Chernobyl Tourism

Ryan Stenzel

Chernobyl Power Plant Tourism Site

                I read an article about the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine that says it is going to be turned into a tourist attraction after all these years.  A large accident happened with one of the nuclear cores at Chernobyl in 1986 and killed 32 plant workers and firefighters according to Matt Smith of CNN.  He also mentioned in this article that the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that 4,000 other people will die of cancer because of the effects of the radiation.  It has been abandoned for years except for the people that watch the nuclear reactors there.  No tourists were allowed there, but currently they take 20-30 people to Chernobyl every day during the summer for tours.  They say that the radiation levels around Chernobyl are still above normal, but animals and plants have started to inhabit the area surrounding it.  They also say that visitors will not receive any more radiation than if they “rode on a trans-Atlantic flight”, (Matt Smith CNN, Para. 9).  They mention that if you are planning a trip there, you should wear something that you would not mind leaving behind if it got dirty.
                I think that this is a horrible idea.  Chernobyl was the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in the world and now they want to bring tourists to this place.  There could be huge lawsuits of people get cancer or something from going there.  I think Ukraine just has to be running out of money and needs another source of income and they cannot find anything people would want to see.

14 Year Old Kid-Mexican Drug Cartel

14 Year Old Drug Cartel Assassin

                I read an article about a kid with United States citizenship getting arrested in Mexico on suspicion of being a hit man for the drug cartel.  He is only fourteen years old and says he has killed four people.  He said that he was abducted by a man who he referred to as “El Negro” and forced to do work for the Cartel.  He also said that the only reason he killed these people was because he was drugged and also told that if he did not do what they told him to, they would kill him.  It is also apparent that he does not have any parents, but has two sisters that are currently being held in central Mexico.  The article also says that the Cartel recruits teens into their gang as a normal practice.  This is because they are not prosecuted as harshly as adults and are less likely to give the police any information about the gang if they are caught. 

                I think this kid could be telling the truth.  I don’t know how he would be able to come up with a lie or a story like being kidnapped when no one is there to tell him how to lie to the police.  He was being held by two cops with assault rifles, I don’t believe that is necessary because the kid is only fourteen.  They also let this kid talk to the media without any adult guardian around to approve of it.  He was answering every question without a lawyer and is going to dig himself into a giant hole if he is really innocent.  He is just making himself look guilty.  If this kid is a U.S. citizen he should not be prosecuted in Mexico in the first place.  I think that whoever is running the show in Mexico’s justice system needs to rethink their strategy.

Wangari Muta Maathai Research Paper

Ryan Stenzel

Shiela Allard

Written Communication

7 December 2010

Wangari Muta Maathai

                Wangari Muta Maathai has done so many things to preserve Africa’s natural wildlife and women’s rights.  She started the Green Belt Movement and received a Nobel Prize for her work for the environment.  She was born in Nyeri, Kenya on April 1, 1940. 

                Wangari Muta Maathai may have been born in Africa, but she attended college in the United States.  She attended Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas and received her Biological Sciences degree.  She also attended the University of Pittsburgh and received her masters degree in science.  Besides going to college in the United States, she attended the University of Nairobi in Kenya and received a Ph.D.  At this university, she was the chairwoman of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy.  She also held a position as a professor for two years.

                Maathai started the Greenbelt Movement in 1977.  This is considered to be one of the most successful environmental programs in Africa.  She was actually on the National Council of Women at the time and she wanted to intertwine the ideas of saving the environment with her passion for promoting woman’s rights.  She achieved this by gearing the focus of the Greenbelt Movement from everyone to specifically women and women’s rights groups.  The Greenbelt Movement is about women getting together and planting trees and bushes in Africa to help the environment.  It gives women a sense of pride and satisfaction to be doing something together that helps out the environment and society.  Maathai achieved what she set out to do with this movement, and this is to empower women.  She was mentioned in the magazine Earth Times as one of the top one-hundred people in the world to make a difference in the environment.  She was also part of the Global 500 Hall of Fame’s list of the top one-hundred heroines in the world.

                Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in the environment, for women’s rights, and for starting the Greenbelt Movement.  She was actually chosen in 2001 to receive the prize, but was denied.  She argued with the board that her work promoted peace and was worthy of the prize, but she did not receive it until 2004.

                Maathai was married, but her husband got so fed up with people telling him that he could not control his wife and that his wife had more power in society than he did, that he divorced her.  He served as a member of the parliament in Kenya, as did Wangari in 2002.  She has also been ridiculed by the public in Africa for her views on politics and woman’s rights.  The president of Kenya at the time, Daniel Arap Moi, was against Maathai’s political views completely.  He harassed her and sent her to jail many times for her involvement in sit-ins, strikes, and other movements.

