World Beat
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
by Ms. Iaccarino
Salifu Kamara speaks to the eighth grade.
By Molly R.
The class of 2014 just finished reading the book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, the story of Beah’s journey as a child soldier during the civil war in Sierra Leone as part of our African Connections unit. We were fortunate to have Salifu Kamara, another former boy soldier from Sierra Leone, come to talk to us on March 31.
The room was silent. The air was thick. We all were waiting for Salifu Kamara to speak. At first glance Salifu looks like the average college student: collared shirt and tie with a leg injury forcing him on crutches. But Salifu is far from average, for hiding behind his eyes is the haunting past of his childhood.
Salifu grew up in Sierra Leone during the civil war. He grew up in a poor house on a small farm where he had no bed and little education. But nonetheless he was happy. He would play soccer for hours on end like any other African child. When Salifu was nine, the army rebels came to his village and destroyed everything he once knew. He watched his family die, his sisters get raped, and his life change forever. Salifu became a child soldier in the rebel army at the age of nine.
While most nine-year-old children are learning how to multiply and do long division, Salifu was learning how to use a gun and how to kill. He stayed with the rebel group for about two months, making little friends along the way. The one boy Salifu was able to connect to was gruesomely ambushed while sitting next to Kamara. If there’s one thing Salifu remembers about being in the rebels’ army is that he was taught to be forceful, and was taught to kill. “My gun was my everything.” Salifu described, “Without it, you were gone.” Salifu didn’t even know what he was fighting for. It wasn’t until his arrival in the United States that he learned the war was over diamonds. Continue reading »
Popularity: 5% [?]
Friday, October 16th, 2009
by tom xi
Just a few days ago, one of the most important Asian festival past by us, and it is the Moon Festival. Lucky for Worcester Academy, it’s introduced and celebrated at the school. However, people were mostly enjoying the food, and the companionship of friends without comprehending the significance of this festival and we also ignored the most important thing about this festival, the moon.
Continue reading »
Popularity: 2% [?]
Monday, April 6th, 2009
by BrianL
Top 10 Ways to Make Money
10. Get Rich Quick Schemes
As tempting as they are, get rich quick schemes hardly ever work. Although it may seem like a good idea to buy the guy on TV who is selling a book on how to get rich by selling a book, it is probably not wise to take his advice. Most get rich quick schemes don’t work and more often than not, you end up losing your money.
9. The Lottery
One of the least likely way to get rich is through buying lottery tickets, but one way to try and get rich is to buy a lot of lottery tickets and hope one of them is the winner. Good luck!
8. Odd Jobs
Odd jobs such as babysitting children can be a great way to make some extra cash part time. Though not always a lot of money, babysitting, a few hours here and there for thirty dollars each time can really add up and it’s a great way for teenagers to make money.
7. Real Estate
A popular new way to make money is to buy cheap houses and fix them up to sell for a profit, or as it is referred to in the industry as “flipping” houses. The problem with this is that sometimes it can cost more to fix up the house than the profit made.
6. Online Poker
If you’re good enough, online poker can actually be a real money maker. Online websites such as pokerstars.com allow you to use a credit card to play for actual money against real people. My cousin made enough money to buy a car with cash! This is hit or miss though as you must be a skilled poker player to actually make money.
5. College
One solid way to earn money is to put the money you already have towards tuition. With a college degree it is likely that you will be able to get a job and make money doing that. Although this isn’t the quickest way to make money it is one of the safest.
4. The Stock Market
The stock market is one of the more risky ways to make money as you can lose your money in an instance. There is skill to making money in stocks as to knowing when to sell before stocks go down and when to buy before they rise. Although the stock market is not doing to well now, it will always go back up. If you get skilled at it, there is plenty of money to be made in stocks.
3. Selling Your Own Product
It is possible to make money selling your own product without spending much of your own money. The key is to sell something that you know about. If you know hundreds of fabulous recipes then you should sell a recipe book or an instructional cooking video.
2. Online Marketing
A lot of money is to be made these days in selling things on websites such as Ebay or Craigslist. By selling old junk that isn’t used anymore you can get cash from people who want to use that stuff and see your junk as their treasure. One man used Craigslist to trade up from a red paperclip to his own house!
