Stop a Disaster

http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html

Mock UN

The object is to have a working paper by the end of the class.

Tuesday's topic: How can we reduce the number of nuclear weapons?

Wednesday's topic: How can we get China to improve their human right's record?

Nations:

Great Britain: Rebecca and Dashawn

Tunisia: Devin and Tan

Kenya: Kim and Pedro

China: Brianna and John

United States: Joanne and Faica

Iran: Ashley and Chau

Mexico: KJ and Leslie

Argentina: Adebukola and Stanlyann

Thursday and Friday

Using your choice of free website generators such as wix or weebly, (I prefer https://sites.google.com/) your group (the same as your micro-loan research) is to create a website that brings attention to one of the following issues:

Prevention of genocide
Recognition of the Day of Peace
Micro-loans
Ending Famine
The work of UNICEF
The refugee problem

Your site should be solution oriented and pro active in getting the community to become involved.  The rubric we will be using can be found at http://educatoral.com/website_design_rubric.html.  We will be using peer evaluation sheets to gauge individual effort.

This website is half of your final exam grade and is due the first day of finals.

Micro-loan Candidates January 3rd Project

Using the information you gathered on Friday, 12/23, you will put a micro-loan plan into action. Kiva is an organization that organizes micro-loans to people in need.  We as a class will select 4 people to support in their attempts to make their lives better.  Each group of 4, after discussion and research,  will select one person from the following website to invest in.  The proper amount of research will yield the best candidates.  Team leaders will place in the comments section the name of the person and why he or she was chosen.

http://www.kiva.org/

http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php?www

Teams:

Leader: Adebukola
Rebecca
Tan
Kim

Leader: Stanleyann
Devin
Ashley
Dashawn

Leader: Chau
Brianna
Pedro
Leslie

Leader: Joanne
Faica
John
KJ

Micro-loan Candidates January 3rd Project

Kiva is an organization that organizes micro-loans to people in need.  We as a class will select 4 people to support in their attempts to make their lives better.  Each group of 4, after discussion and research,  will select one person from the following website to invest in.  The proper amount of research will yield the best candidates.  Team leaders will place in the comments section the name of the person and why he or she was chosen.

http://www.kiva.org/

Teams:

Leader: Adebukola
Rebecca
Tan
Kim

Leader: Stanleyann
Devin
Ashley
Dashawn

Leader: Chau
Brianna
Pedro
Leslie

Leader: Joanne
Faica
John
KJ

Pennies a Day Discussion Questions Thursday 12/22

Cut and paste the following questions with the answers onto a word doc. 

1. Why is this video called Pennies a Day?

2. What does this video tell us about people’s potential to solve problems?

3. What is microlending? How does microlending offer Bangladeshi women economic and personal choices they didn’t have before? What was missing?

4. Why was there resistance to giving loans to women? Did that surprise you? If so, why?

5. According to Muhammad Yunus, women have a longer vision. Explain.

6. How did financial success change the role of women in families? How were the villages affected?

7. In the music video, The Green Children singer uses the lyrics “the power of choice.” What does she mean?

8. Why are initial loans always for income-producing projects?

9. Why was there initial opposition to Grameen in this mostly-Muslim country?

10. How does the Grameen system manage such a high payback rate on its loans in spite of requiring no collateral and no legal contract?

11. What did Muhammad Yunus mean when he said it is creativity, not the loan, that matters?

12. What obstacles made it hard for the villagers to escape poverty before Grameen Bank? What were their options?

13. Would microcredit work in America? Is it needed in America?

14. Why do people in the U.S. (even poor people) seem to have a greater range of choices than people in Bangladesh?

15. Why do you think Professor Yunus concludes it is better to give women loans instead of aid (money)?

16. In Bangladesh, most women have choices made for them by their fathers, their husbands and their governments. Does it make a difference whether you can make choices for yourself, or someone else makes them? Why?

17. Minara said, “In our village, poverty is gone.” Does this statement surprise you? Is the village still poor by our standards? Is poverty relative?

