Making the Invisible, Visible: The first step...

     There are over 30 million people trafficked in the world today and the world have an average of having one person trafficked every 30 seconds. Out of all this, only 1% of the people gets rescued and the rest are all exposed to forced labour, unwanted sex all for the evil slave owners who makes all the money. A slave only cost 90 USD today and it is still a high growing crime today. Human trafficking is ranked number 3 of the top three of the crimes that exists in the world today. We must find a way to stop human trafficking and bring peace to this world.

     Some surprises I've encountered during my research are that a cost of a slave is only on average 90 USD, or 270 RM in Malaysia, which means the slave owners think the slave's lives are worth little money. Something else that surprised me was that I never have known that such a small country like Malaysia is both a host and a destination ground for traffickers. The traffickers usually bring people from Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia and Burma over to Malaysia and then expose them to sex and forced labour. I was also surprised because I thought slavery have ended a long time ago but only until now, I realized that slavery still not only exists, but increased on size! A good fact that surprises me is that although there are 30 million slaves in the world today, we can still stop it in 25 years. It surprised me because 30 million slaves with only 1% of them being saved can still be stopped in only 25 years, which I didn't expect it to be that short.


     I'm also sad because most of the slaves suffered for a few years and their lives aren't easy at all. I can't imagine how to live through all that and come out and can still tell those terrible stories and they're the only lucky 1% out of the whole 30 million slaves in the world today. I can't help feel shocked also because slavery was meant to be ended a long time ago in the 20th century but research showed that there are more slaves in the world today than that 30 years ago, when slavery was actually llegal.
 

     This image shows the issue human trafficking and it shows that the trafficked people really want help, but it makes it hard because they're kept invisible in the dark of the world. It is important to our community because human trafficking occurs a lot in Malaysia and we should rise awareness to the people and the government to stop human trafficking and help the slaves to escape. Learning about this issue makes me both surprised and sad and I think we should all collaborate together, stop Human Trafficking and make this world a better place for everyone.

Stopping Alcohol Addiction Is Worth Fighting For

Stopping Alcohol Addiction Is Worth Fighting For

   There are over 140 million people in the world who is addicted to alcohol and just in the US, there are 17.6 million adults who are addicted to alcohol. Alcohol should be stopped among the people to prevent alcohol addiction. Too much alcohol can lead to many harmful things including traffic accidents, unwanted rape and harmful things to the body. There are many ways to stop people being addicted to alcohol. Putting up ads about why they should stop alcohol, make videos to educate people and not to binge drink yourself and tell your friends not to too.

    Putting up ads is one effective and relatively cheap way to make people notice and stop drinking alcohol. Facts about what alcohol does to your body is an effective way to stop people from alcohol addiction. “The ads we have helped set up has been proved to be helpful. Some of our friends have actually stopped because of our ad.” From this, we can see that ads are proved to be helpful and they not only help other people stop alcohol, it also helps your friends stop drinking if they have the same problem. Ads can also show alcoholics what the negative effects of alcohol can be. “The ads we have set up showed most of the negative effects of what you can get from alcohol. One of our friend told us that after he saw our ad, he was disgusted by the pictures and so he stopped.” Ads can show information like pictures that help people know why they should stop from drinking. Most people can’t stop drinking after they’re addicted so showing them the negative effects of alcohol can help them stop drinking. We can see from this that ads are a helpful tool to stop people from drinking alcohol but there are others tools which is proved to be better than ads.

   Making a video that educates people about alcohol and why it’s wrong to drink a lot of it is also another helpful way. People such as kids can watch these videos in class, learn from it, and will pay much more attention due to the fact that teenagers and kids likes to watch videos in class. “From my observation, students tend to pay more attention to videos during class-time and will pay attention to key notes in the video.” Videos can stop new people into alcohol addiction. From Videos, students can learn the bad effects and from the quote, we see that videos will grab more of the student’s attention and so they will learn more from it. Videos can also show people who is addicted how to stop it without the complexity of words. “There are lots of helpful Youtube videos online which shows you some good strategies to stop alcohol should you want to do that.” Online videos have many helpful tips on stopping alcohol if you plan to stop. Videos online can help people go through it step-by-step without getting lost in words or misinterpreting it. People can pause the video if they get lost and it is much more entertaining compared to words. Videos is a key card on stopping alcohol. But there is one very good strategy that we have not yet covered.

