Climate Change forces Eskimos to abandon village

Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/04/24/climate.change.eskimos/index.html

‘ Climate change” forces Eskimos to abandon village

 

At least one Eskimo in Alaska are forced to move to a safer ground due to flooding.  The community voted to relocate 340 residents to new homes 9 miles away, up the Niglick River. This village was the home to Yup’ik Eskimos, and possibly the first communities that are in threat of being abandoned. The rise in temperatures caused the ice shelves to move. The ice shelves acted as natural barriers to protect the village. The United Nations Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change estimated that the climate change crisis will displace 150 million people by 2050. Stanley Tom, the Yup’ikn Eskimo and tribal administrator for the newtok Traditional council said that his ancestors have been living in the region for centuries and that the land was source of food, and that if they moved to another country, they would not be able to survive. The estimated cost for moving Newtok would cost $130 million, and six other Alaskan villages are in danger.

 Although it is mostly the villagers who are involved in this article, the whole world is involved in global warming, and should take responsibilities from it. These Eskimos will have to deal with lots of problems on their environment change. They lived off their land, and it would be a great challenge for them to start their new lives in a different region. As global warming is a problem in every parts of the world, there are different issues in each part of the countries, and global warming is making bad changes to the usual routine that people followed until now. People lived off what they had around them, and was always used to how things were, but now global warming is having affecting on their everyday lives.  It would still be a problem 5 years later, because it was also a problem 5 years ago, and we would possibly have to face worse situations if we do not do something right now. More and more Eskimos will have to move, and would cost a lot of money, works, and it would be very hard for the villagers to get used to their new environment.

 Global warming is definitely affecting me directly. The weathers are changing, and a lot of people will get sick if there was any sudden big change in our climate. I also think that it is very sad how the villagers have to move to a different region, and leave the places that they have lived for years. Later on, people who live in Hong Kong might have to move somewhere else due to the climate change, and that would create lots of chaos and require lots of money. I wouldn’t be able to get used to the new environment like now, because everything will be happening so fast (the climate and the change of where I live in). I found this article quite interesting because it describes how global warming is having a big impact on us and it shows that we should definitely do something to help the situation. Right now there are a lot of posters and flyers being sent out that tells us that we should stop the global warming, and schools also teach students about these issues, but even if people understood what is going on, it is hard for them to feel what it would be like later on if we didn’t do any significant actions. So they tend to feel that it is not very important. I think we should help people realize how serious global warming is, and figure out a way to make everyone understand how terrible global warming can be.  

Please comment about how you feel about these issues..

Racist targets city beauty Queen

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/8007659.stm

" Racist targets city beauty queen"

I have written about my thoughts toward racism, and I understand that this is a sensitive topic, so please do not leave any mean comments about this issue. 

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A Nigerian-born Miss York, Helen Lawal, age 23, from Pickering was threatened in a phone call to the event organizer Vivienne Lee. The man that called Miss Lee told her that there shouldn’t be a black person representing York and would get “all of them”.  Both Miss Lee and Miss Lawal were surprised and shocked to hear this phone call. Miss Lawal did not encounter any racism since living in Pickering. Miss Lawal will go through the grand final of Miss England 2009 on July 20^th.

 

This shows that racism is a significant issues, as it even exists in multi-cultural events like this. People who get bullied because of their Race would be hurt, and the pain won’t be easily forgotten. They would feel bad about their identity and lost their confidence. They would also always keep in mind (consciously or non-consciously) that people would look at them different because of their race, and it would be hard to have a good self esteem.   Racist bullying has been going on for quite a while, and these days people try not to show it as much, because they would be considered as a Racist, but it is definitely still going on. This would still be a problem 5 years later because the time does not really matter to racism. It would probably would be better as people have easier access to other cultures and think more globally, but it would take time for them to actually accept different races without feeling any wall between them.

 

This doesn’t have a big impact on me as I have not been bullied with my race. I did find some minor teasing and name-callings but they were the ones I could deal with, and weren’t very serious. I also knew how to deal with it and it never happened again. If I were ever bullied, then I would be deeply hurt and would be depressed. I wouldn’t feel confident about myself, and not show myself easily. I might also fear meeting people. I chose this article because I think it showed that racisms still exists in events like the beauty contest. When I was reading this article, I was relating it to the discrimination issues that we were talking about during English and Humanities class and the books I have read about racism, which helped me understand more about the ways these people feel who are racist bullied. Since I go to an international school, we rarely see racism, but I notice that many students tend to hang out with the students with the same race. It could be because there is less culture difference, but also could be an example of minor racism, just without the violence or any significant actions. This is a very sad issue, and as a citizen of Hong Kong and the world, I feel that if I see any racist bullying happening, I should try and help to stop the bullying. 

