Migrating to new ideas.

When your introduce to politics, there are many ways of introducing the idea in multiple form. You could write an essay, paint, sing, or much more. Right now, I am a student at GCE lab school in  a class called Poetic Justice. What we do for this class is that we see how poems affect an idea such as politics, as well as power in general. We have gone to places such as The Third World Press, as well as listen to famous poets such as H.Melt. What we had to do for an overarching assignment was that we work/create a poem that has a political meaning behind it. I, J.N. had decided to preform a poem about immigration. The reason I did this was because immigration strongly relates to people I have seen in my life, such as friends and family. My mother worked in Little Village(a Hispanic/Mexican community in Chicago) and knew many friends as well as even helped then when suffering through deportation. I remember a specific memory with my mother when going into her friends house. The family got the news that the mother was going to be deported, which the children never seeing her again. What was the most emotional part was seeing the father of the family cry right in front of the children when we were trying to help them coop.

Now, the experience of making the poem was somewhat of a hassle/annoyance. I wouldn't call it the worst thing in the world, but not the best thing either. First, I had create a much larger poem that had more literary devices sprinkled around, but was considered to be far too big. Then, I had to re-write the poem in a much smaller version in order to keep with the time demand. Even then, I still had to cut good pieces out of the poem because it got heavily with symbolism. It was one of the main problem with my poems, that it is overwritten with symbolism rather then being strait forward. Another problem with my poem was that I envisioned it to rhyme in order to sound good and have a well placed rhythm. Though that was too high of a problem since it would sometimes rhyme without really placing a meaning. Finally, I had too little literary devices in the beginning of the creation of the second poem. I had to find and rewrite some parts in order for myself to get the full credit. There was other problems such as time and placement, but safe to say, there was multiple upon multiple changes while creating this poem. What I want to work on now is finding ways to minimize my poems and be more direct so that it could match the time limit and also be more understandable.

Now, before we go on with the preformed poem, a little background. 95% of the poem that is shown below mainly talks about a girl known as Rosa Maria Hernandez, who immigrated to the US when she was three months old. Apparently, her family needed medical help for their daughter, and there was little to no therapies/medical center for her conditions in Mexico. The family had illegally lived in the US for about ten years until Rosa was taken in an ambulance and sent to a children's hospital at Corpus Christina in Texas. She had surgery for her cerebral palsy in which she had before birth. On her way their, she was stopped by border police. They allowed her and her cousin to get to the hospital, following them all the way to the destination. You The surgery was a success, but immediately after she was taken to Children's Immigration Center in which she is still held their to this day. The reason this was even consider alright with the general police was that this was in the Trump Administration in 2017, in which more than 40% of deportations have grown since his registration.

You see, this was a time when the Dream Act was repealed on September 5, 2017.  The Dream Act was in summary a legislative proposal for a multi-phase process for allowing immigrant minors in the United States that would first grant conditional residency and, upon meeting further qualifications, permanent residency. In short, it meant that this country would allow immigrates to live here as long as they had certain qualifications as well as not commit any certain crimes. It was administrated as a bill in 2001, and had worked up all the way up to 2012 in the Obama administration. However, after the Trump Administration fully began, the act was fully repealed, and thus 40% of immigration arrest have rose. To myself, I feel this is extremely hypocritical for a country that was founded by migration and ruin native lives in doing so. I personally find it immoral to take the act considering that they are now taking people who have lived here for years, and create a life. This instance is even worse considering that the person being taken back was three months old in immigration, so she didn't even have a choice. What I want this poem to do is to challenge thoughts on people who side with this law.
  The second poem talk from JN on Vimeo.

If you see the video, then you could see certain types of literate devices used throughout the performance. These being simile, assonance, consonance, onomonipia, alliteration,  and different styles of rhyming. Now, what I been doing with these technics is that I used them to enhance the poem to be better heard. Take for example the rhyming.

The reason I choose that was because I wanted to make the poem flow easy enough so that people could remember it. It was also used to give the idea of speed or quickness, as seen through the 8th paragraph.

Another thing I did was that I used the consonace in order to make something seem spamming/freaking out with it repeating certain sounds more and more. Though you don't see this through all the examples, you could see it in the line 39, where the performer keeps repeating the same first letter "w" in a quick and fast way over and over again, almost as if he can't process what's happening, as well as trying to emote with the audience that this is a worrying idea. The alliteration has somewhat of the opposite effect, as it makes the sentence seem slower or easier to understand. We see this through line 22, when some of the tension through the mood had been lowered.

With onominipia, I tried to create a type of suspense with all my actions, as will as bringing in the imagery for said suspense. We see it this in line 21 and 27, in which we are signaled with unpleasantly do to an image of a creaking door, as well as suspense. Even though it isn't natural onimonipia, it still works the same.

As seen throughout the poem, simile/metaphor have been heavily put into it. The reason why I did this was to give better imagery into the poem, just like the onimonipia for sound. Even though some had stated it might be somewhat of a problem, I always enjoyed did because one can interpret the words in different ways, like all art. I believe the best example would be line 9-16, in which we talk about a knight named dream, who was met to be known as the Dream Act.

The Poem of the Land

A family, who came from where resources were limited,

Who conservatives minds thinks their minds were set to primitive,

Came to the US, a country that wished for certain tongues and same faces

The family had no choice, for it was a girl who needed body braces

She had been born broken, and yet the family believe she could be fixed,

She went to the country of immigrants when she only three months old

The family knew if they were found, they would be filed back home

Eventually the girl’s state would be critical, with the family eventually have to pull the plug

They could have been taken, throw, and shipped if it weren’t for a liberal pack

A knight dubbed Dream came to defend and Act

He defended those with licences not strapped to their wetbacks

Even with his armor cracking, he still stand being protective

To those that the conservative mind would call defective

Yet, as the years went by, his armor kept breaking and shaking

Until the backstabbing pen that once helped lead him flaking

He still stood strong, but was unmercifully whipped until he could not handle

On September 5, 2017, he was beheaded and lost his title

And so, ten grinding years, the girl had grow not so grand and graceful

Her condition had turn mental, and would have turned to stone.

She went to a vehicle, with built in machines, ticks, and beeps.

Till they got to a passing point, with two guardsmen debuting with a loud nauseous door creak

Without the knight, her life was likely to dry up till she died,

The guardsmen looked across the room, with each second acting more decisive

They weren’t monsters, and let the girl move despite orders

Yet they followed her, with each step building borders.

She was cured with ten medics and small swords

But when it was over, a loud nauseous door creek came in waiting for some reward

It was the two guardsmen that came, with laws of Trump card emperor pushing down their throats

They took the girl, 150 miles away from home, and deciding to send her to a place she had never known before

Soon people catch her story, fought on what to do and wondering if they should help or scurry

Some couldn’t react, with their ears being blown on why this is true and questioning what we think is clean, right, fit, or dirty

Other, tried to tell the story about the girl that people were in worry, and were hearing in a  dashing hurry.