   Telling your friends that binge drinking is bad is yet another good way to lessen the amount of people in the world that drinks alcohol. When you’re going to parties, you can tell your friends or possibly the party owner to hold a non-alcohol party. “Peer pressure is a very strong tool. It can be used in a good way or a bad influence in alcohol due to the fact that your friend would want to ‘fit in’ with you.” From this, we can see that you can help your friends stop alcohol by not drinking alcohol yourself. The peer pressure would work the opposite way and make your friend stop because they want to fit in with you and be like you. Telling your friends to stop drinking can also help the world from alcohol addiction. “If one out of every 20 of us who is addicted and they tell 3 of them to stop drinking, then this world will have over 1 million people who will recover from alcohol addiction.” Here, you can see that if one of us fight for stopping alcohol addiction,  then the world can still be changed because of you. It can be very helpful if a lot of people do this. This is how telling your friends to stop drinking can make a change to stopping alcohol addiction.

  Alcohol addiction is a very dangerous and something that’s bad for your health. It can lead to a variety of things ranging from traffic accident, unwanted rape, violence to liver failure, permanent brain damage and lots more. This makes it important to fight for no alcohol addiction and lots and lots of lives can be saved in the process. There are 140 million people who is addicted currently to alcohol but if you help out, we can all make a difference.


- By Zifan

Blog Essay

Zifan Ye
Period 7/8
S. Peters
17/10/2012

A Struggle For Hope

One billion children in the world live in poverty. Unicef #reported that just in the Philippines alone, there are thousands of children who live in poverty. Those children who lives under poverty have hardly any education, and most do not even have shelter, food or safe drinking water. People should help these children. Kesz, a thirteen year old boy, managed to achieve help the street children who live in poverty after spending his early life in a dumpsite. He has helped lots of children in his hometown by providing hygiene education and giving them hope.

Kesz doesn’t want more street children to have poor health and live in a dumpsite like what he is used to. By teaching them basic hygiene, he helped those street children. In order to stay alive before he was rescued, Kesz had to look for food and water in dumpsites. “I used to drink the water from a pothole in the street and even from sewage canals when I was little, because I did not know it was harmful to me. Brushing teeth was nothing I knew of, until I was rescued from the streets. Allowing the flies to feast on my open wounds and pus was normal to me and my friends.” From this, we can see that Kesz’s lived in a dirty place before he was rescued and while he’s there, he had no idea about hygiene and eat from dumpsites when he wants to and drinks from dirty sewages. However, Kesz’s luck hadn’t left him. After a terrible accident, he was rescued by Mr. Harnin, his adoptive father. When Kesz learnt what’s good and bad, he started to help other street children. “Today, many of the children still suffer poor health and because of lack of sanitation, they are close to danger and death. This is why I started and continue to lead street children to better health by teaching, demonstrating and spreading basic hygiene practice.”  Kesz didn’t like the life he used to. After he was rescued, Kesz started to help the street children by teaching them basic hygiene and eventually, he started an organization. Because Kesz has learnt the basic hygienes and knows what’s bad or good, he teaches the other street children and therefore, making other’s lives better and making a change.

