GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

TED Talks For the past two years, photographer Lisa Kristine has traveled the world, documenting the unbearably harsh realities of modern-day slavery.

This is a chilling glimpse into the worst and darkest side of the economic systems of geography and labor in the world. It is estimated that there are more than 25 million people who today live in state that can be described as modern-day slavery. We should not discuss slavery only in the past tense, and yet it conflicts with how most people conceptualize the world today.

Questions to Ponder: How can this even be happening in the 21st century? What geographic and economic forces lead to these situations portrayed in this TED talk? What realistically could be done to lessen the amount of slavery in the world today?

Tags: TED, labor, economic, class, poverty, South Asia, Africa, video.

See on www.ted.com

The Brazilian government’s geographic department (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística-roughly equivalent to the U.S. Census Bureau) has compiled an fantastic interactive world factbook (available in English and Spanish as well as Portuguese).  The ease of navigation allows the user to conduct a specific search of simply explore demographic, economic, environmental and development data on any country in the world.    

Tags: population, worldwide, statistics, mapping, zbestofzbest.

See on www.ibge.gov.br

Theories about our right-wing and left-wing mind-sets don’t explain why they are tied to geography.

While not endorsing all the cultural assumptions in the article, this is still an interesting exploration into expalining why distinct places are are politically aligned with particular parties. 

Questions to ponder: What portions of the author’s argument do you agree (or disagree) with?  What do you see as the reasons behind the spatial distributions of “blue” and “red” in the United States? 

Tags: political, place, USA, culture, unit 4 political.

See on opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

Rising numbers of people of Indian origin born in the West are moving to the country their parents left decades ago in search of opportunity and a cultural connection, reports the BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan.

Since 2005, the Indian government has been encouraging people of Indian descent and former Indian nationals to return to India.  For many Indians living in the UK, there are more and better economic opportunities for them within India.   Migrants have many reasons for moving (including cultural factors), but the primary pull factor is most certainly India’s ascendant importance in the global economy and rising IT industries. 

Tags: India, South Asia, migration, immigration, Europe, colonialism, unit 2 population. 

See on www.bbc.co.uk

The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the beauty and diversity of America’s landscapes as seen from above with the Earthscapes (Forever®) stamps.Offering an opportunity to see the world in a new way, the 15 stamps are issued in 3 rows of 5, showing 3…

These stamps are the perfect way to decorate your letters while showing your love for the Earth and geography. 

Tags: images, art, landscape. 

See on store.usps.com

Tags: Middle East, political, states, perspective, unit 4 political.

See on xkcd.com