Have you ever loved someone? It’s a too obvious question but there are many kinds of love that exist in the world, and people’s intentions for having love are various as well. This is how The Great Gatsby shows the diverse love throughout the context of the novel. Fitzgerald presents the meaning of it in different aspects to show different characters’ perspectives on love. The Great Gatsby’s two major kinds of love are Materialistic love and Past love.  The novel gives attention to the readers to show many characters’ seeks of wealth and romantic life. The author also shows Gatsby’s misunderstanding on love with unclear visions of past love and current love.

First of all, it is important to know the primarily meaning of materialistic love. As it is previously mentioned, people love for different intentions. For people having materialistic love, their purpose is to fulfill their esteem of wealth by sharing relationship with people who are rich. In the Great Gatsby, Myrtle can be a good example of materialistic love. Although she is a wife of Wilson, a poor man who couldn’t satisfy her desire of wealth, Myrtle became a love partner of Tom Buchannan. Moreover, while they were having a party in the apartment in New York, Myrtle started to show her feeling towards Wilson that she was crazy when she was marrying a kind of guy like Wilson. “The only crazy I was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed somebody’s best suit to get married in, and never even told me about it.” In other words, she was insane to marry with a guy who was deadly poor. From this point she starts to show her intention of having love with Tom instead of Wilson. She wanted wealthy life and splendid party every night with Tom who could afford to do that unlike Wilson. Another pinpoint from this scene is the Myrtle’s dress. When Catherine complimented on her dress that it looks adorable and beautiful, Myrtle’s responded, “It’s just a crazy old thing, I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.” Furthermore, when the party is over, she told Catherine, “I’m going to give you this dress as soon as I’m through it. I’ve got to get another one tomorrow; I’m going to make a list of all the things I’ve got to get.” This gives a certain impression to the readers as if Myrtle was long-wanted to enjoy this kind of wealth since past. Unlike when she was in Wilson’s house, she acts more bombastic and surprisingly easy-going with her wealth with Tom. Surely it wasn’t the only pure feeling toward Tom that attracted Myrtle, but also his wealth. Therefore the readers can discover the materialistic side of love in the story.

Another love which can be found is the romantic love. The easiest way to describe romantic love in the novel is ‘dream’. In the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald applies settings and events that are almost improbable to take place in the real world. Jay Gatsby, whose real name is James Gatz, became a wealthy man after his hard work for 5 years, involved in organized-crimes and illegal trade. After his hard-work to be rich, he tries to regain love from Daisy. The parties that Gatsby throws every night looks nearly like a world of fantasy when the readers read the description of them. There is expensive furniture, abundant of food for nearly hundreds of people and thousands of beautiful lamps and lights that impose the sense of fantasy and romantic life of Gatsby. As the story goes on, Nick starts to learn the real intention why Gatsby tried so hard to become wealthy and held splendid parties every night. Moreover, Nick discovered previous relationship of Gatsby and Daisy, who were couple, from Jordan. Gatsby’s real goal was to notify his materialistic strength and wealth to Daisy so that he could take over her love. The background of marriage in the novel also gives the idea of romantic love. In the real world, it’s almost unthinkable to have relationship with other person when he or she is married. Nevertheless Fitzgerald showed Tom, Daisy, Myrtle and Wilson’s separated love to give more emphasis on romanticism. Both Daisy and Myrtle seeks external nature of Gatsby and Tom to fulfill their esteem of wealth. Furthermore, there is an idea of ‘Escapism’ on both Daisy and Myrtle to get away from their real life and live in more fantastical world, and this gives more highlights of romanticism in the Great Gatsby as well.

The Great Gatsby, written by Fitzgerald, presents multi-facial love which makes the novel more interesting. These kinds of love give people’s sense of fantasy or maybe our potential desire as well. The Great Gatsby breaks people’s original idea and expresses its unique and romantic portions of love throughout the story.

The best things in the first day of school is that we don’t have a lot of homework than we usually do, but then the lesson are quite bored without doing anything there. Mr. Graziano, he’s the Math/P.E teacher, he’s so good at explaining math, he explain it in a easy way, and i understand it in 3 seconds. Sometimes i got distracted by someone that talking to me, so i don’t really understand of the work, it’s hard to get distracted. I still love this school very much, they are responsible for everything.They started to make a field trip to Laos this year, we have to payed for $950 to go to Laos, it’s going to so fun there.

So, I go to school named Saigon South International School, or SSIS. I am in 8th grade now and in school for 10 days already. I am really happy that I am in school. I actually have something to do and I can have some fun with my friends. I am also kind of tired these days because when I was on vacation, I used to sleep a lot, but now since it is school days, I have to wake up early. I feel sleepy in the morning, but if I see my friends and chat to each other then,  I don’t feel sleepy. Well, I am going to get use to it after 3 or 4 weeks. I don’t feel sad about coming back to school, not even 0.1%. I love coming to school. Mainly because I can laugh, play with friends and learn. I think learning is important, and I am trying to enjoy learning. I don’t really hang out with my friends after school. It is because I feel tired after school, so I sleep 30 or 40 minutes before my lesson. When it was the first day of school, I was really surprised at some people, they grew taller than me, more than half of the head. They were all shorter than me, and now I am shorter than them. It was really amazing because I think that I didn’t even grew 1 inch. I feel really happy that I came back to school and I can see my friends. SSIS is the only place that makes me laugh a lot. I hope SSIS stays forever.

On Sunday 29 August, Mount Sinabung erupted in the afternoon since 400 years. More than 10000 people who live nearby evacuated on Friday so there were no injuries or casualties. The day before it happened, the villagers felt strong tremors and it began to spew lava. The smoke shot 1500m into the air that they could see lava from miles away.

I think that evacuating villagers causes no injuries and casualties even though it is first eruotion in 400 years, but why did it suddenly evaporate?

Bibliography

NEWSPAPER

The CNN Wire Staff. “Long-dormant Volcano Erupts in Indonesia.”CNN.com. CNN.com, Aug.-Sept. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/?hpt=T1#fbid=zlbXfl3KAw4&wom=false>.

NEWSPAPER

“Thousands Flee Indonesia Volcano on Sumatra.” BBC News. BBC, 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11123169>.

NEWSPAPER

Wollensak, Margaret. “Volcano Mount Sinabung Erupts for First Time in 400 Years.” The Epoch Times. Epoch Times Staff, 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/41798/>.

Vocabulary

Triggered is the pressing part of the gun to fire it.

-          The Taliban has access to heat-seeking missiles. During the Russian war in Afghanistan, this was suspected. The Afghans have not had much success with these heat-seeking missiles, but the American forces have apparently tried to suppress this information. (Accuracy in Media, 2010)

-          Funds sent to Afghanistan for humanitarian aid have gone missing – almost certainly going to the insurgents. An orphanage set up in Gardez was shown to have had no orphans a year after its opening. (Accuracy in Media, 2010)

These leaked data have been criticize that it could endangered United States security. (Telegraph, 2010). In addition to the reports, Wikileaks has also raise question about USA as an “exporter of terrorism”. “Primarily we have been concerned about al Qaeda infiltrating operatives into the United States to conduct terrorist attacks, but AQ may be increasingly looking for Americans to operate overseas,” the document proposes.(Telegraph, 2010). These information are still in being question about its accuracy, however, it had raise a sense of awareness about how information can be censor and the truth always seem unbelievable.

Bibliography

Editor of Familysecuritymatters.org. “Wikileaks – Afghan “War Logs” Crisis?” Accuracy In Media. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.aim.org/guest-column/wikileaks-afghan-%E2%80%9Cwar-logs%E2%80%9D-crisis/>.

Jamieson, Alastair. “CIA Memo on United States as ‘exporter of Terrorism’ Published by Wikileaks.” Telegraph. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7965140/CIA-memo-on-United-States-as-exporter-of-terrorism-published-by-Wikileaks.html>.

This has worked well

This has worked well

Bibliography

Bus Hostage Situation Manila – Philippines 23rd of August 2010. YouTube. Gpbeatz. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByNMwkbhCKQ&feature=related>.

Mair, John. “Philippine Police Admit to Botching Hostage Crisis.” Ed. Miral Fahmy. Reuters. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67M0DJ20100824>.

Vietnam Plus. “Hostage Crisis in Philippines Ends, Seven Died.” Vietnam Plus. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://en.vietnamplus.vn/Home/Hostage-crisis-in-Philippines-ends-seven-died/20108/11626.vnplus>.

Remember that most of the information in your blog profile will be automatically updated with the information in your Moodle profile. If you want to make changes to your information, it is better to do it in your Moodle profile.

Remember that most of the information in your blog profile will be automatically updated with the information in your Moodle profile. If you want to make changes to your information, it is better to do it in your Moodle profile.

AP Comparative Government – C
Ms. Holley
August 31, 2010

Chile Trapped Miners Show More Than Meet the Eyes:
Social Capital, Politics, and Economics; Entry no. 2

During the past month, 33 Chile miners has been trapped and confined in a gold and copper mind, 2300-feet underground. Since a video footage and notes from miners were found to inform the public of their well-being, rescue effort has been ceaseless as Chile government spares no expenses. President Sebastián Piñera has been mobilizing all rescue forces possible, from millionaire donors, psychologists, doctors, and even NASA specialists to help the miners’ mental health stable in such confined conditions. In the nearby areas, donors, observers, and politicians outnumbered family members, government ministers “roam the dusty brown dirt” of the camping areas. Advice to family member, entertainment, food supplies, communication . . . have been provided in effort to aid the miners coping with psychological stress, as the government clearly reports that it would take months to rescue them. ¹ President Sebastián Piñera fired top officials of Chile’s mining regulator and vowed a major overhaul of the agency in light of the accident, as the private local company Compañia Minera San Esteban Primera which owned the collapsed mines has reported several accidents and 16 dead miners during the past year – which is questionable in Chile where mine accidents are rare. ²

President Pinera risks his nascent presidency in rescuing the miners, as his popularity is already slipping and the incident is watched internationally. On August 23, to better cope with the situation, a Workplace Safety Commission was formed to review Chilean legislation on labour safety and mechanisms for its enforcement and the level of fines for infringements (widely considered too low). The Commission is chaired by Labor Minister Camila Merino, the nine-member commission–including lawyers, engineers, risk-prevention experts and economists–is scheduled to report by Nov. 22, following a process of public consultation with worker representatives, business association and think-tanks. ⁽³⁾

Since the defeat of Pinochet authoritarian regime in 1988, which violated several human rights and was reviled to put an end to Chile’s tradition of democratic politics, Chile democracy has kept up the national economic development that the authoritanian regime contributed. Since then, Chile has became a powerful, developed nation with high economic growth and advance system of health care that provides basic medical service and coverage to all levels of society, with professional doctors with standards that meet or exceed international standards of care. ⁽⁴⁾ The thorough and constant effort of the government, which involves the president himself on the search field, demonstrates high social capital and legitimacy the government possesses, by identifying themselves to the citizens. The fact that miners were calmed in such precarious situation shows that citizens have great trust in government. The fast rate of economic growth, stable society, and low level of corruption in the government illustrates Chile as an ideal country. Even under the authoritarian rule of Pinochet, law enforcement and military forces have maintained strict discipline and prevent internal corruption, rejected suggestions of illegal or forceful intervention into politics, and with the help of citizens, deeply rooted democratic and law-abiding political culture has survived 16 years of repression. ⁽⁵⁾Free market, open economy and diplomacy, establishment of free trade zones such as the Free Zone of Iquique (ZOFRI) in the northern tip (Region I), and the Free Zone of Punta Arenas (PARANEZON) in the southern tip (Region XII) during the 1970s to encourage trade, boosted the Chilean economy to rank in top developed in the world. ⁽⁶⁾

On the contrary, Iranian so-called republic government lacks legitimacy due to a result of religious cleavages to the government. Ultimate power to exercise important decisions for the country is held by a supreme leader. The Islam-based government in Iran has been described as “unique,” if not eccentric, operates according to Iranian Constitution and Islam, and other political entities, which help the formation of the complete political structure^.(7) Oppositions claimed that the republic system deprives the government of its legitimacy from both the people and the gods, as characteristics of Islamic leaders are governing the people and country as a representative of divinity, contradict to the fact that the citizens can choose their leaders among chosen representatives. Because of this opposition ideal, serious challenges such as an attempt to overthrow the regime by armed forces, assassination of leaders, and foreign war.⁽⁸⁾ This makes Iran society unstable and stagnated economic performances, as well as low level of social capital. Iran economic growth is slow and was categorized as a developing countries.

