Monday, December 7, 2009
Group Project
I can't wait for Christmas break!
So I think I may be getting homesick. I keep seeing people that look extremely similar to people I know at home. It is really kind of creepy actually. However, I don't feel homesick at all. I love it here at Ball State. I'm making lots of new friends and genuinely like all of my classes.
I even joined a sorority which I really like. I've never had so many girl friends in my life. I usually hang out with mostly guys because they are more laid back like me :). I like that better. But it is really nice to have so many "sisters". It makes me happy.
That is all.
A Walk to Remember
I am watching this movie right now. Even though it is a sad movie, it always makes me extremely happy. The girl next door that is a little odd gets the guy. It is such a cute story line. The guy has a bad boy stereotype. She helps him let down his guard and be the good guy she saw in him.
It has some great lines in the movie too. Like things I want to say to people. Like, in one scene Jamie is speaking to Brandon on a school bus and he is trying to act all cool and he comes off as an asshole. She says "Your act only works on an audience." I like that a lot.
I also really love all the music in it. Not just the stuff Mandy Moore sings.. but there is a lot of great stuff. The soundtrack is amazing.
Music :)
1. The Beatles
2. The Killers
3. The Smiths
4. The Shins
5. The Ramones
6. Maroon 5
7. The Clash
8. The White Stripes
9. The Fray
10. The Monkees
I love music so much! I wish I could think of more right now... but I'm blanking.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
My part in the group project
Group Project
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Great Movies :)
I have a passion for film which is why I am majoring in telecommunications. With that passion, I have seen many movies, some that are well-known, and others that most people haven't heard of.
Here are just 10 movies that I would recommend.
10. Arsenic and Old Lace (It is a classic, and Cary Grant is extremely good looking.)
9. Wait Until Dark (One of the lesser known movies starring Audrey Hepburn.)
8. The Breakfast Club (It is sad that some people haven't seen this movie.)
7. Stand by Me (A great adventure with a pretty good theme.)
6. Gangs of New York (Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the greatest actors I've ever seen.)
5. Better Off Dead (Funniest 80's movie EVER!)
4. Benny and Joon (A lesser known johnny Depp movie. He is another incredible actor.)
3. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors.)
2. Rain Man (One of the only movies starring Tom Cruise that I like.)
1. (500) Days of Summer (The greatest movie of the summer!)
Oldies
I've really been getting into oldies music lately...
Here is just one of the songs that has been running through my head.
Sugar, Sugar
by the Archies
Sugar, ah honey honey
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
Honey, ah sugar sugar
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
I just can't believe the loveliness of loving you
(I just can't believe it's true)
I just can't believe the one to love this feeling to.
(I just can't believe it's true)
Ah sugar, ah honey honey
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
Ah honey, ah sugar sugar
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
When I kissed you, girl, I knew how sweet a kiss could be
(I know how sweet a kiss can be)
Like the summer sunshine pour your sweetness over me
(Pour your sweetness over me)
Sugar, pour a little sugar on it honey,
Pour a little sugar on it baby
I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
Pour a little sugar on it oh yeah
Pour a little sugar on it honey,
Pour a little sugar on it baby
I'm gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
Pour a little sugar on it honey,
Ah sugar, ah honey honey
You are my candy girl
And you've got me wanting you.
Oh honey, honey, sugar sugar ..
You are my candy girl ..I
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Group Project
Group Members: Kait Williams, Jenna Gaylor, Becca Elich
Modes of Media: A Website, a video to post on the website (possibly a PSA), and some sort of ad to post on the website as well.
Audience: Young adults
Animal testing can be harmful and even fatal animals. We should begin to use products that do not test on animals.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Random Facts
In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.
Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.
The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
In the early days of the telephone, operators would pick up a call and use the phrase, "Well, are you there?". It wasn't until 1895 that someone suggested answering the phone with the phrase "number please?"
The surface area of an average-sized brick is 79 cm squared.
According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.
Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.
