For this week’s Text of the Week, the critical times for California is mentioned as it struggles to build a stable economic model for the future while also addressing the immediate issues like the drought, transportation, and the expiration of temporary taxes that were approved in the Proposition 30. There are three people who help govern and apply their input into the solutions of these issues; the Los Angeles Times is now questioning and grading the leadership, effectiveness, vision, transparency, political courage, and integrity of those three democrats, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León and Gov. Jerry Brown. Overall Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins has received a C+, Senate President Tem Kevin de Leon received a B, and Gov. Jerry Brown has not received a grade yet, this grading process (#gradeyourgov) is a new project that Los Angeles Times has presented. The #gradeyourgov helps the citizens of California see where their government stands as they face these hardships like taxation, droughts and difficulties in transportation. While reading this editorial on the issues in California, the democrats seemed to addresses the problems very successfully, apart from Kevin de Leon laying off approximately forty employees which didn’t necessarily make him most favorable. Leon, Atkins, and Brown have introduced and passed very crucial bills that will leave long lasting positive effects on California. Leon showing the most amount of leadership (according to Los Angeles Times #gradeyourgov) is one of the reasons for his success, he is credited with a lot of meaningful, a few controversial, but the majority powerful impacts on the state. Atkins is described as a swing of the pendulum, the last Assembly speaker being very particularly strict who kept a tight rein on everything. Atkins is more approachable, kind, and intelligent. Because of the success of Leon, Atkins and Brown, it is fairly reasonable to say that they will continue to be successful in the future for the state of California.
Url: http://graphics.latimes.com/grading-sacramento-2015/
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Tow #6 Lamar Odom Hospitalized
For this week’s Text of the Week, the recently hospitalization of Lamar Odom will be brought to light. Lamar Odom being an NBA star athlete, every part of his life is public regardless if he wants it to be or not. Starting from his divorce with Khloe Kardashian to when his infant passing away, his life is always being broadcasted over and over again. On Tuesday afternoon, Lamar Odom was found in a hotel room on the ground unresponsive. He was in the hospital fighting for his life, the next 48 hours being critical. Lamar Odom fans and basketball fans in general are supporting him and his ongoing struggles in his life. With tweets, Facebook messages, and text messages overwhelming with love and support, Lamar’s generous personality is being missed as he is in the hospital. The support shows how genuine the athletic community is towards their star players once they fall and are unable to get up at first. Now five days later, Lamar is able to speak in complete sentences (although they are slow and soft spoken it is still showing positive progress,) and breathe on his own without a breathing tube, while also being able to move his muscles and respond to questions that he is being asked. Without the updates from the social media and his family and friends, not many people would know of Lamar’s condition. We also wouldn’t know that his divorce with his wife (Khloe Kardashian) has been put on hold, because of the recent turn of events. While in the hospital, it truly caught the audience’s hearts when the reason for Lamar waking up was because he heard his wife Khloe say I love you, and wanted to respond back. With the multiple facts and hooks which are presented, besides those, and the recent hospital event, it has presented it’s validity and is a candid story.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Tow #5 Visual Text Analysis: Words Kill Wars
In this week's TOW, I chose a Japan based advertisement agency, Oglivy and Mather, who made a new campaign for ADOT along with other advertisements to present the same idea, against the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Some of the most complex and powerful messages, are most effectively captured in simple words. Words kill wars, a message that has been used for centuries to try to stop, even reason, a war. During this time when this advertise was made, Ukraine and Russia were in a major conflict. How Ukraine was involved in this conflict is because their government decided not the sign the agreement with the European Union in fall of the year 2013. This agreement was not solely a trade agreement, but also a political agreement that committed Ukraine to certain European values and principles. Not long after there was a regime change, from then on, the opportunity to fight corrupted. The west Ukraine region has closer knit ties with Europe, and the East region, larger than the west, is closer with Russia because of their wide industrialization and expanding urbanization. Russia shares a broad history with Ukraine, at one point, banning trade and imports with Ukraine. Ukraine shares the fact that five out of every six people speak Russian, showing how the cultures have mixed together throughout the years. With the two countries being so close and their cultural and social ways of living collide, it was inevitable that the two would be caught in a conflict. The conflict itself has become a world-wide concern, mainly because of how many people had protested and threatened the president. With protests, riots, sounds of weapons constantly going off, the citizens who are caught in between are scared and helpless. While constantly being terrified to leave their homes, people don't want to add more to the violence than adding more fuel to the flame. Oglivy and Mather understand that those individuals who are in terror and are under a lot of economical pressure, and create a solution to how they can extend their voices and be heard. Words are heard, sometimes more than violence. After talking and constantly arguing back an worth, the Ukrainian president had decided to look further into the European Union, allowing for the violence to simmer down. With this image portraying pathos, I believe it is an effective advertisement.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Tow #4 Taliban Shootings and U.S. Airstrike
“This city is no longer for living,” says Sayed Mukhtar, a public health officer in Kunduz, Afghanistan. For this week’s Text Of the Week, I will be discussing the past weekend’s air strike which was led by the United States that concluded to the nineteen deaths, thirty seven wounded individuals, and the destruction of Médecins Sans Frontières hospital.
