Trying to Understand Honduras

Honduras. A country we’ve been hearing a lot about in the news recently. Sure, I’ve known that it’s tough to be a migrant or a refugee. To go from one miserable country to one that hates you and locks you up in cages is horrible. But reading Refugee really helped me put it into perspective. Hearing about exactly what these people had to go through, and especially reading it all through the eyes of a young boy (something that I once was), furthered my empathy. Then, I thought about Honduras. I’m sure you’ve heard about Honduras on the news recently. Thousands of people walking from Honduras to the United States. That’s a 1,125 mile walk, in case you were wondering. More than I’m sure any of us have had to walk at once. They’re not traveling in luxury, either. Most of them are carrying with them only what they can fit in a backpack or a bag. As with most of the topics we have been studying in this class, I did not know very much about Honduras before hearing about this “caravan” in the news. I knew it was a country in Central America, but that was about it. I was surprised to hear about all these poor migrants and wanted to learn more about it. For starters, Honduras is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world because it has one of the highest rates of murder in the world. As I looked around online I learned why. A journalist from the Associated Press explained that while he was living in Honduras, he was constantly in survival mode. Everyone he had met knew someone who had been killed by a gang or a corrupt police officer. The United States had a hand in making Honduras this way. We helped convert Honduras into the first “banana republic,” or a country whose economy runs off their export of bananas. In the 80’s, we even backed multiple military coups to protect our economic interests. But then, we stopped buying the fruit from them, devastating their economy. Imagine being a child growing up in a world where if you said the wrong thing, you could be killed. My heart breaks for these people attempting to escape this crime-ridden country. This is perhaps the worst time to try to come to the United States. President Trump uses the hatred of immigrants to empower his campaign, and the United States (as you know) is separating children from their parents at the border and keeping them in caged communities. A lot of people in the United States believe these people are somehow a threat to our country. I find that hard to wrap my head around, but I guess it is a symptom of the general lack of empathy felt by a lot of my fellow Americans. It's important to note that just because Honduras is a dangerous place, it doesn't mean that the people coming here are. The people coming here are people who wish to escape their country

The Government is corrupt and has been for a while. Police receive training and funding from the United States in an attempt to stop cocaine trafficking, but a lot of the police officers are corrupt. Gangs are rampant, and it most Hondurans have seen people get murdered. A lot of Honduran citizens live in shacks and don’t even have running water in their house.
and get away from extreme violence and poverty. The ones who contribute to the crime remain there. I wonder what will happen to this caravan when they reach the border. Will we help them? Imprison them? Turn them away? Only time will tell.

I also want to take this opportunity to encourage you to vote. It is very, very, VERY important that we go out and vote for the election coming up next week. If we keep our Government the way it is, we might just be on the path to a Fascist government. Here’s a website that explains the proposal on the ballots.

Another Reason to Dislike the Federal Government

It seems that the more I learn about the federal government, the angrier I become. To be honest, I hadn’t heard of the Tohono O'odham tribe before reading this excerpt from Storm the Wall. It makes me think about President Andrew Jackson. More specifically, Andrew Jackson’s monstrous attack on native peoples. The trail of tears. I think we as a nation are past such things, that we’ve grown. But then I read about how awful the government treats Native Americans, and I am discouraged. Perhaps I am being pessimistic, but that’s the core of the United States of America. We are here today at the result of a successful genocide. Then we continue to celebrate the monster, Christopher Columbus, hundreds of years later. After I finished reading this excerpt, I Googled Tohono O'odham. I found an article that was disturbing. The Government is currently working on building what they call a high-tech surveillance tower on the Tohono’s reservation. Equipped with infrared cameras, heat sensors, video cameras, they plan on building numerous towers. Imagine that your family has been forced to live on this small amount of land after white men came and claimed your family’s land for their own. Then as time goes on, this government continues to terrorize your people under the guise of “border control.” It is important to note that these people live very low-tech lives, at least that’s what I’ve read on the internet. How would you feel about the federal government putting high-tech surveillance towers on your land? I personally would be furious if they put just one of those towers in Kalamazoo. In total, fifteen of these towers will be built on the Tohono O’Odham’s land. I think one of the main things that the author of Storm the Wall was trying to emphasize is that the government has continuously used border security as an excuse to infringe on the rights of American citizens. As someone who grew up in Michigan, I didn’t really know much about the Mexican border. My hope is that people become more aware of the struggles of Native Americans.

Andrew Jackson, a real-life villain.

Collin Attempts to Explain Arcology

As I read through Paolo Bacigalupi’s book, The Water Knife, I kept seeing a term that was unfamiliar to me. “Arcology.” Out of curiosity, I booted up the ‘ole Google machine and looked that term up. Turns out it is a topic that is very interesting and could potentially save humanity if we don’t stop our use of fossil fuels in time. The term “arcology” itself is a fusion of the words “architecture” and “ecology.” The concept and term were created by an Italian architect named Paolo Soleri.

Essentially “arcology” is the concept of a building in which every need of humanity is contained and self-sustained. An arcology building is also meant to be densely populated and have little-to-no impact on the environment and ecosystem.

Climate control, air conservation, water conversation, power, food production, living spaces. All these components are inside one, large structure. Solar and wind power are an essential aspect of arcology because all energy sources must be renewable. As seen in The Water Knife, citizens who live in an arcology would be able to leave it if need be, but an effective arcology must be designed so that inhabitants never have to leave it. If you were to tour an arcology, you might go in an elevator. As you traveled up an elevator, you would see it structured like this: one floor would support the next five or so floors above it. The supporting floor is referred to as a “deck.” Simple biological functions can be used to benefit each other. For example, fish could be grown in a large tank with plants resting on top. These plants could be plants used for food, plants used for oxygen purification, or perhaps plants used to filter the water itself. As the fish eat and poop, the poop would fertilize the plants, helping them grow. A building could be lined entirely with solar panels and designed with a curve so that it is resistant to the wind. Alternatively, a structure could be covered with wind turbines that catch the wind and create power. There are many, many concepts, but they key here is self-sustainability, low-impact, and aesthetically pleasing.

There aren’t really any functioning arcologies today. Paolo Soleri designed a city called Acrosanti, which isn’t an arcology, but more of a city that encompasses certain aspects of arcology. The buildings are built from the dirt that lays beneath them, and every building is physically connected to one another. Solar panels absorb sunlight and are built at angles that make them super-efficient at gathering sunlight, and large domes are built to help keep residents cool in the summer.

Another example of something similar to an arcology is the Shanghai Tower. It is built with a type of insulating skin to help it retain heat. The top of the building is covered with wind panels, and it generates 350,000 Kilo Watt hours a year. Architecturally, the building has a twist to it, which prevents it from swaying in the wind without the use of extra building materials.

Crystal Island

Russia has had blueprints for a structure that they call “Crystal Island,” but due to lack of funding, it has not even begun being built yet.

As of right now, humanity is pretty far from a 100% functioning arcology. This is disheartening, especially when you consider the fact that we are not nearly doing enough to combat climate change. However, I like to think about the past. At one point in time, humans gazed up at the moon and wondered. “Will we ever walk on this brilliant, white sphere in the sky?” Through hard work, determination, and an agreement of sorts, we put man on the moon, and that was forty-nine whole years ago. We might seem divided as ever right now, but if we could achieve walking on the moon, we can achieve a self-sustainable society.