"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.

----------------------------------------

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!

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.

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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.

As a Hsinchu citizen...

As a Hsinchu citizen, I've not really heard any bad news about the Hsinchu Science Park polluting the environment. It is interesting to question what impacts the Science Park had bring to our daily life after I read the article "The Silence of Silicon Lambs", by Shenglin Chang and Wenling Tu .

I am not really surprised by any part of the article, but I would like to make few comments on the entire article:
It is mentioned in the article that media tend to show bias toward Science Park and the government ignored the opposition force. I think this article doesn't provide enough concrete statistics or evidence to prove this is true, but by observation, it seems true. I believe this is a problem because people have the mind set that expanding the science park is a positive thing to do. I also believe in this mind set because I've never heard any bad news criticizing the pollutions made by the Park. I found a parallel between Science Park development and China's dramatic industrialization: China is becoming industrialized in a rapid speed, but has ignored a great deal of environmental problems. Chinese government does not concern about building environmental friendly development; all they want is turn China into a civilized city. As result, China is becoming a top threat to issues like Global Warming and pollution. Both Science Park and China are trying to expand their technology further, but have ignored the environmental sustainable issues. Science Park, indeed, do seem like it is using the name of "high-tech" to make pollution.

It is interesting to know that 1 out of 4 household works in the Science Park. Many of my friends' parents or relatives also work in Science Park.
My parents worked in the Science Park thirty years ago; it was when the Park had just began its expansion. They told me stories about working as a assembly worker. They have to sit there for hours and hours, the only time they can get up is going to the restroom. The rapid change of production process is indeed scary. Everyday, my parents have to change the manufacturing process (eg: a component of the computer) in order to suit the need of down stream companies.

On the whole, the local and Taiwan government should really be concerned about environmental and labor issues in the Science Park. As environmental-sustainability problems are mainstream issue around the world now, the government should think of plans that are flexible to suit quick changes. Development of high-techs is for sure beneficial, but without proper planning, Science Park will create more and more negative side-effects to the community and the economy of Taiwan in the future.

How do we change the world?!

This is a broad topic to talk about. Start from myself: honestly, I think it is too unrealistic to talk about how can we change the world, but ironically, I would love to do something to make a difference. It is impractical because there are too many people on this world. They can choose either to "care" or to "ignore". It is very hard to get everyone start doing something to change the world.
I do not know what I can do to change the world. Even if I do know how, I don't dare to take actions. Therefore I think the answer to "how" do I change the world is to have "passion". If I am ambivalent toward both sides of the issue, I would not have any preference on either sides. Oppositely, if I have strong passion toward certain issue, I would argue for the side I stand on. Such passion is the key to influence the world. You've got to use your passion to influence other people around you and get them stand on your side to do the same thing with you. Take the animal testing debate as an example, this debate really changed my point of view about animal testing. Before, I simply think it is immoral to kill the animals for testing; now, I agree that animal testing is necessary. It is even more immoral if we leave millions of people to suffer from AIDS, cancer, etc diseases. I was glad when the sixteen years old student marched onto the street with many other pro-animal testing people. It is something those people are passionate about such passion promoted action.

Some thoughts I have is that we as a class can come up with plans such as lights-off day per week, cleaning up the environment (which is what we are planning now in GEI), etc, and present our ideas to the Hsinchu government. It will be more effective if we present our ideas to the government.

Grizzley Man - Film Reflection

In the film, Timothy Treadwell displayed many side of himself. He sometimes praise himself as a warrior, a master and destined to save these bears. Indeed, he is a warrior because he has the courage to think that he can live with the bear. His faith was so strong that made him willing to sacrifice his live to the wild. He believed that it is his responsibility to educate others about these animals and he did went to many schools to teach the children. I respect him for that because I also want to do something like educating others and make a change, and I know it is not a easy job to educate others. Timothy is a very sentimental person, he even felt really sad when he saw a bee on the flower. If it was me, I would not even notice the bee on the flower and feel sad about how its death.

Timothy's belief is both radical but also non-radical. It is radical in a way that people might think he deserves the death; non-radical because that is what he believed in. To him, he rather die if that can evoke others to protect the bears and the nature. I also see the rule of fittest survive in this movie. When the bear attacked Timothy, it is destined that he will die. Nature is sometimes emotionless. Only the fittest can survive... something inside the bear clicked its mind, and decided "that's it! I'm going make him as my food". Again, this is another lesson of what the reality of nature looks like.

Can humans become a part of the wild? I questioned the possibility of whether human can live with the animals when I saw the scene of Timothy patting on the fox while talking to the camera. The fox seem to like Timothy because the fox showed no sign of resisting. This question also made me think of the movie "Instinct". In the Instinct, the old man lived with the chimpanzees in the wild for quite a while. Although this movie is fictional, but seems like there is a possibility that humans may become part of the wild community.

