People's Republic of Capitalism 2

Today we continued watching "The People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie featured a former Briggs and Stratton worker named Pam Le-sour. She and many other employed were recently fired because the factory they worked at was relocated to China. Even though it costs less to manufacture in China and saved the company money, it left the employees of the factory without a job. In the video, Pam was applying for a new job at a local job expo. The video interviewed her, and asked questions related to the Briggs and Stratton factory being moved to China. In the interview, she stated that since she is short on funds, she does all of her shopping at Walmart. However, almost all of the products in Walmart were at one point associated with China. So even though she is against U.S companies having their factories in China, that is the main reason why Walmart has "everyday low prices" in the first place. So in reality, she is benefiting from it, and not benefiting from it at the same time.

People's Republic of Capitalism

In today's class, we continued watching the video "People's Republic of Capitalism". The movie explained how the U.S's economy and China's economy are so different, yet so intertwined with each other. In the United States, the minimum wage is 7.25 an hour, but in China, there is no law or regulation with business criteria. For example, regulations to have a clean or safe factory, or laws to pay their workers a certain amount. Usually, Chinese are lucky to be paid 4 dollars a day, when any American job gets you 7.25 an hour. In the video, we saw a Chinese demolition team destroying a house. One of the workers had her child with her while she was working, because she couldn't leave her at home and couldn't afford a daycare. It was actually quite sad to see people working so hard to earn so little in the end.
Because Chinese workers often work for very cheap, many foreign companies in the United States produce their goods in China. This allows for jobs to be lost in the United States. The reason so many things in the U.S are produced in China, is because it costs only a fraction of what it would cost to be produced in the U.S, even with round-the-world shipping costs. Yet, Chinese workers depend on foreign companies to create jobs for them, so that they may support themselves. Even though  both economies are very different, they still depend on each other so that they may prosper.

Monday November 26, 2012

After a long Thanksgiving break, we all came back to school today. In Mr. Schick's class, we got our tests back. I was glad to hear that I got a perfect score on it. When Mr. Schick called on me to reveal the answer of number 11, I was not paying attention, and there was a long awkward pause. I finally realized I was being called on, and answered the question.

After we reviewed the test, Mr. Schick told us that he arranged a guest speaker to come talk to the school tomorrow. He told us that it was Gerry Sandusky that would be talking to us. However, he isn't the child molester from Penn State, he is a local news broadcaster and announcer for the Baltimore Ravens. He has been having a bit of trouble recently, because people think that he is the Penn State coach that abused his students, when really he just coincidentally has the same name as him. He has received death threats on twitter, and  people have been giving him suspicious looks and bad comments. People automatically make the connection to the coach Jerry Sandusky, and they don't realize that the BAD one is in prison. So the main reason why he is coming here to talk to us is to give advice on what to do in a bad situation, and to talk about the trouble he has been getting from people recently.

Later, we started a video called "The Peoples Republic of Capitalism". The video is about China's economy and how it is affiliated with the United States economy. We only got through about 10 minutes of it before the bell rang. I am excited to watch the rest of the video, and most of all, to hear Gerry Sandusky speak to the John Carroll student body.

Israel / Palestinian Conflict

Today in class, we continued to review countries and the relationship between the United States and other countries. Today, a particular group of countries caught our eye. The Israel and Palestinian conflict has definitely caught everyone's attention this week. In 1948, Israel became an independent state. However, many of the surrounding Arab Countries did not approve of the newly formed country. When you have a Jewish country in the middle of many Arabic countries, it can create some problems. Recently, the Palestinians, an Arabic territory, have gotten fired up with the Israel, and have been launching rockets into Israel's territory. Israel did not like that, so they returned the favor, by launching rockets into their territory also. This has been a constant pattern for a while, but this week has been the worst it has ever been. Now, Israel is sending troops and tanks into the Palestinians territory, so there is a chance that there will be a war starting between the two. I just hope that the U.S does not get involved, because the U.S and Israel are good allies with each other.
Another assignment I have this weekend is to write a 500 word essay on 2 groups of countries, and how they relate to one another and the U.S in business, trade, etc.. This essay is due Monday during class, so I hope I get a good grade on it.  

Reviewing Countries Origins

Today in class, we reviewed the countries origins that we researched the previous night. We started off by talking about China. As of about one week, China has had a new president, Xi Jinping. The former president that I included in my past blogs, Hu Jintao, is now retired. Next we talked about Afghanistan. Right now, the US is helping Afghanistan fight the Taliban, which is an Islamic Terrorist group. President Obama is planning on removing the 64,000 US troops currently in Afghanistan by the end of 2013. He hopes by then, Afghanistan will be able to fight of the terrorist group themselves. During our discussion about the UK, Mr. Schick was explaining how big the British Empire was back then. At one point, the British Empire was so large that it took up nearly a quarter of the earth. There was an old saying about the empire, which was: "The Sun never sets in the British Empire." The meaning behind the saying, is that the empire is so huge, that there wasn't one place in it that didn't have the sun shining.
Many of the other countries we reviewed were at one point in its history a part of the British Empire. Some examples include Iran, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia.

