Copy Edit the World

Professor McCune, I've included a couple more pictures for extra credit on the Copy Edit the World post. Thank you!

Focus story exercise

Lillian Garland does not appear to have any physical disability whatsoever. She is playing with her five-year-old daughter in their living room and looks like any other young mother. And yet in 1981, Garland lost her job on the basis of a very popular medical condition which is still legally described as a "disability". A condition that 55 million working American women might face at some point in their lives. Garland was pregnant. She became pregnant while she worked as a receptionist at the California Federal Savings and Loan Association in LA and when she was ready to go back to work, six weeks later, her employer told her the position had been filled and refused to offer her another job.
The bank's action violated the 1978 California Fair Employment and Housing Act, which states that employers must provide up to four months unpaid leave for any "female employee affected by pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions.' Garland sued California Federal under theCalifornia law and the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 Tuesday to uphold it. But the ruling came five years after the birth of Garland's baby.

Fish out of water

Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose, the Bay Area’s South Indian classical dance company, presented their 2009 Fall concerts “Nritya Sangati: Dance Progressions.” on Saturday at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Theater. The concert was held at 7 p.m. and featured the work of special guest composer Kartik Seshadri and choreography by Abhinaya Artistic Director and Founder Mythili Kumar, Rasika Kumar and Malavika Kumar.

The event was presented in the Bharatanatyam-style, which is one of the oldest of the classical dance forms in India, also known as the fifth Veda. The name depicts the combination of: BHA- Bhava (Expression), RA- Raga (Music) and TA- Tala (Rhythm), and is known for its grace, purity,and sculpturesque poses. "Nritya Sangati" is a dance which features vignettes of Indian immigrant women.

As a viewer of this amazing spectacle and an outsider to this rich culture, I was convinced that Indians use their body as a medium of communication; their dances conveying thoughts and emotions. Some of the dances depicted food-gathering and harvesting as well as other rituals and traditions. I could tell that it was the experience of their unique dances than united all the people who had gathered in the theater to share something which distinguished their culture from all other cultures. Indians believe that dance has been created by God and given to people as a gift, and therefore it is considered divine. And even though many Indian families are dispersed in different parts of the world, they proudly preserve their dance traditions as part of their national heritage.

The style of dancing also seemed closely connected with religion. The main theme was the victory of good over evil. The Fifth Veda is used in reference to the foundation of the Hindu religion and philosophy, and some of the dances were performed by beautiful women whose dance moves expressed rituals such as the waking of the Gods or chasing away bad spirits from the temple. Throughout the whole performance, male and female dancers seemed to follow intricate patterns and geometric poses with incredible speed.

The second part of the spectacle featured modern stories of immigrant Indian women who struggle with homesickness and the need to assimilate in new communities. The dancers literally told stories using their fingers to create meaningful gestures. Another impressive thing to observe were the costumes of colorful silks, and the jewels on the dancers. Overall, the concert was an amazing experience and I highly recommend their next event which will be on November 15th at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

 

IMHO # 2

Yesterday, my media law professor mentioned something which shocked me to the core. She said that following the 9/11 attacks, different compensations were paid to the victims, depending on their annual income. Thus, the high-paid Wall Street executives' families received millions while other families received much less. All 43 workers at the Windows on the World restaurant in the Trade Center were killed and their relatives did not receive any financial help because the victims were in the country illegally or their relatives were afraid to ask for help because they were illegal.

Ken Feinberg was the administrator of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. In that job, he had to put a price tag on the dead. He had to decide what people's pain and their relative's role in society were worth. According to a testimony of Feinberg, families of 2,880 victims received $5,996,261,002.08 in compensation; in addition, 2,680 physical injury victims were paid $1,053,154,534.56 by the 9/11 Fund. The average award for a death claim was $1,267,880.49; the average award for a physical injury claim was $392,968.11. Information on the exact compensation of families of Wall Street executives is very hard to find but most documents state that the number is substantially higher.

The businesses which were affected received an average of 23.3 billion for property damage, according to the 173-page analysis by the Rand Institute for Civil Justice which examined the compensation system. This is 61 % of the overall benefits !?!? Property damage thus has a higher price tag than the loss of human lives.

I understand that the way compensations were distributed depended on the economic hole created by the loss of a person’s life. But it turns out that even in death, Wall Street still stands higher than Main street and rich people's lives apparently seem to have more value than poor people's lives. And in my humble opinion, this is not ok. What happened to the American Creed that "All people are created equal"?

Word of the week # 10

1.    Coulis
2.    Read it in a Food Network's recipe.
3.  "Food Network invites you to try this Lemon Mousse with Blackberries and Raspberry Coulis recipe"
4.    A thick sauce made with pureed vegetable or fruit and often used as garnish.
5.    Topping off a delicate dish with a simple coulis can bring it to perfection. 

Targeting Audiences

The target audience for the Nivea product is women, age 18 to 35, who can have different jobs and education levels because this product is not expensive at all and thus, many women can afford to have it. Since the motto is "beautiful moments are born in the shower", they're most likely targeting single or unmarried women. The ad is using the false connection between the product and the feelings of physical attractiveness of women, and happiness. Using their douche gel won't make them prettier or happier but that's how they sell their product. The common theme, of course, is sex appeal. They're trying to target women who want to be independent, sexy, and fun. Even being promiscuous can be seen as a good thing because otherwise, what would a man have to do with the fact that beautiful moments are born in the shower?