Headlines screamed; Border agents detain 10-year-old after emergency surgery

Like a hawk, the story flew to its penetrating pellicle

Liberal were seeing it as desecrating/despicable

But conservatives argued it’s for the greater good

They sneered if a snake slithers away, venom would turn true

They believe crows will come as buildings are splattered with nauseous red dew

The girl now waits weary and is wedged as the weary scale weighing on such truths

For the creaking to come, for what couldn’t be and what could,

They keep her hidden from the eyes far from the wall

Only show to those, the girl never knew at all

Poem of the Land

Hello everyone, my name is J.N. and I am a sophomore in the class Poetic Justice. What my class and I do  is that we talk about certain poems that have a political meaning in them. We talk mainly about politics, as well as grammer/poetic devices. We went to such places as Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep, and the Poetry Foundation to learn and relate more to these subjects. What my class and I did for an assignment was that we had to create a poem that was talking about a political subject that was important to us or had relations to us. Multiple people did such things such as mental illness, rape, school structures, and much more. The topic that I talked about was immigration, which I will explain later on why I choose it. Still, what I found hard about this poem was to construct with all the criteria. These include such this as poetic tools/devices, grammar devices, and symbolism. We also had to make it about 4 minutes long. Still, I hope you all read/enjoy my poem.

Now, before we go on, a little background. 95% of the poem that is shown below mainly talks about a girl known as Rosa Maria Hernandez, who immigrated to the US when she was three months old. Apparently, her family needed medical help for their daughter, and there was little to no therapies/medical center for her conditions in Mexico. The family had illegally lived in the US for about ten years until Rosa was taken in an ambulance and sent to a children's hospital at Corpus Christia in Texas. She had surgery for her cerebral palsy in which she had before birth. On her way their, she was stopped by border police. They allowed her and her cousin to get to the hospital, following them all the way to the destination.The surgery was a success, but immediately after  she was taken to Children's Immigration Center in which she is still held their to this day. The reason this was even consider alright with the general police was that this was in the Trump Administration in 2017, in which more than 40% of deportations have grown since his registration.

The reason why I consider this a fellony is that I had seen somewhat of an experience with immigration. Not neccerally directly, but with family members who I can't even say their names without the fear of deportation. My mother, has worked in the Hispanic areas of Chicago and has supported friend/close clients who have immigrated to the US for a better life. What is even worse is how she has even seen(as well as myself) with the effects of deportation, such as an US born child never seeing his mother away do to the fact that she isn't born here. I fondly remember one experience, in which my mother and I went to a friends home, and help with the cooping family members of a parent being deported. I will never forget the face of a good man who I knew, cry right in front of me because heard his spouse was being taken from him by the police. What was worse was that he couldn't do anything about it because of his own unregistration. Even if it is a small impact, I believe this poem is extremely important to who I am, and who my loved ones are.

Poem of the Land - By J.N.

I can tell you stories million to one,
Of how people see and laugh at me for fun
I can give you gifts or tell why “greater good” gave me birth
I can tell you how everybody sees me this earth
I can talk to you of all the things I see wrong, and what I see sad,
I can tell I’m the strongest eagle, and some see it bad

But today, I will tell you all a simple tale,
On how I once thought of promise and love to hail
Of how if you worked like you matter, your life could be less of bitter,
How if you listen to others, there be no true sinners.
The dream I wish, for what it seemed and for those who hoped for me
The dream that courtmen ripped to shreds, to make themselves feel more free.

A family, who wanted this dream,
A family crossed land and could have crossed the creatures of sea.
A family, that came great lengths to me,
A family, who struggled to live happily
They went to a this place,
Where I came to thrive

Blocked by a wall and told this continent it is it’s separate space
Since the orders of 65
They jump through the wall,
Remained unseen,
Knowing for their days, they would be look like insects that crawl
At the eyes of the law it seems.

The heat on their palms and hands,
Sensed like scorpions scavenging on the sand.
As they grew desperately to help
I heard a little angel who cried and yelped

They gained the help, and help was given,
Just like work, it wasn’t hidden
The family handle an ocean of heat
Where in their eyes, it was grey and bleak

But it became cool, as time went by
The girl grew, growing stronger inside.
Yet they knew the child’s hourglass was breaking
Her eyes were dimming, her color was fading.

She was taken into a vehicle with containers/bed seats, side in which she had fear to see.
They kept to hear the sound tick tick, so to hope the machine wouldn’t beep
As the vehicle path was blocked, screeched to a stop
Two guardsmen went to the door knock ,knock

Yet, even at her darkened time when the family was tame and prayed
The people who ancestors were into the same darkened shade
Told this girl she could not be here, for law is order
Yet their blood didn’t come here, and knew their rules were broken

For them, she was an alien, an desecration
A ten year old criminal destined for discrimination
Men of law followed her to the hospital, and went.
the ticking was gone to hold, as if the machines had slept

She was cured with ten medics and small swords
But then she heard knock knock, as if some waited for reward
But it was the guardsmen came, and heard the ticking sound out of touch
The guardsmen took her, like a trophy as such

The girl now waits weary and is wedged as the weary scale weighs on such truths
For one final knock, for what couldn’t be and what could,
They keep her hidden from the eyes out of the wall
Only show to those, the girl never knew at all

Soon people catch her story, fought on what to do
Some couldn’t react, with their ears being blown on why this is true
Other, tried to tell the story about the girl that people were in worry, and were hearing in a dashing hurry.
Headlines screamed; Border agents detain 10-year-old after emergency surgery

Like a hawk, the story flew to it’s pellicle
People were seeing it as despicable
Others argued it’s for the greater good
Law was order, and the way it be it should
They sneered if a snake slithers away, venom would turn true
They believe crows will come as building are splattered with nauseous red dew

In a world today, people hold onto their beliefs,
To the point where they think they cannot be deceived
If that is true, then why don’t you listen to others
If that is true, then why try to take someone away just because it makes you feel safe.

Now, I may ask you, who am I
Am I a hero or villain, for which for you to be upset.
Am I the something to get rid of, so that we go further.
Or am I something, for no things to win




Citations
Merchant, N. “US border agents detained a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy..” Oct 26, 2017

Business Insider. businessinsider.com . Web. Dec 3, 2017

The Scientific Medusa

Hello everyone, my name is J.N, and I take a STEAM class in GCE Lab School known as Population. What we do for this class is that we take both science and math and integrate it in order to gain a better learning experience. Right now, we are learning about how to follow the growth of population as well as the evolution/taxonomy of an animal in said population. In this class, we had gone to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to learn about taxidermy of certain animals that lived inside of the Chicago area before human intervention began. In there, we saw different taxidermy all around, showing us on which environments these species lived in, as well as what they were in their prime.

