LOBAL

Money Is a NeedDebt is Not a Want

PG .5

Stabilizing the Cost of Water

PG . 14

G QThe Search for Osama Bin Laden

PG . 10

HIDDEN DANGERS

The Truth about HandgunsPG . 11BY: HAIGHT

Table of Content

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23Places to travel During a RecessionC O N T E N T S

EARTH SHARE

Hidden Dangers

Money Is a Need

Increase the Price of Water

O F

A close look into a Texas non-profit

HIDDEN DANGERSPG .5

T A B L E

Global Q 2

Global Q 3

GEORGE ROWLAND is a LASA student, who lives in the Barton Hills neighborhood of Austin. His electives are German and Audio Video

Production. He was a student at Barton Hills Elementary for 7 years, and at Kealing Middle School for 2. He is

an avid studier of World War II, and he likes to draw, bike, swim, read, and watch TV. He wants to study history,

psychology, and/or architecture at the University of Texas at Austin.

DAVID NGUYEN is a LASA student, who lives in the 78758 district of Austin. He takes Mock Trial, PE, and Spanish at LASA. His

elementary school was Walnut Elementary, and his middle school was Murchison. His favorite hobbies are drawing,

soccer and football. His favorite style of food is Pad Thai. He hopes to study Psychology at the University of Phoenix

at Arizona.

Global Q is an initiative by three freshman students of LASA High School. Our goal is to give readers interesting information on current topics, relevant to

the community and world. We hope that readers will enjoy our publication and feel like they have learned something more about the world around them.

Our focus will be on subjects affecting the Austin area, as well as the country and world as a whole. We want to convey a sense of professionalism and

thoughtfulness in our articles, so that readers can trust us as a valuable source of informative news. Sadly, this will be the final edition of Global Q, but

we want to thank each reader for their invaluable support throughout the magazine’s history. Thank you.

-Alex Haight, David Nguyen, and George Rowland

ALEX HAIGHT is a LASA student, who lives in the Zilker neighborhood of Austin. At LASA he is enrolled in German and Audio

Video Production. He attended Barton Hills Elementary and Kealing Middle School. He enjoys biking, swimming,

running, soccer, drinking Monster, and playing numerous computer/video games. He intends to continue drinking

Monster and playing computer games.

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Dear Reader...

BIOGRAPHIES

Global Q 4

Earth Share Supporting Environmental Non-Profits in

‘Enemy’ TerritoryRowland

Certain non-profits and organizations have been claiming that there are many environ-mental issues that have serious negative effects on human health and jeopardize society’s welfare; Earth Share is one of these non-profits. But many people have not made the connection between the deterioration of the environment and health is-sues. It is Earth Share Texas’s job to educate these people and gain support for causes that support environmental preservation. Earth Shares opinion is that the main problems facing environmental causes in Texas are the lack of awareness, and a political stigma against supposed ‘liberal issues’, “Education is one of our big challenges...businesses may be biased, and don’t view environmental is-sues as direct health issues, they [businesses and citizens] haven’t made the connection that clean air, clean water relates to human health,” explains Edie Muehlberger, one of two directors of Earth Share Texas. Texas has long been a mostly conservative state, and environmental causes feel they have been po-liticized, now being associated with the left. Local Texas government has done little to address en-vironmental issues, and it is not given priority, as said by Muehlberger, “...people often want to keep their charity dollars af-fecting their local communities, and environmental

issues don’t always respect political boundaries in this way... two of the biggest red blocks are, they [Texas donors] want to support health and human services, and they want their dollars to stay in the community locally.”Edie Muehlberger has been the co-director of Earth Share Texas along with Max Woodfin, since it was founded by environmental non-profits in 1992.“We were founded in 1992, by our organizations, at that point nothing was being given in Texas, and our organizations wanted a vehicle for dona-tions. But I think we’ve raised more than ten million since that time, and before that it was zero,” says Muehlberger. Earth Share Texas was created by these organi-zations because they needed a middleman to col-lect donations and advertise their causes in Texas. Earth Share receives donations through ‘workplace giving’, in which an employee of any company which includes Earth Share in their donation pro-grams can allocate a certain percentage of their paycheck to the non-profit. In this way Earth Share can get support from the masses.“...we’re working towards people who can only af-ford to give like, three, four, ten dollars per pay-check, but want to be involved in philanthropy, so we’re working for the masses. That’s an important piece, allowing the population to participate,” ex-plains Muehlberger. Earth Share forwards the donations to its organiza-tions, in one of two methods, donor designated,

