Please comment on the Phil Borges Ted Talks on Endangered Cultures using the following two questions as prompts:
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
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1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
I think the story that struck me the most was when Phil Borges took his 16 year old son to Pakistan. It's really important to live and understand different cultures. Its amazing to think that there are people who live on one dollar a day! I think its awesome that his son, Dax got to experience the Islamic World. Not a lot of people would be willing to do what he did. It seems like he fit right in seeing as he played soccer, danced and participated in drumming. This is truly an everlasting experience. He got to see the people pray to the mountain gods and sacrifice animals. Its cool that Borges is trying to link kids fro the US with Indigenous people. Hopefully they can succeed in this process and make the world a better place through communication. Another reason I chose this is because I am kind of in a similar situation. I was 16 when I came to Taiwan and the experience will last a life time.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
His photographic projects are devoted to the welfare of the indigenous and tribal people and
his intention is to help bring attention to the value these cultures represent and the challenges they face. He wants to help give Indigenous people a voice in their community. He would like to bring teenagers together to broaden their knowledge of people that are different than themselves.
so... the most memorable story that he told us... well, might be the dahli lama one. about how this guy was preaching and the fact that he said " love your enemies like jewls i have heard this phrase often, but somehow the situation that they were in made me feel that the sentence somehow had more meaning in it.
In the whole thing, i liked the boy's video the best. i could almost feel how he was feeling, the pictures, the culture, it made me think that i could just blend in and just know what's going on.
I believe that this Phil guy wants to bring in teenagers to look around and see what's going on the world, to help those who need help. He hopes that he can bring technology, and our ideas and views into those cultures, and as well bring out their ideas and values of those cultures so that there would not be any loss of cultures anymore.
In a way, we have not been able to have any chance in meeting them, and knowing about them. but now, we have a chance to know about them, to help with continuing their culture and knowing what is going on in this world.
This video clip really did amaze me, especially the last story.
If he had not tell the story, I would never know that something like that happened to those people.
It really shocked me that when the guy said he walked for seven hours to see his village and start seeing so many houses buried under mud, I thought his family was dead. I was really happy when he saw his mom at last!
Phil Borges is trying to change the world by going to different tribes and villages, and hear their stories. He took photos of different people and interviewed them. Afterwards, he showed them their photos, and the people seemed touched by the photos he took. I think he wants the people he visited to realize the kinds of problems they are facing. He wanted the rest of the world to know what kind of challenges those people are facing too!
The part that struck me as being the most disturbing and shocking was when Phil Borges was describing the area of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and how massive amounts of oil were spilled there. What shocked me the most was the fact that I hadn't heard about this before, it demonstrated the bias of the media, and how these ethnic catastrophes can occur and warrant so little coverage in the media, whereas the Exxon Valdez Oil spill received so much media coverage (not to mention humanitarian aid), despite the fact that the amounts of oil spilled in the Amazon are nearly half the amount of the Exxon Valdez accident.
Phil Borges is trying to raise global awareness, I think that is one of the most important things that a person can do to make a difference. We cannot hope to solve a problem if we do not even know about it, raising awareness, creating empathy, and creating a consciousness about global issues is one of the most important endeavors a person can pursue.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
Somehow the thing that he said about people praying toward the mountain gods when climbing the mountain or hunting in the woods.A lot of people, today, only pray when they need help, which is missing the whole point of having a religion. The thing that shocks me the most is the fact that their minds are so pure, or not really infected by anything outside. They have kept their own traditional culture.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
He's trying to make us, the people who're having stable lives, to be able to appreciate the things we have now. He showed us the examples of the people who had hard time just to go back to their homes or to have their own faith. Things, such as the power from the powerful countries, and natural disasters, have destroyed nearly everything they have, however, they still try to live with it, and stand on what they believe in.
The story that struck me the most is the story of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. The works he have done was incredible and I was amazed to hear all these terrible invasions outside of the world I'm living in.
I believe Phil Borges is trying to convince the world to his view by showing photos and videos of endangered tribes or aborigines. He also worked in BRIDGES. In there, he helped to build cross-culture understandings in the world.
