silver lining?

my philosophy course, which is 50% assignments and 50% exams, might be dropping the two exams... which will take a significant amount of pressure off of the course and potentially increase my final mark. the course will then be made up of 12 assignments.

homework for this week:

summarize Deuteronomy

read a sociology book and write a paper on it

lead a class discussion on cosmology

precis an article on the Pentateuch

critical thinking exam [maybe]

hell month is almost over...

homework&hyperventilation

seven classes and two committees have indeed caught up to me.

let feb '10 forever be known as hell month for kel sherman. between all my readings assignments, quizzes, and presentations, i've also had to help bring 'missio dei 2010' together [last week] and run the floor for 'the diary of anne frank' [which will take hours and hours of this week away].

you know, if i didn't switch majors, i coulda been in five classes. but no, i had to decide a TESOL degree wouldn't be worth it, and that Social Science would be. definitely will be in the long run, but if i want to be done by the end of this year, seven classes it is...

anyway, i just finished summarizing Leviticus and Numbers, now I have to go mull over Romans, precis an article, and prepare my discussion for monday... but not before watching Anne Frank sit in an annex seven times this week, and rearranging chairs to accommodate as many people as possible for watching it with me.

hope you're having fun with whatever you're doing. whoever you are.

kel

from bangladesh, with love

i really meant to write about this sooner, but it's been a fairly busy month so far.

last week was this two day event here called Missio Dei, and it was actually quite life changing for me.

i sat in on some lectures on labour in third world countries and how giants like American Eagle and Wal-Mart exploit workers, children in particular, to maximize their companies profits. now, i've heard of sweat shops before, but i haven't really given it a lot of thought. like okay, i knew some kid in vietnam might have sewn my shoes together or something, but it was really quite surprising what sort of conditions they are forced to work in. 12+ hour work days without washroom breaks, for example.

so i get back to my dorm room and look over my clothes and i see that tshirt made in the dominican republic, jogging pants made in vietnam, underwear made in macau, a sweater made in pakistan, and another tshirt made in Mexico with a US component [whatever that means], everything else is seems to be made in china. NOTHING assembled in Canada.

the only company i can think of that produces clothes in canada is ROOTS. and i don't like any of their clothes. [edit: not true, thank you Lynele]

so, the point of all this is, i'm going to look into buying clothes from retailers that don't promote cheap labour. and no, that doesn't mean i'm burning all the clothes i have already bought. no, that doesn't mean i'm going to be raiding thrift stores from here on out [buying second hand clothes made in the same countries doesn't change the principle behind it]. and no, i won't hate people who continue to buy at these places [but i will inform them].

sidenote: i believe the chinese do have better working conditions than other countries, but that's not factual. yet. i'll get back to you with my findings.

anyway, hope i gave you some things to think about.

so just a final thought: think about where you buy your clothes.

K