The video was very interesting and had many similarities with my research on Timor-Leste I did in my Theory of Knowledge Class. One interesting point was how poverty has many factors that are not just economic. In my research I found that poverty is multidimensional and there is several influencers like political, economic, social, and legal poverty. Due to the fact that poverty is much more a lack money it makes it exponentially harder to measure poverty accurately without taking all those factors into account. Another claim that had substance is that education is the best way out of poverty. In my IB World Literature Class, I read the autobiography of Mark Mathabane entitled “Kaffir Boy.” He lived in extreme poverty in the ghetto of Alexandra, South Africa and the way he got out was through a scholarship to the Limestone College. Education plays a very large role in eradicating poverty. An issue in developing nations is that there are constrained opportunities like mentioned in the video. I believe that is an issue in the US as well but to a lesser degree and more based on race and gender. For example, the US military just opened all combat positions to women. But, some higher rank positions likes a 2 starred general are off limits which is still unfair. The video mentioned in order to relieve poverty immediately is for the government to implement campaigns against poverty. In the 1960s Lyndon B Johnson (US President) released a “war on poverty campaign” and it is questionable how successful it was. The only successes still used are Food Stamps and Medicare and Medicaid. In all I learned more about Developing Nations and how their local governments work to end poverty and some of the similar initiatives countries make to end poverty.

Video #1 (Hands On Queretaro)

In video, it discusses the economic state of Queretaro. One point that was addressed in the video was that in Queretaro there is a problem with small businesses competing with big businesses and corporations. Instantly, it reminded me of my history class when we learned about John D Rockefeller, the monster monopolist, that would buy out practically all the companies in his industry. I have noticed that issue in the United States today but instead it's a bit more regulated with the Federal Trade Commission and other government agencies. The video mentioned there has been some economic improvement in Queretaro. I am curious to know how it was done. When I researched poverty in Timor- Leste, a small island in Southeast Asia, I learned that they improved poverty by creating jobs through government funded projects such as highway construction, mining, and clinics. Honestly, I learned a lot about poverty within the state of Queretaro I never knew that it has a large manufacturing industry and that there several similarities between Queretaro State and the US.

In video #4, it discusses the bad garbage problems of Queretaro, Mexico. One point that was addressed in the video was that in Queretaro there is a problem with Mexico producing 100 and Tons of household waste being thrown on the streets, every day and it would lead to emission (I had to look up this word). It seems like many countries are becoming lazier and lazier are really do not want to find a trash can to put in the trash. Especially here in the U.S you can’t really walk anywhere without seeing a forest that easily became a dump zone. I liked the idea of people gathering around and carrying around bags to trash in. If we all did that and carried around bags to throw away trash many job would be gone, I believe that we need to make the earth cleaner and it is our job as the human race to fix the mess that we made but there are jobs created for that, when people and a huge of people really do start doing it for free what would we need cleanup crews for or janitors, that’s like the upcoming problem with robots taking the place of human jobs. In my IB History of Americas class we studied the prohibition act the time where America attempted to stop people from doing something if we compare it to Mexico, if Mexico attempted to stop everyone from throwing trash on the ground would it work, sounds like another impossible act being lazy is a human error that we can’t seem to stop no matter how hard we try. It might take robots to be able to actually get rid of all the trash we’ve been throwing on the ground, 2050!

Very interesting video, I like the interactions with the people of Queretaro to get real opinions. I learned of this crazy interesting increase of bus fare, id that happened here would destroy some people I know. This increase is not only dangerous bit is might just be too much (I don’t know anything about México’s economy) almost a whole 2 dollar increase of bus fare. The critical thinking I noticed from one of the speakers in the video where she made a point that if people started cleaning and stopped leaving trash and messing up the bus maybe the people wouldn’t have to pay so much to ride. I also liked the idea of a peaceful approach of making a petition to stop this madness, instead of the many noisy disagreements of rules we learned about in my IB History of America class. As of this moment riding the bus is about $1.80 and if that increased by two dollars I probably wouldn’t even ride the bus anymore because I can’t pay for that I might as well walk that 3 miles and save myself the trouble of going home. The Mexican government increased the fare not even seeming to care about what would happen to everyone else. I really hope they get enough signatures and I would even like to sign that petition if I could.

