Political Geography

Mexico
Federal Republic Government
President Felipe De Jesus Calderon Hindojosa

China
Communist State Government
President Hu Jintao

India
Federal Republic Government
President Pranab Mukherjee

Afghanistan
Islamic Republic Government
President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamid Karzi

Iran
Theocratic Republic Government
Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-Khamener

Isreal
Parliamentary Democracy Government
President Shimon Peres















Germany
Federal Republic Government
President Joachim Gauck

United Kingdom
Constitutional Monarchy and Common Wealth Realm Government
Queen Elizabeth 2

France
Republic Government
President Francois Hollande









Brazil
Federal Republic Governemt
President Dilma Rousseff

Venezuela
Federal Republic Government
President Hugo Chavez















Saudi Arabia
Monarchy Government
King and Prime Minister Abdallah Bin Abd Al-Aziz Al Saud

Questions for Test

 Today in class we talked about some questions that we think should be on our test on Friday. Some of the questions are Who is the enlighted one? The answer to that is Siddhartha Gautama also known as Buddha. We also suggested that we write the religions in chronological order by the year the religions were founded. Hinduism is older then Judaism. On suggestion that we had was to write a short answer on the story of Abraham, but we decided not to do that  for the test. Another question was what two groups are the Muslims divided into? Are there more then is million Jews in the world? The answer to that question is false. Who is the central figure of Judaism? The answer to that question is kind of tricky becuase there is no central figure. We also need to know what the three Abrahamic religions are, and they are Christianity,Judaism, and Islam. We need to know that the eight fold path and the four noble truths are associated with the religion Buddhism. We need to know about the Vikings, Native Americans, and Colombus. The Europeans did conquer America ,but they were not the founders of the Americas.  The roman who liked to persecute Christians until God cam to him was Sual, who later changed his name to Paul. My class also suggested that we could match the religions to the gods that they follow. We also need to know the difference between polythestic and monothestic. Buddhism is neither polythestic or monothestic. We need to know what percent of people practice hinduism in India, and the answer is 80% of their population. We need to know the geographical places of each religion. Hinduism is manly in India, Christianity is mosltly in America and europe, Judiasm is mostly in America and Jerusalum, and Buddhism is in China. What percent of the world is Christian? They answer to that question is one third of the world. We need to know what two tribes persecute each other. We also need to know that 5.2 billion people follow the five religions that we researched. Their are one billion people in the world that clam to not follow any religion. We also need to understand what nirvana means becuase there will probally be a question about it on the test. Mr. Schick said that most likely all of the questions will be multiple choice questions or matching questions.

Major Religions

 In the religion Buddhism there is no heaven. Their main person, Siddhartha, was really skiny becuase he believed in fasting. In the statues they portray him as a heavy person.
 Hinduism is the oldest religion. Their sacred texts are known as Vedas and Bhagavad- Gita.
Their is no founder. Their are over one billion Hindus in the world. 80% of people in India are Hindus, about 960 million. Judaism is the oldest surving monotheistic religion. It started over 3000 years ago when the convent between God and his people, from Abraham to Moses.  Its an ethnoreligion groups and their beliefs and laws are very much the same. Their sacred books and codes of law include the Talmud and the Torah. Their are 13.4 million Jews, 42% of whom live in Israel, with 42% percent living in America and Canada, the rest live in Europe. The Abrahamic God is the central figure of Judaism, the same God worshipped by the Christians and Muslims Isreal has been around since 1940's.

