PTW: June 2016

HEALTH|EDUCATION|WORLD|CHARITY

PTW Feature INTERVIEW

Halah Alhamrani

The first female boxing trainer in Saudi Arabia

VOLUME 4 EDITION 3

June 2016

CONTENTS Scroll through and read the magazine, or click the article you wish to read.

Feature Interview Halah Alhamrani

EJUN diE n tio

The First female boxing trainer in saudi arabia

a ew l l e lN

V ba e i ll lo

Ke hief G C

EDITORIAL

ZUKAR

My VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCE

Mass shootings

Opinion

#nofilter

Piece

THE ART OF

Stress Less With Help

TEACHING

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eja

to

i Ed

g Bu

in or m ja ct

n Dire e B t Ar

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to di

ia ief E h d h

o dC L g r an a ir e

Ch ound F

contact@projectthirdworld.org

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FEATURE INTERVIEW

OVER

Editorial

CHIRAG LODHIA

Chief Editor and Founder Cinema art captures the imagination and thoughts of the world. In the past decade, no genre of cinema is as capable of generating this like the superhero genre.

Whilst many people would dismiss superhero movies as a superficial spectacle that their predecessors in the eighties and nineties may have been, they are now being seen by critics as some of the most compelling and thought-provoking story-plots in modern cinema; many of which follow their comic book origins by setting their aims at tackling ethical and moral issues under the guise of theatrics.

In 2000, Bryan Singer directed the first X-Men movie. The creators of the original comics based the two central characters’ personalities Charles Xavier and Eric Lehnsherr, popularly known as Professor-X and Magneto respectively on Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. ‘Mutants’ were a subtle cover for discussing racial issues that existed in America then, and still exist today. Whilst Xavier takes the stance that “we have it within us to be the better men” and “killing will not bring you peace”, Lehnsherr opposes in beliefs that “we already are” and “peace was never an option”.

“we have it within us to be the better men”

Xavier, like Luther King Jr strive for to be peaceful and harmonious in the fight for mutant rights. Lehnsherr contrasts this and tries to sink Soviet and American ships, only to have Xavier plead “There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest,

innocent men! They're just following orders.” Lehnsherr’s upbringing of being a Jewish mutant tortured in a Nazi Concentration Camp dismiss this idea of innocence: “I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders.

Never again.”

“I’ve been at the mercy of men just following orders.

Never again.”

an. m t a of B oice” t n i o e p right ch h t s at’ ke- the h t t it, bu e can ma r o f els you e e n t o a o lh ey’l ces that n h T e it. the choi k a T yne. an make a W ter t. He c s a M ure, e outcas d n E “ e th b n a He c

The Dark Knight trilogy by Christopher Nolan pushed the genre in 2005. Through his training and development, Bruce Wayne, the true identity of Batman, holds his belief that taking a life is wrong no matter the individual involved; that becoming an executioner would make him one of the criminals. His views are challenged by his mentor Ra’s Al Ghul who believes it is their responsibility to be the executioner: “For justice- crime cannot be tolerated; criminals thrive on the indulgence of societies ‘understanding’”.

To Ra’s Al Ghul, Batman is a misguided idealist who is not willing to do all that is necessary to achieve ‘true’ justice; to

Wayne, not taking a life is what sets him apart from guilty.

As the trilogy progresses, Batman struggles with his conscience. Under Batman who works outside the law, significant damage comes to his city and lives are lost indirectly by his actions. Wayne questions whether to continue crime-fighting outside the law and take responsibility for what he has caused. His father-figure defends him: “Endure, Master Wayne. Take it. They’ll hate you for it, but that’s the point of Batman. He can be the outcast. He can make the choices that no one else can make- the right choice”.

In 2016, comic-book cinema houses have turned to a unanimous conversation: Rights and Responsibilities. In ‘Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice’, the plot-line follows Superman’s actions in his prequel movie in which he caused the destruction of the city of Metropolis despite his best of intentions to save the world. “People have been caught up with what he can do, that no one has asked what he should do”. His enemy pushes the government to take action: “Do you know the oldest lie in America Senator? It’s that power can be innocent”.

Superman is brought to a Senate hearing where politician’s state “let the record show that this committee holds him responsible”.

"People have been caught up with what he can do, that no one has asked what he should do”

“let the record show that this committee holds him responsible”

In X-Men, this is loosely manifested through the story’s antagonist, ‘Apocalypse’ who believes the world needs to be reborn after being led by ‘blind leaders’ and ‘false Gods’ for centuries. As a person who sees himself as God-like given his superhuman abilities, Apocalypse sees it as his right and responsibility to ‘cleansing the world’ for the ‘strongest’, whilst the X-Men group see it as their responsibility as fellow mutants to stop him.

Above all, Captain America: Civil War delved deep into the issue of Rights and Responsibilities.

The superhero team known as ‘The Avengers’ have been accused of having “unlimited power and no supervision” by the United Nations. The team, focused on saving lives and beating bad-guys have also, through their actions caused major casualties and left a trail of destruction wherever they go. “Whilst a great many people see you as heroes, there are some who would prefer the word vigilantes.

What would you call a group of US based, enhanced individuals who routinely ignore sovereign borders and inflict their will wherever they choose and who, frankly, seem unconcerned with what they leave behind? That’s something the Governments of this world can no longer tolerate.”

For a long time the team has been held unaccountable for their actions, giving the impression that they have the right to act how they wish given their powers.

Upon being forced to sign an international declaration that they will only operate under the United Nations, the team is divided. One camp lead by Tony Stark believe that “We need to be put in check!

And whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys.”

"If we can't accept limitations, we're boundary-less, we're no better than the bad guys.”

"We may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own.”

The other camp however stand by the view of Captain America that “if someone dies on your watch, you don't give up. We’re giving up if we're not taking responsibility for our actions.

This document just shifts the blame.

If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us

somewhere we don't think we should go? What if there's somewhere we need to go and they don't let us? In this job, we try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn’t mean everybody…We may not be perfect but the safest hands are still our own.”

"If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose"

It is interesting that the movie should include the United Nations given they adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, and have eversince been the leading advocates and body pressuring the world to enforce these rights of humanity globally.

These human rights are also now part of many national legislations and constitutions.

In the fictional worlds of Marvel and DC, the superheros are the icons, role models and inspirations of their world. In our reality, it is celebrities who often fill these shoes. Much like the fictional characters onscreen, the public eye is always on their celebrity role models. Celebrities by their nature hold considerable power in the world.

Numerous studies show the significant impact celebrities have on changing individuals. Studies have shown that celebrities have directly had a negative impact on eating disorders and behaviours including smoking within populations, and can win the trust of people in regards to health more than doctors. Although they may not have superhuman abilities, their popularity gives them similar power over people despite often being simply singers, actors, and television personalities and sports professionals.

Click above to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Celebrity power can seem unlimited. Not only are many of them living in multimillion dollar houses, traveling to exotic places regularly, able to enjoy luxuries of life, almost never restricted financially even when bankrupt; but their voices are heard louder than politicians, and they can influence individuals more than priests, doctors and teachers.

So when an individual such as Kim Kardashian creates a gaming application- does she have the right to make that game in whichever way she chooses? Ultimately, yes. In theory, Kim Kardashian has as much liberty and rights to make any game she wishes and earning a living off the fame of her name. One could argue that celebrities have the right to live as they wish.

Celebrities are after all human individuals, part of society, work much like the rest of us- each to their own then?

Let’s consider her game itself. The game is targeted at female adolescents with a rating of 12+. It is based on turning you into a virtual character, then spending virtual, and

real currency to buy private jets, expensive clothing, and spending time with celebrities and accumulating fame in the final objective of becoming as famous as Kim Kardashian herself. Angry parents complained about the application costing them up to hundreds of dollars from all the in-app costs. Kim Kardashian’s response: “I think you just have to be responsible, and don’t have your credit card linked to where your kid can just spend if they want to, or ask permission.”

It is interesting that Mrs Kardashian advocates responsibility to other mothers when the nature of Mrs Kardashian’s game not only directly advocates excessive consumerism, but is also linked to behaviour associated with negative impact on female self-esteem and selfvalue. Ironic also given her self-motivated drive to advocate women empowerment on social media. Yet there are perhaps many games and applications with negative impacts on health, so what makes Mrs Kardashian’s game such a significant issue?

Studies show that celebrities have an unprecedented influence on society’s choices and behaviours.

Neuroscience research has found that celebrity endorsements activate brain regions involved in making positive associations, building trust and encoding memories; psychology research has shown how celebrity advice conditions people to react positively towards it; sociology also explains how celebrities’ advice spreads through social networks and how their influence is a manifestation of people’s desire to acquire celebrities’ social capital and how they affect the ways people acquire and interpret information, including health information.

Given this power to influence, shouldn’t celebrities then be held in higher responsibility for their own actions, choices and products they endorse? Kim’s app stands out

above other gaming apps for one reason- her name. Should Kim be responsible for how she earns the next million dollars on-top of her multimillion-dollar-plus family income? Or do they have a right to live and earn a living how they want, irrespective of the impact they have on the world around them?

Ultimately, they have every right, which can be enforced in their country, whilst no measure in place to enforce any such responsibility. What about Beyoncé’s endorsement of Pepsi?

Celebrity faces are often next gambling campaigns, unhealthy foods and may also behave in manners that would otherwise be considered inappropriate- all evidence suggesting they will have significant psychological impact on people, especially children.

Kim Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West is never too far from the issue either. As a musician, Kanye West is fully aware of his rights to Freedom of Speech. The right to freedom of speech is considered by the United Nations one of the most fundamental markers for a peaceful world.

Just see Article 19 of the Declaration of Human Rights. Freedom of Speech is what enables individuals to live their lives, thoughts and beliefs openly without fear and prosecution against them.

In recent years, multiple studies have been conducted showing an undeniable link in music lyrics and behaviour. A study from Kent State University reported that misogynous music facilitates sexually aggressive behaviour. Another study by the University of Florida reported that individuals within a study listening to sexually violent and degrading music had significantly greater adversarial sexual beliefs than those in the study who listened to nonlyrical music. The American Academy of Paediatrics stated that reducing the amount of degrading content in popular music or reducing young people’s exposure to music with this type of content could help to reduce the severity of social issues.

The issue of lyrical influence does not cease at degrading women, but also racism, wealth, beliefs and other issues affecting the world. Reducing exposure becomes hard when an individual like Kanye makes significant effort to be heard by the world. You need not look past Kanye West’s song ‘New Slaves’ to see lyrics reinforcing racial divisions, socioeconomic divisions topped with sexually explicit lyrics; though this is an issue of many global musicians. Yet Kanye West has every right to express himself through his music as he wishes. As an individual who earns more from his lyrics than the total income of the entire world’s population living in extreme poverty, should he be held responsible and accountable for the influence his lyrics instil into fans? That’s debatable whilst his rights are perhaps not.

Celebrity messages are not only projected through lyrics. Azealia Banks, an American hip-hop artists known for making statements on social media about discrimination against African-American cultures and communities, was nothing less than ironic and hypocritical that she publically stated on social media to fellow musician Zayn Malik that he is a “token sand n***er” amongst other explicit and aggressive and contradictory racial and sexual abuses against Middle-Eastern, Indian and Caucasian people simultaneously.

African-American communities have been victims of historical oppression, slavery and terrible violence and abuse. So, is it then considered in her ‘rights’ for Azealia Banks to be outspoken and defensive about her own race whilst holding the rights to freedom of speech and instigate racism onto others under her plea that “we people of colour need to stick together”? Or is Azealia merely a poor influence on racial unity? Whilst Azealia may exercise her ‘right’ to freedom of speech, Rinse- Born and Bred music festival felt they should exercise their ‘responsibility’ to promote inclusivity and equality, publically announcing that they decided to cancel Azealia from their festival following her statements.

It’s easy to point the finger at poor celebrity role models when their lives are in the limelight; but celebrities are merely symbols and examples of deeply-rooted issues through society; and the impact of social media doesn’t simply apply for celebrities. A small growing organisation in Australia which specialised in comical reviews of burger restaurants around Melbourne, Australia felt the same response.

In their attempts of providing a witty and humorous review on social media, the organisation resorted to racial and homophobic tactics. The group attempting to just have fun and provide consumer feedback perhaps did not realise that social media is essentially a megaphone that can be heard by everyone, nor realise the impact that racial and homophobic statements have on social media.

A study by the American Journal of Public Health found that from a sample of 912 men self-identified as both Latino and non-heterosexual had several psychological symptoms of distress including suicidal ideation (17% prevalence), anxiety (44%) and depressed mood (80%) that the study felt was directly related to social contexts of oppression that lead to social alienation, low self-esteem and

symptoms of psychological distress.

The Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University conducted a retrospective analysis of 41 adolescent suicide cases across the USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia to find that 12% of cases were homosexual and an additional 12% were heterosexual or unknown sexual orientation subject to homophobic bullying. The report stated that given adolescents are particularly susceptible to cyberbullying, efforts should be directed towards reducing bullying activity, encouraging people to intervene positively when bullying occurs and reducing the attractiveness of social media for bullying activity especially anonymity.

Whilst the small Australian social media group may not have understood the significant impact of their words, as said in Dawn of Justice: “ignorance is not the same as innocence”; and the public felt the right to freedom of speech should be met with responsible use of it-for irresponsible use can infringe on the rights of others. In this case, the public stepped in and exercised their right to freedom of speech, bombarding the group with anger and condemnation, eventually leading the group to closing down.

“ignorance is not the same as innocence”

Celebrities and social media use is not all irresponsible though; and in many cases, celebrities have become strong ambassadors for social responsibility.

In contrast to Azealia, celebrities such as Gina Rodriguez send power messages of progressive American society on Instagram. Sporting a new haircut she captioned “I am not my weight, I am not my skin colour. I am love, I want to be love with every interaction, with every decision I make for myself, with every failure and success.

Let go of what you think would make you more beautiful and discover you have all you need already inside�.