The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Halloween
Global Warming 4
Momentum on Climate Pact Is Elusive
The world leaders who met at the United Nations to discuss climate change on Tuesday are faced with an intricate challenge: building momentum for an international climate treaty at a time when global temperatures have been relatively stable for a decade and may even drop in the next few years.
The plateau in temperatures has been seized upon by skeptics as evidence that the threat of global warming is overblown. And some climate experts worry that it could hamper treaty negotiations and slow the progress of legislation to curb carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.
Scientists say the pattern of the last decade — after a precipitous rise in average global temperatures in the 1990s — is a result of cyclical variations in ocean conditions and has no bearing on the long-term warming effects of greenhouse gases building up in the atmosphere.
But trying to communicate such scientific nuances to the public — and to policy makers — can be frustrating, they say.
Mojib Latif, a prize-winning climate and ocean scientist from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel, in Germany, wrote a paper last year positing that cyclical shifts in the oceans were aligning in a way that could keep temperatures over the next decade or so relatively stable, even as the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming continued to increase.
But Dr. Latif, who gives about 200 talks to the public, business leaders and officials each year, said he had been met with confusion and even anger when he tried to describe this normal variation in climate while at the same time conveying the long-term threat of global warming.
“People understand what I’m saying, but then basically wind up saying, ‘We don’t believe anything,’ ” he said in a telephone interview.
Other climate researchers dispute Dr. Latif’s forecast, saying that climate cannot be reliably predicted on such a short time scale, though even they agree that sooner or later, cool stretches are inevitable.
Underscoring just how little clarity there is on short-term temperature fluctuations, researchers from Britain’s climate change office, in a paper published in August, projected “an end to this period of relative stability,” with half the years between now and 2015 exceeding the record-setting global temperatures of 1998.
Whatever the next decade may hold, critics of global warming have lost no time in using the current temperature plateau to build their case.
“I think it supports the arguments of those who’ve said, ‘What’s the rush for policy on this issue?’ ” said Patrick J. Michaels, a climatologist affiliated with George Mason University and the Cato Institute, a group opposing most regulatory solutions to environmental problems.
The recent stability of global temperatures makes regular appearances in blog postings disputing the reality of global warming and is frequently invoked by pundits who oppose the climate bill that passed the House this year and is pending in the Senate.
Advocates of such regulatory measures are equally vehement. In a post last week on his blog, Climate Progress, Joseph Romm, a physicist and energy expert affiliated with the liberal Center for American Progress, wrote that statements by climate skeptics about planetary cooling were “nonsense.”
“We need all the unmuffled warnings we can get given that humans are not like slowly boiling frogs, we are like slowly boiling brainless frogs,” he wrote.
The recent spate of years with stable temperatures is particularly noticeable because it followed a seesawing from unusually cool temperatures to unusually hot ones in the 1990s, said Vicky Pope of Britain’s climate agency, called the Met Office.
The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines had a cooling influence, as the volcano threw off veil-like emissions. Then, in 1998, an El NiƱo episode in the Pacific Ocean set off a record-setting hot spell.
The global average temperature is now only 0.13 degree Fahrenheit higher than it was in 1999, according to the British meteorology office.
A series of unremarkable storm seasons followed the string of destructive storms in 2004 and 2005 that included Hurricane Katrina. And in the Arctic, an extraordinary summer retreat of sea ice in 2007 has been followed by less substantial losses and projections by some researchers of a possible, if temporary, recovery.
Most climate scientists stand firm in their projections of centuries of rising seas and other disruptive effects of a warming planet if humans take no steps to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
In an address to world leaders at the climate summit meeting on Tuesday, Rajendra K. Pachauri, the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has advised the world’s nations on climate issues for 20 years, described the mounting risk and said, “Science leaves us no space for inaction now.”
