Sunday 15 June 2014

Sitting On a Bench





   My visit to the park was tremendous. It was the perfect day to visit a park since the weather was beautiful. It was both hot and sunny which made the visit a bit amazing. It was around four o’clock when my friends and I both went to the park. We had to walk down the trail for about five minutes. There were trees, bushes and flowers all around us making the view breathtaking. I was on a journey looking for adventure searching for a bench.  As we were walking through the trail, we saw a little pond or I think it looked more like a ditch with water than a pond with some life form in it. The ground was pure wet from the night before which was raining. It made the trip a bit uncomfortable since I could feel the water and mud going into my shoes which made my feet wet. As we approached further and further into the trail, we couldn’t see a single bench in site. At that point I was disappointed since the trip to the park would have been a waste. As we kept on walking further and further in the trail we came upon stairs. Then we decided to walk all the way to the top and it wasn’t easy since the rain from yesterday made the stairs a bit slippery. As we walked up the stairs, it gave me an amazing view of the park. It was such a tremendous scene. At last we came to the top of the stairs .There we saw three benches all aligned up perfectly with one another to a beautiful scene. I came upon to a bench which said “John Warner April 1923- July 1964”. I chose this bench because it was interesting in how the family and friends have dedicated this bench to this person. I believe this person must have been really important to his friends and relatives as he done something great to have a whole bench dedicated to him. To show my appreciation and my respect to this person, I’ve chose this bench as a way for me to show how much respect I have for people who have benches dedicated to them. Also to show that people who have benches dedicated to them will not be forgotten. I believe it’s a big way for family members and friends to show that their loved one is getting the attention they need and deserve. As I sit on the bench which I have chosen, I could both feel and hear many things around me. It gives me a sense of pride when I’m sitting on bench that is dedicated to a person that must have been important to a family. When I sit on the bench it gave me a great view of the city around me. It’s as almost as if I could see the world. Since my bench is located on a higher ground, it gave a great bird’s eye view of the city. I could see the different types of buildings all stand up tall like a giant, the waves in the bay, the bridge which connects the cities and cars lined up traveling both ways from Vancouver to North Vancouver.  I could see the different kinds of roads which all leading in different kind of pathways.It made me realize how my English teacher was correct about roads which symbolizes one’s life. Roads can represent ones attitude, ideals and hopes about life and the journey of life and on howmany possibilities there are. It is interesting how going down different types of path can have a meaning on how one chooses to live a life. For example when one chooses to take the straight road means that one’s trying to live life as easily as possible while the one that’s taking rocky roads means that there are obstacles around that person which they will need to overcome. But as I sat on that bench and saw a great view of the roads and the different pathways it lead to, I understood those meanings in a figurative and metaphoric  way and I come to realize how one’s life  they have different choices on the way they want to live. From the bench, I could see a great view of the park. I could see the different types of trees and bushes, with the sun shining down on my face. At this point, I actually wanted to have my drawing book and just wanted to paint this extraordinary scene. After a while, both myself and my friend walked down the stairs, and walked down the trail where my so called journey of finding a bench ends. 




     If a bench was ever dedicated to me, I would like my inscription on the plate to say "treat the ones you love with care and respect". It is just a saying that I always thought of and I also want other people to think like that too. I believe that every single soul that reads my inscription should be able to understand it because it is intended to show them how important the people who are close to me. There are times during life when one dose not realizes how important their loved ones are until there is an issue where such as ones ego gets in the way or is gone. Maybe that person doesn’t realize it yet, but at least in time they might regret how they treated that person and how realize how much they love them. I believe that people do not realize how important their loved ones are until complications occur between them like an argument or a fight. I’m hoping that after someone reading my inscription, at least one person would learn something from it and hopefully will not a make the mistake on how they treat their loved ones and they will realize how important their loved ones are.





