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.