Wednesday 28 September 2011

Secret Slum Dog Millionaire Year 13


Millionaire dentist Seema Sharma lives in London with her cardiologist husband Sanjay and their two daughters. With a string of successful dental practices to her name, Seema is worth in the region of five million pounds. Although Seema speaks basic Hindi, her only knowledge of India comes from Bollywood films and five-star holidays.
She leaves behind her British lifestyle and flies to Mumbai, the financial capital of India. Mumbai has a shocking disparity between wealth and poverty: over half of its 13 million residents live in slums or on the streets. Seema is staying in Dharavi, one of the largest slums in India, where over a million people live crammed into less than one square mile.
During her stay Seema volunteers with a number of organisations in the hope of finding worthy causes and individuals to support. She meets inspiring people who've come up with ingenious solutions to help India's poorest citizens, including a mobile school to educate homeless children, a charity that persuades the wealthy to donate toys to underprivileged children, and a group reaching out to a community of rag pickers struggling to provide their families with basics such as water and proper sanitation.
Trying to decide how to give away her money in a responsible and effective way, Seema is confronted by insurmountable dilemmas. On the final day of her stay, and with a new understanding of what it means to be Indian, Seema reveals her identity to the people she has chosen, surprising them with gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Visions for the Future of the City 12:30 - 4:30pm, Saturday 22 October 2011 Newcastle University

What should Newcastle upon Tyne look like in 2050?

Newcastle upon Tyne has changed beyond all recognition over the last 40 years and is still changing fast. In 2010 Forum for the Future ranked Newcastle as the most sustainable of the UK’s twenty largest cities for the second year running (see Sustainable Cities Index). Is this an accolade we should attempt to retain? What can we do to ensure that Newcastle is better in 2050 than it is today? A group of engineers will each present their answer to this question to a public audience and will then discuss and adapt their ideas.

The event will use the Crowd Wise process designed by new economics foundation to seek a consensus: Beginning with the open question above, participants (engineers and audience) will be invited to work together to create and refine possible answers. This is a collaborative process, where answers can be merged, split or refined by anyone, in order to create the most interesting, wide ranging and appealing range of possibilities. Then, instead of voting for their favourite, each participant will be asked to rate each answer from best to worst. Votes will then be counted to establish which option has the broadest support.

Special Guest: Chi Onwurah, MP for Newcastle Central.

Come along, join in the discussions and play your part in this fascinating experiment!

The Green Energy Economy of the Future - Public Lecture

September 29, 2011 6:30 PM
The Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne

CHRIS HUHNE M.P., Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change will be giving a public lecture on September 29th 2011.

The lecture, The Green Energy Economy of the Future, will begin at 6.30pm and will be followed by a question and answer session until 7:45pm.

The lecture will be taking place at the Centre for Life, Newcastle upon Tyne and is open to everybody, not just party members.

The Centre for Life is situated next to Newcastle Central Station, 5 minutes from the Metro and numerous bus stops.

This is a free event and no reservation is necessary.

Car parking is available in the Time Square multi-story car park situated on Railway Street. The car park is open 24 hours.

Year 13 the Chinese are coming!

BBC Documentary - The Chinese Are Coming


Year 13 Develop or Die 1 of 6 - Asia's Growing Tigers - BBC Environmental Documentary

watch this series about Asian Tigers

South America development Year 13

Wach the Jonathan Dimbleby domentary series via the BBC 2 homepage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0155kqd

'The Miracle Of Asia' (Part 1) - Singapore Documentary

Why has Singapore developed?

watch the 3 part documentary. What are the themes?

 

Tony Blair: Globalisation, development and the role of religion

What does our former prime minister say on globalisations and development?

World Cities Mumbai and Dharavi presented by Kevin McCloud

Episode 1

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevin-mccloud-slumming-it/4od#3051417

Episode 2

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevin-mccloud-slumming-it/4od#3051418

 

As Kevin enters Dharavi he finds open sewers, rats and hazardous chemicals everywhere. But this is also a highly organised place, with thousands of tiny industries and a strong sense of community and spirit.

