GPHC 2018-2019

In this world, conflict is unfortunately one of our norms. Countries struggle with conflict between them all the time, but we cannot forget the conflicts that go on within countries. The Mexican Drug Cartel is the biggest group of cartels in the world. Mexico has the highest concentration of smuggled drugs and this continues to be a very dangerous part of the Mexican culture. Over the last 12 years, since Felipe Calderon was elected as their new president, the dangers of drug cartels have intensified. There have been mass shootings, as well as killings of cartel leaders, government personnel, as well as, unfortunately, many civilians. On August 25, 2010, 72 migrant bodies were found on a ranch. It was later discovered that they were murdered for refusing to traffic drugs. The Mexican drug cartels came about when people began to realize how corrupt the Mexican government was and how easily it could be manipulated. Now, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs are sold almost like...

George Larach 12/18/18 GPHC The Mighty Potato I have had multiple conversations with my friends on what was the most influential or important food to affect humanity, and common names that were brought up were “bread” or “apples”. I always thought the potato was the most important food, and this article only confirmed my belief. From feeding all of Europe for hundreds of years to being able to vary in size and taste depending on how it’s cooked, the potato is certainly the most important food on the planet. The article talks about how it boosted populations, fed cities, and provided necessary nutritional elements. However, it also increased the amount of conflict between states, considering how people were spending less time hunting and more time recreationally, or doing things they wanted to do. The question was what was the most influential , not what was the best. It’s funny to imagine that thousands of years ago, we were making the change from nomadic hunter-gatherers to ...

     The United States has three major power grids: one for the eastern states, one for the western states, and one for the state of Texas. As a result, Texas's government enjoys an unmatched ability to determine how energy is provided to its residents. Up until the turn of the millennium, electricity was provided to Texans by public utilities; local monopolies that generated, transported, and sold power to consumers under the regulatory watch of the state. In the year 2002, Texas's congress finally succeeded in passing deregulatory reforms, privatizing most of the energy market in the hopes that competition between private suppliers would result in lower prices and greater efficiency. In addition, each part of the supply chain was separated and turned into an individual market, meaning the people generating power were not the same as the people selling it.             Sixteen years later, it is clear that this privatization was ...

European countries have been taking steps to limit greenhouse gasses in order to slow down climate change, and as such, French president Emmanuel Macron enacted a gasoline tax. This sparked an intense wave of protests that gripped the attention of the west. At the core of the protestors are the working people who commute long distances to the cities of France, many of them cannot afford to live in the city due to small wages. As a result of the rioting, president Macron canceled the gas tax and made many concessions to the working people, yet, the riots continue. Imposing a gas tax on the low wage earning workers may not be the best way to combat climate change in terms of economics. The riots show that the working people in France are already dealing with many difficulties economically. Macron cancelling the gas tax has not had the impact he hoped, the riots continue, even taking some lives.   In my view, Macron would be much better off imposing a tax on large industrial co...

According to the Global peace Index by the Institute for Economics and peace in 2017, Yemen is the fourth least peaceful country in the world right after Afghanistan, Iraq and South Sudan. Since 2008 Yemen has slipped 28 places in the ranking due to an increase in the level of violent crime, intensity of internal organized conflicts, and the impact of terrorism. Yemen is one of the five countries that accounted for approximately 75 percent of total deaths to terrorism in 2015.   The conflict in Yemen is primarily part of Saudi-influenced regional instability, a result of the intense rivalry between Shia Iran and the Sunni Arab Gulf monarchies. The conflict has also led to Saudi Arabia’s costly military intervention in Yemen. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is specifically fighting to drive the Iranian-backed Houthi movement out of the country.   According to the Borgen Project, in September 2017, 75% of Yemen’s population, or about 22 million people, were in need of humanita...

Active peace is a term used for when individuals and local and global organizations dedicate their work to advancing peace. Often, these organizations carry out grassroots level projects in the war-torn areas with the purpose of giving direct support to local peacebuilding organizations, projects, activities and individuals. One particularly notable international organization with an extensive history in active peace work is, of course, the UN, known for its international focus and dedication to preserving peace. United Nations is also a leader in promoting peace by way of many different engagements, such as negotiating ceasefires, preserving human rights, and helping out citizens in conflicts where they are often significantly endangered.   Active peace is being fostered in Yemen. Organizations such as Peace Direct help local organizations in Yemen with projects that aim to foster peace. For example, in 2017, Peace Direct helped a number of pilot projects in Yemen, the purpose...

