There is a simple answer to that question...because it does not affect you or anyone who doesn't know a Haitian, personally. If it were OUR family member, friend, significant other, it would be the end of the world for US. As a human race, we are naturally selfish, and the less something effects us, the less obligations we feel we have to react. It is the honest truth but it is reality. if we want to help a cause or do something humanitarian, it is out of the goodness of our heart AS well as some kind of experience we have faced before that has guided US to make a change.

My heart goes out to any one who is living or visiting Haiti at this moment because I can not imagine how life would be when it has been taken away in an instance. The Haitian people show true courage and are doing whatever it takes to live a fulfilling life and that is very admirable. i hope to visit Haiti in the future and contribute to as much as I possibly can (of course with a lot of research done about the country before I do)

Very good class Sam. I am taking another class on International Mass Communications and one of the aspects we focus on is framing in the media. A survey taken by adolescent teens taken Afghanistan, who through the influence of television and the news, had bad images of Americans. They had never visited the United States and had negative opinions based on what was said in the news and displayed on television. This is the same here in the United States. When we are exposed to constant negative images of terrorism in movies, television and the news, we start to form our own ideas and opinions about countries that perhaps we never even visited before in our lives.

The class on Tuesday was a big eye opener because I was actually sitting in class and I completely understood the concept that Sam was trying to get through our heads.He wanted up to put ourselves into the lives of Arab Muslims, something I had never thought about before because I am American, i only think about my life and what needs to be done in order to succeed in my life. But, putting myself into the shoes of other people, my eyes were open to how hypocritical everyone can be. Radical Muslims are just angry and want to act out while radical Christians are just as angry and want to lash out. We are all different and we will all act out in a different way. We can not fault all Arab Muslims for thinking the same way when not all Americans think the way Radical Christians do.

I admit that as a New Yorker and living in the big city for my entire life, after the 9/11 incident, i was only an ignorant 12 year old who was angered by what the "terrorist Muslims" did to MY city. I wanted the country to go to war because of the extreme patriotism that i felt right after the incident. i thought, my country deserved revenge and retaliation against the country that made us suffer and I know many people shared my same view. But, man, how radical my thoughts were at the time and how revengeful I must have been. Now I am anti-war, with the more education i received which formed my opinion about the topic. Today, more and more civilians are being murdered overseas and what is really being solved? I am sorry is I am offending pro-war believers and I 100% respect all the soldiers that are fighting for our country (one of them happen to be a family member) but I honestly feel like this war needs to end.

Because of the differences in opinion, politics and religion, there will always be conflict and disagreements. Until we learn to settle things peacefully, without the need to kill innocent people, than our worlds will be split.

I agree with the fact that the flipped world of the obsession with a flat chest was very interesting because it made me really think of how influential society can be when it comes to pushing women to changing their body. I think it is crazy that women would cut their bodies in order to fit an ideal vision of what is beautiful when it usually leads to more surgeries and lower confidence. But, then again, I have to step outside my own lenses and see the reasoning behind women who get surgery or else I will just be judgmental.

As a female also, I have many male friends who are just as concerned about what they wear and whether they are built the way society finds attractive. Maybe it not most men, but I feel like my guy friends are more concerned about the way they look than I am. I don't feel like its ridiculous. It is normal for men to want to have the good athletic bodies and whatever else that is expected of them but when the extremes of taking steroids and having facials, then it begins to get a little worrisome.

I think the issue of being fine with the way you are and your appearance is such a LARGE topic for women. We are constantly told how to look and how to dress by the media, by our mothers, by our friends and by our significant others. I especially think that the meaning of beauty if different in other cultures. As a Hispanic woman, I was always told that curvy women were beautiful and sexy and to embrace the fact that I had a larger sized top than most women. But, growing up in the United States and especially going to college at Penn State, I always envied the more petite girls that are considered the more attractive body figure.

As a young teenager, and I think many of girls can relate, the pressure of looking thin or having perfect skin and teeth is constantly on our mind. This is our most vulnerable age when peer pressure is overwhelming and the influence of your friends and the beautiful models surrounding you begins the pattern of wanting to change. I admit that in high school I was constantly on a diet and used products that probably had chemicals that could kill me. I did all those things for the wrong reasons, to achieve a look that was unattainable because I wanted to look like airbrushed models and attract the boys that were around me. I feel like its a pattern with girls to want to fit in and do as much possible to do so.

