5. Summaries, 17 November  – 30 November 2014 Week 9-10 Each class summarizes the answers received from other Learning Circle partners and post them to the wiki site.

 

 

 

 

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Summary National College “B.P.Hasdeu”, Romania, mdg1

 

In this session we asked about Ebola and it seems we have got many replies especially from Canada.

We never hoped we can learn so much about Ebola. We actually  recommend to read the answers if you want to learn more.

Everything in the world is connected and important for everyone - economic problems, global catastrophes, etc. All of them influence our lives, especially those mentioned as the Millennium Development Goals. The fourth goal is to reduce the child mortality rate and our question was about child mortality – its main reasons and what countries do to reduce it. We asked this question to find out about the situation in different countries, to get to know how much the medical field is developed and how the climate and living conditions influence the child death rate.

It was interesting and useful to get answers from participants from different countries. Looking at the statistics, we can see that a lot of young children die. It’s a very important theme and a big problem and all people should know about it. When our class got the answers, we tried to compare the answers and to analyze information in them.

In the answer from the Netherlands we see that they have problems with child mortality because the number of children who have died in different cities is quite high. The main causes are polluted air and poverty. Children are never washed, they don’t go outside and mothers almost never breastfeed their children. Sometimes children don’t get enough food and some parents even use alcohol to get the children to sleep. Also, the problem is that many mothers don’t realize how important it is to visit the doctor regularly. Our Dutch partners gave us some data about cities and, for example, in Maastricht - 20%, in Utrecht - 21%  and in Den Bosch 25% of babies died in the first year.

 

Thank you for this experience and we hope everyone learned something.

 

 

 

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Summary Colegiul Economic Buzau, teachers Sandu Doina, Ilie Catalina, Romania, mdg 2

 

               In this Learning Circle our theme was about Millenium Development Goals.

               Our question was : Term achievement of the Millenium Development Goals is 2015. To what extent were they made and what measures were taken to achieve them in your country?

              After all the answers received we have learnt new things.

 

              -National College “B.P.Hasdeu”, Romania, mdg1 told us that the consensus on ending human poverty as the central objective of international development was a major achievement of the global community. Derived from the Millennium Declaration, the Goals emphasize a humancentred approach, defining poverty as multidimensional deprivation in several social and economic areas of people’s lives including education, health, environment, food, employment, housing, and gender inequality.

 

            - From Colegiul Economic Buzau,Romania, mdg3 we know the situation of MDGs in Romania:

                    -poverty reduction is achieved through the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Rural Development for all;

                    -gender equality is promoted;

                    -reducing child mortality and improving maternal health is deployed by requesting longer budgets for renovating maternities and purchasing equipment of the latest generation;

                   -fighting against severe diseases in Romania is achieved by administering preventive condoms and initiating programs for emancipating children, teenagers, young people.

 

          -National College of Computer Science “Grigore Moisil”, Romania, mdg4 gave us the MDGs of Romania in percentage:

               - the share of poor has dropped consistently between 2001 and 2009, from 30.6% in 2001 to 4.4% in 2009, achieving an overall 85.7% reduction of the poverty rate

              - enrolment rate for the country’s school age population stood at 79.6% for the school-year 2008/2009. For compulsory primary education (population aged between 7 and 10) enrolment rates reached 95%.

               - employment rates for women (aged 15-64) increased from 51.5% in 2005 to 52.5% in 2008

              - mortality of children aged between 1 and 4 years dropped between 2000 and 2009 by 37.5%

              - 10,041 persons were living with HIV/AIDS in 2009

              - during the last decade, extreme natural phenomena across the country – the floods in 2005, 2006 and 2010 and extreme droughts, with the most severe being in 2007 – all affected the country. For only 40%, of the time between 2001 and 2010 can Romania be considered as having experienced "normal" weather conditions.

 

          - Joshua Creek Public School, teacher Emily Belanger, Canada, mdg5

    Population of Canada is extremely fortunate to have the luxury of these goals being accomplished. Canada has yet to achieve many targets from different millenium development goals, but are still progressing at an impressive rate to accomplish the goals by the set time frame. However, to achieve each target

more effort, money and time is needed.

