Getting back on that bike...

Sorry my devoted readers, that I have deprived you of my deep insights for so long, but alas I am back! So far I have been pondering the existence of prejudice... and it seems that I will never be able to escape it. Today, I set out to help change the world and single-handedly set a world record (with 2600 other people). While I was there, I noticed a large amount of people who were incapable of not talking for not even two minutes while the announcer fellow tried to explain what to do. These obnoxious kids continued to talk and scream throughout the whole orientation with absolutely no care for anyone else. One lady next to me finally yelled at the kids and told them to be quiet. Of course this only aggravated the kids more and they began to yell back at the lady to my side. Eventually the kids began to mellow out and continue to listen to what the announcer was saying, but they were far from done with bothering everyone in the stadium. After we finally set the record, one particularly loud mouthed kid decided to spit in the woman's daughter's face from before. At first I couldn't believe what happened. No, I knew that didn't happen. Unfortunately it did though. Acts like these make me EXTREMELY aggravated. I have never wanted to punch a girl in the face more than I did that day. Normally I don't understand why adults are so prejudiced towards teenagers, but when I see something like this happen, I can't be surprised.
Actions like I witnessed today are what stays in adults minds. I can hardly blame them for yelling "you damn kids" whenever I walk by anymore. Oh well I suppose that is going to be my rant for today.... deuces

North- Central Africa...

So far our collaborative essay dealing with child soldiers is doing very well. As of right now we are working on a few minor revisions and just making sure that everything we have works well together. Throughout our research we have come across some very startling realizations, such as the fact that nearly 90% of the soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army are children. Also small militias aren't the only groups that use children in their armies. The government also is known to use children in their fights. In fact the Ugandan People's Defense Force has an average age of 15 for their soldiers. Also we have been unable to find nearly any information dealing with help for this problem. There are some smaller organizations, but it appears as if there is no help being provided from other countries. Well as far as we have been able to see there doesn't appear to be any at least.

Prejudice In North-Central Africa?

As you may or may not know, our group has begun to research the abuse of rights on innocent children in Africa. The majority of this maltreatment is due to small militias that are constantly murdering and assaulting villagers in small towns. I was wondering why these vagabonds would possibly commit the terrible crimes. I remembered a movie I saw last year called Hotel Rwanda, this movie is based off of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. The Hutu soldiers are murdering many Tutsi civilians. It is beyond me how someone can kill based on small differences between people. I am unsure of whether or not this is similar to what is occurring now in Congo, Darfur, and Sudan. What really bothers me is the politics behind these atrocities. In Rwanda, the UN was unable to intervene in the genocide and stop the insanity. Now, the murders in Darfur and Sudan often go unheard.

Blog for this week... Take 2

Well I'm pretty sure I messed up my first blog for this week, so I'm going to try it again... Our group has decided that we are going to focus on children's rights in Africa. So far we have found quite a few countries that suffer from child abductions, even forcing these abducted children to fight in small militia's. Many times these children are taken from these militias and are attempted to be returned home. Unfortunately many of these children's homes are located in war-zones, so shortly after being returned they are often abducted again, or killed. Another large problem is that these militias are the cause of hundreds of senseless murders, many of which take place in remote, hard-to-reach areas. In these areas, the only way for help to arrive is via helicopter, and they often arrive too late to make a difference. So far we have barely scratched the surface of this disturbing topic, and we can already see how terrible of a situation it is. Hopefully we will be able to uncover more information soon to help make sense of all of these problems...

Newfound Minority

I came across an article thanks to Elizabeth earlier that has really helped open my eyes about how different our customs can be compared to other countries. A white, female student described her adventures in India. She first described how she has never really thought about her race or sex. In America it is often a taboo subject to bring these things up. She continues to describe how when she is walking around India, she is often stared at. Not glanced at, but actually stared at. The main reason behind all of this staring is because in India, it isn't considered rude to openly stare at another person. Also the author was surprised by how open the people were about what questions they asked. Often times she was asked "are you married; when will you get married; and which religion are you". Normally that is not something that we ask in America, so it was rough for her to transition and adjust to these more open questions. All of these differences just help to further the authors original conclusion that she is a minority there. It's interesting to see the differences in cultures around the world and how differently people behave.

Even Babies See Races

A researcher at the University of Texas has conducted a study with controversial results. Birgitte Vittrup began her study in 2006, and began testing Caucasian children to see how they judge people of other races and skin colors. She began her research on 5 to 7 year old children and asked the children how nice people of different colors are. She then broadened her testing to children as young as six months. As impossible as it may seem she gathered viable information from testing the babies. She showed the babies pictures of people's faces of different races, then monitored how long the babies stared at picture. To her surprise the babies would stare longer at the faces of people who were of a different race than the baby. Vittrup continued her study with older children by handing them a deck of cards with people's faces drawn on them, and told the children to organize them in any way they would like. Only 16% of them organized the faces by gender. But 68% of the kids organized the cards based on the color of their skin. This just shows that children at such a young age are not nearly as color-blind as most adults expect.

Better to "laugh at" than "be" laughed at?

Lets face the facts, no one likes to be the butt of someone else's joke, but is it better to be on the other end making fun of someone? While there may be many perks to making fun of innocent little kids, such as fitting in with the cool kids, or helping feel better about yourself, it isn't necessarily better. A great man once said "that which does not kill you, only makes you stronger." This is a very true statement, the child being made fun of can grow compassionate because he is often made fun of, and help others in similar situations. Also it takes a great amount of courage to dress how you want, or to behave how you do, regardless of what the other people say. On the other hand, it takes nothing to go along with the main-stream group and make fun of someone. In conclusion I believe it is better to be made fun of than to make fun of others. Like I previously stated, anyone can make fun of others, but it takes a lot of courage to be able to take a joke.