1. Haitian dictators stole money from the people for their own pleasure, leaving once rich families on the streets.

2. Soil erosion has impaired farmers trying to make a living.

3. Lack of knowledge and literacy has destroyed many Haitian dreams of getting a job that pays well abroad.

4. In 1838, the Haitians had to pay the French a debt of 150,000,000 to pay slave owners who lost money during the Haitian slave revolution. This weakened Haiti's economy considerably.

5. Since a slave-free Haiti was considered a threat to the right of using slaves, a boycott of Haitian products further weakened the countries' economy.

6. Haiti is today made further poor because the US supplies government extortionists with comfortable aid packages and not the people.

7. The fact that Haiti has high rates of unemployment so it can't send goods to other countries for money.

8. The lack of social infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, etc.

9. The occupation of the US Marines in 1915 dealt a severe blow to Haitian image.

10. Since only people who speak French in Haiti are allowed a proper education.

I got this information from an essay written by graduate student Bob Corbett.

Although it has been more than a week since a devastating earthquake struck Haiti, the nightmare is just beginning. Aid has not been able to reach the front lines of the struggle to survive and with limited supplies, the people are growing desperate. Some have resorted to looting shops and supply piles, taking whatever they can in the struggle to survive. As shown in the picture, even boys are taking part in the looting. But I wonder why they are hurting more people. Haven't enough people been hurt already? In a time such as this, I think people should forge friendships and trust among their brethren, not fight each other. But the question  still remains.Why hasn't aid reached Haiti? Even though US jets and helicopters have taken off from carriers transporting aid, inly a few people have received assistance. This is just one example of how disorganized some governments can be. The people are suffering because of their mistakes.   

Danger in the Desert: True Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter

 Danger in the Desert: True Adventures of a Dinosaur Hunter by Roger Cohen is the incredible and true story of Roy Chapman Andrews, an American explorer who wore a fedora, carried a pistol, and had no less that ten confrontations with danger and death. Sounds like the real-life Indiana Jones model that Spielberg might have used! Quoted by Roy, “ I can remember just ten times when I had really narrow escapes from certain death. Two were from drowning in typhoons, one was when our boat was charged by a wounded whale, once my wife and I were nearly eaten by wild dogs, once we were in great danger from fanatical lama priests, two were close calls when I fell over cliffs, once I was nearly strangled by a huge reticulated python and twice I might have been shot and killed by bandits.”

 My favorite part of the book was just reading about the exploits of this great adventurer. Hearing how he survived when his boat capsized in a cold Wisconsin river while his mentor and friend Monty died. How he discovered the first ever fossilized dinosaur eggs and not to mention his discovery of the Flaming Cliffs in the Gobi, the world’s richest trove of dinosaur bones and where eight new dinosaurs were discovered by Roy and his team.

 Roger Cohen wrote this book by interviewing Mongolians whom Roy had 

known. This is a great book, and for those of you who want to nurture the explorer inside of you, this is a must-read.

A Horrible Disaster

On January 13th, 2010, a massive 7.9 earthquake ripped through the Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. When Krakatau exploded in 1893, 36,000 people were killed and this is even worse. more than a 100,00 people are feared dead in Haiti. The search for survivors and dead continues, and entire families have been swept into mourning as their children, wives,husbands,siblings and parents are ripped from them all at once. The photo shows clearly anguish and fear of just one recently rescued Haitian girl. As people find more and more dead, they become more and more demoralized. Aid has reached Haiti, but due to blocked roads  adequate supplies cannot be sent to help the victims. people work with their hands to dig out survivors, desperate to find someone alive amongst the carnage. when i saw the video, my heart completely broke.As the the night settles, I pray fervently that the people of Haiti will find some light to guide them through their dark times.  

