Independent Skies Magazine 37th Issue -What Would You Do With $1 Million?

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| Independent Skies Magazine

| Issue 37 Feb 2016

4. STORY OF

BRIGHTER FUTURE: GIVING BACK BIANCA BARSAN

8. DON’T GIVE A COWBOY A MILLION DOLLARS MADISON MELTON

16. FUNDING THE FUTURE ZAREEN CHIBA

22. DID I JUST WIN A LOTTERY? 16. MONEY DOES NOT SHARON TIRADO

MAKE YOU HAPPY, BUT HELPS EDGARDO SCHIENA

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Story of a Brighter Future:

Giving Back

STORY OF A BRIGHTER FUTRUE: GIVING BACK |

BARSAN BIANCA

Let’s take it step by step:

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hat would I do with a million dollars? - Now that’s a question I am not faced with all that often, maybe because the chances of me acquiring so much money are null or very slim at best. At least in respect to the near future (dream big, right?).

Anyway, I’m digressing, and it is only because being confronted with the idea, I am like a sailor lost at sea: too many options to consider, and even more that have not even risen in my head just yet.

I will not be one to claim I am going to ‘save *insert disadvantaged group here* children and/ or populations’ mainly because I do not think they need my saving, also because I trust gap year people have that covered, as social networks keep showing me. Frankly, I will not be ‘saving’ anyone, despite wanting to make a positive change for at least a handful of people; also, I would like quite some money to travel myself, together with my dearest ones - I can almost hear Bali calling! So let’s start with that. Now, assuming I got rid of a hundred thousand dollars selfishly tanning in Seminyak (yes, you should Google that), what comes next? A house, a car – the usual.

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Moving on, here is to giving bac I am really, truly, in real life even, considering the following idea: as I have probably stressed in a few previous articles, I am currently struggling to make my way into the fashion world. Sewing, patternmaking, drawing, illustration, everything!

What you may also know about me is how much love I have for Indonesia and its wonderful people (yes, they are the best people I have ever had the luck to meet). Sadly, there is a lot of poverty in the country, despite it being the fastest growing economy of South East Asia and despite the glamorous life exhibited in the ‘mother city’ of Jakarta. Having

worked with a children’s home in Yogyakarta a while ago, I learnt about the many difficulties faced by young people: many of them cannot afford education, and if they can, it will not be prestigious or even adequate for their needs or desires. I have learnt that many of them are so talented and have artistic abilities - well, I guess we all did, during childhood and before chemistry and maths took over our lives! I have managed to digress again, so here is the idea, in short: purposely-built art schools, where children of all backgrounds and status can learn about fine arts, drama, fashion design, music and so

ck; on. This would not only be helping the children, but it would provide employment for the local people, and would contribute to the expansion of the arts and culture in a country which, I believe, has a huge potential and a culture that could already easily leave any of us speechless.

Any other remainders I would most probably donate to Romanian hospitals, which at the moment are poorly equipped, lacking very important medication and are insufficiently staffed (sadly all of us Romanians had to discover this following the tragedy at the Colectiv night club last year).

STORY OF A BRIGHTER FUTRUE: GIVING BACK |

BARSAN BIANCA

Lastly, I would donate to animal shelters or animal rights NGOs, as I always feel people tend to forget about those that cannot speak for themselves.

Of course, this is only one option I have in mind, but it is also the one I am hoping to actually fulfill sooner or later in life. At least a part of it‌ But anyway, I have to go now, that million dollars will not find its way to me on its own, will it? What would you do if you had that amount of money?

BARSAN, BIANCA @biancaomikami

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Don’t Give a

Cowboy a Million Dollars

DON’T GIVE A COWBOY A MILLION DOLLARS |

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hen Chris McCandless left Atlanta, Georgia in 1990 to spend two years “tramping” around the United States and into Mexico before settling in the Alaskan wild, he took his $25,000 life savings and donated it to Oxfam before abandoning his car and burning the rest of the cash he had on hand. He predominately relied on the help of strangers for food and shelter during his years on the road, meeting dozens of people and building relationships across the country.

He held odd jobs during his travels for weeks or months at a time, but ultimately said they made tramping too easy.

When he arrived in Alaska, he turned to hunting and foraging

MELTON MADISON

to sustain himself, though this was more difficult than he anticipated and he ultimately died after four months alone in the wilderness. The most recent studies and speculations suggest that this was a result of ingesting certain kinds of poisonous mushrooms, as well as toxins in several kind of seeds that would have been perfectly fine for someone consuming a healthy diet, but were lethal due to his exhaustion and malnourishment.

MELTON, MADISON @nomad_melton

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Chris McCandless’ story was captured by author John Krakauer in the 1996 book, Into the Wild, which was later turned into a popular film of the same name starring Emile Hirsch.

DON’T GIVE A COWBOY A MILLION DOLLARS |

Since the publication of Krakauer’s book in particular, McCandless has acquired an almost cult following among a certain kind of disenchanted individualist (I include myself in this group) who consider his journey to be spiritual in its bravery, independence, and rejection of traditional lifestyles and sources of income.

Idolisation of McCandless ties in with an iconic trope in American cultural imagery of the rugged self-made man. This figure is usually white and male and leaves society behind to subsist independently in the difficult and uncharted terrain of the American West. The

MELTON MADISON

‘cowboy,’ best exemplified by advertisements showing the Marlboro man, is a classic example, though there are many others in literature and film. In capturing a specific kind of masculinity and independence, this trope has long resonated with the American national psyche.

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I feel a particular affinity with Chris McCandless because, although he died in 1992 a couple years before my birth, we grew up in adjacent towns in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. It is the kind of place where most seem to grow up feeling quite strongly that either money is happiness or that money not only doesn’t equal happiness but is usually an active barrier to a deeper kind of joy and fulfillment. I can think of many who’ve left these suburbs with similar but varying degrees of distaste for material wealth and comfort, and whose spiritual journey centres around a reconnection with nature and

the self. This resonates with a quote I heard the other day by someone called Stefano that I think Chris might appreciate as well. It says that “what you bring in your backpack, when you travel, is the weight of your fears.”

Yet even the smallest amount of self-reflection leads one clearly to the understanding that such rejection itself is a certain kind of privilege. Relative wealth usually only seems like a burden when it has already been achieved, and hardship only seems like freedom when it is a choice.

In a sense, Chris donating and burning all the money he had in his possession was buying his poverty, and the kind of poverty that has to be purchased is not one that most can afford.

“happiness only real when shared.” - chris mccandless

DON’T GIVE A COWBOY A MILLION DOLLARS |

I don’t know if Chris would agree with me. The only clue to his final reflections is a scribble in the margins of one of the books he brought with him on his journey:

“Happiness only real when shared.”

These are speculated to be his last words.

For better or for worse, I, like Chris McCandless and so many others, have deep ambitions that currently orbit around values of independence, material minimalism, and a path to the spirit through individual

MELTON MADISON

contemplation and rigor rather than through relationship. I think the value in this comes from the fact that Chris’s journey strikes a nerve with not only those who want to follow in his footsteps, but also in the many others who become frustrated and enraged at his life and choices, even though the outcome will never affect them personally.

A quick Google search leads to many blog posts and thought pieces that confirm this.

Chris questioned something fundamental about where we, as a society, find value and meaning, and dismissing these questions because many believed him to be mentally ill, or because his story was somewhat romanticized in Krakauer’s retelling and the movie in particular, does not seem to fairly or adequately consider his experiences and their impact.

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If a million dollars fell into my lap today, I do not know what I would do with it. I know I wouldn’t keep it, but to give it away to the many causes I feel to be valuable and important in creating equity in this world seems only to be an option if it is does with great reflection and consideration. What sort of world do these organizations want to create and is it one I agree with? Is it fair of me to even ask that kind of question while I sit here with far too big a share of this world and the resources to ‘buy’ poverty and the specific interpretation and illusion of ‘freedom’ that comes with it? Because what is freedom and can it be achieved if it means something different to every person who has, does, and will walk on this earth?

Like everyone, I hold biases and limitations that are wrapped up in the things I forget I have and the things I want and don’t. The connection I feel with the story of Chris McCandless is not a simple guidebook: not a ‘how to’ guide of how to be and what to think. It is an opportunity to look through a certain kind of mirror on my own life with the benefit of distance, to respect someone else for what they accomplished and for the things about them that I will never know or understand while also trying to see aspects of my own values more objectively.

DON’T GIVE A COWBOY A MILLION DOLLARS |

MELTON, MADISON @nomad_melton

MELTON MADISON

I don’t know what I would do with the money.

Maybe because I don’t know how to answer that question and maybe because I’m not sure how I feel about the answer, right now they can give it to someone else. I don’t want it.

