Course Relflection

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During this course there were two lectures that really stood out to me. The first lecture that stood out to me was the one where we discussed the German train.  The other lecture that stood out to me was Dr. Brook’s lecture about human rights around the world.

When Dr. Kopp from the German department came, she started class off with the video of the German trolley.  As an active user of CoMO Connect, I am defiantly fascinated how other cites transit systems work. The way the fare system on the German train works is similar to the Metrolink in St. Louis.  You pay the fare at the station, but for the most part you are on the honor system.

The video was about 10 minutes long.  Eight of those minutes was just this old lady just ranting about how she hates people who are different than her. Even though I didn’t understand the German she spoke, I could still tell she was using profane language. Finally, the poor Black man sitting next to her had enough and literally ate her ticket!

What was shocking was during that lady’s rant, nobody bothered to really do anything, but people were aware of what was happening Additionally, people did notice the ticket being eaten, but said nothing. Even though I understand why the man ate the lady’s ticket, that man really had no right to eat her ticket, just as much as she did not have a right to behave the way she did. Finally, when the lady got in trouble, she got in trouble for fare dodging (which is something she is not guilty of), but she did not get in trouble for her obscene behavior.

If that incident happened in America, I’d say there is a 50% chance that old lady would have gotten in trouble for her obscene behavior. However, I would be almost positive, that the black man would have been busted for eating someone else’s ticket!

Switching topics, the other lecture that stood out the me was when Dr. Brooks showed up the map from Reports without Borders. Journalism is something near and dear to me.  While I am not a journalism major, I was on my high school newspaper, so I have a good understanding how journalism works.  Also, my father is a copy editor for The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, so journalism runs in my family.

The other part of that lecture that really hit close to home was when Dr. Brooks talked about how bad the newspaper industry is hurting. My father has been with the newspaper for 31 years. He has been there during the peak of newspapers, and now at the downfall of the papers. He has seen several rounds of layoffs in the past decade, and he is one the last remaining copy editors, and he is unsure how long he can keep his job.

I could not agree more with the point brought up about the importance of the newspaper industry, even in a world where print media is dyeing. Most of our news still comes from a newspaper company, and newspaper used to be the most profitable part of the operation. But now, newspaper companies can’t make any money, and companies are at risk of folding. It would be a bad thing because they still provide most of our news, and they are the ones who do the in-depth reporting, and ask the tough questions. Without these newspaper companies, free speech as we know it could be put into danger.

The last thing I need to mention is about my research on Brazil. Researching Brazil definably made me a better researcher. At the beginning of the semester, I knew vary little about Brazil. The reason I picked Brazil was because I once sold an item on eBay to a customer in Brazil.  The blog posts helped me learn about different aspects about life in a different country, and about corruption at its worst.

I found this to be a really cool course. I learned about Globalization from many different perspectives. Almost every week we had a different guest lecture, on a different topic. Then, since this was a writing intensive course, I got to focus on the material from the course I really connected to, and learn more about it. I am hoping to take PEA_STU 4810 next fall so I can finish up my certificate, because I really enjoyed what we did in this class.