Today's class was in ILC.
This week went so fast! For me, the last time we had class there, which is last Friday, seems like yesterday.
Rab inroduced us five short films, each having some kind of important message to the viewer.
The first one was called 'The Story of Stuff'. This showed us the process of exploiting, producing, selling, consuming, and wasting of things we use in daily life and also the problems that occur in each stage. I didn't know how easy a ' country of consumers' was made by humans, that it did not star naturally at all. The woman was right that we humans have to stop this vicious circle, or "line" according to the narrator, and produce a new circle which is friendly to nature.
This movie was so easy to understand that I took notes of on the google docs. They are 'externalized costs' and 'perceived obsolescence'. Besides using chemicals and low quality stuff, cutting the payment for the workers is also a big issue to be focused on when considering the issue of things sold cheap. Who pays for me? I probably wouldn't forget this quote. I thought that the second one, perceived obsolescence, fit exactly to Japan, where people don't want to stand out, lose faces, and people wanting to caught up in (流行にのる).
We also watched other movies.
About people trying to save a chinese (tibet?) man from being executed by the chinese government, and about the workers who dig diamonds in a very poor and cruel working condition. It was very surprising to know that the case in China ended up in success! Each of these had a strong message that tried to encourage peopleto take some kind of action.
When we discussed in groups whether we would break a small law to save someone's life, the answers in our group reminded me of the discussion we did when we saw the demo movie last month. I think that many Japanese would move into action if everybody does it. I also thought that the motivation to do it would depend on how much the issue is related or important to you.
After that, we watched a parody of the movie, 'Matrix', 'The Meatrix'.
This focused on the problems of meat, showing how cruel for the animals and not goo for the humans the process of selling meat is.
This was comical and hilarious, but with serious theme, so it was kind of shocking, but it still didn't have a storng impact. It was a good opportunity to know these facts though because I still don't have the courage to watch Earthlings. After the final exams, however, I might watch it because I think it is our responsibility to know those things.
I felt that knowing all these knowledges is an obligation for humans and should be responsible about what we are actually doing to the environment and other living creatures.
Rab's classes make me know and face the facts happening in the world and also make me really think about the problems. It really stays in my mind. I can't believe that we only have three more classes with Rab:(:(
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