WHAT THE HECK?!

Someone didn't check ma blog. Ahem AHEM MR.SAUER. I completed all the blogs on time & they were all over 4 paragraphs and insightful. WHAT THE FUDGE?! But now reportcards are in & their's nothing i can do ): I AM VERY ANGRY. I will have a heated discussion with Mr. Sauer after school on monday ):< Oh wait... does that mean my 24 previously hard worked for blogs didn't count for anything.... even though i stayed up all night? 


Okay so in October I asked my junior high principal if it was possible for me to conduct a presentation for the ENTIRE school to watch, like in Period X. I asked Jessica, Julie, Jessica, Monica, Rizamel, Ginelle, Justinne and Shilah to accompany me. My principal said their was a very slim chance, but it was possible. That made me happy! Cause at least it wasn't a for sure NO WAY. She said that I had to send her a proposal firstly, therefore I asked the members I had recruited to make their part of the presentation. Me & Rizamel: Universal Education, Monica and Jessica: Child mortality, Shilah & Justinne & Julie: Poverty and Hunger, Ginelle: Gender Equality. We got started today~


 I was doing some research on Universal education and found out many things, like how 2/3 of women in developing countries are illterate and how some children cannot go to school because of lack of teachers and lack of supplies. This made me think. We students of Calgary have so much supplies! I mean just walk down a hallway and i'm sure that you could pick up at least 20 pens, pencils or erasers just lying around. We take it for granted, we really do. & others need it so much. I wish I knew where to start so I could help them. I'm tired of just feeling pity, I WANT HELP CHANGE THE WORLD. We have more than enough and some kids in third world countries have none! I want to make a donation box where people could donate school supplies and we could send them away. I told my mom about this plan and she told me it was better to just donate money since shipping the school supplies to haiti would cost a few hundred dollars. AWWWE ):


 I'll ask Mr. Sauer about this, but I'm pretty sure that high school children wouldn't be as excited to donate stuff like elementary students. OUR SCHOOL SPIRIT NEEDS TO BE HIGH! I would want to donate if it could fill up a classroom of supplies, not enough supplies to fill a box. That wouldn't do much. I actually think that we'll be spending more because of shipping. I think Mommy Huynh is right. I'll still pitch this with evil Sauer though. OH RIGHT! BACK TO MY PRESENTATION PROPOSAL! Okay, so I was researching and I discovered that girls can't go to school because of their periods! Since they have that 'yenno, problemoooo' they can't go to school since there are no bathrooms for the girls to clean their bizzzzzznatch. I also learned that the human body is built to live up to 190 years, therefore we all die young and people in third world countries die around the age of 30, they die even younger! This stat is so interesting! I'll remember i forever~ In the guinness world records, the longest a person lived up to was, 123 years. and wow. We're supposed to live until 190. That's just so cool!  Anyway, I told Shilah to add that to her slides. Everyone's working so hard <3 I'm so proud. Today I was just working on my part of the slides. I made 6 slides today. Since I had to cram in LA reading work as well. They're mostly photo because I know that I hate reading off slides & i'm sure the junior students do as well.

Internal Assessment! Pursuit!

