A Long Way Gone

            A Long Way Gone was a really hard read due to the subject matter. It is hard to imagine that children, or any human of any age, can go through such horrors in their life. What started out as a group of boys going to dance and play music turns into a whole different life for them. To see him write of that moment, now fully aware of how it turns out and that it was the last time he would see his family, is beyond heartbreaking. It is amazing that they survived as long as they did on their own, going from village to village. As I read the story, I had to keep stopping and reminding myself and wrapping my mind around the fact that these were 13 year old boys. Then came the moment when they were recruited into the army. Before getting into this story, you sometimes look at wars and think of good guys vs. bad guys, and I think I was thinking of the rebels as inhumane, violent, killing machines, but the army seemed to have its moments of severe brutality and violence as well. I am sure that both sides thought it was justified in regards to what they believed they were fighting for. You see this is the case for Ishmael as he gets through it with thoughts of revenge for the death of his family. Which brings me to that point in the story where he is so close to reuniting with his family and he is robbed of that moment in within minutes of that reunion. I cannot even fathom how much anger and bitterness I would feel to have come so far and then be so close to have it ripped away from you. That was probably the hardest part of the story for me to read. I was even anxious for him when he heard news that they were in the village up ahead, I just wanted him to run as quickly as possible to get to them. It really is almost too horrific to comprehend.

            It was interesting to see how accustomed they became to being soldiers and how hard it was for them when they were taken away from that lifestyle. I guess in situations like that, you have to do what you can to get by and even in those situations you become attached to what your life is. It must be a survival mechanism to get by each day, well that and they were constantly drugged up. I guess that is the big thing I take away from this story; the amount of suffering and hard times a human can take and still be able to get through life. He had his uncle and family that helped him unlike some of his friends that ended up back in the war or being moved from foster to foster home. I imagine there must be a certain sadness that will always be with him, but it is hopeful to see that he is able to move forward in life and try to make good out of all the bad he has gone through.

Sierra Leone

                Sierra Leone is located on the northern west side of Africa. It shares a border with Guinea, Liberia, and the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Freetown. Freetown was founded in 1787. It was set up as a home for repatriated former slaves. Sierra Leone was a major departure point for thousands of West African captives in the transatlantic slave trade. The country is rich in diamonds and other minerals and has issues with “blood diamonds.” Its government is slowly being re-established after recovering from the very violent civil war.

                Sierra Leone has a tropical climate year round. Some of the natural hazards it comes across is sandstorms and dust storms. Some of the current issues the country is dealing with is the growth of the population is starting to take effect on the environment. This includes issues with overfishing, over-harvesting of timber, expansion of cattle grazing, and also the whole slash and burn agriculture has resulted deforestation and soil exhaustion. The civil war had a huge impact on the country as well, by depleting a lot of the natural resources.

                Literacy (defined as age 15 and over can read and write in English, Mende, Temne, or Arabic) is quite low. The total population is at 43.3% with 54.7% of that being males and32.6% of that being females. On average, children spend about 7 years in school altogether. Child labor (ages 5-14) is at 48%.

                Some random information on the country is that it received its independence from the United Kingdom in 1961. To be specific, it was April 27, 1961. It is now a National Holiday in Sierra Leone. Their national symbol is a lion.  They are emerging as one of the most stable countries in a volatile region. For example, Sierra Leone has contributed significantly to United Nations peacekeeping operations, including a UN mission to Darfur.

                The civil war began in 1991 with attacks by Revolutionary United Fron (RUF) against President Momoh along towns bordering Liberia.  In 1992, due to failure to deal with rebels, President Momah is ousted in a military coup led by Captain Valentine Strasser. Strasser set-up plans for the first multiparty system elections since 1967. By January 1996, Strasser is then ousted by a military coup led by his defence minister, Brigadier Julius Maada Bio. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah takes over presidency in 1996 and sings a peace accord with Sankoh’s rebels. In less than a year, the peace deal unravels and Kabbah flees to Guinea to seek out international support.  In 1997, the United Nations gets involved and sets up sanctions on Sierra Leone, barring the supply of arms and petroleum products. However, Sandline, a British company, continues supplying “logistical support” (which included rifles) to Kabbah allies. In 1998, Kabbah returns to Freetown and is widely received.  A cease fire takes place in 1999, but by 2000 of April and May, UN forces come under attack and pretty soon, UN forces begin getting kidnapped.  In May 2000, Rebel leader, Foday Sankoh is captured. The war is declared over in January 2002. Over 50,000 died in the war, hundreds of thousands were affected, and an estimated 2,000,000 were displaced by the war.

