Unit 3 FRQs

There are details in the email I sent out today (Thursday) at 1 PM.

In Recovery - 20 years since the Rwandan genocide

After watching Hotel Rwanda and having learned about the nature of political violence, there are a number of concepts worth considering.  The first concept to examine is the role of international peacekeeping organizations when a human rights crisis like this happens.  Read this NPR article about one particular story of abandonment (similar to the story we see played out in Hotel Rwanda).  Should IGOs (like the UN, NATO, or the EU) bear responsibility when a sovereign nation is perpetrating these crimes against their own people?  Do they have a right or duty  to protect people in need, even if it means infringing upon a countries sovereignty?  What other recent events have we read about in class that help to illustrate this difficulty?

Also, after extreme acts of political violence like this are recognized, there is a process of healing and recovery that the nation must go through.  In Rwanda, women had, and continue to have, a prominent role in that recovery process.  In bringing these criminals to justice in a country with a weak state and justice system, this can sometimes be difficult.  Other countries, in this case France, can help (along with NGOs) pursue justice for the more than 800,000 victims.  What do these articles say about the role of NGOs, along with women, in the healing process after such an atrocity?  Here is an article from BBC about the UN's regret about their "shameful" mishandling of the Rwandan genocide.

I know this an extremely emotional and heavy subject matter, but it is important to understand the role of ethnicity, NGOs, and IGOs in recovering from, and hopefully preventing, political violence such as this.

Connecting to youth through music in Nigeria

Despite all the problems of violence, corruption and disorder we have covered in this class, the music scene in Nigeria is one of the most thriving in all of Africa.  This article is an uplifting and welcome departure from all of the negative news we have covered in a developing nation with so many of it's people in poverty.  Check it out!  You might become a fan!

Also, this is the first optional post for the 4th quarter.

Life and Debt

Clearly, this documentary shows the dark side (or biased side, depending how you look at it) of globalization.  Did this documentary change the way you view globalization?  Overall, is globalization a good or bad thing for the global economy?  Are very low wage jobs (like those provided at the free zones), better than no jobs at all?  Should self sufficiency be discouraged for economies that could potentially have difficulty competing on a global scale?  

This is the goal of the IMF according to their website:

"The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 188 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world."

If many of these results are not being achieved, should the debt incurred from these structural adjustment programs be forgiven?

These are not meant to be yes or no questions.  Please be sure to explain each of your answers. 

Globalization, Democratization and Political Violence

Find an article that illustrates concepts surrounding each of these ideas.  Give the link, briefly describe the article and focus on explaining how and why your article illustrates each of these concepts.

What do you think?

When studying Mexico, three related major issues always seem to be at the center of the discussion, immigration, drug trafficking and gang violence. Watch the following segment from BBC and read or listen to at least three articles about immigration from NPR.  Read/listen to one about violence (there is a good article about Juarez), one about immigration and another about the one you found most interesting.  Give a brief summary of the articles you read and then tell me what you think.  Some guiding questions you might consider are: Should deportees be allowed a chance to come back to the US?  What is the root of the violence that is so prevalent in many border towns?  How are these three issues related?  How can these major issues be solved?  How is the Mexican government trying to solve these issues?  What are the public attitudes in Mexico about these problems?  Are there any Mexicans that are sympathetic to the cartels for the stability they might provide?

Again, you need not answer all of these questions, I am looking to find out what you think about these issues.  Try and provide analysis of the problems as opposed to descriptions of the problems.  You should post three different posts (one for each of the articles you chose).

Crimussia?

It's official (as of about a week ago), Crimea has voted to secede from Ukraine and join Russia in a move largely criticized by the West as illegal, but there it does not seem that there is much that can be done about it.  Should military force be used to drive Russian forces out of Crimea?  Do you think the economic sanctions will have any bite and force Russia to withdraw their troops?  Does the election (which has largely been viewed as a legitimate reflection of the sentiment in Crimea) justify the secession of Crimea from Ukraine or is Russia illegal imposing on the sovereignty of a foreign nation?  Has Putin gone too far?  Is America (or the West) not doing enough to stop it?  So many questions to consider!! Go to the BBC Europe page (there are plenty of interesting articles on this crisis) to do a little more research and comment on the crisis below, using the questions above as guiding questions (or pose your own!).

Also, here is a link to an NPR Planet Money piece (audio only) that describes the process of imposing economic sanctions (asset freezes, black lists, it sounds like a House of Cards episode) that is very informative and interesting.