Blog Twenty: As you move into the next phase of your life, how will you try to affect change in the world regarding these issues?

The transition from high school to university is definitely as phase in my life that I will never forget. I will take many things along with me that I have learned, whether these are mistakes I have learned from or goals I have accomplished through my life. Regardless, they will be things that have changed my life, so I have decided the next step I can do is give back to change the world. The million-dollar question is how! Well, I definitely have half that question answered.  Essentially I can start off by altering my lifestyle to fit the needs that are more compromising to the rest of the world. After all, I was born onto this planet, not the other way around. Another way I can affect change in the world is through what we have been given the opportunity to do here in Canada, voice our opinion. Owning up to my own morals and beliefs will not only change me but will change the world around me as well. The youth have become a very influential part in our society today, and I believe as long as we keep voicing our opinion, we will continue to have this affect. As for the other half of this answer, there are some parts of this change that I will have to wait and see what happens. Our world is constantly changing good and bad, so in order for me to make a positive change I will have to wait for what is thrown at me. As long as we are educated well, we will be able to improvise our knowledge to seek the best solution. 

Blog Nineteen: What is the biggest threat facing Canada in the next 50 years?

Let’s face it, we Canadian are some of the luckiest people to be living in the country we do today. With one of the strongest democracies, the highest percentage of available fresh water and are generally respected around the globe. Yet, within the next 50 years there are some issues we could potentially face if we do not try to fix them today. I believe the threat Canada will most likely be effected by in the next 50 years is the way we are treating our environment. The way we treat our environment now does not have instantaneous effects but rather will affect us with time. Since us human do not see any drastic problems at the moment, we fail to realize that we will see effects down the road.  For example, the basic standard green house gas affect, primary seen through the excessive use of vehicles on the roads. We do not see dramatic affects right now, but until we see extreme changes I don’t think Canadians wont do anything to alter their lifestyle. As sad as it is, it seems to be the reality of the situation and us world issues students need to continue to educate others on these issues. This is because education has a long term affect on individuals, and if we start to educate young child, they can bring it through their primary and secondary education experience. If we put that into perspective, that’s almost 20 years of influence! Being seventeen years old, there are certain things in my education that I never seem to forget and those are primarily the basic things I learned from a young age. So if we make these environmental concepts as simple for a young person to interpret I believe we will be set for 50 years down the road when they are the leaders of today. To plan ahead we have to target the individuals who will be living then. 

Blog Eighteen: What have you learned about yourself during the course?

Throughout the course, I have found that my learning experiences have not happened sporadically but instead as a process. The first step that I have learned is to put proper research in discussion and topics we are focusing on in class.  Not only do I learn topics from a more accurate standpoint, but also it allows me to analyze world issues with a fact-based foundation. From there I am able to base a true opinion that has evidence to back up my thoughts, beliefs and at times, morals. The second step to this process was vocalizing my thoughts with my peers, family and friends. The knowledge I had acquired from my research helped me to have useful and insightful conversation with other individuals about important issues. By enlightening others on my outlook, educated others around me, which I have learned is a very important step in spreading the word about international dilemmas we face. Lastly, the third step to this process was, of course brainstorming for solutions. As a young adult there are realistic measures we can go to, to solve these international problems and in order to find solutions, education is the only way we will be able to make it there the safest, rational way. By following these simple steps, has taught me this year to not follow the crowd or believe everything that the news says because there are many misinterpretations were are swayed to believe, especially through the media. 

Blog Seventeen: What are the 3 most important issues that you’ve learned about during the course?

Although everything we have learned this year is always related to each other in one way or another, there are three particular events I believe hold much significance today, in 2012. These three important issues are:

1.  Arab-Israeli Conflict:

This conflict has been occurring for decades now are particularly highlighted still in our news today as a huge problem in our world. The Arabs and the Israelis are the primary rivals in this issue and have been struggling to find a solution or compromise to the correct land ownership. The problem is difficult to find a solution primarily because of their religious views, which has caused a considerable amount of tension and violence. This continuous political friction has not only caused tension within the specific desired land but has become an international conflict as well. This is where I believe it is one of the most important world issues of 2012. For example, America’s involvement in the Arab-Israeli conflict has caused a lot of citizens within the country as well as other citizens who’s country is allied with America to question their bias and future decisions America could step in on.

Hopefully we will see peace between the Arabs and the Israelis within the next few months or years but until then we need to continue to brainstorm solutions so this issue will not be ignored.

