Cultural Analysis “Third Culture Kids (TCKs)” Introduction Rough Draft
Introduction & Background → Did you know that President Barack Obama and a couple of his cabinet members were Third Culture Kids (TCKs)? According to state.gov, “a Third Culture Kid is known as someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture.” Exigency → Although many people are not familiar with this term, it is important to know different cultures around the globe especially when countries are becoming more interdependent on each other economically, socially, and politically. The term, Third Culture Kids was first coined by sociologist Dr. Ruth Hill Useem 40 years ago who was a TCK herself, when the internet and dozens of networking tools did not exist for people like her. Many agree that it is known as the Information Technology age today, where a person could instantly reconnect with a friend thousands of miles away. Thesis →In a world where the Internet has become widely available for most parts of the world, it has become a positive tool that changes the TCK culture today.
Main Paragraph One, Defining Technology → This paragraph will define Technology as the Internet and how social networking tools such as Facebook, Skype, and online communities have changed the global community and then connect it to my thesis. Use statistics from gallup.com or other reputable sources to back up my main point.
Main Paragraph Two →, Supporting paragraph about how the Internet Technology positively and possibly negatively changes the TCK culture today. Develop points and use personal examples of how these technologies changes the culture. Interview → I’ll be interviewing a friend of mine who is a TCK abroad and ask some questions and back up my point.
Conclusion → Reiterate my main points and summary. My conclusion is awareness for the general public about different cultures in the world and explaining why it is important for you. Why it is important to know about different cultures around the world, not just TCKs.
Sources so far:
Eakin, Kay Branaman. "According to My Passport, I'm Coming Home." State.gov. U.S Department of State. Web. 28 June 2011. <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/2065.pdf>.
After our class on Wednesday, I have finally picked a topic that I can very well relate to. As a kid I was born and raised in Hungary (Europe), but my parents are Japanese & Chinese. That makes me a 'third culture kid', a culture that is, and defines me. There are numerous publications on this culture, and I can also interview friends of mine who are also a part of this culture, which is a plus. So now that I have picked a culture that I can write about, I just have to narrow my topic or broaden it, but also figure out my exigency to write about this culture.
After taking notes on the Cultural Analysis paper, it is much easier and a whole lot easier to figure out what I need to think and research about. So having a rubric or a notes sheet for a paper like this greatly helps someone understand what he or she needs to do.
Anyways, I'm looking forward for the research of this paper, because I want to use reliable and accurate sources to back up my point. It will greatly effect the conclusion and reliability of my points. My plan is to use at least one interview as a source, and two or more sources from reliable internet or published sources.
After reading Nicholas Carr's piece Is Google Making Us Stupid?, it made me think about where human society is moving towards. It makes me think critically about what will our future look like, and made me think about how new technologies are changing our society and human nature. In addition, there are a lot of negative things that technology has caused that will not be uncovered until some period of time.
On the note of the Cultural Analysis paper, I really haven't found a topic that has caught my attention. I've been thinking about the movie "The Birth of a Nation," and how even though it is and was a very racist movie, it is a good film production in terms of film technology, and it also gives people today an understanding of what the sentiment was on race back in the day. I have also looked around other topics for cultural analysis such as Surf & Skate culture, but I'm not convinced on the amount and quality of information available that can be used correctly for my paper. Cultures such as Surf & Skate don't have concrete information, like X Y & Z, and it is difficult to define anything. It is vague.
"Is Google Making Us Stupid" written by Nicholas Carr is a persuasive opinion piece on Internet Technology. Carr makes the argument that the Internet technology is changing the 'human condition' both at a biological and and psychological level that will worsen humanity. Throughout the argument, Carr uses ethos throughout this persuasive piece. He uses credible University studies, book authors, and bloggers to say that the way we read is changing, and that deep level thinking in readings is diminishing because the need is simply not there. Carr also uses personal anecdotes of professional writers who have lost the ability to deeply read, and focus on writing. These examples can relate to the problems of many students today. The persuasive argument also presents the counter argument stating that Internet Technology may be embedded in our human core for the better in the future, because it will open up human intelligence into an immeasurable space, where the necessity of a brain might be replaced by something that is robotic which runs in a "algorithm". He wraps up his persuasive argument saying that even if Internet Technology will improve the 'human condition'; that our brains will be replaced something that will process information at an imaginable level, we might lose something that is the essence of what makes us, us, something that can't be lost at any cost.
