Blog Six

Topic Three

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and Zeiotun.

The National Defense Authorization Act is and act that allows the president to arrest people. This act was passed by the current president of the Untied States Barack Obama on December 14, and by the senate by December 15. However, the president waited until December 31, 2011 to formally signed. According to Obama, one of the purposes of this law is to address national security programs, the department of health care cost, counter terrorism, and military modernization with a founding of $662 millions. However, one of the controversies of this law is under the section 1021 entitle "Indefinite Detention without a Trial." This section is based on the authorization of the president and the authorization for use of military force against terrorism (AUMF) to arrest any person who seems suspicious of supporting any terrorist group such as al-Qaeda without a trial. This means that someone could be thrown in jail simply because of the way the look when that person do not have any connection with terrorism, or even worse, when that person was not even aware of that law. In addiction, some people may see this as misuse of presidential empowerment because it is unfair to judge someone without any prove, or if put in jail, without a trial.

In the other hand, there are people and organization who oppose this law. For instance, the American Civil liberties Union better know as ACLU which is the nation's guardian liberty that is always around to ensure the individual rights guarantee by the U.S constitution, and they are against this law because they know that putting a person without a lawyer its unconstitutional. Also, human right first is an organization that engage citizens to live up its adeas opposed the law. Some states such as Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and California reject the law as well.

Moreover, This law is connected with the book of Zeitoun by Davis Eggers. In this book, the main character was arrested simply because he looked like a terrorist, and he did not had a trial. Everything happened in 2005 when hurricane Katrine hit the city of New Orleans. Everybody needed to evacuate because Katrine was announced as a huge storm, however, Zeitoun decided to stay to make sure that his properties were not damage. After the storm, more than half the city was totally destroyed, and Zeitoun was helping other people that decided to stay like him, but they were stock because those people were elderly, and they could not do anything else but wait for someone to help them. Since there was a complete chaos in the city, the government had sent military troops to restore the order because many people were taking advantage of the situation by looting everything that could be valuable at that time of crisis and desperation. Unfortunately, Zeitoun was caught by two men with no insignia or identification because he seemed suspicious, and he was taken way to prison where he was torture, and of course, without a trial. Even though this law was not passed at that time, that is how, according to president Obama, this law is supposed to work.   

Andreina and Digna

Group one!!

"Industrial Revolution's Transformation"

In Elizabeth Kolbert article, "The Darkening Sea," we can see that since the beginning of the industrial revolution transformation the development of businesses had added 250 billions of CO2 to the environment. However, the absorption of the CO2 today has increase 380 parts per millions.
On the other hand, chemists, of course, may want to question whether if the concentration of CO2 will continue increasing since the recorded change has been the highest amount during the last couple thousands of years.   

The Lower Ninth Ward

On August Monday 29th, 2005, the city of New Orleans was hit by a horrible hurricane. This phenomenon was named Hurricane Katrina, and it was a category 5 hurricane with winds over 120 miles per hour which sound very dangerous. As usual, city officials and the governor advised everyone to evacuate the city since heavy rain was expected, and it could  cause a flood that will affect about 14,000 people. Many people did evacuated except people form the Lower Ninth Ward which the predominant race was African Americans. This was the poorest neighbor in the city, and they did not have any place to go, and obviously no money to go away to another city. Their only alternative was to stay and pray for no disaster to happen. However, it did not went so well since about 80 % of New Orleans was  flooded. After the heavy rains and high winds were over, everything left was completely destroyed or houses, and cars ended  up in other places. One of the survivors said " there are no words to describe the intense of the devastation caused by the flooding" ( Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward).

 

 

In the other hand, the government help them, but affected people were still hopeless because they had loss absolutely everything including their loves ones since thousands of people died or were reported as dismissed.  Many years later, the Lower Ninth ward was not recover from the hurricane, and the grass was as tall as people so that it looked like a "ghost town" ( Blackvoices article).

  

 

The situation was so critical that polation decreased from 14,008 to 5,500 people, At this point politicians and volunteers still are trying to make New orleand what it looked like years ago. The actor Brad Pitt contributed to created 50 modernistic houses which was a noble cause from him. But, even though people tried to help, residents from the Lower Ninth Ward feel "left behind" (Blackvoices article) because there are too many things to get done. In addiction,  one of the main reasons this neighborhood has not progress yet is because they are a the neighbor with the lower income, and that is why some section of this devastated neighbor still inaccessible.

 

Bibliography:

 

 "6 Years After Katrina, Lower 9th Ward Still Bleak." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/28/6-years-after-katrina-low_n_939782.html.

 

"Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward." Interview. Web log post. YouTube. YouTube, 16 June 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.youtube.com/.

