Group items tagged

This article explains the changing jobs in the developed country, Australia.

First thought...interesting article Cameron. It encouraging to see a country like Australia developing and implementing services in its economy. I wonder how this will effect the prices of the minerals Australia exports to the majority of the world? With more people moving to the service sector there will be less in the mines, so my gut tells me that the world wide prices will go down due to the fact that companies will be able to make a bigger profit selling the same amount of material due to lower labor costs.

I feel like Australia has a lot going for it! Like you mentioned, it has a high HDI- this is no coincidence. As we know, it has access to important natural resources. It is fairly isolated, which can hurt its economy, but there is less competition for jobs. It is also a highly popular area for tourism. It doesn't get involved in a lot of matters occurring in the northern hemispheres, which keeps it out of costly wars.

Since the Communist takeover of the region in 1949, the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China, have gotten a lot of religious and cultural persecution by Han Chinese. Similar to convicted communists during The Red Scare, Uyghurs have been prosecuted under false circumstances for separatist activities. While this isn't necessarily a dispute over territory, it's certainly an ethnic conflict and because of these hostilities, Uyghurs have a hard time finding migrant work within China. How does this relate to other ethnic conflicts like in Russia or Palestine?

I agree with Alexander about the similarity to Native Americans. Not only is China helping these people with jobs, but they are also making them go through the training programs which includes learning Mandarin, to the point where the minorities are in fear of losing their own identities. The Native Americans were forced to go through similar programs in order to "help them".

One of the cities that we will be traveling to in China is Xian. This city has a large Muslim minority. Do ethnic groups form enclaves as a refuge?

This conflict connects to territorial conflicts among religious groups because it talks about how various countries are starting to persecute Atheists and target them with hate campaigns. Why have countries started to bring up the past of Religious prosecution if it destroyed so many lives in events like The Holocaust?

This is different from the religious conflicts we discussed in class because the conflict between Palestine and Israel is mainly over the land, whereas this example of persecution is a result of the concept of atheism. In addition, Saudi Arabia, one of the countries mentioned in the article, is almost all Muslim and religious freedom is virtually nonexistent. Of course a country like this one will not tolerate atheists as other religions and freedoms are also extremely restricted.

In this article, ethnic groups, such as the Maori, which are found in New Zealand, are getting paid lower wages and they are not considered equal to the other non-ethnic groups. Even though this has not escalated to a full out war (yet), what would happen if the Maori stopped putting up with being "inferior" to the other groups? Would a territorial conflict arise? I think the answers to these questions are obvious because land equals money, which equals power. So, for these Maori people to get the equality they deserve, maybe all they need is a territorial war to gain back power?

I don't think war is a good idea, it seems that if the people want equal pay, they have to do something about it. As seen in the Arab-Israeli conflict, it may not be the best idea to go to war, but perhaps the people need to do something else.

I agree with Brooke. Despite the fact that land equals money and money equals power, does a war guarantee that the minority group will gain land and thereby power to be paid the same amount? In addition, a war requires political power and money in order to gain access to resources. If the minority group has little power to begin with, how are they to obtain the resources necessary to win a war? There must be a better solution to this issue than to go to war.

This article is about the Palestinian conflict we have been discussing in class, and how it seems to be turning from a racial to a religious war, changing from bad to worse. How much longer can this region go before full-out war begins? What other countries may be dragged into a possible war?

I think because of the histories of the two places and the fact that what is happening now is because of years of increasing tensions and dangerous conditions, this conflict will not be solved soon, and because of that, it will only get worse. Both groups want the territory, but one group was placed there (the Jewish people by the British) so they spread and began to dominate, claiming it as theirs.

I agree with Alex, the tension in this region is historic and recently rekindled with the insertion of Israel back into this area. The conflict there is essentially a time bomb on its final countdown and is not likely to be dismantled before it goes off. From my perspective there is no way to stop it unless one religion is removed which is even more impossible.

When you visit our site you can learn more about the diffusion of a popular sport (soccer) compared to a lesser known sport called croquet. Interact by watching videos and reading more about how sports differ across the world.

This is an interesting website! I never knew about croquet before, but now I feel well informed. I like the use of images as well.

I thought it was really interesting that croquet originated as popular culture, whereas soccer originated as folk culture. Today, in our society, soccer is considered more popular culture, whereas croquet is thought of being more of folk culture. I like how you included that soccer was banned and then legalized again because I remember reading about that in class.

