To the Editor:
Concerning "Priced Out of the Market" (editorial, March 3, 2008), I agree with you that the world's poor are holding the 'brunt' of the world food price problem.
Few people manage to grasp the extent of the human hardship that has been caused by the steep spike in world food prices. With the price of corn, wheat, and cereals still on the rise, staple foods like corn-flour and bread are being rapped away from the poor.
For well-off Americans, rising food prices implies paying a few more cents for the breakfast Fruit Loops. But for day laborers in third world countries, this augment represents the difference between going to bed on an empty stomach or not.
The scramble for sustainable energy in industrialized nations is understandable, considering the increasing demand and decreasing supply of crude oil.
However, politicians in privileged nations must become aware of the lasting consequences that ethanol and subsidies are having on the citizens of developing countries. One nation's small gain could mean major setbacks for its neighbor.
The key to resolving this issue is research. Definitive studies must be completed regarding the benefits of ethanol and other food-derived alternative energy sources.
Widespread experimentation with dubious methods of creating alternative sources of energy has already had permanent effects on the lives of millions.
Ami Spiwak
Bogotá, Colombia, March 6, 2008
Editorials, opinions, and newspaper articles are, by nature, functionalist. It is not important how an article is put together, but it is essential to know what it is trying to say. This is the basic definition of a functionalist analysis of linguistics. Although I am not analyzing my opinion piece linguistically, on a more general scale, the approach is still valid.
viernes, 7 de marzo de 2008
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”
I must confess that I had never heard MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech in its entirety, or come even close to it. My initial reaction: amazing. He uses a plethora of literary devices as well as insightful syntax to produce a truly touching speech. Especially evident is his use of parallelism and repetition, both of which make the speech extremely flowing and poetic. I had never understood the publicity and constant mention of that speech until now. It actually is as good as the mainstream media makes it out to be.
As to the task of linking the speech with things that we have seen in class, it couldn’t be simpler. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a master at the art of rhetoric. In a single speech he manages to employ all three rhetorical tenses and all three forms of argument. He begins the speech with Forensic Rhetoric. He looks back at American history and criticizes all those that have oppressed and mistreated his fellow black man. He utilizes Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers as Ethos and Logos to support his argument that black men have been discriminated against. Forensic rhetoric is a great method of laying out the basis for an argument because it provides a blame that one can build and expand upon. Forensic rhetoric naturally leads to demonstrative and deliberative rhetoric.
King then quickly comes to the present, employing Demonstrative Rhetoric to lay out a system of values. These values again pertain to the black man. They are values that contemporary society had imposed upon the black men of America—values that marginalized and segregated a huge part of the population. King describes the current situation in America, and how the black man has come to Washington, D.C. to “cash in” a check that was signed by the founding fathers of the country. That check represents liberty and equality. In this way, he begins mixing both forensic and demonstrative in order to create a Logos argument. He logically argues that if the founding fathers of the nation signed a document that gave all its citizens the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, then it is preposterous that African-American people in the United States be treated as vile members of society.
Finally, King ends the speech with the use of Deliberative Rhetoric, or rhetoric in future tense. This type of rhetoric always provides a choice, and thus promises a payoff. In King’s case, the deliberative rhetoric provides hope for the future. It provides a positive alternative for all Americans: that one day all the citizens of the United States will be able to equally share their world of peace and prosperity. This final argument employs Pathos and the stirring of human emotion. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a poetic style and an all-encompassing cry for freedom in order to bring out the sensitive side of his audience, and thus convince them that it is their right and their duty to fight for their civil liberties.
As to the task of linking the speech with things that we have seen in class, it couldn’t be simpler. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a master at the art of rhetoric. In a single speech he manages to employ all three rhetorical tenses and all three forms of argument. He begins the speech with Forensic Rhetoric. He looks back at American history and criticizes all those that have oppressed and mistreated his fellow black man. He utilizes Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers as Ethos and Logos to support his argument that black men have been discriminated against. Forensic rhetoric is a great method of laying out the basis for an argument because it provides a blame that one can build and expand upon. Forensic rhetoric naturally leads to demonstrative and deliberative rhetoric.
