Some thought about discussion

Roxana Vasquez
1/25/05


Daily Write

In class discussion:

About the class today, sorry I didn’t say anything it’s just that I couldn’t put my words together, and you know that I always have something to say about topics that you present to the class. I was confused about how to relate it to my personal life. I really didn’t want to confuse myself when I was not sure of what I would be saying. I was thinking about secrets that people hide, and in those places of war there will always exist a type of environment were some secret are better off kept to ones self. The writer that wrote the poem was recording a story from the colonel and how war was affecting him basically. In a way I think that it relates to me as a future photojournalist. The wish that I have is to obtain knowledge for myself personally; not to really go on and sell my information to newspaper and magazines. Of course I have to make a living but there’s a certain point were some information belongs to you, it’s your experience to keep. Something that really caught my attention was how the colonel reacted at the end of the diner. I think that the reaction at the time was of frustration. I believe that journalist report all over the world to inform people of what’s going on around us. When you look that deep in whatever you’re looking for is hard to obtain that information. People in areas affected by the war are really hurt that live in a state of frustration, anger, because they don't see any results from the reports to better their lives. The ears were from rebels and I know that torture that way is wrong or anyway, but in my mind there’s a doubt about what the rebels did. I’ve been researching Africa and the horrible things rebels have done in Africa is horrible. When you have rebels chopping legs, fingers, arms, and everything else to children, what do you do? This make my head hurt because the World is so messed up.

Information


Study says Congo suffering world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, 38,000 dead monthly
By TODD PITMAN
AP
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - War-ravaged Congo is suffering the world's deadliest humanitarian crisis, with 38,000 people dying each month mostly from easily treatable diseases, according to a study published in Britain's leading medical journal.
Nearly 4 million people died between 1998-2004 alone - the indirect result of years of ruinous fighting that has brought on a stunning collapse of public health services, the study in the Lancet concluded.
Congo's government, however, dismissed the report, saying the figures were exaggerated.
The majority of deaths were due to disease rather than violence, but war has cut off or reduced access to health services for millions in the impoverished nation the size of Europe, according to the study published Friday.
Most deaths reported were due to "preventable and easily treatable diseases," the study said. Malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infections and malnutrition topped the list.
Major fighting ended in Congo in 2002 but the situation remains dire because of continued insecurity, poor access to health care and inadequate international aid. The problems are particularly acute in eastern Congo.
"Rich donor nations are miserably failing the people of (Congo), even though every few months the mortality equivalent of two southeast Asian tsunamis plows through its territory," the study said.
Backed by about 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers, Congo's government is struggling to re-establish authority across the country ahead of elections expected later this year, the first in decades. Militiamen still roam huge swaths of the east, formerly controlled by several different rebel groups whose leaders have been allotted top government posts.
The study was based on a survey of 19,500 households across the country of 60 million between April and July 2004. Health Ministry workers and staff of the aid group International Rescue Committee conducted the interviews.
The results showed Congo's monthly mortality rate was 40 percent higher than the average for sub-Saharan Africa - 2.1 deaths per 1,000 people, or the equivalent of 1,200 fatalities per day, compared with a continental average of 1.5 deaths per 1,000.
Mortality rates were highest in Congo's eastern provinces, which have been wracked by fighting and lawlessness for a decade. There, death rates were 93 percent higher than the sub-Saharan Africa average.
"The persistently high mortality in ... Congo is deeply disturbing and indicates that both national and international efforts to address the crisis remain grossly inadequate," the report said.
The survey is the fourth of its kind conducted in Congo, Africa's third-largest nation. The International Rescue Committee conducted three earlier surveys, the last of which in 2004 said that six years of conflict had claimed 3.8 million lives, mostly due to disease and food shortages.
Congo's government dismissed the report.
"I consider that a big lie," Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi said. "These figures are very exaggerated. All over the world, people die of disease, it's not just Congo," Sakanyi told The Associated Press.
"It's known that (aid) agencies have often played with the figures ... to get financial support," the minister added.
The Lancet study said the deaths counted were "excess" deaths that would not have occurred if the situation in Congo was normal.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

english essay

I believe I am a different person. I can feel it. I can see it.

