EarthFocus Magazine

Child Soldiers : The Atrocity we Fund

Recently we had the opportunity to watch a presentation given by Jo Becker (Human Rights Watch – New York) on Child Soldiers. We were shocked by the stories and videos she showed us about children our age who had witnessed and taken part in situations we couldn’t bear to imagine. Her presentation has provoked us into trying to make a difference. We want to spread the word to those who dare to stand back and watch. We want the world to realize that the use of children as soldiers is wrong and should be stopped! (There is no question mark in this sentence).

 

Child Soldiers

I had the opportunity to hear Jo Becker from Human Rights Watch explain all about child soldiers. I was shocked. How could people treat children like that? It was horrifying. It was very important to hear about that subject. I knew it was a horrible subject but I didn't know it was that terrible! I felt a bit guilty. It's so unfair for them. It's always in those moments when I realise how lucky I am.

Jeanot & Jeffrey's testimony

On 6 February Jo Becker from Human Rights Watch came to the International School of Geneva and talked to our Global Awareness group about child soldiers in the world. This opened our eyes fully to the suffering that occurs, and has occurred for many years, to people the same age as us and younger (from 8-16 years). We learnt that currently around 300,000 children are kidnapped and forced to serve in armies and rebel groups around the world.  We have written this article to express our opinions on child soldiers in the world; we have chosen to use Sri Lanka as a case study.

Renewable Energies for a Clearer Future

Message for the International Volunteer Day

350 students from both public and private schools in Geneva took part in the Youth Debate on Fuels for the Future organized on 4th December 2007 at the Geneva International Conference Centre. In addition to the discussion on energies, young people also prepared a message for the International Volunteer Day, 5th December 2007.

V. Krebs

Climbing Kilimanjaro When You Are Blind…

The Mountain, 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) Kilimanjaro, located near the Kenya-Tanzania border, is an extinct volcano that is one of the most massive of its kind.

With its summit, Uhuru Peak, on a crater rim called Kibo you can get a spectacular view of the 1.5-mile wide crater.In the centre of this crater there is a dip of about 600 feet filled with sulphurous ashes.

Kilimanjaro towers above the Great Rift Valley, which is said to be the possible birthplace of humankind.

Over the summer of 2005, I had the opportunity to climb this wonderful mountain. Not just to reach the summit but also to help 8 blind climbers do so as well.

Coming Soon! A World Without Water

The Endangered Essence of Life

Water is a clear, colorless liquid. It is everywhere; underground and above, in people, in air, in lakes, in flowing rivers and ice. And yet, it is running out.

The Aral Sea, in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is expected to disappear in 15 years, the Great Lakes, in Canada, are being acidified daily, the Sea of Galilee, in Israel, can be walked on, Lake Chad, in Africa, is reduced to 5% its former size, the Colorado River, in America, no longer reaches the sea and neither does the Yellow River in China.

As these seas shrink and lakes disappear, the UN has warned that by 2025 two out of every three people in the world will be facing water shortages.

Why Are Our Taps Running Dry?

The main cause is that although there is a lot of water, it is finite. And people are not. The population escalates and with it, the demand for freshwater.

Climate change has an effect too; temperatures are increasing as well as evaporation resulting to more droughts, floods and storms.

Large scaled irrigation, production of energy, war, tourism and trade all play a part in water shortages.

Topic for Debate: Is Global Warming a Problem that Can be Solved?

Our position statement at the Global Issues Network Conference in Luxembourg was that Global Warming is a problem that cannot be solved. as long as countries put national interests above global responsibilities

The Kyoto Protocol

Has not been ratified by every nation, including two powerful nations, U.S.A and Australia. This combined with lack of enforcement of the 5% agreed (which would be a drop in the ocean when we need a 60% decrease in greenhouse gases for 2015).

Even if we were to cut emissions fully the effect of global warming will continue a long period.

Estimated Life of Greenhouse Gases

• Carbon dioxide (CO2): 50 – 200 years
• Methane (CH4): approx. 15 years
• Nitrous oxide (N20): approx 120 years
• Ozone (03): several weeks to months
• CFCs: 50 (CFC11) to 500 years (CFC 115)
• HCFCs: 1.5 (HCFC123) to 22 years (HCFC142b)
• Halons: 12 (Halon 1211) to 110 years (Halon 1301)

If education is not changed radically and immediately we will have the same problems for the generations to come. The effects on a local group, a country, a region and the world will be catastrophic.

Monk Seals - Threatened with Extinction

There are certainly many people who, like me, have been on holiday to the Mediterranean; however, I have never set eyes on a monk seal. Until recently I did not even know that seals used to be indigenous to the Mediterranean.

  In earlier times thousands of these animals swarmed the whole of the Mediterranean region and the adjoining Atlantic coasts of Morocco and Mauritania, all the way to the Azores and the Canary Islands.

Today, only about 450 monk seals remain, living miserably in small groups around the Greek and Turkish Aegean, in the south of Turkey, around the Madeira Island and along the coasts of Mauritania.

There are various reasons why the Mediterranean monk seals are ranked amongst the twelve most endangered species worldwide.

Climate Chaos ...Global Warming

Since 1860, the Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.6°C, and is predicted to warm by between 1.4 and 5.8°C this century.

Sea levels have risen 10-20 cm since 1900, most glaciers are retreating, and bird migration is beginning to change.

This is all occurring because of global warming, which is an average increase in the Earth's temperature, and therefore causes changes in climate.

The Earths temperature is rising due to the greenhouse effect. This is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun.

Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and the Earth’s average temperature would be about 16ºC colder, however many developed countries are now releasing too many greenhouse gases, causing major problems, especially for the developing and poorer countries that do not emit as much pollution.

For example, current U.S. energy plans will increase greenhouse emissions 25% by 2010, which could contribute to creating 150 million environmental refugees caused by factors such as extreme weather, drought and desertification.

African Child

Who will cry for the African child?
Who while in the womb felt the high sun’s intensity,
Who while in the womb was carried to the forest to search for food,
Who felt the weight of the heavy wood their mother carried home.

Who will cry for the African child?
Who cried so much having been born in Africa,
Who happens to be born hundreds of miles from the hospital,
Who did not even have all the necessary vaccines.

Who will cry for the African child?
Who at five had the last hug from their own parent,
Who did not even have a single toy to play with,
Who cannot be proud of no injury at five?

Who will cry for the African child?
Who cannot have the basic needs of clothes, education and good shelter,
Who is left with only corporal punishment to be corrected,
Who cannot discuss or share the views of the parents.

Who will cry for the African child?
Who no longer inherits ‘parents’ but
Whose future is to be borrowing
parents,
Who studies so hard just to have enough knowledge to be unemployed.

Who will cry for the African child ?
Who is a victim of discrimination and corruption,
Who has no human rights,
Who has no place in decisionmaking even with his own fate.

Who will cry for the African child ?
Whose only job opportunity is to be a child soldier,
Who is exposed to wars, strikes and revolts.
Who are specimens for political experiments.

Who will cry for the African child?
Who is never free from the malaria parasite.
Who is HIV’s most fertile ground
Who can never be labelled as healthy.

Who will cry for the African child ?
Who is being taken for granted,
Who does not have control even over their own life.
Who even at 30 has very little hopes of surviving out of their parents’ household.

Who will cry for the African child?
Who makes the world laugh but the world makes him/her cry.
Whose hope for greener pastures to Europe and America are blocked, since they serve as a sample to show how strict embassies are.
Who has gone short of tears to cry for themselves?

Who will cry for the African child?
A GOOD CHILD HE/SHE TRIES TO BE

By Foy Franklin, Cameroon