Jordan

I am not studying abroad, so, I chose Jordan to be my country. I have some family that lives over there, so, it's always nice to have some sort of connection to the area.



Alrighty, all the exciting stuff about Jordan.
GDP: $36.82 billion
GDP per capita: $5,900
Life expectancy: 80.18 years
Poverty rate: 13.3%
Literacy rate: 89.9%
Unemployment rate: 12.3%
Inflation: 6.4%

Interesting note: I was looking up the poverty rate on google and the first link that I clicked on was an article that my uncle wrote about poverty in Jordan! Here is the link if for some crazy reason you'd like to read it: http://archive.jordantimes.com/?news=28869

Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years? Analysis

The article "Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?" by Jared Diamond was his take on how certain areas of the world evolved faster than others and gained historical advantages and dominance. His major themes and key points were:
*Please note that the major themes are numbered and anything underneath that is a key point that goes with the major theme above.

1. Areas that were connected had an advantage over areas that were isolated.
•  The isolated areas tend to lose technological advances (fishing, making clothing, farming, etc) and any new advances that an area develops could not spread to isolated areas. 
2. A place that had plants and animals that can be domesticated could advance much more quickly than areas that could not. 
• Areas that were spaced with an east to west orientation could easily transfer these plants and animals throughout the area because climates are similar whereas a plant that is grown in the north and is use to cold winters would die in the continual heat and humidity of the south. This gave Eurasia a significant advantage. 
• Eurasia also contained a significant amount of easily domesticated plants and animals. This allowed them to spend less time hunting and gathering and more time on farming, and developing cities and governments. 
• Living in close quarters with animals bred diseases that were not previously seen. This caused areas to develop both genetic and autoimmunity to these diseases, any area that had not been previously exposed would get ill and die. 
3.  Because hunting and gathering takes large quantities of time, once an area began farming and developing, the people there were able to use that extra time to develop technologies like guns and ships which put them ahead of other areas. 
•  Governments furthered this technological advancement. Most men on their own would not have the resources to build their own ship, but, when a government wants people to explore or conquer an area, that country will fund making ships and thus ships could easily be built. This is the same for any technological advancement. If a country is at war with another, it will put in resources to make guns whereas most people on their own would not conceive of or have the materials to build guns.

As you can see, there is nothing about intellect that factors into these ideas, just location and resource availability.

These ideas can be applied to the world economy quite easily. Now, areas are not isolated, so, world-wide trade can be very beneficial. Areas that do not naturally have domesticated plants and animals can invest in animals and seeds that can grow to suit their environmental needs; now an area in Africa can grow plants that originated in South America, etc.

A stable government is also very useful in helping a society progress. As mentioned above, governments fund technological advancements that they find beneficial; if a country does not have a stable government, most likely its technology is lagging behind other countries'. This means that everything from farming, fishing, making clothing, homes, furniture, etc, takes more labor and more time to make. 

This is my first blog post; I am told that it usually starts with an obligatory self introduction. So, here we go, my name is Rebecca Crockett. No, that is not my actual last name but I'm from the south and grew up on Davy Crockett stories and apparently his mom was named Rebecca. I thought it was somehow witty or something. I am doing this for an economics class, which means that I am in college. I am a chemistry and chemical engineering double major with a minor in economics. If my spelling is not up to par, that's why. Well, that and the fact that I bumped my head pretty hard last year, but that's another story altogether. My first Homework-y assignment will be up later today. Whoo.