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5. Summaries, 17 November – 30 November 2014
Week 9-10
Each class summarizes the answers received from other Learning Circle partners and post them to the wiki site.
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Summary from wp1 (Liceul Tehnologic Special pentru Copii cu Deficiente Auditive Buzau, Romania, Teacher Andrei Doina)
Our questions are: “Have there been any wars lately in your country? Are there any wars taking place near your borders? Do you think it is possible for an armed conflict to start between your country and other countries? Do you feel your country is in danger from the part of other countries?”
wp3 tell us that recently Canada has experienced multiple terror attacks within their own country. ISIS now has the ability to target Canadians and radicalize them into believing what the group allows them to believe regarding religious beliefs; this ultimately causes Canadian to turn on themselves. The fact that ISIS has the ability to attack Canadian government, radicalize Canadians and promote “lone wolf attacks” proves that the crisis in ISIS is a global war that does have the potential to affect Canada.
wp6 group answer that there haven’t been any wars in their country, Romania after the Second World War. But they had a Revolution against communists in December 1989 and 2,000 people died then, being shot by the communist regime. Unfortunately, there is a conflict between Ukraine in Russia taking place near their borders, in the north of their country. However they don’t think it is possible for an armed conflict to start between Romania and other countries and they don’t feel their country is in danger from the part of other countries.
wp7 say there isn’t a war in their country and hopefully there will not be any. There is a conflicts near their borders, the one between Ukraine and Russia, but they don’t think armed conflicts between their country and others will happen in the near future, because there aren’t any big conflicts that involve their country.
wp8 say that from the Nistru river to the valleys of South Caucasus, the north-east part of Europe is crossed by frozen conflicts – Transnistria, Crimeea, Abhazia, South Osetia and Nagorno-Karabah. These areas are some sort of “political volcanoes” apparently sleepy, but ready to erupt because of the ethnic mix that characterizes this area. It’s like a circle of fire and instability around the Black Sea. However, Romania isn’t directly affected by the problems in Ukraine and there are not immediate risks to their national security. But the emergence of more instability in the region (like the violent street protests from Bosnia and the separatists plots from Moldavia) can increase the instability and this can lead to fire arm protests.
wp9 tell there have been no recent wars in their country, but there actually is a huge conflict, or dispute, over some territories in Ukraine, near Romania’s borders. In Ukraine there is a civil war going on between pro-Europeans (citizens that wish that Ukraine remains at their current borders, including Crimea, and that wish that Ukraine would be an EU member) and pro-Russians (also called rebels, they want independence in a large part of Ukraine so that they can reunite with Russia). However at the moment they see no possibility of an armed conflict between Romania and another country, except the scenario in which the conflict in Ukraine gets too big, and Romania, along with other NATO members, has to get involved in the war, that will most probably be against Russia. They, along with most Romanians, feel they are in danger, the reason of this insecurity being Russia.
wp10 answer that the President of Romania, Traian Basescu, has said about the conflict in Ukraine, that for Romania there is no risk of a conflict with Russia, at least in the current conjuncture. Currently there is no war in Romania.
wp11 sat that for now, there aren't conflicts in Romania, but one of the latest conflicts involves Russia and Crimea and makes people from Romania feel unsafe, because in practice, they have two big countries with a big influence from Russia, that makes the population balanced (locals and Russians). So some of the people think that in time Russia will attend to do the same thing Moldovia.
Summary from wp2, National College “B.P.Hasdeu”, Romania
First of all, I want to thank you for all of your answers.
1. On this question, opinios are divided. On the one hand it is good to left your childish dreams and to grow up, but as someone answered: A dream, an ambition can make you carry mountains, walk through fire or slay our darkest demons from childhood.
2. After I read each answer, I come to the following conclusion: it is not easy to fulfill your dreams, for that you need ambition and supprt from your family and I will add a little rabbit's foot for good luck.
3. Everyone has their own dreams. We all want to get somewhere, or to be someone, but with all these different dreams, we have something in common: we will fight for what we want.
4. When we were five years old some of us dreamed of speaking many languages in future, being great and amazing sports star, being doctors, others thought of becoming a director of the toy-shop. But today, our dreams and ambitions have greatly changed.
Summary from wp3, St. John Paul II CSS, teacher Lisa Cicinelli, Canada
Summary from wp4, St. John Paul II CSS, teacher Margaret Komza, Canada
Summary from wp5, OWLAG, South Africa
How effective are peace organizations like the UN in dealing with the causes of war?
