Olympic Games Blur Country Borders

It certainly is more fun and less dangerous to compete under the five linked Olympic rings representing the sporting friendship of all people than to engage in a worldwide arms race. After all, with the mingling of countries and cultures in today's world, its hard to tell which country wins or is bested at an international sporting competition. A sample of the athletes who will begin competing in PyeongChang, South Korea, on February 9 uncovers the multicultural passion for sports.

     Peninsula communistic and democratic rivals from North and South Korea will enter the Olympic arena together, and their women will compete together on an ice hockey team.

     Figure skating pair, Ryom Tae Ok and Kun Ju Si from North Korea trained for the Olympics in Montreal, Canada.

     As a refugee, Shannon-Ogbani Abeda learned to ski in Alberta, Canada, where his family fled from Eritrea, Africa, but he'll be competing for Eritrea at the Olympics.

     Born in Ghana, Aftica, Maame Biney will be lacing up her speed skates to represent the U.S.

     Bobsledders from Nigeria, Africa, will match skills with Canadians and Germans.

     In the winter games, Pita Jaufutofua from Tonga will trade the taekwondo competitors he had in Rio's summer games for the Norwegians, Swedes, and Russians he'll meet, when he straps on his cross country skis.

     Magnus Kim, a cross country skier whose dad is Norwegian and mother is South Korean, will compete for South Korea.

     Chloe Kim, whose parents are from South Korea where her grandmother still lives, is a Californian riding her snowboard for the U.S.

     Born of Chinese parents, Nathan Chen will leave his Salt Lake City home in Utah when he hopes to land a record number of quad figure skating jumps for the U.S.

     So, when athletes from diverse countries and backgrounds come together in PyeongChang, let the world honor Baron Pierre de Coubertin's 1896 vision for the modern Olympics. Show a shared love of athletics really can help the people of the world understand each other.

   
   

   

Hands-on Activity Shows Why Some Countries Are Poor

Haiti is poor and Germany is rich. Why? Have students each wad up a piece of paper. A BuzzFeed video shows a wastebasket being moved to the front of the room. The contest begins when students try to throw their paper wads into the basket.

     What will students in the back of the room say? They'll claim they are at a disadvantage.

The discussion begins. What are some of the disadvantages poor countries face? How can these countries help themselves improve their situations? What would be comparable to adding a wastebasket to the back of the room? What are some of the ways privileged countries could help poor countries? What would be similar to students in the front of the room sharing their chairs with students from the back of the room?

   

Future Career Opportunities

For youngsters around the world, where they will work or launch a business seems many years away. Yet, thinking about what factors a country needs to offer employees and employers can begin at any age. Forbes magazine (December 21, 2016) helped the process of identifying "Best Countries for Business" by ranking 139 countries on a composite of factors including: taxes, innovation, technology, regulations, corruption, property rights, investor protection, per capita income, and trade balance. Other factors to consider might be: infrastructure; political stability; threat of terrorism; human rights of men, women, and children; and health conditions.

     The Forbes ranking placed Sweden first and Chad last. At forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/list/, there is a brief evaluation of the business climate in each of the 139 counties listed. You can find out why a negative trade balance, regulations, government intervention in the housing and health insurance markets, budget deficits, and modest growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) positioned the United States 23rd among countries best for business.

     Looking for future opportunities, I paid special attention to the 26 countries with economic GDP growth of 5% of more. Admittedly, countries with less developed economies may be able to show the greatest growth compared to countries with more developed economies, such as the US with 2.6% growth. Nonetheless, growth is an important factor to consider.

Best for Business                                         GDP growth
     Ranking

     4                         Ireland                             26.3%
    130                       Ethiopia                           10.2%
    106                       Cote d' Ivoire                     8.5%
     85                       India                                  7.6%
    134                      Laos                                   7.6%
      97                      Dominican Republic            7.0%
    122                      Tanzania                             7.0%
    123                      Cambodia                           7.0%
     78                       Rwanda                              6.9%
    102                      China                                 6.9%
    133                     Dem. Republic of Congo      6.9%
    117                     Bangladesh                          6.8%
     98                      Vietnam                              6.7%
    113                     Mozambique                       6.6%
     81                      Senegal                               6.5%
     30                      Malta                                  6.2%
   109                      Mali                                   6.0%
   111                      Tajikistan                            6.0%
     89                      Philippines                         5.9%
    59                       Panama                              5.8%
  128                      Cameroon                           5.8%
  105                      Kenya                                 5.6%
    63                     Namibia                               5.3%
    94                     Bhutan                                 5.2%
    44                     Malaysia                              5.0%
  100                     Benin                                   5.0%

Of these 26 countries, almost half are in Africa. Youngsters might keep their eyes on what these countries do to remedy the problems identified in their Forbes descriptions, since African countries might offer the best opportunities in the future.

