Fighting for a valuable resource--water
I know we have already discussed
water issues concerning Latin America. However, with world water day approaching, I thought this article was appropriate. Protesters in Mexico City are battling against a dam being built to supply water for the coastal resort known as Acapulco. These people fear that the dam will cause a nearby river to dry up. The 10,000 protesters are outside a convention where the
Fourth World Water Forum is taking place. This website just explains a little about what this forum is about. This group tries to bring awareness of water issues around the world. This seems like a silly thing to protest about because developed countries such as ours don’t have to protest to receive our water. Nor do we have be placed in jail, or even killed to get our water. Water comes to us at the touch of a faucet. With the growing population in Mexico City. Supplying enough water to feed and satisfy everyone, water is a struggling concern. I also realize this topic is also true in Sub-Saharan Africa. In underdeveloped countries, water seems to be a major concern.
Africa is the third largest continent on the Earth after Asia and America. It is made up of more than 50 independent states and is the home or more than 770 million Africans. It contains the Nile River, which is the world’s longest river, the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, and the continents highest point, Mt. Kilimanjaro. However, Africa is exactly the greatest place to live, over 12,000,000 adults have died from AIDS and 13,200,000 children have been orphaned. About 65% of Africa’s agricultural land suffers from soil degradation. Almost half of all Africans ice on less than $1 a day. Yes, Africa has some amazing things about it, but it also has a lot of devastation. If you would like to read more on facts about Africa visit
http://www.missionariesofafrica.org/africa/
Africa has many problems, many of which are not getting any better with time. They have problems with AIDS problems with civil fighting and many other problems too. Africa also seems to have problems gaining support from other nations to help it with its problems unlike other nations that are receiving support such as Iraq, to some this seems a bit unfair. Africa is making some steps in the right direction though, they had the most growth in
Internet use in the world which shows some steps in the right direction. This article talks about those problems and many other topics as well.
Class Summary 3-16-06
Today in College Geo we did Trivia "What is the largest city in Sub Saharan Africa?" Answer: Lagos. After that we went to the lab for GIS.
Comparing Europe and Sub Saharan Africa in various categories.
Sub-Saharan Africa Notes Part Two
Population and Settlement: Young and Restless
*Population projected to increase by 130% by 2050
*Population density similar to that of U.S.
* Life expectancy is short (<50years) TFR is high (5+)
*Population Trends and Demographic Debates
*How many people can Sub-Saharan Africa support?
> Family size
*Preference for large families
-guarantee linage and status
-rural life makes children an asset
> Impact of AIDS on Africa
*Patterns off Settlement and Land Use
> Widely scattered population
*concentration in West Africa, highland East Africa, eastern half of South Africa
*Rural --> Urban migration Lagos (Nigeria) has 10+ million people
Population Distribution (Fig. 6.16)
HIV Prevalence (Fig.6.15)*Patterns of Settlement and land use (cont.)
> Agriculture Subsistence
*Staple crops of millet, sorghum, corn
*swidden agriculture practiced in areas with poorer tropical soils
-shifting cultication: burning natural vegetation to release fertility, then plant indigenous crops, allow fallow periods
- often fine tunes to lacal condition but unable to suport high population densities
>Plantation Agriculture
*crops for export are critical to the economies of many African states
- coffee, peanuts, cotton , cocoa, rubber
>herding and livestock
*Most engages in this activity are pastoralists
-
pastoralitsts specialize in grazing animals
* Impact of tsetse flies- insects that spread sleeping sickness to cattle, humans, and some wildlife
Urban Life
*least urbanized region in the developing world
-but most cities are growing at twice the National growth rates
-at 12 millino people, Lgos is the largest city
>West African Urban Traditions
*West African coast has many cities, most with indifenous orgins
>Urban Industrial South Africa
*Most major cities in Southern Africa have colonial orgins
*South Africa is the most urbanized country in the region
-
Apartheid- officail policy of racial segregation that shaped cities and solcial relations in South Africa for nearly half a century
*
colored- South African tern descibing people of mixed African and European ancestry
In class we've been discussing a bit about the massacre of people in Darfur, where thousands of people have been killed by the Janjaweed and have fled their homes into Chad as refugees. Well, I decided to do some research on Google, and somehow came to a page at blogger.com (our site). This one girl from New Zealand, Catez Stevens (Allthings2all), has her own interesting blog on the issue. She has so many links with information that's definately worth checking out. I watched 2 mini movie clips on Darfur. Many show powerful images and a look into one individual village. I think you guys should check out her main page. You can click the blue phrases to go straight to articles and comments. I bet you'll definately be surprised to learn a variety of new facts and stories. There's also an article with pics on women who were raped by Janjaweed and became pregnant. At
SUDAN WATCH, another blogger page, you can read into that story and watch a "Darfur Hope" mini clip as well. It's a very sad issue, but luckily these sites help you discover just what's happening in Sudan. Here's her page...
