5/28 LLA Blogpost

Corporations are evil!!!!

That's what Rab thinks anyway, and I won't disagree to it on the whole. I however do think that there are some corporations which establish ventures to make the living of the poor better. Of course they are interested profit. They wouldn't be a corporation if they did not! But there are ventures which try to "do good by doing good". Earning profit by providing base of the pyramid poor better quality life. The poor get good and the corporations get good. So who loses?

One thing that hit me a lot during todays lecture was how retail corporations (?) such as Nike, Adidas, and Zara take advantage of the infrastructure that the IMF and world bank has forced poor countries to create. One huge issue in both developed and developing countries is to cut back on producing costs. The corporations achieve this by locating factories within good infrastructurual web, and giving cheaper salary to the workers. So maybe the cheaper the product, the more the poor are being swindled out of their salaries. Also the infrastructure has been made by the country's, the people's money. "doing good by doing good" is something that corporation have to do, in order to pay back for the money the poor have payed in the first place. 

5/27 ARW Blogpost

Google Pages!

Although I was never really interested in creating my own website, I now see how easy it is to make one on google pages. With Google Pages, and Google Reader(disappearing), I am ready to go on a journey of web 2.0!

One thing that caught my mind; why wasn't Google pages on the top bar, and had to be searched through google? Where they going to take it down just like Reader? 

I'm sorry for staring into your video camera, there was some dust on the lens and I intended to take it off. 

5/25 ARW Blogpost

When using the Internet for bad things, make sure you can't get caught. VPN. Use it to access through countries other than US, UK, JP to not leave any footprints. I'm not sure if its worth all this. Are people going to catch us when trying to make a move against the ICU board? Will they look that far? Do they even have technicians who know such things? It's always good to be on the safe side though. 

Keynote. Super cool. Forger power points! They're no match for the anagram transition, and alpha editing. No need to go all the way to photoshop and edit the images! Prezi is not bad though. It's important to not use any licensed photographs since it goes on the Internet. I'm skeptical about this as well though. Who is going to catch me for doing anything bad? Who has the time to catch a normal student like me? I guess I should get used to watch out for such things for when I get old and important.

Hey, I sometimes upload copyrighted photos on this blog! Time to take them off

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 12)

This is one of the the most significant chapter in "Lies", dealing with WHY textbooks have become that way. Loewen argues that while the teachers, editors, and authors out the blame on each other, all of the three are responsible for the "corruption” of history in education prior to college. Teachers try to avoid controversial topics where they cannot be the "dominant" figure with the definite answer, and have no time to study history from scratch. Editors see textbooks as business, and try to create something which pleases the customers (states, counties, etc.), bending the facts. Authors, while blaming the editors for forcing them to write inaccurate history, also try to create a patriotic textbook for the country's future. 

I was really shocked the the authors themselves did not read their own creation, textbooks were ver similar to each other, and that many history teachers did not have any history educational background. Who would not read their own writing and give the pro mission to be published!? Similar to what Loewen had said, the authors would not even realize even if their text had been completely changed! The textbooks almost resembling each other was a shock, too. I'm sure that not all textbooks were as similar as the extracts Loewen had included in his book, but the fact that even on example exists is disturbing. Where is copyright and anti-plagiarism in the textbook industry!? What freaked me off the most was the fact that about half of the history teachers in education prior to college did not have any history background! How are teachers supposed to teach something they themselves do not know? The result I believe is the excessive reliance on textbooks for educational guidelines leading to the ultimate boring classes. 

I greatly thank my parents for letting me enter private schools which taught social studies very differently from public high schools. 

5/22 ARW Blogpost

Excuse me for my language, but Professor Iwata should get lost. She has no right to fidget with any of our classes, and should not be doing so. I am a very sensible student, who has not been brainwashed by Robert Paterson. However, I believe that it is more to the advantage of the students, to learn more than just english but how to study with it as well. Rab is doing exactly this. He has introduced us to many new innovative technology, which has helped us get through our academic semester with ease. Depriving him of future stream one students will do nothing but hurt the quality of the education they get. I feel very sorry for the Level one students in ICUHS who will in the future join the ranks of the stream one. 

Throughout my life, I have encountered rules. I followed them like a meek mule, listening to my parents, my teachers, and anyone who lead me. But now, in front of me is a problem. A rule which defies and claims exactly the opposite of my ideals. I might be able to change it. The school union problem Rab discussed with us wasn't enough to move me. But might this problem be worth it?? 

To find out.

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 10)

The living, The Sasha, The Zamani. The African way of life. I love this idea of dividing the deceased into two categories. The living dead. Physically gone but still in the heart of the living. The closest relation I have towards a Sasha would be my grand parents. My mother's grandparents, who have passed away when I was little, are Sasha to me. However, I only remember a little about them for I was very small. My parents sometimes show me video footage of them, where I can recall bits and pieces of the incidents. So perhaps they are closer to Zamani for me. The long gone. 

Humans are not the only ones who become Sasha and Zamani. History itself does as well. I have visited the temple of the "Shinsengumi", located just on the other side of the Nogawa park. They are Zamani, the long gone. But the 9.11 incident in Sasha even for me. I recall when I was in Austria on that faithful day, coming back from school to see the WTC submerge into rubble. However, I do not recall the nuclear bombs dropped onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the Berlin Wall coming down. 

Such incidents are Sasha to elderly people, but are Zamani to me. History lessons should teach what is Zamani for the students, not what Zamani is for teachers. As Loewen has written in "Down the Memory Hole", I understand that it is difficult to relay recent history to students without getting people who see such recent history as Sasha upset. But isn't that what history textbooks should be doing? Teaching history is not meant to be easy. Teachers should tiptoe the line of fairness and tell both sides of the story from a third person point of view. Will the students see such lessons as boring? Not if teachers initiate a discussion after on. It is the job of the teacher to present raw information. It is up to the students to make something out of it. 

5/20 ARW Blogpost

So much tech! Today we learned how to obtain videos and editing them via iMovies on Macs. Rab taught us how to download videos off youtube using an plug-in for firefox called flash video downloader, take screencast recording through quicktime, and making videos from webcams incorporated into our screen. We then continued to editing these videos on iMovies, trimming, adding transitions, titles, text, BGM, etc. 

I am a adobe user. I use adobe photoshop for editing, and premiere for videos. I always looked down on built-in applications, declaring them as useless. However, todays class taught me otherwise. iMovies can do quite a lot of things; enough for an average video editor. Almost all the things I have wanted to do is possible on iMovies. Adding to that, rendering is very quick too. Perhaps I should switch from Premiere pro to iMovies for simpler video editing. The down side is, I have no laptop! I am really starting to regret getting an iPad instead of a MacBook Pro. iMovies on iPads are much more limited. I hope Rab will do a tutorial on how to tinker with the apps we went through (zotero, iMovies, etc) on iPad.  

PS. Here's the AA (Ascii Art) I used on iMovie 

　　　 　 ／　　,　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 ＼
　　　 ／　　 / l　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 ヽ
　　,r'　　　 /　 ヽﾞ,､　　　　　　　　　 　 　 　 　 l!
.　/　　　ｲ/　　　 ` ＼　　　　　　　　 　 　 　 　 }
　{ i　　 | ﾞ　　　　　　､,,`‐､ ,　　　　　　　　　　　j
　ﾚ'､,　 |　　　　　_,r''"''‐　`'ﾞ、　 ,､‐‐､ 　　　　 l
　　　ゝ」､ ､ , ,,r''ﾂﾞ~ﾞ'､-――t'''/ ／　l . 　　　 |
　　　　,ゝ=､_/l　 （ O }　　　　V .( ﾞ,,　j　　　 　l
　　　　l　 (iｿ　'､__,　‐'　　　　　　 /　/　　　　 j
　 　 　 ﾞ‐ﾚﾞ　　　　　　　　 　 　 　 ,r'　　　　ノ
　　　　　 l` `　　　　　 ､　　　　 i'´　`ヽ､,／
.　　　　　 ﾞi　　_,, -‐'" 　 　　　 ﾉ　　　　ヽｧ､
　　　　　　 ﾞi'´　_　　　　　　　,r'　　　　　ノ　ヾ＾ﾞヽ、
　　　　　 　 ヽ　　　　　　 　 /　　　　,､ｒ'　　／　　　＼
　　　　　　　　!、　　　　　／　　,､ｒ'"　　 ／　　　　　 /`'ｰ- ,,_
　　　　　　　　　`'''´入￣ ,､r ''"　　 ,､／　　　　 　／
　　　　　　　　　　く 　.Y'"　　 .,､r'"／　　　　　 ／
　　　　　　　　　/" ＼',　,､r''"　／__＿＿＿／
　　　　　,､ - ''"´￣￣｀ﾞl zz,,,／　＼
　　　,r'"　　,r ''"　　　　|　／　　　　＼

5/15 ARW Blogpost

We were out in Bakayama, discussing relevant questions on "Lies". We discussed about the cultural ban of hoodies, and the distinction between kids and adults. 

