Ethnic Hierarchy in Babel

A prime example of Ethnic Hierarchy in the film Babel begins shortly after the white American women is shot in Morocco. The tour bus is full of white American tourists. Each of these people believe that they should be taken care of before all the others, wether it is medical attention or transportation, they all have put them selves up on a pedestal over everyone else.

In America white people have always been the “dominant” group. As Fredrickson  wrote,

 

“The sharpest and most consequential distinction has always between "white" and "nonwhite." 

Another example of ethnic hierarchy is the interaction between the Mexican nannies’ nephew and the American border patrol. Though the white border patrol officer was doing his job, he would not hear out some one from an ethnicity lower than what he considers himself. Without understanding the situation the white man is immediately hostile towards the Mexican man. 

Ethnic Hierarchy can exist between to people who share the same ethnic background according to authority position. The Moroccan police consider them selves on a higher level than Moroccan civilians. They view them as terrorist immediately because of stereotypes. Babel was not the best example of ethnic hierarchy. The film Crash deals more with race and ethnicity and is a very similar movie on a different scale. 

Assisted Suicide

I'm doing this for a New Millennium Studies project, and I think it would be a good prompt here. What are your thoughts on assisted suicide? Is it wrong to knowingly end someone's life? Is it right? 

There is no clear cut decision

Eating meat has always been tradition, I think even though there are now healthier alternatives people will still eat meat. After all who can change such a long-standing tradition. Meat has also been people main source of protein; it has also been incorporated into many dishes. This is one of the reasons why it was so difficult back then to really be a vegetarian.
However with tofu becoming the new “meat”, it doesn’t mean that those who were always a meat eater will make a smooth transition. Tofu doesn’t have the same properties as meat, like taste. I actually had a veggie burger and preferred that taste than the actual meat. And that’s because I rarely eat meat like that, making that transition won’t be that hard to me.
Yet, there are those that only eat meat, heck they practically created the Angus burger for them. They are the type that is the meat expert, the can easily tell when the meat is medium rare or thoroughly cooked just by looking at them. Also they are the upper class (rich) they can just by trainers that can help them lose the weight they gain.
But even doctors agree meat is healthy, I watched a news report about how the cave man can outrun the fastest Olympic runner. Cavemen mainly ate meat, and they were healthier than we are today. Does this suggest that we have to give up our favorite meat? NO, it suggests that we should be careful in how we prepare our meals. Even with tofu there is always that person who wanted a little extra and add in the wrong thing (like a sauce whose calories is like 1000).
SO I go back to my title in saying there is no clear-cut answer, it’s all about how we as individuals prefer to eat. There are many good things about meat as there are bad, but it is not enough to throw it aside. Economically speaking this is how many countries even make money, is it right to simply have them lose their main source of income, because we just decided to all be “healthier” which I think will become a fad, heck even Olympic players love their meat.

"Thanksgiving" What does it mean to you?

Traditionally Thanksgiving is supposed to be a time where we give thanks for our harvest and in other ways express our upmost gratitude for anything or anyone. But now has become a day where people gather from everywhere to eat and discuss who will buy who gifts for the next big holiday. It seems like thanksgiving became the one excuse Americans had to eat like pigs and ignore the health hazards associated with them. It is usually celebrated with family and friends. But now you find every year your guest list might shrink due to clubs, sports bar or just people who rather eat and leave. The meaning itself is to be thankful which now replaced by sports, parades and unhealthy eating. Do you agree or disagree? Explain why. What is your meaning of thanksgiving? And what are ways you and others can better give thanks and express gratitude?

Influence from media

Everyone has an influence, but what media has given you a particular impact?  From a wide history of censorship and controversy, it's safe to assume things like movies, books, and music are definitely capable of giving us ideas.  This can be as simple as watching a movie and saying, "Hey, I want to do that."

Be sure to be specific in what influenced you and detailed in how it did so.

are you music?

So everyone must like some type of music in particular. Whether you don't want to admit or not, there should be a type of music (genre) that you choose over others. There are some people out there that judge people by the type of music people listen to. for example some people think that being a big fan of rap your quickly considered a rude, ignorant person. Do you think it's ok to right away place a label on someone as soon as you know what type of music they listen to? do you think that the music you specifically love makes you who you are today?

chicago's 2016 loss a win?

When all the hype of the 2016 Olympics coming to chicago was occuring earlier this year, i got pretty stoked for the bid. I was seeing advertisements everywhere for the games, from highways to tee shirts. I was proud that my city that i live in is great enough to be a finalist for the future Olympics. As the hype went on, i started noticing that there was also hype to NOT host the olympic games. Why would anyone not want chicago to host the Olympics?

I felt relived when mayor Daley made the announcement that no chicagoan will be picking up the tab, meaning he wont be raising taxes whatsoever. He flip-flopped on this idea and apologized saying that yes, he will be raising taxes. Chicago already has extremely high taxes with our apparel tax at about 10% and our cigarette tax the highest in the nation, taxes i perfer not to pay but dont mind paying. These taxes go toward enhancing this wonderful city. In what ways, im not sure but i do know that the city's cleanliness and overall visual appearance has significantly improved since the 80s and 90s. Chicago needs to increase taxes for the Olympics? So be it. Transportation will be made easier and the city will look ultra swank and dolled up for the eyes of the world in 2016. I have also heard that Olympics bring in money to the city as well. You have to spend money to make money.

Whenever i asked adults in the know about the Olympic bid as to why they or other people would want the olympics to be located somewhere else, they gave me the answer that they do not want to pay higher taxes and because history states that some cities have been destroyed by the Olympics. Atlanta being the core example. Searching the web i havent found any information supporting the fact that cities go to ruins after their olympics. I have only found sites that say that cities go down and dont have any support on their claim. One website actually stated that Atlanta became a more booming city after the Olympics saying that the population rose from 2m before the Olympics to 4m in modern day and that the Olympics helped put Atlanta on the map.

With those two answers that i received shot out, why else would people not want the olympics in chicago? One of the only two answers that i found reasonable enough is that a lot of people get displaced from their homes. Even in china, the government pushed people out of their homes for the olympic bids to build on their sites. In Atlanta, they were giving homeless people one way bus tickets out of the city. The other reason is that all this money from the Olympics could be going to our schools, homeless, and people and neighborhoods that are in need. Every other reason given doesnt have to do with the Olympics in my opinion. Websites stated cities that should get the bid, as long as chicago didnt, with no explination why. Some stated Daleys mistakes of him being un-lawful in un-related situations. Some stated the negative cliches about the Olympics such as the steroid scandals, underage participants, high crime (which is general crime, not during the Olympics), cities bribing judges, and even bringing up the unfortunate terrorist bombing that occurred in Atlanta in the 80s.

I have found no good reason why i feel that chicago shouldnt get the olympic bid. Turned out that the only reason why we shouldnt is because USA has already held the Olympics a few times and South America hasnt. We live in an amazing and gorgeous city and im glad that is the reason why chicago got booted out of the race first.