Whilst one celebrity couple may be adding to the fire of social issues, another celebrity couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been icons for celebrities using their fame, fortune and wealth responsibly. In recent years, Angelina has focused on using her skills in cinema to highlight gender inequality and other global issues including poverty, education, health and refugee issues. Angelina will soon work at the London School of Economics to lecture students on Women, Peace and Security. A study by the Journal of Health Communication even found evidence that breast cancer screening increased globally from before to after Angelina announced her bilateral mastectomy and health awareness campaign.

The debate on rights and responsibilities seems somewhat stalemate at the celebrity level. If there’s one area that has power like celebrities, it is sport. So then, should sporting codes and sporting events be held responsible? Or do they also have a right to play their games as they wish?

It seems international tennis has followed in the same path as Angelina Jolie when it comes to advocating gender equality in the sport. Since 2007, all four major tennis tournaments, the ‘Grand Slams’ have officially had equal prize money for both male and female titles. In fact in the late 1980’s women briefly earned more than men in the Australian Open.

Women’s tennis has now become one of the most competitive and watched sports in the world, providing opportunities for health and fitness careers for women and also providing role models and aspirations for women. The International Tennis Federation has it in their liberty to offer lower pay as many sporting codes do, but feel responsible for social issues and are tackling them in their own way.

Yet, like celebrities, whilst one sporting code may make progressive movements, not all will. Muirfield Golf Course, close to Edinburgh, Scotland has retained a male-only membership policy since being founded in 1744. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club pressured the club in an ultimatum to remove their male-only policy or be removed from hosting the British Open. The club moved to a vote amongst its members with a 64 per cent to 36 per cent majority to remain all-male, advocating a long-standing tradition of the club they believe is worth giving up the honour of hosting the British Open.

Click below to see the timeline of the world tennis majors and the equal pay differences:

Whilst this decision has received global condemnation, even from golfing champion Rory McIlroy, the club is upholding their rights within their sporting community.

It is also interesting that the club should come under heavy global media scrutiny for holding onto ‘traditional’ values.

Right to hold one’s own beliefs becomes a very sensitive issue when it moves to national culture and religion. Religion and culture have become one of the most volatile and controversial and perhaps inconsistent topics discussed in global media. In parts of the world it is within culture for families to conduct ‘honour killings’ of women who their family deems to have ‘dishonoured’ them. In some of these cases, women are brutally killed by stoning simply for

being victims of rape or leaving an abusive relationship. Should people then have a right to uphold their culture if it is bringing harm, damage and suffering? Whilst the Declaration of Human Rights might have one article condemning such abuse of ‘rights’, ultimately some people will hold onto one article and ignore others.

Globally over the last 2 years, the world has pleaded for Islamic faith leaders to speak out against the manipulative rhetoric of Daesh fighters who have used the Islamic faith as their premise for rule through terror, violence and suppression of liberty.

As always, in times of crisis, society focuses the responsibility of the world onto its leaders and asking communities to take responsibility for their own members.

["If] someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?"

Pope Francis This is by no means easy, for even forwardthinking leaders may receive celebrity-like criticism from their followers. The current leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has has been met with debate and complaints from within the Catholicism since taking Papal Office. The late Pope Benedict XVI's openly wrote that homosexual acts are an "intrinsic moral evil,"- a traditional thought held by many Catholics. So it is no surprise that the current Pope’s statement: "[If] someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Was met with anger from Catholics.

Taking a more progressive stance, Pope Francis is aiming to heal wounds around socioeconomic gaps and homophobia, but also bridging the gap between Catholicism and other religions and even trying to diffuse the debate between evolution and creation. Pope Francis has the right to continue the teachers of his predecessors dating back past the Crusades, but has chosen to teach new values that break from old traditions.

Despite his good intentions for the world, Pope Francis is being considered an ‘Anti-Christ’ by some within the Catholic faith for breaking away from beliefs they’ve held much longer than Francis has been Pope.

Not only do religious leaders struggle to seek responsibility in their followers; so too does political leaders struggle with their citizens. World leaders too have power and influence much like celebrities, but not always to the same results. In America, Barrack Obama makes his last attempts at curbing gun-control laws in his final year within the White House. Given gun homicide deaths outnumber deaths by terrorism approximately 10,000:1 every year for the past decade in America, it’s amazing that Obama is receiving little to no support for restricting accessibility to guns on any level. The reason: rights.

The right to own firearms has been embedded into American culture and constitution. Despite mounting evidence and data that would suggest that America would not only be more secure and peaceful without civilian access to guns, along with thousands of lives saved every year, the people of the country would rather uphold their rights, rather than taking concern for lives of those around them.

“a democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine” Thomas Jefferson

It is examples such as this that fuel arguments against the democratic system which America is based upon. Thomas Jefferson famously once stated “a democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other fortynine”. So if not democracy, what then?

Communism? Although very secretive, China under the communist regime does not seem a better alternative. In theory, communism is a system of social organisation in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs. This theory sounds as charitable as it is- which is why Pope Francis likened this theory to Christian values; yet, one need only look at the conditions of the citizens of China over the past fifty years to see a barrage of global issues within the country from slave labour, poor health, oppression of speech, animal rights abuse, corruption and poverty.

Whilst in a democracy, the right to decide the country’s laws belong to the majority rule of citizens, in China’s communist structure those rights fall into the hands of the leaders. Unfortunately evidence holds for the famous Lord Acton quote ‘power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’, which can lead a seemingly charitable notion of governance into one that violates many human right when responsibility is not held.

People are literally killed for following a religion outside the approval of these regimes, and voicing any opinion against such regimes results in imprisonment, torture and even death. Whilst this is morally wrong, Hitler made it his right to do so in Germany. As Martin Luther King once said “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal”. The actions of such individuals have led to wars and caused some of the largest refugee crisis in history; forcing other nations to be questioned in upholding their responsibility to honour the Declaration of Human Rights whilst the home nation leaders continue their rule. It would seem the more responsibility falls onto fewer individuals, the worse the failure and outcomes become for all.

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal”

‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’ is perhaps the most fitting when applied to many dictatorship-styles of leadership through history such as the Nazi Regime under Hitler, and even present day governance such as in some Middle Eastern nations. Such leaders solely determine their own rights as well as the rights of those around them. Not only have the rights of freedom of expression, speech, religion and opinion been supressed in some of their methods of rule, but have also had the right to safety and right to live taken under certain occasions.

Yet the blame of human rights violations cannot be held on the government solely. After all, we live in a global society, and if anything connects the world, it is money and consumerism. People need only look back to our last magazine to see just how the consumerist, capitalist and corporate-driven democracy of America, along with overconsumption of goods and products by its citizens, together with the political governance of countries such as China can damage the health and wellbeing of an entire country’s people.

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What happens when you complicate the issue with another struggle such as poverty? In Africa, the ivory trade, and trade of animal goods has reached a critical point in which political, science and conservation bodies of the world are all condemning the growing endangerment, extinction and torture of wildlife.

Global pressure has pushed the governments of Africa to take stronger action against poaching and blackmarket trade.

However, when we look closely at the issue, many of the poachers come from severe poverty, and poaching has become the only way for them to survive; many of whom would be willing to work any other job if given the opportunity. Whose responsibility does this fall too? Such government cannot even afford to keep its country out of starvation; would they be able to create ethical jobs?

A similar issue lies in Brazil and much of South America where natural forests and conservation land is being deforested to churn the South American economies and create jobs whilst bringing wealth to the countries. Whilst pressured by global bodies focused on maintaining environmental conservation in South America, these economies struggle to feed their people without the revenue received from deforestation.

So then who is responsible for improving the world? We don’t have superheroes, not all celebrities are exemplary role models; organisations and corporations too; and religious and political leaders struggle to make change for the better whilst others make change for the worse when they hold all the power. What about the people who devised the Declaration of Human Rights?

The United Nations is perhaps the flagship of an organisation dedicated to positive policies and implementations around the world. Their work stretches out from global security, to global food security, refugee aid, global health and wildlife and environmental conservation policing. At the top, United Nations is built to do what everyone is looking for- improving the world for everyone. Yet even an organisation designed to be just and positive is not immune from corruption.

Last year, 69 allegations of child rape and other sexual offences by peacekeepers from 10 missions was reported in Central African Republic. After a recent review of the enquiry, a UN statement was released to say the allegations involved some of its staff as well as non-UN peacekeepers.

The UN has been criticised by an independent panel for having UN officials abusing their authority by failing to take action, calling the UN response “seriously flawed” and a “gross institutional failure”.

It would also be premature to judge the UN on failing to uphold their own values when small charities, nongovernment organisations and notfor-profit organisations have also been accused of lacking responsibility. In 2011, Tara Winkler from Australia went backpacking to Cambodia to engage in volunteer tourism at an orphanage. Like all volunteer tourists, Tara felt that as long as she could afford the costs of the trip, it was in her right to help the orphanage in whichever way she wanted to. She then raised money in Australia for the orphanage, only to find that the money had been embezzled by adults to keep the children in poverty to win sympathy of foreigners.

A little less ignorant of the issues and with the orphanage failing to hold its responsibilities, Tara felt she had a right to take the children and start her own orphanage, again, fundraised for back in Australia. Tara became a New South Wales Young Australian of the Year and was the poster girl for youth taking responsibility for the world. 5 years later however, Tara has shut down the orphanage. “The

orphanage I had set up was actually part of the problem” she wrote in her commercially available memoir. Children were coming to her orphanage even when they had parents and other family members still alive. At each stage, Tara felt she had a right to her actions despite not understanding the community and issues at hand.

Volunteer tourism has become the centre of scrutiny in recent years with many reports showing that it is often dangerous for the communities which are worked within, a hindrance to development or at worse, fuelling the fire further, as Tara found out. In order to gain selfsatisfaction, many people from wealthier backgrounds see it as their ‘right’ to help in whichever capacity they wish on the defence that it is charity. Whilst Tara has now changed her approach to charity again, many volunteer tourists will not, nor will they volunteer after ticking the task from their bucket-list. Unfortunately good intentions do not pave for rights; but rather, further responsibilities and the means do not justify the end goal of many volunteers: self-satisfaction.

Yet in comparison to larger charities which operate as businesses or not-for-profits; the issues of volunteer tourism seems forgivable in comparison. World renowned cricketer Shane Warne had his charity under audit recently following claims that no money from the organisation was going to support the people which the charity was designed for. In 2014, the foundation spent $550,000 yet only raised $465,000. Instead of helping others, the organisation needed help getting themselves out of debt that expensive gala dinners and casino tycoons couldn’t seem to solve.

Yet, if poor countries cannot take responsibility for their people, and those with power or money and good intentions have no understanding of the issues nor taking responsibility to learn about the issues and action the most appropriate and ethical approach, who is there left?

How about people whose careers and life-long education are based on improving the world, such as doctors? Not only are doctors put through intense education and required to perform at the highest level and continue education for life, they are under the scrutiny of medical boards, and also held under the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm and serve people with only the objective of good health outcomes. If there is one organisation that has been quite heavy in advocating responsibility, it is Doctors without Borders, or Médecins Sans Frontières. In fact, the organisation pulled out of the recent World Humanitarian Summit held by the UN for being nothing but a "fig-leaf of good intentions”.

Their stance has become hard-line in trying to enforce responsibility, also saying that politics and national security concerns too often get in the way of humanitarian aid. Their message to the UN: “It must tackle the root causes of crises at a political level, and the political decisions that allow conflict to flourish.

Anything less is a failure.”

Yet, even within the medical community, not all are acting with the best intentions. World renown Dr Mehmet Oz, who became popular for his television show providing health advice was grilled at a US Senate inquiry for promoting supplements under the basis that they were ‘miracles’ for weight loss.

The supplement Garcinia cambogia was being advertised by Dr Oz as a supplement that would reduce weight with “No exercise. No Diet. No Effort”.

The scientific community spoke out in outrage as there is no scientific evidence to support these claims, yet the damage was already done.

Dr.Mehmet Oz

Whilst a Senate can look into the false claims, the product is now on the shelves of many health food stores and pharmacies, all following the rhetoric of Dr Oz to get a piece of the money pie he has created with his title. Health is complex and an area of vulnerability for the general public, so it is of course disappointing when health professionals, or those within the health industry prey on this lack of understanding and vulnerability from the public.

“No exercise. No diet. No effort. No scientific proof that this actually works�

'If someone tried to sell you a cat, and a Dr told you that the cat could speak three languages including latin, would you buy the cat? I mean, come on, who speaks Latin?'

? ?

?

In the medical profession and health profession, they don’t however have as many rights to freedom of speech when it comes to providing health outcomes for people. This is why Dr Oz can be taken to court for the false information he gives on TV and why he along with other doctors can have their license to practice medicine taken away if they are found to be engaging in unprofessional conduct. Yet even after appearing to a court-oflaw to action Dr Oz on his misleading health information, his TV show is still just as strong. So then, what about the media which continues to maintain this?

The rights of journalists and news reporters have become a much discussed issue in recent years.

In many cases, journalists and reporters are often the targets of wars, terror and violence because of the attention they bring; putting their lives at risk simply to report news and information to the public. On a different perspective, the rights of media and journalists are often debated in regards to what they report. Much like celebrities, even television, radio, web media, magazines and newspapers have the ability to sway public decision and opinion.

Much like Dr Oz, media often provides health information, yet some news stories are at best misleading and biased . Unlike Dr Oz, the media has the right to report what information they wish.

If a poor scientific study shows that a pill had one-in-one-thousand people lose half a kilo of weight over one year, the media has it in their right to publish ‘Science finds pill that can help you lose weight’.

Many of these journalists, news anchors or even health magazine writers who might be professional trainers are known to profit from their own health claims, yet they cannot be held accountable in the same regard as a doctor. These claims then confuse the public when their local doctor with good intentions tries to explain why the media is misleading them. This issue extends also to misleading information on world politics, culture and religion; and had led many global citizens to voice their opinions on the one media they can- social media.

