Adora on Ted Talks

What Adora was telling us was that, most of the time, if not always, adults do not consider things kids say properly. They think that, because they are older, they are wiser, so therefore their ideas are better, while kids' ideas are childish.


I disagree with her, however, when she says only grown-up people do bad things. Teenagers and other kids do bad things too, such as shoplifting, taking drugs, etc...


It is true, however, that adults almost never listen to kids. or take them seriously. Most of the time, it is not even possible to counter their points - they just close the argument immediately, and just declare themselves the winner.


Adora is a very good example of why parents, or just adults, should listen to kids' opinions more. You definitely cannot say her points are childish and she says her lines with confidence. If more adults see this video, they will realize that children are capable of thinking for themselves, and maybe finally change how they act towards us.

Global Mall Questions

1. Having less money than the rich people made me feel unimportant and powerless, as I had no control over what I could buy.
2. I think everybody could afford education once they gave up their leisure item, but we could only afford very crowded schools and probably were not very good.
3. For me, I really had no choice, since I only had $200, so I could only buy the cheapest things. In the end, I couldn’t eve afford a leisure item, since all my money was spent on the cheapest food, water, fuel, and education. 
4. I could only afford the cheapest health care option, which was being carried to the nearest clinic with a dozen medicines. I have never been sick enough to go to a hospital before, but if I could not afford medical care, then life could be very difficult, since with little water and food, I would probably get sick very easily.
5. The poorer people had little environmental impacts, since they could not afford many items that could harm the environment, while the richer people can buy vacations to Hawaii or other unnecessary luxuries that will pollute the environment.
6. The statistics speak for themselves - 20 percent of all the people in the world live on less than $1 per day. They have little or no choice on what they can buy, since they do not have a selection of things they can afford, it’s usually either work for your food, or starve. Their environmental impacts can vary, since some chop wood as their own fuel, so that is a environmental impact. Their societal impacts are generally larger, because of death, disease, and once older, some can become thieves, beggars, and generally people with no education will have a bigger negative impact on the society. The same applies to global security. The more poor people there are, the poorer the global security is. 
7. Since I was so poor, I really did not consider my environmental impacts when I chose what to buy, since I had no selection really and if I didn’t buy anything I would die (in real life of course).

Interview Questions

1. This interview is about Eve Ensler’s book, where she heard those stories, how she changed them, and the hardships of women around the world. Also, she talked about how she went to different countries around the world to help women.
2. Eve Ensler is being a global citizen by helping people around the world. She makes a difference in the world by raising awareness on how girls are treated around the world so the world can help. She shows the whole world how badly some girls are treated and tries her best to help them.
3. When girls want to look beautiful to please someone, they want to look skinnier so they starve themselves. Or, when a man is angry because of an economic slump, he might be his wife/girlfriend if she bothers him.
4. The girl was forced into the Production stage of the Materials Economy because she has no choice and she needs the money.

Citizenship Final Exam

Citizenship is a very important lesson because it teaches us about being a good person, how to take care of others, be responsible, and other things one will need to succeed in life. Without learning citizenship, people will become oblivious to the basic aspects of life and how to act in the public once one is of age. “What is a citizen?” you might ask. Citizens can be either global, national, in communities, or nation-state officeholders in any community. Citizens are parts of democratic governments that make the government work for them. Citizens are producers that have the initiative to work or be in control. It sounds like too much to describe the one term “citizen”, but citizens can certainly play many roles at once!
To define how to be a “good” citizen, we have to choose one community first. For this, I will use the school as an example community. They have to follow the rules, as in any other community. A good citizen of a school respects others in the community, including teachers, other students, and other staff. They have to follow the rules, as in any other community, such as doing homework, respectfulness, talking only when you are supposed to, and concentrating on work. Of course, these are only basic rules for school, but if I could list all of them, I might as well start another essay. In any community, you have to do your job. In school, my job is to do my homework, learn, and prepare for for life once I grow up. Of course, there are often issues in school, such as stereotyping and social barriers.
Stereotyping happens everywhere, and is common in schools. A stereotype is an exaggerated belief or a twisted truth about a person or a group. It is a generalization that gives some people almost no social variation. Stereotypes also create social barriers that prevent people of different stereotypes to communicate, for example, “he’s a nerd, I can’t talk to him”, or “girls are disgusting, I can’t get close to her”. Often, stereotypes, gather in cliques or groups of people who have similar interests/hobbies, and sometimes age.

Of course we could consider the word "citizen" in a broader, more general sense such as a citizen of one's nation. A good citizen of one's nation helps it, supports it, and does what is best for it. Volunteering is a good example of this. By volunteering, one helps his/her nation and demonstrates to others what they can do for their nation as well. Something as simple as picking up trash or donating money to a cause for orphaned children encourages other citizens to help as well. Citizens can also uphold their society by performing their responsibilities for the government, such as obeying laws, paying taxes, or serving in jury. Citizens can also help uphold and reinforce laws by working in politics. Remember, citizens are part of the government, so if you really want to help your nation, you can choose a career in politics and use your sense of justice within you to help your nation.(By the way, you do have a sense of justice, right? Right?)

