BLOG POST #20 - How I will affect change

     I will start by trying to realize that my small contributions will matter. It’s very easy to see so many huge issues and feel like change is impossible, like nothing will ever improve. I need to remember the boy with the starfish and realize that what I do to help, no matter how small, will make a difference. For example, for the last two years I’ve helped out with an organization called Spread the Love that makes sandwiches for homeless shelters. It was just a couple hours that I spent making sandwiches with friends. Though I know I did not solve hunger in Hamilton, I did something that made a small difference to a small group of people. It is my goal to continue to do these small acts of good. If enough people begin to think like me, then perhaps our world’s problems can be solved by massive involvement. Maybe what the world needs is not for a few people to do a lot, but for everyone to do a little bit.

     I also would like to continue running charity events. This year I ran a dodgeball tournament that raised $800 for a charity called Listen to the Children. This charity constantly sends necessary supplies over to Sierra Leone. I believe that the chances to run charity events such as these will only grow as I grow older. University can be a great outlet for creative fundraising ideas. 

     Finally, I will never stop learning about what is going on in our world. The second I become ignorant, then I stop being a useful global citizen. I will do my best to watch the news, research, and discuss world issues. This way I can remain an informed citizen and spread awareness to others why could also make a difference. Also this way I will be able to defend my own views. If I have an opinion of something that differs from the norm, I want to have the facts and knowledge to stand up for my beliefs. This is also a very important part of being an informed global citizen. 

BLOG POST #19 - Canada's Biggest Threat in 50 Years

     I think that Canada’s biggest problem in the next 50 years will be associated with water shortages. Even today we see countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and hot climates like Australia facing real problem when it comes to water. Our class had an excellent discussion about this topic. The point was brought up that maybe humans are inhabiting places that we really shouldn’t be. The only reason that places like Africa are even habitable is because of technological advances. One only has to look at the incredibly sparse wildlife to see that barren desert wasn’t meant to sustain large populations. Unfortunately countries in Sub-Saharan Africa tend to have extremely large populations in relation to their size. Though it is not feasible for millions of people to just get up and move from their homes in these environments without water, it is something that we as a species need to take into consideration. Perhaps more should be done to control the birth rate in geographic areas where water is scarce. These are the sorts of things that will affect our international population in 50 years time. 

     Now the reason I said this would be Canada’s main problem is not because we’ll run out of water, but because we have so much of it! This will put a massive strain on our government to give our water away to other countries because the UN considers water a basic human right. This is where things get interesting. Canada has recently declared that it does not recognize water as a basic right. That means our government views it as a type of commodity. This will create enormous tension between Canada, the UN, and any countries that are in need of water.

     Another problem exists in the transport. Simply filling a boat with freshwater and sending it over to Africa is not a very good solution as massive amounts of fossil fuels are burned on the journey. If we choose to give our water away, then we need to find a better solution that doesn’t involve the further contribution to the greenhouse effect. It will be very interesting to see how Canada’s government reacts in 50 years time when water shortages increase and the need for water has reached record levels. 

BLOG POST #18 - What I have Learned

     I’ve learned that I can’t stand looking at a problem from just one angle. Many times people will agree with something, or preach something simply because it is widely accepted. It bothers me how it is looked down upon in today’s society to bring up controversial topics for fear of offending others? I think this is ridiculous and can severely limit learning. For example, in a discussion about racism I was genuinely curious about the benefits of racial profiling. I was curious as to whether it was totally based in irrational fear or if there was a certain logical benefit to it. I did not feel comfortable just asking this question. I had to preface my question with a long speech about how I don’t actually believe in what I’m about to ask. The questions one asks and their beliefs should have no connections. For example, why should water be considered a basic human right and not a resource that Canada has in abundance and we should treat as so. I should be able to ask this question without being looked down upon as inhumane, for it is just a question. I have discovered that I believe that any question, and I mean ANY question asked for an inquisitive reason is acceptable. Unless one’s intentions in asking are malicious, then go ahead and ask away. Taboo’s of certain questions do nothing but contribute to sometimes prejudiced and assumption based popular opinion. If all questions are accepted and treated as equal, then our students will be able to learn about different sides of problems. Once they possess this knowledge of the “other side of the coin” then they will be better suited to solve many of the problems that our world faces because they will be able to attack the problems from different angles. 

     I’ve also learned that I sometimes need to control my emotions in a debate. Sometimes I get so worked up in the point I’m trying to make that I do the exact opposite of what I earlier stated and only follow one line of thinking out of pride. I’ve learned that to fully understand issues I sometimes will need to remove myself emotionally from the discussion and take a completely unbiased stance. 

