The American Culture

It was really interesting to know some facts about the art, music and cinema of the U.S.. It is surprising when you hear about American art schools that were established centuries ago because, in these days, what we usually know about its culture is modern films and music. We don't hear about American painters or sculptors very often.

Regarding cinema, I think the Golden Age is one of the most fascinating periods of American films. I have seen many movies from that period and they can be considered as pieces of art. However, if we try to compare some modern movies to those of the Golden Age, we will note that, actually, there is no point of comparison between them. Many modern movies are really ridiculous because their plots just try to impress the public with exaggerated situations or behaviors. On the other hand, old movies were, in general, more realistic. However, I must say that there are modern movies that are really worth to see!

"Freedom" in Iraq

With the authorization to occupy and invade Iraq, the U.S. tried to give freedom back to the Iraqi population  and, at the same time, find  weapons of mass destruction in its territory, all this under the pretext of ensuring a sovereign government for this country.From my point of view, the U.S. didn't have the right to invade Iraq and after all they didn't find any of the said weapons they were looking for. And, even though Sadam Hussein is already dead and Iraq has a new government, the U.S. military forces still stay in that country; that makes me think that American authorities are not really worried about the Iraqi population because having foreign military troops doesn't mean to be a free country so the U.S. hasn't achieved its supposed aim of giving Iraq freedom. They may be interested in something else; maybe something related to money or what a lot of people consider it as the actual reason: oil. I hope that the Iraqi population lives convinced that their rights are going to be respected from now on.

The Patriot Act: A controversy

This measure taken by the U.S. government has made people divide in two parts: some of them think that the  Patriot Act is the best measure to protect America from new terrorist attacks; but, on the other hand, the rest of those people think that it is an exaggerated way of assuring the U.S. security. In my opinion, taking measures to protect your country is what any president or government would have done in case of terrorism but if these measures go against its own citizens, those measures are not complying with the objectives for which they were created. In the video we watched where an adolescent was arrested for joking about a bomb that he was supposed to explode in his school, we notice that the Patriot Act has caused paranoic reactions from the authorities and, in this case, instead of giving protection, it is going against American citizens. Although, this is an isolated case, perhaps there has been other cases that. In spite of this, we can't blame some Americans for feeling paranoic after all they are trying to prevent terrorist attacks like the 9/11 one that killed a lot of their love ones.However, as I said before, measures must ensure security of everybody without restricting their rights.

Does the American Dream really exist?

It does exist for many Americans, but it certainly not for all Americans or immigrants. It is known that the American authorities have been doing anything to give the same opportunities to all Americans, but these efforts are not enough. We still see racism against black people. As evidence, we can find neighbords where just black people live or acts of violence against them; black people and immigrants live in poverty in the city while most white people live in the suburbs, far from the city. Even though many immigrants are really succesfull in the U.S.A., others are forced to take any job because they are undocumented.

This issue will still be discussed as long as American authorities do not create effective laws that allow immigrants to really have equal opportunities. It is going to be very difficult to achieve real freedom and equality in the U.S.A. One reason could be the mixture of cultures having to live together in the same country. Perhaps it is hard to deal with people coming from very distinct cultures; however that's not reason to discriminate anyone. What do you think?

Big corporations: good or not good?

U.S. big corporations play an important role in the economy of their country because they help, in some ways, to improve its level of industrialization and create a great number of jobs; however, when these corporations have too much power, it becomes difficult for the government to try to make them follow the rules.Sometimes, corporations take advantage of that power and do not pay enough attention to the working conditions they establish for their employees because they are so big and have so many workers that one of them is not going to do any difference if he continues working for them or not.
It could be that the U.S. authorities can do almost nothing against abuses from big corporations because of their great influence on the economy of the U.S.

Many Americans think these big corporations sometimes get lazy because other companies which are smaller can not compite with them and, when the big ones come to a new place they make the other companies go  bankrupt because of their lower prices. Perhaps, making big corporations pay higher taxes would be fair for everyone.

The worst U.S. crisis since the Great Depression

This subject was what I were in charge of presenting at class. It was really interesting to me searching about that part of the recent history of the U.S.A. Before I started searching information about the Subprime Mortgage Crisis (2007), I knew hardly anything about it; but then I noticed that the whole problem not only affected banks and investors, but also a number of homewoners who lost their house because they could not continue paying their mortgages. It was very sad to see real photographs showing people raising signs in which they asked the government to turn their house back to them. Fortunately, the U.S. is now in a process of recovering from the worst crisis since the Great Depression and, according to my research, many Americans are hopeful that their country will be the same as before everything started. I think not only Americans hope that, but also many countries around the world, particularly, the ones that actively do business with the United States.

The U.S. and peruvian governments: similarities and differences

After the presentation of the topic "The American Government and the Political Parties" I realized that the way in the American and the Peruvian governments are organized have several similarities and, of course, many differences. For instance, both of them are comprised by three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial; however, many of the duties each of them have are totally diferent such as leving and collecting taxes by the U.S. Congress. Also, this institution is bicameral and is comprised by the House of Representatives and the Senate while the Peruvian Congress is unicameral at present. Another interesting difference is that while the American Vice-president, Joe Biden, is very well known in his country; here in Peru, we do not know almost anything about our own Vice-president.

What is more, in the U.S., citizens does not have the obligation to vote when there are elections in their country; whereas, in Peru, we certainly does. I am not sure if this is good for a country because people should have the right to decide whether or not to vote ; but, on the other hand, not voting, would mean contributing to not electing the best candidate for your country.

There are still American indians!

I am recently learning about the U.S.A. culture and it was surprising to know that there is still a quite large amount of American indians in its territory who live in groups as tribes in developing countries. And it was much more surprising to me that most of them are wealthy. It seems weird that we did not know almost nothing about these indians. I mean we do not see them in any movies or reality shows or any other kind of TV programms neither in the American news. All this makes me think they are not considered to be part of the modern culture; however, a reason for this could be that they do not want to be seen or that they want to be left alone and live in peace in connection with nature and nothing else.
It has been really interesting to know about American indians and their way of thinking.

U.S.A.: a great nation

Despite the fact that the most part of us have never been in the U.S.A., we all know quite well a number of facts about the American culture.

It’s very well known that U.S. is a nation where people from all over the world live together, however, there are two different points of view about whether America may be considered as a melting pot where different cultures have mixed to form a unique culture, or a salad bowl, where different cultures live in the same territory without losing their identity.

In my opinion, it’s not really important if the U.S.A. is any of them. What is essential here is to know that people with different characteristics, customs or traditions can actually share the same territory and contribute to build a great nation.