You are probably familiar with the TV Show, The Walking Dead, the #1 most watched drama and thriller show on TV. If you watched this show, you would know that their show has a habit of killing off all of our beloved characters. But “Killer Within”, the fourth episode of the third season, really stands out because this episode is one of the most gut-wrenching episodes of the whole show, leaving you on your couch with a bunch of empty boxes of tissues. “Killer Within was written by Sang Kyu Kim, a producer of The Walking Dead. It was directed by Guy Ferland, an American film and television director. “Killer Within” didn’t just have one death, but TWO deaths of our favorite characters that have been with us since the beginning. These were two of the most memorable characters that have died, and their deaths are even sadder. If you are not yet passed season three of this show, then stop reading now, because, of course, SPOILER ALERT (If you do decide to continue reading, don’t get mad at me if the show is spoiled for you).
Our episode starts off with Rick discussing with Daryl, Carol, Glenn, T-Dog and Maggie that they should keep the prison as their permanent shelter to continue surviving. But while exploring their brand new territory, they come across six prisoners stuck there from the beginning. T-Dog suggests to the group that they let the prisoners join, but Rick disagrees and says that they should keep their prison, his idea being supported by the others. Axel and Oscar refuse because the cell block is full of dead bodies and the yard outside, where they plan to bury them, is filled with walkers. So Rick sticks them in one of the cell blocks, planning to give them one week's worth of supplies and kick them out. Hershel Greene, father of Maggie and Beth Greene, starts to walk once again after having his leg amputated from being bit by a walker. He is assisted by his daughter Beth, Lori Grimes and Carl Grimes. But literally five seconds after being outside in the courtyard, the entire courtyard is filled with hungry walkers, looking for flesh. This results in the group separating. But while T-Dog is securing the prison yard inner gate, a walker comes up behind him and takes a bite out of his shoulder. He runs away, being supported by Carol into the tunnels of the prison. Meanwhile, Rick, Daryl and Glenn rush from outside of the prison’s fences, and Glenn is the one to discover that the gate’s lock broken. Rick starts to believe that Axel and Oscar are the ones who broke the fence. But they are off the hook as soon as the alarm to the prison goes off, making problems much worse and attracting many more walkers. Oscar tells Rick that the backup generators are making the alarms go off, so the group hunts down those generators to shut the alarms off. Now let’s jump back to T-Dog and Carol. Carol assists the injured T-Dog. But T-Dog refuses her help, knowing that he’s eventually going to die. After they are blocked in the corridor by walkers, the brave T-Dog sacrifices himself for Carol by charging at the walkers and pinning them to the wall. This makes matters worse for T-Dog, because he is just eaten alive by the walkers. He yells at Carol, “GO! I’M DEAD!”. Carol, horrified at what she is seeing, flees away from T-Dog to hide, which introduces our very first heartbreaking death of the episode. Now on the opposite side of the building, Lori goes into labor. Maggie and Carl rescue her and drag her to the boiler room. But when Lori attempts to push out her baby, she starts to bleed profusely. Lori eventually realizes she will not be surviving childbirth. After telling Maggie to give her a C-Section, Carl spends his last moments with his mother, because all three of them know that Lori is not going to survive the C-Section. Carl hands Maggie his knife, and Maggie performs the C-Section. from too much blood loss, Lori dies in the middle of it, concluding our second tragic death of the episode. Maggie pulls out the baby out of Lori’s stomach, and pats it’s back to help it breathe. Maggie then turns to Carl and informs him that he is the one who has to shoot his mother in the head to prevent her from turning. Then she goes to check and see if the corridor is clear. While Carl looks over his dead mother’s body, he remembers the talk that Rick gave to him about never being able to be prepared for someone to die, but he still had to be ready if someone did. After Maggie checks the corridors, we hear a gunshot off-screen, signalling that Carl has just shot Lori, and he walks away. Meanwhile, the cause of the alarms going off was actually just one of the six prisoners prisoners from earlier, Andrew. While Rick and Andrew fight, Daryl secures the door against lots of walkers, and Oscar picks up Rick’s revolver. Andrew then starts to try and persuade Oscar to kill Rick, but instead, he shoots Andrew. He hands Rick his revolver and turns the emergency generators. Rick, Daryl and Oscar reunite