Chinese Capitalist Ventures in African Investment

  Chinese investment in the continent of Africa welcomes the updated narrative of neocolonialism based on capitalist practices that reap benefits to China while leaving Africans disenfranchised. ~~~ The continent of Africa remains a resource pool divided by haphazardly drawn borders. With volatile states still recovering from the continued history of exploitation, Africans are left …

The Duality of TripAdvisor: The Quality of Reviews deterring Strategists from Quality Sites

  This paper analysis the functionality of TripAdvisor and how it effects both local and visiting communities. Term Paper for Anthropology of Tourism with Kathleen Adams, PhD, Loyola University Chicago. ~~~ Every minute, 115 new opinions are added to the ever growing database of 190,000,000+ reviews on TripAdvisor[1]. The free website serves potential researching tourists …

The Myth of the American Dream

Is the Free Market really free? In this conceptual piece, I argue, the help of Nobel Laureate Robert Reich, that the ‘American Dream’ is a myth to deter discussion from the authentic inequality America sees today. Written for a Contemporary Political Issues course at Loyola University Chicago. ~~~ The American conversation on its capitalist economy …

Tokyo Drifter Scene Analysis

This is fun! For a film class, I analyzed mise-en-scène, editing, cinematography, and sound within a two minute sequence in Seijun Suzuki's 1966 Tokyo Drifter.  You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpFfRE1tAG0 ~~~~   The film Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966) follows the story of an ex-Yakuza gangster, Tetsu, and his skirmishes with different gang members. The colorful film …

Buddhism as a Religion

In this piece, I focus my research on defining a religion. Tackling such a momentous issue takes a lot of perspective, which I take from anthropologists like Durkheim, Tyler, and Geertz. Term Paper for Anthropology of Religion at Loyola University of Chicago ~~~~~~   Many anthropologists dedicate their life to define the complex phenomenon of …

Une comparaison entre « Le Chêne et le Roseau » par Jean de La Fontaine et « Bojack Horseman » par Netflix

Je l'écrivais l'année dernière pour s'amuser.  Prenez plaisir! 🙂   ~~~~ Dans Bojack Horseman, une émission au Netflix, il y a un cheval s’appelle Bojack qui était une vedette de cinéma. Son agente, Princess Caroline, une chatte, et Bojack ont une relation uniquement. Vingt ans après l’émission de Bojack (Horsin’ Around) a fini, Bojack n’a …

Can War Be Eliminated

This is an opinion piece I wrote for a Political Theory class at Loyola University Chicago. ~~~ The link between human life and war is unbreakable; as long as there have been humans, war has continually existed. Merriam Webster defines war as “an organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or …

Witchcraft in Africa

This piece delves into the often objectified world of Witchcraft in Africa. Using different case studies, I argue that western media's negative representation of witchcraft has turned modern Africans away from the authentic culture of many groups of individuals.   With modern pieces like Henry West's Ethnographic Sorcery to the classic E.E. Evans-Pritchard's study of the Azande, …