China and the Koreas

China should not favor one Korea over the other.

China should stay neutral for their own protection. It would hurt China if North or South Korea attacked them since China was against them. China already has enough things to worry about so worrying about being attacked would not be good right now. Terence Neilan of AOL News states that "Beijing fears that any further disruption of the impoverished and unsettled nation could present China with a problem it would be forced to deal with." Therefore if China gets too involved, then they may have an issue with one of the two Koreas. So the best thing, at the moment, for China to do is stay neutral for their protection.

This Crazy Week

This week for me has been very busy. This is the week was the busiest week for me this whole year. I don’t like May.

So I am a figure skater for the Farmington Hills Ice Arena. Our skating club does a yearly show called the Ice Show. The theme is “Book on down the Ice” and we have music from famous books. For the Ice Show, everyone in the skating club is assigned a group to perform in based on their level and age. Anyone can try out for a solo, feature (skate in the middle of a little kids’ group), or a pair. I would get a solo if I tried out (not to be full of myself but I have always gotten solos when I tried out before), but I didn’t like doing solos, the groups are more fun. So I am in the highest level group and we are skating to Devil Wears Prada. I am now allowed to do the high school group since I am in high school. We are skating to Pulp Fiction.

Now I am now down telling you the background, I will share my crazy schedule. Monday I had school, of course, then skating lesson and practice at 3:30-4:30. Next, for Ice how, first half of the Ice Show rehearsal at 5-8, with an extra practice after. Tuesday was the same thing except for the second half instead of first so I have been exhausted and barely had time for homework. Wednesday is supposed to be the break day for Ice Show and I was going to relax at home, but instead I had to go to my cousin’s Confirmation. I left at 5 and didn’t come home until 10 since there was an after party.

Yesterday was obviously Thursday and this day was too long. I had my normal skating at 6am before school. Then school. Then I went to the rink at 4:30 and the full dress rehearsal started at 5. Unfortunately, we started and hour and a half late for some unknown reason so that made my night even longer. I ended up at home at 9:30 so I didn’t leave the rink till 9:20ish. Now today is the real show and I’m super excited. So tonight will be another long night so I won’t get home by at 11 because the real show takes even longer. Saturday is the same thing again and of course Sunday is Mothers’ Day. I don’t know what I am doing yet for Mothers’ Day but it will be special. I am just concerned about skating right now and I hope I do well!

SIMUN

At first, I thought my SIMUN experience would be boring. I didn’t really want to do it and I thought I wouldn’t be doing anything during SIMUN because I was Indonesia. But as we got started, I thought it wasn’t that bad. I have to admit that the research and questions were a pain but once they were done, SIMUN was kind of fun. It was fun to get involved and have people listen to your opinions. It was nice to have your own country where no one could talk for you and you were the only one saying certain things about your country. I also thought it was fun to be with sophomores, juniors, and seniors because they were good examples for you and they were all kind to you. I thought SIMUN was a good experience for me and hope it will be even better next year!

I feel that at first during SIMUN I was shy. But later in the first day, I felt that I got more into it. Giving speeches was difficult for me because most of the issues didn’t apply to my country, Indonesia. So I participated more by making motions and asking questions. I feel that I could have done a little more in SIMUN but it was my first time so I know I will do better next year.

Well like everyone else prepared, I did my research about the history of my country. Also, just like everyone, I answered four questions that were related to the situations in SIMUN. The practice round on the day before also helped me because I didn’t know the “language” of SIMUN.

Next year I think I will prepare myself better by finding out my allies and enemies. For several days I tried to find my allies and enemies, but I only found out a few allies. I couldn’t really find my enemies, but I assume Indonesia doesn’t want to be anyone’s enemy due to their economy. I mostly found out who I traded with but they were like the United States, China, and Thailand so it was hard to pick sides when the issue was between the Units States and China so I just sided with China. I think that next year I will find out more background about the issues/questions. This year I didn’t really know what to do and next year I will know what to do so that will make me even more prepared.

Pakistan, the United States, and Indonesia

Hopefully everyone knows about the Taliban and Pakistan’s relationship. Like how the Taliban is a terrorist group against Pakistan. But what would you say if Pakistan’s government was beginning to fail and the Taliban was ready to take their nuclear weapons. Then the United States decided to send in troops to protect Pakistan from the Taliban gaining power. The question is how would my country, Indonesia, respond to this?

