And We Sold the Rain

A similar situation with Bolivia's water system happens in this story. The Cochabamba protests of 2000, also known as the Cochabamba Water War were protests made from the Bolivian people against the government  of Bolivia and the United States because the government of Bolivia sold the water system to the USA by putting it up for auction and when the water service was privatized by the Americans the cost of the water went skyrocket and people couldn't afford to pay for their water service. The high costs for water services made the Bolivians furious and started protesting for the precious liquid which brought a state of emergency to certain states of Bolivia but nothing could be done about the privatization of the services since the government replied to the protests "There is nothing to negotiate."

I found this decision extremely foolish and selfish, why would you as a governor or as a president sell your own water to another country? Seriously how stupid can you be as to sell the life giving liquid to someone else? That's like selling your own life to someone else, nothing can survive without water and apparently the Bolivian Government didn't realized that or maybe greed was too big at the moment, besides when there's money involved people seems to get stupider and stupider when it comes to taking decisions, maybe the $2.5 billions  where greater than the town suffering. 

Eveline

A confusing story but a fascinating one indeed, still a common story for some people today who live with an abusive father and a submissive mother, in fact an example of learned behavior from Eveline. She shows how terrorized she is about the fact of leaving her bullying father to the point where she can't even take a step towards Frank and stays in the "dirty pond" she has for a life, her father aside from being abusive won't even let Eveline have her own money, talk about a father! I know that I am a male but I'm completely against the macho abusive kind of male figure that some people are used to live with, even though Eveline's father was a kind fellow when his wife was still alive but then he somewhat took it out on her daughter when his wife died, maybe because she resembled her dead mother too much and he was rebellious that he couldn't have his beloved wife and that turned him into the animal he became. The story should have ended differently in my entire own opinion, she should have left everything that was troubling her and making her life a living hell, if it was up to me I would have definitely gone with Frank and live my life and if things didn't worked out as planned well there is always a tomorrow and at least I wouldn't be in my house with my father as my biggest threat and enemy.

      Sackville Street Dublin Ireland 

Looking for a Rain God

A clear example of how far a human being can go when in need of something so precious as water. After all they all lived from what they could cultivate from the soil, without water there was no life. As everyone knows "desperate times call for desperate measures" but I think Mokgobja and the rest of the villagers were too far as to kill two of the girls even though it was clear that they care little for them both as they were always in the background, seldom said a word and also had sings of negligence from the older people in the house. The girls often imitated the adults going like "You stupid thing!" and such  clearly there was verbal abuse from their parents.

As far as the religious beliefs goes on this story I certainly can't agree with what they did, religious beliefs and culture are wonderful, should be respected and are part of what a certain country is, but to go to the point of killing a little girl so it could rain? That's just messed up, rain falls down from condensed water in the clouds not because of a human sacrifice or an animal sacrifice. To attempt against the life of a living being for a religious belief, that I can't agree with.

Short story "Paper"

You can tell the huge amount of ambition in this story and somewhat greed, the greed for money to buy the perfect dream house. Tay Soon and Yee Lian got so obsessed with this idea of a perfect house of living the good life that they risked everything they had in a unstable market such as the stock market not knowing that stocks can fall as fast as they go up. Personally I believe they should have listened to Tay Soon's mother and should had put their money to better use, besides what's so great about having such luxury clearly this is a case of "Experience and age make the devil wiser than his being a devil." Tay Soon's mother knew that being greedy and easy earned money goes away as easy as it came, easy come easy go. Sometimes is a very good idea to actually listen to the elderly as they are full of wisdom and may see problems such as Tat's and Yee's problem with more experience and actually see problems when they come disguised as money.

I found the title of the story kind of ironic because all the gains Tay Soon made in stocks were paper gains which he wanted to buy his "dream house" and at the end of the story he dies without a penny and the only way he can have his house is made out of paper bought by the woman he never listened to.

