iPhone Factory in China: 8th Worker Dies

The iPhone manufacturing plant should be temporarily closed because of the number of worker deaths. There should be investigations as to why the workers have died. Also, investigations are necessary in order to determine whether workers are being unfairly treated in China. Apple, the distributer of the IPhone, needs to close this plant immediately. They are just as responsible as China is for the deaths of the workers. The article states, “Apple has investigated accusations of bad employment practices by Foxconn stemming from a June 2006 complaint.” Since Apple has investigated before in the past, but haven’t found any evidence, they need to continue this now because now it’s becoming a serious problem when workers are dying. Therefore, Production of iPhone’s in China at this plant needs to be halted, for the safety and protection of the workers there.

Track

This track season so far has been full of surprise. It began at the beginning of March, and the weather was so unpredictable those first two weeks. I'd been running during the winter outside in the snow, dressed for the weather. So, I was so excited to finally have a good year and get my mile time to the low 5:40's. I knew it was possible because my times were there back in seventh grade. We began our season at a varsity meet at Eastern. For about three weekends in a row, I had varsity Saturday all-day invitational’s every weekend. In one week, I had five meets. Karlie, Brenna and I were able to go to the Mihok Relay meet in Ohio which was a three hour car ride.

Through all the tough workouts and practices, I was enjoying track so much. At times I’d want to quit the workout but running is something I love so it wasn’t an option. Finally last week Monday, I was having sudden pains in both hips. I had an important meet the next day against Northville and I couldn’t sit out. My team was depending on me to win the mile and compete in the 800m. I pushed through the pain and ran a 5:51. To me, it wasn’t a decent time, but the pain began to become unbearable. I wasn’t able to walk, and right then the trainer took me back to my back and I began the long, cold icing process until the end of the meet. Just laying there, the pain was the worst I had ever felt, and I’ll admit I have quite a high pain tolerance.

This was one of the worst mistakes I had made, pushing through the pain and running got me third place and helped my team, but wasn't worth it was the pain and injuries I'd have for the weeks to come. I had put my team before myself, and now I was the one who'd be out. Once I got home, all I could do was lay there, and I couldn’t stand the pain. The sports medicine doctor made room for me immediately the next morning to come in for x-rays. After the x-ray came back, the doctor told me I had two fractured growth plates and they were beginning to separate from the bone. I’d be out of running for a little while and in physical therapy for about four weeks. Now about a week later, I’m slowly beginning to heal and the pain is lessening.

Running is one of the most important things to me, and just a week out of running has made me miss it even more. All I constantly think about is how I want to be out there running on the track and racing, but, I can’t. All the hard work put into preparing for the season is pointless now. Watching my teamates out there running their workouts and road runs is so hard to do because I'd do anything to be able to run right now. Being apart from running has taught me how much the sport means to me, and I’ve learned that these weeks of healing will make me stronger physically and mentally once I can come back out there and run.

Simun Blog

SIMUN this year was a defiantly a learning experience. At first, it was rather intimidating going into it being only a freshmen and being with all upper classmen who had previous SIMUN experience. I was intimidated by how much they knew and how prepared they were. Therefore, I was afraid to speak because I was nervous what kind of questions they might ask me, and if I would be able to correctly answer them on the spot. I feel I did well for being just a freshman. Every day, I put myself on the speakers list at least one time. Since my country India wasn’t as involved in the scenarios like China was for example, I tried to ask a lot of questions to each of the speakers so I could get more speaking time in. By the end of the second day, I felt like I had really began to understand the Parliamentary Procedure and all of the “inquires,” “making a motion,” and “point of privilege.” I also was proud when I helped formulate a resolution, and it ended up passing.

In order to prepare, I did a lot o research. To start off, I learned about India’s background and different important events that happened in roughly the last 100 years. I read different time lines and then we had a series of written questions that had to do with the scenarios. For each of the questions, we had to do some research. During the research, we learned that you won’t find one specific site that will have all of the information you need. It takes time and patience to learn. All of this prior research to SIMUN helped me prepare myself for the scenarios. If it wasn’t for the research questions, I would have been clueless as to what the scenarios were talking about. Another crucial part of my preparation was the research on who India’s allies were. This better prepared me for caucus time during SIMUN because I knew who I should first talk with.

Next year, I could better prep myself for SIMUN by doing a little bit more research and keeping up on current events that happen in my assigned country. That way, I will have more confidence when speaking and know that whatever the question is by another country, I will be able to answer it. Next year, I will assure myself that I know the Parliamentary Procedure better to help with my speaking. There’s room for improvement next year and am sure I will be able to do better.

