Monday Matters #13

    Heres a question. We all want children to be in a safe environment when we children and teens, including myself, are at school. However, should school be treacherous when it comes down to gritty learning? Frank Bruni can answer this question with his article on "The Wilds of Education".  Frank Bruni explains how education is supposed to "provoke, disrupt, challenge the paradigms that young people have consciously embraced." He believes that books are supposed to ignite the fire for wisdom and school to be the perfect environment for it all to happen. He gives the names of seven books that were banned by high school administrators. For example, "An Abundance of Katherines," by John Green because it was deemed "too sexually frank," and "The Working Poor: Invisible in America," by David Shipler because it refrenced rape and abortion. He says these books aren't as bad as "Fifty Shades of Grey" which i heard to be very graphic in it's descriptions. He describes the trouble standardized tests had with the words they used like slavery and poverty because it might cause uneasiness inside the student because of those little words. He also doesn't give teachers a good name by saying the "inflate grades"rather than challenging the student. which also leads the to taking it easy on themselves in college by only taking classes they CAN rather than what TROUBLES and CHALLENGES them. It leads to misuse of education. Education is growing and evolving and sugar coating the process does not motivate anyone. He paraphrases a credible man named Garth Stein who recalled himself in eight grade and how he took a recommended book which had bullies who would pick on one kid and it made him angry but said "it was a situation alien to his own experience. That's also why he needed to be exposed to it"

Monday Matters #12

    When faced in a situation between two people, topics, sides or anything, all people tend to pick a certain side. In the case of the ebola epidemic i have to agree with John D Sutter from Monday Matters 9 who says ebola is a major problem, James Barty from Monday Matters 10 who says western aid is needed to prevent another ebola epidemic, and the political cartoon from Monday Matters 11 which displays how the Center for Disease Control lies to us, the people. I agree with John because ebola is a vast problem. It is not in the United states however it's still a very sizable problem facing third world countries. I agree with James because if we don't help when we have all the resources that can destroy ebola how are we supposed to completely eliminate it and if not that, at least calm it down and contain it. I also agree with the political cartoon because i feel as if the government actually does lie to us to keep us calm and give the impression that everything is fine and under control.
      On the other hand however, the authors Declan Butler who thought opposite from John D Sutter, Shikha who opposed James Barty, and CDC which differs the political cartoon that portrayed them lying. I oppose all of these because I've noticed that all three of these sources state that we shouldn't help, ebola isn't a major problem to deal with, and also that our government is telling the truth. What these sources lack is sympathy because who would would say these suffering people don't need help and lie that everything is being solved and that the problem is small? People without a heart and who have the characteristic of being self centered say that.

Monday Matters #11

            The government. Some people say they tell truth many say they lie. The majority of people agree that that is true with CDC,Center for Disease Control, on the topic of ebola. In this political cartoon it shows a clear example of that claim. From this cartoon we can infer so much. Pictures are worth a thousand words as said by Fred R. Barnard. This cartoon depicts that the CDC, which is on the character's hazmat suit, lies to the people using a fake spokes person while they feed the spokes person with the words to say. CDC is "claiming" that ebola is under control however the characters face shows otherwise because he has a neurotic look. It is clear to us that CDC is lying to us all.
       Other sources differ however. This source is from CDC themselves. Everything said in this press release was never so negative that it would cause major widespread of panic. They say everything the people want to her. It talks about the importance of continuing their work because the decrease of cases in reports have suggested it. It gave statistics on how ebola has decreased from 95% of people who tested positive for ebola to 25%. These two sources contrast dramatically and are nowhere comparable

Monday Matters #10

     Ebola has become a global crisis and has infected many. It has even reached our own country. Some believe its because of the western aid we gave to help stop the spread of ebola. For example, Shikha Dalmia, a senior policy analyst at Reason Foundation, says that "foreign aid also had a big hand in creating Africa's Ebola problem in the first place." She says that strong leading powers of the world have never been good at successfully identifying similar emergencies because we it is not in their mother land. She says that even global agencies have criticized America and other Western countries for their slow response and allowing ebola to infect 10,000 people. Almost half of those people dying due to ebola. Dalmia is almost calling us unintelligent because she proclaims that ebola is not as contagious as a flu. The only way of catching it would be contact with bodily fluids of those infected. However, its been so sophisticated for us to stop it.
      There is a contrasting view saying that western aid IS essential to prevent another ebola outbreak. James Barty, who is a senior adviser to the Legatume, said "The west must continue to help countries like Sierra Leone to prevent a future outbreak" Western aid helps build an effective health system to countries with low ranks in the health index. This aid will help these countries raise up healthcare spending which will reduce the chance of an epidemic like ebola from happening again. Help from countries that have 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people like America, compared to Sierra Leone which has .4 hospital beds per 1,000 people will help keep epidemics like and similar to this from happening again. Help is essential to getting rid of virus epidemics across the world.

Monday Matters #9

       In issues there are always different opinions on topics because people look at everything differently. For example there are different views on war, politics, and crime. Here is an example of different views on ebola. There are opinions from two different authors. Those authors are John D Sutter  who claims that ebola is a big problem and Declan Butler who states that the ebola outbreak is not a global threat.
       Many differences rise in each of the articles. John uses what Liberia said they needed to fight the virus. They asked for 2.4 million boxes of protective gloves-- and 85,000 body bags. This has a big effect on the people who read it because it makes people feel sympathy. John got his facts from interviews from BBC and research done by Universities. This information given by him is very reliable because it is factual and not opinion based because of the sources provided. The author makes a proposal saying that we need to show the countries effected by ebola more sympathy.
       Declan Butler has a different view on ebola. He states there is no global threat. he helps his claim by showing how hard it is for ebola to spread. However, he never states how big it is now and how many people are effected by it. Declan's information is reliable because he has information from health organizations and reports. However, the problems in the countries were never presented to us and how big it really is so it is not as reliable as John Sutter's information. He is almost hiding the seriousness of the problem and sugar coating it. He does also state that we need to trust health workers and trust what they say.