Dead Men's Path

By Chinua Achebe, in this story we see another case of how tradition, different religions and different points of views gets everything into a mess. Honestly I believe that Mr.Obi was wrong when he mentioned the words "The whole purpose of our school,is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic." I found it ignorant and almost childish that someone wants to destroy a tradition, I mean aren't traditions the foundation of a society? Isn't tradition what someone's great-grandparents used to do and how they raised our grandparents and so on until the day we were born? Besides Obi wanted to Christianize everything and everyone, stepping on top of everyone's beliefs without thinking about a solution for the problem, they could have both come to an agreement and not end up how everything turned out as the mess it did. Personally even if a cultural belief looks stupid infront of certain person or a different culture, it should be respected and show respect towards it. Old traditions have a special thing about them, a certain magic, mystic to a certain point and that is they should be valued and respected, since nowadays no one takes the time to find new ways to revive that special magic that our ancestor created.

The Grass Eaters

Sincerely, up until now the only short story I have really liked and actually enjoyed reading. The story was in some way a horrible way to see the reality that people in India live with the caste system, a horrible system I would say.  I remember the Professor asking me if Krishnan Varma was criticizing the government or the situation going on in India  personally I believe he is. Anyone that shows the entire world how badly people live in a country or a certain place is, how people die from starvation specially kids, how people see the killing of other human beings as normal or how  marginalized the government has his own people, is surely criticizing. Maybe the author is not doing it explicitly maybe he portrays it as normal so not everybody sees that he is criticizing but implicitly hes doing it. I mean I wouldn't write a story of how bad criminality, drugs problems and the government is  in Puerto Rico without the intention of making a critic, some people may see it as a critic and some may see it as something someone wrote because he wanted to. I liked the way he portrayed everything as it was, crude, without pouring glitter over his words and the situation to make it look pretty or maybe what it really isn't to suit the liking's of anyone.

Shinto marriage

Traditional Japanese marriage with the traditional wedding Yukata for the man and the wedding Kimono and veil for the lady from the Shinto Religion.

Shinto is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the people of Japan.

Marriage Is a Private Affair

Marriage should definitely be a private affair no one should tell you who you should marry, what religion that person needs to be or even that that person should have any religion at all to marry you. Sometimes people blinded by their religious beliefs or traditions judge other people like Okeke in Marriage Is a Private Affair judging Nene for being from another group or tribe and having different religion and a different lifestyle. I believe marriage should be kept a private affair between the couple because that way no one could interfere with whom someone loves besides they are the ones who are going to get married and live together till death do them apart, sometimes people meddle in things they shouldn't like in the story, Okeke shouldn't have judge someone for not being the same as him, personally I believe that religious beliefs and tradition should be respected but until a certain point, as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's happiness or true realization. Okeke is the classic stubborn, closed-minded, old fellow who wouldn't change his beliefs for the world which is wrong, sometimes religion beliefs and tradition are not everything and aren't always right, sometimes being a little flexible and a bit open-minded could change your world, the world of your loved ones in a positive way and maybe even let see the people surrounding you that you are not an ogre who only thinks about himself.  

Poem analysis

I Carry Your Heart With Me by Edward Estlin Cummings

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)



This poem is a beautiful piece of literature about deep, profound love, almost unreal love. It's very easy to read the poem and understand that the writer was madly in love with someone. The imagery could possibly be the way he describes the deepest secret nobody knows as the tree called life probably referring to the tree of life who imparts eternal life, showing the reader that his love is as eternal and never dying as the tree of life. The theme as stated before is deep profound love whom Cummings felt for a loved one letting that person know how dear she was to him, the setting is not really specified but since the words "I carry it in my heart" are mentioned, you can tell that these are the words of his heart and his feelings and therefore assume that everything takes place inside Cummings' heart. As it's Edward Estlin Cummings style his poems break the rule of the metrics and the poems go their own way.