We Got Our Tests Back Today

In Human Geo today we got our world leader tests back. I actually did pretty good, I got a 96. I got three questions wrong and the bonus right. One of them I made a really stupid mistake on. We had to identify what was in bold, and here was the question: "The leader of this country was imprisoned for three years, and was sadistically tortured while in custody." I wrote Dilma Rousseff. It should've been Brazil. Of course I made the mistake of writing the leader instead of the country. But anyways, I'm pretty happy with my grade because I got a few bad grades on a few quizzes and tests before this. I'm also really sad because I have an 89.43%, if it was something like an 89.53%, it would be an A. I just have to do really well to get up to an A. We also went over what the exam would be like, and turned in our essays. I am really nervous for the exam,  but it being all multiple choice and having the essay out of the way makes me feel a lot better.

World Leaders Test

In Human Geo today we took the test on World Leaders. We got a kind of Christmas Present type thing because he let us use our blogs for it. I answered over half of them without my blog and then I went on my blog to look up the answers I didn't know. It was actually not that difficult and I hope I did well. The only thing that messed me up a lot was the maps because I am very bad with maps. I knew some of the places like America and Mexico and possibly one other but definitely not all of them (yikes). I finished last because I checked the whole thing like 20 times and two of the questions got me stuck. There was a bonus question as well which asked about Donald Trump and where he is supposedly going after he said that comment on banning Muslims from entering the United States. (can we just "build a wall" around him please?) Mr. Schick also told us that he would be posting the exam essay questions for us to do. I'm planning to start my essay today and so that way I can finish it by tomorrow. Also, praise the Lord that it is Friday and almost break.

Finishing Up On World Leaders

In Human Geo today we went over the rest of the world leaders powerpoint. We have a Political geography/world leader test tomorrow and I'm kind of nervous because I really want to do good, because I'm determined to get an A this quarter. Anyways, we had a lot of stuff to write down, and here it is:

Mexico

• federal republic
• president Enrique Pena Nieto
• fathered two children of the women he was having an affair with
• had his wife killed in order to meet more women 
• known as the "Teflon" candidate 
• two years later after his wife's death he married soap opera woman Angelina Rivera, who is now the first lady of Mexico

United Kingdom 

• constitutional monarchy and commonwealth realm 
• Prime Minister David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth
• Cameron
• went to a prep school where princes were 
• child named Ivan had profound physical disabilities died in 2009 
• this experience made him broaden his horizons and changed him 
• he is the youngest prime minister in over 200 years 

Russia 

• federation 
• president Vladimir Putin 
• served as president of Russia from 2000-2008, re-elected in 2012, previously was Prime Minister 
• had a career in KGB as an intelligence officer, stationed mainly in East Germany, held that position till 1990, retiring with rank of lieutenant colonel 
• KGB was main security agency to the Soviet Union from 1954-1991, acting as the internal security intelligence and secret police 
• athlete 
• 63 years old 

Syria 

• authoritarian regime 
• president Bashar al-Assad 
• born September 11, 1965 
• graduated from medical school of Damascus University in 1988, started to work as a doctor in the army 
• took over his brother (who died in a car crash) as heir apparent 
• succeeded Hafez al-Assad (father) who led Syria for 30 years until his death 
• ordered mass crackdowns and military sieges on Arab Spring protesters leading to the Syrian civil war 
• Syrian opposition, US, Canada, European Union, and most of Arab League have called for his resignation from presidency 
• during the Syrian Civil War, an inquiry by the United Nation's human rights chief found evidence to implicate Assad in war crimes and crimes against humanity 

Iraq 

• parliamentary democracy 
• mixed legal system of civil and islamic law 
• president Fuad Masum

Canada 

• parliamentary democracy, federation, and constitutional monarchy 
• prime minister Justin Trudeau 
• born Christmas Day in 1971 to Pierre Trudeau, then the 15th prime minister of Canada and Margaret Trudeau 
• supported liberal party 
• defended Canadian federalism at high school 
• into politics even as a young child 
• family and him started Kokanee Glacier Alpine Campaign for winter sports safety in 2000, two years after his brother died in an avalanche 
• fought against proposed $100 million zinc mine that he argued would poison the Nahanni River in the NW Territories 

World Leaders

Today in Human Geo, we went over some exam stuff and then we went through some of the World Leaders powerpoint. Here are the notes I took:

Brazil

• federal republic 
• headed by president Dilma Rousseff
• protested against Brazil's military dictatorship, served 3 years in prison for this where she was tortured 
• degree in economics, been divorced twice 
• had chemo for lymphoma, now in remission 

China 

• communist state
• ruled by president Xi Jinping 
• son of revolutionary war veteran Xi Zhongsun 
• married folk singer and army general Peng Lijuan 
• daughter Xi Mignze studies at Harvard University here in the US 

France 

• republic
• headed by Francois Hollande 
• no previous experience 
• mother of 4 kids is Segolene Royal, they have been dating for 30 years but never married 
• born to right wing father and left wing mom

