Group items tagged

I never really knew much about occupy Wall Street, but it's really cool. It's like the "American Spring" or another American Revolution. The protesters seem to have a clear cut plan too. This articles discusses how the new "Demands Working Group" has drafted their own constitution which they've posted online. It demands that there be effort to create more jobs and that politicians be publicly supported in their campaigns rather than receiving money from private businesses. The movement of the "99%" seems strong and it is about time!

I think its interesting that piracy is increasing throughout the world. Personally, I feel that its good that other countries are working to counter this threat.

I found it interesting that American-made American flags are lower quality than those made in China. It struck me as very similar to the situation faced by the speaker who came to talk to us about her bag business: how she had to outsource because she couldn't find a quality producer in the U.S. Something that bothered me is that many of the flags are synthetic; if the government is going to hand our hundreds of free flags that might just get thrown away, it seems as though it would be better to at least make them out of renewable materials like wood and cotton. However, I suppose that may be more expensive... Also, I visited the Jinteng factory website because I was curious if they specialized in a certain type of flag or not. It turns out that they make all different types of flags depending on the order, just as the jeans we saw in China Blue varied order by order. I suspect that although some workers feel frustrated making other countries' flags, their catalog indicates that they make flags for many countries, not just one, so any anger would perhaps be less likely to be directed toward a specific country due to constantly producing their flag.

I thought that it is sad (and ironic) that, as Matthew said, our symbols of freedom and patriotism are being paid for with people's rights (in China). I had never considered how 9/11 would have caused a drastic increase in demand for American flags, and though it shouldn't have, it surprised me that the low price of American flags from retailers such as Wal-Mart does not cover the production costs of the flags. Like Larkin, I found the juxtaposition of the symbols of the flag and where it is actually made notable. I also had the same question as Alison about whether any flags are actually made in the United States. I thought that Matthew did a nice job pointing out the odd juxtaposition and talking about the production cycle of the flag.

Gasoline shortages, caused by a major gang boss, pressure Haiti's weak economy.

An article about a global summit on biodiversity. It would be interesting to see if countries that disagree politically can set aside their differences to work together on a global problem.

Similarly to what Harrison said, it's interesting to see countries that can't seem to agree on much politically starting to come together here. Good!

It's scary to think that we may need to protect 1/4 of the world's land. I hope that we can make that happen. But at the same time, there are daunting problems facing that possible goal, one of the largest being over population. I clicked on this link in the article (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/17/biodiversity.un.summit.briefing/index.html), and found this excerpt that I thought was great: "The demand for food, energy and clean water is projected to increase sharply, over the next 40 years. The world population is expected to grow from 6.8 to 9 billion people, and disposable incomes will also increase. Agriculture and urbanisation often compete with nature over the same land areas. Under unchanged policy, biodiversity will continue to suffer. If we keep meeting this growing demand, the amount of land used for human activity will expand enormously; not only in the supply of food but also in relation to biofuels. This would mean a further decrease in the space available for natural ecosystems. Biodiversity also reduces as a result of ecosystem overexploitation, disturbance and fragmentation, climate change, soil contamination, and water and air pollution. However, biodiversity is useful and of great importance to humanity, among other things because it stimulates soil fertility, manages water regulation and takes care of essential carbon uptake. In addition, many people feel that preservation of species richness and maintaining valuable nature areas are also our moral obligation." In light of that, I feel even more strongly that people should think hard about how many kids they have and their effect on overpopulation. Maybe each woman should have no more than one child (unless she happens to have twins, triplets, etc.), and strongly consider adopting at least one child. But then population decline means trying to support a proportionally larger elderly generation.... O.o

Sign this!

Guatemalan soldiers are demanding money that the government does not necessarily have.

"A total of 184 countries on Wednesday voted in favour of a resolution to demand the end of the US economic blockade on Cuba, for the 29th year in a row, with the United States and Israel voting against"

(Wikipedia) "The United States embargo against Cuba prevents American businesses, and businesses organized under US law or majority-owned by citizens of the United States, from conducting trade with Cuban interests. It is the most enduring trade embargo in modern history."

Syria possesses chemical weapons. This unsurprising news has generated professions of shock and horror from world leaders. But the existence of Syria's deadly arsenal is another good reason for the United States to stay out of that nation's worsening civil war. The ongoing fighting has excited the usual demands for U.S.

this raises interesting questions and parallels to the conflict in iraq

How significant is Israel in this conversation?

