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Ali Mctar Guest Reporter
Somali Pirates
For the past month, our television sets have been filled with images of the antics of Somali pirates and their savage, brute ways. “Ruthless” men portrayed as hoodlums of the sea, looking for “ransom”, leaving no one in their way. But behind the men we still picture as toothless, patch over the eye villains is an untold story. A story that has not made its way to our “beloved” TV stations, a story that explains the environment that the pirates came about in and the roots of their movement. In 1991, the Somali government collapsed, its 9 million inhabitants who were already struck down with poverty, pain, and exploitation were now without the protection of a state. Western powers saw an amazing opportunity at hand and took full advantage of the distress that was occurring within the mainland of Somali to propagate their own interests, stealing the countries food supply and dumping nuclear waste in their waters. Within months after the complete collapse of the Somali government, European ships began appearing off the coast of Somali, dumping barrels of nuclear waste. This demonstrates the audacity and ruthlessness of the Western nations and their pursuits. These barrels did not just stay sunk at the bottom of the Indian Ocean but rather began to contaminate the water and adversely affected the villagers. At first the inhabitants of the villages along the coast began to suffer from, “strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies”. After the tsunami of 2005, dumped barrels began appearing on the coast. A reported 300 people died from radiation and many others became extremely sick. “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it,” Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the United Nation’s envoy to Somalia, said. These can be traced back to hospitals throughout Europe. This is an inhuman act that should have called for a world-wide outcry against the inhuman crimes being forced upon the Somali people. Had Cuba done this to the waters off the Florida coast, America would take extreme action and demand punishment for Cuba. But because Somali has no government to protect itself, these crimes have gone on without the evil criminals being punished. When asked by Johann Hari about what the European governments were doing about the problem, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said, “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.” This is completely sick and reflects the elitist attitude that Western countries posses. They believe that since they have all the power and Somali with no defense or government that gives them the authority to dump their waste in the seas off the coast of Somali. In addition to the nuclear waste being dumped into the seas of Somali, there are also European fishing ships that have now moved onto the coast of Somali. Johann Hari, a columnist for the London Independent declares that, “We have destroyed our own fishstocks by overexploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life are being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia’s unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving.” How would you feel if every day you saw big foreign ships hauling millions of pounds of seafood out of your own native waters? If your food supply was suddenly cut off and your family forced to starve? The actions of these Western ships are despicable and inhuman. This is the environment that the pirates came about from. Fueled off the anger of being raped of their own natural resources and being subjected to the waste of the West, the fishermen began to band together in speedboats in an attempt to fend off these ships. This is an act of resistance against the oppressive forces of the West. Johann Hari went on to say “Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somalian fishermen
Opinion
who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a ‘tax’ on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia - and it’s not hard to see why.” No one should approve of hostage taking or hijacking ships delivering aid, but there it is clearly understandable why piracy did occur in this region, it was the logical, yet an unfortunate outcome. Obviously, when your waters are being polluted by ships dumping toxic waste in them, along with depriving entire communities of their fish, a staple food in Somali, and trawlers that are profiting from fishing vast amounts of fish in the same seas, thus depriving the local community of their staple diet, those same people are going to want to defend their right to live. The Somali pirates are not one homogenized group. They are similar to militias. Militias are usually autonomous to an extent, so the fact that some aid ship have been taken hostage is most certainly no reason to condemn the rest of the pirates who are simply fighting off the imperialistic forces of the west who are encroaching upon their land. Those who are taking hostages are more of an exception rather than the rule. Now that you know of the crimes being committed against the people of Somali and the roots of the resistance movement that has transformed itself into piracy, you may ask what can be done to alert the world to this inhumanity? This solution isn’t found in the elementary idea of writing to your congressman, because remember they are allowing this to occur under their noses. The solution is spreading the word of this inhumanity, spreading the word that these pirates aren’t just ruthless criminals but people fighting for their life, spreading the word that Western domination will not be tolerated by the people. I ask you today to stand up for the rights of every citizen of the world, every human, and bring the truth to light, do not allow the media and government to distort the truth to serve their own greedy Dafne Flores News Editor
May 1, 2009
Curse of ’09?