The exciting and fun vacation that I took during the Christmas break had two parts to it. I’m going to write about both of these parts, but I won’t tell you the whole story. I’ll just write about the most fun thing I did in each part:
The first part of my vacation was in India, specifically Madras in the state of Tamil Nadu. Here I spent time with my mother’s side of the family, with my cousins, uncle, aunt, cousins and grandparents. We had a lot of fun together, listening to music and sharing stories about our schools. When we were not doing those things, we just sat around the house, lazing around. Every evening we went swimming at the Olympic-sized pool at the Madras Gymkhana Club, one of the oldest clubs in India. We also went to the Marina beach – the second-longest beach in the world. It was very crowded! At the beach my brother and I sharpened our skills as marksmen and shot some balloons. The system works like this. There are a hundred or so balloons on a stand and you have 10 shots. After you pick your targets, you pick up your rifle and hope for the best. My brother and I are both pretty good at it, and both of us got 8 balloons out of 10. One of the best parts about the vacation was getting new books. They were three of them. The Odin Mission, Tormod: A Templar’s Apprentice and Alex Rider: Crocodile Tears. The absolute best part was spending time with my grandparents. I hadn’t been able to visit them since our last trip almost a year ago. So for me, that was the most important part. Family.

The second part of my vacation took place in Thailand. We landed in Bangkok where we spent a few days. On the first day, we visited the Royal Grand Palace. That evening, we celebrated my mother’s birthday with a dinner cruise in an old converted teak rice barge down the Chao Phraya River. It was very beautiful seeing all the monuments, buildings and Buddhist Wats (temples) all lit up. We also visited several other wats in the city – Wat Pho, Wat Arun etc. For my parents they were interesting, but for my brother and me, they were just plain boring. Wat Pho however, was interesting because it had a giant resting statue of a sleeping Buddha inside a massive chamber which was beautifully cast from metal and covered in gold leaf. The feet were meticulously crafted with mother-of-pearl inlay work. The intricate designs told the story of the Buddha’s life. We took a day trip to Kanchanburi to see the famous bridge on the river Kwai, which was constructed by over a 100,000 P.O.W’s of the Japanese during World War 2. Because of brutal conditions and overwork, 15,000 P.O.W’s met their deaths while at work. This is why it is called the Death Railway. Afterwards, in 1945, the bridge was bombed to smithereens by Allied bombers but was reconstructed as a monument and a tribute to those who died building the Death Railway. Another exciting we did was go to a tiger temple. The temple was only inhabited by just monks until a wounded boar wandered in. The monks nursed it back to health and released it. It soon became a haven for unwanted pets, wounded livestock and orphaned animals. I got to hug a 400 pound tiger in that temple, and I could feel its sheer power as it slept. We also went to the mountain town called Chiang Mai, and after two days there we went back to Bangkok. In Bangkok we saw the movie Avatar in 3D, and it’s one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. The movie tells the story of crippled marine Jake Sully, who is sent to the moon of Pandora. The indigenous populace, the Na’vi, won’t let the corporation Jake works for take minerals from Pandora so Jake, in his Na’vi avatar, is sent to infiltrate. But Jake falls in love with the princess of the clan and fights back in a desperate battle against the corporation.

So there was my vacation. It was very fun, and I hope to have other memorable vacations just like this one.

The Odin Mission

 

The Odin Mission by James Holland is an adrenaline-fueled adventure starring, by the book, no-nonsense soldier Sgt. Jack Tanner of the 2^nd Battalion of The Yorkshire Rangers during the Blitz in Norway in 1940. When Jack is posted to a new platoon in Norway, he feels a bit out of place. The platoon CO, Lt. Dodlinger, asks him to do a “ low-risk, routine recce (reconnaissance) mission.” This “low-risk” mission turns into a nightmare as Tanner and his stranded patrol fight back waves of Nazis to not save their own lives, but also to protect a mysterious Norwegian professor who may turn the tide of the war in the Allies favour if he’s brought back safely to their lines. But it isn’t that easy. Their mission is fraught with danger and the soldiers must bond together to survive one of the most disorganized retreats in British history.

 

James Holland like all historical fiction writers needs to have done his homework and know his history to write a believable book like this. In fact, for me it was so believable that I was astonished to find out that Jack Tanner didn’t exist! Holland’s writing style is to cram twists, amazing fighting scenes and unforgettable dialogue in every chapter and in every window of opportunity. Many times that doesn’t work out, and authors go bust. But James Holland is very talented, which is what enables him to write a good book such as this.

