Is Swine Flu The Real Deal?

Beginning in March of 2009 an outbreak of a new strain of influenza commonly referred to as swine flu infected multitudes of people in Mexico and the United States, causing severe illness to those infected. The new strain was shown to be a fussion of several unique strains of Influenzavirus A, subtype H1N1, including both strains of this subtype circulating in humans, and in pigs. The strain has now been determined to transmit between humans and according to recent reports, has a relatively high mortality rate in Mexico. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC) have displayed serious concerns that the flu strain has the capability to become an influenza pandemic. The virus is already widespread, so containment of it will be impossible. Starting on April 26, 2009, many U.S. schools and school districts announced closings in response to the influenza’s rapid spread. The first official death due to Swine Flu in the US occurred on April 28, 2009. Tests confirmed that a child, 23-months old, from Mexico, died from the flu while visiting Texas. The next day President Obama suggested U.S. schools should consider closing as a future possibility if students are in fact infected. There are two confirmed cases in Massachusetts. Two middle school students in Lowell, Massachusetts have tested positive for swine flu as of April 29, 2009. After returning from a family trip to Mexico, both became mildly sick on their return to U.S. The local health department said that the boys had not returned to school since coming back from Mexico, and there were no concerns that the illness had been spread. In Spencer, Massachusetts, two students who also had recently returned from Mexico were tested for likely swine flu infection. The results of those tests have not yet been reported.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified the first two A/09(H1N1) swine flu cases in California on April 17, 2009. Within the next couple of days monitering of those with swine flu symptoms intensified in the search for additional cases in both California and Texas. The CDC found that the virus strain was genetically similar to the previously known A(H1N1) swine flu spreading among pigs in the United States since 1999. The virus was a combination of human, Eurasian swine, and North American swine influenza viruses. The viruses from the two primary Californian cases were also noted to be resistant to amantadine and rimantadine, two common influenza antiviral drugs. There had been no contact with pigs found for any of the seven Californian nor either of the two Texas cases. Human to human transmission of the disease is the only explanation.

Although seemingly serious, is the Swine Flu all that it is hyped up to be? Or is it just another disease like that of SARS and Avian Flu, which just seemingly vanishes from the media and our worries?

An April 28, 2009 CNN article states, “There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year. That one? The regular flu… No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.”
The flu death toll in Mexico could be lower than originally thought, according to Dr. Gregory Evans, head of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada and a member of a federal pandemic-planning committee:

“There was a lot of speculation and what seemed to be evidence there were dozens and dozens of deaths. Careful analysis showed these people likely died of something else, and not flu. That’s really good news, and that would fit with what we’ve seen outside of Mexico.”
Moreover, another Canadian expert, Dr. Neil Rau, criticized the WHO’s decision to raise its Pandemic alert to level 5, saying:

I don’t agree with (the WHO) because I think it’s a panic metre, not a pandemic metre. If that flu-like illness is not deadly, I don’t know what the cause for alarm is for people who are not really sickened by this virus. I’m really eager to know how much worse this is than seasonal flu. So far it’s looking like it’s not that serious.”

So is the Swine Flu the real deal? The likelihood is that this is just another one of those diseases that is hyped up by the media. That will go away with the boredom of the American public. In the case that this is a real threat to millions around the globe, however we should be prepared regardless. Taking proper precautions against this disease could end up saving us from an event as horrific as the flu pandemic of 1918 which took upwards of 100 million lives.

Inside North Korea

Welcome to North Korea

          North Korea: a place of mystery to everyone on the outside.  It is unlike any place in the world and the true nature of this country is disturbing to say the least. When I first pictured it in my mind, I imagined a dark unknown place, controlled by a brutal dictator and people, like robots, conforming to his every whim.  Then I imagined the starving people of the country, wasting away from disease and malnutrition. The scary thing is- I wasn’t so far off in my imagination.  After doing some research and watching a few YouTube clips online, I found the conditions in North Korea to be even more surreal and unthinkable than I could have ever imagined.  Think of George Orwell’s “1984” and apply it to a country in modern day society; that is North Korea.  It is a place of control, where no one can rebel without punishment, no one can speak out; there are no freedoms as we know them.  If you were to have a toe out of line in North Korea, you would almost certainly be sent to one of the numerous concentration camps, which populate the countryside and where thousands reside, dying of starvation and disease. North Korea is submerged in a famine; little food or water is available.  There is little access to electricity, and rarely any running water.  The North Korean people are those who are ignored by the rest of the world, it seems that only because their country may have nuclear capabilities that the spotlight continues to shine on the government and not the people of North Korea.  But it is the people not the government of the North Korea, which needs attention and relief from the brutalities of a vicious government.  The silent cries of North Koreans must be answered in the years to come.

