu Dhabi, which seems to be a great idea for chilling, doing some work or even just playing around, there have been a lot of unexpexted things to do apart from those i mentioned. 

Firstly, my brother, which we haven't met for about two years, has been visiting me throughtout the summer. We have spent a lot of quality times and exchanged conversation about our relatives and home town. We went to Yas waterworld in the day that the weather was buring straight for almost 9 hours. Although I think it was pretty fun, the park was not as good as I expected. 

Anyways, what I've just realized from chatting with my brother is that Thailand has changed and developed very rapidly. There are new projects everywhere in Bangkok; for example, new skytrain will be finished at the end of 2017, new shopping malls are emerging even in the suburb area now, and most importantly tourism business is starting to rise again after crisis two years ago. However, the downfall of these developments is the attitude of urban people toward others. People seem to be using eletric devices all the time without spending quality time with their family. They seem to be playing games, surfing internet or chatting with the invisible person on the internet. Sometimes I personally believe that it's not a good idea to spend a lot of times with these things. I would have been great if the development had not changed people. 

Secondly, I have got my internship certificate.....YEY!!. Well, I initially didn't have an idea about attending to any non-paid jobs. HAHAHA!. However, I informed my mom that I wanted to apply for an internship in Thailand Embassy in Abu Dhabi, where my mom is working in. Although my mom has a job there, I did not use any privilege to get my certificate. I still had to learn everything from a simple regulation to a sophisticated one. I was working in Visa section five days a week as ordinary officer for two months. I had to deal with more than 50 people each day and it wasn't really enjoyable. Some of them are quite disrespectful and some of them are very polite. I learned how to check documents correctly and knew how to read codes in passport, which I think it's a beneficial skills.

Finally, although I have been living in Abu Dhabi for two years so far, I still feel the test of my culture when I spent time with Thais. For me, it seems that these things are hardly changed by external factors. I still act as what I did in Thailand; for example, in Thai culture when we meet older people, we tend to pay repect to them. Summer had provided some opportunity for me to meet with Thai people, so I think this summer is quite nice.

Obierika's Perspective about Umofia.

Everything was falling apart; it was because our own people, our weaknesses, and Umuofia would never be the same again. At first, I thought that the missionary and Christianities were coming in peace, having good intention to explore the land and provide education to our people. However, everything was exposed when the second missionary, Mr. Smith, replaced Mr. Brown. The true intention was shown that they wanted to conquer our land, and oppress our people. They urged us to convert to their religion, obey to their god, and go to their church. It was our people’s weakness and fault that couldn’t see their true intention behind their peace and smiley face. Our people, converted people especially Enoch, were the one who destroy our tradition and religion. He dared to expose our Egwugwu whom he used to consider be his divine ancestors. Our divine spirit had gone; there would be horrible incident in our clan and our village. And there was; Okonkwo, my true friend and respected warrior of our clan, had let our people to disaster. He burnt their church, creating tension between two religious, or probably war. We, people of Umuofia, had done the same deed; our people would never live peacefully. Our god was oppressed, our clan would break soon. And it was, even the best warrior, Okonkwo, of our clan killed himself. He used to have a lot of prestige pride, but he killed everything in just one deed. He used to lead, protect our clan. When he killed himself, it seems that our clan would fall apart. Everyone was not as strong as him to dare with the strangers.e

Paper #2: Prompt

Question: To what extent has an awareness of context enriched and enhanced your understanding of Things Fall Apart.

The novel Things Fall Apart is based on the story of Nigerian community, culture, tradition and belief, especially Igbo ethinicity group. The novel proceeds its story relatively quick -- starts from the era where everyone lives and depends on each other within society to the era where they begin to deal with opressors. By studying critically into Igbo's system and uniqueness, understanding of the context and story of Things Fall Apart is enhanced, and would allow reader to follow along why the the characters act in particular aspect.

