December 09, 2005
Hindu Women's Activismin India
I think that I would interesting that in the Vedic era, women had more power than they do today. When the Muslim invastion happend everything changed. Before this happened women were able to be more independed. Women could have a bigger role in employment, religion, procreation, and economy. When Muslim's come in, Hindu men wanted there wifes to do what they wanted for their own safey. The two cultures see things very differently from each other.
December 08, 2005
Service Learning
I must say my service learning experience was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. I am so glad this class gave me the opportunity to work with an organization that means so much to me. At first I was a little hesitant about wanting to do something like service learning because of the time commitments, but after working there for this past semester I realized that it has been amazing. I plan to continue to volunteer with NARAL next semester and hopefully continue volunteering there for the rest of my college career.
Service Learning Experience
For my service learning assignment for the semester, I volunteered at The Aurora Center for Advocacy & Education. The training was twenty hours in itself, which was what was required but I choose to continue to volunteer with them because of the services they provided. I volunteer as a Violence Prevention Education (VPE), which entailed facilitating trainings to student groups, classes, residence halls, and things of that nature within the university. Part of the training we do is present “The Green M&M Project, a reality based examination of myths and messages about sex, power and growing up male and female.” A lot of the things we learned were in conjunction with what was reviewed in the class, such as some of the videos like “Still Killing Us Softly”. I really found this to be rewarding and am glad to have volunteered with them because they really go out of their way to make you feel a part of their community. For instance, I am not just a volunteer who comes in, do a few hours, and am done. Instead they assign us projects of our choices, they fund it, and we have full control over the outcome. That’s one of the many reason I am choosing to continue to volunteer with them next semester.
my service learning experience
It is great to read people's positive experiences with the service learning project. I on the other hand was not so fortunate to have a great experience. I volunteered at the St.Paul YWCA kid's club, which was the only organization that accepted me. I had a negetive experince because for one it looked like they did not need vlounteers. They had four certified teachers plus a couple tutors for about 50-60 kids. All I was asked to do was clean up after the kid's snack time. I'm sorry, but I did volunteer to clean up after children, I vlounteered to help my community. I expcetations when I was being trained in was that I would run games and activites, but rather I just cleaned.
A Semester with Belinda
At first I was afraid to volunteer at a nursing home because I figured I feel guilty for not going home to see my grandma as much as I'd like, but working there is the best thing I've ever done. This has been a wonderful volunteer opportunity--actually going and helping people who really appreciate and NEED the help. Never in my life have I felt so fulfilled and blessed. As I wheel the elderly to chapel in the morning, I know I'm doing God's work (not to insult any non-Christians). Their faces literally light up when they see me, and I know that I have made it possible for those who ordinarily wouldn't make it to service to make it. I have made many friends at the home, and I am just beginning to know their pain, and I now realize how important it is to not forget the elderly. Oh, and if any of you have spare time, Ebenezer could use a few extra hands; trust me...it's worth it.
women and power
when i first thought about this topic, it brought up some up some interesting points; (1) there aren't too many women in political office (2) the stereotype that portrait women as non-ambition, therefore they don't want to seek a lot of power and when they do have power they don't know how to use it in an effective way. The first issue about not having enough women image in political office does in fact have a burden on our society as a whole becuase it eliminates a lot of different perspectives that women have to say about current issues or problems and how to solve those issues and problems in america. The comment on how women don't know how to use power when they do have it just false in a way. I have seen and worked with a lot of women that have the ability to delagate and get the job done on time and did a hell of a job on it. I think the stereotype exist because sometime people tend to be confuse on how we define power and how does power being use and show in various different aspect of our life and situations.
Health fair
For my service learning at FOLC, one of the events that were important to attend to was the health fair. My director emphasised that this health fair was going to take place a month before it actually happened, and it seemed like a major deal. I had visualized the whole event as hectic, with speakers grabbing audiences and trying to inform them about whatever they had to proposed. However, when I got to the health fair, I was somewhat disappointed. The health fair took place in a gymnasium and it was pretty empty looking. The booths were set up and no spectators came in. I was suppose to sit at my organization's booth, FOLC, and give them information about who we are and what our goals were, but that was kind of difficult if no one stopped by, especially that we did not have our display until 2 hours after the health fair started. We just sat there the whole entire time and it definitely was not how I imagined it.
Health fair
For my service learning at FOLC, one of the events that were important to attend to was the health fair. My director emphasised that this health fair was going to take place a month before it actually happened, and it seemed like a major deal. I had visualized the whole event as hectic, with speakers grabbing audiences and trying to inform them about whatever they had to proposed. However, when I got to the health fair, I was somewhat disappointed. The health fair took place in a gymnasium and it was pretty empty looking. The booths were set up and no spectators came in. I was suppose to sit at my organization's booth, FOLC, and give them information about who we are and what our goals were, but that was kind of difficult if no one stopped by, especially that we did not have our display until 2 hours after the health fair started. We just sat there the whole entire time and it definitely was not how I imagined it.
December 07, 2005
Iraq's little secret
This insert brings to mind several important ideas about our current invovlment in the Middle East. Kristof dictates that Arab countries are very repressive of women, and that we should be aware and critical of this. However, it's a very black and white perspective on the repression of MIddle Eastern women. In doig this, he is obscuring the complexities of the situation, and creating a polarization. The way in which Westerners pervasively represent and then control our "others" is only CAST as a way to "help" them, we're there to civilize and enlighten then. These representations then become dichotomous. It is the characterizations (we are rational, accurate, etc. and "they" are wrong) we make that seperates us. Also, we cannot simply understand others in terms of culture. We need to consider the broad range of politcal and economic contexts surrounding the issues.
Iraq's Little Secret
I really enjoyed this piece. I know that I am guily of believing that all muslim women are forced to wear thier veil if they were raised in the middle east. Of course this stereotype was a result of reading many artices that clump all of the people from the middle east as one type of person. Now after reading this I realized just how flawed it is to take what one reads as all factual. I almost felt dumb for not knowing that people from Iraq would not necessarily be like the people from Saudi Arabia. Its just like here, I'm from Minnesota and I live my life much differently than say a person from Hollywood or from Mexico.