Government

Mexico      
Federal Republic      
President Felipe Calderón        










 China
 Communist
 President Hu Jintao

India

Federal Republic

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Afghanistan

Islamic Republic

President Hamid Karzai

Iran

Theocratic Republic

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Israel

Parliamentary Pemocracy

President Shimon Peres

Germany

Federal Republic

President Joachim Gauck

United Kingdom

Constitutional Monarchy and Commonwealth Realm

Prime Minister David Cameron

France 

Republic

President François Hollande

Brazil

Federal Republic

President Dilma Rousseff

Venezuela

Federal Republic

President Hugo Chávez

Saudi Arabia

Monarchy

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia

United States
Constitution Based Federal Republic
President Barack Obama

Test Postponed

     Today we had an evacuation due to a bomb threat which threw off everyone's schedule, so our test, that we were supposed to take today, was postponed until Friday because Mr. Schick will not be here tomorrow. So, today in class Mr. Schick took more input from us for the tests. We gave him possible question that will be on the test and reviewed. Also, something amazing happened in class today, Ryan raised his hand!!! Hahaha, it was a pretty amazing occurance. Anyways, these questions include stuff about the five religions we have been studying, cultural characteristics, and the "discovery of America". So today was not as eventful as others because we had a short class and all we did was review. Which isn't such a bad thing.

Possible Test Questions

1) Who were the first group of people to discover America?
         Native Americans

2) Name three cultural characters that unite (and ununite) people together.
          Language
          Ethnic Heritage
          Religion

3) What are the five major religions in the world?
          Christianity
          Judaism
          Buddhism
          Islam
          Hinduism

4) Why can some countries have many different ethnic heritages but still get along?
          Good leadership

5)When and where was Christianity founded?
            Around 30 A.D in Jerusalem.

More Religion.

       Today in class we had a few conversations about religion and at one point, we had Kishan tell us all about Hinduism. He explained to us (or at least tried to) about how many people think Hinduism is a polytheistic religion but it is not. Kishan explained that Hindus believed in only one god, but has been reincarnated to other Gods, it's a difficult concept to perceive. We also learned many different cultures have different laws a punishments for breaking those laws. For example, in many middle eastern countries women are not treated with any respect and have little rights, and if they break those right they can get severe  punishments such as amputation of certain body parts depending on the crime. Also, in those places, women are not allowed to show many "features". Women have to wear loose fitting clothes and cover their whole body including most of their face.
      After we discussed those thing for a while, we started to get into to talking about Buddhism. We learned about Siddhartha Gautama's philosophy on how everyone suffers.The Buddhists also have an eight fold path that is kind of similar to what our guest speaker said about our thoughts, words, actions, habbits, and character. The Eightfold path is right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

More Culture...And Religion!

       Today in class we continued talking about culture. First we talked about ethnic groups and how in some cases there are many countries with many different ethnic groups. Now that is not always a good thing. Having more than one ethnic group in a country can lead to civil war , especially if that country is not under good leadership. For example, the US has many different ethnic groups among it but for the most part everyone gets along and there are no civil wars happening. But in places like Rwanda and Burundi in Africa have 2 dominant ethnic groups, Tutsis and Hutus, and they do not get along. After we discussed that, we went on to talk about religion. Religion is both unifying and dis-unifying. If people disagree on their beliefs, in many cases, it causes war and even civil war. But, when people have the same religious beliefs it brings them together to practice those beliefs. We, also learned about the five major religions which are; Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism  and Judaism. We only really got into talking about Christianity and none of the other ones so I think I know what we will be doing next class.

Religion Mini-Project

    Christianity was founded in the first century in Levant region of the middle east by Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is a monotheistic religion and their holy book is the Bible. About 33% of the  world (2.1 billion people) are Christian. Their central figure is Jesus and most Christians are located in North and South America, Africa, and Europe.
      The Islam religion has about 1.6 billion followers which is around 22% of the worlds population. Most Muslims are found in Middle Eastern countries. Its is a monotheistic religion that was founded in the 7th century in the Middle East. The Islamic central figure is Allah and their holy book is the Qur'an.
       Buddhism began in the late 6th century in east India. It is a polytheistic religion but their central figure is the Buddha. Their are about 500 million followers of Buddhism and the holy book is the Tripitaka. Most Buddhists are located in many part of Asia.
      Hinduism was founded around 1500 BC near the Indus river.The Hindu holy book is known as the Vedas. There are around 1 billion Hindus in the world. It is a polytheistic religion and most Hindus are located in India.
      Judaism is a monotheistic that was founded around 3 thousand years ago and their central figure is God. There are about 13 million followers of the Jewish religion. Their holy book is the Torah, or The Hebrew Bible. Jews are mainly located in Israel.

