Grade 10:
Global Citizenship Blog
I will be doing my blog about human rights, I'll be talking about the history of human rights, how people today are effected or not effected, and why, and how globalization and human rights are connected.
Human rights are very important. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) was created after the second world war. In April 1945, delegates from over fifty countries went to San Francisco, This was called the United Nations Conference on International Organization. It was to keep peace and stop more wars from happening. (source) The Charter of the new United Nations organization went into effect on October 24, 1945, a date that is celebrated each year as United Nations Day. By the year 1948, the United Nations Human Rights Commission had got the world’s attention. That turned into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (source)
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Here in Canada we have the Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms. This has a bunch of rights for Canadians that cannot be taken away. They are inalienable. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a statement of rights and freedoms that was added to the Constitution in 1982. (source) here are some of the rights and freedoms everybody in Canada has: freedom of expression, the right to vote, mobility rights, legal rights, the rights to life, liberty and security, equality rights, and language rights such as the right to education in one’s language of choice for French and English language minorities.
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I think it is a very wonderful and important charter and I think more countries should have something like what we have in Canada to protect us. We're lucky to have all these rights and freedoms, some countries don't have anything. There is the universal rights everybody has, but they still get treated badly, weather it's a factory worker in china getting low pay and poor working conditions or a slave who was barely fed and forced to work, they all deserve the same rights as us.
It wasn't fair to the African people, they should have been safe and happy instead of taken away and used as slaves. If the human rights were enforced, they would have been okay. It's good that things are changing.
Even after our universal human rights were defined, some people are treated badly. Weather it's slaves or just not being treated equally, people still don't treat people with the proper rights people deserve. It could be because of racism to an extreme point or fighting and that stuff, people need to be treated with proper human rights.
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It is really good that everybody has human rights. People deserve to be treated equally and with universal rights.
#3 Current Events (June): Government to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021
The Trudeau government is committing to ban single-use plastics by 2021. Plastic straws, cotton swabs, drink stirrers, plates, cutlery, some plastic bags all on the list.
Some people see this as a great thing, others not so much. I think the plastic shopping bags can go, sure. Not the bottled water, it is very convenient. I also see no point in getting rid of plastic straws, the new cardboard ones that some restaurants have now feel awful to sip from. The government wants total ban on these plastic products by 2021. The plastic is littered often and tats not good. If there were some other good way to prevent litter that'd be great. I do understand how its harmful to animals and the environment, so I would agree to some sort of plastic limitation. I do agree the plastic bags should be less common, maybe the stores that have them get taxed and that money goes to some sort of garbage clean up or environmental organization. plastic bags do fly around in the air and get everywhere.
This source is filled with so many facts and has a good position about the plastic problem, I could go on and on about every little thing. Micro plastics, fast food containers, Styrofoam and so much more. Anyways plastic goes all over the globe and hurts animals. This article was about banning one use plastic products mostly because of it. |
#3 POV Blog
Maquiladoras, Human Rights and labor standards, and active consumers:
Maquiladoras
The Maquiladora zone is a large area of mexico near the US border where many US corporations set up factories to avoid harsh US environmental and labor laws. I think these companies shouldn't be allowed to take advantage of the Mexican workers and environment. The pollution is very bad and makes for poor working conditions, not only that but the materials and buildings are dangerous. Maybe if the government made a law that restricted the big corporations from going over to developing countries and using the poor labor standards and environmental regulations there would be less pollution and harm. Or maybe the Mexican government should increase the labor laws and environmental regulations. If all the factories were just taken away from developing countries a lot of people would be out of jobs and people in developed countries would gain jobs. I think they should be phased out slowly so there is little disturbance in the economy. Sure the products will be more expensive if the factories move here or if the laws change in Mexico, but it's better for the workers and the environment.
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Human Rights and Labor Standards
The labor standards in the well developed countries are pretty good, but in the developing countries, that's different. The workers labor standards are not good at all, the workers are exposed to dangerous chemicals, unstable buildings, and low wages. if the worker standards increased, the factories would have to change and make it safer. The products will be a bit more expensive for us though.
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Consumers:
The 4 Rs are a good way to keep the earth safe and clean, in the case of the maquiladoas, a good one is to refuse. If enough people refuse products made unethically in developing countries, it will encourage the not good companies to rethink and make their production safer and better or go out of business. People should refuse products that are produced unethically.
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#2 Current Events (April): Climate Change Has Increased Global Inequality
It will only get worse.
In this source, it talks about how climate change is more harsh and going to be even worse in poor high temperature countries. "higher temperatures are more than 90% likely to have resulted in decreased economic output" (source). It says that the poor countries will be suffering even more. Some of the wealthier countries may even benefit from the higher temperatures from climate change.
I would agree if we took more responsible action against climate change "climate agreements dating back to 1992, including the landmark Paris Agreement, suggests that richer countries should bear a greater burden in addressing climate change" (source). If we did more to slow down climate change, the poorer countries would have a chance to get back on their feet. If we were in a poorer country we'd definitely need more help than what we give right now. |
#2 POV Blog
Residential Schools, the Rwandan genocide, and The Scramble For Africa:
Residential Schools:
I think that the residential school system wasn't a good way to help anything. It really hurt a lot of families, and misplaces thousands of innocent children. The residential schools erased so much culture just so the indigenous culture would assimilate into European. The new settlers had a Eurocentric point of view and thought everything about the Indians was bad. This wasn't fair at all.
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Rwandan Genocide:
Scramble for Africa:
I think that when all the European countries colonized Africa, they could have done it a lot better. Many many people were misplaced and killed. The European countries didn’t really care about the native people at first. The Europeans started conflict between the indidgenous tribes so they didn’t have to deal with them as much, the tribes had wars with eachother instead.
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#1 Current Events (February): Alberta investing $3.7B to move oil by rail, leasing cars
Premier Rachel Notley says the province will be spending $3.7 billion to move oil to market by rail.
This is pretty big news because people want to know how and where money is being spent. It is an alright part time solution, but it is way more expensive than pipeline. Pipelines are a lot cheaper to ship oil, and safer, we need more pipelines.
The cost to transport crude oil or petroleum products by pipeline is a fraction of the cost of other ways of transportation. The cost to ship crude oil by rail is generally $10 to $15 per barrel versus under $5 per barrel by pipeline.
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#1 POV Blog
Rana Plaza, Lubicon Cree First Nation, and the Banana Wars:
Rana Plaza Collapse:
I think that this was an accident that could have been easily avoided, if it weren't for the owners being careless, those people would still be alive. It's not fair that because of peoples carelessness, it can just get hundreds of people killed and more injured.
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Lubicon Cree First Nation:
I think it was good to get the resources because they made us so much money, but the indigenous people should have gotten some compensation for the loss of land and identity. I can see why the indigenous people are upset, but the resources are valuable. I can also see how the big TNCs just want the money from the resources and not want to deal with the native people.
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Banana Wars: