実は....僕....学校が嫌いです、
勉強も嫌い。。。

なぜだろ？

僕。。。知らない。。。

.....

I want to pass my last 3 months of senior life as fun as possible... not filled with homework assignments...

I want to graduate earlier, so I have more than a week to pack for leaving Taiwan.

I want to have a senior trip, but......... you know.........

I am kind of disappointed with how the _____ is now.

sigh sigh sigh...
I've been stressing myself out with school works since I was in Elementary school. Too tired now...

I want more FUN and RELAX TIME!!!!!

Saint and followers

Complains? Everyone has them.
Comments? Everyone has them.
Being stubborn? who doesn't?
But who really listens?

Who is the Saint and who is the follower?

Why can the Saint be the Saint?
Why must the followers be followers?

Who do you think you are?
Stop making lame excuses!!!

"Teaching Civic Respnoses" (summary + opinion)

The basic thesis of this article "Teaching Civic Responses", written by Joel Westheimer, from University of Ottawa and Joseph Kahne, from Mills College, is that schools should teach social civics through educating students to be engaged citizens. Education can raise students' appreciation for democracy and therefore really become a citizen that will actually conduct meaningful things to the society. Westheimer and Kahne said that schools put too much emphasis on community service and service learning. And it seems to become an excuse for the schools to say that they teach civics through service practices.

The article explained three different types of citizens: personally responsible citizen, participatory citizen, and justice oriented citizen.
A personally responsible citizen is someone that do good deeds, such as picking up litter, donate blood, and etc. The participatory citizen is someone 'who actively participate in the civic affairs and the social life of the community at local, state, and national levels.' And last but not least, justice oriented citizens are people who explore, examine, and analyze the root of social problems. They look at not just one side but social, economic, and political forces and develop skills and missions to improve the society.

Westheimer and Kahne went further on the idea that school should teach students how to make commitment to democracy. Most of schools have community service, however, service is not directly related to democracy or social civics. It's like a "citizenship without politics—a commitment to service, but not to democracy." In other word, most of the people are personally responsible citizens, but all the good acts they cannot solve the problem at all. They are not aware of what is the root of the social problems and what are possible solutions for those problems. Therefore, the goal of the school to teach social civics is to culitvate students to become real Justice Oriented citizens and to really solve the problems.

The article ends with a good quote: "The choices we make have consequences for the kind of society we ultimately help to create." We need to be careful of the actions we take because there's always a consequence for it, no matter good or bad. I think schools has the responsibility to enable students to realize what benefit they will get out of being justice-oriented citizens.

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Q: Give your opinion on best strategies for teaching civic responsibility at HIS.

I think it is really important to choose and design programs carefully. The program must interest the students, no matter if it's aiming at personally responsible citizenship or a justice-oriented level. It is really hard to engage students' attention if the program is tedious. As I said above, students need to realize why they should be both participatory and justice oriented citizens.
However, I don't see how HIS can become a justice-oriented citizen because we are not even being a participatory citizen. Even the most basic, meaningful educational opportunities like community service is taken away, so how can we develop a sense of civic responsibility?

Save economy crisis in the US...

As I read the article that listed many plans that will, hopefully, support the American economy on New York Times, the plans that I found most actively supportive can be categorized into two kinds: Alternative Energy and Health Care.

First of all, I think conducting energy efficiency and renewable energy research mandatory is absolutely necessary. We rely too much on oil and it will eventually run out someday in the future. If the U.S. do not start investing in this field, it will be too late when the serious oil shortage problem occurs. Investments now will only increase our future good. It helps to lower the costs of alternative-energy-based products (eg: hybrid cars). Investments in alternative energy can also help prevent future conflicts that oil shortage might cause between different nations. I think what the US government can do at current stage is to replace older vehicles owned by the federal government with hybrid and electric cars. The government can be a role model for US citizens and other nations and lead the trend of "going green".

