I’ve read a couple of books this holiday, but haven’t been able to put ‘Why Geography Matters’ by Harm J.De Blijby down, a challenging and highly informative read, also highlighted to me how much we neglect Regional Geography, perhaps sometimes we are too focused on the personal, local and national. Environmental determinism, once a dirty concept, perhaps time for a revival?

If you haven’t got the time to read the book, you can listen to the man on his You Tube channel.

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Had a little break from blogging as I prepared new resources for the Pilot and WJEC spec. Not feeling very rested…

This holiday I’ve also agreed to moderate coursework for the short-course Pilot, which I’m looking forward to, it should provide great insight into developing our coursework tasks.

Also considering what to do with Radical Geography, I may start to redevelop it according to themes, in preparation for our departure from WJEC and the new Key Stage 3. But wondering whether it’s worth it, a complete mess at the moment.

Picked up a copy of this month’s B.B.C  Focus magazine, great issue related to green issues, well worth a read and dispels some misconceptions about green living.

Congratulations to Rob Chambers who has produced a brilliant directory (Scroll down, direct link on the left) of Geography resources and ideas, a must for all geographical educators. Rob has also started a new blog, GeoBlogBytes, which is bound to become a must read. Congratulations Rob.

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The B.B.C. Worldwide now has a selection of clips, mostly Top Gear, on You Tube, sadly embedding has been removed, this is a nice clip of Richard Attenborough discussing a glacier in Antarctica.

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Several new geography blogs have appeared recently that will be worth following, Sally’s GeographyRocks, Simon’s Soar Valley Geography, new blogs linking here include, Paul’s Interactive World’s and a Welsh language blog called Merch Y Myndd, sadly I don’t have Welsh as a second lanuage, but there seems to be some excellent recent additions related to Edward De Bono. Any chance of a translation?

Let me know if you’re linking to me!

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When to see the film ‘Iraq in Fragments’ tonight, followed by a visit to a sushi bar, reminded me of Japan! The film is excellent, it looks at Iraq, the invasion, the occupation and the potential future, through the eyes of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. The camera work is excellent, I was fascinated by the landscapes. It was completely refreshing to hear the viewpoints of people in Iraq, without preaching my own opinion, it is clear that the future of Iraq was always going to be complex, invasion or not; the film goes some way to help explain the present situation.

For me as an educator and geographer, the most fascinating voices were those of two children, Mohammed ,a fatherless child, working in a garage and struggling to learn to read and write, and Suleiman, a Kurdish child, who herds sheep, works at a brick factory and dreams of being a doctor. Fascinating insight, great for considering childhood geography…

Highly recommended.

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Thanks to student blogger Stringy, who has utilised ToonDoo and started his own cartoon strip, click on the image to enlarge, called ‘Gary the Geographer’. My feeble attempt can be viewed here.

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Thanks to Ollie and Alan who have highlighted this ‘real-time’ sunlight map from Google Gadgets. How’s Antarctica doing?

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A ‘web-cam wall’ is a selection of live-streaming web-cams embedded into a PowerPoint slide. An example can be downloaded here (PPT 103kb).

Want to make one? See here.

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This is the documentary that was shown on Channel 4 last Thursday evening, that I missed thanks to my television blowing up! It provides an alternative account of mainstream Global Warming theory. For some reason it has found itself onto Google Video/You Tube. I’ll watch it and respond to some of the points hopefully at the weekend. Feel free to post your own comments about the programme.

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So why is Stanton downsizing?

• After changing hands several times, Stanton Ironworks is now owned by the French company Saint Gobain.
• Saint Gobain is an example of a Multi-National or Trans-National Corporation, a company that is based in many countries around the world.
• Saint Gobain fits nicely the characteristics of such a company, high profits- £18 billion, brand name and employs 171,000 people in 46 different countries.
• Saint Gobain has decided to close its pipe-making plant at the site, with the loss of around 220 jobs. It will maintain its U.K. headquarters at the Lowes Lane site.
• Saint Gobain blame the high cost of scrap steel and energy prices, but the company also has manufacturing concerns in South Africa and China.
• Critics would argue that this is natural behaviour for such a company, it needs to make profits for its shareholders, so like an octopus, has no problem in removing an arm that is losing money. Higher profits can be made by relocating manufacturing to countries with lower overheads such as labour costs.
• But Saint Gobain have announced that they are considering moving their pipe making facility to France or Germany. In fact this would make some sense, both countries have the same currency the Euro, thereby negating any loss of selling to E.U. Euro currency countries, and the high value of the pound makes selling products more difficult aboard.
• Impact on the area?

When any major industry closes in an area, it will have an impact, of course, there will be a loss of employment, but this may contribute to a general downward spiral, what Geographers call the negative multiplier effect.

Of course, the following is a generalisation…

• Stanton closes.
• Loss of employment, but also a loss of trade to local companies that supplied materials for Stanton, hence fewer jobs.
• Less money is spent in local businesses and on services.
• Fewer taxes are collected in the local community.
• An increase in benefits, needed to support the unemployed and their families.
• Less money for local services, such as education.
• Less to improve infrastructure and the environment.

The final point is particularly important, because if the area is to attract new investment, it must have an appealing environment and be accessible.

This relates back nicely to a question we asked you on the ‘My Place’ questionnaire, do you see your future in Ilkeston? The majority of you didn’t, is this because of the lack of job prospects? This means…

• The young and economically mobile move out of the community.
• There is a loss of community spirit.

 It isn’t all doom and gloom though, which leads us nicely to the next question…

What to do with the site?

P.S. The cheeky Iraq link, Saint Gobain is one of the companies involved in the Iraq Development Programme . The aim of the programme is to encourage countries to contribute to the rebuilding of Iraq, ironically that we had a part in degrading, but as the mission statement suggests..

Enjoying enormous trade and investment potential, Iraq has the resources to become the highest revenue generating country in the Middle East region.

Anyone tempted?

I know that several of my ex-students are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, if you’re reading, please feel free to leave comments.

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