Although hoodies are associated with drug dealing in the US, I honestly have no idea why it was banned in a rural japanese public school. Our group came to a conclusion that it was impossible for American culture to spread to a rual part of Japan, and that there must be a missing link; a distinct cultural message that hoodies portray in that region.

Kids and adults. Is there a specific age which divides the two from each other? Our group did not think so. First off there are things which you are never old enough for. Killing a person is one of those. Going to the army, where you would or could kill is not something age can determine. We did reach a conclusion, that people should have the right to vote at the age of joining the army. Secondly, people age in different paces. Age should not be the direct reason to determine such laws. Laws should be specific to one another.

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 9)

I found this chapter very humorous. Not because of the controversial information in the text, but because Loewen had done exactly what he expressed as wrong. I was stunned when the chapter abruptly ended in less than fifteen pages, while all the previous chapters were over thirty pages long! In the beginning of "see no evil", Loewen clearly states that it is important to deal with modern events extensively. He has done the exact opposite! 

The text itself was very interesting. All the pictures he had added within the pages, I had seen somewhere. The execution of a Vietcong by officer Nguyen Ngoc Loan is the most memorable of them all. However, I recall that the officer was not actually an corrupt police chief, that he was merely following orders. The photo shot had put him in incredible infamously, and Loan and his family suffered for this picture. 

I think that it is wrong for such a picture to be used to propel the anti-war movement, when the truth was very different from what society believes in. This controversy is a very famous one, and there is no excuse for Loewen to use this photograph in his book and simply describe it as "helped persuade many Americans that their side was not morally superior to the communists." This picture, along with the astonishing length of the chapter, made me lose confidence in Loewen, and cast a shadow on the book itslef. 

5/14 ARW Blogpost

Segmentation and ISBN codes. That's all I remember from last class. I feel that I have finally grasped one of the secrets of Rab's superior presentation skills. Switching the subject every 10 minutes gets the student's attention. I think I will check if Rab is actually doing this in his normal day lectures. 

ISBN codes. The magic spell for extracting resource information out of a book in a click of a button. Zotero really has redefined how to cite resources. With its ability to create graphs and charts on citation information,  placing itself on the top of the SAMR model. 

We also made a group in Zotero according to our groups. Rab explained that we were simply assigned to groups in chance that we might be able to share some similar information. People with other topics are prone to have different views, so it might even be better to have people who have very different topics in the same group. I'm not fully convinced by this; I hope my group works out well 

5/13 ARW Blogpost

Today we made Forums. I never knew it was so easy to make feeds and send it to people! The internet sure has made it possible to acquire the masses' opinion possible without spending a lot of money.

Sending the forum is one thing, getting a reply is another. It is now really up to the person making the forum to portray it attractive for the readers to give responses. I do not know whether I would use a forum to gather information on my essay, but even if I do not today's walk through would definitely become useful in next semester. 

Essay groups. We goofed around on the chat box. My peer-assessment group is a group of four; Robin, Takumi, Masa, and I. I'm not sure how our group should be named, since what Robing and Takumi is doing has no relation to Masa. My topic (assisting the developing countries through economy) is a cross-over between the two. Hope this works out well. 

a Beautiful day

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 5)

So the Native Americans were not the only ones who were being discriminated by whites. Black African Americans were too! And they may have been discriminated for even a longer period than Indians. I knew that Blacks had been discriminated and even were a little bit in the present. But this chapter made it clear to me why African Americans were treated that way. I did not know that there was such a tight connection between slavery. I did not know that the African Americans in the North had been discriminated, almost as bad as the South did. I did not know that the civil war had not ended slavery, and was merely the turning point  between slavery and racism. 

