Dictatorship is an ancient issue that has been dominating over many cultures since the dawn of time. Dictatorship is a form of government where all political power is held by one individual or a small group of individuals. While dictatorship has been disappearing slowly throughout the world, it is still very much present. We have seen it from the rule of pharaohs over the Egyptians, to the rule of khans over the Mongolians, to the rule of kings and queens over hundreds of different European civilizations. The American revolution really was the “shot heard around the world,” because it inspired many other cultures to fight against dictatorship. However dictatorship can also be pretty controversial; many also believe that there are pros to having a dictatorship such as higher efficiency and more stability. With that being said the cons do outweigh the pros. No government is perfect, and even in the most open governments there is always one who has way too much power over the others. But in a dictatorship the individual in charge will always have all the power, and if he wants to do something that is objectively seen as morally wrong, there is no one to stop him. Take Adolf Hitler as an example. The people loved him at first because he appeared to provide stability, efficiency, and lower crime rates. But after the Germans started losing the war they started to realize what Hitler was really doing. He was commanding a genocide and killing millions of Jewish people, and it didn’t really matter what any other German believed. Even if they wanted to help, they couldn’t; they had already given him complete control and absolute power. Today we still see some dictatorships around the world such as Kim Jong Un from North Korea, and Vladmir Putin from Russia. These dictatorships are very dangerous because these two men just have way too much power. If they want to blow up a whole country there is no one to stop them, regardless of what their people believe.

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The lack of education has been, and will continue to be one of the greatest challenges our world has to face. Having little to no education whatsoever is extremely common in underdeveloped countries. There is a strong correlation between families who suffer from poverty and those who suffer from a lack of education. However poverty is not the only cause for lack in education. In fact, being denied from having any sort of education is often due to religion, race, and even gender. For centuries it was a norm around the globe that women specifically had no right to pursue an education, and were expected to do things like clean and cook. I bring this up because unfortunately this is a mentality that still exists. Many cultures around the world, specifically in the middle-east, still believe that women have no right to pursue any sort of education, and should stay at home to deal with “woman” responsibilities. Depending on the culture, this mentality can either be founded by utter sexism, or from religion. It is also common to see discrimination in education in relation to race. As a country, the U.S has come so far when it comes to racial discrimination in education since the events from Brown vs Board of Education. However racism in general is still out there, and with that being said there are regions in the country where student’s education is hampered by the color of their skin. And this does not just apply to countries like the U.S, in fact discrimination by race in education affects children and young adults everywhere. This is so beyond unfair because every child or young adult deserves to have access to some sort of an education regardless of race, religion, or gender. This is such a large scale problem because lack of education is like a virus; it spreads from generation to generation and leads to many long-term consequences such as deep poverty, unemployment, hunger, and much else.

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Since 1990 the world has reduced the extreme poverty level by almost half but yet there are still way too many people who live in deep poverty and more specifically, extreme hunger. Around 767 million people around the world suffer from extreme hunger and live off of less than 1.90$ a day. 66 million primary school kids go to school underfed with around 20 million coming from Africa alone. Asia is another continent which faces an enormous hunger burden with around 280 million people who are underfed. When it comes to population alone Asia is on top of the world with it accounting for almost two thirds the entire world’s population. Being the most populated, and one of the poorest continents, many regions in Asia have millions and millions of residents who go weeks at a time with barely any food in their systems. Due to hunger, around 5.9 million kids die before reaching the age of 5. Just to put these numbers into perspective that’s 11 kids dying every minute! While millions of kids and adults die every minute due to hunger there are also regions in first-world countries where millions of pounds of food are thrown into the garbage. Many food corporations these days have strict policies where food is thrown away if it is considered to be “expired”, regardless if it is still safe to eat or not. Working at a food store in a mall I know that company policy is to throw out all unused fruit by the end of every day. Just last night I was required by my manager to throw out several pounds of strawberries and when I was doing my task I just felt so damn bad for each and every single person out there who suffers from hunger. Our world is so far from perfect; it is so wrong that some people have so much that they can just waste, while others have so little that they have to starve. It is not a problem that we can solve with a quick snap of our fingers but everyone can start helping by donating to charitable organizations like Unicef who support millions who suffer from hunger.

