So long, farewell, ....

I have read and evaluated your final papers. For the most part, your papers are well done. After a little bit of rest--maybe by tomorrow--I will post the letter grades for your papers on the class webpage.

Your letter grades for the course should be available to you within the next couple of days through the university's online services. Feel free to contact me after that if you think I might have erred in computing the letter grade for the course.

My thanks to many of you who added in the emails, or sometimes in the final paper, a sentence or two appreciating this course and my teaching.

I have often commented to colleagues, and blogged too, that as a teacher this is probably one of the best differences between a regular class and an online class: on their own, students convey their appreciation in the online environment, but rarely do in a regular class.
Of course, it could be because my regular classes suck! But, I think--or, I want to believe--that the online environment makes it easy to say nice things, whereas a face-to-face interaction can potentially make it an awkward interaction, for the student or the teacher or both. Many times I have even ended up as a messenger--students tell me that a professor X was awesome, and I have then conveyed that to X :-)

Enjoy the rest of the summer. I hope to see you around--either in one of my classes, or when you drop in for a chat. Yes, swing by and say hi anytime you see me in my office at HSS 219.

Final paper: a reminder

Hey, I want to make sure that you are working on your final papers.
The deadline is August 1st (Saturday).









Incidentally, if you have missed out on the news because of the paper and assignments you are working on, big time clashes broke out in Nigeria.

Nigerian security forces chased fleeing members of Boko Haram a day after the leader of the Islamist sect was killed amid fighting in which at least 600 people died.

“There are still isolated incidents here and there” in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno, said Emmanuel Ojukwu, the national police spokesman.

Fighting erupted in northeastern Nigeria on July 26, when Islamists attacked police stations in the state of Bauchi. The clashes spread to at least four other states. Boko Haram, a group that is sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Taliban and wants to impose sharia law across the entire country, was involved in the attacks, according to IHS Global Insight, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based research group.

The group’s 39-year-old leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed after being taken into custody yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported today, citing the League for Human Rights. Ojukwu confirmed Yusuf’s death.

Well, you know where Nigeria is (you do, right?), the importance of the Sahel and the north-south split, .... and thanks to the article in the Atlantic that you read, you even have a fairly good idea of the religious tensions in Nigeria.

Burma, SE Asia and E Asia

Hey, this is the final week of the summer term. Bear with the Valley's heat and complete your work first. You can always play later :-)

One of the difficulties in teaching any course is to keep in mind that the material will be old to the teacher but is new to the student. And, therefore, for the teacher to "see" it with the eyes of a freshie to the subject. As Therese Huston writes in this essay in the Chronicle of Higher Education,

[Being] an expert can get in the way of seeing the issues from a student's perspective. The beauty of being a content novice is that you have an outsider's level of excitement and curiosity. Questions that might be demeaning to experts are enticing to content novices, just as they'll be enticing to your students —who will be more interested in learning because you've asked the right questions from the start.

I find this an interesting and enjoyable challenge, particularly in GEOG 310 and 410. If at all, I find that students do not ask enough questions because, I suspect, they think their questions might make them come across as not knowing enough about the world. In my "regular" classes I always comment that if they already knew the stuff, well, I will then be out of a job--at least this is my attempt at humor to convince them to shed that baseless fear.

In this class, whether it worked out well or not, I decided not to have any discussion-questions at all. It kind of made our class a quiet class, I suppose. I will assume that the quietness had nothing to do with your reservations to ask questions, or comment.

A few quick comments on the regions we covered through Mapwork 3:

• I don't care what the world says; almost always I refer to the country as Burma and not as Myanmar. It is my own way of protesting against the junta that has literally and figuratively choked the lives of many, many Burmese. Let a democratically government change the name, and I too shall refer to the country as Myanmar :-)
• Burma, like many of the countries in SE Asia and South Asia experiences monsoon rains. The monsoon rains are a lot different from the rains in the Willamette Valley. They come down in a hurry sometimes, dumping inches in a matter of hours.
• East Asia has its own "typhoons" that can cause quite a hassle. As we head towards the eastern edges of SE and E Asia, we also begin to experience the Pacific Ring of Fire. (I suppose it is an oxymoron, given that "pacific" means peaceful!)
• Demographically speaking, these two regions together account for more than a quarter of the world's population.
• And there is a tremendous diversity in the population. BTW, I found it confusing when I first got to the US whenever people referred to "Asians" in conversations in a way that excluded me from India, which is in Asia. I cannot understand how in the US the usage "Asians" refers only to people from China, Japan, etc., when technically speaking even an Iranian or a Nepali is equally an Asian. Oh well, can't correct 'em all! for the record, after having grown up in Asia, I have been an American for a while now :-)
  
• Anyway, speaking of diversity, you noticed the differences even within Burma. Our own Dr. Mark Girod recently spent a couple of weeks working in refugee camps that serve the Karen people in the Thai/Burma border. Chat with him if you want a personal take on this issue. If you are like me, you will be all the more convinced that life in the US is simply way too good.
  
• In a way, it is perhaps incorrect to include Japan in this whole mix because of the economic powerhouse it is in contemporary times. One of the many problems with the traditional approach to regional geography.
  
• My own assessment is that by and large, the future of the world will be most significantly shaped by what happens in Asia--Southwest Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, and East Asia. If it turns out otherwise, come back for a tuition refund in 2029 :-)

Any rejoinders, questions, comments?

