Wikileaks

Wikileaks has been in the news quite a bit this school year. This is of course, the website which holds a number of supposedly "secret" documents from various governments and agencies. The site is aimed at exposing any discretions or plans the authorities are attempting to withhold from public knowledge. While this sounds like a good idea at first, when you take a look at some of the documents posted it is clear that this revolutionary website could be a very dangerous thing. It posts things from war and secret missions both in the United States and out, and does not omit the names of those involved. This is dangerous because some of these missions are extremely secret and dangerous, and exposing the names of the people who aided in the completion of such a mission could jeopardize their lives and the lives of their family members. Giving this much knowledge to the general public is questionable as well, because anyone can access this site. If something is posted about a battle against Al-Qaeda, or a planned attack about any terrorist organization, these posts can be accessed by the terrorist organization themselves. That would mean that the mission was effectively ruined. Wikileaks can also hurt international relations. Some items being posted are private communications between different factions within the American government. Some of these posts have questionable yet harmless criticisms about other countries or other governments. This is the equivalent of one friend showing another friend a text message sent about them...it is completely out of context and in most cases harmless, yet could lead to some serious issues in that friendship. Countries cannot afford to hold grudges over things like this, and wikileaks is aiding that. This is definitely a case of a liberty gone too far. In order to maintain a safe and free society in North America, we need protection. Sometimes this protection needs to restrict the general public from certain knowledge, or there will be serious and irreversible repercussions for all of us.

Globalization

Globalization is the integration of different economies, societies and cultures through communication, transportation and trade. Basically it is the process of the world becoming a global village where everyone is accessible no matter where you live. When people talk about globalization, they mostly mean economic globalization, which turns national economies into international economies through things like trade, investment, the spread of technology and the presence of military. This doesn't mean that is all there is to globalization, however, since this process is driven by a number of factors, including economic, cultural, political and biological factors. Globalization also includes the global circulation of ideas, languages and even pop culture. As technology increases, so does globalization. The correlation is huge due to social networking sites, the instantaneous nature of webcams and television boradcasting, as well as the technological advances made in travel. The effects on the world have been profound, and they continue to shape who we are as a society. There is much wider availability of a lot of foreign products for consumers as well as companies, which is a big industrial impact. This has aided international trade. Immigration, travel, and tourism have also increased. Culturally, globalization is huge. Multi-culturalism has made its way into the mainstream, because everyone has access to the same things online and through the media. This has allowed the world to enjoy foreign goods and ideas, acquire new technologies and ways of life, and ultimately participate in a world culture. While these are all good things, countries need to make sure they are preserving some of their own unique culture, and a sense of individualism. If this isn't preserved, the world will be extremely homogeneous and while travel will be extremely easy, people won't want to travel abroad if every place they visit is exactly like their homeland.

A Rising China

As China continues on a very powerful path to the top of the world's powers, there are many things that need to be considered. Many people and countries are unsure about these changes and how they will impact our global society. China is rapidly expanding its military because although they are nowhere close to the United States in terms of military might, they would like to accumulate power. As they now have the second most powerful military, their military build up could be quite significant. There are potential issues that could arise from China's military might increasing. Some of these could be that China does not know where to stop. This may only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of military outbursts from China. Other countries could be put at risk, such as Taiwan, Tibet, India and Pakistan. If China was to invade any of these areas, the attacked country's allies may fight back, changing the balance of world power. This can cause massive changes politically, socially, and economically all around the world. On the other hand, an increasingly powerful China may prove to be a good thing for the world. Right now, the United States has had the upper hand in our modern world. They have no balance like they did during the Cold War, meaning they are not being held accountable by anyone. A rising China could help to balance this out. The world economy won't be so "Western World focused" and there will even be more cultural influence from the east, changing the social balance as well.