Although I am of Vietnamese descent, I don’t have a clue about why our identity is what is today. I have to admit, I have zero interest in my IA topic. I really wanted to do something i was excited about. like child soldiers or stuff about Genocide. Sorry, but i'm really interested in those kinda things but i am not an emo! I had a time limit therefore I had to chose quickly. I assume Mr. Alger wouldn't be too happy if I chose child soldiers because it is the same topic and Monica's and Riza's Two people that I talk to very much. I'm not sure if it's such a great idea that I tell a teacher that I absolutely HATE my IA topic, but I really do. Well my excuse for this topic was that I wanted to decide on something I could relate to, since anyone would be more curious and interested about their own country. I hope I gradually become more inteersted as I dig deeper in my heritage. I hope I didn't become Americanized. Haha. I actually care very much about Vietnam but this topic sounds not as cool as child soliders T____T. I had chose the ‘Vietnam War’ as my Internal Assessment topic. I’ve visited Vietnam numerous times and visited many historical landmarks but never stopped to wonder why they were created.  
I generally know that the French tried to colonize us and is probably the reason why French is spoken in some small areas of Vietnam. The only other facts I know about Vietnamese history is that, ‘Ho Chi Minh Nguyen’ was our leader for a period of time and is the main reason why many Vietnamese people have the last name ‘Nguyen’, and that the ‘Vietnam War’ was a result of American and Vietnamese tension. If my research was accurate, then the Vietnam War was a Cold War military conflict  in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. It lasted from November 1, 1955 to May 15, 1975. This must mean that Vietnam was colonized by France but imperialized by the U.S. What I aim to discover is, because this war occurred on Vietnamese land, how did the result alter this country?  Does it somehow connect to Vietnam’s current economic situation?

I guess working hard really pays off ~ I have such  supportive classmates!! Maybe we'll make them bring their bears and show them off one day so that they can show off their supportiveness and raise awareness at the same time! They complimented and loved the bears, and that makes me very happy~. They said its so cute and soft. :D We have three bears left! When the green bears are sold out, I'll help the others (Monica, Jessie and Shilah) sell theirs. I hope to reach out to strangers too, not just my pals. Me and riza only made about 50 dollars each. I imagined higher but this will do, i really hope to raise at least 600 dollars on my own. I think that i will need to put up posters anyway, just for fun and so people know what HAS happened. There’s three more left, who knows? Things are really speeding up now though, I am putting a lot of projects into play at this time. The photo below is of me , working my ass off. seriously. I think I looked worse, because I pulled 2 all nighters in a row. Actually, I slept in Social class & was brutally scolded by Mr. Alger 4 times. ): The first time, he kicked my desk, the second time he stared for a loooong time, according to Justinne. The third time, he apparently yelled at me, and I was too sleepy to be aware and the last time, he looked like his forehead veins would burst. HAHA It was kinda funny. G'night! It's late and I really gotta sleep >_______<"

Dem God's must be Crazy 'cause they shook hands with dem Devils P:

 

This movie was hilarious~ It actually made me interested in social for once. I more deeply understand the difference in our societies now. This movie is a comparison between the western world and African bushmen tribes. It's a story about one bushmens journey to get rid of a glass coke bottle which he thought to be evil. Our reasoning for watching this video was because it connected to other novel, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. They both show a figure of westernization or colonization. It showed characters from the same continent which adds to the list. I thought it was going to be a boring movie, but turned out to be somewhat funny. Its about globalization, about how when the civilized world comes into contact with the non-civilized world. When the non civilized is expose to a cola bottle, a tribe of people started fighting about who should use it and such. Until someone of the tribe decided to throw the bottle away. This was an epic adventure of when a tribeperson meets the people of the civilized world. I recommend you watch the movie yourself, it's worth it (:

OH.MY.GOSH. This movie was just amazing. I'm so speechless~ I could go on forever about this movie! IT WAS FANTASTIC! When Mr. Sauer told us that Romeo Dallaire came to Father Lacombe, I was like "Big deal, why does it matter." But after watching this I was soo stunned. I completely take back what I said. IT IS A HUUUUGE MATTER. Romeo Dallaire is my freaking hero. How can someone be so amazing?!  I teared up so much times while watching this movie. It was soo good. I felt so sad and learn so much about the Rwandan genocide. I was heartbroken by this story. It was just so sad. I can't believe someone so evil could exist. It's horrible that some people would put money before people. Man's greed is really just a horrible thing. Honestly, if I was in Mr. Dalliare's position, I don't know what the hell I would do. I probably would've committed suicide a long time back. He's just sooo amazing. Having the guts to do so much and wanting to help strangers. He put others before himself. The world would be so great if everyone was like him. I should have been born a year earlier, then I could have met him. OMG, thanks mom ):< His story gives me the chills when I think about it. They're real and happened to people younger than me. This movie was about conflict between the Tutsi's and the Hutus. There we the rebels, which included child soldiers. The topic of child soldiers real interests me. Children waaay younger than me are taught to kill. I remember Mr. Alger saying how they put these children on cocaine and booze. I'm sure that child soliders can connect to education. But i'll do that another time. Romeo Dallaire is a peacekeeper sent to Rwanda for a peacekeeping mission. The movie is really graphic and it shows some disturbing scenes. It was a really good movie that kept you thinking. It was really sad seeing dead bodies and what Dalliare had to deal with. 