After reading the article on Technology and Culture, and thinking about the topic, I feel that culture changes technology and technology changes culture both at the same time. Different cultures around the world might use technology differently, and also use technology for different purposes, but at the same time still use new technologies. New technologies definately change our culture, especially in the United States. It changes how we communicate; it also changes our language. The most important change however is that technology is changing the way we talk to one and another. We no longer do things that was common 60-70years ago since things such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and all those social networking mediums have brought upon us. Social networking mediums such as Facebook, Myspace etc... have made communicating more democratic and open so to speak. Everyone has a say on what you have to say, and everything is more open and public to the world.
According to gallup.com in 2009, 45% of the American public feel that Guantanamo Bay should be closed down, even though it is generally known to be a detention camp that violates international human rights laws. (U.N Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9). In “Our Unending War on Terror" an opinion piece written by world renown linguist, social activist, and historian, Noam Chomsky, takes on the topic of torture, terror and its' legality by deeply examining its' current use in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and its' roots in American history dating back to the nations’ infancy. The opening parts of the opinion piece analyzes the historical context in which the United States adopted imperialist policy for its’ national interest and how torture techniques developed from these imperialist policies, but more importantly how fundamental American ideas and goals of our country differed greatly from the reality at that time. The opinion piece then proceeds to elaborate on how both the Bush, and Obama administration continue to tolerate torture techniques in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and how the practice of ‘torture’ is creating negative repercussions. In Noam Chomsky’s opinion piece, “Our unending war on terror,” the author uses ethos, historical rhetoric, and repetition of the phrases and main points in order to convey the message that American perspective on foreign policy of freedom, and justice is completely skewed from the reality of the situation, the American public is smoke screened from the greater truth.
Throughout Chomsky’s opinion piece, historical rhetoric was employed in order to convince the reader that even in the founding years of the United States, when the constitution and “ ‘national purpose’ ”(Chomsky) was laid in its’ foundation, it was merely an idea that the country would strive for, however what happened was completely different, it was an “ ‘abuse of reality’ ” (Chomsky). As explained by Chomsky, a great example of this would be the eradication of Native Americans by the Colonists, Chomsky quotes John Quincy Adam’s perspective on the slaughter of Native Americans, “that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty … The merciless and perfidious cruelty continued until the West was won. Instead of God's judgment, the heinous sins today bring only praise for the fulfillment of the American ‘idea.’, ” the quote clearly explained how greater truth was ‘put under the rug,’ and the hypothetical American ‘idea’ was emphasized in order to show only the ‘good’, not ‘the ugly’ of American history. This hypothetical American ‘idea’ of freedom and liberty was yet again employed in the colonization of the Philippines as explained by Chomsky “ ‘the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all the rescued peoples of the Philippines’ (in the words of the platform of Lodge's Republican Party), however as Chomsky explained these “blessings of liberty and civilization”(Chomsky) only reached out to those who weren’t murdered or killed by the collateral damage the Philippine-American war caused, and yet again, the bigger picture of what the American ‘idea’ has directly caused, which is death, was simply buried under the dirt. By using historical facts backed up by quotes from reliable sources, Chomsky effectively builds trust with the reader, and also makes the reader feel that they are reading the truth.
Chomsky gives the reader an interesting perspective on how the U.S used ‘torture’ techniques in historical chronology but more importantly gives the reader an understanding on how ‘torture’ is still practiced to this day by the Obama administration; only now, the practice is less transparent. This fits in together with the greater message Chomsky is trying to convey to the readers throughout the article, that the greater truth in American foreign policy is masked and hidden. Chomsky makes a strong argument in the beginning of the paragraph on ‘torture’ by paraphrasing a theme from a book written by a credible historian Alfred McCoy, his main point being, that torture techniques developed from the 1950’s by the CIA in comparison to the torture in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, has not changed. Even though Chomsky explains how ‘torture’ techniques has not changed, he then gives the reader a revelation that even though ‘torture’ techniques on prisoners has not changed in the past 50 years, the way the U.S is enforcing ‘torture’ has. Chomsky explains, “In ordinary American practice, torture was largely farmed out to subsidiaries, not carried out by Americans directly in their own government-established torture chambers,” (Chomsky) the quote explains how ‘torture’ is carried out by Americans, just not in a direct way. Chomsky then continues with the use of historical rhetoric and the use of credible sources in order to back up his main point. Chomsky says in the same paragraph, “Sometimes the American engagement in torture was even more indirect. In a 1980 study, Latin Americanist Lars Schoultz found that U.S. aid "has tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens… Not surprisingly, U.S. aid tends to correlate with a favorable climate for business operations, commonly improved by the murder of labor and peasant organizers and human rights activists and other such actions,” (Chomsky) in that quote Chomsky clearly explains how the U.S uses ‘torture’ indirectly but also uses it for its’ national interests. As mentioned earlier this argument is backed up by credible sources such as Lars Shoultz who is a famous professor, and it also uses historical facts by quoting something that happened in the 1980’s. Again, throughout the opinion piece, Chomsky makes the reader feel that his point is valid and verifiable, because he quotes from reliable sources backed up by historical facts, even though his argument can be debated and scrutinized. This eliminates the thought of doubting his rhetoric, questioning his reasoning and sources, and makes the reader feel that he is reading the truth.
