Tag: social problems

Growing Up Too Fast

The Over Sexual Image of Young Girls Growing up is difficult enough without having to see images depicting young women in provocative or sexualized positions.  However, young girls across America are immersed in a media culture in which wearing skimpy outfits make them beautiful, and looking like a size two model is the epitome of …

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Too Young For War

Stopping the Use of Child Soldiers When we think of the lives of children we often do not think of them as training in military camps and fighting in wars.  Yet, there are thousands of child soldiers involved in armed conflicts around the globe—some as young as 8 or 9.  Universally, the use of child …

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Facebook Revolution

It’s rare to read a news article on the Tunisian revolt without also reading about Facebook; it was the “Facebook revolution,” the “social media revolt,” sparked by WikiLeaks and organized by Twitter users.  But how much of the credit can really be given to social media? The revolution began in December 2010, sparked by the …

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Aid to Iraq – USAID and Power

On Tuesday, I wrote about the basics of Iraq Aid, pointing out a few of the key issues that are being addressed by international aid organizations. One of the most influential of these organizations is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which has provided over $7.4 billion in aid to Iraq since 2003. …

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Seeking to Combat Child Sex Tourism

A Focus on Federal Legislation Human trafficking is a persistent international and domestic problem and crime, which is bound in violations of human rights, labor, and public health standards.  The definition of human trafficking varies from source to source; however, there are common entities to its overall meaning—victims of trafficking include those who are recruited, …

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A Vicious Cycle

Poverty, Disability, and Exclusion from Development Strategies A World Bank estimate suggests that 25% of the 1.3 billion most impoverished people in the world experience some form of disability, and according to the UN Development Program, 80% of persons with disabilities (PWDs) live in developing countries. These numbers are steadily increasing due to a number …

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Dangerous Reporting

Essentialism in Western Media Perspectives Even today, among reputable news sources, there still remains a level of ignorance and an essentialist undertone in Western media perspectives of the “developing world.” For example, in a recent issue of The Economist, I came across a feature on Gendercide in India, which discusses the distorted sex ratios in …

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Tackling Education on the African Continent

Over the past decade, public spending on education in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by more than 6 % each year, according to the latest report released by UNESCO. Thereal question however, is not how much money is being spent, rather how exactly it is being distributed. The report showed some promising results. The increase in …

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Can we PLEASE focus on a real education issue?

Donald Trump has asked for the President to provide his birth certificate several times and has made a new statement that the President wasn’t “Qualified for the Ivy League.” I am not sure how the President performed at Harvard, and honestly I think it is a question that the American public should not really care about. …

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Let’s Talk About Malaria

We’ve all heard the phrase: Every 45 seconds, a child dies from malaria.  Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites transmitted by mosquitos. Statistics also show that the number of deaths resulting from this disease has been reduced over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, these statistics serve to remind us that people are still dying from …

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