Between April 6 and July 16, 1994, 100 days - about 800,000 men, women and children were brutally killed in the country of Rwanda. Many horrifically hacked to death with machetes - were Tutsi, and moderate Hutus who supported them. A Canadian Lieutenant General, Roméo Dallaire was tasked by the UN to ensure that peace was maintained in Rwanda. He was unsupported by the U.N. headquarters and its Security Council in New York. Dallaire and the handful of soldiers with him were incapable of stopping the genocide. Ten years later of mental torture, reliving the horrors daily and more than once attempting suicide, Roméo Dallaire has poured out his soul in an extraordinary book, Shake Hands With The Devil. The top UN officials, expedient Belgian policy makers and senior members of the Clinton administration chose to do nothing as Dallaire pleaded for reinforcements and revised rules of engagement. He was convinced that, with a few thousand more troops , he could have stopped the killings. His impotence, at that time of extreme crisis, preys on his conscience still. Shake Hands With The Devil is the most powerful documentary produced about Rwandan genocide. Hard-hitting. This is for viewers throughout the world who care about human rights and international justice. I`m still in love with this movie and forever will be. The fact that it`s true, just scares me ): He is forever my hero <3 The first ever Canadian film that was good. I really need to find this DVD.

OMGSH HAITI! ARE YOU OKAY?!

A man uses a shovel to clear mud and water from his house, dumping it into the street in the older part of the flood-damaged city of Gonaïves, Haiti.

A summary of an article I found on the conditions of Haiti's school district prior to disasters that have recently struck the area. Haiti’s flood-damaged schools struggle to reopen. Four successive storms covered homes, streets and population in mud. The results were so devastating,the start of school was delayed by a month throughout the country. Education can act as a stabilizing force for communities both during and after a crisis. It helps to rebuild countries after emergencies. A new national deadline fast approaching, makes it unclear how many students will be returning to school. About 200 schools need to be cleaned and 100 to rehabilitate and over 20 to rebuild entirely,” said the Departmental Director at the Ministry of Education. “We are starting all over again.”

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Education brings hope to Haiti’s children. ‘Let us not lose any more’ - Edward Carwardine

In the picture above, kids gather a L'Institution Sacre Coeur for the starts of lessons, as schools in Port-au-Prince begin to reopen 3 months after the earthquake that shattered much of Haiti. Physical and human loss is still apparent even three months after the devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Hundreds of thousands remain homeless, scared of returned to their homes.Tents and shelters fill the few open spaces available. Children lost their schools, teachers, friends, possessions and pets. UNICEF faces enormous  tasks: retrieving safe water and adequate sanitation, safeguarding the health and nutrition of affected children, and protecting those who have lost parents or are at increased risk of harm. An important step is being taken – a step that may give some hope to more than a million children touched by this disaster. This week, many schools around Port-au-Prince are beginning to reopen their doors. About 50% of school-age children in Haiti didn't attend school prior to the earthquake. But many children here, even those who hadn't attended school before say they want nothing more than to receive an education so that they can help to fix their country. For the generation of children who will mark time by this natural disaster, it is important that they remember the post-quake era as one not just of recovery, but of development. -------------------------------------------------------------------

      

