HW 35: Letter to my blog readers: almost over

I can't believe that this is almost one of my last blog posts. This class has been an eye-opening experience for me. I never realized that blogging was such an important part of people's daily lives. It amazes me that I wasn't aware of the blogging community and all that it offers. Maintaing my blog over the past thirteen weeks of class has been somewhat difficult but it's also good because it has allowed me to stay focused and write my posts on a daily basis. Either now or in the future, I hope that someone who reads my blog posts will be able to learn a little bit about me and what i'm all about. I believe that blogging is important in that sense, it connects people, and is a record of how you feel at a certain time or place. It's almost comforting to know that what you read will be kept safe, and able to look back on. I'm very proud of my blog and feel that people who read it will understand how important it really is to me. I am most proud of opening up my soul and being able to talk about things that I normally wouldn't be able to. I am somewhat of a shy person so I usually am not willing to state my mind or opinions. However, with blogging, I have found that my personality has changed. I stand up for what I believe in and how I feel because what I say and what I believe is what really matters most. I am hoping that I will maintain my blog and begin to ask my own questions and post my own blogs without the assitstance of others. I wasn't able to really get a lot of comments so i'm not sure if people have viewed my blog, but I hope to continue it. I don't want to delete it because I am very proud of what I have written about. I wish to tell my readers that I hope that they have learned a lot through reading my blogs and have found them to be very informational and interesting to read. I have really put myself out there and I hope that it shows in my posts.

HW 34: Importance of Evening Tea

In the evening, most Iraqi families gather together for evening tea. "It's hardly as formal as it sounds... No matter how busy the day, everyone sits around in the living room, waiting for tea" (Riverbend 108) Riverbend goes on to explain the importance of tea in her culture. She states, that, "Iraqi tea isn't a simple matter of teacups and teabags. " (Riverbend 108) She says that it is an insult to serve "teabag tea" as she refers to it, because it speaks of a complete lack of appreciation for the valuable beverage. Having tea in her culture is a chance for everyone to slow down their day, and take time to talk and hangout with their families. It defines them and is what brings them together each and every day. It is part of their tradition and routines. In her post, Riverbend in a lot of detail, explains the process of making tea. What is very important is that this process is different for each family. Every family has their own, personal, way of making it.

"First a kettle of water is put on the burner to boil. Next, the boiling water and a certain amount of tealeaves are combined in a separate teapot and put on a low burner just until the tealeaves rise to the top and threaten to "boil over." Finally, the teapot is set on top of the tea kettle on a low burner and allowed to "hihder" or settle" (Riverbend 109)

One of the things they sell the most in their culture is tea. They sell it at the market and Riverbend recalls buying the tea. Then, with her family, she comes back and starts the process of making it. From there, they make the coffee before they start formal conversations. For her and her family, the tea is an event which brings her family together and is something they can look forward to each and every day. Also, every time they do sit down for tea, their is a different topic discussion so you look forward to it.

HW 33: Respond to a Podcast, Challenges at a Girl's School in Bahdad

I am responding to Challenges at a Girls School in Baghdad. The series title is "Alive in Baghdad. The link is Challenges at a Girl's School in Baghdad. The main focus of this podcast is about getting a decent education. In this series they interview a few girls who are in the eighth grade as well as their teachers. The questions are pretty basic and pretty normal such as how far their school is from their home and if there are any type of explosions that occur near their home as well as around their school. This podcast really made me think because one of the girls explains how her school is extremely far from her school and her parents even try to discourage her from going because it is difficult to get there each day for school. The walls of the girls school are very plain and this podcast is most likely filmed in the girl's school as well as in the streets of Baghdad. In America, I know that I especially take my education for granted. Most days I wake up and I don't even want to go to school, let alone get a good education. It seems that my education is something that was given to me and by no means has a significant affect on me. However, going to school and getting a good education is crucial to getting a job when you're older. I can't imagine what these boys and girls have to go through. It really makes me appreciate my education and the life I am living so much more. It is gratifying to know that I am so blessed.