Revolution is Not a Dinner Party

     Before reading this book, I was not aware or familiar at all with the Cultural Revolution that took place in China. Reading about it through a narrative form gave it a human perspective which drew me into being more inquisitive to what the Cultural Revolution was all about. The author stated the book was fictional, but based on some of her experiences growing up during this time. It was interesting reading it from the perspective of the main character, who was the daughter of two doctors. It was a hard read at times because this young girl, not even a teenager yet, had to endure so much. I liked the contrast in her relationships with her mother and her father. She was very close to her father and that warmth and humor they shared helped her stay strong through this extremely hard time her family was going through. She had a more distant relationship with her mother, but as time went by, and especially after her father had been taken away, she seemed to gain a deeper appreciation and understanding of her mother. Their relationship was still not the warm affectionate kind like she had with her father, but you could see the love she had for mother and you see her start to understand the love her mother felt for her, even is she showed it in a different way. I could not even begin to understand how much fear she must of felt when worrying about her parents or seeing her close family friends be brutalized. Also, putting yourself in the shoes of the parents, it must have been extremely frighting to have to always worry about your actions and how they could come back to affect your family. Her father, must have struggled with wanting to do the right thing, but not wanting to call negative attention towards his family. For example, he stood up for Mrs. Wong when they had brought her out to the courtyard and cut her hair. I am sure it that moment, he was having the internal conflict of not wanting to stand by and watch a close family friend be mistreated and brutalized in such a way, but he also had to struggle with the fact that he might be putting his own wife and daughter in harms way if he did take action. The way the father was portrayed reminded me very much of the character, Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird. He seemed like a very kind man with great integrity that garnered great respect, not only from his family, but from the community as well.
     Seeing the progress of the Cultural Revolution and how fast and how much of an impact it had throughout the story was shocking. It seemed to gain momentum and impact quite rapidly. It was also shocking that the red guards consisted of middle and high school children. It makes you wonder how such a population of a people can grasp on to the same mentality at become so violent and brutal and inhumane towards one another. Is it done through fear? Do people truly buy into what they believe they are right about?  This book would be a good way to introduce students to studying the Cultural Revolution because as you connect with the characters, you become more interested into way this was happening and how could this happen.

U.S. Immingration Policy

The United States Immigration system works in a very complex and confusing way. It is governed by The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). There is an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants. The President and Congress determine a separate number for refugees. Immigration to the United States is based upon the following principles: reuniting families, allowing people in with skills that are helpful to the United States economy, to promote diversity, and in protecting refugees.

            Family-based immigration allows for U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to bring certain family members over to the United States. 480,000 family based visas available every year. There is no limited number of visas available for immediate family members, but there are certain requirements that must be met. Immediate family members consist of spouses of U.S. citizens, unmarried children of U.S. citizens under the age of 21, and parents of U.S. citizens (must be at least 21 years old to petition for a parent). There is a family preference system that allows for a certain amount of visas each year. These include adult children and brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens and spouses and unmarried children of lawful permanent residents. In order to balance the overall number of preference family-based visas, Congress developed a complicated system to determine amount given each year.

            Employment-based visas are provided in both a temporary and permanent basis.. There are more than twenty types of visa for temporary nonimmigrant workers.  There are L visas for intracompany transfers, P visas for athletes and performers, R visas for religious workers, A visas for diplomatic employees, O visas for workers of extraordinary ability, and H visas for both highly skilled and lesser skilled workers Many of these categories have a numerical limit to them as well. Permanent employment-based visas are limited to 140.000 a year.

Refugees and Asylees fall under different requirements for being allowed into the Unites States. A refugee is someone fleeing their home country or unable to return to it because of persecution or life-threatening or extreme conditions. There is a limit to how many refugees the United States will take on. This number went down quite drastically immediately following September 11, 2001. The limit, has over time, been steadily increasing. In 2013, the president set the cap to 70,000. This is then further broken down by regions. For example, Africa has a limit of 12,000, East Asia is 17,000, Europe and Central Asia is 2,000, Latin America/Caribbean is 5,000, Near East/South Asia is 31,000, and then there is an unallocated reserve at 3,000.

The Immigration Act of 1990 created the Diversity Lottery which randomly allocates 55,000 visas a year to nations with a low rate of immigration to the United States.

China and Cultural Revolution

      China is officially known as the People’s Republic of China. It has the world’s largest population and is the third largest country in the world, geographically. It shares borders with many countries; Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. There quite a few languages spoken in China, such as; Mandarin, Yue, Wu, Minbei, Minnan, Xiang. Gan, and Hakka. The capital city is Beijing, but the city with the highest population is Shanghai. China endures things such as typhoons, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, and droughts. It is the second largest economy. It was the third country to send someone to space. It has the largest man made structure in the world, the Great Wall of China that runs 5,500 miles long. The Giant Panda originates from China. China is a communist country and it has remained strongly in power because it controls many aspects of their life like what they watch on TV, what they learn in school, even how many children they can have.

            The Cultural Revolution, known in full as the Proletarian Cultural Revolution, began in 1966. It was initiated by then leader, Mao Zedong. He felt China was straying from what he felt was best for it and wanted to reassert his beliefs for how China should be governed. Mao was concerned with the notion that a privileged class was emerging from the progress China had being making since 1949. He also felt that this privileged class was emerging at his own expense. He began calling on the nation's youth to take a stand against those that were leading China down the wrong direction. Mao intentionally wanted to create a cult for himself that would help him oust any communist party members that did not fully support him. His main selling point in trying to recruit people was that he believed everyone should be equal; that no one was better than anyone else. He created this image of peasants, workers, and educated people all working together for the good of China. Groups known as Red Guards came together to encourage other youths to criticize those Mao viewed as a threat. Over time, some of these Red Guards got out of hand, even fighting amongst each other on who had the right ideas of which way China should go. It even got to the point where they began taking their anger out on foreigners and the British Embassy got burned down completely. During this time, the Chinese economy began to decline.

            Historians mostly view the removal of Liu Shao-chi in October 1968 as the end of the cultural war because it is said that Mao saw his removal as of a potential rival. I also read that the revolution continued in various phases up until Mao's death in 1976. Either way, it was a violent time and 1.5 million people were killed and millions of others suffered through situations such as imprisonment, seizure of property, torture, and overall humiliation. Mao in the end created the opposite effect of what he had intended, leaving many Chinese people losing faith in their government altogether.