La Bestia- dangerous route to a better future

https://texags.com/forums/16/topics/2691527 

          Traveling through Mexico to reach the Mexico-U.S. border is considered more dangerous than illegally crossing it. Many people don't finish this long journey. "La Bestia" or "the death train" is a network of cargo trains used by immigrants from Central America's countries like Guatemala, Honduras and EL Salvador to cross Mexico, get to the border and finally enter the U.S. on foot. It is often migrant's only hope to avoid Mexican check points and not to be send back home before reaching their destination. However, on the top of the train danger lurks around every corner. The risks of using it as human transportation are described in video report Mexico: the train of nightmares. According to it freight trains are not prepared for human travelers. Immigrants are sitting on train's roofs with nothing to hold on. Not only that they can easily fall off the train- it happen especially when they fall asleep exhausted by this long journey, but immigrants are also targets of extortion, kidnapping, rapes and even recruitment practices for the gangs (France24English). 

http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21618786-mexican-authorities-block-infamous-route-north-taming-beast

          What pushes people out of their native countries to risk their lives and ride on a top of the death train? Probably the fact that their lives back home became "so violent it's hard to understand the gradations between bad and worse"(Jamison 58). We all have our fears but we can't compere them to life under a constant fright. Can you imagine what they go through? Can you imagine that "even when people get together for dinner, somewhere private, they wouldn't focus on what their lives had become: scared to go drinking, scared to go to work, scared to catch a bus or buy a pack of cigarettes or cross the fucking street" because "it's impossible to speak (...) when you are still in the middle of it" (Jamison 58). Maybe it's poverty that looks like "kids that are so thin, the kids that have sores all over because they don’t eat"(McGraw). Because of these reasons immigrants don't have a choice but to swallow their fears, hop on a train, and hope for a safe journey that will result in a better life in the U.S.A. What would you do if you were in this situation?

https://wearemitu.com/mitu-world/mexican-sports-newspaper-says-to-send-salvadoran-soccer-team-to-the-death-train/attachment/screen-shot-2016-09-02-at-2-48-31-pm/

Words cited

Jamison, Leslie.The empathy exams: essays. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press, 2014. Print.

McGraw, Mike. “Poverty in Central America pushes residents to risk the trip north.”Kansascity, www.kansascity.com/news/special-reports/article296295/Poverty-in-Central-America-pushes-residents-to-risk-the-trip-north.html. Accessed 10 May 2017.

France24english. “Mexico: the train of nightmares.”YouTube, YouTube, 23 Mar. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHDsyOpuyNw&t=316s. Accessed 10 May 2017.

abortion

"We scheduled the abortion for Friday, and I found myself facing a week of ordinary days until it happened, I realized I was supposed to keep doing ordinary things. One afternoon, I holed up in the library and read a pregnancy memoir. The author described a pulsing fist of fear and loneliness inside her- a fist she’d carried her whole life, had numbed with drinking and sex- and explained how her pregnancy had replaced this fist with the tiny bud of her fetus, a moving life" (Jamison 8).

            By doing ordinary things narrator delude herself that upcoming abortion is not going to change anything, that it’s not going to really affect her. She broke from her plan when she read a pregnancy memoir. Although the book was about how much pregnancy and motherhood may help women to defeat their demons, she doesn’t change her mind about having this abortion (she doesn’t mention about her doubts although I’m sure she had some). I still wonder why she thought she had to do it?

            It reminds me about a situation from when I was in high school and my friend had an abortion. She didn’t tell anybody except me and other friend. She missed one day of school, went to other city to a doctor who illegally performed an abortion. In Poland law prohibits it. When I saw her the next day and asked about it I saw pain and fear in her eyes. We haven’t talked about it anymore. We went on with our lives by “forgetting” about it. My friend did it because she was 16 and not ready to be a mom. The father of the baby was a soccer fanatic who cared only about game and alcohol. My friend’s young live would have changed so much if she had a baby, that she didn’t feel she had a choice. She didn’t even tell her parents about it because they would probably disapprove it. In her case the psychological price of abortion was high. For a long time she struggled with alcohol addiction. 

Don't know much about history

  Yasmine Mustafa and her family came to USA from Kuwait to escape the brutality of war. Although the transition to American life was full of challenges for 8-year-old girl, it also gave her great opportunities. From an early age Yasmine knew that she wants to be an entrepreneur and she worked extremely hard to peruse her goal. It took great level of consistency, two low-paid part time jobs and 7.5 years of studying at the Temple University so she could finally graduate with a degree in Entrepreneurship. In 2006 Yasmine started her first company 123Linkit, and after two years she sold it. However, making money was never her biggest goal. She rather focuses on “making this world a better place” From her concerns about assaults on women the idea of Roar For Good was born. It is a company that makes jewelry designed to prevent assaults. Yasmine story is just one example of how immigrants have a positive effect on US growth. Therefore America should do better job attracting foreign talents. Unfortunately, this country is going in opposite direction.

