Journal 3_5

Question for next week:Find a TED talk that is particularly interesting to you.  What is it?  Why did you pick it?  What can be done with it?

This talk is not what I was looking for when I thought of the question last week, and I know I have already talked about Wael Ghonim, but this talk connects with so much we have talked about in the last few weeks that I had to write about it.  Wael Ghonim was one of the leaders in bringing the Egyptian people through technology in order to start the Egyptian Revolution.  He is an inspiritng figure and a great example of the power of youth and new technology. 

In his TED talk, Ghonim talks about the phsycological barrier of fear.  As we studied weeks ago in Ethics through the Solomon Acsh Experiment and Milgram Experient.  Both these experiements prove exactly what Ghonim is saying: that with the use of new technologies and virtual communications, the people of Egypt broke the barrier of fear and were able to revolutionize successfully.

This week in class:
A) This week in class we are learned about the Rwandan genocide.  The genoicde is one of the most terrible things to ever occur in human history.  I must admit, the footage of the documentary we watched shocked me.  The brutalness of killing with machetes and leaving dead bodies on the road is just completely foregin to me. 

B) The most interesting aspect of our untit was the letter sent by a Rwandan to the U.N that described what was going on in Rwanda at that time.  It amazes me that even with that letter, the U.N decided to pull toops out of the country and not supply the remaining troops with more supplies.  I do not believe that the United States should necessarily be to blame for not intervening, even though it is a responsibility of a superpower, but the U.N. should have certaintly advocated more peacekeeping troops to at least save more innocent lives.

B) To compare the genocide to a personal story,  last friday, March 4, 2010 I witnessed something that will stick with me for a long time.  My friends and I were driving to a birthday party on a Friday night, when there was a road block with several police cars stopping us from getting where we need to go.  We had to take a detour and turn around and go back the other way.  When we passed by on the other side of the road, we witnessed a dead body laying in the middle of the street.  The body we saw was a man who had been hit by a car.  The paramedics were already placing a white sheet over him, and the sheet was already stained with blood.  It was a tradgedy and one of the most shocking things I've ever seen.  My friend who was driving had to pull over, none of us had ever witnessed a dead body before...espeically in the street.  When I think of the children in Rwanda, and the footage I saw in the documentary, I wonder how they must have been affected.  One covered body will stay with my friends and I for a long time, if not forever.  What did the children, men and women of Rwanda do?

Question for Next Week:
Research for my Hero Imagination Project about successful mentor programs for children who have been through traumatic situations, such as Rwanda.  What methods did they use?  What were their mentors like?

Sources:

"Wael Ghonim: Inside the Egyptian Revolution | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth Spreading. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. http://www.ted.com/talks/wael_ghonim_inside_the_egyptian_revolution.html.

 

"BBC NEWS | Africa | Rwanda: How the Genocide Happened." BBC News - Home. Web. 07 Mar. 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1288230.stm.

 

"Solomon Asch, Opinions and Social Pressure (1955)." Panarchy.org : Index. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.panarchy.org/asch/social.pressure.1955.html>.

Journal 3_3

Question from last week:
Follow the story of Yemen's protest. Are there any other protests in the Middle East as well that are sparked from Egypt?
To answer the second part of the question first, CNN has complied a large list of uprisings that have resulted from the Tunsinia and Egyptian protests over the past month.  Uprisings are relevents in the following countries according to CNN:  Sudan, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria, Palestinian territories, Libya, Bahrian, and Libya.  Though the success of most of these uprisings has not yet come, many have become violent.  Most protests are lead by youth and students who are enraged by the government or economy in the country.

Yemen, is just one specific example of this crisis.  There, the protests turned violent quickily. Within the first few days, 12 were dead and many more in serious condition.  Now, hundreds of anti-government protesters gathered Sunday near a university at the Yemeni capital for a 10th consecutive day, witnesses said on February 20th.  Some of them chanted, "First Mubarak, now Ali," referring to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Hosni Mubarak, who recently resigned as president of Egypt after nearly 30 years in power. Pro-government demonstrators were also gathering near Sanaa University, according to Adnan Al-Nahari, a student at the campus.  So far nothing else has been accomplished.

This week in class:

 This week, take samll occasions when you have the oppurtunity to speak up, go for it.  Then in your journal, write about how it went.  What did you learn?  Give yourself feedback.

