Toastmasters CC3

Respected Judge, members of the jury, and esteemed audience in the gallery. Today I am going to present to you a case about a crime which had been committed a long time ago, but is similar to a crime being committed currently. My case discusses events which took place between 900 AD and 1600 AD, and I will present this case and draw some parallels with a crime taking place in the 21^st century. At the end of my testimony, I sincerely hope that this court will acknowledge that there is a problem which the court of human society must address. The problem of overexploitation.

My case takes me to the Polynesian land of Easter Island. Easter Island is perhaps the most remote piece of land in the world. It is about 3700 km away from the Pacific coast of Chile and 2000 km away from its nearest Polynesian islands. Its total area is 170 square km. It is about 27 degrees south of the equator, therefore it has a milder climate and its three volcanoes on the island give it the supposed benefit of fertile soil.

But its geographical position means that it is colder than most Polynesian islands and a lot of tropical crops like coconut don’t grow well on the island. The surrounding ocean is also too cold for coral growth which results in less fish species. The excessive wind makes farming difficult as it drops breadfruit before they are ripe and exacerbates erosion. Rainfall is comparable to California which means lack of freshwater streams. Nevertheless, at its peak of civilization, Easter Island was able to sustain a population of around 15000 people.

Easter Island is perhaps most famous for its gigantic stone statues, shown here. These statues are called moai and they are almost always placed on a base called the ahui. The ahu are rectangular platforms made of rubble held together by stone walls. They can weigh as much as 9000 tonnes and are up to 13 feet high and up to 500 feet wide. They can hold a multiple of moai which are stone statues on average 13 feet tall and weigh up to 80 tons. They are a spectacular sight and even an UNESCO world heritage.

The statues represent ancestors of the natives and some of them had a pukao on top which is a cylinder of red volcanic rock. Since the island was divided into around 12 territories, each section – although sharing essential resources such as food, stone, and timber with each other – would erect their own statues and compete with the others for the tallest. One of the biggest examples of one-upmanship.

But the mind boggling question is, how did they transport these tall and heavy structures onto the ahu without any cranes? Present day Easter Island show no evidence of tall trees which would be required to make ropes and timber to drag these statues from the stone quarry to the coast. The barren wasteland also makes it difficult to imagine how the islanders could have provided food for the construction workers, which estimates 25% additional food requirement for its population.

Data from recent excavations, however, have shown that palm trees up to 65 feet tall had existed in Easter. And other species of trees over 100 feet tall. These trees were probably what were used to get ropes and timber to drag these huge statues. They were also used to make canoes for fishing porpoises and tuna which are virtually nonexistent in the islanders’ diet today. The diet also consisted of about 25 species of sea birds, evidence of which was found in the disposed bones along with the fish bones.

Shockingly, 24 of those bird species are extinct on the island today. Radiocarbon dating also indicates a high level of deforestation till around 1700 coinciding with the rapid construction of statues.

When the first European explorers arrived at Easter, they saw no trees over 10 feet tall and the raw material the locals desired the most was timber.

The overall picture for Easter is among the most extreme example of forest destruction in the world. This led to loss of raw materials, loss of wild caught foods, and decreased yield of crops such as taro, yams, and plantain due to subsequent erosion. Starvation led to cannibalism and at the nadir of Easters civilization, the biggest insult you could snarl at an enemy was “The flesh of your mother sticks between my teeth”.

Your honor, Easter’s isolation is the clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources. Easter’s collapse haunts most historians because the parallels between Easter Island and the modern world are chillingly obvious. Due to globalization, all countries now share each others’ resources just like the different clans at Easter did, leading to a lot of overexploitation in various natural resources. Just to give you a few quick examples:

Our habits have led to collapse of atlantic cod stocks as seen by the abrupt drop in 1992 due to overfishing. Even cessation of fishing hasn’t improved the situation.

Another resource we have been abusing is oil. Oil takes millions of years to form, but as you can see we may already be hitting peak production, and once you’re on top the only way to go is down! At the worst case this can lead to lower living standards in both developing and developed countries because we are so dependent on petroleum products.

There are measures we can take as human society to ensure we don’t end up like Easter Island. In the case of fisheries, we can avoid collapses of other fish species by regulating fishing practices and ensuring a balance between fish replenishment and harvest. To ensure that our economies don’t collapse if we exceed peak oil, we must look toward cleaner and sustainable energy resources.

