Missile Tensions with North Korea

Most of the United States have heard about the recent tensions with North Korea on the subject of missiles. Most recently the meeting between the American president and the dictator of North Korea. America and North Korea has had a long history of relations together and none of the talks turned out well for the U.S. and while North Korea enjoyed lessened sanctions while still making missiles. The original tensions came about because of the Korean war in which North Korea backed by China invaded South Korea because it was a communist country and it wanted to spread communism. Then America intervened because it was very scared of the spread of communism and pushed the combined  forces of North Korea and China back into North Korea where a cease fire was made at the 49th parallel. So ever since North Korea lost they wanted missiles to defend themselves most recently they used missiles so the president had a meeting with the dictator of North Korea. Nothing will come of the recent meeting between our president and the dictator of North Korea.

There have been 3 main deals with North Korea. These deals were about maintaining world peace  in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea The first happened in 1994 it was a very wide agreement it was called the Agreed Framework. This said that North Korea will freeze its nuclear program then dismantle it inreturn for oil and nuclear power that cannot be used to make bombs. This means that the places that could be hit by North Korea’s bombs were safe. Then a little time after that, as the NY times says, “At the end of 2002, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, restarted its nuclear facilities and announced it was withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. The Agreed Framework was dead.” This meant that North Korea was going to start testing missiles again. This meant that North Korea betrayed its agreement which means that they cannot be trusted for further deals.With the Bush administration the negotiations happened with six countries and they made a  deal with North Korea but it was never vitrified. The final deal before the current one was in return for food aid North Korea will dismantle its nuclear program. That deal fell apart too so there is a large risk that the current one will fall apart.

The recent Meeting between Kim Jong un and Donald trump was heralded a historic event  because it was the first meeting between two leaders of the united states and North Korea and was supposed to unfreeze the relations on the korean peninsula. Many promises were made this time but they were very broad and unclear especially on  the american side.This shows that the treaty might not be up to standing with all the promises. A very broad promise on the korean side is the complete denuclearization of the korean peninsula. This is a very large promise that will not work because North Korea has many missile facilities and last time it promised this it did not carry through on its promise. Another promise is that  America will provide “very good”economic opportunities in the words of president trump to North Korea. This shows that since the promises are so broad they might be hard to follow through on. This shows that it is very hard to follow through on broad promises.

Many things are expected from the Trump Kim summit but the best that the United States can hope for is Korea joining the nuclear countries and allowing nuclear inspectors in to the country For the U.S. To have safety North Korea must agree to the nuclear treaty. One other thing that was proposed in the summit it North Korea  is a modern North Korea with beach resort hotels and more. This though is unlikely to happen if economic sanctions do not lift Donald trump specified that economic sanctions will not lift unless north Korea gets rid of its nuclear missiles. So this vision is also very unlikely.so the most that the United states and korea can hope for is North korea becoming a safe nuclear nation.

This essay gave a plethora of information about the North Korean missile crisis but what does it mean, why is it important?  The North Korean missile crisis is important because the people of the united states need to be prepared and be ready as to not start world war 3. One way the united states can avoid this is by starting diplomatic relations and accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. Also the people of the world need to be ready to step in and prevent conflict.


Missile Tensions with North Korea

Most of the United States has heard about the recent tensions with North Korea on the subject of missiles. Most recently the meeting between the American president and the dictator of North Korea. America and North Korea have had a long history of relations together and none of the talks turned out well for the U.S. and while North Korea enjoyed lessened sanctions while still making missiles. The original tensions came about because of the Korean war in which North Korea backed by China invaded South Korea because it was a communist country and it wanted to spread communism. Then America intervened because it was very scared at the spread of communism and pushed the combined forces of North Korea and China back into North Korea where a cease fire was made at the 49th parallel. So ever since North Korea lost they wanted missiles to defend themselves most recently they used missiles so the president had a meeting with the dictator of North Korea. Nothing will come of the recent meeting between our president and the dictator of North Korea.

There have been three main deals with North Korea. These deals were about maintaining world peace in exchange for security guarantees for North Korea The first happened in 1994 it was a very wide agreement it was called the Agreed Framework. This said that North Korea will freeze its nuclear program then dismantle it inreturn for oil and nuclear power that cannot be used to make bombs. This means that the places that could be hit by North Korea’s bombs were safe. Then a little time after that as the NY Times says, “At the end of 2002, North Korea expelled inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, restarted its nuclear facilities and announced it was withdrawing from the nonproliferation treaty. The Agreed Framework was dead.” This meant that North Korea was going to start testing missiles again. This meant that North Korea betrayed its agreement which means that they cannot be trusted for further deals.With the Bush administration the negotiations happened with six countries and they made a deal with North Korea but it was never vitrified. The final deal before the current one was in return for food aid North Korea will dismantle its nuclear program. That deal fell apart too so there is a large risk that the current one will fall apart.

