The British Invasion

My wife lived in 3 years in Korea while he father was a mission president for the LDS church. She attended all three years of Jr. High at an international school there in Daejon, Korea. She was able to make lots of different friends and experience many different cultures. During here stay in Korea, she made a a friend named Heather Lilly. Heather is from England and now resides in Lincoln, England where she works and lives with her boyfriend.
This last week Heather came to stay with us and experience a bit of the U.S. culture, It has been an amazing experience for all of us. I always thought that since we basically speak the same language, we would have little differences. However, not only are we extremely different, but our languages are also very separate. We went out to eat at Olive Garden, where she ordered a chicken platter with vegetables. Heather had never heard the word zucchini before and wondered what it was. Apparently in England zucchini is called courgette. Also she refers to the bathroom as the toilet, and a shopping cart as a trolley, she calls a dog leash a lead, and underwear are pants. The entire week had been full of misunderstandings and further explanations. I has been a good experience to hear about the different lifestyle that is lead in England. Although my wife Jenny is from the U.S. and Heather is from England, they have been able to move past their obvious differences and focus on their similarities.

Service Learning Project Overview

I really enjoyed the Service Learning Project, I think it gave us a good opportunity to actually help those around us who are less fortunate. I can only imagine how scary and daunting being a refugee would be. Fleeing form your country due to civil unrest would be a very hard thing to do. No to mention you than add on the cultural variable that make things like getting a job, communicating, and even making it day to day that much harder. In a classroom, theories and ideas can be thrown around all day, but until you put your shoulder to the wheel, you really won't be able to see how things can play out.

At first I was planning on putting together an apartment for one or two of the refugee families. I was going to collect beds, dressers, lamps, couches, etc in order to put together an adequate living environment for these families to enjoy. I corresponded with the lady in charge of the whole operation and it turned out that bringing all that furniture down at the right time would actually become a huge hassle. So I was forced to switch gears.

After thinking about it and emailing back and forth with the woman in charge we decided that another thing the refugees were in need of was personal hygiene products. Things like soap, shampoo, deodorant, razors, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc were all basic items that these people were in need of. I personally can't even imagine not having such basic items at my immediate disposal. I have always had adequate personal hygiene products and definitely wanted these people to be as comfortable as possible in their new homes.

I first went and spoke with my in-laws. My father in-law happens to be the V.P. of Tahitian Noni, an MLM that produces tons of shampoos, lotions, and other personal hygiene products. MY father in-law was happy to help the cause by lending as much as they had on hand. This of course helped tremendously. I also spoke with other members of my family and encouraged them to donate as well. It was cool to see how easily things were coming together.

After we had acquired a good amount from family and friends, we decided to go door to door and speak with people in Lindon about donating to the cause. I have knocked tons of doors in my day between being a missionary and doing sales, so this wasn't really a big deal to me. I was surprised by how much people were willing to donate. Jason and I probably looked like to punk kids, but people could see that we were excited and out for a good cause. It turned out really well and we were able to get together a trunk full of personal hygiene products.

Overall I must say the opportunity to help out these people was fulfilling and one that I won't likely forget. I realize that we didn't build them a house or anything huge, but we did do our best to make their stay here in the U.S. whether permanent or not, more comfortable. I wish I could have been there to work more closely with some of these people like other students were able to. However, we did our best and produced more than I had anticipated.

I would totally encourage anyone that is looking to any type of Eagle Scout Project or service project to talk with those in charge at the refugee center, It will create more awareness and hopefully help out these people even more.

National Geographic Assignment

Urbanization

"Cities have existed for thousands of years and can be traced back to the river valley civilizations of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), Egypt, India, and China. At first, these settlements depended largely on agriculture and domestic cattle, but as they grew in size they became centers for merchants and traders."

Urban growth, also known as urbanization, accelerated dramatically with the advent of industrialization some 200 years ago. At that time, large numbers of people moved to cities in search of jobs, mostly in factories. But the most rapid growth has taken place over the past 50 years. While less than one-third of the world's population lived in cities in 1950, about two thirds of humanity is expected to live in urban areas by 2030. Most of that urbanization is taking place in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Urban is defined as "that which is characteristic of a city." But what exactly is a city? In the past, walls may have defined a city. But today's city boundaries are often blurred. Are suburbs, which are often called metropolitan areas, part of cities? Depending on the boundaries used, Tokyo can have a population of anywhere between 8 and 40 million people.

Cities can and do make a lot of sense for the human race. People are concentrated in a small space rather than being spread out over a large territory. This allows the government and others to provide more services such as water, electricity, and transportation to a larger number of people. Also, schools and shops are more easily accessible for greater commerce and learning.

Cities have always been at the center of economic growth and technological advances. The promise of jobs and prosperity pulls people to cities. But their rapid growth has also brought with it many negative things: violence, poverty, overcrowding, health problems, and pollution. Many cities in developing countries in particular are growing too rapidly for their own good, with many residents unable to find jobs and forced to live in slums.

