Take Home Assignment: Criminal DNA Database

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

November 29 2012

Make a rational argument for a position you do not support personally. For clarity, please state your true opinion first and then argue the opposite position. Consider an issue that has affected you personally.

TRUE OPINION: A criminal DNA database should not be produced.

     Retaining the DNA of unconvicted suspects to create a criminal DNA database is controversial because there is high possibility that an individual’s private information may be abused. Also, a DNA database degrades an individual by allowing the government to view every citizen as a potential criminal.

     However, there is no doubt that a database greatly reduces the risk of wrongful conviction and the time of tracking down the suspects. Although some people argue that DNA testing does not guarantee 100% accuracy and thus should not be used as the basis of convictions, it is much more reliable than the conventional investigation method. For example, compared to conventional fingerprints investigation, in which fingerprints are easily smeared or contaminated, DNA testing is applicable even with very small amounts of genetic data, notwithstanding contamination from oil, water, or acid. Therefore, producing a criminal DNA database contributes to a more precise and convenient investigation.  (998 characters) 

University of Chicago Essay: Silence - Not Always the Best Speech

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

November 29 2012

Silence – Not Always the Best Speech

[University of Chicago Prompt] Essay Option #3. Susan Sontag, AB'51, wrote that "[s]ilence remains, inescapably, a form of speech." Write about an issue or a situation when you remained silent, and explain how silence may speak in ways that you did or did not intend.

Two hours left, yet I still heard from no one. Among twenty people I contacted, thirteen said "Sorry, I have another schedule," and seven did not even respond. "New Message Arrived" – I opened my phone in slight expectation. It was, however, a message from the club teacher urging me to give the names of two participants right away. I threw away my phone in anger, and let out a loud wail.

MUNESCO, which stands for Minjok UNESCO, is a volunteer organization in KMLA that I had been the Chief for the last six months. One special characteristic of MUNESCO is that it is one of numerous affiliated clubs under the Korean National Federation of UNESCO; that is, there are similar clubs in other high schools all over the nation. Usually, each club acts independently, but occasionally there are camps that assemble all clubs to share their achievements. I was looking for two members who could join a three-day camp which would be held during the summer vacation. However, among twenty members – twelve juniors and eight freshmen – no one volunteered. No one.

Eventually, I couldn’t find two participants until the last moment, and had to contact the club teacher and National Federation that MUNESCO would not be able to join the camp. After being severely reprimanded, I started to question myself; why everyone was so passive to participate in club activities? Maybe my leadership had been wrong, I thought. Looking back the past half year, I realized that it was not the first time that MUNESCO members did not show their best devotion; they did not appear in group meeting, kept making excuses for not attending camps, and often ignored my contacts. My solution to this problem was “the speech of silence”, not direct confrontation and scolding. I expected that my silence would speak out everything – how I was doing all the jobs, including the members’ work; how burdened I was; how desperately I was waiting for the members’ apologies and voluntary participation; and so on.

But the solution did not work at all. All the members were already too busy with their assignments, quizzes, and other club activities. They were not attentive enough to be concerned over someone trying to convey message via silence. At the end of the first semester, I was utterly exhausted that I couldn’t continue working alone in silence. Still, I was too afraid to break the silence, which would create public discord. I eventually renounced the Chief position; I entrusted another member – the one who showed the most enthusiasm among reluctant members – with full power.

The new Chief’s policy was, definitely, not silence; she was not afraid to speak out loudly of her dissatisfaction about the members’ passiveness, even if it led to discord and conflict. Whenever she felt that members were not doing their best, she posted a status in reproach and anger on Facebook. Ashamed to be “publicized” for their lack of devotion, members started to participate. They came to almost every meeting, tried to join the campaigns except for the inevitable cases, and paid attention to the outspoken Chief.

(This is not real; I just made it up, but something similar like this was updated on the New Chief's FB wall few times.)

Silence, definitely, works far better than grandiloquent speech in some cases. As Leonardo da Vinci pointed out, “[n]othing strengthens authority so much as silence.” But sometimes, like my experience with MUNESCO, silence does not act as an effective form of speech; the listeners are too busy or inattentive to search for the message the silent speaker is trying to convey. Evidently, silence is not the best approach a leader can always employ. 

