This is a spoken word piece that I found on YouTube that I found very interesting. The name of this piece is "We are One Culture". I feel that this spoken word piece is saying that we are all basically living the same lives yet we live in a world of hatred and selfishness. We all go through the same struggles yet we feel as though our lives are so different when in reality, it isn't. The only thing that separates us in life is our backgrounds. In a world where everything is changing with time, we still seem to live in the past. We are all following the same laws of the government and no one will stand up for what's right. When it all boils down, we really are one culture but we fail to realize it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ZwJy3VGbM
Monday, 28 November 2011
His Journey to Today
These are pictures of Omar Khadr at 15 and and him 10 years later. This just shows that he grew up a prisoner which is very sad in my opinion. He didn't have a normal teenage life like any regualr teenager.
Just my thoughts on Omar Khadr
After hearing about Omar Khadr being held prisoner I felt very sorry for him because he was just 15 years old and had to witness many people around him getting killed. He is the last westerner being held and what surprised me the most was reading that the Canadian government has yet to ask for his return. I personally feel that at 15 years old he shouldn’t be treated so poorly by these people because he hasn’t done anything wrong in my opinion. 10 years later and he still has no freedom and he is in isolation which can mentally damage a person. After getting shot 2 times, the medics were treating his wounds and he told them to shoot him which is something someone should never have to tell another person, especially at 15 years old. I feel that Omar Khadr was deprived of his childhood and deprived of the opportunity to grow up as a regular teenager without his family. In Guantanamo Bay he was treated as if he wasn’t human and its very sickening to read and hear about the things that have been done to him. I could never imagine being treated the way he is being treated and no one deserves it. Everyone deserves the right to live normally and they have deprived him of his rights and his freedom.
Canadian Prisoner in Guantanamo
This is an article that I found about Omar Khadr, a Canadian who has been held prisoner in Guantanamo Bay since he was 15 years old.
TORONTO — On the morning of July 27, 2002, American Special Forces soldiers were pinned down by an outnumbered handful of suspected Al Qaeda fighters in a compound south of Kabul. Two F-18 warplanes proceeded to drop 500-pound bombs.
When the smoke cleared, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer went to survey the rubble. The Denver, Colo. native never saw the grenade that landed at his feet, killing him. A U.S. soldier says he then saw an injured fighter lying in the debris and shot him dead. He saw another — later identified as Omar Khadr — sitting on the ground, and pumped two bullets into his back.
Khadr survived. As an army medic treated the gaping exit wounds on his chest, Khadr whispered, in English, "Shoot me.”
He was 15 years old. He was also a Toronto-born Canadian citizen.
Today, Khadr is the last westerner languishing in America’s notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Other western countries have demanded and secured the release of their citizens. But successive Canadian governments have steadfastly refused to even ask for Khadr’s return. That fact alone challenges Canada’s self-image as a standard-bearer for human rights and international law.
Khadr was a child soldier. International conventions signed by Canada consider child soldiers victims who should be rehabilitated, rather than prosecuted — in Khadr’s case, if he ever gets a trial, for Speer’s murder. Yet the Canadian government continues to wash its hands of him, even after U.S. President Barack Obama announced the closing of “Gitmo” within a year.
Canada's current conservative government stands virtually alone among western countries in supporting the Guantanamo prison, despite the discredited legal contortions used by the previous U.S. administration to justify its existence and the “enhanced” interrogation techniques its inmates have suffered.
One example used on Khadr is described in “Guantanamo’s Child,” a well-documented book by the Toronto Star’s national security reporter, Michelle Shephard: “The guards left him in the interrogation booth for hours, short-shackled with his ankles and wrists bound together and secured to a bolt on the floor. Unable to move, he eventually urinated and was left in a pool of urine on the floor.
“When the MPs returned and found the soiled teenager, they poured pine oil cleaner on Omar’s chest and the floor. Keeping him short-shackled, the guards used Omar as a human mop to clean up the mess. Omar was returned to his cell and for two days the guards refused to give him fresh clothes.”
The last westerner in Guantanamo
The last westerner in Guantanamo
Canada's government refuses to call for the release of a young Canadian held at the US prison.
Canada's government refuses to call for the release of a young Canadian held at the US prison.
A drawing by artist Janet Hamlin, reviewed by the U.S. military, shows young Canadian captive, Omar Khadr, attending a pre-trial session at the Guantanamo Bay naval base Dec. 12, 2008. (Janet Hamlin/Reuters)
When the smoke cleared, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer went to survey the rubble. The Denver, Colo. native never saw the grenade that landed at his feet, killing him. A U.S. soldier says he then saw an injured fighter lying in the debris and shot him dead. He saw another — later identified as Omar Khadr — sitting on the ground, and pumped two bullets into his back.
