One-Child Policy

                As I read the letters and autobiography’s I found that there was a common occurrence throughout all of them. The One Child Policy. As people began speaking about their families in their letters most of them would begin by saying that they are the only child in the family and would refer to the one child policy. I had heard about the policy before, but I had never really looked into it before. I thought that the law was spread equally throughout all of China. Then I began reading a few letters that said they had siblings. This is when I knew I wanted to be able to figure out how this was even possible. How did these families stray away from the law without getting in trouble? I began asking questions about the one child policy to the people with multiple children in their family. A girl named Lemon was one of the only people who responded to me about the issue. “About one child policy, I don’t know whether you have residence cards. Because my parents’ residence cards are non-agriculture, they can’t have more than one child or they will lose their job. To be honest, I don’t understand this policy very well. One child policy depends on the type of residence cards and different nations, not different regions. This year, a new policy was published. According to it, if any one of the couple comes from one-child family, they can have two children. That is, I can have two children if I want. The policy is difficult to explain, but I will check it or ask someone who understand well and then explain it to you,” quoted from Lemon.

            As you can see from what Lemon had said the law is slightly vague. I suppose many people don’t even know much about the policy because most people our age or their age, find it completely normal. The law has been around for 4 decades now, so people who have grown up with it may not see how different the law truly is. Once I began my own research the light really began to shine down upon the subject for me. It was mortifying in all honesty.

            The One Child Policy was implemented into their society after the food shortage when Mao’s economic-planning failed. During this time 30 million people died of man-made famine. After such a loss the communist party created the policy that Chinese families could only have one child each. If people broke the law they were punished. The consequences of having a child without a permit would vary throughout each province in China. Some were that fines were forced that reached as high as several times the average annual income. Other punishments are they are often denied the opportunity earn promotions and fired from their jobs. It is said that the policy was only supposed to last 20-30 years, but it still continues to this day.

            The most shocking and ill thing I read came right after this. It says that over the last 4 decades 336 million children were aborted, 196 surgical sterilizations took place, and 403 million IUD’s (intrauterine devices) were placed in women. The policy has created brutal enforcement also. On June 2, 2012, Feng Jianmei’s baby was murdered as a 7-month-old baby. This created uproar around the globe which caused China to outlaw late-term forced abortion. To this day forced abortions still take place. This policy has created a growing demographic crisis for China. It is regularly called the “4-2-1” problem because multiple generations have grown up as only-children. Now 1 child is taking care of 2 parents, and caring for 4 grandparents. They are also getting rid of females and keeping males which is creating a huge gender imbalance. By 2020 China will have 40 million more men than women under the age of 20.

            I personally feel ill about the one-child policy. Although I could see why they initially created it, but now the policy has grown out of control. There are people out their fighting for the policy to be changed and in due time maybe it will be. There are too many women being forced to have abortions due to the policy. They are scared into only having one child so they aren’t punished in their jobs, income, or physically. They shouldn’t have to live in fear of having a child like they are.

One Child Policy Link

World Perspectives

     The world perspectives conference was definitely worthwhile. While we were there we were able to see quite a few speakers and listen to different topics. The first couple of seminars were about poverty and world perspectives. We had the option of which one to go to and I decided I would go to the World Perspectives seminar because most of our group went to the Poverty seminar.

     The World Perspectives seminar was extremely interesting. They had four different women sit together in front of the group and speak to all of us in there. Before they began they told us that two of the speakers were experts on the topic of world perspectives while the other two were not, and just had their own outlooks and opinions on the topic. All of the women had 10 minutes to speak about the topic and then afterwards there was an open question and answer. As I am writing I can't recall the name of the last speaker, but I believe it was something like MaryAnn. She is the vice president of an international chain of hotels located out of San Francisco. The issue that she pressed on the most was homelessness. Majority of the population of San Francisco is homeless, and if you've ever been there you can easily agree that the city has an extremely high poverty level. She compared the way America handles poverty to the way Asian countries handle poverty and homelessness. She found that poverty in other countries was simply just not accepted. In America we find ourselves trying to help so much that it almost hurts the people more in the long run. It is as if the homeless people in America are babied to the point of no return. They become dependent on shelters and people giving out money nearly every day, while they could be working to find a job or get clean to help improve their own living. Don't get me wrong...I'm a believer in helping the less fortunate, but when comparing it to the way Asian countries handle homelessness it just makes so much more sense. In essence they don't even allow people to become homeless because families are not willing to let someone from their family fall. I think that is the reason why the percent of the homeless Asian population is far less than Americas. The speaker had said that in Japan the population is 13 times the population of San Francisco, but they only have 5000 homeless people. All while San Francisco alone has about twice as many homeless.

     The numbers and the things that the speakers had to say were astonishing. I realize I have only told you about one topic that one woman spoke about, but it was the thing that stood out the most to me. When you open up your eyes to the real problems in the world you find yourself taking an entirely new outlook on life.

     During the Peter Corolla presentation we watched a documentary that was incredible if you ask me! It gives you a taste of something happening right here in America every day. You never really realize all the things going on around you until you hear about it firsthand. It was a memorable experience!

