Poojah’s Blog!

Sadly, this is the last time I will ever be writing on this blog. I will definitely miss the layouts and the website name, but now, I have another school blog. If you want to keep on looking at my writing, please go and visit my new blog at this link.

Mahatma Ghandi, famous all around the globe for being the person who stopped war by using only words, left the world with 10 thoughts to make the world a better place. Saying that, 10 rules doesn’t seem a lot to make a difference to this 510,066,000 sq km, right? But suddenly, when you know that the change has to start within you, it suddenly becomes hard, when it really doesn’t have to be.

The quote that really made an impact on me is, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”. Because if you keep on telling everyone else change, and you don’t change yourself then who will follow you? I really agree with him on this one. Giving Mr. Dyke for an example, Mr. Dyke says that no one should use plastic bags because they take millions of years to decay, but he is still using plastic bags people will start to think that, “Oh. It is okay to use plastic bags. See, even Mr. Dyke is doing it too.”. I think that this quote is a very inspirational quote because it shows that if everybody acts, more than tell other people to do it, the world can be a better place. This is because I understand that everybody knows what is wrong with this world, but they just think that other people will take care of it so they don’t have to do anything. However, that is not true, because everybody needs to stand up for their own thoughts, not letting other people do it for them. Otherwise, no action would happen and the world would not be improved, because everyone is busy thinking, “Oh. He’ll do it.”, or “Oh. She’ll do it.”. Nobody really thinks that the real change has to start from themselves. Nobody really considers taking action over something that they are very sure someone else can do. From now on, I will really start to express my thoughts of how the world is, and I will make some changes because I have an inspiration; “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.

During this year, I have learnt much more important lessons than last year, the ones that will really affect my thoughts and action. This year, the curriculum was based on what we can do to make the world a better place. There were issue groups where we focused on a specific issue in the world, and researched about it, to educate our peers about what we can do to help solve the problem. The topic that my group and I researched on, is “Violence against Women”, which is us taking action. But not taking action like going to the police and tell them to arrest every man on the Earth for abusing their wife; but to educate our peers so that they can go out and talk to the world, helping us raise the voice of the unheard. In addition, we were telling our peers not to do what the men around the world are doing, because I truly belief that what we know from when a child, affects the way we think more than when we know of it in the future. Therefore, we were “Being the change we want to see in the world”.

I think that when people make excuses, like “I’m only in Grade 7, I can’t do anything to change the world”, they are very wrong. Because I think that especially because we are still kids, people listen to us more, because they will say, “Even the kids are panicking about this situation; we should do something about it”. I may not have the intention to dedicate my whole life going around the world making speeches about how we could all start to change the world, starting with ourselves. But I can use the internet, because the internet is a large speaker that anyone can speak their thoughts and comments on, and everyone can hear it. In my free times, I will talk about the issues or some current news that are going on in this world on this very blog, and maybe someone will pass by and read it and get my point of view. Maybe that person will then write on their about the news that I was talking about and accept my point of view and maybe even build on that thought. Then who knows, maybe someone relating to the news I was talking about on that other person’s blog, and they actually used my viewpoints and change something. Because you’ll never really know how much you’re action could change the world, because as I said, someone has to be the first voice. Because there always has to be a person who claps first, until everyone else starts applauding.

1. Pinch
2. Laugh (loudly)
3. Yell
4. Screech
5. Poke
6. Pluck
7. Draw
8. Hit
9. Push
10. Kick
11. Shove
12. Ignore
13. Hide
14. Touch
15. Jump
16. Tickle
17. Scratch
18. Erase
19. Imitate
20. Copy
21. Steal
22. Forward-emails
23. Show-off
24. Flick
25. Snap
26. Whistle
27. Sing
28. Blow
29. Tease
30. Lie
31. Joke
32. Stare
33. Mock

During the school year, I improved my writing by spending alot of time figuring out what I should write about, and make it good. Also through out the year, if it was an essay that I can work on at home, I often send it to Ms. Ulster for her to check for me. This helped me improve my writing because when Ms. Ulster helps me correct my writing, she doesn’t just erase what I wrote and write the correct word instead. Ms. Ulster shows me what I did wrong, for example, Present tense or that the sentence doesn’t make sense. This really makes me learn and remember quicker because I can actually refer to the time when I got something wrong, and remember what Ms. Ulster corrected me for. Also, when I read, I try to focus on the the way the writer writes the book, how he/she punctuates the sentence and how he/she writes it. Although I didn’t meet my goals in the last Writing Assesment, I improved tremendously. For next year, I don’t know if my Humanities teacher will be willing to check my work like Ms. Ulster does; if she doesn’t I think I’ll just have to try mopre grammar exercises and check by myself at more depth.

This is my sixth Connected World blog post. This time I went back to Global Voices Online, and I found a very interesting post. It was written by Nicholas Laughlin, born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The actual post on this case was written in July 30th 2008. This story was set place in Barbados, an Island in the Caribbean.

