BLOG POST #4 - Human Rights Activist

Abraham Lincoln is an inspiring human rights activist that every Canadian should know more about. His unwavering sense of morality against untold hostilities is a true testament to his character and integrity. For those who do not know, Lincoln was the 16^th President of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He served his term in one of the darkest times in American history: The American civil war. The American civil war was fought between the Union (Northern States) and the Confederacy (Southern States). The war was started because Lincoln was elected to office in 1860. As the head of the Republican Party he was strongly advocating an anti-slavery policy where all citizens of a nation would be considered equal. This was not to the liking of the Southern cotton States who relied on slavery to produce cotton and thus to maintain their state. The war began when 7 Southern States attempted to separate from the North and form their own country. The Union States took this as an act of treason and declared war. Soon after 4 other Southern States joined in the Confederacy. In 1863 Lincoln issued an executive order called the Emancipation Proclamation using his powers in times of war. This order called for the abolishment of slavery and thus made ending slavery a military goal for the war. After the war was over and Union forces had emerged victorious (largely because of Lincoln’s military contributions) Lincoln amended the United States Constitution to include the Thirteenth Amendment. He feared that many States wouldn’t accept the Emancipation Proclamation as codified law as it was enacted as a wartime measure. The Thirteenth Amendment ensured that the complete abolishment of slavery was entrenched the US constitution forever.

     To be inspired as a “young Canadian” to take action I do not believe that we must necessarily be inspired by someone Canadian or who did something for Canada. This is one of the problems with our education system today that we have an incredibly biased and narrow focus of history that includes nothing of great men like Abraham Lincoln.     Lincoln stood in the face of a gross violation of human rights and didn’t stop until it was solved. It took immense courage to do this. Many of the Southern States economies were solely based on slavery to do cheap labour to harvest cotton. Lincoln saw through the economic benefits of slavery to the fact that it was just plain wrong in all regards. As well he put aside his political ambitions to do what’s right. Clearly he wasn’t campaigning against slavery to gain power as half the country diametrically opposed his stance. Where would we be today if more politicians stopped worrying about being re-elected and did what was right for the people of the country they swore to protect? Where would we be today if more politicians acted like Lincoln and stood up against things that benefitted the economy but were detrimental towards human rights? Lincoln has inspired me to stand up for what I believe in and what is right even against steep odds. His lesson is one that can and should be applied to all aspects of everyday life. Lincoln took a stand in something he believed in and in the end paid the ultimate sacrifice for it. Is that not the definition of a “Human Rights Activist”? 

BLOG POST #3 - FDR Quote Analysis

     If I was to sum up this quote in one word it would actually be quite simple: Globalization. FDR is stating that in today’s age all nations of the world are dependent on one another. He also alludes to a sort of international community. This is a very interesting concept. Picture a small village in Europe before the industrial or agricultural revolutions. This village would be completely autonomous meaning that it would be able to survive without importing or exporting any resources. The village probably wouldn’t have even had the technology or means to trade with other villages. FDR is saying that the world has become that village. The concept of inter-dependence has grown to a global scale. Instead of a grocer and cobbler relying on one another for food and shoes respectively, Canada and Mexico rely on each other for raw minerals and produce respectively. The other part to this quote is the notion that humans won’t be able to achieve peace unless we band together. This is true but ultimately unrealistic for today’s time anyway. Humans have a natural tendency to want to belong. This leads people to things such as religion, and nationalism. Because of these human tendencies I can’t foresee the completion of “an international community” anytime soon.

     Globalization plays a huge role in today’s age. Developed nations such as Canada and the US are outsourcing businesses to other countries where the labour can be done for less money. Not only is this creating a dependence on that country but it is taking away jobs from Canadian or American citizens. In this world each country must specialize in certain industries or it risks massive unemployment. For example, Canada has an abundance of lumber. Because of this geographical advantage Canada is a huge exporter of lumber to other nations that perhaps don’t have the volume of trees Canada has. The lumber industry is a specialization of the Canadian economy that relies upon the strengths of the country and its geography and employs thousands of people. I’ll use the analogy of a functioning human body to better illustrate my point. Each organ utilizes certain advantages in its genetic coding to specialize and become the best at carrying out a certain function. This division of labour allows for a highly developed system that plays upon the strengths of all its parts which results in an exceedingly advanced organism. Furthermore, globalization can be seen in everyday life when we send texts, or check Facebook, or write a blog post. The simplicity of communication is leading the way towards a global village. The ability to communicate with people thousands of miles away to exchange ideas and information in seconds is making our world smaller. That village I talked about earlier probably had no idea how big the world was or the other entities that resided within. Communication renders geographical barriers that would have hindered small villages completely irrelevant. No longer are people across an ocean like aliens to us. The greater the association the greater the chance of collaboration, and through collaboration, dependence.

