Author: Ryan Chowdhury

Climate Change Movies: 2012 and Interstellar

2012

Interstellar

 

When we think of Climate Change, we think of how the world might be towards the end of mankind. The Earth has been our home for billions of years it is the only planet we are capable of living. With the Ozone depletion and rising sea levels and presence of more greenhouse gases. Earth is expected to gradually become less livable. Loss of land and homes for people and humans as well as shortage of crops and animals will result in shortage of food sources for mankind. One movie that discusses such phenomena about the end of the world is the movie, “2012”. 2012 was a fantastic example of mass destruction leading to almost an end to mankind for which people had to resort to going onto a boat and restarting life. Another great example is the movie “Interstellar”. In Interstellar, the character Cooper leaves Earth with his team in search of planets that can be habitable with enough food and water supplies for mankind to settle. They go across different galaxies and planets in order to find a new home. The movie perfectly portrays how life might become for mankind if we do not take this issue seriously. Both movies predict the Earth to be potentially inhabitable which may one day become reality.

Director Sam Pollard

Sam Pollard Interview

I was very inspired watching Sam Pollard being interviewed live at the Baruch Library building. I used to be into film making when I was young. It is still something I would one day love to pursue if I ever get the time to. Listening to Sam Pollard speak about his experience in Baruch and how grateful he was towards his advisor for helping him pursue his passion towards editing and filmmaking which made him change his major from Marketing to Filmmaking. It really inspired me to think hypothetically that it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea if I ever decide to pursue it. I missed a lot of the event because I had a long commute from work making me miss the first few minutes of his interview but the remaining time that I was there, I was very inspired. I always thought someday I would become a filmmaker. I even considered trying to be a writer for Saturday Night Live. Listening to Sam Pollard really made me go back to the childhood dreams and rethink about it.

“The Jungle” Casting Characters

Keira Knightley in "Pride and Prejudice"Henry Cavill and Keira KnightleyHenry Cavill in "The Tudors"

For Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle”, the author describes Jurgis to be very masculine and strong as he is the head of the household and the central provider of the family. He is a strong personality and is always motivated to work. He is physically strong and can take care of the family and their needs by himself. Ona on the other hand is fully feminine and has very submissive characteristics in contrast to Jurgis. For Jurgis’s character I think Henry Cavill is the perfect option for Jurgis as he has played similar characters. He literally played Superman and Jurgis was the superman of their family. Henry Cavill is well built and masculine and European and he has played in similar periodic movies, I think Henry Cavill will be able to portray Jurgis perfectly. For Ona’s character, I believe Keira Knightley is a perfect option. Keira Knightley is known for her role in Pirates of the Caribbean, Pride and Prejudice and Ana Karenina. Keira Knightley has played similar feminine characters and been in the same type of period films just like Henry Cavill. And since both are British, I think they will portray the European character perfectly. These two are perfect for playing the characters.

“Quarter Rican” play Blog Post

The play, “Quarter Rican” to me was a unique show to watch. A play that took place at the Puerto Rican Travelling Theater, this show was performed by only three actors and a very small stage with not many props. Regardless, this show was able to catch not only mine but everyone’s attention and managed to provide full entertainment. The main storyline of the play was about a mixed Puerto Rican and White man named Danny who just had a baby with his wife who was also white. The baby having a half Puerto Rican father and a white mom is due to become only twenty five percent Puerto Rican. The father “Danny” finds himself in a dilemma on how he will raise his son with Puerto Rican culture and values and fears he will not retain the looks or identify his Puerto Rican origins.

This play brought light to the dilemma mixed kids and adults often feel, a question about which culture to embrace. This play was very interesting to watch as he later came in terms with his identity and realized it is okay. I did some research and found the actor Danny played by Gabriel Hernandez, a native from Hoboken, New Jersey was also the creator of the show along with his wife. The other actors, especially the girl who was the DJ as well had exceptional vocals. I sat next to my friend Michael, and we were appreciating her vocals throughout the play. It was very enjoyable.

Welcome to the Week – First Three Chapters of Silent Spring

Silent Spring

Silent Spring is an excellent excerpt that emphasizes the impact mankind has on nature. The author begins with a beautiful description of a natural utopian setting. “There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the checkerboard of prosperous farm,” this line described golden rural American towns with naturally rich soil, full of vegetation as well as described the farm life and insect life, to be idealistic until an “evil spell” came through. The evil spell was a metaphor used to describe the involvement of mankind and modern technology. More specifically, in this book, the use of chemicals and pesticides.

