I had two of my students present their work today. One was a rhetorical analysis of a documentary called Gasland, and oh boy! The documentary sounds like one Dr. M might be interested in...(Then again, perhaps not, since he's more into "ontological" stuff, and the documentary doesn't touch on such deep issues)...it's a documentary about how people/companies extract "natural gas" and f*ck up the environment, as well as the lives/health of people who live near the natural gas deposits. Basically, what these companies do, is to extract gas by making an artificial "earthquake" like explosion...or so, my student tells me. And due to the expeditions underground, water is contaminated to the extent that the water people are supposed to drink will catch fire. The documentary captures several moments as such--it's really horrific, I mean, the spectacle of water catching fire, just like that! I've only seen the trailer of this movie (since I came by this documentary only today), but it does really seem like a fascinating documentary.
The fun part was the student's comment: this is happening IN OUR BACKYARDS. IN AMERICA. AND WE SHOULD CARE. And that was the rhetoric of the documentary, I think. It's happening here, not elsewhere! ....okay, and I've been reading about these "elsewheres" this semester. Nixon tells us all about the elsewheres, how the multinational corporations are ruining the environment of "hinterlands" with no compunction whatsoever. Since it's the hinterlands and its people that suffer, we don't necessarily pay attention to it. We hear about it perhaps once, on the news, but quickly forget about it. Unless it happens in our backyards. That's how human beings are. It needs to be right in your faces.
I liked that the student had started to take interest in such issues, but to look at it from a broader perspective. So, right after her presentation, I introduced Nixon's book (Slow Violence) to the class. I don't know if they took notes of the title or not-- it was a passing comment I made, and students don't really pay much attention to such passing comments... I should take the book along with Shiva's, and introduce it properly on Thursday. Maybe I'll get a handful of kids interested. Oh, and I can justify bringing in my personal interest to my 106 class-- their next assignment is to write a position paper on one of the three topics: technology, environment, education. :)
The student told the class that after she had watched the documentary (Gasland) with her brother, she decided to major in environmental engineering. Ah, so, a work like that will make changes! Isn't that grand?
ps: the photo of the cute chipmunk is from a rooftop restaurant in India (Udaipur). Thought he's cute enough to be randomly included here.
ps 2: I saw a WOODPECKER today, on my way to class! How awesome!
댓글 없음:
댓글 쓰기