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This is my project. Enjoy
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/593217/lbruce_globalization_benchmark.pdf

3/29
Sorry I for got to post about the process I'm making on my story. Well so far I have written everything down so my new story is completed. The part I'm working on at the moment is the media part and it's taking me some time but overall I'm on track.

3/30
I'm so excited because I'm going to Miami for spring break. The truth is I'm going to check out my college choice before making my final decision and sending in my acceptance fee. I'm happy because I'v booked my flight and hotel so I know for a fact that I'm going. Can't wait Miami here I come!!!

"Damn, another 20 missed calls. I love her and I hate her. It's a funny twist y'all."

I am a little behind in starting the benchmark, but I have made a twitter account for the main character in my story. I have not yet  posted anything on twitter at the moment but I will start that tonight. I'm am still trying to figure out how to start the benchmark in terms of what part I should start tweeting from in my story. Th beginning of my story is sort of a flashback and I don't know if I should add that part yet. I still don't know if my benchmark will take longer than the rest of this quarter to finish. I haven't really been focusing on this benchmark as much because I am backed up on a lot of work. Starting tonight I will start to put more of my time into this benchmark so I can have a good finished project. 

​Cruelty Towards Our Heroes

 

"Raise Officer Patrick McDonald, Badge #2831 as 39-Pat-8, please. Radio, 39-Pat-8… Radio, 39-Pat-8… Radio, 39-Pat-8. Radio 39-Eddie there is no response from 39-Pat-8. 39-Eddie, can I get a time check please? WPRW578, the time is 1:00 p.m. and the date is September 23,2008. 39-Eddie, from his Police family, our thanks for a job well done. Radio; take 39-Pat-8 off the board for the last time. Received, thank you. *EMERGENCY TONE* All cars standby unless you have an emergency. Attention all Police, all units be advised at 1:25 p.m. this date, the 22nd District has retired the call sign 39-P (Pat)-8 for the final time. That’s repeating, at 1:25 p.m. this date, the 22nd District has retired the call sign 39-P (Pat)-8 for the final time. WPRW578, the correct time is 1:39 p.m."

 

            What just ran through your head? I’m guessing a lot. When an officer is killed in their line of duty their call sign or car number is retired permanently. That’s what was going on above. Its a tribute because Sgt. Patrick McDonald was killed doing something he loved helping the ones who needed him the most.

 

            Sgt. McDonald was an Officer I knew. He lived in my neighborhood. Every time I would walk by him or see him up Liberty Bell Field he would hold a conversation with me. “Hello, How are you?” or even just a simple, “hello!” He was there for everyone family, friends, or even complete strangers. He died at age 25 being so young, but dying doing something he loved.

 

Not only has this officer or sergeant put his life on the line but many other have done so as well. The only thing is most people do not appreciate what one individual Police officer does for his or her district. The rates of an officer getting shot are rising about 0.02% a year. Yes that might not seem like a lot but its said that officers should always go in knowing you will or might have a gun pointed to you and shot.

 

            Police officers need the attitude of, “were going in alive, and coming out the same way!” The 249 Police officers and Sergeants that were killed in Philly all had that attitude, but lost their job because some loser decides to shoot them for doing their job.

There are a selective few of people in the city or state where a Police officer dies, which do not care. Those select few of people are the type of people who trash talk cops and call them all kind of names such as “pigs”.

 

            What bothers me the most is when I hear teenagers going f*** the Police. Funny thing is that if they were in trouble I’m pretty sure the Police are the first people they will call. The select few of people that do not care about Police are the ones who are cold hearted enough to write on YouTube.com their honest truth on how they don’t like cops. I was reading comments on a tribute to Sgt. McDonald, and read the comment “I smell bacon, I smell pork, and run lil piggy I got a fork!”

 

            The things said about our heroes are wrong. The shootings, killings, and injuries need to be cut. People need to stop aiming weapons at police when they are called on a job to help the city. Officers need to put their foot down and by standers need to grow up. When you see an officer just bow your head in respect and realize what they do for you and your peers. When you hear about a fallen hero appreciate it. Just remember who was the savior for you at one point!

 

 

Click here to view my website.