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Han Solo of Star Wars in carbonite – the future of suspended animation?

(Photo Credit: Lucasfilm)

FUNDING THE FUTURE | CHIBA ZAREEN

CHIBA, ZAREEN @Zarcchi

A million dollars is no small

number – it can open windows to new lives, and it can fundamentally change a person. It’s a scary sum, and the financial prowess required to manage it is yet beyond me. I could invest it, I could buy a house, maybe an island off the Bahamas, maybe silently create a retirement fund for my parents. Or I could invest in the future.

I have often felt like I was born in the wrong age—the psychedelic sixties and all the music came with it have always drawn me back to that cultural era. It is the world of science and technology that draws me back to today, with each innovation a reminder that progress is exponential and exciting. While a million is not a substantial amount in the field of research, the following a couple of projects I’d bet my million on.

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3D printed organs in its proto-forms (Photo Credit: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre)

FUNDING THE FUTURE | CHIBA ZAREEN

3D Organ Printing

Suspended Animation

My older readers have heard me talk about organ transplantation and the extreme global deficit. There are 3000 people with end-organ diseases who will die without a transplant in my home of Hong Kong, a city of 7million residents. From Madrid comes exciting research into 3D organ printing, where artificial hearts, kidneys and livers are all potential products. Plus, the scaffold used is going to be inert, so the risk of rejection is theorized as minimal. Imagine if we could keep a stock of printed organs for the future— we may look 100 on the outside but could grow a liver that’s 20 years old.

Imagine if we could reprint the human brain!

The University of Pittsburg are devising a method of putting patients into suspended animation by reducing their core temperature to 10C and ceasing the internal cellular activity, so medical staff had more time to operate on patients.

A method similar in principle, called therapeutic hypothermia (reduction of temperature) is used in accident and emergency rooms for out-of hospital heart attack patients, to improve overall survival. The issue with suspended animation is that the cold temperature may predispose to ice formation which damages cells – but imagine if patients of untreatable or terminal illnesses could be put in hibernation until a cure is devised in future. It’s terribly cool, and I’d fund it to make it a reality.

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Artificial life There are two tangents to this – artificial intelligence and synthetic life. Artificial intelligence, the ability of machines to think, perceive and learn like humans have the potential to unlock how the human brain works, or to propel us into a new era of knowledge gathering to save lives, perform harmful manual labour, to reduce human error in many walks of life. There are threats to this, of a “superior brain” numbering the days of human beings, but I say out with these conservative harbingers of doom—every new technology or thought has their enemies.

Synthetic life, in the form of cell bacteria was devised by biologist Craig Venter. The parent of this species is a computer—and it can replicate like a true organism. This opens a whole new

field of ethics, but allows for potential new life to be applied in vaccines and in reducing climate change. We don’t yet understand how life was formed, but we’ve learnt how to create new life. I’d pay to witness the possibilities.

A few other projects that are old but gold are antibiotic research, space exploration, astrobiology, stem cell research and nanotechnology. Sci-fi movies have captured only a glimpse of the possibilities of these areas o f knowledge, and they’ve also taught us that it’s not a cheap ride. Therefore, if I had a million dollars, and if the window of opportunity for funding presents itself, I’d sign a check, ship it in, and watch those dollars help change the world. I hope you do too.

FUNDING THE FUTURE | CHIBA ZAREEN

Scanning electron microscope picture of a synthetic strain of M. mycoides (Photo credit: Tom Deerinck, Mark Ellisman)

Did I Just Win | 22

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Yesterday night

I went to sleep at around 20:00.

Sometimes I prefer to go to sleep early because it gets cold here in the streets of New York. After all, I had a good day yesterday, and it wasn’t because I did something especial (the truth is that I have only few friends) but I got lucky and I enjoyed some great food that someone offered me, accompanied with some hot tea, and that definitely made my day.

If I had to describe myself, I would say I am a really “simple” person. Normally I spend my days alone, walking through New York.

Sometimes I sit down to take a breath and I enjoy seeing how people walk from one side to the other of the street and I wonder why New Yorkers are always in a hurry.

The city is always full of live, big buildings, lovers and a lot of neon lights and advertisements at night.

Right after I went to sleep around 20:00, I dreamt something I had never dreamt before… I won the lottery! It was the happiest dream of my life.

Everything started when I was checking the number I had played some days ago. The worker in charge of checking if my number

the Lottery?

