Final Reflection

This semester my group was focused in bringing news about the Mexican Drug Wars. Since it was such a broad topic, we decided to divide it up into the role of women and role of the media. Topics covered ranged from a vigilante group that decided to take matters into their own hands, how women were affected, the issues with journalist, and how tourism still continued despite increasing violence. My particular part was with how journalist were affected to the point that they feared their life. Many have been threatened journalist for publishing incriminating investigations or other things such as tying the government to illicit activities. Therefore, it is probable that much of the events happening might not even be reported due to fear of retaliation.

As a group we decided that we should split into teams of two and within the team of two we would decide how to work. My theme was violence on women due to drug cartels. Therefore my research had to be based on this. However, there were times when there was no information about women. If this happened, I would move on to our other point of focus, which was the media. I was also sure to check the sites being used for my research because many information is from alternative media. This was specially important because sometimes the source would be extreme and their information was too biased. By working as a group, the feedback and comments of what went right or wrong that week helped a lot how to shape the research and post.

By doing this project I realized that there is much more to a topic than one would expect. I also learned that it is vital to keep updated on subjects of interest because from one week to the other, there would be captures of drug lords and that would reshape and bring new events sparking suddenly. Another thing that I found interesting is that this is a war and it is not getting enough attention by the US media. Innocent people's lives are being taken away and there are no big headlines talking about it. This connects with other issues such as why an immigration reform is wanted by people who have a fear of going back to a country where there is so much chaos. Therefore, I was able to make connections within international contexts.

Final Blog Entry

      This semester my group and I covered the Syrian Civil War.  Going into the semester I had no idea that Syria was even going through any sort of conflict.  However, after much research throughout the semester I not only understood the Syrian conflict but also that I should be more aware of current events that occur around the world.  I chose to learn more about Syria because it sounded like an interesting topic and it was the topic that I knew least about.  Throughout the semester we covered what was going on in Syria in regards to their chemical weapons and the response that the United States had on the weapons.
      In the beginning of the semester our group was very diligent in meeting in the library every Thursday.  As the weeks went on, however, it became a little bit harder to all meet so whoever made it to the library worked on the blog and other people would email their own contributions to that week's blog post.  Some weeks we had one group member write the blog post for that week and the next week someone else would write it.  Although working in groups is not my favorite thing, I believe it is important to work with people in order to gain leadership skills and the skills necessary to interact with other people.
      This semester I learned a lot by working on the blog.  I learned not only where Syria is located on a map, but also about the civil war that it is a part of.  I learned that Syria had chemical weapons which is against national law and that under review of the United Nations they have begun to take means to dismantle and destroy all of these chemical weapons.  I learned about the attacks on small areas such as Damascus, and I kept up to date on important news updates regarding Syria.  Being in a group I learned leadership skills and got along with everyone in my group.  I really liked the blog because I learned about my own topic and I was able to read about other topics that the rest of my peers wrote about.

Final Reflection

This semester in International Politics, my group's blog was on the economic crisis in Europe, specifically the issue in Greece. We learned the timeline that the crisis took place, and the factors that made it disastrous. We then started studying deeper into the chaos in Greece, looking at specific issues and problems, such as corruption of public officials, and poor decision making from the government officials.
Our group was divided into turns of who would write that week's blog post. Since people had other priorities sometimes we would generously take someones week if they had something to do. However, some people took advantage of that generosity and abused it, and some of our group members did not contribute anything, nor did it seem like they were interested in helping. We would ask one another what topic we did for that week, and try to avoid doing the same one over again. In the end I think (those who did work) did a very good informative job of making the blog posts.
I've learned a great deal about the economic crisis in Greece, while I I may not be able to understand what Wall St. tells me, I was able to find articles that were able to break down the complicated economic terms into understandable layman ones. I also learned that people should also not be trusted by their word, because most of the time they will let you down.

Egyptian Revolution Final Blog Post

Throughout the fall of 2013, my group has followed the events that took place in the turbulent nation of Egypt. Our focus remained on the government control and reaction to the news of Morsi’s trail and civil unrest that promptly followed. The unrest in Egypt contributed to the fact that the government was military controlled. Our group explored whether there’s a chance for a democratic ruling in Egypt and followed closely how the citizens reacted to the events that have unfolded. Due to the fact that Morsi’s removal led to military control of the government, many civilian protests sparked to combat the censorship and arrests. During this time, it is difficult to regard Egypt as a democratic state and it is necessary to follow the outcomes in order to fully decide the direction that Egypt will choose.

