Blog Topic #11

The above map shows the distribution of NFL team fans who are the majority of the population in the given geographcial areas. For the most part, the corresponding teams are at or near the state boundaries where the team originates. I absolutely love professional football, namely the Denver Broncos which is my home team and I have bled orange and blue nearly my whole life. As you can see, my Broncos cover more land mass area than other teams but if you were to look at the population distribution of those states, they are far less than California or other states on the East Coast. The Raiders, our rivals, cover two seperate places having been originally located in LA but is now in Oakland. The Jets don't even make an appearance on the map, which is funny, at least to me. Another thing I wish to mention, if you check out Nebraska it is divided between the Broncos and Chiefs; unfortunately for me, Seward lies on the eastern edge which means I get the Chiefs game here more often than the Broncos. Next year, unless they resolve the all these issues, the NFL may not even have a season which means I'd be watching nothing but the Huskers all year long. Again, football is one of those things I am really passionate about and here is a map that gives a little insight to our nation's favorite teams.

Blog Topic #10

I am under the impression that we, as the U.S. and Christians, can be idle, sitting by while so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are living in poverty and famine on a daily basis. I do not believe that the solution will come from throwing money up into the air but by placing and properly trained individuals into these countries who need our assistance in order to help its citizens learn to grow economically. This is not the first class or time I have been exposed to this topic. A year or two ago, a representative from Living Water International came to my home church and told us of the ministry they have going on in Africa by proving villages with wells which serve as a clean water source, and they are also spreading the Gospel. It is their mission to provide these wells and show them how to make them by themselves so they can become self sufficient. By providing them with clean water, it lessens the chance of the people from dying of dieseases, such as malaria, and giving them the hope of life. From water, education, health care, and other areas of life will soon follow merely by getting started with a clean water source.

If the money spent to do things like the ministry of Living Water were given directly to the government, I don't believe you could expect much if anything to occur. Another sollution that has been discussed is micro-loans. Instead of giving money to the government, give it directly to the people so they can start up a business of their own so that they can have a viable income. Education programs and other avenues are far better solutions in my mind. Again, you cannot simply cut them off entirely from financial support, but make sure the money is getting to the people in need the greedy politicians.

Blog Topic #9

The revolution that occured in Egypt began on January 25 of this year with the primary aims to overthrow the corrupt former president, Hosni Mobarak. The other goals that were hoped to be met, after getting rid of Mobarak's regime, were to resolve politcal and social issues including, but not limited to, low minimum wage, food price inflation, and freedom of speech. The revolutionarees who participated came from a variety of ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious backgrounds who were all united by the common goal of revolting against their political leader and establishing a just government. Although peaceful in nature, there were events of violence when riots broke out and military forces killed 840 people and another 6000 were injured. It got to the point where even Cairo, the capitol city, was labeled as a war zone. On February 11, the wish of the Egyptian citizens was met as President Mobarak resigned from his office and is now on trial for his crimes. However, Egypt is still far from reolving its politcal and social issues, but having Mobarak out of the picture will make things much easier for the people of Egypt.

Blog Topic #8

I went with the idea that was provided about fly patterns, and seeing how next summer I am hoping to study abroad in Germany, or some other European country, I plotted out the possible flight path. I have never used Google Eath and I am unfamiliar how to use all of the tools so it is hard to see much of the map. There is over 5000 miles between Denver, Colorado and Berlin, Germany which is, undoubtably, the farthest distance I will have ever traveled. Other than Mexico, I have not been outside of the U.S. and the farthest I have gone was a visit to my cousin's place in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Whether its Berlin, Rome or another European city I hope to experience a new culture and learn more about religion while being in a place where the actual historical event occured.  How cool would it be to walk the streets of Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the church door or going to St. Peter's Basilica which was bought and paid for from the countless indulgence sales to ignorant Roman Catholics. All jokes aside, I hope my half summer abroad will be a wonderful enxperience and I pray to learn as much as possible during my time there.

Blog Topic #7

http://restrepothemovie.com/video/

The above like takes you directly to video clips from the movie "Restrepo" and the one I watched was entitled "Specialist Sterling Jones on being a soldier." It is one of the last clips from the movie that appeared just as the platoon that served in the Korengal Valley at O.P. Restrepo were to return home, to the States. Jones was one of the main characters throughout "Restrepo" and what he has to say in the video clip is what being a soldier on the battlefield is really like. You might originally join the Army, or another branch of the military, because you want to serves your country or want to make a name for yourself. For Jones, he states that all that really mattered was the men to his left and to his right, nothing else. He goes on to say how his wife, his family, no one else was there beside him fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan but him and the other dozen or so soldiers.

