Cognitive surplus!

What really shock me of the video was to realize how many hours we spend watching tv and doing meaningful things, meanwhile the world its crumbling next to us. Nobody can even say that its because they dont know about whats happening, because nowadays we have countless sources of information and different ways to reach them. So if someone dont know about an event or a catastrophe in the world its because he or she doesnt want to know.

Its ironic how people blind themselves and then they are talking about recycling, global warming, diseasses, animal torture, when they are the cosumers of all the products and services that generates that. In my case i became a vegetarian because of the animal torture and because i know that humans dont have the necessity to eat other animal to survive, so why if we dont need it, we cant live without consuming them. I know why.. because we are living in a individualistic, selfish and negligent world where we think we can do whatever we want without consequences, but thats the problem, there are many consequences, that had been affecting us since many years ago but recently we are realizing about them.

For this class im recollecting garbage from the area around the Estero Salado and i think that its a meaningful social labour because it benefits the environment and gathers people to do it, so now not just me spend my free time doing something good for the earth but some other people too.

Here is a quote thar inspired me:

“The human drama is reaching its denouement. The great unveiling is approaching, a time when the power structures of the world begin to crumble and people of the heart sing out a new truth. Many voices are joining the chorus, many feet are walking the path, many minds are dreaming possibilities for a magnificent future. For beneath the crises that are looming at every level of civilization, the global heart is awakening, beating out the rhythm of a new and glorious dance, calling us to a better way of living.”

3! visit number 3!

Visit number 3!!! it was really nice and productive! after the insistence of Jen, Kike and Gianki agree to join us for this week visit.. when they arrived they seem to be discouraged, but they started having fun when Luis, the kid of last week, arrived, because like all boys, started to play arround and things like that.

Like last week we return to the first and last zone, the two of it had a little bit of garbage that we picked up, then we went to the part of the Estero that we had previously program, where we found the same garbage as in the other places (cans, bags, bottles, etc.), but also where the quantity of garbage was twice the amount we recollected before, we finished this visit with 4 bags each! this time we stayed like 4 and a half hours... we finished extremelly tired!

At the end we sat down and started talking about many subjects related with the activity, and asked them a question, related with maturiry, that Cele and i had thought before.

- ¿On what depends our wellbeing?

They told us that it depends on that of the environment because we live in a place that needs to be well care for our own benefit, and for the benefit of all the other species that lives with us.

Cele and me agree with that and we thought that if only with this 3 visits we had managed to get together some people and make them concious about it, if we do more days of social labour, we would have a big group of productive participants. So we decided that after the exams week we were going to continue with the labour constantly.

Finally, i had learned with this experience that with persistence you can convince people to join you in the labour for theire and your own good.

Sooo... you will be seeing more about my labour in the future...!!! wish me luck!

Finally the second one!

We were really excited because of this visit, not only we were going to clean more the Estero but also because a friend, Jen, call me during the week to ask me about our social social action and how we were doing, who were going, the times, and many other things related to the recolletion of garbage in the Estero. So after the call we set a date to go with her.

We went some thursday since 10am to 2pm at least. When we first arrived we hope to see other friends we had invite, sadly only Jen was there, but she is great and really active so we were pleased! We first went to check out the zone where we worked the last time and it was almost just as we leaved it, yes, it had some new garbage, but compared with our first visit... it was very clean!!

well, we started working again in the same zone... that was easy!, but then, when we moved.. the work really began..! this time we found cardboards, glass and plastic bottles, bags, cans, we even found a shoe! that was funny, but besides that it was shocking to find all those things next to the Salado. this day each one of us recollected 3 or 4 bags full of garbage, maybe a little bit more because in one moment of the afternoon a small kid joined us, he brought his own bag, at the beggining he was really shy and calm, but as the time went by he started talking with us about his life and that his mother works in one of the houses in Kennedy, in the part next to the Estero, where he has to stay every day doing nothing because he doesn´t study. His name is Luis, he also told us that he saw us from the house where his mother works and that he decided to help us because we are girls and seem to need help.

