Palestinian Leader

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not seek for re-election in the elections of next year.And officials from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told to the West Bank that Mahmoud was not running in the 24 January election.
Mr Abbas said that they had a lack of progress in peace with Israel and he also said that they failure in the way that they didn’t acquire reconciliation with Hamas.In the other hands PLO officials are trying to change Mr. Abba’s mind.Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior adviser to Mr Abbas, told AFP news agency that the Palestine Liberation Organization is an executive committee and had rejected his decision and said it would still support him in the election.
Mr. Abbas took the status of Palestinian Authority a year later that Yasser Arafat died (2004).

Read More......

H1N1 vaccine arrives for troops in war zones, but not enough

The government of the United States just sent the first shipment of H1N1 vaccine to their troops, but they sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan and they arrived late Tuesday, but it is only the half of what it is needed. The vaccine was at Qatar and later was distributed to bases in the regions in 24 hours of its arrival.The U.S. Central command asked for 300, 000 doses to vaccinate the U.S troops against H1N1 in war zones and more areas of the Middle East, but they only have received 150, 000 doses to vaccinate.

Read More......

Racism in Europe

Europe is one of the places that people still think that there is racism, because it is a complex area with many cultures in a relatively small area that has seen a lot of conflicts in the past.
There is two ways in which racism could be represented: with ethnic and national conflicts.
In most cases the ethnic differences creates conflicts over land and strategic resources. And in the other hand, with nationalism creates more conflicts between great religious empires.

Read More......

Did you know?

I was looking for global issues and this subject gain my attention:

· Did you know that almost half of the world (approximately billion people), live on less than $2.50 a day?

· That nearly a billion people in the 21 century didn’t know how to read a book or sing their names.

· 1 billion children live in poverty.

· 640 million children live without adequate shelter

· 400 million children do not have access to health water

· 270 million children do not have access to health services

· 10. 6 million died in the 2003 before the age of 3.

Read More......

Conflict between Jews and palestinians

Conflict between Jews and Palestinians
I found this information about the points of view of each “culture”.
For the Jewish-Israeli side, Zionism is a heroic enterprise of self-defense against the miserable historical fate of the Jews. The gross historical injustice of the Diaspora was replaced by the incarnation of historical justice in the Land of Israel. The war of 1948 is the “War of Liberation,” and a magnificent victory of the “few against the many.”

That, needless to say, is not the way the Palestinians see it. The Zionist enterprise, from the Palestinian point of view, is no more than a movement of settler colonialism, imposed upon them by force...This catastrophe of 1948 is the formative experience and crucible of Palestinianness and the backbone of Palestinian identity, and is the foundation of a collective self-image as the victims of a gross historical injustice.

In my opinion, I don’t think that it is worth to fight a lot only for a land, because if you think it well there is no specific land of every country, all is imaginary. And I think it is better to avoid a fight for something with another solution: they could give a part of territory to each one and the problem will stop.

Read More......

Global warming

If we don’t take care of our planet, then no one will take care of it.

I believe that it is very important to take care of our planet, since if we don’t , the ones that will get affected is going to be us, the human beings.

Global warming is an increase in the earth's temperature due to fossil fuels, industry, and agricultural processes caused by human, natural, and other gas emissions.

The cause of global warming is the combination of several things.
One of the causes is human activity like industry, which causes pollution in the air, ground and water. Another cause is the waste of energy; we don’t take care of it at all, which causes gases, heat, and pressure. Another reason is deforestation, because fewer trees mean less carbon dioxide conversion to oxygen. And as a result of this kind of things that are very common the greenhouse effect doesn’t work as it should be working. Greenhouse effect is a natural process that keeps the earth at temperatures that are livable. Energy from the sun warms the earth when its heat rays are absorbed by greenhouse gasses and become trapped in the atmosphere. Some of the most common greenhouse gasses are water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane. If there were no greenhouse gasses, very few rays would be absorbed and the earth would be extremely cold. When too many rays are absorbed, the earth’s atmosphere starts to warm, which leads to global warming.

