Triage

During World Humanities, we watched the documentary “Triage” that featured Dr. James Orbinski. Dr. Orbinski is a humanitarian doctor that once was a doctor for the Doctors Without Borders program. He was a part of it during the conflicts in Sryria and the genocide in Rwanda. The documentary was of him, going back to some of the countries that he was stationed in during that time and of him just recounting some of the events that he remembered and meeting with some of the people there that he encountered. It is also of him giving his thoughts about humanitarianism in general and what to make of the world and how someone could go about trying to change what is happening and actually making a difference in what is going on.

I found the documentary to be very enlightening. Because the doctor was actually recalling the events himself, and traveling to those places that he remembered the events happening, it gave the documentary a more personal and unique feel.

The more we learn about the genocides and wars around the world, it amazes me that I have yet to not be astounded by any of these stories. Dr. Orbinski described in the film a time that he was in Rwanda; they went to a church where they heard there were wounded Tutsis and were soon under fire. A child had come up to him and ushered him to a woman that was severely wounded and in bad shape but was still alive. It was the child’s mother. Even after she was cut up and injured, the child never left. Even though the child probably knew that it was in danger, it never left.

I can’t even imagine the loyalty that that child felt to their mother that would make them stay with her for so long. I wouldn’t even know how to function or what to do if I was put into one of those situations. It shows how no matter what; a mother-child bond is strong no matter where in the world you are. (345)

One Horrific Day Can Cause a Lifetime of Grief

                I know this isn’t an event that happened somewhere else in the world but it was so big and horrible that I should write about it. An article on CNN has a timeline on the day of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut. I figured I would just summarize the events for you.

                The twenty year old shooter entered the elementary school at an unclear time and using an unclear method of entry. First he shot the principal, the vice principle, and the school psychiatrist around 9:30 during the school announcements. As soon as everyone heard the shots they hurried to usher students into bathrooms or closets or wherever they thought would be safe for them.

                The shooter then made his way to his mother’s kindergarten classroom. There, he shot her and all of her fourteen kindergarten students. After the shooting of her classroom, he moved to a different first grade classroom and shot the teacher and six of her students that were trying to escape. The authorities arrived at the school at 9:50am and, upon their arrival, the gunman shot himself. CNN.com has an entire page dedicated to stories about the shooting with interviews, more information, and what you can do to help.

                After learning about all of the genocide and killings that occur all over the world during class, this story really showed me how everyone everywhere else in the world must feel when this happens to them; especially in Rwanda where one million people were murdered. I can’t imagine the devastation people felt while they were over there. This shooting is made to be so much more devastating by the fact that most of the victims in the school shooting were only six or seven years old. I then think back to Rwanda where they had victims of all ages as well.

                Sometimes it just really dawns on you how lucky you are, especially after hearing stories like these. (326)

The Historical Barter System Utillized as an Evasion to US Sanctions

           This article from CNN is about a barter system between Turkey and Iran; Turkey is trading gold for oil. This is a problem because the United States placed a ban purchasing goods from Iran in response to their nuclear projects and to their refusal to discontinue their nuclear activities. The ban however, only includes currency which is why Turkey has come up with the bartering method. This is becoming a problem however because it makes the ban less effective and gives the Iranians a new way to generate revenue. The fact that Iranians have turned to the barter method shows that Iran is suffering from the US sanctions.

           Turkey is not actually breaking any international laws by using the oil for gold sanctions and therefore cannot be punished by their actions. They are however, defying the United States wishes and face the potential loss of the United States as both a political and a military ally.

           Stories are circulating about the almost “James Bond” way in which the gold is being transported from Turkey to Iraq. Individuals are transporting the gold using 110 pound bags; the exact limit of how much gold can be taken out of Turkey. The shipments however could not have been due solely to an individual or group. Each bag containing the gold would have had to have been approved by the government in order to even leave the country.

           Obviously the Iranian government has reached an economic hit from the sanctions and needs to find a way out; hence the gold for oil barter system. Given this, the United States needs to find a way to stop the bartering so that the sanctions can deliver the intended punishment for the Iranians. The complicated foreign diplomacy however is understandable. Hopefully the United States can negotiate a deal with the Turks that will benefit both countries and make the Turks reconsider their arrangement with the Iranians. (320)

Independent Reading

I chose to read the book The Girl that Played with Fire by Steig Larsson. It is basically a murder mystery that takes on all kinds of forms and has many “layers” to each conflict within. The first and second questions; “Are people of the world more alike than different, or more different than alike?” and “Why should we care about what happens in the rest of the world?” would automatically be eliminated because it hardly relates to either one of them. This obviously only leaves two possibilities; “What purposes and functions does artistic expression fulfill for individuals and cultures?” and “What social institutions oppress or limit oppression, and how are they perpetuated?”

While computer hacking and boxing may be an art in themselves, I hardly think that they relate to the definition of artistic expression being inferred in the question. Blomvist is a journalist whose writing could be considered one of the arts but it is unfortunately not a large theme in this story. This probably leaves me with the final question; “What social institutions oppress or limit oppression, and how are they perpetuated?”

This book contains many examples of oppression. The main character Salander was locked up in an institution because she was basically declared incompetent and crazy. The forces that tried to keep her there however, were the police and the government, for reasons of protecting a rouge soviet spy. An off topic but still extremely relevant in the book, is the sex trade in Sweden. The story starts with the investigation of the sex trade and the johns involved with it. Uncovering the “top of the food chain” was the reason for the murders being investigated in the rest of the book. This is an extremely complicated book and will be interesting to write about.

Miss Malala

It seems like I am writing my blogs in sort of an order today, or there has just been a lot of news today about the same sort of things. I looked at an article and some videos related to a fifteen year old girl named Malala Yousufzai (there is no way I could tell you how to pronounce that name). She was apparently shot in Pakistan for simply wanting and going to school. The bullet that was shot into her head actually grazed her brain and went down into her jaw and throat. The girl was flown to the UK for medical treatment and has been in a medical induced coma for the past few weeks.

