Author Archives: ik145669

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge7i60GuNRg

Since African slave trade began in 1600s, racism and discrimination have been ingrainged into our society and it becomes one of the most serious problems in today’s society. Even though slavery was formally abolished about a century and a half ago, Americans are still struggling with the costly political and social legacy of slavery. Nevertheless many people in general may believe we are living in a just society and there is barely racial discrimination compare to the past. However, the video clip I linked illustrates that racism and discrimination are still deep rooted in contemporary society. The purpose of the experiment was to observe public reations to bike theft in public park and the result was surprisingly scary. When a White man tried to break the lock of some’s bicycle with various tools, there were no one actually calls the police or stops him forcefully. On the contrary to this, when a black man did the same thing, many people have reacted with outrage, yelling at him, and some even took pictures for evidence. Why would people react so different? I personally think it’s basically derived from people’s prejudice that created by media. It’s true that many disturbing crimes are committed by African-american, howevere at the same time there are numerous number of crimes committed by White, Asian, latino, and other ethnics as well. The problem is that black people are more likely to be portrayed as offenders in movies, dramas, even in novels and it controls and makes a picture of criminal on our head. Believe or not, most (approx. 80% of) serial killers in the U.S. were White and some cases are still unsolved. Because we are living in the society where mass media strongly influences everyday of our lives, discrimination, prejudice, and quiet racism seem hardly to leave the us unless we all can change our way of thinking regardless of how the media portray the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTurihxSTnI&feature=related

As we all know, environmental concerns and issues have grown to a greater extent in today society. Everyday people drive cars, use electricity, dump garbage on streets, and do other things that hurt the Earth. It’s not because we are not aware of importance of preserving the environment, but it’s more like people think that individual’s action is not influential enough to affect our society. The problem here is most people think in the same way.

The video above is basically speaking about how the environment can be destroyed by trash we throw out casually and who the victims eventually be. It says 90% of the 3.5 billion tons of flooding trash is all plastic and 80% of these garbage was from the land we live. It was probably dropped by someone in the water way, blown by the wind into the river’s stream, and end up in the ocean.  And now there, in the pacific ocean, is six times more plastic garbage than plankton which is the food many fishes rely on.

I mean, this is scary number and fact we have made. Large amount of trash each individual has made created environmental disaster that kills millions of marine animals. And if we think about it harder, it’s going to affect our society eventually  because we are also creatures of nature. It’s not just about cleaning up the garbage patch because it will anyway start over and over, and never end.  Starting by using reusable water bottle, by not throwing trash away on streets, and by being responsible on one’s action, we can save so many lives in the world in the long run. As an individual, as a member of society, we should be more thoughtful and responsible for actions we make.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvZxCH2wOQM

As technology advances, more and more people are tempted to have plastic surgery. This is a new social trend in the modern society where people believe physical appearance is directly related to forming impression. Because today people tend to judge other’s characteristic by the way they look at first, many people in these days believe appearance is one of the most important abilities in success, spending a lot of time and money on taking care of their appearance.

The video I linked is one of a cosmetic plastic surgery commercial.  A doctor first says good looking people have more fun, make more money, and have more looking good friends. And People ultimately look your face and determine if you are ugly. Then, with a lively music playing, two female patients describe how amazingly their life changed after the operations. One got a new job and boyfriend and another got the confidence to live good life now. It sounds like their life has completely changed since they underwent the surgeries and it seems like it can even change everyone’s life positively if we have better look.

People today believe physical appearance enormously influences their life over the relationship with others, marriage, job, promotion, and so on. Physical attractiveness becomes an effective means to express their personality traits and identities. For these reasons, people are easily forced to lose weight and even to go on surgery table in order to form good impressions and to survive in theses tough society.  I personally believe better looking will give you more opportunities to success in life. It’s not a key, but it’s important. It’s not everything, but it’s necessary in this society.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDS-L05KRK8&feature=fvwrel

As the world becomes smaller, we meet the variety of cultures every day in our life and it becomes important that we understand cultural differences between one and another. To understand the differences, we should have an ability to interpret the cultural behaviors and people’s beliefs in terms of their own culture. However, it gets difficult to stand on relative position when you see a brutal culture that is against one of basic human rights and conflict with your own cultural values.

The video that is linked describes cultural practices of the Karen Long Neck Hill tribe. They’re well known as Pa Dong women. Women of the Karen Long Neck tribe wear heavy necklaces in order to extend their neck, because long neck is considered as beauty. These heavy necklaces not only extend their neck, but also fix their neck in one way, so that women cannot turn or look the other way. Looking straight is a way of maintaining chastity for them. They believe a woman should only look at one direction as a woman is supposed to serve one man only. Therefore, long neck fixed with heavy jewelry is not peculiar but righteous thing for them. However, this practice brings many issues and problems. When a woman takes off her jewelry, she will die right away because of collapsed airway due to absence of support from the jewelry. Do these women deserve to die as they take off their jewelry? What happens to their human rights then?

At this point, how should we look at this culture? Should this culture be respected just like other cultures or should this banned because it demolishes the basic human rights?

It is essential to have a perspective view of cultural relativism before interpreting or criticizing other cultures. One with ethnocentrism needs to be really cautious in order to examine the other cultures. How can one take an objective view when one believes he or she is better than the others? Nevertheless, there are also limits to cultural relativism. Human right, freedom, and justice are few examples of those limits. People are taught to respect other cultures and traditions, but they also need to be ready to criticize when the cultural practices or traditions infringe upon human rights or justice.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/video/economy-divorce-13535581

One of the most serious problems facing the U.S. is rising divorce rate. According to U.S. divorce statistics, one out of every three marriages ends up in divorce and it will soon reach 50% if current trends continue. There are many issues in why divorce rate is high in the U.S. and mostly self-centered and free life style is one of the factors. However, there is an interesting fact that economic performance changes the divorce rate.

The video I linked basically tells us how expensive the divorce can cost and how economic conditions can affect the divorce rates. It says, the struggling economy make people to delay making important decisions including divorces. But now, as the economy improved, the divorce rate is increasing again. In other words, when economy is doing well, people make enough money to afford the divorce expenses, however, when economy isn’t doing good, they might have to wait until it gets better so they can pay for it.  

 This is interesting and sad fact of the modern society. Everything in our life can’t be there without considering money. Our lives are so strongly influenced by economy and money becomes the biggest matter even in the loves. “Everyday social life- our thoughts, actions, feelings, decisions, interactions, and so on- is the product of a complex interplay between societal forces and personal characteristics” (textbook, 5). As it says, we can’t talk about our life, thought, and action without considering social forces such as broad economic trends because individuals are highly affected by societal forces in making every decision.Money Matters