A clearer view of whether the recent temperature plateau undermines arguments for dangerous climate change in the long run should come in a few years, as the predictions made by the British climate researchers are tested. Their paper appeared in a supplement to an August issue of The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
While the authors concluded that there was a 1 in 8 chance of having a decade-long pause in warming like the current plateau, even with rising concentrations of greenhouse gases, the odds of a 15-year pause, they wrote, are only 5 in 100. As a result, the next few years of observations could tip the balance toward further concern or greater optimism.
Meanwhile, social scientists who study the way people understand and respond to environmental problems say it is not surprising that the current temperature stability has created confusion and apathy.
Getting people to care about a climate threat that is decades away is hard enough, they say, without adding in the vagaries of natural climate cycles.
At best, said Robert J. Brulle, a sociologist at Drexel University, global warming remains an abstraction for many people.
“It does not have the direct visual or emotive impact of seeing seabirds covered in oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill,” he said.
Global Warming 3
Poll: US belief in global warming is cooling
By DINA CAPPIELLO , 10.22.09, 06:29 PM EDTWASHINGTON --
Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the U.S. and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change - from melting ice caps to the world's oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.
The poll was released a day after 18 scientific organizations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming. A federal government report Thursday found that global warming is upsetting the Arctic's thermostat.
Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities - such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles - are behind a temperature increase. That's down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year's poll.
"The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things," suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. "When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave."
Andrew Weaver, a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said politics could be drowning out scientific awareness.
"It's a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public," he said.
Political breakdowns in the survey underscore how tough it could be to enact a law limiting pollution emissions blamed for warming. While three-quarters of Democrats believe the evidence of a warming planet is solid, and nearly half believe the problem is serious, far fewer conservative and moderate Democrats see the problem as grave. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans say there is no solid evidence of global warming, up from 31 percent in early 2007.
Though there are exceptions, the vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that the primary cause is a buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.
Jane Lubchenco, head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told a business group meeting at the White House Thursday: "The science is pretty clear that the climate challenge before us is very real. We're already seeing impacts of climate change in our own backyards."
Despite misgivings about the science, half the respondents still say they support limits on greenhouse gases, even if they could lead to higher energy prices. And a majority - 56 percent - feel the United States should join other countries in setting standards to address global climate change.
But many of the supporters of reducing pollution have heard little to nothing about cap-and-trade, the main mechanism for reducing greenhouse gases favored by the White House and central to legislation passed by the House and a bill the Senate will take up next week.
Under cap-and-trade, a price is put on each ton of pollution, and businesses can buy and sell permits to meet emissions limits.
"Perhaps the most interesting finding in this poll ... is that the more Americans learn about cap-and-trade, the more they oppose cap-and-trade," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who opposes the Senate bill and has questioned global warming science.
Regional as well as political differences were detected in the polling.
People living in the Midwest and mountainous areas of the West are far less likely to view global warming as a serious problem and to support limits on greenhouse gases than those in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Both the House and Senate bills have been drafted by Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts and California.
One of those lawmakers, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, told reporters Thursday that she was happy with the results, given the interests and industry groups fighting the bill.
"Today, to get 57 percent saying that the climate is warming is good, because today everybody is grumpy about everything," Boxer said. "Science will win the day in America. Science always wins the day."
Earlier polls, from different organizations, have not detected a growing skepticism about the science behind global warming.
Since 1997, the percentage of Americans that believe the Earth is heating up has remained constant - at around 80 percent - in polling done by Jon Krosnick of Stanford University. Krosnick, who has been conducting surveys on attitudes about global warming since 1993, was surprised by the Pew results.
He described the decline in the Pew results as "implausible," saying there is nothing that could have caused it.
Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Haunted housing
Moments I remember during the haunted house.
-A clown jumped out in front of me and screamed "HEY!" then started singing "I like to move it, move it." while dancing.
-My guy friend was almost whipped in the butt.
-I was told by a dude with a British accent that it's a good thing I'm pretty because I'm not very bright.
-A zombie followed me around and creepily touched my face.
-One of the last things I saw in the house was a little kid in a mask with a knife. I started cracking up when I saw him.
