Our new topic for this Thursday (Jan 8) will be: international drug trafficking.
Think about "root causes", problems caused by illegal drug trade, and possible solutions. A solution could either attempt to stop drug trafficking or to treat its negative effects. Based on your country's involvement in this problem, form an opinion on what actions should be taken (or if any should be taken at all.)
Here are some helpful links. Please keep in mind the DATES of these articles. Most are from the last 5-7 years, but at least one is older.
Drug Abuse and Traffic in Mexico News - Breaking World Drug Trafficking in Mexico News - The New York Times (This is a NY Times page with links to articles about drug trade in Mexico.)
Mexico Fears Its Drug Traffickers Get Help From Guatemalans - New York Times (article)
THE U.N. AT 50: CLINTON;U.S. Freezes Assets of Cartel In New Effort Against Drugs - New York Times (article)
World Briefing Asia: China: 59 Executed For Drug Trafficking - New York Times (brief article)
The New York Times > International > Americas > Anti-Drug Gains in Colombia Don't Reduce Flow to U.S. (article)
Cuba Cooperating to Combat Drug Trade, U.S. Official Says - New York Times (article)
Drug Trafficking & Interdiction (Page on drug trade from an organization's web site.)
Drug trade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Wikipedia, of course.)
international drug trafficking - Google News (Just a Google News search that might have some useful links.)
Most of the articles here have to do with drug trafficking in the Americas (that's what we could find). But remember that other parts of the world are very involved in drug trade - Afghanistan, for example, is a major producer of opium. The last three links above will probably be the most useful to anyone with a country outside of the Americas, because they're more general.
You don't have to read all the articles...focus on ones that pertain to your country, then look briefly at the other stuff so you'll know what other people think.
And of course, if you don't find anything here to help you, do some of your own research.Two places you always want to look for extra info are the CIA World Factbook and the official UN website (the latter has a list of all past resolutions; you can search for ones on drug trafficking).
COUNTRY ASSIGNMENTS
Maddie Adelson - Chair
Celine Hu - Assistant Chair
Alex Falcon - Brazil
Alex Polyak - Afghanistan
Anuj Desai - Burma (Myanmar)
Ayesha - Bolivia
Christina Chan - Turkey
Divya Chandramouli - Ecuador
Eli Keimach - Iran
Eli Schwarzchild - Morocco
Jeremy Adler - Guatemala
Jen Mo - India
Julia Kelley - Chile
Julie Sun - Peru
Kevin Allan - Pakistan
Muaaz - Poland
Matthew Bogen - Colombia
Michael Rabinovsky - South Africa
Mujtaba Ali - Panama
Nick Kondratiev - Mexico
Tareq Enayetullah - Netherlands
Todd Bronshtein - China
Varun Chandramouli - Australia
Olivia Domba - USA
Omer Zaidi - Nigeria
Eitezaz Mahmood - Russia
We will also be posting these assignments on the bulletin board at school, and you should get an email as well. Please contact a board member with any questions.
Please note that this topic should NOT be a discussion on the merits of taking drugs. We don't mind a little humor, of course, but please don't base your country's opinion off the fact that "drugs are cool" or "the harmful effects of marijuana are just propaganda" or the like. This is really much more of an economic issue then a moral one.
We hope you enjoy this topic. Start researching! Please have a position paper ready for Thursday.
If you're reading this and you didn't get a country assigned to you (but you're planning to come to the meeting this week) please contact a board member.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Civil War Topic
Okay our debate now is going to take place way back when in the 1851, at this time, the North And South parts of America were rapidly accelerating to the Civil War. Here is some background to what was going down- read everything…. (In real life this time was called the Crisis of the 1850's and the result was the Compromise of 1850)
The entire southern economy depended on Slavery. Especially after the cotton gin was invented, slavery boomed in the Deep South. Two thirds of all of exports from America was cotton. Most of the wealth in the South was invested in slavery. Thus, Southerners fiercely defended slavery. To defend it, they came up with the pro slavery argument.
This is the main ideas with the pro- slavery argument-
Slavery is the only way that both whites and blacks can live together
The conditions for slaves is much better than the condition of factory workers in the North.
Cotton is key to American prosperity
The North is filled with corrupt greedy people, and the slavery system is the only way to avoid that way of life. Also, city life
is dirty and horrible and the southerners did not want that.
Slaves are unfit to take care of themselves
Slaves are biologically inferior
The Southern politicians wanted to see slavery expand so that there could be more slave states in the Senate. They were always fearful of the Senate outlawing slavery. If slavery was for some reason outlawed, the entire Southern economy would fall apart.
