Post lessons from the movie Earth from above - The earth and it's resources

* Peru

               I am going to discuss the first part which happens in Peru. It's a fact that half of the animal and plant species of planet earth are found in the amazonian rainforests, thus deforestation occur for logging purposes, Not to mention there's lots poachers in the amazonian rain forest so exotic and protected species are targeted to sell to the society as pets. An example would be monkeys, on the market there's a shop selling monkeys as pets and even their meat for consumption. I really dislike how they treat their animals, however when they are questioned they justify their actions with unemployment. Only 10% is employed in Peru so the other 90% and their families must find a way to survive. A negative impact of the poaching is that some monkeys don't know which food to eat and this will ruin their natural habitat (Some cannot even climb trees!). Some of them ate poisonous plants which cause them to die, because of this there's a project to re-introduce monkeys back to their natural habitat.


             Agricultural lands are reducing biodiversity and depriving the local people of their homes. The colonists who are working there are killed by the Indians. The Indians are the native people, they have been living there for ages but the colonists who are working there are ruining/polluting the environment such that there's changes in the environment e.g. no clean water to consume. Even though this is not their fault, they are just working for the sake of their families, they don't mean harm yet they feel their lives and existences are threatened. Even though the government's law says that if u have lived there for a set period of time the land will be yours, still land is being given to non indigenous people who do not know how to protect it.

Post lessons from the movie "Tsunami, the Aftermath"

                         I learned alot of things from the movie, well first of all the movie is about this group of scuba divers who returned to their phuket resort after a morning outing on December 26, 2004 and notice all sorts of debris and then bodies, in the water. At the dock they see that the entire landscape is destroyed, The hotel is in ruins, and everyone, including their families and friends, is gone. It also shows how the days went by after a tsunami disaster and how do people cope with it.

                        What are the things that i learned? First thing is the absence of the warning system, if there's no warning to the society then ofcourse there will be casualties, so there's alot of critiscism against the government. There was also lack of medical facilities to cope with such a disaster, for example not enough transportation service. There was no ambulance seen, no local vehicles used for evacuation and only local civil staff seems to be helping with the evacuation. Another thing is there was only one road leading in and out of the disaster area, which caused difficulties in transporting supplies etc. Human resources are inadequate to provide relief efforts, thus demand for relief efforts for exceed supply and bodies are still lying around the next day.

                      Media were also blocked out, police refused journalist to enter the disaster areas(government told) this is against the need for raising world awareness. Treatment of dead bodies is also different between culture e.g. Western culture need for closure while thai's believe that the human body is a vessel, bodies will decompose and infections will spread. The public is also not well informed about such disasters and how to cope with it. The breakdown of telecommunication ( Mobile phones stopped working) hence limited communication to the outside world. Post traumatic stress disorder ( leading to some people questioning their religious faiths). Financial loss to business, Cost of reconstruction and loss of jobs in the hotel industry are also the effects of the tsunami.

                    

Reflection on SouthPark episode and "The Cove"

This was my first time watching either movie, and i haven't watch any south park episode yet since i thought its only for children's and not suited for me. My first impression was that the animation was very interesting and funny, my guess is they made it to adress the controversies surrounding Japanese Whaling. The situations in this animation is quite accurate, as related to "The Cove" basically its about Japanese people slaughtering dolphins and whales. I think that they can explain a lot more about the practices and horrors of whaling in the animation, but i guess since it is an animation it's probably intended for kids and such.


As for "The Cove", i was very shocked to see that the people in the Taiji village do these kinds of things. It never occurred to me that it is a culture to slaughter dolphins and whales. Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast. But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and "Keep Out" signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under the cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and a developing market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so devastating and the consequences are so dangerous to human health that they will go to great lengths to stop anyone from seeing it. I definitely agree that slaughtering of dolphins and whales is wrong, since their meat is poisoned by mercury i don't get why we need to kill them. It's probably because of the market, the demand for dolphins in marine parks, aqua parks for entertainment is high. 

So in conclusion i think the cove gives a very detailed explanation about why is whaling wrong, and the history behind it. while the south park episode simplifies this problem by highlighting the major problems, looking at it from a Japanese perspective.

Why do we study Geography?

Well It is natural for us humans to want to know more about our environment and the world we live in. The knowledge that we gain from learning the physical aspects of the earth and how it impacts humans will help us to understand better about the world around us. Also the information we get would be really really useful, for example the weather report. The geographers will predict what kind of weather will come up in the next few days and they will inform the society so that we can prepare the necessary precautions to handle it. Sometimes they can predict a big tsunami or any other natural disaster which will hit a country, so they country can evacuate the people inside and no lives would be lost because we know that it is coming.

What is Geography?

              Geography from my perspective is basically the study of the earth that we are living in, this includes the earth's landscapes, peoples, places and environments. Not only that but also how does the earth's environment affects human activities and vice versa. Many of my friends think that geography is a natural science which means it is all about the physical aspects of the earth, however i think that geography can also be a social science meaning that it can relate to recognizing the great differences in cultures, political systems, economies, landscapes and environments across the world, and the links between them. So geography is both a social science and natural science, understanding the causes of differences and inequalities between places social groups is another way to understand geography. It is, quite simply about the world in which we live.