Bring Awareness to Online Black-Markets!

Newspaper Article Analysis “Online drug sellers plead guilty”

    The internet is a vast environment in which several operations are run and among these does include the black-market. Victoria Kim writes this article in hope to bring awareness towards the black-market that still exists today. Marc Peter, a 45 year old Dutch National, admitted to court that he guilty to online drug dealing and money laundering. His plead revealed an entire online network that was being used to distribute drugs to several locations worldwide. Major distribution of illegal substances is a high felony and should be given priority too and be dealt with as soon as possible. Victoria Kim is helping the environment and making an attempt to bring forth an issue, that if dealt with and given enough priority, can definitely make this world a better and safer place to live.

     Marc Peter Willems was “doing business in every state and 45 foreign countries.” Here we have an online market which dealt illegal substances that was distributing to several countries for quite some time without any intelligence of the matter. “Millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise was traded.” This was indeed no playground game that was being played. It was a large scale international drug dealing network at hand, and all of it was being done behind the screen of someone’s computer screen. This kind of business can still be found on the internet today and is a problem which should be given upmost priority in stopping. Brian Doherty writes in his article “How Buying Drugs Online became safe, easy, and boring” about a large scale drug business called the “Silk Road” was shut down, but also about the evidence that shows that internet sales of illegal substances are still at large. However the Silk Road was a site much like Amazon or EBay where buyers can pick their product and it would come to their door in secret with a cover up. Over the years about 950,000 members used it and it was used to distribute about 1.2 million illegal substances worldwide. Crime at such a large scale is being run through the internet to millions and should be looked into deeply in order to put a stop too.

     It was said that this business was operated in “the shadowy corners of the web,” indicating that like this business, many others surely lay around in these corners as well. Among some of the substances that they sold were LSD, ecstasy, and marijuana. In Kenny Spotz article “What I’ve learned as an internet Drug Dealer” we can see a conceptual view of what it is like interacting with a real online drug dealer. He says that to find the site was quite easy as he just searched deep in the web, suggesting that anyone could do so, and found the selling of many commonly known illegal substances. She sent a request to talk to a drug dealer about her article and he responded. Throughout the conversation he learned more about him and his business and also some the background information that she could cover. He learned that he became a vendor on the site by means of past drug business and use and now he is selling it all over the internet. Recorded evidence of such people at large behind the safety of the internet is to be of big concern to all as drug business is a potential threat to society.

     Marc Peter was caught through a similar manner of how Kenny Spotz had come to write his article. One of his customers was an “under cover” Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Los Angeles. It is said that Williams was the originator of the network initially called Adam flowers which was launched in 2006. 2006-2014? That’s quite a long time for such a large scale crime to be taking place. Amongst him, five others pleaded guilty with more to plead later on as well. The wager was shown to be about 10 years in prison. With the circumstances of his crime, merely 10 years can be seen as too little of a punishment for the scale of his crime, however it is reasonable to others as well.

    The finding of such a large online drug distribution should help bring awareness as to what is really going on online. Such a crime should not be taking place in a public place such as the vast internet where anyone is able to access. Using clues and evidence, these websites and the people who are running them should be dealt with and prosecuted. The doing of so would help pave the path to a safer and healthier world. Sadly drugs are a big part of the society we live in today and with that comes many circumstances which must be dealt with. Marc Peters was one of many, but with further discoveries of websites such as his, we are taking big steps in making the world a better place to live. 

EIP Essay

(Question 1)

    Margaret Mead conveys the idea that we do not wish upon one’s success in a field similar to ours because it is a threat to their own personal success as an individual. Being seen as a threat, Mead portrays the path to success as a competition with one another. He explains the thought that not everyone can succeed in a particular field as it may be only held for a certain amount of people. Therefore if a person were to succeed in a field which relates to ours, it can pose a threat to the other whose hopes lies in the same field. Although in general we Americans celebrate achievement and success, somewhere deep down many of us can feel envious and uncomfortable feelings as well.

     However when it comes to a different field, we do not feel the same way because the circumstances are different. “But while we often rejoice in the success of people far removed from ourselves-people who work in another profession, live in another community, or are endowed in a talent that we do not especially want for ourselves…” Margaret Mead identifies different situations in which we do not feel the same emotions towards others success or perhaps even feel a rather joyful feeling instead. This is because it does not affect your chances as an individual as all. If your friend was a football player and you were a basketball player, this would identify as a perfect situation to which Mead’s theory can be evaluated. If only 100 people can make it pro every year. Than him making it pro would not affect your chances of making it pro in basketball since it is two different leagues making his success irrelevant to yours. You may feel joy for your friend who is making it pro.

