6 reasons why Haiti is a poor nation.

1. One reason why Haiti is so poor is because the French Plantation owners would make the Haitians work to death by growing things from indigo to sugar cane.

2. Another reason is that after they fought against slavery they were in a situation where they were considered a threat by the rest of the region because the rest of the region especially the United States because they own slaves which leads to not much support from the United States.

3. A third reason is that since the plantations have stopped, small money that the Haitians got from selling a bit of those crops were no longer there. Ergo, there was no money left for the education of Haitian children and less salary for the Haitians with jobs for there were no more supporters.

4. Reason four is that Haiti was seen increasingly as a terrible place mostly because of the racism people have against the Haitians. They judge them by skin color since most of the regions around them are light skinned.

5. Haiti started from a point of considerably greater illiteracy and lack of human and natural resources. The other thing that was happening was that those small scale farmers were doing other things. They were using charcoal for heating and cooking and essentially denuding the hills and forests, which now means they have major erosion problems throughout Haiti.

6. The Haiti region is a region that doesn't have industrial skills therefore the region is not able to trade their products in any significant way.

Haiti Update

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

I made this post so that people may read about what is happening in haiti so far. Many people think that Haiti has gotten better since it has been about a week since the Earthquake struck Haiti but sadly they are very wrong. There are still hundreds of people injured and waiting for care even though there are people who are already taking action. As you can see in the picture above there were many people who suffered from the Earthquake and died. It seems like maybe half of those people died not from the Earthquake but from the injuries they got from the Earthquake. It feels like there weren't enough helpers to cure the sicknesses of the Haitians. The picture above may also be a little bit unclear because of all the dirt mixing with the bodies as they fall into a large grave for many Haitians.

Haiti Earthquake

On January 13, 2010 an Earthquake struck in Haiti. Haiti is in the Caribbean near the country of Mexico. Reporters say that many people were injured during the Earthquake. Red Cross also says that 3 million people were affected by this very Earthquake. The Earthquake, which struck about 15 km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. A French official told AFP about 200 people were missing in the collapsed Hotel Montana, which is popular with tourists. There have also been some reports of looting overnight. Rachmani Domersant an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, told Reuters that overnight the capital was in total darkness. "You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming." He says.

In a statement issued in New York, the UN said that its local HQ in Haiti had "sustained serious damage along with other UN installations" and "a large number" of personnel were missing. UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said it was unclear how many people were in the building. The head of the UN mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was reported to have been inside and is unaccounted for. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was believed to be dead. The UN's stabilisation mission plays a vital role in ensuring security in Haiti. Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US, said the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce and the foreign ministry had all been damaged, but the airport was intact. He and Haiti's ambassador to Mexico, Robert Manuel, both said that President Rene Preval and his wife had survived the quake.

The Earthquake struck Haiti Leaving people homeless and with nothing to do. The shock many people got from the Earthquake also affected their mental health leaving them not just sad but very depressed. The people of Haiti are depressed because their homes were most probably destroyed or they lost loved ones. Word is that some kids would wait for their parents after school but their parents would never come because they passed on during the Earthquake. As shown in the picture above this woman is most definitely left with nothing to do, no home, no family and very depressed. That is what Earthquakes can do to others. It is very sad to watch things like this happen to other people because of a natural disaster.

Geo Active Questions 2!

1) List the main reasons for water scarcity.
The main reasons of water scarcity are Variations in climate, land degradation, water pollution and population growth.

2) What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
A drought is a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall. Hunger, scarcity of water, shelter and clothing.

3) How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?
It affects the supply of fresh water by covering the water table and aquifer and not letting any water filter in the ground causing a salt water intrusion.

4)

(a) What is El Nino?

El Nino refers to the warming of an area that develops every 3-5 years in the Pacific Ocean of the coast of Peru. It is accompanied by a reversal of air pressure.

(b) Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia?
Because it gives high pressure systems building up over the most area of Australia.

5) Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83.
(a) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?

Serious drought was prolonged resulting to scarcity of fresh water.

(b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino.

Africa: Reduced corn crop in sub-Saharan region.

Indonesia: high air pollution levels, following forest fires.

China: Agricultural land under threat from drought in northern regions and flooding in southern regions.

Philippines: Lower rice harvest following drought.

United States: Rainfall above normal in north-western states (double the historical averages.)

Colombia: Fishing operators affected by lower catch (down 20%.)