What we had to do for this assignment is we would have to write about a scientific preservation method in order to demonstrate the overall theme of the class. What “scientific preservation method” is that it’s kept information on a species. It could either phenotype or genotype trails, but is phenotype for the most part. There are multiple types of preservations, such as video or picture, but I choose taxidermy, which is stuffing the skin in order to keep the shape. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.

Taxidermy is a type natural preservation in which an animal carcass(non-decayed) has been stuffed and covered with certain materials in order to keep secure its preserved glory(removing the inners, of course). When you think about taxidermy, your mind comes to the conclusion of heads being mounted on walls and left for display. For the most part, that mounted heads is a good definition on how normal taxidermy looks like. But in order to give you a better idea, I need to give you an example.

 Ashish Sehgal. File:Taxidermy cat family. June 19, 2016. Wikipedia. Commons.wikimedia.org. Web. Oct 26, 2017

Above is a photo on the taxidermy of the two lions. We could tell it’s taxidermy mainly because the animals are in one signal pose, and doesn't show any signs of life. Now, there are several questions you could ask about these animals. Such as what species were they, where were these animals before, and how did they die. These questions are what taxidermy solves.

For example, if it was a video, you wouldn't be able to see the full model of the lions. It would just take wasted time and effort to record, since most of the time these species is always moving. What makes taxidermy so special is that you could be able to walk around and see every angle of the species. This would allow the scientist to conduct research just by appearance. You could see what type of lion they were, or even make a discovery that it’s a brand new species. You can measure the size/height of the animal with, rather than just creating assumptions through photos and videos. The same could be said for where they’re native to by seeing all of the color scheme on fur for camouflage as well as looking over the body for wounds on how they died.

Not only that, but this is a much safer way of gain research rather going into the field. When going into the field, you could have a risk of dying do to the animal trying to attack you. The animal could also run away, thus wasting more of you time trying to find it. It just makes things a bit too unnecessary. But with a model, hunters/other events already took the animal’s life. It gives a long term goal to keep it as a model and useful. We could say that taxidermy is extremely useful for scientist who observe in a lab rather than in the field.

In conclusion, I believe that taxidermy is one of the most important preservation methods by far. You can be able to interact with a model in a delicate way, as well a check on every single angle of the body. This allows future generations to look at a model to compare their size and height without gaining risk. Thus, I believe that taxidermy will be used for generations.

Ashish Sehgal. File:Taxidermy cat family. June 19, 2016. Wikipedia. Commons.wikimedia.org. Web. Oct 26, 2017

"Immigrants, we get the job done."

Hello everyone, my name is J.N. and I take a humanities class called Stories at GCE Lab School. In this term, we learned about history, story structures, and how to portray different myths and morals in a certain way.

For this unit, we put an emphasis on the hero’s journey. The “hero's journey” is a plot structure that shows what the hero faces, and how he/she returns from it. It’s shown to be a cycle, and many times a person would go through a hero’s journey whenever facing a sort of conflict. This plot structure is shown both in fiction and in real life, which allows us to determine if a certain person could be considered a hero.

For this AP, I decided to look over a real hero and a fictional hero. My real hero is my mother, Dolly Z. She immigrated to America, went from poverty to a higher economic class, and now supports others. Meanwhile, my fictional hero is a boy named Carlitos. He is from the movie Under the Same Moon. He travels from Mexico to America to find his mother. Throughout the film, he is confronted by multiple challenges while gaining multiple allies.

In both stories, I found multiple comparisons in these heroes. But what I found the most intriguing is that they are round characters. They live their lives through the challenges they face and survive without fully winning or losing. Yet they change through those challenges. They gain experience which allows the potential for them to help others. Thus, you see them save the people they love at the end.

Either way, this is the story of two different yet similar heroes. There's a audio recording and a transcript on said recording. Still, I hope you all enjoy the powerpoint, listen to to audio, and read the transcript.

 

Africa's Hot Spot

My name is J.N. and I study at GCE Lab School. In there, we had a class called Population, in which we learn about scientific terms such natural selection, evolution, phenotype/genotype, and much more. We also learned about mathematical terms such as standard deviation, permutation/combination, and much more. We also went to the Field Museum for this Unit in which we learn about the evolutionary traits of the observed animals.

For this class, we had to do create an assignment which was a thought project on what might happen to an organism in a different environment. I choose a Fennec Fox mainly because they are small but tough creature. Anyway, the main reason this project was created was so we could predict on what could happen if human is messing the environment and how the Foxes would adapt to it. What I am proud of this project is the information given. What I am not proud of is the format, since the original format had technical errors. Still, I hope you all enjoy.

The Fox and the Gator

My name is J.N., and I study at GCE Lab School. In it, I have been taking a Humanities class known as stories. What we do is we study about literature and subjects such as symbolism, metaphors, and much more. For an assignment, we had to write a fable that had a symbol, anthropormophic or non- human characters, and moral for the story. I just want to say that I'm proud this project with the illustration created by myself. I am also proud of the story itself, and how it gets straight to the point. What I had struggle however is the symbolism in the story, which is consistant but is hard to find. Still, I hope you like it and that you can be able to find the moral.

There was once a group of young alligators and their father who went into a lake and ate most of the fish. The woodland creatures wanted to tell the large alligator to stop, but they were all too scared to do so. So, for the first time ever, both prey and predator went to the center of the forest to talk about what they were going to do. An owl, on the highest branch, became the leader of the group. Before the meeting began, she told everyone that no one was to be eaten nor killed. All the animals agreed and started with the meeting.

At first, nobody knew how to deal with the alligator. It wasn’t until a bear came up from the group. “I can certainly beat the scoundrel” said the bear. “But in order to do so, I wish to have another cave of my own, as well as all the honey I can eat”. Now, some the animals though the bear could do it. He was known to win, sometimes with just one swipe of his claw. The owl and other animals agreed that the bear was the right choice.

Before the fight, the sun had set, and it was so dark that most of the animals couldn’t see the event. When the fight was over, the bear had wounds from his shoulder to his belly. He was in agony, and said, “ I came up to him, trying to resolve this conflict peacefully, and he attacked me with full force. I came running back for safety.” All the animals shivered in panic for the upcoming future. The owl screeched and told everybody they would all have to adapt to the situation. They all agreed until a mouse came running in and stated that the alligator scared him off when he was taking a drink from the lake. Realizing that their largest water supply was taken hostage, the owl decided that whoever could beat the alligator could get the promised cave.

The stag tried, but he couldn’t run on water. The wolves tried, but the water was unclear at night. Over and over, challengers tried to fight the alligator, but they were always in the dark whenever it happened.

As the animals were ready to accept their fate, a small fox came around the corner and took the center of the group. “ Maybe I could help.” said the fox in a calm voice. “but only if you give me the cave for myself. ”

Now, the forest residents hated the fox almost as much as the feared the alligator. When he was young, he was a trickster. He would trick critters all day and would leave at night. But seeing how they didn’t have a choice, the animals all voted and gave the fox a chance.