                                                                                                                                                                                   

To be honest, I did not want to upload this essay on my blog. This essay is about one of the most embarrassing experiences in my life; thinking back, I feel stupid about me for shrinking and hesitating to speak out, in an idle fear that members would resist to my reproach. But I actually learned an important thing -- that "silence is not the best approach a leader can always employ", as I stated in this essay's conclusion -- so... it's not that bad to undergo a frustration in return for some lesson, I guess? J

[Ben X Full Review] Yet No REAL Solution

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

November 22 2012

Yet No REAL Solution

I can categorize my worries in three sections: weight gain, academics, and human relationship. If a Genie shows up and says “Choose only one trouble you want me to solve,” then I would choose the last worry – human relationship – without any hesitation. I stop eating and exercise more when I gain weight; I stop watching cartoons and study harder when I get B from English Compositions; but I don't know what to do when I ruin my relationship.

There is one friend that I once was super close, but not now. From the moment that we started to feel this strange turbulence between us, we couldn't face each other with ease. Once I noticed one of her drawbacks, I started to find out more and more, which made me feel guilty whenever I tried to sew up our broken relationship. Then I felt fury to her for making me feel blameful; then I again felt guilty for enraging at her, who definitely did not intend to anger me. This cycle just went on and on, and I’m sure it was same for her. I finally realized that restoring relationship is one of the hardest conundrums in our life.

And this was what happened to me – conflict with "one" friend – but what if the conflict is with "many" friends? This is what Amanda Todd, a fifteen-years-old girl who left her last words on YouTube and committed suicide, experienced. Her YouTube suicide note, "My Story: Struggling, Bullying, Suicide, Self Harm", talks about how she became an outcast and how she could not break away from bullying. Just because of one little mistake she had made when she was in 7th grade, Amanda was continually tortured online (for example, being revealed a photo of her bosom on Facebook) and offline ("threw me to the ground and punched several times ... kids filmed it," states Amanda). Amanda entitled the bullying "My Never Ending Story": yes it was, broken relationship just kept on breaking deeper and deeper.

A lot of people ponder over this problem, trying to suggest solutions to free from the endless cycle of bullying. Ben X, a Belgium film released in 2007, is a fruit of the director Nic Balthazar's deliberation. Unlike "common" solutions most counselors think of – asking for parents’ active help, for example – Balthazar raises a creative solution: "online game". Ben, the protagonist of the movie, suffers from Asperger's syndrome which accompanies autism, keen response to the slightest stimulus, etc. Ben's classmates feel interest in bullying someone different from them; they make Ben stand on the table and take off his pants, film this mean prank and post it online. Balthazar presents a new character, Scarlite, an imaginary girlfriend from Archlord as a cure for Ben’s ostracization; she stops Ben from committing suicide and thinks of ingenious revenge to Ben’s classmates.

When I accessed to Ben X Facebook page, some viewers left posts about how excellent resolution this movie has. However, I could not agree to those posts; to be honest, I thought the resolution is creative, but nothing more. Suggesting online game – itself or whatever originated from it – as a solution to bullying problem is, in my opinion, dangerous and incomplete.

Consider case 1; if the online game itself is a solution to Ben’s problem – that is, if Scarlite did not show up – it is highly possible that Ben would have stirred up bloody affairs. And the movie does admit this presumption; until the middle of the movie, before Ben met Scarlite in his real life, Ben often imagined himself in computer graphics in the armour of the warrior whenever his classmates bullied him. He imagined purchasing weapons at the item store and fighting the bullies back. And Ben once really attempted to fight in real life with a sharp piece of sculpture. But online and real world was different; Ben was easily oppressed by his bullies and was harassed even more severely. Then Ben tried to commit suicide by crashing into the train, in hope to escape from current “game” he is playing. In short, online game itself could not be a desirable solution for Ben – it could lead him exert violence upon his opponents, as he does online, or kill himself, in delusory belief that his life is just another set of game.

