The People's Republic of Capitalism Part 1

1. The Chinese and American governments are different. The Chinese government believes in a communist economy (which will be changing into capitalist) while all of us here in America have always been a capitalist economy.

2. My mom has felt the effect of outsourcing. Due to her job at Ernst and Young, her business trip expense reimburse is outsourced to a team in India. Because of this, her reimbursement is never timely or done properly.

3. When I buy something at a big-box retailer, I don't read the label to find the country of origin therefor it does not influence my purchasing decision.

4. I agree that it is a win-win situation because both countries get something out of this arrangement. It creates more jobs in China but Americans are losing jobs because of it. It's cheaper for the owner of the company to outsource at least one of the plants to China since the Chinese work for less and always do a dependable job. This makes it easier to keep their other plants that are back in America open since the company is now saving more money. However, our economy in America is currently struggling, so I think that at least for awhile, our American jobs should stay in America. Therefor, I do not agree with outsourcing.

Containment-Lite Review

1. The main point of this article is to further explain how containment can, will, and is affecting China.

2. The title of this article is referring to what has been triggered in the last year by a sudden increase to China's claims to all of the South China Sea.

3. I honestly did find this article a little bit confusing. I agree with the point by the author that stated "Obama doesn't isn't trying to contain China, but he didn't just spend three days in India to improve his yoga" because it really opened up the conversation and went into detail about containment.

Outsourcing

Outsource: to obtain goods or services from an outside source


Here's a list of American owned companies in South Asia:

• Agilent
• Agro Tech
• American Express
• Amway
• Avaya
• Caltex
• Caterpillar
• CB Richard Ellis
• Cisco
• Citigroup
• Coca Cola
• Cognizant
• Colgate Palmolive
• CSC
• Cummins
• Discovery
• Dupont
• EDS
• Eli Lilly
• Emerson Electric
• EXL
• Federal Express
• Ford
• Franklin Templeton
• GE
• General Motors
• Gillette
• Honeywell India I
• BM
• Intel
• Johnson & Johnson
• JPMorgan
• Kellogg India
• Kimberly Clark
• Kodak
• McDonalds
• Metlife India
• Microsoft
• Morgan Stanley
• New York Life
• Ogilvy and Mather
• Oracle
• Pepsico
• Pfizer
• Pizza Hut
• Sun Microsystems
• Texas
• Tecumseh
• Timex
• Tyco
• UPS India
• Visteon
• Whirlpool
• Xerox Modicorp 

My reflection on  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/opinion/03friedman.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage is that globalization is being taken literally to new heights providing 3G access on the top of Mount Everest.  However, it's possible that even with all of the hype about China, India, and globalization it could be under hyped. 

Interactive Assignment

Density: The Earth's population has jumped from 2 million people to 6.3 million people since 1930. The highest populated countires being India, China, Indonesia, and central Europe.

Why isn't the United States one of the most populated?


Growth: By 2050, the total number of people expected to be on the Earth is 9 billion. However, in the developing countries that have large populations, their resources could decrease and not be able to reproduce fast enough to meet the demands of all the people that will be there.

Why don't we all join together as a community to better our planet by planting more trees and protecting our oceans and coral reefs? Would that be enough? Why or why not?


Cities: By 2030, 60% of the population will be living in cities compared to 37% 30 years ago; there are many pros and cons to living that lifestyle.

If all the of the population are becoming more urban, what impact will that have in rural areas?


Water: Out of the 70% of water that covers our planets, only 2.5 of it is freshwater, and that's vital to all human beings. Many countries are considered to be short of water. Even with new technology, the amount of plentiful freshwater may not be fully replaced.

If many countries don't have the amount of freshwater they need to survive, shouldn't the countries that have plenty of it help them out? How can they help?


Air: Pollution has risen 30% in the last 200 years as a result of an increase in harmful industrial fumes. The World has been producing more dangerous gases than the Earth can convert back into oxygen, which is an issue because all of us humans need air to survive.

