blog #8

Freedman, Samuel. "In One Church, Confessions Makes a Comeback". NewYork Times. 20 February 2009. 24 February 2009. .

St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church pastured by Stephen DiGiovanni, brought back the idea of confession booths. When he entered the church, confessions were told in reconciliation rooms. These rooms were face to face confrontations between a member of the church and a priest. Man people thought that this was awkward and embarrassing and many either rarely did them or refused to do them in general. With the reintroduction of confession booths, about 450 people a week confess their sins to priests using this new way to confess sins. Sin confessing is available in five different languages. These languages are English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French. St. John's church is also trying to promote other churches to do the same so that people can more openly confess their wrongs they have committed. Some ways in which they are spreading the word is on highway billboards, radio commercials and handouts. They just question if the multimedia effort can change behavior on a grand scale.

blog #7

Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. United Kingdom: Signet Classic, 1954.

In the book Nectar in a Sieve, Rukmani and her family approach many changes. Rukmani experiences typical changes such as marrying a man she does not know, becomes a mother, has many children and learns to share limited resources with more people. But she also experiences change when the tannery comes. "Change I had known before, and it had been gradual... But the change that now came into my life, into all our lives, blasting its way into our village, seemed wrought in the twinkling of an eye"(25). This quote describes Rukmani's feelings about when the workers arrive to build the tannery and how it will effect their lives. She prefers the simpler way of life, she does not enjoy the difference the tannery made. She likes the peace and wants everything to go back to that. But, Ruku does learn to become adaptable and survives many hardships and learns that life brings. My grandparents are kind of like Rukmani and Nathan. They prefer the simpler way of making food, because they do not have a microwave. They also hardly ever use their cell phones. New technology does not give them much joy. But every person is different and may adapt differently.

blog #6

Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve. United Kingdom: Signet Classic, 1954.

We read the book Nectar in a Sieve in class. I think this book deals a lot with the topic of hope. Nathan and his family rely on hope to get them through difficult situations that arise in their daily lives. "For at least twenty-four days we shall eat, I thought. Al the end of that time--well, we are in God's hands. He will not fail us. Sometimes I thought that, and at other times I was seized with trembling and was frightened, not knowing where to turn"(79). In this quote, Rukmani is worried about the food supply. The family only has enough food for 24 days and once that is gone, they don't know where they will find a supply of food. They rely on hope to be able to survive and not struggle with starvation. In todays world, the economic situation is terrible and many have lost their jobs. They rely on hope to get them through this difficult period. Hopefully this economic situation will turn around.

blog #5

Ravitz, Jessica. “Muslim in America: a 'voyage of discovery'”. CNN News. 9 Feb 2009. 16 Feb 2009. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/02/09/muslims.america/index.html?iref=newssearch>.

This article is about Muslims first arriving in America and the ways they had to adjust when arriving here. One women talked about wearing her Muslim dress with a head scarf covering everything but her face. When she reached the Miami Airport, many people stared at her even through security check. One said, "I expected people to say, 'What is this terrorist doing here? We don't want your kind here,' " said Woldt, a 22-year-old blue-eyed Catholic, recalling her anticipation before stepping into a local barbecue joint. "I thought I wouldn't even be served." I think its weird how when someone dresses different or is from somewhere else, they are always looked at like they are a terrorist or what not. Usually they are not. From the quote, you can see that she wasn't treated like one. I think it is just hard for people to adjust and get started in new places. It's hard for everyone, including Muslims, to get accepted into other countries and practice their religion in different cultures.

blog #4

Lemagie, Sarah. "Schools recruiting dads to provide more male role models for kids". Star Tribune. 1 Feb 2009. 16 Feb 2009. http://www.startribune.com/local/south/38783792.html?elr=KArksUUUU.

This article is about schools recruiting dads to provide more support and be role models to students at the school. Most dads never volunteer in class, the moms are the ones always wanting to help out. Now they want more of the dads help. Volunteers involved in Watch DOGS (Dads Of Great Students) take one day off work and spend it at their kids' schools, helping out in the classroom and wherever help is needed. I think this is a great idea for more help and giving kids someone to look up to. When i was in elementary school, mainly all the volunteers were mothers. I liked the fact of mothers being there but fathers could give the boys a better influence in my opinion. I hope that more schools will do this and get more help from other watch DOGS.

blog #3

Polgreen, Lydia. "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice ". The New York Times. 25 Jan 2009. 8 Feb 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/world/africa/26senegal.html.

A main source of living in Africa is rice production. It is their primary crop that helps them to gain money. It is also what stables the Senegalese diet. But after investing and borrowing to expand their production, the farmers also run the risk of being wiped out as food prices drop. When prices rose last year and countries stopped exporting, this country had no supply to replace it. They were left with no profit. This is because they are left to rely on their crops instead of money like the U.S. But high prices could make their crops competitive. The price of producing rice locally amde it more expenseve that imports as a result. Arona Diakhate said, “It simply didn’t pay to grow rice,” “Why grow something you can’t sell? It doesn’t make any sense.” This makes total sense in the fact that if you need money, you are not going to sell something that you know wont sell. Without production this year, workers would become poor with no land and no supply of crops. This could impact our world greatly.

blog #2

"Farmers prepare for coldest day of winter in South Florida". Sunbeam Television Corp. Feb 3 2009. 2009. http://www1.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI111798/.

South Florida will be expecting Wednesday night to be the coldest day of the winter that could cause a growing problem for farmers with plenty of crops. Farmers are worried that as the temperatures drop into Thursday, their crops could be in great danger and that they could be wiped out. Since its the peak of the harvest season, they are trying their best to do whatever they can to protect their crops. Algers had said that if they don't have a product then it will affect the prices in food stores. This is something we do not want to happen. This difficulty relates a lot to the book Nectar in a Sieve that we are reading in class. But the struggle in that book is that they are working their hardest to get food for survival. They have to go through every day hoping they will have food and hoping that their crops will survive. Also, they struggle with being poor while the people here in South Florida are just at a point in time where crops are not at the best with the weather. We should just be happy that we are able to fix the problems more quickly than in other societies.

blog #1

Alford, Roger. "KY guardsmen cut through trees downed by ice storm that's frozen state for nearly a week". Star Tribune. 1 Feb 2009. .

The biggest natural disaster for the state of Kentucky hit early last week. It was the hardest hit by the ice storm that paralyzed wide areas. The ice shattered utility poles, toppled trees and put thousands of homes to shelters. It would also take up to weeks for the power to be restored. Recovery would be a long process. Now, national guard troops are making their way into communities checking on residents, distribute food and water, remove fallen trees and go door-to-door in hard hit areas providing security. At least the ice is disappearing with the temperature in the 40s. For me, this would be devastating because its hard to live without power in your home. Well at least for me it is. When a storm hit Edina a few years ago, I remember going without power in my home for 3 days. That was hard because I wasn't able to do all the things I was used to doing. But that was only three days, and these residents in Kentucky may go for weeks. I hope that the guardsmen will help all the residents and resolve all the problems. Hopefully the state will be prepared for another incident like this.