This is a picture of a young girl after a suicide bomber hit a religious ceremony in the middle of Kabul. Many people were killed, and an extremist group took credit for what had happened. The bombing occured on Decemeber 6th.
msnbc.com
This picture depicts the average family in Afghanistan that will struggle to survive when the Americans withdraw due to funding cuts. With the war nearing ten years in length, President Obama has already announced the withdrawing of all troops from Afghanistan and the ending of the war. Afghanistan has already reached out to Germany, asking them for help, because their economy will have trouble without the American Aid. I chose this article as my focus article because it shows how countries all around the world depend on each other for economic and political help, which is an important concept to understand in Human Geography.
This is a picture of US president Barack Obama visiting a classroom that is part of the new “Head Start” program. He stated that he believed that the program was quite valuable to US education, and that it would help a lot of students. This was taken in Yeadon, PA at the Regional Head Start Center.
This is a picture of people relaxing and swimming in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is part of the 28 finalists for the New Seven Wonders of the World competition. The Dead Sea is extremely full of minerals, and people go there for it to help their skin and bodies. The New Seven Wonders of the World contest was a contest held online, and the winners would be determined by mobile voting.
This is a picture of Meena Rahmani, who opened the first bowling alley in Kabul. She intends it as a place for men, women, and children to relax and forget about the struggles that war-torn Afghan is now facing. Rahmani has put about a million dollars towards this center, hoping that the ideas of fun and enjoyment will spread and be popular. I chose this as my focus picture because it shows how any country can really start to get back on its feet with help from its citizens, which is part of human geography.
This is a picture of Russian troops dressed in historical uniforms to parade through Moscow’s Red Square. This was for the 70th anniversary of when the soldiers of the Soviet Army marched through the same Red Square during World War 2 to join the front lines.
This is a picture of the devastating landslides in Western Colombia. At least 24 people were estimated dead, and they have dogs searching for many more under the rubble and debris after many houses were carried away.
The campus police officer John Pike sprayed calm protestors that were doing no harm with pepper spray. This created a great controversial scandal that ended in an apology by the way things were handled.
In Faroe Islands, they have a tradition that includes slaughtering whales and eating them. This has gone on for more than 1000 years, and it is accepted because they cannot sell the whale and simply divide it up evenly between the people in the town. This occurs about November 22nd every year.
Protestors in Egypt were hit with tear gas, guns, and physical violence from police forces. The protestors are angry over Egypt’s constant military rule and the fact that the government is trying to delay the elections even further. The protestors occupied Tahrir Square.
Since Khadafy died, the rebels have claimed that their nation was liberated, and began to set up a transitional government. Even though they are having problems with fighting in between tribes and rebels wanting to keep their weapons, the rebels have begun trying to write a constitution. In addition to all of this, Khadafy’s son was captured, and he could possibly be charged with war crimes for what he did in effects with the conflict from Khadafy’s 42-year-long reign.
I chose this picture for my focus picture this week. It was taken in Lima, Peru. The women here are supporting International Day against the Violence of Women. This shows some of human geography because it not only shows how ideas spread to other people in different countries, but also how a lot of people around the world can stand for the same ideas, and wants the same equality that should be right to everyone.
This week we finished going over political geography and talked a bit about the documentary on Capitalism. We also took our quiz on political geography. The quiz was pretty easy, since there was only four questions and it was open note, but it was a lot of writing. This week was an interesting week in news, with lots of controversy, which we always discussed at the beginning of class.
Beginning in July, there have been extreme floods in Thailand and the North of Bangkok. The damage is extreme, and may cost them over 6 million dollars. The water has been steadily heading south and will soon reach the capital, where people are now evacuating. Due to the floods, about a quarter of the rice crop has been ruined, which is the country’s main way of earning money. Over 400 people have died due to the flood.
Police recently began breaking up the “Occupy Wall street” camps. They ruled that while people had the right to protest, they could no longer have tents or sleeping bags there. As shown in the picture, some officers were forced to treat protestors a bit cruelly to get them to leave the spots. Protestors also fought with workers, who tried to push their way through the crowds to get to their job area.
This is a picture of a group of United States Marines carrying a wounded soldier off of the field. He, and another Marine, were hit by an IED and received various critical wounds, mostly on their legs. This occurred on November 10th in Afghanistan.