One of the most convenient things about living in Taiwan is that everyone has health care. Taiwanese citizens only need to pay a little to go to a clinic or a dentist. In contrast, U.S. Health Care system is not so convenient. Patients often have to wait for many days before they can go see a doctor or a dentist. Also, medical fees in the Us.S. are incredibly expensive! Not every citizens can afford the fee to pay for medical treatments. Therefore, investment is Health Care is necessary. The government should help states with Medicaid costs so that cheaper and more convenient medical treatments are available for all the U.S. citizens. The government should also extend qualified individual program so that people can be qualified for medical care more easily.

What can HIS do?

Not to be too pessimistic, but I think not everyone can do something like the two Indian woman in the Opinion Column "Yes, They Could. So They Did." due to many reasons. Nevertheless, I really appreciate the work that the two Indian women had done. I think it is very courageous for two women to travel around India by the electric car and to teach people about their climate-change project.

As an individual, it's hard for me, a high school student, to make really significant changes in the community. To be honest, I don't have much to think about changing the world on my own because I'm busy being a student. I don't have much technical knowledge on how to make a solar energy car. All I can do is to turn off the lights, use less water when showering or brushing my teeth, or these kind of little steps to save energy. I also remind my friends and family members to do these kind of simple steps to save energy consumption.

As a school, we definitely can do more than just turning of the lights. I liked the greening roof-top plan that the 10th graders came up with few months ago. Yet, the plan was canceled because budget problem. I am also thinking about putting solar energy panels on the roof top and on the windows and then we can make use of the solar energy we collected. However, the solar-energy system must be quite expensive. Therefore, I think the first step the school can do is to come up with a proposal of our greening-plan, and send it to Hsinchu City government. I think the mayor would be willing to support our plan by providing financial aid.

Guy or Girl? (draft)

This week our student representative council held a Spirit Week. Today, students get to cross dress--- men as girls, and girls as men.
Our class went for a short trip to 7-11 out side our school during Global Ethics class. It was interesting to see the reactions of people on the streets when we walk out with clothing that we don't normally wear. We had a discussion afterward on gender binary in the US and it with Asian countries.
The main difference between "gender" and "sex" is that 'gender' is a cultural difference between female and male; 'sex' is the biological difference between female and male.

I agree with Ms. Sheilah's comment about this Cross dressing day --- it's definitely a healthy experience because we get to experience different gender culture.
The society has always been patriarchal. So, as a woman, I am happy that guys are actually experiencing how girls feel by cross dressing. Our math teacher, Mr. Truchon, also dressed up in a girl's outfit; he said "Now I understand why girls look in the mirror a lot, because there are always things(clothes, hair, etc) to fix." I also heard some other guys who cross-dressed said that it is not so convenient when they dress in skirts because they have to sit properly.


We also discussed about if cross dressing more difficult for boys or for girls?
I think it's definitely more difficult for the boys because of the gender stereotype that has passed down for many centuries. Boys were told to act manly, can't show weakness, etc. Although there are also stereotypes on girls, however, girls still dress like boys in daily life and we see it as normal.

------ I'll complete this blog entry later

Stock of Social Capital

In the article, it provides a definition for the word 'social capital': it is the emphasis on social networks, reciprocity, and community outreach.

There are nine solutions for innovation and all of them are associated with youth education. Just like Solution 9 writes: "the adults [our] experiences are different enough from the students' [theirs] that adults [we] don't dare guess their answers." I also believe that youth is the our future hope because they have potentials to become the stock of social capital. It is the youth's ideas that will be leading the society to move forward. In order to let kids are so important, the school itself is responsible for their education because school is where the kids are getting most of the knowledge from.

I would like to make comments about the following solutions based on my past experiences in Taiwanese local schools and Hsinchu International School:

Solution 1 - Spur greater parental participation:
I think parental participation is very important because parents are able to provide suggestions for the school to make improvements. In local schools, there are always a Parent Committee for each classes. Parents that are involved the committee usually divide jobs among themselves. Some are in charge of the money, some are responsible for the educational matters, and etc. The school also held PTA regularly to exchange information with the student body, the school, and the parents themselves. The participation of parents can provide fairer opinions and make fairer decisions.

