The Pharaonic Literacy Challenge

Our goal is simple. Achieve 100 percent literacy rate in Egypt. Today, 25 percent of the population can neither read nor write. This is not only a disaster created by the government, but a road block for the country to achieve prosperity. 

Currently, there are no organizations in Egypt that have attempted to do this on a mass scale. The way we would accomplish this is by motivating the supply side, which is potential educators. These educators can be anyone who can read and write, and is over 15 years old. Our goal is not to make people great readers or writers, but rather to help them build them a foundation, so they can further build on their education, and become educated members of this global society. 

We would motivate these individuals by making a challenge through social media, to raise awareness of the problem. Similar to the ALS Ice Bucket challenge, people will instead challenge there friends on social media to sing a part of the famous classical singers, and to either donate 10 Egyptian pounds or volunteer to help educate people across the country.

Through these volunteers, we will organize them and have them work in underprivileged areas around their community. In which free classes will be offered to all who want to learn.

We will teach these volunteers the basics of teaching, and provide them a structure to follow. We believe having this lofty goal, will gain us government support as well as aid from international organizations. 

We believe that using our structure of teaching and having classroom sizes that are no bigger than five students per volunteer, we will accomplish our goal in under two years.

I will end my pitch with two quotes: 

Acquiring literacy is an empowering process, enabling millions to enjoy access to knowledge and information which broadens horizons, increases opportunities and creates alternatives for building a better life.

Kofi Annan

The more that you read, the more things you will know

The more that you learn, the more places you will go

— Dr. Seuss

Making the World a Better Place

I used to think that making the world a better would entailed giving the poor money so they can buy basic necessities. However, I believe the best way to make the world better is to create a system in which people can have the freedom to seek an education. Today, many people around the world do not know how to read or write, because they simply don't have the money or time. I would solve this by trying to create a movement in which young people, who have an education, can enroll in programs that provide basic education to the poor. I would want to make it a viral movement, kind of like the ALS bucket challenge. I would also invest in libraries in underprivileged communities, so that it can be seen as the place to be, and more importantly a place where one can improve their education and standard of living.

Coagula Art Gallery

Visiting the Coagula Curatorial Art Gallery was a very unique experience for me, because not only was it my first time visiting an art gallery, but it was my first time in ChinaTown here in LA. I was greatly impressed by the art work, and it's style. I was also surprised by the prices of the paintings and hats, although I know that the classic paintings can be sold for millions, I did not expect that artists here in LA would be selling their work for thousands of dollars for such small pantings. I went with a friend, and the vibe I got was that we were a bit out of place, because most of the people there were very hipster or old. After going to the Coagula Art gallery, my friend and I visited many other art galleries that were right next door, it was interesting to see the many different styles that were present in the area. This experience has opened my eyes to the art scene here in Los Angeles, I look forward to visiting the Coagula again, and seeing the new art that will be there next time!

Why Drug Cartels want Marijuana illegal

Whether you are pro-legalization or anti-legalization there is one surprising group of people who are very anti-legalization, drug cartels. Just like during the 1920's prohibition of alcohol lead to the rise of criminal activity from mobster who profited greatly from the illegality of alcohol, so too are El Chapo and the likes of him from the illegality of marijuana. 

www.rollingstones.com

Although the goal of making these substances illegal is to lower the crime associated with the drug, the opposite always occurs, this is because of simple economics. Making drugs illegal does not change the demand, however it does make supplying the drug much harder. This leads to a market inefficiency where producers won't be able to have competition, therefore causing a monopoly which is controlled by a criminal organizations. Since these criminal organization are essentially a monopoly, they are able to charge high prices for marijuana, and making them some of the most profitable industries. However, if these drugs were legal, this would make the criminal organizations face competition from multiple organizations therefore eliminating their monopoly and ending their high profits. 

Interview with Jacob Needleman

Jacob Needleman

Money is often times used as a dirty word, but the way the Needleman explains it, is that having free flow of money enables people to share and exchange within large communities, and makes us see how we are interdependent. This is philosophy is really different from what many communist or socialist countries believe in, he also says that owning property is a way of improving oneself, and what our founding fathers made sure was available to the people improve oneself. 