Yet, much like celebrities, community leaders, political leaders, organisations and the media; even the everyday global citizens aren’t always helping positive change. Since the power of the internet, freedom of speech has been unchecked and available to anyone and everyone with access to it. Unchecked, this information can persuade people to make dangerous decisions.

We’ve seen the impact that an organisation like ISIS has on social media. In a more subtle way, much like the ‘right’ to volunteer tourism irrespective of the impact, so too is the global citizen with giving advice.

Anti-vaccination communities have become quite a significant issue in health, with many in these communities believing that they are a conspiracy theory, others believing that they can cause autism and some believing that anything chemical or synthetic is harmful. Whilst all of these claims have been disproven numerous times by medics and scientific communities with the statistics clearly showing the number of lives being saved globally by giving vaccinations, many global citizens ultimately trust an unchecked internet blog or website over their trained and liable medical professionals.

Of course, if people opt not to be vaccinated, that is within their right to refuse. What then of the rights of their children? Many anti-vaccination supporters are mothers and fathers who, like any other parent, feel it is within their ‘rights’ to bestow their views, their beliefs and their values onto their children. Of course, in their defence, they are doing so purely out of love for their children only with the best of intentions, but so too is the belief of many who insight values of segregation, racism, violence, terror and inequality into children.

First-time mother Cormit Avital felt the need to release a video online pleading anti-vaccination communities to change their views when her newly-born daughter developed whooping cough- a serious and potentially fatal illness in infants. Although she was offered and strongly advised the vaccine during her pregnancy, she felt that her life of being incredibly fit, healthy and organic would be enough to protect her infant. Her statement being “If I could turn back time, I would protect myself �.

When all is said and reviewed, it seems that where it comes to the rights and responsibilities of humans globally, things are a mess. Perhaps the issue of rights and responsibilities is best illustrated by a recent political debate on an Australian television show. The debate focused on lowering tax payments for higher income groups in Australia. A member of the audience, Duncan Storrar became an overnight celebrity and dubbed a hero for questioning the political representative on the show. "I've got a disability and a low education - that means I've spent my whole life working for minimum wage.

You're gonna lift the tax-free threshold for rich people. If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life. That means that I get to say to my little girls, 'Daddy's not broke this weekend. We can go to the pictures'. Rich people don't even notice their tax-free threshold lift. Why don't I get it? Why do they get it?"

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest men once said “If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other ninetynine per cent”. Even renown scientist and humanitarian Stephen Hawking recently stated that “Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”

Buffett also said however that “the poor are not poor because the rich are rich, nor are the rich undeserving either”, often being the ones who create jobs and contributed innovations key to global well-being.

Yet, Duncan received national praise and support and inspired a ‘GoFundMe’ page dedicated to raising money to giving Duncan a helping hand- raising $10,100 for Duncan to take his daughter to the movies. A little bit of research later, and suddenly the story changes. The new ‘National Hero’ was found to have a long criminal history, including making threats to kill, unlawful assault and multiple counts of breaching intervention orders taken out by his former partner. His own son spoke out against him. His son only began living with his father at the age of 17.

“I guess I wanted to get to know him but it was while I was living with him, he was using drugs, and I got addicted with him and that was the start of my downward spiral”. He said it took all his courage to break free of his father “and I’ve been clean since November 2014.

“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other ninety-nine per cent”

“the poor are not poor because the rich are rich, nor are the rich undeserving either�,

WARREN BUFFETT

He doesn’t deserve it, He’s not the person he’s making himself out to be.” In many cases, in different ways, people of this world are asking for rights without also taking responsibility and as Captain America said, shifting the blame- from celebrities, to politicians, to corporations, professionals, ideologies, social communities and everyday global citizens.

it; the right to take action against injustice.

The right to make positive change. Giving rights to all help put checks against those who would do evil and avoid an Orwellian dystopia such as the regime in the novel 1984 or Animal Farm. Yet, our world is entering a stage of seeing the progress of those rights being exercised unchecked globally.

The question of rights and responsibilities is perhaps the greatest world issue of all, for it underpins every single world issue and every single person, organisation, leader, follower, messenger, child, pensioner, parent, celebrity and icon. Ultimately, what it comes down to: power. Rights are power. That is the crux of the Declaration of Human Rights- to give power to everyone. To be able to say “I have the right to live this way” and enforce

Responsibility however, is arguably more vital to the modern world than simply rights.

Whilst a person can be given the right to live, it is a far more secure world when all are responsible for allowing all to live. Whilst a person can be given the right to practice their own belief, it is a far more peaceful world when all are responsible for allowing others to practice their beliefs.

Why? Simply because in the strive to obtain rights, the process is self-orientated, selfinvolved and self-directed. To not necessarily enforce responsibility, but rather, to instil and spread the importance of responsibility into all, leads a process of spreading rights for others, about instilling happiness into others, about insuring safety for others and about giving to others.

Though not everyone globally has rights currently, global pressure is changing this.

Regardless, the global communities of the world are holding more power than ever before. Through enforcing the Declaration of Human Rights globally with global networks on the internet and better access to health and education globally, the everyday people of this world from all walks of life are gaining increasing power and most of all- the power to choose.

“With great power, comes great responsibility”

The power to choose who they listen to, who their leaders are, what products and services they will support, choose how they will live their lives and how the next generation of humans will be brought up and the views and values they will hold. Even adolescents now hold more power than ever before and as such, should be part of the call to responsibility.

Returning to the superheros we love on screen, none symbolise our responsibilities more than the young Spider-Man: “With great power, comes great responsibility”.

The people of this world hold greater power than any other generation before. It’s time then that the attention to responsibility for the world involves them and not simply our leaders, celebrities and organisations.

Over the past 2 years of PTW magazine, we have covered almost every major world issue. We all now know the issues our world face and we all now have a starting point to improve the world issues. In our conclusion on the focus of world issues, we have shown the need to move our thoughts from the rights of ourselves to our responsibilities for others and to take on responsibility for the world; and whilst we might criticise the actions of those who try to change the world, remember that Einstein once said “the world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything”.

Complaining and criticising is merely passive involvement; and if you are in any way able to give your service in an active and progressive way to a cause, you should consider it your responsibility to do so.

It is shifts in thoughts such as these that will truly bring our world into a more peaceful, prosperous and stable world in all aspects of life.

Our thoughts, opinions, views, everyday choices and everyday lives are making the world what it is- for good, or not-so-good. If we are to see the world improve, it will require one fundamental requirement from all- change. The time and power for change is here, and anyone who can read this along with all our magazines holds that power too. Let’s move now to change the world and create a positively transforming world. ■

“the world those who d who look at

is not dangerous because of do harm, but because of those it without doing anything�

My VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCE

Kellie Vella

Chief Global News Editor

Photograper : Benjamin Bugeja

Kellie Vella is the Chief Global News Editor of PTW Magazine.

She is currently working with refugee children in South Africa.

Purpose. Community. Kindness.

These are three key elements that my experiences have led me to believe are necessary for a human being to live a truly fulfilled life. I knew from a young age that these elements brought me joy and fulfilment, but little did I know that they would shape the direction of my entire career path and volunteer experiences.

My beginnings in the non-profit sector came about as a trick of fate.

In 2013, I was busy studying at university with full intentions of becoming an English and history teacher. During my second year, I also worked at a hair salon on the weekends, sweeping floors and

fetching coffee. One Saturday, a client (who happened to be the CEO of a local community development agency) came in for a cut and colour and mentioned the fact that she needed a new executive assistant.

Three weeks later I was undertaking my first role in the development sector. The non-profit I worked for provided capacity-building services for marginalised individuals and families in the local community.

The charity provided (and still provides to this day) emergency food assistance, community mentoring and financial advisory services for the poor.

human rights, philanthropy and sociology. Much of the time that should have been spent completing essays and assessment tasks, was spent web searching and reading about this new passion of mine.

I was deeply inspired by our management team who were a dedicated group of passionate development practitioners with an a rray of different academic backgrounds. Not only did this role allow me to develop the skills necessary to work in non-profit administration but it opened my eyes to an entirely new potential career path. One that I could see myself pursuing long term.

I had volunteered in the past with well-known NGOs at events and fun runs but never had I considered a career centred on positive change and the somewhat clichéd notion of ‘making a difference.’ In order to learn more, I spent countless hours in my university library devouring information and inspiration on topics including international development,

After finishing my degree, naturally I moved on to post-graduate study in International and Community Development. Having the luxury to study online, I also joined the Green Army which is a conservation initiative that mobilises young people to work alongside professional conservationists and Landcare volunteers on environmental projects. Our project was supported by the Australian Government and Conservation Volunteers Australia and we were privileged to work in some incredibly beautiful nature reserves on the Mornington Peninsula, just outside of Melbourne. As part of a team of nine volunteers, we braved the bitter cold and rain four days a week and carried out tasks that included woody weeding, site-clearing, mulching and planting.

This was the most physically and mentally demanding six months of my life and allowed me some-much needed time away from being hunched over a desk studying. More importantly, after six months our team of nine unique individuals developed into a well-oiled machine. We learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses and were able to assist each other in bringing about the best possible outcome, for ourselves and for the environment.

In January 2016, I moved to South Africa to volunteer at the Three2Six Refugee Education Project in Johannesburg.

Three2Six is an educational bridging program for refugee children who are unable to go to public schools in South Africa due to poverty, language barriers, lack of identity documentation and xenophobia.

The children we serve come from all over the African continent, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. The program caters for primary school students from Grade R to Grade 6 and gives children the opportunity to go school for three hours a day to study English, Mathematics and Life Skills.

After only five months in Johannesburg, this project has already changed me in profound ways. Interacting with the kids on a daily basis has taught me a great deal about resilience, joy and true strength. Johannesburg can be a rough and unforgiving place to live, as the stereotypes suggest. Crime and xenophobia are rife here, something our Three2Six kids have to deal with on a daily basis.

ZIMBABWE MOZAMBIQUE

At the end of 2014, I came across the work of Project Third World through a mutual friend and became a member of the publications team, writing on global issues and events. The efforts to support outreach projects in Kenya, India and Brazil deeply inspired me and it has been a great pleasure to get to know the members of our team. As part of the global news team, I hope to help bring light to important events and topics that deserve a voice and I look forward to continuing to work with PTW in the future.

Interacting with the kids on a daily basis has taught me a great deal about resilience, joy and true strength.

BOTSWANA

NAMIBIA

Johannesburg

SAWZILAND

LESOTHO

SOUTH AFRICA

INDIAN OCEAN

SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN

But they carry on. For the most part, their daily concerns revolve around whether or not they’ll score a goal in soccer, or whether or not they’ve completed their maths homework. While education is a primary focus of the project, Three2Six also provides refugee children with a safe place to socialise, express themselves creatively and most importantly, to belong.

throughout its history and yet initiatives like the Three2Six Project exist today to support refugee communities. I have been privilege to also have had the opportunity to attend conferences on migration policy and xenophobia in South Africa and have been further inspired by the many development agencies that are working together in cohesion to bring about positive change As we know, South Africa has experienced for refugees. its own severe hardships and struggles

I have met some truly selfless and hard-working individuals who believe that it is simply their duty to the community to work towards the greater good for no financial gain or public recognition Photograper : Benjamin Bugeja

This makes me question Australia’s current role and potential capability to contribute to bettering the lives of those who seek refuge in Australia, ‘the lucky country.’ While development initiatives do exist to support refugees (particularly in Melbourne), more needs to be done to eradicate offshore processing and treat our neighbours as human beings. In my humble opinion if South Africa can do it, Australia can do it to.

I have come across some highly narcissistic and egotistical volunteers and development practitioners in the past; those who think that they are better than everybody else because of the noble work that they do.

On the other hand I have met some truly selfless and hard-working individuals who believe that it is simply their duty to the community to work towards the greater good for no financial gain or public recognition.

Photograper : Benjamin Bugeja

In my experience, volunteering is an amazing way to meet and work alongside like-minded individuals who will inspire you to carry out tasks with an air of purpose and kindness. PTW is no exception to this sense of community connected by a common goal that our team works so hard to achieve.

Our time in South Africa is expected to come to an end in December this year. I don’t know what will happen when I return to Oz or where I will find myself working or volunteering. I guess for now I can only continue to enjoy and make the most of the fantastic opportunity I have been granted here in Johannesburg. â–

"sense of community connected by a common goal that our team works so hard to achieve."

H A L HA I N A R M A ALH

iaFounder h d o L g a Chir ditor and wed by

Intervie

Chief E

The first female boxing trainer in Saudi Arabia

Halah Alhamrani has become a social media icon, both in her hometown of Saudi Arabia, and internationally.

At the age of 40, she is an inspiration for women’s health and fitness of all ages and is herald as the first female boxing trainer in Saudi Arabia.

Her reputation and growing international fame comes at a

time where Saudi Arabia is under the spotlight for gender inequality and women empowerment that has captured the world media including National Geographic.

Becoming a symbol for such issues, we spoke to Halah to find out what this means for her, and how she wants to use her success and growing fame to improve her country.

Unlike many Saudi Arabian girls, Halah was brought up in a household that encouraged an active lifestyle. When she went to America, she was able to really hone her skills and was well on her way to becoming a professional kickboxer.

I loved martial arts at school. I was involved in Aikido which involved a lot of throwing techniques and I also started Jiu Jitsu which I earned a 3rd degree black belt in. I went to school in California and started Muay Thai through an American couple.

Whilst Halah had the potential to become a professional fighter, it was ultimately not the lifestyle that she wanted, weighing up what she was sacrificing, but also what she was gaining.

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After I finished University I came back to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. When I came back from the US I married. My husband has always been very supportive of me and my goals, but at the same time it has also been hard to train here. On returning home there was no one who could teach me so I trained myself in my parents’ house. Unfortunately at home there is no trainer that I felt could give me what I wanted in terms of technique.