Islam and Buddhism/ Late

Today in class we talked more about the five major religions. We learned that the Islam people travel to Mecca(the birth place of Muhammad) and Medina which are both in Saudi Arabia. These two places are the holyest places in their religion. The main figure in Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama who lived from 563 BC to 483 BC. He was seen as an enlightment teacher who sought to end suffering among sentient beings, and to help eliminate ignorance and craving, thus achieving nirvana( the highest happiness). He is know as Buddha which means "the enlighted one." Buddhism is niether monotheistic nor polytheistic becuase nirvana is achieved form within. They have no holy book but adherents believe in the Four Noble Truths. The four noble truths are suffering is an ingrained part of existance; the origin of sufferring is craving for sensuality, acquistition of identity, and annihilation; suffering can be ended; the was to end suffering is by following the Eightfold Path. The Eightfold Path  is rightview, right intention, right speech, right action, right livihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Their are 376 million Buddhist in the world. The mostly live in China, Japan, Mongolia, and South Western Asian Countries.

Ethnic Culture

Today we learned more about Ethnic culture some more. We learned that in the countries of Rwanda and Burundi in Africa, two ethnic groups are dominate the Tutsis and Hutus. Hutus are dominant in one part of Africa and they perscute the Tutis. In another part of Africa the Tutis dominate and persecute the Hutus. This has lead to almost constant war between the groups. The United States and Switzerland have peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their countries. Korea and Japan have primarily one ethnic group. Religion can be both a unifying and disunifying force. There are five major religions in the world today Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christianity started in 40 AD. Jesus is the central figure in the religion.Paul was another person that helped spread Christianity. Before he was called Paul his name was Saul. Saul was known for persectuting Christians. One day Sual was riding on a horse and was stroke by a light cuasing him to go blind. He was blind for three days until he heard a voice from God telling him to act better. He stopped persecuting  and got his eyesight back. He became a devote Christian and changed his name to Paul. Islam has 1.6-1.7 billion followers and the cental figure is Muhammad, their God.He lived from 570- 632 AD and he did not intend to start a new religion, but to restore the teachings of Adam, Abraham,Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. The Mulims are mostly found in Indonesia, PAkistan, Bahgladesh, and the middle east.

5 Religions

Mr. Schick was not here today for class so Mr. Perry was are sub. It was my first time having Mr. Perry as a teacher. We got an assignment to work on for the whole class about religions. W had to research the religions Chritianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Judaism. Christianity  started about 2000 years ago in Judea(present day Israel). Christianity is also a monotheistic religion, which means they only worship one God. The holy book of Christianity is the Bible. Christianity is the largest religion in the world with 2.2 billion followers. The central figure of Christianity is Jesus Christ. Most of its followers live in the United States. Islam was found in Mecca in 630 AD. It is a monotheistic religion. The Holy book is called Quran, written in Arbic, and was revealed by God to the prophet Muhammad. It is the second largest religion in the world with 1.57 billion followers. The central figure of their religion is Allah, which is their god. The center place in Indonesia. Buddhism was founded in 460 BC by an Indian monk named Siddhartha Gautama,Buddha. Buddhism is polytheists, which means they worship several gods. Their is no holy book. It is the fourth largest religion in the world with 250-500 million followers. The central figure is Buddha and the central geographical location is the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism was found in 1500-500 BC in India. Their holy book is called the Veda. It is a polytheistic religion. It is the  third largest religion in the world with 900 million followers. The Hindu gods are the central figures of the relgion.The central geograpical place is South Asia. Judaism was found in Isreal in 2000 BC by Abraham. It is a monotheistic religion. It has a couple of holy books. They are called Torah, Nev'im, and Ketuvim. Judaism has 14 million followers. The central figures are Abraham,Isaac, amd Jacob. The central location is Isreal. This is all that I learned about theses very interesting religions.

Cultral Geography

Today we learned about culture characteristics. Curtral characteristics are parts of a groups everyday life, and the ides and themes which the group will teach all memebers. These charcteristics can link or divide a region. Three examples of culture characteristics are language,religion, and ethnic heritage. An example of language is spanish unties the hispanic and Arabic intites the Arab world. Brazil is the only South American nation in which does not speak Spanish, it speaks Portuguese. This makes us wonder if Brazil is Hispanic or Latin. Another example of Language is Canada. Canada is a bilingual nation, which means it has two official langueses. The two official languages are French and English. This has been a problem becuase Quebec  wanted to become their own county. They wanted to do this becuase they are the French speaking part of Canada and the rest of Canada was trying to force them to be for English speaking, and they did not want to. One of the places that has multiple languages but very little conflict between the groups is Switzerland.  The English language is now considered the world language and is used for most buisness transactions around the world. English is the Lingua Franca which means the language people speak locally.  An example of ethnic heratige is in Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country( Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians). When the strong leadership in Yugoslavia died out the different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they each have their own seperate countries. We also dissuced how in 1984 the United states boycoted th Olympics in Moscow due to their hate to Russia by not attending the Olympics.

