Food for Thought: Abandoned Innocents

          On the night of April 14^th, 2014, almost 300 Nigerian schoolgirls from the village of Chibok were kidnapped by Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist organization. I did not write an article about this event.

          Why am I writing about it now, two months “late”? Well, even though the entire media was in an uproar about it in April, I haven't heard a word about these girls for many weeks- not from news organizations, not from open-source websites, and not from human lips. Are the young scholars still missing? Yes. Are they still being kept as sex-slaves and many being indoctrinated into Islamism against their will? Yes. Does the public still care? Not really.

          After two months of imprisonment, surely these girls have given up hope. If I were among them, I would have. Despite a twitter campaign, empty promises from the government, and many people claiming that "I won't be able to rest until the victims are returned home", the world has forgotten about them already. I suppose that shows exactly how much Western society cares about people who are only an ocean away- and yet, an ocean is enough to separate the lamented from the forgotten, the rescued from the abandoned, and the saved from the damned. 

Image credit to ABC News

Sources: www.cnn.com, videos released by the Boko Haram terrorist group

Food for Thought: Money, Money, Money

        I was born into a less than wealthy family. Money was definitely not the easiest thing in the world for us (it isn't for anybody.) Fortunately, a few years into my life, things took a turn for the better. I myself am in a financially stable situation, but I know it definitely isn't that way for everyone- and I know it won't always be that way for me. When I live on my own, the money situation probably won't be quite as cozy. And it's true: the overall U.S. poverty rate in 2011 was 15.0 (27.5 for blacks, 25.3 for Hispanics, and 9.8 for non-Hispanic whites). It looks like this country has a serious opportunity gap, as well as financial gap. But what exactly do we define as "poverty"?

Absolute Poverty:

          Absolute poverty is defined as a condition in which a person doesn't have the necessary resources for survival. Absolute poverty could, in theory, be defeated, if the necessary survival resources were provided to the poor. Poverty is usually measured in absolute terms in developing countries, where it is most common, but also can exist in wealthy countries if the vast majority of wealth is owned by a small minority. 

Relative Poverty:

          Relative poverty occurs when people are "poor" in relation to those around them. For example, in a first world country, poverty might be when a person is unable to afford what is widely available to other people, such as a telephone or electricity. However, in poorer countries, relative poverty could fall under the category of absolute poverty. The U.S. poverty guideline is $11,670 for households of one person. As I said before- 15% of Americans are under the poverty line. That's 46,000,000 people. Unlike absolute poverty, relative poverty cannot be eradicated, as destroying it would require equal distribution of wealth. 

More Info:

          Here's a video with more information about wealth inequality in the U.S, and why it's such a serious problem. But don't take it from me- do your own research and develop your own opinion. Or, if you live outside the United States, find out more about poverty and wealth distribution in your own county.

• Official statistics on poverty in the U.S.
• Article about the history of the fight against poverty in America from the New York Times
• The official Poverty USA website

What do You Think?

          Is poverty as severe of an issue as I made it out to be? More severe? What's the best way for dealing with poverty? If it affects so many people, why hasn't a good solution been discovered/put in place yet? No political party claims poverty to be a good thing. But relative poverty, at least, is an unavoidable part of our capitalist system. How can this problem ever be solved? Please, tell me (respectfully) your opinions and ideas in the comments! Do you plan to take any action against poverty? 

SOURCES: HTTP://ASPE.HHS.GOV

Food for Thought: "Do What you Love"

          "Do what you love, love what you do." It's a common quotation now, and generally considered a pretty positive and inspirational thing to say. For my February Food for Thought, I decided to write about this. (See? February. Valentine's Day. Love. Do what you love. It goes togeth- oh, never mind.)

          Anyway, I first decided to write about it when I came across this article at Slate.com (courtesy of my mom. Thank you, mom. You make really good pancakes.) It's a little depressing, but an interesting opinion. For those readers who are lazy like me, I'll sum the article up with a quotation. 

          "Superficially, DWYL is an uplifting piece of advice, urging us to ponder what it is we most enjoy doing and then turn that activity into a wage-generating enterprise. But why should our pleasure be for profit? And who is the audience for this dictum?