            Being an immigrant in this country has become a lot harder recently. Although United States was build by immigrants and they are still an important force in improving the USA’s economy, people tent to forget it. President Trump in his campaign emphasized how immigrants are taking jobs from American people. The data does not support this claim. The results of the study conducted by American Enterprise Institute And The Partnership For A New American Economy concluded that for every hundred immigrants with advanced degree in STEM field forty-four jobs for American people are created. President’s unjust rhetoric also caused spike in racist attracts on immigrants. It is very unfortunate that immigrant’s work on behalf of this country is not recognizable anymore.

Why bother?

1. The problem that is very important to solve is racism. It is one of the biggest issues that USA and other countries are facing. There are so many people prejudiced against others based on appearance, religion, nationality or sexual orientation. It needs to be faced and solved, because stakes are very high. Racism causes mental issues, depression, as well as fear and anger. It creates distrust and disrespect in society that can escalate into violence. You may say:You don’t think you could ever really do anything about it, do you? Yes, I can. Change starts with our surrounding and us. I should not be blind to racist remarks. I should confront it in a respectful way. Sometimes a meaningful conversation can really make a change. You may still think that it won’t really matter because there are too many people that are stubborn in their stereotypical thinking. My answer is to focus on younger generation and educate them in formal settings like schools but also within our families. Let’s be sensitive about how our kids talk about others. If we hear any warning signs, let’s have a conversation and ask questions like Imagine that you others treat you poorly because of your religion? How would you feel about it? I think that empathy is very effective weapon against racism.

Got Issues?

1. In your journal make a quick list of issues that have provoked disagreement between groups of people in your hometown or local community. (Light rail, Vikings Stadium, Homeless Youth…)

Should taxes be increased to build/ renovate schools?

Should noise wall be build by a freeway?

Should kids be using iPads at schools?

Should preschool be free?

Should oil tankers be allowed to go through Twin Cities?

2. Make a quick list of issues that have provoked disagreements on your college campus,and between groups of people in your home state. (Smoking on campus, Campus safety…)

Should collage education be free?

What is the cause of an increasing dropout rate in MNSCU?

Should guns be permitted on Normandale campus?

Is sexual violence an issue in MNSCU campuses?

Should colleges have a designated place for Muslim students to pray?

3. Think about issues—local, statewide, regional, national—that have touched your life or could affect you in some way in the following areas:       environmental, health care, civil rights, business, education, crime or sports. Make a quick list of questions within these areas you wonder about. For example, Will I be able to afford to send my children to college in twelve years?

Is our society sicker because of pollutions?

Why people often demonize a single payer system when it comes to health insurance?

Will my family members be profiled while traveling because of their religion?

Will new travel restrictions make us safer or create more terrorism?

Should gender selection be allowed?

How many after-school sport activities for kids is enough? 

4. Jot down a list of classes you are taking this semester. Then make a quick list of topics that prompt disagreements among the people in thefield you are studying or plan to study. For instance, in political science, people continue to debate whether the electoral college is useful anymore or not.

Macroeconomics

What’s better for U.S. economy-free market or command economy?

Are immigrants helping or hurting U.S. economy?

5. Write for seven-ten minutes beginning with one of the questions/issues you raised in the listing prompts. Write about when you first began to be concerned about the question, how you think it might affect you and what you currently understand are the key questions this issue raises. Do you have tentative feelings about it? What would you hope to discover through research?

Are immigrants helping or hurting U.S. economy? 

I am an immigrant so this issue is very important to me. During the election season immigrants were called rapists, criminals, and were considered as enemies of American people who are stealing their jobs. That’s when I started thinking about this problem. I am obviously biased. I think that we are assets for the economy- we are very motivated to work hard and achieve something. Immigrants start businesses on a higher rate than non-immigrants, although because of complicated and very limiting immigration process this rate is shrinking. I would like to look at the arguments of people who think that immigration is bad for economy and address it in my essay. I hope to discover that we are helping this economy. I am still debating if I should focus on legal on illegal immigration or both.

An important issue

In the U.S.A. gun violence is a wide spread epidemic. Nobody can really feel safe and no place is safe. Adults and children are loosing their lives at schools, work places, streets, cinemas and homes. The main cause of it is easy access to guns. The solution is simple- reduced access to guns. It worked in other western countries where nowadays gun violence is practically non-existent. 

Here is link to an article about this issue 

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-02-27/treat-gun-violence-like-a-public-health-crisis