The Jacob Needleman also stresses the spiritual side of within us and our relationship with God. He believes that there two aspects: relationship with worldly things and the relationship with God. He believes you have to harmonize the two, to be become fully developed as a person. He also warns not to have one’s desire for worldly things be inflamed, because it makes you think that you can get a level of satisfaction that can be only achieved through a relationship with God. 

Chapter 4: Consuming Identity

Chapter 4: Consuming Identity

By: Alex Tran and Fady Ebeid

The chapter starts off with the author talking about how he engages daily in purchase transactions from food to gas, clothes, airline tickets, etc. Every time he makes a purchase, he is acting out of his own personal values that contribute to the economic system. Purchasing items is what he does as a consumer. Although, there are others who are materialistic and obsess with purchasing materials, consuming their identity. He then goes on to refer to a quote from the Art Directors Club Annual No.34 of 1955: “It is now the business of advertising to manufacture customers in the comfort of their own homes”. The author further elaborates by saying how demoralizing it is “to manufacture customers”, showing how many people are easily influenced by outside factors which can change their self-perception.

The 1950’s were a time of rising optimism, with more TV’s than there were people, cars and radios. Advertisers took advantage of the rise of TV’s and used to them to sell their propaganda, or as the author put it, “brainwashing” the people. Advertiser objectify our self image, while trying to tell a story, in order to be viewed as authentic, when in reality they are not. The reason for believing what was shown on TV to be authentic, stems from the belief from the 1920’s that illustrations lie, but cameras cannot. The author aims to highlight that buying something is not just a simple transaction, rather there are underlying stories of the product and what made you buy it.

Chapter 4: The Other Invisible Hand
Lilian and Fady

The chapter begins with a research study that showed “when money or financial issues are at play in the context of decision making, even the most socially conscious, warm-hearted people tend to act in an anti-social manner” (15). For some reason, the idea of money causes people to want to work alone; the people in the study weren’t as interested in working with others as those who weren’t faced with financial issues. The author suggests that the reason behind this could be that money has become such an important part of who people are, that any threat to it causes us to withdraw from others. I found this concept interesting and it reminded me of the prisoner’s dilemma theory. Money causes people to work for their own self-interest and make decisions that are the best for them when it would be better to collaborate with others to really come to the best decision.

It is interesting to see how the author tied the research that being money minded, which causes separation from the social body, with the current income inequality our world faces today. Saying that the more we separate ourselves, the more one has the need to accumulate more resources, causing us to mistaken self worth with net worth. This new research shows that money has caused another form of the “invisible hand,” one that affects our unconscious self, and has changed our word’s social environment to be money minded. 

Chapter 12: Free Market Money in a Pop Iconomy 

The 1960’s was a clash of how our societies should operate. In America, our economy was based on the Capitalism and the free market, in which Milton Friedman describe in his book Capitalism and Freedom,  as individuals who pursue their own self interests, which causes an overall benefit to society. While in the East, such as China and Eastern Europe was facing the opposite of an a economy, one based on communism that prevented individuals from pursuing their own self interests, and all the power was centralized in the government.

This importance of money in our society during this time and what economic system we should use, led artists to start making art that featured money. Notable examples of these artists were Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who sought to show how money, specifically, the dollar, has become such of an importance in our cultural society, in that it has forced individuals to be only focused on how to obtain the most it. These artists can be accredited for making the dollar from a piece of paper that was seen as just money, to an iconic status, that has revolutionized the art scene. 

How Trump defied Conventional Wisdom

In politics there has always been conventional wisdom on how to win an election, have political experience, raise money through fundraisers and large Super Pacs, buy as much television ads as you can, set up a strong analytics team to know your voters and potential donors, and most importantly avoid insulting or saying controversial comments. These unwritten rules will seem pretty logical to anyone, however, Trump has broken everyone one of those rules, confounding even the best political experts on how he is up in the polls. There is one thing that has made Trump defy all these conventional wisdom strategies and to do so successfully: Controversy.

