John Stossel is a consumer reporter, author, investigative journalist. co-anchor of 20/20, and a libertarian columnist. He is supportive of a free-market and his views reflect a libertarian political philosophy. In an article from May 12, 2006, he took on the topic of foreign aid and global poverty.

He states that foreign governments are too corrupt and any aid that is sent, is not getting to those who need it. Africa was mentioned in particular and  he claims that what is holding down Africans is a bad government and policies that make it diffucult to make use of their own property. The aid that is sent  is giving the government more leverage and the poor continue to suffer.

Fifty years ago the countries in East Asia were as poor as Africa is now.  Today, many are rich despite low levels of aid because the governments made understandable laws so people could borrow, trade, and start their own businesses.  In Kenya though, you need as many as 20 licenses from different ministries and bribe people on top of that. The process can take years and even then the government can come in and shut you down.

Global awareness education is not about writing a check. It’s about getting your hands dirty, both here and in the poverty-stricken areas. Sending aid has failed to work so far so it is time to try a different approach. We need to help these people become self-sufficient, to aid them in getting their governments to work for them. It isn’t just about educating us, it is about educating them as well. Literacy rates are very low and many cannot handle finances. They need the tools required to live a productive and healthy life. The foreign aid is making someone rich, the governments. The poor however are still struggling to survive.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=1955664&page=1

My mother told this story during her children’s sermon on Earth Day. I think it is a good example of how young people can be the change we need in this world. This is why it is so important for us to educate them about other parts of the globe. How will they know that not everyone lives as they do unless we teach them?

The most important part of the story, for me, is that it isn’t about fixing all of the problems for everyone. It is a simple story of one little girl who made a difference right where she lived. This is a good way to show how the education process works, and from there, as she gets older she may be driven to expand the area in which she offers her time. Also, by doing this, she has shown others how to think beyond themselves which may turn them into leaders on equality in the future.

“Now, I would like to share another story, it’s a fable about a remarkable, devout woman, who is also on the margins of society. Her name is Beatrice, although terribly poor, yet out of her barren poverty is able to rebirth a village.

It begins with a lonely little girl named Rachel, who lives in a small, quiet village. The village is literally quiet because peopole keep to themselves, they don’t talk to each other. There at the village market is Mabel, who owns the dairy farm, but never talks to Howard, who has the vegetable stand. And Howard never says hello to Joe or Irma, the older couple who walk by every day. And they don’t even smile at Jon and Manuel, the children who play nearby. This makes Rachel sad because she wishes her people would be friendlier with each other, more willing to share their lives but nobody does, until some strangers come to the village.

Rachel is sitting on a big rock at the edge of the village market. Mabel is selling butter next to Howard, who is selling pumpkins and other vegetables. But neither speak to the other. Rachel looks down the road and sees an old cart drawn by a tired looking brown horse. An elderly woman is holding the reigns, with a young woman and 2 small children beside her. As the cart grows closer, Rachel sees that the people are thin and wearingragged clothes. They look tired and hungry.

The poeple of the village are afraid of strangers. “Oh no,” cries Mabel. “Strangers! They are beggars who will steal our food.” So Mabel quickly gathers her stuff. Howard is frightened too! He takes his pumpkins and other vegetables and runs and hides them under his bed in the farmhouse. Even Jon and Manuel are afraid and hide their baseballs and bats in the bushes. And Joe and Irma quickly go home and lock all the doors on all the cupboards in their tiny kitchen.

By the time the strangers reach the village all the people are hiding, with their doors locked tight. The only one left is Rachel, sitting on the big rock, watching the strangers. The elderly woman, who is driving the cart, leans over with a smile.

“Hello there, little girl,” she says. “Hello,” says Rachel. “We’ve come a long way, and we are hungry,” says the old woman. “Could you tell us who might share a pail of milk with us, or give us a few vegetables for our lunch?”