Solution 2 - Make school smaller:
I’ve been to Taiwanese local schools with more than three thousand students. I felt the students in local schools are only test-taking machines because of the traditional Taiwanese educational system. And there are very few opportunities for everyone to participate equally in different activities. The teachers hardly have chances to get to know each student and try find out their strengths and weaknesses. The school is too big that there is no sense of collaboration and trust.
However, two potential disadvantages about small schools is that students will not be able to develop a more complete social skills in a school that is too small either; and schools might not be able to provide enough learning resources or tools for students in a smaller school. Nevertheless, smaller schools like HIS do have its advantage on developing student's individual strengths.

Solution 6 - Model high schools on a community:
I strongly agree that students are the key members of a school and the school should trust students more on what they can do. I think that it is important for the teachers to trust and listen to students more because students are the ones that can really tell what can be improved and what should be kept. Reciprocity is another key factor--- I agree that 'student-to-student' teaching method should be practiced in schools. Students who are older can share experiences with younger students because younger students look up to older students as a model. Sometimes, it might be more effective for a student to teach a student rather than a teacher teaching a student because of the age difference.
HIS seems to value 'trust' and 'reciprocity' a lot and I appreciate the opportunities the school provide the students; but still, there are room for improvements.

Solution 7 & 8:
Although the textbook is important, I think 'lived-experience' is also important. Contributions to the community helps raises awareness of what is going on. Actual experiences also help students to prepare for college and even when they enter the work field.
I will use HIS's internship program as my personal example: I felt that I learned a lot at my internship with my mentors. I felt that these experiences are important for my future, especially for entering a college community. I also felt that I've become more independent since I started my internship last year in October.
Therefore, I think schools should definitely come up with more ways to create a meaningful education for the students.

The other solutions that I did not mention because I think civic education, extracurricular activities, and community service are the basics that every school should practice.
A school based on trust and reciprocity will create stronger bond between the teachers, students, and even parents. Communication between those three is the key to a successful education!

ILE Reflection #2 (to be proofread...)

Roxanne and I have been helping with some minor chores since the seventh week at Sir Speedy. For example, think of some simple designs for the client, played with Flash, cut papers, compile papers that cannot be used anymore into small notepads, and etc. I've also learned how to use the paper cutter, hole puncher, photocopier during the past few weeks.

The most special experience was a visit to the printing press. There were many big machines for mass printing. The people there first print client's image on 4 pieces of metal plate, and then they would roll the metal plates into different machines for different colors. All the images are printed based on 4 different colors - CMYK. C for cyan, M for magenta, Y for yellow, and K for black. When it comes to bigger machines, the person can adjust the amount of ink by a computer and they would try to adjust the color of the image as close to the original design as possible.
Some clients are picky about the colors, therefore my mentor usually go to the printing press to make sure the colors on the image are the same as the original design. For smaller printing machines, the person will use his own judgment to mix the paints to get the right color.

I was quite amazed to see how little change in the amount of the inks will effect the complete product! The people in the printing shop will have to repeat the step of adjusting the amount of inks for at least 10 times to get the right color. Imagine doing this job for years and years... they must have a lot of patience to do this job well!
The total papers used for test-printing are also a lot. For example, if the client wants to print 1000 posters, then the clients must prepare 1200-1300 papers because those extra 200-300 pieces will be used for test printing. It is a huge amount of papers wasted. Therefore, the design industry are promoting digital design, so there won't be that many papers and inks wasted.

Good and Bad of Globalization - Essay

Teenagers chat on the Internet, go on Facebook and My Space, etcetera to meet more new friends. These things are happening because of “Globalization”. Globalization is a trend of everything being internationalized, including technology, education, economy and culture. Globalization can bring positives such as cultural diffusion, improved living standards, and a boom in economy, but at the same time bring harm to the developing countries and the environment. I would like to explore the idea of Globalization in economy and see how the positive and negative impacts affecting the global community are concerned with good and bad incentives and moral responsibilities.

