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being born....is expensive?

In my last and final field work assignment I watched the movie "The Business of Being Born." The film definitely made me look at childbirth way different. That the United States doesn't look at child birth how we all do, that there is a new life being born who may grow up to one day having they voice to change history. The next president or superstar actor or rapper or singer. That they only view the child being born as a dollar sign, it doesn't matter. They just see these women and children as people to get money from or just another person filling a bed for them to make a profit. That these women aren't protected in bringing in the next generation of people. That the government never cared about the process even dating back to the 1900's to when the film was made in 2008.

The film also discusses medicalized childbirth, that it is more normalized rather than using midwifes and using natural births. giving the positive affects of a natural birth which would be the child not being affected by medication, no type of dangers with needles and trying to relieve pain. Just empowering the woman to carry through her process of giving birth and the different alternatives to do instead of a epidural. That 70 percent of births have midwives in Japan and Europe. Rather than the US that only has 8 percent, that having midwives causes a lower risk. Back in the 1900's 95 percent of childbirths occurred at home, but by the time 1938 came only 50 percent of births occurred at home. By the time 1955 came less than 1 percent of births occurred at home, and the rate has stayed the same. That for the longest time we as women got comfortable with depending on the hospitals and epidurals and depending on doctors rather than midwives and natural births. Other countries such as Great Britain, France and Australia they still have midwives at 70-80 percent of births compared to the US where we don't and that after the excessive bleeding from childbirth, prolonged childbirth, and uterine rupture. That the US has the second highest death rate of newborns. That the caesarian rate has increased 46 percent from 1996-2008, a lot of women are missing out on an empowering experience of natural childbirth because of the way the United States made women believe they needed to depend on the system and use medications to make the birth giving process faster. The US doesn't really care about a mother and child they just see them as a profit and watching this documentary made me change my outlook on childbirth and made me change the way I look at childbirth and the way things operate.

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The life of land and sea

Being a immigrant can't be easy. Uprooting their entire lives to create a new one to better themselves, their future family, and their culture and moving it across the country. In interviewing I decided to interview a close relative of mine, my great grandmother. My great grandmother is 94 years old and from Kingston, Jamaica. Her parents came here when she was 20 years old to create a new life for themselves and for my great grandmother and her siblings. My great great grand parents got tired of the area, it was a lot of violence and they knew it wasn't a suitable place to continue to raise and build their family. So they packed everything up and decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia or a few years then they came to Baltimore. My great grandmother doesn't like telling the story as often because their life in Jamaica wasn't easy. They weren't as fortunate as others, and they're family went out on a limb moving to America in order to provide a better environment. In the process of them getting acclimated to the US it was hard for my great great grand parents to get work. They had to work as a maid and a landscaper in order to provide. My great grandmother accepted a position as a maid for families in higher class homes just to help her parents make ends meet. Them having to get acclimated to a place they never have been or seen before and not knowing anyone is brave. Their language barrier was hard but they tried their best to learn English the best way they could. Im glad my great great grand parents decided to take that risk with having me (their future generation) in mind.

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Candy Crazy

Have you ever wondered where you candy came from ? Or what's in it? Have you wondered where the chocolate came from or how many sugars there are? Well my favorite candy is snickers and I think its time to conduct some research to find out !      

The ingredients in snickers are sugar, peanuts, sunflower oil, coco butter, coco mass, skimmed milk powder and glucose syrup. They get their ingredients from Brazil, Argentina, Iowa, Mexico, Canada, Wisconsin and Guyana. The ingredients are produced freshly in a factory in Waco since 1976. The people working for snickers picking the coco work in terrible conditions. The producers get coco in the market by first farmers harvest cocoa beans from pods on cacao plants. Next, they are fermented in heaps and covered with banana leaves. Farmers then dry and package the cocoa beans for domestic transportation. Pricing snickers is based on the internets mood, the angrier the internet the cheaper the price of the candy. The Hershey company dominates the chocolate trade, with ruling 44 percent of the chocolate trade. The FDA regulates the chocolate trade. Marketing chocolate isn't easy. First you have to make a presentable website, distribute chocolate samples, offer coupons, get into a partnership, good packages and put in efforts for direct messaging.     I typically buy chocolate at Walmart or the grocery stores like Giants. They make $7-$10 per chocolate par that is being sold. Where then they get out for packaging for the public.

-Snickers

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My family tree tells that there was alot of people doing ALOT of things. it tells i have a wholeeeee lot of family on my mother’s side rather than my dad’s. marriage hadnt been a big thing in my family until recently. and death has also played apart as well, some of my aunts or uncles couldnt even finish creating their lineage before they were taken away to early. so early i havent even met some of these people. but my family has always been open about stories and me hearing them as a kid and dipicting them like stories. The only way the inheritance flows is through cooking and getting together to hear these stories about geographic relocation and education. How both of my grand parents dont have college educations but my parents do or the younger generation seems too. My family has come from everywhere from jamaica to italy even from south africa. and just looking at these patterns shows me that they all came and built a better life here for one simple thing. me.

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Boys Vs. Girls

Have you ever wondered what cultural norms are? Or when you were younger have you ever asked why women always are washing dishes, cleaning and cooking and dad’s rarely do so? They are called gender stereotypes !!!!!! Young women and men are always gender stereotyped growing up with the sports we play, the bathroom we used even down to the clothes we wear. 

