U.S. Relations with China is a Necessary Evil

Brookelyn Kjenstad
12/1/11
Adv. World Studies

    U.S. relations with China I think isn’t a necessary evil. I think that the United States and China have a relationship because they depend on each other for exports and imports. China has a different type of government than the U.S. and China has their way of doing things. I don’t agree with going against your people and killing them, I think that’s totally wrong, but that’s China. I don’t really know the mood with the relationship between China and the U.S. but I do know that president Bush tried to get involved with the massacre, and we don’t know if it was in a negative or positive way, but the person in power at the time ignored his call. So it makes me wonder if China has anger towards the U.S. and I think they shouldn’t, they should have anger towards themselves.
    With the whole Tiannanmen Square thing threatening the relationship between China and the U.S., that is something to worry about because the Tiannanmen Square is a symbolic importance to many people and countries such as Washington D.C. China would of lost the exports to the U.S. and the U.S. would of lost imports from China. Both countries would of been hurting, but I think China could of handled the protest in a better way instead of saying, “rich is good” or something like that.
    China has a Communist government and students wanted a Democracy government. The students didn’t know what democracy was, all they knew was they wanted freedom, they wanted to have some type of control, and I don’t blame them. Even though they have stopped the protesting, there is still going to be tension in China.  Things didn’t get resolved in a good manor and those students were so determined, that they will strike again.
    Yes China is evil for what they have done in the past, but the U.S. isn’t innocent either. We have done some bad things also. The U.S. probably has evil towards China because what they have done and for not letting the U.S. in on the massacre. I don’t know whether it was good that we didn’t get involved or not. But I think that there shouldn’t be evil in the relationship because it’s important to keep the relationship, we need China. We need China’s imports for our economy, and China needs our exports for their economy too. Both countries need to make money so we rely on each other for that.
    For many years China has refused to accept Western ways, they thought what they were doing was right and they didn’t want to change their ways. This is a cause for the Tiannannmen protest and massacre. China has suffered a lot, but I think it’s because of the way they handle things, or the way they do things.
    Mao Zedong had led China right into the ground, people didn’t like him but people didn’t like Deng Xiaoping either. He was the one who sided with one person that was in power, and the massacre started. Deng Xiaoping was very open and stuff to his people, he sounded like a decent guy until he declared the massacre against his own people. I find it really sad that people are killed just because they are sick of the way they are living and they just want to be heard. Some have said they at least they died with their dignity of protesting and saying what they feel, I agree with this, but I still find it awful.

Brahmins and the Dalits

Brahmins is a caste system in India and so are the Dalits. The Brahmins are a higher class than the Dalits, because of this the Dalits are looked down upon. The Dalits are also know as the Untouchables, this means that, in India, you cannot touch anyone who is a Dalit, you cannot go in their house, or even sit with them. I think the Dalits have a very rough life and a very unfair life. Dalit children have chores at their school such as, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping, and doing dishes. Brahmin children do not have any chores because they are considered an upper class and don't have to do the "dirty work." I strongly disagree with this, everyone should have to do the dirty work no matter what your caste system is. The impact on the Dalits is very strong, some children are refusing to go to school because they have to do chores at school. Also, because Dalits have a harder time getting a good education, their education and tests levels are a lot lower than normal, and therefor people look at them in disgust. It's not their fault they can't get a good education, other caste systems make Dalits be ashamed of themselves, therefor they struggle with education and schooling. Brahmins have an easier lifestyle, they don't have to do the "dirty work," they don't struggle with schooling, and they're not ashamed of who they are. Brahmins get paid for the work that they do, most Dalits don't get paid for the work that they do, they just do it because if they don't then they will get beaten.

What Sources Of Tension, New or Old, in the Middle East are Revealed by the Film? Video 2

    There’s tension between the Bahrain dictator and the people within Bahrain. People within Bahrain are protesting against their dictator because they want democracy, they want the freedom of speech. Bahrain has open fire and has hanged those who protest. There’s also tension between the United States and the people of Bahrain. People within Bahrain are irritated with the United States because the U.S. is just standing by and not doing anything about the violence towards the protesters. America won’t step in because they have a good relationship with Bahrain’s dictator, and they don’t want to ruin that. If they ruin that relationship then they will lose the oil that they are getting from Bahrain. There’s tension between the people of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia took 1,000 troops over to Bahrain and tried to get rid of the protesting. There was no sign of Saudi Arabia coming, they just did it.
    There’s two kind of muslims, Sunni and Shiite. The government doesn’t like Shiite, Sunni Muslims are very wealthy, Shiite are not. My guess is that Shiite are asking for a better living style, and because they are protesting, the government does not like them. The government has destroyed Shiites’ holy books and people have come up missing. Sunni people can not do anything about their family members or friends’ disappearing. If they ask, they are punished, if they go to U.S. troops, they’re more in likely brought to the police and are killed. What’s going on in Bahrain makes me think of a food chain. If one thing goes wrong, it goes chaotic and falls like dominoes. This is why the U.S. won’t get involved because they would lose oil and things would just keep going down hill.