Countries Origins

For today's assignment, we are researching countries origins. The following countries I am researching are Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, United Kingdom, and Venezuela. The other 5 included in this blog were researched by my partner for this assignment, Alex. 

Iran

Iran gained its independence in 1979, when the Monarchy ruling
 the country was overthrown. The country was previously known
 as Persia, but that changed in 1935. After the fall of the monarchy,
 conservative clerical forces established a theocratic system of
 government with a supreme ruler. During the 1980's, Iran was 
involved in a bloody war between Iraq. Iran can be found in the 
middle east between Iraq and Pakistan.






Venezuela

When the country of Gran Columbia collapsed in 1830,
 Venezuela was one of 3 countries that emerged from the
fallen country. Democratically elected governments in
Venezuela started in 1959. Venezuela can be found
in northern South America bordering the North Atlantic
Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.    





United Kingdom

During the 19th century, the British Empire stretched
 nearly a quarter of the earths surface. During the 1940's, 
the UK's power was quickly diminished in 2 world wars and
the Irish Republic's withdrawal from the Union. The country has 
never gained any sort of Independence and has never
been subjects of another country. The UK can be found in 
Western Europe.



Saudi Arabia

Modern day Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932. Since
then, it has been a Monarchist country. No country 
has ever been the subject of Saudi Arabia and Saudi
Arabia has never gained independence. Saudi Arabia can be 
found in the middle east, bordering the red sea and the
Persian Gulf





Mexico

Ancient civilizations have existed in the area of Mexico for 
thousands of years. Mexico was conquered by Spain in
the early 16th century. It had achieved its independence from
Spain in the 19th century. Mexico can be found between South
America and the United States.

Afghanistan declared their independence on August 19, 1919. Before they were independent, Afghanistan was a conquering nation as well as a conquered one. Before Christ they conquered nations such as Persia. They were also later taken over by the British after the Anglo-Saxon War. If you were to look on a world map you could find Afghanistan in the Southeastern part of Asia between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.

Brazil gained their independence from the United Kingdom on September 7, 1822, when they became the Brazilian Empire. Before their independence, Brazil was frequently invaded by various nations due to lack of Portuguese interest. When they became independent they broke away from Portugal who started the Brazilian colony, however, the Portuguese were only successful in controlling a portion of the original land that they had colonized. You could find Brazil on a world map in South America located in the Eastern part of South America and overlaps the equator.

France unlike many nations, never exactly became independent because they were independent from the start. As France was forming, I was populated by the Franks, which then overtime got the nation its France. Thus, one could assume that France was always an independent nation. Want to know where I am talking about? France is located next to the Bay of Biscay and borders Spain, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Germany officially became independent at the German Empire Unification on January 18, 1871. Germany is located in Europe and borders France, Belgium, and Poland.

India became an independent nation on August 15 1947 from the United Kingdom. Before gaining their independence, India had very little say in government since most legal decisions were made by the British. India is located in Southern Asia and is bordered by Pakistan, Nepal, China, and Bangledesh.       

Reviewing the Second quiz

Today we got our 2nd quiz of the 2nd quarter of the year today. As I predicted, I got 100% on the front of the quiz, but the back I got a few wrong. My grade totaled up to about 84% for the whole quiz. Today was Veteran's Day, a day where we celebrate the heroic accomplishments of our former servers of the military. Since we had an assembly in the gym for an hour during the day, today's class period was shortened to about 40 minutes.  Most of that time was spent going over the test and how we did compared to other classes. Ours unfortunately, had the lowest average of the other two classes. Also, two of my classmates shared the same birthday today. We sang "Happy Birthday" to them and then resumed with the reviewing of the test. Another thing  Mr. Schick mentioned was that we would have to be writing an essay on presidents of countries. He said that he would give more information as it comes, but it only has to be a mere 500 words. That shouldn't be to much of a problem to me. But for now, i'm satisfied with my quiz score.

Friday November 9, 2012

Today we had a surprise pop quiz. I found out that it was the same exact thing as the previous quiz on presidents, but on the back of the paper were facts about the presidents and their political backgrounds. I felt that the quiz was pretty easy, but I had a bit of trouble on the back though. We STILL were talking about the countries and what they were doing after the quiz. The details are a bit foggy, but I do remember learning about how most things are made in China. A while back, Mr. Schick made everyone look at the tags on their shirts, and I think every one was made from a foreign country. Today, Mr. Schick added to that, and said that the US and China are big trading partners. When he said this, I asked him what China buys from us, because it seems like China just gives their stuff away to us, when we only give them a little. Mr. Schick said that we give them a lot of soft drinks, but a major thing we trade are film productions and interactive media. In fact, he said that is how most of the money we make from trading is produced, by trading movies and other media.   

