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My Story - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Gapminder Screencast and Analysis

1. 

     a) Life Expectancy - The expected number of years a person will live

GDP per capita - The total value of all goods and services produced within a country per person

Poverty - The state of being extremely poor, in this case quantified as percent of people living on less then $2 a day. 

HDI - Human Development Index, which is an index which ranks the human development of a country based on health level, education level, and living standard.
     b) Life expectancy shows economic development in the way that when life expectancy is higher, it means that more people in the country can afford more medication and the country itself can put more money into hospitals and in general making public living better, showing an improved economy. GDP per capita gives a fairly clear insight into economic development as it in essence shows how much money the average citizen is making, and more economically developed countries have higher incomes. Poverty is the opposite. It shows how not economically developed a country is, as in a highly functioning economy, there is very little poverty. HDI shows economic development in a number of ways. Because it includes health level, HDI shows development for similar reasons as life expectancy. Living standard indicates how wealthy citizens are as well as how much the government can afford to spend to improve living standard. But the education component also reveals development. When countries have more educated citizens, they tend to work in more tertiary sector activities, which occur most often in more economically developed places and bring more wealth.

2.
     a) Western Europe and North America started to economically develop first, leading development for years. More recently though, South and East Asian countries along with some countries from South America and the Middle East have been developing and doing so quickly. Most African countries have not yet economically developed as much, and there is still a huge gap between the development of these countries and that of the Western European countries.
     b) Some reasons for this is that the Industrial Revolution started in Western Europe. This gave these countries an advantage straight away and they were able to develop quickly while other countries did not as they did not have the capital needed for the shift in economic processes. This also made West Europe the center of the economy, and they used this new power to grow even more. One reason why many African countries are less developed is neocolonialism. These powerful European countries colonized much of Africa to use for their own wealth, and what they put in place did nothing to help the economic growth of the colonies. And now, even though they are independent, these former colonies are trapped in the same system set up by the Europeans. It is very difficult to break out of, and has a huge hold on how much and when economic development can be made in these countries. However, even these countries are also beginning to develop. While most core countries development growth is slowing, periphery and semi-periphery countries are developing at an unprecedented rate.

Crossing the Line GIS Activity

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     I chose Basque Country for my new country and a unifed Korea as my convergent country. Basque Country is a small region of land sitting on the west side of the border of France and Spain. Most of it resides in Northern Spain, with a small percentage that lies in the corner of Southwest France. The Koreas are in East Asia, in-between China and Japan.
     I believe the Basque people will break away from France and Spain because they are one of the oldest culture groups in Europe. They speak a language from an entirely different language family, and have gone through a lot as a people. They were persecuted and suffered immensely during the Spanish Civil War, and they lost much of their autonomy, creating a surge in Basque Nationalism. I think Korea  will be eventually be unified. Although divided because of decisions that were made at the end of World War 2, both countries still want to eventually unite. They have a shared traditional Korean history from before the war. But more importantly now, once they unified, they could have a stronger economy. While some tensions have fluctuated over the years, the potential economic benefits of a unified Korea may be enough for unification sometime in the future.
     The Basque Country borders are physical boundaries because the Basque people live in the mountains. The Pyrenees Mountains had been their home for years, and for a while also helped protect them from countries conquering them and forcing them to assimilate. The Korean borders are cultural borders, making the borders similar to when Korea used to be united.
     A sovereign Basque Country would mean that the Basque people would not have to fear persecution like they have in the past. The people in charge of them would be one of them, instead of French of Spanish people making decisions for them. If Korea united, they would have a stronger front if ever up against larger, more powerful countries, and could share their recourses, giving them potential improved economic power.

Cultural Geography Photo Collage