I’ve discovered that it is not my own identity that I am at war with, but how the people around me are responding to it. In this era of modernity and global access, how have we not figured out how to identify with people who are not exactly like us?
Water, water, everywhere…or is it? Water covers 70% of our planet, though fresh water required for drinking, bathing in, and irrigating our farm fields is only 3% of the world’s water. Our civilization depends on a plentiful supply of clean water, and yet in some parts of the world it iss becoming ever harder to obtain. Climate change and other factors have caused huge shortages of water across the developing world, and also in rich areas like the state of California, where a multi-year drought is still ongoing. As a result, around 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water and it is scarce for at least one month of the year for 2.7 billion more.
It’s hard to imagine a time without money but in fact such a time did once exist. When humans first began living off the land, there was no need for money. We only owned what we could carry and there was very little reason to trade.
The malleable minds of teenagers, in particular, suffer from overexposure to unrealistic body representations. In extreme cases, this insecurity can lead to something far more serious – body dysmorphia.
No discussion about legalization should end without the topic of children at least coming up as a part of the discussion. What should not happen is for children to be used as a weapon in a war of words.
The Syrian refugee crisis seemed to reach its pinnacle in September when the small body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi washed up on a beach in Turkey. Aylan, his brother, mother and father had fled Syria in a tiny overcrowded boat that capsized during the treacherous journey. Aylan, his brother, Ghalib, and their mother all drowned […]
For the most part people today read Don Quixote because they are told that it is a classic, the first modern novel in any European language. Reading it becomes an obligation of being a well-rounded student of the humanities, and this cultural assumption stands in the way of engaging with the text.
But where is the intense global mourning and outrage for the victims of Boko Haram in Nigeria? For those who died in the central station in Ankara? For the victims of Flight 9268? Is our grief for them less because they are geographically farther away from us than Paris? Or is there another reason?
When billionaire retail tycoon and reality TV star Donald Trump announced his intention to stand for the Republican presidential nomination back in June, few thought that he’d be the front-runner by the time October came around. But there he is, sitting at the top of the pile in the polls, causing a scene with his bold, often brash anti-Washington agenda.
Classism is a form of violence, which discriminates and oppresses those living in all parts of the social strata. It is a prejudice that holds people in the lower economic echelons back and violates anyone who tries to attain the unattainable lifestyle. In other words, it erodes the self-worth of those not sharing the ideals of mainstream society.
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