Haiti Mini Study: Part 2

Ayiti The Cost of Life

1. What was it like playing the game?
This game was actually very interisting, but yet very difficult. Whilst playing this game, I applied the same concepts I used in 3rd World Farmer and it made it a bit easier

2. What was the game about and how would you describe it to a friend?
This game is about how life is in Haiti. The struggle you face in this game is what Haitians face in real life. If I had to describe this game to a friend I would say, " This game shows you how it is like to live in extreme poverty, and to not have enough of the basic human needs."

3. Which 'primary objective' did you choose, and why?
I chose Education. I chose this because I thought it might help me with getting better jobs and I also thought that If you don't get education you can't get a well-paying job.

4. What types of decisions did you have to make about the family members while playing the game and trying to achieve your objective?
I had to think a lot on what i'm going to make each family memeber do. So eventually I sent the mum to work on the farm, and the father and son to work, whilst the two other children were resing at home.

5. What strategies did you use? For example, did you combine work and school, or did you send anyone to school? Which worked? Which did not?
I sent the mum, dad, and one of the children to work and I kept the other two children at home until the mum, dad, and other child got home a little sick then I switched them around so the family could get money. Also, while the mum, dad, and other child was a work, the other two children were in school.

6. Why would parents choose to devote so much effort sending their children to school?
So their kids can get a good education, get a good job and then try to help the family out of poverty

7. What obsticles did you face in trying to keep the children in school?
My family was bankrupt and i couldn't afford to pay for their education

8. How did the situations and options in the game compare with those in your own community/city?
The situations in the game aren't exactly like what happens in my communtiy/city but there are quite a few people who are in extreme poverty and can't afford to put their kids in school and give them an education.

9. Why is access to education a huge challenge as LEDC's try to develop?
Access to education is a huge challange in LEDC countries because eduation costs a lot of money and lots of people can't afford it especially in LEDC countries.

10. Why is it vital to a country's development to educate its people - especially women?
So the people can get an education to learn how to read or write so they can have a bright future and everyone in the country should be able to get an education even if it means if they pay a little less so the kids will go off and study and maybe come back the country later on.

11. Suggest some ways that countries could prioritize education, even for women, even in the countryside. How can they do this?
There could be little school where kids go everyday for a few hours to at least learn how to read and write and maybe the parents don't have to pay that much so the kids can get an education and still help with farming.

12. Think back on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. Look at the 8 targets. Look at how Haiti is doing so far. What will the targets be in the next 5 years for this country?
~ Achieve Universal Primary Education
~ Improve Materanl Health
~ Combat HIV/AIDS, maleria and other diseases

The Game Website: http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html

Picture:http://wasteland.suman-sinha.com/photos/Posts/Ayiti.jpg

Haiti Mini Study: Part 1

On Tuesday, 12th January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. It's main hit Port-au-Prince but the surrounding cities all felt it too. Buildings collapsed, Homes destroyed, and Families disappeared. The Haitian Government estimated around 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. Also, they estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.

If you think about it, Haiti wasn't very 'secure' before the earthquake so even if the earthquake struck, it should have struck anywhere but Haiti. Haiti was in Poverty before the earthquake, and now, even more people can't afford to give their children education, more people have to work harder to help satisfy their hunger, and more children have to work harder to gain money to support their families.
Can you just imagine the pain, going through their minds right now? No food, no water, not even any shelter. The children separated from their parents, not enough of the basic human needs to survive, and over 50,000 children are lost that are under 18.
Once everyone started to hear about this earthquake, there was a very fast response. Haiti's neighbouring country (Dominican Republic) was the first to help, by sending Water, Food, and Heavy lifting Machines. Slowly the US and other countries such as Iceland, Qatar, and China started pitching in to help make hospitals and to help aid the civilians.
After Haiti's earthquake, Haiti is now stuck in extreme poverty and is going straight downhill from there.
So far, around 600 kids have been registered into orphanages and only 20 have been reunited with their families. Haiti lost, and barely even had any supplies to build anything so it would take quite a long time to get the supplies and re-build everything.

I think if Haiti continues to get help from all of the other countries, Haiti will start to slowly build up again with the right resources but they have to take baby steps in achieving that goal.

Picture: http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/PICTURES/news/2010/01/2010-01-29-haiti-earthquake-unicef-orphans-tragic-list-kids/haiti-child-waits-for-meal__14772821__MBQF,templateId=renderScaled,property=Bild,height=349.jpg

We Helped The Sharks (:

Today we helped the sharks by helping raise awareness to the school and by proving to the students that sharks aren't scary and aren't that dangerous. We are still going to be showing the 'Shark-water' video next week, to show what really happens to the Sharks and how people and risking their lives to help save them. Today I really think we made a big difference. We helped people understand what really happens when making sharks fin soup and I hope we've started to prevent people from eating it. Awareness was raised during this action project and hopefully we helped people understand why sharks fin soup isn’t good. If I could do this action project again, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t change it that much but I think I might just show more of the videos to prove how bad Sharks fin soup really is. Whilst doing this project, I learned that over 100,000,000 sharks die each year for no reason. I didn’t even know there were that many sharks in the word! Some countries just cut the fins for the money and don’t care if one of our top predators dies because of us. I also learned that even though we are trying to help sharks, google also believes that sharks are only predators and always try to kill humans. What has this world become?!?!?!

