BRICS Summit - Conclusions

1.  What are three specific things you have learned from the other group members?

     After meeting with my group, I learned a lot about the other countries At first, I thought that the problem was only bad in my country since I only had information on my country, but when I met up with my group and the whole employment group, I found out that it actually happens in all the BRICS countries. The first thing I learned was about a project called “Mellor de Mim”which was focused in helping out parents raise their children correctly so they don’t end up working illegally. This project also helps parents by paying them some money per month. Meetings are also present in this organization. They invite many poor families to educate them and to help them sustain a family with the amount of money they have. To incentivize people to attend, they give away free goods for those who learn. What this company does is all in its name: The Best of Me. It brings out the best of people during the hardest times. The next thing I learned was about India. In India, employment issues are HUGE. The main issue there was the state of the actual jobs. They are unsafe and unhealthy. In addition, unemployment is a great issue. The unemployment rate is 9.8%! What India really needs to work on is more good quality jobs for the big percentage of unemployed. In China, my group member focused more on rural employment. China’s rural area is lacking jobs and too many people have to move to the city. This is an issue because if too many people go to the city, there will not be enough jobs for everyone. A project called UNDP has already started helping people living in the rural area get good jobs. However, an issue with that is that better skilled migrants also come to China and take the job opportunity from the less skilled. The fourth thing I learned was about South Africa, and this I found very interesting. Even though the apartheid has passed, racism is still present in South Africa, and surprisingly, affects employment A LOT. Most unemployed people in South Africa are black, which is a great problem. That means that if you are born black, than your job opportunities are low, just because of your appearance. There is a project working on this called Techno, which helps these black people stand against racism and end up with a good job. This is what I learned in my small group. The fifth thing I learned was in the whole employment group, in where we talked about all of our solutions to fix poverty. What I learned was that all of the BRICS countries have the same solutions to fix employment problems. All of the resolutions I saw where talking about improving the education of unemployed, bringing up the minimum wage, and making workplaces safe and healthy to work in. I was shocked that so many countries can have so much in common!  

2.  Look at clauses from different topics.  What do you think is the best clause that you have seen?  Copy and paste it here.  Explain why you think it is a good clause. 

Clause three of the following resolution

I think that this is the best clause I have seen so far because it really gets deeper and deeper into the sub clauses. It gives many examples of how this solution can happen, and that is what most resolutions lack but should show. In my opinion, resolutions are to show how, not why, and this is definitely showing me how eco-friendly changes can happen. I also like how the format of the resolution is clear and understandable. The language is very deep and specific, giving us every single details. There were many other resolutions like this one, but I chose this one because of the details. This clause really stands out to me because it gets into sub sub clauses, and it really shows me how eco-friendly changes can improve in the BRICS countries. 

3.  If you were Bill Gates, and could spend billions of dollars into one thing to solve extreme poverty, what would it be and why?

     I think I would start with education. I would start with education because it relates to every topic. In Employment, you have to be well – educated to get a well-paying job. Without education, the poor would not know what the right thing to do is and what the wrong thing is. Moreover, this is how it relates to health. If people where educated on how to stay healthy and what drugs are good and bad for you, most people under poverty will get into less health issues. They will know when and what to avoid certain objects. Especially in Russia, people will know how to stay warm. Then there is environment. Education relates to environment because of the pollution. If people are educated on what is good for the environment, then they will follow that and by doing so, it can help their health. All of the topics are like a chain, and the only way I believe we can break the chain is by educating people.