• Bateyes in the Dominican Republic –> Social Inequality + Violation of Human Rights
  • These bateyes are sort of a plantation system that still exist in the Dominican Republic, suppressing the rights of many people and this is an issue that nobody really knows about or talks about.
  • Article: https://hir.harvard.edu/the-united-states-haiti-and-racism-in-dominican-bateyes/
    • Description: This article basically provides a history on what these bateyes are and who are the victims of them. More specifically, the bateyes are a form of oppression on Haitian Migrants residing within the Dominican Republic who are eradicated from basic human rights and forced into an endless cycle of poverty.
    • Juicy Quote: “Casting light on this culmination of a conflict-heavy history and the dark side of global market competition works to ensure that the workers of the bateyes are recognized and afforded the human rights they are currently lacking.”
• Sustainability within Businesses –> Climate Change
  • Climate Change is a major concern in today’s world since it would affect all of us equally and global businesses play a large role in contributing to it. By adapting to sustainable practices, they could help have a less demoralizing effect on climate change.
  • Article: https://deloitte.wsj.com/cfo/as-sustainability-takes-root-finance-takes-notice-1497931332
    • Description: This article provides a brief introduction to what exactly sustainability within business is. It further dives into the financial aspects of sustainable practice within a business which showcase why businesses should incorporate sustainable practices.  
    • Juicy Quote: “Even if some lawmakers deprioritize it, this marketplace momentum demonstrates that sustainability is becoming a more urgent matter for public companies—and should be a wake-up call to CFOs and other C-suite executives about the potential risks of inaction”
• The war in Sudan –> Violation of Human Rights
  • There are many wars that are currently taking place within the world right now, with one of them being the civil war in Sudan, and a common theme amongst many if not all these wars are the violation of human rights that takes place in order for leaders to get what they want.

My ideas :

1) The long-term effects of colonization on the Philippines – As a Filipina, I feel that it is important for to learn more about my country’s history. Although some long-term effects are well-known, like the similarities between Tagalog and Spanish, there is still so many others that I may not be aware of. For example, was the Philippines was always Catholic? I also want to know what impacts it had on our culture and societal norms.

2) Animal testing – I want to know if wide-scale animal testing is still being done nowadays and/or if it is still as bad as it was before. I have always been concerned about the safety of animals, and with all the technological advances now, animals should not have to suffer for a mere beauty product or supplement. I also think that people tend to forget how unethical this practice is, and it should honestly be banned if the animals are harmed in any way.

3) College/University vs. Vocational schools – I know many people who prefer going to vocational school after high school rather than college, and I am curious as to why that has start to become more common nowadays. There are many perspectives surrounding this topic, as there are those who believe that a bachelor’s degree should be your goal, while others believe that securing a job is better, and that those 4 years are just a waste.

Article for Idea #2 – https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/google-news-update/eu-animal-testing-calls-threaten-to-derail-cruelty-free-cosmetics/345c1860-d67a-4c30-bdfa-87390887357e

This article talks about laws that could force many companies to go back to animal testing in Europe. Due to a certain law regarding the amount of time employees can be exposed to chemicals compared to consumers, the testing on animals has to be done to make sure that the ingredients are safe for consumers. But there is a law that is directly conflicting with that, which is the law that bans animal testing on cosmetic products. This contradicting laws have been met with lots of resistance, and the future of a world without animal testing seems to be uncertain, as this issue is also tackled from a global standpoint. Rather than country by country certifications, it is rather one global certifications, so these laws will make it even quite difficult to obtain one for European countries.

Juicy quote from this article – “So essentially it’s one global certification, which is why this ruling has really big implications for many companies that have brands that are owned by European companies, but essentially sold all over the world.”

Article for Idea #3 – https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/may/15/america-needs-more-people-to-attend-trade-schools/

The article shares the opinions of the author towards trade schools and why it is very important to pursue for certain reasons. She believes that there should be an option to go to a school that allows you to start in the workforce, being the plumbers, welders, etc. Trade schools would also allow those whose cup of tea wasn’t college to be able to succeed, making a name for themselves while also keeping the U.S. economy stable. She then goes on to speak upon a legislation by Sen. Tommy Tuberville that would allow people to save up for vocational schools and other things they would want to pursue instead of college. This will hopefully improve our society, as it would give students motivation to graduate from high school because there is a brighter future awaiting them that is better suited for what they want to do.

Juicy quote from this article – “It’s not that they are not smart enough or will not be successful in their careers. They would be far better off taking the money you set aside for college and allowing them to learn a skill other than funneling a beer while standing on their head.”

