Week Three - Chapters 4, 5, 6, & 7

While doing the assigned reading for this week, I was immediately struck by the amount of social inequalities that still continue to exist in our modern world today.  Both at home and abroad, the media constantly reminds us of stereotypes that reaffirm our class using our perceived education, the color of our skin, and our occupations.  With the exception of the few and far between “Cinderella stories” many cultures, like ours, continue to allow perceived labels to dictate our thoughts and actions.  While some cultures are considered more advanced then others when it comes to social hierarchies, the recent events in China really illustrate a point that is not being broadcasted enough.

A mere forty-eight hours ago the Wall Street Journal reported that, “A newborn’s cries… in a residential building in eastern China led to a tenant to a startling discovery; a baby boy trapped in a sewage pipe beneath a squat toilet.”  What is it that continues to feed the Confucian ideology of a preference over men to women?  Even today, China has a strict one child policy that reinforces the belief that it is better to have a son over a daughter.  Had the trapped infant been a female would such efforts to rescue and save her life have taken place?  China’s “family planning policy” has been in practice for over thirty years and shows no signs of discontinuing.

We still do not know if there were other social factors involved that caused this young woman to abandon her own child.  Was her mother an unmarried peasant, “untouchable” in China or a modern day “Brahmin” who did not feel compelled to lower her social status to that of a commoner?

Then we can factor in religion.  Given that Taoism is one of the major religions of modern China and that Taoism got its roots from the Dao religion, where would the attempted murder of your own child fall within the ways of nature?  As stated in the text, Daoism called for a limited government.  While not trying to abjectly fight the government could we not assume that there might have been some moral imperatives that would have allowed the mother of this child to rethink her own values and what statement her actions would make?

Nonetheless, our world still focuses on the things that we apparently value the most… money, prestige, and social standing.  Ask any teenager today what the name of Mother Teresa’s child was. 

Week Two - Chapters 1, 2, & 3

It is truly amazing that we have continued to be our own worst enemy when it comes to the environment.  It was not until reading these chapters that I received a much clearer picture that we consistently have taken the earth for granted while at the same time needing what it produces for survival.  Animals, plants, and the environment have been decimated time and time again under the guise of creating more or making it better.

As hunters and gathers humans took from nature what was necessary and then moved as the seasons changed or as food became scarce.  This allowed the land they previously inhabited to rehabilitate and replenish.  Due to their nomadic culture the group remained small and their possessions were limited to what could be carried.

Unfortunately, someone got the bright idea of trying to fix what wasn’t broken.  In an effort to manipulate what was already being provided, the Paleothic population began to use unnatural forces to encourage better outcomes.  Setting fires to one species of plant to encourage the growth of another is one example of what may have seemed like a good idea at the time.  I do not believe any thought was given to what its true long term impacts would have been.  However, when you have a life expectancy of around 35 years there probably isn’t much thought given to the next generation.

These practices continued throughout the agricultural revolution whereupon humans became more stagnate and still wanted more for less.  As civilizations developed they abandoned their nomadic ways and were then forced to come up with a source of food for a now growing population.  Populations inland used various form of irrigation to grow food.  In the Indus Valley this practice decimated the region by introducing salt into the soil.  This in turn resulted in lower crop yields.  Lower production meant less food for the local population.  With no continued source of produce available to them, they chose to vacate and move on to another tract of land so they could start the process all over again.

Thousands and thousands of years have taught us nothing.  Throughout time we have held onto the belief that getting what you can today is more important than where our source may be tomorrow.

Oil companies continue to slash and burn the dense forests of South America to increase profits.  This is done without any consideration to the people that have lived there for thousands of years.  Corporations like Monsanto genetically alter what we already produce enough of in an effort to produce even more despite the unknown risks to our own health or the impact their effort will have on the environment. 

All the while, we claim to want to preserve those areas of the earth that we have not already destroyed.  We can’t have it both ways.  Either we learn to live and survive with less, or face risk of there being nothing less in the future. 

Yay - I'm Done

Really.... I am....