This week we read about a girl who was a 'shopaholic'. She spent so much money on extravagant clothes that she ended up owing $20,000 in credit card debt. To save herself, she had a brilliant idea...she created a website and asked for money from perfect strangers!
We also turned the problem around and talked about poverty. We watched a couple of videos and discussed the vocabulary used to describe the conditions in the slums and shanty towns of Kenya.
Here are the links to the videos we watched (turn on the subtitles in English):
The Girl Effect
Jacqueline Novogratz on an escape from poverty
Students should always try to organize the new vocabulary into spider graphs, and this week's topic is MONEY. Look at your notes and put the new words in relation to other words in order to learn them.
Here are two more videos I think you will find interesting - watch one (or both!) of them and write a comment please!
Jacqueline Novogratz on patient capitalism
Hans Rosling's insights on poverty
11 comments:
Dear Dianna,
I couldn't come today but I think I would enjoy the lesson so I'm watching the videos to "catch up". I wrote my autobiography and I'd like you correct it, can you give me your e-mail address, please? Thanks.
Uhm...
I agree that it's important to set up processes which can go on without external help.
Only if you don't depend on other people, you can make free decisions.
On the other hand, these videos seem to promote the idea that with some corrections - the "patience" - the capitalism is a substainable way of life but it's not.
They should stress more the fact that we need to think again our lifestyle if human rights, culture, education and health are the most valuable things.
I suggest that you watch The Story Of Stuff, it describes what I mean better than I do :) and it's really enjoyable as well!
Good morning Diana!I've a question for you: what's the name of the Literary Festival you suggested us during last lesson?(It's in Capri,isn't it?)Could you post its link if you have it, please? Thank you in advance!
(iSott)
Hi Dianna! The first video was not very easy to follow because the woman speaks so fast!!!! But the second one is easier to follow and it's really interesting! Is incredible what stathistics can do!
I start saying that economy is not properly my “natural habitat”, but I have seen many videos like this, I have read a lot of article about Africa and poor countries and the difficulties of their development, and the only things that I'm able to say is that this is a very big deal. It's not only for the economics matter, as we see in those videos, but it means human rights, it means health, it means governments, and, above all, it means cooperation between developed countries with their no profit association, and autochthon people of the third world country. It’s worth nothing that not always what we see is what we are supposed to know and, in particular, I refer to the video of the “girl effect “in which Nike is involved as one of the main “benefactor”, but we are speaking about a company that creates disaster in Vietnam, and not only, for their profit on one hand and try to show itself, on the other, like a Philanthropic company. Just to say that when we see all this patinated and touching videos, we have to look at that with a bit of criticism and always try to inform us as well as one can. Anyway it seems not the case of the Acumen fund.
As regards the Hans Rosling’s video, I find particularly interesting the decision of the U.N to open the statistic database to the public; this is an important contribute for what I was saying before about the possibility to make by ourselves personal considerations and finding out, like the author does in the video, that sometimes things are not always as they seem, or as we imagine it.
"The girl effect" is an interesting video, our world needs capabilities and heart of women, but I agree with Enrica: what you see is not always what you get! The video in my opinion makes some confusion in communicating its messages: I don't know why they choosed to place on the same level words like "hunger/hiv" and husband/baby", I don't think the latter are problems, at least not as the former :). They could be a problem only for a greedy society, where the only purpose is to enhance productivity, without thinking about human factors ... I could be excessive, but this is not far from human rights' fall.
Another communication problem is about the sentence "which means the economy of the entire country improves and the whole world is better off ...".
As Hans Rosling says (I appreciated his very interesting new insights about poverty), economic growth is a mean, not a goal, therefore it is difficult to think to a better world by means only it: China is an example of country where growth is excellent even in a global crisis period, but I'm not sure their world is better than ours.
Watching Jacqueline Novogratz videos about patient capitalism, the system she tries to build seems difficult to carry out, but it is an interesting idea as well, because starting from micro-credit and then building a little affordable system gives people choices and possibilities to escape from their difficult situation, much more than giving them only money. I appreciated her idea about the need for dignity more than wealth, and the observation that poverty is not only a matter of money per day.
I don't have a clear mind like Ale about which is the right economic system and which is not, or if "the seemengly impossible is possible" like sword swallowing by Hans Rosling.
Finally, I agree with Enrica for the need of complete and true information as the key for us to take the big picture and then look for possible answers. The video posted by Ale is surely a good attempt to listen to a different voice and gain a new point of view, but it seems the road for truth is long and not winding, then each "human" attempt is worth the effort.
UMB
Umberto I have few certainties and even less in the economic field. So, I really don't know what kind of economy would work better.
I was only suggesting that perhaps many of the problems we are experiencing are inborn consequences of capitalism.
I mean, we could have known in advance that something like the recent downturn was going to happen. And some people knew it, indeed.
The problem is that our resources are not endless whereas capitalism needs always new markets,, new customers, new trades in order to flourish.
What are we looking for? Growing profits or something else?
sorry Ale, mine was only an expression of ignorance, I simply don't know :), and I got the impression you had a clear mind about how the world could get better.
I agree with your last observations (we know that "the world is a mess" :), but we need real, tangible alternatives and my opinion is that, waiting for them, I appreciate any effort in a "human" (not greedy) direction.
I am really enjoying this discussion...keep up the good work!
Did you meet on April, 29th? I'm asking because I can't see the relevant blog post.
We met on March 29th, if that was your question, but I did not post a message for that day. See you next Monday, I hope!
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