Succès de Scandale

If there is one thing Trump campaign is known for, it is for the amount of controversy that he has caused. From the very start, Trump’s speech contains controversial statements about Mexico and illegal immigrants, most thought his campaign would be doomed, however it was just the beginning. Trump controversial statements didn’t stop there, he would go on to say that John McCain, a war veteran who was helped captive in Vietnam for years was “not a war hero,” to proposing that the United States temporary banned Muslims from entering the United States. Every political analyst believed that these comments would bring Trump out of the race, however the contrary occurred, he rose in the polls every time after those comments. Why? Because Trump understands a French saying “Succès de scandale,” (Success from scandal) or better known as “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” Because the press success runs on covering what is best entertainment which is usually in the form of controversy, every time he makes these controversial statements it forces the press to cover him. This strategy eliminates his need to spend big money on ads, because the press is providing him with more than enough exposure for free. This strategy also hurts his candidates, because the media covers them, even though they may be potentially better candidates, a lot less. Being the center of the attention in the media makes all candidates be forced to constantly have to be asked about Trump, and to react to his policies, rather than focusing on why they are the best fit for presidency. Hate him or love him, Trump has revolutionized and challenged the way political candidates can achieve success in the polls, however we must wait and see if this strategy can carry on to the presidency…

Second Reflection on Growing a Farmer

Kurt Timmermeister in Growing the Farmer not only achieved the goal of showing us where our food comes from, but gave me a in depth view of someone who took his passion and made something out of it. He addressed the problem of ignorance of our food, because we have “collectively removed animals from our lives,” even though through out history we seen how our meat is made, today people completely remove that image of animals getting killed for our protein, even cringe in disgust. Even Kurt himself couldn’t watch the killing of pigs in the beginning, he attributed it to us humans wanting “to give these beasts human qualities-to be sad, to be fearful, and concerned about their fellow pig friend,” but in reality it couldn't be farther from the truth. Kurt really opened my eyes to realize about where our food came from what we eat today with almost no effort to get other than going to store, was a luxury in the past, and that required us to see and do things that the majority of people would never do today.

After finishing the book, I think one of the things I really liked about Kurt was how he went into farming without ever really doing much of it from before. He took his passion for food, and expanded it to farming and grew to become an expert. I think this takes a lot of perseverance and flexibility to do, for example for slaughtering he learned how to slaughter the pig even though it made him uncomfortable at first. Being uncomfortable and learning new skills is an important part of success for Kurt and the business he created from farming, and for us as individual for our own passions. 

The Surprising Truths of the Great Pyramid of Giza

How, why, and who built the Great Pyramid of Giza

                   

With a history of over five thousand years, Egypt’s rich history has attracted people from all over the world to flock to the nation best known for the only surviving wonder of the world The Great Pyramid of Giza. However, The Great Pyramid of Giza is not without controversy and misconceptions on the how, why, and who built it. Even with the vast amount evidence found through archeological findings and carbon tracing, misconceptions on the pyramids still persist. This can be best demonstrated with Republican Candidate Dr. Ben Carson, though is a world renown neurosurgeon, believes the pyramids were built by Biblical Joseph to store grain. This article aims to lay to rest the misconceptions people have, and set the story right on how, why, and who built the Great Pyramid of Giza.

 

I have organized this article on The Great Pyramid of Giza into three parts of why, who, and how. Within the how section I go into great detail explaining the three component of how the pyramid was built, including adding a bonus section at the end.

Why?

Ancient Egyptians believed that when the Pharaoh died that part of his spirit would remain with his body, which meant that his corpse must be carefully taken care of for the afterlife. The Pharaoh Khufus took his afterlife very seriously, so immediately after being declared the ruler of Egypt, the Pharaoh would start planning his tomb to be ready for his death. The Pharaoh not only wanted to preserve his body for the afterlife he wanted to enjoy it. So the Pharaoh would put in all his valuable treasures as well as his basic belongings to take with him. His tomb was meant to last for eternity, that is why Pharaoh Khufu had the pyramid be built so large.

Who?