Malala Yousufazi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/oct/10/malala-yousafzai-taliban-misogyny

            The article that I actually found was about her recovery. She woke up from the coma on Tuesday and actually stood up with the nurses on Friday. She isn't able to talk right now because she has a tube in her throat but she was able to communicate well enough to give permission to share this information on the news.

The doctors said that there is obviously physical damage to the brain but she does have brain function and enough motor function to be able to stand. The most interesting thing that I found was the bullet’s path. It entered above the back of her left eye, and traveled down her jaw into her shoulder where it logged itself in the tissue above her shoulder blade. The bullet was close enough to her brain that it caused damage but only through the shock waves of the bullet.

I think this girl is lucky and so brave to be publicly known for wanting to go to school in her country. I really hope she recovers well enough to function by herself and possibly go to school somewhere else because I don’t really think I would go back to Pakistan if I were her. (320)

Medieval Methods for a Horrible Reality

            My previous blog was about prostitution in Haiti and when I stumbled across another article about prostitution, I figured it was fate and had to write about it. This article was specifically about women’s rights, or lack of them I should say, under the Taliban rule.

            It opens with a story about a twenty year old woman named Mah Gul who was beheaded, yes beheaded, by her mother-in-law and her cousin, for refusing to be a prostitute. Mah’s husband is a baker and when he went off to work his mother and her cousin approached Mah and tried to force her into prostitution. When she refused they just beheaded her. While this may be maybe a quick and ensuring punishment to some people, I find it to be a little unnecessary. I would expect that she would get severely beaten or something but beheading someone just seems really medieval.

            In Afghanistan, women are forced into marriages where their husbands might force them into prostitution. A daughter or someone in a family might also be given to someone to settle debts and what not and are forced into prostitution because of that. The unfortunate thing is that under the Taliban rule, women basically have no rights in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan government keeps trying to improve the status of women by having a woman run for the presidency and also guaranteeing women a right to education in their constitution. Unfortunately, women are terrorized if they try and go to school. This obviously prevents the good majority of the women from even attempting it.

            Honestly, I’ve said it before but after reading articles like these, I am SO glad that I live in the United States. I can’t even imagine what these women go through, and how small they must feel. I would absolutely despise the fact that I was born a girl if I lived there. This thought also makes me wonder what they think about the situation. (327)

Dire Times Call For Dire Measures

            I found an article on CNN about Haiti. It has been two years since the earthquake and there are still around 370,000 people living in the displacement camps. The displacement camps are basically like campsites with a TON of flimsy tents. The camps have no electricity and the people have to put up with long walks to the bathrooms. There has also been an alarming amount of rapes over Haiti. In a study discussed in the article, fourteen percent of households have reported that one person in the household has been raped; although, this is only families that WOULD report rapes.

            I was really awestruck about some of the stories of the rape victims that they shared in the article. One woman said that one night, several men fired gunshots around nine o’clock and took her nineteen year old daughter. She was raped by those several men and released around two o’clock in the morning. Another woman was raped and told that if she went to the police to report it she would be shot dead. When you have no safe place to go, threats like that can be especially terrifying.

            Because of all of the poverty in Haiti, many women are subjecting themselves to prostitution and also what they call "transactional sex" which is sex in exchange for food and shelter. I believe that women have to hit a significant low to actually do this which makes me think that the poverty and camps and rapes in Haiti are particularly bad.

            The situation becomes even scarier when many of these women that were raped or start prostitution become pregnant. Haiti is supposedly the worst place to have a child in the western hemisphere because one in forty-seven women die during childbirth.  

            When I read things like this I am just really glad I live in the United States and don’t really have to deal with this stuff on an everyday basis. I don’t really know what we could do that would remedy this but I think that something needs to be done soon. (345)

           

Great Shrimp, Sweet Tea, Horrendous Backgrounds?

                This video on CNN talks about slave usage in the shrimp and tea industries, specifically in Bangladesh. Because the oceans have been rising, many of the rice farms in Bangladesh were flooded but fortunately for the farmers, they found that because they were flooding and the tides were coming in, they were bringing more shrimp into the areas. Farmers can make a lot more money harvesting shrimp than they can rice so many have begun to harvest shrimp instead. Unfortunately, getting all of the shrimp is labor intensive and many of the farmers have started using slaves to do the work and exploiting the workers.

                There has also been a use of slaves in the tea industry for a longer amount of time. They said that on some of the plantations, the people that were slaves there, had multiple past generations that had been slaves there. They said that it was a vicious cycle and the slaves earn so little that they basically have zero chance of ever making it off of their farms.

            The slave usage in the shrimp industry in Bangladesh is fairly recent so it is not as widespread as in the tea industry, where the usage of slaves has been going on for hundreds of years. The conditions of the slaves are horrible also. People of all ages are slaves; children, teenagers, adults, and elders. Sometimes the hours are so long and exhausting that people are found randomly sleeping places because they were so tired they just collapsed. They also only get paid maybe fifty cents to a dollar fifty for working a twelve to eighteen hour day.

            Considering America’s slaves were freed in the 1860’s I found the fact that there still are slaves to be surprising. I suppose this is a bit naive but when something like this was outlawed almost a hundred and fifty years ago, it just tends to become an out of sight out of mind phenomenon I guess. 

Child Soldiers in Columbia

This video talks about the use of child soldiers increasing in Columbia. After reading A Long Way Gone and watching the movie Blood Diamond it startled me to see yet another country that was using child soldiers.

                The video first features a woman that is only in her twenties years old that has been subjected to the rape and cruelty of the FARC guerrillas for eleven years. She was captured by the guerillas when she was eleven and was imprisoned by them for another eleven years.

                The FARC organization has been at war with the Columbia government for a good fifty years. Their use of child soldiers showed up in the media in 2006 when someone released a video of the children being trained.