My main approach for research for the blog entries consisted of thoroughly reading through websites such as CNN, Usatoday, and BBC. Our group would meet as research individually for about 30 minutes whilst making sure we’re not reading the same material. When done with our individual reading, we will start with an introduction that relates to our previous blog and add on a mix of the information we all found. We frequently use websites such as the Al-Jazeera due to concise and accurate synopsis of all the major events. Working with a group influence my approach by opening doors to different methods and emphasis that each of the members possessed. It caused me to look at things in a different perspective and truly learn from each other.

From the start, the issue of the Egyptian revolution always sparked avid interest for me. I would frequently watch the news and read up on the events of the revolution from the very beginning. But the opportunity that this blog presented me with was to really examine the implication in an international lens as well as truly visualizing the events through the eyes of the citizens. 

Fukushima

Throughout the semester our group chose to follow the Fukushima Nuclear disaster and what actions are being taken to prevent future spills while monitoring the precautions TEPCO is taking to clean up the nuclear spill. A lot of the time it seemed as though the Japanese government was trying to keep information on the spill quiet, and didn’t necessarily want any other involvement from outside organizations to help the situation. I don’t think this worked in their favor especially since there were multiple spills after the initial disaster that they didn’t prepare for.

Our group chose to divide the assignment up by giving each person a specific week to turn in their blog post. This was extremely convenient since our group wasn’t able to meet as often as we wanted to. We influenced each other’s work by sharing certain articles that we thought were interesting. I thought this was an effective way of sharing information because certain group members would have busier weeks than others so sharing the information allowed me to catch up the group members who were unable to research the disaster for the week and vice versa. This way we were able to keep each other on track.

            This assignment taught me that sometimes group work is not as easy as everyone just meeting up on a weekly basis. Each individual has different schedules and responsibilities so finding a medium between that is difficult, however I think our group did a good job of working around our inability to meet up. Also, I learned about an issue I probably would not have paid much attention to if it weren’t for this blog. Initially I chose Fukushima so that I could learn about something I had little knowledge of so I now have a better understanding of nuclear reactors and radiations spills that I did not previously have.

My group and I did the Mexican Drug War.  We started out splitting ourselves into smaller groups and then creating a focus between each of us that would come together at the end, which proved to be harder than we thought, but a good learning experience.  I really focused on the media, especially between the US and Mexico.  What I tried to convey was how the media plays such a large part whether it be about the US/Mexico relations in general or how drug cartels are advancing and using social networking capacities.

When my first group meeting happened, I was pleased to find out that there were Spanish speaking members, and this influenced me to try and find articles that wouldn’t be so one sided as they were able to read both the US and Mexican point of views. I found my articles searching for recent online newspaper and books that would give me an insight into what has and is happening.

What I noticed that repeated throughout the weeks, was the huge death toll and this is something that never stopped. As I said in one of my blog post, there have been more deaths in the Mexican Drug War than the US lost in the whole Vietnam War.

From this project, I really learned that working together on such a huge topic can prove to be a lot more difficult than planned but this helped me become a better team partner. I’ve read all my group posts and found it interesting to see the different approaches and articles people found. I think overall, we were able to produce a successful blog that is interesting to read not only for our group but for the class as well. 

Final Blog Entry

Over the course of this semester we investigated China’s many exploits with an emphasis on their methods of acquiring natural resources as well as how their constant pushes for power affects dynamics in the West. Starting with Africa we studied how China is laying the seeds of infrastructure while extracting natural resources leaving both parties happy. In South America China is using the same technique to fashion good will and establish long term trading partners. Next we moved to Europe where China has begun the shift from cheap mass-produced goods to manufactured items. Then we turned home and discovered that China is buying up massive amounts of American real estate as well as American businesses creating a powerful presence that cannot be ignored. During our research we reflected on how China’s economic leaps are affecting the global spheres of power.

Before each week’s post we would have a group meeting where we shared and analyzed research we had done individually earlier in the week. At this meeting we would choose a geographical location where China’s power plays are taking place and elect a member to write that week’s post. By working as a group we were able to produce different grounds of thought as well as massive amounts of information about our topic. Being in a group allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of my topic by forcing me to see different points of view.

            I have learned a great about China as well as expanding my schools of thought. Coming from America it is interesting to see how effective a state run capitalist system can be, especially when used in conjunction with long-term investments and smart diplomatic moves. I feel I am better able to differentiate between reliable scholarly resources and media articles designed to entertain for a few minutes. Working in a group with new people can be challenging, but good communication is key to creating a seamless product. Overall I’d say this project was a success I learned a great deal about an extremely important issue as well as creating relationships with my peers.