English 100 Spring 2019 Blogs

After years of being alone with the knowledge that North Korea wasn’t the best country in the world, both Jun-Sung and Mi-Ran hid their truest feelings from each other. The people they felt the closest too still weren’t able to share their hearts with one another. Jun-Sung knew what was really going on in South Korea because of watching the TV and hearing radio programs. Everything he had learned, he couldn’t share with his girlfriend of 7 years. I couldn’t imagine being trapped in your own mind and not being able to express fears, desires or needs to another person.

Mi-Ran loved Jun-Sung but knew her family line would bring shame to his family if they were ever to marry. He wouldn’t be able to join the workers party or pursue his career at the university. She made the choice she couldn’t do that to him. With her family, she escaped to China. When her father passed they decided to try and get into contact with his relatives. The adventure began and even though fear resided in all of her family, the idea of a better life was on the horizon. They had to try…

I find my self most interested in the various groups that are allied or in conflict with one another. I want to know who is responsible for what. I.E who fired first, who committed what crimes, who is at fault. Not just the forces within Syria but also the external forces effecting the country and its refugees.

I want to learn more about how they are coming here and arriving to United States and in particular Hawaii.

After briefly reading the book and the article about Syria I found the war between all these different groups interesting. I say this because non of these people show any remorse for taking other peoples lives, there are so many groups at war with each other it’s insane for example the Syrian Civil War, ISIS, Al-qaeda and a bunch of others. This cause about 4.5 million people to leave their homes for their lives and if not then they risk dying from anyone of these groups. There is no mercy when it comes to this war they torture, kill, rape and starve people to make an example out of them. I want to understand their reasoning for this war and what they believe they will achieve if they continue on this road to destruction.

The animosity and Xenophobia directed towards the Syrian’s is extremely intriguing because its is similar to the prosecution faced by the Jewish people during WWII in Germany. The Jews and the Syrians are both hated for their culture and heritage however the Jews are also persecuted for their religion. I could believe that the Egyptian government allowed the reporters to preach hatred towards Syrians, but then again America allows its reporters to spread hatred about the Hondurans seeking asylum in American currently. It seems to be that if someone is upset with their life they are quick to hate but when they are content with their life they have a capacity to be loving and compassionate.

Beginning this new book, “Crossing The Sea”, I am interested in learning more about the Syrian refugees because each of them all have their own individual stories and experiences and reasons for leaving. As of right now, I would say that I am not very educated about the Syrian refugees or honestly anything to do with Syria. So, I am eager to become more educated and form my own opinions. I think that this book will teach me and give me a new perspective on Syria and Syrian refugees and so far I am interested in the story of the Amar and his journey with the author of this book.

I don’t know much about the Syrian problems or the reasons why there are refugees, but the timeline project we did in class has be intrigued to know why US has interjected itself. Why are we arming rebels? What if they were to rebel against us one day?

Crossing the Sea, already has peaked my interest because it already paints a way different picture that what I imagined. I would like to know and read more about survival stories. How many people reunite with their families? Are they able to make it financially in another country after starting with next to nothing? ht. The idea that you have to pay to be “smuggled” out of your country instead of attempting to do it on your own, I would like to know more about how they weigh the risks of survival with being caught.

Crossing the Sea:

I have my suspicions that there is an “unknown factor”, on how “undocumented” people have been crossing the sea and entering into Hawaii Nei. Why do I say this? Because there is just too much people that I don’t even know who they are. I don’t even know their Ohana name, I can’t identify their car, I can’t tell if it’s a my neighbor’s car or one of those rental cars from Enterprise. I grew up in the valley and we knew who was coming in and who was going out. Now days we don’t know who’s coming in, who is visiting, who’s moving in, who’s moving out. They don’t look like they are from my Ahupua’a, or the other side of the mountain people. These are strangers in my town. and the thing is they don’t even know they’re strangers they think we’re he strangers.

This affects the Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawaii at all aspects of life.

If there are refugees and people who are undocumented entering into Hawaii it affects the United States. This not only affects the people but it also affects the traffic, housing, native animals, food, and health. These refugees take in all benefits such as health and state benefits which should belong to the people of Hawaii. I believe it is important to be aware of what is going on in other places because as people migrate here in Hawaii, it is hard to retain land and these peoples are making it very hard to survive here. Because of the competition we have in retaining land and resources . We need to take control over our land the people of Hawaii have to know what’s going on in the world so we can be aware of it and we can prevent more economic hardships here in Hawaii.

The question that I’m thinking about the teacher says how does it affect us when there is all of these things taking place in the world.

Reading this book, the first chapter is like wow. I never really thought about it that way.

Crossing the sea with syrians on The Exodus to Europe I can’t imagine leaving my home getting on a boat with very little provisions and becoming refugees on a journey to Europe, Japan or wherever else the sea may take us. I know that my ancestors landed here and that this is where, we belong and that forever we have a home. When I read a book like this I think, could this happen? I think what would I need? If it was happening and what kind of protections I would need. It makes me grateful and thankful that we do have the US protecting us and that we do have protection from the United States laws and Military, it’s a reality check.

