English!!! (Grrrrr)

I tried to do what each teacher has asked me to do, yet each time I write a paper it seems that its just not good enough. I like to perfect my English writing but at the same time SJSU does not really help you. You waist your time going to the union center where you can ask someone to read your paper, yet they do not know how they can help you.

You attend class and someone reads you paper and helps you with correcting your mistakes and gives you advice. You hand it to someone with an attitude that just does not know how to give advice and only says "oh my gosh". This person or the comment he/she made, made me so mad that people like him/her just do not make it easy to give your draft for review. I would never give it to this person after that stupid comment he made! I rather give it to someone I know, who will correct my paper and tell me what I did wrong versus someone just saying out loud "OH MY GOSH, OH MY GOSH!"....I guess some have an ego that tells them they are great writers and yet this person is in my POL100W (hmm...I bet he/she does the same mistakes I do with words use incorrectly).

Yes, English is my second language. :)

WHY ENGLISH IS SO HARD
We All begin with box, and the plural is boxes;But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice, But the plural of house is houses, not hice.If the plural of man is always called men,Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,But I give a boot -- would a pair be called beet?If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?Then one may be that, and three may be those,Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,But though we say mother, we never say methren.The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim!So our English, I think you will all agree,Is the trickiest language you ever did see.When the English tongue we speakWhy is break not rhymed with freak?We say sew but likewise few;And the maker of a verse Cannot cap his horse with worse?Beard sounds not the same as heard;Cord is different from word.Cow is cow, but low is low;Shoe is never rhymed with foe.Think of hose and dose and lose;And of goose and yet of choose.Think of tomb and comb and bomb,Doll and roll and home and some,And since pay is rhymed with say,Why not paid with said, I pray?We have blood and food and good,Mould is not rhymed with could,Wherefore done but gone and lone.Is there any reason known?So in short it seems to meSounds and letters disagree.

Credit on poem:Handout created by the staff and students of the DVC Learning Center. Copyright 2003.

Guantanomo Bay?

I was watching the Guantanamo torture reenactment of volunteers, who portray the prisoners of war on the Sundance channel, demonstrating the torture instituted by the United States. I felt angry to think that the United Nation would allow this kind of torture. A guidebook that really makes people psychologically think what might happen to someone that is from the Muslim religion.

Guards would repeat humiliating acts to the so called terrorist, even if he was innocent or guilty. 'One strategy was to humiliate the detainee by touching him in such a manner, or by being touched by a women, in contravention of Muslim religious beliefs'(nonny). The guards would also take them out of there jail and strip their clothing to once again humiliate the detainee in front of his Muslim people.

Some detainees would be blinded, or had a bag over there heads, and put in a small jail alone with no contact for a total of 18 months.
Some would even start to demonstrate mental behavior acts after certain amount of hours when forced to listen to screaming voices and other annoying noises;guards would shave their hair; give them ice cold water to wash; give them dry foods and leaving them weak from hunger.

An experiment that would have detainees (volunteers)
call it quits after 48 hours.

Now tell me if this is a way to get information out of the prisoners or the so called terrorist? Does this change your mind about torture and if this should be kept in Guantanamo Bay as a guideline to treat humans like you and me, even if they guilty or innocent.

I would recommend all of you to watch this re-actment of Guantanamo Bay "Guidebook of Torture" on the Sundance Channel. It will help those who are for torture really think about what is torture to one person or maybe see that just because we have different beliefs all should be treated with the same civil rights no matter if they are or not citizens of the United States.

Is it all about the Middle east? What about other Latin countries? Why not in the front page?

I am tired of many news stations putting more effort in Middle East conflicts, what about other countries like South America, Central America, and Cuba? I have met so many people that do not even know were Bolivia is or that they know of issues in other countries beside the Middle East. I metioned this article I read to a few students of Fidel Castro illness and the only information they come up with is oh yeah, he is the president of Cuba and......but no comment aside that he was the president. I realized that many students are not informed of other countries like Cuba. So, I asked myself why can't we read of news like this in the front page? Why are many Cubans in Miami more concerned on this news of Fidel Castro? The reason I ask this is because I happen to read on the illness of Fidel Castro, who is president of Cuba. He is currently 80 years olds and has been hospitalized for surgery. Since many of the citizens of Cuba have not seen the president come out in public have started to believe that he has died and celebrate the end of his ruling in Cuba. Although, his seat has been passed on to his brother Raul Castro to act as the president until he gets better.

One of the many questions Cubans ask is will it stay Communist or become Democratic? In my opinion, I feel that it is time for a change for Cuba, but a slow change would be better for Cuba in order to not have conflicts. Creating conflicts within each group due to the hatred built within each political view. As Fidel Castro sister Juanita, states that all Cubans should stop the hate in order to achieve a better life for all Cubans in Cuba, and to stop demonstrating celebrations of Fidel Castro illness. Demonstrations that will only create conflicts and more hate with the opposing political parties. I think that she is right and adds more fuel to the opposing side in having revolutions against those who want democracy. All because many believe that Fidel Castro is the only one that holds Cuba together and not letting US interfere with Cuba.

Now this should be put in front page newspaper or talked about in Television but the only way you find about issues like this is through other outside sources like BBC, Financial times and other newspaper article outside the US. In my opinion it will be a hot issue that will be very controversial between Cubans. Letting many people see outside of the box and learn more about other countries outside what is a hot topic or what your professor tells you to learn. It will also show Californians to learn more about other Latinos/as exist outside of Mexico. It will teach all those who think that we are all the same as Mexicans or all brown skin people come from Mexico. I guess I am tired of explaining to people that all Hispanics are not the same and all come from different Hispanic cultures and traditions.