wildfires in california

Today is the third day that over a dozen buckweed wildfires continued to rage unstopped in southern California. The fires forced an estimated 300,000 people to evacuate their homes. Winds made the flames almost impossivle for firefighters to handle. So far, the wildfires have blackened over four-hundred square miles of brushland and suburbs. The governor's Office of Emergency Services ordered mandatory evacuationgs of San Diego Count were houses were destroyed and more were still in danger. This is the largest San Diego evacuation ever where entire towns of people had to leave; 250, 000 were told to leave, overall. Residents outside this area were asked to stay home if they could.





Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that eight-hundred National Guard troops would taken from their job to assist with evacuation and ground control in the county.The fires burned some 267,000 acres from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Firefighters from as far as Nevada and Arizona were called to help with the fires. So far there was only one death, in a fire in southeastern San Diego County. State emergency officials fear that these fires could surpass the destruction of 2003, when California experienced its worst fire season ever recorded. President Bush had called the governor to offer assistance with the fires that still could last for days. Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds opened as emergency shelters with national guard troops there to help. Many people tried to save their homes with their hoses. Dozens of people in Canyon Country tried to fight off flames approachng their homes because firefighters didn't arrive in time. The San Diego Wild Animal Park was closed and the animals were transfered for their safety. Firefighting airplanes are even being used to dump water over the fires. Some of the fires appeared to have been started by downed power lines, but a few were thought to have been caused by arson. The only reported good news is that firefighters made progress in surrounding a fire in Orange County without a losing a single home. *The worst fire in state history burned nearly 750,000 acres in 2003, destroyed 3,600 homes and other buildings, and killed 24 people across Southern California, with much of the damage and more than a dozen of the deaths in San Diego County.

It's important for people to know about news like this because it is a big deal. It might not be happening on the east coast but it's a big problem in California. One good thing that can come from this is that after every fire, the land is always fertile and hopefully will regrow even better than it was. I just feel horrible for the people who had to deal with fires in their homes. Fires can happen for no reason, but are devestating and I feel deeply for anyone who has been affected by the past few days.

japanese try to hide the truth

Toward the end of World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army soldiers coerced the Okinawan villagers into committing horrific homicidal and suicidal acts. In the Battle of Okinawa, soldiers gave the village men two hand grenades, one to try and kill Americans and then one to kill themselves. However, now in the new high school text books, the Japanese government is deleting any stories of these past events and denying that it ever happened. Six months ago, the Education Ministry said that next year's government textbooks would not have any references to Japanese soldiers, but instead say that the Okinawans felt to commit mass suicide for no good reason. One living survivor, Shigeaki Kinjo, gave his story in a newspaper article in the beginning of October. He, of course, is one Okinawan who is angered by hearing this news. He says that his fellow villagers and himself believed that suicide was their only way to avoid harsh fates from the American troops. Kinjo admits that he beat to death his mother, younger brother and sister and that he did not kill himself only because he realized the soldiers were not killing themselves. After living his whole life with the guilt and regret, he must be shocked and hurt that the Japanese are trying to cover up that they ever did something like this. Senior Okinawan politians went to Tokyo to protest the the revising of the textbooks, but were ignored by the minister of education. All of the local government in Okinawa are demanding that the textbooks not be changed.

There has always been a way of shortening the facts of history in order to make one country or group of people look better than they might have been. American's enslaved Native Americans and tortured them, but it is not talked about in great depth. Usually when a country has done something wrong, they only include a small section about it in the books, so as not to draw too much attention to it. I've always been taught that we need to learn history in order to keep history from repeating itself. If real historical are ignored or literally erased from books, eventually no one will believe certain things happened and similar acts could possibly occur in the future. If Japan is going to try and hide what its soldiers did to the Okinawan villagers, why not hide what the Americans did to the Natives and even Africans; better yet, forget that the German Natzis ever had a mass genocide of the Jewish.

rare gorillas in danger

Rebels have taken over the Virunga National Park; an area in eastern Congo that serves as a wildlife habitat for endangered mountain gorillas, threatening one of the last known groups of these animals. The park was created in 1925 as Africa's first national park, but the area it is on has never been under control. Only seven hundred mountain gorillas still exist in the world and ten have been killed already this year. In January two silverbacks were killed and four months ago a dead gorilla was found and had been murdered. More than half of them live in the area that has been seized. The use of weapons could be head and the park rangers were forced to leave the reserve. The rebels are loyal to one warlord, Nkunda, and have battled over the park with the army. The park sits at an intersection of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The gorillas are not a target of the rebels but their habitat had been overtaken and its possible they will get caught in crossfire of fighting. International wild life groups concerned about the gorillas are funding a hundred-thousand dollar crisis management program. They hope to increase the number of rangers watching the area. Nkunda allowed some rangers to look for the gorillas, but only eighteen were accounted for out of about seventy-two. For more than a decade, the Eastern Congo has been wrapped up in violence involving mercenaries and rebels. After a four year war ended in 2002, government forces have failed to contain violent outbreaks. Many people don't think about the problems with endangered species. They need to be carefully watched and looked at. I hope that the rebels will be put down so that the park can get back into routine.

end to korean war?

Leaders of the two North and South Koreas agreed to try to bring peace to their countries. Next month they are going to try and formally end the to the Korean War with the United States and China that started in 1950. The United States that Pyongyang would have to give up all nuclear weapon, but the North doesn't seem like they want to. The leaders of North Korea and South Korea also agreed to set up the fiirst train connected the two countries. They also have to establish a zone around the sea border on the west of the Korean peninsula. North Korea agreed to disable its three main nuclear facilities and completely end its nuclear programs byt the end of this year. President Bush believes that North Korea can be a model to Iran to resolve nuclear issues. South Korea, being the richer of the two, is ready to completely support North Korea. This is good because the North Koreans are already mistrustful of everyone and they need to know they can trust the south. If North Korea ends up disabling all nuclear devices, it will put them back to where they were over ten years ago. When Kim Jo-ling was taking over power from his father he agreed to stop its nuclear program. However, no one knows how many materials, used in creating nuclear weapons, could have been hidden by North Korea. North Korea is worried about giving up their weapons because they feel it is the only thing holding them up against the rest of the world. The most important thing is that if North Korea holds their end to the agreement, the U.S. and them will finally be on good terms. It will also keep us from worrying about terrorism from the North Koreans.

what is a memoir?

A memoir is a written work that recollects something important about the author's life. Though it is a piece of autobiographical writing, is not to be mistaken as an autobiography, which specifically relays a person's life from start to end. Memoirs are written to capture significant moments in the writer's past experiences. I always find memoirs interesting to read. I'm currently in the middle of reading two: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia and The Quiet Room (a memoir of skizophrenia).