1. Describe the main political and economic systems in the world.
Dictatorship: A form of government where one person or small selective group holds all the power. Ex: North Korea
Representative Democracy: A system where the people elect a group of officials who vote on the issues. The people vote for the people who share similar beliefs. Ex: USA
Direct Democracy: Where the people vote directly on issues.
Monarchy: The royal family has total control over all the people in the country.
Constitutional Monarchy: The royal family still has control but is limited to following the guidelines set by a constitution.
Communism (theory): That everyone would be equal. Everyone would have a job and there would be no social classes. Started by Karl Marx.
Communism (practice): Everyone is equal, but very poor. The government is rich and has total control over everyone.
Socialism: Government is in control of the businesses and production.
Capitalsim: People own the businesses and run the economy.
2. What are the major divisions between Democrats and Republicans in the US?
Democrats: Are more liberal and believe in letting the people do as they want. They favor minimum wage and higher taxes for the rich. Many believe in the allowance of gay marriage and prochoice. Their ideals are based on community caring and responsibility. They believe that the government should be more involved in the citizens and their lives.
Republicans: Their views are more conservative and believe in traditional values. Believe everyone should pay the same amount and taxes should be low for everyone. Most of them oppose gay marriage and abortion. They stay strictly to the constitution and its guidlines. They base their beliefs on rugged individualism and a hands off government.
3. What were the results of the 2012 Presidential election? What caused President Obama to win?
Obama and Biden were re-elected. This is because Obama had more of the minority votes. He had the vote of women, hispanics, and African Americans. He also had the votes of urban areas. In many places the rural areas voted for Romney, but due to the higher urban population Obama won. The bigger states that had a higher urban population also had more electoral votes. This made it easy for Obama to win big numbers of votes at a time.
4. What are the major social issues facing the world due to overpopulation, poverty and inequality
Gender Equality: Women are not getting fair treatment in employment or education worldwide. In many third world countries it is not allowed or possible for a girl to attend school. When girls cannot attend school they do not have a good chance of getting a stable and good job. Also it makes it dificult for woment to get government jobs. Without women in the government, the issues that matter to women go unnoticed. When women do not have a job they spend more time at home having children. This adds to the population crisis. When they have more children and less money, the kids' education takes a back seat and the pattern continues. These problems are worse in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Children/Maternity Health: Too many children under the age of 5 die everyday. From diseases like AIDS, Malaria, and Tetnus. Most causes of death are due to the enviroment that the children are placed in. They have very little food, which causes malnutrition. They also have very limited health care. This means that everyday diseases that are easily treated and prevented in America, may kill a child in a third-world country. In order for children to live longer and healthier lives, they need to have better medical rescources and living conditions. In such a small environment with so many people, disease spreads quickly to large numbers of people at one time. The rate of women dying every year due to preganancy and childbirth has been cut in half in the last 20 years. The UN hopes to cut the mortality rate by 5% and to give maternal health access to all women.
Combating HIV/AIDS: Their goal is to fault the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. By 2010 everyone should have access to treatments. Also to end the occurance of Malaria and other major diseases. Over 33.3 million people have AIDS. Ever year 1.8 million of these people die. The rates are worse in Sub-Saharan Africa and South/South East Asia. This is due to lack of treatment and education about the disease and prevention.
Environmental Sustainability: Goal is to reduce the amount of people who do not have access to safe drinking water by 2015. Also to give schools a safe environment for kids to learn and play. Deforestation, habitat destruction, slums, and pollution are the biggest obstacles in achieving thsi goal. They have been working to provide safe sanitation services for third-world countries and their people. By 2020 they would like to get 100 million people out of slums.
Global Partnership: Their goals are to decline poverty by developing an open, rule-based, predictable, non-disrimenatory traiding and financial systems. Also to address the needs of the developing countries, such as high levels of debt, through national and international aid. Believe that ending poverty is not just economical, but also environmental, educational, cultural, and health related living. They have reduced water polution in areas, laid more land for forests, and improved sanitational services.
Ending Poverty and Hunger: The goal is to lower the people who live on less than a dollar a day by 2015. Also to cut the number of people who suffer from hunger in half. They aim to do this by improving the equality and quality of employment. Without money families and people will not have access to food or health care. This may cause people to take dangerous or difficult jobs for low pay.
