Joseph Kony is finally being hunted for- and he’s becoming a bit antsy. He’s sped up his usual routine, moving almost every other day. Let’s hope, however, that this doesn’t lead to delay of his capture.  The information from the people who have defected is always the same: he’s becoming nervous. His failures are adding up, and eventually he’ll be crushed. It’s only a matter of time.

I personally feel that the ‘Kony 2012′ viral video contributed greatly to the closing noose around Kony’s neck.  Though it has been criticized for over simplifying the problem, I don’t think it was a problem. Sometimes people don’t need to know the details. They only need to know that there’s a problem and that they need to help. As Nick Fury said in the movie the avengers, “…We don’t solve wars with sentiment. We win wars with soldiers.” And now we certainly have soldiers.

Why should we care? Because Kony hasn’t just killed one person. He’s killed millions. He’s gone past the point of humanity- and I don’t think he can come back.  It isn’t only him who has to be dealt with either. There is the bigger problem of healing the deep cuts made in the souls of all of the children he kidnapped.  It has come to the point where if we don’t help, we lose our humanity as well.

Links:{http://diigo.com/0qfls | http://diigo.com/0qflu | http://diigo.com/0qflw}

By the CNN wire team

Most governments try to protect their citizens. The Syrians, however, seem to be trying something else entirely- killing their people. The official story is that these are terrorist attacks, but they aren’t allowing many international journalists in the country. The journalists that do get in tell a very different tale. A tale where innocent citizens are slaughtered for speaking up against the government. A story where a dictator exercises his will on the people with an army to back him.

My question is, how is this helping the dictator? If he was better to the people, they wouldn’t be rebelling. Also, if he didn’t randomly slaughter people, he wouldn’t become a problem that even other countries became involved with. His coverups didn’t work either. Who would believe a lie when they had the truth in front of their noses? He’s dug himself into a hole too deep to climb out of.

I think this connects to us because of this question: “What if we’re next?”. If a dictator starts randomly slaughtering people and isn’t stopped, who’s to say that the other dictators in the world will do the same? If we allow someone to take away the freedom of an entire nation, what’s to say someone won’t take our freedom? It may be selfish, but to me that is the reason we should care. So support the Syrian rebellion for your own freedom!

Most governments try to protect their citizens. The Syrians, however, seem to be trying something else entirely- killing their people. The official story is that these are terrorist attacks, but they aren’t allowing many international journalists in the country. The journalists that do get in tell a very different tale. A tale where innocent citizens are slaughtered for speaking up against the government. A story where a dictator exercises his will on the people with an army to back him.

My question is, how is this helping the dictator? If he was better to the people, they wouldn’t be rebelling. Also, if he didn’t randomly slaughter people, he wouldn’t become a problem that even other countries became involved with. His coverups didn’t work either. Who would believe a lie when they had the truth in front of their noses? He’s dug himself into a hole too deep to climb out of.

I think this connects to us because of this question: “What if we’re next?”. If a dictator starts randomly slaughtering people and isn’t stopped, who’s to say that the other dictators in the world will do the same? If we allow someone to take away the freedom of an entire nation, what’s to say someone won’t take our freedom? It may be selfish, but to me that is the reason we should care. So support the Syrian rebellion for your own freedom!

Would you care for some seafood? After reading the latest article of the week, I know that I would refuse that shrimp.  Apparently, the oil spill is still effecting the environment, and what we used to clean up the oil isn’t helping either. In fact, it seems that everything we did that had to do with the oil spill had a negative effect somewhere in the ocean. We can see this most clearly with the mutant seafood from the gulf.

What I don’t understand is why BP is refusing to acknowledge the effects of the oil spill. It’s pretty obvious, even for someone like me.( I’m certainly not a scientist.) Yet, when they were confronted about it, they said the levels of mutant seafood and chemicals in the water were the same. How can they deny logic? I think it would be better if they confessed their mistake, apologized to the public, and then tried to improve the situation with the fish. After all, in the words of the author of the article of the week, “They’re cleaning the carpet with acid and acting surprised when the floor disappears.”

This connects to people like us, whoa re living all the way on the other side of the world, in more of a fear-inducing way than an actual effect. The main question is, “If BP spilled oil over there, will they spill oil here as well?” There is a chance of the very same thing happening in Vietnam! We need to find a solution before we are facing the same problems, or we’ll have to face the same problems the people of New Orleans are facing. And I’m pretty sure facing those environmental problems is no cakewalk.

