The CAFO Conundrun The iconic family farms of yesteryear are gone. The towering silos and red barns are replaced by industrial buildings more closely resembling warehouses than farms. The vast green fields of grazing cows has been replaced by lurid, cramped, pens with the animals being fed grains that they are unable to properly digest, as they wade through ankle deep swamps of their own manure. The hardworking, up-before-the-sun farmhand fell long ago to hordes of cheap, disposable, abused workers; the independent farm owner succumbed to the monopolous agricultural corporations that push them farther and farther into debt by contractually requiring ever-modern equipment, though never increasing salaries. Farms are no longer farms;
Daniel and his sister are left in the fate of their poverty stricken grandmother, who apprentices Daniel to the local blacksmith. A harsh man, he beats Daniel and the other boys who serve him. Daniel finally runs away. On the edge of dying of exposure on the hills outside his hometown, Daniel is rescued by Rosh, the leader of a shabby band of zealots. This act of kindness earns Rosh Daniel’s undying loyalty.
That feeling is quickly lost by the next two lines as the poet describes the first instance of change, the change from soft sweet sugar cane to its hybrid form of beet sugar which broke teeth and the sorrow they felt when they were no longer able to eat and take from the passing carts. The next stanza describes the uses of the cane stalks to the slaves and how they were able to make pillows for them to rest at the beginning and end of the work day and they were also able to feed their hungry animals after working vigorously in the fields and factories “friends were tired with toil from the labors in the field and factory”. The poet describes the hardships of working on the plantation as an ex-slave and how hard it is to work while under contract and still look for a job, to make ends meet but despite all the hustle and bustle and work done the sugar cane was still profitable and the plantation owners became richer “but among the hustle and road dangers and sun scarred skin the sugared wallets bulged on
After her parents drown in the flooded Massacre River that marks the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, young Haitian Amabelle Desir becomes a housemaid to Dominican landowner Don Ignacio, and a companion to his daughter, Valencia. As the book opens, Valencia and Amabelle are grown women, and Amabelle attends the birth of Valencia's twins. Valencia is now married to a Dominican army officer seeking to rise in the ranks, and he is soon assigned to assist in the brutal slaughter of Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Amabelle's lover, Sebastien, works in Ignacio's sugar cane field, a brutal job known to workers as ‘‘farming the bones’’ because of its killing, exhausting harshness. Amabelle has a pleasant but distant relationship with the family she serves, and the novel juxtaposes her moments in their home with her conversations with other Haitian workers in the cane fields, as they slowly realize that Dominican
The absolutely true diary of a part time Indian is a semi-autobiographical novel by Sherman Alexie. It raises a lot of controversial topics and issues. Socioeconomic status, substance abuse, education and life expectancy are all issues that make the gap between indigenous and European people so prominent. The chapter “why chicken means so much to me” highlights the issue of poverty in a humorous yet confronting manner. Junior uses the example of his dog Oscar’s death to reinforce the extent of their poverty.
Raymond Tong expresses his disgust and sympathy for a poor beggar in his short poem, “African Beggar”. In this essay I will analyse some key areas of this emotive piece of literature and evaluate the feelings expressed in this poem. This poem is about an old African man who is alienated in a foreign community. He has no home or money to sustain a reasonable life. We are told he is clearly diseased and nothing is said about a family which indicates he is alone.
But was the memory of the crane event so deciding? Just as the crane was set free of its snare so was Tok-chae of his. Tok-chae was appointed to Vice-chairman of the Farmers Communist League, even though Tok-chae says himself “They made me vice-chairman of the league because I was one of the poorest and I was a hard-working farmer /…/ the only thing I’m good at is digging the soil”. Song-sam assumes right away that Tok-chae has killed men in the war, which indicates that Tok-chae’s position has a political value. This does not add up with the Tok-chae’s story though, since he is a poor farmer only good for digging soil.
The Jungle Upton Sinclair does an amazing job reflecting the life of a poor immigrant and his close friends from Lithuania in the novel “The Jungle.” The imagery he uses not only focuses on the challenges of his caravan of immigrants, but also for the majority of lower class American population. From corruption to abduction, Sinclair displays the harsh time poor immigrant peasants suffered through. America was the land of the free, and was also known for its success and promising life, but what Sinclair mainly drives in on, is how this perfect country was only nice to the ones running it. Throughout this drama filled novel, Sinclair tracks a family from Lithuania that is trying to get over to the United States. Like many others, Jurgis and all of his eleven companions were in search for a happy successful life, but only came to find struggles and hardship.
Haiti The cultural universals of Haiti Holly Staroska Haiti means mountainous country, it is described as if someone crumpled a piece of paper and threw it on the earth. Not only does Haiti resemble a crumpled paper but also viewed as a crumpled society. A country that once was forested with lush green tropical trees and Caribbean pine is now a barren area due to logging. Similar to the society, once filled with travelers, farmers and skilled artists all working together has now diminished into a society filled with poverty, disease, and lack of water and food. Haiti’s people have encountered many struggles that have made there culture the way they are today.
They shared their kill, because Gale had a large family to fend for as well. In turn, Gale taught Katniss how to set snares and traps. She used these skills to provide fresh meat and nutritious plants for her mother and sister, and sold a portion to have money for other supplies. Without Katniss, the family would starve to death, because her mother was too depressed, from her husband’s death, to work and her sister was too young and delicate to participate in gathering food. 24 tributes are thrown into an arena and they are forced to kill or be killed.