Global Issues Club

Me and Leila are working side by side on this post. She has written a post about next year’s events and conferences. As you know, we are really really excited of all of the them (especially the third one..). Well.. she asked me to add the video that has to do alot of the topic we are talking about right now. I’ve looked at it and I found it really interesting.
This video is named “Facing the Future”. It has to do with a school and a new curriculum that is about the Global Issues today and how to be a change in this world. Hmmm… doesn’t that sound exactly like a class we know at our school?? Teachers in the Middle and High School have started this program to let their students be more aware of the issues that are going around in our world.

Here is the video. You’ll find it very interesting and similar to our school in many ways… 

I think it was yesterday that Mr.J sent this email to over 100 people. All to people in the global Issues network. More details will come later as we get closer to these dates. Here is the email.

Greetings from ASD EduCare in Doha,

It’s time to mark your calendars for next year! Three events in the 2008/2009 school year that will move us all towards education for a sustainable future.

1) Fall Leadership Conference 

   October 23rd-26th, Amman Jordan

   EduCare Workshop

2) NESA Winter Training Institute

   January 30th-31st, Doha Qatar

   A strand dedicated to environmental and global issues in the curriculum – EduCare!

   Registration soon on the NESA website 

   Special guest facilitator Dave Wilton from“ Facing the Future”  

   Learn about them, view the video 

 3) EduCare Symposium / Global Issues Conference

                       “Be The Change”

                        March 12th-14th

   For teachers (all levels) and students (8-12)

    Each school will be limited to 12 students

    Limited number of spaces for students

    Spaces will be held by payment and registration form

    Inspirational guest speakers, student lead workshops, action plan writing and more

    Website coming in August 2008

”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

Have a wonderful summer break!

EduCare Doha

I guess we at ASD are more excited about the third event. Let’s talk about it.

- Leila

After reading Nabila’s “We need to wake up”, I decided to post this article.

A FIRE swept through a Doha labor camp SUNDAY April 27, 2008 –sending all valuables and belonging to 600 workers up in smoke.

The blaze started at 1:30pm, while the camp was all but empty at such time with exception of a security guard and a couple of other men.There were no losses that were reported but as the broad smoke overflowed the sky over Ain Khalid, lots of workers raced back to the camp to discover all their possessions shattered.The camp, belonging to Power Cleaning Services and the HBK Engineering, mostly consisted of brief cabins that quickly became engulfed in the fire. Strong winds made it hard to bring the blaze under control. According to the shocked laborers, who could only stand by as their things burned, a number of men lost money in the fire. One man claimed to have lost 2,600 QR. “I came home about 3pm and tried to go inside as I have money and personal belongings inside, but it was too dangerous,” said one laborer who works as a painter. “I have never seen such a fire in my five years here in Qatar.”Another worker said: “The camp is home to hundreds of people. Now they have lost everything; all their personal belongings, their clothes, and even their money. Everybody is in a state of shock.”An eyewitness said: “As the fire broke out during the day no-one was hurt as all laborers were away working. I dread to think what might have happened if this fire had broken out at night.”If only people could see what happened that day, could you imagine all those months hard work for money, food and clothing now destroyed!Though there is still hope, as ASD students from both Global Issues club and class are aiming to fulfill help for them as a goal. You can be that help by sending donations that include money, food and clothing to Global Issues club or on boxes of donations set in the middle school main lobby at ASD. Remember this people had lost their living conditions to build us a better one, it is time to make a change on theirs now step by step.  What can we do to help? - Leila   

Even though Leila has posted up some great articles on the blog… I feel that we still lack posts that are done by other members. We were more active and “blogging” some time ago. I feel that it should happen again. I feel that this blog could really go all-the-way if we all work together.

Here are some ideas of posts:

• If you are in the Global Issues elective class with Mr. J, write about the recent “Labor Camp Blaze” and what our school did to help.
• Some fundraises for ACET that we could probably do before the end of the school year
• Even though it was a couple of weeks ago… write about how you celebrated Earth Day

These are all just suggestions. You could think of more interesting topics that you want to write about. Just send it to either Leila’s or my email and we’ll check it and post it up. If you forgot our emails, just ask us and we’ll tell you. Or maybe we’ll just say it the next time we all meet.

We can all bring our blog back to life again…

If you attended last Thursday’s Global Issues Meeting in the middle school then my question to you is are you ready for the talent show?

If you didn’t come and have no idea what I’m talking about then I’ll explain. Mrs. Sikora, middle school’s amazing art teacher, decided that before we leave for our summer vacation, we should have one more fundraiser from the middle school. She had an idea for a talent show. We would have auditions and choose the top 10 to represent the school. Anyone from any grade is allowed to audition. We would then sell tickets for opening night and also have a concession stand to make more money. All the money would go to A-Cet to help build the school in Ethiopia. 

Now that everyone knows what the plan is my question is we only have 1 month of school left. Is it possible to have all this done? We have to arrange, advertise, audition and then put on the show!!!

