What do you think? (Mexico)

   As we have read in chapter 9 of Countries and Concepts by Micheal G. Roskin, drugs in Mexico is a huge problem. And it has now become a U.S problem too. In Mexico drugs have led to the penetration of crime into the highest levels of power. Mexico's police, judicial system, and army have all been corrupted by drug money. Crime and politics depend on each other, this means that drug money helps politicians and politicians help the traffickers. Also, the lives and security of people in Mexico are constantly being in endangered. U.S also has to deal with all the drugs coming in into the country. Both countries have had a long and hard battle against this problem.
   I found an article about Mexico capturing a drug trafficker from the Caballeros Templarios. Manuel Plancarte Gasper, the trafficker, is also being accused of kidnapping children and and murdering them  in order to sell their organs. This is not unlikely, however, because cartels from the Caballeros Templarios are usually involved in other things that are not just drugs. They have been accused before of contributing to sexual slavery. However, not every one agrees with this. Alejandro Hope, a former government official and an expert on Mexico's security crisis said that he was doubtful that any cartel was involved in organ trafficking. He sated, "There might be a case here and there. But I don't see that it could exist on any major scale."
    What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Is Alejandro Hope being corrupted by drug money or does he really think this?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/18/mexican-cartel-organ-harvesting-investigation

"What is Education?"

    In chapter 8 of Countries and Concepts by Michael G. Roskin, India is discussed. The book discusses how India's population will be far greater than China's in the future. However, India faces a demographic bulge, that China does not. Half of India is under 24 and educating them has become an urgent concern. Indian schools, specially elementary schools, are terrible. They have no money, no buildings, and no teachers. Education in India is a state matter and many states do not have the money to spend it on education, they rather spend it on other things. Public schools have fees that the poor cannot afford. Private schools that some Indians can afford don't even compare to the education american education system. And India's top universities only teach a small elite group. India's literacy rate is 60 percent as apposed to Chinas's which is 90 percent. \
    I found two articles about how education will be hard for females to obtain and how aspirants to be teachers failed their teacher tests. The first article talks about how it will take 56 years for India to achieve female youth literacy. India is expected to to gain female literacy around the year 2070 or 2080. Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, states: "It is simply intolerable that girls are being left behind. For poor girls, education is one of the most powerful routes to a better future, helping them escape from a vicious cycle of poverty." The second article states how 98 percent of aspirants to be teachers failed the Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET).  According to the article: "The papers feature objective questions which test the aspirants' knowledge of English, mathematics and environmental science." This year's results actually  "mark a marginal improvement over last year, when over 99% of the candidates failed to pass. But CBSE sources said the board had worked on the difficulty level as well as extended the duration of the test, keeping in mind dismal results in the past."
      This shocks me very much because it shows how India is terrible at Education. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-will-take-around-56-years-to-achieve-female-youth-literacy-Report/articleshow/31758534.cms?

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/98-of-aspirants-fail-test-for-teachers-in-India/articleshow/32444979.cms
  
    
     

"My father is Li Gang!"

  "My father is Li Gang!" Imagine shouting this as you have just ran over two innocent college girls, expecting for your father's name "Li Gang" to keep you out of trouble. Can you imagine yourself shouting your important father's name out so the police does not take you into custody?

   In chapter 7 of Countries and Concepts by Michael G. Roskin, China is discussed.  This story is a true fact about a Chinese man who killed one girl out of the two that were injured and whose father was a well-known local deputy police chief. This man really did yell his father's name out because he thought his father's name would protect him. Eventually, the official press had to carry she story because of all the buzz it got and the driver was sentenced to six years. However, the victim's parents were bought off for an undisclosed amount.

   I found an article in New York Times about a Chinese activist who was being held at Beijing's Detention Center and had called ill but Chinese authorities did not give her medical assistance until it was too late. The activist, Cao Shunli, was being held under the pretenses of "picking quarrels and and provoking trouble." All that Shunli was protesting for was for the public to be allowed to contribute to an official report on human rights that China submitted to the United Nations. Shunli was denied medical attentions purposely.

   I specifically chose this article because I think it shows China's corruption. China would rather let a man who is a murderer go than an activist who might stain their "prestigious"name.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/world/asia/chinese-activist-dies-in-custody.html?ref=china&_r=0

Russia

    In chapter six of Countries and Concepts by Michael G. Roskin Russia is discussed.  In the book it says that because Russia is big and ethnically diverse it requires a strong central control backed by force to hold it together, a point that inclines Russia to tyranny.  Russia is so big that it is part if Europe and Asia. One country that used to be part of Russia is Ukraine, which is now independent. 
   Today Russia is trying to annex Crimea, a part of Ukraine. This has significantly intensified the confrontation with the West politically because Russia is threatening to undermine a system of respect for national boundaries that has helped keep the peace in Europe and elsewhere in decades. 
   Both leaders of the Russian Parliament have publicly spoken that they will support Crimeans if they want to break away from Ukraine. Russian has even sent Russian army men to Crimea. The main question that this issue arises is do Crimeans want to be annexed by Russia? Is Russia supported? This controversy not only calls Russia's relations with the West but also post Cold-War agreements on the sovereignty of the nations that emerged from collapse of the Soviet Union. 


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/world/europe/ukraine.html?_r=0