Malaysian Food

I did a little more research on Malaysian Food. Because Malaysia's population can be divided into Malaya's, Chinese and Indian the cuisine is a mixture of those food traditions. This explains why the dish I ordered at Raza Ria seemed so similar to a Chinese dish you could get at any number of Chinese restaurants around town. From the customer service person at Raza Ria I found out that the place has been in business fro 10 years and is family owned. I assume many of the ethnic restaurants around town are family owned, or many different families get together and pool their resources to start a restaurant.

Raza Ria

I went with my dad to Raza Ria, a Malaysian and Indonesian restaurant on West Main yesterday. Raza Ria is in the midst of semi-strip mall type buildings that dot West Main after you have traveled out of downtown and past the Henderson castle. The inside was nothing fancy, little more than cafeteria table and chairs like most cheap Chinese restaurants. The place had a unique smell that is hard to describe. The room was loud as the chatter from the kitchen overflowed into where the customers eat. A teenager of Malaysian or Indonesian descent but fully Americanized took our order and we sat down. I ordered shrimp and chicken mixed with vegetables and my dad ordered rice and beef. My order looked and tasted like a a typical order from any Asian restaurant. I was somewhat disappointed because I was hoping for something a tad more exotic. My dads order looked like dog food, one can't judge food by what it looks like but in this case you could, it was sort sort of beef dish. My dad got sick a day after the meal but I am not sure it's because of the food he ate; it's a mystery. If I go back to Raza Ria again I think I will make sure to order something more exotic, I enjoyed the vibe of the restaurant but the food I received but the food  was a tad too generic compared to what I had hoped for. Just by talking to the customer service person I learned a lot about Malaysia. If you ever do go to Malaysia don't bring any drugs because the punishment for that is death, also don't order the beef.

A movable feast part 2

In Page 50 - 100 Hemingway writes about bicycle racing, horse races meeting other great writers and daily life in Europe. It seems like their is a aimlessness to Hemingway's life outside of his craft of writing. Gertrude Stein dubbed Hemingway's generation the "lost generation" and I can see why. One of the most striking lines in the book I have read to far was Hemingway's claim that he doesn't trust anybody who wasn't in the war. Although not specially described in the book the reader does get the sense that World War I loomed large in Paris of the 1920's. While reading "The movable feast" I often wondered how Hemingway got the money pursue all those activities and interests on a starving artists wages. It seems Hemingway drank at a lot of bars and cafe's, he was sort of a drunk and later in life succumbed to alcoholism leading to a suicidal end. "A Movable Feast" so far as painted a picture of a vibrant artistic community of Americans in Paris, the type of artistic scene that was romanticized and de-romanticized in the Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris" where Hemingway's character is certainly intriguing. Hemingway mentions writing the story "Up in Michigan" He had a cottage on Walloon Lake which is a very beautiful place. My family took a vacation up their one summer. The perch fishing is excellent.

I think it's interesting that young people of the 1920's were refereed to as the lost generation as our generation has also been referred to as a lost generation.

The Hunger Games

For some reason I couldn't really get into the Hunger Games, maybe the plot was a little to far fetched or something. The income divide and quality of life in the book certainly wide ranging and horrifying. I wonder if the author is trying to make some critique of our own society and the growing income gap. I think the reason this book is so popular among teens is because it puts usual high school problems into perspective and provides thrills. I think the book will grab my interest in the next set of chapters.

Jurgis, Sabino and the American Dream

Reading about Jurgis and listening to our guest in class got me thinking about the American Dream and what it means. It seems that the response to the question, What does the American Dream mean to you? reveals a lot about people's background and worldview. Comparing the story of Jurgis in the Jungle with our guest in class with Sabino's seems to give two sides to the American story. Jurgis failed to achieve his dream while Sabino really improved his economic well-being and is confident that his children will have even more economic opportunity. If we were to judge the American economic experience just by listening to both Jurgis's and Sabino's stories it would be easy to get the impression that the ability climb in socioeconomic class is easier now than the past, but is this true?

