Is War Ethical Essay Example for Free

Is War Ethical Essay The question, is war ethical, should always be the first question asked and the first question answered before engaging in such a world altering, life changing endeavor. One must be sure that purpose of war is to bring peace. â€Å"That its essential aim is always peace, so if peace is forthcoming in any guise, it is morally critical for all parties to seek a return to a permanent peace rather than a momentary lapse of war† (Moseley). Unfortunately, this is not the mindset of Falcon, one of the charters in The Sirens of Baghdad. He is militant; consumed with Thanatos and with an â€Å"appetite for destruction† (Hedges 251) towards the American troops; Falcon in the event below is determined to deceive and poison the minds of his brethren against the Americans troops. The event with Falcon takes place at the barbershop in Karfr Karam. Falcon and the elders of the town are gathered there, discussing the capture of Saddam by the American force in Iraqi. After some of the elders expressed their gratitude for the Americans capturing Saddam. Falcon takes this opportunity to place his seeds of doubt. He tries to unethically persuade his brethren. He expresses to them that the Americans had no right to go after Saddam and insists that it was the people of Iraqis responsibility. He believed it was because of every Iraqi’s cowardice that Saddam tyrannized them. He references this when he said, â€Å"People have the kings they deserve† (Khadra 32). He then expressed that Saddam may have been a monster but added that he was their monster. Falcon went on to explain that Saddam was one of them and shared their blood. He added that Saddam may have been a tyrant but he was Iraqi and therefore the Americans had no business touching or going after him. Falcon expressed that he would rather have Saddam still in power rather than the infidel American troops in Iraq. Falcon believed it was the Americans’ force, not Saddam that put Iraq in dire straits. Falcon says, â€Å"Look at what they’ve made of our country: hell on earth† (Khadra 33). Falcon’s behavior is fueled by Thanatos just as the behavior of the Islamic clerics was when they were determined to convert their countrymen into devout Muslims. â€Å"They spurned the decadence of the West including what the clerics condemned as the West’s loose sexual mores, drug use and thirst for sensual gratification†(Hedges 260). In that very moment Falcon was purposely lying to demoralize the American troops. He was trying to persuade his audience that the Americans did not come to free Iraq and bring peace. Falcon felt Saddam was an excuse to take Iraq’s resources and pillage their towns and cities. He tried to fill his audience’s minds with doubt and mistrust. He was unethically deceiving his community the same way real life insurgents behave in the Iraqi war. Tariq say’s, â€Å"More and more Iraqis were fooled by the insurgents propaganda, and the attacks aimed at Americans and their supporters increased. My country †¦ has suffered greatly from the insurgency, and we have lost many people who believed in the U. S. message† (Abandoned in Iraq). Falcon, just like the real insurgents in Iraq dedicated to their unethical war, chose an unethical path. He spread deceitful lies and led his brethren into the jaws of Tahantos instead of guiding them towards a life of peace and happiness. The next event in The Sirens of Baghdad is fueled by the insurgents’ use of deceitful tactics. In pursuit of their unethical war, they purposely caused innocent lives to be lost in order to create media propaganda to recruit the naive young men of Iraq. They dressed in civilian clothing and hid among the people. They used the innocent women and children for cover and human shields. â€Å"A populace†¦. held hostage by a group of ragged, starving ‘rebels,’ armed with filthy rifles and rocket launchers† (Khadra 76). Their actions and behaviors are very similar to those of the real insurgency and their unethical war in Iraq. An example of this is when they gave young school children realistic toy guns to play with at the very same check points their relatives work at with US troops. This was obviously done to cause innocent bloodshed which, in turn, will create some type of media propaganda for their cause. Specialist Raven Jenks says, â€Å"It’s to train the kids to use real weapons, and also to provoke us into killing civilians (Iraq’s young Blood). The insurgency uses this unethical tactic to create media propaganda of war. This is for the sole purpose of causing despair and rage within the people of Iraq to brainwash them and turn them against the forces that are sent to help. In the event described below, Yassen is one of the first young men in the Sirens of Baghdad to be won over by this unethical war tactic. The event takes place in the cafe in Kafr Karma. Seeds of doubt and deception have already reached the minds of Kafr Karma’s youth about American troops. Before departing for Bagdad, Sayed, Falcon’s son, purposely left a parting gift of a television for Kafr Karam’s youth at the cafe. He did this in hopes the youth would not forget his message and â€Å"that the young men of Kafra Karam would not lose sight of their country’s tragic reality† (Khadra 74). Along with the seeds of doubt and deception already planted within the young men’s minds, this gift â€Å"proved to be a poisoned chalice† (Khadra 83). It served its purpose well. The youth were griped with the images of war and enraged by the lost of innocent blood shed of their people. They began to sway