Propoganda Poster

Link to poster: https://www.lucidpress.com/invitations/accept/92903f28-eef4-4bac-99e4-03f380ae1fe9

Rationale

The IB learner profile this poster promotes is ‘Risk-Taking.’ This advertisement/poster uses the propaganda device of glittering generalities and visual imagery. The device, glittering generalities uses virtue words in order to appeal to the audience’s emotions of love, generosity and companionship. In this ad, this ad uses the word, ‘courage,’ as its virtue word as it’s inclusive of the entire audience and it doesn’t have a negative or competitive connotation to it. Furthermore, the visual imagery of geometrical shapes in the background in bright colors such as yellow, red and orange enhance the positive tone of this advertisement.

Deception Is Just As Bad As Telling An Outright Lie

"Deception Is Just As Bad As Telling An Outright Lie In The Media"

In class, we watched a documentary focused on the way Al Jazeera portrayed the American invasion in Iraq and how the Arabs and Americans reacted to it. Relating this back to the statement we discussed in class (slightly altered), I still continue to disagree with the statement.

As one of the reporters, head of Al Jazeera I believe, mentioned that no news media is completely 'objective' and they all have an agenda. This statement is very similar to what the US marine official, Josh Rushing, said about showing a polar perspective in order to balance out the Arab world's perspective. I believe that showing only one side in order to get your point across is a way of deception because it is intentionally hiding one side of the truth and this can't be equally compared to lying as lying is saying something that is not true. Even though I believe that these two are incomparable, for the sake of argument, I'd say deception can be worse, just as bad or not as bad as lying in the context of media. It is very unrealistic to say that media should be completely objective because human nature doesn't allow it. Additionally, without any hint of subtle or blatant bias, news is just not as interesting and it wouldn't appeal to any audience. An example of this would be when Mr Michael stated that whenever he reads anything opposing his ideology (relating to Canadian politics), he tends to completely disregard it however, it would surely appeal to the audience that does agree with that ideology. In a way, it also appeals to the audience that is against the ideology because personally, I sometimes read articles that is opposite to my ideology just to mentally laugh at the irrational perspectives so I'd classify my appeal to such articles as negative appeal nonetheless. This shows that media with a bias tends to have a strong audience supporting them along with an audience completely disregarding them yet they still have the attention of the audience that disregards them

On the other hand, the American media and the American president at that time claimed that Al Jazeera picked up random civilians and put them at the site where the bombing happened just to evoke strong emotions amongst audience and the Arab leaders believed that Al Jazeera was pro American. Since both the major parties involved in this situation portrayed Al Jazeera in a negative light, it shows that even though Al Jazeera may have shown disturbing images of the civilians and soldiers in order to fulfil their agenda, their way of 'deception' by using imagery for the purpose of empathy didn't necessarily contain strong bias and additionally as they didn't have a political agenda, it shows that in this context, deception isn't as bad as telling an outright lie in the media. In fact, deception was beneficial as in this case; it acted as a bridge with the two extreme perspectives since Al Jazeera had Arab guests along with American guests on their talkshow even though, from what I believe, their way of deception with the American guests was by manipulating questions in such a way so that they'd receive the answer they wanted.


Word count: 550 

Article with Media Bias- Ambani's presence in India

Rationale

The ideology my article opposes is that of Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man and owner of the Fortune 500 corporation Reliance, opening up the Indian market to foreign investors and how he has helped India develop. My article focuses on how his political influence through privitization has actually had a negative influence in India's market. Additionally, Ambani's insensitivity towards the poverty displays a contrast between the cultural values he claims to have embraced and the reality. (Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/business/worldbusiness/15ambani.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the owner of the Fortune 500 (Reliance), rules over an empire established by his father, Dhirubai Ambani, in a country of 1.3 billion people. Ambani completed his higher education in the United States and went on to be the director of a Wall Street bank.

He has made profound statements regarding the poverty and social structure in India and how he believes an ‘open’ market can help in improving those two ongoing issues yet, according to Forbes, he went on to make the world’s most expensive house/skyscraper in the midst of the Mumbai slum; his wealth parade amongst the poorest of them all really brings about the issue of his moral values. He is know as the father of Indian capitalism and rightfully so as the company Reliance consists of 15% of the country’s exports. This is all very glossy when looked at from an outsider’s perspective. The reality requires looking at the rotten model of the corporate culture Ambani has formed for the world’s largest youth population, the Indian youth, to follow.

