Post #18: What Was the Central Theme for This Course? Why? How Does Your Choice Relate to...?

I believe that the central theme for this course is inspiration. Whether it's through studying poverty, wealth disparity, lack of water, globalization, or the Arab Israeli Conflict, I believe that each student in the class of world issues has felt inspired. This could mean inspired to make a change and take action, as we were throughout the world issues conference hosted at Hillfield Strathallan College, or inspired to look at an issue differently than you may have without the knowledge of this course. I know that this course has changed my perspective in terms of several world issues, such as, globalization, disparity, and even pornography and the sexualization of society. This course opened my eyes to issues I may have otherwise been ignorant to, and exposed me to the harsh reality of the real world. While this has come with several alarming realizations, it has also inevitably altered the way I view the world around me and has inspired me to find a specific issue that I'm passionate about. For me, I was instantly intrigued by a statistic that I heard during one of the first world issues classes- "It would take 5-7 Earths to sustain everyone on the planet if everyone were to live the way we do." I have found myself, since learning this, questioning why we're the fortunate ones- why do we get the privilege of living the way we do, while ignorantly and selfishly leaving others behind? I've found my interests in matters of disparity and the way that individuals assess what makes them happy in their lives. For others, their areas of interest may be war, conflict and international affairs involving politics and they, too, would undoubtedly feel inspired throughout this course. Regardless of who you are or what you're interested in, I feel that world issues has centred around the theme of inspiration because feeling inspired is unavoidable when learning about such interesting, emotionally-stimulating, and influential issues.