Picture: http://templecuttingedge.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/great-white-shark-1.jpg

3rd World Farmer

First you should know what a 3rd World Farmer is, and what the game is about. 3rd world farmers are like farmers in Africa and Asia. 3rd world farmers are farmers who don't have all the basic human needs and doesn't have enough money to support their family.
In this game, you have to confront the difficult choices that poverty can cause. You are in a situation where you face what real 3rd world farmers face in real life.
Diseases, weather, health, whilst trying to support your family and give your children an education.
You could encounter corrupt officials, a civil war, a sudden rise in market prices, an attack by guerillas, and many more things if your not careful. Your goal in the game is to try get all the big developments; Communications, infrastructure, school, clinic, representative, crop insurance. Once you get all of these things, you win the game. Though its not as easy as it sounds; you will end up spending well over $3,121 and thats not easy to get. While playing this game, you really have to think about the strategies you use and choices you make.
Things that help during the game (long term planning):

• Well - secure source of water
• Save money - financial security
• Diversify - food security
• Education - income
• Medicine
• Buy Animals
• Security
• Protection
  

Things that didn't help during the game (short term planning):

• Don't sell children
• Doing things randomly - Interdependent
• Marriage/Kids
• Drugs
• Army
• Showing off
• Dumping Wastes

Link: http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/
I think the SLR which relates to this game the most is 'Reason Critically'. I think this because you really have to reason you choices before you just do stuff randomly. You need to think, "do i need this?" or "should i accept the drugs?". If you don't need it but take it anyway for money, could cause you serious trouble and even your life.

Picture: http://images.heavygames.com/gp/3rdworldfarmer_lrg3.jpg

MW = Global Issues

During this Malaysia Week in KKB, there was A LOT of trash at our campsite! Mainly because it was a public campground. There were no trash cans in the campground, the closest one was about 10min walk and even though some people did throw it in, lots of people just threw it on the road.

On the way to tubing (which was really fun ;P) we had to hike down a mountain which was covered with trash :O

It was amazing how lazy people were and how inconsiderate people can be. While we were tubing, there were even tourist sitting around the river, throwing trash into the river, so I picked up their trash, gave it back to them and left. Seriously, we need to help saving the environment before its too late!

Picture: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Tk4Ii20W5m4/SNiAV6kT7nI/AAAAAAAAAq8/skFPJuLQvw0/s400/P9214381.JPG

Poverty Artical

Answers:

1. The world bank is one of the United Nations' specialized agencies, and is made up of 186 countries who are members
2. It is important to collect data from 73 countries so you can get an opinion from different people who live in different countries. Also so you can understand the disparity which people face.
3. Poverty is when you don't have enough of the basic needs (water, food, shelter, space) and when you don't have enough money to support your family. Poverty is also a dream killer, it takes away people's hope.
4. The difference between poverty and extreme poverty is, poverty is having unsatisfied material needs though extreme poverty is having unsatisfied material needs and a degrading state of powerlessness.
   
5. A poverty trap is when your poverty traps you and you loose hope of ever escaping from a life of hard work. A poverty trap is also when three generations of your family has/is witnessed poverty.
6. The world bank defines extreme poverty as not having enough income to meet the most basic human needs for adequate food, water, shelter, clothing, sanitation, health care or education.
7. Approximately 1.4billion people live under the poverty line in the world
   
8. Over the last 20years, it shows improvement in the situation because about 4 in every 10people used to be in poverty wherelse now 1 in 4people are in poverty. Also, people in poverty used to only have $1 a day and now its $1.25
9. Organization like Kiva help the people in poverty. Going and giving someone in poverty $10 can help them so much. So if you start small by making a donation it helps make a difference.
10. In Hong Kong sometimes i see people on the street sleeping on cardboard boxes with children begging for money. They don't have shelter, food, or water the three most basic human needs.

Picture - https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8v4nirvn45Fwyz4mXItvi7B9LCwsqDjp3ZKsWq8bOv9WXA8X9K8dyXW4m1uvLPxZuG34G4HuNe29ablbTbTgrwKDoe8nDQSiRAxuHWHR_Rcz7eohOgzeTx4V41bH-wFctsbUQqkT2IbM/s400/World+Bank.JPG

Global Issues and Living Ethically

What does Poverty mean to you?
On my wordle, it has quite a few words which we can do to try stop some of the global issues. RRR, and act i think are my strongest two things we can do to make a difference. If you want to make a difference, start small and slowly make your way to making the miracle. If you notice, it says on my wordle 'Hope, Peace, and Voice'. These three things are what we need in order to help the people suffering and to help make our world a more healthy place. So all the things that is stated in my wordle, is what i think of when i hear the words "Global Issues" and maybe you should think about these words too and what you can do to help.

Global issues really links to the SLR living ethically because we are considering how to help other people. In this class we are learning how to care for other people in other place. We are becoming more aware and responsible about our behavior and the environment. The environment is not just plants and animals, but the social environment as well and even the economy. Global issues are really huge but we are learning to start small.