alrighty.

Well, I really liked these couple of sentences that I just wrote, therefore I thought I would post them, so I could remember them (and of course, for you to admire them):

"Recently, the phrase “migrant workers” has been appearing frequently in the headlines. Usually preceded by the words “illegal” or “exploited”."

The day has come, for the LAN[!] WOHOO

I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty excited.

ANYWAY, today is also the due date for the storyboards, and my group is essentially done. The reason I tentatively use the word "essentially" is because we are planning on making further revisions to our script (beautify it and all that jazz), therefore, we are not technically done. Although, are we ever really done?

storyboards.

Well, the storyboards are due tomorrow, so that was our main priority today during work time. We didn't manage our time very wisely, and were just starting to draw them today, which put us at a disadvantage because we couldn't get them critiqued by our peers. This did not go unnoticed, and we have learned from our mistake (hopefully).

ANYWAY, for now I am working on re-writing the opening narration sequence for the final draft of our script.

three!

Continuing on with the "5 recycled sources", I was looking through blogs, and I came accross a very informative link off of Christopher Connell's page:




The artice itself was extremely text heavy, and a little dense. However, there was plenty of information that could be used to make our documentary seem more "professsional.

Script Rough Draft (Updated)

Here is our script so far (I am posting this so my group mates will have easy access to it):

ROUGH Draft of Script (1)

(Narration) Most people have a pre-formulated concept about the lives of migrant workers and illegal immigrants in the United States.
(Mari) So, __________, what kind of lives do you think that illegal immigrants lead?
(Three peer interviewees) _______________________________

In reality, migrant workers have had, for hundreds of years, lead lives of discrimination and difficulty. Many people may think of migrant workers as being solely Mexican, but in reality, the history of immigrant labors stretches to many countries. Some early workers, from the 1800s, had roots in China and Japan, coming to California for a better life, but being met with poor conditions, low pay, and racism. Filipino workers, who came to the states in the 1890s after the Spanish occupation, were bound by unfair, discriminating laws that kept them in isolated, destitute conditions.

Latin American workers, which will be the main focus of our segment, started coming to the states during the Great Depression. Due to the ruined financial state of the country, their wages were often extremely low, and the labor was time-intensive and rough. Conditions were unforgiving and workers were rarely able to better their lives, having to keep working to barely escape bankruptcy.

In the last decade, the issue of illegal immigration has become more and more pressing, and more awareness has arisen towards the problems that occur with the increasing presence of a migrant labor force.

We at ___news organization___ are going to discuss the problems that specifically affect those workers, such as housing, wages, and health issues.

Economically, the united states is more dependant on the flow of migrant labor than many would imagine. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, migrant workers in the United States sent home a collective $62.3 billion dollars in 2006, which is a 14% increase from 2005. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have the highest receiving rate of remittances. With the pressing issue of illegal immigration however, the INDB estimates that the number of remittances will begin to decline, which could have negative effects on the economies of not only the recipients, but the United States as well.

Migrant farm workers as a whole do not have adequate housing, and the issue is often glossed over by the government.
In some circumstances, employers are not required to provide housing for their workers, and thus, it is upon the migrant worker themselves to find shelter for their families, on a sub par minimum wage. Also, if the worker does not have legal status, housing seems an even bigger nuisance, as many land lords mandate that tenants provide proof of legal residence. Those who speak out against the assimilation of illegal immigrants into US society, such as groups like the minute men, argue that this is knowledge that all illegal immigrants choose to accept, and that should they obtain legal citizenship the proper way. However, the current legal process is a taxing and time consuming affair that can take several years. Meanwhile, outsourcing of work seems to be increasing at a rapid pace, and creates difficult situations for the people in countries of which many migrant workers originate from, creating a cyclical pattern of opportunity forming into exploitation.

(insert info here)

Here, we interview ___person___ on the subject of migrant workers.
(interview questions here).

Part Deux

Continuing on with the five resources borrowed from my classmates assignment, I decided to check out my group mates blogs, considering that we are researching the same topic essentially.

