People's Republic of Capitalism continued

We yet again continued to watch “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” in Human Geography today. How often do you shop at Wal-Mart? Do you enjoy shopping there because it allows you to save money? Now, have you ever wondered why Wal-Mart can sell their items and still be successful? It’s for the same reason that more than 90% of products we buy are made in China. There are plenty people over in China who are more than willing to work tedious monotonous jobs for only a buck or two a day so that even if you add in the cost to ship the products over to America from China it is still way cheaper to make everything in China. In fact, once you add it all up, it comes to be about $10,000,000 cheaper! Still, there are people out in this nation who think everyone should buy only products made in America. To that I say “Good Luck! Let me know if you can do this and still be living a decent life with everything you need.”      

The People's Republic of Capitalism

Today in Human Geography class we continued watching and discussing the video of China’s economy called “The People’s Republic of Capitalism” in today’s portion we saw how much money we get paid compared to a lot of people in china in the construction business. To be exact, the minimum wage in America is $7.50 per hour which amounts to about $15,000 a year. On the other hand in China, women, working hours on end moving heavy bricks in a dangerous environment make about $1-2 per DAY. Men doing the same type of job get paid a little better at $3-4 per day. You may be thinking that this is not fair. Well, it is, but fair does not necessarily mean moral. It is fair because, in marketing, if you work in China making Apple computers for little money (which it’s like that right now) Apple products are already pricy. Try increasing the cost of the work force (giving employees a higher salary) then the price of the computer goes up accordingly. Conveniently for sellers, there are mobs of people who are desperate for jobs like this. This way the cost of computers does not get so high that it causes a lack of customers.      

Economic Geography

At long last, we are FINALLY done with our political geography unit!!!! We also were given our tests back and went over the answers for those who heard a “ding, ding” when given their quizzes back (I was one of the people who got the double ding, the first if you want to be really specific). Unfortunately, we had the lowest average grade on the test. However, we are not completely out of the water yet for the world leaders. This would be because we are yet to know how we did on our 200 point research paper, so if you think that your grade is fine right now and are worrying about your paper, BEWARE!!!!! In the mean time we will be moving on to economic geography, in other words, MONEY!!!!! We kicked off this new unit by starting to watch a video called “The People’s Republic of Capitalism.” Which is basically about China’s economy.

independence discussion

Today, in Mr. Schick’s Human Geography class today, we discussed the BLOG assignment that we were given last night about nations’ independence and there beginnings as well as where in the world they are. Mr. Schick also planted a seed in us so that we can make a world where we are one of the world’s richest nations because we are a lead oil producer and we don’t even need any of it because we have other means of producing energy such as wind, water and the sun. Right now, we are nowhere near that goal because we are the number one oil consumer in the world so instead of working on getting our nation to be dependent upon an alternate source of energy instead of oil. Also, we have Saudi Arabia to worry about as well since they are currently the world’s leading oil producing nation, and they didn’t even know they had oil a couple decades ago when they were a really poor nation who thought that they didn’t have anything.

Independence

Afghanistan declared their independence on August 19, 1919. Before they were independent, Afghanistan was a conquering nation as well as a conquered one. Before Christ they conquered nations such as Persia. They were also later taken over by the British after the Anglo-Saxon War. If you were to look on a world map you could find Afghanistan in the Southwestern part of Asia between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

Brazil gained their independence from the United Kingdom on September 7, 1822, when they became the Brazilian Empire. Before their independence, Brazil was frequently invaded by various nations due to lack of Portuguese interest. When they became independent they broke away from Portugal who started the Brazilian colony, however, the Portuguese were only successful in controlling a portion of the original land that they had colonized. You could find Brazil on a world map in South America located in the Eastern part of South America and overlaps the equator.

France unlike many nations, never exactly became independent because they were independent from the start. As France was forming, I was populated by the Franks, which then overtime got the nation its France. Thus, one could assume that France was always an independent nation. Want to know where I am talking about? France is located next to the Bay of Biscay and borders Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Germany officially became independent at the German Empire Unification on January 18, 1871. Germany is located in Europe and borders France, Belgium, and Poland.

India became an independent nation on August 15 1947 from the United Kingdom. Before gaining their independence, India had very little say in government since most legal decisions were made by the British. India is located in Southern Asia and is bordered by Pakistan, Nepal, China, and Bangledesh. 
      
Iran


Iran gained its independence in 1979, when the Monarchy ruling

 the country was overthrown. The country was previously known

 as Persia, but that changed in 1935. After the fall of the monarchy,

 conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of

 government with a supreme ruler. During the 1980's, Iran was 

involved in a bloody war between Iraq. Iran can be found in the 

middle east between Iraq and Pakistan.

 

 
Venezuela

 

When the country of Gran Columbia collapsed in 1830,

 Venezuela was one of 3 countries that emerged from the

fallen country. Democratically elected governments in

Venezuela started in 1959. Venezuela can be found

in northern South America bordering the North Atlantic

Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.    

 

 

 

 

 

United Kingdom

 

During the 19th century, the British Empire stretched

 nearly a quarter of the earths surface. During the 1940's, 

the UK's power was quickly diminished in 2 world wars and

the Irish Republic's withdrawal from the Union. The country has 

never gained any sort of Independence and has never

been subjects of another country. The UK can be found in 

Western Europe.

