Netherlands - Geography, Government and History

The Netherlands, officially called the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is located in northwest Europe. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to its north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital and largest city in the Netherlands is Amsterdam, while the seat of government and therefore most government activity is in the Hague. In its entirety, the Netherlands is often called Holland, while its people are referred to as Dutch. The Netherlands is known for its low-lying topography and dikes, along with its liberal government. Fast Facts: Netherlands Official Name: Kingdom of the NetherlandsCapital: AmsterdamPopulation: 17,151,228Â  (2018)Official Language: DutchCurrency: Euro (EUR)Form of Government: Parliamentary constitutional monarchyClimate: Temperate; marine; cool summers and mild wintersTotal Area: 16,040 square miles (41,543 square kilometers)Â  Highest Point: Vaalserberg at 1,056 feet (322 meters)Lowest Point: Zuidplaspolder at –23 feet (–7 meters) History of the Netherlands In the first century BCE, Julius Caesar entered the Netherlands and found that it was inhabited by various Germanic tribes. The region was then divided into a western portion that was inhabited mainly by Batavians while the east was inhabited by the Frisians. The western part of the Netherlands became a part of the Roman Empire. Between the fourth and eighth centuries, the Franks conquered what is today the Netherlands and the area was later given to the House of Burgundy and the Austrian Habsburgs. In the 16th century, the Netherlands were controlled by Spain but in 1558, the Dutch people revolted and in 1579, the Union of Utrecht joined the seven northern Dutch provinces into the Republic of the United Netherlands. During the 17th century, the Netherlands grew in power with its colonies and navy. However, the Netherlands eventually lost some of its importance after several wars with Spain, France, and England in the 17th and 18th centuries. In addition, the Dutch also lost their technological superiority over these nations. In 1815, Napoleon was defeated and the Netherlands, along with Belgium, became a part of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands. In 1830, Belgium formed its own kingdom and 1848, King Willem II revised the Netherlands constitution to make it more liberal. From 1849–1890, King Willem III ruled over the Netherlands and the country grew significantly. When he died, his daughter Wilhelmina became queen. During World War II, the Netherlands was continuously occupied by Germany beginning in 1940. As a result, Wilhelmina fled to London and established a government in exile. During WWII, over 75% of the Netherlands Jewish population was killed. In May 1945, the Netherlands was liberated and Wilhelmina returned the country. In 1948, she abdicated the throne and her daughter Juliana was queen until 1980 when her daughter Queen Beatrix took the throne. Following WWII, the Netherlands grew in strength politically and economically. Today, the country is a large tourist destination and most of its former colonies have gained independence and two (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles) are still dependent areas. The Government of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands is considered a constitutional monarchy (list of monarchs) with a chief of state (Queen Beatrix) and a head of government filling the executive branch. The legislative branch is the bicameral States General with the First Chamber and the Second Chamber. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court. Economics and Land Use in the Netherlands The economy of the Netherlands is stable with strong industrial relations and a moderate unemployment rate. The Netherlands is also a European transportation hub and tourism is also increasing there. The largest industries in the Netherlands are agroindustries, metal and engineering products, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum, construction, microelectronics, and fishing. Agricultural products of the Netherlands include grains, potatoes, sugar beets, fruits, vegetables, and livestock. Geography and Climate of the Netherlands The Netherlands is known for its very low lying topography and reclaimed land called polders. About half of the land in the Netherlands is below sea level, but polders and dikes make more land available and less prone to flooding for the growing country. There are also some low hills in the southeast but none of them rise above 2,000 feet. The climate of the Netherlands is temperate and is highly affected by its marine location. As a result, it has cool summers and mild winters. Amsterdam has a January average low of 33 degrees (0.5ËšC) and an August high of just 71 degrees (21ËšC). More Facts About the Netherlands The official languages of the Netherlands are Dutch and Frisian.The Netherlands has large minority communities of Moroccans, Turks, and Surinamese.The largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, and Eindhoven.

