Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Judaism

Origins
  • Judaism is  one of the three Prophetic Monotheistic Religions in the world, the other two are Christianity and Islam
  • It is  Prophetic as there were numerous Prophets who predicted the coming of a Messiah, Monotheistic as they believe in one God - mono (one) Theology (belief/ study of god)
History
  • Jews are an ancient people of around 3000 years old, their history is told in the bible and is traced back to Abraham of around 1900 BC ( before common time era)
  • The Jews have been known as jews, Israelites and Hebrews. ( Jesus was a Jew, however the Jews accept Jesus as wise man, but not the chosen Messiah as Christians believe, hence Judasism predates and heavily influences Christianity, but is not part of Christianity).
Abraham
  • Abraham is on of the first recorded leaders of the Hebrews in the Bible. He was a wealthy man who was called by God to leave his land and move from Ur to Canaan, or Israel as it is called today.
  • Abraham heard the call of the Lord to stop believing in pagan Gods (like God of wind, God of Mountain etc) and he followed God's request and led his people from Mesopotamia to Canaan. This journey is recorded in the book of Genesis. We can map this journey here http://www.biblemap.org/#Haran
Abraham

Who is Abraham?

What did Abraham believe? How was it different to the people of the time?

What do you think a Convenant is, what covenant did God Make with Abraham?

A conventant its an agreement between two parties, god promised to take the jews from salvary and take them to iseral which is the promised land.

What sacrific was Abraham requested to make? Why did God ask this of Abraham?

Search the site for the world Patriaches? What does this mean

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Refugees

Refugee: definition
Refugees are people who have left their homeland because they fear that they will lose their lives or their freedom if they stay. People become refugees because one or more of their basic human rights has been violated or threatened.
International law defines a “refugee” as a person who has fled from and/ or cannot return to his/her country due to a well- founded fear of persecution, including war or civil conflict.
A person is a refugee if
·         Refugees have to be outside their country or origin
·         The reason for their flight has to be fear of persecution
·         The fear of persecution has to be well founded, i.e. they have to experienced persecution or be likely to experience it if they return;
·         The persecution has to result from one or more of the five grounds listed in the definition.
·         They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection of their country.

Who protects refugees?
·         UNHCR
·         Protecting refugees is the core mandate of the UNHCR ( united nations high commissioner for refugees)

Who do they help?
By helping refugees go back home or to settle in another country, UNHCR also seeks lasting solutions to their plight.
Where are they involved?
UNHCR staff operate in some 120 countries around the world, from major capitals to remote. The largest portion of staff are based in countries in Asia and Africa, the continents that both host and generate the most refugees and internally displaced people. Among our biggest operations are Afghanistan, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Iraq and surrounding countries, and the Sudan. But we also have substantial operations in many other countries around the world.








Identify the top 10 countries & continents or concern, record their population?

1.  Asia – 18,567,061
2.  Africa- 10,475,567
3. Pakistan – 4,744,098
4. Thailand – 3,615,552
5. Dem republic Congo – 2,362,295
6. Iraq- 2,026,789
7. Somalia- 1,576,544
8. Sudan- 1,426,412
9. Syrian Arab republic – 1,357,546
10. Iran- 1,072,346


Use a world map image from google and mark these countries to the map and apply to your


Wednesday, May 18, 2011

8 Millennium Development Goals

Aus Aid – Millennium Goals
Goal
Target
Australia is doing...
1.       Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1.25
Halve extreme poverty by 2015.
They are providing affordable housing.  In Bangladesh Australia is providing 1.6 million disadvantaged children with access to pre-primary and primary education.  
2.       Achieve universal primary education

The number of primary school- aged children who are out of school has declined from 115 million in 2002 to 75 million today.

Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary school education.
Australia has funned new schools in Laos. They have introduced teacher training.  They are providing nutritious food.
3.       Promote gender equality and empower women
Increase proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education.
Increasing Australian development scholarships for east Timorese women.
Encouraging women in east Timor to register for jobs.
Supporting leadership and governance training for women across the Asia pacific region.
4.       Reduce child mortality
Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.
Training more skilled birth attendants in rural and remote PNG to help reduce infant deaths. Including births supervised by skilled staff is an important focus of the PNG- Australia Partnership for development.
Working with governments and other donors to improve the supply of vaccines and immunisation globally.
5.       Improve maternal health
Reduce by three – quarters the maternal mortality rate.
Achieve universal access to reproductive health
Helping to train the next generation of midmives and providing specialist surgical services and training in east timor. Supporting outreach clinics, which target remote and rural villages with information on health, nutrition, and family planning.

6.       Combat HIV/Aids
Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment to HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.
Committed up to $100 million to work in partnership with Indonesia to combat the spread of HIV and improve the quality of life for those living with the virus. Supporting needle syringe programs, voluntary counselling, testing and preventing services and programs.
7.       Ensure environmental sustainability
Halve the number of people without sustainable access of safe drinking water and basic sanitation.
Providing $150 million, through the international climate change, to help vulnerable countries in our region increase resilience to the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
8.       Development for a global partnership for development
N.A.P
Australia is working closely with developing countries and development partners to build global partnership with address poverty.