In this weeks article of the week, we read about slum dwellers in Dhaka who had had their homes destroyed by the government. The government had lied and abused their citizens- and this isn’t the first, or the last, time that this will happen. In many places, Slum dwellers are the first people to go.

And who is the most abused of the citizens? You got it! Slum dwellers. When the government destroyed the slum, it was with their lies that they left the people helpless. My question is, Why couldn’t the government possibly tell the people living there to move back fifty feet instead of ten? What did they possibly earn in lying to them? There wasn’t any profit, and the slum dwellers would have agreed! In fact, I find it positively ridiculous that the government had recently passed a law that said you cannot displace others without giving them alternate living. They are abusing human rights and being hypocrites.Maybe these people did not have permission to be there, but the government should have told them that they couldn’t be there before they started building houses and businesses。

I think this connects to our lives simply because we could be next. WE could be the next ones shoved out of our homes. If they don’t respect people living on public land, then why should they respect people living on their own land? Soon, if we don’t stop this, they could be bulldozing entire stable communities such as Phu My Hung. This connects to every human being on earth- so let’s combine our strengths and solve our issues!

“I wish I was able to enjoy a day of my life without interruption! Only a day! Not even a full day! I would give anything to only have an hour of peace! Of course, no one can do that. It always has to be Erzan this, Erzan that. Can’t they see I’m busy?” Erzan was in a very bad mood. In fact, he was positively grumpy. His anger was directed at the people who had,only a few moments ago, disturbed his usually peaceful and uneventful life by appearing on his front porch.

“Shoulda seen it coming. Stracheous can never keep to himself, can he. This time, he even brought a human! What next! An elf? There had better be a reason for this, or they’ll be blasted from here to the next life.” Erzan rummaged through his drawer. “I know I put that blasted staff somewhere!” He angrily proclaimed. His next comment was cut off before it even started. Spinning around, he came face to face with one of the intruders.

“Your staff.” Crynta tilted her head to the left, as if she wanted to observe him from every angle. How long had she been there? “I’ll be out front. The others should be coming in a few seconds. ” After handing Erzan the staff, Crynta abruptly turned around, walking down the padded hallway without making a sound. “Don’t forget to put back all of your clothes.” Her muffled voice slowly receded as she walked down the hallway and out of the door.

“Stupid water witch. Who said she could come in here anyway.” Erzan muttered, his snide undertones, as usual, directed at the optimistic elemental. Shoving his possessions back in the unfortunate drawer, he walked down the hallway, his brisk steps echoing through his spacious living space. Throwing the door open, he realized his mistake the second he stepped out into the sunlight.

“For the love of Garjeel… You didn’t stop at only one human, did you. Instead, you had to bring three! Well, good luck. I, for one, am going to stay where I can have peace and quiet.” He couldn’t believe they had tried to drag him into this! Ignoring the outraged looks on the faces of his old friends, Erzan backed up, nearly stumbling over the edge of his carpet.

Slamming the door, he pulled the deadbolt.  Walking over to the windows on either side of the entrance, he flipped the locks.  Leaning out of the last window on his list, he gave his now deserted companions a last message. “I’m not opening up for any of you! Don’t come in, either! That means you, Crynta!” The echoing sounds of him latching the window were satisfying. Erzan turned around, his mind already on another topic. It was about teatime.

Can you picture a supermarket? You know, the kind with the fluorescent  lights and the rows and rows of goods. Have you pictured it yet? good. Now, I need you to replace those products with nine year old girls. This is the way people in south sudan picture the relatives of their enemies. However, this isn’t a supermarket where you pay for the goods with money. Instead, if you have had a family member murdered, you are allowed to pick out a female relative of the murderer to be your slave. And the criminal? He is allowed to walk free.

This is a long-standing tradition in the largely uncivilized areas of South Sudan where, among other things, there are no jails. However, while it may make sense to them, I do not understand how this method helps anything. Maybe they say it’s to replace the murdered personage. But can anyone truly replace a loved one? You cannot snap your fingers and bring back memories and affection just like that. When you look at how much it is helping the family have revenge, even solomons “eye-for-an-eye” rule makes more sense. If they had used that rule, if you murdered someone, you yourself would be killed. Sure, your relatives would mourn and there would still be protests about the rule. There is, however, one big winning point for the rule I have mentioned. It doesn’t sell anyone into slavery for something they didn’t do.  Of course, if you look at how the people in south sudan make a living, it makes more sense for the rule they have instated. The country is mainly made up of independent tribes, and those tribes would have wanted to preserve their men. If every time someone was murdered the murdered was killed, they would have run out of hinters pretty quickly. That does not, however, mean that this makes sense now. It is absoulutely horrible how they use these young girls and take away any hope they might once have had for a bright future without considering their feelings. And, to be frank, I really don’t care if it benifits the others in their tribe if it doesn’t bode well for the young girls.

