Social Awareness Booklet

#1

Issue: Racism 

Form of Presentation: Reading Response

          When you think of Harry Potter your thought immediately jump to wizards and witches and magic, a world of complete fantesy. That is all true, but burried within there is a deeper meaning. This magical world is woven using strands connected to real life social problems. They are not always easy to see at first, but once you begin looking for them, they are everywhere. One social issue I have discovered in Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling is racism.

Racism? In Harry Potter? Even though muggles and wizards are made up, in the story there is a really apparent difference between the characters who come from wizarding families and the ones who don’t. In the book, there is even a curse word to describe people who have muggles, non-wizards, as parents. “‘No one asked your opinion you filthy little Mudblood’ he spat. Harry knew at once Malfoy had something really bad because there was an instant uproar at his words”. Here you can see that even in Harry Potter people say things that are really mean. Just like in real life there are words that can be extremely hurtful and have horrible meanings. There are bad names for Jews, and African Americans, and all other types of people. They all have the same effect, singling someone out based on their race. I think this is really horrible thing to do. J.K. Rowling conveys that the concept of making fun of people based on their race is a bad thing, because the character who does this is a bad one. In the entire book, Malfoy is the example of the mean bully. He’s rich, has a poesy, his families important, and he’s mean to everyone who he thinks are not as good. If J.K. Rowling is conveying that only bad people say stuff like “mudblood’ are bad, she’s showing that being racist is wrong. Besides, all people are the same on the inside, and it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. There are always going to be some people who can’t get past how people look, and I feel personally sorry for them.

This is not only time you see racism come up. In the fifth book, there are a lot of issues with creatures being insignificant because they are half-breeds. On example is “ By the laws laid down for the regulation and control of magical creature, any attack by half-breeds such as yourselves on a human-’ ‘What did you you call us? Shouted a wild looking black centaur…” Again you see how one race deems it self superior to all others, and looks down on them because of that. Delorus Umbridge openly insults the centaurs just because they are half horse, she sees them only as filth. I think that one problem she faces is inability to accept others who may look different. I think that this is a very important atribute for all people to have.

As you can see racism is a very apparent issue in Harry Potter. I think that this really goes to show you how books that seem so unreal can talk about social issues that are problems still today. I think by including issues in books for children, it can help teach tolerance at an early age. I try personally not to judge people based on their appearance of their family, or their race. I hope that everyone can try hard to accept others for who they are, not what they look like.

#2 

Name: Catalina Escobar

Age: 42

Location: Cartagena, Colombia

Job: She is the creator and president of the foundation: Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar, an organization that works to lower child mortality and supports teenage mothers

Social Issue: teen pregnancy and poverty

Backround: Catalina graduatated from the Business Administration from Clark University (1993). She also studied in Europe and Japan (Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka) and a Master in Business Administration. Before the foundation, She served for several years in the financial sector. She was volunteering at a hospital in the slums if Cartagena when a newborn died in her arms. She was devastated to learn that the baby was a child of a teen mom, who didn’t have the $30 to pay for treatment for her child. This combined with the recent accidental death of her son, pushed Catalina to sell her international trading corporation and commit her life towards helping teen moms and their babies.

How She Changes the World: Catalina first donated money to create a state-of-the-art neo-natal unit. She than brought in experts to train the clinic's staff and established a program to cover the medical costs for babies born to impoverished mothers. In the year after the creation of this wing, the infant mortality rate dropped by 67%. 

After noticing the abundance of teen moms, she realized the best way to stop the babies from dying because of lack of money for proper care, was by helping the girls themselves.  In order to help these teen mothers, she has set up a care facility located at the center of the slums, it’s equipped with a daycare, medical center, cafeteria and classrooms. "... this is a piece of heaven [on] Earth," she said. "They deserve the very best."                            As part of the program Catalina has set up, the girls learn about sex ed., how to care for their children, basic hygiene, they take high school classes onsight also. The program also includeds loans and connections so that the girls can go to college and get real jobs.

In 2005, she established a medical clinic that has provided health care to more than 84,000 low-income residents of the community. Most of these were mothers and their children. She's also planning to build an early childhood education center where the girls can bring their children ages 1-5. Her dream is to expand her program and foundation through out Colombia. 

#3 

Issue: Bullying

Form of Presentation: Poem

You roam the halls

Up against the wall like a shadow

trying to be silent

Except for the occasional sound of your moving feet

you go unnoticed

Except for when the cruel ones

Choose 

To notice

Chattering in classes

Jeering faces

Inside jokes, about you

But your not included

You are pushed

 your back up against the wall

Afraid 

To say anything

A shove

In the rain

You go flying 

Face first 

Into the puddle

You get up and run away, 

Happy

That your tears

Are mingled with the rain

Everyone laughs 

When you say anything

And not in a friendly way

People cringe at your voice

In the halls everyone wispers

“Creeper!”

