SUS1501 Assignment 8 PORTFOLIO (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 2 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED

SUS1501 Assignment 8 PORTFOLIO (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 2 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED Answers, guidelines, workings and references ...... Introduction My aim in compiling this portfolio was to reflect on the things that have struck me throughout this crazy module. My starting point for doing this was to revisit my opinions to the multiple choice questions which were presented in the Crossroads assignment. I present these current opinions, together with my original opinions, and some brief notes in the section entitled: “Back at the Crossroads!” Once I have done this, I draw some key conclusions about this crazy module and about the things that did indeed strike me. Back at the Crossroads! 1. (YOU MUST WRITE NOTES ON THIS QUESTION) “Unless fossil-fuel use slows dramatically, the earth’s average temperature could rise by six degrees Celsius in the next 100 years.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Who cares? b. I don’t believe this climate change nonsense. c. Six degrees will make winters much more bearable to me personally. d. I’m a bit concerned about this, but there is nothing that I can do about it. e. I’m a bit concerned about this, but why should I invest my personal time, effort or money in solving a general social problem. f. I think that individually we can and should strive to solve this problem for the greater good. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 2. (YOU MUST WRITE NOTES ON THIS QUESTION) "The wealth of the few depends upon the poverty of many." My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. So long as I am amongst the few I don't care. b. This is just not true – the rich are simply more “diligent, intelligent, and above all frugal”. c. This is just not true – if it were not for the generous wealthy, the poor would be even poorer than they are. d. This is absolutely true – there is only so much wealth in the world at any one moment so if one person has more than their share someone else has to have less than their share. e. This is absolutely true and given how much poverty there is we ought to do something about it. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 3. (YOU MUST WRITE NOTES ON THIS QUESTION) “In capitalism, profit happens when the capitalist pays labour x for their labour which is worth x+p. p then is profit.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. So what you are saying is that profit is the result of expropriation without compensation? I can see the truth in this when I look at who gets rich and who gets poor. b. That is a really interesting perspective which I hadn’t thought about before. c. Rubbish. d. Rubbish. Profit comes from innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit. e. This is fine - without profit there is no capitalism and it is capitalism that bring wealth to humanity as a whole. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 4. (YOU MUST WRITE NOTES ON THIS QUESTION) “It is estimated that humans are consuming natural resource at a rate that is 30% above the renewal rate. If we continue to consume in this way we are likely to suffer dire consequences which could include extinction.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Yes we are consuming natural resources too fast, but I don’t think this is a problem as there is plenty of time to find technological solutions to problems that emerge b. Yes we are consuming natural resources too fast. The first priority in solving this is to put the brakes on human population growth. c. Yes we are consuming natural resources too fast. The first priority in solving this is for rich people to reduce their consumption significantly. d. Yes we are consuming natural resources too fast. And frankly I don’t see any solution because increasing consumption is the basis of our economic growth. e. I don’t believe this tale of doom. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 5. (YOU MUST WRITE NOTES ON THIS QUESTION) “I didn’t join the struggle to be poor.” (Smuts Ngonyama) My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Me neither. b. No one joins the struggle to be poor. c. It is this sort of attitude that has led to widespread corruption. d. This is counter-revolutionary – you don’t solve oppression by becoming an oppressor. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 6. “The Great White Shark is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN and has a declining population.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. I really don’t care. b. Good. Great Whites eat beautiful cuddly seals. c. Good. Great White Sharks are horrible people eaters! d. Great Whites are critical for controlling seal populations. Without them, other fish species might go extinct. e. We must save Great Whites because it is just the right thing to do. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 7. “Show me a great fortune and I’ll show you a great crime.” (a translation from Honoré de Balzac) My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Clearly Balzac had taken too much hashish when he wrote that! b. It is completely possible to make a fortune by legal means – in fact this is what I intend to do in my life. c. I don't care - watch out Elon Musk, here I come! d. I think that this is absolutely true. e. Even if great fortunes are acquired in a technically legal way, they are always morally problematic. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 8. "You won’t make the poor rich by making the rich poorer." (Winston Churchill) My personal opinion of what should be done is most closely described by: a. This is rubbish and we should attack extreme wealth wherever it arises. b. This is the sort of trite rhetoric that the rich try and sell to the world in order to protect their privilege. c. This is rubbish. If a few take a huge share, it leaves that much less for the rest. It’s simple maths. d. This is absolutely true. Without the money that the rich have, the poor would be that much worse off and lefty socialists would do well to understand this fact. e. Since my personal aim is to be rich, my opinion here is simple – just leave the rich alone. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 9. “60% of the world’s cobalt is mined in the DRC. Significant amounts of this is mined under appalling conditions often by child labourers.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. What’s cobalt got to do with to me? b. The DRC is a long way from where I live so I don’t really care. c. This is just a fact of global supply chains and necessary for global economic growth, which is in everyone’s best interest. d. I wonder who is profiting out of this? e. It breaks my heart to see children exploited. This is morally wrong and must not be allowed. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 10. “Of the top 10 wealthiest people (all men), eight are tech billionaires. Their net worth is US$ 1.1 trillion or ZAR 22 trillion!” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. I think that such wealth is utterly immoral when there is so much poverty and suffering in the world and so active steps should be taken to correct this. b. These billionaires are all tech visionaries and deserve every cent of their wealth because of their brilliance. c. Why would anyone want or need that amount of money? d. These are my heroes. I aspire to be like them. e. Bill Gates is one of them and look at how much money he is giving to the poor through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 11. “Save the 5 000 Eastern gorilla!!!” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Why? b. I really have never bothered to think about gorillas. c. Let the DRC and Rwanda deal with this problem – Eastern gorillas are their natural resources. d. Morally we must save the Eastern gorilla. e. We must save Eastern gorillas because their survival is critical for sustaining healthy ecosystems. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 12. “Black lives matter.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. So do white lives matter b. “All lives matter.” c. The problem is that at the moment this is not supported by evidence. d. Finally we are starting to recognise this! e. Slogans are pointless. We need to enforce radical social changes aimed at actively destroying structural racism. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 13. “Why do some people have to be miserably poor in order that others can be extravagantly rich? I speak for all the children in the world who don't even have a piece of bread.” (Fidel Castro) My personal opinion on this statement, is most closely described by: a. Who cares what Castro said? He was an ideological dinosaur anyway. b. Wealth and poverty are unrelated phenomena. c. Well perhaps the rich should just stop all their charity and we’ll see where this leaves the ungrateful poor. d. Well on a simple technical level, the answer to this is poverty and wealth are both relative so it’s just not possible for there to be someone rich without someone who is relatively poor. e. I think this is the wrong question. The right question is: “How do we prevent people being extravagantly rich while others are miserably poor?” Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 14. “In the first 6 months of 2024, the six wealthiest men in South Africa gained on average R77 million per day each.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Good for them – they worked hard to earn this. b. The only problem I have with this is that it wasn’t me earning R77 million a day. c. No problem with this. I'm sure all of these billionaires donate huge amounts to charities d. I think that it is morally wrong for anyone to earn that much money. e. I think that active steps should be taken to correct such immoral earnings. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 15. “Even before COVID, one out of every five South Africans lived below the food poverty line.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Who cares? b. If population growth rates of the poor were not so high they wouldn’t be so poor. c. If they worked harder, they wouldn't be so poor. d. This is sad, but to be honest, it is not going to stop me from focusing on my own wellbeing first. e. I think that we must all strive to eliminate poverty together. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 16. “Every day some 20,000 children die prematurely from poverty related causes, mostly treatable diseases.” My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Who cares? b. It’s hard to say it, but given the rising human population, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for the human species as a whole c. It’s hard to say it, but this just means less people competing with me for scarce opportunities and resources. d. This is morally wrong, but practically, I think that it would cost too much money to solve e. It is morally unacceptable for a single child to die of a preventable disease and we should collectively fix this irrespective of the cost. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 17. On Palestine - My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. “We will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism.” – Emmanuel Macron 2017 b. “Zionism is the redemption of an ancient nation from a tragic lot and the redemption of a land neglected for centuries.” – Yigal Allon 1975 c. “The institutionalised regime of discriminatory laws, policies and practices applied by Israel subjects Palestinians to what constitutes an apartheid regime” – South African submission to ICJ 2023 d. “Everything the Zionists did in Palestine they did of course as settler-Colonialists” – Edward Said 1979 e. “European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect.”― Noam Chomsky Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 18. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” (Harriet Ann Jacobs) My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. Who cares? b. Slavery was abolished the 1800’s. Why are we talking about it today? c. Slavery was bad for everyone. d. I can just imagine how terrible slavery was for women. e. The more things change the more they stay the same – today we can say: “Racism is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 19. “Greed is good” (Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street) My personal opinion of what should be done, is most closely described by: a. It’s not good or bad. It’s just how things are. b. Absolutely! If it wasn’t for greed we would never achieve anything. c. I’m not sure. Sometimes I think that it’s good. At other times I think that it’s bad. d. It depends on how you define “greed”. e. Absolutely not! Greed is bad. It leads to much pain and suffering. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: 20. “The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy.” (Joshua Becker) My personal opinion on this statement is most closely described by: a. I really don’t care about the environment. b. Yeah – I really want a Range Rover so I am going to say this is rubbish irrespective of whether is makes any sense. c. This is a very subversive statement aimed at collapsing capitalism and human happiness. d. As much as I want a Range Rover, this is a really wise statement. e. Capitalism’s lust for consumption is the greatest threat to the sustainability of the human species. Choice now: Choice in assignment 1: Notes: Summary Number unchanged: <Insert number of questions where the answers were the same here> Number changed: <Insert number of questions where the answers were different here> Conclusion To conclude, looking at the preceding sections of this portfolio, the most important things which I learned in this module were: <complete this in a few paragraphs. NB: This should be the most substantial comment in this portfolio and must give us a clear indication whether you have thought deeply about this module. It should be at least 500 words long. >