I did my project on Japan located in East Asia and Australia which is located in Oceania. Furthermore, the process of creating my website was simple. It was difficult to find current reliable resources for Australia for some topics. For Japan, however, there was an abundant of information regarding the 5 point framework.

If I could change one thing about my website, I would add more media including images, videos, podcasts, etc. I feel like that would make the website more appealing to an outside audience and provide viewers with an easy way to digest information.

I enjoyed this project. Considering I am part Japanese, I was very interested in learning more about the country. Even more, I never knew a lot about Australia and this project allowed me to educate myself about the country.

View HERE.

El Salvador, a country from my region to-date, endures hurricanes and suffers from a number of human-induced environmental issues such as: water-pollution and climate change. Indonesia, a country from my previous region, experiences tsunamis (and the like) and deals with water and air pollution. There are many issues within these countries in addition to those that I mentioned. Deforestation is the main environmental commonality between Indonesia and El Salvador. Climate change and environmental damage afflict both countries significantly.

             I began this process by entering all of the guidelines for this project into a word document. I applied the five-point framework to each of the countries and researched information that corresponds to each. The document that I created was consistently referred to throughout this process. Google was of great assistance in acquiring websites that produce information that is essential to understanding and determining the “collapse-ibility” of the countries. I encountered websites like: U.S. Department of State and environmental organizations. The most tedious task, other than using the five-point framework, was settling on an appealing and informational layout. Other steps were to organize, form my bibliography, and incorporate pictures.

             The five-point framework was all of straightforward, difficult and perplexing. Categories (points) like: hostile neighbors and trade partners were open. I did not enjoy wrapping my research around the point framework because some of the information lacked. The process of indentifying recent, accurate sources was frustrating.

             Things I'd Change...I would address the 5 points in further depth. I made some connections to Collapse and mentioned the issues that support each category, but the paragraphs could be longer and more detailed. *The information was still adequate and well presented.

             The project was different, complex, and plenty other things. More time for completion is necessary for this project.

Lebanon vs. Philippines presentation 

Reflection:
The two countries that I decided to focus my benchmark on were Lebanon located in the Middle East and the Philippines located in Southeast Asia. Lebanon is a small country bordered by Syria and Israel. It has a lot of tourism which helps bring most of the money in especially in the capital city Beirut. The Philippines is a country created from groups of 7,107 islands.

The process it took for me to find information about these two countries required a lot of focusing and reading. I needed to receive a lot of my information for both of my countries in order to go in-depth about their situations based on the 5 point framework. Once the information was found I needed to read a lot in order to understand the information and make sure it is enough for me to prove why each country received the rating I gave it. It was also frustrating at times when I thought my writing was either not enough or it was too much because the information for one country was more abundant than the information for another country. 

The 5 point framework was not as difficult as I thought it would be, however it was not straight forward. Some websites such as the CIA WorldFact book gave you the environmental issues, climate change, and everything basically needed of my country. However to back it up I needed to do outside research and some of the frameworks the information was not available or abundant. I think the most difficult framework finding information for was hostile neighbors for the Philippines and Society's response to environmental damage for Lebanon. 


If I could change one thing about my project I would change the way I presented it. I felt the powerpoint was powerful in presentation but could've made the project more eye-catching with pictures and different ways of presenting information. I would also attempt to back up responses a bit more for certain topics of the framework. 
 

 

Here is the link to googledoc on South Africa & Haiti Collapsability.

For my quarter 3 benchmark I chose Haiti and South Africa. After I selected my countries, I decided to do some more basic research on the countries. Then I created a word document where I listed the 5 categories: environmental damage, climate change, trade partners, hostile neighbors and society's response. Under each I listed facts about the topics. Once I had my facts, I began elaborating on findings about the category. It was pretty easy to rate my 5 points. Most of the categories were either really well of or really bad the only one that seemed to be in between were climate change for both I picked 5 for Haiti and South Africa.