First of all, Indonesia would support the United States’ decision to send in the troops. The United States is an ally of Indonesia and these two countries trade with each other. This would be the best move for Indonesia to agree with the United States. This would keep the relationship between Indonesia and the United States strong. If Indonesia did not support the United States, then the United States could possibly stop trading with Indonesia because they are not happy with the lack of support. This would hurt the economy in Indonesia so disagreeing with the United States is not a good idea for Indonesia.

For this situation, Indonesia could not do anything different for Pakistan then what other allies of Pakistan and the United States could do. Since Indonesia does not have the greatest economy, they could possibly send in any aid that Pakistan needed or maybe a little bit of money to help Pakistan regain its control, but Indonesia could not do as much for the United States and Pakistan as say Canada could do. If necessary, Indonesia could send in troops to Pakistan like the United States did for the protection of Pakistan and its citizens. I feel that Indonesia would be willing to help these countries out in any way they needed. It would be best for Indonesia to keep its positive relationships with these countries, especially with the United States since they are very powerful.

Free Blog- Kite Runner

My book that I have been reading is Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. So far the book is interesting and has a lot of culture in it. The setting is in Afghanistan. In what I have read, the main character is still a young boy. He is having conflicts with bullies and the difference between different Islamic culture groups. His servant/best friend, Hassan, is a member of the Hazara culture group, which they typically servants while the main character, Amir, is a Pashtun. This friendship is unusual and shouldn’t be allowed, thought by most people.
But my question for my book is: “What can I talk about with my book culturally based” Well this should be easy for me since there is culture on every page of my book-no joke! Before I had no response to this question but luckily I just got an idea. Should Amir and Hassan’s friendship be accepted or completely not allowed. The way I’m leaning towards that it should be accepted. Even though I haven’t finished reading my book I could think of some examples. The main reason would be because acceptance is the right thing but then I would have to find examples for that. I don’t think I’m far enough in the book to find examples to support that but I can find examples against what I think.
First of all, the Hazara people aren’t educated like the Pashtuns. People would say that these boys shouldn’t have been friends because one is too smart for the other and will just confuse the other. My other reason is that the book states that Hazara people typically servants like I said before. Many of the people in their time, such as one of their bullies, think that it is wrong for of servant and his master to be buddies. They think that they should acquaintances or colleges but never friends and play together and teach each other. So far that is all I have but I’ll keep working on it.

Dangerous Night In Canada

Light flashing and the car beeping, any second now we will be stranded. Where were we? Is there anyone here? What should we do? Hope for the best? Run? Scream? Call for help? Let’s just hope that we can find someone.

I was in Canada with my mom and grandma, the three generations, for a festival. We left on Saturday; no one wanted to leave. We all had so much fun together and we didn’t want the fun to stop. Laughing and smiling, we were about to get into the car to go home.

We turned onto the main road, called Main, and headed to the United States. After a few hours, we realized it was taking awhile to get to expressway. It was getting dark, and our goal was to be out of Canada by sunset. Why aren’t we there yet?

We decided to turn back, to Stratford, to ask for help of how to get to the border. We were about a mile away from our hotel when we saw the road to turn on. We had traveled about twenty miles on the wrong road then we turned back, so that was another twenty miles. The green street sign, small and slim, was not even a foot tall. There was no way that we would be able to see that the first time we drove by it.

Relieved and calmed, we finally got on the expressway .But the worst didn’t happen yet. After an hour on the expressway, when it was pitched black, we noticed that we were almost out of gas. Then the fuel light went on and the warning sound went off. We looked for any gas station signs but everything was closed. We finally found an old town, with a dirt road, that had a gas station sign.

My mom drove down the road for about a half mile when we saw one street light and one building. Luckily, it was a gas station. We got closer; it was closed. Of course no one was around to help us. After going to several old towns, also with dirt roads, we saw a man and asked him where a gas station was. He told us where to go and all we wondered if we’d make it will our low gas.

By now I was panicking. I thought: Are we going to be stranded in Canada for the night? I was so happy I was wrong. When we got to the gas station we saw a man, a teenager actually. His gas station was closed but he directed us to the closest one in town that was open twenty-four hours a day. I saw the lights in the town where the station was once we followed his directions. We finally got gas and we would make it home. I jumped out of my seat. I almost screamed with excitement. I was amazed that we made it. We’re safe! Free! We’ll make it!