Sad but very true reality of globalization

Students:

Your work on the midterm was truly outstanding, the average was in the B+ range, and I was so happy with the answers on the essays in particular. I think people could have engaged better with the Davis and Herzog texts, but overall I felt the vast majority of the class had learned and begun to master the course material. Well done.

Here is a link to a sobering article from a TV program I caught last night. It really hits all aspects of our class, and I was amazed at how economic globalization, world-wide climate change, rural-to-urban migration patterns, and the literal erasure of centuries-old patterns of life are combined in this story.

Here's the article about changes in Algerian nomads in the Sahara Desert, but I encourage you to try and find the broadcast, it's damn depressing, but it's all happening...

Worldwide, more than one billion people have no access to clean drinking water. The shortage of water in the world's deserts is making life for many nomads increasingly difficult. The Tuareg in Algeria, for example, are struggling to locate enough water to live. When digging wells, the nomads now have to dig up to 40 metres to find water. They blame the industrialized countries for producing climate change, which has decreased levels of rain and made temperatures climb...Abdou Hmais says: "Without water, we would be forced to sell our animals or kill them. But what would we do then? We could only work as beggars in the city. We're nomads, and we want to carry on living our lives like before."

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3491275,00.html