Let’s look at the positive effects:
First of all, Globalization brings innovation in both economy and education to developed and developing countries. People exchange knowledge with and learn from each other and allow more technological advancement to be made to improve our lives. For example, about 100 million people owned cell phones by the mid-1990s and the number rose to 3 billion in 2007. According to a report done by the London Business School in 2005, an increase of 10 cell phones per hundred people in emerging markets contributes to 0.6 percent growth in GDP (*data from International Union for Conservation of Nature).
Secondly, Globalization can improve living standards in developing countries. For the US, about 200 billion US dollars were devoted to foreign investment because it is the best chance for them to get out of poverty and improve their living standards. There will be more job opportunities therefore many people will benefit! More job opportunities mean a greater labor force. This leads to the third positive impact: lower cost of living and more stable national economy. It is easier to get inexpensive but high quality goods if there are more workers. For example, according to an article I read on “Forbes.com”, it says that as China built up its infrastructure, it created a Special Economic Zone that enabled foreign companies to build more factories and hire cheap labor, and go years without paying taxes while the government builds other infrastructure that they need. China’s export grew from 970 million USD to 974 billion USD in three decades. Per-person income increased from 16 dollars a year in 1978 to 2000 dollars in the present. Surely both China and foreign investors benefit from this economic growth.

After seeing three main positive impacts, we need to look at the unseen or unknown sides of Globalization. Although the economy has improved, one may also argue that the global economy is, in fact, becoming more imbalanced. As Joseph Stiglits stated in his book “Making Globalization Work”: “Globalization has compounded the problems arising from the misalignment of incentives in modern corporations.” Obviously, the main cause of many negative impacts is that foreign investors often lack incentives to protect the workers and the environment.
First impact is that, moral responsibility is weakened once multinational businesses are created because of the mind-set that a developed country may have on those developing countries. It is easy for technology-advanced countries to think that ‘because they (workers in third-world countries) are poor, they deserve less, or even are worthless. This is when competition in foreign investments are wrong; there are usually no strict laws to regulate powerful investors on what they can and cannot do and no strong laws to protect foreign workers and the environment. For example, the chemical plant for Union Carbide, an American company, exploded in 1984 in India. The court extradited the company, but it refused to cooperate and rejected the extradition request without explanation. As a result, India was forced to clean up the mess that the company made (*data from the book “Making Globalization Work”).
This ties to the second impact: when something happens in international business relationships, it is harder to find someone to be responsible for the consequence. We can see this problem in the Wal-Mart movie “The High Cost of Low Price”. A young female worker who works in a factory that produces products that will be sold in Wal-Mart said that she does the same chore for twelve hours a day. She is forced to live in a crowded, dirty room with other female workers and cannot go home to see her parents often. But she needs this job to earn money for her parents. I am sure there are much more similar cases like this young woman’s. The problem is, who is responsible for workers’ rights? The Wal-Mart Company in the US or the Chinese government? Third World Countries are usually the victims of these international businesses. Only developed countries gain the most profit.
Last but not least, Globalization and foreign investment will threaten the environment. The big environmental issues such as deforestation, severe drought and flooding, desertification, threatened biodiversity, and global warming are all caused by the huge demand on resources. In order to meet the global demand for goods, investors seek for more and more resources all around the world. For example, China’s investments alone in Africa in 2006 were estimated at 50 billion USD. In May 2007, TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade-monitoring network, released a report indicating that illegal logging in Tanzania has increased in an uncontrolled rate only to meet the demand from China. This is definitely a huge threat to the forests and ecological system in Tanzania (*resource also came from International Union for Conservation of Nature).
On the whole, having seen the positive and negative impacts of Globalization, it is necessary to educate foreign investors to have moral responsibility and good incentives. Investors should take shareholders, employees, and the community into account because everything in interconnected. It is like a chain reaction – once one part collapses, other parts are affected too. We definitely want innovation, more positive cultural exchange, and a healthy global economy. It is everyone’s responsibility to take care of their own actions so the whole world, both developed and developing countries can benefit from Globalization!

End of Suburbia - Movie Reflection

Can you imagine living without air conditioning during summer seasons in Taiwan? I can't. But this is what we might have to face in the future!

We watched a movie called "End of Suburbia" in class last week. The movie says that suburbia is a false promise because as this kind of life-style expands, more energy and resources are needed. There are also many issues being discussed in the movie: over consuming, oil and natural resource depletion, energy depletion, and etc. The pollutions suburban life-style create are just a tip of an iceburg. I think these problems occur not just in the US, but also the world. Not only Suburban life-style pose threat to the environment, but the overall life-style we have now needs to be changed to suit what our earth can sustain.

