Math Midterm ...
Jan. 28th, 2004 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcgillianaire... Tomorrow! Aaaack!! Well it's only worth 15% cuz there's another one worth the same in March. Not too worried about it. Every percent can make a big difference @ the end, but worse comes to worse, a B- is good enough. *grin*
Today was fairly productive even though I did go to bed really late, which was all my fault. There was no need really. I got back from the montreal-lj meet around midnight but couldn't be arsed to go to bed. I think I knocked out while reading a book because the next morning the book was still on the bed, my glasses were on the ground and the pillows were near my feet. Don't ask! :/
Anyways, I woke up late enough to miss (skip?) my first two classes. Bah! Lost 1.25% for not turning in an assignment for accounting. fuck it, i'll make it up in the others, inshallah. So instead spent the morning and afternoon finishing off my social context essay.
Social Context was good for about the first 35 minutes - that was when there was a group presentation on Sweatshops. Even the first 10 minutes or so of the discussion was going good till some jerkass decided to get all smart and started going on this pitiful argument. Well, in essence he was saying:
"The sweatshop workers can't form unions in poor countries because they're uneducated."
I could've punched him in the middle of his bloody face. Fucking retard. I swear, they take education for granted so much here and hype it up so much. Literacy is a level of how much you can think and learn. Just cuz someone doesn't go through school doesn't mean they go through life with a blank brain. Stupid piece of shit.
Yeh, so that characterized my day. The LJ meetup was wikked awesome. Met some great people and can't wait for the next one. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of them before that, perhaps?
Anyways, the Integral man is calling me. I hope everybody is coping and doping. Lemme know how you're all gettin' along! Cheers!
Today was fairly productive even though I did go to bed really late, which was all my fault. There was no need really. I got back from the montreal-lj meet around midnight but couldn't be arsed to go to bed. I think I knocked out while reading a book because the next morning the book was still on the bed, my glasses were on the ground and the pillows were near my feet. Don't ask! :/
Anyways, I woke up late enough to miss (skip?) my first two classes. Bah! Lost 1.25% for not turning in an assignment for accounting. fuck it, i'll make it up in the others, inshallah. So instead spent the morning and afternoon finishing off my social context essay.
Social Context was good for about the first 35 minutes - that was when there was a group presentation on Sweatshops. Even the first 10 minutes or so of the discussion was going good till some jerkass decided to get all smart and started going on this pitiful argument. Well, in essence he was saying:
I could've punched him in the middle of his bloody face. Fucking retard. I swear, they take education for granted so much here and hype it up so much. Literacy is a level of how much you can think and learn. Just cuz someone doesn't go through school doesn't mean they go through life with a blank brain. Stupid piece of shit.
Yeh, so that characterized my day. The LJ meetup was wikked awesome. Met some great people and can't wait for the next one. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of them before that, perhaps?
Anyways, the Integral man is calling me. I hope everybody is coping and doping. Lemme know how you're all gettin' along! Cheers!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Ignorance.
Date: 2004-01-29 06:21 am (UTC)You got to remember some people are only book smart and they don't think before they speak.
If I was taking that class that guy would have had his ass handed to him! I love to debate especially on topics that the person has no clue what they are talking about!
sigh ignorance....
thank you! :)
Date: 2004-01-29 12:46 pm (UTC)he's an interesting chap. we have an online discussion for this course and he's just written a lengthy message about american apparel.
for those who don't know, american apparel is this LA based company which markets its products as non-sweatshop manufactured. so even though that's a good thing, ppl in my class were complaining about the profits the ppl @ AA were making.
then there's the case of my prof who thinks capitalism is such a flawed system it should be replaced, or overhauled. something like that.
fun times! :)
Re: thank you! :)
Date: 2004-01-29 02:32 pm (UTC)The extra money workers in the sweatshops earn helps the economy on a (roughly) decade-long time scale - first they use their money to buy bicycles, then scooters, and the workers in the first sweatshops in.... Vietnam I think are now onto their first cars.
This is partly due also to competition as more foreign companies try to find cheap labour in a given country. More competition for workers, wages rise, standards improve...
And eventually, the companies find another country to base their factories in, where the labour is still cheap, and there the situation improves again.
Hence "Made in Malaysia" and "Made in Korea" became "Made in China" and "Made in Vietnam". Or something like that. I may have the chronology wrong. But that's roughly the case for sweatshops.
Close them down, and the third world stagnates. Economics dictates that they don't remain sweatshops for ever.
no subject
just one point. anybody who does support that argument: it is just disturbing at every level. :)
Be disturbed.
Date: 2004-01-29 06:50 pm (UTC)Re: Be disturbed.
Date: 2004-01-29 11:49 pm (UTC)i'd rather not get into it though. just a few points, it doesn't matter how much good you've done when you commit a murder. you can never wash the blood off your hands. at the same time, life goes on, so it's never too late to return to the good path. however, there is not enough accountability and individual/corporate responsibility @ a basic ethical and human decency level. that's all.
George Best has just been charged with Drunk Driving. Haha. I rest my case... (Sky News Breaking News Desktop Alert)
Re: thank you! :)
Date: 2004-01-30 03:53 am (UTC)Sweatshop: a shop or factory in which workers are employed for long hours at low wages and under unhealthy conditions
While I'm very happy that MNCs are investing in India, including in the manufacturing sector, sweatshops are literally by definition bad things. Pay workers fair (market-rate) wages and let them work under decent conditions. There is nothing wrong with setting up shop in the third world to take advantage of lower wages. But when you make people work under conditions where they need to ask for permission to go to the bathroom, where the company the work for doesn't take responsibility for injuries they suffer on the job, and where they are subject to health risks, then that is another story altogether. Taking advantage of immigrants who don't know their rights is also plain wrong. So in closing, factories are fine, sweatshops are not.
yay!
Date: 2004-01-30 07:20 am (UTC)