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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Europeans Footprint on Africa


I think this image is expressing the impact the Europeans made on Africa. I can make this inference because of the visual elements. One bold visual element is the white on black. This says to me that the white footprint is the Europeans mark on Africa while the black represents "The Dark Continent" also known as Africa. I can't truly tell from this image whether or not the cartoonist agrees with the Europeans mark in Africa or not. This is because the cartoonist might see the cartoon with a positive side such as, the footprint the Europeans made was a good thing because it brought civilization. On the other hand the cartoonist might not agree with the image and might think, the footprint the Europeans made on Africa was horrible because they enslaved them and tried to bring together tribes that had never got along which caused many wars. I think the cartoonist should have added something to the cartoon that would make it either look like the cartoonist agreed or disagreed with what the Europeans did. They could have done this by adding an image of a slave for the negative side or if they thought it was good that could of had a picture of a fat European guy with lots of money and wealth.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

PIRATE ATTACK!

This article is about ten people being kidnapped on a French ship off of the coast of Cameroon. This happened on the 19th of November at midnight. The ship had been abducted by pirates while carrying “crude oil” from the Bakasi Peninsula. Out of the ten people that were kidnapped six of them were French, two of them were Cameroonians, one of them was Tunisian and one was Senegalese. None of the other crew members were harmed.
I believe this article is news worthy because these pirate attacks have been happening frequently throughout the past week. This is a good reason to publish this article because people want to know about what is going on and why it is happening. Since these pirate attacks have been going on for awhile now people will want to read about it in order to find out if it has been solved. In conclusion, I believe this article is news worthy because these pirate attacks have been happening more then once which means many people want to find out what is going on.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

WEST AFRICA TODAY

West Africa is built up with many different ethnic groups but all with one problem. In West Africa there is the second largest country in Africa, Nigeria. Nigeria contains 95% of Africa's oil. It also has many rich resources. So why if Nigeria has so many rich resources is West Africa suffering? The reason is because of the so many ethnic groups. These groups have never been able to get along and now that they all have to it is very hard for them. This is what causes economic and political instability in West Africa.

Monday, November 17, 2008

WEST AFRICA - HISTORY


West Africa is full of different cultures. The slave trade hit West Africa very badly. This is because it was very easy to get to by many European countries. When slavery did end it had both a positive and negative effect on West Africa. The positive effect was that the European countries that conquered West Africa stayed and set up schools and transportation for the Africans. The negative effect was that many West Africans left their farms to work at factories and they were getting very low wages for it.

What people don’t realize about West Africa is that it is modern. Lots of people think that families still like in mud huts and some still do, but mostly lots of people live in houses of high-rise apartments. Also, the clothing that they wear is modernized. The material is still of African culture but the design is all very western. So as you can see, West Africa is a fairly modernized region.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA!

The Scramble for Africa was a simulation of several European countries scrambling to claim parts of Africa. All the different European countries wanted different things from Africa. My country, the Netherlands, wanted claim to the Suez Canal and raw materials like iron and zinc. Our strategy was to get claim over the Suez Canal. This is because once we got control over it all the area around it was where the raw materials that we needed were. Also, when we could 'battle' a country we chose to use negotiation as our first choice because this way we didn't have to worry about losing land. If the country declined our proposal only then we would 'battle' them. We were lucky because most European countries wanted the southern parts of Africa while we wanted the north part. Truthfully, I think the Netherlands won. This is because our strategy worked and we ended up conquering the Suez canal and most of the land around it where our raw materials were. Therefore, we were able to get everything we needed. I think the country that lost was Great Britain. This is because they wanted to conquer the Suez canal and failed to do it. This made it hard for them to get the resources they needed. All in all, this simulation was to help us understand what parts of Africa the European countries wanted to colonize.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Nigerian With 86 Wives

This article is about a Nigerian man who has 86 wives and is refusing to divorce any of them. The reason this is so significant is because there hasn't been a man who has had so many wives before and Mr.Abubakar is Muslim. In the Koran, the holy book for Muslims, it says that a man can marry up to 4 wives as long as he treats them all equally. There has been a huge controversy against this because Mr.Abubakar says that Mohammad spoke to him and told him to marry all these women and that in the Koran there is no punishment for a man that has more then four wives but, many Muslims believe that there should be.
I do believe this article is worthy for posting because it is very unique. Unique situations are worth posting because they tend to be fascinating. This means the more fascinating it is then more people will want to read it. Also, if an article is unique people will talk about it more and more making the story huge. In conclusion, I believe that this article is worth publishing because it is a very unique situation and people all over the world will find it interesting.

URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7725413.stm

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

WEST AFRICA


West Africa's physical geography is very zonal. This means that West Africa is organized by zone into different climate regions. One of the main climate regions in West Africa are very dry plains. These dry plains are almost turning into deserts, this is called desertification. Since desert like conditions are spreading around West Africa one of the most important resources is the Niger River. It is one of the main resources for water. Also, since water is so important is West Africa most villages are located on the West Coast. So, since water is very valuable most of the crops in West Africa are grown either by the Niger River or on the coast. In conclusion, West Africa is becoming most desert like and the villagers need the water in their region to survive.

Monday, November 10, 2008

To Be A Slave

I think that you can believe most of what is said in "To Be A Slave." I think it is believable because Lester was very active in the Civil Right Movements and knew a lot about it while he was alive. I also think this book is believable because is contains many letters that slaves have written which show that it must be true. The reason that this book might not be that accurate is because since slaves wrote the letters you only hear their side of the story and the slaves tended to only say the bad things about their employers. This might make the book less accurate because the slaves could make up things in order to try and get their owner into trouble. All in all, I think that this book can be trusted even though it might not be a hundred percent accurate.

Sudan and Chad

This article is about Sudan and Chad resolving their conflicts in the past few days. Over the years, Sudan and Chad have been in constant battles, violent and verbal, between rebel groups. Both countries have been blaming one another for what one rebel group is doing to their country. For example, Sudan has been blaming the Chad government for supporting a rebel group from Darfur who attacked Khartoum in May. Chad denied all relations to Darfur. Finally, the two countries have come to an agreement. They both realized that they were “brotherly neighbors” and this was a great way to help Sudan’s crisis. Furthermore, the two countries have Ambassadors to start dealing with diplomacy.
I do believe this article is worthy for the newspapers. I believe this because the resolution that both countries came to was unexpected and will impact many people. When it is unexpected news, they might get support from countries outside of Africa like from the US.. Government officials will be happy to see Chad and Sudan trying to help one another. It will affect people in a good way because now countries will not have to live in fear of the other. In conclusion, I believe that this article is newsworthy because many people will want to read about the impact on both countries and the possible end to suffering in Dafur.


Article URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7718956.stm

Friday, November 7, 2008

5 Themes of Geography



I find this photo on : http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thefingerlakesimages.com


Movement- This describes movement because some of these people would have traveled to Ottawa, Canada.

Region- This represents Ottawa, Canada's physical characteristics. A physical characteristic in this photo are the snow which means that Canada has a cold climate.

Human Environmental Interaction- The canal in this photo is a man made canal called the Rideau Canal. This is interaction because people had to dig out the soil to create it.

Location- This is an relative location. It is the Rideau canal on the right of the National Art Museum.

Place- This place is the Rideau canal beside the Art Museum.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Violence Leads To More Violencet


I believe that violence does lead to more violence. I believe this because in the play Julius Caesar the same thing happens. The play is about Brutus deciding if he should choose Rome over his friend Caesar. On page 55, Brutus chooses Rome over Caesar and begins talking to the conspirators about how they will kill Caesar. On the Ides of March, in Act 3 Scene 1, Caesar heads to the senate there he is killed by the conspirators. The people are very upset by this and therefore follow Anthony, Octavius, and Lepidus in Act 4 Scene 1, and they fight Brutus and Cassius’s army and destroy them. This proves that violence leads to more violence because they killed Caesar and therefore Brutus and Cassius died.