“What in the World?” Quiz – Week of Feb 25-March 3, 2018

CONGRATULATIONS TO HUME-FOGG ACADEMIC MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL ON TAKING THE TITLE AS TENNESSEE’S 2018 ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST CHAMPIONS

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the World Affairs Council.

Don’t forget to sign up as a World Affairs Council member (TNWAC.org/join) to be eligible to win the monthly quiz prize.

Check your global affairs awareness with these ten questions taken from the week’s news reports provided via @TNWAC #TNWACquiz.

The only rule is to use the ‘honor system.’  No answer Googling!

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QUIZ WINNERS FROM LAST WEEK

Keith Simmons, Nashville, TN

Pat Miletich, Nashville, TN

David Hillinck, Huntsville, AL

Pete Griffin, Nashville, TN

Mike Bush, Nashville, TN

Pratik Yedla, Huntsville AL

Well Done!

(If you’re a weekly winner you’ll be entered for the monthly prize drawing but you must be a TNWAC member to win.  TNWAC.org/join )

FEBRUARY 2018 “WHAT IN THE WORLD?” QUIZ PRIZE  *

Putin County: A Journey Into the Real Russia

Anne Garrels

More than twenty years ago, the NPR correspondent Anne Garrels first visited Chelyabinsk, a gritty military-industrial center a thousand miles east of Moscow. The longtime home of the Soviet nuclear program, the Chelyabinsk region contained beautiful lakes, shuttered factories, mysterious closed cities, and some of the most polluted places on earth. Garrels’ goal was to chart the aftershocks of the U.S.S.R.’s collapse by traveling to Russia’s heartland.

Returning again and again, Garrels found that the area’s new freedoms and opportunities were exciting but also traumatic. As the economic collapse of the early 1990s abated, the city of Chelyabinsk became richer and more cosmopolitan, even as official corruption and intolerance for minorities grew more entrenched. Sushi restaurants proliferated; so did shakedowns. In the neighboring countryside, villages crumbled into the ground. Far from the glitz of Moscow, the people of Chelyabinsk were working out their country’s destiny, person by person.

In Putin Country, Garrels crafts an intimate portrait of Middle Russia. We meet upwardly mobile professionals, impassioned activists who champion the rights of orphans and disabled children, and ostentatious mafiosi. We discover surprising subcultures, such as a vibrant underground gay community and a circle of determined Protestant evangelicals. And we watch doctors and teachers trying to cope with inescapable payoffs and institutionalized negligence. As Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on power and war in Ukraine leads to Western sanctions and a lower standard of living, the local population mingles belligerent nationalism with a deep ambivalence about their country’s direction. Through it all, Garrels sympathetically charts an ongoing identity crisis. In the aftermath of the Soviet Union, what is Russia? What kind of pride and cohesion can it offer? Drawing on close friendships sustained over many years, Garrels explains why Putin commands the loyalty of so many Russians, even those who decry the abuses of power they regularly encounter.

Correcting the misconceptions of Putin’s supporters and critics alike, Garrels’ portrait of Russia’s silent majority is both essential and engaging reading at a time when cold war tensions are resurgent.

More Information and Ordering

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We’ll post the answers and the names of the winner(s) in next week’s quiz.

Here’s last week’s questions and answers:

WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ

Week of Feb 18-24, 2018

1. Famous for its hot springs and strong rivers, Iceland gets almost 80% of its electricity from hydroelectricity. A giant increase in THIS activity, though, has the tiny country facing an energy shortage:

A. Online dating
B. Cryptocurrency mining
C. Increased use of grow lights to produce medical marijuana
D. Running extra servers to support the nation’s YouTube habit

Correct Response: B. Cryptocurrency mining
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/13/cryptocurrency-mining-in-iceland-is-using-so-much-energy-the-electricity-may-run-out/?utm_term=.674c48cbfd1b

2. Yielding to pressure from the ruling African National Congress (ANC), Jacob Zuma resigned as president of South Africa. The ANC, originally established to end apartheid, has been South Africa’s dominant political party since the end of apartheid, and has won every major election since 1994. What year was the ANC founded?

A. 1912
B. 1942
C. 1962
D. 1982

Correct Response: A. 1912
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43066443

3. THIS world leader has stated that he will not resign, despite a statement that authorities have found sufficient evidence to indict him on charges of accepting bribes, fraud, and breach of trust. One of the cases pending claims that the leader in question offered to suppress the circulation of a specific newspaper, in exchange for more positive coverage from its rival:

A. Donald Trump
B. Shinzo Abe
C. Nicolás Maduro
D. Benjamin Netanyahu

Correct Response: D. Benjamin Netanyahu
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/13/middleeast/israel-police-netanyahu/index.html

4. After allegations surfaced that its workers had paid vulnerable people in Haiti for sex while on humanitarian relief missions after the 2010 earthquake, more allegations of sexual misconduct in Asia have surfaced against THIS non-governmental organization:

A. Oxfam
B. Red Cross
C. Save the Children
D. The Heifer Project

Correct Response: A. Oxfam
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43060802

5. Hailemariam Desalegn resigned this week as prime minister of Ethiopia, citing ongoing government protests and strikes. The ruling EPRDF coalition responded to the news by doing THIS:

A. Arresting all of Desalegn’s supporters
B. Calling for elections by the end of the month
C. Declaring a state of emergency
D. None of the above

Correct Response: C. Declaring a state of emergency
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/16/state-of-emergency-declared-in-ethiopia-amid-political-unrest

6. Hungary’s prime minister has submitted an anti-immigration bill to parliament that specifies fines and sanctions for THIS group:

A. NGOs operating in Hungary that aid migrants
B. Refugees arriving in Hungary
C. Any immigrant arriving in Hungary from a third-party country
D. Church officials who assist refugees

Correct Response: A. NGOs operating in Hungary that aid migrants
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-soros-law/hungary-submits-anti-immigration-stop-soros-bill-to-parliament-idUSKCN1FY1JE

7. In connection with meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller announced an indictment against THIS organization, made up of 13 individuals and three entities, all Russian:

A. Internet Research Agency
B. JSC Transneft
C. Cheka
D. NKVD

Correct Response: A. Internet Research Agency
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/17/586698361/the-russia-investigations-mueller-indicts-the-internet-research-agency

8. Tired of having their pleas for snow removal ignored, clever Muscovites have found that writing THIS on large piles ensures that municipal authorities remove them promptly:

A. “Vladimir Putin”
B. “Do not disturb”
C. “Alexei Navalny”
D. “Chernobyl fallout”

Correct Response: C. “Alexei Navalny”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43034642

9. Across Asia people rang in the new year on February 16. According to the Chinese zodiac, the year of THIS animal is ending, while the year of THIS animal begins:

A. Rooster; pig
B. Rooster; dog
C. Rooster; rabbit
D. Rooster; dragon

Correct Response: B. Rooster; dog
http://time.com/5143858/chinese-new-year-2018/

10. Jamaica’s bobsled team seemed to be on the brink of missing out on the chance to compete in Pyeongchang when their coach quit and threatened to take the bobsled with her. The team, dubbed “Cool Runnings 2.0,” will still be able to compete, thanks to THIS Jamaican company, which stepped in and got the team a new sled.

A. The estate of Bob Marley
B. Red Stripe
C. Blue Mountain Coffee
D. Appleton Estate

Correct Response: B. Red Stripe
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2018/02/16/586548627/on-eve-of-olympics-debut-jamaican-womens-bobsled-team-loses-and-finds-a-sled

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