The movie Life of Pi dives into the story of Pi Patel, and Indian man who grew up in South India and later, through a crazy story, found his way to the United States. While traveling, his ship carrying zoo animals had sunk, and Pi found himself stuck on a life boat with a zebra and a tiger. The story surrounds his journey on the boat finding his way home. The part of the story I will be diving into however is the beginning, his cultural upbringing. The movie is depicted as an older Pi reflects on his past for a prospective biography writer, which gives Pi a chance to explain how his upbringing had effected how he viewed this adventure both through his culture and religions. Pi had a traditional Indian family structure, growing up working with his father and helping his mother around the home. Pi grows up with great respect and affection towards his brother, Ravi, as well which he explained plays out in the way he treated the animals on the boat with him with a similar type of love. Pi however sometimes had a problem with the way his father had treated the animals he worked with, which was occasionally in a more violent sense, and that aspect of the job was always a struggle for him, which explains the way he would not act violently towards the animals on the boa. Nutritionally, Pi grew up practicing three religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. This different style of religion sometimes had him an outsider amongst people in India, yet it had also led to a more rooted life and virtues. Moving forward in the movie, it is at times hard to watch the trauma that Pi goes through, and for me personally, watching the aggression of the tiger towards the zebra who in a sense represents Pi, was not pleasant. Knowing that the movie is based on a true story also just keeps the anticipation high throughout the film. Pi goes through many struggles throughout his early life as well as his adventure on the boat, and he discovers a strong identity within himself and who he is, as well as realizing a new sense of self and appreciation for life. I highly recommend this movie if you have not seen it!
Author: niemi.32
Yo This Is Podcast
Ethan: Hello and welcome to the Ethan Niemi show I’m here with a friend of mine who wont be named but we’re just going to get in some different topics
Friend: Hello
Ethan: Mostly we are going to try to touch on classism in the United States so our first topic will be my friend here real quick description of that
Friend: OK so food not bombs is a leftist organization dedicated to getting food to hungry people who wouldn’t necessarily be able to get that food we don’t have any formal leadership there is no hierarchy throughout the entire organization, there is no national chapter but there are plenty of of individual chapters in the United States and throughout the rest of the world and 65 different countries over 1000 cities have a chapter we protest war, poverty, and the destruction of the environment. We take food from grocery stores. We take donations from bakeries that would have to throw out because at the end of the day, we take donations from food banks and just normal people and we take those and share them with people no questions asked we don’t purity test if your hungry and you want food you can come and you can just get food. Food is a human right.
Ethan: Great so we can do our first topic during the winter storm in February there is an instance in Portland of a grocery store throwing out large sums of food they were lost in a power outage so in general our general first topic is going to be a grocery regulation United States so some some facts to pull up or the United States makes or sorry that the world makes enough food to feed 10 billion people and 11% of the United States is food insecure which is absolutely absurd especially in the country that we live in is crazy to think about. And a lot of that goes back to the grocery regulations.
Friend: Yeah like he said 11 percent of the united state population doesn’t know whether or not they are going to afford rent or groceries. they have to choose between one or the other and if they go with food they’re full but then they’re also potentially going to become homeless and if they go with rent well then you’re hungry neither of which should ever be a thing in the wealthiest country on the planet
Ethan: yeah so it’s definitely a hard topic to think about especially just with the wealth that me him and he knows and most people at Ohio State still been kind of born into sometimes hard to view what it would be like to be food insecure but you see regulations from the federal government forcing grocery store to throw out food and and what people try to go for that food you find problems coming in such as in Portland the police force stepping in and we see that they were stopping still going strong trying to get to the dumpsters when they’re hungry which just it’s it’s trash to the grocery store yet for some reason it’s such an injustice for people to be trying to find that food, even though it’s in the dumpsters.