The second chapter later continues onto describing how pesticides have an impact on nature and the insect population. The impact of pesticides leaves a long-lasting effect on the land and its inhabitants. As the line says, “To adjust to these chemicals would require time on scale that is nature’s; it would require not merely the years of a man’s life but the life of generations,” The author not only gives us a scientific description and validates the effects of pesticides and chemicals but his use of metaphoric phrases to describe chemicals as an evil spirit.

Question 1) Do you think mankind and their inventions are nature’s worst enemy?

If we go back to the levels, pollution had decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic simply because all factories and businesses were closed and people were quarantined in their houses, I think it is obvious that us humans are solely responsible for the way the Earth has been hurting. The author has mentioned the “evil spell” that is destroying lands and its inhabitants. We can notice the absence of certain birds chirping sounds that we use to hear when we were younger. He also mentioned disappearance of birds, spread of diseases across the adults as well as children. Pesticides washed away enter streams and pollute waters, killing existing marine life.

Question 2) What can we do as consumers to advocate safer and more natural food options?

What steps can we take to reduce exposures of chemicals on our food. The use of chemicals and pesticides does not only affect the nature, but it affects us as well. We, as consumers, are daily consuming “fresh” produce every day thinking it is fresh when it has chemicals that affect us as well. As the water gets contaminated, it affects the sea life which is also a major source of our food. As consumers and as inhabitants of Earth, we must consider the harm we are putting other living things through. The pests we are trying to kill are also natural inhabitants that are needed.

Department of Health – Using Pesticides.

According to the Department of Health, people are advised to use the labels as directions. It is advised that pesticides not to be applied before rain or when chances are high for precipitation so the chemicals wouldn’t be washed up to the nearby body of water, and during weathers with low breeze and low temperature to avoid the spread of these chemicals to surrounding areas.

Question 3) Is it possible to restore Earth to its pre-industrial days with less pollution and provide a safer environment for the future generation?

With current industrial cities and the existence of modern technology that we are accustomed to, it is very difficult for us to cut down everything and focus on helping the Earth. Noise, Air and Water pollution will continue to exist. What we can do to tackle it is take precautions to battle the pollution by saving energy and recycling products as well as not wasting resources. We should not rely on artificial substances as much such as these chemicals and support local and organic products. We must battle climate change by planting more trees to tackle the greenhouse effect that is also affecting our environment.

CUNY 2023 Demands Today

After reading the Blog on the class of 1969s protests and demands from Baruch College and CUNY in general. As we head towards the current day we live today, we can notice different sets of problems arising. CUNY is growing to be more and more diverse in population leading to various groups of students to be on campus on a regular basis. There is a growing number of Asian and Muslim students on campus. These students usually join a group called the Muslim Student Association aka the MSA. MSA has been active in Baruch for a while now and have a large group of students who are active. These students have been demanding a place for prayer as we must pray five times a day. I have noticed MSA students to be protesting near the Verical Building or standing on the Baruch Way. These students must be provided with a place of prayer as it is their right to have one.

Secondly, Baruch has an enormously beautiful campus. The Verical Building being a big architecturally advanced building with barely any access to elevators on all floors. The only elevators that have access to every floor are the ones they mostly reserve for professors and students with special needs. Baruch should either provide us with more elevators with access to more floors that could help students get to class faster and loosen the traffic by the elevator every day. They can also provide us with escalators on every floors instead of just on the first five. It is very difficult to get to classes on floors above the fifth.

Thirdly, the offices are only limited in hours and mostly during hours where most students have class. Whenever we have something important to bring up to the Bursar or Registrar’s Office, we must make it within those limited time periods and often it takes me days to finally get something done because most semesters, I’ve realized my classes fall under that time.

I’ve noticed in most universities they have a food court with some regular mandatory fast-food chains always present such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s and some other located inside most university campuses I have been to. I wish Baruch would also have a food court so sometimes especially during the winter we could just grab something quick right from the building rather than having to walk outside and look for something more expensive.