King then quickly comes to the present, employing Demonstrative Rhetoric to lay out a system of values. These values again pertain to the black man. They are values that contemporary society had imposed upon the black men of America—values that marginalized and segregated a huge part of the population. King describes the current situation in America, and how the black man has come to Washington, D.C. to “cash in” a check that was signed by the founding fathers of the country. That check represents liberty and equality. In this way, he begins mixing both forensic and demonstrative in order to create a Logos argument. He logically argues that if the founding fathers of the nation signed a document that gave all its citizens the right to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”, then it is preposterous that African-American people in the United States be treated as vile members of society.
Finally, King ends the speech with the use of Deliberative Rhetoric, or rhetoric in future tense. This type of rhetoric always provides a choice, and thus promises a payoff. In King’s case, the deliberative rhetoric provides hope for the future. It provides a positive alternative for all Americans: that one day all the citizens of the United States will be able to equally share their world of peace and prosperity. This final argument employs Pathos and the stirring of human emotion. Martin Luther King, Jr. uses a poetic style and an all-encompassing cry for freedom in order to bring out the sensitive side of his audience, and thus convince them that it is their right and their duty to fight for their civil liberties.
Reading Memoir of "Alma"...www.newyorker.com
“Alma” is a short story that was written by the Dominican-American contemporary writer, Junto Diaz. The fiction piece describes Alma, the narrator’s ex-girlfriend. This girl was not only skinny and had a “big Dominican ass”, but she also had a certain appeal, or kind of flirtatious aura about her, stemming from her Latino heritage. The narrator speaks of his time with Alma as one of the most significant moments in his life. She was crazier in bed than any other girl he’d ever been with, and the narrator stresses this with the graphic descriptions of Alma’s sexual exploits. The story ends with Alma insulting and offending the narrator. She found one of his journals in the house, one which described an affair he was having with a Guyanan girl—something that prompted a swift backlash, which ended in a tragic break up.
Superficially, “Alma” is a short story that deals with the loss of an amazing sexual partner. With a little more analysis, however, it becomes evident that the short story actually deals with the duality of the immigrant experience. Junto Diaz was born and partially raised in the Dominican Republic, and at young age his family moved to the United States, to New Jersey. His experience as a Latino immigrant definitely comes through in “Alma.” Diaz moved to the United States only to find that girls can drive cars, that they cannot cook, and that they don’t care about politics—all of which strongly contrasts with the typical Central or South American girl. Additionally, Diaz portrays Alma as the essence of what it is to be a second/third-generation Latino living in the United States. She struggles to revive her heritage, looking to surround herself with everything Dominican. She tries to balance and find equilibrium between her Americanized ways and the customs of the Old country, thereby creating a duality that is typical of Junto Diaz’s literary work.
“Alma” definitely ties in with what we have been studying in class. Diaz’s masterful use of structure and style make the work a prime example of Demonstrative Rhetoric. Although the narrator is obviously describing a girl that he dated in the past, Diaz makes it out to be as if the reader is the one dating Alma. With sentences like “Alma is slender as a reed, you a steroid-addicted block; Alma loves driving, you books…”, Diaz constructs a story based on the present, based on values. We studied this in class under the category of Demonstrative Rhetoric. What is amazing is that Diaz is narrating a story that should be considered Forensic Rhetoric, as it is an account of something that has happened in the past—an account that involves the personal blame of having lost such an intriguing girl as Alma.
Superficially, “Alma” is a short story that deals with the loss of an amazing sexual partner. With a little more analysis, however, it becomes evident that the short story actually deals with the duality of the immigrant experience. Junto Diaz was born and partially raised in the Dominican Republic, and at young age his family moved to the United States, to New Jersey. His experience as a Latino immigrant definitely comes through in “Alma.” Diaz moved to the United States only to find that girls can drive cars, that they cannot cook, and that they don’t care about politics—all of which strongly contrasts with the typical Central or South American girl. Additionally, Diaz portrays Alma as the essence of what it is to be a second/third-generation Latino living in the United States. She struggles to revive her heritage, looking to surround herself with everything Dominican. She tries to balance and find equilibrium between her Americanized ways and the customs of the Old country, thereby creating a duality that is typical of Junto Diaz’s literary work.
