Why We Need to Make Enemies

I learned that it's okay to make enemies.  Not everyone will like you but there will be people who will love you to death no matter how flawed you are.  Making enemies just means you are thinking for yourself and you choose not to let other people decide how you live your life.

A Wasted Life

In 2013, a 14-year-old teen was arrested for killing his high school math teacher.  Today, he is 17 and yesterday a court sentenced him to more than 40 years in prison.  He did not just kill the teacher, but he also raped and robbed her.  During the sentence hearing at a Massachusetts court room, he stood hand-cuffed and he had on an expressionless face; there is no sigh of remorse, guilt, anger, and sadness on him.  He looks like a lifeless person standing in the court but he is there, still breathing and can still function like any healthy human.  The victim's family was present in the court and as they listened to the sentence made by the judge, the victim's mother described the killer as "pure evil, and evil can never be rehabilitated."

No one can fully understand the full anger and resentment the victim's family has toward the perpetrator.  One thing that crossed my mind as I read the whole story of this 17-year-old is what a wasted life he has.  The perpetrator was only 14 when he committed the crime.  The world needs people to make a difference and he could have been one of them.  A person lives on average 70 to 80 years on this earth and those years outside of imprisonment could have been spent doing something great.  He could have invent the next technology that would cure cancers or the next invisible cloak for the military in fighting zones. But instead, this 17-year-old will have to spend the next 40 years of his life in a dark room behind bars.

As a social service worker, I have had clients who were jailed for numerous reasons--murdering, white collar crimes, robbery, arsenal, etc. and many of them saw their time behind bars as something they wish they did not have to go through.  They do not want another person to be in the same shoe as them and they hope no one will eventually.   We have one life and we have to make good use of it.  Committing an act and then getting jailed for decades is a wasted life and it is a life we should never be in.  We all have the brain and the imagination to do something great in  life and we have to make most of it.

Why Politics Matters

On a recent National Public Radio episode, a journalist covers a story of why Americans choose not to vote.  One young gentleman from a Southern state stated that the wealthy has all the power and the politicians have the wealth.

As a child of immigrants, I am very much familiar to poverty.  My family had a booming business in Vietnam that my parents took years of hard work to build and when we decided to move to America, we came with only a few thousands dollars to live on.  The money was used to pay the rent in the earlier months and to buy the necessaries such as clothing and food.  I can remember my mom and siblings rummaging through the clothing rack at second hand stores to save every penny we had.  The inability to speak English prevented my parents from getting a decent job and they ended up with minimum wage jobs in factories near our home.  Living in an impoverished condition is no stranger to my family.

So I understand when an American coming from an impoverished family does not believe in politics and the view of how little important is their votes.   Whatever their reasons on why they do not believe in politics, there are many reasons why it matters, and will always be.

First of all, politics affects every part of our lives, from the food we eat, to the water we drink, to the car we drive. There are different agencies within the government sector to take care of the import and export of the food in America.  There is even a government sector that takes care of the water we drink.  The Department of Motor Vehicle is a government agency that takes care of the car we drive.

Secondly, it affects our income and how much we take home from a pay check. As an employee we pay tax to the government and the people who determine how much tax is deducted are the politicians.

Lastly, it determines our future. The politicians decide on what to do with the budget our country has and how it should be rationed in which part of the America sectors. Should the money go to education? Should it go to the military and defense? Should it go to medical researches?  Base on where the money runs, one can say one chooses a career or a job base on how well the industry is.  If we want to be a doctor, we need to know there are jobs out there and that the government is not getting the way of us working in our medical practice.

Politics is a tricky subject and many people get heated if it is brought up in conversations.  Whether we believe it or not, politics encompasses a large part of our lives and when we choose to live in the shadow and not acknowledging its existence, we become illusional.  The reality is right there, whether we choose to believe it or not.

Apple vs. the FBI

Recently the FBI has asked the technology company Apple to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the perpetrators in the San Bernardino attack back in early December 2015.  Rather than complying to the request, Apple refused to unlock the phone because the action will invade the company's privacy policy.  In addition, if Apple opens the phone, their iPhone products, the company claimed, will be vulnerable to other hackers as they can see it is possible to access the inside of the phone.  Authorities stated that Apple is acting like an adolescent and their stubbornness stems from the fear of bad publicity for their business.

Two months after the deadly attack in San Bernardino, which left 14 people dead, authorities are still in the blur on the exact motivation of the married couple who carried out the attack.  They rummaged through the couple's condo in Redlands, California and their belongings and what is left is the iPhone of the perpetrators. The phone is one of the last few hopes to understand the motivation of the attackers.

Despite how much Apple reasons on why it refused to follow the FBI's order, there are many reasons why Apple should do what it takes to open the phone.

First of all, unlocking the phone will unravel the mystery of the San Bernardino attack.  The two killers were gun downed in the battle with the police and they left little trace of the reasons why they carried out the attack.  Fourteen innocent lives were lost within a day and their family and friends are still healing from the lost of the important people who were once in their lives.

Last but no least, this will allow the public and authorities to understand the mind of not only the perpetrators in the San Bernardino attack but also the mindset of future killers, or terrorists even. The terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has given threats to attack America and knowing more information about the attack in California last December will aid the law enforcement to guard the country better. It is best to learn from what transpired in the past than to have to go through similar episodes in the future.  The past is the best teacher to learn from and we should use this opportunity to retain the lessons from it.

