Eng112

This semester when I started English 112 I thought it was going to be a piece of cake, because first of all it was an eight week class, then I somewhat love to write. That all went away when I walked in class and learned that we were going to be blogging. At first I thought that was going to be easy, but it was not. I have really learned something in that class and that is called blogging. I am not perfect in this area but I can somewhat say that I am not horrible in it either. I’m sorry to say but I do not love to blog and do not think I will be doing it in the future but besides that I think it was an interesting class and pretty glad I took it.

After all said and done

When is it going to be enough to be over? Meaning when are we all going to live in peace and harmony and not all these stupid rules and regulations with everything we do?
I keep thinking that the older I get the easier it will be to get along with my parents and actually agree with what they are saying and where they are coming from. Unfortunately that is not how it is, I feel like it is just getting harder. What I do need to comprehend is that it’s not going to happen in one day, it is going to take years to get through to them but I am willing to take it one day at a time so we can get over this culture barrel. At the end of the day they are my parents and even if I don’t think so they know what the best is for me.

Nova has gone crazy!

So I am sitting on the first floor in NOVA at the Woodbridge campus at around 2:30 pm talking up a storm with my cousin. We were waiting to be called into the student center so we could pick out classes for the spring semester. I didn’t even want to be there the whole time because I had the worst headache and I had to be at work by 3 o’clock. All of a sudden we hear two big noise but we did not know what it was. Then one of the girls from the fourth floor comes down saying “Everyone run there’s a guy with a gun in his hand and he is shooting”.
I have never seen so many people running for their dear lives like what I saw this afternoon in my whole life. It really scared the life out of me because; it just proved to me just how unexpected life really is. One minute I was talking, laughing, and gossiping about everything, and then the next minute I am crying and looking for my cousin whereabouts frantically. I finally find my cousin, we try to leave but the school was on lockdown for about 3 hours and more.
Well, I didn’t call my parents to let them know what happened because I thought they really would not be concerned or even worried. All my parents were going to do would find a way to make it my fault saying something stupid like “Well, you shouldn’t have been at school so late” or something ridiculous like that. Surprisingly, both my parents called me, yelling at me because I didn’t call them and let them know what happened. For once I was in awe, because they made me feel special and feel like I was important to them, and for once there wasn’t all these rules and expectations but instead it was all about one thing and that was love.

Money/Love

What are dowries? Well first off a dowry is money, goods, or estate that brings women to a man on their marriage date. This is done so that the man can feed and house his family just in case he dies and she becomes a widow. This tradition is not very popular anymore because now they stick to bride pricing.

So the bride price which according to anthropological literature is, the groom’s family pays money to her family for the loss of their daughter. That just still does not make any sense to me. Sometimes I sit and wonder where people came up with the thought of giving women a dollar sign to their name. Well it all started back in 1790 B.C in ancient Babylon, with a code called The Code of Hammurabi. The code basically has a list of 282 laws of dos and donts that you are allowed to do and follow in the country it is basically like our Bill of Rights.

Code of Hammurabi:
• a man who paid the bride price but looked for another bride would not get a refund, but he would if the father of the bride refused the match.

• If a wife died without sons, her father was entitled to the return of her dowry, minus the value of the bride price.

In today’s culture there are plenty of countries that still follow these traditions they are not mandatory but they still practice it, such as Thailand, China, Africa and Central Asia. When I was reading this whole thing I bumped into a very absurd statement which stated that In Thailand it depends what the women is worth, if she is divorced or is heard around to have slept with many men she might be sold off for nothing. That was just so oblivious and arrogant!

So now I have a better understanding of this whole “bride price” tradition. I still as a person with my own opinion do not and probably will never agree with it.



^ http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/hammurabi.html
http://www.ask.com/web?q=dictionary%3A+dowry&content=ahdict|43811&o=10616&l=dir
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html

Analysis Paper

This week I wanted to basically elaborate and add more on my sources for my upcoming analysis paper which is on relationships, love and family. With each source talks a little about each of those characteristics that I talk about in my blogs. You would never think that it would be hard to find blogs about my subject but it is because just because they have love in it does not mean that it is interesting. I have found plenty of blogs that makes me want to just turn the computer off and give up.


During my search I finally found one that got my attention, and also made sense. That is why I have decided to add another blog because I found a better source for my paper. This blog brings in the relationship part. The blog is called “Daily Articles with Today’s View on Relationships” by Ruth Purple. It is not exactly a blog more like an article, but she goes on it everyday and talks about relationships, how a women should love herself before loving anyone else, also she goes on to tell you some tips with relationships and all. It just got me so involved so I thought that would be a great blog for the paper. Now I have my three sources and ready to write and pass this analysis paper!

http://www.relazine.com/

3 sources

The first source is about cultures.The blog is called "Only a life lived for others is worth living"; the link is http://nkb247.blogspot.com/. In the blog she describes her culture, also how she does not agree with some of the things that go in her culture. She lets you know how that makes her and how it should be improved.

