think blink* sync

Watch out, the big fat dictator is coming through!

After the Boston Marathon bombing incident, Boston, one of the most beautiful cities in the country with several progressive and liberal people who swear a little too much, turned into the city in danger. If terrorism occurred in between the Charles River and picnic-esque Boston Commons, where else in the world should we not fear? Has Manhattan “really” become safer? Is the city of Seoul, physically so close to Pyongyang and oppressed by the threats of war, safe?

“North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un is the world’s youngest head of state — and behaves like it” Barbara Demick wrote to start her description of Kim Jong Un, the leader of the North Korea, who has been selected as one of the hundred influential people in the world in 2013. (Read more: http://time100.time.com/2013/04/18/time-100/slide/rand-paul/#ixzz2RCnZmwoe ) He repeatedly claims to have nuclear weapons and continue to test them out, not only to scare the world, but also to get some attention and spotlight on himself. Too bad, the spotlight moved away from him to the Boston Marathon bombers for the past week.

I would compare this supreme leader of North Korea to Jack, one of the main characters in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The story reflects the microcosm of the society on how an empire develops and how powers shifts between the stronger and the less strong. Several boys who got on the plane during the war to be evacuated happened to land on an unknown island due to an accident. Ralph, who is first to discover a sea horn, gathers other boys left on the island and becomes a leader through the process of election. Ralph is depicted as a charismatic and athletic leader. Jack is the counter opposite. He carries the disappointment in losing the election from the beginning. Soon he discovers enjoyment in hunting and a substantive amount of power gained through providing food through killing animals.

As soon as Jack realizes that being violent can earn him control of the group, he gradually, but rather quickly, learns how to abuse the power. He starts using fear to put other boys under control and behaves like a dictator we know today. Jack is the supreme model for all of the savage leaders, abusing an illegitimately gained power in our society, past and present.

The two cruel leaders, Kim Jong-Un and Jack, are too young to have such a big responsibility as leaders, did not think through their plans and tactics before acting upon them. Simply, they just cannot deal with the amount of power they have that they cannot keep straight of the things they have as of now. While a leader has to be able to look ahead of time in order to maintain order and peace at present and prepare for the future, both Kim Jong-Un and Jack are busy picking up the coins laid in front of them to get in hold of them, heavy in their hands. They could be moderately satisfied visualizing their properties, even though they sure want more. However, soon, all that wealth and power will be destroyed through one play of gamble they will participate out of arrogance.

Kim Jong-Un is not an original figure. He wants to become like his late grandfather, Kim Il-Sung, who established the nation after the Korean War in 1950s. A rumor says that Kim Jong-Un even got a series of plastic surgery to physically resemble his grandfather. He only tries to imitate, scare people, and appear strong on the outside. Inside, he might just have a fragile, little soul that only begs for money and food, just to barely maintain the Communist regime and his dictatorship, of course. We must follow up on him, the unpredictable and rational leader. True, he might really shoot of the missiles out of rage someday. At the same time, however, have some trust in the world protagonists, who will defeat him and eventually, he will destroy himself.

(Find out more at lizziesoyoungyang.wordpress.com)

think blink* sync on another website!

http://world.time.com/2013/03/13/catholic-church-has-new-pope-white-smoke-rises/

Peace Corps: what do you go home to?

I received a thin pamphlet the other day while going to class on campus. Yes, one of those that people give out even when they know that most of them are going to be thrown on the ground all over the campus, into the trashcans or recycle bins.  I might have recycled it, (RECYCLE!) if my eyes did not catch the former president/my hero/starting point of my dream/, BILL CLINTON, smiling in the picture.

“I don’t eat meat or fish…it’s just a good thing to do…I lost 24 pounds and got back to basically what I weighed in high school.”-Bill Clinton

The pamphlet advertised the campaign for consuming no meat, no living creature, at all.  According to the authors of the pamphlet, not eating meat not only will lead to less killings of the animals around the world, but also keep our bodies healthy with balanced weight.  

I am not a meat lover but I am not a practicing vegetarian or vegan either. I just do not consume red meat so often, although I tend to obsess over chicken and seafood. I still love animals, which is why I am against the productions and consumptions of the animal furs, even though I still cannot avoid purchasing leather shoes and bags.

This was my stance when I received the few leaves of paper and it still is after perusing through those leaves.

