Working on India project and what not

okay so today we worked on our India project.  Over the weekend me and Sarah learned the entire jai ho dance and she just had to go put it on her blog.  Mr. Schick just had to show it to the class... great.  He will only give us extra credit if we put it on the jc tv news.  Seriously Mr. Schick?

I must say Sarah and I can do the Jai Ho quite well. (:

What We Have Learned About India

During our human geography class, we have learned a lot about India and what it is like living there.  We have studied the large population, India’s problem with human trafficking, poverty, and the slums.  We have also been watching the movie Slum dog Millionaire.  In this movie we really see what life is like living in the slums of India.  The main characters are Jamal, Salim, and Latika.  They have to run away from their home in the slums because of the Bombay Riots.  The movie shows their story of survival and how they got to where they are now.  I think it really portrays life in India well. 

India’s population is 1,173,108,118.  It is the second largest country in the whole world behind China.  I think this is one reason why India is stricken with such bad poverty.  They have so many people and not enough supplies to support everyone living there.  That is why some people live in slums or shantytowns.   Slums/ Shantytowns are makeshift living arrangements made out of scraps of material.  Life in the slums is very difficult.  In the movie we see what they really look like.  Everything is so crowded and packed together I don’t understand how anyone could live like that.  The “buildings” they make are small and uncomfortable.    There is trash piled up everywhere because there are no garbage trucks to take it away.  People will just throw it where they can’t see it.  Often people go long periods of time without food.

Another result of India’s poverty is human trafficking and child labor.  Human trafficking is basically modern day slavery.  People become desperate for money and put innocent people to work for them.  In the movie, a man makes the children look as if they are desperate and pathetic by making them blind and going on the streets begging for money.  Then, he kept the money for himself.  Isn’t that awful?  That is unfortunately a sad part of India and what actually goes on and it’s not only children.  It can be people of any age.   Another problem similar to this is child labor.  People will put children to dangerous and strenuous work not fit for a small child, for little to no pay.  I think this is completely wrong because children should be getting a good education for the future.  If people want India to thrive they should educate their children.  Instead, they put them to work and don’t teach them anything.    There are about 50 million child laborers in India.

Fortunately, India is not all bad.  They have the largest film industry in the world.  India’s film industry is located in Mumbai and is commonly referred to as “Bollywood”.  The name is derived from Bombay, what is now Mumbai, and Hollywood the center on America’s film industry.  Bollywood consists of mostly musicals.  India makes about a thousand movies a year.  That is twice as many as America. 

                

Class of 12/6/10

Today we discovered we have a 500 word paper to do on India.  I have 170 so far.  This could take a while.

Problems India Faces

Although India may seem great on the surface, it is not all it's cracked up to be...

There are three main problems in India, human traficking, child exploitation, and forced labor.  Human traficking is the modern day slavery, or taking people by threat, abduction, or force, for the purpose of exploiting them.  India has been on the Tier 2 Watch list for the fifth year in a row due to the fact that they don't make enough efforts to try and stop this horrible issue.  Government authorities rescued victims, but failed to put the human trafickers in jail.  1.2 million children in India are caught up in human traficking.  Child exploitation is when children are forced to do dangerous work.  According to the Indian government, there are 20 million child exploiters in India, but according to other agencies, there are 50 million. Along with human traficking, child exploitation is completely wrong and does not follow human right laws.  Children deserve a good education and a joyful childhood. Forced labor is pretty much slavery.  Its when a person or people make people work in dangerous conditions with hardly any breaks for minimal to no pay.  I think all of these problems are caused from poverty.  When people become very poor, it seems they will do anything to get more money, such force people to do unfair work and put them in danger.  It also could be from having a poor education system, and since people aren't educated enough to work, they forced to do manual labor jobs to stay alive.

Movie Questions

1. Compare the motion picture industry in India to the United States.  India is the biggest film industry in the world and America is the oldest.  In the U.S, most film industries are located in california, and in India most film industries are located in Mumbai of Bollywood, as it is commonly referred to.
2. What are the names of the main characters? Jamal, Salim, Latika
3. What is a chai wallah? a chai wallah is someone that makes tea.
4. tell us five things you know about Taj Mahal. built in 1631, took 22 years to make, built by the emperor, completed in 1653, Located in Agra, India

First Day of December

Today we watched more of Slum dog Millionaire.  I think its a very good movie.  It really shows how life is like in the slums of Mumbai.

