Today we had a PPT discussion on the UN's HDI and Canada's shifting place upon it. WARNING: BE CAREFUL WHEN READING STATISTICS. A formal study of statistics is outside the scope of Socials 11, but we must be aware that statistics taken at first glance (and even second or third glance) can be misleading. For example, we discussed that if Canada has lost ground on the HDI it could be as much because other nations have risen, rather than because Canada has dropped. Also, the criteria and how data is measured can (and has) changed.
We watched the first of three short clips to illustrate the distribution of wealth at home in Canada, but I also have ones for the USA and one for the a whole world view. Do you remember the year of protests against the One Percent? It is important to seek out the source of such reports. For example, is the report biased? Is it connected to a political organization that might has a specific goal or agenda? In the case of the videos I showed, who was, for example, Edward (Ed) Broadbent - a name associated with the organization that reported the Canadian information. What does the term non-partisan mean? We mentioned it.
Here are the links: 1) World Distribution 2) USA Distribution 3) Canada Distribution
Thinking about poverty in Canada today? Here is a concise summary from the CBC website (George Stroumboulopoulos) with a ton of links in it for the person that requires extra information:
10 Things...Poverty in Canada
Here is the link to Mr. Rauser's Socials 11 page with the Hans Rosling BBC population documentary:
"Don't Panic" BBC Documentary I suggest this would be a valuable hour to spend to get you thinking about how to apply our study of demography to real world situations.
Please complete Ex. #11 from Falk for next class.
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