I learned that Queretaro has a very rich culture and long lasting traditions, but not all citizens of Queretaro are informed about the culture because of the lack of promotion. Only the minority is truly informed and interested in the rich culture of Queretaro and if some people fear that if the level of interest in the culture of Queretaro does not increase then the culture will eventually go extinct. Different citizens of Queretaro define culture in different ways and that reminded me of a discussion that I had in my Theory of Knowledge class. We were discussing the relationship between sense perception and language, and how one's sense perception influences people to interpret language differently and and develop varied connotations of one word. Many people of Queretaro are ignorant of the diverse cultural events available to them, which is the reason why many of them do not participate in them. They plan to promote the culture of Queretaro through the use of social media such as Facebook. I think that this may increase awareness of the culture of Queretaro but is still limited because they will not be able to reach the people who do not have access to social media. I think that this is similar to a problem faced in the US. In the US there are so many different people from different cultural backgrounds, and it is impossible to be informed about all of the different cultures. Also some families tend to abandon or forget about their culture and adopt the American culture because they believe that it is more civilized, modern, aesthetically appealing, or just because they want to follow the majority. As a result of this some cultures are lost in the process.

"Let's Do It" is a campaign to clean up our surrounding environment that began in Estonia. The goal of this organization was to clean up 10,000 tons of trash in one day. With the help of many hard working volunteers they completed this great task. The program has quickly spread all around the world and is currently active in 94 countries. They plan to decorate the trash cans and make them look like goofy characters in order to persuade more people to put trash in trash cans instead of littering. The amount of trash in our environment is increasing because the global population is increasing and also because most of the trash today is inorganic materials that are produced in factories and are not biodegradable. As a result of the vast amount of garbage there is an increase in pollution and toxic waste. This relates to a topic cover in my IB Biology class, when we discussed how pollution not only affects humans but also animals. Human pollutants have led to many animals going extinct or endangered. When animals go extinct or become endangered this affects the various food webs and chains and can cause inconsistencies in the wild. In the US landfills filled with trash have begun to occupy a lot of the land and as a result there has been an increase in the pollution of our fresh ground water and fresh water found in lakes and rivers. As a result, the government is promoting that more people reduce, reuse and recycle.

The video that I watched expressed the issue of the village of El Pozo and the limited resources for the inhabitants of that village to access higher education other than elementary school. The elementary school Juan Escutia is the only school in the village, with no middle schools or high schools. If a child is to attend a middle school he or she is to go out of town on a public bus, but that takes seventeen pesos a day and many hours on the bus to and from the school. The government has not invested in education in the village of El Pozo as much as they have invested in the commercial imports of the Pepsi and La Costena products. My first thought while watching the video was the opposite reality that myself and other students experience in the United States: one that provides schools that are close to our homes and a transportation system that does not allow distance to be an impediment in getting an education. It dawned on me that transportation in Mexico, and as I have learned, water insecurity in Yemen, is what causes many children to miss out on what could inevitably change their lives. In doing research for the Project-Based Learning project that my classmates and I completed, I learned that Yemen is estimated to run out of water by 2017. I also learned that young girls are forced to forego education to collect water for their families. This fact reminded me so much of what Ms. Swift said, along the lines of education being a far-fetched dream if the individual must first survive at least one more day. Survival in this case overrides the need to attend school, survival means collecting enough water and harvesting enough crops to get to the next day. In History of the Americas last year I learned that during the Vietnam War, millions and millions of men were drafted against their will to fight the war. The great majority of these men were poor and the men that were spared came from affluent families that sent them to college to avoid being drafted. In World Literature we have been having discussions about social issues and have often resulted in having deep talks about philosophical theories, which include the idea of subjectivity; how we grant more humanity to other people and not others and one very small group of individuals deciding what is to become of a less fortunate or elite individual. From what I have discussed here, I have noticed that there is an alternate reality to the one that we live so comfortably here, in the United States. We should really be more grateful for what we have and be more conscious of the obstacles that so many people have in the world.

