Mosaic, Well Projects

Last week I wrote a story about a church organization called Mosaic that helps by giving something to an African village in Uganda. What they gave was a necessity such a basic thing that is so important it could mean life or death for so many people. It’s a primary need and everybody has a right to it, what’s sad is that people do not always have access to it. This “something” is water. Everybody deserves food, water and shelter. Another unpleasant fact of life is that a lot of people are left without these resources even though they could be easily given.

Water is also a first focus when you are trying to help a less fortunate area because if there is disease in the water then it spreads to the people. It’s like how water conducts electricity. If you electrify water while there is something in it, whatever is in it will be electrocuted. Since the people drink water with disease in it they are most likely going to get the disease themselves. At that point the water being the source of the disease, the only way to stop it is to clean the water (which is what Mosaic did by cleaning the water with filters). Once the source of the disease is gone it can’t spread anymore. The fact of the matter is that you can’t prevent the disease to the people without fixing the problem at the source

Giving these people wells also saves them a long trip and gives them more time to do some more constructive things to possibly try to bring their community out of poverty etc.

There are major emotional benefits to helping this charity. The feeling of helping someone less fortunate is like no other. Imagine being one of those people on the helicopter loaded with supplies having the overwhelming feeling about how you’re about to not only save lives but improve them as well. If you have talents you are willing to offer you can try to get on one of the teams of people going to the country with an organization like Mosaic. But you don’t have to help physically.  You can also help financially; donating money is definitely a good way to help because sadly these things aren’t cheap. At Mosaic its set up so that people can bring their recycling so that the church can turn in the cans and bottles to get money for it. This is one of the big ongoing fundraisers.  Every cent that you donate can be used to help people, which I think is what money should be used for. It should be used to improve the world not for personal gain but for a common interest.

Mosaic is s Christian church with sites all over L.A. (I myself attend the Pasadena gathering) a lot of times the rationale is helping the poorest of the poor like the yearly feeding of the homeless and all the other projects that are happening throughout the year. The well projects along with the other projects are also missionary trips. Mosaic is a community that wants to love there God and spread his name while trying to improve the world even if it is one step at a time. Their website is http:// Mosaic.org

Mosaic church story: help build wells in africa!!!

          Imagine a young girl that lives in a povrished village in Uganda (Africa). Early every morning she wakes up with her baby brother, mother and grandmother. Her and her mother, gather two large woven baskets and then her mother picks up the baby while holding one of the basket on her shoulder. The girl says goodbye to her grandmother who is now too old to make the 20 mile trip. The girl and her mother both join the steady stream of villagers on their way to the only water source within a fifty mile radius.

          The trek is long and hot even in the early morning hours the scarce trees provide very little shade and it will take them half the day to get there and half the day to get back to the village. The villagers grow tired but they know they are close because the trail has become very familiar to them. For generations the village would have to make the long journey. When they arrive they walk into the murky dirty water. The watering hole is just a small pond with a slow moving stream constantly feeding it, although the water is moving the it does not move fast enough for the it to filter itself and always seems to have a fair amount of misquotes flying around it. The villagers fill their baskets with the filthy water, they know that the water most likely has disease in it and is not healthy for them to drink but they have no choice. They walk half the day up to the watering hole and all they have to show for it is disease riddled water.

          The trip back is harder than the trip up because now it is noon and the day has reached its hottest point. The sun blazing over the villagers heads and baking the ground under their feet the girl’s muscles ach under the weight of the water filled basket, unlike her mother who has made the trip to the water hole many times, she even used to carry the girl when her younger brother had not been born yet. When the group finally arrives at the village the stream breaks up taking their baskets and pots to their houses. Back at the girl’s house is her grandmother waiting for them. Her mother and grandmother take the baskets and start to empty the water of all of the undesirable things inside trying to make it as clean as possible before they drink it because the leading causes of death in the girl’s village are starvation and poisoning of water. Several years ago the girl’s father had died from this. The two women work hard trying to make sure the water is drinkable while the girl tries to calm down her baby brother who has started crying.

