Blog Eight: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (NSA)

The good, the bad and then ugly I must say describes the simulation well.

THE GOOD: Our NSA responded with good intentions to our group and how we worked skillfully together. It was through our background information and precedent of our countries decision-making that made us successful in setting up alliances through our private communiqués. Furthermore, our group was able to provide feedback well to our NSA that was beneficial to us because it allowed us to receive feedback from her viewpoint as well. Overall, my group (Victoria and Ramya) received excellent comments back from our NSA. Good job Girls!

THE BAD: Personally, representing Palestine Fatah was although an interesting task; was also challenging at times. Understanding how my country formed decisions but more importantly reacted to other countries decisions was something I had to build my knowledge throughout the simulation. This was probably because they did not have similar opinions as a democratic country such as countries in North America.

THE UGLY: Even though my group was able to accomplish many goals to help solve the problem, it is unfortunate it could not run this smoothly in the real world. This simulation has helped me realized that you have to be very rational and always be thinking of the future in every move you make, big or small.

Blog Seven: Margaret Thatcher

“In politics if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.” –Margaret Thatcher

The quote is important to me because it shows the confidence women can have, especially in politics. Margaret Thatcher held years of power as Britain’s first woman Prime Minister. She reshaped the social and economic outlook of the country. What I love about this quote is the fact that it is possible for woman to rise to the highest office in politics and more important, to stay there. She accomplished this with a level of assertiveness rarely equaled by her male predecessors. As global citizens this is very crucial to point out because it is highlighting the fact that although countries have to treat each other equally, we need to treat both genders equally as well. Since governments lead countries, it is important to ensure that both genders have the chance to be apart of the government. I believe Margaret Thatcher has created a huge precedence for active female global citizens to feel confident and not be afraid of trying to be a true leader. 

Blog Six: Respond to the Quote

"All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." - Sir Edmund Burke, 1769.

Reading this quote, really made me stop and think about how this is sadly so true, yet realistic in our world today. The first example that came to mind is the tribulations that are occurring at the Douglas Creek Estates (DCE). It is atrocious to see how our government and other Canadian citizens are not doing anything to help what is going on, at these reserves. As Canada being one of the most praised countries for being a peacekeeping nation, yet when it comes to our own problems, we cannot achieve the same peaceful state. This is shown specifically seeing that the Red Cross committees helping out in Haiti traveled to these reserves to help the citizens. This is a shining example of how Canadian citizens-healthy and willing are not helping to contribute to solving this situation. Thus, this corrupt dilemma is escalading.  As living in the 21^st century, I believe this needs to stop. Not only are we more accessible then ever to travel around the globe and help problems around the world but we also have the technology to create solutions to our problems. Although we have done a lot to help our world, we need to continue more of actually ‘walking the walk’ not just ‘talking the talk.’

Blog Five: To Act or Not to Act

Choosing between whether your going to act, I believe is affected not only by your emotions in the moment but also by your morals. An individual’s moral regarding their religion, where they were brought up, their culture, their occupations etc helps to shape how an individual may treat a situation.  Essentially to even act upon a situation, one needs to feel obliged to feel as though it can be accomplished. These factors previously stated contribute to the outcome immensely. For example, an individual of a wealthy background, living in a fully developed country, may or may not decide to help people in a developing country. This could be because the individual feels as though they could not make a difference or because they are in fear of their own life. Although this does have adequate reasoning behind it, in reality this occurs frequently. Nevertheless, there are many scenarios in which an individual can help, but choose not to because of some form of negligence. As a global citizen we need to step back and realize that any global scenario should be helped whether or not your particular country is being affected by it. The question is, how? There are many different ways in which individuals can help to act upon a global situation. I think a very influential choice to take action is making our government aware. This is because on a national scale, the government can educate their people through commercials etc and on an international scale; our government can make awareness at meetings such as the UN.  A personal example I choose to act upon is helping the environment. Little acts such as sorting my garbage to see how much I can compost and recycle to hang-drying my clothes to avoid using the dryer. These little undertakings although make me feel as though I am taking action, if everyone took part in this, it would create a huge, positive impact on our world. 

