Children's rights (Sabrina)

Today I want to tell you something about children’s rights. The children’s rights are well respected in some parts of the world, for example, in Europe. But in other countries like India or Vietnam for example, the children’s rights are not respected and the children are exposed to very hard burdens.

In Vietnam for example, the children have to work hard in giant factories under very bad working conditions. There the clothes are produced, which we wear in Europe. I personally think this is the most shocking thing.

In the 3rd class I presented a book about a girl, who worked in a factory like those factories in vietnam. It was very shocking to hear her story.

I think the people, who are responsible fort his, should control the children’s rights better and take care that they are respected.

Working conditions in China (Johannes)

China is important for the world market. The people there produce almost all clothes or other things. It's very cheap that the big companies produce their products in China because the employees don't get a lot of money. Too little to live. They normally get 40cent per day.

The parents want that their children go to school for a better education. The kids learn a lot. They are almost better than kids in richer families because they have only one chance and nearly all children use it. Some of them are very intelligent despite the fact that they have to work in factories after school.

The best jobs are in biomedical technical engineering. You earn more money that the people in other big factories. However, most of the workers get very sick because the conditions are very bad. I hope that the people will earn enough money one day.

Fairness between the sexes (Marlena)

Men and women are legally equal in Austria - so they have the same rights and obligations. Girls and women to go to school, study, go to work and are entitled to vote. Even in politics women are often represented. But are women truly equal in all areas or are there still disadvantages for them in today's society? And how is it in other countries around the world?
There are some important things where woman are disadvantaged:

Firstly in work:
Women do all sorts of professions as much as their male counterparts, but in Austria they earn up to a quarter less money! In other European countries, the divide is not so high. There is no explanation for this, since women are more motivated and ever have better university degrees than male employees on average.
Secondly in child education:
Many people continue to think that parenting is the mother’s job alone - and some call mothers, whose think their work is important, "bad mothers." This is of course an extra burden on women!

In some places of the world women's rights are very bad:
Girls can be married from the age of only 13 years for example in Iran, and the husband can decide entirely over his wife. If a woman wants to separate from her husband, it is not so easy, because their right to divorce is strictly limited. The same is true for the custody of their children. After a divorce, the children would be automatically given to the man. If the woman is accused of adultery, they can be sentenced to death for it and be stoned - it also happens that women are accused of adultery, because they were victims of rape!

So we should do something against this. I think it’s good to help women in the other countries first – for a start. But everybody knows that it’s not easy to change the law. Everybody should think about how we can help and change the world a little bit – concerning to women AND men.

Fairness for animals (Julia)

A better world for all creatures!
Animals are like humans creatures. They have a valuable live, too. It´s not fair when we kill them only because we don´t like them. But in the world there live humans who don´t like each other without attacking each other and so it should be with animals, too.
Firstly, lots of experiments include animals. The people do not care that the animals have feelings like them. Some experiments are so dangerous that the animal dies. It´s very unfair for the animals because we don´t make experiments who are dangerous to humans or cats.
Secondly, people who are scared of spiders or other animals kill them immediately. They don´t think about the poor spiders, that they have a right to live. When we see a cat or a dog we don´t get the idea that we could kill them because they are so cute and lovely. But when we see a spider we kill it. It´s not fair because spiders have a life like cats or humans. We don´t like spiders but that´s no reason to kill them.
What can we do? If we see an animal we should not kill it but we should catch for example the spider and take it outdoors. When we want to make experiments with animals we should think twice about it. The experiments shouldn´t be dangerous for the animals. If everybody does other best we can save many special and wonderful lives.

Fair pay for young teachers (Maximilian)

I want to tell you something about the unfairness between younger and older teachers. Young teachers get a small part of the money that older teachers get. But why? Older teachers have already built their house and their children are already working. But young teachers haven’t built their house and they might have a little child at home that they have to feed.
And why do older people get more money? The don’t work more than younger ones.
So I can’t find any reason why older teachers should get more money than younger ones.

Fair to animals (Christoph)

Today there are animal shelters all over the world. And almost all of them are overcrowded, because the people don't want their pets anymore and this is a big problem.