-One of the workers almost kissed my friend.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Peer Review
Also, seeing other papers and how they wrote that part helped a lot.
Human Trafficking 4
RP slips in US human trafficking watchlist
By David Dizon, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 06/17/2009 11:15 AM
The US State Department on Wednesday placed the Philippines in its watchlist of countries suspected of not doing enough to combat human trafficking.
The State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," the first released since US President Barack Obama took office, said the Philippines is a "source, transit and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor."
It said a significant number of Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in places such as Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
"Filipinas are also trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Western Europe," the report said.
The US State Department said the Philippines was placed on the Tier 2 watchlist this year for failing to "show evidence of progress in convicting trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible for labor trafficking." The Philippines was previously ranked Tier 2 for the years 2006 to 2008.
"Although there was an increase in the number of trafficking cases filed in court, only four trafficking convictions were obtained under the 2003 anti-trafficking law during the reporting period, and there were no reported labor trafficking convictions, despite widespread reports of Filipinos trafficked for forced labor within the country and abroad," the report said.
It also noted the low number of convictions of sex trafficking offenders in the Philippines "given the significant scope and magnitude of sex trafficking within the country and to destinations abroad."
Inclusion on the watchlist for two consecutive years means that the country can be subject to US sanctions including a ban on non-humanitarian and trade-related aid.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the global financial crisis has increased the worldwide trade in trafficked persons with at least 12.3 million adults and children falling victim to forced and bonded labor and sex slavery each year.
"This is modern slavery, a crime that spans the globe, providing ruthless employers with an endless supply of people to abuse for financial gain. Human trafficking is a crime with many victims: not only those who are trafficked, but also the families they leave behind, some of whom never see their loved ones again," Clinton remarked during the release of the report.
Weak justice system, corruption
The report, meanwhile, said an inefficient judicial system and endemic corruption is hampering the Philippine government's campaign against human trafficking.
"Despite a 2005 Department of Justice circular instructing that all trafficking cases receive preferential attention, trials often take years to conclude because of a lack of judges and courtrooms, high judge turnover, and non-continuous trials, which cause some victims to withdraw their testimony. A high vacancy rate among judges significantly slowed trial times further," the report said.
In 2008, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) filed 318 administrative cases against licensed labor recruiters who used fraudulent and deceptive offers to entice job seekers abroad or imposed inappropriately high or illegal fees on prospective employees. Of the 318, only seven received convictions under the illegal recruitment law in 2008.
The report said corruption among law enforcement agents "remained pervasive, and some law enforcement and immigration officers were complicit in trafficking and permitted organized crime groups involved in trafficking to conduct their illegal activities."
It said that during the reporting period, there were even reports of immigration officials being involved in the trafficking of Filipinos overseas.
It noted that in September 2008, an immigration officer was apprehended for her alleged role in aiding the trafficking of 17 Mindanao children to Syria and Jordan "but charges against her were dropped due to insufficient evidence."
One case, involving a police officer charged with allegedly trafficking minors for commercial sexual exploitation at his night club in Manila, remained pending four years after the charges against the police officer were filed.
The US State Department recommended several steps to boost the Philippine government efforts to fight human trafficking, namely:
- Significantly improve efforts to prosecute, convict, and punish trafficking offenders, including officials complicit in trafficking;
- Dedicate more resources to efforts to prosecute trafficking cases;
- Assess methods to measure and address domestic labor trafficking;
- Implement antitrafficking awareness campaigns directed at domestic and foreign clients of the sex trade in the Philippines;
- Dedicate increased funding for the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and improve anti-trafficking coordination between government agencies;
- Disseminate information on the 2003 law throughout the country; and
- Train law enforcement officers and prosecutors on the use of the 2003 law.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Human Trafficking 3
US downgrades RP efforts to fight human trafficking By Jose Katigbak (The Philippine Star) Updated June 18, 2009 12:00 AM |
WASHINGTON – The US State Department has downgraded the Philippines from a list of nations making significant efforts to combat human trafficking to a watch list of problem nations.