Senior year in high school is probably the most important and cherished year for high school students. It is a year in which seniors “rule” the school, get special privileges, and attend special events such as Prom and Gradnite. So is the class of ’09 as special as it should be? With the unfortunate loss of three class of 2009 students over the last four years, no Winterformal and no class picture in the yearbook, the class of ’09 seems to be “cursed” by some. Class of ‘09 is the first class in ORHS’ five years of existence to not have the privilege of having a class picture in the yearbook. Due to immature behavior by fellow classmates, every senior paid the price. Why couldn’t the staff simply punish the misbehaved students instead of having the whole class miss out on a nationwide high school tradition? The fact that the class of 2006 did get to keep their class picture in the yearbook, after some students had a drawing of the male genitals in their shirts only adds up to the belief of an ORHS class of 2009 curse. Given that the class of 2009 was threatened to have Gradnite and Prom cancelled if any misbehavior continued after the misconduct of the class picture. Senior Ditch Day was moved “until further notice”. However, the day never came, and by the looks of it won’t be coming anytime soon. Even though ORHS is strongly against this event and has strict punishment for anyone who doesn’t come to school excused on that certain day, it is still one of the occasions we students get to look back and remember with fondness. Even though many text messages were forwarded and Myspace bulletins were posted about a “Senior Ditch Day”, that day it was never quite “confirmed” and therefore many seniors missed out on what could have been a “senior memory”. Since the unfortunate loss of a beloved classmate on January 23, 2006, the class of 2009 has experienced two more devastating colleague losses in 2008 which were only about a month apart. Sad to say, class of ’09 is the class that has experienced the most student losses in ORHS’ history. January 2009, was also the first time ORHS cancelled a school dance. Since only a small number of ORHS students had bought tickets for the long and awaited Winterformal, ASB had to cancel the dance to benefit their monetary budget. To the bad luck of seniors the cancellation of Winter Formal meant that the only dance left is Prom. To the seniors that attended Homecoming on November 8, 2008, and will attend Prom this upcoming May, they can at least have memory of two school dances they attended. However, to the students that did not get the opportunity to attend Homecoming and were looking forward to attend Winterformal. Now the only dance left to look forward to is Prom. Through all the misfortunes that the class of ’09 has been through during all four high school years, especially during senior year, and being the first class to miss out on some special senior events and activities it seems as though our class IS cursed. Most of all, we hope nothing bad happens on our graduation day!
2008-2009 Ranch Review Staff
Editorial Policy The Ranch Review serves as a public forum for students, staff, parents, and Chula Vista and Otay Ranch community members. Letters to the Editor and editorials are welcomed. Our Views, and any other unsigned editorials represent the views of The Ranch Review editors and staff. Besides being a forum for an exchange of viewpoints, The Ranch Review serves an academic purpose and is produced by the newspaper class. Letters Policy As an open forum for an exchange of ideas, The Ranch Review will accept Letters to the Editor. Only signed and dated letters with addresses and phone numbers from community members or grade levels of students will be accepted. Letters must be limited to 300 words and will be published as space is available. The staff reserves the right to edit any letters without changing the content. All letters are the sole opinion of the writer. Advertising The Ranch Review accepts advertisements for most products and services available to the public. However, the staff reserves the right to reject, edit, or cancel any ad at any time. Ads shall be free of implications that the staff deems offensive in light of moral public standards. Ads run at $5 per column inch. Editor-in-Chief............................................ Katrina Cameron Managing Editor ................................................Sofia Casillas News Editor ....................................................... Dafne Flores Features Editor ...............................................Kristina Garcia Opinion Editor .................................................Sarah Jackson Athletics Editor ............................................... Nicole Ludden A & E Editor ..................................................... Caitlin Nelson In-Depth Editor .................................................Sofia Casillas Photo Editor.......................................................Alexa Corpus Graphics Editor.......................................... Mariel Mostacero Business Manager ............................................. April da Silva Circulation Manager .........................................Keara O’Mara Copy Editor ....................................................... Kiera Haynes Adviser .................................................. Carla Ecklund, MJE Staff: George Adkins, Jesdin Farol, Alex Henkle, Zamara Rios, Enemias Rocha, Raymond Stanley and Charn “Pepe” Weiver, Sr.
The Ranch Review
Otay Ranch High School, Chula Vista, CA
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Opinion
TALK EET
RD
May 1, 2009
STR
If you could read minds, whose mind would you read?
“Ms. Hogan’s mind because she always has hard tests.” -Juan Hernandez
2012
“Boy’s minds because I never know what they are thinking.” -Deasia Manago
2011
“I would read the mind of Paris Hilton to see if she’s really that dumb.” -Justine Cudal
2010
“A cop’s mind before they arrest me.” -Sam Smith
2009!
