A Reflection

Nearing the conclusion of this project, I feel more fortunate to be alive today in this country more than ever. After all this time I really thought it was a huge drag to haul myself to school every morning. Now I realize that children in other countries would do anything for a mere chance of education. Knowing that the United Nations are putting every ounce of effort they can into making the world better eases me. I thought people were joking when they said corporations are corrupted and those little political cartoons I'd read in social class were exaggerated to an extent. It frightens me to think that some T-shirts hanging in the dark corner of my closet were once in sweatshop factories sewn by children for such a crappy pay.

It's only four more years until 2015 comes. All this strife and chaos in the world makes me feel that we need more time to accomplish these goals. Poverty is only one of the major issues. Another goal is environment sustainability, and I honestly think that this goal is impossible. Capitalism requires infinite growth which needs infinite resources, unfortunately we only have a finite amount of resources. We've only hit the industrial age like a century ago and all this chaotic destruction is making me wonder if our little blue planet is going to last another century. Actually, on second thought I take that back, our planet is going to last forever. Humans on the other hand, yeah us, were in deep trouble. Our planet has been through tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, ice ages, reversal of the magnetic poles and a bunch of other crap and we think a bunch of plastic bags in landfills is going affect our planet? Simply put, the planet is fine my dear reader, but the humans are screwed.

Recognize this guy from Ice Age 2?

Go here: http://www.worldometers.info/ take a good look.

 I didn't know a page full of numbers could amuse me for so long. Watching some of those numbers rise made me go holy crap, especially the cigarettes. Didn't know people liked to smoke that much.

Knowing all of this makes me think what can a mere sixteen year old boy do to prevent the catastrophic, inevitable end of the human race. Well despite all the research I've done on the current events of today, I honestly have no idea.  I mean come on, I'm only sixteen. However, today I choose to live in a more dignified way. I won't be so wasteful and inconsiderate of my surroundings. Now I'll live the rest of my life knowing the dark side of corporations like Wal-Mart..

                I read a book called: Opposing Viewpoints: Homelessness. Basically the Opposing Viewpoints series is written by a collection of viewpoints written by different authors. All the chapters contradict each other, for instance one chapter in the book was Society is tired of helping the homeless, while another chapter might be Society is helping the homeless. This book is an incredibly wealthy with information. I read this book because another sub goal for the eradication of poverty is:  Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all including women and young people. One memorable quote I found was:

“There have been trillions spent on murderous weapons and the military industrial complexes”

“Money for housing? The word is No. National health plan? Uh-uh. Social investment, public enterprise, child care, support for the elderly, research and development, progressive taxation, antitrust enforcement, environmental action, job security reindustrialization, economic justice- a thousand times No.”

Take a look at the little left widget on the right of my blog where it says "Cost of War to the United States."

Compare it to this which was taken approximately one year ago in December. Is putting in all that money really worth it? Could we possibly invest the trillions of dollars into something else like gee I don't know, healthcare?

This pie graph represents the distribution of taxpayer money in America into several categories according to 2008 statistics. It's ridiculous how much money is being spent on weapons of mass destruction.

Consider the following examples:

The cost of one these is a hefty $1.1 billion dollars. Approximately 52 of these have been built

The cost of one ship is enough to build 8 brand new hospitals.

One of these bad boys cost $737 million dollars.

The cost of one of these can build 86 brand new schools.

Michael Moore is a filmmaker and author in America. In this video, he challenges Phil Knight, the co founder of Nike shoes to raise the minimum working age of footwear factories in Indonesia to eighteen. The most dominant message in this video is the adverse effect of child labor in third world countries. Now child labor doesn't only occur in Indonesia; it also takes place in my homeland Vietnam, China and other south eastern Asian countries. It is also not only limited to shoes, but other Nike products such as various sportswear and equipment.

Now why would big corporations take the time and effort to fly to another country and set up factories there when they can simply make factories over here? The answer is simple. Cheap labor. Why pay a worker 10 dollars an hour to make shoes when you can outsource the job and pay someone else 10 cents an hour? Nike isn't the only guilty corporation here. Consider Wal-Mart as an example. Why does Wal-Mart advertise cheap prices all the time? It is all thanks to child labor because the production, manufacturing and exportation of goods is dirt cheap. Many corporations look to China as a gateway of wealth because of the large massive workforce available. More workers means more jobs and faster production of goods, and services.

