Emilio's Blog Critique

The second blog I chose to critique was titled "Hunger and Homelessness" by Emilio B on March 18, 2010. The first thing I noticed was the black background which made everything on the page stick out. Also, I loved the quote he had put on the top of the page by Mother Theresa as it greatly relates to the topic of homelessness. His YouTube video titled "A Day in the Life of the Homeless" seemed to portray what homelessness and poverty is really like. It felt so real. There was a part in the video where a homeless man who lives under a bridge was saying he was scared of the guy who was taping the video. This was interesting because one would think it would have been the man taping the video who would be scared considering he was not in his own territory and that the homeless man would have felt more comfortable because he was in his familiar surroundings. The video showed men, women and children with real people telling their difficult stories as to how they got to where they are. It was an emotional video and at the end it was said that one of the homeless men who told their story was arrested for salvaging scrap metal that was found on the street. This shows reality which in this case is that the homeless are treated extremely unfair. There are many more pressing issues in which the police should be arresting people for instead of for collecting scrap metal. Additionally, Emilio had pictures of homeless people on his blog which really adds to the topic of homelessness. His page is not just filled with posts but also with pictures and videos which made it more interesting.

Lastly, Emilio's post on Seccombe ch.2 on Individualism is what I also chose to discuss on my blog. I had a different opinion on the discussion of Individualism in the text. I feel I more agreed with Seccombe than he did. He said motivation is extremely important when trying to get out of poverty and that the individual should be the first to act in finding means of improving their situation. He also said that unfortunately many lack this motivation and become accepting of their living conditions no matter how poor they are. I disagree with this. It's not about how motivated they are or aren't nor do I feel they become accepting of their situation. They are stuck in between a rock and a hard place because many times there is nothing they can do to get themselves out of poverty. It is because of the way our society is socially and economically structured which is why the poor become more poor and the rich become more rich. We treat the homeless as a burden when they should be a priority. Given their situation, I feel motivation has little to do with improving their problem.