The Gods must be Crazy !??!?

I would like make connections in a list form:

1. In the beginning of the movie, it says that in the bush men's culture, which is the Leavers' society, they have no crime, punishment, judges, bosses, laws, etc. This point was also made in Ishmael too: Events like massive killing, wars, drug addiction, but only the Takers' community.

2. The movie also stated that there is nothing that are bad and evil among the Leavers community. It's the Takers who set up laws, morals saying that: if you abort a fetus is bad, keep the fetus is good. Takers thought they have the knowledge of judging things like the gods do.

3. The part when it compares a day in modern city life and a day of bush men is what we were discussing about last two classes. Takers set up a complicated system, and the system tells when you should do it, and what things you are suppose to do. For example, kids should go to elementary at age seven; we have to take exams to get in college, etc. Leavers can wonder around, go hunting for three ours, and they might spent the rest of the time doing nothing. I personally feel that what the Takers are doing are pointless because we set up things for ourselves to do. Why can't we live like the Leavers do?

4. I would also like to compare the "fights" with in two different communities. After the Leavers found the bottle, they started to have sense of jealousy, hatred, violence, and anger. Takers have wars, using machine guns, bombs to fight with each other. That also creates hatred, violence, anger. But what's the difference between these two societies is that Leavers are able to say "the glass bottle is evil! we should give it up back to the God"; the Takers would say: "keep on fighting until the victory is ours!" This point was also brought in Ishmael--- Leavers are able to admit what does not work for them, and go back to find another way. Takers will never give up even though they are destroying the surroundings and even themselves.

5. There was a part where the bush man went to other people's village and shot a sheep as his food. A boy saw him do that, so the boy called the police, then the bush man was arrested. This scene reminded me of when there is an intersection between Takers and Leavers, Takers are always the one dominates and judge them on good or wrong by their own laws. In Leavers society, there is no laws, no judgments, no one can decide if the thing is right or wrong. This is also parallel to how the Semites were shot and their lands were taken by the Tillers of the soil just because he Tillers of the soil want more land for cultivation.

One thing i found different is that, Leavers also believe there's a God, which is different to what Ishmael is saying.

Ishmael Discussion/ Reflection #2

I found the reading in chapter 8 is very confusing. I have to read it many times in order to find out what are the message they want to convey. The last paragraph in section 6 confused me the most: "In brief, human settlement isn't against the lasws of competition, it's subject to the lasws of competition." So is it saying the the law itself made humans to establish settlement that will grow bigger and bigger and eventually come to a point that the humans are destroying the world?!

Competition is happening in not just humans but also animals, so why don't the animals dominate? Why can't some other species be the Takers and act like what the humans are doing now? When I was reading this paragraph, I relates to what Ishmael said earlier that there is nothing fundamentally wrong with humans.

The class discussion last Friday about "we should only take what we need, and leave the rest to others" is related to our GEI class. In GEI class, we are talking about if there's any ways to maintain a better lifestyle even if we reduced the ecological footprints. The solution I came up with that question was "take only the amount you need". If we only take what we need, then we are able to maintain the sustainability of this whole community and have a peaceful relation with the nature, the animals, and even the whole "planet".

High Cost of Low Price - reflection

At first when I heard we are going to watch a film about how Walmarts are effecting the whole consumer population, I wasn’t very interested; because I thought the only effect Walmart is bringing to the society is that they threatened shops to close down. After I watch the film, I found very surprising that Walmart is affecting not just other competent but also the whole economy, society, and the labor system.
It is very sad to see how the people who worked there often don’t get the salary as they were promised, they have to work overtime, and some of the workers are even locked inside the market. They’ve sacrificed so many and time working for Walmart things but Walmart gives no return or whatsoever back to them. I was angry by the fact that none of the people in the Walmart’s leadership stood up and be responsible for the water contamination they made and they really wants to commit what they’ve done.
The part that I had the most impression on is the young Chinese girl who worked in a factory for making products that sells to Walmart. What shocked me the most is that, the situation of cheap labors and workers having unfair working and living condition has once occurred in Industrial Revolution in the US and Eastern Europe, and now, it is happening in China. In China, there are still so many people work for long hours and are forced to live in a tiny crowded department. China had just begun their industrial development in recent years. I personally do not want to see any tragedy that occurred during Industrial Revolution (around 18th and early 19th) to occur in the 21 century again. Not just the pollution China is making that contributes to the disruption of this world but also the cheap labor system they are using now may cause harm to their people, environment, and economy. Therefore, indeed we must do something to stop potential problem Walmat may cause, not just for the economy and environment, but also the humanity.

Jane Goodall video reflection

I felt ashamed when Jane Goodall said that chimpanzees have emotions, can perform sophisticated cooperation, knows physical and mental suffering, sense of humor, and most important, they recognize each other. They share and pay respect to each other. What she was trying to convey is that there are no much difference between humans and chimpanzees. Humans do have these abilities too, but in now days; humans never really “recognize” each other, so how can we as humans also “recognize” other species beyond the human race? Her speech fits perfectly in what Ishmael is trying to say—humans are arrogant, and it’s hard for us to recognize and accept the fact that there are also other living beings among us. It’s like the discussion we had about whether the earth is the center of the universe or not. It took long time for those religious people do accept the fact that the earth is just a small dust-gas ball in the universe. So, this is a question that I’ve thought of: is it true that humans have to wait until the last moment to stop harming the earth when they see there are real proofs showing that the earth is facing huge devastation? If one day we accept the fact that humans have these abilities too, we would start noticing what we’ve done to this planet.

Humans have developed spoken languages that allow us for communication, but we never appreciate such ability. We think it is normal to have that ability, like what the Mother Culture tells us, we just follow it and accept it.

The other thing she brought up was the hunter’s part. The hunters used to take only what they need, which I refer to the Leavers’ living style. Now, the society transformed into a civilized world, which is the Taker’s society. Those hunters hunt not just for their own needs, but for money with the support of modern technology. The consequence will come as a devastating result--- I call it as devastation cycle that once Leavers become Takers, the world is being destroyed until everything comes to a dead end… and reborn after thousands years or more..

Video reflection & opinion on Ishmael

We've watched the video of Jim Jones and Jonestwon tragedy. I agreed with what Aled said that, the same tragedy is happening everyday but it's just that no one sees it. There are many people in the society are committing suicide everyday because they want to escape from societal pressure or the captivity that we are talking about in Ishmael. No one tells those people to commit suicide. It's their will that made them commit suicide.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I want to post one of the reflection that I wrote for our Ishmael assignment:
I want expand my thoughts on the part where Ishmael said that our creation process is a myth. I cannot understand how can scientific proofs are also mythical. In a way,I think Ishmael is contradicting himself. Ishmael belongs to the group of people who look at this world differently and pose questions all the time(I'll use Leaver for this group of people). And yet, Ishmael is saying that, the scientific proofs, which are the product of the Leavers, are purely myths. He is contradicting himself on the fact the he belongs to the Leaver but he thinks the products of the Leavers are all myths.

I wonder how other people in our class think? If they also think that Ishmael is contradicting himself, disagree or agree with the idea that even scientifically proven facts are also myths...?