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THE CORONA VIRUS IS A BIO-WEAPON! 5G IS DANGEROUS!! WE’RE GOING TO FALL INTO A DEPRESSION!

There have been a number of  conspiracy theories created by people who are understandably bored at home, or simply paranoid. We’re all quarantined and on some level, working from home. Others however, are concocting conspiracy theories to possibly create hysteria.  It’s quite funny to hear but also scary at the same time. All this disinformation being spread around is brainwashing people into believing nonsense. Everyone is pointing fingers in search of something or someone to blame because instinctively, that’s what humans do. As a result, they managed to blame the virus on a multitude of things. Some blame Trump and Fauci, others blame China, and some blame 5G; nothing definitive, but ideas some people need in order to feel a sense of control.

What really did happen? Basing it on plausible facts, it originated from a lab in China. This might mean this virus was man made or being used in experiments. After exposure, an employee contracted the virus unconsciously and spread it to his girlfriend. This is the onset of  the outbreak and apparently led us to where the Virus stands today. It’s very unclear as to the truth of it being man made or a natural strain. Chinese scientists claim that it’s impossible to be man made, but who knows if it’s true considering how many lies came from representatives of that country. At the end of the day, pointing fingers solves nothing. The virus emerged and has taken thousands of lives. Where is came from and who’s fault it is seems irrelevant right now.

We must deal with the virus head on and stop turning on each other. If it were to be a bio-weapon, clearly it’s working; not only with the amount of fatalities it has caused, it’s effecting the way we live and our economy. COVID-19 is bringing out the worst in people, turning them into selfish hoarders, and lunatics. God forbid someone goes outside, it’s turns into an issue with others. There is no right and wrong to the way of living through, this; there is no handbook to guide us. The only common denominator is the practice of safety. As much as all of this sucks, it could be Nature’s way of telling us to slow down and re-prioritize. It’s forcing us to recognize the importance of family and sharing time with them. Although we are working from home, it’s a good time to kick back, relax, and self evaluate. Times like these make us realize many things. Through self reflection perhaps we could work on ourselves during all the down time we all have. We should be productive in all that we do and not allow quarantine to stop, at least our personal growth.

Working out has been one of the leading activities that many Americans are partaking in. Everyone has ample time to fit whatever they want into their schedules. Incorporating a workout regiment could bring some positivity to people during such a hard time. As we all know, Summer is right around the corner. Many of us slacked when it came to our New Year’s resolutions so taking this time to work on ourselves would be best. Personally, it has helped me by motivating me more to fulfill all my daily tasks and has helped me feel better about myself. Everyone’s mental state is beginning to waiver, so exercise is a great way to feel good, feel motivated, and keep your sanity. There will always be people who would rather be part of the problem than part of the solution. With conspiracy theories spreading, quarantine underway, disinformation flooding the media, and everyone experiencing confusion, tragedy and fear, my best advice would be to stay safe and stay busy with positive and productive activities. Spend quality time with your families and find reasons to laugh together.

Recently, I watched Off White’s CEO Virgil Abloh’s lecture at Harvard’s School of Fashion Design. It truly inspired me to adopt a new perspective. Although he spoke from the fashion aspect, much of what he said pertained to life. He began by discussing how viewing life differently will benefit you significantly. Abloh stated that the best piece of advice given to him was that there are mini shortcuts you can take to fight the uphill battle to success. The way I interpreted this, and how some of you may as well, is that he believes in breaking down the process of success into something less strenuous. Everyone has heard the common phrase “It’s not easy getting to the top” which is a catch phrase that sounds more negative rather than positive. When he stated the advice given to him, it really resonated with me. I tend to always look ahead and stress out about things in the future instead of focusing on what I need to do today. Yes I do get what I need to do done, but the stress factor interferes. His concept is simple but extremely meaningful and logical.

The transition to his next point focused on the 3% approach. This is something I’ve never heard of but it ended up making perfect sense. The 3% approach is about making as many parts of your daily existence improve by 3%. It is self advancement through small reachable goals. This trait you can apply to college life. All college students are up to their throats in work and it does get overwhelming, but this method as much as it sounds too simple, can be proven effective. Personally, on Mondays I always obsessed over everything that was due at the end of the week. This theory helped me just look at Monday and work on all parts of my day including my Monday schoolwork. Once I took the baby steps toward improving, it made me want to improve more and more. Progressing in things slightly or even doing little parts of each and every one of your assignments and daily routines eventually adds up. Once everything is 100% done, you have nothing to worry about until the next wave of work when you can take the same approach.

The next piece of advice he offered was about not being a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist narrows down the amount of knowledge you can obtain. Broadening your horizons and being able to learn and understand new things is something you want rather than wanting to be perfect at one thing. I’m pretty sure it’s known to everyone at this point that it’s impossible to be perfect at anything so why try to be when there are many other things out there waiting to be learned.

(Meshing life and design together) Lastly, he speaks about design versus function. For example, when you see a doorknob, the design and process doesn’t come to mind, the function of turning the knob does. When its broken is when you start to think and question the design of it. No one’s first thought is about the design. Now this pertains to anything that you do, let it be for school or anything else, your work (“Design”) has to have a function and it needs to have passion woven into it for it to work effectively.