I lived in Long Island (two hours outside of NY City) when I was back in the US. The place I lived was not necessarily a suburb, however, it still requires a lot of car driving to get to buy goods. Although there are few smaller grocery markets around my house, but if you want to shop for some new clothes or things you would not normally get in a small grocery stores, you'll need to drive for at least thirty minutes. I know that US is a big country; however, I questioned why my father have to drive so far to get what we need for daily life.

The difference between the US and Taiwan, in regard of shopping, is that it is very convenient to buy things in Taiwan. Taiwan is a small country with crowded population. People in Taiwan does not need to drive for a long time before reaching a restaurant or shopping mall.
However, when talking about transportation, Taiwan has some similarities with the suburban life style in the US. Taiwanese people relies on scooters a lot because it's very convenient. One can get around the town with a scooter very easily and they are not too expensive. Massive scooter population pollutes the air. However, Taipei and Kaohsiung, the two cities, provide more developed and convenient public transportation system. With well-designed public transportation system, people will have less chance to drive their own cars. Another really good example would be Tokyo City, Japan.

In now days, pretty much everything we buy were manufactured and/or shipped from another city or another country. For example, we've read about how a can of coke was made, where did the materials came from, and etc. This is a big problem because long-distance shipping requires a lot of energy and leaves massive amount of ecological footprints. Unfortunately, this is hard to change the situation because we all want things with cheaper prices. I totally agree that we must have more small-sized and localized retail stores!

This whole movie talks about sustainability. The effects are never one-sided. Every impact we made will influence the economy, the society, and the environment--- it's a chain reaction.
Although it is up to us to decide how we want to use the resources; however, we also need to be thinking about the next generation, and next, and next...
Like Al Gore said "we have entered a period of consequence." If we do not try our best to fix the problem, we will be doomed.

Is 'organic' really organic?

Eugene and I did a presentation on sustainable business on an organic market called "Li-Rhun" a month ago. Li-Rhun do seem like a very organic market to me; however, after reading "Big Organic", an excerpt from "The Omnivore's Dilemma", I start to question whether organic businesses are really organic.

The word 'organic' came from the countryside of California in 1969. This organic movement soon disseminated across the country . Although the organic movement faced a big failure called "Alar Scare" in 1990s, it soon recovered. Many big companies started to sell organic produces. They turned organic farming/gardening into an organic business, and then to the organic industry we now see. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also steppe in to try to set a standards for 'organic'. The process of setting a standard took a decade long; however, the standard is, in fact, pointless.

The USDA said, to raise organic animals, as long as animals have "access to outdoor/pasture", it is defined organic. This definition is vague and meaningless because people can find loopholes and break this standard very easily. I find a similarity between the standard USDA set up and the Mark-to-Market strategy Enron had. The Mark-to-Market strategy also has many loopholes that the CEO can make false claims easily.

'Organic' was originally designed to feed people in a way that is closer to nature. Unfortunately, it became unsustainable once the businesses stepped in. The reading defined 'unsustainable' as "sooner or later it must collapse" and I find this parallel to Enron's failure. Enron was originally a successful business, however, the temptation of profits blindfolded their eyes. This is similar to the big business that stepped into organic farming. In both cases, the true meaning of organic and the original goal of Enron were mislead to a devastating dead-end.

I think that the whole process of organic farming turned into organic industry, is not out of will. The reason why farmers cooperated with super markets or other larger businesses is because there is a huge demand from the consumers. In order to suite the need of the markets, some farms choose to be industrialized. If the farmers of small farms does not find new ways to sell their product, they'll face a danger of dying out. Oppositely, Enron turned out to be so avaricious was out of their own will . No outside force was really pushing them to become greedy or start lying to the others. Enron could still be a good business even if it faces some outside pressure or expectations.

This reading really got me start questioning whether organic is organic. Although the growing process of vegetables, fruits, and other produces can be organic, but how about food processing and distribution? It takes a lot of energy resources to pack and ship the products to all over the country, or even the whole world. I think the problem is because organic farms are only centered in one area. In the reading, organic farms in California are responsible a big percentage of organic produces in the US. Therefore, it requires a lot of long-distance shipping from California to other states.
I think the problem of overuse of energy can be alleviated if the farms are more localized. However, it is a challenge for big businesses to work with small, local farms. This is a problem that all the state governments, even the whole world, need to work on.

