Know the Issues

When world leaders speak, it is a good opportunity to remind students that The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" are not their only sources of world news.

     There are at least two ways for students to participate in structured discussions of foreign policy. Model UN conferences held in classrooms, schools, and regional, national, and international venues attract more than 400,000 middle school, high school, and college students annually. Conference participants, who act as country ambassadors to the United Nations, study and discuss global issues. The website, cyberschoolbus.un.org, provides information about Model UN sessions. The website also provides a list of UN publications that describe the UN, its declaration of human rights, environmental programs, and other topics for K-12 students.

     At fpa.org, the Foreign Policy Association's website, students and adults can find full details about a Headline Series and Great Decisions program. Discussions using the Headline Series are limited to a single geographic area or topic, such as nuclear weapons. On the other hand, a Great Decisions briefing book presents nonpartisan information about eight new foreign policy issues every year. In 2016, the discussion topics are: Shifting Alliances in the Middle East, The Rise of ISIS, The Future of Kurdistan, International Migration, Korean Choices, The UN after 2015, Climate Geopolitics, and Cuba and the US. Each topic includes a television episode and a quiz. Students are invited to suggest topics for future discussions.

     In World Peace and Other 4th Grade Achievements, John Hunter writes about how children have used a World Peace Game to solve world issues. And in his speech to the United Nations in 2012, President Obama quoted South Africa's Nelson Mandela and India's Gandhi. Reading, on their own, the writings of inspiring world leaders can broaden a student's perspective on global issues.

Hope for the Future

When we hear that terrorist groups have attacked tourists in Tunisia, burned a Jordanian pilot to death, or killed journalists in Paris, it is well to remember, not only other losses, but also bright victories.

     Children look forward to their birthdays, trips to the playground, and new pets. When they begin to discover the world, with all its pluses and minuses, they have more to anticipate, and they expand their opportunities for potential happiness. They might make friends with foreign pen pals, save to travel abroad, raise enough walkathon money to buy a cow for a family in Vietnam, rejoice when a political prisoner is set free, or help a nation survive a natural disaster. Some day they even could come up with inventions to improve the lives of impoverished families, just like Marcin Jakubowski and Gabriele Diamanti did. For posting a free tractor design, budget, and instructional video online and designing the Eliodomestico solar powered water distiller, Time magazine credited these inventors with two of the 25 best inventions of 2012.

     There have been many reasons to celebrate in the recent past. What an exciting day it was in 1990, when South Africa's heroic leader, Nelson Mandela, was released from Robben Island after 27 years in prison! Again in 2008, how thrilling it was when a daring rescue freed Ingrid Betancourt, former presidential candidate, from the guerrilla group who had held her captive in Colombia's jungle for six years! And, what rejoicing there was in 2010, when 33 Chilean miners who were thought lost were successfully rescued after spending 69 days underground. Again in 2010, supporters in Burma had reason to cheer when the country's repressive military regime released opposition leader and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. In 2015 her party would win the first civilian majority in parliament in 50 years, and, in 2016, her aide, Htin Kyaw, would be elected the first civilian President in over 50 years.  Joy erupted in 2011, when China released Ai Weiwei, the artist/activist who dared to criticize the country's Communist Party on Twitter. Chen Guangcheng, the blind lawyer China imprisoned for helping women forced to have abortions, was freed in 2012 and is now living in the United States. Malala, the Pakistani girl shot in the head for espousing education for females, not only recovered but won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. By year end, 2014 also saw the release of U.S. AID worker, Alan Gross, in Cuba and the restoration of U.S.-Cuban relations, as well as North Korea's release of Kenneth Bae and two other Americans. Three other Americans were released from North Korea prior to a summit between Kim Jong Un and President Trump in 2018. In February, 2015, India announced that Taliban captors had released Father Alexis Prem Kumar, who had been serving as director of Jesuit refugee services in Afghanistan when he was abducted. And the Ebola virus stopped spreading in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Four US citizens were released from prison in Iran in 2016, and, in August, 2016, a cease fire in Colombia marked the beginning of the end of a fifty year battle between government troops and the Marxist guerrillas known as FARC. In Venezuela, the Holts, who were arrested on fabricated weapons charges after an American man married a Venezuelan woman, gained freedom in May, 2018 thanks to the negotiations by a U.S. delegation that included Senator Bob Corker from Tennessee and Senator Orin Hatch from Mr. Holt's home state of Utah.