This article was about the demonstration held in Cairo to try and push the military rulers out of Egypt. The protest, while mainly attended by Islamic people, was one of the largest ever. This is because the people want a presidential election held as soon as possible, April 2012, instead of 2013, as to get the military rule gone as soon as possible. Political cartoons and pictures of an infamous blogger who was imprisoned were handed out and passed around at the protest. These people don’t want any sort of ruling over them anymore. They want a democracy.
5.) Battles Begin Early for Female Recruits in Afghan Army
AISHA CHOWDHRY
This article was about the challenges Afghan women face when attempting to join the army. Many of them receive grief from their families, with one woman’s fiancée even threatening to kill her. There is a very low amount of female recruits in the Afghan army, which officials are trying to change. The jobs for women in the army pay well, and they “won’t be going on missions.” Instead, the women will be given office type jobs that deal with matters of the army. The women are taught in classrooms that contain computers, projectors, and well-educated instructors. They are taught a variety of subjects, from English to computer sciences. A lot of women want to join so they can work hard for their country, too. I chose this as my focus article, and it shows Human Geography because it shows how another country across the world can be having some of the same difficulties as we are, such as prejudice against female soldiers.
This week was an okay week with class. The first few days we worked on our research project, which went okay, except a lot of people just sat around on their computers. Then on Friday, we did the mini group project on Genocide, which was pretty cool, especially since I liked the new program we used a lot better than google docs. We went over another program too, one that you could use to highlight directly on webpages, so that helped with our research. The week was definitely a bit boring, but it was okay.
1.) http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/looking-to-the-children-for-guidance-in-afghanistan/?ref=world
(Focus Article)
This article was about the children in Afghanistan, and how they are extremely strong willed and knowing of what is going on. They are used to fights and such, and all have different reactions to the soldiers, depending on what sort of area they live in. For example, if the area is well off, thanks to the soldiers, the children will greet them with smiles and a raised hand. If the area is worse, the children might even greet them with their middle fingers raised. The article was written by a man who had been to Afghanistan as a soldier. It relates to Human Geography because it shows how dichildren react to US soldiers in a different part of the world.
2.)
This is a picture of a two week old baby rescued from the rubble in Turkey. Turkey recently suffered a severe earthquake, and is asking for help from the world for recovery.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15453272
3.)
This picture shows Afghan girls going to a makeshift school to learn how to read verses of the Koran, which is a sacred book for the Islam religion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15453272
---Learning Reflection---
This week was interesting, because we presented our projects. It was cool seeing all the different clothing and music of other countries, and the different food (although I didn't eat any of it!) I liked that we got to do google documents for the projects. That's all we did this week.
1.) Car Crash
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3842331/ns/us_news-the_week_in_pictures
This is a picture of the Indycar World Championship race at Las Vegas. There was a horrific crash, which resulted in Dan Wheldon, an Indianapolis 500 champion, losing his life.
2.) Soldiers in Kunar
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/
This picture is of several United States Infantrymen in Kunar. Over 130,000 soldiers of many different ethnicities are still there, fighting a war that has been going on for 10 years and resisting the Taliban. They are trying to help the Afghan troops regain control of Kunar.
3.) The Joy of Freedom
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15391289
This picture captures the happiness Palestinians felt when about 1000 of their prisoners were released in exchange for one captured soldier. The deal is called the Hamas- Israel deal, and has sparked a lot of controversy. Was one man really worth 1000 others?
4.) Paint and Protestors
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15383765
This is a picture of the Greek police that are trying to stop the protesters. There has been a 48-hour strike which severely hurt the country’s production. While the police have started using tear gas to control the protesters, they (the protestors) have been firing back with stones and paint.
This picture is my “focus” picture and my favorite. It shows the reality of the life of a soldier that is fighting against the Taliban. They’re thousands of miles away from home, but they still find joy in small things from the US, like candy. The soldier’s name is Andrew Ferarra. This ties in with Human Geography because it shows how little things from countries can easily travel and be important somewhere else. Also, the picture is of the war in Afghanistan, which is a huge thing for us to think about when we are learning.
~~~~~Learning Reflection~~~~~
We started this week with our test, which wasn't too bad. I liked being able to take it online, but the clock counting down in the corner freaked me out sometimes when I was trying to think of answers. I like the cultural unit, and I really like that we're using twitter as a way to expand on what we are learning about. The project for this unit seems okay, but it's just more clicking and finding information. I think it would've been better if we could have chosen our countries, because then we would be looking at things that we are interested in and learning more about it. The only thing I didn't like about this week was that I think we went through the notes a bit too fast. I didn't have enough time to get everything down and to fully grasp the concept before we moved on.