The second blog is about love. The blog is called "What is Love." The link is: http://whatislove-milind.blogspot.com/. She explains what love to her is. She also describes it with poems about how she feels about every situation that has loved to do with it.

This blog is called" First time mother;http://tiair23.blogspot.com/ .The third is about a first time mother. She describes what she goes through and what is right and not right with being a first time mother.

Holiday Loving

Now that the holidays are here what is it about? Well, the holidays are about stuffing your face with food such as; turkey, ham, macaroni and cheese. Of course there are also those nasty gifts like sweaters that your grandmother gives every year. However, the most important part is the fact that families come together to celebrate the goodness and love amongst one another. I know in past blogs I wrote about how family don't show enough love to one another, but around this time of year things are a little different.

One thing about Africans is that we love to party and dance, on every occasion; birthdays, weddings, and even funerals. We also eat like there is no tomorrow. So, we make a variety of traditional foods. I absolutely love the holidays in my house. It is a time when we all get together as a family and make tons of dishes. None of our values change in the process; meaning men are still highly respected. They do not even have to lift a finger because women in my culture feed them and treat them as if they are kings.

Shouldn’t it always be that way? We should be able to act like this all the time around family, on an everyday basis. Why is it that a date changes the way you act or feel about one another? It is like saying “I love you”, why do people say it when they are leaving someone, or when it is way too late that they say those words? It is because we take each other for granted and don’t realize what we have when standing in front of us. It is not right; you should be able to say it all the time when and how you want to say it; that is just the normal and right thing to do.

Family anyone

What does family mean? Well, the dictionary defines it as “Parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not.” If I never read the definition I would have never accurately knew what it meant. I always thought of family as people who love each other and cannot be separated. This is because they have such a tough bond with one another. When I think of family I think of the Brady Bunch, they always look so happy and when they had conflict they dealt with it and moved on; together as a family. They do not have to be related they just have to have love among each other; guess I was mistaken. What I still do not understand is why in the definition of family it says “whether dwelling or not” what is that trying to say? Is it saying that even if you are not happy with your relation people you are still considered a family? Or is it saying if we do not live together we are still family? Actually, I have a better understanding of the definition now when I think of my own family, we are all bound together because they are my relatives and friends; but at the same time if one of us or all of us is not getting along or is going through something we are still family. Even when not residing together we are still bound jointly one way or another.
I was reading my Indian friends blog and she talked about how men rule her family and how unfair it is because, she is subject to always live under there dictating system. I personally understand and have no problem with men leading and being the man of the house; keyword leading not dictating. As a person raised in the Ghanaian culture, the whole time you are growing up you just cannot wait to leave the nest because of this type of stern upbringing. What is the point of being considered a group also known as a family if the whole time someone is dictating you around? I am not trying to say I was raised horribly; however, it could have been way better. This whole topic goes back to my blog; Where’s the Love? Where is the love in some of these families; in my case the African culture raising?

One Thing Everyone Agrees On

One thing that Caucasians, African Americans, Asians and everyone else can all agree on is kids should not be having kids. That is one thing that I think we all can agree on, because it just is not right. In our society 90% of teenagers can get pregnant if they don’t use any type of contraceptive. My question is why are all these kids having babies? Well since 1990 the use of condoms has declined for a lot of these teens. Since they are in the “heat of the moment” they feel like it doesn’t really matter. On a webpage I found on Google called “Adolescent pregnancy”. On the webpage it basically said that the reason teenagers are becoming pregnant at such a young age is because of the culture we live in. meaning the TV they watch and their peers and what they see they just end up doing it. What monkey see monkey do.When it all comes down to it though I think it is how you are raised personally, because my parents did not raise me in a strict manner nor were they too lenient but they put down the rules. When parents are too strict kids tend to fight back and end up getting pregnant.


https://health.google.com/health/ref/Adolescent+pregnancy

Why Are Some Cultures So Strict

I have decided to put this topic on my blog because I believe it is a big concern, it also is the reason why some cultures cannot seem to love. So my question is why are some cultures so strict? Me, myself my parents are pretty lenient with me, but that is not how it always was. My parents used to be extremely strict with everything, school, friends, boys, with life in general. I felt like I was in jail! So basically I had to look this up and figure out why? What I found out was; it is not just the African tribe that is strict with their society, it is like that with Asians, Middle Eastern and more. I asked my father about this and he told me: “That is just how we are raised, if you want to grow up and be respectful and be a God fearing person then you have to be raised in a strict manner”. So that is what it is, everything he kept repeating and saying had to do with God. What does religion have to do with anything? Obviously it has to do with everything because everything we were talking about all came down to Religion. Now I know what my next blog is going to be about.