The United States & Pakistan: India's View

From the view of the country of India, we would have mixed feelings on the topic of the United States going in and occupying Pakistan to secure the nuclear materials they have. We are a nuclear country ourselves and do posses nuclear weapons. Our own country was declared nuclear back in 1998, so we have no right to state the nuclear materials are bad. First of all, we might be a little bit nervous if the United States came into Pakistan. The U.S. isn’t fully a neutral country, so them coming into Pakistan worries us. Since Pakistan has nuclear materials, we might be worried for our country and citizens own safety, so we would appreciate the United States trying to take away their weapons. However, it’s not right for the U.S. to just “walk in” on Pakistan like that. By walking in on Pakistan, it would cause a lot of controversy between the United States and Pakistan, as well as many other countries that might be involved. We would hope they’d have the approval of the United Nations as well. The United Nations should supervise this action. Before the United States should occupy Pakistan, we could possibly talk to Pakistan about getting rid of their nuclear weapons, as well as us getting rid of ours so there is no feeling of threat between the two countries that requires nuclear weapons to be held in possession. If talking to them didn’t work, that’s when India would believe action by the United Nations would be acceptable, but we don’t believe it’s allowable by the United States. Another suggestion we could make is that the United Nations goes into Pakistan to secure the nuclear materials instead of the United States. If the United Nations went into Pakistan, they would not take any sides because they are a neutral organization. To make things clear, as the country of India, we do believe it’s acceptable for someone to go occupy Pakistan because we are one of the countries feeling threatened by them, but we don’t fully support that it should be the Untied States.

Shanghai Girls

Currently, I am reading "Shanghai Girls" for my culture/ethnic book assignment. This is the story of two sisters, Pearl Chin and May and how their lives drastically change living in Shanghai in 1937 while they are encountering “wars” with the Japanese and bombings. One day they are rich, beautiful and carefree Chinese women who live with a servant and many maids. To their family, money wasn’t a problem. Both daughters worked for a painter named Z.G. who painted portraits that they posed for. Then, everything changes when they get into great debt. Their father owes money to the Green Gang, a fair amount that he can’t pay back. In return, he has to sell his daughters to Old Man Louie in America to be wives to his two sons Sam and Vernon. The two young daughters are forced into an arranged marriage for their family, and meet them in China before they are on their way to America. They take a long journey to Los Angeles to live with their new families. Along the way, they go through a lot. Their mom dies because of attacks by soldiers, and as far as they know, their father was most likely killed too. On their long journey, they encounter soldiers and a long time at sea on their way to America. While on the ship, they are questioned by many different people about their families and new husbands to make sure this isn’t an arranged marriage. May discovers she is pregnant on the ship but not with her new husbands child, so May and Pearl have to trick everybody on the ship that Pearl is the one having the baby girl. Once of the ship, they meet their new families and have to begin to adjust to the major changes of this new American lifestyle. They have to leave a lot of their old Chinese culture behind, and learn to fit in with a new family, and new culture.

Outdoor Adventure

One sunny, bright afternoon, Sara and I decided to go on a bike ride adventure. Pedaling and talking, we rode our bikes to a local park. As we rode towards the back of park, we came across an opening in the trees that led to the woods. Curiously, we peddled through and came across what looked like a large magical forest; it was full of trees, paths, mud and creeks. Since Sara took the lead, I followed right behind her and we suddenly stopped in front of a large stream. We stood there wondering how we would get across, but then noticed a large tree trunk lying across the flowing water. Water flowing, noises rushing, we made our way across the thin trunk. As I made my way across, all I could think about was falling into the stream. Reaching the other side of the stream led to a sudden relief. We were back to our bike ride until roughly an hour had paced of biking through the woods. Suddenly, we realized the time and knew it was time to get home. In a matter of twenty minutes, we had to find our way out and be home. Each path led to a new path and so on, but I had a feeling we were traveling in circles throughout these woods. We went across tree logs, streams and through mud. Our bike tires were covered in mud, along with our flip-flops. After searching to find our way out, we saw a friendly woman walking her dog and asked her for directions to find our way out. Luckily, unlike us, she knew where she was going. She directed us straight and said to keep following that path. As we walked straight, the path that led there had a huge, deep pile of mud. We walked our bikes through there and came out of the puddle even muddier. Then, the path slit into two. “Which way to we go,” we both asked. We chose one and realized it wasn’t leading us anywhere, and made our way back to the original path. Once we went the opposite way, it didn’t lead us back to the park woods entrance, but instead on Merriman road, roughly a mile from our house. What an adventure we had, but it’s safe to say, next time we go riding through the woods, we better remember how to get out.