The elementary school, Juan Escutia, is the only school in their whole village and is the highest level of education available in El Pozo. The nearest junior high school is an hour and a half away. You can't walk there from El Pozo, you have to take the 5am bus, that isn't always a guarantee. The bus isn't owned by the govt., but paid for by the people, and costs 17 pesos a day. 70-80 kids ride the bus at a time. The upper class live three mins away and do little to help El Pozo. Connections to the United States & Social Issues- There are places in the US where some towns can only support one school and need to send kids to the next town for higher levels of education. However, there is always a bus assigned to pick up and deliver the kids, free of charge, to school. The buses also have a max. number of students allowed and won't exceed it.

For a while, however, education was an issue in America. In our IB History class, while learning about the Great Depression, we learned about how rare it was for children to go to school. Families needed money and the kids could be bringing in money from factory jobs, so some parents pulled them out of school to do that. Not to mention, there was also a lack or resources, so even those who did continue to go to school didn't always have books, supplies, or teachers.

The mere fact that there a people living under the conditions where there is only a large community elementary school in village teaches me a lot about the problem around the world that I am not aware of. The people of El Pozo do not even have a junior high school in the area to attend leaving people with an elementary school education to carry throughout their lives. The nearest junior high school is approximately an hour and a half away. The duration is a minor issue in comparison to the problems that their travel path leads to.There are dangerous people along the way and the duration would mean there would have to be early wake-ups calls and transportation by bus. The bus also brought upon their own problems. They already do not have a consistent schedule which would be a major problem when trying to reach a destination within a certain time range. This bus is not government owned meaning the people who are suffering within this same community are driving the bus. This kind of bus is not free and is actually pretty expensive. Not only are the buses packed with people but the passengers are charged a fee of 17 pesos per ride. What the people of this community are seeking are government funded transportation. 

This video reminded me of Southeast and Southwest DC. They are two close cities like El Companario and El Pozo who lead two different kinds of lives. I remember one Fourth of July, a couple friends and I went to go watch the fireworks on the highway that separated the two cities. One side celebrated with what would be considered cheaper fireworks and on the other end you could see the government funded celebration. Today, instead of the government helping the people in need, they are using their failure to their advantage and are eviting these tenants. Breathing becomes more like heavy lifting for these individuals. In El Pozo, learning has become an extracurricular or excruciating exercise. Just as food and beverages have become a mean of survival, education should also be a basic necessity. In my IB history class we have learned how the Treaty of Versailles did not take into consideration all angles and the League of Nations, which would be considered the government of El Pozo, did not do anything about the countries who were suffering. They lack in essential areas and need the help but larger countries refuse to help because thee is not anything in it for them.

Getting involved and making an actual difference in our communities will result in the beautification of our home Earth. My tumbling instructor once said to me, "If everyone did it would it still be okay?' And I watched the video i began to feel the quote and understand the phrase on an extreme level. If everyone dropped some of their trash it would not be some trash anymore but a massive collection of litter. Instead of cultivations a culture of cleanliness we tend to push it to the send and hire people like janitors and maids. Even today, the wealthy use this norm to their advantage instead of practicing things of value such as taking out the trash or washing your own dishes. Some people don't practice cleanliness in their own homes therefor they do not understand why they are expected to keep their communities clean.

