Ebola: Threat of overreaction?

Lately a new fatal virus has been spreading through Africa at a rapid pace. This virus is known as  Ebola haemorrhagic fever or Ebola for short. This virus that is believed to  originally come from fruit bats is spread between people from body fluids like blood. People may have been come affected first from animals. Once you get Ebola you might not even know you have it for another three weeks. Some symptoms to look for our fever,intense weakness, muscle pain, headache, nausea and sore throat. Then comes the ,vomiting, diarrhoea, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Of course you could have a different virus with just similar symptoms.  There has only been eight cases of ebola in the US. According to CDC there has been 8997 cases with 4493 casualties.

The US has nothing to worry about. We have some of the best medical treatment in the world and we shouldn’t be as worried as we are. The reason West Africa is having so much trouble with Ebola is because of their lack of health care and that the people there aren’t as hygienic as here in the US. I believe we shouldn’t as worried about Ebola. I don’t think the news should be covering Ebola as much as they do and focus on other virus like enterovirus D68 which has been paralyzing kids and is an actual realistic worry in the US. So yes I do believe that Ebola is an overreaction but it is still a dangerous disease. We must be careful, but we most likely won’t have anything to worry about.

~Kyle

My Shopping Addiction Helps Needy Children? SAY WHAT?!?!

Blake Mycoskie traveled to Argentina in 2006, and befriended young children, but he felt horrible when he noticed that most of them walked around with no shoes. These kids would have deep, painful cuts on their feet,that led to dangerous infection. Besides medical hazards, tons of these children  are denied schooling because shoes are mandatory for their school uniform. Blake realized that these children may never learn how to read, just because because their families couldn’t afford a pair of shoes. This guy wanted desperately to help, so he created Toms Shoes  which is a radical shoe company. Whenever a pair of Toms is bought from a customer, a new pair of shoes is delivered to a kid in need.

My hot pink Toms came in the mail yesterday and I’m in love with a pair of shoes. If I close my eyes, it feels like I’m walking in a bowl of cushy marshmallows. Not only do my feet feel like heaven, but now I feel amazing because my random purchase sent shoes to a kid in Africa (or another poor place) who really needed them! Toms are cute, comfy, and affordable at $54, but one thing annoys me. Today when I was walking to my bus stop,  I slipped on ice, and basically fractured my butt because these shoes are so dang slippery! They have 0% traction but it’s still worth the sacrifice, just don’t wear them when you’re surrounded in black ice. This doesn’t make these shoes any less cute though, so put your shopping addiction to good use! Buy a pair of Toms for yourself, and give a kid a better future.

~Christina Nguyen

Kony or Phony

The video Kony 2012 became an overnight sensation but for those of you who haven’t seen the video, which is rare since it is the most watched video in the world,  it is to promote the arrest of Joseph Kony. The documentary was created by Jason Russell who visited Africa back in 2003 looking for a story which led him to be a co-founder of the nonprofit Invisible Children Inc. Invisible Children Inc. is working to gain support for the arrest of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. Joseph Kony or better known as Kony was abducting children all over Africa to become his children sex slaves and  soldiers of his cult. There has been an estimated 66,000 children who have become soldiers of his against their will and about 2 million more people have been displaced due to Kony. The video is to raise awareness in the United States so we can get involved to support against Kony.

After hearing about the devastation children have gone through over in Africa it pulls at our heartstrings but what if I told you it was all a scam? To start, Joseph Kony has not been in Uganda ,where his criminal activity had taken place, for about 6 years. So why all the fuss now about it? Before this video people have never heard of Kony and had no interest on what was going on in Africa. But now everyone is willing to donate money to the Invisible Children Inc., yet I feel that the money is not fully benefiting the children in Africa that are under Kony’s power. The accountability of the money going to help those in Uganda is only 50% which is not good chances you want to leave your money with. And worst of all the creators of the Invisible Children Inc. and the documentary that goes along with it are targeting  people who use the social media sites. The majority of the people who use the social medias are not educated enough to understand the scams that are out there on the sites are just that, scams. If the media generations would investigate more they would understand where I am coming from in saying that the Kony sensation is all phony.

~Katelyn Morley

“Never Again” Happening Today

The Holocaust claimed roughly between 11 and 17 million lives of innocent people, around a quarter of which were children under 15.  They were starved, abused, tortured, and murdered for no other reason than others believed that their race was superior to others. The horrors that occurred during Hitler’s rule had been like no other ever seen. They were so terrible beyond anything the human race had ever experienced before, a new word was born. Genocide. The planned killing of an entire race or ethnic group. When Nazi rule came to end, and the world began to look back on the events that defined the Holocaust, they decided one thing. Never again. Never again would man repeat the horrors experienced in World War Two. But now in the African country of Darfur, “never again” is happening today.