in which an individual’s contributions are sent to one specific organization, or people can “grant the money to Earth Share, and then we divide it equally among all our organizations, that’s one of the ways it’s kind of effective,” says Muehlberger. Earth Share can thus collect donations for environ-mental organizations involved in a wide range of causes, as well as organizations that might oth-erwise be excluded from public giving programs, “...businesses are very constrictive often in who they allow their employees to donate to,” adds Muehlberger.Many businesses in Texas have recognized Earth Share recently, and included the non-profit in their workplace giving’s. There are a wide variety of businesses involved, from small locally owned ones, such as Green Mountain Energy, to larger corpo-rations, including Dell, American Airlines, and the large energy company NRG. There is still a lot of progress for Earth Share to be made though, ac-cording to Muehlberger, “...there’s a lot more companies in Texas, so we haven’t even scratched the surface.” Earth Share has gained a lot of support, due to the fact that the government has approved of the non-profit and begun allowing state employees to do-nate, the source of much of Earth Shares donations.“Over a million a year, the state is our largest giv-ing campaign; we get about 350,000 a year through state employees, 100,000 from Federal campaigns, and about 50,000 from City of Austin employees.

Earth Share Supporting Environmental Non-Profits in

‘Enemy’ TerritoryRowland

customers can add a donation to Earth Share on their bill.In addition to collecting donations from public and private sectors, Earth Share promotes and advertis-es its recipient organizations to the general public, by means of its website as well as public speeches, gatherings and adds campaigns, as the organi-zations must promote Earth Share in turn. Earth Share is happy with its organization/middleman re-lationship, saying it’s effective and also ensures the non-profit regulates its finances responsibly.Muehlberger adds, “I think it’s a good point that our groups founded us, kind of that democratic, grass roots origins, our groups needed us, and we couldn’t do it alone. And donors like to know we’re not out there just to scrap up money and run off, but we’re managed by our organizations, and we’re held accountable by them.”

Earth Share receiving a donation from H-E-B. Photo courtesy of Gayle and Robin Stallings.

There’s other major cities we’re involved with, but not all of them, though more than a handful,” says Muehlberger.Earth Share has also been expanding, working to begin programs that allow the organization to re-ceive donations from other sources besides work-place giving, and has been negotiating with many prominent businesses in Texas.“We’ve also just negotiated a deal with Reliant En-ergy in Houston, who’s owned by NRG, last year for Earth Day, they offered us a kickback {monetary contribution} for a person who transfers almost all their energy usage to wind reliant energy,” says Muehlberger.In return for this deal, Earth Share will promote Reliant on its website, and receive money from the company whenever someone visits Relaxant’s web-site. Another corporate relationship of Earth Share’s is one with HEB, a tear pad program in which HEB

Special thanks to Edie Muehlberger, co-director of Earth Share Texas.

Global Q 5

Photo Credit-egypt.datahole.comThe people of Egypt rebelled against their president, Mubarak. Along with the revolu-tion in Tunisia, this led to the beginning of a series of events known as the “Arab Spring”.

Photo Credit: http://neyazh1001.wordpress.com/Japan’s eastern coast was devastated by a massive tsunami that struck in March.

Photo Credit: http://www.libyanpeople-needhelp.com/Libya is in turmoil due to a revolt of the people against their dictator, Gaddafi, leading to interven-tion by NATO war-planes.

Photo Credit: http://joequinn.net/2011/05/06/reconstructing-the-death-of-osama-bin-laden/osama-compound2/Osama was killed after his location was identified in Abottabad,Pakistan.

ICONIC SCENES OF

2011

Global Q 6

Global Q 7

By:Nguyen

YouTubeVideo Camera

Fame+

=As he awaits patiently in-front of his computer, the anxiety builds up. With each drop of sweat running down his face, wearing a hot sweatshirt did not help his sweat-fest. He finally decides to do it; he takes his sweaty hand and places it on the black computer mouse. Drowning the mouse in sweat and making it slippery. He moves the mouse and the cursor on the com-puter screen moves with his mouse. He clicks on a thumbnail of a video, with each move he feels more and more sweat running down his face. Fi-nally he saw 5,741 views and Derek Galban finally knew that rapping was his passion and all the sweat began to dissipate as he lays back in his old chair.

