Fagerlia Videregående Skole
Yesterday, this article was posted in the New York Times. It relates directly to the topics we are working with, quality education and gender equality. It is about an incident in Pakistan where 14 schools, most of them for girls, where burned down during one night, in a district where only 11% of the girls know how to read and write.
Hanna
“One girl with courage is a revolution”
Girl Rising is a film about the benefits of educating girls. It introduces nine girls from around the world in their struggle to get an education and achieve their dreams.
The film was released in 2013 and is part of the Girl Rising campaign.
As we watch the film, take notes, as you are to write a review afterwards. This will be graded.
Reflect on and include your own thoughts on the following questions in your review:
If you need advice on how to write a review, you can read it here. Remember to include sources you have used.
A film has the power to inform, influence and impress on its audience a certain message. Convey knowledge, broaden our perspective and in some cases make us take action.
We have watched two films in class, Girl Rising (2013, directed by Richard Robbins) and Before the Flood (2016, directed by Fisher Stevens), which clearly want us to take action. Would you recommend one or both of these films to anyone? If so, to whom and why? If not, why?
Do you know of another film that you would highly recommend people watching, and if so, why?
Write a blog post in which you discuss how a film can create an impact on people and society. Use at least two films as examples, at least one of which should be one we have seen in class. Comment on target audience as well as topic and / or narration, depending on what you find is the main goals of the films.
Hilde
Read about the practice of watergrabbing and how it affects people in Palestine and other areas here:
http://watergrabbing.com/palestine.html
Also take a look at this video from Al-Jazeera: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/473735126457245/UzpfSTE4MjA4MDU4NTE3MjY4NzoxOTA1MTQzMjA2MTk5NzQx/
As agreed from your last blog posts, we will start working with the global goals of quality education and gender equality. These two goals are often intertwined, which is why I put them together.
Start with reading about the goals here and here.
Write a summary in your own words about what you learn from the two different sites. What is the actual problem? Why is Quality Education and Gender Equality so important that they take up two of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals?
And how are these two goals, 4 and 5, so intertwined? Explain and discuss.
Also include how you would like to work with these goals. Post this on your blog.
When you finish, read the short story “Chinasa” by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adicie. You will find the story on It’s Learning and get it as a handout. Note down difficult words and look them up. Comment on how, if at all, this short story relates to UN Goals 4 and 5.
Hanna
When it comes to water, there is either not enough, it is not clean, or there’s too much of it… According to the UN,
“Water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for poor families across the world. At the current time, more than 2 billion people are living with the risk of reduced access to freshwater resources and by 2050, at least one in four people is likely to live in a country affected by chronic or recurring shortages of fresh water.”
Read the pdf file The Importance of Water under resources on itslearning or find it here and do tasks 1, 6 and 11 together with a partner.
Then read the story Thirst (also posted on itslearning). Discuss in your groups:
– What attitudes in present-day America do you think the author is criticising in his depiction of post-climate-change society?
– In the story, the US collapses into civil war caused by water conflicts. Such conflicts are already common in the developing world. Do you think such wars could happen in the developed world too? Explain your opinion.
– Choose one of the quotes from the story below and discuss what point the author is trying to make and how his use of imagery helps him get it across:
“We squared away old debts and told off our supervisors and burned our homework and sought revenge, only to see the sun rise upon our sins once again.”
“We indulged and we consumed until we were fat and bloated with self-disgust.”
“We took to the streets in rage and to the bedrooms of strangers in desperation.”
Finally, write a blog post on task 3 on the hanout “The Importance of Water”: We have encouraged you to see how global challenges are interconnected and impact each other. The article makes ties between water, the situation for many women in the world and education. Explain the connections that are made and discuss their importance. In addition, include any thoughts and insights you may have on this after having read the story Thirst as well.
Finish your blog post by Tuesday night (Sept 18).
Ingunn
Profit over peace in Western Sahara: How commercial interests undermine self-determination in the last colony in Africa by Erik Hagen and Mario Pfeiffer
https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/04/1008532
http://www.3stolencameras.com/the-film/
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/morocco/western-sahara
Choose one of the tasks below and work in pairs or small groups. Present your product on Monday, September 10 (Ingunn’s class) and on Tuesday, September 11th (Hanna’s class).
1. A new book about Western Sahara is called «Profit over Peace». Take a look at the book and reviews of it on the internet and find examples of how international companies and the EU are profiting from the natural resources of Western Sahara. Make a video where you discuss this. Who profits, and from what? How is the hunt for profit hindering peace in Western Sahara?
2. Violation of human rights – what violations of human rights are committed in Western Sahara? Create a multimedia presentation where you explain, give examples and use pictures to illustrate these violations.
3. The media coverage of the conflict – search for news articles and comments on the conflict in Western Sahara in English-speaking media (BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera..). Does it seem to be a high profile conflict? Why/why not? Asria mentioned the lack of investigative journalism in her speech. Prepare an oral presentation where you show how investigative journalism and media coverage in general is lacking when it comes to this conflict.
4. The role of the UN in the conflict – The United Nothing?
Describe the role of the UN in Western Sahara and try to find out why they have failed in carrying out the referendum on independence for Western Sahara. Use the UN’s own pages (un.org) to find out about this, but also include some other sources that may be more critical of the role the UN has played (or failed to play..). Make a document about this that can be shared with the rest of the class, including history and current situation, facts and figures.
Ingunn and Hanna
