Month: January 2018

The issues regarding refugees have been, and are, a growing and ongoing debate. Where are they coming from? Where will they go? How will they be supported? These questions need to be answered to successfully relocate the growing refugee population. In a report published by CQ Researcher and written by Molly McGinnis, it is reported that the global refugee population has grown from 11.7 million in 2013 to 22.5 million in 2017.

The refugees highlighted in this article are the Syrians since they are the largest population and the most recent. May countries have accepted refugees, including Germany, the United States and Lebanon. Lebanon has the worlds highest refugee population per capita, while other developed nations have chosen to accept less. The burden of accepting refugees is often accepted by unstable nations which may not be the best place for the refugees to go. Some developed nations have even kicked out refugees that they have accepted, and blocked others from immigrating in. The U.S. proposed a travel ban that would remove any Syrian refugees from the U.S. and bar access from 6 countries in the middle east.

However, European nations have accepted more of the burden as the situation worsens. The two European countries with the highest concentration of refugees are Greece and Italy (roughly 160,000). Although they have been accepted, they cannot be sustained. Several European nations have refused accepting any of these refugees in an attempt to relocate: Hungary, Austria, United Kingdom, and Poland. Only 13% of these refugees have been relocated, and the clock is running out.

I believe that it is the responsibility of developed nations to share the burden of accepting and relocating refugees since they are the best equipped to do so.

This evening I attended a lecture and discussion by Joe Cirincione about the future of the Iran Nuclear Agreement. Joe Cirincione is the President of Ploughshares funds which is a foundation that aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

My main takeaway from this lecture was that there is far more to worry about than I thought. I was not educated about the Iran Nuclear Deal mainly because it is not in mainstream news. The news is focused on all of the events surrounding nuclear events regarding North Korea. Little did I know, The Iran Nuclear deal holds just as much importance as anything to do with North Korea.

The Iran Nuclear Deal is a deal that prohibits Iran from building nuclear weapons and limits nuclear testing in exchange for lifted snactions. Joe Cirincione believes that this deal is extremely strong, but there are others that believe that this deal needs an overhaul. This deal does its job and nothing more; it keeps Iran from having missiles. Others believe that this deal should fix the entirety of Iran, but to fix a nation it takes one step at a time.

Donald Trump is among those who believe that the deal needs to be dismantled or completely changed. He is even taking action to force the international community to change it. The president is informed every 90 days if Iran is following the deal, and if they are the President signs 120 days of lifted sanctions, and the cycle continues. That is not the case for Trump. Trump has refused to sign the next round of lifted sanctions, which means that the U.S. would not be upholding its side of the deal.

Trumps actions are driving the U.S. further and further from its allies, and if the U.S. does not follow the deal Iran can resume its nuclear program. The majority of the International community does not want Iran to have a nuclear program, so that would also drive the U.S. further from its allies. But the worst case scenario is an all out nuclear war since another unstable nation will have access to a nuclear arsenal.

-John Moore

Media surrounds us. We live in a culture that is engulfed in a world of media that is pretty much inescapable. The question that ultimately drives my question in media is: How does the growing presence of media influence the world we are growing into? This question is slightly ambiguous, for the purpose of it blanketing a wide array of issues. For instance, the question of how media affects the workforce we are growing into and how it affects the family dynamic we will step into are two different, yet equally applicable questions.

I think that media and the role it has played in my perception of the world is a question I hope to reach further into during the course of this class. Growing up in with a new age of media at the tips of everyone’s fingers including my own surely impacted my perception of the world and the way in which I was raised. I think this course will provide me with an understanding of where we have been, where we are now, and where we are headed. I think it will also help me evaluate how I can personally channel my use of media to create a positive future for media. Depending on what you focus on in media, it can be a positive or negative force on your life. I hope to determine the effect the type of media you consume has on your level of efficacy, especially in women when it comes to body image.