BLOG POST #17 - Three Most Important Issues

     The three most important issues that I have learned about during this course are Declining biodiversity, poverty, the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

     Declining biodiversity is such an important issue because its not having a very noticeable effect on our world to the common civilian. Regular people see trees and grass and assume that our world is fine, when in reality thousands of species are becoming extinct every year. Each extinction creates ripple effects that spread all throughout an ecosystem. All organisms are inter-connected and humans are destroying the checks and balances that exist within ecosystems. Humans need to realize that we need to start changing our ways now. Currently were at a point where declining biodiversity isn’t really affecting our day to day lives. However if we continue down this path, our world could become a barren wasteland devoid of life. 

     Poverty is so important because it’s such a cross cutting issue. Poverty is the root cause of plenty of other world issues. An impoverished nation is a nation where the government can exploit it’s citizens. Corruption is able to run rampant through governments and the cycle of poverty continues. If the world can find a solution to poverty then we will see the improvement of many other world issues. 

     The Arab-Israeli conflict is so important to our world because of what it could lead to. Particularly the current situation with Iran. Iran has been trying to become a nuclear power for many years now, and they’re finally getting close. This doesn’t sit very well with the United States, Israel and many other NATO countries as Iran’s government is not very stable. By creating a nuclear weapon Iran is in violation of the UN’s nuclear non-proliferation treaty. To get around this they are claiming that they are enriching uranium for peaceful purposes. If Iran acquires a nuclear weapon it is extremely likely that Israel will declare war. This would probably pull the United States in as well and many other Arab nations that sympathize with Iran. The conflict could escalate if countries like Russia or China decided to get involved. If this conflict is not solved soon then the world may see a WWIII.

BLOG POST #16 - ISU Presentations

     I can honestly say I really enjoyed all of my peers ISU presentations. It was incredible to see first off all the different issues our world currently faces, and also how everyone has slightly different opinions and ideas about them. For example, though it is pretty much a general consensus that lack of access to clean water is an issue, there were some excellent debates as to how this issue should be approached. Is desalination the right path? Should we invest our money in building wells, or funding innovations for better technologies? Is it even Canada’s duty to share our water? Is water a basic human right? All of these question sparked excellent debate. And this is just one topic. We heard from presenters that talked about climate change, armed conflict, disparity, and energy and all held unique debates and discussions. I believe that this is the most important thing that I learned during these presentations. That there are always more ways than you think to approach a given problem. Sometimes one will get caught up so much in one path that they will totally disregard a different way of thinking or an alternate way to achieving a solution. 

     Something else that I took from all the presentations is that there are almost an overwhelming amount of issues that plague our world. With the sheer number of problems I believe it is very easy to get bogged down and think that they can’t all be solved so nothing should be tried. It is wrong to assume that because a massive problem seems unsolvable that effort still shouldn’t be made. I love the story about the boy and the star fish. A boy is on a beach with thousands of starfish who have washed up on shore and who will surely die. An adult walks by and sees the child throwing starfish one by one into the ocean. He stops and asks the boy why he is throwing the starfish as it will be impossible for his to throw everyone of them back. The boy responds by throwing another while exclaiming “It mattered to that one”. What we can take from this story is that just because you are not solving a huge global issue, does not mean that you are not making a difference. We need to stop thinking of charities and organizations as THE solution. For example building a well in Africa won’t solve the water shortage problem, not even close. But to that particular village, it is the difference between life and death. Problems need to be looked at from a micro point of view. If enough micro problems are solved then eventually the macro problem’s solution will come. 

BLOG POST #15 - Austerity

     This year France held its presidential elections. The two front runners were incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy and challenger Francois Hollande. These two candidates represent the two main parties in French government being The Union for a Popular Movement and The Socialist Party respectively. The UMP being politically centre-right and the Socialist Party being centre-left. Sarkozy lost out on serving a second term in office by a very small margin of approximately 51% to 49% of the popular vote in the second round of the election between just the two candidates. 

     This puts France in a very interesting position both politically and economically. First of all any decision made by France is extremely important to the entire Eurozone, especially countries like Greece and Portugal who are suffering economically. This is because France and Germany are the two largest economies in the Eurozone and are the two front running countries in trying to solve Europe’s debt crisis. This new government will create a very interesting contrast as Germany is advocating austerity measures while Hollande and France’s new government opposes it. Being slightly to the political left, the Socialist Party is all for decreasing disparity and the continuance of government programs. They intend to do this by increased taxation of the rich and corporations while simultaneously creating thousands of government sponsored jobs. This is different from what Germany is currently doing, which is cutting government spending on social programs to lower the debt. 