Internship Learning Experience Reflection 1

Roxanne and I are currently helping Sir Speedy, a print and design company, to research information about how to make its business green. The main reason for doing this is to educate not only the people in print and design industries, but also the cooperating units and clients.

We've been at our internship for eight times since October 8th. My main job for the first four times was to help my mentor, Roma, to compile a list of green-papers, research Chinese information online and translate an English pamphlet into Chinese. I have to say that I was quite nervous for the first few times there because I knew nothing about this print and design industry. I had some difficulties with translating some technical terms into Chinese. However, I was a "problem solver" because I tried my best to research anything I can find. What I got out of this translation experience is that I feel very privileged to be able to read and write in Chinese fluently. Since China is becoming a competitive country in the world, I realized how this can be my greatest benefit for future.

For the fifth and sixth time, Roxanne and I went of to a meeting with the paper vendor. We sat down with the vendor and chatted about the future market of green paper alternatives, etc. The boss of the paper company invited us to join a lunch with him and paid the money for us. It was the first time ever that I feel like I'm an office worker who's attending the meeting ever! I also reported the information I got to Roma. However, we did not meet the expectation, so I got on the phone to try to get the missing information from the paper vendor. Overall, it was a fresh experience!

Roxanne and I did some actual designs for the clients on the seventh and eighth time. I was quite excited because I got to learn how to use designing programs (eg: InDesign and Illustrator) other than Photoshop.
Speaking of doing designs for clients, Roma told us that the designs they created will eventually belong to the client, not themselves. This is the reality of this industry. For me, I can totally understand this "reality"; however, I sometimes do not like the feeling of my art work being owned by someone else. If I ever get into this business one day, I would, perhaps, have to adjust my mind-set to get myself ready to accept this reality.

Blood, Sweat, and Tee-shirts BBC - Reflection

This clip recalls what the situation was like back in Industrial Revolution. The working condition in India is not that sever as it was back then, still, it's not a condition that I would call "humane". We only see the pretty surface of different things, but are we really progressing on the "inside"?!
Although I've only watched a short part of this BBC documentary, I can tell that the condition in the factory is really harsh. It is hard to me to imagine being in such situation. If I am one of the British girl, I would probably have a hard time there too.

I can relate this BBC documentary with a film about Walmart that we watched during Global Ethics class last year. In the movie, there is one part about Chinese labors working in cloth-manufacturing factory. The clothes will be shipped to Walmart stores mainly in the US. The condition of the workers are also bad. One of the girl who was being interviewed said that they must live in a small, crowded dorm and work overtime most of the time.

Enron Bankruptcy - Reflection

We watched the movie of Enron Scandal on Tuesday during Global Ethics class. I have to say, humans, indeed, can have really nasty minds. It is quite incredible to see how Lay, Skilling, Fastow, and other shareholders can be so smart at manipulating the truth; however, they used their smartness in the wrong way. This is also why they were destined to fail, sooner or later.

(image source)

I still remember what Ishmael said about Takers being greedy and their ultimate goal is to control the whole universe. In Enron's case, the company itself is a huge Taker. The ultimate reasons of why they bankrupted are because of pride, arrogance, intolerance, and greed. They will do whatever they need to do to make profits. The part of Enron shutting down electric power in California struck me the most. Enron shut down the electric power in California to make profits while many Californians suffered because of Enron. Also, and the conversation between two investors is simply nasty! Despite all the swear words in their conversation, I felt very disgusted by their attitude... How can people say such things like that? How can people make profits out of people's suffrage without feeling guilty or ashamed? They must know their actions are unethical, however, they did not stop it. There was no way for them to stop the actions because of greed.
I believe the Enron Scandal put businesses in the US and around the world on alert. Under free trade marketing, there is only agreements but not laws. It is easier to manipulate details under those agreements. Those agreements are like the Law of Aerodynamics. It is important for businesses to follow the Law of Aerodynamics to have a fair play in trade markets. Or else, the business will crash like a plane that is not made according to the Law of Aerodynamics.


