A two-euro coin commemorating the bicentennial of Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat will not be widely released, after France objected to what it called a “negative symbol.”
Source: www.npr.org
Celebrating national history is great…but if your moment of greatest triumph comes at the expense of a country that is now in an supranational organization with you…well, then it can get awkward.
The government of the People’s Republic of China calls the country’s westernmost region Xinjiang, but the people who have lived there for centuries refer to their home as Eastern Turkistan. Many times when two groups do not refer to a place by the same name, it points to a cultural or political conflict, as is the case here.
Source: blog.education.nationalgeographic.com
Multiple names on the map can hint at bigger cultural and political fault lines. Is it Londonderry or just Derry? The Sea of Japan or the East Sea? This article I wrote for the National Geographic Education Blog is on the always simmering tensions in the China’s westernmost province.
Tags: Central Asia, toponyms, culture, political, conflict, governance, China, East Asia, religion, Islam, landscape.
“Ever since I researched the meanings of monuments in the cultural landscape in Mexico City, I’ve been fascinated by the cultural politics of memory and heritage. The removal of a statue is a cultural 180, acknowledging what was once honored and revered is now something that is not worthy of that distinction. This sort of change is not without protests on both sides and a cultural rearticulation of who ‘we’ are when ‘we’ make a public memorial.”
Source: geographyeducation.org
Cecil Rhodes was the namesake for the Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University and the colonial names of Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) and Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia). He was deeply connected to British colonialism and was one of the most ambitious colonizers that expanded the British Empire. This week a statue of Cecil Rhodes on the University of Cape Town campus was removed. See the BBC article, Yahoo News!, and PRI podcastfor more details.
Questions to Ponder: Why do you think this monument to Cecil Rhodes was established in 1934? Why was it removed in 2015? What does this say about South African politics and culture? How might we characterize the supporters and opponents of the statue?
Tags: South Africa, Africa, historical, colonialism, political, landscape.
“Yes. It’s true. In the meantime, I’d also like to live. Except, nobody wants to let me live–they all want to remind me of how I’m going to die, or how I’m going to cause my children to die. I was packing my kid’s lunch the other day, and tossed in a Twinkie with a smile and stroke of endearment, when I happened to glance at my kid’s class newsletter on the table. It informed me that if I feed my child Twinkies, I might as well be feeding him rocket fuel.”
Source: www.insideoutminds.com
I can’t agree with everything mentioned in this article, but the overall message something that I do think is worth discussing. Our society can be swayed by fear and a few statistics to wildly overreact to a situation (Ebola, Y2K, etc.). So many movies tap into the our societal fears that an over dependence on technology or chemical alterations will destroy humanity (like Terminator, the Matrix, the Net, etc.). The anti-GMO movement successfully taps into that cultural zeitgeist, and some like ‘the Food Babe’ stir up fear to the chagrin of many scientists.
Tags: GMOs, technology, agriculture, agribusiness.
We asked a range of people, from writers and chefs to musicians and photographers, to share one experience from the last year that truly inspired them – something that, in no uncertain terms, reminded them why they love the world. Madly. Here’s what they told us.
Source: www.bbc.com
Most geographers have more than a little bit of wanderlust. This BBC article is filled with images, quotes and insights into places all around the globe that fill me will a sense of awe and wonder. For students that have the curiosity, it our mission as educators to cultivate that and help them frame information about the world into a geographic perspective. I’ve always felt that window-seat flyers are have the seed of a geographer embedded within them…let’s make sure those seeds can grow.
Fog envelops Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, in this National Geographic Photo of the Day from our Your Shot community.
Source: www.johnnycashhasbeeneverywhere.com
This is more for the teachers than the students since this is most certainly not a current pop culture reference. Still, what’s better than an interactive map displaying the locations where Johnny Cash has been while listening to him sing “I’ve Been Everywhere?” (Tech support: Use Google Chrome or Safari to play and ignore the finger).
Tags: music, transportation, mapping, tourism.
Clarissa Ward breaks down the history of differences between opposing sects of Islam
Source: www.cbsnews.com
The geography of the Sunni-Shiite division is incredibly important for a good understanding of world regional geography as well as modern geopolitics. This 5 minute video (as well as this NPR podcast) examine the historical and religious aspects of this split to then analyze the political and cultural implications in the Middle East today. Additionally this Pew Research article highlights the 5 countries where the the majority of Muslims are Shiite, with some good demographic data to add to the analysis. Take this quiz to test your knowledge.
Tags: MiddleEast, Islam, religion, historical, culture.
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In ‘How to Make an Attractive City,’ a new video from the School of Life, London-based Swiss writer Alain de Botton offers a cheeky, thought-provoking, six-point manifesto on the need for making beauty a priority in urban architecture and design.”
Source: www.slate.com
Not everyone is a fan of Paris, but the author of this article feels that tourism can be seen as helpful proxy variable for what the general public perceives as good urbanism that makes for beautiful cities. The six main points of this article are:
