Three Top Issues (I Have Learned About In Class)

Greece. Iran. Stereotyping. These are the three things I have learnt most about in my world issues class this year.
    Greece, or more widely - the EU,  has been the centre of attention for the past year because of their debt problem. Greece has dug them selves into a deep, dark, debt filled hole. The Greece government has not been regularly collecting taxes but they have been giving out pension to people who, in some cases, don't even live in the country anymore. It does not take a rocket scientist to do this math. Lots of money leaving + no money coming into the government = big problems. And that is exactly what Greece has, big problems. However, they are not the only ones on the verge of default, Spain and Portugal  are also walking a fine line. Also other countries who have been managing money a little better don't want to let Greece default and they can't really kick Greece out of the EU so they have been throwing money at Greece. But, wait, pump the brakes. With Greece going down and foreign investors losing confidence in the whole economy would this pose problems for the countries giving out the loans? Why, yes, yes it is. EU countries are getting tired of piggy backing Greece around so with these latest loans comes with a few strings attached. I could go into the whole thing but I won't because i can summarize it like this. The EU(especially Germany and France) are saying, "Greece, get you act together." This means big cuts in spending which the Greece people aren't to happy about. In fact, they are down right livid. Protesting in the streets have been taking a more violent turn in the past months. But hey, life isn't fair and in this world nothing is free.
      To all those people who praise themselves on being really smart, I have a question for you. Close your eyes and pretend you are running a country and you find out that another country with potential nuclear power plans on "wiping you off the map". What do you do? Get angry? Attack them first? Give up? Run around screaming bloody murder? It's a thinker isn't it. In fact, it is all Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been thinking about because it is his country that will be at the blowing up side of the nuclear bomb. Iran has stated that they wish to "wipe Israel off the map" and with there growing nuclear facility this crazy plan might actually happen. Iran is "claiming" that their nuclear program is for "energy purposes only" but if that is the case they have a very large need for energy. Sanction have been put on Iran to try and stop or at least slow there progress in their program but they don't seem to be doing the job.
      The final top issue I learnt about it is one that may seem small, irrelevant, useless, stupid, silly, petty and trivial in the grand scheme of things, especially in comparison to the other two issues I previously talked about but that is not true. Don't get me wrong Greece's ergonomic downturn is a very big deal and Iran's nuclear program is nothing to be taken lightly (even though that may be how I made it sound. But that is what I do, joke about things to early to try and reduce tension. Rarely does it work). But this issue is one that has been laying behind the scenes and has been the cause of larger issues for years. The mother of examples is 9/11.  Everybody, without a doubt remember and knows about 9/11 I was only in grade 2 when it happened and I still remember big shuffled into the gym, confused and scared. Before 9/11 Islamic religion wasn't on anybody radar. Then 9/11 happened and now everybody knows about it. But what people don't know is that it was not that every Islamic person had a hand in the terrorist attack. The terrorist attack was done by Islamic extremists. Big difference. But now when ever anybody brings up Islam many people cringe, usually sub consciously. A majority of people know that it is wrong to lame an entire religion of the actions of one extremist group but we can't help it. The United States of America was a jewel of the world, untouchable. Then suddenly they were hit by an attack that rocked the world. The entire world stood and awe as the towers fell. Millions cried about the thousands lost. Because of this a majority of Islamic people have been wrongly judged. There daily lives they have to deal with hurtful, racist comments and stares and looks that show people distrust. Because of the actions of a relatively small group an entire religious community has been segregated. Now a decade later things are getting better but they are no where near perfect. This is one example of stereotyping. So now you see how stereotyping is a large issue.