     There are many purposes to a park. There are different kinds of parks for different kinds of purposes. National parks have large areas with beautiful landscapes, plants and animals. It’s just a great for people who enjoy the outdoors the most and who like to adventure around. These kinds of parks are great way for those who appreciate the outdoors the most and for people who mostly love nature. Regional parks, which are mostly located near big population, are for the natural beauty, the historic interests and recreational fun and cultural opportunities. These parks are great for tourists who want to enjoy the fun. I believe it’s a great way to get to know both the history and the society of one’s country. Theses parks are usually intended to attract tourists and it’s usually under the control of the local government. Community parks also known as neighbourhood parks which are located all over in a community. It’s a place where families, friends and kids spend some time together. These kinds of parks usually have small gardens, playgrounds, and etc for people to enjoy. I believe it’s a great place for families to get together and bond. When I was young kid, I always enjoyed the visits to these parks with my family. It was a place where I always played sports, did fun activities like play tag and I always looked forward to the next visit. When I think about it now, visiting these kinds of parks is one of my childhood memories. Actually visiting parks would always be childhood memory for anyone. It’s just something a person or a child would never forget. Another purpose of parks is to remember people from the past. It can be soldiers, famous celebrities, heroes of one’s country, star athletes and etc. They can be remembered in any kind of way in a park. It can be on benches, statues, or they could have a tree in there honour. For example Stanley Park in Vancouver has hundreds of benches, which are in honour by one’s family and friends. It’s just a way to show how much they loved that person. There are also statues and gardens for those forgotten people. I believe it’s a great way to attract people to a park. One would learn on how important the person was and have a great view of the scene on how that’s person wants to be remembered. Some parks have attractions such as aquariums, swimming pools such as in Stanley Park. Another purpose of a park is just a place where you go to relax. One would just forget about all the problems in their life and just enjoy the peaceful time in the park.




     If I could dedicate a bench to anyone I would like the inscription on the bench to say “I will rise
and stand even more tall
. This quotes is from a poem called “Rise” which is written by Sagar Yaday that inspired me. I came upon this poem when I was researching a topic for this bench project and as I read this poem, it gave a much greater meaning of life and to live it. It inspired me on how I can overcome tough challenges in my life and how I can better myself. The great thing about this inscription is that one it would make one think about life and it should better my understanding on how to live it. As they read both the first and the last line of the poem on the bench, it should give them a good understanding about life. It should inspire a person to overcome all the challenges they face in life and to show how challenges in life shape you. I believe that all people, at least at one point of their life question themselves what is the meaning of life? Life is journey and it is what you make it. 


Rising // Rise

I will rise
After every fall 
I will rise
and stand even more tall 

I will rise
over the wall 
I will rise
above them all 

Like the sun
which never dies
though sets every night
every day it does rise 

Like the ocean
whose tides
many times they are down
but invariably they rise 

Like the trees
from seeds they arise
and heights great
they rise and rise 

After falling once,
twice and thrice
Again and again
I will rise and rise 

I will rise
after every fall 
After every fall
I will rise


By Sagar Yaday

Poem About My Bench

In the Bench of my mind
I feel the bench on my behind
How do I do this math question?
Soon I will sit here again 

Friday 6 June 2014

Honour Killing in Pakistan

 
      In Lahore, Pakistan on May 27th,2014, a pregnant woman was stoned to death by her family. She was killed while she was on her way to court for the abduction case her family filed against her husband. Immediately after the crime, the woman’s father was arrested for the murder charges. Arranged marriages are in the norm in the South Asian region, where “honour killings” are carried out by relatives as a punishment for adultery. The death of this woman took place in front of a busy court house in downtown. The public stoning was in front of many onlookers in broad daylight. The slain women Farzana Parveen who was 25, married against her family’s wish to Mohammad Iqbal who is 45. The woman’s father filed an “abduction case” which the couple fought. Around 20 of Parveen’s relatives waited outside of the courthouse to snatch her from Iqbal. When she resisted, her family beat her with bricks. The father “killed [his] daughter because she insulted all of [his] family” for marrying a man without his permission. He has no regret for doing this act.


     I can relate to the story because arranged marriages are high on my dad’s side of the family. There has not been any “honour killing” in my family but there has been disapproval for my dad marrying another race. In a world of rapid progression, it is disgusting this kind of stuff still happens. The father has no regrets for killing his own daughter. It is not acceptable to kill someone for marrying without their consent. It does not make sense that it is degrading to marry someone your love, but it is acceptable with your family’s reputation to murder your own offspring. There have been over 869 honour killings in Pakistan alone. The worst thing is that most of the crimes are often given light sentences. The world is progressing there is no room for outdated traditions. 


Racism in the NBA



       Donald Sterling said he will not pay 2.5 million fines for his racist comments about Magic Johnson. On April 25, 2014 a recording of Donald Sterling was released saying to his mistress that she should not associate with black people and not  bring them to games. Several weeks after his racist comments, Donald had an interview with CNN where he personally attacks Magic Johnson. The commissioner Adam Sterling said he is trying to get rid of Sterling as quick as possible as he is “cancerous” to the league. The coach of the clippers, Doc Rivers, said he will not work for the team next season if Sterling is still head of the team. Many sponsors had dropped from the clippers organization such as State Farm.



