Movie Review: The Kite Runner (2007)

The Kite Runner is a movie that deals with the past and the present lives of Afghani people. It shows how even within Afghanistan, racial discrimination exists. The Hazara people, who are said to be Mongolian descendants, are often treated unequally by the Pashtuns. This movie demonstrates to us that true friendship can surpass racial differences.

 Hassan is a Hazara boy who is Amir's best friend. However, Amir often becomes jealous of him because he feels like his dad, Baba, prefers Hassan over Amir because of Hassan's qualities that Amir does not have, such as bravery. Their friendship lasts until the kite fighting tournament, where Amir and Hassan (two people in one team) win. When Amir asks Hassan if he could get the kite that they destroyed in the finals for him, Hassan says, "for you a thousand times over." However, Hassan, who is said to be the best Kite-Runner in all of Kabul, does not return for a long time and Amir decides to go and search for him. Finally, Amir finds Hassan with the kite however, he was surrounded by Assef and his two friends. Assef, a Pashtun boy who always disliked Hazaras especially Hassan, tells Hassan that he will let him go if Hassan hands the kite over. Hassan refuses and tells Assef that it's not for him. Amir, who was watching, could not do anything. He wasn't brave enough. Instead he runs away. Assef gets angry and punches him a several times. Eventually, he does something that is considered to be the worst thing that a man can do, he rapes him. A few hours later, Hassan returns. He is holding the kite in his hands but he is crying and bleeding. Without saying anything to Amir, he gives the kite to him.

After this incident, Amir and Hassan's friendship gets worse and eventually Hassan's father decides to leave and go to Hazara. Their reason for leaving wasn't about their friendship, but because of the growing attacks on the Hazaras. Baba, who is Hassan's fathers' best friend and treated Hassan just like his son, tries to stop them but fails. In the book, it was noted that Amir saw his father cry for the first time in his life at this point.

War erupts in Afghanistan and Amir and Baba flee to America. Amir graduates from University there and becomes a famous author. One day, Baba's friend, Rahim Khan, gives a letter to Amir which was written by Hassan a week before his death. It talked about how Hassan's life was in Hazara and that he had a son. It contained information about how Hassan knew Amir was there when he was being raped. However, it was also said that Hassan has already forgotten about what has happened in the past and wishes that Amir would one day come back to Afghanistan. Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan died while trying to save Amir's old house from the Taliban. Amir realises that Hassan's son has now become an orphan and decides to go to Afghanistan and save Hassan's son, Sohrab.

Amir successfully rescues Sohrab from the hands of Assef, a Taliban official. However, Sohrab faces difficulty in living a new life in America because of the pain and harassment that was inflicted upon him. One day, Amir and Sohrab go to a park where they fly a kite. They face a group of boys who challenge them to a kite fight. Amir tells Sohrab how Hassan was the best Kite Fighter and the runner in all of Kabul. Amir similarly uses the techniques that Hassan used and wins the kite fight. Sohrab then asks Amir if he could get the kite for him. Amir replies by saying, "for you a thousand times over."

The Kite Runner has become one of the most inspiring movies amongst all of those that I've seen. If I had to give it a rating out of ten, I would give it nine and a half just because it did not include some of the scenes from the book which I thought was interesting as well. I recommend that people who haven't seen this film yet should watch it as soon as possible. It will give them a different view of the world.

Environmental Problems

Nowadays environmental problems are too big to be managed by individual people or countries.
In other words, it is an international problem. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

 When people go to another country whether to live or just to travel, they first look at the environment. Without any doubt, all countries in the world have their own environmental problems. Whether these problems are caused by natural reasons or manmade reasons, they bring many disadvantages to countries. There are natural environmental problems such as draught that men cannot control however, most of the problems countries have are manmade. With a little bit of support from people, countries can  be safe from any disasters.

 Ever since humans started driving cars, pollution became a main issue. Everyone can agree that cars are useful and make our lives easier, however, the gas emitted from cars pollute the air. Pollution in the air will get rid of the beautiful blue skies that some countries have and turn it into a yellow sky just like India or China's. To avoid this, people should either walk or use public transport more. Bicycles are good too. In Korea, since the sky has started turning yellow, the government announced that cars can only be driven six days a week. People can decide which day not to drive and put a sticker on their cars. If people keep the rule and use public transport more, air pollution won't be much of an issue.

 There are other types of pollution that are caused by people's laziness. Some water pollution is caused by people throwing rubbish in the river or in the sea. These people are just too lazy to throw rubbish in a proper place, they want to throw it away as soon as they get it. Even though, these people won't stop doing that until they die (I'm pretty sure they will), we can be the people who clean up the mess. If you see rubbish on the ground or anywhere else, just picking it up and putting it in a nearest bin would help the country a lot. You might think that you are the only person to do this but that's not true. I'm pretty sure that many people in the world do this and have been doing it for a long time. These acts of kindness not only helps the environment and your country, but it will make you feel like you've actually done something right.

