One Day The Trafficking Will End

 One day we will stop it, the trafficking will end.

Arunadha Koirala is a woman that has taken a stand to something that is the worst that humanity has to offer. Human trafficking. She runs an organization called Maiti Nepal which is strictly dedicated to helping girls and women that were/are victimized by human trafficking.


Maiti Nepal operates a rehabilitation home in Kathmandu. They also have transit homes on the Indo-Nepal border and an academy in Kathmandu. Maiti translated from Nepali means 'mothers home'. Maiti Nepal has been a refuge for women or little girls rescued from the brothels in India. It has become a home for the women and girls that have been sexually abused and is the true meaning of home for these girls.  The women or girls can stay in the homes run by Maiti Nepal until they are able to return to their homes and if they are not accepted by their parents they may stay there until they become able to live on their own. Maiti Nepal also works on reuniting these girls with their families and patrolling around the Indo- Nepal border with police or other authorities to rescue trafficked women.


Anuradha Koirala has received the the Courage of Conscience Award from The Peace Abbey in Massachusetts in 2006. She also won the CNN award of 2010. Anuradha Koriala is an amazing woman. She was brought up in India. She has fought for the rights of children and women. Non-stop fighting. The Courage of Conscience Award and the CNN Award of 2010 are only two of her 30 national and international awards. Anuradha Koirala has helped the lives of 12,00 girls and women since the year of 1993 and has not stopped fighting ever since. Koirala has a personal experience with sex abuse. "Every day, there was battering. And then I had three miscarriages that I think [were] from the beating. It was very difficult because I didn't know in those days where to go and report [it], who to ... talk to." So this is why she has done this. This is why she is helping all these young innocent girls.


 In this YouTube video, the girls that are represented in the video shown, are so thankful to her and this shows us all how much they appreciate everything Koriala has done. Statistics show that human trafficking is estimated to be the third largest international crime industry. According to the U.S. state government, some 10,000 to 15,000 women and girls from Nepal are trafficked to India and then sexually exploited each year. Don't you think this statistic is just so crazy and scare? I do. Imagine if someone you knew, someone close to you, you're sister, aunt or whoever was sent of to India to be sexually exploited. Think about how much you would fight for them. How much it would affect you. Anuradha Koirala is speaking for these girls and fighting for them when nobody would. 20% of trafficked victims are children. This really scares me. I hope people that read this blog post understand the severity of human trafficking. I certainly do after reading about all these statistics even though I'm just a school girl.


So I ask you. I implore you to help stop human trafficking. How? To at least by taking the step where you would promise all of mankind and to yourself you would never be part of it. Never let anyone trick you into being trafficked. Never be a man that would traffic someone. Why? Because it scars. It scars the purity of a girl. Think about what if something like this were to happen to someone around you. I know I've thought about it and it sure is frightening. So I will never become a part of human trafficking and I hope you don't too. 

The Challenge Of Our Generation

I believe in opposing a society,
that is infected by tragic living.
The aggressive infection has been disguised,
and is the challenge of our generation.
I implore you to stop this invisible problem with conviction
Personal determination is uncertain,
unless you exhort your opinion to this problem
Poverty has nothing to say to you,
so I entreat to question authority and attach yourself to the problem.

Stop Hating And Start Loving

I think people should start realizing how much hate can affect one person. I personally think one thing in this whole world that is worth fighting for is a world without bullying. This may not occur as such a big thing but in the teenage world it really is. It happens in movies, television series, documentaries and in real life. How many documentaries are out there about kids killing themselves because they can't take the pressure? Answer: TONS.