The future and safety of America are dependent on the law enforcement and the more understanding we have on why a killer performed a mass shooting or other unlawful acts, the authorities will have more control over on how to protect us Americans.

Banning Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is popular around the globe but recently one country has taken a negative view on the holiday.  That country is Pakistan.  The district Kohat in the north-eastern of Pakistan, for instance, banned the celebration of Valentine's Day for the reason that the holiday does not coincide with the Muslim faith.  The districts is governed by a religious political group and is surrounded by conservative tribal areas but despite the strong dislike of the holiday, the action has not been confirmed yet and that there are talks where the ruling was ignored due to the unpopularity of it.  In addition of the action, Pakistan's president denounced the holiday, stating it has no relation with the Pakistani culture and should be avoided.  The statement came from the belief that the holiday is a Western tradition and is conflicted with the Muslim culture.

Here we see the conflicts between culture and politics.  Who will win in the end? Due to the unpopularity of the banning, it is good to say culture is winning in this battle so far.  The people who ignore the banning in the district Kohat decide to keep the tradition, despite how much the politicians in the neighborhood are against it.  But how long this will last is solely dependent on the politicians in Pakistan. Culture verses Politics. Not to sound too morbid, but politics will win.  Politicians have all the power in the world to turn an idea into a reality.  And those that go against them can fight but they will have to one day succumb to the decisions of the politicians or else face unwanted action against them.  Take a look at the Nazi era. Many opponents were against the ideologies of the Nazis and they were put on trial and killed and many had no choice but to follow what the leads of the Nazi party wanted.

Knowing this we need to be more conscious of who we choose as the leaders in our country and to know what despite how many laws are out of our control, we have the right to vote for the nation leaders that would best suit our needs as they decide on what laws to pass and what to keep.

On Friendship

Growing up, I always wanted to fit in. I tried out for cheerleading and even color guard, and joined numerous clubs in order to find that one group that would accept me for who I am.  Then years later I learn that that is not the right way to find friends.  In order to find friends, we have to accept ourselves and then find a group of people who accept us for who we are.  It is easy said and done of course and that is the challenging part of this situation.  As a teen, there are too many hormones that cloud our mind from thinking clearly and on how to choose the right people to be around.  Growing up and life experiences do make it easier to see the perspectives and to understand the situation and of course the yearning to fit in is still there as always, we cannot run away from it as it is a part of the human nature.  But one thing we can do is to always remember that we will find that someone who will love us enough to stand our gut and to be there when we truly need him or her.

New Addiction- the Presidential Election

I am addicted to keeping up with the Presidential Election.  There, I admitted. I cannot get enough of the news update of the presidential election in my land country called America.  The candidate Donald Trump cannot stop making me laugh; no one has ever said a group of people (in this case Muslim) should be banned from a country that as diverse as America.  Mrs. Hilary Clinton are so confident in her stand that she signifies a great role model for millions of women in the world, Ted Cruz was born in Canada and he proves that "natural born" does not mean that a person have to be born in the American land in order to be the next president and despite  how much the public supports Mr. Cruz, I found myself to be confused what the Founding Fathers meant when they wanted only a natural born person to be the President of the US.

I am 28 and was never interested in politics when I was younger. Not until college that I took voting and politics seriously. Despite my new interest for politics in college, I found myself to steer away from it due to the dramas that the campaign--or politics in general-- can generate.    But this election grabbed my attention for what it is and I cannot take my eyes away from it.  Maybe I outgrown my apathy for politics and saw it in a different light as I age and see how relevant it is to my own life. Maybe the election is just a different monster than before and it does a better job in entertaining viewers--despite how other developed countries in the world do not like the comments that some of the candidates made.  For whatever the reason, I cannot take my eyes off this election and I am actually fine with it.

Who We Should Spend Money For

I bought Lush body products for the first time. I bought a face mask before and due to the fact that the company sells expensive items compared to the generic brands that the drug stores have, I vowed to never buy anything from the store again. However, I dropped by a Lush store a week ago and bought two soap bars. One is a bubble bath soap bar with a rose scent and the other is a bath bomb with a honey scent and I felt in love with them instantly at the store, so I had to get it.  The two soap bar cost my wallet $20.  When I got home, I realize that I need to have a bathtub of my own in order to use them and I realize that since I share a bathroom with a few other people, there is no way I can spend one hour on my own and not having anyone complaining to me about hogging the restroom to myself.  Due to the luscious smell of the items I bought, I decided to keep the soaps and promise to myself that I would find ways to put them in good use even if I will never use them in a bathtub.

The Lush soap bars helped me see that a key to happiness is to treat yourself out. Buy something that you always wanted. Buy that one shirt that you always crave, buy that one perfume that makes you turn heads over heal every time you put your nose near it. Do something that makes you afraid. Plan that Asia trip that you hold off since college.  Eat an expensive and good meal at a restaurant. Make reservation with that one top restaurant in your hometown and dress up for the night.  And best of all remember that you are doing this for yourself, not for anyone else. Not for your parents, your siblings, your friends, your boyfriend or husband. You are doing this because you deserve it.  We learn to appreciate ourselves and to think for ourselves as we choose to do what we want, rather than having other people dictate us on what to do with our life. We only have one life, make the most out of it and know that we deserve it.