Meeting 15: Global Issues Discussion (Day 2)

Evaluation: Please put your evaluation in the envelope of my door (rm.439) by Friday, July 31.

Issue 1: Rich and Poor
Main Points:
- The reasons that the rich countries are getting richer and the poor countries poorer:

1. Poor countries borrow so much money from rich countries and they cannot pay it back so the interest on bthe debt increases. Because of the debt, poorer countries cannot afford to spend money on fixing social problems
   
2. Corruption of leaders

What can we do to make this problem better?
- Give more money but make sure it does not go into the leaders' pockets
- Donate money ourselves to poor countries for solving social problems
- Instead of money send people who can manage the money
- We can easily give money to poor countries but it is not good.It is better to give money to support the basis of industry so countries can make money (=grow their economy) by themselves.
- We must change the international political and economic order. Every country consumes products made in China because the products made in China are not expensive. Most of the money goes to foreign country investors. Because so mnay products are made in China workers in richer countries cannot find employment.

To learn more, please attend the United Nations University Conference on Nov 21- 23


Issue 2: Global Warming
Main Points:
There is a lot of CO2 and Methane and they cause global warming.
Global warming causes many problems. For example:
1. Ice melting in the North and South Pole causes the sea levels to rise
2. Rise in temperatures causes storms

What can we do to make the problem better?
Don't eat beef.
Don't use cars
Commute by bicycle, bus, train, walking
and much more.....

Issue 3: Children
Main Points
There are a lot of children around the world who cannot receive education. One problems is that many children will not be able to work, they become homeless and are forced to steal food.
Another problem is that children are forced to work instead of going to school.
It's a big problem that they cannot have an education.

What can we do?
We can do some volunteer work. We can donate pens, notebooks and we can go to poorer countries and teach subjects for free.