What's Necessary?

You know how you have a ton of clothes and other random stuff that are completely unnecessary? Things that you buy that are clearly just frivolous spendings and not needed to live? We all have them, so our class tried a small experiment and we each wrote up a list of only a 100 things (or less!) that are truly necessary to live. Items like a toothbrush, a few shirts and other articles of clothing, a cellphone, laptop, some books,  we continued to make a list until we thought we had everything that is important. When I finished the list I ended up with about 83 items. I was pretty impressed with myself until my teacher assigned us to go home that night and count all the items in my room.

The number of clothes, electronics, hygiene items, and other knickknacks completely blew me away as I actually took stock of everything I possessed. The number of clothes alone embarrassed me. I only use a portion of them and this was a perfect opportunity to donate the rest to charity. When I counted and estimated every single item in my room, it exceeded everything that I expected. With over 400 possessions, I can say that I am absolutely mortified with myself. I would never have believed that i alone could have so many things and this is just the things in my room. I have books scattered all over the house and the rest of my family has an embarrassing amount of things too. 

Our next project was the "Mapping the Impact" assignment, which had us map the journey of one product. Our group chose a simple ballpoint pencil and discovered that it came from over 5 countries. Its ink came from India, the tungsten balls come from China and India, the crude oil for the plastic came from Saudi Arabia, and the copper and zinc for the brass is mined from Chile and Australia. Finally, it's all assembled in China and shipped to the United States. It was astonishing to see that a such a common item had to go through such an enormous process and leave such a carbon footprint. It's unlikely that we actually think of how things are processed, but after this project I know I'll always be curious to know how my possessions are processed. 

The next step was judging our own foot prints and how many earths it would take to live the way I do. Horrifyingly, "if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need 5.3 earths!" I never would have expected that but the number was so obscene that I feel like i really have to change many things about  my self. It's going to be difficult to do that while living with a family but I definitely want to change a lot of things around my house. 

The Green Team and Collaborative Consumption

I mentioned earlier that that we moved into an environmental topic with the introduction of the concept of collaborative consumption. We decided to bring it into our school and hopefully, change some things and make the school more environmentally conscious. However, that wasn't going to happen unless we changed ourselves first. Once we embarked on this project, the first thing I did was buy myself my own BPA free water bottle. Like many people, I'm the kind of person that grabs a plastic water bottle every day before leaving the house. But these bottles are so unnecessary and even unhealthy! 

Around the house, I've become more conscious of all the waste leaving the house. At times, there have been instances when I throw everything in the trash just out of pure laziness. Now, I try to force everyone in my family to realize what they're doing. My attitude towards recycling has changed because I was always just thinking of changing myself before. Now, I'm taking steps to actually do things. 

In class, I've learned so much with all the TED Talks and I've been inspired by the things that other people do. The process we're going through to change our school is progressing a little at a time. The Collaborative Consumption team and the Green Team are working really well to implement these changes and I can't wait to see the results. However, its still in progress and I don't feel like I've accomplished anything yet. 

I've been a part of the Collaborative Consumption team and I've been more focused on forming letters to send to administrators and the principal. We don't have the authority to do anything yet without the permission of the administrators and its important to get them to take us seriously with the ideas that we have. That's why a couple of students from our class, including me, are interested in the board meeting. We want to talk to the adults and get them to understand us. 

I feel like the experiences we get now are the kinds of things that would last us a lifetime. I see myself using these skills later and passing them down. The videos and discussions we have in class are amazing. The video we watched in class on Tiny Homes completely blew my mind and this something that I want to definitely try in the near future! 

One Man's Trash...

As of last week, our class has shifted its focus to the environment and to the impact humans have on the world. We came across a phrase called collaborative consumption which basically describes the shift that our economy is taking from hyper consumption towards one that is reusing products in a society. With the increase in swapping and trading social media platforms, it’s easier than ever to trade away unnecessary stuff for stuff that you're actually interested in. This way, perfectly good items aren't wasted in a landfill. Rachel Botsman, an Oxford and Harvard graduate, describes this kind of collaboration in her TED Talks, explaining how this works. This was an impressive video, really hitting home the kind of impact this has on our economy.

After watching this video, we decided to pick a couple of collaborative consumption websites to research and the one that I received is called Freecycle. It's a nonprofit organization that really tries to preserve resources and reduce the amount of trash going into landfills. The founder, Deron Beal noticed the extraordinary amount of reusable, good items being thrown away in Tucson, Arizona, and tried to get nonprofit organizations to use them. Realizing that there was an easier way to do this, he set up the Freecycle Network which allowed everyone in Tucson Arizona to give away and receive easily. This concept spread to over 85 countries and they are currently keeping 500 tons a day out of landfills! It works on a local scale and once you join a group in your area, you are free to give away and receive items with no strings attached. This means you don't need to trade to get something in return. It's purely just a give and receive policy out of generosity. Once, an agreement has been reached, a meeting place is set up so the product can be given away.

So next time there's something you don't need but also don't want to throw out, try going to Freecycle and seeing if someone would actually be interested in that. One man's trash is, after all, another man's treasure.

Holocaust Museum

Recently, my Gifted and Talented class and I took a trip to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Before we went, I knew that this was going to be an emotional trip just from hearing the experiences of others. I had heard from teachers and students both that the Museum was amazing but I didn't have a clue how it would affect me. I expected a museum that was educational but interesting but my experience surpassed everything I was expecting. 