If everybody is trying to be "Eco-friendly" now, why isn't there a way to eliminate the fumes that are hurtful and replace them with something better?


Climate: Climatologists blame air pollution and fossil fuel emissions for global warming. They predict that over the next 100 years, surface temperatures will increase up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit, causing a possible reduction of lakes and rivers, severe flooding, and the extinction of some plant and animal species.

If the temperature increase won't be for awhile, shouldn't we try to figure out how we might be able to stop the destruction of our resources and species?


Forests: Due to aggressive logging and agricultural clearing, a large portion of forests have been lost. 40% of forests are presently in danger when half of our land used to be covered with forests.

Do you think that the policy of replacing the number of trees a person(s) cuts down would apply here? Why or why not?


Land: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization altered half of the land we use into four main uses.

What do you think the other half is being used for?


Habitats: Since the population keeps growing dramatically, habitats are being lost because our main source of food is animals. If this keeps up, our coral reefs and some other major habitats could disappear as soon as the next 20 years.

Would developing a way to protect the animals and plants while giving us the food we need be the only option to solve this problem?

China VS. India

China and India both have the largest populations in the World at 1.35 billion and 1.21 billion people. But who cares right? What am I going to do with that piece of information? Use it to better understand the current status of our World. If the number of people every year rises in a bulk, it could impact the Earth's finite resources and could lead to disaster, not only for wildlife and ecosystems but also for human populations. Every year the link between population growth and environmental decrease becomes harder to ignore. I do think it's wrong for government to force families to have small families because it's a free country and I think that people should have as many kids as they want. If they only want one child, fine. Six, go right ahead. It should be their decision. If the government really wants to control their population, they could set a limit saying, maybe no more than 4 children per family, or something like that so the people get to decide their future and the government can keep control of their population; creating a win-win situation.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the News

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very serious. People are dying everyday over there and it never lightens up. All the fighting is, in a sense, normal to the people of these countries; which is very sad. Major violence is occurring and there seriously needs to be stopped. Also, if some action isn't taken, then the economic growth over the past two years could decline at an alarming rate. This isn't a good situation all around. I researched a news article over how the Palestinians and the Israelis need to come to peace with each other. I discovered that both sides have no plan to negotiate, but naturally they still don't want the constant fighting to continue. Neither one of them is doing themselves a favor by not taking any action to settle this dispute, because time is just ticking away. The leaders of these two countries have some tough decisions to make about what needs to be done, but if they don't do it quickly they may lose their only chance of ending it for a long time.This article I read was fairly neutral, and it doesn't seem like there is anything missing from it.



Baskin, Gershon. (2010, October 11) Chronicles of peace or epitaphs of failure. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved from: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=191027

Sunni vs. Shiite

The believers of a Sunni and the believers of a Shiite have been fighting for a staggering 1,400 years. It wouldn't be such a strange thing if the people actually knew what they were fighting over, but most of them don't. So the question remains, Sunni or Shiite? It all goes back to simply who they were following, as in usually their whole family stands on one side. People have had the ideas of "location", "different families", "different religions", but nobody knows for sure. It's believed that Iraq and Iran are the main Shiite nations and the rest of the Muslim world is mainly Sunni. So if they still don't know why they are fighting with each other, what do they think the difference is between a Sunni and a Shiite? People's responses didn't really vary from "I should know", and others just admitting "I don't know". If some had anything to say, they would just take a stab in the dark. The only question everybody seemed to know the answer to was which branch the Al Qaeda leaders follow; Sunni. I think it is important to know the difference so you could accurately stand up for your faith. It's also necessary to know who your enemies are and understand them better. Besides, if the Muslims' whole reason for being is based on their beliefs, they deserve to know what they actually believe in. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen any time soon though, but it would create more peace and make things easier for everybody if they did. 