I found a really nice link on Vanessa's blog:
http://www.pdhre.org/rights/migrants.html

The reason I enjoyed it so much is because it included quotations from important world conferences held on behalf of human rights protection. For example, the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna. There was an obvious bias in the composure of the site, however the bias is the same one that my group mates and I are trying to portray, and they also back up their arguments with textual evidence, which is a powerful persuasion technique.

Revise!

OKAY, well today was the due date for the rough draft of the script[!] and somehow we managed to make the deadline, despite communication obstacles and etc. We reached the conclusion that ours was formatted more for an essay, rather than a script for a movie. Olivia, Chris, and Adrian helped us see this after they critiqued our script.

I think that the peer reviews were a beneficial exercise, however, I do feel they would have been more so had we taken the first draft deadline a little more seriously, and had better time management skills.

script[!]

Here is what I have written thus far for the script (which truly lives up to the "rough draft" title):

Economically, the united states is more dependant on the flow of migrant labor than many would imagine. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, migrant workers in the United States sent home a collective $62.3 billion dollars in 2006, which is a 14% increase from 2005. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have the highest receiving rate of remittances. With the pressing issue of illegal immigration however, the INDB estimates that the number of remittances will begin to decline, which could have negative effects on the economies of not only the recipients, but the United States as well.

Migrant farm workers as a whole do not have adequate housing, and the issue is often glossed over by the government. In some circumstances, employers are not required to provide housing for their workers, and thus, it is upon the migrant worker themselves to find shelter for their families, on a sub par minimum wage. Also, if the worker does not have legal status, housing seems an even bigger nuisance, as many land lords mandate that tenants provide proof of legal residence. Those who speak out against the assimilation of illegal immigrants into US society, such as groups like the minute men, argue that this is knowledge that all illegal immigrants choose to accept, and that should they obtain legal citizenship the proper way. However, the current legal process is a taxing and time consuming affair that can take several years. Meanwhile, outsourcing of work seems to be increasing at a rapid pace, and creates difficult situations for the people in countries of which many migrant workers originate from, creating a cyclical pattern of opportunity forming into exploitation.


What was interesting about writing this, was that in the first paragraph, I literally took parts of what I had already paraphrased in a blog post a while back. I guess I finally am feeling beneficial for having to update this thing.

Source Sharing

Today I mainly worked on compiling my research so I could funnel it down to what would be necessary to write my portion of the script (which is due friday!).

Also, I took a look at some of my classmates blog's, and on Ryan Curtice's page I found this link: http://www.humanrights-geneva.info/article.php3?id_article=2094

which I found interesting, because there is a clear bias on the issue, and it made me think about subtle ways that we (we, being my group and I) can work in our own bias into the news broadcast. Obviously it won't be as blatantly stated, but it was something to think about.

The site seems pretty reputable because the article on undocumented migrant workers has to do with a court case, as opposed to just a stated opinion.

Exploitation vs. Opportunity

Tonight I focused my research on the migrant workers project, and found some interesting information on the history of it all, or specifically, the Bracero Program.

It was particularly interesting because of the article on the encomienda we read for homework. The Bracero program was essentially a form of exploitation of the Mexican migrant workers, and it reminded me of the Spanish exploiting the Indians.

Perhaps different circumstances, but none the less sad and unnecessary.

http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/themes/story_51_5.html

Death Tolls

Now that the Aztec mini-project has been completed, I have been seriously focusing on researching the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers in the United States.

However, all of my research seems to be leading me to the current conditions from a human rights perspective. There is a lot of criticism on the way the border is being maintained, and the brute force that border patrol seems to be using. On one site in particular, they break down the death toll so you can get a feel for why these unneccesary deaths are occuring (which is kind of an oxi-moron really).

In any case:

http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0646

UNESCO Information

Tonight I focused my research on the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers.

I found a good source that addressed the overall situation for migrant workers in general (not just specifically to the US), so I thought that might help some of my classmates. The page is a UNESCO site, so the text is pretty dense, but it is reliable.

Also, there is a lot of technical information, and facts that sound very reputable, and would fit nicely in a news style video.