Country Conversation Starters

Some students who go away to college wear the silhouettes of their home states on the front of their
T-shirts. It's a good way to meet and strike up a conversation with other students from the same area. When my daughter was young, I always tried to find shirts with sayings that could encourage adults to strike up a conversation with her so that she wouldn't be shy about interacting with people we knew. Wearing clothing with the silhouette of a country provides a similar opportunity to exchange a few words with others.

      What country might a child wear and how could a country silhouette be put on a shirt, skirt, pant, or cap?

     The country where a child lives, and the countries where the child and/or the child's parents/grandparents were born are obvious choices. Many schools have projects where students research and report on countries around the world. In kindergarten, my daughter wore a white shirt and red skirt and sang "Oh, Canada" in just such a production. She could have worn a map of Canada on her top or skirt. Encouraging children to think about countries they would like to visit could lead to another silhouette choice.

     Find a country map online and enlarge it to the size that would best fit a piece of clothing. You could cut out the country, trace around it on a shirt, etc, and color it in with puffy paints or markets that won't wash off. There's also the method of transferring an image used in the Middle Ages. The picture to be transferred was placed over a surface below, and an outline was made by piercing tiny holes around the picture. If a country map were placed over iron-on material used for patching clothes, pin holes could transfer an outline of the country to the material. Cut around the outline simply use an iron to press the country shape to any piece of clothing, and let the conversation begin.



   

Summer Project: Adopt a Country

Your country could be a big one, like China or Russia, that is always in the news or a small one, like Papua New Guinea, that you didn't know existed. Whatever country you choose, there are resources to help you explore your choice (See some suggested sources of country information in the earlier post, "See the World.") I took my own advice and decided to learn about Malaysia. Unfortunately, I only got as far as looking at a map and deciding Malaysia must have a complicated history, It shares the slim Malay Peninsula with three other countries: Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and Singapore, and the nearby mountainous Borneo island with Brunei and Indonesia.

     Those who plan to put more effort in learning about a country can begin their project by buying a scrapbook or notebook and labeling pages with titles, such as "Maps," "Government leaders," "Sports," "Key industries," "Agricultural products," and so forth.

     On the first page, "Maps," include a map of your country and a world map with an arrow pointing to it and to your country. (For sources of maps and other information about maps, see the earlier blog post, "You Are Here.") When I had an Atlas out to look for Malaysia, I also decided to see where Iran's secret nuclear facilities probably were located. It was easy to spot the long swath of Zagros Mountains that run along Iran's western border. Eye-in-the-sky satellites could know where to look for activity indicating the construction of new facilities that violated its nuclear agreement with UN Security Council members and the EU.

     Your second page could be labeled, "Flag," Find a colored picture of your country's flag in a World Almanac at the library or elsewhere. Countries put a lot of thought into their flags, because they symbolize a country's important characteristics. Saudi Arabia's flag is almost all green, because the Muslim faith is important to its people and green is the color associated with Mohammed, founder of the Muslim religion. South Africa's flag is much more complicated than Saudi Arabia's. For example, it has red and black for the struggle its population had for freedom and gold for a source of its wealth. (More information about flags is in the earlier blog post, "A Salute to Flags.")

     On a page titled, "Population," list how many people live in your adopted country. How does the size of this population compare to the population of your home country? Is it two times larger or less than a tenth the size of your country? Also include pictures of your country's government leaders and its people. List names of people in your adopted country that may be very different from those of your classmates (Some sources of people and place pictures are listed in the earlier blog posts, "Picture the World" and "Getting to Know You.")