HW 32: Summarizing Riverbend

I read the following pages required for class, pages 70 to 97. One of the main things that Riverbend talks about in these posts is Aquila Al-Hashimi. On her september 21, 2003 post she writes about how there was an attempt on Akila Al-Hashimi's life. She mentiones how she had heard about it for a long time and were hearing it on the news. Riverbend states, "She lives in Jihad Quarter and was leaving for work yesterday when two pick-up trucks with armed men cut off her car and opened fire on her and her "bodyguards" - her brothers." (Riverbend 75) She said from there that the neighbors and the gang began shooting at each other. Akila was taken to Al-Yarmuk hospital. She had to have her stomache operated on and was then shipped off in an American army ambulance. This post was very emotional to read because Riverbend mentiones that, "It's depressing because she was actually one of the decent members on the council" (Riverbend 75). She was living in Iraq and worked extensively in foreign affairs in the past. She goes on to explain how everyone thinks there's different people who could have done this to her. She says, "Of course, right off, before they even started investigations said, it was Saddam and his loyalists!" (Riverbend 75) However, she says there has been bitterness towards her by some of the more extreme members of the Governing Council. The most important part of her post was her sincerity for her and for her health. She says, "I really hope they find whoever did this, and I hope the punishment is severe" (Riverbend 76).

HW 31: Responding to Riverbend

For this post, I read the required pages of Baghdad Burning and came across one of the posts on page 54. It was about a man named Abu Ra'ad and how he was killed. I was very interested in the story she told about him and decided to go and research him on the internet. In her blog post, Riverbend writes that his name means "father of Ra'ad." He died on April 10. He had a wife and three kids. She says, "At 10 am, he got into an old Toyota, said a prayer, and headed out to see his family. He never came back" (Riverbend 42) . When I researched about him the articles that came up where about his death and how they are laying out new and improved rationales for why we invaded Iraq. Riverbend's post is about the civilizans that were being taken hostage and how she was experiencing everything first hand. I personally found this post to be particularly interesing, especially about the man she mentions, because it is a different side of the story. Also, Riverbend talked about how she visited his wife and the results of his death. The information that I found on the interenet didn't really speak about his wife or family in detail. However, it was more factual, similar to the facts stated in her post. Her post explained how they traced his routes and where he had been in the following places before he died. I found the information to be very helpful because it allowed me to see another side, and see how people over there were also kidnapped. The title of the website, was lies.com » The Death of Abu Ra’ad.

HW 30: Symposium; Thursday

Today I attended a symposium at noon. The symposium that I went to on Thursday was about a very important man named Tom Lantos. He was a U.S. representative and holocause suvivor. This symposium in particular was extremely interesting to me. The very important part of this symposium was learning that Tom Lantos is the only person in the U.S. to have survived the holocaust and become a congressman. The main speaker for the event was his daughter Katrina Sweat, who introduced him. Being his daughter, she told us a lot of facts about his life. For example, she said that he came to the U.S. after the Second World War at 19. He started off with absolutley nothing and ended up with everything. His speech was very interesting because he has a very positive outlook and attitude on us Americans and on the world today. I enjoyed sitting through this symposium because he was very motivational and intelligent about it. For example, he states, “People whom we have done so much for forgot about all the positive things and are only remembering the negative things”. He believes in our country and with all that he went through it is nice to see that he still has so much respect for us and really values what matters most in his life. I thoroughly enjoyed it and him.

HW 30: Citizen Journalist: Tuesday

Today I attended the symposium for the noon to one thirty session. It was part of the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. I found this lecture to be especially intriguing. The title of the session was "What Kind of Democracy Do We Want." The main topic was about the presidential race, how we vote, how politics is changing, and how young adults are becoming more and more interested. Today was the Fifth Symposium of World Affairs. Three thousand copies of the United States documents were copied. The provost spoke first. He introduced the Mayor and spoke about how the state of New Hampshire itself is a community. The mayor spoke and stated that today, Tuesday November 6, will official be known as "Citizenship Day" in Keene, New Hampshire. His hand and official seal was on the document and he physically presented it to the college. After the Mayor the first speaker, Mike Welsh spoke about how his students feel about politics. This was very intriguing because I could relate to many of the things he talked about. For example, he explained how young people are motivated to vote because of the impact on the votes that occurred in Florida. He also stated that they feel that when things get close in an election, the numbers become less important and the two sides efforts become more important. Young people feel that politics and power are what really matters most. He then introduced the main speaker of the event, Nancy Tobi. She is the founder of blockboxvoting.org. Her organization advocated hand counting ballots. She is a New Hampshire resident and founder of the, "Democracy of New Hampshire, Election Defense Alliance." The name of her lecture was "Citizens Gone Wild: Taking Control of Our Democracy." She began by relating how the wind at her back is Moses. She is a descendent of Aaron and described how Moses was a leader of a democratic movement. One of her main topics was on the government and constitution.

