Looking Back on Freshman Year

Now that we’re heading into our last week of school looking back at the entire year seems harder than anyone could imagine, at least for me. I came as a freshman knowing about a third of the grade, which for me helped a lot. For someone who is rather quite it is hard for me to make friends quite as easily. But once I do I never stop talking. After being here for a year I love the amount of friends that I have. Going to the Inauguration in Washington D.C is one of the greatest experiences of my life but it also brought me closer to about ten people who I am now really good friends with because of that. If I had to redo this year over I would not change anything about my social life. I have the best of friends anyone could ever ask for. Next I come to my classes. When I look back at the year two classes in particular have changed drastically since the start- geometry and biology. At the beginning of the year I hated, and when I say hate I truly did, those classes. I thought that they were going to be the death of me. But it’s almost like after winter break someone changed something in my brain. The classes became increasingly more interesting and I found myself excited to go to those classes. (I would never really admit this to anyone because these are the two classes that most people hate) But now I find that I am going to be missing those two classes next year. Another class I took that I knew was not going to be my favorite now I am so very glad that I took Creative Writing and Poetry. After taking these two classes I don’t think it is even right to compare my writing to how it was before. Everything about it has completely changed. It actually makes sense and I am learning how to write in so many ways that I didn’t even I think I could. In all of my classes I love how the teachers actually care about the students. If we don’t get it they won’t just give up on us. They will keep going and even tutor you one on one until everyone gets it. They may push you or try to get you out of your comfort zone but it is only to make you stronger. Lastly I have always been careful about my grades. I am someone who always wants the best grade they can get and I know that it isn’t always a good thing. But, honestly I am very glad of what I have achieved. One thing I just wish I could improve on is balancing homework and studying with an actual social life. I either have to much of either one and sometimes it overwhelmed me so much that my whole week was ruined.

Obama's Afghan Policy

Part of Obama’s plan when he became president was to start paying more attention to Afghanistan in hopes that we could win the war there and help start building at least a third world country. When he unveiled to the public his policy for Afghanistan he stressed a lot about the importance of deploying ore troops and move civilian advisors to help rebuild Afghanistan and help win the war. When he revealed his plan he first ordered 4,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan. He said that these should be able to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” al- Qaida in Afghanistan. While sending this troops he is hoping to also defeat al-Qaida in the neighboring country of Pakistan. Obama thinks that sending more troops will help support and arouse the Afghan army to turn it up a notch in trying to beat the terrorists. Later he went on to say that after he sent the 4,000 troops he would later send 17,000 troops. He is hoping that by the time that he sends the troops that they are “war-weary” and that this will help in the defeat of the country. The President of Afghanistan, Karzai, welcomes ore troops. He said that the additional help could help train his countries army and police force. Obama is very sure that eventually we will win this war. He said very clearly to the American public, “And to the terrorists who oppose us, my message is the same: we will defeat you.” Even though his plan puts more troops and money on the line in the end he is expecting it to help win us the war in Afghanistan. There is also some more talk about Obama and his policies lately. Before Obama came into office he said that he wanted a transparent government, A government that kept nothing from its citizens. And an example of this was that he was planning to release the pictures of the detainee abuse in Abu Ghraib many years ago. He was just ready to release them when he decided not to. He said that releasing the pictures would only fuel hostility to the U.S. He is afraid that everything would just get worse. So many people have trouble believing whether Obama’s plan in Afghanistan is going to work because he completely made a 180 here. Also many people wonder if sending more troops to Afghanistan means more abuse will continue. This is currently Obama’s policy for Afghanistan and his plan for winning the war there.