Wedding

My aunt and her boyfriend, or should I say "good friend", have decided to get married. Well, I thought when you get married you propose, have an engagement (if you want to), then it’s the wedding ! Wrong was I, I almost certainly should have known that since everything in my culture is just so different. Instead she had an engagement and then the groom’s family had to disburse my grandfather money give her away.

Yup, I have never heard of that one. Why is that you have to buy someone to marry them. Where’s the love in that? There isn’t. it might of well have been a arranged because your groom or husband is acquiring you off as if you were some type of meat and if you are just too expensive then what?

Now I know why everyone says to my dad “you’re going to be a rich man one day with all those girls you have”. But what if I marry someone who is not African? Are they going to have to pay also, and how much? Well St. Ambrose said “when in Rome do as the Romans” so in this case I am going to do as the Americans do and get married the normal way. Meaning not getting purchased off when I get married.

How it is and how it should be.

It sounds so original to say but, what is love? How do you show it? When do you tell someone you love them? Well in the dictionary it defines it as: a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. I was brought up by my parents who are from Ghana in Africa. I was born in Canada and raised in the United States. I never noticed how different everything and everyone was around me. When I was at home I was taught and was outside in the world.

Is it with the words or actions? At home it was more with the actions, in the African culture you do not show your love by hugging or by telling the other person you love them. No, you show them by respecting your mother and father. Another way is by doing all your chores and homework. Growing up I never heard my mother and father tell each other they love each other, or even hold hand. That was very awkward and diverse to me since, when I went out everywhere else that’s all I saw and knew of. The African society believes that showing emotion when it comes to love as a sign of weakness, or even a sign of being disrespectful. Implying if I was to go to Africa or even be around an African and be holding my “boyfriends’” hand in public I am being very rude and people around me would not approve of that behavior. In the society I live in that is ok! That is normal, that’s how it should be.

People are supposed to be passionate and tell each other how they feel. When they want to hug or hold each others hand. They should not be subjected to hold back their feelings because of what “is accurate”. I have come to learn that love isn’t just a word it is an action you need to take.

The worst and most absurd blog on the net.

When I read this assignment on finding the worst blog on the net, I did not think that I was going to find something as shocking as I found. I was trying to find a blog relating to my topic, but I could not find one, until I bumped into this particular ludicrous blog.

The blog is “Barrack Obama the Antichrist” at www.barackobamaantichrist.blogspot.com
href="http://www.barackobamaantichrist.blogspot.com">

I feel this blog is the worst because; it just does not make any type of sense. It had to be put up there by a total idiot. The blogger has a video on “The Obama Deception” which is ridiculous it basically shows how Obama is trying to just ruin America and the people in it. The blogger writes about how Obama wants the world to really be in some type of slavery. How is that possible when Obama has never said anything about slavery? Out of all the presidents that we have had, I think that our African/White democratic president does not want us to be in any type of slavery (how would he even separate us when he is mixed with everything). Then he compares Barrack Obama and his whole presidential plan to the Nazi Germany and how Hitler tried to dominate everything and everyone. That’s pretty funny because I never knew that Hitler tried to make a health plan for the Germans.

Three Blogs on...How Diffrent Cultures View Love

1)http://www.corrupt.org/news/re_love_and_race_in_modern_west
It was from Alex Birch , called Love and Race in Modern West. In the blog he is quoting another persons idea on love and he argues on why he disagrees on what he says and why. He talks about relationships in general and what is love and what we should expect out of it when it also comes to other cultures.

what i am thinking of writing...

This semester i have been through alot with my family and my social life. what i have noticed is that i tend to have problems telling my family who are Africans stuff about my personal life. so i think that my blog is going to be How Diffrent Cultures View Love. Not just love as in a man and a women. i mean with everything with parents with friends, mutal friends. i want to talk and discuss about how we show love and express it, because the way my parents show and express it is way diffrent from the society that i live in.

Henrita!!!!!!

Hey Everyone,
My name is Henrita Otchere i am 19 1/2 years old. My birthday is on December 5, 1989. yay!! that means i am almost twenty years old. I was born in Canada, Montreal; but my parents are from Ghana so i am technically African. I have been going to NVCC for two years now; meaning i am a proud sophomore. I will be transferring hopefully in the spring to Clark Atlanta University. I am taking Eng112 because i have to, and it will be my last English class. My major is Business administration, because i want to become a Certified Public Accountant. why? because i love money, i love touching money, i love spending money, point blank. My short term goal is to get into Clark Atlanta University and the long one is to become a CPA. I am determined to be successful and nothing and no one will get in my way!