Solutions Project Interests

1) Homeless High School Students.
A couple weeks ago when my brother and I were leaving the Rams game it was very cold outside. Tommy and I were walking down the street and we saw a homeless man who had been wounded in the war and had nothing but a hoodie sweatshirt to keep him warm. Tommy was wearing a big jacket and took it off and gave it to the man because he said he needed it more than him. This made me think about how there are places and things for adults, but there is not anything specifically designed for teenagers.

http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/education/article_a0fabba7-c741-53d7-a68b-6da228a2cff8.html

http://www.suite101.com/blog/pytel/homeless_high_school_students

2) Childhood Obesity
Childhood Obesity is at an all time high. Some kids are having weight loss surgery as young 13. I think this topic is interesting because at school we are cutting down on desserts and fruit being offered for free because of the staggering number of children who are obese.

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-childhood-obesity-has-become-epidemic-111510,0,295670.story

3) Budget at Whitfield
There are always rumors going around the school about how Whitfield decides to spend money, or at least how it appears to the students or others who are not in on the decisions. Many students think that some of the budget cuts are not needed because they see money being spent on other things that they believe should have also been effected by the economic situation. I think this would be interesting to research because you would be able to find out why money is spent on certain things but not others.

Multimedia Presentation on Prisoner of her Past

http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=U3QxDyDbZkk%3d&e=WbicHq211TxeNEyrKANdpv20AWEhAMs2BvppYOyBxbp%2bfw8pbUmqFQ%3d%3d

Research Question

Research Question:

How has the acceptance of the Taliban impacted the rights of Afghan women?


Information that I need to find out:

Rights of women before and after the Taliban.

Is there somewhere, in terms of religion, that says woman must cover everything but their eyes?

What impact if any has the UDHR had?

Possible Exam Topics

I want to do something about women from Afghanistan or Pakistan and their human rights violations. I am interested in how the rights of women in Afghanistan or Pakistan are violated (and how they are against the universal declaration of human rights). I am interested in this topic because of the recent news events about the woman from Pakistan. Also when I was downtown I saw a women from the Middle East who had been abused (I think she was burned), so ever since then I have been interested in human rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/asia/08burn.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=afghan%20burning&st=cse

Voices of women in Afghanistan unveiled

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/18/pakistan.blasphemy/index.html?hpt=C1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4074377.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/478900.stm

I don't really know where I want to take this topic, but I know I want to do something about their limited rights being violated. I may want to focus on one right in particular that is violated very often, or something like that. I also am interested in what the rest of the world is doing to help or prevent the human rights violations.

MAUS II

The most disturbing image to me was the bottom block on page 72.


I don't know if it is the image, or the words that go along with it, or a combination of the two. The text on that strip just really stuck with me, "and the fat from the burning bodies they scooped and poured again so everyone could burn better." The facial expressions on the mice in the picture and the fact that you can see there ribs just disturbs me a lot. The pictures makes me think of how painful it would be to burn alive. And just the pain that is brought to me by looking at the picture. Then you get the added visual effects of the old bodies that had already burned and the thought of them being poured on top of the people that were still alive is utterly disgusting.

moral dilemmas

I think that being brought up in a military family had a very large influence on my decisions and opinions. At most family get togethers, there are not the usual 'I had to walk to school, uphill both ways' there are the stories of “when I was stationed in ____” I think that having heard these stories, and having read the letters that were sent back home from war and the first hand accounts that my dad, or my aunt, or my uncles, or my cousins, or grandpa had witnessed caused me to view things in a different way.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/congothedemocraticrepublicof/index.html?scp=2&sq=democratic%20republic%20of%20congo&st=cse

This article talks about the issues that the Congo has faced, and how they are impacting/have impacted the people.The Congo has vast rainforests and natural resources. There have been many lives lost and battles fought in recent years. In 1960 the Congo was set free and basically didn't know what to do, and became a pawn for more powerful countries to utilize. The article talks about the United Nations' impact on the Congo. However, 4 million people have died since 1998; over half of them were children under the age of five. How can the United Nations not be able to protect them? How can a country that has so many natural resources, and has had billions of dollars invested in rebuilding it, not be able to sustain itself (that's not the right word)?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html

This article talks about the recent report that the UN published regarding the many atrocities in the Congo. The report talks about how children were recruited for the army, and millions of people died. The report also focuses a lot on the horrible things that have happened to women and children. This article makes me wonder, if we know that these things are happening, why can't we help figure out a way to stop them? What caused the Congo to be in the constant state of war and heartbreaking atrocities? Just why?