This week was a busy week for me.  Finishing my first day of softball tryouts today and interviewing for leadership a few days ago are two highlights where I was put in a position where I had to speak up.  During interviewing for leadership, I was required to ask a question every interview.  It's not that I minded asking a quesiton, and by the third interview I was having so much fun I didn't even notice.  But the first interview I was so nervous...I don't know why I but I felt like I was being interviewed.  I was so awkward and did not make that interview any easier for the girl I was interviewing...but once I broke through and became confident, I can confidently say my interview room was very successful.  The same thing happened in my softball tryout today.  Once I finally broke through and "stepped up," during the tryout, my confidence skyrocketed.  My performance increased because I was calm and focused. 

I think the main thing I learned from these two experiences was that stepping up gives one a sense of accomplishment, and that accomplishment leads to confidence and better actions.  Confidence is something that I lack in from time to time, and finding the amount of confidence needed is not always there.  With time, however, I think that that confidence barrier will wear down, and the stepping up will come naturally.  This will make me a better citizen, more proactive person, and much better accomplished.  Stepping up is like starting a wheel at a top of a hill, the second you get it rolling, it speeds up and speeds up as it gains momentum. 

The "step up" program from the University of Arizona would make for a great capstone project, especially for incoming freshman and sophomores.  However, I personally don't like how it is catared to student athletes.  It should be catered to everyone.  The idea is great, the implementation of it is lacking.  With a little work I think this program is something that could be very effective and also greatly needed in high schools today.

Question for next week:
Find a TED talk that is particularly interesting to you.  What is it?  Why did you pick it?  What can be done with it?

Sources:

Heroic Imagination Project — Transforming Compassion into Heroic Action. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. http://www.heroicimagination.org/.

 

"N. Africa, Mideast Protests – Gadhafi: I'm Still Here – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs." This Just In - CNN.com Blogs. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/21/live-blogging-north-africa-middle-east-protests/?iref=allsearch.

 

"Strategies for Effective Helping | Students." STEP UP! A Prosocial Behavior / Bystander Intervention Program for Students. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. <http://www.stepupprogram.org/students/strategies/>.

Journal 3_2

Question from last week:

What's the new status on Egypt?  Where does the U.S stand?

After watching a 60 minutes special tonight on television, I learned some useful information on how the Egypt revolution got started, what is happening now, and what will happen in the future. Wael Ghonim is a Google executive in Egypt that is responsible for the beginning of this history-changing revolution.  Using social media: facebook, twitter, etc. he was able to spur an entire country into Tahir square to rebel against an oppresive regime of Mubarak.  He told 60 minutes that the entire thing started with a campaign of rebellion caused by the death of man who was beaten by the police.  Ghonim started a facebook page that united Egypt against the government, and from there, told his followers to meet in Tahir Square. 

Now, 18 days later, Mubarak has resigned and a new military government has taken power in Egypt with the promise of demeocracy in the days to come.  The people of Egypt are happy, and thankful for the United States' influence on Mubarak resigning, however, during the interview Ghonim stated "we are thankful for the US and Obama's influence, but you have done your work, and now you should get out."  The Egyptians want to finally be independent of outer influences.  Consequently, today there was an uprising in Yemen very similar to the one in Egypt.  The protesters chanted "First Mubarak, now Ali."  When asked how other middle-eastern autocrats or dictators should feel about the Eyptian revolution, Ghonim replied "You should be very afraid."  As such, Ali is probably in a panic over Yemen as the people of the middle-east revolt against their oppressive regimes.

This week in class:

A) This week we studied Ethics and Social Psychology through the examination of famous social experiments such as The Milgram Experience, The Asch Experiement and the Standford Prison Experiment.  Though very different, all the experiments target the reactions of human nature in challenging situations.  The Milgram Experiment, conducted in 1961-1962 at Yale by Stanley Milgram, tested the effect of power of authority in a ethical demanding situation.  Two subjects are taken into a room, the "teacher" is the person being experimented on and the "student" is a fixed person.  The experimenter takes the student and teacher into two sepearte rooms, and sets up an electrical circuit that shocks the learner when a switch is pressed by the teacher.  The teacher is instructed by the experimenter to shock the learner every time they get a wrong answer, and the shock level moves up every time.  The learner purposely gets answers wrong to test the largest shock the teacher will administer them, even when they hear signs of discomfort from the learner.  The experiment showed that many teachers moved on because of the power of authority over the experimenter, and the reason was because they didn't think they were responsible for the harm of the learner.  As long as the responsibility was put elsewhere, many people did not think about the harm to the learner. 

