Cinco de Mayo

As of January of this year, China, the leading producer, refiner, and exporter of rare earth minerals, has begun cutting off exports to the US and other consumers. Despite efforts by both the World Trade Organization and United States, they have refused to open up exports again. This has presented a difficult problem for the United States. Rare earth minerals are used in a plethora of products, including renewable technology, precision guided missiles, and computers. As the supply of minerals in…

The Gathering of Old Men is set in rural Louisiana during the 1970’s. Tee Jack is a white male who owns a local bar. His bar used to segregate the blacks and whites because of the law, also known as de jure segregation. In spite of de jure segregation being declared unconstitutional, blacks are still being segregated through fear tactics. When Tee Jack talks about the discrimination of African-Americans in his bar. He claims that the discrimination is “how things…

major paradox as on one hand it claims its sovereignty over all Ukraine while on the other ceases to deliver services, hence indirectly delegating this responsibility to de facto authorities reinforcing in someway its legitimacy. In any case the limitation of aid provided in eastern Ukraine either due to Governmental will or de facto authorities limited capacity put humanitarian actors in the difficult position of having to bear the costs alone and could in some cases ‘trap’ humanitarian actors…

is not an emerging issue. Starting back in 1867, when a large discovery of diamonds was found in the poverty stricken Cape Colony, De Beers claimed ownership of these mines and gained a monopoly. In order to drive the prices up and to make the gem more valuable, they withheld a majority of the supply. He created the illusion that diamonds were rare (Blood Diamonds). De Beers is the company…

A Vacuum of Death Greg Campbell’s Blood Diamonds is a didactic narrative of the atrocities that have pursued throughout the Sierra Leone over the natural resource of diamonds. Campbell gives vivid detail into the realities behind the beauty of diamonds through the tales of smugglers, RUF victims, and his investigative research on this valued resource. This piece illuminates the key issues of exploitation and corruption that are carried out by smugglers and rebel fighters, and fueled by…

Why am I attending Oakton Community College ? Why do I want a degree? Society would tell you that it increases your chances of obtaining a job, a greater shot at becoming a successful person and It will reduce your level of stress. This is because a need for an education is everything, its something that ' is valued and praised . I wouldn 't object to this from a parent’s point of view, But my perspective is closely related But in some ways it differs. This country has given birth to some of the…

stimulated from several observers. This viewer watched the De Beers diamond ads continuously by the founder Cecil Rhodes and the (CSO) persuading and scamming men to make purchases to express their love. The De Beers diamonds created a visual image for advertising as an appeal for a metaphor of how a diamond gives value as a lifetime commitment to a potential or future wife by paying over value market price for an engagement ring. During this time the De Beers diamond cartel had smuggled…

Iowa’s nine counties with population densities exceeding 100 people per square mile, four (Story, Black Hawk, Woodbury, and Johnson) were among the fifteen counties with the highest poverty rates. Dallas County, which encompassing much of suburban Des Moines, has Iowa’s lowest poverty rate at 6%, but is also the only one of the nine most densely populated counties among the lowest fifteen counties by poverty rate. Polk County, by far Iowa’s most populated, has the state’s 44th highest with 12.3%…

Introduction: Magnet schools are schools of choice that are part of the public school system. They were created for the purpose of reversing the de facto segregation that was happening in urban schools in the 1970s. The school and curriculum is often built around a theme. That theme may be a subject area like STEM or the arts or an emphasis on an educational program like the International Baccalaureate curriculum or the Advance Placement program. Magnet schools have no geographic boundaries for…

Purple is known to be the hue which is between crimson and violet. We have heard people associating it with royalty, power and wealth for centuries. ‘Queen Elizabeth I forbade commoners, except only a few close relatives of the royal family, to wear the colour’. So why is this elite and sophisticated status given to this colour? The reason is actually associated with the limited availability of the colour. This rarity, lead to the colour being outrageously expensive, so much so that only the…