     A page for "Places" is a good one for photos of cities, especially the country's capital. Photos also will show mountains or flat land, snow or beaches, rivers and farms, how people live in cities, and what sports they play. If you know relatives or friends will be visiting your adopted country, remind them to send you postcards to include in your scrapbook.

     Not every country has the same animals that live where you do, so be sure to have a page labeled, "Animals." If you go to a zoo, see if you can find an animal whose native home is your adopted country. The zoo's brochure may have a photo of this animal that you can add to your scrapbook.

     Your interests may lead you to look into your country's music: folk songs and classical composers, current tunes and performers, various instruments.

     What products does your adopted country produce, minerals does it mine, and crops does it grow? Find photos.

     As a student, you will be interested in "Education."Do all children attend the same types of schools? What do they study at what ages? A new book, Playgrounds, shows what recess looks like in some countries (See the earlier blog post, "Recess Differs Around the World.")

     Subjects such as "Food," "Religion," and "Language" could all have separate pages. You may be lucky to find foreign money and stamps from your adopted country, an interesting book about your country, a souvenir from an Olympic or World Cup games held in your country, or a doll dressed in native garb. Recently, when the founder of my granddaughter's 4H club spoke at a meeting, she told how she had 80 dolls from the 80 countries she and her husband had visited.

     The best thing about filling a scrapbook or notebook with information about an adopted country is beginning to think about traveling there some day.

New World's Resolutions

As 2014 begins, children, parents, students, and teachers have an opportunity to find new opportunities for international, and even out-of-this-world, involvement. Here are some suggestions. (In parenthesis, there are references to related, earlier blog posts.)

     1. Prepare for the Winter Olympics, February 7-23, by going to a map or Russia to locate Sochi, where the winter games will be held. ("Wide World of Sports")

     2. Name a new doll, action figure, or plushie toy for an international icon, such as Malala or Mandela. ("What's in a Name?")

     3. Find an outgrown clothing item to pin or tape to the country on a wall map of the world where the item was made. ("Fashion Forward")

     4. Get ready to give children coins in red envelopes in honor of the cheerful and exciting Chinese Year of the Horse, which begins on January 31. ("Go Holiday Globe (S)hopping")

     5. Mark the end of September on your calendar to remember to learn if a space probe sends information back from Mars, when it lands on or comes near the planet. ("Space Explorers")

     6. Make a contribution to or plan a fundraiser for an international cause, such as Kids in Need of Desks at unicefusa.org or Operation International Children at operationinternationalchildren.com. ("Hope for the Future")

     7. Go to ePals.com to find a joint project to work on with a class in a foreign country. ("Getting to Know You")

     8. Read a book with an international theme. ("Talk With the Animals," "This We Believe," "Travel the World with Summer Reading")

     9. Get in touch with the world's environment by planting a tree. ("A Healthy Environment")

    10. Learn a few words in a foreign language. Say "Thank you" in German, danke; or greet friends in Japanese, konichiwa." By December 25, 2014, you'll be wishing everyone Milad Said (Mee-LAHD Sah-EED) in Arabic. ("How Do You Say?")

   

Picture the Continents

Over a year ago, I wrote the blog post, "Picture the World," to suggest how young people could begin to see what the world looked like and how people around the world lived. While I was thinking about how writers put together ideas for a TV show or a book by arranging notes on a cork board or wall, it occurred to me that blocks of space for continents could be assigned on a wall at home or on a black board at school. Pictures from various countries could then be placed in the correct continents to not only help kids visualize the world but also start some of them thinking about becoming foreign news, fashion, travel, or nature photographers.

With the Winter Olympics coming up early next year in Sochi, Russia, there soon will be a lot of photos to put under a wall's European heading. Blank spaces under other continents will motivate kids to scour publications for photos from around the world. Many used book stores have old copies of National Geographic that are a prime source of international photos. But any magazine, newspaper, alumni publication, brochure from a travel agency, or corporate annual report is a likely resource.

I have noticed more and more art museums are mounting exhibits of photographs. The Corcoran Art Museum in Washington, D.C. has an extensive collection of photographs, some of which are printed on postcards that could be used in a young person's own continental wall exhibit. Perhaps kids also could use photo copies of pictures from Home Truths: Photography, Motherhood and Identity, the collection of Susan Bright's non-traditional pictures of motherhood around the world, which was displayed at an art museum in London and is now a book.