From the responses received from other schools, we have come to the following answer:
Peace organizations are working and trying really hard to keep the peace. Their eagerness to keeping peace has contributed to the effectiveness of peace keeping. Peace organization, such as the UN have called for many measures to be put in place in order to ensure and develop friendly relations among nations thus ensuring peace. The UN is able to spread awareness through the media about conflicts and the active support for Namibian independence substantiates the appointment of these measures. Therefore, peace organizations are effective in that they are responsible for decreasing the number of violent acts over the years.
However, peace organizations are not perfect and sometimes, too much is expected of them. WP7’s answer mentions that it is not made clear to people around the world as to what peace organizations can do and cannot do, and what the peace organizations are expected to do. These expectations lead to many disappointments which in turn, make these peace organizations look like they have not progressed even though they were not expected to do certain things.
Another problem is religious and ethnical based conflicts. These conflicts are not as easily stopped as others because stopping a conflict means the two parties come to an agreement and this is highly unlikely in religious and ethnic based conflicts. In these cases, peace organizations can only try to reduce the destruction and the losses caused by conflicts and wars of this manner.
It is clear that peace organizations have the power to stop certain conflicts and it is also clear that they have been effective in doing so,however, even though peace organizations have the financial support to make a difference, it we truly want to see change in our societies, we need to be the bigger people and try to make the change. It should not be an effort coming only from peace organizations; it should be an effort from the world. Peace for the world should mean all of try to work for it.
Summary from wp6, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Buga Mihaela, Andrei Elena, Romania
Our questions are: What are the main reasons for starting wars between countries and how can they be avoided? Have there been wars in your country with major consequences?
wp1 say that the main reasons for starting wars between countries is the desire for supremacy, the difference in religion, political problems or economic issues between two countries. The only way to solve this problem is to accept that some of us are different then others, and we can live together as we were all the same. In their country there were wars with major consequences, like the First World War, the Second World War and the Revolution against the communist regime in December 1989.
wp3 tell that war is a result in a difference of perspective on morality between a nation or a group of nations. By analyzing major wars through two lenses, the recognition of inter perspective relationships and the inability to comprehend opposing views, it becomes apparent that war is a result of the inability to fathom differences in morality! Peace is simply the absence of warfare, hence in order to avoid warfare one must simply avoid the cause of peace. Having already isolated and recognized the cause of warfare as a inability to fathom a difference in morality, the simple solution presented is to understand that more than one sense of morality can exist. In doing so, one is now able to negotiate and compromise on conflicts and negate all war efforts.
wp4 answer that Canada is religiously diverse, encompassing a wide range of beliefs and customs. Although Canada is well-known as the country of peacekeeping, it doesn’t mean that it has not experienced the effects of war. Canada's strong attachment to the British Empire and Commonwealth led to major participation in British military efforts in the Second Boer War, War of 1812, World War I and World War II. Since then, Canada has been an advocate for multilateralism, making efforts to resolve global issues in collaboration with other nations. Today, it joins the ongoing fight, along with the United States, against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
wp7 consider that wars between countries result from several reasons, including, but not limited to: insults, the desire for empire and wealth, competition between countries, competition over scarce resources-many wars have been fought over fertile farm and grazing lands, water and, today, oil, desire for independence, desire for political reform, moral reasons, political differences, ethnic hatred. To stop terror and avoid war, we must first understand what causes it, and what approaches have, and have not, been successful in the past, and don't be afraid to speak out and listen: talk with your neighbours, friends, relatives, co-workers, classmates. The Hungarian–Romanian War was fought between the Hungarian Soviet Republic and the Kingdom of Romania from November 1918 until March 1920, with the main military operations ending in August 1919. The Romanians lost 188 officers and 11,478 soldiers, out of which 69 officers and 3,601 soldiers died. The Romanians started retreating from Hungary in November 1919. Between February 14 and March 28, 1920 all Romanian Army units left Hungarian territory.
wp8 say that there are lots of reasons for starting wars, but they can vary from country to country. In their opinion, some of the main reasons are: disputes between confessional beliefs, political conflicts and the thirst for power and domination. Romania was involved in both World Wars and the consequences were quite major for their small and powerless country. They lost some important territories, they had to pay war debts, they fell under the communist regime and they lost a lot of brave soldiers. In conclusion, war is never, under no circumstances, a good thing for any country.
