It is funny how I knew that Sam was going to say something about State Patty`s day. Sincerely I know he think it’s amazing, yeah amazingly stupid. I am sure he thinks that way. I think Sam is one the smartest professors on this campus, a men who admits he is a knucklehead must be smart. At least he realizes is there is so much to learn compare to the knowledge he has. So this is why I respect him as a teacher and as a person, this is why I respect his perspectives and his opinions. He is right when he says this is going to burry us. It truly will hinder our opportunities of getting into good career paths. First of all, the student body already looks bad enough because of the riots. I mean I said this on previous posts as well. The riot was pointless, and I get it sometimes people react to certain circumstances in a way that is not approved of but what bothers me about everything going is that the students should be able to see how wrong and untimely their reactions were once they have a chance to really think about it for themselves, and they simply don’t. What bothers is so many students still think there actions were justified; I am certainly opposed to that view point. I think it should not even matter at this point if the riots were justified or not, how come everyone is like, oh yeah we are here for the victims we support them this and that and as soon as something is asked of us we say how is it going to benefit us. How do you even ask that question how do you even think about that, we talked extensively about what we can do for the victims in group sessions and the idea was as we are outsiders to the incident- meaning that many of us are not connected to the victims we cannot really do much except symbolic gestures like the candle light vigil that took place, but we also said that when the chance arose we would do everything we could I don’t know what other people think in class but this was something we agreed on in our discussion group. Well, here is the chance, here is the chance to show that you haven’t forgotten about the victims just after a few weeks, why not go spend the whole state paddy`s day in front of old main doing another big gathering and remembering the victims. And I ask you again how do you even talk about how this is going to benefit us, we should do this not because it is going to benefit us, not because we are trying to lay low and do not want attract any more negative media coverage but we should do this for the victims, and that’s the bottom line forget about joepa, forget about if we are going to have jobs when we graduate forget about it all and just try to think about what these victims had to go through. Am I mad because so many people rather would drink and get drunk maybe hoping to get some that day rather than do what is right? I don’t know you tell me, be honest with yourselves that’s all I am asking.

I really don’t how to respond to everything that has been going on related to this incident. I am trying wrap my mind around all that is relevant to the topic and be able see from everyone’s perspective but it is very hard. At least I want to begin by saying that I do not support JoePa one bit, and that is not an easy statement to make, because think about it for a while try to understand his situation in this hectic environment. Even though I do not support him, I can say with honesty that compared to most people who support him I am more open minded and understand his situation better than most. For the people who support him, it is pretty much instinctual he is, was the symbol of Penn state, and for everyone who thought this place to be their home, their family, he is almost like a father figure. Mind you, it is an emotional reaction, so many people know what Joe did was wrong and they still support him, and so many people probably felt insane, until Sam explained it is perfectly normal to have contradictory thoughts and both have merit in them. See, many people do not take the time to just think and meditate once in a while, if they did they would see that mind does not think in two dimensions and it is not always black and white, indeed its mostly a tint of the infinite greys in the spectrum. This might sound cliché but it is what it is.
There is something called selective perspective, it can act as a defensive mechanism we use to justify things that we do or other people do that we know are wrong. We are very good at rationalizing when we need to. So this is what happens when you fall in love (in a guy’s perspective) with a girl and you don’t see any faults in her, to you she is perfect, but to your sister and everyone around you that does not have an emotional connection to her, they see her as she is, a total crazy person. In our case JoePa is our total crazy person. Now this is the situation or the mindset of the most of the supporters of Joe, you know the dude was wrong but you have emotional connections that are too strong and you can’t help but support him. On a side note before I go into my perspective of all this I want to mention something about the riot. There are so many people that think JoePa is not getting the right treatment and that is why we rioted. I refuse to see any merit in that thought. When the board announced JoePa fired, I was coming out of an exam and everyone was running to the Hub, I analyzed people around and they were just excited that something big was going on to break their monotonous day. No one really gave it much thought. I asked a friend what was going on and he pretty much sum it up perfectly. He said “I don’t know why we are rioting but we are rioting that is all that matters.” So there it is. I can’t say I gave it much thought either at first. Everything seemed unreal but I was at least rational enough to not go and tear down lamp posts for someone who was involved in such big scandal.
In reality though no one knows what went behind closed doors no one really knows what the incentives or priorities of the people were who let this happen. Joe could have been threatened who knows. Perhaps, even some of the board members knew about what was going on and because of Sundunsky`s strong ties no one really could say anything. Really who knows? So even though I ultimately do not support Joe, it should not be that easy to condemn people, just stop and think for little try to rid yourself of biases and look at the picture as a whole or is that too much work. I am just going to say one more thing to sum up my anger. You can’t have a fucking library named after you, your own statue and be this living legend and not report a crime that affected many children in a tremendous way. Oh yeah he did his legal responsibility and told his superiors, that is what an average person does my men, not a guy who has his own statue. So there it is, this my perspective even his life was at the hands of sundusky he should have reported it he has no excuses.