Pennies a Day Micro-loan Project Friday 12/23

You have $10,000 in capital to use towards micro-loans.  Your desire is to have the most impact with this limited amount of money.  Your assignment is to:

1. Find the area of the world where you think this money is:
     a. most needed
     b. will go the furthest
2. Figure out the demographics of those that will receive the loans
     a. Women?
     b. Families?
     c. Children?
3. What type of businesses will you support? Why?
4. Which ones will you deny loans to? Why?
5. Who do you need to talk with to get this program started?
     a. Government officials?
     b. NGOs?
   
You will present your proposal in poster form on Wednesday, January 4th.

Darfur links

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6213202.stm

http://www.thenation.com/article/genocide-darfur

http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide-in-sudan.htm

Preparation for Conference

You must be prepared to answer questions dealing with the following issues as they relate to your options:

1. At least one historical genocide that would have been best solved using your option

2. How your option is the best approach to avoiding genocide in Southern Sudan, the Congo, and the Amazon

3. What type of genocide method your option is most effective and least effective against: Armed attack, famine, forced removal or collection with intent to exterminate.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/worse-than-war/

http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/

http://www.usip.org/genocide_taskforce/index.html

http://globalsolutions.org/prevent-war/genocide-prevention

http://www.standnow.org/blog/bipartisan-genocide-prevention-resolution-introduced-us-senate

http://www.genocidepreventionnow.org/Home/WORLDGENOCIDESITUATIONROOMWGSR/CurrentGenocideEvents.aspx

http://www.yale.edu/gsp/amazon/index.html

Timeline for Conference

Monday: 11/28:  Genocide: Worse Than War video with reflection paper

Connecting the information from the video to our four choices with the question: What should America do about this problem?

Tuesday:  11/29:  Finish video and discuss how your chosen option could solve this problem.

Wednesday: 11/30: Computer lab:  Finish gathering information to use in your conference

Tuesday and Wednesday: 12/5 and 12/6 Conference

Option assignments

Option One
John
Chau
Ashley
Rebecca

Option Two
Stanleyann
Kim
Faica
Pedro

Option Three
Adebukola
Tan
Joanne
Leslie

Option Four
Devin
Brianna
KJ
Dashawn

Sign Up for Options

Sign up below for your preferred options in the order that you prefer.

Genocide Prevention

Read the following report on steps needed to prevent genocide: http://www.preventorprotect.org/images/documents/exec_summary.pdf

Then explore the website dedicated to genocide prevention: http://www.preventorprotect.org/

Can the world prevent genocide in the country you chose by following these steps?  Is your country beyond help?  Why or why not?

Next, explore the website dedicated to US action to prevent genocide:  http://www.usip.org/genocide_taskforce/index.html

 What should the United States do to prevent genocide in the nation of your choosing?  Be prepared to present your findings on Friday, 11/18.

Glog Peer Review

We will be peer reviewing using a glog rubric to help our fellow students improve their presentations.  Procedures are as follows:

Place the url for your glog in the comments section below.

Using the list provided, you will review the glog of the first person located below your name that is in class today.

Adebukola
Leslie
Brianna
Dashawn
Rebecca
Joanna
Stanleyann
Devin
Chau
Kim
Tan
Faica
John
Ashley
Pedro
KJ
Adebukola


A copy of the rubric can be found at http://butlertech.wikispaces.com/file/view/Glogster+Rubric.pdf

Genocide Research

We will be exploring 5 different attempted genocides during the 20th century.

You will create a glog that explores genocide by chosing a topic and discussing the following topics:

Who was the target?

How was it carried out?

Why was it attempted?

What were the effects to the country?

 Topics:

Armenia
Nazi Holocaust
Cambodia
Rwanda
Bosnia

Sign up for your topic below in the comments section.  No more that 4 people per topic, first come, first serve.  You may work in pairs, no more than two people per group.

Glogs are due on Friday, 11/4