Global Citizenship Preview 2018

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Foreword

It is most gratifying to share this publication, an outcome of the course ADVANCED PREP which took place at ABA Aflitos Headquarters and at Boa Viagem in 2017 and 2018.

The course was designed for young adults who had reached an advanced proficiency level in English and who were interested in enhancing their written competence by discussing relevant global issues and expressing their views in writing. In that participatory experience learning was carried out in small groups, typically pairs of students, under teacher supervision.

The essays reflect a tripartite organization: (I) Human Rights issues (Peace, feminism, refugees) (II) Health issues (Longevity, HIV, Malnutrition) (III) Environmental issues (Climate, Water, world population) We hope the many authors’ insights and critical views will be beneficial to participants in such course as well as to educators who share ABA’s belief that there may be language learning concurrently with development of global citizenship compentence.

Before closing, let me congratulate the creative participants in this pioneering initiative and to say that I look forward to subsequent issues. In the tradition of human linguistic rights, contributors’ texts are presented as originally crafted, thus ensuring authors of the right to have their written English recognized and published authentically.

Francisco Gomes de Matos, president, Board of ABA Global Education

Introduction Global Competence Globalization has been intensified in the last decade as the communication system expands through social networks, faster and broader internet access, and the development of e-learning platforms. The transnationalization of businesses was remarkable, very much like the merger that created mega-corporations with budget investment.

Some nations advanced in transnational, commercial agreements. There has been an expansion of the processes of innovation, production, sales, and distribution of many companies to many countries. Environmental causes have increasingly become the focus of global debates. The global information system has been widened and perfected, and has made it possible to compare the performance of nations through various indicators.

The result was a great social, political, and economic change that had an impact on personal relationships and commercial transactions, with regard to extension, intensity, speed, and influence.

Circulation of ideas, people, goods, and capital around the world was expedited. International networks of activities, knowledge, and power were created. To understand globalization, its foundations, and implications is key to recognize and respond to the pressures that stem from the business world and of the competitiveness among nations. This process resulted in a significant increase in global competitiveness. The countries’ global competitiveness is assessed by the World Economic Forum.

Education must be a top priority in any country.

Nevertheless, actions in that regard should include simultaneously a radical improvement of the elementary through higher education system and the creation of a system that prepares the students to be innovators and globally competent. This means that the individual must have the competencies and

skills to understand and act upon questions from a global perspective, interacting with people from various countries.

These people are conscientious, curious, know how to ask intelligent questions, and are motivated to learn about the world and how it works. These are individuals with a global mindset that help to influence groups, organizations, and systems that are different from their own, acting with adequate behavior in multicultural contexts. They can retain their cultural identity but are simultaneously aware of the cultural values and beliefs of people around them. They examine the origins and implications of others and their own assumptions.

The student prepares to be globally competent through a process that subsumes investigating the world, analyzing scenarios, communicating ideas to various audiences, and act by turning ideas into adequate actions to enhance the current status and solve the problem in perspective. In order for the students to develop these activities effectively, they need to develop 21st Century skills and have a command of foreign languages, primarily English.

This way, they will be able to question attitudes, seek better practices and world references through participation in global networks of knowledge. They will be ready and willing to take informed, reflective action and will engage to improve living conditions in one´s own communities and beyond the borders.

May this Introduction help open the windows which will enable readers to see and enjoy the landscape of globalizing ideas presented by the authors in this inaugural issue.

Eduardo Carvalho Executive Director ABA Global Education

2018.1 | Summary

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Refugees Nuclear Energy Food Human Rights Throughout the Human History The Position of Woman on Society World’s Nuclear Energy Women New colonizers of Africa Opportunity, not Capacity Racism The Democracy of Water Water: Solution or Problem?

* Editor’s note Articles in this publication reflect their author(s)’ views only.

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Refugees Lately, the world is witnessing a serious problem: the displacement of millions of people caused by religious conflicts and natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. When struck by those problems, refugees lose their jobs, houses and stability, which forces them to leave their countries and try to find a place where they can have more safety and a better quality of life for themselves and their families. As this issue grows bigger, developed countries are trying to create temporary solutions to help the refugees, and in our opinion, all the support provided is necessary due to the circumstances.

At the end of 2016, the number of refugees reached 65 million around the world, and almost 17 million on the Middle East. The countries where most refugees come from are Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan, which are the most affected by the conflicts. Usually, the refugees try to find home across the Mediterranean Sea or in Africa.

The arguments are usually the same, they say that the refugees steal their jobs, invade their public spaces, make their countries education rates look lower and their economy weaker. Because of that many countries don’t agree with the refugees presence.

Even though the refugees issue is still a big problem for humanity to deal with, lots of NGOs along with the UN are providing aid. As a consequence, they are making the global refugee issue a solvable problem.

Even though the refugees issue is still a big problem for humanity to deal with, lots of NGOs along with the UN are providing aid.

The main host countries, which are Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon, are helped by the UN so they can welcome the foreigners. The UN helps the countries by supplying water, food, health care and sanitation to maintain the places where the refugees are kept: the government-run refugee camps.

Despite of all the help provided, the refugees are also affected by xenophobia when they arrive in the neighbor countries, where part of the population doesn’t want to live among them.

AEPREP 2 O61 Gabriel José Galdino Leitão da Costa and Julia Madeira Campos Mendes Lima

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Nuclear Energy Nuclear or atomic energy is obtained from the fission of the nucleus of the enriched uranium atom, which when divided into two parts, releases a large amount of energy.

The atomic energy that is common nowadays, not just in America but all across the world, is one of the most dangerous for humankind, but it can also bring a lot of benefits. According to history, the first big use of atomic energy was for military use, putting an end in World War II, but also making people afraid of a new war using this type of energy. Because of this and some accidents involving atomic energy along history, like the one in Chernobyl which killed a lot of workers and citizens in 1986, and besides the obvious fact that atomic energy increase pollution, it is considered dangerous nowadays.

In countries where water resources are scarce (non-viability of hydroelectric plants), nuclear power plants may be an alternative for generating electricity. Nuclear power plants produce little air pollution in the power generation process, contrary to what happens in thermoelectric plants. The environmental impact in the process of building and installing the nuclear power plant is much lower than in the case of a hydroelectric plant. There is great availability of uranium in nature, which is very well used in the process of generating energy.

But in my opinion, even with all this problems, atomic energy is still one of the most dangerous kinds of energy to use, not just for war purposes, but also for medicine and biotechnology use.

Recently a workshop organized by the IAEA and its partners showed how nuclear techniques can be used to combat bio toxins from harmful algae blooms. The IAEA is also in a relationship with

the United Nations that is guided by an agreement signed by both parties in 1957.

Nuclear energy has several positive aspects and is of fundamental importance in countries that do not have the natural resources to obtain energy. Further studies must be carried out on this energy source; there are still several points to be improved, so that they can guarantee safety for the population.

AEPREP 2 O61 Alan da Costa Pessoa

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FOOD

Every day I leave my house, go to places, go to school, and come back home. I’ve done it for more than 13 years and all this time, when I leave home I see people on the street asking for food, searching for food in the garbage and suffering with hunger. I never really noticed that because I never really stopped to look around me and my reality, and because of that it was always really hard for me to talk about and even understand hunger. And even though I don’t talk about it, it exists, and it kills.

Every day, about 21,000 people die of hunger, and the number keeps increasing. Hunger and malnutrition are in fact the number one risk to health worldwide — greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. 1 in every 9 people on Earth do not get enough food to live a healthy and active life. Nearly 1/2 of all deaths in children under 5 are attributable to malnutrition. Today there are more than 815 million people who do not have enough to eat.

