Believing in Miracle

I believe in miracle. Miracle happens from nowhere, at point of your life. Maybe it will happen when you are so miserable like you would want to just leave everything behind and escape from the life, or it happens to make your life even better from the state you have right now. Anyways, miracle is something you really want at least once in your life.

Miracle is something that is made from love and care. Like the events that we can only call it miracle are like when a person who was in cerebral death came alive, or someone who had a baby and went in to the vegetated state and soon became alive after few weeks and the baby was safe. Cerebral death is simply death of a brain. You can't feel the pain, or everything else that is from the brain's orders. But there was a huge event in Korea. A woman woke up from the cerebral death. She was in cerebral death because someone chocked her while she was sleeping. So after she woke up in 5 years, the police used hypnotherapy on her then finally caught a criminal. This is just more then a drama, a movie. These are the things which are called miracle. Medically, to make a cerebral death person to stay alive or to wake up doesn't just cost a lot of money but also the possibility of that person convalescing is almost none. But there are some cases that they actually woke up from deep sleep, which it is not even proved medically. Maybe the family's love, attention and hope are the ones which create miracle.

Miracle happens when you believe. A woman was diagnosed as lung cancer. She was told that medically she has only 6 months to live because the cancer has progressed a lot already. Her reason to go to the hospital was because of the constant cough and pain which made her barely to sleep.  Then her bodies started to shake. At first, she thought of this just as a asthema, but after she have gone through for weeks, it was determined as a lung cancer. After that, she determined herself to stay alive. Now, she is still alive. This is the story of a woman having a lung cancer in 2003, in the age of 56. She said she saved her life because of the trust that she had to the doctor, and the bright emotion and faith she had during the long medical cure period. It was not yet miracle because there are many people nowadays who survive from cancer, but this person was not young and found out that she has cancer very late. So, this tells us that if we believe miracle, it will come to you.

Miracle is something that can be created. Father Lee Tae Suk(priest) created a miracle, a better world in Sudan. He was impetus of change. After he saw a deep depression from their village Tonj because of their poverty and diseases, he threw himself for a better medication and education. But, he ended up dying in 2010, due to cancer. But Tonj has changed. They are not able to forget the warmth of the Father, crying for him when he died. He changed Tonj. He risked his life for them, because Tonj often had in-fights. He created a miracle. Because of him, Tonj is now shining with all the instruments that he bought and taught them, bright with smiles instead of poverty and depression, and active with all the followers who are trying to follow Father by volunteering to work in LED countries. This is called miracle, when someone can actually be impetus of change. I believe Father Lee Tae Suk's sincerity moved their hearts.

Miracle is always there for you. It depends how you think. If you believe within miracle, I believe it makes you to think more positively because you have something to rely on when you have problems. To me, miracle is like turning me upside down. Coming to Malaysia and attending in ISKL, the international school, someone calling me in my phone number when I have lost them, and when I find my grade came out much better then I expected it to be, this is all miracle that has changed my daily or whole life. Something so small, can make your day better. That is why people believe in miracle. Miracle does't cost you anything but care and thinking positively. It just belongs next to you even though you don't see the light. Miracle is something that comes to you eventually, like a target.

Miracle is like a dream, what you wish for. There are much more people who created miracle by themselves, challenging their abilities, breaking the box, and believing it. Miracle will always be there for you unless you stop believing.

http://hosp.ajoumc.or.kr/webzine/human02_read.asp?column=&search_String=&article_id=300&goto_page=1

Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement

Beauty care products, medicine, household products, agricultural chemicals, pesticides and food. These are the items that we use after the scientists animal test it. These products are taking huge part in our daily lives. Because it is not confirmed if it is safe, we can’t use anything before we test it out to prevent from serious problems, and the tributes are the animals.

The reason why animal experiments are important is because our scientific knowledge and biology skills have improved by animal experiments. It’s true that lots of animals died during the testing but, without them, we might have had even bigger damage/disaster. Diseases is something that can destroy humans really fast, especially the deadly ones. The black death was so powerful that it killed 30%-50% of world’s population in the middle ages. To prevent this cause, humans created medicine and safe tested on animals. As we tested on the mice, we have created 12 anti-cancer drug which is working perfectly on humans now.

Testing on animals lets us to have this much knowledge and medicine. Not testing on animals means that we have to test it on humans. If we safety test a unknown medicine to humans, there are consequences of dying or failing the experiment on the first try because the medicines we have now has been through hundreds of test before it could be sold by a citizen in the pharmacy. Tomas A. Edison said Success comes with 99% of hard work and 1% of inspiration, which also means that genius’s like Tomas Edison goes through hundreds and thousands of failures. If we were banned to test our products to animals, who would want to risk their entire life for a test? I think not much, and that would have led us to undeveloped science which might have made our world full with unknown diseases.