But what happens when we can't identify a certain gender. This day in age we have transgender, cisgender, and multiple other things. So where do they fall in society. Watching the Nick Jr. Show “Bubble Guppies”, the girls wore girly colors, and the boys wore more masculine colors. The boys liked to play with swords and race cars and the girls loved hanging with each other, and glitter. In this show it’s teaching them from a young age to be apart of their gender.

During the commercial break I recorded 5 commercials. Commercial 1 was about football so clearly that was directed more towards the boys. Girls aren't typically interested into football. Commercial 2 was a play dough commercial so both genders would be interested into play dough so both genders want to have fun. Commercial 3 was directed more towards the girls with a cheerleading commercial. Boys wouldn’t be interested in cheerleading. Commercial 4 and 5 were directed to both genders with toys stuffed animals of all kinds and onesies for both genders. 

The commercials teach the girls should stick with girly things, like pink and purple. Being girly and not rough like boys. Boys having trucks and being dirty and teaching them sexual dimorphism how boys are supposed to look and how girls are supposed to look. The ads used different tones of voice, more loud and rough for the boys but soft and prissy for girls. 

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Who am I ?

Growing up I never really asked what I was, where our family was from, or when we came here. Honestly until this assignment I never had a clear understanding about anything.

My mothers side of the family is from Jamaica. They came from Kingston in 1926 , my grand father was born in America in November of 1946. When rising my mom my grand father really opened up to multiculturalism. And had no problem with sharing his culture anywhere from festivals and learning about my biological dads culture which was South African. My fathers side of the family came here in the late 1800's in talking with my great aunt. They took on nationalism whole heartedly when me and my sister came along in blending cultures in order for us to know where we came from. On Sunday dinners we cook everything from curry chicken, to red beans and rice to fried chicken to ox tails to plantains.

Nationalism gave my family the freedom to blend all together while taking on American culture. My family has multiculturalism to the max ! my mother is Native American and Jamaican, my father is south african and Italian. So mixing all these cultures together and coming together as on "nation" to learn from each other and take on American culture is wayyyyy too cool !

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International Super Spy !

I decided to conduct this weeks field work in my chirch while having a meeting about the upcoming events that would take place in the next few months. In attendance there was 29 people, there was 16 women and 13 men. The men all together spoke a total of 2 times. The women however spoke a total of 8 times. The women spoke wayyyyyyyy more often. The men never really speak much. They listen and take directions from the pastor who is female.

On average the pastor spoke about 2 hours of the whole 3 and a half hour service. one person sang for 10 minutes and the others spoke no longer than 5 minutes whether reading the announcements, scripture or welcoming the visitors “good morning”. The thing i notice was some people are way more open and happy about it being morning and open and great at holding a conversation. Others arent morning people at all and dont like speaking to anyone at all. They are very closed off and just want to get in and out with little interaction. The men seem to be more closed off and most of the women are open besides a selective few.

The men seem to keep their cameras off way more than the women they want to be seen more and they want to see others as well. They encouraged communication by asking alot of questions making sure everyone was under the same understanding.

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Assignment

The song that I choose that reflects power, dialect and gender is Flo milli pockets bigger because she is speaking about how she doesn't depend on a man, she has the money band power. "I do what I please, you do what I ask." Her dialect is English and she is from Alabama so they have their own type of slang.

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The location I chose for this weeks field work is my favorite place...the mall duhhhhh! I chose the mall because I'm always there and decided to take the time to conduct my research. I found in the mall there are a lot of distractions, people talking, shopping, waiting in line, eating etc. I noticed that people barely took the time to have conversations. They were too busy shopping, looking at their phones, or doing anything other than truly engaging in their surroundings. You smell food, drinks, peoples smell walking past, the smell in stores and you don't even realize how much you aren't paying attention. You're either focused on shopping, eating, scrolling, or judging someone else. I expected to see more interaction. That the people that came to the mall together would talk more but they weren't. They were eating and scrolling, shopping and scrolling or walking and scrolling. Stores make you sanitize your hands, social distance and they try to keep you to yourself to protect everyone, which maybe why everyone need to be to themself or don't feel the need to interact. Because for the last year in a half people have been behind a screen. Hopefully we can come behind the screens and help rebuild our social environment.

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in this assignment i realized how much technology was apart of my culture how a want of mine can easily turn into a need because of how much i use it in my daily life. how much i need my phone but its simply a want. how much i need my car but it isnt a neccesity i think in this culture technology is everything. and its mainly applying to me🤣

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FIELD WORK

What is the history of the item? The history of the item started in 2020 when I received it for my 17th birthday.

Where was your item made or manufactured? In Japan 

What impact does the item have on your life? I use my smart tv for music, youtube, movies, regular television. I use it for almost the same things I use my phone for.

Who are the people directly involved with making or manufacturing this item? What is life like for them? Adult Japanese men and women. They make good livings for themselves. hourly they make $61 an hour.

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Amazon is an example of flexible accumulation. The corporation accumulates the profits, then they use their technologies to deliver them to the people they were bought from.

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Key Dynamics of globalization