1 in every 9 people on Earth do not get enough food to live a healthy and active life.

Hunger is, in my opinion, the worst global issue because it is something that only those who constantly suffer with it can really understand.

AEPREP 2 O61 Thaís Bastos Moreira Príncipe

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Human Rights Throughout the human history Human beings must be respect despite their race, sex, religion or ethnicity. What happens is that people are not aware and don’t know how to treat others, and that makes prejudice grow around the world. Each government has the obligation to take care of its citizens and protect their rights. As I see it, the legal rights are essential nowadays because, with social networks, hate speech has become stronger in our society hiding behind the label of freedom of expression that haters use to protect themselves.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has the purpose to promote limits for the State to step in when it is necessary, in certain legally defined circumstances that benefit society as a whole rather than just the individual. However, there are some groups that are still more vulnerable to suffering attacks because they stand against the “traditional culture”, for example women, children and minorities like LGBT’s.

Even when what is said goes against the human rights it shouldn’t be restricted For example they don’t agree with racist speech but they think that making fun about what people believe (like faith or thoughts) is acceptable and they shouldn’t be punished by that. Nevertheless, as I see it, if we give space for people like that we’ll be also giving credit for those who want to make a racist comment or any other offense.

To sum up, Human Rights, the basic rights given to individuals on the account of them being human are almost the same everywhere. Every country grants these rights irrespective of an individual’s caste, creed, color, culture and economic or social status. However, at times individual groups or the state itself violates these. Therefore, I think that people need to stay on their guard against any violation of human rights and any kind of comments or jokes about it.

Each person, at some point in his or her life, has already faced prejudice or disrespect. The Afro Descendant population throughout human history has been suffering from different types of attacks.

We can see this from slavery up to nowadays with hate speech posted on social networks.

On the other hand, some people say that the justifying it as freedom expression is plausible because it shows that each person has her/his own way of thinking or disagreeing on some subjects.

AEPREP 2 O61 Letícia Castro Baía and Maria Luciana Romeira de Sá Ferreira

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The Position of Woman on Society Nowadays, women have been included in a lot of aspects of the society that some years ago they weren’t. Despite these changes, we haven’t achieved gender equality yet. The violence against women, the salary difference between genders and the difficulties that mothers have to face in the job market shows that we are so far away to the reaching equality.

To begin with, our society has always been patriarchal, and women are always seen as of lower status than men. Because of that, many men stand as superiors and dominators of the female figure and practice physical and psychological violence against them.

Third, women who have children are forced to find someone to take care of their kids, because is most companies do not have childcare facilities. In addition, women have to face 2 jobs: one at home and one in office.

We have achieved a lot of things in the constitution, but the mind of the society hasn’t changed yet. Our fight is for justice and equality in all aspects, because we are all humans and we all need respect.

Another aspect to consider is the difference in income among genders. It is so common to see a man in a higher position in the workplace, while a woman is rare. Although women can finally work and be financially independent, chances are that they won’t be bosses or lead businesses.

Our fight is for justice and equality in all aspects, because we are all humans and we all need respect.

AEPREP 2 O61 Melissa Batista Silva Pires

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Nuclear Energy The Discovery of nuclear energy lead to the death of thousands of people at the end of the World War 2 and it shocked the whole world, but it also opened a door to a future no one had ever dreamed of: a future with infinite energy, or that was what they expected, but the reality was really different. Nuclear fission power plants are a good energy source but with lots of downsides and risks, and it became a problem, but we can still use nuclear energy for the good.

Nuclear fission power plants are a good energy source but with lots of downsides and risks (...)

Something to take in consideration is that the development of nuclear weapons did not end with WWII, it continued for many more years during the cold war and continues until today. A lot of times nuclear power plants are used as a disguise for the development of nuclear weapons.

have the best energy source possible with no risk of causing accidents neither producing radioactive waste, but we would still need to get better nuclear weapons politics to avoid their development.

Also nuclear power plants produce nuclear waste, which is radioactive and take many years to stop harming the environment. Furthermore today’s nuclear power plants create the possibility of a nuclear accident, like the one that happened in Chernobyl, which can spread radiation in large areas making it impossible to live in them.

On the other hand, power plants are still a very good energy source because they produce a lot of energy for very low prices and have it has one of the smallest deaths per energy unit generated per year among all the other energy sources.

In a nutshell, even though nuclear energy produces a lot of energy, today’s nuclear power plants have many more downsides than advantages, but that doesn’t mean we should never use nuclear energy, the problem today is the type of nuclear energy we use, that is fission nuclear energy, if we were able to use fusion nuclear energy we would

AEPREP 2 O61 João Carlos Muniz da Cunha Neto

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Women Once i heard in an interview with Trump’s voters a lady saying that “Women are unstable so they can’t run a country, because they can start a war any time” (a very sexist speech), and the reporter replied asking who had started all the wars in the world!

Since before modern times women have always been subordinated, and in our time we can still see remnants of a sexist world. Even though 143 countries guaranteed equality between men and women in their Constitutions in 2014, another 52 have not taken this step. Currently there are still forced marriages, women who work the same file and the same job as men and still receive less money, women who have double working day, and the disrespect that we women suffer from men in relation to being the fragile sex.

Nowadays, we have improved very much in relation to our rights, but we still have a long journey! In the Brazilian job market, many women occupy the same job with the same school level as our friends from the opposite sex and, unfortunately, we still receive 53% less than them. We can still point that women have double working journeys, since they work all day and when they arrive home she still need to take care of the house and children.

This is a worrisome fact, that shows us clearly the difference of salary between men and women.

Second point, ladies are very disrespected on the streets, at home, at work. In Brazil, for example, there are a lot of cases of harassment and nothing is done to help them! Around the world the countries with the highest rates of harassment, according to a research made by the UN in 2010, are the USA, South Africa, India, the United Kingdom and México. There is rape all around the world, and nothing is done to fight this.

domestic tasks, cultivating the culture that only women can do that, supposing that is only her job!

This statement makes women’s double journeys more clear.

There are people that still defend that we deserve to receive a lower salary because we get pregnant and we spend 4 month at home taking care of our baby! For me this is a very wrong claim, because regardless of whether she becomes pregnant or not, her ability to work is the same and she must earn the same salary.

“Fat, pig, dog, slob, disgusting animal. These are some of the names that Donald Trump has called women.” As the USA president said, many other men have already said things like that, or worse, things that make people overvalue female beauty.

They say things that objectify women’s bodies, making us feel like an object that needs a man to feel valued. For them, we always need to be perfect!

To sum up, nowadays, we live in a sexist world with sexist people that with sexist speeches try to lower women’s value. Making us work the same as men and not earn the same salary, or disrespecting us with several names just because of our gender!

We know that we still have a lot to fight for, but one day we will achieve gender equality.

Since before modern times women have always been subordinated, and in our time we can still see remnants of a sexist world.

“It is not a problem for a woman to work outside, as long as that does not interfere with the domestic chores” this is a common idea sexist people defend, stating that women should work at home with the AEPREP 2 O61 Luíse Della Santa de Andrade Melo and Maria Clara Belo Montezuma Cordeiro

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New colonizers of Africa Nowadays, the global population knows a lot about of the African Continent, mostly because the power of the media. Internet, radio, movies, newspaper and television are responsible for creating points of view of this continent, usually distorted.

There are a lot of stereotypes about this big and rich - from a lot of different perspective - continent.

