St. Louis Issues

Car theft has become a daily occurrence in St. Louis. The local rate of car theft is 5.23 times the national average. Sources: police station, cityrating.com

Lack of entertainment downtown- As a result of decentralization and a decrease in the economy, downtown st. louis has become less and less popular. There is not much to do downtown besides go to sporting events and most of the social scene is outside the city. Sources: downtown businesses vs. stl county businesses

One issue that I am interested in is the amount of stray dogs and cats. I am interested in this because I have two cats and a dog and love animals. There have also been a lot of issues concerning breeders and animal abuse in St. Louis lately. Sources: the Humane Society, St. Louis Zoo

Journey from Zanskar

Zanskar

research question

In what ways are children having their right to freedom of expression and privacy violated?

Sources needed:
news articles (perspective of parents and kids), laws (declaration of human rights, specifically for certain areas, is it legal for parents to do this because kids are minors and are not legally able to make their own decisions?), statements from companies who make the product, something about protection vs. privacy

Human Rights project ideas

• Green card problems- conflicts with article 15 of universal declaration
• article in the Economist, http://blog.psaonline.org/2010/11/22/who-wants-to-be-an-american-a-lot-of-people-actually/
• What are some of the nationalities that the US often denies or makes harder to obtain a green card? and why?

• parents monitoring their children's text messages- freedom of speech (article 19)
• http://www.mymobilewatchdog.com/, http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20101117/LIVING/11170325/1032/Experts-cue-parents-on-how-to-monitor-children-s-Facebook--texting-habits
• Does these programs and monitoring from parents actually prevent kids from acting out? Have kids found ways to get around these programs

Maus 2- first half

One of the things that I found most interesting in the book was the masks. In our discussion we talked about what the different animal masks represent and how the cat/mouse thing was chosen to symbolize the relationship between those two animals. However, I do not think we fully answered why you could tell they were wearing masks in the second half of reading and not the first. I was also wondering if there was a reason that Art said he didn't want to be a bunny in the beginning. A bunny symbolizes a similar relationship to a cat as a mouse does but Art makes it clear that he doesn't want to bunny. There are also some mice that are black instead of white. Is this for organizational purposes or for some other reason?

Congo Articles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11108589

The problems mentioned in this article that are currently happening in the Congo are caused by similar events that happened when Leopold was ruling the Congo. Genocide in neighboring Rwanda has caused many people to flee to the Congo. They have also started to attack Congolese and steal their resources. This turned into a war between Rwanda and the Congo which led to the death of over 5 million.

The Congo has been taken advantage of multiple times and because of this, they can not try to make a system of their own. The article says that the east of the Congo is still unstable and I would like to know how exactly is not stable.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11480809

This article talks about a rebel leader who might be involved in mass rapes. Between 300 and 500 people have been said to have been raped within two months. Homes and businesses have also been broken into and stolen from. Doctors have gone to the Congo to try and help out rape victims, and the UK has tried to arrest the culprits.

Who is responsible for theses rapes (the rebel leader can't being responsible for all of them)? Why is this happening, is there a motive for the rapes?

King Leopold's Ghost

I though it was interesting how Stanley was one of the most famous explorers of Africa during that time, but he lied and made up stories in his biography. It was also sad to hear about all of the problems with slavery in Africa. Even Affonso's relatives were not safe when going over sees.

Where does King Leopold come into the story with Stanley?

Why does Stanley feel the need to lie and exaggerate in his biography?