AIC NSA Feedback Reflection (post #8)

In our closing statement for the AIC conflict, our NSA praised Saudi Arabia's group efforts the improve our own country. Starting with the bad, it was said that we were "off to a slow start" but as the game went on we were able to pick up our pace. Our NSA said that in the end we were able to come out strong, and stuck to our strategic goals statement. Part of our goals was to promote more acceptance in the country of Saudi Arabia. We achieved this, but there was a big lack of support of a large number of saudi men who were not pleased about this. We were praised however, for being peaceful about our reaction to the protests that the men of Saudi took to the streets. We were told that we had a successful game.

Character, Inegrity, Courage: Find a Quote (post #7)

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.  ~William Shakespeare

This quote by William Shakespeare is great guideline of how you should live your life around other people. With these words Shakespeare teaches integrity. Integrity is very important because it is essentially the quality in humans that can help fight for and maintain peace. To know integrity is to know that not everyone you meet will be someone you like, but you can still accept them. Although you do know to trust the ones that you do like. It is important not to confuse the two. Most importantly do not do wrong to anyone. Global citizens live by these words in a sense that they are there to help the greater good of people. Although you may not like someone as a person, it is important to still look out for them. The idea of global citizens loving everyone is relevant too. The concept behind this quote is very fair, whole and with good intent. Which is that of the same intent of a global citizen. The most influencial people in the world, in a good way live by these words as a fundament. Imagine if everyone did, the world would be a whole lot of a better place to say the least.

Edmund Burke Quote Reflection (post #6)

“All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” - Sir Edmund Burke, 1769. This quote teaches us that, there are evil people and good people in the world, but as soon as it becomes easy for the evil people to have there way (because good people don’t stand against it) then evil wins. Today this is relevant in what we see in the Arab spring. Many people were mistreated for years until some people decided to stand up against it. For those years of mistreat no one did anything about it, and so evil prevailed. The protests in the Arab world have done amazing things; from overthrowing horrible leaders, to changing laws, and gaining massive amounts of attention from all over the world. Had the arab people not stood up for themselves, none of this would have happened. They would be in the same horrible state they were five years ago. There is also other examples of this in history, with the rise of Hitler to power. No country wanted to stop him but then it was to late, and we all know how that story goes. 

To Act or Not... (post #5)

There are opportunities all around us to help other people. Whether it is in your school home, or out in the streets there is always going to be some sort of problem that as a person you can choose to fight against or ignore. For me I usually do not have a problem with standing up for one of my friends in any situation, but one thing I would like to work on is helping homeless people. The ones that everyone (myself included) walk by on the streets of Toronto, trying not to make eye contact in order to not have to stop, and give money. It’s not just old men either, anyone I see I will pass by, because I feel a diffusion of responsibility to take time to give that person money. Also it can be a little bit scary, since you don’t know the person or what will happen if you get to close to them. I am willing to try to less ignore these people on the streets, and even if I don’t have any change maybe just a smile would work as that is still better than walking right by. Giving money to the needy in our own cities is a great way to make a difference in our world because no matter how small it still helps that person a little bit. 

Human Rights (post #4)

The Dalai Lama is Tibet's spiritual leader. He advocates fro self love as well as world peace. His life brings us hope and his teachings help us understand human’s basic goodness. His efforts concerning human rights and peace have made him world renown. The Dalai Lama teaches us that there is by far, more good then evil in the world. He shares the message that The world hears about all the negatives in society, when it needs to be flooded with the positives. The Dalai Lama is truly an inspiration human rights activist, in a sense that he stands as a symbol of hope, strength and purity for his people. As a young person in Canada this helps inspire me because without people like this in the world to remind us how good the world really is, there wouldn't be much to fight for. Spreading a message of hope is truly an inspirational thing to do. 

Interdependence (post #3)

“We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependant on the well-being of other nations, far away…. We have learned to be.” –Franklin D. Roosevelt, Former US President, 1945. This quote, though it was said over fifty years ago, still relates to the world that we live in today. This quote talks about interdependence, and interdependence is a relation between its members such that each is mutually dependent on the others. It means that, countries can share resources with each other, things that they can’t grow or make on their own. When countries depend on one another, they are able to help each other grow. It’s like an organ system in a body, when and if all the countries works in harmony the world will function properly. To be a citizen of the world means that you aren’t only contributing to your own community but the community of the world. A citizen of the world is also willing to help people from all over the world. This is all a good thing because when the worlds people look out for each other, we obviously have a better world. In the world we live in today we see countries such as Canada and the United States helping places such as Japan and Haiti when there is a natural disaster. We also see organisations such as free the children visiting many different places in the world, doing service trips on order to help the less wealthy.

globalization (post #2)

For the AIC simulation (Arab Israeli conflict) the country I am playing as is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a major player in the real life conflict as well as the simulation. Because of this I made sure that I knew the Saudi Arabian culture as well as their position on the Arab Israeli conflict very well. Our simulation is going great; we were able to submit our strategic goals statement on our third attempt. Since entering the game, my group has been able to communicate with many other countries including the United States and France. We are planning on realising our first press release today. While playing around on the simulation, our class has also been learning a lot about the Italian debt crisis. Italy is the eight largest economies in the world. This causes much fear for the rest of the world for the economic state of Italy, as it can greatly impact us. The debt of Italy is the combined results of decades of turning a blind eye to endemic tax evasion, corruption, and dismal economic growth. This resulting in a mind-blowing €1.9 trillion public debt – about 120 per cent of its annual economic output. Like I said earlier this is bad news for the rest of the world, as Italy has a huge economy on the world scale. It can put even us all the way over here in Canada, back into a recession.

What did you do this summer? (post #1)

During the summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Edmonton in order to have a family reunion. Naturally I was excited to start my shopping at the west Edmonton mall, the largest mall that I have ever been to. When you're shifting through racks of clothes and running from store to store, the last thing you want to be thinking about is how that cute summery dress was made. It's hard to accept that majority of our favourite clothing lines have factories in places such as Taiwan, the Philippines and China. These are all countries where child labour is readily available and worse, perfectly legal. It's even harder to accept that by purchasing clothes from these companies such as Abercrombie and Fitch and American Apparel, you are supporting the act of child labour. On my vacation this is exactly what I did, not that I was thinking about it at the time but I was buying from companies that supported this issue. More companies should be considering fair labour, so this nasty cycle can end and consumers like you and me do not have the guilt of supporting such barbaric acts.