Analyzing the governance of this corporation really displays a stark contrast between Ambani’s words and his actions. He is widely regarded as playing the role of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) as he draws similarities between their Gujurati roots, holding the place of a famous and powerful private citizen, belonging to the merchant caste know as the modh banias and both being vegetarian. On the other hand, the differences they share, or rather not, essentially display how Gandhi worked for the country and helped in forming the government whereas Ambani makes the people work for him and has the government, if not the government then many of the political influential leader, under his control. For a man who believes in an open market and foreign competitors entering the country, his political reigns have tied down the government and according to sources; his lack of transparency is the reason why so many foreign investors hesitate to step foot in India

Recently, in 2009, when Wal-Mart tried introducing its brand in India, the government implemented mainly ‘red tape’ barriers, which slowed down the process of Wal-Mart establishing itself and at one point, it became questionable as to whether or not they’d actually be able to come into India. They finally made it in but it really makes one wonder why the government would be so hesitant of FDI, which is anything but harmful to a rapidly developing economy.

Source I used to gather my statistics for my bias: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21610267-why-mukesh-ambani-indias-richest-man-needs-reform-his-empire-unloved-billionaire

The Tempest Practice IOC

http://vocaroo.com/i/s06Htpbe07fK

David Foster Essay Analysis

How does he develop this thesis? What examples or evidence does he use? 
How does this theory extend or relate to our inquiry question? -How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?

David Foster Wallace is an American writer who wrote the essay, 'This is Water.' This essay begins with an example of two young fish swimming who happen to cross paths and have a conversation. Although the conversation can be seen as simplistic and with no meaning, it introduces the theme of oblivion and this essay is based upon the consequences of choosing to be oblivious about one's surroundings or choosing to be aware and essentially, open our eyes to the things, people and situations around us rather than being focused on ourselves and only our situation. Furthermore, this essay explains how self satisfaction and personal happiness is also tied into choosing to be aware. 

Even though the author wants us to shift away from the 'me, me, and me' attitude, the mention of how being aware will benefit us, automatically makes the purpose of this essay contradictory. This shows that Wallace is well aware that if he wants his readers attention and wants them to really think about the message he is trying to convey- importance of understanding and being conscious of others- he needs to have a lure that will be beneficial for humans because as he mentioned in his essay, we have a 'default' setting which only allows us to think one way which, for most people, is about ourselves only however, he also mentions that we have the choice to change our default setting.

This theory directly relates to our inquire question of, 'How can literature develop empathy and emotional intelligence?' Pop- culture fiction books/novels tend to have plots that are very character bases, generally one single character is the centre of the entire plot and everything else is revolving around that. The nature of these kind of plots brings about the concept of being 'self- centred' because the readers simply don't care about the setting or the other characters as much because they are too divulged in the life of the main character. These 'self- centred' plots are parallel and synonymous to the lives of people living in big cities because their lives is only about them. If they are going back home from work and there is a lot of traffic, other people are in their way however if they take a step back from being self consumed, they will be able to see that they are also adding to the traffic flow therefore, they themselves are also in the way of others trying to reach home. This is just one example but this kind of mindset appears in many situations and rather than people being negative, frustrated and exhausted by other people getting in their way, people can use the same amount of time in being reflective of surroundings and maybe think/speculate about what they see, other than themselves. This shows that literary pieces of work assist in making the default setting of a person to be more of aware because literary texts are more about the setting and the different characteristics- or shades of grey one could say- of the different characters rather than just one main character.

IOC Moons of Jupiter

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1vIcAZKmhCU

Boys and Girls IOC

https://sites.google.com/site/iocfilesenglish/mp3

or

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0O8VSCwWTSh

Reflection on Class Discussion and Alice Munro

During our class discussion on Thursday, the question on how to define women's literature was very hard to word Many people said that women's literature was written for the women and by the women. I believe that to some extent, that statement is true however, I don't agree with the fact that women's literature is written for women solely. Women's literature definitely relates to the female audience at a deeper level but on the other hand, I feel like it acts as an epiphany to many of those people unaware or just simply ignorant. For example, Alice Munro states in her interview that the loss of her middle child was a big deal and she also stated that the loss of children for mothers in other countries may not be that big of a deal simply because it's common. Reading women's literature from all around the word gives these different perspectives and makes people, not only women, aware of what the world of women is like in different places. Also, in order to raise awareness and to achieve a purpose such as gender equality, the audience needs to be everyone. 