The biggest example is that ‘Africa is a country’ for some people. However, Africa is the third largest continent in the world. It has almost 30.400.000 km², 1,216 billion people and 54 countries recognized by the UN. Another example of stereotype is that Africa is composed only of deserts, but it shows different natural landscapes, since it occupies different latitudes of the globe, and presents several natural resources. The continent has oil and gas in the upper countries and gold, iron, copper, uranium and diamond all around the continent.

Singular culture in Africa is another harmful idea.

The media only shows Africa like a place where athletes and sick people come out but, because of its huge dimensions, the culture is anything but homogeneous. This is marked by the differences of food, language, usually being the same as the country that colonized the countries, and religion, which are diverse in such continent.

However, Africa is not just about bad features, for example hunger, unemployment, and wars, such as the wars that took place after World War II, so that African countries could conquer their independence, with the Second Congo War as the most lethal among them, killing up to 5 million people, according to UOL. However, there are

positive traits in this continent. Take the great cultural diversity, for example, a history that involves not only the birth of man, but also the cradle of one of the most developed civilizations of the ancient time, the Egyptian civilization. Besides the great investment of multinationals in the continent, which has become, over the years, quite ambivalent, since it brings both benefits and harm to African societies.

A few centuries ago, European countries divided the African continent to save them from the evil path, as they told the people, but this was not the reality.

Such countries would later explore their African domains in order to gain more profits through jobs that put natives as inferior to Europeans, mostly because of the skin color and the poorest situation.

In the meantime, Europeans have grown richer, and because they are at the other end of the spectrum, Africans have become poorer. When they were able to remain independent they continued in the same situation as the only treasure left without much economic importance, since the most valuable had been extracted by the invaders and, for example, were able to build the city of Brussels, now the seat of the European Union.

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Since the end of the last century, the African continent has been prominent in economic development. Such growth was not achieved by itself, but with the help of multinationals. The lack of capital to invest in exploration, inherited from European explorers, is one of the main reasons why companies from other parts of the world invest in the African territory.

Another important reason, which doesn’t disconnect with the one already mentioned, why multinationals have begun to “invade” the African world is cheap labor. Because of so many wars, most African governments are quite unstable, unable to help all the needy individuals, that is, it cannot employ all the people, making hunger and misery recurrent in that continent. As a result, the job search of Africans was, still not totally, incessant; making the only way they could work being to make their services cheap, and encouraging the coming of global companies to Africa.

(...) even though it (the exploration of multinationals)

brings many jobs to the population, such as new technologies and greater African openness to a global market, it has been damaging, and extracting its most precious assets, as well as the European countries that have adopted neocolonialism did (...)

Therefore, it is possible to perceive that the African continent has positive and negative points.

These negatives have been intensified by the exploration of multinationals, since even though it brings many jobs to the population, such as new technologies and greater African openness to a global market, it has been damaging, and extracting its most precious assets, as well as the European countries that have adopted neocolonialism did, since their political interests outweighed social interests (which could have brought more benefits to local society).

AEPREP 2 I1 Eduardo Leal Maranhão Mota and Rayanne da Cunha Mendes

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Opportunity, not Capacity - Hey, you! Are you a woman? Do you remember this?

noticed and fight for their rights. Women, all over the world, tired of hearing “you can’t”, started doing things that were usually done by men.

- I can’t wear what I want to because somebody on the street might look and say something.

In the past, most women didn’t believe in their own capacity, they couldn’t picture themselves doing things that only men could do, like being a doctor or a taxi driver. Through the years they started to see that what was missing was opportunity and not capacity, so they started making changes and fighting for their rights.

- I can’t use public transportation in peace, because I’m always afraid of somebody touching me. They think they can.

- When I come home I have to wash the dishes, the clothes and take care of the kids, because that’s a woman’s job. They say my place is at home.

- He is abusing me but I have to remain quiet.

- I have worked there for ten years, but I have never received the same salary as the men in the same position do. And I have never gotten promoted, just because I’m a woman.

Yes, probably you have already heard some of this phrases or you have already said them. And if you haven’t, maybe you will, someday.

Our culture was based on an idealized view of women, everybody sees them as delicate, fragile, and intellectually inferior. This sexist perspective rooted in our lives keeps being handed down, from generation to generation, for a long time. Today, even robots have been made to think in much the same way.

The female sex has been living with this for a long time, all the humiliation, fear, abuse, psychological violence, harassment and injustice is part of women’s daily routine. Although, some centuries ago they finally found a way to been

Nowadays, everybody can see their struggle to be treated with equal rights. Probably you have already heard about this fight as feminism.

Feminism is the belief in social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. This ideology has lead women in the struggle. They have already achieved a lot, but are still not even close to equality.

Women like Marie Curie, Simone Beauvoir, Frida Kahlo, Carlota Joaquina, Coco Chanel, Rosa Parks, Joana d’Arc, and a lot more are proof that this fight is worth it. These women are motivated by the fight. These women were able to change history and make history; they are the fight. Despite this, by the popularization of the movement, feminism became trivialized, some people are becoming the “enemy”, being extremists, giving a different view of feminist ideals. Therefore, feminism has become something trivialized in the view of some people, thus, making some people not self-titled feminists.

All in all, every woman has gone through many rough patches, so it is important to fight. Feminism is the representative voice and it is necessary to change, that’s why we need to show the world what it means to be a feminist, and somehow we will achieve equality.

AEPREP 2 I1 Bianca Faccenda and Roberta Magalhães

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Racism Racism is one of the greatest problems in the world and exists in the idea of onesuperior and inferior races, explicit in actions of oppression to a person or group with different skin color.

Introduction

Many people around the world suffer from racism.

These people are discriminated against because they are different. This big problem happens mainly in Europe and in North America, when white people discriminate Afro-descendants, only because they were born with black skin. It is important to know that this has existed since the colonization age, through the slavery of African people to work on the lands “discovered” by European explorers.

Most of the descendants of these slaves still live in poverty and live in suburbs because of their family past and of some white people that do not employ black people out of prejudice.

The evolution

This kind of prejudice has been happening less and less because of the fight that happens around the world to stop these acts of racism against different ethnicities. In the last century, these events were much worse. With the existence of a group called Ku Klux Kan, many blacks in the United States were hunted and discriminated against. People from this group believed that the US was created only for white people, descended of Europeans. Nowadays, we live in a very different reality, in a world where most people accept the other races and know how to respect each other.

It is important to believe that we, humans, are all the same, independently of the color of our skin and our origins. No one is inferior because they are European, Asian or American. The most important thing is to respect everybody, be friends and live in peace.

Where and how it happens?

Racism happens in different places, being very common in matches of some sport, in schools, at work and in public places, like shopping malls and squares. Usually, some groups organize themselves to speak bad things about other races, even practicing violence against them.

Racism is against human rights and the governments of countries around the world try to combat it with laws that prohibit this practice and arrest those who don’t obey these rules.

AEPREP 2 I1 José Vitor Nóbrega

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The Democracy of Water To begin with, water is basic for life on our planet, but 2.1 billion people don’t have access to it. That is really worrying and everybody needs to help in this battle.

The lack of water can cause many problems.

According to “Step to Health” these are: premature aging, overweight, obesity, high levels of bad cholesterol and digestive system disease.

The shortage of water has been present in different countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Congo.

According to the website “Water Filter Answers” pollution is the main cause of the shortage of water.

It can be caused by many different factors, such as: oil spills, human acts and industrial wastes.

Other major causes of the lack of water are: overuse or wastage of water. Droughts can be a serious problem in some areas as well.

