Sergey Kazakov : The Kite Runner

I’m again thinking about this book. I’m surprised about Amir, Baba, Soroya , and all other persons occupying this book; their lives still disturb me. Why has this book has touched me so much? What troubles me? A month ago, I first opened this book and in a few days it was over. But the grip of this story remains strong. For me as a former citizen of USSR Afghanistan had not been Terra Incognito until this book. In the former USSR, Afghanistan was part of our lives. We could discuss historical possibilities but the main result is evident – we were, we are and we will be inseparable. The Western World was not really interested in this part of the World until recently, when the Taliban emerged as if from nowhere. Only when the first coffins of international soldiers arrived home, it became a spotlight global interest. It is well known fact that people at the North America usually are not interested in foreign affairs. I think they were shocked when easy and understandable western democratic values have not been accepted by Afghan people, when war against tyranny step by step skidded to civil war. This had aroused many uneasy questions: Who are those people populating Afghanistan? Why don’tthey understand privileges which International Forces have brought them? Khaled Hosseini with his book has arrived just in time to answer these questions. Did he do did this? I believe that Khaled Hosseini wrote this book as a response to the unconscious urge to do something on behalf on his Homeland, on behalf of his people, to explain something very touching and important about Afghanistan to the other people, but simultaneously it was absolutely a sober plan of newborn writer, educated in the USA, targeted on the success in the American market.

This book may be regarded as mini-saga – behind the life of one family we could see Afghanistan. It started many years ago in Afghanistan, where Amir, the main character of this book, and his father Baba lived their lives. It was life of an adored father and a rejected son struggling for his love. Fortunately for Amir his father was rich which gave him the opportunity to enjoy his life in full measure. He even did not have to struggle for friendship of his peers – during all young years he was followed by his Sancha-Pansa – servant’s son Hassan. His time was filled by games, dreams, reading, walking and the main devotion – running kites. But the author reminds us that even for the youth life is a struggle, a constant challenge. To gain Baba’s love Amir should struggled to overcome himself and to win a competition of the kite runners. And he did it! However a peaceful life was abruptly broken to pieces when one morning the USSR army entered Afghanistan to “fulfill their international duties”. Although troubles changed to real horror when soviet occupation was changed by Taliban’s reigning government. If the first tide wave destroyed the usual life, the second one swept out a lot of Afghan from the Homeland and dispersed them all over the world. In a short period, Baba and Amir appeared in the USA and had to start their new life from the very beginning. Amir whom Baba used to view as feeble, clumsy, and not determined boy proved to be a reliable and highly intelligent person ready to struggle for the new life. Their roles changed – he became the main support for his family, but he never tried to humiliate his father. Many troubles came and went but even in peaceful and rich America old “ghosts” haunted him –Afghanistan had called him. It was against his will, but it gave him a chance to pay his old debt to Hassan – he finally saved Hassan’s son Sohrab. But after years this price had grown to the really troubling measure.

I believe that Khaled Hosseini wrote this book first of all as a response to unconscious urge to do something on behalf of Homeland, on behalf of his people, in an attempt to explain something very touching and important to the World about Afghanistan. For anybody who is acquainted with World’s history it should be amazing that a region with such a remarkable history is so poor, so distracted, so far away from the rest of the World. It looks like this part of the World still exists in the medieval centuries. In ancient times knowledge began to spread all over the World. from here as from cradle of civilization. Afghanistan as a cross-section of World’s main roads contemplated a lot - it saw army of Alexander the Great, merchants moved through Afghanistan to the West on Great Silk Way; armadas of tataro-mongol nomads looting the country. In recent history Afghanistan has attracted attention of “big players” - England Empire, USSR, and USA. Their interests are usually purely political without taking into account people of this poor country. But they are so different! We couldn’t ignore them anymore. the World, due to the USA policy, has become involved in the life of this suburb of civilization. If we remove some aspects from this book we’ll be surprised that Afghan people resemble us so much. They share the same values as any other nation – they love their families, they love their children, they love life. They can feel as deeply as any other people. When the readers are reading this book, at least it was absolutely true for me, they can feel some kind of aroma arise from the fields surrounding far outstanding mountains; they feel freshness of the winter wind and smell of the simple and delicious food, you hear undistinguished noises of the eastern bazaar, you can see indigo-blue sky above dirty murky land and plumes of smokes rising to the sky. They even can feel more then that – they can feel the spirit of this ancient land. All differences which we are so tempted to imagine for other nations are trifling matter – the reader cannot distinguish them from many other nationalities in melting pot of North America. They behave as if they have grown up there, they can work, they can study, and they can write books.