Case 2: Scarlite, Ben’s imaginary supporter originated from the online game world, is what Balthazar actually believes to be a desirable solution. Scarlite helps Ben act a fake suicide, thereby make his bullies feel guilty over his death. And this was indeed a creative solution; the viewers extolled the twist, that set something else than bloody affairs as an ending. Yes, the creativity is accepted – but the solution does not work. When the film of Ben’s fake suicide is played in the auditorium, what the bullies feel is not remorse, but actually a greater rage toward Ben for publicizing their cruel act. This is obvious when the camera zooms up the classmates’ facial expression in the funeral – they do not show a drop of tear. When the funeral ends, the camera pictures Ben happy in the farm, alone, but not Ben happy in the class, together. That is, even with Balthazar’s creative solution, the classmates did not regret their past acts or/and accept Ben as one of them; what this solution achieved was merely removing the violence and harassment from Ben and his classmates’ broken relationship. The fact that Ben is an outcast still does not change.

Viewers of Ben X, including most of my classmates, said that they enjoyed this special and unconventional movie. Indeed, Nic Balthazar’s suggestion of Archlord as a solution to the bullying issue was original and novel. Such proposition of new idea, definitely, is praiseworthy; nevertheless, it is sorry that this ends only as a creative “attempt” that does not resolve the real problem. Overall, Ben X was an interesting, exotic movie, but its incompleteness disappointed me again for finding no real solution over broken human relationship. 

10 Flash Fictions

1.      Phone alarm rang. I looked down my phone. Sighing, I turned off the alarm. I thought I already erased everything. But I didn't. I leaned over the wall, and clapped slowly. Happy Birthday to you.

2.       Living in a dorm school is: You put a full bottle of coke in the fridge, and next morning you're drinking a cup of water.

3.       "You collared the cole to buy a pen?" The father angered at the boy. "I can bring you numbers of pen from my office!"

4.       "Teachers must allow students autonomy" I commented at KMLA Forum, ignoring Facebook message from Judicial Branch to join Student Jury.

5.       "Hey, I was just going to study!" exclaimed my roommate who had been Facebooking all day, as the dorm blacked out.

6.       [11:59:59PM] "The Concert Ticket Sale begins within a second!" 

          [12:00:00AM] "This computer is out of battery. The system is forced to perform terminations."

7.       “You are allowed to buy translated copies," said my professor, and I stared down at my book -- Shakespeare in the original.

8.       [Sent Message] It's been more than a month... How are you these days? 

          [Received Message] This number is not registered.

9.       Have a nice… days.

10.    Window opened. A slight breeze. The door locked inside-out.

Comments

   Hemingway's famous flash fiction makes me feel most of my examples are wrong : ( Hemingway seems to make the readers imagine all the events that may have happened -- baby's death, mother's sorrow, etc. Some of my examples -- 1, 8, 9, 10, and maybe 2 -- do seem to act like Hemingway's, but others seem to be more like "irony" than flash fictions. Hmm....?

   Please leave comments about this question! And if you see any ambiguous flash fictions that you can't predict what was my intention, feel free to ask : ) Thanks!

[Earthlings Revision] Vegan Maker? – Nope, Vegan Introducer

Ye Ji Park / 111053 / b4

Mr. Garrioch

English Composition

November 20 2012

Vegan Maker? – Nope, Vegan Introducer

Of course we know meat dishes and leather shoes are not fallen from the sky. We know animals are slaughtered to be served at family restaurants and displayed at department stores. But when we confront the true reality, not the ambiguous imagination, we realize that animal abuse is something much, much more brutal and gruesome act than it is in our mind.

Shaun Monson, the writer/producer/and director of the documentary Earthlings, gets the audience to face the truth via exploring the vivid descriptions of animal maltreatment for 95 minutes. The documentary is divided in five parts: pets, food, clothes, entertainment, and scientific research. The first chapter shows animals locked in dirty, crammed cages in pet stores. The second chapter portrays the bloody slaughter of pigs and cows, practiced with no effort to appease pain at all. The third chapter follows India's "Death March" that transports animals to regions where it is allowed to skin them. The fourth chapter shows the shackled life of circus animals, commanded to perform abnormally for the sake of entertainment. The final chapter pictures the cold-blooded medical experiments performed on animals, such as vivisection without anesthetizing.