      Indeed, it took eight years, but in 2014 five men finally were convicted in Russia for killing outspoken human rights activist and journalist, Anna Politkovskaya (See more details about those charged with her murder at the later blog post, "Hearing Voices from Mexico and Russia."). Nine years after two assassins used Polonium-210 to kill Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB is a successor to the KGB) officer turned critic of Putin's corruption and MI6 source after he escaped to Britain in 2000, London's high court laid out the details of its Metropolitan police investigation. Results of an inquiry will be disclosed by the end of 2015. Since about 97% of all polonium, which is a silent, invisible, normally unidentifiable agent of death, is produced at a Russian nuclear site, Litvinenko's murder appears linked to Russia, and possibly Putin's connection to Russia's biggest organized crime syndicate. Two later Russian attempts to poison enemies failed. Former military spy, Sergei Skripal, left the hospital in late May, 2018. Finally, it has taken three decades, but Pyongyang agreed in July, 2014, to investigate the disappearance of Japanese nationals missing in North Korea.

      There is hope that joy will erupt again some day, when all of the 276 female students Boko Haram kidnapped in Chibok, Nigeria, in 2014 are released (82 were exchanged for six of the terrorist group's imprisoned members in May, 2017, and more were released in 2018.). There will be other causes for joy when  Russia overturns the three and a half year sentence of Oleg Navalny, the younger brother of anti-government blogger, Alexei, who was given house arrest after his three and a half year prison term for fraud was suspended (Alexei removed his ankle monitoring device, continues to walk around Moscow like a free man, and inspired an anti-corruption protest march on March 26, 2017; he again was arrested and released after another rally in July.); Syria and the ISIS terrorist group send captives home alive; Hamas and Israel reach an agreement that frees an Israeli soldier; North Korea ends its threats of a nuclear missile attack on the U.S. and overturns the ruling that sentenced US college student, Otto Warmbler, to 15 years of hard labor (Warmbler was sent home in a coma and died in June, 2017). China has yet to release human rights lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, or cancel the prison sentences of dissidents, Xu Zhiyong and Liu Xiaobo (diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and died in July, 2017), a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement and winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Mr. Liu Xiaobo's widow, Liu Xia, was released from house arrest in 2018 and allowed to go into exile in Germany. Some day peace will come to Syria, Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen the way it emerged from conflict in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. To prevent future tragedies, we also can hope that much will be learned from the U.S. drone attack on an al-Qaeda compound in January, 2015 that inadvertently killed Italian humanitarian worker, Giovanni Lo Porto, and Dr. Warren Weinstein, a U.S. A.I.D. contractor captured when his guards were overcome while they were eating breakfast in Pakistan.

     Speaking at a 2008 conference on health and national development sponsored by the Association on Third World Affairs, Albert Santoli, president of the nongovernmental organization (NGO), Asia America Initiative, told how he, as a non-Muslim working among an almost completely Muslim population in the Sulu Archipelago, the tri-border area of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, was adopted by the largest guerrilla band. The medicine his organization provided cured the leader's daughter of malaria. When Muslims heard that help was coming from people who did not know them, including Christian colleges, they were shocked, said Santoli. "Whoever needs help gets help and that opens up doors and it builds bridges," he said.