Children walk from a UNICEF-supplied school tent at L'Institution Sacre Cœur in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The process of returning children to schools has required weeks of effort, involving the Haitian Ministry of Education, UNICEF, other NGOs such as Save the Children, and local school directors, teachers and parents. 3,000 school tents have been made available to provide interim classrooms. School supplies have been delivered to learning spaces in camps and former schools ready to begin classes again. Teachers have received rapid orientation on a new curriculum to help kids back into the learning process. Unemployed Haitians have begin recruited to clear rubble for tents to be erected. At the Institution Sacre Cœur, one of the schools destroyed on the hillside, about 1,500 students are coming back to classes including, 300 children from other schools in the area that cannot be brought back into use. Sacre Cœur is a fee-paying school. But, for these new students, fees will be waived. Parents contributed to costs of wooden classrooms, which will supplement the tents provided by UNICEF. Water and sanitation facilities are being established, in a partnership between UNICEF and Technical Cooperation and Development. The school building razed during the earthquake, stands today a symbol of Haitians helping Haitians, the international community collaborating with the Haitian people, for the betterment of the nation’s children. The opening of the school is a symbol of hope to those children who've lost so much that efforts are being made to restart the path to some normality, some degree of confidence and security, despite all that has happened.

Unicef's so fly~

The photos above are of my boxes of Maynard's Halloween Candy and of my Halloween bag. I was putting my box of candy in the cupboards when I saw the words Unicef. I was like " WTF WTF WTF?! " and I read the description in depth. The back of the box talked about how buying this box of Candy, was making it possible for the construction of schools in Ethiopia. I thought to myself  'Good job, mom!' I felt happy cause this was one of the small things I could do to help children in other countries. So i told her to go buy some more & she did. Only 2 more boxes though ): & i asked my cousin's to buy a box to help too! It was the least we could do because everyone needs to buy Halloween candy so then why not kill two birds with one stone? Buy a box of candy and help build schools, while staying in the Halloween spirit. This was so perfect, the funds were directed toward my MDG. I guess this the 2nd thing I did the raise awareness because I told my family members to tell people they know and I also put this news on my facebook group so that my members could see this and possibly buy a box themselves. My halloween bag. The one I've had for years. It had the words Unicef and in small letters, it said "Help change the world." I never noticed this before, i've had this bag since grade 1 and never thought i could do anything to help the world's suffering until this year. This project has given me the opportunity to help. I WILL DO WELL~  I wonder if the rest of the world is almost clueless about third world countries suffering as I was.  I am hoping to change that & educate to the best of my abilities right now! And so, I asked my mom how'd this bag end up with us? She didn't remember. HOW USELESS! Not very helpful info but now I know that there is a fundraising event Unicef is doing about Halloween, yearly~   I researched on google and went to the unicef website. I discovered....


October 31 is National UNICEF Day! Did you know UNICEF’s orange trick-or-treat boxes helped make National UNICEF Day and taught Canadians that they can make a much needed difference around the world. Today, it’s easier than ever to have an impact on the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. These funds you raised will help UNICEF save the lives of children around the world through  simple solutions. Adequate food, clean water and safe shelter enables at-risk children to survive and thrive, while quality education helps break cycles of poverty and disease. These will all become accessible.

Unicef is mobilising all of its staff and resources in Haiti in an attempt to halt a wide-spread cholera outbreak.

14,642 cases and 917 deaths have been reported, so far. Seven of Haiti's ten regions have now been affected by cholera, with the north being a particularly problematic.This charity is focusing on reaching young people in rural areas and the overpopulated slums of Port au Prince. Half of the population of Haiti is under the age of 18. Gruloos-Ackermans, a Unicef Representative in Haiti, said the organization is positioning its stocks in order to cover as much of the country as possible.
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"Our biggest fear is that cholera will spread through the rural and remote areas, Port au Prince slums and camps, as well as schools and residential care centres, where it will be difficult to fight the disease,"


