Please read the descriptors for the five topic choices for Business/Economics and then vote for your favorite.

Educational Disparities
Different places have different levels of resources available to meet critical social needs. Perhaps nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the area of education. Schools in some countries graduate measurably better-educated students, and a higher percentage of their youth, than schools elsewhere. In some countries, like the United States, school funding and regulation is largely local and tied to property taxes, resulting in schools of drastically different quality within just miles of each other. Is there an advantage to leaving school funding levels up to local communities, and tied to particular funding sources? Should there be national, or perhaps even global, curricular standards? Are urban residents and ethnic minorities doomed to bad schools, or can their education be improved without diminishing the resources?

Intellectual Property
Music downloads on the Internet without the permission of the musician. Knock-off watches being sold on city streets. Counterfeit drugs sold in less developed countries. All of these things have something in common with a burglar who breaks into someone’s house at night to steal electronics and jewelry. They all involve the illegal taking of someone else’s property. Intellectual property – literary works, music, names and logos that convey information, designs for inventions – plays an important role in the global economy, and lawmakers have for centuries made and enforced laws to protect creators’ rights in and to their intellectual property. Copyrights, trademarks and patents are all legal innovations designed to encourage creativity by allowing creators to exclusively benefit from their creations. In the age of globalization, these innovations are being put to the test. How can intellectual property be protected across borders? Are the Berne Convention, the Madrid Protocol and the World Trade Organization up to the task? Should intellectual property rights be enforced in all situations, even when they result in making life-saving medicines unaffordable in less developed countries?

Job Security
In many developed countries, businesses and industries that have operated for years are now outsourcing to other countries where labor is cheaper and working conditions less stringently monitored, or downsizing in favor of less human resource-intensive processes. This leaves many workers out of work. These workers are often unprepared for other jobs, but are willing to undergo training to update their skills. The problem is that there are often no other jobs available in their areas that pay a wage equal to or even close to what they were earning before the company downsized or outsourced. What will happen with these workers? What will be the effect on the local and national economy? What economic or educational changes need to be made to keep this from happening in the future, or to better prepare people for it? Should outsourcing be discouraged as a matter of public policy, or would doing so be economically inefficient or damaging to less developed countries?

Social Insurance
Social Insurance: Many countries provide their poor, unemployed, disabled, and elderly citizens with various forms of financial assistance so they can afford daily living expenses. How much social insurance should countries provide their citizens? Whilst a number of developed nations around the world, such as the European nations of Denmark and Sweden, provide very comprehensive benefits for their citizens, they have also been criticized for the high personal income tax rates that have been used to fund such programs. Some argue that such high tax rates damage economies, thereby increasing the number of people in need of help. On the other hand, the United States is often criticized for providing the least amount of social insurance when compared to other wealthy countries. Social insurance programs are costly; many people fear that such programs in many countries will become unaffordable in
the not too distant future. Other people believe that it is the duty of a democratic, civilised society to look after those in need. Some successful people argue that their hard-earned cash should not go to others who have not been so fortunate, while others see it as their social responsibility to use their wealth in this way. How should countries pay for these programs? How can people in countries too poor to afford social insurance be assisted when they are in need?

Whistleblowers
Whistleblowers - Sometimes governments and businesses behave badly. When they do, it is important for people who can make needed changes – legislators, voters, corporate shareholders – to have complete and accurate information about what the problems are that need to be solved. But organizations often have ways of covering up their transgressions. Enter whistleblowers – people inside organizations who report on internal misbehavior. What kinds of protections should different types of whistleblowers have? Do rights to free speech encompass whistleblowers, particularly when issues of institutional efficiency and national security arise? Will changing technology and business transactions require new mechanisms for supporting and protecting whistleblowers?

Please read the descriptors for the five topic choices for Science/Technology and then vote for your favorite.

Biosecurity
With the number of noxious pests, plant diseases and genetically modified crops increasing around the world, monitoring these and preventing them from affecting native flora and fauna as well as from seriously damaging exports is a major concern for many countries today. A number of countries have stringent safeguards in place already, but others have little or no policy for restricting the possibility of pests and diseases coming into their countries. Customs officers can contain a certain number of these, but are limited by the constraints of their job and the porous nature of many borders. Also, what are necessary safeguards to some are unnecessary restraints on trade and economic growth to others. How do we identify which plants, animals and genetic modifications are helpful or harmful? How should countries regulate the harmful ones and their movement across borders, and how should proactive countries deal with other countries that are less vigilant in dealing with these concerns?

Enhancing Human Potential
There are already many opportunities for people to enhance their potential, both in physical and cognitive abilities-performance enhancing drugs, personal trainers, speed enhancing swimsuits, technologies for body and brain to name but a few. As time goes on humans will be offered more ways to enhance their potential in unprecedented ways, things like cybernetic body parts, memory enhancing or erasing drugs, technologically advanced sports equipment, humans/computer interfaces. Many ethical issues surround these advances. Should sports people be able to enhance their performances in any way they like? Should parents be able to choose IQ boosters such as drugs or brain implants for their children? What impacts might the disparities between the “haves” and the “have nots” have? How far might the human brain and body be able to be pushed? What are the dangers, as well as benefits, of powerful new technologies that might radically change the lives of human beings?