YouTube is a popular video sharing website that sweeps the nation with its easy to use interface, funny content and entertaining videos. Upload-ing videos is now a popular trend amongst every-one, especially teenagers. Everyday an average of 200,000 videos are uploaded, with each videos comes with thousands of comments. Derek Gal-ban, a junior at Conally High School, likes to rap but he never expected it to stick with him as he also uploads videos to the popular video sharing website.

“Well, it started out as a hobby, something fun to do, something I just did for the hell of it, pass time, keep me out of trouble…it just stuck with me...I’ve been rapping for like 5 and a half years now,” Derek says.

Now, that he finally realizes what he can do and people like what he can do, he sets it as a priority

aside from family and school.

“Now, it’s like part of my life. I feel like I have to do [it]. Like I was born to.” It was hard for Derek to get his music out since he wasn’t very well known. He says he is very passionate about his music. For a kid to upload videos on you-tube and not have a very good fan-base than they’re nothing. Nobody really cares if they don’t know them really well.

“100% passionate, back in the like early stage, like I was pushing so hard to get my music out.” Derek said.

He received negative comments on you tube, such as “STOP MAKING VIDEOS YOU FAT ****ING POOR MEXICAN L0L” from a you-tuber, but he chose not to reply to them. He decides to look past those type of comments and continue making videos for the people who do watch his videos and like them.

Derek is not the only person that makes video to get their talent “out”. James Tran also owns a YouTube channel under the name [tranxxaction].

James is a senior at Conally High School and he dances, specifically the “C-Walk Dance.” The C-walk explained by James Tran as...

“Foot work and foot movements.” James said.

[Transition into next quote] A lot of people were making videos of themselves doing the “C-walk” and James stumbles on a few videos, decides to watch them. Now he is making his own videos

with one video at a whopping 21,

“I started around four years ago, I was just brows-ing you-tube, and saw a few videos and [I] thought it looked cool.”The C-Walk was so popular on you-tube that peo-ple even made tutorials on how to do it. James began by just watching these videos and review-ing them over and over. Trying to get each move and understanding the “Foot work and foot move-ments.” The trend goes on and on people seeing other people doing the same thing they like doing and decide to do it.

“So I just searched up some tutorials, started prac-ticing everyday and yea.” James said.

“I think I’m okay, average; there are a lot more people that’s better than me.”

Both of these high school students upload vid-eos on YouTube. It’s hard for these students to have to worry about school and keeping their fans entertained. They both love doing what they do best, whether it is rapping for Derek or dancing for James. They both have loving fans that keeps going and uploading videos on YouTube. The trend goes on and on people seeing other people doing the same thing they like doing and decide to do it.

2011

Global Q 8

“You are taking a risk on yourself to hopefully come out the other side with a degree, or a big ass debt.” -Van Lai

In P

hoto

: Per

egrin

e Gr

aham

In photo is Peregrine Graham, age 15. He is representing a person stressed out because of tuition cost.

MONEY

Global Q 9

Back in 2006 college tuition for University of Texas graduate Aaron Reiser was $3,000 for a se-mester. According to UT’s website, as of 2010, col-lege tuition ranges from $4,500 to $5,200 depending on what degree the student obtains.It is necessary that colleges lower tuition in order to keep students’ debt manageable.With such an enormous increase in college tuition in only 5 years, college students are stressed out. I constantly have to listen to my college friends talk about how they can’t hang out. My friend Van Lai, who is a junior at UT, even questions if college is the right choice for him. “When you attend college, you are taking a risk on yourself to hopefully come out the other side with a degree, or a big ass debt,” Van says.Not only he complains, but some of my other col-lege friends do too. They not only complain about not having enough money, but also the debt. My friends are very young coming into college and their debt is already stacking up; to the point they can’t manage it anymore. New college students not be in debt, since they are just learning the new ways on being in college. Student that are currently in col-lege should have debt that is manageable.There are also those students that want to continue

PHOTOGRAPH BY David Nguyen

is a needCollege Tuition is rising at a fast pace. Is there anyone even in charged of it?

