A talk of interest on campus (and suitable for an extra credit review)

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Donald Rallis

“Dangerous neighborhood: India, United States and Security Challenges in South Asia”
Panelists:
Pranay Verma, Political Counselor, Indian Embassy
Shuja Nawaz, Director, Center for South Asia, Atlantic Council
Alan Kronstadt, Specialist on South Asia, Congressional Research Service

When: Wednesday, March 28, 4pm
Where: Trinkle 204

South Asia is considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the world on account of nuclear weapons, terrorist attacks, competition for energy sources and regional hegemony. It is also a regions where there is an ongoing war, major trade routes and some of the most protracted inter-state conflicts. The invited panelists will discuss how these challenges shape Indian and US foreign policies and prospects for conflict and  cooperation in the region.

The panel discussion is sponsored by the CAS Dean, the Leidecker Center for Asian Studies, the departments of Political Science and International Relations and Geography.

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How about keeping your own travel map?

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Donald Rallis


 

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Assignments and classes from SE Asia

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Donald Rallis
Donald Rallis holds a small video camera and films in Bali.

Fieldwork in Bali, Indonesia (March 10, 2012)

I hope that you all had a restful and enjoyable Spring Break, and that you are ready to forge ahead with the rest of the semester. I have had a very busy time indeed, learning a great deal about Southeast Asia and taking more photographs and videos than I will ever be able to use. That’s what travel does!

A few housekeeping notes on the next two weeks’ classes and assignments.

  1. Class Meetings. We will meet, as before, live via GoToWebinar. I sent out an e-mail inviting you to Tuesday’s class meeting (March 13) and you will receive another for each of the remaining class meetings. Just go to the link listed in the e-mail, and you should enter the meeting just as soon as you sign in. I have checked and rechecked the link in several different browsers, and it seems to work fine (although if you arrive early you may have to wait to see anything until the class actually begins.) Most students had no problem in signing in last time, so if you do encounter problems, try another computer or another browser, and check to make sure that your browser’s security settings aren’t preventing you from accessing the webinar. If you do have problems, or if you aren’t sure how Webinar works, visit the Support Page on the GoToMeeting website (We will use GoToWebinar rather than GoToMeeting, but they work pretty much the same way.) If you still have problems, please let me know right away.
  2. Online Assignments. Don’t worry about the SE Asia assignment until I let you know that it has been posted. I will be revising it after our meeting today, and I will post a notice on Canvas once it’s ready for you to take.
  3. Feedback, please! A reminder that I am eager to learn what works, what doesn’t, what you enjoy, and what you don’t like about our online classes. I can’t improve what I do without your help! I hope that it goes without saying that I value all input, negative or positive, and I will certainly not hold it against you if you are critical of the classes, whether in terms of their format, delivery, content, or anything else.
  4. Photographs, videos and (I hope) blog entries. I have taken hundreds of pictures and filmed many hours of video during my current journey. I am in the process of sorting through and editing what I have, and I will post a selection on my Picasa and YouTube sites, and I will write about some of my experiences and observations on RegionalGeography.org. I invite you to take a look at these sites if you are interested. We will also look at some but by no means all of these in class.

 

 

 

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The cure for poverty?

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Donald Rallis

“There is a cure for poverty. It is a rudimentary one, it does work, though. It works everywhere, and for the same reason. It’s colloquially called ‘the empowerment of women.’ It’s the only thing that does work. If you allow women control over their cycle of reproduction, so that they are not chained by their husbands or by village custom to annual animal-type pregnancies, early death, disease, and so on. If you will free them from that, give them some basic health of that sort—and if you are generous enough to throw in, perhaps, a handful of seeds and a bit of credit—the whole floor, culturally, socially, medically, economically of that village will rise. It works every time.”

—Christopher Hitchens

I would be interested in hearing responses to this observation, particularly as we get ready to begin our discussion of the world’s poorest region, Sub-Saharan Africa. Do you agree with it?

Posted in Development, Subsaharan Africa | 3 Comments

“The world looks different depending on where you look at it from.”

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Donald Rallis
Two small barefooted black boys in shorts and t-shirts stand in front of a red-painted wall. Above their heads, painted on the wall, is some graffiti, painted in black. It reads "You all laught because I am different. I laugh because you are all the same."

Perspective is everything

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

My latest attempt at movie making: A temple in Cambodia

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Donald Rallis

Cambodia is best known for Angkor Wat, the vast temple built in the first half of the 12th century by King Suryavarman II to honor the Hindu goddess Vishnu (and, more than incidentally, himself too.) Angkor Wat, though, is by no means the only temple dating back to the days of the Angkor empire. Nearly a hundred other temples dot the landscape around Angkor, and many others are to be found in other parts of Cambodia.

Phnom Chiso is one of these temples, located atop a hill in Takeo Province, about 60 km south of Phnom Penh. This temple is older the Angkor Wat; it was built in the 11th century. Though damaged by American bombing during the war in Southeast Asia in the 1970s, much of the temple still stands.

You can see some of the remains of the temple in this short video I made in December 2011. In the opening segment, I try to give an idea of the landscape around the temple; a landscape very typical of much of southern and central Cambodia. It is flat, and sugar palms dot the landscape, surrounded by rice paddies (most of them recently harvested when the video was taken.)

(You can find more of my videos from Cambodia – and elsewhere – on my YouTube channel.)

 

Posted in Cultural Geography, Southeast Asia | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

More on Plate Tectonics

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Donald Rallis

We talked in class today about the concept of plate tectonics, and why it is so important to understand it. Without knowing something about the internal structure of the earth, tectonic plates, their movement, and the effects they have at the earth’s surface, you won’t be able to make sense of the physical and human geographies of Middle America (or, for that matter, South America, Southeast Asia, Japan, and any number of other places.)

The U.S. Geological Survey website has a clear and very readable focus section called This Dynamic Earth, and it is well worth looking at to learn more about this important subject.

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Youth Unemployment Rate at 46%

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Donald Rallis

Just 54 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 currently have jobs, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. That’s the lowest employment rate for this age group since the government began keeping track in 1948. And it’s a sharp drop from the 62 percent who had jobs in 2007 — suggesting the recession is crippling career prospects for a broad swath of young people who were still in high school or college when the downturn began.
Huffington Post, February 9, 2012

Those of you who are in college are in a position to prepare for this job market. What are you doing?

 

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Which is easier?

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Donald Rallis

Who has the right idea?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Why Australia? Our latest class poll

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Donald Rallis

The number of respondents was small, but the result was clear. I asked which country you wanted to travel to most, and gave you seven options. Here are the results:

The results are in.

I am surprised – and intrigued – by the overwhelming preference you showed for Australia. Whether or not you voted in the poll, I am interested in knowing why you think this is. Please post your response in the comment box below.

Posted in Polls of the class | 1 Comment