LE Reflection Blog

 Today we started watching a movie on how Hollywood portrays Arabs in their movies as the "bad guys" and antagonists. The first example we saw was rather surprising because it was one I didn't know. Though I have not seen Aladin, it was shocking to see how they were able to up in racial lyrics in such a sly and deceiving way. The thing that I feel is devastating is not just that they put these inappropriate phrases into the song but the effect it has on the viewers. Not just that it is in a movie that millions of Americans watch it but that it was in a kid's movie, meaning that it affects younger children and may imprint this misguiding image. 

 Today we continued our lesson on the Israeli and Palestinian problems. Firstly, we talked about how over half of the Palestinian population is under 20 because they are killed when they get older and that also half of the population relies on food aid as their supply of food. The reason I thought this was troublesome is that the cause of this isn't natural disadvantages or the fact that they are a third-world country, but is that because they use most of their money on the fight, and the rest is burned down by other people. This means that even though there is a solution to this problem it would be harder to fix because it is against other people.  Secondly, we talked about the United Nations Security Council and how the veto was used by one of the 5 permanent countries in order to not allow something to happen. We learned that the system made it so that all 5 of the permanent countries had to agree on something to actually make it happen which means that if it was unfavorabl...

Today's class started with an experience we've never had and one I was puzzled with at first. Problems like segregation and bias decisions are something that I have never experience in my life but is something that people in Palestine have to suffer through every single day. Being separated for something that we couldn't control was something I felt was unbelievable and horrifying and today we experience a minuscule version of this at the start of class. Firstly, we were separated by where we lived and because Mr. Paterson lived in Saitama and like it, he only allowed people who also lived in Saitama to enter the room and sit down at a table. Secondly, we had to show Mr. Paterson our ID cards to go in which he only came out when he wanted to, and also didn't let them sit on a chair and had to stand in the back, not bothering the one person who lived in Saitama. Lastly, he let in the people who didn't have their cards and didn't live in Saitama and made us stand ...

 In today's class, we started off by talking about how the media can start and describe certain news to sound in a way that isn't necessarily true. For Example, starting the news story from a different event, it can manipulate the readers to believe something that isn't true. The fact that these kinds of things happen at this time really disappointed me as everybody around the world has their mind filled with the covid dilemma. While facing a terror that nobody experienced, I assumed that for just a bit, humans could work collaboratively to save humanity but rather fighting each other their place. Not only that but the way the Israeli forces execute that is also disgusting. Not just that they are forcing people out of their houses, but they do in a violent, inhumane way.  In addition, we learned that American News companies change the information to make it looks as if the victims were villains. Though I believe that this is not as severe of a problem as the action taken by...

  International disputes and media manipulation are problems we face in the current world engendering casualties and conflicts between countries. Today, we scrutinized the Israel and Palestinians' territorial quarrel. We learned that the origin of the fight started because the unassailable countries such as the UK and US supported the Jewish refugees to move into the Palestine territory and continued to support and suppress the Palestinian government. Because the United States and United Kingdom government supported the Jewish and were in favor of them taking over the land, the news was manipulated in a way to encourage the Jews and chastise the Muslims. At first glance, it may seem obvious that these kinds of manipulation are inappropriate and disgraceful for a company that epitomizes telling the truth to the viewers, but this may sound like a devil's advocate, but I find it quite scintillating and clever and shows how easily humans could be fooled by just the smallest changes...

 In today's class we learned about the AP (Associated Press ). I thought that it was deceiving that although there is no "Kisha Club" sort of organization, but a invisible separation created in the AP.  For the treatment towards women in the 1950s I thought it was strange that they only let one person in into the room. I would of understood if it was only for the first year, as it was a new situation and they didn't how it would end up, but from the second and third year, I thought that they should have been more women in the room. Mr. Paterson also showed us how even today, the number of female reporters in the Press Room is less than half and that men were mainly the one's asking the questions. The second topic we talked about is how the companies how make weapons and owns news companies wants people who are agreeing with going to the war talking in the news and how that affects how the citizens think. This was the first time I had heard of such thing and I thou...