The Legacy Of Jazz And The Civil Rights Movement - 1432 Words

Austin Hartshorn Mr. McQuade AP Literature May 2, 2016 Marvels of Mingus Jazz is considered America’s gift to the world. Throughout all of America’s history jazz has been there to accompany and reflect it. But jazz has had its own history that is often underappreciated and hidden from the general public. There is evidence of this covering up of the history of jazz for example in the civil rights movement. The roots of jazz started with the bringing of African slaves to the Americas. While many do not know this origin of jazz even fewer would know about the involvement of jazz in the Civil Rights movement. For the entirety of America’s history jazz has reflected the political and social climate of the current state of the country.†¦show more content†¦Interestingly, jazz also represents all of these things off the page. Therefore a harmonious combination of the two art mediums would result in a powerful piece of literature. August Wilson was an author who realized this and was able to create a fusion of music as a support of the major theme in his play Fences. The way the author uses music to highlight the main theme of discrepancies between liberalism and conservatism not only represents the 50s as a whole but offers an accurate depiction of what the jazz communities’ involvement was in the Civil Rights Movement. The 1950s was a strange time for the world. It was the decade after the second world war and there was a sense of xenophobia in society. This time period was perfect to set Wilson’s play in for a variety of reasons. First, he could use the geography of the play to his advantage. The fact that the play is set in Pennsylvania is perfect because of its location in the United States. Being in the mid Atlantic region, it served the perfect place to have influences from both the staunch grass roots ideology of the South as well as the free thinking socio-economic theories of the North. What this resulted in is the creation of the ‘tugging’ atmosphere that permeates the characters thoughts and passively asserts itself in the minds of the audience. Second the time the play is set in allows for the author to represent these

