Book Cover

 

I chose a photo of modern traffic that has cars and building around out, with a train in the middle as my background. I did this to symbolize how the train systems which were one of the many innvoations of the industrial age tie into our world today. Without the trains, and then the steel industry and other innovations of the industrial age, none of our modern appliances and buildings would exist today. 

Labor Practices

Nike has faced many accusation regarding unfair labor conditions including child labor, "sweatshop labor", unfair pay, and unsafe conditions. The company has started taking steps by revising the factory code of conduct, as well as hiring auditing firms to regularly carry out safety checks. Nike is not a singularity in this which we viewed in the video regarding Nestle and coconomics. This raised the question of if companies are truly doing enough, or if they care enough since there are still many accusations and lawsuits today.


NIke child labor

Supply Chain Management

 "Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is to reduce inventory (with the assumption that products are available when needed)." 

-Supply chain management

Smoke Signals

      Smoke Signals, a movie directed by Araphao tribe member Chris Eyre, portrays the idea of being burdened by your history and ancestors, through the struggles and stereotypes faced by Victor and Thomas on their symbolic journey.
      The problems presented by Native American history were exemplified in this movie through displays of poverty, alcoholism, isolation, and sterotypes. Like their ancestors, Thomas and Victors lives existed on the fairly desolate, and boring confines of their reservation. The movie shows the lack of excitment and life by emphasizing points such as how everyone knows each others buisness, the small school and basketball team, as well as the opening radio lines discussing the "usual" traffic, meaning that there is none as always. The isolation and monotony of life on the reservation is definetley not the most significant problem, as poverty takes the lead. For characters Victor and Thomas, neither of their respective families are able to generate a proper income. However, it does not seem that they are singularities in this circumstance, as the entire town appears to be poverty struck. Victor places the blame on his forefathers and their lost battles, which we (as the viewer) notice when Victor shows us that he believes in the white view of the Indians, not as fisherman but ferocious warriors. From a greater view, we see that Victor  feels he is carrying a burden of his ancestors, as he desperatley tries to reflect the "white mans" view rather than the true roots of his heritage. Victor even tells his dad that he does not have a favorite Indian. 
        In the movie, Victor displays his hatred for alcohol as it changed his dad to be abusive and ill-tempered. Indians are often stereotyped to be alcholics, but as displayed in the movie, it is not complteley myth. This is one other reason that causes Victor to be confused whether or not he should be proud of his hisotry. 
        As Victor and Thomas travel to Phoenix, Arizona to collect the ashes of Victor's father, they face "cowboys" on the bus which eventually leads to them being placed in the back of the bus. Thomas says,  "The cowboys always win", and Victor is once again reminded of the negatives of being an Indian. However, on the way back, Victor swerves in the road to avoid a car wreck. He is then stereotyped and accused of being drunk and the cause of the wreck, by the man who is actually to be blame. At this moment, he realizes that the wreck was not his fault, and neither was his father running away. He also realizes he should not be blaming his ancestors or his father like the man blamed him. He then comes to terms with his history on the way back, and is able to return to the reservation with pride he didnt have when he left. 

The Sioux Chef

Sean Sherman, now also known as the Sioux Chef,  had the goal of sharing his heritage with others, as well as reviving the native food culture amongst contemporary chefs. He did this through an extensive amount of research, by drawing information from his elders who continue to use the native american way of cooking today. By doing so, he was able to contrast the modern styles with those of his ancestors. Instead of solely using Native American recipies, he decided to instead eliminate the major factors which set apart the two cultures- including certain cooking techniques as well as unnatural or processed ingredients. This created a modern cuisine which subsituted many ingredients with healthy natural ones, as well as spices, vegetables, and berries which were commonly identified with the original native american cuisine. He then went on to revive original recipies, some even being from his childhood. He now shares his Sioux Chef cuisine with many, and it has drawn alot of attention for being extremely healthy. However, this also serves a greater purpose as he is able to accuratley share part of his heritage in an uncontroversial way, leading to an increased interest in the culture, causing people to want to learn more. That trend can help revive more customs as well as continuing to preserve them. 

NY Times article

NPR

The Atlantic article

Rock Mountain Husbandman

         Diamond City Montana is a small town on the west facing slopes of the Big Belt Mountains. In 1876, many of the newspaper articles related to railroads, agricultural issues, as well as a negative view upon all of those who were not white.
         This was a town secluded from the rapidly growing world. The nearest railroad was over 35 miles away, which was the cause of many of the articles to surround the topic of a new taxing system to start a fund to extend the railroad into the town. Since there was no railroad, this town also faced agricultural issues that came with not having access to the materials needed to keep up with the growing population or changing needs of people. The town started as a solely white town, and without a railroad, few to none non-whites were coming in, keeping the views opinionated and racist. 


newspaper

ISIS Human Trafficking

          Human trafficking is still an actively growing issue today as terrorist organizations such as ISIS are starting to play a larger role.  There are many reasons as to why ISIS is able to succesfully continue this trade, most revolving around the conditions this group works around. Many locations native to terrorist groups such as this one, are usually poverty struck which causes a drastic need for money. This need is used to attract desperately poor young women, by offering them supposedly sustainable jobs, but in reality they end up kidnapped or sold. Other conditions in which this occurs include cities torn by war and politics which leave many people of third world areas homeless, and children uncared for, making them vulnerable to ISIS members. The efforts to stop human and sex trafficking are slowly increasing, but in cities such as Aleppo and Damascus these efforts typically go unnoticed since there is a strong historical culture of exploitation and the devaluation of women. 

        ISIS utilizes human trafficking and sex trafficking to intimidade populations by crushing them pyschologically, to generate revenue, and to reward succesful combatants  (typically with a young girl). The increasing fear of being kidnapped at any time creates a sense of fear and trauma amongst most young women. It has the ability to mentally destroy communities by keeping them in fear as well as sending a political message stating that ISIS can do whatever they want. These terrorist groups are able to greatly profit from trafficking by selling women based on the buyers needs. However, this has caused a growing spread of health risks such as HIV and aids, not only amongst the civilian population but the ISIS combatants as well. 

        Terrorist organizations are now also using social media and local "outreach" groups to attract young girls of a certain type, before enslaving or selling them. This happens in almost every community all over the world including America which is why everyone needs to be aware and concious of the threat.