Course Reflection

During this class we were all able to further our knowledge over science, technology, and inequality that exist all over the world, including the United States. Technology is mainly created to advance and help out society, but usually with every innovation, inequality unexpectedly occurs since not everyone has the same access to it. For example, one of our discussions in class was how DNA testing is not equal since it is too expensive and the only people that could afford it are those who have enough money to do so. Although, I did not participate in class as often as others, many of the concepts and ideas we learned in class stayed in my head well after class was over. There were many instances when Karen and I would discuss the day’s lecture afterwards. Another thing that I enjoyed from this class was the debates that we had in class. Not only because we were able to break away from the regular routine of discussion, but because we were able to actively engage in the topics that we were being taught. I have learned a lot throughout this semester and have adopted a fresh outlook about technology and its unexpected consequences. Thus, even though technology is great for society, many inequalities still exist and hopefully in the future I will have a more active role to increase the equal access to the innovative technologies.

Vietnam and China

This week in class we discussed the science and technology policies in Vietnam and China. They are both countries that have a communism based socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless society based on common ownership of the means of production and property in general. This means that in Vietnam and China, the government is the single entity that controls the state-owned means of production. In addition, communism is a branch of socialism, which is a broad group of social and political philosophies that is based on Marxism. However, some individuals could make the argument that both countries could possibly have a slight capitalistic economy since the government does not entirely control all of its country economy; some private sector exists in China and the Vietnamese government have also partially liberalized its economy. Although, Vietnam and China share some similarities, many differences also exist. In the recent decades, China has become a very influential player in the world economy while Vietnam is still a smaller participant. Vietnam is a relatively poor country with a low annual GDP, while China’s GDP immensely surpasses it. China is also a major outsourcing industry, especially for the United States, which illustrates why certain technologies are chosen over others.

Creating an Effective Public Transportation System

There is no denial that the success of Curitiba is remarkable. Creating a livable city by linking land use, transportation, and urban design and creating a city where the majority of the population, about 85% of the residents, utilizes public transportation (the bus) is definitely a great accomplishment. In Curitiba, Jamie Lerner came up with the Curitiba Master Plan where a new road design, including an exclusive lane for buses, was created to minimize traffic and disperse the growth away from the downtown area. By creating an affordable, efficient, and simple public transit system that appeals to the majority of the people, it has resulted in many residents not to own their own vehicles. Thus, the carbon emission is probably less due to the fact that the many residents do not own cars. Curitiba is an ideal example of how everyone, including the major and the people, worked together to create a sustainable city. However, applying Curitiba to the United States, it seems that it would be more of a difficult transition for residents to go from using their own vehicles to using the public transportation system in metropolitan areas. Currently, we are seeing an effort by the Valley Metro public transit system in which they have created a light rail system that will connect the Arizona cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. It will open up on December 27 of this year and will run for 20 hours during the day. In reality, this is just a small step in the right direction since the light rail system is only a 20 mile long that will only be utilized by people near the light rail and individuals who work near it. More similar plans need to be placed throughout Arizona and other metropolitan areas of the United States so less vehicles could be used going to work or school since many individuals do not carpool during these instances. Like I have stated time and time again, it requires a lifestyle change for everyone, including our preference to drive everywhere imaginable in our big trucks and SUV’s.

2008 Election

This 2008 election served as the first time that I voted. Even though I am 21 years old, and had three other instances that I could have voted, I simply did not because I was not interested nor was I conscious of the importance of exercising my right. As I approach my last year of undergraduate school, I realized and became aware as to how important it is to vote. For this election what caught my attention was proposition 102, which would legally define the sanctity of marriage in the state of Arizona as the union between a man and a woman. I was stunned, thinking that if the proposition got passed, an injustice would occur since the state would be restricting the rights of gays and lesbians just because they deviated from society’s norm in loving someone of their same sex. Being exposed and informed of these issues, I made it my mission to vote on Tuesday, November 4^th because I did not want this unjust proposition to be passed. I remember having a discussion about it with my roommates and friends, all of us opposing the proposition so easily I believed that the legislation would not pass since the majority of the people I knew were voting against it. Thus, you can imagine my astonishment when I heard the results of Arizona’s propositions and that 102 passed. I was floored, thinking that society had just taken a step forward in choosing a black man to be president, but Arizona took a step back in legally discriminating gays and lesbians in ripping away their right of getting married.