                Many children are captured and taken from their families to be trained by the revolutionary forces but there are also people that go to the organization because they are promised food and shelter. The video said that indigenous Columbians and illiterate Columbians are usually the ones that join the revolutionary forces because poverty is such a problem for them and they just want that comfort of food and shelter.

                One source said that there were eighteen thousand children that were in the revolutionary forces in the present day but a government official contested that and said that they needed to check their sources because there weren’t that many children in it.

                I am still shocked that there are still these types of wars going on. After reading things like A Long Way Gone, one would think that this type of violence would stop around the world. This might sound kind of bad but I was also kind of surprised that this was happening in Columbia and not some place in Africa. I guess it just goes to show me that I stereotype a little too much. (311)

An Extreme Test of Limits

                Yesterday, a man named Felix Baumgartner set the world record of the highest free fall of 24 miles, more than 120,000 feet above the Earth. The previous world record was 102,800 feet, or 19 miles that was set 52 years ago by an Air Force test pilot named Joe Kittinger. The technology nowadays is more advanced which allowed Baumgartner to test the new limits and capabilities of bailing from aircraft at high altitudes.

                More than eight million people watched the free fall that was broadcasted live on YouTube. The free fall itself lasted more than four minutes, at a speed of 830 miles per hour that was a VERY long fall. Baumgartner rode up to that altitude in what looks sort of like the capsule that astronauts fall back to the Earth in when they come back from space. The capsule was attached to a special balloon that carried him up 24 miles into space. When he reached 24 miles, he simply stepped out of the capsule and off of the platform and began his free fall. In order to withstand the extreme temperatures, he wore a special suit that provided him thermo protection and oxygen in order to breathe.

                I can’t fathom how much courage and practice it would take to be ready for a fall like that. I can barely think about normal skydiving much less THAT type of skydiving, or more rather space-diving. Felix Baumgartner is fifty two years old right now. To be fifty two and do that would take a lot of courage. I might expect a twenty year old or someone like that who is young and stupid to attempt it but I guess his age just means that he probably put a lot of thought, planning, and practice into his stunt. The free fall just goes to show how many new things we can still do even though there have been so many monumental things already done. (325)

The Caribbean Monk Seal

         After writing my post about Kudzu, I thought that I might write about the other two species that I learned about while researching my project. The extinct species that I researched was the Caribbean Monk Seal. It wasn't declared extinct until 2004 but was last seen in the 1950's. If you look at a picture of it, it kind of looks like any other seal; seal body, two flippers, whiskers, etc. It is either a brownish or greyish color but could have bits of seaweed on it that would make it seem green. It is very large and could grow to be up to eight feet long. The face and the head is what makes it different from other seals I think; it has a rounder face than other seals and less of a pointy nose.
          As you can probably guess by the name, it lived around the Caribbean. It preferred the warm waters and climate around the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the west Atlantic Ocean. It would mostly live on the shores of remote islands where it wouldn't see many visitors but it would sometimes venture to larger coastlines. It was very large and very sluggish on land. It was also unafraid of humans which ultimately led to its demise. When Spanish explorers came to the area, they began hunting these seals and they honestly didn't have a chance at all. All the explorers saw were money signs and hunted the seals to extinction.
          When we turned in our projects, we learned about other extinct species and almost all of them were because of humans, usually due to the humans hunting them. When humans hunt these animals to premature extinction, it impacts the whole world and all of the food chains, ecosystems, and so on. I wish that more people would realize that what they do impacts things other than themselves. Sure, hunting those birds might pay the bills for now but what will you do when there aren't any of those birds left to hunt. This philosophy applies on a grander scale and it is so simple that one would think that it would be easy to follow, but as history and the present can point out, it is simply not. (375)

Blood Diamond

         We recently watched a video in class called Blood Diamond after hearing critiques of it by Ishmeal Beah, the author of A Long Way Gone. The movie was about the war in Sierra Leone, specifically the blood diamond trade. A diamond smuggler, Daniel Archer, meets a Sierra Leonean that had lost his family in the midst of the war and was captured by the rebels as a miner in the camp. While he was mining, he found an extremely large diamond that he was able to hide. Fortunately for him, he was rescued/arrested at that moment and taken to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. While he was in jail, Mr. Archer hears of his findings and bails him out. The both of them make a deal; half of the diamond for his family. They agree and then set out to go back to the mining camp to find the diamond. On their way they meet a journalist that is able to collect information from Mr. Archer and other facts about the war and the diamonds along their journey.
        This movie shows a lot about what the war looked like, of course leaving out many details and making it "Hollywood-ified." Even though the violence may have been watered down, it still shocked me to see it all. After reading the book A Long Way Gone I knew about it, and read about it, but this was the first time that I actually saw it. A lot of people were spared in this movie that I am guessing would not have been if it were real life.
         I think that this movie shows us what is really happening in other parts of the world that we choose not to get involved with. I don't know if other countries' involvement would have improved or changed the situation but it still makes people ask what would have happened. Looking at all of these things, it begs the question; what should we, or should we not be involved in? (337)

The Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

        Following up on my blog about the Bana tribe, I decided to look up more about Ethiopia and some of the other tribes and customs. I came to learn about the Ethiopian coffee ceremony which is found mostly in central Ethiopia. If you visit Ethiopia, you will probably be a part of this ceremony because it is a sign of friendship and hospitality. They perform it for visitors. The ceremony can take up to a couple hours though and is kind of strenuous.
       The ceremony is always conducted by an Ethiopian woman that is dressed in a white dress. First, she will roast the coffee beans one a flat pan over a charcoal stove. While this is done, many incense are burned and so the smell can get a bit overwhelming. The lady will wash the beans on in the pan and remove the husks. When the beans are black and shining, she grounds them with a pestle and mortar. This ground coffee is shirred into a clay coffee pot and strained several times. When the coffee is ready, the youngest child is sent to tell everyone else that the coffee is ready to be served and brings a cup to the first eldest person in the room and then to the others. The woman serves her family, friends, and neighbors last who have been watching the procedure for a half hour. It is a great skill to learn how to properly pour the coffee into each cup from exactly one foot without interruption.
        I find this ceremony to be very admirable and traditional. If other countries and other tribes show this much hospitality to visitors it makes me feel like the United States is severely lacking in the hospitality category. I don't find the ceremony and cool as what the ceremony represents and how it brings everyone together. (310)

Kudzu

          In my AP environmental science class, we were assigned to do some projects about endangered, extinct, and invasive species. One of them, the invasive species, I found to be really interesting. The invasive species I was assigned is called Kudzu and if you have traveled to southeastern United States, you have probably seen it. Many people cannot believe that the Kudzu isn't native because it is found almost everywhere. Kudzu is a plant, but more of a vine really. It can grow up to a foot a day if the conditions are right, and in the United States the conditions are perfect.

This is a house....
http://www.theresilientearth.com/?q=content/kudzu-causes-global-warming

           Kudzu was brought to the United States around the nineteen hundreds and has been here ever since. The plant is native to Southern Japan and to Southeastern China. It is a green vine with jagged leaves and long purple flowers. I think this plant is really gorgeous when I look at pictures of it and obviously many people agree because of the movement in location. However, this plant is highly invasive and since there are no natural predators here, there is really nothing to stop it from growing.
           When the Kudzu grows over trees and other wildlife, it is aesthetically pleasing but ultimately very harmful to the other plants. When it grows over trees and the other plants, it blocks out sunlight and suffocates them. The plant is also basically immune to pesticides and weed control chemicals. There have been attempts to combat this plant, like bringing in foreign bugs from japan and china to eat it and also attempts to graze or plow over the vine. The bugs that they brought in are eating the plant but unfortunately they also eat soy beans and affect the production of that. Plowing and grazing combat the plant in early stages but pretty much do nothing once the plant gets more mature in that area. (316)

Anti-Blasphemy Laws

                I read an article about anti-blasphemy laws and how they work. At first I had no idea what blasphemy was and decided to look it up. According to dictionary.com, blasphemy is the "impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things." So basically, it is words, or actions, that insults, offends, or criticizes God or an object in the faith of God. In many countries, people are prosecuted for committing blasphemy, by which are called “anti-blasphemy laws.”

                The article illustrates the fact that the blasphemy laws lead to the arrest of religious minorities for hurting the religious majorities’ feelings. It states that “anti-blasphemy laws have nothing to do with "respect" or "sensitivity" to religious sentiments but are all about authority, control and social domination.” The articles further explains how this is a useful tool by the governments.  

                Recently, a video clip came out titled “The Innocence of the Muslims” that sparked outrage and protests in the Middle East. The man that posted the video has been arrested but the television station that broadcasted it and possibly started all of the chaos and protests, has not been subject to legal scrutiny. They say that they were merely informing the public of the “in defense of Islam.”

The Emir (President) of Qatar Sheikh, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani recently gave a speech to the UN that placed all of the blame on the maker of the video, and none on the television station that broadcasted it. Because this broadcast of the video was ultimately what sparked all of the outrage and made the video more known to everyone, I think they should have some of the blame and at least be somewhat held responsible for it. If the laws are that strict and prosecute people for doing lesser things, one would think that the government wouldn’t have any trouble prosecuting the television station for it. (313)

The Bana Tribe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/5973526114/

I decided to look up interesting tribes in the world and came across the Bana tribe that lives in Ethiopia. The tribe lives mostly east of the Omo Valley in Southern Ethiopia which is believed to be one of the most interesting places on Earth because of so many of the different tribes that live around that area.

When I was looking at pictures of people in the Bana tribe, I noticed that they wore a lot of bright colored things. The women have beaded hair and the men wear sort of embroidered undergarments. Men that are “whippers,” which I will explain later, wear a sort of headband with feathers that distinguishes them as “whippers.”



http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytripsmypics/7885787942/

The Bana tribe has many different rituals and customs. Of these, I found two to be the most interesting; when someone in the tribe is married. When a man wants to marry a woman he must go “bull-jumping” successfully four times in a row. The man must “jump” or walk, naked, across ten cows that have been lined up by the other people in the tribe. If he fails, he will be ridiculed for the rest of his life...a little bit of pressure eh?

The women in this ceremony though, are subject to be whipped. This is actually wanted by the women though, and sometimes they will even fight each other for who gets to be whipped first. They want to see how many times they can be whipped without showing pain. I don’t know about anyone else, but this doesn’t really seem like something that I would be overly excited to be subject to, at all.

If there are even more diverse tribes around this part in Ethiopia I would be very interested to learn more about them and their different traditions and cultures. (302)

 

         

Dreary Dreary, Why So Query?

I was writing a paper for Government and stumbled across a video about life under a dictatorship, specifically North Korea, and it really got me thinking about how different and how much better my life is here in the United States. Obviously I knew that I had more rights on than what they might have; I can petition the government, worship who I please, and speak almost as freely as a bird. What I didn’t take into consideration was how big these rights actually were to my life.

In the video, North Korea seems like a different world. It may just be how the documentary is assembled but everything seems dark, dank, and dreary. The oversized streets are peculiarly un-crowded and most everyone is either traveling by foot or by bike. The children are taught that their leader is the “most praiseworthy man on Earth” through overly admiring stories, and singing dreadful songs (to an American eye at least) seems to be a daily occurrence. Individuality is not seen. Even the production of coats is exact to the nearest centimeter on every seam.

I know that there are countries in the world in poverty, and I have heard that many North Koreans were starving, but somehow I didn’t see any of this in the documentary. At a dinner scene, a family was eating a table full of food, with many combinations of the dishes and all of the Koreans shown were obviously not starving in any way.

I guess the most striking thing to me in this video though was how everything was similar, and everyone was equal. I wondered how everything could be THIS similar. I guess I came to the conclusion that because everyone is in fear of being reported, or to really stand out in a bad way, assimilation is a big thing and widely accepted. I guess this is all my opinion and not really based on fact so don’t quote me in a report or anything but if you want to judge it go ahead and watch the video. (345)

A Long Way Gone

                In my world humanities class, we are reading the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmeal Beah. The book is a lot different than previous reads in other Language Arts classes. For one, it is more recent than Shakespeare or Charles Dickens which means that the book obviously contains more recent events. The book is also a lot more graphic and it has detailed descriptions of everything.