Wrap-up task

Hey, I was sidelined for a couple of days because I felt a tad unwell. Now, am back on the proverbial saddle to finish the ride :-)

"One swallow doesn't make a summer" is the old saying. But, in a course like this, we simply do not have the luxury of time to read and discuss a lot and, therefore, we look at a swallow or two and .... move on to the next. But, I suppose I would like to remind everybody that what we have done thus far is a remarkably quick survey of a few regions of the world--regions that we might not have known much about prior to this class.

Eastern Europe is one of those regions that is easily forgotten. When we think of Europe, it is France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Austria ..... that come to mind. But, as we head east of Austria, there is a whole new "old" Europe.

These are typically less affluent than Western European countries. (While I like the relative simplicity of the map here, we typically do not include Turkey in Eastern Europe. Perhaps Turkey is also like Afghanistan--has been at the crossroads in so many ways, and can be grouped with different regions, and does not quite fully belong to any!)

All these countries were under the influence of the Soviet Union. The two essays you have for the final week are about Romania and Georgia, on either side of the Black Sea. Very interesting essays, and will give you a feel for those countries. You will also see from those two essays that these two countries have a great deal of economic and social issues that are in common.

So, at this point in my "lecture" you are thinking, "just tell me what I have to do for the wrap-up task!" Well, if so, just hold your horses :-)

Because, I want to spend a little bit of time about the way I have 'taught" this class this term. You may have noticed that I practically did not "lecture" at all, and was more a guide leading you up the path. Teaching has been with my "mouth shut". If you want more of an analogy, you can think of the role of a personal trainer in a gym--the user has access to all the equipment in the gym, and the trainer's role is to advise the user about what has to be done for the goal that the user has in mind. Ultimately, it is up to the gym user to do the reps. Well, a user like me have never had a trainer and dodges going to the gym; it shows :-)

One of the best things about the internet is that we now have access to all kinds of information--text, audio, video, historical and archival .... In the old, old days, students had to rely on the professor even for that information. Then textbooks made things different--students had access to knowledge in that book. In the contemporary context, and definitely for this course, my role is that of the guide rather than the "sage on the stage."

The reason I am taking up your time to discuss this wit you: once the term ends, I hope you will not stop understanding the world outside the US. Earlier generations at least had a valid reason--they did not have easy access to materials to further their understanding. We have no excuse at all. The regions we looked at need a whole lot of detailed understanding, because I am convinced that the future of the world will be shaped by developments there--which is also why I did not want us to spend time looking at the Americas, Western Europe, and Oceania. Not that these vast regions become irrelevant .... you get my point, I hope.

So, after all this, here is the final assignment--take time until next Wednesday (29th) if you need to:

• Read the two essays
• Identify an observation from each context
• Write about why those observations caught your attention, and explain whether you think those might be the same case with the rest of Eastern Europe as well
• All together in about 800 words

BTW, lots of metaphors here, eh!

Afghanistan's place in the world

I am done reading through your essays. In my second reading, I will formally evaluate your work, and then pass along my comments to you—individually, of course.

Through your work, you have identified how much of an interesting, and important, location Afghanistan has—now and in history. This is a country with a rich history, and a complex one too, and its modern story is even more complicated.

If we look at it from a physical geography perspective, the Indian Subcontinent is bordered by huge mountains all around. Well, this is no surprise given our understanding that this landmass is still on the move, pushing itself against the larger landmass, which is also why the Himalayas continues to grow at a little over two inches a year!

Afghanistan is on the other side of these mountains. From a crude sketch of the physical geography, we can then make an observation that this is a country that does belong more with Iran and the rest of Southwest Asia.

Southwest Asia is mostly Islamic, which is also the religion that pretty much all of Afghanistan practices. This too then adds to the argument that perhaps Afghanistan belongs to the Southwest Asian group, and not to South Asia. It is not that South Asia does not have Muslims; the country with the second largest Muslim population in the world is India. (Do you know which country has the largest number of Muslims? Need a hint? It is NOT in Southwest Asia!) South Asia has a dominant Hindu population, and there are other significant religious groups as well—Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, ….

On the other hand, Afghanistan has a long history with the Indian Subcontinent. While the Subcontinent was the jewel in the British Empire, Afghanistan fiercely resisted any occupation. (Later the Soviet Union also found that Afghanistan was no pushover. These two experiences were why many policy analysts were not too keen on America and NATO occupying Afghanistan for too long.) If not for the fiercely independent Afghans, the British Empire would have extended even further.

Going back some more in time, it was through the Khyber Pass that Central Asian warriors reached India, and then established the Mughal Dynasty. And even further back, before the advent of Islam, Buddhism played a major role even well into Afghanistan. As a couple of you pointed out, it was not any freakish accident that there were those giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan that later the Taliban blew up.

Retracing the historical path, we have ample evidence of a great deal of interaction between erstwhile kingdoms in Afghanistan and India.

It is, therefore, a tough call to make on whether Afghanistan is in Southwest Asia or in South Asia. It is not merely a matter of semantics—such a classification shapes our understanding of not only Afghanistan itself, but of those regions too.

As long as you have examined both the arguments, I don’t care whether you decided that Afghanistan is in South Asia, or Southwest Asia, or neither.

One student wondered as an aside whether Afghanistan belongs to neither group, but to Central Asia. I would think that be a difficult argument to make. Afghanistan has way, way, more in common with SW or S Asia, compared to Central Asia. But, yes, we do have to note the presence of Central Asian ethnicities in Afghanistan. If you have seen the movie, The Kite Runner, you might recall that the friend of the protagonist is made fun of by the bullies because of his Mongol features/ethnicity.