1. Become a Blogger
Believe it or not there is an immense amount of money to be made blogging. By selling ad space on a popular blog website, people are making six figures salaries. For example the blogger of the Perez Hilton celebrity gossip website makes over 100,000 dollars per month in advertising. With the spread of technology going as it is, blogging is the best money maker right now.
Photo Credit: Verb My Noun., liewcf, Tracy O
Popularity: 14% [?]
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
by pathoran00
Each day there are more and more companies that are going out of business. The unemployment rate is continuing its increase to record highs as Americans are consistently losing jobs. Even though the economy is going through a very difficult time, there are still some companies that are thriving. One for example, is Apple. The constant demand for Apple products has been the main reason why the company remains to thrive.
Besides maybe fast food chains, Apple is one of the only corporation to keep its head above water, and stay away from a decline in sales. Apple can attribute that to its products, and its product’s popularity.
Apple continues to come out with the most up to date technology. Almost every six months there is a new update to the iPod, iPhone, Macbook, or any other Apple product. We live in a society where having the new thing or device means everything, and updating from old technologies is an essential. Upgrading is a way of life for people in our society. That one factor that has led to Apple’s continued success, as even though the economy is going through a very difficult situation, Americans have put purchasing the newest technologies as a priority a major priority.
The other reason for Apple’s continued success through the bad economy is because of the growing importance of technology in our daily lives. Technology is used in almost every profession, school system and household across the country. And with that being said, Apple is one of the leading providers of new technology. Their computers and software are used in millions of businesses in America. Their iPods sell not only to young adults and children, but it also appeals to all age levels. Even Apple’s most recent development, the iPhone, has become one of the highest selling mobile phones on the market today.
This trend hasn’t hit home with all corporations producing new technology items, as numerous companies have began to falter. Other companies are trying to devise plans to help compete with Apple. Even software pioneers like Microsoft have been considering opening up stores in malls and shopping centers (like Apple) to compete with the Apple corporation. Apple is known for producing the best technologies and Americans have not forgotten that during these economic hardships.
Apple has been one of the fortunate companies in America’s sinking economy. There have been two factors that have led to Apple becoming much more recession-proof compared to many American Corporations; the continued desire of Americans to update their belongings, and more importantly their technological products, and also the popularity of Apple products. Due to these two factors, Apple has been able to keep its head above water even through difficult economic times. Only time will tell if it continues down that path.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Friday, January 23rd, 2009
by pathoran00
Over the years, professional sports have become more and more about money, whether its revenue sharing, players getting paid, even the price of a hot dog at a game is an issue. Although there are multiple factors that have lead to sports being less about “for the love of the game” and more about being able to bathe in hundred dollar bills, I believe there is one central reason that has created this. Agents. Scott Boras I’m looking at you. Agents are the number one reason why pro sports have become less about heart and determination, and more about fame and money.
At the beginning of professional sports, players never used agents. Players worked on their own when it came to signing with a team or working on a contract. Money was still an issue in sports at this time, but it was never the issue. One of the reasons athletes became professionals was to earn a living, but that wasn’t their main purpose. Athletes like Bill Russell and Ted Williams played because they loved the games, the competition, and the joy of playing their specific sport everyday. There were no labor disputes between the unions and owners, and no holdouts for players wanting to get played more. Players acted on their own agenda, not based on an agenda of a greedy agent who is whispering in their ear (see Manny Ramirez and Scott Boras).
Contracts are dealt with differently now than they were before. Agents act as a translator between a team and a player. This creates multiple problems. First, it creates a lack of communication between the player and team. This could eventually harm the relationship between the two if the player actually signed with the team. Another problem with this is that the agent is working for one goal only, to make more money. This could alter the athletes decision because instead of picking a team because they actually like the team or the city, they would make their decision based on how much money they are given. Obviously you cannot fault someone for trying to get paid as much as they can for their career, but it begins to get a little overboard when a person makes a decision on a team because one is paying 1.5 million more a year than the other (even though you would be getting 165 million with that team, Mark Teixeira). Am I blaming the players for this? No, as I believe the agents are the reasoning for this. They are working for their own interest, not the interest of the players. They are the driving force behind pro sports being completely controlled by money. They claim they are working for the players by getting them the most money that they can get, but they are really just working for their own interest and wealth. That is the reason why contracts in sports are breaking through the roof, even with the economy plummeting. Sports would return to the days of people playing to just play the game, not to make millions, if agents were eliminated from the picture.