If I had the chance I would have tried entering into competitions but realistically, I would have to go abroad to get the necessary training to be ready for a competitive level in kickboxing. I also gave birth to my son which made me think for a moment and debate becoming a pro-boxer. It would require me to move to the USA which was no longer feasible, plus I was 34 by that age. Instead I’ve been teaching for 12 years so I plan to continue with that. o ents wh i l c f o a lot l 1 crosse v e l I have r o f raining ning, request t alisthenics trai for c d fit and ly get contacte rts la ost but I m orts and martia for sp nd contact e dema orts Th . n e p for wom s and contact s t's t ar awe. I n i e martial m s men ha started.

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Many would think that the gender divide in Saudi Arabia with heavilyrooted cultural expectations would be the largest hurdle for Halah, What she found was a larger issue of logistics and politics than culture and gender holding her back.

My clients from Saudi Arabia are in the upper and middle-class of society. Right now I’m trying to open a new gym since I’ve just been training and coaching out of my parent’s house. As it’s in a residential zone I don’t need a license to open a gym.

For the past year I’ve been trying to gain a license to open an official gym and it was becoming more of a headache than anything else. To acquire a license requires so many different submissions, red tapes and hurdles.

The planning permits don’t allow me to open my gym as a ‘Fitness Gym’. I have to open it as a ‘Physiotherapy Centre’ which alone requires me to open a gym with a physiotherapist on site, an on-call doctor and access to ambulance. Having it in a residential space allows me to bypass these multiple hurdles but I would like to have my own official gym. For me personally, it’s not as much of the culture or gender perception that is limiting me, it’s more the logistics and the politics of trying to do what I am. I think it’s a lot about the redtape that means everything takes forever.

Her work doesn’t simply give her an income, but is also a release and tool she uses to clear away the stresses and frustrations of her everyday life and is something she hopes to share with the whole country to eventually change the nation.

A lot of the time I feel very annoyed and frustrated with the hurdles and obstacles I have to go through on a daily basis, but exercise helps me to manage along with the drive that comes from knowing that, what I am doing is good for myself and others.

I know that once I’ve conquered my obstacles, I’ll be able to give back to the country; and that’s my driving force. When I know I have clients and can see their progression from a background lacking or absent in sport or fitness, to being in their late 20’s and early 30’s and seeing them transform into incredibly fit individuals.

Despite growing up for much of her life in Saudi Arabia, Halah still experienced a culture-shock with many of her clients coming from different upbringings, even within the same country.

Many of Halah’s clients come from the middle- and upper-class of Saudi Arabia due to difficulties connecting and networking with the lower-economic groups, even if they are living in the same country together.

I always took for granted my upbringing surrounded by sport and fitness. I didn’t know the severity of the lack in female fitness at home until I started to teach.

Women tell me that my class is the first time they’ve done anything fitness-related in their life. It’s an incredible reality to me and it’s something that I hope we can change with support from the government.

The low economic classes in Saudi Arabia don’t have the knowledge or education they need to make healthy lifestyle choices.

As it hasn’t been introduced to them, they don’t think about it and don’t think about including it into their everyday lives.

I tend to train the upper and middleclass groups of Saudi Arabia who are well educated, have travelled abroad and seen the differences between Saudi Arabia and other countries and can see for themselves what they’re missing out on and so these women are interested in what I do. It’s not that I don’t want to work with the lower-class group in Saudi Arabia, it’s just that they don’t know what they’re missing because they’ve never had it part of their life.

I think it comes from a mix of issues.

I want to help be part of that change and help put fitness and sport into government schools for girls. Many girls only get ½ an hour per week towards fitness and sport.

Times are changing though and I can see that change. Women are becoming more excited and interested in sports and fitness and I just hope that the government makes it much easier for that change to happen.

Education is a major aspect and culture plays a part in that sports has never been seen as a part of women’s life in Saudi Arabia even if they go to school. In the lower class, that’s where you see the impact more significantly.

In the lower class, education isn’t a priority and many of them don’t actually go to school or have not been to school. Due to lacking education and a culture that isn’t focused on aspects of health, fitness has never been a part of their lives. To make my training more accessible to people who can’t afford personal training, I run boot camp sessions for women who can’t pay the price of private clientele.

Another factor is that a lot of my clients come from Instagram, and in Saudi Arabia, it’s the upper and middle-class citizens who use Instagram and social media, and so my exposure at the moment is only to those who use these platforms. I also speak in English on these platforms and in my classes. English is my first language even though I went to an Arabic school. I am more comfortable speaking English, and so naturally my classes attract people who speak English, which many people from the lower class unfortunately don’t.

I run boot camp sessions for women who can’t pay the price of private clientele.

Whilst the country’s socio-economic gap may impact the range of clients, her choice of clients purely comes down to those committing and trying.

Ultimately, my target clientele is simply those who are genuinely interested and serious about health and fitness irrespective of their background. I am trying to start workshops to target government schools and even private schools. These teach self-defence classess teach women the basics of tackling scenarios detrimental to them; which I hope of course they would never have to use.

Cultural barriers and restrictions in Saudi Arabia has been a major topic in world media.

As a citizen trying to push change, Halah understands that change at a social level is best achieved at the beginning-with community, children and education with support from a government working in unison with the community’s needs.

I think breaking through stigma, culture, mentality and systems is best by providing it at schools and see how people react to it and how children embrace it. In order to do this though we need governments supporting it by providing teachers and funding for it. To make it go further, we would need a culture change of people actually interested in it and willing to do it outside of the classroom, but the first step really is to bring it into the schools.

Whilst Halah is working hard to have the government bring health and fitness to young girls around Saudi Arabia, she’s also preparing to do this independently with the help of her students.

I am also working to mentor girls who will hopefully go on and become teachers of self-defence and fitness themselves. I’ve been in the field for so long and I hope to be able to create something that will last forever and create something in the Saudi Arabian fitness industry.

Whilst there has often been a negative view in the media of Saudi Arabia, progress is steadily coming to the country. With many people seeing the change in laws to allow women into parliament as the key to progression, Halah explains why it was

in fact progression that was the key to allowing women into parliament.

You can honestly feel a change in society here is Saudi Arabia. I think that people are becoming more aware of gender inequality and other world issues. They are not as enclosed anymore and they are able to see the world around us, especially from social media. There will always be some backlash but overall there have been quite positive changes. I feel it is more that change and progression has led to women holding positions in parliament, rather than women in parliament making change and progression themselves. The change is inevitable; it has to happen or we will have characteristics of a ‘Third World’ country or at least a very nonprogressive country.

Many people would think of the change in Saudi Arabia’s government as an opportunity for women to exercise rights to Freedom of Speech and the right to vote; for Halah, it’s about starting at the real necessities for everyday life that is most important to her.

I do see the women in parliament providing a voice for women; but more than that, the most amazing thing for me would be being able to drive in Saudi Arabia. Allowing me as a woman to drive in Saudi Arabia would be more amazing to me than opening my own gym without all the red-tapes.

I’m a very independent woman and like being independent.

I don’t want to have to rely on other people and require help travelling around the city. Not being able to drive makes it difficult to meet and organise work life and social life.

Regardless of the politics, Halah focuses on breaking through the mental stigma around diet and exercise in Saudi Arabia.

What I see in this country is an issue of binge dieting and crash dieting. People take up fitness crash diets for aesthetic reasons and not health reasons which makes their health and fitness very inconsistent and short term. I teach my girls that fitness and diet is not something you do just to lose weight and it’s not something you do for a period of time until you reach your goal. It’s not about a quick-fix.

To me that’s the major issue- they do it for a specific reason for a period of time and don’t continue once they’ve reached their goals. It’s an ongoing struggle and I try to teach them that they should do it for the rest of their lives. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific sport, but just movement itself incorporated into daily lives.

We don’t move enough and we just have to make time for it on a daily basis. You can binge every once-in-a-while but there is a real strong need to have a consistent, balanced and healthy lifestyle rather than crash-dieting and binge-exercising.

For Saudi Arabia, being active and healthy isn’t always accessible. Halah explains why some cultural and political structures can have a negative impact on the nation’s health.

Incorporating movement into our daily lives in Saudi Arabia isn’t as easy as it sounds. Women don’t walk on the streets here, and even men for that matter. We’re always in our cars or in our homes or at work.

Recently the city has built walkways and paths for people who want to walk or jog, which is a great change. There has been that change in terms of health and

fitness. Of course the issue is that you won’t see women jogging because they’re covered and wearing veils and abayas.

They make the walkway accessible for men and women. There’s no separation because we don’t have many walkways in general. There are cases of women who do get harassed when walking down these walkways.

If there are more walkways then you would get more women walking I feel which would make it safer.

Overall, the issue of lacking health is not about culture to Halah, but rather in lacking education and lacking in progressive policies.

Cultural stigma isn’t an issue here.

The issue of health and fitness is that it is not available. It’s not that there are no facilities, it’s just that they are very rare, and they have to be endorsed and provided for under a hospital. At the moment women need to have a driver and have to travel the distance to access gyms or fitness centres.

If the government changed policies about allowing women to drive and opened more centres for health and fitness, it would make good health much easier to achieve.

As a teacher of discipline and commitment, Halah is also a model for staying disciplined with fitness even at her age, with a family, children and developing business.

When I was boxing in the USA, it involved 2 workouts a day. The morning would involve conditioning and technique. The evening session would involve sparring in the ring. When I was in the U.S that would be my daily routine with one-day-a-week off. When I came back home, I couldn’t continue that routine, so I’m happy just getting my 1 hour a day. I make sure I have 1 hour a day every day to do exercise. If it’s not 7am it’s 7pm or wherever I can fit it in through the day.

When I was in competition for kickboxing, I’d workout heavily and wouldn’t watch my diet as much. I would just consume pretty much anything and everything to be able to maintain my weight class. Over the years though since stopping competitive training I’ve found that eating a paleolike diet works for me.

Whilst people are often motivated to start something, Halah explains why it requires more to maintain it.

Whilst most people only look at the physical strength needed to become fit, Halah explains that mental strength plays an equal, if not more important role.

In general, you really need at least half an hour a day working out at very high intensity. I’m pretty sure everyone can fit in half an hour a day. Of course people will complain about even half an hour. I didn’t say it was easy. It’s a mental game that is half the battle. Sometimes you come into the gym and think “I’m not feeling it”. You just have to push yourself to get through it and you’ll feel great after. It might not be easy but it’s definitely worth it and definitely possible for everyone to do.

The students who are very goal-orientated and tough have the internal need to stick with it and continue. I do have women who are a little less enthusiastic that perhaps don’t want what I offer them. That’s going to happen because I can’t cater for every type of person and their needs. Some might want aerobics or Zumba which I can’t cater for. In my classes too, there’s a certain level of mental strength that you need; not necessarily physical. My girls sometimes see me as the tough coach, but honestly when they talk about the workout they talk about the experience and feeling very empowered. It really is an accomplishment not to be taken lightly.

As Halah has found over the years, getting a country to change starts at the individual people; and getting individual people to change can be extremely hard when they have strong beliefs or views. For Halah, it is all about providing the education needed for creating progression, making small changes at a time, and not accepting excuses.

For the most part I don’t consume processed foods or processed carbs. I stick with the basic proteins, vegetables and fruits for my sweet tooth. It works for me and when I have a lot of students try it for 30 days. It’s a very strict way of eating and is a good introduction to the paleo style of eating. I find they need to do it consistently for at least 30 days to appreciate and switch their mentality around food. These are girls who don’t think seriously about what they are consuming. They don’t have second thoughts about eating a candy bar and didn’t grow up thinking about their food intake and what they’re actually eating.

To change and switch their mentality around food is a really big ongoing struggle for them and for me because I have to deal with it.

Having said that, I didn’t think about healthy nutrition in my 20’s and early 30’s either because I was so engaged in competitive sports that I didn’t have to think about it.

When I started noticing my ‘gains’ later into my 30’s, it wasn’t just aesthetic gains of putting weight on, it was a big change to my energy and how I function daily. I don’t have a nutrition background, and so all I can do is give advice on what works for me as an individual. Thankfully, it has also worked for many of my students and most importantly has changed their mentality around food.

I have a lot of clients who are very worried about the effect weight-lifting will have on their own weight and worried about weight gain. I had a client who could easily lift the 1kg weight but went and picked up the 0.5kg weight saying she couldn’t lift heavy because she thought she would become fat. That drives me insane. I don’t think they understand how hard it is for a women to actually ‘bulk up’ and gain big muscle mass. It’s a struggle I deal with every day trying to educate them.

Of course I get the question “if I eat a lot of protein will I become very muscular?”

People don’t understand that it’s not protein that makes fat.

Whilst traditional media has created and maintained stereotypes and stigmas around Saudi Arabia, the insurgence of social media globally has allowed individuals like Halah to break through them and motivate her country and the world.

When I upload photos onto Instagram I get a lot of girls who write to me saying “I saw your Instagram post and I’m very inspired to learn what you do but I don’t know if I can do it and have never done anything like this before- is there a starting point?” I really feel that my Instagram account has been a massive help to start my business and profile and

reach a broader audience by showing people my journey. I get contacted just through showing them my journey. The first step is for clients to contact me and discuss their goals. I then put them into classes that are suitable to their level, even if that’s at level 0.

I do see the positives and negatives of social media. For me it’s been something extremely positive for what I do and my life. I do see the negatives when my girls come to train, who have seen or read health claims or advice on social media that is ridiculous, but they don’t know any better. There’s always a positive and negative to everything.

Halah is cautious empowe of the s rment ense of her tra bring, bu i n ing can ta have on lso how her exp eriences ly been a positi on her ve impa clients ct when ed provide ucation d well a is nd cont inuous.