After three years of being ranked in a “tier 2” category of countries making significant efforts to fully comply with minimum standards to fight trafficking, the Philippines was dropped to the “tier 2 watch list” because it did not show evidence of progress in convicting trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible for labor trafficking.
The State Department said countries on the “tier 2 watch list” for two consecutive years, beginning with the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report, would be demoted to the “tier 3“ category and could be barred from receiving non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance unless the US President waives application of this provision.
A significant number of Filipinos who migrate abroad for work are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department report released on Tuesday said.
Filipinas are also trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Western Europe, the report added.
The Philippines is one of the world’s biggest labor exporters. Last year about 11 million overseas Filipinos worldwide sent home more than $16 billion in remittances.
The State Department report covering 175 countries over a one-year period from April 2008 to March 2009 is the most comprehensive worldwide report on efforts of governments to combat human trafficking. Its findings are aimed at spurring countries to take effective action to defeat the scourge.
The report noted an increase in the number of trafficking cases filed in courts in the Philippines but said only 12 people have been convicted of trafficking – all for sex trafficking offenses – since the passage of the country’s 2003 anti-trafficking law which criminally prohibits trafficking for both sexual and labor exploitation.
The number of convictions for sex trafficking offenders is low given the significant scope and magnitude of sex trafficking within the country and to destinations abroad, the report said.
It said only four trafficking convictions were obtained during the latest reporting period and there were no reported labor trafficking convictions, despite widespread reports of Filipinos trafficked for forced labor within the country and abroad.
Of the four individuals in three cases of sex trafficking convicted, one was sentenced to life imprisonment and the remaining three were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment, in addition to fines and damages.
Philippine law enforcement agencies reported 168 alleged trafficking cases to the Department of Justice in 2008, the report said, and prosecutors initiated prosecutions in 97 of the cases, an increase of more than 60 percent over the previous year.
The remaining cases remain under preliminary investigation or were dismissed for lack of evidence or witnesses, or on other grounds.
If the Philippines is to make more progress towards compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, it has to achieve more tangible results in convicting trafficking offenders and in investigating and prosecuting officials complicit in trafficking, the report said.
In the new listing, 28 countries whose governments fully comply with international efforts to fight human trafficking are classified under “tier 1.” They include Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
Seventy-six countries are listed in “tier 2” including ASEAN members Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
With the Philippines in the “tier 2 watch list” category are 51 other countries, including Cambodia.
In “tier 3” are 17 countries whose governments do not make any significant attempts to fight human trafficking, including the remaining ASEAN members Malaysia and Myanmar.
Palace reaction
Palace deputy spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said steps have been taken by the government to address the problem.
“The Philippine government recognizes that human trafficking is a problem that befalls developing countries the most,” she said.
“It is with this belief that the government created the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to coordinate and monitor the implementation of Republic Act 9208, otherwise known as the Anti-Trafficking on Persons Act of 2003,” she said.
“We reiterate that our government is prepared to work with the international community to address the human trafficking problem,” Fajardo stressed. “We will do all that needs to be done to make sure that no Filipino falls victim to this most terrible fate.”
Human Trafficking 2
End Child Sex Trafficking: Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C.
ARLINGTON, Va. , Sept. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Throughout the month of September, public transit users will receive an important education on the realities of child sex slavery in America. This week, Shared Hope International will unveil End Child Sex Trafficking: Kids are NOT for Sale in D.C., acampaign that aligns with D.C. Human Trafficking Awareness month. Bright yellow signs in Metro buses, bus shelters and Metro stations scream messages, including "13 is the average age children are forced into prostitution." With D.C. Acting U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips, the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, the District's Office of the Attorney General, and D.C. City Councilman Phil Mendelson, Shared Hope International Founder and President Linda Smith will highlight the reality of child sex slavery in America and in the D.C. Metro area in particular at a10:00 AM press conference on September 9, 2009 at theWashington D.C. United States Attorney's Office.
