History of Religion

What is Religion?
Religion can be defined as the worship of God os gods, guidelines about how to behave, and/or and answers to life's biggest questions.

What are beliefs?
Beliefs are what your opinions and committments to an issue

Animism: the earliest kind of religion, developed while the humans were living as hunter-gatherers, still found among indigenous people today.
Polytheism: belief in many gods
Pantheism: belief that everything is part of one God
Monotheism: belief in only one God
Agnosticism: uncertainty about God or gods
Atheism: belief in no gods

The Nobel Peace Prize

The Founder of the Prizes

In the 1890’s, Swedish, Alfred Nobel donated his large fortune to the Nobel prizes. He dedicated the award to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promoting of peace congresses”.

 

An example of a Nobel Peace Prize is Kofi Annan "...for their work for a better organisation and more peaceful world..."

The First Peace Prize

Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frederic Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time.

In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control.

Number of Prizes

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to 120 Laureates - 97 times to individuals and 23 times to organizations.

The Gender Allocation

Of the 97 individuals awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, 12 were women

Oraganisations can win the award

Two examples of organisations hat have won the award are the International Committee of the Red Cross and Amnesty International

More Information

For more information about the Nobel Peace Prize, visit the website here.

United Nations

'Declaration of Human Rights', 30 human rights that protect the dignity of humans.

The UN deals with global issues. It was created after the 2nd world war to stop a world war happening again.

Some of the human rights in my own words are:

• Everyone is entitled to the same rights (No. 2)
• No one shall be held in slavery (No. 4)
• Everyone has the right to be free of torture (No.5)
• Everyone has the right to recognition (No. 6)
• Anyone of full age has the right to choose to marry and have a family (No. 16)
• Everyone has the right to freedom and opinion of choice (No. 19)
• Everyone has the right to social security (No. 22)
• Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living and health (No. 25)
• Everyone has the right to education (No. 26)
• Everyone has the right to freely participate within the community (No. 27)

Village Space Presentation

Suicide in rural Australia

What was the issue about?

The issue is about the rising number of suicide deaths in rural and remote parts of Australia. Many of these deaths mainly occuring in men. These rates have risen over the three decades.

What is causing the issue?
The issue is because of the incresing stress of financial insecurity, economic hardship, social isolation, reduced access to support services, but mainly beacuse of the drought

Who is affected?

According to statistics, men are more vulnrable to the effects of these hardships. However, anyone living in remote and rural areas may experience such effects

What can be done?

• Promote more education and awareness programs
• Improvements in access to mental support services
• Financial planning
• Frequent social events with the community

 

United Nations - The Declaration of Human Rights

WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Human rights are the rights and freedoms that we all have.

·         Some human rights are based on our physical needs – The right to life. To food. To shelter

·         Other human rights protects us – The right to be free from torture, cruel treatment and abuse

·         Human rights are also there to ensure we develop to our fullest potential – The right to education, to work, to participate in your community

Everybody has human rights. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what language you speak or what religion you belong to. You have a duty to respect the rights of others, just as they have a duty to respect yours. Nobody can take you rights away.

WHY DO HUMAN RIGHTS MATTER TO ME?

Human rights matter to us all.

In the UK:

·         One child in three is poor

·         One child in four is physically abused

·         One child in seven does not have a proper home

It is vital that all young people know their rights!

WHERE DO RIGHTS COME FROM?

Human rights are based on the values of:

·         Dignity – self respect

·         Justice – fairness/legal system

·         Respect – justice

·         Equality – equal treatment/justice

Human rights were officially recognised as values by the world when the United Nations was set up.

WHAT IS THE UNITED NATIONS?

·         The United Nations (UN) is an international organisation that was established in 1945, the year the Second World War ended.

·         Its founders hoped it would be able to prevent catastrophes like the Holocaust from happening in the future

·         So promoting human rights became an aim of the UN, along with maintaining international peace and reducing poverty.

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the most famous human rights agreement in the world. It contains 30 human rights.

WHO WROTE THE UDHR?

The people who wrote the UDHR came from: Australia, Chile, China, France, Lebanon, the former Soviet Union, the UK and the US.

The Millenium Goals

The Millenium Goals were formed in 2000 and were made to reduce the world's poverty by 2015. The MDGs also provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. If these goals are achieved, world poverty will be cut by half, tens of millions of lives will be saved, and billions more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the global economy.

 

Each goals have separate individual targets that they hope to fix. The goals and targets that they wish to achieve are:

1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty ~ Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

2. Achieve universal primary education ~ Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

3.Promote gender equality and empower women ~ Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015

4.Reduce child mortality ~ Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate

5.Improve maternal health ~ Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases ~ Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

7.Ensure environmental sustainability ~ Have achieved by 2020 a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

8.Develop a global partnership for development ~ Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Homelessness

What issues does Dave discover?
Dave finds out that homelessness is a major issue and that there are so many people suffering from this problem.
How do people become homeless?
There are many reasons why people become homeless:

• Mental illness
• Domestic violence
• Loss of their jobs
• Gambling problems
• Drug addiction issues

What are their lives like?
These people who are called 'rough sleepers' or 'those invisible people', have very harsh and upsetting lives. Many of these human beings feel trapped and desperate. A lot of them are bashed for being homeless and not as 'sophisticated' as "us". It is not fair for those who are homeless.
Who is helping these people?
Not very people or organisations are helping these suffering people although there are a few. Those helping include:

• The Salvation Army
• Mission Beat
• St Vincent de Pauls
• Hostels

How does Dave's experience 'shed light' or raise awareness to the issue?

When people watch his experience, it really opens the eyes of the audience. His television program shows us how these people are living and that it is a lot harder than we think.