LEARN10 - New topics for Season 3

After ten exciting and exploring weeks we have come to an end of EVOKEs´ Season 2. Now it is up to us to suggest challenges and social problems to face for Season 3.

For the next episode the topics should include beneath Food and Agriculture, the unanticipated impacts of the global financial crisis especially in those countries who suffers most of it.
The global financial crisis has led to an economic crisis which in turn has led to a human rights crisis. A report of Amnesty International highlights the impact of this financial crisis on human rights. This videoillustrates the issue.

Another impact of this global crisis is the fact that poor countries has gotten even poorer through it. Luckily there are some strategies to try and address this global poverty, such as the UN Millennium Development Goals. But there are further solutions needed to solve those ongoing problems. Inequity and injustice caused by the impacts of the financial crisis are rising higher and higher in the emerging markets.Therefore it should be a central part of EVOKE´s next episode to find solutions to balance this inequity and help poor countries to get out of their misery.

Another point to face is the effect of biased trade regulations on poorer countries. Big, multinational companies are able to effectively challenge any country in which they operates at a WTO court. Countries are forced to comply by the threat of trade sanctions. As a result, government authority is weakened and corporations are empowered. In this videoLori Wallach, a US lawyer specialized on World Trade, talks about such a problem in Guatemala. Unfair trade rules definitely have a unanticipated impact of an equal treatment in trade. As a conclusion it should also appear in the next EVOKE season.

Another topic I would really like to see discussed in Season 3 is the impacts of foreign aid. It is often regarded as being too much, or wasted on corrupt recipient governments. There are so many forms of aid, from humanitarian emergency assistance, to food aid and military assistance. Development aid has long been recognized as crucial to help poor developing nations grow out of poverty. But is there also a bigger price to pay for those aided nations? Are they suffering more form it or does it help them solving their problems and developing their economy? (More information could be found at: http://www.globalissues.org/article/35/foreign-aid-development-assi...)
This should be considered in the next episode. And also which solutions could be created to solve those problems.

Last but not least I would admire a critical analysis about Political Protests. Predominantly Arabian cultures have risen recently against their tyrannizing and dictatorial governments. Lybia and Agypt has both fought pro-democracy rebellions and replaced their old governments. Other countries in the Middle East followed. The UK newspaper Guardian has visualized an interactive timeline of the so called Arab spring: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east...
But there still suppressed countries left. In EVOKES next episode this point should be should be considered and possible solutions for more Human Rights in such countries should be found.

To sum it up I would suggest to take the impacts of the Global Crisis, unfair Trade Regulations, Foreign Aid and Political Demonstrations into closer consideration.

The EVOKE network should try to build as much as possible communities all over the world. Maybe it could be also initiated as a school project in developing countries to offer young people another point of view on their problems and include them into the solution findings. Further some experts in those discussed topics should work in leader blogs to help with solution findings. It also should be allowed to anyone to participate in EVOKE. This would bring more attention to this project!
Local teams should be formed to work on group sites together to solve problems. For example if a University course group participates in EVOKE, they should be able to pair into groups and create shared information on a single site.

Finally I have to admit that I have learned so much new in the EVOKE community. As a business student I had another view of recent events. I had regarded many of them only by their costs and impacts on the economy but not by their effects on the society. I looking forward to came back for the next episode to discover more important facts about our world problems and help finding solutions against them!