My Final Post [Seth]

The Heaven Shop by Deborah Ellis
I liked reading this book and I think this helped me learn about what actually goes on in some families and countries.

The Paper Bag Game
I'm looking forward to the paper bag game and I think this might teach us more than just an 80 minute lecture could ever teach us.

Global issues should be should be a core class because it will change us and teach more than humanities ever could and all the new kids should work hard and give feedback where needed. [The teacher as well]

Seth Young 3rd World Farmer

Global Issues Portfolio Reflection

3rd World Farmer Reflection

Third world farmer was a game designed to make us think and realize what most people in Africa go through, even through its through a computer. My strategy was to buy a scythe and buy  the cheapest crop and pay with about two thirds of my remaining money. I would get up to $90 dollars or more in one turn and build up my money then buy a well. And from there it keeps going up. Buy a road.[Very helpful] A short term decision is where you are thinking about what will help my family in the immediate future. They are not very bad but they are not good either, You will buy food and instead of growing your family will survive for another year then you are stuck until you get enough money to pay for some more food.

You use all of your money to buy food and plant crops. The crops you plant fail and you have no food now. You have to walk very far for water. Your health starts to fail and people in your family. You have kids to keep family alive. Get harder to feed the family. Boys dying faster than women. A person from Europe or North America could come and say ‘We will give you proper training or we will pay for the education of your children.’ And that is a green arrow out of poverty. A long term decision is where you think of your children’s education or maybe putting aside some money for your children when they get older or for emergencies. You keep them in shape or if they get sick pay for it with your existing money. Long term decisions are good because it will improve your life and your children’s lives in the long term. For example in 3rd World Farmer you can keep buying a variety of crops to get some money if some other crops fail : Planning Ahead or buying a well to improve your women’s health.

I learned exactly how bad the situation for some people in Africa are. I was so frustrated and could barely stop myself from attacking the computer. People are being approached by people from ‘Rich’ places and are saying ‘We will pay you to put some of our harmless barrels of ‘Harmless Liquids.’ The game doesn’t remind me of any SLR’s and I actually thought the game was the opposite of the SLR’s.
Which MDG’s does this simulation relate to and why?
This simulation game relates to Poverty, Diseases and the Education of your family. The poverty is very obvious. You have fifty dollars and if you start to do well people come and steal from you. You have to walk forever to get water, and your crops fail often. The diseases come randomly and viciously. I was playing the game very well and then suddenly my family dies from a disease. Pneumonia maybe.
http://www.fotopedia.com/en/Poverty
I chose this image because it shows a slum where people living in poverty are in the city or suburbs also. This shows that even if you let one of your family go to the city you still have a chance of being in trouble and you also get less food and a person to help with the workload.
Include the reflections from your blog and responses to the videos on the Moodle and sources on the blog.
Sometimes Farmers are so desperate that they will carry drugs or grow drugs to get money or they are approached by someone to carry it across an airport. More often than not that family will get sucked into the underworld. Also we have shock factors like droughts or a pandemic or maybe even a civil war.
The barriers they face are sometimes equally bad. At some point they might be torn between starvation and getting carried of by corrupt authorities as quoted by the game. ‘You haven’t paid your farming license, you are to come with us!’ or they might be in a country wide poverty circle and will have a very slim chance of getting out of poverty.
Farming is what provides the food. If the farmers can’t advance or develop then the general population will start to starve so farming is linked to development by feeding the population and since food is one of the basic needs people have the population will die and the progress of development will grind to a halt.

Iskl Peace Day

Peace Day

Peace Day, September 21. Peace Day is the only day a year where everyone puts aside their differences and unite as one.

Peace Day, Iskl

The skills and things I saw and learned this day were awesome. Me and my partner, Charlie were supposed to create a game and what we came up with was a form of twister but no one wanted to play but as soon as we got back to Mrs. Psillides room and we were instantly barraged by the sounds of laughter and happiness, fun and joy and many other sounds. I didn't actually learn anything and the only thing I learned is most people don't take part in games but they certainly love cookies! We were doing face painting, cookies, games, commitments and peace awareness. The entire atmosphere of the school was really, really happy. People were laughing and buying t-shirts for peace. In total we raised 611RM, thats $185. I really think our action projects have risen the awareness of peace.

Peace One Day - Seth

I got an idea that was 'If the Taliban lay down their arms and brought their kids for vaccinations, then it proves all people have some good in them and if we nurture that seed of goodness, even the worst terrorists will be good people.' I had also thought that if every day way peace day we could get millions of vaccinations done in a month. Last peace day 3.4 million people were vaccinated in Africa alone.
Peace is very important because without peace there is war and war takes and destroys lives. It is financially large and political and it cost a lot of resources. Without Peace the world would burn itself out and no one would be happy.
With Peace we can exploit new types of energy and with peace we can send people to undeveloped countries to help build and create new buildings. People can focus on helping to help the rainforest and endangered animals. It is very important to have peace because without it we would all probably die.
The hidden costs' of war is it creates hate, destroys live, is financially taxing, destroys a country's reputation and would make the world resources expire faster.
About our Assembly
The dance, speeches and electronic stuff all worked.
The dance worked because everyone knew it and a lot of the crowd started trying to do the main part of the song as well. The speeches were very effective because I noticed a huge amount of applause at the end of the intros and Sashank's speech.
All the electric stuff was great, but that's just my opinion. The videos, and the music were all excellent lengthes and types.
The poem could have really been improved.
Me and Charlie are partners for making a game for peace day.

What are global issues and why should I care?

Global issues is the class where we discuss and resolve the problems recognized worldwide [In our own way] It is also the place where we feel the problems worldwide in a milder tone than the real thing. For example, poverty. We all were required to crouch with our feet on the ground , close our eyes and feel the pain in our calfs as poverty and, then some of us were allowed to stand up and that showed comfort but also ignorance. And if you were allowed to open your eyes then that showed comfort and knowledge of the big picture. That is an example of a global issue. Poverty!  

I should care because when you think for a while there is a huge list of things wrong about poverty and that is just one problem. A little taste of what poverty is, is dirty water, not enough food, no medicine, large amount of orphaned children, homeless etc. there could be up to 100 problems for each large problem and the longer we wait the harder it will be to undo the damage of a growing list of problems. I believe I should care because if we don't then not only will the people living with these problems have the problems but they will hate us as well. That is why we should care.