Blog Post #20- Goodbye World Issues Class, Thank You Mr Whittard, It Has Been A Good Year

Throughout the course of the year, many of the world issues that we faced in the course such as poverty, teen suicide, gay rights and many more all have one common solution; being social.

Affects around poverty have been made social in commercials, newspapers and all different kinds of media. I will try to affect change on this topic by donating money, food and any other items that can help the poverty in developing countries.

One way to prevent teen suicide is to be social with that one person. One of the biggest problems with a person with suicidal thoughts is that they are alone of have no one that respects them. When they become social with someone that respects them, they may snap back into reality and realize that they need help and go to see a psychiatrist. Hence, being social. If I ever run into a situation where a friend, co-worker is depressed and going through a tough time, I will sit down to talk and motivate them, hopefully bringing them back into reality.

One of the biggest contributions to banned gay marriage in certain countries parts of countries is the negative tone of society against the topic. That is one major reason why it is not legalized in some countries, because it is not socially acceptable. Positive campaigns should run on why gay marriage is positive to the community.

All in all, I will use all of the social aspects that I can to change the problems in the world as described above.

WE ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND WE NEED TO CHANGE!

Blog Post #19- A Skill of a Lifetime

This year in World Issues was a fun and engaging learning experience where I learned an important skill throughout the different assessments, debates and group discussions that we had as a class. At the beginning of the year I did not have a lot of interest in reading the newspaper and watching the news regularly but throughout the course I developed the skill of world awareness. After going through in depth discussions in class, I realized how 1 story can turn out to cause a political uproar and/or a total change of government for that Country. Thus, realizing how interesting and life changing a story that takes place on the other side of the world could be. Without this course, I would not have to urge to be as aware with worldwide news.

World awareness is a skill that doesn't only help me in world issues class but it can affect me in my personal life. Being aware is a must when you run a business. For example, if I were running a Canadian business and the American economy was in a recession, I would have to know that because of the affect that economy has on our economy, therefore I would make small changes in the company to deal with any financial problems that may occur. Being aware can reduce the effect on life situations including the one described above. As well, becoming more aware with the poverty around the world can lead to helping to try and cure it by donating money, food and education tools.

All in all, whether in the classroom, the workforce or in my personal life, having the skill of world awareness makes a person more educated and knowledgeable. "We obviously want to produce things that people want. We are going to continue to do that in an environmentally responsible way, while still being aware of the physical, scientific and practical issues that we have to deal with."

-Lee R Raymond

Blog Post #18- One Central Theme

World Issues has been a very interesting course full of many miscellaneous topics. However, one central them has been connected to the many topics that we have discussed throughout the year: violence. From the US Drone Strikes to Poverty to the Connecticut school shooting to more recent events such as the Boston Bombing, all of these have the common them of violence. Some topics do not have violence written in their name because they are gateways issues that can result in it. For example; marijuana, poverty and society becoming too sexy. Those listed can all lead to violence.

When we did the debate as a class on legalizing marijuana, it seemed as if their was more to be said about the cons of the drug. One of the big topics thought was brought up was how it is a gateway drug to lead to other drugs. Violence is high in the drug business and if marijuana gets legalized, the violence rate will go up. Doing drugs can alter someone's minds and make them do things that they would never do sober. They might get influenced with the wrong group of people where violence is a way of life and if one of them is not happy with someone, violence may be used as a way of taking care of the situation.

When poverty was briefly talked about in class and when I researched the topic in depth for my ISU, I found that poverty is a root of becoming a terrorist. Once again this is showing the theme of violence. If children grow up without an education and with parents without an education, they will not know what is right or wrong in the society of developed countries. In other words, the person might think that the easiest way to solve a severe issue is violence. In our society, that is defiantly not the way to resolve an issue.

The one class when we talked about our society becoming too sexualized and how pornography can ruin a person's life also relates back to violence. If a person becomes "overly" sexualized, their mind becomes warped into thinking things that once were not acceptable are now acceptable. Pornography changes the way that man thinks of "normal" sex. He then may become violent if he doesn't get exactly what he wants because his idea of normal sex is much higher than in reality.

In conclusion, all of these topics plus even more that we discussed this year help embody the them of violence in today's world issues. 

Blog Post #17- Attack or Step Back?

