Haiti Mini Study

Haiti hass been hit by a massive recently in year 2015, an estimated amount of 230,000 people had died because of this crisis. Nearly 40 search-and-rescue team and more than 1,700 staff workers were helping the victims, water supplies and tents had increased. For 200,000 victims food were given daily from the U.S army and the World Food Program. Moreover, cure for AIDS need to be produced. Without these help, tons of human rights will be took away from them. And it will also be an impact on the Millenium Developement Goals. Without help, their right to have security, their right to have access to food and water will be disturbed and women's right for protection over sexual violence will also be disturbed. This means, it will be hard to achieve the millenium goals. Right now, without help, the goal to ensure environmental sustainability, goal to combat Hiv/Aids and other diseases, goal to have education to children, and most critically, goal to prevent proverty will be hard.
Without help, it is nearly impossible to recover. At this situation, hospital, school, houses, buildings, forest, farmland... everything is all destroyed. Massive amount of people will die in hunger and effect the population pyramid. Then it will also have an effect for governing the country. Moreover, they cannot make profit from tourism since most of their monuments has also been destroyed.
Most of the countries now existing today will probably rebuild faster than Haiti. Haiti is in an extreme disadvantage at this point. Haiti is one of America's poorest countries, and looking at the history, it is said that they had a challenge in the government. But most importantly, many people is and had struggled for education. It is impossible for them to recover by themselves when they are not educated.

Game: Ayiti-Cost of Life
When I first played this game, it was really hard for me to stay alive. It made me think that we really need to help victims from the earthquake in Haiti. This is a game where we needed to think how we need to make really important decisions for each family members rather to study, or work. I had chose 'money' as my primary objective because we needed money to be educated which is the most important part of this game.
This game was really hard because earning or saving money was very difficult. Which made it hard for me to educate the people. When I tried both working and studying, I ran out of money, but when I only worked, my health had gone down. The solution for all of this problem was getting a job that is healthy, and makes lots of money. Turn by turn, I send one of the family members to the clinic in order for them to keep on working. Now I know why many parents are desperate to educate their kids, because it is really hard for them to survive without education. It really showed a difference between my country because mostly all of the kids go to school, and even have about 5 tutions! On the other hand, Haiti has no money for sending kids to school.
In my opinion, I think to make more education for Haiti, they must reduce the cost of going to school, tutions. Right now, people are short-term thinking, where they are targetting only the profit they make now. However, when most of the people are educated, the next generation will have money to spend for more professional education.
Overall, I think people must think about the 8 millenium goals, especailly education and food. Other than that, we must fight for Aids, and the environment.

Sources, http://www.un.org/sg/articleFull.asp?TID=109&Type=Op-Ed
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1202772.stm
http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/haiti/page.do?id=1011166
http://www.fotopedia.com/en/2010_Haiti_earthquake
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_B1umL_2Aggg/RmD9evQ3KaI/AAAAAAAAAMU/cNr_6lQCjS4/s1600/ayiti.jpg

Knife marks in sharks?

Sharks! The top predator in the ocean, but who are the true top predator now?
Humans are the main reason for the serious situation going on, sharks population is decreased by approximately 90% over the past few years. The decreasing population is really serious, but the most important thing is it give huge affect on the entire ocean. Sharks are the one who controls the ocean population in the food chain. When shark population decreases, the ones below the shark in the food chain increases, then the food pyramid is out of balance.
Then, what is the main reason for this crisis? Why are sharks dying? Sharks fin soup is a famous food in China, commonly ate during important meetings in companies and in weddings. Millions of sharks die because of sharks finning, their fins are cut off and thrown back into the ocean, to bleed to death. The main tool used for catching sharks is a method called long-lining. A line that goes on for miles in the ocean with a bait is hung every meters. Sharks, who are really intelligent in smell will eventually get caught, but they are not the only victims... Turtles and many different types of fish are also caught.
As a result, we global issues class planned to make an action project to show the awareness of the situation to people. We first studied about sharks and shark finning before we moved on to our plans. We watched movies and gathered sources to represent and show them to people. The movie we had watched left a really strong impression in me, where people are illegally shark finning, and still finning even though they know what is going on. It was also very interesting and shocking that there are like a Mafia group for the shark finning industry. The striking point of this video was when the government legalized shark finning. It also gave me an impression of how serious short term thinking is, where people think of their short term profit they will make, but not the long-term thinking about the sharks. This gave me a boost for letting the people aware of the situation. Presenting in assemblies, and in the actual action project, we will make games, food, posters and fundraising. The best part of the action project is, we are going to use environmentally friendly resources for fin sales.