As I said, this is an old story but there were updates on his death. The victim I’Akobu Tacuma Maloney, a high achieveing 23 year old Barbadian, recently graduated from the University of West Indiesa – died from a mysterious encountering with the Barbadian police. The police reported that they were reported that there was some ‘Drug Landings’ on Cove Bay, where Maloney was. When they saw Maloney, they went up to him and interviewed him, they said that Maloney was depressed at that time. Details are unclear, but the policemen said that Maloney jumped off the cliff, faced down. Thus the police’s statement, there are details on the body that says otherwise. Such as when the policemen said that Maloney fell face down, there is a wound on the back of Maloney’s head that says that he fell down face turned up. Also, they said that when he died he had his rucksack with him. He was rescued out of the water eight hours later, but his rucksack was not damaged by water at all.

*Caution. these are just my opinions. Also, sorry if I sound racist.* When I read the article, I suddenly felt a sense of disappointment. I was sad because Maloney was such a smart person, he won a scholorship from the government, and then suddenly he died.I think that the reason that even after ten months of going in and out of court, and there is still no further conclusions in this story, is because the person who might have murdered Maloney is because they are the police. This means that the goverment will definitely protect them to keep them from being verdicted. At first when I read it, I was sure that he was killed because of his skin color, but when I thought about it the Barbadian are black. Another possible reason is that they were part of the drug dealing situation happening at the Cove Bay, and they did not want Maloney to see.

By reading this story, I really gained alot of questions. It would help if you, the reader, could post your comments and say why you think Maloney was murdered. I want to hear of everyone’s opinions on this subject, because I really don’t know. I must apologize to people who read this and feel the opposite from what I wrote, because I really don’t know, but that was what I thought. Thus the fact that this happened, a year ago, the situation is still unresolved and I feel that that is not right. To Maloney’s family; don’t give up, you will finally find out who killed your son.

The first advice, the first thing you really should know, seventh grade is going to be much harder than sixth grade. The homework load is not going to be that much, but the quality of the work has to be really high in order for you to get a good grade.  At the beginning of the year, I always left my homework to the last minute, thinking that there’s only one assignment to be done. But when I actually got to read the instructions, I saw that the one assignment I thought was only going to take me thirty minutes or so, required one whole hour to do. In hurry and panic, I quickly did the homework, making the quality of the homework really lousy and weak. I carried on doing that for, one month. Then I realized that it isn’t going to work, that if I kept on doing it, my grade is going to be a definite B. The second thing that you need to understand is that the homework in humanities is not about remembering the vocabularies, but writing exercises.  These exercises require you to think, think beyond what is already in front of you, to reflect.

Throughout the year, I wish I knew how busy the last weeks of school were going to be. Most of the time, Ms. Ulster always gives us an opportunity for extra credit. I wished I knew how much I would need those extra credits when I have a lot of homework at the end of the year, when there is not much time to finish the homework in my best effort. In my opinion, if I could turn back time to the beginning of seventh grade, I would force myself to use the free time I have to do extra credit. Instead of using the rare free times to do quizzes on Facebook. If only I did a couple of extra credit exercises, my grade could change from an A to an A+, or an A- to an A. I think you should do extra credits now and then, because you never know, maybe an extra one mark on an assignment could boost your grade up, it could make a difference between an Honor Roll and a High Honor Roll.

She lifted her head from her math homework as the bus was nearing her usual sightseeing place. Staring out the window, she watched the main river. Seeing the water moving endlessly without anything in the way, no obstacles; just flowing, in its own way. She longed for that sense of freedom. To be able to be who she is, without rocks or thrash blocking her way of moving forward, into the future. There she sat in the car, watching the small, soft waves rolling up and down in the river. Such a contrast, she said to herself as she saw what was beside the river, the city. She wondered how can something be so peaceful, could be in the middle of all the rush of the city. She turned back to her homework and sighed, longing for that day when her mind could finally calm down like the river and not be distracted by the circumstances of her life.

Looking out at the office, he took a long look at the river next to his office building. He watched one small wave bouncing up and down on the surface of the water, seeming tired and weak from swimming with the river all day. As he was just about to walk back to his computer, he saw on the computer screen an advertisement pop-up about Global Warming. He turned once more to the only water source in the town, what would happen if it dried up? Where are poor people going to wash their clothes, wash their selves? He thought as he saw the poor area of the town. Looking around at the area outside his office, he saw that the poor river was being squished by buildings that are gradually taking over more and more of the space the river used to be at. Seeing that a sudden grief flushed over his face as he recalled the time when he remembered the time when he was young. He and his brothers were jumping into the river afterschool. Back then, the river was wide and still clean. Missing those times, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number of his brother.

He stood at the sight seeing spot, looking out at the river spread right across of him. The water slowly flowed calmly to the south, all in the same direction. What would happen if one day it moved upstream? Would people panic, will they stare? Only because someone was doing something different, it’s not right? Endless questions whirled up in his head. He leaned against the pole and looked around at the buildings around the river. Some big, some small, some worthless, some worth millions; but they all stood aground, turning towards the river, like they were watching some kind of show. For what it’s worth, a river is still just a river, no matter how rare, special it is, why do people need to turn all their attentions on it? Jamie turned around and kept on with his daily run with a pitiful look on his face; hoping that someday, people will understand that he was just another person, not someone spectacular.

