Forum 6

Through the usage of television, newspapers, radio and internet which I believe is becoming the most popular source for world news, Americans views on these given topics can be distorted. Stories on celebrities are less money to process and therefore other more important news gets pushed aside. This has to do with the lack of coverage of world news, which everyone has mentioned to be 12%. The cost effectiveness of gossiping about famous people rather than global issues is the reasoning behind Americans having a distorted view. This is terrible to think, and who decides what is more relevant and important than other things? Some Americans believe these stories about celebs are the news when really things should change and more global coverage should be addressed.


The news about the news really opened my eyes to see that what I think of as news, truly isn't what matters. Reading tabloids on the latest celebrity is considered news in our society and our generation, we have a distorted view of the world this way. The coverage we do get of stories and events occurring, are only important and impacted Canada or the United states, not the rest of the world and therefore we lack to knowledge of what happens outside of these boundaries. We need more global coverage, on the internet the most because this is what youth is growing up with now. Our parents and grandparents generation will still sit down and read the newspaper, but for most of us everything is online, and therefore real news coverage from around the world should be shown and discussed for youth, including myself to be more aware. It is important to know what is going on elsewhere, it makes you a smarter person and perhaps will make you more thankful for where you do live.

Forum 5

Gill Seyfang suggests that having local organic food networks will develop new institutions which helps people change their consumption. By purchasing locally grown foods, you are helping the economy in your area succeed. The local farmers gain profit and the citizens are contributing to ecological citizenship by purchasing within their community. Therefore the key things for achieving sustainable consumption are growing and buying locally, community building which in return will reduce ecological footprints.

I agree with Gill Seyfang, although I don't practice what I preach. Buying food locally and organically is better for your and your community but it is also rather expensive. I learned in high school that  shopping within a 100 mile radius of your house will reassure that you are buying healthy and helping your ecological footprint, as the food therefore isn't be transported and shipped half way across the world into your hands. This is a solid idea, and changing consumption and helping local farmers succeed is a great solution, it isn't always the easiest as it becomes expensive and the food selection varies throughout the year.

Forum 4

Illich argues that when North American students take “Mission-Vacations” it is offensive to Latin America, that for North American wealthy students it is just the “thing to do”. He believes that when we go to “help” the Latin Americans we are pretentiously imposing ourselves on them.  The point that Illich makes about how to Peace Corps spends around $10,000 dollars on each corps to help him adapt to his new environment and to guard him against culture shock, when really this money could be going towards helping the poor Mexicans receive an education is valid in my eyes. He also relates going to the Ghetto in the U.S and trying to help the poor, they would act terrible towards you either hitting or spitting on you, which would make you aware of the irrelevance among the poor. Also while in Latin America, we would be socializing with people close to us, according to class and language, not the actual people who need help because they can’t speak our language and we can’t speak theirs. He leaves out if we actually do any help there, he only states that we do harm, but his article doesn’t discuss if there are any positives. North Americans need to hear his message, because this is who he was directing it at, and that’s who he would like to hear his message.


 Travelling and joining peace missions, helping people has become more and more popular, but we don’t quite understand the true impact that it has. Even though people travelling overseas to help say that they have a new global perspective and the experience of “culture shock” most students overshadow this with the fact that this will help in getting a job and career development. I, myself have thought about going and building schools or houses in Africa, but after reading further into these trips, I am now not sure if they do more harm or good. Barbara Heron says that “overseas volunteering is increasingly motivated more by the opportunity to learn than by the desire to help others”. I think this is very true, people are going on these trips to gain experience and better themselves not others, not the poor.  The idea of poverty and inequality isn’t the number one priority which I think it should be. In saying that, if I were to travel abroad I would also be looking for the full package, the experience and travel and meeting new people along with helping poverty.

Forum 3

Going off of Jessica’s point of water, it is supposed to be available to everyone in the world. But we bottle water and sell it to people everywhere. Therefore it is a common that has become commercialized. Also as many people mentioned parks, which are supposed to be about the scenery and experiencing wildlife whereas now people pay to camp and partake in parks activities such as camping and hiking. Museums also come to mind when thinking of a common that can be commercialized, sometimes we pay to visit a museum and learn about history, which I believe should be free. All of these things could be turned from commodities into commons and vice versus.

This forum is analyzing the idea of the commons, Jay Walljasper All That We Share explains the concept of commons and commodities and how they intertwine. I chose to evaluate this forum because I had never really thought about how assets that are supposed to be commons become commercialized. I read Jessica’s forum response, and she talked about water. I thought that this was a great example, bottled water is seen all the time and people pay for it when water is supposed to be available to everyone not at an expense. This was important to me because I think in the future more and more things will become commercialized and sold. Now a days, everything comes with a price, hardly anything is free anymore. Further questions that would arise are in the future what else will be turned from commodities into commons and vice versus? Also why is this happening?  I could have further explored the complexity of the issue by first expressing how this is an issue, or figuring out if it is one. There are positives and negatives, such as making money and helping the economy but things that use to be simple and free no longer exist.

