Is There a Difference?

“Because we saw so many people die, we became so used to it,” a prison camp survivor from North Korea had told the commission. North Korea, the country that had caused numerous worldwide disorders in the past, has now revealed it’s true form of a brutal state “that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.”  The commission traced the origins of the abuses and found out they are directly related to the North Korean government. They are referring to the International Criminal Court for a possible prosecution. A letter was sent to Kim Jong Un as a warning that he might be facing prosecution for crime against humanity. The commission is censuring world leaders for not taking action in spite of knowing such a terrible incident. If you would like to read more, click here.

Nevertheless I believe America is not at a position to have the right to say such things. The actin by the commission made me think the times in the past America had supposedly “helped” other countries but ended up sowing the seeds of discord. For example, in the Vietnam war, America had many soldiers and civilians die in vain and ended up causing more chaos and damage to the country in the end. Same with what happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan. America have been doing things that aren't that much different than what North Korea is doing right now. If America is taking action about what is happening in North Korea right now, I really hope we think about it carefully so we don't repeat the mistakes we have made in the past.

What do you think America should do?

Opening Ceremony Malfunction

While watching the opening ceremony for Sochi Winter Olympic 2014 with my family, we were astonished by the flawlessness of the process until we saw a major malfunction, which was during the climax of the ceremony. As we can see in the two pictures, the picture on the top shows the malfunction. The top right snowflake is seen not opening like the other ones; the six snowflakes were supposed to get bigger and form the Olympic symbol of the five rings. Countries, including America, aired the opening ceremony with the malfunction except for the country that the opening ceremony actually took place in, Russia. When airing the opening ceremony in Russia, the Russian state television swapped the footage with a one from a rehearsal, which is the second photo right before the malfunction happened,

As Mr.Bolos had mentioned in class before, the Russian state television is under the heavy influence of the Russian government. It is known that president Vladimir Putin had repeatedly emphasized the importance of making Russian flawless to the world during the Olympics. It goes without saying that the swapping of the footages was under the directions of the government trying to make Russia look flawless to the world, at least in the country. The philosophy of Russia trying to show itself flawless during the Olympic, where billions of people's attention is at, is completely understandable. But the government's decision of covering up the footage told the world something that is far away from flawless.

How do you think the people in Russia felt when they learned about this malfunction being covered up? Do you think this changed how Russia is seen in the world?