The Week of 11/1 in a Glance

Hello everyone! Hope you had a great Halloween and end to Quarter 1.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to comment!

Turkish Elections

By Maddy Art

While we just had election day here in the United States on Tuesday, Turkey also had a big day in the voting booths. So there’s a political group in Turkey called AKP (a democratic party) that has been in control for 13 years. But Turkey had another election earlier this year, which resulted in less power for AKP (led by President Erdogan). So what’s the big deal? Well, after being in control for so long, a vote like that hurts. Especially because Erdogan was trying to get himself more power, not less! But on Sunday more elections were held, and Erdogan and the AKP is once again in control. About 50% of votes went to them - an astoundingly high number. Many are saying that this is because Erdogan is confident in his ability to protect Turkey against groups like ISIS, and protection could be just what the Turkish citizens want and need.

China’s One Child Policy Removed

By Owen Tucker-Smith

Once Deng Xiaoping said that China needed to make sure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.” On Thursday, October 29th, The Chinese Communist Party took a turn in the opposite direction, removing China’s One-Child Policy. Families in China can now have two children.

What is the “One-Child Policy?”

Pretty much what it sounds like. In the 1970s, a Chinese leader named Deng Xiaoping implanted a policy that families in China couldn’t have more that one child. This was so that China’s population could be controlled. The One-Child Policy was not removed, but thinned, in 2013. The 2013 policy added the exception that two kids were allowed if at least one parent was an only child. And now the policy has been demolished. So now is every family taking advantage of this removal by having kids? Not really...

Why?    

Its expensive! Having one child in China can be hard enough, but a second... many families couldn’t support it. This is the reasoning behind many couples’ inactivity after the removal of the policy. The same thing happened in 2013 when the policy was lowered. Many people were eligible for a second child, but only about 1.45 million applications were received by May. That’s a lot, isn’t it? No. A lot of people live in China. 1.45 million was twelve percent of the amount of people eligible. So now they have made the policy non existent. The birth rates will certainly go up, but we do not know how much they will go up.

Good or Bad?   

Even if many citizens are not taking advantage of the policy removal, many agree that the One-Child policy was a violation of “reproductive rights.” Also when the policy was active there were harsh penalties, such as forced abortions, for violators of the rule, which was a source of problem. It was thought that if the policy was removed China’s economy would improve because there would be a lot of youth that would be able to work later on. Many people think that a burst of children is exactly what China needs. This plan would take a while to start working, but it could improve the economy later in time.

Reference 1: Buckley, Chris. "China Ends One-Child Policy, Allowing Families Two Children." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2015.

You Might Not Be Able to Buy That Tent You Want

By Rose Gotlieb

Black Friday - the favorite holiday of the clothes-addicts and shop-o-holics. No doubt you're already gathering your extra change so you can hit the stores - maybe you've started camping out at the mall entrance already. I mean, it's less than a month away.

But one store is preparing for the day a little bit differently. REI, an outdoor-action-sports retailer, is telling its staff to 'take a hike' on Black Friday and spend some time with their families. Smart move? Who knows. But the workers are certainly pleased.

An Update on the Polls

We also thought that this week we would share the current election polls... (source: Huffington Post Pollster)

Republican (top 10)

• 1.  Donald Trump 28.0%
• 2. Ben Carson 22.3%
• 3. Marco Rubio 10.2%
• 4. Ted Cruz 8.5%
• 5. Jeb Bush 7.1%
• 6. Carly Fiorina 3.3%
• 7. John Kasich 2.8%
• 8. Chris Christie 2.6%
• 9. Rand Paul 2.6%
• 10. Mike Huckabee 2.5

Democratic

• 1. Hillary Clinton 56.4%
• 2. Bernie Sanders 31.1%
• 3. Martin O'Malley 2.0%