Social Awareness-Entry # 10

of it.


DAY 5:
I found an article in The New York Times called "Haiti Fears Cholera Will Spread In Capital."
The article claims that a total of more that 2,674 cases of Cholera have been found, which is very extreme.  Because of how bad the Haitian economy is, and how little funding it gets from other countries, treating the sick will be nearly impossible.  Cholera is a disease usually spread by dirty water, and we had thought we had gotten rid of it completely.
This article addresses the social issue of poverty, and does this in a really touching way.  It brings social awareness to everyone who reads it, and I applaud the author.  It is truly upsetting how little help Haiti (Port-Au-Prince) gets.

Final Reflection: 
This experience really did make me much more socially conscious.  I came into the project with the mindset of "Yeah, I already know that there are tons of issues that exist-Our world is much less than great."  Although I did know already about most of the issues I wrote on, I was informed of some things that were really just so terrible. So bad.  This assignment did not inform me of many things that I didn't know about, but it did make me learn more about the cruelties of the world.  In some ways, I hate this assignment.  And I hate learning more about our world, because the more I learn, the more I lose faith.  Sometimes it just hurts me how screwed up our world is.
But in other ways, this assignment is great.  Because the more I learn about these issues, the more I appreciate my own life. And the more I want to change it.  Because sometimes I just can't bear this world, and it doesn't do me anything to sit here.
I appreciate this assignment because it made me appreciate my own life,  and want to do more.

Respond to a Song/Poem on Social Issues:
Working Class Hero- John Lennon
Although this is not a song to be proud to decode, the message is still great as any.
Lennon complains in this song about the woes of society.  He complains that "As soon as your born they make you feel small/By giving you no time instead of it all." He complains that throughout life, your peers and the people you look up to only try to make you working class.  Nobody expects to get to the top, and nobody aims for the top.  And that's just one of the reasons he is against society.  Also, he addresses the issue of how everybody is subjected to conformity.  Everybody strives to be working class, and the authorities "hate you if your clever/and despise a fool."-Verse 2.  John Lennon writes about how the authorities torture you throughout your whole lives until you become one of the mold.
And that's an issue we all have-None of us want to be just another kid.  We all want to be something more, but nobody wants to let us.  They tell us that the top exists, but don't help us find our way up.

Observations Of My Surroundings:
1) My neighborhood has become very wealthy very quickly, and we can barely afford our tiny apartment. It seems like  Everyone I see on the streets around me is either a hipster/yuppie, banker, banker's wife/mother with  $2,000 stroller, or just another rich young thing.  (Well, that's not including all of the old Italian ladies).  And you know what-Nearly none of these people are black.  It's almost surprising to see someone black on certain blocks of my neighborhood.  It almost comes as a shock.  I think this is extremely unjust.  It could mean that for some reason, african americans just don't like Carroll Gardens. OR it could mean that despite all of our countries achievements in anti-racism, white people are still earning more money.  And that's just sad.

2) Why in the world do adults sell drugs and cigarettes to kids my age?  That really is just sick. It shows how far people go just to scrape up a little bit of money, which can show how depressing our economy is.  It also shows how society pushes kids my age into thinking that drugs, cigarettes and alcohol are cool.  And it shows how much peer pressure affects us.

3) I realized that well, most of my friends are white. I'm not saying that I don't have black friends, but most of my friends are from pretty much the same background and financial situation.  At first I felt really bad, but then I got to thinking that I wasn't the only one.  At lunch today I watched all the cliques pass me by and realized that all of the friends were alike.  Most cliques were just hispanic, white, black, rich, "ghetto", and whatever else.  We don't mingle with anyone besides people similar to ourselves.