Cultural Assignment outline

Saudi Arabia: Car Drifting

Background

1.  tires and gas are relatively cheap in Saudi Arabia making this possible to do this without a financial burden

2.  Hundreds of people gather to show off their skills in racing and drifting or to just watch for entertainment.

3.  this can take place anywhere in Saudi, from a parking lot in walmart to a whole highway.

4.  the police are for the most part not an issue to drifting cars

Similarities of drifting in saudi Arabia and The US

1. it is definitely a common thing to do among people around the age of 16 – 26 years old

2.  They all do it for the same thing, adrenaline rush and a chance to show who is the better driver.

Differences between US and Saudi Drifting

1.  gas and tires are much more expensive in the US and cheap in Saudi Arabia

2.  The police are not as tolerate in the US as they are in Saudi Arabia.

 

HW #11

Paper Outline

Mona Albalawi – Saudi Arabia

1. How the media portrays our countries
- Creates stereotypes
- Creates a cultural barrier

2.  Woman’s Rights
- Dress (veil)
- The right to vote
- Driving and how she feels about this
- How this will affect the future of Saudi Arabia

3. Experience in America
- She thought Americans would stereotype her.
- Was afraid to wear the traditional Islam dress because of stereotypes
-  For about a year she wore regular clothes.

 

HW # 10

http://www.ameinfo.com/272791.html

This article is about how Saudi Arabia is building sport facilities for girls.  They will be opening numerous girls sport facilities around the country. This is the first time this has ever happened in Saudi Arabia. It’s a huge step for women in this country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/world/middleeast/potential-new-saudi-crown-prince-is-hard-line-but-pragmatic.html?_r=1&ref=saudiarabia

This article talks about the potential of up and coming prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz.  After Prince Sultan passed this week they needed someone to take his place so they appointed Prince Aziz to take over.  This article basically described the new prince and what was to come to Saudi Arabia.  He talks about how Saudi Arabia is the only “bedrock” arab country in the middle east.

1.  Do you feel that women’s rights are improving in Saudi Arabia? and do you think that there will ever be a day where women will be equal to men in Saudi Arabia?

2.  Do you think that Prince Aziz will be any different than the previous rulers of Saudi Arabia? Do you think Saudi Arabia will move away from traditional Arab values and develop a more modern look?

HW #9

1.  I would say that the first person to defy the typical stereotype of syrian people would be the vendor.  He talked about how he was happy to serve john kerry and get a picture with him. the next would saeed, the guard. He worked as a guard to support his family, he also talks about his dreams in becoming a fashion designer and how he loves fashion tv. this shows that Syrians have dreams too just like Americans. To me this shows that the stereotype that all Syrians hate Americans is a false statement.

2.  Our media acts like a mirror because it tries to get emotion from the people. whether that emotion be fear, hope, or sadness. the media is always changing the news to more attention from the people. 2 examples would be the whole middle east situation. they make it seem like all Muslims hate Americans when really they don’t. this makes us believe it and stereotype them based on the media. another example is that everyone from afghanistan are terrorists. this is not true and they only show the terrorist because it puts emotions into the viewer and creates a stereotype that is hated.

3.  One way he characterizes Americans is that we are all competing against us. This i agree with. we are all trying to get the upper hand on one another.  we all have this survival of the fitess attitude. we are all looking for the american dream.  anther thing he says is that America turns their cities into tourist attractions like disneyland.  i disagree with this. every country has tourist attractions, the US is no different. and on that note the US has no control on tourist attractions to begin with it’s all private companies.

4.  I think he means by this phrase is that we wish we could be friends but there is no way of doing so because of the politics. Our countries are not the best of friends so it would make it hard for any of this to work out.

HW #8

1.  He basically describes young muslims and arabs just like young americans.  He explains that they have the same dreams that americans do, they want a voice in how they live their lives.  He thinkgs that the media portrays all muslims and arabs as terrorists when really they are not. He basically says that we have more in common than what we think

2.  I would definitely say that our leaders goals is to protect us from outside threats. If that means supporting a dictator that will not attack us than i am fine with that.  I think that our safety is more important than spreading the idea of democracy.  We can try to spread it all we want but a lot of countries do not like us intervening in their business and trying to change them.  Safety is always the number one goal for our country.

3.  I’ve never really been stereotyped to the extent of being made fun of.  I’m a really quiet person at first. So i guess you could say that i have been stereotyped that i do not talk to people which is a false statement.  I think that people stereotype to better understand whats going on around them. It gives them a better idea of who they should hang out with or not hang out with. they label people to make themselves feel more accepted.

HW #7

1.  This introduction has made people think solely about themselves rather than other people and their relationship with him.  It seems that there is a hole in relationships because people are worrying too much about how much money they make. It seems like people chose to be financially stable over anything, even if that means relationships with others. Now new products have caused  people to spend their money on things that don’t matter. They spend their money on things that once didnt matter but are now the new fad.