Rab mentioned in a previous lecture that "people are guilty when they are aware of the problem yet ignore it". One of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, is definitely guilty in that sense. He had kept over 200 slaves while people around them were letting go! I do respect Jefferson as a prominent figure in the history of USA, but knowing slavery was bad and yet keeping it is just outright absurd. What is more insane however, is the fact that most textbooks (and the Jefferson Memorial!) hide this fact from us and depict him as a "goody goody" hero! I cannot believe that America keeps the truth away from their people, and that the people themselves do not question their ancestor's identity. 

This gives me an unnerving thought. Maybe the same is happening in Japan! There may have never been slaves in Japanese culture, but there possibly are many instances where the Japanese government published textbooks which only tell one side of the story. I would really love to investigate this and revise what actually is my cultural heritage, but there is a bit too many homework for me to do that right now. Maybe in the summer holiday. 

Back to racism. The 1921 riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which whites dropped dynamite from airplanes onto a black ghetto, killing more than 75 people is truly shocking. It's wrong for the police to keep staring while whites lynched black people! The instance where an all-white town would threaten African Americans from visiting their town really made me remember a japanese comic strip called "Billy bat", where an African American man does exactly that and is almost lynched by the Ku Klax Klan. 

I am the generation that Loewen mentions in the second-last paragraph of the chapter. Under 30, not knowing anything about the background African Americans endured, I myself cannot deny the fact that I felt some sense of superiority over African Americans and other Asians. Although I did not think that there was a intellectual difference between races, I may have thought that there was something which usually prevented African Americans becoming prosperous. It's time to stop taking in just what you are told. We must think for ourselves. As much as time allows

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 4)

Am I starting to get used to the shock Loewen dwarfed us with, or has chapter 4 been more mundane compared to previous chapters? Either way, I did not find many interesting pieces of information throughout this chapter. I was shocked by the number of wars waged by native americans though, I didn't know that they took a lasting stand. Textbooks definitely should have dealt with that. No wonder students in Loewen's college do not know about these wars. 

Loewen has brought up two major themes in this chapter. He uses about half of the chapter describing   how both European and Native American culture synchronized with each other, and concludes that there is a lot European Americans have learned from the Indians and there may be more still to learn from. Loewen suggests that the modern American lifestyle has learned a lot from native ones, and the equality in native communities has contributed significantly to the democratic ideal of present beliefs. I fully agree with Loewen that there was a two-way cultural flow between the Indians and European Americans. However, I am skeptic that a culture which has almost disappeared completely can have any more effect into the modern day culture. First of all, the number of "native americans" in the modern world is just to small to make any major change such as the democratic ideal. No matter how unique their culture, it is impossible to learn from it when the inheritors are so few in number. Secondly, their culture is no longer unique. Cultures change. Just like European Americans do not live the same lifestyle as their ancestors of the 1500s, no indians live like they used to five hundred years ago. They have been influenced by European culture so much, that they have lost their uniqueness. The two (with minor differences) are not as distinct as they used to back when the Europeans first landed in America.

The second theme Loewen expresses in "Red Eyes" is about why textbooks should include more stories on the indian side. Throughout the chapter, he gives numerous examples of how the truth is hidden, perverted, even straightly different from what historians perceive. One example talks about how the native americans first arrived in America. Loewen claims that the majority of the textbooks describe their "immigration" was completely by accident, and that they has "followed large animals to hunt for over the Bering straight". This, he claims, is absolutely different from what really happened. Even in the ice age, the Bering straight was too deep to simply cross by foot. The authors of the textbooks hid the fact that native americans had the technology to cross a large channel of water by boat, in order to depict they as "primitive" and "barbaric". Why do they do this? to give an excuse for European Americans to conquer them. "We tried to change them to our ways, but they would not listen. So we had no choice but to subdue them". Leaving aside whether it was right to subdue the natives because they did not adapt to the European ways(absolutely not), the Indians tried very hard to blend with the European culture. The English Americans would not let them. Loewen claims that textbooks need to tell both sides of the story (the European American side and the Native American side), not just the European side. Indian history reveals that Europe has done a lot of damage to the world, and we need to learn from these mistakes and make sure it never happens again.

 

5/10 ARW Blogpost

I don't really understand what Rab wanted to accomplish in todays ARW class. The international communications article by LaRay Barna was mediocre. Many of the five obstacles between nations all seemed familiar; they seemed to discuss the same topic in different style. Although I did understand that Rab intended to connect the ELA reading with todays discussion, there did not seem to be a major similarity between the two.Humorous as it was, I could barely understand the connection between the first video and LaRay. The second and third videos, I saw no similarity. I did realize that Rab wanted to conclude that culture differed not only between countries, but also between generation. I agree to Rab's belief to a certain extent; there definitely is a cultural gap between people of my age and my parent's age. I just did not think that it was a rational way to introduce the argument by using the three videos.  