At the sunrise, the fox proceeded toward the gator. The alligator looked fiercely towards the fox, ready to attack. The fox only smiled and said, “Gee, you seem tense. What, fox got your tongue?” .Now ,to most, this would seem terrible. But alligator laughed so hard that he almost forgot to breathe .

JN "Storybook" 2018, blogspot

As the sun rose, the fox laid down on the shore of the pond, speaking one joke to the next. Gradually, the gator trusted the fox and felt calm near him. After a long period of jokes, the fox tried to suggest something. “ You know… There’s a really nice pond a couple miles away. It has all the fish in the world, and if you go there, no creature would ever bother you again.”

The gator looked sternly at the fox and spoke. “So that’s why you'se here. You'se tellin me to git out like all the rest of them critters. Well, Ah would, but one of my kin died ‘cause of a ruthless bear. We was just mindin our own beeswax, when dis big old bear came runnin toward us, and tried kill me. I fought back, of course, but right before he was tuh leave, his claw swipes at my son and took his dear life. I won’t stop til I get justice.”

When the fox got back, he told the animals everything. At first, they all didn’t believe him, until he brought the alligator himself and explain his side of the story. They told the bear to leave the forest. As the sun rose, the bear was able to gain justice from the crime, while the fox got his cave. The sun had rose high into the sky, and the forest was able to see a lot clearer.

Cometa

Over in our Humanities class, we learned about stories and myths. We have gone to multiple FEs, one of them being at the Field Museum, where we learned the myths of central America and Egypt. So, for a project, or more better phrase, and Action Project.

First, I was want to stay is this story is in first person. The main reason being is so that the main character, being the brother of the creator, can be able to see her as all powerful, and reflect his feelings on to the audience. Second, I also want to say that this is the third version of the myth. The first and second version was too long, trying to establish character. Because of this, this project was extremely hard with not coming up with ideas, but rather simplifying it.

Third, I want to say that the creation of the two characters as well as the people stems from the idea of Genesis Adam and Eve, with them being created from a power in the sky, as well as the dirt from the ground. Even though it does have some major changes. Still, I hope you all enjoy.

I have never been the one to tell stories, nor the one to remember, but I suppose it’s for the best. My light will go out anyway, so you all might as well learn. But I can’t be able to tell you one part, one section, one place. I have to tell you the whole thing. I have to go back, back before I was even born.

My guess is we were a comet, and crashed on a planet, thus it’s name Cometa. Though, that’s only through speculation. For a long time, I could not feel anything. Then, as the days went by, I started to gain my sense, and I finally woke up in cool surfaced dirt. As I woke up, I saw a girl, crying in the middle of the ground. Even though I haven’t met her, I knew she and I were from the same place. I tried running towards her, but felt something when on the heated ground. It was like the flames of a sun was fiercely grabbing my hand and holding me tight. I quickly retreated back in the cool dirt, and watched her cry in agony. We looked at each other, both in pain.

Then, like mercy from the sky, the mist of her tears began to cry for her. It healed her wounds quickly, and swiftly cooled the ground, becoming clouds. As it end, she stood up slowly and walked towards me.

After that day, we decided to explore the terrain. But there was nothing but rocks and mountains as grey as her hair. One day, when we were walking by, we saw a comet blazing quick through the sky. Quickly, without hesitation, my sister ran towards our crater and came back some cool dirt. She then dropped it in a near by puddle, and waited for something to happen. Within seconds, a unknown material rose from the puddle, and scrapped the heavens. Using the material as a lasso, she grabbed a hold of the comet. The comet struggled and screamed, but with one mighty tug, he fell down to the ground. Before we ran to the crash site, I saw the used material, broken and torn. I knew it wouldn’t live, so I dug a ditch deeper than the seas and buried the material. 

When I caught up with my sister, the comet that fell was dead. While I saw the comet crack into two pieces, I realized my origin, and I felt like there should be more. I vigorously cut the remains into tiny pieces, and let it sink into the ground.

As time passed, we both saw that the material grew. I saw that it growing in different directs, colors, and uses. Soon, a whole diversity of wonderful plants came to be. The forest was born. As for the people, my sister and I both saw them create things. They would always build, break, or fight and were quite entertaining.

We weren’t the only ones though . Stars and comets began to spy along the heavens. Overtime, I began to know the stars better. They said their lives were boring, doing nothing but float. When they heard about “mortals” on Cometa, they immediately came. For a short time, everything was good.

The only problem was my sister. She didn’t care for the stars, only the mortals. Whenever, she went to see them, they would worship her immensely. She thought the more mortals there were, the better. She would capture a star, kill them, and cut them all to pieces for mortals to grow.

J.N, "Cometa" Own work  Oct 1, 2017 

When all celestial bodies heard, they immediately went back up in the sky. All except one star, whom I knew. He pleaded me to help him stay hidden from my sister. After seconds of thought, I decide the best way to hide would be beneath the planet. We worked on weeks on helping creating tunnels and caverns until they were finally done. As we traveled through the tunnels, I saw that everywhere he went, pieces of him would be left behind.The were a bit small. I ignored it. One day, I couldn’t find him. I searched all around the tunnels and saw his broken essence turn to gem. When I finally found him, he was dying .Too much of him was left behind. Like a flame blown out, his light was gone. His body, glimmering through the dark caves. His body turned to diamond.

I grieved for my friend, became weak. If went back to my sister, she would just be angry at me for keeping a star hidden. She tried look for me, but gave up along time ago. In some ways, I wished that she and I were still alone. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so sad.

Fennec Fox, and how Taxonomy rules them all.

In STEAM class, we learned and studied the behavior of animals such as Chimpanzees and other primates. We also about set theory, taxonomy, and much more. On a field experience we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We studies animals such as primates, birds, and much more. This is why for our first Action Project, we had to research and make an art piece about an animal we choose. The one I choose was the Fennec fox, mainly because it was related to canidae(dog,wolf, etc). I also believe it was more unique that a wolf or a dog since it lives in hot climates.

As for the project, what I did was I made a video with still images rather than a single image. The reason I did this was to give my project more of an identity, as well as help with my portfolio. Even if it doesn’t look ideal for portfolio, it still looks unique. What I’m most proud of is the video, and what I’m least proud of is shooting for the film. I didn’t have any tripods, so I had to shot each frame by hand. Still, I hope you enjoy the video, thank you.



After working after this project, I have to admit it was hard. I mean it was already difficult to do what I was supposed to do, and I want to take it three steps up. First, I would like to say that what took me the least amount of time would be the actual research. It was also the most critical part, as well as the only necessary part. All the other work from the video to the audio to every image was all because I wanted to do this. The hardest part was drawing every single image and every single frame. After I did the project, I was so relieve that was able to finish it on time and that I was able to create everything I could. I am extremely proud of this project, and I hoped you all liked it.

If you didn't see the chart, here it is. The bottom is snowy owl.

