Jared Diamond

This chapter covered the harmful effects that humans are placing upon mother earth. It covers the resources that we have been using too frequently and are now being sacred and there is no way to replace what we have taken away from the earth. This really goes back to our current situation of global warming. Since we haven't seen any "major damages" in our personal,everyday life, there is no need to change our daily habits. But the earth is slowly being effected, our ozone layer is thinning at a rate that is going to leave us unprotected, giving us harsh summers and an overflow of oceans. We are not being aware of what can happen to us in the future, because we are living on a day to day basis without knowledge of what our actions may be doing to the earth.

Chapter 24: Accelerating Global Interaction

In the beginning of the article, it starts off talking about the topic of Barbie and Ken. Barbie is meant to be the image of the perfect female body and Ken, the perfect male partner. Yet, they are both unmarried and set an odd example of what a couple should be like to the Muslim community. Compared to Americanized visions of what children should play with at a young age, Iranians have their own vision of Barbie and Ken, Sara and Dara. They are both eight year old twins who seek guidance from their parents in times of need and help finding love. This message is very different from the one that Barbie and Ken tend to express. Sara and Dara reflect the cultural values of the Muslim community, while Barbie and Ken tend to come into play with the Western culture media.

There have been factors have come into play when it comes to global interaction. There are four major processes that helped countries that were beginning to rise: world economy, global feminism, religions with modernity, humankind's enormous impact on the environment. After the World Wars, Cold War, and Great Depression occurred in the world, the economical stand point was at an all time low. Systems such as "Bretton Woods system" helped promote relatively free trade, technology helped the economy by products being produced and sold, this helped decrease the employment rate all over the world. Migrating laborers provided an inexpensive source of labor for their adopted countries. With the United States and Britain coming a halt in power, it gave Asian and African countries a time to catch up. Asian countries such as China and Japan, helped a lot with producing technology, toys, and transportation, they in partnership with the United States were also able to upstage them in their own game.

People started to take resources like fossil fuels and coal in the nineteenth century and oil in the twentieth. These new sources of energy made it possible for modern science and technology increased the production of goods and services. The growth of the population normally didn't change the environment on a large scale level, but since the growing number of the poor and the growing number of the rich consuming resources was creating a dent in the environment around them. The human remaking of the environment also greatly increased the population of cattle, pigs, chickens, rats, and dandelions. The major set back in this was the act that air pollution was starting to become a problem. The release of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons thinned the ozone layer, which protects the earth from excessive ultraviolet radiation. This reminds me of what we are currently going through in terms of global warming.

Putin's Challenge

The article goes over the genocide of Circassians, mostly Muslim people who self-identity as Adygn (19th century) and currently settle in New Jersey. They are people that were fighting for their rights all through out history. I am surprised that I haven't heard about them in history class before. Much like the Holocaust many Circassians lost their life during various conquests by other countries. Circassians were once world-famous, the most dominant force and fountainhead of Caucasian culture. They believe in "khabza"which stands for honor, hospitality, respect for elders, egalitarianism and liberty. The Circassians had a whole culture, life style, and history about them, yet all of it was slowly getting away and being taken away from them. They were loaded onto ships and cast away to Turkey. Once settled, men were given orders and women rather commit suicide than go through with the work that they had waiting for them. This article helps you open your eyes to the world around us, that genocide and massive killings still happen. That powerful cultures can take over other cultures and delete them. It's something that happens on daily basis and continues to happen in present time.

Chapter 23:Independence and Development in the Global South

This chapter touches bases upon why the colonial empires collapsed. Theories such as: racism, exploitation  and poverty. Social and economic issues generated the human raw material for anti-colonial movements, and then there is simply because groups of people deliberately brought down the colonial system. Other topics such as India and the African community gaining independence from British control, were explained in detail. Leaders such as Gandhi and Mandela. were brought to the scene and how they are currently important to us today. The differences between the independence of India and South Africa are discussed, along with the ending of the South African apartheid.

There are times in history where I wonder why I must learn the same events every year, like the Holocaust, Civil War, Declaration of Independence, various activists,etc. I think the reason why we must learn about these things each year is to one, get a better understanding of them, two, to relate them back to modern days, and three, if we were to just learn about such events like the holocaust in 6th grade, you would only have the understanding of the Holocaust as a 6th grader. Relearning about independent events and leaders help a community grow, especially a troubled one. Looking back at all the trouble that people had to go through just to reach the amount of rights that we have today is insane.