9-11 Essay

    Today, air travel is much different then it used to be. Many more safety precautions are being taken now due to September 11, 2001. On that day, two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a  result of a terrorist attack. This was just a regular morning, people rushing to commute to their jobs on time. Although by noon, it was anything but ordinary. 13,000 innocent victims had lost their lives. 9-11 is something that millions of people remember every year so the government is still taking lots of precautions to make sure a horrible event like that doesn’t happen again.

    Currently, the United States air traffic control system is the safest in the world. The FAA and it's Air Traffic Organization are constantly working on new ways to improve their systems so we can stay the best. Air traffic controllers in faculties guide the airplanes that are flying though high altitudes into large, empty sections of airspace. The controllers monitor radar screens to check on the airplanes, and are in communication with the pilot through communication lines that can travel up to thousands of miles away. However, most of the controllers don't even see the plane they  guide. There are 21 centers that control the aircrafts flying through United States airspace.

    These attacks didn't help U.S. airlines at all. Many major airlines were having problems already. Shortly after this accident, Delta, United, US Airlines and Northwest Airlines filed for bankruptcy. The immediate impact of 9-11 was very  treacherous to the airlines. Once the airports shut down, these major companies were losing income, and a lot of people stopped flying after this. In fact, US airlines posted 2001 net losses of over $7 billion, and US Airlines also had 80,000 layoffs alone.  They have lost "years of traffic growth", meaning that the industry needs more people to fly again and more money to come their way so they can try to get back to the ways things were before the tragedy.

    Now, it seems that airports are getting a good hold on their security. No sharp or potentially dangerous objects are allowed as a carry on; some you are allowed to take with you but they must go through checked baggage. They have the full-body scanner and carry-on checking to ensure that it's hard to have anything or anybody dangerous with you on the plane. You also need a specific background check for your tickets and there are security guards at the airport to check them for authenticity. Sometimes it may seem to be annoying and just a hassle, but it's extremely important for our safety.  

    In conclusion, air travel has been dramatically affected by 9-11. Airlines have lost a very large patch of money and some of their customers, but hopefully if things keep going the way they are now, those problems will decrease. Airports across the U.S. are very aware of this unfortunate situation, and are raising their security measures for the safety of the passengers. Our air traffic control system is at the top of its game right now; always working on new ways to be improved. In unison with all this, it's getting easier to say that an event like 9-11 won't happen again.

Mozambique

Mozambique

In this story, I see globalization in the fact that since bread is their staple food, and nowthat it's priced lower it helps this country and the countries they trade with.

Mozambique is impacted by globalization by allowing more people to be able to eat now since the price of bread is lower and so more money will be coming into the country through imports and exports.  

Population: 21,669,278

Life Expectancy: 41.18 years

Religion: Catholic 23.8%, Muslim 17.8%, Zionist Christian 17.5%, Other 17.8%, None 23.1%

Literacy:  47.8%

Total Fertility Rate:  5.13 children per woman

Independence Day: June 25, 1975 

Labor Force by Occupation:

agriculture: 81%

industry: 6%

services: 13%

Population below poverty line: 70%

Percentage of land that is farmable: 5.43%

My First Post

Malaysia-a calculator

25,715,819 Population

Labor force by occupation
agriculture: 13%
industry: 36%
services: 51%

Unemployment
3.7%

% below poverty line
5.1% 





China-paper clips

1,338,612,968 Population

Labor force by occupation

agriculture: 39.5%

industry: 27.2%

services: 33.2%

Unemployment

4.3%

% below poverty line

2.8%

Sony television-Japan

127,078,679 Population

Labor force by occupation
agriculture: 4%
industry: 28%
services: 68%

% below poverty line
NA

Unemployment
5.1% 

Goldstar refrigerator-Korea

Population 22,665,345

Labor force by occupation

agriculture: 37%

industry and services: 63%

% below poverty line

NA%

Unemployment
NA%

Converse Shoes-Taiwan

Population 22,805,547

Labor force by occupation

Agricultre 5.1%

Industry36.8%

Services 58%

% below poverty line

NA%

Unemployment 

5.20%