Due Date: Thursday, January 22 2009.
The Human Rights Issue Trailer Project was intended to motivate you to research a modern or historical international human rights violation while simultaneously learning new creative tools for expressing your ideas. Because this course emphasized government and politics, it is important that your final reflection and presentation illustrate the acquisition of knowledge about your nation of focus and it’s government. For your presentation, each member of your production team must write an individual reflection including responses to ALL of these questions. They may be posted on the blog, but you are responsible for being prepared to answer any of them directly during your presentation on the day of our final. This portion of the project must be completed independently from the rest of your group. It will count as a 100 point exam. Notes for EACH of the questions should be a minimum of 150 words and may not exceed 250 words. (This paragraph is 157 words.)
Finals - C block 1/20, F block - 1/23, G block 1/22
REFLECTION QUESTIONS/ TALKING POINTS (20 points each):
1. Sunmarize the human rights issue selected for your project. Why did your group select this issue/ event? Explain why it is particularly important in the nation(s) your group emphasized in the trailer.
2. Describe the current political system and structure of government in your nation(s) of study. Compare the government of your nation with that of the United States and at least one other nation that we have studied in class this term (India, Great Britain, Ireland, Iran, Nigeria.)
3. What are some major issues in this nation that contribute to the problem profiled in your trailer? Reference cultural, economic, political and geo-political factors in your response.
4. How does the current administration in your nation of study feel about the problem you profiled in the trailer? What are they doing to alleviate, resolve or escalate/ reinforce this problem?
5. What do you think will be the state of affairs regarding this issue five years from now in your nation(s) of study? What would it take to drastically alleviate or eliminate this problem by 2014? Who should be responsible for these improvements? (Consider funding, resources, education, technology and leadership in your response.)
Additional questions for consideration – may be asked of the group during presentation (no points, but will be evaluated during oral presentation on day of screening):
Overall, what did you learn through completing this project? What questions do you still have about the topic and/ or nation that you studied.
Evaluate the finished product. What do you think worked? What could be improved? If given a “do over” what would you change about the project?
How does the finished product compare with the vision for the project your group had when planning the story board? Evaluate your effectiveness in achieving your creative vision.
If this film were produced in full, who would be your target audience? What would they learn and/ or be inclined to do as a result of seeing your film?
Discuss the creative elements of your project (visual, text, “found footage”, audio). What were your sources and inspirations for selecting these pieces. How do you think they contributed to the overall effect of the trailer?
If you saw this trailer, would you go see the film? Why or why not.
What advice would you give to students who take on this assignment in the future?
8 comments:
Jeremy Smith
Block G – Government
January 19, 2009
1. Terrorism was the human rights choice of our project. Terrorism is defined as, “the deliberate commission of an act of violence to create an emotional response through the suffering of the victims in the furtherance of a political or social agenda”, but is brought towards ideological, religious, or other beliefs to hinder or weaken a threat or opposition. Around the world, there are larger important factors that play the role of “terrorists”. For the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both sides consider the other to be “terrorists” due to their acts of attacking each other. On the Israeli side of things, the Israelis do not want to harm Palestine; they just want to rid Palestine of Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. Palestine, whose government is controlled by Hamas, denies recognizing Israel as a country. While aiming to destroy Hamas’s military bases in Palestine, Israel kills many innocent civilians in Palestine; but this is due to the fact that Hamas places families very close by the military bases, leaving them with no choice but the inevitable.
2. Israel and Palestine are two different governments altogether. Israel is a modernized democratic state in the heart of Arab Fundamentalist nations, leaving it as an open target. Israel is also a trade and economic partner and ally to the United States. The US is supposed to offer Israel $30 billion in military aid from 2008 to 2017. Palestine is headed by Hamas, who has won elections several times as the country’s main political authority. Palestine is backed by Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, predominately Arab nations with the Shiite background. In a sense, the two nations can be compared to that of the Irish civil war of the early 1900s, where Southern and Northern Ireland fought to unify or separate the entire country. Israel believes that the two should be separate, but would rather see the government of Palestine not be led by a terrorist organization, while Palestine would rather see Israel rid off the globe.
3. In the early 1920s, Prime Minister of England, Arthur Balfour, issued the Balfour Declaration, which had established the refuge of Palestine for all Jews in the Middle East. However, with the establishment of Israel in 1948, the dispute was towards the British jurisdiction of whose land belonged to whom. Without any participation, the Arab world began attacking the country of Israel through several wars, but the longest standing conflict was that of the Palestinian neighbors. Now that Hamas is in control of Palestine, Israel is worried about the current affairs of the citizens in Palestine. Hamas has support from Arab nations such as Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, where many other extremist factions reside. In any case, Palestine believes that Israel is out to grasp hold of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but Israel is out there to destroy the organizations which harm their citizens.