By:NguyenMONEYcollege for a higher education degree. Those stu-dents need even more money so they borrow from the bank, which puts them in greater depths of debt. Students these days are getting scared to study on further because of the prices they have to pay. As of now subsidized rates is 4.5% and expected to rise over the years according to Stu-dent loan Consolidator. The graduate rate is much higher standing at a 6.8%. Medical school is an example of higher education degree programs. A tuition for medical school at Harvard University cost $45,050 straight from Harvard website (har-vard.edu). Harvard is very well known for its Law program which cost $47,600 for an academic year (9months). Students are intimidated already about their four year education debt that they feel the need to stop and start trying to pay off that debt before it becomes unmanageable.In the article from Kim Clark, a reporter who writes articles about college and advice on how to get through college. She states, “Increases in spend-ing were driven mostly by higher administration, maintenance, and student services costs.” Most of the spending was on other things instead of stu-dent’s education. In 2006, 4000 dollars were spent on students per year in public universities; 13 per-

cent up on spending on administration, mainte-nance, and student services from the previous 1995. However, the money spent on classroom instructions for student only went up by 9 per-cent. It is sad that colleges spent more on how well their administration and student services that they leave little money to spend on student curriculum.It is necessary for college administration to instead of using the money students pay for tuition to pay for administration, students’ ser-vices and maintenance, use it for the student’s curriculum. Students are getting education that aren’t worth what they pay for, which puts stu-dents in debt that can reached to unmanageable amounts. Loans are rising and so are tuition for higher education degrees, students might not even want to go and pursue their career, I know I wouldn’t. Lowering tuition cost would keep a student’s debt manageable. College should also invest some money into student’s curriculum so the students wouldn’t have to be “ripped off” be-cause they are paying for something that not worth it.

Below are some two interviews of college stu-dents that went to the University of Texas at Austin.

DEBT

Global Q 10

State Name and Occu-pation.Aaron Reiser, Help Desk Special-ist

When did you start col-lege? (Year)2001

Where did you attend college?The University of Texas at Aus-tin

Were you an in-state student or out of state student?I started out as an out-of-state student, but by the time I gradu-ated I had gained in-state status.

How much did you pay for just college tuition?In 2001, out-of-state, $3000/se-mester. In 2006, in-state, $3000/semester. (It doubled.)

Did you have a dorm? Or an Apartment? Or Housed with parents?First two years, off-campus dorm. Final three years, apartment.

If you did obtain a dorm, how much was your dorm cost?I don’t recall.

During your years in col-lege, were you paying any car payments? (Per month)I did not have a car in college.

If yes, how much?N/A

Did you constantly go out and eat or home cooked? Both?When living in the dorms I ate al-most exclusively in the dorm caf-eteria. For the final three years I mostly ate out.

How much would you say you spend on food alone in a year? EstimateVery unsure, particularly when I was a college student.

There is currently a BIG rise in tuition, what is your opinion on this rise?I’m torn. On the one hand, I think education should be accessible to everybody regardless of their background or financial standing. On the other hand, I think the value of a college education is greatly overstated and that a college education isn’t as great an investment as people make it out to be.

•Colleges are mak-ing current students pay more for tuition but for the same education, what is your reaction?That doesn’t surprise me as the cost of business has always been changing. Colleges still need to pay salaries for professors, pay for all of the energy used by the campus (energy prices have been going up), pay for a lot of the new technologies that weren’t available to students a decade or two ago (such as wireless internet), and the government has been subsidizing the costs of education less and less every year (at the least, the dollar amount stays constant but doesn’t rise in accordance with inflation). With rising expenses and decreasing funding, colleges don’t have much of a choice but to pass on the costs to their consumers.

Q&

A

“I’m torn.”

Photo Taken By: Aaron Reiser

Global Q 11

Global Q 12

State Name and Occu-pationVan Lai, Full-time student

When did you start col-lege? (Year)Fall 2009

Where did you attend college?University of Texas at Austin

Were you an in-state stu-dent or out of state stu-dent?In-State Student

How much did you pay for just college tuition?$4,852.00 <-- First semester of college

Did you have a dorm? Or an Apartment? Or Housed with parents?Housed at parents.

Did you constantly go out and eat or home cooked? Both?Mostly ate at home.