"Made in China." We see it often but many don't realize the true significance it holds. China is the largest exporter. It's a good chance that most of your things in your living room, the clothes and shoes your wearing were made in China. Corporations outsource jobs to China so our prices can remain low. To do this: workers are subject to extreme exploitation, absence of living wage benefits, poor working conditions and even verbal and physical abuse. Sweatshop workers are paid less than their daily expenses, and therefore are never able to save any money to improve their livelihood. They are trapped in an awful cycle of exploitation and abuse.

Here's a short Simpson's opening introduction. The artists representation of sweatshops was powerful

Ever thought that you could determine how prosperous a country is by looking at it during the night? There are at least 1.5billion people currently in the world who do not have access to electricity. People in these countries still rely on wood and charcoal for basic cooking and lighting. The only way they could get more access to light and energy is if they leave to another place. Speaking of electricity, did you know that only 2 billion people have access to the internet? That’s almost a third of our world’s population!

We should really consider how lucky we are to live in such a prosperous place.


Take a look at this video. Watch it in high definition to have a real blast. The International Space Station makes a flyby over the world at night. The thin green line surrounding our earth is actually our atmosphere. We can even see the stars in our skies. Take a good look at North America, look at how bright our cities look like at night. Now look at Japan and Europe. The same thing is evident. Lights, lights and more lights. The second map shows the first world countries (blue) second world countries (red) and third world countries (green). Notice any similarities to the first map? That's the point I'm trying to make.

                Now how on earth does this tie into poverty? Well in order for a country to be economically powerful, obviously money has to be present.  One of the sub goals for poverty is : halve the proportion of people who live on less than $1.25 a day. It's startling to know that over three billion people in the world live in such extreme conditions.

Last but not least, some other things to keep in mind:

8 million people die yearly due to hunger.

Thirty thousand children die daily due to poverty and easily curable diseases.

6 million children die annually before their fifth birthday due to starvation.

MDGs are a set of objectives that are believed to be achieved in 2015. They bestow a little more hope into the planet and are currently run under the conglomerate of government agendas. Although we haven't achieved all of the goals, a substantial amount of the world has been improved over the past few years. Will there ever be freedom from strife that rises from chaos? Will the malevolent and strong stop exploiting the brittle and weak to gratify their lust for power? Those are the questions I ponder when I merely scratch the surface of the problem. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." A quote from Ghandi. If countries keep fighting, if revenge is justified, there can only be more hate. The liberty we experience today was wrought under the mad annihilation of others. After knowing this, I ask myself again, what role do I play?

I decided to take a look at a video to see what's up in our society. 173 million people in 2009 stood up for the millennium development goals. People are fighting against poverty, but also the false promises that our governments make in an effort to hide the reality of the issues. 101 million people in Asia are making a big noise for our leaders. 38 million people in Africa stood up to be counted as people who are dedicated to ensure poverty ends. 31 million people in the countries of Lebanon, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Dubai and Palestine are part of the greatest movement in history towards MDGs. 192,000 people in North America are also helping. I was surprised at this number because I expected a lot more people. Maybe I'm part of a nation that doesn't care much.

Blog Revival

I honestly never thought that this blog would ever see the light of day again. Anyways, I'll head straight to the point. I envision a future where we have successfully eradicated poverty. In order to do that however, is easier said than done. The United Nations have created the eight millenium development goals and they are essentially goals that are meant to be accomplished by 2015. All of the goals can be found here: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

I've done a little digging on our progress for the first millenium development goal; my main focus for my ideal future. Currently in several third world countries, the proportion of people who are living on less than a dollar a day is alarming. The first sub goal of eradicate poverty is to halve this humongous proportion of people. This graph may explain things a lot clearer.

The goals are meant to be accomplished by 2015, however based on the graph, we still have a long way to go and 5 years from now may not be enough. In Eastern Asia and South Eastern Asia, the goals have been already accomplished. However the conditions in CIS, Asia have grown worse. 