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Bullying is the use of force or a threat, to abuse, dominate or intimidate. Bullying affects hundreds and thousands of people around the globe and it is simply not okay. The pictures above show the stereotypical form of bullying but in reality bullying can happen in many different forms. Bullying can occur online and is known as cyber-bullying. Unfortunately this method of bullying is becoming more and more popular due to the recent advancements in technology, and the increase of social media use. Cyber-bullying tends to be very popular among teenagers and can often lead to depression. The act of abusing or intimidating someone over the internet is no better than bullying someone face to face. Bullying can happen because of any reason but the most common ones tend to be related to race, gender, sexuality, school, disability, and even in any sort of work environment. So how can we fight bullying? The most important thing to fight bullying is to make sure everyone understands what bullying is and why it shouldn’t be taken likely. The impact of bullying can vary, but in extreme cases it has even led to suicide. The second thing people can do to fight bullying is making sure you’re always being a friend to someone who you might see as a victim of bullying. Studies show that communication is the best way for someone to fight a bully, so be a friend. The third big thing to fight bullying is being a role model. Showing people kindness and respect will encourage others to do the same. Many people tend to follow by example, so always strive to be the best person you can be. No matter what the environment is, be a friend, a role model, and a loving person. This is how you fight a bully; spread love, not hate.

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Racism is a difficult topic for most. However it is very real, and although many countries have come very far when it comes to eliminating racism, it is still very much present. Specifically the U.S has come very far since the 20th century and many like me are grateful for the Martin Luther King’s, and the Rosa Park’s, who fought so hard to eradicate racial discrimination. Nevertheless, racism is very much alive and although many don’t see it, it often happens right in front of our eyes. We hear about police shootings against black males almost every other week and it is just not okay. Sometimes racism is very blatant and obvious but it can also be more subtle, as seen by racial profiling done by law enforcement officers and other government officials, and the near impossibility for some groups, especially African Americans, to break the cycle of poverty. Due to strict policies in schools, disadvantaged black kids often end up being thrown out of schools and into the criminal justice systems, instead of being given a second chance and receiving counseling within the school system. This isn’t a fair system because not all kids are on the same playing field. Kids who are privileged, specifically white kids, have better preparation and more access to helpful resources, such as tutors and textbooks. When a school system is set up like this it creates an endless cycle of racism because the colored students who lack an education find it harder to succeed. It is past time that we stop looking at a person based on the color of their skin, and instead for who they really are. As a society we should help all our colored communities because everyone deserves a chance at making more money and have a higher standard of living.

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Overpopulation is one of the biggest issues in our world today, and only gets worse as time goes by. It is an undesirable condition where the number of existing humans exceeds the capacity of our planet, Earth. There are many causes that directly contribute to this issue, some being longer average lifetimes, better medical facilities, and the sheer destruction of our precious resources. The issue of overpopulation has really blown up in the past 50 years because of all the advancements to medicine. In the past we were able to keep a steady balance between the people coming into this world and the people leaving it, however now we have way too many babies being born, compared to the slower death rate we have now. It can be said that other issues such as poverty and hunger are part of overpopulation because with more people we need more money, and more food. But the sad reality is that our planet can’t provide all those needs. A bigger population means more competition in the job market and more people will be unemployed. A bigger population also means a higher demand for food and many will be left starving. In summary, overpopulation will directly contribute to other issues such as poverty, unemployment, hunger, and much else. So what can we do?? Well it’s not so easy, and like many of the other world issues on this blog there isn’t a clear cut solution. One of the theoretical solutions to this issue is space colonization. If we were able to find another inhabitable planet similar to Earth, then we could slowly become colonizing it, and the issue of overpopulation would disappear. However the likelihood of finding a habitable planet that’s not a million light years away is not too likely and it all depends on our advancements of space exploration. In the meantime there are a couple things we could do to help fight the other issues caused by overpopulation. While many starve there are also many who waste, and the people who have an excess supply of money and food really need to stop being so wasteful so that people in third world countries don’t have to starve every day of their lives.

