Real eyes realize real lies..
Global warming is a huge issue that must be dealt with immediately as soon as possible. First of all what is global warming? Is it natural? Can we prevent this? Should this problem be our main concern or should we focus on other things that are more important? Do our children have to suffer for our mistakes? Global warming is estimated to be caused by us humans in many certain ways that we have to be caution with. There are a lot of things that are at stake and in danger, because of this matter. In this blog I am going to write about what kind of things we need to take under consideration and how it should be dealt with nevertheless. I am also going to be writing down my personal opinion of this horrifying issue
Global warming is literally ‘’destroying’’ our beloved planet and by destroying I mean that we are doing this to ourselves, by using our car or something that releases Co2 is damaging our planet. One of the results of the massive Co2 emission is that ice is melting. The consequences by this are that water level will increase and be a danger to countries such as Denmark and The Netherlands. When we usually hear the expression ‘’global warming’’ we think about Co2, however endangered species plays a large factor in this ice melting issue. Polar bears are in serious danger of going extinct due to global warming. Rising temperatures cause sea ice to melt, especially in the summer months when the polar bears are the most active. The polar bears are just one of many endangered species unfortunately. In matter of fact one of the main problems of the ice melting is something no one thinks about. Do you think shopping is one of the main issues to this for this global warming ''war''? You are definitely correct if you thought about it and I’m going to tell you just how this is a big piece of the puzzle. Imagine that you are at the mall and spending loads of money buying unnecessary accessories. Have you ever thought about the export and import matter? If you have noticed ‘’almost’’ every sweater and t-shirt have been made in China. Imagine the process how the item ends up in USA for instance. Maybe it goes by plane or boat and being produced at factories that emission extremely high amount of Carbon dioxide. I’ll bet almost none of you thought about this problem; however I dearly hope that many of you take this under consideration and have this in mind. I am not saying that you should stop shopping, but that you can decrease the amount of the buying’s.
Communication is very important between individuals and countries as well. If many countries got together and discussed this issue and figured something that might ease this problem for a while, then we’ll make the world a better place to live in for us and the next generation. There was an attempt to get together and discuss this global warming problem in Copenhagen. Many of the world leaders got together and tried to agree terms, but due to lack of communication, the meeting was a fail. It is estimated to have been misunderstandings between the agreements. Kids and children see the world as a good place where they just want to play and have fun. They live in a wonderful world where they are innocent and harmless, even though we see the world as it really is; scary and problematic. Terrorism, HIV/Aids and global warming is some of the negative sides of the world. The darkness doesn’t have any answers. You have to crawl out of your dark shell and step into the light and face the problem, before the problems expand.
In this blog I have been writing about serious issues that threatens the globe in a very serious matter. As you can see this is one of the huge problems, I have just mentioned few issues and we have to do anything we can to make this world a better place, anyhow we have a big task ahead of us to make this work. People should realize this before it gets too late, instead of living with no strings attached. Even though it’s very scary to think about this topic, but we should face this issue together and put the problems we have against each other to the side. Our mentality is quite weak now, because we’re fighting each other for the wrong cause. Is that the right thing to do? Our mutual enemies are terrorism, hunger, HIV/AIDS and of course global warming.
My personal opinion is that we should really consider and always have in mind what we’re really doing to this planet, because seriously we are harming this planet badly. If you want your children to see the world as harmless and beautiful, then you should take the charge and make a change. We can’t change the world unless we change ourselves. Be the change you want to see and don’t be afraid to offer the world what kind of spirit you have inside. Our children are depending on us to make this change to save the world. I personally do believe that we can do things to reduce the danger of the global destruction, but if we can’t save it, then I think that it’s meant to be like this. You can’t question Gods will. Life’s God’s novel let Him write it.
Written by Eric :)
Monday, November 8, 2010
Poverty around the world
We live in the most developed century that has ever been. Technology is a daily part of it, which only keeps growing and revolutionizing. But does every one have access to the high-tech world we live in?
Today millions of people live without any sign of electricity. In Asia around 830, Africa about 547 and in other countries 101 does not have electricity; note that we’re talking about millions here. While these people don’t have even electric lights to light up their homes, the Western world is overflowing with extremely high technologies where every month a new hardware is coming out. Why they are not following this wave of development as some countries do? Because of a global challenge: poverty.
Poverty has been a huge problem in the whole world for centuries but the increasing rate of poor people since the last decades becomes the biggest responsibility of every little wealth country in the world before it turns into an uncontrollable problem in the coming years. Every country in the world has some sort of bad distribution of the monetary resources and faces some type of inequality.
Nevertheless the tendency is that in developed countries this difference is not so big while in under developed countries the level of inequality can be represented as a pyramid: a very small group in highly good living conditions against a huge amount of people living from poverty to misery.
Almost a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names and it’s estimated that 1.02 billion people are undernourished. Nearly 25,000 people die every day of hunger-related causes and the worst thing is that the majority of them are children. In many countries it is not possible to fulfill the basic necessities of a human being such as food, a place to live, access to hospitals, schools, job and entertainment.
Technology is the great deal of this century and can be the key used by the governments of the rich countries to contribute to establish a much better world and makes the meaning of globalization be understood as a way of uniting all the countries as part of a whole that lives and works altogether. The great challenge of spreading knowledge is the great barrier of sovereign of each country because naturally there is a fear of becoming dependent and ruled by the country that is offering help and what most happens is that the countries prefer to continue struggling to survive despite of all the hardness that comes with of this choice.
Many artists and celebrities as George Clooney, Giselle Bünchen, Ayrton Senna, Madonna and Angelina Jolie made donations for combating poverty through charity institutions; in Norway every year the schools has the “Operasjon Dagsverk” – day when the students search a job and are meant to work to earn money to help a chosen country; in some countries, there are adult programs called “Food for work”, where they get food as payment for building schools, roads, etc. what result of solving two problems at the same time: hungriness and infrastructure; there are programs for the children too, like the “Food for education”-program, when they get food if they go to school. Although these are relevant actions, there are much more to be done in order to change this sad reality.
The advances in technology have changed completely the behavior and the necessities of the human being. A family was considered to have a comfortable standard of living when it has a house furnished with a radio, TV, computer, kitchen appliances, and a yearly income capable of providing clothes, food, schools and entertainment. Nowadays, due to the world globalization and to the extremely fast development of new products, people are not satisfied anymore with this basic way of life. The desire of consumption has positively or negatively affected everybody and the family income must be much bigger than before to fulfill all the family desires. The old computer, the car, the radio, the mobile, for instance, has to be changed all the time because there is always some new model and the old one gets old fashioned. The same happens with clothes, food and even habits.
While people are trying to consume more and more, meaning they are wasting much more money to fulfill these selfish desires, no effective action are taken to extinguish or at least diminish poverty all over the world. The amount of money used to develop high-tech products, weapons of mass destruction, luxury products, to arrange the big-prized tournaments or to pay the expensive awards could be better employed in the field of infrastructure, health, education and to proportionate some kind of entertainment as parks and playgrounds.
Let’s build a better world and use our citizenship to push the government effectively to help those in need.
