"Who Killed the Twinkie?" by James Surowiecki

One thing that reminds me of my childhood is eating Hostess Brand products, especially Twinkies. With all the current news about Hostess going out of business, I decided to learn more about the situation. I chose the article “Who Killed the Twinkie?” by James Surowiecki from the New Yorker. Surowiecki explains why Hostess has gone out of business and where they went wrong.

In early 2012 Hostess went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in the past decade. It seemed as if the company wanted to get out of their debt by cutting wages and benefits on their unionized employees. The union went on strike in response to the 27-32% wage cut contract given to them. Hostess claimed the strike injured their business even more by slowing down production. Hostess now wants to liquidate the company, which will leave nineteen thousand people without jobs. There are many factors that lead to Hostess’ downfall in the market; unionized employees are not the only ones to blame.

The highest people of Hostess, including management and corporate, blame the unions for being “greedy”. Some people have negative views on unions and think they are only trying to look out for themselves. I believe that when unions look for their own interests that they end up helping all workers in general. Surowiecki explains that it is not the union’s fault; it is actually a problem that the company has had for years. He says that Hostess has not been keeping up with the current market and what consumers want. Obviously, not that many people eat Twinkies and Ding Dongs anymore. There are always some companies that are unable to adapt to the current changes in the marketplace, and Hostess has been one of the struggling ones.

I agree with what Surowiecki said about Hostess being unable to adapt to the current marketplace; I have not seen many people eating Twinkies or Wonder Bread in the past decade. I think consumers are taking a more healthy approach and avoiding those kinds of foods. Twinkies and Wonder Bread have always had the same packaging and the same products; I think this is why they are always going to be a thing of the past. At least now we know if we have some Hostess products in hand, we could possibly sell them for some profit in the future. Even if Hostess ends up winning this battle against bankruptcy, I truly believe they still will not be able to survive in this marketplace.

Word Count: 418

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html

The Disappeared

"The Disappeared" by Salman Rushdie is a very engaging article; the author discuses about his ordeal after publishing one of his novels. He and his wife had to go into hiding after his book "Satanic Verses" was released; it was considered as a book against the religion of Islam. The novel was banned in some countries like India; it also caused protests and the American flag was burned  at the riots. The novel did very well in the US though, it was on the New York Times best seller list. With all this said, his book enraged many Muslims which caused his family and his life to be in danger.

The Muslim community was so outraged that they wished death upon him. Ayatollah Khomeini, who was a Muslim revolutionary leader, was the one who sentenced him to death. Others saw his book as offensive, but he saw it as artistic. Rushdie believes that no one gave his novel a chance and that it was just judged from the start. After Khomeini made his announcement, his house was swarmed with reporters and photographers from BBC and CBS. Rushdie had to think fast about his next move, after receiving death threats.

Rushdie was not able to return to his home, so he was watched by police because the threat level was so high. He was afraid he was not going to be able to see his son and the rest of his family anymore. With all this happening, he never said sorry or thought of saying sorry to the public. He said he did not want to admit defeat and just disregard all the principles of his book. Finally after the encouragement of his advisors, he decided to write a public apology, but he was not happy about it. Even after he wrote a public apology, his life was never going to be the same.

In the end, I believe that Salman Rushdie was one very courageous man. He stood to defend his book against everyone that doubted it. I have not read the book, so I do not know if it does actually criticize Islam, but I believe everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My opinion is that he should have apology sooner so that he could have avoided all this chaos that put him in danger. Some people have accepted his apology and others did not; there are still criticisms lingering today about his book.


Word count: 407
Source: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/09/17/120917fa_fact_rushdie