Khadr survived. As an army medic treated the gaping exit wounds on his chest, Khadr whispered, in English, "Shoot me.”
He was 15 years old. He was also a Toronto-born Canadian citizen.
Today, Khadr is the last westerner languishing in America’s notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Other western countries have demanded and secured the release of their citizens. But successive Canadian governments have steadfastly refused to even ask for Khadr’s return. That fact alone challenges Canada’s self-image as a standard-bearer for human rights and international law.
Khadr was a child soldier. International conventions signed by Canada consider child soldiers victims who should be rehabilitated, rather than prosecuted — in Khadr’s case, if he ever gets a trial, for Speer’s murder. Yet the Canadian government continues to wash its hands of him, even after U.S. President Barack Obama announced the closing of “Gitmo” within a year.
Canada's current conservative government stands virtually alone among western countries in supporting the Guantanamo prison, despite the discredited legal contortions used by the previous U.S. administration to justify its existence and the “enhanced” interrogation techniques its inmates have suffered.
One example used on Khadr is described in “Guantanamo’s Child,” a well-documented book by the Toronto Star’s national security reporter, Michelle Shephard: “The guards left him in the interrogation booth for hours, short-shackled with his ankles and wrists bound together and secured to a bolt on the floor. Unable to move, he eventually urinated and was left in a pool of urine on the floor.
“When the MPs returned and found the soiled teenager, they poured pine oil cleaner on Omar’s chest and the floor. Keeping him short-shackled, the guards used Omar as a human mop to clean up the mess. Omar was returned to his cell and for two days the guards refused to give him fresh clothes.”
Friday, 28 October 2011
Welcome to Jamrock
This song “Welcome to Jamrock” by Damian Marley talks about some of the controversial issues of Jamaica. Welcome to Jamrock covers issues such as crime, poverty and political corruption as part of the harsh reality of "Jamrock", Marley's personification of Jamaica, as opposed to the Jamaica advertised as a popular tourist destination. In the song, Marley talks about Jamaica's high crime rate and inceasing violence, demanding that those in charge do something about it. Through he carries on the legacy of his father before him (Bob Marley), in inspiring Jamaicans to stand together.
I have also posted the lyrics, it may be hard to read but this song says a lot because people think it is a very nice vacationing spot but there are more serious problems in the country.
"Welcome To Jamrock"
Welcome to Jamrock, camp whe' da' thugs them camp at
Two pounds a weed inna van back
It inna your hand bag, your knapsack, it inna your back pack
The smell a give yah girlfriend contact
Some boy nuh know dis, them only come around like tourist
On the beach with a few club sodas
Bedtime stories, and pose like them name Chuck Norris
And don't know the real hardcore
Cause Sandals a no 'back-to', da thugs Dem wi do whe' them got to
And won't think twice to shot you
Don't make them spot you, unless you carry guns a lot too
A bare tough thing come at you
When Trenchtown man stop laugh and block-off traffic
Then them wheel and pop off and them start clap it
With the pin file dung and it a beat rapid
Police come inna jeep and them cant stop it
Some say them a playboy, a playboy rabbit
Funnyman a get dropped like a bad habit
So nobody pose tough if you don't have it
Rastafari stands alone!
[Chorus]
Welcome to Jamrock, Welcome to Jamrock
Out in the streets, they call it murder!
[Verse 2]
Welcome to Jamdown, poor people a dead at random
Political violence, can't done! Pure ghost and phantom, the youth
Dem get blind by stardom
Now the Kings Of Kings a call
Old man to Pickney, so wave unno hand if you with me
To see the sufferation sicken me
Them suit no fit me, to win election them trick we
Den them don't do nuttin at all
Come on let's face it, a ghetto education's basic
A most a the youths them waste it
And when them waste it, that's when them take da guns and replace it
Then them don't stand a chance at all
And that's why a nuff little youth have up some fat matic
With the extra magazine inna them back pocket
And a bleach a night time inna some black jacket
All who not lock glocks, them a lock rocket
Then will full you up a current like a short circuit
Dem a run a roadblock which part the cops block it
And from now till a morning not stop clock it
If them run outta rounds a bruck back ratchet
[Chorus]
Welcome to Jamrock (Southside, Northside)
Welcome to Jamrock (East Coast, West Coast, huh, yo)
Welcome to Jamrock (Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey) Hey!
Welcome to Jamrock
Out in the streets, they call it murder!!!
[Outro]
Jamaica Jamaica! Jamaica Jamaica! Now!
Jamaica Jamaica! Yo! Jamaica Jamaica!
