Blog Topic #11

    After spending a good amount of time looking at maps, I found this one. I realized it is pretty hilarious. It makes fun of how ignorant or "dumb" people are. I will admit that I used to not know enough about other countries before my geography class. I think this map is actually pretty recent because Japan is marked as a radioactive area. You know, the earthquake just happened. Otherwise, the countries are only labeled to how important we think they are. South America: Cocaine & Coffee. Okay, Cocaine is not important to everyone, but coffee is very common. Middle East: Oil. We definitely need oil. I would also like to point out how Australia is labeled as "Big Island." I used to think Australia was just the Outback where Crocodile Dundee came from. They have so much more to offer. So do the other shapes that represent little compared to what they actually are I am glad I know much more about the world than I did four months ago because I might not make have to make a stupid assumption. I respect places that some people may know nothing about.

Blog Topic #10

According to the CATO institute, the United States is giving billions of dollars to poor countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Should we give them money or should we teach them how to develop?

I think we need to a little of both. I do not think immediately cutting funds will help them in any way. We need to slowly decline in what we give them while teaching them how to grow in trade, industry, and infrastructure. If we are providing for their every need, why would they ever need to learn to supply for themselves? If they are reliant on the aid of others, they will never learn to accomplish anything independently. They are in an area that needs globalization to take over. With their land, they are not able to farm sufficient amounts of food to feed their nations. They need to begin to trade. Countries who are currently reliant may not be very respected. They have not started the process of globalization to accelerate their economy. We need to eventually stop giving aid. I say eventually because an immediate cut could result in chaos. As we teach these countries to be involved in globalization, we need to lower the amount of funds they are receiving.  

  This is a photo I saw a while ago while reading Cracked.com's article, The 8 Most Ridiculously Badass Protesters Ever Photographed  The article goes through different protest pictures and giving a comedic but somewhat informative description of it. 3 of the 8 were photos of Anti-Mubarak protesters in Egypt.
   The Anti-Mubarak protests may also be referred to as an Egyptian Revolution. They began January 25th, 2011. President Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11th, but protests continue today to remove Hosni Mubarak's regime.
    What was the regime that caused Egypt to spring into such revolt? Hosni Mubarak was an authoritarian; he was often compared to an Egyptian pharaoh. Rumors were spreading of an inheritance of power. His son, Gamal Mubarak, was being groomed to be an heir to the presidency. Police brutality was too common in Egyptian life. Tortures were documented during Mubarak's presidency over 500 times. Police brutality arose during the protests. (#3 in the article)  Government officials were known to be corrupt. They limited the use of free speech and press. (The photo in #5 is a man bombing a police vehicle because of the restriction of internet)  The elections were unfair. Mubarak was the only candidate on ballots until 2005. Ultimately, the Egyptian population faces far too many economic and demographic challenges.