I saw so many things that's been imprinted into my brain and I could hardly believe the extent of the atrocities that Hitler been committed during that time. I mean, I know what had happened then but the way the museum is laid and the fact you're following another person's life is almost too much to handle at once. I saw videos of people being experimented on and heard survivor stories that really made the trip more emotional than I expected. It was heartbreaking to see the real luggage, shoes, and hair that was torn away from the people and all the pictures of children starved to death.


Shoes from real victims


The hair that was shaved from men and women which was later sold.


Through each floor, I just got angrier and angrier that something like was going on for so long. If there's anything I learned from this, it's that known crimes like this can't be allowed to go on. The genocide in Darfur has been driving me insane for some time and I don't understand how the world isn't stepping in. I'm interested in joining Amnesty International to learn more. 

Overall, I'm really glad I went but it's going to be hard to return for a second trip. It was painful walking around the first time but it helped to go with my friends. This isn't something you should do alone because there are things that will keep on recurring in your mind. Honestly, this a trip I'll never forget.

Egypt: Days of Rage

Unless you’ve been living under a very, very large rock for the past week, it’s been nearly impossible to miss hearing about the problem in Egypt. In case you don’t know all the facts, you can find it here, but here’s a summary. On January 25, Egypt faced a Day of Rage, when the people protested against the current President Hosni Mubarak, and their current situation.




President Mubarak

 Inspired by the successful revolution in Tunisia, they protested the poverty, unemployment, and many other problems that the government and president of 30 years has failed to solve. Although Mubarak announced he will not run for elections this year, the protestors wanted him to leave immediately. What started out peaceful quickly turned violent as the government used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.  Along with this injustice they also cut off Twitter and Facebook, which happened to be the way they communicated. On Thursday, Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Egypt to head the protests.


Mohamed ElBaradei

 He is thought to take the power when Mubarak is removed.  On Friday the biggest protest was staged while Egypt shut down all internet communications. Today, they’re taking these protests as a security threat and arresting the dissenters.

                When we were learning about this situation in History, the news that shocked me the most was that the government shut down internet communication. All I could think about this was how could they possibly do that? To cut down the world’s primary method of communication is akin to cutting off someone’s right hand today. Frankly, the protests in Egypt are worrisome but I also feel respect towards the people in Egypt for standing up to what they believe is right. For a protest that started on a Facebook page by a group of young people, it’s progressed to a revolution that's making history.

To Conclude Loneliness

I started out the project with the hopes of finding out more about the human nature and what differs in each person. Eventually, this progressed to research on Loneliness and how this psychological and social problem affects the mind. As we went through our work we found this book called Loneliness – Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection which was a significant source in our research. Loneliness is broad topic that can be classified into a couple of different categories that people can fall under. Using this and various other resources, including Roger Ebert’s blog, we learned that loneliness has a lot of contributing factors. Genes, environment, and even the chemical makeup of a person could affect a person’s social outlook. But, to conclude our efforts, we found out that humans couldn't live in solitude. We crave human interaction for companionship and without it, we would be incomplete. As social creatures it is nearly impossible for us to live alone. It's true that one might like solitude once in a while but eventually, we'll always come back for interaction.

Ubuntu and the Holidays

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!! 

This is the time to be happy, jolly, and all that good stuff that usually follows the month of December. Even if the holidays aren’t celebrated by your family, it’s hard to avoid all the festivities of this time of year and not get caught up in other’s happiness. You might tip your waiter extra and help out a person in need. You feel their pain and hope and want to help. And essentially, that’s Ubuntu. It’s a Southern African word from the Bantu language that has no direct translation to English. It’s close to, “I am what I am because of who we all are.” The closest meaning is that we are human through our connections to other people.  It’s “the essence of being human,” of not being able to be human alone and the need of others and interconnectedness to survive. It’s empathy and experiencing others emotions as your own to understand them as mentioned in the Rifkin RSA video. And it’s not the just the survival of one, it’s the survival of the entire world and how one thing is going to affect everyone. In short, it’s the bond that unites the human race through every possible barrier.

To me, Ubuntu took on a “united we stand and we divided we fall” kind of aspect. Taking it to extreme measures, or not so extreme since the world already seems to be in a dire situation, we could say that without mankind uniting as one, without Ubuntu, there is no hope for the human race. There is too much hatred and bloodshed. However, there is always the desire, the hope for change. And in fact the world experienced a recent increase in empathy when the whole world rushed to the disaster in Haiti. Humans are capable of empathy and if we can reach out to everyone as a family, it could change the world. This thought is from the Rifkin RSA video which illustrates that that we need to comes together as a biosphere to truly help the world. The boundaries that people have put up about politics, religion and race have to taken down to consider each other as fellow humans. To an extent there is Ubuntu, but it needs to widen significantly to remove those barriers.

From the beginning of this Humanity Unit, I’ve wanted to learn what makes certain people hopeful in the face of death and loneliness. And now I’ve discovered that Ubuntu is that one “can't exist as a human being in isolation.”  We need interconnectedness to survive as humans and to make the world a better place full of hope. We can spread the holiday cheer to the needy and show that they are part of this extended family. That they’re cared for and not alone. Happy Holidays.