Thursday Morning

Just decided to blog after I finished my Religion unit exam. I didn't do a bad job. Today is the day we have a conference in the afternoon. Mr.Alger suggests that we should actually think today. Were going to be finishing Othello and Blood Diamond today. I think I would have done a lot better if we watched the movie first and than read the novel after. At least I'll understand what is going on, but that is just my opinion. Today is going to be one of those days, this morning we are going to be watching movies, and in the afternoon we have the UN conference.

3 hours later

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Finally, we finished a long day, I now have the math formal due, out of all the days. Unfortunately for other people, the gala is today will last until night, and that provides little time for them to do any work, but fortunately tomorrow morning, we are in the computer lab all morning to do any sort of work we need to do. The UN conference was cool, until the students from Texas started dissing Canadian culture with sterotypical jokes, but it was just friendly. So we said "How's the death penalty over there?" and then they disconnected. Turns out we were like a couple minutes late for the continuation of the UN conference.

At the end of the long tiring day, I threw out like virtually nothing, went to the bathroom minimal times, and barely ate dinner. I guess that's what happens when you work like a college student. Save the environment today, easily, by sitting infront of the computer doing homework the whole day! So at the end of the conference we did pledges, little things, or big, to create an impact on the world. I decided to turn off all the lights in the houses, except for the lamp infront of my computer that I use everyday to work.

Hump Day

I've decided to take the initiative and blog during the week instead of cramming it all on the weekend, so I actually have some decent time to work on my I.A on Friday. We are currently wrapping things up in S.S and L.A. I can't wait for the long semester break. I feel like I'm missing on a couple hours of sleep. The conference is tomorrow afternoon, and unfortunately, I miss a religion quiz. I have to make it up by writing it early in the morning at first period where I'm still delusional. Math is still a pain, as always.

In other news, I'm going to be moving houses this or next month. My parents have been having a lot of meetings lately to discuss the mortgage. If we sell this house, we can probably pay for 80% of the mortgage for our new house. So we had a mortgage consultant, and it is none other than Mr.Tong, the husband of Ms.Tong who currently teaches my friend's science I.B. class. She actually came in to said hi for a second, but unfortunately, I was in the shower doing my business.

For my ecological footprint as of today, I've showered, used the toilet, and many other things that consume water. I drink water itself. The more you drink, the more you pee, stop drinking water, stop flushing, and we will have freshwater for the next century! Just kidding. I'm actually worried about the future of our planet. Our population has nearly doubled since the past few decades, and it will only keep increasing. With more people, our resources will be depleted significantly faster. 

Toonie Tuesday

At home, on a Tuesday. We've just recently completed the epic three hour stress and management training session in hope of relieving any past tensions. In the stress session, I closed my eyes and began to relax from the words spoken by our wise Psychology teacher, who is currently on the quest of her ph.D. I began to feel at ease at our exercises and just fell asleep altogether. Then, out of no where, horrible blank sheets of paper flew at me in every direction! None other than the horrid, and dastardly I.A research project, ! It's monstrosity consumed me whole, and I was entrenched in its horrid dimension. The papers soon bled red, stained with the ink that will sign the notorious F on my paper.  As I climbed to the gradually closing exit, pieces of paper, flew at me again with their razor-sharp edge. Before they could destroy me... I woke up, picked up my stuff at the conclusion of the session and left casually like nothing happened.

Okay, I really let my imagination let loose, plus it was a sign that I needed to get going on this research project. My parents should enroll me in a creative writing class or something. On the other note, I have started on my I.A. I've accomplished gathering my ten sources, correctly sourcing them using the Chicago style format. Then, I started skimming through the sources to see which was most ideal on my research project. I have arrived at the conclusion of a paper written by a Harvard student, and a paper written by another.

My ecological footprint on Tuesday? A crap load. It was none other than Toonie Tuesday. We seriously didn't have anything to eat at home because my dad had a meeting while my mom had to work longer due to the absence of an employee. I was already tired from eating after the second drumstick. Those things are really heart-stoppers.  In the aftermath, there was a huge pile of red boxes all piled up on top of each other. We are really destroying the planet with all the waste that needs to be disposed after a fast food meal. Again, I arrive at the conclusion that our world will collapse. We can not see what future lies ahead. Maybe we will perfect a bio-fuel that is globally used? Or maybe we destroy thermodynamics and find a cheap way to create energy? (probably never going to happen)



The second law of thermodynamics says that everything will slowly deteriorate (die).

