May 11

IB 30/35

There wasn't a class today because you are writing your Paper 3 tomorrow. I hope that you find some time to review the topics that we've instructed you to emphasize.

 Please have a look at the upcoming important dates for IB 30/35 students:

• Monday, May 16th: we're starting Social 30-1 on this day
• Thursday, May 19th: more Social 30-1 content 

Social 10-1

I collected your TNC Dossier Assignments at the beginning of class today. If these assignments are handed in late, there is a 10% penalty per day that it is late. I started a new lecture today on "Globalization and Sustainability". The part of the lecture that I delivered dealt with sustainability, environmental stewardship, ecological footprint, and the sustainability of a particular industry important to economic globalization: container ships. We started watching the NFB film "Shipbreakers" today, and we'll finish it off tomorrow. By Friday, you will receive your Unit 3 WRA II essay question sheet. Please remember that you'll be writing the Unit 3 WRA II Essay on Wednesday, May 18th.

Social 30-1

We watched a couple of videos from the BBC 20th Century History series called "One Man's Revolution" and "China Since Mao". I also recommended that you read some of the higher level reading articles in your Social 30-1 booklets today, "The Road to Prosperity" (on China), and another one from Unit 2 material ("The Causes of the Global Recession"). Also, we analyzed a couple of political cartoons out of The Economist that were published in 2009, on the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Remember, that China is our case study of an authoritarian state in Social 30-1. China is still a single-party state, in other words, only the Communist Party of China can exist, and all other political opposition is suppressed. China employs market socialism, wherein the state still largely controls the means of production and the degree of state owned enterprise's in the Chinese economy. I talked about CNOOC's purchase of Nexen as an example of a state-owned oil company purchasing a Canadian company. There are three big state-owned oil companies in China: CNOOC, SinoPec and PetroChina, so this links back to what I said about the economic reforms that have been introduced in China, and yet the government largely controls the economy and means of production. I also briefly touched about entrepreneurship in China, and used two companies TaoBao and Alibaba, both owned by Jack Ma.

Upcoming Important Dates:

• USA-Canada Comparative Government Assignment is due on Friday
• Civil Rights Movement Assignment is due on Monday, May 16th
• Chapter 9 Key Terms and Questions are due on May 16th
• Chapter 11 Key Terms and Questions are due on May 17th