This connects to us, the comfortable people here in Vietnam, more than you might think. This may not affect us directly, but we can help! Id we tried to stop people from pursuing the tradition without doing anything else, it wouldn’t work. However, we could build jails- if we put in a jailing system, then we would be able to give them a solution while also saving the girls otherwise destined for slavery. Isn’t that what really counts?

History has an interesting effect on the people of today. Many of us couldn’t care less whether or not George Washington had children or whether or when the first humans arrived in Australia. Of course, there is the small piece of the population that is continually attempting to figure out the nitty-gritty details of time- who, what, where, when and why.

      As we look further and further down the timeline, figuring out what happened is like trying to fit together the pieces of two very similar puzzles. You may think that you know what happened, but once you try to fit in another piece you realize your ideas are completely wrong. This simile is true in many career paths, but especially true for historians of the ancient, ancient past.
Some hot news right now is that we‘ve had another epiphany. This one, however, is different. This is a discovery that may change the psyche of the human race as a whole. Archeologists working in South Africa discovered charred animal bones dating back to a million years ago.

“Why would I care about this? It’s only burned up animal bones. A forest fire could do that in a few seconds. What’s so great about this?” Well, for one, the archeologists found the bones three hundred feet from the entrance of the cave. Magic? Unlikely. Teleportation? Aliens? No and no. Someone moved it? Why would they do that- unlikely. So what happened? Well, the explanation is simple. We’ve discovered the leavings of the first chef! This may seem stupid and unimportant to you, but think on this. If there was cooking a million years ago, that’s several hundred years before what we previously assumed. This isn’t a piece of the puzzle that doesn’t fit in. This is a whole different puzzle! This changes everything- at least in the minds of historians.

“so what?” You’re asking. “Why would I care about a few hundred years? It doesn’t change anything about the present.” Well, it may not change anything specifically, but it certainly changes our outlook. This is pretty big. It’s the same idea change that happened when we discovered the world was round. Maybe it doesn’t change how people see their lives, but it changes how we see ourselves.

See, the human race has a general outlook that our race is self made. We’ve raised ourselves out of the dust of our lives, hopes, and lived through wars. We don’t like to acknowledge the fact that we are actually standing on the shoulders of the people who have come before us. Of course, if we have to admit it, we like to say that we are depending on those of our race who came before us. This revelation changes all of that. If the people who discovered the art of cooking weren’t our ancestors, then who were they? This means that we are building on the discovery found by a race we cannot identify, discovered in a time we cannot specifically name, and discovered in a way we have no idea of. As history changes, we change our outlook and our acceptance of certain ideas with it. Trust me. Though this discovery of the past may not change what we do, it will lead to larger and larger ideas that will change who we are- at least in the mind.

By completing my own version of the declaration of independence, I was able to realize my strengths as a writer. I was also able to work on my ability to solve problems that can come up when you are writing- such as not having any ideas, or simply not being able to realize the importance of the assignment. However, I figured out how to fix the issues that came up one by one, eventually coming up with a decent piece of writing.
My strengths in writing are voice and word choice, so this writing piece should have been a piece of cake. All I had to do was be worked up about it and it would reach through the paper to my readers- right? I think not, mainly because I had reached a huge problem. I couldn’t get worked up! I have to admit, in life I’m pretty happy in general. My parents deal with bills, pay for food, and cook meals. My teachers are all nice to me, and I really don’t have any problems. So my main roadblock was that this assignment was to tell about all of the sources of your malcontent. I didn’t have any malcontent to have sources for! So what did I do? I talked to others, of course. I saw what they didn’t like, what made them angry, and what plainly wasn’t fair. After listening to their outraged narratives of their regular school days, I was pretty outraged as well. I was finally able to write that declaration!
Once I finished, I spent at least five minutes every time I thought of it to look through the writing piece to look for grammatical errors- my weakness. When the declaration was due, I posted it up on my blog, relieved. I had finished a declaration of independence that I was happy with. I had used my strengths, and done my best to eliminate my weaknesses. To put it plainly, I still feel happy about my piece of writing- and if I had to write another declaration, I would use the exact same process. I don’t really have any problems at all with my writing- so I wouldn’t really benefit from rewriting it. That’s the way it should be with every piece of writing. I’m happy that I was able to achieve this level of writing with my declaration.

