SQ3R Summary –The west Africa Today-

In most of the countries in West Africa, they don’t have good and reliable government. But Nigeria, the second largest city in Africa, has a democrat government, and also Cape Verde, group of volcanic island in Atlantic has a reliable democrat government. Except for that two countries, other struggles from poverty, because of the government. But each country in West Africa has some type of problem that bothers the growth. Nigeria suffers from high increasing population rate. This is the problem in Nigeria, because they don’t have enough food to feed all the people in the country.
As everyone knows, West African countries have some types of natural resources. Such as oil, coffee bean, and diamond. If they had natural resources, they could get some money, and become rich. But why isn’t the African Countries growing and developing? The civil wars that happened, (or maybe still happening) a few years ago, is the main cause why they are still struggling from poverty. Because of the civil wars that happened over many countries, government, and natural resources were destroyed or taken away. So many of the countries are trying to rebuild the government and also to get the natural resources again. In some countries, famine is the problem, and in some country, distributing food to all the people is the problem. But all and all the main problem is POVERTY

Africa News Story 3

This is the news story that happened between 2 African Nation, Chad and Sudan. The thing that happened between these two countries are... rebellion.(again) Nov.9.2008, about 2 weeks ago, and the two countries fell out over mutual accusations of support for rebels. The rebellion was caused by 2 ambassadors of 2 countries. They ended the campaigns that they were doing with each other, and both of the countries are refusing to reunite again.

I chose this news story as a recent News, because of the timeliness. It happened about 2 weeks ago, and it is very "recent."Also, I was surprised with this situation, because I didn't think that still there is a countries that arel fighting with each other. And not by negotiating. By "Violence." So I was shocked, but also surprised.

Feedback Nov, 10-14 - Imperialism Cartoon

In this cartoon, there are 2 stuff that stands out on our mind. Africa and footstep. I think this cartoon wants to issue about the colonization of Africa, which were done by many European countries. Since this footstep is big, and lies on middle, I think the author of this comic wants to say that colonizing was evil decision, and author hates it. And maybe, this author IS African, and feels sorry to the ancestors, and wants to tell the Europeans did something bad. To make this cartoon more persuasive, I think this author should write some words that symbolize Europe on the footstep.

West Africa History and Culture

Timbuktu was a cultural center, and it was significant for the Songhai City, because this city had the power, so they succeed in weakening the invasion from the other country.
The slave trade affect West Africa, because so much of people, (about million) were enslaved by 1800. These people were kidnapped first, get separated from family, and sail to America. But during this voyage to America, many people died from the diseases.
Animism, is a belief that honors bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits. Animists also honor ancestors memories.
In West Africa, many people belonged to one of the ethnic group. Ethnic Groups mix with each other along the cities and countries. But, because of the way the European Countries drew political boundaries, country borders sometime separated the sam ethnic group.
I think West Africa disliked European Colonizer the most. Since West Africa was the closest country to North Africa, many people were enslaved and shipped to America. People who were left in West Africa might have been sad and depressed. So I think they disliked the Colonizer the most.

The Scramble for Africa

We were the SPAIN, and we started this game terrible. We rolled 3 dice but we dropped 2 and we only got 1 for the land. Well.... Strategy that I used to claim land; I negotiate other countries by giving our 3 lands for 1 square, which had so much of natural resources. If they said "no" we gave 4 lands for their 1 land. Factors that consider in claiming; since every country wanted different natural resources, we had some resources that we DON'T want but others wanted. In this situation, it was easy to convince the other people. So, we considered the natural resources that land had, the most. I think the winner of this game is France, because France took over the most of the land that has so much of natural resources, (which is the region around South Africa) and also the coastal areas, where trading goes on. The loser... I think this game's loser is Spain, which was us, because we didn't get the area that has natural resources, or coastal area. Also we didn't win the "attack," and the area that we got is the inner area of Africa. Because of this, when Spain, and the colony of Spain in Africa wanted to trade something, it will cost so much of money, because there is a need of trasportation fee, through the inner region to coastal region.