Any comments? Rejoinders?

More on Mapwork 2

Hey, for some reason there is a significant drop-off in the number of assignments I received. Very strange in the sense that I have never had such a decrease in the number in any of the online classes in the past.

I am now beginning to wonder whether my decision not to have discussion questions was a bad idea; whether that is a cause for a couple of students not to feel connected enough. I have always bugged students with discussion questions, and from a pedagogical perspective, I thought it was not delivering the kind of output I had imagined. Actually, it is not just me, and this is not merely in online classes--generating discussions have always been a challenge to most instructors, in the "real" and "virtual" worlds alike. In any case, if you have any thoughts on this, please let me know; student feedback has helped me a lot over the years in improving what I do. (Be thankful, therefore, that you were not in my classes when I started this career, if what I am today is an "improved" condition!!!)

I have posted my comments and the grade for your Mapwork 2. I noticed that most of you had not referenced the readings. So, I went back to the assignment details and noticed that the mandate to make appropriate references to the readings is not clear at all. I have mentioned it, but not emphasized it, which means that some of you might have interpreted the task different from how I had envisioned it. So, I need to own a part of that blame. Tell you what; when it comes down to calculating the course grades, I will make appropriate upward adjustments.
For the final mapwork, which is due next week, please make sure that you appropriately bring in arguments/quotes from the readings into the discussions.

Here are a few thoughts related to the Mapwork in addition to those I had posted earlier.

Some of you mentioned that a major contrast between North Africa/Southwest Asia and the US is: in the US, most women do not wear hijab, and most men do not have beards.

Well, I have a beard. It used to be dark with streaks of grey, and then it became salt-and-peppery. Now, it is grey with some stray blackness :-) I suppose it is also worth mentioning that my beard has nothing to do with my religion, or lack of one.

That light-hearted comment aside, yes, religion plays a huge role in this region. To quote verbatim from a student:

I found it interesting as I read this week's readings how much Islam influences the cultural in these two regions and I thought at first that it was strange until I thought about how the U.S. and its cultural has been greatly influenced by the Christian faith throughout history. Once I realized that it seemed logical that the society and culture of North Africa and Southwest Asia should be shaped by Islam because it is the most common religion in the two regions and since religion is such a big part of many people's lives it makes sense for it to play a big role in society and culture.

Related to all these: liberal democracies in the West are now having to deal with an important public policy issue—what if immigrant women from North Africa or Southwest Asia decide to continue with their traditions in the liberal democratic country that they immigrate to? Should they be allowed to practice their traditions? What about the possibility that some, or even most, of these women wear the hijab or a burqa because of explicit or implicit pressures from the elders in that tradition, despite the women not in favor of wearing it?

You think these are hypothetical questions? Not at all; this is a “global issue”, and France, in particular, has been having a tough time with this. There are quite a few immigrants from North Africa--especially from Algeria--relating to the French colonial days. I thought this might be a neat example on how GEOG 410 builds on, and differs from, GEOG 310.

Water, as many of have noted, is a precious commodity in these regions. The Nile stands out, and we easily see the entire areas around the Nile as having much higher population densities compared to other places in North Africa.

Finally, pay attention to spelling. One paper had the student's first name mis-spelt. Another had "contras" when the student meant to convey "contrast." "Contras" is the correct spelling, yes, but not the word we want in that context. "Mubarak" was incorrectly spelt in more than one assignment. It might sound like I am nitpicking here. (BTW, ever wondered what "nitpicking" means? Click here for the original meaning, and here for what it has come to mean as a metaphor.) But, remember, your boss and the public will expect nothing but the best from you in your employment post-graduation. So, this is all a part of the training.

BTW, did you realize that we are now getting really close to the end?

If there is one reason I don't enjoy summer classes, it is this: just as I begin to understand the students in the class, the term ends and leaves me hanging .... Perhaps I will see a few of you in a course or two later on, and I will have opportunities to continue the conversations .... (Of course, I do have students in this class with whom I have interacted in at least one other course before.)

Sub-Saharan Africa: Ghana

Last week we discussed Nigeria, the Sahel, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

It was timely; President Obama is in Ghana where, among other activities, he will also visit Cape Coast:

Built in the 1600s, Cape Coast Castle served as Britain's West Africa headquarters for the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which saw European powers and African chiefs export millions in shackles to Europe and the Americas.

The slave trade ended here in 1833, and visitors can now trek through the fort's dungeons, dark rooms once crammed with more than 1,000 men and women at a time who slept in their own excrement. The dank air inside still stings the eyes.

Why did he choose Ghana among all the countries there? It was the first ever country in Africa to become independent of European colonizers. More than that, Ghana has had a more stable society and politics than most Sub-Saharan countries.
The NY Times:

Mr. Obama did not have too many options. From one end of the continent to the other, the sort of peaceful, transparent election that Ghana held last December is still an exception rather than the norm, analysts said. The same is true for the country’s comparatively well-managed economy.

“The choice was, in fact, quite limited,” said Philippe Hugon, an Africa expert at the Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques in Paris. “It wasn’t huge.”

Countries like Botswana, Namibia and South Africa have consistently received better-than-average global scores for their governance in recent years, according to rankings based on World Bank research.

