How does religion get in the way of equality for women?

The roles of women in biblical times came in many forms including birthing and raising the children, cooking, cleaning, and overall servant to the husband.  These roles were taught, understood, and followed through the teachings of religion in the holy books of each religion including the Bible, the Torah, and the Quran.  Throughout the previous centuries religion has magnified the traditional roles of women and thus a patriarchal rule was adapted for each religion.  Although, now a days women's rights over equality have been fought for in all aspects of life, nevertheless, the same words are still written in each holy book.  Indeed, each holy book can be interpreted differently, but I feel the reason why religion may come in the way of equality for women could stem from the way in which each individual religion interprets what womens roles are in society.  I feel strongly that the rights of women should be equal to those of men because in order to produce human life it takes an equal portion of chromosomes from both the woman and the man.  Thus religion should not get in the way of equality, but support it with full intentions of improvement.

My prediction of the 2012 presidential elections

It's diificult to predict a winning candidate for the presidential elections anymore.  Now a days it seems like if you want to run for president all you need is a lot of money and thick publicity.  I think that we should look back upon the early days of our democracy and remind ourselves how the founding fathers elected a president.  The people that became president back then were military leaders, intellectual in their leading, but also vocal with their voice.  The presidents were battle heroes, comrades to the soldiers, as well as an instrument to the people's needs.  Now, the we have has people like Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, and Sarah Palin who feel as though they would make good candidates as president of the United States.  I disagree with how and who can run for president and cast my vote for 2012's president to be General David Petraeus.

A reflection on my own writing progress

As I reflect on my writing I can see that the writing templates that I have learned in my writing class have been used and applied to some of my previous blogs, papers, and essays.  By using these templates for my class assignments, I have been able to make my writing much more bolder and fuller.  The papers I can see have had a voice instead of a whisper.  As I read over the papers after they are competed I don't feel bored with the content.  Although, one thing that can be improved is the time of personal procrastination when it comes to starting the papers.  I think in order for me to be a more well-rounded writer, I must start with an outline.  Then from the outline I should begin a rough draft, maybe a couple, and then finally end with an overall well-written paper.

New Research Sites

In order to conduct good research one must not only search for validity and truthfulness, but also check to see if the source is reliable.  The sources that I have used in the past have included internet websites, journal articles, and cable news media.  Once I have collected all the information that pertains to my research topic, I then compile all of the data and compare the info to each another in order to achieve reliable and valid information.  Although, sometimes the information that is gathered can be biased in the publisher's writings.  Therefore, I have had to seek other research sites that have unbiased information. One of the sites I have started to use more often to do research is on my very own university's library website, http://library.neiu.edu/.  On my school's library website I can search for history books, peer reviewed journals, and other forms of reliable texts and media that can be in turn very useful to any particular research assignment.  Then if I want to check out a book, article, or journal, I can easily access it from the book shelves at the university's library.  If the school happens not to have the book or article I can easily have it transferred from another university to my university within a couple of days.  By using my school's library website I have obtained more reliable information in which I can apply to present and future research topics.

Decolonization

The ultimate effects of globalization in dealing with colonialism may have an effect not just on the advantacious economic level but at the lowest extremes of how it effects the lower level of people who live and survive in the particular country. The effects are in the form of decolonization. As a country builds up it's economy, the country starts to build gaps between the wealthy, who deal and maintain the money flow, or power, and the poor who see no advantages to global colonization, dealing with racism, slavery, and other psychological effects. The people on the wealthy end stay within the small circle of partnership only dealing with each other. The higher levels of the country's wealthiest incorporate themselves into politics, therefore having easier access to more money and more global business. Meanwhile the country's poorest can't afford to survive within the same levels of living as the country raises prices on life's necessecites and materials. The poor become poorer, losing homes, not being able to afford food, and loss of most health benefits. This effect on the poor starts to build up a psychological mentality of either dealing with being oppressed or revolting and trying to change the effects. The accumulating poor start to come together and form their own close nit network. They build small political parties within their own circles, collaborating ideas, and becoming brothers in arms against the wealthy oppressors of unfair powers. Then by using the ideology of oppression as motivation, they try to overturn the effect of colonization. Sometimes, decolonization can be violent, but at other times can be non-violent. Most recently proving this point occured in Egypt where the country's poorest came together in Tahrir square otherwise known as Independence square, in order to push out the political party and 30 year rule of Mubarak. The end result has yet to be determined in Egypt, but does remain a positive way of decolonization through non-violent revolution.