J.N Chart 9/26/17

Heres an image that inspired a part of my video.

Charles Barilleaux Fennec Fox Cub flickr.com “Flickr” 9/23/12

The Grey Industrialization( of cookies)

My name is J.N, and I am a GCE student attending my final term for the freshmen year. In this final term, my class and I take a course known as Food for Thought, which studies food throughout history. We have done multiple assignments, as well as gone to multiple Field Experience. One of them being Uncommon Grounds, which is a coffee shop that grows most of there food.
What we had to do for our final assignment is to create a review between food we made at home or at school, as well as food we ate in a restaurant. This was a very enjoyable assignment since it was supposed to reach out to our opinion. I saw there was more of a learning experience rather than a challenge, which I believe there was none in my experience. My thesis is that my cookies will win over the industrail cookies known as Lofthouse do to taste, and I would suggest to you my cookies. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my review on my homemade cookies as well as Lofthouse branded cookies.

J.N "Flour" Own Work 6/4/17 

Firstly, I want to say that I love baking these cookies. Mainly because the cookie dough looked and tasted so good. Not only that, but I also tinkered with the recipe. Adding in different ingredient to make it taste good. To summarize the recipe, I first mixed in everything together but the eggs, until it was pale and fluffy. Then I added at least two eggs, then added a third one so the dough could be more liquidy. I then put it in the freezer for fifteen minutes. I shaped the cookies like walnut sized balls, sprinkled some sugar on to them, and baked for 10 minutes. I then let them cool for five minutes, and ate my most successful batch of cookies yet.
I wanted to make this as fair as possible for both types of cookies, and in order to do so, I thought it would be great to let the cookie rest for about more than an hour. This way the cookies that I buy at the store will match the exact same temperature, and would allow tasting to be down to the flavor, rather than the temperature. It also allows the feeling of eating to also be fair as well.
In this assignment, the both cookies have to go through at least 5 criteria that follows the senses. They are;
how does it look

how does it smell

how does it feel inside and outside of the mouth

J.N. Own Work "cookie" 6/4/2017

how does it sound inside and outside the mouth

how does it taste.

The homemade cookie looked promising, looking crumbly yet delicious. As if I touched it, it would necessarily fall into one million pieces, nor with it not leave a slight mess. It had a yellowish tint, with the bottom having a much darker it, as well as there were sparks of sugar around the cookie, magnifying the look and texture. The smell reminded me of a sweet cake batter, but still stayed in touch with the mix of a cookie aroma as well. For the texture before eating it, it felt like it was a small bit rough on my fingers, like a normal cookie would. The feeling of the dish in my mouth was amazing. The cookie itself felt soft, and would continually stay there for at least more than a few seconds, having also the perfect mix of crunch. The sprinkled sugar gave it an extra layer as well, allowing a noticeable crack in each bite, and making more enjoyable. The sound of the dish was a bith squishy, and small parts of crunch in it. The taste was good, and it was very cake-cookie like. It was sweet, but also had some bitter and pungent and that one could argue is evened out, which is usually a good thing. It didn’t necessarily leave a large punch, but rather left a continuous source of flavor for a well amount of time.

J.N "Lofthouse" Own Work 6/4/17

After being happy with the my homemade cookies, I then moved on to the store bought. Because of eating the homemade, it somewhat soured my look on the store bought. Nonetheless, I tried to keep neutral. The cookie I was eating was called Lofthouse Delicious Cookies: Cookies and Cream Sugar Cookies. When looking at it, it looked like the perfect cookie, but not the natural one. If you saw it, the you would know it was made in a sort of factory. It had the exact same color around it, as well some white frosting on top of it. This was unfortunate since it evened the playing field. Yet, I will still try to eat the cookie with the frosting since it came with it. When smelling the cookie, it had a promising aroma. It did smell like cookies and cream, as well as a brownie-sh smell. It has a smooth but also rough texture, and reminded me of a delicate sponge when I pushed on to it. When eating the cookie, it dissolved in less than a few seconds, which I didn’t enjoy. It reminded me of powdered sugar put in water, dissolving into nothingness. It didn’t have much of a sound because of how quickly it was gone. The taste was stronger when first biting it, which was good. But it only felt pungent and sweet, and that was pretty much it. It did do good advertising, since I did gain the taste of cookies and cream, as well as some brownie taste, but not to much.

After eating both dishes, I would mainly prefer my dish over Lofthouse. This is for several reasons, but the biggest reason was the feel in my mouth. When I ate the homemade cookie, each bite felt liked it cracked or popped. The taste lasted for a while compared to most cookies, as well the cookie was soft yet crunchy, in an perfect amount. The Lofthouse cookie was the opposite and what I despise in a cookie. It had a large impact, but for a very short amount of time, and then dissolve. A cookie from any store should stay and make the mouth feel good, with both an amount of crunch and softness.

Then there is the ingredients. Even though mine isn’t fully organic or local, it does have certain qualities that make it have a better background. The better ingredients of the homemade would be:

J.N "Nutrtion" Own work 6/4/17

1. 365 Everyday Value Cream Cheese, which is cow friendly and does not put rBGH in them

2. Organic Eggs

3. Ceresota All Purpose Flour UnBleached, which is doesn’t contain GMOs

4. The cookies from Lofthouse on the other hand contain contain ingredients:

5. Enriched Bleached Flour

6. Natural & Artificial Flavoring

7. Margarine

Of course, both do contain ingredients such as baking soda, egg, salt, sugar, and etc, there is no denying that the homemade cookies contain ingredients that are more farm friendly compared to Lofthouse. So I would have to say that while my cookies are a mix between organic and industrial, Lofthouse cookies are fully industrial.

Finally, there is also the fact of the true personality of the cookie. Most of the time, the grand taste of the Lofthouse cookie mainly came from the frosting. I know this because I would try out the cookie itself on the edges, and it had no personality what so ever. It tasted like unsweetened cocoa powder that was somewhat bitter and not really sweet. To myself, this fact is really ironic since you bought cookies to eat the cookies, not the frosting. That companies like Lofthouse are are putting much more emphasis on the frosting rather than the cookie.

If you don’t know who Michael Pollan is, he is an investigator, author, and researcher in studying economical and political crises that relate to food. He has written books such as Botany of Desire, Cooked: A Natural History, and much more. In his book In Defense of Food, he talks about five problems that large food corporations have that is their fatal flaw which is create in order to gain profit. These are:           

J.N "Homemade" Own Work 6/4/17 

1. Quantity over quality

2. Complexity to simplicity

3. Leaves to seeds

4. Whole to refine

5. Culture to science.

In the Lofthouse cookies, I could see several of these guidelines. But the biggest one would be complexity to simplicity. What complexity over simplicity means is that each product is meant to look the same in every way in order shut less to cost. The reason I say this is because, when looking at the cookies through the box, every single one was meant to look the same. That each one didn’t have any individuality, and that each one looked like the last. In fact, each one tasted like the last. 

