by Harvey Morris | 27 Feb 2023 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Human Rights
The legacy of slavery still haunts the descendants of both perpetrators and victims. Some say reparations are long overdue. Protester calls for reparations for slavery at a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol, 19 June 2020. (Credit: Fibonacci Blue, CC-by-2.0.) The...
Historically, reparations are nothing new (i.e. Treaty of Versailles after World War I, 1988 Civil Liberties Act in the United States etc.). Correspondent Harvey Morris links past and present in an article about the contemporary consequences of slavery, and how some are trying to right past wrongs.
Exercise: After reading the article, have students imagine that your country is adopting a slavery reparations bill. Divide students into groups of four. In each group, have them discuss and write out the text for this bill. Each group should address: Who gets reparations? How are they funded? How much should be given and how often? (When) does the bill expire?
by Harvey Morris | 22 Mar 2022 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Ukraine, World
Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revived dormant fears of a catastrophic nuclear war. Russian missile launchers, capable of firing nuclear warheads, in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, 9 May 2016 (AP...
The world’s optimists thought the era of Mutually Assured Destruction was over with the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has stirred fears of nuclear war – anxieties that many young people around the world have never experienced. Harvey Morris takes a horrific topic – what he calls “a suicide pact between the superpowers” – and examines the irony of the nuclear age: that to ensure there would be no nuclear war, the United States and the Soviet Union both had to have weapons of mass destruction. He offers a highly readable introduction to the harsh realities of the nuclear age – realities that all generations are compelled to live with.
Exercise: Ask your students to debate the resolution: “The best way to ensure there will never be nuclear war is to ensure adversaries have recourse to nuclear weapons.”
by Harvey Morris | 3 May 2021 | Politics, World
Britain’s Queen has turned 95 and her husband has died. Do we need kings and queens? Or will the world always revere splendour and inheritance? Union Jack flags are lowered to half mast around London, England, UK, following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, 9...
by Harvey Morris | 13 Jul 2020 | United States
We foreigners often scoff at Americans. But like it or not, the world always pays rapt attention to the U.S. election, and this year is no exception. President Barack Obama, right, presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Barbra Streisand, White House, 24...
by Harvey Morris | 5 Mar 2020 | Economy, Health and Wellness
As a survivor of the Asian flu, I remember 1957 vividly. Times have changed since, but there are key similarities between that crisis and the coronavirus. A doctor gives a nurse the first Asian flu vaccine shot to be administered in New York, August 16, 1957. (AP...
