Things To Touch Upon

In analyzing the cultural contexts of the words given, a lot can be inferred about the direction we should take regarding the coursewiki.  It’s obvious that we in the class at least have a serious amount of respect for each other.  This is very clear throughout all of the blog posts from my peers and Steph, and shows that Americans very much value respect.  But also it shows that respect is valued in the American classroom above all, not just in America.  Truthfully, I think that the idea of a Student-Generated Guide to the Pioneer Valley is still a great idea to move forward with for the coursewiki, especially after reading the blog posts by my classmates.  In telling other students what we have experienced in this area, we are demonstrating, at least in part, a love for our fellow human beings, by wanting to help them decide what to do and what not to do.  We are also strongly giving our opinion by telling the audience what we liked and what we didn’t like about the activities around the area.  I believe that “hate” and “religion” should be left out of the course wiki, much as they were left out of the cultural analyses, because they are words that are very touchy.  Especially with religion, it has the ability to inspire hatred, angst, and discomfort among many people.  We should definitely move forward in putting together a collaborative, “peaceful” effort to better share our thoughts and opinions with the Pioneer Valley community about what works and what doesn’t.

Greek LIFE: The Decision of a Lifetime

As the president of the governing body of fraternities (Interfraternity Council) at the university, one of my biggest goals and aspirations is to raise awareness of the benefits and advantages of going Greek.  When I pledged my chapter over three years ago, I did so simply because I was interested in joining a fraternity since high school, mainly because my girlfriend at the time was in a sorority and constantly told me how amazing it was.  Had I not had that connection ahead of time though, I probably never would have gained the information necessary to entice me to want to join a fraternity.  There is a UMass Greek website, but it is somewhat hard to find and navigate from the main UMass page.  If I could make people on this campus aware that joining Greek life is not just for people with no friends, and that it is one of the only collective group of organizations that are formed on the basis of values (scholarship, leadership, service, etc.), then it would be a big victory for both myself and the UMass community.

“Arab”: A Negative Connotation

The word “Arab”, especially since the atrocity of September 11, has rapidly become a negative connotation, with much assistance from President Bush and his administration.    It’s always interesting reading about what people from different cultures and regions of the world have to say about those cultures in comparison to what westerners have to say about them.  As someone of Moroccan and Iranian descent, Sahar still took the time to look up the Wikipedia definition of “Arab” and “Arabic”, because apparently even people from the region do not know what it means or what it infers. 

To me, ever since President Bush started focusing on “Islamic extremists” as “the terrorists”, the term “Arab” has been a word inspiring fear and hatred for people hailing from the Middle East. As someone with no Arab descent whatsoever, I still find it horrific that a label so evil could be applied to such a large group of people. Through the propaganda of the Bush administration and various media outlets, Arabs have been portrayed as a collective group of people waging a “holy war” on the United States and its supporters. While I do not agree with the United States’ imperialistic policies, most notably President Bush’s, I also do not agree with the negative connotation we place upon Arabs these days. 

Even before September 11, the term “Arab” tended to group people of Middle Eastern descent altogether, even though Sahar refuted that notion in her paper.  While it was not as serious a problem as the negative coining the term has today, it was still a problem as it singled out those nations that did not consider themselves Arab but were still located in the Middle East.  A complete and thorough education on other nations is truly needed to understand the complexity and plight of the Arab people.  I know not all Arabs are terrorists, but does the average uneducated American know that? Probably not.  The media and propaganda skews our country’s view of the rest of the world so much and in order to truly grasp other cultures, we must take a step outside of the box and do some research on our own, either by traveling, reading, or whatever your own personal research agenda may be. But it’s time we looked at the way things work in the world today from an outside perspective, much as we do in our fishbowls in class. Otherwise, we’ll get so caught up in it all, we’ll never be able to tell what’s real and what’s propaganda.

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