English 9 B Advanced, 2007-08

Welcome back, everyone! I hope your holiday was happy and restful.

For the month of January (until the Chinese New Year holiday begins) you will be able to blog about anything you like.

Please, however, remember two things:

1. Don't write anything that might be hurtful to others, and
2. Practice proper English spelling, grammar, and expression.

I look forward to reading your blog entries!

—etm

Possible causes: poverty, injustice (trade, discrimination, ?), religion, nationalism, natural resources, control, language, culture, race. Do conflicts arise because of competition, ignorance, fear, greed, selfishness, ego, history, money, power? Is it part of human nature to fight with others, or can people learn to resolve problems peacefully?

You might consider researching conflicts such as these in various parts of the world:

In Asia, the Vietnam War (1945-75), the Korean War (1950-53), the conflict between Japan and China in the 1930s and 1940s.

In Africa, the conflict in Sudan and Darfur; Ethiopia; Somalia; Rwanda; Sierra Leone and Liberia ('blood diamonds').

In Europe, the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland; conflicts involving immigrants in Europe; the Balkan wars of the early 1990s; and countless wars before 1945.

In the Middle East, conflict and wars between Israel and its neighbours, betweens Jews and Muslims.

In North America, racial conflicts between blacks and whites.

In Latin America, the Mexican Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, numerous coups in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, and so on. In general, the conflicts between the wealthy landowners and the poor, which have played out in various ways throughout Central and South America.

Good luck! 

For your first blogging project, each of you will do research into an NGO that interests you. What is an 'NGO'? A 'non-governmental organization'. These are groups of private citizens who join together to provide some valuable service that governments don't seem able or willing to provide. Most of them are international groups that provide aid of some kind to people in need. For example, the Red Cross and Red Crescent give emergency relief to people who have suffered disasters like earthquakes. Doctors Without Borders provide medical care to people who otherwise would not have it.

This blogging project relates to our first AOI unit, in which we are asking the question, 'Is there value in doing things for others?' Doing research into one of these NGOs will teach you a lot about certain parts of the world and certain kinds of problems people there struggle with. It will also give you a chance to think about the AOI question as it applies to the work your NGO is doing.

Here are some web pages that will help you get started learning about NGOs. The first step is to find out what kinds of NGOs exist. The second step is to choose an NGO whose work interests you.

http://www.gdrc.org/ngo/what-are-ngos.html 

http://library.duke.edu/research/subject/guides/ngo_guide/

http://www.geneva.ch/IGO.htm

http://www.politicalresources.net/int2.htm

http://www.idealist.org/if/as/Org?assetTag=NON_PROFIT_TYPE&sid=

Dear English 9 B Advanced students,

On our first blogging day in the Library I would like you to write a post in which you introduce yourself to me and the other members of the class. What would you like us to know about you? You might talk about where you are from, your family, other places you have lived, your personal interests, favourite books or movies, and so on.

After you finish your post, you can experiment with changing the appearance of your blog, if you want to. You can do this either at school, or from home.

Cheers,

etm