DWYL is a secret handshake of the privileged and a worldview that disguises its elitism as noble self-betterment. According to this way of thinking, labor is not something one does for compensation but is an act of love. If profit doesn’t happen to follow, presumably it is because the worker’s passion and determination were insufficient. Its real achievement is making workers believe their labor serves the self and not the marketplace."

          Well. That's depressing. I can't say I agree with this rather pessimistic view on following your passions. Actually, I rather disagree. The article does have a point- in our society, the work of many is often unappreciated or assumed to be the work of one person- but I believe that DWYL isn't the cause of that. I don't think DWYL really about "disguising elitism as noble self-betterment", nor is that what it was originally intended to be. In my mind, DWYL represents that happiness doesn't directly correlate with money, and that if you keep working hard, making good choices, and following your passions, you're one step closer to happiness. In summary, it seems like DWYL is representing one ingredient to the "recipe to happiness", as opposed to representing the entire thing. Doing what you love is important to success, but there are other factors.

          I also found this contrasting opinion from John Green (go nerdfighters!) on writing (though his words apply to other forms of creating too) in the digital age. The opinions don't directly contradict, but definitely contrast overall. Here's the link. 

          Again, for my lazy readers, an excerpt: 

          "Every single day, I get emails from aspiring writers asking my advice on how to become a writer, and here is the only advice I can give: Don't make stuff because you want to make money- it will never make you enough money. And don't make stuff because you want to get famous- because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people- and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.

          Maybe they will notice how hard you worked, and maybe they won't- and if they don't notice, I know it's frustrating. But ultimately that doesn't change anything- because your responsibility is not to the people you're making the gift for, but to the gift itself."

          What do you think? Who's right, and who's less right? Please post in the comments!

          Oh, and I couldn't find another royalty free picture that was related to my post, so here's a picture of a fluffy bunny. 

Food for Thought: The Meaning of Life, Explained through Death

        Hey, readers. I thought I'd try starting something new on the World Improvement Project- a monthly "Food for Thought" post. Today I'll try addressing something that I think everyone has thought about in their deeper, more philosophical moments: the meaning of life.
          I won't profess to have the one answer to this really big question... However, I will give you a little something to think about. 
          Imagine your epitaph. Don't imagine what it would say if you lived on for sixty more years and accomplished all your life goals. Imagine what it would say if you died this very instant. If you're very young, probably not too much, but if you're older, there might be some more. Maybe not. Just be realistic. What kinds of stuff would it say? 
          Now imagine another epitaph- one that's been written after you've died well into your old age and completed all your goals. What's this one say? Is it different than the first epitaph? Me being the geek I am, I made a Venn diagram of mine. Except... I'm way too lazy to actually draw one, take a picture, and upload it, and I'm definitely too lazy to scour the internet for a good Venn diagram generator. I've looked before, and trust me, none of them work. 

Epitaph One

• Pretty much nothing (I'm one of those young people who still needs to do something with their life)

Overlap

• Was a beloved daughter and sister (hopefully, haha)
• Loved writing and wrote all the time
• Mastered the art of tea-making 

Epitaph Two

• Succeeded in reducing discrimination and violence
• Traveled the world 
• Performed in a professional musical theatre production
• Wrote and published a book

          Yeah... I'm a little disappointed in myself, too. I feel so prioritized now, though! I should probably be writing. Or holding a rally. Or getting a passport. Or auditioning for a show. Or the more immediate issue, cooking dinner. Eh... I'll finish this post first.

          So, have you listed the contents of your epitaphs yet? Hopefully, there's a lot of overlap between the two. If not, you're at least more prioritized than me. 

          Now I just have one more request for the epitaph experiment: list all the things, from both epitaphs, that improve the world in one way or another. How many are there? How many do you want to have? 

           

         If you liked what I have decided to call "the Epitaph Experiment", please, like and reshare this post or let me know in the comments! If I get enough positive feedback, I'll continue my monthly Food for Thought posts. Hopefully this food for thought was chewy enough to get you to click that button. Just remember- without supporters, there is no World Improvement Project. 

         Thank you so much for reading!

          -Fox