Problems In Our Society By: Saif, Hugo, Ivy-Jean, Aaron, and Kaelyn
Table of Contents: Muslims Face Daily Challenges, Hugo Nelson The ways that Muslims are treated in our society, and the challenges they face.
Refugees, Kaelyn The challenge for refugees and how we can fix it.
How Good are Disabled People When It Comes To Sports?, Saif All disabled people are good enough to play in sports.
Modern day slavery, Ivy-Jean Kutcher Slavery in the modern day
Autism, Aaron Pergler We underestimate people with Autism.
Muslims Face Daily Challenges By Hugo Nelson
"Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters," stated Pope Francis at a mosque in the Central African Republic while on his tour in Africa. His message was to treat everybody equally, no matter what their religion is, although some people have not taken this to heart. In most countries with a low population of Muslims, followers of Islam are harassed, mainly in the US. To me this seems unfair, as many of the Muslims in Europe and America are refugees fleeing conflict in their home countries, only to find hate in the countries they fled to. The majority of Muslims living abroad have to face daily challenges in their life.
Hijabs make it easier for Muslim Women to be Harassed
Many Islamic women are harassed because of their hijabs. “Sirat Al-Nahi, 20, explained that while Abdennabi was parking, an elderly white man in the cafe began harassing her, suggesting Abdennabi didn’t know how to drive and ‘should go back to Saudi Arabia’,” stated the Newsela article, “Muslim women say headscarves are targets for harassment after attacks.” The article was about how women in headscarves, or hijabs, are more likely to be harassed. This means that Muslim women are more easy to single out and harass. Most women have started taking off their hijabs so not to be singled out and be insulted, this means that more women have to leave signs of their religion behind to be accepted into society.
Trump; good or bad for the Islamic Community
Many Muslims think that Trump was the worse of the two candidates for president, but just as many believe that he was the best man for the job. According to Newsela, Hazem Bata, head of the Islamic Society of North America, said that "What I'm hearing is a mixture of fear and concern," This was in relation to Trump saying he was going to thoroughly vet all Muslim immigrants and maybe even ban them from the country. Other Muslims are saying “That they were happy with Trump's victory because they did not trust Clinton.” stated Newsela. They believe that Trump was the lesser of two evils and “If you are a citizen, he can't change anything.” For Muslims, this means that they can’t decide whether to trust Trump or not and with the recent travel ban, they do not know whether he is even worthy of being president.
What can you do?
For the millions of Muslims living abroad in the US and Europe, these are some of the daily challenges they face. This is inexcusable. Just imagine walking home from work or school, and being harassed for your religion. People need to understand and accept that everybody is different. If you are
a Muslim and you are harassed for your religion, try talking with the individual. It might make them understand, and stop them harassing you. They need to accept that everybody has different beliefs.
Pictures
"Avatar Female Girl Hijab Young Muslim Woman." 23 Aug. 2016. Pixabay. Accessed 21 Feb. 2018. Skidmore, Gage. Donald Trump. https://www.flickr.com, Flickr, 10 Feb. 2011, www.flickr.com/photos/
22007612@N05/25655543042. Accessed 25 Feb. 2018.
Refugees By Kaelyn Mcadams The morning sun shines in through your window. You are sitting in your bed with your eyes fixed on your phone. You wait intently for the familiar and cheerful ping of a message. You smile as the sound rings in the air and vibrates the phone only to frown at the message. 'I just arrived at Disneyland!' 'Cool! I'm at home having the time of my life!" Your reply. The three dots appear and soon another message arrives. 'Well, gotta go! Text ya later!!!' You shut the phone off and look out the window. You won't be going anywhere this summer and all your friends are on amazing trips. What if I told you that while you were longing to be on a trip, a group of people were longing to be home. These people are called refugees, and they are constantly on a trip, a not very fun nor safe trip. You might not even know what a refugee is and why they became refugees. Their situation is hard and many people don't even know about them. That means fewer people to help and support them. To make their lives easier, more people need to know about them. We need to have more people aware of who they are. Refugees are consistently on the run from war. They have to leave the countries they called home that turned into battlefields. They do all they can to keep their families safe. Sometimes that means sneaking across borders and traveling through rough conditions on foot. When you are a refugee, there is never time to stop and smell the flowers. They have to keep traveling until they are safe. 'Sometimes families can't afford to travel together' a newsela article states. With this as an obstacle in their way, they only have one choice. To send their children to travel alone and unsupervised. "We didn't have the money to bring the whole family, so it was decided that I would be making the journey." Mazen Hassoun, a 16-year-old Syrian refugee, explained. These children had to depend on the small amounts of help they got from adults. They would have gotten more help if even more people knew about them and what they were leaving for. But since not many people know about refugees, not many people decided to help. They need the same support everyone else does. We just need to give it to them. If we can find a way to raise awareness or donate things to refugees, think of how their lives might change. If we are able to provide these things, many lives will change. Isn't that what makes giving worth it? If we work together, think of how many lives will change.