Anyone who has gone to the pyramids knows that this massive structure, that was the tallest man made structure for over three thousand years, was not built overnight. It actually took around 23 years to be built and required a lot of manpower. There a lot of theories out there that the pyramids were built by slaves to serve a merciless pharaoh, or even better yet, built by aliens to leave their mark on earth. However, the pyramids were built by neither. They were instead built by Egyptians from all over Egypt in a national project for the Pharaoh Khufus. These Egyptians were not common laborers but rather highly skilled workers, who came to Giza (which was called Memphis at the time) to live and work for a period of three months in the year. After three months of work, the around 10,000 workers would return home, and a new set of workers would come to work on the national project. These workers did not work nor live in harsh conditions but rather were provided with the best that the world had to offer at the time. Richard Redding, from the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History found that the workers were “feasting on prime beef, the best meat available.”

How?

To make it simpler for the reader to understand how the pyramids were built I have put three main concepts in building The Great Pyramid of Giza, plus a complimentary bonus section.

•       Where the stones of the pyramid came from
•        How the stones were transported to Giza
•        How the stones were used to build the The Great Pyramid of Giza
•        Bonus Section

Where the Stones Came from

Before the Egyptians could start working on building the actual Pyramids, they had to find a place to get all the stone needed for building it. The Ancient Egyptians used an estimated 2.3 million stones to build the pyramid, which were split up into two types: limestone and granite. Limestone makes up the majority of the pyramid, and they were cut with copper chisels and brought over to the pyramid by boat through the Nile from Tura, around 5 miles southeast of Giza.  The granite used in the pyramid, was used in the interior of the pyramid for the Pharaoh Khufu tomb, as well as the top of the pyramid, the granite had to be transported by boat through the Nile from Aswan, which is approximately 500 miles away.

How the Stones were Transported to Giza

Moving these heavy stones across the dessert, which for the limestone stones weighed around 2 tons and the granite stones could weight up to 50 tons, has been a great mystery since the Ancient Egyptians did not have modern technology. However, physicists from University of Amsterdam discovered that the builders used a simple trick to efficiently move the stones. The builders would put the heavy stones on wooden sledges, then put water on both the bottom of the wooden sled and on the sand at which the sled would travel on. The purpose of doing this, is that having water makes the sand firmer, therefore decreasing the pull force required to pull the sled across the desert.

How the Stones were used to Build The Great Pyramid of Giza

The Ancient Egyptians used a similar technique of using sleds in the actual building of the Pyramid. Once the base layer of stones was set, the builders had to build ramps in order to bring the stones to a higher level. These ramps were built in a spiral shape out of mud brinks, which made it easier for the builders to increase the height of the ramp as the pyramid got bigger. To make the moving of the stones easier, the Ancient Egyptians coated the mud bricks with plaster and put oil on the ramp, therefore hardening the surface and making the ramp have less friction for the sleds.

Courtesy of 

                           

Bonus Section

When one looks at the pyramids today, they are seeing something that looked very different from what it looked like when it was built. What you see now is actually the inner parts of the original pyramid. After these inner parts of the pyramid were built, the Ancient Egyptians used a polished white limestone to be put on the pyramid, giving the pyramid a smooth slanted slope, and not the current step by step look it has now. They then made the top of the pyramid covered in gold, the purpose of covering the pyramid with white limestone and a gold top was to make the pyramid shine like a star from the reflection of the sunlight, making the pyramids visible from miles away.

                           

         

                                                      

                        

Bibliography

1.     McCauley, Marissa. "Probing Question: How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? | Penn State University." Probing Question: How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built? | Penn State University. 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.

2.     Shaw, Jonathan. "Who Built the Pyramids?" Harvard Magazine. 01 Aug. 2003. Web. 7 Feb. 2016.

3.     Penn State University. "How Were The Egyptian Pyramids Built?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 March 2008. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328104302.htm>.

4.     Stille, Alexander. "The World's Oldest Papyrus and What It Can Tell Us About the Great Pyramids." Smithsonian. SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, 10 Oct. 2015. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.

5.     McCoy, Terrance. "The Surprisingly Simple Way Egyptians Moved Massive Pyramid Stones without Modern Technology." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 2 May 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.