Lately

"No matter if you're Muslim, no matter if you're Christian, no matter the religion, we all are human," intones DK. War continues in the middle east, Iraq is having a hard time restructuring its economy. Giving the label of "3rd world country" to Iraq is even too generous. Their country is the center of war, a false crusade for peace. It's the stereotype that all Muslim's are from terrorist countries. What's next? Are they to be blamed for the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill?

Iraqi rappers voice reality, pain: 'We livin' in hell'

One of CNN's top headline news for today on December 5th. Lately in Iraq, rappers are expressing their thoughts and feelings through music, embracing western culture if you consider "North America" a culture. They speak not in their natural language of Arabic, but in English. The Members of Smashing Hits, models Eminem and Tupac Shakur.


The entourage wants to express the true culture of Iraq. Not the terrorists, and not the violence. Life is hard, even more than we ever could imagine. Be a Muslim, and your wanted for terrorism, become a Christian, and your wanted by your own people.

Rapped one member, "We livin' in hell and nobody hears our calls; everyday in Baghdad, our tears do fall."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/05/iraq.rappers/index.html?hpt=C2

Fast Food

Holy crap, I've never felt so fat in my life. All I had was fast food the entire day, and I can feel my arteries clogging up. Time to hit the gym or something. Now awhile ago, I embarked on a mission to track my ecological footprint. All the trash and garbage that comes from packaging is the result of the destruction of the environment. McDonald's used to pack their Big Macs in plastic made containers which doesn't decompose for a couple of centuries.

First world countries, the center of power, and corruption. We've come a long way from the early times of Christopher Columbus and colonization. Now we live in a world of prosperity and innovation, but at the cost of the exploitation of natural resources and developing countries. By our current resource depletion rate, were going to be in a crap load of trouble if our fresh water supplies run out. Oil sands are known to pollute water to an extent where you can not filter it at all.

Thankfully, we live in Canada and own 30% of natural water reserves. It's not bad that Canada is a cold place at all because all our fresh water comes from glaciers. Back in the past, water has been sold to us for like 3 bucks a bottle. Not only does it cost more than a bottle of coke, it creates a lot of pollution. None of it actually comes from mountains or wild life where Bambi came. It's just really filtered tap water. That's why 1st world countries is the center of power and corruption. We have a whack load of money, but we deceive, and ruin the lives of others to get it.

Wednesday

Before Mr.Alger departed on his trip to Florida, to unfortunately, go on a daily 10 hour conference, he left us with a challenge. During the course of that lesson, we learned more about sustainability and how resources are being depleted rapidly by the second. We probably have 40 years oil left in our life, until it is completely depleted. Fresh water is also depleting. The thought of future wars would be scary because, instead of fighting for oil, we will be fighting each other for water, because water is needed to sustain life on Earth. I remember in Grade 3 my teacher telling us that we'd probably have oil until we turn 40 or 50 years old. Now I know she wasn't kidding.

We did a test online for our ecological footprint. We went with the majority vote for each category and went with the average Canadian income. Turns out that if everyone lived our lifestyle today, we'd need at least 5.2 earths to fit the needs of all the resources required. In the end, before Mr.Alger left, he challenged us to blog about our daily ecological footprint, and I accept that challenge mainly because it gives me something to blog about!

Alright before I head off to bed, I will reflect on what I did today. For my dinner, I ate fish. Fish is like the main component of my diet, I eat it at least once every week. We learn last year in biodiversity that Earth's resource of fish has been exponentially decreasing by the introduction of new corporations arising. A company in Japan is actually buying all the Blue fish tuna they could afford, so that when they become extinct, they can have a monopoly on the fish that everyone craves. Its sad to see them doing this, because instead of trying to save them, they are thinking the extincting of the Blue fish tuna is inevitable.

Baby Vanga

Supposedly, WW3 is suppose to happen in the month of November as prophecized by Baby Vanga. I don't believe any of this is true, but the tensions between North Korea and South Korea are heating up. Maybe because of the fact that Kim Jong Il is about to choke any second now and he wants his son to lead the country like his father and himself did in the time of war.

