29,000 Rubber Duckies and I Was One

I finally reached shore. It's been 15 years. 15 long years, hard years, breathtaking years. I was dumped 1992. My journey since, is a story that must come out. But know now, that my descriptions could never explain how vivid the experiences were in real life. I have travelled the oceans at storm, low tide and high, still water and harsh winds. You cannot imagine it.  I started out with all my friends, then one day the thunder was roaring and the lighting was blinding. The waves crashed on deck pulling along with them everything they could get. We had no control of each other, and we haven't seen each other since. I was ripped apart from my family and my friends. I hope they have made it and have had a journey like I have myself. I hope they have been able to forget that terrible night and move on to seeing the pleasures and treasures of our beautiful planet.
Since then, I think I can say "I've seen the world, I have seen everything." Now I am finally able to tell people about my journey, and I try to explain the many different animal spices I encountered, they didn't even know half of them. I'm sure that I have seen things that others have not yet discovered. I'm sure I've seen land that aren't to be found on maps. I've seen good but I've also seen bad. Lot's has changed in 15 years. Humans have been destroying the seas. There were times where I thought I would die. Not from melting, not from being squished but from being suffocated. Can you imagine, I was scared of dying in plastic, practically my own skin! People are so careless, how can they not understand that throwing plastic, or trash in general is just killing their own kind? It's been getting worse and worse. I remember…the first time I thought that my journey has finally ended and I have reached land, I was being carried into a bed where my cover was a layer of trash. I thought I would be stuck forever. 
I have seen the incredible and the fascinating but I have also see horrors that will never leave my mind. I truly hope that we can learn to take care of our planet and keep everything I had the luck of meeting.
And now I am here in France, when I started my journey in Hong Kong 15 years ago. It's hard to believe, isn't it?
It was the scariest moments of my life but it lead to the best years anyone could possibly imagine.

Ancestors (Jonas Salk)

"Are we being good ancestors?" - Jonas Salk

What does it mean to be a good ancestor? How should you live now to be good for future generations?

I think being a good ancestor means creating a safe, intact, healthy nice (literally, looks wise) natural habitat. Not only for our children and grandchildren… but also the different species of animals.

To be a good ancestor there are many things that you can do and several things we have to focus on. This also depends on the vision each individual has. In the end this is what it comes down to. How can we be good ancestors if we, the human species, don't have a common agreement on what we want our future to be like?

However some things I can think of are...

1) Environment: We should definitely protect our environment as of right now, because, to be good ancestors you should firstly make sure that there even is a possibility for a future generation. Right now, we are doing exactly the opposite, we are destroying our surroundings. How are we supposed to live in the future when all the trees have been cut down, all the water is polluted and useless to us? We have to take care of our environment also to avoid extinction and therefore disruptions in the life cycle. Imagine wanting to tell your children about sharks…or let's say a time where you went diving. You start to say a name of a fish "tun-" but you have to stop yourself because they don't know what they are. They are gone, for good, they won't be back ever. Or imagine you try to tell them of a vacation in a certain season but they can't relate because they just don't know what seasons are. All this due to climate change, is it really worth it? 

2) Community: We have to start accepting that people have different opinions and learn how to deal with them in a proper way. Try to understand each other and try to work together to come up with conclusions/compromises everyone can be happy with. This way we can learn to communicate in a proper way and 

...There are so many aspects that you could focus on that contribute to a better future, so we can be better ancestors. Equality, education, culture, social and many many more.


However there are also things people have done in the past that make it very difficult to change. So, some of our past mistakes are being carried through to the future. Things our generation didn't even start but are now responsible for.

Even so, there are many things you can do to be a good ancestor, but the main key is to know that whatever you do has a consequence. If you're willing to take that risk, be ready to clean up your own mess, don't leave it to pile up for the people to come.

Information, Reliability and Dissemination

- Where do you get information?

- How do you know it is reliable?

- How do you spread any ideas/thoughts you have?

There are many, many different ways of finding information. You can get the in books, magazines, on the internet, from other people, posters, newspapers, TV - everywhere. Almost anywhere you look there is some type of information. Even just observing how other people talk to each other, act around other people, you can find out information on what kind of a person the other is. 

It depends on the type of information but you could know if information is reliable based on the source it's coming from. As an example, for school you should trust websites where other people cannot edit anything posted there. You should also look at several different sites and see whether they have similar information. The more sites tell you the same thing, the more likely it is that the information is reliable. You should however, to ascertain, always see whether the figures seems realistic to you.

To spread my ideas and thoughts I do several things. Mostly, I talk to my friends, teachers, family members (anyone…) about what I think, just like a normal conversation is meant to be. Then they sometimes tell their friends, family etc. Another way that I spear my thoughts is, for example, exactly what you are reading now. My freshly started blog. The last way, which I don't do much, is posting it on facebook. By telling just one person you can be sure that at least 5 other people are going to hear about it. I think information spreads a lot faster that one thinks.

