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I emailed everyone a week ago. I think enough has happened in the world to warrant another. This past week included the UN Climate Summit (and how kids took the front stage), China’s National Day (and Hong Kong’s Remembrance Day), and a project I worked on.
Hong Kong Protests 💨
This one comes first because it has to do with my personal safety.
I’m safe.
I promise. This isn’t me being heroic, this isn’t me putting myself on the front lines. I’m safe here. I just finished writing about what happened this weekend on the newsletter here (it wasn’t sent to your emails). The major factor that happened today: a gun was shot directly at a protester, point-blank, directed at his chest. Locals are furious, scared, outraged. It’s unclear what the overarching police strategy is here. Read the article before telling me to come home — I promise I’m safe.
The UN Climate Summit 🌎
The Climate Summit met last week with an obvious message for the world: Adults are playing the waiting game and kids are pushing them forward. We see this from young activists like Greta Thunberg, calling world leaders out on their shit, and from the world’s youth filing a legal complaint against major countries for their contributions to climate change.
Adults: I appreciate you for raising me in this world, I believe that you have our best intentions at heart.
But time and time again across the world, human rights are championed by children.
Why are we the ones (am I even considered a kid anymore?) constantly pushing for a better future?
It’s our future. We care so much because it’s the world we’re going to live in, whether it’s climate change or politics or war. Don’t fuck up our futures for us — we can do that ourselves just fine.
We still believe. Kids aren’t jaded by “the way the world has to be.” The world changes so quickly that things like the 2008 recession, the Hong Kong protests, and CO2 emission reports come out of nowhere. But there’s an upside: the future obviously isn’t set, so we believe it can always be better. Let us begin to work towards our beliefs.
We’re better at collaborating. Our generation has been given the internet, and we don’t care where in the world somebody’s from — we care what they believe in, how they act, how they enjoy life. Stop playing divisive games. We’re past that point; our issues are too pressing to play around.
I’m proud of what children have done, and am excited for the elevated role kids will continue to play over the years.
Projects 📝
ideagrave.tech is a site I made to collect people’s ideas they worked on that never saw the light of day. This way, others can read through cool ideas, pick up where they left off, and make the world a better place. You can read here for an analysis on how I took 3 days and zero practical skills to make it happen, and thoughts for its future.
I started a Twitter account to discuss things that are important in the world, and how we need to work together to make an impact. Gotta be honest, I haven’t done much with it yet. But my gears are turning, and thoughts are popping up on how I can utilize the platform to get people thinking more globally.
What I’ve Been Consuming
TED Radio Hour is a great podcast to listen to when traveling or working out, and is what I’ve been listening to (on 2x speed) when walking between classes, or in the gym. Highly recommended for those who love TED talks! 📼
An interesting article on how garlic and onions (my two GI nightmares) can help reduce female’s risk for breast cancer. 🤮
A beautiful piece of world history I just learned about (from TED Radio!) when in 2006 a citywide performance of The Sultan’s Elephant took the streets of London captive with imagery of a fascinating future. I put the clip here — it’s definitely worth the watch! 🐘
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