Blog Four: Human Rights

“At all times, day by day we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want-for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war.”                                                                                                                        

This was a quote said by Eleanor Roosevelt who was famed as a First Lady and campaigner for human rights in the United States and worldwide. Specifically, Eleanor’s anti-racist views were well known. A particular striking story was when the black opera singer, Marian Anderson was not allowed to sing in the Constitution Hall in Washington in 1939 because of her color and Eleanor arranged an alternative performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorials. As a result, Marian Anderson had an audience of 70,000 people that was broadcasted nationwide on the radio. She also spoke at civil rights workshops in Tennessee despite threats from racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Following this Eleanor then swayed her husband (Franklin Roosevelt) to sign a series of orders omitting discrimination against blacks in his ‘New Deal’ programmes in the South. Furthermore, Eleanor was elected in 1946 to be the Head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission where she not only drafted the Declaration of Human Rights but also started the pressure group Americans for Democratic Action that mainly targeted domestic and social reforms to Russia and the Cold War.                                             

Although there are other innumerable achievements Eleanor Roosevelt accomplished throughout her lifetime, the examples above give a basic outline of the impact she had on our world. Eleanor Roosevelt has personally motivated me because not only did she fight for human rights regarding different races, but also for women’s rights. I think this is important to note because at the time when Mrs. Roosevelt was first lady, both issues needed tremendous support and she was able to accomplish them both.  What is so significant is the fact that Eleanor Roosevelt was able to fix the problem by examining the global picture. She was able to link the spectrum of issues to solve the fundamental core conflict occurring. The result of her initiatives had a cascading domino affect on solving even wider issues. She was able to synthesize and multitask many different components into her goal, leading to a compassionate result to advance human rights for all. I believe Eleanor Roosevelt is a very influential role model. This is because her accomplishments can be brought to focus in both personal and public ways. From managing workloads and stress at school to focusing on world issues such as the European Debt Crisis, Eleanor Roosevelt is a true role model for achieving balance even in difficult times. 

Blog Three: Interdependence

" We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations, far away.... We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Former US President, 1945.

                   Although global peace is a very complex topic, it can be understood through simple scenarios. To put global peace into a basic comparison, let’s compare it to a food chain. Food chains are primarily a food pathway that links different species in a community. Energy and nutrients are passed from one organism to another. In order to achieve balance in the environment, all parts of the food chain must depend on each other to perform their specific roles. If one organism decides to act against their role, chaos will occur. This is similar to our global community. Almost all countries in our world depend on another country. Specifically, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s quote is extraordinarily accurate to the world we live in today. Not only does he reflect upon the concept that our world is a global community, but he highlights that countries could not achieve this peace or happiness without interacting with the rest of the world.  We no longer live alone at peace. This is visible in many events in our world today. For example, the disparity in African countries is a major obstacle that countries around the globe are trying to fix. From the conflicts in certain African governments (e.g. Libya, North/South Sudan etc.) to the lack of nutrition and education provided amongst the African people, many countries are trying to volunteer themselves to assist in achieving peace and solutions. Even though Africa is not necessarily economically interconnected with most countries around the world, in time of need many countries connect with countries to achieve tranquility. However for the countries outside of the continent that do rely on Africa economically feel this ‘ripple effect’ that conflict has on our global community. This shows a true illustration of countries depending and interconnecting with each other. This interdependence uniting countries provides both pros and cons regarding events that take place in our world. As our global community continues to shrink we must learn to engage in times of trouble and success to reflect on our preceding steps into the future. Steps I believe our global community has done well is the international organization, United Nations which was also founded in 1945. Other organizations that have helped make our world more interconnected and aware is Amnesty International. This is an organization that raises awareness in protecting human rights around the world. I think this is a very important aspect we should keep in mind as our world continues to become more interconnected because it allows individuals to be educated on conflict in their global community and shows us how others can help them to live in peace. 

Blog Two: Europe Crisis-What's Up With Italy?

AIC Simulation Reflection
In the Arab-Israeli Conflict simulation, I am a member of Palestine Fatah. Specifically, I am Marwan Barghouti. Marwan Barghouti is a political figure in Palestine Fatah and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Over the past few weeks, my group representing Palestine Fatah has created many objectives. For instance, in our goal statement we exhibit intentions such as establishing complete liberation of Palestine. This is because due to the Palestine being paralyzed from all economic, political, military and cultural movements, liberating Palestine would allow the nation hold freedom from not receiving or initiating services. Another primary goal we established was hoping for an independent democratic state, and the inclusion of Jerusalem for our capital city. This would allow Palestine to thus become a recognized state and would allow us to expand our connections with other Arab nations. Keeping this in mind, our next step after completing our goals statement was to secure alliances. We collaborated with our group and decided difference roles would concentrate on creating alliances with different countries. I was assigned the roles of creating alliance with Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Although I have not made formal alliances with them yet, I will proceed to do so in the near future. However I have not created alliances yet due to press releases and observations I have noticed regarding these countries. For example, I have noticed Saudi Arabia is stressing they are very neutral so I am waiting, hoping to see if they have any alight biases.  However, if they do not in the next couple of days, I will compose and alliance regardless of their neutral opinion. Furthermore, Palestine Fatah and Lebanon have a very meandering past. Thus I would like to develop a better understanding in how Lebanon is placing them in this particular simulation before I try to request an alliance.



