American dream

            Thirty years ago, China was poor and it had been through some serious economic and political revolutions. There was nothing to compare with the United States, such as skyscrapers, air- conditioning, and printer. No one had seen those things in China, and thirty years ago, my uncle’s young brother went to the United States as an international student with the scholarship that hugely impacted my uncle. He told my uncle about how prosperous the United States was. Although my uncle was married at that time, and a college professor, he still made the decision to give up his job and go to the United States to study because he was curious and wanted to see the most powerful country of the world. This decision hugely affected my uncle’s family and my life.

30 years ago the city of China

nowadays

            My uncle he had to support his family in China as an international student even while he was in the U.S. He did not like that his brother had scholarship that could support his life. As a result, he went through some bad time at that moment. He had to do some work after study so he could support his life, expensive tuition and telephone payment because he had a pregnant wife in China, and at that time my aunt always supported my uncle. She said that things are always the hardest at the beginning, and she also wanted to see how the United States looked. I clearly remember when my uncle told me about the first time that he saw Chicago. The office building had light on every second. It did not matter if there were people working there, even at midnight, light and air conditioning still had worked. In fact no one ever turned them off.

            My uncle always thought that he was a far-sighted man. He never regretted his decision to move to the United States, but, that maintaining a good job in the United States was difficult. After three years of efforts, my uncle’s family was allowed to move to the United States. He was working at a biscuit factory as a good food inspector, and my aunt began working on her MBA degree. My cousin went to kindergarten. Everything was going well, except they did not have their own house. As the years passed, the biscuit factory started using a bunch of machines that could examine whether or not the biscuit were qualified, which was faster and more effective than human being. Since that day, my uncle had worried about possibility that he would be fired on one day. After couples of week, my uncle quit that job and decided to study computer science at Illinois Institute of technology.

            Since my uncle quit his job, my uncle’s family experienced hard time again. My aunt had to suspend her studies and to find out a work at restaurant to support her family. My aunt was a typical traditional Chinese. For family, she would sacrifice most things. During my uncle study’s time, she awaked up early to prepare breakfast for her family and went to work every day. She did not share her lunch and dinner with her husband and son because she had to work until late, but like people said as long as you work hard, there will always be harvest. Eventually, after graduated, my uncle was hired to work for the government as a policeman focusing on computer system and date-analysis.

Family is the trigger that can make people move forward and is the most important treasure to everybody in this world. I know that I was able to come to this country because of my uncle family’s effort. By their hard work and plain living, I realize that I have to work really hard so my family can live better one day.

History Essay

Downpour

            Most people get confused and do not know how to behave when they face disasters. Natural disasters cause a lot of damage that cost a lot of money and time to fix. Four years ago, my country, Saudi Arabia, had a heavy rain fall, so most streets were flooded. At the same time, the water started to seep into schools and houses including our house. As a result, schools had to close for many days until they got fixed. Most families in Saudi Arabia had to leave to their relatives’ and friends’ houses for a short time including my family. The flood in Saudi Arabia caused a lot of damage and had a horrible effect on my family.

            At the beginning, the heavy rainfall caused a flood in my parents’ house, and made us temporarily move to my grandmother’s house. Everything was normal until it started to rain, and the water started to seep down from the roof. My father put some buckets around the house to stop the water from going on the floor. However, it began to rain heavily, so it caused flooding in the streets, and the water started to go inside from everywhere and flooded the house. That is when we decided to leave and move in with the stuff that has our memories. My grandmother’s house was safe because it was in a higher part of the city. We stayed there for a couple of weeks until we fixed our house from the flood. That flood was a major disaster in Saudi Arabia because it caused many people to move to their relatives’ and friends’ houses for a while until they could repair the damaged houses.

In addition, one of my cousins had a bad experience during the flood, and almost lost his life. My cousin was out walking back to his house while it was raining, so he decided to stand under something to cover him until the rain stopped. Unfortunately, the rain got stronger and the water level started getting higher. He thought he might drown, so he decided to run to the house before it got worse. When he was running fast, he slipped and fell down into the water and could not swim because his foot he injured. Luckily, someone saw him struggling in the water, and helped him get out from the flood. Moreover, since what happened to him that day, he never goes out from the house while it is raining because the memory of that day was unforgettable.