Photo credit: Tracy O
Popularity: 13% [?]
Sunday, November 9th, 2008
by Josh L
As I sat in Spanish class Thursday afternoon, I began to wonder. We were watching a movie about environmental awareness, and many different topics were discussed. Among the many, global warming came up. I sat there and watched a video with many different pictures, but there was one that caught my attention. It was a picture of a bunch of old and broken computers, in one big pile. Then, a light bulb went off in my brain, and I thought about it, do the advancements in technology help us as much as they hurt us?
Think about it. What happens when the new iPod comes out? Chances are you already have an iPod, and it works perfectly fine. Chances are your iPod is actually the latest model, and you already have hundreds, if not thousands of songs on it. Chances are the whole time all you’ve been doing is waiting for the next iPod to come out, so you can go to your parents, and say, “I have to have it!” We are victims of our own addiction. We’re addicted to consumerism, and buying new, [unnecessary], nice things.
So what happens when you log onto apple.com, or when you see that commercial you’ve been waiting for? You go to your parents, or if you’re already at the age where you no longer depend on your parents, yet you still have an addiction to consumerism, you go yourself, (shame on you), and you buy the new iPod. Some go to the store, some buy online, and unfortunately, some wait until others buy it and steal it. Some try to hide their guilt by waiting a while, to then buy it used or refurbished online. But what happens to the old iPod? It gets handed down, stored, or forgotten. Eventually, it gets thrown out.
The problem is the iPod contains materials that aren’t recyclable, which go to the incinerator. For those of you that aren’t as environmentally aware as others, incinerators are used to burn trash, as well as being among the top sources for releasing harmful toxins into the air, which inevitably deplete the ozone layer. Basically, when you throw away an iPod, you inevitably are contaminating and polluting the very air we breathe and depend upon. The problem is it’s not just iPod. It’s computers, electronics, appliances, cell phones, and anything else you might have a hard time trying to explain if you took it apart.
We are our own worst enemy. Our addiction to technology inevitably adds to the bigger issue: global warming. It may seem like just an iPod, or just a laptop, but when you multiply that by millions, it adds up. What we need to do is get over our need to impress others, and stop worrying about stereotypes and image. Because if you really think about it, the majority of the time new electronics are purchased, it isn’t because the old one isn’t functional; it’s to impress people.
So the next time someone comes to you with the issue of global warming, ask them, “what are you doing with your electronics?”
Photo Credit: juanpol
Photo Credit: pfala
Popularity: 10% [?]
Sunday, October 5th, 2008
by fwanchang
In recent months and even years, the economy itself seems to be collapsing causing everyone around me to suffer. This is because the market is now uniting with the industry where the rich and powerful are consuming the weak and the middle class is subsiding beneath the economy. The number one reason the economy for lack of better terms sucks is greed. The Dot-com Bubble of the late nineties and market of this present decade are both influential in shaping the position we as a country stand in today’s society.
First, the stock market in the 1990s was easy because it was predominately risk free and the market itself was supposed to be for dot-com stocks, which later became the Dot-com Bubble of the late 1990s. “In the ’90s, the no-lose, risk-free, high-yield return was supposed to be dot-com stocks.” (Thomas Friedman, NY Times) However, some of the best and smartest people among Wall Street and the financial industry in general, forgot one of the oldest rules in investing, which is there is no such thing as a risk-free return. “Wall Street — the financial industry — became a bubble in recent years thanks to an excess of liquidity and the oldest bubble maker in history: greed. Some of the smartest people forgot one of the oldest rules of investing: There is no such thing as a risk-free return. When you reach too far for yield, sooner or later you get burned.” (Thomas Friedman, NY Times
The 21st century version of the market is primarily based upon subprime mortgages and financial stocks, and just like the dot-commers, the financial stocks became inflated to ridiculous levels and the salaries of Wall Street executives reached ridiculous heights where companies of superior status, such as Lehman Brothers, either collapse or are bought out.