Here in Maryland, cleaning up the community is perceived as a consequence. Every now and then I'd see a group of delinquents beautifying the streets but certainly not by choice. Even at schools they host Saturday detentions where the students are expected too complete a certain number of hours of cleaning the neighboring streets as a consequence. Companies even offer services to cater to this culture that promotes laziness and not dealing with our own responsibilities. This is du to the lack of environmental literacy because it is always brushed off and perceived as insignificant. In my IB Biology 1 course we once took the time out of class to take care of of the planet through the support, encouragement, and collecting of recyclable materials throughout the building. We also discussed the ultimate consequences, which in some cases could be permanent, of our unhealthy habits. the goal of this video was to simple encourage its viewer to take initiative and put together a simple and cost effiencient plan for eliminating waste within their own communities in order to promote the culture of cleanliness.

In this video, I learn of the environmental movement of "No Te Hagas Pato," an initiative to reduce the amount of garbage polluting the environment. It was very interesting seeing how most of the students that were interviewed for the video said that they did not place garbage in a trash can, especially because there is people doing it for them. I see a similar issue in the United States that has much to do with how everyone of us is able to purchase and consume foods that they have no idea where they came from. We always just assume that other people will always be responsible for filling a lifestyle that we have become so accustomed to. In the United States, there is an ongoing problem with immigration, especially socially. People oftentimes forget that the United States is a nation of immigrants that come from all over the world and that American takes many different forms. As I have learned from IB History, we tend to shut the doors of opportunity for the ones the come after us. Certain people are oppressed for decades and then they become the oppressors, as I have also discussed in World Literature. Overall, if we were all just a more responsible about our actions, we would have less troubles to level out.

There is an issue with littering in their city. Municipal workers are unable to take needed care of the city and parks because they are always picking up garbage. Half of the students asked at their school didn't even throw their garbage away in the trash. New programs promoting recycling and composting are in place to help combat the garbage/littering issue. They plan to draw attention and public awareness by placing flyers around the bins at school and in their community.

Waste removal and disposal has always been an issue in America. Only through government legislation and action have parks, towns, cities, and national landmarks remained, relatively, waste free. Massive landfills are an issue in America because all that waste creates green house gases. The cost of our clean streets is climate change. In a similar attempt to reduce waste, and i.e. landfill size, people have begun pushing recycling and composting in America as well.

In our IB Biology class last year we learned about the many negative effects of litter on ecosystems. Both plants and animals alike are harmed when waste isn't disposed of properly. While the Gulf of Mexico Oil spill wasn't an issue of waste disposal, it is a prime example of human actions harming the ecosystems. Factories dumping toxic chemicals into the nearest river is a similar issue we learned about, all of which is no doubt an issue of Mexico's, much like it is an issue of the US'.

From this video, I learned about the differences in lifestyles in Querétaro, Mexico. I've never even heard of the idea "urban planning" before. I realize that there are some places that have more inconveniences than others. The first thing that came to my mind while watching this video is how I live in a world where everything is instantaneous and convenient. So much so that even waiting 30 seconds for my phone to boot up seems to be an eternity. I also thought a lot about CO2 emissions in the world today. As the world becomes more industrialized and industry centered, there is bound to be more pollution in the air. Even though there are new cars that use electricity or whatever type of fuel, they are more expensive and are not readily available to the masses.

WOW, firstly, I loved the montage at the beginning lol I love things like that. On the video content, I thought it was very interesting what the people were respondnig to your questions. One woman said that "You are what you post" and another said something along the lines of children having adult supervision on social media. The first comment made me think of how in the US, employers sometimes go through the social media profiles of the prospective employee to get an idea of how they are outside of work. I wanted to disagree with the comment, but it's actually very true. Although in a perfect world people wouldn't judge you based off of profiles of yourself on the internet, in reality that is the only thing that the employer may be able to see about an employee before meeting them. This does come with issues in the form of biases and discrimination. This scenario made me question how secure social networking really is. I know recently, there have been rumors (I didn't bother verifying or not because I didn't really care) about Facebook selling user profile information. If that's the case, one canot be guaranteed privacy online. It's only a matter of time before boundaries are broken down. Then again, Twitter is a networking site where many post what they're doing every moment of the day so... yeah. 