Worldwide Education: Goal for all children to complete course of primary schooling. 1/5 adults are illeterate. This creates issues when trying to get a job. If a person cannot get a good job it causes struggles for that person and their family later in life. Americans have been traveling to developing countries to build schools. Often the children cannot get an education because they do not have access to a school.
(Three from this list-10 points each)-Students will be able to explain their understanding of recent current events(Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Uganda(LRA), North/South Korea, Israel).
Rwanda: Extremist Hutus killed over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 100 days. It began April 6 with the plane carrying the Rwandan president (a Hutu) and other government officials being shot down. Almost immediately the slaughter began. The UN and US pulled out of Rwanda soon after. They refused to label it a genocide for fear of having to intervene. The Hutus and Tutsis had extreme ethnic tension due to the seperation caused by the Belgians who used to run the country.
Darfur: In Sudan JEM (Justice Equality Movement) and SLM are rebel groups fighting against the Sudanese government for better treatment. They believe that the government is favoring the Arabs in the country over the black Africans. This attack began in 2003. The group of the Janjaweed goes to the villages of the Africans to destroy and steal from them. The government denies hiring the Janjaweed. America is not allowed to interfere because the government has not asked us to help. The dispute is over farmable land that is quickly fading in that region of the world.
Sudan and South Sudan: The major reason for this dispute is oil, also know as the "one rescource curse". Sudan has had two major civil wars which have resulted in the death of two million people.The fighting was also caused by religion and racial issues, but more substantially oil. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005 wa supossed to end the 2nd civil war, deicide how the oil was to be divided, establish a democratic government and set up a timetable for granting South SUdan independence. South Sudan became an indepenent state on July 9th 2011.
Syria: Syria was controlled by France from 1918-1946. After it gained its independence it held a very shakey government. In 1963 the country was put under emergency law. This restricted the freedoms and opportunites for the people of Syria. In 1971 Al-Assade became the leader. The government was more stable, but very controllive. Assade created a dictatorship and cult of personailty. In 2000 Assade's son, Boshar Al Assade, took over for his father. A year ago protests began as a result of the Arab Spring. The people were asking for a new president, more freedoms, and better opportunities. Two failed cease fires follwed. On December 17th 2012 the Syrian VP called for a "national unity government."
Somalia: Since 1991 Somalia has been at civil war. Since then the government has had very little control over the country. The terrorist group, Al Shabab, has been terrorizing the people. They control the majority of the rescources and kill anyone who gets in their way. Pirates are also a big problem for Somalia. They control the bodies of water around the area. In september of this year they elected president Hussan Sheikh Mahamud, though the government is still fairly unstable.
Democratic Republic of Congo: DRC was granted independence from Belgium in 1960. From 1971-1997 the president was Mabuto Seko. We supported Seko due to his anti-communitstic views, even though he was guilty of human rights violation, corruption, and creating a cult of personality. 1996-1997 the first congo war was being fought over enthnic tension added from the refugee Hutus from Rwanda. This resulted in the president being overthrown. The 2nd Congo war lasts from 1983-2003 and is the deadliest African history, killing 5.4 million people. This resulted in 1/2 a million people fleeing to other countries. In 2003 Joseph Kabila became president. The goals of this new government were to unify the country, end fighting, disarm all terrorist groups, and hold elections.
South Africa: From 1948-1994 black Africans were descriminated against and segregated from the Afrikaans who derived from the Netherlands (Apartheid). They couldn't vote or hold office and had very few rights. In 1990 the new president began to end Apartheid. In 1994 Nelson Mandela, a black African, became president.
Libya: Great Britian was in control of Libya until 1951 when they granted them independence. In 1969 Gadaffi seized power from the then King. He put Sharia Law, very strict Islamic law, into place. He helped the country economically, with a better education, and inreased the life span. At the same time he killed nearly anyone who he felt he could not trust and had no opposition to terrorist groups. This changed after 9/11. He then gave us information on Al Qada. During the Arab Spring on October 2011 Gadaffi was killed by rebels in his country. In 2012 a new democratic governmentw as established.
Uganda: Uganda recieved independence from Great Britian in 1962. The country has been at war for the majority of its indpendence. The most recent civil war is between the government and the Lords Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony. The LRA wants to put the 10 commandments as the law. They are guilty of kidnapping 30,000 children and using them as for soldiers, killing, mutialting, and child slavery.
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