Jessica Jackley's Perspective on Poverty

Jessica Jackley's Sunday school lessons initially shaped her perception of the underprivileged. She was taught that the underprivileged required her assistance. She first learned about the negative things happening in the world of the poor people later in life. Their surroundings were filled with sorrow, adversity, and destruction. Every time she heard about them, she started to feel awful and she started to put the poor more away. Later, she started giving money to the needy, but she soon recognized that this was insufficient and continued to do so in order to stop feeling guilty. This is where she heard a Nobel peace prize winner talk about microfinance, and her perspective changed. From this point, all she saw were entrepreneurs who were hardworking, smart, and eager to provide for their families. Her view changed because she realized that the poor people did not want donations but rather loans that they could use to expand what they were already doing with their lives.

To create social change in the oppressed countries, she believes that the concept of partnering rather than the traditional donor-beneficiary relationship will work better in improving the lives of the people in the impoverished nations. A combination of money and community is much better than money alone, and it is through caring and partnering that the world will be improved.

Close Up and Personal

For the Close Up and Personal playlist, the speaker chosen was Ryan Lobo. The speaker had worked in the film industry for a long time, but he started taking pictures of the places he went. He realized that the images could tell better stories than the documentaries he had been making. Additionally, the playlist covers the hidden story about the rays of hope in war-torn countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Liberia. He touches on the devastation of child soldiers in Liberia and paints a clear and disturbing picture of the experiences of people living in these countries. He shows an idea of forgiveness that seems almost too reasonable to be true.

The speaker uses pictures to tell the story of a former general who had murdered and killed thousands of people. In the photographs, many of his victims are seen forgiving him for the crimes he had committed against them. The warlord had taken everything away from them, and they were currently languishing in poverty and despair. However, despite this, the people found it in their heart to forgive the former murderer. He shows the kind of power that can come from hopeless places. Forgiveness cannot necessarily replace justice, but it sure does bring about social change in the society, including the war-torn areas. The playlist is also inspiring as it shows an all-women troop of Indian peacekeepers in Liberia. Despite the sexism and discrimination, they face back home; they are willing to serve humanity thousands of miles away from home. The video inspired me to do better in anything that I and stop complaining about the lack of resources because of it impossible to do so much with so little.









The Pursuit of Justice

The playlist selected in this case is that by Sunitha Krishnan who talks about the fight against sex slavery. She depicts the horror and torture that the sex slavery victims undergo through her pictures. She shows people who have no voice and no way out. If they resist, they pay the consequences, and if they succumb, they still pay the price. After watching the video, I could not help but realize how terrifying the whole experiment of sexual slavery is. Children as young as seven years old are not spared. Sometimes, even the parents of the children take part in selling the children into sexual slavery. Personally, I feel like more should be done to create more awareness on the issue of sexual slavery. Society needs to stop the silence on this issue. People need to show victims empathy and stop victimizing them further.

Margaret Mead's statement

According to Margaret Mead's statement, it is the small group of people who make real change in the world, not the multitudes. The statement bears some truth because, in all the playlists and videos that have been watched, only a few people are working to create a difference in the lives of millions of people. If the number of these compassionate people could increase even slightly, then the improvements in society would inevitably rise exponentially. Without the initial steps taken by few brave and passionate people, it would not be possible to make any progress. The limitation of the perspective is that the small people act to impact positive change in society, but their voices are not big enough to be hard. They are silenced by greed, ignorance, and the lack of compassion, which are way louder.







Works Cited

http://www.ted.com/playlists/15/the_pursuit_of_justice.html

http://www.ted.com/playlists/72/close_up_and_personal.html

https://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love?language=en