VOL. 5, No. 8; Tuesday, February
21, 2006
Dear Arthur,
Today's
newsletter includes:
1. Reportage from last weekend's (February
17-18) "Reinventing the
U.N." Conference.
2. Updated
information on Middle School M.U.N.
meeting next Monday, Feb.
27.
3. New
survey on Television
Ratings for the 2006 Winter
Olympics.
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Civitas Home
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| Civitas "Reinventing the U.N." Conference Major
Success!
 Following a month and a half of
preparation work, the Civitas "Reinventing the United Nations"
conference took place last Friday and Saturday, Feb. 17
- 18 at the DoubleTree Hotel - Airport .
Thirty-nine students divided into three committees to
tackle issues related to reforming or reinventing the U.N.
Among the topics that received the greatest attention were: (a)
establishment of a permanent U.N. peace-keeping or "police"
force; (b) changing the voting systems in the General Assembly
and/or Security council to a form of "weighted
representation." Under such a system, the voting power of a
nation could be determined in-part by factors such as its
population, its contribution to the U.N. through dues, its GNP,
its military strength, its human rights record, its willingness
to commit troops to serve in U.N. peacekeeping operations, its
land-mass area, adherence to the U.N.'s mandate that all member
nations be "peace-loving countries."
 Other topics included reworking the
U.N. Human Rights Commission, eliminating or restricting veto
power in the Security Council, and establishing a "Fast Action
Council" to take the place of the Security Council for
international emergencies.
One topic that received
considerable attention and support was promotion by the United
Nations of an international language such as Esperanto. One completed
resolution on this topic was written in Committee 2 (chaired by
Lisa Granich-Kovarik) and you can read it by clicking
here. Committee 2 also authored a resolution on U.N.
peacekeeping and it can be accessed from the same
site.
Additional information is
available on our intranets
site. You can get information on the
intranets site as well as join by clicking here.
More information, particularly from Committees 1
(chaired by Gloria Bilchik) and 3 (chaired by Arthur Lieber) will
be available shortly.
Our thanks to photographer
J.B. Forbes of the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch who covered our sessions on
Saturday morning. The Post carried one of his photos
on page 2 (or was it 3?) of the Metro section in
yesterday's (Monday, Feb. 20) newspaper.
Also, please remember that Dr. Ronald Glossop will be
starting a new class on Esperanto next Tuesday,
February 28.
You can contact Dr.
Glossop at [email protected].
Among the students who have already indicated interest in
learning Esperanto
are Christina Doelling (Rosati-Kain, 2008), Katie Fanning
(Lindbergh, 2008), Abigail Henderson (Fox, 2010), Tanya
Konovalova (Fox, 2007 {Exchange student from Ukraine}), Derick
Martin (Hazelwood Central, 2009), Allison Reed (Rosati-Kain,
2008), and Gabrielle Ruess (Fox, 2006). In addition,
several Civitas staff may be interested as well.
Conference Home
Page | | Map and Directions to DoubleTree Hotel for
Conference
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Middle School Model U.N. Update
 Middle School Model UN is in the midst of
resolution-writing season, and if the recently concluded
classroom visits are any indication, this year's crop of
resolutions is very promising indeed! Students are working on a
wide-range of issues, from juvenile justice to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, from child labor to women's rights. Putting their
critical thinking skills to the test, students are trying to find
creative solutions to these persistent global problems. This
flurry of resolution-writing will culminate at next Monday's (February
27th) teachers' meeting when the final resolutions for
each General Assembly date will be chosen.
Speaking of that teachers' meeting. .
. . We look forward to seeing everyone there! The meeting is at
Creve Coeur Government Center (map)
from 4:00 until no later than 5:00 on this coming Monday. It's a
critical meeting; not only will the resolutions be chosen but we
will also be discussing some other important details about the
spring General Assembly sessions. If you have any questions at
all about the meeting or would like to schedule a second
classroom visit, please contact Lisa at 314-865-4704 or [email protected].
Middle School
Country Selections for
2005-2006
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Why Are The Television Ratings For The Olympics So
Low This Year?
 The Kansas State Collegian
newspaper reported this morning:
"Olympic
athletes are having a hard time holding their own against
performance prisses.
Nielsen weekly ratings
for Feb. 6 to 12 place Saturday's prime time Winter Olympics on
NBC at seventh place - after CSI, Grey's Anatomy and both airings
of American Idol.
Crunching the numbers, USA Today said the
viewership numbers are down 36 percent from the 2002 Winter
Olympics in Salt Lake City.
For broadcasters and,
especially, advertisers, the million dollar question is why are
the Olympics' ratings down by almost half from four years
ago?"
Our question is, which of the
following (you may select as many as you wish) reasons do you
think have contributed to the lower ratings of the Olympics in
2006? a) None or few of the American contestants in
the Olympics have that "American Idol" appeal. b) The
way in which the Olympics events are presented is that they are
too chopped up -- there is frequent switching from event to
event. c) Many Americans are hooked into their
favorite programs such as CSI, Grey's Anatomy, and American
Idol. They are unwilling to pass up episodes of these
programs to watch the Olympics. d) Americans are
retreating into a form of isolationism in which they have little
concern or care about activities that take place outside of the
United States and in which most of the participants are from
other countries. e) Not Sure Click
here for the survey:
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Previous Survey Results!
Last newsletter's
question was:
Do You Think That The Olympics Should Be Run
By The United Nations?
 People may disagree about how interested they are
in the current winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. However,
one thing that everyone can agree upon is that the organizing
committee of the Olympics -- the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) -- makes an enormous amount of money from the
proceedings. Most revenue comes from television rights and
corporate sponsorships.
Learning what happens to the
profits that the IOC makes is as difficult as finding out what
happens to the profits of a major league baseball team or a
company like Enron before it suddenly went bankrupt. Our
question is this:
In light of the fact that the United Nations is in
desperate need for new sources of revenue, do you think that the
Olympics should be turned over to the United Nations and have the
profits from the games go into the general operating funds of the
U.N.?
a) Yes -- 4 (27%)
b) No -- 8 (53%)
c) Not Sure -- 3 (20%)
COMMENTS ON THE ISSUE
Bobbi Clemons; Civitas
Staff
I would say
yes to this question if three conditions were met: (1) All of the
Ambassadors to the U.N. would have to undergo mandatory steroid
testing; (2) All athletes of the Olympics would have to write a
three page essay on human rights and their country of origin; and
(3) The Olympics and the U.N. should combine their logos to
something much more marketable.
Maurice
Harris; Knox College, 2008
The IOC already has problems in running the Olympics
as in corruption charges from 2002, to put it into the hands of
the United Nations would make it worse, not only in chances of
corruption, but in the view of putting it into the hands of a
bureaucracy. It would slow down the things that the Olympic
committee have to do and would make the Olympics worse.
Brett DeLaria; S.L.U.H.; 2009
The United Nations doesn't need to
handle the Olympics. I rather have politicians from nations
worrying about how to run the world rather than what food items
should be offered at the next Olympics. Plus after the Oil for
Food Scandal I strongly question the integrity of the United
Nation's ability to create and manage a program fairly.
Crystal Williams; Dominican University,
2008
The U.N.
has enough problems resolving the problems of the world. They
don't need the added responsibility of putting on the Olympics
despite the positive outcome of more revenues.
Tony Keel; S.L.U.H., 2006
Well, considering
how messed up the UN is now, I would say don't let them control
the IOC. However, if the UN is updated as it was in the
"Reinventing the United Nations" conference, then I think in the
future this would be a good idea.
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