(Having memory issues with my laptop and can’t add pictures)

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With all the other issues that have the potential of destroying our world we tend to forget about those which are right under our noses. It’s 2019 and we still have a huge issue in our world in relation to Sexism. Sexism is when someone believes they are better than someone else because of their sexual identity. Women have always been seen as “less than a man”, and although we have come very far in the US in relation to this issue, there are some parts of the world that justify sexism as being “tradition”. This is specifically a problem in the middle east. A survey conducted by the Guardian found that out of nearly 10,000 people, between the ages of 18 and 59, the majority of men supported a range of traditional and inequitable attitudes toward women, including beliefs that they are not fit to be leaders, should not work outside the home, and that it is more important to educate boys than girls. With that being said there are still many regions in the middle east where males hold these beliefs to the highest standards. Women are seen as just a way to produce boys, and if a woman attempts to retaliate against these beliefs she is either raped, or beheaded. This violent tradition of sexism results in many women trying to flee their home countries in the pursuit of a safe haven. I am all about respecting another tradition as long as others respect mine, however there is a point where we need to draw the line. Sexism is not something I can respect or tolerate because at the end of the day everyone is human. And everyone should have the choice to follow whatever sort of religion they want, and hold the values that they believe in. In the middle east girls are born into a world of inequality without a say in it, and are more prone to violence and even death. Sexism is alive and well throughout the world in 2019 although we do our best to hide it. It is time we stop looking at each other based on sex, and realize that we are all human beings.

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Large global conflict like war is something that has been destructive to our species and our planet for several centuries now. Although complete world peace seems unlikely, it is still something we should strive for. The money that nations put into their armies is insane, and if we didn’t need to spend so much money on our military then we would be able to redirect that money to provide education and health care. We could boost the economy and bring the standard of living way up. There are so many negative consequences to war but the obvious one is death. The reality is that war will get ugly; real ugly. Innocents die all the time and that shouldn’t be the case. The death toll is estimated to be between 90,000 and 146,000 people in the Hiroshima bombing and 2,403 in the Pearl Harbor Attack. The differences between nations should never be the reason for mass murder, because at the end of the day we are all humans. We work hard to solve all the other issues in the world that can result in our extinction but at the same time we are eradicating ourselves slowly through large global conflict. And just like the other great issues in the world, large global conflict doesn’t have an easy solution. There are many theoretical solutions to achieve global peace but they each come with their own issues, such as the whole world uniting as one nation. In theory this could work to reduce large scale conflict, but in the end there will still be daily violence due to disagreements in religion and beliefs. With that being said we can still work to get as close as we can to world peace by being the most compassionate and respectful human being possible day in and day out.

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The issue of marine debris isn’t going away, instead it is getting worse by the year. It’s estimated that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans. Not only is the plastic ruining natural beauty but it’s affecting around 700 different species that reside in the ocean. It’s also estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every year, and scientists have already proved that plastic is found within 60% of sea birds, and within 100% of sea turtles. Plastic in our oceans is so beyond destructive to our ecosystem and we humans need to stop it. We can all help in solving this issue by volunteering to organizations who dedicate themselves to cleaning up plastic in the oceans and on our beaches. But regardless of how many people volunteer to help clean up the ocean, plastic ocean pollution will still be an issue because there’s just too much. Because of ocean currents there are many garbage patches that are naturally formed in several locations across the world, the biggest being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. It’s so big that it measures more than 1.6 million square kilometers, so to say that it’s an easy clean-up is the biggest understatement of the century. The best way for us to keep our oceans clean is to just flat out reduce drastically the amount of plastic that we use. There are other eco-friendly materials that can serve as a substitute to meet our needs; we need to stop relying on plastic!

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