I did not eat the last piece of chocolate only because I do not like chocolate that much, I didn’t eat the first as well; My friend did that for me. However, that point of the question is if I did like chocolate, would i? and the answer is yes. That is because ,even though I disagree and hate what is going on in the ivory coast and in the rest of the world where modern day slavery occurs, the chocolate has been made and whether I eat it or not is not going to change anything in the future or in anyone’s life. The chocolate is in my hand and what I do with it will not affect anything in this world and especially the people who are being tortured and enslaved in order to create this chocolate.
Another question may arise from this, will I buy chocolate in the future starting from after this lecture ? which means that I know what is going on and how this chocolate has been produced. The answer is, I would stop if I knew that that would help halt the sales of chocolate somehow. Maybe though a mass boycott by the people, but I know that I myself will not change the world and the tragic actions that are being done at this time. If there is an organized way to deal with this tragedy that would help those enslaved people, then I would surely join in and help. In addition, if I chose to take a proactive position and do something about it, will be able to convey the message right and make people understand the gravity of the situation; my answer at this point in time is no. And that because I have a lot of thing to do with regard to other important responsibilities related to my school, family, friends and so on. However, I do not mean by that that what I am doing is more important than the quality of those enslaved people’s lives; i am saying that there are people in that field (sociology/ social work) that are doing the job and will surely have a much more better and effective way to influence people and make them work and do something for this cause. I am studying to be an engineer, and by that, I mean to say that would be much more beneficial to this cause and any cause if I have completed my education and knowledge. That is because I am more valuable and can do more with a degree than without.
Another thing to mention is that if the international community that monitors inhumane acts knows about this and was still not able to do anything about it. Not even put pressure on the parties that know and should take action and the responsibility then what would I be able to do. Bottom line, this issue is way above a normal students power since it is controlled by corporation who need that cocoa to be produce; the government knows it and they still won’t do anything; and this includes all governments of the world who are producing chocolate that are sold in this international market (this includes all western governments, USA, Germany, UK France and so on…)

I don’t see any problem if a person hangs out with friends that are mostly from another race. Maybe that would have been a huge problem a few years back in the US when being a racist was a normal thing; however, at this time if people still believe in racism and are racists towards other people then that would be very disgusting because we are in the 21st century and racism is condemned upon directly. And I’m saying that because it seems that up until a few years back, racism was very common in the western world, especially in Europe and later on in the USA, which was mostly because they did establish their superiority of their race in the world by conquest. The ultimate racist event in the world of human history happened around 60 years ago in World War 2 where all mankind were placed in levels of superiority and inferiority by race.
People should have already seen that race was not the issue from the beginning; it was culture or demographics that would actually show the differences in people. And the only reason for differences to arise or hate or the meeting and learning of different people around the world was through culture and demographics. And example would be, a white person would not be able to see any difference between himself and his neighbor whatever his/her race was; and so there will be nothing special to learn from that person that the first people didn’t already know since they know the same areas, have the same culture, talk the same language. However, two people with the same color or race would have too much to learn about each other if they were from 2 different cultures or demographics. For instance, there would be different traditions to learn about, languages, cities and areas to learn about, sports and so on.
So if there is anything that could be noted about 2 different people hanging out, then unless they are from different culture or demographics, color of a person does not matter because your neighbor that is from a different race at this time in history has probably went to school with you, eaten the same food, celebrated the same events and of course speak the same language. So he is practically you or a different version. And if both of these persons travel abroad, they will sense and see the same differences they that point out about people of that country that they are visiting. However, 2 people from the same race but different demographics or nationality would see everything in completely different ways. So much so, that one can be wearing a skirt and see it ok, while the other would see it as abnormal.

I believe that all my close friends are from the same stage. Myself as an Emirati Student studying at Penn State have a whole different way of looking at things, and i were to put myself in a stage out of the stages mentioned in class, it would be the first stage because back in the UAE has been no racism issues where one would hate a person just because nof his race and believe he is superior. Arabs are from all colors and area. There are black arabs from sudan, white arabs from syria, lebanon jordan and much more, dark haired, long hair, kinky.. everything. However, in the Arab region, one may experience nationalism were people are seen and respected and stereotyped by their nationality. And if i were put my self and close friends who came to the usa in a stage, it would be the fifth stage. although many people from the arabian gulf region may still be in the 3rd or 4th stages.
THere is a lot of diversity in the Arabian region in the sense that there are a lot of people from all area and colors of the world. So there is place for racism to occur especially that more people living in the region have believe in Islam which denies racism. However, as mentioned earlier, a lot of discrimination happened as a result of nationalism which has been there ever since the british presence in the area and since the ottoman times.
When student travel to study abroad and see and meet different people, if changes their prospective where they would eventually understand that there should be no nationalism or any type of discrimination. Most of them would change from a stage 3 to a stage 5 and beyond.
The stages classified seemed to be mostly about minorities, however, the case about the Arabian gulf countries is not about minorities since the discrimination occurs towards foreigners that come to work in the country. A great reason to support that is that no other national can become a citizen of thoe countries unless he has originally been living there. For example, in the UAE; a European could be given more benefits and a better treatment that someone from india as a result of comparing both countries’ status and then applying and looking at people by that len. Since the Indian man is most probably from the working class or a poor background while the European could be a business man. That view is a result of the types of people that come to the country and for what reason. This applied to nearly all sectors in the Arabian gulf. With that, most people as I mentioned would be in stage 3 or 4 in the nationalism stages