On a familiar intersection, such as 14th and K Street , NW and along New York Avenue , young girls are sold by pimps and rented by the hour, and by the minute, for sexual acts. Hundreds of campaign announcements will address the local demand for paid sex and will emphasize the vulnerability, exploitation and danger that American children face every day on our streets. Advertisements placed in the Adult Classifieds and the Wild Side sections of CityPaper will warn potential buyers that buying sex with a child in Washington, D.C. can result in a life prison sentence.
On a familiar intersection, such as
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Human Trafficking
Will Iraq Crack Down on Sex Trafficking?
The report was damning. Baghdad, it concluded, "offers no protection services to victims of trafficking, reported no efforts to prevent trafficking in persons and does not acknowledge trafficking to be a problem in the country." As a TIME.com story detailed, trafficking in Iraq is a shadowy underworld where nefarious female pimps hold sway and impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters on the sex market. (See pictures of a women's prison in Baghdad.)
The situation is slowly changing. The draft law, a copy of which was obtained by TIME, imposes tough penalties, including life imprisonment and a fine not exceeding 25 million dinars ($21,000) for traffickers if the victim "is under 15, or a female, or has special needs." The same punishment applies if the crime was committed by kidnapping or force, or if the criminal "is a direct or distant relative or the victim's caretaker or husband or wife," a tacit acknowledgment that victims are often trafficked by people they know.
The years of war and instability after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 have provided unfettered opportunities for criminal elements, including traffickers, to profit. Nobody knows for certain how many Iraqi women and children have been sold into slavery since then. Some Baghdad-based activists put the figure in the tens of thousands, but there are no official numbers due to the nature of the business and the reluctance of victims or their families to come forward in a society where female virginity is prized and the stigma of compromised chastity can be a permanent social stain — or worse.
The State Shura Council, a legal advisory body that reviews drafts before they can be passed to the Cabinet and parliament, is vetting the anti-trafficking bill. It's not the first of its kind in Iraq. The old penal code included a law issued in 1969 and amended in the 1990s that outlawed and penalized trafficking.
But laws are only one aspect of the battle. Enforcing them is another. Activists complain that corruption within the security forces is enabling traffickers to operate with impunity. Many traffickers have "very good ties with the police," says Yanar Mohammed, who heads the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, a group at the forefront of the fight against trafficking. Young women who have attempted to escape from brothels have sometimes been returned by police officers, she says. "It turns out [the cops] were loyal customers." Saad Fath Allah, director of the National Institute of Human Rights and the head of an inter-ministerial anti-trafficking committee, acknowledges that a law is only the first step. "We need to enhance the independence of the judiciary," he says. "There are many criminals who have been released." (See pictures of Iraq's revival.)
There are other challenges. Poverty and certain social traditions make some vulnerable members of society easy targets for traffickers. Although Iraq's constitution grants equal rights to women, their traditional role of domesticity often makes them dependent on male relatives for basic needs. War widows are rendered economically marginalized and vulnerable to exploitation. Salim, the Human Rights Minister, knows alleviating female poverty is key but says there are other considerations. "I can't ask to have jobs for women while the men don't have jobs," she says. "Here in our society, the first thing is for the men."
There are even tougher issues to tackle. According to several activist organizations, traffickers ferry their victims overseas illegally on forged passports or "legally" through forced marriages, sometimes abusing the Islamic tradition that allows a man to have four wives. A trafficker "will marry four, he will take them to Syria, it's legal, and divorce them there, and he comes back and does it again. How can we stop it?" Salim says. Similarly, the principle of temporary marriages, known as al-Mut'a in Shi'ite Islam and al-Misyar in Sunni Islam (they can extend anywhere from two hours to six months in the Shi'ite tradition), has also been exploited to trade in women. The draft law does not address how victims are trafficked, avoiding the sensitive subject of the abuse of religious principles, but says it is an offense to transport people with the purpose of trading in them. (See more about human rights.)