Mabel, who has been watching out her window, shouts, “We have no milk here. Our cows have been sick. We barely have enough for ourselves.” Then shuts her window. And Howard, who is also watching from his window…shouts even lounder, “And our harvest was bad. We don’t have any vegetables to give you.”

Rachel thought the old woman would be sad. Instead, she smiles even more. “Emily can you help me down?” she asks the younger woman. With a smile, the girl steps down and helps the older woman down from the cart. Then she helps the 2 children down too.

“My name is Beatrice,” says the old woman. “This is Emily, my daughter and her 2 children, Jacob and Victoria. We are hungry and tired. Can you help us build a fire so that we can cook our dinner?” Rachel gathers firewood but she doesn’t know how these women are going to make dinner without food. When the fire is hot, Emily and her mother roll a giant iron pot out of the back of the cart and they sit it on a stand above the flames.

“We can’t have soup without some water,” says Beatrice. “Do you know where we can find some?” “There is a tap in the middle of the market,” says Rachel. “But how can we carry the water to the pot?”

Just then, Howard who has been spying from his window, feels guilty. He has lots of buckets and he could lend them to the strangers. So he slowly walks over to them with some buckets. “Here, let me help you,” he says. Howard and the strangers and Rachel fill the pot with buckets of water until it is half full.  “Now we need the main ingredient for our soup,” says the old woman. Howard looks away, as he still does not want to share his vegetables.

“We need a big rock,” said Emily. Howard looked up in shock. A rock! How can a rock be the main ingredient in soup? Rachel was jumping up and down. “I have a rock!” She points to the rock she was sitting on when the strangers came. Together they carry the rock and drop it…plop..into the water.

 “Mmm! Nothing like good rock soup!” says Beatrice. “Mmmm! says Jacob and Victoria, sniffing the air.

By now, Mabel can’t contain herself any longer, so she comes out to look into the soup pot. So does Irma and Joe, Jon and Manuel. They all have to see what rock soup looks like. Then Beatrice takes out a big wooden spoon to taste the soup. (dip the spoon) “It’s wonderful, but it needs a little something, perhaps a bit of salt and pepper.”

“We have some salt and pepper!” says Irma and Joe. So they went to get them. The old woman takes the salt and pepper and shakes them into the pot. (shake into pot)

Then she tastes the soup again.” Mmmm, much better” But it still needs something. Perhaps a potato or two. Or maybe some cabbage and carrots.”

“Don’t you have a few carrots?” Mabel asked Howard. “Why yes, I think I might.,” he says gruffly. He runs to his house, takes out some vegetables out from under his bed and brings them to Beatrice, who drops them into the pot. The smell of the vegetables cooking fills the air. Everyone sniffs and their mouths water. MMMMMMM good!

“Good friends,” says Beatrice to the crowd of people who have gathered around the pot. “You tell us that your cows have been sick and your harvest has been bad. We know you must be hungry. Please come and share our rock soup with us.”

At that moment, all the people in the village feel ashamed. They know that they have more food in their homes than they can eat this winter. Why can’t they be as willing to share as the old woman and her family?

I will be glad to share your feast, as long as I can bring some milk to share,” says Mabel. “I will be glad to join your feast, as long as I can bring some more vegetables to share,” says Howard.

“We will be glad to join your feast as long as we can bring some loaves of bread from our cupboards,” says Irma and Joe.

“We will come too, if we can organize a game for your children,” says Jon and Manuel. Rachel smiles and then she laughs with joy at the change that has taken place in her quiet village.

But the biggest miracle that day was that as people ate their bowls of rock soup, they began to talk to each other. Howard talked to Mabel, Irma joked with Jon and Manuel, and Joe offered to make wooden toys for Jacob and Victoria. The strangest thing happened, the village’s rock of barrenness turned into a soup pot of plenty.