Don’t get me wrong ,I want to take care of all of the fugees. I want to make sure that they’re all taken care of and they all are well fed and that they’re safe and that they have fairness. but I can’t help it, I want them to have that in their own country. If they come here and they arrive on our shores, of course without a doubt, I would warm them, feed them and help them, but not to the point where I and my ohana will be push out of our home and kicked out to the curb and they become the rulers, resident, farms and landlords owners and then we for the kind-hearted and loving people who accepted them on their arrival and their visit no become taking over and become without no sorry that is not the plan that is not aloha.

so yes we need to know what is going on in parts of the world and why it is happening.so that we can learn from that and that we can have a solution for it and that we can apply it to protect ourselves. so that we know the pros and the cons.

By just reading these couple of pages (9-22), I learned to understand a topic that I wasn’t even aware how soon this was. Starting only a couple of years ago, I had no idea how bad this war had gotten and what it had caused for many lives. It’s so sad to say that while some families/ people want to just live their lives, others want to do bad and just cause a huge catastrophe. As I read that it is Amar’s goal to make it to Europe, it almost seems totally impossible to do… despite the amount of security there is around Europe. Analyzing this information, I can totally understand why “Europe borders would be a death strip” but I can totally feel for these people who just want to make a secure life for their family and want to flee from all this violence. It’s such a sad issue. When I read the first few sentences of this book and now concluding to the end of page 22, I have a bad hunch about the character Amar. Despite him taking medication due to the impacts of his experiences and his age, I really hope he makes it for his family. I know that it was mentioned they were beaten, but I hope Amar gets his happy ending. I really don’t wanna finish this book if he doesn’t. That was just my tea on these couple of pages I read.

    For many years the North Korean Government has brainwashed their citizens with either fear or with promises of rewards for example clothes, food or televisions. The Government has done this in order to restrict their citizens knowledge of the outside world and to reassure that the people stay loyal to the leader. While reading the book “Nothing to Envy” it was obvious there is a limit to how much people can endure, once they are at their limit they finally think for themselves and realize everything that is going on around them instead of just obeying the Government.

    Dr. Kim a character is a in the book who ended up defecting because she couldn’t take the suffering and pain that the North Korean Government inflicted anymore. She has seen so many people die throughout her short career as a doctor even her own daughter died along with many other children. Majority of the deaths were due to starvation or diseases, she said “I remember all of them”. That’s not all she also said “they would look at me with accusing eyes. Even four year olds knew they were dying and that I wasn’t doing anything to help them”. Even though she went through this over and over again it never got easy she says “all she was capable of doing was to cry with their mothers over their dead bodies afterwards”. She had already came to the realization about North Korea but what finally gave her the push she needed was her father telling her to go to China where she had family. Not to long after hearing it she finally built up the courage and defected.

    Another character with independent thinking is Mrs. Song she was a firm believer in the teaching of the Great leader and knew everything by heart. She despised those who would break the law by selling things at the black market or do anything to go against what she was told by the Government. She was indeed the ideal citizen of North Korea. Everything was great for her and her family until she reached her breaking point and this was due to a combination of events such as starvation and the loss of her mother in law, husband and her daughter. She started not to care about anyone or anything her survival instincts kicked in and she ended up becoming the person she despised. She knew she couldn’t rely on the Government that she so strongly believed in before so she took matters into her own hands. She would sell books, own animals, sell rice(which is highly illegal), basically everything she had. She wanted to die because she lost everything that meant anything to her but for some odd reason she couldn’t.

    One of the most recent characters I read about was very interesting to me his name is Kim Hyuck he started his independent thinking at a very young age not because he wanted to but because he had to. He had to learn how to survive by himself this began shortly after his mother passed away. He got into an argument with his step mother because she would feed her daughter more than him or his brother this led them to stealing in order to survive. When he was ten years old he stole from a stranger for the first time he ended up being caught by police and his father picked him up and told him “no boy of mine will be a thief”. It’s easy to see where the father is coming from but his child who is starving to death is just trying to survive by any means necessary. He kept on stealing food or items in order to trade for food until he gathered up the courage to cross the border and steal from there and sell the things he stole in North Korea or vise versa, he even joined a gang at a young age in order to survive.

   This is just a bit of what people are going through in North Korea and it shows you the pain and suffering they had to endure in order to live another day because they could die at any moment. You don’t have to be poor to be an independent thinker but all of these people who have had experiences that pushed them over the edge so that they question not only their beliefs but their Government as well. It goes to show you when faced with a life or death situation people are willing to do what it takes to survive and that is what creates an independent thinker. It is those who are willing to do things and exceed their limits in order to survive.