Bombay riots- The Bombay Riots took place between December 1992 and January 1993.  Over 900 people died.  On March 12 1993 there were the Bombay Bombings, in which 250 people (mostly Hindus) died.  The Bombay Riots were between the Muslims and the Hindus.

India Questions

5 facts about Mumbai
1. Used to be called Bombay
2.Most popular city in India
3.Richest city in India
4.Second most populated city in the world
5.The cpaital of India
6. 2 out of three people are Hindu, 1 of 5 are Muslim

what is Dharavi?  A slum in Mumbai

How many people live in Shanty Towns worldwide? 327 million people

How much is a Ruppe worth in American money? Roughly 2 cents, changes frequently

who is Amitabh bachcha? An Indian film actor and producer

1. What is the current population of  India? The current population of India is 1,173,108,018.  

2. What is the total fertility rate in India? 2.65 children born/woman.

3. What percent of India is below the poverty line? 12% percent of India’s population lives below the poverty line.

4. Briefly describe to terrorist attacks in India. On February 13, India was attacked by Islamic terrorists.  The bombed a restaurant in the northern city of Pune, killing 17 people.  ON the same day, New Delhi was attacked.  Terrorists bombed a small bakery, 9 people were killed and 57 were wounded.

India and China's Gigantic Population

• India: 1.35 billion
• China: 1.21 billion
• 40% of the world live in either China and India.
• China and India are bigger than the entire western hemisphere.
• In the mid 1950  China and India's fertility rate was 6 children per women. Now it has gone down considerably.
• In China, it is better to have a boy than a girl

Top Five Coffee Websites

1. From the Seed to the Cup! Click here


2. Coffee Plants lick here


3.  How is Coffee Made? Click here


4. General Coffee Information Click here


5. How Coffee Works Click here

terms and questions

Questions

• Coffee is the most heavily traded agricultural crop in the world

• How is coffee produced?

• How is it transported? by ship

• How is coffee made?
• How much coffee beans does one cup of coffee take?
• Who exports the most coffee? Brazil
• How long does coffee stay fresh?

Define 

• Standard coffee
• specialty coffee
• flavored coffee- coffee mixed with a different flavor
• sustainability - growing the crop year after year. 
• organic- coffee that has been grown without the use of pesticides or chemicals. 
• define fair trade coffee? produced from grower. (little companies)

AYYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!

Today in class we finished the documentary, God Grew Tired of Us.  It was really good.  I think we should have John Dau speak at our school.  How cool would that be!? Anyways in the documentary John Dau gets reunited with his mother who she has not seen in 17 years.  It was amazing to see how happy she was.  In Africa they have a custom that when celebrating the women make a loud high pitch noise like AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA! I can't really describe me you would have to hear it, but anyway John Dau's mother fell onto the floor making that noise.  It was so... I don't it was like so nice to see how happy she was but then you kinda got to be like, okay you're sort of embarrassing yourself ( I think John and his sister who he was also reunited with were kind of embarrassed to tell you the truth.)  But all in all it was a very happy story.

"Do you enjoy the freedom here?"

Today in class we went over the homework from this past weekend and talked about the war in Sudan for a while.  We talked about how the lost boys have to walk into 7/11 in groups instead of one big pack and that made me think...are we really free? Then we watched more of the documentary.  All in all a pretty normal class.

P.S. People still can't hold doors for other people correctly.

Vocab. and Sudan's Civil War (SPRINKLES :D)

in migration- movement by humans from one place to another.

out migration- leaving one place and moving to another.

forced migration-coerced movement by a person moved from their home.

net internal migration- births, deaths and migration in a country

movers from abroad- immigrants and emigrants from anywhere in the world.
internally displaced person- a person forced to flee their homes, but stay on their country's border.
    