                It is about the author’s journey as a child soldier and the wars in Sierra Leone. Beah wrote about his life before the war, before he was a child soldier, when he was a child soldier, and after he was no longer a child soldier. He puts everything in vivid descriptions because that is how he remembered it and didn’t want to put on “rose colored glasses.”

                This book is extra striking to me because of what this twelve year old boy is actually going through. The book portrays scenes that are worse than a horror film more so because they are real. He describes people with intestines falling out, dismembered body parts, gushing blood, and maggot covered bodies. It is not just the descriptions however that make this book so astonishing though, I think that it is the actual journey that this boy takes.

                He lost his family in the first chapter and only has his brother with him and a few friends. They try to find their family instead of running and when the rebels attack the village that they were staying in, he begins to run but it proves to be a lot more difficult than what one might think. It is so difficult that the boys even go back to their village full of rebels to look for food or money to buy food.

                It is one thing trying to survive all on your own, but a whole other thing to be dealing with the graphic images of war and the loss of family members in all of it. (331)

Nepalian Avalanche

                I was reading an article on CNN about an avalanche that hit in Nepal. I heard about the story earlier on the radio and was intrigued to learn more about it. Apparently, the avalanche happened on Manaslu Mountain in Kathmandu, Nepal. As of now, there are eight people confirmed dead but a good possibility that eleven people were killed. The search for the three hikers was suspended this morning.

                The article tells the stories of a few of the survivors and the experience seems like it would be terrifying and absolutely freezing. Arnaud Manel, one of the survivors, said that the avalanche snow started falling on his tent and he managed to get out, only to roll for an estimated 655 feet down the mountain in the snow and figure out he was wearing a t-shirt.

In the video above the article, the man stated that the group had avalanche transceivers on which I assume send out a signal so that people can find you if you are under the snow. What I don’t understand is why they weren’t working and why he wasn’t able to locate the other people that had them on.

Another question that occurred to me was why these people did not get severe frost bite or anything from only having a t-shirt on and going barefoot in the snow. A man that rolled down the mountain in his sleeping bag only lost a few front teeth and suffered an eye injury; the article didn’t even mention a cold-related injury.

I guess though that even though there were possibly 11 deaths, there were still twelve climbers that were only injured after their encounter with the avalanche. If I were them though, or anyone planning to climb up that or another mountain, I would definitely be having second thoughts. (303)

Why You Gotta Be So Mean?

I stumbled across this chart the other day that showed the global government corruptions on a ten point scale with ten being the best, or the most “clean”, and 0 being the worst, or the most “highly corrupt.” When I first looked at the title of it I thought that I would know who would be the most corrupt and the least corrupt out of all of the countries but as looked at the map I was surprised that I didn’t actually guess the country corruption correctly.

                I figured the United States would be the least corrupt and maybe Cuba or North Korea would be the most. It turns out that North Korea was one of the most corrupt countries but Cuba only had a rating of 4.2, so it was pretty corrupt but I mean it only had a ranking of the 61^st most corrupt out of the 182 countries. I was even more surprised by the United States’ ranking. It was ranked 24^th out of 182 and had a ranking of 7.1. I looked more at the countries that were the best on the list like New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and so on, and they do all seem very peaceful and uncorrupt. I started thinking more about the United States’ ranking and was more surprised about how unsurprised I was about the amount of corruptness.


                I guess if you really think about it, politics have been involving more and more corruptness. Politicians need to get elected, and if someone wants it bad enough they seek out investors and political and financial favors. When they are elected they have to pay back those favors or sway a certain way in their voting so that they don’t have to lose any votes in the next election. I honestly don’t believe that a true, good-hearted candidate that does everything that they think is right regardless of public opinion would stand a chance during an election. (326)

North Korea

Http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/world/asia/north-korea-is-ready-to-discuss-aid-from-seoul.html?_r=1&ref=world

                The New York Times published an article today that said that North Korea had finally agreed to accept South Korean humanitarian aid in response to the recent flooding and tycoon damage. This is an enormous step for the North Koreans because it suggests future communication and relieved tensions with South Korea. There have been multiple attempts in the past by the South Koreans to offer aid to the North Koreans, but it was ultimately refused because the sum was too small.

                North Korea accepting aid alone is a monumental step, let alone when it is from a country that they have had very high tensions with for many years. I don’t understand how a country like that could let its people suffer. It’s one thing when they are unable to help their people; it’s another thing when they refuse to help their people.

                From what I have learned in school, North Korea spends the majority of its money on its military. When so many people in their country are starving I don’t understand why they wouldn’t take any humanitarian aid. All it the aid is, is free money for their people, so it isn’t like they need to take money out of their budget to accommodate these people, even though they should.

           

            With so many people starving and not getting much help from anyone or their government, it kind of makes me appreciate our welfare and unemployment programs here in the United States. I am sometimes discouraged by it though because so many people abuse it; but if the programs and the money help to keep a lot of people off the street and starving to death, I guess it is a very good thing to have. The amount of welfare we give does actually show if someone were to travel to places like Mexico or the Caribbean in some parts. I have been there and I am always surprised by how many kids are selling things instead of being in school or something. (336)

Attack on the US Embassy

This morning I heard about an attack on the US Embassy in Libya, and also the US Embassy in Cairo on the 11^th anniversary of September 11^th. We discussed the issue again in class and I learned more about the subject. Although our discussion provided me insight, I still had some questions that I needed to investigate further. I wondered if the ambassador was targeted or merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was also curious about what that video was about that made it so offensive that it would spark a crime spree. Furthermore, I questioned whether the violence was still occurring in either place or if the violence spread to any other countries.