What ma kes my sp ort of kic even box kboxing a ing so en nd gaging is release. W that it is hen you g a et angry, y to hit som ou have u ething or rge be physic way. For m al in som y girls, it p e rovides a r their ever elease from yday lives , anxieties Fitness in and stress general is es. a release o the body f stress fro and also a m release of around t endorphin he body tha s making k ickboxing t makes us happy , the perfec this. t sport to do I do see w omen wh o come in Jitsu class t , do a clas s and at th o our Jiuthey can g e end feel o beat som like eone up. I give girls t really do an empow es ering feeli the girls ng. Some say “I’m of going to try this on go home my husba and nd!” At th don’t see e momen the violen tI tn being an issue for m ature of kickboxin g y girls and around th the people em. I hop e that ove years I will r the be able to target a br next few of people oader rang for e need to b my classes and that e more ca ’s when I’l utious of l has; but t the impac hankful a t it t the mom girls I tra ent with t in, it’s on he ly been ve hope that ry positiv it doesn’t e .I become a long-run, n issue in but I do s the ee the em gives thes powermen e women. t it The only is giving t worry for hese girls me an unreali empowerm stic sense ent. of I provide workshop s they co ntinue a , but I hope tha t fte because c asual wor r the workshop kshops ca of empo n give a s s werment ense but not somethin g that the necessarily y could in their lives corp if god-for bid anyth orate in happen to ing should them. We ’ll see how goes thou gh. the future

For Halah, improving the country ultimately comes back to the need for the basics of life that Project Third World works to provide- health and education.

In health there is a huge need and demand for education. They really need to incorporate it as part of government school teaching. Even in private schools they are not making health and fitness a big aspect. My hope is that I can help change the country by making health and fitness a core part of school and life and making it a necessity for the country and make it a necessity on a daily basis.

At least that way from a young age people will be exposed to it. When they’re an adult, they can make choices and decide if they want it part of their lives, but I do feel it must be a mandatory part of children’s lives that should not be questioned.

For me that’s the most important change I would like to see in this country above anything else: having health, sports and fitness a core part of our education. ■

Opinion Piece

Ariane Duchesneau Global Reporter | Russia

Is living a healthy lifestyle a government or individual Responsibility?

In his last budget, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Georges Osbourne, decided to introduce a new tax on soft drink industry. The tax intends to target highsugar drinks, particularly carbonated soft drinks, which are predominantly consumed by a teenage demographic.

For political campaigners, this move is a significant step in the fight against child obesity. For the industry, the new regulation is viewed as an unfair policy created by a nanny state. Who should be responsible for health? Is it a public personal responsibility?

In England, at the beginning of primary school, one out of ten children are obese. This figure increases to one out of five children by the time a child completes primary school.

According to the World

Health Organisation, obesity is regarded as one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century alongside smoking and alcoholism (Triggle 2016).

Arguably, as individuals, we must be responsible for our own health and understand that our everyday lifestyle has consequences on our overall health and wellbeing. It is common knowledge that a healthy diet, daily physical activity and avoiding smoking and alcohol are important factors of a healthy lifestyle.

In countries such as England, government policy is implemented to inhibit the consumption of unhealthy products by raising the prices of cigarettes, alcohol and now of high-sugar drinks.

The British initiative is not the first of its kind.

Countries including

Norway, Finland, France and Mexico have already implemented healthrelated food taxes to combat obesity (WCRF International 2016).

Why should governments need to tell us what to eat or to drink? Why, as individuals, are we are not able to make our own choices and live with the consequences?

These questions are even more pertinent in countries where there is a national health care system and taxpaying citizens must fund the treatment of lifestyle-related diseases.

The meaning of health as individual responsibility In today’s society, infectious diseases are less common in developed nations due to access to the development of vaccines, sanitation systems and preventative medicine.

As such, non-contagious diseases including heart disease and cancer are now some of the leading causes of premature death in the developed world. A healthy lifestyle significantly minimises the risk of being diagnosed with a noncommunicable disease.

Medical research from recent decades further highlights the importance of establishing healthy habits and lifestyles at the individual level.

In an Oxford University research study titled Health and Ways of Living: The Alameda County Study, researchers demonstrated the impact of seven lifestyle habits on overall health.

Some of the lifestyle factors analysed in this research project included: eating

breakfast, not smoking and drinking only in moderation. The study found that those who were following the seven healthy habits on a daily basis had a lower morbidity and mortality rate than those who were following six habits or less (Minkler 1999, 124). Research that demonstrates the impacts of everyday lifestyle factors on health and wellbeing is commonly used as evidence to support the ‘individual responsibility’ view.

Another argument to support the notion of individual responsibility is centred on the idea that a person should have the freedom to choose how they live their day to day life without ‘nanny state’ intervention. Policies such as the British Sugar Tax can

be perceived to discredit an individual’s judgement to make their own choices and therefore diminish their personal freedom.

The freedom to think and to act is highly valued in today’s society, particularly in democratic nations. The preceding arguments suggest that individuals have a fundamental right to choose their own behaviours.

Health: Social conditions and environment matters While it was found that individual behaviour is a critical element to the debate around health and responsibility, other factors must also be taken into consideration. The collective approach suggests that social and environmental conditions and have an

impact that is just as important as individual behavior. The correlation between health and socio-economic status has been recognized by scientists for many years now. Evidently, those who are privileged to be socially and economically advantaged have better chances to live a long and healthy life (Wikler 2006, 113).

Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia were all at least 3 years below the average (European Commission et al. 2013, p. 21). While this finding seems to be obvious and oversimplified, it highlights the fact that health inequalities exist even within the ‘developed’ Western world due to varying socio-economic factors.

The 2013 European Commission on Health Inequalities in the EU found that wealthier nations within the European Union (measured by GDP), were found to have healthier and longerliving citizens than poorer nations. In 2010, average life expectancy across the EU was 77 years for men and 82.9 years old for women. An evident inequality found that Romania, Latvia,

Conclusion: A balanced approach Based on the positive and negative aspects of the differing viewpoints described above, a balanced approach is arguably the best way to keep citizens healthy. The individual should play his or her part to decrease their chances of premature death and disease by adopting healthy lifestyle. However, the individual responsibility approach defines health as the absence of disease and

largely associates diseases with controllable risk factors, which are impacted by external conditions.

Socio-economic and environmental conditions are an important part of the picture and should not be neglected when assessing the health of individuals.

Governments must also contribute to bettering the health of their citizens, not only by restricting access to unhealthy products via taxation or prohibition, but by encouraging citizens to make positive health choices and to support the availability of healthy foods, clean water and air and accessible places for people to exercise.

Health policies should be implemented not as a restriction of freedom but as a way to increase human well being and to decrease the inequalities and injustices in our world. â–

#nofilter the political power of social media

What did you last post on Facebook, Twitter or one of the many other social media platforms? A photo of a flat white, too pretty to drink but perfect to Instagram? Yet another cat meme or a listicle that’s instantly entertaining but wholly forgettable.

Nathalie Bonney

Global Reporter | Great Britain

Beyond its trivial uses, social media has the means to be a powerful, political tool - 2011’s Arab Spring a case in point. While many academics have questioned claims that the social networks’ were the main cause for 2011’s wave of revolution, there can be no denying the widespread use of them had an impact. Instead of just watching a journalist in a bulletproof vest describe scenes behind them, the global community were thrust into the middle of the protests. From real time tweets on the developments in Tahir square: smoke, scuffles and bloodshed all courtesy of 140 characters or less to photos of uprisings outside the prime minister’s house in Tunis, the Arab Spring was intangibly linked to social media.

As American lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz said ‘the threat or fear of violence should not become an excuse or justification for restricting freedom of Perhaps this same freedom speech.’ of expression, is what sprung to mind when For a growing tranche of unnamed and unidentified society, posting opinions and powers in Uganda caused allegiances on social media a social media blackout on and blogs poses significant 18 February 2016 - election danger to themselves - but if day. Voters were free to go to the alternative is to lose their the polling booths but they voice, is it worth the cost? couldn’t express who they Saudi Arabian blogger and were going to vote for - at founder of website Free least not online.

Saudi Liberals, Raif Badawi, Over pyramid piles of was convicted in 2012 of passion fruit in the market ‘insulting Islam through or to their neighbour on a electronic channels’; similar snug taxi ride, voters at least charges and convictions weren’t prohibited from were brought against him grumbling to one another in the following two years - the country is still seen and he is currently serving as democratic - but the a 10 year prison sentence. social media lockdown was Badawi was also sentenced an insidious reminder of to 1000 lashes , a 1 million who was really in charge. Riyal fine (over a quarter of Freedom of speech: until it a million US dollars) and following his prison release, really mattered. a 10-year travel and media Posters and banners strung ban. In January last year, he up above Kampala’s trafficreceived his first 50 lashings. choked roads extolled the His team of campaigners virtues of peaceful elections; responded by using a hashtag while the national army on twitter #backlash, to decamped to the Kololo raise awareness, asking users airstrip, in Kampala, for two to write the hashtag on their months: both not-so-subtle back with lipstick. Badawi reminders of what would may have been silenced but happen if Ugandan voters social media still gives him a forcibly challenged the presence and voice beyond electoral outcome. his prison walls.

Aside from the documenting aspect, there was the sense of people being able to freely express themselves through these digital mediums.

For a growing tranche of society, posting opinions and allegiances on social media and blogs poses significant danger to themselves

In a blog post he wrote: “You have the right to express and think whatever you want as you have the right to declare what you think about it, it is your right to believe or think, have the right to love and to hate, from your right to be a liberal or Islamist.”

from a liberal, French publication could be gunned down for expressing their opinions.

The hashtag #jesuicharlie became an emblem of support for the victims and survivors but also a motif of hope and belief in France’s motto of ‘Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.’

But with freedom of speech also comes responsibility of freedom. Being able to share everything and anything on social media may be our right but what when it offends or provokes others? Where do you draw the line between promoting debate and unnecessary People were outraged (and astonished) - that provocation? western journalists -and in particular those Poignantly Badawi received his first set of 50 lashings just days after the attacks on staff at weekly satirical paper Charlie Hebdo, in Paris on 7 January 2015 by brothers Saïd and Chérif Kouachi.

In the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo shootings, the publication decided to publish an incendiary cartoon: a picture of the prophet Mohammed with a Je Suis Charlie sign and the caption ‘Tout est pardonne’ (all is forgiven). Unlike the unifying effect of #jesuischarlie, not everyone felt comfortable hitting ‘share’.

Following the subsequent Paris November 2015 terror attacks, social media users fell into two camps, half changing their profile picture to a French flag backdrop in a show of solidarity with the victims, while others questioned why Facebook hadn’t made it

possible to change their profile to a Lebanese or Kenyan flag (or pretty much any country where there had been recent conflict ort terror attacks).

It’s good and right to debate how we use social media as a means to freedom of expression and to consider if what we are sharing is overly offensive - but rather than expect Facebook (and others) to police what we can and can’t say, isn’t that our own responsibility? Social media should be the facilitator of free speech not the instigator: #nofilter. ■

Mass shootings, mass mournings, mass inaction As I type this, news unfolds of a mass shooting in a Florida nightclub leaving 20 people dead. A few months ago, fiftyyear-old Wayne Anthony Hawes shot and killed five people in Appling, Georgia.

He then took his own life. Over the past decade alone, more than 100,000 people in the US have been killed through gun crime.

Inevitably, there will be much more for us to grimly muse over.

Beena Nadeem

Four years ago, a mass shooting penetrated the society’s psyche more than the others. In December 2012, a young man walked into an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut and slayed 20 infants and six staff with a rifle from his mum’s gun collection. It lead to some grisly musings. How could this have happened? Surly now the hegemony would be challenged? It seems not; the gun lobbyists in America are keen and effective to keep guns in circulation.

Global Reporter | Great Britain

More than twice as many people in the US have died at the point of a gun in 2015 alone, than have died in terrorist attacks in all of the preceding 44 years put together.

Laws to keep guns out of the hands of those dangerous, deranged, in fact anyone; including children, are failing - as have bids to curb sales.

At the time of this shooting, Congress even refused to expand the number of gun-buyers checked for histories of crime or severe mental illness. And in March 2015, federal regulators dropped a bid to ban a type of bullet that can pierce body armor such as a bulletproof vest after 285 Republicans and seven Democratic members of Congress objected.

President Obama has repeatedly tried to overhaul gun control in the US. After a recent shooting in Kansas which led to three deaths not including the gunman and left 14 wounded, he said he mass shootings were happening on a weekly basis.

Over the past decade in America, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence.

“Over the past decade in America, more than 100,000 people have been killed as a result of gun violence—and millions more have been the victim of assaults, robberies, and other crimes involving a gun. Many of these crimes In January this year, an Ipos and Reuters poll were committed by people who never should found half of all Americans support President have been able to purchase a gun in the first Obama’s executive – brought in January this place,” he said. year, for tighter vetting procedures to help control gun sales. He ordered stricter gun The Administration announced background rules that he can impose without Congress’ checks would be undertaken on anyone help. Of course, this infuriated Republicans buying a firearm, and would include their who said he is overstepping the boundaries criminal history. This should be turned of his office with 72 per cent of Republicans around within 24 hours, any day. Local opposed any sort of tightening up of controls authorities should be informed when – all citing the Second Amendment of the prohibited people try to buy guns.

US Constitution: the right to hold arms. By The most important thing we can do to using these executive orders, he can ensure prevent gun violence is to make sure those tighter checks are brought upon on people who would commit violent acts cannot get wishing to buy guns. a firearm in the first place, said Obama.

Yet, his attempts to do something have been constantly frustrated by Congress, which has not approved any major gun-control legislation since the 1990’s.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the background check system has prevented more than 2 million guns from getting into the wrong hands. The fact is, at the moment, it is possible for guns not only to enter the ‘wrong hands’ but almost anyone’s hands.

According to scholar Joan Birbeck, at Washington State University, forty found per cent of America’s gun sales are thought to be “off the books” in this fashion. For those such as 28-year-old former Connecticut law student, Cody Wilson, so long as there is a need for guns, there is a market. Wilson, during his time at university, released simple information online on how to order and build your own firearm. He is the face of opensource 3D gun design, an online movement of enthusiasts who use 3d printers and machining tools to build their own weapons. Ones that shoot real, deadly bullets. Yet, Wilson is not a loon. He is well educated and articulate.