Children can help

In her book, How to be an Everyday Philanthropist: 330 Ways to Make a Difference in Your Home, Community, and World--At No Cost, Nicole Bouchard Boles seized on the notion that those who want to help need to find small ways to start. Since nongovernmental organizations already have begun to unravel world problems, either individually or collectively as students in school, scouting, and other youth groups, children can participate in ongoing NGO projects. Local Rotary Clubs, for example, may need help packing the ShelterBoxes Tom Henderson developed to provide the supplies people need after floods, earthquakes, and other international disasters. The website, charitynavigator.org, is among those that help identify organizations most worthy of support.

     By now, many youngsters have gone Trick-or-Treating for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), while they collected Halloween candy for themselves. What they may not know is that they can take credit for raising funds that have provided immunizations, vitamins, antibiotics, food, clean water, and education to help the world's poorest children get a good start in life in 190 countries and territories. Information about where to pick up and return UNICEF collection boxes is available at the website, trickortreatforunicef.org, or by calling 1-800-FOR-KIDS. Should schools and organizations be looking worthy projects, they might consider raising funds to buy mosquito nets, blankets, or water wells through UNICEF's "Inspired Gifts Program." Information about this program is available by calling 1-866-237-2224 or by visiting inspiredgifts.org.

     Operation International Children, launched originally as Operation Iraqi Children in 2004, is another project directly related to students. Promoted by actor Gary Sinise, the organization was founded by U.S. soldiers who distribute kits containing pencils, rulers, crayons, notebook paper, and other school supplies in war torn areas. Information about how to get involved with this program is available at the operationinternationalchildren.com website.

     Learning that a Ugandan coffee farmer earns 66 cents for every $100 a coffee consumer spends in a developed country's grocery store could inspire a student to facilitate direct distribution to consumers. If students can arrange to have their schools or other community groups host a sale, the nonprofit organization, SERRV, can supply coffee and chocolate from their farmer partners, as well as individually made, handcrafted items from artisans, around the world. To obtain an information packet, visit serrv.org/SERRVOurWorld or call 1-800-423-0071.

     Heifer International taps into children's love of animals. Instead of bringing gifts to a birthday party, one mother asked young partygoers to bring donations for Heifer International that would provide impoverished families with dairy cows, pigs, chicks, ducks, goats, sheep, and bees. To raise money for Heifer, one 13-year-old girl in North Carolina makes jewelry and sells her creations at craft fairs, the public library, churches, and other venues. Her efforts have raised over $10,000. The Heifer International brochures and heifer.org website picture the happy young recipients who have received and are learning to care for the animal gifts funds provide. Since aided families pass on each animal's offspring to other families, children who make donations to Heifer International are part of an endless chain devoted to eliminating world hunger and poverty.

     For over 50 years, Amnesty International has made sure the names of political prisoners, such as those mentioned above, are not forgotten. The Chinese proverb, "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness" inspires the letter writing campaigns and human rights defenders that provide hope that freedom of speech can become a universal human right. When learning that someone has been imprisoned for speaking out, adults can help students write to their government leaders to ask them to initiate diplomatic contact that will help free these victims. In the US, students also can find the addresses of the US Embassies of foreign countries in A World Almanac and send letters over and over again to the offending country asking for the prisoner's freedom.

     Entrepreneurial children who line up neighbors willing to pay for lawn mowing, snow shoveling, baby sitting, and dog walking are the perfect prospects to develop the creative ideas and activities needed to remedy festering global ills. Proactive youngsters will find outlets for their energy in sister city events related to international issues. In Madison, Wisconsin, for example, young people learned that after East Timor (now Timor-Leste) gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, it lost much, when the departing military and militias burnt homes, schools, and hospitals. these young people then rode their bikes in "Tour de Timor," which publicized the plight of sister city, Ainaro.

     Like cities with sister cities, churches often send youth delegations to help with projects in sister parishes. When the young travelers return, they multiply the effect of their visits by inviting congregations to hear their informative presentations. Since religions cross national boundaries, churches often are active on the international scene in other ways. Their affiliated youth groups can participate in good works, such as those performed by the Quakers Friends' Service Committee and the Lutheran World Relief program that provides quilts and layettes to babies in Africa.