So, how did the trail go in 2006? What are some effects of this bankruptcy?
- Ken Lay guilty of all six counts against him; Judge Sim Lake finds Lay guilty of four counts in separate personal banking fraud trial. The jury finds Jeff Skilling guilty 19 of the 28 counts against him. Ken Lay died of a sudden heart attack on July 5, 2006 before the final sentence was made. (source)
- Enron sold its last business, Prisma Energy, in 2006. In early 2007, it changed its name to Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation. Its goal is to pay off the old Enron's remaining creditors and wind up Enron's affairs. (source)
- Both Wall Street Journal and Business Week calculated the direct loss of Enron bankruptcy: about 40billion and 90 billion USD. The loss is equal to nine times the loss of 911 Terrorist Attack (about 10 billion). The impact is not only limited to economical aspect, but also damaged US investor's confidence.

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Just another thought of my own: the Enron case made me think of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Although the Lehman Brothers bankrupted because of mortgage crises; however, it still has huge impact on the economy around the world. Over 25,000 employees of Lehman Brothers became unemployed. I felt unbelievable that a leading company like Lehman and Enron can collapse in only a short period of time! Both of them are indeed human tragedies.

DongMen Mall Choreography Reflection

1. How did the site of DongMen alter the choreography that you created in the classroom?
- Originally, our group was going to do movements under the cloth line because we thought we could hang some clothes there. Unfortunately, the cloth line is unreachable, therefore we just did our movements on the flat ground. We also made some changes to our movements. We did the whole choreography without clothes hanging, and we changed the jumping-around to crawling on the ground because it would look better.

2. Now that you know this site better; If you were to go back to Dongmen what would you add or subtract from your choreography to make it stronger?
- I actually liked our movements. If possible, I would change the background to another wall that was at the rooftop. The wall we used as background was gray, but the other wall has some creepy rusty effects that might make our choreography stronger.

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In response to Ms. Amy's Comment:

- The Mall gave me a abandoned, isolated, and creepy feeling. I was scared by a passing cat while walking on the corridor. It was quite surprising to see many people are still living in it. Perhaps it's because those people don't have money to move to a new house or simply because it's their home. If I were the mayor of Hsinchu, I would allow people open shops and live inside. I would fix the whole building, or at least clean up the building so people living inside can have a better living environment.

The Silence of Silicon Lambs - Choreohraphy Ideas

The article mentioned two different rivers in Hsinchu --Kerya and Kaoping River.

Kerya River: The water was found to be polluted and had pungent smell. Some Unnatural sex changes occurred to the Ke-Ying conches, and repetitive dead fishes. Dramatic expansion of Science Park resulted in HSIP alone added 185,000 CMD water to the river that contributes 63.6% of the water body.
Kaoping River: A study showed that the river was polluted because of dumped toxic wastes in July 18, 2000.

From the two short introduction above, I think the students can come with gestures such as kneeling on the river bank and weeping. Students can even personify the fish and other organisms living in the river. What I mean by personification is that students can act as those river creatures which died at the end of the choreography because of human-made pollutions. Overall, I am expecting this choreography to have a kind of sad atmosphere.

I also think that water is a symbol of purification, therefore the class can also create another piece that is totally opposite than the other piece I mentioned above. We can come up with ritual gestures that are more holy.

The ideas I have is quite abstract and hard to describe in words. However, the main idea is to present two different themes-- one is positive, one is negative.

Reflection on readings for Secrete Hsinchu (draft)

Reading #1: Why Psychogeography?

