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VOL. VI, No. 10;  Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Dear Arthur,

Today's newsletter includes (Note: You can now click on the blue hyperlinks below to go directly to the story!):

  1. Report on last Monday's MIDDLE SCHOOL teachers meeting.
  2. Information on&nbs p;last Saturday's high school COUNTRY DRAFT and INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP.
  3. Information  on proposed international simulation with Civitas students as well as college and university students.
  4. Information on new topic for Civitas BLOG!
  5. Red Pen Award
  6. Information on opportunities for Civitas students to participate in the Citizens for Global Solutions upcoming conference in Washington, DC on "A Bi-Partisan U.S. Foreign Policy for the 21st Century."
  7. Information on HUMAN RIGHTS ESSAY AWARD.   

 

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M.S. TEACHER MEETING NEXT MONDAY!

 Important Reminder:

Middle School Model United Nations Teachers Meeting

Monday, October 9

4:00 PM - no later than 5:00 PM

NEW LOCATION (for this meeting):

The Heights [Richmond Heights Community Center (map & directions)

  • Attendance is important. We'll be choosing countries, discussing the November student workshop, and scheduling classroom visits.
  • Please bring a copy of your school calendar and a list of countries you would like your students to represent.
  • If you have any conflict with the tentative General Assembly date I emailed you, please notify me immediately ( >[email protected], 865-4704) It's important that the schedule is set for the meeting on Monday to run smoothly.
 
 

FOURTEEN HIGH SCHOOLS PARTICIPATE IN COUNTRY DRAFT 


The Civitas country draft was held last Saturday morning at Crossroads School.  Fourteen schools sent representatives and thirty-seven countries were selected.  Students selected the countries that they wanted their school to represent in the first Civitas model U.N. of the year which will be held on Saturday, November 18 at the Radisson Hotel - Downtown from 9:00 AM - 2:30 PM.

The countries taken by the schools are as follows:

NOTE: Countries in bold red are on the Security Council.

School   

         

Country

Bishop DuBourg Romania


Cardinal Ritter Cuba
Cardinal Ritter    Ghana
Cardinal Ritter    Madagascar


Chesterfield Day China


Collinsville Congo (Republic of)
Collinsville France


Hazelwood Central Costa Rica
Hazelwood Central Denmark
Hazelwood Central Liberia
Hazelwood Central Sierra Leona
Hazelwood Central Sweden


Incarnate Word Israel
Incarnate Word Japan
Incarnate Word Venezuela


Lindbergh Netherlands
Lindbergh United Kingdom


Maplewood-Richmond Heights Fiji
Maplewood-Richmond Heights Greece
Maplewood-Richmond Heights Norway


Metro Germany
Metro U.S.A.


Parkway North Tanzania


Rosati-Kain Argentina
Rosati-Kain Czech Republic
Rosati-Kain Lebanon


SLUH Iran
SLUH Ireland
SLUH Qatar
SLUH Russian Federation
SLUH United Arab Emirates


Soldan International Studies Colombia
Soldan International Studies Mexica


St. Joseph's Academy Cambodia
St. Joseph's Academy Chad
St. Joseph's Academy Peru
St. Joseph's Academy Thailand



You can also access this list on-line by clicking here.    

We will have three committees of the General Assembly: (a) Political & Security; (b) Economic & Social; and (c) Human Rights.  Each country needs a representative in each of these committees.

For schools that have a country that is on the Security Council, they will need a fourth delegate to be a representative in that committee.


The next step is for students to research their countries and to begin studying issues that may come before their committee.  During the country draft, we brainstormed ideas for resolutions for each committee.  The lists are below.  We encourage students to look for issues that interest them and to write resolutions on those topics.  Delegates must keep in mind that the resolutions must bear a fair resemblence to their country's likely stand on each issue!

    

Effect of colonialism & imperialism

Economic & Social

Human Rights

Election reform

Alternative Energy

AIDs Research

Illegal Immigration

Contraception

Child Soldiers

Not stockpiling arms

Disposing of Chemical Waste

Equality for GLBT persons

Nuclear proliferation

Drug Trafficking

FGM

Occupation of Iraq

Genetically Altered Crops/Livestock

Genocide

Political & Security

International Debt

Police Brutality

Reconstruction of war-torn countries

Invasive Species Control

Refugee Status

Separatist Movements

Propaganda

Slavery

Space (the final frontier)

Public Education

Torture/Geneva Conventions

War on terrorism

Religious Conflict

Sexual Education

Universal Health Care

 

In addition to preparing for the November 18 Model U.N. session, we also brainstormed topics for the February conference at the Comfort Inn in Maryland Heights.  We had a plethora of good ideas, and among them are the ones listed below.  We will announce the topic for the conference in next week's newsletter.