Tests on animals are not only safety tests but to find out how the chemical effects on living creature. This test is based on the death rates, finding out how dangerous the chemical is. So this lethal dose test can’t be tested on human, if we are following the human rights. You might think it is so cruel to kill animals like that, even though the main parts of the world are taken by humans. That is why 3R principle was created. 3R stands for; Reduction, refinement and replacement. Reduction means to test on animals only the amount you need, refinement meaning you have to make it’s pain as less as possible and replacement which means to study or research for another method. I believe we are dealing with the promise. We calculate the amount before we start the experiment, inject a medicine(narcotic) to make the pain less, and to make something else to replace the animals like robots.

Like this, we are getting lots of information by experimenting with animals. Although we still have to remind ourselves that they live and think like us. I believe if our technology improves, there will be time that we can replace with robots in the experiment, and time to stop this experiment.

Speaking Up, Believing Within Yourself

Become noticed, believe strongly

Question the truth and speak your opinion

Be absolutely determined because uncertainty is infectious

Entreat society, declare with conviction

End being personal and speak your point

Nothing is invisible, oppose the authority!

Independence of a Country

Korea was colony of Japan for many years and I believe that this history is unforgettable. Koreans suffered and ached a lot but we are here now, standing globally high country. It is quite amazing how that small country formed a stable country in few years. I believe that was part of independence activist’s effort who didn’t think about themselves first but the country. At that time, Korea lost the name. Korea was not allowed to be called as Korea. Everyone, including students, stood up against Japanese and fought for what is right, what we want. Kim Jwa Jin is one of the people who stood up at the first row to be

Kim Jwa Jin General

independent.

Kim Jwa Jin is a soldier who fought in the war for independence. He was the leader of the army and came back with one of our greatest victory in those times. Kim Jwa Jin was born in 1889, and he liked to ride horses and do archery and in 1905, when he was 15, he let all the slaves of his house free, which was about 30. Starting from 1918, he went to China to get away from Japan’s eyes and signed the contract to be a leader for Korea independence conflicts. This was the start of our resistance.

In 1920, Kim Jwa Jin hid the soldiers in the highlands and waited until Japanese come. Japanese didn’t know that they were hiding so they were Vigilant. Then, he attacked.

This attacks and wars show us that country is worth fighting for. I believe country is worth fighting for because it’s your another face. When we meet new friends, we ask their nationality. The image of that country can really make that person look different, or that person can make people judge those nationality people in positive/negative way. It is not being racist, but it is true that country affects your thoughts and characteristic a little bit. For example, in the book called ‘Knife of Never Letting Go,’ when people found out that Todd is from Prentisstown, even though Todd doesn’t know the truth and he didn’t do anything bad, they thought he shouldn’t be in their town.

Country is the one that makes you free. That is why country is worth fighting for. If country is known as bomber country or a dangerous country, you wouldn’t have many chances to travel or enjoy outside life even though you have done nothing wrong. Others countries would not go under consequences of getting terror by letting you travel. In the book called ‘Knife of Never Letting Go,’ Prentisstown was isolated and abandoned because other towns thought they were dangerous, and they had to get disadvantage of being disconnected to the whole planet.

Without country, the world would be unorganized and isolated. Kim Jwa Jin is inspirational because he is one of the people who thought of others and country first then himself.

Something that makes a Clone-full Society

By Rene Magritte

I chose this painting by Rene Magritte because I thought it really emphasizes the meaning of being 'oppressed' by rules and laws. Same people, with same clothes, like clones. If people do only what they are told to, they are not more than a robot, not thinking by themselves but getting controlled by something/someone else. In the novel, 'The Knife of Never Letting Go,' people never questioned and only feared about the world beyond them. They tried not to be in negative side of the leader, Mayor Prentiss, and only damaged themselves and did not ask for the truth. This painting represents the a society where there are no upstanders, just working by the command of the government itself.

'It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.'
Mark Twain

Not every part of the world is free. Restrictions are tightening citizen’s own lives. Don't you think you will feel really oppressed when you think someone is watching over everything you do? Even though you have the absolute power, imagine you can't even do one thing that you intend to do. You can only act like one another, like clones and puppets, moving and being controlled by another being. Freedom is no more then doing what you want to do, and if I have given a chance to make a new world, I would make a world with freedom.