wp9 believe there are plenty of reasons to start a war, but probably the main one is the conflict of interests between two sides. Avoiding this situation is not easy, but in order to stop a war, one of the parties has to take their troops home. However, in most cases, nobody wants to retreat and lose everything they have fought for up until that moment, so there isn't really any clear method of stopping wars. Even though no major war was recently fought in their country, Romania has partaken in battles on numerous occasions, alongside other nations, having signed different partnerships during the course of history.
wp10 believe that wars break out because of the wrong assessment of the international situation or because the political strategies came under the control of elites – all contribute in some way to the feeling that wars are 'accidents' occurring in the international system. Wars are a result of conscious calculations of the ruling elite, in these extensive international efforts to acquire monopoly on scarce material goods.
wp11 consider there are a lot of reasons for starting war, but the biggest is envy. Because of it, more powerful countries attack the small ones, if they have a lot of natural resources (like coal, oil, natural gases). Everybody wants something from the others, so they choose the war instead of talking and negotiating. We can't stop it, there will always be conflicts like that, but we can minimize it. And that is possible just if we understand that the bloody method is not the best and choose to use our brains, not our guns. Another topic would be the religious war. People fight and kill each other in the name of their god. To stop this, we must learn that people have the right to opinion and we can't make them believe what we believe with force. They will die for it if they have strong beliefs, but they will not believe what the others want. In conclusion, to minimize the wars we must have respect for each other, because everything starts from respect.
Summary from wp7, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teachers Cristea Diana, Dinu Constantin, Romania
We're almost at the end of the project of this year.I managed this time also to respond successfully at all questions posted.This collaboration with colleagues was wonderful during this semester, although some discussions have generated some contradictions we managed to solve together.
For the following few phrases I’ll try to point out the most important issues raised on the topic we had all this time.
A share of 11.7 percent of the total population of the world is in a state of conflict. For example, in Syria carries the largest and deadliest form of war that is currently in the world, with a number of dead that in the last three years climbed to at least 191,000. Mediafax.ro presents the main armed conflicts, currently taking place in the world.
Conflicts in Canada: Racism in Canada is a true thing that exists. Unfortunately, white supremacists groups exist in Canada such as “Blood and Honour” and the “Aryan Guard".These groups take their beliefs to the internet to spread hate and to recruit others who share their white supremacists’ vision for the future of the world.
Canada as a nation has gone through tons of hostility between provinces and between cultural groups. Aboriginals went through discrimination within Canada these pieces evidence confirms how. The government gave no information explaining why the Aboriginals went through such inequality; the government should explain why they did such things.
Although Canada has gone through a great quantity of quarrels, Canada has created solutions for several of those tribulations. A solution the Canadian government has created for the inequality of Aboriginals and their quality of life is providing help through human rights organizations to examine the Aboriginals lifestyle, human rights will put an end to the maltreatment.
Conflicts in Romania: In our society, the biggest number of conflicts between ethnies is provocated by Gypsies, these people often escaping without any sanction, because of the weak law system, which is being too indulgent.
It is true that minorities represent 11% of the 19 million Romanian citizens, including more than 400,000 Gypsies, part of them having caused social problems, stealing etc. After the Revolution against communists in 1989, the Government has put accent on the education of Gypsy children and has offered them special places in high schools and universities.
A way to solve the conflict with the Gypsies is to provide better education to them. That way, they will become a working, educated part of our community, and reverse their generally bad image in Europe. As they will become more and more educated, most of them will find jobs, and contribute to our country economy.
The conflict we have with Hungarians is not as big as Romanians think it is. Most Hungarians are happy the way things are. However, there are extremists who want independence, so that they can unite Hungary with a part of Transylvania once again. Those extremists are bad for both Romanians and Hungarians, but with new generations born, extremists will slowly fade away.
This conflict will exist forever, but we are trying to minimize it,making them understand that they must adapt.
Summary from wp8, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Popa Maria, Romania
For this Learning Circle the other teams informed us about facts from their countries and we found out the following things:
WP1 team told us that in their country there is an ongoing political conflict which hasn’t involved violence. They said that they don’t know if it’s any way to stop it.
The WP3 team said that another way to resolve the pollution problem from their country is to pressure the government into stopping the development on ton sands. Another solution would be the involvement of environmental organizations like Greenpeace. We also found out that the government of Canada has launched a campaign to help stop the use of drugs, so a solution to this problem consisted of anti-drug groups and plans to prevent drug abuse.
