what i have learned by kristen

We have been on a 2 month journey. And this is what I have learned.

Vietnam

Americans! Why do I have the right of being an American when we killed thousands of
innocent civilians? How did the U.S. Government suddenly had the bright idea to attack Vietnam?
Starting with napalm Bombs or nail bombs going on to agent orange? Where people 2 generations later
are born with horrible mutations. Where solders cut pregnant women’s bellies, take the baby out and
kill it, and then lie about it for over 30 years. where soldiers blow women and children to pieces,
then laugh about it. Where does anyone get the idea to create a nail bomb? A bomb full of hundreds of
nails dropped from the air then exploding about three feet from the ground and shooting nails in every directions. And even now people will be walking along and get killed by something we dropped or put into the ground that didn’t explode. And when ever did we have a right to bomb a city filled with apartment buildings where people live. But the most horrifying thing was the people that actually lived. Half their body burned or scared or there legs and arms blown off. or little ball from ball barrens that blow up in peoples faces. And the guns, the huge guns that kill tons of people at a time. This was all in one museum. About a hundred pictures tole the story of what we did to an Innocent country. A museum so intense, that people who were for the war walk out against it. where I walked out hating myself, my country, America. To stunned to even speak. A lump in my throat from it all. From a real life ball bearing to seeing what it actually did. The Vietnam war. A horrible war.

 

Even though the Vietnam war was only 30 years ago,Vietnam is growing and improving at a surprising rate. Though it is a Communist country, it is very successful. you go down its river and you see boats full of coal, wood and supplies. Vietnam’s people are all healthy, slim and hard working though some may seem like work-ahalics. And yet at the same time as all this Vietnam is southeast Asia’s second largest rice growing country! The city’s are full of factories, and the country side is full of rice growing farms. But what is the greatest thing about Vietnam is everyone wants to talk to you to practice their English, no matter where your from! And every morning you go out and people are playing bad mitten and saying “exersize! stay fit!”

Cambodia

Its amazing how 1 person could kill 1 millon people in 1 year. It just doesn’t seem posible. Yet one man named Pol Pot and his evil partners managed to do it. How? I will explan to you later. But he was the start of the Khmer Rouje. The most grusome, most horific thing to ever happen to Cambodia in history. Pol Pot’s main goal was to turn everyone into peasents and relive the glory days of Angkor. And since he took over Cambodia and was the prime minister, he could do anything because he was in power. His first idea was to kill the rest of the old government so no one would suspect he was doing anything. now i will tell you how Pol Pot did it. Useing innocent children and brainwashing them to do horrible things and telling them over and over again that the Khmer Rouge was good until they belived it. then he would use the kids to torture than kill people if the people did something wrong. Even if it was just a small stupid thing. But mostly it was not them slautering people, it was starving everyone to death. they would give them a little cup of grule for that day and that was it. but what ever the way they killed them they killed over 3 millon people in 3 years.

Cambodia is still recovering from its hazerdis war with Pol Pot 20 years ago. But sense Pol Pot killed all the smart people, meaning all the people with education, leaving the people that don’t know anything or only a little educated. So now people who were training to beome a docter, or a lawer are only just fineshing their schooling. But because of Pol Pot Cambodia is way behind on everything. As we went away from Cambodia, I was left wondering how anybody could kill his or her same people like it was a vidio game. Or how you could think you have the right to brain wash innocent children into torchuring and killing people. Even as I went into india it never made any sense to me.

 

In India there were other things that didn’t make sense to me. It’s amazing how one religion could create such a big wall between the rich and the poor. For instance, The most expensive restaurant in town could be filled with rich people while right outside it there will be a man with no arms or legs sleeping on cold concrete. I noticed as I went to India there was more suffering then all of the other countries we have seen on this trip. But the worst part is the enviorment.The rivers are polluted so much from sewage and trash that when people go swimming it makes them sick. The ground in parks or by the side of the rode are covered in trash. The air is smoged up from all the cars and buses. Some places you go there are dead cows or dogs lieing by the side of the road.

If you compare India to Vietnam, In Vietnam, the people are healthy, fit, eat good,
nutrises foods and die of a old age. In India, the people are dieing young of heart attacks because
of all the oil in the food and because they are so fat from the sweets. Even the really young are a
little fat. Sometimes I wonder how it got this way When you go on a train right next to the train
track at least 5 men are pooing or peeing without digging a hole. Its childish in a way. Like
everyones minds are still 5. For example, We were walking down the road and someone was burning
trash right under a 7 or 8 year old cactus and a bunch of plants, killing the beautiful cactus. But why are cows and monkeys holy and dogs not holy and left to have miserable lives? And the status of the gods are falic symbols or orange blobs? Its like a real life fairy tale that you would find in the stinky cheese man and
other fairly stupid tales. I think it would be much easier to live in America because you have a choice of how you live.

America is a really rich country, many people live in millon doller houses and can eat all the food they want. In other contries people live in shacks and are starving. Its fasinating what americans consider poor, in other countries it would be middle class, or rich. Or how india has more suffering than Cambodia yet India is higher in technology than Cambodia. Or that Americas people are over weight and in Vietnam there is not a single person that is fat. But if India’s enviorment is filthy and falling apart, why is America’s not? Or what about Thailand? How it was at the top for being so modernizd and resently it had a koup that overthrew the government.

How I want to improve the world

Right now I will tell everyone about Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. And other parts of the world people have not heard about. When I grow up I want to adopt, stop global warming and help fed and find homes for the people on the street. Otherwise, I want to continue my parents work with aids orphans in Africa and do volentir work at Mother Teresa’s and help the enviorment so its not so miss treated and help dogs with mange and worms.