I have become more knowledgeable about the World

The most current event I am knowledgeable of is from my most recent project on Greece. Greece may be a beautiful country with loads of history, but it is currently having riots from their people because of their economy. Greek’s Prime Minister Papandreou announced that in order to try to get his country out or debt from all of their spending, he would cut the salaries, reduce retirement money of the civil servants, and cut other government spending. He also announced that he would increase the taxes on goods bought by their people. These are ways he thinks that they can get out of debt. Greece is so far in debt that they may go bankrupt, like California, and possible the United States too. The Greek government was going to vote on the bill to pass the salary cut and increase tax possibilities, which is what is causing all of the people to riot in the streets, burn buildings and protest what the government is trying to do. The people of Greek do not make a lot of money, so they will suffer even more having less money if the bill passes. I can see how this sort of thing is currently what the United States is going through with our economy. The United States may not be as bad off as Greece, but we are heading towards that. While our government keeps on spending money that we don’t have, like the health care bill and bail outs for the banks, our President promised no new taxes as he was campaigning, but now he wants to raise taxes on a lot of different things, especially for the middle class, and that scares a lot of people. As with Greece, it will be the middle to lower class of people who suffer the most and lose out because they do not force their richer people to pay their taxes (just like the U.S.). This will and has already started to create trouble in the United States. Greece just borrowed too much money and have had too many “hand outs” to their people that has caused them this terrible economic problem. But, as always, the United States will probably loan them more money in order to help them out. Where does the United States get that money? When does it end? When I visited Hong Kong during class, I also found out that Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading financial centers. Unlike the U.S. and Greek, the government of Hong Kong does not get involved in their finances, they let the Market run their finances, this is why this is probably one of the most expensive cities to live in, they may not have high taxes, they just have higher priced items and let the market be their guide.

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II. History of the Twentieth Century, including major trends, eras, and events

At the beginning of the 20th century, Britain claimed that that the sun was always up in their country. New Imperialism seemed to be thriving throughout the world. The Industrial Revolution helped out powerful countries, while leaving poor countries behind. Manufacturers went overseas to get more of the needed natural resources and to expand their sales overseas. With Imperialism (the taking over of another country with political, economical and culture), this gave new places for the growing population in Europe. Competition between countries continued (Nationalism). Most countries thought the more land they owned, the more prestige and power they had. Some people tried to westernize other countries by offering them medicine, law and their Christian believes on them. The European Imperialist nationals expanded all over the world because they were strong, helped with their economies, gave them technologies, medicines, weapons, and the countries could not resist their strength. Some countries like Africa resisted, as well as Asia, but in the end they could not resist against the might of the guns. World War I was the first major conflict in the 21st century, beginning with Arch Duke Ferdinand’s assassination. Many countries did not want to enter the war, but because of the trieties that most countries had with others, they were bound to come and help during the war. The United States stayed neutral until 1917, when they entered the war because of the threat the Germany were giving because of them building submarines that could have hurt the U.S. Treaties were drawn up to end certain conflicts. New weapons were invented, like the machine guns to allow fast firing of bullets. The Germans invented poisonous gases against their enemies. Tanks were invented to protect the soldiers as they went deep into battle to kill off the enemies. World War I was looked upon as a glorious battle for American to get involved in. Different kinds of propaganda were used to try to get young men to join the Army, while the women stayed home to take care of things. The 2d Industrial Revolution began an era where changes were made closer to home. While the new inventions helped people at their homes and work places, it created problems in that people stayed working longer in order to be able to have the new inventions that were created. Mass production began so more things could be made quicker, communications changed with the invention of the telephone, new methods of war were invented and other things were invented in different parts of the world that helped trade with other countries. Urbanization happened while the Industrial Revolution kept moving on. People started leaving their country homes to move to the cities where the work was. Cities were growing very quickly closer to where the natural resources were in order to manufacture more goods. Once the cities began growing larger and larger, then the classes of people began to develop into what are now the lower class, middle class and upper class of people. Churches still remained the center of attention in cities, but the different classes of people migrated to their own part of town. People believed that materials goods shows wealth and the class they belonged to. Trends during the 21st century keep being born. Families changed their lifestyles as they moved into the cities. Different types of power, like atomic and nuclear, began different ways of powering cities and weapons. People started changes how they dressed, from most conservative to liberal styles. Hair styles changed for women as the cuts got shorter and shorter. Women began leaving the home more for work to allow the family to have more money and more things, this leads to a lot of trouble in that families are not as close as they use to be, divorce seems to also be a trends of the 21st century. There are many events that have taken place during the 21st Century, the World Wars, new illnesses that kills thousands of people, countries constantly in trouble or causing trouble for the world, better and fast ways of growing foods, more countries accepting the fact that they need help in order to survive and allowing other countries to help them out.