Kowsar M. Elmi
Task 5: TERRORISM/VIOLENCE
Pirates in Somalia
I grew up in Bosaso, Somalia, this is the one place in the world you don’t want be born, the risk that you wont make it the first 10 years is higher than the risk that you will, mass murders and civil war has taken over my country as long as I can remember. I grew up with my mother and my three sisters. All I knew about my father was that he was dead. Responsibly was a huge part of my life, even in a young age. The conditions we lived in were extremely poor; we used to get two liters of clean water every month (if we were lucky). Food was even harder to get, but we never complained. My mother had enough to worry about and she always used to say “Lawlessness, helplessness and extreme poverty is a way of life, deal with it”.
I became a pirate when I was seventeen. My friends father told me about pirates, what they do and how much money they earned. What he told me didn’t sound realistic, how on earth could a bunch of skinny guys with small motorboats take control over a whole ship? The amount of money they got didn’t sound realistic either. He told me that the pirates could get over 2 million dollars for only high jacking one ship. My family needed the money and this pirate thing was the only money source I could think of. I scrabbled enough money and went to the closes pirate school for 6 months. After that I found a Warlord who was willing to hire me. Ever since then I’ve been a pirate.
My team has high jacked 6 ships since then. The first ship we got 1.6 million, for the second ship we got 2 million. We got 10.6 million for all of the 6 ships we have high jacked, you may think that I’m rich by know, but I’m barely getting by. 75% of the money we get goes to the Warlord; we divide up the little we get among our families, friends and ourselves. I only wanted to do this so I could make enough money to get out of Somalia, but here I am still struggling to make ends meat.
I could say that the day that changed my life was the day I became a pirate, but that’s not true. The day that changed my life was the day I witnessed a white woman getting raped and killed by my team. Just before she died, she reached her hand towards me; she wanted me to help her. I look back at that moment with regret. She was someone’s daughter, maybe someone’s wife, someone’s sister, someone’s mother. What would my mother think of me? What would God think of me? What would my future sons and daughters think when they found out what a coward I was? That innocent woman died because of me, because of a diction I made.
A pirate is a terrorist. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion, and this is what we pirates do, we are terrorist. This is not how it all started. The Somali coastline was full of many different types of fish, and it was worth over 300 million dollars per year, but it was open for anyone to exploit. In a world where fish is a massive money source it didn’t take long before overfishing became a major problem. Since we had a corrupt government, local fishermen took the cause into their own hands. They gathered villages and groups of 10-20 volunteers equipped with guns and motorboats, and headed to the open sea, towards boats that were taking food from a staving people. Soon after the local volunteers or the coastguard as they called themselves, discovered that they would make a lot of money high jacking a ship.
We are not better than them. We are just like them, we take something that doesn’t belong to us. This doesn’t stop them, and this doesn’t help us. We are still staving, still struggling. The only ones who are making money out of this are the Warlords and the Western world. We the Somali people are stuck in the middle, doing the hard work, but the westerners and the Warlords are still exploiting our fish and money.
We can stop this. Instead for being portrayed as rootless criminals, we can make the world see what is being done to us. We can take back our coastline, get a reliable government and start making money out of the fish we still have left. Instead for the westerns taking our fish, they can by it from us. We would make enough money to build up this country and make it better. Enough people have died, it’s time for change. It’s time that we end this nonsense and take responsibility for our country and stop being the victims.
Sources:
http://ishineyoushine.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/documentary-on-somali-pirates/
Take responsibility!
When you are a teenager, most of your thoughts are based on homework, friends, family and a possible boyfriend or girlfriend. As a teenager, this is totally normal and understandable, but at the same time, we should not forget about the world around us and things that are more important. I am thinking about global warming.
I am sure you have heard about this global warming on the news or in the papers, or maybe even from your parents. It is a very controversial issue and some actually claim that there is no such thing as global warming. In this blog post, I am going to show you how we know that there is a global warming, tell you what global warming is and how we can prevent it from developing.
Global warming means that the average temperature on the earth is increasing. Scientists believes that the temperature started increasing slowly for about a hundred years ago and that it in the last 60-70 years has increased more dramatically. This is due to human emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2, which is a gas that makes it harder for the earth' heat to get out of the atmosphere and the earth gets heated up.
I think a lot of people do not take this seriously because they do not understand how a few degrees can hurt so much. Well, THEY CAN! I will tell you why.
According to the IPCC, some of the consequences of global warming could for example be more extreme weather, rising sea levels, less food and water, desertification, extinction of plant- and animal species etc. One of the worst consequences would have to be the rising sea levels. If the sea rises, many countries along the coastlines will go under water and many lives will be lost. The IPCC says that if the emissions of CO2 does not improve, the sea will rise up to a 100 meters by 2100 and at least two million people will die.
In addition, desertification will make it nearly impossible to farm in certain places and food and water will be short supply.
The main reason why global warming occurs is the human emission of greenhouse gases. Examples of these are methane, ozone and CO2. These emissions come from air traffic, traffic, oil heating, oil exploration, garbage landfills and agriculture production.
After reading this, you should feel a little bit wiser on what global warming is and where it comes from. However, the most important thing to learn is how to prevent it from developing any more. Well, as you can see in the paragraph above, global warming occurs by emissions of greenhouse gases and those emissions come from cars, planes, oil and so on. The best thing you can do to help the world and to make a difference is; cut down on your consumption! Shop less clothes and other things that are transported from far away, turn off the lights when you leave the house, do not go on unnecessary vacations and let the car stay at home sometimes. These little things make a big difference! If everyone would just sacrifice a little bit, we would save or world from so much pain.
Have you ever dreamed about having kids when you grow up? To make your own little family? I have! Have you ever thought about you one day becoming a grandparent? I have thought about that too. I am looking forward to that. I am looking forward to see my children and grandchildren growing up to be healthy beautiful kids.
One day it hit me that they might not be able to do that; to grow up and be healthy and live a good life because WE RUINED THEIR EARTH! Because that is exactly what we do. We decide our descendants' future! It would be awfully selfish of us to ruin someone else life because we just do not care to make an effort. Because we just love to go on vacation or hate to take the train in the morning.
The future looks bad if we do not make a change. No excuse is good enough for not caring. We are responsible for our own actions. Take responsibility! Make a little change in your life and you will make a big change for someone else's life!
Thank you.
I am sure you have heard about this global warming on the news or in the papers, or maybe even from your parents. It is a very controversial issue and some actually claim that there is no such thing as global warming. In this blog post, I am going to show you how we know that there is a global warming, tell you what global warming is and how we can prevent it from developing.
Global warming means that the average temperature on the earth is increasing. Scientists believes that the temperature started increasing slowly for about a hundred years ago and that it in the last 60-70 years has increased more dramatically. This is due to human emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2, which is a gas that makes it harder for the earth' heat to get out of the atmosphere and the earth gets heated up.
I think a lot of people do not take this seriously because they do not understand how a few degrees can hurt so much. Well, THEY CAN! I will tell you why.
According to the IPCC, some of the consequences of global warming could for example be more extreme weather, rising sea levels, less food and water, desertification, extinction of plant- and animal species etc. One of the worst consequences would have to be the rising sea levels. If the sea rises, many countries along the coastlines will go under water and many lives will be lost. The IPCC says that if the emissions of CO2 does not improve, the sea will rise up to a 100 meters by 2100 and at least two million people will die.
In addition, desertification will make it nearly impossible to farm in certain places and food and water will be short supply.
