Slowly Falling Apart

57 people were killed from a truck bomb outside the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, including two Americans and a diplomat from the Czech Republic. The explosion also injured 266 people, 11 of which were foreign. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the attack at the Marriott Hotel "is the biggest attack, volume-wise" in Pakistan in seven years. The driver tried to talk his way past the gates at the hotel with his truck packed with 1,300 pounds of explosives. He was a suicide bomber.

Watch the CNN news video on the attack here, and click "Suicide Blast Rocks Islamabad".

No arrests have been made with connection to the attack, but Malik says that all paths lead to the tribal regions of Pakistan. South Waziristan is where most trails wander, and is one of Pakistan's seven tribal areas where Taliban and al Qaeda militants are active. It is in tribal areas similar to Waziristan that reported sightings of Osama Bin Laden have come from, and with a big issue of this year’s election being our foreign policy and the war, Pakistan is daily becoming a more and more important country to the United States.

Pakistan is ranked as the ninth most unstable country in the world, behind countries like Somalia, which got first, Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (See the list here). I guess the point of all of this information is how upsetting it is. I feel incredibly sad when I realize that this is what the world has really come to, war, strife, and a lot of hatred. I also feel confused when I realize how little I actually know about Pakistan as a country. Pakistan is an amazingly pivotal country, and it is just looming there, waiting for the US to deal with. I guess what it really comes down to is who is going to deal with Pakistan. Most trails point to Osama Bin Laden being either in Afghanistan, where we are already, or in rural Pakistan, a place that the Pakistani government has no control over. I don’t know why it is strange to me that Pakistan is so violent, and unstable. Maybe I’m just used to the peaceful side of the beautiful Islamic religion. So is there hope? Or is the world just slowly falling apart, one country at a time? I sure hope not.

Extreme Consequences

They’ve been all over the news lately. They’ve driven millions from their homes, and caused millions of dollars in damage. They’ve even stolen the spotlight from some of the most famous American politicians. And, oh yeah, that’s just this year. They are hurricanes. Hurricane season is something dreaded, yet dealt with by most of the south eastern United States. Every year dozens of storms come, with an average of 4-6 turning into hurricanes, but only 1-2 of those being a serious threat. Hurricane season officially started back on June 1st, but only recently are any hurricanes getting attention. Even so, both of those hurricanes where taken seriously, and both caused serious damage. People are starting to realize that there seems to be more serious hurricanes, more frequently. The real problem is that they’re correct. When looking at the evidence, you see that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.

“What changed in the US with Katrina, was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences…” –Al Gore

But why is this? While many people would argue about what is causing it, many scientists now believe the culprit is none other than global warming. Global warming makes the oceans warmer, and warm water is the fuel that drives hurricanes across seas, eventually smashing them into the land that gets in their way.

Hurricanes aren’t the only thing we have to worry about either. With the earth slowly getting hotter, we can expect an array of extreme weather attacks, says organizations like edf.org, which stands for Environmental Defense Fund. Imagine massive wildfires being sparked from forests of what is essentially dry tinder. Droughts are likely, because warmer weather causes water to evaporate much faster. And all of those put together means heavier rainfall less often, which could result in flooding as disastrous as what happened to New Orleans. But even with evidence slowly mounting that these two things, extreme weather and global warming, could be linked, you rarely hear the two used together.

So, the battle rages on about whether or not global warming is the cause of these super hurricanes. Maybe it isn’t the cause. But I believe it sounds like a better idea to try and stop it this way, by fighting global warming itself, even if it is wrong, than to just wait and hope the hurricanes stop coming.

GO TEAM?

Last Friday night, I found myself amongst a throng of Highland Park High School students, cheering as their team ran in their first touchdown. But there was something wrong. I looked around to see that I was one of the few, the very few, people actually standing and cheering. I found it strange that I, a New Trier High School student, was cheering louder than majority of the students in the crowd. I joked with my HPHS friends that I had more spirit than they did and I didn't even go to their school. But then it dawned on me how hard it really is to find school spirit lately, anywhere. Highland Park isn't the only school where spirit can't be found. New Trier has "Blue and Green Fridays", where students are urged to dress in all blue and green to support our many different sports teams. I know one girl who makes an effort to wear blue and green every Friday, and every other person who does wear those colors, claims to have done it by accident. Most people would argue that there is plenty of spirit though. It is true, New Trier football games are crowded with students and fans all socializing while they watch their high school go for the win, and everyone gets extremely excited at every opportunity to pull ahead of the other team, but only at these events. How many students will follow their teams on away games? How many people wake up on Friday, remember that they should wear something blue or something green, and just pretend to have forgotten? I'm as guilty as everyone else, and it is interesting to realize that high school pride doesn't seem to be dished out by the pounds anymore. Its seems to be dripped out whenever it is convenient. What happened to make us forget we are trevians? I was standing as I screamed for Highland Park High school as they ran in another touchdown, and I heard a voice from behind me. I turned around and a boy, probably a sophomore, was sitting there. "Um, we," he said with a hint of cockiness as he waved to his surrounding friends, "would really appreciate it if you all would sit down." I couldn't believe it! Sit down? At a football game?! But then I though of myself and all the lazy students at New Trier games, and of all the students who only go to the games to stand on the sidelines and talk. This wasn't as weird as I was making it out to be, I realized. Still, I wasn't gonna let him put a damper on my wanna-be-a-spirited-Highland-Park-High-School-student parade. I looked at him and said, "Um we," making a similar gesture as his to my group of friends, "would really appreciate it if you all would stand up." Today, when so many students across the north shore are too busy to think of their local sports team, and probably a little embarrassed to show up to school as the only super crazy, colorful fan of their high school, I think it is time for all of us to break the habit of only being fans when we want to be, and to not only to be fans when the team is actually winning. To start showing how proud we are of our schools, whether it's HPHS, GBS, or NTHS, and to not be afraid to let those colors shine.