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.