The main reason why global warming occurs is the human emission of greenhouse gases. Examples of these are methane, ozone and CO2. These emissions come from air traffic, traffic, oil heating, oil exploration, garbage landfills and agriculture production.
After reading this, you should feel a little bit wiser on what global warming is and where it comes from. However, the most important thing to learn is how to prevent it from developing any more. Well, as you can see in the paragraph above, global warming occurs by emissions of greenhouse gases and those emissions come from cars, planes, oil and so on. The best thing you can do to help the world and to make a difference is; cut down on your consumption! Shop less clothes and other things that are transported from far away, turn off the lights when you leave the house, do not go on unnecessary vacations and let the car stay at home sometimes. These little things make a big difference! If everyone would just sacrifice a little bit, we would save or world from so much pain.
Have you ever dreamed about having kids when you grow up? To make your own little family? I have! Have you ever thought about you one day becoming a grandparent? I have thought about that too. I am looking forward to that. I am looking forward to see my children and grandchildren growing up to be healthy beautiful kids.
One day it hit me that they might not be able to do that; to grow up and be healthy and live a good life because WE RUINED THEIR EARTH! Because that is exactly what we do. We decide our descendants' future! It would be awfully selfish of us to ruin someone else life because we just do not care to make an effort. Because we just love to go on vacation or hate to take the train in the morning.
The future looks bad if we do not make a change. No excuse is good enough for not caring. We are responsible for our own actions. Take responsibility! Make a little change in your life and you will make a big change for someone else's life!
Thank you.
A coordinators life
Being UNICEF coordinator you come across many challenges, one of them is to decide what the money you receive from different donors should be use for. We have different guidelines that are important to follow. The most important are the host country’s norms and laws, but when we work with children we often find that we need to go further to respect the Convention of the Right of the Child (CRC).
Anyhow, a week ago my delegation (the central African delegation) was granted five million US dollars from the French UN for a global purpose in one of their former colonies. Our area in central Africa is one of the poorest in the world. It is also very violent. When we decide in which country we are to spend the money we look at statistics and facts connected to the country, such as children morality rates, education possibility, health care and mallnutrition. We also need to cooperate with other organizations so we do not built two schools in the exact same area. After long discussions and much research my group decided to delegate the money to the Republic of Congo also known as Congo-Brazzaville.
Congo is one known as a very poor country and 54% of the children live bellow the poverty level. It is also very alarming when half of the population is under 18 years old. When we read these statistics we can tell that we have a long way to go to achieve the millenium goals. The fourth millennium goal is that within 2015 all children, girls like boys, should have a opportunity to finish primary education. In Congo most children have the opportunity to attend school, but many of them can’t afford it. For this reasons my delegation decided to build a school in Congo where uniforms, food and school material are free.
You might think I should reconsider opening a school knowing that malnutrition is an acute problem. However, one of our main priorities is to make sure that the children can receive a meal every day, and that they also have access to clean water in school. First of all it is an easy way to hand out food to the children, second of all it is important that we don’t make them too dependent on charity. It is also important to focus on how they can earn enough to please a family with food.
In school we can more easily inform about deseases and civic understanding that are important in a community. One such goal is to teach young people how to built a democratic structure, which will help them to form a more peaceful society. Education is the most important way to build a society. With a minimum of education a job is more easy to uptain and it is shown that people with a job are less likely to become criminals. When you manage to fight criminality the community automatically becomes a nicer and less violent place to live. Young people can start thinking about other things, such as health and more long-term goals.
Health is also one of the biggest concerns in Congo. It is a country with almost 13% children (below 5) mortality and 15% undernourished children. So I am sure that you wonder why we don’t use our money on health care. But I can assure you that the UN has done much research on the topic of whether health or education should have priority. We found that children within an education system, are more likely to obtain treatment their diseases. First of all because of knowledge, but also because there are people around who can give advice. Schools bring the opportunity to inform and convey understanding of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
So we in our delegation decided to use our money to build a school in Congo. This is because it is one of the poorest and has one of the lowest life expectancy. The health care system and educational system are poor. In UNICEF schools teachers can inform about possibilities and concerns. Our schools offer one free meal and clean water during the day. UNICEF’s philosophy is; “teach a man how to fish and he will get fish for a whole life, give him a fish and he will need another one the day after.”
Clara, leader of the UNICEF delegation in Central Africa.
Sources:
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda.html
http://www.globalis.no/Statistikk/Barnedoedelighet#bars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo
http://www.globalis.no/Land/Kongo/(show)/mdg
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/congo_2686.html
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Earth needs your help
In this blog post I will focus on one of the biggest global challenges the world is facing today, and that is global warming. Global warming is a topic that I am extremely passionate about. This post is written to increase people’s knowledge about global warming, and to bring awareness that this problem is happening right now. I am going to share with you some facts about global warming; to show you how important it is that we start doing something about this situation we are caught in. I will help you help the world by showing how this can be done. I guarantee you that if you work these small changes in to your daily life, you are going to wonder why you did not make these adjustments sooner, because they are so easy.
First of all I will start by explaining what global warming really means. Because some of you may not know what this big topic actually involves. Global warming means that the entire Earth's normal temperature increases. This has been going on for hundreds of years, and has increased more and more in the past 60-70 years. It is most likely that more than 90 percent of the increase in the global average temperature over the last 50 years, is caused by us humans. This is according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). A climate gas called CO2 is released, and about 90 percent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are caused by fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a general term for coal, oil and natural gas. This gas is increasing, and it causes less of the Earth's heat to release into the atmosphere. At the same time is it important to know that the nature has, and will always have, an effect on global warming. Therefore, you cannot put the entire blame on yourself, CO2 is caused by natural emissions as well, putrefy plants for example, is also releasing CO22.
It is estimated an increase of 1.1 ° C to 6.4 ° C during the 21th century. The poles in the Antarctic and the Arctic have already begun to melt, and this will continue as long as you do not limit your emissions. It is assumed that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2050 if our emissions continue as before. The water level in the oceans will rise. This is both because water expands when it gets warmer, and that part of the polar ice melts into the ocean. A rise in the sea-level will affect millions of people living on small islands and coastal cities. This leads to terrible consequences like loss of land and climate refugees. (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). The world has recently experienced frequent cases of powerful natural disasters, which can be connected to global warming. An example is Hurricane Katrina from 2005. What gives a storm its power is exactly the heat in the ocean. Therefore, increased heat in the ocean will also provide more dramatic natural disasters. Again, this will cost many people their lives. Do you want to be a part of that?
A lot of the pollution caused by humans is from traveling. Of all the transportation we use, it is the airplanes that emit the most climate gases. Travel less with plane, reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year will reduce your emissions significantly. There are several other travel options, like train or boat. When you are going on small trips, take a bike or walk, and let your car rest. Your bonus – free exercise. 30 percent of all car trips in Norway are less than three miles long (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). I strongly advise you to leave your car, and by doing that you save the atmosphere from CO2 emissions. When you have to take longer trips, for instance to and from your job, I want you to use public transportation, like a bus or subway. 70 percent of all trips to work is by car and it is an average of 1.2 persons in each car at rush hour (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). This practically means that the majority is sitting alone in the car, which is heating up our Earth and is as far from environmentally friendly as you can be. If you are one of those people that have to have a car, you have to invest in a more fuel efficient car.
