Culture Days

Sorry for posting this so late, but I was really reeeaaaally very busy this weekend. Soon the KGP will start and I have to admit that I'm already a bit nervous. For the KGP we had to choose five presentations to which we have listened to on our Culture Days that were carried out on Wednesday the 19th and Thursday the 20th of June. I have listened to several Irish and American presentations. However, some of the presentations were more interesting than others. I decided to choose the following five presentations for the Kommissionelle Gesamtprüfung:

Ireland: From emigration to immigration and how the country is dealing whit integration:

I have chosen this presentation as I am convinced that this topic is very important for the Irish culture. Ireland has been dealing with emigration and imigration for many years and I think that it was very interesting to hear how the country is dealing with integration. Furthermore, the presentation was easy to understand and I really enjoyed listening to the speaker.

How the world sees Bobby Sands:

This presentation was one of the best presentations I have ever seen. The speaker seemed to know exactly what she was talking about and she spoke very clearly. Moreover, I am extremely interested in Bobby Sand’s life and I think that the hunger strikes were also very important for the Irish culture.

Homophobic bullying in Irish schools:

I think that this presentation deals with a topic which is extremely importat. Nowadays bullying is present everywhere, not only in schools. For me it is absolutely necessary that we know how dangerous bullying can be and that’s why I decided to choose the presentation for the KGP.

Withcraft in Ireland:

I decided to choose Sabrina’s presentation, because I’ve always been interested in witchcraft and all these other “mystic“ things. I loved listening to her, because she managed to present her topic in a funny, but interesting way.

The Claddagh Ring:

My last presentation for the KGP is about the Claddagh Ring. I decided to choose this presentation, because it is a very  “Irish“ topic. I enjoyed listenting to Irina, especially when she told us about the different theories concerning the history of the ring.  

Globalization - Blessing or curse ?

 

 

Globalization is one of the world’s most important topics nowadays. Various products from different companies have spread all over the world; everywhere you are able to buy everything. Of course, we cannot deny that globalization has many advantages, as it is a real progress for our society. Nevertheless, only a few people know about the negative consequences, which are caused by this so-called globalization.

Multinationals became the new “leader” of our world and are now able to determine the prizes, either to lower them or to increase them. They can put the government under pressure, draw their profit out of exploitation and they are a danger for our environment, because they do not care about it. All in all it is to say that globalization made many people rich, but far more people poor. The richest 2 % of the world’s population possesses more than 50 % of the world’s fortune. Each year nearly 11 million children are dying before their 5^th birthday, as they do not get enough nutrition or medication to heal their illnesses.

Globalization means the networking all over the world in every area, as economy, politics, culture and communication. Actually this sounds very good, right? The Internet especially made our world to a “global village”. We are able to communicate with people all over the world, which is an incredible progress for everybody. However, this degenerated in my eyes: We buy tomatoes from the Netherlands, mangoes from Brazil and clothes, which were produced from children of the 3^rd world. All these facts are the reason, why globalization made the rich even richer. Multinationals have the ability to buy resources, where they are the cheapest, whereas a small farmer can sell his products only on local markets.

The worst thing is that those so-called “Global Players” fabricate their goods in countries, where production is very cheap. This often means that children have to work for them under disastrous conditions. In development countries there are about 218 million kids between five and 17 years, who are forced to hard work. Especially in Asia child labor is one of the main problems. Many children have long hours of work, are abusively treated by the employer and do not have any access to education. Of course, in countries all over the world countless laws and policies against the exploitation of children already exist, nevertheless there seems to be no chance to end child labor.

I have to admit that it was the first time I thoroughly acquainted myself with this topic and it is shocking for me to hear those facts. I cannot believe that there are so many children, who are tortured every day with this cruel and inhuman working conditions and I hope that it will become better one day. For my part, I will try not to support child labor and I will definitely inform my friends about it. Let’s try to think about how fortunate we are and let’s be a little bit more grateful! We should really appreciate to live in such a secure country, without extremely serious sorrows and fears!!