last ELA class

Last day of ARW… it just flew by really fast! In fact, today did not feel like the last day at all. Anyways, I admire the people who did the presentations today since they had high expectations from Rab and the rest of the classmates. The presentations were great! Maki put in a lot of special effects on her slide such as the sounds, which I really liked. Also, explaining her topic using Robin Hood helped pull the audience into her presentation or research topic in general. She also really KNEW her topic; not once did her eyes go up on the right. Once though, I noticed how she was speaking when the screen was blank so maybe fill that whiteness with some pictures?

I thought that Izumi’s topic was really interesting. Obviously it is too late but I was thinking that maybe we could have formed a group and worked together since I was talking about the ethics of zoos. I liked how she really knew her research material just like Maki. She also walked back and forth from the computer and the slide, pointing out some details on the screen which I thought was great. I am sure that she was nervous, but I felt from her way of presenting that she liked talking about her topic. As for her topic, I agree with her that people need to see pictures such as “the vulture and the child”. It confuses me why so many people criticized the photographer who took this picture because he didn’t neglect the child. Taking one photo also only takes 2 seconds, so it is not as if the vulture attacked the child during those 2 seconds. As I was watching her presentation, I became curious about what the photographers think about their actions. For example, did the photographer who took the falling man of the World Trade Centre become emotionally affected by taking this photo or feel guilty? If I was the photographer, I might feel guilty for witnessing a dying man and being unable to save him.

I loved Yusuke’s presentation. I was intrigued both by the content of his presentation and his style of presentation. He really has a way with the audience and reminds of the time he saved my friends and me in International Relations class in High School! I felt that it is impossible to label these leaders with the adjectives “good” and “bad” since we have to consider from whose perspective are the leaders “good” or “bad”. Wealthy German businessmen would have loved Hitler since he removed all the Jewish people who had a talent in marketing. People like Gerald MacGuire considered Hitler a role model. On the other hand, he is considered a ruthless dictator by the majority of the ordinary people (meaning non-corporate people).

I liked Kristi’s topic. I actually tried the koto in music class last year and epically failed. The instrument itself was heavier than I thought, the strings were thicker, and the adjustment of the pegs were really complicated. The textbooks that I was using were quite boring, and as she mentioned in her presentation they included pieces like “sakura”, which I found a little boring. However, I listened to her video clip in her presentation and was surprised! You don’t have to limit your music choices to old Japanese pieces; you can play modern ones as well! One of the reason I think Koto is becoming less popular is because of the invasion of western music instruments. Compared to Koto, piano is much easier to play as you only have to press down on the keys. One method to preserve these valuable Japanese music traditions may be to make the teaching of Japanese instruments compulsory in music class. In elementary school, students play the recorder, the piano, the accordion (a parade of western musical instruments) but close to no Japanese instruments. Implementing this into schools’ music class may prompt some students to take up private lessons in Koto!

Finally, thank you so much for teaching us this semester, Rab! Just as Megumi said in her blog, I too did find some of your classes challenging. However, it was really stimulating as you always presented to us valuable information that are often concealed from the public. There was a lot to think about in what you mentioned in the ARW classes, and it really expanded my areas of interest. Also the lessons presentation skills and technology were really useful, and for sure they will help me in my studies in the future. So thank you again!

the corporation chapters 4-6

Chapter 4 …If Smedley Butler had accepted the Gerald MacGuire’s determined but persistent pleading, what would U.S. be like today? I thought about this while reading chapter 4 of “The Corporation”. President Roosevelt would have been forced to resign from his position and either moved to a weaker, insignificant position or removed altogether. As tactics to tackle the Great Depression, they would have continued to strangle the less-wealthy with low wages and long working hours, which means huge gaps between the rich and the poor. Their solutions to the Great Depression must have solely been from a corporation’s point of view, not from the welfare of the public. Moreover, people were desperate because of the devastating effect of the Great Depression. If Butler had accepted the offer, two Hitlers may have simultaneously existed in the world… quite scary…

                                                                    Next Hitler?

Chapter 5… Until reaching one point in this chapter, I was thinking that privatizing administration of all schools would not change too much since even in public schools, profit is valued. For example, Hitomi said in her presentation that the educational board in the U.K. cut 68% of its fund. With budget cuts like this happening, it is impossible to contend that the administration of schools is corporate-free. However, it said in this book that the Edison Schools sold the schools’ computers, textbooks and instruments to save costs, and I was so astonished that they would do something like this. One of the person running the Edison Schools declares that privatization of schools is beneficial for all: parents, students, and teachers. It’s clear that that is a big fat lie. What is shocking to me is that these people do not even have the decency to consider about the future of these students. What if it were their own children? Would they sell their children’s textbooks so they can spend it on other matters? Probably not. Just as Chomsky says, this chapter proved to me that privatization is dangerous as it robs people of the sense of community. It encourages people to think that nothing is worth doing unless the dollar sign come along with it.

