Global Posts

José Martí and Josiah Strong are of the agreement that in order for Latin America to move ahead, they need to understand the components of their country. In no way will, tyranny every work because corruption is inevitable deeply intertwined with the access to so much power. Not only do they need to understand their country and what it needs, but also they need to learn to accept each other, and be proud of the history that their country has produced. The need to come together and to strengthen the nation is vital. Without, the understanding of one another, Latin America will continue to be dependent on America and other European countries, through this dependency, they will continue to worship them, which will in fact only make it more difficult for them to be become an independent nation.

According to the photo of “Uncle Sam and Mexico, 1886,” seen in Problems in Modern Latin American History, the United States views Latin America as an uncivilized nation of people. The Mexican is depicted as a savage with his dark skin, and weapons in his possession. Josiah Strong states, “we are leaving behind the barbarism of war; as civilization advances, it will learn less of war, and concern itself more with the arts of peace, and for these the massive battle-ax must be wrought into tools of finer temper (The Anglo-Saxon and the World’s Future p. 27). Uncle Sam is portrayed as the stronger force for three reasons: Firstly, as I have stated above, Uncle Sam does not have any weapons, reinstating that along with civilization, war diminishes and peace protrudes. Secondly, he is white and back then we know that being white meant that you were prized and from the upper class. Thirdly, he is civilized; we can see this through his apparel and through the fact that he is standing, showing that he is the superior power. The photo titled, “Uncle Sam and Central America, 1906,” represents North America as a father to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. It is interesting that even though these countries did not have much African descent, the United States still believes that it is their job to help these countries. As a result, we are once again, prohibiting these countries from strengthening their government and become independent.

Many of these views portrayed the United States and Latin America can call to blame the social and political structure at that time. Latin America depended the U.S. while this dependency only made the U.S. stronger and Latin American weaker, in a sense that they continued to depend on them. Their views are prevalent in their actions, the U.S. helping other countries, and Latin America depended on their help through importation. Latin America only relied on a few main exports from each of their countries, without the technology to create these exports into final products. Thus in turn, they could not charge more for their labor, which once again reinforces their need for independence.

I’m sure most everyone by now has heard of the earthquake in Haiti, but to another extent how well do we understand the impact of the damage that was truly done? On January 12, 2010 at around 4:53 p.m. there was a magnitude 7 earthquake at the epicenter that hit just 10 miles west of Porte-Au-Prince where 2 million people live. The initial earthquake was then followed by 33 aftershocks ranging from 4.2 to 5.9 magnitudes. The quake left roughly 3 million people in need of emergency aid. The quake was recorded to have a depth of 13 kilometers or 8.1 miles.

Blog Prompt: How does the presence of formerly marginalized social groups fulfilling new economic roles transform urban life? What conflicts emerge?

In urban settings, as opposed to rural life that changed very little under neocolonialism, life changed many ways for formerly oppressed people.  Although social and racial hierarchies still existed, and wealthy elites still strove to create a modern, more European culture, those who previously had little influence in politics or society found ways in which they could have an impact in Latin America.  Women became more politically active as education reforms trained women as teachers and established public schools for women.  Urban workers such as Miguel Rostaing found that they were able to influence and impact society through sports.  Although this was a time of social progress, there were still those that opposed the advancement of these groups.

During the late 1800s women in Latin America began to campaign for social change.  This proved to be difficult at first because Latin America was previously under a system of patriarchy.  At first, most of the women involved in the social movement were white, upper class and educated, and modeled their reforms off of the womens’ rights movements in the United States and Great Britain.  The most important reform was education, which then inspired the debate for a more equal society and equality under the law.  Governments throughout Latin America imposed reforms, creating more secularized schools specifically for young women and preparing female teachers for these schools.  These women represented a young, large, educated social group which questioned the female role in a liberal society.

Miguel Rostaing represents the working class, with very little educational background, who found a way to impact society through sport.  Although he led a life full of hardship and tough manual labor, Rostaing found compadres and enjoyment by playing soccer.  His team was made up of all-black bricklayers, and represented the poorer working class.  By playing soccer, these men were able to obtain glory and honor for themselves and the people they represented in society.  At times they were able to get back at their social and racial “superiors” by defeating them on the soccer field.  This “racial warfare” caused conflict both on and off the field for the players, but ultimately playing soccer brought these men glory and bring pride to their families.

Forest fires are an abundant natural hazard in the United States and much of the world. There are an estimated 73,000 fires on average per year in America.  Annual fire-firghting costs for these fires succeeded 1.3 billion from 2000-2007. While the forest fires can have dire consequences for nature, they are also known to be helpful by rejuvenating the land for new plant growth. It is estimated that 99% of forest fires are related to human activities- with 55% of that being the general public.