     Though France’s economy is comparatively strong and large, it still has massive foreign debt. I believe that France should continue with measures of austerity to lower the debt before they worry about the expansion of social government programs. There is much skepticism that Hollande will be able to keep many of the promises made in his campaign. How when France has massive foreign debt will the government be able to increase spending on social programs, is the main question. This leads me to believe that his anti-austerity platform is merely a political scheme to get him elected to office. While austerity measures are largely unpopular to the general public, they are necessary to pull the Eurozone out of its debt. Hollande has capitalized on the public’s dislike of austerity to get himself elected to office. I believe over the next couple of months we will see Hollande go back on many of the promises made in his campaign. 

     Greece also held presidential elections where we saw an anti-austerity government elected. This only furthers my belief that it is merely a political scam, because austerity measures are even more unpopular in Greece then they are in France. 

BLOG POST #14 - Biodiversity

     Biodiversity is the variety of organisms that exist in a given ecosystem. It serves as an excellent indicator of how healthy an ecosystem is. If there are many species present then the ecosystem is healthy. This is because organisms all interact with one another in a very complex way. The prosperity of one may have an effect on five other species. For example, if a predators such as foxes start to decline then this will have a massive effect on the rest of the ecosystem. Every animal that the fox preyed on will flourish, which could in turn affect other species that were connected with the fox’s prey. 

     Over the past 150 years biodiversity has been rapidly declining. This is due to a variety of reasons, most prominently industrialization and urbanization. The industrial revolution occurred from 1750 to 1850. This set the stage for our world’s rapid industrialization that has spelt disaster for countless ecosystems. One huge problem associated with industrialization is pollution. Large factories often have toxic chemicals or toxic fumes that are not always disposed of properly. If introduced into an ecosystem, the ecosystem will change in a way that is not natural and that nature is not set up to deal with. The pollution will kill off organisms in a way where they can’t make a natural rebound. I’ll explain this point a little better. A completely natural ecosystem is filled with checks and balances. Say a predator population starts to decline. This will allow the populations of any organism that the predator preyed to increase. This increase will not occur indefinitely however, as lack of resources and disease due to the increase in population will soon bring the numbers back in check. Problems begin occurring when animals die off for unnatural reasons such as pollution. Perhaps dumping in a lake completely eliminates one species of fish. This species is now extinct and all checks and balances associated with its survival or overrun. This effect will ripple and be felt by the entire ecosystem. Urbanization is also a major problem in terms of habitat destruction. As I said before there are tons of checks and balances associated with the animal populations. These checks and balances only work when in the proper natural environment. Organisms in an ecosystem are constantly interacting with their environment. They can’t do this if their environment is now a set of new housing complexes. 

     Humans need to learn how to better coexist with our environment. We need to find a better balance so we can become a part of our ecosystems instead of a huge negative influence. We need to look into greener technology such as wind energy and solar power. This can be helped along by government subsidies for going green and stricter penalties for pollution. In terms of urbanization it is possible to expand without completely leveling an ecosystem. There should be stricter regulations put in place on what areas should be allowed to be developed and things such as how many trees are allowed to be cut down. As well governments should protect more natural areas to ensure that biodiversity doesn’t continue to plummet. Finally we must ensure that our current generation is educated on the importance of biodiversity. This way when all of us grow up we will be more informed on how to combat declining biodiversity and will be able to live in a way that is more conscious of our surrounding environment. 

BLOG POST #13 - Violence in Society

  A common misconception in today’s society is that violent crime is increasing. It’s actually been steadily decreasing in the last two decades. I’m sure it would surprise most people to hear this. This is very counter intuitive to everything that we hear about through various forms of media. We always hear stories about brutal murders, muggings, or theft. Not to mention the sensationalization of crime through TV shows such as Hawaii 5-0 and NCIS. Because of advances in media and communications technology, news is able to be broadcast to a much larger audience. It’s crazy when you think about it that we hear about crimes that occur halfway across the world. All this exposure to crime leads people to believe that violent crime is getting worse.

     There are many interesting ideas of why every violent crime from murder to robbery has decreased so rapidly in the last 20 years. I’ve heard many suggestions such as more innovative policing strategies, aging of the populations, increased police forces, and good economic times as the reason. These are all quite possible, but the idea that I find the most interesting is the legalization of abortion contributing to the decrease in violent crime. Now this is a highly controversial topic and I’m not saying that I agree with it, I just think its a very different way to look at the situation. The idea of the legalizing abortion in the late 1900s contributing to the decrease in violent crime today was the brainchild of economist and author Stephen Levitt. He theorizes that the legalization of abortion allowed mothers to abort children that would have otherwise been born in unsavory conditions. He expanded this to say that since these kids were growing up in poor environments, then they would be more likely to commit violent crimes in their late teens or early 20s. So pretty much right about when crime started to decline! Again I’m not saying I agree with this but I really like how he looked at this problem from a completely different angle. 