Global warming can lead to many problems that affect the environment in which we live. As I already explained the trapped heat changes the climate and alters weather patterns, which may hasten species extinction, influence the length of seasons, cause coastal flooding, and lead to more frequent and severe storms.

I will tell a few examples just of how global warming is affecting us or will affect us more in the future:

After existing for many thousand years, the northern section ice shelf in Antarctica (section bigger than Rhode Island) collapsed between January and March 2002, disintegrating at a rate that astonished scientists.
In 2005, scientists reported that some polar bears are drowning because they have to swim longer distances to reach ice floes. Now they are being considered for listing under the Endangered Species.
Hot, dry weather led to a record-setting 2006 wildland fire season with close to 100,000 fires reported and nearly 10 million acres burned.
In July 2006, severe heat waves in North America contributed to the deaths of at least 225 people.
In Ice Bay, Alaska, was filled with ice, but now, we only have a lot of ice water.
Global sea level has already risen by 4 to 8 inches in the past century, and the speed of sea level rise appears to be accelerating. Scientists predict that sea levels could rise 10 to 23 inches by 2100, but in recent years sea levels have been rising faster than the upper end of the range predicted.

This topic got my attention because I think that is a problem that is affecting our lives every day; there are drastic changes in the weather, and not only here in Hermosillo, in everywhere! That is why I want to talk about this, because I want to tell everyone that we must change our bad habits of contaminating our planet, or not taking care of the energy. There are simple things that we can do that can help our planet in a big way! Like using a compact fluorescent bulb which saves 300 lbs. of carbon dioxide. Keeping your tires inflated, which saves 250 lbs. of carbon dioxide. Use recycle papers, for each paper you save 5 lbs. of carbon dioxide. Take shorter showers. Buy products with less packaging and recycle paper, plastic and glass. Plant a tree: trees suck up carbon dioxide and make clean air for us to breathe. Un-plug electronic devices: even though that they are off they are using energy. Instead of using plastic bags for market get your own cloth bag. Turn off the computer or TV when you are not using it. Use a bicycle instead of a car 2 or 3 days. Picking garbage of dirty places won’t hurt you too.

As I explained there are many ways to avoid global warming, the problem is that no one cares. If someone starts contributing with this problem then maybe in the future the planet will be better. That´s why I wanted to write about global warming because at the end, if we don’t stop polluting and hurting our planet, the only ones who will get affected is going to be us.

Read More......

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel has been re-elected as a German chancellor. Over the past four years Angela Merkel had to guide Germany through difficult times, but she remains very popular.

Detmar Doering, the head of the Liberal institute in Potsdam said that some people said Angela Merkel was boring and unsophisticated, but they underestimated her. He also said that she inspires confidence and that’s all what you need if you want a great country. He added that german voters aren’t stupid, because they don’t need someone pretty to be the chancellor of Germany, they need a serious leader who can make great decisions for her country.

Read More......

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 countries, mostly from Europe. It was established was formally established with the Treaty of Maastricht on November 1^st, 1993.
The EU has developed a single market, which this means that they “removed” the physical borders, standards and taxes among the countries or member states. The system of laws applies to each member state goods, services and capital. It also maintains trade of agriculture, fisheries and regional development.

Read More......

Globalisation

Globalisation is a term in which it describes many different fields of life, like economy, culture, politics, environment, communication and more aspects among countries.I think that globalization really helps our world in many aspects: It has opened up many communication lines and brought more companies at the worldwide. This provides opportunities for a lot of people who are becoming a larger part of the workforce. It helps us economically because of these companies and technology.I also think that it has helped us communicate better, because of globalization we have learned to communicate with people from other places who don't know the language we speak in. And it is good because if we didn't communicate with other countries, our country would probably been taken over by another.Globalisation also has it negative effects: It destroys the nationality of every country, not completely but the countries change a lot because of this. People change their lifestyle because of many aspects, but mostly because our environment is affected by other countries’ with poor regulation pollution.