Of course, children also should be encouraged to ask relatives and friends who travel to foreign countries to send them postcards and to take pictures that they can post in their panorama of the world. Should they be the lucky ones to travel to a different country, they should not only post their photos at home or school, but they should ask their parents and/or teachers to visit ngkidsmyshot.com to get information about how to submit their photos for possible publication in National Geographic Kids. Such an opportunity may be the beginning of a career that takes them around the globe.

How the World Shapes Up

Michigan looks like a mitten to people who live there. What other shapes can children find when they look at maps and atlases of the world?

     Whether it's in their first books, on "Sesame Street," or connecting puzzle pieces, children learn about shapes. Apply this concept to the world, and they will see Italy looks like a boot. The Red Sea is a string bean, and Paraguay and The Gambia are shaped like peanuts. In Africa, some call Zambia the butterfly country because of its shape. My granddaughter thinks Chad looks like a face, and it has a man's name besides. Doesn't India look like a triangle? Lake Victoria is a circle, and there are so many ovals: Madagascar, Taiwan, Mongolia.

     Multicultural Kids (multiculturalkids.com) sells a China puzzle to give children hands-on experience with shapes in that country, while "World GeoPuzzle" from Museumtour.com does the same for the world. And, if you have an expendable world map, kids can point out shapes they would like to cut out and label.

Getting to Know You

The best way to get to know about a foreign country is to talk to a foreigner in person. Using Skype Translator, it may soon be possible to have a real time conversation with someone speaking a different language. Microsoft is developing software that can translate a conversation between two people videochatting in these different languages: English, Spanish, Italian, or Mandarin. Actually, a person would say one or two sentences and then stop for a translation. The other person then would respond the same way.

      Until these real time computerized translations or face-to-face meetings can occur, the next best thing is to exchange letters or e-mails with children who live in other countries. An episode on the PBS show, "Arthur," showed how correspondence with a child in Turkey dispelled the notion that children there lived in tents and rode to school on camels. There are a variety of ways to find foreign pals, but, until a real one is located, items in a kit from littlepassports.com help children learn about one country each month, and they can pretend to write letters from foreign countries they have studied. From Russia, a young make-believe correspondent might write:

          Do you like to draw? I do. Yesterday our class visited the Hermitage Museum, where
          we saw a painting of Napoleon. He looked very heroic, but we are learning that his
          army tried unsuccessfully to defeat Russia in winter. Our winters are very cold, and we
          get a lot of snow.

If a Russian pen pal is found, it would be fun for a child to compare a real letter with this pretend one.

     Foreign students are in a good position to help children who are searching for a real pen pal. Classmates could have cousins and other relatives who would like to correspond with someone in the United States. Neighborhood families may be hosting foreign students who are eager to maintain U.S. ties after they return home. Then too, a local college or university is a good source of babysitters. Those from foreign countries may develop a lasting relationship that they want to maintain.

     Aside from relying on personal contacts to find an international pen pal, organizations often have established structures that either can or do facilitate person to person correspondence across borders. Some agencies, such as Pearl S. Buck International (psbi.org), encourage benefactors to write to the children they sponsor. Through translators, the children send return messages to those who support them. Members of international organizations, such as Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, are in a good position to ask their leaders to find counterparts in other countries. Children also should urge cities and churches with sister cities and parishes to help them contact foreign students. The Peace Corps maintains a website, peacecorps.gov/wws/educators, that enables teachers to locate members willing to correspond with their classes. And ePals.com also helps facilitate joint projects between U.S. teachers and teachers in foreign countries.

     In some areas, children may not have to go far to visit a neighborhood where foreign immigrants maintain much of their culture. A walk through Chinatown of Little Italy is an easy way to visit shops, meet people from foreign countries, and sample native foods. While traveling near and far through the United States, there are many opportunities to seek out communities that have preserved a distinctive foreign lifestyle. In Door County, Wisconsin, for example, children will find descendants of Norwegians and Swedes who settled there in the 19th century. Surrounded by brightly painted Dala horses, they can pour lingonberry syrup on their pancakes and watch goats nibble grass from the roofs of nearby log cabins.

     No doubt, these foreign contacts will lead children to want to visit foreign countries. For some ideas about foreign travel, go to the earlier blog post, "See the World." Also see the blog post, "How Do You Say?"



