rlee10's Blog

‘Is Miss USA a Muslim trailblazer?’- When I first read the title of the article, I asked myself, “Why is Miss USA a Muslim trailblazer?” After reading an article, I felt absurd and was even shocked. The article talked about Rima Fakih, a Labanese decent who moved to the United States when she was very young. She was a representative of the state of Michigan, and she recently won the title, Miss USA 2010. I saw her picture on the news article, and she was gorgeous.
However, the article talked about how a few people strongly disagree with her winning the title 2010 because of her racial issue. They called her Arab-American, Lebanese-American, and Muslim-American. Even a rumor, started by a U.S. neo-coonservative website, suggested that she can be a spy for Shiite Lebanese group Hebollah, one of the terrorist organization. Some of them brought up her Pole-dancing pictures and asked the validity of her title, Miss USA 2010.

I personally can’t understand why these issues are occuring. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she prepared herself for the competition, and she won the title by her beauty. Questioning the validity of the title Miss USA due to her physically different race is absurd. If that’s the case, then only the whites can earn the title Miss USA.
After all the hard work and efforts to win this title, she has to listen to all these controversies of her. How will she and her parents think when they hear about the story of the Shiite Lebanese group Hebollah?
I feel sorry not only for her, but also for our society. We always talk about how globalized we are, but in fact, there’s still racial discrimination going on every parts of the world. I hope that those, who questioned the validity of Rima Fakih, change their perspectives and find a new definition of the beauty. The beauty that wins Miss USA is not the color of the skin, but the combination of elegance and good characters.

The drugs are for the adults, but it’s not the case in Afghanistan. Izat Gul, a mother of children in Afghanistan, said that when her baby had earache after he was born, she gave the opium to his baby, for she couldn’t find a doctor. After her daughter was born next year, her baby had stomach aches, and she gave the opium again to get rid of her pain. Their babies get addicted to the opium from then.

In my opinion, in order for many developing countries to break the cycle is an education. It is impossible to change the drug-addicted adults, whose minds and thoughts are already blinded. The future lies on the second generation. The second generation needs to be get educated, learn what’s the right and the wrong, and start from beginning. But it is very sad to see that the second generation in Afghanistan, such as Izat Gul’s babies, is already being addicted to the drugs and it is very sad to see that the whole family or even a whole neighbor turning to a ‘drug village.’

I’ve never heard anyone discussing in his or her conversation about the endangered species or deteriorating ecosystems. Yes, it is true that I talk about them all the time during my AP marine class or even study for them for chemistry test, but I never think about them outside my class zone area. I and most people in the modern society do not usually talk about the nature losses. Rather, we talk about the new version of Blackberry, new car model, I-Pad, and etc.

Recently, people, who are interested in recovering our damaged ecosystems, began making clubs and organizations. Some who do not have any idea in recovering the nature, started to collect furs and hairs to sift oils disseminated by sunken ships. What many endangered species, plants, and our damaged nature need are neither sufficient nutrition, nor expensive soils. What they need desperately are your attention, interests, and willingness to help themselves recover. With the human population rising to nine billion in 2050 from six billion this year, solving the crisis will be one of the most crucial events in human history.

I am a big fan of the Korean comedy show, “The Challenge.” I’ve been watching all the episodes every weekend from last year, but I could not watch it since early April. Many popular shows, including “The Challenge,” stopped their programs because the MBC, the broadcast company, started the protestations. The cause of the demo was that the head of the MBC selected a close friend of the president of Korea, Lee Myung Bak, as one of the high officials in the MBC.
This seems like a unimportant event, but in fact, it is a very crucial one. The major party of South Korea, ‘New World,’ of which the president Lee Myung Bak is the head, has launched a new law that allows the private owners to buy the broadcast companies. Lee Myung Bak’s government has announced that the purpose of enacting this new law is to develop the programs with more funding, but I strongly disagree with this new law. I believe that if all the broadcast media companies follow these rules, the government will gain a power to prohibit the media companies from showing bad actions of government. There will be neither criticism, nor hot debates on Lee Myung Bak. In other words, the media will become a puppet of Lee Myung Bak government. Since the enactment of the law, most of major broadcast companies have, unfortunately, fell under the government. Therefore, the act of making Lee Myung Bak’s person the high official of MBC will eventually give the government a power to control whole media.
Although I first hated MBC for not showing me my favorite show, I became to respect the MBC. The MBC is fighting not for its own benefits, but for its right to speak. It is quite ironic that while it took much time and efforts to establish a society, that grants the people the freedom of speech, the modern society begins to threaten its own right to speak freely, going backward.
The power of media is very strong. It is not an exaggeration to say that the media shapes the culture, minds, and ideas of the people. If MBC also becomes a victim of the newly enacted law of Lee Myung Bak government, South Korea will eventually be changed to a society of 1984, a place where lacks both creativity and individuality. If we are not communists and if we live in a true democracy world, the new law has to be abolished. I personally would like to watch the episode of “The Challenge” as soon as possible, but I will wait, for I fully appreciate and support the MBC’s actions.

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