I found it interesting how the article referred to the point-source water pollution from the shrimp industry. The chemical pollution in the water comes from industrial and agricultural sources related to shrimp. While the shrimp industry is important to Mexico's economy, it also has downsides, including health issues coming from the pollution of water that may go untreated.

What's one new idea you learned from this resource? How would the world be different if people weren't forced to migrate or people weren't restricted in their movement?  Post your comments, APHUG. Let's get a discussion going! 

One new idea that I learned from this resource is that, regarding population, "One of every six people on earth is an adolescent" and also that "Children and adolescents constitute some 50% of all refugees assisted by UNHCR." This idea shows that forced migration greatly influences young people because young people are a major group who make up the group of refugees that get help from the UNHCR. The world would be different if people weren't forced to migrate or if people weren't restricted in their movement by containing less safe environments because terrorists could come into a country more easily. If people weren't forced to migrate, more land areas might be more sparsely populated.

If people weren't forced to migrate, some cultures would thrive while others might not survive at all! In Europe today, there are many strict immigration laws that try to limit the amount of immigrants from many countries in Africa and Asia. One reason that these laws are so strict is to try to preserve the culture. So imagine what it would be like if there were no immigration restrictions at all! The culture in Europe would become mixed and intermingled with the cultures of countries all over the world. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it would just be different. Also, because of the idea of increasing globalization, the cost of migrating is decreasing (relatively), so the intervening obstacles are also decreasing. This makes it easier for more people to migrate if they are looking for economic opportunities. And when they do move, they will bring their culture with them. The land they leave behind, if enough people move, will then be deprived of the previous inhabitant's culture. So overall, many different cultures would be greatly affected if there was no restriction on immigration.

Here is another example of what you can check into on this Religious Landscape Survey site. ***By the way, make sure you Tag ... "Religion" and Share to a Group... "APHumanGeography" and unclick "Private."

I think that comparing and contrasting the different political opinions and spiritual devotions of each denomination would be really interesting Katelyn! I wonder if the political opinions would line up with the general trend of the region/state that most of the adherents are from? Also, would the political views be connected with their religious teachings, and could we see either a conservative or liberal approach shown in these teachings?

Veronica - Excellent project idea with the analysis.

This data sheet shows the numerical difference in the foreign born population in different states of the USA. It does not surprise me that California has the highest number of the foreign-born population because California has many job opportunities that are desirable for migrants.

This makes a lot of sense, because California is a destination for many immigrants from eastern Asia, from countries like China and India.

I think it is interesting how there were more foreign born immigrants on the western side of the disaster area of Hurricane Rita in the South.

An explanation for why the west side of the disaster area has more foreign born immigrants could be because those areas are located close to a large city.

It is interesting that most of the foreign born immigrants were born near the west. This is probably because the west suffered from less hurricane damage than the rest of the region, so migrants decided to move to the west.

Wow this is very unusual to me because I expected there to be more Mexican born people in Texas because it is on the border but instead there are more in California which is still a ways from Mexico.

Most Indian-Americans are born in the NYC metro area.

This does't surprise me that there are the most Indian born born people in New York because it is a major city which lots of jobs are available.

The highest amounts of Indian born populations are located near major cities. The greatest amounts are in New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago. It was interesting to observe where these people congregate. The greatest numbers occur in the larger cities. New York City has the highest population because when they emigrated from India, they most likely first stopped in NYC. Most families probably stayed in the area.

We have already touched on the topic that a large amount of immigrants today are from Asia and Latin America. In the future it is expected that America will see an increase of immigrants that are skilled workers. These mass migrations in the future will most likely not be for economic reasons, but will be for personal reasons or forces in history.

It is very surprising to hear that in the very new future, one little program of 3-D printing made available to consumers could jump-start thousands of new businesses and has the ability to create close to a million new jobs. In what other ways will 3-D printing change manufacturing in the future?

Current Event #9

It is very surprising that the most globally popular sport in the world (soccer) had a lack of medical support at a major FIFA match. However, it is good to see that the next World Cup in Brazil will have the medical bags. You never know when a player could be put into a life threatening situation. I also agree with Bronte, in that Johnson and Johnson will have a significant gain in product sales after advertising at such a prestige event like the World Cup.

It is interesting to know that FIFA has just now decided to construct a standardized medical bag for the 2014 world cup. I wonder what precautions were taken for injuries in the past.