See 'Swept Away' for 3rd quarter blog reflection

Update

I had to recently change my junior theme topic. My why question used to be 'Why does depression happen in privileged communities?'. I realized that this would be a tough topic, because the 'depression epidemic' of affluent societies is such a new topic that there is hardly any research on it yet. Also, it is hard to tell if there is a significantly greater amount of depression in affluent areas than in areas with poverty because affluent areas clearly diagnose more often. This seriously skews the results.
My why question is now 'Why is mental illness on the rise as America's affluence increases?". I chose to research mental illness first and wait to see if I have enough information to focus on a more specific disease, such as depression or anxiety. Still, this issue is pretty recent, but I am finding more information than I did before. It is also a challenge to find studies directly relating instances of mental illness to time and increase in wealth.

Junior Theme Update

Contrary to what I've heard, my junior theme research thus far has been interesting! My why question is: Why does depression happen so frequently in privileged areas?
I am currently reading the book The Price of Privilege, and while it is giving me good insight on depression in teenagers from well off families, I still have yet to understand why this happens in adults. Also, I worry that with this topic I will get a lot of scientific information, while I really want to look beyond that and figure out why America's 'spoiled' people suffer so much due to their environment, as opposed to other places in the world.
I am also concerned about how I could look into the past for an answer to my question. Also, how can I be sure that cases of depression aren't just being reported more often now, and that the qualifications of depression haven't changed?
I still need to find more online sources, but I'm off to a great start!

Swept Away

As some of you may have heard, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, as well as a tsunami has just recently struck Japan. In addition to many lives lost and houses swept away and destroyed, a large explosion also occurred at a power plant as a result of the earthquake, causing deadly exposure to radiation.
As I'm sure it did many others, this earthquake seriously alarmed me. I suppose this is because I have always considered Japan to be an advanced country, and I have always subconsciously considered advanced countries to be invincible. I was proved wrong.
I supposed this is a pretty selfish way to think, but this disaster really makes me worry about the ones I love. We are never safe from Mother Nature.

But can we be? Is it about that time that the world should seriously reconsider building structures and think of new ways to protect ourselves against natural disaster? Or is this simply impossible?

Racial Tokenism

This past week, we have been talking about racial tokenism in class. We were asked whether we thought this was 'bad', and what should be done about it.
To be honest, the idea of racial tokenism being 'bad' made me feel entirely confused. It came about because certain networks were getting criticized for not representing minorities in their shows. Also, TV shows had to start being careful about how they represented certain races.
I am baffled because when minorities are not represented in certain shows, it's a problem. When they are represented in positions that aren't high class, it's a problem. And when they are represented in important positions, it's a problem. What, then, is the solution?
In a perfect world, I would say that directors should choose actors based on how well they play the role, but isn't it also possible that a director's stereotype's will factor in to their decisions, even subconsciously?
I am trying to find a solution to this issue, but I'm just going in circles. WHAT CAN BE DONE?