B) The Second Experiement we studied was the Solomon Asch experiment, a study of conformity.  Similar to the Milgram Experiement, the Asch experiment tested the ability of a subject to stand by and assume responsibility for their answer, even if everyone else says a different answer that the subject knows is wrong.  Basically, these experiments show that in social physcology it is human nature to not assume responsibility even though it is the ethical thing to do.  Both experiements also tested with a partner, and with a partner the results drastically changed in favor of ethics.  With even one person agreeing with the subject in the ethical choice, the subject could follow through on the ethical choice with ease.  Humans are conformists and don't like taking full responsibility, that is the biggest problem with ethics and human nature today.

C) Applying the revolution in Egypt to these experiements easily compares.  Ghonim stated in the 60 minutes interview that the whole reason the revolution started was because people realized on social networking that there were other people who wanted the same thing.  Once the fear was broken, that there were too many people for most to be held responbile, and the power of conformity came into play, Tahir Square filled up. 

Question for next week:
Follow the story of Yemen's protest.  Are there any other protests in the Middle East as well that are sparked from Egypt?

Sources:

60 minutes, television ABC

Blass, Thomas. "The Man Who Shocked The World | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200203/the-man-who-shocked-the-world

"Solomon Asch, Opinions and Social Pressure (1955)." Panarchy.org : Index. Web. 13 Feb. 2011. <http://www.panarchy.org/asch/social.pressure.1955.html>.

Journal 3_1 B

Question from Last Week:
In researching charities, I also came across some other interesting organizations, such as 10000 villages, that I don't know if they really classify as charties or not.  Is 10000 villages a charity?  What is it's main purpose?  Is it effective?

Ten Thousand Villages is one of the world's largest fair trade organizations and a founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), the company strives to improve the livelihood of tens of thousands of disadvantaged artisans in 38 countries. Ten Thousand Villages accomplishes this by establishing a sustainable market for handmade products in North America, and building long term buying relationships in places where skilled artisan partners lack opportunities for stable income. Product sales help pay for food, education, healthcare and housing for artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed. (http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/php/about.us/index.php) Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations have a clear commitment to Fair Trade as the principal core of their mission. They, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade. They can be recognised by the WFTO logo. Fair Trade is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first. (http://www.wfto.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1331&Itemid=293)

With this research, I would not call Ten Thousand Villages a charity, but an even more effective type of organization.  It is a partnership that benefits artisans in countries, but does not necessarily just give them aid...they have to earn it. 

This week in class:

This was one of my favorite weeks of ethics class ever.  Learning about Egypt's riots as a relevent current event was interesting and allowed me to understand the world better.  The research we did in class allowed me to understand all of the articles I had been reading.  It was interesting to study how other world events affected Egypt, and the magnitude of these events on  the rest of the world.  We also used games to reflect on almost a "survivial of the fittest" vs. teamwork approach at partnership, and I surprised myself a little bit.

I think that the U.S. should stop giving military aid to countries unless there is a war and we are in alliance with them.  Every single time a country is a threat to the nation, it seems that the US has given them weapons.  This is just another case that could end badly for us.  With the Muslim Brotherhood spearing the revolt, I wonder if their attitude toward Israel will change.  If it does, will the United States back up Israel and get into conflict with a decades old ally?   

In the teamwork and partnership games, I surprised myself with being more competitive and "survival of the fittest"-esque than I thought I was, though I do think some of that had to do with my partner.  It was interesting to see that duringn one of the games, where we were playing "chicken,"  my partner and I both didn't swerve and suffered the consequences over the chance of winning.

Question for next week:
What's the new status on Egypt?  Where does the U.S stand?

Sources:

Shop for Home Decor, Accessories, Handmade Jewelry, Woven Baskets & More at a Fair Trade Organization || Ten Thousand Villages." Ten Thousand Villages. A Fair Trade Retailer. || Learn about Fair Trade, Find Special Gift Ideas & Shop for Unique Handicrafts from around the World. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/php/about.us/index.php.

 

 "WFTO - What Is Fair Trade?" WFTO - Home. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://www.wfto.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1331&Itemid=293>.

 

"World News - International Headlines, Stories and Video from CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. <http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/>.

Journal 3_1

Question from last week:
I'm going to ask a few of my classmates about the above scenario and see the results.  I will ask the following questions:  How many people say to turn the person in, how many would say "let it pass"?  And do they think the option they chose is ethical?

This was a bad idea.  No only did not one of my classmates not want me to ask except for a handful in ethics class, many did not understand the question.  If anything, this shows me how little people think about ethical situations on a daily basis.  This class is definitley important for the grown of those thoughts, and I realized how lucky I am to have a class that steers me into thinking about this kind of ethical dillemma. 

