A different reality or future

The following sample essay on: “A different reality or future”. For some, it is hard to imagine a different reality or future than what is happening in the present. For others, there are so many different possibilities of what could happen based off what is currently happening in the world. People imagine a dystopian future more often than they imagine a utopian future.

Brown Girl in the Ring starts off in a dystopian future but is able to turn it around, inspiring a utopian future by the changes made throughout the novel.

It does not clarify exactly what happens post novel, but it supplies clues that the future is looking brighter for the characters than what they had experienced. The policies the premier decided to make would help change The Burn, hopefully for the better.

A dystopian Toronto is described in the novel as a terrible, no good, very bad city centre. Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. While taking place in a futuristic Toronto, it is not like the current Toronto.

Instead, it is a place where the poor and homeless live. After an economic collapse, it leaves the city in shambles, ruled by a drug lord, where people are surviving, not living. When all the rich people left for the suburbs, it resulted in the homeless and poor now taking over the inner city. People of The Burn, the inner city, left the city a complete mess, not caring about what is happening around them. A young Caribbean-Canadian lady lives with her grandmother who runs a spiritual and herbal wellness business.

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When the premier dictates the drug lord to find a human heart for her in need, the grandmother is killed for her heart, and the Caribbean-Canadian lady is forced to use the spirits help save her and kill the drug lord. She comes to terms with the spiritual world. Her heart was placed inside the premier’s body. The spirits of the grandmother from the heart take over the new body, and when she woke up, she developed new ideas and changes to make to her platform. She wanted to install new policies to make The Burn a better place to live in. Her first idea was to have presumed consent to be an organ donor by all citizens unless they signed an opt out form. Her second major policy was to support local businesses by supplying interest-free loans to them, thus hoping to rejuvenate their city. Her second policy would have the most effect versus the other policy. The future of Toronto looks brighter with a possibility of revitalizing Toronto.

The policy will supply benefits to the economy of the city. The Burn will still be occupied by the homeless and the poor even after the events of the book. The city center will still not be up to par for the rich people and they will remain in the suburbs until it starts looking like the way it did far before the economic collapse and raids and conflict within the city. This will cause the local businesses who have get the interest free loans to still grow as the city is slowly rejuvenated as the incentive does occur. As the businesses start to grow, they will start to need to hire more people to work there. Small businesses are usually more supportive to hire a broader range of employees than larger businesses. This includes people who would seem as a risky, for example, young people, disabled, ex-convicts, refugees, homeless and disabled. The Burn is dominated with theses type of people. It will supply them jobs that would help rebuild the economy. The small businesses would supply opportunities for those less fortunate to have a chance to rebuild their personal character while also rebuilding their city. While the small businesses will dominate the inner city as the large corporations see it as too much of a risk to franchise in The Burn, the smaller businesses will then take charge to help rebuild the economy using the interest free loans that would be provided to them.

By providing interest free loans to small businesses as an incentive to clean up their property, it will provide the businesses with the opportunity to grow. The policy is able to affect the citizens in a social aspect. Local businesses are often supported by the community, as seen in Brown Girl in the Ring, where the locals rely on the grandmother to heal and feel better. If the small businesses are given loans, they will grow more, but still rely on support from the local community to make profit. This will cause them to act as leaders. They will see their local community looking at them, making changes to The Burn and start to act as agents for change for social values in their community. This builds upon their personalized relationship with their community. As in Brown Girl in the Ring, people had a great relationship with the grandmother, who had few people that did not like her. This policy goes beyond the economic needs that the policy will provide, but instead affects the community socially as the benefits are personally natured.

Yet, all these policies will not guarantee the reduction of crimes and murders occurring inside The Burn. While, it could improve upon the appearance of the city, the policies do not so anything to address any concerns about crime. The Burn would still be lacking a police force and thus will not have anyone punishing those who commit crimes. While the spirits may still help people when they need them, it will not do drastic measure and stop crime and punishment. Extra policies would have to be made to reduce any crime that may occur inside, but, if the city does get rejuvenated by the local businesses, there is a chance that crime would reduce by a little, yet not enough to make a drastic change in the appearance of crime in the community.