BLOG POST #2 - AIC reflection and What's up with Italy

     Thus far our AIC simulation is going very well. We started off slow, not making our intentions public or submitting action forms while we tried to gain allies. We allied ourselves with France as we hoped they would share our view in trying to decrease the US’ involvement in general. This proved somewhat true as we were able to agree to a joint peacekeeping mission in Syria which creates diversity in the militaries station throughout the Middle-East as the US are no longer the only key player. As well we sent a press release stating our opinion on how peace is to be achieved. We are currently trying to broker a deal where Israel will stop building settlements in the West Bank while all Palestinian factions will unite under one banner so diplomacy can continue. We have also participated in many secretive actions which I cannot discuss on this public forum.

     The AIC simulation has been more of a game to me then anything. I find most of the other groups on the simulation to be fairly uneducated with anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict. This does make it more enjoyable however because we can do things such as sending Russian peacekeepers into Syria. This is an action that would NEVER occur in real life because: one the US would never allow it, two Russia has no place anywhere in the Middle-East after their attempted invasion of Afghanistan, and three its not in the government of Syria’s best interest as it will draw international attention to the atrocities its soldiers are committing to its citizens. While most of the simulation has been fun and games I am however expanding my knowledge of the Palestinian factions. I didn’t know that there were so many competing factions and that this was one of the main reasons diplomacy was failing.

    

     I’ll start with a brief history of the Italian economy. During the fascist era of the 1920s under Benito Mussolini’s rise to power, Italy’s economy was surprisingly very liberal. Mussolini implemented a policy called Laissez-faire which means “let it be”. This virtually removed all government involvement in the economy through a reduction in taxes and trade regulations. However this did not last as once Mussolini acquired more power he reworked the economy to be mostly controlled by the government as is characteristic with fascism. Nothing good happened for Italy’s economy in the next 20 years as they were on the losing side of both WWI and WWII and forced to pay huge reparation payments. The sun started to shine again in the cold war where the US felt that Italy’s weak democracy was threatened by the increasing communist prescience to the East. This led to US monetary support. As well the demand for armaments in the region helped to stimulate Italian industry which bolstered the economy. With a few hiccups on the way Italy made excellent economic growth until the recent recession. They were hit hard by the recession. One of the main reasons they were so ineffective in dealing with the crisis is due to their current weak coalition government. This renders the government unable to make the tough, controversial, sometimes unpopular decisions necessary to escape a recession. This in combination with their failing economy caused their credit rating to be downgraded. Italian interest rates currently sit around 6.5% 

      Now to the current issue at hand. What we are currently witnessing in Europe is the failing world’s seventh largest economy. This could potentially spell disaster for Europe and the rest of the world. How the world and the EU deal with Italy will depend on how they deal with Greece and how well that solution works. If Greece is bailed out then it sets a precedent that the EU and potentially the IMF believe bailout is the best option. Because Italy’s economy is larger and more internationally important than that of Greece, it could be assumed that Italy would be bailed out as well. If Greece isn’t bailed out then Italy would have much more of a problem. Personally I can’t see the EU not bailing Italy out as it is the third biggest economy in the EU. If Italy defaulted then global investors would lose all faith in the EU. How would it be viewed if the EU let its third largest economy fail?? I hope that the EU will take pre-emptive measures so decisions aren’t being made in the face of a default as is the case with Greece now. Hopefully sufficient austerity measures will be implemented so the economy will stabilize and the debt will level out. The problem is that as Mr. Whittard said, humans generally need a crisis situation for drastic measures to be imposed. Italy and the EU need to realize that this WILL be a crisis situation if somewhat drastic austerity measures are not implemented immediately.