The scenario in Nigeria is quite gloomier. Corruption implodes from the government to the armed forces, and has virtually become a part of Nigerian culture. Politics and polices publicly demanded crimes, citizens harmed by their own so-called protectors. ⁽⁹⁾ Public funds were stolen to billions of dollars, corrupted politicians enjoyed luxurious living standards while the country is impoverished, healthcare system also corrupted and inadequate, human rights severely violated, absent of any labour safety regulations. Electoral corruption prevent citizens from choosing the leadership they desire, thus the gap between rich and poor remains insurmountable as resources are never distributed equally. Political office becomes the primary shortcut to gain access to wealth,  leaving the system legal mechanism weak and fragile. National priorities are turned upside down, as hard work, honesty, and law-abiding often go unrewarded, while rogues are most of the time glorified. Workers work honestly and productively for months without getting paid, unable to support their family and send their children to school. Consequently, they turn to criminal means in order to meet basic needs. Quality of products and service available to public decrease, economic growth stagnated, foreign investment decrease in number because of insecurity, making the country economic development unable to move up and corruption rank surges (see figure 1). ⁽¹⁰⁾ Citizens lack a national common identity; how can they love a country which is constantly looting its people of the already scarce common wealth? How can anyone love a country where moral values are turned upside down, lies and cheat are more appreciate and rewarding than honesty and hard work? Corrupted leaders are replaced by more corrupted leaders. Will the cycle of corruption in Nigeria ever ends?

Chile, Nigeria, and Iran have all experienced authoritarian rule, yet their current economic, politics, and social differences are quite dramatic. Thus, a question arises: Is the development of a country depended on how the state performs, or the citizen factor also plays an important role (considering beliefs, moral values, tradition, culture, religious, ethnicity etc.)?

Bibliography

Barrionuevo, Aleixei. “Facing Long Mine Rescue, Chile Spares No Expense.” The New York Times. 26 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/world/americas/27chile.html?_r=1&hp>.

“Chile – Economic Development.” Encyclopedia of the Nations. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Chile-ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT.html>.

Constable, Pamela, and Arturo Valenzuela. “Chile’s Return to Democracy.” Foreign Affairs. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/45139/pamela-constable-and-arturo-valenzuela/chiles-return-to-democracy>.

Dike, Victor E. “Corruption in Nigeria: A New Paradigm for Effective Control.” Africa Economic Analysis. 23 Jan. 2008. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.africaeconomicanalysis.org/articles/gen/corruptiondikehtm.html>.

“Health Care and Insurance in Chile.” Chile Wiki. 2 July 208. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.allchile.net/chilewiki/index.php?title=Health_Care_and_Insurance_in_Chile>.

“Iran Political Structure.” Ivan Sahar. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.ivansahar.com/iran-political-structure.htm>.

Metz, Helen Chapin. Iran: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. Country Studies. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://countrystudies.us/iran/80.htm>.

“Nigeria: Corruption Fueling Police Abuses.” Human Rights Watch. 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.hrw.org/node/92509>.

Oxford Analytica. “Chile Mine Accident Highlights Enforcement Deficiencies.” Forbes. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 31 Aug. 2010. <http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/27/chile-mining-accident-regulation-opinions-oxford-analytica_2.html>.

Reuters. “Trapped Chilean Miners Send Message.” The New York Times. 22 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/americas/23chile.html?fta=y>.

—————————————————————————————————–

⁽¹⁾ Barrionuevo, 2010

⁽²⁾ Reuters, 2010

⁽³⁾ Oxford Analytica, 2010

⁽⁴⁾ Chile Wiki, 2008

⁽⁵⁾ Constable and Valezuela, 1989/90

⁽⁶⁾ Encyclopedia of the Nations

⁽⁷⁾ Ivan Sahar

⁽⁸⁾ Metz, 1987

⁽⁹⁾ Human Rights Watch, 2010

⁽¹⁰⁾ Dike, 2008

An ash column of 1.500 metres hava appeared on the sky after the eruption. At first, the people live around Sumatra thought the ash appeared is because of the rain, but it’s actually magma.

Until then, there is one case of death because of the eruption. The surrounding area is mostly agricultural farm. The pyroclastic flow have spread out 30km from the volcano. Many farmers reported that the ash have covered all of their crops and farmland.

The medical department alert the other branches of medical that located around Indonesia to be alerted and prepared. And at the same time, they must prodive gas mask for citizen. The nearest town to this volcano area is Medan city, quite densely populated, but there aren’t any canceling of any flights.

My opinion

The main issue of the article is about the eruption of the Sinabung volcano. But this eruption was only a minor one. It have been rumbling for several days before the final eruption. The as column spewed into the atmosphere up to 1.5km and lava was seen overflowing the crater. The volcano I think it’s a sleeping volcano which erupted for a few thousands years time since its last eruption is in 1600. Which I think Sinabung is a dormant volcano. Mount Sinabung is classified into B. That mean it doesn’t need a lot of speculation or monitored.

The authority response was toevacuate 18,000 people from the region. The government have issued the highest level warning for the area.the government have also set up kitchen for refugees to have access to food. They also handed out 7,000 masks. Over 10,000 people have evacuated internally after the eruption. This eruption was not been predicted much earlier like the other volcanoes. Seismic activity have been monitored intensively only sinceFriday after it showed an increase in activity.

The nearest town to the volcano are Kabanjahe and Berastagi. The eruption haven’t caused any trouble to the air services at the regional airport, Medan’s Polonia. Although, one person is reported dead from the respiratory problems while fleeing his home.

I think the reason tht cause this was the movement of plates and crust. 2 plates of each being continental and te other being oceanic crust have move toward each other. Neither is sink, so the oceanic crust being heavier, therefore been subducted downward. The subduction zone cause friction that cause heat that make magma to rise above and erupted. This movement of plates is called the convergent boundaries or active margin. Different kinds of movement of plate is caused by convection current, which heat from magma cause te plate to move.

I think the government should invest and provide more information about the planning and preparation for these kind of hazard more often. By improve the emergency services like ambulances, helicopter, shelter, refugee camp. They should also advised school to provide for student to practice fire drill more oftten. They should also spend more money on the prediction equipment to monitor the action of the volcano more often. So they citizen can be alerted as soon as possible for any preparation, evacuation.

I think the perspective view doesn’t considered this very seriously. As this is only a minor eruption and have little effect on us, nature, infrastructure etc. the writer doesn’t use any serious adjective to describe the eruption. He only describe what actually happened. He doesn’t give any opinion or suggestion about the eruption. So I think he try to tell us to forget about this eruption. There were only little amount of information been provided, unlike the mount st helens eruption, paragraphs of writing describe the situation and they even published a book about it too. Because compare the effect of both eruption is differ largely. So I think we would forget about this event quickly.

Summary
Since the tsunami which occurred from the Indian Ocean in 2004, killed many people so the US government provided a buoy and laid it in the Indian Ocean between Thailand and Sri Lanka (which were the countries that had the most damage). However even though a buoy was set, another tsunami, smaller than the one occurred in 2004 killed more than 600 people in Java, one of the islands in the Indonesia. The reason this tragedy has occurred is because that the government wasn`t able to warn the people in the village near the coasts.

Reflection
I think the governments of the countries which were harmed by the tsunami should set a facility for the people living near the coast, where it gives off a siren or a warning when tsunamis come. This way I think less casualties will occur and keeping the people safe. It`s good that the government laid a buoy for the people`s safety but they should think about how the warning of the tsunami should be transferred to the people.

Questions
1. Why couldn`t the government send a signal to warn the people living near the coast? Was there an error to send the warning to the people?
2. Why did the US only provide 1 buoy? That area is where massive tsunamis may occur any second.

Map

Vocabulary
 Ambassador- A diplomatic official of the highest rank of a state as a representative of his/her country
 Correspondent- A person employed by a news agency, periodical, television network, etc. to gather, report, or contribute news, article

Bibliography
 “BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 2004 | Asia Quake Disaster.” BBC News – Home. 1 Dec. 2007.Web.28Aug.2010. .

 “Indonesia Map – Map of Indonesia, Map Indonesia, Java Indonesia Map – Worldatlas.com.” World Atlas including Geography Facts, Maps, Flags – Worldatlas.com. Web.28Aug.2010. . “Indonesia Map – Map of Indonesia, Map Indonesia, Java Indonesia Map – Worldatlas.com.” World Atlas including Geography Facts, Maps, Flags – Worldatlas.com. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. .

The we keep on discuss about the issue!!! It was the happiest news I heard for the whole week. Then I just feel like I’m in heaven and it like I am the chosen one!!! (Well, I am being picked to go to the MRISA.) But think about the trip, what if my mom won’t let go to the MRISA trip??? What will I do ? This is my one and only chance to go to MRISA and it pretty cool be be known as the one of the 4 in 8 grade that got pick for MRISA!!!! Well I not that worried about my mom because the flee was so cheap, I t would be a waste if I don’t go:)

These first ten or so days of school have been a mix of feelings. At first, it seemed calm and carefree, but over the next few days we were bombarded by a flurry of forms, expectation sheets, advisory meetings, and things got a little crowded. There was a mix of classes too. Some required a lot from you, and others still were the easiest of classes and helped you make the week seem a little faster. With new teachers, I’d had to adapt again to each one’s teaching style, and so far there haven’t been any problems. I’ve been happy with my work rate this year, I’ve been better at finding time to finish homework and not have it take over my day. My favorite classes right now are PE, Music, and Spanish. These are classes that just speed up the day a little and give me something to look forward to. I am looking forward to going on the WWW trip this year to Laos, and I’ve already done most of the form-filling for those and I think its going to be a superb experience. I’m happy about the sports opportunities for this year, with Volleyball MRISA at SSIS and Soccer MRISA at Phnom Penh. One hiccup though: I’m not even sure how long more I’m going to stay here.

Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-Alike by abbmona (contact)

“It’s almost like social media has replaced the white pages,” – Ms. Halverson. This is indeed true. The more popular social media becomes, the more linked people become, and finally resulting in an all intertwined virtual world. Everyone has taken part in building this massive online web. Therefore, it is only reasonable that people can reach you easier than in real life. This brings you many more opportunities.

On the other hand, it is quite unfair for people who have never used online social networks, left alone the fact that some of them might not even have access to computers and internet. Attempting to join a network at this time can be a complicated process, and it might not be worthy for some people. Yet, those who decide to learn and adapt to this new ‘life skill’ might find it extremely helpful, and even interesting and save them a lot of time and effort.

The trickiest skill to manage once you’ve decided to use social networks is to decide on which kind of information about yourself to display, and which to keep to yourself. A smart job hunter would only show the world his professional side, rather than his personal life. In the long run, this skill will become very essential, and will save you probably a lot of times.

In conclusion, jobs hunting through social networks has its pros and cons. Like Ms. Halverson and Mr. Schmid from this article, they learned to create their professional online selves, and in the end they did actually find great long-term jobs. The essential thing to remember is to know how to use it as your own advantage.

[ii] Telegraph.co.uk

[iii] Guardian.co.uk

[iv] BBC News

Citation:

Dehghan, Kamali. “Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani ‘confesses’ to Involvement in Murder on Iran State TV.” Latest News, Comment and Reviews from the Guardian | Guardian.co.uk. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/12/sakineh-mohammadi-ashtiani-confesses-murder-iran>.

“Iran’s Dilemma over Stoning.” BBC News. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10956520>.

“Iran Shows What It Says Is Murder Confession.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News &  Multimedia. Web. 27 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/world/middleeast/13iran.html ?ref=iran>.

“Iran Stoning Woman ‘to Be Executed after Confessing to Murder’ on State TV.” Telegraph.co.uk: News, Business, Sport, the Daily Telegraph Newspaper, Sunday Telegraph – Telegraph. Web. 27 Aug. 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7940805/Iran-stoning-woman-to-be-executed-after-confessing-to-murder-on-state-TV.html>.

This article is about some recent reports about sea level rising by about nearly 1 meter in England, Denmark and China by 2100. This is happening of the major greenhouse gases emission out to the atmosphere and also from the melting ice happening from both poles. In addition, “Rising sea levels caused by global warming are likely to affect around 150 million people living in low-lying coastal areas, including some of the world’s largest cities,” said Dr. Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva.

Reflection:

It seem like a problem worldwide now of how climates are changing rapidly. Pakistan and China receiving more rain than usual. Russia experiencing more droughts. In addition, Vietnam now is even experiencing more and more storms everyday. However, it seems like we are experiencing the problems that we caused it in the first place with the industrial revolution and so on.

Bibliography:

National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK). “Sea Level to Rise Even With Aggressive Geo-Engineering and Greenhouse Gas Control, Study Finds.” ScienceDaily 24 August 2010. 29 August 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100824092408.htm>.

Good memories…..

But now I’m back to write in this blog again like usual!!

By Iqbal Athas, For CNN

August 30, 2010

Officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry reported that a Saudi employer and his wife were accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid, named Ariyawathie, by hammering nails into her body. Ariyawathie, 49, is a mother of two children who were opposed to their mother’s journey to Saudi Arabia for work. As she demanded for a higher wage, her employer hammered nails into her arms and forehead. It took the doctors at a Sri Lankan hospital three hours on Friday to remove 18 nails and metal particles allegedly hammered into her arms, legs and forehead.