I started doing some research to find if Sabino's success and Jurgis's failure represented American society as a whole during their respective times. One of the most balanced and nuanced articles I came across was entitled "The Mobility Myth" in the New Yorker. The "Mobility Myth" points out that in virtually any society that has ever existed economic mobility has never been the norm, yet America in late nineteenth century had greater economic mobility than Europe. Stories like Andrew Carnegie starting out as a boy factory worker and later becoming the worlds' richest man made a deep impression on the American psyche, as those rags to riches stories were unique to America. When Upton Sinclair published the Jungle, sociologist Werner Sombart noted that most U.S workers felt they had a good chance of rising out of their class, according to the article.

Things changed in the second half of the 20th century. Americans are no longer more economically mobile than Europeans and there are certain parts of America that are the least economically mobile in all of the devolved world. Despite the lack of class mobility in comparison to Europe take home pay doubled from the late forties to the early seventies in America. People who didn't move up in economic class still saw their wages increase.

ch.14-20

In the first part of the reading Jurgis and his family are still functioning. Slowly Jurgis becomes more and more disillusioned with his life in America and starts drinking heavily. Jurgis's despair is worsened by Ona not coming home one night. Ona eventually admits to Jurgis that she has been forced into prostitution by Connor her boss at the factory and has been raped by him. Jurgis in a fury attacks Connor and is sent to prison. Jurgis finds himself in prison during Christmas eve and recalls the joy had had with his family during the previous Christmas. The judge at Jurgis's trail does not believe his story and he is sentenced to 30 thirty days in prison. Once Jurgis gets out of prison he suffers a tragedy of events, he finds that the family has been evicted, Ona dies in childbirth and he loses his new job.

In chapter 14 through 20 it becomes obvious that the American dream is not working out as planned for Jurgis and the family. These chapters really how the dark underbelly of America's economic system at the dawn of the new century. It's obvious why Sinclair choose the title of "The Jungle", as life in Chicago during this time is like that of a Jungle, with Jungle law. Sinclair portrays Chicago urban life as a situation where the poor have no power and little, everybody must fight for them-self or perish. Sinclair indirectly ask's the reader to put themselves in Jurgis's shoes and probes the question, what would you do? As the book progresses it becomes obvious Jurgis has few options, he does what he can but overall he can't really change his hard life. It becomes more obvious to the reader in these chapters that Sinclair really detests the American economic system of his time and is advocating real and substantial change. Sinclair was a socialist, and saw that as a correction to the problems Jurgis and his family faced.

I think these reading is extremely relevant to the economic issues of today, as many today are questioning the validity of the American dream. To me the American Dream has meant fluid class lines and social mobility, but I think it means many different things to different people. Historical America did have more fluid class lines than Europe but things have changed.

The Jungle ch.2 to 5

I have read the Jungle before but I think it will be good to go back and read it again. I forgot that in the beginning of the book the tone is so optimistic. Jurgis represents everything that is great about America. He wants to do honest work and make his way in the new world. The think the beginning of the book really starts off like a Horatio Alger story that is very much ingrained in the American consciousness. Perhaps Upton Sinclair wants the reader to think of Jurgis as a soon to be rags to riches figure climbing the social ladder to wealth and predominance, which I guess is the American Dream. The part when Jurgis and his family are offered a loan for a house reminds me of the whole recent sub-prime mess. Optimistic immigrants coming to this country only to be stuck in dirty low paying jobs still occurs. So far reading the Jungle has illuminated many present day social conditions by giving the similarity to those conditions in the early part of the 20th century. I am excited the read more of the Jungle and figure out how this story all plays out as I have forgotten much of it. I happened to come across a book review the other about the history of the meatpacking industry which was very interesting that goes along with our reading, although coming to somewhat different conclusions.