2013 has been a media covered year so far for guns, the violence and uproar that they cause. That is why I am completely against every citizen having them and if I were American, I would not let the government brainwash me. For every positive fact about carrying a gun, there are 5 negatives, something doesn't seem quite right with that fact. There are two kinds of rights involved in gun regulations: the right that the Supreme Court recognized in the book Catch 22 to have a gun, and the right of the public not to be unduly exposed to the considerable dangers imposed by widespread availability of guns. It is one thing to say that there is a constitutional right to keep a gun at home for protection. It is quite another to say there is a constitutional right to bring a hidden gun into a daycare center. There are too many negative aspects of this topic, I disagree with the commandment and the US should make gun laws similar to those in Canada. Like the picture illustrates below: America has a number that defiantly stands out, 10,728 meanwhile all the other countries are under 60. Something doesn't seem proper with that fact. What doesn't the American government understand that instead of creating a sense of security for American citizens it is causing them others to lose their sense of security. Basically, what the government believes is that killing the criminal who killed someone else is a significant way of solving a solution. This can cause a chain reaction from one persons friends and the other persons friends. If gun laws were stricter, this mess probably never be created in first place. Honestly, I do not think that America will tweak the commandment and I believe that it will stay like this for many years to come.

Blog Post #16- The Root of Terrorism

 

There are many factors to date that relate to a person becoming a terrorist or doing a terrorist act. The three main factors are discrimination, being unaccepted and the biggest factor of them all; poverty. All of these can lead to some kind of terrorism, whether mild or extreme.

 

To begin, the average Muslims become bombers when the causes of their anger come to be perceived as part of a general war against Islam. The feeling of being under attack may be amplified by personal experience of discrimination, and then validated by exchanges with like-minded friends, family members and Internet users. In other words, it's the build up of anger of being treated unequally that causes someone to burst and get revenge on others to feel like they have "power" to do it.

 

Secondly, being unaccepted as a child and while growing up changing the way someone may live their life. If they cannot do daily routines that others can do, that makes a person upset and can lead to severe anger. A person can only deal with a certain length of time of not being accepted and always being criticized for doing something that is not looked as correct in today's society that built up anger occurs and like above, they burst and want to get revenge.

 

Thirdly, one of the biggest factors leading to terrorism is poverty. Children in poverty learn poverty related behaviours which will carry out as they grow older. Things such as not learning what is right and wrong and growing up in poverty where rules are slim to none, the person does not know what to do with their life and how to react properly in certain situations or times when they get bored and have nothing to do. As well, the influence of others while in poverty is a significant contributor, if fighting someone off is a way to resolve a problem in the country in which the person was born, they don't know that's unacceptable in developed nations like Canada or the USA.

 

In conclusion, being unaccepted, racism and poverty are not just separate world issues, they are the building blocks for a bigger world issue; terrorism. Human civilization has to respect both the race of the person and the person as a whole. Additionally, socialists have to come and talk to under developed countries about the outside world and how to grow up and live life to the fullest. Barack Obama and Stephen Harper have to do more campaigns for their countries to raise awareness of these problems and show other rulers of nations how equal acceptance is running Canada and the USA positively. With these in effect, the factors of terrorism should be mitigated and hopefully disappear as soon as possible.



Blog Post #15- Does Religion Rule the Government?

 

I respect everyone's religion and beliefs, however to answer this question: Does religion, or religious principles/ethics/morals, have any place in government & be Should government create laws based on these norms? My answer would be "no". For example, in Canada their are many different people of many different religions currently living in our country. Having the government create laws on one ethnicity is absurd since our country is a culture mosaic. However, saying that those people do not have rights is incorrect. Any beliefs or ethics that a person has can be shown personally and individually but does not need to be run by the government. Overall, whether in North America or anywhere else in the world, everyone should be treated equally, live and have beliefs anyway they want in their personal life.

Blog Post #14- Food Dumping Is Not As Good As It Seems

When it comes to under-developed nations, many wealthier Countries want to pitch in and help with the relief efforts. From donating money and school supplies to one of the most important ways to help less fortunate Countries to date: supplying them with food which many are lacking. Giving food do donations is often seen as an act of kindness and smiled upon. However, is it completely curing poverty or is it just causing more? The food that gets shipped to these under-developed nations are always free, subsidised and below market prices. This process is called food dumping. Although it is an act of kindness, it is actually building into the cycle of poverty and causing more. If you are reading this now, you may be thinking that I am crazy, but the fact has been proven and debated. Even though previous individuals that have been starving get food, what happens to the farmers that take care of the crops and give them away to these nations? Local farmers become undercut because they cannot compete and are driven out of jobs and into poverty, further slanting the market share of the larger producers such as those from the US and Europe. This is one of the ways that food dumping is not as good as it seems and how it fits into the cycle of poverty. As well, food dumping from wealthier Countries floods the market and drives down the value of crops in poor Countries so far that it is more economical for them to import the food or accept it as foreign aid than to invest in their own agricultural development. Therefore, reducing possible job opportunities.

One solution that I would put forward for this issue of food dumping is to change the economic system in the developing nation to reduce the impact of dumping. Lower costs and less tariffs to make the transition of food significant and not just one big long term mess.