Violent vs peaceful protest

I have been stuck between sides on this subject of using violence of peace to promote social change. Both sides have worked and failed dramatically, each has pros and cons and there are some cases that I believe ended successfully because of the combination of the two. As impossible as this argument is I have however come to a conclusion. Violence only leads to more violence and that cycle is harder to stop then any peaceful protest. I chose peace because it should always be the first choice anyway, and I have read a few examples where the gravity of the method is greater than any violent act. In 1989 Czechoslovakia formed the velvet revolution against the communist government. In this example the government was crippled, the people were they biggest resource and without them they had no choice but to submit. If the people had acted violently the government could have easily retaliated with more violence. A very similar situation happened in 2005 in Ukraine (the Orange revolution). I feel this method should always be the first option. Currently there is a situation in Quebec regarding school tuition. Student groups are rebelling violently trying to reduce tuition cost. I do not completely disagree with their choice because it worked in another tuition issue in London and of course it is too late to un do what they have done. But when I think about the velvet revolution I feel peaceful protest could have been more effective. Perhaps for example they put their riot energy into a strike, affecting the schools income until they had to choice but to submit. In and social action the people collectively are more powerful than any gun or riot. I will leave you however with the fact that if a country of group is under oppression, yes they just start with peace but equality and justice should be the only outcome.        

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" – JFK

AIDS

HIV-AIDS impacts people in poorer countries than anywhere else in the world. Poverty can create and even enhance the cause and spread of HIV-AIDS. Countries like these can lack in the education of disease like this, and without the proper health care it cannot be treated properly. By fighting poverty in a country you can help relinquish HIV-AIDS as well as many other problems the country might face. Going back to HIV-AIDS, there are two important ways to help: Providing relief to such country like medical supplies, and donating or assisting medical research dedicated to finding better treatment or a cure.   http://aidsresearch.org/ provides information on their research and what a approach they are taking to find a cure. Here are some ways you can participate:

• Sign up for a news letter
• Donate money
• Tell them how this disease has affected you
• Volunteer for a clinical Trial
• Donate a gift to support their research
• Tell your friends
• Sign up to host a fundraiser

On the side of providing relief http://www.developafrica.org/ is focused on establishing meaningful and sustainable development in Africa. They provide job training, business loans, scholarships, books and teaching supplies, the list goes on but I think you get a sense of what they are about. Their website provides many ways to help much similar to the list for aids research. As I mention before, HIV-AIDS and other issues can all be put under the umbrella of poverty. Develop Africa is committed to the development of Africa (hence the name). I will leave you with passage from their website describing their vision.

Vision: Through training, scholarship, investment and partnerships Develop Africa is committed to developing Africa’s people through the promotion of transformational education, resource development, investment training and strategic empowerment. Our premise is based on the notion that in order to change one’s personal, national or organizational status there must necessarily be a “change in the thinking and processing pattern of the mind.”

C.A.R.E Model

C.A.R.E is an acronym for making ethical decisions as a global citizen. CARE stands for

• Compassion
• Action
• Responsibility
• Equality

If you want to benefit the world, you must take action. When take that initiative you must also take responsible for the choices and commitments you make. And when dealing with others, you must be compassionate to their situation and treat everyone the same. By taking these four things into consideration in your everyday decisions you’re sure to become a more principled global citizen.

If take into consideration the Arab-Israeli conflict for example the first step is to take action. Find out how you can get your government involved or assist an organization dedicated to diffuse the conflict.  http://www.fmep.org/ has links to many non-profit organization devoted to peace in the Middle East stationed anywhere from the U.S to Israel. If you are willing to become involved you must take responsibility for the commitments you have made to make a difference. And finally you must show compassion and equality even when dealing people on the other side of your argument. Perhaps their circumstances are different than yours, or you do not know the whole story. You need to take these things into consideration and give them a fair say. In my opinion action is the most important part of C.A.R.E because it is the first step. 

NSA Reflection

Overall our NSA liked our approach in achieving our goals, the only generally concerns were that we  didn’t work well as a team and we didn’t get too involved until later in the simulation. The issue with our team comes as now surprise because my team only had two members working three polititians. We had trouble keeping Sergei Lavrov involved in the simulation. As for our involment, we had to assess the methods of other countries first. The website gave us an understanding of how the real leaders have handled this conflict but as students made press releases we realized some people had different ideas on solving this conflict. Waiting had made my group better prepared to made a distinct press release that our NSA thought was very well done. Individually I was very good at defending our press release and keeping up relations with arab countries around Israel. I thought the best way to contain the situation was to ally with the surrounding countries. To conclude our NSA said overall our writing was the thing that separated Russia from other countries.     

Gender Equality

One of the largest impacts of gender inequality in underdeveloped countries is poverty.  Although gender inequality is not the #1 source, it is a hindrance towards numerous solutions. To lift a country out of poverty one of the things you need is for the citizens to work together so that they can acquire an education, fill fields in demand (Police, Doctor etc) and build/re-build a societal structure and a sustainable way of living. If there’s gender inequality that leaves a large percentage of the population unable to help thus making these goals that much harder to accomplish. The path to equality will be difficult but I believe it is a major factor in solving many world issues like poverty. One step toward equality could be to show these men as well as the women the benefits of equality on the developing world. This could be done by persuading the government or something simple like writing a letter to someone in that area. By showing these people that women are full of potential and promise and are not just a burden perhaps they can learn to change. A more drastic step is hearing the defence of the people who see women as a burden and work towards eliminating those factors.  There are some people that under their circumstances do not treat woman equally, this step enquires that you remove these circumstances. Any example would be that a girl has to stay home because only the boys can go to school, so what you could do is raise money or find another way to build a school that accepts boys and girls.     

Integrity

“Never compromise, even in the face of ArmageddonJ”

            -Anonymous 

While preparing for this post I discovered the definition of integrity. It is the consistency of actions, morals, values and other things of that nature. A person’s integrity and their ability to maintain it defines them. This quote expresses a belief that if a person faces a lengthy oblivion like the end of the world, the stress and terror will put their integrity to the test. Some might fight, steal or even kill in an attempt to stay alive while others, that yesterday had the same integrity as the killers, and are equally desperate to live will not compromise themselves even at the end of days. This quote speaks to me because I know many people (and sometimes even myself) that choose to have no integrity at times. They do so, so that in these situations where integrity is tested they can change their values and ideals for selfish reasons. Take politicians for example: some might say one something or portray certain values to get elected, but if it threatens their re-election or their power later, they might decide to change values to stay on top. As global citizens our integrity must be unwilling to compromise. We can not collectively demand change one day and do nothing the next. Even as a global community we are all different so yes, some people may have dark days, some darker than others, but that must never change what is right, and it must never compromise our ability to act.    

Burke

"All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing." - Sir Edmund Burke, 1769.

This quote is very simple; it states that by any extent evil will flourish as long as there is no good to combat it. This is not just in the literal sense like batman and joker, the quote is more directed to the small evils in everyone and how if we never seek to banish it will always flourish. Let us look as human consumption as an example. Millions of years without human existence have resulted in a vast amount of resources. Now, we seem to be using them all up in a matter of centuries. This is an evil that we all participate in and all it needs to triumph is for no one to do anything. I think I’ve made my point pretty clear: in order to fix these problems like non-renewable resources, global warming etc, we have to SOMETHING, anything from picking up the tiniest garbage or making the biggest scientific breakthrough. If we do nothing it’ll only guarantee the success of these evils.