The City of Tucson vs. Robert D. Kaplan
Robert D. Kaplan’s articles “Travels into America’s Future” present a description of Tucson, Arizona as it stood in 1998. His articles are based entirely on his personal experiences with the city and with it’s Mexican neighbors to the south, and while somewhat entertaining, contain vast oversights and discrepancies that make his outsider standing obvious to any native reader.
The article begins with Kaplan’s trek northward from Mexico City and describes many of the sights he sees along the way. He describes dirt roads lined with trash, and cinder-block houses with corrugated roofs. Then he goes into great detail about the economic divisions between social classes and the booming America-bound drug industry that causes the division.
Kaplan spends a great deal of time discussing the local historical significance of Coronado, Cortez and Compostela. He speaks of the hero worship the Mexican citizens display for these men in each city he visits, and then calls these men “crude zealots [who] massacred Indians, built Christian altars where they had smashed idols, and went mad at the sight of gold,” while he calls the white protestant settlers on America’s east coast “children of European Enlightenment.” While somewhat interesting [and slightly strange], this information seems to have little bearing on the rest of the article. If he understood what the significance of this information was, he failed to make the connection apparent to his audience. He does not discuss any historical figures with connection to the American Southwest and therefore any relevance is lost. It almost appears as though he was sidetracked for three or four paragraphs.
When Kaplan enters the United States at the Nogales port of entry, what he calls the “Rusty Iron Curtain,” he speaks of a transformation in socioeconomic structure, which he basically summarizes by comparing to hotels. A Mexican one, only two years old where the doors don’t close properly and the walls are cracking, and an American one, which after more than a quarter century is still in “excellent condition, from the fresh paint to the latest-model fixtures.
The Middle East has historically rebuked Western influence during their process of establishing independence. When Britain and France left the Middle East after World War II, the region saw an unprecedented opportunity to establish independent and self-sufficient states free from the Western influence they had felt for hundreds of years. In an attempt to promote nationalistic independence, the states of the region immediately formed the League of Arab States in 1945. The League recognized and promoted the autonomy of its members and collaborated in regional opposition against the West until 1948 when Israel declared independence. Israel represented then and now an intrusive Western presence in the Arab world. The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict typifies this cultural antagonism. The Cold War refocused attention to the Middle East as a site of economic and strategic importance for both sides, yet the two hegemons of the Cold War now needed to recognize the sovereignty of the Middle Eastern states. With their statehood and power cemented, the Middle Easte...
The author of Mexican Lives, Judith Adler Hellman, grapples with the United States’ economic relationship with their neighbors to the south, Mexico. It also considers, through many interviews, the affairs of one nation. It is a work held to high esteem by many critics, who view this work as an essential part in truly understanding and capturing Mexico’s history. In Mexican Lives, Hellman presents us with a cast from all walks of life. This enables a reader to get more than one perspective, which tends to be bias. It also gives a more inclusive view of the nation of Mexico as a whole. Dealing with rebel activity, free trade, assassinations and their transition into the modern age, it justly captures a Mexico in its true light.
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
“Our Word Is Our Weapon,” by Subcomandante Marcos discusses how Mexican Capitalism and neoliberalism is destroying the values and traditions of the indigenous people of Chiapas. Throughout this text, Marcos cites many examples about how the government and business owners take many useful resources from Chiapas in order to export them to other countries to benefit the elitists. Marcos elaborates that this Capitalist approach severely damages the community of Chiapas by taking these resources away from the people living there, or making them too expensive for them to afford with their very low wages (EXAMPLE). With a background as a militant, Marcos has a passion for inspiring indigenous people to fight back against the repressive ways of the
1. There is a man who was very famous yet his early life history was not completely blown open by the press.3. Actually, he was a master magician, whom everybody knew because of his death defying escapes and mystical magical illusions.6. This man is Harry Houdini.2. At your first glance at his photo, you will most likely not recognize him.5. When someone mentions Houdini’s early life, magic career or his quest to debunk spiritualists ever again after reading this paper, you will proudly speak, “Houdini? I know all about him.” because I will give you enough information to be considered “knowledgeable”.
High Blood Pressure is anything that alters in peripheral vascular resistance, heart rate, or stroke volume that affects systematic arterial blood pressure. Long term effect of high blood pressure are serious and can cause heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and retinal damage. Hypertension is another medical word that substitutes the meaning of high blood pressure. It is known as the “silent killer” because it does not create any symptoms. The most common reason for high blood pressure is arteriosclerosis. Arteriosclerosis is the thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries, occurring in old age. Four control systems have a job in maintaining blood pressure. These are the arterial baroreceptor and chemoreceptors’ system, regulation of body fluid volume, the renin- angiotensin system, and vascular autoregulation. Primary hypertension mostly occurs from a defect or malfunction in some or all of these
Gawronski, D. (2002). An introduction to Arizona history and government. Boston, MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.
...entality of the Middle Eastern population. They are human after all and to condemn humans to their own demise if not failure is cannibalism. And hence we can safely conclude that the Arab Spring revolution and protests were without fail a failure. In the words of Frank Kafka ‘Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.’ As is in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ‘If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution’
are about 1.5-2.0 greater in African Americans than the white population” (p.165). Hypertension is a multifactorial disease by which there are several aspects that causes hypertension. According to Ferdinand & Saunders (2006), "causal factors have been identified in African Americans as obesity, physical inactivity, excess alcohol intake, excess dietary sodium, and inadequate dietary intake of potassium, fruits, and vegetables" (p. 23). Other factors that will cause hypertension in African Americans include race, age, gender, stress, family history of hypertension, socioeconomic status, and lack of awareness about hypertension. There is no definite cause as of hypertension; however, African Americans have several contributors that will lead to hypertension. As a result, many of these factors may lead to vital health
“Since December 2010, the wave of uprisings and protests across the Middle East has produced spectacular changes in the region’s authoritarian republics but has largely bypassed its autocratic monarchies” (Yom and Gause, p. 1). The most interesting aspect of this trans-national movement of uprisings is how it “has largely bypassed the autocratic monarchies”. In this paper, I will focus on how the Arab Spring affected two such autocratic monarchies: the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahraini public motivated and frustrated with the way things were went to the streets to protest in mass in February 2011 (Freedom House, Countries at a Crossroads, p. 1). Since this could potentially weaken the existing government, as it did in Egypt and Tunisia, the autocratic government of Bahrain saw the protests as a threat to their power and legitimacy and met the protesters with a brutal crackdown and further political repression. These protests and the subsequent violence did not, however, occur in Qatar. So, why did the Arab Spring affect the domestic stability of the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom Bahrain but not the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the State of Qatar? Domestic stability here is defined as “the absence of large-scale violence in a country” (Nathan). Energy-rich countries that have recently changed from absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies are more likely to suffer domestic instability if two things occur. First, that the profits from energy resources have declined and are unequally distributed among its citizens among other policies of sectarian-based economic discrimination. Second, that in the case of the religious minority monarchy that hold the political majorit...
In adults a high blood pressure is defined as a BP of 140/90 and higher but in children, to determine if the BP is high, one has to take into account the child’s age, weight and height. A child is said to have hypertension when their blood pressure goes above the 95th percentile, measured on at least three occasions.[7]
The ethnic- Mexican experience has changed over the years as American has progressed through certain period of times, e.g., the modernity and transformation of the southwest in the late 19th and early 20th century, the labor demands and shifting of U.S. immigration policy in the 20th century, and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Through these events Mexican Americans have established and shaped their culture, in order, to negotiate these precarious social and historical circumstances. Throughout the ethnic Mexicans cultural history in the United States, conflict and contradiction has played a key role in shaping their modalities of life. Beginning in the late 20th century and early 21st century ethnic Mexicans have come under distress from the force of globalization. Globalization has followed the trends of conflict and contradiction forcing ethnic Mexicans to adjust their culture and combat this force. While Mexican Americans are in the struggle against globalization and the impact it has had on their lives, e.g., unemployment more common, wages below the poverty line, globalization has had a larger impact on their motherland having devastating affects unlike anything in history.
Overall, high blood pressure is major problem that many Americans face in today's society. A "normal" blood pressure is not a single number, but a range. A normal blood pressure is 139/89 and lower. So if yours is lower than 140/90, make plans to keep it there. If your blood pressure is higher than 140/90 mm Hg, it is important to talk to your doctor about ways you can lower it("High Blood Pressure"1). The main causes of high blood pressure are weight, poor habits, and stress. Lifestyle differences, environment,and poorer access to quality health care are also factors. In conclusion, high blood pressure is a chain reaction. It starts out as a silent killer and ends with many health problems.
The Editorial Board. "Sentenced to a Slow Death." Editorial. The New York Times. The New
Hypertension is considered to be a disease in which a constantly raised blood pressure, or higher than what is perceived “normal” blood pressure, causes a halt in organ function such as heart failure, a stroke etc (Opie, L. H.). Most people don’t even know that they have hypertension as a condition because they haven’t had their blood pressure measured at a health care facility. In South Africa Hypertension is usually considered to be a “silent killer” because most people do not even realise that they are suffering from it because of their lack of knowledge on the subject. “Consequently, hypertension is universally underdiagnosed and/or inadequately treated resulting in extensive target-organ damage and premature death. Furthermore, hypertension frequently co-exists with other risk factors for chronic diseases of lifestyle (CDL), such as diabetes and obesity” (Steyn, 2005).