The second comment made me laugh-- children need adult supervision. Children at school are supervised by adults on a regular basis but that doesn't always stop things from happening. Sometimes, the adults can even be part of the problem in "supervision". Recently in North Carolina, a girl was forcefully removed from a classroom by an adult security officer. It wasn't even a firm grab-- the officer dragged her across the floor after knocking her down. That alone makes me doubt the ideal of "adult supervision" on social media. Instead, I think the problem is that people tend to tip toe around a real issue that has moved to a dimension the last generation can't keep up with.

This reminds me a lot of History when we were discussing treaties after WWI and pacts such as collective security. This pact really didn't help anything but to promote the passive agressive nature of the world. It also reminds me of prohibition in the United States. It could never work because pro-prohibitionist were too weak to properly enforce the law. Even when they were strong enough to do so, people still found a way to get around it. That's relateable to age restrictions on social media. As technology becomes more available in the hands of children 13 and under, there are more and more of them lying about their age to join social networking sites. Whether this relates to cyber bullying or not, I'm unsure, but I do know that trying to monitor social media is a can of worms that shouldn't be opened.

This video discussed the poor garbage issues in Queretaro, Mexico and how this problem is increasing their emission. Throwing trash on the ground does not only cause it to decompose in such a way thousands of chemical are released into the atmosphere but the beauty landscape is tarnished by the trashy streets. Mexico is beautiful and should be encouraged to stay that way with clearer streets and fresher air. I believe there are many similarities between the U.S. and Mexico, we are both lethargic people. We honestly believe we have maids that pick up behind us when we liter and usually if it is not in a garbage bin, mother nature does the decomposing. We make our forest dump sites and do not think twice about how that harms the environment drastically overtime when we can finally notice the changes. However, waiting that long to make a difference would be to late as the damage is already done. I found it particular interesting how the students came up with the idea to carry bags with them so that when trash was on the ground they would be transferred into the bag until you get to a bigger trash car to dump. In my IB Biology class, I am learning all about the difference systems in my body that work together perfectly to keep the many functions working top-notch so that I may continue living. It got me thinking that one moderate change can alter the whole design, fr example someone who does not eat healthy will cause complications and disease to enter their bodies as their body isn't getting what they need to fight the pestilences. I say this all to say that if we continue to feed the earth with rubbish, our beautiful planet will be out of balance and only ruin will be the results.

I felt that the idea to ask the public was a swell action point. My only critique is that the bus driver just repeated the same words and never went into depth of why this increase in public transportation was harming the users. A part from that under developed opinion, the elderly woman had a very captivating story of how she relies on the public transportation to move her sickly daughter around. She has to find ways to keep herself from buying two tickets that she can not continue to afford everyday to travel down the street. the only positive I see with these buses is that many people will become inclined to walk which is a good form of exercise. I appreciated the added detail of how the buses prove to have inconvenience as people trash them and sanitation is everything. In the US, it is illegal to eat or drink on the metro bus and train. This strict rule keeps the buses and trains clean for all users and i believe Mexico should enact this rule just as well because to my knowledge, it is quite effective. Another big difference between us is that we only pay up to $1.75 to $2.00 to ride on public transportation. I am grateful to live in America! lol In IB History, throughout American history the economy has shifted greatly. Gas is no longer 25 cents a gallon but that is due to our lack of reasources.

There has been a campaign in cleaning up all over the world and the movement started in Estonia. The people involved are very passionate about making a difference and cleanliness. They even give ideas on how people can invest on trash cans and even design them for attraction purposes. The people of Queretaro are very big on cleanliness and believe that it should be a priority. Their activities are very similar to what goes on in the United States because our country is very big on the three R's. (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). This is exactly why we have two garbage trucks that come at least once a week to put these items where they belong. This reminds me of my IB economics course. I remember reading how it is the government's job to make sure that Americans live in a clean society and that's what they are doing with our tax dollars. Waste collectors are the people who are responsible for picking up trash, but not entirely because we all do/should play roles in the cleanliness of our environment.