Native Americans,Vikings,Columbus and Soft Drinks

The first group to present their powerpoint today was the group that researched Native Americans. Native Ameircans came here during the ice age, 12,000-17,000 years ago, usint the "Bering Strait" or land bridge. They arrived in Alaska but then migrated to other parts of America. Their was no culture here before the Native Americans, which means the Native americans did not have to fight anyone to conquer America.They were not sent by anyone to find America. They had a strong spiritual connection with the land and took care of where they lived. Today Native Americans live on resurvations and have to follow federal law. The next group that went was my group, the Vikings. The Vikings arrived in America in 1000 AD and supposedly the first Viking to arrive was Leif Eriksson. The Vikings cam to America by ships. Their warships were longships and they had three types of longships, Snekke, Drekkar, and Skeid. The ships were long and narrow with enough room for about eighteen men to row, but they also had sails. The Vikings were not the first people to come to America. There were about 20-30 million Native Americans already here when the Vikings came. The Vikings did not really land in the United States. They landed in Greenland but left becuase of the bharsh climate.They also landed in Vinland and Canada. The Vikings did not fight to conquer america.They set up a colony in North America for a short time, but they abondoned it becuase of conflict with the Native Americans. The Vikings too very good care of the land. They lived of the land by hunting animals and farming their land. They had grape orchards, used many nature resources to build their homes, and grew wheat, barley, and rye. The Vikings were not sent by anyone to conquer America. The third and final group presented Columbus. Columbus arrived on October 12,1492 in the present day Bahamas. The came in three ships, Nina, Santa Maria, and Pinta.
The Native Amricans were already their when Columbus arrived, but Columbus conquered the Americas anyway. They did not respect the land or the people. After all of our power points were finished we looked at a powerpoint of a map. This map showed the Generic names of soft drinks by county in America. 120,464 people were interviewed for this map. The things that people call soft drinks in America are pop,soda,coke,and other. We looked at this map becuase Mr. Schick wants us to learn how to read maps properly.

Columbus Day

We got our test back on God Grew Tired of Us.  Our class average was about a  82 which is not that bad. We went over the answers to all of the questions becuase the questions might be on the final. The one question I got wrong was what was the name of the group that they organized themselves into for entertainment and discussion. I now know that this group was called parliament or white house. I also lost points on my test for spelling the words, Pittsburgh,Ethiopia,and Syracuse wrong. Then we talked about our blogs and how we need to make sure we put alot of information in them. Today is Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus  came to America in 1492. He did not mean to find it. He was looking for India but stubbled across America. He was not the first peope to find it though. The Vikings came to America in 1000 AD.In class we divided up into three different groups. The three groups then each researched a different topic. My group did the Vikings. We made a powerpoint on the Vikings and wil present it tommorow in class.

Test on God Grew Tired of Us

Our test on God Grew Tired of Us was today. It was an all fill in the blank test, and we got to use our blogs. I liked that we could use our blogs becuase it helped me with some of the answers. I only did not know one answer on the test, but I will make sure to right down the correct answer when we get our tests back so I know that answer for the final. When we use our blogs for tests spelling counts. I did not know that before, so I was not always checking my spelling on my blogs. From now on I will make sure everything is spelled properly in my blogs. After the test Mr. schick said that by this weekend he will decide which charity we are going to support. I am excited to find out which one becuase they are all good charities. I hope that our class can help the people of Sudan in some way.