Staff “The opponent that I’m
coaching against; I like to win.” -Janis Redmond
Our Views: Karma
Let’s say that you cheat your way through high school’s hurdles of semester finals and AP exams. You get into the prestigious school of your dreams, mainly due to your extravagant test scores and impressive transcript. Your first semester as a college freshman you realize that cheating in college may be harder than in high school and the consequences are more severe. You are put on academic probation following your first semester, due to the fact that you have become so used to the easy way out. In other words, you have attained bad karma. The ideology behind karma has grown and transformed from the original beliefs from the dawn of Brahmin and Aryan. The original idea behind karma was that any bad action committed will result in a bad action being done unto ourselves. Although the concept originally roots from Indian culture and beliefs, the Bible also states a similar belief: “do onto others as you would want them to do to you”. When karma is mentioned, the first thing to come to most minds’ is the quote, “what goes around, comes around.” This quote is better translated as cause and effect. Karma is believed to apply to both good and bad actions. Karma is a very complex idea; between good and bad actions, what their outcomes may be, and how long it will take for the outcome to occur. As much as people want to believe that these same immoral and moral people will get what they deserve later on, it just doesn’t always turn out that way. Karma doesn’t really stand a change when this occurs, when the majority neglects to follow the ideas of integrity, responsibility, and morals. There is no black-and-white perspective as to who deserves good or bad karma. A majority of our society quotes, “what goes around comes around,” while pointing the finger at other individuals’ karma. What the social norm fails to realize is that the majority of the time is that at some point, this is evitable. Cause and effect is selfexplanatory: events occur for a reason. Our society prefers to grasp to this notion that karma is escapable in our own lives, by performing “good” actions. Rather than accept that life occurs due plainly to be previous actions, society prefers the ideology of karma as a safety blanket. Blaming a mishap on “bad karma” is much easier than grasping the concept that only your own actions in the present will result in your events in the future. Essentially, the student that cheated their way through high school and ended up completely clueless and lost in their prestigious college can’t blame their fault on karma. The fact that the student glided through high school on borrowed worksheets, glances over a neighbor’s shoulder during exams, and every other cheat method known is the reasoning behind that disappointing academic probation letter they had received after their first semester of college. This student will automatically blame the mishap or “bad karma”, on something more current such as “all the college partying,” or “lack of study time”. If this student had actually earned their way to the impressive school by studying for extensive hours, working hard, and attending tutoring they would be able to comprehend the classes they were enrolled in during college. Karma is a belief in each individual themselves. It’s used as a coping mechanism as well as a lifestyle. The belief of karma is wrong in no way; it is just an overused excuse amongst our society today.
Will you be the first?
Alexa Corpus Photo Editor During Spring Intersession, I was watching an old episode of the television show, “One Tree Hill.” At the conclusion of one of the seasons, the main characters had just graduated from high school and made a pact that four years later, they would reunite in the same spot and nothing would have changed in terms of who they were dating or who they were friends with. As they made this promise, it was obvious that nothing and no one would be the same after the four years. I can remember making a similar promise with my friends from middle school after our eighth grade graduation. We’d all been together since kindergarten, and even though we would be apart for high school, we promised ourselves we would stay in touch. For most of our freshmen year, our plan survived our alternate surroundings, but it wasn’t long before we all grew up, grew apart, and soon enough, hardly knew anything about each other anymore. It’s no secret that people change, more than likely, we’ve all grown apart from someone who used to be important in our lives. High school is the time when you discover what kind of person you’ll become and nine times out of ten, the person you are as an incoming freshmen is not the same person you’ll be as a graduating senior. I know that I’m not even close to being the same person who walked through the doors of ORHS for the very first time as a student back in the year 2005. Back then, I was an introvert to the extreme. I hardly ever spoke to anyone, and was intimidated by everyone. More than anything else I’ve learned in high school, I think discovering who I am as a person and what I want to do with my life has been the most difficult, the most time consuming and without a doubt, the most worthwhile. But the thing about growing up is that no matter how comfortable or aware you are about the type of person you’ve become, the process is never-ending. The experiences I’ve had over these four years have altered how I see things, what I believe in and whom I choose to put my trust in. By the time I graduate from college, who knows what else will have changed. When the characters in “One Tree Hill” graduated high school, all of them were kids with dreams, ready to move on with their lives while silently fearing the unpredictable mess ahead. When the show resumed, some of the characters had found major success, some had found love in different places and some had simply lost their way completely. As a senior, it’s strange to look around my group of friends and wonder how our lives are going to play out after we leave ORHS. Which of us will encounter the greatest success first? Which of us will move back home after a rough first semester of school? Who will get married first or have children first? Who, if any of us, will lose hope in our dreams the earliest? Who will give in to defeat? Who will persevere? For this year’s seniors, life is moving on, whether you like it or not. We only have two short months left of high school, and come fall, everything is going to change. Without a doubt, when we come home for Christmas break, people are going to be talking about the “firsts” in the class of 2009. What will they be saying about you?
The Ranch Review
Otay Ranch High School, Chula Vista, CA