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she added. I feel pity for Haiti because they just suffered an earthquake this year January, and now they have way more problems to deal with. Not to mention the political problems they had prior to the earthquake. In January, when I saw the picture of the fresh earthquake, all I did was flip to the page with celebrity news. HONESTLY. How horrible am I? I thought to myself, "Another earthquake? Geeez, mother nature hates us' and then flipped. If I had done that, I wonder how many other people did that? I now know of the deep history that lies beneath Haiti and I wonder if everyone else knows as well. It's been about 11 months since the earthquake, and the first few months, Haiti was in the media everyday. 12 months have pasted and I know for certain that Haiti still needs our aid greatly, but I have yet to see an article about Haiti anywhere! And the only reason I know that Haiti needs help is because I HAD to do research on it for my country MDG presentation. I'm sure that now everyone in the world had to do a country presentation on Haiti so many people aren't aware that Haiti still needs much help. I will try hard to let my community know that Haiti still needs help and will work hard to remind people on the other side of the world know that Haiti needs us. Rizamel had added many of her peers in the Phillipines to my universal education group and I will make sure they get the message through my daily posts~

I will blog about Unicef news in my next post! I still need to take up more space in my blog. G'night!

Teddy Trouble .___."

Two weeks ago Riza and I, sold all 25 of our bears! YAY! It sold out without any advertisement O: People just heard about it and kept ordering! I am very happy that people were talking about our cause even outside of school~ Hopefully, this will happen for our bookmarks and cookies (: I have about 15 teddy bears at my house right now. Why? Because I need to sew names on ALL of them. Yes, I am very angry that I am required to spend 2 hours to sew one bear. Wishmae’s bear took me about 2 days. NO JOKE. Sewing is soooo hard ): I’m running out of thread quickly since I needed to redo Wishmae’s teddy like 60000000x. Therefore it is taking me a loooooooong time to complete these teddies. I’m getting so many complaints but it is very hard to find time for fun these days. I will hopefully finish sewing but November 21. I still have a lot of things to do in between those days, like mine and Riza’s bake sale coming up and our bookmark making.

Here is my bear progress. As you can see. I have a loooong way to go. But they look so cute, huh?! Yes, I am so very proud <3 I hope i'll finish soon because people are getting angry -___-".

Me and Riza decided that we needed something in order show our appreciation to the people who contributed to our purpose. I wanted to make a poster starting with 25 green bears to paste on a large poster to brag that these people lended a hand in helping initiate Universal Education so far. We would then gradually add teddies and names when more and more people buy our cookies and bookmarks. Rizamel always helps me on so many things so I insisted that she not help me on this. I planned to bring the posters, umm soon. It’s not my fault that the teachers like overloading us with so much homework and tests! IB is truly very stressful! We can still ask the people who bought to sign later. It’s not like they're going anywhere. Hehe, oh! Since me and Riza are such nice people, we are helping Shilah, Justinne and Monica sell their bears as well <3.

These and 3 other posters are nearing completion. These are the ones that will by put around the school to let them know about the importance of Universal Education.

Things to look forward to that are coming up soon:
Honk for Universal Education: November 17^th (Janie, Riza, Monica, Justinne, Ginelle) Bottle Drive: November 17^th –- December 10^th (Group, recall from first few blogs)  Bake Sale: November 22^nd -– 26^th Bookmark giveaway: To everyone who bought a bear and for advertising purposes. November 29^th (Janie, Justinne, Rizamel, Monica) House to house informing: November 22th -- December 10^th (Janie, Riza, Justinne, Jessica) St. Rose presentation: November 19^th (hopefully) Janie, Jessica, Julie, Vanessa, Justinne, Monica, Riza, Shilah, Jomar and Jeff? Ask for church donations: November 21^st –- December ___, a week before presentations Selling accessories: Initiate after group finishes selling bears. Hopefully November 22^nd -- December 15^th (Janie, Monica, Rizamel) Facebook chain letter: Sending on November 16 (Janie and Riza) School supplies and etc drive: Me, Jamal and Riza will be doing this and we will ask the school to support. Somewhere near the beginning of December. Raffle for Education: When me and Riza finish deciding what to give away in this event

Beware! The dates will be altered about 99% surely! Please remember to keep track of my Facebook group alrighty? Here’s my facebook site again, it is updated weekly so be sure to check
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_158866654144819

