During my Global Perspectives or GPers units, we have always had a summative task, usually an essay, that sums up the unit. For our first unit, we looked at ourselves so we wrote an essay about our creation of our Mandalas. In the second, we explored faith, ethics and ideologies and chose one topic we were passionate about and looked through the lenses of those big ideas. Here are my essays:
10/10 2017 – Teacher: Sanjay Perera
Mandala Reflection
By Oscar Landgren
In our first unit in Global Perspectives, we learned about our personal culture. We have conducted research into sexuality, gender, stereotypes, identities, cultures and the debate of nature versus nurture. For our reflection and summative task, we were asked to create a Mandala in which one side was our sun side and the other the shadow. Similar to the concept of the Yin and Yang in which there are two components that represent a whole, the sun side represents what’s visible and projected while on the other hand, the shadow represents the side that’s hidden and may be deeper in meaning.
Firstly, in order to show what’s visible and projected, I have focused on three characteristics. In the beginning of constructing my Mandala, I thought that although I am not the smartest in the grade, many see me as knowledgeable and intelligent. Therefore, there are many elements of intelligence on my sun side for example, in many cultures such as Ancient Greek and Mayan, the owl is a general symbol to describe intelligence (Dawn, Farmer, Andrew, 2017). In addition to that, wearing glasses and reading a book is also a symbol to describe intelligence (Weller, 2017). Therefore, the owl wears glasses and has a pile of books near it. On the contrary, it was my own choice to develop this passion for learning proving how I also partly identify myself with free will. Furthermore, later on in the process, I decided to add a map of the world with flags from the places I am from and those I have lived in, to show how I identify myself as a collectivist. The map is a representation of a worldwide community showing how I am not a citizen of just one place, but rather a citizen of the world. I believe that we are in a sense, made up of places and my nationality and the cultures I have experienced are definitely aspects of my identity that is widely shown. Therefore, the globe represents a worldwide community that I am apart of, but also how I have become a third culture kid (Lily, Liu and thenativeforeigner, 2017). Moreover, through this Mandala project, I have realised how important determinism is to my identity. On my sun side, I have drawn a seed which connects to a plant on the shadow side through a green line. This green line is there to connect the two sides of the Mandala making it connected. Likewise, this seed represents the things that I cannot change, the things that I am born with which is a part of my identity. That seed and even the plant on the other side look healthy because a part of my nature and nurture have contributed to create a very privileged me. The seed and the plant are similar to the Yin and Yang concept and in this case, the seed symbolises my nature and my genes. Despite the fact that some individuals are born with lower privilege than others, I believe that it is important to understand the privilege we have and to then take actions that benefit both ourselves and others. Furthermore, I have also focused on three characteristics to show what is more hidden but more deeply rooted in my identity. The education that I have had has impacted on my identity in ways that have made me extremely privileged. These schools that I have attended to have opened my mind to new possibilities and strengthen my passion for the environment and design. To show that gratefulness, I’ve decided to draw the logos of three schools in the Mandala to all symbolise…
how determinism has significantly impacted on my identity even though there were some influences of free will. Moreover, the passions and interests that I have are a huge aspect of my identity, and two of which are exceptionally important. In order to symbolise my passion for sustainability, the environment, design and architecture, I have drawn a figure called Elon Musk who has had a profound effect on my identity. Elon Musk is an entrepreneur who has invested and created companies dealing with the environment, sustainability and good design. Moreover, I really like architecture and design so to represent these individualist passions and interests, I have drawn an architecturally designed building to represent both my interests and individualism. Finally, the plants on the shadow side symbolise two very important things. Firstly, it symbolises my passion for the environment and sustainability whereas it also demonstrates the other part of the Yin and Yang concept that I mentioned before (Shen-nong.com, 2017). The reason that I have used many “plants” instead of one “plant”, is to demonstrate the multiple components to my identity.