            Furthermore, the flood in Saudi Arabia caused some schools to close for weeks, and made parents worry about their kids while they are at school. Most schools opened their doors after many days from the disaster. For other schools, the doors were broken, and classrooms were completely flooded. It took a lot of money and time until they fixed the damage. After what happened, parents started to worry about their kids because they would have been in real danger if they were in the classrooms during the flood. Thus, all schools started teaching their students how to be safe if they face disasters like that. Also, now when it starts raining, all schools must let their students go to their houses immediately. Therefore, parents are not worried about their kids like before because schools taught them how to be safe in dangerous situations.

            Finally, though my parents had a hard situation with the flood in the house, they tried to do their best to protect me. Without my parents, I would not have known what to do to help myself. The flood taught me how to survive and help other people if I faced it again. Although people face hard situations which they cannot forget, they try to make it a reason to move on. All schools must teach their students how to follow evacuation rules when they face problems such as floods, or any other dangerous situations. Therefore, I learned many things after I faced this situation, but most importantly I learned how to take care of myself.

Egyptian Revolution

Life, Freedom, and Social Justice

According to James Rawley, the UN Resident Coordinator in Egypt, “20 percent of Egyptians are classified as below the poverty line and another 20 percent are just above it.” Egyptians have suffered from poverty, injustice, and violation of their human rights for the past 30 years because of the tyrant, Hosni Mubarak. As a result of his reign, the political corruption in the whole country had increased. For example, the Minister of Housing took bribes from many business men to give business men illegal housing. On the other hand, twelve million people in Egypt were living homeless, being forced to live in cemeteries, nests, garages, and mosques. Therefore, a group of Egyptian politicians and local citizens talked about gathering to call for a strong demonstration on January 25, 2011. This was the beginning of the revolution, which has changed the course of Egyptian history.

At the beginning, the revolution caused many deaths. The victims of this revolution sacrificed everything. They sacrificed themselves to make the future better than what they dreamed of. They did not care about anything but the freedom and the justice of their country. Young people lost their lives, but all their actions were not wasted. As a result of the protests, Hosni Mubarak was removed from the government. In addition, my cousin was one of the victims who died in the revolution. My cousin was shot multiple times. At that time, my uncle was very upset because he lost his child. Although my uncle has lost his son, he is proud of him and considers him a hero.

In addition to the loss of life, chaos started to increase in the capital. Chaos soon became the face of the nation. Some thugs who were not aligned with either side were carrying weapons like guns and knives in public just to rob and bully citizens, and the public fest terrorized them. In addition, some people were stealing food or medicine just to feed their children or for their treatment. As a result of that, the streets were not safe. Moreover, many citizens were terrified to go to school or work. They were afraid of being killed or getting robbed. Even though there were a lot of police, they could not control the protesters because the police were divided into groups. Some of them were with the revolution and some with Hosni Mubarak.

Finally, since the streets were not safe and chaos was everywhere, my uncle and his family had to move to a safer city. The city they were living in was having the most action, which was Cairo. It was hard for them to move to another city and leave behind everything. Nevertheless, they left the house that they lived in since their marriage, and where they had their first child. Even though I was not living in Egypt, it makes me glad knowing that my uncle’s family is safe from all the violence around them. I always call him to check on them and to make sure that they are safe.

Today, when I watch the news and see shootings or people dying, I think of the revolution and the effects on Egyptian history, my uncle, and me. My cousin’s death may not have been planned, but he will always be a hero in my uncle’s heart. My family will always be proud of him because of his sacrifice for his country. Even though a lot of people have been killed, Egyptian society today is still commentating their memory. Egyptian society is also being inspired by them to stand up bravely against any future injustice and tyranny.             

The Hardest Time

Hailey Huang

ESL 100

Cause and Effect Essay

Third Draft

March 14, 2015

 The Hardest Time

            Having a son was the most important task for a new couple in China’s past because of the traditional ideology looked up to men and down on women. People preferred boys to girls, so many new mothers couldn’t stop producing until they had a boy. Unfortunately, the government began to implement the family planning policy in 1980. It was called the one-child policy, but people were allowed to have a second child only if the first one was a girl. My parents got married in 1983. As a result, they were under the population control policy. Since the last generation still had the deep traditional ideology, my grandparents hoped to have a grandson very much. The one-child policy which still exists today had a deep influence on my family.

                    The first effect of this policy was that my parents lost the chance to stay with their children and watched them grow up. I have total of seven sisters. My parents were continuously trying to get a boy until the seventh sister born. Since my older sister and I were born, my parents had to hide in different places to evade the government. When I was little, and still a baby, my parents could just see me only once or twice a month because both my older sister and I were sent to live in different relatives’ homes. As a result, it caused a lack of mutual understanding between my parents and us. When I was six years old, my parents decided not to pursue a boy anymore, so both my older sister and I got to come home and live with my parents. When I started to live with my parents, I didn’t know my father that much, and I didn’t even talk to him.