When talking about awareness of Igbo's culture and tradition within society, we could see that Igbo people heavily rely on personal ambition in order to gain wealth, status and power -- as seen in the novel where Okonkwo has very fierce, harsh and hardworking personality. He rarely shows his weaknesses because Igbo's tradition, especially when dealing with men, is considered men as leaders and relied with personal God. For people who have powerful personal God would have strong and brutal personality. By undestanding Igbo's context, it allows us to understand why Okonkwo has such a low morality. It allows us to understand that everything that foces Okonkwo to have this personality is shaped by the uniqueness of culture. Someone who does not have any understanding of Igbo's context would misinterpret the story, for instance; some student might prejudge Okonkwo to be bad, unacceptable or swagger character in society. This might lead to another meaning of the novel that the author is trying to express, resulting to debate or controversy about the context of the novel.

Furthermore, understanding the context of Igbo people would allow audiences to appreciate the way novel is leading, and reasons behind dialogue and difference between masculin and feminine. Some action done by man to woman in the novel is realistically unacceptable -- where we see that Okonkwo often beats his wife when he is angry. However, knowing Igbo background is helping readers understanding how Igbo people value themselves and nature.

Meanwhile when looking at the context within the novel itself, it shows that the way characters react and proceed the stroy leads their community falling apart. By interpreting (have some awareness about the context) the story where pure and guiltless Ikemefuna was killed by the circimstance of Igbo culture, it seems that everything running afterward was tuning badly. The aspect of Igbo's culture is changed -- superstition has become less powerful to the Ibo people. Furthermore, having awareness in the mind makes readers understand clash between Ibo culture and White colonizer. We could be able to see how new religion is spreading, old religion is threatened. Readers could be able to understand the reason why Ibo culture is falling apart; it is because Ibo people themselves. Circumstance and old beliefs of Ibo culture act as two-edged sword because, while one is trying to follow and preserve tradition, another see it as old fashioned since Ibo tradition belief has no further development in order to seek a better quality of life. It rarely has equality between men and women which further develops why Ibo women prior start to convert thier religion. Moveover as seen in novel that Ibo culture teaches their men to be harsh and fearless warrior, it stabs themselves because the way they treat White colonizer was brutal -- where we can see when Okonkwo chopped messenger's head with machete-- which leads to the falling apart of its culture because of his impatient and personal characteristic shaped by culture. I think by having awareness of the context of the novel, we could interpret and understand small element of the culture, context and dialogue shown in the story much more better. We could be able to identify the reasons behind context and characters.

Okonkwo

Why does Achebe choose a tragic hero for his protagonist in his colonial counter narrative? 

I think the reason that Achebe chooses a tragic hero for his protagonist in his colonial counter narrative because he wanted to show cultural value and practice of Igbo people. As we can see from the beginning of the story that Okonkwo’s desire was to be successful which he gradually achieved along the story. However along the way to his goal, which to gain his title in the clan – considered to be a hero of the village, he had to pass my challenges such as death of Ikemefuna. Igbo’s society practice is mostly based on the power of masculinity, showing and acting strong without any fear – as a fierce warrior. Death of Ikemefuna did actually interrupt Okonkwo’s journey to be a hero in his clan. Okonkwo did show some of his weaknesses which was usually not accepted by Igbo’s culture. Meanwhile talking about colonial counter within the story along with tragic hero – Okonkwo, I think Achebe wanted to express his thought and idea about colonization through this particular character. Achebe used Okonkwo as a tool to act and resist European colonizer, which perhaps portrays Achebe’s feeling. At the same time Okonkwo was to pursue his journey to gain title or the clan, which he had to follow Igbo’s culture, tradition and practice in order to receive the name, but his hero journey as well as Igbo’s tradition was stopped and disrupted by European. Achebe wanted to show the cultural and political system of Igbo’s culture where we can see that everyone is packed and built the culture. By using Okonkwo’s hero journey, it shows that the destruction of African culture was something that cannot be accepted. The suicide of Okonkwo shows Achebe’s notion that African tradition culture was gone at the same time when Okonkwo died because Okonkwo was a character that strongly obey and believe in his own culture. His death means that there is no one to resist colonization – lost of Igbo culture. Hence, I think Achebe is trying to represent African culture though Okonkwo’s action.