to the side of the insurgency unethical war; â€Å"applauding successful ambushes and deploring skirmishes that went wrong† (Khadra 84). The young men of Kafr Karam were growing closer to Thanatos everyday and the temptation to â€Å"honor false covenants †¦. and gender† (Hedges 250),such as Saddam, was taking affect. Fully aware of the unethical wrongs Saddam committed, the youth still began to further familiarize themselves with him. Their initial delight for his capture turned to frustration. One of the youth, Yaseen, felt the publicity portraying the capture of Saddam portrayed him as a rat; dirty, confused, unshaven, and exposed to the cameras of the world. Yassen took offense to this and announced â€Å"by humiliating him like that, they were holding up every Arab in the world to public opprobrium† (Khadra 84). Yassen was clearly won over by the insurgency’s propaganda and unethical chose to aid in spreading its lies and deceit. The insurgency’s seed of doubt and deception enforced by their media propaganda enforced their campaign for the loyalty (Hedges 250) and paid off. The insurgency gained a new recruit from Kafr Karam to join their unethical war. The final event described below from The Sirens of Baghdad is a fictional example of the ultimate insanity of the insurgency’s unethical war. The Iraqi insurgency preys on the young men and boys who have been submerse in violence; â€Å"the closest analogy may be to the Taliban in Afghanistan. They offer these orphans of war a different kind of family structure cemented by the bonds of Islam†(Iraq’s Young Blood). These young Iraqis want to belong but more importantly crave purpose. Their minds are impressionable, easy to manipulate and brainwash. Making them the perfect candidates to turn into suicidal human weapons. The event described below from The Sirens of Baghdad bear witness to this product of unethical war. The main character (the narrator) turns himself into human weapon. The final event takes place in Beirut, Lebanon. The narrator has been groomed by his cousin Sayed (a member of the insurgency) since his arrival in Baghdad form Kafr Karam. The narrator, who has longed to become a suicide bomber, now receives his chance. Fully aware of his cousin’s fate, Sayed still makes the unethical decision to offer the narrator the mission. Sayed says, â€Å"you wanted some action†¦. Well, the miracle has taken place†¦. mission is now possible† (Khadra 236). The narrator accepts the unethical mission. Delighted, but aware of the possibility the narrator may change his mind before the mission, Sayed makes the unethical discussion to manipulate his young cousin once again. He says, â€Å"Kafr Karam, the forgotten, will take its place in history† (Khadra 237). Those words send the narrator into a state of purpose and honor. This is evident when he says, â€Å"He had lifted me up into the ranks of those who are revered† (Khadra 237). The narrator has made the unethical choice to become a human weapon.

Legislative Influence on the Economy :: essays research papers

Legislative Influence on the Economy Throughout history, there have been instances of the government affecting the economy, be it with the B.U.S. or with the Fair Labor Standards Act, the government has played an important role in our economy. The government rescued the United States from the Great Depression by increasing demand and lowering taxes. During the 80’s, the United States was forced into a recession that threatened to destroy the economy. Both instances were due to intervention of the government to the economy. Most of the government intervention is done by subsidy, which is a form of economic aid to assist a private enterprise, but a good deal is also done by legislation. There are many areas in which the government influences the economy through legislation. One area influenced by legislation is business. Calvin Coolidge said, â€Å"The business of America is business.† The government has seen to it that it is fair with this. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, several bills focusing on breaking up the trusts were passed with unanimity. It began with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. This Act outlawed and restraint on trade or competition, and caused the breakup of the Standard Oil trust into twenty different companies. Another area where legislation has been used to help control the economy was in trade. With the breaking up of large trusts and monopolies with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, A group had to be able to enforce the new laws, and so in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission Act was passed, months before the Clayton Anti-Trust Act was passed to fill in the gaps left by the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. With all of these new companies sprouting up, an increase in the number of jobs occurred, but it is no surprise that workers were not being paid fair wages, and so in the area of labor, the government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. This act created the way by which everybody works today. A minimum wage, 40- hour work week, and control of child labor. This legislation itself was invoked by large labor unions such as the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), both of which sought to improve working conditions and wages through negotiations with employers. One overdue act was the Meat Inspection Act, largely influenced by Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. The act was passed in 1960, long overdue considering the circumstances.

Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette and the Traces of History

This paper probes in the historical events included in the Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. At the offset, the movie presented the events that have transpired in French history with fresh eyes. The result is both interesting and engaging. It is interesting in the sense that the form (which is film) through which history was rendered provided entertainment to the viewers. At the same time, the movie is engaging as it was able to capture the historical events that, to me, challenged the viewers to analyze history deeper. In this paper, I will highlight the historical allusions in the movie that coincide in the last instance with the actual events that occurred in France more than two centuries ago. I will show that, among others, the film articulated the extravagant life of Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution, the â€Å"human† side of the queen, and the period of Enlightenment. The fifth element that I will focus on is what the film unwittingly revealed in its precise attempt to conceal – that is the fact that Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI are not innocent victims.   I will argue that the tenuous conflation of film and history proved a success (and failure) in the case of Marie Antoinette. . Music as Social Critique Of all its features, â€Å"Marie Antoinette† was an interesting cinematic experience because of the music. It is through music that the film was able to convey a historical account of Marie Antoinette’s life. It is already commonplace that Marie Antoinette lived a life of luxury, and the film showed this from the beginning until the end. According to historical records, Marie Antoinette’s lifestyle was too extravagant that the general populace suffered (see Fraser 2001).   This affluence of French royalty was showcased in the film with the help of music. It was a joy to watch French royalty in their elaborate garb cavorting with their consorts and ladies-in-waiting to the sound of 80s post-punk. Perhaps to evoke the ironic joie de vivre of the 80s juxtaposed to the dionysian lifestyle (as opposed to hedonism) of the French king and queen and her court, they danced to an adaptation of Siouxsie and the Banshee’s â€Å"Hong Kong Garden† which was played by a string ensemble. The song then segued into the original post-punk version signifying a higher level of joy and abandon for everyone. In one scene, The Cure’s â€Å"Plainsong† was played during the couple’s coronation – an important and extensive shot taken on the steps of the Versailles. I’ve always thought that the music of The Cure was cinematic but the band evoked visions of modern dystopia for me- of highways, electric poles and sad abandoned factories; instead of men wearing wigs and tights and women with exposed bosoms under dainty parasols during the last gasps of European feudalism. The forlorn but quintessential New Order song, â€Å"Ceremony† is played in another party scene to create a contrast to the revelry of the French royal upperclass. Jarring as these may have been, these clever bits of musical scoring not only comprise the best thing about the film but also serve as its ideological heart. Of course, the average listener is not expected to recognize many of these songs. In fact, in most parts, what one hears are just instrumental excerpts from some obscure track of a particular musical genre from the 90s labeled as â€Å"shoegaze† music. While this cultural referencing from the early 90s in film is unusual (only Araki has done this to much success in â€Å"The Doom Generation† which was made during the early 90s), it is also apt since these attempts highlight all the more the cinematic traits of the dated but enduring genre. The contribution of Kevin Shields (who also did work for Lost in Translation) from the legendary shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine as well as the excellent selections from current Swedish band The Radio Dept. attest to the â€Å"hip† and â€Å"cred† consistency in Sofia Coppola’s work as well as indicating her appreciation for the lost musical genre. Remember that in her first critically acclaimed oeuvre, â€Å"The Virgin Suicides,† she also featured in the soundtrack the French duo with high â€Å"cred† points – Air. However, this time around, I believe that the clever use of contemporary music serves a purpose beyond achieving the â€Å"coolness factor† that the director is known for. It foregrounds an interesting but controversial take on a pivotal moment in the history of western society. History in/through Cinema Not only did the film powerfully show the frivolous existence of Marie Antoinette and the French Monarchy but also the manner by which this existence was put to an end by the French people. The French Revolution was only shown at the last scenes of the film yet it serves a potent reminder of how the oppressed classes of French society stood up and fought. If only for this, the film briefly yet powerfully captured the historical change that transpired during the French Revolution of 1793. It must be noted though that the death of Marie Antoinette and other French royalties indeed sparked hope, however brief a moment. I say this since the French monarchy was soon after replaced by the rule of the bourgeois (see Doyle 2001). This transition was no longer included in the film yet the fact remains that the vital force of the French Revolution served as a compelling conclusion in the life of Marie Antoinette. Marie