 

Letters from China

     This experience has been incredible. At first I was a bit skeptical of the situation of writing to people that I don't know, but it has become something that I want to be able to keep up. I think of it as having a lot of different pen pals. I remember being young and wishing that I could have a pen pal and now I suppose I can finally say that I do. I really like being able to get to know people and the way they live their lives. I would even enjoy writing to someone who lives in the States, but the fact that I am able to talk to someone across the world is incredible! Being able to see the differences in the cultures is one of the best parts about this.
     I have been asked so many questions about life as an American girl and if my life is anything like the movies. I have told them it all depends on the person, but my life seems to be pretty regular. They also asked me about God because I had mentioned it in my autobiography. I know that I can't talk too much about God because of the laws and complications, but I touched on it briefly.
     All the letters that I have received have been so complementary and nice. I sometimes wonder if they are just trying to be really nice, or if they are actually being serious! It makes me happy and humbled to be able to see the way that they care about us and how must they envy us. I obviously don't know why they envy us so much, but I assume it has a lot to do with our differences in culture.
      It would be interesting to see how the relationship can grow over time. I can't wait to see how this all pans out!

Project Proposal: Arc

     Service learning projects are something that everyone should get involved in because it allows you to become active in the community and become a leader. For my service learning project I'm focusing of the Arc of the Ozarks. Arc of the Ozarks in an organization that is spread out over the Southwest Missouri area. The Arc is a place for people with any sort of mental or physical disability to be able to come and have a normal life and live just like everyone else. They help those with disabilities find jobs and make money while still contributing to the community.

     I really want to get involved in trying to find a way to help the Arc with safety issues and also activities for the kids to get involved in. I still need to do more research about the Arc and things that they could get help with, but that is my focus for this project.

     Children with disabilities is what I want to completely have my focus on. Seeing the kids have such a positive out look on life and live without even thinking they are any different gives me so much hope and joy! Those kids have to get through so many obstacles every single day and they keep a smile on their faces all the time. I find it incredible and so inspiring. I'm excited to start seeing how to make a difference with these kids and finding minor or even large issues at the Arc that action can be taken to. 

 Here is a link to the ARC.

60 Minutes: Amazing Kids

     The 60 Minutes video was really inspirational. Seeing that a 15 year old freshman boy can use his gifts to find a way to detect pancreatic cancer should inspire everyone to think about using their own gifts to do something good for the world, or even just the community. Jack was able to start his research in a local lab after presenting his work to a biologist. Then he went on to win a national competition, winning awards and money to further his research. Now he is going and speaking at medical conferences and making a difference in the world...all by just following a theory and doing what he loves. If we all put this much work into our daily lives our world would be so much better. You don't have to be incredibly brilliant either...you just have to do something you love to make a difference.
      I have a passion for helping people. I tend to be drawn towards people with need, and I always try to do all that I can to be able to help. That's why I love being able to volunteer at the Arc of the Ozarks. The people there aren't capable of doing things on their own. Their physical and mental disabilities hold them back from things that they love and want to do. So why not take my time to give back and help them achieve the things that they love? It's not hard to take time out of my day to do something I love, and the satisfaction that I get from being able to see the smiles on their faces makes it all worth while. I've always been a really busy person and have a lot going on, but when you think about what is truly important...you should always realize that others should come before yourself.

TOMS: Making a Difference

     Blake Mycoskie started a trend that cannot be broken. He began the era of giving back through entrepreneurship. Some of the winners of the TOMS competition. One of the first ones that I read was called Good Spread Peanut Butter. Their idea was to sell all-natural peanut butter and use the profits to go completely towards buying therapeutic foods and giving them to children suffering from malnutrition. They call their product "Good Spread". Their goal is to eradicate extreme hunger and too make a difference in the world. Kids that suffer from malnutrition are at higher risk of dying than children with AIDS, TB and Malaria combined. I think that Good Spread Peanut Butter is a small step, but a large enough step to make a difference in the world.
     Another winner that I read about was called "Good Travel". They are promoting the ability to travel and to give back to the places they stay and the people they encounter. They have set up a website and an App that enables you to follow them and make good traveling choices. I find this one a little more confusing, but i can kind of see the concept of it. I think its a great idea because almost everyone has dreams to travel or to make a difference, and to be able to mix the two makes things more attractive to people.
     The last winner that I read was called "Art to Aid". Art to Aid is all about being creative and putting your work out in the world for people to see because "everyone creates". Art to Aid is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell their own art! Their goal is to create more consumerism and make a flow of arts and creative thinking out into the world. I think this is a great idea because consumerism is a very important thing. It is was allows our economy to keep flowing smoothly and productively. I feel like there are a lot of things kind of this this out in the world already, but not necessarily focused specifically on arts.

Great Passions

     When I am passionate about something I always put my entire heart into it. Whether it's my passion for soccer or my passion for people...I always stay focused on the the task. I have a couple things that I've recently been extremely passionate about. The first is jumping into the medical field and trying to experience what I may be doing with my future. The second is to help people with disabilities.
     Ever since I was a little girl I've known that I want to be a doctor. Growing up my wants changed throughout the medical fields. A brain surgeon to a pediatrician to a medical examiner. The most recent desire I've had is to be an orthopedic surgeon, or a physical therapist. I'm still a little unsure, but one thing I do know is that I loved being able to shadow an E.R. doctor. I worked the night shift with him and helped with patients. He just called me his medical student, and it made my dreams come to life. I felt like it was all really happening and I loved every second of it. I was able to help and see things I never would have imagined doing.
     The second passion I have is to help people with disabilities. I occasionally volunteer at The Arc of the Ozarks I love it. Being able to interact with those kids and have fun with them and make them feel good makes me feel important, and as if I'm doing something worth while. The kids love the interaction with other people and they hardly ever get it. being able to see the smiles on their faces and the laughs that come out of their brilliant mouths just makes everything better, even if you're having the worst day of your life. I've been blessed to be able to volunteer and work alongside my sister at the Arc. I wouldn't change having the ability to do it for anything.
     My passions vary, but I continuously find myself just wanting to help and be apart of people lives. Being able to see the outcome of the help you have given gives me more happiness than you can even imagine.