Bovine are among the worst sources of emissions of methane, the second most dangerous greenhouse gas. Production of one kilogram of beef emits 22 kilograms climate gases, and the sale of meat has increased by 15 percent over the past ten years. Therefore I ask you kindly to choose vegetarian meals. But if you are going to eat meat, I would like it to always be from your local source. This way you will save the Earth from the pollution shipping grain to the bovine and shipping of the bovine itself, causes. By choosing vegetarian food you drastically reduce water consumption and land use. And your own bonus – it is much healthier.
Global warming will eventually affect us all. With that being said, I believe that you should not only be responsible for yourself, but also for the rest of the world. Taking responsibility for the entire world would include recycling your food, plastic, paper etc., don’t shop more than you need – both food and material things. You have to turn off all the lights when you leave the house, and the same with the electronic equipments. The water should not flow when you are not using it. Some other responsible things to do would be to give away your used clothes and buy second hand-clothes, and not get a new plastic bag every time you shop. Fill up your dishwasher and washing machine, this way you will save water and electricity.
Global warming is happening as I write this. In fact, it has already gone way too far. The poles have already started to melt, and the meat production has increased with 15 percent. These things are done, and it is nothing you can do about it. But the thing I want you to do is start doing all the things I have mentioned earlier in this post. They might seem useless, but the changes you make will help in the bigger picture. My goal with this blog post is to inform everyone to be the change they want to see in the world.
Make a change!
First of all I will start by explaining what global warming really means. Because some of you may not know what this big topic actually involves. Global warming means that the entire Earth's normal temperature increases. This has been going on for hundreds of years, and has increased more and more in the past 60-70 years. It is most likely that more than 90 percent of the increase in the global average temperature over the last 50 years, is caused by us humans. This is according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). A climate gas called CO2 is released, and about 90 percent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions are caused by fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a general term for coal, oil and natural gas. This gas is increasing, and it causes less of the Earth's heat to release into the atmosphere. At the same time is it important to know that the nature has, and will always have, an effect on global warming. Therefore, you cannot put the entire blame on yourself, CO2 is caused by natural emissions as well, putrefy plants for example, is also releasing CO22.
It is estimated an increase of 1.1 ° C to 6.4 ° C during the 21th century. The poles in the Antarctic and the Arctic have already begun to melt, and this will continue as long as you do not limit your emissions. It is assumed that the Arctic could be ice-free by 2050 if our emissions continue as before. The water level in the oceans will rise. This is both because water expands when it gets warmer, and that part of the polar ice melts into the ocean. A rise in the sea-level will affect millions of people living on small islands and coastal cities. This leads to terrible consequences like loss of land and climate refugees. (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). The world has recently experienced frequent cases of powerful natural disasters, which can be connected to global warming. An example is Hurricane Katrina from 2005. What gives a storm its power is exactly the heat in the ocean. Therefore, increased heat in the ocean will also provide more dramatic natural disasters. Again, this will cost many people their lives. Do you want to be a part of that?
A lot of the pollution caused by humans is from traveling. Of all the transportation we use, it is the airplanes that emit the most climate gases. Travel less with plane, reducing how much you fly by even one or two trips a year will reduce your emissions significantly. There are several other travel options, like train or boat. When you are going on small trips, take a bike or walk, and let your car rest. Your bonus – free exercise. 30 percent of all car trips in Norway are less than three miles long (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). I strongly advise you to leave your car, and by doing that you save the atmosphere from CO2 emissions. When you have to take longer trips, for instance to and from your job, I want you to use public transportation, like a bus or subway. 70 percent of all trips to work is by car and it is an average of 1.2 persons in each car at rush hour (Source: newspaper article from Aftenposten). This practically means that the majority is sitting alone in the car, which is heating up our Earth and is as far from environmentally friendly as you can be. If you are one of those people that have to have a car, you have to invest in a more fuel efficient car.
Bovine are among the worst sources of emissions of methane, the second most dangerous greenhouse gas. Production of one kilogram of beef emits 22 kilograms climate gases, and the sale of meat has increased by 15 percent over the past ten years. Therefore I ask you kindly to choose vegetarian meals. But if you are going to eat meat, I would like it to always be from your local source. This way you will save the Earth from the pollution shipping grain to the bovine and shipping of the bovine itself, causes. By choosing vegetarian food you drastically reduce water consumption and land use. And your own bonus – it is much healthier.
Global warming will eventually affect us all. With that being said, I believe that you should not only be responsible for yourself, but also for the rest of the world. Taking responsibility for the entire world would include recycling your food, plastic, paper etc., don’t shop more than you need – both food and material things. You have to turn off all the lights when you leave the house, and the same with the electronic equipments. The water should not flow when you are not using it. Some other responsible things to do would be to give away your used clothes and buy second hand-clothes, and not get a new plastic bag every time you shop. Fill up your dishwasher and washing machine, this way you will save water and electricity.
Global warming is happening as I write this. In fact, it has already gone way too far. The poles have already started to melt, and the meat production has increased with 15 percent. These things are done, and it is nothing you can do about it. But the thing I want you to do is start doing all the things I have mentioned earlier in this post. They might seem useless, but the changes you make will help in the bigger picture. My goal with this blog post is to inform everyone to be the change they want to see in the world.
Make a change!
Fantastic Rome!
Day four, it’s still a big challenge to walk around in Rome, to sit on a café enjoying my coffee and waiting on the bus. No matter where I’m going people are so nice and kind. They always ask if I need any help if I’m lost and sometimes they just start talking to me like I’m their friend. It’s really nice, and I can feel my lips smiling all the time. The architecture is just like the people, it’s amazing to see how great it still looks even after so many years. I feel I have the right to say that it’s almost the opposite of how it is home in Norway, and to be honest I wish Norway could try to be a little bit more friendly, open and cared a little bit more about the old historical buildings instead of trying to make everything “fancy”. I don’t think that we can be exactly like Italy, but when it comes to some easy things like kindness and respect I really don’t think I wish for too much.
Yesterday I was sitting in Villa Borghese gardens with some of my new friends. It is one of the biggest public parks in Rome, and it is full of museums, great buildings and attractions! I told them about Norway and how it is to live there. Then they told me that they wanted to visit it, but they had heard from so many people that Norwegians are rood. I just waved it away, but when I started to think about what they said it struck me that maybe that’s the way people from other countries think about us? I have never thought about it that way. I’m so used to not saying hi to strangers or start talking to the person next to me on the bus. But for people that come to our country it can be really uncomfortable and they can feel ignored and not so welcome. At the same time I started to think about the garden we were sitting in. The nice buildings surrounded us with their history and special expressions. It felt like the buildings and sculptures tried to tell me their history, how Rome was for 1000 years ago. The flowers and threes that has been standing there for many generations and being witnesses to everything that’s happened here. This is something I miss home in Norway, to feel that you can look at the buildings and see the history through them. We don’t care about the history as much as Rome and our history is shorter, way shorter. But that does not mean that we don’t have to take care of it. We have a lot of history to be proud of as well. Just take a look at our Viking ships our Munch museum. Maybe our history isn’t that long, but we have a lot to show the rest of the world and to be proud of. And every old building are a part of the city, it helps the people to feel home. In Rome they have their history right outside their door, but in Norway we can see our history falling down everyday on the way to work. I don’t mean that it’s just the old buildings that have values; new architecture has values and is also important when it comes to the architect history. But I think Norway have a lot to learn from Rome when it comes to mix the new architecture and the old historical buildings. When all this proud and history disappears or get destroyed by the new city we don’t have anything to be proud of, in the historical perspective. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that every person in Rome are so nice, they are so proud, they want us to see their beautiful city, and when someone is proud they get happy and friendly.