SERIES SYNOPSIS

In India Kevin McCloud explores a world of amazing juxtapositions in Dharavi, one of the most extreme urban environments on earth. This densely populated slum has been cited by experts as having the answers to some of the biggest problems facing our Western cities. As a way of experiencing the good and bad of Dharavi first hand, Kevin decides to live, work, sleep, eat and wash there. And he's terrified at the prospect!

Welcome Baby 7 Billion we have room for you?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/22/welcome-baby-seven-billio...

Read the article what is the theme of it? (positive or negative towards global population growth?)

Do we have to live with slums?

Do we have to learn to live with slums?

Do we have to learn to live with slums? Watch Paul Mason's film from the Philippines in full

Manila, Philippines: The rich elite in cities across the world want to clear the slums which are now home to a billion people. But many of those who live in shanty towns like that which lines the banks of the San Miguel canal, do not want to leave. Why?

I had come to the Philippines to explore a theory but, as always, reality got in the way.

I was standing on the bridge over the Estero de San Miguel, a slum in the capital Manila.

My host was architect Felino Palafox and he had spread his blueprints across the parapet of the bridge and we were poring over them, with some street kids clambering around us. Palafox was making a big splash with the locals his Star Trek-style traditional Philippines shirt.

Find out more

At the Estero de San Miguel slum
  • Slums 101 will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday 16 August 2011 at 20:00 BST
  • You can watch Paul's film for Newsnight in full on BBC Two that evening at 22:30 BST

The sweep of the slum was pretty horrible - a curve of water, shacks on both sides, multicoloured plastic rubbish inches deep in the water, and now and then the sound of something hitting the water as somebody used the "wrap and throw" method of sewage disposal into the Estero itself.

I needed the bathroom myself, so somebody guided me into a shop - a kiosk really - on the bridge. I clambered down a ladder and then, suddenly, I was in a place whose existence had not really occurred to me. Because if the slum is built right up to the waterway, on stilts, how do you get through it?

The answer was a tunnel. Four feet (1.2m) wide, about 5ft 7in (170cm) high (I learned this painfully as I am 5ft 7.5in (171.4cm)) and 600m (1968ft) long.

Twelve hundred families live off that tunnel - about 6,000 people. Such is the population density that I realised immediately what the women cradling their kids and swaying absentmindedly in the half light were doing - the same as me, waiting for the toilet.

Lack of hope

When I came out I was, as Dennis Murphy said to me afterwards, "stoked". Dennis is an ex-Jesuit priest who runs an NGO in Estero de San Miguel that has helped the slum-dwellers organise themselves.

"You were hyper, manic," he told me later.

That was because whenever you enter a slum your spirits do not so much droop as plummet. A fall, with a long "aargh" such as that emitted by the Wily Coyote when The Road Runner gets him to go over a cliff.

Balderas familyThe Balderas family live in a single 8ft square room

You suddenly become aware physically - even though you have seen this stuff many times before - of that thing no modern human being wants, limitation, boundedness, a lack of hope.

After two minutes down the tunnel I stormed up the ladder and told my crew to stop filming Palafox. Nice though his scheme development plan was, it was on paper. Down in the tunnel was a reality that, despite being in Manila's slums for days, we had not properly seen.

Mena Cinco, the barangay captain - a kind of local councillor with the authority of a tribal chieftain - led me down again.

We met Rotsi and her family - mum, dad "a driver for a Chinese family", an unspecified family guest, a daughter doing her homework and a toddler. Five people in one-and-a-half rooms.

"We've been here 20 years," Rotsi told me.

Population explosion

Next door Oliver Balderas was snoozing with his kids, who were eating ice cream. There was a cartoon on the television and mum was also having a nap - it was about 32C and heavy with humidity.