How does Achebe use Okonkwo to develop specific themes in Things Fall Apart?

I think the most obvious theme in Things fall apart is colonization, collapse of culture and acceptance. Achebe used Okonkwo to encounter the theme of culture where we see that Okonkwo strongly believe and obey in Igbo practice. He believes everything from the way used to gain title, oracle, and tradition believe about killing clansman. Meanwhile, the theme of colonization and acceptance is perhaps merged because Okonkwo didn’t accept European colonizers at all. Okonkwo is used to show that colonization is harsh and tough to accept especially for people who strongly believe in their culture. Okonkwo also provides the other perspective of colonization that if the colonizers come with peace, they might conquer and change local’s notion easily. However they did not come with peace in the story, therefore it is hard to accept because losing culture is hard to grant. 

Paper #1 Speech Analysis

 Elizabeth Glaser

1992 Democratic National Convention Address

I'm Elizabeth Glaser. Eleven years ago, while giving birth to my first child, I hemorrhaged and was transfused with seven pints of blood. Four years later, I found out that I had been infected with the AIDS virus and had unknowingly passed it to my daughter, Ariel, through my breast milk, and my son, Jake, in utero.

Twenty years ago I wanted to be at the Democratic Convention because it was a way to participate in my country. Today, I am here because it's a matter of life and death. Exactly – Exactly (ANAPHORA) four years ago my daughter died of AIDS. She did not survive the Reagan Administration. I am here because (DIACOPE) my son and I may not survive four more years of leaders who say they care, but do nothing. I -- I am in a race with the clock. This is not about being a Republican or an Independent or a Democrat (METAPHOR). It's about the future -- for each and every one of us.

I started out just a mom -- fighting for the life of her child. But along the way I learned how unfair America can be today, not just for people who have HIV, but for many, many people -- poor people, gay people (PARALLELISM), people of color, children. A strange spokesperson for such (ALLITERATION) a group: a well-to-do white woman. But I have learned my lesson the hard way, and I know that America has lost her path and is at risk of losing her soul. America wake up: We are all in a struggle between life and death.

I understand -- I understand (ANAPHORA) the sense of frustration and despair in our country, because I know firsthand about shouting for help and getting no answer. I went to Washington to tell Presidents Reagan and Bush that much, much more had to be done for AIDS research and care, and that children couldn't be forgotten. The first time, when nothing happened, I thought, "They just didn't hear me." The second time, when nothing happened, I thought, (ANTISTROPHE) "Maybe I didn't shout loud enough." But now I realize they don't hear because they don't want to listen.

When you cry for help and no one listens, you start to lose your hope. I began to lose faith in America. I felt my country was letting me down -- and it was. This is not the America I was raised to be proud of. I was raised to believe that other's problems were my problems as well. But when I tell most people about HIV, in hopes that they will help and care, I see the look in their eyes: "It's not my problem," they're thinking. Well, it's everyone's problem and we need a leader who will tell us that. We need a visionary to guide us -- to say it wasn't all right for Ryan White (ALLITERATION) to be banned from school because he had AIDS, to say it wasn't alright for a man or a woman to be denied a job because they're infected with this virus. We need a leader who is truly committed to educating us.

I believe in America (ANAPHORA),, but not with a leadership of selfishness and greed -- where the wealthy get health care and insurance and the poor don't. Do you know -- Do you know (HYPOPHORA) how much my AIDS care costs? Over 40,000 dollars a year (LOGOS). Someone without insurance can't afford this. Even the drugs that I hope will keep me alive are out of reach for others. Is their life any less valuable? Of course not (HYPOPHORA). This is not the America I was raised to be proud of -- where rich people get care and drugs that poor people can't. We need health care for all. We need (ANAPHORA) a leader who will say this and do something about it.

I believe in America (ANAPHORA), but not a leadership that talks about problems but is incapable of solving them -- two HIV commission reports with recommendations about what to do to solve this crisis sitting on shelves, gathering dust (METAPHOR). We need a leader who will not only listen to these recommendations, but implement them.

