Making the Invisible, Visible: The first step...

Drugs, Arms and Human Trafficking. The top 3 illegal money maker in the world. Arms and Drugs were expected to be high but Human Trafficking was a big upsetter.  Who would have thought that Human Trafficking would make around 32 billion dollars a year. There are 27,000,000 human beings, like you and I, who are being trafficked across the globe.  The amount of people rescued from human trafficking is 1-2% out of the 27,000,000 people. If you aren't fortunate enough to be rescued from the traffickers, you are forced into forced labour or sexual exploitation. According to some estimates, about 80% of the trafficking involved sexual exploitation, 19% involves forced labour. Because of those devastating numbers, this year we decided to make our class project about Human Trafficking. Now what in the world is human trafficking? Human trafficking is the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor. This is the modern day slavery. Human trafficking violates the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

This is important to me and my community because Malaysia is one of the transits of human trafficking. The amount of trafficking in this country is so high that Local NGOs estimate that for every domestic servant legally employed in Malaysia there is one working in the country illegally. Now you ask me why this human trafficking issue is so important to me. It is because no matter how small I am compared to the world, if people like me start to do small things to try and overcome a problem, slowly the world will change. Human trafficking impacts everybody. I am not saying that just because I can. The reason why is impacts everybody is because we are all connected as a society. It impacts the person being trafficked which impacts on their family life. This impacts the shape of the society because people go missing. If there were not as many human trafficked victims, maybe the dealers wouldn't have as much money. As you see it impacts on everybody's life, wether it is positive or a negative impact. 

During my course of research on human trafficking, there were many surprises.  The facts and the numbers were just astonishing. I was surprised by the number of people being trafficked around the globe. Although I knew that there were such things as human trafficking around the world, I never expected the numbers to be this high. Another fact which i was surprised was "Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90." 90 Dollars. I can only buy 2 video games for my ps3 with that money. I could not believe that people are "sold" at such a low prices. The victims of human trafficking are treated nothing more then things like video games and such. 

The journey of learning this topic has made me a bit more sensitive. I realized what is going on around this world. It made me feel very sad at times because I could not understand how humans could be so inhuman and cruel to each other. I also realized that even children like us can make a difference by trying to solve the problem. The journey is taking me into a whole knew discovery of this world.

Global Warming: Problem that We can solve

              We live in a dystopian world with more flaws than perfection. We face problems that come in varied sizes; from everyday colds and fevers to world's poverty population. Although there are many issues, one of the biggest and widest known problem is climate change. Climate change is another way of saying Global Warming. Global warming is the increase in the Earth's surface's temperature. In the past 10000 years the global temperature has stayed fairly stable and varied only about +/- 1 degrees Celsius. Comparison to that, the global temperature has rises about 0.8 degrees Celsius just in the last 50-100 years. A recent study has shown that even if we stop our carbon emissions tomorrow we are most probably going to have more then a 2 degrees rise on the Earth's surfaces. In addition to all this bad news, if we keep on using up the carbon that we dig up as we do today, before this century ends, the world's temperature will rise about 6 degrees celsius. If there is a 4 degrees rise by it self, it would be "Hell on Earth" as David Roberts puts it. If there is an 6 degrees rise it would be too hot for humans to live. This does not mean that it will be too hot that you have to use more air conditioning, this will mean that if you go outside, you will die of heat. Even though there is no hope to suddenly stop this problem, we can work together as an community to at least make the global temperature stable again. I believe that the only way to do this is to do simple things by our selves and to raise awareness in our own way.

One of the ways that we could stop this huge problem is by taking physical action as an individual. Instead of using extra gasses and other things that could affect the environment, we can reduce our carbon footprints and make a healthier world. One thing that we can take physical action we can stop global warming is to use cars like hybrids. I say this because if we use cars that uses no carbon dioxide we can reduce the amount of Greenhouse gasses that is released into our world. Another thing we can do for the environment is to encourage to plant more trees. We can go into volunteer work and we can start planting as many trees as possible. Instead of cutting down the trees, we can grow them because trees and plants are the ones which absorbs carbon dioxide and replaces it with oxygen. If we can all do these small little things we can contribute greatly so that we can have a better society.