Chomsky reiterates the point that the truth is hidden by using historical rhetoric about past presidents policies on the use of ‘torture’ to the Obama administration. He first explained how mental torture techniques versus physical torture developed by the CIA was a much more effective way of retrieving information from captives and how ‘mental’ torture was left out of International Torture Convention convened by the U.N. As Chomsky said “ ‘fly your abducted prisoners to Guantanamo and they have constitutional rights, but fly them instead to Bagram and you can disappear them forever with no judicial process’ ,” the quote clearly explains how ‘torture’ techniques are still supported by the U.S.
The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ is mentioned over four times throughout the article, and it is a rhetorical strategy Chomsky uses in order to convince the reader his point. The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ in context of the article is understood as the nations’ national goal of freedom and liberty that overshadows the greater darker truth from the American public. As mentioned earlier, we can draw many examples of this through out our history, such as the murder of Native Americans, the Philippine-American war, ‘War on Terror’, etc… Chomsky not only gives examples of how ‘abuse of reality’ has happened in our nation, but then he continues on how ‘abuse of reality’ happened many times throughout the world in places such as the Sino-Japanese war, Algeria, and Vietnam.
In later paragraphs of the article, Chomsky conveys another meaning of ‘abuse of reality,’ it is when a single event is focused in the public’s eye, however the greater picture is obscured because of the overwhelming focus on that single event. A better elaboration of this would be by Chomsky himself. “As long as such "exceptionalist" theses remain firmly implanted, however, the occasional revelations of the "abuse of history" often backfire, serving only to efface terrible crimes. The My Lai massacre was a mere footnote to the vastly greater atrocities of the post-Tet pacification programs, ignored while indignation in this country was largely focused on this single crime,” that quote gives the reader an idea of what has happened and what is happening today. For example, the government and the media focus on single events such as Guantanamo Bay, while ignoring the clear fact that there are thousands of civilian casualties lost under the Iraq war. The effect Chomsky is trying to accomplish by repeating the phrase ‘abuse of reality,’ is trying to make the reader focus his attention on that single idea or rhetoric, in which in this opinion piece, is that American foreign policy and the American ‘idea’ greatly differs to what we actually do and practice. The focus on that rhetoric also makes the opinion piece more coherent, and understandable; it makes the reader on task and keeps him interested.
Chomsky’s uses many rhetorical strategies in order to convince the reader that America’s goals and foreign policy is not all in black and white, and that there are things that are covered up from the American public. He uses many historical examples to support his claim, and by using those examples backed up by credible sources, it gives the reader a better understanding of what is happening today. The greater question this article raises about our nation and the world is the question of transparency of the government from the public. It asks us if our government and if foreign governments are telling us the truth, and more importantly what is their actual goal or interest apart from hypothetical perceived purpose of the usual: ‘freedom and liberty’. A recent event that uncovered many classified documents showing how U.S government has covered up mishaps that happened in the Iraq war, was released by a private organization called WikiLeaks, and it truly uncovers the truth from obscurity.
Works Cited
Chomsky, Noam. "Our Unending War of Terror - George W. Bush - Salon.com." Salon.com - Salon.com. 19 May 2009. Web. 12 June 2011. .
Morales, Lymari. "Americans Send No Clear Mandate on Guantanamo Bay." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 21 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 June 2011. .