CATEZ STEVENS BLOG SPOTor watch this short movie clip,
PHR Darfur Video Clip (might take about 5 min. to load)
In this Article, it talks about how The Senate urged President Bush to take action in Sudan because of the mass genocide that is taking place. The resolution they came up with also told the UN to make up a peace enforcement in Darfur, where at least 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and thousands of people have been killed. It’s a good thing they are doing something about this, because as it was said in the video that we watched earlier today, “They send troops in Iraq, why not Darfur?”
Chapter 6: Sub-Saharan Africa
Chapter 6 notes:
Learning objectives
You should understand the following concepts and models:
Apartheid
Berlin Conference
Biofuels
Horn of Africa
Sahel
Pastoralists
Refuges
Swidden
Transhumance
Kleptocracy
Africa south of the Sahara Desert
More than 670 million people; 48 states one territory
Most countries, nearly 50% of the population is less than 15 years old
Relatively low economic output
1999- Sub-Saharan Africa’s economic out put was just 1% of global out put
South Africa’s GNP is 44% of the GNP of the entire region
Foreign aid helped improve agriculture, but led to large debt and corruption
Environmental Geography: The Plateau Continent
Largest landmass straddling the equator
A plateau continent dominated by extensive uplifted areas
Africa’s Environmental Issues
The Sahel and Desertification
Sahel-zone of ecological transition between the Sahara to the north and wetter savannas and forests to the south
Life is dependent on reliability of rains
Transhumance: the movement of animals between wet-season and dry-season pasture
Africa’s Environmental Issues (cont.)
Deforestation
Extensive woodlands remain, but many forests have been replaced by grasslands or farms
Results in shortages of Biofuels: wood and charcoal used for household energy needs, especially cooking
In some countries, women are organizing to plant trees
Wildlife Conservation
Wildlife survives because of historically low population density
Plateaus and Basins
Elevates basins dominated the interior
Great Escarpment: Landform rimming much of southern Africa, impeding coastal settlement
Soils
Relatively infertile because they are old
Most fertile soils located with Rift Valley
Highland Ethiopia, Lake Victoria lowlands, central highlands of Kenya also have produced agriculture bases
Climate and Vegetation
Tropical Forests
Congo basin contains the 2nd largest expanse of tropical rainforests in the world
Savannas
Wet and dry savannas surround central African rainforest belt
Deserts
Horn of Africa-northeastern corner that includes Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea
Hyperlink Method for commenting
When commenting you must manually enter the hyperlink using HTML code. Don't let that scare you, just look at the chart. I will have a handout for you in class tomorrow so you will have a hard copy to look at.
Remember not to link too much,
only relevant links that add to the topic at hand.
Chart idea came from Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Update: this link method should work for posts as well.
Sudan
Hey guys, I missed this but am trying to find out if it is going to be repeated.
MTV sent three college students to Sudan to investigate the genocide that has been ongoing there for the last several years. The link, Sudan: Translating Genocide, has the video available online as well as some excellent links for background information. Check it out.
Update: The video is only available online. I'll check to see if we can watch at school.
Poverty in Africa
With the new chapter on Africa, I searched for some articles on the poverty stricken continent. There are some very affluent areas in Africa, but also some very poor areas. According to the Acton Institute, 70% Nigeria's population qualifies as "in extreme poverty". Some causes to this include the rate of capital flight that is being argued. Others blame the government which is been said to play favorites. All in all the poverty levels in Africa are very eye-opening and something that someone should start focusing on before it gets any worse. Poverty isn't only focused on money, but also on the shelter they will consider their home for a night.
http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/print.php?id=227Update: Lloyd, I deleted your second post.
I saw this article today in the Opinion section of The St. Cloud Times. Deforestation is a big problem in Africa as we learned today. It is also a problem in many other countries around the world. I really liked the comment made by a Sartell Historian Bill Morgan, he said, “Land may belong to individuals, but the landscape belongs to the people.” When those trees came down on the corner of Highway 15 and County Road 1 there were lots of calls to the city that very day with people who were upset. People think that deforestation isnt a problem here but it really is.
Horn of Africa
horn of africaToday in class we talked about the Horn of Africa and I wanted to learn more about that area. The web-site that I put a link on is a really good one. The article talks about how there is a food shortage in the Horn of Africa. 3.5 millions people in Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Tanzania have already run out of water and food. All together more than 20 million people are at risk. The experts need to get out world recognition of the problem so the world can help. The cause of food and water shortages are from the drought that they have experienced. This is a big problem and the Horn of Africa is becoming more and more desertified and more at risk of killing off millions of people due to water and food shortages.
