Click here to go to comparing Thailand and Australia
Thursday 27 August 2015
Thursday 30 July 2015
Tweets
Ecological
footprint tweet
Our
entire human race can fit on this planet successfully if we manage our
resources well. If your ecological foot print is 1.5 Earth’s the Earth needs
1.5 years to replenish your supplies but in 2013 the average person used up
their supplies in 8 months which is called ecological overshoot therefore
humanity uses more resources than the Earth provides and over-time that will
hurt us. 17% of the human race uses 80% of the world’s resources making global
consumption unevenly distributed and extremely inefficient. The key to our race
surviving is management of our
resources.
Global
warming tweet
Earth’s fragile environment is protected by an atmosphere,
the atmosphere keeps some of the suns heat which let’s life survive, the sun
also heats up our oceans and land. Without the protection of the atmosphere the
Earth’s temperature would be lowered by 35 degrees to minus 20 degrees Celsius.
For the last two centuries increasing amounts of gases particularly
chlorofluorocarbons and carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere
in massive amounts. These gases keep more heat in the atmosphere causing ice
caps to melt and therefore causing low lying land to disappear under water.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity
is a very quickly rising problem that goes under the whole umbrella of climate
change. The definition of biodiversity is the variety of plant and animal life in the
world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered
to be important and desirable. Biodiversity is important because it boosts the
production rate of an ecosystem, in an ecosystem every single fauna and flora
has a job to play. If you start to take out one piece of an ecosystem the
ecosystem will never be complete, just like a jigsaw, if you take out one piece
of a jigsaw the jigsaw is not completed until the piece is put back.
Ecological Footprint
Ecological
footprint tweet
Our entire human race can fit on this planet successfully if we manage our resources well. If your ecological foot print is 1.5 Earth’s the Earth needs 1.5 years to replenish your supplies but in 2013 the average person used up their supplies in 8 months which is called ecological overshoot therefore humanity uses more resources than the Earth provides and over-time that will hurt us. 17% of the human race uses 80% of the world’s resources making global consumption unevenly distributed and extremely inefficient. The key to our race surviving is management of our resources.Ecological footprint connected to Carbon footprint.
Ecological footprint connected to Carbon footprint.
The carbon footprint is rising because our population is
rising and therefore is getting more developed. The population is using finite
resources and therefore the carbon footprint rises. If more carbon is in the
atmosphere the climate gets hotter and 2014 was the hottest year in recorded
history.
Monday 20 July 2015
Wednesday 3 June 2015
Indicators of development
INDICATORS OF DEVELOPMENT
Task 1
What does GDP measure?
GDP measures the money value of all goods in a country during a period of time and is measured on an annual basis. It includes all of private and public consumption, government outlays, investments and exports less than it imports within a defined territory or border.
Why is GDP used as a measurement?
GDP is used to measure what the total value of all goods in a country so you can see the health of economy in that country. It is also good because you can see how much the country has earned in a year per capita and how much the country has spent per capita. If you have a look at the map you can see the first world countries have high GDP and the third world countries have low GDP. Also all of the countries that have bad conditions to grow goods have high GDP because they would import a lot but they would have low exports. 
Task 2:
What can I see? What patterns?
On this map the countries that are shaded dark are the countries that have a high GDP and the countries that are shaded in lightly are countries that have a low GDP and therefore do not have a very large income. The countries that are LDEC’s have a low GDP per capita meaning that each individual does not make a large income and therefore cannot develop and break the poverty line. All the countries that have a high GDP are also MDEC’s, which adds to the theory, which says countries in the poverty cycle also have a low GDP.
Connections
I already know that people are in poverty mainly for two reasons; they have been kicked out of their home or area in which they live or they do not have the money to pay their rent or loans and have had their house returned to the bank or have had to sell it. A low GDP per capita means that a lot of people are in the poverty cycle and are not making enough money to pay for their own and their family’s food and residence.