This article is politically significant, since these days, several countries across the Middle East and Asia host significant numbers of migrant domestic workers, which ranges from 196,000 in Singapore to about 1.5 million in Saudi. Many domestic workers are the poor Asian women from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal. The problem is occurred here: widespread abuse has been documented by global human rights groups. The problem includes unpaid wages, long working hours with no time for rest and heavy debt, reported by the Human Rights Watch report. In addition, physical and psychological abuse, which includes isolation and forced imprisonment, and sexual violence, forced labor, and trafficking are torturing the immigrant domestic workers. However, the biggest problem rises at this point since due to the lack of government regulation and protective laws, the abuse often goes unchecked. Since it is the government that keeps the society bonded with economy and any other aspects, it is also their job to take care of their citizens and even the immigrants who are raising their country’s economy in a long term.

I wanted to ask: if the workers were having such a cruel time, why wouldn’t they have formed reform group or social movement? Would it be due to their fear of getting arrested of illegal actions? Or would it be because they simply did not know about any social movement? As I research about the government type of Saudi Arabia, the second question rose into my head: Since the Saudi Arabian is a monarchy country, will the government, or the authority, try to compensate the labored and inhumanely abused woman? Or even, would they care about the immigrants?

Sri Lankans protest Monday outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Colombo over the alleged abuse of a maid.

Bibliography:

Athas, Iqbal. “Arrests Made in Maid’s Nail Torture, Sri Lankan Officials Say – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html>.

“CIA – The World Factbook.” Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. 19 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html#fbid=aEaMcz4UBqq&wom=false>.

By Iqbal Athas, For CNN

August 30, 2010

Officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry reported that a Saudi employer and his wife were accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid, named Ariyawathie, by hammering nails into her body. Ariyawathie, 49, is a mother of two children who were opposed to their mother’s journey to Saudi Arabia for work. As she demanded for a higher wage, her employer hammered nails into her arms and forehead. It took the doctors at a Sri Lankan hospital three hours on Friday to remove 18 nails and metal particles allegedly hammered into her arms, legs and forehead.

This article is politically significant, since these days, several countries across the Middle East and Asia host significant numbers of migrant domestic workers, which ranges from 196,000 in Singapore to about 1.5 million in Saudi. Many domestic workers are the poor Asian women from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal. The problem is occurred here: widespread abuse has been documented by global human rights groups. The problem includes unpaid wages, long working hours with no time for rest and heavy debt, reported by the Human Rights Watch report. In addition, physical and psychological abuse, which includes isolation and forced imprisonment, and sexual violence, forced labor, and trafficking are torturing the immigrant domestic workers. However, the biggest problem rises at this point since due to the lack of government regulation and protective laws, the abuse often goes unchecked. Since it is the government that keeps the society bonded with economy and any other aspects, it is also their job to take care of their citizens and even the immigrants who are raising their country’s economy in a long term.

I wanted to ask: if the workers were having such a cruel time, why wouldn’t they have formed reform group or social movement? Would it be due to their fear of getting arrested of illegal actions? Or would it be because they simply did not know about any social movement? As I research about the government type of Saudi Arabia, the second question rose into my head: Since the Saudi Arabian is a monarchy country, will the government, or the authority, try to compensate the labored and inhumanely abused woman? Or even, would they care about the immigrants?

Sri Lankans protest Monday outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Colombo over the alleged abuse of a maid.

Bibliography:

Athas, Iqbal. “Arrests Made in Maid’s Nail Torture, Sri Lankan Officials Say – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html>.

“CIA – The World Factbook.” Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. 19 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html#fbid=aEaMcz4UBqq&wom=false>.

By Iqbal Athas, For CNN

August 30, 2010

Officials at the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry reported that a Saudi employer and his wife were accused of torturing a Sri Lankan housemaid, named Ariyawathie, by hammering nails into her body. Ariyawathie, 49, is a mother of two children who were opposed to their mother’s journey to Saudi Arabia for work. As she demanded for a higher wage, her employer hammered nails into her arms and forehead. It took the doctors at a Sri Lankan hospital three hours on Friday to remove 18 nails and metal particles allegedly hammered into her arms, legs and forehead.

This article is politically significant, since these days, several countries across the Middle East and Asia host significant numbers of migrant domestic workers, which ranges from 196,000 in Singapore to about 1.5 million in Saudi. Many domestic workers are the poor Asian women from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal. The problem is occurred here: widespread abuse has been documented by global human rights groups. The problem includes unpaid wages, long working hours with no time for rest and heavy debt, reported by the Human Rights Watch report. In addition, physical and psychological abuse, which includes isolation and forced imprisonment, and sexual violence, forced labor, and trafficking are torturing the immigrant domestic workers. However, the biggest problem rises at this point since due to the lack of government regulation and protective laws, the abuse often goes unchecked. Since it is the government that keeps the society bonded with economy and any other aspects, it is also their job to take care of their citizens and even the immigrants who are raising their country’s economy in a long term.

I wanted to ask: if the workers were having such a cruel time, why wouldn’t they have formed reform group or social movement? Would it be due to their fear of getting arrested of illegal actions? Or would it be because they simply did not know about any social movement? As I research about the government type of Saudi Arabia, the second question rose into my head: Since the Saudi Arabian is a monarchy country, will the government, or the authority, try to compensate the labored and inhumanely abused woman? Or even, would they care about the immigrants?

Sri Lankans protest Monday outside the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Colombo over the alleged abuse of a maid.

Bibliography:

Athas, Iqbal. “Arrests Made in Maid’s Nail Torture, Sri Lankan Officials Say – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html>.

“CIA – The World Factbook.” Welcome to the CIA Web Site — Central Intelligence Agency. 19 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/sri.lanka.maid.assault/index.html#fbid=aEaMcz4UBqq&wom=false>.

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 29, 2010

The CNN news reported that in the early morning on the 29^th of August, a volcano that had been inactive for more than 400 years erupted in Indonesia. The eruption caused thousands of people to flee their homes. Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province had been inactive since the 1600s. Fortunately, there wasn’t any report of casualties or injuries, and there wouldn’t be any destructive eruption not hazardous gas.

The officials have evacuated 12,000 residents living in 14 villages near the volcano. These people are in need of shelter and food resources. Due to the emerging cosmopolitanism, many Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) (National and international groups, independent of any state, that pursue policy objectives and foster public participation) will be involved to help and improve the current situation of the citizens. In addition, since the environmental disaster affects the economy, which governs the politics, is the reason why many the government is in aware of any further disaster as the environment has an acute and direct impact on the society.

As I was reading the article, I wondered: If the volcano erupted once again giving a huge affect on the citizens, what would be going on to the government? Then also wondered, since this news reported that it was a very small eruption, I would ask myself if this affected the economy? Since the volcanic eruption paralyzed the economies of Greece and several other European countries through different ways. The airway had to stop supplementing due to the not positive condition of the weather. In addition, many people lost their homes and properties, which directly affected the economy.

Mount Sinabung spews thick smoke after erupting in North Sumatra.

Bibliography:

Saputra, Andy. “Long-dormant Volcano Erupts in Indonesia – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 29, 2010

The CNN news reported that in the early morning on the 29^th of August, a volcano that had been inactive for more than 400 years erupted in Indonesia. The eruption caused thousands of people to flee their homes. Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province had been inactive since the 1600s. Fortunately, there wasn’t any report of casualties or injuries, and there wouldn’t be any destructive eruption not hazardous gas.

The officials have evacuated 12,000 residents living in 14 villages near the volcano. These people are in need of shelter and food resources. Due to the emerging cosmopolitanism, many Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) (National and international groups, independent of any state, that pursue policy objectives and foster public participation) will be involved to help and improve the current situation of the citizens. In addition, since the environmental disaster affects the economy, which governs the politics, is the reason why many the government is in aware of any further disaster as the environment has an acute and direct impact on the society.

As I was reading the article, I wondered: If the volcano erupted once again giving a huge affect on the citizens, what would be going on to the government? Then also wondered, since this news reported that it was a very small eruption, I would ask myself if this affected the economy? Since the volcanic eruption paralyzed the economies of Greece and several other European countries through different ways. The airway had to stop supplementing due to the not positive condition of the weather. In addition, many people lost their homes and properties, which directly affected the economy.

Mount Sinabung spews thick smoke after erupting in North Sumatra.

Bibliography:

Saputra, Andy. “Long-dormant Volcano Erupts in Indonesia – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 29, 2010

The CNN news reported that in the early morning on the 29^th of August, a volcano that had been inactive for more than 400 years erupted in Indonesia. The eruption caused thousands of people to flee their homes. Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province had been inactive since the 1600s. Fortunately, there wasn’t any report of casualties or injuries, and there wouldn’t be any destructive eruption not hazardous gas.

The officials have evacuated 12,000 residents living in 14 villages near the volcano. These people are in need of shelter and food resources. Due to the emerging cosmopolitanism, many Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) (National and international groups, independent of any state, that pursue policy objectives and foster public participation) will be involved to help and improve the current situation of the citizens. In addition, since the environmental disaster affects the economy, which governs the politics, is the reason why many the government is in aware of any further disaster as the environment has an acute and direct impact on the society.

As I was reading the article, I wondered: If the volcano erupted once again giving a huge affect on the citizens, what would be going on to the government? Then also wondered, since this news reported that it was a very small eruption, I would ask myself if this affected the economy? Since the volcanic eruption paralyzed the economies of Greece and several other European countries through different ways. The airway had to stop supplementing due to the not positive condition of the weather. In addition, many people lost their homes and properties, which directly affected the economy.

Mount Sinabung spews thick smoke after erupting in North Sumatra.

Bibliography:

Saputra, Andy. “Long-dormant Volcano Erupts in Indonesia – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

Photograph. CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/29/indonesia.volcano/index.html>.

Comparative Government – C

Ms. Holley

August 31, 2010

Rape and Bleeding Wounds in Congo

Rape has always been a lamentable issue all over the world. Yet, rape case with the number of victim ranging about 200 has been so rare it is horrifying. On July 30 2010, a group of Rwanda and Congolese armed rebels charged into Luvungi town in an eastern mining districts which was located kilometres away from a UN military base. The rebels plundered the town, then raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys, age ranged from one month old to one year old. Women were systematically raped by two to six men, in the bushes or in their own homes, in front of their children and families. The rape lasted for four days as the mob left on their own accord on August 4 2010, even though UN peacekeepers and aids had the knowledge of the rebels occupied the villages and nearby areas after the raid started. Peacekeepers said the rebels would run into the forest or duck their heads below the windows as they approach, then continue to return as they left. The case is still in “investigation” process, labeled by the UN, as information is still being gathered. ¹ How come the case is being “investigate” while it has been over three weeks since the assault ended, and the UN base is just kilometres away? What would be affected if the time of investigating in rape cases are extended and delayed?

Congo has been described as the “world rape capital” by a Senior UN official. Nevetheless, this incident is still deplorable and repugnant, considering the large number of victims and level of organizing. ² The United Nation reports of more than 8000 rape case in 2009, which is believed to be much lower than reality as many cases were unreported.  ¹ Not many women have the courage to report and seek help as many don’t know help is available and charges almost nothing. However, the statistics and the recent incident of Luvungi are enough for anybody to see such severe violation of human rights in Congo. Not only are women affected, but also children (girls and boys alike) and men. Records tell stories of women being gang raped in their house as their family was forced to witness their humiliation, their husbands tied in the hut and children brought in. Even more revulsive, after the assailants finished with the women, they forced fathers to commit incest with their daughters or son, sisters with brothers, or sodomy (which is still unacceptable in Africa). ³ Help with contraception and HIV/AIDS medications always come too late. ¹ Full half of the victims were syphilitic, and some sources report 30 percent of the female victims’ tests were positive with HIV/AIDS as estimately two third of the rebels have HIV/AIDS. Not only do the victims received a fatal disease they didn’t deserve, but also they are ostracized from their family and society, as a man would not receive back a woman who slept with another man, even if she was forced to (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Women suffered from ostracism of their husbands and community from being sexually assaulted. Normally, a woman who slept with another man, even if forced, bears a stigma and becomes a shame to both society and family. However, many of these women did not yield but stayed strong to continue raising their children.³

No matter how we see it, data demonstrates Congo as an insecure, unstable, dysfunctional country as government fails to resolve, or even reduce  the rate of such serious crimes and human rights violation. Congo government seems to be impotent and powerless in governing a lawless country plunders with civil wars caused by social cleavages, and rape has become a silent weapon. Polices make no effort in restraining armed rebels or protecting citizens from robbery and violence. Assailants aren’t punished as they deserve as victims receive little help. Nigeria faces the same issue as corruption implodes the police forces. Citizens are not protected but even threatened by the law enforcement forces who constantly and publicly demand bribes. If the citizens failed to pay the demanded bribe, police officers would, and have, on numerous occasions, severely beaten, sexually assaulted, or shot to death ordinary citizens. ⁴

What descend these representative of the law into low, despicable crooks?  As mentioned, corruption implodes the security forces inside out. Police officers report that they have to bribe a certain amount of money to higher-ups in order to be assigned to “lucrative posting,” and also weekly bribe to stay in that post. It is a cycle of corruption that has rooted too deep into Nigerian politics. ⁴

In rape cases, several social cleavages (ethnicity and social class are the most explosive ones) benefit the perpetrator but not the victims. Polices hold discrimination against women, blaming victims for the rape, law enforcement  forces often participate as the assailant – raping women themselves, doctors delay medical check and thus medical evidences are usually lost, making it impossible to prove the perpetrator guilty etc. Yes, it is hard to believe, but in Nigeria, often the ones who are punished are the victims, not the perpetrators. ⁵

In an industrialized nationlike Great Britain, the scenario is not as gloomy, as 6.5% of rapes reported between 2007 and 2008 led to the conviction of the attacker. Surprisingly, the police forces also fails to record more than 40 percent of the rape cases in 2009, the rate seemed so high it is unacceptable in such a developed country. ⁶

Social capital rate in Congo and Nigeria is very likely to be below average, as citizens cannot trust their government, constantly experience insecurity, and government cannot trust their citizens when civil war is occuring. Health standards and human rights severely violated, government hardly possesses any sovereignty, these countries face stagnant economies and the lack of legitimacy, as citizens will eventually speak up to defend and demand for the rights they deserve, as the democratization trend globalizes. In contrast, Great Britain’s social capital is more likely to be high, where the law enforcement forces actually do their job, perpetrators of crimes are usually convicted and captured, the government possesses legitimacy and power to maintain society order, human rights are protected and advocated, and help is provided to most victims of crime such as rape. Not only is the economic gap between Great Britain and Nigeria/Congo insurmountable, but also the gap in social capital that exists in society. If less developed/ newly industrialized countries such as Nigeria and Congo want to closen the economic gap, they must first heal the social wounds that are bleeding in the heart of their countries, such as the very deep one caused by sexual assault that resulted from social cleavages between ethinicity.

