Taking Stock

This is our fourth week of blogging this semester; however, I still don’t feel as though I’ve gained a particular style of writing. I’ve maintained an informal tone since these blogs are our reflections. Rather than a paper, I’ve tried to write down my thoughts as though I were speaking to someone. But in the end, I’ve noticed that I don’t delve too deeply into the topics that we cover. I only go over the theme on the surface and I don’t have any particular example to talk about.
This can easily be solved if I just think about the material a little more and do some extra readings to gain perspective, but I don’t think that the problem. I’m a reserved person by nature, and I do not express myself freely. To put it simply, although blogging is fun, it’s not my cup of tea. I like to debate, exchange opinions but I’d prefer to talk to someone personally. I also do not like broadcasting my opinions to the world.
There are also certain topics that I feel more comfortable about, where I have an opinion or material to discuss. To improve myself, I think that I must take my time and think more deeply. I should also attempt to read more about the topics. In addition to both things, I should also try to be expressive in my writing. I can try to improve my style of writing so that my thoughts are easier to understand and focus on a single item of discussion rather than being very broad. I tend to look at things from a larger perspective so I miss out on a lot of minor details that are also interesting to discuss. If I focus on something, I may have more opinions on the topic and therefore to write about.
I'm certainly better able to connect ideas discussed in class to my own experiences by writing these blogs. In that sense, I still feel that writing weekly reflections is a positive step that I wouldn't have taken otherwise. I'm glad to be in this class and I want to improve myself so that I can gain the most from this experience. I'll try out some new things as the semester progresses to take my reflections to the next level.

Establishing A Conversation

“ In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?... the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before? The Laffer Curve. Anyone know what this says? It says that at this point on the revenue curve, you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point. This is very controversial. Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980? Anyone? Something-d-o-o economics. "Voodoo" economics.”

This is a somewhat famous line from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Ben Stein, the economics teacher, with a lot of effort attempts to get the class to participate. As he tries to pause for effect and wait for answer from the class, the students appear to either uninterested or in a state of deep coma. Although the movie tended to exaggerate the affairs of a high school student, I could personally relate to this particular scene. In my life there have been many moments where due to a lack of conversation there is either a lull and/or an awkward silence.

This happens quite frequently in many of my classes. The professor poses a question and waits for a response and finally ends up providing the answer himself in order to continue the lecture. Often, the questions are very easy and it appears as though the entire class knows the answer and yet no one raises their hand or their voice. A few professors have gotten smart and pose questions in different ways such as, “Does anyone not understand this topic?” So when no one raises their hand the professor just continues on with his lecture. In many cases, the professor either ends up picking on someone or giving up altogether. Lately, I’ve noticed that professors carry around a class log with photos and then pick on students to give answers. It may be a faster method than waiting however, before he picks someone the entire class ends up in cold sweat as if awaiting Armageddon.

Personally, I’m not a fan of choosing students at random. There are days where I feel more talkative and other days where I’m just not in the mood. There may be a few people who love to stand out in class and others who are just shy. In the worst case, you just simply don’t know the answer and yet you are forced to become an example in front of the whole class. In the last example, one also fears punishment from the lecturer, or embarrassment from the peers. At this point, a few professors are kind and simply point out your mistake, however a few others also make fun of the student. I don’t feel like participating in a class where the students exist just to prove that the professor is a genius.

The classroom setting is not the only place where a lack of conversation can occur. There is also the everyday social setting. When meeting someone for the first time, you can introduce yourself but sometime the other party may not respond or just not show any interest beyond the pleasantries. It’s rather difficult to establish a relationship without both side being open and at the very least interested. You can’t force the other person to open up, as they may shy away even more. That’s not to say that just because they don’t cozy right up to you that they’re antisocial. Some people just take a little time to warm up and build a good relationship.

In most cases the most you can do is act pleasant and not to be pushy. Just give the other party the time and the freedom to open up at their own pace. I don’t believe in making someone talk when they don’t wish to. When you feel that the other party has no intention to ever have a conversation, the most you can do is at least show that you yourself are an open persona and easy to talk to. You could interest them by talking about topics that they are familiar with or they have any opinion about. This is typically the case where one party would like to understand the actions of the other. A personal experience is when you parents yell at you for something that you have done. It’s just another way of them trying to understand your actions. At this time I silently stare at the floor with nothing to say as I am getting disciplinary lecture. Even this could be a form of conversation because at the end I at least understand what my mom was trying to convey.

The final conclusion is that it is impossible to have a conversation with a brick wall. If the other party refuses to talk there is nothing more you can do than to just wait for the time when they are willing to have a conversation.

Impossible Problems and Group Efforts

As I read Better, I realize that there are a lot of parallels between what Gawande has written and things that we experience everyday albeit on a different scale. There are a lot of topics that we can relate to ourselves. We discussed in class about the hand-washing and the eradication of polio. Both are important to the global population but appear to be impossible to implement. Especially the part about eradicating polio, there are many more disease out there in the world that need to be eradicated. In the same section of Better, many people mentioned that diarrhea kills many more children in India than polio. Instead of spending millions of dollars trying to wipe off polio from the world, it might be better to create better sewage and irrigation systems, or improve nutrition among the children. In addition, cases of malaria and TB are more prominent and deserve recognition too. I agree with Pankaj’s response that the eradication of polio is worthwhile.

Rather than attempting to solve everything at once, it may be a better idea to improve the world’s situation one item at a time. An example of problems that we face close to us is underage drinking. Especially on a college campus, there are many underage students who drink alcohol. Police bust parties every year and fine drunk students on the streets. Yet, these actions taken by the law do not seem to affect the population. There are many contributors to this problem. Bars admit students above 19 years of age, however only those over 21 may drink. Those underage are constantly in the presence of those drinking and may occasionally get an urge to try it. There are many more factors including the media, and peer pressure.

There have been many attempts to try and reduce the number of people who drink underage. The campus sponsors a yearly program where incoming freshman must attend. The program details danger of underage drinking and the legal penalties that are imposed. Many organizations have advertisements that caution people at drinking and driving. A few of these are targeted at the underage population. This problem is so serious that even high schools hold seminars every year. The many groups have poured in millions of dollars to educate children from an early age.

Then again, I don’t think the problem is just that someone below legal age is consuming alcohol. The detrimental effects of drinking are just that the person easily loses their judgment and their reaction time slows down. The ultimate aim of these groups is to prevent alcoholism and accidents. These programs are initiated to help people be more conscious of their actions and to prevent any unnecessary harm that they can do while impaired. You often hear stories of drunk drivers killing others while remaining relatively unharmed. For example, most countries in Europe have a different legal drinking age limit imposed. They can drink at 16 however, they can only drive after they are 18. It is also known that those countries don’t have as big a problem on underage drinking as the United States.

Actually, things have improved with the combined effects of many organizations. Although many incidents still continue to happen, the population is more aware of the ill effects of alcohol. It is quite impossible to eliminate underage consumption however, the situation is slightly better after their efforts.