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Animals are the life and soul of this planet: the stunning, mysterious creatures that populate the world alongside humans. We are the species that conquered the rest of the animal kingdom – but was that the right thing to do? Even before this week’s article by Leslie Kaufman, “To Save Some Species, Zoos Must Let Others Die”, I was aware of the fact that the Earth is slowly dying, and animals are suffering with it, plummeting in numbers and in danger of disappearing with no hope of ever returning. Nowadays, people tell us to ‘save the world’, but this world has been destroyed by our own hands. Would attempting to rescue the remaining population of animals be a chance to earn our forgiveness?

Zookeepers are now called as reinforcements to aid scientists, sheltering endangered animals and keeping them comfortable in the man-made environment they had been moved to for safety. The breeding of animals is also occurring, raising hope for  I think the biggest message zoos are trying to send – by revealing their hidden shelters and labs of rescued animals – is that humans are finally starting to care about the world and how to respect the wildlife that belongs here just as rightfully as we do.

Even though cruel decisions have to be made in order to preserve animals, I believe that these decisions are necessary. If people tried to save them all at once, there’d be a tiny chance of actual success. By focusing on animals more likely to survive, more chances are that the species would survive. ‘All sorts of criteria are considered, including uniqueness, level of endangerment in the wild, importance of the animal’s ecological role, and whether there is an adequate population in captivity for effective breeding.‘

When I was a child, I never truly enjoyed going to the zoo, since I hated seeing pandas and gorillas roaming their cages in loneliness. Little did I know that zoos would become the lifesavers and protectors of wildlife, and that changed my past perspective of them completely. ‘The increasingly difficult challenge is to be a force for conservation while continuing to put on a show.’ This line from the article stood out from all the rest, since it was the truth shoved right before our eyes. The zoos would surely have to multitask frantically, attempting to preserve endangered animals while still staying a form of public entertainment for demanding humans.

My only questions now are: how did humans develop minds that believe we can simply rule over everything in the first place? Why did we realize our wrong acts just a little too late? Animal extinction is an enormous  issue – but it never would have been so if we hadn’t been the ones who caused it. The article I read didn’t come as a surprise to me, but nevertheless, I felt guilty about considering it less important than my own personal problems. Is this mainly because I’m human, too?

Excuse Poem.

I’m sorry for forgetting to practice.
Your eyes, brown suns, shone down on me
And I try not to drown in the ponds of chocolate.
I want to tell you how much I hate
clenching a piece of wood under my chin
and slashing my arm like a seesaw
while strings bite deep into my fingers.

I want to tell you how much I love
throwing every worry into fire
and watching it dissolve like sugar
while sweet freedom bleeds into my sight.
But I look into those coffee candy eyes
and the face that so resembles mine
and all my words slip from my fingers
as if you were the wind
and you could just blow them away.

Conscious

Something I truly believe is made out of purest gold isn’t any of my possessions, or an envelope of dollar bills, or even my own life. It is – and always will be – my big sister. She was the one who shoved me through months of Algebra, painstakingly polishing every problem down to perfection. She was the one who stood deathly still, serene as a stone angel, while I shot endless streams of photos for an art project. I’ve always thought she was perfect.
But sometimes I can’t stand just the sight of her. Sometimes I want nothing more than for her to leave me alone, her annoying presence lingering even when she’d gone.
Even through all this, have I ever told her how much I envy her?

Ding.
The elevator doors split open and I strode out, inches away from home. I wandered, my mind drifting from the humid air of the afternoon. My bag was slung recklessly over one shoulder, a weary sign of rebellion. A sharp sting hiding behind my eyelids blamed me for staying up too late the night before. But it wouldn’t make a difference; school was over already. The moment I stepped through my front door and slammed it shut, I could sense that something wasn’t right. The house was too silent, and each of my footsteps scratched the floor too loudly. Faint sunlight streaked the ceiling, and everything was eerily perfect, sofa pillows stacked, remote controls placed on the table. The pastel walls loomed, closing in to strangle the room, but I was already suffocating. Where was my sister?