Monday, May 2, 2011

Phillipines

  • The Phillippines is made up of more than 7,000 tropical islands and has a population of 90 million. The country has a tropical marine climate with a dry season (Nov- April) and a rainy season (May-Oct).
  • The captil Manilla- Metro Manilla- is a sprawling cluster of 17 cities with municipalities such as Manilla, Quezon, Makati, Pasay, and so on generating a populace to guess at; perhaps start at ten million and keep counting.
  • Manilla has a hight population density, with one district having over 68,000 people/km so at times it may feel a little crowed espcially if you have just arrived from London which has about 8,000 people/km.
  • Tagalog is the national language and English is used for official/business purposes.
  • There are 54 other languages with over 140 dialect variations.
  • The Phillippines has the world's third largest English speaking population.

 "Etching out a life on Smokey Mountain" and write a reflection on the issues referred to in the article:


Smokey Mountain is a truly famous landmark, a landmark where thousands of people lie in poverty. Decomposed rubbish, stands more than 20 metres high, there is no man made paths just a rope dangling from the top and rubbish trodden path. Young children suffer from lack of hygiene; the risk of transmitting rabies is at a high rate. A house is considered bits of plastic and wooden materials, people live up on this mountain. The girls don’t have access to education anymore, simply as they cannot afford it, and their parents for a living are out scavenging for rubbish. There are still questions surrounding if parents force children to work instead of attending school.  This is the cycle of poverty, something one can sometimes not escape.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Human Rights - Declaration of Human Rights

What are human rights?
Human rights are the rights and freedoms that we all have
  •  Some human rights are based on our physical needs; the right to life, to food, to shelter.
  •  Other human rights protect us; the right to be free from torture, cruel treatment and abuse.
  • Human rights are also there to ensure we develop to our fullest potential; the right to education, to work, to participate in your community.
  •  Everybody has human rights, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what language you speak or what religion you belong to. You have a duty to respect the rights of others, just as they have a duty to respect yours. Nobody can take your rights away
 
Where do human rights come from?
Human rights are based on the values of:
  •         Dignity
  •        Justice
  •         Respect
  •         Equality
Human rights were officially recognised as values by the world when the united nation was set up.
What is the United Nations?
  • The United Nations is an international organisation that was established in 1945, the year the Second World War ended.
  • Its founder hoped it would be able to prevent catastrophes like the holocaust from happening in the future.
  •  So promoting human rights became an aim of the UN, along with maintaining international peace and reducing poverty.
The universal declaration of human rights
The United Nations universal declaration of human rights is the most famous human rights agreement in the world. It contains 30 human rights.
This is according to the UDHR.

 
Who wrote the UDHR?
The people who wrote the UDHR came from: Australia, Chile, China, France, Lebanon, the former soviet union, the UK and the US

 

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Gender Equality Assignment

A summary of the background of the issue

Gender equality is a social order in which women and men share the same opportunities and the same participation in both the economic and the domestic areas of responsibility. It refers to valuing both men and women equally, it works to defeat the misjudgement that both genders can contribute to and benefit from economic, social, cultural and political developments within society. Women are ranked last in the ladder of society and this is a real disadvantage, if women were treated equally relating to being healthy and educated, their families, communities and nations benefit. When both sexes have relative equality, economies grow rapidly, less corruption occurs and children’s health improves. Gender equality is a vital and important human right.

Details about the issue and why the situation occurs

Gender equality is central to economic and human development in a country. Removing inequalities gives societies a better chance to develop.  Gender inequality refers to Men and women being physically different but it is the barriers between one another, these include social, economic, political and legal interpretation that lead to inequality between both sexes.  There are many issues relating to social inequality, men and women have different daily responsibilities and roles, men overrule women, as men tend to have a high status in society  as the work they do is riskier and heavier compared to women’s which is providing food for their family and caring for their children. Women are not treated equally; they have unequal access to education and health services.  There are high tendency of violence against women in numerous countries around the world. In some situations it may be within families where it is considered as ‘normal'. Economic inequality within the world has shown that 70% of the world's poor are female. Women have unequal access to economic resources and access to education which leads them to receive low literacy levels which then follows to low status jobs and there is limited opportunities for employment this then has disadvantage on women’s ability to improve their economic situation.  Within in the terms of political and legal inequality females are treated unfairly and are poorly represented at all levels of formal decision making in society.  This situation occurs as sex- stereotypes have a huge impact on the equality of men and women being treated equally. Behaviour in men and women generally reflect on the expectations for both sexes, which leads to unequal rights and benefits.

