Comments for Yashbhavnani's Weblog

Comment on Post #3: Irish Stereotypes Yesterday and Today. by wsbonduran

wsbonduran — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:03:43 +0000

Your post is very well thought out, and your have cited many sources for your argument. Your choice of using the Finlay Irish Wrestler was an interesting approach and stereotype of an Irishman. Your Orwell quote fits perfectly and is great tool to illustrate your point.

Comment on Post #2: Utopia: Gauisus by chivaso76

chivaso76 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:02:53 +0000

Great post, and very creative. I like the fact that you your community will allow you to do and work your desired job;however, how is it determined weather you already have enough people for one particular job/skill/trade? Are you turned away from the community then? I also like that fact that women are treated just as equal as the men, by being allowed to work in their desired field as well. This sounds like a very proactive community, and with everyone contributing their part it will make the community stronger. I think that it was a great idea for the community not to put any value on money, this is prevents greed and corruption amongst one another.

Comment on Post #2: Utopia: Gauisus by dannymendoza

dannymendoza — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:31:38 +0000

Your community seems to have a lot of religious influence on it. The “council” meets at the church on Fridays. I feel like your council is your government even though you say your community doesn’t have a central government. If thats the case, how are order and peace maintained? Who decides where the profits of the city go to? Would it be to maintain your turbine, or to improve the schools, or roads? It’s great that everyone strives for happiness. I guess it’s true in your city when people say do what you love. Although maybe having a wall cutting yourself off from the rest of the would is a bit arrogant.

Comment on Post #2: Utopia: Gauisus by Robp3

Robp3 — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:20:59 +0000

Having your post written from the point of view of a citizen in your utopia was very creative. The idea that women pursue their own interests and are valued the same as men would have been truly unique for that time period. I wondered if having the city council meet in the prayer building indicates that religion has a place in the government—is that the case? As an electrical engineering major, the part where you mention electricity generation via a turbine jumped out at me. Is it a water turbine running off the river flow? Knowing that electricity was only commercially available in the late 19th century, your town would have been before its time; definitely something that would attract people like me.

Comment on Post #2: Utopia: Gauisus by wsbonduran

wsbonduran — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:22:47 +0000

Your community is very well thought out and is clearly focused on being a community of people with a common desire; Happiness. I like the creative approach you took by telling the story from the POV of a citizen in one of their letters home. From this POV you can see that men and women are treated equal and that everyone has the freedom to practice whatever religion, if any, they choose. This POV describes a very well planned out and structured community with littel Govt interaction or administration. Having the community closed off reminds me a bit of the closed gated country club communities in Loudoun County, but hey, who wouldn’t want to live in one of those exclusive country club communities!

Comment on Post 1: Slaves Search for Natural Rights by robp3

robp3 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:38:15 +0000

The first thing that hit me when I read this post was that it is LONG (more than two times longer than 500 word max). That said, it starts off strong with a good thesis, but the evidence doesn’t seem to follow a straight path (e.g., I’m not sure how the physical attributes in the advertisements can be used as evidence). The paper tends to move back and forth between how the slaves recognized basic human rights and how the advertisements showed an aspect of slavery that is otherwise overlooked. I thought your idea to search the slave ads for ‘intent’ was novel. A couple of the points you made about the founding fathers writing of ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit to happiness’ while in the midst of supporting slavery and then later noting the Swahili word for ‘slave trade’ gave two contrasting views of this issue that were well positioned.

Comment on Reflection #2: American Revolution by dannymendoza

dannymendoza — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:38:51 +0000

Your thorough analysis of these advertisements is so depth, and I fully agree with everything you said. When you mentioned James Madison placing an ad for his slave, Anthony, it immediately made me think of Thomas Jefferson, another prominent American figure who owned slaves. It is both dumbfounding and ridiculous that these are the men that helped to write the most important documents in U.S. history. One thing that is obvious from all of these advertisements was that slavery was a very accepted social practice. Nowadays, wealthy people make headlines when they do not pay their housekeepers, who work voluntarily and under significantly better conditions, at least minimum wage. It just shows how much our country has changed over the last couple hundred years, and hopefully, all forms of injustice will eventually be abolished.

Comment on Post 1: Slaves Search for Natural Rights by Francisco Catedral

Francisco Catedral — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:48:57 +0000

Your post pointed out something interesting to me, the part which you wrote about the slave trade being called “Maafa”. I never really thought about it, until now, the fact that slavery trade was a form of a holocaust. You are right that we do not know a great deal about the slaves history due to the lack of improper documentation. Slaves were forced to different forms of torture by forms of whippings, punishment, and even death. Your example of Mann really shows how slaves were really degraded as humans. The fact that his owner offered a bigger reward for someone who would bring his severed head is very inhumane. This is just one example, and who knows how many other slaves were killed. There could have been many others who faced the same ordeal, and it probably was not documented. I also agree that the slaves ran away because they were wanted the same “human rights” as everyone else.

Comment on Post 1: Slaves Search for Natural Rights by wsbonduran

wsbonduran — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:57:43 +0000

I Like the approach you took with the assignment. By focusing on one aspect of the ads, by looking at the ‘intent’ attribute really illustrates the fact the slaves were people. People with the desire to fulfill the most basic need, the need to be free, free to choose, free to pursue their own lives, and ways. As a business mgmt major it was impressive to see you quantify your results. By quantifying the results clearly supports your argument of natural rights. By drawing on the ads of the founding fathers it illustrates the fact the founding fathers, while brave enough to fight for their rights against the British, didn’t have the moral courage to address rights for all people.