Most of these problems are caused by humans, this should be pointed out by the media and society, but most of them ignore it.

extent it becomes good enough for human use.

Some ways to avoid and overcome lack of water are: reducing the consumption of water, reusing and recycling wastewater, Improving irrigation and agricultural practices and creating projects that will help people in need.

All in all, there are many ways to prevent lack of water, but the main problem is humans themselves.

They just stay put and watch it, while dozens of people are dying every day. If humans could stop arguing and just focused on the problem, it would be easily dealt with.

In conclusion, shortage/lack of water lack is something that can be resolved, but if the world does not take action, it will result in a much bigger problem.

Besides the consequences that water shortage can cause to human health, we have to highlight some world problems, like the increase of conflicts in nations that are looking out for clean water depletion, irrigation problems and sanitary problems.

On the other hand, some extraordinary projects are being developed to solve at least some of these problems. One of them is “The Water Project”.

They raise funds in a website in which anyone can donate money to people in Africa that don’t have access to water.

Another project that can help poor people with some sort of water problem is Biosand Water Filter.

It filters the water using gravel, fine sand and some microbiological film. This makes it way cheaper than the common filters. Although this is not the best filter available, it can clean the water to the

(...) water is basic for life on our planet, but 2.1 billion people don’t have access to it.

AEPREP 2 I1 Philippe Menge and João Pedro Falcão

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Water: Solution or Problem?

Planet Earth has a huge biodiversity. We have about 8,7 million species of animals and plants. All types of life depends on water and our planet is composed of seventy percent of it, and our bodies have seventy five percent of water.

We, as humans, need water for basically everything. In theory, everyone has the right to use the water, and, of course, just in theory. It is common to find places on Earth where the population does not have any access to water. And it is not just in Africa as everyone thinks, poverty is all over the world.

From the seventy percent of water that we have, only three percent is proper for consumption. The big problem is that this resource is poorly distributed, polluted and, on most occasions, wasted. The lack of water affects human life in many ways, causing harm ranging from illness to death.

A place with a lot of water has better basic sanitation for the population, the same logic is true to places that have no access to water. As a consequence, they have a really bad sanitation system and it helps the proliferation of diseases, because a lot of them are transmitted through the water.

As a result of the lack of potable water and treated sewage, thirty thousand people die every single day.

According to UNICEF, one third of the world’s population does not have access to treated water and not having potable water to consume can cause some diseases such as cholera, schistosomiasis, leptospirosis and hepatitis.

As a result of the lack of potable water and treated sewage, thirty thousand people die every single day. Most of the victims are children from unfavored classes, their most common cause of death being dehydration, as a consequence of diarrhea.

In Brazil the situation is alarming, more than three million families have no access to treated water and seven and a half million families have no sewage treatment.

The daily consumption of this resource varies from country to country. In Brazil, it is estimated that one hundred eighty-five liters per family are consumed, and in United States of America the estimated consumption is five hundred and seventy-five liters per day, per family.

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According to OMS the recommendation is a hundred liters per person, per day, so an individual can satisfy all his/her needs.

The only way out of this situation is to make people aware of the problems between water and society. We need to learn how to use this unique and precious resource with responsibility. We have to use the water carefully so we can change our reality, avoiding more deaths and future problems.

And last but not least, is important to remember that we need more kindness with nature and with the ones of our kind. A lot of people try to ignore the problems that are not their own. We have to support and help the ones that do not have these conditions and, in today’s world, still live in misery.

AEPREP 2 I1 Philippe Menge and João Pedro Falcão

2017.2 | Summary

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Water problems: life problems Aids as a social issue Women’s Fights Refugees: a human cause Different body, same head World’s Population and Its Bad Distribution A bigger problem Food and Malnutrition Atomic energy Challenges of Ageing Have times changed?

Atomic Threat Food Climate Changes Are refugees the problem?

Women’s issues Democracy Achieving peace

* Editor’s note Articles in this publication reflect their author(s)’ views only.

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Water problems: life problems Water is essential for life; life on earth would be impossible without it. People can go for more than three weeks without any food, but water is a completely different story. “The maximum time an individual can go without water seems to be a week — an estimate that would certainly be shorter in difficult conditions, like boiling heat.” That’s why we value water and therefore one of the world’s biggest problems is the scarcity of water.

Millions of people around the world have no access to clean water, or even water at all. The majority also has to pass through lots of different problems, adding into making their lives miserable or even killing them. The obstacle is not that there’s not enough water for everyone. There is enough fresh water for everyone on Earth. However, because of bad economics or even maybe poor infrastructure, millions of people, and lots of them are children, die from diseases originated by inadequate water supply, sanitation or hygiene.

The people who suffer from the conditions mostly have no ways of changing things by themselves.

They need the help of people or governments in better conditions than them. Surely is not hard to help. If the majority of the people teamed up we could improve this crisis way faster.

New technologies like the one of recycling water need to be implemented in the places where most of the people suffer from these troubles. Some countries, like Singapore, are trying to recycle to cut water imports and become more self-sufficient.

Singapore is a leader in developing technology that cleanses wastewater for other uses, like drinking.

Also we could improve the situation by not overpricing water or resources which help people turn polluted water into drinkable. Nowadays we have so many useful methods of not wasting water or recycle it but most of them are not affordable. Companies should lower the cost or the governments should make it a right.

That’s why we as humans should engage into knowing and helping in this crisis. It affects lots of people every day and what we can at least do is try to improve this horrible present situation so that in the future water is way easier to access and we also make sure drinkable water never ceases to exist.

“Changing the face of this crisis involves education to motivate new behaviors”, Circle of Blue.

First of all we need to educate people. According to Circle of Blue, “Changing the face of this crisis involves education to motivate new behaviors”.

Making the subject be well known will make new people be interested in helping or creating new ways to stop this crisis, or in changing bad behavior like wasting water and pricing.

AEPREP 2 K1 Aline de Paiva Barroso

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AIDS AS A SOCIAL ISSUE The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was identified in 1983 and their first signal was found in animals that were domesticated by tribes in Africa.

Since the start of the HIV virus, this epidemic has contaminated a lot of people around the world. The HIV virus can be found in the blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk and can be transmitted by sexual contact, during pregnancy or childbirth, and breastfeeding when the mother is HIV-positive.

There are groups of people that can be easily contaminated depending on the place that they live, the access to health, the culture of the place and others.

There are some programs to prevent the contamination of AIDS; one of them is the UNAIDS. The main objective of the UN program is to prevent the evolution of the disease and help other nations in AIDS combat. The UNAIDS develops social programs to help people that are infected through treatment and helps to reduce the prejudice and the social economic impact. The governments from different countries are engaged to decrease the rate of HIV contamination giving new antiretroviral treatment, vaccines, health service, house assistance and transportation. This kind of assistance can extend the lives of those who were infected.

It’s a difficult mission without the support and understanding of the human race.

Another way to help in the AIDS combat is through private companies and schools. The owners of companies and schools could promote some events to talk about the disease and the

ways to prevent the HIV virus. The objective of this kind of event is to discuss actions and how society can help contaminated people, and keep informing about the problem. Doing this, the employees and students will know more about AIDS and they could advise people around them about the importance of self-prevention. These events could happen at least twice a year to maintain society informed.

Although new HIV infections have declined, there are a lot of people who are HIV positive.

Leaders from different parts of the world are trying to develop goals to stop and reverse the spread of HIV. They intend to end this epidemic until 2030 but it’s a difficult mission without the support and understanding of the human race.

