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EXCELLENT U.N. DAY PROGRAM LAST NIGHT
Special thanks to Hazel
Tamano and Dr. Ron
Glossop from our local United Nations
Association who arranged for U.N. Foundation Special Advisor
Gillian Sorensen
to address members last night at the Missouri
Historical Society.
Ms. Sorensen, who spoke
eloquently without "uhms," "ers," or "whatevers," focused
on relations between the United Nations and the United
States. While she painted a somewhat pessimistic view of
what is happening in the present, she said that she is
optimistic about the future. In addition, she said that
the United Nations continues to do outstanding work in areas of
economic and social development and well as broadening human
rights, even in an era where there is less than full
support for the organization from the United States.
She provided two important items of information that
were new to many in the audience:
- When she was recently in Hyde Park, NY (summer home of
Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt), scholars were engaged in
further research regarding a comment by President Roosevelt in
1943 that at the conclusion of World War II, he would have like
to have move from president of the United States to
secretary-general of the U.N. However, President Roosevelt
died in April, 1945, two months prior to the establishment of
the U.N.
- When Japan proposed that it
become a permanent member of the Security Council (without veto
power), the United States supported that measure. However,
China said that it would veto such a move. An
alternate plan was developed with more widespread global
support: to add four new permanent countries to the Security
Council -- Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India. While
the U.S. said that it would support Japan, it said that it would
veto such membership for Germany, Brazil, and
India.
Below is information on Gillian
Sorensen.
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High School
Discussion Group this
Saturday
Our fifth high school
discussion group of the 2006-2007 school year is that Saturday
at Crossroads School (map) from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. This will
be our last "open" discussion session until December (November
sessions will focus on the high school model U.N.).
While the topics are up to the students, we do have a
few topics for discussion:
(Reuters) --
China launched two satellites into space on Tuesday aboard a
Long March-4B carrier rocket, the official Xinhua news agency
reported, the latest step in its ambitious space program.
Both satellites successfully
entered their orbits after an early morning lift-off from the
Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in the northern province of
Shanxi, Xinhua said.
In 2003, China put a man in space,
becoming only the third country to achieve the feat after the
United States and the Soviet Union. It launched a second manned
space flight last year, and plans a space walk by
2008.
- PHILADELPHIA,
Pennsylvania
(Reuters) -- The father of a young football player
pulled a gun on his son's coach because he didn't think the boy
was getting enough playing time, Philadelphia police said on
Monday.
Wayne Derkotch, 40, was
charged with aggravated assault after getting in a fight with
the coach over the amount of time the boy was getting on the
field at a game for 6- and 7-year-olds on Sunday morning, said
police spokesman Officer Raul
Malveiro.
.... and more!
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PREPARATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL MODEL U.N.
Regarding the November 18, 2006 High School Model
U.N.:
- You can access the country
roster on-line by clicking
here.
- We want to remind you that 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.
Issues that have been
suggested for each of the committees include:
Political &
Security |
Economic &
Social |
Human Rights |
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Effects of colonialism &
imperialism |
Alternative
Energy |
AIDs
Research |
Election
reform |
Contraception |
Child
Soldiers |
Illegal
Immigration |
Disposing of Chemical
Waste |
Equality for GLBT
persons |
Not stockpiling
arms |
Drug
Trafficking |
FGM |
Nuclear proliferation |
Genetically Altered Crops/Livestock |
Genocide |
Occupation of Iraq |
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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Listed below are excellent
links to access information on countries that students will be
representing. Next week we will include links to issues
likely to be discussed in the model U.N.
We have also listed from our web site excellent
links to access information on likely issues that will come
before your committee. You can get them all by going to
the following link:
Again, our next high school
student meeting is a regular discussion group on
Saturday, October 28. It will once again be
at Crossroads School (map) from 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Here is the calendar of
events for the next month:
DATE |
TIME |
PLACE |
ACTIVITIES |
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Mon. 10/23/06 |
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM |
Missouri Historical Society |
U.N. Day Program with Gillian
Sorensen |
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Tues.
10/24/06 |
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U.N.
Day |
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Sat.,
10/28/06 |
9:00 AM - 11:00
AM |
Crossroads |
Discussion Group
#5 |
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Tues., 10/31/06 |
5:00 PM - 8:00
PM |
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UNICEF
Drive |
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Sat.,
11/11/06 |
9:00 AM - 12:00
AM |
Crossroads |
Final Prep Session for
M.U.N. |
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Sat.,
11/18/06 |
9:00 AM - 2:30
PM |
Radisson Downtown Hotel |
Civitas Model
U.N. | IMPORTANT
NOTE:
We need to receive delegate
lists for each school from either faculty advisors or student
leaders. You can enter information on our on-line form by
clicking
here, or download a copy
of the form by clicking here (PDF) or here (MS
WORD).
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da
Blog:
IS THIS TRAIN HEADING FOR THE WHITE HOUSE?
