Why we should care about global inequality

    Few weeks ago, my friend sent me an email asking me whether good or bad if they attack poppies field in Afghanistan. Instead answer yes or not I wrote back to him some fact:

    Afghanistan is the greatest illicit opium producer in the world produces 90 percent of the world’s illicit opium also it has been America’s main heroin supplier. However, opium is 4 billion dollar industrial Bringing billions of dollars a year into the country’s economy opium is the main source of livelihood for the population. If we just burn that economy source without replacing it, we will instigate the situation more.

   Afghanistan is small sample to give why we should care about global inequality. The flame of fragile government that steamed from weak economy, will reach us in the U.S.  Unless we find ideal solution to support Afghan economy, we will not going achieve peace in that country and thousands men and women from our armed forces will not return home. The cost of war in Afghanistan is much larger than any one can expect. Terrifying figures I do not talk about I prefer you look at the link that I provide below. That is how global inequality affects us.

To obtain more information about poppies in Afghanistan pleas see the link below:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0112/How-US-is-tackling-opium-trade-in-Afghanistan-poppy-heartland

tTo obtain more information about cost of war in Afghanistan please see the link below:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/18/afghanistan-war-cost_n_850293.html

Social Class in the United States

We have learned in previous class about crime inside the society, and we learn that there is no society without deviant. Regardless that the deviant is a negative sign of the society, but society cannot exist without deviant. In this part, we learned about social classes inside the society, every society in the world has been divided into classes, unfortunately we have to live with that fact that we all belong to one of these classes. The importance thing we should learn about social class is that the class is income based which means that the size of your bank account will dictate which class you belong.

Social class is matter in every society not only in the U.S. since I have lived only in Middle East; I can compare US with Middle East. Class is matter in the U.S but defiantly not that as in the Middle East. However, in the U.S people care about which neighborhood they live in, summer vacation, winter vacation, and what kind of school you went or your kids are going. I have noticed, in many occasions, people with the high class associate only with people with similar class.

My first experience in this country was few month after I came to the country when my friend from New York invited me to his wedding. Fortunately, another female, that I knew little, was invited too. During the matrimony I noticed how those people were behave, what kind of restaurant they chose to have dinner, what you doing for living, and what kind of car you drive. When I asked that girl I mentioned at the beginning, she told me: “these people are high class people, Wall Street people.” I felt that I am not belonging to this class, but I can only be their friend only by phone not be part of them.

What I try to say is, classes in the U.S in matter but people from different class still can be friend. This is the fundamental differences of social class definition between the U.S and the Middle East. Different social classes in the Middle East are totally separated, they never come together.

Few months ago, I saw an interesting article in one of news papers; a nine years old boy from low-economic class was walking with eight years old girl from high-economic class in Pakistan.  The girl’s family considered that an insult to their status, they decided to attack the boy’s family and revenge to restore their status. Unfortunately the article was in different language, otherwise I will put the link to that article on my post.

Social class like any other negative sign in every society, but society cannot exist without economic classes and it has to exist inside every society.        

  

Conformity and obedience to authority

       I am not sure how many of you follow the news of the world, but there is a dramatic changes happening at this moment in the Middle East known as “Arab Spring.”  People whom are curbed for many decades are coming out on the street, facing those dictators, and push them out of power. However, there is also a large population whom are fighting, desperately, to back off the demonstrators and fending the rulers. Many people might wander; why people are defending dictators?

There is an explanation for that:

     Obedience to authority is part of life routine, people follow the ruler’s orders even it was wrong. It never happened people tell the authority “NO” before and facing the government is unusual thing for the public to accept. I believe this part, in the Middle East, comes from religion that blended with their culture. There is an Islamic saying “the ruler is a shadow of the God and its Caliphs on the earth.” This makes people slaves for the authority.

       Another thing is the fear of revenge. People, whom were harming other people following the desire of rulers, are afraid they will get the same thing from potential new authority. I totally agree with them if they do, because it is true, the new rulers or the new course of government will harm all others who were affiliated with the old government. The best example of that is Iraq. After the invasion of Iraq the United State put only 55 people on the arresting list but millions of people lost their jobs because of their affiliation with former government, ignoring the sociological explanation for what they did was only the routine of obedience to authority.

      The only leader in the history who recognized that fact was Nelson Mandela. Mandela was able to recognize that people might harm other people by following authority, but this does not make them deviants. He issued what he called “National reconciliation” and he asked people that had being used by government, to visit the victims and apologize to them. Many of those people turned to be a good member of the society at the end.

The impact of technology on American society

Years ago, there was no centralized cold and heat system in most of residential houses across the country. People were use to come out side there house, with a glass of wine in their hand, and sit down on the bench in front of their house and interact with other neighbors. Boom Box was very popular among the youth; one boom box might bring 10 to 15 young men and women together to interact with each other. What happened to all those social interaction? Is it disappeared naturally or just people do not want to interact?