But simultaneously the novel was a sober planning targeted on the success on the American market. We shouldn’t forget that Khaled Hosseini grew up in the USA; he was educated there; he shares all values of this world, and he is a writer, looking for a success and a recognition there. So he constructed the book in accordance with recommendations and laws of the American cultural tradition. When he described young years of Amir, it was negligible due to the strong aroma of the East and maybe more touching pictures. The second part of the book had revealed clearly all things hidden before – it is an American writer with afghan roots. He adopted not only literature skills but mentality of the West World. Sometimes, his reasoning about the politics which he had put in Baba’s mouth looks absolutely naïve. On purpose or not he omitted the more tragic question – what is Afghanistan now? Why are people here fighting against international forces? Why don’t they accept western values? What role do drugs play in the life of modern Afghanistan? I didn’t wait for him to answer these questions, but I blame him for the lack of desire to discuss such troublemaking questions. He wrote his book as if on the recommendation of Jack London (Martin Eden). Many times during reading I was surprised that I could predict future up to tiny details. This predictability together with other typical features did not improv total impression from the book. We saw a lot such kind of scenarios before – good American guy consul, who can share feelings and would help in critical situation, Amir – a-la James Bond, easily defeated one of the Taliban leader in bloody battle, and of course a Happy end. For his pictures in the second part of the book he uses only black and white colors. Khaled Hosseini, of course, is a bright and outstanding person. But absolutely clear that the lack of life experience is his big trouble spot. Therefore, characters, who inhabit his book, sometimes look artificial, unnatural. Amir during his childhood is a real boy, but later as if by magic he will became “normal American guy”, Baba-Amir-Hassan triangle is far beyond imagination. Besides Hassan is an absolutely unreal person, far more from Baba’s ideal of a boy, Baba loved him, not Amir. It is understandable that this character allows describing Amir more vividly, but easy ways are not always the best. And on the other side - Assef. If Hassan represents absolute moral quality, Assef represents absolute dark forces of the world. Easy and clear!

When I finished this book unavoidable question had aroused – was it worth reading it? Did the author fulfill his mission? And my answer is “Yes”. People of the western countries received some information about Afghanistan. Some prejudices were never cleared up. Could Khaled Hosseini have done his work better? He could have. But paraphrasing old joke about taper in American saloon which says “Don’t shoot pianist; he plays as he can”, I like to say don’t judge this book too strictly, the author did what he could. The big success of this book could play tricky game on Khaled Hosseini - he can miss his chance to become a real Writer. And Afghanistan will lose a man who could be entrepreneur in difficult and complex discussion which would occur in any case.

Anna Lee: Information Technology

Although the information technology was developed long time ago in Taiwan, its popularity has grown in the last ten years. The sweeping changes brought about by computing and communication technology offer Taiwan a good opportunity to become the largest computer equipment supplier in the world. Many computer professionals and workers; therefore, became wealthy. The ratio of people owning computers versus the total population of Taiwan is increasing. It’s reported that currently each family in Taiwan owns at least two computers. Email, Blog, and online learning have changed the way people communicate with each other. For the past ten years the information technology boom in Taiwan has also changed the way I search literature for my work and the way I communicate with others.

First at all, the information technology boom in Taiwan has changed the way I search literature for my work. As a teacher and a researcher, I need current and relevant references to enrich the content of my teaching and ensure the consistency and appropriateness of my research proposals and manuscripts. In the past, I had to go to the library to search books and journals in person. Sometimes, if a specific journal was missing, I needed to file a request and hoped that the librarian could find it in other libraries. However, with the assistance of a computer, now, I could stay home doing online searching efficiently and easily and never worry about the problem of missing important articles. Furthermore, I used to use a typewriter to prepare my handouts for the class and to write research proposals and manuscripts ten years ago. If a mistake was made, then I had to retype it. However, using the computer, I can easily correct mistakes and reorganize sentences. Moreover, the style of calligraphy is changeable, so I can select the most suitable letterform for my writing.

