Blog #6 - China and pollution concerns

Pollution is a big problem in China since they now have become the world's manufacturer. It is blamed for raising the birth defect rate 40% just since 2001 (http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-news/pollution-china-defects-.htm). There was major concern over air pollution and how the athletes would perform under those conditions.

According to China Daily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-02/24/content_7508856.htm, a government official is quoted as saying:

"'The general situation of environmental pollution does not allow us to be
optimistic,' Zhang told a national meeting on pollution control in Shanghai.
'The fundamental way to overcome this is to continue to press enterprises to
reduce pollution emission through technology and management,' he said."

90% of China's lakes and underground water is polluted, according to the same article.

Because China's pollution affects the world, do you think that China should be pressured to fix its pollution problems? If so, who pressures China to do this? U.S.? U.N.? How should China pay for these fixes? Taxes on manufacturers? Foreign companies pay for it?

Minimum 150 words, due Friday, 2/27.

Link to "China Makes, The World Takes"

All right. Here's the link to the Atlantic Monthly article, "China Takes, The World Takes."

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200707/shenzhen

A slide show of pictures that goes along w/ life in China. http://podcasts.theatlantic.com/2007/06/made-in-china.php

Questions for "China Makes, The World Takes."

Intro pgs. 49-52

1. How has trade with China been beneficial to both China and the West?

2. How is the rise of China today similar to the rise of 19th Century America?

How It Works: The View from the Four Points pgs. 52-65

3. How does Shenzen's growth parallel that of China?

4. What did it mean Shenzen to be a "special economic zone"? How did this status help the city become a huge manufacturing center?

5. What does the term "Mr. China" mean? Why has it been so difficult for someone to keep this title?

6. Describe the life of a typical migrant worker who has left the countryside and moved to the city looking for work.

7. What is the work week like for a typical factory worker? What do these workers do after working in the factory for 2-3 years?

8. Who were the first entrepreneurs that came to Shenzen? Why did they come?

9. What are the two reasons (low-road, high-road) why American buyers keep secrets about their Chinese suppliers?

10. Why are Chinese factories attractive to those companies who have / need a quick turn-around time?

11. How is the Inventec Computer factory like the "Ford Motor Company's old River Rouge plant"?

Good For Us - For Now pgs. 65-72

12. The 11th Five Year plan in China is named "harmonious society" or hexie shehui. What does this 5 year plan attempt to do?

13. How does the Chinese government justify the low wages and terrible treatment of its workers?

14. The smiley curve shows where the Chinese workers come in at the manufacturing section. At both ends of the smile, America is there "where the money is." Why do you think it's important for America to be on both sides?

15. (p. 69) How have the Chinese helped out America's economy?

16. How do China and Japan's economic development differ?

17. What kinds of complications does America have to beware of when dealing with China in the future?

18. How is China trying to move out of the bottom of the smiley curve?

19. Why do you think the author has the opinion that manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced or sent to China will most likely, if never, come back to America? Explain.

Choose 10 total questions - you must do five that are bold and red, and you choose the remaining 5 questions to answer.

Due Thursday, 2/26/09

Blog #5 - Evaluation of book drive

Due Wednesday, February 4th. 200 words minimum.

Reflection time!

A couple questions to think about as we reach the completion of the book drive. As of Monday night, we have over 6,700 books; we're 2/3 of the way there!

So, here are the questions:
1. How do you think these books and money collected will affect the schools and kids of northern Uganda? Explain.

2. How do you feel that the Groves community has responded so strongly to the book drive? Why?

Thanks.

Invisible Children to air at Seaholm on Thursday, Feb. 5

Partnering with a student organization at Seaholm, Volunteer Africa, we have agreed to offer a public viewing of the 54-minute film, Invisible Children at the school's media center on Thursday night, February 5th, to be followed by a Q and A session.

Currently, the book drive is just tipping the scale at about 6,000, so we could really use your help by bringing new and/or gently used books, DVDs, and CDs to the showing. We will also sell t-shirts to benefit the cause - Just 7 Books - Just 7 Bucks. The money will go to help pay for additional books, DVDs or CDs if we haven't reached 10,000 yet or will be donated in one lump sum to IC.

To see which items are acceptable, please visit http://www.invisiblechildren.com/bookdrive before bringing your donations.

Spread the word!

Invisible Children on YouTube

Hey guys and gals, if you want to show your friends and family the video, Invisible Children, I have found it here on You Tube. It's broken up into 5 segments. If the embedded videos don't work, just follow the links beneath each video and watch it there.

Please be forewarned that in each of the vidoes, PG-13 subject matter is covered ranging from violence and civil war, discussion of contraception, images of dead soldiers, and other scary stuff. In the first two clips, the three guys who make the video Jason, Bobby, and Laren, get sick and vomit. Also, their host, Jolly, shows them how to behead a chicken. The images are brief, but still graphic.

PLEASE VIEW FOR YOURSELF BEFORE SHOWING TO ANY YOUNG TEENAGER.



Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qds5MQCqWnk



Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viEMFvP4kPM



Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ped11Culq0



Part 4 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnqAdV40QTE



Part 5 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJnYcHWx6H4

Trailer for the feature film of Invisible Children!