        Donald Sterling seems to be a delusional man living back in the stone ages. His views on people should not be acceptable anymore. It was ironic that he was going to receive the lifetime achievement from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP). It is disappointing that this has been the main story of one of the best playoffs of my recent memory. I am glad that he will be banned for life from the NBA, but he will make over a billion dollars from the sale of the Clippers. He is making a large sum of money from being racist which should not make sense. In a league where over 70% of the players are of African descent, I do not know why he would want to be part of the NBA. He is the owner of a team in Los Angles, a city where most of the fans are minorities. This is a good way for not having people come to your games. Donald Sterling has tarnished the reputation of the NBA and he does not represent the values of what an owner should have. He had previously reports of racism and the league did not do anything to him. This has been Adam Silvers first true test of being the commissioner of the league and seems to be handling it well. “NAACP forgives, I don’t”- Adam Silver


E-Cigarettes future

       In London on May 29th 2014, 53 leading scientist have warned the World Health Organization to not classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products. Scientists see this as a major decrease in diseases and deaths caused by smoking. The scientist say that e-cigarettes are “part of the solution,” not a part of the problem for fighting smoking. A total of 178 countries would be obliged to follow these rules and would restrict demands to e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery powered cartridges which produces nicotine vapour to help get the need of nicotine. Within the past two years the industries boomed with 3 billion in sales in 2013.  E-cigarettes are controversial due to the fact that they are new to the market. There have not been any long term studies of the health on people caused by e-cigarettes.


        E-cigarettes only contain nicotine to help to fight the need to smoke. By giving restriction to these products, it will put many lives at risks. Many people who have used these thought quitting smoking was not an option, but with e cigarettes it is. Many people in the world smoke a pack a day to keep up with their smoking addiction. Using e cigarettes is a good way to stop these addictions. There will not be anymore rancid smells from smokes and no more butts on the floor if everyone switches to e-cigarettes. 

The French Rail Road Mistake

         French Rail Road company ordered 2000 wrong sized trains for their platforms. The company SNCF in France said on May 20th 2014 that 2000 trains for the regional network were too wide for the tracks. They figured out this problem but it is too late and “[they] will accept responsibility” for their actions.  They ordered the wrong trains when faulty dimensions were giving by the RFF.  The RFF gave dimensions on platforms that were made thirty years ago, but over 1200 were built more than 50 years ago. The cost for reconstructions of the old play forms is estimated around $110 millions. The French transport minister Frederic Cuvillier blamed it on an “absurd rail system”, where the rail system is operated by the RFF and the users are the SNCF.


          It’s funny that one little mistake can lead to millions of dollars going to waste.  This is why you should always double check your work. There are now 2000 useless trains that will have the rail system being built around them now. On the bright side, now all of the platforms across the country will finally be the same size. Simple measurements can mess up everything. This reminds me of the time when NASA engineers built the Mars orbiter using imperial measurements but it was in metric. Next time I buy something by accident I will just think at least i did not order 2000 useless trains. 

Obesity on the Climb

      As of May 28th, 2014 early a third of the world has expanded its waist line. Almost 30 percent of people on earth are overweight; this rounds out to 2.1 billion people. All over the world, obesity rates have increased. In developed worlds, the obesity rate for men is higher than is for women. The opposite is true in developing countries where women’s obesity rates are higher. The obesity rate has risen nearly 50 percent since 1980. Within 1980-2013, no country has been successful in decreasing obesity rates. Notably, higher rates have been found in the Middle East and North Africa among girls.