Welcome to Jamrock, Welcome to Jamrock
I have also posted the lyrics, it may be hard to read but this song says a lot because people think it is a very nice vacationing spot but there are more serious problems in the country.
"Welcome To Jamrock"
Welcome to Jamrock, camp whe' da' thugs them camp at
Two pounds a weed inna van back
It inna your hand bag, your knapsack, it inna your back pack
The smell a give yah girlfriend contact
Some boy nuh know dis, them only come around like tourist
On the beach with a few club sodas
Bedtime stories, and pose like them name Chuck Norris
And don't know the real hardcore
Cause Sandals a no 'back-to', da thugs Dem wi do whe' them got to
And won't think twice to shot you
Don't make them spot you, unless you carry guns a lot too
A bare tough thing come at you
When Trenchtown man stop laugh and block-off traffic
Then them wheel and pop off and them start clap it
With the pin file dung and it a beat rapid
Police come inna jeep and them cant stop it
Some say them a playboy, a playboy rabbit
Funnyman a get dropped like a bad habit
So nobody pose tough if you don't have it
Rastafari stands alone!
[Chorus]
Welcome to Jamrock, Welcome to Jamrock
Out in the streets, they call it murder!
[Verse 2]
Welcome to Jamdown, poor people a dead at random
Political violence, can't done! Pure ghost and phantom, the youth
Dem get blind by stardom
Now the Kings Of Kings a call
Old man to Pickney, so wave unno hand if you with me
To see the sufferation sicken me
Them suit no fit me, to win election them trick we
Den them don't do nuttin at all
Come on let's face it, a ghetto education's basic
A most a the youths them waste it
And when them waste it, that's when them take da guns and replace it
Then them don't stand a chance at all
And that's why a nuff little youth have up some fat matic
With the extra magazine inna them back pocket
And a bleach a night time inna some black jacket
All who not lock glocks, them a lock rocket
Then will full you up a current like a short circuit
Dem a run a roadblock which part the cops block it
And from now till a morning not stop clock it
If them run outta rounds a bruck back ratchet
[Chorus]
Welcome to Jamrock (Southside, Northside)
Welcome to Jamrock (East Coast, West Coast, huh, yo)
Welcome to Jamrock (Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey) Hey!
Welcome to Jamrock
Out in the streets, they call it murder!!!
[Outro]
Jamaica Jamaica! Jamaica Jamaica! Now!
Jamaica Jamaica! Yo! Jamaica Jamaica!
Welcome to Jamrock, Welcome to Jamrock
Interview with a Migrant
Recently I got the opportunity to interview my mother who migrated her family from Jamaica to New York and then to Canada. I personally knew some of what my mother had to go through to get us here but I never knew or understood the details of it because I was so young. By interviewing my mother I found out that she started the process of trying to migrate to another country before I was even born. It was a 10 year process and when I was creating my questions I asked her all the questions in regards to why she wanted to move to a new country with her 13 brothers and sisters. She felt it wasn't safe living in Jamaica at the time and she wanted a better life for her kids in terms of education and better opportunities. I personally did not want to move to Canada but now that I am older I understand why she made this decision and I agree with the choice she made. I believe that I would have had more struggles if I were living in Jamaica or New York at this point in my life and I am very happy to be a Canadian citizen. I do plan on visiting back home more consistently as well as my family in New York now that I am of age to do so on my own.
Excerpt from Kim Thuy's book "Ru"
Kim Thuy's excerpt talks about he journey from Vietnam to Canada. After arriving in Canada she and her family were just overwhelmed by the outlook of where they were moving to. She says "after having lived for so long in such unlit places, such a white, virginal landscape was dazzling, blinding, even intoxicating. She was also overwhelmed by the welcoming that they all received and this made me realize that arriving in a new country brings new experiences to a persons life. It takes a lot of getting used to which may take some time for most an and also may be harder for some people. What makes the arrival even harder is the fact that some people don't even speak English. This makes it harder for other people to understand them and causes these immigrants to sometimes isolate themselves. Kim Thuy also says "Just like my son Henri now, I could say or understand nothing, though I was not deaf or dumb". In my opinion being in a new country and not being able to speak the language of that person puts a damper on the mindset of some people because they basically have to start all over again in terms of learning a new language. It makes you feel like a child again which is very hard. I didn't have to learn a new language when I moved from Jamaica but I did have an accent which many people weren't used too. Some people laughed while others did understand that I came from somewhere else. In some cases when a family moves to a new country in which they speak a different language, it's harder for the parents to adapt to the new surrounding so they look to their kids to teach them because their kids will be attending school and learning so much more than their parents. I feel that adapting to a new area and new people is a very long and complicated process I understand what Kim Thuy and her family had to go through because I had to go through it myself even though my story isn't as complex as hers.
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