Bibliography

“Congo Terror: ‘200 Gang Raped’ in Four-day Ordeal.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Aug. 2010. <http://www.smh.com.au/world/congo-terror-200-gang-raped-in-fourday-ordeal-20100824-13ld5.html>.

Kron, Josh. “Rwandan Rebels Raped at Least 179 Women in Congo, Humanitarian Officials Say.” The New York Times. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/world/africa/24congo.html?ref=africa>.

“Latest Crime Statistics.” Crime Stopper. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/latest-crime-statistics>.

Lefort, René. “Congo: A Hell on Earth for Women.” Worldpress. Web. 27 Aug. 2010. <http://www.worldpress.org/africa/1561.cfm>.

“Nigeria: Corruption Fueling Police Abuses.” Human Rights Watch. 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.hrw.org/node/92509>.

Nigeria: Rape – the Silent Weapon. Report. Amnesty International USA. Web. 27 Aug. 2010. <http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGAFR440202006&lang=e>

“UN Investigates Claims of Mass Rape by DR Congo Rebels.” British Broadcasting Corporation. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 25 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11079135>.

——————————————————————————————————————————————-

¹ The Sydney Morning Herald, 2010

² British Broadcasting Corporation, 2010

³ René Lefort, 2003

⁴ Human Rights Watch, 2010

⁵ Amnesty International USA, 2010

⁶ Crime Stopper, 2009

In this film, everyday Photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jeffries watches opposite side of apartment through their windows. It is quiet interesting that he can see people’s action by open windows. Also, he uses camera to zoom in the place that he wants to look more detail. When he fleshes the light to murderer, there are different of color views between him and murderer. On Jeff’s color view, he can see white and little bit of yellow. But on murderer’s color view, he can see orange color.

When Jeff’s girlfriend Lisa Freemont tries to send a massage to murderer and comes back from it, he shows different face expression to her. He never shows that kind of face expression to her before. He realizes that she is such a lovely girlfriend than others and a hard worker on her duty.

The beginning of the scene and ending of the scene’s setting are the same, but only changes are people’s face expression and feeling. They look happier and enjoy their life in apartment than the beginning scene and they all look calm and busy to do their works again.

This film was great to me because this film made me tight enough to fell in it. I couldn’t get off my eyes from a screen. I liked how Jeff watches people’s action through windows. Also, I loved his girlfriend, Lisa Freemont’s clothes styles. It made me to start to like 1950’s women’s fashion styles.

First day was nice, I meet all my friends at the gate in front of school and I feel very welcome to be back.  I walk in side thinking that I was the first one to arrive. But I was wrong, as soon as I walk into the school field I saw a gigantic huge group of people, there were so much people like 10x more than last year, well over all it was good I like it, I’ve met some interesting new people.

Who am I kidding, I hated it, it sucks I do not want to go to school. All I want to do is sleep, eat, games and sleep. I mean its the first day of school and we got homework to do. Well I guess its a good thing that we start studying right away because our parent didn’t paid 18 thousand dollars for nothing.

But eventually school gets better and right now school is going pretty good for me. I guess it wasn’t so bad after all.

There is much political significance to this article. First of all, after North Korea has stopped the six-party talk, the relationship between North Korean and other countries have been weakened, therefore supplies given to North Korea have been paused, and furthermore recently there was a big flood causing serious problems. In few Korean articles, they have asserted that the visit was to receive an aid. Anyway, this visit represents the North Korean government’s reliance on the Chinese government, as the same communist system government. Second, as a South Korean, I hear dozens of news article about Kim Jung Il and his successor. Few years ago, this wasn’t a great deal however as Kim Jung Il’s health has been weakened, these articles flew all over the news site and channel because of the possible reoccurrence of the war as the ruler changes. Therefore the changes in the ruling system might affect the relationship with the South Korean government. Lastly, it was very ironic because the period that Kim Jung Il set to China was nearly the same date as Jimmy Carter visited North Korea. Out of the politics, it isn’t a good manner to leave home when a visitor visits. Therefore I think this represents the Kim Jung Il’s small symbol representing him disliking United States.

The two questions related to the article are, although Russia is the country which started the communist idea, why would North Korea more relying on Chinese government? And is Chinese government willing to maintain the good relationship with North Korean even though they have been weakened their relationship with other countries recent months? Because it could work as adverse effect on their diplomacy.

Figure 1: A still from state-run TV shows N. Korean leader Kim Jong-Il (L) with Chinese President Hu Jintao on August 27, 2010.

“North Korean Leader Leaves China after Visit.” CNN.com. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/china.north.korean.leader/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=1hfkqfOVv4c&wom=false>.

Photograph. CNN. 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/30/china.north.korean.leader/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=1hfkqfOVv4c&wom=false>.

Link to original article and picture: CLICK HERE~!

SUMMARY

As the title of the article states, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is causing serious problems to the wildlife in the area. Although the spill may have not actually spread to some specific areas yet, the animals residing there are still heavily affected either way. Since some of these animals depend on others that are directly suffering from the oil spill for food, they are also affected. One example in this article is the effects of planktons. Although they are very small organisms, their effects on the world are endless. Not only are they a huge part of the food chain, they are also crucial in the reduction of CO₂ emissions. However, they are so small that cleaning the off of them is still not something that can be done. Furthermore, planktons are not the only organisms affected. Another victim of this are the chattering shorebirds nearby. Although the oil spill has not effected then yet, there is still a chance that they will eventually be forced to leave their home soon.

REFLECTION

Personally, I think that this is a very big problem we are facing, especially the environmental impacts of it. Already, species are slowly dying all over the world and this is doing nothing but adding to the problems. And although most might not notice, I think this is also going to affect us humans as well. Since we eat the animals that are in the ocean too, we might also be harming ourselves. It is sort of obvious that no matter what, huge amount of animals are losing their homes due to the oil spills.

In my opinion, I think something more needs to be done to fix the problem. Although the ocean is a very ideal place for oil mining, I don’t think it should be allowed. We are getting oil, but the animals have to suffer in return and that’s not really fair to them or to the environment.

Questions that I have about this article is that are people actually making that much of an effort to help? And also, I’m curious if any bigger animals are effects. Although the article did mention birds, larger animals are not really mentions since it focus more on the shrimps, planktons and sea turtles.

GULF OF MEXICO

WORK CITED

Dell’Amore, Christine. “Gulf Oil Spill a “Dead Zone in the Making”?” National Geographic News. National Geographic Society, 4 May 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100504-science-environment-gulf-oil-spill-dead-zone/>.

Summary: There was a volcano eruption in Indonesia on August 29. 2010. Mount Sinabung Volcano in Island of Sumatra was considered to be inactive,  since it didn’t erupt for 400 years. The eruption on Sunday (Aug 29) was the first eruption in 400 years, and there was one more eruption on August 30. 2010. The second eruption was bigger than the first one that happened on Aug 29. The eruption spewed black ashes and smokes out in to the air, about 2km, and affected on the local air flights. Most of villagers who live within 6km by Mount Sinabung Volacano have evacuated and more than 18,000 of people are now living in camps. They are now in respiratory problem.

Personal Reflection: I’m glad that no lives have been lost, but still people are in respiratory problem. They are staying in inferior conditions. There are more than 18,000 people who need masks, but Red Cross could only provide thousands of masks. Well, disaster can be happened anywhere in the world. Nobody knows who will be in trouble like the people in Indonesia. So people should aid them, not only the Red Cross. We should focus on helping victims, not on the geographical questions, such as the reason of 400 years resting volcano’s eruption. It’s good to study and get the reason, but I think giving warm hands to the victims is priority.

Questions:

1. What can we do for the victims in Indonesia?

2. What is the reason for 400 years resting volcano’s eruption??

[Bibliography]

NEWS:

*Vaswani, Karishma. “Indonesia Volcano Erupts Again after Long Dormancy.” BBC News – Indonesia Volcano Erupts Again after Long Dormancy. BBC News, 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11127918>.

*”Volcano Quiet for 400 Years Erupts in Indonesia.” FOXNews. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/08/29/volcano-quiet-years-erupts-indonesia/>.

*”Volcano Wakes Up After 400 Years.” Popular Fidelity (blog). 30 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.popfi.com/2010/08/30/volcano-wakes-up-after-400-years/>.

IMAGE (map):

*”Indonesia.” Map. Climate Progress. 30 Sept. 2009. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://climateprogress.org/2009/09/30/energy-and-global-warming-news-indonesia-pledges-to-cut-co2-26-to-41-by-2020-forest/>.

There were no hard words to define ^^

Link to original article; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10948275

Summary / Reflection:

Because of the deadly floods in Pakistan, a significant amount of crops have been washed away, says Nazar Muhammad Gondal. Victims of the floods have lost everything, and the government is requesting that victims from the floods should not add any more difficulty to their lives by having to fast the Muslim Ramadan time period. Pakistan insists that its government is doing all that it can to those in need.

I’m wondering why the rest of the world doesn’t care. When Haiti was in need of help, thousands donated and many famous singers sang a song to encourage people to help. A countless number of lives have been lost and I haven’t heard of any one famous singing a song for Pakistan.

Because of heavy rainfall, water is still flooding Pakistan and is coming from the Indus river. “We have losses in cotton, in sugarcane, in rice, in pulses and in tobacco – these are huge losses for the future, (BBC)” These are huge losses, because many of these substances bring money in to Pakistan. People are desperate and starving because their whole lives have been washed away. They have reached such a state of desperation that on 12th August, they were attacking aid workers.

The article ends by stating the beliefs of one senior Islamabad envoy. He blames the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, because he believes that they public are not helping because David Cameron made a statement about “exploiting terror” into Pakistan. Mr. Cameron had angered this said Islamabad on a recent visit to Pakistan. Despite that The UN has asked for more than $450m (£290m) to help the 14 million Pakistanis affected by the floods.

Pakistan is in need of help, and some one besides the UN has to give it.

Essential Questions:

1. Why are these Pakistan floods so much more important than any other Pakistan floods?

2. Why are countries so hesitant / reluctant or unwilling to help?

Map of Pakistan / Flood Picture

“not enough space to upload”

Link to flood picture: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10948275

Link to Map of Pakistan: http://www.welt-atlas.de/map_of_pakistan_5-758

Works Cited

BBC News – Pakistan Floods Cause ‘huge Losses’ to Crops.” BBC News. 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10948275>.

This article is politically significant because according to the prior news article published by the CNN this year; this issue has been going on since last year. For over a year, the authorities and the campaigners have fought back the company by exampling them with the environments the tribes bond together. Even though the company has said they will follow the international best and the law since India is considered as the biggest democrat country, where law follows the majority, a netizen have posted a video contain asking the company “If Vedanta mines the mountain, the water will dry up. In the Niyamgiri forests, there are tigers, bears, monkeys and wild boar. All kinds of other animals. We all live together. Where will the animals go to drink? Where will we go to drink?”

