It is incredible to hear that change is possible and it is happening through education. Just one person can make a huge impact, like we just witnessed through this Ted talk. Not only did the speaker inspire her community, she inspired me! Sometimes I think that my voice or opinions don’t matter because there are so many people who are thinking like me or simply won’t listen. To think that this woman had a goal that was “taboo” in her community but turned out that many other females in her community had the same goal. And now change is occurring in her community. This Ted talk has made me realize that maybe my voice does matter and maybe change can happen if I speak up on my thoughts instead of belittling them.

Why is it so hard for females to survive and get the same opportunities as their male peers? What made it that a woman can’t achieve what a man can, especially having the opportunity to learn? If we all have brains, we all have the ability to learn. Hearing this has made me realize how fortunate I really am. Imagine listening to a lecture in History class but in the back of your mind you are worrying if you are going to make it home that evening. In school a young adult should be focused on the solution to a math problem, not the solution for survival.

Education is looked at as the key to success to many people and especially to the less fortunate. My father who was born very poor in Mexico has always made sure that my siblings and I acknowledge that acquiring an education can get you many opportunities in your lifetime. My father told me that when he first came to America he was exploited many times. Such as overtime without pay, making fun of him for not knowing english well, and clearly over working him. Since my father was new to the country, didn’t know how to speak English, and was scared, he never stood up for himself and thought he had to be taken advantage of for many years to come. That was until he took it upon himself to learn English by going to a school. After learning English, many opportunities came flying to him and that is why he has always advocated education to be the key to success. My father today is an executive chef and manager in Times Square, NYC and I am so proud of him that he came from literally nothing to the person I aspire to be.

So many people are uneducated about the impacts of hunger, while some may not even be interested in this issue as they have not personally experienced “true” hunger. We can apply pathos by spreading awareness of this issue with frequent commercials or billboards showing the victims of hunger. As well as showing the ludicrous amount of food being wasted and the faces of the hungry around the world (or of people in surrounding communities). These images can bring a reality to some people as visuals could be more impactful than words. Words can go through one ear through the other, an image could stay in somebody’s mind as it is more of a shock seeing it, opposed to reading it. Raising awareness may be the solution but I also believe that there may be some people that are too stuck in their ways to contribute to change as our world has become very money hungry and less focused on our surrounding environment.

This is exactly what we need to start doing as parents! Children develop habits from their parents as they grow. If a child constantly witnesses their mother or father throwing food away due to putting too much on their plate, what makes you think they would not do the same? They will not think about the damage these actions cause as they're not aware of it and it is considered "normal" for them since that's all they've seen throughout their childhood. We need to start regulating education of hunger to our children so they are aware of their actions and the consequences that come with.

I used to work at a grocery store so I can strongly emphasize with the speaker about wanting to do something about the enormous amount of food going to waste. While working for this company, I witnessed cans among cans of food going to the trash bin just because they were minorly dented which was ludicrous to me! I never came from a privileged lifestyle, I grew up in Queens, NY. In a neighborhood which was a middle/lower class. While living in NY I encountered so many homeless and hungry people which always made me realize how lucky I was to be able to just have dinner every night. Some of my friends were not as lucky. School lunch was their only meal for the day. After middle school, lunch was no longer free to all students. You had to meet certain requirements in order to be able to receive free lunch or half-pay lunch (½ off the cost of lunch available that day), I was able to receive free lunch. Some of my friends could not even afford their half-payed lunch. I never wanted somebody to go hungry so I would offer my lunch to kids that couldn’t afford to eat that day as I knew the school would throw out the excessive food (keep in mind if I would have been caught doing this, I could have faced detention). Then fast forward to my senior year of high school and the tables have turned. I had to become self-sufficient at a young age, rent, bills and my first job working at a grocery store came flying at me during my senior year. I had to figure out a budget. Food could not even fit in my budget because rent took all my income for the month! I eventually started to go to food banks and a food pantry which essentially saved me from going hungry. But I realized that the pantry did not have enough for all the hungry people and the first come first serve was the feeling I received at these food banks. Meanwhile I was working at a grocery store, seeing all the food going in the trash around me was heartbreaking. The grocery store made it clear that they would press charges and fire any employee that dared to take some of this food home or donate it. That’s when I realized that a lot of these grocery store corporations are money hungry and almost unethical because they would choose profits over helping hungry kids and families in their communities. The world is run by money, which prompts myself to ask “Will our world/country ever be able to feed all of the hungry?” I ask this as I realize that a lot of these corporations and businesses will pick profit over helping the non profitable (homeless and food pantries).

If we already learned so much from other countries and their wealth status, why do some countries not take the same pathway as the well off countries opposed to if they were a poorer country? Is pride an issue involved? Maybe not enough resources? I would hope that countries are learning from another instead of going into war. Maybe this can unite the world by learning from one another. To countries like North Korea and India that don't promote the well-being of their people, will this result in complications of protests or the dissatisfaction of their people in the future? Will this then affect the country's overall wealth?

