Kayla Wilhide's Blog!

Cell Phones as a “magic bullet” 11/22/09

soccergoalie32 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:30:28 +0000

Cell phones have been known as the “magic bullet” in the elimination of global poverty because of the services and roles that they serve. Technology has advanced so much. Cell phones now have internet in them and people can use the internet to do online banking and find information about different things such as farming and health care. They can also be used to communicate much more effectively. For example, if a farmer in a small African village had to visit a doctor because he was very ill he may have to walk miles to another village to see a doctor. This could take a whole day. And if the doctor’s office wa closed then that would be a wasted day and he would have to spend another day to come back again. If this farmer had a cell phone, then he would be able to call the office in advance to see if it was open. This would allow him to spend more time farming. The phones can also be used to buy and sell things faster. Although this technology is very useful we cannot just throw a bunch of cell phones and computers at people and expect them to be used properly. We must teach the people how to use it or it will be a waste. For example, in a small Indian village a few computers were installed into walls to allow children to use them. They ended up not being very effective and maybe even harmful to their schoolwork because they had no idea how to use the internet or programs that they needed to use. Rather, they played games and used paint. We need to consider education of the technology as well as what the people are going to need to use the technology for when designing peoples’ access to ICTs. Individuals do have a right to communicate but I don’t really think that it necessarily means that they have a right to access ICTs. Although ICTs are a very effective way to communicate, it is not the only means of communication. I think that it would be cool if all people could have access to the technology but I do not think that people are entitled to them just for living.

Immigration profile 11/22/09

soccergoalie32 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:15 +0000

I think that after reading all of these readings we can conclude that new immigrants have had ans still do have many challenges in front of them. Let’s start off in the late nineteenth century by looking at the immigration portfolio. The immigrants back then had this idea that America was a place where they would definitely succeed and find great wealth. This image is also present today with immigrants coming up from South and Central America to try to make their lived better. I really think this possibility was better in the nineteenth century because there were more jobs in the city and country that those immigrants could do than there are today. I feel like these preconceived ideas of the ideal America that these immigrants got was not very accurate. While the life they got here was probably better than what they had, they still faced a lot of prejudice and in the beginning most of them were still very poor and living in the crowded slums of the city. In all of the reading I think one of the big themes is problems that immigrants face. In Cisneros’s stories the little girl was happy for the little things she had event though she faced extreme poverty. Her and her friend were so happy when they found the discarded Barbie dolls after the fire, even though they wer burned and water damaged. This shows how poor they were. Immigrants today are also faced with extreme prejudice, which can be seen in the article about Sheriff Joe. The prisoners at his jail (mostly illegal immigrants) are kept in very harsh conditions with little shelter from the elements. In Enrique’s Journey we can see that even after his mother came to the U.S. she was still very poor. My basic profile for immigrants is that they come here thinking that they are going ot get a much better life, but in reality they are faced with extreme prejudice and most of the time still end up in poverty.

11/19/09 Blog Entry

soccergoalie32 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:38:19 +0000

I believe in Peter Singer’s stronger principle that says: “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.” This obviously makes sense because if it doesn’t cause the same amount of damage to yourself or to others then we should help, because it’s the right thing to do. If in helping we cause harm to others then we shouldn’t help. It’s common sense. But either way, I really don’t think that “morals” should be brought into the argument. When I think of morals I think of being honest and courteous, and I don’t think it can be applied to these situations. You either help or you don’t. It doesn’t mean that you are an “immoral” person if you don’t help. The wording just irritates me. I’m not sure if the second principle applies equally to people in third world nations. We need to first define what “morally significant” even means before we make these assumptions. What might be morally significant to me might be totally different somewhere else, so I do not think that they can be compared equally. I absolutely do not think that it is our moral obligation as Americans to petition for immigration law reform or even to just allow illegal immigrants to enter the U.S.. The key word here is “illegal”. Illegal is illegal. So, we allow for open borders. Are these people just going to become instantly rich and their lives fuller because they are in the U.S.? No. We have our own people to worry about. I am more than happy to try to help the South Americans in South America, but after taking care of our own poverty issues. This solution actually makes me really mad. I don’t understand how open borders is going to help. Our economy is not strong at all right now and our unemployment rates are so high right now, there really aren’t jobs for illegals. So they are bad off in South America, and I’m pretty sure it’s no better here. And why should Americans pay more taxes for illegal immigrants who enter our country when they themselves don’t pay taxes? We already have to pay for our own impoverished people, why should we get South America’s baggage too? So no, I definitely do not think that it is our moral obligation to petition for changes in the immigration laws or for open borders. And I’m pretty sure that would be a pretty big sacrifice, not minimal. For Americans and South Americans alike. It’s drastic and in my opinion not well thought out.