          The capital city of Pyongyang is an eerie place of monuments to their leader Kim Jong-il and his father the previous leader, Kim il-sung.  No citizens visit the monuments; only the occasional few weekly international visitors view them up close.  There are no elderly in the streets, they are all told to either remain indoors or are moved to the countryside, they do not fit the perfect picture for Kim Jong-il. Children all carry around wooden sticks for their daily gymnastics, which takes place in the main square of the city every day for six hours.  The echo of orders 1!,2!,3!,4!,5!,6!,7!,8!,9!,10! crackles over the loudspeakers as the children practice for an upcoming rally celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the separation of the north and the south in 1953.  All the people of the city awaken at 7:00 am daily to an anonymous woman singing over loudspeakers, which reaches for miles around.  It is a bit similar to the sounds you hear when in Muslim country at dawn, however this woman’s voice eerily echoes off the empty streets, leaving any outsider chilled to the bone.  Culture in North Korea is seemingly non-existent, there is little color in Pyongyang, only the drab white monuments that line the horizon, like an ancient relic of a place, which was bustling with people thousands of years ago.  

          Outside of Pyongyang it is a highly secretive area where no foreigners can wander.  The mysterious countryside of North Korea when viewed from Google Earth looks to be made up of farmland and strange complex’s with barracks lined up one after the other for miles.  These areas are likely an example of the many concentration camps in North Korea. There are a few rare views into the this side of North Korea, the side that is closely guarded by the government and where little to no contact is ever heard.  There are a few rare clips of these areas showing the ‘bad’ side of North Korea.  There is little doubt that those who filmed these areas were risking their lives doing so, the footage seems like someone was carrying around a small camera and quickly taking a few shots, and hiding it before anyone noticed.  It is clear that North Korean officials have no intentions of ever revealing what goes on in the countryside.

         Back in the capital Pyongyang you may take the subway; what you’ll find is that every time you go to look at the mass of civilians walking by, they seemingly ignore you, starring blankly at the ground.  This is because it is illegal for any North Korean to make eye contact with a foreigner as is evident in the video taken by a couple of British filmmakers, everyone has their head down staring at the floor they are walking on as they pass by, seemingly trying to erase the existence of the visitors from their minds. Whenever civilians are present in the videos by the British filmmakers they are in large groups either in the subway or practicing drills in the main square.

So why do the people of North Korea simply obey and follow the commands of the government without even a word of dispute? The answer is time and propaganda. North Korea has existed for more than 55 years; in that time their have been two generations of North Korea that were raised to believe in the fairy tales told to them about their leader Kim-il sung.  When the North Korean leader died in 1994 the myth created for his death was this: “When the beloved leader Kim Ill Sung passed away thousands of cranes descended from heaven to fetch Him.”  From the first opening minutes of this documentary on North Korea, it is clear that the government holds a spell over the people of the nation solely through the propaganda, which is told to them throughout their lives. Witnessing the tens of thousands of North Koreans bowing their heads in dispair, their tears flowing freely, is one, which defines how firmly the people of North Korea believe in what they are told. The people are so overwhelmed by the loss of their leader, that men women and children cry in the streets for days after his death in 1994.  Clearly something must be done to break the spell the North Korean government has over its people.  The country can’t hide forever in the shadow of the world where millions suffer and the world watches in curiosity as it happens. The desperate situation in North Korea from the countryside to the brainwashing of millions in the capital city, demonstrates the importance of reunification of the North and the South so that the suffering of so many millions, which is ignored by the rest of the world, can be brought to rest and a new Korea can be born, one without suffering and death.

