Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Thursday, November 15. 2018

Today's schedule is DCBA

D & A Blocks Human Geography - Today we'll finish up our poster presentations from yesterday. After, we'll start with our next key question, "Why Do Religions Have Different Distributions?" Universalizing religions have diffused from specific places of origin (or hearths) to other regions of the world, while most ethnic religions have generally remained clustered in a defined area. Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism all originated in Asia and diffused the world over from there. So we'll try to find out how and why religions spread the way they do. To help:



Don't forget the three major universalizing religions of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism diffused from specific places of origin, or hearths, to other regions of the world, while most ethnic religions have generally remained clustered in a defined area. Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism all originated in Asia and diffused the world over from there. You'll have a chart to fill in and then some questions to answer about about the diffusion of Christianity and Islam...From Bridging World History (Annenberg Media)

Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam alike were proselytized by their followers, adapted to different cultural settings, and used to provide religious sanctions for rulers. Unlike Buddhism, however, both Christianity and Islam used military power to conquer and convert peoples and created their own governments. 
From its origins in sixth-century B.C.E. India, Buddhism was transmitted through central to east Asia by the beginning of the first millennium C.E. to become one of the great proselytizing, universal religions of world history. Emerging from the Sumerian and Judaic traditions of early West Asia, both Christianity and Islam were, by the close of the first millennium C.E., institutionalized universal religions with large populations of adherents in lands that stretched from northern Europe to North Africa and from the Mediterranean to East Africa and the Himalayas. As all three of these religions were introduced into different cultures and societies, they underwent significant adaptations to indigenous belief systems at the same time that they dramatically altered the religious ideals and values of peoples around the globe. 
All three early universal religions—Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—were further expanded by those who held the reins of power in the areas where they took root. Although Buddhism interacted with political authority in various cultural settings, lending its sanction to some rulers, it did not become the engine of empire that Christianity, and especially Islam, did. Just as political forces shaped the growth and spread of these religions, so Christianity and Islam both played powerful roles in legitimizing political authority. 







B Block Criminology - Okay so let's wrap this up. Last week we looked at gangs. From Foreign Policy:
Drugs are just the tip of the iceberg. In the popular U.S. television series Breaking Bad, about a high school teacher turned methamphetamine kingpin, there was an instructive exchange. When the show's antihero, Walter White, was asked whether he "was in the meth business or the money business," he replied, "I'm in the empire business." The same can be said of the DTOs (Drug Trafficking Organizations), which are independent and competing entities. The sale of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and meth remains extremely profitable. The U.S. Justice Department has put the cartels' U.S. drug trade at $39 billion annually. But the DTOs have diversified their business considerably, both to increase their profits and to exclude rivals from new sources of revenue. For example, they are dealing increasingly in pirated intellectual property, like counterfeit software, CDs, and DVDs. The most destructive new "product," however, is people. The cartels have built a multi billion-dollar business in human trafficking, including the shipment of both illegal immigrants and sex workers.


So to curb the power of cartels or gangs should we take some radical action? Should we cut off their source of income (like drugs and sex trade workers)? Here are two questions for you to answer:
  1. Should drugs be legalized? Why? If you believe drugs should be legalized, think about whether all drugs should be legalized or just a select few. Why should certain drugs be legalized and others not? 
  2. Should prostitution be legalized? Why? If you believe it should be legalized, should all the forms of prostitution described in your text be legalized, or only a select few? If prostitution were legalized should government be able to exercise some control over it? 
For the legalization of drugs question as you probably already know, the federal government legalized non-medical cannabis on October 17, 2018. So why? Part of the reason was that the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard drugs.
For more check out this Vice article here or the video below..


For the sex trade question "Should we legalize prostitution"? Think about the two opposing views:
  • Sexual Equality View The prostitute is a victim of male dominance. In patriarchal societies, male power is predicated on female subjugation, and prostitution is a clear example of this gender exploitation 
  • Free Choice View Prostitution, if freely chosen, expresses woman’s equality and is not a symptom of subjugation.
To help, we will understand the different types of sex trade workers (street walkers, circuit travelers, bar girls, brothels, call girls and escort services). We'll look at some high profile cases (like all the way back in 2008 former New York state governor Eliot Spitzer or 1990's Hollywood "Madame" Heidi Fleiss who was quoted as saying, "I took the oldest profession on Earth and I did it better than anyone on Earth. Alexander the Great conquered the world at 32. I conquered it at 22."). It is important to note:

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the country's anti-prostitution laws in a unanimous decision, and gave Parliament one year to come up with new legislation — should it choose to do so. In striking down laws prohibiting brothels, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating in public with clients, the top court ruled that the laws were over-broad and "grossly disproportionate." The government replaced the law with Bill C-36 (2014) which received Royal Assent and became law on December 6, 2014.

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