Another way is to inform others in the community about this problem and what they could do. If we can educate each other about problems that we are facing, we will become a better community and we will be able to cooperate better. One example of why I say this because just like the millennium goals. The millennium goals will be impossible to occur if we don't work together as a community but because people are starting to come together to aid this problem we are finally going to be able to achieve something that we all want in the society. Another example would be the acts of independence in different countries. We can learn from our past as well. When community comes together to help a certain cause it will contribute greatly in the common goal all of them are trying to achieve. If we all cared and knew about Global Warming and what we could do, we will be able to eliminate this problem and face other problems to make this world a more pleasant place. 

Final way in our power to slow down this problem so that, the future generations that are to come can survive, we have to be able to unite with people in the community and together we must make the carbon producers more socially responsible. I say this because when Global Warming started was when these companies started to dig up all the carbon out of the Earth and throwing it all up into our atmosphere. This resulted in more greenhouse gasses, the very thing that we were trying to avoid. If we can make them stop we will be able to keep this Earth a clean environment. Another thing we can do to stop these producers is to unite against them. We can boycott their products so that they will stop digging up so much carbon and all the toxic gasses that could destroy our way of lives. If we can all contribute just a bit then we will be able to live better lives and we will be able let the generations to come live rather than burn to death.

The future seems to be very glum and dull. If we continue to do what we are doing today, the unthinkable will occur and this would surely end human civilization and all life on Earth. The only way to sustain our beautiful world and its life, we will have to take action and work together as one. Countries all over the world will have to come in terms and make something happen. In oder to do such a huge thing, we must first take actions by our selves. We have to raise awareness in our own individual way; some people who have a higher media power, like celebrities, should give a shout out to this problem. If we all work together at this cause we will be able to sustain our environment and let the future generations live.

Ignorance, Pain vs. Hope, Education

Imagine having to live on a dump site, having to scavenge for food and drink water full of bacteria and germs. The number of children living in poverty in the world right now is more than 1 billion; that is one in every 2 children. In the Philippines there are about 12.8 million children under the age of 15 living in such hard and cruel conditions. Kesz is a 13 year old boy who lived in these cruel state and because of that he is trying to help the less fortunate so that they can have a better life. The 2012 International children’s peace prize winner Kesz, was rescued as a child, from a life on a dump , today he helps other street children by giving them hope and teaching them about hygiene.

At the age of 5, Kesz was rescued and given a better life, today he gives hope to other children. After being badly burned Kesz was admitted to hospital where he met his saviour. “The street educator immediately took him to the emergency room and had his wounds treated. He (Kesz) has transformed his own experiences into a drive to help other street children and inspire them to change their own lives..” When the fire blazed his arm he hardly had any hope that would force him to continue on but because of the street educator caring for him, he was able to survive and received a better life and because of this he was able to live and give others hope and more. He gained a trait of respect and kindness because of the street instructor. Using that trait he is helping other street children hope. “On his seventh birthday Kesz didn’t wish any presents for himself; he wanted to help other street kids instead.” This shows the thankfulness towards what he has received. Kesz knows that he is extremely lucky to be saved and cared for. If the street educator did not save him, he would probably have died. He wanted to help the other children just like the street eductor did to him, so using his organization, he teaches kids about hygiene and why its important. He teaches the kids about the dangerous things that are in the world and how to prevent getting sick. Despite the fact of himself being poor, he uses what he has to give others what he did not receive. This is selfless thing to do and a boy at his age being able to do such notable things, is a great achievement.

Kesz knows that living on the streets amongst garbage is unhealthy and is today helping other street children by educating them against the dangers of bad hygiene. “My family picks garbage to sell, garbage to use and garbage to eat. I used to drink water from a pothole...even from sewage canals.” Just because of his poor condition he was living in, he was forced to scavenge for food in a dump. Because the lack of education, he was not able to know that the dump food is actually harmful to you and your health and which can cause sickness or even in the extreme cases death. Knowing this, he wants the other children to live a better life and to live longer. “Since the launch of the organisation “Championing Community Children” in 2005 Kesz and his team have already distributed 5,000 “HOPE GIFTS” and helped over 10,000 children through the programmes set up by Kesz.” Despite the fact of himself being poor, he uses the knowledge that he has to improve other street children;s life, because of him some of the street children in the world were saved just by learning proper hygiene.

