What's It Like to be Born into Brothels

Though the making of this documentary may have invaded the privacy of the children and their families, I think that it is fair that their lives are on display for the world to see. I think that making this documentary allows the general public to be more informed about what goes on in the lives of people who live in the red light districts. From this documentary, I was able to view how children living in the red light districts are negatively affected and treated. I bet that many people aren’t aware of this situation and that there are still active brothels in the world – I know that if I didn’t watch this documentary in ENGL 106, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up to watch in the future. I believe that a child can give consent whether or not to be portrayed in this way. If a child didn’t want to be exposed, then I think that Zana would have respected the child’s wishes and not include that child in her documentary. I think her documentary is successful in terms of informing the audience of the struggles that many children go through and suffer from by living in the red light districts. However I don’t think the documentary is successful in terms of ways that the general public can possibly help.

My Relationship with Food

Even though over these past weeks I have learned about the “bad stuff” that happens to the food we eat, I haven’t been deeply affected by it enough to change my eating ways. I haven’t been influenced by our studies because up to now, I have been eating foods that may have been genetically modified, but that hasn’t prevented me from eating them.

If I ate some strawberries in the dining court and later found out that they were genetically modified, I don’t believe that I would stop eating them just because they were genetically modified. If they taste good, I will continue to eat them. And plus, they would count as a serving of fruit for the day!

After watching the movie Supersize Me, though I was grossed out at the negative effects that eating the food has on health, it didn’t influence me to completely stop eating at McDonald’s. Often when I travel to other places, I eat McDonald’s for a quick meal in order to get back onto the road. It’s fast, convenient, and it tastes good! Because I know of the harmful health effects of eating McDonald’s frequently, I don’t eat it a lot. I only eat McDonald’s about 1-2 times a month.

In our class discussion, I was surprised to learn that the apple pies at McDonald’s weren’t really made of apples, but rather made of potatoes flavored like apples. Every time I go to McDonald’s, I get the apple pies. Even though I feel somewhat “deceived” that all this time I thought I was eating apples, knowing that the pies don’t have real apples in them won’t stop me from buying them and eating them. They are just too darn delicious!

Taking a look at my Ecological Footprints

MY RESULTS:

FOOD: 6.9

MOBILITY: 0.2

SHELTER: 6.7

GOODS/SERVICES: 4.7

TOTAL FOOTPRINT: 18

IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 24 ACRES PER PERSON.

WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 4.5 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE ACRES PER PERSON.

IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 4.2 PLANETS.
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No, I don’t believe it is fair that Americans consume more than their share of the earth’s resources. I believe that most Americans pamper themselves and their lives way too much for their own good. Americans are so used to having all their needs met by the availability of resources. However, having all of this availability – being able to get things within a hand’s reach, can lead to consequences.

With the convenience of having resources so available, it has caused people to be lazy and wasteful. One example of being lazy is that people lack simply exercise. Here at Purdue, the bus system is very convenient because a bus comes about every 5-10 minutes. Because of this, many students take the bus rather than walk – even though sometimes it would be faster to walk than to wait for the bus to come. For the buses to run continuously all day, this definitely adds to the air pollution, which may then cause negative health problems.

One example of being wasteful is the amount of food wasted in the dining courts. Eating at the dining court is like eating at a buffet – there are so many different foods to choose from – that often students pile up their plates with more food than they actually need. But the availability of so much food is so attracting that students often fill up 2 or more plates. But once the students start eating and are halfway through their meal, they realize that they weren’t as hungry as they thought and don’t finish their meal. As a result all that food is thrown away and wasted. There are so many other people in the world starving and here are Americans, throwing away good food as if it was nothing.

Americans need to realize that keeping their current lifestyles will only generate harm to the environment in the future. Americans need to take greater responsibility in making the world a better place. Americans should learn to better manage the resources around them and not take them for granted so much.

Are the foods I eat genetically modified?

I kept a log of the food and drinks I consumed on Thursday, March 27. For breakfast, I ate 4 slices of white bread. For both lunch and dinner I ate in the dining court. All the food I ate consisted of “slow foods”. For lunch, I ate a grilled cheese sandwich with ham, a Caesar salad, a piece of Oreo cream cake, and I drank chocolate milk. For dinner, I ate potato skins with cheese, a piece of cinnamon bread, a bowl of peaches and papaya, and I drank orange juice.

Looking back at the foods that I consumed, I think that I ate better than I usually do on most days. Though my food choices may not have been the healthiest, I actually ate a variety of foods with the mix of grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy.