5/8 ARW Blogpost

This was a superb discussion time. Not because we were outside, but because this was exactly the kind of lesson I needed. Rab's previous two lectures had been building up inside of me, making me more and more conscious of the invisible cuff around our neck. The "introduction to cultural education" course I am taking had also made me aware of the "fakeness" of the world we live in. These two, mixed with my subconscious anguish of wanting to know what really went on in our society, was wonderfully freed in todays discussion period. Todays discussion however, also increased my frustration towards myself. The world we live in (Japan) really needs some changing. I discussed with Johnny, and I think we can start off a change by making a student union here in ICU. The problem is, am I ready to sacrifice my time on this activity? Not just any time, LOADS of time. Considering that ICU does not allow students to band together for a union, it would be very,very, difficult to make one. Although I would really like to commit my college years in making a self-aware community, I have other plans that I want to accomplish even more during my college life. I am also afraid of what had happened in previous school unions, where companies refused to add former union members into their band of employees. I think that I will first take a look at why and how school unions have been banned, before thinking about whether it is worth the fight.

Lies My Teacher Told Me (Chapter 3)

This chapter has answered the one question which had been with me ever since I first went to an international school at the age of 7. Why are Americans so confident in their own culture when they have nothing to be proud of (well with the exception of it's exaggerated hollywood films and peanut butter chocolate)? Until today I had been telling myself that it was just the Japanese who were so unpatriotic. There was more than that. The people of USA were so proud of their culture, because they were taught so at school! Not that American teachers went around preaching that America was the best and all other countries are inferior. They did go around mesmerizing kids to think that their founding fathers had god on their side and so did they, however. So maybe it is the same thing. I loved how James Loewen quoted "Today, when textbooks promote the ethnocentrism with their Pilgrim stories, they leave students less able to learn from and deal with people from other cultures" (pg. 90). This may be what has really happened. Of all the international students I met back in Austria/Serbia/Slovenia, the most confident were always from America. Or the local kids with their porches.
Anyway, the fact that a majority of the information that are on American textbooks are made-up stories or are only telling one side of the argument is really disturbing. Knowing that the post-WW2 Japan has based its policies following the guidelines of the American government is even panicking. I have not lived in Japan all my life, but realizing that many of the students I go to university with have probably taken education programs similar to this in Japan is honestly freaking me out. I may simply be a bit paranoid, but this chapter along with the previous LLA class by Rab and lectures by prof. Arimoto has really been a revelation to me. However, I have also not forgotten that each of these teachers (Rab, prof. Arimoto, James Loewen) have their own biases. This chapter has reinforced my opinion that Loewen has a tendency to silently swap topics from historical ones to social and racial problems. He has done exactly that on page 91, when discussing the 350th anniversary speaker. This chapter has however, changed the impression that Loewen is an Eurocentric man. He speaks fairly for each race, and strives to keep the harmony between different skin color.

5/1 ARW Blogpost

Open book quiz! I've never had one in my life, but it sure sounds more challenging than simply memorizing mundane quotes and names. Like we used to do in high school. I guess open book is the kind of quiz which evaluates not your memory skills, but more of how well you can research and get your thoughts on paper. I wish Rab would tell us his questions earlier than the day before the quiz though.
We also did a recap on how to structure argumentative essays. The small lecture was similar to the one we had at the startup program, but I learned more about how important the "rule of three" actually was. I've chosen my topic to write the super-essay. Well sort of. I just need to be able to morph it into an academic one. (The picture is the mindmap I made for the lecture on argumentative writing)
The quiz Rab made us do is total crap. Especially the one about my partner. The one about Love... I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll find out one day. Or soon.

Color: Burgundy (You)
(Stylish, Mature, Powerful, Energetic, Smart)

Animal: Eagle (Partner)
(Gallant, Fluffy, Sharp, Passionate, Bold)

Water: Sauna (Love)
(Evaporating, Steaming, Sizzling, Smoking, Hot)

Room (Death)
(Tranquil, Calm, Blank, Reflective, Dizzy)