St. Louis Agencies

Big Brothers Big Sisters - I think role models are a large influence during childhood. BBBS helps ensure that these children have at least one good role model.

Almost Home - This agency provides transitional housing for teenage mothers and their children. As we learned from our Senior Seminar presentation, "place matters." I think it is a good thing to help young mothers provide a safe and stable place for them to raise their young children.

Beginning Babies with Books - This agency's goal is to try to increase the number of literate children by starting children reading at a very young age. I love this idea because I think the ability to read is a skill everyone should have, and good readers lead to better thinkers!

Beyond Housing - This agency's mission is to provide people in need access to affordable housing, together with a comprehensive array of educational, employment, youth development and other support services. I think this is important because living well is more than just about having a home.

Made In India

Research Question

1) Does the higher number of Americans in prison lend itself to a safer environment? Do citizens feel safer?
2) Does the United States have more of a certain kind of criminal than other countries? Is this because there are actually circumstances in the U.S. that encourage this type of criminal?
3) How many people think they have wrongly been imprisoned? Stats needed: number of Americans in prison, reasons for imprisonment, Americans' sense of security compared to other countries'.

International Human Rights Brainstorm

I'm interested in researching about the staggering number of people in jail in the United States. While I believe that there should be consequences for breaking the law, there seem to be a lot of inconsistencies. For instance, a group of American fisherman unknowingly broke the law when they imported lobster tails in plastic bags instead of boxes. (I'm not sure why this would matter. The lobsters are already dead so it couldn't be for their sake...) For unknowingly packaging lobster tails incorrectly, three out of the four fishermen were sentenced to eight years in prison. And while I understand the argument about how the fishermen should have known better since this was their job/specialty, I still think this consequence seems extreme. I think people who knowingly run stoplights are more dangerous. (But then again I don't know why the lobster was supposed to be packaged differently..) I think this is an important topic because it has the ability to affect all of us. I for one would hate to one day be sitting in a cell for breaking a law I didn't even know existed. (On the other hand, if that could be used as an excuse then criminals could claim they were unaware of any law they might want to break.) I think doing crime comparisons of other countries, and trying to find out if there is a correlation between how many people are in jail and how safe people feel in general might be interesting. I also wonder if we have more of one "type" of criminal than other countries, ex) fraud, murder, traffic violations... If we have more murderers, then maybe we are in the right and are just more able/willing to catch murderers. If the majority of Americans are in jail for laws like the fishermen dealt with and other countries don't have many of those, then maybe we are, not just having higher expectations for our citizens, but setting them up for failure.
http://www.economist.com/node/16640389
http://www.economist.com/node/16636027
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR32.4/article_loury.php

Hoess Photo

http://idamclient.ushmm.org/IMAGES/(S(a0giee55143bxqrwwntdcv45))/RetrieveAsset.aspx?instance=IDAM_USHMM&qfactor=2&width=640&height=480&crop=0&size=1&type=asset&id=1163609

"An accordionist leads a sing-along for SS officers at their retreat at Solahuette outside Auschwitz."

A large group of men are gathered on a hill in uniform and are singing. Some men in front are smiling and the men that are leading the others are very animated.

Nazi officers close to camp meet and do a sing-a-long. They were having a picnic and decided to sing songs about old films and about jokes and what Germany is going to be like/was like. Sang prideful songs about what a good job they were doing. They are having a good time and feel a sense of companionship. They are small-talking about everything except for the deaths of Jews just a few minutes away.

Who is in charge in this photo? Is it really the man waving his hands and getting the others to sing? Did they have the day off? Do they get days off? Were there so many officers that these officers could go off and have a sing along and things would continue to run smoothly without them?

The Congo Today

Woman: 'They wanted to destroy my body and spirit'

"Adam Hochschild, author of the prize-winning book, "King Leopold's Ghost," wrote that Belgian King Leopold murdered up to 8 million Congolese while robbing the country of ore and rubber at the beginning of the 20th century. The struggle for control of Congo's rich natural resources -- the CIA Factbook says it is "endowed with vast potential wealth" in diamonds, gold and cobalt -- has fueled much of the violence today, activists say."

There is a lot of violence still going on today, and much of it has to do with natural resources just like it was with King Leopold in the Congo. Things are particularly gruesome for women in the Congo as they are raped and abused as an effect of the economic war.

"It's 'femicide,' " Ensler says, using another word to describe the treatment of Congolese women. "It's the systematic destruction of women. It's an economic war fought on the bodies of women. It's the destruction of the Congolese people and life itself."

Some organizations are attempting to create safe havens for these women to come and recuperate from abuse.

UNICEF says the war has cost more lives than any other war since World War II.

I wonder how these numbers compare to the death toll when Leopold was in power.

Rape has become a primary weapon in that war, says Geoffrey Keele, a UNICEF spokesman. Keele says rape is designed to destroy the Congolese community. Husbands, families and villages often shun rape victims. A weak and divided community is easier to conquer.

"Rape is designed not just to injure and dehumanize the women but impact their families and communities," Keele says.

I don't understand why these communities are allowing this tactic to work on them. Organizations should possibly be working with them to support and rehabilitate one another, not shun family members, dividing and letting the other side's plan work. I think there should also be many more safe havens for women.

Leopold may have set an example for today's Congolese who are fighting for resources. They have turned to violence and are using violence to gain control and power over the people.

http://articles.cnn.com/2008-10-15/world/congo.women_1_congolese-women-democratic-republic-belgian-king-leopold?_s=PM:WORLD

KLG Post-Discussion

Idea or question that's lingering after your discussion.
"Discuss the various comparisons Hochschild makes between Nazi concentration camps and the actions of white men in the Congo. How culpable do you think the perpetrators of each of these crimes were?"
I guess I don't know as much about the Nazis' goals as I thought. I thought a key difference between Leopold and Hitler and other Nazi officials was that the Nazi's weren't after natural resources or land - but apparently that's not true. So I'd like to know more about the similarities and differences between the two that I might not know.

Evaluate your small group discussion. What went well? How can you improve?
I think our group actually did extremely well. We used support, both quoted and paraphrased and everyone spoke at least once. Most people spoke many times. We stated our opinions and used the book to show why we thought what we did. It was informal and had a good flow. We could probably improve by getting everyone to participate more consistently/equally.