Image source: http://raisingchildren.net.au

Action Project Reflection

Year 2010 may 20th, we had made an action project, we made games, posters, food, environmental products such as necklaces and hairbands. Our global issues class think we made a difference in changing the thought that sharks are not killers, and planted awareness in peoples and students mind how serious the situation of shark finning is. All the actions we had done was environmentally friendly, for example using recyclable products but as well as making the project effective and in a level of a middle schooler. So I think we had raised lots of awareness, especially I think that showing them videos and making games were a really good way to show them the awareness. We (me and Billy) made a game to show how serious long lining is by making a maze with tons of people fishing, hunting and long-lining sharks. Many people said the game was challenging which I think that gave them an impression that sharks are in danger. However, when we are given the chance to do the action project again, I think we could have made the game more harder that can clearly give them awareness. For instance, we could have divided stages where it gets harder and harder, and in the end, the long-line could have block the whole road. This, I think that will give them strong feelings of stop long-lining.
During this action project, and by making the games, we have learned lots of facts about sharks finning. I never knew the fact that approximately 90% of the sharks population had decreased. Moreover, that sharks fin soup is not that good for not only our health, but not good for the oceans population. I certainly is now aware of the situation and now I am telling others about it too.

images source: http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/images/stop-shark-finning-330.gif

What does it mean to live in poverty

Poverty means
"the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor; indigence."
- dictionary.com -

There are lots of people living in poverty. Interestingly and shockingly, there are also people in poverty living in the cities. It is not only people living in Africa or less developed countries. Specifically, they lack security and basic needs: they cannot stand up when they are suffering.

Malaysia Week and Global Issues

Last week, I went to Pulau Sibu for malaysia week. There were lot of shocking issues there, for example, there were lots of trash and rubbish dumped in the island. It was really tiring to grab the trash bag full of rubbish. Also, we went to visit the school in the village, it was shocking that the school had so little. They only had 2 rooms for the entire school, and had bad equipments. The air wasn't clean too. However, there were good things too, especially the nature of the island such as mountains and ocean.

Q&A from the article.

1. Who is the world bank?
The World Bank is a Group offers loans, advice, and an array of customized resources to more than 100 developing countries.
2. Why is it important to collect data from 73 countries?
Because the poverty level is all different from different countries. We must find the average of the countries to get an accurate data and set an average poverty level.
3. What is poverty?
People who is suffering from lack of basic needs. For example, lack of food, water, education, shelter.
4. What is the difference between poverty and extreme poverty.
Poverty is who are lacking basic needs, who are suffering from hunger etc. And extreme poverty is people who are powerless. For instance, they cannot stand against people who are doing bad, or they cannot do anything about their suffering etc.
5. What is a poverty trap?
Poverty trap is when there is 3 generations of your family experiencing poverty.
6. How does the World Bank define poverty?
The World Bank said that people who are living less then $1.25 is experiencing poverty.
7. How many people live under the poverty line in the world?
Information shows that in 1981, there were 1.9 billion people living in extreme poverty. Which means 1 in 4 people are extremely poor.
8. How are the numbers showing improvement in the situation over the last twenty years.
It was about 4 in every 10 people, but now there are 1 in 4 are extremely poor.
9. Can you suggest some things / organizations that could be helping the situation and explain why there is an improvement?
We can adopt people who are experiencing extreme poverty, so that they can get education and after they grow up they can help their relatives and countries. Also charity can help because we can save a life
10. Write a short snapshot of a time when you witnessed poverty. Where, when, why? How did it make you feel?
I starved for a day when I was in 3rd grade, because I cannot get inside my house. I felt really sad and scared because I lacked all things I usually had.

3rd World Farmer

There is a game called 3rd world farmer, it is a game about people living in an undeveloped place where they suffer from civil wars, garrilas, drought, hunger etc. While playing this game I have found out that access to water and having a representative is really important. Moreover, schools and hospitals, and easy access to cities were really helpful. It was critical to have a long term thinking. For example, first I have sold my children when I didn't have money, however there were no other people to do the farming when the elder people had died or wasn't healthy and strong enough to work. Also I had to save up money rather than using all of them, because when the season was not good then I had no money at all. In conclusion, a good strategy is to have a long-term thinking and security.

Global Issues Wordle

In the class, we are learning about how to take care of others. We are becoming more aware and more responsible about our behavior and the environment. The environment is not just plants and animals, but the social environment as well and even in economy. Global issues are really huge, but we are learning to start small. I created this wordle to think more clearly and simple to understand what poor people and people suffering around the world.
For me, Global Issues means important things that are happening around the world. More specifically, it is suffering and lack of basic needs and security of the Less Developed Countries. And I think it is our responsibility to stop this crisis. Global issues are really important because it is happening in our world, we must give a helping hand, then they will give us a helping hand when we are suffering. For the less developed countries (people) poverty, and lack of basic needs is a downward spiral, and a never-ending cycle; once they run out of money, they need to borrow money from a moneylender, and they will never be able to be free of it, because of the high interest (World Bank). In my opinion, when we can stop this, we can develop more and more. We can concentrate in our work when they can support themselves.
Not only less developed countries suffer; there are many problems in the whole world. For example, there are environmental problems. We will soon run out of drinking water and fossil fuels. Most importantly, we are wasting. We are wasting electricity, water and paper. How many of you brush your teeth while the tap is running? How many of you keep your room light on while your watching TV in the living room? Moreover, we are polluting the world while we are wasting. Using only 1 side of paper, not using all of the space provided… we could easily Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’ - Lao Tzu

Global Issues? Why should I care?!

Global Issues are problems happening around the world such as natural disasters, poverty, diseases etc. We should care about global issues because many are suffering from it. Also, when nobody cares and we are in trouble we will also suffer. Moreover, when others suffer, we can get affected by it also because they might have important roles to our world, but if they cannot do it we will suffer along with them. We all rely on each other...