today my volleyball team had our first playoff game. we did work. our real name is ‘rob and tj awesome team. great job!”, but they only mark us down as rob and tj. thats such a boring name. if i knew this was gonna happen i wouldve came up with a cooler name. we were beating the other team really badly and my team was just having fun and playing around while the other team took it really seriously and seemed pretty ticked off. there was this one short kid with a beard who was really pissing me off.

phoenix find started today and its pretty intense. there are so many things we have to find and its pretty overwhelming. we’ve been at it all day and we have until sunday to finish. there is this team named ‘team dominance’ who have won the scavenger hunt for the past four years. thats not gonna happen this year. the first place price is 600$ and its gonna be mine for sure.

i have a 6 page paper due on friday and its about time i start to work on that. peace out.

For the past three years, Marco Antonio Velasquez Navarrete has been traveling around the country representing the activist organization, Witness For Peace; a group initially discovered to see Nicaraguan government policy first hand, now with a broadened focus on other countries, such as Mexico.

            Signed in 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a US economic policy that seeks to reform Mexican markets in terms of economic growth, job development, better wages and other factors that would influence a positive change in Mexico’s market. However, this instrument of U.S economic policy actually increases competition of industrialized countries for dominance in certain markets and has made Mexico even more dependent of the US then ever before. For example, 85% of Mexico’s exports go to the United States. Despite the goals of NAFTA, there has been no evidence to support its success. In 2006, there were 14.8% less jobs in Mexico then in 1993, one year before NAFTA was formed. The Rate of growth in Mexico is currently 1.58%, the lowest rate since 1910. Foreign direct investment is 4.2 times higher then it was before NAFTA, leading to the buyout of companies rather then creating new industries. This may conserve jobs of the people, but definitely does not create any.

NAFTA’s failures also include the migration of 575,000 legal immigrants to the U.S each year and between 2000 and 2006, 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S as well. In the agricultural sector of NAFTA, Mexico cannot produce without the help of its government and cannot compete with huge multinational corporations, forcing natives to abandon their land and migrate to the United States. This brings up the idea of the plight of disempowered groups. The Mexican population is being exploited and forced to move out and migrate to U.S, only to end up mopping a dirty floor or mowing a lawn for minimum pay. United States economic policy is taking advantage of our neighboring peoples desperation for jobs in order to provide for their families. Personally, I am shocked to hear the extent of the failure of such policy. I always knew the reasons for Mexican migration to the U.S, but I have overlooked the complexities and trouble Mexicans face that put them in situations where they need to leave everything behind and endure dangerous travels across the United States Border.

Ellen Ruff, the newly named president of this globally driven company, is looking towards the future with plans to provide sustainable energy for all. Duke Energy provides energy to North and South Carolina, feeding well over 2 million people with power needed to survive in this treacherous world. It is said that there will be a 30-50% price increase of electric bills in the near future due to new carbon legislations being passed by the government. This is a result of dependencies on coal plants in North Carolina and surrounding states. Duke is not against the use of coal as a source of energy, but does believe that it will negatively affect the environment of those states that solely rely on coal.  This is where Dukes five-part plan comes in to soften the effects of the increasing demand for energy in these modern times. Along with plans on replacing less efficient coal plants and cutting down on emissions, Ellen Ruff states that the company will soon diverge from coal as an energy source, building one of the last Duke coal plants in the near future.

Duke also branches out in alternate sources of power. The company mentions nuclear power, building their first nuclear plant since 1986. Due in 2011, 2 620-megawatt natural gas-fired plants will be in the works as well. Renewable resourses will not be left out of this plan, providing solar powered farms and rooftops. Although solar power may cost more to produce and is less efficient then other sources available, it is just one step being taken to steer away from a dependency on the growing costs of coal.  “None of these are short term issues,” states the president of Duke Energy, and stresses that this problem “needs to be stimulated at every level.” Sustainable energy is the provision to meet needs of the present, but will not hinder our future generations to come.

An Iraqi artist and journalist, Ahmed Fadaam, has recently visited Elon University to spread light on the effects of the war on his country and his people. Being a journalist for the American media, Ahmed was not too popular with the Iraqi people, to the point where he would receive death threats for both him and his family.

            Us Americans do not understand the severity of the situation in Iraq. “Have you ever seen a man die in front of you? Are there bad memories you still have in your mind that you remember just like yesterday?” asks Ahmed, stressing that today’s conditions in Iraq are in no way suitable for a child to live in, let alone anybody. Faddam shares many stories with his audience, portraying what is seen by the eyes of innocent children. There was one instance where a father was driving his son and daughter to work where he got pulled over by an Iraqi checkpoint. The father was beaten in front of his children and soon after set on fire. His daughter was forced to watch the brutal killing of her own father, for if she did not, her little brother would be killed as well. These types of situations are in no way suitable for a child to experience; having to remember the sight of her father being burnt to death is something one can never forget, and the thought alone will forever haunt her future. In addition, these next generations of Iraqis are growing up in a horrible time and place, where the first thing they see is war and where they lose their parents as a direct result. Because of this, the generations subjected to this horrid time grow up resenting the Americans, which only hinders the attempt to repair U.S.-Iraqi relations even more.

