| News Update World Issues: News, Views and Data Sources Daily News Sources Daily information on this issue can be gained from major newspaper sites. http://www.economist.com http://www.nytimes.com http://www.the-times.co.uk http://www.washingtonpost.com http://www.latimes.com Views Michael Bradshaw, author of another McGraw-Hill text, World Regional Geography:
The New Global Order, has provided the following list of current issues.
Each issue includes 1) short editorial by Michael Bradshaw, 2) a listing of
Web site sources where the most up-to-date information can be obtained - often
from different sides of an issue - and 3) some questions to help you consider
geographic aspects of the issue. Put your own views on the Bulletin Board
after investigating the geographic conditions related to one or more of the
issues. What other issues should be included here? New issues will be added
as they arise. Issue #1 1999- Understanding Kosovo Issue #2 1999- Fight for Kashmir Issue #3 1999 Forgiving Poor Country Debts Issue #4 1999 Is El Niño Over? What is La Niña Data Sources Up-to-date statistics (and lots of other information) can be obtained from
Web sites. __________________________________________________ Issue #1 1999 Understanding Kosovo The war in Kosovo, the rights of the Serbian and Albanian Kosovars, the implications
of intervention by NATO, the UN, or other bodies, and the nature of the terrain
and weather are all matters that have geographic dimensions. **Kosovo is a province
within the remnant of Yugoslavia (or Serbia-Montenegro) that was inhabited largely
by ethnic Albanians who are Muslims. The Serbs who dominate the country view
the Battle of Kosovo, a last-ditch stand against the invading Turks in 1389.
Serbs see this event as one of the major events in their history, and wish to
make the province a closer part of their realm after the breakup of the rest
of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. This breakup resulted, ironically,
from the push for an expansion of Serb-controlled areas under President Milosevic
- who tried to hold on to Kosovo against the pressures of the local movement
for independence. After trying to settle the virtually insoluble problem (with
Kosovars wanting only independence and Serbia wanting to gain greater control
of the province), NATO stepped in to put threatened air attacks into practice.
Serbia's traditional friends, such as Russia, tried to stop the attacks, but
were powerless to do much apart from taking a negotiating role. The ethnic cleansing
of Kosovo, which gained impetus after the bombing started, led to the International
Court indicting President Milosevic for war crimes. *See Bradshaw, World Regional Geography: The New Global Order, Second
Edition, page 344, "Living in Croatia," for an analysis of a related
situation that led to war in the Balkan region. *See Getis/Getis/Fellmann, Introduction to Geography, Seventh Edition,
page 330, "The Disintegration of Yugoslavia. Some of the issues for discussion include: - Why are the Serbs so interested in hanging on to Kosovo?
- Does an understanding of the history of this part of the world help or hinder
an appreciation of the points of view of the Serbian and Albanian Kosovars?
- How does the concept of a "Greater Serbia" affect the events?
- What other pressures does the Serbian government of Yugoslavia face that
might affect its land and people?
- What problems of terrain and climate face military operations in Kosovo?
Information from some concerned groups: http://www.alb-net.com/index.html The Kosovo Crisis Center. Includes maps, up-to-date news, and detailed review
of book, "Greater Serbia: From Ideology to Aggression". http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/balkan.html Access to many news sites and informed comment. http://www.sn-ol.com/index.html Serbian news site with English text option (At present often down due to overloading
and lack of funds to maintain.) Go
to Bulletin Board Issue #2 1999 Fight for Kashmir In late May 1999, fighting broke out close to the northern section of border
between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. Following nuclear weapons testing in
both countries in 1998, the fighting raised tensions between the two countries.
Both countries were unsatisfied with the 1947 partition line and it has been
the subject of intermittent fighting since partition. As well as claims by the
two major antagonists, there are independence movements among the groups of
people inhabiting this mountainous part of Southern Asia. On the other side
of northern Pakistan, the Taleban group in Afghanistan is still fighting tribes
linked to those in Kashmir. East and north of Kashmir, China exerts pressure
with land claims to extend Tibet. Kashmir has a long history of changes resisted
by local tribes in their mountain environments. The British gave up trying to
colonize the area and handed it over to local Indian rulers to maintain a buffer
against a feared Russian expansion. Some issues to discuss include: - Who lives in Kashmir and what sort of economy do they have?