Friend: Yeah the police do not protect or serve the people like a lot of people tend to believe its splattered on the cars and all over their iconic iconografie but there of been multiple different supreme court rulings that stated constitutionally they have no duty to protect and serve the population that’s why we see police guarding food when hungry people people that have the organization they have the infrastructure to take that food and get it to people that normally wouldn’t be able to get it they stop that. They serve the capital interests of the grocery stores they serve the interests of the individual states and the people that make the regulations if they were to serve people then why did they threaten to arrest anyone who got too close not even going to the dumpster but just questioning them getting too close
Ethan: yeah looking at it was kind of going on there to hear sort of the other side of the police station in the state Traffic control trying to stop a possible uprising in that area when it was just people trying to get the food they need it which is absolutely absurd, you think that other area of the individual to police the policeman there versus the police is a whole station and just the department going out those areas especially during the winter storm you think all of the police have to be doing all the traffic accident stuff like that that they should be regulating and and just the traffic problems, people are having accidents, people who may need help certain places are the elderly and some other homes might need some help stuff like that yet their most pressing matter is standing next to a dumpster making sure the hungry don’t get food which which leads kind of into our next topic which would be police mistreatment
Friend: United States so over the last year I would say there’s a huge topic to topic is sort of blown up just about George Floyd last year and a lot of people that don’t have regular run-ins with the police don’t live in underprivileged areas they don’t see that kind of treatment that poor people and minorities face on a day-to-day basis from the police. the only glimpse is they ever get are from the news videos they post on the Internet of police doing something wrong defunding the police does not mean taking the police away completely the police still would be there but the idea that the police have many many millions of dollars in their annual budget and their monthly budget to afford military equipment and wraps grenades drones body armor and then they going to take these toys or they get and or the cool thing wants to do they want to go use them and the only way to use them for those people article out and in the streets and stop protesting against their violence if they’re committing
Ethan: I feel like there is sometimes a misconception when people say defund the police and you see more reviews on saying like no we need a police don’t defund the police there their jobs
mandatory but let’s get rid of all the police officers
Friend: correct
Ethan: It doesn’t mean let’s take away all their protective wearing stuff like that it’s it’s defund them in the sense of the idea that some of the expenses that they have are not necessary for the job that they do and and the goal of defending them is not to make them more vulnerable it’s up to you to out them so they can’t do their job correctly us to enforce that they have only the equipment mandatory for the job they’re suited to do and it’s it it frustrates people when you get a chance. We are told to view the police as people that are there to protect us always and although that might be the big goal of the job as a whole that’s not always what you say especially the funny they have it’s not been given to them just for our protection.
Friend: no the goal of defunding the police is to take away the over bloated and unnecessary budgets that they get and take that money and put it in other areas that aren’t getting that money like healthcare mental health treatments addiction and overdose treatments as well as education about drugs decriminalizing drugs so that people aren’t being taken by the police to jail for 20 years for owning a plant stuff like that that isn’t being funded but the police are and they’re using those toys are they getting all these all these allowances that police unions help get them to do wrong by the people And like they have for you since the police were conception conception the first police were sleep catchers
Ethan: also another view is to continue our conversation that goes that the police are there just for our protection which will go into our next topic of guns and self protection on the idea of that and United States there’s a lot of debate on the legality or the regulations think I should have went very personal person for our topic will be talking about we’re talking
Friend: about the black panther party in the mulford act for that so a long time ago during the civil rights era the black panther party began to open carry firearms in their streets and in their neighborhoods to not literally fight back against the police but to fight back against Arresting them on phony bogus charges stopping them unconstitutionally and just generally being a menace as well as of course brutalizing them and beating them the black panther party decided that enough was enough and they decided we’re going to take our guns were going to go to police the police and it worked incredibly well the police were not able as able to get further and further into these neighborhoods they were not able to do what they were doing and like that and Ronald Reagan with full bipartisan support the Democratic Party the Republican Party and the NRA as governor of California at the time sign the Mulfurd act for that which essentially disarmed all of the black panther party they made open carry illegal and as retaliation the police were they able to go in uncontested and retaliate
Ethan: in my opinion People should have the right to use a sensitive topic the idea of being able to police the police and then where does the hierarchy and if a person is above all the people they’re going to feel less regulation on himself which in some senses can be a good thing the idea that we shouldn’t be able to be terrorized by the police in our communities but at the same time you have to understand that that doesn’t give an excuse for you to feel as though you have the same options see as it’s a hard topic to talk about the idea of that we’re not trying to to bolster attacks on police officers that step out of bounds any idea that they are jobs as citizens and civilians or stand up for communities in a way that the police are not in many instances but also the same time you don’t see people and you don’t see you call your neighbors when your house is getting intruded. The people in the community to be able to do some of the policing there is definitely people that should not be doing policing in those areas where I can read the future problems
Closing Ethan: Unfortunately that is all we have time for but thank you for listening
Pakistani Persecution After September 11th
The Reluctant Fundamentalist tells the story of Changez, a Pakistani man who moved to the United States to attend college at Princeton. Throughout his time in the United States he created different relationships, however the largest being with a women named Erica. As he tells his story, a clear depiction of the changes he goes through as he sees the way the United States truly sees foreigners are shown.