      It’s a strange world where over 700 million people are starving while another 2.1 billion people are overweight.  There is a big gap in inequality of people around the world. The food around the world has become more calorie dense than the food of before. People are most likely to get fat when they eat as they desire. It makes sense that obesity rates are higher in areas where people cannot afford healthy foods. It will cost nearly twice as much to eat healthy than eating processed and premade frozen foods. There is a point where an individual is in control of their own health, there should be a system where it helps to curb the prices of junk food. I think junk food in the future will be the equivalent of smoking where we know it causes many diseases and the price will be higher. We are just another two thirds away from becoming a civilization similar to Wall-E, where people are everyone is obese and immobile. 

http://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/
http://www.med-health.net/Fast-Food.html

The Popes Visit to the Middle East

          Pope Francis, on May 24th 2014 , visited the Middle East in the hopes of improving relations between religions and easing tensions in the Middle East.  He was welcomed by the Jordan King, Abdullah II and he stretched the urge for solution of the Syrian Conflict. Jordan is the host of almost 600,000 people who are fleeing from the Syrian conflict. The pope called for more respect for “religious freedom” as it is a “fundamental human right”.  He will begin his two day travel within the West Bank and Israel. The pope will be accompanied by his friends from Argentina who is a rabbi and an imam. He does this to help improve relationships between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Holy land. Pope Francis will be the fourth leader of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Jerusalem.


          Regardless of your beliefs, it is beautiful to see people in the world to help improve relationships between religions. Pope Francis is genuine person who appeals to everyone. Pope Francis is the type of person you want to be the head of a religion because he is accepting of everyone. No matter what religion, gender, or sexual orientation, Pope Francis cares. If everyone was like him and respected one another, there would be no conflicts. It does not matter what religion you are into, but what matters is how you tolerate others. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-27551843
Picture http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/14/pope-francis-doctrine-emphasis-poverty

High School Genius

          On May12th 2014, A 15 year old student found a new cheaper way to test whether a person HIV. Nicole Ticea is the 15 year old grade 10 student who goes to York house School in Vancouver. She has devolved a way for users to place a drop of blood on a chip and receiver near instantaneous results of whether you are infected with HIV or not.  It is said to be as simple as having a pregnancy test. The way to track HIV is to amplify the virus which will show a negative result on an antibody test.  Doing this made her win first place in the BC 2014 Regional Sanofi BioGENEius Challange. In places where HIV thrives, it is difficult to test for HIV in labs, but this could lead to a major breakthrough.

          This shows that students my age are able to make big breakthroughs in sciences. A girl who is three years younger than me is able to discover a way to detect HIV. If these tests are true, there should be more money invested into it. This has the potential to save many lives. It is amazing that someone who is a few years younger than me is able to do this. It just shows no matter what age you are, you can accomplish anything. Hopefully this will casue less people to have HIV which can lead to happier lives.

Picture and story

The Future of the Internet

     Google has plans to build 180 satellites around the world to spread internet access. They will launch “small, high capacity” satellites which will go into low orbit. It will provide internet connection to areas without any connection. Google may double the amount of satellites if this proves to be a success. It is estimated to cost around 1 billion to 3 billion. These satellites will most likely to pay for themselves. This seems to be an extension of project loon where they launch balloons into rural areas which give off internet access. The satellites will provide access for a wide region will project loon will handle places with greater demand.


     This is a huge step to making the world connected to one another. In theory we should be able to get internet anywhere. All of the satellites will be spread out which means more internet access everywhere; this will cause a global society. An internet system which is truly global will be one of the biggest booms to humanity any business could grant. Google can give internet to anybody, which means that countries such as Turkey, and China, where they censored the internet, would have no control.  People have the freedom to surf the World Wide Web without worrying about what websites they go on. 

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/01/google-making-internet-satellites/ 
Picture http://www.spacetoday.org/Satellites/YugoWarSats.html

Censorship In China

      Annually, the Chinese government tries to block foreign media a couple weeks before the anniversary of the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. This year is the 25th anniversary of the Tianamen Sqaure massacre.  The professional networking site with 300million users, LinkedIn in China, has been censoring anything related to the Tiananmen massacre. Reports of references to it being blocked can be found inside mainland and outside of China.  The LinkedIn’s management does this because of “the specific requirements within China to block certain content.”  The concept that is unclear is that they censored the content in Hong Kong as well. Hong Kong is territorially a part of China, but it is under the “one country, two system,” regulation where it allows freedom of speech, press and publication under Hong Kong Law.