The rapid evolution of technologies has negative and positive impact on American society. The most noticeable negative impact, hypothetically, is isolating the society increase the individualism life. People don’t want to open their door for a long time so the cold air does not go out and the electricity bill does not go up. The Boom box has replaced with a small IPod and plugged in the ears as a sign for “leave me along.” It is not unusual to see the son lives coupe block down the street from the parent and he might send them a text message once a month to just remind them that he still there.  Not many years ago there was an article on newspapers about the young girl who was raped and beaten in one of the New York alleys, many residents had heard her voice by no one came out to see what was going on.  

However, people are thinking differently and many things might affect the way people think such as; education, experience, and background. Some people think that it is very negative sign and we should concern about it and I don’t think it is big issue, for many reasons. This issue is inevitable because the life trend is required people live like that. If I left my front door is open, my electricity bill goes up, it is better for me to shut it tightly. In the other hand this kind of life style creates challenge for people to be more creative and make more independent decisions away from the pressures of peers.   

Today most of us have his digital network of people through “twiter” or “facebook”, but they have the option who should communicate with and who not. Socialization should not be limited in face-to-face meeting only, socialization might be through electronic and it might be more productive. People meet through chat room, to exchange ideas, to create networks, and exchange emotions. Regardless there are some crimes are reported occurred through online interaction, but it should not be considered a big concern because there are crimes in every communities and digital network is just community and has every kind of people in it.

Conformity, Deviance, and Crime

This subject become more interesting as we navigate through it is chapters. In previous chapters we learned about the societies and cultures. We learned that the society cannot exist without culture and, also culture cannot exist without society. Every society consist individuals whom might have been raised in different environments and in different life condition that make them carrying different attitude toward certain different subjects.  We also learned that society is governed by norms; the norms could be formal or informal. The informal norms is the custom and tradition that public expect the individuals to follow it without been taught in formal schools, we learn those norms through our interaction with public. Violating those norms might have light consequences on the individuals such as blaming or complaining one thing is important about informal is it has been founded without deliberate interference of human. For instance how the American societies become individual society? Who make the decision that American society is untouched society?   

 The other kind of norm is formal norm or conformity, this kind of norm is generated by human and so called Conformity. If violating informal norm lead to light blame or complain, violating formal norms lead to formal punishment by law enforcement. If the person who violates informal norms is only rejected by the surrounding friends and he/she might be called “freek” or outdated, the person who violates the formal norm or conformity called deviance or criminal. There are many theories why people do violate the law, but I think the one most I think about it is the surrounding environment. Even though there is no society without crime and criminals, but surrounding environment might dictate the statistic and the size of crimes and criminals.

For instance, the crimes in the big cities are more than the smaller cities for many reasons. The life in the cities is more expensive in smaller cities and human needs more resources to live. The other thing is there are more culture groups in the cities than the smaller one. The men commit crimes more than women, because men have more power then the women. The young commit crimes more than old because the young generations interact with the society more than older people and they might have more physical power. The corporate companies still more than a homeless on the street, if the homeless or young teenager jump into a convenience store to still $200 or so, the corporate companies still billions of dollars in one fraud case. It is all related to the surrounding environment.

However, crimes and criminals are part of every society, matter of fact we all commit a crime in some way. If we look back to our life most of us have a speeding ticket which is considered   crime. The hardest part in this subject is labeling. In many occasion the individual who is labeled as a deviant, if you look it at it in another angle,he/ she is a victim. For example the person who still to feed his kids, the woman who kills the cheating husband, or the ignorant teen that jumps on the store to still a case of beer. In all cases those labeled deviants are victims of the environment more than they are criminals.                      

Nature and Nurture

      Nature versus nurture is a discussion of the influence on human’s social behavior.  Nature might be physical environment, geography, economy, faith, or anything else surrounds human being.  In the beginning of this course Professor asked all students to comment on certain post he posted on the blackboard about group of students from poor families not doing well in school comparing with other students whom are from middle or upper class. It is obvious that those children had been influenced by their family. The family is the first line of nurture and has more influence over the kids, even though the book say bit different. Some believes that in the industrial cities the role of family has been dwindle because the parents, especially the mother, are working but parents, I think, remain one of the important factors responsible of children’s nurture . Many researchers described the home environment as the natural school. Other factors that have direct connection to nurture are school, peers, and media, but none of these can be a perfect alternative of family’s role.

All factors mentioned above influence directly or indirectly mankind’s social behavior. Human must behave according to his surrounding environment. Actions that not match the surrounding appear like shortcoming or uncivilized. I remember when I was young boy I used visit some relatives in the village and the kids they use to call me city boy and laugh at me. Many armed force members come back from Afghanistan and they describe the Afghan society as uncivilized society, but they don’t know that Afghan use to call American uncivilized society. The fact is neither is out dated but they act according to their physical environment. An afghan guy might use donkey to travel through the harsh terrain that has no paved road, while the American guy uses his truck to go around his flexible streets.    

At the end of my post I would like to invite everyone to read this article below about some groups how they still live in their world and they are happy do not like to be disturbed by what we call today new life.

http://news.yahoo.com/isolated-peru-tribe-makes-uncomfortable-contact-135924259.html