Why Philippines slum clearance is creating new problems

They came to the door. Mr Balderas is a construction worker earning about $3.50 (£2.13) a day. The family moved to Estero de San Miguel from a conflict area 10 years ago.

The room - about 8ft (2.4m) square, and like all of the Estero, built of wood and floored with lino - is their entire dwelling space.

Manila is undergoing a population explosion. Of the around 60 people-an-hour estimated to be arriving here, about half are coming as migrants from the collapsing agriculture sector, and half are born here - so there are kids everywhere.

These kids sing a song about the inevitability of poverty and their determination to overcome it.

Total rethink

With the sky glowering when I got out of the tunnel, I was no longer in any mood to go on giving the theory the benefit of the doubt.

My instant reaction was this: "There's a theory that says basically slums are here to stay, that they're cohesive, sustainable - green even.

"I can see the social cohesion bit, but as for green, well, (my nostrils flare at the river smell).

"And I can't help thinking the whole theory is a bit of a cop out because why - when in the 19th Century they cleared out places like this in one generation do we, in an era of globalisation, tolerate them?"

Mena CincoMena Cinco is one of the slums' official leaders

If I came out of the Estero de San Miguel "stoked", it was because it challenged my trendy notions, learned from the 2003 UN Habitat report and interviews with various experts, and re-awakened the inner Edwardian-era social reform nostrums my grandparents taught me about slums, which is that they have to be cleared.

But then I went back into the San Miguel by night, with Mena still trying to educate me about the social cohesion, and I was forced to rethink it all again.

I met business graduates, found an internet cafe, met the volunteer police force and got offered the chance to eat a boiled egg with a chicken embryo. I said I would rather jump in the canal naked, and the local women invite me to do just that.

Then, over a beer with ex-Father Dennis, discussing our mutual experiences with the Salesians and the Jesuits, I discovered what one billion people on the planet have discovered - slums are not so bad.

They have changed from the Dickensian hell holes of our imagination. Through education and communications technology people are making life bearable for themselves - and of course providing the modern mega-city with an indispensable workforce of cheap labour.

The result is we have to confront a question that would have appalled the 19th Century pioneers of city design - do we have to live with slums forever?

I do not know the answer to that question - but I now understand the question.

Somewhere between the theories of the architects and NGOs and the rigid clearance doctrines of Prada-clad Filipino millionaires, and the night on the streets with the local cops and the day in the countryside with people whose main ambition in life is to live in a Manila slum… I have gone beyond the theory and experienced the reality.

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? Year 12

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?

watch this 6 part programme. Take notes on the sustainability issues raised by the programme.

Attenborough warns on population Year 12

Attenborough warns on population

Sir David Attenborough
Sir David began presenting natural history programmes in 1954

The broadcaster Sir David Attenborough has become a patron of a group seeking to cut the growth in human population.

On joining the Optimum Population Trust, Sir David said growth in human numbers was "frightening".

Sir David has been increasingly vocal about the need to reduce the number of people on Earth to protect wildlife.

The Trust, which accuses governments and green groups of observing a taboo on the topic, say they are delighted to have Sir David as a patron.

Fraught area

Sir David, one of the BBC's longest-standing presenters, has been making documentaries on the natural world and conservation for more than half a century.

In a statement issued by the Optimum Population Trust he is quoted as saying: "I've never seen a problem that wouldn't be easier to solve with fewer people, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more."

The Trust, which was founded in 1991, campaigns for the UK population to decrease voluntarily by not less than 0.25% a year.

It has launched a "Stop at Two" online pledge to encourage couples to limit their family's size.

Other patrons include Jonathan Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, and Dame Jane Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall institute.

BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said population was a fraught area of debate, with libertarians and some religious groups vehemently opposing measures by governments to influence individual fertility.

In turn, the Trust accuses policy makers and environmentalists of conspiring in a "silent lie" that human numbers can grow forever with no ill-effects.

In January 2009, Sir David revealed that he had received hate mail from viewers for not crediting God in his nature programmes.

