Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Food, Glorious Food!!!! :)

Australia and New Zealand’s “eating pattern” is very similar to the United States.  Dinner is the main meal where families gather to eat together.  They sometimes go out to restaurants or get “takeaways” which is like our version of take-out.  Families have barbecues in the summer time like we do.  The host family invites people over and they bring drinks and other snacks.  The man usually cooks the meat while the woman the other jobs.
Whereas we get our food or spices from around the world (but sometimes from here), New Zealanders get all there ingredients that are strictly from New Zealand.  Australians are the same way when it comes to getting there food.  The influence on food usually comes from British-based food.
Dinner is the main meal in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States but the way we cook dinner is different.  Where Americans usually prefer an oven or grill, some families in New Zealand/ Australia prefer to eat “hangi” style.  Hangi refers to the Maori style of cooking.  The men will dig a hole, construct a fire in it, and then cook the food right there! One of their main courses is fish and chips.  Here it would probably be a hamburger and fries. That’s almost the same!
I am really excited to try a bunch of new foods that I would never think twice about eating on a normal day.  I am also very interested in the different foods they eat and how they prepare certain things.  Knowing about where they got/get their ideas for their food would also be pretty cool to learn about.  If I find some foods that I really enjoy, I am definitely going to try to get the recipes and then try to cook that on my own!  I will ask my pen pal if there are any foods that she thinks I would never try but should try while I’m there.  J

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Blog 9/ Rabbit-Proof Fence

1) In chapter 3 of Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington, many points on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are violated by the European settlers.  When they came to Australia, the land they came to was already owned by the Aboriginals.  They knew that when the settlers came, it meant the "destruction of their traditional society and the dispossesion of their lands.  They had no respect for the laws and culture of the Aboriginals. The europeans denied the natives of many things.  They couldn't hunt because the hunting trails were blocked by fences.  They settlers also disregarded the natives land and went ahead and built huts and tents.  The natives had no right to equality because the "white man" ignored their laws and took everything. The settlers gave them no right to fair public hearing because as soon as someone did something they didn't like, they had them shipped off to a different island or a prison for the rest of their life.  One man even had his wife stolen and in return, received a bag of flour.  There was much discrimination against the aboriginals. The biggest human right that was violated was freedom from slavery.  The europeans soon learned that they could put the aborignals to work.  They found it was much easier then putting englishmen to work because they required much pay.  They paid the natives with little things such as rice which according to George Fletcher Moore, author of Diary of Ten Years, was their "simple diet".
2) Manifest Destiny is defined as the belief that the U.S should be able to expand out west and further its growth among America. This meant getting rid of things and people by any means nessasary. The native americans were already living in the west but settlers came and took the land, food sources, and the rights of the people anyway.  This mirrors the "civilizing" of Australia and the aborignals.  It seems that the european settlers and the english colonists had the same thing in mind when they moved in.  They had no respect for the natives laws and cultures.  They used their own sense of goverment, which included the use of guns and muskets, to get the natives to move.  They stole the food source and land from them without any consent from the natives.
3) I do not at all think that what the government did was morally justified.  How is relocating kids of mixed descent justified.  From reading the passage, I got the idea that life with the kid's regular family wasn't so bad.  The had a food source, a loving family, and an education.  Just because the life wasn't the best life possible, they didn't need to be relocated.  Besides, the only reason the kids were being relocated was for them to get an education on how to be a labor worker.  I don't see how the goverment was able to pass that law without the consent of the aborignals.  This in a way, kind of goes against the "right to participate in goverment and free elections".
 

Blog 8/ Invasive Species

The Cane toad, or Rhinella marina, is native to Central and South America. Adult toads average up to 10cm-15cm.  They usually eat living or dead matter. Female toads lay a single clump that contains thousands of eggs (probably why they are thriving in Australia).
The were first brought in to Australia in 1935.  More than 3000 toads were introduced to sugar cane plantaions in northern Queensland.  The were brought into the plantations to control the French's Cane Beetle and the Greyback Cane Beetle because they were causing alot of damage to the sugar cane crops. While they did control some of the insects, they did not control all of them.  Cane Toads went on to become one of the most highly invasive species in Australia. They have spread quickly all over northern Australia but are mostly in Queensland, New South Wales, and Northern Territory.  Recently, there have been sightings in western AU.

While Cane toads are somewhat controlling insects, they are also posing as a threat to other animals native to AU.  The Cane toad is preyed upon by animals such as crocodiles, goannas, frogs, and many fish.  The problem is that the Cane toad has a deadly defence-mecanism.  When threatened, they have the ability to release a toxin (bufotoxin) from the glands in their eyes and across their back.  Many species of animals have been drastically reduced because of the Cane Toad. 
There have been efforts at controlling the Cane Toad population. One way was to spray pesticides on toad habitats.  This worked signifigantly and reduced the cane toad population but studies by scientists showed that the pesticide was causing cancer in some humans.  That was immediatly put to an end.  Another effort was to catch toads and put them to sleep in a refrigerator for 12 hours and then applying hemorrhoid cram on their backs (to try and stop the poison) but that never caught on.  Most people have just "thrown in the towel".  There has been talk of training predators to not attack the toad.
The multicolored asian lady beetle, or Harmonia axyrdis, is one of many invasive species known to North America.  It came from Asia (obvioulsy) and was introduced to Europe and North America to control the aphid and scale insect population.  It is now a pest that invades homes in october (hibernation).  People have tried to control the lady beetle population by using insecticides, trapping, and even trying to mechanically prevent their entry into buildings.
There should be more concern when it comes to invasive species.  I will admit, when I first heard about invasive species here, I didn't think much of it.  When we learned about the rabbit problem in Australia and what damages they are causing, it made me think alot more about the species here.  There should definaltly be more work done about all of the species that are causing problems in each country.