AEPREP 2 K1

Aline Helen dos Santos and Thaís Simoni Batista

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Women’s Fights In the beginning of history, women played an important and submissive role in people’s lives.

They were responsible for education and home clearing, but they hardly ever had the opportunity to choose if they really wanted to do it during their entire lives. Even in mythology, women are represented as important characters. For example, Minerva symbolizes intelligence and wisdom, and Juno is the goddess of the skies. However, many people don’t understand what women can do.

Because of that, if you were born a woman you have no choice about facing tricky and disrespectful situations during your whole life.

These tricky situations include wage gaps because of gender. Researches have already shown that women receive less money than men, even if they are doing the same jobs. This gender pay gap can be even wider if we’re talking about African or Latin women, who earn, respectively, 36 cents per dollar and 45 cents per dollar less than men.

Culturally speaking (and based on Virginia Woolf, a feminist writer), sexism is a ghost and its non-concrete character makes gender dissimilarities harder to be defeated. That is why it seems impossible for us to predict the end of gender issues, because it has been culturally rooted in both men’s and women’s heads - which contributed to turning girls into objects managed by sexist stereotypes, practices and speech.

Sadly, the process of objectification of girls is a scar in our history, constitutions, homes and routine. In order to let that scar behind, governments all around the world must invest in a feminist education at schools; charge and ensure women’s rights everywhere (by using the United Nations meetings and agreements); and encourage girls to be in academic environments and to study specific areas in which they are hardly ever included and recognized. All of this, on behalf of a better and egalitarian world

In addition to that, a recent research made

by YouGov institution, says that more than 50% of women were victims of harassment in Brazil, England, Thailand and India (it’s important to remind you that only these five countries were included in the research, which means other regions weren’t evaluated).

AEPREP 2 O61 Amanda Soares de Castro Moraes and Gisele Alves de Lucena

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REFUGEES: A HUMAN CAUSE The world is facing one of the biggest issues involving people displacement. Around 65.6 million are suffering from this problem, among 22.5 million of them are taking refuge in places far from their native countries. Incredibly, more than a half of them are under the age of 18. Even though it does not affect our private lives, why should we care about it?

One of the biggest reasons that causes the refugees crisis is the violent conflicts that are currently happening in dictatorship countries, mainly in South Sudan, Afghanistan and Syria, producing the highest numbers of refugees. Around 55% of the refugees worldwide come from those three countries. Syria has the most worrisome situation, with 5.5 million refugees in 7 years of war.

Since the Syrian war began, an estimated 470,000 people have been killed, including about 55,000 children, reports the Syrian Center for Policy Research. More than half of Syria’s population has fled their homes. About 5.5 million Syrians are refugees who’ve left the country.

One of the main problems is that of children.

Children are susceptible to ailments brought on by poor sanitation, including diarrheal diseases like cholera. Many refugee children have to work to support their families. Often they work in dangerous or demeaning circumstances for little pay. They are more vulnerable to sexual abuse while they are looking for a job, trying to get money. Because of this, parents may opt to arrange a marriage for girls, some as young as 13.

The situation of the civilian population of these places, as the information above shows, has already put it in a position of dehumanization and break of several human rights, but the difficulties and problems do not remain there. People who escape and take refuge in other countries bring health problems, lack of education for young people and the prejudice of local people. Because they do not have any permission from the countries

that receive them to actually be there, they end up having to be confined in ghettos without any circulation freedom.

The situation of refugees is worsening, especially as many countries do not have sufficient conditions to receive them or give them food, education, health care and basic things for a decent survival. Unfortunately, the mobilization of populations in large countries is not to help as they can, but to create campaigns to close their borders. The correct position of populations, as humans, should be to welcome them and to have an active participation to assist in anything possible for unsuspecting refugees to rebuild their lives.

Because as humans we owe solidarity to each of our neighbors who need help.

Even if we, the population of countries without conflict, are not being affected by war problems, lack of food or basic items; there are people like us around the world who are in need of help to solve this serious humanitarian problems. Even if we cannot make great strides towards the solution, small acts can solve a good part, such as donations.

If you cannot offer great help to the cause, you can choose to visit https://donate.unhcr.org/inten/general and be a part of it or refer NGOs in your city who collect basic items to help refugees.

Because as humans we owe solidarity to each of our neighbors who need help.

AEPREP 2 K1 André Felipe Campelo Machado and Stephanie Gabrielle Gomes Souza

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Different body, same head Feminism is not only about women, it is also about men; it is about breaking walls and paradigms that have always been present in our world. Have you ever stopped to think why we always judge if a woman wants to do something that has always been a man function? Or the opposite? Or how cruel it is to prioritize men instead of being equal to both genders?

Nature has defined the biological inequality between genders, but not the capacity. Everything started by dividing work considering gender and age, when we were indigenous. We have created patterns throughout history concerning jobs and social behaviors; you can clearly see that in your routine. In Brazil it is very common to have domestic workers and we are used to always seeing a woman doing that. Feminism is about not letting history or society defines what you should do or be according to your gender.

Nowadays, unfortunately we still have to hear some terrible comments about job decisions, like when a woman wants to be, for example, an engineer, people react by saying “but that is a man’s job” or when a man says that he intends to be a chef, “women are supposed to be in the kitchen”. We should do whatever we feel we can do, whatever we like doing, instead of doing something that we may not be as good as we could because we are pressed. Feminism is about respecting and supporting everyone’s decisions even if they have always been related to one kind of gender.

Feminism is about respecting and supporting everyone’s decisions

In the Second World War, men wouldn’t have survived without women, because it was them who made all the weapons men used to defend their countries. However, they were never recognized for that, because they weren’t men. That is wrong, as the final product was the same. Man completes woman and woman completes man, they can’t work without each other and so the importance should be the same as much as the recognition.

Even though women have been fighting a lot, we are still very behind; unbelievably, they still receive less than half of men’s payment for the same job.

Since the French revolution women fight for equal rights, they haven’t stopped and they shouldn’t because they were supposed to always have had those rights. We may not have the same bodies but we have the same values and we wouldn’t be here if there weren’t both genders. We have to respect everybody instead of, first, check if it is a woman or a man in order to do that.

This fight is not close to an end, but the answer is in front of us: respect. If we could just respect everyone’s opinions, choices, don’t judge their attitudes by the paradigm of “this is a man’s job or a woman’s attitude”, and put in progress equal rights for men and women about work, we could avoid unnecessary fights and movements.

AEPREP 2 K1 Beatriz Barbosa Hirschle

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World’s Population and Its Bad Distribution There are almost 8 billion people in the world and that’s all right. Our big and blue world can handle it. The biggest problem is related to the distribution of people: half of the world’s population is concentrated in six countries; from largest to smallest, China, India, United States, Indonesia and Brazil.

Now, let’s compare the sizes of India and Brazil to their populations. India’s territory is 3,287,000 km², with a population of 1,324 billion distributed in this comparatively tiny space; while Brazil has an area of 8,516,000 km² holding 207.7 million people.

These statistics show that our global population is extremely badly distributed, with discrepant numbers related to people per km². There are huge countries which have demographic vacuums and occupy kilometers! Most of these uninhabited spaces exist because of environmental issues, such as the climate and temperature, like deserts and Polar Regions. An example of these phenomena is the North of Russia, which is practically covered with ice all year.

the number of children born resulted in a process that this country is currently undergoing: an aging population.

In short, the problem of the world’s population is not in its figures, but in its unbalanced distribution.

The fact that we have too many people over a restricted area only causes inequality in the distribution of food, housing, transportation, wealth and medical care.