Obamanomics vs. Reaganomics

            America’s economy is in turmoil, we all know it, and many of us see it in our daily lives.  Some of our families may have to stop going out to dinner so often or forced to fire the weekly maid because money must be spent on groceries rather than services.  The underlying theme is that our economic situation is all the more uncertain.  Kids applying to college this year are now faced with the horrible reality that their dream school is out of reach financially and that they must settle for one that they had never considered before.  Our new president Barack Obama has lead many of us to have faith and hope in his new economic strategy. In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama said, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”  But is this hope justified? Or have we just started taking a path, which will lead to further economic troubles?  Looking back on history the contradictory view to Obamanomics is Reaganomics.

           Obama, wishes to raise taxes on any family who makes more than $250,000 annually.  Specifically under Obama’s plan, the marginal federal income tax rate for those with the highest incomes would go back to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, perhaps earlier than already scheduled under the Bush tax-cut legislation for the end of 2010. Also, Obama would impose a smaller payroll tax, perhaps 2 to 4 percent but not yet specified by the Obama campaign, on income above $200,000 and $250,000. So the marginal federal tax rate the rate on the last dollar earned could climb as high as perhaps 43 percent.  This increase in income taxes for the wealthy could be ethically justifiable, however this will almost definitely lead to less investment into the economy by the most financially powerful people in the country.  Those in the working class will not likely replace that money invested by the affluent. 

           Many people have come to view Reaganomics as republican ideology, which aims to cut taxes for the wealthly and increase them on the poor.  Looking into this further I found this to be completely false, Reaganomics actually cuts taxes for both the rich and the poor  rather than one or the other as Obama is doing.  The reason why Reaganomics is so important to look at in our situation is because Regan faced many of the problems Obama faces now, and Reagan’s policies worked.  When Reagan entered office, unemployment was as high as 10.3% and by the time he left office it stood at 5.3%.  Inflation, a key problem in the 1970’s, was at 14.67% when he entered office and was as low as 2.46% while he was in office.  The Dow Jones grew more than 259% in his presidency, from 759.13 points when he entered office to 2722.42 points by the time he left office.  It is safe to say that Reaganomics created a successful U.S economy from one that was in turmoil. 

            The point of this blog is not to bash Obamanomics, it is to open our usually liberal eyes up to an idea classified as conservative, but one that worked.    

The Modern Pirates

          You may think to yourself that pirates are a thing of the past, legendary people who only existed in previous to the 19^th century.  Today’s most infamous pirates are natives of Somalia. They are part of Somalia’s multiple warlord factions.  These warlord factions have fought each other for years in a power struggle since the collapse of the Siad Barrie government in 1991.

          The pirates targets are massive cargo ships, which slowly move past Somalia going to and fro between ports in the Red Sea and Southern Africa.  The pirates approach these cargo ships (which measure hundreds of feet in length) with small motorboats that resemble a rusted hollowed out Boston Whaler, which measure no longer than 25 feet long.  Armed with RPG’s (rocket propelled grenades) and AK47’s Somali pirates the pirates approach these defenseless mammoths and generally board without problem.  They then proceed take the captain at gunpoint and turn the ship towards a port in Somalia.

          Within the last year, piracy has become a more prominent form of a living as food prices have spiked in Somalia, and there is room for massive gains in the pirating of cargo ships.  Taking people ransom from the ships rakes in millions of dollars each year, when before they lived on little more than a dollar a day. In Somalia where opportunity is rare, piracy has opened a door for prominence and profit and many are willing to take the risks involved.

          The pirates of Somalia work for themselves, and there are no rules.  The main base for piracy is based out of the Puntland, a region that broke away from Somalia soon after 1991.  There are estimated to be thousands of pirates operating off the coast of Somalia.  Gangs have been formulated out of these pirates, and they have established relations with the government of Puntland.  Using some of the money they’ve made, they bribe port officials in the region so they can use their docks as bases of operation and bringing in their captured ships for safekeeping, as the pirates negotiate ransoms with the owners of the ships.

           Somalia is under international weapons sanctions, and warlord groups continue to fight both against the Ethiopian peacekeeping mission and against each other. But an influx of money is likely to mean a further influx of weapons to an already wartorn land.

Iqbal Jhazbhay, a Somali expert at the University of South Africa. 

“Regionally, I think the major problem is that piracy has given some groups the chance to lay their hands on money,” says Jhazbhay. “There may be $30 million in ransom money received in recent years. Once they [the various armed groups] get that kind of money, they can buy a ground-to-air missile. Getting [a hold of] arms can affect the struggle for freedom in Somalia, and that affects the whole region.”

