Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Chapters 1-3 Argument

When you ask your parents to lend you money or buy a new toy, do you ever stop and think that the cost of that items is as much as they make in 6 hours of working? No, you never think of what your parents had to go through or how much they had to do for you to have that one thing you desperately "need." Maybe your parents don't have an issue with throwing money at stuff that's wanted, but there are thousands of families out there where the parents still work by the hour all day, everyday for months and still struggle to provide for themselves, or their families.

Don't believe that's a real situation, that people don't ever feel like they can't provide, they have to move every month because they don't have the money to stay in one place too long and have to move closer to work? Well, in Of Mice and Men Steinbeck has George explain, "'Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They have no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stakes, and the first thing you know they're pounding' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead to'"(13). George feels lonely, like he's got nothing to look forward to. Nothing to be proud of. He works and works but still doesn't have any 'stake' to live on. He moves many places and belongs nowhere. His only family is Lennie. He has to move around to keep the money coming in. So he can continue providing for lennie and himself.

You go through a lot and do so much to try and provide. All that trouble goes unnoticed and you are stuck in the same perdictiment as before. In the poem, To A Mouse, Burns states, "Now you are turned out, for all your trouble,/ Without house or holding,/ To endure the winter's sleety dribble,/ And hoar-frost cold." This poem explains that you can try and try and put all your effort into things but it doesn't guarantee success or appreciation. You can work all day everyday for months on end and still not get the raise you needed because someone got the spot light that you worked for. In today's society, the people who work the hardest tend to get unnoticed, while those who do something to get their boss to know them get all the attention without really needing to work as hard.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Voices of Protest

Oscar Ekponimo and his New Food Chain

The 30-years-old is a Stanford University Technology Ventures 
Programme Alumnus and a Bachelor of Science degree graduate in computing from 
University of Calabar. A software engineer, he is passionate about IT, and has 
developed solutions for private enterprises and national security establishments.



Ekponimo also runs Food Drive, an ad hoc Chowberry initiative where he
 and other volunteers collect products within a week of expiry and distribute
them to orphanages and homes for the elderly.

















Oscar lived a very hungry life as a child, he ate one substantial meal every two days. Oscar grew up with that hunger, he grew up without, so he knows, better than most, what our starved citizens feel. He steps up to make a change in the world. He starts a new food chain for those with none. Oscar is working in Nigeria to change the life of those who need, changed the way they live, give them the food they need.

Oscar posts videos on YouTube, he explains the need for the change, he tells his stories and his plans to change. He has a website that explains everything in more detail. He has a twitter page to get his followers informed, to get the idea, his idea, out there. Out there, where more can see. 

Oscar uses pathos as his appeal. He tells the story of his childhood, how he has been through what others suffer all over the world. He uses pathos to get sympathy, to make you feel, to use your feelings as a way to get you to want to help out. 
Alleviating hunger has always been at the top of his agenda. At university,
he and friends set up Blue Valentine, an initiative to distribute warm meals
 to indigent street kids on 14 February.

Last year his team of four completed a three-month pilot
involving 20 retailers and fed around 150 orphans and vulnerable children.

When he was 11, Oscar Ekponimo was so hungry he would stare at
the kitchen cupboards in his home in Calabar, Nigeria, wishing they
 would magically fill with food.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/11/nigerian-oscar-ekponimo-others-win-2016-rolex-award/
http://time.com/collection-post/4684788/oscar-ekponimo-next-generation-leaders/