Antoinette and the Louis-Auguste were the King and Queen of France at the onset of the historic French Revolution. This event marked the political culmination of the unprecedented social and economic changes that began with the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. It represented the victory of an emerging economic order whose political form was represented by the French Republicans. At the prodding of the bourgeois liberals who pushed for the republican ideals of the right to suffrage and democratic leadership, the peasants stormed the Bastille and later the royal palace of Versailles effectively heralding the demise of the French monarchy. The defeat of the royalists as manifested in the violent deaths of Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI by the guillotine and the subsequent rise of the French Republic meant new political and social arrangements that to some represent the defining shift from the â€Å"Dark Ages† to the Modern Era. One of this epoch’s key features is the ascendancy of the belief that, finally, man’s destiny is in its own hands and not under the control of some sovereign and God-ordained power as represented by the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. Simultaneous, therefore, with the film’s showing of the French Revolution is the showing of the period of Enlightenment.   This includes the understanding that societies are wholly human artifacts subject to the collective will and power of the people that ideologically challenged the class structure of not only the monarchy and its feudal base but also early capitalism and its liberal pretensions. Many therefore, including Marie Antoinette, interpret the French revolution as a progressive step away from the extreme inequities of feudal society and monarchical political formations and some quarters even regard it as an event that points to the possibility of egalitarian human societies (see also Lancaster 1953). Marie Antoinette and Modernity However, the film â€Å"Marie Antoinette† takes on a different stance regarding modernity. For Coppola and Antonia Fraser, whose book the film was based on, to depict the relatively unknown but human story of the Princess of Vienna who became Queen of France from the other side of â€Å"his-tory† so-to-speak, is in itself an important statement. More so because Marie Antoinette is mistakenly vilified in history texts as the callous Queen who, in the midst of France’s bread shortage and general economic crisis, allegedly quipped â€Å"let them eat cake† in all her regal pomposity (see Thomas 1999). Coppola shows to us instead a sympathetic and unknown side to the lives of these pampered royalties. The film takes great pains to show the struggle of Marie Antoinette and the King as they fit in to the unreasonable demands of being royalties as well as the privileges that they enjoyed. We are made to understand their humanity as they recapture their innocence in the Dionysian abandon of royal masquerades, deal with deaths in the family, and even suffer the distinct boredom of the rich and spoiled. Some historians have also tried to present us this â€Å"human† side of Marie Antoinette and the French Monarchy. According to their studies, Marie Antoinette is not as evil as popularly presupposed (see Fraser 2001). Apparently, this is the same point the movie is trying to make. That is why when the mob arrived at the palace gates, we are immediately herded by the film to the side of royalty since it is they who we are more familiar with; it is they who we found funny and endearing. Never mind that it is the moment of justice for the angry multitude as they vent out their anger after centuries of carrying the feudal yoke in order to provide the monarchs with the resources for their grand lifestyle and capricious wars. Never mind that it is modernity and human progress that is, in a manner of speaking, knocking on the gates of Versailles and that this singular event would inspire movements of liberation throughout the world including our country’s own struggle against colonizers. Coppola deftly avoids all these issues by framing this historical narrative through Marie Antoinette’s eyes. What is presented to us instead is the consistent template in film of how individuals, in the general sense, are victimized by history’s unsentimental march. It subtly laments Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI’s persecution since they were merely thrown into circumstances they did not choose. The reach of the royal imagination, the film seemingly apologizes, cannot go beyond the intricate pastries, the petticoats and the other regal accoutrements of their regal existence. Thus, when the mob, who was comprised of the first liberals in their original incarnation, demanded the King and Queen’s literal heads, a degree of sadness was warranted. There was no indignation expressed in the film akin to the moral appeal of the liberal critique against Stalin (â€Å"the revolution will devour its own children,† and it seems that the liberals also had an appetite for pale monarchs), but through a somewhat Nietzschean lamentation for the lost of dionysian beauty and innocence. This was expressed in the film in a lingering shot of a defiled royal salon after the mob stormed the palace. The room was once full of vibrant life, colors, opulence and laughter. Now, it was a drab grey room of broken furniture and torn curtains perhaps anticipating the abandoned factories of Manchester. Was Coppola intimating the view that history’s march towards