with Glenn and Axel in the corridors. On their way out of the corridors, they discover the dead body of T-Dog, being devoured by the walkers that killed him. After killing the walkers, they also discover Carol’s head wrap, and the five assume that Carol is dead as well. When Rick and the group exit the corridor, he runs up to Hershel and Beth, panicked, asking if Carl and Lori had made it. Rick starts to give orders to the group about where they should search, but before he can finish, Rick is interrupted by the sound of a baby’s cry. He looks over to see Carl and Maggie, who are crying. Rick is confused about the absence of Lori, but after Maggie stops him from going into the prison to search for her, he finally has to face the truth that she is dead. The most heartbreaking moment of this episode is when he collapses to the ground and sobs about his wife’s death. That is a brief overview of what happened in “Killer Within”. In this episode, we have lost T-Dog and Lori, who had been in the show since season 1! These deaths will always stand out, being tied as the two #1 saddest deaths in the show. We have lost so many others in the most current season, which is season 5. A lot of those characters were there since the beginning as well, but not one of those deaths will ever compare to the sadness of T-Dog’s and Lori’s. For a rating, I would give this episode a rating of 10/10 because it was one of the strongest episodes of The Walking Dead that has ever aired (this episode left me sobbing in my room!). When you start to become a fan of this show, you get very connected to the characters. I got very connected to T-Dog, and when he died, my heart was in agonizing pain. He was one of the bravest characters in the show, and he showed the most bravery he has ever shown when he sacrificed himself for Carol. I did not care for Lori very much. In fact, she was always one of my least favorite characters throughout the show. But she had the most dramatic, heartbreaking, and agonizing death of the whole show so far. And even the thought that her own son had to shoot her in the head so she wouldn’t turn is extremely heartbreaking.
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WARNING: THIS ARTICLE TALKS ABOUT SEXUAL CONTENT THAT IS RELEVANT TO THIS TOPIC
In 2014, Detroit started the “Detroit Rape Kit Project”: a project where rape kits are tested for DNA in order to arrest rapists that have prowled freely because the kits weren’t tested. This project was started when eleven thousand untested rape kits, some from the 1980s, were discovered in an abandoned Detroit police storage facility. According to Kim Craig, who wrote “100 Serial Rapists Identified after Rape Kits from Detroit Crime Labs Are Finally Tested” for the news program WXYZ’s Detroit website, fourteen prosecutions have resulted because of the testing of these abandoned rape kits. One of these cases includes DeShawn Starks, a perpetrator who raped four women. Craig states that in February of 2003 Starks pretended to be experiencing stomach pains and approached a woman, who was returning home. He then proceeded to pull out a gun out, robbed her, and took her to a secluded area, and he raped her. The woman went to the hospital, where she had a rape kit completed. Her rape kit then sat in a storage facility for ten years. He raped another woman in 2003, and he raped two other women in 2013. Starks could have been stopped before he was able to rape three other women if the DNA from the initial rape kit (on 2003) had been run through CODIS, a system that has the DNA profile of anybody that has an arrest record or for a job, such as a nurse. If crime labs had done this, they might have been able to identify Starks before he raped the other three woman. Using the results from rape kits is a simple way of stopping somebody from being assaulted, yet it doesn’t happen often enough. In today’s society, we have so much technology that can be used to solve crimes, such as rape, yet we have about 400,000 untested rape kits that are sitting in storage facilities. Instead of letting them sit, collecting dust, we should be testing them, allowing survivors to find some closure and preventing rapists from walking on the streets as a free men. After a person is sexually assaulted, she might have a rape kit done; however, this may not happen if the survivor does not want to go through with one. A rape kit is a four to six hour examination that is done to collect any and all evidence that might have been left behind by the rapist. This could potentially include the DNA from the rapist. If DNA is left behind, this can be a powerful tool that can be used to find the rapist since everybody has their own DNA profile, which means nobody has the same DNA sequence, unless you are an identical twin. Once the rape kit is taken, it is supposed to be sent to a crime lab to be tested in order to find out if any DNA had been left behind, but instead, it often