Now to extend the term "citizen" to its broadest extent, and discuss ho to be a good citizen of one's world. As you think of yourself as a citizen of the world, what do you think you could do? Well, a good citizen of one's world gets involved. Help people in need, for example orphans, refugees, and homeless people. You have to care about what goes on in the world. What the news for any notices about natural disasters that happened somewhere else. Then think about what you can do to help! Good citizens always think of how to benefit their community. Even if there are social barriers, a good citizen will do anything to help. Examples of this in history are plentiful. For example, Harriet Tubman helped blacks escape from slavery; or Amelia Earhart, to be one of the first female pilots. Examples that happened recently are there too; for example, Obama becoming the first Arican America president, and the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen.

At this point, I would like to elaborate on The Climate Change Summit. Basically, citizens and world leaders from across the globe spoke up and said that global warming had to stop. Global warming, or the increase of temperatures around the globe, is getting worse. Citizens finally spokr up and by doing this, encouraged world leaders to form the Climate Change Summit. This is an incredible example of a group of good citizens speaking up, and in doing so, benefit the whole world.

Young people always think that they will not be able to do any good for their community until they are old and wise and boring. In fact, anybody can benefit the world by being a good citizen. Obeying laws and respecting people; these are simple ways of being a good citizen, and afterward you can think, "Well wasn't I just a wonderful citizen!"

Letter to Mr. Bernard Murdoch

Dear Mr. Murdoch,
thank you for your presentation on Friday. I learned a lot about your country of Kiribati. What I learned was that your country is a very low-lying group of islands. Because of climate change, sea levels are rising, and the sea water is covering more and more of the land of Kiribati. The sea water is seeping into the soil, contaminating your underground water. The warming sea water also forces the fish to escape to deeper waters, where poorer farmers do not have the equipment to catch them. The palm trees are dying because the sea water has poisoned them.
The part I remembered most about your presentation was when you became very emotional about the tsunami that almost hit Kiribati.
When I listened to your presentation, I felt sad because Kiribati would disappear very soon. And I could help people suffering from global warming by slowing down global warming, even if I do not have the power to do it myself.

Ceramics Field Trip

On Thursday, we went to visit the Snake Kiln in Miaoli County. It is not the biggest snake kiln in Taiwan, but it is still very big. When we went there, they first introduced us to a small kiln, which was not a snake kiln, which they used to make ceramic tiles. They said that when the fire was out in the kiln, they would pour water on the fire and brick the kiln up. Then the inside of the kiln would be covered with black smoke which would turn the tiles black. Then they showed us how their snake kiln usually baked vases, and how those vases made wines taste better because of good clay. Then they showed us how there were stamps or seals on the vases that told what company made the wine and what kind of wine was in it. They also showed us a kiln that was called a bottle kiln or something, and it was used to bake clay bottles. It was also shaped like a large bottle. The guide took us into a room and showed us the snake kiln. It looked like a gigantic leech/slug thing. There was a small hole in the front for putting in wood, and a long tunnel. At the end was the chimney.
We were given a small block of clay to make whatever we wanted. Because my hands were wet to the extent that made my block of clay equal to a slab of mud, they gave me a new piece. I made a bowl, but decided it was boring, so I stacked pieces of clay randomly on my bowl and called it an abstract sculpture. After I finished my sculpture, I went to play with the dog, who kept following Patrick around. It was fun.

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1. The tree of souls is the center of the Na’vi religion and culture, and destroying it will cause the Na’vis to become discouraged and they would not want to fight anymore. They do not seem to realize the fact that destroying the tree will eventually result in the extinction of the Na’vis, because they were concentrating on how to destroy them and to mine the mineral unobtanium.
2. The Vietnam War is a good example of an instance like this. The U.S. just wanted to help South Vietnam, but in the process destroyed both North Vietnam and South Vietnam’s economy.
3. An example happening now is the Iraq War. America says that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, and attacked Iraq to stop them. Bush said Hussein did not follow the policies of human rights, and used that as an excuse to attack Iraq. Some people say that Bush just wanted oil and power, but Bush still attacked Iraq. The United States has been criticized for not being able to find the Weapons of Mass Destruction and high death tolls in the war, including civilian injuries.
   

• The Na’vis lived in harmony with nature, and only killed when absolutely necessary. Our modern society uses nature to fulfill our own needs. If our modern society adapted some of the attitudes toward nature that the natives had, it could be possible to save nature. For example, if we imitated the Na’vis, then it would be easy to save our environment. Actually, it should be easy to preserve the environment if we imitated any native culture, because almost all native did not destroy nature. Only the later settlers that arrived in a land would begin clearing land.