Here is the link I used:
http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.php-URL_ID=9093&URL_DO=DO_PRINTPAGE&URL_SECTION=201.html

Earlier today I had my Aztec mini-project presentation, which I felt went rather well. There wasn't a time where I was totally fumbling to think of answer to a question, so that was good.

Now, I am focusing on getting my blog up to date, and doing even more research on the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers.

My goal for this week is to collect three additional sources to site, which is what I am working towards currently.

Tonight I put the finishing touches on my posterboard for the Aztec project, and I made the Aztec chocolate drink. Lucky for me, the Aztec's drank it cold, and not hot like the Mayans, therefore I don't have to worry about heating it up tomorrow at school.

I did not do research for the bigger projects tonight, because the Aztec mini-project held priority in terms of due dates, however I am working on getting the expert source confirmed.

MLA Formatting

This afternoon I mainly worked on compiling exactly what I wanted to put on my visual aid (a poster-board) and found a nifty website to make timelines with:

http://teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timeline/

It allows you to input up to 6 times and events, and automatically formats it for you. I thought this was a great tool, and as I mentioned above "nifty". I hope this helps some of you.

After this I did worked on my bibliography, and put it into MLA format.

Today I worked on my visual aid for the Aztec mini-project, and continued further research on the socio-economic conditions of migrant workers from Latin America.

I read an article written by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), that brought up the issue of gender discrimination in migrant workers, and making migration policies encompass such things.

Also, it discussed non-governmental organizations that have been advocating for migrant worker rights, around the world.

This article was very informative, and very credible considering it was coming from a branch of the United Nations. Therefore, it provided many useful statistics that could be used in our movie, without fear of illegitimacy.

Here is the link I used:

http://www.unfpa.org/swp/2006/english/chapter_5/engendering.html

Today in class, we had time to do research for the mini-project in humanities, however, I unfortunately did not get to the lap-tops in time, and consequently was left to sketch out what my visual aid will look like.

I did do more research at home, and liked one website in particular, because it discussed the religion of the Aztecs from a point of view that wasn't nearly as Anglican as other sites I have found. Most web-sites play up the human sacrifice, and use words like "atrocities" and things with negative connotations. This one was much more "here are the facts, this was there culture".

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAMRCA/AZTECS.HTM

I think I finally understand the purpose of this blog! I haven't been writing much about the project work I have been doing, because I was under the impression that it was more of a "look at what I found" in terms of research only. In any case, here it goes.

Today I mainly did research on for the Aztec mini-project. I focused on music, because that was something I had been interested in making an artifact for. In researching I found that many of the instruments were percussion, and wind instruments, which would be much harder to replicate than say, a string instrument.

The website was actually very interesting, and included sample clips of different Aztec tribal songs: http://www.philtulga.com/Aztec%20Music.html

Migrant Workers & Remittances

According to the Inter-American Development Bank, migrant workers in the United States sent home a collective $62.3 billion dollars in 2006, which is a 14% increase from 2005. Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have the highest receiving rate of remittances, however the remittances were actually more beneficial for the lower income Central American countries, of which the remittances accounted for approximately 10% of the GDP.

With the pressing issue of illegal immigration however, the INDB estimates that the number of remittances will begin to decline, which could have negative effects on the economies of not only the recipients, but the United States as well.

This article was very interesting, because it illustrates the importance of immigrants and migrant workers for the United States economy, which is the leading argument for those who oppose the harsher immigration reforms.


Works Cited:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f94e4d5c-d32b-11db-829f-000b5df10621.html

Basic Aztec Overview

While doing research on the Aztecs, I came across a good starting block website: http://www.aztec-indians.com/

It's easy to navigate, and has a wide array of information. Because of this, it isn't necessarily beneficial for in-depth research. However, I was able to find some interesting facts about traditional instruments from the Aztec civilization.

There isn't a posted author, which makes me a little nervous in terms of credibility, but it doesn't seem to be sponsored by any "questionable sources".

Essentially, this website is great for an "over all" briefing of Aztec culture.