 

 

 

 

 



Naomi's tweet

Naomi ‏@NaomiRam14

How come they only served pork while in prison? Zeitoun is Muslim nd doesnt eat pork.

Well, I like this post because is a question that probably many people would ask since we know that Muslim people do not eat pork, and that was the "menu" in prison. So, how could a Muslim survive in a place where the only thing to eat is pork?. In my opinion, I think  that they would rater either or starved. In addiction, if that was my situation, I would just eat it, and after I was out of jail, then. I'll figure what to do!!  

Hurricane Sandy

When I heard that Sandy was heading toward our direction I assumed that it was not a big deal because last years when Hurricane Irene hit NYC, it did not affect the city as the meteorologist expected. However, this time, it was very different because Sandy came with winds of 80m/p which is super dangerous. Some of the things I was able to see from my window were a couple of trees moving from side to side, and I thought there would fall, but they still alive. Also, I saw a piece of metal, which I could not figure what it was, flying over the streets. That was pretty much all I saw, but I kept myself informed watching the news. In the other hand, it was somehow exiting that we had to witness this experience since we are discussing climate change (hurricanes) in our ENG 101 composition class, and I finally understood why a phenomenon like this happen. So, I felt that it was a connection between this hurricane and our class. Honestly, at one point, when I was looking through the window I though that, maybe  this hurricane came to us so that we could see how a hurricane feels in the big apple, New York City because every time a big storm, hurricane, or earthquake, etc happens, NYC barely taste the consequences of it. 

Furthermore, I think that the mayor did a wonderful job this time. Since Sandy was coming to us, he started to announce that people who live around the coast and places near the rivers should evacuate before the storm hit the city because floods were expected in those areas. So, if I was the mayor, I would do the same thing Bloomberg did by keeping the New Yorkers informed with the latest new, and the same time given them instruction to evacuate to be safe from a major disaster. Moreover, I remember that for my first assignment in the class, I had to write a letter to the mayor where my main point was that NYC was not prepare for climate change or a big hurricane like Sandy, but it turn out that he prepared New Yorkers to be safe since the flood was inevitable due to the heavy rains and the rising of the sea level which only occurs four times in the year, and it happens on Monday.

Finally, this experience is also connected with the book we are reading in class “Zeitoun”.  This book basically described what happened in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit them. Zeitoun, which is the main character of the book, decided to stay in the city to see what would happen because he though that Katrina would not be something different from what they had experienced before. However, this was a category 5 hurricane which destroyed New Orleans and comparing to hurricane Sandy which was only a powerful storm when it hit New York City, Sandy destroyed a lot of neighbors as well.         

In-Class Zeitoun.

Zeitoun's decision to stay in the city while the storm was heading toward their direction, made him felt secure that he could handle the situation. After his family had begged him to evacuate the city with them to go to a safer place, Kathy figured that she needed to leave with the kids or otherwise the storm will keep them in the city. Zeitoun's main argument to stay in the city was that he needed to make sure that everything was fine with their properties since he never thought that this storm will be different from the others he had witnessed so far. Hours later the storm hit the city, and within minutes New Orleans was completely flooded. However, he was not afraid of what could happen to him because he felt that he needed to be there to help who ever was in need. All this situation made Zeitoun exited because even though he was not away with his family, he was helping people or animals who really needed to be rescued. In addiction Zeitoun was "in high spirit', and he 'felt invigorated (Eggers 123).'" Meaning that, instead of being tired since he was paddling all over his neighborhood in a second hand canoe that he had storage in the garage, he was full of energy like if his inner light had told him that he made the right choice by staying in the city. furthermore, it shows that even thought Zeitoun was in well economic situation, and he had all the opportunities  to travel to safer place with the most precious thing he had, his family, he just did not listen to all the crazy things kathy was saying which ended up being true, he just stood.

Group #1

The most important thing someone needs to know from the “Causes of the Russian Heat Wave and the Pakistan Flood,” by Dr. Jeff Masters is how this two phenomena actually happen. First of all, the Russian heat wave of 2010 occurred due to a strange twist in the jet stream that was stock in the same area for about a month.  The jet stream is like a river of air with about an altitude of 30,000-50,000 feet. These jet streams also have different types of airs, depending on the place. For instance, there is a potent “subtropical” jet that pass over the southern Europe as well as a light “polar” jet across northern Europe. In addiction, the polar jet stream has an extratopical cyclone that is responsible for the majority of the rain over the midlatitudes and also work as a mixer between cold, arctic air, and warm tropical air. Meaning that, if this polar jet stream move from it current location, then, the air will be insanely hot and super dry.

In the other hand, the Pakistan flood happened because a polar jet stream move, and it mix with the “Pakistan’s usual summer monsoon rains” creating the worse flood in Pakistan history. It’s obvious that these two phenomenon were related to each other.