Baby Vanga has been notorious for predicting the fall of the twin towers in 9/11 and she also correctly predicted the fall of the nuclear Russian submarine, the Kursk. Some of her other predictions is that China will become a world power, which has been clearly evident since their economic reforms in 1978 which led them to be successful as they are today. Look at Shanghai, the financial capital of China, all their skyscrapers are the result of China's economic success.

Apparently in the next thousands of years, we develop time travel, cloning, and get new diseases. Eventually we colonize Mars and search for more extraterrestrial life. A new prophet will come and a new religion will arise. All of these crazy things are the predictions of Baby Vanga. It is up to the person to believe these outrageous predictions or not.

Friday

Ah yes, Friday at last. We started watching the Truman Show, a man played by Jim Carey is trapped in dome world since birth. Everyone in his life is a paid actor which is creepy. Imagine if everyone you knew was an actor. He is unaware of this fact and is stalked by a thousand cameras daily all disguised as trivial things in this "Seahaven." Despite being unaware of the outside world, the quality of life is pretty good, because, he is the main character. The show has been running for thirty years before it collaspes due to the fact that Truman inevitable escapes.

There are many biblical references in the Truman Show, Christof sits in the man made moon/sun as the creator of the show, the world, that Truman lives in. He is related to God in a way that he created the world, where as Truman can be related to Adam because the world was created for him. Lunar control of the world can be related to the story of Noah's Ark, where God wiped the earth from sin by wiping out the entire world with 40 days and nights of endless rain. The ocean controlled can be referenced to Mose's parting the sea, as the ability of God imbued in Mose's staff.

Truman, deceived for thirty years finally figures out everything that's going on. He tricks the camera and departs for the sea, escaping in the basement through a secret tunnel. Ironically he sails on the Santa Maria, the name of the ship that Christopher Columbus used to sail to the New World.

Hump day at last, I still can't find out why hump day is so special, maybe I'm just missing out on football or something like Mr.Sauer says. Othello has been going by really fast, were probably going to be finished by the end of this week. We can probably expect an analytical critical paper in the distant future or a major assignment. At the conclusion of Act 3 in Othello, Iago is finally promoted lieutenant in place of Cassio and has provoked Othello into a state of vengeance. Is Iago finally satisfied? or will he continue to crumble the relations of everyone?

Next period we had a social quiz, the first component went by really fast and the written component was a notch up higher on the difficulty scale. Many people exclaimed, "I failed that quiz," when lunch passed, so people were probably really troubled. It was about time we had a quiz anyways. I enjoyed that last week of freedom, now things are starting to pick up the pace again.

Things are going fast in math, we're learning new concepts left and right. Each department is trying to get students to donate some money, or a food item to help the less fortunate. To do this, however they are bribing us some free extra marks, so I thought why not. I'm still troubled by our MDG presentations, we are planning that they will take place on the last week before Christmas break, however Christmas is usually the time where people go forth and do major volunteering work. Unfortunately, I may have to squeeze in some time before Christmas break.

Friday

Friday's are always nice, school starts later, ends sooner and all the periods are shortened.  It would have been a perfect day if there wasn't a Unit Test in math worth like 50% of our grade in this unit. Tony and I have decided to volunteer at the Sunrise community down at 17th av. The program strives to reduce poverty and increase the quality of life in Calgary in communities, so it is perfect for our MDG Pursuit. I have to suck up the fact that we have to wake up and go out into the blistering cold and snow.

The Sunrise Community tends the less unfortunate and provides foods and access to basic necessities. Tony and me are hoping to develop some new skills and give back to society. Volunteering would look excellent on a resume. We're hoping to go next week or when the sun rises again in Calgary and melts all the snow away. Originally we were looking at a different place, but this place is look the best so far.

This week hasn't been stressful at all, I'm thinking that things are going to pick up the pace in the distant future. This weekend is probably the best to go all out on any remaining work before we are drowned in a bunch of assignments again. There's no greater time to work when there's snow outside, everything is cold and dreary, and your stuck inside for the majority of weekend.