Tension Video Part 1

What sources of tension, new and old, in the middle east are revealed by the film?


    There’s some tension between the United States and Aljzeera. People want the war to end and some people think the United States shouldn’t of intervened. President Obama decided to go into war but didn’t people vote for him because he said he would stop sending people into wars? People in Libya and other countries don’t see what’s in front of their face. They think where they live that it’s safe, but people are getting arrested and shot by the Rebels. Ammunition is left behind to show the danger that’s still going on, this could leave tension within the city, people feel unsafe in there own city 24/7. Rebels have very little organization for their military, they send people into the military at the age of 18, some go into the military with no experience at all. Some people say that the U.S. needs to be aware of what they import and how it might affect the economy, I totally agree with this. Security is very tight and people will start shooting, some people don’t understand why or who their shooting at. One person says that the U.S. should have counted to a million, and then think about what they are getting into, how it might affect others, and who they are fighting. I strongly agree with this because the United States has a habit of getting into other people’s business.

Critical Thinking Essay

    In the Middle East, there’s not much of a balance of wealth. Some countries Gross National Product is very low and some are very high. The fifteen countries I chose, their GNP ranged anywhere from $6.63 billion to $342 billion. The countries’ GNP per capita ranged anywhere from $222 to $17, 081. I think Cyprus and Saudi Arabia have the highest standard of living in GNP per capita. Cyprus was the highest and Saudi Arabia was the second highest, these are the only two countries that are in the ten thousands.
    My findings could cause conflict between regions, because some countries could be limited to certain things such as, water or food, then other countries are. Some countries might have a very low standard of living, their economy is bad, and they don’t like their government. This could cause conflict in the region because the people within the region want a better life style, but it doesn’t improve. They might also want to move to another country but are not welcomed there.

Comparing Three Major Religions

2. One cause of the conflict is that regions commanded for oil resources and waterways. Iraq, Syria, and Libya mistrusted their colonial rulers, this causes conflict between the rulers and the people within the country. Israel gained land in 1967 from Golan Heights from Syria, East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. Arabs or Palestinian's tried to get their land back in 1973 but lost. Israel wouldn't give up the countries until Israel was recognized, and Israel displaced many Arabs. The displacement of Arabs causes more conflict because they might not have anywhere to go. Arabs in refugee camps wouldn't give up without a fight. Many teenagers threw rocks and didn't obey curfews. It got out of hand and some people wanted to trade the regions for peace. What mainly caused conflict was that Arabs wanted their countries back, but Israel won't give up those regions or countries. Arab governments soon realized they needed to negotiate with Israel. In 1993, Israel had their first direct talk with Palestine Liberation Organization or PLO.

I think Israel should have possession of the city of Jerusalem because Israel is made up of mostly Jews. The city is a holy city to Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Israel can give up the other countries and keep Jerusalem as the holy city for all 3 religions.

Global Connections- The Middle East

Natural resources have played a huge role in politics and economy in the Middle East. Water is very important, so is oil. Countries make natural resources and then export them to other countries to help with the economy.

Kuwait's physical geography has an area of 17,820 square km. It's capital is Kuwait city, it's terrain is a completely flat desert plain. Kuwait's highest elevation point is 306 m.

Kuwait's climate is very hot and dry in the Summer time. Winters are short and cool with not much rain. Temperature's in the Summer range from 108-120 degrees. In the Winter time, temperature's can range from 50-80 degrees.

Kuwait has a fresh water supply but it's very limited. The source of water for Kuwait is ground water or sea water. The water comes from wells within Kuwait, Kuwait does control their water source. Kuwait does have headquarters that gets water from the ground.

Types of Industries in Kuwait are petroleum extracting and refining, fertilizer, chemicals, desalination, and construction materials. All of these types are about 48.3% GDP.

A problem Kuwait is currently facing is trafficking. Men and women migrate from many countries to work in Kuwait. Domestic service and Construction face force labors, nonpayment of wages, working long periods of time without rest, no food, and threats. There's restrictions on movement such as passports. Sometimes they have to stay at work and can't leave. Kuwait's government has worked poorly to fix the trafficking situation.

The population of Kuwait is a total of 3,520,000 people. The life span for women in Kuwait is 78.96 years, for men it's 76.51 years.

Kuwait's GDP is about $15 billion. Kuwait's GDP per capita is an estimation of $48,900. These numbers were estimated or established in 2010.