I believe that there are quite a few reasons as to why we study literature. Some of the prominent ones are: better understanding of current culture as a whole and greater sensitivity and understanding to different perspectives. Better understanding to different cultures is quite relevant as our society is a lot more mobile now and understanding the different perspectives is likely to keep greater harmony in our mobile global community. 

 The themes and values of social realism were very significant during the 1950s-1980s  as that was the period of second wave feminism. Essentially, second wave feminism was a fight to raise the women from their secondary roles and give them equal opportunity for primary roles- this was after basic rights were achieved. In one of Munro's works, the Runaway, Grace is portrayed as someone who dislikes the given gender roles of women at that time and because many women, like Grace, didn't agree with the gender role of women as people only really capable of secondary roles, there was second wave feminism. 

I think Munro's work has contributed to gender equality in terms of reaching out to a large audience. She doesn't only develop the main character, the subsidiary characters are just as well developed so anyone reading the book can always relate to aspects of a character. Many times, the reader can also relate to different aspects of different characters at the same time so that makes the text of the stories more engaging. Additionally, no character is shown in a completely bad light meaning that there's no 'good' or 'bad' character so no reader really gets put off and they can see for themselves the position they are at in terms of gender equality/inequality.

Word count: 476

Creative Task: What’s Your Story?

Characters:

Daughter: Lana

Lana’s Dad: Bob                                         

Monarchial President: Draco

Opposition Party: Ray Party

Party in power: Congress Party

Plot (Inclusive of Literary elements, techniques and devices)

What happens in the story?

In the story, the narrator (Lana) is the daughter of a political leader, Bob. Bob is the political leader of the opposition party. Additionally, the party’s aim is to be fair and just to the entire population of the country so all the people in that party are supposedly good- hearted human beings. The country Lana lives in right now is a democratic monarchy, meaning that the elected leader, Draco, of the country stopped the upcoming elections after his time so he could stay in power. Draco made monarchial rules such as the people in his party have privileges however, his rules were created in a way that it was hard to pinpoint why they were unfair. For example, one of the rules were: ‘the children and family of the Congress party members have reservation in the government job industry because they all come from low- income families.’ That wasn’t true, both parties had almost the same number of low-income families. The Congress Party stays in power for 16 years, since the birth of Lana until an incident happens that leads to the downfall of that party. Bob digs deep into Draco’s past and finds out that Draco’s dad is not the real dad because his mother had a relationship with the brother right before she god married. Bob knows that if he reveals this to the public, there will be dispute amongst the Congress party itself because at that time period, the 1980s, having an affair was a huge matter of shame. Bob decides to tell everyone in the country about it however, to make the situation even worse, Bob twists the story and he says that Draco’s mother was in a relationship with the brother while she was married. When this twisted truth is disclosed, there’s mayhem in the Congress party; they decide to take down Draco so then the country has no official leader. Bob sees this as an opportunity, which he created for himself, to take upon the role of the country’s president. He justifies this action to the public by saying that: ‘this country can’t have a party in power, which isn’t unified and is built upon lies (referring to Draco’s parents’ dilemma). This country needs a party which is honest and fair.’ Lana knows about the whole situation and she is appalled by the fact that her father would twist the truth since his life motto was always about being honest. She started seeing her father as an opportunist. Lana was made the Vice President of the country by her father and she didn’t want to be in that position because the means her father got to his current role as a president was unfair, according to her. She felt like the whole situation and the whole environment was oppressive. She couldn’t disclose her father because then, that would lead to altercation in the Ray party and Lana believes that if she does that, she’d be doing the exact same thing as her father, Bob, did to Draco. Lana spends weeks thinking about how to make things right and one night she seems to have a panic attack from all the overthinking. Her father takes her to the hospital and the doctor recommends antidepressants. Lana then realizes that she can’t do anything about her father being president through unfair means because if she exposes her father, there will be disagreements amongst the Ray Part, which could lead to Bob losing his seat as a President and it’s not like the people of the Congress are deserving and if she stays quiet, then she is letting wrong acts get by; either way is a losing situation for her. She eventually convinces herself that ignorance is bliss and that she will lose her mind if she contemplates more in this issue so she just accepts the fact that she is the vice president of the country and that people will always be opportunists. The last chapter (30 years into the future) is from a third person perspective and it shows how Lana is now leading a luxurious life and after her father dies; she becomes the president of the country. The third person narrator also hints upon how Lana was always subconsciously an opportunist because in that lose-lose situation she had when her father disclosed Draco’s past, she chose the option that favored her and her family.

