Human Rights

How did the radiation from the Chernobyl disaster negatively affect the people's right to have a healthy place to live?

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
  

I need to find information on the health effects from the radiation. Look at information from the time period and compare it to the information that is available today. How has the cancer rate rose over the last 25 years? What was the early symptoms radiation poisoning.

Human Rights

1. The Chernobyl disaster interested me because I have watched different programs on television and the internet about the disaster, and how the people were forced out of their homes. I have looked at videos online showing how the town looks today. Another thing that intertest me about the Chernobyl disaster is the town of Prypiat, which was deserted during the disaster. It is interesting seeing how the buildings in the town were just left. In one video, it shows a movie that was filmed in Prypiat. The building looks the same. The people in the videos show how they still have to use radiation detection devices to go into the town. People can only go into the town at certain times of the year because of level of radiation. 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSpdSyT1ys

http://books.google.com/books?id=uXNNUzVQ_z8C&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=chernobyl+human+rights+violation&source=bl&ots=tYu0A5PECL&sig=y4oqdOvgiaJjbDywxRRd_xwtqZs&hl=en&ei=MgfzTPnzLsOclgeX89zwDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCUQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK-dowwkmdo

www.unhchr.ch/Huridocda/Huridoca.nsf/0/.../G0111897.doc

3.  How far did the radiation stretch? How did the Soviet Union try to move the people? What is being done today to stop the radiation seeping through the structure containing the nuclear reactor? How does this violate Article 24 and 25? Why did it take the Soviet Union 10 days to report the disaster?

Maus II

MAUS II

I think one of the questions that I would have liked to further discuss was the dictation of the Jews are mice rather than humans. I feel that it was little disrepectful to the many people who died during the halocaust the picture them just as animals. I feel that they should get some respect after the genocide occurred. I know his father and mother were part of the halocaust so he should feel a deep connection but by that depiction I do not feel that he gave them justice.

Another point that was made during the seminar was classifying polish as pigs. I felt that there was a huge bias during the discussion. I think that Jews would have done the same thing that polish did to keep themselves alive. I look at the example of his father trying to line up in different places to never be killed or bribing different people at the camp. I feel that they played the same role polish. I feel it was wrong to call them out.

Congo Today

http://allafrica.com/stories/201010060931.html

One of the more worrying factors in the Congo is the birth rate and life expectancy. Another problem the Congo is having education. Out of every 1000 children born about 158 of them die before they reach the age of five. Progressed has occurred since 2001, where the life expectancy was about 250 children out of 1000 do not make this. One reason for the low life expectancy is because of the water quality. The quality of water is not up standard. Another reason for the low life expectancy is diseases. The next problem addressed in the article is education. The education has imporved over the last ten years, but many of poor villages in the Congo still do not have a standard education. The average amount of people attending schools is ¾ of children.

What is being done to improve education and what is being done to combat diseases?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-05/congo-premier-proposes-6-7-billion-budget-for-2011-sees-growth-at-6-8-.html

The Congo finacal situation has improved after struggling for about a decade and a half. The budget for this year is around 6.7 billion dollar budget. This is an increase in 6.8% since last year. This raise in the budget has increased from the project budget of this year because of the improvement of economy. One of the reasons for the improved economy is the higher mineral prices.

What happened to cause the economy to fall so much 15 years ago?

Discussion Thoughts

One thought I have is if Leopold was making a profit in Congo?

Reading Response 2

“Stanley was always uncomfortable with anyone whose talents might out shine his own” Page 49

Leopold is subtle and shy, he told one of his ministers. He never takes chances. The other day... I watched a fox which wanted to crss a stream unobserved: first of all he dipped a paw carefully to see how deep it was, and then, with a thousand precautions very slowly made his way across. That is Leopold's way.  Page 34

Reading Response 1

The first 30 pages of King Leopold's Ghost starts off with giving a description of how the people of Congo were found and then exposed. The introduction presents you to problems of salving trading that began long before the time of imperialism. Another interesting fact was that the people of Congo had no written language but were able to have a stable governing body through a monarch. The Congo territory was broken down into different providences, which was ruled by small monarchs. They were usually the tribe leaders. Also within this governing body the people of Congo had unwritten laws that were upheld by the people. They had judges for different crimes. The punishment for crime was usually slavery for a certain amount of time. The slaves in Congo were not like the slaves that people think of today. The slaves would inter mingle with the people around them. The salves would even sometimes marry a non-slave. The next interesting point was that the history has been long lost because of the Africans at the time not having a language. The history of mass genocide was hidden from the people. The people writing the articles and in journals made it sound like the people were doing things for the benefit of the people rather than just slave trading. The stories became stretched and people believed the stories.

Questions

Why did the African people not try to rebel against the white slave traders?

How has the genocide been forgotten even though so many people died?

page 10  
The lust  for slave profits engulfed even some of the priest, who abandoned their preaching, took black women as concubines, kept slaves themselves, and sold their students and converts into slavery.