The Most Important Issues

The three most important issues that we have addressed this year are child soilders, the AIC and the declining environment and biodiversity. Child slavery is something that has been in the news recently due to the amount of awareness raised for Koney 2012 and since we watched the movie invisible children in class it has even more prevalence. Though we didn't spend much time looking over this issue it is something that has stuck in my mind as an issue that has no immediate solution. Other issues such as world hunger have the goal of providing food and water but child soilders has to be stopped with the help of the government of that country. This becomes a difficult situation as most of the governments involved are corrupt and make the problem worse by not allowing aid to the children and families that are effected. The AIC took us half the year to complete including a simulation and various write ups. We each were assigned a country and tried to problem solve real life issues that have been taking place. It was important to see how complicated the issues were and as well how childlike some of the leaders were acting. The problems aren't just cut and dry because for every solution there is another problem that seems to accompany it. Some people just wouldn't co-operate which would also happen between disputing nations in the real world. I learned a lot about the root of some of the problems effecting the AIC and how much religion really does play a part. The environment and biodiversity were topics that often came up due to other issues. They are a huge problem and although the course wasn't particularly about this topic it is a world issue and and I believe it is one of the most important. 

How to Effect Change in the World

Raising awareness is how you get a cause to be known and without this step it is impossible to get people to donate time or money if they don't know about the cause. We talked a lot in class about education as a joke but education and raising awareness are the same thing. You are informing people of a problem that they might not have known existed. The next step is to donate. Donations don't always need to come in the form of money as time is just as valuable if not more so. With problems such as global warming there is so much to be done such as fundraising for solutions, raising your voice to parliament, and donating money for habitat restoration. For other problems, particularly ones that involve other governments such as child soldiers, it is difficult and dangerous to intervene and in these situations raising awareness is possibly the only thing that can be done. By educating people, many will pressure governments to do something and they will intervene peacefully (hopefully) to protect the people. It is unrealistic to believe that all things wrong with the world will be solved but small steps definitely make a difference. 

The Biggest Threat Facing Canada in the Next 50 Years

Canada in terms of government is stable and although we may be in debt, we have more immediate problems to be dealt with. The first thing that pops into my mind is global warming. I would say yellow stone but no one knows how immediate that danger is. Climate change is something that is effecting the globe , not just Canada, but it has a great impact on us. We are one of the world largest wheat and logging suppliers and because of global warming, these products are being effected. Due to the change in temperatures habitats can't keep up with these rapid changes and species die leaving many other species without predators. Insects now can eat what they please which is a huge problem for the wheat. For lumber, pine beetles have now taken over and are killing many forests. This forces us into change as our environment and our economy are effected by this problem. Fossil fuels, which we are dependent on, are causing the weather changes as well as depleting as a resource. Maybe this is the earths way of telling us we need to stop. Switching to more environmentally sustainable methods of living is something that needs to happen quickly and hopefully with innovation, in the net 50 years.

Self Reflection

I always knew that I was generally good at arguing with people on topics that  I was passionate about but to be marked on my ability to do so was a new experience. Debating wasn't something I had done a lot of formally in other classes, as  I didn't take many social sciences. I learned that he most important thing when it came to debates was being prepared. It's impossible to predict what the other person is going to say but if research is done it shouldn't be difficult to determine a response. The hardest challenge that I found this year was to debate for or against a certain topic that  I didn't believe in. FOr the Abortion debate I was put on the team that wanted to make abortion illegal. This was difficult, as I think it would be  for many women, to say that abortions shouldn't be allowed. The upside was that I could think about what arguments that I would make and and think of counter arguments ahead of time. I have also learned to speak up if I have a point to make and sometimes it's ok to be wrong.

ISU Reflection

Water is seen, under the UN as a basic human right, but why is it that so few people have access to fresh and clean drinking water? This was something that I didn't quite understand in countries such as Australia where they are a developed nation. In developing nations it would make sense as they don't have the money or the tools to provide themselves with water, but countries that do have the money still don't have access.  De-salination was a process that I knew worked but what I didn't realize was that it is so inefficient and very costly. Canada has the largest supply of fresh water and yet we don;t outsource this product. We keep it for ourselves and this actually made sense to me. The cost and fossil fuels that would be burned in order to transport water around the world in massive quantities seems silly. Someone made the point in class that why should we ship our valuable resources to countries where people are living on inhabitable land? It doesn't make sense. Though technology is advancing we haven't advanced enough to be able to create life's most valuable resource. Water. And why should we have to create it when it is already available for human beings but they are in the wrong location. It also isn't a logical solution to move half of the worlds population to areas that have water as the resources in these areas would then become sparse as the areas would overpopulate. It is a catch 22 where neither situation seems to make sense and what we thought of as a band-aid fix before has a whole new meaning to me. Ending the cycle of poverty with education won't end poverty if there is no sanitation and clean water as money that these educated children are making will always be spent on health care. There is no logical answer and this is a concern that I never even recognized before.

Austerity Rejected in Recent European Election

Greece and France have recently had elections where, in France, the Socialist party won and this means that the people are standing up against austerity measures. In Greece the May 6th election didn't leave a party with a majority and another election will be held later in the year but the party with the most votes was one that was against the austerity measures that were put in place in order to get Greece out of their financial situation. From these elections it is clear that austerity measures are not going to be put in place for the time being. Hollande, who is the Socialist elected in Frances most recent election, prides himself on the fact that he is a normal person and can make the right decisions as he is ordinary and understands what the people want. Unfortunately without these measures taking place debt will not be repaid. France may be better of on the Debt front then Greece but they are not Debt free. Without the austerity measures I see no way that the countries will be able to move on from this situation. In my opinion Austerity measures are a necessary evil and in the end they will be implemented or Greece will default. 

AIDS and Disease

AIDS and other fatal diseases are ones that have just started occurring in the last 50 years. Though there is no cure for many diseases like AIDS and Cancer, awareness has become the primary tool for support. Run for the cure and pins of Red and Pink are symbols that most of us recognize as AIDS and Breast Cancer. HIV and AIDS particularly effect developing nations as the access to contraceptives and sanitation isn't readily available. This disease leaves children parentless and is a major contributor to poverty. Children are not able to go to school and access education, which is essential to ending the poverty cycle, because they are often left with parental duties due to death. HIV and AIDS is something that has learned to be prevented and in our society rarely leads to death. However, cancer is something that effects us greatly and has an unknown cause but HIV is preventable and we could stop it. Charities and organizations have donated contraceptives to developing nations in order to stop the spread of this disease. I'm not saying we shouldn't continue to raise awareness for cancer but when the availability to prevent HIV/AIDS is available this should be a primary concern.