Bullying is certainly an issue we all have to attend to. I found this video on YouTube and have watched this video in health class last year about a boy that committed suicide in 2003 at the age of thirteen. His name was Ryan Halligan. He committed suicide because he was constantly bullied at school and on the internet. One day this girl and her friends decided it would be a laugh to pretend to like Ryan and Ryan told her all this personal things about himself and she copy and pasted all these secrets that he had told her into other chats and spreading them to others and laughing at Ryan. Ryan's father now has spoken at over a hundred schools about how he thinks Ryan made such a bad mistake. But I'm sitting here asking "Can you blame him?" Imagine everyday going to school being laughed at and teased and coming home and have the same people tease you. The worst part. There's no escape. I can understand why Ryan did what he did. He wanted this to stop. He didn't want to listen to it anymore. He wanted to just erase it from his mind but he couldn't and it certainly wasn't one of those incidents that you would have with a friend and the next day you're buddies again. He felt alone and he wanted to stop the teasing but how was he supposed to do that?

I personally have gone through a time like that. When every time I turned the corner I had eyes on me and I could hear my name repeatedly in sentences and sentences. I was more fortunate than Ryan because I had a friend that believed in me. She believed that I did none of those things that were circulating around the school. She knew how bad I felt about it even though I tried so hard to deny it. For a year, I felt so alone but thanks to this girl she really made me understand what true friendship is and to keep going at life and not decide to throw it all away. These things that were going around the school kept coming back to me and trust me it was like I was in a nightmare. As an adolescent, all your thinking about right now is about 'Hey, I wanna be so and so's friend!' 'I wanna be popular!'. And what people say about you really gets to you in terms of whether it is positive or negative. Last year, rumors went around about me liking this person and mentioning harsh words. But it was this friend that reminded me that you can't always please people and that you just have to walk away and don't have a care in the world about what they are talking about. So I want to take this opportunity to thank this friend, for always being there for me and always encouraging me.

Back to the topic. Why do people find differences? Why do people like to bully? Why do we have to hate? According to Bullying Statistics of 2010 , there are about 2.7 million students bullied each year. Why are the statistics that high? I want to ask the bullies of the world and if you are currently bullying someone either emotionally or physically. Would you want this to happen to you? To the bystanders, you have seen the statistics. 2.7 MILLION STUDENTS!!!! And about 56% students in schools, have witnessed a bullying crime taken place at school. How can we stop this? It's up to you. I bet if one student starts saying no a thousand others will say no. To the bystanders, don't just stand there. Do something about it. If you are scared to confront the bully yourself report it to a teacher. It's the only chance of stopping bullying.

If you are reading this, think about Ryan. Think about yourselves. Would you like to go through whatever bullying victims are going through as we speak? Stand up. Take a stand for what you believe in and stop hating and start loving.

Peace Within Ourselves

Peace. World Peace. Peace within ourselves. Peace with each other. This has what the world has tried to aim for but somehow it never really seems to work. Why? I'm not sure. But I do know one thing if everyone just stays calm and talk rationally we might actually get there. But the truth is everyone is fighting with each other. Finding differences in each other. Ever since when I was a kid, I've witnessed fights on the streets, people screaming at each other just because they want the last cereal box in supermarkets. Is this all really necessary? The worst of all? World War. You see every time we have a world war. It always ends up messy and killing millions and billions of innocent people. Why do we need this? I seriously can't answer this question.

If I was to be lucky enough to be given the opportunity to create a 'New World' I would hope the society to be built around the idea of Peace. With peace, we won't have anymore fights, arguments and wars. The idea of peace would make our world a better place to live in and allow the our world to be democratic. With peace with everyone everyone would be given the chances that we all deserve. People would vote to who they think is the suitable or the right choice.

Peace would also allow our world to stop judging everyone else like you would judge a book by it's cover. Yes, we all say that we don't but who are we kidding? When we look at someone its obvious that you look on the outside and sometimes your not even bothered to start knowing the inside of that person because of his or her looks. That is wrong and we all know that. With peace, we would be looking at each other through our hearts. We would be at peace with everyone. Letting everyone get to know you.