The people of Queretaro have a very rich culture in different areas. Unfortunately, the majority do not have access to practice them. The people there are very beautiful in my opinion. It would be very fun to visit their homeland one day. People there also have different definitions culture and they would define it as tradition and art, the attire, music and dance, etc... The culture there is very diverse and they've developed a goal to spread awareness of this. In the United States, there are different types of culture almost everywhere. For example, there are people who practice German culture, Chinese culture, Nigerian culture, etc... In different cultures, people speak different languages, wear different clothes, worship different deities, etc.... America is overall a culturally diverse country. For example, in my culture, I worship Allah because that is my one and only God.  In my IB Spanish class, there is cultural diversity in most our lessons. One particular activity I'd like to talk about that we used to practice was called "cultural enrichment activities." This would involve bringing dishes from our own culture to class so that we could exchange components of our culture with each other. I believe that this was significant because we would know what kinds of foods people eat all around the world and how they are prepared.

Queretaro is made up with many companies and 1% of the companies is a big larger cooperation. Problem will arise when the big companies will start swallowing themselves and will keep getting bigger leaving the small businesses behind. In the past in American History, situation arose when companies were monopolizing and when the Crash happened all the business did not survive because if one company with the monopoly fails the others will start to fail; the instance will be compared to a four legged table, if one leg is missing the table cant stand and will end up collapsing. The small business can not compete with the larger industries and may end up getting sucked in or going into poverty. Queretaro looks like an interesting place with it own economic situation and it has been improving over the years,

I enjoyed and learnt new things from this video. This video pointed out good information and suggestion of how to make situation better. In the many countries there are poor people who are force to find their way by themselves, their government offer no type of help to those people. I believe that the country they are talking about is India. In India, they follow what is called a Caste System in which those at the bottom of the food chain are the poorest and no help is given to them. The existence of inequality in a country can also help in keeping the poor poor and the rich, rich. The video also mentioned that Education is a one key ways out of poverty. With the way things are going, there is a constant cycle of poverty that keeps repeating in each generation. In one of the TED Talks we watched in TOK, the man mentioned that the poor needed to be educated in order for them to move up and out of poverty, This is true because if the poor are educated, they can come out and better themselves and the economy of the country they are in.

In the Hands-on project video it talked about how the people are and the state of the environment. In this video it states the bad urban planning, due to the increasing of traffic. This is because the population in Querétaro increased from 3.65% to 5.54% since 1995. With the increase of population it increases the amount of carbon dioxide being protruded into the atmosphere. This situation leads to limited wildlife and reserves are threatened. In Mexico the population is increasing due to lack of education in which is imperative for a change to occur. In the video it stated that 90 majors lack the predominant knowledge needed, this depicts how most of the children going to these universities in Mexico are unable to have a successful career. The lack of resources in agricultural environments is a major issue because of this many children are being born and many of them lack the education because they are assisting their families. In my theory of knowledge class, looking into Haiti a Least Developed Country (LDC), from this I saw how they are an agricultural environment, which affects the education of children because many parents are farm owners, so they have to remove their children from school in order to keep the farm. Also, with the issue of carbon dioxide this will harm the animals and plant leading to foods being inedible. Another problem that can occur from this situation stated from an article in IB Biology is global warming.

In the Hands on insecurity in social networks video it displayed multitudes of unique images to display the outcomes of the usage of social networks. It talks about the harmful results with the use of media, especially for the younger generation. Results of this issue are privacy violations, kidnapping, cyber bullying, etc. This situation is risky, especially in Mexico with the amount of children it has. With the advancement of technology it allowed issues like this to occur, a predominant one is known as “cat fishing”. A television show titled, Cat fishing depicts what teenagers go through on social media, such as the hacking of one's account for cyber bullying. The people of this television show are to put an end to the presented cat fishing. From this teenagers are able to reflect upon themselves on the harms of social media and share this information with others.

