As a Human Geography tutor and teacher one of the key terms I teach my students is supranational organizations. They are defined as a group of 3 or more countries that agree to work together towards common goals. These goals may be political, economic, or cultural. The European Union is used most often as the best example of a supranational organization, although that reputation has recently taken a hit.
The United Kingdom held a referendum yesterday to decide whether or not to remain part of the European Union, or “Brexit” as it was called in place of “British Exit.” The results were close but the push to leave the EU won by a margin of roughly 52 to 48 percent. While it will be several years before the UK formally breaks away from the rest of Europe the impact has been felt immediately. The global financial markets have dropped and the value of the British currency, the Pound, has dropped to its lowest level since the peak of the last recession in 2009. The next few months will determine whether this is a short term drop or the start of a long term decline. The economic impact is not limited to Britain and Europe but will be felt globally.
Also, Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain part of the EU. Only two years removed from an election on whether or not to remain part of the UK there is a growing fear that the Scots might call for another vote and formally break away this time. Additionally, there are concerns that other countries might follow Britain and break away from the EU. If that were to happen it could be a potential death blow to the organization. Ultimately, only time will tell how far reaching the “Brexit” election results will be.
Graphic created by The Washington Post, adapted from a post by Facebook user Stephen Nass.
Gerrymandering has been a political issue for over a century in the United States. It is the intentional drawing of oddly shapes congressional districts to favor one party over another. In the past I have explained it to my students by describing the voting districts as making as much sense as a paintball splatter.
Gerrymandering can be used to create a super majority for one political party over the other despite only having a small majority. If done correctly, it can even create a majority for a party that has a small minority. Although using the term “correctly” to describe something that intentionally deceives seems wrong in itself. The bottom line is that it does not create a true representation of the real voting patterns of the American public.
Recently a Facebook user named “Steven Nass” created a chart that made gerrymandering easier to understand than any other visual I have ever come across. He titled it “How to Steal an Election.” The Washington Post adapted it to show the different ways to skew election results. Below you will find a link to the Washington Post’s article with the diagram as well as a detailed explanation.
Gerrymandering is a topic that has come up numerous times on the AP® Human Geography Exam. This past year it was even made into a full blown free response question. For many students taking the exam understanding gerrymandering was the difference between passing and failing the AP® Human Geography Exam.
Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic jihadist group, has been terrorizing the people of Nigeria for several years. On January 3rd they committed their largest atrocity when the moved into the town of Baga in the northeastern part of the country and opened fire with machine guns and grenade launchers. They had no specific targets and it appears that their objective was simply to kill as many people as possible, unfortunately they were successful. So many were killed that an accurate body count has been impossible to ascertain since Boko Haram is still operating in the area. Current casualty estimates vary from several hundred to over 2000.
While the western world mourned those killed last week during the terrorist attack in Paris it continued to ignore the mass violence taking place in western Africa. It reminded me of a problem I encounter constantly while teaching Human Geography, if something happens in Africa nobody cares. The most interest western media has shown in the current Nigeria crisis took place in May when social media was trending with: “#BringBackOurGirls” in response to Boko Haram kidnapping 273 girls from a school. It’s 9 months later and the girls have not been returned nor has any information about their status been received. One would think that such horrendous crimes would receive continuous attention and that media and the public would place pressure on our leaders to help bring the crisis to an end, but it’s Africa. There are no votes to be gained for politicians, dollars to be made for big business, or ratings to be increased for media so they ignore it, the public ignores it, and Boko Haram continues to kill indiscriminately.
On December 17, 2014 President Obama announced a prisoner exchange and the establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba. While my students understood that it was a “big deal” I could tell that they didn’t fully understand it from a historical perspective. Then it hit me, they had no reason to. Unlike me they were not the children of Cuban immigrants that had fled Fidel Castro’s regime decades earlier. They didn’t grow up with a nuclear fallout shelter in their school or learning nuclear bomb drills from “Bert the Turtle” that were somehow simultaneously terrifying and comical. For your viewing entertainment:
I’m 34 years old and my Cold War memories are the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. To make a movie analogy that would be like starting to watch “The Wizard of Oz” from the moment Dorothy throws the bucket of water at the witch. If I felt detached having lived through the tail end of it and having a strong family connection my current students, mostly born in 2000, have almost no concept of Cold War global politics.