Would focusing more on the specific goals rather than the vaguer goals be easier? Would the specific goals have more of a set plan to follow than of a vague goal? I would think a more specific goal would be less time consuming to set a plan than if it was a vague goal. This would be because perhaps there are less elements and questions to be asked when determining how to promote peaceful and tolerant societies than to end world hunger (specific). When promoting peaceful and tolerant societies becomes a goal to achieve, a lot of questions need to be answered or evaluated to structure this peaceful and tolerant society within the existing society/community. In answering the question "what will make a peaceful and tolerant society?" Your answer may be different from your fellow classmates or even family members, as customs and beliefs vary. So what about specific goals? In this case, ending world hunger. I would take a guess that maybe these goals are less complicated to evaluate because of research and numbers we can utilize to support our claims when trying to figure out a solution. In the end, I would ask which goals are easier or should be prioritized in order to sufficiently create this better world for everyone?

Each person has their own individual idea of a "perfect," better world. Asking what will make a better world sounds a bit rational. People have different beliefs and opinions and prioritize these beliefs variously. One may prioritize having equality over climate change, while one may prioritize climate change over equality. So these "pessimists" and "doomsayers" Michael Green is referring to as wrong for saying that the world can't get better are not totally wrong in my opinion. After years and years of witnessing our world go in a downward spiral, it would be hard for one to stay optimistic. Imagine this scenario, you need to get a book from a really tall shelf that is out of your reach. You grab a chair and stand on it in order for you to reach the book. As you are about to grab your book... BANG! The chair slipped from underneath of you and broke in half! You don't give up as you need that book for your assignment due at midnight. The next option you think you have is the ladder in your attic. You run to your attic to start your second attempt to get that book to only realize that you sold your ladder last week to your friend. You can't give up as that assignment is 45% of your final grade. So you do the unthinkable and start to climb up the tall shelf for your precious book. BOOM! You just fell and the shelf is on top of you. Instead of writing a paper you are now going to the emergency room. You spent so much of your time and dedication trying to grab this book but was not able to reach the book in the end. Now relate this to our world, for years upon years people have been trying to better our world. But even with these efforts our world has not tremendously improved. Climate change, inequality, peace and justice are just some examples that have not improved in our world over past decades. Even with every "good" change some people were not happy. Invisible repercussions were sometimes a result from these changes. So I don't agree with Green that these people who say that the world can't get better are wrong because ultimately people's beliefs and goals of a better world vary from person to person.

If it is such a struggle for some to accept others (racism, discrimination), then why would they put their effort and time to make our world a better place? I believe that in order for the world to become a better place we need the understandings and efforts of the majority. As of 2021, our world is divided. Not just divided by countries but also divided within our countries (racism and discrimination). Take a step back and go back about 100 years, what was different between these divides? I personally believe that not much was different. Racism and discrimination was still very much prevalent in society. Women just got the right to vote about 100 years ago. It took decades of women to fight for the diminish of the divide between the power of men and themselves, in order to simply have a voice in who will be their president (who will represent their country). Even after decades of fighting by the women's suffrage movement to get the right to vote, 100 years later, we still have gender inequality. Women in this example, did their part and fought for equality but the opposing position continues to make it hard for women to live in an equal society and a better place. All in all, in order to make change we need the majority to come and work together. But 15 years for this to happen? I don't think so. We can start small and change the habits of people in order to make our way towards a better world. An example could be to focus on climate change. Our world is dying. Climate change does not only affect one, it affects us all. Most have known the health of our climate and environment has been on a decline for decades. Even with this knowledge, in the past 15 years people still went on with their business and lives without thinking twice about climate change. This prompts me to ask, when does an environmental issue become worth focusing on? Think of when you went to the grocery store, did you bring a reusable bag or did you pay the $0.05 plastic bag fee at checkout? The additional plastic bag fee is a way in which governments are trying to combat the negative effects of these plastic bags to our environment: by encouraging people to bring their own bag. Personally I feel that governments took too long for these fees and should have established this fee about a decade ago, perhaps it is too late? Personally I perceive as if an environmental issue has to be at an extreme or too late to have a chance to be prioritized. Overall I feel like the world is going to need an extreme reason and/or more than 15 years to become better for the majority.

By learning the importance of compassion, we have to start contributing it into our everyday lives in order to make it a habit. Trusting that others will show compassion and putting faith into them may let us not be afraid to connect and interact. By showing compassion you should listen to your peers and think of their feelings as you think of yours. Think before you contribute and how it can affect another’s feelings. After showing compassion, trust can form and the ability of being able to depend on each other, without the fear of being judged. Compassion can create a comfortable environment. With a comfortable environment, we can gain information from one another, create friendships and trust. This may promote knowledge for everyone and the ability of dependence for others.

Why does an individual feel as if they have the right to cause inflicting pain? What is their reasoning not to give another basic rights? I believe it is very easy for an individual to forget or misinterpret selfishness. We live in a very selfish and competitive world. Everybody has their own opinion and may see disrespect differently because of differences in point of views. But respecting somebody’s basic rights should be, I believe, a universal understanding. This can be done by treating an individual as if how you want to be treated. Before making a change, acknowledging your faults and how you can better your presence in this world can be the first step. In order for unity, compassion has to be distributed amongst others.

I think it’s clear that compassion is a universally understood principle because it’s key to our survival in a cruel and unjust world. If we’re empowered with knowledge and self-awareness, then compassion becomes a natural byproduct of that. There is needless suffering and cruelty in our world, so if we have the ability to combat it, we should. Compassion not only aids in our survival, but let’s us shape the world in a kinder and more amicable way. Compassion can let us take a step back and see the importance of selflessness and how it can help our community and others. Compassion can unite one another closer and learn purpose. As they say, treat one with how you would prefer to be treated as.