Still, the fact that trafficking is even being acknowledged is a significant and welcome development, says Dalal Rubaie, a senior activist with the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq. She wasn't aware of the draft's existence until TIME contacted her. The government says it has reached out to key NGOs in drafting the law, but that was news to some of the organizations it cited, including the prominent Al-Amal Association, headed by Hanaa Edwar.
The interplay between the government and women's rights NGOs is fraught with suspicion. Salim readily admits that "there's no trust" between the two groups. Yanar Mohammed's organization has been petitioning, unsuccessfully thus far, to be legally registered as an NGO and women's shelter, which would allay fears that it could be shut down at any moment. It has also sought, but been refused, permission to visit Baghdad's women's prison, where it previously identified victims of trafficking who were locked up for offenses committed as a result of being trafficked, like having false documents or prostitution.
Salim says some NGOs used the prison visits "in a political way, or in the media not in the right way." The government will visit the prisons and set up women's shelters, she says, as well as train select NGOs to help fulfill those roles. Some old habits clearly die hard. But new ones are slowly forming. "Many people say there is no trafficking in Iraq — they refuse to admit this phenomenon," says Fath Allah, head of the inter-ministerial committee. "But we say that this exists and we are working to prevent it from happening. There will be an anti-trafficking law."
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Fox News
The story was about the 2009 Tea Party.
None of these news stations missed the story at all. Fox just advertised their news story. They claimed that they went into more depth with their story, but I believe that to be untrue. What they didn't tell us is that they hyped up the crowd more by telling them to yell and scream. They made motions with their arms to make them louder. How is that real news? The news is something that is supposed to cover the story, not create the story.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Possible Lyrics for my Analysis
Is there room for one more son
One more son
If you can hold on
If you can hold on, hold on
I wanna stand up, I wanna let go
You know, you know - no you don't, you don't
I wanna shine on in the hearts of men
I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand
Another head aches, another heart breaks
I am so much older than I can take
And my affection, well it comes and goes
I need direction to perfection, no no no no
Help me out
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner
You know you got to help me out, yeah
And when there's nowhere else to run
Is there room for one more son
These changes ain't changing me
The cold-hearted boy I used to be
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner
You know you got to help me out, yeah
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you're gonna bring yourself down
I got soul, but I'm not a soldier (x10)
(Time, truth and hearts)
Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner
You know you got to help me out, yeah
You're gonna bring yourself down, yeah
You're gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, oh don't you put me on the backburner
You're gonna bring yourself down, yeah
You're gonna bring yourself down
Over and out, last call for sin
While everyone's lost, the battle is won
With all these things that I've done
All these things that I've done
(Time, truth and hearts)
If you can hold on
If you can hold on
Ismael Beah
One of my favorite parts was when he talked of his new mother. I loved that everyone at his high school was like "did your mom go to Africa and meet your father". His adopted mother is a white, Jewish-American so it is no wonder he got asked lots of questions.
I think it was really sweet that at even such an older age for and adopted child, he still eventually called her mom. I mean it would be so dfficult to have had a mother that you loved so dearly before the war and after, be adopted by a stranger. He still learned to love her.
She did such a great deed by taking in a child that came from a war. It would be difficult to take it him in. I know I might have been scared for my life. It is nice to see people with such faith in our world today. There is good in everyone, I guess you just have to search deep down to find it.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Family
We didn't fight all weekend and it was a nice change of pace. I felt that he really missed me after he hadn't seen me for a month. When my family took me back to Ball State, right before they left, my little brother got all teary eyed. It was the cutest thing my brother has ever done.
I love my family and I miss them while I'm here at Ball State.
It isn't right.
You know what else I can't stand? People that are SO ignorant when they are trying to back up their claims. Oh yeah.. Obama is a Muslim terrorist....
