No More SATs :D

So...I guess I'm done my SATs. Hmmm the one thing the last eight years of my life revolved around. I remember when I was 9 we got all these books from the "free book place" in Baltimore, and while my mom had to work during the weekends, my dad and I would go to UMAB's library and I would practice. =/. Anyways>>>>>>>>> so i've taken SAT Is twice, Chinese, Math 2, and today I took Bio-M and Chem. Bio was kinda hard....lots of stuff that never appeared in my review book, and Chem was way too long. But the testing center (Glenelg) was good :D. Good fengshui 風水. :D. Plus, I got to sit next to Erik Schmidt. :D. And, of course, with Sean Symon somewhere in the building retaking his SAT Is, that means I'm instantly smarter.

So...then I spent the rest of the afternoon selling those Band Subs. It took FOREVER. and i still have 2 or 3 that haven't been delivered. and then we went to Shin Chon 新村, next to Panda. 'twas pretty good XD second time ive had korean bbq, but it was awesome nonetheless. altho it was kinda expensive. our friend paid...but i'd say it was like $150...for 6 ppl. + a baby and a 6th grader.

time to do> HW! esp. that comparative essay on chile. speaking of comparative, we're watching a video on the protests in Seattle in 1999 against the WTO conference. So...a couple hundred nonviolent protesters gathered on the streets during that 3 day period, and the police eventually decided to gas them and use physical force. Some images stick out...like when the police ripped off this guy's scarf/mask and gassed him in the face. Conveniently, the city banned the sale of gas masks also. 600 people were arrested, and many of them didn't get justice until recently. Wiki.

1: Tear Gas. 2: Blood from pepper spray.





Also, it was about how the police were violating the peoples' rights of assembly and free speech.

So...Stephen and I started talking...about Tian'anmen. So for those of you who don't know, in 1989 there were democracy protests at Tian'anmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace). It wasn't really a one-day thing...more like a few months, but at the most there were over 100,000 people demonstrating. After persuading the students to stop for many months, the government finally decided to use force.

This is probably the most famous pic:


(since this is what appeared in Western media and was spread as propaganda against the Communist government). What happened was, the tank didn't run over him like many of us would imagine, someone pulled him back out of street. According to a Hong Kong newspaper, he lives in Taiwan now.

Personally, I'd say a government's gotta do what a government's gotta do. I'm pretty sure no government in the world, including the U.S. as seen in Seattle, wants to be overthrown. If things get out of hand and this requires brute force, then so be it. Similarly, it's ridiculous that people in the U.S. are making petitions for a "free Burma." What are they gonna do? Ask the Burmese government to step down and allow for the people to rule, just because a group of protesters on the other side of the world would like it?



These people are supporting rebels. How would the U.S. have liked it if the rest of the world had supported the Branch Davidians at Waco? Well, the U.S. wouldn't like it. That's what we call "the war on terrorism."

Another point. Tibet. Maybe communists have abused Tibetans, i.e. when China took over Tibet, but today, idk. China doesn't really have anything against Buddhism, which is pretty widespread. The Dalai Lama has something against China and China has something against the Dalai Lama. Although connections with China have improved Tibet's economy (tourism), the problem is that Tibet's slowly losing its culture and previous lifestyle because of this "openness" to the rest of the world. More and more Hans are moving to Tibet, but I wouldn't say this culture clash is really human rights abuse. Even if there were abuses, how would a bunch of protesters convince a country to give up some of its land? That's why the U.S. does not "completely" support a free Taiwan. The U.S. must help Taiwan if China invades, because of some thing agreed upon way back when communism was a threat. But if Taiwan rebels on its own, the U.S. can't get involved. Speaking of Taiwan, if Tibet were freed, if wouldn't be quite freed, because then it would belong to Taiwan. Taiwan also has claims on Tibet...so freeing Tibet wouldn't really do anything. IMHO.

On a lighter, but surprisingly related note,


"News flash! Our glorious leader is even more glorious than originally thought!"
~engrish.com

Disclaimers :D
my life revolved around much more than SATs ;P
protesting is good because it brings important things to the govt's attention. like the civil rights movement. not when its done out of spite.