A genocide against mainly Black Muslims is currently occupying Darfur. The Janjaweed, or “devils on horseback” use methods in the genocide such as rape, displacement, mass murder, and starvation. Already, 400,000 have been murdered, and 2,500,000 more are left homeless. Had this not been bad enough, the Janjaweed are not only practicing, but focusing their torture on youth: get rid of today’s youth, get rid of tomorrow entirely. And do the Janjaweed have a reason for carrying out this torture? Any kind of an excuse for the genocide? No. Nothing but the want for a lighter skinned society. In other words, racial superiority. Sound familiar?

How can we let the what happened less than 70 short years ago repeat itself today? Can any human being truly look at what is happening overseas and think that just because this is all far away on another continent, we really do not have the moral commitment to help? Darfur needs an ally now more than ever. I think this is rather ironic. In almost every school there is a unit on tolerance based off the Holocaust, and kids will hear that famous quote “never again” over and over as they look back on the horrors that unfolded during World War Two. They will shake their heads at the terrible deeds and wonder how something so unjust, so plain cruel could even happen on this Earth. Most of them will never forget the things they learned about how horrible the Holocaust was. But what they will or won’t remember isn’t what’s most important. What they don’t know is that an almost exact repeat of the Holocaust is happening today.   People here, in America, need to know what is going on overseas. No human would look at what is happening in Darfur and be able to just forget. Darfur needs an ally. If we could educate ourselves on what is happening to Darfur, we could get the resources to end it. And maybe this time we’d make sure “never again” stays that way.

~Brenna Reach

Kony 2012: Is It a Scam?

If you have a Facebook account, you’ve probably heard of the massive campaign involving The Invisible Children and “Kony 2012”. Along with all of this, was a 30-minute
long video informing people about the horrible world of Joseph Kony, the Ugandan leader of the guerilla army, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which has allegedly kidnapped over 30,000 children from their homes and supplied them with weapons. The children are forced to murder their own parents by Kony’s orders, and slaughter others, as well. The boys are turned into rebel soldiers and the girls into slaves. The video features Jacob, a Ugandan young man who was in the LRA but managed to escape Kony’s grasp.

Jason Russell is a filmmaker who has been actively involved in raising awareness of Kony for almost a decade, when he met twelve-year-old Jacob who, at the time, had just escaped the LRA camp. Jacob informed him he, “would rather be dead than on this earth” (under Kony’s control). Jacob asked Russell to help him put an end to Kony’s madness. Ever since then, Russell has been raising awareness and contacting the U.S. government to help the Ugandan children and arrest Kony. The U.S. government has sent troops to Uganda to track down Kony, but to no avail. Recently, an informative video documentary was released all over media websites like Facebook, Vimeo, and YouTube; even having it’s own website, Kony2012.com. On the website, you can not only watch the video, but buy a “kit”, which includes two Kony 2012 bracelets, posters, and pins. Young people are urged to watch this video and take action.

The question is: is it a scam? Is buying this $30 kit and making donations really helping the children in Uganda? Studies show that Jason Russell donates 32% of the profit to the cause, but pockets 68%. Although Russell denies this, many people are skeptical of where their money is going. Since the Lord’s Resistance Army has been kidnapping and murdering children for over twenty-six years, many critics wonder why the U.S. is just now taking action. Many people have boycotted the Kony 2012 campaign, even going as far to call it “fake” or a “scam”. Could this be true? Could the money we donate be turning into mere profit for Jason Russell? Regardless, Joseph Kony is alive (though it is rumored he died)  and still abusing helpless children in the central African country of Uganda. It is your choice whether or not to take action.

~Julia Champagne

Bungee Jumping: Is it really worth the risk?

Bungee Jumping. When you hear this, many peoples first reaction is: “I wanna try that” or “That sounds like fun” but many people don’t take a second thought. As of 1999, an estimated 12,300 deaths have occurred as a result of bungee jumping. This so called fun activity is full of thrill and lots of danger. 22-year-old Erin Langworthy learned the hard way that sometimes you need to think twice before you actually  act and do something.

On New Years Eve of 2011, a thrill-seeker Erin Langworthy lept off of Victoria Falls bridge almost to her death.  Langworthy jumped off the Victoria Falls bridge, located in Zimbabwe, South Africa, into the crocodile infested Zambezi River. Unlike most bungee jumpers, Langworthy did not spring back up after almost reaching the water. Instead of the rope holding her and springing back up, it snapped up by where she had jumped and sent her smacking the water. “It felt like I was being slapped all over my body” stated Erin after recovering one and a half weeks in the a hospital located in South Africa. Bystanders stated the minute the rope snapped gasps and swears filled the air. Many rushed down to the water to help Langworthy out of the water. One bystander stated that Langworthy came out coughing up water and blood. Luckily, Erin came away with her life but with marks all over her body to remind her of the incident.

This tragic accident teaches me that sometimes you need to think twice before actually doing something. Bungee jumping is a very dangerous activity that really makes you think twice. Would you rather have a good time or risk having your life taken from you in a blink of an eye like Erin Langworthy almost had done to her?

~Ciara Haensel