                     In addition, my parents had to give my three little sisters away to families that they didn’t even know. With their misfortune, every time my mother brought a new baby girl to the world, she had to give her away. The reason was that my parents had too many girls, so they still needed to hide. This gave my parents a lot of grief. At that time, some couples who didn’t have a child wanted to adopt a baby, so my grandparents connected an intermediary and gave the baby to them. I could not imagine how my parents could take the pain of separating from their own new born baby three times. Every time my parents thought of my three little sisters, tears would fill with their eyes.

            Furthermore, this policy had a strong impact on my father’s job and his life. My father used to work as an accountant for the government. For violating the birth control ordinance, he needed to pay the penalty and lost his job. It was hard for him to find another good job, so he decided to become a farmer. Because of his little experience farming, he had to learn from the old farmers and work very hard. He worked at the farm in the daytime and worked on the agricultural books at night in older to learn more knowledge about farming. Due to the stress of life, he soon became older than his age.

            Today, the one-child policy is still implemented in China. Even though the policy has become more lenient, it still affects many families. I am so lucky and happy that I can be in America, which is a free and mostly feminist country. I don’t need to worry about what gender my child would be, and I can have as many children I want. The most important thing is I don’t need to follow the footsteps that my parents had.

political impact

                                                            The Political Impact

            “Democracy is the government of the people by the people for the people,” said Abraham Lincoln. In democracy, each citizen has certain rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of thought. The problem is that in Togo, none of those human rights are respected. Therefore, many politicians or opposition members are victim of coups, and assassinations. Sometimes, they are forced to leave the country. That was the case of my uncle, Alfred. Alfred had served his country as a senator and had good relations with the president at that time, Eyadema Gnassingbe. Since he decided to run for the presidential office, his relationship with the president became fragile as an egg. Many coups have been tempted to his life. Thus, he decided to leave the country.  He suffered a lot from his departure, and despite his departure, the fury of the current president has complicated his family, and friends’ life.

            In first position, Alfred’s desire to become President led to his exile. During the campaign, he gained a lot of popularity, and Eyadema realized that he was a menace for his post. Then, the president ordered my uncle’s assassination. One night as Alfred was sleeping at home with his family; one of his loyal security agents told him that he needed to leave the country quickly. He said, “Alfred it was an honor to serve you, but I have the regret to announce you that a rebellious group will come to arrest you”. His bank accounts were blocked. It was humiliating for my uncle to leave the country without a dime, any luggage, or food. He went to Australia, and a new chapter of his life had started. As hard as it was, in order to survive he had to struggle in life, and do little jobs. He worked in restaurants, washed car, and dish. It was hard even for him to believe what he had become. In the meantime, he left a whole family behind with no money, and no hope to see them again. The only way for him to return in Togo was if Eyadema passed away.

Further more, Alfred’s determination for the Presidential office will not only affects his life; it had destroyed his family’s life in several ways. First, Alfred’s departure made his family life very stressful. There was no source of income. His wife had to face the difficulties of the life to support her family. Therefore, she worked hard to pay her children’s school fees, and to pay the house expenses. In addition, they have been discriminated against; because, of Alfred’s situation. Alfred’s family was under surveillance twenty-four hours. Their life style has changed in both, the school and in the community. In school, classmates don’t want to talk with them, because they want to avoid any risk of being the next target. Alfred’s older son had graduated of a master degree at that moment, but he did not find any job in his working area. He sent his resume to many companies, but no one wanted to hire him. Later he had changed his name because of his father’s situation in order to get a job. The consequences of Alfred’s involvement in politics did not only affect his family; his friends had suffered as well.

            The last effect of Alfred’s desire to be president was the division between the members of the congress and the government. The country was split in two parts, Alfred’s group and Eyadema’s group. The reality is that Alfred’s friends were also victims of his ambition for the presidential office. The government had targeted all of Alfred’s friends in politics who supported him during his campaign period. Some were ministers, doctors, and senators. Some directors of companies have been ejected from their posts. Others should have been promoted, but they did not get the promotion. Let take the example of the Colonel Fiaofia. He was a good officer, loyal and had all the war aptitudes.  He should have been promoted a head of a military base, but he was discriminated against. He is still at his post until now, and the hilarious thing in the story is that one of his sub officers has been promoted to that position. At the same time the minister of mining, and the one of finances have resigned their posts. Of course, it has not been said, but for sure they resigned by force because of their intense relationship with Alfred.

