Kony 2012 Article

"Should HSC participate in Invisible Children's 'Paint the Night' initiative on April 20th to spread awareness about Kony 2012?"

I think that it is extremely important to have Kony captured and brought to justice but I'm not completely sure that HSC should participate in the Paint the Night initiative because I don't think it is a good way t raise awareness for the cause. All this initiative will do is get governments angry because you could almost consider the initiative vandalism. Getting the government angry would definitely not be a good thing because all that would do would be to disable people from raising awareness for this cause. So in my opinion we should go about raising awareness a different way.

Violence vs. Non Violence

Violent and non violent methods of protest and peacekeeping have both been used. In my opinion non violent methods will always be better than violent methods. If you look at what is going on in Syria you can see why violence is not the answer and all it does is cause chaos and death. With non violent protest you accomplish the same goal as violent protester would, but without all the chaos and death. Non violent protest also demonstrates how human beings have the ability to come together and solve issues by peacefully communicating to one another. It may take a longer amount of time to solve things peacefully but in the long run it will be much more effective than trying to solve an issue with violence.

Child Soliders

Even though I have not watched the entire movie "Invisible Children" I now better understand what violence is and how children become violent.  By nature children are not inherently violent. Children in Africa specifically Uganda become violent when they are abducted and become afraid of what will happen when they don't do what their abductor says. If you demonstrate violence to a child chances are they will learn from you example and become violent to other people. Violence greately affects the mental health of people in Uganda. In the movie one lady was talking about how children play violent games even though they have not been abducted or abused. This is largely due to the wat. Everyone is so woried and afraid of what will happen to them, this results in high levels of stress which greatly affect the metal state of many children in Uganda.

Gender Inequality

Gender inequality is a major concern in many countries around the world. Gender inequality often occurs a lot in many African countries. Women in some African countries are viewed as a way to have children and to cook and take care of the children. Women are not given a chance to get a job or even to go to school. This results in many women not being educated which is one reason why they are taken advantage of. Men in these countries don't realize that women can do more than take care of children and cook and clean. When women are given the chance they can have jobs just like men and become part of the society. Just think if many of these poor countries let their women get an education and have jobs they could have twice the amount of people working which would make their economy more prosperous. There is absolutely no reason that women shouldn't have the opportunity's that men do.

HIV AIDS

AIDS is one of the worlds most deadly diseases, and has had a massive impact on many of the poorer countries of the world many of which are in Africa. The causes of this disease is largely due to the fact that many poor countries can't afford birth control for their citizens. People who live in these countries are also usually unaware of how different methods of birth control work. Educating the people of the worlds poorer countries about birth control could significantly decrease the amount of people who are infected. Lots of poorer countries also have a lack of doctors. This is because many people who have worked hard and studied to become doctors would rather go to work in other countries because they will get payed more. There is medication for AIDS but it is extremely expensive and people in poorer countries are unable to afford it. The Stephen Lewis Foundation is an NGO that's goal is to give money directly to countries in Africa that are devastated by AIDS. They support 15 countries in Africa which are the hardest hit by AIDS. The money that this organization gives could be used to afford the expensive AIDS medication so that people can begin to recover from this deadly disease.

Reflection on Take Action Questions

1) I wouldn't go outside to smoke with them because they have worked hard to become sober and i wouldn't want to ruin that for them, even if it would mean she isn't interested in me anymore.

2) I would probably end up feeling extremely guilty about it afterwards so I would have to tell the employer and my friend what I did, because I would want my friend to do the same for me.

3) I would definitely tell someone about him contemplating suicide so he can get help, even if it means that he isn't my friend afterwards his life would be more important then our friendship.

4) I would probably stay behind the fence because there are other ways to handle the situation besides going into the factory and risk being hurt. Also if the situation in the factory got really serious one of the weapons may go off and harm me and everyone around me.

5) I think that I would agree to torture him to get answers because he is a terrorist who is planning to kill many people, so if that's how he is going to treat others then he should be treated the same way. Plus we would get the answers out of him and save the country.

World Issues Conference

Although I was not actually at the conference I did prepare notes on two subjects that I chose. The first was relating to the environment, specifically oil spills. The second was drought and famine in Somalia. The only thing I think that could be done better in the preparation process is grade 12 involvement. What I mean by this is allowing us to have input on what topics are selected.