Comment on Video #4 - Mexico’s Garbage Waste:

The title of my video was " Trash" and what I found to be so significant about the video itself was how it raised awareness of a topic we normally overlook or tend not to pay much attention to. I mean it's a topic we are very acquainted with and have heard much about in the past, but we usually never seem to take it into consideration. But most importantly the video  centered on an aspect of the country we wouldn't automatically consider as a " trash heap." Just  by listening to the voices of normal citizens from Queretaro, Mexico; one can easily tell that trash accumulation has really become a concern to the state. And it really impressed me to learn how initiatives have already been taken in order to resolve this issue. The first movement began in Estonia and they called it " Let's Do It!", and it encouraged normal citizens to just do something benefitting for the environment; such as picking up trash. To even make the process more fun many people came with the idea of actually decorating the trash cans to make to make it more enjoyable to throw trash away. The movement then began to spread worldwide and is now practiced in 94 countries. The goal of the movement is collect 10,000 tons of trash in 1 day and the amazing thing about it is that no one really sees it as a burden because everyone is dedicated to helping out the cause. This issue actually reminds me of an article I read in my IB Biology class and the article was talking about global warming and challenged whether humans are the actually cause of the problem. And with very persuasive points it was demonstrated that humans are major contributors of the problem. And global warming is definitely another issue we have overlooked over the years and have not shown major concern with. But as the article was concluding it ended on  a very motivating note; which encouraged the reader to actually take initiative to prevent global warming.  And it gave varying examples of how this could be done that is not going out of the reader's way; such as not wasting water or electricity and many other things of that nature

Comment on Video #9 - Hands on the RedQ (Public Transportation):

From this video, I learned that in Mexico, public transportation, the primary form of transportation for people in Mexico is not the best. Most recently, the fare of the RedQ, the public bus transit has increased from $6.50 to $8.50. This is alarming and a concern for many bus riders as they often times cannot afford these larges fares being just regular workers. The issue with the RedQ does not only lie within the prices of its bus fare. It extends to the buses not being clean,  not being punctual and being in poor condition. This raise in the fare only benefits the bus owners and offers nothing to the bus riders. How this be situation be changed and improved for public transportation users? First and foremost, they must continue to use public transportation and treat the facilities well and with proper care. A petition should also be started so that the voicers of RedQ users can be heard and the owners will pay attention to what is being said. Also, if the conditions of the RedQ were optimal, those who use it may be more willing to pay for it. These solutions can be applied to any issue with our communities. This affects be as an American, because often times, in America and in my community, changes are made that us citizens do not necessarily agree with. Though we don’t agree with those changes, we must continue to be civil and peaceful whilst speaking up for ourselves. With doing that, we must try to create a change that will be most beneficial to ourselves and society as a whole. In IB History, I have learned that change takes time and we may not see results right away. However, we should not allow this to stop us from working to make that change happen. The Women’s Suffrage Movement in America began in the mid 1800s with the first women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. After that up until women were granted the right to vote in 1920, nearly 80 years later, many associations laws and amendments were created and passed to giving women the rights the deserved little by little. This didn’t happen overnight.

The title for this video really says it all in defining the message/purpose of the video itself. After watching this video on " Cultural Promotion of Queretaro," I really understand why they want their culture to be displayed for all to see. It was very interesting to view a culture that not only specifies or considers its own people's way of living, but instead incorporates a mixture of different cultures. When the many individuals were defining what their culture was to them, a major theme I detected throughout that conversation was the theme of diversity. And I noticed that it definitely plays a great role in sculpting the environment in Queretaro. A very festive, joyful and accepting environment. Different ways of sharing the Queretaro culture with others was also mentioned in the video as well. And this  whole experience with culture and its many different forms actually brought me back to our first lesson in TOK and defining culture. And although there is certainly no definite definition for culture; a man in the video actually mentioned a way it can be viewed in TOK and that is " one's way of thinking."  Having so many different cultures in society; wespecially here in the U.S. there is not any way one can simply impose their own on others. So why not be like the citizens of Queretaro and collectively combine them for a festivity of all cultures.