In Class This Week:
This week in class we read a few articles about different kinds of ethical rules and charters.  First, we read an article called "The Rules of The Game."  It compared several different attitudes toward situations.  The main rules were the golden rule, silver rule, bronze rule, iron rule, and others.  I name all these because each was a different interpretation on how to handle life.  The Golden rule, as we all hear in Kindergarden, is "Treat others like you want to be treated."  The Silver Rule, a more negative way of going about the golden rule is "Don't treat others in ways you don't want to be treated."  Both arguments are found worldwide, but only the west seems to support the Golden Rule, even if no know follows it.  Cofucius made a good point when speaking of repyaing evil with kindness, he said, "Then with what will you repay kindness?"  That's when the silver rule makes more sense, and is probably the rule least refuted in the paper, but I have to wonder what is the difference between the two other than putting a negative connotation to one.  The bronze rule is "Do unto others as they do unto you."  I don't like this rule at all because it does not give reason for someone to take the high road, which I think is important for the human race or we would all battle each other to death.  The Iron rule, "do unto others as you like, before they do it unto you," which is a ridiuculous rule and should not be in an article about ethics.  The last thing the author mentioned was the "Suck up to those about you, and abuse those below and give precedence in all things to close relatives, and do as you like to others."  I don't think these are ethical laws, but they are certainly realistic because they bring in natural social classes and importance to the social aspects of people. 

The other charter we looked at was The Charter of Compassion.  Though I do think human compassion is one thing that supports ethics greatly, I do not think that this charter did a good job.  It came across conceded and had insignificant points.  The main problem with it, I thought, was denying self-interest and calling violence illegitament.  Both are natural human occurances that have to be dealt with.  The biggest ethical dilemmas usually involve violence, so how can an entire race of people simply disregard it?  The charter is too utopian for it to actually work in the modern world. 

Another code of ethics, that I am bringing into the discussion but don't necessarily agree with, is Capitalism.  The western world follows capitalism, worships it, and buys into it so quickly it rules our lives.  The economy drops, so do the ratings of the president, the economy raises, the world is a better place.  People want profit, the richer you are the better off you are.  Is this ethical?  Is this right?  Everyone does it, the entire world is functioning on some sort of competitive economy.  What would we do without our code of capitalism?

Question for next week

In researching charities, I also came across some other interesting organizations, such as 10000 villages, that I don't know if they really classify as charties or not.  Is 10000 villages a charity?  What is it's main purpose?  Is it effective?



Sources

Armstrong, Karen. "Charter for Compassion." Charter for Compassion. Web. 02 Feb. 2011. http://charterforcompassion.org/site/.

 

Sagan, Carl. "The Rules of the Game." Web.

 

 Ten Thousand Villages. A Fair Trade Retailer. || Learn about Fair Trade, Find Special Gift Ideas & Shop for Unique Handicrafts from around the World. Web. 02 Feb. 2011. <http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/>.

Journal 2_5

no previous question for week before.

This Week In Class:
A) We  began to talk about ethics this week in class.  The topic we talked about most was the quality of "The Greater Good."  It was an interesting and dynamic topic, and I honestly am not quite sure what to think of it at the moment.  With more discussion, I think that I will find a more concrete opinion about it.  The Greater Good is basically the concept that something is not ethical if  it does not provide "good" to the most people.  The first mind stump we discussed was defining the term "good."  We use it all the time, but what does it acutally mean?  Dictionary.com comes up with 49 different uses and definitions for the word. "good."  So What exactly does it mean?  In the case of "The Greater Good" I think it means progression, positive, and betterement where the loss is less than the gain.

B) The main argument we debated in class was the difference between giving one homeless man a $100 coat, or feeding 100 people with the $100.  Which is more ethical?  They are both obviously honorable actions, and yet neither could necessarlily be considered "The Greater Good."  What if the homeless man sells his coat for food, or even worse, drugs?  What if with $100 you can't feed people healthy food, only unhealthy food like soda that will make them more dehydrated?  It is a pessimistic way to look at things, but also a needed perspective.  The class went back and forth coming to an answer.  One of my classmates decided that "The Greater Good" was pointless because who gets decide what is better for other people?  I personally, would choose the coat.  The coat gives warmth during the winter, but also a monetary gain a man or woman can use for food, other clothes when it gets warm and just about everything else.  I would definitley pick who I gave it to, making sure it was someone who would be able to keep the coat and use it wisely, but I feel that effecting that one person significantly is better than disabling hundreds with unhealthy food. 
 vs.
C) To bring a different example into the mix, what if someone cheated, but didn't do well on the test anyway?  Is is better to let the bad grade be enough  of a punishment for not doing the work, or is the greater good to teach that person a lesson, and turn that person in for cheating?  If he or she didn't even get a good grade, how is affecting the rest of the class?  But what if that person cheats again, and this time: gets a good grade that is unfair to the rest of the class?  It is for the greater good in this situation to be preventative, or let it pass and not hit a classmate while their down.  I don't know what would be better in this situation,  certainly cheating is unethical, and turning this person in would benefit the class, but the loss of that classmate's integrity would probably be as big of a loss as turning he or she in would be a gain.   Does that make it the greater good?  I don't know. 