When we finished the recollection we bought some sodas to refresh ourselves and started talking about the experience, we remembered the class aboout cognitive surplus and the most important thing that we talk about was that everyone of us spend our days doing nothing, watching tv, chating in the msn, texting on our cells, even Luis told us that all day he watches cartoons, instead of doing something. Jen also realize that a normal day for her was: wake up at 12am, stay in pijamas until 4pm, go to the u at 5pm and coming back home to sleep. she told us that she was happy about it but that she was starting to get tired so she would start doing social labour at least once a week, because she wants to produce more than what she consumes daily, and Luis also told us that he would help us when he see us next to the Estero.

Well, after this visit we are going to keep insisting to our friends to join us for the next one.. hope we recruit more people to do it!

First visit!

What did we do in our first visit?
*Recollect garbage from the Estero Salado.
*Talk with our friends about the project.
*Make them conscious about the contamination and the consequences of it.

Only Cele and me went to this visit because our friends told us that they didn´t have time or too much desire to go, so we went alone.
We went to the part of the Estero Salado that is next to cdla. Kennedy, and we noticed that it was really contaminated with plastic and glass bottles, paper, and all kinds of garbage, so we started to work.
After 4 hours of heavy work each one of us recolected 5 bags of garbage!!! we were exhausted!!! but on the other side... tan because of the sun!!! :)
Seriously, we were really tired but totally happy because all of the trash that we recollected. We realized that people don´t care about the environment at all, and families that lives in Kennedy that it´s suppose to be a nice neighborhood with educated people, don´t do anything about it.
All the other citizens of Guayaquil, including them and us, don´t apply mutualism, we don´t do anything for the environment, althought we know that if we do we also will be benefit.
After this visit we hope that for the next one the garbage will be less and, who knows, maybe someone else will join us!

Social Action in the Estero Salado

As it is state in chapter 7, Service; our participation in a discourse on social action should help us to acquire the attributes of a true servant of humanity, such servitude requires that one´s words and actions exert influence on society, one needs to learn the ways of those who build environments that are conducive to unity.

Because of what i said before, Cele and me decided to develop this need of learning, but starting from us as facilitators of options to serve the humanity, creating at the same time spaces of unity and participation through environmental service.

To reach this goal we decided to work in a place that is in risk in the city of Guayaquil, the Estero Salado, because we think that through this labor we can embrace the improvement of the Estero and the unity of the participants.

How come the Estero Salado?

Because it is used as a dump by millions of citizens and industries, although it is one of the richest and varied ecosystems of the southeast Pacific.

Also because the Estero Salado is the home of one of the most important species of flora in Guayaquil, as the mangle, and fauna, like fishes, crustaceans, amphibians, insects, reptiles, birds and mammals, which are getting affected with all the contamination, and the majority of them at this moment don´t live there anymore.

In our visit to Cooperativa De Todas, we interview the partner, Marcia Espinoza, who lives and have her bussiness in Cooperativa 3 De Noviembre, Guasmo Central.

We asked Marcia a few questions related with the work of De Todas and the partners, between those questions we asked her about the facilities that the institution gives to the partners for their personal, family and economic development, and she explained us that the Cooperativa gives them all the posible facilities, including conferences and curses to learn about rentability and how to maintain a bussiness, in her case, one of sheets and towels.

She also told us that if a member of the group doesnt pay the credit, it affects all the members, because they wont receive any credit if one of them doesnt pay, they all depend from eachother. Marcia and her friends feel motivated to pay beacuse they want to maintain their credit and keep it growing to save it and to invest it in the education of their children, food, etc.

For her, the most important change, involve her family and the confort that they feel since she became a member of Cooperativa De Todas.

We also asked her if they can open more than one bussiness at a time, and she explained us that they definetly can do it! It doesnt matter if the bussiness is going well or not so well, the can invest their money in different things.

As we noticed, Marcia Espinoza feels gratitude towards Cooperativa De Todas, because she feels that she has learned a lot and that the institution had help her and her partners.