    When it is a person who is working for the same field however, it is a completely different scenario. Their success could quite possibly jeopardize the possibility of your success now. This does not apply all the time but there are many things that has only a certain amount of available space. Now lets say your other friend was a basketball player just like you and there are still only a 100 spots to make it pro. Now if he makes it pro there is only 99 more spots for you, making your chances worse now due to the fact that your friend made it. This, in one perspective, makes the person view his friend as a threat which he definitely is. Threatening your potential spot it is only normal that you feel a bit uneasy or even jealous of his success.

     The reasons as to why we feel this way about the success of others lies within the depths of the human minds. It is a psychological concept in where we are not able to control or alter. However our minds and perspectives all differ from one another. While some of us may feel envy, others may feel joy. So yes, success is a confusion to us Americans and potentially too many others globally as well. 

    The concept of success can be very confusing to a lot of people, but we should all celebrate and admire those who succeed. However it is true that we can’t control our emotions and therefore, yes we might see others as a threat and in the process develop ill feelings for them. Margaret Mead is correct in her argument and creates an in depth analysis of the behavior of the psychological mind, although it may not pertain to everyone, it is a general idea that may wander in the minds of many. 

Stream of Consciousness

    I was called upon to do a problem on the board and explain to my entire Pre-Calculus class how i had come upon the answer I had gotten. It was a problem which required a lot more thinking then actual math. Not a lot of people had gotten the problem correct and I was one of the few who understood the concept. Pre- Cal was the only subject I was struggling with in my sophomore year and throughout the year I doubted my potential and whether I should even be in the class. However what I was confident in was my ability to do the problem. I was a little nervous going up, but then I found it all too easy to explain my answer and a lot of people were questioning what I was doing on the board and I gladly presumed to explain my work. I thought of it to be one of the highlights of my academic year, because as soon as I took my seat, everyone kindly applauded for me. My exact thoughts at the time were "Hm....maybe I'm not so bad after all." 

     For most of my life I never really knew what i wanted to be when I grew u or what direction I would take my life towards. All I knew was one thing. I wanted to be a successful person. However, quite recently I think i found a solution. I thought to myself, "What are my goals in life?" I knew I wanted to help people and also make a good living for myself as well. Keeping those thoughts in mind I continued onward in my life.
   
   One day I was at the doctor's office due to my continuous spa of headaches. While there there doctor asked me a series of question and I answered, To my surprise he had an intriguing response to all of my responses. I was very impressed by the depth of his knowledge and I thought about it and that's when it hit me. A Doctor! They help people greatly, make good money, and they were just...cool! It would come with a sense of prestige and honor, while at the same time I would be fulfilling the requirements in which I had set for myself. Ever since then I've looked up the requirements and such to become a doctor. It isn't exactly the easiest line of work, but one day it's all going to be worth it. I consider the moral of my extremely short and vague story to be that if you are unaware of what you want to do with your life, keep waiting and one day it'll just pop out of the blue in the most random of places. I intend to strive to make this dream a reality in the future. 

“How to Tame a Wild Tongue Essay”

(Question 2)

     “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, by Gloria Anzaldua who conveys her story about a Mexican-American woman who struggles to preserve her heritage and culture. In the story the main fight she is putting up was to keep “Chicano Spanish”, which is a form of Spanish, alive. She doesn’t surrender despite what people say, but rather puts up a fight and doesn’t give up. The Mexican society would wish upon her to use proper Castellan whereas the American society would wish upon her to speak proper English. However she speaks a language which came to be known as Chicano Mexican as a result of having been taught by both societies. The author Gloria Anzaldua uses many forms of rhetorical devices such as perspective, diction, and syntax in her words to tell this story.

     The author starts off with a nostalgic memory that the woman recalls of when she was caught speaking Spanish and getting in a lot of trouble because she was told to speak English. It shows how much of a hard time she had to go through growing up because of the language which she spoke. Anzaldua uses a lot of perspective in the beginning of the story as we hear a lot from the woman’s point of view. She uses many anecdotes to first introduce her heritage and the language which she is familiar with.  “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out”, is a very clear sense of how she feels, however this is merely one way of looking at the problem she faces. It is never easy for a person to assimilate a new environment which they must learn to adapt too. Just as she is an immigrant to the country, she is also an immigrant to the American culture as well. The background information which she provides us with in the text shows how much her culture and language means to her. She is very shocked to hear certain types of language from certain people. She is disturbed when she hears a Puerto Rican and a Cuban use the word nosotros. She finds it as being “robbed” by the masculine plural and concludes that language is a male discourse. 

