Chapter 23
Even though I was young I remember hearing a lot about Nelson Mandela and the reason he was in jail. I was not interested in the news at that age but my parents always watched it so it was on a lot of the times so I ususally just watched what they watched. That is how I heard about him. T^his is also saw on the news when he was released from jail. It was interesting to me that only four years after he was released from jail South Africa had its first election were both blacks and whites were able to vote. It still amazes me that some countries are just recently albe to vote where others gained the right to vote awhile ago. The other thing that I found interesting was the fact that Both India and South Africa won their freedom. The also were both divided but for different reasons. India was divided because of religious reasons where as South Africa was divided by "race, ethnicity, and ideaology that generated disension." It was also sometimes violent. India and Africa used two different stlyes of democracy. Idia used a western style democracy where as African did not. In the western style there were regular elections held and lots of parties and civil liberties with peacefulchanges in government pretty much continuouly since their independence. These are only some of the diffences that they between the different stlyes of democracy. Only in the 1980's did africa start to have multiparty elections. This only in recent years. Before this time Africa did not adopt this stlye of democracy. it took a lot for Africa to adopt the Western Style democracy. This is the thing that interested me because of the fact that it took so long for the other countries to get their freedom as far as voting and other rights that the rest of the countries had already. The development of Economics was also another thing that was difficult to get because it only came to those who were divede by race or gender and things like that. I feel that this was not a fair way to deal withthe problem but I guess during that time it was they only way things were done.
Chapter 24
The thing that amazed me about this chapter is that in the Iranian culture. Strayer says it is because the toy maker states that barbies clothes are to reveling and her body is to shapely and the fact that her close relationship to ken with out being married is forign to that culture and is a bad influence in general. This is a culture that sticks to the rules right up to being married in order the kind of relationship that barbie and ken have. It is interesting to me that they look at toys as being a bad influence in the sense that the relationship that the toys have. The see that as setting the wrong example for their kids even though it is not a real thing. This chapter covered a lot of what has happened from the early 1990 to mid 1990. It was still a little difficult for me to read some of it. Strayer tended to talk a lot about feminism during not just this chapter but also earlier chapters in this book. I think he was really trying to drive home that women are equal to men even though other did not think so. For awhile in the west it had lost its momentum but only for a short time because in the 1960's it came bace with a new agenda. It never completely died but did slow only to improve when it got back on track. Strayer also talks about being green and global. This was not something that just only started but has been around since the nineteenth century. Then in the 1990's is when the second wave began. Global Warming was another concern of the world. Strayer is not the only person who believes this. In taking other classes like environmental biology I learned we will run out of our resources if we are not careful. Like stayer says overpopulation can also cause this problem. Some examples of these resources are the fossil fuels and other gases. Even our polar ice caps are in trouble. This chapter towards the end got my attention because it related to a lot of what I learned in my biology class.