I found her in the bedroom next to mine. She sat crouched in her chair, facing away from the door – with quiet, wet noises erupting from the mouth and nose I couldn’t see.
My lungs gave way and collapsed, a feeling I get when anything in the world falls apart.
Alarmed, I murmured the name almost nobody knew her as, the name I’d always know her as.
“Annie?”
My voice sliced through the quiet like a slap. She whirled in a tornado of black hair and crimson eyes, her hands flying up to hide the spill of tears painting her face. I asked her what she was doing, even though I already knew. Her reply was muffled: nothing.
She’d never been good at lying.
Hesitantly, I sat down on the edge of the bed, scanning her distorted face. Reluctantly, my sister shifted to face me. I asked her what was really going on.
It took some time for her to answer, dragging her fingers across her cheeks to wipe away the telltale marks. She seemed so much smaller and weaker, despite the reality of our two year difference and her usual commanding air. Watching the tears made me want to cry, too.

While her broken sentences began walking in my ear and out the other, I found myself studying her. It was as if the world was revolving too quickly and she was acting in slow motion, too bright and vivid against the contrasting background of everything. She’d grown up to look nothing like me. Her eyes were huge in her sharp face, framed with bold lashes arching like thorns. Every time she blinked, I could see the light veins bordering her pupils. A tiny freckle branded the skin below her right eye, a blemish she’d had since birth. Her cheeks and nose were stained pink, an unexpectedly lovely color sadness could somehow leave behind. I sat there, staring at my own sister and realizing for the first time how beautiful she was – even though I’d never say so, because I could never compare to her.

Her words were smothered bubbles, buzzing like a voice-over too faint to hear.
I held her hand as she talked to me. Her fingers were so soft.
She listened, crumpling a tissue, as I replied. I wasn’t even exactly sure what she was on about, but I pretended to know just for the sake of making her happier, because I would have done absolutely anything. My mindless opinions tumbled out, sounding pretty good, actually. I perched on the corner of the bed and kept speaking in riddles until her tears dried and a smile wasn’t such a bad idea.

I will never let go of this small memory, because I saw so much in my sister that I’d never even noticed my entire life. Nothing good ever lasts.
Before I know it, it will be time for her to leave to university. Nobody would swear to keep my secrets guarded away from the rest of the world. Nobody would patiently listen to all my complaints and teach me how to grow up. If I cause trouble, which was almost always, nobody would appear to scold me and score a hand across my back.
There’s no fun in having nobody to annoy but yourself.

I hope you’ll miss me too, Annie.
One day I’ll tell you the truth of how proud you make me, but maybe not just yet.

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Chut Wutty, a Cambodian forest activist wrongly killed, will be sorely missed by his supporters. His intention was to preserve a massive old-growth forest located in South-east Asia named Prey Lang, and he didn’t hesitate to risk his life doing so.  This week’s article, ‘A Cause – and Questions – in Cambodia’ by Matt McCan, definitely told us a problem we had no idea of. The article mentioned Chut Wutty’s death, which was caused by Cambodian military members.  A question I immediately thought of was: Why was he killed even though he was trying his best to save the world?

The government insisted they were trying to save the forest – boundaries were made, and no news came. But why did the government make it so obvious that they were chopping down the forest? Chainsaws were noisily destroying the forest for resources: the government had lied to their people.  I understand how money and resources can appear more important than the truth, but I had no idea lying could reach this extent. People in charge of a country have huge responsibilities – I discovered that trust sometimes comes too quickly. Didn’t the Cambodian government care for the indigenous people living in the forest, or the beauty and importance of trees?  Even though I support Chut Wutty’s ideas, I know I can’t save all the forests by myself right now – but I really believe nature is the best thing the world can give us.  Without nature, the air we breathe and food we eat will all be contaminated far worse than it is now.

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‘“This was a fight he was willing to A) die for, and B) and more importantly, this was what he was going to live for,” Mr. Young said.’ This sentence from an interview in the article was extremely strong to me. It shows how focused Chut Wutty was to protect nature from the greed of people. He stood up for a human right: respecting and being aware of the environment. He’d stubbornly tried to share his knowledge with the government, but with no success. Reading the article brought me suspicion and hesitation to trust people – I’d never know who was a good or bad person until I found out the hard way. Based on the current environmental situation, I believe the best thing we can do to carry on Chut Wutty’s efforts would be to reduce the amount of pollution we produce, conserve water and electricity, and simply love our world. Slowly, we will definitely make a difference.