    

Fashion Forward

Before discounting fashion as a trivial subject, consider how exploring closets and underwear drawers can lead children to a map and to ask questions about why their clothes are made in certain countries. Checking labels and listing where clothes are made can lead to a worldwide map search for all the countries that manufacture a child's outfits and accessories.

     Kelsey Timmerman's interest in the economic conditions, wages, and working conditions in countries that produced his clothes motivated him to travel to Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China to see the factories where his underwear, jeans, and flip-flops were made. The record of his journey, Where Am I Wearing?, is a thoughtful discussion of the people and countries that depend on textile jobs and the options consumers have for buying these goods. In the aftermath of the clothing factory collapse that killed more than 1000 workers in Bangladesh, where 75% of the country's exports are textiles, ecouterre.com reminded customers not to boycott clothing produced in Bangladesh and listed some of the responsible companies operating there. After the April 24, 2013 factory collapse, ecouterre.com also reported that Abercrombie & Fitch and the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands signed an Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh. Walmart, which announced it would fund a project to develop labor standards for the country, is among the retailers, including Target and Macy's, that have not signed the Accord.

     There are organizations that are devoted to distributing clothing and accessories produced by workers paid and treated fairly in developing countries. Although there is no third party fair trade certification program for apparel, Fair Indigo has several small shops that sell "sweatshop-free" clothing in the United States. Baby sleepers and baby clothing made of 100% pure organic cotton from a worker-owned cooperative in Lima, Peru, are available through Fair Indigo's catalog (800-520-1806 or fairindigo.com).

     SERRV is an organization that helps artisans in developing countries maximize profits from their crafts. Among the many items featured in the SERRV catalog (serrv.org) are knitted mittens, scarves, and hats from Nepal; headbands from Vietnam; and jewelry from Swaziland, Mali, the Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, and Peru.

     Museum gift shops are good sources of interesting alternatives to heavily advertised mall fashions. Locally, you might find a beaded ponytail band from South Africa, a handstitched story purse from Peru, or a woven backpack from Mexico that is the perfect present for a little girl who likes to start fashion trends.

Talk with the Animals

Animals are a familiar sight to babies who see lambs on their lullaby mobiles and cuddly teddy bears in their cribs. From an early age, children have ducks and bunnies on their clothes, eat animal crackers, imitate farm animal sounds, play with the family pets, go up and down on merry-go-round horses, and ride real ponies. The fast, smart, and surprising activities of animals make fascinating reading in a book such as Steve Jenkins' The Animal Book. And the games, stencils, stickers, and crafts in The National Geographic Kids: Animal Creativity Book provide another fun way for children to learn about animals.

     The natural affinity children have for animals provides a ready segue to an interest in the countries where animals live. Like the extinct dinosaurs that fascinate boys and girls, every species cannot adapt to every country's environment. A trip to the zoo demonstrates how the environments of countries around the world are not the same; some are suitable for some animals and some are not. In its Children's Atlas of World Wildlife, Rand McNally offers a comprehensive explanation of how climate, food, terrain, and isolation influence where different animals live, and, by inference, how countries differ. Reindeer, penguins, and polar bears found in most zoos live on flat tundras and ice flows in very cold climates. By contrast, giant pandas are only in a few zoos, because they seek privacy by hiding in China's dense mountain forests. Unlike the rare solitary pandas, zoo visitors are likely to find a town of prairie dogs and herds of buffalo from North America's grassland plains. The Lion King prepares children to see lions, zebras, giraffes, and elephants at water holes in the zoo's imitation African veld. For the zoo's hippopotamuses, large pools simulate the African rivers and lakes where they like to swim. The zoo's rhinoceroses, whether they come from Africa, India, Borneo, Java, or Sumatra, also like pools that represent the rivers and wetlands of their natural homes.

     The zoo's monkeys, apes, chimpanzees, gorillas, baboons, and orangutans come from tropical rain forests and dense jungles where they live with parrots and other colorful birds. Children familiar with Jungle Book also know the home habitats of the zoo's tigers, panthers, and snakes. Most interesting, as Charles Darwin observed in the Galapagos Islands, is the unique way animals develop when their environments are confined to an island country such as Madagascar or the island continent of Australia. These are the homes of the ring-tailed lemur, koala bear, kangaroo, wombat, and platypus.