Even though the company has declared that they will follow by the democrat, I think the majority wanted to save their primitive tribes and so do the authorities. Another reason why this article is politically important is that as mentioned, experts are more looking forward to see the Indian government to protect more environment than the economics. By this, unlike other countries, for example South- Korea, since they started digging rivers for Grand Canal which most of the citizens think it’s useless because it harms the most of the environments beside; it shows how the Indian government’s mind is different from them. One putting more weight on the environment and vice versa,

However two ironic questions that I have in my mind with this article are that though the company has said they will follow the law on February, why and exactly how did it become an illegal act on August? And, how big were the undermined resources that motivated the company to go against the authorities and the citizens of India?

Harmh, Singheet Sha, and Udas Sumnima. “Indian Tribe’s ‘Avatar’ Victory over UK Mining Giant.” CNN.com. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 24 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/24/india.avatar.tribe/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=fEHyiatb_u4&wom=false>.

Photograph. Protesters Gather for a Demonstration against Vedanta, during the Company’s AGM in London, on July, 27, 2009. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/india.avatar.tribe/index.html?iref=allsearch>.

Singh, Harmeet Shah. “‘Avatar’ a Reality for Indian Tribe Fighting Mining Company.”CNN.com. 9 Feb. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/09/india.avatar.tribe/index.html?iref=allsearch>.

image by Paulo Brandão

Today we are going to review the Five Themes of Geography.

Go to Five Themes Short Presentation

For a longer version with quiz questions see this.

You will need to complete the following Five Themes/Current events Activity using Google Earth.

We will present these at our next class and have Five Themes of Geography Jeopardy (be sure to study)

I chose this article because I thought it was a decent summary of what most of us need to be aware of in the (very) recent Pakistan flood. I want to show that natural disasters like these aren’t just a thing of the past or something out of this earth, but it is happening right now in the middle east, people are suffering, and help is needed.

—
Devastating floods have been ravaging Pakistan for over a month, but despite widespread suffering, the media coverage of this disaster has been casual at best.

Nearly 20 million Pakistanis have been displaced from their homes and put at risk for water born disease, yet the American media seems to have marginalized the issue, impeding the flow of supplies and donations needed to provide aid.

Some believe that “the West and Europe have adopted Islamaphobia, which obviously has clouded humanitarian concerns” (Huffington Post).

You don’t have to be a political analyst to see that more social and political unrest isn’t what this region needs. People are suffering, and as fellow humans and activists, it is our duty to do what we can.

Here are 5 things you may not have known about the Pakistan floods.Become informed, and then take action!

1. The United Nations has rated the floods in Pakistan as the greatest humanitarian crisis in recent history. Already, more people have been affected in Pakistan than the 2004 South-East Asian tsunami and the recent earthquakes in Kasmir and Haiti combined.

2. The Pakistan flood may be linked to the fires in Russia. Although the unfolding disasters seem far apart, they are actually being driven by the same meta weather system, according to a report from National Geographic. Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the Boulder, Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research, told the organization, “That’s because the monsoon – a seasonal wind system that brings rain and floods to Pakistan and much of the rest of Asia in summer – also drives the circulation of air as far away as Europe.”

3. Only a fraction of the people needing aid have been contacted by emergency crews. In the 10 days following the initial flood waves, the government managed to distribute only 10,000 food packs, which contained a box of dried milk, and a few bottles of water and Pepsi. These packages were meant to “feed” 80,000 people, leaving 1,720,000 without any type of aid.

4. The Pakistan flood may be linked to global warming. In an unprecedented move, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has come forward to formally blamed the flooding in Pakistan on “global warming,” angering some denialists (CNSNews.com). “Indeed, the Islamic world is paying a heavy price resulting from the negative repercussions of climate change,” said OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu at an emergency meeting in Saudi Arabia.

5. The destruction is enormous, and preys on the weak. Reports indicate 62,000 square miles of land have been affected — about one-fifth of the entire country. Of the 15 million people seriously affected, about 50 percent are children.

Bibliography:
Buczynski, Beth. “Top 5 Shocking Facts About The Pakistan Floods.” Care2. Care2, 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010.

         In the 1960’s Korea had a fertility rate of 6.1. The South Korean government, which tried reducing unnecessary births, established the Family Planning Association and promoted smaller families. In order to do that, the South Korean government initiated a policy to reduce unwanted births. The promotion of 2 child policy had its effect on the population rather quickly, and by 1970 the fertility rate shrank to 4.5 and just 14 years later, at 1984, the fertility rate quickly diminished to 1.7. South Korea, even though the policy brought great success, that even had under rated the goal of the fertility rate, South Korea continued to promote its policy forcing its

fertility rate to drop more. The continual of the policy was finally proven as a great mistake when the Korean Government announced officially that in 2002, which the national pension will go to bankrupt due to the decreasing population of the working age. Not only that, even after the announcement, the fertility rate has fallen to 1.08 in 2005 which had forced the Korean Government to come up with an solution before the nation gets hurt. Currently the Korean Government has made an attempt to turn the table around from extremely low fertility to recovered rate of fertility. The Government’s policy changed into the Pronatalist policy, which promotes more children and gives incentives to households which have more family members. However this policy can end up as a failure to some reasons. One of the reasons is the breakdown of the traditional family value of Korea. It is because that less people, especially women no longer think as marriage and bearing children positively.

“In a 2005 survey, 49 percent of single women said that they were reluctant to get married and the percentage of married women who felt a need for children dropped to 65 percent from 90 percent just eight years earlier.” (prb.org)

Just as expected, South Korea’s possibility of recovering its fertility rate is low, and considering that the total number of births are decreasing(445,200 in 2009, 465,900 in 2007, and 463,200 in 2005), Korea must come up with a plausible solution to raise up its fertility rate as soon as possible.

Analysis

         The South Korean population seems like to be heading towards the aging population. After reaching total population of 49,340,000 in 2018 which the population growth will be 0%, Korea’s population growth will run as a negative as well its population will slowly change in to a an aging population. And moreover, after reaching 36,190,000 people in the working population in the 2019, the working population will also start to decrease. This means that more people will have to support the retired age. And the working population has decreased astonishingly according to mecratornet.net “The ageing rate of workers will also increase. Workers aged 40 and over accounted for 15.7% of the workforce in 1980 and for 39.5% in 2004. The rate of workers in their 20s decreased sharply from 60.6% in 1980 to 27.5% in 2004.” As the consequences, by 2020, 4.5 people will take care of the old on average, and by 2050, there will be only 1.4 people. This is a very distinguishable change considering that 7 people supported one aged person on average. Looking at the Graphs from nationmaster.com, we can clearly see the changing in age distribution in Korea.

Check this Website for refernce (http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ks-korea-south/Age-_distribution)

By 2050 there will be an extreme high population on the old ages, which will be called the super aged society. However there is a basic problem for the situation s to become brighter. This situation is happening because women are refusing to bear children. Since Korea has the highest working hours, which is 2357hours per year, and that the tradition of women doing the household works haven’t changed, women will refuse to bear children to have the pain of raising a child. Some say unless the there are changes in the South Korean tradition of women doing household chores, the situation will not get better no matter what. Since the basic problem have been found, the South Korean government, also approved this tradition to be the problem of this issue of the aging population, the South Korean Government committed itself to come up with campaigns to change the Korean tradition thought process.

Reflection

         After reading this article, it wasn’t much of a surprise for me. Recently I had gone back to Korea, and to my hometown Goyang City, I had noticed that my town’s age distribution has really changed. I realized this especially when I saw my childhood grade school, YongJong Elementary School, was at the crisis to be closed down within 5 years. This is because that the number of students cut half just only after 5 years from my graduation. My friend explained to me that it is because there are less and less kids in the town. He said that my mother grade school will soon be combined with another grade school nearby. Even by just looking at my hometown change, I could feel the decreasing number of young people. As a solution for low fertility rate, I had once heard that France gives out equivalent amount pension of normal men to mothers whom laid 3 or more babies. And due to that policy, France’s fertility rate is slowly recovering. Even since South Korea doesn’t have enough money to initiate such a program, by reading the article and basing on my experience, I think the South Korean Government is working to fix the problem. And one of the smartest projects I seen is that I could see context about the unfair distribution of household chores and work time between regular Korean males and women in elementary textbooks. And thanks to the project, new generation couples tend to be better at distributing work than its previous generation. Not only that, but the Korean Government had already found a way for older people to work too. The Korean government is working its way to increase the number of old employers that cannot live without support. And by doing that, the nation gets 2 benefits. One is that the nation’s old support burden decreases, and the second is that more working people brings economic benefits to the Korea economy.

Bibilography

Seon Jeong, Choi. “MercatorNet: Korea’s Population Crisis.” MercatorNet. 30 June 2009. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/koreas_population_crisis/.

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I’m just testing …

I’m just testing …

I am testing to see if my post appears in your blog.

 - Saba

Tiffany

Tiffany

i m testing if this post works or not

i m testing if this post works or not

By Alfred lin

Afghan and US rangers fought off around 30 insurgents from two bases, in among the 30 that were attacking 17 of them were soon-to-be suicide bombers. All of the insurgents kept attacking the two bases with light weapons and rocket propelled grenades. But all of the died from their worthless siege to the base. The insurgents leader must of have been quite brave to face a heavy defense from the Afghan and US army at the bases. Soon later they caught the leader at Sunday in Logar province.

Questions
1. Why did the leader send his poor equipped men to their deaths?
2. What’s their reason to attack the two well guarded bases?
Afghanistan location

Vocab
1. Insurgents: a person who rises in forcible opposition to lawful authority,esp. a person who engages in armed resistance to agovernment or to the execution of its laws; rebel.
2. NATO: an organization formed in Washington, D.C. (1949), comprising the12 nations of the Atlantic Pact together with Greece, Turkey, andthe Federal Republic of Germany, for the purpose of collective defense against aggression. North. Atlantic. Treaty. Organization.

CNN. “Coalition: Attacks in Afghanistan Leave More than 30 Insurgents Dead – CNN.com.”CNN.com International – Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. Cable News Network, 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. .

Original Article http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/08/29/afghanistan.insurgents/index.html?hpt=T2#fbid=n1L8TX0Xi_K&wom

Word Definitions

Catastrophe – any misfortune, mishap, or failure

Humanitarian – a person actively engaged in promoting  human welfare and social reforms, as a philanthropist

Inundate – to flood; cover or overspread with water; deluge

Infrastructure -the basic, underlying framework or features of a system organization

Monsoon – any wind that changes directions with the seasons

Bibliography

Ahmed, Munir. “Pakistan Floods: One-Fourth Of Country Affected.” The Huffington Post. 08 Dec. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/12/pakistan-floods-onefourth_n_680237.html>.

“Catastrophe.” Web. 29 Aug. 2010.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/catastrophe>.

“Humanitarian.” Web. 29 Aug. 2010.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/humanitarian

“Infrastructure.” Web. 29 Aug. 2010.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/infrastructure>.

“Monsoon.” Web. 29 Aug. 2010.

<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/monsoon>.

“Pakistan Flood Location.” Map. Mapsof. Web. 29 Aug. 2010.

<http://www.topnews.in/files/Islamabad-Pakistan-Map.gif>.

“Pakistan Flood Surge Moving South.” CBC News. 05 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/08/05/pakistan-floods-south.html>.

Photograph. Overview. Image. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42441000/jpg/_42441888_zoverview-afp.jpg>.

Rosenberg, Matt. “Pakistan Flood.” About. 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://geography.about.com/b/2010/08/17/pakistan-flood.htm>.

Bibliography

Photo: ToxicSam

The first day of 8th grade started with a BANG! I was introduced to new teachers, new students and new classrooms. I was happy with my classmates and my teachers but I was sad that barely anyone from my old class showed up in my classes.  Luckily I didn’t get lost in any of my classes. On the third day, we had our first homework, although it was pretty easy, I was hoping to get through a week without homework. By the time the fourth day ended, we had to prepare ourselves for a test. I knew that 8th grade was going to be a hard year, but not hard right at the beginning! Every day I had more and more homework and the things we did in class harder and harder. Well, I’m prepared for another year,  even though it might be the toughest year in my life.

I was back in school again and the first cycle of 8th grade Felt like a leap to a new  and greater year. It was very surprising because our schedules were  completely changed. Though it was fun it was also extremely sad and  depressing to see all my old friends leave to a new school or a new  home. I was also overjoyed because I got every class I signed up for and  at the same time I got to keep my favorite teachers as-well. I also  felt a little sad because I did get some new teachers that I wasn’t very  fond of. In the first few days of school we got to know the students but our evil teachers decided that we needed homework on the first 5 days of school and we cant say otherwise. The last 3 days of the first cycle where more enjoyable it was then that things started to sink in and I started to get into a better working pattern then before.

Today we will:

• create a gravatar account
• gmail and google docs labels
• enable gravatar accounts, (settings discussion)
• blog post one
  • surprised
  • happy
  • sad
  • week 2 use zotero, create peer edit category, use diigo for peer edits (two classmates)
    
• begin our photoshop assignment

Assignment 6 (five points)
Make sure you have added two words to the classroom dictionary by the end of this week.

Photoshop
Remember to create version saves every I will be asking three different students to add information from my photoshop demonstration to our shared document.

