"More time!" and "More energy!"
When I read the letter I was moved by how meaningful their answers were and how much it meant to me. This past Friday night I went with some NHS kids to Feed My Starving Children. While I have done Feed My Starving Children several times, I am always moved by the videos of the starving children and the overall poverty in different areas of the globe.
In the annual letter, Bill and Melinda point out that poverty is not just about a lack of money. Often times, poverty has to do about lack of resources. This letter puts a whole new meaning on lack of energy and lack of time. Watch these two video clips:
Do you know that more than one billion people today live without access to energy?
These video clips give a whole new meaning to lack of time and energy.
In this next video clip, Melinda gates talks to teens about lack of time:
Below is the link to the actual letter and some great graphics on time and energy poverty:
https://www.gatesnotes.com/2016-Annual-Letter
While my sons would have picked superpowers like being able to fly, be invisible, be insanely fast and super human strength. Joe is thinking if he could be like Superman that would be a cool super power. What is your super power? If you choose this blog option, I want you to read the letter and watch the video clips. in a scholarly response, summarize what you learned. What do you think? As a teenager, what can you do about this? What would your "Super Power For Good" be?
Bill and Melinda Gates were asked a major question by high school students that lead to a more deeper meaning and significance than anticipated. If they both could have super powers, they would want to be able to have more energy and time. As they stated their answers they demonstrated that these two terms have a myriad of different meanings all around the world. In rich countries time and energy can be used for different things, but in poor countries and people suffering from penury, these terms are put on a whole other level. People living in poor countries don't have the energy and electricity needed for everyday life. Many people that take time and energy for granted because many people around the world don't have the same opportunities and privileges. If I could have a super power, I would want people around the globe to be able to get food, water and electricity on a daily basis so that more people would be healthy and happy human beings.
ReplyDeleteI think that a super power that could supply the world with food, water, and energy would be very beneficial, although I don't know how many places you could frequently supply as just one person. I like the use of your vocab word "penury."
DeleteI totally agree with you! I also had the same super power and think that it is important for people around the world to experience the essentials we are blessed with in the U.S.
DeleteI agree with you Grace. I think that that would be a great super power to have because it would help a lot of people including making yourself happy.
DeleteThese documents exhibit how privileged we are to be able to have such abundant and immediate access to energy. More than a billion people live without energy. GatesNotes is an organization that aims at bettering the world and improving the living conditions for those in need. I, as a teenager, can contribute by lowering my energy consumption and volunteering. For example, I have also volunteered at Feed My Starving Children and the Food Pantry before. I can also help by pursuing studies that focus on bettering how we use and distribute energy. If I had a superpower to change the world, I chose to enhance togetherness. I believe that the first step to changing something is rallying the support to do so. Also, the act of coming together eradicates the greed and blindness that bring focus away from these big issues that need to be addressed. It's our fault as inhibitors of this Earth that these problems exist so it must also be our problem to fix them.
ReplyDeleteI think engancing togetherness is a great superpower to wish for because this will bring people from all around the world together in order to make our world a better place. It's unbelievable how many people don't have energy in their everyday lives, making people realize how fortunate we are to actually have energy.
DeleteI really like your superpower choice. Our generation needs to bring people together so we can all help each other.
DeleteI agree. This blog was really insightful.
DeleteBy addressing this question about any superpower we wish to have, Bill and Melinda gates delve into a deeper subject with underlying issues in their responses. While many may answer that an impossible superpower like being able to fly or invisibility would be their wish, depending on the type of life a young child or adult lives, it greatly impacts their answer. In countries that may be slower developed and less economically stable, power and time are small luxuries that people wish for everyday. When asked this question by high school students, Bill and Melinda Gates wished for more time and more energy, most importantly for those who are overworked and cannot enjoy simple needs such as electricity. As teenagers we can do the most in our generation. It is up to us to start foundations, gain resources, and deliver happiness, no matter how small the amount, to people around the globe by giving them electricity, clean water, and making the jobs of many overworked women easier every day. If I could choose, the superpower for good I would want is to be able to provide all the resources that are essential for daily life such as water, food, electricity, and jobs to everyone across the globe.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the super power we were to choose a super greatly depends on the life we live and the up bringing we had. If someone were to grow up with all the luxury in life, would they choose a power that could make a difference? Where as a child that grew up in a less devolved country may choose one with a greater significance, and impact of their life and those around them.
DeleteI agree that we as teenagers need to take intitiative and start foundations, gaining resources to help other people that really need time and energy for their own purposes.