I actually have a friend that believes that. He is not a Muslim and he definitely is NOT a terrorist. And so what if he was a Muslim anyway? It is a free country... or at least it supposed to be.
People are afraid of what they don't understand. Ignorance isn't bliss for the people that are getting bashed by the naive.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Global Warming 2
Deadly heat

Climate change is currently killing 300,000 people a year around the world, while seriously impacting the lives of hundreds of millions more, states a controversial new report from the Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva. The report, "Human Impact Report: Climate Change -- The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis," predicts that by 2030, approximately 500,000 people will lose their lives to global warming annually. Even today, it charges that 325 million people are seriously affected by climate change, at a total economic cost of $125 billion a year.
"Climate change is a silent human crisis. Yet it is the greatest emerging humanitarian challenge of our time," said Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations, who is now the president of the Global Humanitarian Forum, in a statement. "Already today it causes suffering to hundreds of millions of people, most of whom are not even aware that they are victims of climate change. We need an international agreement to contain climate change and reduce its widespread suffering."
Memoir
I was so upset this past October when I sprained all of the ligaments in my right leg. It was my senior year of marching band, and we were trying out a new body movement in the middle of the show. A freshman knocked into me making us both crash down on the pavement. She had a much softer landing for she fell on my ankle. My ankle twisted in a way that no bone in any human should twist. At that moment, all sound and vision disappeared. My body was taken over by a stinging pain in the lower half of my right leg and a loud ringing in my ear. People rushed over to me to help me off the blacktop.
The other part of my story is a little different. I'm not sure how I should connect these events yet, but I will figure it out. Also, I don't think I want to write anymore until I'm sure how I want it to sound.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Global Warming
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press WASHINGTON — The To the dismay of environmentalists, Interior Secretary The rule was aimed at heading off the possibility that the bear's survival could be cited by opponents of power plants and other facilities that produce carbon dioxide, a leading pollutant blamed for global warming. The Endangered Species Act requires that a threatened or endangered species must have its habitat protected. Environmentalists say that in the case of the polar bear, the biggest threat comes from pollution — mainly carbon dioxide from faraway power plants, factories and cars — that is warming the Salazar agreed that global warming was "the single greatest threat" to the bear's survival, but disagreed that the federal law protecting animals, plants and fish should be used to address climate change. "The Endangered Species Act is not the appropriate tool for us to deal with what is a global issue, and that is the issue of global warming," said Salazar, echoing much the same view of his Republican predecessor, Kempthorne at the same time issued the "special rule" that limited the scope of the bear's protection to actions within its Arctic home. The iconic polar bear — some 25,000 of the mammals can be found across the Environmentalists and some members of Congress had strongly urged Salazar to rescind the Bush regulation, arguing the bear is not being given the full protection required under the species law. Others, including most of the business community, argue that making the bear a reason for curtailing greenhouse gases thousands of miles from its home would cause economic chaos. Reaction to Salazar's decision Friday was sharply divided. Alaska Sen. But environmentalists and some of their leading advocates in Congress were disappointed. "The polar bear is threatened, and we need to act," said Sen. Andrew Wetzler, director of wildlife conservation at the "For Salazar to adopt Bush's polar bear extinction plan is confirming the worst fears of his tenure as secretary of interior," said Noah Greenwald, of the Center for Biological Diversity, which along with the NRDC and Salazar noted that he has overturned a string of Bush-era regulations, including last week restoring a requirement that agencies consult with the government's most knowledgeable biologists when taking actions that could harm species. "We must do all we can to protect the polar bear," he said, but that using the species protection law "is not the right way to go." The way to deal with climate change is a broad cap on greenhouse gases, he said. Congress is considering cap-and-trade legislation forcing a reduction on greenhouse gases, and, separately, the Environmental Protection Agency has begun working on a climate regulation under the Clean Air Act. Last month, the EPA declared carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and other greenhouse gases a danger to public health. The last word is still to be heard on linking species protection and climate change. Earlier this week, the The American pika is no polar bear, but the arguments may be the same. |