In my Gifted and talented class, we watched a tv show called 30 days and it starred morgan spurlock who lived with minimal wage for a month. Based on what i saw in the show, a lot of things surprised me. However one incident surprised me the most, when both morgan and his girlfriend (alex) got hurt and had to go to the hospitol, the total price for them to go to the hospitol was over $1000. They didnt even get hurt that bad, morgan strained his wrist and didnt even need much attention they just gave him a cast, and alex got an infection and they gave her pills. Alex's bill was above $450, and morgans was above $500. Included in morgans bill was an ace bandage that costed $40. I think it is riiculous that the price to step inside the emergency room is that high and that they priced an ace bandage at $40. how can anyone expect to live off of minimal wage if they get hurt and go to the emergency room.

I believe that this is an accurate portrayal of what life is like when living on minimal wage, because they lived it. Morgan and Alex lived off of minimal wage and expierienced the struggles when living off the minimal wage. When living on minimal wage, you need to watch every cent you got and not waste your money on things you really dont need. For example, when morgan spent $1.20 on cinamon buns and alex yelled at him for it, that is really what life is like for people living on minimal wage.

From watching this movie, i learned a lot about people living on minimal wage. I learned about their struggles and what it is like to live on minimal wage. I learned that hospitols overprice things way too much and if you need to go to the hospitol when living on minimal wage, its basically a death sentence. I learned that people living on minimal wage n eed to count and save every cent they have.  

A look at Poverty in the Congo

This picture displays a war orphan named mugisa who has several machete scars on the top of his head. Mugisa was left for dead after a lendu militiaman hacked his mother and seven siblings to death. This picture surprises me, because when i normally think of war i dont think of children being harmed and killed. It surprises me that the militiamen have no mercy. Picture taken by (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

In this picture, a boy is standing with a gun posing while ready to defend his village from attacks. He is part of a local defense force in his village of Bangadi. Like in the last picture, i am surprised at the contents of this one. Just like i said before, i normally dont think of children being involved in a war or battle. This kid doesnt look like he is out of his teens yet, but he is part of his villages defense group and carrying a gun around. Its really surprising. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly)

This picture displays local defense fighters in the village of Bangadi in February 18, 2009, just like the teen in the last picture.They have armed their defense force with local made weopons, and have repelled two LRA attacks who have killed 900 Congolese citizens since December. I respect thiese people, and when faced with destruction and death they stare it in the eye and fight back. I respect the courage they have when fighting the LRA. (REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly) 

Wasteland

In My Gifted and Talented one class we watched a movie called wasteland. In wasteland the famous artist Mr. Vik Muniz went to the landfills and created art based on what he saw in the landfills. There were various pieces of art created from the landfill. The piece of art that went for the most amount of money was the picture of Tiao, who is the president ACAMJG which is an orginazation of recycling pickers. The picture of Tiao went for $50,000.  My reaction to what i saw in the movie is one of surprise. I was surprised about how much garbage was in the landfill. Vik Muniz described the landfill as a city of garbage, with thousands of people scrambling about. I feel bad for the people who work at the landfill, but they didnt seem to mind working at the landfill, and they said that they take pride in what they do. I still feel bad for the people at the landfill, even after watching the movie and even if they dont mind their job and take pride in it. Although the conditions of ACAMJG has changed since Vik. Vik created art that showed the conditions of the job, and showed the harsh reality of it which is what makes the art beautiful.

The art that Vik created is being sold and the profit is going toward the orginization, and going towards the workers. For example the $50,000 that Tiao made from the picture went towards creating a library at the ACAMJG office, many of the workers at ACAMJG dont have any sort of education. Most of the workers only know how to talk, some dont know how to read and write. So creating a library goes a long way to help educate the workers.

After watching wasteland, and seeing how much garbage was in the landfill, it made me think of how much garbage my family produces. I feel like my family produces too much garbage, and we should produce less. Because after seeing that landfill, i realized that we really need to reduce how much garbage we produce, becuase like i said before. The landfill was literally a city made out of garbage. Eventually the world will run out of space to put the garbage, and at that point well have a major problem on our hands. I dont want to live in a world like that. However, my family already recycles, and the only way i can think of right now in which we could reduce our output of garbage, is to consume less products in a day or a week. Less food or products consumed, less wrappers and garbage left behind. I know that i will try and reduce how much garbage i produce to try and prevent building another city of Garbage.

Vik Muniz really helped the community around ACAMJG in Brazil, i know that Vik could help other communities that live in poverty. There are lots of areas that live in poverty in the United states and other countries around the world. Vik could really help these people get on their feet and really help and improve the community they live. He could really help them provide oppurtunities for themselves like he did in Brazil.  

20% Project: Morse Code

Every friday in my G and T class, my classmates and I are allowed to research any topic in the world that interests us. There were a lot of things that i was interested in to learn about, however it would take to long for me to actually learn about them. For example, i wanted to learn Greek. I wanted to learn how to speak Greek in like 5 weeks. However 5 weeks isnt long enough for me to actually learn the language. So i chose a topic that would be a little easier to learn about and give a presentation on in five weeks time. I chose to learn morse code, right now i am learning about the history of morse code and its inventor Samuel Morse. This is a fun and interesting topic to learn about, and i plan on mastering morse code in the next five weeks.