Clear link between child benefit and higher fertility rates - pro-natalist population policies

This is a very good article (unfortunately for IB-students in Swedish) from SCB: http://www.scb.se/statistik/_publikationer/BE0801_2007K03_TI_03_A05ST0703.pdf
The writer concludes that countries with higher levels of emancipation of women in the workforce have higher birth rates, which at first glance doesn't make sense. But she continues to argue that these countries also have extensive child-benefit programmes in place (especially for children under 3 y's), which allow for women to both contribute to higher birth rates and have a career.
She summarizes her findings with these words "Att bedriva en aktiv familjepolitik och ta hänsyn till jämställdhetsfrågor tycks alltså vara ett användbart vägledande koncept i utformningen av framtidens välfärds- och familjepolitik."

"Lärare borde använda sociala medier"

I listen and obey: http://playrapport.se/#/video/2169400 What do you think? Should teachers use social medias more often? How?

North Korea is dark - Haiti is poor!

As you might know, the Communist Paradise of North Korea (I hope you got the irony) has held a congress for the first time in 30 years. There is much to say about this country, but there is probably not another image that highlights their problem as this satellite image. (see link) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/dprk/dprk-dark.htm

Also, consider the differences in economic development displayed in this image of the border between Haiti and the Dominic Republic, sharing and island but unfortunately not governance. http://therogersinhaiti.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/haiti-and-the-environment/

Video tutorials

This is a great website from The Economist, using short video clips explaining all sorts of different issues, everything from explaining the geographical distribution of the World Cup to Climate Change and food.
http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_chl=37b523f6e1fab620d03697edb18b1216db2961ca&rf=bm

Globalization

Greetings! When floating through the cyberspace I quite often end up reading the BBC, and their excellent summarizing articles/themes and whatever issue you might consider. Here's one really good article on the (economic) globalization. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/457000/457022/html/default.stm

China in Africa

I read a piece by Richard Dowden who was in Sweden last week on "Bokmässan". I have good insights on the situation in Africa and during the book fair he expressed the idea that journalists and NGO's (Red Cross, Oxfam) have a mutual agreement/conspiracy where they portrait the situation in Africa as worse than it is (see Hans Rosling), NGO's wants money - journalists wants to sell newspapers. China is in a race to get their hands on the resources in Africa while EU and US have virtually abandoned the continent. The article below concludes that is not only China that are benefiting from these deals, but the Africans as well. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6908835.ece

Hilarious map site

I found a link to a web site that is truly hilarious - European maps based on misconceptions and people's prejudice. This must be a TOK moment! http://alphadesigner.com/project-mapping-stereotypes.html

Amazing!

I stumbled upon something remarkable this morning, an interesting article in SMP! http://www.smp.se/nyheter/tt_utrikes/fransk-strejk-mot-hojd-pensionsalder(2118387).gm
These kind of quarrels and skirmishes are going to be more common in the future when governments all across the world are forced to raise retirment age. (socio-economic consequence of an ageing population)

Yann-Arthus Bertrand

Just wanted to tip you about a brilliant documentary I watched this Tuesday. It was made by the man above, do not remember the name of the film, but search svt.play for the NeXT month and you Will find it there.

One-child policy - China...

The effects of the policy can be found in this article from the BBC. Many demographers seems to agree that it is more likely changes in population policies during the 70's (Government promoting later marriages) that brought about changes in the fertility. According to the article, the continued decrease (probably as low as 1,5 children per woman) is not only due to the policy, but also due to the rapid economic development and the emancipation of women (50 percent of university or college students in China today are women, up from 23 percent in 1980) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7000931.stm

According to this article http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/27/chinese-women-are-more-ambitious-than-americans.html "What’s more, over 75 percent of women in China aspire to hold a top corporate job, compared with just over half in the U.S., and 77 percent of Chinese women participate in the workforce, compared with 69 percent in the U.S." i.e they conclude that Chinese women are hard-working (and Americans lazy), and of course willing to put in the hours to climb the corporate ladder - hence having fewer kids!!!

The negative consequences of the policy, especially the greying of the Chinese population seems to be getting some attention in Goverment. There seems to be plans on easing the policy, and slowly dismantling it, piece by piece. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36754653/

Corporate Learning - company campus!

Read an interesting piece on the future of education http://education.newsweek.com/2010/09/13/across-the-globe-big-companies-start-own-colleges.html The corporate companies seems dissatisfied with the universities, and are eager to shape their own students into whatever the company is requiring e.g. Infosys students undergo computer science. It's an interesting piece on the globalization of culture/education/economy. I would like to be a teacher at the University of Carlsberg then!

Baby bonus scheme - Singapore

This is http://www.divaasia.com/article/4773 an article on the some-what failed pro-natalist population policy of Singapore. Describes the policy and explaines why its needed and its limited success. Singapore have been "to successful" in the emancipation of women and are now struggling with below replacement fertilities (TFR Singapore 1,09 in 2009). This means that the old-age dependency ratio of Singapore now is 14 (14 elderly dependent on 100 workers) while in 2050 (projection) it will be 60.http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=PopDiv&f=variableID%3A44

China - Japan quarrel...

... over an angry fisherman ramming a Japanese Coast Guard boat. That is of course not the entire story, vast oil and gas resources in the disputed area is also behind the conflict. http://www.rferl.org/content/China_Japan_Appear_Headed_For_Bruising_Encounter_Over_Fishing_Incident/2162997.html

It's a shameful day...