I ran into some trouble when I was doing my ratings. I mixed up the difference between 10 and 0 for Hostile Neighbors. I was more focused on the writing aspect of my project than choosing the correct number for my ratings For hostile neighbors 10 = no hostile neighbors and 0 = surrounded on all sides by hostile neighbors. Both countries have few hostile neighbors, Haiti has none because everyone is chipping in to help after the earthquake and South Africa hasn't been in a significant amount of trouble with other countries since the 1980's during the Apartheid.  So Haiti's rating is supposed to be 10 and South Africa's is supposed to be 9. I couldn't make this change in my digital product because it started off as a keynote then I turned it into a movie, for me to go edit this minor error I would have to edit the keynote, export it, re-upload it to school tube, then re-post it to the blogger, which would take an awful long time.

If there was anything I could change about my project, it  would be making sure all of my ratings were correct.

For a comparison between India and Egypt and a detailed review on what causes countries to collapse, click here.

 

            Pow! Pow! Pow! Gun shoots rang in the East Wing of the school building. For the past 50 years, school shootings have happened all over the US. The first shooting was reported in 1966 at the University of Texas. By the end of the shooting, there were 16 victims. What inside gets people so angry that they want to shoot their peers? People are bullied almost every second of the day, but to open fire on people at school is no excuse. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

            In some cases, these shootings are accidents. People might carry the firearms for protection because they live in really horrible neighborhoods. When that happens  some students carry the guns in the backpacks, resulting in the gun discharging when the student sits their bag down. If that happens clearly the student did not intend on anyone in school getting hurt. This happened at Gardena High School in Los Angeles, CA. This is the most recent school shooting in the US taking place on January 8, 2011. The firearm was in the 17-year-old childs book bag when it went off. This left 2 students wounded, and now the teen is being tried as an adult for assault with a deadly weapon. He has a history of being bullied so he carried the gun for that, but had no intentions on using it in school.

            The city of Los Angeles as a large community can’t watch every student in each school. On the other hand they can get their school security system together. A school official said that over 3000 students attend Gardena High School. The security there uses a handheld metal detector on each student as they enter the school building, so it is very easy for a student to slip pass security with a weapon. Assuming this a pretty large building, there will be multiple entrances to the building. Therefore there should be security with handheld metal detectors on each entrance so it is much easier to catch a student with a weapon.

            Is Philly next? With all the shootings we have outside of school for fights that happen in school, you never know. One day someone is going to walk into a Philadelphia high school and open fire. So far there has been 4 school shootings in the state of Pennsylvania. There’s only a matter of time before the fifth one happens, and no one knows where in Pennsylvania it will be. 

            Some TV shows base episodes on school violence, and some movies are based on school violence. They want to express the fact that you shouldn’t bully people, shoot up your school, and commit random acts of violence in school. They want to keep things like that out of the school community. Now that doesn’t mean it’s ok to go outside and do the same thing. It’s not ok, and it can lead you down the wrong road in life.

         The US is supposed to be the land of the free. It can be that when you have people shooting each other in school, or bullying one another, or even cursing each other out. Not everyone is going to get along, but when you meet someone new, get to know him or her first because they might being going through the same things as you. If you don’t take the initiative to do that, it shows how much of a coward you are. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.

School shootings are 100% preventable because the person getting ready to blast the school can make the decision to stop and walk away. It’s just a matter of if that person cares enough to. If you are a victim or suspect of school violence then you need to talk to someone and get immediate counseling. No one ever wants to be the one getting picked on, but it happens and life goes on. It takes one person to be that change, so why not be them?

    We’ve all heard the phrase “Life’s not fair”, and it’s true! The same commercial to help desperate children comes up with the same 1-800 number everyday. For the small child in Africa it’s not fair. For the kid working in a sweatshop to make those clothes you’re wearing it’s not fair. For the guy waiting in-line at the store with his groceries it’s not fair. Go up to anyone in this planet and ask them what’s fair and not. Many responses you would get are insignificant, while other ones are the reason the world is the way it is.
   
    You have two kinds of people in this world that determine how it’s ran. The people with power and the people without power. And there has always been a conflict between these two since the beginning of the term “leader”. They are like your “Spy vs. Spy” and “Tom and Jerry”, everyone has seen them.

