Peter, Steph, Cassy, Krysta

ASIA

STATISTICAL DATA

Life-expectancy

Wealth(GDP in $US)

Education

Literacy rates

Natural Resources

Russia 66.03 years

$16,100 3.8% 99.4% Oil, natural gas, coal, minerals and timber

Mongolia 67.65 $3,200 5% 97.8% Oil, coal and many rare metals such as: gold, copper, etc.

China 73.47 $6,000 1.9% 90.9% Coal, iron, petroleum, rare minerals, and world’s largest hydropower (potential)

Afghanistan 44.64 $700 N/A 28.1% Natural Gas, Petroleum, coal, and precious metals

Turkmenistan

67.87 $6,200 3.9% 98.9% Petroleum, Natural gas, sodium, salt

Pakistan 64.49 $2,500 2.6% 49.9% Land, Natural Gas (majority), petroleum, coal (poor), iron, copper.

Uzbekistan 71.96 $2,600 9.4% 99.3% Natural Gas, petroleum, coal, precious metals, uranium and lead

Kyrgyzstan 71.96 years

$2,600 9.4% 99.3% Natural Gas, petroleum, coal, precious metals, uranium

Tajikistan 65.33 $1,800 3.4% 99.5% Hydropower, petroleum (minimal), rare minerals, uranium.

North Korea

63.81 $1,800 N/A 99% Coal, lead, tungsten, fluorspar, hydropower

South Korea

78.72 $27,600 4.6% 97.9% Coal, tungsten, graphite, hydropower (potential)

Japan 82.12 $34,000 3.5% 99% Fish!, Coal and Liquefied natural gas (world largest importer)

Nepal 65.46 $1,100 3.4% 48.6% Quartz, water, timber, hydropower, cobalt, iron.

Bhutan 66.16 $5,200 7.0% 47% Timber, hydropower, gypsum, calcium carbonate.

India 69.89 $2,900 3.2% 61% Coal, iron, precious metals, diamonds, petroleum.

Kazakhstan 67.87 $11,500 2.3% 99.5% Petroleum (major), natural gas, iron and rare metals.

Bangladesh 60.25 $1,500 2.7% 47.9% Naturals gas, arable land, timber and coal

Life Ex-pectancy

Wealth Literacy Rate Education0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Japan

China

Russia

India

Afganistan

North Korea

South Korea

CURRENT MAJOR LEADERSPresident Prime Minister Other

Russia- Dmitry MedvedevMongolia- Tsakhia Elbegdorj Sanjaa BayarChina- Hu JintaoAfghanistan- Hamid KarzaiTurkmenistan- Gurbanguly BerdimuhadowPakistan- Asif Ali Zardari Syed Yousuf Raza GilaniUzbekistan- Islom Karimov Shavkat Mirziyoyev Dilorom ToshmuhamedovaKyrgyzstan- Kurmanbek Bakiev Igor ChudinovTajikistan- Emomali Rahmon Oqil OqilovNorth Korea- Kim Jong ilSouth Korea- Lee Myung-bak Han Seung-sooJapan- Yukio Hatoyama AkihitoNepal- Ram Baran Yadav, Dr.Bhutan- Jigme Thinley Jigme Khesar Namgyel WangchuckIndia- Pratihba PatilKazakhstan- Nursultan Nazarbayev Karim MasimovBangladesh- Zillur Rahman Sheikh Hasina Wajed

HISTORICAL LEADERS China Mao Zedong-Charisma, luck

and ruthlessness, Mao rose to be

the founding leader of the new

communist nation-The People’s

Republic of China

Philippines Ferdinand Marcos-Ruled Philippines with an iron fist from 1966-1986. Critized for crime such as corruption and nepotism (when relatives of leader seemingly rise to a powerful position).

HISTORICAL MAJOR LEADERS Japan Emperor Akihito-From 1868,

which is time of the Meiji Restoration,

to the end of WWII. The Emperor

was an all powerful god/king.

Uzbekistan Islam Karimov-Is currently ruling the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan with an iron fist.

He frauds elections, uses torture, and

makes his soldiers fire into unarmed

crowds.

EXTRA!EXTRA!

Spiritual leader of Tibet (Dalai Lama) has urged world leaders to concentrate on China to force them to discuss matters of Tibet. China’s Premier is open to talk under certain conditions. Reports of protests and tearing down of Chinese flags are emerging from Chinese provinces surrounding Tibet.

From his base in Northern India, the Dalai Lama sough “the international community’s support for our efforts to resolve Tibet’s problems through dialogue.”