With the population having knowledge, they can raise their voices and be a part of community whereas people who don't have an education have little say and little power in the future. You can use this power to even change the world someday! Like creating a cure for cancer or maybe discovering timetravel! Who knows? I very much want to help the children of Haiti or at least contribute to giving them a chance in life. They deserve a voice in this world, as does everyone else. Here is an AMAZING video about education and the hardships some people have to sacrifice just to go, whereas we can go to school easily! All we need to do is go(and pay our school fees of course!) What luck i found this video on the first click, because these quotes are so true and they really make us (well i did) think about the importance of education and how lucky we are to receive it so easily and affordably.

ENJOY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGp9yd_uIZo

Drugs and alcohol can wreck a brotha!

  "Oh my crud! Another drug presentation?! Ugh, at least we get to miss class"

Little did I think that this presentation would soon change my life! It was so absolutely inspiring! It really touched my heart and I’m pretty sure that it touched the hearts of everyone else as well. The way he spoken to us teenagers really made us understand and listen because it was sort of ‘street’ and ‘modern’, instead of boring formal and respective speech. I really liked how he was so updated and cool. He understood the troubles some of us face and encouraged us to do something. I think this is the first presentation that I actually paid attention to, ACTUALLY. He came this morning to talk about the issues currently facing teenagers which are as he said so many times, drugs and alcohol. He always went from super duper sad to hilarious. It’s hard to decide how we felt. He started off his lecture by talking about what was cool when he was our age (he is somewhere between the ages of 45-55) and how people were ‘in the old times’.  He talked about how everything keeps on changing today and how our society is gradually becoming worse and worse. “The divorce rate was very low back then”, he said. I think the divorce rate was about 1 in 4 couples back then, and about 3 out of 4 nowadays. He told us the death rate of teens, and what the major causes were and even advised young girls on how to pick a guy you'd like. He said that some guy’s just put on a show and 1 in 4 girls will get abused some way by boys. That’s horrible ):

Here is a google photo of Mr. Creagh~

Anyway, here is some background info on my new idol! Big Milt or more formally known as Milton Creagh is a motivational speaker and a radio talk show host. He was born in North Carolina, but moved to Chicago shortly after. He attended an all black elementary school and then went to a predominantly white high school. He received a lot of scholarships, but his aid it was best to study in the historically black Bethune ‘CookmanCollege’ in Daytona Beach, Florida. It would be easier to fit in, and the school was Methodist, which was the faith he had been raised.  His teacher once said: "You may think you are smart, but if you ever went to school with white kids you would find out that you aren't that smart and you wouldn't be able to compete with them". Mr. Creagh was really affected by this comment and so he wanted to prove his teacher wrong. He did it~

I looked at some photos of how drugs and alcohol can change you and this is what I fiund. Wow, drugs can change your looks a lot and I read that it changes your personality as well. You become more depressed and tired. I'm no doctor, but I recommend you don't do drugs. he saddest part in this lecture was when he asked students to stand if they had family/friends issues that involved alcohol and drugs. It looked like 1/8 of the crowd remained seated. I didn't realize that so many people are affected by this, in my school. It made me even sadder when I saw a lot of my best friends stand up. I really didn’t know as much about them as I thought I did. The lecture has really opened my eyes to a bigger picture. I just wish there was something I could do to help …… OH MY GOSH! I found so many youtube videos on Mr. Milton Creagh! I never knew he was famous~ He made a music video about what is going on with our world and how this is not how our world is supposed to be. A short summary of this song: he raps about how your world is crashing and we need to do something about it. It made me think about how lucky I am to live in peace while some others have so many hardships. This song opened my eyes to a much bigger perspective.  I'm sooooo surprised that he is so dedicated to his work! He really wants to make a change, or so it seems~ THANK YOU MR. CREAGH FOR SUCH A MEMORABLE LECTURE.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd3XK6czbO4

"Our choices and our voices have so much power, we need to use it to change our world for the better"

 -Milton Creagh