Homelessness Discussion- 11/16/09

soccergoalie32 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:54:52 +0000

On Monday i went to the discussion about homelessness at the Lyons conference hall. It was really good and I really liked how they had actual homeless people come to talk about their experiences. Most of them were just normal people who had really bad luck. One of the speakers is a student at FSC who became homeless when her parents divorced. This is really upsetting because she has been homeless since the third grade and her family was well off. Its a shame when children become homeless because they really have no choice in the matter. Its cool that she was able to pull through and get a college education. Another women was in and out of abusive relationships and a drug user who finally decided to escape with her children. I’m happy that she was able to do this and find Lighthouse ministries to help her get back on her feet. Another man was a drug addict who finally decided that enough was enough. The last women was a gynecologist up in New York who came down with her son to live with her mother who she didn’t know very well. It ended up not working out and then she had nothing. These people are everyday people who have made bad decisions or just had plain old bad luck, and it made me realize that this could happen to anyone. It’s really cool that we have places liek Lighthouse Ministries that can help these people help themselves and provide their children with an education and shelter. I really liked this discussion, it helped me to realize that I shouldn’t be so quick to judge other people because with a little bad luck or a few bad decisions anyone can end up homeless.

11/15/09 da Silva quote

soccergoalie32 — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:43:58 +0000

I’m not really sure if I agree with Sergio Amadeu da Silva’s quote about the importance of technology. He says that being deprived of a computer for communication is being deprived of the most flexible, complete, and extensive means of commuications. I really do not think that this is true. There is tons of faulty information on the internet and communicating through it isn’ t always reliable. When on the internet you really don’t know who your are talking too and getting information from. It is extensive because of the wide range of materials that can be seen on it, but I don not think it is very flexible. Sometimes the internet just does not work. I think that the best way of communication is through speech. I do think the ability to communicate to others is an inalienable right but I don’t think that computers are necessary to do this. Someone without access to the tools that others have to communicate with can definetly still be considered a full participant in society. They just have to make due with what they do have. It’s not like they have no form of communication becasue they do not have all the other tools that others have, its just more difficult. They still have their voices. I think da Silva is making the lack of communications via computers more of a big deal than it actually is. i guess the same principles apply in the U.S. becaus enot everyone here has the access to use computers as a means of communication. But still, I really do not think it is a big deal because there are other forms of communication.

The Soloist- 11/11/09

soccergoalie32 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:56:26 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised by the movie The Soloist. I thought it was going to be really boring, but it was so good. It was about a journalist who discovers this homeless man who is a musical prodigy and has schizophrenia. He went to Julliard but dropped out before graduating because of his schizophrenic experiences. His illness got to the point where he really could not function well anymore. This movie made me realize how real homelessness is. The movie did not hold back on showing the brutality of living on the streets in poverty. Between the gangsters and thugs I would be so afraid. It also really showed how many people who are homeless suffer from mental disorders. Sometimes people, including myself, say that they chose to live this life by not working as hard and so forth. But this movie really opened my eyes. That may be the case for some people, but alot of the homeless are mentally ill, and they really don’t have a choice. No matter what people say, there aren;t as many job opportunities for them and if they do not have family then they are on their own. It’s very sad. I’m very happy I decided to come watch this movie because it made me realize how much these people need our help. I still don’t feel bad for the people who are homeless because they choose not to work, but I really feel for the homeless mentally ill who really don’t have any other choice.