 

 

         -  Joshua Creek Public School, teacher Amy Scarpone, Canada, mdg 7

    It is proven that the millennium development goal has done many things to help establishing a durable and international peace. It is hard in the world to get equal education but in Canada most schools have equal gender education rights, clean and developed environment, the right to good accomplished educated healthcare, correct eating and living level.

 

- Kirovograd Construction College, Ukraine, mdg8

        Ukraine has managed to achieve certain progress in reducing absolute poverty, ensuring access to primary and secondary education, improving maternal health and reducing child mortality.

 

 

    

 

 

 

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Summary Colegiul Economic Buzau, teachers Pietrareanu Adriana, Romania, mdg3

 

 

  

 

    Our question was: What do you think that we would be able to do for developing a much better global partnership? How would we do that? Which would be the priorities in your opinion?

         ‘’To develop a global partnership for development’’ (MDG 8) is an important element in the overall structure of the MDGs. While all MDGs are important in helping countries to reach a level of development conducive to the elimination of extreme poverty, MDG 8 is the precondition for all of these goals to be sustainable in the long run. MDG 8 recognizes that the ability of developing countries to reach sustainable levels of growth often depends on the international environment in which they operate.

          The Millennium Goals as a whole represents a global partnership for development. The deal makes it clear that it is the main burdens that lies on poor countries to work towards achieving the first four Goals. They must do their part to ensure greater responsibility and efficient use of resources. However, for poorer countries to achieve the first four Goals, it is vital that richer countries deliver on their end of the bargain with more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief and fairer trade rules, well in advance of 2015.

The priorities would be: 

•   To develop further an open trading and financial system that doesn’t discriminate, which includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction both nationally and internationally;
•   To address the least developed countries’ special needs ,which includes free access for their exports, debt relief for poor countries in the worst debt, cancellation of official joint debt and more generous official development assistance for countries committed to reduce poverty;
•   To deal with developing countries’ debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term (in cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth);
•   To provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries (in cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies - especially information and communications technologies).

How could we do that? Well…

•   The world should work out universal goals for all countries and continents.
•   Countries will have to be honest to each other.
•   The world should be severe with the countries causing violence.
•   People should  be tolerant to other people`s points of view.
•   States and people should  be able to find compromises.
•   Countries should share specialists for experience exchange in various fields of activity, in order to learn develop ourselves and our society easier and faster.
•   People should be educated to respect other nations` interests from childhood. 
•   We should remember people can make mistakes;  we should be ready to help them correct those mistakes.
•   All people should have equal rights, duties and possibilities.
•   Countries  should develop its economy to attract investment, with the help of other countries.
•   All countries should reduce custom taxes.
•   Producers should  increase the quality of the exported goods.
•   We should organize international projects for techno exchange.  

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary National College of Computer Science “Grigore Moisil”, Romania, mdg4

 

We live in a world that is not as friendly as we think it is, there are a lot of things that would make us scared, but there are as well a lot of companies, a lot of people that are trying their best to protect us, they are trying to make this world a better one, not with words but with facts.

 

For example there is a lot of research about HIV/AIDS; they are trying to heal us from it, to protect us from it, and to prevent its effect now and forever. Even a TV commercial about it is a way to keep us safe from this disease; in this case knowledge is essential, if we know how to protect us from it we are doing a massive job in keeping us healthy and the one near us.

 

Another example is the fact that „we” are trying to invest in green electricity because we do not have an infinite amount of resources that we can spare. Too many trees were cut down, too much charcoal was taken from earth and this list will go on. So these scientists are trying to stop this, to save the earth because in this manor everything will fall apart.

 

We do have to thank them for their work to keep us safe and sound. We can think like they are just as our good friends, taking care of us, making sure that we will be just fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary Joshua Creek Public School, teacher Emily Belanger, Canada, mdg5

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary Joshua Creek Public School, teacher Amy Scarpone, Canada, mdg 7

 

MDG 5 & 7 are two  classes located in Ontario, Canada - we are REALLY HOPING TO SKYPE with one or a couple of the other MDG groups next week (week of December 8th). I know it might be complex with the time change but we are very eager to put REAL faces to the names and locations of your work. Please contact me scarponea@hdsb.ca if you're able to arrange a Skype call with our classes. Looking forward to hearing from you!!!! 

