The Paper Bags

Today was the last day of Global issues and we got to know a lot about the Kolkata, India. We got to know that there were around more than 185 million people who worked as child labor. They worked on making cigarette, paper bags, plastic bags etc. Today we got into families of five and made paper bags for the people. Ten to fifteen paper bags were worth Rs.1. We made nearly 200 paper bags. My family earned about Rs. 10 in 20 minutes of time. In an hour my family earned about Rs. 30. If we would have kept on working making paper bags for 10 hours our family must have earned about Rs. 300. In a month we could have earned up to Rs. 9000. Today I learnt how hard the poor have to work to earn a living. I saw how much they have to sweat to eat food. I think we should help the poor more often and make their lives better.

In my opinion Global Issues is one of the best classes around. We get to do physical stuff and we also get to play games based on life. We saw how many poor people there are around te world and how hard they have to work. I think this class was the best as we got to learn a lot and I also learnt to help the poor. :)

Ayiti- The poverty circle

Haiti is one of the countries that has too much natural disasters. Currently there was a huge earthqauake that struck Haiti and it damaged it a lot. Why do all of the massive earthquakes have to hit the poor country where the people are struck in poverty? There is also one of the biggest problems in Haiti- Cholera! Since there are a lot of natural disasters and lot of damage Haiti can't fix the damages as it doesn't have enough money.

What human rights are being denied to them?

The people in Haiti can't even escape the natural disasters as they might have gotten late or they just didn't have enough money for the plane.

What action is being taken to address this lack of rights?

There are currently many things going on around the world to save Haiti. There are many programs and fund-raisers so that they can collect money and send it to Haiti so they can fix all their problems they are having.

Discuss the difficulties faced by this country as it tries to recover from the earthquake.

These are the main difficulties that the people nin Haiti are facing while recovering from the earthquake:

1) People die

2) Houses are destroyed

3) Crops- No food

4) Buisness establishments get destroyed

5) Immediate problem of feeding the survivors who have lost their family members, houses and source of income etc.

Why can some countries rebuild faster than others, and what is it about Haiti that put it at a disadvantage?

Haiti is caught in a low income cycle, with poor human capital and technology. The people have a low literacy level. Medical services are very poor resulting in wide spread diseases.

Suggest how this country can cope in the forthcoming years.

They can make earthquake resistant buildings to save human lives and other assets. They should develop better medical facilities to curb diseases. They have to find ways to maintain supply of food and water for the affected people immediately after the earthquake.

1. What was it like playing the game?

It was a good game. It showed us how hard it is to live in places like Haiti and it also showed us how we should deal with money in bad circumstances.

2. What was the game about and how would you describe it to a friend?

I would tell my friend that it is a good game and it shows how your generations are disturbed if you get into the cycle of poverty.

3. Which ‘primary objective’ did you choose, and why?

4. What types of decisions did you have to make about the family members while playing the game and trying to achieve your objective?

I had to see if everyone was alright or no, if somebody was sick I would take that person to the hospital so they could get better and start working again.

5. What strategies did you use? For example, did you combine work and school, or did you send anyone to school? Which worked? Which did not?

I sent everyone in school so they could study and gain some education about things.

6. Why would parents choose to devote so much effort sending their children to school?

Parents should send their children to school as the children can get some education and can work to be a engineer or something else later on.

7. What obstacles did you face in trying to keep the children in school?

I did not have that much money to send the children to school but I still tried as hard as possible to get the children some knowledge.

8. How do the situations and options in the game compare with those in your own community / country?

In the game we have situations where we ave to decide as we decide in the game. We have to decide what to choose as crops or as tools. We have to see what thing leads to what and what thing leads to the other.

9. Why is access to education a huge challenge as LEDC’s try to develop?

Access to education is a huge challenge because people of the country have no interest to study. They think that they don't need the education because they finish the conversation by talking. They do not need to write and read because you can talk. It is also a huge challenge because people do not have the money to spend on education.

10. Why is it vital to a country’s development to educate its people – especially women?

Women need to have education because in most of the families that are poor, the men go to work outside and normally they don't have the time to educate their children. So the who normally stay near their children and they are the ones who need to give education to their children. They become the children's teacher as there is no money

11. Suggest some ways that countries could prioritize education, even for women, even in the countryside. How can they do this?

Some ways that people can prioritize education are:

• Open more schools near the place of residence of the villagers
• Free books and stationary should be provided to children
• Children should be placed in classes with the same level of education

12. Think back to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Look at the 8 targets.

Look at how Haiti is doing so far. What will the targets be in the next 5 years for this country?

Look at the MDG ‘Progress So Far’ website and search for Haiti to get the latest information.

Haiti has improved a lot in the past few years. It now has a good level of education and it is still improving. I think its targets will be to make more money to educate more people. It will try to make it a better state by making more buildings such as medical buildings and educational buildings. They can also have buisness as some people have enough education to interact with people around the world.

SuDaN NoW

There are currently many problems in Sudan. The southern part of Sudan wants to be seperated from the Norhtern part. The oil found in the Southern part of Sudan is taken by the Northern part and the people of the Southern part starve because they get nothing to eat and they get very less money in excgange of the oil.

Currently the South part of Sudan is voting so that they can be seperate from the Northern part and so they can get money for the things they sell to the other countries. If I were one of the Southern Sudanese I would have definately voted to be apart from the Northern part and I would have wanted the Southern part to get its own money and land.

In the video the Sudanese person tells us about how many wars Sudan had gone through and how many people they had lost among the war. The had war for 2 decades and they had totally lost 2.5 million people in the war. The guy tells us that his country wants help and we can help it by visitin the site- http://sudanactionnow.org/.

I should actually care about this as I am a GI student and we see the issues that are going on around the world. We should all help the people in Sudan and try to solve the problems they are having. We should also help because it helps the world to be a better place to live in and we will also have peace.

Thank you for the people who have helped and if you haven't helped go to the website above and try to end the war before it even starts!

Create peace!!!

:)