Rome has a long history; much longer than Norway, but that doesn’t mean that we cant show what we have. Rome live for their history, that’s what Rome is. And I think that Norway should learn from Rome that we could be proud of what we have. Not just think about make new building but think how it’s going to work with the rest of the city and the people who actually live there.
Sometimes when I’m walking through the small streets here in Rome, I can hear people calling nice things to each other, even if they don’t know the other person. It is so far away from what I am used to, that I don’t know what to do or have to react back when they do this to me. It is strange to think about how big the different is between where I am now and Norway. Both countries are in Europe, but at the same time it feels like two different worlds when it comes to help and hospitality between all the people in the narrow streets.
I’m just like all the other Norwegians; I’m not any better. But after this visit in Rome I think my point of view when it comes to hospitality and kindness will change. I admire this country for its hospitality and their willing to take care of not just each other but also their culture and history. I think that’s something we need in Norway to. It makes everything so much easy, and everyone gets a lot happier. I also think that this value would make Norway to a better destination goal for tourists. Off course it’s impossible to copy Italy and Rome. Norway is another country and everything is different. But I think we have a lot to learn from Italy, learn to be open minded, that’s something everyone can manage. We are after all humans no matter where we live, what we eat and how we look.
See you when I come home, but right now I can hear the pasta calling my name!
Chao, F
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome
All The Queen's Famished Servants
Enough people are dying as you're reading this blog, so I'm cutting it short. But before I do that, here's some more food for thought:
Climate
In this blog post I will write about global warming a major issue drastically affecting the planet earth. I will discuss the effects of global warming and will try to give some suggestions that how can we prevent the severe consequences of global warming. This might pursue our generation to make an active change to prevent global warming.
Global warming is a gradual increase in the earth surface temperature. Most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century has been caused by increasing concentrations of green house gases, which results from human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Green house gases (carbon dioxide, water and methane) traps heat and light from the sun in the earth atmosphere which leads to an increase in earth`s surface temperature.
An increase in the earth temperature has caused tremendous other changes which are badly affecting our earth. Glaciers are melting and polar ice sheet are breaking into ice bergs which might also melt. It is expected that the arctic ice caps may disappear by the year 2050. Sea levels will rise and low lying areas of the land will be flooded. In the Asian region of Bangladesh, residents are already being forced to move because of rising tides, far above what has ever been recorded in their life time. Rising tides will displace 13 to 30 million people around the globe.
Extreme weather events such as hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, storms and floods etc are becoming more frequent with harmful effects that are not adapted. In the last thirty years, the number of hurricanes has almost doubled. Heat waves are also becoming frequent and lasting longer, causing massive wildfires damage in regions all around the world.
Another diverse effect of global warming is that species are getting extinct. Polar bears are in danger due to a loss in their ice habitat. University of Alberta expert in Arctic ecosystem says “Unless the pace of global warming slows or stops, polar bears could disappear within a century. Marine species of animals in arctic water may become extinct, as they can be very sensitive to temperature changes in sea water. Pests and diseases may become prevalent with warmer
Now it’s the right time for our generation to take an active step to save our planet. Attempts are made on large scales as well to unite countries to come to a single agreement. But the countries never come to an agreement to emit less amount of greenhouse gases. Last year china refused to sign the climate agreement during the climate talks in Copenhagen. Licenses are granted to all the countries, which allows them to emit a specific percentage of greenhouse gases per year, still the developed rich countries pays to the less developed countries to buy their liscences which inturn allows them to emit more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
So we being part of this planet should try to make a change personally instead of waiting for an international agreement. There are several ways we can adapt to prevent global warming:
1. We should try to use public transport, or walk to school or work instead of using private cars.
2. Use renewable products instead of disposables and try to buy products with minimal packaging which will help to reduce waste.
3. Save electricity by turning off lights when you leave a room, turn off your televisions, video players etc when you are not using them. And try to turn off the water when you are not using it e.g. while brushing teeth this will help us to reduce water bills and try to conserve a vital resource.
4. Use less hot water, try to set your water at 120 degrees to save energy and wash your clothes with warm or cold water to reduce the use of hot water and the energy required to produce it.
5. Plant more trees to prevent deforestation. As there is an estimation that a single tree will absorb approximately one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime.
6. Last but not the least is to create awareness among the people about the dreadful effects of global warming.
The main idea behind writing this blog post was to make our generation aware of the effects of global warming and the efforts we can make to reduce global warming. In the end i would just like to say that ” We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”.
Picking the right cause
Hi, I am a person high up in the UNICEF organization and recently, I have been given a task. My task is to pick one global problem and delegate five million dollars to it. I have chosen a few causes and I will present them in this text, ending with my final decision on what cause to pick. My selected causes are; poverty in India, global warming and hunger in Africa.
I will start by debating poverty in India and why I think they should have the money. India has more people living under the poverty limit than any other country in the world. Out of the total one billion people that live in India, 350 – 400 millions live below the limitation, and over 40 percent of the population is illiterate, meaning they have never learned to write or read. Out of these, most are women, tribal people or people from the lower casts. I think that this is really serious and should be done something with. The five millions could contribute with building schools for poor people, which again could give them an education that lasts for the rest of their lives and can grant them jobs and a descent economy. I do take into consideration that five millions is really little money and will help less than one percent of the Indian population to a better life, but everything counts, right?
The reason for why I have chosen school out of all the things one can do to reduce poverty is that in my opinion schools are the most efficient mean when trying to reduce poverty. Firstly, the education you have gotten will follow you for the rest of your life, unless you focus really hard on forgetting it. Therefore it is a good way to reduce poverty not only today, but for the generations to come as well. “If you give a man a fish, he will not be hungry today. If you teach a man how to fish, he will never be hungry". I have heard this quote and what you read is probably a respelling of it that I have made up in my mind but the concept is the same and I think it is a really good example to underline my previous statement about how schools last longer than instant help. My second reason for choosing schools is that it gives the children a safe environment where they can spend the day, instead of being dragged into all kinds of bad environments. Examples of bad environments can be child soldiers or the drug business.
My second cause of choice is global warming. I know it is very different from my first cause, but I think that this one is as important as the first, if not even more important. This is because global warming is an issue concerning the entire world and it will not only have consequences for this generation, it is also going to affect future generations. Many of you might think that this is a bit outside the box, as it is not directly directed towards children, but fact is this is directed to the children's future, which is just as important as their today's situation. This link will show you a graph displaying the northern globe's temperature during the last thousand years and the tendency is brutal and quite easy to spot. The heat levels are escalating way above usual standards and if this tendency continues over the next two or three hundred years I think the globe is going to look a lot different. The problem with giving the money to this cause is deciding on which organization or movement I want to entrust my money with. As it is a global problem, countless organizations must be fighting to reduce it. My best thought is to give it to some sort of research facility, where they experiment on how to reduce global warming and what must be done to stop this negative development.