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your fighters:

    On this corner we have the stereotypical money making tycoon everyone wishes to be, the guy that owns the company that manufactured your TV, computer, phone, or ipod (or all of the above). Variants of this opponent include government officials, or anyone with the power to impact the world directly. 
    On the other corner is everybody else. By everybody I mean the electrician, the baker, the gardener, the candle stick maker (we have machines for that now), you know... everybody! Yes, you and I are in there too.
There’s an advantage to being “everybody else”... we’re not alone. Without you there’s nothing. Why do you think voting is such a big deal? The people have so much power, we don’t know it. There’s always going to be a power that is going to take advantage of our numbers and make money in his/her pocket, while we are left with the leftovers of society. We let the system classify us by the money we get from our backbreaking jobs. Low class, middle class, upper class, what is that all about? Is the person who makes 10x more money than my own father automatically a better person?
    The problem in the United States is how we run this country. I can assure you that there are countless things going on behind our backs. And they are things the people as a whole can fix. When “We the people” was written in the United States’s constitution, it was a vow to make things better as a whole country. We could go for a  social-political view like Marxism or such, that can give the people actual power in their government. Many of them are possible solutions to inequality in the world. Too many beliefs and righteousness is in jeopardy for other people for them to agree with this. All of us have to represent the equality of us all. I don’t want to be judged by the color of my skin, where I live, or how much money my parents make. I want to be judged by the things I do around me. That’s certainly not what’s happening around us. We the people of the United States of America won’t be looked as profit for others, but a representation of how a society can work as a whole, co-operating.

Yesterday I was on the phone with Verizon customer service for 40 minutes. My mom made me call them because she is very impatient and quickly losses her temper on the customer service people. I on the other hand I feel bad for the people working there and am very polite and patient with them. People take there frustrations out on them, when there anger usually stems from their internet or cable connections. Nobody likes calling customer service because they are pissy and there problems, on many occasions, are not resolved, however this was not the case for me. Customer service fixed my internet connection problem and said they would be sending me a new router for free in the next two days. This was my biggest success this week.

World War 3.

You ever about if there will be a third world war? Well, maybe it’s in motion.  There’s a little place in North African, called Tunisia. A little vendor burned himself alive, and put in motion what could be the third world war. After the revolution in Tunisia happened, there was one in Egypt that was monumental, another uprising in Syria, and an uprising in Libya. In Libya fighting has broken out and the US has intervened, we can expect them to intervene in the Syrian situation as well. This could bring another war into affect, because of the positioning and the importance of Syria if The United States tries to intervene Iran, will step in, then causing another world war. To say that this isn’t bad for the United States, because war produces money, like in factories and produces jobs. 

Tunisia is where this all started, a street vendor. He went to college in Tunisia, but with Tunisia’s horrible economy he didn’t find a good enough job, so he had to sell fruit. “There were too many smart young people and too little jobs in Tunisia” Says Kim Marzouk. Who lived in Tunisia for the first 25 years of his life before coming to America.

In Egypt, the situation has calmed down to where they’re rebuilding their government. There military is in powerful, but a slip, and we could see something like what happened in Haiti? 

There has been tension between the United States and the Middle East for years, and this is just something to maximize that violence.

This is what America need. In the 1950’s America was facing hard times, they entered World War 2, which brought money to the United States. Money comes in from factories that make weapons of war like tanks, guns, warplanes and ammunition.  

If you think about what’s really good for our country this would be it But, it could also good for our enemy countries. Iran’s nuclear presence worries the United States, and an engage of the United States into Syria could prompt Iran into declaring war which will prompt all of The United States alleys to invade, like Poland, Qatar, Norway, Spain, and many more.

All and all. This might be a long shot, because the United States could be fearful to tamper with Syria because of the Situation it has with other Middle Eastern countries could prompt a nuclear war. My Parents have inside knowledge about the situation, and they agree. “If American touches Syria, then Iran will declare war, we will see action from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and his group, which will prompt other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, like Al-qudia. 

All in all, this might be the worst thing that could come from all of this, war, death and destruction. But, in the long run, it might be helpful for the United States.

I compared New Zealand and Ireland, two separate and well-to-do nations.  They are both islands, and have english speaking residents, which gives them some similarities even though they are far apart.  

