Time to Say Good Bye

Article Link: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/china-chen-pledge-empty-2012-05-04

Article by: Amnesty International

We all say that Beethoven is one of the greatest composer in the world, and more remarkably, he is deaf. Today, I am going to talk to you about another great man called Chen, a blind Chinese person who tries to protest against the Chinese government through peaceful actions. Chen started protesting against the Chinese government when he realized how unfairly the people were treated in his own country by his own government. He started gathering people to join in this protest with him and immediately he recruited a tremendous amount of followers to protest with him against the Chinese government. The protest soon became more and more popular until the Chinese government couldn’t stand it anymore and had to find a way to stop it. The Chinese government used all sort of ways to end Chen’s protest. “Chen’s older brother is believed to be in police custody while the whereabouts of his nephew and mother are unknown,” the article stated. However, Chen wouldn’t give up on his hope and dream for his country, so he continued with his protests and finally, he ran to the US embassy for some safety. The ambassadors were surprised to see a Chinese man escaping into an American embassy, however, after knowing what Chen have done, they immediately contacted the US government for help and support. After all that mess and confusion, the US finally informed China for a negotiation for Chen’s destiny. Surprisingly, the Chinese authorities seem to ignore the negotiation with the US, because during the negotiations, Chen and his followers were found being tortured by the Chinese authorities. After all, no one knows what will happen to Chen, a great man like him, yet can’t decide his own destiny.

What makes this man so desperate about this protest that he  is willing to sacrifice his own life and the safety of his family members? It’s because of his love for his country and he thinks of the happiness of the people is far greater importance than his own life. This is what it takes to become a founding father, loving the country so much that nothing else matters to you, but to see the country peaceful and fair. I wish that I can have the characteristics of a founding father, because that is what leaders have, to lead people into better lives. I need to develop the courage and bravery to stand up to what I stand for, and I will be a founding father, a true leader.

Image from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9233815/Dissident-Chen-Guangcheng-chased-by-undercover-Chinese-agents-as-he-fled-to-US-Embassy.html

Link to Article: http://gizmodo.com/5903021/bp-oil-spill-aftermath-eyeless-shrimp-clawless-crabs-and-fish-with-oozing-sores

Article by: Al Jazeera

Can you imagine eating a shrimp that doesn’t have eyes and sores scatter through it’s entire body? I know, grouse! However, that might be what we will be facing in the future. During the BP oil spill, toxic was used to clean up the mess, and that led to a brutal destruction to Oceanic life in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists discovered deformed shrimps without eyes, fish with infected gills, and much more harm to the sea life. As to who should be responsible for this disaster, it’s obviously BP, the oil company that spilled large amounts of oil at the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. However, without admitting their mistake, they hired their own chemists and told us that the Ocean was as just as good as before the spill. That was completely a lie, they don’t want to take the responsibility in this and that is so selfish of them. Many of us do not even know how harmful this oil spill actually is. When the toxic reached into the ocean floor, it doesn’t only destroy the sea creatures, but also the oceanic plants that are deep under the ocean floor. Why do we care about these plants? It might be surprising to know, but these plants are actually the major oxygen producers of our planet. They give us more oxygen than any plants on land. However, we never noticed and took care of them, because they are so deep into the ocean floor. But I am certain that this oil spill has done some damage to these oceanic plants and I think that it will be extremely difficult to restore them to their original state. After all,  BP has to take this responsibility, but they did not. They are selfish and cares for nothing but themselves. But they won’t last long, sooner or later new discoveries of the oil spill will rage the people and by then they have to take the responsibility of fixing this problem no matter if they want to or not.