       Canada is often seen as a place full of polite, peaceful people. In fact, in 2016 the Global Peace Index called Canada one of the most peaceful countries in the world. There could be many factors contributing to this, one of the more interesting theories is that it is because Canada is so close to the US, which is far less peaceful. The more realistic theory seems to be that it is a very large country, around the same size in land as the US, but with a much smaller population. (Canada: 36.71 Million; US: 325.7 Million). The idea is that through having more space and a more homogenous, kind society, Canadians have more resources and less to worry about. They have better education as there are less people to educate, and for the most part it's easy to move to another province if you don't like the one you're living in. The citizens of Canada themselves have a high number of immigrants and since they have such a spacious country, they can afford to have the extr...

     In June 2018 in the county of Barkin Ladi 200 Farmers were bloodily massacred by masked men who are believed to be herders. The tension between farmers and herders are the faults of overpopulation, not enough land, and religion. Overpopulation and the land problem go hand in hand. The more people that are farmers and herders, the less area for them to use for farming and herding. Herders herd their herds on farmland which destroy crops and piss off the farmers, the farmers farm their farm on grazing fields for herders which pisses of herders. Religion plays a part in this tension because the farmers are Christian and the herders are Muslim, so naturally, they don't like each other much.       The people of Barkin Ladi have taken up the task of keeping the peace to themselves. Armed with homemade guns and formed as a vigilante group the farmers and herders have created a state of peace for both sides, while they still might not like each other all...

The 2018 Global Peace Index indicates that Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world for the tenth year in a row. For context of what this includes here is how the Global Peace Index defines itself:  " The GPI covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population, using 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators from highly respected sources, and measures the state of peace using three thematic domains: the level of Societal Safety and Security; the extent of Ongoing Domestic and International Conflict; and the degree of Militarization." Since the GPI measures 23 different criteria as a means to score countries peacefulness, there must be serval contributing factors as to why Iceland has so consistently been ranked the most peaceful country in the world. However, in the short article that Iceland Magazine published about the accomplishment, the only criteria elaborated on was militarization.  According to the Global Peace Index, Iceland scores a 1 out of 5 on...

Regions where Rohingya are located The Rohingya people are an ethnic minority group who represent a large majority of the muslim population in Myanmar. The Rohingyas have their own culture, language and beliefs which differ from the beliefs of the government in Myanmar. The government in Myanmar is of the Buddhist faith and does not recognize the Rohingya people as a separate entity deserving of citizenship. The government views them as illegal immigrants from bangladesh, and excludes the Rohingya from their census. In the last three years or so the Rohingya people have begun migrating out of Myanmar in order to escape the violence and abuse they currently face on behalf of the Myanmar government. Rohingya women and young girls have been both raped and abused by Myanmar military and numerous amounts of Rohingya people have been killed by Myanmar officials. The situation in Rohingya has been regarded as one of the world's worst refugee crisis, with many Rohingyan refugees resi...

Photo By: Daniella Zalcman Many American citizens are unaware of modern Native American existence in society. They assume Native peoples still reside on reservations and dress in traditional tribal wear, never really seeing them as part of modern American society. American citizens think of natives in the past tense, not in the present. However, seventy percent of natives today live in urban areas and they are also civically engaged. When we do think of natives, we tend to focus on the negative aspects. We focus on things such as lack of resources and substance abuse amongst native men.We see what we want to see. We focus on the stereotypes and assume that said stereotypes are what make native peoples, native. We do not listen to their story, because we assume we already know it. Many of the issues native peoples face are not publicized nor heard about. Police brutality is a big issue from native people, some may even say they have it worse than black people, and yet we do n...

According to the Global Peace Index, Canada is the 8th most peaceful country in the world, and has been consistently in the top 10 for many years. It is also one of the only high ranking non-European countries. There are a lot of factors that go into being judged a “peaceful country,” and no one is entirely sure how this should be judged. Canada puts a lot of effort into peace, both in their own country and around the world. In general, Canada has a lack of violence for the most part, and they work to build positive peace as well. They provide for their country through healthcare and education systems, which keeps people happy and healthy. The Canadian Armed forces also work to keep peace around the world through its participation in military alliances. Another peacebuilding organization that they have is the Canadian Peace Alliance, which is really a collection of a few hundred organizations that work on keeping and building peace throughout Canada. Another possible reason for ...

I chose to read the article “Native Americans are recasting views of indigenous life” by Tristan Ahtone. I thought this article was very interesting, and it had an important message about native american stereotypes. I decided to read it because I recently saw an art exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas that had a very similar message, which I thought was very powerful when portrayed through art. The exhibit was called “Art For a New Understanding.” All of the pieces were created by native american artists with the goal of combating stereotypes about native americans, just like we see in the article. I think that art, whether it be visual or performative, is a really effective and peaceful way of spreading important cultural messages. This can be seen both in this article and in the exhibit I saw. Typically, art does not offend people as much as a speech or social media post has the potential to, while it is also a very eye catching and memorable...