Easter Island was as isolated in the Pacific Ocean as the world is in space. And just like when the islanders had nowhere to turn to for help, our human society also has no escape route if we keep plundering our resources if our troubles increase. Easter Island is a perfect metaphor for a worst case scenario and we have to stay as far away from that as possible.

Toasmaster CC2 Speech (Incomplete)

Picture a ghetto in South Central LA. Daisy, a fifth grade latin american girl is playing in an abandoned parking lot with some of her friends. A stray dog walks by. In the distance you can hear the wailing siren of an LAPD car. Daisy's father is an out of work garbageman. Her mom holds three jobs, one of which is the graveyard shift. Daisy wants to grow up to be a veterinarian. She has already emailed the dean of the vet school of UCLA and UC Berkeley to learn more about the program. Her teachers certainly think Daisy can make it all the way because she's a bright, motivated girl. Her dad wishes he could do more to help his daughter.

In Daisy's current middle school, by the time students graduate, only 13% are proficient in math. The high school she would go to in her district has an average graduating rate of only 57%

In order for Daisy's dreams to be fulfilled her dad sends her application to the highly renowned KIPP charter school in LA. Similar to most charter schools, admissions are based on a lottery system. On the morning of the lottery her dad and her drive to the school. She is randomly assigned number 15. Her father tells Daisy to cross her fingers because there are only 10 slots and 135 applicants. 5, then 6, then 7 numbers are called out "Cmon Daisy cross your fingers" begs her dad. The 10th number is called out. It's not 15.

Good afternoon fellow toastmasters, distinguished guests, my friends. The education system in the United States is broken.

Being Social

Recently I came across a picture posted by my friend on Facebook. The picture featured him and his brand new bride and it was tagged "On our honeymoon". Now I happened to know that they had gotten married a couple of days before this picture was posted, which meant that they were on their honeymoon when he uploaded the picture. While most of us would probably overlook that fact and focus on the pristine waters and the white sands of the beach they were enjoying while sipping on their pina coladas, I found it very amusing that they wanted to be "connected" even when enjoying what was designed to be an exclusively newly married event - the honeymoon.

We all feel the need to share. Humans aren't wired to keep things within themselves which is what makes us social beings. We like to keep and divulge secrets, share some gossip, pass on news and sometimes even spike it with our own masala, backbite, mock, gloat, and sometimes just talk because we can. With the explosion of Facebook and twitter you can now learn that your long forgotten middle school classmate checked in for lunch at Three Amigos and ordered a chicken and cheese enchilada with nachos on the side because he so kindly uploaded a picture of his entree. You find out that the most popular couple in high school have long broken up and are dating their best friend's sister and the class geek who made it real big in banking (in any order). You take joy in seeing pictures of your best friend's newborn and you put your two cents in when people rant about how India should have played 5 bowlers and Dhoni is a jackass for making Nehra bowl that last over against SA. Twitter takes this interaction one step further because you can now hear from the celebrity horses mouth as in the case of Charlie Sheen breaking up with his porn star girlfriend because she's too tired to give him some sugar or Gaddafi proclaiming to the entire world that all Libyans love him.

Gone are the days when we'd pick up the phone and call a friend at the other end of the country because we can now simply poke him out of his slumber or write on her wall. And this is considered good enough. People have lowered their expectations when it comes to keeping in touch even though there are now some 35 different ways to get connected. Reminds me of this message a friend's mom posted on his wall asking him to call her because it had been so long that he was out of touch ;) I spent quite a few hours today rummaging through some really old emails exchanged among friends who I've not been in as much touch with as I'd like to. We had some great times, really funny back and forths, long emails littered with randomness, interspersed with some gems of wisdom (not really). I have all these friends on Facebook and Gtalk but it's just not the same anymore and it will probably never be that way. Is it because we have all grown up, have a lot more on our plate now with our own personal lives and families, consider these personal exchanges frivolous? We don't really need to send all these emails and make all these phone calls anymore because we can always see what the other person is up to by monitoring their profile. At least the part of their life that they'd like to share. In the time of ever increasing population, individuals are demanding an ever expanding bubble to engulf themselves in. Somehow that math doesn't work out well in my head :)

After watching the 2010 documentary "Waiting for Superman" I was left with two very poignant moments. One was the statistics that, on average, it costs $25,000 more to keep an inmate in prison over four years than it would cost to have a child go through 8 years of private school. The second was the scene where prospective students along with their parents are attending a lottery which would decide whether they are granted admission to some of the more high performing schools.

