Review on CIA Factbook

   Today in class, we reviewed our answers from our homework over the weekend. For homework, we had to answer twenty five questions that Mr. Schick gave us. We had to use the CIA Factbook to find the answers. As we went over the questions in class, we talked about each answer before moving on to the next question. If we got any of the answers wrong, it was a good idea to correct them. I think that the two things that I remember most is how high the United States is located on the HIV/AIDS death chart. Its ranked number 18 out of the many countries all over the world. It's kind of sad when you think about it because there are ways to prevent this disease. Another thing that I remember the most is that there is a 95% unemployment rate in Zimbabwe. This means that 19/20 people living there cannot find jobs. It makes you think of how lucky you are to actually have a job that pays you enough to support your family. Basically, during the whole entire class, we just went over and corrected out homework questions.

CIA Fact Book Scavenger Hunt

1.      What is the population of the United States?

-          316,668,567

2.      What are the five largest countries in the world, by population?

-          China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil

3.      What is the population of Pakistan?

-          193,238,868

4.      What kind of government does the United States have?

-          constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

5.      What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?

-          95%

6.      What is the largest country in the world by area?

-          Russia

7.      What country has the third greatest number of airports?

-          Mexico

8.      What country has the greatest number of exports?

-          China

9.      What country exports more oil than any other?

-    Saudi Arabia  

10.  What country imports more oil than any other?

-          United States

11.  What country has the second largest proved reserves of crude oil in the world?

-          Venezuela

12.  Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military?

-          Yes

13.  What is GDP?

-     GDP means gross domestic product; t his entry gives the gross domestic product or value of all final goods and services produced with nations in a given year;

14.  What country has the highest GDP per capita ( people)  in the world, and how much is it?

-          Qatar 103,900

15.  Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita?

-          No

16.  Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent?

-          Africa

17. 11 or the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found in which continent?

-          Africa

18.  What other country is in the top ten?

-       India

19.  Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths?
           -      #18

20.  Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones?

-          No 

21.  What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

-          23.9%

22.  What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

-          82.7%

23.  What is Net Migration Rate?

-          The difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country each year per 1000 persons. An excess of people entering the country is referred to as net immigration. An excess of people leaving the country is referred to as net emigration. 

24.  Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world?

-          No (3.6/1000) 

25.  According to the Fact book, what is the current population of the entire planet?

-          7,095,217,980

Migration

    Migration is the movement from one place to another. The Net Migration Rate, NMR for short, is the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country each year. There is immigration and emigration. Emigration is the excess of people who are leaving the country. When measuring this, it is written in a negative number. Immigration is the excess of people who are entering the country. This is written in a positive number. For example, Canada has 5.65 migrants per 1,000 population while Mexico has -3.11 migrants per 1,000 population. When people migrate, they want to leave their country and go somewhere else. Push forces are things that make the people want to leave the country. One way that you can remember this is by thinking that these things are physically pushing these citizens out of their country and making them not want to live their anymore. Some push forces are civil wars, environmental degradation, unemployment or underemployment, and religious or ethnic persecution. Pull forces are things that attract others to a country. You can think of these forces as physically pulling them into their country and having them stay there. Some pull forces are better economic opportunities, better health services, religious freedoms, and political freedoms. There is also a thing called the Total Fertility Rate, or TFR. The Total Fertility Rate is the average number of children born per woman. In order for a population to remain the same, the TFR must be at least 2.1. The higher the rate, the more the population increases. The lower the rate, the more the population decreases. In each country, there is a different TFR. For example, in the United States the TFR is about 2.6 while in Nigeria the average rate is about 5.38. In certain places around the world, the Total Fertility Rate is higher because parents tend to have more children in case one of their children die at a young age. A lot of children don’t live long enough to see their first birthday due to malnutrition or from a disease that they picked up and didn't have the right medication to cure themselves. It’s actually a really sad thing when you think about it because it’s like the parents are expecting at least one of their kids to die and to not live as long as they hope they would live.

Population and Migration

    In class today, we focused more on talking about population. There are over 7 million people living on the earth right now. The population is increasing by 77 million more people per year. Life expectancy is the average number of years that are expected to be lived by a group of people who were born in the same year. It seems that women usually live longer than men. For example, if you look at the life expectancy of the United States, you'll see that the average is about 78 years old. If you look more into depth, you'll discover that men usually only live to about 76 years old while women live to about 81. Women tend to live longer because they take more care of their health on a daily basis and have less risky jobs. You can measure population by the crude birth rate, the crude death rate, and the rate of natural increase. Crude birth rate is the number of births per 1000 of the population. Crude death rate is the number of deaths per 1000 of the population. The rate of natural increase, RNI for short, give us the natural growth rate for a country. You can find this by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate and then dividing it by 10.

First Test of The Year

  On Friday, we had our first test in Human Geography. It was made up of ten multiple choice questions and three essays. The test covered everything that we have learned so far from the meaning of arête to globalization. While we were taking the test, all of the sudden the fire alarm went off. We all had to get up and walk out to the football field and stand there. While we were standing there, Mr. Schick had to take role call just to make sure everyone was with us. After about twenty one minutes, the drill was over and we could finally head back inside. Luckily it was nice out and wasn't too hot or else it would've been worse standing out there. Once we got back into the classroom we had to finish completing the test. If we didn't finish, Mr. Schick would give us extra time due to the fact that the fire drill took time away from the test. I only have to complete one more essay and then I’ll be finished. So far the test is pretty easy to me. Hopefully when I get my test back on Monday to finish it, I’ll see that I did well on the multiple choice part of the test!  

Globalization PowerPoint

   Today we all presented our power points that we've been working on. We've been working on this "project" for a few days now in class. Our power point had to be about globalization. We had to define what globalization exactly is and also list pros and cons. A pro of globalization is that it has decreased poverty. In some countries, like China. India, Uganda, and Vietnam, they have opened up to the economy and have decreased their amount of poverty. In China, their poverty rate went from 60% to 16% between the years 1990 and 2005. While globalization has pros, it also has cons. Globalization only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. It give better benefits towards the mangers and investors than the workers. Also, globalization has led to the exploitation of labor. This means that many children are coerced into working for places with inhumane conditions. After we all presented, we went over what we needed to know for the first test of the school year. We found out what would be on the test and what we needed to study. Hopefully, the information will still be fresh in my mind when it comes time to take the test!

"Just Don't Do It"

   After Nike didn't take care of the sweatshop situation in Indonesia, many people protested against them. The protesters' slogan "Just Don't Do It" caught Nike's attention. People were boycotting all Nike products due to the unfair labor practices. This had an extreme effect on the money they were making. Nike knew they had to do something about it before it got worse. They claimed they had fixed the problem. They said that they improved the working conditions and safety hazards in the sweatshops. Also, they raised the minimum wage to $3.70 per day. Little did they tell you that they hired military officials to coerce the workers into agreeing to the amount they are paid. In Indonesia, the minimum wage is $4.00 unless the worker signs an agreement paper saying that its okay to pay them less. Nike used the military officials to pressure the workers to sign the agreement even if they didn't like it. The workers would sign them relentlessly because they knew that they needed the job in order to support their family needs. Some articles leave that last detail out when they are covering the story while others add it in. That's why you always have to look even more in depth for left out facts.