          The second Sudan civil war started in 1983 between the north and south over religion.  People were forced to flee, going to all different places near the border of their country (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, etc.)  It is still going on today.  http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/sudan.htm

The Lost Boys of Sudan Questions.

1.) The Lost Boys had to run away from their homes because of the civil war in Sudan.

2.)They ran away to Ethiopia, but had to leave because their goverment fell.

3.)The life at refugee camp was hard.  A lot of them starve from lack of food.  It was hard to watch the video because they were so skinny and on the verge of dying.

October 20, 2010

Today in class we got our quizzes back.  I got an 88, pretty good. Mostly everyone voted for it to be a hundred points.  yayy!

Going backwards 10/18/10

Today in class we used google maps to trace our ancestry back to before our families came to America.  My class had very interesting heritages.  It took me a while to learn how to use google maps but eventually I got the hang of it.

My Past

            I always like to hear stories my mother and grandmother tells me about their childhood and how my family got to America.  They always amaze me even though I've heard them so many times.
            First, my mother's side.  My mom was born in, Newark, NJ.  To Ann and Jim Travers, my grandparents.   She had two older brothers.  They grew up Bloomfield, NJ.  My grandma was born in the United States, however most of her family was born in Ireland.  She had four other brothers and sisters, three of which were born in Ireland.  The came to New York on a boat from County Kerry Ireland where they had little food.  They weren't very wealthy so they were in the low deck of the ship.  The children would cry every morning.  One day the captain of the ship came to their door and said
        "Why do your children always cry?"
        "Well, their hungry." she said.  And every morning after that,  the captain brought down food for them so they wouldn't cry anymore.  That was always my favorite story.  My grandfather was born here but his parents were from Ireland.  They were wealthier than my grandmother's family and had a much more comfortable trip.  He met my grandmother when they were thirteen years old.
             Now, my father's side.  My father was born in Hemsteade, NY, to Walter and Elizabeth Wolfarth. He had one brother.  My grandfather, who I called Opa, was born in Stuttgart, Germany.  He came to America in 1950 on a ship.  When he got to America he was drafted into the army.  My Oma was born in Scotland (we're not sure where in Scotland).  She also came here on a ship, but she was just a baby.  She went to school in New York and then met my Opa, who we already talked about.  I don't know much about my father's side.  My Opa and Oma died when I was six and seven years old.  I know, when my Opa still lived in Germany he was in Hitler Youth, and my great grandfather was in World War II, but thats all I really know.
      

In Ten Years..

         In ten years hopefully I will be done with college and doing something productive.  My dream is to be a nurse, I've known that since I was eight.  Truth is, I like it in America and I don't think I would want to live anywhere else.  If I had to though, I would want to live in Switzerland. Random? I know, let me explain.
         Switzerland is a good place to live because it is a neutral country.  It hasn't  partaking in any kind of war since 1815.  Also, it has a very good health care system.  Switzerland is known to be one of the richest countries in the world.  It has a very good and stable economy.  People say its one of the most competitive economies in the world.  3.8 million people have jobs in Switzerland. Their unemployment rate is 4.4%.  Their population below the poverty line is 7.4%.  Switzerland's life expectancy is an average of 80.85 years.  Two more years than America.  It has freedom of speech and freedom of religion  Also, I would want to move to Switzerland because of its beautiful scenery.  The only bad thing I have found is that Switzerland is a very expensive country, especially its real estate.  Also it is a landlocked country.  I feel like that would annoy me.  But, other than that, it just seems like a nice place to live
          The other place I would like to move to is Canada.  Canada also has a good health care system, and all around, Canadians just live healthier.  Canada is also one of the wealthiest nations, and is one of the worlds top ten trading nations.  Its unemployment rate is 8.6%.  Not the best but not the worst either.  Also, Canada has freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  Its life expectancy is 81.3 years. pretty good.  I couldn't really find anything bad about Canada.  it seems like a really nice place to live.

Population pop quiz

We had our first pop quiz.  It was pretty easy because we could use our notes.  I think I did pretty good on it.  Well.. I hope anyway.

