MinhSki's Blog

We all know that there used to be a war in Afghanistan, women there have literally no rights at all. If a women turns in a male criminal, she will be taken to jail, if a women went out alone, she would be put into jail and the worst of all, if a women was raped, she would be put into jail because she was having sex with someone other than her husband, if she doesn’t have a husband, then they accuse her of having sex while being un-marriage. The article called “Moral ‘Crimes’ Land Afghan Women in Jail” by Rod Nordland talks about many of the crazy accusation that women have to deal with and be sent to jail for.

Something I’m puzzled about is, why having the new president do anything, didn’t he say he would have done something? I’m surprised that all the women haven’t rebell against the government yet. I think that everyone should respect the women. Another question I have about this article is that why would any family member would want to kill the women in the family? I don’t understand! It’s their family! I learned that not all places in the world respect the human rights law either it’s cultural or it’s because the country is still developing.

Vietnam is not very likely to encounter this problem because there are government officials that are women and if everyone started to disrespect women, then the women will go crazy cause there are soo much of them. I wouldn’t be the only person thinking that this is non-sense if everyone disrespected women, mostly everyone would.

Did you know that there is a World Press Freedom day? It’s a day where the press can report about anything they want, absolutely anything. Some government don’t think that’s a good idea because they are afraid that the reports will be against them. On this day, reporters are killed because they reported something important a group of people or the government that they aren’t suppose to know. The article is called “World Press Freedom Day: Attacks against journalists around the world” written by Amnesty Online.

Something I’m puzzled about is why is there a World Press Freedom Day, can’t the press report anything on any day. When I read the article, I noticed that the countries that they mentioned with reporters being killed, mostly countries that are communist or developing countries. In those countries, the government controls mostly everything and so reports are watched closely. It’s very risky for reporters to work in war-zones like in the Middle-East or in Africa. Since there are more and more conflicts everyday, the press has to stay on track and cover the stories, sometimes it would jeopardize their lives because people demand more information and they have to do their job.

I think this will be very likely to happen in Viet Nam if there is a conflict, because it’s a developing country and the government technically controls everything. If reporters are killed in Viet Nam because of something they publish, people would protest and there might be a conflict between the government and the citizens. Finally I think there shouldn’t be a World Press Freedom Day, just so people don’t get killed more on any day, and I think that if there is a problem about the country, other country must try to resolve the problems so no one get hurt.

Outcast. I am an outcast to the world beyond me, a freak to society, a menace to the police and a trouble maker. I have been living on the streets, trying to survive and trying to make something good out of my life before I die. I am not even welcomed in a homeless shelter. All I can do now is live and wait for a miracle to happen that will change my life. All I have now is a gold bracelet left behind by my mother before she left this cruel world, it’s suppose to be a good luck charm, but for 13 years, nothing had happened. I’ve never  given up on my life and thought about leaving earth to join my mother upon. I don’t want to be invisible, I want to be known for something before my life ends. I wander around the towns that I’ve traveled to, I sleep on the streets, people’s back yard and in houses I break into. I had to do what’s best to survive, steal needy items that will benefit me in my survival. At least I have the skills to hunt animals and take care of myself when I need to, which is everyday, so everything is much easier, but surviving isn’t a game.

My life before being alone was almost perfect, I couldn’t have been a happier kid. Everyone in my family was talented, we were wealthy, but never took advantage of it against anyone, we respected everyone in our lives. When I thought everything couldn’t have been better, my father had gambling and drug problems. We had to sell everything to pay his debt, but our everything wasn’t enough, we still had a huge debt to the drug dealers. After a few weeks, my mother became sick and past away soon after, my father ran away and I was left alone with only the gold bracelet to remind me of my past. I cry whenever I thought about my mother and what she did for me, and became angry when I thought about my father and what he has done to my mother’s and my life. All I can do now is look forward to the future and leave the past. Why can’t I trust anyone to help me now? Well, when u don’t know anyone and no one knows you, it’s best to be alone and survive.