is sent to a storage facility, where it can sit for decades. In the United States, rape kits often remain untested, which has resulted in an accumulation of 400,000 untested rape kits, causing a backlog. What can cause a backlog? A backlog, according to End the Backlog, a program that is a part of the Joyful Heart Foundation, can have several causes. One of which is how rape kits tend to be sent to storage facilities and forgotten about, and since only three states- Illinois, Texas, and Colorado- require rape kits to be counted, tracked, and tested, making it easier for rape kits to be forgotten about in the other forty-seven states that aren’t required to count, track, or test the kits. Another way is a lack of resources. Crime labs may be under funded, or police departments don’t have the technology to track the kits. If it’s just a matter of tracking the kits or more funding for crime labs, why doesn’t the government lend a hand since both programs are run by the government? End the Backlog states that a rape kit can cost from a thousand dollars to a thousand five hundred dollars. Some people may use the excuse that it’s too expensive, and the government is already tight on money. The only problem with that argument is that the government has spent thousands of dollars in some pretty outrageous ways. Accordinging to Michael Snyder, who wrote “60 Completely Outrageous Ways the U.S. Government Is Wasting Money” for infowars.com, in 2012, twenty-five thousand dollars of federal money was spent on a promotional tour for Alabama’s Watermelon Queen. If that money had gone toward testing rape kits, about twenty-five thousand rape kits could have been tested. Which seems more important, a tour for Alabama’s Watermelon Queen or giving about twenty-five thousand rape survivors closure? Another excuse that people may use in order to make the fact that our number of untested rape kits has gotten so out of hand is that some rape allegations turn out to be false. False rape accusations do exist, but they do not happen as often as some people think. Although this does occur, it does not mean that all allegations are false; only about two to eight percent of rape accusations are false. This number is still on the high side, but what kind of people would we be if we continued to let the rape kits sit in storage facilities? Especially, when testing these kits could mean a survivor is finally able to put this horrific event behind them. We know how much of an impact the kits can have on a case (the ability to put a rapist away), so why is this not a priority? According to End the Backlog, another reason might be the fact that some police departments don’t prioritize sexual assault. Another reason is whether or not the case is likely to move forward. Often, the survivor has been through so much trauma, and the police tend to misunderstand the actions of the survivor and interpret it to be the survivor not cooperating or not being credible. This can lead the survivor to hesitate to proceed with the case. Finally, if the police are already aware of who the rapist is, the police don’t need to test the DNA. The question we all need to really think about isn’t why we don’t perform the test, the question is, why did we let this get so out of hand? After Deshawn Starks was arrested, he was prosecuted and put away for forty-five to ninety years. Now that he has been arrested and put behind bars, the four women that he assaulted can look for closure that he is no longer a free man. According to Soraya Chemaly, who wrote “50 Actual Facts About Rape” for the Huffington Post, about fifty four percent of rapes aren’t reported. Obviously, this can be due to good reasons; the survivor might know that nothing is going to be done. That if they have a rape kit completed, it will probably end up in a storage facility. The survivor also might not feel comfortable, or feel ashamed. Nobody that has been raped should feel this way. They should not feel as if nothing is going to be done for them. Since Detroit has started their “Detroit Rape Kit Project”, they had tested one thousand six hundred rape kits out of their eleven thousand by March of 2014. Out of those one thousand six hundred rape kits, one hundred serial rapists were identified, and in New York, they’ve started testing their kits, and their arrest rates for rape have gone from forty percent to seventy percent. If by only testing one thousand six hundred kits a hundred serial rapists are discovered and placed behind bars, how many rapists could be identified by testing the other estimated four hundred thousand kits? In the past year alone, there have been two riots that have had the largest impact in the news. The first one was in Ferguson, Missouri. In Ferguson, the riots began after the fatal shooting of eighteen year old Michael Brown. The more recent one has been in Baltimore, Maryland. In Baltimore, the riots began after the death of Freddie Gray.