                Overall, Wangari Maathai has done so many things for the environment and woman’s rights.  She has had many achievements and has won many awards throughout her life.  She is a remarkable human being and deserves to hold the Nobel Peace Prize.

Increased Safety Measures

Ryan Stenzel

Article Response

Increased Body Scans and Pat-Downs in Airports

                I read an article about airports stepping up on full body scans and pat-downs because of all of the travelers during the Thanksgiving season.  There have been a lot of complaints about this new policy because people feel it is a huge invasion of their privacy.  According to “the Department of Homeland Security, of the estimated 28 million people who flew during the first two weeks of the new security measures, TSA received fewer than 700 complaints. Of all the passengers who were asked to submit to a full body scan, only 1% had chosen to opt out and instead undergo a pat-down” (Memoli and Bennett Tribune Washington Bureau, Para. 9).  Some people were getting so upset with the body scans and pat-downs that they were posting videos of it happening to other travelers on YouTube.  There have been a few notable terrorist attempts like the “Christmas Day Bomber” who boarded a flight to Detroit carrying a powdered explosive.  He did not succeed in his plot because he lit himself on fire before he could set off the bomb.  Also just recently, some terrorists in Yemen tried to send the same type of explosive on some cargo planes.  They got it on the plane, but the explosives did not actually explode.  Attempts like these are the reason that the United States has to crack down on airport security.

                I think that we need to have some level of airport security that keeps everyone safe, but lets people keep as much of their privacy as possible.  If we did not have such extreme safety measures, people would complain that airports are not safe enough.  I think everyone just needs something to complain about.  If anyone has to wait for anything in their lives, they get upset about it.  They can pick out any reason that even makes them uncomfortable about something and throw a fit about it.

The Grandparents Scam

The Grandparents Scam

                I read an article in the Caledonia Argus about this thing call the Grandparent Scam.  There was a woman in Caledonia who received a call from a guy who claimed to be her grandson.  He said that he was in an accident and needed money.  He also told her how to go to the bank and get money and then transfer it through Western Union.  The grandmother believed that this was her grandson because “grandparents can see and hear with their hearts. In an agitated state, grandpa or grandma, who might not hear as clearly as they once did, are liable to convince themselves that the voice they hear is one they know”(Moorhead, Hometown Argus, Para. 8).  They talked to a woman from the Canadian Anti-Fraud Call Center who explained how people can pull off this scam so easily.  She said all the scammer needs is a number off of the receipt from the money transfer and they can go to any Western Union in North America to get the money. 

                I think that this scam is one of the lowest things I have ever heard of.   I do not know how people can live with themselves when they scam elderly people for their hard earned money.  Especially when they could literally worry them to death by telling them some fake story about their grandchildren getting into an accident.  I also think that whoever is pulling these scams needs to go get a job like the rest of us in America.   

New Warnings For Cigarettes

New Cigarette Warnings

                I read an article online about a new campaign that is supposed to get people to quit smoking.  Apparently the Surgeon General warnings on the sides of cigarette packs do not have enough detail to let people know how dangerous smoking really is.  The Food and Drug Administration has come up with a brand new idea.  They made a bunch of different designs as new warning labels for cigarettes.  For example, one of them is a baby dealing with second hand smoke.  Another one is a man smoking through a hole in his throat.  They want to make the warnings as graphic as possible so people will have a new understanding about the dangers to yourself and others that cigarettes cause.  They also mentioned that other countries have done this with their cigarettes and it has been successful for them.  Another intention of this campaign is not just trying to get current smokers to quit, but preventing kids from starting.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “About 21% of U.S. adults and nearly 20% of high school students smoke cigarettes” (Salahi ABC News, Para. 7).

                I think that this is a terrible idea.  It just seems like it would be a waste of money because there are far worse things in the world right now that we could be dealing with than smoking.  I also think that people tear the labels off their cigarette packs anyways, which means that they will only look at the warning one time.  I honestly doubt that this will deter people from starting to smoke.  Kids seem like they start smoking because of peer pressure or advertising which really has nothing to do with the actual pack of cigarettes that they are buying.  I think that kids who do smoke will look at the warnings as just another campaign to prevent smoking and will not let it influence them.  This is because there are already so many anti-smoking campaigns out there that people are used to the idea of them.  They seem to be more of an annoyance than a hindrance.