Issues in St. Louis

1. sexual abuses and whether or not offenders are being locked away long enough
    what the sexual abuse rate is in St. Louis and what is being done to prevent it or bring awareness about it. What is being done about the recent teachers found with child porn? How were these men hired? Do schools need to re-examine their hiring policies?
I'm interested in this because St. Louis has so many organizations specifically for abuse and preventing abuse, it makes me wonder how big of an issue this is. Also, whether it is specific to a demographic or geographical region. It's an issue of why are their so many cases in St. Louis and relating it to regions surrounding St. Louis.

2. Childhood obesity - how high the rates are in St. Louis
     What is being done to prevent it? Why are the rates so high?
Obesity is all over the national news and is becoming a major concern in society. All the celebrities who were over weight are all trying to slim down and its is based more on a health issue because the risk of being over weight are so high now. My question is how high are the rates specifically in St. Louis and why are the rates the way they are. Is it due to the lack of exercise activities in the winter, their lifestyle, or based on the way their parents influence them?

3. what the teenage mother rate is? how big of an issue is it? does this contribute to drop out rates?
Is this even an issue in St. Louis? From the show 16 and pregnant/teen mom premiering on MTV in the past couple years it raises the issue of how prominent of an issue it really is. Where is it present in St. Louis? Does it pertain to a specific demographic? What are the most common events leading up to the pregnancy?
note - I haven't been able to find much information on this, but would like to.

HR Final - Revised Research Question

As I have been researching and finding sources for my presentation, I have realized that my original question is not an adequate question and is not what I should be focusing on. As my previous research question was to research the differences between the US and North Korea with human trafficking, I have now focused my search on:

How is the U.S. government responding to the North Korean human trafficking problem differently from North Korea's government?

I am going to format my presentation by:

I. background on the human trafficking problem in NK - how it came to be and what it is.
II. why human trafficking is a human rights issue - why is it such a big issue? what are the true horrors (support to why it goes against human rights)
III. What the NK government is doing to fix it - why are the standing where they are and not helping the issue?
IV. What the US government is doing to fix it - what are they're goals to try to stop human trafficking?
V. New idea of why this is significance 

Multimedia presentation

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IHR - Narrowed down Research Question

Three Steps:
1. I am working on the topic of Human Trafficking.
2. Because I want to find out why North Korea is a tier 3 when the U.S. is only a tier 1.
3. In order to help my reader understand better the issue at hand and how the north Korean government has neglected this issue causing it to be a big problem.

Questions:

 Where is this happening? - North Korea (tier 3)

Why did this topic come into being? What is its history?
How does Human Trafficking reflect on the society?
How can it be compared across the world between different countries?
What are all the forms of media - songs, movie, tv episodes - reporting on this issue?
What groups are trying to prevent this from happening?
Is it perpetrators and governments responsibility for this happening?
Why is HT so bad in Korea, but not US? What are the differences in the forms of government/aid groups to prevent it? 
Why should Korea matter? - It has been in the news a lot.

Research Question -
Why is North Korea a tier 3 when the US is only a tier 1? 
- how is the government at fault for why human trafficking is so bad?
- is there anything being done in North Korea to fix the problem? Does the government even care about the issue?
- when did the issue start? when did it become so bad?


Sources -
Human Rights Report 2010
Articles found concerning the topic

International Human Rights - Tentative Research Proposal

1. Human Trafficking - I found an article earlier in the year on Human Trafficking in Africa and was very interested in it. It concerned trafficking to Nigeria in Africa. I had never really heard of human trafficking before I read this article and how big of an issue it was.

2. Links -
 http://www.hrw.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/human+trafficking
http://www.amnestyusa.org/violence-against-women/end-human-trafficking/organizations-working-to-stop-human-trafficking/page.do?id=1108431
http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/

Broad Research Question - What is being done to address Human Trafficking?

narrowed -
pick country to focus on
pick specific organization that is trying to make this change or that is not doing anything to make this change
why is it such a hard issue to make a change for 

Questions -
- How can it still be going on around the world? How long has it been going on?
- How are the traffickers getting away with it when the world knows? What is the world doing about it in order to prevent, stop, or change it? Why is it so hard to make a change for this issue?
- Where is it happening around the world?
- Why is this such an issue?
- When was the issue most prominent in the world? Is it still a big issue?
- What are the different types of human trafficking? What do I want to focus on?

The Next Empire

1. Note the author's key arguments. Make an outline of his points.

 The author's debate is whether or not china is helping Africa transform due to their "appetite for commodities"  or is it "merely exploitation?" 
 
- China is industrializing Africa because it is a profit for human resources and will benefit China in the long run. They are using their resources to bring wealth not only to China, but to Africa as well.
- China is different from the west because they are helping changes because they are not making a huge gap in classes as their new industrialization helps offer jobs to many. Since they are focuses on industrializing rather than aide they are different from the West and it is benefiting Africa.
- Some argue that China is becoming like the West and not helping Africa. The railroad in itself is an example of that. 
-
2. Record what you do not understand. It is always good to bring up what you were unclear on in a discussion, as your classmates will be able to help you clarify your thinking.
How does the factor that China is made up of rural farmers play into the article as it focuses on how China was industrializing Africa?
 
3. Identify two or three areas of potential disagreement or debate.
How is China succeeding in ways that the West has not? 
Will China become the new Belgium or will they stay to their morals of helping Africa?
What are the negatives that China is bringing to Africa?
 
4. Develop a critique of the article.
It only examined one side in depth and that was China's side. It didn't go into as much depth as it should have about the West. All that was mentioned was that the West was making aides which weren't helping Africa. Instead, the article focused on what China explicitly was doing in Africa and whether or not it was benefiting Africa. It did a good job giving examples of China's work in Africa and giving the cons against it. I personally think that China could be going the route to only benefit themselves which is only going to harm Africa more. Because China is in their because it will gain them mass resources seems to be their main focus which will leave Africa just where it was when Leopold ruled it. Like the article states at the end, China will have to decide their position in helping Africa. It is up to them to decided whether they will benefit Africa or themselves.

Recent Congo History

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/world/africa/04congo.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=congo&st=cse&scp=2

The issues in this article deal with rape and how the U.N.  failed to keep the peace. It addresses the fact that rape went on just down the road where U.N. men were stationed. Even though, U.N. is attempting peace in the Congo they are not succeeding. There are rebel groups that are committing rape and the Congolese army can not stop it. It is hard to keep track of the rapes because a lot of times women do not come forward and it happens under the soldiers noses. Its hard to understand that there is very little that the army can do to stop these rapes. The article was simply reporting these rapes and why they were not being stopped. It didn't go into how they could be stopped effectively. After so many years, it is still shocking that women are still treated like this. The U.N. says that they are making peace when really they are doing anything but.


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

This article similar to the one above, addresses the crimes against humanity that have gone on throughout the Congo since 1993-2003. The report has come out recently as this article was published on October 1st. It focuses on the women and children who were hurt and focused on getting voices heard. The article addresses that most time voices of the mis-treating are ignored and this report is going to bring everything to the surface. Why did it take this long to create a report and how will the public respond to better the Congo?