Hunting

Steph and I did our presentation on the legality of hunting. We brought up different points from each side of the argument and received lots of feedback. We found some videos and images, some graphic, some not, and luckily only Steph was the only one to turn away. I thought that we got the class’ attention with those.

One of the things I would have liked to have been better was maybe a better organized discussion. We seemed to go off topic at times and to be honest some of the students were a bit too passionate about hunting. Also there were some people that didn’t get to talk and I wish they would have spoken up. The other thing that that I wish was better was that the power point presentation could have been longer with the use of case studies. A case study that I would have chose would be that of hunting seals with PETA having an enormous hatred for the hunt.

The positive things that I saw come out of this was that there was quite a bit of discussion to our presentation. Maybe it’s because our world is changing and people are considering other things and not just themselves or on the other side of the spectrum people may be motivated by their history. Whatever it was people really got into hunting.

What I got out of our presentation was that I learned a lot more about hunting and how sometimes it helps and is not all what the media says it is. I believe that we should have the same hunting system that we do now because it really does help other animals and the environment as a whole.

Earth Hour

The annual Earth Hour was held again this year throughout the world with an estimated 1 billion people participating in this climate change awareness event. A sociologist might ask if turning out your lights for an hour will raise enough awareness to change the world. I hope to answer this question in my journal.

People from 80 countries worldwide turned out their lights for about an hour in this event. This message, that turning out your lights for a while or even when not being used, could help against global warming. Having children participate could help condition them to think that by turning of lights could directly help them save the world. Because these children are our world’s next politicians, leaders and governments, they will learn that we have to keep our planet green.

Not only were residential lights turned out, but businesses also committed to turning lights out. A perfect example of this would be at Pearson International Airport. When they committed to turning off a bunch of unused lighting in some of their terminals for an hour last year, they just keep them off now that they aren’t really needed. So Earth Hour jump started this airport’s commitment to our saving our planet.

Earth Hour helped give more power to the “green movement” by arising awareness to people and businesses around the world. Sometimes we just need a huge event to start a new way of living and that’s what Earth Hour did. Hopefully Earth Hour will continue to help the environment by the ways of raising awareness.

French culture

A culture is a very important part of a society and is defined by Edward B. Tylor as: “A complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”. I will attempt to distinguish the main cultural beliefs in French society while comparing it to our society as well. I spent 6 months in France, where I lived with a host family and learned a lot about their culture.

What I couldn’t help but notice while on my exchange was that the French people were closer to each other physically. When they great each other, even strangers, it is with one, two, three, four or even five kisses on the cheek depending on what region you are in. It was quite a surprise to me coming up to people and kissing them because our Canadian culture associates kissing with love and close relationships.

Another important part of the French culture is their education. They spend an average 48 hours per week at school while us in Canada a usual 30 hours. That’s an 18 hour difference! Their classes are much more structured with lecture style courses and less time for creative independent projects. While our system allows a wide variety of ways you can do things, such as one class may do presentations on a certain topic while the other does essays. The French worked really hard in most subjects because the teachers reinforced that if they fail, they basically fail at life.

Of course there are many more topics on French culture but there is only so much room. I am extremely glad to have learned so much about the French culture and met such wonderful people. In reality it is much more than the beret and baguette (even though that is a true stereotype); it is the cuisine, art, language, history and beliefs that bring this amazing culture together.