The delta pod will be bringing their pod casts in on thursday so you can hear them

HW 35 Goodbye Blogging

To the valued readers of my blog,
Soon my life as a blogger will be coming to an end and I will be finishing up my ITW class. This experience has taught me so much and I have grown so much since my first blog. I have learned many important lessons while blogging over the past couple of months. Not only have I grown as a writer and learned more about freedom of speech and writing but I have learned life lessons. Maintaning my blog every night was something that became part of my routine and I had to learn time management and how important it is not to fall behind. These are lessons I will need to further my career as a college student and in the real world. I hope that after reading my blog, people will rethink their opinions on certain topics. I hope that they will venture to new websites and check out articles, authors, and other blogs I have wrote about. After reading these articles and blogs, I hope they will have a new outlook on life just like I did. My proudest blogs are defintley the ones about the Iraq War and about the novel “Baghdad Burning”, from that book I have learned so much about the war that I never knew. I hope after reading my blog people will want to go out and buy that book. After this class is over I will keep my blog. I do not think I will continue writing but I will definitely keep it there for citing purposes. Over the course of this class we read so many great pieces of work, I want my blog to be there to look back on. To my readers, I hope you all enjoyed my blogs because I have enjoyed writing them for you. Blogging is a great way to express yourself and I encourage everyone to take ten minutes out of their day and just try it! Thank you all for reading!

Sincerely,
Noreen

Hw 34 Typical Tea in Iraq

After reading the next installment of blogs in Riverbend’s “Baghdad Burning” I learned about the custom evening tea in Iraq. Riverbend explains that this isn’t as formal as it seems although tea is very important to her culture. “Iraqi tea isn’t a simple matter of teacups and teabags. If you serve “teabag tea” to an Iraqi you risk scorn and disdain a teabag is an insult to tea connosisseurs. It speaks of a complete lack of appreciation for the valuable beverage (Riverbend 108). She then goes on to explain the three stage process which includes boiling water and adding a certain amount of tea leaves to another kettle. Finally, the tea leaves are boiled and the tea kettle is placed on a low burner. This routine differs from family to family. Tea in Iraq is very important to their culture, tea is drank at every part of the day and also sold by many people for money. It is a big profit for Iraqi people and there are many different kinds of tea. The color of the tea has to be just right before the family sits down and enjoys evening tea. When evening tea begins the family sits around a table and talks about what is going on. Riverbend states “before the conversation officially begins you can hear the gentle music of small steel teaspoons clinking against the itiskan or teacup as the tea is stirred. Ulike the typical family conversation around the world “How was your day dear?”doesn’t get a typical answer in Iraq”(Riverbend 109). After this riverbend explains how it depends on who your asking the question to be cause the answer differs.

Pod cast Iraqi teens work to help thier families

The pod cast that I watched was entitled “Iraqi teens work to help their families”. It was part of the alive in Baghdad series and published on October 15th 2007. You can find this pod cast at the site: http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families/. This pod cast mainly discusses how male teenagers in Iraq are working or helping support their family. The first couple of boys were working in carpentry with family members and had learned how to make doors, bedroom furniture and tables. They became skilled carpenters to help make money for their family. Another boy that the pod cast features is going to college for Agriculture and plans to help make money for his family. He explains how his commute to college is not secure and very dangerous. He also discusses how he does not have a job at home and this impacts his life greatly. This boy stuck out in my mind because it seemed very different from all the rest. All these boys have one thing in common and that is they have to live with the way everyday. They talk about how much it has impacted their families and why they have to work so much due to it. The scenery is mostly back yards that look very much like the desert. Also, they show a lot of furniture being built by the young men and houses in the background. A viewer might learn more about Iraqi culture after viewing this pod cast and what is it like living in a country that is at war. I find the young boys opinions most memorable about the pod cast. They talk so strongly about how people need to stop letting terrorists get away with horrible things and how the war needs to come to an end. They all agree that suffering has to stop and I think this a common thought throughout the world.