According to Ahmed Fadaam, the loss of Saddam Hussein gave the Iraqi people a positive view on life. After the ongoing horrors of war, people’s views have drastically changed. Under Saddam, the government controlled everything; prices, media, jobs and nearly every other aspect of life. In the past few years, Ahmed states that political rule in Bagdad has spun out of control, housing “thousands of Saddam’s” as opposed to just one. People are using violence to bring themselves to power, making everyday living scary to be apart of.  He states that the war has destroyed Iraq, leaving access to basic human needs far worse than at the time under Saddam. Ahmed blames the negative relations of Americans and Iraqi’s on the lack of direct communication between the two groups. “I’ve been pushing for some time now to open up a communications channel between the two people. You are open minded, and so are the Iraqis. But the Iraqis cannot see you.” This understanding can be spread through journalism, helping unite and discover the whole story without leaving out the opposite perspective. “There is no American in Iraq explaining to Iraqis that there are Americans that oppose the war and wants to live a normal life without violence. But there is an Iraqi here in the States who is trying to do this.” 

While Wal-Mart does offer its employees health insurance options, the options are often too expensive for employees to afford. With this being said, Wal-Mart encourages its employees to look into Medicaid and other federally provided assistance plan. Not only embarrassing to the employees themselves, this is one example of how U.S taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart’s low prices. Despite such subsidization, less than 45% of Wal-Marts employees have health insurance due to the high costs. For every new Wal-Mart that is created in a town, groups of smaller independently owned stores are forced to shut down. These “mom and pop” stores are not able to compete with the low prices and are forced to abandon buildings, adding to the destruction of the town’s appearance, with the replacement of unoriginal, homogeneous supercenters. Many times, the construction of new Wal-Marts cause corporate real estate to decline because more companies are reluctant to move in. Ironically, Wal-Mart, a company with huge revenues and profits, receives hundreds of millions of government subsidies each year to move in, whereas small businesses almost never receive any. This seems unfair and those taxpayers’ dollars can be allocated more effectively to benefit the community.

Despite Wal-Mart’s vision to use American markets, they have created a dependence on China, supporting slave-labor-like conditions in Chinese factories where workers often earn less than 3$ per day. In the film, we are introduced to a Chinese woman who works in one of the factories where Wal-Mart goods are manufactured. The woman explains that even if she and her boyfriend choose not to live in the factory’s dorm, they still have rent deducted from their tiny wages. 

Even after hearing all of this shocking information, i’m sorry but, Wal-Mart is still an awesome store in my opinion. they offer so much of a variety for such a low price, ideal for any college student.

Dr. Ocek Eke shares his life experiences living under colonized Nigeria and explains the relationships between the colonized and the colonizer. He brings up the points that before colonizing, a dominant nation must find something bad about the others. These negative stereotypes that go along with the colonized show a justification to bring civilization to the respected area. This undermines the native peoples and often characterizes them as being savages and uncivilized. Some real life examples include the belief of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and the spread of Ebola and A.I.D’s in Africa. He also explains the various characteristics of colonialism, such as the assumption by the colonizer that the discovered peoples and land are “virgin” and the relationship between the colonized and colonizer. This relationship is based on the greed for power. Nations colonize other less fortunate territories simply because they have the power and means to do so. A colonizer views self as an individualist with a sense of feeling that it is their duty to civilize “the others.” In the colonizer’s view, natives are seen as disorganized, mute savages that are in need of help. The video clip taken from the movie King Soloman’s Mines shows distinct differences between the colonized and colonizers in Africa. Variations of language, clothing and appearance shed light on the relationship between the two groups. The white men carried guns while the black natives were equipped with spears. The movie conveyed the white men acting as a father figure to the natives, showing the sense of need to protect the colonized.

The relationship between the colonizer and the colonized involves sustained exploitation where force is used in a variety of ways. Dr. Ocek describes his experience as a child under colonial rule with examples that are truly sad to listen to. Schooling, for example, has no infrastructure and children are subjected to conditions that are considered abuse in America. He was forced to learn English and was taught to behave like the british peoples. A sense of culture is being stripped from these people where their own, previous culture has becomes “muted and inferior. Culturally, colonialism is characterized by the dominance of colonizers’ intellectual and social systems over the existing culture. This dominance takes away the norms, beliefs, and practices of the native people, stripping them of there sense of “self” and their values. Imperialism and colonialism causes the dependence of the colonized on the colonizer; tribal groups fight over who controls certain resources, such as oil, and adds to the perpetual cycle of poverty. 

for the past two weeks, ive been going to the gym every night to play basketball and work out. my shot has been improving drastically, and i feel much better about my self. i am less tired and feel physically stronger. i am starting to actually enjoy going to the gym and actually seeing results. im a pretty skinny kid and id like to bulk up and add on some pounds to the feeble frame of mine.

this week there has been a lot of NBA basketball on. im a pretty hardcore fan when it come to the NBA. if theres a game on tv, theres no doubt that im watching it. last night a was a huge night for many players. my boy lebron put up 41 points, amari stoudemire put up 49 and the frenchman from the spurs, tony parker put up 55! boy, was it an exciting night to watch basketball!

 next weekend my family is coming to see me. they are coming to watch the final home football game. my two uncles, dad, sister, and little cousin are driving 10 hours down here for that. it should be lots of fun and im excited to see them. breaking news: chauncy billups and antonio mcdyss from the detroit pistons are being traded for allen iverson of the denver nuggets. i think this trade is going to make the nuggets a definite playoff contender in the west.