Final Presentation: Conclusion (Pt. 2)

Use of Technology: My computer was my best friend throughout this process. Researching ALL of my information for my paper, evaluating every source I came across to determine whether it was valid and reliable to include on my paper. Blogging every time I learned something new, and including pictures as well. Engaging in an online course, which I had never done before, and learning to answer questions about readings and videos related to global poverty. 

Growth: This course challenged me in a way that no other courses did. First of all, it was on my own, mainly. I was required to figure nearly everything out for myself, research myself, find my own information, write my own paper, and determine my own success with little guidance. Secondly, it forced me to think in a much different way. It wasn’t like AP Lang where I have to memorize vocabulary words and their definitions in order to succeed on a quiz in class next time, I had to think. I had to critically think, create, determine, develop, fail, try again, and persevere through many different tasks throughout this journey. It was different than a reiteration of facts, it was deep critical reflection, and it was absolutely necessary in order to develop a successful paper about solutions to hunger and corrupt government in Sudan. 

Future: This experience has impacted my future in plenty of ways. It prepared me more for college where I’ll have much less guidance on assignments, and I will have to rely more heavily on myself and my ability to research and find information for myself. The assignments will also be much more difficult, and require much more in depth thought and contemplation. It also opened my eyes to many things globally (mainly issues) that I was completely unaware of before. 

Quick Reflection: Technology was very important to my success on this paper. ALL of the work don't to create my paper, research my paper, type and develop and edit my paper were done on my computer. Growth was displayed through my ability to work on my own. To research and do everything by myself with very little guidance. I was self-reliant and it was no one else responsibility but my own to become successful throughout this course. I also had to DEEPLY think. Not just reiterate facts. That was much different and much more difficult. I had to reflect and develop and work very hard to write a successful paper. My future was impacted because of the new found knowledge and eye-opening experiences throughout the course, and through preparing me to think more critically and work more on my own in college. 

Final Presentation: Conclusion (Pt. 1)

Research Skills: Throughout this project, I was forced to do an abundant amount of research. Not only did I have to find information, I had to organize the information into categories within my paper, determine which information was useful for which section of my paper, which was relevant and reliable, and I had to cite them properly. Because the paper was factual and professional, I had to research properly and carefully to make sure that everything I included in the paper was accurate. 

Creative Thinking: Creative thinking was a skill that I exhibited through my solution for my government in Sudan. Instead of focusing on the federal government (which everyone seemed to attempt - unsuccessfully) I brainstormed for a while, and developed a solution I hadn’t even heard of before. Going local, and starting smaller rather than focusing on the federal government.

Critical thinking and logical problem solving skills: This skill was easily developed for me throughout this journey. I was working to solve a VERY large problem! Hunger and corrupt government in one of the worst off countries in the world. The accuracy required by the paper forced me to take everything into account when attempting to problem solve. It forced me to predict what would happen if a certain solution were to go into place, to infer how it would change the lives of the Sudanese people if certain things were to be changed in certain ways. It forced me to adjust MANY decisions when I deemed one solution unsuccessful. 

Communication Skills: My presentation, speech, and discussion skills were obviously put to use at the World Food Prize event in Ames. I had to not only present my entire paper in three short minutes, I then had to discuss it with professionals and discuss other students’ papers as well. These open ended discussions with professionals AND students/scholars my age easily improved my communication skills.

Quick Reflection: Research skills were primarily gained through the use of online research in the EdX class and other findings about my topic. Critical thinking was used to determine a solution different than every other solution, to attack the federal government. Critical thinking and logical problem solving skills were used to take everything into account when determining solutions. To predict the outcome if certain solutions were implemented, and to under how it would alter the lives of the Sudanese people if specific events were to occur. It forced me to adjust many times along the way. Communication skills were heavily strengthened at the Round Table discussion at Iowa State.

Final Presentation: Research Outcome (Pt. 2)

Proposed Solution: My proposed solution is to look past the federal government which has had so much money thrown at it with no advancements made, and focus on the local governments. My plan is to focus on the three most suffering areas of Sudan and to implement or improve existing small scale governments in those areas. Legal and regulatory framework, budget, financial plans, laws, etc. U.S. or outside assistance from U.S. allies in Africa such as Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria is necessary to implement these government systems, and to ensure that they function correctly and everyone is benefitting properly. If this is successful, the harsh lives or many Sudanese people living in the three worst areas of Sudan would be improved. It would lead to the second half of my solution, tackling food security. If the governments were to be successful, and in turn begin to generate profit from a small economy based around market and agriculture, subsistence farming improvements could be made. Water pumps on individual farms, livestock vaccinations, water harvesting (done through the use of chisel ploughs), and educating farmers on how to best gain the highest yield with what they’re given. In the future even GMO’s.

How to implement them? I see foreign aid as completely necessary. Sudan doesn’t have the funds, the incentive, man power, or knowledge to implement these solutions themselves. Help from the U.S., America’s closer allies in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and the UN are the most probable. The U.S. or its allies could assist with making decisions as to the framework of the governments. They could then provide funds and man power to implement them. They could also provide funding and man power to continuously be sure that the governments are successfully benefitting everyone properly. As far as food security, there are organizations such as The Water Project, and Water for Sudan which could all potentially assist in providing water to make farming easier. The IFDC is a corporation that could potentially assist with educating farmers.