     Just as zoo animals provide an awareness of different foreign habitats, pet origins can do the same. The tailless Manx cat, children learn, comes from the Isle of Man in the Irish sea. Thailand, formerly called Siam, produced the Siamese cat, while the long-haired Angora originated in Ankara, Turkey. Persian cats trace their ancestors to Afghanistan and today's Iran. What also could send children to a map are their first encounters with a wide variety of dogs, including a Mexican Chihuahua, English Sheep Dog, Dutch Keeshond, German Dachshund, Russian Wolfhound, Siberian Husky, Chinese Shar-Pei, Tibetan Lhasa Apso, and Japanese Chin.Parents who field requests for ponies could send their sons and daughters to a map to see how far they would have to go to find one in the Shetland Islands. These children may have to settle for a pony ride at the zoo or petting massive Scottish Clydesdales or French Percherons at a state fair.

Culture creatures

Some countries consider animals such an important part of their cultural identity that they include them on their national flags. Indigenous birds, for example, fly on the flags of Bolivia, Dominica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The eagle soars on the flags of Albania, Mexico, Egypt, Zambia, and Moldova. A variety of animals appear on other national flags. Andorra's flag includes cows; Bolivia's, an alpaca; Peru's, a llama; and Sri Lanka's, a lion. Vanuatu uses the curved boar's tusk on its flag to symbolize power and riches. Some British dependencies and independent Commonwealth members continue to display England's golden lion on their flags, and, although the French flag is the official one flown by France's overseas departments, Martinique's unofficial flag has snakes, and leopards grace the unofficial flag of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

      In a country's culture, frequently seen animals also can begin to take on meaning. The Chinese and Japanese zodiacs associate those born in certain years with the traits of 12 animals: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep/goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Many museum stores carry the Japanese netsukes that are little statues of the animal zodiac signs. Children born in the Year of the Dog, 2006, for example, might like to own a dog netsuke to remind them that they are thought to be excellent confidants because they are loyal friends who know how to keep secrets. Different cultures also assign different traits and meanings to the same animal. In India devout Hindus, who consider the monkey god, Hanuman, a symbol of wisdom, righteousness, and strength, believe primates should be free to roam cities not live in forests or zoos. Some cultures consider horses work animals, while others focus on their beauty and racing speed. All may see the turtle as a symbol of security and long life, while pigs may be seen as dirty or food.

Animal activists

If children could talk with gorillas, whooping cranes, and manatees, they would learn that all is not well in the animal kingdom. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, one out of every four mammals is in danger of disappearing forever. The same is true for one out of every eight birds and one-third of all amphibians. What is promising, however, is a growing awareness of the need for animal protection and recovery programs. Advocacy organizations, such as the World Wildlife Fund (worldwildlife.org), help the public understand the role each species plays in keeping various ecosystems in balance. They urge governments to crack down on wild animal poachers, the sale of ivory elephant tusks, the exotic bird trade, and the hunt for Atlantic bluefin tuna. On May 6, 2015, New York's Supreme Court will even consider whether or not nonhuman animals that are "sufficiently intelligent," such as chimpanzees, great apes, elephants, whales, and dolphins, can be considered property and held legally.

     There are a number of ways children are involved in animal preservation. Magazines, such as National Geographic Kids, Zootles, and Zoobooks, introduce young people to what wild animals do and how their habitats are disappearing. For a donation to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a lucky girl or boy can choose a plush version of 100 species of wild animals. Youngsters who ride the carousel at a zoo in Madison, Wisconsin, come face to face with animals threatened with irreversible extinction. Rather than the typical, colorfully decorated merry-go-round horses, they each go up and down sitting atop an endangered, protected, vulnerable, or threatened animal. National Geographic (shop.nationalgeographic.com) offers an Endangered Animal Discovery Game and the Safari Rush Hour Game.  With a bit of help from adults, all students who are informed about the need to protect vanishing species can write letters or send emails to government officials in the United States and elsewhere. (In its "Nations of the World" section, The World Almanac lists the addresses of foreign embassies in the United States.) As activist and Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick, used to say, "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."

