How+does+the+issue+connect+to+your+education+and+experience?-TPPC

Living in a privileged society, we often forget about those who are lacking in their basic needs for survival. And in the few instances in which we remember, we often resort to simply throwing money towards the area in need, more to alleviate our own feelings of guilt than due to true concern for others. People in need are in such a situation of their accord. Charity is very engrained in our culture and society, just look at things like tax-exemptions for charitable donations, but we should work to shift our traditional constraints on the definition of charity to encompass a world-view of human equality in value and potential. We need to take care to avoid a biased system of education, for a culture of self-proclaimed superiority, no matter how charitable, will generally be resented around the world, as long as its charity is given in a humiliating, imposing, and self-congratulatory manner.

At the very beginning of this year we learned how to form good questions and we learned about the importance of questioning. Tomorrow I will ask Mr. Morgan for the quote he told us and had in the academy room at GBS. This relates to Novogratz's speech because she talks about how listening involves hearing, but a larger more important part of listening is being able to ask the right questions.

Something this video made me think about was the fact that "the poor" really aren't people who chose their circumstances. Of course, "poor" takes on a different meaning in different areas of the world. But, as we have learned from Social Studies, geography can have a tremendous impact on the resources a culture has available. This is becoming less and less the case, as humans continue to come up with new ways of transportation and agriculture. Perhaps in the near future geographic determinism will have run its course.

Anyway, what I'd like to say is that Jaqueline's video helped me to realize that poverty is not something that is shameful, as it can be influenced by things beyond the human race's control. Jaqueline is doing a very commendable thing, treating the poor as the human beings they are. She has tapped into the idea that sometimes all an economy needs to get a boost is some education and an investment. Her approach has been enlightening to me because before, I was influenced by the media to believe that the situation in Africa involves people who are so poor nothing can be done for them. But now, I see that Jaqueline isn't approaching the poor as another species, she's approaching them, one human being to another, and sharing an idea that they might find useful, not thrusting money upon them that will only go to waste.

I think this gets to the heart of what TED and this project is all about. Jaqueline is sharing mutually beneficial ideas that can contribute to a greater experience of the world.