But a cartoon in this week’s Jeune Afrique, the French magazine widely followed on the continent, seemed to sum up Mr. Obama’s dilemma: John Atta-Mills, Ghana’s president, is depicted holding back the door of a hut labeled “West Africa” from which blood, a grenade and explosions with the names of various countries in the region are bursting.

The list of exploding countries, unstable countries, corrupt countries, is long. Military coups still break out with regularity, as in Guinea and Mauritania within the last year. Journalists in a number of countries continue to be killed, jailed, tortured, forced into exile or otherwise muzzled.

Two faculty in the Social Science Division are originally from Ghana. Vivian in CJ and Isidore in Anthropology. Maybe you know them. They will be delighted to chat with you about Ghana--tell them I sent you to them :-)

Qestion for Essay 2

Looks like you folks are ready to take on Essay #2.

This week you read about North Africa and Southwest Asia. This is a huge region with a great deal of history. After all, Iraq of today is the Mesopotamia of five thousand years ago. Tunisia that I referred to earlier was Carthage of three thousand years ago and wars were frequent with people on the other side of the Mediterranean. (BTW, did you know why it is called the Mediterranean? Keep in mind that it is a European name. Well, to them it represented the center of the world. Thus, if you split apart the name, med refers to middle, and terra refers to ground/earth)

Next week, you will be reading about South Asia. Also a region with immense diversity and history. There are people in Afghanistan who trace their histories to Alexander the Great's conquest; these "Afghans" claim to have Greek blood in them. Wars and conflicts have always been a part of humans, I suppose.

As much as there are physical and human geographic features that are common--a kind of unifying theme--in North Africa and Southwest Asia, there are also considerable physical and human geographic characteristics that make South Asia a region, a Subcontinent.

However, Afghanistan provides an interesting case. Some geographers (and others, too) would classify it under Southwest Asia, while others include the country in South Asia. And this provides the context for Essay 2.

In Essay 2, I want you to provide arguments for where Afghanistan should be included--under South Asia, or with Southwest Asia. In arriving at your bottom line on this, make sure you discuss what the merits are for each case: for what physical or geographic reasons should Afghanistan be treated as a South Asian country, and for what reasons one might want to place it with other Southwest Asian countries.
And, yes, include a map of Afghanistan, and a map of South Asia along with your analysis.

The readings for next week--on locating Osama bin Laden, and whether Pakistan is governable--will also help you understand Afghanistan. And then as you think about what you learnt about Southwest Asia, well, you will have a lot to write about :-)
Finally, keep looking at the maps of South Asia and Southwest Asia for a lot of insight into this task. Look at the political maps, the physical map, maps of ethnic distribution, .... and you will find that Afghanistan is at quite an interesting intersection. It is, therefore, no accident that historically--not just today--it is has been one hell of a battleground :-(

Email me if you need clarification, or if you have comments on thoughts related to this essay.

On North Africa, SW Asia, and more

A couple of observations, trivial and profound …

Feel free to address me as “Sriram.” If not, “Dr. Khé” or “Dr. Khe” will be fine. I suppose ol’ military habits die hard, which is why some students—in this class and in other classes too—address me as “sir”:-)
Whenever I come across a “sir” in an email to me, I am reminded of “To Sir with Love” and, of course, my student days in India when we had to address male teachers as “sir.” Female teachers in K-12 were “miss” whether or not they were married! I remember my kindergarten teacher who was “Higgins miss” even though she was she might have been a grandmother at that time …. Yes, the usage was “name + miss” …. Usages across cultures are interesting. For that matter, my last name has a story by itself.

As you read the essays I have for you, and watch the videos, I hope you are also watching out for such differences between what you might have been used to, versus life in other parts of the world. (Feel free to email the class about any of your personal experiences in these other parts of the world.)

There is a big difference between this course and GEOG 410. In this course, the focus is to understand the location and some of the larger common themes in certain geographic areas. Thus, we looked at Sub-Saharan Africa, and now North Africa and Southwest Asia.

The regions themselves do not have to be studied this way; for instance, after I got here to Western, I developed a new course called “The Pacific Rim”—here the idea is that countries by the Pacific, whether in the Americas or in Asia, have linkages at many levels, primarily economic and political. (Prior to 9/11, our greatest military tension was with China… A couple months before 9/11, a confrontation between our recon aircraft and the Chinese Air Force pilot that led to the recon plane being forced to land, and American personnel were held practically as prisoners ….) Anyway, there are such new ways of understanding regions, as opposed to the traditional structure we are following through not-so-traditional pedagogy.

In GEOG 410, we look at a bunch of issues that might be locational, yes, but not necessarily in contiguous regions. For instance, women in developing countries …. Because it is a senior-level course, a greater rigor will be expected from students in 410. I think I have for you in this course two readings that I normally use in 410. The amount of readings in 410 is also much more than here, which is why I wrote to you early on that 310 is like an LACC course at an upper-division level …. There are a couple of students in this class who have taken 410 (or similar courses) earlier on; again, it is like how sometimes I have ready-to-graduate seniors in my LACC class J

Ok, finally about North Africa and Southwest Asia. Do not be tempted to think these are all Arab countries. All you need to do is think about Iran, which is not an Arab country. Iran, unlike how we might stereotype here in the US, is a country with a lot of diversity. So much so that one of the problems with Iran has been its treatment of minorities. The minorities include Jews, Kurds, Azeris, Balochs ….. Iran is not simply a land of Persians.