          Currently, NATO, the US Navy, and a host of other countries have ships patrolling the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, an area of approximately 1.1 million square miles, to prevent piracy.  Piracy is significantly putting a negative impact on global trade in the region, and forces our own soldiers to risk their lives in order to stop piracy.  The truth is that there is no military force sufficient to stop them.  There are too many square miles of ocean, too many pirates at sea and who are too well organized. These pirates are linked to the warlords of Mogadishu. And they’re bringing in more income than the authorities are able to generate from their own population. Unfortunately, the US doesn’t want the hard-line Islamic force that is present poised to take Mogadishu having control of Somalia – despite the fact that they would curb this practice.   

          Resolving piracy off the coast of Somalia is going to require a political solution, so let’s hope that Arab nations like the Saudi Kingdom can help broker a solution that allows more moderate Muslim groups to form a coalition against the Al-Qaeda lovers who presently stand to regain control of Somalia.  The only solution seems to work on helping the overall economy of Somalia, much more complicated than it seems. Giving Somalia money is just going to help them get more weapons.  As the future goes on and piracy continues to increase the only options are to somehow help Somalia or to continue to use our own resources to constantly batter down a problem that won’t go away.

The Grand Finale

             When I first signed up for the class, I truthfully didn’t know what to expect. I never have had my own blog before, the closest thing I had done to express my opinion online was commenting on Youtube videos.  This class really helped in my writing style and structure. The class also gave me the opportunity to write about things that interested me, and in result I wrote some interesting stuff, rather than the bland essays I usually write for the boring english books we’re forced to read.  That was what made the class so good, the freedom of being able to write on almost any topic.  Not only that, I now have learned the skill of writing for the interest of other readers, and not just for a grade. The public aspect of the blog makes it much more important, as the whole world can view your thoughts, and you as the writer want those thoughts to be reflected on your blog in an interesting and organized manner.

             The key ideology behind an interesting blog is the writers interest on the subject, and secondly the structure so others can relate and show the some interest you do.   Establishing a personal aspect to your blog makes it unique, instead of just telling a story you are adding your own twist through personal beliefs.  When it comes to the actual structure, you must first, identify a topic, second, identify the aspect of of the topic on which you want to angle your blog, third, make a personal connection to the topic, forth, make a connection to immediate community, fifth, make a connection from you to the rest of the world through the topic and finally, employ good writing structure(Whew!). The blog of mine which best exemplifies this standard, is titled “Give Us Truth!” (March 30) which incorporates a worldwide example, a personal example and a communal example on my views on the role of truth and lies in our society.  Specifically I incorporate the use of steroids in baseball and the lies which have been told by a few players to the world relating to its use during their careers. For my personal example I used the local media’s fabrication of the events occurring while my garage burned down and related these fabrications to the world media and bigger events. Finally on a scale which affects everyone, I make clear how important it is for our politicians, who run the country, to be honest and just, rather than trying to express the opinions and answers everyone wants to hear.    

             This class as a whole has opened my eyes to the world, before this year I rarely kept up with current events, or had any opinion on what was going on in the world.  I would highly recommend the class to anyone as it not only is interesting, but teaches the life skill of expressing opinion in a well thought out and civil manner, as it should be presented to the public.  The course itself from a senior point of view is pretty darn fun, we talk about some really cool stuff, like the tree man or fridge balls.  This is stuff most of us wouldn’t have a clue to if it weren’t for this class, and more importantly this class enlightens even the most closed minded 18 year old. It gets us out of our Tabor shell and makes all of us realize that there is a great big world out there were stuff is happening all the time. In terms of improvements this class was an experiment, and it succeeded, therefore the only improvements I have are geared toward the overall structure to the blogs, instead of the usual blog structure of 500 words, 4 comments and mother blog comments, I feel that it should have a little more variety.  Make one week a little different from the last when it comes to the length and structure.  Other than that I have no complaints, this is a great class. Nice job Mr. McEnroe! 