An example of the absurd growth of the population over the years was the establishment of the "Single Child Policy" by the Chinese government in the year 1970. This palliative measure determined that couples could only have one child and, if there were more, they would pay severe fines. This law reflects the alarming numbers of the population at that time, which today grows at a much slower rate, resulting in better quality of life. This reduction in AEPREP 2 E1

Beatriz de Medeiros Fernandes and Bianca de Medeiros Fernandes

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A bigger problem Undeniably, in the contemporary context, we’re living in a world full of internal crisis. After all, they are just consequences of past events that happened irresponsibly, without thinking of a future global repercussion. Unfortunately, now they are paying the price and starting one of the biggest humanitarian crises, which involves not just their countries, but all of them. We are witnessing the biggest crises of displacement in history, leading us to more than 65 million people that have been forced out of their homes and more than 22 million people that turned into refugees by running away from civil wars in their countries. Those numbers are outrageous, and alert us to a bigger problem.

This issue is clearly an effect of the current society that has been closing its eyes to one of the biggest humanitarian problems that do not just talk about immigrants but interfere all over the world. This problem can be analyzed and justified by the Theory of Liquid Modernity, from sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who says that today’s society has lost its empathy and become very indifferent to external problems.

In the history of humanity, the events that have taken this situation to today’s stage are noticeable.

One of the causes can be explained by the strong imperialism that Africa was submitted to in the second half of the XIX century, which strongly affected the entire continent. This problem can be justified by the negative effects of civil wars caused by cultural issues, which are still happening nowadays, and the extreme exploitation of Africa’s resources. Besides that, it is perceptible another part of the world that has suffered from exploration that leaded in civil wars and the consequent emigration of the population, still trying to have a normal life far from the bombs.

AEPREP 2 O61 Beatriz Regis Cabral de Melo and Marina Monteiro e Silva Rocha

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Food and Malnutrition The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that about 765 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world were suffering from chronic undernourishment from 2014 to 2016. This means that more than 10% of the world’s population does not eat enough healthy food.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), hunger is the leading threat to the world’s public health. The WHO also says that hunger represents the biggest contributor to children mortality, present in half of the cases, because children need some micronutrients to develop a healthy body. For example, the lack of vitamin A may cause growth retardation and reduce the body’s resistance to diseases, the insufficiency of Iron will cause anemia, which contributes to 20% of maternal deaths, and the deficit of iodine is the main cause of impaired cognitive development in children.

The World Bank says that the world needs to produce at least 50% more food to feed 9 billion people by 2050. Unless we change how we grow our food and manage our natural capital, food security will be at risk, especially for the world’s poorest.

The World Food Program (WFP) says that when food prices rise the poor households struggle to keep up somewhere in the developing world suffering disabling effects. In fact, the poorest households in the developing world may spend as much as 60-80% of their income on food. That means that when the prices go up they have less for their other needs, such as clothes, shelter, medicines, school books for the children. And little by little, non-essentials to survive get cut. To begin with, people start reducing the quality of the food they eat. That means less fresh fruit and vegetables, less meat. They will concentrate on staples, usually grain such as wheat, corn or rice. This impacts their intake of vitamins and protein.

The UN wants to change our food systems to transform our world.

The United Nations Secretary-General launched the Zero Hunger Challenge in 2012 during the Rio+20 World Conference on Sustainable Development. The Zero Hunger Challenge was launched to inspire a global movement towards a world free from hunger within a generation. It calls for zero stunted children under the age of two, 100% access to adequate food all year round, all food systems are sustainable, 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income and zero loss or waste of food. The UN wants to change our food systems to transform our world; they are aiming for a more sustainable food system from production to consumption, an end to rural poverty, guaranty access to adequate food and healthy diets all year round and an end to malnutrition in all its forms.

AEPREP 2 K1 Felipe Rodrigues dos Santos

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Atomic energy Atomic energy: a renewable and very good source of energy that can keep its functionality for many years. But even though it seems the solution to many problems of the world it also comes with a huge problem, which is why people fear it that much, that is the pollution and the atomic weapons that can result from it. So, what can be a solution to this problem? Could atomic energy be our savior or our demise?

We need to think about all the bad things atomic energy could bring to the world. Nuclear energy is a way of making nuclear weapons that is really bad; wars and destruction are the worst consequence, with the nuclear disasters made by the wars, spreading radioactivity in the world. In the process of making atomic energy, the waste and pollution are the worst thing for our underground. The atomic fuel is really dangerous for every way of life, since it can kill you with only a milligram, and with a few kilograms you could make an atomic bomb.

Scientists don’t know how to recycle that fuel and they have not found out how to put it away without polluting the world.

On the other hand, the pros of atomic energy are: first it can solve the pollution of CO2, a problem that comes from the use of coal and oil energy sources that are not renewable, which is the opposite of nuclear energy that is renewable. Not only that but it also can be stacked underground where it would not harm the environment much, differently from the previous ones that throw carbon gas at the atmosphere. There is also a certain mineral called thorium that is not only abundant but also hard to turn into nuclear weapons, and it has more energy than uranium and coal and its waste material can only be dangerous for a few hundred years.

Atomic energy is a sword of two sides; it can either cause an enormous damage to the planet and its people, with the pollution and a possibility of making weapons, or can save them all by making renewable energy, advancing our technology in many ways and solving global warming. To summarize it all, Atomic energy is good, but not now, when a great percentage of our kind fears it and there are still some chances for the problems listed here to happen. So the best way to solve it is by giving it some time to be developed, and some efforts and contributions, to help it evolve faster, making nuclear energy clean and with it we will save our planet, solve all of our problems and make a better world.

AEPREP 2 O61 Frederico Bresani Santos and Matheus Rego Camarotti Pucci

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Challenges of Ageing Population ageing is a phenomenon that occurs on a global scale, especially in developed countries. This process is characterized by the constant increase in life expectancy and the fall in fertility. Those factors together result in a large number of elderly people and a significant reduction in children and young people. It provides a demographic transition by modifying the shape of the age pyramid - the youth base is narrow and the top, represented by the elderly, increases.

Statistics also show that around the world the number of elderly people, in 2016, is already approaching 1 billion. According to WHO, “this should be cause for celebration.” The explanations for such satisfaction with the growth of the number of older people in the world would be several, among them:

field of palliative care, laws and social programs as primordial rights to the well-being of the elderly population.

Societies need to be involved in how to cater for the needs that rose from the ageing in the world Societies need to be involved in how to cater for the needs that rose from the ageing in the world thinking and discussing how to deal with this challenge. Simply put, this ageing challenge is not only a concern for the elderly population; young people should also care about it because you will be the next “older generation” in 30, 40 years.

1. The elders make important contributions to society as family members, volunteers, and active workforce members.

2. The wisdom accumulated by them through the experiences of life makes them a vital social resource for communities.

Despite this, it is also necessary to think about our challenges for health services in the 21st century. How are the conditions for an older population? It is necessary, therefore, to cover these three important points: a better preparation of the health practices to care for the elderly with specialization courses in the area of geriatrics that guarantee the correct preparation of the professionals with greater patience and ability to deal with this age group and the instruments created for this purpose; To prevent and manage chronic diseases through studies and investments in the field of research related to the problems caused by aging; and finally, governments should be prepared for prolonged medical care and in the AEPREP 2 K1 Gustavo José Dunda Costa and Dulfles Yágor Ribeiro Araújo

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Have times changed?