Explore each of the tools shown in the Google Doc.

Mass Lead Poisoning

Since March 2010, an outbreak of lead poisoning has swept through villages in Zamfara State, Nigeria, killing hundreds of children. The causes of this catastrophe are said to be linked to illegal gold-mining by locals in the area and toxic contaminated waste. Though the circumstances are critical, heavy rainfall and poor infrastructure have been delaying confirmation from government officials and aid from international organizations.

The death toll of lead poisoning surprised doctors and is immediately subjected for investigation.  Reports showed that children were the most vulnerable victims of lead poisoning as many African kids often lie on used metal ores bags to sleep and play around polluted water pools near gold mines; pregnant women were also infected. On the bright side, Doctors without Borders as well as the World Health Organization are offering local treatments near infected sites while the Blacksmith Institute is trying to cleanse toxic chemicals on the surface of soil.

Lead, like calcium or zinc, circulates rapidly in people’s bloodstreams causing long-term consequences such as damaging the functions of red blood cells (anemia), affecting the absorption of calcium, limiting bone growth and muscle contraction, increasing the probability of speech and language problems, or even seizures and unconsciousness in extreme cases.

The toxic could be found in environmental areas such as contaminating soil which can bring lead dusts into households and water running in old faucets or other broken conductors. Once a child is affected by lead poising, it will experience symptoms such as having a metallic taste in the mouth, weight loss, abdominal pain, constipation, vomiting and the list continues. In order to clean the bloodstream of lead, a patient needs to take chelating agent ‒ a medication that chemically binds with the lead particles in the blood and releases them through urination.

In villages such as Yargalma and Dareta, more than 100 child mortalities have been reported. The average concentration of lead in the children’s bloodstream was recorded as 119 μg/dL and according to the World Health Organization, “levels as low as 10 μg/dL are associated with impaired neurological development in young children”. The number of deaths is expected to diminish; however there will be children struggling with the slow reactions of lead poisoning.

In order to minimize the danger of lead poisoning, children should no longer be exposed to a lead-contaminated environment whilst more medical resources and authority intervention are needed to speed up the recovery process.

Reflection

Local [uneducated] Nigerians who illegally sneaked in gold mines to gather gold might not be aware that bringing metals home will harm the children, who are already feeble and malnourished.

In the long run, if not prevented, these epidemic outbreaks will negatively affect life expectancy in African countries as more people will die from exposure to highly dangerous toxics. Moreover, the soil around mining areas will no longer be safe for cultivation since vegetables are more likely to absorb chemicals under the ground of infected sites. This is a problematic issue for Africa ‒ a continent that relies heavily on agriculture. And as a result, famines and deaths from food poisoning will occur more frequently causing a swell in the children and infant mortality rate in countries of Africa.

According to UNICEF, only 30% of the population of Nigeria was using improved sanitation facilities (2006) and 47% of the population is consuming clean drinking water. However, this fatal lead poisoning incident will gravely contaminate water sources like rivers and underground water sources and negatively affect the health of people in Nigeria causing the country’s situation to go from bad to worse.

A high death rate of youngsters pressures African women to make more children to compensate the loss. This thought could subsequently lead to an increase in the overall population of the continent.  Even though the children could drop out of school and join the workforce at an early age, their family’s situation would hardly improve because the status of women, the lack of education and health care still remain unchanged for future generations.

As a connection to Economics, in order to decrease the negative effects of illegal gold mining, an entrepreneur will have to intervene. If somebody launches a powerful gold extraction firm, then there might be chances that Nigeria’s economy will blossom. The country has valuable resources but it does not have sufficient factors of production to take advantage of those natural treasures.

Questions

1) Should the local government or the people be held responsible for this lead poisoning catastrophe? Why?

2) What should be improved in countries like Nigeria to prevent similar problems in the future?

***

Bibliography:

“About Lead Poisoning.” KidsHealth. KidsHealth. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/lead_poisoning.html>.

Al Jazerra English. Aljazeera, 4 June 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2010/06/201064182049228431.html>.

“‘Dozens of Children Die’ in Nigerian Lead Poisoning.” BBC News. BBC, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11111799>.

“Nigeria: Mass Lead Poisoning from Mining Activities, Zamfara State.” World Health Organization. World Health Organization, 7 July 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <https://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_07_07/en/index.html>.

A Nigerian child silhouette. Digital image. Brown Man Thinking Hard. Blogspot, 18 June 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Cry2hN-xUQM/TBuruonG9GI/AAAAAAAACJI/l2emAxfhe7Q/s640/a-nigerian-child-is-silho-001.jpg>.

Purefoy, Christian. “Child Graves Reveal Lead Poison Tragedy.” CNN. CNN, 10 June 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/06/10/nigeria.poisons/index.html>.

UNICEF. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. <http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_statistics.html>.

The UN predicts that the world will reach a high point in 2008. It is predicted that India will have more populated urban areas than ever before. According to 2007, the Population Reference Bureau mentions that India will surpass China in overpopulation. This is because, the ratio of children per family is considered to be big (2.6), where the normal is expected to be 2.1 children per family. This imbalance results in half of the population in being less than 25 years old, whereas China is expected to have more number of old group people than younger ones. Moreover, it is also important to remember that even though we are comparing the population of China and India, their sizes are not the same: China is three times India. The biggest negative impact of overpopulation is the lack of natural resources, mainly, water.  But there is hope for future technology which could transform sea water into normal drinking water. Currently, India’s population is 1.2 billion, second after China. Experts mention that the increase of population can be lowered by sterilization programs, large scale education and awareness about family planning. They also believe that cash incentives for birthrate control. India’s health minister, Gulab Nabi Azad, suggested for the people to rather watch TV than have sex, which produces more children.

Analyze:

As we have learnt in class that population is not stable, which indicates that any possibilities might occur. In the article, it mentions that the experts are hoping for some technology which could transform sea water into drinking water, but in reality we have been hoping for this discovery since very long time ago. I am not saying that it is impossible for us to invent this new machine, but it is much better if we be careful, preserve our natural resources and use it wisely because anything might happen to our world. Subsequently, the health minister of India mentions that it is better to watch TV than have sex; this is very peculiar because it might be possible that the couple is in need of having a kid. So I think that his steps should be more firm, decisive, to the point, and not vague.

Reflect: (questions)

1.)    What can we do to make the living territory wider?

2.)    If in the future we don’t have enough resources would we be man-eaters and eat each other, just like animals?

Citations:

Blog

Gupta, Rupali. “India Tries Cash Bonus for Birth Rate Control Program.” Web log post. Healthy Living. © 2010 Healthy Living, 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.knowabouthealth.com/india-tries-cash-bonus-for-birth-rate-control-program/5742/>.

Magazine
Hunashikatti, Shrinivas. “India’s Population Explosion | Ghulam Nabi Azad | Poor | Farmers | Religious Cirlcle – Oneindia News.” India News | Breaking News | Headlines | Business News | Entertainment | Sports | Features | Cricket – Oneindia News. Adbrite, 22 July 2009. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://news.oneindia.in/cj/shrinivas-s/2009/india-population-explosion-control-poor-farmers.html>.

Website

Nanjowe. “Effect of Overpopulation on the Environment & Sustainability: Overpopulation in India, Africa, Egypt, China & Other Countries.” Find Health, Education, Science & Technology Articles, Reviews, How-To and Tech Tips At Bright Hub – Apply To Be A Writer Today!Bright Hubs, 12 Jan. 2009. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.brighthub.com/environment/science-environmental/articles/17302.aspx>.

Picture

Scott, Dan. “Overpopulation in India.” Yurock. Feedburner. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.yurock.net/overpopulation-in-india/>.

The article focuses on the future possibilities and the potentials of China’s economy as it resently have overcome Japan in its economical scale, and is currently on the tail of America. But according to its analysis, China is slowly losing its advantages of cheap labor and items as it is undergoing developments. It is slowly facing obstacles which rise up together with the advancements in its living standards.

Of all, China is geologically scarce with water; but the demand for clean water is rising as small towns are being developed and tap water is supplied. Of all, demands for water is also expected to increase in the industries and the aggriculture buisness as it will expand.

The energy use in China is also a problem. China lacks a domestic source of energy, and is dependant on foregin imported energy, unlike the times when its main exports were coals. Now, China is a major importer of fuel. Its foregin relience on energy has increased close to 60%. Also, the method of energy usage is considered underdeveloped, and lacks in efficiency in comparison to many major companies. China currently produces most abundant amounts of green house gases in the world and the total energy use is also the no.1 in the world.

The future agriculture buisness China isn’t as bright; the mass polution and China’s dry environments, together with the high energy costs is expected to have counter-effects on the growth of China’s agriculture. Acid falls also have huge negative impacts; with such abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, almost 1/3^rd of the agricultural land is hit by acid rains. Soon, as China gets wealthier, demands for high protein foods, or meat, will soon increase. By the time, China will be dependant on Canada and America for its food.

China is currently being driven by its young populations, the reason how its cheap work force could exist. But with its dropping birth rates, Many believe that there would be significant decrease in its workforce. And by 2050, it is expected that approximately 31% of Chinese population would be older than 60. Either of these factors will have direct impacts China’s growth, as its advantage has turned its back away.

Reflections:

Having lived in China’s most developed city, I’m very well aware of the advancements in China’s economical growth. In five years just around my town, 2 giant shopping malls had set its place across a road; people’s attitude and concepts of manner shifted from its old ways to a more generalized, world-widely accepted ways, and more and more foreginers started pouring in. Together with the rising economy, people’s expectations and demands increased. Cheap local restaurants were wiped out, famous brands have driven off the local buisness. More children were learning English, and in 2008 there was the Beijing olympics. But slowly, China was losing its momentom of growth. Many of the factors mentioned in the passages were very critical and many times mentioned in the country also. But nevertheless, many other countries, such as Korea and Japan, had suffered the same problem. For example, Japan and Korea is not rich of resources; many of its foods and industrial items are imported from other countries. But nevertheless, the products of two countries have great impacts in the rest of the world. These problems could slow down the rapid growth of China, but in time will be solved. China, for example,has currently invested billions of dollars on the studies of a new energy source to replace its primitive energy usage. It isn’t at all odd to consider these factors, but never will it have a long lasting impact. Soon, as those problems will slowly be solved, its growth will settle into a more constant phase, and will very likely maintain its economical power in a more constant phase, unlike the booms of the recent 20 years.

Questions:

1. By how far will these factors vary China’s economy? Would it ever go so far to decrease its economical scales?
2. How did other countries such as America, Japan and Europe solve these problems? Did they had similar ones or unique problems of their own?

Vocab:

All words interpreted

Bibliography:

Kotkin, Joel. “The China Syndrome | Newgeography.com.” Newgeography.com | Economic, Demographic, and Political Commentary about Places. 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.newgeography.com/content/001737-the-china-syndrome>.

33 Chilean miners are stuck in a collapsed mine

Sunday August 29,2010

By Stuart Winter

Have your say(1)

UNLUCKY Raul Bustos escaped the devastation of a massive earthquake only to end up trapped with 32 fellow miners half a mile underground.

Mine worker Raul had just recently changed jobs after the devastation of one of South America’s biggest natural disasters.

Six months ago, former shipworker Raul, 40, his wife Carola Narvaez and their children were living in the port city of Talcahuano, which was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami.

Their house survived the destruction but the family moved hundreds of miles and Raul found work earning £700 a month as a heavy machinery mechanic at the gold and copper mine near Copiapo.

Then, three weeks ago his luck ran out. A tunnel collapse brought down 700,000 tons of rock, trapping Raul and his fellow workers deep in the bowels of a mountain.

Footage of the men, bearded, haggard but still smiling, has reached the surface to spur rescuers to increase their efforts to free them before isolation and illness begin to claim lives.

Meagre rations are getting through to the men who, in turn, are sending back letters to their loved ones.

For Carola Narvaez, 36 and their children Maria Paz, five and three-year-old Vicente, the notes that reach the surface bring hope that they will be reunited.

Experts predict it will be three months before an escape tunnel breaks through to the men. Carola Narvaez has left the children with her parents and is staying in the makeshift camp which has sprung up around the entrance shaft.

Last night she said: “In the earthquake we just had to keep on living, we had our lives.

“This is the same. It is producing much anguish, isolation and fear but we’re alive. My husband is alive down in that mine and we will have another happy ending.”

Summary

-This article is about man named Raul Bustos, who has undergone lots of natural disasters and survived. When he was living in port city of Talcahuano, their house was completely destroyed by earthquake and tsunami. They then moved hundreds of miles and found a job of handling heavy machinery mechanic at the gold and copper mine near Copiapo. However the earthquake occurred at the tunnel, which caused collapse of 700,000 tons of rock. It trapped 32 of Rau Bustos crews, and they could communicate each other by sending messages. It would take 3 months to make an escape tunnel to reach the men. His wife is being positive and said they’ll be alright.