I can’t tell you how upset I am about this, and none of the major media is reporting this I went and searched occupy Oakland and the only coverage came out of RT , which is Russia Today, I am presuming it’s a global independent news agency in Russia may be something close to AL Jazeera.
So much for all the conspiracy theorist being crazy and out of their minds. As these events take place we are still sleeping. Calling people who care people who do the research, and have an open perspective to what is going on in the world- those people who stand up for themselves- we call them crazy, while we are always busy doing important things like deciding what to wear for Halloween. Just stop and think for a second a country all the way across the world where the half of the population lives on 2 dollars a day and they are over there protesting, trying to defend our rights, trying to support us about a situation we do not even know that exists. Yeah, as if they do not have more important things to do like figuring out how to put food on the table today… Can you comprehend what is going on here? Can you wrap your mind around the fact of how oblivious and inhuman we have become over the years.
Keep chasing that imaginary American dream, while we feed you with biased bull shit that helps us –as in Sam`s words- “bend you over.” This all it comes down to man. I am amazed truly amazed how people refuse to see these simple things. Let’s use some common sense. For instance let’s say we have a small village that is owned by a rich man. This man will take every measure to remain in power and keep the dwellers uneducated – blissfully ignorant as they say. That is exactly what the government is doing. We are the peasants of the 21st century. Nothing has changed; those castles are still there on the hill tops my friends. They used to provide you with a place to sleep and food to eat now they give you a piece of paper that has no intrinsic value to buy your own food and buy your own house and they keep in depth for a lifetime with the little money they give, well because there is such a thing as economics an interest and inflation all the bullshit that helps them justify that the effort you put in today is obsolete and not worth a damn thing tomorrow. After all that they feed you with jersey shore instead of what’s going on in Oakland but that is alright because tomorrow is Halloween and the only thing in your mind is will I get some a@$ if I dress as the situation. That’s all I got to say

Racism served the best interests of the European and their imperialistic ways for generations. I am going to be really honest in this post and try to explain why racism exist weather latent or out in the open whichever the case maybe. If you did all the online articles and videos assigned for the exam you would have come across Tim Wise and if you listened to his speech you don’t even have to read on.
As much as I like to believe the glass is half full, as much as I want to say people have common courtesy and are caring, fair – simply to be human is to have a heart and have some decency- as much as I want believe that, we see more than 80 percent of the world living on 2 dollars a day, now how is that for decency. Money and power corrupts people. The rich make the rules; nothing absolutely nothing is un lawful for the rich (the people in power). They use everything to their advantage even the bible. Didn’t they use the bible to justify slavery in this country – a disgusting measure taken by government- and what do you know it was legal. Oh yeah it sounds crazy now, yeah racism is a terrible thing most everyone would agree now, but then it was normal, it was normal like having coffee every day, it was normal as breathing, it was normal as eating, it was normal- just like it was normal to listen to people`s phone, arresting people without charging them with a crime, holding them in prison for months and not admitting to their families that they are being held in those prison during post 9/11. What happened to no cruel and unusual punishment- just until yesterday we were waterboarding prisoners in Guantanamo and who knows what other torture method they used. This was the normal of yesterday, normal as breathing. Scare people enough they will give up everything for protection they don’t even need. Tell them there is a monster behind that door and they will never walk through the door.
Racism is just like any other strategy people in power used, just a tool to further their cause. It was what Hitler did in 1940s, it was what King Jackson did to the Native Americans in the early 1800 with trail of tears, it is what we do to many third world countries today bringing democracy to oil rich countries fighting terrorists in oil rich countries while mass genocide happens in Rwanda. Guess what this is all normal, normal as breathing. Latent, blatant doesn’t matter, what matters is they have infected us with the poison and it will never truly clear out of our system, even if it does, they will find other ways to alienate us and divide us, like teaching about a huge imaginary personal space bubble in elementary school. Don’t trust them oh no they are black don’t trust those over there they are Mexican, oh those to the right they are Asian never trust Asian people, well of course you can’t trust white people because there is competition you got to chase the American dream man. Privacy is good as long as they see fit, as far as they have a need to listen to your phones again.
But the easy answer would be amongst white people it is latent because there is guilt and of course its not politically correct to be open about something’s. For black people it’s blatant because as they are the victims they have more free discussions, racism is a reality for them. For white people, the approach is that lets not say anything maybe they will forget we used to whip their grandfathers.

