Place to Visit

This year in our World Geography classes, I have gained so much knowledge about various countries around our planet. From the diverse culture, to the breath-taking physical features, each country is unique and beautiful in its own ways, and I have truly enjoyed learning about them. Out of all the regions we have learned, I found Europe the most intriguing, and if I had to choose a place I would like to visit, it would have to be Spain.











Known for its stunning coastlines, Spain enjoys a mediterranean and continental climate for the majority of the seasons. With the view of the Pyrenees Mountain Range in the northeast, the bodies of water bordering Spain, and the tourist attractions throughout cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, there is no surprise that the country's tourism industry has grown to become the second largest in the world, worth 40 billion Euros (~$53,700,018,930.23).

In my Spanish class, I have also learned about this amazing country and I have always wanted to go and visit the populous cities including Madrid, Seville and Andalucia. The amazing architecture of the buildings in Spain is something I would definitely look forward to seeing as well as some of the museums. Here are some magnificent pictures of famous tourist spots in Spain:

Valencia, Spain

Madrid, Spain

Barcelona, Spain

Some of the tourist attractions I would love to visit in Spain are the Alhambra in Granada, which is a palace that is extremely popular, experience Salvador Dali's museum in north Spain, see Flamenco dancers in southern Spain, eat some delicious food and try paella, and of course cruise the stunning coastlines across Spain. Lastly, the most spoken language in Spain is Spanish, and I think it would be extremely helpful for me to travel to a Spanish-speaking country to learn more about their culture and language. An immersion program like that would be beneficial and hopefully I could get rid of my accent when speaking the language! There are so many fun and entertaining places to go in Spain, and hopefully I will be able to visit this country in the near future!Flamenco Dancer

The last two weeks have been chaos as usual, my biggest relief is that my AP test is over, so I haven't been too stressed for the last...4 days. We just finished learning about the region of Southwest Asia in our World Geography class, and we are starting South Asia now, which I am excited about. We had Taks tests last week, and now we are completing the Laying the Foundations Tests...the Bio one was alright, but the English, not so much. This week, Alison Iraheta was booted off American Idol, so now there are 3 guys, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert and David Gokey fighting for the title. On America's Next Top Model, I was pretty shocked with the decision Tyra Banks made to **SPOILER ALERT** eliminate Celia, even though she has consistently performed brilliantly every week. The only reason she was taken off the show was due to her age (25 years) which is apparently "way too old" for modeling. The judges have consistently undermined the contestant because of her age, and I thought that was extremely unfair. But, we will all see her in the future because I am sure that she is going to be a very successful model, despite the show.

Overpopulation in Our World

- "Never before have there been one billion people age 19 to 24 alive at one time."

- "With a total world population of 6.4 billion people, our actions will determine either a better quality of life."

- "We can always find a substitute for oil, but we can never find a substitute for water."

-- Werner Fernos, spokesman on global population issues


Overpoulation is a daunting issue that faces our world today. Many countries around the world have managed to become extremely overpopulated, and while many believe that this is a situation that we can procrastinate on, it truly is not. As many of us have learned in our science classes throughout our middle and high school curriculum, the carrying capacity of a location is defined as "the number of individuals who can be supported in a given area within natural resource limits, and without degrading the natural social, cultural and economic environment for present and future generations." (Garrett Hardin in The Carrying Capacity Network). If we continuously populate our world, we may arrive in a catastrophic situation where we do not have enough resources to provide everyone's basic necessities. The following graph displays how our world population has increased over the years, and what we may see in our near future if we do not control our populations:

In our past, countries such as China have attempted to prevent overpopulation by creating a 'One Child Policy.' The country has proclaimed that every couple may only have one child and was established by the Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping in 1979. I believe that this was a great move by China because the country was facing an issue, and they enforced a rule over its people in order to prevent it. However, for the people of China, many of them were forced to do abortions because of the strict policy, and for those who need more children for the steady income had to endure not being allowed to raise a large family. The policy is extremely controversial among the Chinese, but drastic times call for drastic measures, and I believe that this is what we will have to resort to if we want to prevent a catastrophy in the future. In India, there are many Non-governmental organizations that are trying to educate women about family size and the effects of overpopulation. The country has had many failed attempts at controlling the population which focused on voluntary family planning, but India needs to educate the people more and instill policies with economic implications for the large or small families.