Forum 2

I decided to read Chris Richards’s narrative called “Ah, so we are all the same” the message he portrayed and learned in Ghana was amazing. The narrative was named after a quote said by Charles, a person working alongside him as an engineer. This quote represents human equality, the men sat there quietly and realized that they were both human and even though Chris is from Canada and Charles was from Ghana there is not real difference, and I enjoyed reading about that experience. I also respected Chris when he said that although foreigners can help with production the work must be driven by local leaders. This showed that Chris didn’t think he was better than any Ghanaian worker; he was simply there to help and learn from them. Even though I can’t exactly relate to Chris because I haven’t performed a job like he has, one day I would love to travel overseas, perhaps not for engineering, but to experience life from a different perspective and learn firsthand the social issues that occur outside of Canadian borders.   


I really enjoyed reading the stories from some of Canada’s young activists. “Ah, so we are all the same” showed that everyone is human, and has similarities no matter where you come from. We can learn from watching others and talking to them about their experiences. After reading these entries, it has sparked my interest in travelling and helping overseas. I believe that everyone can learn from reading this book and gaining knowledge on what young people have done to change the world, or their own views. Later in the course, during a seminar a student brought up the idea of likism. I found this very interesting, because now we think by liking something on Facebook it is somehow a form of activism. We have to realize that there is a difference in making a change by doing something rather than liking a post. Activism is an important topic, and I’ve learned that when celebrities take a stand on a certain issue that it is easier to gain support but activism on any given issue can start from anyone. Many time when I think of activism I think of overseas work that is being done, which is the case for Chris Richard’s but I believe that we have a lot to do in our own country as well.

Forum 1

The question I wanted to know is does your socio economic status affects your education. This was done in a group discussion, and the census was that yes it does. The reasons as to why people believed this was because if you can afford a tutor, and school supplies and extra-curricular activities such as field trips through high school and elementary then you have a better opportunity than the rest of the kids who can’t. Also, if you have the money to attend post-secondary school, which is very expensive, you have more experiences, connections and again opportunities. Therefore there are connections related to money and receiving a certain level of education.

Through this forum posting I was trying to get at the point that education and socio economic status are related, and through a social analysis of the two we can see this. People who have more money also have more opportunities in all aspects of life, but especially education. An alternative perspective could be that there are situations where people exceed and receive a higher education even if they don’t come from money, but they would have had to work harder at it. Social analysis is looking at a census and questioning and becoming aware of the situation. It is learning by doing not just by listening in a classroom, which this class is all about. My thinking hasn’t changed since writing this forum; I still believe that the higher the socio economic status the easier and better opportunities come to you. Next semester I am going to try and comment more on others forum responses, and hope that they give feedback as well to my responses because it will help when trying to improve our forums.  

Critical Moments

I did this exercise I bit differently, I chose one OOCLO that represented strength, one that represented satisfaction and one that represented success.

First was strength, I chose "its a girl documentary" this shows the strength that I have because I am a girl living in Canada, the females in China and India suffer daily or are murdered for being a girl, this made me terribly sad and aggravated at first but than I had to look at my own life, and this provided strength to continue and pursue my dreams for the women that cant. second was the satisfaction and the OOCLO of random act of kindness represented this. this OOCLO including make cards for the bus drivers, and my group took it further handing out candy and little inspirational quotes to people in the library. seeing people smile over something so little really brought my satisfaction. the last was success, the activism OOCLO, signing a petition represented this. the girl Julia from the foundation got enough signatures for the petition against seventeen magazine using photo shop on the models, I had signed this petition along with vogue magazine. this shows success because Julia has won, and seventeen agreed to showing normal sized women, I think this is amazing and shows that you can go after what you believe it, and achieve success.

Icon-Bird

Birds are interesting creatures.

Birds generally symbolize freedom and no limits they can choose whether to be on land or in the sky. They have air of freedom about them, though they are bound by the land because they need the resources. They are the only creature that God made who can soar up into the sky, and still have the freedom to return to earth again. A bird corresponds with this course because throughout the OOCLOS I have learned that we only have the limits that we place on ourselves. Birds represent a variety of things, communication which was extremely important for this class, and freedom as we are free to explore our surroundings and free to interpret the world as we want too.

Self Introduction

Hi my name is Amanda Sexton, Welcome to my blog!

I am a second year student at Brock University. I decided to enroll in the community engagement class because it was different than any of the classes I have taken before. It gives students the opportunity to explore the area around them and partake in activities special to the community. This class has made me realize that every place has things to offer and adventures to discover. It gives you the chance to meet new people and see new things, which I wouldn’t have done without the class. These posts show the stories that I have experienced throughout the Niagara and St.Catharines region.

Hope you Enjoy!