Retrogress or progress? Unfortunately, our generation does not know how to answer this question. It’s already 2017 and women’s rights are still underrated. Women still earn 11% less money than men. There are still two countries where women are not allowed to vote. Even though the facts are scary, the biggest problem is that a huge part of the world we live in does not pay enough attention to them.

Nowadays, for many women, their future is out of their hands. Some of them face the reality of freedom being taken out of them. Every year, an estimated 15 million girls under 18 are married worldwide, with little or no say in the matter.

Even though there are a lot of factors that go against women’s rights, it can also be said that many people are indeed trying to change reality nowadays. Malala Yousafzai, for example, turned heads in october 9th 2012, when she was shot by the Taliban inside a bus. The reason? She fought for girls in her region, Swat - Pakistan, to have access to education. She was mostly inspired by her father, who had a different perspective from other men. He built a school for girls and always taught Malala to act with respect and love. After the tragic incident, Malala became a great symbol of bravery and an example for the generations yet to come. She was the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace, at 17.

that they are naturally superior and will be forever tracked on their “divine nature” of motherhood.

She fights against the way of rendering women as second-class citizens: the second sex.

Although there are many factors that indicate women’s current reclusion, they have fought for their rights so they could finally stand up against their social minority condition and advance to the position of active gender in their community. The lessons that come from the women cited above are an inspiration for women of all ages and a new era that defends social inclusion, and a more humanitarian eye to the universe shall start. Quoting Maya Angelou, “each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women.”

Another example to be followed is the social theorist Simone de Beauvoir, who is mostly known for her 1949 treatise The Second Sex, a detailed analysis of women’s oppression and a foundational tract of contemporary feminism. Later in the 1970s, she finally claimed herself as a feminist, and was dismayed by the idea of a separate, mystical “feminine nature,” a new age concept that seemed to be gaining popularity. She believed that women were different from men because of what they have been taught and socialized to do and be. Not AEPREP 2 O61 Isabella Carvalho de Araújo Pessoa and Maria Clara Alencar Gomes do Rego

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Atomic Threat The development of atomic energy in the world has positive and negative impacts. A few cases of disasters related to this type of energy exploitation have happened through time and generated several opinions. Even though it doesn’t produce polluting gases it presents a lot of risks especially related to radiation leaks.

The first example of misuse of Atomic Energy can be exemplified by Hiroshima and Nagasaki cases in the World War II. Huge investments on bellic industry were made by potencies in that period, which completely changed the global scenario. The consequences of these cases were more than 180,000 deaths, and two devastated cities.

The consequences of a disaster involving the usage of nuclear material are mainly health issues, especially damaging genetic material on children, body cells can die or start malfunctioning, and, in more intensified cases, cancer. The economic activities are affected too, especially because of the influence of radiation on agriculture and livestock, generating strong economic difficulties.

Recently, North Korea’s hydrogen bomb was dropped in the sea, which made this country an international threat for UN. Sanctions were made by the biggest potencies and are being developed proportionally with the consequence of the atomic tests.

To find a way to decrease the damage made by atomic radiation, several measures from the international community and United Nations have to be taken. First of all, to adequate nations’ usage of this type of energy, there should be a close inspection from the countries that believe on a balanced and safe use of atomic power. Second of all, countries production of atomic energy should be limited by an effective international treaty that should avoid an intensive global energy mass production that can lead to disasters, the same for controlling atomic weapons.

As shown, it is not an easily-solved problem; it is a long process yet achievable which has to be followed by all the countries involved. Peace is the main goal of society; we just have to work hard to achieve it.

In spite of the movements of international community, the world continues investing in this dangerous energy form. That’s why the International Atomic Energy Agency was created.

With UN’s support, they seek the peaceful use of Atomic Energy, even though that’s a far concept.

They seek the peaceful use of Atomic Energy, even though that’s a far concept AEPREP 2 K1 João Felipe Marques Barros da Silva and Júlia Veríssimo Delgado de Souza

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Food Food is an essential substance for all kinds of life which enriches its body of nutrients and helps with its organism’s development. When living beings don’t eat enough food to satisfy its body’s needs or when lacking nutrients in its organism is, it will be hungry or malnutrition respectively.

Unfortunately, that is the reality of many humans. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, nearly one in nine people experience chronic hunger: “undernourishment cause by not ingesting enough energy to lead a normal and active life”. That’s 795 million people worldwide.

As stated by the World Food Programme, the hunger is caused mostly because of poverty traps, lack of investment in agriculture, climate and weather, war and displacement, unstable market and food waste. The consequences are felt mainly in African countries where these episodes are more common. Still, one out of six children in developing countries is underweight. That’s 100 million, according to the UN.

The Zero Hunger Challenge was introduced by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012 with five elements which “can end hunger, eliminate all forms of malnutrition, and build inclusive and sustainable food systems”. Zero loss or wastes of food, all food systems are sustainable and 100% access to adequate food all year round are one of these.

The Word Food Programme is also a branch of the UN which prevents hunger and promote food security “through programmes that use food as means to build assets, spread knowledge and nature stronger” in 80 countries.

In order to end hunger and also prevent it in the future, these programmes have to be supported.

With their actions and influence, many people are going to have access to good quality of nutrition and learn how to break out of this inhuman situation.

One out of six children in developing countries is underweight.

Although many humans life still suffering of hunger or malnutrition, there is a huge amount of programmes and institutions working on the end of it. Zero Hunger Challenge and Word Food Programme are one of it.

AEPREP 2 E1 Maria de Lourdes Silva Nascimento and Marília Vilela

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Climate Changes Climate change is one of the most alarming problems in the 21st century. The temperatures are rising as they never have before and the warmth isn’t the only difficulty we have been facing. In fact, human influence has been one of the dominant causes of the observed warming since the 20th century. The largest human influence has been the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous dioxide.

Moreover, our world has visibly changed in the past years. The Earth has been photographed by various satellites ever since this feature was available. By comparing those, we can see how much our world has changed drastically in the past few years. It is also possible to see pollution rising in and the Arctic sea ice suddenly disappearing. For what is left of it, we can notice how it gets smaller year after year.

The water is getting warmer, causing more frequent tropical storms and cyclones/hurricanes that can destroy a wide variety of homes and personal businesses, leaving a lot of people homeless and extremely poor in some cases. The water warming can also bring a tremendous variety of problems with it since it’s also associated with its rise. As a result, sea level rise will cause inundation of coastal habitats for humans as well as plants and animals, shoreline erosion, and more powerful storm surges that can devastate low-lying areas.

We all know how our planet has always had its own changes, but we must not think that Earth works alone all the time. Our collaboration in world matters is helping the world in a small but soon effective way. It is our duty to recreate the world we ourselves destroyed with our machines and ego.

If we keep on pressuring the government and big companies around the world, there will certainly be a positive response for us from the world we live in.

In 2016, humanity had its hottest year on record.

As, according to the official website of NASA, they say: “Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year, from January through September with the exception of June, were the warmest on record for those respective months.” They also say how temperatures have mostly risen in the past 35 years and how 2001 was the warmest year before 2016, a small 15 year gap.

Overall, climate change itself has changed a lot. Seven thousand years ago, the ice age ended abruptly and with no sign, causing the “modern climate era” to begin and the rise of the human civilization. This shows how once our planet didn’t need anyone’s help to completely change in unimaginable ways.

AEPREP 2 E1

Patrícia Coutinho Ponciano Ferreira and Rafael Fentes Huang

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Are refugees the problem?