Both started as peaceful protests, but they both quickly became violent. In Ferguson, there were three waves of the protest. The first wave started on August 9, 2014, due to the death of Michael Brown, and ended on August 25, 2014. The second wave started November 24, 2014, after Daren Wilson, the officer that shot Michael Brown, was not indicted, meaning the grand jury decided to not formal accuse him for the death of Michael Brown. The third wave started on April 28, 2015 after the death of Freddie Gray and are still ongoing. So far, the Ferguson protests have resulted in sixteen injuries and two hundred eleven arrests of the public. In Baltimore, there has only been one wave of riots starting on April 18, 2015, which caused the Baltimore Orioles to close their game to the public on April 29. As of April 28, about twenty police officers had been injured, and around two hundred fifty people have been arrested. The Maryland Army National Guard troops and thousands of police officers have been deployed in an attempt to stop the burning of building and cars along with any injuries that may be caused. Baltimore also was put into a state of emergency once the protests became violent riots. If you ask me, this is not the right way to approach these issues. The protesters, rioters, whatever you want to call them, are attempting to fight fire with fire. This method has caused nothing except for injuries and arrests. If your point is to try and stop more injuries and deaths from occurring, why do something that can only lead to more injuries and deaths? Over the course of one week, we, Tessa Sandre and Julia Spoor, interviewed multiple teachers throughout the Middle/High school. The questions we asked were, “What do you think it means to be a man?”, “What do you think it means to be a woman?”, and “What privileges do you think other men/women have over you?”. This was all in an attempt to understand how our society views gender roles and stereotypes.
Most of the answers were refreshing and filled us with hope that society had finally started to crush the gender barriers. However, we found that sexism was still lurking in the dark corners of our school’s classrooms. Yes, a majority of the teachers had respectable views, yet two or three teachers were still stuck in a pit of age old misogyny. For example, while some of the teachers stated that they thought women’s responsibilities should be equal to men’s, others shared ridiculous notations such as, “Not saying they are, but on average, men are better”, (anonymous source) and “Man goes out and takes care of family while mom stays home and works with the kids, it was nice”, (anonymous source). Although we do not agree with these quotes, we can understand where some of them are coming from. Some of the older teachers (specifically male) had been raised in a time different from ours, where gender roles were so unlike how they are now. However, one teacher in particular shared with us that he was aware of society’s recent changes, but refuses to agree with or even accept them. To each his own, right? That is what we were thinking too, until this source began attempting to explain to us how “Feminism is mythology” and “Discrimination is a myth”. Not only did we find these statements quite contradictory to this person’s earlier explanations about how discrimination was inevitable and how it will never go away, but we also found these statements rather disrespectful and ignorant especially coming from a highly respected teacher in our high school. On the other hand, a multitude of teachers had some extremely respectable responses to our questions. For example, one teacher shared with us the fact that she tends to do more stereotypical womanly things. She said it was her choice, but is it really? “Am I choosing this womanly role or is society choosing it for me?” (Mrs. Cleary) For years now, the social construct has been portraying mothers in pink aprons and pushing baby carriages. From a young age girls are taught to stay in the house while boys are told to leave it. Could years of this have influenced our future choices? After years of watching the media portray a perfect housewife and a tie wearing, workaholic father, could our decisions have been controlled to fit these tight boxes? Throughout our interviews, some teachers’ definitions of “feminism” astounded us. One teacher seemed to be under the impression that “feminism” means “anti-men.” Although many people may feel this way, what most people do not know is that feminism works to help men too. As one faculty member stated, “Emotional reactions are more accepted, experiencing a range of emotions is okay for women but not for men in today’s society.” This stood out to us because pointed out a serious error in today’s society. Why are women allowed to cry but men are not? We should able to stay “tough” with tears in our eyes. Feminism can help men with issues like these, just as much as it helps women with theirs. Feminism works toward equality for all, not superiority for women. To sum this all up, our overall goal was to truly gain a deeper understanding of what people in our community think gender really is. Although we were ridiculed and insulted during this process, we achieved our goal and are satisfied with our results. There is still much work in need of being done, but one step at a time, we will be able to stomp out gender inequality! When people say, "You're really (funny, honest, tough, strong, brave, ect.)" they always seem to end that statement with, "for a girl." Why can I not be really funny, for a person? Or why can I not be just be really tough? Period; no "for a..." no categorizing, just tough, or funny? It seems that the human race has put in standards. Like if you are a white heterosexual upper middle class male, you are gonna be okay in America. Now if you are not, wether it be you are homosexual, female, African American, or anything like that you will face some type of oppression. Now I am not saying that white upper middle class males don't face oppression (because I don't know what goes on in your life, and you don't know what goes on in mine) you just probably don't face as much. This unjust categorization also happens to people with mental illnesses, people will say things like, "You're really focused, for someone with ADHD." People come in all types and forms, and the human race has had trouble realizing it for hundreds of years. It doesn't matter who you are on the outside; it's the inside that matters.