Secondly, the information technology boom in Taiwan has changed the way I communicate with others. While I was in Chicago for a short-term study several years ago, the airmail was the only option for sending oversea mails. It took more than two weeks to get a response back from my friends in Taiwan, which made me upset and worried. However, nowadays, in only one second, I can send a letter to my friend through email. Furthermore, MSN and Skype can let me hear or see my friends no matter how far the distance is. My mother lives in south of Taiwan and has no computer. The cost of sending a letter from Toronto to Taiwan is triple the cost of sending a letter from the opposite direction, and it takes about two weeks. After several weeks struggling and waiting for letters; I finally found a faster and cost-effective way to do it; that is, I email a letter to my sister who lives in north of Taiwan and she prints it out and mails it to my mother. It only needs CAD $ 15 cents and one day to deliver the letter to my mother’s house.

In conclusion, the digital revolution in information technology has changed
not only my personal life but also the whole world. It accelerates the information exchange. Although some people might think of the slow pace of the old time, the advancement of information technology is inevitable. The best way is to keep up with the pace and catch up with it.

Anna Lee: Globalization

In order to develop the relationships with other countries and expand the international trade market, the government of ROC became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and followed the rules on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) several years ago. Since then, businesses on goods, services, exporters, and importers have become much more globalized. Globalization has increased the interconnection between Taiwanese and people from other countries. There were three major changes caused by globalization in Taiwan: job opportunities, culture, and fashion.

Globalization has changed job opportunities in Taiwan. Globalization advances progress in the field of information especially in information technology and international communication. Information flows much more easily because of innovations such as the Internet. Internet has allowed not only the government but also private corporations to communicate with international businesses more efficiently. The advancement of technology created an easier environment for financial transactions to occur in a global market. As a result, globalization should lead to more employment when the government or private corporations receive more orders and expand their business. However, the import of labor from South Asia and China makes cheaper labor possible which lowers the average salary. As a result, the job opportunities for local Taiwanese are threatened.

Globalization has changed Taiwanese culture. As the number of workers or home caregivers from Thailand, Philippine, and Indonesia increases, it is unavoidable that they transmit their own lifestyle to their coworkers or employers. They establish their own churches and stores, which make mixed culture in the community. Moreover, through mixed marriage the breed is mixed. It is estimated that the number of newborns in last year was about 200,000 in Taiwan, one tenth of which were born by mixed marriage.

Globalization has changed Taiwanese fashion. The Taiwanese are already familiar with the fashionable style of clothes, shoes, or hair from Europe or America. Recently, inexpensive clothes and shoes from developing countries have attracted Taiwanese attention. The average price of those goods is much lower than the average price of local merchandises. Some design is appealing to and acceptable by Taiwanese. One other change that globalization brought is food. Fast food such as MacDonald’s, Ken turkey Fries Chicken, Pizza, and other western food already have branches in Taiwan. Those foods are highly accepted by Taiwanese. In addition, there are diversities of restaurants provide foods from South Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam which are also welcomed by Taiwanese.

In conclusion, although some Taiwanese are worried about the job insecurity brought by globalization, there are still some people in favor of globalization. Globalization greatly influences people’s lifestyle. It is possible that one-day, homogeneity could be reached in every aspect of people’s living.

Anna Lee: Military Service

Taiwan (the Republic of China) has had mandatory military service for all males since 1949. Because voluntary enlistment has reached sufficient numbers in recent years, the compulsory service period for draftees was shortened from twenty-four months to fourteen months in 2007. Some Taiwanese believes that military service can train a boy to be a man, which means he will have the traits of responsibility, caring, and courage after the service. However, there are two reasons which make me believe that military service should not be required as a way to develop good citizens.

First al all, I think that education makes a good citizen rather than a military service. A good citizen in different countries has different meanings. In Taiwan, it means that one should be a good neighbor by caring about others, sharing time and skills with the community to make it better, cleaner and safer, conserving resources by practicing the three R’s: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, and staying informed on issues and voicing one’s opinions by voting. We learn from family when we are little. Parents should serve as positive role-models to teach their children by showing their concern to others, making the community better, and obeying certain rules. Later, we learn from schools on how to be a good citizen. Teachers instill in us the virtue of good citizenship through diverse classes teaching activities. By the time a person goes to military service, he already has his own beliefs and values; it is not easy to change a person’s behavior by a fourteen -month military service.

Secondly, Military service doesn’t always stand for good. A military is like a small world filled with a variety of people, good and bad. Abusing recruits is commonly heard. Sometimes, the drill instructor or old soldiers would cruelly maltreat the recruit and assault him. Therefore, military service is not a good place to learn to be a good citizen. Besides, the purpose of military service is to defend the nation, so its training program is directed for that purpose. Soldiers are trained to be good warriors. They learn how to use machine-gun, how to kill an enemy, and how to camouflage. A well-known kidnapping case happened several years ago in Taiwan. The kidnapper was well trained during his service in the military. The policemen took extreme efforts to capture him because he was an experienced fugitive. He knew how to escape without leaving a trace behind. He even killed a physician because he asked the physician to do a plastic surgery on his face. His behavior was far away from a good citizen.