It's been quite a week for Illinois junior
senator BARACK
OBAMA. He and his possible 2008 presidential
ambitions were on the cover of TIME magazine. He is on a tour
touting his just-released book My Spiritual Journey. He was the
featured guest on last Sunday's Meet the Press. The fact that he
was on Oprah last week was not unique; the fact that he was the
first candidate whom she has ever publicly endorsed is
potentially monumental.
This man is a thinker, a
person who can see more than one side to an issue, and someone
whose heritage is so diverse that by not "belonging" to any one
group, he may be more prepared to "belong" to a group called
humanity!
These political trains have been known to
pull out of the station more than two years before the
presidential election before, but is he the "real thing?" Let's
hear your thoughts on it. If you want to read the TIME magazine article on
Senator Obama as well as excerpts from his book, you can access
them by <
font
size="4">clicking here.
LINK TO CIVITAS BLOG:
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WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OFFER WORKSHOP ON CHINA FOR CIVITAS
STUDENTS and TEACHERS
And the
date has finally been set....it will be on Sunday afternoon,
November 5, at 2:00 PM (location to be announced).
During the first two weeks of November, Washington
University's freshman International Leadership Program (ILP)
will be putting on a series with the theme of "China: Price of
Power." China's
economic and political rise has had deep implications for
regional leadership (i.e. nuclear proliferation in North Korea),
impact on the environment, domestic human rights and
international political and economic relations; namely with the
United States. The
ILP students are interested in promoting some of these issues to
a high school audience to explore Chinese-U.S. relations in a
presentation and discussion format. Ideally this forum will facilitate the
exchange of ideas between local high school students and
Washington University freshmen so as to establish an academic
community interested in promoting understanding of global
issues.
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Danielle Silber
International Events Coordinator
International & Area Studies
Department
(314) 935 -
8602
[email protected] |
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We hope that interested Civitas students and
teachers are willing and able to come to the "China: Price of
Power" program. If you are interested, please e-mail us at
[email protected] and indicate which of the dates listed
above work best for you!
Also from
Washington University:
This Wednesday,
October 25, students from Washington University are sponsoring
a town hall meeting: "The Immigrant Experience: Case Study
St. Louis." We have good
word that the panelists will make for a lively
event, Sunita
Parikh is a political scientist and a professor
of American Culture Studies, I hear that the lawyer is a really
vibrant character/activist, and Dr. Briones will be able to
speak from his own experience which should be interesting -
apparantly he was a doctor in Nicaragua but since coming to the
United States his
credentials have not been recognized and he now works for
landscaping services on campus.
PDF flyer on
Immigrant Experience: http://www.civitas-stl.com/civ0607/Immigrant_Experience_STL.pdf
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UNICEF 2007
If you really want
to "pig-out" on Halloween and you don't care about the
suffering of hundreds of millions of children in the world, read
no further. However, if "enough is enough" when it comes
to sweets on Halloween and you want to do something to help feed
and care for starving children in the world, we hope that you
will consider collecting money for UNICEF
(United Nations International Children's Emergency
Fund) on Halloween night.
We can provide you with all the necessary information including
the simple instructions on how to do it, one or more collection
boxes, and then how to send in the money you collect to
UNICEF. You can get the information from us at the
Saturday, October 28 Civitas high school
discussion at Crossroads or we can send you what you need.
Just e-mail us if you would like materials.
Special
thanks to Jessica Davie and Ellen
Robinson, both seniors at Soldan International
Studies High School, who are taking the initiative to
organize a school-wide program!
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M.S. COUNTRY ASSIGNMENTS STILL POSTED!
Middle School
teachers and students can now access country rosters for each of the
nine Spring dates for the model U.N. The rosters are
available at http://civitas-stl.com/civ0607/MS/MS-country-rosters.htm.
Teachers can now move at their own rate in assigning countries
to particular students. The next important event for
middle school teachers and students alike is the Fall
workshop on Monday, November
13. We are expecting nearly 1,000 students and
teachers at the session. It will be held in the Khorassan Room of the Chase-Park
Plaza (map and
directions) from
9:00 AM - 11:30 AM.
Twelve high
school students have signed up to help us with the workshop that
morning. They are:
Genevieve Buthod (Rosati-Kain)
Jessica
Davie (Soldan
International)
Morgan DeBaun (Rosati-Kain)
Megan Favignano (Rosati-Kain)
Amy
Keys (Rosati-Kain)
Rachel King (Rosati-Kain)
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Philip
Knapp (Edwardsville)
Zora
McGinnis (Metro)
Michael Mulligan (S.L.U.H.)
Allison Reed (Rosati-Kain) Ellen
Robinson (Soldan
International)
Devin
Wright (Rosati-Kain) |
If you have any questions about anything that has taken
place to date (most particularly the country draft), or any
upcoming activities, please do not hesitate to contact Lisa
Granich-Kovarik at [email protected] or (314) 865-4704.
As published last week, 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 "players," most of whom have their
own unique ideas about how to deal with the problem. 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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One Week
Left:
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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Middle School Country Rosters for
2006-2007
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232 No. Kingshighway,
#2101; St. Louis, MO 63108-4002 |
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