Germany

• federal republic 
• President Joachim Guack 
• Chancellor Angela Merkel 
• degree in physics, PhD in quantum chemistry 
• been chancellor since November 2005 
• earned top spot of FORBES Most Powerful Women in the World for 8 out of 10 times 

India 

• federal republic 
• president Prunab Mukherjee 
• was a professor and journalist 
• rated one of the best finance ministers of the world in 1984 and best parliamentarian in 1997 
• had a conflict with Rajiv Ghandi (who took over as Prime Minister after his mother was assassinated in 1984) and started his own party- Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress 

Israel 

• parliamentary democracy 
• President Shimon Peres 
• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu 
• spent a lot of time in the US as a child/in his youth 
• after his brother was killed because of the Entebbe Operation of which he helped command, he returned to Israel and began to advocate international cooperation in fighting terrorism 

I Had a Shadow Today

Today in Human Geo I introduced Mr. Schick to Hannah who was my shadow. We talked about our chance for extra credit, which is to write a rap about what has happened in the world recently, and submit it to the New York Times. We can work with a group or partner or even work by ourselves, and it will get us 10 extra credit points. Then we watched a video of this group called "Flocabulary" or something like that do their rap on what happened in 2014. Then we got our scantrons back and went over the test we took yesterday. Mr. Schick had Hannah answer two questions and they went something like: *multiple choice question* *Hannah says false* or something like *choose the choice out of a,b,c,d,e* *she chooses F* or she just left blanks where she didn't know how to pronounce a name. It was pretty fun, we also ate popcorn. The class was kind of a mess actually...

World Leaders Assignment

So we took a quiz on cultural geography and religion (yikes), and I got like a 77 but that is still not as bad as I thought (also yikes). And now, our homework is to identify a few countries' world leaders, government types, and show a picture of the leader, so here it is:

Mexico
federal republic
President Enrique Pena Nieto



China
Communist State
President Xi Jinping



India
federal republic
President Pranab Mukherjee



Russia
federation
President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin



Germany
federal republic
Chancellor Angela Merkel
 


United Kingdom
constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth realm
Prime Minister David Cameron



France
republic
President François Hollande



Brazil
federal republic
President Dilma Rousseff



Syria
republic under an authoritarian regime
President Bashar al-Asad



Canada
parliamentary democracy, federation, and constitutional monarchy
Prime Minister Justin Pierre James Trudeau



Iraq
parliamentary democracy
President Fuad Masum



Israel
parliamentary democracy
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

Cultural Geography

In Human Geo today we took notes on a new topic: cultural geography. This is what I wrote down:

Cultural Characteristics
*they are taught*
examples:

• language 
• religion 
• ethnic heritage 

Language

• Brazilians speak Portuguese (dominant language) 
• Brazil is the only South American nation which does not primarily speak Spanish 
• Canada is a bilingual nation 
• French and English are its official languages 
• Switzerland has 4 official languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh) but there is very little conflict 
• English is the language spoken for transactions 

Examples of Cultural Characteristics 

• ethnic heritage 
• in Yugoslavia many ethnic groups (Serbs, Croats, Bosnias, Albanians) 
• groups got along until they lost leadership 
• now they all have separate countries (Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia) 
• two groups: Tutsis & Hutus 
• Rwanda and Burund 
• Tutsis persecute Hutus (has led to almost constant war between the groups 
• in 100,500,000 - 1,000,000 Tutsis were killed by the Hutus 
• Rwandan Genocide 
• religious demographic of Burund: 
• 3% Muslim 
• 91% Christian (65% Catholic, 26% Protestant) 

Religion 

• can be a unifying and disunifying force 
• 4 biggest religions in the world: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judism

Political Geography

In Human Geo today we talked about rules&how ughughughugh they were. Well I mean we actually learned about Political Geography, that was just something we talked about for 10 minutes in the beginning of class. We also talked about what happened near Pittsburgh, and how a taxi driver was shot by his passenger just because he was of the Islamic religion. I find that absolutely insane, the driver made no move on the guy, tried to talk to him, told him how he found the terrorist attacks terrible and how he believed in peace and equality (after being asked about these topics by the passenger). The man then got out of the car and said he would be right back he just had to grab something, and that something ended up being a shotgun, and the driver, panicked, drove away, but the man still managed to shoot through the back car window and into the driver's back between his shoulders. Thank God he's okay, and I hope the passenger gets some kind of punishment too. I hate people so much sometimes. Anyways, we took notes today on Political Geography, and these are the notes I took (sorry my blog is really long today):

How is the World Organized? 
Country

• an identifiable land area

Nation

• a population (group of people) with a common culture

State 

• a population under a single government 
• synonymous with "country" 

Nation-State 

• a single culture under a single government
• a nation which has the same borders as a state 

A Nation

• a group of people with a shared identity 
• think of it as a culture group 
• Nations are culturally homogeneous groups of people, larger than a single tribe or community which share a common language, institutions, religion, and historical experience

An Independent State

• has space or territory which has internationally recognized boundaries (boundary disputes are OK) 
• has people who live there on an ongoing basis
• has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money 
• has the power of social engineering such as education 
• has a transportation system for moving goods and people 
• has a government which provides public service and police power 
• has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory
• has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries