Current Connection Notes

What is the authors purpose: To inform about the tragic shooting in Wisconson, on a Sikh Temple.

Does the author accomlish this: Yes, he tells what happened, the effects and what the police plan to do.

What ideas do you agree with: The police were right to shoot him.

What ideas do you dissagree with: The attackers views that this was a justified killing maybe.

What do you understand: This man was crazy.

What do you not understand: Why he ran into a temple and opened fire on people who" looked muslim".

Connections: 9-11 is comming up and since then there have been scattered reports of harassment or attacks on Indian Sikhs, including the killing of an unarmed man in Phoenix.

Book Bucket list

1.  Bleeding Violet
2. City of ashes
3. Hunger Games
4. Hush,Hush Saga
5. Clockwork Princess (Infernal Devices)
6. Rot and Ruin
7. Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days)
8. Clockwork Angel
9. Harry Potter series
10. Tilt

What would I go through to ensure my survival...

No one really knows what they are willing to go through to survive until they are put in that situation. Hence I am not entirely sure that I can accurately say what I would go through, but I can say that I would go to extremes.

Recently I did research on the extremes children go to in war torn countries just to survive, if it meant that I would live to see another day, I believe I would do the same. Hurting people for my own survival sounds pretty horrible but when in a drastic situation you have to resort to drastic measures.

I would kill people and try not to think about what I had done. Killing children I could not do though, I would die before I harmed a child.

I would even consider cannibalism for survival. Its not like cannibalism is a new phenomenon, it has been a means of survival for thousands of years. And if your hungry, cold, and weak from exhaustion who knows what anyone may turn to.

To ensure my survival I would go through extreme situations, hurting, killing
 or even resorting to cannibalism.

Survival essay

Children left in the wake of war and destruction are met with horrible conditions and choices that no human should undergo just to survive. To emphasize there are 300,000 million child soldiers fighting right now, children who are under the age of eighteen being kept as soldiers and sex slaves. They are taken by formidable warlords, drugged and forced to kill, then abandoned once more by people who see them only as threats. The problem is these are nobody’s children so nobody cares.

Most Child soldiers do not willingly go into the militia. CNN correspondent Ann O’Neill wrote that “once recruited many are brainwashed, trained and then sent into battle with orders to kill”. According to the article “Stolen Kids Turned into Terrifying Killers” By Ann O’Neill, many are kidnapped from their schools or beds and even more are recruited after seeing their parents slaughtered in front of them.  In this article one girl, Angela, 12, told Human Rights Watch she was told to shoot a friend when she joined Colombia’s ARC guerrillas. For the purpose of surviving, these children slaughter and torture people, including those closest to them. It is important to realize that even though they may kill, it is the leaders of these organizations who use fear and drugs to control these children. For instance, in this same article, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo asserts that one of his officers threatened to shoot a 13-year-old-girl if she did not kill a man in the manner she was told. The children are so afraid of being slaughtered like animals or even worse the unlucky people the soldiers capture that they follow any order given to them. In the documentary “Ugandan Child Soldier Tells Story to Spread Awareness”, Keitetsi admits that she ran away from her father, whom she called “a very bad man” in 1984 and shortly thereafter fell into the hands of the NRA. As a result she was fighting and killing people at nine years old, fighting with a gun that she was barely big enough to carry. Like Buck in The Call of the Wild, she was taken and forced to fight for her survival. A point that is often overlooked is that Keitetsi, like other child soldiers, was vulnerable to corruption and persuasion.

Most of the children taken have either watched their family being murdered or been forced to kill them, as a type of initiation. Thus child soldiers are left with no family or friends, any friends that do arrive with them either die on the battle field or malnutrition. For a child soldier it easier to survive on an active battle field than to get a meal or clean water. These are nobody’s children, so nobody cares. As shown in the documentary “Ugandan Child Soldier Tells Story to Spread Awareness”, Keitetsi claims that “they have created these wars and we fight them because we are nobody’s child, so it’s ok”.  Most of these children eventually forget about their families and previous lives, they eventually grow accustomed to killing.  Consequently they start suffering from cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Adjustment disorder, an emotional and behavioral reaction that develops within 3 months of a life stress. Because of this unwonted situation some still struggling ex-child soldiers unable to cope with the stress of integrating back into society, many eventually return to the front lines. Ishmael Beah in “A long way gone” points out that he had problems learning to rejoin society; he suffered from nightmares, feelings of consternation, flashbacks and violent spouts of rage like many others boys who were at the center with him.

Another reason that child soldiers commit such awful acts of violence in the name of survival is to regain a sense of belonging. Because they have lost everything familiar to them in such short amount of time, the need for a family dynamic or to at least to feel accepted in their groups rises. For instance CNN Africa correspondent Jeff Koinange reports in the article “Stolen Kids Turned into Terrifying Killers” that they take macho name like “Col. Rambo” and “Brig. Chop Them Up.” Jeff Koinange also recalls in this article that “the saddest part is we, as adults, had to address them as such; otherwise you just never knew what would happen." Furthermore, their guns becomes their identity, status is established by how many soldiers and civilians they have killed and how large their weapon is. According to Ishmael Beah in his book “a long way gone”, he and his friend joked and bragged on each other for acquiring larger weapons, saying “ ‘I killed the owner of this gun in our last raid…I’ve used it to do some damage myself.’ He chuckled and we high-fived each other and laughed.” Once they grow accustomed to killing and only being praised for kills, that becomes normalcy for children in these situations. In reality there are people, such as Joseph Kony and many others, deplorable humans bent on using child soldiers.  The article “Joseph Kony’s Spirit War” by Richard Petraitis, states that Kony has convinced children “that with his syncretism of religious beliefs has thoroughly convinced many of his young warriors that the Holy Spirit can shield them in battle if the proper belief, the proper application of Holy Oil, the proper number of signs of the cross, and the proper recitation of prayer songs, are displayed in combat”. In response these children march into battle without a second thought. Regardless of these horrible people running rampant like an infectious disease, most sane human beings are trying to stop the use of and help child soldiers around the world.  Child soldiers who have seen war, have been through more in their few years than many have in a life time and no amount of therapy will ever fully erase the memories of their terrible actions. However this does not mean that we should give up on them, we as human beings need to address this issue and save these children who are fighting our wars with guns taller than they are.

300,000 million that’s how many children are fighting in wars right now. Allowing this to continue with a clean conscience is a crime in itself, as humans we should never allow a child to see the face of war. Being drugged and used as spies, sex slaves, soldiers or human shields is not a way to spend a childhood, just imagine if the child fighting was a close relative.

Works Cited:

Atiya, Alexandra N. "NEWS." The Harvard Crimson. 8 Nov. 2002. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2002/11/8/ugandan-child-soldier-tells-story-to/>.

Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. Print.

London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. New York: Macmillan, 1963. Print

O'Neill, Ann. "Stolen Kids Turned into Terrifying Killers." CNN. Cable News Network, 12 Feb. 2007. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/02/12/child.soldiers/index.html>.

Petraitis, Richard. "Joseph Kony's Spirit War (2003)." Joseph Kony's Spirit War. Web. 16 May 2012. <http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_petraitis/spirit_war.html

Survivor Synthesis Essay: Child soldiers

Slant:

• Child soldiers, nobody's child, nobody's problem

Claim:

•  Children left in the wake of war and destruction are met with horrible conditions and choices that no human should undergo just to survive .

                     Character count:140

Call of the Wild Review

Jack London's Book Call of the Wild captured, to me, the cruel tug-and-pull of nature vs man.

This book shows how a drastic change in setting can affect you mentally and physically. When Buck first appeared in this book he was a lavish pampered dog; that all changed when he was taken and sold. I believe the betrayal of his trusted gardener ,Manuel , helped start off his UN-trusting nature towards humans when he sold him in chapter 1. Buck soon ended up in Alaska pulling superfluous sleds on the brumal Klondike Trail. This change from lavish to extreme changed Buck, he became harsh and wise in the ways of life or death situations.

Buck was teamed up with a team of sled dogs ranging from happy newcomers to cold experienced sled dogs. His biggest rival was Spitz, a cold, ruthless, and ferine pack leader. Whom Buck soon kills in a fight over Spitz killing Curly in chapter 3.

This book was a bit slow for me, and I would have liked to see more points of view than just Bucks. I wish the author would have played more off of the relationship between Buck and Thornton too. Not to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did like how Jack London showed the story through Buck.

I really recommend this book for anyone who is interested in nature, history or just a good read.

Anthromorphism poem

I am just a jellyfish,
Floating in a current of dreams,
I feel no sorrow or pain,
For you see I am just a jellyfish,
I am a small being in a giant current of expectations,
But that doesn't bother me,
For you see,
I am just a jellyfish.