Students show us how it's done

It was a fiasco in Britain when a minority of the students protesting the tripling of college tuition to about 9,000 pounds (14,000USD) got violent. Though I don't agree with the violence there is something to be said about the passion that these STUDENTS have for their cause. They were lied to by a political party and ultimately lost their fight when the motion was passed but they are still fighting tooth and nail to either get it reversed or forcing the process of creating the new policy for this hike in price to be a heated battle.

Where is this passion in our country? It was once said that a government body should be afraid of the people not the other way around. What happened to the the land of the free and home of the brave? We have become pod people. The people is this country have become so absorbed by the cosumerist culture of this country we don't do things like what these students did anymore. The people of this nation are like a lion with no teeth. The last time I heard of a proper protest in this country was back in the 60's and there were countless to choose from. So what happened to us this half-a-cantury later? I mean these students were protesting 14 grand!!!!! That's cheap on this side of the pond. That tenacity is what changes the way a goverment works and though they lost their battle they reminded the government that they walk a fine line between civility and chaos from their people.

America's Ingredient Lists

It would seem that America is the only place on Earth that allows companies to lie about what is listed under ingredients on our food. Countires all over the world (the European Union, Austrailia. Brazil, etc.) they have legislation informing the population about what they are eating. The reason this country hasn't is because the FDA decided that Genetically Modified food are "close enough" to the real deal that the crops need not go through rigorous testing or regulation and that the finished product need not be labled.

Close enough? Really? I wonder if a Bride would be ok with a "close enough" diamond. Would she be ok with a cubic zirconia while payng for a diamond all the while being completely ignorant about her purchase? I doubt it. I mean what next? Since our bodies can't tell the difference between corn sugar and cane sugar are ingredient lists going to just say sugar if people don't jump on the high-fructose-corn-syrup bandwagon?

To put this to a point, the Government is lying and Americans do nothing. We tried and failed to force genetically modified food to be labled but why stop there every year people protest pro-life and pro-choice, or whether or not there is going to be prayer in schools, why did we stop? Americans are so easily distacted that it is not too difficult for our government to get away with things when we are off somewhere else not paying attention.

We keep hearing on the news that we are a very obese unhealthy country but there is hardly any data to confirm or deny that Genetically modified foods are harmful to health.

In the end what I don't understand that if everything the government says is true and genetically modified food is pretty much the same as the real thing than what would be the problem with displaying that on a product? I have come to understand in this world that you hide and create ambiguity if there is something wrong with what you are doing. If there was no risk with Genetically modified food or organisms than there would be no reason not have blazing neon signs proving that point.

To promote the idea of genetically engineered food we have explainations of being able to feed the starving of the world but I don't believe for one minute that companies with the technology and patents on seeds would be so altruistic that they wouls share with a finanically bankeupt country and it is those countries that would benefit from the technology.

It would seem that though the U.S. it at the top of the world in economy, for however much longer is up for debate, and military we seem to be falling a little behind in citizens rights.

My advice is to go organic when you can and try your best to find petitions that are battling new GMO products. Here is a link to help do just that.

http://www.saynotogmos.org/

Globalization: Recipe for disaster ?

           Many have counted the recent economic troubles of the U.S. as part of the early warning signs of an empire about to crumble. It is both Historic and Scientific that anything that goes up must come down so when will it be us? Some argue that it will be soon, within this next generation, many disagree and the argument begins to be comparable to debates on the Apocalypse,

however I think it is not important to know the when, it is crucially important people begin to analyze the why. Why did Rome, Greece, Egypt, Persia, etc. fall? Many specific reasons can be applied individually to why they fell, i.e. conquering outsiders or elite infighting, 
but a common thread you will find and it is this reason we should be concerned. The exploitation of the lower classes! In the wake of Globalization this has become rampant exceeding even the levels of past empires. Many can attest to the functions of globalism: cheap products, networks of commerce between countries, trade agreement that prevent war more effectively than a treaty ever would; but if there are losers than the system is flawed and a flawed system is not and can not provide lasting prosperity to anyone including the winners.
         Just as China did not foresee that imposing the one child law combined with the patriarchal society would lead to more abortions, more infanticide, and eventually a lopsided enough population between men and women that women's status actually both improved in some cases; the world is not seeing the big picture. What is going to happen when the have nots, having being systematically conditioned to be nothing more than an ill-informed source of cheap labor and the ever consummate consumer, have nothing? Who are the haves going to sell their products to? You see there are only three options the world has in front of it after globalization:

     1) When the haves finally exploit everything from the proletariat they will re-allow debtor's prison for the have not's to work off the debts they incurred trying to remain above the poverty line as slaves.

Debt equals slavery

                      


     2) Governments Continue to create social programs or economic stimulus plans to postpone the inevitable crash after crash see options 1 or 3.                             

     3) Realizing that as corporations have blurred the lines of countries and we as humans should blur the line between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Then and only then will we as a species, as a race begin to band together toward a common goal to do not just incredible things separately but achieve the unthinkable, the undreamable.

 

It is no more natural for their to be a gap in the quality of life any human receives or has available to them as it is natural that there is a better race of human than another. The only function I truly see of globalization, on the long term scale of human existence, is the fact that it will most likely be the catalyst for the honest development not of countries or corporations but of Humanity.

Physical Geography's role in Mythology

  In many ancient civilizations the surrounding physical geography has played a role in the development of mythology and more specifically our creation. The interdependence on the Nile for survival for early Egyptians was crucial in their culture developing their creation story. Watching the rise and fall of the Nile from wet to dry season, from feast to famine was the basis for the understanding of water to be where all things come from. This is attention to the surrounding geography also led to the Gods residing on Olympus which is the highest mountain in Greece which was then impossible to climb. In most any mythology you will see a connection to the surroundings of the culture, the very fact that most gods and goddesses are caretakers or the cause of natural structures or occurrences lends to this. Geological evolution caused by tectonic activity and erosion is even documented in Iroquois creation myths as two brothers one good one evil in a cycle of creation and destruction.


The world around us has had such a role in inspiring our very notion of our creation and the nature of the universe. We may not claim that sea monsters live in the oceans now that we have explored them or think that gods live on mountain tops but the world around us provides just as much wonder and beauty today as it did then.

An Introduction

Welcome ladies and gentlemen! I am starting this blog for my World Geography class to explore true connections and applications of this discipline to the world around us. I will try to be as entertaining as I am informative and above all consistent. On that note I look forward to intriguing myself this semester and maybe a few of you.

Until next time...