How much would you say you spend on food alone in a year? EstimateThat year i spent less than $300, i still ate out at times.

There is currently a BIG rise in tuition, what is your opinion on this rise?The rise in tuition makes it even harder to believe that college is the right choice, since when you attend college, you are taking a risk on yourself to hopefully come out the other side with a degree, or a big ass debt.

Phot

o By

: Van

Lai

Global Q 13

Top Story!!!

OSAMA DEAD

May 2, 2011

You Were Saying?

Atur aut aut aut quam im-incie niendem liam vellan-dandus cuptatiunt ium

Why ain’t you get

‘er done??? Show the birth certificate!!!

- George Rowland

Can You Find Osama? The U.S. Government Did!

- Alex Haight

Global Q 14

Talk about the New Sources of News

And the legitimacy of comedic or opionon based news shows

LOBAL

Global Q 15

LOBAL GLOBALQ

Subscribe to the...

PODCAST

Global Q 16

HIDDEN DANGERSThe real dangers that come along with ‘the right to bear arms’

Haight

Handguns make up 67% of all murders in the United States

As it stands, in the United States, it is incredibly to easy to purchase

and carry firearms on your person, even for those who are mentally

unstable and have violent tendencies. This causes a much larger base of

illegal firearm purchase and is in general a safety hazard for everyone. Hand-

guns in general are a weapon used to harm people, not to protect people and

although the idea of firearm possession is protected by the constitution, it has

been twisted since its original purpose and no longer represents the beliefs and

values set in place when the document was written. In the United States 67% of

murders committed are done using a handgun that is not including all other guns,

such as hunting rifles and shotguns. Firearms are the tool of choice for those in-

tending to commit violent crimes. Gang members, drug cartels, and just generally

unstable people all have the ability topurchase and conceal weapons with nearly

no effort. This ease in access to handguns leads to an enormous market for illegal

purchasing of handguns, and in turn a large increase in violent crimes and gang

activity. The basic idea of one who plans to purchase a handgun is to protect

themselves, most likely from others with handguns, and yet only .5% of households

that own a handgun have ever used one in self defence. Now, looking at this

purely mathematically, if 67% of murders are committed with handguns, and .5%

of handguns are used for self defence, you can come to the conclusion conceal-

able firearms are used almost entirely with the intent of harming others. Those

who defend the rights to owning firearms because they feel ‘safer’ should realize

that the threat is greater to them if they allow all to purchase, and carry on their

person a gun. In general, everyone would greatly benefit from handguns being

banned. No handguns is less violent crimes. The streets of big cities would be

easily cleaned up, and the amount of murders and to preserve, and they wanted

to ensure the right of the people to overthrow a corrupt government, and if

that is the reason you protect the second amendment, then as of now you are

pretty much out of luck. The military, and all of their artillery including assault

rifles, tanks and fighter jets, would completely destroy any ‘militia’ formed with

individuals and their handguns. Given recent event where those mentally un-

stable have acquired and used these weapons to kill large numbers of people,

something must be changed. As a country, we need to get together and make

the decision, do we value the right for anyone with no prior experience to own

a gun and potentially kill innocent people, or do we value the lives and well

being of our citizensinjuries would be reduced and the only available weapons

would be blunt objects that are not easily concealed. Assassination of political

figures would be nearly impossible and crime would plummet. ‘A well regulated

Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people

to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed’ This is the only argument that

organizations such as the NRA have as to why handguns should be available to

everyone, which is greatly foolish. If you were to actually pay attention to the

text and understand the intentions that the founding fathers had while writing

it you would understand that the right to carry guns for self defence is not what

is protected. A well regulated militia is what they were trying

Global Q 17

HIDDEN DANGERS

Photo By: David NguyenIn

Pho

to: G

eorg

e Ro

wlan

dA

Global Q 18

By:Nguyen

BagsPlastic bags! No one would think to bring something so useless, but in fact it is the most important item you can bring with you while traveling! You might be asking ‘why?’ Well, plastic bags can be used for• A place to put dirty/clean clothes• Hold items while walking/Instead of a purse/man-bagEveryone thinks of bringing a toothbrush, toothpaste deoderant, but never a plastic bag because where are you going to put your dirty clothes? I don’t think anyone would ever put their dirty clothes with their clean clothes. It would get the clean clothes dirty!