Only a selfless person with a big heart would help without asking for any conditions or returns for his aid. However, that does not apply to countries especially the United States of America. The USA seems to be the country that rushes to aid any other country in need of help or democracy whatever the case is. However, nothing is ever as it seems; with that being said the USA as it has always been reported as the country that helps initially and then somehow the country becomes worse off for a while before it can recover and stand on its feet.
A good example would be the invasion of Iraq; the USA seems to act like it wants to spread peace and democracy throughout the country and to a few people it did. But to the majority of Iraqi’s, the way the USA dealt with the situation and the methods of trying to solve the problem were completely wrong. Was it intentional that they wanted to create chaos? Or did the USA intelligence have wrong information (not likely)? Or did they actually have completely different goals that the USA was pursuing that had nothing to do with helping the people of Iraq (like controlling the black gold in that region)? Whatever the case is, it doesn’t seem like the USA wanted to do the job right in the first place.
Keeping the actual intentions of the USA on the side; the best way for the USA to help a group of people is firstly to contact the leader or the people that they are targeting to help. Secondly, study whatever case they need to study so that they are able to help with maximum efficiency and minimal cost to the USA. And finally, act and help with the intention and goal to make sure that the targeted area to be helped is sustainable and can take care of itself and stand on their feet within a specific time limit.
Giving out random foreign aid to governments or people is a very bad idea because it doesn’t guarantee that the aid will be received where it was intended. For that reason, there should be hands on aiding which would guarantee that the people are being helped in the way the USA sees fit since they are the ones giving out said. For example, in the case of Haiti, the USA should help fix the damage done by the environmental factors that changed the country and help the people grow rice once again through methods that are efficient and successful; Not import rice to the country in order to appear humane to the world but in fact they are locking the cunning chains of dependence and debt on Haiti.

I believe in both. I believe that free will is what happens every day for all living things in this universe. Everything in this universe that has the ability to enjoy free will can enjoy free will whether it’s a human being, animal, insect and all that. And so, we have the choice of what we do with our lives under the circumstances that we are brought into. And so, we can do as we will within our ability. For example, if one wants to lay and sleep on the floor, then he/she has the ability to do that, even though that would not be a great idea, but that is free will; In addition, one can the ability and free will to assault a police offices, but that too is not a great idea. What im getting to is that everyone can do as they will if they want to; however, for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. So if ones wants to and has the ability to commit a crime, he/she can but that doesn’t mean it will go without a reaction. And this is when determinism comes into play. We normally have the free will to do as we wish within the limits that our government or source of jurisdiction “determines” for us.
Determinism is the free will of the higher power. Some people believe in fate, which means the determination of a greater power which is normally referred to as god; but not everybody agrees with that since some people do not believe in fate. But what we do believe in is a government or a higher power in this world were people have the free will to determine what people in the lower end can or cannot do with their free will; that is, restricting and controlling our free will. A similar example would be a pet and its owner, once an owner dominates its dog, the dog can do as its will within the limits determined by its owner, and it lives happily like that even though that might not be the case if the owner was an animal abuser. Same thing with people in power, they determine and control the free will of whoever has less power. This refers to the things that are visible such as punishment for certain actions and so on.
On the other hand, there are things that happen without us knowing what is really going behind the curtains as Sam mentioned in class; but that is basically the same thing happening but without our knowledge of the transaction of events that are happening and why. Like maybe why are most of the people in Ivy League colleges come from high income families, it actually be determined from a higher power but all people think is that they should have worked hard or studied hard. Same thing with Obama, some people think that they have the free will to vote for whom ever they want to be the president of this country; however, it could actually be determined by people in higher people showing to people that they have the free will to vote, but ultimately Obama has been chosen for specific unknown reasons to be the president of the USA. Bottom line is…. The control of free will is under the wing of people in power since they ‘determine’ what can happen, what will happen and what free will we have.