     Advocacy campaigns have paid off in the adoption of recovery programs for a limited number of species. In South America, a capture, shear, and release program has managed to both provide coveted fleece and save vicunas from the brink of extinction. Other countries have moved to protect animals by imposing fines for killing endangered animals and setting aside sanctuaries and pristine habitats. Governments also have compensated farmers for losses caused by protected predators, as the United States has done in the case of wolves. To save the bald eagle, the U.S. responded to the admonitions of Rachel Carson in her book, Silent Spring, by banning the use of the DDT pesticide that weakened shells before birds could hatch. Consequently, the bald eagle went from 417 breeding pairs in 1963 to an estimated 10,000 today. As a result of these programs, both the wolf and the bald eagle have been removed from the endangered list in some states.

Spotlighting special concerns

Even more than campaigns to save endangered species, circuses and zoos can cause children to face the reality of cruelty to animals removed from their native countries. Since a trip to the big top is an honored family tradition, the treatment of animal performers is a topic best approached by raising questions rather than by issuing inflammatory pronouncements. To that end, the first question is: How are circus animals trained? Are they like poodles, parrots, dolphins, and chimps whose natural abilities to learn tricks respond to positive reinforcement?

     Now, consider what the circus's lions, tigers, and elephants are asked to do. Has their natural animal behavior in Africa and Asia been suppressed by using electrical devices, bullhooks, and whips and by withholding water, food, sleep, and exercise? How are animals transported from city to city every four or five days? Do they have enough space to assume their normal postures and to move around freely or are they confined in cages or chained in ventilated, but not heated or air conditioned, trucks and railroad boxcars? Based on the considerations raised by these questions, Bolivia's government, for one, passed a law prohibiting the use of animals in circuses. On October 23, 2013, the Los Angeles City Council joined two counties in Florida and two in Georgia that banned bullhooks used to train circus elephants by inflicting pain on tender parts of their skin.

     Natural behavior provides a useful frame of reference for the treatment of zoo as well as circus animals. Bears are too curious to live where they see the same surroundings day after day. What do elephants do in the wild? In groups of as many as 20, African and Asian elephants roam up to 30 miles a day, eat, and bathe in water holes and dust. When only one or two elephants are confined in a zoo, they get bored and develop arthritis and joint disease from standing with all their weight in one place, especially in winter when they stand on concrete floors indoors. Other heavy animals, such as hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses, also develop foot problems unless they have large pools to buoy up their bulk. Giraffes and gazelles share the elephants' need to cover long distances.

     The big cats and primates, on the other hand, seem relatively well suited to zoo life. In the wild, after catching their prey, lions, leopards, jaguars, pumas, and tigers enjoy napping much of the day. The activity level of monkeys and chimps is just the opposite, but if they live in groups and have a stimulating play area where they can use their minds and fingers, they, too, are satisfied zoo dwellers.

     Children who want the best for the circus and zoo animals that come from all over the world will be happy to know that legislators, organizations, and zoo executives are working to eliminate abuses. In the United States, the Animal Welfare Act sets minimum standards for confined, warm-blooded animals. Congress needs to be asked to do more, however, since the number of government inspectors is insufficient and cold-blooded animals are excluded from the Act's protection. Animal behaviorist, Dr.Patricia McConnell, also points out that although there are federal requirements for protecting the psychological wellbeing of primates, there are no such standards for dogs used for research. She finds veterinarians and animal care technicians in laboratories focus on air flow, cleanliness, and food storage but neglect their needs for social bonding, intellectual enrichment, and a stable environment. Instead of relying on government funding, the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) uses contributions from individuals and community support to operate three California sanctuaries for abused, abandoned, and retired performing animals and animals rescued from the exotic animal trade. The PAWS website, pawsweb.org, invites donations and sells books, t-shirts, artwork, and travel packages to benefit elephant and other animal victims.

     Many zoos have decided to stop exhibiting elephants, and some cities have prohibited circuses from including elephant acts when they come to town. There is a proposal to confine elephants to a limited number of national zoos, just as a limited number of theme parks satisfy children. Tourists already are willing to go all the way to Kenya to see lions, giraffes, and other animals in the wild; to Costa Rica to see the famous blue Morpho butterflies, and to New Zealand for a chance to see an emperor penguin. Once young people realize the animals they love are abused or endangered, they will think of even more ways to support and publicize the countries and activities that protect their friends. As one student's science fair project demonstrated, based on natural behavior, some animals are best suited for the circus, others for the zoo, and most for the wild in the countries where they are born.







