Month: March 2014

From G8 to G7

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So this week’s major global news (besides the tragic Malaysian flight) includes the U.S. and Russia (again). What was formerly known as the G8 has been reduced to G7, with Russia being ejected from the group. This action was, of course, done in retaliation for Russia annexing Crimea from Ukraine.

The reason as to why Russia went through a swift process of this addition to Russian land is because a general vote showed that the majority of the residents were in agreement for Crimea to be considered Russian. Russia has always argued that Crimea was an original Russian territory and that the annexation was largely due to protect the ethnic Russians living in the area.

The G8 (Group of Eight) industrialized industries, having now been reduced to 7, are composed of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The G8 were supposed to meet this June in Sochi, which is popular for being the host for the Winter Olympics. That location has now been changed to Brussels which is known for being the headquarters for NATO, as well as the European Union. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel says, “the G8 does not exist.”

Of course, before the G8 snubbed Russia, there was already a back-and-forth between both Russia and the U.S. Russia has enacted a Russian travel ban on House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Dan Coates (R-Ind.). Before that, the U.S. also sanctioned specific Russian businessmen who are known to be close allies/friends of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

I honestly think there’s too much back-and-forth between all countries. Unfortunately, there isn’t any easy way for all countries to be on the same page. It would be awesome if this were some sort of Utopia, but that’s not the case. What I am hoping for is a good resolution to all of this chaos not just for the sake of the U.S., but for the sake of the Russians and Ukrainians.

Here are some Twitter reactions to the new G7 announcement:

“Excluding Russia will only allow them to further violate human rights, a necessary evil?”

Sad Day for East Harlem As Gas Leak Causes Two Buildings to Explode

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As soon as I stepped out of my building, I could immediately see and smell it: the smoke residue from the gas explosion in East Harlem, 116th St. and Park avenue to be exact. The explosion occurred during Wednesday’s morning commute to work and school, at around 9:30am. As a result, two buildings, 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, right on 116th Street. The ill-fated buildings, who also housed a Spanish church and a piano store, were completely destroyed, with a neighboring third building also being badly damaged.

An image of the buildings that were known as 1644 and 1646 Park avenue, before the explosion:

However, no one was safe from the chaotic aftermath. Traffic was diverted to other streets so as not to interfere with the police and firefighter’s investigations. This meant that a lot of foot traffic was eliminated, making restaurants and stores look like small ghost towns, something entirely different since many of these places were used to numerous customers.

Many of the first-eye witnesses to this disaster quickly took to social media to report what had happened.

"On my way [on my way] to the train to go to work & all of a sudden we heard a big explosion. I started tearing & temblando [shaking] that loud ass boom scared me." -Yeni Lee

“On my way [on my way] to the train to go to work & all of a sudden we heard a big explosion. I started tearing & temblando [shaking] that loud ass boom scared me.”
-Yeni Lee

East Harlem - Explosion

One of the popular trends on Instagram was #eastharlemexplosion, where many users posted videos and images of the aftermath to the explosion.

http://instagram.com/p/ldPtRAg9A_/

http://instagram.com/p/ldOm61g9PK/

http://instagram.com/p/lccTJyg9ER/

One Twitter user eerily compared the tragedy with 9/11:

Some quickly called their loved ones to make sure they were all right.

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As day turned into night, and later into morning again, many parents and children walked to school and work with masks covering their faces. Some people just covered their mouths with their scarves or hands, afraid of the air contamination that surrounded them. It’s also been reported that many residents have gone into panic mode, depleting stores of their face mask stock.. As a safety precaution, the New york City Department of Health has urged East Harlem residents to keep windows shut and if possible, to stay indoors.

Seven people have been confirmed dead: three after the explosion, one in the late evening, and three others early Thursday morning. Unfortunately, many are still unaccounted for. The various victims were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, Metropolitan Hospital, and Harlem Hospital. Most victims suffered minor injuries, and were discharged fairly quickly, but one unidentified 15-year-old boy is still in critical but stable condition in Harlem Hospital.

Three of the confirmed dead include a Hunter College peace office (Griselde Camacho), a dental assistant (Carmen Tanco), and 21-year-old Rosaura Hernandez. Even in all of this grief, there is a small sliver of happiness when one survivor recounted how he was able to survive the building’s collapse thanks to being “cocooned by pianos.”

For the many residents who found themselves homeless because of this tragedy, many were directed to P.S. 57 in 115th street between 3rd and Lexington Ave., which served as a makeshift Red Cross emergency shelter.

This morning, the NYPD announced that the Red Cross shelter would be moving to 175 E. 125th Street.

Service on the Metro-North train has been reinstated, after no trains were going into or out of the city yesterday. Because the accident occurred on Park avenue, it affected the overhead railroad.

A lot of images keep pouring into Instagram and Twitter, showing everyone the aftermath images, as well as live updates on the search and rescue progress:

http://instagram.com/p/lfGV4XHLBb/

Daily News’ front page this morning:

View this post on Instagram

Great Cover. #EastHarlemExplosion

A post shared by Kenzie DeLaine, II (@kenziedelaine) on

Many of the buildings in the neighborhood are old, so to some extent it is possible for this to happen. However, there are safety measure in place which require agencies, such as Con Ed and the Department of Housing, to check buildings and make sure they are up-to-date with safety regulations, giving no possible causes for tragedies like yesterday’s. So far, the NTSB [National Safety Transportation Board], as well as the NYPD and the FDNY, will investigate what caused the tragedy to see who and what was the cause.

Senioritis And The Future

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Now that the sun is starting to pop out more and the birds are chirping, it can only mean one thing: spring is almost here. With that, comes the dreadful senioritis; you know, that feeling of procrastination and wanting school to be over (because after this semester, you won’t have to worry about homework and tests and whatnot [if you’re not planning on going to Grad school]). 

I, for one, am not 100% sure yet on what I want to do. Grad school is most definitely in my plans, but I just don’t know for sure what kind of grad school I want to attend. So far, nothing has gotten my full-on attention. I would like to continue my studies along the lines of Applied Linguistics or French (even though my French is a bit rusty, this’ll allow me to further expand on it and be able to use it better). This, of course, would then help with my writing and grammar (it never hurts to improve!).

Since this is my last semester, I’m a bit relieved that it is not as strenuous as semesters past. I’m only taking 4 classes (compared to 6 before), so I hope that I won’t feel so burned out. I love my classes, they’re all so interesting. My favorite one has got to be Internet Linguistics – the class is super small (we’re talking about 8-9 people), and it’s mostly a discussion-led course. We read a ton, but thankfully the reading material is not too dense and confusing. It reads just like as a normal conversation, which I love! 

The toughest class so far is the journalism class. Having to come up with good story ideas is a bit daunting. Once you have an idea of what you wish to write about, you have to see how much data you need, and how you’ll be able to obtain it, etc., etc. Will you need graphs, statistics, maps? If not, how will you be able to prove what you’re saying? 

I know that we can obtain some information through the Freedom of Information Act (I’ve seen it mentioned in articles again and again). I would like to try and do so when I write one of my articles, I just have to figure out how [in a timely manner].

I guess right now, I’m going to do my **best** and concentrate on doing all of my required assignments in a timely manner. This, of course, is if I don’t get lazy or am distracted by some other pretty thing. As an incentive, I’m going to try and reward myself with a trip (I love to travel) if I can finish all of my studies with good grades.

And on that note, I leave you with a wonderful picture that I took during my travels. It always brings back great memories!

The Eiffel Tower [La Tour Eiffel à Paris; C’est très belle! J’espère la voir encore.]