Nicki Minaj

This weekend at the Grammys, Nicki Minaj offended a lot of people. To start of the night Minaj showed up on the red carpet at the with a man dressed up like the pope. This was just the start of her mockery of the Catholic Church. Her performance began with a mock confessional skit, followed by a video that depicted a mock exorcism. All during this performance there were stained glass windows in the background. Minaj appeared again later with choir boys and monks dancing on stage. The most vulgar part and to me the most offensive part was the scene of a scantily clad female stretching backwards with an altar boy between her legs in praying. At the end, “Come All Ye Faithful” was sung while a man acting as a bishop walked on stage.

Watching Nicki Minaj’s Grammy performance offended me greatly as a Catholic. I felt that it was absurd that she was allowed to preform such a vulgar mockery of the Catholic Church. She would not have been allowed to mock Islam or Judaism, or make fun of any minority, yet she was free to make fun of the Catholic faith. I think it is ridiculous that there has yet to be an apology as well. Also the fact that she does not care about what she did and who she offended makes her actions and the allowance of her performance to be a representation of the double standard that has grown in our country. By her twitter comments Minaj clearly does not give "a single F***," she knows what she did and she does not care. The double stander is shown in with the fact that if this happened to any other faith people would be up in arms over it and it would have never been allowed to happen, but they are not because most people are ignorant of the Catholic faith and do not understand the symbols used in her performance that are sacred in the Catholic faith and why the performance was offensive. What really offended me was the sexual dancing and innuendo around the praying at the kneeler. Every week I go to church and I kneel and pray to God at a similar kneeler, to me this is a sacred and private moment between God and me and she ridiculed it.

She also used the song “Come All Yee Faithfull” which is a song that I have grown up hearing in Church around Christmas time, a significant time in any Christian’s religious year that is now associated with, in my mind, Minaj’s offensive performance and mockery of the Catholic faith. What possessed her to do this? The song and performance in general were not even good, and she obviously knew what she was doing in this performance so why would she do it? I have lost respect for her and will never look at her the same way. To me Nicki Minaj has ridiculed my religious practices and my faith. And for that I feel that there needs to be an explanation as to why she was allowed to perform that at the Grammys and an explanation as to why she thinks it was okay to make a mockery of the Catholic Church. I feel that the Catholic League is right in its position on her performance. Overall, what bugs me the most is the ignorance of the people in this country. A lot of people did not get why her performance was so offensive, they would have if it was about another religion or a minority or about their faith. People need to realize that the actions that they use affect other people and that everything is not just about them and their alter ego, Roman.

Apple

Apple products are a huge part of my life and until reading the New York Times article on the blood and sweat that is behind the making of Apple products I had no idea of the working conditions that the assemblers of Apple products experience. I think it is appalling that a company can get away with using this type of labor because they are such a high profile company. Other manufacturing is watched very closely, such as pharmaceuticals, companies involved in these endeavors go through tons of procedures to ensure the well-being of their workers and their buyers. Why can’t other industries be watched the same way? Right now Apple is the richest company in the world. The company is sitting on $100 billion in the bank. The suppliers of Apple products would change everything if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice but obviously Apple has not done so. Apple is manufacturing these products in China for a reason, it is cheap labor and the government does not have the strict laws on labor that the United States and European countries have.

This article has not prevented me from using my apple products because it is not just Apple that is using the cheap labor in China, it is all of the technology companies. Apple products are still the best on the market, in my opinion, and it is going to take a lot more to prevent people from using their products. Though I feel that even if Apple had to raise prices in order to use better working practices then I think people would still pay.

My consciousness has been raised about this issue. Before reading this article I did not know what was going on in Foxcon and in other suppliers' factories. I think people need to be aware of what is going on so we can successfully change the working practices in these companies in China that make Apple products. Recently I did sign two petitions on making a more ethical iPhone 5. More people need to be aware of what was sacrificed to make their electronic devices that we take for granted.