Overpopulation and Having Kids

I know I've already expounded my views about overpopulation and how scary and imminent it is, so i found this article from The Times pretty interesting. It's about limiting how many children people can have(which admittedly already happens in several Asian countries) and how that limit should be 2.

I think this is a pretty interesting argument, particularly since it comes from England, which (don't quote me here) is only moderately socialized. In democratic countries, where personal freedom is prized , and even constitutionalized, how can you tell people how many babies they can have?

The short answer is you can't. No way. So how do you infuse a sense of social and environmental responsibility into baby making?

This is an argument that I've had before with my brother the economist, who fundamentally believes that the market will take care of it, because it always has. I think that is an incredibly naive view, and one that needs to be dissected.

OK we have enough resources for right now, but the global population is growing exponentially and shit is running out. like now. And it's really easy to sit by and say "oh someone or something else will take care of it, but that is simply not true.

So how do you make people feel that responsibility? That I'm not sure of, and it's particularly tricky in terms of population because you get in to all kinds of complicated heated stuff like birth control and religion.

The answer is that I have no answers, but I think that is something that needs to be addressed, and attacked in the most socially responsible fashion possible.

The Importance of Espanol

I finally finally learned how to roll my r's this weekend. It had been a long time coming. Granted I was halfway through a margarita, but in the middle of "caro" there is was. And the I could do it again "perrrrro."

Since I moved to Colorado I've been trying, admitedly pretty half-heartedly, to learn Spanish. In Avon a majority of the workforce was Mexican, and I felt uneducated not being able to communicate.

I hate being a self centered american. I hate traveling to other countries and feeling stupid. My father is the worst. He speak slower and louder, but still in english, and then gets frusturated when people don't understand. I don't want that to be me.

So i'm excited that another step in the Spanish progression is coming together. Now I just need to learn how to say more that "your mom is a whore" and "bring me the silverwear"

“When the world takes care of women, women take care of the world.” Overpopulation, Family planning and Andy Revkin

I belive that the root of most, if not all, social, environmental, and maybe economic-this could be stretching it- problems is overpopulation. Lack of resources, abuse of what we have, food and water shortages, extreme poverty, violence, lack of health care, global warming I could go on. In my mind these are all directly related to overpopulation, and the ammount of humans on the planet who have basic needs is increasing exponentially.

I think the need for addressing this is immediate, but also incredibly hard to bring up, explain and enforce. How are you supposed to tell people not to have kids?

I think education, and health care are key, particularly for women, which is why I think it is incredible that Obama revoked the Global Gag rule.

The global gag rule was a Regan Era law that, according to Planned Parenthood "dictated that no U.S. family planning assistance funding go to organizations that provided abortion services, offered counseling and referral for abortion care, or advocated legal abortion access in their own countries — even if they did so with their own funds." Bush reinstated the rule in 2001, and now, in his first week in office Obama got rid of it.

So why is that so crucial?

First it opens up the domestic discussion about family planning(and by that I mean education and birth control) and secondly it allows NGO's and other organization's to bring funding, education, birth control, and medicine into countries that don't already have it. Andy Revkin wrote an excellent post about family planning and the UN's population fund.

Educating women, letting them know what their options are and empowering them is crucial to solving the population problem. I think this is true here in the US-where sex education is less than pitiful in a lot of places- and abroad, particularly in developing countries where population expansion is often seen as a measure of success, and women's education, particularly about health, and sexual health issues can be minimal.

This is a step in the right direction.

I learn something new every day (which is why school is awesome)

Pop quiz.

Where does most of the oil we use in the US come from?

Do you know?

I didn't until yesterday. I assumed it was somewhere in the Middle East, somewhere like iraq, and while Saudi Arabia-which is the largest oil producer in the world-sends quite a few barrels our way the answer was pretty suprising to me.

It's Canada. Our friendly neighbor to the north. Kind of makes you questions the Middle East conflict, and how the media portrays it.

on language

"We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider."

Those words hit me today, during Elizabeth Alexander's inauguration poem. Alexander has already gotten flak for the poem, apparently it wasn't enough of a showstopper, but I liked it a lot.

The cool thing about poetry is that it can encapsulate a moment, sometimes better than a picture. Much of the hype about Obama has been about his language and his word choice. Clearly he is an excellent speaker, but he's also a strong writer, and, as I learned today, a pretty good poet. Using the right words at the right time, and knowing how they will affect people, and inspire them has been one of Obama's most visible talents so far.

Today at the inauguration he was subdude. He talked about challanges and he talked about plans. He didn't use the openended campaign language of "hope" and "change."

His words have power. They make people consider and reconsider. That is why I think Alexander nailed it, and that is why(in part) I am excited for the next 4 years

What do we want our future to look like

I'm worried that I'm not going to have a job when I graduate. I"m scared that journalism is going to shit, and we're going to suffer from it.

Obviously the journalism field is changing in a lot of ways. It's going online and coming at us faster, it's becoming condensed and more wide spread at the same time. Newspapers are crumbling, but there are exponentially more ways to get news online.

I think it's our responsibility to make sure that we have the skills we need to go in to the real world. but I think that we also have the option to shape that real world into what we want it to be IF we go about it in the right way.

So what can we do?

First I think that it's important to address what we're learning. That's why were here after all. I think that teachers for the most part are aware of the changes and want to help us. They (and potentially the administration) just need a push. The curriculum needs a serious update, and it needs to continue to be made current with all the changes that are happening. Is learning page design really relevant if newspaper pages aren't going to exist anymore?

If things are going to change we're going to have to be the ones to change them. That means we need to start pushing ourselves, and find innovative ways to keep up, and influence what journalism looks like. Luckily we're surrounded by smart people who are in the same boat. I think we have power in numbers, we just need to motivate.

So what does that mean? what can we do?

I think some kind of online collective is a good start, especially if we can find an effective way to market it, and make it relevant. We're all obviously producing a high volume of work, and hypothetically some of it is socially relevant and good. Lets get it out there, make it look good, and establish ourselves.

Then I think we need to think about where media is going. A discussion needs to be started, preferably including students, faculty, and working professionals. I don't think this would be that hard to put together, it'll just take a little bit of motivation.

Motivation is key here. Things are cutthroat. We can't depend on anyone else to pave the way for us, or hand us anything, or even tell us what journalism is going to look like in five years. It's on us.

Serious Thinking

This is about to get heavy. I apologize.

My friend Arielle's mom died last night. It wasn't a suprise. She had been sick for a while, cancer. They had been preparing for it. Arie got married recently so that her mom could be at the wedding, and I think her family had been setting themselves up for it as much as they possibly could. As much as you can I guess.

To be selfish I wasn't really ready for it. I've been away pretty much as long as Marge had been sick. I hadn't been around to watch her go through chemo, to watch her get sicker and better, and then sicker again, over the past 2 years.

I got a message in class last night, and immediately I knew what it was. I called home, I called my friends, I called my mom, even though I didn't know exactly what to say to her.

My heart ached for Arie. I can't even think of what she is feeling, even though she knew it was coming. It is scary and sad for me in ways I can't imagine. The idea of living with out my mother terrifies me. It feels like we're growing up too fast, and this is the beginning of the time when people we love start to die.