Sweatshops R Us

By: Brian Andrews and Tyler Burton




Around the world a majority of everday items are produced and manufactured in factories in other countries. These factories are not really factories in some countries, but what some people would call sweatshops. The dilemna that consumers have is that when they try to become involved and be against sweatshop labor, they may end up hurting the workeres who depend on the sweatshops to provide their wages.

Large companies such as Nike, Polo, Sperry, etc. have their products made from other countries. For example, Nike has young children make shoes for them and pays them $2 a day when they can make up to 30 pairs of shoes, then those shoes are sold for $80 in the United States. We may feel like we have responsibilites to stop anything that seems like unfair treatment towards these workers, our wanting to be activists and to shut down foreign factories actually can hurt these people.

A paper written by Nicholas Kristof gives evidence that our meddling in third world sweatshops and trying to have them closed down can cause workers to lose easier jobs and make them work hard labor jobs in the elements. If we were to stop buying clothes that were made outside of the United States and tried boycotting them we would be hurting the workers instead. We also try to justify shutting down these factories because we do not believe what the workers are making to be a substantial wage.

The reality is that we have our own living standards set too high. If we go back almost a century we would be in much the same place. There would be little running water, no widespread electrical use diseases such as polio and smallpox would still be uncured. We have grown accustomed to our way of life and believe that everyone should live the way we do, but that is not going to happen. There will s be someone in povery or not having the same living standards as us. We should help them as much as we can by bringing advancements to them but only when they are ready to accept it. They do not have an unendless supply of immigrants to do the work they do not want like we have, if it provides jobs for them then we should buy their products and stay out of their business.

Visible Knapsack

By: Brian and Tyler

In the article by Peggy Mclntosh, she talks about sexism and racism. She explains how men have more privileges than women and how whites have more privileges than people of different races. In the article, she makes a list of daily privileges being white. We didn't realize all the advantages whites get over people of different races. One visible knapsack people can easily see is if people are wealthy or poor. Wealthy people have a lot of advantages over the poor such as: wealthy people can afford to send their kids to college (also easier to be accepted if they're wealthy), they don't have a problem paying for their bills, they don't have to go to bed hungry, or worry about putting clothes on their kids back.

There is also another group of individals who have privileges that their peers do not posess, the wealthy. If you have money, not only are you able to purchase anything that your heart can desire, you also are looked upon differently than a homeless hobo cooking his can of beans over a trashcan fire. Individuals who come from a wealthy family are able to gain entry into a university and are able to pay for it much easier.

How I learned to read words, sentences, and phrases, also paragraphs...TFM.

By: Brian Andrews, Tyler Bruton

Brian:

My earliest memories of reading are quite fuzzy. I do not have a photographic memory so I have trouble remembering. When my older brother learned to read he tried to teach me, but at the time I was 4 and I would rather throw blunt objects at him. My earliest memory of actually attempting to read was my dad showing me the newspaper. He would read off sport results from the games and began to teach me by reading sports articles.

Tyler:

I don't remember much of learning how to read. I know it was hard for my mom to teach me because she had to teach my twin sister at the same time when she was a single mom. The only thing I can remember is reading my first book, Dr. Suess' Green Eggs and Ham. I guess I was a quick learner because I could read the whole book before my sister. I can't remember how old I was at the time.

Comparsion:
Family seems to play an important part in both stories. We were both taught by our parental gurdians. There are several differences in our stories. Brian learned to read by looking at newspapers, while Tyler learned from the master of rhymes The Dr. Seuss.