Causes

This natural hazard is the current subject of much scrutiny in the nation. A conference covering pre and post- forest fire management is to take place in Sacramento from February 9 to 11. It will not only cover the management of forest fires, but also efforts for ecological restoration of these forests. Over 300 forest managers, scientists, and environmental organizations are expected to attend this conference. The focus of the conference will be conifer forests in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, but many of the questions that will be discussed- such as the effects of no intervention, precautions, and consequences for wildlife- are universal. Not only is the conference discussing information that is known among scientists and forest officials, but it will also cover the ongoing research on the consequences and prevention of forest fires and the possible future research in this area.

The link to the conference website is here: http://groups.ucanr.org/wildfire2010

- The Objectives section gives a good overall idea of the subjects that will be discussed.

Forest Fire

Sources:

http://groups.ucanr.org/wildfire2010/Objectives/

http://www.recorderonline.com/news/forest-44378-management-conditions.html

Esquivel was given the opportunity to work as a cotton farmer on the Hacienda Palto, where he would pay his rent with cotton. He wanted a better life for himself and his family. His main skills consisted of farming and harvesting. He was not the only Peruvian to do so, as this trend of rural development was spreading by the end of the nineteenth century (Human Trad 115).”Many young Peruvians, lured by the promise of wages and drawn by curiosity, left their Andean villages,” in order to pursue the same kind of lifestyle Esquivel hoped to find (115). Things quickly turned sour when it became evident that employers were exploiting their workers. The easiest way for employers to manage and control their tenants and sharecroppers was to keep their contracts flexible. “Tenant and sharecropper agreements were revised if the manager demanded it or when the owners needed the tenants to keep the land producing” (The Human Trad 118). There were no civil rights, and most of the workers were not aware that they were entitled to such rights.  Because the demand for exported good rose, and agricultural business was developing, contractors and managers adamantly fought to have control of their plantations and those who produce–at all costs. In Esquivel’s case, it was specifically evident that as he began gaining more respect and owning more land, he expected to gain more rights on the plantation, but they were not granted. “‘Silent’ hard work was viewed as constructive, while personal challenges, although they might in special circumstances be tolerated for a short time, were seen as ultimately threatening the system of plantation command” (Human Trad 127), and therefore managers ruled with a firm hand.

While the urban middle-class and landowners in Latin America seemed to be prospering from the new metropolises, the rural majority saw little improvement in their lives (BB&F 181). According to Chasteen, progress was to blame. “Progress brought a new brand of imperialism from Great Britain and the United States (181). It was stemmed by the the export boom, which lead landowner’s property values to soar, while the urban and indigenous populations gained little. Esquivel’s experience working as a cotton farmer on the Hacienda Palto exemplifies this inequality of wealth and power distribution. In fact, many of the Peruvians and Andean villagers were forced to leave there homes to make way for mining companies like the US Cerro de Pasco Copper Corporation (BB&F 186). In short, Esquivel’s life as depicted in The Human Tradition fully represents the type of exploitation and neocolonialism that occurred with agricultural and industrial progress, and shows how little voice he and other laborers had in the plantation system.

( USA Today, Science Fair),  Australia’s long lasting Drought is likely being caused by Global warming. The evidence for this comes from Antarctic ice core data. “In the journal Nature Geoscience, Tas van Ommen and Vin Morgan of Australia’s Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre looked at 750 years of preserved snow accumulation at Antarctica’s Law Dome ice-core site. Snowfall there “correlates inversely”, according to the study, with rainfall in southwestern corner of Western Australia, which has seen a 15% to 20% drop since the 1970’s.”  This precipitation or snowfall anomaly is the largest in 750 years which suggest that the drought is also unusual. Australia’s drought has been Antarctica’s gain with the increase of snowfall there during the drought. The authors Ommen and Morgan write that these anomalies should happen just once in 5,400 years and that they are happening now because of man-made induced climate change.

Title: Global Warming likely cause of  australia’s drought

By: Dan Vergano

Australian Drought

Beware.

Subsidences, otherwise known as sink holes, are when ground water is removed from sedimentary rocks causing the rocks to collapse in on themselves. This creates an indentation in the Earth’s surface which can span a small area, as in a sink holes or a large area in which the collapse is hardly noted. The below video is a short clip of a sink hole that is reportedly growing in Texas.

Sink Hole Growing

A vast majority of subsidences is caused by human exploitation of groundwater aquifers. Unfortunately, a lot of the subsidences caused by human exploitation are unable to be restored. Therefore, the aquifer beneath the subsidence is reduced in size, and can no longer hold the same volume of water. This makes it even more difficult for people to obtain the amount of water that is necessary because there is less to go around when the aquifer is replenished.