I focused mostly in the research aspect, which brought me to tough place at the end.  I decided to create a google doc to record all the useful information I found, divided by country and "point."  By the time I had enough information, the project was due and I was left with just a google doc and not a website as planned.  Retrospectively, I should have gone straight to the website after each section. If I could change it, I would definitely fix the entire product.  I'm displeased with the result, and wish I had chosen a different process to get there.  

The five point framework in itself was not too complex.  However it was harder to find good information that was more in depth that a general overview of each nation.  One of my difficulties was separating some of the information.  While researching, I found certain pieces that I thought could be part of more than one point in the framework.  Distinguishing them was sometimes tricky, especially with environmental damage and climate change.  Over all, it was not my best benchmark to say the least, but I still learned a lot about Ireland and New Zealand.  

Here is a direct link to my iWeb presentation of my Globalization Benchmark.
Quarter 3 Globalization Benchmark

(Preferred browser is Firefox)


The countries that I have chose for my project were Cambodia and Libya. The process of going about the iWeb was tedious. I gathered images and links first, then I read over my links and if they weren't beneficial for myself then I discarded them, after that I used the "good" links and the information I knew to create an iWeb.
The five-point framework that we had to base our countries' status was something to guide me. Personally, I felt like it was straightforward with a challenge. It gave me a point to search for and actually think about what I was doing. But if I were to change something about the project itself, I would have possibly done it in a different way other than an iWeb. I would've done a video of some sort to see how I can get the point across to show how these countries are struggling.

                  All over the Internet, child abuse tapes are being downloaded clicked and played, from Berlin, to Mexico, then Florida and New York; Everywhere. For all the young people who where taking advantage of it was recorded while it happen. If that is not handing a child low self esteem then the human mind must be at a lost for what is.

                  Just as most children in the world a young 11 year old girl in Cleveland, Texas was allegedly sexually assaulted and of course it was all lead to being her fault. A small blog about this story stated, “Some who attended the meeting in Cleveland blamed the girl for the way she dressed and claimed she lied about her age.” Theoretically she wanted this act upon her. A small committee gathered in her town to discuss what was going on and came to the conclusion she was asking to be sexually abused. Seamus O Riley said on her blog “Kids are groomed to think this is a good person who cares about them." She is right when things like this happen kids think it is an act of affection and they adapt to it.

                  Child abuse is more or less just a “Hi” and “Bye” thing; because most people have such a nonchalant attitude they just say it’s “bad” people abuse their child. Whenever the top comes up people just think if everybody does it there is nothing that can be done. So not much thought should be put into it.

                  Physical, sexual, emotional and mental are all different things but it is still abuse to a child. When a child is emotionally abused they have a lot of build up fear in them and they’re not attached to their parent or guardian, as they should be. They don’t feel genuine love.

                  Statistics say “An average of nearly four children die every day as a result of child abuse or neglect (1,760 in 2007).” Also “Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys. Boys are at a greater risk of serious injury and of emotional neglect than are girls. The incidence of fatally injured girls declined slightly, while the incidence of fatally injured boys rose. Found no race differences in maltreatment incidence.” 

                  The most obvious is the physical abuse towards a child, causing unnecessary injury to a child with hands or any object. Making bruises, welts and cuts, causing them to flinch for no reason and having inappropriate clothing on, according to what the weather is during that day.

                                    People have must really sit back and think about how they are the adults. Take a few minutes and talk to a child before you decide to raise your hand and ask yourself is this action you’re doing to a child helping them in any way or is it hurting them. Realize child abuse is harming the new generation of the world and if children are being affect now.  Who is to say in the future when youngsters become the next mayor and president that the world won’t be at a grate disadvantage. 

                 Adults have to start going beyond what they think they know about raising or disciplining a child. Embrace children of the world because some people need to feel physical affection and ask them, do you feel loved?

​

Imagine hearing the cries of thousands of animals as you take a big bite of your meal. Ever wonder where the food that many big companies such as McDonalds and Burger King get their meat products. Not many Americans look at the real story behind the process of where their food that they are about to consume comes from. Both you and I know that animal abuse is the last thing that pops up in our heads when we take a big of that nice juicy tender burger. They have to suffer through the neglect and inhumane places where they are held just to provide us with our food.