In conclusion, military service is needed to protect the nation from attack by other nations. Its main purpose is to train soldiers to fight for their country, not to be humble and polite citizens. Therefore, I believe that it is not necessary for someone, man or woman, to be a good citizen through military service.

Bita Khademi: A Woman's Role

Women have a big responsibility inside the family. As a wife or a mother, she should take care of every thing so that every member of family feels calm and comfortable. Raising children as well as cooking, cleaning and shopping have made a housewife’s duties more challenging. All of these affairs are time-consuming and require patience and attention. However, today, there is a tendency inside the female society toward many other responsibilities. There are several reasons which explain why women should also be active outside the home.
First of all, women have proved that they are able to participate efficiently in different positions. Taking part in different steps of business is one of them. Women either as a manager or in a lower step as a secretary have been successful. Meanwhile, many women are highly educated and as professionals appear in different organizations. In universities, many ladies are teaching and investigating in different fields, and many educational books have published by them. Furthermore, female workers and employees have a big role in running many companies, and in both production and office administration women have been working shoulder to shoulder with men. In addition, in the military service, women have found a significant position. Having been familiar with their duties as a commander or soldier, they have been successful and honoured. During the war in battle field and war- stricken zones, women’s relief work have provided a significant support. Women, as a part of these forces, have been very supportive by nursing the wounded and providing food, medicine, and other supports.
Second, choosing a career outside the home can give women a chance to enhance their abilities and skills. Intellectual growth is one of these abilities. Challenging with different problems in work helps them to decide more wisely in other affairs. Furthermore, working as professionals in any organization requires effective communication with other experts which provide them an increase in their knowledge. Moreover, being involved in a job can give them a sense of self-esteem. Financial independence is a definite advantage of having a career. It makes a woman more confident encountering any situation. In addition, any salary can be beneficial in the improvement of economic condition of the family. In fact, the more the salary, the more each family can benefit from more advanced facilities.
To sum up, although a housewife can make a home more comfortable, her occupation is more beneficial for both family and society. As they form half of the population, they have a big role in running many affairs, and this can hardly be ignored.

Susan Lee: Globalization in Korea

Nowadays, we can hear about globalization everyday on Tv, radio and the internet; besides, we realize that the world is changing quickly, as the countries have come closer to eachother. However, Koreans think about globalization in different ways. Some of them view it is a process which is beneficial to the future world, so they think that it is the result of human innovation and technological progress. Another group of Korean people view it with hostility, even fear, because they believe that it increases inequality between nations and threatens employment. However, I believe that globalization has greatly affected culture and Education in South korea.

The culture has been considerably changed. Frist, globalization has changed our country's food dramatically. There were many small grocery stores in a residential street before Korea became globalized. As the world becomes more global, a combination of stores which contains western food appeared and have become bigger to compete with western grocery store, as Walmart, Karfu, the Costco. Although western grocery stores could not succeed, it affected our country's distribution industry. Therefore, people could buy import items esilsy at the supermarket. Every shelf in a shop display a variety of items from all over the world even fruit and vegetables. Also, western fast food command general popularity in South korea like other countries. For instance, Macdonalds has opened over 200 store in South korea, so a lot of people could eat hamburgers and fries for a cheep price. By introducing western style restaurants, a lot of up-scale restaurants have been created. For example, T.G.I Fridays, family restaurant, has opened fifty store in South korea in a short time; futhermore, it has always fascinated people even though prices are expensive. Second, entertainment has been changed. The introduction of other country's cultural productions, which can be a entertainment, have benefited the music and entertainment industry. Despite the fact that ticket prices of the concert are expensive, many people enjoy the performances. However, the globalization has not affected all of us in a positive way. As time goes by, the computer appeared as the way of entertainment. For example, the better-known, user-friendly, multimedia side of the Internet, called the World Wide Web, grew almost 20-fold. In just few years, users created more than 3 million multimedia pages of information, entertainment, and advertising. It made people more individual; as a result, the internet makes people lonelier and increases isolation, even though it is a wide word of communication. Third, globalization has affected our fashion style. Fashion shows from other country, created a variety of styles in our fashion. Most people prefer to wear famous brands from all over the world. Also, globalization has made our traditional clothes combine with western style. For instance, our traditional dress consists of a top and a skirt, but nowadays people like wearing without top like a evening dress in the Western countries. It has been designed in european style; so that, it looks like fusion-dress which harmonized Eastern and Western.