He told the Guardian, “I’m not making guns for you,” Wilson says, “I’m shipping the possibility to make it for yourself.” He added: “I represent the destruction of commonsense gun control.”

“They should be very afraid. My ideas are dangerous to them because they live in a managed world. I prefer to be a kind of horseman coming down. It sends our enemies into despair and it brings joy to our allies.”

Now defending his venture in multi-million

pound lawsuit against the federal government about the right to freedom of information, funded, ironoically, bt the sales of these guns. So it seems, tighter gun control might not be the answer after all, though does go some way into making inroads into reducing related deaths.

What the UK and Australia did: After shootings in Oregon where nine people died and seven were injured, US president Barack Obama acknowledged that the failure to pass meaningful gun laws has been the most frustrating and disappointing aspect of his entire presidency. He contrasted the US to Great Britain and Australia, noting that America was the only developed nation that had failed to pass “common sense gun safety laws – even in the face of repeated mass killings”.

Both countries acted decisively after massshooting outrages in 1996, although in neither case was the critical incident the first spree killing the country had experienced. In March that year, an embittered lone gunman entered a school in Dunblane, Scotland, armed with four handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He killed 16 five and six-year-old children, a teacher and then himself. In Port Arthur, Tasmania, some six weeks later, a young man with learning difficulties and two semi-automatic rifles killed 35 people.

John Howard, then Australia’s newly elected prime minister, moved quickly in the wake of the Port Arthur, agreeing a new set of gun control policies for adoption by the federal government and the eight states and territories of Australia. Proposals to ban rifles and shotguns, and a firearm buyback scheme, compensating them for any they surrendered. Firearm registration and gun ownership licensing was brought in and more than one million firearms – almost a third of the civilian gunstock – were surrendered over the following decade.

In Great Britain, although a judicial inquiry, The Cullen Report came to a cautious and measured compromise proposal, this was swept away by a strong tide of national opinion favouring an outright handgun ban under the Conservatives, then the incoming labour under the firearms act. In both countries, the new gun control laws ultimately made substantial contributions to public safety and a declining profile of firearm related murders and suicides, but the impact was neither simple, direct or immediate.

Australian homicides committed with firearms had been declining downwards prior to 1996 as some states implemented tougher regulations in the wake of earlier shooting outrages.

The 1996 legislation contributed to the falling trend in Australian violence but for a few years after 1996, violence involving illegal, never-licensed handguns, often in the possession of drug and biker gangs, and semi-organised criminals, surfaced as a problem. Since the new laws, Australia has experienced no further mass shootings (defined here as four or more fatalities). In Britain, something similar was surfacing. For the four years following 1997-8, handgun bans, crimes involving handguns seemed to

double. This was put down to several things: “First, the 1980s and 90s saw a significant upturn in gang-related activity in the UK. Many of the new young gangsters were using replica, air-weapon and imitation firearms as part of their “threat”. At the time police chiefs began referring to replica, air and BB guns as “fashion accessories”. There was also an influx of significant numbers of converted and reactivated weapons from Eastern Europe. Britain was developing a unique “junk gun” economy; perhaps not dissimilar to what online third gun seller Cody Wilson is casting a shadow over now.

Also, the 2006 Violent Crime Reduction Act addressed the availability and misuse of these air weapons and imitation guns allowing police, who were by now deploying new ballistic and forensic tracing technologies, to focus more intelligently upon crimes involving real firearms. In due course, gun-enabled crime has continued to fall consistently.

Obama is right. Other countries have clearly handled the gun violence problem more effectively that the US, their successes have often involved more than just what Americans term “gun control”. Gun control is usually a necessary, but by itself, often an insufficient, way to reduce mass killings. In addition, nor is America at the forefront of gun crime.

Criminologist Adam Lankford has just released a global study of incidents involving 292 mass killers (four or more) between 1966 and 2012, across 171 countries.

Unsurprisingly, the US came out with the most at 90, though other less likely countries also ranked highly such as the Philippines with 18, Russia with 15 and Yemen with 11 and France with 10. Britain itself had three: Hungerford in 1987, Dunblane in 1996 and

America leads the way in its rate of gun ownership with almost 90 guns for every 100 people.

Cumbria in 2010. The US does not even have the most murderous mass shooting, that dubious distinction goes to Norway where Anders Breivik gunned down 69 young people at a summer camp outside Oslo in 2011.

Yet according to Peter Squires, professor of Criminology & Public Policy at the University of Brighton, argues: “Despite the global manifestation of mass shootings, they are frequently seen as a distinctly American phenomenon. The flipside of the American Dream, as it were, is the gun crazy nightmare and the instant ‘dark celebrity’ that running amok with a firearm can achieve”.

Instead, we may have to understand gun culture instead. America leads the way in its rate of gun ownership with almost 90 guns for every 100 people, with the proportion falling (except among Republican leaning voters).

The problem is, that with mass shootings have often served in many societies as a

catalyst for a society to finally grasp the nettle of gun control and bring sweeping changes to its gun laws: except in America.

The real problem is making exceptions. It is not about accepting there have been so many shooting, but that so little has been done about them. ■

Globally, gun ownership is majority male.

Geneva based Small Arms Survey project estimates that 96 per cent of gun owners are male.

The US is the most egalitarian country when it comes to gun ownership but still only has 12 per cent of women owning guns.

There has only been (according to Lankford’s survey) one mass killing perpetrated by a woman – the 2006 murder of six postal workers in California

by Jennifer San Marco.

ZUK

Germany from the per

KAR CHIRAG LODHIA

Chief Editor and Founder

rspective of a refugee

ALLES

CEO

Jan HeiIg

‘Filmbit Filmproduktion’

Jan Heilig is the brain-child and CEO behind ‘Filmbit Filmproduktion’ in Berlin, Germany. Filmbit is a Berlin based full service film Production Company with a European network of local film producers.

They specialise in social media campaigns, public interest, non-profit organisations and most of all, fun!

Jan also has his own Agency ‘okayfactor. com’ that gives everyday people a platform to share important stories. From here, Jan developed ‘Zukar’- a Youtube Channel dedicated to tackling refugee topics in Germany by refugees themselves. Zukar has become an overnight sensation, receiving over one-million views within the first days of its release. We spoke to Jan the CEO, Firas the face of Zukar and the comedic actor in the videos, Ronny the editor of the videos and Cristian the technician of Zukar’s video productions to see how this dynamic team lead the conversation and unity on Germany’s community.

How did Angela Merkel’s announcement to bring Syrian refugees to Germany impact you?

There was already Syrian refugees coming here so I just thought ‘that’s good’ when the announcement was made. There was no big hooray. It was a very tragic issue and I was not concentrating on the politics. The story of Germany welcoming the first refugees- that’s what touched me more. As a German national, politics did not influence me as much. .

What responsibility do you have as a German national towards the refugees, and vice-versa?

It is part of our constitution that asylum seekers have the right to enter into our country. Someone who is politically endangered or endangered by political actions- they have a right to flee and come to Germany. It was normal to me. There’s no question of responsibility; it’s a fundamental human right- nothing to discuss.

When the refugees come to this country, their responsibility isn’t to seek a future in our country specifically, but to seek shelter. I do think that the responsibilities of the refugees follow the same principles as a guest in someone else’s house. If I’m coming to the house of a friend and they’re giving me shelter after I’ve been beaten and threatened at home, I’ll treat them as a friend who has saved me. The discussion we have in German is integration. It’s a misleading discussion because they’re supposed to be coming here for shelter and not to immigrate here. There are still people who are coming to find a new future, but taking in refugees is about hosting refugees and the refugees being thankful for that.

An

On being asked how Europe can make space for thousands of refugees and migrants:

"We will cope."

ngela Merkel Chancellor of Germany

The discussions around refugees immigrating are misleading. Is there a big difference between the media image and the reality of what is happening on the ground?

I have to say there’s a big difference between the discussions in the media and what is happening on the ground. I feel what is happening on the ground is always mislead and misrepresented in the traditional media.

The media always concentrates on the outstanding aspects. In my opinion, the culture of welcoming in Germany is still very strong. Looking at discussions on social networks with friends and through my workthere is no shift in society overall since the intake.

Germany has had Middle-Eastern and Arabic-looking people living here for a while. It’s not that there’s a sudden increase in the number of them on the streets since the refugee intake. The population of them coming is so small compared to our own population.

The population of them isn’t enough to cause a visual change on the streets and in my opinion, the media misleads people into thinking otherwise.

There was a big argument however around people who worked pro-bono and worked not-for-profit who aren’t professionals in charity and volunteering. They’re providing unusual forms of help that isn’t a normality.

People found that helping effectively through these methods are not as easy as they thought, and it exposed the reality that you have to find long-term solutions and effective ways.

How did Zukar happen?

I started working with Firas as he was replacing my previous director- Tamer Alawam. Tamer went to Syria twice to film a movie. The movie was about the Syrian revolution. The second time he went, he was going against my will because it was very dangerous then, but he being a Syrian activists wanted to go. There was a shelling which he was injured through and then died there.

Firas was already a film producer in Syria and so he came into the role from there, and would come to Germany to help with editing. He did reports for TV and independent work, whilst also being an activist himself. After the backlash he received from the Syrian regime, the secret service and from the Islamic State parties; it was so dangerous to go back to Syria or Turkey for him; that’s how he ended up staying here in Germany working on the Youtube Channel. The media claims that Firas is the first refugee star, but he’s not happy to be put under that label because he always says “I am Firas first, not a refugee first”.

With the Youtube Channel, I wanted to get funding from not-for-profit organisations to start a channel that helps refugees, but is also made by refugees so they can talk about the topics they want.

Firas is also a trained actor and so I asked if he would like to do a Demo which we made as an experiment.

'We realise d we had tou ched on somethin g and we h ad to continue.

That’s how it all started. I t wasn’t meant to be how it happene d but we ran with it'.

It was easy to get NGO’s to finance the project and initially it wasn’t designed to be a Youtube Channel. We put the demo up on Youtube to see how people would respond.

I had already started another website called Zukar where refugees could speak and have an opinion and so this fit well with that.

The day after the Youtube video went up, we had 150,000 views, then 300,000 in 2 days and then we had over one million views within three days with the help of Facebook. We had a hurricane of media groups jumping on us from then. For the next 2 weeks we had approximately 8 interviews to give daily across different forms of media including TV shows. It was hilarious. We realised we had touched on something and we had to continue. That’s how it all started. It wasn’t meant to be how it happened but we ran with it.

How much do you give consideration to cultural sensitivity?

This is a free country, we can say what we want. The responsibility is only that I mean what I say. I’m not paid for my freedom of speech- it’s

something that we do on our own accord. This is different to journalists who claim by their profession to be searching for and delivering the truth.

What we say as everyday people is our opinion, and we say it because we feel it is worth saying. What people have told us that makes Zukar

outstanding is we talk about highly controversial topics which provokes emotional feelings. In Germany we have hate speech we have bad commentaries in the media and whenever people talk about refugees in German media, the conversation gets very weird, nasty and full of

hatred; a small number of people, but nevertheless there.

With our Youtube Channel the conversation was different and that nastiness wasn’t there.

With our channel, people told us “finally a channel which has no hatred”. There was no hate speech and people have been

happy that there is finally a voice of a refugee who is very positive, open-minded, has an open heart and inviting people into his life and uses humour. Firas is a funny guy using satirical humour in a fun way. This style hadn’t been done before. Usually when we see it in the media, it is one

group making fun about the other party.

With us, we don’t make jokes about right-wing parties. We make positive remarks and make jokes about ourselves to attract people and not offend others and push them away.

Have your views of Syrians or refugees changed since the intake?

No- my views have not changed. They are people. There are good people and bad people, but I don’t have the impression that there are big cultural differences. When I was talking to Americans, they were under the impression that the refugees or the Syrians had different opinions about everything- friendship, for example.

With Syrians, I have felt very close to even on a cultural level. Sure, some of them are Muslims, which is culturally different to me, but in daily life you don’t realise the difference and they are not making big issues.

It’s also very difficult to have a small group represent an entire country.

The people who I interact with from Syria and the refugees are people from my line of work who have been outstanding people. I can’t speak for all of the German people and I can’t speak of a view of all of the Syrian people, but all I can say is that my view didn’t change and those I’ve met have been outstanding people who risk being slaughtered in their own country.

We don’t have issues or disagreements because of our background. We are friends. If we have issues, it’s trivial.

If we have disagreements, it’s usually something professional such as ‘should we continue the Youtube Channel?’

How much consideration do you give towards political correctness?

With us, the political issues are hidden within the videos. We have a video about beauty tips. We hid issues of hate-speech within this. In terms of ‘political correctness’we don’t care. This is comedy. We can do what we want.

I know some Syrians who we have disagreements with because of politics.

They left the country many years ago and have only seen the country and Assad in a positive light. They have a glowing image of Assad. It’s a bit like meeting someone who thinks that Putin is the saviour of Russia.

These people who left Syria years ago before the conflict see Assad as the saviour of Syria, and it’s hard to discuss the issues with them despite the evidence that the is a dictator who is slaughtering and terrorising his own people.

Then, what about a name like ‘Project Third World’?

The name puts the finger on the issue by naming it “Project Third World”. That’s also what we do with our comedy- we put the finger on things people should talk about. I see no problem with using political incorrectness to intentionally bring positive awareness to the issue itself. If it is without intention, maybe we should discuss it first.

I’d leave it to you.

Firas Alshater

Firas Alshater is a 24-yearold Syrian who has now lived in Germany for two and a half years and has recently become an overnight celebrity on social media, particularly through Europe. As an actor and activist, he has used his skills along with the platform of social media to humanise and unite the German community’s differences on the Syrian refugee intake by Germany.

What does it mean to be a Syrian refugee in Germany?

It’s exactly the same as if you were an Australian in Germany or a German in Germany. It’s just a different land position on earth that I’m living in to where I was born.