Why do people fight? Answer. Many people say we fight because people are animals. Because we originated from the apes. Another possible answer could be because of the fact that the 'natural person' is naturally selfish. We're always thinking about ourselves. Look into your thoughts everything comes out as "I need this" and basically everything starts with "I". This causes starts to occur when people start to get selfish. Have you ever seen little kids fighting over toys? How one kid picks up something and starts playing with it and the other gets another toy and starts playing with it. Then the first kid realizes that the second kid is having quite a good time with his toy and he comes and snatches it away from him because he wants to play with it now. This is a situation when the human selfishness comes into place. Also, people love fighting because it's a sign of significance. In middle school dramas and TV shows we see fighting throughout the whole main plot. The bully beats one kid up and the rest of the kids are scared of him and he will keep bullying a different kid each week and soon the WHOLE school is aware and they think he is superior.

How can we achieve world peace? I personally think we need rules for world peace. Firstly, people have to start understanding the fact that NOBODY has the right to take a life of another human being and governments also have no right of taking a life. This is how people start thinking that they can just kill anyone they want to. People in their minds would be thinking, if the government can take a life 'WHY CAN'T I????' I should have the same rights as everyone else. So I think if we start enforcing that NO ONE has the right to kill anyone we might be a step closer to world peace. How do war occurs? Simply one has to convince their people by saying things like "The land used to be ours, so we have the right to take it back" and "They did it to us". How do we overcome this? REJECT the thinking that the land used to be ours so we have the right to take it back and citizens have to be active to prevent a war. For example in WW2. All Hitler had to say was "IT WAS THE JEWS THAT DID THIS TO US" and none of the Germans could take a stand and say 'No'.

In conclusion, Peace could be the answer to our prayers. Peace could stop all this hate, war and arguments we don't necessarily need. So lets all try to start with the idea of peace. Peace within yourself and to others.

Kristallnacht

On the nights of November 9th and 10th 1938, Nazi gangs attacked a Jewish villages. They burnt down the homes, shops and businesses of innocent Jews and left nothing behind but shattered glass everywhere. This night is known all around the world as Kristallnacht. The name Kristall meaning crystal and nacht meaning night. There were more than 270 synagogues, 70 businesses and thousands of homes were burned to the ground. Hundreds of people were killed. Yet, few Germans had the courage to speak out against the Nazi’s, who were ruthlessly destroying everything and everyone that came in their path. The strange thing was the Nazi's weren't charged for any damaged they had caused. There was no turning point for Kristallnacht.

That Crazy 13-Year Old

What type of learner are you? Well, you can determine what kind of a learner you are, through some tests. Why do you need to know this? Hah. That's the catch. A lot of kids around my school thought that finding out what kind of learner they are, wasn't that big of a deal. Later, they realized that it was.

It's important to know what kind of learner you are because there are two major things that can change your life. One being after you understand what kind of a learner you are you'll do much better in school or in life or being a successful person as you'll know what your strengths are and what you do to keep yourself from just crashing down. Two being you struggle in school or in life and you basically, shut yourself down when your under stress. Being under stress, that's another thing that we all have to be careful with.

I am a 'Profile L'. I know when you just read that you went 'What?' but let me explain. Profile L's are 'Gestalt' which means that my right hemisphere of my brain is the dominant hemisphere. You see, in class, I fiddle a lot and you won't find me just sitting there quietly unless I'm having problems but back to the main point, I fiddle A LOT. Teachers find it annoying and they tell me to stop but movement, that helps me understand and learn better. In Humanities, we have to summarize quite a bit of stuff and when I sit down and think, I can practically see the whole picture but when I try to chunk it down. That's when I struggle. If you see me in class, you see that I have trouble focusing, learning and thinking. This is because I like to socialize quite a bit and for me as a learner, I have to be sitting by myself without any distractions for me to be focusing. This causes me to get stressed and when I get stressed its not good especially for Profile L's. The stress causes difficulty functioning and my mind completely shuts down. Also, I prefer to jump ahead to conclusion. I don't like having to follow step-by-step instructions because that just seems stressful to me.

When I'm relaxed, movements come easily to me. It's kind of strange. It seems like my movements are saved in my brain and when I need to use them they come without me having to struggle. This occurs a lot when I'm swimming. I swim at least 4 times a week. I'm not that great of a swimmer but hey, I'm trying. Anyways, when I jump in the water and my coach yells out a workout to a certain stroke my body just automatically does it without a lot of effort. It's pretty cool.