Models and motivation

Technology savvy youngsters can find models among the experts who saw natural disasters, medical emergencies, poor educational opportunities, dangerous kerosene lamps, and a lack of information about product markets as problems that could be solved by computers, satellite access, solar panels, and cell phones. Engineers already have come up with ways to aid farmers in lesser developed countries with low-tech, hand-cranked, foot-pedaled, and bicycle-powered radios, water pumps, oil seed presses, and laptop computers. For example, an African entrepreneur invented a playground merry-go-round that South African students turn to pump clean water for Boikarabelo, their village outside Johannesburg.

      To encourage students to create technological solutions to the world's toughest problems, Microsoft sponsors the Imagine Cup for high school and college students 16 years and older. Find details at imaginecup.com, and aim to compete in the World Wide Finals. One Billion Minds, a program similar to the Imagine Cup, was founded in 2007 by Sanjukt K. Saha. He plans to motivate a billion minds to use science, technology, design, and social innovation to solve problems in the emerging world. To date, graduates from 180 universities in 103 countries have gone to the onebillionminds.com website to find out how they can participate in this program as Challengers or Solvers. Each year, Hult International Business School, with five campuses in the U.S., U.K.,China, and the UAE, challenges teams of university students to solve global social problems posed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The winning team and NGO partners then receive $1 million to launch their solution. Find competition details at hultglobalcasechallenge.com.

     Nobel Prize winners listed on the nobelpeaceprize.org website also can inspire children to serve the global community in other ways. Young girls can derive inspiration from women such as Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who won the prize in 2004 for mobilizing a campaign to fight global warming by planting trees. Like the three women who were honored in 2011 for their efforts on behalf of women's rights, they too can identify and work to correct discrimination against women. Tawakkui Karman, the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize, exemplifies how anti-government protests, like the Arab Spring revolution she helped lead in Yemen, are only democratic when they recognize women's equality. The two Liberian honorees, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, showed how women, including Christian and Muslim women, can work together to end wars and attacks on them by men.

     Nobel Prize winners also can start young people thinking about ways to alleviate the world's physical and economic suffering. Frenchman Bernard Kouchner saw the need to minister to those injured in war torn areas and pulled together the international group of medical volunteers who won the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize for "Doctors Without Borders." In 2006, Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh was honored for founding the Grameen Bank, a financial institution that provides microsized loans to small businesses, often owned by women, in less developed countries. Following in his footsteps, Nancy Barry, president of Women's World Banking, has loaned 18 million poor women $10 to $10,000 each to start their own businesses. Through kiva.org, students can make their own $25 microloans to small overseas entrepreneurs, farmers, or students who lack tuition funds. In The International Book of Bob, you can read about Bob Harris' visits with those who run Kiva-financed projects.

      Since 2003, every year TIME magazine has published an issue devoted to "The 100 Most Influential People in the World." Students can read through the short biographies of titans, leaders, artists, pioneers, and icons to find a place in the world where they could do the most good.

     Those who have witnessed world suffering can inspire young people to action. For Nathaniel Wright, the talk Sudanese Catholic Bishop Macram Max Gassis gave on genocide in the Darfur area of the Sudan was more than another class lecture. It motivated him to form STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), a national student movement designed to raise awareness of the refugees suffering in Darfur, Sudan, and to provide the education and rehabilitation needed to improve their lives. His website, standnow.org, joins savedarfur.org as a resource children can check to find information about benefit events for Darfur as well as dates for fasts and protests. Recognized by Reebok as the first recipient of its Human Rights Young Activist Award, Wright has gone on to become an analyst in the Office of Congressional Ethics at the U.S. House of Representatives.

     Although many global problems remain, there have been successes besides those already mentioned: apartheid has ended in South Africa, the Berlin Wall no longer exists, and Germany has been reunited. Some of those who thought they could get away with committing human atrocities have been indicted and prosecuted by international and domestic courts. There is hope and happiness in the future. Both fill the hearts of the children who will become future world leaders.