A View Into the World of Cyber-Bullying

                Computers have opened up a world within itself, the internet is a vast web to which anyone can have access.  The internet is an amazing thing and can accomplish far more than meets the eye, someone’s words can have an affect on millions, in a way it is really scary.  There are some weird people out there in this world and the internet give them access to virtually anyone through websites like Myspace and Facebook.  It is not only those people which can inflict harm on others is a seemingly normal person who can also cause permanent damage.  The phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me” is no longer true in today’s society, this is displayed full well by the story of Megan Meier.                                                                                                             Megan was an average 13 year old girl, lived in a suburb and like so many others had a Myspace account.  She had been depressed, and was diagnosed with ADD. Her emotional problems and her young age set the stage for a tragedy.                                                     One day out of nowhere a boy named Josh friended her and gave her multiple comments on her photos, saying how pretty she was.  Megan’s spirit was lifted, her parents noticed the change. About a month later things turned very ugly, Josh began saying horrible things to her, such as “The world would be a better place without you” said to her on the day of her suicide.   Megan and her mother got into an argument about the vulgar language she had been using in her messages to Josh.  She ran upstairs crying and twenty minutes later it was all over.  Megan’s parents went upstairs to find her hanging in the closet by a belt.  Megan’s father, Ron, performed CPR, but it was no use, she died that day.                                                                                                                                    The boy Josh, was actually Lori Drew a mother who lived 4 doors down from Megan. She had created the Myspace account to cause emotional distress for Megan, in retaliation for a bad end to a friendship between Megan and Lori Drews’ daughter.  Lori Drew even went the funeral of Megan and seemingly had no regrets, or refuses to accept she was the reason for her death.  Her Cyber-bullying led to her suicide and yet no sentence has been carried out for Lori Drew due to lack of laws for Cyber-bullying.  The scary thing is that Megan is just one case of Cyber-bullying that lead to suicide.  There was another boy, who after being constantly harrased over AIM by the cheerleaders at the school, shot himself in the head with shotgun.                                                                           We really need to raise awareness to Cyber-bullying it is a horrible thing and should be outlawed, so that another suicide can be avoided in the future, especially in today’s society where more and more kids have access to the internet. 

The Mysterious and Infamous North Korea

The video above is a spectacular look into the North Korea which is unknown to so many of us.                       

Before viewing this video I thought about what it would be like if I were ever to visit North Korea, I pictured a famine infested country one which I had been told through the media and movies.  I tried to imagine how my view was affected and how a bias was formed against the country and its inhabitants because they are different, and communistic.  The video above opened my eyes to the emptiness and blankness, to the country, I would recomend it to anyone interested in this mysterious nation.   The conditions in North Korea are surreal and unthinkable.  Think of George Orwell’s “1984″ and apply it to a country in modern day society, that is North Korea.  It is a place of control, where no one can rebel without punishment, no one can speak out, there is no freedom as we know it.  If you were to get out of line in North Korea, you would certainly be sent to one of the numerous concentration camps which populate the country side and where thousands reside, dying of starvation and disease.  The majority people of North Korea are in a famine where little food or water is availiable.  There is no electricity to nearly all and rarely any running water.  

The capital city of Pyongyang is an eerie place of monuments to their leader Kim Jun Ill and his father the previous leader Kim Ill Sung.  No citizens visit the monuments, only the occasional few weekly international visitors view them up close. Children all carry around wooden sticks for their daily gymnastics which takes place in the main square of the city.  The echo of orders 1!,2!,3!,4!,5!,6!,7!,8!,9!,10! crackles over the loudspeakers as the children practice for an upcoming rally.  All the people of the city awaken at 7:00 am daily to a woman singing over loudspeakers which reach for miles around.  Culture there seems non existent, there is little color only the drab white monuments line the horizon, like an ancient relic of a place which existed thousands of years ago.   Their are some feeling I will never be able to grasp without actually going there.   What I see when I watch the majority of the videos is the rare perspectives of people who somehow got footage of the famine first hand, there is little doubt that those who were filming were risking their lives doing so, the footage seems like someone was just carrying around a small camera and quickly taking a few clips, hiding it before anyone noticed.  It is illegal for any North Korean to make eye contact with a foreigner as is evident in the video taken by a couple of British filmmakers, everyone has their head down staring at the floor they are walking on as they pass by, seemingly trying to erase the existence of the visitors out of their minds.  Whenever local people are present in the videos by the British filmmakers they are in large groups either in subway where hundred scurry through or in the main square of the capital practicing drills.  They never get up close and personal with anyone not assigned to talk to them.  The citizens are anonymous, blank expression and little emotion mark their faces.  The images of kids no older than 8 smoking cigarettes and people dying in the streets is the real North Korea, a place where famine is constant and where relief must be brought too, soon.        

