Development has its origins in the late 1940s- in a speech by President Truman in which he employed the term underdeveloped areas to describe poor areas that we now know as Economically Less Developed Countries(ELDCs). Poor areas in such countries are seen as traditonal. Development tend to take on the idea of modernization, which is perceived to be at odds with many traditional societies in these poor areas.
Development since the 1960s is largely dominated by economical concerns and it was only in the late 1970s and even present day that social and spatial development has been incorporated into its practice.
Development in general thus addresses the need to bring about a betterment of socio-economic aspects of a nation, with care given to sustainable development with regards to managing its environment.
Useful Websites to look at indicators measuring development around the world:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html
http://mdgs.un.org/unsd/mdg/Host.aspx?Content=Indicators/OfficialList.htm - this is the official list of indicators to monitor and measure the eradication of poverty around the world.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Relief and development materials
Pardon the Christian overtones. Development also takes place in the form of such non-government organizations' (NGOs) efforts to benefit a community directly, be it crisis relief or perhaps in the developing of the society in a particular area.
Favela Rising shows a local in a Brazilian squatter settlement trying his best to reach out to the young people in his community. This also help contribute to the development of people as he tries to use music therapy to occupy the youngsters' lives and bring about social development.
http://favelarising.com/default.php
I volunteer with Touch Community Services (International)as well as Touch Community Services (in Singapore), a non-religious organization but with many Christian volunteers.
The other alternative would have been a Japanese relief work video in East Timor~!
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Song lyrics of music about Earth
Saltwater by Julian Lennon
Earth Song by Micheal Jackson
Don't Cut me Down by Olivia Newton John
Earth Song by Micheal Jackson
Don't Cut me Down by Olivia Newton John
Monday, June 12, 2006
What is SPECS?
SPECS is a memory technique in which we compress the perspective all Geographers under my teaching should remember.
S - Social
P - Political
E - Economical
C - Cultural
S - Surroundings (pointing to the Environment and what can be seen, which is important in Geography)
Geography is about seeing the world, about seeing the patterns and making good informed views based on the patterns you are seeing in the world.
When we look at data, we must always ask ourselves - what kind of a pattern am I seeing? More about this on another post.
S - Social
P - Political
E - Economical
C - Cultural
S - Surroundings (pointing to the Environment and what can be seen, which is important in Geography)
Geography is about seeing the world, about seeing the patterns and making good informed views based on the patterns you are seeing in the world.
When we look at data, we must always ask ourselves - what kind of a pattern am I seeing? More about this on another post.
Development
What is development? To answer this simple question in this module is actually not simple. It is even more complicated given that the world has changed dramatically these last 15 years, what we can call now the "globalized world", which is the life-span of many students in this module. What changes are we actually aware of this last 15 years?
Becoming more keenly aware of the world around you requires reading up, which means reading up on newsweek, watching some documentaries of life in other countries and perhaps picking up a habit of simply googling up on countries or reading the CIA world factbook for starters in this module.
Building up this cultural capital of being aware of what is "life" like in othe parts of the world will help you in this module, better than memorising the fact that it is the Pacific Ocean separating Japan and the American continents. There is a place for that, but you need to know MORE than that!
What is development? It encompasses economic, social, cultural, political and last but definitely not the least, the environment.
What makes a nation or place developed? Or underdeveloped?
Caution to students: THERE IS NO SUCH THING CALLED UNDEVELOPED.
Look at countries like Finland (where ikea came from), Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Include in your consideration, Japan and think Tokyo when I say Japan.
What common characteristics do you see these countries share?
Look at countries like Angola, East Timor, Peru, Cambodia and even our neighbour, Indonesia.
What common characteristics do you see these countries share?
These are observations we can gather to associate certain characteristics with countries that are tagged either MEDCs or LEDCs.
USE SPECS to examine each characteristics you can think of.
What is not covered in this module is Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) or what is better known as Newly Industrialized Economies (in economic geography terms) which includes countries and economies like Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Recently, some people (like Newsweek) are suggesting that Vietnam may jolly well be joining this league.
Disclaimer: This is a Singaporean educational website
Update: 9/1/2007
Explore development online
I will be bringing you students through this website more, but you will definitely benefit from explore it more after class or before (if you have not taken your lesson).
BBC higher geography website - Development and Health
Use the website to get ideas on what affects development. It is a nice visual representation of what factors affect which areas the most. You can use your atlas to find out the countries identified in each region.
Becoming more keenly aware of the world around you requires reading up, which means reading up on newsweek, watching some documentaries of life in other countries and perhaps picking up a habit of simply googling up on countries or reading the CIA world factbook for starters in this module.
Building up this cultural capital of being aware of what is "life" like in othe parts of the world will help you in this module, better than memorising the fact that it is the Pacific Ocean separating Japan and the American continents. There is a place for that, but you need to know MORE than that!
What is development? It encompasses economic, social, cultural, political and last but definitely not the least, the environment.
What makes a nation or place developed? Or underdeveloped?
Caution to students: THERE IS NO SUCH THING CALLED UNDEVELOPED.
- More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs)
Look at countries like Finland (where ikea came from), Italy, France and the United Kingdom. Include in your consideration, Japan and think Tokyo when I say Japan.
What common characteristics do you see these countries share?
- Less Economically Developed Countries
Look at countries like Angola, East Timor, Peru, Cambodia and even our neighbour, Indonesia.
What common characteristics do you see these countries share?
These are observations we can gather to associate certain characteristics with countries that are tagged either MEDCs or LEDCs.
USE SPECS to examine each characteristics you can think of.
What is not covered in this module is Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) or what is better known as Newly Industrialized Economies (in economic geography terms) which includes countries and economies like Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Recently, some people (like Newsweek) are suggesting that Vietnam may jolly well be joining this league.
Disclaimer: This is a Singaporean educational website
Update: 9/1/2007
Explore development online
I will be bringing you students through this website more, but you will definitely benefit from explore it more after class or before (if you have not taken your lesson).
BBC higher geography website - Development and Health
Use the website to get ideas on what affects development. It is a nice visual representation of what factors affect which areas the most. You can use your atlas to find out the countries identified in each region.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Videos for Lecture 1
Collage of introductory clips to the world we know.
Old school Geography?
The world we try not to see...
See the world at youtube.com : Use "world" as a search string
Old school Geography?
The world we try not to see...
See the world at youtube.com : Use "world" as a search string
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