modernity must be interpreted in this way? Does she share the same dystopic vision of modern society as those espoused by this band of angsty and socially dysfunctional philosophers in the persons of Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Foucault whose disdain for modernity is legendary and influential to this day? The Element of Ahistoricity in Marie Antoinette By focusing therefore with the intricacies in the life of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the film was able make the audience sympathize with them. The possible danger here is the dilution of the revolution which culminated in the reign of Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI. Some studies have also pointed out the quirks of the royal couple without dismissing the crime that they have committed (see Cronin 1989). The use of contemporary cultural references for an otherwise period setting is therefore an important element in the light of these observations. The film achieves an ahistorical sheen as if insisting that its lessons are timeless if not enduring to this day. It seems to argue an interesting point – that the fate of Maria Antoinette and Louis XVI, who also danced to Siouxsie and the Banshee’s â€Å"Hong Kong Garden† – they in an elaborate ball and we in our dingy night clubs – are also our shared destinies. We are, in a manner of speaking, modernity’s common victims. If the two were hanged by a vengeful mob at the cusp of modernity, we are its sad disenfranchised heirs existing in the rubble of modernity as a failed experiment two centuries hence. This is the shared stance of thinkers such as Nietzsche, Heidegger and Foucault. Modern life is synonymous to mediocrity, alienation (or inauthenticity) and debilitating bio-power (that society is one big prison and there is no escape). Our only refuge is towards individualism, introspection, and caring for the self. What better way to drive home this point through music than to employ the sensibility of post-punk’s true heirs – shoegaze. There are some interesting parallelisms between developments in social theory and popular culture. There was an attempt by the counter-cultural folk movement of the 60s in translating its agenda into a potent political force. However, the failure of the Paris Commune coincided with the cooptation of folk into â€Å"hippie†-dom and later corporate arena rock. In the academe, a post-political (or post-socialist condition) also assumed an influential position wherein the likes of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Foucault became the gurus of a veiled individualism that places in its diametrical opposite society and history. Punk presented a brief respite attracting a wide section of Britain’s disaffected and unemployed youth under Thatcherism but eventually folded because of its nihilism and absence of class politics. This resignation is now embodied in the broad post-punk category that includes a variety of styles – self-referential and heavily sentimental at times while being angular and loud in others. Most of these bands eschewed the political and even anarchic stance of punk and insisted on appropriating an introspective tone while salvaging the innocent harmonies of The Beach Boys and the pop songcraft of the Beatles from the 60s. Of course, in the larger context, mass culture was the more dominant cultural form where artists such as Madonna and Michael Jackson represented the new apex in consumerist popular culture. In the sub-cultural field, however, the post-punk ethos was eventually adapted by a new musical movement that melded together the dark undertones of cult bands such as Joy Division and The Cure with the ethereal pop sound of The Cocteau Twins and the drone of The Velvet Underground in the late 80s to early 90s. The result is a musical movement that has come be labeled as shoegaze because of the penchant of these genre’s guitar players to look down on their effects boxes to create their complex and dense signature guitar sound. Meanwhile, in the academe, the same sensibilities are also gaining ground with the fashionable rise of postmodernism and its celebration of eclecticism, ahistoricity, identity politics and a deep and unrelenting individualism. It is, thus, no accident that these post-punk and the shoegaze movements found its most rabid supporters among the college set. By the 90s, the cult status of these sub-genres has imploded into the mainstream with the rise of the â€Å"alternative† and Nirvana. With its wall of feedback, unintelligible vocals and sweeping melancholia, shoegaze’s sound performs the sad and confused resignation of the post-political era. Marie Antoinette now follows a long line of fashionably sad cultural icons that include Kurt Cobain and the wind-swept plastic bag in â€Å"American Beauty.