DID I JUST WIN THE LOTTERY | TRIADO SHARON

was the chosen one, got paralyzed and looked at me with excitement and happiness. On the other side of the cashier, I was standing there looking at the worker who was supposed to tell me the amount of money I had won, however, the words couldn’t get out of her mouth and she couldn’t pronounce a single sentence. I was astonished, so I immediately started screaming to another one of the workers to please tell me how much money I had just won. The employee came running to the cashier next to her colleague who was still paralyzed.

She looked at me and looked at the computer. Then she repeated the same process, looked at me again

with excitement in her eyes and told me the incredible amount I just won.

One million dollars. I had just won one million dollars.

After hearing the amount, I had just received I was even more astonished. Well, I was not astonished, I was surprised… I was happy. I could finally become a normal person again. After losing everything I had (including my family) during the past financial crisis, I became a homeless person in New York. At the beginning I thought that being a homeless wouldn’t last for long and that someone would help me find a job, but I have been a homeless for the past four years. This prize meant

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Some people are so poor that the only thing they have is money

DID I JUST WIN THE LOTTERY | TRIADO SHARON

returning to my old life for me or in other words, I could buy a house, get finally a job and maybe even, get back to my family.

The first thing I did after winning the lottery was buying a beautiful house with both air conditioner and heating… finally a dream come true. After that, I bought some hot food I could now afford to eat and I also bought some Walmart shoes because I had spent one year walking without them.

And finally, I decided to take a cold shower in my own-new house. I could eventually change my physical aspect and go back to who I used to be in the past. But wait. This is not a shower. “Where is this water coming from?” I ask myself. I suddenly

wake up from my dream and realize someone had thrown cold water at me because I was sleeping right in front of their business. I truly didn’t mean to, but it was the only place that had a roof that could cover me from the rain. I quickly take my stuff and leave to start my morning walk around New York, wishing that today will be as good as yesterday and I might eat something hot, also wishing that dreams could come true…

P.S: Sharing is caring and giving is receiving. If you had the luck to count with millions in your bank account always remember that, not far from you, there might be people that feel rich just because they eat a plate of hot food. Being a millionaire goes beyond money.

TIRADO, SHARON @shatirado

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but helps

MONEY DOES NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY, BUT HELPS

“Money doesn’t make you happy, but helps”.

This is a phrase that my mother never stops repeating and that she strongly believes in. I personally grew up in a familiar environment where money was never the cornerstone for total happiness but until this stage of my life, I came to realize that money plays an important role in the security and tranquility of an individual’s life. I am pretty sure that everybody in this world would love to be rich, buy everything they want and satisfy all their needs but especially their wants.

Of course, I would love to be rich, but unfortunately it’s a process that many times takes time and a lot of hard work. Due to these difficult circumstances, I came to realize that

| SCHIENAS EDGARDO

my objectives in life are way less simple and modest; I want to have enough money to have my own house, my own car, build a family, offer my children the best education I can the same way my parents did. These are the objectives I fixed for my future, and I really hope that I can achieve these goals in order to achieve full happiness. Of course I am saying this with a couple of hundreds of euros in my bank account, but what if one day I would wake up one morning with 1 million euros in my bank account?

Well I have plenty of things in my head that I would buy or do with all that money; a fast car, a nice watch, a nice necklace for my girlfriend. On the other hand, I am perfectly sure that these objects will not satisfy me enough. Somebody really close to me made me realize that life is about priorities, and right now there are

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many other things that would be worth spending that money on. Right now, I would use part of that money to pay my brothers and my university fees, I would buy a house to my parents, a new car for my mother, I surely would save part of that money to pay myself a master in the future, I would use part of the money to organize a trip around the world with my girlfriend. These are in my opinion the things I would do with that amount of money. There are more important things in life than a golden watch and a fast car. A great education that gives you the possibility to access and discover the entire world, repay my parents for all their sacrifices they did to give me this marvelous life, travel and discover the thousands of cultures

and places that compose our world and build myself and strong professional and emotional future with the person I love the most in this world.

1 million euros sounds like a lot of money, but I am pretty sure that they would be enough for me to settle down everything and assure myself the tranquility I deserve. Now unfortunately I don’t have that amount of money with me, but I made myself the promise of working hard in my life to achieve what I have always desired; a strong and robust future for me and my future family.

MONEY DOES NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY, BUT HELPS

| SCHIENAS EDGARDO

SCHIENAS, EDGARDO @Eschienas

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