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Human rights declare that anyone anywhere has the right to maintain their belongings and their privacy. Apparently, not everyone is aware. Recently, an appalling problem hit the capital of Bangladesh – in Dhaka, one of the city’s most populated slums was ordered to be knocked down. The article I read this week informed me of the power a government can have over their people. The first question I thought of was how even though human rights state that there should be equality between each person, power and wealth still comes before it all. Do government lives have more value than a massive number of regular people? Poor citizens who can’t afford shelter after the slums are destroyed would be forced into the streets, with nowhere to stay and nothing to own. Even with the money and authority the government has over slum dwellers, worrying about the future of their people’s lives would be the lawful and fairest thing to do.

‘…[s]everal hundred people from the Korail slum staged a sit-in on the airport road, bringing traffic to a standstill. They agreed to move after the district administration announced the evictions would stop, for now.’  This was what happened after countless slum houses had been destroyed. People decided to silently but forcefully protest against the administration, and it had worked. I thought this was such a great idea, because no violence was involved, but the slum dwellers affected the movement of Dhaka’s people as well as the government’s choice of removing the slums.

Something extremely ironic is how Dhaka’s richest families lived right beside the slum, and despite how close their houses are, they are so very different from each other. They also probably never see – or want to see – each other. However, no matter how different the amount of money they have is, they are all equally important. Human rights may be optional rules, but they are the closest thing to the truth.

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Google has struck yet again.  Some people might think this new invention is amazing – some might think it’s dangerous. Our weekly article was based on Project Glass, Google’s new technology project, which is revolving around the idea of a simple pair of spectacles that have the exact functions of a smartphone. Simply by using voice commands or eye movements, you have the ability of controlling icons and interacting with what you see on the lenses. ”In addition to smartphone functionality, however, the Google glasses attempt to interact with the world that it sees in front of and around the wearer, “augmenting” or supplementing the reality that the wearer experiences”. The article flashed all these untouched, unusual functions of the new invention, and I knew it would certainly capture the whole world’s attention. The moment I heard of this new idea, I was stunned, just like everyone else. I’d had a nudging feeling something like this would happen someday, due to the lightning speed technology was currently developing at. It somehow seemed like a much more solid, realistic idea once the idea was actually brought to life. The invention of the seemingly perfect spectacles made me recall and question a single fact: can humans really make the impossible possible?

Technology is developing faster every minute, and people are repeatedly awestruck at every invention that companies produce. Personally, I think this is a bad thing. We are growing overly dependent on technology, and I often feel like I don’t even need any of the newest gadgets – Ipads, 3D televisions, or even a pair of these glasses. Won’t people become so lazy and unwilling to move an inch from our rooms, since we already have anything we could possibly need all in one gadget? Even ordering food or buying online products wouldn’t require us to stand up at all. I believe living with the existing technology is already enough, and I wholeheartedly think people shouldn’t solely fill the planet with gadgets and encourage people to live their lives online. The natural world around us should be embraced too, and although technology can provide anything we want to learn, the biggest, most basic step will always be understanding how to live in the real world.

My goal for the 4th quarter would be the same one I had in the previous semester – raising my Algebra grade, while keeping my other class grades consistently high. Even though my goals in 8th grade have nearly always stayed the same, I didn’t exactly follow my goal last quarter, and I really let myself down. This quarter, before the end of the year, concluding my grade on a positive note would be very important.

How I will achieve this goal is by focusing on studied throughout classes and while doing homework. More time always leads to more effort, and I am determined to receive high results for my tests. Every weekend, I would spend some time for reviewing and asking peers or siblings about problems I don’t fully understand, until my knowledge of algebra is enough for me to be confident about myself. and my abilities.

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My other goal outside of school would be practicing my violin, preparing for my upcoming violin exam in June. Being unprepared is the last thing I’d want for my exam, so setting this goal might encourage me to practice more and work towards achieving the best scores that can prove my musical capabilities.

She saw the illusion of hope
Like light through the keyhole
Shining into the darkened closet
Where she was crouched.

