Monday, July 29, 2019

Be the Voice... Not the Echo


Samuel Chase, an American revolutionary, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, passionate advocate against the Stamp Act, and Associate Supreme Court Justice appointed by President George Washington, faced politically driven impeachment trials.


Why?
For standing up against injustice on a newly born Republic from President Thomas Jefferson!
Jefferson and his allies abolished the lower courts and terminated all their Federalist judges,
despite lifetime appointments. Chase denounced this action when he spoke before a Baltimore
grand jury. Jefferson worked to silence Chase by attempting to impeach him. 


How can we stand for what's right when an institution, government, and
business pushes authentic leaders and new ideas out?


Let’s Analyze the Quote:


“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do.
But to hold it together when everyone else would understand
if you fell apart, that's true strength.”


The system is not broken - the system is doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
It's designed to shut out change, new ideas, and revolution. 


As a youth ambassador that is apart of Generation Z, I can easily say that holding faith
in institutions is very difficult. Immigration, Environment, Healthcare, Education -
all systems that are designed to fail.

When we go back to the quote, it forces us to pose a question…

How can we NOT give up when the system, institution,
government, and/or establishment is completely unwilling to
change its ways of doing and thinking about things?

So what happened to Samuel Chase?
Samuel Chase stayed in the fight and stood for what he believed. Chase’s opponents failed to gather
the two-thirds majority needed to impeach him. The Senate’s failure to remove Chase from the bench
was seen as a victory for judicial independence and established the precedent that a judge
could not be removed as a result of stating political views from the bench. 

Samuel Chase stayed true to his morals and values regardless of the political threat.
As a result, his actions led to systematic change for generations to come.

Is that enough?

For someone that will always be remembered as the only Supreme Court Justice to ever face
impeachment trials, would it have been better to create change from outside of the system, or
rather create systematic change from within? These are two schools of thought that are both not wrong. 

The underlying point is, regardless of the system’s flaws, it's important to stand by our morals,
values, and ideals. In a world surrounded by the notion of “playing it safe” and “following the crowd,”
we must remember to think differently. Within the system, or from the outside, the pressures
one faces from being critical may result in being pushed out. The decision becomes playing
along until power is obtained, or always remaining an honest critic.
What will you do?

Signing off...

Sinan Kassim

Monday, July 30, 2018

Africa Aid Crisis – Devastation, Death, Instability

   

     Our parents are the most courageous, determined and bravest individuals in this world. They would go through any struggle, hurdle or discomfort for the safety, security and good health of their children. Just like any great parent, an African mother with three children in the forests of Tanna, a small village prone to widespread food shortages, spent hours collecting rare marula tree seeds. She would than travel across mountains back to her village to barter the scarce seeds she collected. The money she would collect would only permit for one small meal. It was very common for her family not to have any meal for many days at a time. On many occasions, they would eat weeds. This is the story for 60 million young children who become frail and suffer from severe health conditions in Africa. They are victims of malnutrition!

     Every story has a happy ending, right? UNICEF administered a $60 million project to completely eradicate malnutrition in Africa. After five years of the program, someone in the institution thought it would be a good idea to analyze their results. UNICEF found that the aid project had no impact on malnutrition because mothers didn’t understand how to administer food, nor how to monitor growth and health of their children. This story has no happy ending.

     Three out of four aid projects in Africa fail. Countries, organizations and institutions disburse an average of $40 billion of aid to the country every year. There is no shortage of problems or people who need help. The real problem is the lack of patience and the extraordinary wealth of excuses displayed by the entities who allot monetary resources for aid in Africa. 

     The first viewpoint that is important to explore is Africa’s conduction of government affairs. It is very easy to see that the country’s political systems are corrupted. There are six government leaders who have been in power for three decades or more. The six leaders have a combined 219 years in power, some recently re-elected. For example, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the President of Equatororial Guinea, has been in power for over 40 years. He started his reign in his late 30’s and is now is 74 years of age. With African government leaders’ history of taking advantage of poor African families, it would be foolish to allow them to administer aid projects. Though, this has been the case for numerous projects. 

     In one instance, the World Bank created a $4.2 Billion oil pipeline to aid the African government. It was funded with a condition to the government: the money would be spent with international supervision to develop stability in the African nation of Chad. However, Chad President Idris Derby used the money for the purchase of weapons, regime survival and rigged elections. As a result, the citizens of Chad were denied billions of dollars’ worth of aid. The World Bank had a major flaw in it’s approach. They allowed the government to have control of aid money, rather than, giving the money directly to the people through jobs. They lost patience and discovered an excuse.

     When we look back at the UNICEF malnutrition project, if the institution would have been patient, they could have educated mothers on how to successfully use their program. If this had occurred, then time, money and resources would not have been exhausted on a failing project. The eradication of malnutrition in failing geographic locations would have seemed like a real possibility. A political victory is not throwing money at a problem, its taking the time and having the patience to give people the resources to work together and achieve best practices that can lead to a better quality of life. 

     I believe it is important to explore more illustrations that show a lack of patience to the African people. In 1971, the Norwegian government aided $22 million to Turkana, Kenya for the creation of a fishing plant. This would create jobs and a valuable natural resource. Unfortunately, a vast majority of the Turkana people did not know how to fish. The plant was operated for a few days and than quickly shut down. The Turkana people were faulted for the plant’s failure, rather than, the Norwegian government, as they showed no attempt to teach the Turkana people how to fish. In another instance, France aided $300 million over 50 years to Mali with hopes to irrigate 2.47 million acres for the growth of cotton and rice in order to develop hydropower in the Mali dessert. 50 years later, only 6% of the region was developed and the infrastructure was falling apart. The French failed to educate the Mali people on how to use modern agricultural practices. Lastly, UNICEF has aided $300 million towards the eradication of malaria in Africa. 440,000 children have died because of this deadly disease. There is a medication that can save these children and it costs 12 U.S cents! In many geographic locations, this has failed due to the lack of health centers. I don’t want to undermine the good work that UNICEF has done on this project in certain aspects, but in order to maximize results, finding a way to educate parents and creating health centers in certain areas should be a priority. In all of these instances, the donors do not show much interest in educating the people of Africa. 

     Many critics argue that the movement that calls for richer countries to give more aid to poorer countries is ludicrous, and they also argue that countries should hold back on providing aid to poorer countries in it’s entirety. Furthermore, many of these critics further believe that the African people’s individual work in a marketplace with no interference would lead to economic growth. I would strongly reason against this line of thinking. Africa, in the 21st century is operating by the means of the farming age with the execution of an agriculture based economic system. Politically, corruption in the status-quo African government will not permit the advancement of an economic system which would function in a globalized world transitioning from the Industrial Age to an Information and Digital Revolution. Africa is behind two major generational marketplace shifts. The country needs to be fast-tracked and this could only be accomplished through the revitalization of aid. Financial support for Africa through aid is extremely powerful. Changes need to occur through the means in which aid is conducted, managed and offered. These same critics argue through historical evidence that the Marshal Plan, or the European Recovery Program created by the United States Government to help Europe recover after World War II, is an example of a major downfall of the aid processes. I would further reason that the Marshal Plan was in turn, successful because the United States Government did not throw $13 billion of aid at the problem but rather, gave Western Europe money with the intent of restructuring the economy. Additionally, the European Government was stabilized and did not want to see its people fail in their recovery process. I would compromise, that Africa among other poor countries do not have the same government stability as Europe did at the time but that makes it even more essential to develop political systems in Africa. 
  
     It is said that patience is a virtue. If this is true, then it is a virtue that can save many lives and enhance the quality of life, health, education, economic, political and social wellbeing of the African people at large. Merely throwing money at problems for political apprehension is selfish. Looking towards the future, there is a need for a generation of selfless leaders who will foresee successfully helping and educating those in need, as a victory. 


Signing off....

Sinan

References:

Articles

NBC: Examples of failed aid-funded projects in Africa
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22380448/ns/world_news-africa/t/examples-failed-aid-funded-projects-africa/

Geo Lounge: Why Developmental Aid Projects Must Factor Local Culture
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.geolounge.com/development-aid-projects-must-first-factor-local-culture/amp/

Quartz: This Is The Only Continent Where Children Have Both Stunted Growth and a Rising Obesity Problem
https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/1121083/africas-malnutrition-problem-for-chi-is-the-only-continent-where-children-are-growing-both-stunted-and-fat/amp/

Action Against Hunger: "We Were Eating Weeds": From Suffering To Success In Kenya 
https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/blog/kenya-malnutrition-success-stories