Whoa! Guys and gals, I may have told you that Jason, Bobby, and Laren of Invisible Children are working on a full length version of their film. I just found the "teaser" trailer, and as you can see below, it goes beyond what we've already seen in our version.




Intense stuff!

If the video above doesn't work, click this link:

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/media/videos/detail.php?id=217720924

You'll be glad to know that the staff was very receptive to the film today (Monday, Jan. 19). They are getting behind the book drive even more, and some classes will begin a 1st hour competition to see who can bring in the most books, DVDs and CDs. Also, released library books are fine, so let's go out and find them!

T-shirts will be here Thursday. Make sure you bring your money by Wednesday. Also, Mrs. Brice has contacted the Baldwin Library to see if they have any extras they'd like to donate.

Also, in order to collect as many books as possible, we may have to consider extending the book drive one more week to include other schools in the district so that they can have their own "micro" drives. This would mean that we'd miss out on the contest, but since we had such a late start on it to begin with, I don't know how much of a chance we had. One question to think about is: why are we doing this? Are we doing this for a contest? Or are we doing this so that we can help out those who are in desperate need of a better life?

We'll talk on Tuesday in class.

Blog #4 - Most influential person in early Russian history?

Yeah! Happy Cold Day!

Blog #4 due Tuesday, January 20th.

Who is the most influential person in early Russian history?

In class today, we talked about the monk, Cyril, who helped bring the written language to the Russian people by mashing the Hebraic and Greek alphabet together around 800-900 C.E./ A.D. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius

Also, there was Prince Vladimir who converted to Christianity and then made Eastern Orthodox the official religion of the Russian realm wen it split with the Roman Catholic Church in 1054 C.E./ A.D. Prince Vladimir: http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/saints/vladimir_prince.htm

Could your candidate be Ivan the Great who shifted the center of power to Moscow in the 15th Century? He strengthened the Russian empire by expanding its boundaries. Wikipedia's site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_III_of_Russia

Sometimes, your candidate for most influential could be in a negative way. Ivan the Terrible of the 16th Century set the Russian people back two centuries by pushing them farther into feudalism. He also influenced Russia in other negative ways. Most of the bad stuff during his reign, however, came in the latter half of his life after his wife died and his paranoia rose to unbelievable proportions.

Ivan the Terrible and some of the famous people in history he's connected to: http://www.nndb.com/people/933/000092657/

Or is your candidate Peter the Great who strove to modernize Russia by catapulting it into the 18th Century? History Learning site (domestic, military, and government achievements at the bottom of the page) on Pete: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/peter_the_great.htm

150 words minimum - Due Tuesday, January 20th.

Ideas for the book drive

There were a ton of great ideas on blog #3 - here are just some of them:

1. Go to church and ask the congregation for books.

2. Go door to door in my neighboorhood asking for books.

3. Make a pamphlet that can be used to explain the book drve and/or Invisible Children.

4. Make a big sign to hang by the football field or near the entrance of the school as a reminder of the book drive.

5. Bring boxes.

6. Have a showing of the movie at Groves.

7. Contact the local newspaper about the book drive.

8. Hold a bake sale to raise money for the book drive and/or IC.

9. Connect the book drive with sports - pass out fliers at games.

10. Find books around the house and bring them to school.

11. Sell the bracelets / t-shirts to raise money and awareness.

12. Talk to teammates or other members of your club/group.

13. Email / call family and friends about the book drive and collect the books from them.

14. Spread the word about the book drive and IC around Groves to friends and teachers.

15. Create a Facebook (www.facebook.com) group and invite everyone you know to it.

16. Go to Baldwin library and see if they have books to donate.

17. Put up the posters everywhere we can.

18. Get the FANN announcements going.

19. Have a donation box set up at lunch.

20. Get the parents involved.

21. Go to Borders and talk to the management and see if they have books to do donate.

Great job, guys.

Blog #3 - Think of new ways to promote the book drive!

Hey,

I know we brainstormed a couple of ways of promoting the book drive. What I would like you to do here is come up with three ways that you can:

1. personally push/promote the book drive and

2. what kinds of action can you do to make those things happen?

For instance, you could say "I'm gonna call my uncle, Steve, b/c I know he's got a lot of books and see if he has any extras. Then I'll have my mom drive me over to his house this weekend, pick them up, and bring them to school on Monday, January 12."

This may seem like an easy blog (10 pts). But the hard part will be to keep your end of the deal by following through with your three suggestions (5 pts. extra credit per suggestion with my approval).

Due Friday, January 9.

Remember, just 7 books!

Helping Invisible Children - Child Soldiers

Here's a commercial for Invisible Children, a movie about child soldiers in Uganda we're going to watch when we get back from break. The commercial takes a joking look at something most of us hate but turning it into something positive.




Plus, the website and organization for Invisible Children is sponsoring a book drive that ends January 30, 2009. We can collect our school's goal of 10,000 books. In fact, I'll bet we can probably do even more.

Check out the website, http://www.invisiblechildren.com/theMovement/ , and start collecting those books. Here's a list of books that they won't take, but they will take mostly everything.

Start looking for those books!!!