Attracting Attention to Teens and Young Adults

It is a known fact that voter turnout for young adults, 18-21 year olds, in the United States is very low. However, for this presidential election, I believe that there was a bigger turnout of young adults who voted even though the actual numbers are unknown. I know that this year was the first year that I ever voted, in addition to my sister, my roommate, and some of my other friends. I believe that the issues involved in this election were contributing factors to the bigger voter turnout. Though, there is also no denial that the celebrity endorsement was also a contributing factor to the bigger voter turnout this election. There are various organizations, like Declare Yourself and Rock the Vote, that tried to attract the attention of the 18-21 year old crowd by using celebrities, who are influential to many teens. Some of the endorsement for Declare Yourself included shocking pictures of celebrities whose mouths were taped or sewed shut to signify the lack of voice people have when they do not vote. They also had videos telling people to vote or not to vote as a tactic to represent the dumbness of not voting. Though, what served as a powerful tool for politicians and these organizations to attract the attention of young adults was the internet. Like we discussed in class on Thursday, the internet is frequently used by the new generation as a means to communicate and easily acquire information with a single click. Senator Obama especially used the internet to make many teens and young adults aware of the importance of voting and of being informed of the issues that are currently affecting our nation, issues that are directly affecting all of us.

Example of Ads from Declare Yourself:

Jessica Alba

Christina Aguilera

Hayden Panettiere, an influential advocate of voting, showing how easy it is to vote

Video:

Credit: declareyourself.com and youtube.com

Technology and Education

Technology is all around us, especially in the university system of ASU. Today, teachers use technology as a means of an enhanced learning tool that allows for multiple ways of teaching students. Teachers use a microphone as a means to amplify their voice, a projector so students could visually see the PowerPoint slides, and the internet. Students use an Ipod to listen to music in between classes, computers as an advanced way to take notes, and phones to communicate with friends and family. Though, both students as well as teachers have become dependent off of the technology. Teachers rely off of the fact that all students have access to a computer so they could complete homework assignments, research papers, and projects. Teachers also depend off of technology to better detect plagiarism through programs, like Safe Assignment, since the internet has provided an easier means for students to pass of others work as their own. Students have especially become reliant, using technology everyday. I personally cannot remember the last time that I handwrote an essay without the help of spell check offered through Microsoft Word. However, even though we have become dependent off of technology, it has offered us a step forward into becoming more intellectual individuals. Just as information is a click away, we can easily communicate with someone across the world, exposing us to multiple cultures to become better-rounded members of society.

Our Monopoly World

On Tuesday, Dr J.W. Smith came into the classroom and discussed how five different types of monopolies promote capitalism and how they contribute to poverty. Since understanding the premises of economy is not one of my strongest subjects, I was pretty much lost during the majority of the lecture. However, the concept of technology capitalism, where nations define their wealth through new innovative technology, caught my attention. He claims that nations do not like to share their technology because it is their wealth, which I agree. Nations all over the world are constantly at battle to create the latest technology that is going to “sweep” the world and prove that they are the best; like the space race competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the late 1950s. Third world countries are unable to participate in creating new technologies since the economy of their countries is not strong enough for them to have the adequate technology to take part in the innovative process. Therefore his idea that we are all trained to be part of a monopolized machine is true since countries are constantly trying to gain control to demonstrate their power and the success of their country. American culture constantly reinforces this idea, as illustrated by the popular Monopoly board game that many Americans play where the concept is to dominate the market.

Nuclear Power

When I was in the 8^th grade our entire class went to Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, also known as Palo Verde Power Plant, located 45 miles from central Phoenix, in Tonopah, Arizona. It was there that we took a tour of the plant and saw the three different combustion engineering pressurized water reactors that produce nuclear power from nuclear fuel. It is the largest nuclear generation facility in the United States that provides power for approximately four million people per year in Arizona and California. However, like Palo Verde, much debate is involved over the issue of nuclear power. Many people see it as a benefit since it is a useful technology, but many fear the advancing technology since its dangerous. There have been various incidents where the nuclear power has resulted in radiation poisoning of the environment and the individuals surrounding the areas of the power plant, like the Chernobyl Power Plant disaster back in 1986 when a reactor exploded and released radioactivity radiation into the environment. The Chernobyl disaster is seen as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power. Thus because of these various instances, Hiroshima, and the media’s influence over public perception, many people fear nuclear power even though it helps out many people to provide electricity, like Palo Verde, and is actually an advancing technology that is used everyday by doctors to treat patients.