ReplyDeleteI learned that if Bill and Melinda Gates could have a superpower it would be energy and time. At first this sounded stupid because we always look at the "cool" superpowers such as flying or being invisible. Energy can impact millions of lives, they need more energy or time, as Melinda said. If I were to choose a superpower for good it would be to be anywhere at anytime. This superpower would be amazing, I could go anywhere to help a community. These videos and the letter really show how privileged we are. They barely have any resources and we have everything, but still we don't even want to do the dishes or do the laundry. We have machines to do it for us and people in less privileged countries have to do everything by hand. As me being apart of the new coming generation I and all the other people in my generation have to help out everyone. We have to stop being lazy and stop taking everyday things for granted.
ReplyDeleteI learned that 1 BILLION people don't have access to electricity or heat which really surprised me. That's 1/7 of the worlds population which is insane. I think that Bill and Melinda both chose great options because they really were trying to help people and thought of helping people when they came up with that answer. I also thought their answers were clever because most people would've chosen to fly or have laser eyes. If I had to choose a superpower for good it would be to make a small thing big. For example, make a small rock of coal into 1 ton of coal. That would benefit us so much. But it would work for anything, food, oil, coal, water, anything.
ReplyDeleteWho doesn’t wish they could they could have a superpower? When asked what their superpower of choice would be Bill and Melinda Dates chose something that would help people and changing the world. Melinda Gates choose more time. More time for people to reach their full potential. Bill Gates choose more energy. Many people still don’t have the energy that we use to light up the school or turn in assignments through google classroom. Not even the chance to share our thoughts on a particular topic. As a teenager I think what I can do is help to spread the situation and possibly solutions. But as a teenager and the next generation of the human race it is up to us to find a way or technology to try and fix all of this in our world. Also lowering my energy consumption rate would help. I think that the ability to do something like that would amazing. If you had asked me what superpower I would want before reading the letter and watching the video clips I might have said flight or shape shifting. With this taken into thought my superpower for good would be to heal. With this ability I would be able not only heal people but use my power to help find cures for the diseases that don’t have one yet. The only problem I have found with superpowers there is always a catch. Taking this into consideration I would still choose the ability to heal even if that meant there a Mr.Hyde part of me that could only bring chaos.
ReplyDeleteIn the article and videos it shows how lucky and privileged we are to have energy to power our houses and computers and our iphones but billions of people live without energy and they are some of the poorest people in the world and that’s why Bill Gate’s super power would be more energy so that people could have the same opportunities all around the world melinda super power would be more time so that we would have time to do these opportunities. They gave these examples to high school students because we are future generations that can make energy cheaper and cleaner if we fund and work towards a solution along with other issues that face the world today. A super power for good that I would like to have is knowledge that way everyone would know things no matter where you live or who you are so you would have the same opportunities as someone halfway across the world.
ReplyDeleteI would have transformation as my super power for good. This isn’t a super power you would normally think of but it works. Imagine all the resources in the world that we have a lot of. Well with this super power you take a certain part of that and transform it into something that we don’t have a lot of and distrubt it. The only scenario this wouldn’t work is when we have little to nothing of everything. Which would already be hard to live on. Right now there are enough resources that if you took out a little of them out of the world it wouldn't hurt us. Right when we start running out of the resources we had a lot of we just take the newly replenished resource and use that. It is a never ending cycle.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good super power. If you look at places around the world, they don't have the same amount of resources we do in Crystal Lake. In the Middle East, there is a shortage of water since their only large body of water is the Mediterranean Sea.
DeleteI agree with your view, and that useless powers are cool, but do nothing for our society
DeleteIf I were to choose a superpower it would definitely be invisibility. I don’t really have any specific reason, I just think it’d be cool. If I had to chose a super power for good then I would go with firebending like in Avatar, because I could potentially supply an area with an infinite amount of power. In these videos and the letter I learned that a lot of extreme poverty doesn’t come from actually being poor, but it comes from being in an area with limited resources such as clean water and available energy. As a teenager there isn’t a whole lot I can do yet, but in future years I could do much more. One thing I’m doing to help is I’m going on a mission trip this Summer to Colombia to install solar powered water purifiers in a couple villages.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article and watching the videos I think that we as americans use a lot of energy so we may not think about it as a superpower because we use it everyday but in some countries they don't have energy and that can make things more difficult. Also time everyone always says there never enough time in a day to do everything I want to do but for people without energy they have even less time because it takes more time for them to do the tasks that we take for granted because we have energy. Energy is a big part of everyday life so it's hard to imagine not having it. If everyone could feel that way and we could figure out a way to have energy and not harm the environment that would be great. Some people in Africa don't have energy and like shown in the letter some kids do their homework with candle light, that would be pretty hard. Also time is one of their dream superpowers. Melinda says that women spend about 4-6 hours on unpaid work around the world. Thats a lot of time and work that you are not getting paid for. If the time spent on kids and cooking and other motherly jobs was split between the mother and father the mother would have more time to reach her full potential. So as teenagers we can grow up and learn that all the work at home doesn't get dumped onto the mother or women that it can be separated equally. Also we can be trying to find ways to get lots for energy for little costs and in a way that won't hurt the environment. So although I think time and energy would be cool superpowers to have and would help everyone I still think I would want to be able to fly.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is very smart cool to think about it in the way they thought about it. Just the fact that the gates would get a very noble power makes me happy. I could do many things but the first one that comes to mind is that I could raise money and donate it to a fundraiser or charity. The power that I would choose is Thirstokinesis. Thirstokinesis is the power to control someone's thirst. The reason why I choice this one is because I don’t want water to be wasted so if i could make it so people don’t need to waste water than we would have more.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the Gates' noble choices. I think they are amazing people who have done a lot for the world and helping everyone on it.
