Culture

     This week I decided to blog about Islamic Art. Unlike Christian art, the art of Islam is much more basic and contains very little. Even when there are people in these paintings, they are very geometric and contain little or no detail. The reason that many of these paintings are so sparse is, obviously, because of their religion. They believe that when you are in a portrait or painting, you are trying to make yourself an idol instead of keeping faith with Allah. Many of these traits have lessened due to the fact of Western culture taking its tole on people's lives. Only the most devout and Orthodox Muslims still take part in this.

     I think that this really shows how Muslims are much closer in respect to their religion and take a lot more seriously than many other people do.

"Islamic 

Culture." Wikipedia. 24 Feb. 2009

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_culture

Change

     I found an article in the New York Times about the recent surge in Britain of people using Vegetable Oil for use in their cars. There have been many different small-company proprietors(fish and chip stands) who have been advertising the sale of their oil for use in cars. The business is more of a direct-buy system where the customer comes to wherever the business owner keeps their oil and then they just pour it into some one's car.

     The downside is that it can only be used in diesel cars but at around $4.33 a gallon, it is still 10 percent lower than the national average in Britain. As the price in oil started plummeting, large venture companies started closing but the use of much smaller companies has actually increased.

     There have been many controversies regarding that if someone puts this oil in their car that it might get rid of some one's warranty, or that the inconsistency of the oil could clog the injection system.

     Personally, it would be very hard for me to just go along and put some vegetable oil in a car and hope that it works. It would then be very hard to replace it it ever failed.

"British Fight Climate Change With Fish and Chips." The New York Times. 2009. 22 Feb. 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/science/earth/22cook.html?_r=1&ref=science.

Hope

     This week for the blog post on hope, I found an article from the American Cancer Society about a just out of college third grade teacher who acquired a type of bone cancer when he was just seventeen years old.

     Craig King teaches, a third grade teacher, was an avid basketball and baseball player when he found out that he had cancer in his knee, and that he might even have to have his leg amputated. During his chemotherapy, he had his shin replaced with another donated shin so that he would be able to start walking again. It took him well over a year to walk again; he started on a wheelchair, then to a brace, then a walker, and then finally on his feet. After attending college he helped start a fundraiser with his family that received over $5,000 dollars for one fundraiser. He always lets his class that he has had cancer and that even these kinds of setbacks should never stop you from reaching your goal.

     I think this can relate to Nectar in a  Sieve because, just like Puli, Craig never let his "disability" stop him from doing things that people do every single day.

"A Career Back on track, Despite Bone Cancer." American Cancer Society. 14 Feb. 2007. ACS. 17 Feb. 2009 http://www.cancer.org/docroot/FPS/content/FPS_1_A_Career_Back_on_Track_Despite_Bone_Cancer.asp?SiteArea=.

Religion

     Since we are just finishing up on Nectar in a Sieve, I decided to do the religion that Rukmani always wondered about; Islam/ Muslim. There are many rules and laws that one must adhere to be a devout Muslim.

     The Five Pillars of Islam are the five practices essential to the religion of Islam. The first pillar is called the Shahadah which is a creed that is the foundation of their beliefs. The second pillar is the Salah, which is a prayer that one must say five times a day, and must always be said while they are facing Mecca. The third pillar is called the Zakat, which is the giving away of money for the poor. Many Muslims who cannot afford to do this are exempt from this; only those who have enough money are required to do this. The fourth pillar is called Sawm, which is done during the time of Ramadan where they must not eat or drink anything from dawn until dusk. The final pillar is the Hajj, which is where all able bodied Muslims must, at least once in their life, must go on a pilgrimage to the great city of Mecca.

     Islam and Christianity are very close in belief; they both believe in a monotheistic religion and even a type of "bible" called the Qur'an. They fall short of each other when in Islam, they believe a 7th century prophet was given holy words from the angel Gabriel. 

"Islam." Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 15 Feb 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam.

Gender Roles

     I recently read in the New York Times about how gender roles play a very key role in restaurants. When a woman was opening a restaurant, her hired servers had asked her if the software for ordering food contained a punch button that would determine if the person ordering that food was either male or female. Her response to that question was, of course, no. Why would that matter? Not so, a women even commented that" Women should be served first!".

     Even though many people don't like to admit it, gender roles still play a very big part in determining how we see a person. Still, women are being paid less than a man who holds the same job title or even lower. 

     I think that this is shown in Nectar in a sieve when Arjun is complaining about how he is always hungry, and Ruku replies and says that she serves him the second most food, next to Nathan of course. This shows that men were, and are, given more priority than women in almost all situations.

Bruni, Frank . "Old Gender Roles With Your Dinner?". . nytimes.com. October 7, 2008. . February 10th, 2008 . http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/dining/08gend.html?pagewanted=1

   

Culture

     Going along with what we are reading, I decided to blog about the culture of India. With over 1 billion people living in the country, its key trait of the country is that there are so many diverse and different cultures. 

     India has around 216 different official languages, but with regional dialects, the country contains more than 1000 different languages. Going along with the hundreds of languages, it also contains one the most religiously diverse countries in the entire world; Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Muslim, etc. But of course the majority of Indian people, 827 million people, are Hindu. Just like Nectar in a Sieve, arranged marriages are still quite prolific and the divorce rate is  about 1.1%, quite a bit lower compared to the US's 50%. All arranged marriages are scrutinized and perfected based on the caste to which the people are in, height, weight, age, and many other determining factors in the modern age.

"Wikipedia.com". Wikipedia. February 8th,2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/culture_of_india

     

Struggle

     I recently read an article on cbsnews.com about a a group of people from Myanmar who fled from that country's dictatorship so that they would not be religiously persecuted. The group of  Rohingyas, an ethnic group of muslims from Malaysia, had first gone to Thailand where they worked illegally but were then found my Thai officials, beaten, and then discharged from the country and forced to leave on an engineless boat.

     The Indonesian Navy found the group of people almost three weeks later and helped treat the people. Myanmar's state-controlled newspaper issued a statement saying that the Rohingyas were not even apart of their hundreds of ethnic groups found inside their country.

     This story reminds me of Nectar in Sieve because these people wanted to be able to get away from their opprresion, just like what Kenny wanted for all of the people in the town, and start a new life.

"Myanmar Refugees Rescued By Indonesia." CBS News. 2 Feb. 2009. 4 Feb. 2009 .

Natural Disasters

     I recently read an article on msnbc.com about the improvement of New Orleans from the perspective of the increasing growth of their food industry. Many people in the New Orleans area treat food as a comfort and use it as conversation starter, but when a hurricane rips through a city like Katrina did, it is very hard to get the economy up and running again.

     There were some of the crazy people who actually came back only five days after the hurricane had happened who tried to assess the damage and try to figure out when they could re-open their restaurant.

     When someone is able to re-open a business after a major disaster, and do well, I can guess that the person who owns it would feel very proud of the fact that they were able to do that and they can get a sense of accomplishment that is like no other.