Urban expansion is also encroaching on wildlife habitats everywhere. Increasingly people live and work in close proximity to wild animals whose native habitats have been lost or broken up. Many animals—from mice and cockroaches to pigeons and squirrels—have adapted to city life, taking advantage of abundant food and warmer temperatures.

"A cloak of smog gives Fresno, California, a hazy look. Smog, a hybrid of the words "smoke" and "fog," is caused when sunlight reacts with airborne pollution, including ash, dust, and ground-level ozone." In Utah, the words smog and air pollution are nothing new. Due to our high mountains we are often plagued with lingering inversions. Logan, Ut even has some of the worst air quality across the nation.

The promise of jobs and prosperity, among other factors, entice people to cities. Half of the global population already lives in cities. Due to the high population and limited space in today's cities, we are facing two of the most pressing problems in the world today: poverty and environmental degradation.

Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments. Improved city planning will be crucial in managing these as well as other difficulties as the world's urban areas continue to grow and expand.

Threats

• Intensive urban growth can lead to greater poverty, with local governments unable to provide services for all people.
• Concentrated energy use leads to greater air pollution with significant impact on human health.
• Automobile exhaust produces elevated lead levels in urban air.
• Large volumes of uncollected waste create multiple health hazards.
• Urban development can magnify the risk of environmental hazards such as flash flooding.
• Pollution and physical barriers to root growth promote loss of urban tree cover.
• Animal populations are inhibited by toxic substances, vehicles, and the loss of habitat and food sources.

Solutions

• Combat poverty by promoting economic development and job creation.
• Involve local community in local government.
• Reduce air pollution by upgrading energy use and alternative transport systems.
• Create private-public partnerships to provide services such as waste disposal and housing.
• Plant trees and incorporate the care of city green spaces as a key element in urban planning.

Sources

Kunzig, Robert. (2011, January). Seven Billion. National Geographic, pp 42-63

Klasen, S., & Nestmann, T. (2006). Population, Population Density and Technological Change. Jounnel of Population Economics , 611-626.

Lutz, W., & Qiang, R. (2002). Determinants of Human Population Growth. Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences , 1197-1210.

Wolfgang Lutz, Warren Sanderson, Sergel Scherbov. (2001). The End of World Population Growth. Nature, pp 543-545

Unconscious Competence and Unconscious Incompetence

Unconscious competence and unconscious incompetence is something that we talked about in class quite a bit about. I found this to be an actually very interesting subject. We are constantly doing things and making decisions, some may be good while some may be bad. This can obviously be used when dealing with different cultures. Often times people act in a way that may be offensive to thers of another culture even though they are unconsciously being offensive. I'm sure I was guilty of this multiple times when I first arrived to Lithuania. I wouldn't immediately shake people's hands and would forget to take my hat off, simple things really but crucial in a different culture. Practice and immersion helps one become more conscious when dealing with other cultures.

Chapter #11 Dialectics

A principle that really sort of stood out to me was the differences-similarities dialectic. My wife and I can sometimes seem like we are on polar ends of the earth when it comes to dealing with situations. However, we almost always agree on basic ideals and structures. I tend to be a typical man that tends to struggle with putting things lightly or delicately, my family is very straight forward where her family just sweeps things under the rug and pretends like it never happened. This is where our negative differences kick in, we both want things handled differently. However, we also have a lot of positive differences that have become quite complimentary. Jenny is a great cook, while I like to clean. Therefore, she makes the meals, and I clean the dishes. Jenny is very organized while I more of a lets plan later type of guy. She then takes care of the bills while I simply make the money. I am a very one directional person that can't multi-task very well. Therefore I'm really good at making money while Jenny takes care of bills and shopping, so I can focus on my one task. I think differences can be quite complimentary in a marriage.

Joseph Ostraff

Today our guest speaker Joseph Ostraff spoke to our class. He did a great job and told us a little about all the places he has visited, from California to Ukraine and even Toga. He showed us a Youtube clip with many different greeting. He also showed us the greeting used in Toga, which is when two men hold their foreheads together. In the U.S. we shake hands as a casual greeting, while Hispanics may even kiss each others cheek. He mentioned that the hula dancers dance was once a prayer and has been since then made into more of a sexual thing. It's crazy to think of how distorted that had become. We are constantly needing to immerse ourselves in others cultures, that way we can see things through a more rounded point of view. Breaking cultural bonds can be one of the most rewarding things we can do in life.

Media and Cultural Influences

Media has an enormous affect on the way we view things around us. For example, Apple had done an amazing job of convincing every college student that you are not going to be as cool or as successful if you don't have a mac book pro, and iphone, or ipod. I can pretty much guarantee that 90% of the students at UVU own at least one apple product. They do a great job of adverting to college students through popular mediums, such as; movies, online ads, and television. Literally everywhere you turn apple is advertising some form of their products. I must admit I may be the biggest sucker of them all. I myself have owned 3 different iphones, i have a macbook pro, and I even have an apple TV. Media does a great job of convincing people that they need something to fit in. That if they have this device or this shirt than they will finally be cool. The media uses celebrities to promote ideas, products, politicians, and pretty much anything you can imagine. As long as someone that is cool is promotion it, you can guarantee there are thousands of people out there buying it.