Panther's Charity

 Their are many great charities that can help the poeple of Sudan. We want to try and pick one that we could try and help. We talked about one charity that helps build wells. In Sudan the poeple do not have clean water and drink out of dirty rivers. Their is also one called outreach Africa where they send children to a school. They feed them once a day, give them a uniform, and give them a proper education. I think the best chairty to help is Panther's charity. He is trying to 95,000 dollars to build a catholic school in his hometown. I think this is a good idea becuase if the children in Sudan get a good education it will help them later on in life. If Panther is not very expensice like John Bul then maybe he could come and talk to our school. He has such an inspiring stroy that I would love to hear about how he made it in America.

Charities

Our class has decided that it is a good idea to try and help out Sudan. We are not sure what we want to do to help. We talked about some of the charities that would be good to donate money too. Some of them are The Red Cross, The Mercy Corps, Panthers's organization, and John Bul's Organization. Their is also this charity that the school did in the past were we donate money to help people in undeveloped countries recieve laptops. We got into groups and tried to find more charties or organizations that we think would be good to try and donate to. Their was this open blog that everyone could write their ideas on. At first this was not working to well becuase people kept messing with other people's ideas. Some people would even delete a person's charity that they listed on the page. Te second time we tried it some poeple were still messing with it, but the majority of the people were doing their work correctly. One of our ideas was to have John Bul come and talk to our class. It is very expensive, between 6,000- 10,000 dolars, for him to come and talk to us. If we had the school pay for some of it, and it was a school wide activity then maybe we could have this happen. i htink this would be an amazing thing if he came and talked to us. he could share with us his experiences and how he made it in America. I would be very excited if he came and talked to our school!

Helping out Sudan

Mr. Schick told us that our blogs are going to be a study tool for the final, and that we need to include our notes from class in them. He talked about this for excatly five minutes. Then we finshed watching the movie God Grew Tired of Us. We started of at the part where the boys were celbrating The Fourth of July.  It must have been hard for the lost boys to listen to the fireworks going off becuase it probally reminds them of the bombs in Sudan and all there loved ones killed by them. Their is a reunion for the lost boys in Michigian. There all the boys get together and talk about their futures and how they can help the people of Sudan. When they are their John Bul gets a little angry and frustrated with the boys who are losing their culture and becoming fully American. He wants the lost boys to get to know the American custumes but not to forget where they came from and that their are people in Sudan that need help. John Bul comes from the Dinka tribe. The Dinka tribe is a very tall race of poeple. Their is even a 7 foot 6 inch basketball player in the NBA who was from the Dinka tribe. During the movie John Bul found his mother then talked to her on the phone. After a little while she came to America and saw her son for the first time in seventeen years. It was a very happy poin tin the story and both, John Bul and his mother, were overcome with emotion. John Bul  got his Bachlors degree at Syrcacuse University and wants to open his pown medical clinic in his hometown, Buk, Sudan. Panther got his high school diploma,associates degree, and is working towards his bachlor degree. Panther returns to Africa to see his homeland and to marry his girlfriend. He was reunited with his brother and sister. He eventually wanst to open a school in Sudan. Daniel is still living with the job corps. and learning. He has sadly not been reunited with any of his family memebers yet. This is the sad part of the lost boys becuase so many of them have not seen there family member since they were young boys. Most of them do not even know if any of their family is still alive. Sudan has now been divided into two countries, Sudan and South Sudan. Their is less violence then their was before, but the two countries still fight near the border of the two countries. People in United States can  help the people in Sudan by donating money to get better refugee camps, try and get the United States Government involved, and donate money to charities that help Sudan.  I think it would be a great thing for our freshman class to help out Sudan. Our class could try and get in touch with John Bul and see if his organization needs help. We could also donate to the red cross who has people working in Sudan. Their are mnay ways we could try and raise money to donate to any charity that helps out Sudan. We could try and raise money by having a bakesale or somthing like that.