An interesting side-story is the gulf there, which the world refers to as “Persian Gulf.” Saudi Arabia and a few other countries that do not like Iran—not just now, but for centuries—prefer to call the same gulf as the “Arabian Gulf” …

We might think that Islam is a common theme here, and it is. But, the Islam-based culture and politics of Tunisia has more in common with European sociopolitics than with, say, Egypt or Iran. And then there is the Sunni-Shia divide. (In GEOG 410 we do spend a week to understand the geography of Islam, and some of the contemporary issues including Islamism.)

From a physical geography perspective, these regions are not the lush green Willamette Valley! Harsh and arid conditions.

What else would you like me to comment on? As you were reading, did anything make you pause because you felt you did not know anything about it? That a little clarification might help? Ask questions … Anything exciting in the materials that you would like to discuss with the class?

Comments on Essay 1

Your essays were, by and large, on the mark. So far, there has been very little for me to complain about!

To varying degrees, quite a few among you omitted stepping outside the Nigerian story per se, even though the task I gave you was to link it up to the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa.

I chose this article because, as I mentioned in my comments on Map Work 1, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with tremendous internal diversity—in terms of religion, ethnicities, languages, geography, and economic conditions. So, Nigeria is a heavyweight within Africa, and definitely in the majority of the continent south of the Sahara.

There are two tensions discussed in the article, and they are kind of inter-related as well: religion and resources. Many of you pointed out that even though it plays out as religious conflicts, maybe it is really triggered by scarcity of resources; if they weren’t poor and starved for resources, will the religious differences matter this much? Overlay this with corrupt and inefficient government and political leaders, well, you have a formula that is pretty much repeated with variations almost all across Sub-Saharan Africa.

North of the Sahara is a different story because the Sahel demarcates the Muslim-dominant Africa from the Christian south. The physical geographic differences also are plenty—as you found out in your earlier map assignment, other than the Nile, there is very little that northern Africa offers in terms of water and, therefore, greenery. Of course, you are exploring some of that this week, right?

I have updated the grades webpage. In the individual emails to you, I will include the Word document in which I will have comments along the right margin or at the end, and will also include in the email your ID#.

Questions/comments?

About the final paper

I am done reading through your essay #1. Within the next day or two, I will formally evaluate and grade them, and then email you my feedback. In that email I will also include the ID#, so that you can keep track of your own progress in this class. (Looks like the email system is working now.)

For your final paper, a couple of you suggested that I describe the task way ahead of time. Am following-up on your suggestion in this post.

First, you need to read an essay, "The Revenge of Geography," by Robert Kaplan. This essay was published in Foreign Policy. It attracted quite a bit of criticism; so, click here to read the few that were published along with Kaplan's response as well. Two academic geographers, including Alec Murphy--you read one of his articles earlier--have co-authored a more formal essay, with all kinds of references and footnotes; read that here. It will be best if you read these in the order in which I have listed them.

After reading all these, re-read the articles by Charles Wade and Alec Murphy, which I had assigned for the first week.

By now, you have lots of ideas swirling around, some contradicting others. And then think about this course, and put together a paper in which you ought to develop your own position on the relevance or irrelevance, importance or insignificance, of this course--"World Regional Geography." Note that when we ask for your opinion in college papers, it does not mean that you simply ponitificate. We require you to develop a compelling argument by presenting appropriate evidence, quotes, supporting arguments, ..... So, make sure you do not fill the pages with unsubstantiated opinions.

• You DO NOT have to gather any additional references. However, if you want to, feel free to bring in additional materials.
• When you use ideas from the course materials, make sure you DO appropriately cite them.
• You should be able to present your arguments in about 2,000 to 2,500 words.
• Double-space, spell-check, ....
• The deadline for the final paper is noon of Saturday, August 1st.

Do not hesitate to check with me as you progress along.
Any questions at this time?

Feedback, and grade, on the work thus far

I have identified you by randomly generated ID numbers. I will individually email you your respective ID #s; however, if the email problem continues, it might be a while before you get that info :-(

Click here for the comments on your work, and the letter grade.

The bottom line is that you need to pay attention to the question; in this case, the map work requirements asked for details on Sub-Saharan Africa, and not on Nigeria. Many of you provided lots of details on Nigeria though ....

Have a fantastic Fourth of July cookout and, if you are like me, well, I bet you too are thankful that you live in the paradise that the Willamette Valley is--except for the four weeks of grass seed pollen!!!

Email problems?

Hi Jacob, (and anybody else with the same problem?):

I sent you two emails .... I wonder why they never reached you. The bottom line is this: the answer to your question is "yes"

The rest ..... if you don't receive a reply from me, within a maximum of three days, the possibilities are:
1. the WOU email system is screwed up;
2. if you are using a non-WOU address, then that is screwed up;
3. the instructor is in the ICU, in which case you all end up with an "A" :-)

In any case, you might then email the class to find out, which is what Jacob wisely did.

Earlier I sent you an email through the class list. This email is coming to you from the blog.
Will at least one of you provide me with feedback on whether you received two emails, or only one. Thanks

Sub-Saharan Africa: map work 1

I have never been to Sub-Saharan Africa. Well, I haven’t been to Africa! Which is why I am excitedly (and a tad anxiously) looking forward to my trip to Tanzania later in December. I will be there for a month. I am confident that I will come back much more informed and wiser about Tanzania, and Africa too.