Online Class: The online class titled “Challenges of Global Poverty” was very relatable to the topic of my paper. The big picture finding as I did research (both for the online course and for my paper itself) is that it’s very difficult. It’s very difficult, because of the insane amount of aspects that funnel into poverty. The government is effected by so many other things and has the power to change so many things. Health care, birth control, education, sanitization, insurance, risk, fertility, supply and demand, and so much more. SO many aspects factor into the success of defeating poverty as a whole. This class examined many of those ways, and it related to the plethora of things that are wrong with Sudan and need to be fixed there as well. There are way too many to tackle at once, but they’re in such bad condition that a lot of people are dying. Obviously, something needs to change.

Quick Reflection: My proposed solution and implementation strategies were taken almost directly from my paper. I only had to shorten them up so that they could be discussed in a timely manner on the day of my presentation. The online class and how it related could have been much longer as well, however for the sake of time its shortened. The main take away from that for me was how many issues were involved and created global poverty. That is the main way I was able to see the relation between global poverty, Sudan/my paper, and the class. It relates perfectly to my thesis statement as well.

Final Presentation: Research Outcomes (Pt. 1)

Problems: Food Security: Millions of displaced Sudanese people from the war between the North and the South leads to overpopulated refugee camps where a bunch of people starve. The very high majority practices subsistence farming to feed themselves and their family. The dry, drought-prone climate, lack of equipment and technology, lack of knowledge on how to successfully farm, and unpredictability of rainfall make harvest extremely difficult. Livestock often have diseases that either transport to the people or kill the livestock before they can be used to their full potential. Government: The staff is poorly paid and poorly trained. Bribes are often paid to authorities without consequence. There is no information about funds, or anything given to the public by the government. Over 2.3 billion in public funds have been embezzled.

Past Solutions: The United States and the United Nations have both attempted to help (not directly fix the government in Sudan), or entirely food security either, rather to provide relief. The U.S. has given billions of dollars to the federal government of Sudan in hope that it uses that money to provide for its people and make sure they aren’t starving and dying. This only results in the selfish and corrupt Sudanese politicians embezzling the funds. The whereabouts of billions of dollars given to the Sudanese government is still unknown.

Quick Reflection: There are so many issues that are outlined in my paper dealing with food security AND government in Sudan. I picked the majority of them, if not all of them. For government I left a few out because there were so many. I picked the ones that I saw as the most impactful. I also shortened them and summed them up because I am limited to the amount of time I'm aloud to speak on them, and this isn't even the important part of my presentation. The past solutions were difficult, because there hardly were any. Nothing had been solved, therefore no solutions. A few small scale efforts to strictly receive the lives of the Sudanese had occurred, but absolutely nothing like my solutions where they are an attempt to wholly solve the issue, rather than temporarily relieve the suffering in Sudan. 

Final Presentation: Project Experience

Why? When I was told that I had to write a paper concerning world hunger, of course, my mind went “Well, what countries are the hungriest?” Sudan was near the top of the list. We also got to choose from a very long list of “factors”. Government stuck out to me as the factor that I wanted to choose because I am very interested in government. I want to pursue legal and political studies in my higher education, so I saw no other option other than government as my “factor”

Background knowledge/skills: The background knowledge that I had about Sudan’s food security and government situation was little to none. However, I possess fair writing skills/abilities that were very useful throughout.

Research Processes: The research was done a multitude of ways. Online libraries, encyclopedias, documents, readings, and statistical findings were the main way that information was found. For the Challenges of Global Poverty class, the research was done on the EdX, MIT online coursework in readings and videos.

Quick Reflection: The why aspect was very simple, and very truthful as I enjoy learning about legal and political issues. Also, Sudan made for a great case study because it was suffering so largely in both food security and governmental issues. The background knowledge about the government/food security situation in Sudan was absolutely zero. However, I do enjoy English class and possess a fair amount of writing skills. The research was almost all completed online using the preceding ways.

Final Presentation: Introduction

Intro:
Max Maharry
Topic - Global Poverty and World Hunger
Thesis: Global Poverty is an extremely large, complicated,

and convoluted issue. There are numerous troubling and difficult factors that combine to create global poverty. One thing is clear, however, and that is that it needs to be attended to immediately.

Quick Reflection: The thesis statement was definitely difficult to come up with. So many topics and ideas were covered and tackled throughout this entire process, that summing it ALL up into one sentence seemed impossible. However, I think to mention the convolution, complication, and numerous difficult factors involves allows for discussion to be furthered throughout my powerpoint about my experiences this semester.

Risk and Insurance II

What I learned: The discussion begins by talking about risks again. It discusses risks that the majority of famers have (since they have a lot and they dominate the majority of populations in less developed countries). It talks about how to reduce these risks, specifically for farmers. Farm several pieces of land that are far away from each other, from then select crops that may be more successful since the proximity isn't so great. Giving up efficiency by attempting to specialize in more than one profession. This would limit the amount of risk because then if something were to demean the farming effort, an individual would have a plan to fall back on rather than letting the potential risk weigh one down os heavily in their farming effort. The discussion then shifts to the size of the risk and possibly reducing said risk. High interest rates lead to great difficulties as well. Examples of these risks and how potentially demeaning they can be are discussed through Nigeria and Thailand. There are different ways to deal with the risk, of course. That includes "village level", and increasing from there all the way up to federal level. There's also a moral hazard involved. The increasing of funds can be acquired a multitude of ways, but within these countries, religious and cultural aspects can hinder what individuals or even large populations are willing to do about the "risky" status of their economy. The context for community insurance is a difficult conversation for those in the less developed nations as well.

How it relates: Once again, this relates almost identically to the previous blog about "risk and insurance." The only difference is the idea that in order to continue to decrease risk by specializing in more than one profession. High interest rates, village through deferral level ways to deal with the risk, moral hazards, and the context in general for a suggested "community insurance." These are all things that could be taken into consideration when potentially implementing insurance to the people of Sudan through their strong localized governments.