-Amy Scarpone MDG 7

 

     A few months ago, during our English class we started a project called Global Teenager Project. Our first task was to create a question regarding Global Partnerships and other countries across the globe have used their class time to answer our question. After reading the other groups responses, we have discovered who different countries around the world trading partners are, the relationships between other countries trade, imports and exports, and finally, tariff rates and taxes. Now we will be providing a brief summary in relation to the responses that the other countries created.

     Primarily, MDG group 1’s country, Romania’s major trading partners that are geographically located in different continents are South Africa, Turkey, Canada, and China. Romania, located in Europe and is part of the European Union because it will help Romania’s economic stability and aid them. As being part of the European Union, the importing and exporting of goods and services has been more superior and has lowered the taxes and tariffs. Thus creating more strong bonds between countries creating major trading partners. This would finally conclude to a better economy for both Romania and the countries in the European Union. MDG group # 7 has also done our home country Canada and how it can increase a stronger with relationships with other countries though trading.

     Additionally, the relationship between the countries that have responded to our question and their trading partners overall have strong alliances and trading agreements. Majority of the countries have this in common since they all have generally stable governments that allow them to have these traits. One example of a strong relationship is between Canada and Romania, as stated in the MDG group, 5 response by MDG group 1 who have said that “Romania is Canada’s largest trading partner in Southeastern Europe”. Another situation that has come to our attention is the contrary; a few countries have brought to our attention that they do have some one-way relationships, particularly China’s relationship with Romania. China imports selected items such as electronics to Romania, whereas China does not gain much in return from Romania, other than the fee’s applied. Inevitably, all of the countries who have participated in this research project have generally created strong alliances overseas, and will continue to be exemplary countries.

     Furthermore, the imports and exports within the different countries varied from different areas, however, there were some similarities as well. Many of the goods which were quite common, that were exported and imported from the Southeastern European countries who answered our question were goods such as, motor vehicles and parts, machinery, fuel and chemicals. We found that there was not much food that were exported or imported, however more mechanical items. Within Canada, many of the products which had been traded were goods such as fruit, coffee beans, spices and herbs along with machinery, plastic, gold and oil. Thus, different goods and services are exported and imported depending on the different countries.

     Moreover, tariff rates and taxes for equipment imported into countries differ from one state to another. Countries can be part of trade alliances which decrease tariff rates vastly or completely. For instance, Romania and Ukraine are partners with the European Union, which is a massive alliance, whom decreases the tariff rates and works to better the modern continent of Europe. If any private individuals or commercial entities import goods and services into the countries alliances with the European Union, they are required to pay a tax. Nonetheless, countries part of trade organizations have set policies which allow them to save money on tariffs. Likewise, Canada are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) along with the United States of America. They do not have to spend crucial money on import taxes and are each other's largest trading partners, while minting money into their stable economy. Tariff rates added to the value may be beneficial as the prices or duty can be modified to create a better structure of the frequent trade flow. Every merchant, producer of goods, and country demands a profit. Being part of alliances which decreases duty rates are a definite way of generating a profit. Therefore, tariff rates can be modified to create a better flow; whereas, trade alliances are beneficial to countries all over the planet.

     To reiterate, while working on this task we have exposed that different countries have been influential in countless aspects of global partnership. There are numerous opportunities to enhance global relationships, while generating benefits for the world; trading partners, relationships between countries, imports and exports and tariff rates and taxes.

 

 

 

 

 

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Summary Kirovograd Construction College, Ukraine, mdg8

 

1. Protection is essential. Each country should develop  military provision to defend its citizens. We hope that  world peace will become reality in the near future. But don’t forget about the NATO! This military organization should guard its members from any attack.

 

2. It is important to  recycle garbage and reuse materials if we want to save our planet and  to leave it to the future generations. Recycling has a beneficial effect both on the world economy and environment. There  are about 6 billion people living on the Earth and its resources are limited. So, we have to take care of it!

 

3. People should save natural resources and increase landfill gas production . The mankind must keep trying find alternative  sources of energy. The best alternative could be the creation of hydrogen engines. They will not pollute the planet.

 

4. Religions should not exclude but rather supplement each other. People think  and perceive things differently. Sometimes religions cause wars, terrorist attacks though we don’t think that religion is the main reason for misunderstanding between people. We should communicate more to solve world problems together. The issue is we don’t want.

 

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