Thursday, April 11, 2013

A new movement


“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”-Albert Einstein. With the advances of technology many things have advanced, including the economy, processing plants and human luxury items. When looking at such advances, one often forgets what was really behind all of that. What really starts the food chain, and the most valuable thing that is taken for granted, that is nature itself.  Destroying habitats to build unnecessary buildings or roads, humans have lost their sensibility towards nature because of their personal interests. When perspectives are changed, caring for nature is not as it used to be. Before, cultivating food and helping grow animals in a healthy way was part of the daily basis. Now a days people prefer to go to a fast food, where the food is processed and eat a fatty burger.

It is amazing when people start to do things that will actually help nature in some way. Clearly shown in The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,  Mark, an unemployed musician that started a ‘relation’ with wild parrots. His ‘relation’ with the parrots is unique, he named the parrots and interact with them day by day. Mark sets an example because he is a man which is passionate of what he does, and doesn’t focus if he will get recognize. Now a days, many people give money or others do a charity job only once just for the recognize. It’s what Mark is doing that will lead to a better state of nature, or at least preserve what it is. Having one person like mark in every state or community would be awesome just because when the government sees there is one focusing his life to promote a better cause, somehow people tend to give economical help to promote the job the person is doing.

As a citizen from Puerto Rico, I’ve experience changes in environment in the past 10-15 years. The problem picked its way up in the 2000-2007 when many companies started to build houses everywhere, destroying the habitats of many animals. When the economy started to drop, many houses where occupying the space of what used to be a habitat for many animals. People are vicious for the money, and where they see a dollar sing, anything that’s around will get destroyed if they are able to take money from it. Every Sunday morning when I ride bike from Bayamón to Dorado, I always get into thinking that how is it possible for humans to destroy so viciously the habitats of animals. It is true, that there must be roads for us to travel but it must stop at a point. On my way to Dorado I always see more than 20 iguanas on the street dead.

It is true that Puerto Rico is not the only place where people tend to destroy the habitats, but when thought deeply, Puerto Rico is an island. It could be one of the most beautiful paradises of the world if it would’ve preserve more of its nature. I know that many factors are involved but it is ridiculous that people destroy the habitat when it is a food and water provider, in fact, everything the human needs, comes from the earth itself. One positive impact for the island would be to start to grow coffee, plantains, sugar and other products that grow in the island. By doing so, the promotion of jobs would be created, nature will have back some of what we’ve taken from and animals would somehow have more places to start their own habitats. It is a movement that must involve many and to achieve the ultimate goal, genuine determination must take place. 

Judy Irving. Video Art, Inc. ‘The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill’. San Francisco. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoZswU5H9LU.

4 comments:

  1. Having a person like Mark in every country would be remarkable, but it would not necessarily make a difference. Every government functions through different ideals and communities around the world do not have the same level of education. With this being said, the feedback, it being positive or negative, would depend on the place of action. Being realistic, in my opinion, if a person like Mark starts a movement like the one presented in the documentary in Puerto Rico, I am almost certain he would be criticized and rejected by the public. People would probably think he was a crazy lonely man, precisely looking for attention. Even though I developed a harsh perspective, I believe in order to make such ecological movements, people should consider the audience they might be dealing with.

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  2. A movement does't have to be exactly the same as Mark's. I know that people are different but every place has some sort of needs. By targeting children an improvement could be made in the near future. When a child is growing the personal values must be in each one's teaching to achieve a great impact in the future. When creating a love for nature, many negative attitudes are capable of changing.

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  3. I do respect your development, but people should be able to understand the true repercussions behind children's education. In reality, poverty has been one of the main reasons for such cause. Physiologic necessities have overcome educational development in many regions due to the lack of resources. Even though many children wish to attain knowledge through studies, they have to satisfy other primary activities first. Being able to educate future generations could help nature develop thoroughly, since people would attain not only wisdom, but also sufficient conscience to preserve it. The love for nature you mentioned will only be established once these new generations understand how the environment contributes to human’s daily lives.

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  4. Resources must be provided by the government. It must be a massive job to implement better ways of teaching the young ones. It could be done by the help of many who are passionate by nature. When someone has true passion for something, the same one might be able to spread the feelings to other people. A job that must be done in group for the wellness of everyone.

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