Social Awareness Project #1: Daily News Diary

Daily News Diary:

Entry #1:
11/26/14
The New York Times “China Asks for Help Identifying and Returning Fugitive Officials” By Didi Kirsten Tatlow
Posted Nov. 26, 2014
    Everyone knows about the death penalty, and it still happens today. But China is one of the most well-known for the frequent “...use of torture and the death penalty.” It is estimated that “China executes about 2,400 people each year, more than the rest of the world combined”, although the Chinese government does not officially release the number of executions.
    Recently, Chinese officials who have been suspected of having fled the country with purloined assets are being searched for. China has requested that other countries help with their search of the fugitives. However, because China lacks the extradition treaties with countries that these fugitives most likely fled to, it requires these countries to “reform their laws” and “reduce the burden of proof required for extradition.” These countries include Australia, Canada and the United States. Several Western countries such as the United States, have already refused signing extradition agreements with China because of China’s frequent “...use of torture and the death penalty.”
    When I read this article, I thought about how unjust it is to execute so many people. The fact that these estimated numbers are more than the rest of the world’s annual execution rate combined is sickening. China has many citizens, which could affect those numbers, but even then it should not be necessary to kill that many people. It made me resist the idea of helping China find these fugitives, even if they did do wrong. On the other hand, I do understand why China would want to find these fugitives. However, execution still seems a bit harsh.

Entry #2:
11/27/14
CNN “Who else remains captive by ISIS?” By Michael Martinez and Mariano Castillo
Posted Nov. 19, 2014
    ISIS is well-known for taping videos of them beheading hostages. According to the article, ISIS has beheaded a total of five Westerners, which includes two Americans, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. There are many journalists who have gone missing, about 20 are still missing in Syria. Many believe that they are being held by ISIS. ISIS has also collected a lot of money through ransoms. In 2013, ISIS collected about “$20 million from ransoms generated through hostage-taking.”
    When I read this article, I was horrified by the number of beheadings that had occurred. Killing these people was unjust because these people had most likely never done anything to their killers on a personal level. It was also unjust to take these people and hold them hostage for the interest of money. This made me think about how much people will do to get money. Apparently, ISIS would take many for hostage to get it.

Entry #3:
11/28/14
CNN “Ferguson shooting a tragedy, U.N. torture panel member says” By Jason Hanna and Susanna Capelouto
Posted Nov. 28, 2014
    The jury has finally decided to not prosecute police Officer Darren Wilson “in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.” Although the events in Ferguson, Missouri are a tragedy, comittee member Alessio Bruni of U.N. Comittee Against Torture said on Friday that U.N. Comittee Against Torture “has to respect the decision.” The United States recently got a periodic review of “compliance” with the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The report included a section on police brutality and criticizes “excessive use of force by law enforcement officials, in particular against persons belonging to certain racial and ethnic groups.”
    I definitely agree with that statement in the report. This reminded me of the Ferguson shooting, and I also agree with Alessio Bruni’s decision on “respecting the jury’s decision.” I still believe shooting Michael Brown was wrong, even if he did do something wrong. The guns given to the police are there for last resort or in self-defense. I also, however, must take into account that nobody is really sure of what happened. There is no strong evidence that Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown because of his ethnicity. This means that there is not enough evidence to prosecute him. However, he should not have shot Michael Brown in the first place.

Entry #4:
11/29/14
CNN “Israel charges 3 Palestinians in Alleged Plot to KIll Foreign Minister” By Tal Amir and Ben Brumfield
Posted Nov. 21, 2014
    The fight between Israel and Palestine still goes on. Recently, the Israeli military arrested three Palestinians from the West Bank and charged them “in alleged plot to assassinate Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.” According to court documents, the scheme involved a plan to “purchase rocket propelled grenades and fire them on his convoy.” Israeli leaders are targets because Israeli soldiers “killed Palestinian children and women, and they entered Al Aqsa mosque and attacked Palestinians.”
    This article made me think about the whole concept of revenge. It is a never-ending cycle because each side refuses to forgive the other and instead causes harm, which in turn provokes the other side to get revenge. I can’t point to one side and say that it’s all their fault, even if they started it, because at this point both sides did equally bad things. They both injured or killed people that had done nothing to them directly. It also made me think that violence never solves anything, even if you won a war. There’s always going to be someone seeking revenge for a loss.

Entry #5:
11/30/14
The New York Times “Police Break Siege of Government Offices in Hong Kong”
By Chris Buckley and Austin Ramzy
Posted Nov. 30, 2014
    Students in Hong Kong are currently demanding democratic elections. They experienced a setback when “their attempt overnight to besiege the government offices collapsed and the police thrust into the protesters’ biggest street camp.” The police had arrested 40 people in Admiralty, the site of the largest remaining protest camp. However, the students are still determined to win even though some believe this will end in a Pyrrhic victory.
    I admire their determination to win as well as their courage to stand up to the government. I believe that you should fight for what you believe in, especially if you are fighting for a right. This also made me realize that some countries don’t have democratic elections, even if they wanted to. It made me thankful that America has democratic elections and freedom of speech. It also made me realize how many things we take for granted everyday.

Reflection:
    Doing this assignment really made me aware of the kinds of things happening in the world. I realized how much happens each day that most of us don’t know about. I also realized from this experience that when I read these articles sometimes I think about these things a lot, and don’t even realize it. Writing what I was thinking about really helped me organize my thoughts and actually realize my opinion on these topics.
    Writing summaries also helped me get the main ideas from each article and sort out the facts as well as understand the article itself more. This allowed me to think more about the article and develop more thoughts and opinions about the topic.