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)