Friday, December 16, 2011
Weekly Assignment 9
Weekly Post #9
Article 1: 'It's Finished': Last of U.S. Soldiers Leaving Iraq - Martha Raddatz
This article is about how all the soldiers who were fighting in Iraq are coming back. After nice years and almost 1 trillion dollars they finally return. Since the war began 4,500 American soldiers have died and huge amount 104,000 Iraqi soldiers died. The bad thing about this though is that many soldiers are without job now and are desperately looking. Some without even a college education now searching for jobs.
Article 2: EDITORIAL: Close the Strait of Hormuz (FOUCS) - Washington Post
Iran says they want to close their straight that they export all of their oil from. They say it will impact the rest of the world more than it would impact them because 1/6 of the world’s oil comes from there. But, it really wouldn’t the world can get oil from other countries just as easy like Nigeria and Brazil, and Iran doing this would just make themselves go bankrupt from not being able to sell their number one export. Iran says that they plan to do this because they want to make a point that “If the world wants to make the region insecure, we will make the world insecure.” I chose this as my focus article this week because we have been talking about Iran in class this past week and about putting sanctions on themselves and how we need to stop their economy, but if Iran does this to themselves, they will destroy their own economy by not getting money from other countries. It would be a dumb move for Iran because sure it would make the prices go up temporarily but we could find a replacement oil producing country and give them more business and make Iran go bankrupt.
Article 3: Millions From Diamonds Go to Mugabe, Observers Say - John Eligon
Apparently 10 million dollars in diamonds have been secretly given to Robert Mugabe to help give him money to expand his 31-year reign. These diamonds are coming from the state-owned mines in Eastern Zimbawe. It might even be more than 10 million, because apparently the treasury was shortchanged 60 million dollars last year. Mugabe no longer is in control of the finance ministry because of other cases that some of the money was going to allies.
Article 4: Euro Troubles Continue - PRI the world
The Euro keeps facing problems almost every single week now. The EURO fell under $1.30 for the first time in almost a year. Also the UK decided not to sign with a summit deal that was made by many other countries in the “Eurozone” But, the UK said they will still remain an active member in the EU despite their non-agreement on solving the issue.
Article 5: Journalist is Shot Dead in Russia’s North Caucasus Region - MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
Another journalist from Russia has been shot which adds to a rising amount of journalist and human rights workers killed in the last few years in Russia. The journalist who was killed was Khadzhimurad Kamalov who was the founder of a newspaper that covered delicate issues like police abuse and corruption. Police say they still don’t know who the gunman is but they are searching for him.
Learning Reflection:
This past week our class created a fake UN debate about whether or not to add more security to Iran and the goods they are exporting. We split up into groups of two, each group having its own country and had a debate. All of the countries came to a unanimous vote and all voted to freeze their central banks. All the countries, besides Iran, came up with a single group essay about why and how we should add more sanctions to Iran. Also in individual countries, we all made opening speeches about why that individual country chose to contribute to this single cause of freezing their banks. This was perfect timing because in my focus article, just recently Iran closed their own straight that they export oil out of.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Weekly Assignment 8
Article 1 and Focus Article: "Warning Euro Fix Could Take Years, Merkel Urges Action" by Nicholas Kulish: found on the NYTimes
Chancellor Angela Merkel held a meeting today that was intended to amend the European treaties and to address the debt crisis. At the meeting Merkel addressed the German Parliament about how indebted countries have roiled global markets and brought down governments. She said that she wanted some quick changes to happen by the end of the year that would help to debt crisis, but she said that to fix the whole problem would take several years. She has now called for a new treaty and since the release of that the market rose slightly. I chose this article as my focus article because in class this past week we have been talking about economics.
Article 2: " Pakistan Refuses to Help as U.S. Sorts Out a Fatal Attack" by Matthew Rosenburg: found on The NYTimes.
Pakistanis are refusing to help sort out the confusion about the airstrike that happened last week that killed two dozen people. Both sides are in dispute about almost every aspect of the event. Both sides said they were fired on first. Also the chief of the Pakistan Army has now declared that he gave permission to the whole army to return any fire without any permissions required.
Article 3: " Go Online, Beat a Puzzle and Become a British Spy" by John F Burns: posted on NYTimes
This article is basically about how the British Spy Agency has posted a puzzle on the internet located here (http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/) where if you beat the puzzle you will be able to get interview by the British Government about becoming an internet spy for them, stopping terrorism and organized crime. Apparently about 50 people have already beaten this almost impossible puzzle since its release last month. A normal person would have lots of trouble beating this puzzle because all it is is decrypting 160 codes- so basically only a hacker would be able to beat it.
Article 4: " Camp Victory, emptied of U.S. troops, is handed to Iraqi government by Liz Sly: on Washington Post.
The U.S. headquarters outside of Baghdad was handed over to the Iraqi government on Friday which the U.S. has owed for almost a decade. This large base used to hold 68,000 soldiers and they all got to go
home. There is currently only 12,000 troops left in Iraq now down from a peak of 170,000 in 2007. Col. Barry Johnson said that by the end of the year all the troops will be gone.
