elowyn

In the story, "Borders," we read about a woman that stands up for her entire race of people. She is Blackfoot, and she is proud. She optimizes exactly the type of person that I always think about when I hear, "American or Native Indian." Everything I learned about in school told me that these people are proud, strong society that want to live their lives the way they always have. They don't want to conform to a life that is not their own, they have their beliefs, and they stand by them. When the mother and son are at the border, and neither will let them through, she stands by her convictions. She doesn't get upset, and she doesn't fight, she just calmly and quietly tells the guards that she is "Blackfoot." The Native Americans to me have always been a "silent" warrior, their protests are usually peaceful, and they stick strong to their faith. Their strength comes from their conviction. Even though, her son doesn't understand at the time why she just will not tell the guards that they are Canadians, later on in life that will be a very valuable lesson to him in understanding who he is, who his mother was and what his people are all about. He is Blackfoot; the Native Indians don't have borders, they never did. They were never American or Canadian; they had been here before there were borders. They never divided their lands; the government did that, and they were just forced to accept what was done.

Do you think there is room for people to live life their own way, or should everyone have to conform to one way of life?

I have lived in a few different countries since I was a child, and I can say with a good amount of certainty that the typical male stereotype is quite different depending on where you live. In this essay, Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden pose many questions with their discussions on how man is changing in the film and T.V. They describe how many of the Pixar characters are changing and becoming more feminine, a new “man” you might say. I don’t watch a lot of television so I can’t compare the Pixar characters in that way, but from what I’ve learned from living around the world is that men are different wherever you go, and the way they are perceived is different wherever you go as well. Perhaps Disney could add more variety or be more accurate in their descriptions of different men from all over the world. I’ve noticed that with animated characters they (whichever company is depicting the character) will go to the extreme with stereotypes. For example, when Buzz is turned into his Spanish form, automatically he becomes the “romantic Spanish Romeo,” as hilarious as it is, it’s not accurate (well, maybe a little :P). Also, the act of being a “man” is different in everyone’s eyes, what one may perceive as being a man is not the same as what another would. I must admit that I didn’t enjoy reading this paper, it ruined the “characters” for me. Reading about some of my favorite animated characters as homosocial, homosexual and heterosexual beings is not how I want to think about "cartoon characters" created to give an audience an enjoyable experience. It was to the point where I was happy we were given a reprieve on how many blogs we had to write; I was going to skip this one just for that reason.

Did reading this essay change the way you think of animated characters the way it changed them for me? I'll never think of Woody and Buzz in the same way!

After having read, "Food Security: The challenge of feeding 9 billion people," it's clear that we have a big problem ahead of us in keeping the people of the Earth not only well fed, but fed with nourishing food that is sustainable, environmentally acceptable and economically sound. As mentioned in the essay, "A threefold challenge now faces the world: Match the rapidly changing demand for food from a larger and more affluent population to its supply; do so in ways that are environmentally and socially sustainable; and ensure that the world's poorest people are no longer hungry." These problems need considerable change for them to come to life. People in developed countries need to do more, we have the resources to solve problems and solve some of these issues. Focusing on the, "yield gap," and doing more to prevent so much food waste in the world. The amount of food wasted is astonishing and it's not only from developed countries but from everywhere, the statistics are shocking. People living in developed countries need to be more aware of what we waste, we need to stop throwing so much food into the garbage. In one section it says, "The conversion of efficiency of plant into animal matter is ~10 per cent; thus, there is a prima facie case that more people could be supported from the same amount of land if they were vegetarians." Buy less and cook less. Eat less meat every week, try to make a couple days vegetarian days (if you're not vegetarian already). Eating less meat would reduce the demand for so many of the animals we eat, lessening the demand for more land and reducing methane in our air.

Do you think you could give up eating meat a couple times a week to help the environment and food sustainability?

Andrew Nikiforuk has opened my eyes. I feel disgusted and ashamed of the destruction and devastation Canada is allowing to happen in Alberta. What they do there affects the entire world. From paragraph 9, "The mines generate extraordinary volumes of toxic waste, which companies store in massive unlined dykes. These geologically unstable "tailing ponds" occupy 140 square kilometers of forest along the Athabasca River and contain a variety of fish-killers and cancer-makers, including arsenic, cyanide, naphthenic acids, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons." Even in my chemistry class when we handle tiny volumes of the poisons listed above we have to protect ourselves. We wear coats, goggles and sometimes handle these poisons with gloves, or even clamps so they don't come in contact with our skin, at times we even wear masks to protect us from the fumes. The amount of poisons being produced daily by these oil pits is catastrophic. People are living in areas surrounded by this pollution and poison and are dying from cancers never seen in these areas before, illnesses that were never prevalent before are now running through communities causing so much suffering. I did some reading on various websites after reading the essay, "Tarmageddon" to see if what Andrew Nikiforuk was saying was actually true, sadly it is true and I'm in shock at what is happening to my beautiful country.

Click here to see a website link from some research I've been doing on this topic.

How could one of the most highly regarded countries in the world change so much and end up as being one of the biggest contributors of pollution and destruction ever? What can we do to force our government to take charge and correct the destruction they've created in northern Alberta?