Things that could help me learn better in class, are doing Kinesthetic activities to release stress and isolating myself to focus.

I would like my teachers to know this information as movement really is something that I need to be doing to help me process information and when I fiddle with something it doesn't mean I'm not focusing on what your trying to teach. Also, I think teachers should know that I am a learner which just doesn't like step by step instructions because I just seem to do whatever seems right to me.

Over all, that's what kind of a learner I am and that's all about ME!

Our Universe Of Obligation

Mankind is no island. What does that mean? The word 'island' means a piece of land surrounded by water and a feeling resembling an island is the feeling of being isolated and detached. Mankind is no island. No human being or man should have that feeling of being isolated or detached. In other words, no human being should stand on his or her own and no human being should feel that he or she is alone in this world.

In this poem John Donne emphasizes the idea of no man is an island entirely of itself. No man is alone and no man stands by himself or herself. 'Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind.' This quote really stands out as Donne is saying every man's death affect all of us as we are all involved in mankind. Donne suggests that we are all interconnected in our universe of obligation. The word 'obligation' comes from the Latin root 'ligare' which means to bind therefore we are all bound together in this world.

Jason Van Genderen's visual poem 'Mankind Is No Island' emphasizes the same idea no man is an island and no man should be standing alone. On the streets, there are so many homeless people. We show our empathy and sympathy by giving them money but honestly should we be showing our empathy through money or love or just simple acknowledgement by smiling? In the video, people stop and give these homeless people money but no one really stops and listens to their stories. People just walk past these homeless people and don't even glance at them. People don't care about them. They are isolated. They feel detached. They're on an island. They all have stories and if we just listen to them, that feeling of being isolated and detached will diminish from this world.

I think both poems are trying to tell us that every man is important to the world and that we should care for others like homeless people and not only restricting ourselves to caring only about our own friends and family. Should not all of mankind fall into our circle of obligation? Should we not feel pain or concern when we see or hear through the news that people are suffering through starvation, or lack of access to health care? Do we not all have rights?

'Mankind is no island'. This relates to the themes of 'The Island' by Armin Greder and Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle for democracy. Donne and Genderen's themes of interconnection relates to the themes of 'The Island'. A vulnerable stranger appears from the wild sea and he is rejected and separated because he looks different than the others there. They didn't listen to his story and just locked him away. Just because we see others that are 'alien' to us our mind completely shuts out. It shuts out the value of humanity toward other mankind. Why do we do this? We have a choice to acknowledge or just ignore. Most people choose ignore. Should we be doing this? We judge people that are different from what they look like but really should we be shutting out just because other people seem like aliens? No man is an island. No man should be judged by his differences that seem 'alien' to us.

Aung San Suu Kyi also relates to the term 'Mankind is no island'. She has said that her arrest and her fight for democracy is no different than any other person under arrest and their fight for democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi has given up so much for her people. She has given up her personal matters for her people. People in need and she's been recognized all over the world for what she has done. She treats her people like her family. She stayed in Burma to help her people, her people in need. Aung San Suu Kyi has given up so much. She couldn't say good bye to her husband who died of cancer and she has missed out on the chance of watching her two boys grow up. It's these sacrifices that make us admire her. She had to give up so much and honestly, how many of us have had to sacrifice as much as she had to?

Aung San Suu Kyi also has given up her own safety but her believe in the interconnection with the people of Burma stopped her. She could've been safe. She could've been with her family and yet, she gave her personal matters up. Shouldn't 'Mankind Is No Island' be effort from all mankind, from all human beings? Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the leaders, who are trying to make the words 'Mankind Is No Island' work. We, as human beings, as people part of our universe of obligation should help in making the words 'Mankind Is No Island' work.

I chose this painting- painted by Morris Louis as the stripes on the sides are different and they spread from the bottom left and right corner but stop as they invade into the space. And it symbolizes 'ignorance' as both clusters of stripes don't want to acknowledge the alien which is the space in the middle.