India´s Economy

India is a country that is currently part of the BRIC block, therefore it can become one of the most economically important countries in the future.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the economy of India had followed socialist tendencies. The economy was paralyzed by rules and regulations imposed by the government, protectionism and public property, which led to widespread corruption and slow economic growth. It was in 1991 when the national economy became a market economy.

Sports in England

Sports in England

England has a strong sporting heritage, and during the 19th century codified many sports that are now played around the world. Sports originating in England include association football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, tennis, badminton, squash, rounders,hockey, boxing, snooker, billiards, darts, table tennis, bowls, netball, thoroughbred horseracing and fox hunting. It has helped the development of sailing and Formula One. Football is the most popular of these sports. The England national football team, whose home venue is Wembley Stadium, won the 1966 FIFA World Cup, the year the country hosted the competition.

At club level England is recognised by FIFA as the birth-place of club football, due to Sheffield FC founded in 1857 being the oldest club.The Football Association is the oldest of its kind, FA Cup and The Football League were the first cup and league competitions respectively. In the modern day the Premier League is the world's most lucrative football league and amongst the elite. The European Cup has been won by Liverpool, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, while Arsenal, Chelsea and Leeds United have reached the final.

Cricket is generally thought to have been developed in the early medieval period among the farming and metalworking communities of the Weald. The England cricket team is a composite England and Wales team. One of the game's top rivalries is The Ashes series between England and Australia, contested since 1882. The finale of the 2009 Ashes was watched by nearly 2 million people, although the climax of the 2005 Ashes was viewed by 7.4 million as it was available on terrestrial television.England are the current holders of the trophy and are fifth in both Test and One Day International cricket.

England has hosted four Cricket World Cups (1975, 1979, 1983, 1999) and the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009. There are several domestic level competitions, including the County Championship in which Yorkshire are by far the most successful club having won the competition 31 times. Lord's Cricket Ground situated in London is sometimes referred to as the "Mecca of Cricket". William Penny Brookes was prominent in organising the format for the modern Olympic Games. London hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948, and will host them again in 2012. England competes in the Commonwealth Games, held every four years. Sport England is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in England. A Grand Prix is held at Silverstone.

The England rugby union team won the 2003 Rugby World Cup, the country was one of the host nations of the competition in the 1991 Rugby World Cup and is set to host the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The top level of club participation is the English Premiership. Leicester Tigers, London Wasps, Bath Rugby and Northampton Saints have had success in the Europe-wide Heineken Cup. In another form of the sport—rugby league which was born in Huddersfield in 1895, the England national rugby league team are ranked third in the world and first in Europe.

Since 2008 England has been a full test nation in lieu of the Great Britain national rugby league team, which won three World Cups but is now retired. Club sides play in Super League, the present-day embodiment of the Rugby Football League Championship. Some of the most successful clubs include Wigan Warriors, St Helens, Leeds Rhinos and Huddersfield Giants; the former three have all won the World Club Challenge previously. The United Kingdom is to host the 2013 Rugby League World Cup. In tennis, the Wimbledon Championships are the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely considered the most prestigious.

Vargas Hernández Huitzi Daniel

¡¡ G'day Everyone.. Australia Is Here !!

Australia is a country in which we can appreciate the relationship between culture, geography, history and economy in a very different way from the other countries of the world.

The UN (United Nations) chose Australia as the second best country to live in because the access to education is high, a high life expectancy in people and the crime in the country is very low.

Australia was a British colony, for this reason it has the same language and form of government and justice. It's a country with an excellente system of education, health and social security; for those reasons it is one of the least insecure countries in the globe.

Because of is historical formation, Australia is a nation of immigrants. This has led her to also become a tolerant multicultural society with complete rejection of racial discrimination, for that reason they enjoy the interaction with foreign people.

As a country being surrounded by water, people are very in touche with the nature and sports, always enjoying the beautiful beaches that offers this island and we definitely can't forget about the kangaroos and koalas, Australia is what they call home.

¡¡ The country of surfing, long summers and multiculturalism.. this is Australia dinky di !!

Alberto

Why India?

Why India? That’s a good question. Choosing a foreign country to talk about is an interesting brainstorm because everyone has a different point of view. But, at the end, we chose India because, despite our ignorance of many things about that culture, we saw India as a combination of the best of both worlds.

We mean, India combines a rich, powerful and complex cultural legacy product of a millenarian history that includes various types of religions, and a significant place in the connection between Asia with Europe, but also, India represents an excellent example of the fusion with the Occidental cultures, that derivates of being one of the oldest colonies of the Great Britain.