Arctic Tale Film Reflection

We watched the film Arctic Tale today. First I have to say that the film is AMAZING! Those people took fifteen years tracking the polar bears and walruses, they also need to endure such coldness to get the best shots. It is simply cool!
I never knew how a life of the polar bear or walruses would look like before I watch this film. The interactions between Mother Nature and the animals are incredible. I also realized how Global Warming is effecting animals survival. I read news about polar bears drowning while swimming across the sea, and the film helped me to visualize everything. I felt so guilty because the problems humans create are directly contributed to the death of those animals!

I was impressed by the team work of seals and the auntie taking care of other's child. It was quite amazing to see an animal has such family relationship with each other. Towards the end of the film, the auntie made a sacrifice to safe the young seal from the predator. I wonder if that is a sign of showing her emotion. Such brave action is the same as humans' behavior. It might be driven by the love towards the young seal because usually humans can make sacrifices for their loved ones.

When one of the young polar bear died, his families stayed beside him for a while. It made me think of what I wrote in the expedition 2 questions entry. The birds and the bear seem to have same kind of emotions when seeing their loved one died.

Another scene that made me wonder about whether animals have emotions is when the mother Polar bear was trying to drive her child away. The expression of her eyes is showing anger or at least expressing a "get away from me" message. Also, the narrator mentioned that the separation for the young polar bear was hard; I think it is because there is a certain degree of love between the mother and the child.

The arctic ice is melting faster than ever, this made me very worried about all the animals living in Arctics. I read news articles that write about environmental issues almost everyday, scientists said that Global Warming will continue to become worse. The early melting ice and weather changes made the animals expose to extreme risks. The polar bears and the walruses need to swim many miles before they find a new piece of ice; the wolfs cannot swim across the sea, so what should they do to survive? The animals are facing extinction because of human....

Fast Food Nation - Reflection

When the first time I heard about Mr. Loken said what is the movie about, I thought it’s going to be a disgusting movie. It’s about the fast food restaurant and the slaughterhouse. I thought the movie is simply showing many disgusting scenes of people killing the cows. After I watch the movie, I found out there are many aspects that the movie is trying to convey.
What stood out to me is when the guy who worked in the fast food restaurant spat into the hamburger. All of the sudden I was so grossed out by what he did. I was thinking if I’ve ever eaten other people’s saliva before? If I did, how disgusting was that? I think this scene points out the morality of people. People who work in restaurants or in any other place need the basic level of morality!
The movie also shows a big portion of laboring. The last scene when a new group of Mexican crossed the border, I feel sorry for them. I hope they rather not come to the U.S for jobs because they have great chance of getting injured or treated unequally. It was such a contradicting scene when the person who was responsible for picking up the Mexicans, gave the children fast foods.
I read an essay that Amy wrote in English class saying that some people who work in the slaughterhouse get mental problems. I believe it is so true that because they are in such a brutal environment for many hours. Being in a slaughterhouse can damage a person’s mental condition and will leave a mental scar that can never be fixed.

------------ the following paragraph is the Re-do---------
When I was about 7 years old, there was one time I saw my grand parents killing a chicken for the CNY meal. I was little, and I watched the whole killing process, I did not felt disgusting but "interesting". I didn't even think of that the chicken might suffer. Now, thinking back about that bloody scene, it was simply disgusting.
We discussed some of our opinions in the class about few weeks ago. I agree with what Ivy brought up --- the issue of women were forced to have sex in order to get a job. It was quite sad to see such things to happen. It made me wonder again about why women, in most of the cases, the target of sexual abuses?

2nd Expedition Q: Do animals have emotions?

1. Do we have an ethical responsibility toward animals?
Yes, definitely. We are all living beings. As a human, we feel pain, suffer, happiness, and other physical and mental sensations. Animals have their own life they have to live and humans have their own life too. We do not want to cross the line of each other’s life. Humans wouldn’t expect other human or animals to abuse their right of living. So do the animals.
Amy did her first semester English project on animal testing. She showed us a movie that has many pictures of animals suffered under various testing. They look painful and sad. I think it is quite selfish for humans to do that to animals just because we think we are superior.
If we buy a pet animal, it is our job to take care of it like our own child. Although I think having a pet animal is not so ethical for those animals, but if we really do have one, we have to take care of it. Treat them like humans.

2. Do animals have emotions? Give examples if possible.
I usually heard that when a dog shakes its tail means it is happy and welcoming people. Another example once I saw on the news, a photographer captured a moment when a bird is weeping for its dead partner. A bird got hit by the car and was lying dead on the road. Its partner was staying beside, trying to get the dead one to wake up, but sadly, the other bird will never wake up. What showed me that animals have emotions is that the dead bird’s partner did not fly away for thirty minutes. Therefore, I would have to say that many animals do have emotions, but there are too many kind of animals that I cannot tell if they have emotions.

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.