My third and final cause of choice is “the hunger project”, focusing on hunger in Africa. Food is and has always been one of the most basic needs and when hunger strikes, it often strikes the weakest ones, children. In sub-Saharan Africa, 41 percent of the population lives under the poverty limit, 1 dollar a day, which means that they live so-called from hand to mouth. This means that they can barely make enough money for food, putting them in a tricky situation if they ever should need money for anything else. As a result of this, 32 percent of the population is under-nourished, meaning they get either too little food or the wrong food (Which one is most likely?). Here, five million dollars can do a lot. Either if you spend it all on food sent directly down to Africa, a lot of people will be fed for some time, or you can invest it “in the future”. This can be done by building food producing facilities like farms. This is sort of the same thinking as in the first cause and the quote from that paragraph can just as easily be used in this one. Either way, the five million dollars can hopefully give a handful of people a better life.
So, to my conclusion and picking a cause. I must say it is tough deciding between these but I have chosen the first one, fighting poverty in India. I have done this because I believe that this is where the money can do the most good. Building schools is relatively inexpensive if one consider the outcome. The children will both be able to get an education, and they will also have something to do during the day and have a future to look forward to. I do not say that the two other causes are any less important, but this is the one that made the most sense to me!
Håvard of the UNICEF
Sources:
http://www.indiaonestop.com/povertyindia.htm
http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/01-27/global-warming-1000-v3-copyright1.gif
http://www.thp.org/where_we_work/africa
Going green!
Change your lifestyle - change the planet!
There is no doubt about the fact that pollution and fossil fuels are changing our climate. Throughout these last decades, pollution has been one of the prime global challenges the world has ever seen. Scientists believe that these global challenges are affecting other nature catastrophes all over the world, and causing them to occur. These nature disasters, such as hurricane Katrina, are only claimed to be the first of overall many consequences in the future connected to global warming, primarily caused by human activities. The hypotheses, evidences and conclusions are there. Everybody has been given the task, and everybody knows what to do, and how to prevent it. So why wont enough people step up to the plate and make a difference? Evidently, nobody has been given a clear answer to why this should be done. According to many people, the damage is already done and the amount of time, resources, patience and open mind it takes to succeed and go through with such an obligation, is more than most would consider “reasonable”. By saving our planet, we save ourselves as well as the planets future. With that being said, what exactly should be done in order to prevent the road that our planet is heading? And most importantly; why should we be taking precautions when the damages are already done, almost unfixable? Let’s find out!
The Global warming phenomenon is only increasing and will continue to do so, if nothing is done in hopes of preventing this problem that is headed towards destroying the planets future and environment. According to the article “time for change”, the concentration of the CO2 is currently increased by 2 to 3 ppm each year, as well as people simulate a constant emission of 4.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year per capita, mostly because of the growing world population. Apparently, nothing can prevent the population from dilating, but what can be done, is to prevent the concentration of CO2 from actually increasing. In order to do so, people have to keep an open mind, and be aware over the fact that this does not only help them in general, but also the next generation, as they too deserve to live in a best possible environmental planet. Global warming is a dramatically urgent problem which can’t be resolved in a short term, considering the severe damage this partially human caused phenomenon has affected the planet. Thus, there are two human qualities that have to be used, in order to fulfill the task that has been given; patience and an open mind.
When people are asked how to prevent global warming in a long term, the answer is always said to be small steps. The
Still, there are different precautions that should be taken in consideration when starting with such a procedure. Other than the fact that this helps the planet in a way that people can’t even imagine, it also benefits us in a sense where the ideas in hopes of reducing the use of fossil fuels are at low cost, meaning this investment can also help you save money. This can be done by three simple processes; replacement, installations and diminution. Air conditions and filters are for example contributing to amplifying the green house, at a high cost. By using for example more public transportation, installing a programmable thermostat, you can not only contribute to a better environment and saving 350 tons of carbon dioxide, but you can also save $100 on you energy bill, only by using these three simple processes. Imagine then how this will affect and improve the planet in a few years? Think about all the significant and extraordinary places in the world. Places such as Mount Everest, which is claimed to be melting 80% within the next 50 years, which makes the planet a unique place to live in. Wouldn’t it be a shame if these were to vanish? All because of our ignorance and inability to actually make an effort?
The future of our planet is said to be headed towards a heavy and negative path. However, this can be prevented, if we step up and do something about it. Throughout the years, the unique places that made the planet significant and special have changed, today making the future of these places unsecure. Although many may blame on the small amount of information given in order to reduce the use of fossil oils and carbon dioxide, the main reason for this small active change, is ignorance. Therefore, to maintain the future of the planet as well as direct it toward a stabile prospect, we must use the three processes which can help start the environmental procedure; replacement, installations and diminution. In order to do so, we must have a responsible lifestyle by keeping an open mind and having patience, starting with the small, everyday things. Because at the end of the day, it’s all worth it!
Sources:
[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming[ii] http://timeforchange.org/mitigate-global-warming-effects-temperature-simulation
[iii] http://www.erantis.com/events/denmark/copenhagen/climate-conference-2009/index.htm
[iv] http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8618192-what-s-the-point-of-being-green
[v] http://globalwarming-facts.info/50-tips.html
[vi] http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/everest-global-warming.htm
Friday, November 5, 2010
High Heaven
I am a Muslim man living in London, born in Iraq. In this post I will tell you about how I went from being, in my own eyes, a man who fought for the freedom and independence of my country, to becoming a terrorist. I will also reveal that I was part of a radical organization who helped plan the most known terrorist attack in history.
A couple of years ago, just before 9/11, I joined a radical Muslim organization. We were ready to fight for freedom of our countries, Iraq and lately Afghanistan, from the United States. Our opinion was that USA had been interfering, destroying and killing in Iraq only to suit own purposes for many decades.
I was a young boy during Operation Desert Storm. My family and I had moved to England just two years before the invasion. Even as a small boy and many years to come, I felt very strongly about my home country. English ways did not suit me, and I was always aware and proud of where I felt I belonged. I was ashamed to be a UK- citizen when I a few years later realized that the UK had taken such a big part in the war alongside the USA.
I was young, full of spirit, with a burning rage towards these countries, which I had admired and looked up to for many years. How could these two world nations carry out such horrible and stupid actions that they knew, or at least should understand, would damage the already fragile relationship between the west and the Middle East? Why could they not help us without destroying our country and humiliating and killing our people?
It had not been looked upon as a bad thing at first, the elders in the organization told me, that the US and the UK hindered Saddam from invading Kuwait. Saddam was no longer seen as a strong leader, but as a murderer and betrayer of his country. He had gone too far, and his people suffered under his regime. Maybe the participation from the west would help to bring peace and order to Iraq?
January 17th 1991, USA dropped 90,000 bombs destroying military and civilian infrastructure. The war was on. The infrastructure was ruined, people of Iraq were still suffering, and eventually they began to loose hope. It was a total mess. The ones we first regarded as our saviors had become our greatest fear and enemy.
I was blinded with hate against Britain and the US, and I longed for revenge and a drastic change. We had to strike back! That was when I joined the organization, along with my fellow student and best friend. Here, I call him Anwar.