2.  National and International Disparity: After discussing many issues in class, such as poverty, debt, violence etc, I have realized that a central reason to this is the disparity we have in our world today.  This division of the rich and the poor has been happening for centuries, and yet it only seems to be getting worse. On a national scale we can see it in our communities, as some people only get paid the minimum wage while others get paid the ten times the minimum in one hour. On an international scale, we see countries like Canada and America who are culturally, socially, and economically rich from the resources and opportunities we have been given while they’re countries such as the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that face extreme poverty and are in endless debt from the lack of resources and a successful economy. Although many people have tried to speak up for this issue, such as the Occupy Wall Street protests, there is still a huge gap in our world. This will be a very tough issue to fix in our world because we will want individuals to work hard and be rewarded for their hard work (through income) but we also need to ensure individuals are not being taken advantage of by these higher paying individuals. (e.g. sweatshops)

3.  Global Supply of Fresh Water: After I did my presentation on this topic, it has come to my attention as one of the most important problems our whole world faces. Considering one in six people do not have access to a fresh water supply really sparks my attention that we need to fix, considering water is one of the essential elements to survival. As Canadians I believe we need to firstly recognize water as a human right, and secondly considering sharing our water with countries in the world that do not have the access to it. It is essentially luck of the draw that Canada ended up with this amazing resource and it should be our duty to share it with the rest of our global community.

Blog Sixteen: ISU Reflection

When reflecting upon the ISUs, although I was aware of most of them, I was most impressed by the solutions our class brought to the table. Of course, some of the solutions were at times a little far fetched, most of them were very realistic in then sense that we considered the country’s reactions on a global stance rather than a viewpoint of a Canadian. As the days of presentations went by, I would walk out of the classroom with a new piece of the puzzle that makes up our world and the issues we face today, here in 2012. This was and still is a huge impact in the way I think about simple concepts from taking shorter showers, to realizing that within a few days, I will be legal to vote and can start voicing my opinion to the general public. I also took from the presentation that no matter what, conversation and opinion is one of the most valuable ingredients to finding a solution. As I continue to even write this blog post, I am re-reminding myself of the issues we have talked about in class and thinking of solutions on the multiple topics we covered. This clearly displays the impact these presentations have had on me and hopefully they have impacted my peers just as much. 

Blog Fifteen: European Elections - Austerity Rejected!

For the past decade European countries have felt a tremendous amount of pressure regarding the levels of debt, and deficiency of the Euro. In particular, Greece has taking one of the hardest hits in this crisis, as it is close to default with roughly 165% Public Debt to their GDP. They have tried many strategies to put austerity measures into effect however; they are not approved by the citizens of Greece and other countries in the European Union facing this debt dilemma.  Specifically France and Germany have been the highest influence on the union’s hope for survival. Although they are experiencing debt themselves they have given money to countries that are in extreme need. Eventually these countries will not be able to lend out these favors and because of this countries like France and Greece have both had government elections to sort out there debt issues.

            France’s election was a presidential election. Former President, Nicolas Sarkozy has been one of the main assistants, along with Angela Merkel during the European debt crisis. Nevertheless, Sarkozy did not win his election, being replaced by Francois Hollande. Even though France is not facing as drastic debt problems such as Greece it still has debt problems that cannot be ignored. If it is ignored, and austerity measures are not made, they will see problems in the near future.

            On the other hand, Greece has faced elections as well but it is a more drastic election. This is because the two parties in the election were pro austerity (Radical Left) and anti austerity (New Democracy). In the end, the New Democracy Party won, with the leader Alexis Tsipras. Since it is a democratic country, one could say that the people’s voice came across very strong in the election, however negative consequences have resulted with this new form of government since they are not planning on finding appropriate solution against the Greek Debt. It will be very interesting to see what happens…

Blog Fourteen: Biodiversity

How has biodiversity changed on earth in the last 150 years and what can we do to fix this trend in the next 150 years?

Over the past 150 years, abrasion has been increased immensely. This is due to the unsustainable ecological practices we as global community take part in. This negative change is predominantly evident through our habitat loss is due to deforestation and urbanization, and other human activities. However, as humans we cease to realize that biodiversity benefits humans in many different ways. For example, many medicines are created from our natural environment such as the Madagascan periwinkle for leukemia or willow for aspirin. Other natural resources we continuously neglect to preserve are all of the foods we consume. As the population exceedingly grows, we do not keep in mind that the balance we should support for the next 150 years. However, there are ways to fix the current direction we are progressing to.  As simple actions such as, buying organic foods to avoid pesticide usage, insulating homes to reduce unnecessary heat loss and reduce fossil fuel consumption and pollution, and cycling or walking or use public transport to reduce your carbon footprint. As a global community, there are more drastic steps in changing this trend. This can be done through the help of the UN Convention on Biological diversity as well as the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The pressure of global trade can also be targeted to ensure that only the countries that treat their environment properly can be benefited through the global economy. Instead of taking advantage of our natural environments we should call attention to how crucial our biodiversity really is and make it a “two way street” in every action we undertake.