Bonus Post: A response post to global suck
I am a huge vlogbrothers fan. About half an hour ago I was catching up on the videos I've missed because of exams and a couple of videos got me thinking. (And I realize that I don't usually do posts about stuff like this but hey, there's a first time for everything and it's good to branch out occasionally. (FYI, this won't be a regular thing.)) So this is my response post to about ten different vlogbrothers videos. (I may have been exaggerating when I said ten. Maybe like three videos.) (And you should probably watch the videos too, because the Green brothers are waaaay better with words than I am.)
1) John's video on asylum seekers. This was awesome. I wasn't really aware of the issue of asylum seekers when I lived in Canada because I was young and a bookworm and preferred imaginary worlds to real ones.
Basically when I moved I realized there was this problem of other people leaving their country because they had to, not because they chose to. These people were trying to get to this marvellous country called Australia because they were being persecuted or were fearful of persecution. They were so scared that they put their children on unsafe boats and set sail into unsafe waters. Many of them have died.
I find this incredibly stupid and just a little bit humbling. I got here by a plane. There was little chance of us dying. We did not have to pay people smugglers to get here. We came from a safe country to another safe country (and granted, we paid a good lot of money to do so) and we got to live in a house and not a compound on an island. We didn't have to wait two years to step foot on Australia. (We did have to give up a lot and pay a lot of fees and spend a few unhappy months here and basically it wasn't easy.)
The thing is though, God decided that we would get here by plane and they would get here by boat. Why? What makes me any different from them? It blows my mind that I am no better than anyone else, yet I get to come here safely by choice and they didn't have a whole lot of choice. I'm also incredibly thankful that I've had this chance.
I'm amazed at how far we let things get. Wars. Chemical weapons on civilians. Persecution.
Aren't we all human? Or did someone pass out a memo that I didn't get?
John's video was mostly focused on the issue in Europe, and I'm not familiar enough with it to say much. I do know that it's ridiculous that so many people are dying and that there is no easy solution, no matter where you live in the world.
I'll echo John here and say that as humans, it's our job to look after each other. We need to stop the wars and accept more asylum seekers and figure this thing out. I get that there's both sides to the story. I get that we all have homelessness problems, I get that we need to look after our own countries and I get that it'll be expensive and hard and that there's no easy answer, but people are people (no matter how small).
(And I will have a post about asylum seekers in Australia at some point in the near future, once I get my act together enough to actually do some research.)
2) John's video on the Millennium goals. While I kinda feel disgusted at humans (see points above) PEOPLE ARE AWESOME!!! It's super awesome to know that when we set our minds to something, we can actually accomplish stuff. Granted, we didn't achieve all or even most of our goals we made way back in 2000, but hey! We did stuff! To quote the Green brothers, we decreased world suck! *confetti*
3) Hank's video on making our world a better one.
(I have a bit of a confession. I haven't looked at the new goals yet because it's 10:30pm and I'm leaving for a long car ride to Brisbane early tomorrow, but when I get back I'll take a peek, and you should do so right now.) Looking forwards, we have a big job ahead of us. It's so, so easy to get caught up in our own little world of waking up, going to school, talking with friends, doing homework, watching TV, reading and going back to bed.
We kinda need to wake up.
I know I get caught up in my little world, where I obsess over how many comments a certain post got or a slight bump in my grades or <insert minuscule problem here>. Maybe a lot of it is a distraction from bigger problems, like university and friends who aren't there anymore and the unending, unmapped future with a giant "here be dragons" scrawled across it. And maybe those are distractions from the enormous problems that our world is facing at the moment, and it just seems too impossible. Unsolvable.
How can I change anything?
How can any of us change anything?
I believe that I was put on this earth for a purpose. I believe each one of us were put on earth for a purpose. My belief comes from God, and I think He has a plan.
It's everyone's responsibility to change the world. Every. Single. Person. On. This. Earth. I don't know what the future holds, I don't know how to fix anything. I do know that I need to stop thinking that I'm at the centre of the universe because there's a lot of people out there who are hurting.