Since I teach primarily ninth graders that have yet to take World or US History I often find myself making teaching points about historical events that they have never heard of. To make it easier to understand these concepts I’ve created “The Five Minute Ghetto Fabulous History Lesson” in which I teach them a topic that could be a year long college course as quickly as possible.
The following timeline is an intentionally brief overview of the Cold War with a few key notes and critical Human Geography references in bold.
1945 – The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union work together to bring about the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
Despite being Allies the US and UK did not like or trust the Soviets, the feeling was mutual.
The US, UK, France, and Soviet Union agree to divide Germany into 4 zones and do the same with Berlin.
The Soviet Union begins to establish permanent dominance over Eastern Europe.
Winston Churchill would later refer to this as the “Iron Curtain.”
The US established itself as the dominant global power by using nuclear weapons to defeat Japan.
1948 – The Soviet Union closed off all access to Berlin hoping the US would give up on the city.
The US and British kept the city from starving by flying in planes with supplies constantly.
This was known as the Berlin Airlift.
1949 – The Western European countries create a military alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Their goal was to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.
1949 – China’s Communist leaders declare victory and establish control over the entire country.
The US supported Nationalist government fled to Taiwan, creating a hostile relationship that still exists to this day.
The Western powers freaked out as the world’s largest population had gone “Red.”
1949 – The Soviet Union created and tested their own nuclear weapon.
This started a nuclear arms race that would last until 1991.
1950 – Communist North Korea invades South Korea starting a war that would last 3 years and kill over a million people.
The final outcome of the war was basically to pretend it had never happened.
1954 – The French are defeated in Vietnam paving the way for an independent and Communist government to be established.
This would become highly complicated as eventually the US would try to prevent this from happening, and fail.
1955 – The Eastern European countries create their own military alliance under the guidance of the Soviet Union called the Warsaw Pact.
This was an attempt by the Soviets to maintain balance of power with the western democracies.
1959 -Fidel Castro and his rebels overthrow the government of Cuba.
While he had not declared himself a Communist aligned with the Soviet Union he would establish that relationship in the following years.
In the last few years he has handed over control of the government to his brother Raul Castro. This is the same government that still rules over the island.
1961 – The US cuts diplomatic relations with Cuba.
These are the same relations that would be reestablished last month by President Obama.
1961 – A CIA supported group of 1300 Cuban exiles attempt to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro’s government.
Known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Failed miserably as they had expected US air support that never arrived and spies among them had alerted the Cuban military.
1961 – The Soviet Union builds a wall and creates a physical divide between West and Soviet dominated East Berlin.
Their main objective had been to prevent people from escaping to West Berlin.
1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis puts the US and Soviet Union on the brink of nuclear war.
Surprisingly, the US did not like having Soviet nuclear missiles 90 miles off its shore.
Nuclear war was only avoided because both sides realized, nobody wins a nuclear war.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson gets Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorizing him to do anything he wants with the military in Vietnam.
This was the start of what would become the longest war in US history. (Since surpassed by the war in Afghanistan)
Over the course of the next 9 years 60,000 American soldiers and over a million Vietnamese would die in this war.
1972 – President Richard Nixon visits China in an attempt to begin normalizing diplomatic relations with them.
Also seen as the start of establishing a trade relationship with China.
1972 – The US and Soviet Union begin the “Strategic Arms Limitation Talks” to discuss their nuclear arsenals.
Over the next several years they would agree to limit nuclear missiles at current numbers and to eventually stop the production of new nuclear weapons.
1973 – The last US soldier was pulled out of Vietnam.
While North and South Vietnam had agreed to a cease fire it was only a matter of time before they would start fighting again.
1975 – Saigon and the government of South Vietnam collapse.
Twenty years after they defeated the French and two years after the US pulled out, Vietnam was united, independent, and under Communist rule.
1979 – The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan straining the progress that had been made in the previous decade to improve their relationship with the US.
The US would later smuggle weapons to the rebels that would go on to defeat Soviet rule.
1985 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes leader of the Soviet Union.
He would become the individual that did the most to bring about the end of the Soviet Union and in turn, the Cold War.
1988 – The Soviet Union announced it would no longe interfere politically or militarily in Eastern Europe.
In the next few months several Eastern European countries overthrew their communist governments.
1989 – The Berlin Wall is brought down.
Opens the door for the reunification of East and West Germany the next year.
1991 – The Soviet Union’s government collapses.