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III. Human Diversity – including sociological (non-scientific) nature of race as a category

Human diversity has always been an issue no matter where you are from. I look upon it as human differences that can be seen, heard, and felt. There are many differences in humans that separate us from each other. First is race. Race is the major category of what kind of human you are that people see first. When a person looks at another human, their first thoughts are what color of skin they have and where are they from. Race plays in the way people are treated and thought about. There are other differences in humans that separate us from each other like gender, age, religion, nationality, disabilities, and many others. As stated earlier, race is the main separator of people. People are accepted or not accepted because of their race. It seems now a days, if you look Muslim, you are almost automatically not accepted because of what happened in 9/11. The Jews were tortured and killed by the Germans because of their race/nationality. If you look at it for the color of a person’s skin, then we all seem to be separated from each other because we are all made differently, white, colored, yellow, freckles, moles, and other markers on the skin that makes us all unique. The white people have always felt supreme over black people. This started when the trade routes went down to Africa and saw the black people, poverty, not educated type of people. They took advantage of that and took them to sell them to other countries for a profit. When the slaves were bought, they were treated as property and some not taken care of very well, which is the main thing most people think about when it comes to colored people. They remember the negative parts of the colored people’s history and not some of the better and more important things that they have brought to the world. Even if a person is of a different race, it does not mean that they are not important or can accomplish big things. Everyone should work for their goals, regardless of history and especially not because of their race. If a particular race has been titled as something they are not, like “lazy”, then they should try to erase that title for themselves first so people can start thinking of them as not being lazy. No matter what race a person is, all have a right to find happiness, work, and wealth.

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IV. Places on Earth

I visited many places during the second semester. I visited Chiplun, India. This place lies along the banks of the Vashisti River. This place has beautiful carved temples, scenic beaches, lakes, caves, beautiful waterfalls, forts that are historic, and mountains that reach forever. The ancient Shankar Temple is here as well. It is made up of three different temples and there is a secluded beach behind it. In the city, they are building a new sports stadium and a drama theater called India Gandhi Sanskrutik Kendra. It is an amazing place with much history in it.

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Paris, France is another place that I visited. Paris is divided up into 20 different neighborhoods. They are named by the number that they are. Just like in the U.S. they have suburbs, but they call them banlieus. These neighborhoods are peaceful and quiet and each “burb” has their own way of life. My favorite place is the center of Paris. This is where the tourists go to see the museums and the palace. The famous Eiffel Tower is also in this area and this is where most tourists go. Most of the rich people life in the area as the Eiffel Tower. Paris is actually older than 2,000 years, started out as a fishing village. At first, it was under Roman rule until the French Revolution in 1789. The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Fair in 1889. The Louvre is a complex of buildings that houses some of the world’s best pieces of art and antiquities. Paris also is the leader of ship navigation on the Seine River. Although Paris is also called the City of Love, it also has its problems as most cities. Pollution, immigration problems, and theft, are all of the major problems Paris faces.

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Cancun, Mexico was a place I enjoyed as well. One of the things I learned about Cancun, is that it has a very high crime rate. Travelers should leave valuable things at home when visiting. Pick-pockets seem to target travelers the most as they carry around money and other valuable items in their pockets. Kidnapping, rape, and drugs are also issues that Cancun has problems with. The major health issue here is illness from their water supply. The water here is not safe to drink and the people who live here have to boil their water in order to drink it. The hospitals here are not as clean as those in the United States so we have been told to go to a pharmacy if we get ill. Cancun is a great vacation spot if staying for a short visit. Their sandy beaches are famous and the condominiums the people stay in are beautiful.