And while there is hope that supplying small businesses with incentives to clean up their property they occupy by giving them interest free loans may work for some businesses, while it may not work for other businesses. People are greedy and if they can get interest free loans with making a promise to clean up their space, it is not guaranteed that that will happen. Some people will take the government for granted and only use the money and not follow through on their side of the agreement. Later, those business will run down and be forced to close. The greediness of people will only persist until the government will take precautions and apply certain rules to the loans that cut the amount of business that would take advantage of the government.

The interest free loan policy also runs the risk of causing the city to go into debt. While they may already be in debt, and already plagued at economic misfortunate. Often, small businesses and entrepreneurship are not seen as money makers and not proven to succeed. With that in mind, it may could be possible that by giving out interest free loans to small businesses will not improve the current economic state of the city, but instead make it worse. With the interest free loans, there is a greater risk of debt for the city. It promotes a culture of debt although it may rarely be viewed as debt. This could put the city at further risk for more economic collapses of what they currently have in The Burn. It could ruin the inner city and make it even more of a chaotic situation for The Burn. The introduction of interest free loans may seem like a good idea but could continue the economic decline The Burn is currently situated in and result in the collapse of the city.

The other policy created by the premier could change the health of the citizens and the environment of the city by eliminating the number of viruses and those who die while waiting for a donation. Before, people would usually get a pigs heart to be transplanted into their body when they needed a heart. The policy that was put in place by the premier to make people automatic organ donors unless they opt out will reduce the number of viruses that could be spreading from using pigs as organ donors. Before, there would not be enough organ donors around when patients needed them, now, it will make Toronto healthier and saving more lives. People would no longer be waiting until they might die to receive a transplant as there would be more donors who would be a match dying that they could use. With the amount of people who live in The Burn who may be experiencing illnesses and need a transplant, there would not be enough people who would be able to provide an organ to transplant for. There would not be enough donors, but with this policy, more would be available to be of consideration for organ donation. This includes anyone who dies, whether accidental or on purpose or of illness. It would increase the number of donors and thus increasing the amount of healthy people living in The Burn. It would clear the number of illnesses that would be floating among the citizens and would make the city a healthier place to live, with more available health care. Since the grandmother who used herbs and plants to help people ill is now deceased, it creates an opportunity for the people to still remain healthy even though their healthcare provider is now dead. The policy it would make more donors available to those who need it and thus making The Burn a healthier place to live than what it was before the policy.

The policy on the presumed organ donors may help save lives to those who are in need. Yet, if there ever occurs a time when an exact match is not available, people will still feel the need to kill for the donation rather than wait, especially since the public had concerns over the virus epsilon that transmits by using pig organs for transplants. It also runs the risk of the citizens concern over their rights. Even though the citizens may not be of best shape, they still have rights. Some may worry that making it presumed consent, they would have no say about what happens to their body. This could cause another rebellion, but instead a rebellion for the control over their bodies. While this is a slim chance of happening, it is possible.

The presumed consent policy was recently passed in Nova Scotia. The legislature states that all adults will have presumed organ donorship unless they sign an opt out form. This policy that was imagined in the 1998 book has finally come true in North America, with Nova Scotia being the first to enact on it and propel it forward, motivating other to do so as well. It was designed because there are not enough people out there who are taking the effort to opt in to the organ donation program. Instead, if they wish not to donate their bodies, they will put in the effort to opt out rather than setting aside extra time to opt in. It is more likely that more lives will be saved when it takes action in a year because there will be a higher chance of finding a match with more people who can donate.

Brown Girl in the Ring depicts a dystopian Toronto but when the premier decides to enact a few different policies, there is potential that those policies could clean up the city and make it a better place to leave in. The book ends open ended allowing the reader to imagine what could happen next for the city. While imagining a future for a fictional universe can be difficult, with the background information of how the universe was before the policies can help enable people to understand how it could affect them. It could change the dystopian Toronto to eventually become a utopian Toronto if all goes according to plan.