          Later that day two helicopters fly over head landing on the far end of the village. Once the rotors come to a complete stop and the dust clears, several Americans and Africans come out. A tall African man leads the little group who apparently speaks the language because he says something to the leader of the village, who had come out to meet the visitors. The man tells the villagers that they have come to build a freshwater well in the village, and that the money came from an organization in America called Mosaic. This organization (which is also a church) had a fundraiser to raise money specifically to build wells in Africa. The village is very happy and promises to help as much as they can to build the well.

          The next day two more helicopters fly in with a load of tools, pipes cement, filters, cement many, many cases of water bottles for the so the villages have clean water while the well is being built(the bottles are recycled). Then the villagers and the Mosaic people start to dig and dig helping one another. The plan was to pipe the route to the water source that the villagers had had to drink from for so long.

The first day they had piped five miles running in the direction of the water source, then the next five more then the next day five more and so on until finally they arrived at the filthy watering hole. Together the group had piped some, 20miles all the way to the water source. When the water was turned on the villagers drank. They were thrilled the entire village seemed to be united in happiness. The girl and her family have clean water to drink, which is a gift like no other.

Art in schools is necessary!!

It appears that art is being seriously threatened in schools. It also seems that, as many teachers have said before: art teachers are becoming an “endangered species”. I would like the reader to take notice of the word “endangered” it has the word END in it, and that is one thing I know must not happen to the art program. Yet art is always the first thing to go followed by music then shortly after if the need for money in a school is great enough, sports comes shortly after.

The average amount of classroom time spent on art in a school as opposed to social studies or mathematics is: ____________________________. Over the years and years humans have been on earth art has had a fluctuating importance, for example: It was less important in the middle Ages than it was in the Renaissance and now it looks like the people in charge think it’s expendable, that when schools are having a shortage in money art goes first. I look at that as very wrong art should be considered a core subject because if it isn’t, where will students get the chance to be creative? Maybe they don’t want to be an artist and go to art school but is still very important for kids to have the chance to be creative. Besides that’s one of the most important things about even being a kid. Am I saying that Math and social studies are any less important, No I’m saying that they should be treated as equals.

Recently budget cuts have been hitting the art program hard. Here is a section of a post from a blog called: “The Artists Blog” this is just one of the many blogs I’ve seen talking about the danger of budget cuts for the art program.

Art and Music Department Budget Cuts, What it Means for Your Child and What You Can Do as a Parent

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

I am sure you are aware of the nationwide trend of downsizing, even eliminating, art programs in schools.

What is not entirely known is the impact of removing the fine arts from the education of children.

‘Champions of Change, the Impact of the Arts on Learning’ is the most comprehensive study on the subject of students involvement in the fine arts and how it relates to academic …

He states “what is not entirely known is the impact of removing the fine arts from the education of children.” I agree it could completely destroy the rest of some kids education and might even make parents upset.

Another thing that concerns me is the NCLB (no child left behind) which according to an LAUSD teacher is: “An attempt to bring all schools to proficiency through standardized tests. A law promised to give schools and teachers finances which was never funded it seems that it is mostly punishment and almost no support. Apparently teachers were left to their own devices when it comes to “designing” their own tests. Also different states have different standards which means if for example one state has low performing students but lower standards it will appear that the students are doing very well and if there’s another state with higher performing students and very high standards it may appear that those students are not doing so well. This leads me to believe that the scores are much skewed.

If people in charge are looking at the art program as an expendable waist of funds, they are wrong. Art gives (as I have said before) numerous opportunities for creativity it teaches patience and coordination I think total severing of funding for the art program is an incredibly huge mistake and should be rethought because when art goes a major source of pleasure, entertainment and academic and creative resource goes.