    

Picture the World

Big Ben, double deck red buses, and the green grass of Wimbledon come to mind, when we think of London, as we have been doing during the Olympics. Paris has the Eiffel Tower; Rome, the Coliseum; Pisa, the Leaning Tower; and Sydney has its Opera House. The Taj Majal is associated with India, if not Agra, and the pyramids conjure up Egypt, if not Giza and Luxor. Now consider Buenos Aires, Timbuktu, and Shanghai. What landmarks are associated with these cities and others around the globe? How do people in these cities live? Maps tell young people where countries are, but pictures help make the abstract real.

     Photos have the power to introduce children to the landmarks and lifestyles of people in any city of the world. Why do many Olympic skiers come from Canada, Norway, and Germany? Using Google's "google maps," children can look at snowy photos of Quebec, Oslo, and Hamburg. Pictures of mosques, Buddhist temples, and cathedrals help children realize religious beliefs are different in Samarkand, Uzbekistan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Oporto, Portugal. Based on the bicycles jammed together in photos of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, children can make some assumptions about physical fitness in these cities. Likewise, photos of motorcycles, subways, boats, and cars, as well as outdoor cafes, beaches, sporting events, and parades provide clues to the way people live.

     Thanks to the pictures and descriptions of Czech illustrator and author, Miroslav Sasek, in his "This is" series, children have been on an armchair tour of the world since 1959. His books go to Paris, London, Edinburgh, Ireland, Rome, Venice, Munich, Greece, Israel, Hong Kong, and Australia. Now, all the individual books have been included in a single volume, This is the World. Kathleen Pohl also has written a series of country books that cover Argentina, the Congo, Germany, Iran, Israel, Russia, Mexico, and Japan. Japan also is the subject of one of the 20 pocket-sized, accordion fold out "Panorama Pops" in the Candlewick Press series that also covers the cities of Paris, Rome, Venice, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, and Dublin.

      A number of books entitled Wonders of the World use photographs and text to introduce children to outstanding buildings, monuments, and engineering feats. Kids seven and up can test what they learned about the "Wonders of the World" (and "Countries of the World") by asking each other 180 trivia, true/false, and multiple-choice questions in history card games from MindWare (mindware.com).

     Look for hands-on ways children can experience global cultures. In New York City, students visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see Egyptian mummies, statues, and burial objects, but kits from the museum's store (store.metmuseum.org) bring Egypt to children 8 and older everywhere. An archaeological kit and manual enable youngsters to uncover secrets of a pyramid; another kit includes a ready to paint pyramid and a variety of Egyptian artifacts; and one of the museum's best sellers provides a guidebook, hieroglyphic alphabet chart, and 24 hieroglyphic stamps and an ink pad for writing original messages.

      The Book of Cities  by Philip Dodd and Ben Donald takes children on a photographic tour of 250 cities in 108 countries. Page after page, youngsters discover the natural features that dominate many cities: the Sierra Nevada mountains looming over Granada, Spain; the Atlas mountains that shadow Marrakesh, Morocco; the Himalayan peaks that rise above Kathmandu, Nepal; and the Alps that cradle Salzberg, Austria, and Zurich, Switzerland. Along the way, children also visit the African river towns of Bamako in Mali, Khartoum in Sudan, and the Congo's Brazzaville.

     Urge kids to start scrapbooks filled with their own pictures of foreign places and people from a variety of sources: newspapers, magazines, travel brochures, corporate annual reports, and pamphlets prepared by foreign embassies and consulates. I found a picture of Machu Picchu, Peru's 15th century Inca site, in an alumni magazine. Back issues of National Geographic, staples in used book and thrift stores, can give children a jump start for finding photos that provide a sense of different places. Every other year, the summer and winter Olympics offer an excellent opportunity to find photos of the city where the games are held. After the winter Olympics in 2014, children will be familiar with the Russian city of Sochi in the Caucasus Mountains on the Black Sea, and when the summer Olympics are held in 2016, they will see what life is like in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.