Cloning

Rights of Indigenous People

The rights of Indigenous people have been an increasing issue over time. There are approximately 370 million indigenous people spanning 70 countries, worldwide. Historically they have often been dispossessed of their lands, or in the center of conflict for access to valuable resources because of where they live, or, in yet other cases, struggling to live the way they would like, according to Anup Shah.
Indigenous people have been the cause of deforestation and the dying of large animals. The conflict comes in where people believe that they are working with nature more than harming it. However, the opposing side has a different view exactly vice versa. Sadly, these traditions are fading due to govenment patents for food and other items. These people have been living this way for centuries and due to government involvement are having to find other resources which is already limited.

Crisis in East Timor

The FACTS:
~August 1999 saw a vote on self determination in East Timor.
~Leading up to this and after the vote where there was an overwhelming majority who voted for independence, Indonesian military-backed militia and paramilitaries went on a terror campaign with slow international reaction.
~Much of East Timor was destroyed and at some points there were estimates from 200,000 to 300,000 refugees created with up to 600,000 people displaced.

Every country has their issues, however who'd thought that the recovery period would be so long though. Well, for these people they were and probably are still subjected to brutality from the Indonesian military which has been know to be somewhat communists. Although we know that "History repeats itself," we as global citizens never seem to "truly" get the tradgedy of our actions.

Arms Control

In the U.S.there are restrictions and laws governing the use and control of fire arms. Unfortunately, other countries don't have a policy. More so, the fact that 6-year-olds and other young children who don't understand the impact or effects of guns are able to buy these items of a black market. The arms trade is a large portion of the causes of human rights abuses. Leaving governments to spend more on military expenditures than on social development, communications infrastructure and health combined.

World Military Spending

With so many problems around the world, a major concern is military spending. There are so much more that the money that is spent on military excursions is immense.The cost of war particularly (Iraq and Afghanistan) is estimated to be about $170 billion for the 2009 spending alone according to Christopher Hellman an expert on military budget analysis.
Christopher Hellman and Travis Sharp(budget expert) also discuss the US fiscal year 2009 Pentagon spending request and note that “Congress has already approved nearly $700 billion in supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $126 billion in FY'08 war funding is still pending before the House and Senate.

These prices are outrageous. This world has more important issues than war...what about the starving, diesease stricten, and homless. It seems as if instead of caring about humanity and civilization for all, our governments are too concerned with "continuing war efforts". A sad but true realization!

Public Relations Writing Presentation

Ethiopia & Eritrea Conflict

Every country has its problems. However, these countries are fighting and backstabbing for control...the major reason for the recent conflict is the fact that Ethiopia no longer has a border along the Red Sea and therefore relies on going through other countries such as Eritrea in order to ship and trade goods along that line.

Furthermore, Ethiopia and Eritrea have been accused of gross human rights violations. For example, Amnesty International points out that in Ethiopia, a large number of Eritreans are being detained just due to their Eritrean origins and that use of child soldiers on the front lines continue.

While, these wars are continuing both country's governments have been accused of starving the people and continuing war efforts instead of helping the welfare of the country.

Below is a video of this devastating conflict:

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?p=ethiopia+and+eritrea+conflict&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501-s&fr2=tab-web&tnr=21&vid=1074066769

My Personal Response to Die! Press release! Die!Die!Die!

The bluntness of Tom Foremski's opinion of the Press release and his suggestions were a little shocking. I've always heard alot of criticisms of the PR industry and I've just thought it was because of the behind the scenes role the industry would play in media messages. Although I think the PR world is slowly making changes to the way they send press releases, I don't think it's that imperative to change things so quickly. The "top spin" press releases send out are to catch the attention of the journalists and therefore, they need to be convincing. I also feel that he is making the "spin or angle" seem like a competition between PR professionals and journalists. Furthermore, I think he suggests that the press release should be more informational however, i think if they are interested in the story than they would further investigate the press release to see if they'd like to cover it.

Morocco's Fight for Human Rights

There has been an ongoing fight for human/civil rights in Morocco. Within that fight there has been several violations to simple living within their country.

For instance:

lYoung girls working as live-in servants in private homes are especially vulnerable to abuse, including sexual abuse, and frequently must work up to 100 hours a week without access to education or adequate food and medical care
lSource: http://hrw.org/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/morocc17617.htm
lWorking children in Morocco face a very high level of exposure to work hazards.
lEighty-four percent are involved in farm work and 85 percent work for their families and not for wages. This, however, is primarily a reflection of children’s work in rural areas, where almost all economically active children are involved in family agricultural work.
lSource: http://www.ucw-project.org/pdf/publications/report_morocco_draft.pdf

Another issue within Morocco:

lThe family law enacted in 2004 have raised the minimum age of marriage for women and men from fifteen to eighteen
lThe wife is no longer legally obliged to obey her husband
lThe right to divorce is a prerogative of both men and women, exercised under judicial supervision;
lThe principle of divorce by mutual consent is established.
Source: http://mondediplo.com/2004/04/02morocco

In short, the women and children of Morocco have next to no rights that the men have. Additionaly, they have seemed to continue to be the oppressed ones due to the lack of government involvment. At age 15, children shouldn't be getting married to men 30plus years of age. Sadly, their is not enough global involvement.