The first scene just outraged me because more of my taxpayer dollars are being spent on feeding a convicted rapist or murderer thrice a day, providing for his high level security, and arranging for his recreation. That money is going into a black hole in the system where the prisoners don't work, thereby not contributing to the society via taxes. After their lengthy prison sentence where they are supposed to have "repented for their sins" and are "rehabilitated" they re-enter society with a high probability of slipping back into a life of crime. Less money is going to educate the leaders of tomorrow! Yes I've reached an age group where I consider kids in primary and middle school to one day be senators, industrialists, CEOs, thinkers, writers, and even presidents while I'm still around. And yet dropout rates in high schools are high, reading and math proficiency in both inner city high schools and among the wealthier society has flatlined, and president after president has poured money into the system without actually looking at where the faults lie.

The second scene was just disheartening. Daisy, a fifth grader, is a student with a lot of potential but with very little help from her home and current school. Her parents are making ends meet to put food on the table. Her teachers think that she could go on to fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor or a veterinarian, a feeling echoed by her father who wishes he could do more. They go to KIPP LA in the hope that Daisy is given one of the 10 seats up for admission. It seems that a lot of good schools in USA (charter schools, focused schools etc) have a lottery system for admissions due to limited resources. Her father told her to keep her fingers crossed the entire time. She did. But after every number was read out her jaw dropped ever so slightly. After the tenth number was read out and the lottery process over, Daisy is crushed. Her fingers are still crossed but her future has been decided by a mere lottery. A girl with so much ambition at such a young age that she had already started contacting colleges is not able to get the level of education she desires and deserves. Is that too much to ask for as a kid? To be educated in a school where teachers are actively interested in the child's future? To be in an environment which encourages learning and reaching for your goals? Is there no hope for kids like Daisy who are unable to afford private schooling but have the same dreams of living a better life? Young Anthony was asked why he wanted to try his luck at the lottery for admission to Seed Public Charter school. He said, "I want a better life for my children".

I keep in touch with some of my friends from high school and we share laughs recalling the hilarious experiences we had during our four years at Modern High School. We constantly criticized the school, the teachers, the system. We complained about the amount of homework, the number of tests, the labs, even the food. But looking back, we received the education which got us where we are right now. Every single person in our high school graduated and went to college. Almost all of us graduated and moved on to post secondary school like myself or ended up in Wall Street, or the bay area, or took over the successful family business and made that bigger. I always felt that my school had not prepared me adequately. I had this nagging feeling that they could have done more. On hindsight, they did a pretty decent job comparatively.

So what is it that is hindering school students of America from going to high school and then university? Is it the teachers? The movie spoke a lot about tenure affecting a teacher's overall performance. In the current system you merely need to "breathe to get tenure". The strong teacher unions won't abolish tenure. But do we blame the unions? Finland has one of the best educational systems in the world and 90% of their teaching workforce is unionized. So it's not just the unions. Is it the pay? The average high school teacher gets paid around $45,000. The average banking salary is about $100,000. Based on the current scale why would smart people want to teach in our schools unless they are passionate about teaching? There is some amount of higher calling in teaching but when it comes down to getting your kid through college and paying off that mortgage and that auto loan wouldn't it be a no-brainer to get the job which pays more money? My gut feeling is that its a matter of priorities at this point. As individuals its our responsibility to achieve as much fame, money, power as we can in our lifetime. But as a society do these same values hold? We are, after all, living in a society where are constantly depend on other people who clean our streets, ensure our neighborhood is free of crime, keep us in good health, and make laws which affect every aspect of our lives? Food for thought.

P.S. Some facts and figures may not be exact. A lot of it is my own opinion.

Who ever thought winter could be this beautiful? A chance trip to Midlands, Ontario located by the Georgian bay opened my eyes to the beautiful synchrony of ice and water. I have never been to a beach in Canada and my first experience was unusual, to say the least. This is what you can expect in the middle of December

The sky is grey, the water cold, the ice is serene, the effect is beautiful.

Golden rays of the sun piercing the waves.

Family feeling cold, but enjoying the view!

My mom definitely feeling the cold!