Question for next week:
I'm going to ask a few of my classmates about the above scenario and see the results.  I will ask the following questions:  How many people say to turn the person in, how many would say "let it pass"?  And do they think the option they chose is ethical?

journal 2_4: all about Leadership

I'm proud to be a member of the Leadership Center at James River.  I think it takes a certain kind of person to want to be in the center, and I'm glad that I decided to join before my freshmen year of High School.  The people are great, my favorite teachers have been a  part of the center, and I have come into my own a lot since freshman year.  The communications elective improved my speaking immensely, and made me much more confident.  The other students in the program, though we are divided in my grade into two seperate cliques, are interesting, share similar interests in classes, and actively want to participate which makes school more enjoyable and effective.  I know there are people I would have never met if I hadn't been in the program.  Theres no question Leadership has beneffited me in some ways, but it is still not what I thought I signed up for.

When I signed up for the Leadership and International Relations Program, I mainly signed up for my interest in international studies, and now three years into the program--the only class that has studied other countries is my favorite class I've ever taken, AP World History (I hate the fact that sophomores take AP Euro now, but I don't know the entire reason why it changed).  I also thought that the service oppurtunites would be easier to find within the center, and that there would be options for every kind of oppurtunity.  Instead, I have found the center's resources in service oppurtunities to be decentralized, boring tasks that are used soley to fill the 30 hour requirement.  I also joined the program because I got the feeling it was one of the only speciality programs that was connected to the rest of the school, and James River is a great school to be at.  I feel as though I have succeeded in being part of both James River and The Leadership Program through sports and friendship, but outside of leadership students at James River either don't know about the program or dislike it.  It's important for the program as a whole to reach outside of the quad and somehow include the rest of the school.  The program needs to get excited about itself again, and I think the best way to do that is what we are doing--talking about and impoving the areas students think need to be improved.

This year I took on the job of Interantional Relations Coordinator on the Leadership Council, and I need to really get going on being an effective member of the council, I'll admit I haven't done too much.  I think I would be able to do more though if I had a little guidance on where to start!  The harderst part about organizing something or community service is finding where to start, and during all of our busy days its hard to find time to sit down and talk about oppurtunites.  At the same time, I feel like the few great, exciting opputunites are not advertised correctly--and so only certain students get to take advantage of them, and thy are usually the same students over and over agian.  When my mom took me to visit the college she attended, Vassar, I remember there being giant corkboards and chalkboards with everything imaginable posted on them.  Just looking at it you got inspired to go and do something, and the feeling of seeing everyones unique handwriting, artism, different sheets and colors of paper lifted up the entire room as well.  If leadership had a board like that in the quad (I know the perfect spot for it), that everyone could use and contribute to, it would make leadership more centralized, connected, artistic and inspired.  Leadership service oppurtunties need to be pooled by everyone's connections in order to become a center of information and action.  The only way students are going to get involved and learn the lessons they need to is by action and experience, the more of those we have in the program the better. 

Community Outreach comes along with the becoming more connected.  When was the last time that James River Leadership did a service project TOGETHER?  I can't remember one!  With 200 people, the Leadership Program could do something great, and yet, we stay decentralized.  After we accomplish community outreach it would be amazing to do an international outreach.  A trip would be a great bonding learning and service experience for every single person in the program.  Isn't part of being a great leader understanding the different perspectives and cultures of different people?  That's what I am most interested in, and I feel there are other people in the program that are the same as me.  Leadership needs to bring in more international speakers and points of view, different political figures, scientists, marketers, rich poor, non-profit organizations etc., the more our program is exposed to the more likely we are as a student body to take action!  Also, Leadership applies to every field of study and workplace, and it's important for students to be exposed to leadership and relations in every field we can find.   

That, I think, would be the best place to start with improving the program.  The most important thing is including every single student in the program and help get them involved with their opinions and ideas, have everyone use their connections to basically have a database of activities to get involved in and reach out to the community and the world by doing local projects together (and maybe a more abroad project) and bring in every single different perspective we can find.  Getting people excited about being in leadership again is going to be the key to the improvement of the program.