Happy Birthday Sandy

The devastating effects of hurricane Sandy are obvious and almost a year later, I have to say that I am impressed with the resiliency of the east coast. Times were tough but an article that I found on CNN shows the day after hurricane Sandy one year later. It contrasts different pictures from a year ago and today. http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/27/us/gallery/sandy-then-and-now/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

After I saw this article, it jogged my memory of the storm and the many things that the American government and people did to help New Jersey and other eastern states get back on their feet. The improvement is remarkable and if a storm such as this one had happened anywhere else in the world, i'm not sure that the difference would be so great.

Another article that I found discusses the rebuilding of New York, but also what we still have to learn from this storm. While Adam Sobel admits that the weather technology (spotting the storm almost a week in advance) is hard to criticize, he says that the construction of the subways in New York were susceptible to flooding and better preparation could have minimized the effects of hurricane Sandy. I agree with Sobel, but I wonder if he is being a little too critical.

Another point that Sobel makes is that this storm indicates a bigger problem with our changing climate and this should be addressed when dealing with the effects of it. Natural disasters have always been a part of nature and it's hard for me to wrap my head around the point that he is making. I understand that no amount of preparation could truly eliminate any negative effects that a natural disaster typically has, but is it even a possibility to start at the root of this problem? If we are more "eco-friendly" will we be able to prevent things like this from happening in the future? I just don't know if Hurricane Sandy represents all the environmental issues that have developed in the recent past.

No Need to Skip the Sweets

I came across an article on CNN talking about how the use of palm oil is damaging to orangutans. They wrote the article because palm oil is often used in different types of candy such as, Skittles, Milky Way and all other MARS products. You can read more here.

My initial reaction was to text my mom and makes sure she was conscious of the issue when buying candy for trick-or- treaters this year. As I read on, I realized that this might not be necessary. The author, John D. Sutter suggests that it is best to start at the root of the problem. It is hard to get people to abandon their tradition on Halloween. It is much more convenient to run to the store and buy whatever kind of candy is the cheapest, rather than reading every label and seeing which types of candy don't have palm oil.  Moms already have enough to worry about this time of year.

So then what can we do to help? Turning a blind eye has had a lot of consequences in the past when it comes to the environment. Instead of skipping sweets on halloween, Sutter sends us to a website on which people post pictures of the orangutans and other parts of the rainforest to raise awareness. The website is called Rainforest Action Network. It basically shows snack food companies and other industries the  affect they have on the environment and lets people get involved who are interested in the issue.

I think that this is a very effective way of going about  raising awareness and eventually solving the problem of extinction and pollution.  This, rather than telling people to stop buying candy and snacks, is going to make more of a difference because this gives people a reason to care. Looking through the website it makes it easier for me to understand the issue, and the convenience  of the links makes getting involved just a click away. This is the right way to make people care about an issue.

Cheaters Never Win, Right?

After reading this article about corruption in China,  I started to think about the corruption that I see all the time in every day life. The author, Lijia Zhang, describes a scene when his mother urged him to deliver gifts to his boss's house in order to get ahead in his career. Zhang refused, and his mother said "'You'll never go far in life if you dont know how to la guanxi!'" La guanxi is a network of connections that a Chinese family traditionally has. When I first read this I thought of many different times when my mother said something like this to me. Wether or not people are willing to admit it, I believe that connections in certain places can help you out a lot and make things a lot easier. You can get what you want through connections without having to work as hard to prove yourself, because of a preconceived idea someone has of you based on that connection.

So is this right to call it corruption? Is the fact that my sister got an internship in Paris based on my dad's connections rather than her own abilities really corruption? When you put it that way, maybe, but when we live in a world that turns a blind eye to such advantages it's hard to see this as wrong. So what would happen if we stopped using our connections to get places? I don't think that the difference in people's success would be as great as i'd like to believe, but I do think it would be much more difficult to get started in a certain industry. People are not usually hired if they are not at all qualified; however, they are not always the best choice if they are hired through connections.

Lijia Zhang goes on to talk about how the corruption is an important part of the Chinese economy. He talks about a conversation with a successful Chinese businessman, "'Your business can't survive a day if you are not corrupt,' he told me. He has to smooth every step of his business with gifts or outright bribes."If corruption is so crucial to the society of China, is it possible to get ahead without it? Some people might think it's not even worth competing with cheaters because there is no possibility of being on the same level. I think that there are benefits to being truthful when it comes to business but when everything is corrupt as Zhang suggests, i'm not sure that it is worth the clean conscience. Cheaters always have the threat of getting caught, but who is there to enforce the rules if everyone is involved?

Pink and Blue is Fine by Me

The issue of gender roles has come up multiple times in class. Since last week when we talked about it I can't help but notice these subtle stereotypes everywhere in my life. When my parents ask my brother and I to help out around the house it always goes like this: my mom will ask me to do the dishes and my brother always takes out the trash or mows the lawn. My mom always says that I have to learn how to do certain things like how to clean the kitchen, how to make banana bread or hem up a dress. My dad always takes trips with my brother to go camping and fishing and I never get the invite. I assume that it is the same way in most homes but I wonder if this is so appalling.

I believe that women should be given the same opportunities as men but lets be honest: girls and boys are different. Women should be viewed as equal to men, yes, but when it comes to preferences and appealing to different genders, I think that it is reasonable to assume that boys and girls have different opinions. When I go to the store I am drawn to the things that are "girly" and I probably still would be without the pressures of having to look a certain way. I don't think that I would want to buy a lotion that promised anything other than "soft" or "gentle" skin; however, this the opposite for my brother and dad. When I asked them if they had ever seen a men's skincare product that used those adjectives they laughed and said no. I asked them if they were offended by this and they told me that if they wanted to buy something that was geared towards women then they would, but they just don't care about that stuff. I think that the way advertisers promote their product towards one gender is honestly the best way for them to sell products and if they tried to make it any more gender- neutral it would just be confusing.

 My adviser once talked to us about how she was appalled by the majority of the little girl's costume options compared to the boys in halloween magazines. She claimed that the frilly dresses made girls feel like they had to dress a certain way. I know when I was a little girl I would choose to wear a blue dress with the cookie monsters face on it rather than a full on cookie monster suit, but maybe I was just a "girly-girl." Either way, parents have the option to buy their kid any kind of costume they want. I just think that judging by the amount of girls costumes they are making in that style, they must be selling. I know that women have worked hard to get the same rights as men and I am not saying that that is of major importance, i'm just saying that sometimes it's okay to acknowledge that boys and girls have different taste. It's okay if they have the same tastes but not always the case.