This event first started when the United States had intel that Taliban shooters were firing at NATO (National Atlantic Treaty Organization), forces. The United State’s air strike was to take out the Taliban shooters (Islamic insurgents) out of the Afghan city. Prior to this air strike the Taliban had captured the city of Afghan, although not for an extensive period of time, but it was just enough to cause chaos and fear among citizens. The Taliban controlled the city for approximately three days, eventually falling back, only to return and create havoc on the people of Kunduz. The Kunduz security forces are trying to recapture the city. It has taken them time yet within four days of the recapturing mission, the Kunduz security forces had regained the city but were still experiencing a battle against the Taliban to hold their ground. The shooters had made their way into a hospital using it as their “human shield”, as the Afghan Ministry of Defense had stated.
Many members of the Doctors Without Borders, humanitarian organization, are stating that this attack is a war crime. Since it is now considered a war crime, there are many investigations taking place at this time. The reasons for why the U.S. forces led an air strike are still murky. The United States military is conducting an investigation of their own, seeking deeper information on the attack and as to why the Taliban were firing at the National Atlantic Treaty Organization. The airstrikes were precisely and repeatedly hit where medical personnel and patients, the main hospital building, were located. The rest of the hospital, not missing any of the attack, had smaller bombings, leaving fires still going on after the strike was over. After telling the U.S forces to stop the airstrike due to their innocent patients being killed, the attack continued for approximately 30 minutes before slowly coming to a stop. The Kunduz people are confused to as how the terrorist got into the hospital, their interior minister stating that the terrorist might have been taken as hostages. After hearing this comment, Jason Cone expressed his opinion on that comment, stating, “We do not run hospitals around the world allowing combatants to enter our facilities and militarize them," he tells NPR. "That would be a red line for us. It puts both our patients and our staff at risk and we would never accept that under any circumstances”. Overall there is a lot of confusion, fear, and hope cycling around.
Many procaustionaries are being taken to help the citizens seem more at ease. For the past couple of days, the security forces of Kunduz had been increased along with many news reporters advising people to stay in their homes after certain times. It is not unusual for the people to hear guns being shot in the morning, afternoon, evening and at night. The ministry stating, ” If you see abandoned military vehicles or equipment anywhere turn them over to security forces . . “ doing the best that they can do to help save innocent people’s lives. This is not a safe or healthy environment to be living in. As the dead poll numbers increase, it is creating a hazard. "Some of the bodies are decomposing." says, Gulboddin. With it being a small city, many of the hospitals are being overwhelmed with patients. Some of the hospitals are running low and running out of needed medical supplies and medicine. They are struggling to treat the number of patients as it starts to increase.
In any case, bombing a fully functional hospital can never be justified, the patients, workers, and civilians receive an experience that no one should have to go through. These bombings and shootings are horrible and are not proper nor suitable conditions that anyone should be put under. Knowing that the Taliban could have used the hospital as a human shield is frightening, it comes across as if they could care less for people’s safety, which could be the case. Afghanistan is a country that is under constant battles, whether they be against other nations or their own people, their is something that leads to death. With all of these battles going on, I can only imagine how their economic, social and politics are constantly being changed and diminished.
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