     The internet should be a free place where you should be able to post anything you want. Places, like China, use censorship to hide the truth from the public.  This story is another example of what censorship does to people. Google back in 2010 has removed its search engine from China because they did not want to deal with the China’s censorship and privacy demands. Governments like these try to hide what happened because they are scared of the power of the internet. If you look back at the Arab spring, their main weapon was the internet; they posted what they can to show us what was happening around the world. 




http://qz.com/216691/linkedin-is-censoring-posts-about-tiananmen-square-even-outside-mainland-china/
Picture http://sites.psu.edu/comm410girlspower/2013/11/03/internet-censorship-in-china/

Net Neutrality

       Net neutrality is when the internet service providers (ISP) enable access to all contents of the internet to the consumers. What the ISP is trying to do right now is to get this removed.  ISP in the states such as AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable are lobbying to get rid of net neutrality as of May 15th 2014. They want you to pay more money to have “faster access” to high bandwidth websites such as Netflix and Youtube.  The ruling will be by the end of the year and it would “mark the end of net neutrality.” The telecom companies argue that if they don’t charge these fees, they will not be able to invest in faster connections for customers.


        I do not think doing this is a good idea. They claim to give you a faster service for paying more for streaming on website you have had always been on. All ISP just want to keep money in their pockets. This would be the start of not having free internet. Some ISP throttles your internet when you use it to much. In places such as Korea where they can have up to 1 gps internet, it is much cheaper than here. In Kansa City with the release of Google fibre, where they can download 1gps, ISP such as TWC are making deals where you can have internet go that fast. Those ISP have the power to make your internet fast, but they are not forced to do it until a competitor comes. The head of the FFC, Tom Wheeler, who used to be lobbyist for large cable companies, is now in charge of the US communications. It will not be obvious on which side he would be on. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/05/15/fcc-approves-plan-to-allow-for-paid-priority-on-internet/
Picture http://www.wired.com/2014/01/one-talking-comes-net-neutrality/ 

For a funny take on Net Neutrality visit 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU

The World Cup

     On May 14th 2014, the head of FIFA admits to let Qatar to host the 2022 World cup a mistake. The choice of selecting Qatar was proven controversial because during the summer time, when the world cup is usually held, Qatar can reach temperatures up to fifty degrees Celsius. If they plan to move the world cup to the winter months it’s going to conflict with many leagues in Europe such as La Liga, British Primeir League and Bundesliga. Many of the players in those leagues will have to choose if they want to play in the World Cup or in their respective leagues. This move would prove to be costly to the world cup and the European leagues. One proposal was to make the stadiums with air condition. There have been many human right violations with the building of the stadiums in Qatar. It is estimated that 220 billion dollars is going to be spent on the world cup compared to South Africa spending 3.5 billion.


     Having the world cup in Qatar is a big mistake; with their track record of having slave labours from India, and Malaysia not being good. It should not be acceptable because 1200 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the announcement of the world cup and an estimate of 4000 will die when it is finished.   I do not know how a country like Qatar got the world cup over countries such as The United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia. Honestly I think that there has been some unfair business happening between the FIFA heads and Qatar. I hope that the world cup would be moved to another country but this is most likely not going to happen.  That world cup is in eight years and that should be enough time to move it to another country.

http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-world-cup-workers-dead-2014-3
Picture : http://failaka.com/amnesty-accused-qatar-of-slave-labor/

For a good short documentary on the story go to
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:11019010

The Rio Sumer Games

      Organizers for the Rio 2016 Olympics games are worried about being too far behind in schedule as of May 9th, 2014 . The preparations for the games is “the worst [they’ve] seen” and that they might not finish construction on time. Compared to previous summer games, during the same time period, Athens had 40% of their infrastructures finished, London had 60% of it done, but in Rio they only have 10% of it done. A “worst case scenario” for them is that there might be a “London 2016” Olympics, but this is very unlikely. Most of the sites for the London games have been converted for public use and the cost to upgrade them again would cost millions.



         Poor per capita nations should not be allowed to host these kinds of events. These nations would benefit more if they use the funds from these programs to alleviating poverty and improving the economy. Developed countries who are able to afford these costs should host events such as the World Cup and the Olympics. Poor countries want to “show off” their countries, but it just makes it easier for politicians and companies to steal money from the people. This year in Sochi, many of the buildings were left unfinished. Hotel lobbies were half built and doors have been missing from rooms. There should be more planning into making these events.  The world cup is just around the corner and it should be a test on whether they are able to handle events of this magnitude. If it is a disaster, they should move the Olympics. The 2016 Olympics should have been in Chicago and if they probably asked today to get ready for it they will have already been prepared. They already have most of the infrastructure for these events. Like FIFA, I think that IOC is highly corrupt where many under the table business happen.

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/10819420/IOC-chiefs-make-secret-plea-to-use-London-2012-venues-as-Rio-2016-Olympic-Games-fall-behind-schedule.html

Picture http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-19243023