“Design has to work, art does not.”

-Donald Judd

One of the things the United States is known for is our obesity crisis. When you boil it down to the facts, not only is the population over consuming, it’s that unhealthy foods are readily available to everyone and they are at a significantly lower price.

Today, fast food chains dominate the food industry in our country. Everywhere you go, there’s some sort of fast food joint near by. So from this, it’s easier to grab and go with cheaply made food with tons of fat and other unhealthy ingredients. This is much more appealing than buying something healthy. You save money and time. On the other hand, they have healthier choices that people can choose from, but at an extra expense. Normally, healthy food costs on average $1.50 more than unhealthy foods and by the end of the year, this totals to about $550 extra. Not every family can spend this kind of money just on food. Everyone has their own financial situations, some can spend the money and some can’t.  According to medicalxpress.com, low income families that substitute healthier foods consume almost 40% of their budget.

It is evident that diet quality directly correlates with social status. 29% of the population reside in the lower class, 40% of our population is obese. That means, the lower class amounts to 72% of the obesity problem. To the common middle class American, being healthy is one of the main focuses to living an all around healthy life. However, this doesn’t come to mind to the lower class. They have different focuses  and different problems to tend to, health isn’t their main priority. This isn’t done consciously, whatever can feed the family will feed the family no matter what it is. Putting food on the table is a main priority.

All Americans shop at the same grocery stores such as Shop Rite, Stop and Shop, Wegmans, etc. Prices vary slightly, but the same problem persists. Prices for healthier foods must be reduced by a significant percentage in order to assist in solving this problem. It won’t completely resolve the issue but it will definitely make a massive difference. These lower class families can’t help it when it comes to making unhealthy choices, it’s near impossible for them to fully replace their diets with healthier foods. It’s inevitable that they’ll gain weight…and our country wonders why obesity is such an issue. These big corporations don’t care about who they’re affecting, only the money matters. They will continue to expand their investments into every area possible. As long as it brings in money for them, nothing else matters. Money controls our country’s actions, therefore as hard as we may try to change this, nothing will change. People will continue to be apart of the obesity epidemic, lower income families will continue to consume these foods and the irresponsible individuals who don’t hold their health a priority will also join the epidemic. Something major has to happen to open up the public’s eyes about this issue. Humans are inherently self serving and self indulgent and will only go out of their way to make changes to issues that directly affect them, not others.

The Fireman’s Charitable Foundation is fraudulent and although it claims to “raise money” for victims of fires, I say its a scam.

Charities such as this one tend to invoke the thought “How much of my money really goes towards this cause?” Do we really know where our money is going? The answer to that is no. Most of the time we tend to donate to foundations that we relate to or have sympathy for, so we make a sacrifice by giving to others and to support a cause. Oftentimes with charities, most of the proceeds claim to be used solely for the cause, and perhaps this is accurate but with the Fireman’s Charitable Foundation, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.

When you open the website, right off the bat it tells the reader where their money is going and why they should support. It’s very similar to a sponsorship deal. The sponsor claims there was no monetary gain, when in fact there was, it just came from the infrastructure. That’s how this charity works. The donations seem to be used to pay all aspects of the infrastructure-CEO, administration, facility costs, etc., then the remainder goes to the families affected by fires. As long as the charity promises a certain amount, the bulk of the other money can go anywhere they’d like. In addition, there aren’t any testimonials from people helped by this foundation, statistics, percentages, nothing, just the reasons  we should donate. In this section, pathos is used by discussing the tragedy fires bring to families and how much of a burden the families carry through rebuilding their entire lives. It focuses on how they are lucky to be alive, and how terrible it is that these families that were affected lost everything they worked a lifetime for. It’s very sad don’t get me wrong, but where’s the proof that this foundation is effecting change and recovery for these families or individuals? There isn’t any.

Next we have the most important persuasive piece of this website. A photo of a grieving fireman with an angel beside him. Seeing this most likely provokes the thought of any average human to think “Oh what can I do to make sure our hard working firemen don’t have to look like this? Here take my money.” Boom, they just got scammed. This photo appeals to pathos as well, as it triggers our emotion to make us possibly donate. Not only is it on the homepage, it takes up a quarter of it. They want us to see that picture and immediately feel pity. Majority of people make decisions based on emotion and a picture like this can lure anyone in. This isn’t me bashing firemen, I have the utmost respect for our courageous first -responders who put their lives on the line for the well being and safety of others. However, this organization is exploiting their hard work and time for money and profit.

Now it’s time to expose the things that they don’t tell you. Wouldn’t you think that your donations are going directly to the cause? Well, you’re completely wrong. I just so happened to stumble across a website called www.charitynavigator.org which gives a breakdown of where donations go for every charity known today. So according to www.Charitynavigator.com, only 8.6% of donations go towards the services that the charity delivers. 8.6%… what about the other 91.4%, where does that money go? To fundraising (86.6%) and administrative expenses (4.8). This clearly doesn’t make sense. Of course there are bills to be paid in order to mainatin a charity, but the percentages are ridiculously skewed, helping the charity more than the people who need the charity of others.

The moral of the story, do your research before you donate. Perhaps handing the family in need your intended “donation” would be more effective than mailing a check to a charity.