Of course, throughout graduate schooling, and even here at Western, I have had the pleasure of interacting with Africans. A good friend in graduate school was from Nigeria. He now lives in Minnesota—totally unlike Nigeria, as one might imagine. A couple of months ago, when I emailed him about the cold there, he wrote back that his son, who was born in Minnesota, was complaining that it was way too warm to play outside; and apparently it was only 30 degrees outside!

Nigeria is one huge country, with a diversity that we “outsiders” often don’t pause to recognize, let alone understand. As noted in the CIA Factbook:

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups; the following are the most populous and politically influential: Hausa and Fulani 29%, Yoruba 21%, Igbo (Ibo) 18%, Ijaw 10%, Kanuri 4%, Ibibio 3.5%, Tiv 2.5%

To begin with, most African countries are creations of the European colonizers; i.e., the countries did not always exist as we currently know them. In fact, often the borders were drawn so horribly that clans ended up divided into two different countries. (Note: do not make the mistake of referring to Africa as a country; it is a continent, with a number of countries that have linguistic, cultural, ethnic, religious, and other differences. And, "Niger" is different from "Nigeria.")

Nigeria is oil-rich. For those of you familiar with the idea of one single land mass a long, long time ago, and then the land masses breaking up and drifting apart, well, you will find it exciting to note that when you fit Africa and South America, their oil rich areas neatly overlap. Venezuela is rich in oil, and so is Nigeria.

Oil, it turns out, is a curse—most countries that are oil-rich have huge internal problems. Nigeria too has lots of problems, with oil itself, and otherwise too. One of the problems is what you read about. Demographically, Muslims and Christians are nearly equal in numbers, which I would guess makes Nigeria pretty unique among the countries of the world.

Of course, Nigeria is only one of the countries in a large geographic region that we refer to as Sub-Saharan Africa. You notice where Tanzania is in this region, and its location relative to Nigeria? A friendly note here: if you do meet somebody from Africa, say Senegal, make sure you don’t ask them for details about, say, Uganda. It will be like expecting an Italian to be able to explain Estonia. (Yes, Estonia is a real country.)

An interesting factoid: notice Ghana quite near Nigeria? A little off the coast of Ghana is the triple-zero of location on this planet: zero degree latitude, zero degree longitude, and zero degree altitude. So, if you want to determine the center of the planet based on latitudes and longitudes, well, now you know :-)

Sub-Saharan Africa has an incredible amount of natural resources—which is why European colonizers went there in the first place. Yet, it is one of the poorest regions of the world. And seemingly trapped in a great deal of political instability. In the center of this region is the Democratic Republic of Congo, with immense problems and conflicts. Congo, the river, is one of the largest rivers in the world—in terms of water volumes. This part is also home to the rainforests. If you have taken Jordan Hofer’s class, well, you are probably familiar with this territory.

The news earlier today was about the crash of a Yemeni plane near the Comoros Islands. These are very near Tanzania, almost midway between the coast of Tanzania and the island of Madagascar (which, I presume, you are familiar from the movie?)

Just because we are looking at south of the Sahara, it does not mean that everything is lush green. Do not forget the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. (Note that the usage “southern Africa” does not refer to the country of “South Africa.”) Up until very recently, a colleague, Gwenda Rice, used to lead a team of school teachers to the “bush country” in Botswana. I am not sure if she does that anymore. Chat with Dr. Rice about this if you know her.

Another long lecture, eh! Any questions, comments, thoughts?

In the next couple of days I will email you individual feedback on this and the previous assignment

About your intro-assignment

Hey, a few comments on your intro-task essays.

First the negatives, and then the positives, and then my comments on how this assignment adds to your knowledge base.

1. A few of you focused only on reflecting on the test results. I.e., you took the test, kept track of what you missed, and then spent time thinking about why you might have missed those questions. However, you have completely skipped the second part of the same assignment, which was to link these reflections to the two essays—one by Wade, and the other by Murphy. Pay attention to the question.
   I tell students in my regular classes that assignments have two purposes: first and foremost is to make sure that students have opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge. Second, it is a preparation for the “real world” where things have to be done in a timely manner, and in required formats. When you omit a part of the question, then you have denied yourself a wonderful opportunity to let the “supervisor” know that you really have done your job.
2. Pay attention to the mechanics of writing. Yes, this is not a writing-intensive course. But, again, think of this as a preparation for the world outside, which is, “nasty, brutish, and short” to quote Hobbes (not the cartoon character!) You will quickly lose credibility, particularly if you are planning to be a teacher, if you exhibit one too many errors.

The positives:

1. It looks like most of you honestly reported your test results, even when it showed that you did not do well. For a faculty like me who gives take-home exams in my regular class, well, I rely on an honors system. Thus far, both in my regular classes and in my online classes I have had no evidence of foul-play, which then strengthens my confidence in my students.
2. It appears that many of you have had no geography classes since middle school. Why is that a positive? Well, that means that we will add quite a bit of value to your knowledge base by the time this term ends. After all, isn’t that a goal of education—to add value?

My comments on the assignment:

It is interesting, even to me, that I teach this course and a few other courses like this. Because, as some of you know really well from my intro in my regular classes, I have no degree in geography. None what so ever.