 

The blame can’t fall on the factories but also the failure of government regulators to join with the powerful meat industry to help the matters better. The meat industry is morally untenable and often well hidden in modern society behind large advertisements. Sue Coe an artiest that regulates the act of the cruelty to animals through her artwork stated, “We need to educate the public about how ‘food’ is raised. I believe in the goodness of people, and I think people are intelligent enough to make a choice. Open the doors to the slaughterhouses and the factory farms. Let people see how sows are tethered in crates their entire lives, standing on slats or concrete, not enough room to turn around. Pigs, in a natural state, would spend 70% of their ‘waking hours exploring their environment, making nests, rooting in the dirt and socializing” In an interview back in 2005. Since she grew up living next to a slaughterhouse, as a child she saw many terrible actions happening with the animals. Through her visual arts, Coe continues to raise the public’s awareness of the abuse of living things till this day. Through Sue’s work she wants to convey the message of what she saw and felt so many off her views can feel the same way and realize the acts behind what really is happening in these meat industries.

 

But behind the people that help stop the cruelty that is happening in the farms would need the governmental bound they have with society. Many other activists help fight the battle between the meat industries through different acts of research. "Factory farming has taken the joy out of the lives of millions of calves and pigs, and billions of hens; it has driven countless family farmers off the land; it has polluted streams and rivers; it has injected massive amounts of antibacterial and other drugs into the public food supply resulting in serious health risks. It has lowered food quality," says Christine Stevens, author of the book Factory Farming, The Experiment That Failed.  Society may not know the real story behind the torture and bad conditions that their meat products come from but this is not only bad for the animals but for the persons health too. If the animal is being tortured by being starved or given steroids then the chances of it showing up in your meat can be a result. In the near future be concerned about the conditions these animals have to sacrifice their lives for. WE can help, and WE can make a change not for ourselves but for the animals that provide us

In a recent rape report, which was put in the news, a teacher sexually assaulted a fourteen-year-old girl. Many of the parents were astonished since the teacher was ‘very popular with the kids’. This incident was not a one-time incident. The girls went on to say that this had been a recurring thing for three consecutive years. How is it that she was able to endure that type of abuse for three years? In retrospect an adult claims, "Whatever they said he did, he didn't do," said another father. "It's just a little kid looking for attention." If a child says they were raped then there is no harm in pursuing the matter. How would that father have felt if that was their child? Many times when a child is raped it is by a close friend, or an actual family member. This in turn tends to have the result of adults not believe the victim. In America, the statistics for rape are astronomical. One of the most unknown rape statistics is that one in ten rape victims is a male. When is comes to rape, a majority of victims are under the age of eighteen.

If children are our future, why do we not listen to them? There are so many children in the world that do not speak out because they are afraid, or even taught, that adults will not listen. The majority of child victims do not tell anyone what was done to them. This leaves the rapist safe, when in reality they should be punished by law. When a child is raped they have a certain amount of time to tell. If they wait too long then the evidence of the incident will be lost.

After a victim gains the ability to voice their assault, it takes time and many methods to heal the battered soul. Many people never fully recover. In a statistic from ‘Rape, Victims, Survivors, and What We Can Do’, ‘Thirty percent of rape victims will contemplate suicide.  Slightly more will seek therapy.  Slightly less will invest in some form of self-defense.  The overwhelming majority, 82%, will tell you that their lives have been permanently changed.’ When it is the case of women many have said ‘The way they view men will be permanently changed as well.’

The percentage of males that are raped in America is three percent. Males tend to be the least likely to report an assault. People’s opinion of the reason differs. Some say it is because they are emasculated. Others feel that men can get over it more quickly, since they are supposed to have a tough way of living. But no matter the gender of the victim or the assailant, this is still a crime worth punishing.

When it comes to rape, the punishment should be harsh. Not only are Rapists taking something precious from a humans being, they are also changing the person. Rape needs to end, people need to speak up against it. Suspected rapist should not be let out on bail, until proved innocent. That gives them a chance to hide, or strike again.

To all the people who have been abused, you are not alone. Every two minutes another female is being sexually assaulted. I tell you this hoping that you will have learned that rape is a major issue in America and listening to a victim, especially children, makes all the difference. Lend a helping hand by lending an open ear.