We experienced brotherhood and friendship between us all, and “Anwar” and I became strongly attached to the group. I was not an unintelligent boy, and I knew that the organization I was joining was called a “terrorist network”. A young boy as I was, my thoughts were consumed with the idea of accomplishing something big that would change everything.
I was convinced we were all fighting for peace and independence for our countries and that our fight and struggle would all end, the moment we gained freedom from the imperialist super powers. I was, as the rest of us, willing to go far, even give my own life to the cause. I saw myself and my comrades as soldiers of war, independent of all armies, and I was convinced that violence and terror was our righteous tools in the battle for freedom.
We were even martyrs to be, were we not?
Our salvation was in high heaven, our bodies were just containers of earthly flesh and bones, muscles and blood. Our souls would conquer, and the British and American dogs would go to hell.
In the beginning I refused to think of my self as a terrorist, but after some time spent in the brotherhood, the honest truth is I no longer cared. We were building each other up and applauding each other for saying the most horrid things about our next-door neighbor. Together we were strong.
An anger I had never felt before, was growing in me. I was angry with British people, American people, fellow students and my family, which had no idea what was going on. My father would be ashamed of me, but at the time I saw of him as traitor and coward for having abandoned his country, fleeing to the enemies, settling amongst imperialist brutes.
The time came to act big. We had of course spread our message around, trying to get as many men with the same opinion as us to join, and we were no longer a small group.
“The time has finally come,” one of the most respected elders told us one day early in October 2000. This was our first and biggest task. But most important, this was our given task. September 11th two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. One plain crashed into the US military headquarters, Pentagon, and one was supposed to hit Washington, but crashed instead in a field southeast of Pittsburgh. My organization had helped to plan these attacks.
Years passed, lives were lost, and my homeland was in a mess. A cousin of my father sent to Guantanamo, my home town bombed and we had every reason to continue, but I changed.
In the beginning I refused to think of my self as a terrorist, but after some time spent in the brotherhood, the honest truth is I no longer cared. We were building each other up and applauding each other for saying the most horrid things about our next-door neighbor. Together we were strong.
An anger I had never felt before, was growing in me. I was angry with British people, American people, fellow students and my family, which had no idea what was going on. My father would be ashamed of me, but at the time I saw of him as traitor and coward for having abandoned his country, fleeing to the enemies, settling amongst imperialist brutes.
The time came to act big. We had of course spread our message around, trying to get as many men with the same opinion as us to join, and we were no longer a small group.
“The time has finally come,” one of the most respected elders told us one day early in October 2000. This was our first and biggest task. But most important, this was our given task. September 11th two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. One plain crashed into the US military headquarters, Pentagon, and one was supposed to hit Washington, but crashed instead in a field southeast of Pittsburgh. My organization had helped to plan these attacks.
Years passed, lives were lost, and my homeland was in a mess. A cousin of my father sent to Guantanamo, my home town bombed and we had every reason to continue, but I changed.
Bombings on the underground. A bus blown to pieces by a suicide bomber. Our brothers. Young men like us. Like me. Wandering into a bus full of both children and elders, one early, beautiful morning in July, loaded with explosives underneath his frock, this man must have had second thoughts. I was suddenly sure of this, or, I wanted to be.
One day, I longed for peace. I was tired. So much violence, only in return for more violence. I was no longer sure this was the illuminated path, the only way to walk.
After 9/11, no Muslim man or woman walk in peace in the streets of any western town, small or big. We have become the people they dread, the people they do not want to understand, to work with, talk to or live with. Our action that day changed not only the western world, it changed our future, and I am not sure it was for the better. So many lives lost, so much money spent, that rage, so much sorrow. Could we have chosen another way? Did we have to meet the invasion with violence against civilians, against innocent people, the way we used to be innocent?
I want my people to be free, I want my children to grow up in a peaceful world, but I am no longer sure that I will make this happen by the use of force and violence.
Forgive me, but this is what I think is important to share with you all.
Go in peace,
إنشاءالله
Allah is great.
Sources:
London bombings:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4354858.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4354858.stm
9/11:
Colombia's guerrilla war
Since the 1960’s my parents have been fighting against the government in the largest Colombian revolutionary group, FARC. They say we fight against the rich people, the higher classes because they have always and will always discriminate us. My parents met each other in 1969, when they were in their twenties. Now they both have leading positions in this organization. The day I was born, I was immediately enlisted as a member, along with my twin sister and like my two older brothers had before me. Together we have been opposing the wealthy people of Colombia, both as members of the organization and as a family. Our values, opinions and actions are always rooted in the strong bond to FARC and especially the former leader Jojoy. He and my father were very close. Approximately one month ago, Jojoy was captured and later killed by governmental forces. Since that day, the 22nd of September, I have been thinking – reflecting about the core values of our cause. Is what we do, the ransom kidnapping and dealing of drugs, is that right? Because if it’s not I’ve certainly been living a lie for the last eighteen years. These things are what we make a living of, and we would die without these incomes.
But I have come to a decision. A mother doesn’t deserve to have her son kidnapped and then being tricked for hundreds of thousands American dollars. A husband does certainly not deserve to lose his wife either. And there’s really no good sides to dealing drugs, even though about 90% of all drugs that are brought across the borders of the USA comes from Colombia. The good side of this is obvously the money, which you could make other ways. Therefore I have come to this choice of publishing my opinion of FARC. It is wrong. It’s destroying countless lives every year in a revolutionary mess of a battle which has no end in sight. Realizing this is deeply disturbing to me, because by this I am hurting the only people I’ve known my entire life. This realization may also cause a deep and devastating subversion of my life.
My family, my friends, I have no intentions to go against you. Kidnapping and drug dealing will do no good, and will not support our cause. We will get no closer to wash out the borders between rich and poor – we are rather helping the society on its way to more extreme segregation. After Jojoy died the organization is merely existing of infuriate violated insurrectionists, which really doesn’t contribute to anything but damage.
I’ve lost count of how many families we’ve tricked, and sadly how many civilians who have been killed or hurt in the process – wives, siblings, and children. There are so many that I can’t put the right words together to exactly describe how I feel. My decision is very difficult and my opinion differentiated. The whole situation ticks me off, because speaking up will hurt my closest family and friends for sure. But on the other hand I can’t imagine not telling anyone what I really feel, what I observe every single day. We must prevent the progressing expansion, although the only way we can succeed is if we agree on this together, and work together. If we collectively work towards the same thing, we will eventually achieve our mutual goal.
We need to cooperate with the government, not counteract them. Rather than wage war we should bring peace, we should be the first of the two counterparts to suggest we may shake hands. For the first time since the late 60’s we could see the end of this. I do pray for it to happen, one day. But frankly I can’t wrap my mind around that it actually can be accomplished. It just seems completely impossible. Nevertheless I will keep on walking on the road towards utter satisfaction, which for me is unflustered solidarity not only within FARC – but also between the present enemies of today. It’s said that you are your own enemy, and quite frank it fits perfectly well in this setting.
If FARC continues in this pattern it will prove self-destructive and fatal for civilians as well as for members of the organization. Therefore I pray that someone dear to me will stand together with me in this case although I cannot allow myself to hope for it. We have to stop this drug dealing, kidnapping organization once and for all, and rather stand together in solidarity.