With Italy at a deficit of 4.6% GDP in 2010, has accumulated debt at almost 119% of GDP and economic growth. This has induced investors to view Italian bonds as a perilous affiliation. However, Europe still being 25-30% of the global economy, this crisis in Italy and throughout Europe has an extreme impact on our world.            
Italy is Europe’s fourth-largest economy and that being so; potential bailouts would be extremely expensive. In addition, millions of American jobs depend on the stability and growth in Europe. The global economy is more interconnected than ever. With that being said, there is every reason to be concerned about Italy’s future. Recently, it has been costing more for Italy to raise money and pay its debt because of the rise in bond yields. This means that interest rates for bonds are increasing and because of this Italy’s debt has also been exponentially increasing.  Other European debt has significantly affected Italy, specifically Greek debt. Having said that, Italy’s debt at 2.6 trillion dollars is five times than what Greece owes and with Greece’s bailout being so difficult, it is hard to see how European leaders could bail out the Italian Government.                                                                         
Recently, Mario Monti has been appointed Prime Minister of Italy to form a new Italian government to tackle this debt crisis, which brought about the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi.  It has been said that Mr. Monti’s has a said to have a very strong financial and economic background that could help with Italy’s crisis. According to Mario Monti’s press release he made this November, he suggest that he wants to restore Italy’s reputation financially to match the size of its economy rather than bash about the credibility it has had over the past few months.
Personally, I believe the only rational option at this point is to seek international aid. But with both Italy’s political disorder and financial crisis, there is every reason to be concerned about what lies ahead for Italy. Mario Monti’s appointment has somewhat provided a new opportunity for Italy to hopefully regain back its reputation of being a primary leader in the European Union. Monti has promised his people to be a steady hand in a time of the market turbulence, but before Italy gets to certain of themselves they must keep in mind that actions speak louder than words. 

Blog One: Summer Event

In early August this summer, I went on my annual camping trip for ten days on Eagle Lake. Eagle Lake is located in the town of South River, Ontario that is roughly about four and a half hours north of Hamilton.  During this trip I took part in many activities such as hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, swimming and of course, relaxing and taking in Ontario’s natural environment. Since I was with my family, I had a lot of time to reflect and take in the true natural environment. In fact, I actually kept a journal of particular things I truly notice on my camping excursion. Looking back at it now, I realized there were a lot of observations that came to my attention when I was there. For instance, I mention how noticeable the air quality was and how much cleaner it actually felt to breath. I also took into account how much wildlife was actually there and surprisingly how much they interacted with us.   Nevertheless, reflecting back on my trip in general, has made me aware of how sustaining environments and creating good habits is so crucial to our planet.  Returning to nature made me realize that all the activity I do in an urban setting uses an overture of higher energy sources including fossil fuels and production of green house gases. In this environment I was able to enjoy the reconnection with nature and did activities that did not expend copious amounts of green house gases. I realized that these non-carbon footprint recreations still resulted in just as a delightful experience.                                                                                                             From a sociological standpoint, it provided an opportunity to interact with my family members on a one on one communication level by simply sitting a around a fire or taking hikes through the woods. This also made me realize that although fires do great a small carbon footprint, it burns a lot less green house gases then driving through a urban setting to find entertainment.
            On a global standpoint, this can relate to many issues occurring in our world. For example, the proportionality of global warming to growing carbon emissions are our fault. We take for granted what seem to be such simple tasks in our everyday lives and we do not think the outcomes of it for the future. From basic things such not sorting your garbage and recycling properly to idling in traffic for hours. Many of these actions are spiraling affects that create issues as big as global warming is to us right now. We need to start asking questions like “why isn’t the air around us as clean as it is four hours north of us?” and act upon finding a solution. Many of the solutions are easier then we think. For instance, changing to more efficient running light bulbs.  It saves money, saves energy, and preserves our planet from high CO2 levels (by not running factories etc).