"Government is the servant of the people, and not the master of them. The people in delegating authority do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. We insist on remaining informed so that we may retain rights." - Bev Harris

Her main argument was on that of secrets and how through the development of checks and balances their is transparency among government. She stated that the government derives its power from the people. She also compared the constitution and government to that of New Hampshire. In one slide she presented many different articles of the constitution which all state that government power derives form the people. The government must be open, truthful, and excessive to the people. She kept restating how all the power resides in the people. One of the other most important things I found interesting was when she stated, “Politicians are like diapers." What she meant by that is that they need to be changed regularly. There are a lot of crimes that occur in the elections and changes need to be made now, before things get much worse. As she said, "There is sunlight at the end of the tunnel." It just might take us a while to get there, but we will and can make a difference.

HW 28: Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,

You wrote about the war of August 2003. Personally, the war is something hard to relate to being on this side of it. All we can do is watch the news, listen to the radio, and hear the horrifying stories. There is no way of knowing the facts from the lies. The one thing that I do feel is that I am personally connected with you because I have seen how it has affected many people on this side of the world as well. Although, I have not personally gone throught it up close and first hand as you have, I still can sense the pain. I really apologize and feel sorry that you had to go through all that you did. Being that I am a young girl myself, I feel that we probably might have gone through the same things. I didn't have any families involved in the war, but I did see how many of my friends and neighbors lives were changed by the impacts of the war. It was a brutal affair and one that affected each and every person it touched. It's unique how much the war can bring people together. By reading your book I feel a special connection to you. I have never really been one that is for violence and fighting but you need to protect those you love around you. You're writing is especially unique because you lived through the war and I got to see how it impacted your daily life. I cannot imagine going through what you went through and lived through. It really touches my heart because it is so much easier to be on this side of everthing and see what is happening and feel the pain. However, to read about it, especially someone that is so similar to myself really touches my heart. You're blog "Baghdad Burning" is especially important because I can tell that you put a lot of effort in to explaining your story. A lot of people will be able to feel you're pain and relate to you and I think that is something extremely powerful.

HW 27: Annotated Bibliography of Baghdad Burning

Riverbend. "Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog From Iraq." New York: The Feministe Press (feministepress.org) 2003.

The book, "Baghdad Burning" written by a girl named Riverbend is a very imformitive because it takes you on a journery through her lifef the life. The young girl, or author, refers to herself as Riverbend and she began reporting her experiences as a civilian observer in Baghadad through the use of blogging in the beginning of August of 2003. The whole book is a serious of blog posts in which she explains what is happeneing around her. This is very important to our class because the class is primarily focused on blogging and women. Also, in the class, "A Blog of One's Own" we have been learning the positive impacts that blogging creates. Especially with a touching subject such as the war, blogging allows people to state their opinions on the war through a post and have others comment and share their feedback as well. This book is really interesting to read because it is wrtitten by a young girl who, she herself, saw eye witness accounts and states things in her posts which would have been otherwise unknown to the average American. I also believe that the book is powerful because it is written by a girl author. Often times, war stories are told by the strong men that fought in battle, but this book is different. It is told from someone who is Iraqi and was there when everything was going on. Also, this "blogging book" reflects on events that were both personal and political. She sometimes will write about the impact the war had on her family and other times, about how it affects the social problems and different views. She writes to defend her culture and even describes how it is similar in some ways. Why anti-Americanism is basically not fair or equal, and how much it angers people in her culture to see things this way, and still going on. The benefits of this type of book is that great deal and amount of insight that once can learn from such great writing. On the other hand, it does present the challenge of fully allowing yourself to be emersed in to the writing and take everything that she is saying and writing about as honest and truthful.