In most societies, traditional gender roles and power relations place women and girls in disadvantaged situations relative to men and boys. The roles and the stereotypes that are at the basis of gender inequality are established during childhood.  Organisations working with children, their parents and the broader community to inform and reduce gender inequalities in its effort to reduce the vulnerability to HIV infection and to AIDS. Programmes are available to reduce gender inequalities and stereotypes often focus exclusively on women. The following are issues that need to be dealt with in order to improve gender equality:
·         Education - Education is a fundamental human right: Every child is entitled to it. It is critical to our development as individuals and as societies, and it helps pave the way to a successful and productive future. When we ensure that children have access to a rights-based, quality education that is rooted in gender equality, we create a ripple effect of opportunity that impacts generations to come. Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides a foundation for sustainable development. A quality basic education better equips girls and boys with the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt healthy lifestyles, protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood.
·         Sexual and reproduction health rights - Guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights. Acknowledgement of the critical role that men and boys play in improving Women’s reproductive health and achieving gender equality is commendable. For example, the addressing reproductive health needs of adolescent girls and women in low-income household, requires strengthening the role of boys and men in achieving reproductive health goals.
·         Infrastructure – To invest in infrastructure to reduce women’s and girls’ time burdens, measure women’s and girls’ time burdens as a result of the lack of infrastructure is hours per day (or year) women (girls) and men (boys) spend fetching water and collecting fuel.
·         Property rights – to guarantee women’s and girls’ property and inheritance rights, so women have an equal share of property in comparison to men overruling property etc.
·         Employment – eliminating gender inequality in the work force is one of main issue that needs to be dealt with, if women firstly have low literacy levels and there employment is unskilled, this then continues on to low status jobs. Where access to jobs is not available, this issue needs to be addressed so there is equal fairness in employment.

·         Participation in national parliaments and local government bodies- Increase women’s representation in political bodies. The United Nations recommends tracking women’s share of seats in national parliaments. So there is no unequal decision and unfairness directed at women in politics
·         Prevent violence against women – Laws need to be enforced to provide a safe and ensure stabability for women to feel safe at home and at work.

What organisations are currently doing to address the issue?


UN Women Watch
Women watch is a central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the united nations system, including the united Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programmes, specialized agencies, and academic and research institutions.
Feminist Majority Foundation
 The Feminist Majority Foundation, which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. The feminist majority foundation makes use of research and action to empower women economically, socially, and politically. The organization believes that feminists - both women and men, girls and boys - are the majority, but this majority must be empowered.
Equality Now –  
Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure. Equality Now was founded in 1992 to work for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women around the world. Working with national human rights organizations and individual activists, Equality Now documents violence and discrimination against women and mobilizes international action to support their efforts to stop these human rights abuses. Through its Women’s Action Network of concerned groups and individuals around the world, Equality Now:
·         Distributes information about human rights violations
·         Takes action to protest these violations
·         Brings public attention to human rights violations against women
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) -  
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is an international, feminist, membership organization committed to achieving gender equality, sustainable development and women's human rights. AWID’s mission is to strengthen the voice, impact and influence of women’s rights advocates, organizations and movements internationally to effectively advance the rights of women.
Vital Voices
Vital voices invest in and bring to visibility extraordinary women around the world by unleashing their leadership potential to transform lives and accelerate peace and fairness in their communities. The organization includes a team of over 1,000 partners and has trained more than 8,000 emerging women leaders from over 127 countries since 1997. These women have returned home to train and mentor more than 500,000 additional women and girls in their communities.

What suggestions can you offer to address the issue

Locally:
1.       Reassuring male colleges/ friends that is interested in perusing a ballet/ dance career. That gender should always be equal.
2.       Reassuring female friends that it is good to be an engineer or go into the army as we are trying to promote gender equality
3.       Allowing small children that one may babysit to dress up and play with the opposite genders/ clothes stroke toys. Example Angeline Jolie is allowing her youngest daughter to dress up in male clothes.
4.       Encouraging the opposite genders to be involved in more male/female dominated sports at a community level. Thus demonstrating that boys and girls can play each other’s, suppose sports.
5.       Employing young teens equally in male/female dominated retail areas such as clothes shops and sport shops.
Globally:
As the world becomes smaller and different nationalities and cultures travel and witness small communities making an effort in gender equality this observation is taken back to their homeland and may encourage them to employ similar values. As these values are spread around the word this then becomes a accepted norm. Then this promotes gender equality worldwide.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Kirribati and climate change

Kirribati is a coral atol which contains 33 islands and 100,000 people live there. The average height about sea level is less than 2 metres. They predict that their country will be underwater by 2030. It is hard from them to grow their food and sources to survive due to salanation. As time goes on he storms increase and they feel there will not be much left of their island. The major issue they are dealing with is lack of freshwater supply. The environmental affects are storm serges,drought, and erosion. The governement response to this is to educate and train others, so they will be able to be useful in their own country and be accepted into other communities.

Wheelchairs with students for special needs in Kirribati
Australian Volenteers international help support this cause, they help support those in need for wheelchair to give them sustainability. So far they have donated 60 wheel chairs to those in need.

TuberCulosis 
There are 300 hundred people out of 100,000 diognosed with Tuberculosis in their country. The average number of people in their household is 14  The dots who are nurses that assist those with the disease are funded by the Australian government.

Nurses of Kirribati
They are undertaking a degree at grifth university in brisbane and undertaking a nursing course.