Antarcttica

Antarctica is the least populated continent but it is the cause of some very interesting geopolitics. It's vast territory has the possibility of great untapped natural reasources.

As Antarctica was an unclaimed territory, several nations decided to claim portions of the continent. This is certainly not a new concept, to divide up a territory that was uncharted and unowned, but what is unusual about borders in Antarctica is the fact that they all follow lines of longitude and are completely straight. Seven countries claim wedges of Antarctica. These straight boundaries lead about 60 degrees south to the South Pole divide up the continent, in some cases even overlapping but also leaving large sections of the continent unclaimed - and unclaimable:

The Antarctic Treaty - claims that " Antarctica is to be used for peaceful purposes only; no military activities of any kind are permitted, though military personnel and equipment may be (and are) used for scientific purposes. Freedom of scientific investigation and cooperation shall continue. Scientific program plans, personnel, observations, and results shall be freely exchanged. No prior territorial claim is recognized, disputed, or established, and no new claims may be made while the treaty is in force. Nuclear explosions and disposal of radioactive waste are prohibited. All land and ice shelves south of latitude 60°S are covered, but not the high seas of the area. Observers from treaty States have free access to any area and may inspect all stations, installations, and equipment.(549)"
The treaty makes no mention of travelling restrictions or the prohibtion of travellors. Without travel restrictions, thousands have visited and have endangered Antarctica's ecosystem.

Useful link for final project?

I was doing some research for the final project and found an interesting article that could be helpful for some students! Here is the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/03/AR2006020302747.html

heads up on travel delays!

http://www.windsorstar.com/Tunnel+plaza+reno+begin/2763132/story.html

border.

Heres an interesting video regarding border patrol along the US/Mexico border. I thought it was especially funny to see the spots in the wall in which people tried to go through that had been patched up. I also thought the fact that although border violence is down, the actual threat towards the border patrol officers is increasing? I wondered to myself why this was, and noticed the increase in fencing.
Video Here

Canadian Dollar and Travel

With the increase of the Canadian dollars, its seems that shoppers will be flocking across the border for cheap goods. Normally it seems that Americans cross our border to take advantage of their strong dollar and to take in all the (sin) city has to offer, well now its our turn. Americans come over to take advantage of our lower drinking and gambling age, and not to mention the many forms of adult entertainment that Windsor seems to call home. At the same time, we Canadians cross the border to shop and maybe use the Detroit airport. We don't tend to eat, stay the night, or attend any cultural events, pretty much just shop. We enjoy the variety of shopping opportunities for our bargain hunters, while reinforcing the friendly, polite Canadian stereotype. I find it interesting, the difference between what those of us in our respective countries cross the border for. Canadians for good deals and Americans for good sins. However, soon the Canadian will fall like it inevitably does, so let's enjoy it while it lasts.

A Very Short History of Early Border Medicine and the Spanish Influenza Epidemic of 1918

Beginning in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s a recognizable medical infrastructure was present in the cities of Windsor and Detroit. Albeit, this infrastructure still possessed many of the characteristics that one would associate with a eclectic frontier medical landscape in which regulations and institutions had yet to be consolidated. Nevertheless, the facilities and practitioners were in place to address the challenges to public health that the growth of industry and urbanization during the early 20th century would bring to the border cities. 

Between 1917 and 1935 their was a rapid increase in the number of health care workers in the border city region. This growth in the healthcare professions matched the significant population growth that both Windsor and Detroit were experiencing at that time as a result of a burgeoning automotive manufacturing sector. This increase in population and health care workers brought with it a realization that the existing health infrastructure was inadequate to meet either of their needs and that there was an urgent need to create an updated infrastructure of public administration and urban services.  

     A Red Cross unit at Detroit's Utley Library

However, the main impetus for improving existing medical infrastructures in both border cities was arguably the Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918. The epidemic took a heavy toll on both sides of the border and revealed the limitations of many of that periods public health institutions. In Windsor during the months of October and November 1918 influenza claimed at least 126 local residents. Newspapers reported that Hotel-Dieu hospital was overcrowded with patients and that at the peak of the crisis the areas medical institutions exhibited a “lack of uniformity in regulations governing the control of contagious disease.” 