Africa News 2

This story happened in Ghana ,the western part of Africa, about a 10days ago. (Oct, 30, 2008) Israeli man call Dror Weinstein was kidnapped by Ghanaian groups. They, the kiddnappers had demanded 500,000 US dollars for release of the Israeli man. Newsreporter says that kidnapping in Ghana is very rare, but it is unclear who the kidnappers are and why they chose a Israeli man to kidnapp.
I think this news is newsworthy because of timeliness, and oddity. It is very timely, because this news happened 10 days ago, and oddity, because the kidnapp is a very unusual situation.

West Africa Physical Geography

There are so many interesting characteristics in West Africa. Main physical features of West Africa are composed of plains and rivers. The main river in West Africa is the river called Niger river. The inland delta on the Niger river are divided into a network of channels, swamps, and lakes. Many cities are located on coastal plain, because there are so much of natural resources, such as cacao, in Ghana.
Geographers say that West Africa's climates are zonal, which means organized land. The geographers says that, because climate regions stretch from east to west in bands. In West Africa, there are 2 regions called Sahel, and Savanna. There are similarities in these areas, the rain has an important role in helping the farmers, because the land are dried. But it is also different, because Sahel is a strip of land, and savanna has tall grasses and tree. There are 1 big problem that West Africa faces. It is desertification, which means "spread of desert." Because of this, I think people wouldn't have enough water, and diseases will spread.
The most valuable resources in West Africa is agricultural products, oil, and minerals. And most of the crops grow in Ghana and Nigeria.

Can we trust the book To Be A Slave?

I think we can trust the book To Be A Slave, written by Julius Lester. First of all, he is a famous author from 50 years ago, and he received many honors, such as Newbery Honor. I think people who does receive this kind of big honor won't write something that isn't true. And mostly, this book DID recieve a Newbery Honor. Secondly, he was a writer, and he must had a good resources to write this book. And I assume that those resources that Lester used is a true information, and trustworthy. Finally, he was a Jewish person, and have known a real event or something big about a slave trade, because there was Hebrew slavery trade in Egypt during the time he was alive. He might have seen a slave trade, when he was small. Plus, facts about the slave trade is also written in Hebrew Bible. From these reasons, I think Julius Lester's information is real and trustworthy.

Africa News

This news story that I've found, is a story about Chad rebellion, written by BBC's Stephan Hancock, 4, February, 2008. This rebellion happened in N'Djamena, the capital city of Chad in Africa. The rebellion were caused by the largest group in Africa call UFDD, (United Force for Democracy, and Development.) which was led by Mahamat Nouri. This man was working in government, was Chad's ambassador Saudi Arabia when he defected to the rebellion two years ago. They were rebelling to control the large parts of the city. They wanted to take over the city and take control, because the president of Chad, Deby's rules have been violent. After the rebellion, every one had know that 2 other groups (RFC, and UFDD-Fondamentale.) were in this rebellion and also, the country next to Chad, Sudan was backing up the Chadian rebels.

I thought this news story is newsworthy, because of timeliness, and Oddity. This rebellion happened in this year (2008), so it is pretty much "now," and also surprises the readers. I also thought that this is a unique, and unusual situation, because I never heard this kind of news in Japan. I didn't even think that there is some fighting going on around the world, and people are dieing. So for me, it was surprising, because it was unusual situation for me, and also it is the news that happened recently.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7225023.stm

5 themes of geography.

This image contains all of the 5 themes of geography. First of all, movement. It contains movement, because people are moving from India to some other country, (since it's a airport) and worker in the airport are working. This image also contains region, a cultural region, because the name of an airport is written in Hindi, and English. From this, you might tell that this airport is in India, because it is written in Hindi. But, there is a evidence that tells us that this airport is in India. If you looked at this picture carefully, at the center, you know that airline company's names are Jet Airways, Indian Airline, and many other Indian airline company. So you know that location of this airport is in India. And of course, this building was built by a human. (Human environmental Interaction.) Lastly, the place. In this picture, it has a special characteristics that makes this picture unique, and special. The name of this airport. Airport that has the name Indira Gandhi is only in India.

violence leads to more violence!?

I think violence will lead to more violence. For example, in the book Julius Caesar, in Act3 scene 1, and 3, conspirators were killing Caesar, (which is violence) which led to more violence, such as Antony and Octavius’ revenge against Brutus, and Cassius. Also Cinna, the poet was torn into pieces by the citizens, even though he was innocent. From these reasons and evidences, I think violence will lead to much more violence.