Non-Compassionate Response (and Rant) to Dying to Tell a Story Documentary

Recently, my creative writing journalism class watched a documentary on a journalist, Dan Eldon, who was killed while in Somalia. It mostly related to conflict in Somalia around 1993 or so, but still managed to centralize on his sister uncovering more about her brother's death. Sure, it was a tragedy, but nonetheless, it was depressing. Living in America immediately makes one all the more privileged than other people in Somalia or Egypt, for instance. So when a person sees tragedy like that flashed on TV and everyone is supposed to sympathize, I guess it may come natural... at first it's easy, but over time I find it hard.

Today in AP, I had to watch a documentary about slavery in Haiti that still continues today. It wasn't the first documentary I had to watch about horrible things happening to poverished people. Growing up in love with Time Warner cable, the shows I constantly watched were flooded with commercials that had old white men holding poverished Africans and wanting my help, sympathy, and donations. Now, it's the same thing, but no one wants money this time, but change. I may sound heartless, but seeing these horrible things happen to regular people just eventually made me so desensitized. It's like my mind powers down when I have to watch those kinds of things in class, I just don’t feel a thing. I'm uninterested. I'm unmotivated. There's nothing I can do to help the Haitians who have to pick sugarcanes for the rest of their lives or the Egyptians who have an incorrigible ruler. All I can do is watch something on TV that doesn't and probably never will apply to me. I have no desire to travel abroad and document things like that. I have no desire to even watch the news nowadays, except for the temperature.

I think it's a shame that those kinds of things have to happen, but I am just so jaded and malcontent with everything, my viewing experiences simply don't even matter unless I have to do something like this. Besides, there’s something disturbing in every documentary I've noticed that makes me just want to close my eyes tight and sleep for good. In every documentary, there is always a Caucasian male who travels to learn more about a subject, and on the way makes friends with the indigenous natives. They all smile, and hug, like everything is going to be alright, and then later the white man asks the audience for sympathy when it's one-on-one camera time. I find it disturbing, to be honest. Now I'm just in a full blown rant, but it kind of feels like white man guilt. Maybe I should delete that. Maybe I'm looking too much into documentaries that I prefer to not watch. I think it's better for cynical people like me to sleep through tragic things like that, than watch and have my mind be plagued with disturbing scenes from those documentaries.

I Hate Being a Teenager.

Quick Questions for illogical teens nowadays:

1. Did you ever believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, etc.? If so, when you found out, were you pissed at your parents for lying to you for so long?
2. Do you ever find yourself changing from career to career almost every week? And if so, why are you so f*cking indecisive?
3. Do you check underneath your bed or closet for monsters? When you're finished do you feel as much as a retard as I usually do?
4. Have you ever tried to read someone's mind when you're in a crowded place, but all you can hear is GOD telling you that you have no superpowers?
5. Have you ever shouted to the sky and asked "why God?" and have someone reply "why does it have to be your God?"
6. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE YOUR GOD?
7.  Have you ever gotten lost in a supermarket for like ten seconds, but as soon as you turned the corner, there are your parents not knowing shit about what just happened?
8. Did you know the Pisces fish are THE BEST F*CKING ZODIAC SIGN EVER.  Word.
9. Have you ever kissed someone with a mustache and afterward your upper lip felt really prickly for about thirty seconds?
9.5. Have you ever felt that school is just something old white people came up with to keep teenagers from causing trouble during the day?
10. Have you ever wanted to kidnap a baby and hold it for a few minutes then give it back to the mom, but then take it again when it's like eight and teach it everything you know about the world, then thrust it back to its other mom and hope for the best?

Outraged Citizen Rant: Graduation Statistics and Requirements

About five years ago, the statistics on Rochester, NY graduation requirements were revealed to be at an all time low. Only 5% of high school students met the requirement for graduation. It was the lowest percent out all of the cities, and being a Rochester high school citizen myself, it was quite embarrassing to know. The new superintendent of Rochester City School district, Jean-Claude Brizard, is making changes that will only make the graduation rate worse. According to various articles, he wants to raise the stands met for graduation. THAT WILL NOT FIX ANYTHING.

First of all, the graduation requirements are already hard to meet as it is. Average credits needed for graduation are 23.5. Here at my school, School of the Arts, the credits that are needed for a regents diploma are 22, and the standards for meeting that are much more vigorous than other states. To be exact, New York State has the toughest requirements to meet, so that puts a lot of pressure on student. So how do modern adults and educational providers expect students like myself or others around to me to meet all of these requirements with so much pressure?

It’s no secret the standards for graduation are much more intense and higher than ever. For instance, about a decade ago or so, a failing grade was a 55. Now, it’s a 64. Not only is that B.S. it's been upped almost ten points, but kids who fail at a mere 63 or 60 (like myself) have to retake a class all over again or opt for summer school. Some don't even bother and just put it past them.

Now some may say, "back in my day..." and so on about how school wasn't no big deal, but it seems that it was much easier to graduate and get into college back then. Why do so many requirements have to be met in the first place? Why do modern people expect every child can be manufactured into genius by force? Do they think every child is a savant just waiting to be exposed with a little push by six different teachers? DO they think all we need is motivation? Maybe some students aren’t cut out for the educational system. I’m not saying that in a “I’m stupid, I’ll drop out and do nothing with my life,” sort of way, but there are some people who aren’t book smart. Some people are meant to do other things with their time like something with television or traveling (just spitballing here) things that make living worth while. Not academic pursuits. I know some may say everyone needs to know about some aspects of life and common knowledge of the world, which is why school is there in the first place. I get that. But some aspects of it are just ridiculous.

