Immigration (outside link #3)

Immigration can be a sore subject for people to talk about. There are two clear sides to immigration; on one, people are completely against it. They believe that Mexicans should not be allowed in America because we are forced to pay billions of dollars for them to be here. The other side, however, supports Mexican immigration. 10% of all Mexican families depend on remittances, which is the money they earn in America and send back to their family in Mexico. If they cannot come into this country and work, they will have no means to support their families. I think either way, immigration is a very serious topic. It costs America over 113 billion dollars per year to support the illegal immigrants, but at the same time, they are completely dependent on the little bit of money that they make in America. I can easily see both sides of this issue. I thought this article was interesting and provided a lot of facts that I did not know about immigration.

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/beyondtheborder/immigration.html

Adoption: The Pros and Cons of Finding Birth Parents (outside link #2)

When I found this article, I immediately thought of the film we watched "First Person Plural". I commend Cha Jung Hee for having the strength to find not only her birth parents, but her entire biological family. She spent almost her entire life with her adoptive family, but still felt incomplete without knowing her birth parents. The scariest part would have been worrying about being rejected or disappointed. I think the fact that she took her adoptive parents with her really helped and made it a little bit easier for her. There are always pros and cons to finding biological parents, however, and that's what this article addresses.

http://www.life123.com/parenting/adoption/birth-parents/the-pros-and-cons-of-finding-birth-parents.shtml

Gender Stereotypes in the Media (outside link #1)

Over the course of the semester, we have discussed Gender Roles and Gender Stereotypes. I think that gender stereotypes are the most commonly seen in the media today. In movies, magazines, and commercials, there are so many unrealistic portrayals of men and women. As this article states, the media has an idea of the "desirable" traits a man and woman should have. Women should be thin, long-legged and dainty whereas men should be tall, muscular, with a full head of hair. By advertising people like this in the media, viewers are under the impression that this is what beauty truly is. This means that a man with a shaved head and a woman who is 5'2" should feel down on themselves. They are not meeting the "cultural norm" and for that, the media will not accept them. These warped ideas are shaping the world today, and this article does a great job discussing these issues.

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports03/papers/mmcconnell.html

Life and Debt (film)

I thought the film Life and Debt was really interesting. It made me realize how lucky we are to live in America. In Jamaica, women are forced to work in textile factories five or six full days a week. In return for their hard labor, all they get is $30 per week. Thirty dollars could not even buy food to support one person for a week, nevermind a family. I think this film did a great job of portraying the terrible working conditions that these people are faced with. Americans do not realize that when they wear that sweater or pair of Hanes underwear that it was made for them by hand by an underpaid, overworked person. Jamaica is just one of the few countries that is faced with these issues. The Jamaican government made it so there could be no unionization in the Free Trade Zones. In the past, women who tried to form a union in order to achieve better working conditions were fired and black-listed, preventing them from ever working again. These people are just standing up for their rights and are being punished for it. This film was an eye-opening way to show us that Americans really have it easy. The Jamaican families struggle to make it day-to-day, while we sit here on our iPhones and Mac computers worrying about who we are going to get dinner with that night. It is unfair that people are forced to work in such unfair conditions. This film showed me the devasting effect that the International Monetary Funds (IMF) have around the world.