Even though mine tasted the same, there were some that were bigger while others that were smaller. They were not meant to be perfect, but were meant to be tasty. Which brings me to another guideline Lofthouse follows, which is science to culture, meaning that it would turn into artificial flavoring. Unlike my cookies, Lofthouse had so many chemicals in it, from bleached flour, to artificial flavoring, to many other chemicals. It was also made in a factory rather than normally, seeing how each one looks exactly the same.
So overall I believe that my homemade cookies are better since they have less artificial flavors as well as having more natural ingredients. It also has a better feel as well as a longer lasting taste.

J.N "Myself" Own Work 6/4/17 

Recipe:

1. Preheat the oven at about 350 before making the cookies

2. Mix in the 2 ¾ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and ½ teaspoon of salt

3. Then mix in the 2 cups sugar, ¾ cups of cream cheese, ¼ cups of whipped butter, as well 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, until the mix looks pale and fluffy

4. Then mix in 2 eggs until it looks like cookie dough(add an extra egg if it looks too dry)

5. Put the dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes

6. Take out the dough, and heavily butter up the pan

7. Try to make each portion walnut sized on the pan, and separate them each by 2 inches

8. Sprinkle in ¼ cup of sugar on newly placed cookie dough

9. Put the cookie dough into the oven, and let it bake for about 10 minutes

10. Take them out, and let it cool down for five minutes

Citations

Cindy Catudal "Chewy Sugar Cookies" allrecipes.com cookierecipe.com 6/4/17
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/22850/chewy-sugar-cookies/

Genetically Enhanced Trees/plants Industrializing Technological-advancements (GETIT)

Hello, my name is J.N., and I am at my last term of my freshmen year at GCE. I took a course known as Food, which studies the science behind food through GMOs, the green revolution, and much more. We had gone to multiple field experiences, on of them being a farmers market in order to see the stance for GMOs for farmers. For this term, everyone in my class had to pick a side on whether GMOs were good or bad. I personally choose GMOs to be a good thing, mainly because of the potential it served. There were a few challenges, such as create a video that was very limited with dialogue, but there was also some success in writing the props on how GMOs are good. With that being said, I hope you enjoy my thoughts on GMOs.

Stance on GMOs from JN on Vimeo.

Pros of GMOs from Jeimarous on Vimeo.

My father has always told me that intelligence and improving ourselves is what makes a human being good, to some extent. That if we just learn the same things, plant the same crops, or even eat the same food, we won’t have much achievement in life. That, if we didn’t advance ourselves in religion, politics, human rights and especially science, we would have been isolated. We would have still been a primate in a tree rather than living on the ground, and using fire to advance ourselves. Is it truly bad to modify food that is, in turn, truly advancing the human civilization, and feeding millions? I believe not. This is why I believe that we are doing more good than harm, and that the reason it isn’t fully gaining potential is through economic and political stances. So I will be talking about the benefits of GMOs that have helped humans by growing crops to resist climate change, can be more advanced in the future, and how it increased yields in multiple countries around the world.

First, GMOs could resist climate change such as drought. In the book Empires of Food, it states “Droughts have always been an existential problem for agricultural societies since they first appeared”pg104. It has ravaged multiple civilizations in the past. History.com states there have been droughts in Ancient Egypt, Africa, MesoAmerica, China, and Syria. Now, CO2 has made climate change so much worse where droughts are more frequent.

There is an organization known as CGIAR that is working on the climate crises, and has even successfully been able to create crops that are resistant to drought. They claim in an article “One way in which they (CGIAR) have responded successfully to the challenge is by developing varieties of major food crops that are drought tolerant or escape drought through early maturity”. Newsweek.com states that Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats or CRISPR has also been try to achieve better crops, as well as many other organizations. In theguardian.com, it states that African countries “saw their yields increase by 20% to 30% after sowing a variety of drought-tolerant hybrids.” Another helper in withstanding droughts would be a corn known as Droughtgard, who in pri.org states “certified for sale in several other countries, including Australia, Canada, Mexico and Japan.”

Another idea on how GMOs can be useful is through its potential . newsweek.com states “food production will have to double by 2050, at which point the world population is expected to have grown from 7 billion today to well beyond 9 billion” With that in mind, people have to realize that GMOs could be an essential factor to life in the next 20 years in the human race. This could also lead to the advancement of GMOs in supply and conditions, or in other words, the second green revolution.

According to the balance.com, “There is no faster way to produce animals and plants with specific beneficial traits and, as we learn more about the genetics, many more modifications will become possible.” With hearing this, we can infer that GMOs are already advancing in agriculture in science right now. grist.org even states that researchers are looking into “This newer system (which)is called C4 photosynthesis. Researchers around the world — funded by nonprofits like the Gates Foundation — are working on creating C4 Rice and C4 Wheat. Those crops could grow 50 percent more food per acre.” Also, in Empire of Food, it talks about how FACE is working and examining rice in order to see if they could could survive higher levels of CO2. The book states that “FACE experiment as the world's most educated guess on how food would grow in the upcoming generations.”pg94 So with that in mind, I believe that GMOs can be able to support in the long run, not only in feeding people but also advancing the science in agriculture as well.

Finally, I want to talk about how GMOs have affected people today, and what are their benefits. Mainly, the biggest one would have to be the yield per acre. Alumni.berkeley.edu states “Bt corn has an estimated yield of 34 percent more in the Philippines, 11 percent in South Africa, 9 percent in Argentina and 5 to 6 percent each in the U.S. and Spain”. Not only that, but ingrist.org states “There are 7 million cotton farmers in India. Several peer reviewed studies have found that, because Bt cotton increases the amount of crop they have to sell, it raises their farm profits by as much as 50 percent, helps lift them out of poverty and reduces their risk of falling into hunger.” GMOs are helping out people by create a higher food supply that has grown both the economy, as well as allowing people to buy affordable food. Also, unlike organic, GMOs grow faster and can be able to stay in a single area without destroying forest. Grist.org states “Either we do this on the same land we have today, or we chop down forest to create farms and pastures to meet that demand, something no one wants to do.”

There are multiple arguments against GMOs, and there are at least two that I have seen.

1.Why are there GMOs when there is also hunger in the world as well? Wasn’t the whole purpose of GMOs as to help stop world hunger? 

Well, the reason there still is world hunger even with GMOs is because some countries are anti-GMO, while other times GMOs (like most wonderful things) are used only for profit.

With the expansion of GMOs, there have been multiple countries that have banned GMOs for multiple reason. The main two are that monocultures of GMOs are bad for the environment and that they are “unnatural” or are wrong. Though people could debate about it being wrong to mess with nature, the idea of GMOs being bad for the environment is false. Most of the time, it isn’t GMOs that are ruining nature, but rather the pesticides and herbicides that are being inflicted upon GMOs. In fact, scientist are already creating crops known as Bacillus thuringiensis, or bt crops that don’t need pesticides. Regardless, some countries don’t enjoy crops, and they are paying for it thanks to hunger.