From this clip, and watching the entire movie, you can see how secluded the platoon that served at O.P. Restrepon actually were, perched on some peak in the middle of the Korengal Valley. I cannot remember the main base of the Korengal, but one soldier had talked about how if Restrepo was in trouble and they called for help, the other base was a world apart; they were that alone. Serving for fifteen months, the memory of home is a long distance, physically and mentally, from O.P. Restrepo. Here at Concordia, we serve our eight months then go home, and get to go home on breaks inbetween; but the men in Afghanistan are there day in and day out until their service has ended. Jones said it quite right, it was just him and the rest of those men fighting beside one another, nothing else mattered when anytime a bullet could take your life.

Last year, in a U.S. history course, my teacher had us read a book called With the Old Breed by E.B. Sledge which was about his experience during WWII as he was Island Hopping as a Marine. When first joining, he had the picture in mind that war was this glorious moment where he could serve his country and maybe get a medal or two for his service. After serving for months on end, Sledge came to the realization that he was halfway across the world and war was far uglier than it was glorious. Sledge too talked about those moments of being under fire and how at those moments it was just you and your men, in the middle of the night on some beach where you could be killed at any moment. There was events where Sledge was nearly killed at the men who surrounded him were killed off by mortar fire or assasinated by a Japenese soldier as they slept. Whether or not the war is in Japan or Afghanistan, it is ugly and although they may come back home as heroes, to those soldier and Marines they were simply doing everything to survive and make sure their fellow platoon members came back in one piece.

Blog Topic #6

The article I found about the Great Firewall of China talked about how the Communist governement of China has restricted its citizens not only from certain topics through search engines like Google and Yahoo but from other Internet services such as Skype. Skype attempted to join with a Beijing company named TOMO in order to provide its services in China but failed to do so because they would be underneath the same censorship policies as any other website or blog server that can be attained in China. Even companies like MSN are required to follow certain censorship policies to make sure certain terms do not appear in e-mails or over instant messenger (IM). When the companies themselves are not making sure these censors are put into place, the Chinese government has at their disposal many other computers for the sole purpose of filtering websites for these illegal terms, such as the "Three T's" we have talked about in class. Although many companies do not wish to abide by such policies, and many countries would view this act of censorship as an offense against human rights, no major action has been taken to change such policies enacted by the Chinese government. This is only one of the many violations China has taken against its citizens and the citizens of other countries, like Tibet and Taiwan, but the world remains silent most likely due to how dependent they are of China economically.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060112_434051.htm

Blog Topic #5

The above cartogram displays where the largest Lutheran populations are around the world. As it can be clearly seen, the majority of Lutherans reside in the United States, Europe (especially Germany, of course!), and a few African nations. Other than Brazil, South America is almost non-existant mainly because they were all previously Spanish and Portuguese colonies which means they are primarily Roman Catholic. As for Asia, other than India and parts of Indonesia, with a small portion in Australia, it also barely makes an appearance on the map. China, with the largest population in the world, is nothing more than a tiny lime green ink blob. Surprisingly, Ireland has a decent population of Lutherans, more so than its island neighbor, Great Britain, who are followers of the Church of England. This cartogram relates to globalization in the sense of recognizing where in the world the Gospel has been spread by Lutherans to the nations. Lutheranism is by no means the largest branch of Christianity but it is apparent that there is still much work to do in the area of evangelism when so many regions are still following non-Christian religions, like China who is mainly Buddhist. And because of my personal bias, I believe that Lutheranism is the best and should be preached to all of God's children so they too may be saved through Jesus Christ.

Blog Topic #4

Both in the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire", and in class it was mentioned that the city of Bombay was renamed to Mumbai so I was intrigued to find out when and why the name was changed. Come to find out, it was changed back in 1995 after Shiv Shena, the Hindu Nationionalist party, won the election in Maharashtra and enacted the change, which they had tried pushing for many years prior. The reason Shiv Shena gave for the change was that "Bombay" was a corrupted English version of "Mumbai." The name "Mumbai" comes from the patron deity, Hindu godess Mumbadevi. Similar to how many European and American cities are named after patron saitns (Ex. San Francisco). All local businesses, federal agencies, newspapers, etc. were also forced to make this change but some feared if the name was changed to Mumbai, that they would not receive the same ammount of international attention when they were Bombay. The name "Bollywood" was also attempted to be changed, but has stuck around to this day. Other Indian cities have changed their names since 1996 from their former British or Portuguese names to ones that resemble their homeland better. The article can be found in the link below.