I believe in America(ANAPHORA),, but not with a leadership that doesn't hold government accountable. I go to Washington to the National Institutes of Health and say, "Show me what you're doing on HIV." They hate it when I come because I try to tell them (ALLITERATION) how to do it better. But that's why I love being a taxpayer, because it's my money and they must feel accountable.

I believe in an America (ANAPHORA), where our leaders talk straight. When anyone tells President Bush that the battle against AIDS is seriously under-funded, he juggles the numbers to mislead the public into thinking we're spending twice as much as we really are. While they play games with numbers, people are dying (METAPHOR).

I believe in America (ANAPHORA), but an America where there is a light in every home. A thousand points of light just wasn't enough: My house has been dark for too long.

Once every generation, history brings us to an important crossroads (METAPHOR). Sometimes in life there is that moment when it's possible to make a change for the better. This is one of those moments. (HYPOPHORA)

For me, this is not politics. This is a crisis of caring. (ALLITERATION)

In this hall is the future -- women, men of all colors saying, "Take America back." We are -- We are (ANAPHORA) just real people wanting a more hopeful life. But words and ideas are not enough. Good thoughts won't save my family. What's the point of caring if we don't do something about it? A President and a Congress that can work together so we can get out of this gridlock and move ahead, because I don't win my war if the President cares and the Congress, or if the Congress cares and the President doesn't support the ideas (HYPERBOLE).

The people in this hall this week, the Democratic Party, all of us can begin to deliver that partnership, and in November we can all bring it home.

My daughter lived seven years, and in her last year, when she couldn't walk or talk, her wisdom shone through. She taught me to love, when all I wanted to do was hate (AMPLIFICATION) . She taught me to help others, when all I wanted to do was help myself(AMPLIFICATION). She taught me to be brave, when all I felt was fear(AMPLIFICATION). My daughter and I loved each other with simplicity. America, we can do the same.

This was the country that offered hope. This was the place where dreams could come true, not just economic dreams, but dreams of freedom, justice, and equality. We all need to hope that our dreams can come true. I challenge you to make it happen, because all our lives, not just mine, depend on it.

Thank you.

Analysis 

This text is a speech by Elizabeth Glaser at the Democratic National Convention Address 1992. It is mostly talking about AIDS virus relating to the movement and work of government in trying to solve the problem. The speech is relatively powerful and hitting the government’s work by showing and illustrating the quality of life of people especially poor.

The targeted audiences of this speech is clear – the government. By looking at many paragraphs, the author usually begins the point with “I believe in America, but not with a leadership..” . She is using Logos such as “over 40,000 dollars a year.” to back up her point about government’s work. She is trying to persuade people to look at this problem as well as to raise a movement from the government. She is informing crisis to the government and the public.

The content is straightforward as we can see from the beginning of the speech that the author is starting with small problem within family – talking about her own experience with AIDS virus. She is talking about heartbreaking feeling and her struggle without any help and support from government health care.  The death of her daughter from AIDS virus was one of the reasons that she wanted to raise the movement and gain support from the government to all the people. The author is also talking about equality of value of people – no matter how poor you are, you have your right to get decent healthcare. She says that she wants old America back where there was some justice. Meanwhile, the theme of the speech is justice and equality between poor and those who can afford decent healthcare – expensive one. We can see that the point she makes is simply that people don’t gain support from the government even though there is money in the budged.

The tone of this speech is critical to the government as we can see that she is mostly commenting on them; for example “I believe in an America, but not a leadership…” and “ It’s not my problem (said by the people she asked for help).”  The tone also objective as we can see that she uses Logos (“ Over 40,000 dollars a year) to support her point which comments on the government. The mood is quite fierce and sad at the same time. She is sad because of her daughter’s death and fierce because government’s response.

There are many uses of literary devices in this speech such as Anaphora, Diacope, Metaphor, Alliteration, Parallelism, Antistrophe, Hypophora, Hyperbole, Amplification and Logos. All these literary devices can be seen in the speech above in the brackets.

