HW: 25 Summary

The forward of Riverbend’s Baghdad Burning, is well written by Ahdaf Soueif. Souief reports that Riverbend is an Iraqi citizen that has almost lost everything due to the war and is looking for refuge in her blog posts. She agrees with Riverbend in her opinion of the US and their involvement in Iraq. Soueif claims that the novel lacks geopolitical perspective; this is for good reason because Iraq is the setting of the book and opinions don’t venture outside of Iraq. She counters by reminding us that the mass media is full of outsiders opinions but what they don’t have is an insider in Iraq that can repot how the war Actually feels (Forward: viii-ix).
James Ridgeway the author of the introduction to Baghdad Burning. He believes that the US has been causing unnecessary casualties ever since the Persian Gulf War (Ridgeway: xiv). Giving a brief background on the past wars fought in Iraq, He basically argues that the US has been greedy for oil for decades and it has diminished Iraq’s economy and infrastructure. This is a reasonable argument considering three-quarters of Iraq’s GDP comes from oil (Ridgeway: xv). Violence and destruction are the main reasons why electricity is scarce throughout Iraq. Power may turn on once a day or week or, the US doesn’t give Iraq time to rebuild there grid. Also Ridgeway reports that 2004 1,000 Iraqi schools were in need of repair. The education budget was not enough to repair the schools, the teachers pay ate most of the budget (Ridgeway: xix). In conclusion Ridgeway underlines the religious battles that are being fought in Iraq. He informs the reader that Riverbend gives us a far better understanding of the religious hardships than the American Government (Ridgeway: xxii).

HW: 22 Men not God

I can see why narrator would say an outsider who read the newspaper would think that England is a patriarchy. She backs this up by stating that men own everything and run everything. They are the “power and the money” (page 33) they control all but the fog. She also speaks about the work done by men and woman and hoe they aren’t equal. The domestic work done by the woman is of no economic value to society and is taken for granted. The men are in charge of the financial aspect of life and all the woman need to do is take care of the home and children. She is feels lucky to have received inheritance from her aunt because other wise she would be poor. She feels that the reason for her aunt giving her the money is so that she can be free. She doesn’t have to be a victim of the patriarchy she lives in.

HW: 19 Man on the Street

After reading The Web of Influence I have discovered that the chapter is basically stating one specific point and backing it up with details. Page 89 describes blogs as the "man on the street", the insider information that the media doesn’t produce. New York Times executive editor has said in an interview that when he reads blogs he sometimes feels that the Times up. Most of the popular blogs that are on the web have valid information. The less popular blogs become hyperlinks on the rich web logs. Thus the readers can save time and go strait to the source and not have to view a million pages. It is important for the public to know that the newspapers and television are not the only sources of news. Web logs can give an unbiased opinion and a side of the story that Fox news or any other mainstream media source would not show or talk about.