“This decade’s version are subprime mortgages and financial stocks. Just like the dot-comers in the 1990s, the financial stocks got inflated to ridiculous levels and salaries for Wall Street executives reached ridiculous heights. You are now watching live and in color that bubble burst: “Thank you for playing, Lehman Brothers.” That’s really sad for a 158-year-old company.” (Thomas Friedman, NY Times)
It is now very obvious why this financial bubble became so big. It all started when you went out and got subprime mortgages, which allowed many people in the same situation to become homeowners. As the housing marketing began to give way, people could not cover their mortgages or sell their houses, which meant that their investments lost value, therefore the bank lost capital, and the pyramid began to fall. This event just created a domino effect where the bank lost capital and because of this they stopped lending, which then led to the current credit crunch. This credit crunch is what makes this calamity extremely lethal and the country cannot tolerate any prolonged situation where banks will not lend period.
In conclusion, this domino effect was created because people of the mid to late nineties thought they could basically use their houses as a bank to obtain the things that they desired. In other words the people were greedy to get their hands on things they wanted because they thought that the market was a risk-free region. As stated before, this is a big no-no in the financial district. Therefore, greed, one of the seven deadly sins, is a major reason why the economy of the 21st century is falling drastically. I like the way Friedman puts it, “We need to make sure that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — and doesn’t come to Main Street. We need to get back to investing in our future and not just betting on it.” (Thomas Friedman, NY Times
Popularity: 10% [?]
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
by chris d
During this past week, the large insurance company AIG had a little problem. Actually, they had a large problem. AIG went bankrupt. This is a big problem for everyone currently investing and using AIG, as well as a sizable problem for the company. This might come as a shock to many people because AIG is a large company, and it is rather unusual for companies to get into such gargantuan problems such as these. After declaring bankruptcy, to some it might have looked like the end of the company known as AIG. The outcome is rather interesting though. Instead of a slow and painful decent and eventual disintegration of the company, our government loaned a large sum of money to this godforsaken company. This act by the government seems like a nice thing to do, but really it was quite necessary for some. If AIG were to fail, and be no more, many people as well as businesses would be out of work, and in some serious, well you know what I mean. My father being the treasurer of a rather large company, called KAZ, who invested in AIG, was not affected because the certain branch that my father is part of did not fail.
For those of you thinking that it was a good thing that the government bailed out this failing company, you are wrong. One who thinks that this was the right thing for the government to do is wrong for a multitude of reasons, actually. This act was so wrong because now as other companies start to fail, and possibly go bankrupt, they too will look to the government for assistance, and guidance. This cannot happen because the government does not have enough money, as well as resources to help all the failing companies. It is a well-known fact that our economy is in horrible shape right now, as evidence by the extremely weak dollar. Our economy has a weak dollar because we have a poor stock market, expensive oil, a president who is non-desirable, and a deficit of multiple billion dollars. Other reasons that the government should not aid in the preserving of companies is that a certain company might be failing for natural reasons, and why prolong a drowning company when it is clear that that company wasn’t made to survive.
An argument for the government to bail out AIG would be that so many people have invested in AIG, that it would be horrible for all those people to bet burned in that way, not have any insurance anymore. This is a valid argument, but it is flawed. It is flawed because companies just don’t go under overnight. It takes a while. The flaw is that people should have been keeping track of how their insurance company is doing, because if they get hurt, get in an accident, or anything bad happens to them, it is the insurance that is going to help pay for the damage. After talking to my father, he said that he was constantly checking on the company. He knew that the company was in trouble before it fell into bankruptcy, but didn’t do anything because the branch in which his company was filed under would not be affected.
So all in all, the government should not have help the insurance company AIG with their money problems. If they were a failing company, people should have noticed it, and either done something about it, or changed insurance companies. This government, by the way, is the same government that convicted O J Simpson not guilty of murder.
Popularity: 8% [?]
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