For instance, why do educational providers believe that forty minutes per day of repetitive teaching can install knowledge in us? Why do they expect us to retain different amounts of information for a year, then on the final exam ace it, and become superior beings who will get into superior colleges? Maybe these educational board members should take a look at it from the students’ point of view. Maybe they should come to a city school like mine, be a student for a day, and see what we have to deal with. Meeting requirements day by day and retaining them in memories is a two-way street, I admit. But there are five different subjects with no relations at all and for some people it is just impossible to learn that way.

Speaking on personal experience here, when I received a 60 on the algebra exam last year, I had to go to summer school. I have to say it was one of the best learning experiences of my life. I had a great teacher who didn't try to pound numbers into my hard-wired head for forty minutes and expect me to remember tomorrow. It was a ninety-minute session of thorough teaching. In August, when I retook the exam, I got an 82. And I suck at algebra. So maybe it's not the students fault the graduation rates aren't so great. Maybe it's the teachers’ fault (not all of them, most of them). Maybe the methods being used and recycled for years just now aren't good for learning. (Although there are outside influences that can manipulate a students’ behavior, teachers are a big influence on whether one learns well or not). So if an individual who keeps failing eventually loses interest because they think it's no use, than they drop out. That’s the vicious cycle that continues in today’s educational system.

Now Brizard may have a point about the keeping students on track with college meetings and shorter student populations so there could be more help... but upping the requirements? When they are already high enough? It's bullshit. Pertaining to various articles, it seems he just wants the city school district to look as good as the other rich white areas, but what he's not understanding is Rochester is NOT A RICH WHITE SCHOOL, so making graduation requirements to model after it with a city population mostly composed of LOW TO MIDDLE CLASS URBAN STUDENTS, will only make things worse.

I'm not bashing the superintendent (intentionally), but only the policies and the changes he is trying to make aren’t right. I understand he wants change and thinks it’s necessary, but he is no Obama. He is no advocate of education. In my opinion, as the write of this article, it seems his decisions are very superficial. Although it is a travesty that gradation rates are like this, making requirements more difficult to reach won't make things better or easier for anyone.

Especially me.

Uncovering Truths: Tiananmen Square Tragedy and the Government's Influence

With the intensity of technology, it is almost scary to think of how easy it is for the government. ANY GOVERNMENT to cover up major things in history. For instance, when it came to the horrible earthquake in China, the government took the liberty of covering up the tragedy and hiding it from media, news, and the next generations to come. It's as if the incident never happened. It's literally a smack in the face to survivors and relatives of the deceased. Why the government chooses to cover up tragic things like this is something one could never understand.

One would be quick to say it's because of the money. Politicians and other government officials are probably in a position to gain as much money as possible and never let go of it. If word got out how the government didn't give money to build better buildings for school children, and that money went in their pockets instead, not only would it make the Chinese government look horrible, but the government people might lose their jobs, homes, and respect. It's a thought to consider if you look on the other side of it, but is that worth for the lives lost in the horrible earthquake?

To let alone cover up a natural disaster, to cover up censorship for the sake of protecting one's own name--- or even to say one's own country in the light of disaster... it's a heavy thought that can trouble even the simplest souls at night. Being able to speak one's thoughts about anything is a freedom that is protected right in America, but sadly not everywhere else. Will that ever change? Will every country provide rights for all of its citizens? Or will countries keep ignoring natural humane rights and keep covering up (questionably prevented) tragedies such as the 1989 Tiananmen earthquake? It is sad to say that one will never know in this lifetime.

Egyptian Response: My Interpretation

The uproar in Egyptians society is upsetting. The turmoil in that particular country has drifted over to America, by news coverage and media. There has been an inflation of media that cannot be reduced or returned back to normal since nearly anyone can record and post something for the world to see. it is impossible for Egyptian turmoil to be ignored, or any country in turmoil--- at all. Unless one were to hide in a cave for the rest of their lives and dedicate themselves to be hunter and gatherers (probably not) thus, there will always been a brewing of technological information that ties countries together, but the essential question to ask: will any country ever have private news? Will there ever be news that just belongs to one country and not covered by the whole world? No. NO. Because it is a person's right to know about their country! It's a human right for a person to know if a country's resources are to intact if theirs alright. Totally. Until then, America and other countries will have to wait until the media and news coverage lets us know if Egypt has sufficed with their battle as well.

HIV Blog: My Thoughts

Pertaining to the article, that regards decreasing HIV infections... it is a relatively good thing to know that improvements are being made in the reduction of humane infectious diseases, especially one so life threatening like HIV, which can ultimately progress into AIDS and kill that person if left untreated. In Africa and other neighboring countries, HIV infection is very high and also has a high mortality rate, but in the last twenty years infections have gone down to almost 50%. Learning this new information from said article was an insightful thing to know and think about in spare time--- to reminisce about the days when HIV was all the hype. In the 80's, when millions were becoming infected and diagnosed, back then, HIV was a death sentence. Now with new medications and being aware of safe sex, safe birth practices, and using clean needles, HIV transmission had been reduced, and hopefully, it can be reduced to a level where the world has combated and eradicating the vicious disease once and for all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world/africa/24infect.html?_r=1