4. Israel is out there trying to destroy terrorist organizations that may impact anybody’s lives. Arab nations that are led by the extremist factions place their families in nearby positioned military bases, leaving those that are killed in the attacks done by Israel as “martyrs”. This leads to many countries outside the region of the Middle East to see that Israel is the perceived “enemy”. With every attack, Arab nations become angrier towards Israeli defenses, and even admit to not recognizing the Jewish state as a nation. Israel, as a modernized state, is undermined by fundamentalist factions in a somewhat never-ending conflict to recognizing the freedom of individualism in a democratic way.
5. The conflict will still exist, only because there are many Arab nations who still would go to war with Israel because of the association with Islamic extremist factions. The current situation, where Israel is trying to rid Palestine of Hamas’ leadership, would probably lead to a possible defeat of Hamas and a temporary occupation of Israel over Palestine. If Israel had control over Palestine, there will be a continuous conflict, or civil war between the neighbors. In the next couple of years, Israel will be funded in military by the US, as issued by Congress, in order to keep a relation in trade affairs. Israel and other nations outside the region of the Middle East would have to come together to end the terrorist organizations, although, in a sense, it could be related as an anti-Semitic and anti-Fundamentalist attack to end all subjugation and set individualism free from limited work.
Veronica Geager
1/1809
G Block
1. Summarize the issue presented in your project. Why did your group choose this issue, explain its importance to your nation of study.
In the trailer project for my group, we chose to focus on Human Trafficking violations in Turkey. Today millions of young woman are taken from their homes and brought to Turkey to work in the sex industry and some are even brought into the country as slaves, without their consent. Young woman are brought into Turkey from neighboring countries Iraq, Syria, Greece, and even Moldova, Ukraine, Albania, and Belarus. However, the government in trying to combat the ever present human trafficking problem. It has recently passed new laws which harshly punish traffickers, and has even created shelters for young woman who have recently escaped enslavement or the sex industry. Although these are improvement, a lack of support within the government has forced many shelters to close, and placed many young woman back into the world they once knew, the world of sex trafficking. My group chose to focus on the problem because we each feel it’s a problem that can be prevented, if we spread awareness about this cause. This issue affects millions of young woman and children around the world, and we want to help spread awareness. Hopefully, if more people know about this issue, the government of Turkey, or other governments, will pass laws that help to combat this problem.
2. Describe the current political system and the structure of government in your nation(s) of study. Compare the government of your nation with that of the United States and at least one other nation that we have studied in class this term.
The Republic of Turkey is a parliamentary representative democracy. Turkey's constitution governs the legal framework of the country. It sets out the main principles of government and establishes Turkey as a unitary centralized state. The Head of State, or President, has a ceremonial position, and is elected on a five year term. Executive power is implemented by the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, which make up the government, while the legislative power is a unicameral parliament called the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The judiciary system is completely independent of the executive and the legislature branches of government. The Constitutional Court is in charge ruling on the consistency of laws and decrees within the constitution. The Council of State is the last resort for administrative cases, and the High Court of Appeals for all other cases. In comparison, the United States has a similar government. The US has three branches of government, executive; which is run by the President, who serves for a four year administration. The legislative branch, which is run by the Senate (Congress) and House of Representatives. Congress passes and proposes laws. The Judicial system interprets the laws according to the Constitution. The US, as well as Turkey, is a secular government, completely free of religious views. By Contrast, the government in Iran is solely based on religion. In Iran, clerics, or church officials, run all government affairs and create laws solely based on religious biases.
3. What are some major issues in this nation that contribute to the problem profiled in your trailer? Reference cultural, economic, political and geo-political factors in your response.
In Turkey, Human Trafficking is an extreme problem. Millions of young woman and children are taken from other regions of the world, such as the Balkans, Africa, Ukraine, Russia, and Armenia. Due to Turkey’s geological place in the world, it is a hot bed for Human Trafficking. Many Traffickers, import to woman into Greece, and then ship many of them into Turkey. Human Trafficking is a hot commodity in Turkey. It can often bring in up to 2 million dollars in revenue for traffickers. It really all contributes to the Supply and Demand side of Turkish society. Since the sex industry is a booming industry in Turkey, there is more of a demand for woman to perform lude acts, or enter the slavery ring.