Image from: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/disaster_unfolds_slowly_in_the.html

Link to Article: http://lingro.com/translate/http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/apr/11/dhaka-bangladesh-slum-dwellers-eviction?newsfeed=true

Author:  Syed  Zain Al -Mahood

Title of article: Dhaka Slum Dwellers Live Under Threat of Eviction

Recently in humanities, we’re looking at an article about slum dwellers in Dhaka being forced to leave their house by the government. Thee government sent bulldozers and demolished houses after houses without even any sign of guilt and regret. I was really shocked and surprised by how these bulldozer drivers and continue on and on without stopping, because it is so harsh to do this to someone. One bulldozer driver in particular, crushed down a girl who was in the working site. Did the bulldozer driver stopped his work? No he didn’t, he continued on and on to destroy more homes from people. One of the local called Islam, lost completely everything he had.  ”I lost everything I had – my stock, my house and household belongings…” he said with much anger. If I was him I would be terribly upset and angry as well! The government informed them that 10ft from either side of the road was required. Islam’s home was over 50ft from the side of the road! They lied. They are greedy and can do anything to get more money. The government should put their civilian’s safety first. They are not human, they are animals, better yet, they are monsters.

As I read through articles from the recent weeks, I think they all gave me a strong emotion, and it’s reflect. Most people they read about someone in the world who is suffering, and they gave them sympathies. However, does that really help? The way I think that can best feel what these people are feeling, is to be in their situation. When I read this article, the first thought that came to mind was, what will I do if I was one of the people who’s house was destroyed? How will I feel? What will I do to stop it? What does it mean to be homeless, without basic needs to survive? These questions kept on popping up into my head until I start to become annoyed, because sometimes these thoughts give me so much pain. Pain for these people who are suffering while I am living in a fine house, wearing fine clothes and going to a fine school. That made me feel ashamed, but also gave me an urge to change what I am doing. I DON’T TO BE LIKE OTHER PEOPLE! We all should take in action, stop feeling sorry for these people and after a few days, you continue on with your life forgetting everything about them. If you see help needed, then go help! I know that most people can’t force the urge to ignore whatever that is happening around us, and that includes me. But I so desperately want to conquer that thought and just do what I know what I am supposed to do! Take action!

Image from: http://rentalcreditchecks.org/tenant-background-check/tenant-background-screening-helps-landlords-prevent-evictions/

I got lots of nice stuff.

WHAT is it?

HOW much is there?

WHY is it nice?

Word cemetery, word cemetery… Have we not discussed this over and over again in class? So why don’t we want to use them? Because they are vague and lacks details to describe the writing better. Why is it such a nasty habit for people to use them continuously then? Is it because they sound good? Or is it because people think that they are strong vocabularies? I think it’s because it is so easy to use these words in your writings. As I stated before, they are vague and can mean absolutely anything! That makes the writer to over use it, placing them in every single sentence. These words not only confuse the readers, but it also make the writing seems dull and boring to read. So here is the lesson, when you come across a word cemetery in your writing, stop writing, and try to replace it with a more descriptive word. As a result of that, your writing will be so much clearer and understandable.

I wonder if the word cemetery used will look like this.

Article from:  http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/06/in-south-sudan-girls-are-given-away-to-settle-family-feuds.html

Article by: Tom Rhodes

Imagine. Girls are given away in South Sudan to clear crimes from their family or to pay off debts. Imagine! You are a father/mother of a young girl and you give her away to another person without any consideration. IMAGINE! Your daughter gets raped repetitively and abused with harsh labors and treatments.

Usually I am very passionate about articles involving anything that relates to what I consider as the prime principle of human life, respect. As expected, I am also very passionate about this article that involves the disrespect towards women in South Sudan. Women were given away to pay off debts and to clear crimes. This made me wonder, do they think of women as human or just a property? Atia, a girl of only age 9, was given away to another family, since her brother murdered one of their family members. The girl was continuously raped by the new family and was beaten if she fights back. She attempted suicide twice, but failed at both times. A girl who wants to suicide? A young girl that barely even know the world around her and she is already desperate to end her own life? That terrifies me and should do so to every civilized person as well. Now, at the age of 14, Atia is still suffering in a servitude.  After 5 long years, her life didn’t change at all! Should the rest of the world just sit back and let this girl and so much others continue to suffer this ridiculous tradition? I say we should take in action immediately, these girls are experiencing something that is worse than death. We have to start realizing that we ignore too much about the world around us. People in fine conditions start to stop acknowledging about the poor around us. We need to start caring about the world around us now and stop being selfish like we were. These girls are waiting so desperately for our rescue and we can’t let them down. We’re all the hope that they have and unless we start taking action, we will never be able to save them.