7th human swine flu case confirmed

Link to this article: http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/090524/html/090524en05002.htm

7^th human swine flu case confirmed

 

The Center of Health Protest has confirmed the seventh H1N1 influenza A case in Hong Kong. The patient is a 21-year-old Hong Kong student studying in the US, who flew from Seoul to Hong Kong in May 22. She had a fever on May 23, and was confirmed to have the virus the next day. She was sent to Princess Margaret Hospital. Her family was tested, and was found negative, and her traveling companion is in the United Christian Hospital for more tests. The center was able to indentify 70 percent of the fifth and sixth swine flu patients’ close contacts, and also requested the students who are studying overseas that have symptoms of swine flu to not return back to Hong Kong until they recovered.

 

 The flu patient and her close contacts are the ones that are the ones who are significantly involved in this issue, but it basically involves all the people in Hong Kong. It also involves the people all around the world, because the flu is currently in a lot of countries. This case has a big impact on all the people who are living in Hong Kong, because it increases the chances for the swine flu to spread. I think this is going to impact long term, until they find a cure for H1N1. Until then, people would be taking medicines or other treatment that only weakens the symptoms, but the symptoms won’t be completely gone. There probably won’t be swine flu after 5 years, but could be some sort of flu going around, which I think the cure for those flues would also be invented in certain amount of times.

This certainly has a big impact on me, because this flu is serious. If anyone close to me catches on swine flu, then I would have to be very careful about my hygiene. Also, if the number of swine flu cases keep on increasing, then the government will have to do something more to prevent it from spreading. If any swine flu case was found in our school, then the school will probably have to close for the time being. I think it is understandable that the government is being cautious about swine flu, although it is found to be not as serious as it was expected. It is a good thing that they are sterilizing handlebars and doorknobs. But I don’t think they have to overreact, because then people would think it is more serious that it really is, and would create more unnecessary chaos and fears.

This is the link to the article "Child Drugging Nurse Sentence Cut" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/north_east/8016263.stm

Nurse Sarah Braidwood, age 28, risked a two-year-old’s life by giving the child drugs that could be life- threatening in November 2006. She was at first sentenced to be in jail for 5 years, but the Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh reduced it to 4 years. Nurse Braidwood was found to feed the child dihydrocodeine, and when the nurses looked in, the child was choking and vomiting. The police found that the nurse had used a spoon to crush the tablets in her bag.

 

 Not much people were involved in this issue, but who know what the nurse would do after she gets out of jail? This is probably not the only case that a doctor or a nurse has given the child wrong drugs, whether or not it is on purpose. The baby could have died from the nurse’s crime, and if the nurse managed not to get caught, she possibly could have done worse things. This issue doesn’t have a direct connection to the time that it happened, and it would probably happen even after five years. It could be murder attempts using some other methods.

 

This issue doesn’t affect me directly at all, but I certainly think that it is a terrible and a cruel thing. If this ever happened to me, or someone close to me, (although I cannot possibly dare to imagine that this would ever happen to me) I would feel horrible and probably wouldn’t want to go to a hospital again. It would not only affect me physically, as in my health, but I wouldn’t dare to go to a hospital, and would always doubt on any sort of medicine I take. I chose this article because I was horrified of this attempted murder and wanted to share the news. I think this is really unfair for the child and should never happen again. 

Current Events

Hello Everyone,

I'm going to be posting some current event articles as part of our Eng/Hum assignment.

Plz comment your thoughts about these issues. 

Thank you!

SKYBLUEHOLIC

Skyblueholic's fav : Books

Hello!!! Its wednesday already... and we the aerobics performance is tomorrow!!!

Here are the books I like (ill add more if I think of something new)

- Stanford Wong Flunks big time (by Lisa Yee)

- Twilight Series: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn (by Stephanie Meyer)
- Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief (by Rick Riordan

- First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover (by Mitali Perkins)

- Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac (by Garielle Zevin)

- Elsewhere (by Gabrielle Zevin)

XOXO,
Skyblueholic

Skyblueholic's fav : Colors

Hi there,

These are my fav colors:

1. Skyblue

2. Silver

3. Mint Green

4. Hot pink (I know the font isn't exactly hot pink but..)

5. RAINBOW!!

XOXO,

SKYBLUEHOLIC