Even after Kesz was awarded his prize, he continues to protect, provide and give hope to the street children in the Philippines. He also educates them for their future because he knows from his own experience what could happen if you are ignorant to the harmful things in your society. You can make a difference just by going to a local school and teaching them about their hygiene on the weekends. You could follow Kesz step so that you will become a better person and give the street children hope and love.

Where I'm From

Where I’m From

by Akira Fukaya

I am from technology,

From videogames and virtual sports,

I am from the black ops

Where the zombies spawn endlessly

I am from the football games with older kids

Where all my skill is put to a challenge,

I am from parents and friends

The memories of our trips filling the air

Everything I am is because of them

Pele, Fabregas, Messi, Kagawa

Inspiration of a youth,

Football and basketball

Forgiveness, Happiness, Zmbition

I am from where there is no quit

Always a new goal

Never ending,

An endless railroad that goes on and on,

I am from a place without talking

Just typing endless of tap tap tap

Never stops never never never

White Chocolate and Jolly Ranchers

Italian? No thanks,

Hunger resolved with American

Mexican

Japanese

I am from food

No hunger no wars

Revenge, Revenge, Revenge,

NEVER!

Eye for an Eye

Makes the whole world blind

Nothing is solved

With revenge

I am from forgiveness and peace

No wars no fights…

No Revenge.

Not now not ever.

Nazi's; a Party, a Ruler, a Lier.

'What is this?'-The very first thought that came across my mind. I saw a big, fat, ugly figure holding objects. After carefully looking at the picture I found out that this man was wearing all black but the background was yellow. It is obvious that the main object in this picture is the man in black. I think this man is a Jew because of a few reasons. First of all he seems to be wearing a Jewish type of hat on his head. Another factor that makes me believe that this man is a Jew is because the man has a huge nose. During the time of the Nazi's rule, the propaganda against Jews that included a figure of a Jew all had a big nose. This is probably because from the Nazi's P.O.V. (point of view) all Jews had bigger nose than the 'pure blood'. Another evidence that supports my claim of the man being Jewish would be the beard on his face. The other poster that consisted of a Jews also had beards on it. The man in the picture looks very fat and at that time the Jews were suppose to be very wealthy and very well fed, which means they will be fat. If you look, there is a stone. On it there is a red communist mark. This indicates that the Jews support communism. On one hand, there are coins indicating that they are wealthy. 

I think that the person who created this poster is a Nazi Party platformed person because the poster has a very negative view of a Jew. This poster was created during the strong rule of the Nazi. I think this was around 1937 to 1940. This was showed in many different medias such as books, films, posters and newspaper. I think this is poster was to the people in Germany because the Nazi's wanted people in Germany to think that Jews are not to be trusted and a very bad for Germany. 

I think the person who created this piece wants to show that Jews are very bad. They want the people to think that Jews are wealthy, evil, ugly, not to be trusted, and in human. I say wealthy because of a few reasons. First of all the man is a wearing a very good looking suit and secondly because the man has some coins in his hand. It seems as if the man is showing his money off. I say evil because of the rock which has the communist sign on it. I say ugly because of his face and how it has wrinkles and the beard. I also say that Jews should not be trusted because of the weapon on one hand and the other with coins. To me it seems like that person is trying to lure someone into coming closer than killing him/her with the weapon in his other hand. I finally say in human because during the time in Germany, so many people were poor and was jobless but this picture of the Jew showed how wealthy they were.
This poster would have influence the attitudes and actions of people in Germany very negative to Jews. They would have thought that Jews should not be trusted. They would think that they are back stabbers. They would have supported the Nazi's decisions to exclude Jews. Germans would stop being friends with the Jews.

 This image is full of lies and contains is misleading information. Not all Jews are like the man in the poster, in fact maybe NONE of the Jew might be like that man. This shows how Nazi's will do anything to accomplish their goals. In this case they are trying to get all the 'pure-bloods' to turn against Jews. In my opinion I think this image expresses a negative message because of they a making someone who looks like a Jew very bad. They want to make all German people to hate the Jews. As you can see the Nazi's really hated the Jews for some reasons and because of all the propaganda they made against Jews, the Germans was influenced to believe that all Jews was like that. This was the start to the Holocaust and all the horrible things that went through World War II.

Akira Fukaya
Signing Out