I have heard that some students and Mrs. Sikora are going to prepose the idea to Mr. Ladd. Once approved we are going to immediately advertise. We have to make sure we peek interest so we have people to are willing to participate.

So, the key to success here is time management. So I’m asking two questions here

•  Is this possible with the short period of time?

• And if yes, how?

- Leila

Here is what one of the posters made for the boot sale say so if you didn’t come to the meeting or want some information it’s here. This one was made by Nishat.

What: Boot Sale

When: May 3 2008. 3-5 PM

Where: Middle school parking lot

Why: The funds are going to A-CET for building the school.

How: Bring in old, unwanted and usable stuff to sell in the back of your car. Or donate some of it to ‘the table’.

Money: QR 70-For one space in the parking lot and QR 10 for entrance.

Who: Elementary kids; but the Global Issues Club is trying to help out!

Listen to the morning announcements and look for posters if you want to learn more.

- Leila 

I was just randomly checking out sites on Blackle and researched about sustainable energy. Then, I found this site and thought it was really interesting. This site is called Faiths United for Sustainable Energy… or just FUSE to make it more simple.
Here is a little intro to FUSE’s Missions and Visions:

Vision: Our vision is for faith communities to become catalysts in the movement to eliminate our society’s dependence on fossil fuels.

Mission: FUSE’s mission is to educate, mobilize and unite communities of faith to act on the increasingly harmful effects of our society’s dependence on fossil fuels.

To achieve our mission, FUSE consults with congregations to develop educational programming, congregation-wide conservation initiatives, and energy-saving facility-management practices.
FUSE raises awareness and catalyzes social and political action through an international network, based on the following universally-shared doctrines of faith communities worldwide:

• Respect of the Earth and all of creation
• Care for the health and well-being of the humanity
• Commitment to protecting and preserving human rights throughout the world

I think FUSE’s goals and achievements are very interesting. If you read one of their paragraphs, they tell you a little bit of what they’re doing in our society.

–Nabila

A little while ago, American Idol had their yearly Idol Gives Back event. Maybe some of you heard of it. Well, it’s basically all about different celebrities and charities from different industries coming together and devote their time to helping the world become a more better place. You would donate some money and they will go to Africa and helpless people around America. This big event was 2-3 hours long. There were many people from Carrie Underwood to John Cenna. Many charities also came up to the stage and talked about their action plans. Not every great musician were there up on that stage though. Bono (U2) was in Africa helping people who were effected by AIDS. Daughtry (a band made by season 5, top 4 contestant Chris Daughtry) was sent to Uganda and help people on the field. They suffered many illnesses. But that didn’t stop Daughtry into participating in Idol Gives Back. He sent a video of his band’s journey in Africa. Here’s the video.

It was pretty nice of them to help people around Uganda. And I bet this video was powerful and inspired people for caring about the people that are suffering. As I read the comments for this video in Youtube, a commentor said “I regret only dontaing 25 dollars”. Then, the usual quote I hear in my head is “A little change can make a difference”. So, I typed that up next to his comment. Don’t know what the person’s response was.. but I know that everyone can make a difference…

-Nabila

Like Mr.J mentioned during the previous Global Issues meeting here is the spot to see how we can help the elementry with their Boot sale. I don’t remember the date but it will be sometime after Spring Break. If you were not there for the meeting then I’ll give you a summery on the Boot Sale.

4th or 3rd, don’t remember, graders are holding a boot sale. In the sale you buy a section of land to sell your stuff on. Each section cost 70 to 80 Riyals. Once you have the place you can sell whatever used items you have at home and make money. All the money made from the land selling goes to A-Cet to help build our school in Ethiopia.

Here are a couple of questions to start a conversation.

• How is this Boot sale going to help us?
• How can we in the middle or high school help support this event?

- Leila

Going online and searching on Google to look for information is a common habit that everyone does. But little do people know that Google isn’t a very caring search engine…for the environment. A group of 5th graders told me that Google actually consumes different amounts of energy. In fact, they use alot of energy. This is because Google’s pages contains many colors. One of the most energy-consuming color is white. The background for Google is plainly white and therefore, the simplest colors play a huge part in the environment.

Blackle, a similar search engine, has pages that do not contain many colors. The site is mostly black with light or dark shades. According to researchers, the reason why the color black is much more better is because it is the most energy-sufficent color used in computers, TV’s and many other electronics. That is why your TV, cellphone or computer screens turn black when you turn it off. In one year, Blackle could save 750 megawatt-hours a year. That is the same as ten thousand 100 watt light bulbs burning for 1 hour! :O This search engine counts how many watts are saved everytime.
Blackle is still developing to be as superior as Google. It lacks other things Google has. For examples such as image search, video search and more. Although this is the weakest strength Blackle carries, the process of searching the web is no different than many other search engines.

This is a very simple habit to start; go to Blackle to search the web instead of Google. Finding pictures and videos aren’t found in Blackle though. This energy-sufficent website is surely more Earth-friendly than many other sites you would find. Changing your usual search engine for searching the internet isn’t much to ask. Try to make this a habit…

The Blackle Homepage

 -Nabila