Finishing Presidents

Today we finished up reviewing facts about the presidents of the countries we've been studying. We started today by commenting on Barack Obama, who has been re-elected for a second term for President of the United States. We found out that he was the Senator of the state of Illinois, and that he was a graduate at Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Mr. Schick told us that when Mr. Obama resigned from Senator of Illinois, the Governor of Illinois at the time, Rod Blagojevich,  needed to find a new Senator for the state. He was actually considering appointing Oprah Winfrey for the role at one point! Instead, he got greedy, and decided to sell the position to whoever would pay the highest. Since that's apparently illegal in the United States, he was arrested and remains in prison to this day.
We also learned from Mr. Schick that there was a recent picture of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama after they won the 2012 election. He told us that it was the most liked picture in Facebook history.

We also learned about Israel and Iran. We learned that it is very possible that there could be a war between the 2 countries because Israel is a Jewish country surrounded by many Islamic, Arab countries. There is also a lot of speculation over Iran's nuclear program. Many countries suspect that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, when they just claim that they are building a nuclear power plant that's completely harmless.

Some students were also commenting on facts of presidents with facts of their own, however Mr. Schick kept asking them where they got there information. Mr. Schick reminded us all to use reliable internet sources to get information, because there was no way of telling if the facts from the students were true.

Reviewing Presidents (again)

Today in class, we reviewed our quizzes on the various presidents of the countries we learned about. We each shared our facts on the presidents listed in our blogs, while Mr. Schick added from our comments and told us about each of the presidents different life styles. When we were talking about Brazil's current president, Dilma Rouseff, Mr. Schick explained that she was arrested and tortured for committing a coupd'etat, or in other words, a revolt to gain control of power in a country. We learned that she was in prison for 3 years, and she was tortured using a method of torture called the parrot's perch. Basically, you were stripped down naked, while being tied to a pole by your hands and legs. As you are in this position, people shock you with electrical pulses too. So to think that Dilma Rouseff became the persident of Brazil years later is astonishing.

We also learned that the President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has escaped at least 4 assassination plots since his presidency. Also the King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has 13 wives and at least 35 children! There is so much about people that we just never knew about.

Facts About World Leaders

For our homework assignment, we have to find facts about the world leaders of the countries we researched  a few blogs back. These are facts about their political experience though, so our job is to see if they are a country that the United States would want to work with. (Source: Wikipedia)

China: Hu Jintau

• Hu Jintau graduated in Hydraulic Engineering in 1965
• At the 1992 CCP Congress, Hu was appointed a member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee

Brazil: Dilma Rouseff 

• helped found the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in Rio Grande do Sul
• was once the Minister of Energy of Brazil
• She was also tortured by attempting a coupd'etat. She was in prizon for 3 years.

Mexico: Enrique Peña Nieto

• Was the former Governor of the State of Mexico located within the country of the same name.
• he obtained a Master's in Business from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education  

Saudi Arabia: Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

• Was the mayor of Mecca
•  in 1962 he was appointed commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard

Germany: Angela Merkel

•  currently ranked as the world's fourth most powerful person by the Forbes magazine
• can speak Russian fluently/  awarded a doctorate for her thesis on quantum chemistry

Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu/ Shimon Peres 

Benjamin

• Also the Health Minister, and the Economic Strategy Minister of Israel.
• studied political science at Harvard University.

Shimon

• won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister
•  appointed Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Defense

Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• earned his PhD (1997) in transportation engineering and planning from Iran University of Science and Technology
• joined the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution

Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai

• selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six month term as Chairman of the Interim Administration.
• Obtained a Master's Degree in India

France: François Hollande 

• Served as the Mayor of Tulle
• served as the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from 1997 to 2008

India: Pranab Kumar Mukherjee

• senior leader of the Indian National Congress
•  Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Union Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012, and the Congress party's top troubleshooter.

Venzuela: Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

•  leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela
•  leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party 

UK: David Cameron

•  studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford, gaining a first class honours degree.
• First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party

US: Barack Obama

• Senator of Illinois
• Graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School.

Friday November 2, 2012

On Friday, Mr. Schick returned to school to teach us. We reviewed the governments of major countries of the world with him. It was kind of an uneventful class period. Besides reviewing the governments, and having  shadow in our class, not that much happened. Mr. Schick also told us some other presidents we have to know, so I put their names under the post of the presidents. He told us some interesting stuff about the presidents and other rulers, for instance the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, has more political power than the Queen of England. Another one is that the king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has 13 wives and has fathered at least 35 children. I'm interested to see what Monday's class will be like

Thursday November 1st, 2012

In today's class, Mr. Schick was absent from school. When we went to his room, there was another teacher there saying that his class was down the hallway for today. When we arrived at that room, I realized that my math teacher was the substitute for today's class. We reviewed our test on cultural characteristics, then worked on our government blog assignment. Fortunately for me, I had already finished the assignment last night, so for most of the remainder of the class, I was passing the time by playing chess on my computer. About 15 minutes later, I realized that I had to do a homework assignment on the computer for my next class. I had completely forgotten about that. I intended to do it over the weekend, but I lost electricity from Hurricane Sandy, and was not able to complete it. I managed to finish it right before the class was over, which I am glad about.