 Â
How good are disabled people when it comes to sports? By: Saif Syed About 15% of the world has a disability. That’s a huge amount of people. This world has around a population of 7 billion people. And out of this 15% that is 1 billion disabled people! All of these disabled people should be allowed to participate in that we are all humans. It’s even harder for disabled people to get jobs than non disabled people. They have to apply for 60% more jobs than non disabled people to find one. The fact that disabled people get treated worse is unfair. Disabled people should have the same privileges as non disabled people to make lives fair for them. Disabled people should have the same privileges when it comes to sports. Rosie and her privileges According to Newsela a girl a name Rosie has a disabled leg. She had to get a prosthetic leg. And her favorite sport was baseball. Most disabled people are not allowed to participate in sports or the Olympics because they are disabled. But I feel like that’s unfair for that even if they are disabled they can still do as good as us. We should stop what we are doing. Stop thinking that disabled people are not Good Enough to play sports like us. But that’s not true. We can all make this stop. We can all think differently. We can all participate in sports. We can change the idea that disabled people are not Good Enough. We can make it fair. We can make it a better place in this world for disabled people. We are ALL humans. There no such thing as Good or Bad. And these are the type of privileges all disabled people should have. Just like Rosie. Rosie got these special opportunities that all disabled people should have. Rosie is lucky to have these privileges. Everyone is good enough All humans are good enough for sports. We might think that these humans are not GOOD ENOUGH to play sports only because of their disability. But this is not true. We can allow these people to join the sports. We can help them feel like a normal person again. Just for one little thing. Allowing them to play sports. Right now these people feel wistful. But we can change that as a community. We can make these people feel Good Enough. Because there is no Good or Bad. Anyone is allowed to play sports. Anyone is good enough. Just like this man, Jake Olson. This man is a blind man who plays FootBall. You might think he’s not Good Enough because he’s blind. But he’s able to play like any other player that plays FootBall. This just shows that being disabled has nothing to do with how Bad
or Good you are. We are all humans that’s just that. Everyone is good enough. That’s how WE can all keep it like that. We must keep this way from now, and forever.
What can you do to help? For all these reasons alone we can see that some people in this world are lucky and have these privileges even though they are disabled. We should keep it this way. We have to work together to let all these disabled people be free. Right now it’s like they are stuck in a dungeon was they can’t compete. But we need it to be the other way around for these people. We need it so they can compete in any sport if they want because we are all humans.
Photos: Photo Photo 2
Modern Day Slavery By: Ivy-Jean Collins Lola was a slave. She was caught in the chains of poverty. At the age of 18 an old man walked up to her and said he could give her a better life. Lieutenant Tom, as he was called, gave Lola as a gift to his granddaughter. Giving a human as a gift is like giving someone in chains that can’t be broken. Lola had no idea that she was going to be a slave. She had to work all day and night for barely any food and absolutely no pay. She lived like this for 56 years. As Eric Williams states “Slavery was not born of racism; rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.” Eric Williams served as the prime minister from 1962 until his death in 1981. This quote is significant because it’s saying that “Racism was the consequence of slavery” and this means that people were being racist and took people of colour and made them work for masters. Racist people believe that they are better than other humans and this is being selfish. In slavery people are owned and have to work for their owners. Slavery is harmful because it exploits and abuses human beings. Children should not be slaves, they should be educated and free. According to Newsela, Anita is a young girl who has been enslaved for years. She is 15 years old and comes from Kenya. Anita’s father sold her to a man who was 55 years old. She was only 10 years old. Anita got her first beating when she lost one goat. She got her second beating when her husband found her resting instead of taking care of the cows. The third time Anita ran away, she decided she had to escape. "I ran into the forest and was rescued by nuns. I was able to start school in 2013. I hope to be a doctor and get a job to help my family." Although this is only one story, according to CNN there are 152 million children enslaved to child labour.This story is significant because Anita was only 10 when she was sold into marriage and slavery. She was abused and exploited, like the other 152 million children around the world.
