Sara Inoue

     Steven Donziger, a lawyer who stood up to Chevron cooperation is currently under house arrest. For the last two decades, they have been battling over an oil spill that had happened in Ecuador. It blew my mind that Chevron was purposefully ignoring the situation because they knew that the people didn't have a voice. Eventually, he won an $18 billion case against the corporation. Yet, Chevron has not paid a single penny. Donziger has a serious following among environmentalists, and his supporters claim that he is being vilified for unmasking the truth of an inconsiderate decision. On the other hand, Chevron is trying to sue Donziger for manipulating evidence and has continuously painted him as nothing short of a criminal.  In this class, we were split into three groups, each searching articles of Steven Donziger in NYT, WP, and WSJ. I went on NYT and this was the first time finding out about the situation.  NYT mentions the conflict between the two; however, ...

        We watched the first part of " Reel Bad Arabs," a film documentary about how Hollywood vilifies a people, more specifically Arabs. Many of the movie characters would have Arabian people as the bad guys, usually the terrorists. These characters often have dangerous manners and weapons, creating a stereotype that all Arabs are villains. Even Disney movies targeted at children disparage their image by adding lyrics to songs such as "I come from a faraway place where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face". It was terrifying to find out that these lyrics and images were intentionally put into movies to manipulate young children. After Mr.Paterson asked us how we would feel if the discrimination was about Japanese people, I recalled the Anti-Asian racism in Hollywood movies. Actors would modify their appearance as slanted eyes and speak with poor English skills. These stereotypes were included in movies for comedic effect on how culturally foreign...

     The united nations security council is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The P5, which are the five countries that have the most power, based on the aftermath of WW2 have the ability to use "veto". The fact that these 5 countries were determined to be the P5 because they were technically winners of WW2  and were the first ones to have nuclear weapons is unfair and not democratic. America’s veto would be used for defending Israel relentlessly, making it one of the reasons why the conflict has exacerbated.       Over 2 million people live in Gaza, 50% of them are under 20 years old. 50% don't have enough food, only 5% have access to clean water and intermitted power supply is normal to them. On top of that, the roads are divided into three types. I was shocked to see the conspicuous difference inaccessible roads. the map showed how Israelis had access to every single road and Palestinians, an inconsiderable area. If they ar...

       Today's class, started off with Mr.Paterson only allowing students who live in Saitama to go inside the classroom. Others were told to wait outside and he would permit students who showed their ID cards from time to time. He was acting out as a guard, opening the door every so often when he felt like doing so. Eventually, everyone was let in, with the exception of having to stand up. This was when I realized that people in Palestine would line up for hours or maybe even days to go through gates,  to find out that it is just the beginning of a cruciating time.      Over the past few weeks, we have learned about the reality of the conflict and actual data/statistics. However, by the kinesthetic learning style incorporated in this lesson, I was able to have a better understanding of how people feel. Only what I feel is just a small bit and can never be as deplorable. We then worked on writing an awful review on Mr. Patersons' bag, whilst the o...

     It is shocking to see how large “trustworthy” media are presenting information in such a deceitful way. In this lesson, we searched a few Japanese news about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I could only find about 6 news on the current situation in the last 24 hours. Headlines were vague, making it unclear which side was injured and what the cause was. Most times, news in Israel show and inflate numbers of people being injured, including people with physical stress.       I noticed how many of my friends in other countries were posting on social media regarding the conflict as well as their opinions. Although some of my friends in Japan are also aware of the situation, not enough information is reported in the news for people to start talking. Furthermore, I used to read the BBC news on my phone until I was told by one of my friends that they don't write who the article was written by, which is understandable thinking about the writer's privacy,...

    BBC News explained how their soldiers were being “kidnapped” by the Palestinians. When in reality,  Palestinians were being violently kidnapped as well. Yet the news would use words like “take away” and “get” to paint an entirely different image. It was painfully obvious that BBC chose words that were slightly moderate, to conceal the violence in action. Unfortunately, there are more people in the world that still don't know the reality of manipulation. To be honest I also had no idea that the media had so much truth to uncover.  As I took in all the information regarding the conflict, I realized that the reason people are trusting the media is that they believe there is no need to look into the facts/statistics nor observe every detail. This made me wonder how many people actually look into detail and think critically.       Moreover, Mr.Paterson talked about web 2.0 which refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content. As the inter...

     In today’s class, we took a look at several examples of "flak in action". I found out that Phil Donahue, a famous host of his own talk show, had been fired for an inadequate reason. Donahue interviewed people from both sides of an argument, including the U.S invasion of Iraq. Since he refused to have more pro-war than anti-war guests, he was viewed as a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war". Eventually, this led to the end of his career. Once again this shows how media, which people relish on a day-to-day basis, need more contemplation.       Moreover, exploring the website called "if Americans knew" which focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was very interesting. It was shocking to see how other large sources were presenting completely different statistics. I realized that historical conflicts between countries still have an effect on people nowadays, causing the media to convey the righteous side and conceal deeper information...