Current Events Summary 5

African leaders have met with European leaders in France to discuss the controversial issue of trade. Many fruit farmers have farms in Ghana, where 20 tons of fruits for the salads of European customers would be shipped daily. Some countries have signed up, but others are reluctant to sign up. The conditions for shipping perishable goods aren't so great, for one: electricity in Ghana is not a guaranteed thing, the roads are bad, and the fuel for airplanes is not always available. The current trade agreement that European countries have with others (involving tariff-free shipping) has been declared illegal by the World Trade organization, so Europe is pushing a new agreement, called the Economic Partnership Agreement. This would allow Ghana to still ship their products tariff-free, but European goods would get in tariff-free as well, which many people think would hurt local sellers in Ghana. "What the Europeans are putting in place is aimed more or less at undermining the attempt by African economies to move away from the dependence on exporting raw materials towards industrial processing," says Tetteh Homeku of the research and advocacy group Third World Network. Many countries are reluctant to sign up, and the negotiations continue. (bbcnews.com)

Egypt is hosting a fresh round of Darfur talks. Mediators from the UN and the African Union are meeting representatives from Egypt, Chad, Libya, and Eritria, whom they want to have a defined role in finding a solution to the violence. There have been some problems gaining cooperation, though. Important Darfur rebel groups did not show up to talks last month, and the countries surrounding Sudan want a say in the result of the talks. A plan to make a 26,000 troop UN-UA force to get the violence under control has been discussed, but the plans are falling behind schedule. About 9,000 troops will be deployed by January first. (bbc.news.com)

Algeria and France have signed contracts during French President Nicolas Sarkozy's stay in Algeria. France and Algeria have had a history of not getting along terribly well because of France's habit of colonizing, and the visit was overshadowed by tension. However, Sarkozy said colonial rule had been "profoundly unjust", but ignored the calls of Algerians for an apology from France. Algeria's Foreign Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni called this "a step in the right direction".The deals in the contracts involve the trade of oil, gas, and nuclear energy products. (bbcnews.com)

Six French charity workers from the group Zoe's Ark are on trial for the kidnapping of 103 children in Chad. The accused have claimed that the parents of the children whom they brought to france had signed a contract saying that this was alright, but the parents deny this, and the Chadian and French governments deny having any knowledge of the program. Most of the children who were being brought with the workers have at least one parent or legal guardian, and although they were uninjured, they were wrapped in bandages and caked in fake blood (quite fishy, if you ask me). The trials have been very high security due to the anti-French riots that have broken out in Chad. The workers are on a hunger strike and have accused the French government of abandoning them. If they are convicted, they may be allowed to serve their sentences in France. (bbcnews.com)

Chapter 23 Section 5 Critical Thinking #4

4. How successful do you think Franklin Roosevelt was as a president?

I think that FDR was a successful president. Not everything that he did succeeded, but he really tried very hard to do everything that could work, and he put the country on the path to getting itself out of the Depression. His policies covered a wide range of issues: the economy, workers rights, banking and finance, and the environment. Many of his New Deal measures still exist today, such as Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the National Labor Relations Board (created under the Wagner Act). Today these help keep the nation reassured that there will not be another great depression. The conditions of living for million of Americans were improved by FDR's New Deal programs, and it gave them hope that life in America might not be so miserable in the future, which was key to getting the nation back to normal.

Chapter 23 Section 5 Critical thinking #3

3. Some critics have charged that the New Deal was anti-business and anti-free enterprise. Explain why you agree or disagree with this charge.
-the expanded power of the federal government
-the New Deal's effect on the economy
-the New Deal's effect on the American people

I disagree with this. The basic goal of the New Deal was to get the economy back to normal and pull the country out of the depression. If it had been anti-business or anti-free enterprise, it couldn't have achieved this. Although the role of the government in the economy was expanded during this time period, it didn't do anything to hurt businesses or free enterprise. I think it was simply easier and more effective for the government to create a bunch of new jobs rather than helping individual businesses. The New Deal put millions of dollars into the economy, and gave jobs to millions of men and women, which I think would hardly hurt businesses.

Chapter 23 Section 2 Critical Thinking #3

3. Why might the Social Security Act be considered the most important achievement of the New Deal?

The Social Security Act could be considered one of the most important achievements of the New Deal because of how it helped and still helps (sort of) many Americans and gave aid to people who couldn't work. The three major parts of the act were the old-age insurance for retirees 65 and older, the unemployment compensation system and the aid to families with dependent children and the disabled. The old-age insurance was a retirement plan in which half of the funds came from the employer and the other half from the worker, and helped make many people's retirements comfortable. The unemployment compensation program gave aid to people who had a good record of employment and were having trouble finding jobs. The aid program for families with dependent children and disabled members gave money to families who were having trouble supporting their children or members who couldn't work. This Act was a big achievement for one because it helped a large number of people in different situations. Groups such as the retired, unemployed, and families needed help badly during the thirties; they weren't able to support a comfortable lifestyle for their children or themselves, and at the time there wasn't much help available to these groups. The Act helped Americans who fell into these groups pull through the Great Depression, and is still in use today.

