Stuff You Should Know
Taliban Victim Returns to School
In October, btw reported that a young educational activist named Malala Yousafzai had been shot by members of the Taliban in Pakistan. After five months of intense recovery and rehabilitation, she has returned to school. Malala, 15, was targeted by the extremist Islamic group because of her public opposition to their rule that girls cannot attend school. After the attack, Malala was transported to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, where doctors removed a bullet from her head, implanted a titanium plate to repair the bone damage, and placed a coclear implant to repair her hearing. Malala and her family are currently living in Birmingham because her father was recently appointed the education attaché at the Pakistan Embassy there.
A memoir called I Am Malala will soon be released in the United Kingdom and later in the United States. In her book, Malala will tell the story of the events leading up to the morning when the Taliban shooter boarded her school bus and attacked her at close range. The book will also detail her recovery. Even though the story of her attack is unique, she hopes to gain attention to the issue of 61 million children around the world who are prohibited from attending school and getting an education.
Dig Deeper–Is I Am Malala a book that you would be interested in reading? Why or why not? Do some investigation about why girls are not allowed access to education. What are some reasons? Have there been any advances since Malala’s ordeal was made public?
March Madness
For three weeks every spring, people all over the country go mad in a big way for basketball. It’s the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, better known as March Madness. It starts with 68 teams, divided into four regions (16 teams in each region). The first two rounds of the tournament take place over four days in a flurry of televised games happening around the clock. The 16 teams remaining are called the Sweet Sixteen. Over the course of two weeks, those teams are narrowed to eight (called the Elite Eight) until there are one team from each region–East, West, South and MidWest–who compete in the Final Four. The final teams compete in the final championship game.
People enjoy watching the games, but they also like trying to predict the winner ahead of time. Everyone fills out their brackets with the preselected winners before the tournament’s first game even begins! Some of each year’s fun is comparing the accuracy of your bracket predictions against everyone else. This year, Louisville, Wichita State, Michigan and Syracuse made it into the Final Four. Michigan and Louisville advanced to the championship game and Louisville won this year’s tournament.
What Do You Think? Did you participate in filling out a bracket this year? If so, how did you do? If not, look on the internet for “bracket alternatives”. These are often humorous takes on non-sport topics pitted against one another competing for a final winner. Find one that amuses you and share with your class.
Louvre Museum Named Most-Visited
More than 9.7 million people visited Paris’ Louvre Art museum, making it the most-visited museum according to the Art Newspaper. This was not much of a surprise considering the Louvre, located in the heart of France, is one of the world’s largest museums as well as a historic landmark. The Louvre has an area of 652,300 square feet. That’s more than eleven football fields! The museum contains nearly 35,000 objects. Those objects fall into one of eight categories: paintings; printing and drawing; sculpture; decorative arts; Egyptian antiquities; Near-Eastern antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; and its most recent offering–Islamic art.
The Louvre has a very rich and colorful history. The original structure was created as a fortress in the 12th century. When it opened as a museum in 1793, the first collection of items on display (537 in all) was made up of possessions of past royalty and items confiscated from churches during the French Revolution. The collection grew under the rule of Napoleon, but many pieces were returned when the French were defeated at Waterloo. New pieces were acquired over the years from donations and gifts. The famous “Louvre pyramid,” a modern-looking structure made of glass, was completed in 1993. It has become a new symbol for the museum with a very old history.
What Do You Think? Would you like to visit the Louvre one day? Check out their website at www.louvre.fr. Find at least three exhibits that spark your interest and note why. Compare lists with your classmates.
Cyprus Banking Crisis
Last month, a tiny island of Cyprus, located just off the coast of Turkey in the Mediterranean, asked for a financial bailout from the European Central National Bank, the European Union and the
International Monetary Fund. Like many countries located in the Eurozone, this country has an enormous debt problem. The banks face bankruptcy and thegovernment does not have the money to help.
The state of Europe’s financial system has been a concern for global financiers for many, many months.
The bailout has been very controversial because the money borrowed is from the savings accounts of the banks affected. While Cypress is the fifth country to receive a bailout, this is the first time that the terms have directly involved other account-holders. Some economists are saying that this creates a very dangerous precedent because people with financial stability will withdraw their money at the first sign of trouble.
Such action could cause disastrous results throughout the already strained economy of the Eurozone. On the other hand, others are saying that the money invested in Cyprus’ banks have long benefited from investors who are drawn by the permissive banking regulations of the past.