As I’m writing this paper I lie down on my bed and listen to the soundtrack of “Kingdom of Heaven”. New age music has inspired me to put in writing my feelings easier. I have learned to be passionate about this type of music that wakes up my feeling, and deep thoughts about who I really am. I have become more conscious of my surroundings and actions. Many of my friends don’t think the same way; they go to parties, get drunk, and worry about their social lives. In a way I am happy the way I’ve turned out. It has been difficult realizing that I am saliently different from my own culture; not necessarily my Mexican culture, but the “American” culture that surrounds me everyday. I’ve been analyzing my writing for the very first time this semester and by doing so I am learning to describe myself and who I really am. My papers have been about cultures that I seemed to have connected with. I have learned so much about myself through writing these papers; which has taken me also on an emotional ride. The cultural material I have analyzed using different angles, and ideas has made me a more compassionate human being. I care more and think about people in third world countries, and people with medical problems; for example AIDS. I want to ask friends and peers why
they don’t think about the worldly issues I care about like AIDS. I now present you what it is to be me inside my culture, and the separation I’ve gone through.
I love my culture in the way that its traditions bring happiness to me and my family’s own traditions. My culture is the Mexican America and it surrounds me everyday. This culture lives south side of the city, and it’s people that have migrate from Mexico to the United States. The people in this culture that I criticize are the young population of Hispanics. One thing that I criticize my culture for doing is being so selfish when power falls in their hands. I see it around my community daily; which makes me sad to admit. What I see around me everyday are people from my culture that have adapted to the American life. I believe that also their mentalities change when they move to a completely different world from what their use to. I am not saying that all Hispanics are the same, but in every society there is always those people who have more than the rest. During this semester I started to analyze everything around me; I couldn’t just not. What makes me so angry and sad are people with money who could give a hand to homeless people, or donate a dollar to a needed association. I work at a grocery store where we always ask our customers if they would like to donate a dollar or any kind of change, and what makes me sad is when they say no. My blood starts to boil with anger when they have a stack of dollars in their hand and they are saying no to donating one single dollar to an AIDS, Cancer, MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) can at the register. Every time when a homeless comes up to me even if I don’t know what their going to do with the money I give them, I just know that I have help someone in need. Hispanics are not the only ones that don’t give; its everyone because the need is everywhere but I criticizes them because I live among them. At this moment I want people to understand, and realize that this world is falling apart, and if we don’t start to do something we are going to let something like AIDS knock on our doors. We are so uneducated about AIDS and taking care of ourselves that people are going to start opening those doors that shouldn’t be open. I saw this in High School young teens having sex, and using drugs. I believe that we as a community and culture we need to help ourselves to understand the crisis in this world dealing with AIDS; from that point we will help everyone else. Sometimes I feel that I am the only one my age (18) that thinks about worldly issues like AIDS. I am not only concern with the disease, but also poverty in my country of Mexico and everywhere else. I see people my age not care about these issues that are important for are future as a young generation; because we are the future. I really don’t understand how could they not see this happening, but inside me I know that they know. I know they know but they seem to forget, yet I understand that people have problems and difficulties in their lives but any help they can give is a great help for these people in third world countries. Personally I was the same way when I was younger, I didn’t really know anything. I found going to college a blessing because it has open my eye and my heart to people in these poor communities all around the world. I tear up and feel like running towards them with help, but those are just dreams that one day will come true. Many people don’t have the same opportunities like going to a University and being educated by professors that speak about these issues in the world. It should not be just Universities that teach about the crisis on earth, but it should be taught everywhere including in homes. I plan to start through my culture, my community, and slowly move into other cultures I just need help from people to accomplish goals that will benefit everyone. I am so glad that I was given the opportunity in college to explore my thoughts, and figure out what is my main mission on this earth. I am glad that through this opportunity I could educate myself and my peers about the situations on earth that need attention from everyone.

In conclusion, as I write this paper I am thankful for the education I have received this semester in my English class. I have been able to understand myself and others through what I’ve learn. I have become a caring person towards the needy. I understand better my culture through what I have analyze in the past essays. My culture is Mexican but I live among Mexican Americans and I have criticize my culture and myself. I’ve learn that analyzing and criticizing my culture has be a way of criticizing myself, yet by doing that I have been able to change the way I think and the way I see the world now. I know that someday people will start care more about the nature of this world and the people suffering of poverty and harsh diseases. It hurts me to see my culture so far away from myself, so far away from the reality of this world. I finish this essay up saying that somewhere in the heart of all people their does exist that compassion, care, and love toward the people in need they just don’t know it yet because they’ve forgotten. My mission is to help them remember.