The IMF and its influences

According to www.imf.org, "The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world. The IMF's fundamental mission is to help ensure stability in the international system. It does so in three ways: keeping track of the global economy and the economies of member countries; lending to countries with balance of payments difficulties; and giving practical help to members."

The IMF has many influences throughout the world by providing such supports outlined above.  Countries with poorer economies can request assistance from the organization which may be applied to the country's economy in need.  With such support channels from the IMF, the country can start to mobilize a starting boost to help with growing economic challenges.  The support given by the IMF, influences the face of the organization, which in turn has a positive look for both the stability and positive regrowth of the assisted country.

Is America Falling Behind?

America has alway been the pioneer in innovation, entrepreneurship, and education through our space programs, internet creators, and the wide range of upper level universities.  Although, people have become worrisome that America is on a downward slope implying that America's economy is slowly falling behind with automobile factories being forced into bankruptcy and the steady incline in job loss.  While at the same time other countries' economies, innovation, and job positions are rising.  For example, according to article from the US News, " Japan's Toyota Motor Co., meanwhile, is likely to overtake GM as the world's largest carmaker as early as this year."  Meanwhile, American still strives to stay at the top of the world's superpower with its military force, with its current campaigns in almost every country around the world.
In the sense that America is falling behind, maybe, but in a race when runners are on a track and one person starts to fall behind, the reason they may be falling back is only to catch their breath.  It's a long path for a country to stay a float in the competing world, but America must endure the race in order to remain at the top.

How to know what media sources are reliable?

What sources are reliable?  How do you know?  When I chose to look outside the box in search of news stories, articles, or try to educate myself otherwise, I prefer to look for many different sources.  The more the topic or issue shows up on different news mediums, the more I feel comfortable that the story I'm reading or hearing is true and unbiased.  The news media sources I prefer are BBC, NPR, Al-Jazeera, and CNN.
Other sources that I chose that are a different part of  the news mediums are Twitter, Facebook, and plain texting.  Through these channels I can see people's spontaneity of thought and sharing of fresh news. Once I have read or listened to the different media sources, I gather up the information, sort it out, and choose which news source is more reliable from that point on.

My understanding of American culture if I lived in another country

If I were to live in another country other than America and were to be asked what my understanding of American culture was, my reply would be that; I understand America to be the land of "the melting pot."  A country in which a whole bunch of different people from all over the world with different religions, attributes, ideas, music taste, food influence, etc have come together in one land and have formed a shared cultural being. America isn't just made up of one in particular culture.  It has many different flavors, varieties, and mixtures of people with different influences which in affect make up the whole of America.  The culture that makes up America, is the binding of people who have imported from other countries to America in order to live and be American.

What country will soon have the world's largest economy? Why?

     In my own point of view, I think that China will soon be the world's next largest economic provider.  The reasons I think that China will soon have the largest economy is because China is currently the highest provider in exports world wide, China has a very large population which can handle a higher percentage in volume of production for the world's supply and demand of items, and currently China is the world's second largest producer to the world's economy.  It is possible that China may or may not become the next largest economy provider, but I do think that no matter which country will be at the top of the world's economy; people around the world can work together with trading, supply and demand, exporting and importing of items and yet still reach toward the future success of the common good.  Although the U.S. will strive to stay at the top of the economic ladder, the only direction to climb once one has reached the top of the ladder, is down.
     According to the CIA World Factbook on China's economy, "China's economy since the late 1970's has changed from a closed, centrally planned system to a more market-oriented one that plays a major role in the global economy - in 2010 China became the world's largest exporter. After keeping its currency tightly linked to the US dollar for years, in July 2005 China revalued its currency by 2.1% against the US dollar and moved to an exchange rate system that references a basket of currencies. China in 2010 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US, having surpassed Japan in 2001. The dollar values of China's agricultural and industrial output each exceeded those of the US, although China was second to the US in the value of services it produced. Still, per capita income is below the world average.  Economic development has progressed further in coastal provinces than in the interior, and approximately 200 million rural laborers and their dependents have relocated to urban areas to find work. "

What can be done to solve world poverty?