 

 

 

Saudi Arabia

 

Modern day Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932. Since

then, it has been a Monarchist country. No country 

has ever been the subject of Saudi Arabia and Saudi

Arabia has never gained independence. Saudi Arabia can be 

found in the middle east, bordering the red sea and the

Persian Gulf

 

 

 

Mexico

 

Ancient civilizations have existed in the area of Mexico for 

thousands of years. Mexico was conquered by Spain in

the early 16th century. It had achieved its independence from

Spain in the 19th century. Mexico can be found between South

America and the United States.

No More Hu Jokes!!!

It was my turn to suffer the severe humiliation of which can be inflicted by Mr. Schick in the event of the mispronunciation of a world leader’s name. Today, I was forced to say Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In order to drill the correct pronunciation into my head, Mr. Schick made me say it one syllable at a time, like this ma – mood – ach – ma – dine – jad. Then he made me put it all together, then repeat the process until I correctly pronounced the name. Some sad news, however, we shall no longer be able to make Hu Jintao jokes in class because Hu Jintao is no longer the president of China…and Hu is not his successorL. We are very upset about this because you could go all day without the Hu joke getting old. I mean really we would crack the joke every single time that Hu’s name came up in class. We also got our quizzes back as well. Sadly, I got a 73%.   

Another World Leaders Quiz

On Friday, November 9, 2012, in Mr. Schick’s Human Geography class, we had another quiz. For this quiz, it was front and back. The front part was identical to our last quiz, in which we had to match the leader to the corresponding country. The second part, which was on the back, was also matching, only this time instead of matching the leader to the country, we were expected to be able to match the leader with their description. For example, we had to match Barack Obama with “This week I was elected to a second term.” One other question was matching Dilma Rousseff with the description that referred to being tortured with the infamous “parrot perch.” I think that I got a 100% on the front but I don’t believe I did as well on the back. Mr. Schick was also nice enough to let us use our BLOGs if we chose to.   

More World Leaders

Today, in another very exciting addition of Mr. Schick’s Human Geography, we continued our discussion on world leaders, like we probably will be for the next few days at least. One rather interesting factoid that we learned today was the story of when the governor of Illinois appointed a new senator to replace Obama. This is particularly interesting because he was originally going to go with Oprah Winfrey, it was then that an evil thought took over him and he thought “Hmmm…I could make some money off this if I sold it to someone for about $1,000,000. Unfortunately for him, the position was sold. Not only that but he was caught in the act. He resigned his office before his trial, found guilty and thrown in jail (I think it would be funny if this term could be used literally). The other exciting discussion we had was about what plan of action America should take about Iran’s nuclear power plant. I still honestly think we should give them the benefit of the doubt until we can uncover the truth and then take military action if the purposes reveal themselves to be hostile.

World Leaders (continued)

Today, in Human Geography, we discussed the assignment that we did Monday night on interesting facts with each leader. He also asked us to finish the assignment tonight by researching President Obama since we now know that he won the election. First, let’s talk about other leaders. For example we found that Dilma Rousseff was actually tortured with a device called the Parrot’s Perch and shocked at her hands and feet. Not only that but there was one other leader who was jailed for the exact same thing, coup d’état, which means to over through a government. Mr. Schick also told us that Hamid Karzai survived at least 4 different assassination attempts, which include bombs, rocket launchers, and guns. Therefore, it is unsafe for him to travel throughout is country. Now, Obama was born in Hawaii and in addition to that he became the first sitting U.S. president to legalize same-sex marriage.     

Leadership Qualities

Enrique Nieto is a good leader because he has promised to reform the Mexican government to make it more democratic and open to criticism. Abdullah Aziz is a good leader because he has had political experience for almost his entire life. Angela Merkel is an excellent leader which is good considering she is the fourth most powerful person in the world. This is because she is one of the most important people in handling the economic crisis in Europe and has been referred to as “the Decider.” Benjamin Netanyahu is a good leader because he is the prime minister of Israel and also holds several other positions and is also a key role in the nation’s military. This makes him a good leader because if he were a bad leader Israel would be having a political crisis right now. Hu Jintao is both a good and bad leader. He is a good leader because he is working to build a “Harmonious Society.” He is a bad leader because he is conservative in political reform. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a bad leader because he supports Iran’s nuclear energy program and disregards human rights. Hamid Karzai is a bad leader because he is not powerful enough to influence areas other than Kabul. However, he is a good leader because he is trying to come to peace with outside areas by negotiation rather than force. François Hollande is a good leader because He knows the: who, what, when, where, why and how for his policies. Pranab Mukherjee is a good leader because he held a number of positions including a finance portfolio. Hugo Chávez is a good leader because some of his reforms have improved health care and education as well as decreased poverty. David Cameron is a good leader because he has given an outline on how he plans to work hard while putting aside party differences. Queen Elizabeth II is a good leader because she strongly supports the monarchy. Dilma Rousseff is a good leader because she successfully covered the post of Chief of staff during a crisis, until she had to leave in order to run for president. This makes her a good leader because it is an important skill to be able to cover for another leader.

11/1/12

Today in Human Geography, we had our Cultural Geography tests returned to us. We also spent part of class going over the answers. I, however, did not get my test back until I finished helping clean-up from mass and figured out where class was being held today. It turned out that we had Human Geography in room 104 with Mrs. Hugo instead of room 113. I mean really, this was the 3^rd time that we had had our Human Geography Class moved without warning. I thought that Mr. Schick liked our class, for all we know he could be using his excuse that he has to go to meetings as a cover up for taking a day off to get away from us or sign himself up to an insane asylum for help with the insanity we cause him. Well, whatever the case may be, we miss Mr. Schick and wish him to come back to us, because he is the BEST Human Geography in all of space-time!!!!!