Call to Action

            During Call to Action day, I and along with some other students, went to the creek to pick up trash alongside the creek and within the park. This experience made me realize how careless people can be by just throwing their trash or leaving their trash wherever they feel like it. At one point my group and I found a shopping cart in the creek. Honestly, that was pretty ignorant of someone to dump a shopping cart in the creek. That was a very unintelligent decision because now the cart cannot be lifted because rocks and trees have made it one of its own and now it is engraved into the dirt and water and it is very hard to pick out. After a period of time, the rust of the cart will bleed into the water, probably destroying the small creatures that live in that environment. The cart was not the only thing that was there that was disgusting. There was a lot of plastic bags and broken pieces of glass scattered throughout the creek. Pulling the plastic bags from the branches of the tree were gross because it was wrapped around multiple branches and it was filled with dirt and water.

            When my group and I were picking up the trash alongside the creek we noticed somewhat of a cave. Most of us went in there, but then soon got scared because we heard noises coming from the darkness. In general, the location was very beautiful. It was peaceful and quiet and it had a nice scenery from wherever viewpoint one was looking at.

Towards the end of the experiment, while walking back to the meet up point to put our supplies away, an older man thanked us for what we were doing. This showed me how thankful he was for us doing something to keep the environment clean and trash free. 

Blog #13

Section seven talked about colonialism and economic development. In the Catholic teaching a major topic that is taught concerns the legacy colonialism and the challenge of economic developments in the poorest parts of the world. Formal patterns of colonization was an ongoing discussion, while observes expressed concern about equally pernicious practices known as neo-colonialism or neo-imperialism.

 Not only did colonizers wrought political and economic changes by the Europeans, they also pursued a religious agenda. The European ships carried priests, preachers, and missionaries seeking to spread Christianity to indigenous people. Present economic order features a gap between the world’s richest and poorest lands. History of European colonialism and superpower imperialism have played an important role in causing these disparities.

Catholic social teachings offers two sets of ideas. One is the consistent part of its message that the church repeatedly insists that all people have a moral obligation to care deeply about the world poverty and  to do all they can to address this scourge on common humanity. Hunger and disease is a concern for all people an demands urgent attention. The richest nation to combat poverty in the poorest lands are needed and encouraged to express human solidarity.The second catholic social teaching addresses poverty and underdevelopment by inviting believers to ponder the cause of these problems and offer suggestions for improvement.

Blog #12

Due to the Industrial Revolution, it gave rise to new economic needs and it found solutions abroad. Enormous productivity of industrial technology and Europe's affluence created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products. Wheat, meat, bananas, rubber, cocoa, palm oil, tea, gold, and diamonds radically changed the patterns of economic and social life. Industrial capitalism produced more manufactured good than people could afford to buy. European soon found it more profitable to invest money abroad. Between 1910 and 1913, Britain sent half of its savings overseas as foreign investments. Wealthy Europeans saw social benefits to foreign markets. This helped Europe's factories humming and its workers employed. Imperialism promised to solve the class conflicts of an industrializing society while avoiding revolution or the serious redistribution of wealth. Imperialism became popular when the growth of mass nationalism began in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became symbols of "Great Power". Imperialism appeared as a strategy in economic and social grounds to the wealthy or ambitious. To them it seemed politically and strategically necessary in the game of international power politics.
The industrial era made overseas expansion more desirable and it provided new means for achieving goals. Steam-driven ships allowed Europeans to reach distant Asian and African ports more quickly and to penetrate interior rivers too. The underwater telegraph made almost instant communication. Also, the discovery of quinine to prevent malaria reduced  the death rates for Europe. Industrialization changed the way Europeans perceived themselves and others. Europeans held onto the sense pf religious superiority, but still adopted many ideas and techniques of more advanced societies. They held Chinese and Indian civilizations in high regard and mixed with Asian and African elites. They often married their women.