The recent meeting between Kim Jong-un and Donald trump was heralded a historic event because it was the first meeting between two leaders of the United States and North Korea and was supposed to unfreeze the relations on the Korean peninsula. Many promises were made this time but they were very broad and unclear especially on the American side.This shows that the treaty might not be up to standing with all the promises. A very broad promise on the Korean side is the complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. This is a very large promise that will not work because North Korea has many missile facilities and last time it promised this it did not carry through on its promise. Another promise is that America will provide “very good” economic opportunities in the words of president trump to North Korea. This shows that since the promises are so broad they might be hard to follow through on. This shows that it is very hard to follow through on broad promises.

Many things are expected from the Trump Kim summit but the best that the United States can hope for is Korea joining the nuclear countries and allowing nuclear inspectors in to the country For the U.S. To have safety North Korea must agree to the nuclear treaty. One other thing that was proposed in the summit it North Korea is a modern North Korea with beach resort hotels and more. This though is unlikely to happen if economic sanctions do not lift Donald trump specified that economic sanctions will not lift unless north Korea gets rid of its nuclear missiles. So this vision is also very unlikely.so the most that the United States and Korea can hope for is North korea becoming a safe nuclear nation.

This essay gave a plethora of information about the North Korean missile crisis but what does it mean, why is it important? The North Korean missile crisis is important because the people of the United States need to be prepared and be ready as to not start World War 3. One way the United States can avoid this is by starting diplomatic relations and accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. Also the people of the world need to be ready to step in and prevent conflict.


“Good” Schools

For a developed country, American schools — higher-tier ones included — are surprisingly lacking in many different categories, from student admissions to their ineffectual “learning” processes that make it largely ineffective. This directly affects our standing as a nation, as while we head into the future and literacy rates are expected to increase, statistics in this area for the United States stall and even decrease, allowing that of our European and Asian counterparts to put us to shame. In spite of these facts, it can be speculated that the country is in no position to better its school system due to the nation facing political meltdown and there being too many steps toward achieving this goal that cannot currently be taken until they are prioritized by the government (which may never happen). But until then, the vast majority of American schools will continue to suffer.

American schools are far from adequate. The topic has received ample recognition, but little is being done to solve the issue at hand. My school is for the talented and gifted (in fact, that’s even its name). It’s one of a handful of its kind in the state of New York and is currently rated ninth place for middle school. And the reasons why its critical acclaim may be largely undeserved? The answer to that question originates from a matter of the students: Stemming from the issue of the students is the work they are tasked to complete.

In the nineteenth century, the nation’s youth had been expected only to pursue careers in factories, so that was what schools were tailored to prepare them for. If you go to any school in the United States today, you’ll be shocked by how effective this approach must have been, for dozens of students are crammed into rooms for eight hours at a time per day for five days a week (far too much time to be spending there, but that’s an entirely separate discussion). They are forbidden to move or speak amongst one another and only ever do anything when they are told to by their instructors.

Now, more jobs are available, a plenitude of which involve some degree of creative or critical thinking. Schools, on the other hand, do not encourage this sort of thought. I find it particularly ironic that a system intended to be centered around knowledge involves instead what can be identified as forced memorization —no wonder nearly seventy percent of American adults can only read and write at a fourth-grade level! Even major newspapers are written as a reading level no higher than eighth grade. We’ve fallen behind European schools, which are well-renowned, for the very flaw I’m detailing here. Impressive? I think not.

In Scandinavia, around three hours of homework is assigned to students per week (the amount of homework American teenagers are assigned in a day) and their grades are not entirely at the mercy of tests. But in the States? Let me tell you something:

Whether you pass or fail depends on tests. Whether you gain acceptance into a “good” school of your choosing is heavily reliant on test scores.

Basically, whether a student lives or dies depends on tests. Sad to say, but those words carry more truth than quite a lot of people will readily face. Students know this truth, though, and this stresses them out to immeasurable heights. They know that where they go in life will eventually come down to their schoolwork, but the immense amount of pressure this puts on them may cause them to do worse. But this is only what they’re told. As a matter of fact, many influential figures were barely even “C” students. John Lennon. Albert Einstein. Most notably, Winston Churchill, who many know to have failed classes. So why all the pressure? Why all the stress on “good” work?

Returning to anecdotal information, the school I attend is supposed to be one of the better ones, as I’ve said. But a common misconception is between a “good” school and one that is just demanding, the latter of which being a description fitting talented and gifted schools everywhere, while around ninety percent of what a student learns will not apply on any level to what they’ll go on to do in real life.

