Harrison Bergeron

1. Life in VN would be perfect if everyone were totally equal. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer in complete sentences.
If it was trying to say equal in everything: the personality, the weight, height, intelligence or appearence, then I'd disagree. If the people were pulled down to be equal to the ones who are lower, then the society would be ruined. Everyone's intelligence and others would go down, and there wouldn't be anyone who can help the community. Plus, life wouldn't be fun that way. But if equal in status, I'd kind of agree, because I don't think anyone would like to be seen as lower classed or sympathy.

2. You are designing a society in which everyone is equal. What are the laws?
I wouldn't want a society like that, but anyway, if I was doing that, I'd want the smart people to help the lower ones first, so that they can become a little smarter. Than the smart ones would probably stop getting too much information or thinking too much to invent something. If the government has to do the same, then there shouldn't be any form of government at all.

3. What would you do to help people who were less capable mentally, physically, or socially to "catch up"?
I think I would call people to treat them just like they treat everyone else, first. Then if possible, maybe there could be a little invention that could help them walk back like normal. Or the fully healed people could try to help them with their walking and physical contacts.

4. What problems can you foresee that might come in a society with laws that force "equality for all"? How would you handle those problems?
There could be problems like the government being smarter than the citizens, just like in the story Harrison Bergeron. If the smart people were being pulled down to be the same level as the unsmart ones, it would be a problem because there wouldn't be anyone who could help the community with good inventions and others.

5. Do you believe that toal equality is possible, or would human nature make sure that some people would eventually dominate others?
Total equality could be possible, but if it includes personality, then it's impossible. Everyone was born different, so there might be other people who have the power to govern others, but total equality would be possible to make, with some efforts.

6. In what situations have you felt similarly to any of the characters? What persons, places, or ideas from your own experience came to mind while you were reading the story? Try to list at least two examples.
- There is a moment when I felt like I wanted to be free like Harrison, from the pressure that I had to do what other people want and never get a chance to express myself. Sometimes I felt like standing up to who was controlling me, and I did. The results were terrible, though.
- When the ballerinas were on stage, I was thinking of myself playing the piano on the Talent Shot last year. It was scary, but the professional ballerinas were probably used to it, so I guess I'd try to be as confident as them.

WRITE A LETTER

Dear Jake,

How are you? How’s it going? It was long since we met, wasn’t it? I miss elementary; it was fun playing together. Well, it’s not like I don’t like middle school. Actually, it’s really fun here in American International School (AIS, for short). We get to do lots of exciting stuffs, and I got to make new awesome friends. I’m doing very fine here, so please don’t worry about me. Oh yeah! I always forget the main point I write to you…

You know, yesterday, our whole eight- grade classes went all together to Cu Chi wildlife rescue center. It’s not a zoo; I’ll tell you before you get your hopes up. It does look like a zoo, but it’s not. It’s a place where animals come and rest until they recover- yeah, it’s like a hospital- then they can break free into the jungle or wherever they came from. The people there release them willingly. I know, cool, huh? The spaces for the animals are large- much larger than the cage people let them in and then kill them for medicine. There were bears, monkeys, baby leopards, sea otters, turtles… They looked really sick (except for the monkeys, they just started grabbing my friend’s shoulder and swing around wildly). Without Cu Chi, they’d start dying. This place is really helpful, you should come, too. I wanted to thank them for what they’ve done for the animals. Your family use bear biles- the medicine that were supposed to cure sicknesses and stuffs- right? Well, those biles come from hunting, killing, and making bears suffer. It doesn’t have any effect, so please don’t use them. It would decrease the bears’ population, affect the food chain, and hurt the animals. They are also living things just like us human, so what’s the point in killing them?

Oh, right! There’s also some articles that talks about them. I’ll put it right below the letter, okay? Yes, yes, I know you really, really hate reading. But deal with it.

Hey, can you help us? You can donate money to the wildlife rescue center, so they can improve. Tell people to stop hunting and killing endangered animals. Or you can do whatever you can to help them. Thanks so much!

Sorry I wrote too much. Hope we can meet soon. Say hi to your family for me.

Best wishes! Love you. Miss you.

Your best friend forever,

Anna Bui

P.S.: Remember what I told you. I’ll visit you soon… probably.

http://www.freethebears.org/web/About-us

http://www.savethebears.co.uk/

http://www.savenjbears.com/home.html

There are lots of videos like these on YouTube. You can find them if you click bear bile, or animal torture. Really good stuffs that might change your mind.
Yeah, well, anyway, reply!

HOMEWORK 2-11-2010 ;)

1. How does advertising influence consumption?
Advertising tells people to buy their products so that they would get money for themselves, but they don't really care much about the environment and how it effects it. They tell people their things are the best, so they'd buy it.