Did you ever expect to be so popular?

My first test video had more than 2 million views in the first two weeks; but it happened by chance.

We decided to make our first video and after that, we just thought “here we go, I’ll just have to start making more videos”. I never thought that we would take off the way we did. I never thought we would get 12,000 followers of our Youtube Channel and 55,000 followers on Facebook in the first month. We never planned for it or even expected it.

You receive both positive and also negative comments on your videos; how do you take that?

Everyone who makes videos will get ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’; but looking at the last month alone, I have received 750,089 likes and 240 dislikes- there’s a big difference between the two.

Why have so many people embraced the way you approach the conversation about racial issues?

The problem with the conversation is that both sides of the conversation talk about each other impolitely. People are saying things like “Hey, these stupid people are against refugees! They are Nazis!

They are stupid!”

Then the other side are saying “Hey, you want to break apart our country! You are stupid!” They are fighting, but not actually talking. So we thought we’d have to do it in a funny and inviting way to break the division. We just use joke-after-joke to get everyone laughing.

We don’t say to anyone in our videos “you are stupid” or “you are bad”. It’s all just jokes with ourselves, and people love that.

It’s interesting because we get feedback and information from both sides of the argument in support of what we do so it’s good to see that.

What is the funniest and nicest response you’ve received on your Zukar videos?

One girl asked me to marry her. I get a lot of love from people with hearts and kisses and comments such as ‘we love you’ and ‘you should be our president’ and ‘we will never let you go back to your country’. It just shows you how much the people love you and motivates you to keep going and make more videos.

You’ve experienced a lot of difficulties and setbacks in life, how have you kept pushing?

I try to push myself and never look to the past. I always know the future will be better and I never look back because I will never go back into the past.

How do you feel about being dubbed the face of Syrian refugees in Germany?

Firas is just one-of-a-million refugees.

When the media talks about me, they need to remember that they’re just talking about me and not every refugee. Not all the refugees are like me. What I try to show is that there are big differences between all the refugees and what makes each individual who they are. All I do through the video is give this group a chance to show what they have inside them.

How does racist and hate speech impact you when you receive it or see it posted on your videos?

Nothing really makes me annoyed to be honest. If someone who doesn’t know me is hating me just because I’ve made a Youtube video trying to make a positive message, why should I get annoyed? That person is used to hating everybody so why do I need to hate him back? If they want to write something hateful to me, I can ignore it and look past it because for every one hateful comment I get a thousand loving comments. Why should I always look to the empty place in my glass?

Do you have plans to expand your videos to the rest of the world?

To be honest, because I’m in Germany, all my videos are filmed in Germany, but we translate them into English, French, Spanish and Arabic. To make something for the whole world will be dependent on the money and the support we have from the world. If there is the opportunity, we’ll take it.

I’m meeting with Google in London and have a trip to Sweden to discuss what they can bring for us, for the refugees and for the world. Not every invitation I’ll accept but if something important comes up that can help, I’d be happy to do it.

RONNY MULLER

Ronny MĂźller completed his degree in film, television and sound editing in 2007. He has worked on many short films and has worked as a freelance editor and sound engineer, specialising in feature films, documentaries and corporate videos.

How did the concept of ‘Zukar’ start?

Zukar is a project that Jan wanted to do for a while with refugees. It started last September with two other refugees who have since moved onto other projects. Zukar means ‘sugar’ in Arabic and is a very similar word in Germany, giving it a universal meaning for us. In late January our project blew out from something that was just there to help refugees, to now having media contracts globally including the United States, Colombia, and of course with someone like yourself living in Australia.

What is your role as an editor?

As an editor, my job is to tell stories to people in a way that they understand. As an editor, I’m not part of production and preproduction and filming footage. I’m reviewing footage and looking for little ‘gems’. I have myself as a resource in that I am able to step back from the technical aspects of editing and producing, and try to see what the audience will see.

What consideration do you give to cultural sensitivity?

You definitely have to give cultural sensitivity some thought. A good advisor for me is Firas or any other refugee for that matter. I don’t know all the issues personally as I’m not a Syrian refugee.

A lot of what I know is based on the stories that people tell me and the feedback I receive but I can never see the whole picture.

For instance, one of the first mistakes I made was in the first video. Firas was gentle about it. We put a map of Syria into the video and we put an icon of the free Syrian army. In the beginning, I didn’t know that it was a big issue, but I soon found out that when I had put the current Syrian flag which is Assad’s flag, a lot of Syrian’s didn’t take this well. For me it’s just a flag, especially as a German; I don’t have a lot of sentimentality for flags. Yet, if you’re coming from a warzone, the flag makes all the difference for you and makes all the difference in a video like this; so I definitely have to take cultural sensitivity into account.

What do you hope to achieve through the videos?

For us, when we see people from Turkey or Colombia or the UK enjoying the video and learning something from it, we get satisfaction from that; but me personally, it’s about getting a conversation going with different points of view. In Germany, we have a culture of being ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ refugee with no middle ground anymore. You have to unconditionally support or hate refugees, which is a big sign of things going wrong when you have to pick sides like that. We try to connect with people and discuss this issues within the issue.

We have a very right-wing party in German government that has become bigger during local elections. One politician actually said they learnt from our videos; so it motivates us to see that people are learning more about the refugees and the issue and no longer seeing it as “refugees are here taking our money”. I feel like we’ve achieved something even if we have even one person like this change their perception.

You’re using social media, but do you feel traditional media is being misleading in the conversation?

It depends on which media outlet you are following. If you’re talking about mainstream media which is what people mostly watch- I feel it has been mostly misleading. I also feel we’re at a point where there is too much media coverage. People get tired of everyday news coverage being about refugees

which is making people angry. To them, it seems like all of life is about refugees, even though it isn’t; and then feel that other issues important to them are being neglected.

There are people living in parts of Germany who are in much neglected areas, and they’re going to feel angry when there’s all this attention on new refugees and not them after many years of their area going downhill whilst seeing refugees getting benefits.

This leads to rumours and false facts that spread through media and people.

Someone the other day said that the refugees were getting 3000 Euros per week- which is ridiculous; but that’s how rumours spread and run and play an impact. The media has definitely played their share in making the issue escalate.

How much responsibility do you feel you have to being politically correct?

I feel I don’t have much responsibility to how I represent the issue because I couldn’t make it worse. Anything we do to try and improve issues all over the world and make the world better is a good thing. If we’re talking about responsibility in terms of what we are saying, I don’t think we can do wrong. On the other side, we do have responsibility to make a good video, but in full honesty, I sit at the end of an edit and think “will anybody actually find this funny?” You don’t have the same clarity that you had at the beginning of the edit. Then when you get feedback you are motivated to keep going. Responsibility-wise, I feel pretty free.

I’m trying to think if we have offended anyone by being politically incorrect other than the Syrian flag incident. I don’t care if we are politically incorrect as long as we’re not offending anybody. I think if your intentions are good, you can jump over the political correctness fence once in a while. You always have to find a middle ground between being funny and being correct. If you’re just putting something that’s completely correct, it won’t be funny to anyone. It will just be a list of how things are.

What about a name like ‘Project Third World’?

When we had our first discussion, I remember looking into your organisation and I didn’t

have any issue with the name. In Germany we say “putting people into draws”. Sometimes labelling something can give people a better understanding of what it actually is about and can be quite helpful. In this day and age, with all the issues going around, we need to pick our fights. I don’t think everyone can be concerned with every single issue in the world.

Labelling it as Project Third World is actually helpful. You could have labelled it as something much more offensive. ‘Third World’ is a term coined for a long time and people know what to expect; so it’s fine with me. Many people around the world haven’t heard the terms that are considered politically correct by today’s standard. Honestly, calling it “Underdeveloped Nations Project” is not very catchy nor effective.

Cristian cristian zamora

Cristian Zamora is a creative producer for Filmbit Filmproduktion.

Originally from Chile, he has been living in Germany for the past 5 years and is a key part of the Zukar team.

How does a production like Zukar come together given all 4 of you have very different areas of expertise and backgrounds?

The biggest part is Jans- he’s the main brain behind everything.

He creates the jokes, the direction and also teaches. He’s a genius. He thinks really fast; sometimes too fast for me. He taught Firas to speak proper German. He has everything under control. I then take care of technical aspects such as sound and lighting and camera work.

Why do you think Zukar is so popular even though none of the members care much about political correctness?

At the end, we’re just talking about what is happening here where we live. There are people reacting pretty badly to the issues around racism and refugees. When they see our videos, they love what they see and learn from it too; and so it’s not wrong what we do. In Germany, you have to be politically correct ultimately. In what we do, it’s a stretch, but we might be indirectly offending people through our humour; but the way we do it makes the conversation inviting for everybody.

Why do you think Zukar became so successful given there are so many others trying to do similar social media campaigns?

Zukar is a success just because of one thing: we made one video at the right time, with the right topic, in the right way.

We used real refugees with real problems, exposing issues that really affected people in a real emotional way.

Why has social media been so effective for these social issues compared to traditional mediums?

Since the introduction of social media, people aren’t watching TV as much. TV is becoming boring and long. People won’t watch anything for longer than 3 minutes- so here comes YouTube. With Youtube you can put up a small 3 minute video and say whatever you want and do whatever you want for free. With TV, you are controlled by the government or a private company and under their control about what you can say and what you can support.

Social media allows people to say whatever they want including hate-speech; what do you think about social media’s ability to allow this?

I believe that everyone is free to think whatever they want to think and say whatever they want to say; but the only thing is you have to be very conscious and very responsible about what you’re thinking and saying. Everyone has the right to say or think what they want on social media but should be conscious of others too.

If you are causing damage through freedom of speech, you should have to apologise and have regret for what you said- but that’s just if you’re causing damage.

Then what about Third World’?

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I come from the Third World- Chile. I’ve been living here in Germany for 5 years now. For me it was a big culture shock because we act and think differently; but we get used to our new home and I feel I’ve become ‘Germanised’. When people say I come from Chile, they say “Awesome! Chile is awesome! So you speak Portuguese?” Germans think being Chilean is cool but perhaps don’t understand Chile- I have to tell them that Brazilians speak Portuguese, we speak Spanish.

I don’t think your name is offensive to me at all. I said to you, I come from the Third World- it’s okay. I come from Chile, but I’m not proud to be Chilean- I am proud to be Latin American or South American. I feel proud to come from the Third World. It’s not offensive to us.

I think the name is offensive to European people who gave that name to countries like ours before.

The name is not an issue of your organisation or the people working in your organisation. It’s an issue about European people who really don’t like words that really emphasis the issue or are associated with the issue.

In Spain, they call the South American people ‘Sudaca’. Sudaca is a very bad word to say to someoneit is supposed to be derogatory. It’s saying “you come from the Third World” with a lot of hatred and stigma aimed at that person. Yet, I use it on myself. For example, when I introduced myself to a friend, she asked me where I come from. I said “Sudaca”. It’s not a bad word to me. It’s a big issue for European people.

They’re really afraid of these words and trying not to insult anybody.

A lot of it is to do with who is using the word and what their intentions are. If someone came up to me and just called me ‘Sudaca’ I’d probably hit them.

I wouldn’t accept it; but if I was in South America and someone asked ‘Am I Sudaca?’ I’d respond yes without thinking twice. If someone from outside my background used the word in a friendly way, I might accept it, but it’s more likely to be an offensive way from others. When it’s my close friends, such as my Italian friends, they joke and call me ‘Sudaca’ and that’s fine for me because I know that they are my friends and they mean well. It’s not an issue with the word itself. It’s an issue of the intention and understanding behind the word, and how you feel yourself when someone calls you ‘Sudaca’.

Whether people are using it in a friendly manner, or an offensive manner, how you respond to the word and see the word is what is going to count at the end of the day- how you perceive the word.

For me it’s okay. Someone can say it aggressively and I could respond by laughing in their face and just say “yes, you’re right”.

I could even be very aggressive and start calling them a Nazi.

It’s about how we respond to the words of others. We can take them, accept them and even bounce them.

Ultimately it’s about yourself. It’s about how comfortable you are with yourself, no matter who you are where you are or with whom you are talking to. You could talk with a rich person, the president or the poorest person in Chile; why should the different types of people affect me differently? So ultimately, it’s about me. ■

Prashneel Goundar

Lecturer of Language & Literature, Fiji National University, Fiji

THE ART OF TEACHING

It is paramount for anyone entering the field of teaching whether as a volunteer, or paid part time or full time basis to know what drives this profession.

Teaching is considered a noble profession.

I would consider it an art form and talent to successfully deliver content as well as facilitate some actual learning in a classroom.

A common trends among volunteer teaching globally is to utilize individuals who have not had any formal qualification in teaching or received any teacher training.

Even though volunteer teachers reduce the workload of an institute and save resources as well as finances, it could be a detrimental issue of concern when the volunteer teachers contributes adversely to the learning environment.

So is responsible teaching only for qualified teachers? Or could it be extended to nonprofessionals as well? Not long ago, I managed international volunteers, or volunteer tourists who had little to no teaching experience and their education level was of university-entrance level or gap

year students with high school certificates.

Volunteer tourists come from all over the world and places that are considered to have the highest standards of education: Germany, France, England, America, China, Netherlands, and Norway just to name a few. As part of their volunteer service, these individuals had to teach any class which needed their help. On many occasions they were put in classes without any supervision which evidently proved extremely challenging for a number of inexperienced volunteer teachers.

A particular incident occurred when the schools were closed for annual holiday but there were alternative extra-curricular classes organised during the break for children who showed interest in attending. However, it so happened that there were more volunteers than students with a ratio of 13:16 students to volunteers; leaving everyone in a pickle!

Teaching comes with great responsibility and genuine passion; the ability to conceptualise then to actually deliver is a powerful yet rewarding task and that is what makes teaching a noble profession.