Maybe I am just a dreamer. At least I pray I’m of the altering kind.
Blog
I am going to write about conflict and terrorism. In the past decade terrorism has become a big topic in the media and around the world. There are different definitions of the word `terrorism` that varies from country to country. If we want to find a solution to terrorism then we should view it from different angles. Below I have written a fictional story about boy who is fighting among `terrorists`. The story is told in the view of the boy.
I was born in north western Pakistan. I am of Pashtun ethnicity. When I was born there was a conflict between the Pakistani government and local pashtun tribes. I did not receive any formal education when I was a child. Instead I went to a local madrassah where I was taught Islamic studies and how to read the Quran. I belonged to one of the poorer tribes. Where I grew up wealth was not measured by how many money we had but it was measured by how many herds and land we had. Since I was a child I was always told that the Pakistani army was our enemy. I was told stories about how the Pakistani government had persecuted the pashtun people in the past. I was sort of brainwashed. My father and uncles were all active in the fight against the Pakistani army. They always carried rifles on their shoulders and they were among the respected and honored people in our tribe and other tribes. I wanted to become like them. When I was a child I used to climb up the hill at dawn to watch my father and uncles return home from battle. There were some times my uncles and some other people I knew never returned. When I asked my father where they were, my father would simple reply smiling “Paradise”. I then knew what he meant.
I was very angry at the Pakistani government about the deaths of my uncles and friends. I remember one time I had a cousin who was my best friend and we were about the same age. We were both 10 years old. One night when we all were sleeping the Pakistani army ambushed our village. A lot of my friends died including my cousin and one of my aunts. I was filled with vengeance after that. I said to my father that I wanted to join the fight against the Pakistani army. My father said to me that I was too young and that one day I would. When I grew a little older I was given tasks by my father to keep a watch out for the Pakistani troops. I would then tell my father about their locations and where they went.
There were some people that I knew who went to cities to carry out suicide attacks. I always wondered how they could do this knowing that they would kill themselves and other innocent people. After some time I was allowed to fight on frontline. I always carried a rifle and opened fire on the Pakistani military convoy when ever I would see them. A lot of my friends were with me. They killed a lot of my friends. At that time I was only 15 years old. Once when we were on a mission we went through a village where American helicopters had ambushed the night before. As we walked through we saw a lot of death bodies. The bodies were mutilated and torn away. There were children, women and even infants among the corpses. There were arms, fingers and other body parts that lay on the ground. We could smell burning flesh and blood as we walked through. Some of the bodies and remains I recognized instantly. These were the remains of the boys I played soccer with on Saturday evenings. It was a horrible scenario but these kinds of scenarios became normal to me after some time. The hate toward the Pakistani army and their ally the Americans grew even more. Some of the people who fought by our side the Pakistani army did not fight for political reasons but for personal reasons. They were seeking revenge for their loved ones. They were seeking revenge for their children, their wives and their parents. They were so desperate for revenge that they even laid their own lives on the stake. They carried explosives on them and pressed the button when they were in the markets and other public places killing innocent people. I finally found the answer to my question `why people carry out terrorist attacks? `. People who carry out terrorist attacks are people who have been oppressed and persecuted. They are so hungry for revenge that they even kill innocent people.
From this story we can see the reason why terrorism happens. Terrorism is the war of poor men and war is the rich men’s terrorism. We should not always blame people who carry out terrorism. Everything happens for a reason and terrorism also happens for a reason. Terrorism is an act of desperation. Instead of attacking people who carry out terrorism we should find out the reason why terrorism occurs. We can prevent terrorism by giving people equal rights no matter which religion or which background they belong to. Instead of having an armed conflict we should be able to discuss issues and try to solve them without creating an armed conflict.
I am going to write about conflict and terrorism. In the past decade terrorism has become a big topic in the media and around the world. There are different definitions of the word `terrorism` that varies from country to country. If we want to find a solution to terrorism then we should view it from different angles. Below I have written a fictional story about boy who is fighting among `terrorists`. The story is told in the view of the boy.
I was born in north western Pakistan. I am of Pashtun ethnicity. When I was born there was a conflict between the Pakistani government and local pashtun tribes. I did not receive any formal education when I was a child. Instead I went to a local madrassah where I was taught Islamic studies and how to read the Quran. I belonged to one of the poorer tribes. Where I grew up wealth was not measured by how many money we had but it was measured by how many herds and land we had. Since I was a child I was always told that the Pakistani army was our enemy. I was told stories about how the Pakistani government had persecuted the pashtun people in the past. I was sort of brainwashed. My father and uncles were all active in the fight against the Pakistani army. They always carried rifles on their shoulders and they were among the respected and honored people in our tribe and other tribes. I wanted to become like them. When I was a child I used to climb up the hill at dawn to watch my father and uncles return home from battle. There were some times my uncles and some other people I knew never returned. When I asked my father where they were, my father would simple reply smiling “Paradise”. I then knew what he meant.
I was very angry at the Pakistani government about the deaths of my uncles and friends. I remember one time I had a cousin who was my best friend and we were about the same age. We were both 10 years old. One night when we all were sleeping the Pakistani army ambushed our village. A lot of my friends died including my cousin and one of my aunts. I was filled with vengeance after that. I said to my father that I wanted to join the fight against the Pakistani army. My father said to me that I was too young and that one day I would. When I grew a little older I was given tasks by my father to keep a watch out for the Pakistani troops. I would then tell my father about their locations and where they went.
There were some people that I knew who went to cities to carry out suicide attacks. I always wondered how they could do this knowing that they would kill themselves and other innocent people. After some time I was allowed to fight on frontline. I always carried a rifle and opened fire on the Pakistani military convoy when ever I would see them. A lot of my friends were with me. They killed a lot of my friends. At that time I was only 15 years old. Once when we were on a mission we went through a village where American helicopters had ambushed the night before. As we walked through we saw a lot of death bodies. The bodies were mutilated and torn away. There were children, women and even infants among the corpses. There were arms, fingers and other body parts that lay on the ground. We could smell burning flesh and blood as we walked through. Some of the bodies and remains I recognized instantly. These were the remains of the boys I played soccer with on Saturday evenings. It was a horrible scenario but these kinds of scenarios became normal to me after some time. The hate toward the Pakistani army and their ally the Americans grew even more. Some of the people who fought by our side the Pakistani army did not fight for political reasons but for personal reasons. They were seeking revenge for their loved ones. They were seeking revenge for their children, their wives and their parents. They were so desperate for revenge that they even laid their own lives on the stake. They carried explosives on them and pressed the button when they were in the markets and other public places killing innocent people. I finally found the answer to my question `why people carry out terrorist attacks? `. People who carry out terrorist attacks are people who have been oppressed and persecuted. They are so hungry for revenge that they even kill innocent people.
From this story we can see the reason why terrorism happens. Terrorism is the war of poor men and war is the rich men’s terrorism. We should not always blame people who carry out terrorism. Everything happens for a reason and terrorism also happens for a reason. Terrorism is an act of desperation. Instead of attacking people who carry out terrorism we should find out the reason why terrorism occurs. We can prevent terrorism by giving people equal rights no matter which religion or which background they belong to. Instead of having an armed conflict we should be able to discuss issues and try to solve them without creating an armed conflict.
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