World Leaders Paper

Ellie Marindin

11/18/12

Human Geography

In some way, all countries are alike, whether it is their history, their political views, their government, their military, or their culture. Take the US and China for example, both of these countries have just made a very large decision that will affect their government, their country in general, and the world if you look at from the point of view that one countries decision brings in a brand new person or rule/regulation that can alter other countries ways. This specific situation is a person changing the country/world, as China and the US just elected their presidents of 2013. China chose Xi Jimping, while the US chose Barack Obama, which will be Presidents Obamas second term serving as president for the US. In the 19^th and 20^th century’s, both these countries had large things occurring, the US expanded with 37 new states being added to the already 13. China however was hit with very large and impacting famines, along with foreign occupation. Something interesting is that there are 4.43% of Asians living in the US, yet in China there are 8.5% of other nationalities which includes the US. As for religions, China has about 1% Christians, 1-2% Buddhists, and 1-2% Muslim. For the US we have 1.6% Of Christians, 7% of Buddhists, and .6%of Muslims. Now you would think that because of the food and health conditions in the US, that China would have a higher life expectancy than us, but surprisingly we are ranked 51^st of the world, while China is ranked 97^th. Our hospital bed density populations although are very alike, just like our literacy rates. It is in these ways that China and the US are connected.

The US and the UK (United Kingdom) are also alike, in more ways than their initials. Both have them same maritime Claims 12 nm (nautical miles) and share many similar natural resources such as coal, iron, and petroleum, natural gas, lead and gold. Both countries have very similar natural hazards such as floods, and windstorms although there are more natural hazards in the US than the UK due to the fact that we are about 50x the size of the UK. An interesting fact is that both UK and the US have the same daylight saving time (1 hour) as well as the same legal system (Common law system.) The legal age to vote (the suffrage) is also 18 years old in both. The national symbol for UK is the lion, which is like the eagle because they are both bold and courageous figures that stand for the countries freedom. In conclusion, there are many ways that countries are intertwined and alike, but at the same time there are as many ways that these countries are different, but as the famous quote states

“Opposites attract”                                      

This quote is very much true, we may have different voting policies than China, but we still have as many ways of getting along with our similarities. Same thing with the UK, they may have thousands less waterways than the US, but both countries are able to get out and in of the country.

“One love. One heart let’s get together and feel all right – Bob Marley”

This quote shows that every single country has their own bit of personality, to add to the one big pool or character called “earth”.