BP Oil Spill

Before I watched the videos that were shown in class today, I thought that the oil spill wasn't actually such a big problem. I thought, sure, it's bad but it's just like other news. It's going to be cleaned up sooner or later and then all will be okay.
But the videos proved that my way of thinking was wrong. The spill caused by the BP in the Gulf of Mexico is deeper than previous spills, such as the spill in 1979. Like Rachel Madden said, in the 31 years that has passed since the previous spill, all the oil companies have gotten better at is drilling deeper and expanding their market to become more wealthy. But in the 31 years, one thing that they have not gotten better at is finding a way to help oil spills and how to clean them up.
The oil spill can affect events all over the world. The oil spill is affecting the breeding season of the animals in the ocean and the birds. Because the ocean is covered in oil, the animals breathe and drink in the oil and this can cause problems with their offspring. Also, many birds by the sea feed on fish and other sea creatures. Unfortunately, these creatures have oil in them. When the birds feed, they consume the oil and when they immigrate to other places as the climate changes, they bring the oil in them and spreads the oil all over the world.
But the oil spill isn't only affecting the animals. It's also affecting the people of the US though the problem is supposedly cause by the BP. As the oil spreads, the people along the coast of the gulf of mexico start to smell the oil in the air, taking away fresh air. These smells have been causing headaches and sicknesses in the people.
So far, the oil spill hasn't reached Asia and Taiwan but I think that sooner or later, news of the spill will reach Taiwan due to the lose of sea creatures and the affects of the spill on the ocean and people on land. From the videos, it seems like there hasn't been much done so far so the spill will keep spreading and hurting creatures. This also affects us because the BP isn't the only company who might cause this problem. For all we know, there might a spill in Asia soon and we'd hope for help from others so I think that the US shouldn't blame this on the BP but compromise with them to try to find a solution to the problem.

All the Invisible Children: Tanza

It's so weird that while we go to school and use our laptops everyday, there are children still in their childhood, but are forced to act like adults and have to put behind their fears to kill people they don't know. But as we reach the end of his story, when we stop the bomb and also when he removed the block from the wall, revealing a slingshot and a white cloth, you realize that though he's a soldier he's still a kid and misses the joy of playing and a life with fewer worries, one where he can just act like a kid.

Random

Writing your homework with a pen is permanent. You can't erase. Only covering it with whiteout. Covering something permanent is ugly

Shop till You Drop!!!!!

In this activity, I was supposedly lucky to get a lot of money, but when we started working on the poster, I realized how little people there were that had that much money and how lonely it became when you have a lot of money but no one else does.

In the Global Items Mall, you can see that the cheaper the items are, the worse they become either for the environment or socially. The majority, the poor people could only afford the cheap items, that proved to be unhealthy but because of this they have more time to spend with the people close to them.

A lot of poor people couldn't afford education because they had to spend their money on basic human needs, like water, heat, and food. Because they don't go to school, they probably spend that time doing something else like collecting water or farming for food, but because of this, they can spend more time with their community members.

Food is considered a basic human need to live, but health care can save a dying person. But over a long period of time, I would say that food is more important because it is needed to live and stay alive.

Many times, hospitals have saved the lives of many people. If medical care hadn't been able to be reached, a lot more people would have died and in bad times such as after a natural disaster or in war, if not for medical care, the mortality rate would have gone up by a lot.

It seems that the rich people have more impacts environmentally due to the fact that the products that they consume are more complex and require more resources and workers. For example, to grow food for the people who can afford them, rain forests might be cut down to get more land to grow the crops. But because of this, the rich people don't have to produce their own products and don't spend as much time with the ones around them.

The poor people get the things that they need from around them because they don't have enough to import products. They farm their own food, gather their own firewood and water, and this results in higher mortality rates and more disease. But because of this, they can spend more time with their community members from when they go out as a group to gather firewood and they experience more hardships together.

Hidden Feelings

The main idea on the interview is how girls/women are affected all around the world because of the way the world still thinks that girls have to please others and they have to do certain things to fit in or seem like a "somebody".

Though Eve Ensler could just live an easy life, she chooses to go live in hard conditions in order to learn more about the hardships of girls to make their voices heard and let others know about their hardships.

For example, a girl might stay in a bad relationship just so she can have someone to go out with... someone to brag to her friends about... to make it seem like she is liked.

Both are things in the process of producing goods that we don't think about. We don't think about which conditions the product was made in and who made it. We just buy it and probably will soon throw it away though a worker such as the girl making barbie heads probably used a lot of effort to make it.

2010 Haiti Earthquake

An earthquake of 7.0 damage recently happened in Haiti. An estimated 3 million people were affected by the earthquake. More than 200,000 people died and there has been at least 54 aftershocks or 4.5 and above. The capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince received major damage and many capital buildings were destroyed.

Luckily, many countries have pitched in to help providing food, supplies, etc. This earthquake is one of the greatest earthquakes recorded in history.

Dear Mr.Bernard

Thanks so much for your presentation. Before I had known that Kiribati was in trouble but I had no idea how much culture and history would be ruined. I really learned a lot. I learned about where Kiribati actually is (I'm ashamed I didn't know before) and about the daily lives and culture of the citizens there. What affected me the most is the fact that Kiribati is in trouble but so many people don't realize it and just put it aside. Thanks for letting us know how much trouble your country is in and I really hope help will soon be on the way!