Article 5: This picture is about the 24th annual world aids day held in Taipei Taiwan. Dozens of volunteers made a human ribbon to help aids sufferers everywhere. The color red is supposed to symbolize "love and care". Learning Reflection : This week in class we talked about economic geography and about resources.
We learned about 4 types of resources , Natural, Nonrenewable, Capital, and Human Resources. We also talked about how technology is effecting the way we get our energy, we went "from wood to wind". We also talked about how different countries can be more valuable than others depending on resource access and level of education.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Weekly Assignment 7
Article 1: "Arab League Punishes Syria Over Violent Crackdown" Found on NYTimes by NEIL macFARQUAHR
This article is about how the Arab League keeps isolation Syria's international business. The Arab League is doing this by imposing lots of economic sanctions meant to destroy trade and investment in the Syrian world. Which gave another blow to Syria's economy which was just recently jabbed by the EU and the United States.
Article 2: "Egypt Braces for Fresh Clashes After Protester's Death" Found on NYTimes by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
This article is about how an unarmed protester was killed by the police in Cario on Saturday. When the police killed this protester more protesters came about how that was wrong.The next day 10,000 returned to Tahrir Square to continue protesting and demanding that the military council cede power to a civilial government. The Military and Political parties prepared for chaos for the elections being held on monday.
Article 3: "NATO airstrike strains U.S.-Pakistan relations" Found on Washington post by Karin Brulliard
U.S. efforts to enlist Pakistani for peace talks with the Taliban were halted on Sunday as the fact that a NATO airstrike killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Resulting from that, Pakistan threatened to boycott an international conference in Afghanistan's future. This airstrike is still under investigation but speculations say that american soldiers called it in after taking shots from Pakistani's.
Article 4 + FOCUS ARTICLE: "European debt crisis: Ivestors' confidence shows signs of crumbling" found on Washington post by STEVEN MUFSON
This article is about how the European leaders continue to try to create new structural measures to help the euro be worth more but market confidence already shows signs of crumbling. To help with this banks in Europe have stopped lending money to each other as a "self-reinforcing crisis of confidence" act. Alll of the finance leaders from all 27 countries in the EU are trying to help fix this crisis. I chose this as my focus article this week because in class we were just talking about NATO and EU and what it does and now reading more detail about what they actually do helps me relate more to what we were learning about in class.
Article 5: "Powerful hotel blast kills 3, wounds 27 in southern Philippines, officials say" found on Washington Post by ASSOCIATED PRESS
This article is about a powerful blast that killed 3 people in a hotel packed with wedding guests in a southern phillippines hotel. The explosion is expected to be a bomb but is not yet proved. The explosion was so powerful it made the whole second story floor collapse injuring everyone on that floor and killing few. More than half of the people injured are suspected to die in a few days.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Weekly Assignment 6
Article 1 and Focus Article: This boy, Minhaj Gedi Farah was on the brink of death until the International Rescue Committee took this boy in and helped him survive. He only weighed 6.83 pounds and looked like a skeleton but the Refugee Association helped him. I chose this as my focus article because it really relates to the video we watched about two weeks about about the Somali Flee, because this boy was one of the Somalis who fled because of the fighting in their home country.
peacekeepers try to stop a Liberian riot in the
capital Monrovia on Nov. 7. These rioters were
trying to storm the countries headquarters.
Learning Reflection:
This week in class we talked about the on going war between Israel and Palestine and their complications. As to watching a video and talking about this we are now writing a research project about this also. This has to do with a lot in the news right now and is on lots of the news websites.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Weekly Assignment 5
Focus Picture
Reflection
This week in class we split up into groups and did a cultural assignment. Each group shared information using google documents about certain country's in the world, sharing things like their popular music and clothing. Also sharing the popular foods from that country with the whole class by bringing in samples for everyone to eat.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Weekly Assignment 4
The RENA ship spilling oil close to the coast of New Zealand. Crews trying their hardest to stop the spill before storms come. 
People walking on one side of a flooded highway in the suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand, the country's worst floods in half a century. The country battled to protect Bangkok for rising watersFocus Picture
LEARNING REFLECTION
This week we learned about Cultural Geography. First we looked at a diagram of the United States about what percent of people call a frizzly beverage, soda or pop and where the people who answered are from, showing how culture can affect the way you talk. Also we learned about cultural traits, like Language, Ethnic Heritage, and Religion. Also about Spatial Divisions, which is how we divide the livable space found on the earth by establishing social, economic, and political control, and the reasons for that. These cultural divisions can be found all over the world in every continent
Friday, October 7, 2011
Weekly Assignment 3
Article 1: "Nobel Peace Prize Shared Between 3 Women" on PRI the world.
This article is about 3 women from Yemen who were all awarded the Nobel peace prize due to their “non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.” The Norweigian Nobel Comity hopes that giving these awards to these women will suppress the mistreatment of women in 3rd world countries.