Like I said earlier I have European blood that my parents probably won’t admit to but my aunt married a Bulgarian Christian so least to say they are not very convincing at their accounts. Now you know the context of my words; yeah I look very white but I don’t identify myself as white so I don’t know why I am answering this question because it most definitely was asked at white people, I guess I unconsciously identify with my whiteness oh well, if you ask me what I am I would say I have Asian ancestry but people find that hard to believe so I pass as white on the census forms. So in my socially constructed whiteness I say I am at stage 6 and I look forward to being a better stage 6 person. I don’t care about the race of other people. Skin color is not a main factor in my life, being a Muslim I believe that we are created differently we speak different languages just so that we may get to know each other, discover our different cultures, traditions and odd ways , and so we may learn to love each other. The world would be too boring with just one race, one language one way of living, don’t you think so? I think we are doing just fine.

I pass on as white because I mean I have a pretty white complexion. I was born in Bulgaria. My parents claim to be what was left over from the Ottomon Empire turks back in the day. But I`m guessing I have fair amount of European blood, because there probably was a lot of intermarriage across races or ethnicities whatever you want to call it. First of all turks were nomadic people if you think as back as Atilla the Hun. So our ancestry could be traced back to the highlands of Asia in a place between the Russians and Chinese. In addition turks have entered Anatolia in 1074 after winnig the Malazgirt War- I don’t know how it would translate in English- an encountered and married from many different civilization. So today we have turks of every kind from very Asian looking like Kazaks or people of Turkistan located to the northwest of china to middle eastern looking and very European looking blond and blue eyes turks. According to an article that I read (I cant really cite because, well it has been along time since I read it) people of Anatolia have the most mixed genes of everyone in the world. I`m not sure how true that is but it is fair to say that turks have a very mixed background, you could see it in people`s faces.

Why do women wear uncomfortable clothing I don’t know, you should be asking yourself that (of course I am talking to the ladies in the video). Can we talk about society pressure here, maybe, nah… I don’t think so I think we have a pretty free society where we can do whatever we want. So really I don’t know why girls wear uncomfortable clothes. I could put a counter argument together and say guys have to wear suits and tuxedos and they are not always comfortable either, but I am not going to do that, because in general terms girls spend hours getting ready whereas guys could care less. See I want to know why that is when we think of a guy looking good we think button up shirt jacket maybe even a suit, but girls on the other hand think of ridiculously short and tight skirts and heels they barely can walk in. So for a guy more and more elaborate clothing is defined as good but for a girl less; showing more skin is better. Blame the media and forces of society for making women all nothing but a symbol of sex- yeap there is an easy escape for the people who are too lazy to think for themselves. I have read a prior post about this saying that clothing has become a personal preference and it truly has. if girls are dressing a certain way that is their own choice. All that to snatch a drunken college kid from the bar. It’s obvious a girl who dresses a certain way enjoys the attention and wants to get looks from the opposite sex. I think if a girl has guys approaching her because the way she looks it`s for all the wrong reasons, but who knows those wrong reasons maybe the right reasons for someone else. I am not saying girls shouldn’t wear high heels and short skirts, on the contrary by all means if you want to show your assets go right ahead, but know that it was your own choice whatever might be the reason of you dressing a certain way you chose it so there is no need to whine about it afterwards. First of all I am a guy who takes pride in looking good in my clothes but then again I am European. I also know when enough is enough. As guys I think we are happy with a shirt and pant. I don’t have time to waste thinking about what to wear there is more important issues running through my mind. So that is my personal preference. In addition there are guys out there who wear nothing but polos and khakis and do not go out the door without a jacket /blazer.

First of all I don’t believe that women are more innocent then men. There is always this idea of if women ruled the world if and only if… things would be much better, there would be no wars. I always see these anecdotes such as pictures or videos showing how much better the world would be if women ruled the world because supposedly women are more innocent then men and many of us truly believe that this is the case.
Many of us don’t realize everything a man does in life revolves around a woman. There is this comedy sketch by Kat Williams talking about why men do some of things they do. For instance own a nice home or a nice car, its not exactly appropriate and a bit exaggerated so I will not talk about the content, but it is fair to say men are vulnerable to women`s whispers.
Think back as far as the Stone Age women have said “go hunt a dinosaur and I will show you something very interesting in the cave”… I am sorry to say but men are that simple and they always have been that way. For instance just observe men when they fight, just a simple fight after a drunk night (more than likely they will be fighting for a girl), they will fight and they will work things out just that second, but when you see women fight or disagree over something they won’t talk to each other for ages. I do not want to generalize (of course not everyone fits this example) but these have been my observations so far.
To remark upon the other question why certain races are more innocent then others? I think that’s a matter of culture and tradition, and it depends how much that culture or people have been in contact with outsiders. If you define innocence by being pure and knowing nothing else, an amazon tribe would be the most innocent people on earth. But it depends on how you define innocence. In addition, no one can say the white race is innocent. I personally find the African race if such thing exists- more innocent than any other race (scientifically race does not exist we have not been here long enough to evolve and divide to different races). I mean we pull this topic anywhere by asking what race is if it exists or what innocence is and how we define innocence. It all depends on perspective, we can rationalize and say pretty much anything it will sound reasonable, however there is no way to deny what white men has done on a global scale in the name religion or other ideologies to this world. I don’t know who is innocent but I know we are not.

