Blog Critique

Interacting with everyone’s blogs gave me insight into many controversies I missed throughout the semester. I enjoyed reading all the posts and found it interesting to read a wide range of perspectives on the topics we covered in class.

Namely, two of the posts that caught my attention were by Isabella who discussed soccer in the Middle East. The first one dealt with how women in Afghanistan were attempting to play soccer on an abandoned helipad, as it was the only place they could go to play without being caught. I am bringing this article up because I have been playing soccer since I was four and do not realize how much I took that for granted. She brought up a good point that the concept of women playing sports is a rather young idea. It’s hard to conceive a place where women are denied this harmless pastime.

Her second article also discussed how Qatar won the bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. I found her discussion about the ban on drinking interesting, but if the world is going to let local dictate these global events, we never should have held the Olympics in China. Reading Paul’s blog who also covered the same article, I have to agree with him when he said that FIFA made the right decision by choosing, “to bring soccer to a region that has been ignored. They look to the future in order bring positive world exposure to a country, a region and culture that so badly needs it”. I think that this world platform will be instrumental promoting world unity at a time when tensions between the western nations and countries in the Middle East are continually growing.

Another post I found interesting was Valerie’s discussion of the lack of citizen outrage against the corrupt political regime in Egypt. I completely agree with her when she stated, “that the richest 2% (Lauren’s rough figure) of the population are the ones who, on the one hand, could potentially wield the most influence over a corrupt government and leverage resources to open up a truly representative system of government, yet on the other hand, are the ones the very least likely to do this because the current system makes them rich!” There is no distribution of wealth in the oil rich gulf, as the wealth is all being concentrated within a small population and not filtering down to the rest of the country. This is a circular system as the people in power are keeping the wealth and their wealth is also keeping them in power.

Lastly, I was gripped by Kastania’s excellently written film review of Rana’s wedding. The rich description of the ascetics of the film in combination with an excellent analysis of the system of compromise in Israel/Palestine made me want to go out a see the movie. I felt as though I there in the film experiencing the countless obstacles with Rana as she went through her one day journey to find the love of her life. I thought she also utilized outside sources well and thought her quote use of the Rothenberg quote: “compromise should not be equated solely with sacrificing goals,” or traditions, but rather “gaining new ground” astutely describes the situation in Israel/Palestine.

Overall, I thought everyone’s blog provided unique perspectives on the various themes of class and gave me new insights into various media sources and their representations. Thanks everyone and Helga for a wonderful class experience!