You long for a friend

Some one, 

To confide in 

Someone to trust,

Who wouldn't laugh

You would care

Your angry

Before you were scared of what they thought

Now your just angry

With them

Not just the ones

Who made up the jokes

But also the ones who laughed at them

At the people who just let it happen

The teachers that didn’t care

You finally say something

Fingers typing fast on keys

Letting loose a letter

A rant

Letting loose your hate

For them

And what do they say in return

Nothing

At first

They just laugh

And go on and on

About 

How much of a loser you are

And then...you begin to believe them

Process and Thoughts: Writing this poem, my I attempted to capture the feelings and emotions of kids who have been bullied. I try to highlight the fact that when people laugh at you, it can be more hurtful the being pushed or shoved. I got the basis for the idea of the poem by combining things I have read in books, seen in movies, and in real life. 

I wanted to keep the stanzas short and simple, but still tell a powerful story.. The process, the mental stages that kids who are bullied go through. It starts with a boy, he is not very cute, and doesn’t have any close friends. I go on to write about physical bullying, and then to the essence of what people say. It was important to me to include apart where the boy wishes for a friend, because I think that it is really important for everyone to have someone they can talk to so they dont feel so alone.

Reading Response

               I couldn't imagine ever changing my name, especially not if the government was forcing me to change it. This is what happened to Tae-yul and Sun-hee in When My Name Was Keoko, when the Japanese government took control of Korea and forced all the Koreans to take Japanese names. The book tells the story of a young girl and her brother growing up  Japanese Korea during World War Two. I think that Sun-hee really struggles with the issue of being true to the ones she love.

               This shows up with Sun-hee's friend Jung-shin. In one part of the book Jung-shin's sister is going to be chosen to work in Japan, but the commander says to pick another girl. Sun-hee realizes this must be because Jung-shin's father is a "chin-il-pa", a friend of the Japanese, the chin-il-pa are looked at as traitors by other Koreans. Sun-hee and Jung-shin become distant after this incident. Sun-hee notices that before the discovery that Jung-shin dad is a chin-il-pa, they were just to girls who were friends, but once again the complications with Korea and Japan ruined it. Later in the book, a few months later, Sun-hee finds Jung-shin and asks her to be friends again. She really learns to other come their differences and be friends with her despite that her dad is a chin-il-pa. I think that this really shows her internal strength.

             I think that it would be really hard to live in a place with so many laws against your nationality. I think that the Japanese government is doing a really cruel thing by trying to take away the Korean aspect of Korea. Sun-hee really shows that the power of friendship is so much stronger than anything that the government can do. It is quite a feat for a girl of the age of 13. I think that when people are exposed to drastic situations they have the strength to push through things, and this is shown in When My Name Was Keoko. I wish I could have the strength to do what Sun-hee has done, she is really an inspiration to not care about race or creed, but who they are on the inside.

Non Fiction Post

         After the storm Sandy hit, New York City was a wreck! Trees down everywhere, subways flooded, roofs blown right off their houses. Articles like Sandy survivors push toward normalcy and search for the missing shows the damage of the storm. Miraculously even during this event, people were making efforts to save people in danger, and donate to those in need. This is shown in the article Hurricane Sandy Relief Charities Raise More Than $92 Million. In both articles you see the call and response to the issue, which is really movong.

         Unfortunately, like in any disaster, parts of the city were left in shambles, and some people even lost there lives. The over all death toll from this storm was 85 people, a huge amount considering the amount of preparation we had, but somethings can't be helped. Also, in places such as Breezy Point, they were faced not only with flooding waters, but raging fires. Its most tragic in this storm, because it puts people at risk to try to help. In the end the fire took out 80 homes, because of the winds. With the city crippled they search for help, and try to keep people safe.

         With a storm of this size and the extent of the damage, it was really important that people who were at no loss pitched it. I think that New Yorkers rose to meet this bar right away. As shown in the article title, Hurricane Sandy Relief Charities Raise More Than $92 Million, in just a week after the storm people have donated $92 million dollars. People really are more responsive when they know it's their friends and families suffering the damage, it could have been them! Another help effort was NBC's hour long charity concert to raise money for the Red Cross, "The star-studded event featured performances by artists who hail from some of the hardest-hit areas, including New Jersey’s Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi and Long Island's Billy Joel. In this situation everyone stepped up right away, and the city was at no loss for help.

After reading about all this I was really moved, i think that this show the unit of New Yorkers, and I hope that it always stays the same. We may be the ones helping now, but who knows they might be helping us tomorrow!