Invisible!

Is there such thing as an invisible child? No, but people act like there are and seem to think that they are nonexistent or “invisible”. On Wednesday I went to see a presentation after school on child soldiers and refugees in Uganda. When I saw the short and simple 45 minute video I was astonished and left with no words. The images of the few hundred refugees sleeping in a room the size of our cafeteria kept flashing back and fourth. When I first heard about child soldiers, I thought of 14 or 15 year olds running around with AK47’s but they were as young as 8 and the gun was as tall as them.
Well over 30,000 children were abducted for the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), but the children that were abducted from villages were not counted. What also surprised me was how the refugees lived and what they did to stay alive. Some lived in wet cold tunnel-like places under hospitals, while others were forced to walk miles in fear of the rebels finding them.
A lot of the refugee children would say that if they were caught they would be killed or would be sent to the bush. The “bush” is a training camp for them, they are very terrified of it because if they disobeyed the simplest of orders they would be killed or tortured. The children also said if they cried in the bush they would be killed because crying means you are thinking of home and from now on they do no cry, even if they are not in the camps.
There was a group of 3 children who were hiding in tunnels under a hospital. The tunnel was usually wet, cold, and dirty. They had to get all the water out if there was any by taking a flat piece of plastic and “mopping” the water away outside. They also had no source of heat, were underground, and surrounded by cold concrete. The only source of heat was each other and thin blankets. They woke up every morning at 4:00 to get water and ready for the day, even though nobody told them they had to. They knew if they didn’t they wouldn’t survive too long.
If someone wants to see the reality of child soldiers I suggest that you watch the video. But before you do make sure you are ready to be sickened by what Joseph Kony (Leader of LRA) has done to innocent children so he can overthrow the current government. Just by watching the movie I have already signed a petition for Kony’s citizen arrest warrant that will raise awareness and will call president Obama to lead an effort to find him and stop him once and for all. I loved the experience because it opened my eyes to something I have never seen before. I wouldn’t recommend it for Globies only but for everyone

Swine Flu

Have you ever heard of the term H1N1 or in a simpler term swine flu?

I’m willing to bet you have, probably everyone has. I still remember a few years ago. The Bird Flu or the scientific term avian influenza or the “code name” H5N1; everybody was saying it was going to be the black plague of 2006, thousands of people were going to die, and some people actually started saving food up and making bunkers. Ok, back to the main subject –Swine Flu- I truly believe that it’s getting WAY too much attention than it really deserves. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be covered by new but for about 2 or 3 week straight every time I went to get some news for current events there was a least one story about how to prevent or stay safe from the sine flu or who just got it.

The media is just scaring people like us into believing that one simple sneeze could be the swine flu not the good ‘ole regular old flu, a cold, or even allergies. Now people start rushing to the emergency rooms thinking that they are going to die within a few minutes of getting it or something. After the release of a possible shot for it, the media once again has to say that the shot will kill you or whatever. After all that to make matters even worse doctors are starting to consider normal flu as swine flu just to be on the safe side.

Anyway I believe that the swine flu is going to hurt our economy even if it’s a scare. People are going to start to be afraid of going outside or in public areas such as malls or restaurants. The economy is already bad enough as it is but if people start getting scared that they are going to get it then they are going to stop shopping that much and that will take us back to the starting low point. Just today the Dow reached 10,000 for the first time in over a year. Just a simple scare as the swine flu could devastate us and our economy.

Anyways I believe that we should just ignore it, wash our hands, and keep shopping till'we drop. These days the media truly controls on how we think of most things because they only show the bad side and slander most of the things to get views and make more money. A few months ago the media tried a test; it was to show on a few news station that the ghost of Michael Jackson was spotted somewhere close to his house. The next day there were tens of thousands of people at the “sighting”. That just shows how gullible people are becoming.

http://www.newser.com/story/70763/swine-flu-victims-could-swamp-hospitals.html

My Dog

It was a hot and humid Tuesday afternoon; I was sitting on the sofa with my mom talking about what kind of dog to get. I wanted to get a Boxer or Rottweiler but she wanted a Shitzu or a Lhasa Apso. I didn’t want a small pathetic dog and she didn’t want a giant beast. We spent about an hour talking about what we should get, but we still couldn’t decide. I like Boxers because they are very manly dogs and look very strong, she likes the pathetic little doggies because she thinks that they have more love, affection, and bring happiness to people. When both of us were almost ready to give up we hear the garage door opening.

After a few seconds my dad walks in and before we could even ask him to help us decide he tells us that he found someone that has puppies for sale. But the only problem was that he wouldn’t tell us what kind of dog it was, he wanted to make it a surprise. A few days later he gets a call that the person that he ready to sell the puppy to us. So we quickly get on the car and speed off to the place where we were going to pickup the dog. It was about a 20 minute drive that felt like 2 hours. I couldn’t wait because I thought that it was going to be a big dog because my dad and I think the same a lot. My mom probably thought that since she was the only woman in the house he would find a dog for her.

After getting there we waited until my dad found the seller. After a few minutes my dad and the guy pull up next to us in this old but nice Cadillac. After they get out the guy my dad is holding something in a small towel. When I look at it looked like a miniature puppy. Darn I thought my mom had my dad get a small lap dog for her, after a few minutes I get the courage to ask what kind of dog it is and it turned out that it was a teacup Chihuahua. She was about the size of my palm and weighed probably as much as a cell phone. After a few hours of arguing we decided to name her Oreo but that name only lasted for about a week until my dad changed it to Stacey. After 1 year she hardly grew but gained some weight. She weighs about 6 pounds and still eats anything that is edible.

The First Day of School

I woke up too early, with enough time to spare. Felt the freezing chill up my spine of morning. I promptly got out of bed and got in the shower. Big mistake, the water was as cold as the Artic itself. After I was finished I started the treacherous quest towards my room. After I was warmed up I went downstairs for breakfast, I grabbed some cereal and milk and started digging in. after I was done I still thought I was running late so I briskly brushed my teeth and ran to my bus stop. Sadly I realized I was 20 minutes early and I was freezing. After a wait that felt like forever my bus came and picked me up. Once I got in I realized I was one of the first students to get on.
Once I got to school, it got even worse. First I had to march against a stampede of students to get to my locker, after that it was even worse I had to figure out how to get my locker open and where my classes were. The classes where not so bad, at least I got to see my old friends and make new ones. After all my classes I had to go to my locker get my papers and run to catch my bus. After a rather interesting bus ride I got home finding my dog waiting for me.