Catholicgauze in DC: Final Part

As readers know I was in DC to defend freedom, right universal wrongs, and any other cliché you can imagine. What you do not know is that I had the time of my life by meeting a multitude of very great friends and making new ones.

The Trip (the parts I am at liberty to talk about)

Everything on the trip was almost last minute. I was going to stay with a friend but then plans quickly changed and I lodged at the Hostelling International USA’s DC hostel. It was a surprisingly clean and nice place to stay in downtown DC (To MJ, no good deed will go unpunished). I roomed with some amazing people including a Japanese kid who was biking from Los Angeles to New York and a friendly Australian Green Party member who was detained in London because cop's thought he was a terrorist. Other highlights include dominos and practicing my Spanish with a German on his way to Central America.

The Green Aussie shows his recepit for being detained. "Arrested" was check-marked "no"

Besides meeting nice foreigners I tried out the so-called international sport of soccer. (Side note: While jerks claim the rest of the world calls soccer "football" there are countless examples of international use of the word soccer like the National Soccer League, Qantas Socceroos, and Indian soccer). I saw DC United defeat the New England Revolution 1-0. The first and only goal was scored within the first eight minutes of the ninety minute game. The sport was boring but being in the wild crowd that rocked the stadium was fun. I was told that more people in America now go to Major League Soccer games than National Hockey League games. Believable in my mind because of the strike damaging hockey fans' loyalty.

Ole! Ole! Ole!

The last bit I am free to talk about is food. Gosh dang, DC has some good places to eat. A good general place to eat is Potbelly's with their filling subs. One owns it to themselves to try out Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street in DC's historic African-American district. The place is one of the last true 1950s-style diners. The workers are uber-friendly and the chili dog with chili fries is the perfect food to eat while discussing geo-political developments in the Hispano world. Finally I ate at the Hotel Washington's outside Roof Top Terrace restaurant. The food was fantastic (I could not finish my great but too large Chicken Caesar salad) and the view was even better.

Just part of the great view from the roof. Lincoln Memorial in the background.

I did miss a few friends while on the trip but it was successful none the less. The next great journey for Catholicgauze should be to San Francisco for the AAG's 2007 convention.

D-Day and Geography

Sixty-two years ago today the Great Crusade to liberate Europe proper began as Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy. Approximately 10,500 Allied and 6,500 Germans were killed by the end of the day. The liberation of the Nazi-occupied world was in full swing and being paid for in blood.

D-Day in northern France was originally suppose to be June 5, 1944 but was pushed back a day due to bad weather. So June 6 is known now as D-Day in the Anglo world and as Jour-J or Le Choc (The Shock) in France.

If one wishes to know the geography of D-Day the always great Perry-Castaneda map library has a collection of D-Day maps, so does Canada History, and the BBC has some more general World War II maps.

I recommend one reads The Longest Day to gain a sense of the area through the eyes of the people who fought the battle. Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers both give a good feel for Normandy in film.

Category: Historical Geography, Maps

Human Trafficking

I think I am like most Americans when I consider the 1860s the end of global slavery. Sure Brazil had slavery until the 1880s but that is commonly thought as a footnote if that in most people's minds.

There is a great shame on humanity though. Slavery is alive and well in this modern age. Whether it is the international sex trade or Janjaweeds enslaving children for work on farms the problem is global.

Recently the US State Department released a report on human trafficking. Highlights include how Germany is becoming a major stop on the sex trade "industry" for girls from Asia and Eastern Europe because of the coming tourist attraction of the World Cup. The report breaks countries down by tiers (first tier being countries which actively combat slavery while third tier being gross human rights violators) and gives many countries their own narrative.

Other useful information can be found at the UN's Trafficking in Human Beings page. They recently released a good report on the problem too.

Finally there is HumanTrafficking.org which is a non-profit designed to help stop slavery. This site breaks trafficking down by region and country and has oodles of information.

Category: GeoInfo, Geopolitics

Geography at the Movies

What the heck, I cannot allow my readers to go without a true blog post.

I recommend everyone check out Geography at the Movies blog. A bunch of useful educational geography short geography films. While nothing can be used for the labs I teach you never know who it may help.

Catholicgauze in DC: Part II

Still alive but I will be unable to have enough time to blog until Tuesday. DC is an awesome city with serious problems. Tuesday I will do a "blog post of justice" to recap my trip. Quick update: I managed to work my way into the Race for a Cure. Never again will I run with sandals.

Catholicgauze in DC: Part I

I will be in DC this weekend to lay the foundation to visit friends and former co-workers, lay the foundation for the future, right universals wrongs, and other fun things along those lines. Blogging may be a bit light but I'll try to keep it steady. Consider this Friday's blog post.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Part I: Bad News Along The Way

Recent news release make me wonder if going to DC is a completely wise thing. According to Rep. Steve King, Washington D.C. has a death rate than Iraq. Washington has 45 violent deaths per 100,000 people while Iraq only has 27.51.

While that sounds a bit ridiculous it is believable when one knows geography. Most deaths are occurring in the Sunni Triangle while Kurdistan is peaceful and the only problem in the south is between rival Shia militias.

The second deadliest place in America is Detroit with 41.8 violent deaths per 100,000 people. Detroit is a stop on my plane flight to DC, dangit!

European Online Job Hunters

Not a mistake on my part, blogger just doesn't want to show it correctly. Click to enlarge

This is a chart depicting the European countries with the highest number of visitors to career websites.

The New Europe countries have a lower percentage of internet users using job websites. Does this mean there is higher satisfaction? Or are Old Europe job hunters just more high tech?

Information gathered from ComScore Europe and the CIA World Factbook