If you want an example, look no further than math class. Practice problems given to students are often written as word problems in what teachers may call “real world situations” to trick us into thinking we’ll actually need a fraction of what we’re taught. For instance:

Sarah has a science project concerning fluids. She requires 15 9/10 cups of orange juice, 7 3/13 cups of soda and 20 1⁄8 cups of water. How many cups of liquid does she need in all?

(The real answer is, Sarah doesn’t actually need to know. She just has to measure out the right amount of cups for each fluid, which is why we have measuring cups.)

Or in English class:

“When Sarah leaves her house to go outside, what does that symbolize?”

(Nothing at all. In real life we read to pass the time, not to overanalyze every little detail to unlock some “hidden meaning”. We won’t be entirely clueless as to the whole point of the book unless, of course, we’re not really reading.)

If, by any chance, we should need to know any of this information (which I don’t think we will, for obvious reasons), there is Google for that.

As for the topic of students: the entire academic method isn’t helping. You have one or two students who are struggling, a mass that are in a middle ground, and a few kids that have already mastered the material and thus have nothing to learn. Why are all these types of kids doing the same work? I can’t speak for other students, but my own teachers often say that they’re going to divide the class based on skill level so that nobody is confused or bored, but this never happens. Instead of trying to teach in a way where everyone can learn at a good pace in a way that works for them, teachers instead take the route of giving everyone work that is dumbed down to the point where everyone can understand it. But like this, nobody learns memorizes anything, whether it be useful information or not!

Summer vacation consistently appears to be the only way to shed all the mounting pressure of a school year long since past, right? HA! Psych! You’ll be so preoccupied with summer homework and the stress that your very first grades of the new school year will bring that the two months (may be less, may be more) that you have to relax will seem more like a single week of free time! And right after I began sixth grade (exactly following a week’s closure) guess what they do to us?

As if the regular state tests, which are infinitely more intimidating to a student than standard tests, weren’t enough, my school does preparations for the state tests, which isn’t effective either since they aren’t until April. There’s a test for ELA and another for math, each spanning two days. Though teachers constantly tell us that they don’t count for our grade, the preparation state tests can actually make the difference between being stranded with the same old boring, useless work and being stepped up to the next grade to be force fed slightly more complicated but equally useless information.

A student is permitted to opt out of being given the state test, but if they are to do so, they won’t have a grade to vouch for them if they are to apply to a “better” school. Basically, as stressful as it is, students are getting guilt-tripped into taking it anyway.

At this point, one may ask exactly how we can improve the American school system so that it’s actually effective (to some degree, at the very least). However, this is far easier said than done. The United States, as we all should know, is one of the largest countries in the world, and as such, ridiculously large amounts of government spending would be required in order to achieve a nationwide improvement, along with quite a bit of time for the legislative and executive branches to come together on a method of which to make this admittedly vague goal a reality (if they agree on it at all). Additionally, based on the current state of the country politically, it’s hard to say whether any attention whatsoever will be brought to the issue. Due to all of these factors, it’s speculated that little significant change regarding the school system will come about in future years, so maybe the real test is to see how long it takes for everyone else to recognize that the academic system is just digging itself deeper and deeper down into its own grave.


What is Sexism?

What is sexism? Is it when someone says “Boys can’t wear pink!!?” Is it when kids call girls bossy but they call boys captains or leaders? Or is it that girls get paid 20% less than men? These are all examples of sexism. Sexism is when people are discriminated against on the basis of sex. However, we don’t always realize that we are judging people on the basis of sex because of the very narrow gender roles in our current society; these gender roles are caused by the way we are socialized to think and act.

SELF CONFIDENCE

Girls are taught to be perfect, to make their lives a straight line, no excitement, and no grief… no mistakes. They’re taught to stay out of the mud and dress in beautiful clothes. They are told “You can do anything,” but they aren’t shown that. On the other hand, boys are taught to take risks, to let their lives be a roller-coaster. They are taught to roll in the mud and let their hair be a mess. In the Reshma Saujani TED talk, “Teach girls bravery, not perfection,” Reshma Saujani tells us: “An HP report found that men will apply for a job if they [meet] 60 percent of the qualifications, but women [will] apply only if they meet 100 percent of the qualifications.” This comes to show you that men are more self-confident and because of that, they are more willing to take a risk. However, many women lack this self-confidence and as a result, they are more afraid of rejection and they lose more opportunities than men. If we can teach girls from young ages that they are just as smart and powerful as boys, then they will be more self-confident and then the amazing ideas that women have would be recognized.

IS SHE BOSSY?