No one remonstrated her presence
No one knew she was there.
She was apt to avert herself
From the temporal world of nighttime.

The house was humbly silent
As inactive as a sleeping stone -
Except for that one vigilant mother
Who dragged her out by the ear.

‘Mother, I didn’t mean to hide in anxiety
Or possess such a mind of contempt
I beseech you to hear my reasons
For my insidious act.’

‘All that my sentiments wished for
Was a bedtime later than usual.
In what way does this justify injustice
When my eyes speak no hint of exhaustion?’

‘Awake, I can fulfill greatness.
Asleep, I am reserved by blackness.
Awake, I can acquire the world in my grasp,
Asleep, I am supinely mindless.’

The mother allowed her offence to melt
And retired away in alarm
Leaving nothing but her dissolving footsteps
And the tiny child in the closet.

The speech of Patrick Henry overflowed with energy and persuasion. His words enhanced his ideas, showing his persisting need of all the colonies’ support. He had no intention to hold back on voicing his own beliefs, and his speech came out as a true confession of his plan of rebellion. One specific and most convincing strategy Patrick Henry used in his speech was accusing his audience of their idleness and lack of dedication to battle and drive the British away: “[s]hall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?” The blame would’ve caused a feeling of guilt to wash over the listening colonists. However, the guilt would come accompanied with growing spirit, because the force of Henry’s words were enough to spread both shame and courage.The crowd would’ve become aware of the injustice and determined to fight Britain for what they believed in, spurred by the strength and meaning of the speech.

In this case, I would definitely be willing to unite with Patrick Henry to put a stop to the endless  conflict with Britain, because I’d want to remain loyal to my country and appeal to Henry as a dependable fellow colonist. Fighting back seemed to be the only remaining option, and as he mentioned, the colonists’ countless strategies to end taxation always crumbled at Britain’s feet. This was partly true, since how many times did Britain attempt to tax Americans, and why hadn’t they given up? Winning the war would continue their unfair treatment no longer. After Henry’s speech, he surely would’ve gained heaps of supporters who had quietly thought the same thing in their own minds, but were scared to inform everyone, possibly because they believed the Americans were weak, too weak to overthrow the British. Patrick Henry lifted them all to their feet by assuring them that they were as powerful as they wished to be, and with the thirteen united colonies, the British would be forced to back down and give the colonists what they rightfully won back. “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

“We can change all of humanity.”

The whole world is now aware of Joseph Kony – the man stated as the most dangerous, most powerful criminal. Only weeks ago, almost everyone was oblivious of this, including me. But after the Invisible Children community uploaded a video on Youtube, the news spread worldwide, and soon Kony was the only topic of discussion. The reason for his fame wasn’t because he’d done anything wonderful. He is a man hunting for children to abduct away from their families and join him as members of his personal army.

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Awareness was spread in the speed of light with the help of the fabulous video on Youtube. From my perspective, every minute of the video was captivating. I thought the modern effects and different scenes in the video could attract millions of people and a majority of teenagers to watch it and want to share it with other friends, since the high use of technology was something new to our eyes. The editors certainly knew how to play with special effects and contrasting moods in the video, because creativity and media are the greatest ways to spread information to any audience. There were heaps of agonizing photos and video clips of  Ugandan children that were very touching and certainly made people increasingly furious about the situation – but there were also pictures of Invisible Children supporters that brightened the dark problems and gave us all hope.  I was especially moved by the painful interviews with Jacob, one of the children who’d been a victim to Kony. Without hesitation, Jacob admitted he’d seen his brother killed right in front of him, and that hit me hard because it was something I couldn’t imagine could ever happen to anyone.

After watching the video, my first thought was that the problem with Kony might be because he wants more than he can have. He wants to preserve his great power and status by recruiting more rebels, and this is an act of uncontrollable greed. What Kony desires is a huge, undying amount of power, but his wrong belief is that his ambition can be achieved by performing illegal crimes. Stealing away children might be the most serious problem. Didn’t he consider using a civilized, human way to gain his power, such as working hard to earn money and class? Maybe Kony believed everyone’s fear of him made him the greatest, scariest person that nobody dared mess with.