Blog Topic #11

I thought that this map was pretty good, even though it does not really show much, it does show how much Americans know about other countries. So it is good that we take geography classes that talk in depth about all of the other regions in the world so we know what that place is all about.

Blog Topic #10

I think that the money should go to developing trade, infrastructure, and industry. With the all the money that is getting sent there it obviously is not getting used properly, so if we could help with these three things then the money will be going to better living and therefore the aids should go down. Because the more that the area gets developed then there will be more jobs, and money flow coming in and out, so not just the money being donated but the money from the trade and industries.

Blog Topic #9

Protests in Algeria were much like the Egypt and Tunisia, they wanted their president Abdelaziz Bouteflika out. Four hundred people were arrested and it was estimated that 1500 people were clogging streets and making havoc. To stop this they put 28,000 riot police to stop this. They want their leader out of the government and many people said that the fear that the police are putting in them is gone and they will do anything to get him out of office.

Blog Topic #8

After letting the it spin for awhile and just watching then stopping it after a couple of minutes, I realized something very interesting. We tell all of our little kids lies, because if you look at the top of the globe, there really is no such thing as the north pole! So that was just something interesting that I noticed, and I guess I never really thought about it too much.

Blog Topic #7

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LE20Df01.html

For this blog I chose to do mine on the opium wars in Afghanistan. I think that it is obvious that the Taliban is one of the main causes of this high amount of opium production. In this article it talks about their influence on the opium all over the world. It says that they produce 90% of the worlds illicit opium, which the farmers have to grow themselves, but the Taliban will come around and collect taxes from them on the opium. The farmers that grow the opium are not Taliban themselves, they are just men that are trying to get money so they can put food on the table and make it through the winter.

The prices of opium are starting to rise because of the disease that has happened to the crop causing the poppies to wilt and therefore are pretty much useless. So with the supply going down and the price going up this is just going to bring in more money for the Taliban. Even though the supply is down, they have stockpiles of opium that they can sell and therefore when people wonder how the Taliban has so much money, well that is why.

Blog topic #4

I think that the major thing that stuck out to me in Slumdog Millionaire is the actual slums. This video is of Mumbai and walking through the slums. I amazed me that people could actually live in so much poverty, and have no way to get out. National Geographic said that in Dharavi (the main slum in Mumbai) there are up to 18,000 people living in on one single acre of land. Wow, and its still not the biggest in the world, that goes to Mexico City's Neza-Chalco-Itza.

Blog Topic #6

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/17/25858.shtml

This is an article from the day that China decided to install the "great firewall". The Chinese government is doing this because they have a major fear of people having access to free information. Things like CNN and the Washington Post are removed, and internet cafe's that did not have the blocking software that allows the government to monitor what is being seen on the internet.

The case of Huang Qi was so disturbing that someone would do this to a man, that tried his hardest to find seven missing girls, but since the gang that took them had sources with the police he was tortured. They said that he was guilty of "organizing national seperatism" and "subverting the socialist system." Only another reason that I am glad that our government is the way that it is.

Blog Topic #5

This is an image of the number of aircraft flights in the world. As you can see the U.S is the biggest by far, with most people in the U.S flying sometimes to the state that is right next to the one they are in. The thing that really stands out is that Africa and Southeast asia have the least, even though they are the farthest from things. Lots of people in these countries and other LDC's have never even been on an airplane before. Globalization is the increasing interconectedness of people and places through converging proccesses of economic, political, and cultural change. So this map really shows that if we want Globalization to really increase I think that we are going to have to start going to these LDC's more and trying to develop them. World Mapper said that in 2000 civilian aircraft flew a total of 25 billion kilometers, that means if one person flew this themselves they would circle the world 630,000 times! Wow, I can't stop wondering how far I have flown on an airplane and never even left the states!

Blog Topic #3

The main reason that I chose this video is that it really shows the geography of Cambodia. This video is about the Prey Lang forest and how it is being destroyed by deforestation.

Prey Lang is a massive forest that is full of trees and large companies are going in and destroying it. Deforestation is a major problem in Southeast Asia especially here in Cambodia. All of this deforestation is taking away the natural resources that the Cambodians live off of, and making their lives much harder to live. One thing that it really is taking away is the animals, by knocking out where they live the animals start to die and the population goes down. With the population of the animals going down, food is much harder to come by for the people that rely on them for food.

Blog Topic #2

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/people-smuggler-avoids-jail-term/story-fn6bfm6w-1225972902673
          This article was about how a 20 year old and his father were smuggling Afghans and Pakistanis to Australia from Indonesia. They were charged with nine months in prison but got it suspended and in that time the father died six months after being arrested dying by mysterious circumstances.
          Our book states that 25 percent of the population in Australia are immigrants, and the major cities in Australia offer some attractive possibilities for these immigrants. Up until 1973 Australia had a White Australian Policy which promoted European and North American immigration at the expense of other groups. Now it is different, the migration trends have flipped and now more diverse immigrants are giving the country a more multicultural character. Kanakas, or Pacific Island laborers, who are imported as inexpensive workers usually from the Solomons and New Hebrides, these laborers diversified Queensland's "Sugar Coast." Currently there has been a big change and lots of immigrants are starting to escape from Africa because of civil wars and starvation and have made a new home in Australia. Now, around 70 percent of the immigration quota for Australia is filled by Africans. Australia is also a home to lots of Asians, more and more immigrants are coming from Asia, so many that 40 percent of Australians immigrants are from Asia, and cities like Sydney have a Asian flavor to fullfil the immigrants needs. Found on page 646-647

http://www.smh.com.au/national/sydney-celebrates-australia-day-20100126-mv5b.html
This article talks about the festivities that were held on Australia day in Syndney. The reason for Australia Day is to celbrate the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. They arrived with 750 prisoners in Botany Bay which is now known as Sydney. I could not find anything on Australia Day itself in the textbook, so i went off of the arrival of the British to Australia and how Europeans started to move to Australia. So now Australia celebrates the arrival of them as Australia Day. Found on page 640

Blog Topic #1

I thought that this image really showed the part of globalization where it seems like everywhere you go you can find something that is an American idea. I guess it could also tie into the international trade aspect also, but when I see it I think of how many cultural ideas other countries get from the U.S are just like this photo. There are McDonalds all over the world, along with all other types of fast food, and to me it makes me realize that maybe its not such a good thing that globalization is increasing.