As Changez tells the story of his time in the United States he explains how Princeton created a sense of value to him through US patriotism, engraining the thought that he was valued as a member of the American society and how he will one day use his gifts and knowledge to give back to the country. However, after the events of September 11th, he had quickly gone from being a “valued” member of society and possible future American beneficiary, to a potential future threat.
The persecution of Pakistani Americans quickly took over Changez life, and his eyes were opened to just how situational American tolerance towards foreigners is. His relationship with Erica is hurt, as well as his career and social life.
The persecution of Changes tells a lot, including how the persecution was able to effect all social classes and age groups, however some more than others. From research it is shown that most likely from his economic status, Changez, as a higher member of society, was most likely effected less than those of a lower social class.
After the attacks of September 11th, people groups of the Greater Middle East living in America were treated with great disrespect and injustice. Pakistani students were harassed by teachers, and employers treated unfairly from their employers.
In Salt Lake City on September 13th, 2001, a Pakistani owned restaurant was burned to the ground by a man who later plead guilty to the crime. Again on September 13th, 2001, a man set fire to multiple cars outside of an Islamic Mosque. A group of four were all arrested after threatening and plotting to attack an Islamic Education Center.
These crimes were not only committed to attack individual Middle Eastern and Islamic peoples, but used as a way to drive out an entire culture from the actions of few. For many, including the character Changez, these actions worked, and were what ultimately fueled his Anti-American teachings back in Pakistan.
The United States has shown that people are only accepted when they have something to offer, and when something goes wrong rather than combat the problem with competency and reason, simply make a scapegoat of an entire people group.
This form of treatment is what drove Changez away from the United States and fueled his anti-American agenda back in Pakistan. Both the character Changez as well as the American view of Middle Eastern foreigners changed throughout the story.
Works Cited
Combating post-9/11 discriminatory backlash. (2015, August 06). Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://www.justice.gov/crt/combating-post-911-discriminatory-backlash-6
Diary of Systemic Injustices Showcase – Winter Storm Uri
In late February, the United States had gone through an extremely hard time as a winter snow storm barreled through the majority of the country. This storm his hard both in severity of the precipitation and temperatures, but also that it had hit areas not prepared or equipped for a snow storm of this magnitude. The storm left millions of people without power, creating a spiral of different problems from there. Although homes took a hard hit, the homeless and less fortunate people in the were hit hard during this time as well. I had been so fully distracted from my own homes loss of power that I did not even imagine what other people could have been going through. It was not until a conversation with a friend who works with an organization called Food Not Bombs. The summarized goal of this group is to support the homeless and those without direct and easy access to food. He had told me a story about Portland, that during the storm grocery stores had lost power and had to throw out fully packaged and untouched perishable foods due to health regulations. All of this food was placed into the dumpsters behind the store and those less fortunate had come to hopefully find food that was perhaps kept fresh from the cold and still available, however the city had sent police officers to stop anyone from attempting to take any of the food through threat of arrest.
The injustices that go only daily towards the homeless, jobless, and hungry are sickening. To station police officers during a time of so much chaos to stop the “theft” of food sitting in a dumpster is baffling. Along with that, my immediate response was to be angry at the grocery store for throwing out the food instead of being able to simply donate it to those effected by the storm, however I found that the health codes written would not allow them to do anything but trash it. Grocery stores are required to throw out any food that does not fulfill the health code requirements despite it often still being good for longer. Over 42 billions pounds of food are thrown out by grocery stores annually, and none of it is allowed to be given to the less fortunate due to injustices in the health code system in America. In America, it is easy to see those less fortunate or in a lower class as the “other” as described by Simone De Beauvoir, making it easy to put them outside not realizing the impact certain actions may have on them. Although the health code written was most likely not meant to hurt the hungry, the authors clearly took no time to think how slight changes could help those in need, and stop the waste of food in America. An interesting blog post that talks about the food wasted by grocery stores is linked to this sentence here.