Culture

        Today in class we went over a power point all about culture. We learned about all the things culture does and how it links and or divides people/regions together. We also looked at a map of how people all over america differentiate on how they refer to soft drinks. Many places in the west called it pop, others called it soda, and other just called every type of soda coke, even if it was not actual coca cola, which I find in of strange, and other people that call it pop or coke would think it is weird that I refer to it as soda. One big part of culture that links people together is their language. Most countries have one main language that is spoken among people so it allows them to communicate with each other. English is such a well know language that it is the language of the world, it is used it world wide business trade and it is usually the second language taught in non english countries.

Presentations

        Today in class presented our projects. I went up with Kishan and Sean to present about Native Americans. I feel we did a very good job, especially because no other group really did the project. So they had to use projects from another class. I learned that the Vikings arrived in America in about 1000 A.D and they traveled by ships. They used three different types of ships which were the snekke, drekkar, and sniek. The Vikings were not sent by anyone to go there, they went on their own and when they arrived they did not fight for the land. The Vikings did not stay in America for long at all because they did not find it special, they could do all the stuff they could do there that they could do at home. After that group presented, I learned about Christopher Columbus and his arrival at America. I learned that ,obviously, he was NOT the first one to arrive there. The Native Americans and Vikings were there first. But, unlike the Vikings, Columbus and his men fought the Native Americans for their land and pushed them west into the country.

Test Review and Columbus Day!

      Today we got out test on the Three Lost Boys of Sudan handed back to us. I only got one question wrong which was about the name of the group they formed to entertain them and discuss their situation, I put The Lost Boys, but the answer was Parliament. I also got 1 point taken off of a question because I forgot the "H" in Pittsburgh... "H" is stupid anyways. Other than that I did fairly well on the test and I hope to keep it up. After we reviewed our tests we began a Google presentation on either Christopher Columbus, The Vikings, or Native Americans. My group and I were researching Native Americans, who were there before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The Native Americans were actually there about 10,000 years before him, but he killed many Native Americans who were defenseless since they did not have guns and Europeans took natural resources and basically invaded the Native Americans. They were forced to move out of there homeland and go west.

Test Today and Unusual Cultures

        Today we took our second test which was about the movie we watched, "God Grew Tired of us". I think I did an OK job but I'm pretty sure might have missed a few questions. After every one finished the test, Mr. Schick told us to search up unusual cultures and that's where things got interesting. We all searched up cultures that seem to be odd and different from ours and we found many crazy things. One strange culture I found was in Indonesia people point with their thumbs because it is considered rude to point with your index finger and in America people point with their index finger. There were many other strange cultures like camel wrestling, gurning, and day of the geese. One thing I think is funny is that if it is your own culture you don't find it weird. For example, in many western civilizations young kids believe in a fairy that collects lost teeth and gives them money if they put it under their pillow when they sleep. Most people in our region would find this normal for kids to believe in whereas people from other cultures would find this crazy, and this would be the same for our perspective on other "weird" traditions in cultures. So, the different places in the have many cultural differences and people just seem to find other culture strange and unusual.

Charity Discussion

      Today in class we talked about various different charities that we could follow up on. First we talked about Toms, the shoe company. Toms donates one pair of shoes to people in Africa for every pair of shoes you buy for 80$. But we realized that would not be the best choice because its better to give them something that they can use to build on their own rather than just give them something. Just like the saying, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. But, teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime". Then Mr. Schick complained about how we bury our heads in our computer and don't pay attention in class. After that be continued our discussion on the foundations. The foundation I thought was good was Save the Children. I liked this one because it said they helped families in Africa help themselves. Which is what they need in order for their country to grow and prosper.

Sudan Charity

          Today in class we began working on our collaboration document on Google. On this document we had to search up foundations and charity to see if we could follow through with them. These charities would help with poverty, lack of food and water, and clothing . They would also provide better medical care for these people. One charity I found was savethechildren.org. This charity provides food, water, and medical supplies for countries in Africa that were ravaged by war, famine, and disease just like South Sudan. So this charity would be very helpful for people like John Bul Dau, Panther, and Daniel before they came to America. Plus, there are many other charities just like this one and if we choose one and fund raise , we could really make a difference and help poverty stricken families prosper to make the world a better place.          

End of the movie

           Today in class we finished up our movie we had been watching for the past few days, God Grew Tired of Us. At the end of the movie, John Bul Dau met with his mother and sister after being separated for 17 years. This part of the movie really showed how much struggle he faced in America, living without seeing your family for 17 years is a pretty challenging thing to do. Through all, Panther, John, and Daniels struggles, they end up in a much better position they were in a few years ago with the exception of Daniel who has still not found or heard from his family. Panther gets married, reunites with his family, got his bachelors degree, and wants to open a school in Sudan. John also got his bachelors degree and is building a medical clinic in Sudan. Daniel is still working in the job corps. John was really impacted from this experience and is trying to make a difference in Sudan and help everyone in need and suffrage, while others who had that opportunity just took care of themselves and didn't really care that much about everyone else still back there.