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!):
- Report on last Monday's
MIDDLE SCHOOL teachers meeting.
- Information on&nbs
p;last
Saturday's high school COUNTRY DRAFT and INTRODUCTORY
WORKSHOP.
- Information
on
proposed international simulation with Civitas students as
well as college and university students.
- Information on new
topic for Civitas BLOG!
- Red Pen Award
- Information
a> 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."
- Information on HUMAN RIGHTS
ESSAY AWARD.
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Civitas Home
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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)
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Attendance is important. We'll be
choosing countries, discussing the November student workshop,
and scheduling classroom visits.
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Please bring a copy of your school
calendar and a list of countries you would like your students to
represent.
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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.
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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 |
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Country |
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Bishop DuBourg |
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Romania |
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Cardinal
Ritter |
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Cuba |
Cardinal Ritter |
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Ghana |
Cardinal
Ritter |
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Madagascar |
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Chesterfield
Day |
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China |
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Collinsville |
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Congo (Republic
of) |
Collinsville |
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France |
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Hazelwood Central |
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Costa
Rica |
Hazelwood
Central |
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Denmark |
Hazelwood Central |
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Liberia |
Hazelwood Central |
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Sierra
Leona |
Hazelwood
Central |
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Sweden |
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Incarnate Word |
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Israel |
Incarnate Word |
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Japan |
Incarnate Word |
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Venezuela |
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Lindbergh |
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Netherlands |
Lindbergh |
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United
Kingdom |
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Maplewood-Richmond Heights |
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Fiji |
Maplewood-Richmond Heights |
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Greece |
Maplewood-Richmond Heights |
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Norway |
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Metro |
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Germany |
Metro |
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U.S.A. |
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Parkway
North |
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Tanzania |
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Rosati-Kain |
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Argentina |
Rosati-Kain |
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Czech
Republic |
Rosati-Kain |
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Lebanon |
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SLUH |
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Iran |
SLUH |
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Ireland |
SLUH |
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Qatar |
SLUH |
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Russian Federation |
SLUH |
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United Arab
Emirates |
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Soldan
International Studies |
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Colombia |
Soldan International Studies |
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Mexica |
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St. Joseph's Academy |
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Cambodia |
St.
Joseph's Academy |
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Chad |
St. Joseph's Academy |
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Peru |
St. Joseph's Academy |
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Thailand |
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| 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 |
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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 |
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Sexual Education |
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Universal Health Care |
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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.
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Crimes against Humanity
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Demilitarization
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Democratization
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Economic Disparity
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Religion & Government
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Territorial Integrity
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UN & Global Health
-
UN & Sovereignty
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UN
& Women
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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.
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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.
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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: |
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].
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Reminder to High School
Seniors and Juniors about upcoming conference in
Washington, DC.
Deadline: October 15, 2006 .
Click here for more details
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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.
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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
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Additional
Links
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| Civitas Blog
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| Resolutions
(High School U.N.) for 2004-2005
| Checklist
for Writing a Model U.N. Resolution
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Reinventing U.N.Conference Home
Page
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