To handle the situation, I discussed with the volunteers which subject area was of interest to them, then I put the volunteers either in pairs or groups of three. Their task was to prepare for that particular subject each day and have a lesson of 30 minutes with the students. Whilst the pair or groups were conducting the class, the rest of the volunteers were left to assist the slow learners or supervise the class. This worked out well for them and each afternoon our office would be filled with volunteers searching for their subject materials as well as giving feedback on how satisfied they were with the classes.

In the end, the students were benefiting from the content that was being delivered as extracurricular learning and the volunteers also gained experience from this exposure.

It is paramount for anyone entering the field of teaching whether as a volunteer, or paid part time or full time basis to know what drives this profession. Three things make a great teacher much like many other professions:

Firstly passion for teaching

If one has passion, motivation and patience the objectives of a lesson conveyed to the students will be easier met. Often teachers become irresponsible when they neglect their duties of facilitating a class. It is not a “talk only profession” or lecture where one stands in front of the class and speaks without pauses and any interaction with the students.

Nor is it about the teacher simply delivering the content without consideration for how it is being received. This scenario is created when a teacher rushes through the lessons, is unprepared to teach or not motivated to carry out the lesson or invested in the learning outcomes of the children. When this occurs, one is bound to find bored students in the class who then tend to make jokes about the teacher after the lesson! In teaching, giving counts when it is received properly.

To avoid being an irresponsible teacher there are many useful steps that can be incorporated before, during and after the lesson to make learning exciting. It’s essential to make the lesson a student oriented lesson more than a teacher oriented one. This can be achieved by analyzing the weaknesses of the students. For example, if students are weak in grammar then it would be better to prepare a lesson on part of speech or tenses rather than forcefully teaching them expository writing just because it seems easier to teach!

the students which eventually improves the discipline of the class. Each morning, the teacher can pick three to four students and have a one-to-one conversation, find out their names, what they enjoy doing after school or on the weekends, favourite singers and much more. This instills confidence in the students that the teacher is aware of their likes and dislikes and therefore, will be more attentive when the lesson is conducted.

Another form of freedom here would mean decorating the classroom and personalizing it to add more liveliness to the environment.

Imagine walking into a class with only white paints on the four walls as compared to one which is full of bright colours, has famous inspirational quotations, photographs. Which classroom one would like to study in? Simple activities such as this are a safe way to include basic elements of teaching in a way that many unqualified teachers can have longterm impacts on their students, especially when volunteer tourists often leave and seldom return.

Teaching comes with great responsibility and genuine passion; the ability to conceptualise then to actually deliver is a powerful yet rewarding task and that is what makes teaching a noble profession. When a student walks up and expresses gratitude that they have learnt something new, it becomes a moment which Instead of going on the internet and just all teachers cherish more in life than receiving downloading a prepared lesson and delivering presents from students! it to the class, it would be more beneficial for Finally, a crucial requirement of teaching is to the students if the teacher actually talked to accept criticism. Students often give feedback them to gauge their interest and then make of which lessons they liked, enjoyed or found observations on the elements which would be boring. It becomes the duty of the teacher to needed to enhance the student’s knowledge take criticism in a positive manner to upgrade in the subject. his/her teaching which ensures that the class Volunteer teaching also means a lot of freedom benefits from the instructor. Thus, let the art as seldom anyone supervises the teacher. of responsible teaching touch every volunteer However, this freedom bestowed upon the teacher or even professional teacher in every teachers need to be utilized appropriately. lesson learnt! ■ Freedom in teaching could be used in knowing

Stress Less With H We have all experienced the overwhelming feeling and collection of responses known as “stress” at some point in our lives. The National Institute of Mental Health defines stress as “the brain’s response to any demand.”

This seems like a vague description, but it is purposefully so, as the term manifests in multiple ways. At the most basic biological level, stress can actually be very useful. Animals including humans have what is known as a “fight-or-flight” response in situations where the brain detects possible danger. You can see PTW Magazine in February this year to see the physiology of the fight-or-flight mode.

Generally, once a danger or perceived danger has passed, bodily functions return to normal.

Stress can be separated into two major categories: eustress and distress. Eustress is the helpful kind of temporary stress, often enjoyed and seen as a motivator. An upcoming deadline, or anticipation of the arrival of a loved one could be seen as eustress. The body will have that “excited” response, but a continuous negative feeling does not occur.

Alyssa Bolter

Distress is when the stress response becomes overwhelming or lasts longer than what is beneficial to the body, and is usually the type of stress that comes to mind when mentioning the word. Distress is often brought on by major life events such as losing a job, a bad illness, death of a loved one, a traumatic near-death experience, or routine daily pressures that pile up unresolved.

The American Psychological Association suggests that chronic distress can affect your immune system and leave people at higher risk of contracting an infection. Furthermore, digestive, excretive, and reproductive functions may also be affected due to the hormonal imbalance that occur in a state of distress.

There have been reports of those experiencing chronic stress also lacking appetite, abdominal cramping, headaches, missed menses, lowered libido, feelings of numbness, anger, fear, crying, and lack of control. While these are common, everyone’s body is different in how it responds to stress.

Physician Assistant Student, Rosalind Franklin University, America

Mental healt be afraid to problem. A l

www.suic

Help

th is no less important to physical health and you should not seek medical help in the same manner as any other health list of international suicide hotlines can be found here:

cide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html

If you are experiencing high amounts of stress, it is important to address the problem or problems associated with the stress. Left untreated or unresolved, stress can lead to serious health risks.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends healthy methods of stress release such as exercising regularly, talking through your stress with someone you trust, and taking a break from the triggers of your stress by finding positive and constructive distractions. It is also important to have a well-balanced diet and aim to sleep well. â–

If you are experiencing severe stress and need immediate help, please look up the number for an emergency mental health hotline in your country.

Nishola Rawatlal

Clinical Psychologist & Lecturer, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Children’s rights include the basic rights that every human should be born with that no one should take away. It is about treating children with respect and dignity. Children’s rights require an understanding of a child’s current circumstances from a global perspective and recognising the unique contexts within which they develop. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a significant universal prescription stipulating the rights of children which was ratified by many countries.

Implementing the UNCRC universally is difficult owing to the unique circumstances that children in different countries live in. For example, in Africa, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990) incorporates factors such as socio-economic aspects, culture and traditions, exploitation and poverty and hunger when stipulating the rights of the child specific to the struggles which African

children face, including child soldiers engaging in armed conflict. In such contexts, the implementation of children’s rights as prescribed by the UNCRC is difficult, but nevertheless upholding children’s rights is a global responsibility.

even dangerous behaviour.

The amygdala, the part of the brain that is responsible for instinctual reactions like fear and aggression develops early. In contrast, the frontal cortex, which controls executive functioning like reasoning, abstract thought processes, emotion regulation and controlling impulsive behaviours is still developing during adolescence and continues to so into adulthood.

With rights comes responsibility, and youth are expected by society to exercise their rights responsibly. This is based on their decisions and how they Research suggests that the come to make those decisions. frontal lobe is responsible for Neurological science explains how brain development is related to important processes like decision making. Adults and adolescents differ in terms of behaviour, problem solving and decision making because the brain is still developing and maturing during childhood and adolescence. Since the brain is still developing, the adolescent period is associated with irrational, impulsive and

processes of deciding right from wrong and understanding cause and effect relationships.

Less frontal lobe activity is linked to poor ability to control emotions and behaviours.

Since the frontal cortex is still under construction during adolescence their brain will function differently from that of an adult with regard to making decisions and problem solving.

During adolescence, decision making and problem solving tasks are guided more by the amygdala and less by the frontal cortex. Adolescents are more likely to present with high levels of emotional arousal and dysregulation, and reactionary decisionmaking.

Therefore, teenagers often act impulsively, are unable to self-regulate emotionally, misinterpret social cues, and are likely to engage in risky and dangerous behaviours.

They usually are less likely to be able to think before they react, consider the

consequences of their actions accountable for their choices and modify problematic and and actions. inappropriate behaviours.

However, given the evidence Even though the adolescent suggested by neurological brain is still maturing, it research: is it then in the does not mean that young best interests of the child people cannot decipher to give them more rights right from wrong or that with regards to making they will always make choices and decisions that irrational decisions. It just affect their futures without means that teenagers are adult input? not yet fully equipped to Acting responsibly while think things through the exercising rights is also related same way an adult does and to the moral development of therefore need guidance and children. The development supervision, particularly of morality encompasses in terms of regulating making decisions based on emotional responses and what is right and wrong and rational decision making acting in respect for rules processes. So, adolescents and justice; thereby acting then can also still be held socially responsible.

With rights comes responsibility, and youth are expected by society to exercise their rights responsibly. This is based on their decisions and how they come to make those decisions.

There are many psychological theories that explain how children develop their moral judgement. Two influential contributors to the field are Piaget and Kolberg. Piaget took a cognitive approach to explaining moral development in children and

focused on how children understood and thought about their environments and how that thinking influenced their behaviours. Piaget maintained that as children get older their ideas about rules and moral judgements change.

According to

Piaget, young children (up to age 9-10) conform because breaking rules and laws will lead to punishment.

They judge naughty behaviours according to the severity of the consequence or punishment and not in terms of intentions.

Desicions about right and wrong are determined by associated personal consequences, as well as motives, reward or punishment At this stage, Piaget suggested that children conform to rules that adults impose on them and thus morality develops out of being subject to another’s rules.

This is how they make decisions at this stage. Piaget argued that from around the age of 9- 10 years children’s perception of what morality is undergoes fundamental changes.

They now understand that morality is based on motives and intentions and not on consequences or punishment. Older children understand that malicious, ill-intentioned behaviour that had no harmful outcome was much worse than a well- intentioned act that turned out badly.

They can recognise that lying is a betrayal of trust but that not all lies are the same.

For example, a white lie to protect someone’s feelings is not the same as lying with the intent to deceive. They recognise flexibility in rules and can see moral rules as having different perspectives/ points of view. They can now take other peoples points of view and consequences into account when making decisions. Children’s ideas about the flexible nature of rules, moral responsibility and

becomes more like that of adults.

Therefore they are able to consider many different possibilities and consequences when making decisions.

Expanding on Piagets ideas, Kolbergs postulated the stage theory of moral development which has widely influenced research within this area. Kolberg proposed that the development of moral reasoning occurred sequentially in three levels: During the pre-conventional level the child’s behaviours are guided by avoidance of punishment and satisfaction of their own interests. Moral judgements are guided by doing the right thing in order to avoid punishment and obey authority. Moral choices are based on rewards- children will conform to a rule if it is in their best interests. What is right is based on what feels good for the self despite others.

Decisions about right and wrong are determined by associated personal reward or punishment.

The conventional level shifts the child’s thinking from egocentric to focussing on pleasing family and friends while developing their own internalised idea of what it means to be a good human being.

Moral decisions are based on the laws of society which at this level, is considered inflexible.

Children’s reasoning is focussed on being perceived as good rather than bad. Trust, caring, and loyalty is what moral judgements are based on at this level.

At the post- conventional level moral judgements are based on the ability to think abstractly about rules that govern society and rules are understood to be relative. Kolberg argued that not everyone attains this level of moral development; however, does the ability to make moral decisions necessarily lead to behaving

morally and respectfully?

In social structure, adolescents are not yet adults and left out of informing decisions especially with regard to their own welfare. For example, in many if not all countries youth do not hold political power in that they cannot vote until they are 18 years old. However it is argued that children and adolescents should have the right to participate in conversation, and decisions that affect them directly, even political discussions. In a large study conducted in Europe, teenagers between the ages of 15-17 discussed what it meant to be a child and the obstacles they faced exercising their rights.

One of the key freedoms identified by participants in this study was freedom of speech.

They highlighted wanting to be active participants in decision making which directly affected

their lives, from educational choices to voting rights.

The participants expressed that restrictions on what they are not allowed to do, such as not being allowed to drive and not being allowed to work, which they found annoying. The right to play, to choose which parent to live with if they divorce, protection from ponography/ molestation/ prostitution, to make mistakes, not to be punished and the right to freedom of information and to be listened to, were some of the rights children suggested would improve their lives (European Union, 2011).

Adolescence is a tumultuous period of transition because of the physical, psychological, social and emotional changes. While they strive for independence and individuation, adolescents still need support and supervision from their parents.

The parent-adolescent relationship becomes conflicted because the rights and responsibilities of the adolescent must be negotiated while the parent still exercises their rights and responsibilities for the child.

It can be argued that giving adolescents more freedom, more choices and more rights can equip them with the necessary skills to live independently.

However, identifying what kinds of freedoms and liberties should be given in order for it to benefit them in their futures bears consideration.

What is universal is that parents are responsible for their children. A child’s rights need to be limited but as they grow older their rights needs to increases through earning it. Earning more freedom requires trust, honesty and making smarter choices from

(MDD) according to the WHO. Despite the Yet, adolescents regularly consequences, teenagers still make bad choices when it engage in illegal alcohol use. comes to many important decisions in life. For instance, Therefore, giving adolescents a worldwide major concern more rights requires that is the use of alcohol amongst they earn it but with more youth according to the World rights also comes more responsibilities.

Giving Health Organisation. children more rights can Many adolescents make have both a positive and impulsive decisions regarding a detrimental effect and alcohol use and initiate use remains a contentious issue.

Finding a balance between by the age of 12. increasing children’s rights Youth who use alcohol ignore and responsibilities as they the very serious short and long get older while still providing term consequences associated adequate guidance and with underage drinking such support throughout their as: risky sexual behaviours development would be ideal. (which can lead to contracting An awareness and sexually transmitted diseases understanding of how including HIV infection), children make decisions aggressive behaviours, can help parents, teachers, physical and sexual assault, advocates and policy makers illicit drug use, tobacco use, anticipate and manage the poor academic performance, behaviors of children and and mental illness such as adolescents. ■Major Depressive Disorder the part of the adolescent.

Note from the Art Director

Benjamin Bugeja This edition is only made possible by our talented and dedicated team of Graphic Designers I would like to personally welcome to the team, well, they are the team...

Sarah TaylorAnd Franky Dmaria