According to an article on abcnews.com, the ambassador had gone to the consulate when the protests were going on and the attackers were unaware of who he even was. No one had shot him, or bombed him, or targeted him, he simply died from asphyxia from the smoke. Out of the four Americans that died, only two died during the initial attack on the consulate; the other two died in a later attack on a building that was housing the people that fled the consulate.

I also tried looking up the video on YouTube that was supposedly titled “Innocence of Muslims” but by now there are many videos with that name and I am not sure which video was the original. According to the article, the video excerpts “depict the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.” (Michael, Maggie,and Alfitory)

The protests have also spread to other countries but as far as I can tell, none have turned violent. There were protests in Tunisia’s capital and Gaza City, as well as continued protests in Cairo. As long as these protests stay “peaceful” or without violence, I think that they may be a good way to vent out anger. The confusion about the video should be cleared up as soon as possible and hopefully the protests will stop. (381)

Bibliography:

MICHAEL, MAGGIE, and OSAMA ALFITORY Associated Press. "US Ambassador Killed in Consulate Attack in Libya." ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Sept. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/american-killed-libya-protest-film-17215128>. 

Iraq VP Tariq al-Hashemi Sentenced to Death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19537301

                This is a news article about Iraq’s vice president. He has been sentenced to death because he and his son have been convicted of running a death squad. His arrest has sparked a “political crisis in Iraq” and Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been linked to recent violence in response to the trial. When a warrant was issued for Tariq al-Hashemi’s, the vice president, arrest in December, Hashemi fled. He and his son were found and sentenced to death by hanging on Sunday. Since the US pulled troops out of Iraq last year, violence has been escalating in the country, and on Sunday there were car bombs, raids, bomb explosions, and other attacks. Sunnis are thought to be responsible for the violence. They are angered because they feel like since Hussein, who was a Sunni, came out of office, there has been too much Shia influence in the country.

                I find it appaling that the Iraqi leader was even running a death squad. I think that the United States definitely had a part in choosing the vice president, which means that he shouldn’t behave like the leader that the United States kicked out of office. Honestly, I find the Sunni and Shia fued exhausting. Not so much that they are still feuding, but that the violence has worsened since the United States left Iraq. It seems like the country is just going back to to the state that it was in before the start of the war; which makes it seem that the Iraq war was absolutely pointless. I don’t understand though why the Sunnis are reacting so severely to the sentence of the vice president. I don’t understand the correlation between the two except for maybe the fact that the vice president was acting like Sadam Hussein. (301)

Desperate Indian Mother Who Gave Away Daughters

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19486173

This is an article from BBC News about a woman from West Bengal, India that sold her children. The mother had three children and was on her own because she left her abusive husband. She was living on a railway station platform when a woman came up to her and asked to have one of her kids. The next day, she gave away her other two daughters. The media in India suggested that she sold them for 185 rupees, or $3.00. The mother didn’t want to give her away but felt like they would have a better living with someone else. The reporter that interviewed her couldn’t believe that the mother could just give her children away like that but the superintendent of a shelter in India wasn’t surprised and said that it happened often with poor or impoverished families. The children however, are usually sold for sex trafficking and are never seen again.

I think that it is really sad that the mother had to give up her children, but I understand why she did. She most likely didn’t have enough food to feed them and didn’t think that they deserved her lifestyle. She only wanted better for them and she thought that they were going to a good home so it was alright. The reporter in the story seemed awestruck at the fact that she could just give up her children, regardless of the circumstances. I understand the disbelief but if I was put in the mother’s shoes, I think that I could see myself giving up my children as well, as long as I knew that they were going to be better off without me. Of course it wouldn’t be easy, but a lot of parents, even in the United States, give their children up for adoption. It just might be different if I knew that they were going into sex trafficking or something like that where they would be harmed. (326)

An Interesting Lists of Interests for an Interesting New Year

It’s a new year with new teachers and the beginning of my new blog year has started. My world humanities teacher this year has asked me to compile a list of my interests that may become a new theme throughout my blogs. Even though they only may interest me now, I assume that my interests can be connected throughout the whole world with all of the different people, activities, religions, etc.

I guess compiling a list of my interests has proven what a broad question that is. I am interested in the normal activities I do, like soccer, running, biking, or swimming, but I definitely don’t want to write about them. My interest in those is in a purely physical form, not mental. I also love to bake but find myself getting yelled at when I write about recipies and my experiences with them...even though I do cite the recipie!

In mental terms, I love travel, but how would you write about travel? I could write about the different places, and their events, but then it turns into world news and I don’t ever read about the world. I could write about the specific ways to travel; for instance by plane, boat, or car, but what would be the interesting part of that?

I guess all of my actual interests though lead back to current events because I love learning about people. I love seeing how people live, how they act, and what they may do for a living. It interests me to learn about different cultures, and beliefs, and why people do the things that they do.

 A lot of thing interest me I guess, it just depends what I want to write about on that day. I wrote a lot of blogs last year about just about everything, but this year I think I might focus in more on current events. (315)

 

How to Past Time in an Airport, or Get Yourself Kicked Out And/or Arrested – Part 2

                My next suggestion to waste time deals with airport security. Bring something you shouldn’t in your carry on and when security tells you to remove it just argue with them. Then, when they have stated all of their objections, just agree, but then completely freak out. Freak out in whatever way you want; screaming, jumping, pulling your hair out, etc. and then calmly walk away. This would be one I should warn against, if not done properly, or even if done properly, you will have the chance of getting arrested, and/or locked up in an insane asylum for a few days.

                This next suggestion, while it may get you locked up, is probably a safer bet. Walk to the middle of the airport and then just start walking in circles. For the full effect, I would also suggest talking to yourself like a crazy person. Nursery rhyme contemplations usually work quite well. Watch out for avid texters however, because they will probably not notice your crazy person façade and just walk straight into you. It will probably hurt quite a lot.                                              

                Lastly, I would suggest going up to random people and continuously talking to them. Ask them the most random and craziest questions you can think of, and just don’t leave. Keep talking and asking questions, even if they get up and walk away, follow them. I would however stop if they threaten to kill you and your family or punch you in the face. I would assume that a broken nose on an airplane would give you a massive headache.

