Manifesto

Mateo Plata

Dean Patterson/Sierra Melcher

Comparative Gov/English 12

May 4, 2014

I’m going to Change the World Manifesto

            I have studied at Colegio Panamericano for about 14 years. 14 years of lessons, experiences, and anecdotes that I will carry for the rest of my life. Studying at Colegio Panamericano is a privilege because not many people can get in and afford the costs of the school. Being so close to graduation has helped me to realize that now is the time that I am going to be facing the real world and the world is going through a crisis.

            Poverty is a global issue that has been going on and on for centuries. It breaks my heart when I see a kid or a grandmother asking for money in the street. That is something that has always affected me and it is frustrating that almost nobody cares. The past few weeks I have been seeing movies with my social studies teacher Miss. Sierra Melcher, about things that are happening in the world. I have been thinking of how can I address this issue and start helping people that have economical and healthy issues.

            Cooking has been something that always got my attention. I always volunteer to help my mom or my grandma in the kitchen and I still do it now a days. It has been so important for me that, I want to study culinary arts. In my school, the teachers have always told us that we need to share. Each year the school has being creating campaigns called “Caring and Sharing” which basically asks for the students to bring products in order to help poor people. When I graduate I want to keep sharing the things I have with people that need my help and the help of others.

            Food is something that everyone in the world needs to survive. Many of the families that are poor do not have money to buy food and to maintain their children. They are forced to consume whatever they can get. The food they take is causing many diseases and if they cannot afford food, the also cannot afford health insurance. In my country, as in other countries, there are shelters for homeless people that provide them with a roof and meals in order to help them. This has become a kind of solution for people and families that live in the streets.

            My family has always told me that I should be blessed with the life I have and that I should do something to help change the world. My plan for the future is to become a great chef and to help people by providing them with food to as many people as I can. Colombia is a country that has many regions in extreme cases of poverty and malnutrition. I would like to go to those areas and help the people living in there. Maybe I am not going to solve the global issue but I Think this will be a good start. People say that you should follow your dreams and do the things that passionate you and for me, cooking is the thing that I love and if can apply my knowledge to other people in the world, I am going to do that as long as I am able to. That would be my legacy to my children (if I get to have children) and to the generations that are coming behind me.

Light Bulb Conspiracy Post

The last movie we saw in class was called " The lightbulb Conspiracy". It talked about an issue unknown for many people and that issue is planned obsolescence. Basically what this means is that companies are creating products in order for the products to damage in a short period of time to mame people buy more and more. The movie provided me a new kind of knowledge about companies like Apple. I thought that apple was the best company but according to the movie, it appears to be not. All of the wastes are sent to third world countries and that is one reason that is affecting the enviromment. The movie gave me lots of lessons and advices about technology now a days.

My cellphone brand is Samsung. In the year and a half that my father bought it to me I have purchased like 3 batteries. My charger also was damaged after a year. Until now, I believed that it was a normal thing that happened to everyone but apparently not. With the movie now I am thinking that maybe all that was planned by companies in order for me to buy and buy. I am not the only one that has been a victim of the system. Many people have been suffering the same destiny. The worst thing is that most of the people do not know about it. That was what i got from the movie. Now, I am going to be more careful when buying stuff.

Four Horsemen Post

We saw a movie in class called "  Four Horsemen ". The movie talks about how the american system is collapsing and How this problem is going to Affect the Future of Their country and the world. The movie is great Because many important people that know about the topic and explain Their point of view give about it. The economic problem Is that the system has changed and has created a huge Difference between rich and poor people. I remember one thing That Mr. Satish Kumar, one of the experts involved in.. That is the film, and I have it says That is incredible That there is a lot of money but Also lots of poverty. It is ironic That Creates more money making more poverty. The movie talks about the four horses are going to change That the future. This situation Could Affect me in a long term because i want to work in the U.S. but who knows if That is going to be possible. That is one problem Concerning That is me. It is good to see movies like this because sometimes the knowledge we have of a country could be really small and by movies like this, we really see how a country really works. It "opens our eyes" in a way that we actually know how is the world functioning and what things we are going to be facing in our future. That would be the value of the movie for me.