Task 3:
GDP measures income but not equality, measures growth but not destruction and it ignores values like social cohesion and the environment. What I’m saying is that the GDP measures statistics, but nothing else. What it is missing out on is equality, values (personal, national etc.), the environments and nature. So, the GDP does have problems, and like everything else, nothing is perfect.
So the Question we should be asking ourselves is, ‘is GDP a good way to measure growth?
Task 4:
The Most Developed Country
Norway, or the Kingdom of Norway has is the most developed country currently in the world. This country that has almost 5 million people populating it is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with extremely high education standards and a very low poverty rate and unemployment rate, with a life expectancy of 80.2 years.
HDI Definition
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.
Which Is A Better Way To Measure Development?
I think that HDI is a better measurement toll because it is actually looking at the quality of life because if people are living in the streets with no food and water there life expectancy will be lowered by a large margin. It is better than GDP because the government could just buy a lot of goods and still have all these homeless people on the streets and get a good rating but I think that this is a false sense of rating.
Task 5:
The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country and not just economic growth by itself.
It has two main features:
A scale from 0 (no development) to 1 (complete development).
An index, which is based on three equally, weighted components:
- Longevity, measured by life expectancy at birth
- Knowledge, measured by adult literacy and number of yearschildren are enrolled at school
- Standard of living, measured by real GDP per capita at purchasing power parity
The Shortcomings of HDI:
1. The HDI index is for a single country, and as such does not distinguish between different rates of development within a country, such as between urban and traditional rural communities.
2. Critics argue that the equal weighting between the three main components is rather arbitrary.
3. Development is largely about freedom, but the index does not directly measures this. For example, access to the internet might be regarded by many as a freedom which improves the quality of people's lives.
4. As with the narrow measure of living standards, GDP per capita, there is no indication of the distribution of income.
5. In addition, the HDI excludes many aspects of economic and social life that could be regarded as contributing to or constraining development, such as crime, corruption, poverty, deprivation, and negative externalities.
6. GDP is calculated in terms of purchasing power parity, and the value can change.
No Super powers and economically rich countries are in the top five most GDP countries. The next one is the United States of America at number 6.
All of the countries in the bottom five are LEDCs and are filled with people who are unable to break the poverty cycle.
Qatar is located close to many LEDCs meaning many men, women and children will work for cheap prices and they are most likely working in bad conditions.
Page 6-7:
Australia has the highest life expectancy, the biggest GNI and has the biggest education out of the 4 Countries. Cambodia has the lowest life expectancy and the smallest GNI out of the 4, and Laos has the lowest education. I think Australia has the best conditions in all 3 of these graphs because Australia is the only first world Country out of the 4. Although Cambodia is second world, and Sri Lanka and laos are third world, Cambodia has the worst conditions out of all the Countries, based on these 3 graphs. This is a surprise, and I do not know why Cambodia has the worst conditions.
In the life expectancy graph Australia has the highest average of 80, Cambodia is 62, Laos is 66 and Sri Lanka is 69. This mean that the conditions for living in Australia is better than the other 3 countries.
In the education graph Australia has 12 years of school, Sri Lanka has 8, Cambodia has 5 and Laos has 4. This means that the GDP in the countries with less education might be lower because they will have less working people in their countries.
In the GNI graph the average income for Australians is $38,500 US dollars, East Timor, $5,200, Sri Lanka, $5,000, Laos $2,400 and Cambodia $2,300 so the countries with the lower income like Cambodia would have a higher chance of having lower GDP then other higher income countries.
Australia is considered a developed country because it has the second highest life expectancy in the world, it is the 3rd easiest country in the world to get employed and it has the world’s most livable city, Melbourne. Australia has a stable economy and is up to date with most of the modern technologies of today.
What are the reasons for poor results in these measures?
The main reason in my opinion is that the government is not spending it’s money wisely enough or just doesn’t have enough money and this then leads to unemployment and people living on the streets which can as I said before lower the life expectancy by a large margin.