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Jammu, India was a very surprising place to be. They have ancient temples to tour as well as castles and forts. There are beautiful temples for their Hindu religion. One of the most famous temples is the Aurmandal. It is an ancient holy place that has several temples inside it. Jammu has a wildlife sanctuary that has pheasants in it as well as leopards, wild boards and monkeys. The oldest Fort in Jammu is called Bahu Fort. It is over 300 years old. I was able to eat in one of their best restaurants called Falak. It is on top of a hotel. The mountains and lakes around Jammu are very beautiful.

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Hong Kong is one of the most prettiest cities at night. Its sky scrapers light up at night and you can see it from outerspace there are so many lights. Hong Kong is one of the world’s leading financial centers. Hong Kong has a capitalist economy and the world watches Hong Kong and its finances in order to tell how the economy is going to be around the world. Hong Kong uses the dollar and the government does not get involved with the financial part of it. Hong Kong is unable to grow food so they have their food imported. The people of Hong Kong survive from jobs in the service industry. Their unemployment rate drops every year. A person cannot stay long in Hong Kong because it is very expensive to live in.

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Fushun, China is not such a wonderful place to be in. It has major environmental issues like lead and zinc polluting the ground. This is caused from all of the mining that they do here. Plants die off easily because of the pollution and animals are forced to live elsewhere. The water gets polluted easily here and the land itself looks unnatural. Heavy metal pollution is a major concern as the mining continues to go on. Dumping sites spring up as well and depending on what is dumped, the waste sometimes catches on fire and pollutes the air from toxins being released from the firing burning the dumped materials. There are people though trying to figure out ways to mine the lead and zinc without causing so much damage to the environment. They try to reclaim the land like we do after mining which is helping out some, but more needs to be done.

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V. Cultures of the World’s Societies

The world is made up of many different cultures. Each country has its own culture and in some countries, there is more than one culture. Culture is based on several things like religion, type of government, economy, family styles, food, clothes, language, race, and many other things. If you look at Africa, at one time, they were a thriving country able to survive on their own. They had a tight family system, their own religion or belief system, a different style of clothing, animals for work and transportation, etc. After years of nations trying to take over their land, stealing their natural resources. The culture that we know of today in Africa is colorful clothing, famine, diseases, and very poor people.

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Take the United States – the U.S. has many cultures because we have allowed so many immigrants from different countries come and live. If you look at New York, there is China Town, Little Italy, 5th Avenue Apartments where the rich live, the Bronx, Brooklyn, each with their own culture. Outside of New York, there is California, the Deep South, the Plain States, and then the Northern States. Each of these different regions of the United States has their own cultures as well. The Deep South is known for their Bible Belt, southern charm, and beautiful plantations with mansions built on them. The Plain States have a different culture in that the people there survive on farming, big cities are few and far between. Looking at other countries, their cultures are all different as well and depending on where you are, you may find yourself feeling you are living back in the dark ages or living in a society with no rule or laws.

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The Chinese have their own culture in that they have the Hindu/Buddha type religions, small families, communistic government, and many rich traditions and a long history of different rulers. They have their own form of dance, music, and foods. The Chinese use spiritual figures as religious symbols and they also celebrate many different types of holidays. The Chinese are evolving though as the western world is trying to become a part of their lives. The Chinese government opposes this kind of change, but is having a hard time keeping it from happening.

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No matter what kind of culture you live in, one will also seem to try new “culture” things. Like in my family, we cook Chinese foods and Mexican foods. I am sure that the Chinese and Mexicans try foods from other cultures. It isn’t that we are unhappy with what we have, we just enjoy the goodness of other cultures to make us appreciate other ways of life. Everyday we leave our culture for another whether it is eating, praying, driving, or just talking to someone. Anytime we change our way of doing something, we are allowing another culture to influence us.

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(that is where my picture is suppose to be but it wont let me upload the picture ):


Yo dog this is where i got my stuff!!