FInal Fukushima Blog Post - Matthew Slasten

During the Semester, my group tracked the developments following the 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. We found that the international community holds fears that the radioactive wastes from the damaged plant have and will make their way into the Pacific Ocean, effectively spreading toxic wastes worldwide. Their fears seem to be legitimate, as evidence continues to show that toxic debris has been making its way across the Pacific Ocean to North America. To make matters worse, every other week reports come out of accidents and setbacks on clean-up efforts. These setbacks have been so bad that they have sparked the Japanese Prime Minister to ask the world for intellectual help. TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), on the other hand, keeps ensuring the international community that it has clean-up efforts under control and has recently undertaken a 40-year clean-up plan to remove radioactive fuel rods from damaged reactor buildings. Only time will tell if they are successful. As for now, the international community continues to watch and continues to hold their breath.

To accurately track the developments regarding Fukushima, we kept ourselves updated by searching online for recent events relating to the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. We would send each other articles that we thought were interesting and eventually one person would be assigned to take the lead that week on writing the Blog. We keep the rough draft of the Blog Post on Google Docs, where each group member had access to edit typos and add to any areas that seemed to be missing. By Friday, we would do a final read through and one of the group members would submit it. This process really gave everybody flexibility because we couldn’t all meet at the same time. It would also ensure confidence that the group was in agreement on the Blog post.

Overall, this project challenged me to follow a world event and critically assess the implications of each new development. From the past couple of months, I learned that the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster is far from being over. It may not be at the forefront of the top news stories, but it is still causing lasting effects. Radioactive wastes don’t just go away, so the cleanup and the aftermath of this disaster will continue to plague Japan and possibly the world for years to come. And even worse, no one knows what the lasting effects will be and what the most effective cleanup efforts should be. Only time will tell. As for researching as a group, I think that it went well. I really enjoyed knowing that all of the pressure wasn’t on me to do the work and that I had partners that could catch what I missed. Working with a group also gave me the drive to do my part and make sure my tasks were completed on time. I am very glad that I chose to work with this group and that I chose this topic.

Final Post - Mexican Drug War- Kelleen

Throughout the semester my group and I researched the Mexican Drug War and its effect on Mexican society and population. We decided to focus on a new theme related to the drug war each week. My theme the first week I wrote was violence against women and I wrote about vigilante assassinations of  male bus drivers in Cuidad Juarez perpetuated by a mysterious woman, highlighting the frustration of Mexican women that Mexico authorities do not take crimes against women as seriously as violence between men. My second post was about Mexico City legislators considering legalizing marijuana with a theme around possible solutions for the drug war. The other members of my group wrote about a variety of topics including violence against journalists, trends in tourism related to violence from the drug war and immigration to the United States from Mexico due to drug war violence. Since we had to focus on stories in the news that week, it was hard to narrow our topic beyond the general drug war. The drug war is in the news frequently but the stories are often similar: extreme violence due to cartel fighting and control.

Before starting my research for my blog post I decided on a theme I wanted to focus on; the two I chose were violence against women and solutions to the war. Next I would look at the news for the drug war that week on different new source websites including Mexican and American Press. It was often hard to find the kind of story I was looking for because the news stories about the drug war are usually just about someone being arrested or civilian deaths. I found the vigilante killer story and the possible legalization of marijuana stories very interesting because they were not like most of the stories about Mexico. The vigilante killer story was all over the American press and was unusual as it was a female suspect. Our group had decided to have one person each week write a blog post and send it out to the rest of the group by Wednesday for everyone to give feedback. The group's feedback was helpful because they often mentioned things I hadn't thought of, like explaining the back story or including the response to the incident. Having group feedback was helpful while writing my posts.

During this project I learned that working in a group can be very difficult, communication is often hard to maintain. I also learned that feedback can be very helpful because things you had not thought of can be brought up and fixed. Our topic was not a happy one and reading all the news stories was often disheartening however I do feel that I now have a better grasp of origins and reasons for the drug war. Mexico is very close to the United States however we don't often think of the horrible things going on there, of which our citizens are partially responsible for. People also often think of immigration as an American problem but we need to look at why people leave Mexico and other Latin American countries. If we are horrified by the civil war in Syria and feel obliged to take action there we should also be looking closer to home and realize that daily senseless violence is occurring right next door and we are not doing anything to stop it.

Final Post

            Throughout the semester of blog posts, my group has covered the seemingly endless cleanup of the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.   We focused on the attempts to cleanup and prevent further radiation leak, which has proven to be a daunting task for TEPCO.  Another area of concern was the response of the Japanese government and the statements released.  A common theme since the disaster occurred is uncertainty, of how much radiation has leaked and the effects that this radiation will have.  While this ambiguity is present, the statements released have been ones of reassurance that all is fine.  Our group further evaluated the role of the government in the cleanup efforts, specifically whether the government is capable of handling the cleanup, especially with the heavy funds required for the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and the reconstruction needed after multiple storms, such as Francisco.  While our blog requirements are finished, the cleanup in Japan is far from over. 

