Sunday 22 January 2012

The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas

The boy in the stripped pyjamas is an amazing story about a young boy in ww2. Bruno's father is an SS officer who has to move out into the country with his family to be near the 'working camp'. Bruno loves to explore and have adventures, while his sister becomes greatly interested with Nazi affairs. Bruno is unsure of why Jewish people are bad and continually seeks to find the farm where the people with pyjamas live. Once Bruno meets Shmuel, a young boy at the camp, he gets a fist hand look at the camp. Yet, Bruno doesn't grasp the horror of the camp and he regards it as a nice place to be. in the end, Bruno sneaks into the camp and gets a first hand look at the cruelty the Jewish people have to go threw. I loves this story because gave another perspective on the second world war; it made me ball my eyes out and defiantly showed the hardship everyone had to go threw.  

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Omar Khadr

In 2002, Omar Khadr was captured by the U.S. military and transferred into Guantánamo Bay. According to the U.S. military, Omar threw a hand grenade while under fire, thus killing a American solider. Omar also had wound from the battle; he received shots in one of his shoulders. Omar never got the proper treatment for his wound and he even received actions of torture to help the wound inflict pain on Omar. He was defiantly at the wrong place at the wrong time which could have been prevented from his family. Omars father took him to Afghan to going the Taliban when he was very young, Omar didn't have a say in the matter, and his mother probably didn't either. So technically, Omar was a child solider and that should have been taken into effect when he was being charged. Also, the rest of his family didn't get charged when they would of well known what was going on in Afghan. Why didn't his mother try to help him? Why didn't they call the police? All of these questions should of been brought up in a court room with his family being charged. Furthermore, where is the Canadian government in all of this? Why is Omar still in the states and not in Canada in OUR jails? According to a case by the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia successfully requested the return of their citizens and, in some cases, non-citizen permanent residents. The fact the Canadian Government still hasn't tried to get Omar back into Canada show how weak we are. I believe the Government is embarrassed about the situation and would rather not have to deal with it. They would rather keep him with the U.S. so Canada as a nation, doesn't look bad. In conclusion, Canada is taken major steps back from not trying to get Omar back. What Omar was having to deal with in Guantánamo Bay was disgusting, and a complete violation of human rights.

Monday 16 January 2012

Women's Rights

In todays society, one would think that every human being would have the exact rights as anyone else. In the charter of human rights, it is clearly stated that no matter what GENDER, RACE, OR RELIGION you practice, everyone should have equal rights. Then why is it that no matter the race or religion, women are not equal to men? This is not always the case, but then again, women do get decriminated on simply becasue they are a women and this should NEVER happen. In 1919, women in Canada got the  full right to vote in elections. Women are a major part of the econemy, and not giving them a right to choose over who runs our country is simply rediculous. It's very odd to think that women had to literly fight for their right to vote and even more odd that men tried to fight back! I am very thankful that the women back then knew that their rights were being taken away, and had enough pride to ge them back. Another way womens rights are tested are with the subjects of sexualization and desexualization. In magazines, on the internet, and in movies, there is a unrealistic image of women put out there that is very hard to achieve. The usual look is long, thick hair, shinny frame, and big boobs and butt. lots of girls each day have to see these images of 'perfect women' and want to be like that themselves and will do anything to look 'perfect'. Young girls need to see different types of bodies in the media to know that not everyone looks or should look 'perfect'. On the bright side though, some companies such as dove, are making changes in their ads to show women of different size, shape, race, and even religion. Women of differnt cultures take on different rights then women of other cultures. culture greatly effects the rights of a human being because what might be acceptible for a women to do in one culture, might not be so in another. Many may think that only counrties where religion is law how be where womens rights are most violated but that is not always tha case. The majority of the poor in third world countries are women because they are the ones who stayed home as a child to take care of the families. And even if teh family had the ability to send the children off to school, it would be the sons who got to go before the daughters. In North America, if a man and a women had the same job and worked the same hours, the man would have a greater salary all because of his sex. This is clearly unjust and does not make any sence that a man would be paid any more than a women. In conclusion, women have fought a very long and hard battle to be where we are today, yet, there are still tones of areas where womens rights are not upheld in today's society.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

The Crime Bill

When i first read the proposal for the new omnibus legislative bill, i thought that it sounded great. The fact that there would be tougher sentencing laws for young offender, drug dealers, and sexual preditors would make it alot safer on our streets. People might give it a second thought before breaking the law because of the harsh concequences. There would also be more job opportunity's to take care of the influx of inmates. But then again, canadians would be paying more taxes to pay for the influx of inmates. Also, the fact that the government hasn't presented the budget for this is alittle weird. If the government just came out with the budget more people might be on board with this bill and be able to make a decision about weather it is nessecary or not.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

The absolutley true diary about a part time indian.

The absolutley true story about a part time indian, written by Sherman Alexie is a funny, sad, and very truthful fictional story about bullying, poverty, and the difficulties of growing up with disabilities. The story starts with a boy named Arnold describing what happened when he was born. He describes himself as having water in the brain and having to get it sucked out of his head when he was a baby. Because of him having this condition he also has some obvious physical disabilities.  His head and feet are too big for the rest of his skinny frame, he studders and has a lisp, very poor eyesight, and has frequent seizures. Causing him to be bullied almost his whole life. The poverty he has to live in doesn't make his life any easier, saying how they have to go hungry because of no money for food or even for the basic necessities of everyday life. Near the end of the chapture, we are introduced to his best friend, Oscar, his dog. Onces Oscar becomes ill, Arnolds dad explains how they cannot save him because of not having enough money to pay the vet bill. Leaving Arnolds dad to have to shoot his dog. This book seems like it would be an amazing book to read. It was funny enough to make me laugh, yet it was very sad because of what Arnold has to go through. This is a book i would want to keep reading.