Weekly Reflection #5

I liked thinking about the prisoner's dilema this week. It was fun to contemplate wht decisions people would make based on strictly trust or fear. I also do not understand why China has not tried to invade Taiwan recently. The relationship between China and Taiwan seems both threatening, and safe due to all of the talk with little action.

Weekly Reflection #4

The thing that I learned this week that I liked the most, is thefact that people actually control the value of currency. I just thought that currency was all based on pretty much their number value, but I like that it is dependant on people's faith rather than the amount of money in circulation. However, it does scare me that any country's people can just freak out and determine their country is worthless, like what happened in Greece. I also liked that there is a website that compares currency values by using Bigc Macs.

Weekly Reflection #3

Money is a very strange topic that we have discussed in class. I believe that people do have to believe in their currency to give it value, but I believe that people stand behind this belief because they feel that their money symbolizes the work that they have done. In this way, the money a person has will equal their worth in society as well. I feel that paper money is definitely going to be replaced soon. Electronic money seems to make more sense, because thats basically what we use now anyway.

Weekly Reflection #2

I thought that the rebellion in Tiananmen Square got waaayy too out of control. I felt that the hunger strike was pushing it a little too far, but the government one-upped this over-reaction by proceeding to unload millitary arms on the defenseless students. I also thought it was really stupid when one of the students suggested they start burningthemselves in protest. I felt likeif the government was already killing people in the square, why would they care if you light yourself on fire? Also, dealing with the interview with Jiang Zemin, I felt like he was a two-faced, annoying little guy. Hewould keep saying one thing while doing other things, and overall did not seem like he was fun to deal with.

Weekly Reflection

The map project was a very relaxed, easy experience, and a nice way to start off the year as far as work goes. Thedisappearance of Xi Jinping is probably one of the strangest things going on in the world right now. The fact that the next ruler of China could go untracked for so long is just difficult to understand. Meybe it's just because something like that would never happen in America, but it's still very weird. So far, I think China is using the U.S. as their puppet as far as opening relations goes. The U.S. is giving up any of their leverage in order to make a play date with China, and China is sitting back receiving the U.S.'s gifts with open arms. By these actions, I feel like Nixon is showing that he is deathly afraid of what he thinks China will become, and wants to avoid any type of conflict with the country. Also, regarding the article, I think China is making the wrong decision in trying to get a mural in Oregon removed, and coming to the U.S. to try to convince people to get it removed won't help the matter. The mural should stay up because it is in America, China doesn't have any say in the matter.

China and US Have Changed Their Relationship Status

China and the U.S. are frenemies, but in the friendliest of ways. I say this because they are both rivals, and they are both constantly improving their military defenses, but there is no imminant threat of war between the two nations. They both depend on each other too much to start a war. The U.S. owes China waaaay too much money for them to want to go to war. Thats like loaning somebody 1 million dollars, then killing them before they can repay you, it does not make sense! The U.S. also needs China for all the products the Chinese trade with them. The two countries friendships are too important for them to start a war, but they are still very competitive rivals, which is why I think they are friendly frenemies.

AP Exam

I thought the exam was relatively hard. I did not like a couple of the essays, but the multiple choice was not as hard as I expected it to be, although it was still difficult. I felt as prepared as I could be and was comfortable with the in class review. I was surprised by thequestion on cricket to say the least, but otherwise I didn't really know exactly what to expect so I just guessed I could see anything.