Map of Unemployment in the United States

The New York Times has updated their "Geography of a Recession" map with June 2009 data. Unemployment data is shown. By looking at the map there are two cores in America that have felt layoffs more than other regions. A bloc from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio extends down through Kentucky and spreads into the Deep South. The second core is the West Coast plus Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Government Accountability Improvements and Declines

The above is a chart by The Economist showing improvements and declines in government accountability in the last ten years. Accountability is measured with civil rights (including freedom of speech, assembly and religion), freedom of participation in elections and press freedom.

Serbia leads the way with its efforts to become European Union-suitable while Niger, Sierra Leone, and Ghana show great improvement in west Africa. Sadly, terrorist-sponsoring dictatorship Eritrea is has the greatest fall from grace. Thailand comes in number two due to the King's and military's meddling in the parliament.

Nation versus State versus Nation-state

Previously: Netherlands (Holland) versus the Kingdom of the Netherlands and England versus Great Britain versus the United Kingdom

The term "nation-state" is frequently misused while the words "nation" and "state" are commonly confused in geographic context. So here is a handy guide to understanding the terms "nation," "state," and "nation-state."

Nation

A nation is a group of people who share some, if not all, common traits like religion, ethnicity, language, culture, and history. Nations start out in one geographical area but can move, expand, or shrink in zone. Most nations have a strong ethnic component (Hungarian, Japanese) while a few exceptions are based on things like religion and history (Arab) or ideals like liberal freedom (American).

State

A state is an independent country. "State of Israel" means the country of Israel. Many Americans are confused by "state means country" because of the official name of their country, the United States of America. The reason for the official name is that the founding fathers envisioned the United States as a league of independent states united for commerce and defense. It was not until the end of the American Civil War that the dominance federal union was proven above the state.

Nation-State

A nation-state is a country established for the dominant nation within its border. For a true nation-state the primary nation needs to be the overwhelming majority group in the country.

Examples

Stateless Nations: Roma and Samaritians

Multinational State: Spain, Switzerland, Bolivia

Nation with more than one state: The German nation with Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland (65% ethnic German but with never interested in union with other Germans)

Single-nation politically dominant over other nations in one state: Russians in Russia compose eighty percent of the population (formerly 50% of the Soviet Union) yet have always been above other ethnic groups for centuries. Han Chinese have also dominated multi-national China.

True Nation-State: Over ninety-percent Hungarian with laws that enshrine Hungarian culture.

Five Crazy, Wacky, Bad, and Evil Geographic Ideas (Part 2)

Part 1 here

Isolationism

Trade, immigration, and political cooperation all have benefits that, when properly applied, greatly outweigh any associated negatives. Goods are exchanged for rare or previously enviable resources, bright minds and manual labor allow for increased productivity, and protection and joint-development flourish. However, sometimes an advanced culture (or a culture that thinks itself advanced) decides that foreigners are a disease and need to be kept away. So the advanced culture cuts itself off from the world. The culture begins a slow decay while neighbors continue to improve. Eventually foreign states look at the once-great backwater and decide the area is ripe for invasion, colonization, or dominance. Imperial China languished because of isolation. North Korea once was industrial while South Korea only had farms. It is possible for countries to recover from isolation, like Japan after the United States opened it up, but it can come at a cost (Japan's rapid rise caused social chaos that allowed for a technocratic military to seize power).

Spaceship Earth-like thinking in geographers

I will scream if I here the term "spaceship earth" uttered by a geographer again if it does not immediately relate to the ecosystem. The theory of spaceship earth states Earth is an enclosed system with a finite amount of resources available to its inhabitants. Further, spaceship earth constricts geographers to studying things from the planet's core to edge of the atmosphere.

The theory ignores outside influence on the planet from the mundane (Sun heats the Earth, Moon's relationship to tides), to worthy of study (Sun's cycles effects on climate), to God-level impacts (Tunguska). It also voids the truth of resources off Earth that can be exploited for future use. Finally, it ties geographers down and closes our minds to geographical studies of the Moon, Mars, and other planets. This is a bold frontier that geologists are exploring without us. We must not be left behind.

Dishonorable mentions

Lebensraum-like theories: Homelands are all well and good. But when a culture decides that lesser races are an impediment to progress and must be removed for future growth, bad things happen.

Cultural relativism: "No right, no wrong." Sounds all well and good when studying others but it ignores fundamental values and evolution of one's culture. Is killing homosexuals, anti-female practices, or slavery right? What good is studying the world's problems if one does nothing about them?

Reposting: Catholicgauze is on Twitter

For even more Catholicgauze! and geography be sure to check me out on Twitter! Twitter feed also added to sidebar.

Five Crazy, Wacky, Bad, and Evil Geographic Ideas (Part 1)

Distance decay, domino theory, shelter belts, and many more ideas have their roots in geography. These theories have done great things to improve the lives of many and predict future outcomes. There are ideas; however, that have been too crazy, wacky, bad, or even evil to have any good come from them. These ideas either flopped, had alternative effects, or were canned early because of people realizing inherit errors.

The Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail is today known as an escape for many who wish to do exercise and withdraw, if only briefly, from the daily world. What many do not know was that the trail was first dreamed up as an attempt to complete remake American culture. The plan was made by Harvard-educated forester and self-described philosopher Benton MacKaye in An Appalachian Trail: A Project in Regional Planning (PDF). MacKaye proposed a trail which people would hike, towns would be founded along the trail to support hikers, farms would then be created near the towns to support the towns. MacKaye then predicted the whole east coast would get in on the act with cities depopulating as hikers choose to remain near the trail in little trail-cities. American culture was to be remade as the urbanization was reversed.

The Appalachian Trail continues to be a fun diversion for some but MacKaye's dream of remaking America failed miserably.

Buffalo Commons

Husband and wife-team, geographers with urban planning backgrounds Dr. Frank Popper and Deborah Popper had an idea to deal with the depopulation in the interior center of the United States. In The Great Plains: From Dust to Dust the Poppers state that the Great Plains should be depopulated in a massive government spending and reeducation program so the area could become a safari-playground for those who live on the east and west coast.

Needless to say this made "the natives restless" while others pointed out the massive loss of farm and ranching land. While some have taken elements of the Buffalo Commons-idea like increasing tourism appeal this is one geographic theory that managed to cause great outrage and not much else.

Total Wildfire Suppression

When one thinks of forest fires the image of Smokey the Bear comes to mind. While Smokey is still used to educate the public about the risks of wildfires, thankfully his original message does not remain. In the early days of United States forestry the main way to fight fires was total wildfire suppression. No fires were allowed to break out. This was unnatural though. Underbrush was allowed to overgrow and the forest floor was littered with natural debris like fallen trees. When massive fires like Yellowstone's and others broke out many people realized this artificial solution to fire control was no good. Now, control burns and allowing wildfires some freedoms keeps such events small, manageable, and less deadly.

Coming Tuesday: The second and final part of crazy, wacky, bad, and evil geographic ideas.

Happy Fourth of July

America has committed sins in the past. However, it shines bright when it fights both with arms and diplomacy for liberty and justice for itself and for others. Thank you to all those who have fought through various means for freedom.

Catholicgauze Celebrating Fourth of July

I will be far away from technology for the Independence Day weekend. There will be a post on the fourth but then nothing until Monday, July 6. Take care, be safe, and enjoy your freedoms.

In the meantime enjoy this Catholicgauze Classic