 Kuwait reserves 105 billion barrels of oil, which is 9% of world reserves. Kuwait has Petroleum or gas and it's 95% of export revenues. Kuwait also have fish as an natural resource, 0.3% of GDP is fish.

0.84% of Kuwait's land is arable, 0.17% of land is used for growing crops. Kuwait has very little crops, they might grow some vegetables, but it's mostly fish and oil.

Kuwait imports $18.77 billion, and exports $65.97 billion. The major exports for Kuwait are oil and refined products, and fertilizers. Major imports in Kuwait are food, construction materials, vehicles and parts, and clothing.

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Why Do They Hate Us? Reading 3

1. Why would al-Awlaki praise Hasan for what he did? He lives in America, it doesn't make since to me that he would do that.

2. Muslims mostly hate U.S. policies that have to do with America embracing Arab and Muslim system that torment their own people and deny their natural freedoms and their right to freely elect their governments.

3. Not acknowledging that U.S. policies have nothing to do with jihadists attacks might be seen as "blaming the victim" because of their ability to recruit and win agreements. If the policies don't want to share information that's right, it might be seen as politically incorrect.

4. There's been no visible progress with Israelis and Palestinians negotiating because of the conditions on the ground. It's hard to make peace talk and resume peace talk. Both sides have demands such as, Palestinians want to have East Jerusalem as their capital, Israelis wants their own security.

5. Gaza is suffering because of the bombing that's going on. They have no food, heat, water, or electricity. The low flying aircraft lands bombs, Gaza is like a city that people can't get out of. There's no work for them, they have no way of making money or buying things.

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Why Do They Hate Us? Reading 2

1. Why does Osama bin laden make America seem like such a bad country? This could maybe be answered by researching.

2. Knowledge that I have to support his explanation for terrorist attacks is that terrorists don't like America and it's government. Osama has said before that he doesn't like America's government system. Jihadists might want to overthrow certain Muslim governments because they do not like the way Muslims way of living. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East because of Jews or peoples religion.

3. Knowledge that I have or suppose about Bin Laden's harsh critique to the U.S. is that you don't have to kill American's just because you're a Muslim. Osama claims that America wants to destroy Jews' holy city and/or relocate it, America is not after Iraq for that reason. Osama says that America is trying to repeat a horrific massacre when that's not the case. Osama is looking at America's history and using what we have done, to help his story.

4. What led young men in Arab countries to find martyrdom attractive was that martyrdom promised them an alternative to a life. Young men wanted to kill religious people, they wanted to take their anger out that way and not deal with resentment from others.

5. Al Qaeda is not popular because of Osama's declared goals. One of his declared goals was to remove American soldiers from Muslim lands. Osama's violence has taken a toll on the ratings of his polls and other things too. People don't want anything to do with Al Qaeda because of Osama.

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Questions 1-5 for Ad. World Studies

1. Some questions I have about the reading is why is Thomas so determined to figure out why? This could be answered maybe by her if you asked, or maybe in a different reading or interview, she explains why she wants to know why.

2. President Obama's answer is that al Qaeda wants nothing but misery and death. Also, that the United States wants justice and progress. We also need to let Muslims around the world, know that al Qaeda only seeks misery and death. Brennan's answer was that al Qaeda attracts people and use them to attack others. Al Qaeda uses an organization that involves the banner of religion, they use it in a corrupt way. Also, that al Qaeda likes to carry out attacks, and they're determined when do so.

3. Thomas was not satisfied with Brennan's answer because he didn't really explain why. He also didn't give a good enough reason why. I think she would have been satisfied with the President's answer because he gave more details to why. He also was more descriptive then Brennan was.

4. Glenn thinks it's important to consider terrorist motivations because he believes that you don't have to justify in order to explain why. He also claims that when someone can't give a reason to why, then they're more in likely afraid of it being heard. I agree that if someone has reasons but can't explain why, then they are afraid to tell why. I also agree that if you are explaining why, you're not justifying it. You're simply explaining yourself but with reasons.

5. I would answer Thomas' question by giving her more detail in the question. That they are using religion because they don't like that religion so they use it against us. Hasan and Abdulmutallab commit these awful attacks because they want to show their religion, they want to show who they are and who they belong to. Abdulmutallab might of done it because he was a Muslim boy stressed out, also because he claims that he's not sure if he wants to be a devoted Muslim, or a member of society. Hasan killed 12 soldiers, some media accounts think Hasan has had past contacts with Al-Awlaki. They cannot tell if his attack was in response to al- Wahayshi's message, which was to make attacks in Muslim world. Hasan had brought attention to himself and he made statements to people he worked with. The people he worked with reported him and the government was monitoring him.
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