It’s hard to imagine there would be any group that would oppose education of global issues. What could be so threatening about knowledge about inequality? Or is it possible some just may not care that there are people starving and dying every minute of every day? The Global Awareness Project is a champion of educating our young people so that they will help in the fight to bring about change. The KKK has not joined in that fight.

Historically, the KKK has been a hardline group that believed in white supremacy. It was founded in 1956 in Louisiana being led by former Louisiana State representative David Duke. The intro to the Knights of the Ku Klus Klan states, “The white race is a irreplaceable hub of our nation, our Christian faith, and the high levels of Western culture and technology.”

The modern KKK, like the original, stands for “America First.” They would like to see all foreign aid stopped and that there should be a policy of military non-intervention. They want no foreign influences or interests in the United States. The site I was on did not specifically state they would be against education of global issues but I think it’s safe to say that if they do not want the US involved in any foreign assistance that they would feel educating our youth on how to fight for equality would be against their beliefs. In fact, they basic premise of the KKK is that we are not all equal, therefore the distribution of resources should be according to their heirachy.  It was mentioned however, that they would like to re-educate our educators on what children should be learning.

The ultimate goal now of the KKK is to obtain political power so they can impliment their ideas. If that were to happen global issues would be dropped as an area focus by the government, but I think it is safe to say that their chances of getting into the White House are slim. They are a very extreme group with a shameful history. I believe that organizations such as ours would be better to use our time educating those who are middle of the road or in support of global awareness as the KKK does not seem to be loosening their grip on their beliefs.

http://www.socialpc.com/SocialIssues/The-Modern-KKK.html

I have wandered through many websights on my quest for material for this blog and for information for my organization. It wasn’t until I stumbled across www.asap25.org that I noticed what had been wrong in the others. Many were just too busy with information. Mission statements were pages long, and the overuse of words just lead to confusion about what they actually were trying to accomplish.

Instead of going over all of the problem websights, I’d like to note what I found important enough about this sight to replace the blog I had written so I could bring this to your attention. First, a little about who they are. Their mission statement is, “Abolish extreme poverty worldwide by mobilizing the idealism and talents of today’s students.” I think this is a good consolidation of all of the information on the websight. It is simple, direct, to the point, and uses language we all can understand.

Since this is an organization aimed at students, the websight is geared toward young people. They utilize a blog, facebook, twitter,  and there is even a link to Think MTV.  They have taken into consideration who their target audience is and incorporated ways to get their attention. And again, they use language that can be understood by anyone who visits the sight. 

The last thing I’d like to mention is that they have listed their specific goals for the 2008-2009 school year.  These include how many people they would like to spread the message to and what their demographics are. I like that there is a concrete plan.  This is just one of the ideas I hope to bring to my organization from this websight.  I invite you all to take a look and possibly you will find something you too can use or at the very least you can see an organization that is using some of what we have read about.

www.asap2025.0rg

Educating and then motivating our nation’s youth on the inequalities of global resources can at times seem like a daunting task. There are so many things that compete for the attention of young people. One social entrepreneur, Abigail Falik, has made it her mission to create opportunities for young Americans see beyond their immediate environment through hands on experience.

The idea for Global Citizen Year came to her while at NetAid where she launched a program aimed towards high school students to work to end global poverty. This became the flagship initiative of Mercy Corps,  whose focus as stated on their websight,  is to “alleviate suffering, poverty, and oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities.” Her vision became more specific and she launched a national movement that offers teens an opportunity to spend a year abroad during the “gap year,” which she renamed “bridge year,” between high school and college.

Global Citizen Year trains and places young graduates in rural communities world-wide learning microfinance and technology projects and sharing these experiences at local schools upon their return. This has also lead to media coverage and spreading the word to grow the program throughout the US.