4. How does the current administration in your nation of study feel about the problem you profiled in the trailer? What are they doing to alleviate, resolve or escalate/reinforce this problem?
The Current administration in Turkey has been trying to combat this problem for some time now. In 2007, the Turkish government passed a series of laws which further punished traffickers, and further improved interagency and NGO cooperation and continued to implement comprehensive law enforcement training to help extinguish this horrid issue. In addition, the Government of Turkey made efforts to address trafficking-related official support among law enforcement. The government even set up Trafficking shelters for young woman to go to once they have escaped the sex industry or enslavement. However, due to lack of support many of these shelters have been shut down,
5. What do you think will be the state of affairs regarding this issue five years from now in your nation(s) of study? What would it take to drastically alleviate or eliminate this problem by 2014? Who should be responsible for these improvements? (Consider funding, resources, education, technology and leadership in your response).
By 2014, I hope that Human Trafficking will be alleviated. I hope that through the United Nations, every country enlisted could come together, and establish laws that could put a stop to Human Trafficking, or at least help to reduce the amount of woman and children being used in the sex industry or being enslaved. Through these laws, each government would have to supply its citizens with some form of awareness about this issue, and each government must increase security around hot bed areas of Traffic. Also, laws would need to be passed in order to punish traffickers harshly.
1. Summarize the human rights issue selected for your project. Why did your group select this issue/event? Explain why it is particularly important in the nation(s) your group emphasized in the trailer.
“Street children” is a term used to refer to children who are homeless. They are deprived of family care and protection. Most children on the streets are between the ages of about 5 and 18 years old, and their populace between different cities is varied. Street children are those that are not taken care of by parents or other protective guardians. Street children live in abandoned buildings, cardboard boxes, parks or on the street itself. My group decided to pick this topic because it seemed like the most interesting topic between the four of us. It is particularly dense in Mexico; more than a quarter of Mexico’s population is street children. Although the Mexican government has made some effort to decrease the number, it hasn’t worked out.
2. Describe the current political system and structure of government in your nation(s) of study. Compare the government of your nation with that of the United States and at least one other nation that we have studied in class this term (India, Great Britain, Ireland, Iran, Nigeria.)
The United Mexican States are a federal presidential representative democratic republic; the President is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party electoral system. The federal government represents the United Mexican States and is divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial as established by the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, published in 1917.
The United States is a democratic republic; the President is head of state, head of government, commander-in-chief, head of Electoral College, and chief of party. The federal government that represents the United States is also divided into three branches: executive, legislative and judicial branch.
The Republic of India is a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic; the prime minister is head of government and head of the council of ministers. The federal government that represents the India, unlike Mexico and the United States, is divided into two branches: Parliament and judicial branch.
4. How does the current administration in your nation of study feel about the problem you profiled in the trailer? What are they doing to alleviate, resolve or escalate/reinforce this problem?
The government of Mexico is moderately concerned with street children and has done a few things to alleviate this situation. For example, they started Casa Alianza, a non-profit organization that helps get street children back on track.
5. What do you think will be the state of affairs regarding this issue five years from now in your nation(s) of study? What would it take to drastically alleviate or eliminate this problem by 2014? Who should be responsible for these improvements? (Consider funding, resources, education, technology and leadership in your response.)
I hope the state of affairs regarding this issue five years from now show that the percentage of street children has drastically decreased. However, if the Mexican government keeps sending relief at a slow pace, I’m not sure if that will happen. Considering all the expenses and income, the government should be responsible for getting street children off the streets.
Topic 1: The Human rights issue we portrayed in our trailer/PowerPoint was the Israeli, Palestinian conflict that has been happening since 1987, however the problem became a major world issue and was publicized and hyped on a lot since 2003. Israel became their nation based on the idea of war. There are various large and international leaders that are currently involved in the matter. The Direct negotiating parties implement the Israeli Government, which is currently led by Ehud Olmert, and the Palestine Liberation Organization, also known as the PLO. Our group chose this matter because we wanted to touch upon a vital issue. Even though its process and potential solution is completely governmental, there are missiles and gunfire, almost every week; Attacking and killing random civilians, which cause outbreaks in war and terror. One major issue is that these issues have resulted in physical involvement, which is leading to death in the thousands within both the Israeli and Palestinian borders.