Firstly, the animals are very poor there. Most of them haven't got much space to live and they need more room to move about in it.

Secondly, the animal shelters haven't got much money. So I think the people should have to pay something for bringing their pets to the animal shelters. If they had to do this, there would be more money to get more room for the animals.

So I think the best solution would be to pay money to bring pets to shelters. Another way would be to take the animals to relatives while the owner of the pet is on holiday.

Fair to Animals (Franziska)

There are so many people who are cruel to animals. That should be stopped. Forever! These poor animals have feelings, too! It's horrible how people mistreat them!

Firstly, there are so many dogs which have to live on a chain. These dogs have to live outside and their owners don't care. These dogs can't move far away, they only have ten meters to move! And if they make loud noises their owners come and hit them. Is this really fair? No, it Isn't fair at all!

Secondly, there are chicken which are kept in little cages. They have to share a cage which has two square mater with five other chicken. And the only thing they have to do is to lay their eggs. Most of these chicken are ill and die very fast. The people who keep them don't show any feelings about that. The only thing they do is to buy more chicken. What is fair in this world today? Nothing!!!

So what can we do? I think we shouldn't ignore things like this! We should do something against is! We should buy eggs laid by "happy chicken" not by chicken which live in such small cages. And if we saw some people who hit their dogs, we should call the police. Maybe they can help these dogs. In my opinion it's crazy to mistreat animals. Animals have feelings, too!

Coffee 4 U (Paul)

There are a lot of coffee farms all over the world. But the farmers don't get fair prices for their coffee. That is not fair because they have no money.

Firstly it's not fair that farmers work hard for little money. A farmer gets up early in the morning and in the evening he goes to bed very late. The farmers live in huts near their coffee plantations.

Secondly the children of the coffee farmers must also work very hard. They don't get enough to eat and they can't go to school.

There is a solution. All people should buy Fair Trade coffee. If all people buy Fair Trade coffee the farmers will get a fair price for their coffee and then their children can go to school. But Fair Trade is only a small part of the world market. I think people should buy more Fair Trade coffee, because of that Fair Trade will be a bigger part of the world market and more farmers will get fair prices for their coffee.

Justice (Ines)

„Men and women have equal rights!” the law says. But is that true? Is there really justice between the sexes?

More than a hundred years ago, everybody knew that men and women didn’t have the same rights! Men had got the right to education, the right to study and the right to work hard and long. Women should only care about the husband, the family and the household. The female sex wasn’t recognized as a competent kind of human.

But women are strong. They fought for their intention to have the same part in the world as men. Now, look at the facts: Women never intended to have higher positions than men and to take away their jobs. But didn’t men only want women to stay at home and clean dirt? So I ask myself, where was the justice?

But luckily, this time is over. Women are allowed to study, are accepted in most jobs and even got the right to vote. However, I think that should have been case much earlier. There are still people who secretly think that men are better humans. We are all the same! If everyone accepted the idea, we wouldn’t need more justice in our world. But we do.

Fair coffee (Markus)

A lot of people drink it every morning -coffee. Most people don't think about how the coffee is made and dealed. They don't think about the situation in the countries, where this very popular drink is made. Coffee is more bought and sold more than any other thing on our planet. So you see coffee is very important on the market. This creates a lot of problems.

Firstly, the coffee is so popular, that a lot of people want to deal with it. But they don't always do this in a fair way. The farmers work very hard for every single coffee-bean, but mostly they are very poor. They only get 50cent for a kilo, but the big buyers sell it for more than seven dollars.

That isn't fair!

Secondly, although a lot of people drink softdrinks now, the farmers still produce as much coffee as they did before. So there is too much coffee and it's easier for the big buyers, because coffee is cheaper and the farmers get less money. So a lot of farmers decide to go to the USA. And in the future there will be fewer farmers and that means, that there will be less coffee.

So what can we do? In my opinion people should support the project called Fair Trade, because with Fair Trade products the farmers got the money they deserve. I think with Fair Trade the world has become a little bit fairer.