GENIUS OF MONEY POST 3

An Interview with Wangari Maathai

Planting tree is very meaningful because it can not only make for firewood but also solve the soil erosion problem. Planting tree is really a good idea because it is easy and cheap. After reading this interview, I know trees can bring underground water to the surface which is very cool.  Wangari knows some leaders would use their right to some private things and use this natural resources to enrich themselves, but she is brave and decide to stop it and protect the environment. In history, the role of women is staying at home and take care of family, and men will go to work, but in the movement, women can plant the tree and work for their family. Women can meet new friends and live in a meaningful life. Through he movement, people can experience their own spirituality, and they can find out what they need and what they can do. People should do the work to fight with corruption, injustices, and inequalities, and should not wait others to help us to solve the problem. 

GENIUS OF MONEY POST 2 Chapter 3

This chapter is talking about people and countries are willing to sacrifice of human and natural resources in order to generate money because they think money represent wealth. However, they did not recognize except money, there are something else can be made into wealth such as water. We need to increase our awareness of the injustice and corruption of current money system which has over-consumption and over-production. Not only money can improve our life quality but also growing food, making clothes, and educating children can make people wealth which most of the people ignore. Therefore, money is not the most important part of our life, and we should care more about the human and natural resources.

The money is a double side sword, which brings benefit to people and it also harms individuals in the other way. The edge of the sword depends on how people distribute and manage the money. The traditional economic system is using money as account for values and acts as a way of exchanging product and services. At first, the conventional system seems works. When we dig deeper into this system, we can found out in order to achieve the flow and position of money; people use greed way to achieve the values without concerns of society and environments. The system brings fortune to some people. In the same time, the majority of people are in debt or losing it because they control the way how the money flows and represents. The center of this system is debts and interests. The relationship between the lender and borrower seems to make the economy prosperous. Later on, the system seems lost its value since rich people are defining the economic life; and people started aware of the injustice of this system. In order to avoid corruption and injustice, people began to use fair trade and new economy system through complementary currency. Lastly, the most efficient way to solve the current economic system is that people need to know the capacity of money can do and what they can do to create social finance system towards the just economy. 

Extra Credit: Break Bread

This is a 7.5K SQ Installation and Art show by Scott Hove and Baker's Son, Filled with 30 days of culture.

When I go inside, it looks simple and mysterious. There is just a bed in the hall and a "Break Bread" logo on the back wall. But when I go inside, there are 5 rooms and they have different theme exhibitions.

 The first room has nothing special, just has some pictures on the wall and a basketball stands. There are some toys, balloons and cups under the basketball stands. I really cannot get that art feeling, but the little bear in the middle of picture is cute haha.

The second is the most beautiful room because everything in the room are like the cakes and fruits, but they cannot be eaten, they are all made of forth and plastics. When I go inside the room, I feel hungry immediately because they look the real cakes and fruits. The artists really pay attention to the details because even the wall and lamps are made look like the cakes. 

The third room is a horrible room. It looks like a hell, and there are some human skeleton on the front. Listening the horrible music, I feel a little bit scared inside. I know I am really timid. Many people took the photos with the rail, but I didn't because I don't want to be a prisoner in the hell!.

The forth room is very interesting. There are a screen on the back some mirrors on two sides. When I go inside the room, it seems like I am in the fire and makes me feel hot inside. The rooms is small but because of the mirrors on the side, it looks big and authentic.

The fifth room has many exhibits and they all designed by cakes and fruit. The artist is very smart because he can put the cakes and everything together and make them into one thing. I like the gun most because the cake gun is cute. I think gun is a dangerous thing and it will hurt people, but after it becomes a cake gun, I don't think it is dangerous but cute!

All these exhibits are soooooo expensive. Even a small exhibit, it can cost more than 10,000 dollar. This gallery make something impossible become possible, and the artists want to use this show to reflect a reality which is excessive consumption in our society. People are willing to spend much money to make some impossible things into possible, but those thing are not really important in our life. People think money can buy their happiness but neglect to help the person who needs help.

The Genius of Money

Chapter 6

The chapter 6 starts off by depicting a portrait by famous painter Quentin Metsys called "The Money Lender and His Wife." It is a painting of two people doing ordinary tasks, but Metsys threw in a lot of symbolism into the painting, mostly Christian symbolism. The painting seems very simple but Metsys' there is a lot of complexity within the painting. For example, there is an oval mirror near the bottom of the painting, and when you look closely, you can a reflection of a detailing window. The significance of this small part is that it is a way for the painter to insert himself into the painting and at the same time the window also references the crucifix. 

The overall message the painting has is that people have gone away from religion and more towards trading and making money, mercantilism. Metsys most likely made the painting in order to get people to stray away from material devotion and move back towards spiritual devotion. He wants to show that people were very eager to make money and that money would bring happiness but overall is breeds corruption. Metsys goal is just to have people realize what should be most important in their life and that is Christianity.

Chapter 14

In chapter 14, author states that visual art is to make the invisible visible, and he uses labyrinth and touchstone to describe how money make the things have value and shows how powerful the money is. Both labyrinth and touchstone can be a symbol and metaphor for physical money. Labyrinth means everything always has two meanings, one is horizontal meaning, and the other is vertical meaning. Like money, a medium of exchange is its horizontal meaning, and a measure of value is its vertical meaning. Vertical meaning usually has deeper understanding than horizontal meaning. Labyrinth can help us have more understanding in money.

Because gold become more and more important for people in their life, so it a thing to measure the quantity and purity of the gold which is touchstone. Touchstone brings a mystery to the gold can make people consider gold is valuable. Now, we have electronic bank, we can transfer the money through our electricity, and money become an indispensable thing in our life. People prefer to trust a fake fact rather than a brutal truth which is a horrible phenomenon. Author really wants a person can stand in front of people bravely and tell the truth to them, so that people can know what they really want and do not need to live “under the cloak of rationalized invisibility.”