Ubuntu

Our society is very filled with hate, we really need to follow the lead of the people in Africa and start practicing Ubuntu. The word itself comes from the Bantu dialect of southern Africa and is directly translated to mean "I am what I am because of who we all are", but more simply put it means that we are all connected. The idea says that there is a common link between all of us, and it is through that link and our interactions with others that we discover our own human qualities. Through Ubuntu, your pain is my pain, your suffering is my suffering, your joy is my joy. I feel that this is a very interesting idea. What if we thought this way every day, all day? Would there be poverty? Would there be starvation? Would people be begging on the streets to feed their children? I feel like this philosophy, while slightly utopian, is a very effective way to end all the problems in the world. I know that this seems a bit extreme, but even if it didn't solve all of our problems, it could solve some of them. By helping others, we show our humanity, which often times doesn't get the chance to shine.
This ideology really relates to Rifkin's RSA video very closely (you can access it here). We all need to work together to form a better world, not only for ourselves but for all lifeforms living on the planet. We need to forget all of the mental boundaries we have set up around ourselves (political views, religion, social class), and work together as a united group to better our world. We should adopt both of these ideologies, and we should embrace our link with others and break down the barriers we put up to form a society where we all work together to solve problems.
This idea is very relevant to our hope and the human spirit unit. When we face problems, we can either break out into chaos, or we can band together to solve that problem. People who overcome extreme situations obviously choose to band together with others rather than simply giving up.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(philosophy)
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=20359

All the Lonely People

I really enjoyed the blog posts All the Lonely People, and A Meeting of Solitudes by Roger Ebert, and the article Being Human Online by Ezra Klein, and I took something away from both of them. In both articles, the author talks about how the Internet is a way for certain people to get out into the world. I found this really interesting, and was reminded a lot of James Cameron's Avatar. In the movie, the protagonist, Jake Sulley, is a paralyzed ex-military man, and he is able to do all the things that he cannot do through his Avatar, a giant blue alien. Another similarity that I noticed between the two was the name, the player that the gamer controls is called an Avatar, and Jake's other body is also called an Avatar. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I feel that both share the same idea. When a severly handicapped person is able to battle monsters and interact with people he would otherwise not have encountered, I think that they experience something special. Something better than hope, because for a while they're just like everyone else.
Ebert's blog posts got me wondering, what makes someone lonely? Why is it that someone should feel that there is absolutely no one there that can sympathize with them? That really cares about how they're feeling? I know that when we did our I Am campaign at the middle school (for those of you who don't know what I Am is, it was a program where we went to Northern Burlington Regional Middle School and taught the students there about bullying because of appearances.), that we told the kids that there was always someone that they could talk to. I truly feel sorry for these people, because I have an amazing family that loves me, and friends who support me. I know that if anyone were lonely they could come to me, because I think that no one should have to feel that way.