The Mars Curiosity Rover has discovered an unusual amount of methane in the Mars atmosphere, as well as other organic chemicals in rock samples. Scientists say that this amount of methane does not necessarily mean that there are biological sources on Mars because organic molecules that contain carbon and hydrogen, such as methane, can exist without the presence of life. However, scientists do say that the findings support the theory of life on Mars thousands of years ago.
Additionally, the gases Curiosity collected from the rock samples inform scientists about the presence of water on Mars a long time ago, and also inform them about the rapid loss of water Mars experienced. These finding are very important because they aid in the preparation of a human mission to Mars (currently scheduled to be completed in the 2030s) and with every discovery such as this one, the mission to Mars becomes more and more possible. It also aids the theory that there is life outside of Earth. However, more discoveries need to be made before a definite conclusion is drawn about ancient, past life on Mars. It was a couple years ago when one of my closest friends attempted suicide. When I saw the suicide note online, I was skeptical. I did not think he would try. That was until the next day, when I returned to school. The teachers and principal brought everybody in my grade to talk about my friend’s attempted suicide in private. I was stunned. Thankfully, his attempt was a failure, and he was unharmed.
Suicide is a very dark and sensitive subject. In 2012, 40,600 suicides were reported that year. In case you didn’t know, suicide is the act of one killing him/herself. It affects everybody, whether they liked that person or not. Nobody deserves to follow the route of suicide. As somebody who is suicidal, I know how difficult it is to try and push away the horrible thoughts. I understand how crappy one can feel when all you want to do is curl up and disappear. This may sound extremely cliché and impossible, but you can overcome these feelings. You are important, special, and you are brave enough to get through this. If you are suicidal, I, someone you may or may not know, believe you can get through this. You just need some help. It’s okay to have feelings like this, but when it gets too serious, then it needs to be helped. Okay, let’s take the place of somebody who knows a person who is suicidal. What do you do? Talk to them about how they’re feeling. Also, tell a counselor or the person’s relative about what is going through this person’s mind, that way they have some kind of “warning” and could help this at an earlier stage. If this person begins to show signs that they will hurt him/herself or attempt, tell someone IMMEDIATELY. Whether you think they’re actually going to do it or not, just tell somebody. I was cynical when I first saw my friend’s suicide note, just like everybody else who read it. I didn’t say or do anything. Only one person took action, and they did the right thing. Everybody else believed that he was just saying it and wouldn’t actually attempt. Obviously, that was a big mistake that could have taken a life. I know it’s difficult to escape from the demons, I know you’re ready to give up, but just hold on for a bit longer. This one time when I was feeling really suicidal, and just about ready to give up, my one friend said: “None of that makes you any less wonderful or brilliant. You’re still a creative, brave survivor with so much ahead of you. … You’ve got a million reasons to keep going. Stuff’s bad right now, but it isn’t always going to be. It sounds like such a cliché, but I promise it will get better.” Mariska Hargitay was born January 23, 1964 in Santa Monica, California. Her parents, father, Mickey Hargitay and mother, Jayne Mansfield, were both actors. Her mother tragically died in a car crash when Hargitay was three. Her father remarried, and they raise Hargitay and her brothers and gave them a normal life. Hargitay attended UCLA and majored in theater. Her first motion picture was Ghoulies(1984) where she played Donna. Her current role is on the popular TV series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit(1999) where she plays Detective Olivia Benson.