- Why are India and Pakistan so sensitive about this area?
- What conflicts have occurred here since partition in 1947?
- What problems make it difficult for any outsiders to gain political control
of Kashmir?
- How do these events and other changes forced on Kashmir affect the natural
environment?
The following sites give access to varied views on the issue: http://www.timesofindia.com Major Indian newspaper http://www.kashmir.force9.co.uk/index.htm Voice of Kashmir site http://www.members.aol.com/Kashmir290/home.html Kashmir Online site (available to America Online members) of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (with links to Free Tibet, Free Burma, Kosovo Crisis Center) Go
to Bulletin Board Issue #3 1999 Forgiving Poor Country Debts Many of the world's poorest countries are worse off today than they were in
the early 1980s. That is due partly to the fact that at the height of the high
oil prices in the late 1970s there was a lot of capital available and those
countries were persuaded to borrow funds to assist development. They were then
caught in a debt trap in the 1980s when world interest rates rose and raw material
prices fell. Many pay out most of their annual income to merely service the
debts incurred. Some countries defaulted on the debts, causing Western banks
to shudder and restrict lending in the later 1980s. Poor country development
faltered and slowed. It has been suggested that the World Bank, International
Monetary Fund and Western banks have already been repaid in interest more than
the original loan was worth and should forgive the remaining debts during the
year 2000. The matter is not so simple as it might at first seem. There are
questions about whether this should be done for all countries or just a few
at first; whether there should be conditions that countries have to fulfil (using
funds released for health and education, not military equipment); and how the
process is to be managed (through established organizations or a new one). Some of the issues include: - Should all debtor countries be forgiven their debts? If not, which ones?
- What might be the impacts of debt forgiveness on the lending and debtor
countries and on those countries that would not be included if only a selection
of countries was included?
Discussion of these matters is available through the following Web sites: http://www.j2000usa.org/ The US organization of Jubilee 2000 Web site http://www.christian-aid.org.uk Christian Aid in the UK has a site that includes questions and answers on
the Jubilee 2000 program that encourages governments to act on forgiving debts.
Issue #4 1999 Is El Niño Over? What is La Niña Through 1997 and 1998 the latest flourish of the El Niño phenomenon affected
weather in countries around the tropical Pacific Ocean (see page 474 of Bradshaw,
second edition). Some places had extra rain while others suffered drought and
forest fires. As experts on climate gather more evidence, they discover the
likelihood of El Niño occurring again and the causes of its associated weather
changes. Some of the issues associated with El Niño include: - What are El Niño and La Niña?
- What causes El Niño?
- How widespread are the effects of these phenomena on the people and economies
of countries in Asia and the Americas?
There are several Web sites that provide information on these issues, but the most authoritative and up-to-date is: http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/ http://www.worldbank.org/data/ Two World Bank sources available through its Web site, updated each year, are: - "Quick Reference Tables" with (in mid 1999) 1997 information on
GNP per capita, population, adult literacy, and country classification.
- "World Development Indicators 1999" Tables that include a wide-ranging
sample of the total set of data.
http://www.popnet.org Several sections of this site provide information on, and links to population,
economic, social, environmental, and gender conditions for countries around
the world. Demographic statistics are linked to country sites. Selected topics
links population issues to economic, environmental, gender, and policy issues. http://www.un.org The United Nations home page. For statistics, go to "Databases" -
"Statistics and Indicators" - "Social Indicators" to find
data on topics such as population, proportions of youth and elderly, water supply
and sanitation, housing, health, child bearing, education, literacy, income
and economic activity, and unemployment. Dates for statistics supplied. Also
check out home page "Economic and Social Development" area with sections
on a range of topics including narcotic drugs, human rights, social development,
sustainable development, women, and others. | 
2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education