                Well there you have it. Last blog of the year and now you will know how to pass time on your summer vacation. I hope that you enjoyed my blogs this year but I am not sorry to say that I completely hated writing them. I hope you have a good life. (333)

                Sincerely,

                                Rice Crispies

How to Past Time in an Airport, or Get Yourself Kicked Out And/or Arrested – Part 1

                If you have ever been to an airport, I’m almost sure that you have deduced that they are a sanctum for wasting time. They are simply set up that way; passengers are supposed to arrive at the airport two hours before their scheduled flight and even then there might be delays or cancellations, and don’t forget about layovers for connecting flights. By the time you get to where you’re going, you have probably had to wait a good three or so hours just in an airport. Because of this, I have thought of a list of things that someone could do to pass this time. Be warned that you may choose to not do some of these things if you think that it will get you kicked off your flight completely.

                The first list is of things that you can do that you would probably see other normal passengers doing. If you are a student, you could choose to do some unfinished homework. It might even lead to the other passengers thinking of you as scholarly and studious. So much so that you may be asked to join the captain for educational purposes. Another completely entertaining thing to do is to just people watch. The people that come to an airport, come from all over the world .This highly increases the diversity of the people in the people watching spectrum and makes for a highly interesting past time.

                This next section is the activities that you should be warned to use your better judgment when deciding how to spend your time. I think that all of them, regardless of the aftermath, would be highly entertaining and perhaps hilarious if done correctly.

                The first activity would be to just listen to music. Start off listening to it quietly like any other person would but then jump up and bust out singing and dancing as loud and crazy as you can manage. Do this for an entire song and then just sit back down and quietly listen as if nothing ever happened. Feel free to make a few quick glances around following your presentation and enjoy the bewildered faces of your fellow passengers. (378)

How to Get Over a Plane Ride If You Have Motion Sickness - Part Two

                I also realized that another thing that helps is just to have something in your stomach and to stay hydrated. BUT, do not eat too much or drink too much. If you eat too much and get too full, you will probably feel like throwing up before you even get on the plane. Also, if you drink too much, you will either get water log and again, feel like throwing up, or you will have to use the restroom a lot on the plane.

                Another way to keep your mind off of the sickness is to find ways to distract yourself. You can either bring something to distract you like an IPod for music, a book, homework, papers for work, anything really. Just remember that you do have a limited amount of space so that kind of dictates what you bring. Planes also provide things to keep you occupied. They have music in the arm rests where you can find different radio stations. You just need to remember some headphones or purchase them for two dollars. Some planes also show movies. The only thing you need for those too is headphones. Sometimes though, the movie or show they play is completely boring so I would always have a backup thing to do just in case.

                One of the things that may or not help you is turning on the air in the plane. This seems to be usually a last resort for people before they throw up though because it cools them down enough to alleviate some of the nausea. If cooling yourself down before the nausea even comes, I would highly recommend it.

                For some people, I know that computer screens and bright lights give them headaches. These headaches lead to their nausea. If you are one of these people, I would just recommend staying away from them before hand and while you are on the plane to avoid any unnecessary nausea.

                Well, those are all of the tips I have so hopefully they help you next time you find yourself traveling on a plane. (361) 

How to Get Over a Plane Ride If You Have Motion Sickness - Part One

                Recently I have discovered that I have begun to feel a bit sick riding in moving things, especially airplanes. Pharmacies have all of the motion sickness pills and other medical remedies that can supposedly help a person with this problem. While motion sickness pills might help with this problem, I have decided to write down a list of things that I have done to get over it pill free. This way maybe you too can get through a plane ride without having to pop a few pills if you so desire.

                My first suggestion would be to sleep on the plane. If you have ever fallen asleep before, which I assume you have, you will have noticed that time goes by very quickly. So, just fall asleep on the plane and sleep the whole way there. Then you won’t even notice that you were flying or felt sick at all. If you have trouble sleeping on the plane, just do whatever you can to be as tired as possible. Whether it is not sleeping the night before, or getting minimal sleep, or just skipping that morning’s coffee, just do it. If you still can’t fall asleep, try finding one of those soothing relax and sleep programs that is meant to calm people down. I don’t know about you but these things put me out in a second. I must warn you not to be too tired though because you have to actually make it on the plane before you fall asleep. It would be a bummer to fall asleep in the waiting chairs and have to repeat this process over again. I would also advise you not to try sleeping pill because you may have trouble waking up and that would be pointless for a pill-free diversion. (312)

Pacific vs Atlantic

                Pacific and Atlantic, Atlantic and Pacific; these two oceans are one of the same but completely different all at the same time. There are major differences in the temperature, life they contain, and scenery around them (at least in the United States).

                The most noticeable difference of the two oceans is the temperature difference, in the ocean and out of it. If you travel to California and go to the beach, the temperature of the air is at least ten degrees cooler than the air that is farther inland. This is because of something in meteorology and the fact that there is a breeze that hits some mountains and so on. Obviously I’m not a meteorologist, so if you want the answer you should really ask one. The ocean water is also completely freezing. I would guess that the water in the Pacific Ocean is at least twenty degrees cooler than the water in the Atlantic Ocean. Again, this has some meteorological back story that I am just not familiar with and that is what Google is for.

                The changes in water temperature actually affect the animal and plant life in the two oceans. Obviously being a warmer ocean, the Atlantic has a lot more tropical fish and such. This is where you would find coral reefs, sting rays, crabs, dolphins, etc. The Pacific has animals like sharks, eels, sea lions and other seals.

                What I have noticed, at least in the United States, is that the scenery around each of these oceans is completely different as well. Take California and Florida as an example; California is filled with overpopulated and scrunched cities and Florida has got more spread out, and low-level buildings. To put the geography in perspective, the Atlantic touches the US East coast and the West of Europe and Africa. The Pacific touches the US West coast and East Asia and countries close to Japan.