I have often heard people ask, “What can one person do?” I think Abby’s story shows that if you have a vision, a passion for something you would like to see done, you can go out and make it a reality. Her success is due in part to her ties to larger organizations which is a good example of how new organizations can be created and a group with varied interests can aid in branching off to form one with a specific goal. Where no one can make these groups effective on their own, it does initially take that one voice to speak up and say they want to make a difference.

http://globalcitizenyear.org/

 

 

If you are an activist interested in global awareness, Noam Chomsky’s What Uncle Sam Really Wants, is a great read on how to go about making change.  In any country the real power lies with the people who make investment decisions, what is produced and distributed. What they hope is that we will be passive and not question what decisions they are making. So an important way get their attention is to not be passive and make things uncomfortable for them.

The way to make voting, demonstrations and letter writing effective, is for it to be sustained and organized. It isn’t enough to go to one demonstration and go home. We need to continue to apply pressure that builds and continue to do things-learning from what was done previously and applying it.  An example he used was the resistance to the Vietnam War, which was significant, and the government paid the cost. We can use this as an example of how to create awareness for AIDS/HIV, military spending, potable water, poverty, housing, and oil production and consumption. If we do not stand up and make our voices heard concerning these issues, they will continue to get worse and millions more will die.

Chomsky also stated that members of the House of Representatives are more easily influenced that senators, but senators of course are easier to influence than the president. We can invite them to town hall-style meetings with our neighbors, or sit in their offices until they take the time to hear us out. It is also important to do our own research, don’t rely on history books or the media. The original sources are best and can be found in the reference departments of most libraries. This is hard work and should be a collective activity to produce the best results.

The people of the Third World need more than our understanding and sympathy, they need our help. Their survival depends in part on what we do here in the United States. We need to keep in mind that this growing Third World isn’t just in far away places, it’s also right here at home. The gap between the prosperous and the poor is widening every day, and it is up to each of us to do what we can to make sure that all peoples have an opportunity to live their life to it’s fullest potential. With that, we will have more people to join in the fight to empower all.

Reference:

Chomsky, N. (2003). What Uncle Sam Really Wants. Canada: Odonian Press

               William Nordhaus of Yale University wrote a paper entitled, “The Problem of Excessive Military Spending in the United States,” for the Annual Meetings of The American Economic Association held in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a conference that related to the costs of war, specifically the Iraq War, but he took a different approach looking at spending from the view point of an economist, and what the costs are of a large military establishment.

                He touched on five points, one of which was the actual numbers involved. For fiscal year 2005 the total expenditure for defense in the US was between 493 billion and 590 billion. This is roughly half of the total spending for the entire world. He then addressed if the security threats faced by the United States warrant this kind of spending. He feels it does not, stating, “Is it plausable that the United States faces a variety and severity of objective security threats that are equal to the rest of the world put together? I would think not. Unlike Israel, no serious country wishes to wipe the U.S. off the face of the earth. Unlike Russia, India, China, and much of Europe, no one has invaded the U.S. since the nineteenth century.” (I would like to note that the attacks on 9/11 were by an extremist group, not by a country.) He goes on to say that we border with two friendly democratic countries, and we have not gone to war with either one for over a century. Two things are possible, either the US has an exaggerated sense of threats to it or other countries are universally neglectful of threats to their security.

                Another interesting line of reasoning was what having this large military capability has led to. The last major wars (Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, Kuwait, and Afghanistan) were ones in which the United States attacked countries that had not directly attacked them. “Countries without military capability cannot easily undertake “wars of choice” ….,” Nordhaus said, and this is a side effect of having a military budget that far exceeds what is needed to defend the homeland.  It is noted that four of those wars are currently unresolved and I wonder if this may be due to a lack of clear goals and sound reasoning going into them.

                Clearly, there are many issues besides the obvious economic ones in spending such a large amount on the military. The United States may be seen as the bully on the playground, smacking people around just because they can.  Countries may align with us in order to stay on our good side, but secretly they hope for the day that we are knocked down. This is not the way to form an international community and this is not the path to peace.