According to gallup.com in 2009, 45% of the American public feel that Guantanamo Bay ‘no, should not’ be closed down, even though it is generally known to be a detention camp that violates international human rights laws. (U.N Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9). In “Our Unending War on Terror" an opinion piece written by world renown linguist, social activist, and historian, Noam Chomsky, takes on the topic of torture, terror and its' legality by deeply examining its' current use in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and its' roots in American history dating back to the nations’ infancy. The opening parts of the opinion piece analyzes the historical context in which the United States adopted imperialist policy for it’s national interest and how torture techniques developed from these imperialist policies, but more importantly how fundamental American ideas and goals of our country differed greatly from the reality at that time. The opinion piece then proceeds to elaborate on how both the Bush, and Obama administration continue to tolerate torture techniques in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and how the practice of ‘torture’ is creating negative repercussions. In Noam Chomsky’s opinion piece, “Our unending war on terror,” the author uses historical rhetoric, logical rhetoric, and repetition of the phrases and main points in order to convey the message that American perspective on foreign policy of freedom, and justice is completely skewed from the reality of the situation, the American public is smoke screened from the greater truth.
Throughout Chomsky’s opinion piece, historical rhetoric was employed in order to convince the reader that even in the founding years of the United States, when the constitution and “ ‘national purpose’ ”(Chomsky) was laid in its’ foundation, it was merely an idea that the country would strive for, however what happened was completely different, it was an “ ‘abuse of reality’ ” (Chomsky). As explained by Chomsky, a great example of this would be the eradication of Native Americans by the Colonists, Chomsky quotes John Quincy Adam’s perspective on the slaughter of Native Americans, “that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty … The merciless and perfidious cruelty continued until the West was won. Instead of God's judgment, the heinous sins today bring only praise for the fulfillment of the American ‘idea.’, ” the quote clearly explained how greater truth was ‘put under the rug,’ and the hypothetical American ‘idea’ was emphasized in order to show only the ‘good’, not ‘the ugly’ of American history. This hypothetical American ‘idea’ of freedom and liberty was yet again employed in the colonization of the Philippines as explained by Chomsky “ ‘the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all the rescued peoples of the Philippines’ (in the words of the platform of Lodge's Republican Party), however as Chomsky explained these “blessings of liberty and civilization”(Chomsky) only reached out to those who weren’t murdered or killed by the collateral damage the Philippine-American war caused, and yet again, the bigger picture of what the American ‘idea’ has directly caused, which is death, was simply buried under the dirt.
Chomsky gives the reader an interesting perspective on how the U.S used ‘torture’ techniques in historical chronology but more importantly gives the reader an understanding on how ‘torture’ is still practiced to this day by the Obama administration; only now, the practice is less transparent. This fits in together with the greater message Chomsky is trying to convey to the readers throughout the article, that the greater truth in American foreign policy is masked and hidden. Chomsky makes a strong argument in the beginning of the paragraph on ‘torture’ by paraphrasing a theme from a book written by a credible historian Alfred McCoy, his main point being, that torture techniques developed from the 1950’s by the CIA in comparison to the torture in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, has not changed. Even though Chomsky explains how ‘torture’ techniques has not changed, he then gives the reader a revelation that even though ‘torture’ techniques on prisoners has not changed in the past 50 years, the way the U.S is enforcing ‘torture’ has. Chomsky explains, “In ordinary American practice, torture was largely farmed out to subsidiaries, not carried out by Americans directly in their own government-established torture chambers,” (Chomsky) the quote explains how ‘torture’ is carried out by Americans, just not in a direct way. Chomsky then continues with the use of historical rhetoric and the use of credible sources in order to back up his main point. Chomsky says in the same paragraph, “Sometimes the American engagement in torture was even more indirect. In a 1980 study, Latin Americanist Lars Schoultz found that U.S. aid "has tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens… Not surprisingly, U.S. aid tends to correlate with a favorable climate for business operations, commonly improved by the murder of labor and peasant organizers and human rights activists and other such actions,” (Chomsky) in that quote Chomsky clearly explains how the U.S uses ‘torture’ indirectly but also uses it for its’ national interests. As mentioned earlier this argument is backed up by credible sources such as Lars Shoultz who is a famous professor, and it also uses historical facts by quoting something that happened in the 1980’s.
Chomsky reiterates the point that the truth is hidden by using historical rhetoric about past presidents policies on the use of ‘torture’ to the Obama administration. He first explained how mental torture techniques versus physical torture developed by the CIA was a much more effective way of retrieving information from captives and how ‘mental’ torture was left out of International Torture Convention convened by the U.N. As Chomsky said “ ‘fly your abducted prisoners to Guantanamo and they have constitutional rights, but fly them instead to Bagram and you can disappear them forever with no judicial process’ ,” the quote clearly explains how ‘torture’ techniques are still supported by the U.S.