Read More......

India and China globalization

1) The balance of power in Eastern/Southern Asia – what are the consequences of economic growth? That many projects can be done but many resources are used to these projects and sometimes they won’t work as it is expected to (they don´t really earn money with the project), and they can cause a lot of economic problems. The economic growth also helps to create new technologies, and new technologies as well, helps the productivity in the jobs, and this can help raise the economy. But new technologies also have bad consequences, like pollution and global warming, because we don’t use correctly the technologies that we have.

2) Do you consider China to be a threat to the rest of the world? Do not just write yes or no, I would like an explanation of your view, JUSTIFIED with some piece of evidence, for example maybe something you have read. Is China in particular a threat to the unipolar system, and will it challenge the dominant position of the United States? I think that China could be a threat, because they produce a lot of things every day, and even though they are very cheap, they could earn a lot of money with time and make more productive things. I have read that United States have concerns about China’s economically, militarily, and politically rise because it would challenge the dominant position that the United States has since the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Another concern is that if China rises, its military power will increase and it could become a military superpower.

3) What are the potential positive and/or negative impacts on the people of China and India of globalization? Consider the way in which globalization affects economies, because of free trade doctrine, and consider technology and culture, as will be mentioned in class. I think that if India and China has an impact in the entire world it would grow faster; economically and in population. Because both cultures have a great “working culture” that’s why they are growing a lot in these recent years. Maybe trading would be better, and also technology because if it has a great impact in the world the handy work will be more expensive and this will cause that the products would be of better quality. The negative side is that it will cause a lot of competence between powerful countries, like Japan, United States and maybe United Kingdom too. It could emerge a second cold war.

References: · "China and the Taiwan issue: impending war at Taiwan Strait." Google books. google books, Web. 14 Sep 2009. .

Read More......

Would Mexico ever be a powerful country?

I think that our country has all the resources to be a powerful country, but one of the major issues that we face in our country is corruption. I think that if in the power they didn’t use a lot of corruption our country will grow, because there would be more money for schools and education and with people who have values it would be harder to continue with corruption and illegal things. And with educated people it would be easier to get jobs, economy will grow.

Read More......

Can wars be justified?

Can wars be justified? I heard this question in class and I wanted to give my personal opinion. I think that war can’t be justified for any reason, because the problems are created by the leaders of the countries; because of political, economical or social issues. And is not fair for people to suffer, it’s not their fault. Plus, war has a high price in every way: They lose innocent people, money, weapons and more. And choosing who is wrong or right is not the solution, they have to make agreements to live in a peaceful world. And not because a country won a war is right. For example, if Germany had won in the war… Could you imagine how the world would be right now? War is never a good thing.

Read More......

If Japan dominates the future...

Japan, a powerful country. Organize country, technologic country, rich country, powerfull country, etc. With this characteristics Japan for sure is consider one of the powerful countries. The U.S. has been at the top for may years and for sure they like this idea. Maybe with this crisis it has gone down, but still is a powerfull country. Sometimes I think that Japan is more powerful than U.S..If Japan rises its economy, technologies, power, etc., it will be a clear difference between Japan and U.S.. The U.S. will want power again. This makes me think that maybe this country want war to win power again. In the otherside, maybe the U.S. will be scare of Japan. If the U.S. wants power, this will be related with realism. They want to go fighting for power and competition. So, what will happen if Japan dominates the future?

Read More......

World War III?

I came along this interesting article (could be called a blog post) about humans and their tendency to compare each other and fight. It analyses past wars and their motivations, and it even says that a World War III could be imminent, mainly because of human nature and countries' urge for power and money. It also talks about strong countries, pointing out that the next war could be led by China and the US, as the former sees China's economic and power rise as a threat. The article even mentions one quote we talked about in the first class (if I remember correctly), regarding the next world war. Its a good read. Also, I liked the webpage; it covers from politics and history to movies and book reviews. I recommend you to take a look.

http://theviewspaper.net/ww-iii-–-world-war-3/

Read More......