Finally, after writing all the pleading I wrote, I sincerely hope that our community can set up some sort of activities to help woman in South Sudan. Luckily, I heard that there will be a project about helping a community in Humanities class, and I am looking forward to use that as a chance to accomplish my dream of helping these girls. I am ready to save them, are you?

Image from: http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall06/Sanam/0804.html

Article  by: Marisol Bello

Crowds of angry people flood the streets, shouting and fighting for justice of a young child’s death. However, was it a murder, or an accident, no one knows.

Reporters from the whole nation gathered at this town trying to figure out how the situation s developing. They wrote articles that suggested that this town was racist and so was Zimmerman, the one who shot Travin Martin. However, I do not think that race is the problem here. Maybe a few are racist, but the WHOLE town? In one of the article, a 57 years old citizen of Sanford stated, “Sanford is not a racist town, it’s just not.” If someone who’ve been living in a community for so long, it means that he has the most knowledge about the place and I do not think that reporters who have never even been to this town to make statement that are not true! News and reporters are supposed to bring people TRUE facts about what is happening in our world around us, but news nowadays feature more on exaggerating their articles and putting extra thins in their news that are sometimes extremely untrue. In this case of Travin Martin, I suspect that many information given by the articles are inaccurate, thus encouraging more people to read their articles.

Another painful truth about this murder is I really don’t understand why this murder has all attention while there are tons of murders that are more dreadful and racist, however no one seems to care or even notice these things are happening around them. A pastor in Sanford stated about Travin Martin’s case, “It’s just one of the many.” Yes, it is. Then why does no body care about what happened to the other poor ad innocent people? Why should they be abandoned and die with such injustice while Travin Martin gets all the support and concerns? I think this is a problem that our world is facing right now, we ignore what we don’t want to know and focus on what everyone is paying attention to. We are too scared to take a step of our own, so we wait for others to make the decision first, but in result of this, many are ignored. Ignored forever, even when facing death.

Image by: Vincent Tai

What do you believe are your strengths as a writer?

I think that one of the most obvious strengths in my writings are the strong voice that they carry. Writing is a great way to express your feelings to others and I really like taking advantage of that. In this piece of writing, “The Declaration of Independence: Students to Teachers”, I really enjoy putting a passionate voice to express the annoyance that students have from teachers and it was really easy for me to express them, since I am a student myself. All of these makes the writing sound more lively and entertaining for the readers to read, because it creates an image in the reader’s head and help them connect to other ideas they have in mind. This is a really great strength I have in my writings and I really want to continue to expand my techniques in writing to let me express my emotions even further.

What problems did you encounter in this writing? How did you solve them?

While skimming through my writing, I noticed some mistakes that repeat throughout the writing piece. I had some errors on usage of prepositions, and also a few mistakes on comma usage. However, I was really glad that I had few to none verb-tense errors in this piece of writing. Usually, I would see corrections of verb-tenses all over the paper for my other writings, but I was very surprised by this one! Is it magic? No. I think it’s due to the fact that I actually proofread what I’ve written after I finished it! This was my goal in my reflection for the last writing piece and I am really satisfied that I reached it in this piece of writing.

How did your writing progressed through the piece?

Well, at first, I thought of what I actually wanted to write about for this assignment. Then, the idea surge straight into my mind and I opened up a google doc and started typing. This is always how I write everything, without much consideration or thought, I just like to write what comes in mind and express whatever I want to express. However, I decided to follow the original Declaration of Independence and began with the Preamble and work my way down to the final Declaration of Independence. The completed work was very unexpected, I’ve predicted a messy writing with ideas placed in wrong places, but instead, it was pretty well organized. After a few editing on some grammatical errors and word choice, it’s ready to go!

If you can redo the writing, how would you change it?

One of my biggest wish to change on my writing is that, I want this piece to sound more ancient rather than modern school protests. I wish I can add in more language from that time in order to make it sound more special. Hopefully I would have some chance to write another writing piece using these words forming an excellent and remarkable work as possible.