But it’s not the only reason of what we thought it’s important to talk about India. The Indian economy is one of the called BRIC countries, which are supposed to be the new emergent markets in the future, it’s also the second most populated country in the world, with the plus that being an English-speaking country there’s not a big cultural breakout like the case of China.

India is also a growing centre of entertainment, in the best tradition of the big Broadway musicals and the glamour of Hollywood, Bollywood is today, one of the biggest producers of entertainment on the world, and with great influence on the Oriental countries.

India offers a great economy, a rich and provocative culture, and a political and social environment that leads to the vanguard of the future, that’s why is a good country to talk.

A little introduction to England's geographic Delimitation and Conformation

(Based on Gran Enciclopedia del mundo, Durvan ediciones, Bilbao, 1975 and http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglaterra)

This time, I will try to present in this blog a mini summary about England's geographic delimitation and conformation.

Thus, it is necessary to start saying that England is one of the countries that belong to the United Kingdom, which is the government that rules the British Isles. So, as national territory, England is one of the three Great Britain’s Historical kingdoms (the other two are Wales -which is in the west- and Scotland -which is in the north).

In connection with its location, it should be noted that, between these three nations, England has the closest geographical proximity to the European continent -the maritime area known as English Channel- and the only underground connection -the Eurotunnel- between them.

Now, with respect to England's geomorphology, the most notable aspect is that this island is mainly conformed by highlands. However, it is possible to divide the country in two different geo-zones: the hilly west and the lowlands east, both regions separated by the most important mountain chain of England, which is called The Pennines. Despite this general limits, it is also true that the southern region of both longitude has more flat lands.

Otherwise, the English weather is wet and temperate (between -5ºC and 30ºC), although, as it is logical, it is warmer in the south than in the north. On the other hand, snowfalls occur in winter and spring, mostly in the highlands.

Finally, England’s territorial organization has suffered some changes. Aforetime, counties –each of which molds the basic subdivision of hierarchy administration- constituted the only political organization and they were made between kingdoms.

In contrast and since the nineteenth century, nowadays England has four hierarchy political levels: 9 regions, 47 counties, 326 districts and many parishes.

It is interesting to note that counties have been separated in two: metropolitan counties and ceremonial counties. The firsts are the political-administrative regions of England, while the seconds are the geographic limits which make reference to those.

Britannia or Toward the formation of England

(An abstract based on A history of the English-Speaking Peoples, by Winston S. Churchill)

In the first century B.C., Julius Caesar laid his eyes on Britannia, an island kwon by its “barbaric and savage” Celtic population. Considering that, for the Roman Empire, the latter represented not only a threat, but also a huge mass of worker power; he decided to guide his army to the island.

So, in his first rush, with eighty ships, Caesar sailed to Britannia in 55 B.C.

After several fighting months, he finally gained the victory and subjected the Britons, who soon found a leader called Cassivellaunus, a man who knew that Britons couldn’t defeat the Roman army and, instead of searching for a bloody ending, chose a pacific agreement with the Empire.

Thanks to this clever political movement, during nearly the next hundred years, Britannia rested in peace; however, after Caligula’s death, Claudius (after named “Britannicus”) took power and restarted the conquest of Britannia invading it in 43 A.C.

Unfortunately for Britons, there was a divergence between principal groups of the island, which allowed that Romans won the battles against them easily causing, on the one hand, a general flight of people and, on the other, many rebellions. The most important of them was made by Boadicea’s tribe between 60-61 A.C., which, helped by other tribes, beat the Romans in Camulodunum (the center of Roman authority) and Londinium (the biggest emporium of the island).

Nevertheless, Boadicea lost the ultimate battle against Caius Suetonius (the proconsul who led roman legions), and Nero, who in those days was already the emperor, sent a new governor for “making peace” with Britons in 78 A.C. His name was Julius Agricola and he was who accomplished the triumph of Romans in 83 A.C. winning the battle of Mons Graupius.

(To be continued…)

Follow up

1. Hello dear students, I would like to ask you to start selecting images for the information you are uploading; I think you have to sign up to the blog to be able to post the info with images, which would be the next step  in our preparation of the project. Remember that now that it is going to appear as a post it should follow your presentation outlay (the order in which you're going to talk about each country). 
2. Therefore, new information is not going to be uploaded as a comment any longer.
3. Once we start posting, I would like the groups to read your other classmates information and to make comments.
4. I hope we can have something by Tuesday night the latest so that on Wednesday during lab, we can start practicing for our participation of the 19th of October.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
Have a great weekend.