How Do You Say?

Foreign languages complicate the simplest international conversation. Students need to remember konichiwa  is a greeting in Japanese and that por favor is the way to say "Please" in Spanish. When children in non-English speaking countries study a foreign language, they tend to learn English. Children whose native tongue is English lack this kind of focus. They have less incentive to learn a foreign language, because international business is said to be conducted in "broken English," and more than half of online Internet traffic is transmitted in English.

     Even though 2500 of the world's 6000 languages are in danger of becoming extinct, an English speaker needs to decide which of the remaining 3500 to learn. Perhaps, one of the other five official languages of the U.N.: French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, or Arabic. Usually U.S. students are limited to the Spanish, French, German, and possibly Latin taught in their elementary, middle, and high schools. In college, students often are reluctant to take advantage of the opportunity to study a wider variety of foreign languages. TIME magazine (July 29, 2013) reported that the prime time to learn a second language is the brief period from three months before birth to six years of age. During that period, the agile brain readily picks up the pitches and rhythms of language (a talent that also can signal a student's musical potential). Since research indicates that learning a new language is easier for a child than an adult, those intent on graduating from college with high GPAs shy away from the challenge of learning Urdu, Farsi, or Swahili.

Eliminate language anxiety

People in different countries often do speak unfamiliar languages. Even English-speaking Australians call sheep, jumbuck, and food, tucker. But foreign languages are part of the U.S. heritage and current culture. Immigrant grandmothers sing babies Italian lullabies or ask children, "Ist das nicht eine Schnitzelbank?" At school, youngsters learn the round, Frere Jacques, before they can translate the words to "Brother John, Brother John, Are you sleeping?" In holiday pageants, they sing "The First Noel" and "O Tannenbaum." Youngsters aged 5 to 10 learn to sing songs in Spanish and German at DreamBank, a center created by American Family Insurance to host community events in Madison, Wisconsin.

     Without knowing the meanings,kids hear adults talking about: the hoi polloi, going mano a mano, the need for an ombudsman, schlepping over to a neighbor's to watch a football game, enjoying al fresco dining, and the enfant terrible. Expressions to avoid around kids: those found in How to Swear Around the World by Jason Sacher.

     Some expressions are easy to learn in Spanish, French, German, and Italian.

Hello: Hola, Allo, Guten Tag, Ciao

Good-bye: Adios, Adieu, auf Wiedersehen, Addio

Thank you: Gracias, Merci, Danke, Grazie

Yes: Si, Oui, Ja, Si

No: No, Non, Nein, No

At the end of their school days, children could surprise their teachers by bidding them, Adieu. At home they could respond, Danke, when their parents compliment their report cards.

     These days children have become accustomed to seeing the English words they understand alongside other languages on toys, puzzles, promotional give-aways from fast food restaurants, and instructions. Thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that applies to Canada, the United States, and Mexico, nearly every household item is like a Rosetta Stone that now carries the official languages of Canada (English and French which is spoken in Quebec province); the United States, English; and Mexico, Spanish. When a child is using a crayon, adults can point out the name of a color, such as yellow, is written in English; Spanish, amarillo; and French, jaune. Words like warning, precaucion and advertencia obviously have the same meaning as do guarantee, garantia, and garantie. By cutting copy into the three NAFTA languages on a tissue box, for example, and studying copy blocks side by side, children can begin to spot other words that might have the same meanings. They also can to to a website, such as babelfish.yahoo.com, to translate their own copy into 12 other languages.

     Along with product packaging, children are exposed to foreign words in other ways. They might see a foreign language newspaper or hear a foreign language spoken in a movie and on television programs on foreign language stations. Some children's television shows, such as "Sesame Street," "Dragon Tales," and "Maya and Miguel" on PBS and Nick's "Dora, the Explorer," have made learning Spanish words an integral part of their programs just as teaching some Chinese words were part of "Ni Hao, Kai-lan" on Nick jr. By logging on to the activities associated with these shows, children can further their foreign language learning experience.