Preamble: When one is mistreated, it is their right to stop whatever he/she considers as wrong or unfair. When the problem can not be dissolved and result in peace, then the only path that both sides can take, is to separate and break up with each other. This occurred to us, students to teachers, and we students believe that we are both equal, none of us should be abused and mistreated. However, you, teachers, have broken our trust towards you and it is time for us to leave you.

Statement of Beliefs:  Obviously, everyone is created equal with each other and share equal rights among each other to live, to be free and pursue happiness. A school is formed by students and teachers, and as leaders that the teachers are, they should be just and caring for their fellow students. However, when the teachers abuse the students and use their power for a wrong cause, then it is the student’s right and responsibility to change and reform the school. We must consider our decision deeply before we take action. We should not judge the teachers by slight or temporary mistakes. After all, everyone has times in their life where they do something that they would regret afterwards. However, if the teachers are performing long-term mistreatment that harshly damages a student’s pride and rights, then it is up to us, students, to destroy the tyranny and rebuild the whole school’s administration. Now, we sense that the teachers are causing us damage, we have chosen the path that will make you regret for treating us by giving us work day after day that shows no purpose at all!

Grievances:

1. “Teachers have given us work day after day, continuously, without asking our opinion. Not only do they complain about our accomplished assignments, that we spent so much concentration and energy on, they even set a grade value for our end product instead of our process. The appreciation of the hard working process was ignored and abandoned.”

2. “They have abused our rights to control and use our own time. They stole our time from us, forcing us to do what we do not wish to do. This shows their mistrust in us and, their use of powers without acknowledging the harm that their decisions might bring. The lunch time that they planned for us is around 12:40. By the time it’s 11:30, you can already hear growls from people’s stomach all over the classroom. They are starving us while they eat their sweet lunch in front of us while teaching.”

3. “They have used their powers to torture the students with dull classes that last for an hour and fifteen minutes! That feels like a life time to us students, and we absolutely can’t understand why they have to make the class periods be so ridiculously long! After all that disaster, we finally receive some moments to relax. Guess what? 15 minutes! Then we will be yelled and scolded to get back to class and continue our painful hour and fifteen minutes again.

4. “They forced us to take tests and quizzes that stress the students, resulting high pressure that the students have to bare. I’ve seen numerous amounts of students pacing up and down the hallway, cramming and worrying for the upcoming test or quiz, and by judging their expressions, they are having some serious pain. Teachers state that tests and quizzes are necessary, so they can have an understanding of where the student’s ability is at. However, we do not believe that an over-flood of tests day after day is necessary! There is no point in taking tons and tons of useless tests that just show the same results repeatededly.”

Statement of Prior Attempts to Redress Grievances

Time after time of dreadful yearnings for feedback, yet no answers were given. They ignored our requests continuously without being even mindful of it’s great importance to us. Ignoring and avoiding is all they’ve done, and abusing us is what they do to us if we attempt to disagree with their decisions. It’s time for us to tell them that we had enough, and we are no longer their obedient little pets. The time has come for us to revolt, and it is clear that they have no  will of making peace with us. Now we are not a whole, we are enemies, but hopefully one day we will reunite once more.

Declaration of Independence

The Representatives of students of Saigon South International School, in student council, gathered and declared that students will be free and independent. All connections to the teachers are broken, and we no longer are required to acknowledge or obey any commands from them. All connections of school events between the students and the teachers should be totally dissolved and the students are free and have full power to resist the control of the teachers. In order to obtain such benefits, we are willing to give up our   lunch time, usage of computers in school, and most of all, our student ID cards.

An act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven,

Is a painful truth that was abandoned

shall we retreat?

no, we must obtain liberty

Then why we stand here idle?

We are not weak,

3 million people fighting for liberty

An union of our men are prepared to battle

the King’s army is not invincible

Shall we not fight,

and be betrayed by a kiss?

then we will be chained and bounded,

with chains that was forged only for us.

Let us preserve and not suffer defeat.