Thubten Samphel of the Tibetan government-in-exile, said that the Tibetan struggle had remained non-violent mainly because of the Dalai Lama.

Struggle in Tibet

On March 10, 2009 riots escalated in the Tibetan city of Lhasa on the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising again Chinese rule.

The Tibetan government-in-exile says 99 people have died due to clashes with security forces, also 80 in Lhasa due to riots.Chinese officials say only 13 people have died.

Serious unrest has been reported in provinces close to Tibet with large ethnic Tibetan populations.

In 2008, Chinese Officials said the Olympic Torch will still go through Tibet.

China in Distress

Social Unrest has increased in 2009, despite tighter security measures and greater police deployment.

Ordinary Chinese increasingly resort to street protests to demand justice because absence of legal means to protect their rights.

80,000 incidents in 2008 alone

Blamed it on unequal distribution of wealth and the death of social services (healthcare and worker’s compensation).

Citizens have no protection against voicing their concerns such as reporting corruption, or obtaining justice.

China is under communist control. No one is able to send in petition and authorities won’t take any criticism.

Only way to voice concerns is through public demonstration and protesting.

OTHER MAJOR STORIES

Yukio Hatoyama plans to cut Greenhouse emissions by 25% from 1990-2020. Their is concern over this by the business sector.

"They are already the most CO2 efficient around and cutting further is very expensive." explained Martin Schulz of the Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo.

Swine Flu outbreak in China: Vaccination program has begun. Priority to those participating in National Day Parade (October 1), also children between 5 and 19 and pregnant women. Contamination has increased since schools have reopened.

6000 reported infected

12 have died in Hong Kong

MAJOR ETHNIC GROUPS Slavic: The Slavic peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch

of Indo-European peoples. The Russian ethnic group belongs to this larger group. Spreading primarily through Europe, there are also many roots throughout Asia.

Han Chinese: The family needs are placed above individual needs, also a strong respect for elders within the Chinese family. This is one of the world’s largest Ethnic groups and dates back 1000s of years. Some Han Chinese believe they share common ancestors back to the Yan (Yellow Emperor).

Asian-American: Shows how trade and globalization has affected our ethnic groups and the close correlation between certain nations. Overall, Asian Americans have the lowest poverty rate and the highest educational attainment levels and median household income.

MAJOR LINGUISTIC GROUPS

Southwest Asia Indo-Aryan: In Nazi Germany before the World War II, full rights were granted only to people classified as Aryans. Only white-skinned, blue-eyed, fair-haired, or pure ‘Nordic’ peoples. They spoke the parent language of the various Indo-European languages.

India Dravidian: Are members of a group of non-Indo-European peoples of the Deccan region of India and northern Sri Lanka. The Dravidian language family is large, with about 20 languages spoken in southern India alone.

China Mandarin: Mandarin was originally the language spoken by Chinese officials, most of whom came from Beijing. Today Mandarin is the main language of government, the media and education in China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages in Singapore. There are approximately 870 million Mandarin speakers.

MAJOR CULTURAL GROUPS

East Asia-consists of China, Japan, and Korea. The dominant influence historically has been China. Major characteristics of this region include shared Chinese-derived language characteristics, as well as shared religion, especially Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

South Asia-Share a Dravidian culture due to the prominence of the Dravidian language. Other groups within this cultural region share a heritage based on the Bengali language.

MAJOR CULTURAL GROUPS

Central Asia-consists of the five former Soviet Socialist states Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The music of Central Asia is rich and varied and is appreciated worldwide. Meanwhile, Central Asian cuisine is one of the most prominent cuisines of Asia. Historically it was a part of the Persian Empire.

North Asia- Consists primarily of the Asian part of Russia. Siberia used to be separate from this region but was later engulfed by Russian expansion. There are roughly 40,000,000 people living in this area.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Microsoft. (2009). Bing Images. Retrieved September 18, 2009, from Bing: http://www.bing.com/?FORM=Z9FD1

MMIC. (2009). Japan's Break with Past on Climate. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8241609.stm

ODCSPER. (2009). Asian-American Ethnic Group. Retrieved September 19, 2009, from Fort Gordan Equal Oppurtunity Office: http://www.gordon.army.mil/eoo/asian.htm

S., A. (2009). Mandarin. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Omniglot: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/mandarin.htm

S., K. (2009). Current International Events Asia. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Class of 2010 Humanities 30-1: http://humanities30-1.ning.com/profiles/blogs/current-international-events-1

WordPress Entries. (2009). Indo-aryans. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Aryan: http://www.indoaryans.org/