In Zimbabwe, there are laws that restrict the use of GM crops, yet they have experienced multiple droughts. In the circleofblue.org, it states ““Zimbabwe’s restriction on the importation of genetically modified crops, limiting the amount of corn and other grains it can procure from South Africa,” Because of their restriction, Zimbabwe is now facing debt and hunger in their country.

2. Are GMOs healthy for people to eat?

The answer is yes. I have read countless sources, and each one of them said that GMOs are safe to eat. The one problem with GMOs is that there are added pesticides on them. Of course, scientists are working on a crop that is known as Bt crops. They don’t require pesticides because they to be “highly effective at combating pests such as European corn borer, rootworm, corn earworm, tobacco budworm, and bollworm” by harvard.edu. One of the biggest examples would be in grist.org, which states “By reducing the amount of insecticide used (which, in India, is mostly sprayed by hand) Bt cotton has also massively reduced insecticide poisoning to farm workers there — to the tune of 2.4 million cases per year.”

So with all that in mind, I do believe that GMOs aren’t just advancing in agriculture, but also in scientific research. GMOs are advancing the human society in so many ways. With that, I would have to bring back to my father's ideas on always learning, which makes us human. People around the world are dying due to the loss of crops and resources. Children in places such as Zimbabwe are going hungry and dying because of prejudice against GMOs. Even the United Nations, one of the most advanced organizations dedicated to helping countries has even stated “Nearly five million people in Zimbabwe - half of the country's rural population - will need assistance by next year”.

“GMOs have the most potential to advance human society since the development of synthetic nitrogen”

Steve Freeman, Farmer

Both these graphs represent the data founded by harvard.edu, and were adapted by Malakof D. and Stokstad E. It shows both the growth of Bt corn and the reduction of pesticides in the US. Since both are related, the two graphs are suggesting that Bt corn are making pesticides more unnecessary.

Greatest Percent Change in both graphs:

Pesticide Use vs Years: 2004-2005

0.1 kg = 2004, 0.05 kg=2005

0.05 - 0.1= -0.05/o.1= 50% kilogram decrease in pesticide

Percent of Plant arce in Bt corn: 2006-2007

2006= 40, 2007= 49 49-40=9/40= 22.5% increase of planted acres in Bt corn

Citations

Hsaio Jennifer & Lyon Krissy "GMOs and Pesticides: Helpful or Harmful?" harvard.edu SITN 6/4/1

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/gmos-and-pesticides/

J. Wechsler "Recent Trends in GE Adoption" usda.gov Economic Research Service 6/4/17

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/adoption-of-genetically-engineered-crops-in-the-us/recent-trends-in-ge-adoption.aspx

TOM PARRETT "GMO SCIENTISTS COULD SAVE THE WORLD FROM HUNGER, IF WE LET THEM" newsweek.com Newsweek 6/4/17

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/05/29/gmo-scientists-could-save-world-hunger-if-we-let-them-334119.html

Paul Diehl "Can Genetically Modified Food Feed the World" thebalance.com The Balance 6/4/17

https://www.thebalance.com/can-genetically-modified-food-feed-the-world-375634

Ramez Naam "Why GMOs matter — especially for the developing world" grist.org Grist 6/4/17

http://grist.org/food/why-gmos-do-matter-and-even-more-to-the-developing-world/

Dr. Atli Arnarson "GMO Foods: Good or Bad?" authoritynutrition.com Authority Nutrition 6/4/17

https://authoritynutrition.com/gmos-good-or-bad/

"Genetically Modified Crops" scripts.mit.edu Terrascope 6/4/17

http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission2017/genetically-modified-crops/

Stacy Finz "GMOs: Research Says They’ll Help End Starvation, but Americans Remain Wary" alumni.berkeley.edu Cal Alumni Association 6/4/17

https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/just-in/2014-10-14/gmos-research-says-theyll-help-end-starvation-americans

Jesse Greenspan "7 Withering Droughts" history.com History 6/4/17

http://www.history.com/news/7-withering-droughts

"Drought-Tolerant Crops for Drylands" cgiar.org CGIAR 6/4/17

http://www.cgiar.org/web-archives/www-cgiar-org-impact-global-des_fact2-html/

Oliver Balch "Are drought-resistant crops in Africa the tech fix they're cracked up to be?" theguardian.com Guardian US 6/4/17

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/sep/02/drought-resistant-crops-gm-africa-monsanto-syngenta-dupont

Matt Weiser "Scientists think GMO crops may help us deal with climate change" pri.org Public Radio International 6/4/17

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-01-13/researchers-around-world-are-exploring-how-gmo-technology-might-boost-food

Matthew Niederhuber & Kaitlyn Choi "Insecticidal Plants: The Tech and Safety of GM Bt Crops" harvard.edu SITN 6/4/17

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/insecticidal-plants/

Evan Fraser &Andrew Rimas "Empires of Food" Counterpoint 4/29/17

Zimbabwe, and the on going drought

My name is J.N, and I take a class at GCE Lab school called Food for Thought. We learn about how food has affected history, and how it affect today. We had gone to multiple field experiences such as French Market Cafe, as well as Uncommon Ground Rooftop Garden. Right now, we are in our unit called Death, which faces the consequences of the results of food empires and monocultures. For an assignment, we had to research and try to create a script that involves a problem/solution in agriculture and the food world trade in general. So for my project, I decided to research Zimbabwe, since it has high drought rates that causes economical crises and political crises. There has been multiple problems/struggles in this assignment. The main two were to find research for a third solution, as well as trying to get better wording. There was also problems with the recording that was needed for the assignment, mainly trying to read off the script as well as trying to do less stuttering as possible. Overall, I believe it is a good project do to the effort in research. The original script is below the video, as well as all the citations. I hope you enjoy the video, as well as find the script to be informational.

I need to ask you all this simple question. Do you know why we give/donate to places such as Africa or Asia, or any other country. Why they can’t solve their own problems.
Well, the reason being is that in continents such as Africa, has had multiple droughts that had lead to the deaths of millions, mainly because decrease of crops and food storage. One of the greatest examples of this devastation would be the country of Zimbabwe, who had about 5 million people face food shortages, as well as people facing poverty due to those droughts. Which is why I believe climate change is a serious problem, and has create both poverty, and hunger. So today, I will be talking about suggestion that could be able to help Zimbabwe.