The spectacle of witnessing the morning of their leader Kim Ill Sung is frightening.  The people are so overwhelmed by the loss of their leader, that men women and children cry in the streets for days after his death in 1994.  So many millions believe in the fairy tales and myths which spot their nations history as described by the propaganda.  The desperate situation in North Korea demonstrates the importance of reunification of the North and the South so that the suffering of so many millions which is ignored by the rest of the world can be brought to rest.

Hazing

Hazing is something that has been going on for thousands of years and it is something that will most likely never stop, even with the proper rules against it. After looking through the top Google web-links for hazing, I came to realize how dangerous it can really be. Each year one person dies from a hazing incident and as I read an article on Matthew Carrington, who was hazed to death, I came to realize how severe the consequences could be. In Matthew’s case, he was a 21 year old Junior at Chico State University in Sacramento, California who was just a normal kid earning an education. He decided to try and join the Chi Tau fraternity. Here are the details on what he went through the night he died according to NPR news.

“Carrington died during Chi Tau’s “Hell Week.” Junior fraternity brothers were in charge and were told to be tough on the pledges. Carrington was at the Chi Tau, located in Chico, Calif., north of Sacramento to support his friend, Mike Quintana. Both were sober, according to police reports.The two pledges were ordered downstairs and told to do calisthenics in raw sewage that had leaked on the floor. For hours, according to district attorney Mike Ramsey, they were interrogated and taunted.There were forced pushups and trivia quizzes. Through it all, the Carrington and Quintana were ordered to drink from a five-gallon jug of water, which was filled over and over. Fans blasted icy air on their wet bodies. They urinated and vomited on themselves. Then, according to DA Ramsey, something went terribly wrong.Carrington collapsed and started a seizure. Fraternity members didn’t initially call an ambulance. By the time they did, it was too late. Carrington was taken to Enloe Medical Center, where his heart stopped. At about 5 a.m. he was pronounced dead from water intoxication, which caused the swelling of his brain and lungs. Not a single fraternity brother was there, a fact that still haunts his mother.”

This horrific episode truly defines the nature of hazing, as something that can easily get out of hand and get somebody killed. Hazing is just plain wrong and those who participate in it should see what could happen if something were to go wrong. Its not only the fact that it may kill someone its also the idea of hazing which is evil in itself. The idea of purposely hurting someone else for amusement or fun is the kind of thing that shouldn’t exist, period. And I wish to really make clear how much disdain I have for people who do it. A Tabor student may think to themselves, oh well that doesn’t happen here that only happened in the old days. But thats simply not true, even in my fourth year here I still recollect about the hazing that went on freshman year in Lillard and not only about the hazing itself, but the fact that none of it ever was reported to teachers and how everyone just seemed to ignore it like it was everyday life. What I remember was a thing called “Thursday Night Beat-down” where a group of kids would go around and beat up a kid they didn’t like. I’m not going to give any names, but I will let on how bad it was. Victims of the beat-down would be hit with a variety of objects, such as a lacrosse stick or a belt and forced to run or cower in bed while being beaten by a group of maybe three to six kids. A friend of mine could barely walk a day after one of the beatings and when asked why he was limping said he had a pulled hamstring. I remember one time, the beat down came for me. I grabbed my lacrosse stick swung at the group entering the room, they ran off and I wasn’t bothered too much more that year, but the fact that kids could get away with beating someone really bothered me. The bruises heal but the psycological damage of a beating can last for years. The problem with hazing is that its hard to fathom how it can affect someone without experiencing it, but I can assure you that it can have long term affects mentally. Hazing as a whole should be stopped and those participating in it should stop, and think about what kind of damage their inflicting on the victim, end of story.