I think that is the most impressive is Tibetan Portrait because It is really sad. Some country invade you and with out any reason and logic. Is not similar to what we usually ask for video game or PC and parent dont let you buy it.
At the time you got nothing to fight.We should be happy with our life now . We had good food, no invasion, good education. And invasion is a culture killer those unique cultures have live in same area thousands years.
Phil Borges is trying to save those culture. This world is not just to make money and gain power is to have be peace and have good life and learn more about our world culture.
What I got from the Phil Borges speech is that what is pursuit of happiness is not all about money or power is peace and good life.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
Seeing pictures of the Tibetan, who held their beliefs so strongly struck me the most. I'm impressed by how they can maintain their faith non violently even when they are facing invasions of their country. The one image and specific story that stand out for me is when many nuns were listening to Dalai Lama's speech about the nonviolence point of view of facing enemies. By saying that, many nuns were recently released after many years of imprisonment.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
He's trying to raise attention for the diverse cultures that are slowly fading away from this world. By doing that, he took pictures of other cultures that allow many of us to acknowledge the existence. In addition, and he dived into the cultures himself.
1. The last story about Diego stuck to me the most because it was him speaking instead of Phil. This just gives you a whole different kind of feeling when you hear it from a person who is actually IN the story rather than the observer. The video was very touching and his thoughts and "sentimientos" were conveyed very well. He's only 19 years old, and yet he went through so much. Instead of hearing "This is what happened to them," it's "This is what happened to ME and my family." If someone brings up a topic about Phil Borges in a few weeks from now, the first thing I will be reminded of will probably be the video made by Diego.
2. A lot of people aren't aware of issues that are happening outside their own countries, and Phil is trying to make us notice that-- especially those people whose homes are victims of tragedies or those who belong to groups who are about to lose their tradition/culture/language. He spreads this knowledge of indigenous people that few people know about through the photos he takes, interviews, and his writings.
1. I hand the greatest impression on the last story of Diego who is so worried about the mudslide in his home. Through his video, I can feel everything he wanted to deliver to the audience. Part of the reason is because the pictures, matching captions and music. Another reason is that the meaning behind this video strucked me. I realized how death and being alive is connected so closely; how tight is the connection between people/family/friends,etc; also the snapshop of the most realistic reaction when people in Daniel's village faced such catastrophy.
2. I think Phil Borges is using a simplest and easiest way to show people what's going on around this environment. By pictures and any other visual materials, he is simply "showing" people something. He is getting people's sympathy/attention towards what's going on around this world by sharing his experiences.
1. I hand the greatest impression on the last story of Diego who is so worried about the mudslide in his home. Through his video, I can feel everything he wanted to deliver to the audience. Part of the reason is because the pictures, matching captions and music. Another reason is that the meaning behind this video strucked me. I realized how death and being alive is connected so closely; how tight is the connection between people/family/friends,etc; also the snapshop of the most realistic reaction when people in Daniel's village faced such catastrophy.
2. I think Phil Borges is using a simplest and easiest way to show people what's going on around this environment. By pictures and any other visual materials, he is simply "showing" people something. He is getting people's sympathy/attention towards what's going on around this world by sharing his experiences.
1.
I think the story of showing the laptop, and camera to the poor kids struck me the most.
I never even thought that kids living in an undeveloped country which never had would have a chance to use laptop, or even to shoot a video and edit it.
It’s really amazing how a kid get educate and exchange knowledge with people that fast.
2.
I think he is trying to change the world by educating people.
For example, teaching them how to use camera, so then they can share about them to us.