Just by reading the pamphlet, I do not like the particular approach of this campaign. The stories of the animals that fled the farms to escape being killed not only is a weak argument, but also a wrong approach in trying to come to terms with the people in  “protecting” animals and loving them at the same time. By providing the statistics of how many animals will not be killed if a person stops consuming them, the campaign is proposing that meat eating is wrong and inhuman in nature. This is entirely false. One cannot simply blame people for their consumptions of meat. 

Based on the fact that the food chain is a series of organisms interrelated in their feeding habits, the smallest being fed upon by a large one, which in turn feeds a still larger one, etc. (from Dictionary.com), humans are on top of this food chain and were bound to this system from the beginning. To really play the devils advocate, what else would the fifty pigs that were saved by one person’s vegan dietary be doing otherwise? In other words, the problem does not lie on the system of food chain and humans consuming the smaller and weaker animals to maintain nutrition. Problems lie else where, that this campaign definitely does not cover.

First, distrustful and acts of inequality in the meatpacking districts takes number one on the list of “why not eat meat?” Needless to say, meatpacking industries have been challenged in various ways since the publication of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” Not only do the industries care less about the sanitary of what they produce, but also do they mistreat the people that often the workers say, “the districts kill people, not the cows.”

Second, protecting animals mean raising them in clean and appropriate environments, not over consuming them, and not intentionally making them into unnecessary luxury goods. My fingers are guilty for typing this paragraph because I, too, buy leather goods for fashion sake. However, at least being aware of the fact that animals are being sacrificed and trying to purchase less of what is out there must help. Also, not all leather goods were made from the animals intentionally killed cruelly by humans. Educating ourselves with the brands and their missions is an important responsibility.

I am not against anyone who practice vegan diets and support animal rights by not consuming any of them. I rather respect them for being entirely conscious of the matter, taking their thoughts into actions, and therefore, living a more challenged life in the modern society. Yet, I do not like to speak for the people who consider meat eating as inhumane as if meat eaters are murderers. Alternative ways of protecting animals exist. Do not buying pets when you cannot be responsible for.  Do not abuse or abandon animals.  Eat a more plant-based meal if vegetarian or vegan diet seems too extreme.

Any problem arises on the surface when things become too EXTREME. (Find the middle ground.) Producing, consuming, and spending within the boundary of capability and level of responsibility, should create no dilemma. 

            We started out our not-so-special friendship in a small dormitory of a boarding school in a suburb just outside of Boston, Massachusetts. It was not special, at all, because we were put in the same dormitory, “forced” to see each other too often. In other words, we had no wills to be friends but were meant to, was bound to, and were “be-friended” by the external force. This must sound bizarre but now that I think about it, perhaps, our platonic psyches knew the exact destination for the starting point of the ties. For the next few years, we simply found ways to cope with each other, by staying all night up talking, playing cards, or eating take-outs.

            The four girls carried that chunk of memories to colleges in New York City, St.Louis, Madison, and Baltimore. Only those shared memories still hold us together even though it seemed like nothing could be shared anymore.

            And last night, I did realize that the current world that we are living in, assists us to continuously make progress in such friendship and even improve the relationships with one another. Needless to say, smart phones and wireless Internet connects us together more than ever and often times, too many connections force us to deviate from the “real” world. Yet, there was one moment last night, on my bed, group texting three girls all over the state, when I had truly appreciated for what the advancement in technology has provided us with.

            The conversations, I would not describe as too profound, but typical as any four girls in their twenties would talk about in any other part of the earth. Gossips, as if we were still teenagers; and of course, boys, as we are still looking for THE Prince Charming. Ceaseless texts popping up for hours prove that we are still not much different from when we used to order pizza boxes on snow days, in many ways. Still, through the connections between the phones, we mature together and secretly hope to become the recast models for the sex and the city. So much love shared, and I can live with this for another decade. 

'The House voted on Thursday to pass the Senate’s bipartisan reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, in a big victory for President Obama and Democrats in Congress.'

In Vatican Today

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/world/europe/pope-benedict-xvi.html?ref=world&_r=0

‎”I, retired in prayer, will always be with you, and together we will move ahead with the Lord in certainty. The Lord is victorious.” - Pope Benedict XVI

Just for today, we should ignore all the rumors and theories the Vatican are dealing with within the political arena. Yet we must hope for the better, appreciate for the efforts put in by the person leaving despite each of our religious affiliation.