Three Gorges Dam Its Background and Relevance Free Essays

string(194) " changing the hydrology of the river for thousands of miles, the dam will destroy commercial fish stocks and deprive the complex floodplain agricultural systems of the water and silt they need\." This report examines the Three Gorge dam project and its impacts on the environment, the people it will effect and measures that can be taken as an alternative to the dam. I will discuss the Chinese government’s reasoning for constructing the dam and the negative aspects of such a construction. Then I will explain the more environmentally friendly and logical alternatives. We will write a custom essay sample on Three Gorges Dam: Its Background and Relevance or any similar topic only for you Order Now The concept of the Three Gorge dam is over 75 years old, dating back to when it was first proposed by the nationalist leader Sun Yat-Sen, in 1919. The dam was a dream of communist leader Mao Zedong, who felt it would be a potent symbol of China’s self-sufficiency and ability to develop without western aid. The state media has reported only the rosy side of the Three Gorges project, presenting it as a powerful symbol of a new, prosperous China. Outgoing Premier Li Peng said the Three Gorges Dam would †demonstrate to the world that the Chinese people have the ability to build the biggest and most beneficial irrigation and hydro-electric project in the world†. The Three Gorges refers to a 120-mile stretch of limestone cliffs along the upper reaches of the Yangzi River where the water drops precipitously through the Qutang, Wu, and Xiling gorges. The region is linked to folklore and important historical events, and its beauty has inspired Chinese painters and classical poets such as Li Bai for centuries. The dam, which will be 1. 3 miles long and 610 feet high, is expected to be completed by 2009. It will create a 385 mile-long reservoir stretching back up the river that will totally engulf the Three Gorges, as well as 115,000 acres of rich farmland, thirteen cities, hundreds of villages, and countless historic temples and archaeological sites. Between 1. 4 and 1. 9 million people will need to be resettled. The proponents of the dam claim that the introduction of such a large amount of clean hydroelectric power into China’s rapidly expanding economy will mean a significant reduction in the emission of fossil fuel pollution. First, it will generate 18000 megawatts of electricity, which would reduce the country’s reliance on coal by one tenth. Hence reducing China’s overall greenhouse gases. Second, it will prevent the periodical flooding of the Yangzi, which has already claimed the lives of half a million this century alone. The dam is expected to cut incidents of serious flood from once in 10 years to once in 100 years. At present 15 million lives are at stake as the river rises higher above the surrounding land because of sediment deposits on the riverbed, while dikes can no longer be raised safely. Third, it will make the upper part of the Yangzi more navigable, â€Å"raising the river’s navigable tonnage by a big margin†. Improved navigability would allow ocean-going freighters to penetrate the depths of China’s remote Southwest, bringing much needed economic development and prosperity to the region. The project is also expected to develop reservoir fisheries, stimulate tourism in and around the reservoir, improve water quality downstream, protect the lake areas downstream, and enable south-to-north water transfer sometime in the next century. 4. 0 Dilemmas surrounding dam construction There are many problems entangled with the construction of such a dam, two of which stand out. First, the fact that so many civilians have to be moved against their will. 13 cities, 140 towns, more than 1600 villages, and 300 factories will be submerged, and nearly 1. 5 million people relocated. Second, the effects that the rise in level of river will have on the environment. This includes the destruction of habitats for at least four indigenous species in the area. According to official figures, 10. 2 million people have been relocated for the construction of dams in the past in China. In each case, there have been economic or political problems that has often led to intimidation and sometimes violence to force the people to resettle. This is due to people’s reluctance to leave their homes, which can be attributed to poor planning on the government’s part. The number of people to be resettled in the Three Gorges dam project has been estimated to range between 700,000 to 1. 98 million. Such variation in figures is due to the fact that it depends on whether the information was gathered by the dam’s supporters or critics. There has been a large amount of local opposition to the dam. Their opposition is mainly based on the poor record of China’s Ministry of Water Resources, which includes the collapse of 62 dams in the past due to poor design. However, since the Chinese government never acknowledged such disasters in the past, it could not be brought up in hearings on the Three Gorge project. People in the effected area who have in the past organised against the dam were arrested and sentenced to prison for â€Å"counter-revolution† and the police presence in the area has since been increased. The local officials are not quite helping ease the situation. The distribution of compensation money by local authorities (US$1300 per person) offered to people displaced by the dam has been tainted by corruption. 105 local party officials involved in the project have been arrested already. Almost half of the project’s resettlers are farmers. But since there is an inadequate amount of farmland left to be shared, the officials have planned for moving the resettlers into industrial jobs. This is quite an impossible task considering that the farmers have been farming in their area for generations and have absolutely no expertise in industrial work. It is a great concern that the construction of the dam will result in the destruction of the natural habitats of many of China’s indigenous wildlife species. This includes the Chinese alligator, the white crane, the river dolphin and the prehistoric Chinese sturgeon, a fish unique to Yangzi waters. Experts warn that, by forever changing the hydrology of the river for thousands of miles, the dam will destroy commercial fish stocks and deprive the complex floodplain agricultural systems of the water and silt they need. You read "Three Gorges Dam: Its Background and Relevance" in category "Essay examples" Hence threatening the livelihoods of 75 million people who live on fishing or farming along the Yangzi’s bank. Even if the 75 million people find another source to live on, there is yet another problem to be solved; toxic pollution. The factories along the Yangzi river are so polluting that over 200 paper mills and tanneries have already been closed down around the Three Gorges dam site to boost environmental protection. The contamination of the river by the toxic chemicals may increase due to the 1600 factories in the area that are not cleaned up and moved before the waters begin to rise. China is the world’s second leading producer of greenhouse gases. If China’s current growth rates continue, it will need to develop an additional 17,000 megawatts of energy per year for the next decade. And if coal is used to generate this energy, the environmental impacts could be disastrous. Whether or not the dam is constructed, hydropower will only account for no more than 20% of China’s electricity generated by year 2010. This shows that coal will be used even more widely than it is now, to meet energy needs. Hence the dam will not have much impact on helping meet energy needs. China needs to find a cleaner, more efficient way of creating power. The Three Gorge reservoir is currently designed to hold 20 billion cubic meters at the flood level. But this capacity is only equivalent to 4% of the total run off water in the region. â€Å"It is obvious from common sense that this capacity could not hold back flood waters enough to reduce significantly the flood risk at the lower reaches. † Another problem is the fact that the Yangzi carries a large amount of silt. This silt can be carried all the way to the dam and a big ‘mud pond’ could result. There is no such technology available to divert or collect the silt at the dam. From an ecological point of view, the dam will be clogged by the large silt deposits, in the Yangzi, and will also trap much of the pollutants that normally would be washed out to the ocean. Along the Yangzi, about 80 percent of the cities do not have sewage systems, and it is cheaper to dump the waste in the river instead of a sewage treatment plant. Burial grounds in both Wushan and Fengjie counties, Sichuan are known to have been dynamited to make way for scientific excavations in advance of the dam project. One thousand tombs dating between the Han and Ming periods (206 BC to AD 1644) were also blasted away. The problem lies with lack of funding. The initial budget (US$250 million) for excavation and preservation was reduced to US$37. 5 million. Only a small amount of this sum has been distributed to local authorities because government officials have been unable to decide which agency should administer the funds. The Three Gorges dam will be the most expensive single construction project in history. The Chinese leaders are so determined to build the dam, that they haven’t considered whether it is economically viable. In 1992 the official cost of the dam was set to US$11 billion. Estimates now exceed US$75 billion. This could slow down China’s recent economic boom. The dam project is heavily funded by foreign export agencies. If people in foreign countries were to stop foreign investors and government organisations which support the project, the Chinese officials would have no choice but to reconsider their plans. But since it is not in the foreign investors’ best interest monetarily, they have kept supporting the Chinese government. Hydrological experts have argued that effective flood management includes dyking, flood proofing, flood warning systems, diversion areas, and development restrictions in floodplain and designated diversion areas and that dams are not always the answer. The Chinese officials’ mentality is that the â€Å"biggest structure† is the best structure, but what they must realize is that it does not mean the best structure. That Chinese hydropower could be produced on a number of tributaries that flow into the Yangzi. This procedure has been proven by scientific examples that prove that separate dams will produce more power and last longer then one main dam. Sedimentation of separate dams would be less and these dams would be able to preserve China’s cultural history. The greater amount of smaller dams would cause less soil erosion and more power for a much lower cost. It would be able to compete with China’s booming industrial sectors and preserve the aquatic life. The construction of these smaller dams could also mean that it would lesson the amount of people to be resettled, and would save the Chinese government billions of dollars. However, the smaller dams would not allow large transportation of cargo down the river. Based on a recent study by United States and Chinese energy research institutes, which compared conventional sources with advanced generating technologies, cleaner alternatives, such as smaller gas turbines or cogeneration plants were found to be more economical for power generation than big hydro dams. Combined cycle gas turbines could provide power with lower capital costs and greater reliability than the Three Gorges dam and with far fewer emissions than conventional coal plants. Combined cycle plants are commonly fuelled with natural gas, which burns more thoroughly than solid or liquid fuels. And unlike coal, it contains no heavy metals or sulfur emissions that cause acid rain. Combined cycle plants can be installed and generating power reliably within nine months to two or three years for larger units. Three Gorges dam is scheduled to take 17 years. In addition energy specialists argue, that switching from coal to gas, and using new technology of combined cycle gas turbines or cogeneration, would create greater environmental benefits than the Three Gorges dam by a 60% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Whereas the Three Gorges dam would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by only 5%. How to cite Three Gorges Dam: Its Background and Relevance, Essay examples

