Introduction
The
world issue that I chose to study is land mines. A land
mine is a receptacle filled with explosive, placed in the
ground ready to explode when something strikes it or passes
near it. A land mine's effects either kills or maim people.
Originally, in wars, it was used to prevent enemies from
entering into the defender's territory, but a land mine
cannot tell the difference between a soldier and a civilian.
At least 100 million land mines are buried worldwide, and
every year, they kill 10,000 people and maim 16,000. 80%
of its victims are innocent civilians, of 10 years after
a conflict has ended. Land mines have devastating affects
in countries where they are planted. For example, they make
farming practically impossible, because of the mines beneath
the surface of the soil, and prevent commerce and trade.
Refugees become homeless, because they cannot return home
after wars. These effects contribute to the decrease in
productivity and economic growth, in countries that can
least afford them. I chose this topic because it's a serious
issue, and there were current steps being taken by the Canadian
government to ban land mines, and I wanted to learn more
about it. I think this is an issue that shouldn't be ignored,
because the situation is just becoming worse, there are
more than 100 million land mines spread out in 60 or 70
countries, and there are 100 million more that are stockpiled
and ready for use. More and more will continue to be planted,
killing more and more people, until every single land mine
in the world has been destroyed.
Research
News
Article 1
The
major problem in this article is that the process in disarming
land mines takes years and years, and current ground-based
mine detection techniques are not advanced enough for clearance
of large geographical areas. It would take over 2,000 years
to clear all of the 10 million mines laid in Afghanistan,
and that's with the work of 2,500 mine clearance personnel.
The people that are affected by this problem are farmers,
refugees, and people engaged in commerce and trade. Organizations
around the world are researching on new approaches in mine
clearance. Right now, there is no sensor that can reliably
detect and identify the many different types of metallic
and non-metallic mines that are currently put into use,
but a new airborne sensor called the Ultra Wide-Band radar,
is being tested on. Three groups that are involved in dealing
with this problem are the Environmental Research Institute
of Michigan, who developed the new airborne sensor, Vexcel,
and the Advanced Projects Research Agency. (ARPA) The goal
of the ARPA project is to develop new techniques to automate
the detection of buried objects including land mines.
News
Article 2
The
problem in this article is that more land mines were planted
in Nairobi, Kenya, in Africa. New mine fields were appearing
in the Great Lakes region of Africa. With 28 million mines,
Africa is one of the most heavily mined countries in the
world. Recently, dozens of children have been maimed or
killed by the mines in Burundi and Uganda. A mine field
planted around a school near Burundi capital of Bujumbura
was discovered. Also, weeks ago, vehicles carrying humanitarian
aid into the border areas of northern Uganda have been blown
up. More than one third of the world's land mines are located
in Africa, mainly in Mozambique and Angola, which has an
estimated 15 million land mines. The people that are affected
by this problem are children, (civilians) humanitarian people
(relief workers) and refugees, because large areas of territory
are now off-limits, due to the discovery of new mine fields.
The only solution to this problem so far, was the signing
of a treaty by 122 countries, which bans the use, production,
export, and stockpiling of land mines. There have been suggestions
of getting involved in the mechanics of cleaning up the
mine fields, but no action has been taken yet.
News
Article 3
The
major problem in this article is that land mines are being
used by poor rebel groups (terrorists) because they are
very cheap to make. 9 of the 14 nations with more than 1
million mines have been involved in civil wars and internal
rebellions. This problem is occurring in countries with
terrorist organizations, such as Israel. People that are
affected by this problem are innocent civilians, and ethnic
minorities who are persecuted. (Hated) Currently, there
are no effective solutions that were tried, but there is
currently a ban on the export of landmines, however, it
is hard to enforce, because there are no official penalties
for violation of the agreement, and rebel groups do not
pay attention to the ban of land mines. Governments of countries
are involved in spying on terrorist groups, to prevent them
from purchasing and using land mines on innocent civilians.
News
Article 4
The
problem in this article is that it's very expensive to remove
a land mine, but it's very cheap to make one. An average
mine can cost $3-$10. To remove one, it costs anywhere from
$300-$1000. Seventy-five percent of all the mines produced
in the world today cost less than $50. The biggest mine
producers are Russia and China. This causes a problem by
exporting the mines. It is hard to track mine manufacturing
operations because they are often listed as ammunition and
engineering equipment and are produced by the same factories
that produce bullets and artillery shells. The location
this problem is occurring in is Angola, Bosnia, Afghanistan,
Cambodia, and Egypt. The people that are affected by this
problem are the people that are working towards cleaning
up mine fields, such as some countries like the U.S. which
has paid out $125 million to help with mine removal. There
are no solutions offered or attempted, besides the signing
of the treaty. Even so, Russia, and China, the world's biggest
mine producers have not signed the treaty. Some countries
have paid money to help with removal of the mines, but no
groups have been mentioned in dealing with this problem.
News
Article 5
The
major problem in this article is that not all of the countries
are agreeing to participate in the banning of the use, production,
exporting, and stockpiling of land mines, particularly Russia,
China and the United States. The United States have partially
agreed to the treaty, but have announced that they would
not immediately join in the ban. They want to keep the right
to leave mines in the demilitarized zone that separates
North Korea from 37,000 American troops in South Korea.
There is a campaigner named Chris Moon, whose a former British
soldier, that's running marathons around the world to raise
public awareness about land mines. He's also raising money
to help victims in poor countries buy artificial limbs.
Chris Moon left the army, and went to Cambodia and Africa,
to help get the mines out of the ground. He lost his hand
and leg when he accidentally stepped on a mine in Mozambique,
2 years ago. There are no solutions to this problem, because
there are no countries that can force others to participate.
