Monday November 22, 2004
Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit closed yesterday in Santiago, Chile, with leaders vowing to increase their fight on global terror and weapons of mass destruction. The traditional APEC fare of economic and free trade issues were completely overshadowed by US President George W. Bush’s agenda and his “war on terror”. Proposals to set up a regional free trade agreement were sidelined.

APEC’S closing statement expressed its “unmistakable resolve to collectively confront the threat of terrorism and its disastrous effects.” In a shaded warning to Iran and North Korea, it promised to “eliminate the danger posed by proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related items.” George W. Bush delivered his usual warning to North Korea, “the message is clear to Mr. Kim Jong-Il: Get rid of your nuclear weapons programs.”

Not all participants were happy with the APEC agenda changed to include terrorism and nuclear weapons. The Malaysian Trade Minister stressed the need for the summit to stick to economics and trade. New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, however, welcomed a broadened agenda and urged members to focus on the Palestinian problem, stating, “It is not in the interest of our planet to have a proportion of the Muslim world deeply alienated from the West”.

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about world trade, APEC, free trade, The Asia Pacific Rim, Chile, world governmental meetings…

2. PACIFIC RIM: Brainstorm some of the countries of the Pacific Rim and identify any common bonds between them.

3. FREE TRADE ORGS: Talk about other trade blocs: CAFTA, CEFTA, EFTA, NAFTA, ASEAN, CARICOM, EAEC, ECOWAS, SADC.

4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace, let students reuse arguments, and keep noise level up:
Free trade is not a good idea vs. Free trade is the way ahead; Free trade helps all poor countries vs. Free trade only helps America; World trade summits need also to focus on terrorism and WMD vs. World trade summits should focus solely on economics and trade; World free trade is possible vs. Impossible; …

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. ECONOMY: Look in the dictionary to find the different meanings of the word ‘economy’. Talk about each of the words.

2. ABBREVIATIONS: Students match the following abbreviations with their raison d’etre and discuss their effectiveness / relevance / worth…:

(a)	GATT	economic cooperation and development
(b)	OPEC	international trade
(c)	OECD	nuclear weapons
(d)	WIPO	Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg
(e)	WTO	oil
(f)	IMF	protecting intellectual copyright
(g)	IAEA	trade and tariffs
(h)	BENELUX	money

3. TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  APEC means Atlantic-Pacific Economic Council.  T / F
(b)  Last week’s summit was held in Chile.  T / F
(c)  Free trade and economic cooperation was top of the agenda.  T / F
(d)  George W, Bush attended the 3-day summit.  T / F
(e)  Leaders vowed to eliminate the danger posed by WMD. T / F
(f)  Bush told Mr Kim Jong Il to get rid of his nuclear weapons programs.  T / F
(g)  North Korea’s Kim Jong Il attended the summit. T / F
(h)  Everyone was happy to discuss the “war on terror”.  T / F

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the text:

(a)	leaders vow	by
(b)	traditional	in the interest of …
(c)	overshadowed	to do things
(d)	proposals can sometimes be	sidelined
(e)	confront the	need for something
(f)	get	fare of items
(g)	stress the	threat of something
(h)	not	rid of something you don’t want

 .

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Little Economics for APEC - (Mon Nov 22)

The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit ________ yesterday in Santiago, Chile, with leaders ________ to increase their fight on global terror and weapons of mass destruction. The traditional APEC ________ of economic and free trade issues were completely overshadowed by US President George W. Bush’s agenda and his “war on terror”. Proposals to set up a regional free trade agreement were ________.		fare closed sidelined vowing
APEC’S closing statement expressed its “unmistakable ________ to collectively confront the threat of terrorism and its disastrous effects.” In a shaded warning to Iran and North Korea, it promised to “eliminate the danger posed by ________ of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and ________ items.” George W. Bush delivered his usual warning to North Korea, “the message is ________ to Mr. Kim Jong-Il: Get rid of your nuclear weapons programs.”		clear related proliferation resolve
Not all ________ were happy with the APEC agenda changed to include terrorism and nuclear weapons. The Malaysian Trade Minister stressed the need for the summit to ________ to economics and trade. New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, however, ________ a broadened agenda and urged members to focus on the Palestinian problem, stating, “It is not in the interest of our planet to have a proportion of the Muslim world deeply ________ from the West”.		participants alienated stick welcomed

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the word match exercise.

