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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Australia's engagement with Asia: Water - a case study on Flores
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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China wants a railroad linking it to Thailand and on to the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar, but some international groups warn that it may put a big burden on Laos.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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mixed used train-tracks/market place... I've used similar videos in my classes and students are usually quite shocked to see how a city like Bangkok, Thailand operates. I've used this as a 'hook' for lessons of population growth, urbanization, economic development, sustainability, megacities and city planning.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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With the country also known as Burma taking steps toward democracy and respect for human rights, Coke is returning after a 60-year absence. What are the two nations where it still won't be doing business? Globalization has made many companies and products ubiquitious throughout the world. We take their presence as a matter of course, a sign that the largest brands are in essentially every country in the world--but not all. Until recently Coca Cola was not in three markets, all for political reasons. Now that Burma is becoming more democratic, Coca-Cola will bring their product to all countries of South East Asia. Any guesses on the 2 countries that still don't have Coke? UPDATED CORRECTION: Thanks to the great people at About.com 's geography page, I was informed that there are more than just the initially listed two countries (North Korea and Cuba) not within the Coke universe (such as Somalia and East Timor to name a few). For more on this see: http://geography.about.com/b/2012/06/15/coca-cola-in-every-country-but-three-no.htm
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Indonesia has the largest share of the world's mangroves — coastal forests that have adapted to saltwater environments. They play important environmental and ecological roles. Mangroves play a key role of acting as an ecological buffer in coastal region that provide the area with resilience against tsunamis, hurricanes and other forms of coastal flooding. Their role in carbon sequestration is also vital as energy emissions globally continue to rise. So let's jump scales: how are global issues locally important? How is the local deeply global? How can stakeholders at either scale find common ground with the other?
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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A former gang member from Long Beach, California, teaches break dancing to at-risk youth in Cambodia. This video is a great example of cross-cultural interactions in the era of globalization. Urban youth culture of the United States is spread to Cambodia through a former refugee (with a personally complex political geography). What geographic themes are evident in this video? How is geography being reshaped and by what forces?
Sometimes the news can be good news! The historic April 1st election in Burma that saw Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy win 43/45 parliamentary seats is being hailed as the first free and fair elections for 50 years! This is a current perspective on the many changes transforming Myanmar back into Burma. For more by John Boyer, see: http://www.plaidavenger.com/ ;
On my last afternoon in Bagan, I went in search of a meal that would serve as both lunch and dinner, before boarding my flight... As a notoriously closed society, glimpses into Burma become all the more important as Burma shows signs of (possibly) opening up politically for the first time in decades.
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Suggested by
Faquaral
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The Thai capital, built on swampland, is slowly sinking and the floods in Bangkok could be merely a foretaste of a grim future as climate change makes its...
If 'natural' disasters are becoming more fierce and impacting human societies more, we need to ask ourselves: are the physical geographic systems shifting independently or is it human society that is causing the changes? Is it the force of the hurricanes, earthquakes, floods etc. that have intensified or is the way within which humans live on the land that make us more susceptible and vulnerable to the effects of these disasters?
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Flood waters inundating Thailand north of Bangkok since July have made the journey south and reached the capital. The disaster is responsible for 400 deaths in Thailand and neighboring Cambodia and Vietnam. Too much of a good thing (water) can literally be disastrous.
For 10 years I had the great privilege to lead the genetic resources program at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, and work... A lengthy clip (I would only show the first 4 minutes with a class) that demonstrates the vast amount of scientific energy focused on agriculture. Unspoken is the vast amount of resources invested in genetically modified organism that is leading to a loss of genetic biodiversity that poses some potential risks for our most important crops.
Via Luigi Guarino
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra warns population to expect floods as rising waters reach capital city... Geographic ironies....some struggle in drought while others have more water than their lands can handle.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Competing territorial claims have led to maritime disputes off the coast of Asia. See a map of the islands at issue.