FIVE

RWBReusable water bottles are an essential but you would never think of bringing one

because you might think it’s a space waster and that you can just use the fountain

water. A reusable water bottle can allow you to access water whenever you need

because when you’re travelign to a place like a desert where water is scarce, you

might want a water bottle next to you. Also some reusable water bottles can keep

your liquid cold.

IMPORTANTITEMS

Global Q 19

3G

Da Meds

Yes, most definetley. A 3G stick that allows you to connect to the internet. You always have to be connected to the internet. How else you are going to update your facebook status if you’re not connected to the internet? You can search up exquisite resturaunts and awesoem places to go to during your travel. Also you cna search up historical places.

Da Meds [Medication] is something like Tylenol, Advil IBpro-fuen. These medication relieve pain and headaches of a tiring

long flight. When you’re on a flight and you’re not flying first class, you get very unconfortable, your neck is strained and your spine is in a

position that it doesn’t like.

Fanny Pack is Back

That’s right FANNY PACKS! Fanny Packs are an essen-tial when traveling because no one wants to carry around a suitcase to hold their things that they need. A fanny pack is a safe place to keep important things such as passports, I.Ds etc. It’s really safe because it is close to your body and if someone was to steal it, they would have to use alot of force to rip it off your waist, plus it looks cool!

ITEMS FORTRAVELING

Global Q 20

Increase the Price of Water:

Conserving Now to Prevent Crises in the Future

George Rowland

Global Q 21

Water is cheap isn’t it? Well no, it’s not. The price of water is very cheap in America, but the price does not correlate with the resources actual value and supply. Water is at an unrealistic price, and this is creating huge amounts of un-necessary demand that will shrink water sources and divert water away from poor countries. Rais-ing water prices in developed countries should be done to meet its actual value and availability will stabilize the market and prevent future water shortages. People will restrict their water usage to necessary activities and be more aware of the need for conservation. Citizens of developed coun-tries are paying way too little for water, and too much in developing countries. U.S. citizens pay on average just 65 cents per cubic meter of water, the Citizens of developed countries are paying way too little for water, and too much in develop-ing countries. U.S. citizens pay on average just 65 cents per cubic meter of water, the price in the developing world is substantially higher. The aver-age American household consumes about 127,000on average consumes about gallons of water each year, costing 350 dollars, an amount that would cost over 1700 dollars in an urban slum in a place such as Guatemala City. Governments of devel-oped countries usually have significant supplies of water, and have the infrastructure to distribute the water to most of the countries citizens. The country then begins to take water for granted and demands water as a low cost. The low cost then allows citizens to waste water and use it for extraneous purposes, without ramifications. The waste of water then lowers supply, not having immediate consequences in the actual countries that waste it, but depriving developing countries of water sources and increasing the cost of water

in those places.

“By contrast, many people in developing countries have no running water and so must depend on private water ven-dors...”who can practically make the price whatever they want. Water demand is very high in urban, developing areas such as India, because of the rapid industrialization and increases in population. Because of this valuable water resources are being exhausted. One of the main causes for depletion of these resources is the high cost and less supply than in developed countries. For example, in many

areas selling water is much more profitable than using that same water to grow crops. So many farmers in India have stopped farming all together. Instead they draw water from their own wells and sell it to private vendors based in big cities, lowering the water tables to dangerous levels. Subsequently, the decrease in amount of water raises the cost even more in those areas. The primary ar-gument against the raising of water prices is that it will put poor people at a severe disad-vantage and make water hard to attain and afford. Well, this is already the case in many areas in fact. Purchasing water is one of the biggest necessities in developing countries. In Uganda,the average villager spends up to 20% of his income on water. Raising the cost of water in developed areas would decrease use, thereby increasing the supply by developing areas. People will have no effective incentive to cut down on water usage other than a raise of water’s cost. Cutting usage will also hopefully prevent water shortages in the future, which would cause the price of water to grow much higher than current suggested price increases! Increasing the cost of water now may

put some people at a disadvantage in the short term, but will prevent more severe issues in the long term. People need to understand that there is a limited supply of usable water in the world, and

Water truck. Credit: Stuff I Know Blog, by “Robert”

American Farm Irrigation System. Credit: International Federation of Agriculture Journalists.