1. We are overpopulated, please stop having so many children- I keep seeing a bunch of social media families on instagram or TikTok with 4+ kids and counting, and it’s infuriating. The planet DOES NOT have anymore room for more and slowly is dying. In my opinion 1 or 2 children is the best possible number, why? you have a duo to keep each other company, if you just want 1, even better, less money, more attention on the kid, and less population. What makes things worse is people don’t get married anymore or show serious commitment to their partner and end up having a baby, breaking up, finding more partners and having more babies. I know that accidents happen, and am willing to listen to other point of views, but I strongly believe this is a problem that is taboo to talk about even though it’s serious.
2. Keep Technology out of kids hands- iPad kids are the new problem of this current time, these young kids are playing Roblox, watching brain dead videos, and missing out on a genuine childhood. This is something close to me as I have a iPad little brother and see the differences between the childhood I had and the one he has. My mom had my brother at a older age and I understand she can’t dedicate the time he had and isn’t able to move the same, but even then when I had an iPad I had to ask for permission and had a time limit. However, I do admit that it does have its bright side, my brother knows a lot about global issues and about different people, countries, and random facts.
3. Animal Abuse should have more punishments- This is a topic that I think will be hard for me to agree to another point of view but, I believe that animal abuse should be taken more seriously because it shows what someone can do to another human. To me its basic common sense, most animals that are abused aren’t aggressive but rather friendly, so to harm a defenseless being means that you are a violent person, who should be checked. The way we treat animals shows how we treat each other.

Idea 1..

I read an article from CBC(It shouldn’t be taboo to criticize parents for having too many kids), where it basically covers the criticism that Chip and Joanna Gaines, from Fixer Upper, received when they revealed they were expecting their 5th child. The writer brings up the main concern of critics, overpopulation, and that scientists have warn us to start finding another planet to start moving to as climate change, epidemics, population growth, and overdue astroid strikes are the destroying our planet. She also goes into that woman have been washed since forever that motherhood is the only way they will feel complete, and how woman feel that they have very few options. However, if woman feel that motherhood is their calling, how about adopting? there are so many kids in need of loving homes and that would be the best opportunity to change a many lives.

Juicy Quote-“While having a child or five is a very personal choice, it’s also a choice that affects everyone who inhabits our planet.”

Idea 2…

Vice has a article(iPad Kids Are Getting Out Of Hand) staring off with how kids have mastered phones but can’t even walk, speak, eat, or do anything. He shares how many Gen Z people are aware of this and are criticizing parents for not being able to parent their kids to behave without a screen sucking their brain out. But, what do we know? We don’t even have kids, so can we really criticize parents. Psychotherapist, Ryan Lowe, states that the problem is using iPads as babysitters and ways to shut up kids and not learning to be patient and control their anger. But overall, screens aren’t bad, what is bad is how you use them and let your children use it.

Juicy Quote-“This kid couldn’t feed herself for god’s sake, and yet had mastered a digital zooming motion?”

Ideas

1)Ethics of Real Estate Development – I am very interested in real estate development as a future career. I would love to know all aspects of the business, and I think learning about the ethics/opinions of real estate developers would be an interesting topic. From what I’ve heard in life and even movies, some think real estate developers are greedy snobs who look to build buildings to maximize profit, whereas others are trying to solve the problem of housing for everyone. I’m very curious about people’s different viewpoints on this topic.

2)Should one vote in the primary election – I am also interested in looking at others’ viewpoints on whether we as Americans should vote in primary elections. I ask this because I personally struggled with this thought in recent years, given that the candidates we’ve had to choose between were so extremely divided, rarely agreeing on anything, and being too different from each other, in both good and bad ways. This topic interests me even more now since for the first time in my life, this year, I will be able to vote!

3)When is one obliged to perform a charitable act – I know some people who always look to give money to the homeless person on the side of the street, or but some fruit from a vendor on the side of the road with their family. Others I know never stop to give, for the most part, no matter what. I would like to know more about what other people think of when one should lend a helping hand to those in need.

Idea 2 article – https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/opinion/not-voting-elections.html

This is an opinion article of a Michigan man explaining why he won’t be voting in the upcoming election. He talks about how his singular vote doesn’t make a difference, since the margins between who won and lost is never in the single digits, but is really much higher. Furthermore, he says that his belief in not voting isn’t like a plague that will convince everyone not to vote, completely eliminating voting from our political system. People will always vote, so if some don’t it doesn’t make a difference. He also notes that voting is more about rooting for something than it is for wanting a specific party to one. It’s about feeling involved.

Idea 2 quote – “Surely if you thought a candidate was a harbinger of the end of democracy, you would urge anyone you thought likely to support him to “just do anything else.”

Idea 3 article – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/22/bitching-about-ethics-of-giving-money-to-homeless-helps-no-one

This is an opinion article about what one should do if concerned about what a homeless person does with the money they give them. In short, the author believes that if you give money to a homeless person, that’s the end of the exchange. What they do with what you give them is entirely up to them. Whether it be food or drugs, it doesn’t matter – it’s not up to us to decide how they live their lives. Alternatively, if one truly cared so much about the homeless population, they should donate to charity, where resources for homeless people could get appropriate funding to actually help them, versus gambling and hoping that the homeless themselves will do what is “right” with others money.

Idea 3 quote – “If you prefer a particular option, just shut up and take it.”

• Rank three specific topics of interest to you – describe your idea for each in 1-3 sentences
• Choose two of the topics and find a potentially juicy article to dig into for each
• Post links to the articles and briefly describe each article in 2-4 sentences
• Cut and paste one potentially juicy quote from each article below the description
  • (Don’t forget to select the correct “category” before posting)
  • (You can make your post public or private, but it might be nice to share ideas!)

Non-scholarly sources across the spectrum:

PERSONAL GO-TOs: The New Yorker, Democracy Now!, Jacobin, The Intercept, Vox, BBC, NYT, Guardian, The Atlantic, NYRB, LARB, NPR, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, National Review

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