In Detroit Red Cross workers made daily rounds picking up the dead. 

Detroit fared no better. In that same two month period the disease claimed 3,814 residents. Newspapers published long lists of the dead, quarantine signs became common, death wreaths and black bunting draped many homes. Funerals were hurried affairs with few mourners. Coffins stored near funeral homes were often stolen by impatient and fearful family members, while bodies were placed on porches for daily pickup. Hence, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 jolted city officials awake and forced them to rethink the way public health was being delivered. The days of individual doctors treating individual patients was at its end. Health care on both sides of the border was now viewed as a public utility that needed to be regulated by government bodies and corporate concerns.

Sources:

When the flu ravaged the world. By Vivian M. Baulch. The Detroit News, August 31, 1996.

Border City Medicine: Windsor’s History of Innovative Health Practice. Steven Palmer and Steve Malone. Cultures of Health: A Historical Anthology, October 7, 2009.

All eyes on the border

BY BARBARA YAFFE, CANWEST NEWS SERVICEAPRIL 1, 2010

The all-important Canada-U.S. economic partnership is in serious jeopardy, according to a new economic analysis by the Fraser Institute.

A malaise has developed following an avalanche of post-9-11 border restrictions, writes Simon Fraser University Prof. Alexander Moens, one that "will eventually frustrate the entrepreneurial spirit, and investment and trade will decline."

Moreover, pending U.S. climate change legislation, a stronger Canadian dollar and declining American consumer prosperity all are poised to further aggravate a troubled situation.

Moens, a specialist in American politics and foreign policy, notes that, while bilateral trade in the energy sector has been growing, "the once dynamic integrated supply chain in manufacturing, including automotive, appears to be stagnating (and) trade in manufactured goods ... has been declining since 2005."

Foreign Affairs figures show the U.S. accounted for 73.1 per cent of Canada's trade in 2004, but only 67.8 per cent by 2008. The outlook is bleak, writes Moens, given that financial and housing crises have caused a 20-per-cent drop in U.S. household net worth since 2007, and economists are projecting that Canada's dollar is expected to go slightly over par with the American greenback by next year.

The one trade sector that continues to boom is energy.

In 2008, crude oil exports to the U.S. accounted for half of Canada's total export earnings. Those crude exports, totalling $23.3 billion in 2001, were up to $72 billion by 2008.

This one bright spot, however, is going to be severely challenged as Americans move to enact climate change legislation, predicts Moens.

First, the Waxman-Markey bill, which would implement a cap-and-trade scheme stateside to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contains a provision prohibiting Washington, D.C., from using fuel extracted from the oilsands.

Second, the bill, approved by the House of Representatives last June and now in the Senate, could result in Congress moving to levy punitive tariffs on energy imports from Canada. It would do so under a pretext of protecting American energy producers from unfair competition from countries with less stringent greenhouse gas emission standards.

Even if Canada matches a U.S. cap-and-trade scheme -- as Environment Minister Jim Prentice is planning -- "small regulatory differences would still expose Canadian industry to American trade action," warns Moens. And, "given the history of Canada-U. S. trade, this is no idle threat."

Western Canada's oilsands industry stands to be particularly hard hit, he says, endorsing Prentice's go-slow approach on a Canadian plan to address climate change.

The last productive period in the Canada-U. S. relationship was under prime minister Brian Mulroney and president Ronald Reagan, when agreements were penned on free trade and acid rain.

While these days, "most American politicians are not focused on this problem," Canada should be pushing to get rid of all non-tariff barriers to trade through harmonization of regulations and product standards. In addition, urges Moens, it also should try to negotiate a full reciprocity accord on government procurement.

It's all well and good to develop strategies for trade diversification that would have Canada capitalize on growing economies in India, Brazil and China, writes Moens.

But "our history shows that diversification is difficult. It is more likely that Canada's long-term prosperity will depend, to a large extent, on renewed American prosperity."

Even so, the Harper government appears less focused on the Canada-U. S. trade dilemma than it did last year when a freshly elected, wildly popular Barack Obama visited Ottawa.

Alas, with the bloom off the Obama rose, Ottawa has appeared less interested in actively engaging the Americans.

byaffe@vancouversun.com

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