     Museums, monuments, theme parks, and transportation centers that international visitors frequent often designate wash rooms and telephones in foreign languages, Attractions, such as Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia and the Jelly Belly factory tour in Wisconsin, publish brochures in foreign languages that enable children to compare terms in English and those in another tongue. These foreign language brochures are also a good addition to a child's foreign city/country scrapbook. Without visiting another country, shops in communities where immigrants concentrate may give children practice guessing the meaning of the Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese words on neighborhood signs. At the same time, seeing at a young age that there are Greek and Russian letters and Chinese and Japanese characters that they do not understand may protect them in later years from naively getting a tattoo that says something they did not intend.

Learning a language

According to the same TIME magazine (July 29, 2013) article and other research, there is a life long advantage to learning a second language. The flexible, resourceful brain of bilinguals used to choosing between multiple words for objects and ideas seems to develop an ability to reason, maintain self control, multitask, resist distraction, deal with conflicting ideas, and delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

     Consequently, there is incentive to look for toys that involve foreign languages. Wooden blocks sold by Signals (signals.com) label their sides with alphabets, numbers, and animal names in Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, and Korean. In English, French, Spanish, German, and Latin, a book from The White House Historical Association (whitehousehistory.org) uses the names of U.S. presidents and words associated with the White House to illustrate the alphabet. Children are able to write their own fortune cookie messages using rub-on Chinese characters in a kit from Multicultural Kids (multiculturalkids.com/shop). Multicultural Kids also has sold dolls dressed in clothes children would wear in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Israel, Russia, China, and Korea. These dolls were programmed to recite greetings, numbers, colors, days of the week, and other words and phrases in the languages of the country clothes they wore.

     When it comes to teaching foreign languages, in general, humans have been more effective than DVDs and CDs. One experiment compared a group of babies who played with a woman who spoke Mandarin Chinese, another group who watched a video of the Chinese-speaking woman playing with the children, and the third group who listened to a Chinese audio recording. Only the babies who actually interacted with the human woman could recognize Mandarin sounds. Language development seems to go hand and hand with the ability to look into eyes, follow their gaze, and figure out what someone is thinking. Instead of going through stores and telling a child the English names of every item they place in their carts, adults need to begin interacting by identifying fruits, vegetables, clothing, and household items in foreign language words. To help adults refresh old and learn new language skills, book and map stores carry an astounding array of phrase books, pocket dictionaries, CDs, CD-ROM programs, videotapes, audiocassettes, and workbooks. These stores also carry foreign language coloring books and other items targeted toward children.

    Online, foreign languages are taught at openculture.com and at learnalanguage.com. Foreign language audio tapes prepared by the Foreign Service Institute are available at fsi-languages.yojik.eu and at fsi.antibozo.net. Museumtour.com offers those 7 years and up two methods of learning a foreign language. "Instant Immersion" uses association techniques on DVD-ROMs and CD speech recordings to teach Spanish, French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. Or, for the basics in 25 languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, and Urdu, try "Talk Now!" In the future, we could be able to talk with each other in real time using Skype Translator. This Microsoft software is being developed to translate a conversation between two people videochatting in different languages using English, Spanish, Italian, or Mandarin.

     Ultimately, language is more than words. It influences how people interact. Some languages, such as German and English, are precise. Meaning resides in the words, and there is a directness in the way people ask and answer questions. In Japanese, Arabic, and Spanish, however, meaning depends on the context in which a word is used. Until people get to know and trust each other, they may offer vague responses. Since they cannot rely solely on the words they have heard, they are reluctant to commit themselves. In cultures where understanding requires a feeling for what people actually mean by what they say, personal and business relationships may be limited to family and well-known friends. New associations are slow to develop. Only when children understand how differences in languages determine how responses differ and how fast friendships develop in a culture, will they appreciate why a foreign student's behavior is not always the same as theirs.

(Also see the blog post, "Getting to Know You.")