Theme:

à What do readers learn about the theme from the story?

The main theme of this short story is oppression. This theme digs deep into mental oppression rather than the idea of oppressor VS oppressed characters. In this case, the situation the narrator is put into a situation where they observe the people of the community as oppressed and the environment as oppressor. The sub theme of this story is acceptance. This theme is an out come of the main theme. This theme shows that in many situations ignorance is truly bliss. The environment is so overpowering that any retaliation will lead to chaos.

Summer Blog Post #2

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20150818-keep-calm-and-conquer-the-mountain-of-stress

School is 10 days away and of course this is the period when the magazines, newspapers, social media etc start posting thoughts/articles on how to release stress. When I first started reading articles on releasing stress, it was worthwhile because I acquired new information from it however; these days I feel like the articles are just repetition of each other. Also, I hear people (mainly adults) around me talking about how I shouldn't take stress in my senior year but I know as soon as school opens, people (mainly adults) will start 'enlightening' us on how we can't afford to slack off this year and how we need to be on top of our game but then at the end they always add a phrase akin to: 'but of course you can have some fun."

I understand why adults constantly remind us about school work, college applications etc- they want what's best for us/they think that's the right thing to do but I don't think they understand that constantly reminding us (like daily basis) on the list of things we need to do during our senior year has no affect on the people who don't care about personal responsibility and rather, it ends up frustrating the students who have already taken upon their responsibility.

In essence, I believe that constant reminder does more harm than good and a gentle reminder every now and then is more needed and much more appreciated (by me at least). 

Thoughts on the Book '3 Mistakes of My Life'

The 3 Mistakes of My Life is a book written by Chetan Bhagat. This book is set in Gujarat ( a state in India) and it's focused on the lives of three young boys who are in their 20s. The story really captures the essence of the emerging urban population in the early 2000s. Each boy in the story is very distinct from the other; Govind is an aspiring businessman and he opens up a cricket store, Omi belongs to a very religious family and his father is the priest of a temple, and Ishan who is obsessed with cricket.

Govind falls in love with Ishan's younger sister, Ishan is not interested in his education and he ends up coaching a young boy in cricket who is slightly autistic, and Omi isn't happy about Ishan coaching the young boy because he is of a different religion. All of this takes place during the time period of the Muslim- Hindu riots in Gujarat and the Gujarat earthquake. After the point, things start to fall apart.

I think this book digs deep into the subtle and blatant social segregation. Additionally, it shows how being trapped in a physically violent situation really influences ones thoughts and beliefs on a certain group of people because of personal experience. This then leads to generalizing a group of people which is quite harmful to a community with many different cultures and it constricts a society from living in harmony. Furthermore, the book depicts how politicians really take disputes to their advantage as they see it as an opportunity for 'vote bank.' In fact, the politicians want the disputes to stay unresolved or else they will lose their vote banks for elections and people will actually vote for who they want to rather than the politician who supports their religion or belief. This sends out the message that disputes will never get resolved because for that to happen, leaders of states, groups and nations need to want for tensions to be resolved. Many may think that this is a very negative outlook but it is what it is.

This book will definitely fall under realistic fiction as the events (riots and earthquakes) really did happen and the stories of the three young boys could have very well happened to anyone in that situation.

This was the first book I read which had Hinglish ( Hindi + English) terms so it definitely gave off a different effect to the other English books I read. The language was relatable because at home, I try to speak in Hindi but I tend to mix it with English most of the times because my Hindi vocabulary isn't broad as I've never lived in India during my schooling period. On the other hand, there were many terms I didn't understand and only the people who live/reside in urban areas of India.

Overall, this book was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it to people who understand the Hinglish.