Shake Hands with the Devil

We watched "Shake Hands with the Devil," a movie about the Rwandan Genocide and centers around Romeo Dallaire, a general in the Canadian army. He is sent to Rwanda to settle down the dispute between the Tutsi and the Hutus. 800,000 people were killed in the aftermath and dead bodies were used to build bridges, it was an awful sight but delivered a powerful message. Although, Romeo Dallaire's intentions were right and just, he was unsupported by the UN council and was left to fend off with the little troops he had.

In the end, he saved many lives, but with the lack of resources, he was unable to stop this entire madness altogether. Romeo Dallaire was struck with a mental breakdown seeing so many dead bodies and being unable to do anything about it. There was a scene where the ground was littered with dead people, and Romeo Dallaire and his men had to actually lift up the dead bodies and move them away so they could pass through.

Mr.Sauer said that recently a year ago, a person got the chance to get Romeo Dallaire to speak at our school Father Lacombe, right before he carried the Olympic Torch. If only I was born a year later, I would have gotten the experience to see him in person. Shake Hands with the Devil is one of the most powerful films I watched, it opened my eyes to something that I've never experienced before, something I would never want to experience. With people like Romeo Dallaire, Canada can become a better place to live in.

The Gods must be Crazy

We watched a movie in L.A called "The Gods must be Crazy." It was the closest thing to "Things Fall Apart." In the past, the movie was popular that broke box-office records around the world. There are many sequels however, only the first two movies were directed by the original people.

The movie is about a tribe of bushmen who lived in the sub-Saharan Africa peacefully until a pilot chucks a bottle of Coke down and coincidentally lands near where the bushmen settled. The coke bottle was useful and made executing daily tasks easier to accomplish. It was a fire starter, a cooking utensil and an object of mere controversy. In a couple of days, the bushmen started fighting over who gets to use it, so Xi decided to travel and throw the bottle off the edge of the world.

I can see why this movie is related to "Things Fall Apart," because they are both similar in the way that something new is introduced in an old traditional the way of life. Needless to say,  "TFA" and "TGMBC," differ only in the way that the Ibo got colonized while the bushman continued their status quo after Xi threw the coke bottle off the "edge of the world."

Remembrance Day, Keynes vs Hayek

So today, in the aftermath of the Remembrance celebration, half of the class was present in Mr.Alger's class. Somehow we treaded off the topic of current events and went into the topic of sexism. In the end, it was a debate on who was tougher, the male, or the female? I'm relieved that by the end of this week, we have a four day weekend. This can either be great, or horrible depending on what people got on their report cards.

Next week we are starting Othello, written by none other than William Shakespeare, credited to be the father of modern English. I read like the first couple of pages and I am confused. Thankfully there is a little short summary on the left of very page because the way that Shakespeare writes is very hard to anaylze. Shakespeare's writing style was probably more easier to understand for people who existed during the times of the Renaisance.

On Monday, we are starting a brand new look on economics and why they differ. Hayek economics focuses on less government control where as Keynes economics focuses on more government control. These two different economic philosophies have been going head to head since the last century, the following video pretty much sums everything up.

William Ernest Henley

Yes, after a 24 hour period of unsuccessful googling attempts on Erin Moure, Patrick and me decided on a last minute attempt on Sunday to finish the project. The information on Erin Moure was scarce, and her poems were hard to find on the internet, so Patrick suggested that we do the poet who wrote "Invictus." William Ernest Henley was popular only to the literary class, for he was a journalist and admits that "there were as much readers as writers." Henley was the eldest of six children and throughout his life, he faced difficulties with his health already being the host of tuberculosis at the age of twelve.

Due to his health complications, his legs were forced to get amputated. He was the patient of Joseph Lister, a man who came up with the germ theory, stating that there were "microorganisms at work which created all the illness in the world. Many people started accepting this idea, because babies who were delivered by surgeons died more often that babies  who were delivered at home. The reason was that mothers wash their hands often, getting rid of any germs that were on their hands, while surgeons delivered baby after baby without washing their hands at all, spreading infections everywhere.

In the end, we were terribly unsuccessful in our last ditch attempt. Unfortunately, we weren't able to come up with anything unique because all of this occured on Sunday. We went to Mr.Sauer for help on the day before the weekend, but even him, had little information on Erin Moure. Since we couldn't find any more information after googling
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