Peru: Flooding (also in Chile), fishing operators affected by lower catch as anchovy and Pacific sardine move offshore to escape warm currents (5 degrees Celsius above normal temperatures)

Australia: Wheat exports threatened by drought conditions across grain-growing areas, particularly New South Wales.

Papua New Guinea: Drought-related failure of food crops, leading to famine conditions requiring food aid.

Water Plantation Field Trip

On Thursday November 12, 2009 my class went on a field trip to a water plantation. There they showed us the 6 cycles in making water clean and all about dirty water and how if us humans don't stop polluting the water a high population of us can get sick with a disease called cholera.

Since there are 6 cycles in making water clean, we went to 6 stations.

The first station we went to had to do with Garbage Removal Through Coarse & Fine Filters. The purpose of that station is to take the garbage out of the water so only the water will make it through. We saw the way a giant clamp came and scooped up all the rubbish at the bottom of the river water that was being filtered. Some rubbish fell but our teacher said that it would be taken away in the filter.

At the second station they put the chemicals in the water and stirred it so all the dirt particles would stick together and create FLOC. We got to see how dirty it was when all the dirt particles stuck together.

After that we went to the third station where they allowed the sediment and floc to settle at the bottom. The purpose of that stations is as I said before so that the sediment and floc could settle at the bottom. There we saw pools of water 6 meters deep sitting still. That is because they were not touching it and all they did was let it settle.

At station 4 they were filtering the water through a meter of sand. They did that to filter out all tiny dirt particles. We didn't see much except for pools of water with sand at the bottom. My friend and I wondered: Where does the water go after it goes through the sand?

Station 5 was about chemicals and disinfectants being added to the water. The purpose of that station is to kill all the bad things inside the water. It smelled a lot like chlorine and it was a really interesting station.

After station 5, we moved into our last station: Station 6. At that station they did testing to make sure the water was safe and clean. There we saw many things like beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, test tubes and test tube racks. The tour guides showed us a before beaker and an after beaker filled with the water that came from the dirty river. Surprisingly it was very clean.

We had so much fun at the water plantation looking at the ways they make dirty river water clean by a filtering process. There I learned that we shouldn't pollute our rivers because if we do we can get cholera and get very sick. I also learned things from an animated movie we watched before we left. I realized that water is a valuable thing in our lives and we have a limited amount of it. I learned many things at the water plantation. I hope everyone did too.

Geo Active Questions!

1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?

2.5 percent of the water in the world is fresh.

2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?

The supply of the world's fresh water comes from ice on earth, rivers, lakes and underground.

3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?

The water is distributed in an uneven manner.

4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite)

(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa.

The rain in the South of Africa is more frequent with precipitation than the North part of Africa.

(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn.

The Western side of Australia has lesser amount of precipitation as compared to the Eastern part. This is because on the Western side, there are more deserts.

5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.

(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?

Philippines, Canada, Russia, The Northern part of South America and Greenland.

(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?

China, Africa, Most of Europe.

6. Observe the diagram of water use.

(a) What are the main uses of water?

Cooking, Bathing, Washing, Cleaning, Drinking and Preparation of Drinks.

(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?

Bathing and Preparation of Drinks.

Bintaro Lama

On Thursday November 5, 2009 we went on a field trip to Bintaro Lama. There we got to meet the kampung kids, learn about water and have a fun time all at once. We learned how the kampung people clean their water and we also learned how they went to the toilet and how people got sick because they didn't wash their hands after they did things. We also learned about the WatSan team and their effort to help the kampung people learn to wash their hands and be environmentally friendly. They didn't demand the kampung people or kids to learn suddenly they taught them how to do all those things by things like the Hand washing jingle they call "Ayo cuci tangan." It was a very fun experience to do all these things.

One of the stations we went to were called: PHP for Kids: Hand Washing With Soap. There we learned ways kids could get sick because of not washing their hands. It could be from pooing to touching food, touching water, touching babies and more. The WatSan team are trying to prevent that by making the kids wash their hands after they touch things that are dirty.

Another station we did was called: Ceramic Filter & PuR. At that station we learned about putting a powder imported from Pakistan that purifies the water. The water has to go through a cycle of putting the powder in mixing it in one direction and waiting for five minutes. The next step is putting the water in a cup with a cotton handkerchief over it so that only the water seeps through and the dirt stays out. After that step the water is ready to drink and they put it in a ceramic filter. It takes a while for the water to go through the filter so if they want to drink water in the morning they have to fill up the tank at night. This procedure can give a family 10 liters of clean water.