Those affected by this problem include the innocent civilians
of countries from which land mines are planted. Among these
countries include Bosnia, Angola, Afghanistan, and Cambodia.
Response
Possible
solutions:
-
Research
on better ways to detect land mines
-
Raise
money for victims of land mines in developing countries
-
Raise
money towards removal of land mines
-
Raise
public awareness about land mines
-
Treaty
signed-agreement to ban mines
-
Make
a law (as opposed to just an agreement) of the banning
of land mines,with penalties for violating it
-
Have
a worldwide trade penalty on countries that are using,
producing, exporting, and stockpiling land mines
The
solutions that are already being tried are: 1) people are
already researching on new approaches to mine clearance,
(creating equipment efficient enough to detect mines); and,
2) the treaty banning land mines has already been signed.
I know of one person, Chris Moon, who is raising money to
help victims in developing countries buy artificial limbs.
He is also running marathons around the world to raise public
awareness about this issue. Countries such as the U.S. and
Canada have given money towards many of the problems that
land mines cause.
I
don't think the treaty that has been signed will make a
significant difference. It may improve things somewhat,
but there are no penalties if countries violate this agreement,
and even if other countries do sign, they might just do
what they want anyway. Also, there are already 100 million
land mines planted, just waiting to explode when someone
passes near it, so if there ever is a time where no more
mines are planted, there's still the serious problem of
mines that are already in the ground and ready to kill people.
I
think raising public awareness about this issue is working,
because it's getting more people involved, and they're thinking
about what they could do to help. People have to understand
that, if they ignore this problem, it's just going to get
worse. It has to stop, or else more mines will be produced,
more mines will be exported, more mines will be planted,
more people will die. About raising money towards the removal
of mines, I think that it is working. It's not just raising
money; countries want to help and are giving money towards
things such as buying equipment to remove them. The money
is also used to help victims get their lives back. It pays
for things such as physical therapy, and other medical things
like prosthetics.
As
for a personal solution, I would suggest that countries
should impose a trade penalty against those countries that
are caught producing, selling, or using land mines. No countries
are allowed to trade with other countries that are caught.
A lot of countries would have to agree on this for it to
work, particularly, big powerful countries that are really
involved with trade. A conference could be held discussing
this.
Another
solution of mine would be to make it a law, that you're
not allowed to use, sell, or buy land mines. Currently,
this is just an agreement, but I think it should become
a law. If it's broken, it should be treated with penalties
just like any other law. People could vote on this idea
so that the governments of the countries would know what
the people thought about it, because I think the decision
of signing the recent treaty was made by the governments
and people didn't have any say in it, even though it was
a positive step towards improving the problem.
For
methods to increase awareness, (locally) workshops can be
held involving schools, and communities, so people know
more about landmines. Fund raising can also increase public
awareness. Recently, there was a workshop for students in
High Park, Toronto. This got many students thinking about
this issue, and it also gave them an idea of what life is
life for the victims of land mines.
by
Jennifer
Land
Mines are small bombs that go off if you walk over them
or if you drive over them in a car. They were used in the
war to kill enemies. The only HUGE problem with them is
that after the wars, they forgot about the land mines, so
innocent people were killed just because of some careless
soldiers. SO now there are still some Land Mines and there
are some environmentalists who are trying to find them and
disarm them.
Research
News
Article 1 - "William's accepts Nobel prize"
This
article from the TORONTO STAR and is about Jody William's
accepting a Nobel Peace Prize, for her campaign against
Land Mines. She fought to ban Land Mines, because at least
100 000 000 Land Mines are buried all around the world.
About every year 26 000 people are killed or are disabled
by the Mines. William's accepted this award in Oslo Norway
on Wednesday, December 10th, 1997. The people who are most
affected by this issue are the people who have been disabled/killed
by the Land Mines, and William's for being recognized for
getting the Nobel Peace Prize.
News
Article 2 - "Kids to Present Declaration on the Horrors
of Land Mines."
This
article is from The TORONTO STAR, and is about a group of
grade four and five students from Ancaster Public School,
who are going to Ottawa to a Land Mine Conference to present
the "Bill of Rights." In Ottawa they were holding
an international conference held in to discuss the human
rights against Land Mines, The students were flown to Ottawa
on a Dash - 8 aircraft. The students made up a list of rights
that all children should have.
News
Article 3 - "After the Mines are Gone, the Victims
will Remain"
The
issue in this article is in the "grand hall,"
where the treaty banning land mines was signed yesterday.
Song Kosal a 13 year old girl lost her right leg when she
stepped on a mine when she was 4 years old. The signing
of the treaty happened in Ottawa in early December 1997.
Song Kosal of Cambodia was at the meeting in Ottawa to see
all of the people sign the treaty for banning mines. The
United Nations was one of the groups trying to ban the mines
and they also signed the treaty.
News
Article 4 - "More Mines Planted in Africa"
The
problem in this article is that in Africa they are planting
new land mines and dozens of children have been mimed, (disabled),
or killed recently by "anti-personnel" mines in
Burundi and Uganda in Africa. UNICEF says that they found
a mine field planted around a school near the Burundi capital.
More than one third of the worlds land mines are planted
in Africa. Africa now has to live with these mines going
off and ruining innocent peoples lives. So Africa would
be affected the most. UNICEF is part of the United Nations
and the U.N. was definitely involved because it cares about
what happens to the children.
News
Article 5 - "Workshop on Land Mines Opens Students'
Eyes"
In
High Park over 400 students gathered for a Land Mine Workshop.
Many of the students haven't learned much about land mines.
They went to High Park to improve the awareness of the land
mines. One of the things that they did at the workshop was
to pretend that they have been hit by a land mine and they
had to walk up a muddy hill to collect bundles of twigs
and buckets of water and many complained that it was too
hard. The workshop was held in High Park in Ontario.