The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ is mentioned over four times throughout the article, and it is a rhetorical strategy Chomsky uses in order to convince the reader his point. The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ in context of the article is understood as the nations’ national goal of freedom and liberty that overshadows the greater darker truth from the American public. As mentioned earlier, we can draw many examples of this through out our history, such as the murder of Native Americans, the Philippine-American war, ‘War on Terror’, etc… Chomsky not only gives examples of how ‘abuse of reality’ has happened in our nation, but then he continues on how ‘abuse of reality’ happened many times throughout the world in places such as the Sino-Japanese war, Algeria, and Vietnam.
In later paragraphs of the article, Chomsky conveys another meaning of ‘abuse of reality,’ it is when a single event is focused in the publics’ eye, however the greater picture is obscured because of the overwhelming focus on that single event. A better elaboration of this would be by Chomsky himself, “As long as such "exceptionalist" theses remain firmly implanted, however, the occasional revelations of the "abuse of history" often backfire, serving only to efface terrible crimes. The My Lai massacre was a mere footnote to the vastly greater atrocities of the post-Tet pacification programs, ignored while indignation in this country was largely focused on this single crime,” that quote gives the reader an idea of what has happened and what is happening today. For example, the government and the media focus on single events such as Guantanamo Bay, while ignoring the clear fact that there are thousands of civilian casualties lost under the Iraq war.
Chomsky’s uses many rhetorical strategies in order to convince the reader that America’s goals and foreign policy is not all in black and white, and that there are things that are covered up from the American public. He uses many historical examples to support his claim, and by using those examples backed up by credible sources, it gives the reader a better understanding of what is happening today. The greater question this article raises about our nation and the world is the question of transparency of the government from the public. It asks us if our government and if foreign governments are telling us the truth, and more importantly what is their actual goal or interest apart from hypothetical perceived purpose of the usual: ‘freedom and liberty’. A recent event that uncovered many classified documents showing how U.S government has covered up mishaps that happened in the Iraq war, was released by a private organization called WikiLeaks, and it truly uncovers the truth from obscurity.
Watching the movie Diary of The Dead gave me a better understanding on how the use of media technology can be used in order to create multiple themes in a movie. Even though the movie wasn't as scary as lets say Paranormal Activity, it had great depth in terms of theme, and creates many thoughts for the audience to contemplate on. Diary of The Dead, was also shot in first person view, so the camera techniques differed greatly from the usual omnipotent third person view camera angles, which was very interesting. The rhetorical strategy most prominent in the movie Diary of The Dead in my opinion was the use of logos. In the movie within a movie The Death of Death, the video focused on uncovering the truth by revealing almost raw video of what was happening... I think that was the strongest rhetorical strategy in the movie...
According to gallup.com in 2009. 45% of the American public feel that Guantanamo Bay ‘no, should not’ be closed down, even though it is generally known to be a detention camp that violates international human rights law. (U.N Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9). In “Our Unending War on Terror" an opinion piece written by world renown linguist, social activist, and historian, Noam Chomsky, takes on the topic of torture, terror and its' legality by deeply examining its' current use in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and its' roots in American history dating back to the nations’ infancy. The opening parts of the opinion piece analyzes the historical context in which the United States adopted imperialist policy for it’s national interest and how torture techniques developed from it, but more importantly how fundamental American ideas and goals of our country differed greatly from the reality at that time. The opinion piece then proceeds to elaborate on how both the Bush, and Obama administration continue to tolerate torture techniques in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere. In Noam Chomsky’s opinion piece, “Our unending war on terror,” the author uses historical rhetoric, logical rhetoric, and repetition of the phrase “abuse of reality” in order to convey the message that American perspective on foreign policy of freedom, and justice is completely skewed from the reality of the situation, the American public is smoke screened from the greater truth.
Throughout Chomsky’s opinion piece, historical rhetoric was employed in order to convince the reader that even in the founding years of the United States, when the constitution and “ ‘national purpose’ ”(Chomsky) was laid in its’ foundation, it was merely an idea that the country would strive for, however what happened was completely different, it was an “ ‘abuse of reality’ ” (Chomsky). As explained by Chomsky, a great example of this would be the eradication of Native Americans by the Colonists, Chomsky quotes John Quincy Adam’s perspective on the slaughter of Native Americans, “that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty … The merciless and perfidious cruelty continued until the West was won. Instead of God's judgment, the heinous sins today bring only praise for the fulfillment of the American "idea.", ” the quote clearly explained how greater truth was “put under the rug,” and the hypothetical American “idea” was emphasized in order to show only the “good”, not “the ugly” of American history.