Although the European refugee crisis peak has already passed, it hasn’t ended yet. Europe still receives millions of refugees, but they aren’t the problem. The problem is how society receives them. Most of those immigrants struggle to reach Europe; around 2,000 have died during 2017, and most of them are denied asylum request. With terrorism becoming even more common, this fear against the new threat affects the acceptance of refugees, which leads to mutual hate between citizens and immigrants.

Most of the countries where those refugees come from are struck by war, the main reason why people leave their countries. But what scares Europe is the fact that terrorists are pretending to be immigrants in order to enter the continent. So, with terrorists infiltrated as refugees, Europe finds itself with a big problem. Poland, one of the countries that closed their borders to refugees, has had no notable terrorist attacks since the announcement of the new immigration rules. However, these countries aren’t the main goal of terrorist attacks, so no conclusions may be drawn since it is known that few refugees were indeed terrorists.

Another problem with immigration, mainly from countries in war, is cultural shock. Many of the refugees may feel uncomfortable near people of different culture even if they are legal. Since Asian Middle Eastern culture is so different from the Western European culture, citizens may feel that their culture is being somehow challenged. Cultural

shock becomes something bad when these two cultures start to exclude each other. As an example, we have refugees forced to do unpleasant jobs and suffering from social exclusion. This mutual disrespect from both sides has caused many accidents and it must be put to an end. We can’t change cultures but we can make people respect each other.

In conclusion, the refugee problem in Europe is not long gone, it is still there and it is making its way to becoming one of the biggest problems in Europe’s history and the greatest threat to all globalization progress ever done to achieve peace and respect between nations. Possible solutions for this problem would be border restriction endurance for those with criminal background, promoting peace missions in war zones as well as humanitarian programs and campaigns to soften cultural shock and help people become more welcoming with those who need help. With these actions, the refugee crisis could finally settle down, wars would end faster and terrorist attacks could be avoided, therefore promoting peace for the whole continent.

AEPREP 2 O61 Pedro Henrique Sales Vital and Vinicius Velozo Valença

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Women’s issues Women’s issues are persistent in society. In the Roman and Greek civilizations, the female figure was considered only a way to procreate.

Nowadays, although people’s vision about women has changed, sexism still exists and harms them in many ways. For the fact that women are considered inferior than men by lots of people, they tend to get lower salaries and are constantly victims of heinous crimes.

Another example of women who stood out for fighting for girls’ rights is Malala Yousafzai. She was just 15 when Taliban shot her while she was at school. It happened because, according to their ideology, girls can’t study - and she didn’t accept it.

Unfortunately, sexual assaults are considered ordinary crimes around the world. Usually, you do not get surprised when you hear about a case of rape, but facts such as, in India, a woman is raped each 25 minutes show us how society still sees girls just as sexual objects. Beside that, violence is not always physical, but verbal too. Adults and even teenagers are victims of sexual harassment and, although it makes them feel uncomfortable, it is seen as something extremely common and, because of that, they are not encouraged to report the case and hardly ever the guilty one is punished.

On the other hand, women have conquered many rights over time. Nowadays, they are able to vote, to study and, according to the law, both women and men have equal rights - but this is not what we see in real life. Beside the fact that women are constantly disrespected by society, they do not earn the same salaries as men, even though they are doing the same work. It happens because people were taught to see the female figure as something inferior and less intelligent than men, which is absolutely not true - and public people like Simone de Beauvoir, Marie Curie, Jeanne d’Arc, Clarice Lispector and Meryl Streep represent many anonymous women and prove the equal capacity between both genders.

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Democracy Democracy is a universal right, as it is recognized as one of the main values of the United Nations, which embodies a whole of political rights and civil liberties sustaining meaningful free countries. According to the UN Global Issues website, “Democracy, and democratic governance in particular, means that people’s human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, promoted and fulfilled, allowing them to live with dignity.”

The UN has taken some attitudes to support and strengthen democracy around the globe, such as fostering good governance, monitoring elections, strengthening democratic institutions, ensuring self-determination in decolonized countries, assisting the drafting of new constitutions in nations post-conflict.

In ancient Greece, it wasn’t allowed for everyone to manifest their thoughts, nor choose their own leaders. Only male Greek aristocracy could lead the polis. However, when democracy was born, it changed the political system. From now on, the citizens, who were only Greek men, over 18, who had Greek parents, could sit and discuss at the Agora about the government.

is the government of the people, by the people and for the people.” which means that the people get to choose their representatives, and these guys make the laws based on what the crowd that elected them need and think it’s important for the society.

Another good thing about democracy is that people have the right to take the president out if he/she isn’t doing the job properly and they can do it without a lot of blood spilling, as in the French Revolution, which happened in 1789. Despite all the pros about democracy, there are people that think it isn’t always good, or that it isn’t good at all.

The ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, hated democracy. He thought that not well instructed people, in other words, “us”, weren’t capable of choosing wisely their representatives, and because of that, they could wrongly choose someone that would assume a Tyranny position.

Throughout the centuries, democracy has spread away around the earth and has being adopted by many countries that were colonies or dictatorships, such as African countries Angola and Zimbabwe, respectively. Bit by bit, democracy is conquering countries that live under horrible and oppressive government systems, so that they can be free and their people can live with the minimum of dignity.

Besides being for a restrict group of people, it was the beginning of the most implanted government system nowadays. Winston Churchill once said that ”democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones.” The reason why democracy is so efficient and popular around the world is that it translates well what a government has to be. First of all, democracy is based in two principals: equality and freedom. Equality means that every person born in this system has the same right, regardless their ethnicity, gender or social position. Freedom means that every person has the right to express their ideas and opinions out loud and stand for it.

Secondly, Abraham Lincoln said that “democracy

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Achieving peace Peace, security and war issues have been more and more approached in movies, books, TV shows, documentaries, games and several other types of media. The reason why these words are being so current is that wars and fights aren’t only from centuries ago, but from nowadays, and a major part of us do not even realize what happens in many countries around the world. Even though well-known war issues, today, are happening far away from America, it is our job as citizens of the world to understand global issues and help the disadvantaged the way we can.

Among the possible solutions we could be looking for, there are the donations that have been made to help the refugees of Syria’s situation, just like to the rest of the people who have suffered and who have fought in battles. Governments of big and developed countries should also be comprehensive and allow the entry of refugees in their territories, making the perspective of a safe life possible.

And, this way, take care of others, aim at peace, and focus on the human-education of our children, who will assure us a future with no hunger, anger, racism, inequality or wars.

Inglourious Basterds, Pearl Harbor, Hotel Rwanda, Dunkirk, Schindler’s List. What do all these have in common? Despite great awards and awesome casts, they all translate the pain, sacrifice and anger during several wars: being in Europe or Asia, 80 or 30 years ago. Even though in the movies the good guys always get happy endings, reality isn’t like that: the pain felt by citizen was increased by the destruction of houses or the loss of relatives worldwide. Seeking stupid concepts, ideals or materials, nations from all over the world have been attacking and being attacked by other nations. Because of this, in 1945, the UN was created; its objective has been to secure peace, prevent wars and, this way, promote worldwide cooperation.

Even though most wars have been fought aiming at resources, lands or money, some of them have actually been necessary, as we can see in the movie “Les Misérables”, which portrays the French Revolution and its inequalities, or even in “Suffragette”, where empowered women fought for their rights as civilians. Even necessary wars, which helped the disadvantaged, have caused great pain to many sections of our society and they should all be completely avoided: what happened in countries like Syria, where the civil war has been causing great damage to civilians, just like in The Gaza Strip, where cities have been bombed, and people have been living in subhuman conditions, in the name of a religion.

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