Mariska Hargitay is an inspirational woman to me because of her work in the Joyful Heart Foundation and No More, which as both foundations that have a mission to end abuse of all forms. The Joyful Heart Foundation is foundation that Hargitay started to “heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues”(Joyful Heart Foundation Website: Vision and Mission). After Hargitay started working on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, she began research into her role and was shocked by the statistics: “One in three women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some point in their lives. Every two minutes in the United States, somebody is sexually assaulted. More than five children die everyday in this country as a result of abuse or neglect, and up to 15 million children witness domestic violence in their homes every year”(Joyful Heart Foundation Website: Founder’s Corner) Before Hargitay started the foundation, she was receiving letters from viewers, and they would reveal that they were victims of physical or sexual abuse. Hargitay was so moved by the fact that the viewers had reached out to her, and she wanted to do something to help them: “…I felt a great responsibility to these brave women and men and wanted them to know that they had been heard and that they could have hope. I studied the subject, trained to become a crisis counselor and used my visibility as an actress to become an advocate. I knew I wanted to play a role in healing that pain, ending the isolation, and honoring the great courage survivors were showing by reaching out for help”(Joyful Heart Foundation Website: Founder’s Corner). As a result, she started the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to help these victims. The foundation helps victims by providing a network of resources. They also have their own groundbreaking retreats that provide traditional counseling and therapy. At the top of the Joyful Heart Foundation website’s home page is a quote from Mariska Hargitay- “It’s simple physics: the greater the number of people willing to lift, the lighter the load that each individual must carry”. The rich silt and prosperity brought by the mighty Nile and the deserts to left and the right of the vast land, along with many other factors allowed for the development of one of the world’s greatest civilizations to have existed. The North African country bordering the mediterranean sea between Libya and Gaza strip today attracts tourists from all over the world but unfortunately has struggled economically over the past few decades. The Egyptian culture has been and still exists to be one of the most fascinating cultures around the globe.
Religion Following the tradition of previous civilizations, the people of Egypt used to believe in a polytheistic religion, however- after being conquered by many other great civilizations- it was the Arabs who brought Islam in Egypt, in the 7th century. Egypt has since then been a dominant Islamic state and a center of Islamic education and tradition. Today, almost 90% of people of Egypt’s total population are Sunni Muslims, along with a minority of Coptic Christians who make 8.5% of the total population, and 1.5% of other christians. Religion has a very big impact on the Egyptian society- social implications and people’s actions are heavily influenced by the personal beliefs of people. For example, pious individuals commonly blamed Egypt’s lack of faith for the country’s setbacks and defeat in the war of 1967. Comparing the importance and the topic of religion in the Egyptian culture with my culture, I find a lot of similarities between the two. First of all, the society that I come from is also heavily influenced by Islam- Pakistan (my home country) has the second largest Muslim population in the world. Also, the teachings of Islam can clearly be seen being implied by people in their daily lives and especially in politics. Women are bound to be modest and conservative, congregational prayers are often huge, religion and propaganda; the best combination a politician could possibly use to exploit people’s beliefs and thinking in such a religious society, etc. Also, 76% of Muslims in Pakistan are Sunni while the rest, 26% being Shi’ites. Economics Occupying the northeastern corner of the African continent, Egypt is bisected by the fertile Nile valley where most of the economic activity takes place. The Egyptian economy is the twenty fifth largest in the world and is mainly based on Agriculture (a huge number of people in Egypt are settled near the Nile) , Industries (textiles and cotton), and Tourism. In contrast to being one of the richest civilization of ancient times, the Egyptian economy has suffered in the recent past. With a weak economic foundation in the past few decades, low living conditions and limited job opportunities for the average Egyptian have lead to public discontent. After the unrest erupted in 2011, political uncertainty caused economic growth to slow significantly, reducing the government’s revenues. Tourism, manufacturing, and construction were among the hardest hit sectors of the economy, pushing unemployment rates up. Since 2011, Cairo has drawn down foreign exchange reserves and has primarily depended on foreign assistance, particularly from Gulf countries. Economics in my culture differ from the Egyptian society. The soil that I was born and raised on is very fertile and so, agriculture is still the main source of living for many- nearly 45% of the total population of Pakistan relies on agriculture to feed their families. However, sadly, that fertile land is by and by getting more and more polluted by industrial waste and household garbage, which people dump in rivers, fields etc. Other than agriculture, construction and manufacturing also occupy a good amount of labor force- the overall population is growing rapidly and most of the areas are growing into urbanized locations. The increasing pollution and all the cons are mainly an outcome of the lack of education- literacy rates are generally low and due to numerous other counterparts- non educational attitude, fundamentalist beliefs, politics,etc- there are a lot of people who do not understand the importance of quality education. Government Egypt today exists as a republic with the President having majority of the power. The president dominates the two chamber legislature- the lower people’s assembly and the upper Consultative