In the north, the free- soil idealogy became the main basis for attack of slavery,
THIS IDEALOGY WAS NOT MORALLY AGAINST SLAVERY BECAUSE IT WAS WRONG AND WHAT IT DID TO BLACKS
Slavery caused stagnation in social classes it made equal opportunity difficult to attain. Slavery preserved an entrenched aristocracy, which there was.
While the Northern economy was booming with new industries, the Southern economy was stagnating
They claimed that the Southern aristocrats wanted to expanded slavery, thus replacing the equal opportunity economy of the north with the closed aristocratic economy of the South. Thus, slaver could not expand.
Okay those were the two ideologies behind the North and South’s position on slavery, now im going to summarize how these ideas clashed in a series of events
In the early 1800’s America was expanding its borders. New states were being added to the union everyday. In the Missouri Compromise, the politicians of America had decided to extend a line halfway through America and all states North of it would be free states and all states South of it would be slave states. But, after the Mexican War in 1848ish, new land was added to America. The state of slavery in this new land was undecided. Most Northerners wanted that all states gained from Mexico should be free-states. The South fiercely fought this idea. They wanted slavery to exist in the new land. With the California gold rush, California had enough people in it to become a part of the Union. There was a lot of controversy on how California should be accepted into the Union.
Not only California could be accepted into the union but other free states could potentially come as well. This would lead to a majority of the states in the Senate to be free states, that would be a nightmare for Southerners. Some people wanted the Missouri Compromise Line to be extended, while others wanted the states themselves to decide on the issue on slavery based on how many slave owners and non slave owners there were.
To make things work, Northerners were trying to abolish slavery in Washington D.C
And, to make things even more worse, Northerners passed laws in which Fugitive Slaves (slaves who ran to the north to escape slavery) would not be hunted down by the police and returned to their owners. This was a direct violation of the constitution which already had Fugitive Slave Clause that made sure escaped slaves would come back to their owner. These laws were called Personal Liberty Laws.
Okay with all this anti-slavery forces working, the South was really really angry and they were even talking of seccession and forming their own country. Sooooo it’s the role of the North to make the Southerners happy and not leave cause if they did that would be really bad (as the Civil War shows). At the same time it is the role of all the Southern delegates to protect slavery.
With that being said, lets assign states, MAKE SURE TO BRING A PLACARD TO THE MEETING WITH YOUR STATES NAME ON IT. AND BRING A POSITION PAPER BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T YOU HAVE ALMOST NO CHANCE OF GOING TO CONFERENCES WHERE WE MEET WITH OTHER SCHOOLS AND DEBATE. The position paper should include your senator’s stance on the issue and what you think should happen to the new states. Also, briefly talk about if there is slavery in your country. A really good source to use in doing your research is the www.senate.gov and of course wikipedia.org. It would be smart to do a little extra research on everything. And, use your American History Textbook if you have it and go to page 359.
North
Massachusetts- Kevin Allan & Julia Kelley
Pennsylvania- Tushar Swamy
Ohio- Ayesha
Iowa- Divya
New York- Rabya Saraf
Maine- Varun
Rhode Island- Alex Polyak
Vermont- Faisal Waged
Indiana- Mike Rabinovsky
Illinois- Simon Choi
Connecticut- Kevin Nayer
New Jersey- Olivia Domba
Michigan- Hanah Yoo
New Hampshire- Anuj Desai
South
Alabama- Alex Falcon
South Carolina- Jen Mo & Josh Eiinis
Kentucky- T2 (me)
Virginia- Julie Sun
North Carolina- Mujtaba & Michael Bogen
Missouri- Eli Schwarchchild (I spelled your name way wrong haha)
Georgia- Omer Zaidi
Louisisiana- Alex Polynak
Tennessee- Nick Kondratiev
Delaware- Bassel
Mississippi- Tareq
Texas- Marius Bernotas
Zackory Taylor- President of the U.S- Eli Keimach (Eli you die of a violent stomach cancer in 1850 so you cant come to the second meeting... just kidding haha)
Millard Fillmore- Vice President- Simon Choi
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Congo
The Congo has been steadily unraveling, here's a good article about what the UN is trying to do in the area, which includes a conflicted Zimbabwe not too far off. Here's the article.
News on the Economic Crisis
The Wall Street Journal has a good article on the current economic crisis. Try looking at that!
Hey Everyone!
Hi, this is the new website for our club. I'll be posting the week's topic, country assignments, and related news on the week's topic/the UN. If you don't get an email, you can now check out our club's blog. Our email is shs_model_un@rocketmail.com, so if you have any questions, just email us.
See you on Thursday!
See you on Thursday!
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