Global Issues Club

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 

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

Well as we talked about how we were going too make change we decided to see if we could compost at our school.

Here is a place to start conversations and to share information on the 2 BIG questions that we first want to answer before we get started.

• What is composting? What do you need?
• Can we get the materials here in Doha?

Dump you info here and let’s see if our plan for a sustainable future will work or not.

- Leila

Hello ASD Global Issues Club members and other readers of this blog. Although we are extremely busy preparing for our conference in Düsseldorf and thinking about Earth Hour, some students in the US need our help. Please read the request below and follow the links to educate yourself about Darfur. Let’s see if we can add our voices on March 6th.

Many Voices for Darfur is a global k-12 collaboration project to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur. It’s super easy to participate.

For 48 hours, starting at midnight EST on March 6th, many student voices will be collected in the name of those suffering in Darfur. We are asking k-12 students around the world to visit our Many Voices for Darfur blog and leave thoughtful, well-written comments. It is our hope that hundreds or even thousands of students will come together to help raise awareness about the first genocide of the 21st century. Be sure that your voice is among them.

For more specific directions CLICK HERE. We’ve created a Darfur Resources Wiki Page for students and teachers that want to learn more about Darfur before March 6th.
Many Voices for Darfur Blog
Many Voices for Darfur Wiki

We recently received the following letter from Michael Pelletier at the American International School of Riyadh. He asked that we share their work with you, our students:

Dear Teachers and Students from around the world;

Technology With A Cause is a club created by students at the American International School of Riyadh. Our goals are:

• To use technology as a catalyst for public awareness, discussion and appropriate action on social issues within our local, regional and global community.
• To Inspire and promote “Humane Education” amongst educators around the world through discussion and practical examples.

There is an important and global event taking place on March 29th, 2008

Watch Earth Hour here. AIS-R will be a part of this from 9:30 am to 10:30 am as a school community. We would like you to join us by promoting the event and having all of your students and teachers understand why this is important. Our weekends in Saudi are Thursday and Friday. Since EARTH HOUR is on a Saturday we will be participating at school. For most of you it will be a weekend so plan to do something at home.

We have created a Blog for all of you to join. Please post comments about how you will participate. Also, after the event we would like to see how much ENERGY everybody saved!!!!!!

Please join us by posting a comment cheering everybody on and getting involved. If you are not interested send it to a teacher or student who might be. Our hope is to have thousands of International School participants. So far we have 850 from AISR – HOW ABOUT YOU!!!!!!!!

End of Letter

So what do you think? Their goals seem pretty close to somethings we are working on. What can we do? Please send a comment of encouragement here and then let’s see what we can do. Perhaps we can have a candle lit dinner at school and raise funds for A-Cet. Or maybe you have other ideas. Get more info at the Earth Hour website. Start the conversation here now. Leave a comment below.

Sunday’s keynote was very successful. Both Claire and Bisrat gave presentations. Claire gave a presentation on her life and her work in Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Uganda and many more places. First, she told a bit about her life and dyslexia. From there she jumped to her joining the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). She explained her work in the feeding center in Ethiopia and the hard choices she was forced to make, the choices that haunted her for about 20 years later. She told small events that happened in different war zones. She said “War is not the answer“. One of the points she emphasized on was that no matter where you go, no matter who the people are their all humans, and at the end of the day all that matters is “Humanity“.

After Claire’s amazing presentation, Bisrat told a bit about A-Cet and how A-Cet helps kids in Ethiopia. He also showed a ten minute video on A-Cet which also showed the man who started A-Cet, David Stables.Bisrat’s main point was “A little goes a long way”, the more we do the better.

During the Keynote Middle, High and Elementary kids were doing fund raising. The Middle and High school were selling the A-Cet wristbands and Claire’s book “Moving Mountains”. The Elementary had a bake sale. After Claire and Bisrat had presented Mr. Johnston gave Claire and Bisrat each and ASD T-Shirt and in addition gave Bisrat 10 T-Shirt for him to take bake to Ethiopia for the kids in A-Cet. But the biggest news was that the whole school in the past months, through small fund raisers, had raised $5,000. That’s a real good start. All ASD needs is support from everybody out there. Sunday’s Keynote was a great success.

Leila

Tell us what you think if you attended this amazing event. Leave us a comment. Join the conversation!