“Alma” definitely ties in with what we have been studying in class. Diaz’s masterful use of structure and style make the work a prime example of Demonstrative Rhetoric. Although the narrator is obviously describing a girl that he dated in the past, Diaz makes it out to be as if the reader is the one dating Alma. With sentences like “Alma is slender as a reed, you a steroid-addicted block; Alma loves driving, you books…”, Diaz constructs a story based on the present, based on values. We studied this in class under the category of Demonstrative Rhetoric. What is amazing is that Diaz is narrating a story that should be considered Forensic Rhetoric, as it is an account of something that has happened in the past—an account that involves the personal blame of having lost such an intriguing girl as Alma.
martes, 5 de febrero de 2008
The Questions for the First Day of Class
A. What is the difference between a blog and a book?
A blog is a journal or log that appears on a Web site. Books, on the other hand, are physical texts encased within two covers. Additionally, while blogs are short and opinionated writings that are read within a matter of minutes, books are long, informative, and extensively explicative. Lastly, blogs are known for their jumpy nature: they provide links and outside information to support their arguments and ideas. Unlike blogs, books contain most of their information within one very long text.
B. How have blogs changes recently?
Blogs have recently changed because their writers have become increasingly hungry for attention. In the past, bloggers cared about the number of outbound links on their blog—the greater the number, the more information they had to support their arguments. Now, the number of inbound links to your blog determines how popular your writing is, so bloggers are trying to find new ways to get attention called upon them. They start rumors, tell lies, pick fights, create fake personas, and post embarrassing videos—all in the name of fame. In other words, the writers/bloggers have become “link whores.”
C. Why might you read a blog?
Blogs are a short and easy way of getting large amounts of information (not necessarily good information). Through just a few sentences, phrases, and links, blog readers get highly opinionated and supported information. So the day that I need some info or a specific opinion, I will Google the subject in order to find a blog—one that will give me all that need utilizing very few words.
D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?
Of course there is a reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog. First of all, blogs can be posted by anyone and everyone with an internet connection, meaning that there is no screening process for bloggers. Anyone with a strong opinion on a subject can post a blog—and as legitimate as they might make themselves, most people are not well-informed. Secondly, the whole topic of “link whores” has created a frenzy for fame, one where bloggers will do anything, including lying and making up information, in order to become a household name.
E. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?
I would title it simply Ami’s Claim to Fame
A blog is a journal or log that appears on a Web site. Books, on the other hand, are physical texts encased within two covers. Additionally, while blogs are short and opinionated writings that are read within a matter of minutes, books are long, informative, and extensively explicative. Lastly, blogs are known for their jumpy nature: they provide links and outside information to support their arguments and ideas. Unlike blogs, books contain most of their information within one very long text.
B. How have blogs changes recently?
Blogs have recently changed because their writers have become increasingly hungry for attention. In the past, bloggers cared about the number of outbound links on their blog—the greater the number, the more information they had to support their arguments. Now, the number of inbound links to your blog determines how popular your writing is, so bloggers are trying to find new ways to get attention called upon them. They start rumors, tell lies, pick fights, create fake personas, and post embarrassing videos—all in the name of fame. In other words, the writers/bloggers have become “link whores.”
C. Why might you read a blog?
Blogs are a short and easy way of getting large amounts of information (not necessarily good information). Through just a few sentences, phrases, and links, blog readers get highly opinionated and supported information. So the day that I need some info or a specific opinion, I will Google the subject in order to find a blog—one that will give me all that need utilizing very few words.
D. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?
Of course there is a reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog. First of all, blogs can be posted by anyone and everyone with an internet connection, meaning that there is no screening process for bloggers. Anyone with a strong opinion on a subject can post a blog—and as legitimate as they might make themselves, most people are not well-informed. Secondly, the whole topic of “link whores” has created a frenzy for fame, one where bloggers will do anything, including lying and making up information, in order to become a household name.
E. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?
I would title it simply Ami’s Claim to Fame
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