Yet, I am a neo-traditionalist geographer, as I describe myself. The courses I teach are “traditional” and are not usually the favored approaches—which is what Wade and Murphy write about. Wade and Murphy emphasize the immense value these traditional regional geography courses provide, and I agree with them. Hence, one of your comments, such as this one, does not surprise me at all:

I realized that not much emphasis has been put on teaching regional geography material/courses at the schools which I have attended

However, I do not teach them in the “traditional” modes. For instance, Murphy has co-authored a regional geography textbook with Harm de Blij—the same person whose videos I have included for you. But, I don’t use that text, or any other for that matter, because they are old-school. I would rather experiment, particularly with the phenomenal wealth of information, articles, and even books, that are available for free on the web, and introduce students to regional geography in a route that is more in-sync with contemporary ways of conversations and understanding the world.

Are you still with me? Just checking :-)

One student wrote in the assignment,

It was obvious to me where most of my knowledge about the world comes from. Let’s just say that the easiest question for me to answer was about the television show, CSI.

I totally get this. Which is also why in most of my classes I use videos from the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, and the Onion. Because, I think I can facilitate the understanding of the topics using those vehicles—which, by the way, are available free of cost on the web!

Many of you had written about how you had no idea about the devastating earthquake that happened in Pakistan. To me, this again is a fantastic piece of evidence on how the American media and politicians are insanely America-centric. Such an approach worked well up until the end of the twentieth century, but will not work in this century—the problems we face are intensely global. Everything from the current recession to climate change to even the products we purchase has a global dimension that we simply cannot afford to ignore. Again, you are now a few steps ahead of most students who have not had courses about the rest of the world. As one student wrote:

I hope that geography becomes a more important topic because it is important to know about what is going on in the world in order to survive.

I hope so, too.

Don’t think of this as a long email: instead, view this as my “lecture” and this is the point in my lecture when I would ask students for comments/questions. So, email (preferably to the entire class) if you have any thoughts/comments on my points here.

Syllabus set, and more

Hey, I want to make sure you have checked the syllabus and noticed that it is complete.

Online teaching and learning brings out one important aspect of education: while in the "regular" classes we require students to be physically present at identified times, there is in reality very little anybody can do to mandate "mental" presence. And, to make sure that students have indeed done the assigned readings. In the online environment, well, the fact that I won't be staring at you in a classroom might tempt you that much more to skip the readings. Online teaching is aptly referred to as "teaching with your mouth shut"

Anyway, DO the readings, watch the videos, and feel free to ask questions. Keep in mind that the focus of this course is to develop a geographic understanding of the world, which we try to do by slicing the world into regions.

Finally, given the six week session, I had to pick and choose from the regions. I intentionally skipped Central and South America because we do offer quite a few courses related to those areas--not only in geography, but also in history, sociology, ....

However, if you are interested, here is something to think about: (and, yes, I would always be interested in your responses, too)

It has been nearly twenty years since former Vice President J. Danforth Quayle was quoted – perhaps maliciously – as saying that the realm is named Latin America because everyone there speaks Latin, but in fact the origin of this appellation is not as obvious as it may appear. The ultimate Latin roots of both Spanish and Portuguese may constitute common ground, but neither Spanish nor Portuguese settlers arrived in the Americas calling themselves Latinos. The suggestion has been made that the concept of Latin America was externally imposed by Western influences as an exercise in “coloniality” (Mignolo, 2005). The French emperor Napoleon III is often cited as the first to use Amerique Latine as a goal among his expansionist policies, but that goal proved elusive and the phrase inconsequential. In the United States, the regional reference appears to have come into use during the early twentieth century; until then, “Spanish America” was routine.

That is an excerpt from an op-ed, in the AAG newsletter, by Harm de Blij, who is a distinguished professor of geography at Michigan State. He further writes that in this so-called "Latin America":

The indigenous presence is far stronger. African influences are pervasive and locally dominant. From the Japanese in Brazil to the South Asians in Guyana, from the Dutch in the Antilles to the Lebanese in Chile, this is a culturally plural realm. From the rugby fields in Argentina to the cricket grounds in Barbados, this truly is a New World undeserving of a geographic designation that reflects bygone cultural power and historic dominance, not current and future reality.

I agree with his call for action--to get rid of "Latin America" as a phrase to describe a geographic realm; he concludes thus:

“Latin America” is entrenched as self image in South and Middle America and indeed as external emblem elsewhere. ... geographers are seen as the arbiters of nomenclature. Let us begin a discussion ... Our Hemisphere has three geographic realms: South, Middle, and North. If we need an allusive umbrella to substitute for “Latin” in two of these three realms, and increasingly in the third, might “PanAmerica” be a prospect?

Is it high time we ditched "Latin America?"

Essay 1: the "prompt"

We are at the end of Week 1. Summer sessions go by really, really, fast. So, yes, "you snooze, you lose" is quite a warning here. Is that enough? :-)

The essay on Nigeria's religious tensions focuses on the Sahel--the Middle Belt. How important is this Middle Belt to Nigeria, and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa? Do you agree that the Middle Belt had, and continues to have, a strong influence on Sub-Saharan Africa?

In responding to this prompt, make sure you:

• think through the reading and the prompt itself
• provide appropriate quotes from the essay in building your argument
• feel free to use other references--none is required, however
• do not merely summarize the reading
• include a map of the Middle Belt, and cite the source

You should be able to develop your response in about 800 words. Maybe 1000 words max. Make sure you double-space, spell-check, .... well, you know the rules of college-level assignment writing :-)

All set? Any questions?

Geography, location, and this course

So, here is more on why geographic education is important, and why understanding location (map work) is valuable:
****
Could it be true that only real estate agents and geographers seem to understand the importance of location, location and location?

I asked the students in one of my classes whether they considered Iraq and Iran as important enough for Americans to know more about. There was no hesitation — students unanimously and loudly voiced their affirmatives.