While there are certainly two sides to every argument, it is important to study both carefully and form an individual opinion on the issue for yourself. When it comes to an issue as important as this one, it is essential to know where you stand on the issue. I think we need to keep a close eye on China's progress. I feel that the fact that China does not want the Western world knowing the details regarding their advancements is a cause for concern itself. That being said, progress for China is not a bad thing because there are a lot of hardworking people in China that deserve to live well. The bottom line is that too much of anything isn't good, and if China advances so far above everyone else, that will change the balance of our current world too much to be good. As long as the rest of the world monitors this progress I think we are okay for the time being.

AIC Simulation

The AIC is the Arab Israeli Conflict Simulation, where groups of students from various cities role play different countries involved in the real life Arab Israeli Conflict. This is to get ideas flowing and have students form their opinions on this very significant and influential issue. It is important that students develop awareness on topics such as these because one day we will either inherit the issues or be in charge of making sure history doesn't repeat itself. The most likely scenario is that we will be responsible for both. During the simulation, my group represented Russia. This is a unique country to represent because they used to be a world superpower, so their opinion is definitely weighted in situations like this. Russia is in favour of a peaceful solution, but is also eager to supply various technologies to other countries, most of which being weapons. Our goal during the simulation was to establish a two state solution. This is where Palestine and Israel can coexist peacefully but separately in order to establish peace in the region. I played the role of Dmitri Medvedev, Russia's President. On a personal level, I would like to develop a sense of awareness regarding this issue through the simulation. I also would like to put myself in the shoes of the leaders who are currently working to establish a workable solution that leads to a peaceful environment in the region.

CARE Model

In class we discussed the CARE model, which includes the CARE values of compassion, action, responsibility, and equality.

I would say that action is the most important CARE value because without action, all of the other care values would just be words. While words and thoughts are a great place to start, they become practically useless when they are not paired with action of some sort. Action is the verb associated with all the other values, and this is why it is the most important of the four.

Equality is the next most important CARE value, because without equality people would be acting in the wrong way and being compassionate to the wrong people. In addition to this, responsibility would mean nothing if you weren't responsible in the right way. What I mean by this is if you do not value equality, you may be racist. This means you would only be compassionate to people who thought the same way as you, and your actions would reflect your prejudice. So in order for your other values to be useful and productive, you must value equality.

The next most important care value, in my opinion, is responsibility. Without a sense of responsibility, you would not feel obligated to act in a respectful/correct manner. This would case all sorts of problems in the world. For example, even if you were compassionate and felt bad for someone getting bullied, if you did not feel like it was your civic responsibility to step in then the compassion is useless because nothing is being solved.

Lastly, I feel like compassion, while vital to society, is the lowest priority on the CARE value list. This is not because compassion is not important, it is because it is virtually useless unless paired with another value from the CARE model.

Socialism vs. Capitalism

During our very interesting class discussion regarding the pros and cons of socialism and capitalism, I was able to solidify my views even further. What I've decided is that I feel that Canada has the best system compared to other modern countries. I disagree with the point that we need to be more socialist. I feel that we already have a ton of resources for the less fortunate to better themselves and their families- but these resources must be utilised or it is all a waste. I am obviously a supporter of helping out the disadvantaged, but I also put a high value on hard work and success due to that work. If we take away the reward for being successful, our society will crumble into utter chaos, lacking any sort of motivation or reason to thrive. This is the reason why healthy competition is essential to our lives as Canadians. If we take from the rich and give to the poor too much, the result will be no one will even bother succeeding anymore.

North Korea

As everyone knows from our discussion in class today, early this morning shots were fired from a mountain compound in North Korea over the border to South Korea. This resulted in 2 South Korean soldiers dying and around 12 injured. Many are considering this the most significant direct attack since the 1950's, which is scary for a lot of people.

Although I recognize the threat North Korea poses, I decided after our class discussion today that I don't think China will heavily support North Korea on this one. I doubt they want to aggravate the circumstances, and although shots were fired, this is being considered more of a warning from the North to the South. For this reason, I do not think this issue will cause a conflict on a global scale.

That being said, it's important to remember who is on what side and that if a real and imminent conflict were to arise, China would most likely back North Korea. This would cause issues with the United States and would lead to repercussions economically and otherwise all around the world.