Topic 2: Israel’s Knesset parliament consists of 120 members, which are elected for a 4-year term, which is also a part of their nations legislative branch. However, as Palestine does not legally have a structured foundation of a government, it can be said that such leaders like Abu Mazin, who, as he was not politically chosen by government officials, it can be said that these two main points of government. Compared to the US government, It can be said that Israel, as the main comparative to the structure and terms within Israel. However, to compare Palestine to the United States governmental system, as it its not up to par with recent standards, the United States government far surpasses the structure and integrity which causes the Palestinian government to fall short.
Topic 3: As this conflict is still underway to this very day, many cultural and political issues are further enhancing this crisis. Issues like race and discrimination between two thriving cultures and religions stand these two nations between peace and a possible resolution to the issue. Also based on conflicting natures between the two nations, politically, neither nation is able to come to a positive geo-political or government-related conclusion, as both nations have unstable or self-conflicting administrations. One of which does not even have a structural government. Israel feels that they should be given this land because of the presence of holy soil, and to the basis of religious grounds. However Palestine feels, that territory wise, the land belongs to them. Which led to many outbursts in political battles as well as warfare and missile alerts.
Topic 4: As this issue has still not reached a conclusion or a resolution, the government of Israel has not yet found a plausible solution as to how the situation should be dealt with. In addition, the fact that Palestine does not contain a proper form of government; it causes the leaders disagreements to further enhance the conflict to negative proportions. From a students perspective, we feel that our trailer properly presented not only the civilian side of the conflict, (missiles hitting residential areas) and even statements made by our 44th president, Barak Obama, we feel we properly displayed all aspects of the situation. Both Politically, and Culturally. In terms of the issue further escalating, we feel that this problem has reached its highest reinforcement, war, and physical involvement between the two nations. Since this crisis has not reached an ending, we cannot specify the possible resolutions.
Topic 5: From an opinionative standpoint, I feel that 5 years from now, this issue will sadly continue to occur. There are many ways to solve this issue. However, because there are many variables, such as a lack of stable government between the two nations, and early involvement in the form of warfare, I cannot see this issue being resolved for another 10-15 years. In addition, the reasons being stated by both countries are both confusing to say the least. One country finds religion as the reason, while the other sees fair territory as the alternate excuse. We need to find a “happy” equilibrium between the two nations. Perhaps, this issue can finally be resolved if the both governments of the two nations reform and are stable, Israel and Palestine can conclude on this issue.
Rachel Geissler
1. My group chose to focus on the hunger strikes that took place in the overcrowded prisons of Greece. Greece’s twenty-four prisons are built to hold 8,000 prisoners each. However, many of these prisons ignore the aforementioned limit, exceeding it with numbers close to 12,000. In retaliation, prisoners staged a hunger strike. One of the prisoners included a British protestor, Simon Chapman. Chapman participated in the strikes, deteriorating his health. The Greek government, however, refused to transfer him to a better medical facility to cater to his needs. Prisoners composed a 45-point proposal with which they negotiated with the Greek government. Ann and I chose this topic simply out of interest in situation. This topic was particularly important to the nation of Greece because it began with a small rebellion in the prisons and rapidly exploded into a nationwide issue, demanding government recognition, as well as worldwide recognition.
2. As head of the Greek State, President Papoulias possesses limited political powers and can only serve a maximum of two five-year terms. According to the Greek Index, “the president represents the state in its relations to other states, declares war, concludes treaties of peace, alliance, economic cooperation and participation in international organizations or unions and proclaims referendums”. The president also has the power to veto the laws passed by Parliament. The Greek Parliament, consisting of 300 members, serves as the supreme legislative body of the Greek state and enacts laws. The official title for Greece’s government is a parliamentary republic. . The Greek and the United States government systems are both similar and different. Both governments have a president brought to power via election. However, the Greek Parliament elects Greece’s president, rather than by the people or the Electoral College like in the United States. The parliament is similar to the United States’ legislative branch. Greece, like Great Britain, has a Parliament.
3. Some of the major issues that contribute to the hunger strikes in Greek prisons are the overcrowding within the prison system and the lack of cohesive cooperation between the government and Greek citizens. Furthermore, the lack of proper health care facilities within the Greek prison system definitely factors in. Greece’s twenty-four prisons are built to hold 8,000 prisoners each. On the contrary, some Greek jails are packed with prisoner populations reaching and exceeding 12,000. If such limits were maintained, there would not be such need for hunger strike. Furthermore, the prison system in Greece does not essentially provide prisoners with the best health care. Rather, prisoners are often denied the necessary facilities. In the case of Simon Chapman, his hunger strike participation left him emaciated and in dire need of medical attention. However, prison officials and the Greek government were refusing to transport him to a better location. The prisoners created forty-five point proposal of improvements and adjustments to be made to prison regulations. Perhaps if better communication had been maintained prior to the strike, such a predicament would not exist.