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If you would like to read more of it, here is the LINK
18/1/2018 – Teacher: Sanjay Perera
The Electric Car (Essay)
By Oscar Landgren
“Up to 80 percent of the energy in the battery [of an electric vehicle] is transferred directly to power the car, compared with only 14-26 percent of the energy from gasoline-powered vehicles.”
In our second unit of Global Perspectives, we explored the ideas revolving around ethics, faith and ideologies. For our summative task, we were asked to conduct an investigation into a controversial topic involving perspectives from these ideas and their implications on a personal to local to a global scale. My investigation is about why and how has electric vehicles (EVs) have had a huge impact and influence on these ideas and go in depth of the stakeholder’s perspective including their actions and implications on the several sides of the issue.
Firstly and surprisingly, there are quite a few perspectives that involve faith. Although many who follow a particular religion find it difficult to successfully believe in scientific facts, there are some stakeholders who have managed to combine ideas from faith, ethics and science. For example, a significant local perspective is the Catholic Pope Francis who wrote in his May 2015 Climate Encyclical, “The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious” This perhaps shows that although to some Christians, that the idea of climate change violates their faith, the Pope has managed to effectively convince many followers that climate change related issues is an important topic. Therefore to prove his ideas, he owns a Nissan Leaf and aims to make Vatican City use 100% renewable sources of energy instead of depending on fossil fuels. He is extremely outspoken about environmental stewardship and has a strong voice in the corruption of greed which will be important later on. However, it is not only Pope Francis but also the previous Pope Benedict who has invested in solar panels on his Bavarian house in Pentling and also went electric, using a custom EV from Renault. In brief, religion and faith can significantly alter our perspectives on science and faith itself.
Furthermore, some stakeholders have had their perspectives influenced by ideologies. For example, individuals such as the Koch Brothers and many car manufacturers have lobbied government officials and politicians from around the world, especially in the US, to ‘kill’ EVs by a variety of strategies. As a result of this, these politicians have perhaps shifted their beliefs from scientific facts to opinions from particular people. The Koch Brothers promote climate change as a hoax (even though they know it isn’t) in campaigns such as Fueling U.S Forward, The Tea Party Movement and American for Prosperity in order to maximise their profit. As mentioned earlier, similar people with immense power such as the Koch Brothers could have been corrupted by greed in the form of money which perhaps explains these actions. Moreover, these campaigns are a huge success as the Koch Brothers have become one of the top ten richest people in the world and have successfully incentivized people to fossil fuels related products. But that’s not all, they have even lured people out from EVs and renewable energy, especially Republican politicians in the United States. 68% of the Republican House and Senate leadership deny the evidence of climate change which means that they don’t tolerate EVs as that would contradict their new beliefs. Many fossil fuel and car manufacturers have lobbied senators and even politicians in their campaigns such as Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Jeff Sessions, Ted Cruz and surprisingly even Obama, thus creating the term: oil money, for this controversial issue. This is critical as it shows how easily some individuals can be corrupted by greed which is perhaps why EVs is an issue that is rather focused heavily on how the controversial perspectives of the stakeholders influence the main issue instead of that the EVs are controversial itself. Furthermore, stakeholders in the Trump Administration want to cancel tax credits that support EV sales and leases. They also want to implement new registration fees that disproportionately favour Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles. Even more, ExxonMobil and the Koch brothers have in some cases even written bills to promote these activities. Four years ago (2014), the state of Georgia was to most people an unlikely leader in EVs where they offered consumers a $5,000 incentive to plug-in vehicles but later on, senators implemented a fee which plummeted EV sales by 90%. Many car manufacturers have made similar actions and not to mention the Dieselgate Scandal. In other words, these stakeholders share many extreme capitalists and conservative views which may partly explain their actions towards EVs. Finally, these specific stakeholders, fossil fuel companies and car manufacturers may have taken actions that are controversial in order to achieve a particular goal which in most cases is to abolish EVs.
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If you would like to see more: LINK