Wow this is an environmentally focussed video. It’s like it choose me. At any rate, my comments are as follows;

From what I have learned, the is a place known as the Queretaro Metropolitan area, which comprises of Queretaro, Corregidora, El Marques and Huimilpan. (Sort of like our DMV). They have a population of about 1,097 with Queretaro being the largest and growing fast. A major issue that will inevitably come with this growth is the use of more transportation vehicles which will will lead to more traffic jams, and inevitably more CO2 that destroy their environment, threatening wildlife and natural reserves. With only 11-15 efficient woking hospitals in Queretaro, this will make it extremely hard to handle a crisis that will soon come. Suggestions made by the video is to use the land near the cities, rather than pushing further and further from “downtown” cities, which forcing the use of less vehicles to get downtown, less traffic, and hopefully less CO2. I have to admit they have a unique way at considering Global Warming. Since the people being interviewed all seem to rush to go to the middle, the solution they gave seems to make plenty of sense. I am glad I could see the connections.

Obvious connections to issues here in the United States include how we also deal with environmental issues all the time. However the solution to our issue is on a much grand scale, and a simple change in where we build houses would not be enough to prevent the massive amounts of CO2 we produce every year. Putting DC in the middle in of the United States might be one way to slightly reduce those numbers, since it is the capital and essentially “downtown,” and maybe more people will be able to access it without travelling far distances, but essentially more work needs to be done because the United States is quite large.

I really enjoyed the topic in the video. I loved to see the different hand made items and the exotic fruits that I've never seen before! When I went to Paraguay, I noticed that many people were selling things that were handmade: Purses, lethers, jewelry, etc. Even in my IB Spanish class, we discussed the different handmade objects people make in Latin American countries, especially on holidays such as "La Dia de los Muertos." I find it interesting that there is a lot of competition within many countries such as Paraguay where everybody is selling the same thing. The person who earns the most money is the person who are actually harassing people, mainly the tourists, to make money. Even in America, there is competition: different barber shops, restaurants, clothing stores, etc. But as a conlcusion, the most successful business attratcs every person, no matter who they are. As far as the presentation, I could barely hear the actual information in the video, sadly. It wasn't clear to me and the music was kind of distracting. However, I appreciated the images becuase it helped me understand what you were talking about. :)

I LOVED the images and videos you incooporated in your video. Did you take them and record them?

I also liked the topic because I feel as though every country has some percetange of homeless individuals and it is very ironic that we were also talking about poverty in least developing countries. Maybe you include different perspecitves of poverty (emotional, physical, etc.) to create more of an argument about what poverty really looks like. In our Theory of Knowledge class, we also went on different sources such as the World Bank and saw the different statistics and explored its limitations. It very interesting to see how poverty does look different becuase I like to argue that the poverty in America, would allow a person to live a good life in another foreign country. As far as your video I barely heard any facts or references to statistics in your video. Even though you are correct in your information, I think it was be more persuasive if you add facts, since you already have credibility and emotion. Other than that, I really enjoyed your video! It was nice and clear!

According to the video RedQ is a bus services that has just increased their bus fares from $6.50 to $8.50 with the Bus drivers not getting any type of increase in pay. This is affecting many Latinos who rely on this form of transportation to get around. In addition, these buses are not very clean and the bus drivers are not the best around. So why such a huge price, and what can they do about it. Well according to the video, it seems this kids have taken the initiative to have a petition signed by people who do the feel the same way. I really hope it worked out for them.

Although bus fares here in the United States are not as scary, I could definitely see the issue if they were to go up a whole two dollars, or even just go up by fifty cents more. However a closer example of this would be when gas prices here in the United change even just slightly. Data can definitely show you changes in mood and overall willingness to go out and get gas, but you know you inevitably have to because it is essential to your getting around.