To me, it makes sense to have a plan, and it makes sense to try to solve things like hunger, inequality and a lack of education. Let's try this thing out.
Let's do something.
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| The cat thinks it's time to watch vlogbrothers. Source. |
1) John's video on asylum seekers. This was awesome. I wasn't really aware of the issue of asylum seekers when I lived in Canada because I was young and a bookworm and preferred imaginary worlds to real ones.
Basically when I moved I realized there was this problem of other people leaving their country because they had to, not because they chose to. These people were trying to get to this marvellous country called Australia because they were being persecuted or were fearful of persecution. They were so scared that they put their children on unsafe boats and set sail into unsafe waters. Many of them have died.
I find this incredibly stupid and just a little bit humbling. I got here by a plane. There was little chance of us dying. We did not have to pay people smugglers to get here. We came from a safe country to another safe country (and granted, we paid a good lot of money to do so) and we got to live in a house and not a compound on an island. We didn't have to wait two years to step foot on Australia. (We did have to give up a lot and pay a lot of fees and spend a few unhappy months here and basically it wasn't easy.)
The thing is though, God decided that we would get here by plane and they would get here by boat. Why? What makes me any different from them? It blows my mind that I am no better than anyone else, yet I get to come here safely by choice and they didn't have a whole lot of choice. I'm also incredibly thankful that I've had this chance.
I'm amazed at how far we let things get. Wars. Chemical weapons on civilians. Persecution.
Aren't we all human? Or did someone pass out a memo that I didn't get?
John's video was mostly focused on the issue in Europe, and I'm not familiar enough with it to say much. I do know that it's ridiculous that so many people are dying and that there is no easy solution, no matter where you live in the world.
I'll echo John here and say that as humans, it's our job to look after each other. We need to stop the wars and accept more asylum seekers and figure this thing out. I get that there's both sides to the story. I get that we all have homelessness problems, I get that we need to look after our own countries and I get that it'll be expensive and hard and that there's no easy answer, but people are people (no matter how small).
(And I will have a post about asylum seekers in Australia at some point in the near future, once I get my act together enough to actually do some research.)
2) John's video on the Millennium goals. While I kinda feel disgusted at humans (see points above) PEOPLE ARE AWESOME!!! It's super awesome to know that when we set our minds to something, we can actually accomplish stuff. Granted, we didn't achieve all or even most of our goals we made way back in 2000, but hey! We did stuff! To quote the Green brothers, we decreased world suck! *confetti*
3) Hank's video on making our world a better one.
(I have a bit of a confession. I haven't looked at the new goals yet because it's 10:30pm and I'm leaving for a long car ride to Brisbane early tomorrow, but when I get back I'll take a peek, and you should do so right now.) Looking forwards, we have a big job ahead of us. It's so, so easy to get caught up in our own little world of waking up, going to school, talking with friends, doing homework, watching TV, reading and going back to bed.
We kinda need to wake up.
I know I get caught up in my little world, where I obsess over how many comments a certain post got or a slight bump in my grades or <insert minuscule problem here>. Maybe a lot of it is a distraction from bigger problems, like university and friends who aren't there anymore and the unending, unmapped future with a giant "here be dragons" scrawled across it. And maybe those are distractions from the enormous problems that our world is facing at the moment, and it just seems too impossible. Unsolvable.
How can I change anything?
How can any of us change anything?
I believe that I was put on this earth for a purpose. I believe each one of us were put on earth for a purpose. My belief comes from God, and I think He has a plan.
It's everyone's responsibility to change the world. Every. Single. Person. On. This. Earth. I don't know what the future holds, I don't know how to fix anything. I do know that I need to stop thinking that I'm at the centre of the universe because there's a lot of people out there who are hurting.
To me, it makes sense to have a plan, and it makes sense to try to solve things like hunger, inequality and a lack of education. Let's try this thing out.
Let's do something.
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