BLOG POST #12 - Racism

     Racism is a huge overarching concept that in my opinion includes: bigotry and ignorance. It is a very delicate issue. If left unchecked it can spread into something horrible. Look at the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler didn’t start by ordering all the Jews killed. He began by scapegoating them, making the rest of Germany believe that the Jews were the cause for all their problems. Then he gradually started taking away their rights and grouping them into ghettos. When the time came for the concentration camps, very little was done to stop him because he had turned everyone against the them. 

     This brings up the question, what leads to this? Is it possible that little bigoted stereotypes at school can lead to something like the Holocaust? Though I’m inclined to believe that this is a little far fetched, I suppose it has to start somewhere. However I think the main aspect of life that allows racism to spread like wildfire is ignorance. Education about people who are different than you is absolutely key to counteracting racism. Hitler did such a good job of stereotyping the Jews that they were portrayed as animals and even devils. Though this was not accurate, the ignorant masses started to believe it and did nothing to stop Hitler when things got out of hand. 

     Another way to combat racism is to never forget the mistakes of the past. Soon all the survivors of the Holocaust will no longer be with us. We need to all ensure that we listen to as many of their stories as we can, and continue talking and teaching about it. This way even though the survivors may go, their story and their hardships will live on. If the world remembers the mistakes of its past and it learns from them, then something as terrible as the Holocaust should never occur again.

     This being said we still do see instances of genocide in our world. Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Darfur are but a few that sadly many people do not even know about. Schools should offer courses and curriculums that focus on these terrible events. The world cannot ever forget the awful events relating to racism that have transpired throughout history. If we do then history is doomed to repeat itself.  

BLOG POST #11 - Gender Inequality

    The biggest impact of gender inequality is the continuance of the cycle of poverty. There are many contributing factors to poverty that if go unchecked will allow it to go on indefinitely, one of which is gender inequality. Inequalities in the household limit the families ability to make money and thus purchase necessary supplies like food, shelter, and clean water. Stereotypes exist where the women are expected to do all the chores and take care of the household. This renders her unable to get a proper education and get a job. The cycle continues when boys are given priority education over the girls. Perhaps a family will sacrifice a girl’s education in order to buy food, while the boy is kept in school. 

     The best way to solve this problem is awareness and empowerment. First of all people in developing and developed nations need to realize that there exists a huge inequality between the two genders in developing nations. This way pressure can be applied to both first and third world governments to provide more opportunities for women. Empowerment is equally important. Women need to learn and realize that they too can have a successful life in the workplace. When women become empowered we will start seeing more girls demanding an education. They won’t take the stereotype that women are supposed to do chores while they boys get educated. Once this inequality is broken then we will see a reduction of the gap between the two genders. This will lead to many positive things such as more women in parliament and decreasing levels of poverty. 

BLOG POST #10 - AIDS and Disease

   It all comes back to basic sanitation and access to health care. We’ll start with sanitation. The developed world has hundreds of items that promote sanitation that some of the world’s poorest people have never even heard of. Indoor plumbing, hand sanitizer, fresh water taps, these are all things usually foreign to the developing world. This makes it very easy for diseases such as cholera and dysentery to contract in these countries. In combination with the lack of access to health care, this makes for a deadly combination. Not only is it easier to contract these diseases in developing nations, but once contracted there is very little that can be done. People in Canada often take our medical care system for granted. We even complain sometime that we have to wait a whole 7 hours in emergency to see a doctor. Could you imagine if we didn’t even have to one doctor! Or would have to walk miles to wait in an overcrowded clinic to see an undersupplied, underfunded doctor. Though many of these killing diseases are easily treatable, the medication is either too expensive or in too short supply for many families in developing countries to afford. This is why diseases like cholera are practically non-existent in developed countries, but run rampant in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Medication for diseases like AIDS on the other hand are extremely expensive. This is why people like Magic Johnston can live comfortably with AIDS in the developed world but AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa is pretty much a death sentence.

     AFAID is a non-profit organization devoted to the eradication of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. The approach they take is a preventative one. They utilize education to ensure that young girls and boys know about proper contraception and safe sex. They also provide the necessary devices for kids to practice safe sex. While they do provide some direct financial support, most of their funds go towards raising awareness in Sub-Saharan Africa and in developing nations about the contraction, spread, and negative effects of HIV/AIDS.