council. There are 27 administrative subdivisions known as the governorates. The president possesses virtually unrestricted power to appoint and dismiss officials including the vice president, the governorates, prime ministers and members of council of ministers, and military officers. Egypt has a mixed legal system based on Napoleonic civil law and penal law, Islamic religious law and vestiges of colonial- era laws. Until a year ago, I lived all my life in a republic, however, different from the Egyptian republic. Unlike the Egyptian government, there are no governorates back there government but the president does have the power to dismiss the prime minister and appoint someone else. In my culture, religion plays a big role when it comes to the legal system and law.The legal system is based on two systems; the Shariah law (Islamic law) and the secular law. Apart from the court, a lot of people in the rural and undeveloped areas consult religious scholars or the elderly people of the society for guidance in their personal matters and they act as judges, giving the final verdict. Family Structure The Egyptian family structure is very interesting and again, heavily influenced by Islam. It is customary to have extended families- uncles, aunts, grandparents, etc live in the same household. Following what has long been the Middle Eastern tradition; these large families are patriarchal and girls in families are protected by her brothers who may also accompany them in public. Traditionally, marriages are arranged between heads of families, often with little input from the couple involved. Parents play a big role in planning their children’s future and children assume the responsibility of supporting and caring for their parents in their old age. Family structure in my culture is pretty much the same as it is in the Egyptian culture. The difference is that it depends on whether you are referring to the family structure of families in rural areas or advanced, urban cities. In the rural areas, most of the families are extended families because it is easier and cheaper when everyone is contributing to the same household. In these areas, parents do play a big role in deciding their children’s future. There aren’t many resources and opportunities in these remote areas so many of the children grow up first helping their sisters and moms with work in the house and when they are strong enough, they start assisting the men of the family in agriculture. On the other hand, in urban cities, nuclear families are more common although close ties with relatives are still maintained. Parents do play a role in planning their children’s future but it is relatively small. Families are more independent and self sufficient. You can say that these families are more westernized. Social Structure and Interactions The Egyptian social structure is a bit hierarchical. Greetings are often elaborate- phrases used for greeting depend largely on the individuals’ social classes. Generally, people of the same sex greet each other by shaking hands and kissing once on each cheek. Men greet women with a handshake only if the woman stretches out her hand first. Good friends of the same sex may walk hand in hand, an engaged or married couple may walk arm in arm, otherwise a man does not touch a woman in public. It is considered improper to use first names unless one invites one to do so; good friends do exchange first names in informal settings but not in formal ones. Most men go to coffee shops to relax, play board games, meet with friends etc. Wealthy men often go to private clubs to socialize. Visiting is one of the most important pastimes in Egypt- it demonstrates the importance of a relationship. Married children often go to visit their parents on Fridays and weekends. Soccer is the most popular sport, arousing great enthusiasm and inspiring a lot of fans. The ways and customs of socializing are a bit different in my culture. The way of greeting generally is very different from the Egyptian culture, people of the same sex shake hands and say the Salam. If the meeting comes after a long time, they may hug each other as well. There is no hierarchy or class system; each and everyone is considered equal. The ways of socializing generally depends on what gender you belong to. Men usually go out to various entertainment spots, functions, parties etc to entertain themselves. For women, it depends from family to family: some families are very strict and don’t allow their daughters and wives to hangout with their friends anywhere else except their houses, while others are flexible and the women of the family are allowed to hangout with friends, play games in the streets etc. Visiting relatives, cousins etc is one of the most common practices in my culture; it demonstrates love, closeness and hospitality. Cricket is the most popular sport by far. There is nothing else that attracts more attention among teenager boys than cricket. Elderly women like to cook and invite friends and relatives on dinners while elderly men go out to sit and talk and relax with their fellow friends. Bibliography 1."Egypt." World Explorer. FIU college of Business and Administration, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. <http://webpath.follettsoftware.com/resource/ viewurl?encodedUrl=keZ8pL8j9gKBTdMZILLConltxVtxtKyWG1Ydi1T--1A&version=1&appsigna ture=Destiny&appversion=12.0.6.2+%2812_0_AU2_RC2%29>. 2. Fay, Mary Ann, et al. "Country Studies." Federal Research Division. Lib. of Cong., 27 July 2010. Web. 19 Oct. 2014. <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ egtoc.html>. 3. "The World Factbook." Central Intelligence Agency- the World Factbook. Historical Collection, 15 Apr. 2007. Web. 21 Oct. 2014. <http://webpath.follettsoftware.com/resource/ viewurl?encodedUrl=gUreQblm5nG6zM4UdZA3y4twJGljSGLPd_YqX-D33R4&version=1&appsigna ture=Destiny&appversion=12.0.6.2+%2812_0_AU2_RC2%29>. Losing somebody you care about is a life-altering event. You feel as if you have lost a part of you. You may be confused or angry or distraught, maybe a mix of all three. For Mia Hall, in Where She Went by Gayle Forman, she lost her parents and younger brother in the first book If I Stay, which created a void within her heart. Where She Went had good intentions when it came to answering questions raised from the first book; however, it spent too much time focusing on the flashbacks instead of the night Mia and Adam had spent together.
