Blog # 4 Singer’s Solution to World Poverty

The Australian philosopher Peter Singer believes that Americans should sign a check to charity of their income not used for necessities. Underlying Singer’s message of generosity is the stereotype of the typical America being wasteful, inconsiderate, and arrogant, which can be summed up with Singers comparison of Americans using ⅓ of their income on items non essential to the preservation of our lives and health to the Brazilian film “Central Station” character Dora having a new TV.

In spite of this I have to disagree with Singer solution about signing off our hard worked and earned paychecks to charity when nearly 75 percent of Americans say they are stressed to the max according to the American Psychological Association from study conducted in 2010. So as a stress release valve many Americans will by that new tv and recycle the old in Pursuit of Happiness to have comfort,solace, or goal rewarding, all while working an average of 25 hours coupled with less vacation time at  under six weeks when compared to the french at 18 hours and 12 for vacationing from Stevens Lansburg an economics professor at the University of Rochester.

Furthermore insinuating his hypocrisy is far from the truth with quotes of “I accept that we are unlikely to see, in the near or even medium-term future, a world in which it is normal for wealthy Americans to give the bulk of their wealth to strangers.” and “United States Government is not going to meet even the very modest United Nations-recommended target of 0.7 of gross national product”. Yet we have we have American billionaires present,past and future like Bill Gates worth 56 Billion giving away 26 Billion to charity since 2007 which is reportedly 48% of Gates net worth, joining the likes of Andrew  Carnegie who gave 90% of his wealth to philanthropic causes by his death in 1919, which would be $6.5 billion today if adjusted for inflation for today’s world, in the future founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has publicly pledged to give away half of his net worth in his lifetime through The Giving Pledge founded by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett among the 40 of American on the list. (Frugal Dad,Giving Pledge). Secondly responding to Singer second quote Frugal Dad infographic shows the U.S. giving two billion less than what Bill Gates has for foreign aid and even so the OECD who cited as an international organisation helping governments tackle the economic, social and governance challenges of a globalised economy in report that says the people of the U.S suprasses the amount volunteering,giving money, and helping strangers of promoting pro-social economic behavior of version 12/04/11.

In conclusion Singers ideas of Americans are wrong and a disapproved with reason of why Americans invest in other items beside their necessities for working a  stressful nine to five job and his disbelief that Americans don’t give up their abundance of capital towards benefiting society and the people of the U.S. government help out others.

America’s Single Story

In a TED talk video African novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is quoted as saying “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”  That can be clearly explained with an example she gave within the TED talk video of her college roommate wanting to hear tribal music but was disappointed when she produced a tape of Mariah Carey.

The single story told about Americans is that they are fat. As fat as the Pillsbury doughboy with a high calorie greasy meal in hand and soft drink in tow, walking on the board walk proudly of being large and in charge in your tank tops and flip flops. With the world having this view of Americans of being fat I feel ashamed of having to admit that this sentiment rings true that Americans are fat. For according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention More than one-third of U.S adults are obese at 35.7% and 17% of children or adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese. Breaking it down by state no state had a obesity less than 20% and 12 states had a prevalence of 30% or more.

Even though America maybe be seen as the fat nation to the world what upsets me about this is that this stereotype only applies to Americans when the rest of the world is not behind in becoming obese against a preventable problem. Information from the World Health Organization claims that “obesity are now on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. Close to 35 million overweight children are living in developing countries and 8 million in developed countries.”

Image from http://adsoftheworld.com/

From the information and research I have learned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and World Health Organization about America’s being fat and the information to back it up. I see no reason to change my view of other single stories told about other races when they are blind to see what happening in their own backyard and that American’s are not the only ones fat. While obesity is becoming the world’s problem not just America’s alone and solutions are needed to rectify them before that fat America cousin of yours weight can’t be accommodate.

Blog # 2 ” Why Are Black Good At Basketball?”

Malcom Gladwell’s Troublemarkers article uses the unstable generalization that society makes out pit bulls to be aggressive dogs when that is far from the truth. The stable generalizations to make as to why pit bulls are aggressive are their owners who want an aggressive dog.

A unstable generalization in society associated with black skin is that blacks “are good at basketball” Where this generalization comes from is the national televised sports media like ESPN, NBC,CBS and ABC that shows sports highlights of a basketball game which the casual sports fan sees a majority of black athletes who are good at basketball.

What people should recognize is that blacks are not the only ones good at playing with the round ball. When there are countless other non-blacks athletes that strived within the sport such as the New York Knicks Asian American point guard Jeremy ”Linsanity” Lin  that got the opportunity to play and fit the system. Lin’s Asian representation in the league is at one percent in the NBA according to The 2011 Racial and Gender Report Card: NBA conducted by Dr. Richard Lapchick Founder and Director of the Institue for Diversity and Ethic In Sports (TIDES). Other races represented within the league include people of color who were other at slightly less than one percent, four percent of Latino, and 17% white and international at the same number as whites.In my own personal experience in playing pickup basketball games with my 2010 graduating classmates the ones who were very skilled at playing the game were the ones who had dedicated more time towards playing basketball than I as a black individual. Such as Brain a light skin, dark spiky haired Pilipino who plays in a Philippian basketball league.

Fig 1. Asian points guard Jemery Lin #17 of the New York Knicks plays against the Sacramento Kings image from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

So the next time you watch a national or local televised basketball game and point to a player’s skin as to why they can shoot, block, run or jump. See that they used hard work, determination, and practice which every human being has within them to do anything they want to do.

Identity Marker

Image from: http://www.divawhispers.com

In English 101 class we read about the way people identify pit bulls as aggressive in Malcolm Gladwell Troublemakers. Identifying me you would probably say that I was a young black guy and you would be right. From that you would probably assume that I am ghetto wearing baggy pants or jeans and exceptional at playing basketball. If I then mentioned that I am Jamaican you, what would come to mind you is that I’m lazy chilling and relaxing in a hammock with palm trees and a drink, smoke weed and listen to the reggae legend Bob Marley.

• Do I Live in the Ghetto, suburban or rural?
• Am I the next Michael Jordan?
• Do I smoke weed?

Comment below on the three questions

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