From the blogs I read, most people said that when they were young they really liked to read books. The books they mentioned were of course colored and illustrated to make it more attractive. As I expected, the books that people chose to write about was the all-time favourite children author, Dr. Seuss.  found that mostly everyone said that their parents or other elders read to them at night, and mostly the same book over and over again too. I noticed that most of the books people chose to talk about, the main characters were not human beings, but animals.I found that most people used to really like reading when they were small, but then as time changed, they grew out of it.

When I read that most people grew out of their habit of reading, I felt sorry for them because they are missing out on the common portal to escape from the real world. After I read that I started asking myself why someone would not want to read or not read anymore. The answer I came up with was that they did not have enough time; as we grew older, our responsibilities grew larger and there were more important projects, tests, homework to be completed. The spare time that we used to be able to spare for reading was taken up by these activities. I understand that, but I just can’t believe that they can’t spare only thirty minutes of their day to sit down, and settle with a book. Some of them also said that they don’t like reading at all, no matter how much time they have. I really wondered why this was because I usually read Realistic Fiction and if the book is Scientific Fiction I don’t read it; so I believe that no matter how much you don’t like a genre there must be at least one genre that they can read and enjoy. For example, if sporty people don’t like to read about teenagers and their love or something like that there are books that have main characters like themselves relating to their sporty lives.

As I said, as a child many people loved the Dr. Seuss collection. From this I concluded that people liked books with rhymes. I figured that this was true, because as a kid we would like to read something not complicated because in Dr. Seuss books the vocabularies are not hard. Also, I think they also liked it because when something is rhymed it is easier to read. The illustrations in Dr. Seuss’ books are really unique because they usually have a color theme and that color (for example red) will be the outline of the picture and are the colors filling in. This makes it really different and unique from other children books where they just color in all the colors. Also the characters in his books are fictional animals like the Who people which don’t exist. This makes it more interesting for the children, because they don’t know what the Who people are like and how they act, so they want to get to know them more. Another reason is probably because as kids we have not been exposed to the world as much so we don’t know what is real and what is fictional so we can still be imaginative.

Topic:  What are some of your early memories of reading or being read to?   You can make a list and then choose a few to include in your essay or just write about one strong memory you have.

Reminiscing those days when I was young, I remember those nights when I went to the book shelf and picked out a book and brought it to my mom to read to me. I had a collection of the Disney classic stories, a range from Beauty and the Beast to The Fox and the Hound. My all time favorite story, The Little Mermaid, was not in that collection. When I was able to read a little bit I was lying on the bed in the evening, reading my small copy of The Little mermaid. That always saddened me because the copy I had was one of those short versioned books that was only five pages long. In addition to that this book was waterproof because it was made to be read in baths, meaning that it was for babies to read while they were in their bath tubs. When my aunt gave me the complete version of The Little Mermaid I read it over and over again never tired of the way the book described the underwater world.

After I was able to read by myself properly, I always wanted to read all the time. I recall myself trying to finish my homework as fast as I could and quickly finishing dinner so that in the evening I could have plenty of time to read. I have this vision of myself waking up early in the morning, secretly picking up the book I read from last night, and being careful not to wake my mum. I quietly stood up from my bed and pulled open the curtain only a little bit so the morning sunlight could shine on the book, afraid that if I turned on the lamp my mum would awake. Often I was so keen on finishing the book that I flipped the page to hard that it folded in half and let out a crack sound. That did it for me, my mom woke up and I had to get back to reality.

Even if these days you can read books online I still like to hear the small crackling of the pages of a book as I turn them. I always enjoyed the time when I secretly wake up and read a book in my bed peacefully and privately. No matter how much I like to read by myself I still like people to read to me because it feels like the voice of the reader is chanting the words as a spell and bewitched me to be a character in the book. It feels more like I am in the book because I don’t have to open my eyes and read but I can be brought into the book with my eyes closed.

 Hey there! I’m sorry I haven’t been reporting news for almost..a week! I found an interesting situation that occured on 10 P.M.(local time) 19th April in Montego Bay, Jamaica. This happened at Sangster International Airport when Stephan Fray, armed with a gun, forced his way into the plane. On the plane there were 159 passengers and six crew members. At first, the Jamaican Military Unit brought Fray’s family to talk him out of hijacking the plane, but that didn’t work. The details are not very clear, but the results are that somehow the Jamaican military got him out of the plane without any passengers or crew injured.

I think that this situation, even if nobody was injured, caused a huge impact on Jamaica’s tourism; espeacially now that the financial crisis is already making their incomes low. As other bloggers wonder and so do I, how exactly did the military get Fray out, and why are they not explaining it to the public? Or is it because Fray did injure someone, and they have to cover it up to not let the situation make the economics worse that it would if nobody was injured. Though this is just another opinion. No one is sure of the reason that he hijacked the plane, but sources say that he wanted the plane to fly. Most people think that Fray has mental problems and I agree. I hope the best the economics in Jamaica won’t get effected badly by this.