Kofi Annan: Humanitarian of the Nations

Kofi Annan is a decorated diplomat from Ghana who served as Secretary General of the United Nations for ten years and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Annan preaches the idealism of a humanitarian society in his stirring speech, clearly outlining his aspirations for society: "eradicating poverty, preventing conflict, and promoting democracy." In recognizing his prestigious position in international relations, his vision of an ideal society is addressed to no country in particular. Clearly, this speech is advocating his goal for world peace, and he has taken significant steps to attaining that rather lofty goal, as he was selected to be the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Annan's speech addresses other worldly issues such as promoting the democratic form of government and reaffirming the argument that all people are equal. His audience seems to be comprised of various leaders and sovereigns from a smattering of countries, an opportune moment to convey the world of its issues. Overall, the purpose of such a speech is to make the world aware of these pressing problems, and that there is no better time than the present to address them. Annan begins his speech by saying that "a girl will be born," implying posterity and possibility. His next few sentences are devoted to the overall theme of the speech: humanity or the value of a human life. He sermonizes the importance of every single human being, all unknowingly interconnected in a reality shadowed with poverty and genocide. He delicately expresses the evils of greed and corruption, forcing the audience to empathize with the soldiers and civilians. He optimistically concludes his moving speech by subtly reminding us of the future and the world people desire to give their children to conquer.
The speech is thoughtfully crafted, as it reminds the audience of the main issues at hand. Annan also adds an image of a child, an image of the future, to create a sense of caring and perhaps to emphasize his main idea, the consideration of mankind. He also provides the audience with a solution: joining the United Nations in order to not only improve citizens of one country, but citizens from every country. With this union of nations, all people can be given equal rights and freedom to govern their own life, to pursue happiness of the most genuine kind. All of these aspirations can be possible, he declares, simply by assimilating all countries as the United Nations.
Personally, Kofi Annan is a person everyone should aspire to become. Not only does he publicize his beliefs, he also acts upon them, a very rare quality these days. Although the world is far from achieving Annan's vision of society, it is ready to see a world united with a common purpose: humanity for all.

Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 4

Scene 1

As the act begins, the audience sees Bottom very content as the fairies wait on his every command. Meanwhile, Oberon fulfills his desire to retrieve the Indian boy, so now Titania can be released from the magic flower's spell. Oberon places the undoing herb onto her eyes and she awakes. Reunited once again, Oberon and Titania dance to the mesmerizing music that lures the four mortals and Bottom to a deep sleep.

Back at the palace, Theseus and Hippolyta are into the final preparations of their wedding, and set out with Egeus to the woods to celebrate May Day. It is also the day Hermia is to make her decision of who she will marry. The party of three stumble upon the four lovers fast asleep and then awaken them. From this part of the scene, it is clear that all is well once again, Lysander loving Hermia and Demetrius now in love with Helena. They seemed to have thought all that happened was just a very realistic dream. Theseus reconsiders Hermia having to marry Demetrius since he now loves Helena. Theseus finally declares that Hermia marry Lysander and Demetrius marry Helena on the same day he is to be wed to Hippolyta. As for Egeus, he is shocked and literally has nothing to say.

Returning back to Bottom, he awakes at last, and decides to write a poem he will recite at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. He too feels all events that occurred were just apart of a dream, a midsummer night's dream.

Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 3

Scene 1

This portion of the play is quite amusing as Puck or Robin turns Bottom's head into a donkey's head. Of course his fellow actors are surprised and terrified. Soon after the actors hurry away, Bottom is stationary and comes across the sleeping fairy queen, Titania, who's eyes had been blinded by the juice of the magic flower, in fact the same one that was used on Lysander. As a result, Titania falls madly in love with the donkey-headed Bottom who is confused at her strange behavior. The scene ends with Bottom being tended to by Titania's servant fairies.


