Opportunity to Become Engaged

In my family voting is very important, so as soon as I could vote my mom took me down to the polls. This year was the first year I could vote and in this class I learned how important voting is. I really wanted to go to Rock the Vote but I guess it was cancelled so I decided to do some homework and read about the candidates. I did not want to go vote when I knew nothing about the parties, so I looked them all up and read about what they stood for. I think this is very important and I am very glad that my mom made me go and vote because it pushed me to find out what all the parties stand for. This class and my family showed me how important it is to vote and find out more about what goes on in our community and our government.

Active Youth?

The internet has changed everything we do. Not only are things faster (email instead of mail), it also brings us closer together. The internet has changed the boundaries of space and time. Everything is now about here and now, this includes social and international problems. We know news as it happens around the world and have a say in how things can be changed. Social sites such as Facebook make a difference, people can join a group and have a say in the changes in the world. Therefore, more people try to make a change because it is so much easier now with the internet. Instead of having to sign a petition you can join a group and make the same change but it includes people worldwide instead of people within a certain place.

Active Youth?

I think by having the internet we become more involved in world issues. The internet abolishes space between countries and brings us closer together. This makes it easier for us to stand up for one another and help solve problems within certain countries. Teenagers go on sites such as Facebook and Twitter and see the different groups that are dealing with international problems. They then look at what it is about and decide if they want to support the cause or not. Therefore, this makes it so that issues can be solved easier. All we have to do is support a cause and make the government notice by the number of people involved and they decided whether or not to make a change.

Waste of Money Reflection

I think our country needs to focus on our citizens instead of making money. I think the government is over looking the health of our citizens just so the country can make money by exporting food. We have lots of fertile land and could make a lot more food then we do now. Instead of importing goods that we can make here, we should just use the goods that we grow here. This saves money on transporting the goods from country to country and also saves time from the transportation. That way we will not be losing the nutrition in the food in the transportation process.

Waste of Money

I agree that there is no reason to import some of the goods we do import. Not only does our food lose nutritional value when it is imported it also has the chemicals added to it. Which is a lose, lose for us as Canadians because then we do not get to be as healthy as we should be. If we can grow the goods here then why don’t we? We have enough land because Canada is such a big country. So we could grow our food and still have enough to export. Instead we export what we grow and import the foods that we just exported. That does not make sense to me. Seems like a lot of time and money wasted. It also seems like Canadians are getting the “shit end of the stick” because we are giving away all the food that we grow here.

Meta-Reflection

This course has been a great experience for me; I was able to learn more about the area and the culture within it. I loved getting the chance to go out and see different parts of St. Catharines and how it differs from Mississauga. My favourite OOCLO was the one where I listened to Leslie Meisels talk about his perspective of the holocaust. I have always been fascinated with what went on in that time and how Adolf Hitler was able to get enough followers to cause everything that happened. I thought it was an amazing opportunity to go and listen to his firsthand account of the holocaust. I look up to him because he is so strong and so optimistic even after everything he has been through. If I could go listen to his story again, I would go in a heartbeat; I would go and listen as many times as possible so that I could learn as much as I could from his story. This was an academic learning opportunity and I was not able to help anyone, accept myself. After I got home, I told my roommates about Leslie Meisels story and they were fascinated that he went through all that and survived. The most important thing I learned from this OOCLO was that silence is not standing up for anyone; silence is siding with the enemy. I will always remember Leslie Meisels’s story because it made such an impact on me.

Through this class, I have learned a lot about myself and about others as well. I met a guy in this class named Danny, now he is one of my close friends. I find it really hard to talk to people because I am fairly shy at first.  This is something that I have worked on this semester through this class. Each OOCLO has made me talk to different people so I have taken that chance to open up more and become less shy. This is something I will continue working on and going out in the community and talking to people is a great way to do it. I have met so many different people through this class and the opportunities that have arisen. However, it is hard for me to go up and talk to strangers but I know that if I continue to try that it will be very satisfying. I know it will be satisfying because it allows me to get to know more people and get to know their stories. Therefore, this class has helped me become a better person and help others along the way. 

Fresh Foods As Commodities Meta-Reflection

All prices are too high, this is why we are in a recession; also, the number of poor people is rising because of this. Not enough people are standing up to the government saying that prices need to be lowered. I know many families that are struggling to make ends meet because everything is so much more expensive. Prices will continue to rise and the gap between rich and poor will become even more defined than it already is. More and more people need two or three jobs just so they can support themselves. Bread used to be five cents and now it is more than three dollars, how does it jump that much? It is hard to understand why the government needs this kind of money, now I realize it is because they choose to import food instead of using the food that is grown in Canada.