After looking at most of the videos and reading about the entrepreneurs in Haiti. I have noticed that many of these people, who are struggling to provide livelihood for themselves and their family, depend on nothing but their own two hands. Many of these entrepreneurs also take pride in their work and do their best to put quality goods out there. It is evident in many of the videos; the insulated bags, the designer clothes, sandals, evening wear, floral arrangements, all of these done by one or few people with the help of couple outdated machinery. We have a saying in Turkish; it goes something like “winning your bread from stone” this was probably said for the unforgiving work the miners did few decades ago but you can think of it as involving any type of hard work and skillful craftsmanship. – I mean yes some of this is very hard labor but it is not as simple as picking up a box from a conveyer belt and putting it on another conveyer belt, so the work they do in these ill provided resources , - you just can’t fail to notice.
We also moved from Bulgaria to Turkey to the states, and if you were to check the standards of living and the economic course you would quickly realize that I come from a very poor background myself. My dad has gone from working in the plastic industry to steel industry to being a truck driver to running his own business now. So coming from a blue collar family myself I have a very different level of appreciation for what these Haitians are doing.
Now I want to start out from my own experiences, exposure to different cultures just learning new things and of course education has changed my family a lot over the years. So I can definitely say that the biggest thing they need is education in Haiti. Second to that is resources, I saw in many of the videos dealing with the production of bags, clothes, and sandals, many of the entrepreneurs were dissatisfied with raw materials and their availability. Also all this work was done on many cases nothing more than a sewing machine and everything required skillful labor. Now again I do have a lot of respect for what they do but with newer machinery and handy tools we make the everyday tasks of these people a lot easier.
But I want to also put emphasis on how much has to be done to better the infrastructure of the country as a whole for instance Suze made candied peanuts had to travel 3 hours and spend the whole day in the market by raw peanuts and other materials and there was virtually no public transportation. So I think before we think of ways to help out separate individuals we should come up with projects that will benefit the masses.

This is a very interesting subject to think about. Is technology going to be so advanced that our ways of communicating with each other going to be so easy? So the idea is that this advancement will derail the old dogma trains and make people more accepting of others. I truly do not have a clear answer, so I find it best to argue both view points; yes it will change our perspectives – well let me rephrase that , since everything is ever-changing and evolving of course our perspectives are going to change but whether it will a positive change or a negative change that I don’t know. That is my point of, that is what I believe in.
I am an economics major so I am going to try to approach this with an economics example that will hopefully make sense. Now in economics there is something called a business cycle? This composed two things; a period of time when economy thrives which we call expansion and a period of time when economic performance falls which we call recessions. Humanity is the same way I think. We our times when civilizations thrive and we have those dark days. Just look at any history book and you will find the golden ages of Romans, the Greek, the Persian Empire, the Ottomans. They all had their time where law ruled the land every type of peoples that were conquered in the past lived together with understanding and with respect to each other. However we also see these dark ages where people are violent , unhappy with their lives, there is no advancement in livelihood so they blame each other, because ethnic background because of race because of skin color… and they fight wars.
So I think we are always going to have this cycle no matter how far we advance. We `ll have our times when everything is good we all get along we are all balloons, cotton candy, happy thoughts, until something like 9/11 happens and we are scared shitless than all Muslims become terrorist . We can fly to the moon man come on, what are you talking about technology ... we have the time to send aliens which we have no idea if they exist but we can’t find the time to talk to our next door neighbor… and you know what you don’t even need to send out a space shuttle to communicate with your neighbor, all you need is willingness to say how are you?, and listen ,willingness to listen, not while your texting on your phone, not while you are running late to some important meeting. So yeah everything is going to change but the way we see each other is not going to change because some scientist is going to invent some magical glasses that will make you see without all prejudice and with understanding of other peoples… no man it’s all in our hearts… the rest is bullshit.