December 1, 2014 - 19:03
Hi everyone,
As I procrastinated on homework I browsed the news and found some ESEM related articles. I feel you guys will enjoy the one by MIC.com about voluntourism. The other is by the washington post about the 6th extinction.
The one about voluntourism though I found very relatable. Because I know a lot of people with their profile pictures of them with a random kid in some village they went on some mission trip or volunteering trip.
In another article I read long ago a woman was reflecting on the damage she did as a voluntourist and went home with all the "girly" things she intended to ggive to the local girls. It all goes back to Teju Cole's point that we can help by educating ourselves on the situation.
I like how the ultimate question in the parody video was how many countries there are in Africa. I feel too many people just brush problems off as in Africa. Especially recently with the Ebola panic too many people think it's a problem in all of Africa when in reality Ebola has been contained within 3 countries on the western coast. The other 51 countries are safe from Ebola.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/28/we-may-be-on-the-verge-of-the-sixth-mass-extinction/?tid=sm_fb
http://mic.com/articles/103788/one-hilarious-video-perfectly-sums-up-a-big-problem-with-western-humanitarianism