I am currently trying to finish a scholarship essay on the chinese river dolphin and am finding it nearly impossible to stay on task.
Distraction has always caused me to falter in my steps.
Anyways.
As many of us are probably already aware of (or sadly, many of us not) the Baiji is "functionally extinct." If there are any left swimming the waters of the Yangtze river, the number of individuals and age of the individuals left breeding is not sufficient to sustain the species. It's tragic. Because it's all our fault.
Probably one of the most human-attributable cases of wildlife mistreatment, this charismastic and rather peculiar-looking creature is gone.
It truly angers/saddens me to no extent thinking about our lack of responsibility as 'guardians of the planet.'
Well, this thinking about the Baiji led me to thinking about China. The traditional veneration of the Baiji was denounced during what is known as the "Great Leap Forward," which is just so ironically named, which led to overfishing which led to a drastic decline in the baiji propulation (going from the thousands to a few hundred). Mao Zedong made a plan to industrialize China, to empower it. He based his plans off of what is called the Theory of Productive Forces, which states that changes in MEANS of production precede changes in RELATIONS of production, as in people's culture, their social interaction, simply just the "way things are." For example, the invention of machinery must come before the abolishing of slavery.
So the term "Great Leap Forward" kind of makes me laugh, in a bitter, cynical, sad sort of way. What a joke! What a disaster! The Great Sparrow Campaign? This led to a major ecological imbalance. Disastrous famine? The fatalities range all the way to a possible 43 million. The Yellow river flooded and killed an estimated 2 million people, either by starvation from crop failure or drowning. The famine became so horrendous that people resorted to cannibalism.
It was just SUCH a mess. It baffles me how so many things can go wrong, all in such a short period of time.
Ack, how I wish I could continue, but words fail me now. Damn brain, why do you refuse to work in a continuous motion for more than fifteen minutes?
I have the same problem. I'm writing a speech on the Beijing Olympics, I've been writing it for two weeks, but the words just won't come. It's a topic I'm passionate about and I've done a decent amount of research on it, but I can't seem to make the words come.
China is proof to history that totalitarian governments fall so, so short. Not that democracy is the perfect answer or anything, but I only have to glance at the wreck China is in, despite their recent economic resurgence, to be thankful for America, as many problems as it has.
Take frequent breaks for a short period of time :).
+mspin
Haha. I agree.
I was writing an essay for a scholarship all day today, from about 8:00 to now.
Boy, does it feel good to be done.
Considering the ridiculously low speed at which my brain loves to function at times just to annoy me.
I swear, it has a mind of its own.