For this assignment, I decided to focus on a burning current event topic, the coronavirus. When I stumbled across this article I was very intrigued!

"Brazil Isolates Cruise Ship in Northeastern port After Suspected Coronavirus Case"
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/13/reuters-america-brazil-isolates-cruise-ship-in-northeastern-port-after-suspected-coronavirus-case.html

This article informs its readers on the specific situation involving the coronavirus in South America. Brazil decided to quarantine a cruise ship carrying 609 passengers that recently came from a port in Salvador. A 78-year-old Canadian man came down with symptoms of the virus including fever, coughing, and breathing difficulties. It was in South America's best interest to isolate this cruise ship to try and prevent the spread of the COVID-19.

As of the current situation, South America is one of the contents with the least amount of cases of the coronavirus. Therefore they need to protect their borders from people that could potentially spread the virus. Geographically a cruise ship can connect all parts of the world, with people coming from everywhere. This cruise ship crossed an ocean which would have been a natural barrier to diseases. However in our global world today we are very connected with modern travel. In addition, the cruise ship stopped in multiple parts across the world picking up more germs along the way. It was a wise choice to isolate the ship in regard to its geographic location because it had visited other parts of the world.

Looking at the map, using the link below, one can clearly see that South America is not a part of the heavily concentrated coronavirus spots. Therefore if South America acts in the right ways it can prevent more cases coming to its' continent from places like North America and especially Europe and China.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Forrest Mikol

Roger Pearson

Geog 101

3/8/2020

Ronaldinho in court in Paraguay over fake passport claims

Former professional footballer Ronaldinho and his brother were both caught trying to use fake identification to enter Paraguay. Despite how simple the scenario is there is actually a lot to unpack.

First and foremost, the brothers swore that they received the passports when they arrived in Paraguay, claiming that they assumed that the passports were a courtesy gesture, which is a ridiculous notion, considering that Ronaldinho and his brother are both native Brazilians, and still live there to this day. To get a passport from Paraguay, they would have had to live in Paraguay for over three years in order to get their passports, but that is only the first of many steps required in order to obtain a passport from there.

Some of the geographical concepts highlighted here are the transition zones and regions, or where Brazil becomes Paraguay, and the laws change, and trying to sneak in doesn’t always go over well. It is arguable that spatial systems are also at work here considering that both Brazil and Paraguay operate differently at their core.

Link to Article - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51778788

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51750809

On March 5, 2020, a truck crashed into a sacred stone, known as moai, on Easter island off the coast of Chile. The crash was defined as "incalculable" due to how much value and meaning are behind those stones. The Chilean man who caused the incident was arrested and charged with damaging a national monument. The mayor of Easter Island is calling for motor vehicle restrictions in the area of the stones due to the incident. There are about 1,000 of these stones and they were created by the indigenous Rapa Nui people.

There is a geographical concept and the geography of the placement of these stones to consider in this event. The term indigenous is used to describe the Rapa Nui people and to help us understand that the aboriginal people of this island created these sacred stones that we see as a national monument. These stones are an important and vital piece of their culture. Geographically, the moai are placed on an island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile.

Kiara Kearns

GEOG 101

January 29, 2020

Blog: Current Events in South America

The current event article I found that takes place in South America was titled “Smoke from Aussie bushfires reaches Chile' from 9News.com. This article was authored by Olivana Smith Lathouris and published on 1:01pm Jan 7, 2020. The link to the article is: https://www.9news.com.au/world/australia-fires-smoke-from-nsw-victoria-fires-reaches-chile/3f53b8bf-e598-487a-8923-afda0687d70e

The geographic aspects of the news story include: bush fires, A meteorological trough, and mountains. These geographic concepts are involved in the story because the article discusses how the Australian bush fires are traveling so fast and far that the smoke is reaching Chile and affecting the land. The smoke has crossed the Pacific Ocean and has blanketed Chile. The clouds are also affecting the ground in the area. Paragraph 7 states that, “a reduction in the ultraviolet radiation reaching the ground because of the "cap" that these kind of clouds form over the land.'

 In sum, the article discussed how the smoke from Australia came to Chile and not only affected the sky, but the land below it. The article also shows Satellite images of smoke from Australian fires that have reached Chile, 11,000kms away from where the fires originated.