My use of information and ICTs-11/8/09

soccergoalie32 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:09:14 +0000

I, like most people my age, am a huge fan of information and communication technology. I use my cell phone and the internet daily, as well as my email. It is so fast and so much easier to look up information or to communicate with my friends and family. I don’t even have to talk if I don’t want to. Rather, I can type up a quick email or shoot over a text through my cell phone. I love it. It’s also super easy to find information about almost anything. It’s easier to go to the internet and find information on the web or on an online database than it is to find information in the library; most of the time anyway. The only problem is that you have to be more careful about the things you find on the internet because anyone can put up anything if they want to. I also love the social networking site facebook. It helps me stay in touch with my high school friends and distant family, who I usually wouldn’t talk to otherwise. It’s fun, because now my dad and my aunts and uncles have facebooks, so it’s really easy to look at pictures of our family. I’m also not a big fan of talking on the phone, because I find it frustrating because most of the time I can’t hear or understand what the people are saying, so texting is awesome for me. It’s more impersonal, but much less frustrating. And it’s nice because sometimes texting is more convenient than talking on the phone…like in the middle of class I use technology alot for many different purposes; I think it has made communicating and finding information much easier.

10/23/09 Post about essay

soccergoalie32 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:45:06 +0000

I think this essay by Peter Singer is kind off frustrating. He brings up some very good arguments but I just don’t agree with his solution to poverty. His solution is that well-off people give a percentage of their annual salary to chairites that work with poverty. This is a good solution but I do not think that people are morally obligated to do this. He believes that they are and that if they do not do this when they have the means to do so, then they are being immoral, which I really don’t think is fair. I identified this conclusion of the article by reading it. This is the argument he is making throughout the whole essay so it is pretty easy to pick out his conclusion. I have been trying to outline the argumentin the margins while I read it, but this is a frustrating article to read. I don’t really understand all that he is saying because his writing is so tedious to read. He assumes many things in this essay, but some of them are probably pretty accurate assumptions. One of them is that most people probably do not donate a large sum of money to charities even though they are able to. I do not doubt this, especially to charities benefitting those in other countries. I think he is also probably right in the assumption that people are more likely to donate to charities that help our own country’s poor rather than those in other countries. I know that I am more likely to donate money to poor people in the United States than to those in other countries, mainly because I do not really trust alot of the charities.

Melvin Art Gallery-10/9/09

soccergoalie32 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:43:40 +0000

Today, I went to the Melvin Art Galler, which is conveniently located right on campus. I wasn’t really sure what to expect at first because I had never been in the gallery but I was pleasantly surprised. When you walk into the gallery it is really peaceful. It’s very quiet and open with four couches in a square formation set up in the middle of the room. In the big room there are a bunch of different oil on canvas paintings of different angles of a certain house that is absolutely gorgeous. I wish I could see this house in person because it looks like it is located in the middle of the woods on top of some rocks. The structure is amazing because of all the different angles and the way it is built. My favorite painting is the “Great Room Panorama” which is on the left wall. It is really cool because it shows the great room of this house in a different way. It is constructed of eight big slabs with different parts of the room. The slabs are set up at different angles, so it is a very interesting piece to look at. I also really love the “At the foot of the falls” piece. It shows all the different rocks and the waterfall in a series of paintings. It is so pretty. It reminds me of a place at home called the Purgatory Chasm. My boyfriend and I went there over the summer and we found a waterfall that looks just like the one in this painting, I love it! It brought back a really good memory. The room with the Refuge exhibit was really neat too. My favorite shelter was the Leaf Cube which looked really awesome. It was basically a cube that had translucent glass all around the outside. I really enjoyed this art gallery; it had alot of cool stuff in it.

The Mousetrap- 10/8/09

soccergoalie32 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:16:52 +0000

Tonight, I saw The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie. It’s a play put on by Florida Southern College Theater. I really enjoyed it, even though it was kind of long and I have the attention span of a three year old. I know one of the actors from effective writing class, so it was fun to watch. I though the play was very well performed and the set was amazing!At my high school, the sets were not even half as good as the one in this play. You could tell that alot of hard work went into the making of The Mousetrap. The play itself was very entertaining. It has one of those mystery plots where you think you know who did it and then your idea switches and in the end the mystery person was the last person who you thought would have done it. My favorite character was definetly Christopher Wren. I thought it was him for so long because it would have been so obvious. He was very funny. His life was so similar to that of the person that they suspected for the murders. He had a really funny personality. This was also the first time that I have been inside Buckner Theater. It was really cool! I like how the seats are set up so that everyone has a really good view of the stage. The seats were really comfortable too. At my high school the seats were wooden, which gets very uncomfortable after awhile. Overall, I really enjoyed this play and I’m happy that I decided to go.