In the Bangladeshi capital there was a a huge demolition to expand the road, but everyone thought it was only for 10 feet, they were involved in a big surprise. When the road was finished, it was 50 feet back. When the bulldozer came pass 10 feet, people were all scrambling to carry their belongings and get out of the way. Some people were crushed under the gigantic wheels. All these information is in the article named  “Dhaka slum dwellers live under threat of eviction” written by : Syed Zain Al-Mahmood, who have witness this event.

The thing I am curious about most is, what are these people doing now? Are they living under the sky without anything to keep them warm? Did the government do anything about this because it’s very irresponsible for them to leave the people like that. The people have stopped traffic in main roads, did that cause the government to do anything? I think every should be alerted about this eviction and show them how some government only thing about themselves and not worry about the people and that’s what cause revolutions. The message here is to keep your words and promises and do not break them.

This, of course is a serious issue, and everyone should be concerned and help out. If this happened in Ho Chi Minh City right now, there will be riots all over the place because people here aren’t very calm and patience. I would be asking people to help like my parents and see what they think about this problem because to me they are wise. I would look further into the situation and try to support the people who are in need. If this problem doesn’t resolve before it becomes too serious, I would be disappointed of how human beings can’t come up with a solution that satisfies everyone, everyone will be involve and they will have their own role to side with the government or the people who the government lied to. If this turns into a war, it’s everybody’s war.

Are you aware of the problems in Sudan? Did you know that young women are given to settle family feuds? The problem now is that girls are given away to repay for the crime committed, and the criminal has to give up 1 girl to the family that they committed the crime to. This practice is considered cultural for decades and people in Sudan see nothing wrong about it. The article is called, “In South Sudan, Girls Are Given Away to Settle Family Feuds” written by Tom Rhodes of The Daily Beast. Many people are disagreeing with this practice because it is against the Human Rights for girls to be given away like that. The girls that are given away are usually being raped and dealing with child labor without any respect.

What im puzzled about this practice is how did it start, who came up with the idea? I don’t think the person who came up with this idea really thought about what would happen to the girls who are given away. What was he thinking? What’s his logic? This article talks about what happens to the girl and how they feel, and they do not feel like a free person, they feel like a broken item who can’t be thrown away by it’s owner. This question is what I would really like to know to really understand of how this practice is used, “What would happen if person A killed Person B and the person A give one girl family to Person B’s family. Then person C, who is in Person B’s family, killed person A, can person A’s family take back the girl given before?”

This Sudan problem really reminds me of the war is Syria because the war there is about the government not listening to the citizens and killing them for disobeying and that’s against human rights. It’s not just Syria and Sudan who is having problems with human rights, many communist countries do because the government runs everything and the people don’t like the way it is governed, and the government ignores and then out of no where a war started, just like in Cairo, Lydia, and Syria. If this problem does come up in Vietnam, people would be protesting and fighting. Nobody wants the problem to be so serious it will end up like in Cairo where the government would have to build a wall around a building. I knew before  that the world is having this problem, from news and discussions with my parents, my perspective doesn’t change about girls being given away, but it disgust me because no one stood up for the problem yet, people are trying to stop it, but it might change the whole country.

Steve Nash, an 18 year NBA pro who is now 38 years old still plays like a youngster. He is respected throughout the league for his great passes and shooting skills. He brought his current team to the playoffs several years straight, but never won a championship. His current team, the Phoenix Suns are not as great as before and the Suns.  In the article named “Steve Nash would consider signing with the Heat. As well as he should”, written by Kelly Dwyer is about Nash considering bringing his talents to Miami to win Championships with the “Big Three”.

On the Dan Patrick Show, Nash declared that he will consider the Miami Heat if LeBron or the Heat calls. Also, if the Suns doesn’t improve because he is improving everyone on the team and they are repaying him with losses. Steve Nash would be a huge benefit to the Heat because he can help improve players from all positions and make himself better that’s what he is honored for throughout the NBA. If the Miami Heat does come to an agreement to sign him, but there is 1 problem, there is only a little cap space left from signing the ‘Big Three’ from 2 years before. There are lots of teams that have a lot of cap space that would have a huge benefit from acquiring Nash.

