This summer I did a fieldwork in a small community of immigrants in Washington DC & as part of giving back to the community, among other things, I made videos & shared them on their Facebook page. Here's one of them from the Fossil Hall at the Natural History Museum pic.twitter.com/nlOIZ7JIaB— Nasim Fekrat (@NasimFekrat) August 10, 2019
I just read this sad story on BBC website about young girls as brides belonging to minority Christian and in some cases Muslim groups trafficked to China. This tragic story could be the tip of the ice berg. Who knows how many innocent and naive girls are being sold by their parents who have gone unnoticed.
In early 2000s, there were some rumors about Afghan refugees in Pakistan who were sold into marriages in the Gulf countries. A few of them were smuggled into Dubai and kept in the houses of wealthy local Arabs. At one point one of the brides was drowned and some were seen working in brothels in Dubai. It is unfortunate and yes, poverty takes the largest toll on poor and vulnerable people who always happen to be women and children.
Whether or not you are an Amazon customer, you probably have heard of Amazon Prime membership. If you are a frugal person like me and waiting to hear when Amazon announces its 30-day free trial, then you should read this post. I will address some issues and concerns and how they might be related to you and your experiences. I will unmask Amazon Prime’s disguised price hikes in their ingenious marketing ploy that gives the company an opportunity to camouflage this ploy to overcharge customers. I will explain how I was overcharged.
You are probably aware that Amazon customers are only eligible for one free trial of Prime every 12 months. That happens generally in the beginning of the year, in January. So, knowing that I'd get a one-month free trial membership with Amazon Prime, I signed up last month. I ordered a couple of books and some other items. I set a reminder for myself to come back on time and to cancel my membership. Yesterday was the last day. I went online to cancel it but it said that I'm not a member because I signed for a free trial. That means you won't be charged when the free trial period ends. But unbeknownst me to that is not what happened. I was charged.
Today, out of curiosity I checked my bank account and I realized that Amazon had charged me $13.09 —that is for one month of Amazon Prime. It neither showed on my Amazon account nor did I receive an e-mail confirming the charge. So, technically a free trial period is a ploy to attract more customers and unbeknown to people, Amazon signs them up automatically to its Prime membership. This is exactly what happened to me. I did not subscribe to the Prime membership, it was only a 30-day free trial. But this is not an isolated ruse to deceive people, overcharging is another Amazon Prime hidden scheme.
So, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of it. As I mentioned above, I did not sign up for a Prime membership, but I was charged $13.09. Let’s add up that number. For a twelve month membership, if I pay $13.09, which I was charged, it would add up to $157.08.
When I saw that number, I went online and did some research. I looked through Amazon Prime’s website and nowhere could I find that number. I became more suspicious of Amazon. And then I asked myself, what is that cost for? Why it is not mentioned on Amazon’s website? What is shady about it? I needed to find answers for all these questions.
So, before I turned to Amazon and contacted its customer service, I checked Amazon Prime’s page to find the current costs of membership. This is what I found on Amazon’s website. As of May 2018, Amazon has updated its Prime membership, which is as follows:
Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:
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Federal workers are not the only ones missing paychecks, the partial government shutdown has also affected academic communities, delaying funding and some travel cancellations as well. Today, I sent an e-mail to the National Science Foundation inquiring about funding, I received an automatic reply from NSF:
Due to a lapse in government funding, most National Science Foundation staff will not be receiving or responding to email until further notice. We sincerely regret this inconvenience and look forward to responding to you once we reopen.Then a few minutes later, I received a follow up e-mail from the person in charge:
Because of the lapse in appropriations (aka, "a shutdown"), we are unable to respond to your message. Deadlines are unaffected by the shutdown.So, here you go. You have some specific questions regarding funding and application, but you can't get an answer due to government shutdown.
A few days ago, I felt I was succumbed to the temptation of using Instagram, which I have been trying to stay away from. The temptation was the result of thinking whether it is a good idea to upload some of my photographs there. I don't know why, perhaps, publicity was the spur. I opened an account, but for some reasons, I could not upload landscape photos to Instagram. I posted some photos of myself and tried different colors and features. I spent nearly two hours playing with a couple of photos. Then, suddenly, I thought, if I had spent that much time, I could have edited several photos on Photoshop and uploaded them to my website, or I could have read a few articles.
Time was not the only thing that I was worried about, it was something else: the ego. I did not download the Instagram app, but instead, I used the website through a backchannel. Even though everything looked basic, my photos looked fancy after I manipulated the light and color values. I could have stopped it, but the features and tools dictated me to do more. Therefore, I spent more time trying every available features.
Then, the following day, when I opened my account, I looked at my photos again. They looked great, except no one followed me. I thought, that is because I declined to share my contacts, or letting my friends know that I have created an account on Instagram. I again started working on my pictures. As I kept using different colors and tools to shape my portraits as best as I could, I felt drawn into the idea that I could possibly make myself look great and attractive. What a weird and unrealistic thing to do, I thought.
But for some reasons, I could not satisfy myself, I wanted my photos look really good. I never experienced such an urge before to spend this much time on my own portraits. It seemed ridiculous and I felt defenseless to the temptation and persuasion of tools that were offered to me.
It was then that I thought of the harmful impact of social media, such as Instagram, on the brain and behavior. I was offered a space, a strange yet familiar in which I felt I am not good enough. Two things happened at the same. The tools on Instagram asked me to boost my ego by changing hues and make saturation adjustment on my face, but at the same time, it took away my self-esteem from me. I felt insecure, but it offered me a panacea that I can indulge myself in egotistical projection of me and my personhood.
It was not the tools and features per se, but a range of other factors that were enticing. It opened a window to me, which listed some famous people and some were even familiar ones, and it asked me to follow them. Additionally, it ask me to share my contacts with the system. Then, it wanted me to send an invitation to my contacts and ask them to follow me on Instagram. I had a moment where I thought to myself, "What a bizarre thing that could be." I thought, I would become entangled in the web of self-doubt, insecurity, and perhaps, mental depletion.
Finally, today, I deleted my account on Instagram. It felt great. I patted myself on the back for I lost nothing. I felt I have protected myself from the invasiveness of Instagram, specially its e-mails and pushier notifications. I am considering staying away from social media like Facebook and Twitter, in general. So, I may delete or deactivate them in the year of 2019.
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| Image from the front page of New York Times |