1. PQLI index / Physical Quality of Life Index
2. GNH / Gross National Happiness
3. Happy Planet Index
4. GNI Per Capita
5. Sustainability
—When a person is deprived of food, shelter, money and clothing and cannot satisfy their basic needs.
—Poverty line is living on less than $2 per day.
—Extreme poverty is less than$1.25 per day
Sunday 31 May 2015
Connect, Extend, Challenge
Anzac,
Vimy Ridge, Monash and the education of children
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Chris
Watters*
Towards the end of the 20th
century there was an increase in claims that battles fought in World War I
defined national identity [T1] in Australia and Canada. between
These claims sounded similar, despite the differences in history the two
countries.
Into the
beginning of the 21st century this narrative is becoming louder, more
orchestrated and nearly identical in content. These claims presuppose that
there was no significant national identity in either country prior to the World
War I battles; accordingly, they militarise national history at the expense of
political, social and civil developments in each society.
On 25 April
2012, the then Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, gave a speech at a
Gallipoli commemoration ceremony in Turkey. She claimed that the Gallipoli
landings were ‘our first act of nationhood in the eyes of a watching world, an
act authored not by statesmen or diplomats, but by simple soldiers. The Anzacs.
The boys of Federation who became the men of Gallipoli.’ (1; footnotes to this
article are here) The Prime
Minister then quoted the words of Charles Bean that it was at Anzac that ‘the
consciousness of Australian nationhood was born’[T2] . She added: ‘The laws and
institutions of our nation were laid down in 1901. But here, in 1915, its
spirit and ethos were sealed.’
In 2007,
the Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, gave a speech at the anniversary
of Canada’s iconic World War I battle at Vimy Ridge, France, in April, 1917.
‘Every nation’, he said, ‘has a creation story. [T3] The First World War and the
battle of Vimy Ridge are central to the story of Canada.’ (2) The Prime
Minister agreed with Brigadier-General AE Ross, a witness to the battle, who
said after the war, ‘Canada
from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade, I felt that I was witnessing the
birth of a nation’[T4] . (Canada had been a dominion,
equivalent to the Australian colonies federating, since 1867.)
War memorial to the officers,
non-commissioned officers and men of the 44th Canadian Infantry who fell in
attacks on Vimy Ridge, the Triangle and La-Coulotte during April, May and June
1917 (source: National Archives of Australia, M5107, 8363910; photo: RV Morse)
On a battlefield where 3598
Canadians died, Prime Minister Harper also said that ‘there may be no place on
earth that makes us feel more Canadian’. In similar vein, Australian Prime
Minister, John Howard, said in 2004 of Gallipoli (8141 deaths, according to the
Australian War Memorial), [T5] ‘You feel as an Australian it’s
as much a part of Australia as the land on which your home is built’. (3)
While the rhetoric decades later
was the same in Australia and Canada, the original events were very different.
The Gallipoli campaign was a nine month disaster; Vimy Ridge was a successful
three day battle which dislodged the Germans from a very strategic ridge. [T6] The Anzacs did not undergo
rigorous amphibious training to prepare for their assault and did not know
their individual place in the campaign; the Canadians rehearsed tirelessly for
months and even Sergeants and Corporals were shown exactly where they fitted
into the overall plan.[T7]
Prime
ministerial rhetoric in both countries has been reflected at many levels, for
example, in education programs. All Australian States and Territories in
Australia now have Anzac student awards in some form; the winners travel on a
chaperoned tour of the battlefields of Europe. One winning essay says, ‘The ANZAC’s gave
my generation freedom and the choice[T8] , to do whatever we want to do
with our lives. No longer is there a set plan for men and women in society. Women are
welcomed at universities to increase their chances of securing high paid jobs[T9] , rather than childbearing and
homemaking.’ This winner wiped from history the pre-World War I struggle for
universal suffrage and equality in Australia.
In Canada,
the comparable children’s tour is conducted through the Beaverbrook Vimy Prize.
