Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Devra Parker
World Economy
Matt Elliott
12th Grade
As the world ages every year, people are looking to live in a free nation. I am fortunate enough to live in America where freedom is a very important aspect. Some children and adults are not quite as fortunate as me to live in a free nation. The main basis of economy is categorized as free, mostly free, mostly un-free, and repressed. Four countries that are in these categories are Canada, Spain, Lebanon, and Cuba.
Canada and Spain have many similarities and differences, and here are a few of them. Canada is made up of a Parliamentary Democracy where Spain is headed by a Constitutional Monarchy. With Canada sharing the longest un-standing undefended borders with the U.S., Spain has some of the largest coast land in the world. Despite that Canada (9,984,670 km2 2nd largest in the world) is over 19 times larger in total area than Spain (504,782 km squared).
Canada is made up of three territories and ten provinces. Queen Elizabeth II is head of state of a Parliamentary Democracy. Canada occupies over 40% of Northern America. This country ranks number two in total area and has the fourth highest farming land behind Russia, China, and the U.S. One strength that stands out for Canada I think is the fact that they share the longest standing undefended borders with the U.S.
Spain is a Constitutional Monarchy headed by Cortes Generales. Mountains and high plateaus dominate mainland Spain today. Spain had a new constitution created in 1978. Roman Catholicism is the highest religion by far in Spain. The parties in Congress in May of 05’ met to try and form some kind of peace treaty with the ETA, a terrorist group in Spain. They could only find peace if the ETA would give up their weapons.
Lebanon and Cuba also have many strengths and weaknesses, i.e. similarities and differences. Unlike Lebanon, Cuba is an island. Lebanon has over 50% coastline but is not an island. Cuba is a communist country and Lebanon is not. Cuba has a dictator which means they have only one ruler who listens to nobody else, and Lebanon has three different powers.
Lebanon is mainly a mountainous country near the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. There is small coastline on its west, and to the south is Isreal. Syria is mainly its northern border. Lebanon’s constitution was created in 1926, and it gave the political power to many of the major religious groups throughout the country. Lebanon gained independence in the year of 1943 from the country of France. This particular country is a Republic and is headed by three different branches. The President, who must be a Maronite Christian; the Prime Minister, who be a Sunni Muslim, and the Speaker of the Parliament, who must be a Shi’a Muslim.
Cuba is an island located in the Atlantic Ocean. It is also in the Gulf of Mexico and in the northern Caribbean. America is so afraid of Cuba for a few reasons, one being that they are only 90 miles south of the United States of American soil. The other reason is being that they are a communist country backed by Fidel Castro. According to the CIA’s world fact book, Cuba is 57% mixed black and white, 37% white, 11% black, and a huge 1% Chinese. There was a study taken and it was found that Cuban third and fourth graders were very much more educated than any other Latin Country in the world. Cuban culture is referred to as a Melting Pot of cultures mainly from these two countries of Africa and Spain.
In conclusion, the world has seen great economies and very terrible economies in its long history. I believe that there have been more unsuccessful economies in the world than successful. This is depressing because although we have wars throughout the world, we don’t ever like to see someone else fail at anything. When dealing with the four countries, Canada is totally free and has no repression unlike many other countries in the world. Spain is definitely a mostly free country which surprised me because I just think of them being totally free. Lebanon is a mostly un free, I never really have done much on Lebanon so it doesn’t surprise me much. I think everyone realizes Cuba is a repressed country because of their dictator Fidel Castro. This concludes my description of these four different unions in the world.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
The Benefits of Free
Trade
Q1- Be the Devil's Advocate and counter Benjamin Franklin's statement that "No
nation was ever ruined by trade."
I believe that trade is bad for the poor and if we stop trade it will help protect jobs and local industry. Also if we traded less or none at all it would help stop the spread of disease throughout the world.
Index of Economic
Freedom and Annual Report
(Chapter 3 for
links to countries)
Q2- Name five
countries whose ranking surprised you.
1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. United States
4. China
5. Vietnam
Q3- Write one sentence each to explain why you chose the countries you did in Q2.
1. Hong Kong surprised me because China is mostly un-free.
2. Singapore caught me off guard being number two because it’s a small country and when I think of small countries I think of non free ones.
3. United States definitely surprised me just by not being the top country for being free.
4. China surprised me that they are not repressed because it seems like they have so many harsh rules and punishments.
5. Vietnam surprised me because I always thought it was repressed
Q4- The USA was not ranked first in any of the years exhibited online in the Annual Report nor in the 2005 Index. List the twelve countries that ranked higher on the Index and the countries that out ranked the USA in the eight Annual Reports.
1. Hong Kong 2. Singapore
3. Luxemburg 4. Estonia 5. Ireland 6. New Zealand 7. United Kingdom 8. Denmark
9. Iceland 10. Australia 11. Chile 12. Switzerland
Q5- The Index uses 50 variables in 10 categories. The Report shows 21 variables
in 5 categories and lists 24 sub-variables in its online charts.
Together as a class we determined the ten categories in the index were nearly impossible with our knowledge to answer this question.