Reflection

-This article affects my country, because Korea also mines coals, so they should be cautious of accidents like this. Recently, flood rose in Korea, and lots of people lost their homes and occupations. My community should realize that working in mine is always a dangerous job, so they should avoid job as mining. I feel sad for Raul Bustos, but especially of his wife, because they can’t see their husband for three months, without knowing if her husband would survive. Also, one of the Chile’s gold mines is gone, so I wonder how they would get compensated for that loss. Not only that, sub-area of the tunnel would have been harmed, so it would cost lots of money to repair those areas. The solution of this problem would be to primarily make the escape tunnel as soon as possible, and identify regions that have the priority percent of occasion of earthquakes. In my opinion, this article is available. The author was not biased of one side, the author stated only facts. Also, the date and the story of this article are valid for me to use.

This picture is a picture of collapsed tunnel in Chile, and it looks very awful to be trapped inside that tunnel.

Figure1. Picture of collapsed tunnel

(I can’t post the picture of the map because it does not have enough memory, and I deleted other things too, but it says it needs extra 26kb)

Figure 2. Location taken place

Two questions

-Will Raul Bustos and his crew be safe?

-Will Raul Bustos still going to have a job that involves lots of risk after the rescue?

-Will other countries help them to make an escape tunnel to rescue Raul Bustos?

-How much gold and jewels would the tunnel contain?

-Did the earthquake give damages to other places?

Unfamiliar vocabulary

-Bowels: deep part of earth

-Footage: payment by the running foot of work done.

-haggard: tired expression

-spur: encourages to do it

-Meagre rations: amount that you want to have

-makeshift: things are temporary and usually of poor quality, but they are used because there is nothing better available.

Bibliography

Original bibliography

Stuart Winter. “Trapped Chilean Miner’s Wife Reveals How Family Survived an Earthquake Six Months Ago.” Thaindian News. Shell Media, 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/trapped-chilean-miners-wife-reveals-how-family-survived-an-earthquake-six-months-ago_100419457.html>.

33 Chilean Miners Are Stuck in a Collapsed Mine. 2010. Photograph. Chile. 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://images.dailyexpress.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/285×214/196246_1.jpg>.

33 Miners Trapped 17 Days Are Alive in Chile. 2010. Photograph. Chile. 33 Miners Trapped 17 Days Are Alive in Chile. 23 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://article.wn.com/view/2010/08/23/33_miners_trapped_17_days_are_alive_in_Chile_7/>.

When We See The Term ‘US Backed’, Read United Nations- NATO Backed. 2009. Photograph. Chile. War On Democracy – US Backed 1973 Coup In Chile. By Admin. 1 Nov. 2009. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.lifeinthemixtalk.com/?p=4448>.

WIFITI

Wifiti is like a cool digital home display and what’s really cool about it is that you create these things called “screens” which I think is very awesome because it shows you updates on things you like or want updates on. It’s like a more fun and organized way to view streams and rss feeds.

When you make a screen you can pick what kind of things you want to see in it by adding tags in the first step.

And the second step to making a screen is choosing what you where you want to get your information from like twitter, youtube, msn, yahoo, flickr, mobile messages, etc. there’s a very wide variety to choose from.

Third step is “Auto Moderation” where you can pick what kind of information you can get. G for all ages and R for restricted or you can have the third option which is all kinds of information regarding your tags.

To be on the safe side please choose G rated information because you really wouldn’t want to get caught reading R rated streams in class. And finally my favorite step, which is the customiable background! You can upoad any picture from your computer any kind of file will work. Press save then, you’re done!

But the thing is if you want to save your screen you might want to sign up for Wifiti first because that’s the only way you can view your screen and make more screens. It’s free to sign up. There’s also this thing on wifiti called wifiti buzz which is where people on wifiti post messages or questions.  And when you press on browse screens you can see all the screens people have created.

When you sign in, on the top right corner there’s your username and there’s a link next to it that says my screens and another link next to it that says my messages and another link next to it that says log out. And of course log out means log out.  The my screens link helps you view the screens you have created and you can also press on the bottom left of the screen to make it full screen, click the bottom left again to make it normal sized. My messages are the messages you are posting on wifiti.

So that is how you use wifiti and what all the things on wifiti means. There’s a whole lot more but I’m going to let you explore it when you set up an account. By using this webtool I was able to create my own stream of 3D like digital rss feeds and I’ve also managed to update myself on information.

What I like about this webtool is that it’s really simple and it seems like an easier way to get information. The cool thing is it gives you updates everyday and the old updates seems to fade away when a new update is there. I also really like how the feeds moves around so that you can read them all one at a time. What makes the tool easy to use is that the instructions in making a screen is really easy you know, it’s not very long and the instructions are also really straight forward.

In class I think this tool would be useful if we wanted to get updated information on a certain thing everyday in class. So it would probably be good for projects where you want to have short updated information. I don’t think that you could use this to find information for really long presentations because the information is only like short facts when it shows up on the screen.  What I don’t think is good for class is how they have this twitter option if you want to get updates on the certain thing on twitter. Because if you;re trying to get facts twitter isn’t really a good place to look. So make a quick note. No twitter!

I think this would proabably be one of the most easiest things to use because it seems like the only program I know that does this.  So that’s why I really like it. It’s new for me.

Summary

The UN estimates that the floods in Pakistan have killed 1600 people, affected 20 million people along with 8 million homeless people and 8000 people still cut off by the floodwater. However, while people are suffering from the floods, diseases are posing as a new threat to the flood victims. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the prime minister of Pakistan says “millions of people in Pakistan are now at serious risk of an epidemic of diseases such as cholera because of contaminated water and a lack of sanitation.” This is not all, there are other diseases such as acute gastroenteritis, malaria, waterborne diseases, diarrhea and numerous skin diseases occurring to the flood victims in Pakistan. So far, it is said that 36,000 people have cholera and 29 people have died and 50 people are in critical conditions. The UN worries that approximately 3.5 million children will be affected by waterborne gastroenteritis. Also the Pakistan Health Ministry has sent a red alert to the World Health Organization (WHO) due to the outbreak of these epidemic diseases. The WHO estimates there will be 1.5 million cases of stomach diseases, 150,000 cases of measles,  350,000 cases of acute respiratory infections, and up to 100,000 cases of Malaria will happen in the next three months. Fortunately, there are movements around the world to help the flood victims. The British Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) informs that so far people have donated £40m (Aug 29) along with the UN donating $460 million for the flood victims in Pakistan. Other organizations have also provided aid to the Pakistan flood victims.

Reflection

I think I understood what is happening in Pakistan. I think the news articles I read are trustful because I have explored many online news sites such as The New York Times and the Reuters and they have the same information. There weren’t any differences in the number of people with the diseases or both medias didn’t have any different information about the situation in Pakistan. However, as I read the articles I had questions to myself. The first one was “Are the flood victims actually receiving the aid?” So far, the articles report the casualties of the flood, the number of people with the diseases and the news of donation from all over the world. However, there isn’t any information about the benefits the flood victims should have received. It says many organizations have donated a tremendous amount of money, but there is no indication of the victims receiving medication, immediate shelter and other reliefs they should have had. Also it doesn’t tell you where and how the money and the relief products are being used and this creates questions that there is chance that some government officials could have took the money or only rich people are receiving the benefits. The other question was “What do the flood victims think about this?” Even though the flood victims are receiving tremendous amounts of relief  products and humanitarian aid, I think there could be problems. For example, so far I have never seen any direct quotes from the flood victims. In other cases, after the victims have received the aid, there are quotes from the victim saying “I want to thank all the other countries for supporting us” and more. However, there aren’t any quotes and also I had worries too. Since the victims are in a desperate situation, the strong people might take the weak people’s aid or there might be sick people who can’t even go to the place to receive the aid. Also since there are a large amount of the flood victims, there might be less supplies and some people couldn’t have received the supplies.

Vocabulary

Acute Gastroenteritis: Acute Gastroenteritis is a disease that can be considered as a long stomach flu. The symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain.

Waterborne diseases: A disease that is spread through drinking contaminated water.

Bibliography

The Articles

Paveley, Rebecca. “Church Times – Disease Poses New Threat to Pakistan’s Flood Victims.” Church Times – Church Times, 27 August 2010. Church Times, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=99555>

“UK Giving For Pakistan Floods Still Accelerating, Reaches £40m.” Disasters Emergency Committee. Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.dec.org.uk/item/468>.

Masood, Salmaan, and Waqar Gilani. “The New York Times Log In.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The New York Times, 14 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/world/asia/15floods.html>

Soomro, Akhtar. “Diseases Intensify Risks in Pakistan Flood Crisis | Reuters.” Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com. Thomson Reuters, 13 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE66T3RS20100813>

Hashmi, Syed Moazzam. “Pakistan’s Flood Victims Endangered by Outbreak of Epidemic Diseases.”Xinhua News. Xinhua News Agency, 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/17/c_13449507.htm>.

The Vocabulary

Ellis-Christensen, Tricia. “What Is Acute Gastroenteritis?” WiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. Conjecture Corporation. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-acute-gastroenteritis.htm>.

“Water Borne Diseases.” Medindia – Medical/Health Website. Google. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.medindia.net/patients/waterborne/waterborne.htm>.

The Picture

“Pakistan Map, Map of Pakistan.” World Map , Map of the World. Mapsofworld.com. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.mapsofworld.com/pakistan/>.

B. Summary

In the 2 articles that I have read, there are a lot of peruvians in present that are suffering from coldness because this shows that the temperature had never went this low before. Especially, the children will gain a huge impact on it because the children are now undergoing malnutrition, which means that the children are gaining an negative effect on it. Also, many children are suffering from the cold. Therefore, the Plan group in Australia is trying to help Peru out by donating clothes and the Peru president is also trying to help out Peru by calling emergencies and giving shelter, clothing, etc… to people who are actually being affected the most.

C. Reflection

As I have read these articles, I felt that I wanted to help Peru right away. The main reason is so that every person in the world could live peacefully and without any problems, such as Peru as mentioned previously. Also, I thought that each individual has the right to live through all cases. Also, I wanted to make people happy so that I would not only gain respect but I would also feel proud of myself for helping the people in Peru out. So, if I have a chance to go to Peru, I want to help them there.

D. Bibliography

Collyns, Dan. “BBC News – Peru Declares Emergency over Cold Weather.” BBC. 24 July 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10749124>.

“Freezing Temperatures Threaten Thousands in Peru.” Plan Australia. 28 July 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.plan.org.au/mediacentre/features/freezing_temperatures_threaten_thousands_in_peru>.

I think that this source of news is reliable because this news company is a well-known source that is written by people that are accurate in their writings. This would affect the environment because of the lead poisoning spreading in Nigeria which might eventually affect the seas and oceans because the poison might be washed away by the rain and into a river in Nigeria that might be connected to the seas and oceans. This is a big issue to everyone especially to the Nigerians’ children. The only solution is to stop all illegal mining and try to scoop out the top layer soil around the village to save lives. The two questions that I thought about, that is related to this news article are, How is this lead poisoning going to stop? and Why are people mining illegally?.

The figure on the above is a map of Nigeria and the capital city is called Abuja.

Vocabulary:

None

Work Cited:

Map Article:

“BBC News – ‘Dozens of Children Die’ in Nigerian Lead Poisoning.” BBC. BBC News, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11111799>.

Map:

“Nigeria.” Map. About: Geography. The New York Times Company, 1 Nov. 2005. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcnigeria.htm>.

Summary

Zhangjiakou China is having a big problem that they have a huge traffic every day. To get through the highway Mongolia to Hebei it takes the drivers about four or five days and also stuck  in the traffic jam for four or five days. Therefore the Chinese government is trying to extend the roads.

Reflect

I think China really needs to fix on this problem because it would be a pain for lots of people who need to use that highway. Also when something really important or accident happens it would be really hard to fix it fast because cars are jammed.

Questions

1. Why does people go to that highway that much?

2. Isn’t it hard to extend the roads when traffic jam is still going on?

Word that I don’t know

ma·roon¹ (mə-rūn’)
tr.v., -rooned, -roon·ing, -roons.

1. To put ashore on a deserted island or coast and intentionally abandon.
2. To abandon or isolate with little hope of ready rescue or escape: The travelers were marooned by the blizzard.

im·mo·bile (ĭ-mō’bəl, -bēl’, -bīl’)
adj.

1. Immovable; fixed.
2. Not moving; motionless.

prof·it·eer (prŏf’ĭ-tîr’)
n.
One who makes excessive profits on goods in short supply.

intr.v., -eered, -eer·ing, -eers .
To make excessive profits on goods in short supply.

u·su·ri·ous (yū-zhʊr’ē-əs)
adj.

1. Practicing usury.
2. Of or constituting usury: usurious interest rates.

dove·tail (dŭv’tāl’)
n.

1. A fan-shaped tenon that forms a tight interlocking joint when fitted into a corresponding mortise.
2. A joint formed by interlocking one or more such tenons and mortises

ven·dor also vend·er (vĕn’dər)
n.