The last station we went to was called: Air RahMat & Aquatabs. At that station we learned another way of purifying the water. It's like the other station but it is the chlorination of the water. For the Aquatabs you need 20 liters of water to put the Aquatab in and wait for 30 minutes. In emergency situations you can get 10 liters and wait for 30 minutes as well. After you wait the 30 minutes the water is ok to drink. For the Air RahMat they have measuring cups that they use to fill with Air RahMat so they can put it into a 10 or 5 liter water container. After you pour the Air RahMat into the water container you have to shake it for 30 seconds. After you shake it for 30 seconds you have to wait for 30 minutes. Then the water is drinkable.

We had a great time learning about all these things at these three different stations and we also had a good time meeting people and getting to know how lucky we are to have water. We were fascinated by the way they clean water. The way they clean water is a way we never knew and because of this field trip we now know ways to clean water and we also know that we should be glad that we have the water we have now and glad that we were able to help these people. One person can make a big difference. I believe JIS can help a whole lot by doing even small things like this. In a way we can help our world and the people who live in it be happy. That's what I learned from this field trip and from my classes.

Water Cycle

Evaporation is the slow escape of molecules from the surface of the liquid to the atmosphere. The process of evaporation can be explained by the kinetic molecular theory. At a given temperature, the molecules in a particular liquid do not have the same kinetic energy. The molecules with a higher kinetic energy will break away from the surface of the liquid and escape into the atmosphere as vapor. The remaining molecules that have lower kinetic energy have lower temperature, and therefore has a cooling effect.

Condensation is the change of state from a gas or vapor to a liquid. The figure shown above is a glass of ice cold water which changes the air around the glass from gas to liquid, so you will see the wet surface around the glass.

As the water vapor/clouds in the air condenses and become heavy enough it will be showered in the form of rain or percipitation. All liquid and solid water particles that fall from the clouds and reach the ground like rain, snow, hail, drizzle are examples of percipitation.

When water flows through land surfaces it dissolves the mineral content of the soil. The water that passes through swamps is usually somewhat acidic because it picks up organic acids generated by decomposed organisms. Running water is regarded as the most effective agent in shaping the surface of the earth. Trickling out of a hillside spring, the tiny brook flowing out of a pond, water flowing from a cliff, the overflow from a swamp, the runoff from meting ice and glaciers and a mountain torrent.

Taiwan Typhoon: Morakot

The Typhoon Morokat has been the worst storm Taiwan has had for 50 years. The typhoon struck Taiwan on the 9th of August 2009. We studied about this because it has given us the opportunity to study our unit on Mapping. I chose the picture on the right because it shows how the people have to suffer from the cause of the storm. It shows how many people lost their homes and have to stay in a evacuation center. It is related to our Mapping unit because the storm was big and interesting. It made us look at the map to see how the storm attacked Taiwan and deliberately destroyed everything in its path. Many people died in the storm and many people lost relatives. That got our attention. We studied how the storm hit Taiwan and the causes of it. We found pictures and videos on the Internet showing the damage of the storm. The storm also caused a mudslide which buried many people and killed them. One of the videos we saw was taken by an intern on a weather channel. During the storm the intern so happened to be in Taiwan and he took a video. So we studied where he stood when he took the video and it helped us more with our unit. So we learned a lot from this storm. It helped us study well.

By: Elise!

INDONESIA EARTHQUAKE! September 2, 2009

The earthquake hit Indonesia on the second of September 2009 at around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. It was a 7.5. No one expected it to happen. At least not the people. Yesterday at around lunchtime a snake came out of its home. Why? Because animals can feel things happening in nature. Animals like snakes come out of their hole whenever there is a nature disaster about to strike. The cause of this natural disaster is nature. It's just how nature goes. Indonesia is likely to get earthquakes and volcanoe eruptions because Indonesia is on THE RING OF FIRE. THE RING OF FIRE covers lots of spots around the world. THE RING OF FIRE covers Indonesia FULLY. After the earthquake people claimed there will be a tsunami. Indonesia now has a TSUNAMI WARNING. Have you ever thought that there are possible building falls that could have killed thousands of people? Have you ever thought we would have landslides after these earthquakes? You're wrong. Indonesia has a flat surface so even though we have natural disasters that are really bad we won't have any landslides whatsoever. Even though we didn't have any landslides or anything that bad, many people lost homes and family members. Some people got hurt and some people died. And that is all because of an earthquake that hit Indonesia on September 2, 2009.