† These films make a claim for sadness as the universal currency of modernity whether you be of royal lineage or a working class clone (or even an inanimate object) and our only balm or remedy is to wallow in Kevin Shield’s eloquent but loud and beautiful sound of sadness as we mourn the death of all-too-human Marie Antoinette – our new postmodern pop icon. But of course we know better. Therefore, what the film tried to do was paint Marie Antoinette as a victim of history. What strikes us as suspicious is our knowledge that she had the choice to change the social system. What prevented them for doing so was perhaps their passionate attachment to what the French people are asking them to give up. It was of course tremendously difficult for Marie Antoinette to give up her lifestyle that rests on the wretchedness of the general populace since it was perhaps what she has been used to all her life. This is precisely the problem with the ideological stakes raised by the film and the philosophical persuasions that side with such a dystopic reading of humanity’s past, present and future. For that matter, these also draw attention to the utter lack of radical promise among the educated American youth because an assessment of even indie culture indicates that they are either too emo, fragmented and individualist to wield any form of potent politics unlike their French forbearers who were willing to destroy the monarchy in order to build liberal democracy. Modernity continues to be a necessary human project in the light of the continuing inequalities of our modern life. Men and women must not relent in the political task of charting the direction of human history, the sadness and violence of the struggle notwithstanding. Works Cited: Cronin, Vincent, Louis and Antoinette. London: The Harvill Press, 1989. Doyle, William The Oxford history of the French Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989. Fraser, Lady Antonia. Marie Antoinette, The Journey. New York: Anchor, 2006. Lancaster, Carrington. French Tragedy in the Reign of Louis XVI: And the Early Years of the French Revolution, 1774-1792. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1953. Thomas, Chantal. The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie-Antoinette. trans. by Julie Rose. London: Zone Books, 2001.

Transportation Geography

Transportation geography is a branch of economic geography that studies transportation and all aspects related to it and the geography of an area. This means that it examines the transportation or movement of people, goods, and information in or across different regions. It can have a local focus in a city (New York City for example), as well as a regional (the United States Pacific Northwest), national or global focus. Transportation geography also studies the different modes of transportation such as road, rail, aviation and boat and their relationships to people, the environment and urban areas. Transportation has been important in geographic study for hundreds of years. In the early days of geography explorers used known sailing routes to explore new areas and set up trading outposts. As the worlds economy began to modernize and develop railway and maritime shipping became increasingly important and knowledge of foreign markets was essential. Today transportation capacity and efficiency is important so knowing the quickest way to move people and products is important and in turn, understanding the geography of the regions in which these people and products are moving is vital. Transportation geography is a very broad subject that looks at many different topics. For example, transportation geography could possibly look at the link between the presence of a railroad in an area and the percentage of commuters using rail to get to work in a developed area. Social and environmental impacts of the creation of transportation modes are other topics within the discipline. Transportation geography also studies the constraints of movement across space. An example of this might be looking at how the shipment of goods varies at different times of the year due to weather conditions. To gain a better understanding of transportation and its relationship to geography transportation geographers today study three important fields that relate to transportation: nodes, networks, and demand. The following is a list of the three major branches of transportation geography: 1) Nodes are the beginning and end points for transportation between geographic areas. The Port of Los Angeles is an example of a node because it is the start and end for the shipment of goods to and from the United States. The presence of a node is important economically because it can aid in the development of a city due to jobs for example. 2) Transportation networks are the second major field in transportation geography and they represent the structure and organization of transportation infrastructures like roads or train lines through an area. Transportation networks connect the nodes and are significant because they can directly affect the capacity and efficiency of the movement of people and goods. For example, a well-developed train line would be an efficient transportation network to move people and goods from two nodes, say, from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It is up to transportation geographers to study the differences between two networks to most efficiently move items between nodes. 3) The third major field of transportation geography is demand. Demand is based on public demand for different types of transportation. For example, if commuters are in constant traffic congestion on a daily basis in a city, public demand might support the development of a transit system such as light rail to move them within the city or two and from the city and their home. Overall, transportation is a significant topic within geography because the worlds economy depends on transportation. By studying how transportation relates to geography, researchers and geographers can gain a better understanding of why cities, transportation networks and the worlds economy have developed the way they have. Reference Hanson, Susan, ed. and Genevieve Giuliano, ed. The Geography of Urban Transportation. New York: The Guilford Press, 2004. Print.