|
Sample Student Comments Posted on Online Conference
Group Question #1: Ethical implications raised by the Tsunami
back to top
Each of our partners were asked to hold a group discussion on the question below and post summaries of the ideas expressed.
The South Asian Tsunami this past December has broad ethical implications.
If it is true that "charity begins at home", shouldn't a country, community, or individual take care of the pressing needs of one's own citizenry or family first before pledging hundred's, thousand's, million's, even hundreds of millions of dollars (or the equivalent in local currency) to the tsunami victims? Use the right vs. right paradigms to explain your answer, or make your case through the tests for right vs. wrong
From India
During our discussion on the first question, two opinions were voiced by the youth. The first opinion was that:
1. The problems faced by our country (India) are so vast and we are constantly short of money and other resources to solve them. We need to first concentrate on these problems and then look at the problems of others. Poverty, illiteracy, lack of health and education facilities, lack of civic amenities is so bad that people cannot fulfil their basic needs. Thus we should contribute for the problems in our community first.
2. The second opinion was that if we have the money we should contribute to the Tsunami victims too. However first we should contribute to the Tsunami victims in India. However we should not contribute money. We should assess the needs of the Tsunami victims and provide them with what they need the most. They need food, but throwing it from helicopters is a very inhuman way of doing it. Rather than that we should help them form community kitchens and provide them with groceries. We should not donate money because there is a chance that it is misused as corruption is so high.
Many people make donations only for publicity sake. Such people donate money, only for making a name. This should not be the case.
From Poland
We think that we have to help our community first. We know that money is very important in Asia but our community needs help too! I think that each Polish citizen has to help our country and then if they want they can help others.
I think that we should [also] help victims of this tragedy in Asia
If we give money for tsunami victims, it will be a short-term help. We will show mercy when we help them. It will be a kind of help from individuals so our self will be satisfied, and the truth is that we should help the victims.
If we help people in our community it will be a long-term help. We will help community because we are a part of it.
From South Africa
South Africans believe in the spirit of UBUNTU, meaning: I am because you are. We therefore have to take responsibility for our fellow brothers and sisters if we say that we are global citizens. However we do realise that some people only do good to be seen or acknowledge by the international community. We also believe that charity begins at home, hence an alarming number of South Africans are so confused, because they can see many streetchildren and poverty on their doorstep, yet we are blind locally.
From the USA
The Group from US discussed the topic of giving financial assistance to tsunami victims. Our students agree that charity begins at home, and many of us wonder how we can give so much to those abroad when so many of our fellow Americans are in need. Stevon and Cordeiro elaborated on the needs that many poor Americans still have. We talked about the need for housing and healthcare, and the crisis we might have with our social security benefits.
Some really interesting questions came up in our discussion. Is there a difference between private charitable giving and money given by our government? Some students feel more comfortable with the money that is given privately because it's given by choice. Gov't donations are given with American tax dollars, which Amber thought maybe should go to needy citizens first.
We asked the question- how do you decide who deserves our help most? how much help? who gets help first? Thomas thinks that poor nations, where there is a severe need, deserve our assistance all the time. He wonders why we'd be so willing to give to the Tsunami victims, but there's not the same commitment to helping end the AIDS crisis in parts of Africa. Other students suggested that the Tsunami was an unexpected, unavoidable emergency and that AIDs is more of an issue of education and prevention. Many students feel that we should give charity to children in need first, because of their dependence on others.
Finally, we asked- is there an ethical relevance in helping those who we know versus those who we've never met. Quinton pointed out that there is, and that's it's due to our emotions and not our reason or rationality. All humans are equally worthy of charity, but our emotional ties bond us to certain humans over others.
Group Question #2: The "winning" value of "respect"
back to top
There were many interesting ideas that emerged from looking at the results of the ethics survey given to the students participating in the dialogue. For example, "respect" was indicated to be the most important value by far to the students polled. Do you think this is partly due to your age or that adults of different ages in your communities would also consider this much more important than other values?
Trace the idea of "respect" through your own group's responses to the four case study dilemmas and questions. In what ways is this priority of "respect" reflected in your responses to these dilemmas? In what ways do your decisions reflect other important values?
The value of "tolerance" was also a choice on the survey. What does your group think is the difference between "tolerance" and "respect"? Why do you think "respect" received so many more votes (6X) than "tolerance."
From South Africa
South African kids feel that it's very important to show respect, so if you want to earn it, you have to give it yourself. We also believe that one ought to show respect in order to succeed career-wise, and to have good communication in your workplace. Nowadays in society some adolescents & teenagers seems to go in different directions. The reason for this is that adults want to be respected, but they don't do so in return.
Today in life one tends to think only of oneself, whereby (one) just doesn't think what it means for other people. We feel that one should always respect other people's feelings. Respect is a very major value in society; some people kill for it. We think the global society should see this as very important in order to build a better tomorrow for the next generation.
For us tolerance & respect go hand in hand, because you have to respect things in life in order to make the decision to tolerate. One can't always tolerate because there might be a situation where you don't like something but just because of toleration must respect other people's views & feelings about that particular activity....
From Poland
The difference between 'tolerance' and 'respect' is very big. We think that everyone should have tolerance for others, but that doesn't mean that we have respect for them. Tolerance doesn't include respect , respect includes tolerance. This is also a difference between these two qualities. If you respect someone you think that that person does good things. If you tolerate someone it doesn't have to say that you think that what he does is right, but you accept his actions…
From the USA
We think that people older than us still value respect as much as we do. Some of us think that elders might even value respect much more than teenagers do. Depending on what kind of family and culture we come from, elder adults in the US value respect by wanting us to call them "Ma'am" or dressing appropriately.
When we tried to define what respect really means, we ran into some problems. Tierra said that it's a universal value, but Jasmine pointed out that it might mean different things to different people in different age and culture groups. So what's the rule? Egypt said that people value respect because they want to get it, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're good at showing it toward others. Thomas thinks that respect comes out of a desire to be treated equal to others. Olamide says that teens want respect because it means that you're more popular than others. Babajide thinks that teens want to get the respect of their peers because being disrespected often amounts to being controlled by others. Teenagers don't want to be controlled….
From India
…In our culture we give respect to everything on earth. Every Indian irrespective of their age feels "respect" is an important value. However, if someone insults us we may get angry and feel that we do not respect that person.
Another opinion that came up strongly during the discussion was that, "we do not show respect to everyone". The elite class shows no respect toward the poor class, the high caste people do not show respect.
| 