Connor Morley Mr. Roddy IB GPHC 2018 10 December, 2018 Conflict: Northern Ireland         Northern Ireland (controlled by the United Kingdom) has had a long history of conflict with their southern neighbor, the sovereign Republic of Ireland. This seemed to really manifest itself at the onset of the Bloody Sunday attacks in 1972, where UK soldiers killed 14 unarmed protesters. However, to this very day, there are numerous insurgency groups, most notably the IRA (Irish Republican Army) that seem to be interested in more violent, less peaceful demonstrations of their desire to cease British rule on the entire island. An increase in diplomatic relations since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which attempted to compromise with a new sharing of power between the two regions, and the 2006 St. Andrews Agreement has lessened tensions, but only lessened, not completely destroyed. The presence of these tensions and the threat of conflict in the first place is quit...

In 1944, there was a mass genocide in the Dominican Republic of Congo, and they continued to have a corrupt government and strong rebel groups which remained in control. In 2010, the UN created Resolution 1925, which renamed MONUC MONUSCO, and they sent their military personnel to bring positive peace. Beyond defending the country against the rebels, they were meant to bring harmony and happiness to the people of DRC. When MONUSCO was not enough to sustain or stop the rebels, the UN Security Council created Resolution 2098 in 2013, which from that came the Forward Intervention Brigade (FIB), a military group specifically meant to perform offensive operations against the rebel groups. They teamed up with the Congolese army and have been fighting rebel groups such as the ADF since 2015. The FIB is meant to bring negative peace to DRC. They are specifically meant to attack, but put a pause on the violence the rebel groups are causing. MONUSCO is meant to br...

Jadyn Cleary Mr. Roddy Global Politics in Histroical Context 9 December 2018 Peace in New Zealand In 2017, New Zealand was declared the second most peaceful country out of 162 countries in the world by the Global Peace Index. The index describes peace as the absence of violence. New Zealand claims that the reason for this peace is rooted in their government which is a parliamentary majority. A parliamentary majority government means that a majority of the seats in a parliament must be in agreement on legislation in order to be passed. This allows for legislation to rarely not be passed and defeated in parliament. Because of this system, most laws are generally agreed on meaning that there is less political tension. To understand completely why there is so much peace in New Zealand, you must look at the social politics there. New Zealand has always been a very progressive country. In fact, in 1893 it was the first country to grant all women the right to vote. It...

Jadyn Cleary Mr. Roddy Global Politics in Histroical Context 9 December 2018 Why The Worst is Not Behind Us According to the article “The Worst Year to Be a Human Has Been Revealed by Researchers”, humans have endured the worst time to be alive already. The article cites the volcanic eruption that occurred in A.D. 536 which lowered the temperature and caused crop failure, along with the bubonic plague which struck the eastern Roman Empire in A.D. 542 as the worst time period to be alive. While this certainly was a horrible time to be alive in Europe, I do not agree that there will never be a worse time than this. This is due to a number of reasons, one of them being climate change. Due to the increase in the production of fossil fuels and carbon emissions, climate change has become a great threat, not only to the earth’s ecosystem but also to humanity. The projected impact that climate change will have on the world in the coming years if not stopped is very dras...

The conflict in Korea dates back to 1945 — the end of the second world war. When the war ended, the previously Japanese controlled Korea was split temporarily between the Soviet Union and the United States. They planned to eventually create a single, unified state, but relations between the Soviets and the US became poor due to the cold war, and Korea remained divided. This eventually resulted in the Korean War, in 1950, in which over a million people died, and has led to poor relations between North and South Korea ever since. The conflict between North and South Korea has become especially relevant to the US more recently, due to nuclear testing by North Korea. It does however seem that this conflict won't progress any further. After years of hostilities, the two nations have committed to perusing peace between the two countries. North Korea, both to show peaceful intentions and due to pressure from the United States, has closed some of its nuclear and missile testing facilities....

On December 4, France’s prime minister announced that they would postpone their fuel tax for 6 months until they bring back the “unity” within their nation. Their peace was disrupted when their government announced a 24 cent per gallon tax increase on fuels as an attempt towards fighting climate change. Their people were not very happy and protests started immediately. There were violent demonstrations daily and in my opinion, they were a bit justifiable. When thinking about this, I imagined what it would feel like to have that in the U.S… It would be chaos! Not everyone can afford to just buy new electric cars to avoid the taxes, and people need to drive. They cannot just avoid driving to work (which might not be walking/biking distance) because they cannot afford to pay the extra fines for fuel. If it were a tax specifically aimed towards big public corporations abusing and overusing fossil fuels the public’s feelings might be different. However there are many peo...