THE DIRTIEST WORK: Women in the Bihar state of India, one of the country's poorest, carry away the contents of latrines. Only members of the untouchable caste perform that low-paying task

JAMES NACHTWEY / VII  TIME Magazine

                                                                    

According to www.globalissuses.org, on the causes of poverty include,"a lack of individual responsibility, bad government policy, exploitation by people and businesses with power and influence, or some combination of these and other factors." "Many feel that high levels of inequality will affect social cohesion and lead to problems such as increasing crime and violence." "Inequality is often a measure of relative poverty. Absolute poverty, however, is also a concern. World Bank figures for world poverty reveals a higher number of people live in poverty than previously thought." "For example, the new poverty line is defined as living on the equivalent of $1.25 a day. With that measure based on latest data available (2005), 1.4 billion people live on or below that line. Furthermore, almost half the world—over three billion people—live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day."

I feel that poverty can be controlled with adequate clean water supply, the depletion of corruption with in each owns' country's government, and less of a gap between the rich and poor classes.  At the larger extent of ridding poverty is possibly supplying an adequate health care and most importantly educating the people.  The people of  these poverty stricken countries need more knowledge about AIDS and malaria, ways in which to improve agriculture, and healthier solutions on disposing of the deceased, fecal matter, and the mounds of garbage that have accumulated over time.

http://world-poverty.org/solutionstopoverty.aspx

Can Afghan forces bring security when Nato leaves?

In a recent article by Paul Wood from BBC News, it is mentioned that starting in July of next year troops will soon be handing over control to Afghan security, stating "The American surge will start to ebb away in July of next year. The first provinces - or parts of them - will be handed over to Afghan security control in the first half of 2011. It will be a gradual process. First the Afghans will take the lead in partnered operations, then Nato will progressively step back, moving from "tactical overwatch" to "strategic overwatch".  According to US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, "Our goal, which is the goal set forth first by President Karzai... is to have full transition to Afghan security by 2014."  But, the real question on this global issue is, are the Afghan forces/security ready to take control?
According to globalissues.org, in the article, "Afghanistan: Time of Transition," it is stated that, "Afghanistan is suffering from a variety of perennial problems: a weakened to incapacitated infrastructure, the complete lack of a viable banking network and legitimate currency, the limited authority of the central or appointed government, and the segregation of the country into semi-autonomous regions governed by warlords."
My view on this issue is that Nato forces, in particularly the U.S. has been in conflict with Afghanistan for over 10 years plus and I think that the U.S.'s oversea campaign in Afghanistan has already been over extended in the amount of time at war. The U.S. lead invasion of Afghanistan had it's forthcoming reasons, but knowingly from prior knowledge that the country was already in dismay and turmoil, the U.S. must have foreseen that this war was going to last not years, but decades. If the Afghan forces have the true heart and strength to defend their own country from forces that challenge a strong governing power, then it may be possible one day in which Afghanistan can be a flourishing country once again.
Hopefully, one day, there will be peace in the Middle East, إنْ شاءَ اللَّة, "God willing."

About Me

Hello, my name is David Reisberg and for one reason or another you have stumbled upon my blog.  Some things you should know about me, since you were so interested in stopping by.
First, I enjoy pepperoni, black olives, and green peppers on my pizza.  Secondly, I wear a size 11 in shoes, just in case you're extremely feeling generous and a desire to purchase me some new kicks.  Thirdly, if you happen to see me in the streets or passing in the halls, don't hesitate to smile and say hello, I promise I don't bite.
Now that we have the serious things about me out of the way, some other interesting facts that may intrigue you are that; every year I march in the Memorial Day parade with other members of the Veteran's of Foreign Wars, I am a certified patrol/explosives detector dog handler, and I can perform Beethoven's Fur Elise on the piano in its entirety.
I am currently attending Northeastern Illinois University where I am studying mathematics in order to one day teach at the high school level.  Also, due to my personal curiosity and the strive for truth and knowledge, I have been studying Middle Eastern cultures and languages as a side minor.
Thank you for stopping by my blog and if you have any comments, questions, or life lessons for me, don't hesitate to send me a line.

"Live life to the fullest"

"Never give up"

"Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has has enough worry of its own."
"Freedom is not free"