Chapter 8 - Political Geography

Article: Hoping for Asylum, Migrants Strain U.S. Border

Thousands of Mexicans migrants cross the U.S. boarder each year in search of a better live, but the U.S. boarder patrol has caught over 90,700 apprehensions in the Rio Grande Valley in the past six months so now the migrants are seeking asylum from gang violence then the U.S. has to go through the legal trouble of looking at each case and deciding if asylum can be granted. 

Map:

I choose the UK because it is a very interesting display of boarders and a multi-nation state. Although Ireland, Scotland and Wales are all under British rule they consider themselves to be separate, in a recent vote however Ireland did not voted not to claim independence from the UK.

Readings:
"Lines in the Sand," Cullen Murphy
"Chapter 8: Political Geography" from Human Geography



How have the European set boundaries lead to more conflict?

              The modern map of the Middle East was largely drawn up by Britten and France based on the two countries agreements to follow a treaty created during WWI. The map that they drew did not really take regional characteristics into account and was created almost entirely for the personal gain of the two countries. The careless mapping of the middle east created geographic states in places which have clashing religions and social behaviors. Originally there was a plan to take regional characteristics into account called the Lawrence plan, however it never came into effect. As the boarders are today there are many divided ethnic groups that do not have a country, the Kurds are one such example of a stateless nation. The division of the Kurds have lead to conflict and unrest in the middle east because they would like to create their own state, however the Kurd territory has oil reserves which Iraq, Turkey and Syria would all like to keep control of. 
              If the boarders had been based off of the Lawrence map the Kurds and other divided nations may in fact have had a state, but because they were not divided in such a manner there will always be conflict among the various nations with in the states. Unfortunately redrawing the states so that ethnic groups and regions are together would now result in more conflict due to states anger over loosing valuable territory, so there is really no practical solution for unifying the divided ethnic groups. 

Gerrymandering explained: This is a great little video that explains Gerrymandering concisely.

Chapter 7: Religion

Article: French police kill gunmen in twin attacks, free 16 hostages

Somebody wanted but so then

Charlie Hebdo, a satirical french news paper wanted to write and publish a satirical news paper which  occasionally featured cartoons of the islamic profit Muhammad, but it is against the muslim believe system to make depictions of Muhammad so two al-Qaida-linked brothers went into the news paper headquarters on January 9th resulting in the death 

Map:

I chose the Middle East because of the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is in Israel and has huge religious significance for Christians, Jews and Muslims, which has made it a hot zone for conflict throughout the ages. 

Essay: 
Readings: 

Chapter 7: Religion from Human Geography

Arab-Israeli Conflict: Role of Religion Israel Science and Technology Directory

Center for Reduction of Religious-Based Conflict- Hotspots in the Middle East

Who owns Jerusalem? from Aljazeera America

How has religion led to conflict in modern day society and throughout the ages?

Throughout time there has always been religious conflict. The Jewish and Islamic faiths have been  involved in religious based conflict for over 3,000 years. Israel has been a hot spot for conflict between the two religious for thousands of years, partly because the city of Jerusalem has a large religious significance for three of the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In 1947 when the original Palestine was set to be divided by the untied nations to create two separate Jewish and Arab states, Jerusalem and Bethlehem were deemed corpus separatum due to their religious significance to the three religions. Although Israel's leaders openly accepted the plan to share the two cities, the Arab leaders did not think that they should have to share a city that was "rightfully theirs" in their view. In response to the partition, the Arabs responded with an attack in 1948 which counterproductively ended in them losing a large deal of territory as well as the rights to have shared the city. The war also caused over 700,000 Jews in eight other Arab countries to have to flee and seek refuge in other countries. Later in 1967, Israel continued to change the boundaries, gaining control of the remaining Arab territory and pushing out many Palestinians.
Although many people say the reason for this conflict was not entirely religion based because thousands of Palestinians were evicted from a place that they considered to be home, the impetus for the conflict and the main reason it has continued for so long is due to religious intolerance.
Today the two religions continue to look at the differences in the two faiths instead of their numerous similarities. Some Islamic people practice extreme intolerance toward other faiths and see it as part of their spiritual duty to practice "Jihad" or "war against nonbelievers". Throughout the past several years there has been almost daily attacks of terrorism in the Middle East. Terrorist attacks and religious intolerance have led to millions of deaths not only in the Middle East but around the world. In order for us to facilitate a peaceful world we must teach our prodigy to not only tolerate other religions but to "[emphasize]  those  common  threads  of  similarity  of religions  rather  than  emphasizing  the  differences" (Center for Religious Based Conflict).