This is amazing to hear, because in parallel to the education of young men in America, where the phrase "boys will be boys" is no longer an acceptable excuse, the education of young men there on gender equity and equality ensures that they will insist on the next generations education. Although unfortunate, change is generational, but having such a strong cultural effect within a generation is nonetheless impressive.

It amazes me that such a young child knew exactly what was necessary for a better life. It also doesn't surprise me that her family only supported her after the fact. It seems that human nature is typical in not wanting to stray from societal norms and ideals. However, it also stikes me that a commonality between all strong women is their courage and willingness to do whats best for them, no matter the risk. She reminds me of Malala Yousafzai.

The term female genital mutilation caught my ears, and I was curious on what it actually meant. After some very brief, yet nonetheless stomach churning, research I found that there are four types. It's used to control women's sex live's and their roles within their communities. I was absolutely horrified to find out that this is still such a common practice, and felt extreme heartache and empathy for girls across the globe who have to face this atrocity.

The western world is known for its excess in all forms. America is known for its excessively big houses and excessive amounts of cars. France for its excessive amounts of time to spend in cafe's or on cheese. Ireland for its excessive amounts of alchol consumption. The fact remains that as someone makes more, they're easiness on expenditure elevates. It's a hard balance to reap the fruits of reward and still not over indulge to the point of wastage.

The wastage of food is also due, in large part, to the dates set on food. Its so common for people to see the date and discard food when its still perfectly good to eat. The reasoning behind the dating is simply that it's the products peak, not last chance of edibility. Freeganism is an interesting idea in the sense that it encourages people to not discard their outdated food, but to take the moment and inspect its freshness. Myself included have started Freeganism since beginning college. Money is much tighter when I'm living on my own means, and I ensure no food items of mine go to waste.

The author subtly made an extremely important point about food. Supermarkets hemorrhage food because of visual appeal. When purchasing from a grocery store people look for the "prettiest" of potatoes or the "yellowest" of bananas. There's an incomprehensible worry over the look of food. Unfortunately, the scenario he described of the scraps his friends turned their noses up at sounds all too familiar. It is shameful and a bad cycle that needs to be stopped for the environments sake.

Cuba seems surprisingly high for social progress scores for a country that is controlled by a Dictator. This surprising statistic makes me question how much we actually know about Cuba as a country. Generally speaking, when thinking of Cuba I think of Cubanos and 50’s cars being held together with some duct tape. Nevertheless, looking at their score from the social progress index, they score fairly high when compared to African countries falling under a somewhat similar description. It makes me feel that reaching a score of 100 is attainable for the harsh descriptions of Cuba, realistically has some redeeming qualities.

Generally, when ending poverty or solving world hunger is raised as an issue, a Utopia comes to mind. This fantasy, as Micheal Green explains, is rightfully fanciful and will probably be an unrealistic expectation. Not only are such impressive goals with seemingly straightforward solutions seem too good to be true, but additionally the world is engulfed in chaos. The United Nations and its members individually have their own problems, such as Libya which since its overthrow of Muammar Gadaffi has been in extreme civil strife. Secondly, how can we solve certain problems like Goal 14: Marine Resources, when oil spills or other unintended accidents occur.

It took 20 Presidencies, from Abraham Lincoln to Lydon B. Johnson, for civil equality within the United States to be substantive. Yet, to date, as a country we still find ourselves stuck in a continuous loop of domestic turmoil and racial disparities. Therefore, the United Nations goal of 15 years and tackling 17 various issues that plague every country is lofty at best. Unfortunately, irrespective of how democratic a country may be, the issue of political ideology arises in everything.

Whenever I read that you should respect those around you, I often think of the phrase respect is earned. I personally cannot stand the idea that someone isn't given the natural guarantee of another's respect. To me, that is the most disrespectful action someone can do. I then often think on relationships between children and parents that I have witnessed in between all my moving, and the variety in relationships that can be found between cultures and what some would consider to be disrespectful, others may see as expressing opinion.

As previously aforementioned, the goal of compassion is to alleviate and avoid the infliction of pain upon others. As stated in the bible, he who has not sinned shall cast the first stone. Thus the pledge we are being asked to take reminds me that no one is without fault, but that we should go forward in life and in this class with an open minded attitude towards self improvement. It also makes me think of todays current social state, of the duality between political correctness and what is felt to be an oversensitivity in younger generations.

Charter as a literal definition, is about granting authority. The title charter for compassion leads me to presume, leads me to think that the text will give both insight and an explanation to the idea that we as a class need engage with one another in a compassionate manor. The fact that the class is completely asynchronous makes it easier to not only become more derogatory towards each other, but also can lead to more careless and insensitive comments between us.