Karzai's Brother Fine After Attacks

About one day ago rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns shootings fell down on a motorcycle that was carrying President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai. Wali Karzai is the president of the provincial council of the southern Kandahar province. He said that it was an obvious attempt at an assassination, but he did not say as to whom he speculates might have done such a thing to him. He is sure that these assassination attempts were aimed towards him because first of all people knew where he was. And secondly they were driving in a convoy. And the front of the convoy was the only place that was shot at. So these people who fired the weapons must have known that members of parliament and other government officials ride towards the back. But, lucky for him only a bodyguard was killed. Wali was not harmed in the least. Kandahar province, where he is much involved, is one of the birthplaces of the Taliban. So the Taliban is a possible consideration. They were driving on their way to Kabul from the eastern province of Nangarhar. When they got to Surobi this is where the gunmen attacked them. This is a very mountainous area and is about 25 miles from the capital of Afghanistan. They said that once they entered the Surobi pass the attackers began shooting at them. Wali was returning from his trip to Jalalabad where he went so that he could thank Sherazi for not running against his brother in this year’s election. Earlier in the year another assassination attempt was said to be aimed at Wali once again. And it was lead by the Taliban. Luckily enough the bombs went off right after he had left the building but they did unfortunately kill 13 people in the building. Because of these attacks before I believe that these shooting were most likely by the Taliban, because they ave already shown their dislike towards Wali Karzai.

Dr. Vesper's Discussion

When Dr. Vesper came and discussed with us the present situation in Iraq I found it very interesting. When we finished the book Hyder told us that his father stopped being the governor of Kunar Province. But what he didn’t tell us was why. Today when Dr. Vesper came and talked to us about his views we finally got an insight as to part of the reason he stepped down from being governor. What he said was that Hyder’s father was pretty much just lazy. He never got very much accomplished and never was very motivated to do anything that would be of extreme help to the province. This is something that I completely did not get from the book. I thought that he was a respectable leader who was just what the country needed. I never realized that he was just lazy. An example of this that he told us was the timber smuggling. He knew that people were doing it but he never did much to stop it, or at least enough to make a difference. One thing he told us that completely surprised me was about how long it would take the country to even become a third world country. Dr. Vesper said at least 20 years. This long because you need a whole knew generation with fresh ideas from people who are open minded. It is sad to think about that all of the hard work that the government now is putting in might not pay off during their life times. They might never get to see the country change. When Dr. Vesper came and talked to us he was telling us about Asadabad and Jalalabad and their stops in between. But in particular a road near the gem mines. But I found it to be very ironic that Dr. Vesper and driven past that same road and told not to go on it that the American troops in the book and Hyder go on, and they are shot at. All together I am glad Dr. Vesper came and talked to us to help conclude our study of Afghanistan and stitch up any questions that we still could have had.

$96 Funding Bill for War in Afghanistan and Iraq

On Friday May 13, 2009 the house passed a bill to help provide funding for the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. This bill was worth more than $96 billion, which would be split between the two countries. And all of this money would last until September 30, 2009. Obama had asked for and requested that this be passed, just like he promised it would be. And the bill was passed but 51 of the House Democrats opposed it. The bill passed very easily with 368 to 60, with all the Republicans but nine supporting it and only 200 democrats. The reason that many of the democrats did not vote for the bill to be passed is because they are afraid that the same thing will happen to him as it did to George Bush. They are afraid that he is spending too much money on these two wars without even thinking about an “exit strategy” and when they are going to remove troops from Ira and Afghanistan. The democrats did not go out and start talking about Obama and how they disliked some of his actions, but they compared him to George Bush once again. They compared Obama’s billion of dollars to help win the war in Afghanistan and his increase to 21,000 troops to Bush’s efforts in Iraq. Many of the Representatives, both Democratic and Republican, are saying that they are tired of wars with no though of how they are going to end. Tired of the everlasting wars. They believe that this bill just extends the failed policies. past month Obama defended his strategy for Afghanistan with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of more than 70 liberal members. But, most of them opposed the bill. Many of the people who supported Obama to begin with still do but, they are just saying that sometimes great president make mistakes.