Saving Our Earth: A Lifestyle Change…

As of September 2008, it is estimated that there are 6.7 billion people living in the world. This means that there are 6.7 billion people using the earth’s natural resources, including large amounts of non-renewable resources like fossil fuels. However, there are some countries and organizations that use the resources more than others, like Americans and big corporations. Consequently, we are already seeing the negative impacts of our overconsumption habits in our environment, from the possible increasing climate to the rapid diminishing of our Earth’s resources. It was mentioned in class today that we need legislation to regulate company’s consumption, but I do not think that that is enough to see a change. I believe that people in general need to modify their lifestyle, habits of over consuming, and transform them to only using a sustainable amount instead. It has been proven in history that policies alone are not sufficient enough to change a culture’s norms; a perfect example is the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1968 that were passed by the government to end racism. Even though it was written into law that racism was illegal, it still persisted in the 1960’s onward. In addition of lifestyle changes, incentives need to be provided for regular citizens and large corporations to consume less. If we have the mentality that there is no hope for change then our Earth will continue to deteriorate till there is nothing left for us to consume

Revised Outline

I. Introduction (1 page)

a. General Paper topic: I will explore the relationship that exists between income and technology and the access to resources that produce inequality in the public health care issue of malnutrition.

b. Brief description of paper idea: I will explore this relationship by comparing the public health issue of malnutrition that is prevalent in both countries, the United States (developed country) and Sub-Sahara Africa (developing country). I will tie in income and technology by exploring the relationship between what access poverty people and wealthier individuals have in each given country. –> Malnutrition: Undernutrition in Sub-Sahara Africa and Overnutrition in the United States –> How do these issues relate with medicine (technological) access and income?

II. Literature Review (2 pages)

a. Possible Sources: 1) Population Bulletin, 2007. World Population Highlight: Key Findings for PRB’s 2007 Population Data Sheet. A Publication of the Population Reference Bureau Vol 62 #3, pp11; 2) Edited by Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black, Anne J. Mills. International Public Health: Diseases, programs, systems, and policies. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett, 2006.; 3) Carney, Jan K. Public Health in Action. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett, 2006. ; 4) Berg, Linda R. and Mary Catherine Hager. Visualizing Environmental Science. Wiley, 1^st edition, 2006. ; 5) 2 additional scholarly journals

III. Methods and Analysis (1/2 to 1 page)

a. Quantitative Research Method where I will compare the public health issue of malnutrition and their relation to income and technology of both countries; comparative study.

IV. Findings (About 5+ pages)

a. What similarities/differences exist between the public health issues of malnutrition in both countries?

V. Conclusion (1 page)

a. Include possible idea of how to fix this or other questions that need to be answered to find a solution to the inequality of public health care.

VI. References (1 page)

Unequal Access of DNA Technology

The media has often portrayed DNA Technology as a great advancement and accomplishment for the justice system. Not only because it gives the opportunity for wrongfully arrested and convicted prisoners to prove their innocence, but it also gives a chance to convict criminals in court. However, in the article by Simon Cole, he presented the other side of DNA technology and declared that in reality it is an unequal advancement and not as beneficial as we are all led to believe through television, movies, and other media sources. Simon Cole declared that “DNA profiles are far more discriminating than old serology evidence or any other forensic evidence” (100). He presents this notion since the majority of the individuals targeted by law enforcement and policy makers are minorities (100-to-1 Rule). Minorities, especially African Americans, often face the reality of discrimination and the fact that they are more likely to be arrested and convicted for a crime than a white man in today’s society. This is proven by the unequal distribution of the prison population and the fact that minorities and other money challenged individuals do not have access to the same resources that the wealthy do, like appropriate counsel or expensive forensic expertise. Even though technological advancements are great for society, it does not always guarantee equality for everyone, especially since not everyone has the same equal access to the novel technology.