Scene 2

The scene begins with Robin telling Oberon of Titania's false love to the donkey-headed Bottom. Then, Demetrius enters and tries to persuade Hermia that he did not kill Lysander as she had suspected after Lysander disappeared in the woods the night they were going to escape from the palace. Robin and Oberon are mindful of this conversation and Oberon is furious at Robin for anointing the wrong person. Both are now aware they must set things right and begin with anointing Demetrius' eyes so he will then fall in love with Helena and not Hermia. Their plan works and they have partially solved the problem at hand. The only thing left to do then is make Lysander fall back in love with Hermia once again. Meanwhile in the mortal world, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena finally meet face to face. Each is angry at another either for stealing the one they love or flustered and angry at the actions of the other three. All these feelings result in a cat fight between Hermia and Helena, Hermia being angry at Helena for taking Lysander away from her and Helena being angry because she believes she is still being fooled by all of them. As both of them storm off in a fuss, the two men are left to battle it out. At last, Robin steps in and disguises his voice as Lysander and Demitrius to lure them away from each other and keep them on the run until each is too tired to carry out the pursuit. The act comes to a close with Robin fulfilling his goal and anoints Lysander's eyes with an herb to undo what was previously done.

Midsummer's Night Dream: Act 2

In this act we are introduced to Robin Goodfellow or Puck who's mischevious ways have led him to mess with the mortals (Lysander, Helena, Hermia, and Demetrius). Meanwhile, Oberon and Titania are having their own problems. They are making a big fuss about a boy who could be a possible threat to Oberon. Oberon decides to use the magic flower on the mortals to mess with their love life. From this one little flower, the mortals' lives are changed and altered that may cause some slight problems.

Midsummer's Night Dream: Act 1

In class, we have begun the play A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare. I am very excited to read this play because the format in which Shakespeare writes is quite unique and can be interpreted in many ways. When you find the correct way to interpret it, the context can be extremely beautiful and more than what it really seems. That beauty and mystery is what I really like about Shakespeare and his plays. Anyways, this is a short summary of the first act in A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Scene 1

The play begins with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding. As they discuss their plans, Egeus and his daughter, Hermia come to visit them and enter the scene. Egeus declares his frustration with his daughter for not wanting to marry the man Egeus wants her to marry, Demetrius. Shortly after his explanation, Demetrius and Lysander walk in, which only adds to Egeus' frustration. Hermia is in love with Lysander who most definetely loves her back. The five of them discuss what they can do about their situation. Theseus explains to Hermia that either she will obey her father's wishes or be hanged or live a life of virginity. He further explains to Hermia that she owes her life to her father and should make him happy. As the dispute comes to a close, Lysander and Hermia are left alone to discuss what to do about Demetrius. They finally decide to elope and run away together, as they feel it is the only way for them to be together.

Later on, Hermia informs Helena, her good friend, of her discussion with Lysander. She herself, however, loves Demetrius and is willing to do anything, even hurt her friend for his love. So, she devises a plan and decides, full of spite, to inform Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander's plan to run away and elope so as to gain his trust and get closer to her one true love.


Scene 2

In another corner of the kingdom is a group of players wanting to put on a play for the newlyweds to be, Theseus and Hippolyta. They secretly are devising who will play the lead role of the play. Bottom, a thinks-he-know-it-all player is cast as the lead role. As all other parts are distrubuted, all players are quite pleased at their play that parallels quite well the lives of Theseus and Hippolyta.

The Chinese Civil War

One of the required books we are to read for English class is "Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts." This book deals with a Chinese family in which Maxine, the main character, is exposed to stories of her ancestors and compiles them into one, well, memoir. We were given to assignment to research the Chinese Civil War so we are aware of some part of China's profound history.

The Chinese Civil War began in 1927 and carried on until around 1949 between the communists and the nationalists. The communists were composed of the lower and middle classes, as the idea of communism was that all people were equal. They were led by Mao Zedong, a dictator thought of as both good and bad. Aristocrats and the rest of the upper classes all supported the nationalistic side because they took such pride in their country. Their leader was Chiang Kai-shek, some thought he wanted China to be a democracy, and some thought he was just greedy for power. These people, also called Kuomintang, were supported by countries such as the United States while communism were supported by the Soviet Union since they followed the communism form of government.

What was odd about this war was that on a few occasions, China was reunited, but only by another more important war: World War II. China put their fighting to a halt when the Japanese attacked a few times but then proceeded on with their war when World War II had ended. Although they have stopped fighting, there was no real end to this war. No agreement was signed and peace was not restored between the two parties even still today.