I am a hard-core Miami Heat fan, but I also think it’s unfair to the other teams that some superstars want to be with the team. I know that they all want to win championships but it’s very unfair. The Miami Heat also have 2 young and talented point guard who is still improving and helping the team, but looking at the stats, Steve Nash is better. I would like Nash to join, and make everyone improve. Nash is also my idol because of his passes and his accurate shooting. He will be in the Hall of Fame one day as one of the best passer ever.

My goals for the 4th quarter is to spend more time study with no distractions because I always use the computer to chat while doing homework. I get my work done, but I think I can do better without the computer. My other goal relating to the first is to be well prepared for high school because it is not like middle school, everything is we learn will be fast so I have to keep up well.

While writing the Declaration of Student Rights, my main strength as a writer is my voice, I think that because I feel very passionate while writing and while thinking about what to write for the piece. I feel like I delivered the message through very strongly and I used a variety of words to help me do that. During the times that to write this piece, it wasn’t always good, the problems that I faced was choosing the right complaints to declare, not because I couldn’t think of any, but the problem is just choosing.

Before writing the declaration, I thought of all the reasons of why we should declare independence to the school, the whole class had a lot, then I thought of how many students are dealing with the same problem and what are they doing about it. I thought of that throughout the whole piece and making myself feel passionate. The plan that I had with this writing is great, but if I was to re-write the piece, I would change some of the reasons and also try to think from the teachers and principal’s perspective.

During the course of our school life, it has become crucial for students to be comfortable in their learning. We, the students are writing this very letter, the Declaration of Student’s Rights, for all the teachers to be aware of our issues and let them know that we also have rights. We should have a say in some school decisions.

We hold these obvious, that everyone is created equal, equal to do what ever we want in life. We are all given the keys to life, liberty and the world to do what ever makes us happy. To live by these goals, we should be able to do anything that we favor, but of course, there is a limit. When the school tells us what to wear or what we shouldn’t do and when teachers starts a long term of mistreatment, students will begin to think that the teachers are controlling everything they do. It is our duty now to declare independence against the school to regain freedom.

All through the years, students have been very patient, acted very respectful and followed the rules, but that doesn’t mean that we like the rules. It have been long enough, and now every teacher’ needs to know what is going on. These are the reasons we are declaring independence:

• The school  makes us wear unbelievably uncomfortable clothes.

• They cram all the tests in one week or less.

• There are too little social activities.

• The school food is very expensive.

• Teachers and principals don’t let us chew gum.

After all these mistreatments, we have confessed our feelings to the teachers and principals, but they ignore everything we present and have left us living with the same problems. We have notified people we thought  could help us, but everything was blown away in a gust of wind. Now is the time; we have thought about this and now we are going to declare independence from the school.

We, students here in SSIS, represent and speak for other students dealing with the same issues and problems that we are facing. In the name of life, liberty and the key to do whatever we want, we declare that students must be treated equally by teachers and speak for everyone about issues that must be solved so all can be notified. We ought to have freedom of speech, and for the sake of our future, we give ourselves the power to be free. For the promise of our declaration, we pledge our lives and the freedom within us!

Free from the slavery.

We must indulge to find freedom.

We must fight,

From the tyrannical hands of the ministry.

For me, I am willing to fight,

and stay away,

From the delusive phantom of hope.

We are all,

Struggling for liberty.

Our life so dear,

That is what swept us away,

from the chance of the peace so sweet.

We must break away,

from the chains,

forged on to our hands.

We will not be transformed,

Into a beast.

This is the beginning of war for freedom!

Our patriotism can overcome anything.

We must pledge ourselves,

To fight the war-like preparations.

It’s a painful truth,

to know that we were betrayed,

with a kiss.

There are no room for hope.

We must justify to the British,

That we are FREE.