Florida Weekend

Last Friday, I left cold, snowy Michigan and was on my way to catch a plane to Naples, Florida. The last place I had flown to was China, which was three years ago, so I was sure what to expect at the airport. Security was much stricter than last time. I was hoping for a weekend of warm, nice weather, but didn't get exactly what I wanted. Once I arrived off the plane at Fort Myers airport, I stepped outside to be "greeted" by 65 degree weather. To make matters worse, it was raining. Right then, I found out this would not be the weekend I was hoping for, or the weather I was expecting.

I would be staying the weekend at my grandparent’s condo with my older sister. Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast and attempted to walk down the pier at the beach. Halfway down we had to turn around because the wind was so strong. I couldn’t even see where I was going because my hair was blowing across my face. After a walk down the beach and collecting sea shells, it was time for some shopping. We went to the mall and stayed there the afternoon, followed by a nice dinner.

Every night we were there, we watched the Vancouver Olympics, beginning with the night of the opening ceremony. Sunday morning we went to a market and out to lunch. Later, we took a walk to the pool and layed out at the pool. I was hoping to go in the water, 60 degree weather outdoor temperature just didn’t sound too appealing. Later that night for dinner, we went to a pizzeria where they served just about every type of pizza ever invented. Next, we went to an ice cream place called “Sweet Treats.” You picked an ice cream and any other add-ins you wanted.

Finally it was Monday, the day I’d be coming back home. We began our day by going out to breakfast, then out for some more shopping. I got a Florida sweatshirt, and then went to a nice jewelry store. We went home and packed up our suitcase, and it barely fit the weight limit. My grandparents dropped us off at the airport three hours early, and we waited and waited until they finally began to board our plane. Although I didn’t get to go in the water at the beach or in the pool, I had a good time. I was on my way home after a disappointing but enjoyable weekend in Florida.

A Near Death Experience...

Snowboarding. Who knew that this one sport could cause so much pain to the body.

Today was the day I had been waiting for four weeks, the day I'd finally try to begin to learn a sport I had always wanted to, snowboarding. First, I put on all of my "gear." As I made my way out to the bunny hill to begin my rough day, I looked up at the hill in shock. Little did I know, this was the hill that would take me to the emergency room days later? This was the hill that if it wasn't for that one $8 choice of renting a helmet, could have killed me...

So here I went, my first attempt up the bunny hill. I placed one foot on the snowboard, my left front foot, and strapped the binding. I placed my right foot on top of the board, and let the toe ropes slide through my freezing hands. As I slowly grasped the rope, I made it roughly five feet, then I fell. Being the kind of person that doesn't give up, I kept a positive attitude and decided to try again. Attempt two, I finally made it half way up the tow rope and got off like my instructor told me to. As I slid to the center of the bunny hill, I was about to take my first run down the bunny hill. After numerous tries, I got up and was just about to make my way down. If you think getting up with your snowboarding boots snapped into the binding of your board, try again. It's like getting up off the ground without using your feet, just your upper body.

"Im doing it!" was my first thought. But ten seconds later, I took my first fall. As my body hit the ground, my head hit first. Anyone watching could hear it a couple feet away. My head slammed into the ice, followed by my body. I layed there on the hill not wanting to get up, fearing what would happen when I did. I "shook" it off and went for another try. Over and over, my body would slam against the hill as I lost my balance and every part of my body started to hurt. I could feel my whole legs bruising, my head aching, and to make matters worse, I couldn't move my kneck. I fell face first hitting my head, back first hitting my head, and side to side hitting every part of my head possible. Barely being able to walk, my dad decided I needed to leave.

The next couple days were followed by headaches and constant pain in my head and whole body, and my parents decided a doctor’s visit was necessary immediately. I heard my mom talking to my dad about certain skiing and snowboarding incidents regarding closed head injuries with brain bleeding that resulted in death. The doctor rushed in an appointment and requested I come in immediately. I arrived barely being able to keep my eyes open, and focus on anything. The doctor said I would be rushed next door to the emergency room. Tears began to run down my face in fear of what could happen. I hadn’t had the best experiences with emergency rooms in the past two years, taking in account that I’d paid the nurses there “quite a few visits.”