Ghost Story

English class was particularly interesting the other day, as it was all about ghost stories. The whole class shared one story that was either related to an experience they had or one that was made up. Here is one story I shared about the unexplainable events that occured in my school long ago.

There have been many mysterious stories of the events that occur at old private missionary schools, as they have been around for centuries. Most unusual happenings occur within the student's dorms. These dorms are now classrooms haunted by the remnants of unfortunate victims of these strange events.

It was a windy and rainy night as the maintenance man of the building woke up for the second night in a row to hear water drops falling from the worn down shower head of his bathroom. Weary with tiredness, he slowly sat up and dragged his limp body to the bathroom. Down the hall he went, feeling the damp, humid atmosphere with each step he took. He reached the bathtub and turned the faucet handle and the dripping stopped immediately. He turned back to return to his bed to see his faithful dog standing in the bathroom doorway curious to see what the trouble was. Without a word, the man motioned his dog to go back to his bedroom and there was nothing to worry about. With his dog leading the way, the man crawled back into bed, creaking the loose floorboard as he went.

The following night, the dripping noise was much louder than the night before but it was a still night, and the wind didn't howl like the night before. The man got up once again and groped in the dark for the faucet handle. Instead of the handle, his had grabbed something furry and warm-bodied. The man looked upward to see his old dog's shadowed form hanging from the shower head. The dog's blood dripped crimson red, sounding as clear and shimmering as the blood. Drip... drip... drip....

Free Post 2: Abracadabra

This is my second free post while on spring break. I've had a lot of free time on my hands lately and my mom and I rented this movie because it looked mildly interesting. Little did I know, this movie changed the way I look at the meaning of a general interest and an obsession.

Mystery, love, and, of course, magic. These were all factors of The Prestige that made it such a magnificent movie. However, its main theme really caught my eye, as this is what made this movie especially unique.

The movie begins with some very simple words that provide the audience with the meaning of a prestige. "Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before." narrates Cutter, the old magic trick inventor. This statement captured me at once and for me, the magic definitely began here, at the beginning of the movie, well it actually begins at the end. A murder occurs, the murder of Robert Angier, a brilliant, young magician played by Hugh Jackman. The suspect is another great magician, Alfred Borden played by Christian Bale. Both are equally obsessed with magic, how it's managed by one so as to fool the audience with illusion. The audience takes a blast to the past as the present moments trigger a memory. Though these memories, the audience sees obsession turning to madness in these brilliant mens' eyes, as the magic fades with an unexpected twist.

This movie is not for the naive or the sensible. It goes beyond what is seen and into what is felt. I never thought a movie could lead to wondering and analytical processes. Some helpful advice to any readers of this piece: if you watch this movie, open all senses and close your mind to tangible beings as you fill yourself with the illusion presented. As Borden says in one of his closing remarks, "Abracadabra."

"Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it because you're not really looking. You don't really want to know the secret... You want to be fooled."

Free Post: Musicals Galore

During the spring break, we were asked by our English teacher to write two free posts, meaning writing about pretty much anything. I decided to write about a musical that was introduced to me by a friend who is also a lover of musicals.

Mamma Mia! is a great, rock musical for anyone who loves to jump up and dance. It is the story of Sophie who is getting married to Sky very soon and wants her father to give her away at her wedding. The only trouble is she doesn't know who her father is. However, from reading her mother Donna's diary, she finds out there are three possible men that could be her dad: Harry Bright, Sam Carmichael, and Bill Austen. Donna is ever so surprised to see them all there. All three of them became convince they were invited because they were Sophie's father. As the musical progresses, all three men are given a chance to speak to Donna and reminisce about their time together. A particular man stood out to Donna, as he could have been the love of her life: Sam. In the end, Sophie settles on having three dads and that she is not ready for the huge responsibility of marriage. However, a wedding does take place: it is between Sam and Donna. After the wedding, Sky and Sophie leave in search of their bright future.

An important theme that stands out to me in this musical is the bond between a mother and a daughter. One particular song summed up the joy, melancholy, and sadness of that feeling a mother has when the time comes for her daughter to get married: Slipping Through My Fingers. It is a beautiful melody enhanced by the lyrics that go with each beat that is played. When the time comes for me to get married, I hope all the feelings this song portrayed helps me to let go of my mother and start a new life.