Sinkhole eats house

Subsidences occur in areas where the soil has a high water content. Freezing and thawing can have a significant impact in areas of high-sediment soil, like Florida.

Sinkholes occur all over the world.

Work Cited

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwlandsubside.html

www.adjusterpro.com

http://www.sjrwmd.com/publications/pdfs/fs_sinkhole.pdf

Group 12-Christina White, Whitney Sims, Taylor Morgan

Debate on the Shroud of Turin’s authenticity arises again in the wake of its new exsposition in April and May of this year.

“The church has never pronounced itself in this sense. It has always left the question open to all those who want to seek its authenticity. I think it is a relic.” Pope John Paul II

www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1000490.htm

Summary: The Shroud of Turin is believed by many Christians to be the burial clothe of Jesus. It is a 14 foot long cloth with what looks to be a bearded man, complete with wounds of crucifixtion, flogging and a crown of thorns. Scientists have run many tests on the shroud, including carbon-14 dating in 1988, and have come up with a date in the Middle ages.

Sceptics of the dating tecniques used have argued that the material that was tested came from a repair site and not the actual shroud. Others argue that because scientists have yet to discover, or agree on, a way the shroud’s image was created that an image like this could only be created by the divine. Pope John Paul II himself visited the shroud the last time it was on display 10 years ago and called it a “relic”. Now as the current Pope benedict XVI intends to visit Turin to see the shroud in May he must decide what to refer to the shroud as. An icon of Jesus that might not nessesarily touched him, a sign from God, or a relic of true authenticity.

A Vatican archivist by the name of Barbara Frale says that there is writing on the shroud proving it to be authentic and that of Jesus. Photographs have always been taken of the shroud as another way to study it and she claims that in older photos one can see text in three old Jerusalem languages “Jesus Nazerene”.

Class Themes: We looked at the “stuff” that Catholics have and how important these things are, relics are an important part of worship and belief. Catholics put power into objects touched by saints or the actual body parts of saints.

Questions: Is it important for  Pope Benedict XVI to agree with Pope John Paul II? Is it realistic that people still believe in the shroud even though carbon-14 dating has disproved its authenticity?

Coverage: Catholic News Service

Big Asteroid Impact

This video shows the potential impact of a 500km asteroid. As you can see, it would kill of all life and drastically alter the topography of the Earth. At the end of the video, it states that evidence shows that this has happened at least 6 times in Earth’s history.

Gravitational influence from planets and the sun is what pulls asteroids out of orbit from between Jupiter and Mars which can lead to the potential devastating impact of Earth (Hyndman and Hyndman pg 473). Most asteroids do not make it past Earth’s atomosphere, instead, they disintegrate.

On June 30th, 1908, an asteroid that was 150-300 ft in diameter penetrated Earth’s atomosphere. It created an “enormous aerial explosion” that flattened about 500,000 acres of forest near the Stony Tunguska River in Siberia. Because it disintegrated above Earth’s surface, it created a huge fireball, but no crater; the energy created was about equal to 15 megatons of TNT. This was strong enough to shake buildings and knock people down. It also resulted in several bright nights throughout Russia and Europe. This was the most destructive event of an impact in recent history. See the below link for more information

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Tunguska+event

Katie Heugel

Catie Gullett

Melissa Glick

Ned Weakland

In places like Lima, Peru the presence of different social groups didn’t sit well with everyone. The elites saw the rise in these group`s freedom as a bad thing for their city. They believed that the people of these groups, Indian, Black and Chinese, were barbaric and their customs made society stagnant (Beezley-Curcio Nagy, 159).  Due to these groups being an obstacle to social progress, the elites created a new social model. One man in particular, Luis Antonio Eguiguren called for “a man of action and just spirits” (161); he cited Americans Roosevelt and Rockefeller as examples.

It seems like, even though Latin America had finally gotten rid of its European rulers, they still wanted to be like them, or like the people of the U.S. In one of the readings it was said that blacks wanted to “improve” their race, so they would try to marry someone lighter than them (Beezley- Ewell, 157). So, obviously they wanted future generations to be as close to being white as possible, they probably realized that during this time, the lighter one was the more opportunities they would have.

I found it quite interesting that it seemed like white European immigrants fit in decently and lived amongst each other quite well. It was stated that unlike immigrant housing in the U.S., in Latin America they were able to create “culturally diverse neighborhoods” (Chasteen, 202). I wonder why that is, seeing as the U.S. was supposed to be the “melting pot”, but European immigrants got along better in the U.S.