...to be Swedish! I'm usually a very proud Swede, but today I'm willing to make an exception. Now we're up there with the rest, Danskt Folkeparti, Vlams Blokm, Jobbik and British National Party to name but a few. I think Victor Borge once said that the only thing that is better in Sweden than in Denmark is that Sweden has better neighbours. I used to disagree to the extent that we didn't have any parties with racist ideology in Parliament, but unfortunately that is not true any longer.
I think that is in place to question the value of history. The only thing that we learn from history is that we do not learn from history!
We should probably include SD and its politicians in the debate, let Samuel Älgemalm speak his mind freely, and SD's woters will soon be long gone! The UNHCR last year released a report on the status of migration in the world and concluded that "migration can raise a person’s income, health and education prospects." I'm not saying that everything is friction free, there have been some problems with integration of immigrants into the Swedish society, but this is absolutely the wrong way to go.
We must instead acknowledge the fact that we need our immigrants if we want to maintain a high living standard in Sweden. The populations of Europe are ageing rapidly and need a constant influx of new citiziens since fertility rates are so low.
Unfortunatley in recessions xenophobia is always surfacing! (We should blame Lehman Brothers instead of immigrants) The most flagrant example is of course the stigmatizing treatment of the Romany population in France. It's a slippery slope (thanks Rosie), go after one group and others will follow. I read in the newspaper that Ilona Engquist just passed away, I'm glad she didn't have to experience the day that we had racists in the Parliament.
I would like to finish with saying that I'm hopeful, the truth about Sverigedemokraterna will soon be revealed, and the next election is just 4 years away (or sooner!) Feel free to comment and agree!

SD.s calculations doesn't add up...

...in this article from DN today http://www.dn.se/nyheter/valet2010/sds-ekvation-gar-inte-ihop-1.1172182 the writer touches upon the subject on work migration to cover for the diminishing workforce, and the flaws in the politics of Sverigedemokraterna. They overestimate the costs of immigration and they underestimate the tax incomes from the working immigrants.

Ageing populations - even in LEDCs

...in class we've discussed the consequences of ageing populations in Europe and in order to maintain our living standards immigration is vital and necessary. But bare in mind that ageing populations are not something that affects high-income countries alone, this is something that will be a problem in low-income countries as well. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8131567.stm

Old age pensioners - the wealthy ones!

A while back I saw a piece on the wealth of old age pensioners, and the amount of millionaires in Sweden. Quite astonishing numbers in that article, 36% of the Swedes over 65 are millionaires. See the link: http://svt.se/2.128339/1.2109219/manga_miljonarer_bland_pensionarer

India's demographic dividend

Hi IB09 (& IB08). There's been a lot of talk on the demographic dividend/bonus in class and here's yet another god article on the possilities that comes with a large population (if handled correctly i.e. governmental funding in education, family planning programmes etc. etc.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6911544.stm
Feel free to comment!

Correction IA

There's been a slight change in the instructions for the IA this year (new syllabus). The datapresentation and analysis should be integrated (1 title/heading) Call it datapresentation and analysis and keep it the way it is, or include the analysis in the datapresentation. That could actually save a few word since you don't have to worry about refering to all data in the analysis.

Save our Baltic Sea

The link on the right hand side "Save our Baltic Sea" is from the producers of "For cod's sake" which we watched in class. Any additional information on conservation policies or unsustainable fishing in the Baltic Sea can found there.

Cod and Algal Bloom

If you by any chance missed the connection between algal bloom and the overfishing of cod, see this article from National Geographic. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100305-baltic-sea-algae-dead-zones-water/

TOK in Geography

Hi fellow Geographers! We (read I) do not make enough references to TOK in my teaching, which is a shame since there are many possible TOK issues in the Geography syllabus. I would like you to think at classes or cases or notes that you have that could be a TOK-moment. Please post comments on the blog, I think this a good chance to make the subject TOK more understandable.

The demographic dividend

For those of you that feel that you can take even more info on the demographic dividend or bonus, in this article you will find yet another comparative study from East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB5065/index1.html

UG - det gränslösa fisket

In today's class with the IB08 I mentioned a film on SVT that showed the overfishing of West Saharan waters done by Swedish fishermen. The film can no longer be seen on SVT Play but here's a link that discusses the film and the moral implications of overfishing an occupied country. http://svt.se/2.129201/1.1911975/svenska_fiskare_bidrar_br_till_ockupationen?lid=puff_1911964

Good animations...

...was just surfing around when I stumbled upon some good animations on plate tectonics and ocean floor morphology. At this stage you probably understand that it concerns IB08 more than IB09. http://www.wwnorton.com/college/geo/egeo/animations/ch2.htm#1

Personal or private

Since this is my first time blogging, and I have to admit I don't follow many blogs, apart from www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com , I'm kind of new at this. I will try to be as personal I can without being to private. And you know me, what I say I mean, and do not understand the term irony! I will try to use this blog in my education of you guys, but I still haven't figured out how. For now it will be probably be just posting good links and other interesting Geography stuff. So let me know if you find any... Please, please comment, YOU will be the FIRST ONE!

TED

Just received from a tip from a student on a brilliant documentary I missed yesterday, about the TED-fair where lecturers from across the planet dazzle us with their knowledge, including my hero (which you know I have a thing for...) Hans Rosling:
http://svtplay.se/v/2126789/dokumentarfilm/ted