The second advertisement targets men because its product is a new cologne. They're also targeting young males, and since the woman is sniffing a business shirt, then most likely the men they're targeting have median or above the median income. Again, there is sex appeal, men want to be attractive and this ad makes them feel that their concern for their looks is a sign of masculinity. His fragrance will "stay on her mind" even after he's gone, or at least that's the message. Looks like the authors of the ad played with the light in order to make it appear as if it's nighttime and the girl is also wearing a sexy and provocative lingerie.

Both ads are far from being information rich and they are not directed at an involved audience. Both feature peripheral qualities- the pictures. They don't feature celebrities as role models but they feature attractive women. In the first ad, most women want to be like the woman on the picture, and in the second ad, all men want to have an affair with a "hot chick". So the message is "Use our product and we'll help you get there" but all they're doing is playing on people's needs and insecurities in order to make profits...

Copy Edit The World # 2

This is a poster for Honda Hybrid and I thought that it would be better to move the apostrophe after "s" because if it's just "not your parent's hybrid", then it sounds to me as if you only have one parent. The next photo is from my MCOM 104 Mass Communications Research class and our teacher always has typos on all kinds of papers he gives us. So it should be "the effectiveness of an ad" and "can not" should be written with no space because "cannot" is the proper English spelling. The third picture is from a restaurant's menu. On the description of the Berry Bellini, it says : "a dash of Chambord liquer" and it should be LIQUOR. Then the Braveheart says "scotch with a dash of bitters and sweet" it should be "bitter and sweet". And the last one is the Orange Dreamsicle where "as the name suggest" should have an "s" because the same suggests that it makes dreams come true.

Japanese Internment Memorial

     Our recent field trip to the Japanese Internment Memorial made me realize, yet again, how important it is to open your eyes and notice things. I live a block away from Ruth Asawa's mural and I had never stopped to look at it because this government building reminded me of the long hours I waited in line there to get my social security number after coming to the US three years ago. And I am very glad that I get to write about this important representation of history now.  

     The first vignette that grabbed my attention was the depiction of six Japanese soldiers, bending over a fire, heating food in what appears to be one of their steel helmets. This is a very good way of showing the immense sacrifice of the Japanese Americans whose families were stationed in internment camps and they still fought for the US in World War II. The Japanese Internment began as a result of the hysteria following the outbreak of the war with the events at Pearl Harbor. The US government feared that Japanese Americans would commit acts of sabotage, and although no such act was ever committed by a Japanese American, some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the Western United States were removed from their homes and sent to internment camps. Of these, almost 80,000 were United States citizens and 40,000 were children. Most of the Japanese Americans who volunteered in the war came from Hawaii, but roughly a third came from the mainland camps. They suffered through battles and food shortage, their bread and meat rations were cut almost every month. 

      The second vignette is right behind the soldiers by the fire and it seems to be an endless graveyard. According to some sources, around 200 people died in the internment camps and more than 800 Japanese Americans died in combat. That part of the monument resembles a military graveyard with rows upon rows of perfectly aligned crosses which have no name, and thus the fallen soldiers become statistics to anyone but their families. Some of the casualties were from the Bay Area. Japantown had already formed in San Jose before the war began. Nearly 3,000 Japanese Americans were sent to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. According to the Mercury News, prior to going to the camps, most of the Japantown residents were held in the San Jose State gym.  

     The third part of the memorial that caught my attention was on the side of it with representations of a bamboo stalk, cherry or plum blossom and a pine branch with a cone. In Japan, bamboo forests symbolize sacred barriers against evil and that is why they surround many of their shrines. A cherry blossom is the symbol for spiritual beauty. Another possible interpretation of Asawa's work could be that she tried to represent the Japanese tradition "kadomatsu" where a pine branch symbolizes longevity, a bamboo stalk is used for prosperity and a plum blossom shows nobility. Ruth Asawa herself was interned with her family at a camp in New Mexico where she spent most of her time drawing and painting. 

     I can see how for most Americans, it is very hard to imagine that something like the Japanese Internment could happen again. However, history does repeat itself in one way or another. To me, having gone through ridiculous procedures with the US Immigration Services and having seen how they treat the "aliens" (as they refer to people from foreign countries), I think it would not be unlikely for something like this to happen again. Even after the war, many Japanese Americas still dealt with racism and discrimination. Another example would be what happened after the horrible attack on 9/11 when many Arab Americans were threatened and harassed by government officials. There seems to be a very thin line between people's highest ideals and their worst impulses at times of danger. 

Word of the week # 9

1. Sanctum

2. Read it in the article "Tough to crack: How to find Hawaii's true flavor inside a macadamia nut" from Islands magazine.

3. "In the factory's roasting room, the fluorescent inner sanctum, he leads me up a ship ladder to a catwalk next to a conveyor that emerges from the grand automated roasting contraption."

4. A place of inviolable privacy, holy place: a sacred place of pilgrimage; a private retreat or workroom

5. Judging by the way he referred to his car, one could tell that his vehicle was this man's sanctum.