Article 2: "Remembering Steve Jobs – Apple’s Impact in Africa" on PRI the world.
This article is about how the impact of Steve Jobs will not only affect people in the western world but also in Africa, and how they were affected by the influence of the apple company too.
Article 3: "Islamist Cleric Killed in Yemen" on PRI the world.
This article is about the two american citizens killed from a drone strike in Yemen this past week. Obama is proud that they killed him even though they are technically american citizens from this quote,"killing of American-born cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki is a major blow to al-Qaeda".
Article 4: "Single mother of four, grandmother, and company commander in Afghanistan" on MSNBC
This article is about a girl group leader in Afghanistan who controls over 4,000 soldiers and the effect of her being a high leader in the army.
FOCUS ARTICLE
Article 5: "Back to School in Libya, and Struggling to Adjust" on NYTimes
This article is about Libya's push to get more kids back in school. Libya is making a huge stand in the government to make their future generation smarter, instead of just forcing them to join the army. This is a major move in the country of Libya because having the future generations smarter, Libya can move forward as a country. Some city's in Libya are having trouble with these changes, but soon all the city's in Libya will get used to this new push for knowledge. This can hugely effect Human Geography because if Libya becomes a smarter country, they might become one of the world powers, and might change the standings of countries which would effect farming and goods production.
LEARNING REFLECTION: This week in Human Geography we watched a video about population growth/decrease and how this generations choices to not have kids in certain countries will greatly affect the future generations because it will be so small in countries like Japan and Russia. We looked at Population Pyramids and saw how some countries are very offset then what they should be, like India had too many kids and Japan had too little kids, and how Americas was almost perfect. Also we learned about Human Migration and and the 5 reasons why someone would migrate from one countries to another or by force IDP or refugee.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Weekly Assignment 2
Article 1: "Farmers in China's South Riot Over Seizure of Land" NYTimes - Andrew Jacobs
Article 2: "After Four Months, Saleh Is Back in Yemen" NYTimes - Lauren Kasinof
Article 3: "Pakistan Scorns U.S. Scolding on Terrorism" NYTimes - Jane Perlez
Article 4: "U.S. Pushes Europe to Act With Force on Debt Crisis" NYTimes -Mark Lander
FOCUS ARTICLE
Article 5: "Global Arms Sale Dropped Sharply in 2010 Studies Show" NYTimes - Thom Shanker
My focus article this week is about the Guns Sale throughout the world and about the total amount traded went down this year from 65 billion to 40 billion. Although even with this cut American still bought the most by buying 21 billion worth of arms. Russia came in second but purchasing 8 billion, and India in third with 7 billion bought. Some people think its due to the economy, but hopefully its about wars stopping. This topic relates to Human Geography because when one country buys a weapon they can choose to attack other countries with that weapon and that could affect the production of food or other resources and make prices go up just from one purchase.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Weekly Assignment 1
My first article i chose for this week is "Famine hits Somalia in World less likely to intervene" written by Jeffrey Gentleman posted on New York Times. This article is about the drought spreading through Somalia that has already killed over 10,000 people. The Islamic military group, the Shabab is blocking aid to Somalia and without help it is suspected that three-quarters to a million people will go without food. For my second article is chose "Suicide Bomber Kills Mourners in Pakistan" written by Ismali Khan, found on NYT. This article is about a carpenter who died in a car accident, and at his funeral a suicide bomber ran out from a field shouting "God is great" and set off the bomb that was attached to his body. In this process he killed 50 and 100 were wounded. According to the doctors the wounded are in serious condition and he suspects the death toll to rise. My third article i chose for this week is " CIA Kills Top Qaeda Operatives in Drone Strike by Mark Mezzetti, found in NYT. This article is about an armed drone from the CIA killed a Qaeda terrorist who plotted two terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. This drone happened 1 month from last time a drone hit a Qaeda. Pakistan is afraid of how fast and frequent the drones are coming in now. My fourth article is " Willow, Lost Cat From Colorado Finds Her Way to Manhattan" by the Associated Press and this was my one article that wasn't world news. This article is about Willow, a cat who was lost in 2006 and was found recently in the streets of Manhattan. The Cat was able to be returned to the owners because of a microchip that was put inside of the cat when it was a baby. The family says its a miracle that the cat is still alive being able to survive the owls and coyotes in Colorado and being able to survive on its own for 5 years, and the family will soon get the cat back. For my last article of the week I chose " China- Recycled Cooking Oil Poses Risk" by Edward Wong, on the NYT. This article talks about how two-million tons of cooking oil are recycled illegally and are used in China which pose a serious threat to the health of the people eating at those restaurants. Police have reported 32 people selling recycled oil in 14 provinces throughout china for a discounted price. My favorite article this week was this last one about cooking oil because it relates to
Human Geography because what the cooking oil throughout the world is being done with goes to China and it affects the rest of the world through stuff that's happening half-way across the world.
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