Chapter 23 Section 1 Critical Thinking #3

3. Of the New Deal programs discussed in this section, which do you consider most important?
-the type of assistance offered by each program
-the scope of each program
-the impact of each program


I think that the most important New Deal program was the Civilian Conservation Corps. This program gave jobs to millions of men and helped get the country back on its feet. The Corps put men from the ages of 18 to 25 to work planting trees, developing parks, building roads, and helping with soil-erosion and flood-control projects, and paid a small wage of $30 per month, $25 of which went to the men's families. The CCC focused on reforestation to avoid another Dust Bowl, and by the end of it in 1942, 3 million men had been through it and 200 million trees were planted. There could have been measures to make the CCC more effective, such as making the age group of employees larger, but it did something very important, which was creating jobs. Many of the efforts of the administration were directed towards stabilizing the stock market and getting people to trust the banks again, but so many people didn't have enough money for it to be worth starting a bank account or investing, so the CCC helped to fix this.

Chapter 22 Section 3 Critical Thinking #3

3) How did Hoover's belief in "rugged individualism" shape his policies during the Great Depression?
-what his belief implies about his view of people
-how that translates into the role of government
-Hoover's policies

Hoover's political philosophy was that the government should play a limited role in helping to solve problems. People needed to cooperate in order to pull through hard times, and the government was to encourage cooperation, but not to force it. This and his belief in "rugged individualism", the belief that people should succeed through their own efforts lead him to not take immediate action. Due to this, Hoover wasn't supportive of welfare programs, or relief programs, thinking that it would weaken people's moral fiber. Although people wanted the government to help them, Hoover's first action was to say that people and local charities should help out the needy. After the crash of the stock market, Hoover had a meeting with business leaders and asked them not to lay employees off or cut wages, and asked labor leaders not to strike or ask for higher wages. Hoover also started a charity to collect money for the poor, but none of these actions had much of an effect, and a year later the economy was growing smaller. Shantytowns, soup kitchens and unemployment were becoming much more common (page 685). Although his view of people was that they could cooperate to make things better with minimal help from the government, clearly it was beyond them to fix the economy. Though Hoover did not take drastic action, he authorized the building of the Hoover Dam, which helped the agricultural economy of California because it provided irrigation and jobs. But by 1930, the country was still in the depression, and people started to call shantytown "Hoovervilles", and newpapers for blankets "Hooverblankets", etc. Hoover still refused to support welfare or direct relief programs, and went for the whole "cooperation with a little help from the government will make everything just dandy" approach. He supported the creation of the federal farm Board, which raised crop prices, and established the National Credit Corporation, which loaned money to small banks to help them avoid going bankrupt. When it became clear that these weren't turning the economy around and with the next presidential election approaching, Hoover tried in earnest to pass legislation that would help the country and boost his popularity, supporting the Federal Home Loan Bank Act (lowered mortgages), and supported the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which gave $2 billion in emergency financing for large businesses, banks, and insurance companies. Altogether, Hoover's belief that people could pull through without help from the gov't. doomed the nation to even more years of severe economic depression, and they shaped his policies so that the goverment gave minimal help to suffering Americans.

Chapter 22 Section 2 Critical Thinking #3

3) How was what happened to men during the Great Depression different from what happened to women and children?
-each group's role in their families
- the changes each group had to make
what help was available to them

Men had traditionally been the person who supported the family and worked, and many men had a hard time adjusting to the common unemployment of the 30s. Many men were very discouraged by wandering the streets begging for a job, and some abandoned their families after they weren't able to provide in any way. Many also became hobos, and would travel from city to city and go to homeless shelters, begging and waiting in food lines. Some city charities did have direct relief programs, but none were enough to support a family; the highest was $2.39 for each family, in New York City (page 681).
Women had to become more involved with tasks such as sewing clothes, canning food and managing household budgets. These weren't hugely different from women's traditional roles in the households, but in the prosperity of the '20s, tasks such as sewing and canning and worrying about budgets probably weren't a very big issue. Although women had started to work outside of the home in the late 1800s, many more had to start working and were payed less than men, and as the years of economic depression, many people began to resent women with jobs, particularly married women. People were angry that women would have jobs while men were wandering the streets unemployed, and some places would not hire married women. But in contrast to the men who were begging and going to shelters, many women were too embarrassed to admit that they were starving or homeless (pages 681-682).
Children during the depression suffered from malnutrition when families could not afford decent food. At the same time as many children were seeking help for malnutrition and rickets, cities cut their child-welfare programs in order to cut their budgets. Many schools were closed or the years shortened by school boards because of the lack of money, and about 2,600 schools were closed by 1933, and about 300,000 students were out of school. Many children had to get jobs to support their families instead of going to school, and would work in sweatshops. Teenagers would travel the country in freight trains, looking for employment and an escape from the depressing environment of cities (page 682).