His most recent documentary focused on how Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution and why it remained important.

Unreported World episode 13 2010 Year 12

Watch the video about Manila.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/unreported-world/4od#3173951

Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Richard Cookson find the Philippine capital stretched to breaking point, with mothers four to a bed in maternity wards, primary schools with a thousand children in each year, and graveyards with no more room to bury the dead.

As the world faces an overpopulation crisis, Manila provides a vision of what might become ordinary in the not too distant future.

The team begin their trip at the biggest maternity hospital in the city. It operates on an industrial scale, with four mothers and their babies sharing each bed. The ward is at double capacity when the team arrive, and it's so overcrowded that the nurses have to patrol it to make sure no one is sleeping on their babies and suffocating them.

Kleeman learns that women often have eight children or more here, and some of the mothers say it's hard to make ends meet with such large families. But the Filipino government doesn't promote contraception as it fears losing the Catholic vote.

Kleeman spends the night with a family of nine in Baseco, a shanty town where 90,000 people share just half a square kilometre. A third of Manila's 20 million residents live in squatter settlements like this. New homes are being built every day; wherever there's space another family will fill it. There is no sanitation and the children grow up surrounded by rubbish.

Like everything else in Manila, the water supply can't meet the demand of the number of people who want to use it, and contagious diseases spread fast. Jennifer, the mother of the family, has tuberculosis. She tells Kleeman her children have persistent rashes but she can't afford to take them to a doctor for treatment.

Kleeman and Cookson walk to school with Jennifer's son, Mark Anthony. He's one of 6000 pupils at the local primary, with 1000 children in his school year alone. The numbers are so high that children have to be taught in shifts throughout the day, with some classes starting at 6am.

The team gets word that a slum is being cleared in Quezon City, in the north of Manila. Two thousand families live here, and this isn't the first time they've been evicted from this patch of land: it's privately owned and they've been staying here illegally. The demolition men fight with the residents, who are trying to keep hold of their building materials so they can rebuild their homes elsewhere.

One resident, Ludivina, tells Kleeman she has ten children and no idea where they will now live. Evictions like this happen all the time in Manila but they don't solve the city's squatter problem: they simply move it from one location to another.

Most Filipinos choose to be buried rather than cremated, which creates its own problems for the city. The team visits a cemetery where as many as 80 funerals take place every day. Most people can't afford their own tombs, so they rent them. And if their families fail to keep up the rent payments after they're buried, their bodies are exhumed and another coffin is placed in their grave. Kleeman finds hundreds of families living in makeshift homes among the tombs, jostling for space with the dead.

Manila's problems may appear extraordinary. But as global population grows, the city provides a vision of what might become ordinary around the world as the rest of the planet runs out of space.

Monday 12 September 2011

Energy Homework Project Year 9

The following pack is your homework to download, compete and email back to Mr Sayers. You'll have to work as a collective (group) to complete some of the tasks.

If the video links in the document do not work then use the videos posted into this post, which are the same. The videos are in order as they appear in the project document.

World_Peak_Oil_Production_Theory_Graph.doc Download this file

Peak_Oil_-_How_Will_You_Ride_the_Slide.mp4 Watch on Posterous
Running_on_Empty-_Life_Without_Cheap_Oil.mp4 Watch on Posterous
Extended_Shell_commercial.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Sunday 11 September 2011

Where the Hell is Matt?

Screen_shot_2011-09-11_at_10

Matt is a 34-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny."

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal.

Here is a couple of his videos to show you his dancing skills.

Where_the_Hell_is_Matt.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Where_the_Hell_is_Matt.mp4 Watch on Posterous
FOR THE VIDEOS THINK WITH A GEOGRAPHY CAP ON.

FOR EACH DANCE LOCATION IS THE BACKGROUND DEMONSTRATING HUMAN OR PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

FOR EACH LOCATION ADD IT TO A GOOGLE EARTH DOCUMENT AND ADD INFORMATION ON THE LOCATION THAT YOU CAN RESEARCH.