 Some countries are just too polluted and it's too late for them to return to their original state. However, even if your country belongs to one of those countries, you can still help your country reduce other problems or stop it from getting worse. Just simple acts of picking up rubbish or using more public transport is the way. In short term, these might look nothing. However, if someone does this for his/her entire life, the amount of rubbish picked up or the amount of gas saved will be huge. What are you doing right now to help your country?

                                            This shows the number of deaths from air pollution.
                                            As you can see, Asia has the most number of deaths.

                                           This shows the per capita carbon dioxide production
                                           of some of the major countries in the world.

The ten worst things that could happen on your way to school

1. Just before entering the school door, you realise you've left your homework or an important piece of work at home. At the speed of light, you call your parents and think of an excuse.

2. On your way to school, you realise you left your lunch at home and you have no money to buy food.

3. On your way to school, you meet a teacher and he/she reminds you of the tests that are coming.

4. You were listening to your Ipod on your way to school, it suddenly turns itself off because it has no more battery left. You can't stop thinking about how you are going to endure today's classes.

5. You realise you forgot to bring your swimming gear, so you have to wear school's uncool speedos.

6. You get a phone-call from your friend saying that he/she cannot come to school today. You wish you were like your friend.

7. You realise today is your birthday. Things much better than going to school suddenly pop up in your head. You suddenly feel depressed.

8. On your way to school, you meet your friends and have a talk with them. They ask you if you have the done the assignment or not. You tell your friends not to mention anything about the assignment knowing that it won't work.

9. On your way to school, you realise you have double Science in the morning. You think, it will be impossible to keep yourself awake without coffee.

10. On your way to school, you realise today is MONDAY!!!

How to be a good listener

To be a good listener, you need to...
- concentrate on the person talking
- make eye contact with the person who's speaking to you, or nod your head every 10 seconds
- stop what you are doing (unless it's very important), and just listen

Listening is one of the skills that people need to live, and to socialize. Without good listening skills, some people might exclude you from their group or won't even talk to you at all. As a result, being a good listener is very important. Being a good listener isn't very hard, people just need to pay attention and concentrate on the person talking.

Sometimes when a person is trying to tell you something, you might not be interested in what the person is about to tell you. In this case, just nod your head every 10 seconds and make yourself seem like you already know about it. Unless they ask you questions about what they just told you like a teacher would (they probably won't), you'll be fine. If what you are listening to is rubbish but you don't want to offend the speaker, there's another skill that you need. It's called "changing the subject." I'll explain this later when I get a chance.

Some people say, that people's maximum concentration span is about a minute. Whether this is true or not, it doesn't matter. Whether you are in a class listening to a lecture or just talking to your friend, you just need to be able to pick up the main points. For example, if you are a soldier and you are about to go to your very first war, just listen to the key things that your captain tells you. Those things might be, always keep your helmets on, or always check if you have enough food and water. These are the things that you basically need to survive.

There isn't a real guide to how to be a good listener. Most people just know but for some people, they just can't sit still or cannot have their mouth shut for five minutes. Sometimes it's a good idea to just listen to what someone else has to say, because it might be an answer to a question on a test or it might even save your life one day. You never know...

Are we too dependent on computers?

 Computers have become a part of our lives. We use them every day, whether it's to have a chat with a friend or to research something. Almost anything is possible on computers: banking, shopping, research, entertainment and even living as a different person. This online life that computers are making available to us, is destroying our real lives. Some people will agree that without computers, their lives will be boring and seem pointless. Even though it's true that computers have made our lives much easier, using them and depending on them too much ultimately makes everything about us unreal, and the computer world real.

 In Japan, there is a word for people who are addicted to computers and will do anything to achieve their goals in the online world, "Otaku". Last year, Japan announced that 3% of the Japanese Teenagers are Otakus. This isn't just Japan's problem. It's the world's. Not only people are addicted to computers, but they are doing things online that they wouldn't normally do. For example, when people chat with friends online, they normally don't see each other's faces, it's just words or sentences that they type. As a result, people tend to be more rude and create cyber bullying situations. 

 Computers are also destroying our language. On computers, people use initialisms such as lol (laugh out loud) that do not exist in spoken English. It wouldn't be a problem if people only use initialisms on computers but they don't. For most of the time, it's students that use initialisms instead of proper English (that's why it's such a big problem). We have a right to protect and respect our language, if people cannot be bothered to type correctly, why do they even type in the first place?

 It is definitely a fact that computers have made things easier and quicker for us. However, there are things like the way of respecting other people, that computers are about to get rid of. Instead of chatting to friends and 'loling' every minute, people should focus more on protecting their language and things like cyber bullying. By the way, a typical Otaku would be a fat man, wearing thick glasses, carrying a barbie doll with them wherever he goes.