I most enjoyed Zhuo Qiang/Simba’s presentation on saving the lions. He is the first Chinese wild life reservationist to work there in Kenya. He is an extraordinary man and has dedicated his life to his dream of helping save the lions from extinction. Simba lives a very modest life on a campsite and educates the Masai village in Kenya using a Community Based Conservation Model, which simply states that if you help a community first then, the community will join them in saving the lions. He has been successful in his efforts. The Masai villagers at first were hostile toward the lions when they would harm or kill their livestock.  Simba explained that due to the lack of habitat, and loss of their natural prey, the livestock is a target so they need to build stronger fences to protect their livestock. He has helped they build that fence among other things such as a school, church, and teach them how to use tourism as a second source of income in addition to livestock. Teaching a village how to sustain economically is extremely importat to their survival and directly related to the preservation of the lion population. 

https://youtu.be/gNMv8ZtStkA

Being a Chonqingness, I am very proud of Simba who followed his heart to Masai, Kanya and save lions and other wildlife from extinction. As he indicated that animals are glonal animals without nationalities. He has the passion and compassion about saving wildlife, and he took actions to have his dreams come true even though he encountered various difficulties, but he never quitted. He departed from his iron-bowl position, his family in Chongqing, he went all the way to Masai Kenya living with the wild animal in the wild lands in order to study lions and animals solving problems between the local tribes and lions that constantly attack the cattles. Their comminutiy-based conservation came into being. They worked closely with the villagers and built solid fences to protec their livestoks from being attacked by the hnugery lions, which is a great way to save villagers' livestocks and lions to keep the natural balance. He is the hero of our ecosystem, amd his actions and contribution to the wildlife will be benefitial for our generations. I am planning to sprend his herioc actions of saving wildlife to our students, and we will design our projects with our passion and compassion via seedplay, see if we can raise some fund to send necessary quipments to build srtonger fences for the local villagers so that they lions will not be able to attack the villagers' livestocks. Then, we can prevent lions from extinctions.

I actually got my principal's permission to attend China: Finding Solutions Conference on 04/06/2018. It war amazing to meet many experts and scholars from China and USA discussing issues, such as Chinese Elderly Care, Cnndensed/crowded housing in Beijing and Shanghai, envrionmental issues with the quick industrial developments, education in rural areas,  China-US Trade war, and the Chinese WIldlife conservationist. Among them all, I really enjoyed  the way Xiao QIang detailed his report and analysis on Chinese Food Security and China-US Trade War. As a Chinese American aricultural expert, I believe Mr. Xiao enjoys his land in Utah with crops and plants just like a Utopian World, peaceful and natural. The powerpoints he presented about the China-US Trade War is pretty much very helpful to have a claer picture of the tading conflicts between these two leading countires in the world. 03/01/18, US palnned tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum. 03/22/18, US planned tariffs on $50bn worth of CHinese imports. Chinese Government started to foght back on 04/0218 with sanctions on 128 US products worth $3bn. ( 15% on 120 fruits, nuts & steel pipes; 25% on pork products and recycled aluminum). On 04/03/18, US came up with list of 1300 Chinese products it plans to slap with a  25% tariffs, worth $50bn including industrial robots & telecommunications equipment. The next day, 04/04/18, China announced boosed tariffs on U.S. goods including soybeans, aircraft and vehicles, worth estimated $50bn. WHat is going to happen next? Is the war continuing a or the two world leaders just come to the table seeking peance? No matter how, as Chinese says the Gods /Godnesses' fights leaving the victims of the innouncent people. 

Hi Juan, you are absolutely right. Simba's dedicaions and sacrifice to save our wifdlife wildely spreaded out to all over the world. Now, he is here calling us to support his heric actions to save more lions and animals according to his research and his experiences living in the wildland with the animals and the tribes. He figured it out the conflicts between the villagers and the wild animals/lions, and the effectiv way to solve the problem is to build solid fence to keep the lions away from their livestocks. Who is going to build the fences there? He desparartely needs more support from us, and this is quite a health topic for our students to save our animals and save our earth, keep the natural balance, this is global issue.

Saturday’s workshop was very inspiring. I really enjoyed Simba’s documentary and the work that he is doing around saving the Lions. It definitely takes a lot of courage to be an adult and leave everything to pursue ones passion, I know it is something we try to instill in our students but to actually see it played out is eye opening.  The work that Simba is doing not only benefits wildlife but he is finding true solutions to the problem. I will help spread Simba’s message to my students and hopefully they will do the same. The community base model that Simba spoke about is worth teaching our students about, it is easy to identify problems but being able to come up with solutions to problems will make our students a much more grounded citizen.  This topic could be tied to imperialism and the lasting consequences of it in developing nations.

For someone that does not know too much about China, I feel like the workshops were very eye opening. I always knew that China was an emerging superpower but I had no idea how quickly and what challenges China had to face to achieve what they have today. It is impressive to know the transformation China has undergone in the last 35 years. Another thing that I learned from the workshop was that China was intentionally kept rural and underdeveloped by Mao in order to maintain control.  One of my biggest takeaway from the workshop was that even though we could look at China and think that they have decreased their rural poverty the reality is that poverty has a new face to it. The example of hidden poverty used was 20 people living in a small apartment oppose to each one of those living in a shanty home in a rural place. It reminds me of the situation that many urban cities face in the United States for example in Los Angeles we see so many homeless and many families living in tiny apartments because the cost of living is so high. Even though 5 major challenges were posed the frustrating part to this is that there is no quick fix to the problem. The important thing is to be aware of the issues and brainstorm for long term solutions.

Mr. Bill Bikale talked about china’s plan to eliminate poverty by 2020. Year 2020 is right on the corner

It a real challenge for China and other nations that have embarked on a task that is very difficult to sustain. Many nations with a strong economic system, they have a large group of people who cannot enjoy the economic freedom that other people in their own country have. The plan is an optimistic plan, but many things grows to a certain ratio. The more power is put on laborers, the cost of items increases, and the items continue increasing but not the salary. A few years ago a European country broke it silence and a group of people went to the street and burned cars; and destroyed private property expressing their discontent with the government for not providing them with the same opportunity of the rest of the country. So, this is an optimistic plan to end poverty in china by 2020.