Art

                                         ART

For thousands of years humans all over the world have been expressing themselves artistically and using all genres, but all of them are creative. Even cave dwellers managed to draw on the walls of caves. There are so many genres of art: drawing, sewing, architecture, music, dancing, cooking, photography and that’s just to name of few. Some forms of art seem to be more popular and visible than others unless you follow a particular form of art then it is everywhere and you know where to find it.

I think one of the most important things about art is expressing yourself and exploring your own style. Picasso’s style was to use different abstract shapes to make buildings, people, animals etc. He also went through periods of using only one color in his art. Being yourself in your art is important because it adds a personal touch, it is unique. It seems to me that many of the famous artists, if you study them carefully, all went through a stage when they were happy, depressed, angry or just really emotional. The different emotions appear in their art as darker colors sad scenarios and it was very obvious that the artist was feeling a certain way or experiencing something in their life and it came out in the art

I’ve been drawing and painting for seven years, but mainly drawing. When I draw it makes me so happy because I feel like I’m doing something I’m good at but also because I am expressing something from inside myself. My style is very sketchy using smaller lines to make bigger lines. My favorite things to draw are cartoon characters, video game characters and nature. My favorite things to paint are landscapes but since drawing is my primary art skill I don’t paint often although I am currently in a drawing and painting class this semester and look forward to painting. When I grow up I hope to have a career in some area of art, whether it be digital or traditional there are so many avenues to explore.

                Over all the things I have talked about today the absolute most important thing any artist could tell another artist is that it only matters what you think about your art. Your art is about you, your feelings, your way of expression and coping, not everyone will understand it that shouldn’t be why you are an artist. If you get to a point where you show your art in a gallery you will be criticized and applauded. The criticism should not stop you from expressing and creating your art.

               

Should Propaganda Tecniques Be Taught In School? (final draft)

I am required to write a post answering this question: should schools be required to provide all students with a course on how to identify and analyze the motives behind propaganda.

For many years people have been being tricked by TV and radio commercials telling them to buy a product. Companies use certain techniques like the Plain Folks Appeal  which is when commercials try to show you that a person or product is good for “ordinary” people, because a person is “just like you” and understands you. Or Glittering Generality which is telling only positive things about something or someone without giving evidence or facts. These are either really developed techniques or we are just really susceptible to propaganda.

I think people would benefit from having a course on propaganda in schools, it might help students make good financial choices in the future and in the present. Apparently kids are also targeted by propaganda, but probably in a different way though like being lured in by the prize in the bottom of a cereal box as opposed to adults who may have the reason of some famous person driving some fancy car. People need to be taught what to look out for so they can determine when they are being tricked and when they are being offered something worth their while

These techniques obviously work considering the fact that people are having money taken from them either because they are not being provided with full or correct information which leads to a nice dent in your wallet. Now for adults who have big paychecks this is less of a problem but for students in higher grades and college or kids who get an allowance and don’t have a full time job and don’t have a very large paycheck if they get one at all, it becomes necessary for you to get your money’s worth and if you are tricked then it could affect your financial future and not just your financial future but your whole future.

If schools provide a course on propaganda it may render these techniques ineffective but for this to occur the student has to identify the motives behind propaganda, for example the motive behind the Plain Folks Appeal is that if a company uses an actor that can relate to the audience that the commercial is aimed at then the audience will be more likely to think “oh if that person who is similar to me needs this thing then I guess I need it to”.

Propaganda also promotes the use of logic which is what your mind uses to work through things and help you find reasonable answers to things. If you have logic you will become almost invulnerable to propaganda.  Another thing that you can use to protect yourself from propaganda is thinking independently and not doing things because everyone else does it.

All together I think it is very important to learn about propaganda so you know when you ARE going to get cheated out of your money and so you know when you are NOT going to get cheated out of your money. Along the way it will help you make better decisions in your life it may make you think “why am I buying this?   Is it because of the way it was being presented or is it because I really need it?”