Nearly five million people in Zimbabwe - half of the country's rural population - will need assistance by next year as a result of the ongoing drought in southern Africa,”- United Nations

There are multiple reasons on why this saying is true. One being is that climate change can tire out and even harm workers with extreme heat. In outsideonline.com, the average human being works best in a temperature of 70-77 degrees fahrenheit. Droughts, on the other hand, release high temperatures that are extremely dangerous to people. At best, workers in Zimbabwe are experiencing heat that is about 90 degrees fahrenheit. This could lead to illnesses, stress disorders, to even heat distortion. Then there is the main problem that climate change also affect on plants with no rainfall. In safaribookings.com, there is little to no water in Zimbabwe, probably do to droughts. For crops such as corn, there needs to be about .10 inches of water per day(maturity). But with lack of water, it will simply dry out and die(aganytime.com). Without crops, Zimbabwe faces debt, as well as poverty. In aljazeera.com states “The government(Zimbabwe) says it is trying to buy grain from neighbouring countries” as well as "requires a total of [$1.57bn] with effect from February to December 2016". Since the government is now owing debt, it doesn't have a high success rate to solve the problem, Zimbabwe citizens are threatening to overrun the government, believing that government official aren’t best suited for this problem.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that there has been drought. Zimbabwe has had multiple in the past. The problem is that with the assistance of CO2 and fossil fuel emissions, drought are more frequent and dangerous.

If you take upon the fact that a lot of times climate change cause a large amount harm to most civilizations, it isn’t surprising that Zimbabwe is being ruined because of ongoing drought. The book, Empires of Food, states “Droughts have always been an existential problem for agricultural societies since they first appeared”pg104. One example would be the Romans, which the book also states“The seventeenth Century, on the other hand, was a entirely less comfortable, with a little Ice Age stunning diets across the world and driving irritable masses of war”pg8 .  Another example would be the Mayans, which was one of the strongest civilizations (until the Spanish came), had to “filtered into the wetter highlands, where the remained”pg 104, as well as “abandoning their stone cities”pg104 due to droughts.

Most of the time, these civilizations didn’t necessarily faced the problem head on, but rather tried to find solutions that wouldn’t prevent it if it happened again. These solutions also at certain times made things much worse for the civilization. As I previously stated, what the Romans did was that they created wars in order to gain land and resources, while the Mayans migrated from their original area, and left behind their cities. The results were was that multiple wars caused multiple deaths, and leaving behind cites also meant rebuilding everything and forced more labor onto people. What we can learn from these two civilizations is that it is better to face the problem rather than try to dodge it. To be fair, these civilizations didn’t have much of a choice because they weren’t technologically ready to grow their crops anywhere, nor they didn’t have access to gain crops that worked with droughts rather than against them. Zimbabwe on the other hand does have a chance in order to gain crops that are farther away, as well as create buildings that could be used to grow crops. Yet, according to aljazeera.com, the government is only investing on “trying to buy grain from neighbouring countries” which is still not facing the problem in general.

There are at least three things Zimbabwe can do in order to solve their crises on droughts ruining crops.

Green houses- What the government can do is that it could be able to invest in greenhouses for small communities rather than focusing on the country in whole. This would allow the average crops to grow for minile people, that couldn’t be heavily affected by the drought. Of course, there are some problems with greenhouse, which is mainly the expense. Homeadvisor.com states that the average greenhouse is about 13,000 dollars, and is way too small for multiple people. Luckily, some college students were able to create a greenhouse that was twice the size and half as much. De Reus said the Penn State greenhouse uses a standard hoop-house configuration that. The greenhouse “consists of polypropylene random copolymer pipes, plastic glazing and lumber”(psu.edu). Also, the money that was given to Zimbabwe to help with human needs were 1.5 billion, and with the help of multiple charities, I believe that a possible solution would be to take greenhouse for local communities.

Drought plants-. Another suggestion I have is to use plants that support conditions of heat more rather than deny it. There is an organization known as CGIAR that is working on the climate crises, and has even successfully been able to create crops that are resistant to drought. They claim in an article “One way in which they(CGIAR) have responded successfully to the challenge is by developing varieties of major food crops that are drought tolerant or escape drought through early maturity”.  The only problem is that in the website, circleofblue.0rg, states “Zimbabwe’s restriction on the importation of genetically modified crops, limiting the amount of corn and other grains it can procure from South Africa, another regional exporter.” With that in mind, the government can either give up on the restriction for genetically modified plants for now, or try finding other ways to grow crops.


Stop Droughts- The final option have is that since there are some complex problems with GMOs, what the government can do is that with the UN(United Nations) help, I believe what they can do is they could be able to create a restriction or minimize the amount of smog that creates climate change. Of course, there are multiple problems, including that jobs would be loss and that it would take a large amount of time before the high end droughts are finished. So I believe this solution is an unrealistic one, while the first two are realistic.


The problem is more complex than I stated it to be. The drought create so many problems that the people of Zimbabwe are even questioning, and are at the verge of overthrowing the government. But still, I personally believe that if the government could focus on more micro ideas such as investing in greenhouse or buying drought surviving crops for farmers. If they do, then they might have a chance of surviving future droughts. These solutions would not only solve for hunger, but poverty, economic growth and decent work, and even sustainable cities and communities. But if the government can’t be able to either afford greenhouse, or still create a ban on GMO plants, then it might be much harder for them to support their citizens, as well as themselves.



Citations

Curtis Chan "Penn State students' affordable greenhouse effort helping African farmers" The Pennsylvania State University  psu.edu  5/23/17

Haru Mutasa "Zimbabwe drought: Five million face food shortage" Al Jazeera Media Network

aljazeera.com/ 5/23/17

Brian Sparks "Drought Update: It’s Spreading, But Greenhouse Growers Continue To Adapt" Greenhouse Grower  greenhousegrower.com 5/23/17

"Sustainable Development Goals" UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 

undp.org  5/23/17

"TEMPERATURE EXTREMES AND THE WORKPLACE" Communications Workers of America

cwa-union.org  5/23/17

Erin Beresini "What’s The Best Temperature for Productivity?" 40 Outside outsideonline.com
5/23/17

"Zimbabwe- Weather & Climate" SafariBookings   safaribookings.com  5/23/17

"10 Facts About Hunger In Zimbabwe" World Food Programme wfp.org  5/23/7

"Corn Water Use and Irrigation Timing"  AGANYTIME   aganytime.com  5/23/17

Codi Kozacek "Drought-Hit Zimbabwe Unravels Amid Humanitarian, Economic, and Political Crises" Circle of Blue  circleofblue.org/  5/23/17

"How Much Does it Cost to Build a Greenhouse" HomeAdvisor homeadvisor.com  5/23/17

"Drought-Tolerant Crops for Drylands"  CGIAR cgiar.org  5/23/17

Evan Fraser &Andrew Rimas "Empires of Food" Counterpoint  4/29/17

The Awakening of Bread

my name is J.N, and I am a student at GCE. I take a science/mathematics class called Food, and what we do is learn the science and fundamentals of plants, cooking, and much more. We went multiple field experiences, including a cooking lesson with Mrs. Moody. What we had to do is that the class would separate and create and individual bread, then compare them to each other. There are only a few difference, mainly with the leavening agents. There were multiple struggles with the creation of bread, including working with other people, as well as time. But I am proud that I was able to finish my project. So I hope you all enjoy.