The entries are kept confidential. (4) In 2007, 3600 Canadian school children made the
pilgrimage to the site in France and wore replica uniforms labelled with the
names of fallen soldiers. [T10] Many Canadian students spend their gap year as tour guides at the Vimy
battlefield.
Despite the
views of some commentators, the idea that Australia already possessed a proud
democratic identity when World War I started is not an example of the black
arm-banded left rewriting history. [T11] General Monash himself wrote that Australians had a strong national
identity prior to the war and, given the strong link between war commemoration
and the education of children in today’s Australia, it is interesting to note
that Monash also thought the education system of the day was an important
contributor to the quality of the troops he led. He attributed any uniqueness
of the Australian soldier to ‘[t]he democratic institutions under which he was
reared, the advanced system of education by which he was trained – teaching him
to think for himself and to apply what he had been taught to practical ends’.
(5)
It is a
constant and clear theme in the literature that pre-World War I Australian
governments went to great lengths to achieve high education standards and to
ensure they were available to as many children as possible. (6) The state
provided free transport to school and subsidised the cost of a tutor if the
home was too far from a school. A high level of civic pride was shown by the
fact that state schools and books were free and that the curriculum was
designed to be ‘alive and interesting’. (7)
The result
of this educational framework was said to be that, ‘[n]aturally, Australian
children get to like school’. (8) Monash also wrote that the Australian soldier
had a high sense of teamwork ‘learnt from the sporting field, in his industrial
organisations and in his political activities’[T12] . (9) The positive correlation in citizens between sporting prowess and
soldering is always highlighted. (On the other hand, the fact that Monash
thought that he commanded better soldiers because they were politically active or
unionised in civilian life is never mentioned.)
The battles
at Gallipoli and Vimy Ridge were starkly different in many ways; however, they
are commemorated similarly in Australia and Canada. Both Canada and Australia
have used their respective battles as a basis to forge their identity as a
nation, and neither battlefield success (or lack of it) nor other strategic
detail appear to have impacted on the way the battles have been interpreted.
National
myths can be beneficial to a nation. They can foster unity, define social
values and construct a sense of identity. Yet the blind veneration of the
soldier, coexisting in rituals in secular yet holy ground, suggest an appeal
towards emotions over reason. This [T13] could create a self-fulfilling prophecy by improving the overall quality
of Australian and Canadian soldiers, as modern day volunteers would want to
enhance and uphold the legend, or, in the event that conscription were to be
reintroduced in Australia and Canada, the mythology of Anzac and Vimy could be
a useful psychological primer for recruits.
Myths can
suggest which values citizens of a society should and should not adhere to. But
values can grow from other sources, too. Since World War I there have been unprecedented
advances in all the disciplines of science, from physics to sociology[T14] . These are the disciplines in which the children of today should be
educated. Human, gender, indigenous and minority rights have progressed rapidly
also and one would hope they benefit all children and youths equally.
It is surely possible that
another event can be found to symbolise the birth of a nation in both Australia
and Canada, one that does not involve fighting a war, now associated with
futility, nearly a century ago. [T15] National narratives are powerful forces and it could be beneficial to
create one which is based on enlightenment and not destruction, one that
encourages the children of today to look forward to a humane and productive
future, rather than backward to imagined glories on the battlefield.
[T1]
Challenge, Some people like me suggest that national identity is formed during
wars, especially WW1 because, Australian soldiers really fought for there lives
bringing out new identities.
[T4]Extend,
Are Canadians thinking what we are, born fighters?, What about their day like
our Australia day, is it being taken over too?
[T5]Challenge,
So we aren’t the only country thinking Gallipoli made us, why do we spend the
most on Anzac day, many other countries are feeling the same.
[T13]Challenge, they also can give you false hope or false
advice, that could do bad for your country.
[T14]Connection,
so maybe we are not picking up on other factors that influenced are identity,
not just fighting.
[T15]Extend,
we think of big changing events that seem to always involve death what about
other non violent events?
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