Author: zoghaib.1

Text Review: Animal Farm

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Animal Farm is a fictional novel by George Orwell that was published in 1945. The story is about a group of farm animals trying to create an equal and just society in the farmland after rebelling against their human farmer for being a tyrant. The pigs of the farmland, as being the most intelligent kind of animal present, rise to power and become the leaders of the new farm. Throughout the story, the pigs become more and more tyrannical and manipulative, like taking more food to themselves and making the commandments they made not apply to themselves. By the end of the story, the pigs start behaving exactly like their old human farmer did and brought back their old farm with humans and pigs in charge.

Animal Farm by George Orwell | Penguin Random House Canada

The story revolved around the theme of authoritarian government injustice and how it can bring its citizens into poverty. The animals of the farmhouse had to suffer the consequences of allowing the pigs to get too much power over them. Of course, it was not the farmhouse animals’ faults, as they were manipulated by the intelligent pigs into thinking that if they don’t listen to them, then the humans will come and take the farm back from them. The pigs exploit the farm animals for their labor and gave them little in return. This is an example of how the differences of socioeconomic classes in a society can result in injustice for the inferior class.

Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” heavily relates to this story. Subalterns are described as fragmented groups of marginalized people that have no say or power of what’s going on. Subalterns are different from people who are oppressed, as not only are subalterns are oppressed, but they don’t have any access to the power system in the society. An example of this would be groups of people who are disenfranchised by their lack of education. This example exactly applies to Animal Farm because the pigs were the only animals on the farm that were educated, since they learned how to read and write all by themselves due to their heightened intelligence. The other animals were clueless and just did what they were told out of fear. The farmland animals, in this case, are the “subalterns” of the society since they have absolutely zero power due to their lack of education.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

DSI Showcase: Injustice in Cardiology Workplace

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Racial discrimination in the workplace as been an ongoing problem throughout American history, and it’s still a major problem even in today’s American society. An example of this injustice happening is in the cardiology workplace. In 2015, the American College of Cardiology conducted a Professional Life Survey that confirms the existence of both racial and ethnic discrimination that cardiologists of underrepresented backgrounds still face. The report stated that although 90% of underrepresented cardiologists are satisfied with their work-life, over 50% of them have in fact dealt with discrimination in their work-life, which is greater than the 36% of white cardiologists that have faced discrimination in their work-life. In 2021, Dr. Kevin Thomas of Duke University Research Institute analyzed this 2015 survey and confirms that the data and facts from the survey still apply to today since there hasn’t been barely any change in the cardiology workforce over racial and ethnic discrimination. Dr. Thomas also stated that there have been calls of diversification and antiracism trainings in the field, but nothing was done to combat this discrimination since the study in 2015 came out. This example perpetuates injustice and inequality because of how many cardiologists from underrepresented backgrounds have to deal with discrimination in the workforce. Also, the fact that the study was made in 2015 and still applies today concludes my point that this example of systematic injustice needs more attention and coverage for the nation. If this kind of discrimination is happening in the cardiology workforce, imagine the discrimination in other kinds of jobs that aren’t getting even covered by any sort of media. Discrimination in the workplace as a whole should be eliminated, and America needs to take steps in order to combat it. Discrimination relates to French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir’s concept of the “One” and the “Other”. Her concept basically states that when comparing two groups in a relationship, one group will always contrast the other due to the inequality in identity. The  group that is contrasting the other group is called the “Other” , which is referred as the lesser of the two groups due to inequality. The cardiologists with underrepresented backgrounds are the “Other” group in this whole situation due to the discrimination they face for not being the “One” group, which in this case is being a white cardiologist. Overall, there is clear systematic injustice in the cardiology workforce and change is needed.

 

https://www.healio.com/news/cardiology/20211018/perception-of-discrimination-common-among-cardiologists

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20211019/Racial-and-ethnic-minority-cardiologists-face-discrimination-analysis-reveals.aspx

Persepolis: War and its effects on children

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The Persepolis film, like the book, is portrayed in the perspective of Marjane Satrapi during her childhood and young adult days. Specifically in the beginning of the story, young Marjane saw the Iranian revolution unfold around her first-hand, and she wasn’t the only child. The film clearly shows her and other children being affected by the violent nature of the military and political warfare, like the scene where the kids playing violent games with each other that included concepts like torture and physical harming, which they they learned about listening to their parents talk about the war. The war environment also affected childrens’ social life, like school and making friends, since the war-like environment makes it very unsafe for them, which was included in the film. Children like Marjane had to suffer from the short and long-term consequences that came from this hazardous lifestyle.

Growing up in a war zone is not only very unsafe, but also harmful to children’s growth and their psychological health. There are many kids who have grown up in this harsh environment, as the Organization United Nations Children’s Fund stated in a report in 2017 that the number of children under 7 that have lived through that unsafe environment is around 87 million, and 25 million of them don’t have access to education. Not only a lot of the children are dealing with the scarcity of learning and education, they deal with an overload amount of stress for children, which has a negative effect on their brains since it’s so toxic (Halage, par. 2-4, par 12-13). All these children, whom had no choice, had to live in these dangerous places, and in result, negatively affected all around. A lot of these children also  mature very early than they should just because of growing up in the war-like environment. An example of kids growing up in the war was in Yemen this past decade. At Yemen, the kids are going through very unsafe living conditions, as 1.8 million of are malnourished, 2 million out of school, and more than 11 million children that were in need of humanitarian assistance (English, UNICEF). Many of these kids will never forget growing up in these harsh environments as they grew up with nothing but violence everywhere. These effects will also be lingering on to them for the rest of their lives.

 

English, Joe. “Three million children born into war in Yemen” UNICEF, UNICEF, 16 January 2018, https://www.unicef.org/mena/press-releases/three-million-children-born-war-yemen

Haglage, Abby. “Growing Up in a War Zone Permanently Damages Kids’ Brains” Daily Beast, Daily Beast, 13 April 2017, https://www.thedailybeast.com/growing-up-in-a-war-zone-permanently-damages-kids-brains?ref=scroll