Education has been rapidly changed in South korea by providing information of the foreign school in the world. First, studying aboard became common; therefore, the number of international students has dramatically increased. Futhermore, there are a lot of students who are anxious to study in different countries. Thus, this situation has led people to go another country automatically. A large number of people immigrate to all over the countries each year. Second, by introducing foreign method many people could learn diverse methods. For example, I learned the music method 'Kodaly method' which was introduced by Zoltan kodaly, a Hungarian composer and educator. This method has affected teachers and music curriculum in my country like other countries. In addition, lots of teaching method was introduced by globalization. Also, the number of a foreign language institutes has up sharply and they are wild spread. Besides, there are plenty of places for the kids to practice speaking English: they can withdraw play money at a pretend bank, then use it to tip their waiter at a restaurant. Likewise, they can practice English which they learned from the place as a real Canadian or American lives. Moreover, fluency in English is essential, and a working knowledge of foreign language is highly desirable in many companies in South korea.

In conclusion, as the world become global, there are many things which have changed by globalization. Especially, globalization has changed South korea's culture and education. Also, I agree that there is not only positive way but also negative way. However, it is difficult to return a wave of globalization even though there are many problems. Because, it is not just a recent phenomenon; also, globalization comes from supporting high technology which developed by man. Besides, it comes from man's passion for a better lives

Sergey Kazakov : Globalization

All of us had an opportunity to witness ugly scenes during the recent G-8 meeting when anti-globalists tried to interrupt its. Usually, their struggle against Globalization takes grotesque forms such as fighting police, firing it bonfires, and crashing stores’ windows. They claim that it is their response to Globalization which has led to exploitation of and suffering among people in the developing countries. They believe that the broken window in the McDonald’s in North America or Europe could help these people. It is difficult for me to catch the connection between those different issues. But maybe I do not understand something important which kept me from participation in this noble social movement. To answer this question we should analyze the nature of Globalization, and understand the negative and positive features which it brigs in our life.

From scientific point of view, the nature of Globalization is absolutely clear and exists in good correspondence with mutual physical laws with respect to sociology – any system without outer influences tends to reach mean level of all possible properties inside itself. From human history, we know that people in all times tried to make connections, to cooperate with habitats of different corners of the World. For example, in former days, the most successful merchants organized constant supply of different exotic goods from India to Europe, and everybody was happy to use the results of their activities. It is also clear that in our time when easy communications between different countries are possible any company would try to take advantage of world labor market. Recently it has become usual practice that big companies are moving their facilities to the East, China for example.

As any complex matter, this process has negative features. The addicts of anti-globalism theory try to prove that due to Globalisation, international companies are gaining possibility to rob “poor” countries when they buy natural resources at low prices and sell back goods from these same resources for high prices. It is inhuman and should be prohibited. We also know that salaries for the same job at developing countries are much less compared with those in developed countries. Worries exist that this process may destroy national cultural identities or local cultures. People can buy the same hamburger everywhere around the World; run-on the youth are listening the same music and prefer the same clothes fashion, and it is serious.
But we can find a lot of positive features which Globalization is bringing too. Maybe the most important thing is that it is the only one real possibility for developing countries to participate in World Market. As a result they are gaining new technologies, new factories are growing in these countries; educational level of their population is growing, too. It leads to the creation of national intelligence and improvement in society in general, although this road doesn’t promise to be easy. Due to this process many young people have had the opportunity to achieve there own high targets. Many multinational companies such as Microsoft use in their R&D departments people educated elsewhere around the world. Science has become a really international issue due to it.

This short analysis demonstrated that Globalization is a very complex, controversial, but objective event of our current life. When I see fighting of anti-globalists with police, I have strange feeling that I head about something similar before. Maybe it reminds me of Luddits who tried to destroy steam-machines to prevent poor people from loosing their job places. I have a feeling that intentionally or unintentionally they try to do the same – to struggle against unavoidable objective things of our life. We should agree that they formulated very important questions, but their approach to its resolution is absolutely wrong. – They must fight not to stop progress but elaborate approaches on how to use Globalization event for the benefit of poor countries and theirs population. History of developed countries has proved that all questions concerning exploitation and national authenticity may be solved. And let’s not forget that not only multinational corporations but also population of these countries with all their experience of struggling human rights and fighting for environment will participate in Globalization, too.