My name is Christian Belsaguy and I am currently an MDC Kendall campus student. I was born in Mexico and moved here to the United States with my mom. I went to International Studies Charter High School and graduated in 2020. I am a business administration major who is interested in one day becoming an executive for a company or a high-ranking manager for a technology-centered company like Apple or Amazon. Some of my favorite hobbies are playing football and producing music in my off time and submitting it on my Spotify artist account. I would like to live somewhere in Homestead or if I had to choose somewhere outside Florida it would probably be Tennessee. I really like being surrounded by nature and in Homestead, I'd love to have a lot of fields and have my own little farm. I think my favorite food has to be a good grilled steak. I'm also very much into Cuban food since my mom is Cuban and I was said with Cuban spices. I would define success in several different ways. For example, I think success career-wise is finding something you love doing, and having it pay out how you feel is worth it. But success in life to me is different, it's about finding and building relationships with good foundations and people that will stick around even when life gets hard. Having these people around and prioritizing love around your life from friends and significant others is how I define success, and I would say that's the only success that really ends up mattering, everything else is just material and of little significance.

     In 'The Story of Bottled Water' we learn what the lies behind bottled water are and how they deceive us as consumers. Tap water being clean because it comes from the tap is something we tend to believe. Water bottled in plastic bottles is dirty in reality, but the bottled water industry doesn't want us to drink regular tap water. Advertisers scare consumers by showing pictures of forests and mountains on the bottles, which fools us into believing that the beverage is safe. A logo showing trees and a lake is the one for Zephyrhills. It costs about 2000 times more to buy bottled water than tap water, and there is less regulation. As you can see throughout the video, a lot of emphases is placed on the need for the nation to change its attitude towards education, better health, and investing in renewable energies. We can just drink tap water instead of playing in the hands of bottled water companies. Whenever we are determining whether a solution is right, we have to consider its effects on people and to what extent it may impact the population in the long term.

     After watching the video about “The Story of Cosmetics”, I learned more about some important facts that beforehand I only knew very little about. In spite of all the toxins these products are giving humanity, they are approved by the FDA. As the narrator explains in the video, the companies don't care whether their products contain toxic chemicals, they only care about making money. They use toxic oil-based chemicals to make their products. Those who market hair relaxers to children, and those who sell skin whitening creams are even worse. The ingredients in these toxic 21 products as well as the message they convey about what beauty is make them toxic from both perspectives.

A. I believe consumption relates to our roles and my own personal role as a global citizen because of the effects both economically and environmentally that my consumption has. When contributing to companies for the products they sell to us, we don’t even research the effects that it could have on the environment. It is important we become smarter so that instead of just buying from companies we also try to learn about their methods and if they test on animals or use toxic chemicals in the production of their products. We become smarter global citizens when we do not give in to the traps of corporations and consume products in a much wiser way as to not consume irrationally and unnecessarily.

B. After watching the videos “The Story of Stuff” series, I have been inspired to change my mentality and shopping habits after learning the misinformation that companies spread in order to influence consumers to shop for their items. It is an unfortunate reality that we are constantly lied to and an even sadder reality that we constantly allow ourselves to fall for those lies. I don't appreciate being lied to and so after watching how big corporations use unethical forms of testing their items as well as advertising them and abusing the consumer I’ve been inspired to go about my shopping trends more maturely and think twice about what I spend my money on as well as what can be more beneficial to us all.

      For my research, I chose to examine traffic in Miami. As a result of reckless driving and being distracted by their mobile devices, traffic jams are caused due to inefficient use of green lights and responsibilities. Due to the high frequency of traffic congestion across Miami over the past few years along with a corresponding drastic increase, this topic was very interesting to me. It feels as if one can see the changes in traffic throughout a regular day compared to before when traffic was not so congested. 

When wind turbines are placed on the seafloor, they create tidal power, a renewable energy form that has existed at the bottom of the sea. Why do we still have such a long way to go with this technology despite the planet is 70% water? Legal and environmental concerns surround ownership of underwater property in the United States. Due to the lack of a solid guarantee that tidal energy will make a profit or benefit consumers, investors are not enthusiastic about it. In countries like France, South Korea, Australia, and Canada, it is believed that all households can be powered by wind turbines placed at tidal ranges. The problem with them is that even though they have amazing power, they are usually installed in wealthy countries and cost excessive amounts of money. 

#2: Fighting Food Waste 

There is a great deal of food waste around the world. A food sharing app called Olio has been developed by Tessa Clarke. According to Ammar Ebrahim (the reporter), one way to waste less food is by sharing. A third of the food that we eat goes to waste, according to the United States. Whether you are on a diet, moving, or bought too much food, the app allows you to share that food with your neighbors. Clarke states that "Half of all food waste occurs in the home.” With her app, Clarke hopes to reduce food waste. (Clarke) Over five years, OLIO has achieved over 5 million users and has been recognized by a number of institutions, including the United Nations who described OLIO as a "beacon" for the world, and Vivatech which dubbed it the "Next European Unicorn".

 

Reflection:  

      By avoiding the purchase of overly large quantities of food that you will not eat, which will ultimately go bad, you can reduce food waste. By reducing food waste, everyone suffering from malnutrition worldwide could be fed. An eco-friendly world is possible. challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. As a system, the system must be changed. Our focus is to look at the big picture and the small details. The article illustrates this beautifully. Media outlets lack the advantage of observing instead of simply following what is being said, which is what journalism provides. When the media are involved, we cannot always be certain that what is being reported is true. We must realize that it is our responsibility to make wise choices. Food waste is a real issue that we as consumers in the United States never stop to think about because of the abundance of sometimes. You can recycle food by using a smartphone app or a community refrigerator to share it with others. Every day we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess. Other people tend to overlook the situation and exemplify the issue. It is important for all of us to start playing our roles in society and be smarter with our actions so that we can be more efficient with our food and resources.

Since the 1970s, we have contributed to climate change becoming increasingly severe. People may not believe it is real and may think it is all a scam or a hoax. Then they complain about how things in our world are getting worse. Increasing the number of houses and buildings means destroying the habits of wild animals. In addition to creating pollution with gases, we are polluting our water by spilling chemicals into it and by chucking plastics into it, killing animals in the process. We really want to meet up to quit damaging our planet. Assuming we cooperate we can decrease the harm that we cause and people in the future can perceive how wonderful it is.

YouTube Video: The recycling myth: What actually happens to our plastic

     Throughout this current spring semester after writing many different types of short essays and doing project research I would have to say that the SP assignments were my personal favorite. I found them to be not only shorter than the lengthy CAS assignments but they still provided an educational task to do research and learn more about different problems in the world. CAS assignments had their pros, as well, as they allowed me to dig deeper into different subjects and gain a deeper understanding of what I was researching. Before completing the activity, especially at the beginning of the semester, I was, to say the least, skeptical, about whether or not these assignments were pointless or time-consuming. Fortunately, that was not the case. 

     The main topics I focused on while doing the SP assignments were pollution and traffic in Miami. For SP2 I chose to dig deeper into how bad traffic in Miami is and all the negative effects that it has on the environment, people, and their vehicles. The constant braking and accelerating have terrible tolls on a person’s vehicle and as traffic gets worse people to get more aggressive and desperate so they start to drive recklessly and activate their road rage. As Miami’s population grows bigger from so many people moving down to the state and city, traffic congestion is only getting worse and there need to be solutions put in place in order to combat this.