Monday - Today we first went over the new weekly forum posts, talking about a few current events, and then continued presenting our class projects over current issues around the world.
Cocaine
- It is used as a stimulant or recreational drug.
- It has to be snorted, inhaled or inserted into the veins.
- It is a powder from a dry leaf plant called the coca.
- The plant was founded in South America.
- It is extremely addictive and can be very bad for your health.
- Symptoms: itching, fast heartbeat, hallucinations, etc.
- One to three percent of people in the world use cocaine at some point in their lives.
- This isn't as big of a problem as it used to be.
- Uses: Anesthesia, Oxidation, Stimulation, and Nutrients.
- Coca Cola still actually uses coca leaves in its beverage to this day.
- However, it is not dangerous at all in this beverage.
- The United States and other nations prohibit the sale of coca leaves.
- Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Megan Fox, Oprah Winfrey, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Dep, and Nicole Richie are all people who currently use cocaine or have used cocaine in the past.
- In 2011, The Obama administration gave over 88 million dollars for preventing drug use as part of the "Drug free communities support program".
- Obama administration had released a "National prevention Strategy". This mainly focuses on preventing drug use before it even starts.
- Cocaine is known as the rich peoples' drug because it is very expensive.
- You can get into it by stress, severe depression, and peer pressure.
- This drug can ruin your whole life. It can ruin your family life, your job, and lots of other things in your life as well.
United States Military Bases
- Military bases are supposed to by secretly owned by the military.
- The shelters have equipment, trained personnel, and training facilities.
- The United States has 800 military bases are the world.
- We have these bases in places like Mexico, Africa, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
- No other country has bases on American soil like we do.
- In some cases we do have permission to set up bases like this, but in other places we basically go in and force to set up a base and take over.
- We have 174 bases in Germany, 83 bases in South Korea, and 113 bases in Japan.
- Environmental Issues are a huge problem.
- There is millions of tons of toxic waste that has been dumped.
- It spreads fatal cancers and disease.
- There are been 5.4 billion dollars spent on the cleanup efforts.
- This is a really big problem in developing countries because they don't have good medical care and they don't really have anywhere to put the waste.
- A local toll says that thousands of people have been driven out of their homes because of the American Government and military bases.
- Labor Abuse in Afghanistan: There is forced labor and human trafficking, they work 14 hour days, they have unsustainable low pay for migrant workers.
- The bases cause them this because their land gets taken away so they have to find another place to work and they see the people as cheap labor so they don't give them good money for their work.
- We pay $156 billion a year for military bases.
- The United States tax payers pay $10,000 to $40,000 in total (Everyone's money combined) for these bases.
- The United States is the biggest leader in the money spent on building military bases.
- We spend more on our military budget than anyone else today.
- Okinawa, Japan Military Base: There have been many incidents of U.S. servicemen raping young Japanese girls and women, and this has sparked protests to reduce the U.S. presence in Okinawa.
Tuesday - Today we continued presenting our class projects over current issues around the world. We actually finished presenting our projects today so we started talking about what the semester test days for this class will look like. Then we went over the map of the United States.
United States Military Bases:
- Sometimes military bases can create more problems than they solve.
- They create motivation for radicalism.
- They can be a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda because there is strong Anti-Americanism.
- These military bases gave Osama Bin Laden inspiration and motivation for the attacks on 9/11.
- Military bases also increase the possibilities of war twice as much because people start to hate Americans when we station military bases where they live.
- Some people think Military Bases are bad and that there is too much military presence around the world by the United States, but others think it's just our defense and that we are doing the right thing.
- There have been protests that have risen to close bases.
- Some countries, like Germany, are okay with the US putting military bases up there, but others are not, like some countries in Africa.
- Many of the bases came from post World War Two.
- We can close unnecessary bases that we haven't been using and are in places that there isn't a lot of conflict. This could save the US a lot of money.
- Solutions: Cleaner disposal methods of toxic waste, new laws to combat labor abuse, stronger penalties for sexual assaults, and create more laws to protect the locals.
- A lot of the conflict comes from what is happening to the people of these countries because of the military bases.
- There is a healthy compromise between protecting the United States and decreasing unneeded military presence.
Wednesday - Today we started talking more about Illegal Immigration by reviewing a previous power point, and then we started watching a really long video of a story about a person that was an illegal immigrant and didn't know until he was sixteen years old. Also, you can watch the republican debate for ten extra credit points, but it is not required. Friday is the US States and Capitals part of the semester test, and then Tuesday will be the final part of the semester test.
Thursday - Today we continued watching the movie over Illegal Immigration. But before that, I got the chance to beat the record for fastest time going through the map of the United States and I beat it. People can continue to try this throughout the next couple of school days. Remember that tomorrow is the actual part of the semester test of the map of the United States so please study.
Friday - Today we finished watching the video calling "Documented". Then we had the rest of the hour to study for the upcoming semester tests. The test for this class will be on Tuesday morning of next week.
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