                If you look at a world map, you can obviously see that these oceans are connected. But, if you were to go and see these oceans first-hand, you would see how different they really are. (357) 

The Art of Tubing

                Tubing: a gigantic inner tube strapped onto a boat with a string, carrying an individual holding on for dear life over gigantic waves. While tubing sounds simple enough, there is an actual art to it. Knowing this art is the difference between staying on the inner tube and tumbling off and wiping out into the water.

                The first trick of the trade is knowing how to hold on. It may seem simple; just grab the tube’s handles, but certain ways of holding guarantee a longer survival rating on the tube. If you simply grab the tube willy nilly, you are going to fall off very quickly because your fingers will slip. I have found that the best way to hold onto a tube is by grabbing the handles and then moving your hands so that the tops of your hands are touching the tube; sort of in an inverted type of position.

                Another way of not falling off is knowing how to balance on the tube. Every wave will shift you a certain way. The trick is to know how to offset the tube so you don’t get caught in the wave. If a wave pushes you to the right of the wake, balance yourself on the left side of the tube. Doing this though can be a bit difficult if you don’t know how and it might tip the tube. When you are balancing on one side of the tube, make sure you keep a good amount of your weight in the center. This way, you will be shifting the left and still keep your tube in the water.

                One of the easiest ways to stay on the tube is by keeping yourself inside the wake of your boat. The wake is the part with the least amount of waves so staying in that is going to be the smoothest ride. I suggest going on your hands and knees and then pulling the tube where you want to go. Make sure that when you go outside of the wake and are no longer in a position to move yourself, you go back to your belly.

                Hopefully with these simple tips you will be able to master the art of tubing. If not, just be sure to make a big splash and a worthwhile entry into the water. (393)

The Appeal of a Waffle House

                They may not be that common in the North, but as soon as someone travels anywhere in the South, they are almost guaranteed to find a Waffle House. After you eat at a Waffle House, it is hard to go back to IHOP or Perkins, or any other breakfast place.  A Waffle House is basically like one of those old fashioned diners that you see in movies. There is a grill in front of the counter as well as any other cooking amenities. The waitresses are all dressed in dresses and take your order on a small pad of paper. The menu is a simple rendition of normal breakfast foods and most of the items contain, yes you guessed it, a waffle.

                Being called the Waffle House, you would expect that their best menu item would be a waffle. You would be right. In every Waffle House I have ever been, the waffles never cease to amaze me. Everything good about a waffle is incorporated into these. The waffles have a sweet, and still starchy taste as a waffle should, and the texture is fluffy and yet still condensed. Put these waffles with some butter and syrup and I can almost guarantee that you will be craving some more. The only problem is that at a Waffle House, you are served a bunch of food. A normal meal is maybe a couple of eggs, some bacon or sausages, toast, and a waffle as big as a plate. As soon as you finish your meal, and are craving some more, you just can’t force your stomach to eat any more. So you regretfully, must leave those remaining waffles behind.

                If you don’t believe any of my descriptions of this old fashioned, South mass produced restaurant, there is only one way that you can find out for yourself if is true. So, the next time you make a trip to Georgia, or Florida, or Kentucky, or Tennessee, make sure you stop at a Waffle House and see if you dislike it. (346)

Violence is Beneficial

They are seen everywhere; in the news, on television, in magazines and newspapers; they are violent images. They are images of war time, and disaster, as well as crimes and protests. Susan Sontag wrote that “Perhaps the only people with the right to look at [graphic war] images are those who could do something to alleviate it…or those who could learn from it. The rest of us are voyeurs, whether or not we mean to be.” (Source D) I agree with Susan Sontag’s opinion that the only people that should view these photos when their viewing leads to action or knowledge. However, I also believe that everyone has a right, and a need, to see these images, regardless of the outcome of the viewing.

The first amendment granted Americans their basic freedoms; freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly. The freedom of the press unleashed an entirely new phenomenon where people had a chance to publish the truth. Instead of hiding from the fear of prosecution, they were able to publish true and honest things that led to reforms, changes in opinion, and a reduced amount of secrets. These dramatic changes would not have occurred if these things were not printed and circulated across the World. These articles, and news stories, and photographs, would not have made any difference if they had not fallen into so many hands; some hands beneficial, and some hands not.

The truth has expanded over the years, so much so that it is debated whether or not our press says too much. A picture of three maggot covered bodies of US servicemen was published in Life magazine. Many readers were stunned by the picture but many soldiers praised the photograph for being published in the magazine (Source A). Of course such a vulgar photograph would be shocking, it’s an unbelievable scene, but it showed what our soldiers saw. War is a horrible thing and is filled with shocking images and horrifying experiences. By sharing this photograph with the world, Life Magazine is showing a piece reality. Whether the viewer’s decide to take anything from it or let the sight of it impact their future actions is entirely up to them, but they still have a right to see it.

Pictures like the one in Life Magazine make people believe that society has gotten too relaxed in their restraint of vulgar images. Even though it seems that everything is published, some newspapers use what is called the “cereal” test. According to source B, newspapers ask questions like “What images would readers want to see over the breakfast table? Or what images would they want their children to encounter?” I assume that the main idea behind this test is to prevent future complaints about the images that are published. If especially disturbing pictures are published, they obviously have a higher purpose than just entertainment. Whether people learn from these photos or not, the newspaper’s intent of publishing them was to give readers the opportunity to gain new knowledge.

            Violent images leave a distinct mark in society, especially the extreme and particularly crude ones. While it is better to learn something from these images, everyone should be able to see them regardless of their post-viewing experiences. Every published photograph has a reason and was put out there for people to see. To deny the right of viewing or publishing is just wrong; in both a constitutional and a moral way. Susan Sontag was correct in her thinking that the only beneficial people viewing it are those who could change it or learn from it. She was incorrect in her idea that those were the only people that could view the images. Everyone has the right to view these images regardless of the aftermath. (632)