Why are women called bitchy or aggressive in the same situation in which men would be called captains or leaders? We are used to seeing a man give orders, and we don’t usually see women in a high position. All of our presidents have been men; 182 out of 190 heads of state are men, 87% of parliament are men, and in the nonprofit world at the top 80% are men. Because not many women are high up in the chain of command, we have prejudiced beliefs that lead us to think that a woman can’t give orders to a man, and that it is unreasonable for a woman to be chosen over a man for any job. However, over time and with more laws these prejudiced beliefs could change. If we were able to convince women that they are capable of doing everything a man can do, then our world would advance much faster in science, education, technology, and architecture: with more women — and therefore people — in different fields, new advancements and ideas would be made more frequently.

THE BEAUTY STANDARDS

Women do think about their careers, education, and general success, but outside pressure to follow certain beauty standards are oftentimes equally important. Male beauty standards don’t hold as much weight in a man’s life in comparison to the weight that female beauty standards hold in a woman’s life. These standards have to be challenged and changed. Because of these stereotypical beauty standards, women often feel forced to buy and use beauty products for their hair and makeup to leave the house, whereas men can easily put on a t-shirt and pants and go outside without being judged. However, if a woman walks outside without makeup they will be given comments like, “Are you feeling sick?” or, “You look tired today.” These are the kinds of comments that bring down a woman’s confidence, making them feel that it is necessary to wear and buy beauty products. These comments also prove how over time we have gotten so used to women wearing beauty products that it has turned into the default.

A CHANGE

What we watch, what we read, what we see, and what we hear affects what we think about certain groups of people. We are products of our environment. In the case of women, they are affected by all of these things to uphold certain standards regarding appearance, attitude, and demeanor. To change all of these stereotypes, parents have to be aware of their subconscious biases and educate their children outside of gender roles.

To challenge the beauty standards women have to stand up for themselves when they are given sexist comments. Women can also support each other to look and act in ways that they feel comfortable with. Once these changes are made, women won’t feel held back by the stereotypical gender roles, and our society as a whole can advance much faster.

9/11 A New York Tragedy

9/11 was a national tragedy, but it especially affected New Yorkers. 9/11 changed our way of living as Americans and as a world. However, to New Yorkers it was a very personal time and tragedy. 9/11 literally changed people’s lives mentally, physically and environmentally. The attacks changed New York’s finances and New Yorkers’ way of living forever. 9/11 was a world tragedy but also mostly affected New Yorkers concretely. The media rightfully focused on the victims but should have also focused on the survivors.

A lot of people that experienced 9/11 in New York City got sick both physically and mentally. 1,000s of people from NY are sick from the 9/11 reasons mentally and physically. There are a lot of sicknesses that are linked to the 9/11 attack such as cancer because of all the smoke. Many of the illnesses linked to the attacks were breathing and digestive diseases, cancer and PTSD. Also, there was an increase in mental problems because the attack and its effect paralyzed some people. Some people that worked at 9/11, who were there or even people who had friends or relatives worked there suffered from mental health disorders. Also there where kids near the towers like in Stuyvesant that got mental disorders. Some people even have terrible dreams which affects their sleep.

The people living near the towers got affected just as much as the towers. The buildings surrounding the towers got either on fire or destroyed when the towers fell. Many families had to wait for their houses to be rebuilt and some of them did not even get rebuilt and they had to find new houses. They were permanently displaced. Not commonly known, but students were also displaced and affected by the towers. Famous Stuyvesant High School experienced structural damage and students were displaced for half of the academic year, having to transfer temporarily to another schools building. The towers falling meant that the rest of the school year they would be crowded in this other building with students that they never meet. People don’t think about all the money that they spent making the memorial for 9/11 and rebuilding everything. Some people did not get any money from the government to rebuild their home and they did not get any money to even replace their belongings.

Many of the first responders and people who looked for their families were affected in their sleeping and eating habits. From an interview with Dennis Hanrahan, a first responder firefighter that was at the scene the day after 9/11 said: “I was in shock.” Hanrahan was in shock from the sight of the towers destruction They were searching in pockets of stairways hoping to find people alive. Every day they would get up at 7 am, go to 9/11, and search all day, they wouldn’t even stop to eat. The animals, like the dogs, had to work just as much as the humans had to work. The people would go 24/7, so a lot of them didn’t sleep. Some of them slept at the towers because either they where there late or they did not what to go home. Further, many of the first responders and people who looked for their families were affected in their sleeping and eating habits. People mostly look at all the people that died when they should be looking at all the people that survived.

The media portrayed 9/11 in a terrifying way, emphasizing the horror — and it was horrible. However, the survivors, their families and first responders, who are still dealing with the consequences of 9/11 — should be further highlighted as courageous heros today.

9/11 is not only a national tragedy but also a local one. It mostly realistically affected New Yorkers: their mental and emotional health, the New York economy and many friends and family from New York who were either killed or hurt. People should care about what happened because it might happen in another city. Many people in New York thought it would never happen. We should learn from this tragedy so that it never happens again.