MR SAYERS IS GOING TO HAVE A GREEEN SCREEN IN HIS ROOM. OVER THE YEAR WE CAN CREATE OUR OWN VIDEOS OF

USING VIDEO OR PICTURE CLIPS OF PLACES YOU RESEARCH. 

'WHERE ARE LLOB STUDENTS?

Holiday Hijack - Kenya

The following clip highlights how the Masai are trying to create a sustainable culture of energy source for hotels. 

 

 

watch the entire episode from the following link. 

 

Holiday Hijack - Kenya

The following clip highlights how the Masai are trying to create a sustainable culture of energy source for hotels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjloFwKEeU&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

watch the entire episode from the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZfFEDZqeAs

Secrets of the Superbrands Food part 2

SECRETS_OF_THE_SUPERBRANDS-FOOD-2.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Secrets of the Superbrands Food part 1

SECRETS_OF_THE_SUPERBRANDS-FOOD-1.mp4 Watch on Posterous
Great for globalisation units.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Screen_shot_2011-09-11_at_10

Matt is a 34-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as "That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I'll send you the link. It's funny."

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he'd be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they'd be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

In 2006, Matt took a 6 month trip through 39 countries on all 7 continents. In that time, he danced a great deal.

Here is a couple of his videos to show you his dancing skills.

Where_the_Hell_is_Matt.mp4 Watch on Posterous

Where_the_Hell_is_Matt.mp4 Watch on Posterous
FOR THE VIDEOS THINK WITH A GEOGRAPHY CAP ON.

FOR EACH DANCE LOCATION IS THE BACKGROUND DEMONSTRATING HUMAN OR PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

FOR EACH LOCATION ADD IT TO A GOOGLE EARTH DOCUMENT AND ADD INFORMATION ON THE LOCATION THAT YOU CAN RESEARCH.

MR SAYERS IS GOING TO HAVE A GREEEN SCREEN IN HIS ROOM. OVER THE YEAR WE CAN CREATE OUR OWN VIDEOS OF

USING VIDEO OR PICTURE CLIPS OF PLACES YOU RESEARCH. 

'WHERE ARE LLOB STUDENTS?

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Dubai's Progress

Dubai.pps Download this file

Review the slideshow and do some research to check whether the proposed building plans have actually taken place?

Create a split page running down the page.

On the left add completed building plans

On the right add not completed building plans

Is the building industry flourishing in Dubai or is it being held back?

 

If the lamp post was as high as the building in the background how tall would it be?

Img_1078
Take a perspective photo like this and test other students and staff.

 

What is the name of the event? Where in the world is it?

Oleveto
Using the photo for evidence do an investigation to work out the title questions.

Monday 5 September 2011

Mr Sayers - Question of the week

What is the largest island? (be geo-creative with your answers, bend the Question parameters to the limit to suit your answer).

Write your answers in the comment box and explain what your answer means.

E.g. Australia because it has the biggest Coastal area surrounded by water of all the islands on planet earth.

I've given the answer say a google search would give you.

Now it is your turn to really think and bend the truth to suit your way of thinking by twisting what the question might vaguely mean.

The Geography Department look forward to your answers in the comment box below.

LLOBGEO our twitter account for Geography

Hello everyone we have joined twitter as a department.

You can follow our tweets about:

  • Learning during the week 
  • Geography news of interest during the week local, regional, national and global
  • Research questions for students to attempt
  • interesting websites for students to gain geography knowledge
  • interesting websites for students to attempt using different ICT programs to enhance their geography learning

Our twitter account https://twitter.com/llobgeo

We have protected the site so that Only geographers that we know around the country and Students and Parents can follow and be accepted.

 

 

Welcome To our Blog site

Welcome everyone to our geography department blog. 

This blog will be used to display student learning, teaching resources for parents to see at home, to offer students and parents geography news and allow geography Q&A sessions. We'll also give you developments within the department.

We look forward to the academic year ahead.