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. 

Blog Topic #8

    From my Google Earth calculations, Russia is only 60 miles from the United States. Imagine that; it is almost like a drive from Seward to Omaha (If you can drive on water). I should note that Alaska is not part of mainland USA and the part of Russia that comes close to Alaska is Siberia, the less populated part of Russia. Not only is it close, but it is amazing to view Russia from the above viewpoint. You can see European Russia off to the right; China is also pretty evident on the left. Siberian Russia really needs to open up trade. It would be great if Alaska was more of a trading state, and we could help them out. It never really occurred to me that we are close to a country we used to consider a great enemy.

    The article, The Good and Bad News about Afghan Opium, is written by George Gavrilis and posted on the Council on Foreign Relation's website. Gavrilis discusses what things are being done to improve the opium situation in Afghanistan. The U.S. and Britain are pushing forward to eliminate many poppy fields and turning them to alternative crops. In 2009, twenty provinces no longer had poppy fields that produced opium. The writer also mentions the continuing negatives of poppy production. Twenty of Afghanistan's provinces no longer produce opium, but some of them are still heavily involved in trafficking it. The poppy free provinces do little to stand against the production of opium in the state. The Taliban greatly influences the production of opium. They hold between $3 and $4 billion of Afghanistan's opium production. With millions of dollars of opium income, they Taliban buys weapons and supplies. Although we are pursuing the elimination of poppy fields in Afghanistan, prevalent forces supporting opium still exist.
    This article taught me about  opium in Afghanistan which I really did not know much about. I always that the leading opium suppliers in the world were in the Golden Triangle area. However, it does make sense that Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. The state is in a very mountainous area. They are not able to farm many crops. What else could they farm that would make as much money as opium? The Taliban would probably be most concerned with making money. They are a landlocked country. They need to produce cash crops if they want to trade for other necessities. They have pulled in large numbers selling opium. Why would they want to give that up? I do not think supplying drugs is right, but I can see why they are doing it. It is very understandable that they are the world leader in opium production.
  

Blog Topic #6

http://www.smh.com.au/world/chinas-security-apparatus-is-as-orwellian-as-ever-20101010-16dzm.html?from=smh_sb

The above link takes you to a news article about Liu Xiaobo, another topic restricted by the Great Firewall of China. Liu Xiaobo is currently serving a prison sentence in China. He is a human rights activist and was arrested for "inciting subversion of state power." On October 8th, 2010, Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Although being awarded the prize, he is still serving his term in prison. China did not want anyone to find out he had won it, so they immediately put blocks on the news on the day he won it.

Blog Topic #5

The above map shows which people watch the most films at commercial screenings.

South Asia, and particularly India, dominate the area on this map. Most people would think that America would be the biggest country on this map because of Hollywood. It is large, but the amount of movies produced by Bollywood and viewed by the South Asian population is much larger. Western Europe is also a notable region on this list. Their countries are a little bit larger than usual, but they do not expand their sizes like America or India.

But how does this apply to globalization?
Many know Hollywood as the best film producer of all time. Hollywood started making films before the 1900's. Hollywood could be considered the origin of movie-making. The film industry did not begin consistently making movies until the 1930's. The name "Bollywood" was not dubbed until the 1970's, when Bombay had passed Hollywood in movie production. The movies in America inspired India to become the largest movie producer in the world.
One may also wonder why Europe does not have a large expansion in size from films watched. I think the language barrier of countries in Europe prevent them from watching as many movies. Nobody wants to watch movies that they cannot understand.
Other, more underdeveloped countries would be expected to have less area because those countries do not have movie producers. Film producers like Bollywood and Hollywood are able to export films to other countries for them to watch.
Globalization helps countries to spread the magic of their movie cinema.

Blog Topic #4

I am currently watching the movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The movie focuses on how a uneducated "slumdog" is able to answer the most difficult questions on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" When I was about 8 years old, I thought "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" was one of the coolest shows ever and really wanted to be on it. It never occurred to me that it was a popular game show in many countries. It started in the UK which is not really that interesting. Still, it is a huge surprise for me that India has a variant of the show, considering that 80% of India lives on less than $2 a day. This inspired me to find out what countries have a variation of "Millionaire" with a focus on South Asia.

 The previous image is the Logo for the Sri Lankan version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_variants_in_Who_Wants_to_Be_a_Millionaire%3F
The previous link is a Wikipedia page that shows what countries have/had a variation of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" It also shows the title of the show, the amount of prize money, and years aired. The list has over eighty variations of "Millionaire" on it, but I would like to focus on South Asia. Pakistan had a run of the show from 2003-2004. India has aired the show since 2000, and Sri Lanka recently started one this past September. Bangladesh is beginning to air the show this month.
The amount of money given by each show really stands out to me. The Pakistani show gave 10,000,000 Pakistani rupees. One US dollar exchanges for 85.5 Pakistani rupees. Winning on this show would earn you about $117,000 in America. Sri Lankan "Millionaire" gives 2,000,000 Sri Lankan rupees which translates to about $18,000. Now finally, the variation of the game from the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" which is a real game offers 20,000,000 rupees which is $440,000 in America.
 The amount of money given away by show variations previously mentioned give a great idea of what life is like in South Asia. A lot of money for people in those countries barely compares to a lot of money here in America. They live in slums and are able to survive on much less than we could ever imagine. It is great that they are able to have the chance to win a fortune. However, a movie like "Slumdog Millionaire" makes you wonder if all citizens get that opportunity.