We shall be glorious,

After we fulfill our great responsibilities we hold to God and our country.

Give me liberty, or give me death!

Image from: http://crashcopenhagen.wordpress.com/tag/patrick-henry/

“Son, do you want to learn the violin?” my mom asked.
“Sure mom, but what is it?” I answered.
“It’s an instrument that makes nice sounds,” she explained.
“Okay!” I shouted with excitement.
That’s how I came to learn the violin. With trickery and confusion. I had no idea what a “violin” is, yet the violin accompanied me for years and years in the future. I was 5 years old back then, still cute and innocent. My kindergarten had an association with the music academy across the street and sent ads to parent’s asking if they are willing to let their children to learn some music. As expected, my mom received the invitation and decided to let me have a try on something new. That’s when my adventure with the violin started. Everyday at nap time, our group of tiny musicians would walk over to the academy and spend an hour learning violin. It was a huge group of 15-20 students and I can still imagine the irritating sounds that the group produced. I have no idea how the young violin teacher survived in that environment. That’s where I first learned violin and that is where the crazy violin player you see right now comes from.

In the middle of the group, one stands out. Who is it? Me. I had a “metal” violin pressed against my neck and shoulder. Everyone else had regular violins, except me. Blame my mom, she forgot to buy one for me. It was absolutely ridiculous, if I had been older and smarter, I wouldn’t even stay in that room. However, the parents outside watching their kids play seemed to be extremely fascinated by me. They laughed and took out cameras and furiously clicked followed  by another. If you want to take a look at how embarrassing it was for me, I still have a picture in my drawer featuring that awful misfortune. Fortunately, after hearing the news, my mom immediately bought a violin for me and gave me her best apologies. The only disappointing result of gaining a new violin is that, all my fans are gone!

The violin teacher started to notice that I am becoming too far ahead of the group and I should be trained more professionally. He informed my mom of my extremely fast-speed learning in violin and suggested her to let me take private lesson in his academy. My mom gladly accepted it and asked for my opinion. Anything related to violin cheered me up at that time, so I smiled happily and replied I would love to. After 2 months of training, my violin skills increased drastically and I am able to even “teach” my own kindergarten group. I started to replace my teacher to teach them and my teacher would lay off on the couch and enjoy his coffee. He would pay me $5 for every hour I teach the kindergartners. I think it was a fair deal, so I took on the job of teaching them happily..

Spotlights were dangling from the ceiling and spilling out eye-blinding lights on the stage. 5 little boys stepped onto the stage awarded with cheers and whistles. We were all dead nervous. It was our first concert and we are about to perform the famous, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Mozart”. I am sure that everyone have heard of this tune before, but I am not quite sure the one we played at that time was the right version. We continuously dropped our bows and shoulder rests to the stage floor and tried our best to pick them up and make them stay at where they’re supposed to be. The audience laughed and enjoyed the pure humour little kids have on you. Thinking back then, it was the concert that I had the most confidence in, yet it was the worst concert I’ve ever had.

After I finished kindergarten and moved on to grade 1, my elementary school was forming an orchestra. My passion for violin was still there and so I decided to give it a try. The first day in the orchestra was pretty scar and devastating. I was so used to one on one playing that being in a group was almost an impossible mission for me. I met people that were way ahead of me in music and it was the first time in my music career that I was ignored and treated as a “beginner”. However, that doesn’t last long. As you know, I learn fast, VERY fast. By the time it was at the second semester, my music level was way ahead of every single person in the whole orchestra. I was made the concert master of the orchestra and even big and huge 4th and 5th graders had to listen to my command!

As my years of playing violin kept on sweeping past, I finally reached a point where I am satisfied. After all these years of hard work and training, I finally achieved what I’ve always wanted, the title of “Concert Master”. Here I am, concert master of our middle school assemble that performs twice a year and receiving quite a some popularity throughout the entire school. I was known for my ability in violin and that’s probably most people’s first impression on me, “Look! That’s the violin guy that I saw in the concert!” Hopefully, as I keep on improving my skills on this instrument, one day I will become one step further than what I already am and be filled with more pride and joy.