Research Symposium

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

The research symposium on Wednesday was really great. It made me feel pride for NWU and our students. So many people presented and sometimes even more than once! It makes me proud to know that I go to a University that is able to encourage growth and these types of skills in all of its students. Not until this year, did I truly realize how special NWU is as well as the faculty. So thanks for that. Anyway, I went to a ton of presentations but specifically two I will talk about for this class.

The first was Grant Riekenberg whom I love and who presented on Remittances leading to development. His presentation was chalk-full of information and quite dense but applicable and somewhat interesting. I learned about what remittances are, how they’re affecting the world, what countries see high levels of them, and that it appears that they do lead to development. He analyzed 114 developing countries and determined that remittances increase as life expectancy increases, remittances increase as industrial development increases, and that remittances increase as primary enrollment in schools increases. Who knew that the money individuals are sending back home can really make a difference, but it makes sense. We didn’t really talk specifically about remittances in our class but it is totally relevant to globalization since the people sending back the money are in other countries. Also the fact that they’re abroad, is helping other countries grow and develop.

The second was presented by Taleigh Hansen who presented on Globesity. While her presentation was much shorter than Grant’s (6min), she brought up interesting points. Her hypothesis was that as globalization increases so to will obesity. She had a few theories to explain this such as the Globesity theory, which is that globalization allows people to share their cultures and thus things like McDonalds. The second theory she mentioned was the Modernization theory which refers to, in her case, specifically the nutrition transition. It’s important that as a country develops, it continues to educate its population on nutrition and health. The US tells us what nutrition is but doesn’t tell us very well how to manage it, etc which is perhaps why the US is so thick. Even the WHO called it an epidemic. She found that both GDP per capita and globalization are significant variables in obesity. These results are not surprising but I want to know more about how to solve the problem of globesity which she did not address. This presentation also correlates with our class since we’ve covered globalization briefly and if the world powers are obese, it makes sense, that as we push our ways onto the developing world, that they too may follow in our steps and become obese because that’s how we’ve taught them.

Lots of cool presentations. Thank y’all for presenting, I know it’s hard work and nerve wracking!

Lauren

Final Blog Post

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

 

I’ve learned a ton this semester.

  1. Nigeria. OMG I don’t even think at the beginning of this class could I find Nigeria on a map much less write three in depth essays about its culture, economy, and political structure. I fear for Nigeria but I do have a sliver of hope that they will succeed in the future and accomplish their goals but it’ll have to be one baby step at a time. Read More

Test Questions

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

 

Well, it’s pointless to try to come up with possible test questions since the test has passed.  I was confused on this post because the schedule had for April 25th, write a blog posing some possible questions you might think w
ould be on the test. Read More

Country Panel Presentations

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

 

Day 1: Russia, Iran, Romania, China (Communist, Post-communist, Post-authoritarian)

The first day of panel presentations included those countries listed above. They weren’t as detailed as I would have like them to be but they were still interesting. It seems that all of these countries have issues with their economy. Read More

Nigeria’s role in WWII

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

The article for the next two quotations here:

Human resources:

“Churchill and many British government ministers at the time had had direct experience with the Empire and its people, and it was inevitable that the crafting of the war involved the marshaling of Empire and Commonwealth forces. African kings like the Asantehene of the Gold Coast became indispensable resources in this effort because they were able to mobilize their subjects for all manner of projects, whether it was to join the imperial army, help assemble Hurricanes, or construct airfields, harbors, and roads. In the first few years of the war, the RAF recruited 10,000 West Africans for ground duties in the British West Africa colonies of the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia. To be sure, British personnel, who were succumbing to West Africa’s punishing heat and enervating malarial attacks, needed support from an acclimatized populace in a region of the world sometimes called the “White Man’s Grave.”

Beyond that, West African soldiers went to the battlefront itself. The 4th Gold Coast Infantry Brigade, which later became the 2nd West African Infantry Brigade, contributed 65,000 men to the 1944 Battle of Myohaung, which drove the Japanese out of Burma. Today, in testament to that history, the military section of Accra, Ghana’s capital, is called Burma Camp, and there is a Myohaung Barracks at Takoradi.”

Resources:

“The war brought about a greater demand for Africa’s raw materials. With the loss of Southeast Asia’s rubber to the Japanese, Nigeria became one of Britain’s most important sources of rubber. The Gold Coast’s bauxite, the raw material for aluminum, was critical to British aircraft production. It would be misleading to say, however, that these contributions were all made under blissful conditions. Britain’s ultimately failed attempts to increase tin mining in Nigeria involved forced labor under appalling conditions.”

Article:

“I have read about the million or so African troops who fought in WWII on the side of the Allies. West African soldiers, including many Nigerians, were instrumental in liberating Ethiopia (the only African country to successfully resist colonization) from fascists. I have known that the British offered inducements to subjects in their African colonies to convince them to fight in Europe against Germany, of course in worse conditions and for less pay than their white counterparts.”

Lauren

P.S. The photo is from when I went to Auschwitz and it’s a room filled with the shoes of those who perished during WWII.

Event 2

Posted on by laurenziegenbein

 

Tonight, April 4th, I thoroughly enjoyed a one-woman play called Unveiled. Omg it was amazing; I almost cried three times and had goosebumps the entire time. It was beautifully succinct and powerfully honest. The story line was basically five snapshots of five different Muslim women in the US today who in one way or another all suffered the truly present effects of racism.

Part I: Chocolate Chai Read More