Cultural Hybridity

For this assignment we are supposed to pick out something that we see as being culturally hybrid. The example we saw in our last POD was two middle eastern guys doing a Michael Jackson dance on Britain's Got Talent. The thing that comes to mind when I think of cultural hybridity is the globalization of American Corporations. The corporation that comes to mind the most is Mcdonalds. McDonalds is found in just about every country in the world; 119 to be exact. Several of these McDonalds were dishes unique to their country/region. Including:

the Indian Maharja Mac, which is a Big Mac but instead it is made with lamb,

or the Canadian "McLobster" which as you can guess a lobster sandwich,
or even the Korean Rice Burgers, which is made out of....you guessed it, rice.


This is just one of the many franchises that is a part of the American culture, that is now spread around the whole world. Another one that frequently comes to mind is Nike. Nike is the universal sports logo and is extremely popular in any country that have some sort of sports....which is just about all of them. Everywhere from the United States, to Europe, to even the Middle East Nike is a very popular brand and is worn by children and adults alike.
Another major example I think of when I think of cultural hybridity is the United States movies and music. The United States is still the most sought after culture and for the most part we have the worlds most popular movies and music are American-made and have a big impact in all parts of the world.

A "Green" Disruption

For my "green distruption" statistic I originally was paired with Alex Encarnation but unfortunately we could not find our statistic, so instead we joined forces with Billy Fiddler and Tony Thompson. We figured instead of "BSing" our own statistic we would help with theirs. Our statistic is the average American produces 4.4 pounds of trash...A DAY! That is an amazing statistic that I had never really thought of.

When one thinks of 4.4 pounds it does not seem like a lot of weight at first, but then when you consider that most of the stuff one throws away is either some type of plastic or some type of paper product that number grows exponentially. Also at first glance people might not realize just how much 4.4 pounds a day is, but it means that it is over 30 pounds of trash a week, after a single month you have thrown away enough "stuff" to weigh as much as a teenage girl; roughly 120-130 pounds. So after two months you have thrown away enough trash to weigh as an NFL Lineman, nearly 270 pounds. After half of a year the average American will have thrown away almost 800 pounds!! That is almost as much as the heaviest person in recorded history weighs. So that means after a year of trash-making the average American has produced over 1500 pounds of trash, or roughly the weight of a mid size car. When you take into account that the average American lives roughly 74 years that is over 115,000 pounds, this is the equivalent of 58 tons. This is larger than the humpback whale. So if you look at it from that point of view that meager 4.4 pounds of trash truly adds up, and fast; by the time one is 16 and gets their first car they have already produced 16 cars worth of trash in their lifetime!

As far as our actual "green distraction" we put our statistic on a used cardboard box and placed it by the octagon because that is arguably the greatest "trash producer" on campus. We also placed a full plastic garbage bag next to that message. I don't believe that this message will stop people from producing trash, but I am sure that the people that notice this message will stop to think about just how much trash they produce. I know it has made me think about how much trash I really produce. I definitely feel more self conscious about how many disposable products I use and I will try and use more re-usable stuff in the future.

Blog Assignment #3: Star Stuff Pondering Eco Stunts?

Now that I have completely finished reading the No Impact Man book and read a little of Colin Beavan's blog as well as reading parts of the Green as a Thistle Blog I feel that I have a pretty good perspective of being environmentally friendly and I now have the tools to if I so choose reduce my carbon foot print significantly. After reading the article "Green Like Me" by Elizabeth Kolbert and after reading about her bashing The No Impact Man project and others like it I have found some things I agree with her about and some things I do not.

I believe Kolbert is far too critical of these events. I understand that she claims that these are just "eco-stunts", but so what? So what if these events are meant to draw public interest and the authors' ideas weren't thought of just to save the environment but to sell books? That is their jobs, to sell books. I don't see a problem with them trying to make a living while still doing something that can change peoples lives as well as the world we live in. These authors do not claim that there project will save the world, and in all honesty it will barely make a dent in the world wide environmental issues. But at least they are doing something that can educate people and influence them to make better decisions about how they live. Perhaps they will not follow their example to the tee, but the more people these books/blogs can reach the better. Full participation is not required, in this case it really is the thought that counts. Colin Beavan and the others obviously aren't perfect and there are several instances in the No Impact Man in particular where Colin and/or his family has a moment of weakness and do something that is not environmentally friendly, but they choose to write about it anyways to show that they are human too and everyone makes mistakes. I do not think that Kolbert has any right to criticize these authors for their attempts to make the world a better place. I also believe the personal attacks at Vanessa Farquharson are appalling and completely unnecessary