Source: http://www.econ.yale.edu/~nordhaus/homepage/military_010405.pdf

More than any other event, where we are born and into what circumstances has the biggest impact on our lives. What would our lives have been like if we had been born in another counrty, into poverty, or into isolation? The Global Awareness Project’s goal is to educate American students to the inequality that exists and to change our world from one of chance and division to one of equality and opportunity.

Currently, 46% of the worlds military spending is performed by 7% of the global population.  Another example of the inequality is the world wealth. North America has 25% of the wealth for 7% o f the population, where Africa has 14% of the population and only 3% of the wealth.  Southern and Eastern Asia has the highest populations (totaling 44%) but also the highest instance of absolute poverty (27%). The inequalities are very apparent and extend further to housing, water, oil (consumption and export), and public debt,  just to name a few.

It is important for us to be aware of these circumstances, because without awareness there can be no opportunity for change.  As Americans, we are very fortunate to be living where we are and it is up to us to use our resources as best we can for the greater good of the world.

This group was started just last year here at The College of St. Scholastica by Jay Newcomb and in speaking with him he feels that we are still in the claimsmaking/media/public opinion area.  The issues themselves have been around much longer and have made their way through the social problems process again and again. We are focused directly on the education of others in hope that this will lead to concerned individuals working toward justice.

This semester we would like to accomplish finding additional resources to use in the classroom setting. These can include videos, websights, photographs, and further statistical information. So far, the world map visual aid being used has received a good response. Students are able to interact and see the difference between the world as they believe it to be and what it is in reality. We feel that actual examples of the inequality and groups that are working toward solutions will expand their educational experience. I would also like to follow up with some of the first students to use these materials and see if they have gone on to be involved in any social justice projects.  If so, what are they involved in and if not, what could we do differently to encourage participation.  

Resources:

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/

http://www.css.edu/Administration/Service-Learning/Global-Awareness-Project.html

Global Awareness Project
Advisor: Jay Newcomb, College of St. Scholastica

The Global Awareness Project is used to educate individuals on the world population and resources. The premise is, if the world was populated by 100 people, where would they live and what access to resources would they have. Factors used are wealth, housing, oil exports, HIV/AIDS, absolute poverty, military spending, oil imports, water, and public debt. My involvement will be finding additional resources for education to further show these factors around the globe to use in a classroom setting.

The purpose of educating our youth about global awareness is the hope that in turn they will work to end the injustices in the world. Knowing there is a problem, and what it exactly is does not gaurentee that this will happen, but if we do not bring awareness, we do know it will continue. Education is our greatest weapon to bring about social justice.

I was stunned to find that the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association has scheduled the first statewide competitions of the season for Saturday, as it is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashana is a High Holiday, and is observed by Jews even if they observe no other holiday. Not all public events can cease for Rosh Hashana, but organizations should avoid dates when many families are engaged in religious observance. It’s a simple matter of sensitivity.

Association officials knew the McIntyre Invitational would fall on the Jewish holiday but did not realize its significance. “There will always be some group that will not be able to attend for whatever reason,” the association’s executive director, Frank Mooney, told the Globe. “If I apologized each time, I would be sending out apologies all year.”

Mooney’s dismissive ness is not justified. Nor is his assertion that there are endless numbers of equally valid conflicts. More than 275,000 Jews live in Massachusetts, the 7th largest state population of the 50 states, and Judaism is the state’s predominate non-Christian religion. Scheduling the event on Rosh Hashana, a time of prayer and reflection, is likely to prevent many athletes from competing, as it will eight girls on the Newton North’s cross-country team.

To consider the holiday no different from a multitude of competing calendar events signals a failure to embrace the idea that a pluralistic society can respect the beliefs of many. As the association and others like it grapple with the practical challenges posed by scheduling competitions, they should engage rather than alienate large religious communities. Just as they would not schedual an event on Christmas,  the same criteria should be used in relation to major Jewsih holidays. Mooney should apologize to the competitors from the Jewish community and promise that the association will strive to avoid such conflicts in the future.