Brookings: Foresight Africa: Banking on Agriculture for Africa's Future 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2016/01/22/foresight-africa-2016-banking-on-agriculture-for-africas-future/amp/

Africa News: Here are Africa's Longest Serving Presidents Still Going Strong
https://www.google.com/amp/www.africanews.com/amp/2017/10/06/africa-s-longest-serving-presidents-still-going-strong/

UNICEF: Malaria Morality Among Children is Concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-health/malaria/

The Guardian: New Malaria Drugs 'too expensive' for most Ugandans 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/katine/2008/nov/11/uganda-malaria

The Guardian: World is plundering Africa's wealth of 'billions of dollars a year'
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/may/24/world-is-plundering-africa-wealth-billions-of-dollars-a-year

Videos

Yale University: Africa and the Curse of Foreign Aid
https://youtu.be/gEI7PDrVc9M

TED Talk: Andrew Mwenda - Let's take a new look at African Aid 
https://youtu.be/RfobLjsj230

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

2017 National Speech and Debate Tournament

Recently I had the honor to compete in the 2017 Speech and Debate Nationals Tournament and came 5th in the nation in Extemporaneous Speaking. Speech and Debate is very important. It allows students to share their views about what they see and feel and it gives students confidence. It is essential that students have access to this valuable tool especially in a time where more than anything, we need people to speak out and help communities through activism. Speech and Debate gives the next generation the tools to do so.

Giving these tools to the next generation is exactly what speech and Debate does and whether they understand the magnitude and the long term momentous impact that has or not, it must be recognized and noted as positive . The next generation is the generation that will end global corruption, solve the epidemic of climate change, enhance workers rights, give free access to healthcare and education for all, solve cancer, end police brutality, lead us into a society that is not dominated by industry and ultimately lead the world into a more modernized, equal and fair society and the fact that Speech and Debate is providing an outlet for the next generation to come up with solutions and think critically without any barriers is remarkable. 

I have learned so much from Speech and Debate and skills that I know I will always use. I have seen so many individuals grow in Speech and Debate. I want to thank my parents, coaches, teachers, and fellow students for inspiring me and motivating me and I hope that more schools give students the amazing opportunity I am lucky to have and spectacular people around them to support them. 

This is a message to every middle and high school, if you do not offer Speech and Debate, you are robbing the next generation from a skill that is of immense importance and if you are a school that has Speech and Debate but does not care about the program, than you do not care about the success of your students and country and that in itself is a crime. How can you teach invaluable lessons like the history of Mesopotamia and what an isosceles triangle is but not teach students skills that Speech and Debate teaches you.

Signing off....

Sinan

Monday, May 23, 2016

Why the Homework System Does Not Work

  I get a lot of criticism when it comes to my position on the U.S school system. Before I go on, I would like to clarify, I strongly believe in education but I also strongly believe in education reform. Let's start of with some statistics. The U.S ranks 17th in education. (25th in Math, 17th in Science and 14th in reading).
I was talking to a friend about the U.S school system compared to the rest of the world. That friend was telling me that the U.S school system is the best, always was the best and always will be the best.  This really proves that we are stuck in a bubble. When I say I am against the homework system, I am not saying it for my benefit as a student, I am saying it for the future of America. The U.S school system has evolved but the purpose of the system has not evolved. The purpose of the U.S school system is to create employees not employers. Robert Kiyosaki has said on multiple occasions, "The school system teaches kids to work hard for money rather than have money work hard for them." The homework system has a lot to do with that. The U.S school system is designed in such a way that the A students work for the C students due to the fact that the A
students are hard workers as they always work hard for the best grade. Finland is number 1 in education and they do not have homework. All work is done in the classroom where they make mistakes rather than do the work at home and have the support of parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.

  With no homework system, kids will make mistakes and people don't learn from success. People learn from mistakes and when a student takes a test or does homework, it is about getting it over with, and then forgetting what they learned. If a student does bad on a test or on a homework assignment, they won't learn what they did wrong. That is why the homework system does not work and most of the major countries in the world do not use the system.


Signing off.....

Sinan











Thursday, March 10, 2016

If Republicans are Serious About Stopping Trump, Rubio Needs to Drop-Out Immediately

Conservative Outfitters asked 28,000 Voters if Marco Rubio should drop out.
 An overwhelming 90% said Rubio should drop out!

