Starlin Jimenez Blog #2

Opening my eyes to a whole new world

This was one of the more enjoyable projects especially because this one was one of the only projects that I personally got to learn about a new aspect of what is affecting our country.  People tend to hyper focus on the more controversial topics like the others that were assigned to the groups like gender inequality and climate change because there is a lot more interest and gray area involved in those topics. It is a lot sexier to speak about those types of things versus speaking about infrastructure. People, including my past self, do not have the slightest clue how important infrastructure is to the growth of any nation and to the lives of individuals rich or poor. This is something that everyone should pay a lot more attention to, especially since it can determine their future economically and their lifestyle. Since infrastructure is not something that is visible to everyone it is noticed by a lot of the economic lower class. The people that get hit the most generally are people who rely on infrastructure like sewage, electricity, and much more. So, this was a big eye opener for me especially since I have never been on the other end of the effects of bad infrastructure. A specific example that everyone is familiar with was the snow storm in Texas that left people who did not have the means to pay the over the top electric and gas bills completely devastated. People's lives depend on this type of stuff. So the United States needs to get on top of it right now.

The part I was assigned was comparing the infrastructure of the United States to other countries of similar wealth across the world. I say similar wealth because as everyone knows there are some countries with unfortunate circumstances that are not able to provide decent infrastructure for their citizens so it is unfair to compare those to the United States. When comparing the infrastructure of the United States with other countries you start to quickly notice where the United States falls behind. It is staggering to know that the United States is the wealthiest country in the world yet falls at number 13 globally overall in infrastructure. We lack things like water treatment and communications. The most heinous aspect of the United States infrastructure system is the public transportation system. If you take a closer look into other countries like France who are significantly poorer than the United States (they are still wealthy in the grand scheme of things) they happen to have much better public transportation than the United States ever has. This is what really got me out of everything. How can the United States do so poorly compared to other countries who do not have even half of the resources the United States has. This is not just a thing with France but it is similar in other countries like Norway, Singapore, Japan, and many more. It was extremely interesting to find out these facts. My mind was being blown all throughout the project.

Some of the struggles I faced were asking the right questions and answering them with relevant answers that were easy to consume and digest. When you start to venture into a completely new world that you never knew even existed you start to run into some issues. To put it into perspective, imagine the very first time you go to a Japanese restaurant. You do not know one thing about the food. Since you do not know anything, how can you ask any questions? Do you ask about french fries? You run the risk of asking irrelevant questions. This is the problem that I ran into. First I had to go and search up the word infrastructure to get a better sense of what the word even meant and from that point on it was magic. I found out infrastructure encompasses the aspects of what helps the everyday needs of society run. Stuff that people would never think twice about like waste and water. These are the things that help us go and improve our lives. Imagine if everyday we had to worry about where we would get our water, electricity, or where we would have to use a functioning bathroom. These are the basic needs fulfilled so we can focus on other issues that can make our lives even better. This is why out of all the projects presented I truly believe this is the one people could have learned the most about because climate change and gender inequality have been spoken about for many years by everyone. Infrastructure is one of those things that does not get enough attention or credit for helping us run our lives and fulfilling our very basic needs and necessities.

I learned personally to go out and seek new information and to try and widen your horizon to make sure that you do not ignore information because it does not seem important. That is the fate that infrastructure has faced. Since infrastructure has been overlooked for so long thats most likely the state of infrastructure is not where it should be. This project gave me a lot of different perspectives and really did open my eyes to the unseen or the unknown and how much damage that can do to our daily lives. That's why I have made it my mission after this too make sure to look twice or just make the extra effort to find out what exactly is going on around me and the inner workings of our society. I have always seen that the most ignorant people are the ones who suffer the most because information about what can make their lives better eludes them. So I am trying to stay committed to being as open minded and vigilant as possible to make sure that I am doing all that I can to make sure that I do not allow those types of issues to hold back me and my community. So I can definitely say this project was a big plus. Now I understand a whole lot better how everything around me works and why it works and why we should keep striving for better results. Thank you professor and thank you to all the classmates that worked hard on this and maintained their patience with me.