DeleteFor my superpower I would probably choose to have unlimited money. It is generic but I wouldn't use it all on myself. I would use it mostly to help the world and make it a better place. Just like the Gates. They choose their superpower so that it would help other people not just themselves. As a child many of them choose a superpower that would be cool to them but as they get older they realize that there are superpowers that could help a lot of people not just themselves. LIke the wish for more energy it would help with the production of things and the wish for more time which would help her create a better world.Overall, a super power shouldn't just be for yourself, it's nice to know that people like the gates think of more than just themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhen asked what the best possible superpowers would be to have, Bill and Melinda Gates chose the ability to give energy and time -both highly coveted in today’s world. The energy would be clean and abundant for impoverished places to access in order to ease their lifestyles. It would also help cut down the amount of energy used, leading the world to be more successful with less impact. Time would give back to those who give so much of themselves to their families with cooking, cleaning and care (all unpaid and mostly underappreciated). People, especially women, could use extra time to pursue interests and reach their highest potential. As for myself, if I could choose a superpower for the world it would be some sort of empathy and/or feelings link. I believe that it would be beneficial for professions such as doctors and psychologists to be able to get a better look at the person they’re treating and give them the most personal care ever. Of course, they would be able to control the link, as nobody would want to feel other’s pain all the time. In fact, this type of link would be beneficial for everyone to have (to some extent). It would help people understand and appreciate each other more.
ReplyDeleteIf I could choose a superpower, I would choose the ability to advance the rate at which food grows. I would choose this because it would be useful in more ways than one. It could possibly help end hunger and starvation, and I could also grow food for myself in my backyard. It would reduce my carbon footprint, and would help other people in their lives. I could go to a field that had just been planted, and make it ready for harvest. I thought the Gates' choices made a lot of sense. Time and energy are two things that we can't seem to get enough of. I think people need to look at what they would like as a superpower for good, and start making changes on their lifestyle based on that. Even if doing something like using less water does not seem like a superpower, if enough people do it, it can really make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI like your idea on food growing faster for multiple purposes. I think many people could benefit from that.
DeleteWe had a very similar super power. I think it's interesting how our first thoughts were to end starvation.
DeleteOne million people do not have access to electricity or running heat. This may not be a problem in the summertime, but the wintertime would be even colder than it should be. Also, I could not imagine a world without electricity, for it is what I am using right now. Both Bill and Melinda Gates chose good topics, because both involved helping out the world in a positive way. Most people would choose useless topics such as to fly, read minds, etc. I myself, would’ve chose something useless and cool, which is a reflection upon character.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed these videos and letters. I think that even though Bill and Melinda Gates are extremely wealthy, they are still very humble. When asking many kids or people if they could have any super power. most would say flying, or strength. Bill and Melinda took a broader view and thought of a power to help other rather than themselves. Melinda said time for women around the world who don't have enough. Bill said energy for the billion people who still do not have any. If I was to have one super power it would be my leadership skills. I enjoy people looking up to me, or feeling like I am trustworthy. A super power for good would be kindness. I think respect and kindness is a lost art in our society and we need to revive it so that the world can become better.
ReplyDeleteWhen Bill and Melinda Gates were asked to choose one super power, they took it to a deeper meaning. With the responses of more energy, and time, these powers could have many different impacts, depending on where you used them. We as teenagers have the power to change, and make a difference by gaining resources, and making a difference. People with different ways of living will may choose a super power that can impact and change their lives and those of the people around them. Where as people, teens, who have more resources and a "better" life may choose a super power like flying. One that wouldn't make as much of a change in their community. If I had the power to choose any super power I wanted i would choose, happiness. The ability to impact someones life, not with the material things but with a smile. A feeling. I think whats the point of having a super power and using it for your own pleasure, when you could be using that power to make a change.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a super power, it would be to make food for all the needy. This would save many lives and let other countries, needier countries, thrive. I think that although my idea was pretty good, Bill Gates' was better. These are the kinds of thoughts people need to have in order to save lives and end different issues. As a teenager, all I can really do at this point is raise awareness through issues and spread the word.
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