The reason why I think freedom is important is because it lets people express themselves freely in different ways. Humans often show themselves by paintings, words or even by music. Imagine, if people were covered by restrictions and rules, would they be able to expend their creativity which might change or improve their society? I think not. Just like Jews, having isolated seats in the buses and having limited time to go outside, they had no such thing called freedom. Maybe that is the advantage of the winner, Nazis, but even now, Burma is full of things that you are not allowed to do without permission. In these situations, people were afraid to take a stand which automatically made them a bystander, a puppet. Those people will just do what government wants, and that has nothing with challenging themselves or trying out new things, and I believe if that keeps up for few years, it will just become a stereotype.

In addition, I think freedom is the most important thing because people have rights to speak their opinions. Mark Twain has written many books; Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and so on. In his life time, there has been the 'American Civil War' and he negatively criticized the situation after the war through his books. Mark Twain was a resolved supporter of liberating men and women saying that they have rights. He actually supported them by paying the money for them to go to college( because he thought they have right to recieve education). I think that is why he wrote this quote(the quote that I mentioned earlier), saying people have rights to speak and they deserve human rights. I believe human rights are written to be useful to the world or the society. If the government follows human rights and tries to fix the ones that are not fully done yet, it allows citizens to think more outside the box because they have no worries bothering them, which will slowly improve the society’s technology, fine arts and so on.

The importance of freedom in the New world is huge. Without freedom, the new world would be silent and still with no improvements. As I mentioned earlier, Mark Twain once claimed...

'It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.'
Mark Twain

meaning the freedom of speech, which could mean freedom of expressing themselves, thinking in a new way, is important and precious.

http://dev.laptop.org/~arael/preview/famous_paintings/famous_paintings.xol/

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht happend when the Jewish population got blamed for everything, the loss of the world war 1, hyperinflation and Treaty of Versailles. In order to convince the German people that the Jews were all to blame, Hitler used propaganda. By 1938 many of the Nazi party came to believe Jews were not one of us(shouldn't be regarded as Germans). They became hated people and target for the Nazis. In 1938, November 9th, the Nazis started their moves. They pushed the Jews in to such a small place, metaphorically, that they became stuck. By this stage, so many rights had been taken away from Jews, that there were so little choices left for them. This night of November the 9th, the Nazi gangs were brutal towards the Jews. Showing their violent hatred. This showed just how well the propaganda worked out. Sadly, so many others who witnessed the event didn't speak up but convinced themselves to just follow the flow.

On this night, the streets were full of glass(thats why it is called Kristallnacht-night of crystals) Jewish businesses were smashed and 267 synagogues were set on fire, and 1,668 were smashed up. People and buildings were smashed and destroyed like they were made out of papers. Streets were glittering with glass, and 30,000 Jews were dragged to concentration camps(which was one forth of the Jewish population).

Not all the people agreed with Hitler's choice. In 'Taking a Stand'(Facing History, Facing Ourselves), one story came up. It was about a German boy who was asked to throw stones at the Jewish shops. Andre's mom and dad was really wise to let him chose. He said they have to leave if he is not going to throw stones, but if he will, he can stay where he lives now. Andre decided to take a stand by not participating in the violence. This meant going against his friends and peers in the Nazis youth group. His family decided to leave germany because of racial hatred.

There are some other people who chose to stay silent, following the ruler, Hitler. They were either bothered or scared of him. They fell in to Hitler's plan, propaganda. He kept saying, 'Jews are bad, They are not even humans. They made us to lose the war.' Because he is an ruler, people started to belive Jews are actually bad. They slowly started to target children, they said Jews are dirty poisonous race that they shouldn't live in one country together.

If I were in that position, I don't think I would have the courage to stand up. I would have thought that I might lose my family and friends if I became an up stander. Even though it is the wrong thing to do, unfortunately I would chose to go with the flow. It takes real courage to be like Andre, and go against the flow.

I chose this painting by Paul Klee because I thought it showed the pain of the Jews quite clearly by showing burning houses and Jews fleeing.

L Profiles

1. I learn best when......

2. I need to .....

3. The strategies that would help me in my learning....

4. I would like my teachers to know this about me.....

In humanities, we explored our learning profiles. Your profile depends on which part of your ear, hand, leg, eye and brain is dominant. This can highly effect how you learn. I am a Gastalt learner who learns by seeing the big picture. My profile, profile L, has many similarities with me.

According to the information, most of the L profile people can't do anything with stress. That is the most similar question for my personal life. I can't concentrate. I just start to stare at one particular point and 3 minutes later, I go, 'Oh! What was that?'

I usually need a silent spot to work. Distracting sources make me do other things instead of the work that I am suppose to do. So the strategies that I would use in my learning is to shut down everything and focus on on thing at a time.

I am a Gestalt learner. So that also means that I can't follow directions properly. I try my best all the time though. Thorough this activity, I have noticed many things that I am doing wrong. I think this one period of time gave me good challenge.