When I heard the oil spill in 2010, I had expected that there will be some heavy damages to the marine life. This week’s article, BP Oil Spill Aftermath, is not much of a surprise to me because this probably wasn’t the first time oil spills had happened. But I must admit that I was surprise with some of the mutations such as “Shrimps with babies attached to them.” This is probably the most disgusting mutation. I can’t imagine shrimps with many other shrimps attached to it. I can’t imagine shrimps with even more legs dangling and moving around. Eww! Well, this might be the common responses for many people too. Therefore this might be a big concern for the seafood industries.  Obviously, nobody wants to eat mutated seafood. Additionally, the article stated, “many locations showed 20 percent of fish having lesions with as much as 50 percent in other areas.” Well that’s a major problem. It’s hard to imagine a fisherman realizing that his net ,with full of fishes, has only half of the fishes edible.

Something new I learnt is that the main cause of the seafood mutation wasn’t from the oil spill, but it was from the solution used to dissolve the oil. The article stated, “It’s great for cleaning up an oil disaster, but terrible for the environment and worse for humans, not to mention the toll taken on anything that lives in the Gulf.” Then why do we still use this solution for cleaning up the disaster? Why can’t people find a different solution to clean up the mess instead?

I think the main purpose of this article is to raise awareness about these problems and how it affects American’s diet. Well, it might not affect seafood businesses in Asia, but it surely might happen to us someday. This is why we must understand these dilemma and find a way to prevent the seafood mutations from happening again. Either we can find a different solution to dissolve an oil spill, or we can just stop extracting oil from the ocean! Yet, oil fuel is not a very eco-friendly energy resource!

What is the job of a government?
To control, maintain, protect the citizens and inhabitants of the government’s community. But is Dhaka’s government really doing what they are suppose to? Are they protecting their people?

After reading the article, “Dhaka slum dwellers live under threat of eviction,” by Syed Zain Al-Mahmood, Dhaka’s government showed me that they are not the officials who are devoted to help their people. Instead, they are devoted to some other petty concerns as building larger roads. Well, building larger roads is fine, but harming civilians and destroying their homes to build larger roads is not acceptable. The article’s statement, “The bulldozers razed the shops and, to the residents’ horror, kept on coming. Panic set in as around 100 households were demolished in a matter of minutes,” astonished my mind. Well, if they are destroying people’s businesses, homes and havens, where are these poor people going to live and survive? Their homes and businesses are the only wealth they have, how will they survive if they lose everything they have? Are the government willing to see their people homeless, penniless just to build a larger road?

It is absolutely acceptable for these victims of destruction to be angered and dismayed. The article stated, “The slum dwellers have reacted with anger and dismay. They say many people were injured and one young girl was crushed under a bulldozer during the forced evictions.” How can these governments harm children? How can the government let bulldozers crush a girl and killing away her childhood? What chances will she survive when her homes were destroyed, and her parents doesn’t have money to afford her surgery or medical care? I believe the government are committing a crime – they are harming people, which could eventually lead to deaths. Does this young, innocent girl deserves to be crushed and have her life at stake?

“We are left under the open sky without food, water or toilets,” stated the article. In further details, this statement shows that the victims in Dhaka had lost all of their basic survival needs – food, shelter and water. Now, how can they survive if they are living without the basic needs. What are the governments going to do about this? Will they look away and let these people suffer to death? Let me remind you that it is the governments responsibility to protect these people, but they are not. So who will? This is where we, as audiences, can act and share the world about these horrors in Dhaka. We can raise awareness about the wrong doings of the governments. I believe we can help these people by raising awareness. Eventually, people from different countries will start to act and aid these people. But how are we going to raise awareness? Dear readers, social medias, such as Facebook, will spread the words quickly and simple. Just share your messages with your friends and then encourage them to share with other people too.

Article: Leave Afghanistan Now
by Arsalan Iftikah

Afghans react to the massacre of 16 civilians on Sunday, including nine children and three women. - All rights reserved from CNN

No nation wants to be the “graveyard of empires”. But apparently, Afghanistan is one. Afghanistan is carrying a heavy burden – their history of people dying as a result of war. As humans of 21st century, we don’t want people to die. We want fair, just nations all around the world so people can live peacefully, unharmed by wars. To help Afghanistan achieve so, Americans must leave Afghanistan, so the graveyard of empires stops expanding!

But why does the war continue, why won’t it end? The article stated, “Nearly two years ago in June 2010, the war in Afghanistan surpassed the Vietnam War to become the longest war in American history,” should Americans be proud about this? As an audience, I think ten years of war is nothing to boast of, but rather should be a shameful deed because it shows that America had been wasting abundant of money for just this war, but then their main objective, dismantling the Al-Qaeda and ending the Taliban regime, wasn’t accomplished quickly enough. This means that not only money was wasted in this war, but also many lives of soldiers and civilians were wasted as well!

However, the money being wasted on the war is not the sole purpose why I think America should leave Afghanistan, but it’s because there are far too many civilians suffering as the result of the war. Let me restate what was mentioned the article, the mistakes the U.S. military have committed:

“- In January, four American soldiers were caught on videotape standing over some Afghan corpses and urinating on the bodies.
-American soldier who apparently “went rogue” in a nighttime shooting massacre and allegedly murdered at least 16 innocent civilians, including nine children and three women.
-Several copies of the Quran were accidentally burned last month along with garbage and other materials seized from a detainee facility at Bagram Airfield.”

You might be wondering why several copies of the Quran being burnt are such a big deal. Well, Islam is a very strict religion, and they influence people’s lives a lot. So to burn Islam’s holy books, it’s like insulting their religion – insulting what they believe in, insulting Allah. Of course, this enraged them, this made the civilians think the American have crossed the borders.

These mistakes the American committed have made the Afghanistan government and the people feel discomforted, therefore they greatly distrust the U.S. troops. They even started protesting and attacking the U.S. soldiers like what was mentioned in the article. They feared the American would continue harming them or abusing them like before.

Now, it is obvious that Afghanistan doesn’t want the U.S. army to bother them anymore. Most of the Al-Qaeda are gone, and the Taliban regime have lost their power – mission accomplished. But citizens of Afghanistan are still living in a havocked country, so they do not need any more troubles with the American. Therefore it is only fair if Americans retreat from Afghanistan and let the country stop being a graveyard of empires.