       The author uses many transition phrases in which she relates many words in Spanish to the text in order to develop a more coherent explanation of what she is trying to say. She gives many examples of words in Spanish which are no longer used or “lost” in the modern era such as semos, truje, haiga, and many more as well. By giving examples of words which have been lost and explaining the meanings which have transitioned, we are given a clearer and conceptual understanding of what it actually that she is fighting for. Throughout the text she uses a lot of diction as she gives off of a sense of resentment by the choice of words she provides in the text as well as the message the story pertains to convey. From the beginning of the story where the dentist was giving her problems, to the ending where she speaks of the hard times that Chicanos have to deal with, we feel a sense of frustration from Gloria as she is trying to compensate the struggles that come with the scenario she is forced to face.

           Her native tongue and accent have come to significantly shape the development of her personal characteristics.  In paragraphs 27-30 she uses syntax in order to convey her emotions and identity using many declarative statements. She cries for lingual acceptance as shown when she says “I will have my voice Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent’s tongue.”  Again we see the frustration in the text of how badly she wants to be accepted along with her “native language.”  Also we see a lot of incorporation of this “native tongue” in those paragraphs to go along with many narrative flashbacks. The main problem that she faces in her life comes in her early years which she faces many struggles and obstacles which are set because of her Chicano tongue.

      Her language was the primary source of her struggles and was the reason for her frustration, low self-esteem, and overall anger. Anzaldua had a hard time getting along with her environment and never fit in for who she was linguistically.  She however always stood up for her heritage and culture despite being looked down at several times.  Language can very valued to some people and Anzaldua is a good example of how a person does not need the approval of others for her own heritage, but rather she is okay with her own self-approval as she conveys it in her story with the several examples in her story giving us a better understanding of the message in which she attempts to convey.

  

Creativity

(Question 3)

    Dear School Board,

 A class where creativity is taught in school would be very essential to the growth of our nation in a positive sense. If every child’s day consists of a quotidian class in which they are taught to think more effectively, it is sure to have a positive outcome. A class dedicated to a core foundation in which the objective is to teach thinking is now a days circumscribed and not given enough priority. Statistics from a test of creativity that was administered to millions of people worldwide showed that the public’s creativity quotient has slowly begun to decline since 1990. Less creative minds show no further help in resolving the problems of tomorrow. However, changing the course of the future is a problem that can be resolved starting today and one solution to the problem can be the creation of a class where creative thinking is taught in school.  

      Creativity is a concept which might differ in the perspective of various different human minds. This itself is a form of creativity. Creativity is a stream of consciousness that takes place in your mind when you allow your thoughts to take over and explore the depths and capacity of what your mind is able to conjure. It allows people to think outside the usual thinking box and in the process develop new innovations in which can brighten up the future. In creating a class of critical thinking, the students will have a place in which they will be able to broaden their minds. This kind of thinking will pave the way for incessant possibilities in which will affect the world in a positive sense. Due to the creative minds which roamed this planet before ourselves, we have many of the great things which exist in the world today. If they didn't think outside the box, nothing new would come as a result. Many inventions were developed and several problems solved. If we hope to aspire new inventions and solve our problems, we must entrust this power to the people of our future, or in other words, the youth.

       The best place to teach these kids of the future would be at school. If taught in a classroom it would help the students in several other ways. It will indeed help broaden the person’s mind, but also help him or her in other perspectives as well. A creative person will tend to be more intelligent and therefore will help them with their other subjects as well. An open minded person is simply bound to a higher probability of success in the future. Is there any way to guarantee that a class of such will have such an effect? No, but if it were to be given a chance there is so many possibilities that an even better question would be why not? In the passage it states “A recent IBM poll of 1, 500 CEO’s identified that creativity as the NO.1 ‘leadership competency.” Coming from the world’s CEOs, this leads us to the fact that creativity is of utmost priority and is not a matter in which to be pliable with.

     To fully access a person’s capacity is immensely important. A class where creativity is taught would help acquire this state of being. There are many problems in the world which need our attention. “Saving the Gulf of Mexico, bringing peace in Afghanistan, and delivering health care” are some problems we are facing that the text provides. We are taught Math, English, and Science and although these subjects do play their role, there are some problems in which require another kind of thinking. Creative thinking to be specific.  By having such a class we can help brighten our vision of the future. If the kids of tomorrow are better thinkers with creative ideas, the problems of tomorrow are more likely to be solved as well.

    Creativity being taught in a class would be of great help to everyone. It is something that should be taught in classrooms worldwide for the better well being of the world. It would make the future a lot brighter with something as little as a class taught in schools. It might prove to be of insignificance, but it also might prove to be the key to all the problems that we face worldwide every day. By creating this class a person might be able to come up with a cure for cancer or aids with his new found thinking ability. The possibilities are truly endless and that is why a class where a person’s creativity and thinking is encouraged is a great idea.