Discrimination Video Link

http://vimeo.com/17537321

The Commitments

Peace is something that will probably never happen in the world. So why not commit to something to at least make this world a little better. By helping others you are doing a great deed that would be greatly appreciated, and that is a sense of peace. As for one commitment I am attending a benefit “Amp’d on Giving Benefit” that a few of my friends have put together. I will be donating items to the Reynolds Shelter for women and children. I think it is a great opportunity to give to someone else that really does need the help. For my future commitment I would love to go help serve food to the homeless shelter during Thanksgiving. It would be an awesome opportunity.

Prevention of peace

There are many elements that are preventing peace around the world. There is just not one specifically. If it is not terrorists causing problems, its drug wars, if it is not that, then it is school shootings. It is also no necessarily humans creating an un peaceful world, natural disasters and the destroying of the natural habitats of animals. There will never be just peace. There will always be problems and people creating them. As the years progress, there seems to be more horrible problems happening all over the place. Bad things will always happen, and the world will never just see peace.
Recently the drug wars going on in Mexico are out of hand. These drug wars haven even reached into the United States. Mexico borders America; El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California are border cities that do experience a lot of the drug problems. There are people transporting drugs, transporting money, and sending out hits. Innocent people are also dying from this. The cartel will raid parties and shoot everyone there just because. People are also at risk if they are connected to any person involved with the drugs. This all has become a serious issue for Mexico, and The United States. Peace will probably not be among these two countries for awhile, until they can somehow solve this problem.
School shootings also disrupt peace. Most of the school shootings are by people who have lost their ways, and are angry at the world. Most of the terrible shootings have been at major colleges. On April 16, 2007 a student by the name of Seung Hui Cho gunned down about 33 people at Virginia tech. Back in 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman a student at the University of Texas at Austin went up to a tower with a sniper, and went on a shooting rampage. There have been many other school shootings that have gone on throughout the past years. It really is a horrendous thing to happen. Innocent people that are at school, getting shot down by someone they either knew or did not know.
On September 11, 2001, four planes got hijacked by terrorists. Two of the four planes were flown into the World Trade Centers in New York City. The third plane was flown into the Pentagon, and fourth plane (United 93) crashed into a Pennsylvania field. This had to be one of the saddest days in the United States. Everyone was glued to their televisions watching and waiting to see what was going to happen next. This terrorist attack was top news for what seemed like a month. Everyone was not expecting any of that to happen. People woke up to their daily routines, getting ready in the morning, when all of a sudden the planes struck the twin towers. After that day, things were never the same again. President Bush sent our troops into Afghanistan and Iraq, and since then our troops have been out there.
Big natural disasters also disrupt peace. Once a huge disaster happens, it takes months, even years for the location that got hit to be all right again. In 2010, Haiti experienced a huge earthquake that nearly destroyed everything. Most of the buildings were destroyed or damaged and many people were killed, and left homeless. In 2005, hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana. The floods were terrible and lasted weeks; it was truly a terrible natural disaster. A lot of homes were destroyed, and even years later, people still could not live in their homes and were living in shelters.
Peace will never just be there for anyone. There will always be something that is in the way and it will cause problems. I am sure that is how earth functions and was designed for all these disasters to happen within its time period. There is probably a reason behind everything. The world was not meant to be peaceful, and for everyone to get a long. Maybe with all these problems, we learn how to live. They make us open our eyes, and not take things for granted. We learn to cherish what is valuable to us and around us. A world with peace, would truly be something different, and miraculous.

Juarez shootings

I think that it is actually pretty scary that all of these shootings are happening right next door to El Paso. The shootings are starting to happen more frequently, and now it seems like they are shooting innocent people that have no connection to them. It's sad to think that these people can actually go into a teenagers birthday party and just start shooting at everyone. Thousands and thousands of people have been killed in Juarez throughout the past few years.I really hope that the violence starts to decrease within the years so that people can stop being killed and the city could become a little safer.

The Coalition for Adolescent girls

 

     Adolescent girls in lower income countries are usually victims of rape, violence, pregnancy, HIV, bad health, and much more.  The ages of these adolescent girls range from the ages between 10 years to 19 years old. These girls are usually married before they even reach the age of 18. The men they marry, are much older than the girls.  They get pregnant when they are young, and have no idea how to tend to their newborn baby. The newborn baby usually does not make it passed the age of one. The girls also get an STD from their own husband.

      The Coalition for adolescent girls would like to help these adolescent girls become more educated about different areas in life such as, their school level of education, health education, and etc. They would like to achieve the highest they can with them. This foundation would like to make finishing secondary school, a girl’s first and main priority. Preventing more girls from getting affected by HIV is also a high priority. This foundation tries to help these adolescent girls prepare for the future. The future they try to help them prepare for, is them possibly going to school, knowing and becoming aware about sexually transmitted diseases, becoming a mother, and nourishing their baby.

      In most of these countries women are not equal to men. The men basically over power these women when it comes to jobs, education, violence, and so fourth. The men use violence and rape as an act towards women. From these actions, the women are severely hurt, sometimes get pregnant, and get diseases. This program would like to speak for the women, and eliminate all such horrible acts on women, and also eliminate the marriage of girls under the age of 18.

      The marriages of young girls in Ethiopia have been dramatically delayed due to, schooling support, vocational training, and safe places. It would cost a dollar per day for programs and policies like, community and school based efforts, interventions, and health services in low-income countries. For health services to work for girls in the Kiber clinic, they must show consideration and classified services, and be suitable. In developing countries, most receive demand-side financing. Demand- financing pays patience for HIV, TB, and to receiving health services. This organization was united with 30 international organizations. The Coalition for adolescent girls was founded in 2005 by, Nike foundation, and by the United Nations foundation.

      The Coalition for adolescent girls website offers a lot of information about the organization. You can learn why it is so important to support an adolescent girl and to help her as much as you can through her rough time in a low-income country. You can read about a girl’s real life story in poverty. Also, you can read articles that are very informative of the goals and how they feel about these adolescent girls, and what should be done. You can connect with the Coalition for adolescent girls by email, their websites, reports, and articles. You can get involved with this organization, by signing up, and putting in your email.

“Building Peace” -Central Asia Institute

This video was very inspirational. It opened up my eyes by seeing what really goes on in other countries, and how grateful I am to live in the United States. The women in this video are not really treated equal to man like how the women are in the United States. These women are not that well educated. Most of their education level is equal to a fifth grader. The men want the women to know basic knowledge such as, they shouldn’t overpopulate with babies, and that they should know the basic health standards. These women eventually learn how to sew, and are able to make clothes and such, to help support their family.

“An enemy is a person whose story we have not heard” -Gene Knudson Hoffman. Quaker Peace Activist

In my own opinion I believe that this quote means that there is two sides to every story.  Every person, every situation has its own story(s) to it. In life there is always one side of a story that gets left out. For example, when friends get into a fight over something they heard about the other, that friend usually has just heard one side of the story, and not the other. Most people do only hear half of a story, and not hearing the other half, which could be important. When you only hear one side, it could cause some issues among whatever the problem is.