Thoughts on Things Fall Apart

It has been a week since my AP Lit class has finished reading the novel, ‘Things Fall Apart,’ written by Chinua Achebe and unlike any other novel, this one refuses to leave my head. I have never questioned my identity as an American. Weirdly enough, after 16 years I am not so sure about who I am.

My name is Lucy, I am 16 years old and I live in Katy (Texas). Oh and not to forget that I am a white- African child. Confusing, right? Well my mom’s side of the family is from Europe, Sweden and Germany, and my dad’s side of the family is from Africa. Three days ago, I asked my mom where in Africa my dad’s family is from, and she was speechless. I could say that she should feel ashamed but that would be just a tad bit hypocritical since I didn’t know the roots of my dad’s family either. Then, I asked dad the same question and he told me that his great grandparents are from former Igboland, which is current day Nigeria. I was surprised, excited and shocked because that is where the story of Things Fall Apart is set and I told him everything I learnt about the Igbo culture; from the importance of the gods and the harvesting season to the whole system of ranks based on personal hard work rather than the family one belongs to. That night, his smile stretched across his face and his eyes were twinkling like I’d never seen before. I think it’s pretty cool that I’m related to Things Fall Apart in this way, but I’m not sure what to feel about this.

Christmas, Easter and Halloween are festivals I’ve always celebrated. I was never exposed to any of the Igbo traditions and I don’t think my dad was either. I feel like I was given an identity rather than deciding for myself. I feel like I was a math problem that was too hard to be solved. I feel like I was betrayed because even though I wasn’t lied to, a part of the truth was kept hidden from me- intentional or unintentional. Simultaneously, I think that maybe not knowing about my African background was beneficial. I didn’t have to think too hard about what I believed in because the American culture and African culture really do clash so it would’ve been a hard thought process- I wouldn’t know.

Fate was a prominent theme in the novel. I am a believer of action and consequence- if I don’t do my homework I go to detention- pretty simple. A supernatural power can’t control anyone’s future. Okonkwo’s downfall was when the faulty gun fired at the boy. Achebe showed that scene as the reason for him being exiled but I think it would’ve been more appropriate if Okonkwo suffered harsh consequences for his misdeeds such as beating his wife. This belief in fate depicts superstition within their community and this brings me to the second theme of the nove- religion. I can’t imagine myself choosing to worship many gods over the one God because I can only see myself as a Christian and I believe that we all only have one God and idolizing an object as god is ridiculous; nevertheless Achebe did mention that they didn’t believe god existed in objects as the objects symbolized the gods but that’s too much of deep thinking for me. Another theme that stood out to me is embracing change. Many people, such as Okonkwo, were against the European colonization and missionaries but there were also many people who were eventually accepting of the Europeans, such as Nwoye. He was into Christianity because they appreciated the male involvement in the arts unlike the Igbo community. What the Europeans did was wrong but once the invasion happened, I think it was best to embrace change because that’s the best way forward for oneself and the whole society. Resistance won’t help- it will just lead to self-harm like it did with Okonkwo committing suicide. Also, I wouldn’t be here if the Europeans wouldn’t have colonized Igboland and exposed them to the outer world!

So, do you see my problem here? The two cultures that I historically belong to are so different that maybe my life would’ve been harder than it is now if I was given the option to embrace one. I love the fact that in Umuofia, status was solely dependent on hard work unlike here, where your social status is dependent on which country club you are a member of. In Things Fall Apart, the society was an example of communism done right- almost. On the other hand, I’d hate to be associated with a community where women are dehumanized. In Umuofia ‘agbala’ meant woman; however it was also a term used to classify men who died titleless. I was ENRAGED with how the term ‘agbala’ was used and I feel like nobody else cared about it as much as I did. The nonchalance of my class towards this made me question whether America is progressing towards equality. At least Umuofia had societies for women and around hundred years has passed since then and we barely have any female politicians in our country- how progressive!

I don’t know if living in this country has constricted my mind or not but I do know that reading this book has definitely brought about a paradigm shift for me. The thing is, this novel only intrigued me because I knew that I had some sort of African history. If the story were set in Asia or some other place, I wouldn't spend a single waking minute thinking about it. This makes me wonder, how many people are yet to open eyes? How many people cruise through their entire life without ever finding out who they truly are?