To help with global warming, I think before we think about saving electricity and recycling, etc. we should first think about the countries who can't do anything about global warming, the ones that don't have recycling factories or are the ones that are being the most affected by global warming. To do this, for example, Kiribati, if the citizens don't want to move, we should think of ways to if not stop, then reduce the flooding that is happening. I really believe the building some structures would really help.

Anyways, thanks for talking to us today!!!!

Avatar=Citizenship

In avatar, Jake's colleagues want to destroy the "home tree" of the Na'vi to get the valuable mineral that is located under the tree. Destroying the tree doesn't necessarily ruin the Na'vi's habitat because the Na'vi go around and are parts of many different parts of their surroundings and the place that they treasure most may not be their home.

A similar event that happened in history was when the europeans first got to the US and they weren't respectful to the natives so some native americans fought back.

A similar event that is happening right now is all over the world. Even now, in countries all over the world, the natives in the countries are often the poor ones, the ones that have a harder time in society while the newcomers try to squash the natives' culture.

What does a good Citizen look like?

There are many ways to describe a good citizen. A good citizen is someone that does not only follow the rules and responsibilities that their communities entitles them to, but also contributes and works to make their community better. Like Mike Hartoonian said "A good citizen should ask themselves, what can I do for my community/institute/world. What wealth, knowledge, or justice can I contribute to my community?" A person can be a citizen of many different communities, your personal community like your school or family, your country, and your whole world.

You can be a part of a community such as your school or your family. These communities are smaller compared to more general communities. Often, in school and family communities because the community is smaller, the people or participants of these communities are able to get to know each other better, which can be good or bad.

Schools can be a place where people of many different likes or dislikes, ethnicities and cultural differences can be at the same place, learning and doing the same things. Often in schools, because so many people are different or when there is a majority of a kind of person, there can be discrimination, prejudice, and biases. For example, if a person moves to a completely new place when they don't understand anything, they might be discriminated because they don't understand the majority of their peers and don't agree with them on certain matters. Also, because of the differences, there can be cliques. Cliques are usually formed by a group of people with similar interests or opinions. When people hang out with people that share opinions and always agree with them, their opinions can become enforced so overtime, it becomes hard for those people to look at a certain matter in a different way so when they see other people who don't agree with them, they immediately stereotype them as something negative.

A good citizen of a school also follows the duties and responsibilities that the school sets in order for the school populace to get along and benefit. Some examples of responsibilities of a student is to do and turn in their homework, listen to the teachers or he people trying to teach them, respecting their peers and the staff, and to treat the school property well. By turning in our homework, we can learn things that may benefit us in the future. By listening to the teachers, you are showing the teachers respect for the knowledge that they are trying to pass to us. By respecting the people around you like the staff or the peers, you are showing that you appreciate their hard work. Overall, by following the school rules, you make the school community pleasant and a good place to learn.

A larger community is out nation. There can also be stereotypes and prejudices in nations. For example, some people or groups in the United States have prejudices against African Americans, Mexicans, Indians, or Asians. Many of these prejudices actually came from events in history like Pearl Harbor, in which the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor. Some people have prejudices against African Americans because when they first came to the US, it was under force so they were looked down upon and show like the Minstrel Show, which portrayed the plantation slaves in a bad way only made the situation worse. One example of how people have prejudices against African Americans is like, for example when people see African Americans on the street, they are more likely to stay away from the person rather than if the person was white.

There are duties to being a citizen of a nation too. Some responsibilities that we have are paying taxes and to take care of yourself as to not cause problems for others and to respect the people around you. When we pay taxes, the money goes to the government. The government uses the money for the country's benefit and builds things like roads and schools, and hospitals from which the citizens can benefit.

But as citizens, we also have rights. Some examples of rights is the freedom of speech, the right to vote, and the right to religion. Rights allow the citizens to decide how to live their life. The freedom of speech allows us to say what we want and be able to say our opinions out loud. The right to religion allows people of many different culture and religions to coexist. Voting is a choice. By voting, you are choosing who you want as a leader. In a democracy, the real leaders are the citizens because they are the ones to choose the leaders.

There are people that have made a difference in their nation by voicing their opinions. One example of a person to cross social boundaries which benefited their country is Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King was an African American man who spoke to the public about fairness and the equality of people. He believed that all people are equal no matter their skin color. He fought for the rights of American Americans. Though he was assassinated, he passed his ideas to a lot of people, which benefited the country to have a brooder view of things.

The largest community is the world, or earth. Often, though we don't know, a lot of us share the same problems no matter who or where we are. One example is global warming. Global warming is affecting all of us because though there are some countries that are causing a percentage of the problems, the others are also helping the problem even it it's only by a little. But even if only some people help, at least we're helping. Some ways we can help is by recycling and not littering. Also, when we leave a room, be sure to turn off the lights. By teaching the world about global warming and leading by examples, we can be good global citizens.

There is often global discrimination. For instance when big and powerful countries make decisions, they often don't include the small and poorer countries. But I think that in order to be a good global citizen, you have to be able to accept all ethnicities so when the countries make decisions all the countries no matter rich or poor, big or small an contribute and voice their thoughts.

For example, one way of making a difference and space between rich and poor countries is when the poor countries don't have enough resources to deal with the effects of global warming and they often get poor products and are expected to work with cheap labor.

After all these introductions about the different communities, you can see that what we have to do is basically the same, just to different degrees. You can tel by the discrimination that's happening in different communities that a lot of times we have biases against the people that are weaker than us, the ones who don't make up the majority. Basically, to be a good citizen, you have respect others, floowly the rules, and try not to get dogmatic and try to do what's best for your community.