As time goes on, people mature, and become more capable, slowly and steadily. This maturation might lead to them needing to have more independence, perhaps by dissolving the bonds between them and the higher power of society. They will also wish to bring upon their shoulders the full responsibility of being an independent and equal person under the eyes of all who surround them. However, respect for the society in which they are separating from brings them to announce the causes of their need for separation.

    We find it to be self evident that we are all of equal intellect and ability, in all but experience. We also find it to be obvious that we all have the right to be alive, be free, and to pursue happiness in whatever way that we may choose. In order to secure these rights, we create institutions such as schools in order to ensure the ability of students to, as said before, be safe, be capable enough to be free, and be able to be happy. However, when a school such as Saigon South International School, abuses the power that they were given in order to secure these ends, it is the right and duty of the students to change and improve the institution in question. Common sense will dictate that we should not overthrow a long-standing method to teach students, and that, in fact, shows that we students will suffer instead of shouting out against what we now know to be wrong; and that, in order to truly overthrow the rules that are out of order, we must be experiencing a truly horrible treatment by the authority. But, when a long train of the indignities to the student body comes along, pursuing the absolute tyranny of the administration over the students, we truly must rise up against such treatment.

     And such has been the treatment of the current eighth grade; we now must take the indignities and inform the administration that we will not put up with this unfitting treatment by those who are our elders; and by those who, therefore, should be more intelligent and patient than us. The rules that have been forced upon the student body by the principal and administrators have been coming in a seemingly endless chain of events which lead us to believe that they have no respect whatsoever for us, and that they wish to have ultimate control over us.
         In order for you to fully understand what we wish for you, the administration, to change, we will list the many and repeated rules that have infringed on our rights as students and equal individuals. First of all, you have demanded that we wear ID cards at all times, refusing to negotiate. You have made it so that the uniforms are extremely uncomfortable and unflattering and you demand that we wear them at all times during the school day without any alternative uniforms, therefore taking away any originality as a person we might have once had in style or clothing choice. You have refused to let us use cellphones on the campus if you are not a teacher, where the principal of the elementary school is constantly on his phone in plain sight. You have raised the prices of the cafeteria food, and you have not supplied enough food for the entire school to eat, leading to repeated incidents of people who have not been able to secure a lunch. You have created a class that serves no obvious purpose directly before lunch, even taking away time from our breaks in order to create this time. To top off all of this, you decided to create suggestion boxes; yet you did not pay attention to the suggestions, and even took them away after a few weeks. Why should we put up with this? You have blatantly ignored all of our requests and complaints, and you intend to continue taking away our freedom of choice.

     Nor have we been ignoring our teachers and administrators. We have attempted to ask for change; you ignored us. We have warned you as you retracted our allowance of freedom; we have pleaded to our parents for help; we have even gone so far as to speak to the principal directly. We have appealed to your good side, and we have even requested that you simply bend the rules a bit, not changing them completely. Yet, you have remained deaf to our attempts to help our fellow students. Therefore, we must, by necessity, plead to your better sides for the last time, in order to change these unfair and cruel rules, and announce a separation of the students and the school, and hold them, as does everyone else, as friends in peace and enemies in war.

     We, therefore, the representatives of the Saigon South International School, are appealing to the Judges of students in schools everywhere, in order to assure our intentions, solemnly do declare that we wish to destroy the unfair and tyrannic rules that the administration has instated in this institution. And that as free students, we wish to be allies with the teachers and administration, and have the power to create rules, elect leaders, destroy unfairness, and do all of the things that independent people in everyday life do. And for the support of this declaration, we pledge our sanity as students, our happiness in life, our honor as students, and our ability to do well in school.

Appeal to Arms! Appeal to Arms!

When   shall   we   be   stronger?

Peace! Peace! There is no peace!

Our chains are forged: bind and rivet.

Betrayed with a kiss; Graceful reception,

Cover our waters, darken our land

Implements of war, Subjugation

Tyrannical hands of the throne,

Know the worst and provide for it

A great and arduous struggle:

The vigilant, active, and brave

Is life so dear, peace so sweet?

A price of chains and slavery

Forbid it! Forbid it!

Patriotism, freedom:

Very worthy Gentleman

Anguish of spirit, chains.

~By Dominique