Country Rankings/Random World Info
When I was looking for an idea about what to post on, I stumbled upon a web site that contained links to various interesting facts about the world and different countries. I found quite a few of the links to be very interesting. The first I visited was the Olympic medals won per GDP country rankings. I noticed that Cuba and North Korea, both nations the USA doesn't tend to look highly upon, are ranking in 1st and 7th respectively. As the website states, that statistic doesn't count for much or really mean anything but I found it interesting. One more thing that jumped out at me is under the Likelihood of a Terrorist Attack link, North Korea was ranked 186th of 186 (lowest chance of a terrorist attack). I just found it curious that with all the threats North Korea has made about nuclear weapons, no major terrorist threat has come to them. Anywho this is a pretty neat site and contains some interesting information, you can find the link below:
http://www.photius.com/rankings/index.html
MSN in Different Countries
I was playing around with MSN a while back and found it that it is available to people in different countries. So far I've found a Latino MSN and also a Japanese version of MSN on the internet. If you look closely at the people, advertisements and stories that are on the website, you can see that each MSN site is for that particular country or countries, it is not just American news and services translated. I think this is cool because I didn't know that MSN was available to people in different countries. Most often MSN is thought of as an American service website run by an American company (Microsoft), but it's cool to see that this popular company in America provides an MSN page to different countries around the world. Since the world is becoming more globalized, it is a smart move by Microsoft to do this because the resources and communications are in place. For me, if I wanted to explore foreign news websites, I'm going to choose MSN to explore into the most because I'm already familiar with their format, and I think this a benefit to people as well (being familiar with the product).
Here are the sites:
MSN LatinoMSN Japan
Ages in St. Cloud
I found this website that tells the average age of people living in St. Cloud and the male to female ratio. I thought it was pretty sweet. I noticed that St. Clouds average age was between 20 and 24. I figure this is because of SCSU. That is college age so i figured that is why there is the most people between that age. I also thought it was interesting that there are more people between the age of 65-74 then 55-59 or 60-64. I also saw that the ratio between males to females is split practically 50-50.
Here is the link.
http://www.maps-n-stats.com/us_mn/us_mn_st_cloud_a.html
Free Trade Agreement
I found an interesting article on KARE11.com that discusses the CAFTA and wanted to post it because we have just been talking about this subject. Free Trade is in the news because a new deal may be in the works that would allow Mexico to export an unlimited amount of sugar to the United States through free trade very soon. Right now a program is in place that allows American farmers to get the minimum price or have the advantage. However, this special bonus to American Farmers is expiring in 2007. Right now people are wondering the direction of this deal. If Mexico gains the power to export large amounts of sugar. I thought the article was interesting considering we were just talking about this in College Geo so be sure to check out.
Article
When I think of issues in Africa I either think of AIDS or poaching. Since a blog has already been done on the former, I decided to learn a little more about the latter. Poaching was a huge problem between 1979-89 because of the demand for ivory. The market was up and the elephant numbers were down. Finally groups became aware of the severity of this issue did something about it. The 1990 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned international ivory sales. But the poaching continued, regardless. In 1996, an elephant researcher was flying in his small airplane over a rural part of Africa when he saw some dead elephants on the ground below. He wanted to investigate further and returned the next day only to find the tragic scene of over 300 elephants killed and their tusks gone. There were males, females and baby elephants alike. And two months later the same man found another 1,000 of these creatures killed nearby. At the injustice of the poacher's actions, he became angry and ran the poachers out of the area and destroyed their camps. With the help of the village leaders, he stopped poaching in that area. In 1997, the ban was partially lifted to allow some trade of ivory with Japan where the market is really demanding. But elephants are not the only poacher-endangered animal in Africa. Rhinos, hippos, gorillas, lions, hyenas, leopards, even giraffes are being killed by poachers. Their meat is sold to restaurants and their hides are very valuable. This is a huge problem in Africa and an interesting topic to read about. The numbers are horrible and the facts ugly. If you want to know more about this topic here are a few good sites to check out:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=912962http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/elephants/poaching.htmlhttp://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/History/Africa/save/browning/browning.html
AIDS in Africa
We all are aware of the large amount of people who are infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa. The two websites that I found are both interactive and quite interesting.
http://www.time.com/time/2001/aidsinafrica/map_flash.html - This shows the amount of people in each area infected with this deadly disease. The numbers are going to astound you. South Africa has the most people infected. About 20% of adults living here have it and around 250,000 of them die each year in this area alone. The next has a bunch of
photographs. If you just have to put your pointer over the pictures and each comes with a caption. It is unfortunate that Africa is not as educated as they should be. However it is virtually impossible to stop this spread without some sort of medicine that can prevent it.