When I entered college, I thought I had reached my confidence point. I felt like, yes, finally I was fine with the way I looked. Little did I know that being in a difference environment with people who had other versions of what beauty was, would drop my confidence level even more. But, as I got more into college, maturity definitely changes the way us women think. I started thinking, exercising the right way and eating the right way, I would feel better about myself for all the right reasons. I am a junior now, about to enter into my senior year and I still have my insecurities. I always feel like I can be thinner and dress better but that does not take over my life. I am never down or sad about the way I look, I feel like being curvy as well as active girl makes me feel healthy and beautiful.

Beauty is different in many cultures and as long as women begin accepting that beauty is within ALL of us. We have to begin accepting that the ideal beauty told to us by the media and by the people around us is THEIR opinion and the not the opinion of everyone one. And there it is, they are all opinions. As long as we have the confidence to live our lives as happy and worry free as we can, we can begin to love the person we are inside and out.

After watching the video on slave labor in Africa and how most of the chocolate we eat today has some kind of cocoa that has been picked by a slave REALLY made me think about how much I contribute to this horrible flow of capitalism that benefits our countries businesses. First of all, I have to admit that I am a chocolate lover and all my friends and family know that my sweet tooth for chocolate surpasses anything else in this world. To watch the heart wrenching video of how horribly treated the slaves, and YOUNG slaves at that, were treated while working on cocoa plantations made me feel guilty. The guilt that I felt in that I contributed and benefited from the hardships and the labor of these innocent people who just want to live a healthy and good life just made me NOT want to eat chocolate again or at least chocolate that has been produced by slave labor. I almost feel as if the guilt just sent me into making justifications for myself. At the moment of the video I made excuses such as, well I didn't know it was that bad or I can't do anything about it, its beyond my control. But that's how nothing gets done. That kind of attitude contributes to the continuing acts of slavery.

Being a chocolate lover that I am, i could not bring myself to eat the chocolate that was in front of my. It is not because throwing it away made anything better, it was that the chocolate in front of my was not pleasurable anymore to enjoy. The chocolate in in front of me almost seemed like it could be poisoned and I would be just WRONG to eat it. The guilt I felt for liking chocolate and for buying chocolate was too strong at that moment that the piece in front of me was not appealing at all. I don't think chocolate will be the enjoyable pleasure that I once associated it with. I would be a fake and a liar to say that after that day in class, I was never going to eat chocolate again because it is as part of my diet as water but I will be more concerned of where the chocolate I eat comes from.

Learning more about the issue and encouraging others to stop buying chocolate from big companies that contribute in the production by using slave labor can be one step closer to freeing more slaves and bringing down the slavery world of chocolate making. The more awareness and the more we talk about this issue, the more things will continue to change, hopefully.

People are just never satisfied! We want equal rights for all and OBVIOUSLY minorities in this country DO NOT have an equal starting line compared to those who are of white descent so affirmative action is meant to give minorities the chance to start at the same point as someone who is white. I am thankful for affirmative action because if It weren't around, as a woman, I would not be in this school or getting the education I am getting. Today, women are attending colleges more than men and thanks to affirmative action, more women are getting higher degrees and better careers than in the past. It is not a give away, it is a way to equalize this harsh and unfair world. Why can't people just accept it as a good thing because many of those complaining about affirmative action may have benefited from it in the past or will benefit in the future.

Wow I totally agree 100% with what you said KabilBlila! When I first came into class, my mind was just rolling with new ideas and feelings that I had never felt before. Thoughts would role out of my mind as if every single class would be eye opening to a new idea. Now, recently, the class has been repetitive and just downright boring many times. There are a few comments that Sam makes that make me listen and start thinking about new things but my interest has just gone out the door. I think this is the stage of "desensitization" the more we hear about issues and the same ones regarding race, the more we block out the meaning of it and just carry on with our day.

I think it will take a very long time for the majority of America to be in the minority. Like Sam said in class, 85% of PA is white, lets add in all those other States in which the majority of people are white. The white race is not dying out. I do agree that America will become a lot more mixed due to interracial marriages and more immigration in the U.S but I think it will take a very long time before mixed races start to become the majority. When that time comes, I will be thrilled of course since I am considered a minority myself and hopefully I am alive to see that day.