All the visual images Shaun Monson displays in the documentary are often shocking and appalling enough to make people feel guilty. A lot of reviewers admit that the video made them reconsider about their meat diet, which is why the video is nicknamed "the Vegan maker". It is doubtful, however, whether this video succeeded in "making" the vegetarians. People did think about being vegetarian, but only few actually changed their lifestyle. In other words, Earthlings is enough to inspire people to think about change, but not enough to actualize that change.

This "insufficiency" is incurred from three shortcomings of the film: its broad range, prejudiced standpoint, and enumeration of facts. First of all, the video deals with a general problem; rather than choosing one specific example of animal abuse, the film covers many aspects of human violence on animals. Discussion of overall issue is effective to enlighten the viewers that animal violence is a ubiquitous problem. The drawback of this approach, however, is that the film needs to deal with too much content; some of the details, therefore, must be portrayed in brief. One YouTube reviewer points out that the film "tries to cover the whole spectrum ... that give you fast, short facts here and there.” For example, the reviewer points out, the images of animals in the zoos pass so fast that he missed most of them. If the film had included specific acts of zoo staffs mistreating animals, the film would have conveyed a much clearer message. Likewise, because the film deals with a general problem, the quick series of short-cut images does not give the viewers enough information or time to ponder about their lifestyles. As the reviewer mentioned, the viewers must do their own researches to replenish their knowledge until it reaches enough to lead to realistic action.

Secondly, the stance of Earthlings is overly one-sided. A strongly-biased perspective unintentionally leads the viewers to question, "What about the other side?" Maybe the director picked the most extreme examples among various cases in order to maximize pathos. Maybe there would be some more generous industries that anesthetize animals before slaughter or vivisection. Actually, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that 57% of animals used in scientific experiment were used in procedures that did not include more than momentary pain or distress; 36% were used in procedures in which pain or distress was relieved by anesthesia; only 7% were used in studies that cause pain or distress which would not be relieved. The documentary, however, neglected 93% of consideration and only exhibited 7% of inhumanity, leading the viewers to accept this minor practice as a whole. Even if this is not true – that is, even if Shaun only pictured normal, quotidian, everyday-happening real events, the "truth" of video is so uncomfortable and guilt-eliciting. The viewers would try to deny and justify their current situations, rather than believing the film as presented and changing their life. If the director had included milder examples of the brutality and tempered his strongly biased perspective, viewers would have raised less disbelief and denial.

Finally, merely listing the “facts” is not enough to make the viewers of Earthlings act. Throughout five chapters, the film clearly shows that animal abuse is omnipresent; however, it does not suggest any solutions to rescue animals from maltreatment. There do exist alternatives; beans and tofu other than meat; synthetic fiber in substitute for leather and fur; a tennis competition in place of bullfighting. The film, however, hardly suggests such solutions. A local foodie and interactive marketer, Adam Harrell claimed that “[Earthlings] implies that if we want to eat meat, then animals will be treated cruelly in factory farms. That there is no other way. It’s an all or nothing approach.” The viewers, thus, feels futile and regards challenge meaningless – consequently bringing no change in their lifestyles.

Earthlings is, doubtlessly, one of the greatest definitive animal rights films. It introduced the brutal reality of animal abuse which humans are unaware of. Unfortunately, its role stops at merely "introducing" the issue; the film fails to take a further step of eliciting real changes. The film’s broadness, biased stance, and little suggestion of solutions, prevents the viewers from "being vegetarians". Maybe the film's nickname, "the Vegan maker", is adulation; "the Vegan introducer", instead, would be felicitous.

Ben X First Review

     I recently read a newspaper article about two kids seriously addicted to the computer games. They were so lost in their game world so that they considered their grandmother as an enemy and exerted violence on her. The writer of that article claimed that the reason the kids became such a serious addict was that they were impoverished, were isolated from same-aged friends, and the only entertainment they could relish was computer games. Inthe imaginary world, where they can have anything, play freely, fight and win, they were so satisfied with such "utopia" life that they started to refuse the reality, the "distopia" life.

     Even though I did not finish watching the movie Ben X, I can predict what will happen to Ben in the following running time, based on the newspaper article. His discontent reality and ideal game-life will soon collapse and demand Ben to choose one. Presumably, Ben would choose the latter as his reality and maybe start to kill his "enemies" -- for example, bullying students -- as he does to his online enemies.