Sexual Harassment For Sex or Money Essay Example For Students

Sexual Harassment: For Sex or Money? Essay Sexual Harassment: For Sex or Money? Essay Jon Flerchinger Period 4 C.C.E. Paper #5 It is tragic that such a country exists in todays world. The citizens live in constant fear. The children are force fed the New Philosophy. The adults have an invariable fear that they will be the next to be arraigned on trumped up charges. Amazingly the cause of all the terror is not the government, but private individuals seeking to take advantage of a weak government. What country is this? The Middle East? Perhaps war torn Eastern-Europe? No, it is the United States that fosters such anarchy, in the form of sexual harassment suits. People from both sexes find themselves editing their conversations. They are trying to take out anything that might be misread as an innuendo. It is getting so absurd that a simple date is turning into a well-documented legal affair. Sexual harassment is not normal human behavior, but explicit sexual influence from a superior. Take the case of the six-year-old boy from Wisconsin. He kissed another six-year-old on the cheek. She asked him to do it, and the act was totally innocent. The first grader was suspended for a day for sexual harassment. I am really glad that I did not go to that school when I was six. I would have been expelled. To tell a little boy that it is amoral to kiss anyone on the cheek is wrong. To punish him for it shows a situation that has gone completely out of control. The boy did not even know what sex was, much less how to harass someone with it! If it takes these extreme measures to keep harassment out of the workplace then maybe we should abolish the workplace too. A case that clearly does show sexual harassment is Bob Packwood. Packwood used his position and power to take sexual favors from women. He forced his attention on women in his staff who had no choice but to accept him or quit their jobs. Packwoods actions show that he does not care much about others opinions, least of all womens. Packwood has chauvinistic and unfair ideas about society and he casts a dark shadow on all males. Cases like Packwoods are to be minimized, but not at the cost of everyone elses rights. A case that does not come close to Packwoods in significance or precedent, but that does equal it in outrage, is the story of a twelve-year-old boy in Oregon. This boy stuck out his tongue at another girl his age. He was suspended for three days for sexual harassment. The administrators said he was mimicking oral sex. The girl was shocked. She had no idea the boy would be in such hot water. The parents were outraged that their boy was accused of mimicking something that he could not even define. At twelve I thought oral sex was phone sex! The boy just needed to be reprimanded not kicked out of school for three days. If we are so strict when we are watching our kids they will do their exploring completely outside of out supervision. A strong example of what sexual harassment is, is the Ed Fadely case coming up. Ed is much like Packwood in that he used his position to force sexual favors out of his staff. The way in which Ed differs is that he is a judge. He is supposed to interpret the law. Instead Ed broke it, and he misinterpreted it for others coming in and out of the court-room. Ed not only hurt himself and the women he abused. He also hurt every member of society coming through his doors seeking restitution and justice. Ed needs to go down big time, but not if it means locking up six-year-old cheek-kissers. At the University of Oregon now, students must receive explicit permission to hug, to kiss, to .. The Overcoat Essay. You get the idea. If the baby boomers were required to jump through all of these hoops none of us would have been born. The point is that you cannot regulate manners. Even the victims agree that these type of strategies will not work. Sexual harassment problems are power problems, not manner problems. If the administrators want to curb problems then they should set up harsher penalties, not harsher preventive measures. Sexual harassment is not a pickup line. Sexual harassment is not your boss trying to get a date with you. Its your boss telling you to choose between a date .