  • Crimes against Humanity
  • Demilitarization
  • Democratization
  • Economic Disparity
  • Religion & Government
  • Territorial Integrity
  • UN & Global Health
  • UN & Sovereignty
  • UN & Women
  • UN Leadership


Our next meeting will be a regular discussion group on Saturday, October 14.  It will once again be at Crossroads School (map) from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM.  The world is being very generous with us, providing us with blockbuster topics almost every day.  Too bad that the price of this is the suffering of a number of people.





We are excited to announce that Professor Joe Davis has agreed to work with both Civitas students and local college and university students on an international simulation.  Professor Davis, in consultation with Civitas and university staffs, will create a hypothetical international issue for students to deal with.  The issue will be one in which there will be numerous "player," most of whom have their own unique ideas about how to deal with it.  As the evening progresses, students will have to wrestle with the task of trying to reach some sort of a consensus as to how to solve the problem (from past experience, the students may or may not be able to do this.).  You can expect that alliances will be made and broken; that conflict will exist within each individual's mind as well as within the group.  The key question will be whether or not students will be able to "give a little (or a lot) in the hope of gaining a lot (or a little).  Past reviews of Dr. Joe Davis' simulations are extremely positive.


We will have it on a Friday evening, most likely from 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM.  We'll have plenty of food and other goodies.  Right now we need to figure out what date works best the group.

Our choices are:

  • Friday, November 10
  • Friday, November 17

We need your feedback to help us settle upon a date.  If you are interested in the simulation, please e-mail us and tell us so and also indicate which of the two dates above work best for you.  If you have any questions, please e-mail us at >[email protected] or call us at (314) 367-6480.

   


NEW TOPIC FOR CIVITAS BLOG


In light of the recent scandals involving members of the United States Congress, do you think that Congress is the most appropriate body to "police" itself? Do you think that it is human nature to look the other way when one's ally is acting inappropriately? And finally, how do you think that the ethics of members of Congress compare to people in other professions?



LINK TO BLOG:




RED PEN AWARD

As many of you know, Civitas has a long history of giving pens to members of our community.  Up until now, they have all been blue -- Civitas (and U.N.) blue.  However, we found some interesting pens that are red.  This concerned us for several reasons (the possible decline and fall of Cardinal nation and other sordid developments) but our main concern is that red pens are the ones that teachers most often use to criticize students' work.  While we wholeheartedly support constructive criticism, we have many misgivings about criticism that is hurtful.

Therefore, we ordered only a limited supply of red pens.  We currently do not have enough for students, but we are making them available for teachers.  Here's how a teacher gets one of these jewels -- absolutely free!  When a Civitas student certifies for us that a teacher does not use a red pen to write nasty comments, then we will send one of our special pens to them.  So students, if you know of a teacher who will use a red pen only for positive purposes, we invite you to nominate that teacher for one of our pens.  You can nominate by simply e-mailing us at [email protected].







Reminder to High School Seniors and Juniors
about upcoming conference in Washington, DC.

Deadline: October 15, 2006 .

Click here for more details


10th Annual St. Louis Coalition for HUMAN RIGHTS
Essay Contest

Open to all Middle & High School Students in the Metro St. Louis Area

HS: 1st Prize $200 2nd Prize $100 3rd Prize $50

MS: 1st Prize $100 2nd Prize $50 3rd Prize $25

Honorable Mentions

"In a democracy, what is the relationship between human rights and religious freedom?"

Essay must be no more than 500 words (preferably typed) on the above theme.

Discussion questions for thought are: How is religious freedom protected in a democracy? What are the areas of conflict and how do you see them being resolved? When is religious freedom in violation of other human rights? Is separation of church and state the best way to address freedom of religion? What do you personally do to respect and protect the religious freedom of others? Can a democracy work without freedom of religion? What specific practices or laws need to be changed or strengthened to protect religious freedom?

Deadline for essays is October 31, 2006!

Mail essay entries to P. O. Box 5277, St. Louis, MO 63115 or

email to >[email protected]. Include a cover page that gives full name, address, grade and school of student.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Winning essays will be read by their authors on December 10 2006

at the Celebration for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

4:00 p.m. at Forest Park Community College


For more information, call the St. Louis Coalition for Human Rights at (314) 652-7663




Additional Links


Streaming Video [Real Media]
  
Civitas Blog

 Resolutions (High School U.N.) for 2004-2005
   
Checklist for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution
 

Reinventing U.N.Conference Home Page 
    

232 No. Kingshighway, #2101; St. Louis, MO 63108-4002
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