 

My favorite parts of the book were the fighting sequences. My heart was pumping as I read over the pages that had amazing descriptions of massive gunfights between the desperate British and the ruthless Nazis. I always cheered for Jack and his men, and when one of them died, I felt sad!

 

While doing my research on the Internet, I couldn’t find out anything more about the 

author except that there is a second book in the series, The Darkest Hour. So I decided to explore the Norwegian campaign, which is not as well known as some of the other campaigns. The Norwegian campaign essentially started because vital shipments of iron ore from Sweden had to cross through Norwegian port of Narvik to get to Germany. Hitler was worried that if the Allies took Norway these shipments would be destroyed. So he sent a good-sized force of 20,000 men to Norway and within weeks the Blitzkrieg had done its damage. An emergency force of British and French troops was dispatched to destroy the Nazi presence in Norway. But after nearly a year of bitter fighting, the Allies knew this was one battle they could not win. They lost because all the British and French supplies were on one ship, which was sunk, and the British were stupid enough to push forward even as casualties mounted. But the evacuation from Andalsnes was one of the best pieces of organization in history, enabling many lives to be saved. But it was also a defeat for the Germans. By the end of the campaign, the Kreigsmarine had just three cruisers and four destroyers left. The Norwegian Resistance was a constant fly in the ointment, and by 1945 the country had lost any strategic significance.

 

The Odin Mission was an awesome book, and I hope to read the next book in the series. As with Under a War-Torn sky, this is a must read for historical war fiction lovers. 

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure 

 

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B Kerr is a funny and thrilling adventure about two twelve-year-old twins named John and Phillipa Gaunt who discover that they are djinn, mystical beings who possess extraordinary powers and control all the luck in the universe, when strange things start happening to them and the people all around them. In a dream, their eccentric djinn-uncle, Nimrod, tells them that they are djinn of the Marit tribe, one of the three djinn tribes that chose to be on the side of good and control all the good luck in the universe. He tells them that instead of going to summer school, they must come to London so he can teach them how to harness their newfound powers. But soon after arriving in London, they are on the trail of the ghost of Akhenaten, a long dead pharaoh who enslaved seventy powerful djinn so that he would become all-powerful. But since he is dead, whoever releases the djinn will be granted control over them. John, Phillipa and Nimrod are racing against the most evil djinn tribe, the Ifrit because if the Marit reach first, then the amount of good luck in the world will drastically increase because the lost djinn will be bound to fight for good only. Same thing with the Ifrit. If the Ifrit reach first, the amount of bad luck in the universe will be increased. The question is will John and Phillipa live to see another day, another city and another adventure? Or will they perish?

 

P.B Kerr’s writing style is one that I find very rare. He mixes excellent humor with a gripping storyline and amazing characters, plots and settings to create an adventure book that is a book you really relax with, but it doesn’t get too boring. To do that in a single book is good, but to do the same thing in an entire series is very difficult to accomplish. The writer who does that certainly deserves a pat on the back for a job well done. I have found these traits in only one other series so far which is The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Every chapter has a hilarious name and there are numerous hilarious quotes on every page (I haven’t read any one of the Percy Jackson books yet). My brother pointed out these quotes and chapter names to me while he was reading them.

 

My favorite part of the book was once again the whole book. I tried to think about which one was the best part, but every part was written so well that for me it’s impossible to find a part that I liked more than another part. It kept me hooked from one page to the next, but even though every chapter had a good part, I just can’t decide. Nice job P.B Kerr!

 

P.B Kerr was born in 1956 at Edinburgh and is a Scottish author. He studied at 

Birmingham University before becoming a full-time writer. He has written eleven novels under his full name and the Children of the Lamp series under the name P.B Kerr. He is married to novelist Jane Thyne and lives in London in a house that coincidentally was the home of children’s author Joan Aiken!

 

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure is a great book, and I am looking forward to reading the other books in the series. For people who like adventure, humor and fantasy, this is the series for you!