10/7/10

• pull factor pulls you in, push factor wants you out.(ex. sarah has been pulled into america.)
• net migration rate-immigrants-in, emigrants-out.
• learned about population pyramid. and baby booms

10/6/10

• Kenya has a low life expectancy because of bad health care 
• Afghanastan is the lowest because of wars a bad healthcare system
• China and France has a good life expectancy because of good lifestyle habits
• crude birthrate just means strait, raw numbers
• etheopia is growing in population
• crude death rate in ethiopia 8
• death rate in japan 9
• african families have more kids in hopes that some will live

Population studies: defining our terms

life expectancy- estiamted number of years a person will live.   definition here
Japan- 79(male) 83(female)
France-81
Kenya-57.86
Cuba-77
U.S-78
Afagahnastan-44
crude birth rate- births per 1,000 people per year.  definition here
Japan-7.64/1,000
Kenya-36.64/1,000
Ethiopia-43.66/1,000
U.S-13.83/1,000
Germany-8.18/1,000
crude death rate- deaths per year per 1,000 people.  definition here
Afghanistan-17.83/1,000
Kenya-9.72/1,000
U.S-8.38/1,000
Japan-9.48/1,000
Mexico-4.8/1,00
RNI- crude birth rate minus crude death rate.  definition here
TFR- average number of children that would be born to a women over her lifetime. definition here
Niger-7.68
Afghanastan-5.5
Japan-1.2
U.S-2.06
Germany-1.42
net migration rate- the difference between immigrants and emigrants of an area in a period of time devidied by 1,000 inhabitants. definition here
population pyramid- shows the distubution of different age groups in an illistration. definition here

Week 5

This week we did a project on 3 world religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.  I learned that they all are actually very alike.  It was interesting to see what what other religions believe and how the worship.  We made a powerpoint/video thing on the website called Prezi.  It made learning about other religions more interesting.  It was kind of confusing to use though.  I still have to get the hang of it.  Christy's Prezi blew all of ours away though. I still don't know how she did it.  We learned that we have our first test next week also and the stuff we have learned so far. yay.

Countries and Conitnents

1.  United States- North America
2.  France- Europe
3.  Iraq-Asia
4.  China- Asia
5.  Saudi Arabia- Asia
6.  Haiti- North America
7.  India-Asia
8.  Japan-Asia
9.  Venezuela- South America
10. Iran- Asia
11. Russia- Asia
12. The United Kingdom- Europe
13. Israel-Asia
14. Germany-Europe
15. Tibet-Asia
16. Afghanistan-Asia
17. Brazil-south America
18. North Korea- Asia
19. Egypt- Africa
20. Kenya- Africa
21. Pakistan-Asia
22. Vietnam-Asia
23. Mexico-North America
24. Cuba- North America
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

9/11 Attacks

https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1w5mBlkwwP8RWMrc2t80GYT2p2dJindgaK5Q5rqyC0T0&hl=en&pli=1#

9/11: A Flashback

Today in human geography we learned more about 9/11 and what happened that day.  I thought it was really interesting.  We have to write a paper about it thats due Tuesday.  In addition to all this I almost got hit in the had with Smartie thrown by my teacher and discovered  that the kid next to me needs diapers. great day.

Vocab.

geography- the study of the earth's surface.(dictionary.com)
globalization-  to make global or world wide in scope or application(dictionary.com)
population- the total number of people inhabiting a place. (dictionary.refrerence.com)
Immigration- to come to a country where one is not native.(dictionary.reference.com)
industrialization - to introduce industry to.(dictionary.com)
culture-the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters.dictionary.com)
religion-a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe.(dictionary.com)

1.World population: 6,697,254,041
2.China-1,339,270,000
3.India-1,187,130,000
4.United States-310,152,000
5.Indonesia-237,556,363
(wikepidia)

1. Christianity
2.Islam
3.Agnostic
4.Hinduism
5.Chinese Traditional Religion.
(http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html)

Interesting Facts

What does this mean?

There are more honors kids in India then the amount of kids in the U.S.  This probably means that India will have more jobs then America.

If facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest country in the wold.

My Life in Six Words

Cheering my way cheerfully through life.