Another surprising fact. How psychologists collaborate with corporations, so corporations can invade kids’ minds through advertisements with the necessity to nag to their parents to buy their products. To me, that seems like the wrong way for psychologists to use their skills. I think that child psychologists should be helping kids overcome psychological problems, not helping corporations in maximizing their profit. Furthermore, these advertisements can also be harmful to children such as portraying junk food as the “cool” food replacing more nutritional food. Although indirectly, by helping corporations, these psychologists are causing more social problems in children. In this book, it mentioned that the laws banning advertisements intended for children were lifted. I think that they should still be banned for children under age 5. Although I don’t know too much about children’s cognitive development, I think under 5 year olds are incapable of deciding what they really want and need. Instead, they are inquisitive about almost everything and are easily influenced, which can prompt them to have interests in harmful products such as junk food. In the first place, I don’t think children under 5 should be watching too much television.

Undercover marketing. I probably must have some been under this somewhere. This is not necessarily undercover, but the School Festival Committee at ICU goes around the neighbourhood asking stores or companies to provide them some money in exchange of advertising them in the school festival pamphlets. In the stores or companies they advertise, there may be ones where their products or their service are not so good to humans. For example, they might be causing major pollution in the city. However, I don’t think the students sort out which companies they’d like to advertise in their pamphlets because they are friendly to society. I am not saying that they are but, in a sense, the committee may be advertising companies that do not place the well-being of humans before profit.

ICU allows a lot of advertisement. For example, they let workers from driving schools hand out tissues that advertise their schools and programs. Mac does a great job in advertising their products to students as well. First of all, they provide really small discounts for students and form ties with schools where additional discount is possible. Although the discount is so small that it cannot significantly affect their profit, it must be successful in getting students to buy a mac computer. These all seem to somewhat be “undercover marketing”, and since this book presented undercover marketing as a negative thing, I now see these corporations as manipulative. However, I think that undercover marketing is everywhere and it is impossible to avoid being influenced by it. So it is also our responsibility not to be easily swayed by these advertisements but first check whether they are good or not. 

Presentations Day 3 6/14

  Yesterday’s presentations were fun to listen to! Starting with Koji’s, his presentation was really successful in capturing the audience with his slides. For example, his definition of CORPORATION, which I presume he created, was well contrived. Furthermore, he involved the audience in his presentation by asking a few questions, which was great. The only thing I would suggest that could be improved is his organization of the presentation. The presentation itself was compelling, but I didn’t get the content the content too clearly, so maybe present 3 points like most people did?

  Masamune’s presentation was well-organized and easy to understand. One thing that I thought was lower the volume of the video while speaking because I saw how he had to raise his voice to be heard. I had heard about some protests against hosting the Olympics in Turkey, but I did not know that the protests were that devastating. They were more like riots! It’s interesting because according to the news (maybe I can’t trust those anymore because they might be censored but), they said that Japan had the lowest rate of support from the public while the other countries had 70% or more people who wanted to host it in their country. Yet, no protest are going on in Japan or at least I haven’t heard of any. I’m really starting to think that it is IOC is going to select Japan as the 2020 Olympic host.

  The topics of Takumi and Natsuko were similar. The pictures in Takumi’s presentation were big and really easy to look at. I also thought that Natsuko’s slides were concise and well-organized, following the Rab rules. Also I noticed that she voice recorded herself and played it back. I thought that was a brilliant idea, but maybe lower the volume a little since it was a bit distracting. It is said that women do “unpaid work” such as household work and child raising, receiving little recognition. In poorer countries, it seems to be worse. I agree with Natsuko about the importance of education to help the empowerment of these women. I’d like to know more about this or I will visit their websites!

   Although Narumi said she isn’t too good at speaking in front of people, I think she captured the audience with her words. In fact, she got so many laughs that sometimes I couldn’t hear what she was saying. If it is true that psychopaths are not born with some innate evil genes, then some of the things that are said about criminals in the media is misleading. For example, I think I have heard some forensic scientists saying that some people have genes that make them more impulsive or uncontrollable than others. I think that the environment the person is put in has a significant weight in turning one into a psychopath. Stating that some people are born with evil genes that increase the likelihood of him or her becoming a psychopath permits people to conclude that there’s nothing they can do to stop psychopaths since it is beyond their control to remove these evil genes (maybe in the future, it will be possible). Even if some may be born evil, some event has to trigger that and that would be the environment one is placed into.

I really like Kenta’s topic. First of all, I like believing in the connection between blood types and personalities, although I don’t consider them to be true. I find it interesting to be able to have a reason why I act in certain ways. For example, I am a family of four and all of them are blood type AB. I consider my family members to be unique as ABs are thought to be. However, the Native Indian explanation made a lot of sense. If the blood type-personality relationship did really exist, how can the whole entire population of Native Indians be outgoing and rough? Or suppose that they were, how can the society be maintained with only people like that? However, one interesting thing is I don’t always hear positive descriptions of blood type As. (no offense!) Some say they are really picky since they strive too much for perfection. Anyhow, I agree with Kenta that there is no such connection, but I will probably continue to believe in them because it’s just fun to!