Global Issues – Poverty /Hunger, The Guardian

Article Précis- "When the going gets tough..."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/alloutonpoverty/hunger.challenges

The article talks about the main factors that have influenced the food production and price over the last years. Firstly, we see the effect that the production of biofuels has had. Governments are subsidizing producers to switch to the production of biofuels; as a result, less food is being made and its price is getting much higher. "As a direct result of worldwide biofuel production, food is now scarcer". We also see other factors that are causes of our current society such as oil price rises, climate changes, urbanization, population growth and recession. These contribute to what is called a perfect storm of ecological, financial and social factors behind the present food crisis. The way the global society has changed (more people, more eating and different diets) has lead to a necessity for more land than what we actually have. In addition, the environmental changes are making it even harder to produce in some places, including the poorest countries. There is a mention of ways that would help to change this situation; rethink of how food is grown and distributed, improvement in science and technology, more investments in small-scale farmers, and reduction in meat eating. Nevertheless, after that, we see that many things have to be done (rise in 50% in cereal production and 80% in meat) and, that the World Bank believes such objective is impossible without access to new land and a radical rethink of farming and technologies.

Essay Outline - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“The past Traps me within myself “

Introduction (Some important things to mention throughout the essay)

- It is the main theme of the book

- It is exposed by the main characters and, in this case we are going to observe the actions and minds of two of them; Oskar and his grandfather (Thomas Schell)

- Oskar is trapped in 9/11 and cannot forget the loss of his father. Thomas is trapped in 1945, when he lost his love, Anna.

- The fact and the result of they being trapped in their pasts can be that both keep trying to revive their pasts and do not accept the present, that they were ‘locked’ and isolated themselves from the rest, and that they are extremely resistant to changes.

1^st Paragraph – Constant tentative to revive the past and avoidance of the present

- Both keep trying to revive their pasts and do not accept the fact that it is never coming back

- Examples can be the letters Thomas wrote talking about Anna or the way he had sex with Oskar’s grandmother (from the back, pretending she was another person). For Oskar, it could be when he went to the psychologist and got angry after he asked if his father was important.

- Grandfather – Always talks about Anna, doesn`t accept his son and Oskar’s Grandmother

- Oskar just thinks about his father, how he died, and what they did before

- This tentative helps to demonstrate the fact that they are both still in the past and avoid the present

2^nd paragraph – They were locked from the future

- They lost their expected futures, and their lives changed completely. As a result, all the experiences and happiness that they would have were taken of them (locked)

- The key may work as a metaphor for it. It represents everything that was and will continue locked forever. Additionally it may also demonstrate the fact that they are locked in the past until they find the lock.

- In the case of Thomas, he actually isolated himself (Dresden/ loss of voice/ “What time is it?”) and came back when he finally decided to find the’ lock for his key’

3^rd Paragraph – Resistance to change

- According to what was said in the previous paragraphs both Oskar and his grandfather are extremely resistant to changes

- Examples of it can be the fact that they cannot stop thinking about their ‘ghosts’ – Oskar hates Ron and grandfather doesn’t accept Oskar’s grandmother and son

- None of them understand that the world is changing and that people also need to change. They become extremely selfish and mistreat the people around them (mother and grandmother)

- They become slaves of the past and can only ‘work’ for it.

- At the end we see that both start to come back to normality again (I helps the theory that the key was a metaphor. After Oskar discovered that it did not have anything to do with him, he started to get better