End of Novel

After finishing reading the book Come Back to Afghanistan I found that the views that I wrote about previously really have not changed. In general when I was reading the novel I did not particularly care for it. There are many insignificant details that have nothing to do with the study. In fact, there really is no story. There is no build up of anticipation, no climax. His entire story is almost copied off his audio recordings he made while he was there. Then he managed to put every single one into this book. And many of them have nothing to do with anything. For example in one part of the novel he wandered off when he was talking about government and started talking about cats. These little stories are what made me dislike the book. Also there was really no story. It would be like me writing a story about my summer when I went to the East Coast. There is no story. I just say what I did and that’s the end of it. This is almost what he did. Yes I will admit that his story is much more significant. This is the only reason that I am glad that I read this book. The general idea that the book is getting at is important. And when reading this book I feel like I get a secret insight into the minds of the government of Afghanistan. We are reading about something that is so important to the country of Afghanistan. And lastly the most significant thing I got out of this book is what the lives of many Afghans is like. We live in America typing on our laptops, spending thousands of dollars each year for an education when people in Afghanistan are starving. They live in tiny cramped villages with the fear of bombs falling on their heads every night. They live in fear of dying everyday. They live in fear of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. When I think of this I think of how fortunate I am. And this is the most significant thing I got out of this book. I just feel that this book is not presented the way it could be. It has so much good information in it. I just think that this book would have so much potential if it would just learn how it organize the facts and get rid of the unnecessary details.

Lions for Lambs

Personally I enjoyed Lions of Lambs very much. With such simplicity it was able to help explain the situation in Afghanistan and all the thinking that went into it. The part that moved me the most was the very end. About 20 minutes into the movie one of the two friends falls off the plane and the other jumps out after him. As they are lying in the snow the Taliban are closing in in the walls around them. I love how strong they managed to stay even though they were nearly frozen and knew that they were going to die. Once it got towards the end of the line (when they ran out of bullets and could see the Taliban closing in on them) one dug himself out of the snow and crawled over to his friend. Then this last part is what moved me to almost tears. They knew the end was coming and they didn’t want to end it as weaklings lying on the ground. They were proud of what they had done for their country. So very lowly they stood up with their arms wrapped around each other. Then the Taliban took their chance and shot them down and they die together. But the symbolism behind that is so strong. They chose to admit themselves into the army no matter how many times people told them not to. They had been inseparable for as long as they had known each other and they weren’t going to let on die without the other. And when they die they died together just as they always had been. But also this exhibited the failure in what exactly the reporter and the senator had been talking about at the same time. The reporter didn’t like the idea of sending more troops and trying to overtake areas that were not to be overtaken. She didn’t want to spare innocent lives.. And the death of these two exhibited exactly what she was afraid of. When they mixed the student in with the whole mix it showed a different side of the story that I think was necessary. It showed the youth of America today and what they have grown up thinking is the “right thing to do.” The college student made me mad in a way because he was so stubborn. He had so much real potential to make a difference in the world but he chose not to. He chose just to sit on his but and play video games all day. He had no idea of what was going on half way across the world. He had no idea that innocent people were dying and that if he wanted to he had the chance to help. I loved the balance of this movie and how it showed the futre and the potential of change and motivation to do something. It showed the action behind all the fighting and the masterminds behind the publicity. And it showed the strength and the loyalty of the fighters who are doing everything they can to fight for their country.

Current Event: 147 Afghans dead

It was said that at about midnight our time on May 7th 147 people died in the two villages of Ganjabad and Gerani. Abdul Basir Khan, ho is a member of Farahs provincial council helped collect names of those who died and he said he collected 55 names at one place and 92 at another. If this death toll number is correct then it would be the worst case of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, at one time, since 2001 during the U.S. led invasion that helped oust the Taliban. The villagers told the investigators that most of the dead were buried in mass graves with up to 20 people. The investigators did not bother to dig those bodies up from the ground. When the international Red Cross went to the two villages they said that women and children were among the many of dead people lying in their ruined houses due to the bombing. The ones who were still alive were crying and going around with the investigators pointing and telling them who their family members were, where the graves were, and where their house used to be. Many people blame it on the Americans and the bombing runs that they took in western Afghanistan. What really happened was that the U.S. forces had ordered air strikes on the Taliban after a firefight. But instead of killing the Taliban the bombs killed civilians who were hiding in their houses. The surviving villagers said that they gathered the older males, women, and children in several building near the village of Gerani to keep them away from the bombing. But those buildings ended up being some of them that were hit. Not everyone though who died was killed by the bombings. Yes some were killed by the air strike (the bombing) but they were also killed by the firefight between the Americans and Taliban, and the Taliban deliberately killed some. Their hope was that the U.S. would be blamed because of their bombing. After the bombing took place around 150 people took part in a protest involving stone-throwing and chanting “Death to America.” They also clashed with the police. This is just one of the many stories about death in Afghanistan.