Burqas, Hijabs and Veils (hw 32)

After reading further into Baghdad Burning I learned about Burqas, Hajibs, and veils. The main thing I learned from reading the past couple of entries from riverbend are the difference between a burqa and habib. A veil covers the whole face and head and is the same thing as a burqa. In Iraq it is referred to as a burqa and in Europe it is referred to as a veil. A hijab however, is just like a scarf. It is usually worn over the hair and neck but can be used in a variety of different ways (Riverbend 92). After reading further into Riverbend’s entries I found out the Hijab’s are becoming more of a fashion statement then a necessity to cover womens faces. They come in an array of different styles and colors although most only wear black and white. Hijabs in Iraq can be worn with anything, skirts, pants and jeans as long as they are appropriate. This is very different from what I first thought. I thought hijabs had to cover most of a Muslim woman and that they could not be seen in public without them. Now, I know this is not true. I also learned Muslim women do not wear Hijabs because they have to (Riverbend 93). They wear them for religious reasons and because it is the correct thing to do in their minds.

Hw 31 SCIRI

When I began reading this part of Riverbend’s blogs I came upon something called the SCIRI. I knew this had something to do with politics and Riverbend seemed not to like it so I decided to look it up. In her post she shows another blog that mentions the SCIRI and is saying if you agree with them you are an Iraq clone(Riverbend 43). When I looked up SCIRI I found that it is a political party in Iraq. SCIRI stands for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution. It is now known as the Supreme Islamic Iraqi council. The party is now run by Abdul Aziz al Hakim and it used to be run by his brother (Wikipedia 2007). Finding out all this information really made it easier to understand who everyone is that Riverbend talks about. It is so confusing trying to learn all the political parties and all the different members of the government. Riverbend is so knowledgeable of the government in Iraq and in the United States. At some points I believe she knows me then I do about the U.S. government.

"Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council." Wikipedia. 2007. Wikipedia. 13 Nov 2007

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. first. New York: The Feminist Press, 2005.

Hw 30 Two lectures at Citizenship Symposium

This week I attended two lectures at the citizenship symposium. The first one I attended was the introduction of the symposium then a speech by Nancy Tobi entitled “What kind of democracy do we want? It started off with the mayor declaring it citizenship day the Tobi took over. Tobi is the creator of blackboxvoting.org. and also a resident of New Hampshire. The theme of Tobi’s speech overall was distrust. Her speech mainly focused on how Diebold voting machines are making a lot of errors. She said that they make up almost 5 percent of errors in voting today. One thing that really impacted me was how dedicated Tobi was to the cause. She was very serious when she went through her power point and gave many examples of places where there were miscounts and where recounts had taken place. The example that everyone is familiar with is the presidential election where votes had to be counted several times in Florida. Numerous errors could have taken place and the recount ended in a different president being elected. Another good point she mentioned was that the more recounts that are taken the more room there is for error. Tobi really opened my eyes to a lot about our democratic government. She used the term glitch which meant in her words a mistake in the counting of yes votes. I found this interesting, glitch seems like such a small insignificant word when in reality a presidential election is a huge deal that shouldn’t be called a glitch. One quote I liked from the power point was “the ballot is stronger then the bullet” said by Abe Lincoln. This really fit in well with Tobi’s message and presentation.
The second seminar I attended was entitled “Citizenship and Responsibility”. Tom Lantos presented this who was a holocaust survivor born in Hungary. One point I found interesting was he will be the only person to serve on congress that was a holocaust survivor. A quote that inspired me was people whom we have done so much for forgot about all the positive things and are only remembering the negative things”. This quote meant a lot to me. It really explains was the United States is going through. The U.S. gets a lot of bad press but no one wants to show the good press about how the U.S. has helped so many countries. This was one of Lantos’s main points. Lantos speech overall was very inspiring he was a man who had nothing and got everything. Being a holocaust survivor is an incredible thing to accomplish and I have great respect for anyone who overcame such a horrible incident. One part of the symposium that really touched me is how his daughter introduced him. She discussed his background and Lantos went on to talk about his election in 1980 to congress. He was proud of the United States and still believes in our country.