Where She Went takes place in New York City, Mia’s new home. It is told from the point of view of her now ex-boyfriend, Adam Wilde and is about their lives three years after the accident. While in New York, Adam and Mia spend a night together, trying to reconnect, but they mistakenly avoid talking about the accident and why Mia had cut off any contact with Adam. They soon learn that they needed to talk about these problems, realizing that they can’t run from their past. The end of If I Stay raised several questions for the readers. What would happen to Mia and Adam’s relationship? Would Mia go to Juilliard? Would Adam follow Mia if she went to Juilliard, ultimately leaving his band? These questions haunted the readers from the day they finished If I Stay until the day they read Where She Went. You find out that Mia did leave for Juilliard, and Adam stayed in Portland to play in his band. You also discover that their relationship had fallen apart afterwards; “She left for Juilliard the day after Labor Day. I drove her to the airport. She kissed me good-bye. She told me that she loved me more than life itself. Then she stepped through security. She never came back” (47). Although they stayed together in the months after the accident, they did not stay together once Mia started at Juilliard. Neither of them ever called each other to make the break up official or to try and work it out; they just allowed their relationship to fall apart; they didn’t talk too much after Mia left, but when they stopped talking, they knew their relationship was over. When you find out that they’ve broken up, it raises another question. Why? You continue to wonder this until the night has ended. When Mia finally spills her guts, the readers are shocked: “She looks at me, square in the eye. Taking aim. And then she pulls the trigger ‘Because I hated you’” (188). She may not have necessarily hated Adam right after waking up, but at some point between waking up and starting at Juilliard, she began to hate him. Finding out that Mia now hates Adam raises another question: Why did, or does, Mia hate Adam? Mia eventually answered this question; “You made me stay” (188). While Mia had been in her coma, Adam had talked to her: he had told her he’d do anything if she stayed, so when she tells him that, she finally reveals that she could hear Adam when he was talking to her. Within Where She Went, the readers were able to put their unanswered questions to rest and finally get some closure. Although this book answered the questions that were raised from If I Stay, there was too much time devoted to flashbacks of the events of the past three years, instead of on what Mia and Adam. Certain flashback chapters, such as the ones that discussed the months after Mia woke up, and Mia and Adam’s break up, were important to the book. I believe, though, that they should have been in the beginning of the book instead of dispersed throughout the book. About ten of the twenty three chapters are just flashbacks; one chapter is entirely devoted to how Adam met his girlfriend after Mia; “In a weird twisted way, Bryn and I met because of Mia” (81). This entire chapter has nothing to do about Mia or Adam that night. It was about Adam’s new girlfriend, who is not an important character. Since the flashback chapters are dispersed, going in between present day chapters, it can become confusing to follow; one chapter could be about Adam finding a flier stating, “Young Concert Series Presents Mia Hall” (36), and being about Adam then going to the concert. While, the next chapter could be about how “Mia woke up after four days” (39), and how she went to Juilliard. The author spent so much time on flashbacks that he didn’t spend enough time on the details of what was going on present day. He also made it seem like he rushed to finish the ending. Because too much time was spent on flashbacks, I did not feel as if the book reached to the standards I had hoped for- more detail about Mia and Adam’s current lives, showing how much they’ve changed- instead of the details of their lives from the past. Since they did not do this, it caused me to not like the book as much as I had hoped to. Evidently, losing somebody can be life-altering. In If I Stay, Mia and Adam thought that they’d stay together even after Mia had graduated and potentially attended to Juilliard; in Where She Went, you find out that they didn’t. Although this book achieved answering questions raised for the readers in If I Stay, it failed in making the book a new story by including too many flashbacks. |