If I had to enforce a solution to this problem, I would create a policy similar to the ones made by the Chinese government, but in addition, I would have programs that encourage educating the world about this problem. Many people, especially in developing countries, do not realize the drastic effects of overpopulation and it is important that we spread knowledge across the globe. It is easy for us to blame the government, or even developing countries for the sudden mass increase of people, but we are all part of the problem and we should all be a part of the solution. So spread your knowledge about the issue, and be aware of the problem that we need to try and fix together!

The last two weeks have been hectic as usual. In Biology, we all had a Plant quiz that everyone pretty much bombed, so it's been crazy with everyone trying to do the corrections on them. In English, we have been watching the film Persepolis, and I really enjoyed watching it, except the ending could've been better! It's great that in world geography we have been learning about the culture and geography of Southwest Asia, and at the same time in English, we have been reading our assigned Middle-eastern novels. I think that classes should always focus on one similar subject because it's easier for students to learn, and I think that we are more interested about the topic this way. Other than that, I'm impatiently waiting for the end of the school year, so I'll talk to yall in my next blog!

Darfur Genocide

"Today we know what is right, and today we know what is wrong. The slaughter of innocents is wrong. Two million people driven from their homes is wrong. Women gang raped while gathering firewood is wrong. And silence, acquiescence and paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong."
--Barack Obama 7/31/2006

Addressing the genocide issue at the Washington DC Rally for the Darfur Crisis

The Genocide in Darfur has been one of the most shameful atrocities ever committed in history. When the genocide in Rwanda occurred in 1994, the stunned witnesses of the event remembered that a half century prior to the genocide we had vowed "never again...", but the mass murderings repeated, similar to the Holocaust. Our mistakes, the essential flaws in society bloomed once again, causing the deaths of millions of innocent citizens. As a global community, we have failed to learn from our past mistakes. Is this not the reason for mandatory universal education children are exposed to about historical events as part of our school curriculum? So we can learn from the errors made in similar situations in the past, and never repeat them?

This is the reason why I believe that the party that should feel the burden of the deaths in the Darfur Genocide are the international communities who failed to resist. Of course many other parties are to blame including the Rwanda government, the Janjaweed, etc. But we knew that there was a problem, international communities simply took into consideration what they would benefit from not intervening (e.g. China and Russia). Even the United States did not acknowledge the fact that we need to help the situation in Darfur. As a nation, the US has the resources to help Darfur, yet when the people were in dire need of help, we were not there trying our best to provide support. Personally, I am utterly shocked by the lack of leadership and will to help those in need displayed by many international communities . I hope this never occurs in the future.

--Because we said "Never again".

The last two weeks have been busy as usual. Homework, tests, projects, quizzes, etc. In English, we had to write an argument essay and take a position on how TV affects the emotional and intellectual development of children and present quotes from sources we had researched online. Other than schoolwork, I had heard coverage about President Obama's recent trip. I think it is great that our president visited the troops in Iraq and how he is trying to repair relationships with foreign countries that may have been damaged by our former president. However, it was shocking to see the European headlines about President Obama, which were quite negative. So far I believe that our leader is doing his best, and hopefully we will all experience the 'change' we know President Obama stands for.

Music!

Music is a huge part of my life, as it is for many people around the world. With the amazing introduction of Apple Computers products including the iPod, it has become extremely efficient to listen to our favorite tunes anywhere we are.

As for me, I have been playing the Piano for about six years now, and I've enjoyed it ever since the day I started. It's very relaxing to play a piece on the Piano, and my favorite one is Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in 1810. This song is extremely melodious and flows elegantly through the chorus where the tempo suddenly increases, and then softly ends with a repeat of the chorus. The changes between the loud and very quiet parts of the song make the experience even better. The riveting talents of German composer Beethoven emanate from this piece as he grabs the attention from any listener.

Besides Piano, I enjoy listening to many other types of music. From my last blog entry, I shared the wonderful aspects of Bollywood music. Some of my favorite artists from the Bollywood industry include A.R. Rahman, Atif Aslam, Vishal Dadlani, Kay Kay, Sonu Nigam, and Shaan. These people are all extremely popular in the industry, but my favorite band would have to be the Bombay Rockers which is a fusion of English and Indian music. There are two members of the band, Navtej Singh Rehal and Thomas Sardorf who both contribute their specialties from seperate cultural backgrounds to combine into one great song. Popular songs of the Bombay Rockers include Rock the Party and Ari Ari. Their album Introducing has gone platinum 5 times.

