Debate Team?

"If you're going to fight an enemy, you have to understand their argument." (76)

When I was reading this chapter, this sentence popped out at me. It popped out at me, because I think that I have heard it before. Over the weekend, I watch The Great Debaters. I think that they said this in the movie. It is very true that if you are going to fight with someone you have to understand the argument first. People don't really do this, they just fight. I don't get why Aisha is bringing this up now because she was fighting with Taslima about the letter, as they she said it. This was a very interesting chapter.

I think Aisha should be on the debate team.

Bruises Show Like Dark Flowers

"It's as if Aisha is finally saying what we're both afraid to imagine: Abba crouched in a cold dark cell. Abba sitting at some table with a ceiling lamp glaring down on his face. Are they badgering him with questions? Letting him sleep and bathe and pray? Beating him with a stick until the bruises show like dark flowers?" (66)

In this paragraph, they are imagining the type of thing you see on a cop show. This does happen in real life, but when I think of that happening to someone I mostly think that they are just actors. I'm pretty sure that they are asking Abba questions about him and his reason for immigration and his expired visa. I'm sure they are letting him bathe for only a little bit, just enough so he doesn't stink. I'm sure that Abba can pray on his own time, unless it makes lots of noise. If Abba doesn't obey the rules that they have set for him than they might "beat him with a stick until the bruises show like dark flowers." (66) I hope that it doesn't come to assault, Abba seems like a good man and I don't think that he would disobey the rules. I don't think he would insult a guard, or an authority of some sort. Do you?

Today we watched part of the movie Wetback, it was interesting. Wetback is about two friends crossing the many borders of Latin America. They started in Nicaragua and are now crossing the border of Mexico. They are going to try and get to Canada to live a better life. A connection between this and the book Ask Me No Questions are the fact that both are trying to cross the Canadian border, because they will have a better life there. A few good quotes that I found in Ask Me No Questions about the border were:
"We go lient in the car. This is the last strech, past the signs for Bass shoe outlets and cigarettes sold cheap. We're going to leave the main highway soon and stop at the immigration station on the boreder between Vermont and Canada and tell them we're asking for asylum. We'll ill out some forms and it will take a long time, but then they'll let us go to the other side." (11)
"Our car slows and we see four - no, seven - no, maybe a dozen cars ahead of us. Around the bend a Greyhound bus is letting out lots of people: men in long white kurtas - knit scarves around their necks - and women whose shalwar kameezes stick out from their sweaters. Everyone is stamping their feet in the cold. Just beyond is a low brick building, the red and white Canadian flag snapping on a pole." (12)
"The tip of the man's nose is rosy red, and he's got gingery freckles all over his cheeks. 'Passports?' He says as if he knows not to bother. 'We are applying for asylum in your country, sir,' Abba replies. Ma is leaning forward to the left so sharply, I think she is going to fall into Abba's lap. The man shakes his head, droplets spattering off the brim of his hat. 'Sorry. We're full up here. Overwhelmed. People have been coming nonstop, and we can't process them all."

To be continued...

Ma is sexist!!!! Diablog #4 - Chapter 6

As I was reading chapter 6, a few sentences popped out at me. I chose the first paragraph:
"WHEN I WAKE THE NEXT MORNING, THE SNOW HAS melted and is dripping in a noiy patter off the fire escape. The window over the sofa is open a crack, and the air blows in, sweet and warm. I dig down deep into the suitcase and pull out a T-shirt and jeans and my nylon spring jacket. I can imagine Ma standing in the doorway, sighing, Why do you have to dress like a boy?" (42)

I chose this paragraph, because I loved the descriptive detail of "the snow dripping in a noisy patter onto the fire escape." It was very detailed, it felt as if I were in the room with Nadira. It felt like I could feel the air blowing through the window. The other part of it with Ma sighing, made me mad. It was sexist, if you wear jeans and a T-shirt your not dressing like a boy. I wear jeans and a T-shirt everyday, does that make me a boy? Men wear kilts in Scotland, kilts are basically skirts. Does that make the men in Scotland women?

Okay, so in the book they told us that they were chanting "Ask me no questions. Tell me no lies." I read it and I searched it on google. I found a picture of Uncle Sam, saying "Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies." I thought that this was kind of ironic, because in the book they are saying "Ask me no questions. Tell me no lies." because they are trying to hide from the government and with this picture the person saying this is part of the government. I thought that was kind of cool, that it comes from both sides.
What do you think of the immigrants saying it to stay away from trouble with the government and the government saying it to recruit people for the war?

Diablog #3 - Chapter 5

"We try to get lost in the landscape of backpacks and book reports." -page 29

I chose this sentence because I thought it was a very good description of a school, and how the immigrants try to hide from it all. The first part of the sentence is really cool, "We try to get lost in the landscape" I love it because at first it sounds like they are talking about a painting. The way Marina Buhdos described it made it sound a lot better than something like, "We try to hide that we are now illegal immigrants." Do you agree?
In this chapter they are back at Flushing High School and they are trying not to have people know that they are now illegal immigrants. If I were part of their family I would have a hard time going to school because, first of all, it is called Flushing High School. Second of all, I would want to tell my friend that I might have to leave soon, because my father was arrested, and my mother was staying behind with him. I would tell my friends that I was only there for my sister Aisha's sake. I would be pretty pissed off.

Diablog #2 Chapters 3 and 4

The quote I chose was, "Nobody else in our family is fat, and sometimes I feel like I've been beamed in from another genetic planet." - page 26, Chapter 4. I chose this quote because it shows what Nadira thinks of herself. She thinks that she is fat and that she doesn't belong with her family. Nadira is very self-concious. She thinks that she doesn't belong anywhere. When I read this sentence I thought that Nadira was being stupid and that she wasn't fat. Whenever people use the word fat it sounds like an insult, but it isn't supposed to be an insult. In Computer Science in the beginning of the year we watched persuasive videos, one of them was about "fat talk". They were talking about how you should use the word "fat" and how you shouldn't say things like, "Have you lost weight?" because it isn't healthy to do fat talk. Nadira should watch this video with her sister and see what she thinks of it because it hurt me that she was calling herself fat because she isn't overweight, she is perfect the way she is.