Impact of Social Media
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, Second Life, blogging, tweeting, all of these words have entered our lives in the last few years. The impact of Web2.0 and the rise of associated social media has changed our lives in many ways that we are only just beginning to understand. Regimes have fallen because of the use of social media; people all over the world are able to collaborate in real time to work and to play. Some people think social media has a detrimental effect on people’s social lives; others believe it is a new and exciting way of socializing and developing relationships. How might social media continue to impact our lives? Will it lead to more social isolation or more global collaboration? Do there need to be controls or restrictions on social media or are the negative effects outweighed by the positives? Does any one government have the right to legislate on the use of social media by its citizens?

Medical Ethics
The aim of medical ethics is generally to prolong life and make it more comfortable -- a worthy goal in the eyes of most people, cultures, and religions. But do the ends always justify the means? Recent years have given rise to high-profile debates about cloning and stem cell research, while disagreements about the acceptable boundaries of experimentation on humans and animals remain. Should taxpayer dollars be spent on controversial research, even if it has the potential to save many lives? How should differences among philosophical and theological traditions be reconciled in determining what is ethical? Is it ethical to develop treatment that only a privileged few can afford? Is it appropriate to routinely prescribe antibiotics that may prevent dangerous infections today, but give rise to even more dangerous superbugs tomorrow?

Processed Foods
Around the world there is an increased interest in food and health. Many questions have been posed on this topic: Where are food products produced? How? Why? By whom? How far have these products traveled? How long have they been stored? A huge number of food products are now chemically enhanced and processed. In China in 2008, a large number of children became seriously ill and several died after melamine was added to milk powder designed especially for babies. The United State’s FDA has documented dangerous bacteria and “just plain filth” in seafood imported from Peru and Panama (Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, July 2007). Foods may be labeled as ‘natural flavors,’ but these do not necessarily come from the original product. Strawberry flavoring, for example, may have started out as a bacterial protein. Genetic engineering is still under study. Nanotechnology represents the latest high technology attempt to infiltrate our food supply. Do these new technologies pose serious new risks for human health? Are preservatives safe? How might the addition of flavor enhancers, vitamins and minerals, and sugar and fat substitutes be affecting our overall health?

Please read the descriptors for the five topic choices for Social/Political and then vote for your favorite.

Academic Honesty
Academic Honesty- Academic dishonesty, including cheating and plagiarizing, is a growing problem in K12 schools as well as universities. 75% of high school students in the United States admit that they have cheated in the past twelve months. In 1969, 58% of students reported allowing someone else access to their papers. College students can purchase essays online. The Internet has made information easier to get, but it is easier for students to cheat or plagiarize. Teachers at all levels have to spend days of class time teaching the difference between summarizing, paraphrasing and plagiarizing. What are the implications of misuse of Internet sources as well as the attitudes of young people towards academic honesty?

Climate Refugees
Over the coming century it is expected that climate change will lead to many negative effects such as rising sea levels caused by the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, which is already happening. Already many small, low lying Pacific nations are feeling the effect of rising sea levels, with a village in Vanuatu having to be relocated in 2005. The small nation of Tuvalu is considering that the entire nation may disappear and the entire population may have to be relocated, New Zealand has already become a refuge for many Tuvaluans and the NZ and Australian governments are working on ways of handling the possible influx of environmental refugees from the Pacific. If temperatures rise, many people at present living in equatorial parts of the world may be driven to more temperate areas. How will temperate countries deal with the influx of environmental refugees? What will happen if nations disappear off the face of the Earth?

Gifted and Talented Education
For years, schools have offered special curriculum and programs for “gifted and talented” students, in order to help them achieve their full potential. But with school funding constantly being threatened in many places, many schools find it difficult to afford anything “special” – particularly for students that are more likely to make the best of any situation they face. But does cutting gifted education threaten the potential of our future leaders? How should educators go about identifying gifted students, or does the process inherently favor those from privileged backgrounds? Should academic gifted education consist of more advanced material in standard subject at an earlier age, and if so, which subjects should be the focus? Or should gifted education focus more on skills, such as creative problem solving? Are “pull out” programs helpful or harmful to the development of young people?

Propaganda
Propaganda is communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. It uses selective messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response from the audience. Common media for transmitting propaganda messages include news reports, government reports, historical revision, junk science, books, leaflets, movies, radio, television, and posters. Propaganda shares techniques with advertising and public relations. With growing trends in communication, how will propaganda be spread in the future? During WWII, propaganda more typically referred to political or nationalist uses of these
techniques. Examples of techniques include: instilling panic, appealing to prejudice, creating a bandwagon, demonizing the enemy, stating half-truths, and providing a scapegoat. Propaganda usually exists on both sides of a conflict.

Urban and Regional Planning
In some of the world’s biggest cities, the late 20th century saw a significant movement of people and businesses out of cities and into suburban areas. For those cities, this has meant a lack of new development, poverty, crime and deteriorating schools. For suburbs, it has meant over development and sprawl, increased traffic, pollution, a loss of traditional communities and overcrowded schools. The 20th Century also witnessed the rapid urbanization of the world’s population as more and more people moved from rural to urban
areas and cities struggled to cope with the growth. The 21st century could become the century of the city. At present, half the people in the world live in cities of more than one million people. It is estimated that 93% of urban growth will occur in Asia and Africa, and to
a lesser extent in Latin America and the Caribbean. By 2050 over 6 billion people, two thirds of humanity, will be living in towns and cities. How will cities need to adapt to the increasing population? What social, economic, and environmental impacts are caused by urbanization? What is the impact on rural communities where populations are in decline? How can issues such as crime, housing and transportation be dealt with? Can governmental and business planning combat these problems in the future and, if so, how?