This is an nice interactive map that allows the reader to explore current geopolitical conflicts that are about controlling islands. This is an good source to use when introducing Exclusive Economic Zones, which is often the key strategic importance of small, lightly populated islands.
Tags: EastAsia, SouthEastAsia, political, unit 4 political, territoriality, autonomy, conflict, economic.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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The torrential rains that caused widespread flooding in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, have left the city reeling... This is a grim, but captivating photo gallery showing how people adapt to environmental disasters. Human settlements are vulnerable to disasters based on their environmental situations but people still display an amazingly capacity to be resilient in the face of danger. "The torrential rains that caused widespread flooding in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, have left the city reeling. Thousands of people remain in evacuation shelters, and those who stayed in their homes during the deluge face a major clean-up operation."
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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In a nation of 230 million people, 700 languages and some 300 ethnicities, ethnic Chinese are one of Indonesia’s historic minorities. Religion and ethnicity are often connected, but not always. This case study of such a group, the Chinese Muslims of Indonesia, provide an interesting glimpse into the economic, historic and political patterns of these cultural groups that are parts of communal identities.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Jakarta's traffic is legendary and locals have now become experts at finding ways to get around the jams, with some even making money out of them. The population of Indonesia is heavily concentrated on the island of Java, and the capital city of Jakarta faces a tremendous strain on it's transportation network. This video show that resourceful people will find inventive ways to make an unworkable situation manageable.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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The Mekong River was once a wild and primitive backwater. Today, growing demands for electricity and rapid economic growth are changing the character of what is the world's 12th-longest river. Economic progress for some often entails job loss and environmental degradation for others. The once isolated and remote Mekong is experiences some impacts of globalization with residents having mixed feelings about the prospects.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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If you haven't yet discovered http://www.plaidavenger.com/ I recommend exploring it (numerous World Regional resources). You'll find its brand of geography has a whole lot of personality; you'll decide soon enough whether that personality works for your classroom. This particular 'plaidcast' discussion focuses on political geography, the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), and the strategic importance of overseas exclaves using the Spratly Island example in the South China Sea. Minor correction to video: Territorial waters only extend 12 miles offshore, not the 200 miles of the exclusive economic zone.
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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Many companies have moved their customer service lines to Manila to take advantage of workers who speak lightly accented English and are familiar with American culture. The geography of globalization is epitomized by relentless change and marked by continual turnover. Cultural and economic factors play significant roles in creating potential advantages for receiving outsourced jobs (whether that is beneficially long-term is another discussion).
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Scooped by
Seth Dixon
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"Green is an unusual film. It is both a hard hitting portrayal of the causes and consequences of deforestation in Indonesia, and a film which captures the tranquillity and calm of wild nature. It contains no narrative or dialogue and yet helps us understand complex commodity chains. Green needs to be taken seriously. In these pages we present a series of short essays in response to the film."
'Green' is a female orangutan in Indonesia, beset with deforestation and resource exploitation of her habitat. This is a non-profit film follows her; watch at the film’s website or view the trailer: http://www.greenthefilm.com/
This is modern cosmopolitan Bangkok, the second most expensive Southeast Asian city after Singapore. Along with explosive city growth, the demand for urban housing has increased substantially. Due to a lack of sufficient and affordable housing, communities have settled into the cracks, eliciting a diagnosed social and institutional ‘pocket-urbanism’ that forms barriers of interaction among communities, and certainly between communities and authority figures...
Via Lauren Moss
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Seth Dixon
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Bangkokians must do their part, now The Nation There is one painful fact at this stage of the flood disaster: The waters need to pass through Bangkok as fast as possible to ease the suffering of... This is a fantastic geographic issue (horrible for people, but intensely spatial). Should the primate city be spared because of its overwhelming national prominence? Should the flooded regional provinces suffer more to spare the economic, financial and political center of the country? For some elevation/flooding maps see: http://newley.com/2011/10/24/thailand-flooding-update-october-24-2011-warning-issued-last-night-for-northern-bangkok/
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