Colombian Monetary System

The Colombian Monetary System is built up by a director an many people creating a board of executives. It has three basic goals: reaching levels of interest, capital, and reaching monetary standards. The three objectives are the ones that the Banco Central de Colombia tries to reach everyday. The institution similar to the FED would be this institution because it is separate from the Colombian government. In the system the policies that govern would be monetary policies such as loans. The objective of the system is to find stability in prices and in exportation and importation with other countries. The benefit of the central bank for people is that by loans they provide homes for the people that is unemployed or poor.

The risk is that all the factors and the objectives are directly proportional so when inflation happens, everything is altered at the same kind of rate most of the times. The monetary unit of the country is the peso and it has a different value than the US dollar. That would be the structure, the policies and the way that the Colombian monetary system functions.

Link of the webpage:

http://www.banrep.gov.co/docum/ftp/borra097.pdf

Citation:

Banco de Colombia.  N.P., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2014

Fractional Reserve Banking System

We saw a movie in class called "Zeitgeist Addendum" and it talked about many aspects of the US economy. One interesting part we saw was the one about the creation of money. They say that the federal reserve banking system is the system in charge of the creation of money. The process is basically an exchange of  bonds and notes between the US government and the federal reserve. The government gives the amount they want in bonds and the reserve gives the same amount but in notes. Then this note are placed in a bank and just like that money is created.

One Interesting fact that is mention in the movie is that only 3% of the US government money is physical leaving the 97%  of their money in a computer. Also most of their transactions are virtual so it is really weird to know that their money is maybe on a file and that file may contain lots and lots of millions of dollars. In my opinion I think that this method is safe because the money cannot be stolen that easy because it is not physical. Basically they apply loans as the way of getting money constantly. The movie also states that if loans did not existed, then there will be no money at all in the world.

Link to the movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvCxMfcKv4

Al Jazeera News Post

In Bangkok a protestant was shot to dead and four people were wounded by the police for doing anti government protests. The cause of the protest is for the prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to resign in order for them to have a new government. The protestant group that was attacked are called the Network of students and people for the reform of Thailand.

The Situation In Thailand has been like this through the last 5 months. The people are tired of their government so they are protesting in order to create a anti corruption type of government. They say that the prime minister is ruling unfairly and that is why they decided to go out and protest. It has been violent responses from part of the government leaving deaths and wounded people. Nobody knows when is it gonna end.

Link to the full article:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/04/cloneofkilled-bangkok-protest-shooting-201441922-20144119521751472.html
Citation of The Article:

"One Killed in Bangkok Protest Shooting." - Asia-Pacific. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Relation between the movies about Race, Economic Hitman, and Food Inc.

Over the past three weeks we have been seeing one movie per week in Social Studies class. Each week we approach to a different topic but what is interesting is that all the topics we talked about could relate to each other. They were movies about race, economy, and food business involving mostly the United States of America. It is simply incredible what can a country do behind their citizens and the world's "back" and not get caught.

The last movie we saw was about Food Corporations and how they are
manipulating the US market without their citizens knowing it. They manipulate food production with chemicals and then sell the food to the people. The relation between the movies would be that :

In the movie about food they show that Mexican or Latinos are the one getting arrested because of the corporations bad management so this shows that Latinos because of their color, are always put into horrible jobs.

Another one would be that in both Economic Hitman movie and the food corporation movie if the corporations did not like something the basically "fix it" using methods that are illegal and not appropriate.

This would be relationships between the movies that we have been seeing in the past few weeks in class.

Citation of the Images:

"Eat to Beat." Self Content. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. ( food)

"How Many Major Races Are There in the World?" World Mysteries Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. ( race)

"Dogma and Squeaky Wheels Money Bag – IcPurple.org." IcPurpleorg Money Bag Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014. ( money bag)