It is amazing.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
The last story about the hurricane destroyed the student's village. The student is doing the same thing that Phil Borges is doing. He is trying to let people outside the third world understand and appreciate how well being their life is The thing stuck me the most is the student's patience toward his village. He walked for hours just wanted to make sure his parents were still alive. In additionally, the video Phil shown us is the student's first time to use the video camera. Alhough this is his first time to use a vedio camera, he still has the patience to finish the video just to trying to get his idea and thought across th world. And he did an awsome job.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
He is trying to let the well being people realize and appreciate what they got. Also, make them understand there are a lot of poor people need helps from them.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
I think the story the struck me the most was in the beginning Phil Borges mentions about the world cultures are endangering. There’s over 6000 languages were spoken around the world, but only 3000 languages were spoken by children. This makes me thinking of my country, Taiwan. Taiwan has varieties of people; there are 13 clans of aboriginals, Hakka, Taiwanese, etc. They all have their original languages and cultures, but children, students, and even adults in Taiwan don’t speak those languages anymore, they all speak Chinese. I think this is the most important thing we’re also facing in Taiwan. It also kills the beliefs, religions, and the old custom. I really think this is also the problem we should think of it.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world
Phil Borges obviously is trying to preserve the world culture, no matter is beliefs, religions, languages, customs, and also territories. He mentions a lot of people don’t even know where Iraq, India or even Pacific Ocean is. Phil Borges is teaching the kids how to make digital story telling like Photoshop about their cultures, or disasters. He makes them to spread out their own cultures let outer people know who they are and where they are. So their cultures will never die!
1. This video clip really did amaze me, especially the last story.
If he had not told the story, I would never know that something like that happened to those people.
It really shocked me that when Diego said he walked for seven hours so he could see his family. After the long walk, he noticed that mudslides are covering up many houses. Diego was very worried about his family. When he finally got home, he saw his mom and his family and he was so pleased.
2. Phil Borges is trying to change the world by going to different tribes and villages, and hear their stories. He took photos of different people and interviewed them. I think he wants the people he visited to realize the kinds of problems they are facing. He wanted the rest of the world to know what kind of challenges those people are facing and to cherish the things we have. Since most of us are living in a place where we can get things we want easily, we do not cherish it. He wants us to see the different life styles between them and us.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
The most shocking story in Phil Borges’s talk was when he told us that among the 6000 language that are currently spoken, only 3000 of them are spoken by the younger generation. This fact shocked me to the extent of disbelief. Then Phil Borges said, every two weeks, an elderly’s death will carry one language into the grave. It means all the knowledge and stories of that culture will disappear. This made me think about my country, Taiwan. We, too, have culture diversity among ourselves. With dozen of tribes and difference languages, we too have culture diversity. Yet, these aspects are gradually vanishing. We all tend to use Mandarin for most of the time. If only the elderly uses Taiwanese or Hakka, then these languages, folktale and knowledge will be gone.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
Phil Boges is trying to teach children from all over the world how to use digital devices such as camera. He wants to link children from around the world together so there won’t be any more cultural diversity. He did this because he knows there are people who don’t know the location of many places, such as Iraq, India or even the Pacific Ocean. So he taught children from all over the world to make videos of their life and their surroundings. This way, cultures will not be forgotten and cultural diversity will no longer be an issue.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
While I watched this clip about the one little girl who lives in mountain, I had a question for myself. What we have and what she doesn’t have. For example the girl who lives in the mountain village, lost her parents when she was little. Right now she lives with her grandmother. When she goes to town to get something, she has to walk across the river and mountain. But as for us, when we go to school or buy something, we are using our parent’s car. Because, we have family, we can feel family influence but as for her, she doesn’t feel family influence and she solve all the problems her self.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
Phil Borges is trying to make the whole world as a one group. He teaches his students who don’t know how to use some digital cameras and how to create stories of their cultures, as soon as they finish making clips; they put their clips on internet websites and teach people about their culture. That means, they start to communicate with the world.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
MIT researched on the different languages spoken in the world; the research shows there are 6000 languages spoken by the people, however, there are only 3000 languages is speaking by the next generation. This research shocks me the most because when I heard the result, I thought of my mother language, Hakka. Though my family is a Hakka family, only the generation before my parents know how to speak Hakka, no one in my generation knows how to speak Hakka. MY OWN MOTHER CULTURE IS ENDANGERED!! I did not even notice my mother language in endangered until I have seen the video. The next story makes me feel regret about my ignorant. The monks we saw in the video tried so hard to gain freedoms and protect their beliefs. Being sent to prison, traveled for a long distant and all sorts of challenges cannot stop their determinations from gaining freedoms and protecting beliefs. On the other hand, I did not even notice my mother culture is endangered.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
By portraying different kind of people and telling stories of different kind of people, Phil Borges will make other people notice things they never noticed before. He makes me noticed my own mother culture is endanger. His presentations will make other people not only notice things they never notice before, but also appreciate they are way more lucky than a lot of people around the world.