I arrived and was placed into a wheel chair. I was rushed to a room and layed there on the stretcher bed as they began to hand me the strongest type of Tylenol they had. After laying there for close to two hours, I had to have a CAT scan. My body was layed on a small “stretcher” and went into a machine that took pictures of my head. Doctors came to the conclusion that I had feared since the beginning. I had suffered a concussion, a closed head injury. The headaches could last for weeks, and the doctors spoke the words I was hoping not to hear: “Looks like the season is done for you, kid.” They began to explain what could have happened to me if I didn’t have the helmet on. All of this was from serious falls on a bunny hill with a helmet; they explained after the first fall, I would have been out and completely unconscious, and if I would have continued and been lucky enough to not have been unconscious, I could have died. Who knew snowboarding was this dangerous? Out of this experience, all I have to be lucky for is that I was wearing a helmet.

China's Food Safety

China needs to pay closer attention to it's countries food safety and inspection because "tainted milk" should not be an issue.

Recently, China had another scare with tainted milk products currently on the market. As you may remember, in 2008 there was an issue with the tainted milk, or a trace of something harmful in the products. More than 300,000 fell sick and six children died. So as you may think, when traces of tainted milk were recently found on the market, people must of started to worry, along with China's food safety department and dairy product companies.

For those of you who don't agree with my take on this, if China promised "changes for the country's food safety" after the 2008 scandal, why is this happening again? After the first issue, they promised us that this wouldn't happen again. Think, if you were a consumer of the milk, wouldn't you be afraid now? China needs to take action immediately and "crack down" on the health codes to prevent this. In my opinion, I find this unacceptable. People should not have to be concerned when they want a nice, cold glass of milk.

One thing I learned was how to construct an essay in our letter to Paul. I learned to establish pathos, which were ways to describe something with emotion. I developed a strong first paragraph explaining who I was, which made the UN, who I wrote to, want to keep reading. I was able to write a strong thesis statement, and convinced the UN why there help was needed immediately. This writing assignment was also one of my best, and I got an A- on it. I had good support paragraphs, and overall, felt that I learned a lot and how to write an essay/letter.
The weekly articles on the different countries caused me to struggle at first. Mr. Fielder taught us an important skill called Margin Noting helped me to understand the articles better. It also forced me to look up words in order to have a better understanding of the article. It seemed like the first or second time I would read a new article; I would have no clue what they were talking about. I learned that in order to understand an article, it could take some researching first. For the China weekly article, I wasn’t aware of a lot of the issues and had to take time to research before I would be close to writing my paragraph.
Looking back at the beginning of the year, the “First Day of School” memoir taught me a lot. When I read it now, I can see the progress I’ve made in my writing throughout the semester. I’ve learned that in order to create a well written paper or paragraph, it takes lot of effort, and in order to get the grade you want, you have to put in the time. This assignment taught me that in your writing, there’s always room for improvement. A paper can always be revised, and a second opinion is helpful when it comes to others proofreading it. I learned that it’s helpful to a reader and interesting when you can “paint a picture” in their mind with descriptive words.
Throughout all of our big projects and researching, I learned how to find a credible source. A credible source is a website where the information is trustworthy and reliable. For example, Wikipedia could be an excellent source in some cases. When you’re trying to learn an overall background on an issue, like in the South Africa project, Wikipedia could come in handy. But when you’re looking for research where you might need to quote it, you need a reliable source. A reliable source could be a website sponsored by the South African Government or Travel, like in our most recent project.
The Rwanda project was probably one of my favorite class assignments. There was a lengthy process and work we had to do to prepare for the class discussion. Understanding the whole genocide took a lot of work because most of us were not familiar with any of the issues that were occurring. We learned about the Hutu’s and Tutsi’s, as well as the identity cards. Working in groups made the project not as difficult because we were able to discuss with them. Finally, it led to the debate, which was a good, learning experience.

South Africa

All four of the colonies we learned about this semester have one issue in common; the way natives were treated, viewed and discriminated against was the same throughout all. In the United States, natives were treated poorly and viewed as “savages.” Next, in Australia, natives were mistreated, and the goal of the British was to change the culture of the natives. They began to lose parts of their culture because of the British. One event in South Africa was a big protest by black natives. Many of them were murdered, or sentenced to life in prision. Those native women caught were treated roughly.

A majority of them had to deal with the issue of slavery. All of the colonies besides Rwanda incorporated the use of natives as slaves into their labor. When the British came to South Africa, they did not allow natives to be used as slaves. Natives were also “pushed” off the land they originally settled upon. The colonies all separated the land so that natives and white Europeans weren’t living together in South Africa. They also lost their rights as people. They had to obey by laws like the Apartheid in South Africa. So as you can see, the way of life of a native was not always easy.