This American Life

The radio show This American Life, gives us the chance to listen to the actual recordings that Hyder created while he was in Afghanistan that very first summer. It gives us the chance to hear his emotions and the sounds that his surroundings made. One part in particular that hit me the most was the recording after the bomb went off in the market place, which was located in the center of Kabul. While he was outside walking through the site where the bomb went off you could hear him kicking the car that held the bomb, which caused all the damage. You could also hear people sweeping up the glass that had fallen from all the windows as well as the sirens in the background. Personally, this description of it and the background sounds that went a long with it made it ten times stronger than how it was written in the book. In the book you read it, but there is no passion involved. But when listening to it you can hear his frustration and sadness coming from his voice while partially listening to what was actually happening afterwards. I found that listening to this radio show after reading the book was quite beneficial. When I read the book I usually find myself drifting off and therefore I miss some of the smaller details in the book, and occasionally rather large ones. But after listening to this I find my mind is “refreshed” and it helped my mind remember some of the events that happened in earlier chapters. For that I’m glad we had to listen to this. I found that sometimes when Hyder would record something knew it was very insignificant to the story in whole. An example of this would be his personal health. Every single time he felt sick, which was 3 times in this, he would make a new recording that would last 2 minutes long. After on e time of this I kind of got annoyed with it because it really adds nothing to the story. But, on a plus note a positive was the emotion in his voice. In the book it is all very dry and monotonic. But here we get a sense of what he is really feeling and we get a snapshot was what he was going through. I found this to be the best advantage of listening to This American Life.

Blog Entry 1: Experience of Novel

Come Back to Afghanistan is a novel about finding identity and doing everything to make sure that Afghanistan can get on the road for a successful future. So it is not to be said that this book as no point…because it does. It teaches us so much about a country half way across the world. A country that we have invaded. We learn about the lifestyles of the people their and what they have to live through everyday because of all the fighting. It’s a learning experience for everyone who reads it. The leaders are willing to do anything for their country no matter what the price. Their perseverance is admirable. Even though Afghanistan is in such poor conditions they are not going to give up on it. And this is why it is a book worth reading. Yes, I do say that this is a learning experience, but I will admit to the fact that it is not the most riveting page-turner that I have read. The author, Said Hyder Akbar, writes as though he is talking. We know that much of it is just copied from the types that he recorded while he was there, but it seems as though he spent very little time actually editing it. He sometimes drags on about certain issues or will wander off and start to talk about something completely unrelated. This makes the book harder to follow because you don’t always know where he is at, and your mind has to jump from one place to another. The story itself is interesting. Anybody who gets the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan and see up close and take part in the government should be listened to. I like how he is taking this time to record it and let the world know. But, just the way it is presented and laid out does not help. Honestly I will admit that I have gotten so bored that I have fallen asleep while reading a couple of times. And I almost feel guilty saying this…but it is true. What I think would help this book out is if he spent more time on the bigger things that happened, than going on five page long tantrums about an insignificant fact. Just get to the point. Lastly I feel like even though this is a memoir of his life there is no sense of story. It’s just like a timeline. If there was a sense of a form of a climax or a “plot” in a sense that would help the story come along. All together I do say that this book is not particularly one I read to pass the time, but it is a good learning experience and I am glad that we have to read it.

Being rich is more important than having close friends...

One of the statements on the Anticipation/Reaction Guide for of Mice and Men is "Being rich is more important than having close friends." This statement is one that I completely disagree with. Just imagine growing old and becoming that rich lonely guy. The one you picture sitting alone in front of the fireplace reading the newest book about "How best to invest your money" in his new black suit. This is a life that no one should want to live. All alone… just you and your money. Personally I would rather be dirt poor and have the best friends in the world than be rich and lonely. Just because you are rich doesn’t mean that you have a great life. Sure money gets you places in life, and yes it can buy you friendships, but then you have to ask the question “Are they really your true friends?” The best feeling is knowing that you have a true friend who is always there for you no matter what situation you might happen to stumble upon or no matter what wrong doing you are guilty of. Close friends are like my support system. The people who are there for you even when you have nothing to offer are the ones who you know are the best of friends and would never do anything against you. This is why I disagree with the statement that it is more important to be rich than to have close friends.