Overall, this speech is mostly comment of the role of government of America about AIDS virus. There are many uses of literary devices in the text in order to create particular mood and feelings. The effect from this speech is effective when reading because of the uses of language the content itself. 

bell hooks, "The Language of Power"

“The Language of Power” by bell hooks is one of the stories I have read in the topic language and power. Although there are many stories within the topic, I found that this book contains many interesting fact about language and its power.

One thing I found quite interesting is that when bell hooks states “I know that it is not the English language that hurts me, but what the oppressors do with it”. This particular sentence makes me think that before English language became worldwide, many people were oppressed, forced and exploited. The English language itself does not have anything to deal with colonization, or negative attitude seen during that time. I see that English language was just a tool which, perhaps unfortunately, was used by oppressors to force and enslave people; and hence, its positive values were overcome.  When being forced while living within a place containing various kinds of people, people had to struggle in order to live and communicate. Manipulating and mixing language is the only choice for slave because if you do not sacrifice, you will not be able to live and escape. This is relevant to another sentence by bell hooks “So, if you want to really hurt me, take badly about my language”.  I think that language is not only a tool used to communicate, but it also contains cultural and religion values, history, and most importantly identity. Changing or manipulating language means the deviation of your identity because your identity relies on it. Referring to her statement, talking badly about language can really hurt people because it means that your nation, identity and culture are insulted. Identity is what most people proud of, since it shows everything from fundamental. I think I have never seen people accept or agree when their language is insulted.

Another point I found interesting in this story is that enslaved African used and manipulated English to the language of resistance. It is surprising that changing some part of word would create significant impact on its meaning such as no one to nobody resulting in richer meaning. It shows that people can do everything in order to gain and acquire more power. Knowing language and having ability to speak creates a lot of power because they will be able communicate between slave. Even though the structure of language did not change, I see that making new word is a great idea. Nowadays, although we are not in the era of colonization, new words are made due to the change of society. Things have changed and created, which society has to keep the same pace with development. I come with my idea that changing language or adding words does not mean insult to the language anymore, since everything needs change.

Relationship between language, gender, and power

In the following link contains the article about "Minnesota police offers shot after city council meeting".

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/27/minneapolis-police-shooting-city-council-meeting

There is some relationship between language, gender and power in this particular article. Looking at the heading "Minnesota (police officers) shot after city council meeting", it uses "police officers" instead of pointing into specific information such as policeman or policewoman meaning that the article does not have any bias to either man or woman, or does not want to reveal specific gender of wounded police since it might cause further conflict. Using the word "police officer" also means that the author does not oppress any genders. The following sentence states that "......returned fire and killed the (gunman)...". The use of the word "gunman" has specific gender-identification explained through language, which means that the convict was male. Meanwhile, if the article stated the word "gunwoman", which is rarely to be seen,  it would imply that the convict is female meaning that the detail might oppress female in some way since sometimes it is not appropriate to expose female conducting horrible deed. Reading along the article, the author still uses the same neutral word relating to victims meaning that author does not want to reveal specific information. It shows that he/she is trying to keep his/her piece neutral.

Linguistic Imperialism

First of all "Imperialism" is a policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies; according to dictionary. Linked to education, imperialism has significant effects both in positive and negative way. For positive way, countries or community colonized by the dominant country will be able to gather more knowledge from the immigrants. The standard quality of  education system will be heightened up which will open a wider opportunity for students to study various subject branches. Students who are studying in the system will have a wider view of the world around them because information collected into the education system comes from different places that might have different perspective or cognition. Different perspective or cognition means that when they meet the same dispute or arguement, more knowledge will be created since everyone has different interpretation and imagination. One of the best thing of being colonized is that people tend to use the same language which is easier to communicate and exchange personal ideas. Coming back to education system, the graduated students will provide good quality services or works into the community which will, eventually, increase life-quality, income, or health. Furthermore essential services will be provided in the community since people have enough knowledge and satisfactory profession, such as doctor, lawyer, or teacher, in order to produce needed service. Community , especially with lower quality life, will benefit from being colonized because immigrants will bring knowledge in order to teach native the way of using their resources efficiently creating higher income-rate and increasing quality of life. However, being colonized means using new language or, moreover, losing dialect which will lead to the loss of indigenous knowledge. Since every place has their way of living which includes the use of herbs, tools, or machine. Gathering new education system or knowledge from immigrant means that native will have to abandon uniques techniques, language, or cultural value. Crucially, language and cultural value might extinct eventually. Nevertheless, being colonized was a potential way of getting new knowledge and better education quality in past. Since living in modern era where social networking is spreading conprehensively, people have opportunity to learn and study through electronic device which means that being colonized is not the best way of getting high-standard education anymore.