2.  I think that the Ladakhis were better off before the introduction of money. Their society was based on building relationships with others to survive. They didn’t need money because they would trade with each other for the things they needed.  When money came into the picture they started thinking more about themselves and kind of tore them apart from one another. They went from the simple life to the difficult life.

1.  The advantage of an arranged marriage is that you are almost gauranteed a partner for life. They know for a fact that they will have someone there for support and to raise a family with.  They also do not have to worry about getting their parents approval because they are the ones that chose their partner.  They know what they are getting themselves into and for the most part stay together for the rest of their lives.

2.  The circumstances that lead to my parents getting married was that they loved each other.  They grew up together. They were both from the same small town, went to the same small high school. The thing that I think played the most important part is that they both loved each other. They would do anything for each other. My mom packed up and moved with my dad to Alaska for the Air Force. They both were willing to sacrifice for each other and that is why they make it work.

Homework #5

1.  The chinese use a more blunt language because they think that it makes them more closer to the person they talk to. To them it is not rude but more of a comfort for them. If you talk to them and are blunt that shows that you are comfortable with them. To me I do not think that it is rude because it makes sense.  When you are talking to friends or family you talk differently because you are close and comfortable with those people.  So i think that in a way that it is polite.

2.  Me and my family went to my great uncles house in Connecticut.  They have a lot of money, nice cars and huge house. They were definitely the cliche rich New England family. It made me feel out of place because it was like they were speaking another language. They were so polite and proper they made me feel rude for speaking how i normally speak.  I think that they speak like that because they feel obligated because of their economic status. They speak like that because it’s the culture that their surrounded by.

3.  I don’t think that our language and the way we speak it really reflects our mindset.  I think that we just do this so we can identify our subjects and who we are talking to or about.  I think the chinese culture is more into being respectful in their language than we are in the US even though it doesn’t seem that way.  When we speak about our selfs we are not saying “self” to be rude but just to show the other person who we are talking about.

HW #4

1.   When I was a kid i felt a huge pressure from my father to play baseball. Since he was a college baseball prospect  back in his day he put a lot of pressure on me to do better than what he did.   I found it very helpful and all around made me a better baseball player and competitor.  Even though i hated the way he would pressure me to lift weights or do drills I wouldnt be the person i am today with out him pressuring me. 

2. Over population is a serious problem that doesn’t really have an ethical way of solving.  I would say that China should deal with it’s over population problem by giving tax breaks to familys that obey these laws about how many children they should have. The less children you have the less taxes you should have to pay.  If a family has too many kids I do not think that they should be fined because you can not control nature. To me that seems unethical and China should change those punishments.

Japan Questions

1.  Three main reasons Women in Japan aren’t having babies is 1. because women in Japan are not getting married as much as they used to in the past. 2. They’re was a population crisis so japan as a society it is accepted to not have kids and 3. The elderly in Japan are living a lot longer today so they kind of fill the gap with the child population in Japan.  I don’t think men and women in the US face the same problem because unlike japan we have a much larger land mass as a country and do not have to worry about overpopulation.  even though we don’t get married as early as we did back in the day we still have kids and continue to populate our country.

2.  The story i felt was most compelling was the one about Mrs. Muroaka. I found it very compelling that she would sacrifice so much of her time and life to take care of her mother in law.  Not her mother but her mother in law. This shows how much she really cares for her family and will sacrifice everything to keep the family together. This reminds me of my dad. My grandmother got really sick and was living on her own, so my dad had her move in with us so we could take care of her and spend the time that we had left with her.  My parents sacrificed so much to take care of her I will never forget it. That’s why this topic was so compelling and stood out to me.

3.  If I worked at the ministry of health in Japan the solution I would come up with is give tax breaks to the families that had 1-2 kids.  This would hopefully help make having kids a more common thing.  I know it sounds bad but people would have kids just for the tax break. Like in China you are punished for having too many kids but in Japan it is the exact opposite. If we gave tax breaks to people with kids it wouldn’t solve Japans population problem but it would definitely help it.

New’s Articles

http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article498429.ece
In this article this shows the hightened state that Israel and Palestine are in. It talks about Israel killing an armed Palistinian gunman. The Israelis say that the man belonged to the PRC (Popular Resistance Committee) a highly armed group that killed 8 israelis in a raid last month.  The PRC said that they were reactting to the Israeli air strike that killed top leaders in the PRC.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/09/06/3089251/new-israel-fund-petition-supports-israels-social-justice-movement
In this article it shows the close ties between American jews and Israeli jews.  About 4000 American jews signed a petition that supported Israel’s social justice movement. They had over 400000 Israeli Jews protesting about living in Israel with respect and dignity.  This article could possibly help me if I choose to write about Us and Israel relations to one another

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkey-Slaps-More-Sanctions-on-Israel-129310538.html
This article is about the ongoing conflict between Israel vs Turkey.  They are in a diplomatic war and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.  Israel is accused of killing Turkish activist while they try to break through their blockade of Gaza. Turkey decided to increase sanctions and stop military trading . This would be a good source if I choose to go with the ideae of Israel military conflicts in the middle east.