Kalinago English: blog-action-day

Although I have already written about water in terms of teaching English in

Water Words (using images in Financial English)
The price of water in airports (talking about things that make you/your students angry)

today's post is actually in support of Blog Action Day.

And I suppose in many respects, my post from last week on schooling the world would have worked better here... but I've been thinking about it, about the issues as I walk around the city, as I meander from lesson to lesson.

How we spend such an incredible amount of talking about issues in education and referencing the 3rd world to support our adventures, waxing lyrical from warm homes, safe lives and families and friends.

We debate about the benefits that we Europeans and Americans can bring to their lives to save them (all over again because it worked so successfully the last time when we preached - our economies did do rather well, didn't they) and we rave on and on about how we can teach them, reach them through technology but sometimes, god help us, we actually forget that the people who want an education also need, mostly need, an infrastructure in place around them.

We forget that in our very "special" position with our cheap coffee or our expensive coffee, that this like so much of what we eat and drink comes at the cost of their ability to grow their own vegetables - to feed themselves properly.

We forget that the endless toys that stuff our homes or our over-filled wardrobes came on the back of their labour.

We forget that their priorities are very much things on the very bottom of the Maslow pyramid. So yes, of course they need an education and there are wonderful good-hearted people around the globe doing this and of course, why yes, being given a free phone is wonderful (wouldn't we all love to have free phones too)

but

please, can we not forget that they need

shelter

food

water.

So I guess I better get on to point of this post and share my contribution to the blog action day:

Did you know that almost a billion people on this planet do not have access to safe water? That every week
38,000
children, under the age of 5, die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions?

Did you know that the war in Dafur was probably caused due to a scarcity of water?

Did you know that in the United States alone, on just one average day, more than 500 billion liters of freshwater travel through the country’s power plants—more than twice what flows through the Nile?

Did you know that often, to get fish on your table, many fisherman completely abuse oceanic country borders and overfish - leaving countries and islands (like the Caribbean) without enough fish for their own people? Did you know that our deep seas are also in danger?

Did you know that every time you plug a Smartphone into the wall about half a liter of water must flow through kilometers of pipes, pumps, and the heat exchangers of a power plant.

I'm not saying feel guilty. I'm not saying let's not teach them with technology - let's face it, I would never say that, now would I :-).... but I am saying that if we're going to talk about educating the world's children, then let's please also try to put a little more on the agenda than selling them stuff.

Anyway, I'll leave you now with these thoughts, political twice in a row... but here's the website link to sign a petition if you're in the mood or perhaps you may just feel like digging around for interesting conversation material for lessons next week...

Best,
Karenne