Where do we go from here?

The entire Middle East remains in chaos. U.S. Marines are deploying to Libya, Syria is detaining a man believed of spying, and Bahrain and other countries are still  trying to cope with the protests. Reading has always been an escape and an inspiration for me. I had been on goodreads.com, I am a reader and I like to share with others the books that I have read and find books that appeal to me, and I discovered a guy named Latif Yahia. Mr. Yahia's book was only available in limited quantities and, supposedly, not sold in Ireland or the U.S.

Mr. Yahia was a body double for Uday Hussein and was being courted by intelligence agencies from around the world but he only wanted to live a normal life and decided against being employed by the agencies. I had never heard of him, but he seemed interesting.

I also found it interesting that the return of former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide went uncovered by the major media outlets. Amy Goodman, from Democracynow.org, covered it while he and his family were on the plane from South Africa. I still do not understand how he was removed legally by George W. Bush.



I guess that I am too logical. I also need justifiable reasons why Walmart is permitted to pay women less and not advance them while employed at the company. I think the operative phrase would be, "in theory". . .

From here, hopefully, things get better.      

UCLA must be a huge fan of legacy admissions

I try to remain optimistic and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but there will always be an exception--watch at your own risk:

 Supposedly--and I am saying supposedly, because UCLA has name recognition, and was once considered a "selective" higher learning institution: composed of intelligent students; this young lady is a UCLA student. That she was admitted to UCLA and that she uses the library were the only two things that I found shocking. Legacy admissions are not controversial--opposed to affirmative action, so many may not be aware that they exist. Legacy, which I am hoping is how she was admitted, is the old boy's network at its finest. It is the name dropping way of entering college. Many assume that is how George W. Bush attended Yale. I believe that G.W. could have also attended due to his celebrity, which is also a great,unmeritorious way to attend college. These students are usually sought after and it is in this great book "A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges" by Michele A. Hernandez. I read this book in hopes of attending Graduate School. That hope died, but for anyone who still believes in higher education, I highly recommend it.

Back to Ms. UCLA's rant: Racism, apparently, is a system that has worked very well for her. I believe that she has a future as a Fox News broadcaster--perhaps, she has already had an internship with them. She manipulated the tags and used a natural disaster to propagate her hateful view of Asians. She even went as far as to mention that she understands that their family members are calling them out of concern and she remained angry at the Asian--specifically Asian, because no other race uses or has ever used a cell phone in the library. It is sad. There is a culture of negativity and her shameless, disgustingly selfish views cannot, in any way, be beneficial to UCLA. I am sure that the school has already distanced itself from her. I hope that everyone in Japan is healing and that they receive the help that they need. If there is anything that I can do, please leave a comment. I advise everyone to beware of scams because, just as the UCLA student, there are too many opportunists/scavengers/vultures out there--despite the do-gooders. 

Protests

I do not wish to downplay the protests that have arisen in The Middle East. I lived in a very liberal Middle Eastern country and their politics and cultures are complex. However, I do want to demonstrate how hypocritical the media is when framing such news stories. During the George W. Bush years: 2000-2008, the news media would be strategically placed so that protesters would not be visible to the cameras. The protesters were often confined to an area where their numbers could not be approximated and their signs and effigies could not be seen. The aforementioned description doesn't fit a democratic society. The media will edit certain stories to its advantage. The corporate media is particularly of concern because it has the potential to enter new markets. I do not believe that the media is inherently evil. I think that some people go beyond what is normal when demonizing corporate news conglomerates, but one must question why it is not allowable in the society with the most freedoms and why the protests have managed to be extremely successful in the society that has a stronger handle on their society?