But, let's step back a little, in your opinion, what is information? 

What are people? (Thomas Hobbes vs. John Locke)

Are people greedy, selfish and cruel? - Thomas Hobbes

or

Are people moral and decent? - John Locke

Sadly, some people show more greediness, selfishness and cruelness on the outside; however, I definitely believe that, at heart, everyone is mortal and decent. Especially children. I think that no one is born coldhearted, but instead is raised or treated in a way that may make them act in this way. Furthermore, I think that it has to do with how you have been educated. After all, teachers could make anything bias and students will learn exactly that. Also I think I have chosen this because I want to believe it, and so I tell myself it’s true. 

Sometimes people hurt other people, verbally and/or physically. At the time it may seem that they have to let our their anger, jealousy or whatever it may be, but I think that everyone regrets it later on. I cannot believe that someone can watch another person, who's hurt, without (at least on the inside) feeling bad. How can you not feel bad yourself when you know someone else is in pain because of you? I just can't imagine that.

So, I would agree more with John Locke. At heart, people are decent and mortal.

"Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!"

I think that many people are brought up from the start with a poor self-image, and this impacts their entire future. When people are more confident about themselves they are also usually more confident in saying their opinion and I believe that this makes a tremendous difference in "having courage to use your own reason". Another obstacle to using your own reason is also that people are scared to know certain things, because they are scared that a changed/altered knowledge will change something in their life, maybe something they enjoy. They are scared that by knowing something, something is taken away from them and they are scared of being challenged. Some people are lazy and are unwilling to make an effort for the better, they would rather stick to their bad habits and inadequate routines. That's what I think "Dare to know!" means.
When I lived in Jakarta and I went to 8th grade, I was given an optional application for a GIN (Global Issues Network - http://global-issues-network.org) conference. I was really interested in doing this because I believed that the community service clubs at school did not really make the difference I wanted to make and thought was necessary. It wasn't just a fictional story, it was about real life - people all around me and myself are affected by the problems they would be discussing in this conference. I also love bringing forth discussion with other people and talking to them about what solution they would think of, and what their perspective was in general. However, once I got home and showed my parents this form, we discussed that the trip would be too expensive - we would not be able to afford it. I was quite upset, I thought the whole situation was unfair. Why would someone that is willing to work, wanting to help and ready to think not be allowed to join? Only because of their "wealth status"? That just didn't seem right to me. However, my parents encouraged me to write a letter to my teacher. Among other things I wrote: "If JIS wants good representatives, I think that everyone should have the same chances. Many students at JIS would like to take part in GIN but when they figure out that they have to pay 1,300$ - they back away." This is not only not giving everybody an equal opportunity but also not using the talents the school as available to them. The school should choose people by their ability not by their wealth." I think we should find a solution so that many people can work with the ideas the GIN conference is raising, without having to pay that amount of money. This really is how we are going to start solving global issues, if many people are willing to contribute. This is exactly what we have, we have people that are willing, but not able to." When I gave my teacher the letter she said "I have talked to the other teachers and we all think you have a good idea here. Maybe we can work on this for the years to come." Even though this was not the response I had hoped for, and I may not have been successful, I am glad I tried to tell them my opinion, and make a small change that could contribute to a bigger one - one that doesn't revolve around me, but around everyone. It took a lot of courage for me, but that makes me all the more happy that I overcame that and at least tried. I really do hope that they have thought about this, because I think they could get amazing ideas that will never be revealed if they don't made that change.

As they say, "a small step in a good direction".

The Good and the Bad

Before I moved to my home country for the first time, I lived in Afghanistan for almost 7 years. I grew up with the Afghan culture, people and language (my first actually, being Persian) among many other things. It was my home, my country - in the eyes of the people I was a native. Then in 2004 my mother got cancer, she was told that if she would have realized just 3 months later than she had, she would not have made it. Because of the poor health care possibilities in Afghanistan, my mom left for Germany. When my father, my sister and I came to Germany a few weeks later, it was clear that at that stage we would not be returning to Afghanistan. So, we moved to Berlin. I was put into a public school and ended up staying there for my 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade. I had a terrible time. I did not understand the children and teachers, and they did not understand me. Because I had grown up with only my parents speaking German, I spoke German like an adult would have. I was bullied because I didn't speak normally, the children looked at me strangely because I looked different and I was pushed and shoved because I did not act like them. I was put down by everyone - the teachers told me I was too stupid and I would never be able to catch up and to the children, I just didn't belong. Then, after an infinite time period, or so it seemed, my dad was offered a job in Pakistan. I could not have been happier to move, I even wrote a several paged essay about my new school, which seemed like paradise to me. Who would have guessed that there is someone who belonged so little in her own country? and who knew that once I was actually happy to leave behind everything and move away?