There are however some things I did find interesting in Kolbert's article. I did understand her general stance that these books were just "eco-stunts", and I do see how their motives might have been affected by reasons other than to just to "save the world". I understand that, and as I stated in the last paragraph I still commend them for choosing to help out the environment even if they are trying to make money off of it and they do not always make the most "green" decisions. Examples of this that Kolbert used include Vanessa Farquharson flying all the time, and Smith and MacKinnon making the trip to the ocean to get salt instead of just buying some from around the corner. Who can blame these authors for living in today's world where being environmentally green is near impossible, and who can blame them for trying to publicize their books and make money off of it? With that set aside I found that even with all the effort that Colin Beavan put into his project his environmental output was still greater than two billion people on the Earth. I am not sure how accurate this number is, but that came as a reality check for me. People in undeveloped parts of the world still live without electricity and all the things we just take for granted. They do not even have the opportunity to be bad for the environment.

Take Something Out of the Trash!

For my object that I "took out of the trash" I actually recycled my roommates old computer speakers. I know it is not terribly creative, but it is very practical and it really benefited me.

When we first got to school back in June, my roommate wanted to go out and buy new speakers because the ones he had were getting old and the bass in them was gone. I was actually planning on going out and getting some new speakers as well because I did not bring any from my house. But I decided to save a little bit of cash and just re-use my roommates. Even though they weren't that new and weren't in perfect condition, they still worked perfectly find. Not only did they work perfectly, but they also saved me however much new speakers cost, which I am sure were quite a bit of money. To this day I still use the speakers and probably continue to use them when I move out of my dorm room and move into my new apartment for next year.

Like I said previously this wasn't the most creative route in doing this blog, but I think it is very practical and I believe it was a very green decision on my part. If I did not take up my roommates offer and just let it rot in the trash I would have bought into the Hedonistic Treadmill that Colin Beaven wrote about and we have talked about in class. I would have passed over a perfectly usable item and instead opted to buy new speakers that undoubtedly traveled hundreds if not thousands of miles from factory to factory until I finally would have purchased it at the local Best Buy. Also if I did not use the old speakers they would have been put in the trash and just added to all of the trash that make up our landfills in America.

So even though I didn't necessarily recycle an old item into a new one I believe I still did my part in "rescuing" the abandoned speakers, and I even saved some money in the process.

Describing Everyday Life at Elon

My name is Dennis Wagner and I am a freshman here at Elon. I also play football here, so I will have a different perspective on every day life on the Elon campus.

I guess I will begin from the beginning, so on June 15th I began my journey living the life of a college student-athlete. I was here all summer and took two summer courses, before beginning our three week long summer training camp. We had to take these classes so we could not only get a jump start on our academics but also so we could get somewhat adjusted to college life and playing football at the next level. This was also a great bonding experience for those of us who were here because there wasn't many other people other than athletes here during the summer sessions. Compared to my workload now, both academically and athletically, the summer was a piece of cake. But it was still a pretty big culture shock, moving away from my parents, siblings, friends and significant other, to a different state, with people who I had only previously met once or twice. Not to mention the added pressure of now being a division 1 scholarship athletes, and all the responsibilities that came with that title. There were some tough times in the early going but it ended up being a great experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and really helped me adjust to the life of being a college athlete.

In early September the day all of us football players were wishing for finally came, the first day of school and the beginning of real college life,. This also meant the end of dreaded camp. With camp finally over we could look forward to real college life including; real classes, 5,000 new people, parties, and most importantly girls. Even though we had been there for two months we haven't experienced true college life until this first week that the freshman arrived. This is when all of the lexus's, BMW's, Mercedes's, and etc. pulled up with the Gucci, Lui Vuitton, and polo suite cases. Then we all realized that this was actually a 35k+ school, and not all of us are here on scholarship. Of course the same can not be said for everyone here, but I would say the majority of the students here come from a good bit of money and aren't afraid to flaunt it. Now I am not saying that I am poor, because I am not, but I have a relatively modest wardrobe and I drive an 03 Hyundai. At first glance a typical Elon student seems a little sheltered and spoiled, but once you get to know them this can be proved to be very wrong...or unfortunately it can be proved right. As far as my personal schedule, now I had to juggle 17 credit hours of class, with football taking up my day from 2 to 7, with 6 hours of study hall a week and of course a social life. It was a tough transition but I think I adjusted quite nicely.

After the season my schedule relaxed significantly, for the most part it has been just lifting with no practices, and until this semester no running either. But so far this semester I have had to get up by 6 am everyday because on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have "morning runs" and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday I have to lift at 6:30 am. But I am enjoying myself here at Elon and I think we have an interesting mix of people here.