The story that struck me the most was the story that was the film that was made by the 15 year old boy. How we had made the film a documentary about how his home village had been almost destroyed by natural disaster. He had made it so realistic and taking the scenes in the first line, that I felt so shocking the first sight I saw it. He had filmed this film to show the world how bad the situation in his village had been, to make everyone remember this issue, and to help his own people remember their journey together out of this problem. The reason this story had struck me the most was because this boy was around the same age as me, although I couldn’t make much connections, yet I could imagine myself in his situation. Of course, it is impossible to have the exact experience, yet I have a wild imagination. I also felt that by him making this film, the situation was more concrete, with all the music with the scene connections, it was as if I was right there, in the front line. I also felt because of this, he was able to use this to communicate to the world.
Phil Borges took pictures of non-influenced cultures, also known as leavers in the book ISHMAEL. He took pictures and told stories to support the pictures in order to allow people to understand more about how cultures are disappearing. In other words, he is photographing history, recording what we might not be able to see in the future. The process through the whole thing are explaining leavers and takers. Those people that Phil had taken pictures of are leavers, who leaves information for us to build more on. Not only this, they are also people who had not been influenced by out society, by the mother nature humming in our ears. They had been able to live the way that they think is the way of life. Phil Borges had understood this as he had been traveling and taking pictures of them, and wishes that we might be able to understand with his help of spreading this information.
Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
At the beginning of Phil Borges' talk, he mentioned that there are over six thousand languages in this world, but only three thousand languages were spoken by children. In addition, every two weeks an elder goes to the grave, carrying the last spoken language of the culture. This shocking story struck me the most. I belong to the Hakka clan in Taiwan, and every now and then I’m learning the Hakka language from my grandma. However, I can see how the majority of my peers don’t speak their native language like I do. Just like Phil Borges, I also believe the importance of saving cultures, as well as our very own unique language.
What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
What Phil Borges is trying to do is to raise attentions of the indigenous and the native people. By promoting this idea to further degree, he created teams that teach digital photography to the children around the world. After the lessons, they created films, slide-shows and pod-casts that are available on Internet for everyone to watch. By doing so, this allows them to share their cultures with the world.
1. Which one story struck you the most while watching Phil Borges speak?
After re-watching this TedTalk after two months I have some different opinions on this assignment. Diego's story was still very touching the second time I watched it, but now I also find something else that is also pretty interesting. Phil talked about the students in Alaska who lived in log cabins, had no running water, no windows-- and the last thing made me chuckle: high speed internet connection. It's a very odd image. However, I think it's amazing that they're learning digital storytelling. A lot of the students' peoples could be classified into the "Leavers" category, and them sharing their stories and knowledge is very valuable for us. If it's not recorded, they would have been lost forever (just when we wipe out a species and all the knowledge of life they've gathered for ages just disappear). This reminds of a part in Ishmael when it says that we destroy someone's lifestyle in the middle of a forest if we build roads in it or introduce any technology from the Takers' world-- but this is different. Showing the students the laptops and teaching them how to use them is one of the positive influences of the Takers culture because we can share priceless knowledge that way.
2. What is Phil Borges doing to change the world?
I'm still sticking to my answer in my first submission: Phil Borges is trying to make people aware of these other cultures and mostly indigenous people who we have much to learn from. We take this for granted and don't really care about all this knowledge that is buried along with each dying member of these groups. I can relate a major idea in the Ishmael book:
These different groups of people are also part of our human diversity, but we as the Takers usually just don't pay much attention to them since we're so focused on our own "world". All we do is preoccupy ourselves with our present and future, but we tend to forget of the past. If it dies, it dies. This is what we're doing to dying cultures and traditions.
What I think Phil Borges is doing is connecting our two different worlds of human Takers and Leavers.
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