Adults shouldn’t be enslaved either. In this story, Nelson is 48 years old and is from Brazil. Nelson was born in a place where it never rains, with neither food nor water. His family had to relocate to work on a coffee farm to earn some money. They received no pay, and the owner abused them. After 3 months of hard work on the field, Nelson decided to go to the city and called a union. The unions helped them by contacting the government which gave back their home and jobs. "Now, we are back home on our own land. Life is still tough, but we are free."I thought this was significant when Nelson said: "but we are free" because even though they have been through a lot and there life is still a struggle they keep pushing on in life and accepting new challenges that come there way. In this situation these workers were exploited and received no pay. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that people should be free, equal and safe. “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves” Abraham Lincoln the 16th presented of the united states from march 1861 until april 1865. In 2018 there should not be anymore slaves. In 1948 United Nations organization wrote The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and yet in our modern world we still see slavery. In fact, slavery exists “more than at any other time in history.” The slavery of women, children, and adults. The international labour organization affirms that 40 million people live in modern slavery and 152 million children are forced into child labour. Everyone deserves to be free in a safe and secure environment. There are many things we can do to help and prevent modern day slavery. Firstly, one way to prevent slavery is to ensure children have access to education, shelter, food and health. So, by donating to organizations that support the education, health and wellbeing of children are critical. Another way we can end modern day slavery is by actively boycotting organizations that use slaves. I challenge you to send letters to the CEO’s of H&M, Gap, Adidas and Marks & Spencers and call for the human rights of their employees. By using social media we can spread the word and make companies take care of the human rights of people.
Autism now affects 1 in every 68 children in the world. That is a huge amount of our population. Autism is a disability in which the brain functions differently. The brain is missing a certain amount of cells. One thing that usually happens if a person is on a certain part of the autism spectrum is the person with autism can have a photographic memory. This happens because they are missing a cell that allows them to forget something so they will remember it for a long time possibly forever. I think that’s really cool that they have such a good memory. There is also no true cure for this disability so if you have it you’re stuck with it forever. I don’t think anyone really understands people with autism. Most of us underestimate them. Autistic people are usually a lot smarter than we are we just don’t know it yet. People with autism don’t like being treated poorly because of their disability. Autism may not be considered “normal” but that is definitely no reason to be disrespectful, to someone who has this disability. Jack Lowe, a kid with this disability has had a tough life being bullied and mistreated because of his disability. He said “I have experienced discrimination from my peers. I will always try to ignore them. But when I get upset I will bang my head against the wall to stop me from lashing out." This proves that even people who have this disability don’t like it when they are treated poorly because of a disability. Children with autism are easy targets for bullies, according to New York Times, Connie Anderson found out that something was bothering her 17-year-old son with Asperger’s syndrome (which is a form of autism). He was usually a good student, but his grades began to plummet. “His grades
were crashing, and he wasn’t able to focus.” his mother said. At a meeting with school counselors, her son finally spilled and admitted that he was being bullied by some fellow students in the cafeteria. Once, they had pulled his pants down to his knees in front of his class. “How could they be so mean what have I ever done to them” the boy thought. The problem of school bullying has received national attention, now many states are passing anti-bullying rules and school districts adopting anti-bullying programs. Dr. Sterzing’s study also showed that children were at the highest risk for bullying if they have a disability like autism” most of the ways that they are being “put down” is by bullies making them feel like they can’t do as much because of a disability. These bullies are underestimating the abilities of people with this disability. In my experience with having a brother with autism, I feel that he is looked down at because he has autism. Yes, he may be different but that can be a good thing, because of these differences he is often thought as not as good as someone without these differences but that is not fair he can’t help the fact he has this disability. He may not be just like everyone else but he is special because of his disorder and should not be treated unfairly because of his autism. One time a school didn’t accept him because they thought he wasn’t capable of doing the work. My brother has a form of autism called Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD). people with this disability have difficulty relating to people, objects, and events. They don’t usually play with toys and other objects. They have difficulty with changes in familiar places and like to repeat things that they hear.
In conclusion, I think that people with autism are treated unfairly just because they have a disability. I feel like people with this disability are underestimated, just because they are different. Children with this disability make easy targets for bullies. The only true response to this act should be STOP IT!!
Credits: Photo: Heart Site: Jack Site: PDD