My experience in second year sociology was a unique one, being it my third semester here in kwantlen university. I had an idea of what to expect out of all of this but it turned out to be quiet an adventure and many of the things were new to me. Learning about the society and how it interacts with one another and learning about the different types of country people and how they see one another as is quiet amazing.
I have never been the type of person to believe anything anyone says to me. Usually i like to debate and argue with situations, and try to find out whether it is true or not. More information is what i need to actually believe something someone tells me. It is just in my nature to not believe someone right away unless I know them extremely well. Sociology was the first class I took in my collage career. It was a different type of class because it opened my eyes to many things and its unique ways to realize that there is more life out there. I wasnt born in Canada and growing up early days in Pakistan it was a horrible way to see the world. So when i moved to Canada I was blessed with more opportunities and did not take anything for granted because in my real home where i was born it is very difficult to live. Sociology taught me a lot of things this year and how unfair the world can be.
When looking at things from a sociological point of view, people tend to look at things from the previous events and situations of people and based their judgements upon them and judge people on how they are now. For example, the event of 911 was portrayed that it was the Islamic countries that led the attack on New York city, and in doing so everyone around the world has the idea now that all Muslims are terrorists and where ever you see a Muslims, be careful from them because they might be carrying “bombs and Weapons”. we need to consider what is going on in other peoples lives before we start to point fingers at them and say that they are the roots of our problems, and instead try to understand them and see if there is any way we can help them out. Another part of the Sociological Imagination that was effective for me was the idea of participating actively in society. This has made me realize that there are ways in which I can grow and learn about different things and try to help out better in societies.
I have learned to appreciate the socities in many ways, and in doing so I realized how difficult life is outside of Canada and in other parts of the world. In Pakistan I experienced the most horrible things and with no heat and proper water it has been one of the most difficult times to live in my life. With the knowledge i have earned in Sociology and combained experienced with what I have seen in Pakistan, I now know what is it like to see things from the other side of view. Ultimately, I have come to appreciate and realize more than I ever have had than before. And truely I will never forget this class or this experience.
Allan Johnson is a speaker who talks about how America is the country it is today because of the horrible tragedies it had to face with all the genocides and people giving up their lives so we could live in a peaceful place. People need to know what really happened in the past and how this stuff came to be rather than misleading them with false assumption that Christopher Columbus was a great hero who discovered this land and it came to be as it is. People should not forget that there were natives who were living here before and the kind of hardships that they faced from people that took over from them. People believed that Christian was a brave man who was doing the right thing and taking over the land in a proper way but rather should have reviled himself as his true nature which was to rape and murder innocent people. The young children of this generation are thought so differently and pretty soon what is true will become a myth and It will be forgotten and people wont even believe that it is true but the fact is that too many people give their life for this country and they need to be respected and people need to know who they are.
The video is about how the real philanthropists in our society are the people that work for less than they can afford to live on. It is about those people who have a hard time meeting ends meets and yet they work twice as hard as a person who makes a lot more than them. The work the lowest wage jobs and they have to figure out methods and ways to pay off everything from food to house bills. It becomes even harder on these people because they are with family and have the responsibility to take care of them. The society is build for people to lose and when these people use things like credit cards to survive they cannot pay it back causing them to go into dept and eventually face consequences for actions they did not want to commit. They also end up working even more in order to keep up with the credit card payments which makes it just that much more difficult for them to think about any dreams that they had. This process never really ends for people and eventually causes them to get into more trouble and the government keeps putting more and more pressure on these people even though it is not their fault at all and they only want to succeed but they cant due to their circumstances.
1) The Gacaca system of jurisprudence is a system created in response to the genocide in Rawanda 1994. The genocide was between two groups of people and nearly a million people were killed, mostly the tutsi. This type of social justice is the transitional justice. The Gacaca courts used the method of transitional justice because it seemed to be the best fit for their situation. It was taking too long to presecute all the people accused of the war crimes. At the rate they were going with the old court system, it would take them a very long time to deal with all the people related to the matter so instead they introduced this system which sped up the process. it was designed to promote healing and moving on from the crisis because too many people were suffering from this situation.Rwanda has especially focused on criminal prosecutions in the Gacaca courts, putting justice partially into the hands of the victims. However, the system has come under criticism from a number of sources, because it gave people who caused the genocide also the power to be free and it seemed unfair to the opposition because of the horrible things that these people had caused. So the group of people, mosly the tutsi, they were nearly all against this court system because it did not help out them as much and they were still in the danger of falling back into a situation like this again, they feared that as long as these war criminals were out to get them they would face the same situation a before.There has been a number of reports about survivors being targeted for giving evidence at the courts as well because they did not like being prosecuted. The Gacaca courts are meant to provide smaller courts to relieve the burden of the larger courts. Criminals are charged with acts against humanity, such as murder and serious assault. These courts are not allowed to try accused rapists, however. The idea is to let the village courts resolve these issues and hopefully provide some reconciliation.
This chapter is probably the most important chapter in the entire text book, because of the way it illustrates the concepts and explains how they work. This chapter explains details and gives a good insight on what to expect in the text book and how the material is organized. For example it explains the method of debunking and how it is used in the social justice world.
I think that how we take part in the world and its activities is how it affects everyone and not just us as individuals. Our very own Dr. Charles Quist, has a beautiful story of the coaco beans that he once planted and how they affect the world because even in this part of the world and age we still use things that come from those places. So whatever we do in this side of the world, effects people on the other side.
I think it’s very important and effective when people use their sense and look of things in a bigger picture than it might be because it gives you a different perspective on how things are. You would not judge a book by its cover because you have no idea what is inside of it and how to read it. If you continue you to look at the world with just your eyes and not apply any knowledge to what you are looking at, than you need to apply yourself in order to grow as a better human being.
The thing that I notice the most in this chapter is how the humans classify other people. People are labelized and put into groups that they do not want to be in. They become unstable and rebel against the society which treats them unfairly. This is basically taking one person and if his or her beliefs are against the dominant class of the society, that person is put aside and judged upon and made a target for the people to hate on something. When you think about the word aggregation, you can give examples of homosexuals and how they are oppressed in the society because of their differences with people. I have heard people actually talk about gay people and when they do, they usually classify them as being gay because most of the society is heterosexual and people would automatically assume that people are heterosexual otherwise unless the person specifically says or behaves in a different way, only then we would see them as different or homosexuals. Homosexuals are just as uniquely individual as heterosexuals, and there is no reason to hate on them because it isn’t right to treat people that way and they have the same potentials as heterosexuals do. However by lumping them together, society strips them of their individuality and makes them an outcast for others to see and usually people use homosexuality as an excuse to make feel different and unimportant.
This article portrays the dirty and hypocritical mind of George Bush and his Administration. Bush is supposed to be of Christian belief and yet he goes against one of the main beliefs of the faith, by applying “eye for an eye” rule as their best, how can he be a Christian. This article also shows on the relationships that the USA has around the world with the Middle Eastern and African Communities. The worst thing is that how the USA wants the African communities to apologize for their wrong doings and yet the USA has destroyed their lives completely and feels no regret about it or has no need to apologize? The Bush administration will never be satisfied because they are blood thirsty for power. They are the biggest losers on this planet because they have the need to get into everyone’s business. I have always disagreed with the bush administration so I have even further started to hate them because of their stupid and hypocritical ways of doing certain things. They are pathetic and need to realize that trying to obtain power from other countries will only destroy their own.