4. The Greek Parliament recognized and responded to the hunger strikes occurring throughout their prison system. At first they were unresponsive. However, following the proposal of forty-five points regarding adjustments and improvements to the prison system and its regulation, Parliament began negotiating. They read through and reviewed the proposal, revising some of its points. The proposal includes terms such as, reducing the maximum limit of time for pre-trial imprisonment from 18 to 12 months. Furthermore, it calls a decrease of almost 50% in prison populations nationwide. The Justice Minister of Greece, Anastasios Papaligouras, agreed to meet with members of the protest campaign group in order to attempt to work things out and put an end to the hunger strike. Papaligouras’ approval was required before any of the points could be put into effect.
5. Five years from now, the Greek government will probably still be working to reinforce its adjustments to the prison systems. It will take time, money, and effort to implement better health care facilities and to relocate excess prisoners. Perhaps the government will allot some money just for building new prisons in order to follow through on the approximate 50% decrease in population per prison. The government and prison officials should be responsible for revamping the prison system according to the forty-five-point agreement. Perhaps the government could retrain prison officials in order to guarantee better treatment of prisoners in the Greek jails. Furthermore, assistance from the World Health Organization might be helpful in improving health care within prisons in order to avoid situations like the aforementioned case of Simon Chapman. Although it seems like a lot of work is needed to be done, I sincerely think that the Greek government can at least make a decent dent in the improvements and adjustments that need to be made.
Ian Murphy
Block G
We chose to focus on terrorism for our project, specifically the conflict between Israel and Palestine. However, it seems the two sides consider each other to be terrorists. Israel is fighting Palestine because it is controlled by the Hamas terrorist organization, while Palestine doesn't want Israel to exist at all. While Israel is a modernized democratic state, as well as an economic ally of the United States, Palestine has the support of several Shiite Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Because of this, and the fact that Israel ends up killing innocent people in Palestine because of its government, Israel is perceived as the enemy of the situation, whereas both sides of the conflict are at fault. I don't believe this conflict can be resolved to easily within the next five years all because of this fact; in fact, I don't believe that Israel is receiving as much support as it should, while Palestine is receiving more than it really deserves.
NOTE: I know that this is late and it is not all it can be, but it is what I feel, and I don't know what else to do or say.
Ciara Gonzalez
Block G - Government
January 19, 2009
1. The movie trailer that was completed by my group was focused on poverty and the effect it has on an entire family. Our video project was focused in egypt because poverty rates are extremely high in the country and continue to become worse. One of the main reasons the group chose this issue was because poverty is a world wide issue. We focused on Egypt because it is one of the countries where poverty is an extreme problem. Egypt is considered a "third world developing country" and because it hasn't reached its full economic potential , the country is still having many of difficulties with poverty.
2. Currently, the country of Egypt is a republic. The country has been a republic since 1953 and it has had four presidents since then. During the 1970's there was a constant struggle between the prime minister and the president. it was during the 1980's that martial law was created to avoid this problem. This law allows the president to appoint the prime minister and also deans of faculty and private staff. The president of egypt is also the supreme commander of the armed forces and the head of the executive branch. Simliar to Great Britain Egypt has a prime minister and a parliament. One of the main differences is that Egypt has a president and Great Britain has a queen, and only Egypt's president is permitted to promote the prime minister. But both of these leaders hold some power in the country, while the rest of the power and decision making is left to parliament.
3. One of the main contributors to poverty in Egypt is most likely the continuously declining economy and the lack of education in the country. With the unstable economy education has not been a main focus for the country; therefore, the education provided for the people is not as good as it could be. In this day and age the job requirements are more and more demanding, and people who do not have a full education are having a difficult time at finding jobs. Other issues include over population and wars that the country has been involved in. Egypt depends a great amount on tourism, which also leaves the economy unsteady.
4. Recently, Egypt's government has just started reacting to poverty rate. In the last few years economy has slightly declined. But there haven't been many attempts to fix the economy private.
5. In the year 2014 I don't think there will be many changes because the government hasn't really become involved with the issue. The way poverty is being responded to in Egypt is that certain areas are getting aid more than others only making the issue worse. The only way i could see the problem getting better is if the government aids the whole country and makes better attempts to improve the economy.
4. But there hasn't been any attempts to make the economy better *
not private, sorry
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