Analyzing the foods I ate, I believe that probably most of the ingredients used to make my meals were genetically modified. The chocolate milk I drank may have been modified by the cows and what they were fed that produced the milk. I don’t believe that I ate organic fruits. It is not the season for peaches and papaya so the fruit I ate was probably canned. The potato skins I ate were fairly large so the potatoes may have been modified to cause them to grow bigger. I would guess that of all the foods I ate, the potatoes had to travel the farthest to get here – maybe from Idaho!

(S)(P)(R)(I)(N)(G) (B)(R)(E)(A)(K) (!)

Although I usually don’t go anywhere during Spring Break, I always look forward to a week-long break. This is the first year that I had Spring Break in March instead of April. A low point of my break was that I felt this break was more of a Winter Break than a Spring Break. Another low point is that I felt this break wasn’t really a break from school because I spent the majority of my break doing school work. I was able to finish 2 major projects for 2 of my classes and finish reading a book for my literature class.

The highs of my break included catching up on sleep, playing video games, cooking, and shopping. My mom bought 2 new video games so I spent parts of Saturday, Sunday, and Monday playing with my sisters and friends. It’s always fun playing games and winning!

On Saturday, my sisters and I baked cheesecake cupcakes for fun. We made a variety of flavors including chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. Although we had to make adjustments to measurements because we were short of ingredients, the cheesecake cupcakes turned out delicious! My dad liked them so much that he wanted us to teach him how to make it!

Now that I am in college, I feel that I don’t get to go shopping as much as I did at home. So whenever I have a break and get a chance to go shopping, I will definitely take it! I bought new clothes and 3 pairs of shoes. I am pretty excited that I finally bought a pair of boots…even if there may no longer be any more snow this year. Hey, there’s always next year!

Classes started again today and I wish it was still break! Break definitely went by too quickly! But overall, I felt that I had a great break and got a lot accomplished.

Thomas Edison has saved us!

The historical figure that I find to be “heroic” is Thomas Alva Edison. Many people view a hero as a courageous person who has overcome and accomplished a great obstacle, saving many people in the process and making their lives better in some way. Though you may not think so at first, Thomas Edison IS a hero. Sure, Edison didn’t help fight against crime and he didn’t fight for racial equality, but in my opinion, these aspects are not the only ones that make a person a hero.

After working and earning enough money, Edison opened up his own lab and performed hundreds of experiments. Of course not every experiment was successful and Edison had numerous failed attempts, but Edison didn’t give up. Edison continued to experiment over and over again, and spent the majority of his life creating inventions that would be useful to everyone. Eventually after years of persistence, all his hard work paid off.

Thomas Edison is most well-known for his invention of the light bulb. Two of his other famous inventions are the phonograph and the motion-picture projector. I view Edison as a hero because he overcame his struggles and failed attempts and accomplished his goals of creating great inventions. Edison’s inventions caused the beginning of significant technological advancements. I believe that Edison "saved" the people from boredom and contributed to making the world a better place. With his creations, people were able to listen to music and watch films, which are very popular activities today. With Edison's invention of the light bulb, he shone light into everyone’s future and inspired others to create wonderful inventions. I am very enLIGHTened by Edison's view that "anything is possible, if you try."

Should Columbus Day be a national holiday or not?

In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen describes what he means when he comments “everything your American history textbook got wrong.” Just like the thousands of others students in America, in the past years of learning about American history, we have been taught that Christopher Columbus was the man who founded America. What we learned from our history textbooks and teachers generally follow the points that the U.S. State Department covers. But after reading James Loewen’s writings, I can see that I was not presented with the whole truth and all the important details. In Loewen’s writings, Columbus is not presented as the great discoverer that many people view him as.

I believe that Loewen’s description is closer to the “real” history of Columbus. Loewen includes several facts and includes all references that he uses, which strengthens his credibility. Like we discussed in class, I believe that American historians that created the textbooks we use in school, don’t want us to learn about the negative sides of a well-known man, whom many praise. These historians don’t want to expose that Columbus wasn’t as great as he is set out to be. These historians are not lying, but they are not presenting the entire truth.

After reading and learning that Columbus had discovered America accidently, I believe that Columbus Day shouldn’t be a national holiday. On Columbus Day, people celebrate the “great tasks” that Columbus performed. I think it is silly to honor Columbus and have a national holiday for him when there are many other people who have done great things but don’t have a national holiday.