After he was rescued, Kesz now lives in a nice home where the conditions are good. However, Kesz wants more street children to feel what it would be like when they’re loved like him and he tells them to hope for a better life. When Kesz was about to give up from the fire which nearly killed him, he was rescued by Mr Harnin. After that, Kesz feels like he wants all the street children to feel how it feels to be loved. For his birthday, Kesz send lots of gifts to the other street children instead of asking one for himself, thus giving the street children hope. “For his seventh birthday, Kesz didn’t want any presents for himself. Instead, he wanted to give something to other street children: Gifts of Hope.” To give the other street children hope after he was rescued, Kesz decided not to ask for a gift on his seventh birthday, but to give gifts to the other street children who are suffering because he want to give him hope and not to despair. Kesz had always wanted to help the other street children to a better life after he was rescued. To this, Kesz described how he felt when he was rescued from the terrible fire. “Looking  back, the fire that started a flame in my soul. A flame that would warm cold hearts, a flame that would shed light to the path of the lost, a flame that would spark hope, lighting an entire sea of darkness and desperation.”  Because of the fire, Kesz felt different after he was rescued from that fire. He wants to help the other street children who are still suffering and make a difference. The fire was, in other words, that very thing that changed his life. Since Kesz was rescued from a terrible fire, he wants all the other street children to feel what it’s like to feel love and have hope and by giving gifts to other porr street children, he has made a difference.

By continuing to help street children, Kesz gives them hope for a better future and precious knowledge of basic hygiene and also to go live a life with hygiene. Because of this, Kesz was awarded the Children’s International Peace Prize# in 2012. Kesz has inspired many children and adults to make this world a better place. Kesz has fought for his and all the others’ rights, therefore, he has made a change to this world.

Where I'm From - Zifan

I am from snow,
From badminton and Lego.
I’m from Garfield,
from fried rice and vacations.

I am from books, 
from computers and PSP.
I am from Facebook and games, 
which always makes my parents mad.

I’m from gardens, 
from small tvs to large tvs.
I’m from sun-shines to study rooms.
That’s where I’m from.

Victory - by Sonia Weitz

      The poem "Victory" means lots of things for me. First, it means how sad must Sonia (author) be when that happened, especially when she knows that her dad will be taken away the next day and be gone forever. It also mean how badly the Nazis treats people because not only her dad will be taken away, she will be killed later on too. "My lovely father (once big and strong). And me, a child ... condemned to die." It also shows how much she loved her dad because she's actually breaking the rules just so she can dance with him.

      The questions that raised for me is why are the Nazis so cruel to the Jewish people and also if so, why didn't the Jews stand up for themselves? I also wonder why was this poem called "Victory"? Does it have any meanings? I also think that the reason why Sonia Weitz wants to dance with her dad even if that means shot on the spot was because it'll pretty much be the last time she'll ever see her dad again.

Picture of Sonia Weitz

I agree...

      I agree that victims have a limited choice because of many things. For example, if a bully that's stronger than you bullies you and you're weak and you can fight back, what can you do? You can tell on him to a teacher or an adult alright but what if he/she's in the same class with you? The thing is, they will continuously bully you because you're weak and you can't stand up for yourselves. However, if you were as strong as the bully is, you can then stand up for yourself and beat the bully up if necessary. Also, before the Nazis started to punish the Jews, the Jews can move anywhere they want. But after the Nazis started to bully them, almost all the countries closed their gates, which means Jews just lost the opportunity to move away while they could. That's why I agree that victims have a smaller choices and options.

Holocaust Picture

      Today in Humanities, our teacher gave us a picture and on the picture, I noticed sereval things. First of all, under the old man's armpit in the picture, I can see a Communist sign a top of a piece of stone or something. He was also holding some gold coins which I think it might refer to when hyperinflation hits Germany. Also in his hands, he was holding what looked to me like a bended piece of metal or a stick. What all that might mean were when hyperinflation hits Germany, lots of people like the old man in the picture went poor and homeless and at the time, lots of Jewish people looks like the one in the picture, so I think it might also have something to do at the time with the Nazis harassing the Jews because the old man in this picture looks very poor and not well dressed.

      The yellow background also makes the man stands out so I think they're trying to use this picture as a target or something because at that time, the Nazis hates the Jews and they never stopped killing them and bullying them. The Communist sign under the Jew's armit probably also meant that the Nazis wants to kill all the Jews just like how they killed the Communists.

This picture is the cover of the book called The Eternal Jew.

Thank You!