This is a meme made by one of the pages blaming kids for taking elevators to the 5th floor causing more traffic

Reflection on Museum of the City of New York

The visit to the Museum of the City of New York was a great learning experience. I often found myself reading and researching about how New York City became the city that it is, and often read excerpts on the history of New York and immigrant stories. Visiting the exhibit in the museum of the city of New York shown us from different time periods and decades, this exhibit taught me a lot. We read about the early immigrant settlement in New York City and the existence of slavery in the city. We then moved onto the Industrial Revolution, where we learned about working conditions in the factories and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

We gradually moved into modern times during the era of War. World War I and World War II and its effects on the people of New York. What stood out to me the most was the last exhibit about the Black Lives Matter movement. Since that is the most recent and something that I have seen first-hand. A timeline of events had taken place since Trevaughn Martin’s murder in 2012 and gradually onto George Floyd’s case in 2020. I remember moving to the United States on July 3rd, 2013. I was in my uncle’s car on the way from the airport to their home in Old Westbury, when the radio jockeys were discussing Trevaughn’s case and talking about racial profiling and “stop and frisk,” all these terms I had no idea about. Eventually, my cousins explained it to me what those meant and that was basically the beginning of my impression that America may not be the perfect place I thought it would be before I moved. Then, onwards, I was always working with different non-profit organizations and have attended various protests for racial profiling and was actively supporting for justice for George Floyd.

That exhibit stuck out to me the most. Overall, the exhibit changed my perspective in many ways. As our host had said, “New York City’s history is all about social movements, and is full of activism and protests.” Since it is one of the most diverse cities in the world, it taught me how New York City eventually. Became home to these diverse groups of people.

Annotating “Howl” by Alan Ginsberg

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,

dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix”

 

    In this line, Ginsberg begins the setting of the poem as dark and dystopian, setting the tone to be quite like “Gotham City”. He emphasizes the social situation of the era. Using the word “starving hysterical naked” Ginsberg described how both people were suffering economically the same time described it to be a social chaos. Ginsberg also hinted the social rights movement going on.

“Moloch whose eyes are a thousand blind windows! Moloch whose skyscrapers stand in the long streets like endless Jehovah’s! Moloch whose factories dream and croak in the fog! Moloch whose smokestacks and antennae crown the cities!”

 

    Ginsberg personifies the city as a ‘Moloch’. The term blind windows may refer to people ignoring others struggles and problems. The author also mentions the ‘Moloch’ to have endless skyscrapers defining the city to be very urban and endless Jehovah’s which is a Hebrew term for God. The factories dream and croak in the fog, the author personified the factories and described them to “dream and croak in the fog”, referring the fog to pollution.

Family Burdens

Kenia Torres, Ganna Sizikova, Omar Placencia, Ryan Chowdhury

Throughout the story Jurguis is constantly carrying a lot of weight on his shoulders— both literally and metaphorically. For example, starting in chapter one, Jurgis is forced to work harder and harder every time someone in his family finds themselves too weak to do their part.

Quotes:

Jurgis, without a word, lifts Ona in his arms, and strides out with her, and she sinks her head upon his shoulder with a moan…“Leave it to me; leave it to me. I will earn more money⁠—I will work harder.”(Chapter 1)

As a result of this, little Stanislovas conceived a terror of the cold that was almost a mania. Every morning, when it came time to start for the yards, he would begin to cry and protest…In the end it had to be arranged that he always went with Jurgis, and came home with him again; and often, when the snow was deep, the man would carry him the whole way on his shoulders.” (Chapter 7)

 

“She did not tell half of her story at home, because she saw it was a torment to Jurgis, and she was afraid of what he might do.” (Chapter 10).

Knowing the weight on Jurgis’s shoulders, the family members don’t want to tell him about their struggles at work in the Packing town, leading them to even worse situations.  Maybe Ona would not end up in a position where her boss raped her if she just spoke with Jurgis and they found the way out of there.  “Miss Henderson’s plot.  She hated me.  And he—he wanted me.  He used to speak to me—out on the platform.  Then he began to—to make love to me.  He offered me money.  He begged me—he said he loved me.  Then he threatened me.  He knew all about us, he knew we would starve.  “ (Chapter 15)

 

“Working in his shirtsleeves, and with the thermometer at over a hundred…. there was a frightful pain in the top of his skull, and he could hardly control his hands. Still, with the memory of his four months’ siege behind him, he fought on, in a frenzy of determination.” (Chapter 13)