I interrupted their enthusiastic comments by handing out blank outline maps of the Middle East and directed them to identify as many countries as they possibly could. Well, it turns out that the familiarity that the class had about Iraq, Iran and Saddam Hussein did not lead to a spatial understanding of that part of the world.


After pointing out the countries at the end of the exercise, I directed them to look at Sudan and Ethiopia. As they kept staring at the countries on the map, perhaps for the first time in their lives, it became apparent to them that it is a relatively narrow body of water, the Red Sea, that separates these countries from a larger contiguous land area that we refer to as the Middle East.

For all purposes, Sudan and Ethiopia are, hence, only a metaphorical stone's throw away from Saudi Arabia, yet Ethiopia is imagined as somewhere in a remote part of Africa.

Of course, geography is not about memorizing maps or random and trivial facts about places. It is about understanding relationships — such as economic or political relationships — between and among geographic areas. Such a framework, though, begins with knowing the actual location of a place and its relationship with its surroundings. After all, if we didn't know where exactly Ethiopia is, would we really be able to understand why that country seems to have so many problems?

The author and public intellectual Susan Jacoby, notes an interesting aspect of Roosevelt's "fireside chats." He urged Americans to buy maps of the world and then follow along with him details of the World War II battles that he "chatted" about in his radio addresses — with specific references to the geographic areas.

Roosevelt may have had in mind what a student in my class articulated in her journal assignment after the class exercise. She wrote: "One thing that stood out to me this week was ... I find that I get so caught up in these abstract, revolutionary concepts of how the world should be better without ever even taking into account what the world actually looks like."

In the contemporary world, too, America is actively engaged in the international arena. To play a constructive role, we citizens need to be informed enough in order to be able to convey to elected leaders the changes we would like to make.

Fortunately, unlike F.D.R.'s era, we now live in a world in which information is freely and easily accessible. This ease of obtaining information is all the more reason educators like me want our students (and the general populace) to understand the world and appreciate the importance of location.

Perhaps add a world atlas to your summer reading list?

Published in the Statesman Journal, June 12, 2009. Note: I added the map for this blog post.

Map work details

Hey, I got an email inquiring about Map Work 1, which is due on Monday.

The overall structure of the assignment is here.
Every map assignment will relate to the region that is identified for that week. Well, more like the week that is coming up--thanks to the condensed summer schedule.
So, Map Work 1 will be about Sub-Saharan Africa.
(Maybe I should clarify this in the course web pages, eh! I shall try to do that soon.)

So, how would I like you to approach the assignment? Read through the articles related to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is largely focused on one country, right? Use the CIA Factbook, for instance, to understand more about that country. And then expand the geographic scope to the part of Africa that is below the Sahara. And then follow the guidelines I have for you when it comes to putting together the assignment itself.

The articles provide an interesting bait of sorts--otherwise, to simply 'learn" about some distant part of the world can become a boring task.
However, it is not that the details of the articles won't come in handy--the short essay questions I will have for you will relate to the articles.

Incidentally, when you try to understand the regions, you will find that in many cases the "edges" of the region are wonderful zones of transition in a number of different ways. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, the zone of transition is called the "Sahel." Physical and human geographic characteristics markedly differ between above and below the Sahel.
We can see such zones of transition all around the world, though perhaps not as pronounced as it is with Africa.

On the final, and tasks ....

Hey:

• When one of you had questions about how to locate the journal articles, another jumped in with the response--and with the articles as PDF files :-) I have always believed that learning is a collaborative activity and am, therefore, genuinely happy with the give and take.
• Thanks for reassuring me that the assignment structure is ok--even if it will keep you busy.
• In response to your concerns about the final paper, I will provide you with details on it by the Fourth of July itself--that should provide you with a great deal of lead time.
• Finally, regarding the task that is due by this Friday. Well, if you need time until Saturday, that is ok. But, note that taking the "test" and keeping track of the errors is only one component of the task. The second component is to relate it the experience to the two journal articles, which discuss the importance of geography and "regional geography". Do not email me these as two different essays, but as one single essay.

So, in case you wonder how two are related .... hey, they are. As you read the two journal articles, you will find arguments there on why and how geographic education helps. And that geographic education is not about memorizing odd facts about places. So, grab on to those ideas, and note down any quotable sentences from there. Then reflect on the test you took, and the errors you made. I am fairly confident that the errors are not due to any inability to memorize facts, but because we construe the world in a certain way. Put all these together and, well, that is your assignment. I hope this helps.

As and when you think that perhaps I can clarify anything, please make sure you contact me. Remember the yardstick we use: for every student with a question, there is a chance that there are more students with the same question. So, you will be doing your fellow classmates a favor by asking that question :-)

Welcome to GEOG310

Hey everybody,

All set for the summer class? Ready?

I am your instructor for the class. More info about me here.

• To email the entire class, make sure the email is addressed to geog310@wou.edu.


• I recognize a few names in the roster. Will you folks please send us all a brief intro about yourselves? Also, I am interested to know why you are taking this class, and what you would like to get out of the course.


• The syllabus is set for the first two weeks. I will complete the syllabus by Friday of next week. I will include a few readings where I have indicated with a "more"


• I have set up the tasks you have to complete. I am beginning to wonder whether I have designed a little too many assignments. Give me your feedback ASAP, so that I can fine-tune that.

Anything else I need to clarify to get you going?

sriram