Three Issues Facing Individuals and Groups in the St. Louis Region

An issue that faces individuals in the At. Louis area are disability and deaths from cardiovascular disease. An organization that helps with assisting individuals with cardiovascular disease and prevention is the American Heart Association. I am interested in this topic because some of my family members have died due to cardiovascular diseases. Other sources that could be helpful are doctors who specialize in cardiovascular disease. Another issue that faces individuals in the St. Louis area are hunger and homelessness. An organization that helps with assisting individuals with items that are essential for a person to live with, is the organization called International Crisis Aid. The items that this organization gives to homeless people include food and medicine. I am interested in this topic because there is a large percentage of homeless people living in the City of St. Louis, with there being between 8,000 - 13,000 homeless people in this area (http://stlouis.missouri.org/5yearstrategy/1999/ch3_homel.html). Other sources that could be helpful are food pantries that distribute food to the less fortunate. A third issue that faces individuals in the St. Louis area are children with asthma and allergies. An organization that helps with children who have asthma and allergy is the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, St. Louis Chapter. This organization helps these children through education, support, and medical resources. I am interested in this topic because I have family members who have allergies and with more support of this organization, this organizations could have the opportunity to help educate more people about asthma and allergy. Other sources that would be beneficial are doctors that specialize in asthma and allergy.

Prisoner of Her Past Multimedia Presentation

View more presentations from jhanin.

Research Question

What are the Janjaweed doing to carry out the genocide in Darfur?

Which is more effective in the Janjaweed carrying out the genocide, mass killings or rape?

What is the reasoning why there is a genocide in Darfur?  What is the history behind it?

What has international countries and communities have done to help with the Darfur genocide?

Is there enough humanitarian aid entering Darfur, is there more that people/countries could do?

Is the humanitarian aid causing harm in Darfur?

Is the humanitarian aid causing more conflict between the Janjaweed and the villagers?

What are the different types of aid entering Darfur?

Tentative Research Proposal

I am interested in researching the Darfur genocide because this genocide is still occurring in today's world and would want to learn more about it.  A specific aspect that I think that I will be looking into is specifically about the Janjaweed, which is the rebel group in Darfur, and how they have carried out the genocide.  Another aspect that I could investigate is the humanitarian aid that other nations are giving to Darfur.

Books that I will be looking into are The Devil Came on Horseback, Darfur Destroyed, and Genocide in Darfur.
Articles that I have read include: "U.N. Official Calls Darfur Aid Tenuous," "Rape as genocide in Darfur," and "Camp in Darfur refuses humanitarian aid."

Questions that I have include what the Janjaweed are doing to continue the genocide, whether it is through mass killings and/or rape, whether the humanitarian aid is able to reach the Darfur people, and if the UN and other international communities are providing enough aid to Darfur as well.

DRC current events

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has experienced multiple types of attacks on these people. The two main types of attacks include rape against the women of the DRC from a rebel group and massacres in the DRC as well.

The leader of the rebel group called Mai Mai Chekel, Lt. Col Mayele, was captured because of raping women in the DRC. The article,"DR Congo Leader Arrested over Mass Rapes" discusses that many women of the DRC have been raped. This relates to Leopold because many of the missionaries in the Congo would rape women as well. A question that I have is what are the efforts of people outside of the DRC doing to help stop rape against women? I also think that it is important to ask what has the UN done to expose of the rebel groups in the DRC?

The second kind of attacks on the DRC are the massacres that are occurring there. In the article, "UN Report on Congo Massacres Draws Anger, " discusses that the Rwandan and Ugandan people were committing this type of crime in the DRC. The article also discusses how it is up to the DRC people and UN officials to punish the people who are responsible for the killings of the Congo people. This relates to Leopold because missionaries would brutally kill many Congo people. A question that I am asking is how is the DRC government and UN officials going about accusing people of these crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11480809

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/africa/02congo.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=democratic%20republic%20of%20congo&st=cse

Response to KLG pgs 115-139

A question that is lingering in my mind after our small group discussion is if King Leopold understood what harm he is doing to the Congo people. Is it a greed for money? Another question is if King Leopold will get caught by anyone for what he has done to the Congo people?

I believe that our small group discussions were good and very effective. We all were involved in the discussion and everyone contributed their opinions. We could have improved by just sticking on topic with the question, but that was a minor problem that could be fixed.

Current Event Article

Source: The title of the article is “Jewish Settlers Warn of Israel Coalition Collapse,” there is no known author, the article comes from BBC news and was published on 13 September 2010.

Summary: The article is discussing that in order for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel have to cease building settlements in the West Bank. This is important because there is a freeze in the building of these settlements, but once this freeze expires on September 26, Israel has to continue cease building these settlements or else, “The Palestinians say they will walk out of the talks if construction resumes.” It also mentions, “Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib again called on the Israeli government to end all settlement activity, saying it was endangering the peace process. ‘Israel should stop all kinds of settlement activities in order to give a chance for negotiations.’”

Analysis: I agree and disagree with the articles viewpoints and what Israel and the Palestinians are doing. It is important for Israel and the Palestinians to have this peace talk, however, “nice” Palestinians live in Gaza and all around Israel, but there also Palestinian terrorist, such as Hamas. Hamas are terrorists who control Gaza and making peace with the Palestinians will not help because Hamas do not want peace, they want to conquer Israel. What I found most interesting is how bias this article was because it was defending the Palestinians and saying that Israel should stop these settlements, which I think is incorrect because no one can talk peace with terrorists, and a terrorist group controls Gaza.