Paper #1 Text # 2

This text is a descriptive text from the website because it mostly tells the background information of food crisis in Sahel region of West and Central Africa before saying what Oxfam international itself is doing in order to help people living within the area. The aim of the text is to review significant problem occurring by saying the people’s daily life living which should be treated.The people who mostly will interested in this specific topic are local, operation related to humanity or people who have faced the same problem because they would have a lot of concern and sympathy to support Oxfam in order to help people.

Looking at the content and picture, the text is mostly about the people in Sahel region of West and Central Africa who are facing food crisis in the past years. A lot of people do not have enough food and water to live because of many factors including climate and scarce resources that heightens up the food prices. Therefore, Oxfam international claims that they are helping, preventing and trying to supply food and resources for people living in the area. The message that the author is trying to build the sympathy emotion and convey is the long-term food crisis in Africa, having been infecting and killing people for many year, which need to be taken into account. Therefore, the author is trying to mention the goodness of Oxfam international by saying its operation within the area in order to hook the emotional and concerning readers.

The tone of the text is sympathetic because it is about food crisis, which have been affecting people’s life for many years, resulting to the illness, struggling and death of African people. The atmosphere is sad and gloomy because a lot of people are dying, however; there is still some happiness within this atmosphere because Oxfam international is in its helping and supporting operation which might cure the problems.

Within the text, Oxfam international’s perspective is objective from its data receiving for many years. It can be seen by the use of “According to national early warning systems…..” and “Recent reports said….” that it is not biased or made by themselves in order to make this website trustable. The ideological standpoint in this text is not obvious, however, it gives some sense of helping and providing the people who do not have or have less. The ideological can be obvious in the sense of sharing. The repetition of Oxfam in the last paragraph emphasizes the fact that they are actually helping these people, not the other organization. It can also be said that Oxfam international is stepping and actually helping without any doubt because it uses first person or specific pronoun in order to hook and create some emotional sense relating to Oxfam to the reader. The paragraph structure used in this text is trying to build up emotion and ideas of struggling people. The use of image of local riding sad-looking donkey at the beginning of the text including the catchphrase “Food Crisis in Sahel” creates sympathetic impression to the readers. The dry ground and probably bright sunlight (because of the shadow) also creates the sense of shortages of water and foods that African people are struggling with. The structure of this text is providing from background information to specific data. The first bold paragraph is hooking and creating curious emotion for the readers to find out more about the situation because it uses specific data such as “12 million people……are facing a food crisis…” and imperative emotional word such as “we hope…”. The following paragraph provides basic information about food crisis, however, it also tells consequences, such as “……provides an opportunity to avoid the mistake of the pass”, if this problem does not take into account which this particular is hooking the readers into the emotion of caring. Moving to the subheading, it mostly talks and goes in depth to the specific data which builds up more sympathetic emotion because of the use of number such as “5.4 million people”. The use of paragraph-ending has significant emotional touch to the readers who are actually concerning to this problem because “2.4 million people don’t have always enough to eat” shows that these people really need to be helped. Coming to the last subheading, all of the sympathy emotional makes Oxfam international looks very good and helpful because it is the only organization mentioned in this text. Therefore, if this organization is gathering donation, people who are really concerning about this problem will definitely donate for them since there are only what Oxfam is trying to help African people in the last subheading. It shows only its goodness including the use of repetition of Oxfam is emphasizing that Oxfam is the best one.