            Our group worked really well and efficiently.  Each week, we independently researched for interesting and relevant articles on the cleanup efforts in Japan and shared the information we obtained.  We had a rotating schedule of who was to write the blog post for the week, which was done on a Google doc.  The other members in the group would then have the opportunity to edit the post.  Once all viewed and agreed on the blog post, it would be uploaded on or before Friday.  The conduction of our group allowed all to take part in the uploading of blog posts, while catering to everyone’s busy schedule.  It was an efficient way to ensure that our posts were quality work and submitted on time each week.

             At the beginning of the year, I knew very little about the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster.  I knew of the disaster, the very basic facts and that I should probably pay more attention to it.  Researching the meltdown has led to a better understanding of nuclear energy, the benefits and the drawbacks, and a realization of the interconnectedness of the world.  Even though I am a great distance from other countries in the world, in this case, Japan, the events in those countries can have an impact on my life and visa-versa.  The blog assignment also taught the importance of the media, and the necessity of not only paying attention to current events, but also the necessity of retrieving information from reliable sources.  Finally, I learned the complications of working in a group, such as the difficulty in finding time to meet, but how they were outweighed by the benefits of group work.  Each member has a different way of thinking and brings different ideas to the table, which leads to a well rounded product in the end.   

Individual Blog Post - Akana Jay

Focussing on the on-revolution and unrest in Egypt, my group delved into everything from restorative efforts by Egypt's government, tention between Muslims and other races residing in Egypt, Egypt's crackdown on media outposts across the country, pro-Morsi protests ans clashes between Morsi supporters and Egypt's military, the government turning against it's own people, El-Sisi running for office to protests around Morsi's trial, during the span of the assignment. Furthermore, we attempted to recapture some of the everts from the inception of the revolution in the introduction of the blog. While providing our readers with information and updates on Egypt's current standing, we also attempted to provide worldwide perceptions of the crisis in Egypt.

Research and information about Egypt was plentiful. We even found live belongs by journalists reporting from Cairo and other parts of the country. Everybody seemed to have an opinions about the Egyptian revolution and we found that not everyone saw eye to eye. Opinions were numerous but also diverse. It was important during our research to find out the overall picture and provide our readers with the most objective information possible. Although media bias was inevitably encountered, we refered to many diffent sources inorder to combat it. Through working in a group, we were further able to write post encompassing numerous perspectives and ideas. We were also able to educate one another on the subject and produce six times as much information as we would have been able to on our own, given the allocated time span.

At the start of the blog assignment, my knowledge of the Egyptian revolution was minimal and was influenced-almost solely-by an Egyptian I sat next to on the 12 hour plane ride home one winter break. Researching for this assignment further proved that there is always more than one side to every story. Through working in a group, I was able to not only attain new information but also to hear my group member's own opinions about the crisis in Egypt. From this assignment I learnt to question research I find and cross check it with other sources and thus produce the most accurate and unbais view on a particular topic. This assignment helped me to not only understand the revolution in Egypt better, but also to look at other global issues through multiple perspectives and to take the critical theory approach to global and political dilemmas. 

Morsi on trial

Egypt Mohammed Morsi is on trial for being accused of inciting violence while being president . Mr Morsi insisted that he still was the legitimate president of Egypt and rejected the charges against him. The first day of the trial ended with a postponement until January 8th 2014. At the same time, protests are still going on in the capital Cairo where pro Morsi supporters are asking for the return of Morsi to his presidential post.If found guilty, Morsi could face the death penalty. Lynch Sara USA Today 11/04/2013 http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/11/04/morsi-trial/3430189/

UPDATE: The Golden Dawn Protests Outside Parliament

A protest occurred outside the Parliament with over 1000 supporters for Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who heads The Golden Dawn, an extreme right wing party. He is a suspect for murder of Pavlos Fyssas. The protesters were seen dressed in black, carrying the Greek flag and burning torches. This protest has been one of the largest gatherings of the party in protest for their leader. 13 of the 18 Golden Dawn lawmakers currently face charges. Will this protest sway the court's decision on what to do with the convicted members of the Golden Dawn?

Works Cited:
Reuters. "Golden Dawn Rally: Greece's Ultra-Right Party Holds Protest Outside Parliament." The Huffington Post. 30 Nov. 2013. TheHuffingtonPost.com. 03 Dec. 2013 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/30/golden-dawn-rally-greece_n_4365098.html>.

As the year comes to a close, Greece has been working to revise their budget plans to submit to Parliament for review. Not only does the plan show signs that Greece’s economy may be heading out of the recession, it also shows that Greece will have one of the highest surpluses in the Eurozone, of 812 million euro ($1.09 billion). But of course, this addition of money will be directed towards Greece’s debt payments.

This amount of progress has given everyone in the Eurozone that not all hope should be lost for Greece’s economy. Even more efforts and planning are being made to ensure Greece’s return to its original stature.

Greece has been guaranteed two bailouts since its showed signs of recession in 2010. With the improvements the nation has been experiencing, Greece may not need immediate funding. With this progress, hopes for Greece’s return to international markets are high. If Greece’s economy continues to improve, it may be on the way to pursuing debt relief with the EU.

 

Works Cited:

Kakissis, Joanna. "2014 Greece Budget To Contain No Austerity Measures." NPR. 21 Nov. 2013. NPR. 29 Nov. 2013 <http://www.npr.org/2013/11/21/246492064/greece-no-austerity-budget>.