My favorite English artists and bands include Coldplay, T.I., Kanye West, The Fray, Beyonce, ABBA, and the Beatles. The lyrics in many of the songs produced by these artists and bands are extremely intriguing and meaningful. I always like songs with a good beat and tempo and also like some slow songs. My favorites (right now) are Viva la Vida, Dead and Gone, Heartless, and have loved ABBA songs since my childhood. Here is the url address to the music video of Viva la Vida: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44xirQ55IgA

The last two weeks have been alright, and with Spring Break it has been pretty relaxing so far. Getting back to school has been extremely hectic, as I've had soo many tests and quizzes to study for recently, but I guess that was expected...I can't believe we only have about 9 weeks of school left! It feels like it started just yesterday, but I can't wait till this year is over!

Bollywood Movies and Music!

Millions of people around the world were recently entranced by the unique storyline of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, where aspects of the Indian culture were displayed. One of my interests is watching Bollywood movies and listening to Bollywood music. The movies produced by the Bollywood industry have fascinating plots with several twists, and always have an amazing play-list of unique songs with great beats. A variety of A-list actors also add to the experience. If you enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire, you haven’t seen anything yet! Some of my favorite movies include: Jab We Met, Singh is Kinng, Taare Zameen Par, Guru, Dhoom 1&2, Bunty Aur Bubli, and Swades.

Bollywood songs have great beats and a variety of instruments. Two of the songs from Slumdog Millionaire, Jai Ho and O...Saya were nominated for an Oscar recently, and Jai Ho ended up winning the award. This is a video of the song Jai Ho, by A.R. Rahman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEsMNODj8YU

Fighting Global Warming in Austin, Texas

One of the biggest controversial issues that faces our world today is global warming, the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. The main cause of the temperature change, based on their research is the increase in anthropogenic (manmade) greenhouse gas emissions, or the greenhouse effect created by the actions of us humans. With the dangerous potential effects of global warming including heat waves, intense storms, and rise of sea levels, the world has gradually begun to take steps in saving our planet from what may become a catastrophic dilemma.

In the city of Austin, Texas, the ominous issue of global warming and protecting our environment is a matter that is taken seriously by the citizens and government. According to the 2008 edition of Reader’s Digest, Austin, Texas was acknowledged as the 8th cleanest city in the United States, based on criteria including the 5 categories: Air, Water, Toxics, Hazardous Waste and Sanitation. In my community, there are a variety of measures taken to reduce emissions and protect the environment. At my school, L.C. Anderson High, recycling bins are located in every room where recyclables are collected and taken away each week. My house also has two recycling bins that we use on a daily basis. The recycling bins encourage Americans to recycle and reuse items instead of wasting them, or throwing them onto the street where pollution will become a hazard for our environment.

The city provides the civilians of Austin a chance to transport around the capital through their service of city buses called Capital Metro. Many people use this as their main source of transportation, especially the students who attend the most prominent college in Austin, the University of Texas at Austin, or UT. The students get to ride free every day, and every month or so, Capital Metro allows all of its’ customers to ride for free, on a day called Ozone Action Day. The changed fare persuades even more riders to take the bus, which reduces the emissions that would have been released through their personal automobiles, and promotes the earth-friendly actions that we should be conscious about. The government has also created bike riding lanes on the side of streets to encourage people to use their bikes more often, and to enhance the safety of bike riding.

Car dealerships throughout the city of Austin are promoting their environment-friendly cars called Hybrids to everyone by deducting taxes and other encouragements. Hybrid cars use alternate energy sources to power their cars, which ultimately reduces a) the amount of oil us humans depend on, and b) the level of greenhouse gases emitted into our atmosphere. A plan to construct a city Metro is in the works as well, and I am confident that many civilians will begin to use this method of transportation, which will further eliminate sources of pollution for our environment. The Metro project is said to be completed by March 2009, and I can’t wait to try it!

I truly believe Austin is doing a wonderful job in creating a beautiful and healthy environment for the people living in this amazing city. I think that educating students, who are the future of tomorrow, is vital in solving this problem, and this Blog is helpful in understanding what people across the world feel about the problems that our facing our world today.

During the last two weeks, in our World Geography classes, we have been working and completing our Mosaic of Cultural Icons Projects, where we researched an influentual person from Europe. I researched Nikita Khrushchev, the former first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union who was an influential leader that contributed in the de-Stalinization movement. It was a great project, and I hope to learn through my classmates' presentations in class this week! Other than school, I came back from a tennis tournament yesterday, and got a trophy for second place. The tournament was fun and I got to meet many players from schools in other districts. It was a great learning experience and Anderson High School ended up first out of all of the other competing schools! :)