1. One that sells or vends: a street vendor; a vendor of software products on the Web.
2. A vending machine.

ve·hi·cle (vē’ĭ-kəl)
n.

1. 1. A device or structure for transporting persons or things; a conveyance: a space vehicle.
   2. A self-propelled conveyance that runs on tires; a motor vehicle.
2. A medium through which something is transmitted, expressed, or accomplished: His novels are a vehicle for his political views.
3. The concrete or specific word or phrase that is applied to the tenor of a metaphor and gives the metaphor its figurative power, as walking shadow in “Life’s but a walking shadow” (Shakespeare).
4. A play, role, or piece of music used to display the special talents of one performer or company.
5. A substance of no therapeutic value used to convey an active medicine for administration.
6. A substance, such as oil, in which paint pigments are mixed for application.

[Latin vehiculum, from vehere , to carry.]

Bibliography

News

 INES, MICHAEL. “China’s Growth Leads to Problems Down the Road.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The New York Times, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/world/asia/28china.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=world>.

Map image

Words

Geography 9

Tapping into the Electric Power of Heat Aug no.29

The issue from this article is that they are capturing the heat to generate the energy and the temperature of the heat is 1,650ºC, also the enormous amount of heat is lost when the furnace melts quartz rock to extract silicon. The enormous amount of heat can be converted into the electrical power. The problem was that it was really hard to recover the energy that was being wasted because every day the energies are being wasted. The solution is that they figured out 95 proven ways to recycle the energies, one way of doing it is to open the doors to remove regulatory barriers and leveling the energy playing field. Alphabet Energy, they are the group who are trying to generate electricity in US by using the wasted energy. They say that the 60% of the energy is being wasted all over the world. This is happening because they are trying to recover the energy that’s being wasted. This can affect environments, communities and myself, because since the wasted energies are being used as the electrical power we can save our money and also it can help the environments to be in a better shape because when the wasted energies are being used we are not providing more of carbon dioxides. The question I had about this article is how long it takes to fully recover the wasted energies. My opinion about this issue is that I think they should convince the governments to make a law that can stop the waste of the energies. The recovering the wasted energy can be the source of the article that can influence its content.

PICTURE:

Map of United States. “Google Image Result for Http://www.onlineatlas.us/map/united-states-map.gif.” GoogleMap Of United States. 2005. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.onlineatlas.us/map/united-states-map.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.onlineatlas.us/united-states-map.htm&usg=__HyAM59uVRCS00tRcqpdhOsyMrUc=&h=324&w=505&sz=22&hl=en&start=4&zoom=1&tbnid=I9ibzCi0Ie2wTM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=130&prev=/images?q=US+detailed+map&um=1&hl=en&sa=G&biw=1440&bih=807&tbs=isch:1&um=1&itbs=1>.

WEBSITE:

Garthwaite, By Josie. “Tapping into the Electric Power of Heat.” Daily Nature and Science News and Headlines | National Geographic News. Josie Garthwaite, Aug.-Sept. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/100823-energy-electric-power-from-heat/>.

Vocabularies:

1. Quartz:noun:one of the commonest minerals, silicon dioxide, SiO ₂ , havingmany varieties that differ in color, luster.
2. Furnace: noun: a structure or apparatus in which heat may be generated, as for heating houses, smelting ores, or producing steam.

[The Evolution Of Technology And The Human Race]

The one piece of infomation that suprised me the most was that people met on myspace and got married! I mean well there’s nothing wrong with marriage or anything but it’s kind of strange that people meet on the internet instead of meeting actual people outside well it’s not like people on myspace aren’t real but it just seems kind of sad that people rather webcam each other than go out on dates.

But while watching this video I noticed the skill that people would need to be successful in today’s world is creativity and well brains. What I mean by brains is that people should be more smart you know? And also what I mean by smart is the basics, math, science, language arts, and history.

Even though some of those things might not be needed in the future we can’t just let it fade away like it never existed in the first place. Math and Science could help us understand technology better because that’s how most of technology is made. Also Language Arts and History can help us understand current events and compare it to the so we could see if the present is better than the past or if the future could be better or worse.

It really depends on history and the current events like for example the first computer! Which I really don’t remember what year it was but I remembered seeing my first computer when I was only 3 years old so I guess me and the computer are probably the same age. Or maybe it’s older than me…

Growing technology changes almost everything because in the past I mean how do people get their questions answered. Some people would turn to religion and some would probably just guess. Like another example the world is flat. Which everyone knows is not true. How did people find out the world wasn’t flat? Technology. And ever since then things have been growing. From records, to radios, to stereos, and to the modern i-pod. Technology just grows more and more. Technology changes how we get our questions answered.

Before people had computers to research for essays and writings how did people research? They went to a library to hit the books. (Not literally, hit the books means to study.) So technology makes learning a little bit easier and more advanced.

Growing technology will make education focus more on creativity and what could happen. It helps us predict what could happen it makes us more creative. When me and my little brother were little kids we thought that someday there would be flying cars. Yes, it was very childish but it was creative and we thought of it when we saw a picture on the internet. But who knows? It could happen.

But the drawbacks to technology are power outages. Me and my brother has never had a power outage when we lived in America but when we went to Vietnam we were so surprised.  We couldn’t turn on the lights, there was no air con, and my computer was out of battery. So I didn’t have my homework done and my grade dropped. Which really wasn’t pleasant in any way at all.

That’s pretty much the worst drawback I can think of about technology besides when technology is really slow. It just annoys me how it takes 3 minutes to open a webpage, my dad say I’m just impatient but I guess I am, sometimes. To help everyone survive in the world of new growing technology I think people should write about technology on newspapers. But what I can do is show my parents, or classmates, or teacher. I can tell them about technology, and maybe a little bit about how it works.

Did you know if you’re one in a million in China, there are 1300 people just like you! Did you know India has more honor kids, than America has kids! Did you know…? Nope, I don’t know. But after watching this shocking video, I know.

[The Evolution Of Technology And The Human Race]

The one piece of infomation that suprised me the most was that people met on myspace and got married! I mean well there’s nothing wrong with marriage or anything but it’s kind of strange that people meet on the internet instead of meeting actual people outside well it’s not like people on myspace aren’t real but it just seems kind of sad that people rather webcam each other than go out on dates.

But while watching this video I noticed the skill that people would need to be successful in today’s world is creativity and well brains. What I mean by brains is that people should be more smart you know? And also what I mean by smart is the basics, math, science, language arts, and history. Even though some of those things might not be needed in the future we can’t just let it fade away like it never existed in the first place.

Math and Science could help us understand technology better because that’s how most of technology is made. Also Language Arts and History can help us understand current events and compare it to the so we could see if the present is better than the past or if the future could be better or worse.

It really depends on history and the current events like for example the first computer! Which I really don’t remember what year it was but I remembered seeing my first computer when I was only 3 years old so I guess me and the computer are probably the same age. Or maybe it’s older than me…

Growing technology changes almost everything because in the past I mean how do people get their questions answered. Some people would turn to religion and some would probably just guess. Like another example the world is flat. Which everyone knows is not true. How did people find out the world wasn’t flat? Technology.

And ever since then things have been growing. From records, to radios, to stereos, and to the modern i-pod. Technology just grows more and more. Technology changes how we get our questions answered. Before people had computers to research for essays and writings how did people research? They went to a library to hit the books. (Not literally, hit the books means to study.) So technology makes learning a little bit easier and more advanced.

Growing technology will make education focus more on creativity and what could happen. It helps us predict what could happen it makes us more creative. When me and my little brother were little kids we thought that someday there would be flying cars. Yes, it was very childish but it was creative and we thought of it when we saw a picture on the internet. But who knows? It could happen.

But the drawbacks to technology are power outages. Me and my brother has never had a power outage when we lived in America but when we went to Vietnam we were so surprised.  We couldn’t turn on the lights, there was no air con, and my computer was out of battery. So I didn’t have my homework done and my grade dropped. Which really wasn’t pleasant in any way at all. That’s pretty much the worst drawback I can think of about technology besides when technology is really slow.

It just annoys me how it takes 3 minutes to open a webpage, my dad say I’m just impatient but I guess I am, sometimes. To help everyone survive in the world of new growing technology I think people should write about technology on newspapers. But what I can do is show my parents, or classmates, or teacher. I can tell them about technology, and maybe a little bit about how it works.

Reflection and 2 questions:

I think this website is relevant because it was not stating any bias opinions about this volcanic eruptions even though this website is from the UK they didn’t have any opinions given by the people from the UK. There were only informations that was given by the people in the area of Sumatra and Indonesia. And this article was  written the day after this event so it should be up to date. The two questions I have on this article is how far away was the volcano from the nearest village? And if there are any environmental problems because of the smoke and ash?

Vocabulary:

Spew: to gush out (disgustedly)

Bibliography

Article and image :

“BBC News – Thousands Flee Indonesia Volcano on Sumatra.” BBC. BBC © MMX The BBC Is Not Responsible for the Content of External Sites., 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11123169>.

Reflection and 2 questions:

I think this website is relevant because it was not stating any bias opinions about this volcanic eruptions even though this website is from the UK they didn’t have any opinions given by the people from the UK. There were only informations that was given by the people in the area of Sumatra and Indonesia. And this article was  written the day after this event so it should be up to date. The two questions I have on this article is how far away was the volcano from the nearest village? And if there are any environmental problems because of the smoke and ash?

Vocabulary:

Spew: to gush out (disgustedly)

Bibliography

Article and image :

“BBC News – Thousands Flee Indonesia Volcano on Sumatra.” BBC. BBC © MMX The BBC Is Not Responsible for the Content of External Sites., 29 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11123169>.

No.1

Figure 1. Map of Pakistan’s flood area.

There was Pakistan’s worst flooding in 80 years.  The floods began in July 2010 following heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, lower Punjab and Baluchistan regions of Pakistan. (See figure 1) About a million homes have been destroyed since the flooding began. The United Nations estimated that more than twenty million people are injured or homeless as a result of the flooding. At one point, approximately on fifth of Pakistan’s total land area was underwater due to the flooding. “Floodwaters ravaged hundreds of villages in Pakistan’s main province of Punjab Wednesday, destroying homes, soaking crops, and threatening more lives. Aid workers warned that bloated rivers would soon surge into the country’s south, prompting more evacuations.” (Huffington Post, 2010) (See figure 2) The U.N. is concerned that “aid is not arriving fast enough, while the World Health Organization reported that ten million people were forced to drink unsafe water.” “The Pakistani economy has been harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and crops. The structural damages are estimated to exceed 4 billion dollars, and wheat crop damages are estimated to be over 500 million dollars.” (Carlotta, 2010)

Devastating floods killed more than 1600 people. More than 17 million Pakistanis have been affected by the monsoon floods that began a month ago. In the past few days, at least 1 million people have been displaced in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Homeless families are drinking unsafe water and because of that “hundreds of thousands of victims have acquired transmittable ailments such as acute watery diarrhea, scabies and respiratory infections.” (Carlotta 2010) It is unclear when displaced Pakistanis will be able to return to their homes. But many will have no house to return to. About 1.2 million homes have been destroyed from the flooding.

In Pakistan, heavy rains have washed away homes, shops, and livelihoods. Many people are stranded with no access to food. Millions in Pakistan need clean water, sanitary food, housing and medical care. I think the solution to Pakistan flooding is to help them. The Pakistanis need us. If we donate, it will help them a lot. Every dollar makes a difference.

Figure 2.

This aerial view shows a flood-hit area of Kot Addu, Pakistan on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. Floodwaters ravaged hundreds of villages in Pakistan’s main province of Punjab, destroying homes, soaking crops, and threatening more lives. Aid workers warned that bloated rivers would soon surge into the country’s south, prompting more evacuations.

Vocabulary words:

Monsoon: rainy season in southern Asia when the southwestern monsoon blows, bringing heavy rains.

Ravage: Something has been damaged so much that it is almost completely destroyed.

Evacuations: the act of removing the contents of something.

Acquire: To get; to gain.

Aliment: Nutriment: a source of materials to nourish the body.

Scabies: Scabies is a very infectious skin disease caused by very small creatures and makes you want to scratch a lot.

Respiratory: The respiratory system’s function is to allow gas exchange through all parts of the body.

Bibliography:

(News)

Gall, By Carlotta. “2010 Pakistan Floods – The New York Times.” Times Topics. The New York Times, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/floods/2010_pakistan_floods/index.html>.

(Picture)

[Figure 1]

Map of Pakistan’s Flood Area – Hindustan Times. Digital image. Hindustan Times: Latest Breaking News from India, Cricket, Bollywood, World, Business, Videos. Hindustan Times, 25 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.hindustantimes.com/pakistan/Map-of-Pakistan-s-flood-area/591971/H1-Article1-591497.aspx>.

[Figure 2]

Pakistan Flood Victims: ‘No Food,’ ‘No Money,’ Would Have Been Better To Die (PHOTOS). Digital image. Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. Huffington Post. Web. 29 Aug. 2010. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/11/pakistan-flood-victims-no_n_678915.html#s122857>.