It's said in the reading that "Guy Debord, called for an investigation into the effects of the environment (both constructed and natural) on emotions and behavior. He called this area of study psychogeography.".
I personally find psychogreography an interesting field of study because the kind of places we live in do influence our emotions and behavior. For example, a lot of people like to to places near the sea or in the mountains, because people can feel relaxed by looking at those scenery. People living in the city usually have "fast living paste" and often feel stressed because of the traffic, noises, air pollution, and even the pressure from work. Thus, the environment, indeed, effects our minds and body.
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Reading #2: Site-Specific performance

In the reading, it says "Sites have habits and rules: people who use the space implicitly agree to a set of acceptable behaviour.". This sentence made me think of the ritual choreography I did with my partners. We performed a short skit that involves many mundane rituals. For instance, going to KTV to celebrate birthday is a ritual for young people. Drinking and cheering in the KTV and blowing candles are mundane rituals that we can see quite often.
I think that a site can have different meaning for different people. What I mean by different meaning is that people has different memories of the site. A site has its story and history, therefore, I think artists can be very creative and be really inspired by different sites.

It's All About Design!!!

I see a connection in McDonough's TED talk and the book "The Ecology of Commerce" about the competition between businesses. McDonough pointed out that competition is "together-strive": a way of cooperating in order to fit together. The sixth principle in the book also pointed out how the competition in human culture works. Both support the idea that competition helps growth, but the book addressed on that invasive competitions do not necessarily bring improvements. We are suppose to compete against each other to help each other to grow, like McDonough said, not to try to beat each other. The best way to help human culture to grow and develop is to educate people, not through endless advertisements and invasive competitions!

Another big part mentioned in the book, which is the second principle "Sustainable businesses take responsibility for the effects they have on the natural world" talks about how and what we can do to really help this world to become more sustainable.
The book pointed out a very important point that the little things we are doing to save energy is not enough. The demands we put on nature already exceed what we, as individuals or small groups can do to help. Therefore, the real changes need to be made in the ones that have the real power, such as the corporations.

So, what can businesses do to make a difference? The key is re-think and re-design the whole business process! Starting from the materials and resources, then to employment, this whole process needs to be in a cycle. It is also said in the first principle: "If changing from linear to cyclical processes is a key to re-creating business in an ecological manner, then an important component of that redesign will be feedback, accountability, and responsibility.".

The book also mentioned about William McDonough's design. McDonough's designs are build in a cycle so that every part of the product can go back to the the most original form.
McDonough's designs and what the book talks about fit exactly into what Roxanne and I are doing in our internship. We are currently helping Sir Speedy, a print and design company, to research information about how to make its business green. Since paper is a huge part of a print and design company, we are trying to find out all the papers that are made from recycled paper or post-consumer wastes, and see whether they are chlorine free, or has certifications from organizations like Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), etc. We'll then move on to find out more information about less toxic inks and more eco-friendly printing process later on. The main reason for doing this is to educate not only the people in print and design industries, but also the clients and customers. Only if we start from the most basic, we can do the best to re-design the whole print and design industry, and then to share our knowledge with others!

On the whole, Like McDonough said, it's all about sustainable designs!

Waste Not vs. Senior Project

After reading an excerpt from the book Waste Not, I found out that the commercial industry had wasted many things. Many commercials and ads have images showing exposed women body parts and sexuality. I think women are being regarded as objects. Those images waste the beauty of women in many ways.

For instance, A woman's body and self-confidence is lowered because the way media portrays women. It's mentioned in the reading that overuse of energies and resources lower living quality. Overuse of resources does not necessary boom the economy but drag the economy down. I see parallel of how advertisement overuse the image of women and therefore distorted woman's natural beauty and lowered woman's self-confidence.
Furthermore, many girls and women worship those "distorted beauty" as role model, as result, many business are build for helping women to achieve the idealized beauty. Beauty industry creates huge amount of profits by promoting make ups, clothes, medicine and equipments for loosing-weight, etc. The making of more clothes, make ups, medicines, and machines create wastes that pollute environment and harm the right of labors; dieting or also waste health.

Ms. Gruber reminded me that I need to do more than creating awareness. The reading also says:"each of the three types of waste is presented as interlocking symptoms of one problem: using too many resources to make too few people more productive. This increasingly expensive industrial formula is a relic of a past that no longer serves a present or a future.". This shows that people had done as much as they can to create awareness of how women are portrayed in the media, unfortunately it is still not working. I'm not saying that people used too much energy to create awareness. However, there is certain process that does not work out because of the societal trend.
Like Ms. Gruber said, it is difficult to work against Mother Culture. I personally will think more about how to do more than creating awareness as my senior project goes.