BBC LINK
   Sometime in the middle of April, North Korea plans to launch a rocket to mark the 100th birthday of its late former President Kim Il-sung.  This statement alone was enough to rose the fears of South Korea, Japan, and even the UN Security Council.  I see kind of a predicament however.  First off, everyone knows we the United States isn't on the best terms with North Korea.  So it should be expected that we react to this with a mild, but healthy, fear.  The thing I don't believe is fair though however is the fact that the Council is calling this "a complete violation of safety protocal."  So the council has the right to say that North Korea can't launch a satelitte, but the United States and many other Western countries surely have 100s of satelittes already in orbit.  How is this already impoverished country supposed to improve its quality of life if we don't give them any room for growth.  I'm not saying we should totally let them do as they please freely, but like a child, you must loosen their boundries more and more and in the end, hope that the adult you raised will turn out how you hoped.  I don't even like saying that however because the statement makes it quite obvious that we have power over that country and I don't agree with it, but that is how it is.  
    The reason this bothers me is if someone like England announced they were going to launch a satelitte, the Council I'm sure wouldn't even give the propsal a second look before signing it and letting them on their way.  It has become increasingly apparent to me over the years that United States, along with a few other countries have monoplized the world in a sense.  We control most the power,   

    So as I come closer to finishing the book, I must start my long treacherous journey to thinking of something I can do for a final project.  I don't want it to end up taking 2 weeks for me to decide what to do on The Red Tent.  For starters, I don't plan on doing another Lego model because that was tedious and not worth the effort.  I plan on writing a more informative paper perhaps or maybe do something more similar to what Spencer did.  He posed a question "what did the arrival of white people preaching Christianity have on the Africans"  I can also possibly compare it to the Red Tent because they did both take place in Africa and have religious tie ins.  Another two things I can incorporate might be the book we read first trimester about Child Soldiers or I can use all the knowledge I've learned about the Invisible Childrens Company to write a powerful comparitive essay.  This one blog may have actually just saved me a week of agonizing over what to write because now all I need is some input from you and I'll be all ready to roll on this project!  
    As far as finishing the book.  I plan on completely finishing it this weekened and should hopefully then be able to turn in my final project before the beginning of spring break.  If not, I'll definitly have it all complete by the end of spring break by time we return to school.

    This will be a random compilation of me throwing out ideas to use for my upcomming short story that will be woven into my blogs.  
    I know I'm going to incorporate the brothers seperated at birth thing.  At some poin in the story, they will both be leaders of rival tribes that are fighting over some precious resource perhaps and can't empathize for the other side.  I want it to be before the industrial revolution and it might as well be in the Middle East.  Its going to put to the test many human moral standards and I plan to pull some freaky twists "outta no where!".  
    The brothers will by named Cylus and Marcus.  I think they will be orphaned when they were young because their dad gambled away his possessions, among them his wife and the dad will be taken to debtors prison.  
    One of the brothers will be leader of a prosperous city that attributes its well being by putting off its garbage and waste in its nearby town that has suffered greatly because of this.  
    Other names will by Sal, Guy, Talon, Leon,

WHO LINK
    What would you see right now walking around Fukushima, Japan.  More than likey, nothing.  Maybe the occasional wild cow or caustic remains of a demolished building.  So basically... Nothing.  It  is uninhabitable because they got ahead of what they were actually able to handle.  This really worries me because this one accident made an approximately 144 mile radius area completely uninhabitable to humans and most other life forms.  Whats makes this important to me?  Thats all the way on the other side of the world right?  Wrong, there is a nuclear powerplant within 3 miles of my house, let alone very close to the intire city of cedar rapids.  And although that location might not be too prone to tsunamis, however, there are plenty of tornados and not to mention, the flood that could easily recreate the same catastrophe that occured in Japan.  I believe we should learn from this mistake, and although nuclear power does offer a possible way out of the oil criss, I don't think our technology is capable yet of proceeding down this road in a safe fashion.  It is kind of nerve racking knowing that one slip up at the nuclear reactor and I would be forced to leave my home probobly forever.  
    Related health risks with these type of epidemics are:  possible intake of harmful gases, food, water, travel, trasnport, trade, and mental health.  I think thats almost all of them.  Yet they build these in close distance to large groups of people.  That just seems careless.  I think we should take notice of what happens elsewhere in the world because that can help save us from big mistakes that we know can happen and beieve now is an important time to take note of these.    

BBC
    I decided it was time to break away from all the Iranian and Syrian news and bring out some lesser known (or perhaps unknown) to the American Public.  Wah Thi Ka is a 3rd world, run-down, village.  They have no modern conviences such as electricy, running water, computers.  They don't get to watch shows like Jersey Shore nor can they update how they feel every 5 minutes on twitter or facebook.  What prevents this country from advancing into the modern future, I'd like to blame their government.  It is a very strict form of totalitarian in which the people have no rights at all.  Back to the village though, rising from the dirt in this village is the leader of the revolution.  Daw Aung San Suu Kyiis the leader of Burma (another name for the country) democratic movement and is gaining almost universal support from the public.  I would compare her to Ghandi, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King on the sheer magnitude of people she is trying to help.  She has actually been fighitng this struggle for over 20 years now, in fact she won the 1991 Noble Peace Prize, but wasn't able to do much since then because she was arrested by the government for conspiracy.  She served about 2 decades of time under house arrest, but now she is rising up again to lead the country to a better future.  Tens of thousands gathered at her rally, filling every availbale inch of space.
    However, more people need to stand up.  The country who obviously doesn't know how a democracy functions is now asking such things from her as proposing all laws (which would basically turn the country into another dictatorship.)  More people need to step up and fill the multiple leaderhip roles required to run a democratic government.