Let’s Get More Sleep

            Sleep is very important, and in today’s society the common ideology is “you can sleep when your dead”.  Society asks us to work longer than we should be, in reality we should get that extra hour or two, but as according to tradition, school starts at 8:00am, most of us aren’t getting to bed at Tabor until 11:30-12:00.  Now you have to get up at around 7:00am to have time to get ready for school, finish up any homework and maybe grab some breakfast before class though most of us don’t do that either. Thats a lot to cram into a 1 hour period.  In today’s world your average teen will receive about 6 to 7 hours of sleep, when in actuality they should be getting 8 hours and 15 minutes.  Most of you reading this blog probably think, well I don’t have the time to sleep that much, thats true, very true. Its true for me, I probably get 7 hours on average.  The problem is, that hour of sleep your missing every night builds up into sleep debt, thats why everyone sleeps until the afternoon on Sundays.  Scientist are conducting intense research as to the importance of sleep, and their finding that it effects everything, our concentration, mood, motivation, memory and much more.                                                                             What I propose, since we all don’t want to go to bed at 10:00pm, that Tabor move the start to classes until 8:30 rather than 8:00, an extra half hour of sleep makes a world of difference in our hectic teenage lives, and I bet the faculty members wouldn’t object to the change either.  All it would take is a little adjustment in the schedule and wallah! an extra half hour of sleep in our 5 day school week.  I’ll bet money that teachers will notice a more attentive and more driven student body.  We’ll all feel better as a result. If that’s too much for the traditional Tabor community to handle all at once, I at least ask for winter Wednesdays and Saturdays to happen all year round, even that would help a lot.  There have been a number of schools that have moved their school start to 9:00am, the kids are more productive.  The one problem however is the after-school activities, that’s why moving the start of school for Tabor an hour would not work.  Sports, however moved to 4:00 would not be a huge deal really.  Think about it, the time of 6:30-7:30pm at night is pretty useless really it’ll be OK if we lose a half hour of that to more sleep. I really hope Tabor considers this, its a long shot, but getting it to fly would be huge and have a positive effect on the whole community.

Violence Erupts in Mogadishu, Somalia

             Mogadishu, Somalia, the site of the movie “Black Hawk Down” has once again erupted into all out war as Islamic rebel armies trying to take control of Mogadishu fight Ethiopian troops in the capital city resulting in over 200 civilian casualties as of Sunday. Somalia the site of constant violence in the past two decades, has in the past week become a war zone as Ethiopian troops try and hold the capital from Islamic Rebels who have tried and sometimes succeeded in taking the country in passed years. Multiple civilians have been killed over the weekend as the Islamic army uses many innocents as human shields when fighting the Ethiopians. They also use bombs to get to the government, but in the past few months have only hit civilian targets, killing busloads of innocent people. The primary reason for such high civilian casualties is where the fighting is taking place. Members of the Islamic rebel forces have been firing rocket propelled grenades(RPG’s) and mortars at the Ethiopian army from within heavily populated areas of the cities. The Ethiopian armies retaliate shelling the areas with heavy artillery, which causes the high death toll. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 to instate a transitional government to the country.  As a result guerilla warfare has commenced in the past year as Islamic groups previously in control fight to take back Somalia from the Ethiopian invaders.

             Somalia’s current political situation is one that is hardly one of any value as the Somali government is not recognized by the majority of its population.  The current president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was voted by parliament during an election held in Kenya in a soccer stadium far away from the actual country.  The votes only came from member of parliament not from the people of Somalia.  The backwardness of Somalia is one that should be taken notice as little has been done by the western countries to help solve the problem there. Innocent civilians are being killed by the dozens day by day and more must be done to reverse the affect and oust the current issue of power in Somalia.

             The U.S got involved in 1993 as the Somali Radical Islamic group in charge at the time was stopping precious food from the red cross from reaching the people it was meant to serve.  The group would shoot anyone who tried to get the food by machine gun as they watched over the multitudes of sick and dying crowded around the red cross truck.  They were starving their own people as to exchange the food taken for weapons from other countries. Over 80% of the food given by the red cross was stolen by the local clan.  The U.S then sent in troops on October 3-October 4 to kidnap the prime minister in retaliation against organized attacks on U.S embassy’s. The operation was orginally believed to be one of little resistance, however as the team of Rangers from Delta forced dropped into the capital from Black Hawk helicopters they found that they were sorely mistaken.  Heavy resistance was given from the local Somali resistance, firing RPG rounds at the Black Hawks downing two of them.  As a result the U.S was forced to stay overnight in the hostile capital.  By the end of the battle 19 U.S troops were dead with 79 wounded, the Somali side suffered heavy casualties with between 500 and 2000 dead.  For the botched operation the U.S is far more likely not wanting to get involved with Somalia, a country tearing itself apart.