Water Buffalo
In class we learned about The Water Buffalo by watching a video about it. We were required to work in groups and take notes. Our group consisted of Cristina, Silvia, and Vanessa. This group project was made possible by collaborating with each other on Google Docs. The video about the Water Buffalo talked about the quest to find and then deliver a water buffalo to a poor family in China. It all began when Philip Greenspun posted a blog about how giving a water buffalo might be the worst possible Christmas present. There was also Robert Thompson’s blog which was where we were able to learn about the creator and writer of the water buffalo movie. We we also able to learn more about this movie and its impact through Will Richardson’s blog as well as Karl Fisch’s.
Robert Greenspun posted the blog Water Buffalo:Worst Possible Christmas Present? to discuss the idea of giving a water buffalo to a poor family in
China. He speaks of the Heifer International Organization who accepted donations to give to the poor of
China but who were not giving buffalos to poor families. On December 28 2006, Robert Thompson was searching the web when he came across Greenspun’s blog and read the Water Buffalo post. Thompson, a violinist, left a comment on the post explaining how he felt about the idea of giving a water buffalo. ” After reading your blog I drove out to the fields and I asked local farmers (who are poor and the lowest class in China) whether a water buffalo would be a good gift or not. They said a water buffalo would be “zui hao de liwu”, or “the best gift” without hesitation.”
Since Thompson moved to China from America, he was inspired to go ask Chinese farmers what the value of a buffalo was to them. After hearing that water buffalos were actually a quite helpful resource for the poor, Thompson decided to give one to a family and record the process of doing so. The video details the lengths Thompson goes to buy a water buffalo and find the perfect family to give it to. With the help of his wife and her family, Thompson learned about a family who had faced many devastations together. There are only four people in the family: the great grandmother. the grandmother, the father and the father’s daughter, hence the “4 Generations” part of the title. Upon receiving the gift, the emotional impact and surprise by which the family receives the buffalo is one that is sure to move anyone viewing the video. To think that a buffalo could mean so much to a group of people makes us wonder if there are other possible ways to help the poor that do not include giving them money but rather something just as or even more helpful.
I thought this video was very inspiring and motivational. It was touching to see how a poor family can receive a gift that they deserve and at the same time be beneficial to them. There are so many things that a person can do to help out a family and I think giving a water buffalo was a very good idea. This is because this water buffalo will be able to help them in so many ways such as feeding them for about half a year. After watching this video, I realized that a blog can be very useful because it can send out messages and help out others like it did in this scenario. Blogs aren’t necessarily negative, they are positive in many ways. I hope to use the web for the same reason at one point in my life as something powerful that can motivate people to help others.