4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

5. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. TO BE A PARTICIPANT: In pairs students brainstorm ideas on the issues that need resolving in world trade. They share their ideas and discuss whether and why (not) these will be resolved in the next 5, 10, 20 years.

6. SUMMIT THEMES: The summit was organized around the following themes. In pairs/groups, take one theme, discuss it and create a presentation and conclusion to be presented to other groups, who will ask you questions:
- One community, our future
- Advancing development through Trade and Investment Liberalization
- Santiago Initiative for Expanded Trade in APEC
- Enhancing Human Security - Underpinning Economic Growth
- Promoting Good Governance and a Knowledge-Based Society

7. THE NITTY GRITTY: Here are some more detailed initiatives outlined in the Summit. Discuss the workability of these in groups:
- to achieve sustainable and equitable growth and reduce economic disparities
- to support efforts to conclude promptly the accessions of the Russian Federation and Viet Nam to the WTO.
- improved protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights
- to advance the prosperity and sustainable growth of our economies and the complementary mission of ensuring the security of our people.
- to collectively confront the threat of terrorism and its disastrous effects on the people and also the economies of the region.
- cooperation on the supervision of exported and imported food
- to prevent hidden hazardous or toxic materials
- to strengthen the public health system to respond to regional health threats.
-  to dismantle trans-national terrorist groups
- to eliminate the danger posed by proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
- to fight corruption
- to promote the use of English

HOMEWORK

1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on APEC. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. NITTY GRITTY: Choose one theme from the ‘nitty gritty’ ideas above and write a short article outlining the pros and cons of your chosen topic.

4. GEORGE ORWELL: The author of ‘1984’ wrote in 1948 that he foresaw the emergence of 3 or 4 major economic blocs that would dominate world affairs and result in war. How far do you see this to be true? Write a comment on this criticizing the establishing of regional trade associations.

ANSWERS

ABBREVIATIONS

(a)	GATT	General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs
(b)	OPEC	Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(c)	OECD	Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
(d)	WIPO	World Intellectual Property Organization
(e)	WTO	World Trade Organization
(f)	IMF	International Monetary Fund
(g)	IAEA	International Atomic Energy Association
(h)	BENELUX	Belgium Netherlands and Luxembourg Free Trade Area

TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false:
(a)  APEC means Atlantic-Pacific Economic Council.  F
(b)  Last week’s summit was held in Chile.  T
(c)  Free trade and economic cooperation was top of the agenda.  F
(d)  George W, Bush attended the 3-day summit.  T
(e)  Leaders vowed to eliminate the danger posed by WMD. T
(f)  Bush told Mr Kim Jong Il to get rid of his nuclear weapons programs.  T
(g)  North Korea’s Kim Jong Il attended the summit.  F
(h)  Everyone was happy to discuss the “war on terror”.  F

PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the text:

(a)	leaders vow	to do things
(b)	traditional	fare of items
(c)	overshadowed	by
(d)	proposals can sometimes be	sidelined
(e)	confront the	threat of something
(f)	get	rid of something you don’t want
(g)	stress the	need for something
(h)	not	in the interest of …

 

GAP FILL:

The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit closed yesterday in Santiago, Chile, with leaders vowing to increase their fight on global terror and weapons of mass destruction. The traditional APEC fare of economic and free trade issues were completely overshadowed by US President George W. Bush’s agenda and his “war on terror”. Proposals to set up a regional free trade agreement were sidelined.

APEC’S closing statement expressed its “unmistakable resolve to collectively confront the threat of terrorism and its disastrous effects.” In a shaded warning to Iran and North Korea, it promised to “eliminate the danger posed by proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems and related items.” George W. Bush delivered his usual warning to North Korea, “the message is clear to Mr. Kim Jong-Il: Get rid of your nuclear weapons programs.”

Not all participants were happy with the APEC agenda changed to include terrorism and nuclear weapons. The Malaysian Trade Minister stressed the need for the summit to stick to economics and trade. New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, however, welcomed a broadened agenda and urged members to focus on the Palestinian problem, stating, “It is not in the interest of our planet to have a proportion of the Muslim world deeply alienated from the West”.