Insensitive remarks about AIDS prevalence

This is a newspaper clipping from a local newspaper in Botswana, called Mmegi.

Insensitive remarks about AIDS prevalence

As a young motswana student studying in the United States, I get to interact with people from different cultures and countries, especially those from the African continent.

I recently had a discussion with a classmate from Kenya. I cannot say whether this classmate is either ignorant or arrogant but I did not like what he said, he mentioned that he is happy that a lot of Kenyans are going to Botswana. According to him, statistics say that 3 out 5, thats 60% of batswana are infected with the AIDS virus, and since Batswana are dying, then we need immigrants help to maintain the population of our country. I found this line of reasoning insulting and repulsive. First of all, I don’t think that his country has enough resources to publish HIV/AIDS statistics for their population. Secondly, I haven’t seen any petition by our government or any official appealing for people to move to our country for the sake of replenishing the population. If anything, we have problems with people living in our country illegally.

Goleba Boitumelo

UNITED STATES

In this letter, Goleba's Kenyan friend tried to make an argument that its good for Kenyans to go to Botswana, based on AIDS statistics he heard. This is called a Statistical Argument because the Kenyan guy concluded that all batswana are dying since his statistical evidence says 60% have AIDS.

In my view people should base everything on things they here, its absurd to even say 3 out 5 batswana have AIDS because what you'll be saying is that if you find 5 batswana students in your class, probability is that 3 of them have AIDS. And we know thats not true because we have more than a thousand students in Malaysia and they were all tested for AIDS and none of them had it. Further more Botswana was brave enough to recognize a problem and want to see how deep it is so it could act on it. Most countries have a high AIDS population but try to hide from it for fear of being stigmatized by the international community. People should face their problems, so should countries.!!

What's You're Fear?

Hello again, our journey is nearly over, hopefully you've enjoyed it so far.
Last night me and the girls were just talking and the subject of fears came up up, and when it came to my turn I told them..

" I don't go into abandoned houses or old houses, I really don't have a reason, but I've been frightened in places like them before, now i just simply stay clear of them."

If this was to be applied to Critical Thinking, it would be my Episodic Knowledge working, because my memory at that moment remembered an event i once experienced, causing my decision.

Lebogang, one of my friends, says her fear is clowns, like circus clowns. She always refuses to go near them when the circus is in town because she once watched a horror movie as a child where the clown killed little girls. Her fear is also based on her Episodic Knowledge.

I bet your fear is too!!!

Chain Letters

Do you believe in good luck, well do believe in chain letters? Whether you do or not,
people still send them anyway. i get them every week, sometimes i delete them, sometimes i don't.
Like this one, i kept this one, hopefully it will give me good luck to pass my Assignment.


This is the letter:

 Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine if, we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
"Tomorrow" I say "I will call on Jim"
"Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner!- yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir" "Jim died today."
And that's what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.
Remember to always say what you mean.
If you love someone, tell them.
Don't be afraid to express yourself.
Reach out and tell someone what they mean to you.
because when you decide that it is the right time,
it might be too late.
Seize the day. Never have regrets.
And most importantly,
stay close to your friends and family,
for they have helped make you the person that you are today.

 You must send this on in 3 hours after reading the letter to 10
 different people. If you do this, you will receive unbelievably
 good luck in love. The person that you are most attracted to
 will soon return your feelings. If you do not, bad luck will
 rear it's ugly head at you.

 THIS IS NOT A JOKE!

 You MUST send this on or face dreadful bad luck.

 *NOTE*

 The more people that you send this to, the better luck you will
have.


Believe it or not that's a Fallacy right there, "Ad Populum Appeal To Force Fallacy."
The sender is trying to persuade the reader to send the letter by using threats of bad luck
falling upon him.

Who Knew!!!

Morning everybody, who knew Fallacy's could be this funny,
i mean seriously! Check this out.....

1.Bill: "I believe that abortion is morally wrong."

Dave: "Of course you would say that, you're a priest."

Bill: "What about the arguments I gave to support my position?"

Dave: "Those don't count. Like I said, you're a priest, so you have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just a lackey to the Pope,

2.I'm not a doctor, but I play one on the hit series "Bimbos and Studmuffins in the OR." You can take it from me that when you need a fast acting, effective and safe pain killer there is nothing better than MorphiDope 2000.
That is my considered medical opinion!

See i told you Fallacy's could be funny. The first joke is using "Ad Hominem Circumstantial Fallacy."
And the second joke is using "Ad Populum Appeal to Authority".

The Unkown Biography

This is Sam, short for Samantha Griffin with her adorable son James. They where going for a stroll in the park when it happened, Sam couldn't even get the words out of her mouth, she was just too astonished that something like that could happen in broad day light, infront of their innocent children's eyes....

Sam and James day started their day normally, took daddy, Peter to work then did some grocery's for the day. Sam prefers to go shopping for veges and other consumables daily,because she thinks then her family is eating fresh food, she truly believes this even though her husband told her the shop doesn't restock everyday. After making lunch for her and James, just like any other day they went to the park for a walk, but as you can see James doesn't do much walking, he sightsees!

Then it happened, right there infront of them, a fat, slobish, horribly disgustingly overweight man, decided to take of his shirt and jiggle around. people stopped to stare, some laughed, but others like Sam thought it was disgusting and scary for their children to see. Sam hurried back home and was in an awful mood for the rest of the day.

When Peter came home that day, all she could talk about was the obscene thing that happened at the park that day.

This is an Unknown Biography of Samantha Griffin, age 29, housewife, raised in California, U.S.A.
Married to Peter Griffin, and has one son James whom she adores, and at the moment this picture was taken, wishes he hadn't been exposed to such horridness.

This is a form of Creative Writing.

Ad Populum Appeal Indirect Consequences

Oh, what a beautiful day, although i don't feel so beautiful today!! anyway, i was watching some series called "Chuck" this morning before class to try and lift my spirits, and it worked because while i was watching there came a part where;

Chuck and his friends work at Buy More and there's a sale a the store today, so there are a lot of customers and its chaotic! While they are trying to keep things under control the cash registers' main system breaks and the only one who knows how to fix them is Lester, and Lester at that moment is having a nervous breakdown from all the activity. So to try and persuade him to stop hiding and help them fix the cash registers Chuck says to him;

" If you don't fix the registers, we can't serve the customers,
and if we don't serve the customers, they can't leave,
and if they don't leave, more will keep coming and the store will fill up.
And if the store fills up, it will explode!!!!

Chuck was able to persuade Lester to get up and fix the cash registers by using ' An Ad Populum Appeal To Indirect Consequences'. It was funny how, the minute I heard it i realized that Chuck had used a Fallacy as his argument. I jumped up to attention and wrote it down, my house mate thought I'd finally cracked from all the pressure MMU puts on us.

Tu Quoque - Material Fallacy

This morning one of my house mates called us into her room to give us a lecture about cleanliness. she went on and on about how we never clean the house properly and that she can't live in a dirty house, but we argued that she's one to talk, she cant even keep her own bedroom clean, its filthy!! And she says we can't clean!!

As you can see as we ended up accusing my house mate of the same trait she was trying to accuse us of. this is called Tu Quoque Fallacy used in everyday life arguments.