The WP5 team told us that the biggest social issue that South Africa is facing is poverty and this is a consequence of a lot of factors like low standard of the educational system, poor health system and high crime rates. The African National Congress is trying to reduce the high poverty rate through different social programs and it is trying to create new jobs. These solutions lead to a big drop in the number of people that were going to suffer from hunger (from 13.4 million in 2012 to 6.2 million in 2013) so we can see that there is hope and changes are made.
The WP6 team told us that our government should make a law against Roma discrimination, but this law already exists: it’s the Government Order no.137 / 2000 on preventing and punishing all forms of discrimination with approvals and subsequent amendments. If this law is broken, you can make a complaint at the National Council for Combating Discrimination or even at the National Court.
WP 7 said that six years ago the world economic crisis hit the world. Some banks went bankrupt and companies put padlock on the doors. Crisis effects were felt immediately in Romanian pockets. In a few months euro exchange rate hit 4.2 lei from 3.5 lei. Taxes were increased by 5 % and Romanian wages were reduced. We have a relatively young age and we are not able to offer solution that could solve this crisis, we tried to use our imagination and find something that we would do. Ideas like: creating some new jobs, reorientation of agricultural production. As a conclusion, Romania fell badly in this period, but we are sure we can recover what we lost.
The WP9 team believes that peace will always be something impossible to be achieved, because people will constantly seek reasons to fight. We and most of the population in our country consider it is poor because the president is cutting almost all the income from citizen’s pocket and our opinion is that there are too many corrupt politicians who are stealing to make their fortune bigger and bigger every year. If we had the power we would make them resign their function and we would replace them with someone who’s actually capable of leading the country.
The team from WP10 told us that the one big problem that can be found in all countries is fighting between people. But the biggest problem is that fighting is between youngsters, in small ages, and the reason for fight is something ridiculous: someone's been talked behind their back.
WP11 team told us that one of the conflicts that exist in our country is the ethnic conflict between Romanians and Roma people. Another conflict is the economic one and they believe that we could solve these problems if the government were more involved.
Summary from wp9, National College of Computer Science “Grigore Moisil”, Romania
Team WP1 considered that calling a truce would be a valid solution. However, in their opinion, NATO are the ones who should take actions.
Team WP2 stated that the airstrikes should be left away in order to control the risk of ISIS seeking vengeance on the innocent, though they believe this will not solve the problem. They think a ceasefire would establish peace and give countries time to recover and reconstruct.
Team WP6 said that they the only possible solution is to attack ISIS and show them they aren't more powerful than NATO. They think the development of the conflict will result in ISIS running out of resources and eventually surrendering.
Team WP7 believes that this conflict must be stopped because many innocent people are the ones who feel the consequences of the war, getting kidnapped and killed. They reckon that Islamists must acknowledge that we are all humans and we have to live in peace for the war to come to an end.
In Team WP8's opinion ,NATO should have two plans to dissolve this problem with ISIS .The first plan should be one peaceful because the team believes that an approach without violence would not lead to other crimes . The second approach will be used in case things do not evolve in a favorable way . This would require military training. From WP8's point of view ,peace will be brought by an agreement between members of ISIS and NATO members ,not a military war . On longer terms ,the Kurdish defenders wouldn't be able to resist any longer . The fight against ISIS is a difficult one and it can't be solved overnight.
According to Team WP10 ,people kill each other because they think that if they show their strength ,the others will give up in front of them and give them whatever they want . They don't realize that they make bad to themselves.
Team WP11 thinks that unless steps are taken ,all these circumstances lead to a war in which many people will die .
Summary from wp10, Colegiul Economic Buzau, teacher Nedelcu Janina, Romania
Summary from wp11, Liceul Teoretic ”Nicolae Iorga”, Romania
Hello!
Our question was: „Do you think that Russia had the right to conquer Crimea using the military force?”
You had some interesting opinions about Russia’s intervention. Some of you said that the negociation shoudl’ve been the best „weapon” for Russia. With no blood and no waste of energy. You consider their actions spontaneous and uncivilized. Everything that Russia did was ilegal because the only way a country can have a war against another one is to declare it, thing that Russia failed to do. They broke the integrity of Ukraine and took something that didn’t belong to them. Even if in 1783 Crimea was a part of Russia, since 195s it has been transferred to the Ukrainian SFSR (Soviet Federative Socialist Republic). Russia should accept the fact that time has passed and they have no rights in Crimea.
In conclusion all of us agreed that military force wasn’t necesary, even if Russia tought that it was doing the right thing. There are a lot of other ways nowadays, because now „wars” are made with brains, not weapons.
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