Global Q 22

that water will not be effectively conserved with-out enforcing higher costs of this valuableresource. The current price of water in America and other developed countries is unrealistic, and if current rates of water usage continue there will be shortages of fresh water in years to come. As usual, the citizens of under-developed countries will be hit the hardest by those crises, and are already paying heavily for a resource that some consider a given. Increased prices will be manage-able and only done to avoid water deprivation and equalize water prices throughout the world.

Indian Plow Farmer. Credit: Looking for Trouble: Analysis and Opinion on the Global and Local- India’s Rise as a Great Power

55Best Places to Travel During a

Recession

Recession? In America? No, can’t be. Well believe it or not we are in a big reccession. It’s inevitable, you can’t ignore it Everyone wants to have fun and travel without worrying about the piece of paper that tells them the bad news of their fun. so what would you do? There is some options for traveling to places that don’t cost much and still is fun! the next few pages wil show you places that are great top go to in these hard times of reccession. Places rage from the cold depths of ICELAND to the warm summers of AUSTRALIA.

Global Q 23

Great Britian used to not be a place to travel to, but last year it was took you more than 2 dollars to buy a single coin in Britain. Now britain has gotten very cheap and is one of the places to travel when america is getting expensive! There was a drop in currency value since last year of 23%.

Drop in currency value since a year ago: 21% If Canadians didn’t want us to make fun of their traditionally weak currency, why did they call it the loonie? A year ago, the joke was on us — a Canadian dollar was actually worth more than its American counterpart. There are many sights that a person can visit. For example the CN tower which is the Tallest tower in the world, and third tallest building in the world. The view can extend to Niagra Falls.

The currency value dropped 28% since last year. Aus-tralia is a great place to travel to. A popular attraction is the Sydney Opera House, where shows are held at. The number one attraction, according to tripadvisor.com [Advice on traveling], is the Sydney Harbour. A person can enjoy amazing seafood while enjoying the oceanic view.

Icelandair flights from New York City start at $500 round-trip, and decent hotels in the hip capital of Reykjavik — like the Centerhotel Thingholt — are as low as $60 a night. Sure, if you go in the late fall or winter you’ll get only about five hours of sunlight a day — but Icelanders know how to make those hours count. Iceland has some amazing sites such as waterfalls and becautiful scenary.

South Korea is a very nice place to trravel though be-cause of its big drop in currency value, which is at a whopping 30% since last year. Somethings that you can do is travel on the busy streets eating spicy foods. Take a walk down the streets at night and enjoy the busy night life. South Korea is known for it’s fast pace in technology and it is influenced by the west a lot.

Save Our SchoolsS.O.S.Haight

A student wakes up, early in the morning. He packs his bag, and gets ready for school. At 7:15 he leaves his house and walks across the street to Barton Hills Elementary school, a school in danger of being closed. “Our neighborhood is very much based on these schools and without them it would be like pulling the rug out from under our community” Says Jerry Smolinski, a Barton Hills neighbor-hood resident.On Monday January 10th, AISD officials dis-cussed plans for closing and consolidating sev-eral schools such as Barton Hills elementary and Zilker elementary into schools such as Becker and Dawson elementary. This has caused serious unrest in the community. Barton Hills elementary, being rated an exemplary school, to be shut down and the students moved to Becker elementary is a serious concern for residents. Overcrowding of classroom stacked on top of the already sub par teaching at other schools has many parents concerned.

As well as the destruction of the

community, the fall in surrounding property value is a serious concern. After a school is ‘mothballed’ the surrounding homes prop-erty value decreases drastically, lowering the property tax , meaning the government would

receive less moneyfrom property taxes. The process of closing the school would be saving some money, but also costing more in the long run.ki and others are doing something about it. “We have rallied tremen-dous support for this cause and are letting our voices be heard”

Jerry and many others have organized several rallies for keeping the schools open and keeping the communities alive. The groups organize peaceful protests in front of the schools and gather lots of attention from news and other media, spreading the word even farther, and thanks to these and other efforts the closing of the schools is much farthur down on the list of things to “The dramatic fall in property

value of surrounding homes that would occur after the mothballing of the schools

would be horrendous”

Thanks For Reading

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ALEX HAIGHTS

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