Brazil

http://www.vmapas.com/Americas/South_America_Political_Map.jpg/maps-en.html?map_viewMap=1

My class activity is on the Country of Brazil in the South American Continent.  It's Continent is bordered with the S. Atlantic Ocean and the S. Pacific ocean.  South America has a total of 12 Countries and Brazil is not only the largest one, but it is also the 5th largest in the country by geographical area(3,287,597 sq miles) and total population.  It's September estimate of this year was a total of 193,525,000 people, ahead of that is Indonesia then United States.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population)  Out of it's neighboring latin american Countries, it is the only country that speaks the Portuguese-language, even the only country that speaks that language in the U.S.

According to the World Bank, Brazil is the eighth largest GDP capita in the world with a total of 1,571,979 US dollars.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)  What fasinates me the most about Brazil is it's climate.  The country is so  large that it has five different kinds of climate throughout the Country.  It's climates range from equatorial to , subtropical, semiarid, temperate, and highland tropical.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil#Climate)  As you can see it is mostly tropical weather, that's where I need to be let's say for the, ohhhhhh, seven months.

Illegal Immigration

When you think hear Mexico you most likely think of resorts and clear blue waters, but it's not all nice resorts and blue waters.  Mexico actually has a lot of very poor and corrupt areas, not exactly a nice place to raise a family.  Don't get me wrong, Mexico is beautiful, but at some places there are small tin roofed shacks stretched as far as the eye can see, shacks that people and families reside in.  This is part of the reason why some of the people leave or have left valuables, homes, and even loved ones behind in Mexico so they can go to America in search for a better life, or a better life for their children. In America their children automatically are United States citizens if they are born here. 

They come and live in America several different illegal ways.  Some hike to the border where there isn't alot of border patrol there and they wait for the right time to climb and enter the US territory, but over the past decade the border has improvised.  They have more than just border patrol vehicles driving up and down the border line of Mexico and the US.  They also have cameras in the hot spots, or the most popular crossing sites.  The aliens also get into the US by homemade wooden boats and cross the Atlantic ocean where they can then enter into America.  They also have been known to cram in boxcars, shipping containers, or trucks and paying off corrupt authority or smugglers to get them into America.  There are many more ways they migrate illegally into the US.  Once in America they look for "low skilled jobs", jobs that don't attract alot of employees and are really labor intensive.  Even though hiring illegal immigrants is breaking the law, some employers do so they can save money by not paying them as much as state laws require.  The illegal immigrants then save that money and sometimes go back to Mexico and live wealthy or bring the money back to their families so they can afford more.  However, it might be the only way they can get out of poverty.

Sighted websites;
        http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/illegal-immigration.html

Oil Spill Affecting Fishermen and Restaurants

My first blog goes back to a few months ago when the BP oil rig blew up in the gulf of Mexico.  After the rig blew it sent a spewing 210,000 gallons(5,000 barrels) a day into the gulf.(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html )  After days, weeks, then months went by and the oil was not able to get plugged, fishermen that make their living off of the livestock were being affected by the gulf spill.The spill has closed down the gulf by 5%, even at 37% at one point(http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100602_closure.html). The waters are closed off to fishing because of food consumption safety reasons, that leaves roughly 63% of federal waters for fishing. That makes it hard for fishermen that live all along the gulf to make their earnings. Especially when those closed off waters land right in some of their backyards.
  With the oil pouring into the Gulf also brought along with it another kind of economic disaster, soaring prices on seafood such as shrimp, oysters, crab, etc.  Something like that also takes hefty tolls on restaurants not only in state surrounding the coast, but all around the United States.  Some restaurants had dropped their menu prices down a huge chunk even before the raised seafood prices for fear and foretelling of what could happen(http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-23-Gulf-food_N.htm ).  Some of the restaurants had to even close down because even though the FDA claimed food to be safe for eating, a lot of customers still steered clear from having seafood in their order. This is an example of how alot of people make their living on fishing and livestock, and if something happens like in this disaster, alot of people are affected. It's a harsh "Domino-affect".

Watch video on affected restaurants: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid42806360001?bctid=101579457001