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. 

Blog Thirteen: Violence in Society

What are the leading causes of violence in society and what do you think could be done about them?

Violence is not a one step action but rather a cycle that affects everyone in society in one way or another. However, they’ re many causes to this cycle. Some of these causes that lay the foundation to violence in society are: biological, sociological ad psychological causes according to John Monahan a Psychologist and Professor at the University of Virginia.                                                                         Biological in regards to violence affect our society through biological factors such as hormones (testosterone, transmitters in the brain like serotonin), blood abnormalities etc. However, many of the biological factors are not hereditary. For example, this could be causes such as a head injury, poor nutrition, environmental events such as exposure to lead paint. The National Academy of Sciences did many studies on the relationship between biology and violence and they came to the conclusion that there are no patterns with the two variables. Nevertheless, these factors do indeed correspond with violence significantly in society. Next are sociological affects. These are factors such as demography, poverty, race etc. This fuels how statistics of certain communities have higher rates of crime and other illegal activity. For example, in America the murder rate is almost twice as high in the South as it is in the Northeast but the robbery rate is almost twice as high in the Northeast as it is in the South. Poverty and race for example are similar to not only to violence but to each other as well. If impoverishment is considered, the effect of race on violence diminishes substantially. It is not entirely comprehensible to whether or not unemployment leads people to commit crimes or if they’re violent acts lead employers to not want to hire them.  However the reasons why sociological effects takes place is due to the community an individuals is brought into. Psychological causes are the final component. This does not necessarily refer to as people with mental disorders. In fact, at most, 3% of the violence in American society is through individuals that have major mental disorders. Instead, it is through developmental processes that we all face. The sociological and biological affects together make up the psychological affects. For example, our families; the sociological standpoint would factor in a parent’s being unemployed and many of the biological factors such as poor nutrition would affect a family as well. Together this would affect the child growing up and how they form their morals. 

These three factors shape violence in society and in order to attack this cycle we must approach this issue through small steps, not only looking at society as a whole but the focusing on individuals that make up a whole. This will allow no barriers or stereotypes to occur when analyzing violence in society.

Blog Twelve: Racism

There are approximately 17,000 murders in the U.S. each year in which 60% of them are with weapons. However one of the most powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others, and affects all of us in one way or another is racism. According to Globalissues.org, racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply on the basis of their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. This is a serious issue. Racism has been prominent since the beginning of civilizations and is still seen in our society today and yet, we still do nothing to stop it. I realize that society will never be able to control ones personal thoughts on racism, but we should definitely advertise and support the idea of rationality within our global communities. As our world becomes more interconnected, racism is definitely a factor that needs to be eliminated for the success of our local and international communities. By raising awareness, it has and will continue to create a bandwagon and new stereotypes of not being racist. This can be seen specifically through many advertising companies. They ensure that every race is in the picture or video to imply that everyone is accepted. I believe this is very important just as long as people are being genuine and honest about their outlooks to make sure seeming ‘non-racist’ is an undiluted, powerful and wonderful view.

Blog Eleven: Gender Equality

“Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015,” states Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals to promote gender equality and specifically empower women worldwide. Currently, living in the year 2012…we could say there is still a long way to go. Being a Canadian we must first focus on the gender equalities we face now here in Canada. Canada is a world leader in the promotion and protection of women’s rights and gender equality. These issues are central to Canada’s foreign and domestic policies. According to these policies, Canada is entrusted through their views on gender equality not only as a human right but also a key element to sustainable development, social justice, peace and security within our communities. This is protected through the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women as well as the Universal declaration of Human Rights. Canada was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women, which set international standards for eliminating gender discrimination. However, why is it that the gap in income between men and women in Canada is 21 per cent? Personally, I believe it is because of the stereotypes our society as had on women for decades. These stereotypes do not only cause dampers on women physically getting a respected job in society but also cause mental self-esteem issues on women of actually feeling accepted in society. This is not an issue that each gender can figure out by themselves but rather an issue that both genders need to work together to build equal grounds. 

Blog Ten: AIDS and Disease

AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. A virus called HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, causes it. Since AIDS can be fatal, spreading from person to person, many individuals in society tend to place a barrier on those who carry the virus and the disease. Many social consequences are ignited in correlation to those that are directly related to those who suffer from the illness. These social barriers may include, loss of contacts with friends, family and other relationships, appearance and employment.  For example, society has been confused to treat people with the disease as a ‘bad’ person in society and because of this many individuals with AIDS don’t have the same opportunities as others who don’t suffer the disease.  In order to fix this discrimination there are many different ways we can approach this global issue. One option is to continue research on finding a cure for the disease. This could save millions of lives across the planet. Another solution is continuing to raise awareness about protection, but when advertising about this, commercials and the media should inform that this is a disease that anyone, from all walks of life can get AIDS. We must approach this issue from a sensible standpoint or else we essentially feeding two problems, a growing disease and well as discrimination. 

Blog Nine: C.A.R.E Model

In order for individuals to respect others and they must respect themselves. For this to be successful, one must set goals that are ethical yet realistic to the world we live in today. Many people in the room you may be sitting in, to the world we share have different opinions. To make the best decision those compromises to other, a step-by-step process should be put into place. And what do you know, the 

C.A.R.E model does exactly that!

C:ompassion
-Understanding an individual’s perspective is a very important element on the basis of recognizing their what is right and what is wrong. By respecting other people’s outlooks, we can meet the needs of everyone, whether it is emotional needs or just general concerns, it is important to incorporate every person’s image of the correct decision. 

A:ction
-To take action, an individual must feel as though they are free from any potential peer pressure or difficulties. As a global community, we must provide others with the intentions that it is acceptable to have courage around anyone. If these notions are executed respectfully, it will provide perseverance in reaching goals individuals may have in mind. To ignite these goals, we must be optimistic towards others and allow opportunities to lead you to where your biggest aspirations may lie.

R:esponsibilty
-Trust, loyal, faith and confidence are many of the characteristics that feed responsibility. For one to be responsible we must provide rational suggestions and solutions that cannot only help you but help others.

E:quality
- Although achieving a perfect balance is next to impossible, striving for it in your everyday actions can seek solutions in other needs you or others may have. Showing respect others is one of the many ways to do this. This is because it will provide a ripple effect that others can admire and do as well. Accepting and honoring an individual’s personal and cultural difference is one of the many ways to allowing equality to flourish within our communities.