Really cool representation of India's rise, but also the inequality when the article mentions the "unconnected billion"

It will be interesting to see what type of role India plays diplomatically as the United States begins to favor the Indian economy.

Interesting to see how globalization has affected indian society. From what we learned about their protective economy to their shift to a more liberalized one.

Through this article I have gained a deeper insight in how public expenditures and public goods promote wealth equality in a society. "Public services are an important antipoverty tool."

Cool theory in regards to "the tipping point". Interesting, and solid criticism of large social expenditures. Wonder how socialists view this, as opposed to free-market economists.

"Public services are an important antipoverty tool. Their benefit doesn't show up in income data, but they appear to play a key role in reducing material hardship." INteresting to see the statistics and how social expenditures help reduce poverty and the wealth gap.

BEIJING - White House officials have lauded President Xi Jinping's anticipated promise of a national market for China in greenhouse gas quotas as a breakthrough in environmental cooperation and reform. But to work well, Mr. Xi's plan, expected to be announced in Washington on Friday, will demand big changes from a government accustomed to heavy-handed intervention and skewed statistics.

I really like the cap and trade idea because it ensures that the every firm is paying the maximum amount each is willing to spend to pollute the air. Firms that don't value being able to pollute as much can sell their permits and use the money to become more environmentally friendly. The cap and trade method encourages technological change that reduces the harm from each unit of a firm's product. As the article says, "The intended result is a competitive market that induces companies to devise ways to reduce emissions." The cap and trade method will hopefully relieve China of some of its pollution.

The national environmental quota set by the cap and trade announced by President Xi shows that there is some possibility of environmental cooperation from China, one of the world's most heavy polluters. The article voices the well founded skepticism of critics, who doubt that this new system will work well when it hasn't exactly taken off among the nations of the European Union; however, China's state is very different from its western counterparts. Comparatively, it can exact more control over its countries' businesses and factories, so this system just may be successful.

Rare earth metals are very important to batteries magnets and a variety of green technologies. China mines 97% of all rare earth ore, however they have recently cut exports to japan, Europe, and america. Furthermore, china's own demand for the metals is increasing to the point that in only a few years they may cease exports entirely

This article is about how the protesters are experiencing a divide between those who want to work on consensus building versus those who would like to have majority "winner takes all" vote. The current issue is about how to vote for a massive public works program funded by ceasing America's overseas military operations.

The article that I chose to put in our Diigo list was about ISIS's ability to sway younger people in foreign countries through their use of social media. According to this article, ISIS is recruiting people from the West (USA/EU) through Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Kik and more. They are essentially the "new-age" terrorist organization because ISIS is able to very effectively use digital means to spread their message. For example, about two weeks ago, ISIS released a video in which they beheaded an American journalist. This video was posted on Facebook and Twitter and spread very, very quickly. Additionally, the article states that ISIS's recruitment message has been very successful as they have received hundreds of recruits from the West (USA/EU). Possibly as a response to the growing power of ISIS, today Germany decided to supply thousands of armaments to the Kurds in Iraq in order to fight off ISIS. I am curious to see how the USA handles in the situation with ISIS because they are obviously a group that has the capability to do a lot of damage but I doubt the USA wants to support a group that will eventually turn against them like the Mujahideen fighters in the 1980s.

It is alarming how quickly ISIS can recruit and spread information through social media. It truly is "online jihad 3.0".

Couldn't twitter and other online website deactivate their accounts? or block some of their posts or something, or is it a legal issue? ISIS seems appears to be an organized terrorist group. The fact that they have that kind of book keeping is strange. Their ability to publicize their actions and demands seems to put more pressure on the actions of intervening political parties.

A roadside bomb hit a military vehicle in northern Sinai. The bomb killed 7 troops and injured 6 others. Islamists in northern Sinai have waged attacks against troops and security forces, since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last year after mass demonstrations demanding his resignation.Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, an al-Qaida-inspired group, conducted the majority of attacks.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has summoned military attaches of NATO countries and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, asking the officials to clarify their countries' allegations that Russian airstrikes in Syria have hit civilian targets.

Yay! Another Profile of the Syrian Republic. In April 2011 Bashar Al-Assad made an end to the 48-year-old state of emergency but demonstrations continued. Massive anti-regime protests broke out in several cities in Syria. Protesters demanded the release of all political prisoners, more freedoms for individuals and an end to pervasive corruption. In this source the European Forum analyzes and writes a profile of Syria in recent years- allowing for quantitative and qualitative analysis on my part.