http://www.slate.com/id/2205701/

Blog Topic #3

In class, Helmer had mentioned the Angkor Wat temple to be one of the largest and oldest temples in the world. Being a theology major, I find theology, no matter what religion, to be intriguing especially the history of religions. There is another side of me that loves architecture, so, needless to say, it was quite fascinating watching this short video, and others like it. I do not understand Buddhism in its fullness but it is easy to see the importance of such a temple such as the one at Angkor. Again, no matter my views or feelings towards other religions, Angkor Wat is one of many temples that hold historical and theological value and if I ever stumble and find myself in Cambodia, it is one sight I would wish to explore for myself. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful in trying to figure out how to embed the video into my blog, so please check out the link below.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/places/regions-places/asia-southern/cambodia-angkor-dest.html

Blog Topic #2

The article I read about Australia Day portrayed a variety of events that take place in Australia in order to commemorate the day that the first European settlers arrived by ship. Such events included a speech given by the prime minister, 13,000 people gaining their citizenship, an annual cricket game against England and, of course, fireworks. I am sure more than the handful of events talked about take place on Australia Day. The American equivalent to Australia Day would have to be the 4th of July, Independence Day.

In the text book, beginning on page 638, it speaks of how the original settlers, or Aborigines, came to Australia most likely by watercraft approximately 60,000 years ago (which I would contest theologically). It was believed that the sea levels were lower which made it easier for the Aborigines to come to Australia, for their ships were not of the same quality as the later European settlers. According to my friend Chris, who is from Australia, the Aborigines were greeted and treated similarly to how the first European settlers did so to the Native Americans. Basically, they claimed the land for themselves and forced the natives to conform to their European way of life. So, Australia Day on one end is a moment for celebration, on the other it is a recognition of the abolishment of another culture do to globalization.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/australia-day-to-showcase-national-spirit-20110125-1a404.html

One of the first links brought up when I searched immigration was the one listed below which talks about the concerns of having an overwhelming amount of Afghan refugees being detained in Darwin, Christmas and other Australian cities in prisons awaiting citizenship or being sent away if they fail to pass their first or second interview. Because the population of refugees is approaching maximum capacity, many refugees are having to be rejected and sent back to their home country. It costs, on average, $150,000 a year to detain a single refugee with a total cost of over $1 billion for all refugees which is paid for by tax payer dollars. Other avenues are trying to be found to detain more refugees, but the fact remains that something must happen fast before this problem continues to grow to epic proportions.

On page 640 of our textbook, it speaks of how Australia's initial purpose was to serve as a desolate land to send European prisoners. Like many of the first colonies in South America, Australia was believed to be a suitable place to send prisoners because it was away from European mainlands and they would have little to no ability of escaping off of the island, much less returning home. It seemed ironic, at least to some degree, that Australia's beginning under European control was to imprison convicts and is now using its prisons to detain Afghan refugees. Neither are directly connected to immigration, but both methods have already been or will be integrated into Australia as newly added immigrants. One more so, by their own choice.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/no-vacancy-20110209-1an3m.html

Blog Topic #1

I cannot recall when this story was first brought to my attention, it must have been on the news within the last year or two. The above picture is a Starbucks which was opened in the middle of the Forbidden City in China. If I am not mistaken, I believe this Starbucks location was eventually closed down because of protest; nonetheless, it is a prime example of globalization. This  picture is an example in the sense that it depicts how modern culture, in the form of economy, has impacted historical culture. To think that centuries prior the Forbidden City was held as a sacred place for emperors and has now been invaded by an American owned corporation.

Last year, when I was at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I read a book entitled Fast Food Nation which talked of the growing influence of the fast food corporations, such as McDonalds. I guess I really never considered beforehand of the possibility of having McDonalds in many other countries other than the U.S. One of the many stories in the book told of how a McDonalds is now in a remote town not far away from Aushwitz, a former concentration camp during WWII.

I am alright with the idea of capitalism but I believe that some boundaries must be set to keep places of cultural importance, like the Forbidden City, from being tainted by companies like Starbucks, McDonalds, Etc. It is one matter to have a fast food restaurant or coffee shop in the middle of Lincoln rather than the holy city of Jerusalem. Don't get me wrong, I love American culture but I believe that we should preserve the uniqueness of other countries from becoming too much like us. All cultures are valuable and I would hate to see more die out by the time my children have the chance to study them or even my children's children. My point, again, is this, I am pro American culture but boundaries must be recognized and respected so not to destroy parts of history.