This would mark the official end of 46 years of hostility and nuclear threat between the US and Soviet Union.
Thankfully, the Cold War ended before anybody had to use one of these:
A “Nuclear Fallout Shelter” sign located in a New Jersey public school.
Alarming Fact: 35.8 million people in the world are slaves.
The Human Geo Guy’s Take: The Walk Free Foundation released their annual report called the Global Slavery Index. It defines anybody that is the victim of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage or labor. India, the world’s largest democracy, has the largest number at over 14 million slaves. China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Russia all come in at over one million slaves. Mauritania, Uzbekistan, Haiti, and Qatar are the countries with the highest proportion of its population living in bondage.
In the US we have been trained to believe that slavery is a dark chapter of our past that was swept away by Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s. For millions around the world it is a never ending reality. In an era of modern technology and economic development it is a moral imperative for the free world to combat the evil that is slavery.
Alarming Fact: The Turkish government estimates that it has taken in 1.6 million Syrian refugees as a result of ISIS.
The Human Geo Guy’s Take: ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) continues to expand its territory in eastern Syria and northwest Iraq, with the conflict escalating people are fleeing by the hundreds of thousands. Escaping ahead of the ISIS advance is a wise decision as Islamic State have proven to show no mercy conducting mass executions and beheadings of American and British journalists. This is a clear example of forced migration as these refugees feel they have no choice but to run for their lives.
Adding to the crisis a large number of these refugees entering Turkey are Kurds. Turkey has had a troubled history with its Kurdish population and even attempted to close off the border to slow down the influx. The numbers have become so overwhelming that Turkey has had no choice but to let them in. With so many displaced people entering it has become a humanitarian crisis, they are in desperate need of basic necessities as most of their belongings were left behind in the rapid evacuations. With ISIS gaining in strength Turkey should brace itself for an even greater number of refugees heading their way.
Recently there was massive flooding along the border of India and Pakistan, especially hard hit was the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. The death toll is near 300 and it is estimated that in some villages as many as 95% of homes have been destroyed. It is a humanitarian crisis of the highest level as these people have limited options for shelter and are running low on food. The fact that heavy rains hit the region is not a surprise as this is an annual event typically lasting from June-September. As students of human geography it is critical to analyze the relationship between the people in this part of the world and the annual rains as well as how the hostile relationship between India and Pakistan has made the situation that much worse.
Agriculture
While in other parts of the world such heavy rains would be seen solely as a threat, in South Asia the downpours are welcomed as a critical part of their existence. Agriculture in much of South Asia depends on the annual monsoons to provide enough water to irrigate crops throughout the year. There are years where the rains fail to provide enough water, and the region, already struggling with extreme poverty, must deal with the crisis of drought and becomes highly vulnerable to famine. As is often the case in the poor world, what they count on to sustain them, may also bring about their demise.
Territorial Dispute
Disaster relief would normally override most political issues, but not when India and Pakistan are involved. Kashmir has long been a disputed territory as a result of the Partition of India in 1947. When India was granted it’s independence by the British, one of the final acts of the European colonizers was to create Pakistan as a Muslim state in an attempt to separate them from the Hindu population. When the British created the new border they kept Kashmir in India despite being predominantly Muslim. This is one of the most militarized borders on the planet and moving in troops to provide aid to victims could be seen as a hostile act. Not even in this extreme crisis can these two governments coordinate in order to help their people.
For the past two months global headlines have been dominated by an all too familiar conflict that seems to repeat itself every few years. Israel and Palestine have again failed to find a way to peacefully coexist. The religious and political tension that exists between these two groups of people has become so overwhelming that many believe the fighting will never come to a permanent end. I have been often asked by my students if this conflict will ever have a final resolution. My honest answer is always the same, “Not in my lifetime, or only if one group manages to achieve the catastrophic result of the total destruction of the other.” I can only hope that my analysis is wrong but past experience has given me no reason to think otherwise.
Over the course of the fighting there have been several brief cease fires that have mostly ended prematurely. Yet, in the past 24 hours they have agreed to an Egyptian brokered cease fire with no set time limit, this is the most promising agreement since the fighting started in early July.
The primary weapon in this round of fighting has been rocket fire or air strikes which can inflict a high level of damage from a far off distance. The New York Times Magazine sent two photographers to show the world the realities of the physical and emotional devastation this latest round of fighting has created. Below is a link to their haunting portrayal of life in the war torn zone.