Why I follow my religion, Islam, and not another religion?
I have asked a lot of questions regarding Islam, and in each and every time I get a good explanation; and by good I mean scientific, logical, makes sense, conforms to all societies and times, humane, just, sweet, caring... you get the point.
Let’s start with science and reasoning. Other than the fact that the first word the Holy book started with was ‘Read’ which refers to the importance of education and learning; One of the reasons Christianity had many problems in the previous centuries is that a lot of people could not bring science and religion together where scientists were killed and their teachings were regarded as blasphemous. The logical human mind refuses to believe in a religion that goes against logic and reasoning. After the existence of Islam, science flourished all throughout. When Europe was experiencing the dark ages, The Middle East – Arabia- was experiencing the Islamic golden age. Major scientific cities were Andalucía (current Spain), Damascus, Bagdad and so on. Islam helped the world excel in medicine, Architecture, Engineering, Astronomy… and the list goes on here as well.
As for the Peace and love, Islam’s followers have to be “a person that people have had nothing but peace from his tongue (speech) and hands (physical acts)”; and so a person that creates the opposite of peace is does follow the teachings of Islam. With that being said, Geneva Convention was recently created in 1900’s to establish an international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war; On the other hand, Islam had already set humanitarian ground rules since the 500’s AD for war treatment and all other aspects of life that is even more peaceful and respectful than the international current Geneva Convention. One just has to want to search and read about Islam and he/she will see more that what they want.
Equality in Islam? People claim that women are being oppressed by the religion which usually refers to women in the Middle East. But looking at the statistics, only 20% of Muslims live in Arab countries, and the rest of the second largest religion in the world are all over the 7 continents, except maybe Antarctica. Yes, Women may be oppressed in some Arab countries but that only refers to specific rural communities in those countries; and this phenomenon can be seen in all rural countries of the world, even America. With that being said, Islam gave women all the rights women need and only prohibited them from doing things that may harm them, but that also applies to men. A very small example would be that Islam gave women the right to work and own and conduct business trades since the 500’s; Women in the US had to fight for centuries for their rights and they only got it recently. PS: Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world, predominantly by women embracing the religion.
What about animal rights is there any entity that gave animals as much rights as Islam, again since the 500’s? Islam forbids all animal mistreatment, which refers to all living ‘organisms’. In addition, the animal that abuse that happens ,in the USA and many developed countries, in the meat industry from electrifying, torturing (skinning alive), maltreatment, mal nutrition and even the method of slaughter are all prohibited in Islam. Islam goes too deep into the matter of animal sensitivity and rights so much that one should not slay an animal in front of another because even though they are less intelligent creatures they still feel.
Even though I only mentioned a few examples, but those few examples should be an eye opener not to follow Islam but at least to respect that religion.

This is regarding being able to express one’s sexual orientation and feeling restricted.
I do understand where the question of gender orientation comes from. In the USA, like any other country, everybody has to abide by the general culture in order to not look abnormal or look like an alien. So people generally conform to the major social fabric of this culture. For example, the norm in Britain is for a judge to wear a wig which shows that is person has attained the tittle of a judge; however, a judge in the US that wears a wig like that would look like a joke. So, basically, people do not look for explanations as to why they act or believe in a specific way; they just conform to the society around them and what they have been raised in.
Same thing applies for gender, we do not think about why we do something a specific way or dress in a specific way for our gender. We just do it because we got used to doing it in that way and anything else would look abnormal or like a joke as in the British wig example. For example, I wear could wear a dress a skirt in Scotland and look masculine; however, that wouldn’t be the case in the USA where skirts are feminine. So the norm is to conform to the society that you are in as respect to that society and all the people living in it; unless it contradicts with your chosen principles. And by that I mean basic humane, religious or ‘subcultural’ principles if one choses to abide by them personally.
Going back to where the question of choosing sexual gender; a question as such would only be created by people who have had deep problems to have such questions, such as gay and lesbian people in a closed society, where they cannot do as they please. I myself have never even thought about this question or its possibility simply because there is nothing to think about. I just act and do as my gender imposes on my and I have not faced any problems or felt very restricted or insecure. A personal example would be that, in my home country I traditionally wear a long garment which is very masculine back home, but it looks like a dress in the eyes of foreigners. In addition, if I was out of cologne at one day, I could easily use my girlfriends perfume and that would still be very normal even though guys in the US don’t even think about dressing or smelling properly and seems to be very masculine in this society (guys go to downtown nightclubs wearing a PNC bank shirt; hopefully a pair of jeans, not necessarily clean or decent looking; and sandals or sneakers. And it doesn’t look abnormal at all). Bottom-line is, when I came to the USA, I conformed and never even felt the need or urge to wear my traditional clothing to feel masculine. The only reason I would like to wear the traditional dress it in the US is because it’s very comfortable and the fact that I make it look good.
Only people who have issues feeling good in their own bodies or with their gender would raise that question. It doesn’t matter to me what seems or is accepted as feminine or masculine since I will conform to the society’s norms to respect the people I am visiting not to feel more or less of my gender.