Spring break and connecting

So today is thursday, the last day of the week before I go on spring break for the rest of next week. I'm glad I get friday off. I've had an exceptional week, and I think I'll tell you a little about me to refresh the first blog post I made that is all the way at the bottom.

I'm a high school student in 10th grade and my first name is Andrew, any more than that I'm not sure if I can post, so I won't. Mostly because I'll get chewed out for sharing personal information. My history teacher made our class start this blog, each student creates their own blog using blogspot where they post about current events, and the occasional odd thing here and there. I want to take vocal lessons and join my favorite genre of Extreme/Black/Death Metal as a musician, I play guitar, and I'm thinking hard about making a career in the military.

Getting on with the guiding questions that I just realized were there, my favorite thing about my school is... well, have you ever heard something along the likes of this: Home is home, it seems new and exciting at first, but after a while it dims down. Then other places seem more exciting. Or like this: No one looks at their own home and instantly comes up with several things they love about it, they've been in it for a time and now its hard to give details about it.

Ok I messed up trying to do that but I think I got it now. People visiting other cultures will be quick to point out differences, details, habits, and information on our culture. Often it seems they know more than we do. We've been in America and so we only know it as home, how we live here has become simple living to us.

I really can't answer the rest of the guiding questions, they're about how you think the school could be better. I've been here since first grade so I have no idea how it could be better, it just is.

So I'll be leaving for my spring break now. Hope you guys have a good week too!

Libya Gangrape

A woman burst into a hotel full of foreign reporters yelling and claiming that she had been raped by 15 militia men. She displayed bruises and cuts along her body that was consistent with her story, but before the reporters could scramble and interview her people who had once seemed like normal hotel workers and security workers rushed to silence her. They had eventually dragged her out the front door of the hotel screaming, resorting to such things as trying to put a jacket over her head.

The Libyan government claimed that the girl was a known prostitute and thief, a government spokesmen suggested that she had been drunk and fabricated her fantasies. Detectives pulled her files and found a whole file of prostitution and petty theft. She had also known the boys she claimed raped her for a while. She refused medical examination, so there was no way to determine if she was telling the truth.

Whether it could be proved or not it sent waves through protestors, and civilians. While many dismissed her story, some also said they believed her. A few residents in Tripoli said they had heard the story from the news and claimed it as an example of the brutal grip that Colonel Qaddafi has over the capital.

Sexting

So, my class right now as I'm typing this is reading an article about sexting. A girl in 8th grade had taken a picture of herself nude, and sent it to her boyfriend. Another girl pressured the boyfriend to send her the picture, then she took the picture and added a text into it. The text said "Ho alert! If you think this girl is a hoe forward this to everyone you know." The text spread through the school like wildfire. She would get calls and texts from people she barely knew about the text.

Needless to say the conflict grew, and the eighth grade girl who posed was extremely embarrased. Police and teachers would arrest and confiscate cell phones respectively from children in the school. The state attorney ended up charging the boyfriend, and two of the other people who spread the photo around with child pornography, but the charge was lifted and community service terms with approval from the girl and her family given.

Everybody felt bad about it, but it still had scarred her. Sexting is apparently a large problem in the community. Teens will do it often, they like to, but when their picture is forwarded it hurts. I mean, how embarasing would it be if everyone that you knew and everyone else in the school had seen you naked and was staring at you during your classes, sometimes looking or saying dirty things.

It isn't illegal. Distributing it however is considered child pornography, as long as the picture is of someone under 18. People do it and will continue to do it, and its perfectly fine so long as people don't forward it and keep it exclusive between the couple.

A Modern Crusade?

George Bush reffered to the current war on terrorists in Iraq as a crusade. Most of us would think nothing of it, in fact we would take crusade as meaning the pursuit of a noble cause. But the word alone has a deeper and bloodier past that still rings strong in the muslim world today. Back in the tenth century, the pope ordered knights from all across Europe to take the holy land, freeing it from the muslims. The crusades were a failure, but some major atrocities were commited upon civilian and muslim soldier alike. People were butchered and the crusaders walked through the streets with "blood up to their ankles".

This sparked a reaction from the media, and also from the Muslims. Now Osama is styling himself as the new saladin, a hero for the muslims who will run the crusaders out and save them from the invaders. It's like the phrase, history repeats itself. Or do the people repeat history?

The military is out to kill Osama and has bombed many places in Muslim territory, so its easy to see why they would see us as the crusaders of old, riding takes and weilding machine guns.

Libya

American and European bombers swept over Libya against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces. Libya made claims that civialians had been killed during the bombing, but European nations rejected the claims. Rebel fighters were still trying to retake the eastern town of Ajdabiya, but were driven back by rocket, and tank fire from government loyalists controlling the city.

In the western city of Misurata, forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi were reported to have been using civilians as human sheilds, but the report was not confirmed. The bombing campaign in Libya finally met with criticism from nations like China and Russia. Vladimir Putin of Russia critizised the allies for using indiscriminate use of force.

 NATO has made plans to begin a no-fly zone and an arms embargo on Libya, but neither plans have been developed or proceeded with. 

Crisis in Japan

So I'm sure you've all heard of the crisis going on in Japan right now. A nuclear plant meltdown occured after a tsunami and a magnitude 9 earthquake happened and crippled the generators keeping the cooling systems running in the plant. There has already been mass scrutiny against nuclear plants and power, and this could fuel the movement against it. The meltdown caused an amount of radiation to emanate from the plant, and is dangerous in the immediate area. There is also a weather report that says the wind may carry radiation to Japanese cities.

Helicopters carrying tanks of water, fire trucks, and firemen have been dousing the plant with water, which has been scrutinized as being low tech, but nonethesless effective. Foreigners to Japan are leaving, going back to their home countries and America has actually got a plane to take our citizens back to the U.S.

Reply to Mr. Hannans comment on my last post

I wasn't bashing on the womens movement, I was saying that moving a group as large as a gender to a single objective is difficult. It would be difficult to anyone and has only been achieved in a few golden moments in history! Motivation is a big issue here and you can't expect everybody to be the same. Individualism splits us apart but it also brings us together, I wish the womens movement luck and I may have failed to bring my true point across in the correct way. I never was good with words but since you're here to bash me Mr. Hannan, then GTH.

It connects with what we're learning because it's history! It's about people, it's about us, it's about people working together to contribute to a greater cause! What does it say about the world around us? It tells a story, about the human race. How we work together, what we want, what we're trying to achieve, and all of that says a lot about the people involved.

I'm deleting my last post as it seems to have insulted the only person who reads this crap.