2. Do you think citizens are sufficiently informed about the sustainability of our consumption habits? If not, how can we become more informed about sustainability issues?I think some of them know about how it effects negatively to the environment, but their habits don't let them. When they see the advertisements that they like, people'll try to buy it. It's their habits from when they were young. Therefore, the school can teach students what sustainability is and how we can prevent it from happening. Parents should do that, too. It's not like they shouldn't buy a product that they really love, they can just buy less. For example, some certain people have lots of converse shoes, but he can just buy like two or three.

3. Do you think these advertising techniques influence what you and your friends purchase?Yes, somehow. I don't, because I don't really like things that people present for their own good, but I think my friends do. They love it. When they see something new that they like, they'll ask their parents or buy it themselves. Usually, if they see a model or someone they admire in the advertisement, they'd really want to have it.

Migration/ Immigration Assessment [Diary]

Friday, December 1^st, 2010

Hey, today is my birthday! And guess what, my family is forcing me to go to USA! This is insane! I mean; I have my friends, my close relatives, and this is my HOMELAND. They can’t just tell me what to do and make me MISERABLE like this. Well, first they celebrated and congratulated me entering the age of thirteen, of course, and then they said we’re going to California next week. That was out of the blue. Mom told me that there’s a better opportunity to succeed, and greater chance for me to study. Plus, dad’s side of the family is there, therefore, they could help us to find a new home and job. My parents seemed to not like Vietnam’s POPULATION and weather conditions much. I understand that they really want to SETTLE there, but what about me? I’m not so good at INTERACTING with people, and I already have friends here that I can’t leave. They said there’s flood here, and there’re like tons of EARTHQUAKES in California. It’s not like I hate America, I just… miss everything here. This is the worst birthday ever!

Monday, December 25^th, 2010

Okay, now I regret for arguing with my parents about going to USA. I mean, this PLACE is just so wonderful! The ENVIRONMENT is super, and people here are extremely friendly, not like in Vietnam. Oh, my god! How could I have said I hated it here in the first place? My friend told me moving to another country is like a nightmare, but I guess it’s not that bad immigrating after all.

Homework!

1. People make pollution that make the greenhouse gasses (greenhouse effect) causes the Earth to change like global warming. It effects the climate, or how the climate changes, and huge weathering.

2. a) Skeptics: a person who doubts the truth.
    b) Reluctant: opposing
    c) Dispute: to argue or discuss
    d) Uprooting: to tear apart violently

3. Weather is what happened to the seasons (like rain, sunny, cloudy) we experience from one day to another that doesn't last very long. And climate is the seasons (hot, cold) that happened at one exact place for a long period of time.

4.-Flood that destroy England
   -Flood in Pakistan
   -Heat wave baked the eastern part of England

5.There was one time when I was on the motorcycle with my dad and it suddenly rained heavily while we didn't bring a raincoat with us. Then the motorcycle just stopped and couldn't run any longer. We had to push it and walk home as fast as possible. It was severe.

6.Perception means to understand some sort of information.

7. In my opinion, global climate change is really bad. It effects the temperature and how people live. Global warming also make it bad for the animals that live in cold weather like polar bears or penguins because the ice are melting and they can't live there anymore. If people don't respect the environment and keep throwing out trash, releasing bad smoke from the transportation and companies.

Dream Land! =]

Dream Land was formed in year 0-1. It's a round land with two countries: Dumpty Key and Humpty Lock. DK is a nice and warm land, and HL is a cold one. Dream Land is a land with no humans, just animals and nature.
The animals lived freely where they want to. Until year 12, when the volcano in DK erupted, all the animals moved to HL and lived there because they were afraid they might die :) In year 35, the Fire and Snow Dragon was born. Snow Dragon was cruel and bad, so all the animals moved back to DK. Twenty years later, the trees in both countries were born, giving the animals food to eat without hunting. HL (the Dragon, polar bears, sea monster...) hated DK (other normal animals..:), so they had a war for about ten years, when DK won. The valley rosed up between them, and HL couldn't go back to fight with the west side country. In the middle of year 116, the animals break up into groups and followed their leaders.
~The end~

Family Tree Project

Well, before preparing for this assignment, I asked my parents about my family's lives. And there were so many things I didn't know. Like the doll that was there before I was born, my whole family comes from Sai Gon, and how my parents meet and get married. It's surprising that I didn't know that much until today...Great.
I also learned a lot about my friends and people around me. We all come from different cultures and different countries, but we are still good friends with each other. My friends are really awesome. Some can swim, some can cook, many went to different places or countries. It helps me to learn about my friends a lot. :D