  2 days ago, Donald Trump won Mississippi and Michigan. There was no surprise Trump won Mississippi but in Michigan, there was a chance that John Kasich was going to win and if he did, this probably would not be a segment I would write about. In Michigan, Trump had 37%, Kasich had 25%, Cruz had 24% and Rubio had 9%. The obvious biggest loser of yesterday was Marco Rubio. Rubio only had 9% in Michigan and 5% in Mississippi. Republicans say that if Trump wins the presidency, it will be the end of the Republican party. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan along with other conservative politicians are already trying to come up with an alternative to the Republican Party!

If I am a donor, I would go to Rubio right now and say, listen, I can't have you in the race taking away votes from John Kasich in Ohio. You're probably wondering if this is a typo. It is not a typo. Yes, John Kasich because my least favorite candidate is Donald Trump, my second least
favorite is Ted Cruz (which is what the donors are thinking right now) so I would take a big gamble and see if John Kasich could have a great showing on March 15th and maybe even win Illinois. If he can't, Kasich needs to get out immediately and they need to invest everything we got in Cruz to take on Trump and hopefully get a good result. Now, why would you want Rubio to drop out oppose to Kasich? Because Rubio is getting destroyed everywhere and is losing by a large margin in his home state of Florida but Kasich has not emerged yet and he has a great shot at Ohio. According to Market Watch, "Kasich has an 8% chance of winning the nomination, Rubio has a 6% chance." That's pretty good for someone who was polling last in almost all of the primaries, projected to win in his home state of Ohio and his expectations are low opposed to Marco Rubio who had high expectations and is losing by 20% in his home state of Florida. 

  In conclusion, Rubio should drop out. The media and donors should take a big gamble on Kasich because he has a great shot at Ohio and possibly Illinois with hope that Kasich can beat Trump. If that doesn't work out, invest everything into Cruz.

  Note, I do not support John Kasich but at the same time I have nothing against Kasich. I am just explaining that the next move the Republicans should make is having Rubio drop-out and taking a chance and attempt to make Kasich their mainstream candidate. 

Signing Off......

Sinan
  

Friday, August 7, 2015

Minions Movie Review





Plot: The Minions have been trying to find a master to serve for centuries. Over the centuries they have served many creatures but they have a bad habit of accidentally killing their masters. The Minions become sad so Stuart, Kevin, and Bob go on a epic quest to find a evil master for them to serve.


I love sweet and tangy sauce on my chicken wings. If you gave me a full plate of sweet and tangy sauce with know chicken wings, I wouldn't be very happy. In this example, the Minions are the sweet and tangy sauce. They are great when added to something. They are still very funny and cute but when you make them main characters of a movie, they don't work. 


Another problem with this movie is that Scarlet Overkill (voiced as Sandra Bullock) is not seen a whole lot in this movie. She is the villain that the Minions have been looking for but when they find her, it's almost like she's gone from the movie. That is very disappointing because I feel that she could have been a very cool and funny villain. Sandra Bullock' voice acting was ok. I thought that John Hamm did an amazing job as Scarlet' husband, Herb Overkill. He was pretty funny as the overly romantic husband to the serious and professional Scarlet. I think both of them should have had a lot more screen time. 

Overall, I thought it was a good movie. It was funny at times but also very depressing. I don't think that the funny and adorable Minions can handle there own movie. It was tough rating this movie but i'll give it a 6/10. 

Signing Off.....

Sinan

  







Wednesday, August 5, 2015

San Andreas Movie Review






Plot: When a massive earthquake hits San Francisco, Ray Gaines (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) a member of the LA Fire Department has to get through the earthquake to find his daughter and bring her and his ex-wife to safety. 

Hugo Johnstone (left) Art Parkinson (middle), and
Alexandra Daddario (right) are the real stars of the movie


I know Dwayne Johnson' name is on the top of the movies poster and he is one of the main reasons people want to see the movie but I feel that Alexandra Daddario is the real star of the movie who plays Ray' daughter. 


In this movie, I felt like I was in the characters situation. It was like I was on the whole journey with them. You don't find that in disaster movies. I give the actors a lot of credit for that. I also have to give a lot of credit to the movie director, Brad Peyton. He did a phenomenal job showing you the destruction and fear in this movie. 

  

This movie was great. It made me feel involved and it was way better then expected! I give this movie a 8/10 easily. 

Signing Off....

Sinan