                        To conclude, the involvement of Alfred in the election has completely changed his life, affected his family, and his friends. He led to exile; his family and friends have been discriminated against. This is a huge problem that our leaders need to take seriously in consideration. The assassination, the corruption, the patronymic offence, and the lawlessness have to stop. All these life adventures are due to the non-respect, and the miscomprehension of the laws in a democratic country such as Togo. It has been more than fifty years that Togo is an independent country, and I believe that the political atmosphere will change. Minds are fresh now, and people are getting instructed. I have hope that Togolese can change the political environment. “ Yes We Can”.

Forced to Be Alone----Mia/Yiyao Liu

Forced to Be Alone

People who were born in other countries may hardly imagine there was a strict limitation of having children somewhere else in the world. However, it existed indeed. From 1948 to 1976, China’s government was encouraging families to have as many children as possible because the country’s leader, Mao Zedong, believed that population growth could empower the country. It directly led to a dramatic increase of population. However, beginning in 1979, to control the population growth, China officially started adopting the one-child policy, which said that each couple could only have one child, or they would be fined an incredible amount of money for the extra children. Fortunately, in recent years, the policy has gradually changed. Some couples in which one parent is an only child are allowed to have a second child, or some couples that had their first child as a daughter are permitted to have a second child also. However, it is somewhat unbelievable that I am not an only child while I was born during that one-child period, and I was much lonelier than the other regular only children since I grew up alone. The one-child policy certainly affected my childhood, and it still affects my family and me even nowadays.

I was a rather good child with great grades and many prizes in school, but it did not mean that I could be free during the rest time. In fact, I needed to do a lot of housework and had many responsibilities for my family. It was all because of my only child identity. There were six adults in my big Chinese family, which are my grandparents from my mom’s side, my grandparents from my dad’s side, and my parents. It is common knowledge that Chinese parents always expect too much from their children, and I experienced considerable pressure each day. I had to study hard in school, get perfect grades on my reports, and I had to do cleaning and clothes sorting at home. All of these things made me tired and out of energy, but I could not stop doing these things while there were six pairs of eyes looking at me. Sometimes other relatives might come to my home on festival days, and they just told me to be obedient to my family. To be honest, I really hate these kinds of Chinese relatives! Moreover, I hate to be an only child because it led to these situations.

In addition, the one-child policy made millions of children grow up alone and feel lonely, including me. The matter was not only about homework and housework, but also about feelings and relationships. Children like me who grew up without any siblings could only play by themselves. Fortunately, I had a cousin that lived with me for several years, which made me feel a little bit better. After all, I had many interesting things, but nobody to share them with. In addition, it has been hard for only children to learn to make relationships with others. Because of the particular condition of childhood, I was used to doing things alone and thinking about things alone. I do not really like to discuss serious things with others unless it is necessary. Furthermore, it made me be much better at individual work than at group work. In general, it is sometimes not a good habit, and it is all due to the one-child policy.

The biggest influence of one-child policy for me has been my family’s immigration to the U.S.. The major problem with one-child policy was that Chinese people gradually had an obvious preference for having a son over having a daughter. Because my father is the only son of my grandparents, they strongly hoped my mother have a son to inherit our family name. While children in China can only inherit their father’s family name, I, as a girl, can hardly give my family name to my child in the future. Considering this situation, my parents decided to immigrate to the U.S. because children that are born overseas are allowed under this policy if they obtain other countries citizenship. This law led them to immigrate when I was ten, while I had to stay in China with my grandmother. However, without luck, they had three more daughters besides me in the U.S.. Although my parents finally gave up on having a son, they had settled in the U.S. for many years, so I had to give up my Chinese life and come here. Nowadays, I live with three sisters and my parents, and I have to adapt to the new life. Although it is not so bad for me, it is a huge influence of the one-child policy indeed.

I know there are some advantages of the one-child policy, but its disadvantages affected me much more than its advantages. I do not like the policy, which made me work hard in my childhood, made me feel lonely, and made me separate from my parents and live with my grandmother for so many years. It has affected me so much. Without the one-child policy, I might be an extremely different person living somewhere else. Without the one-child policy, I might have some other siblings in China. Without the one-child policy, I might have a brother who was born in China. However, we cannot change history or the one-child policy, which made me not being an only child but much lonelier than an only child.

history essay

Leslie A. Mercedes Lopez

ESL 100

March 9, 2015

An account of the past

            There are many types of violence. One of the most common is domestic violence. Thirty years ago my grandmother married the love of her life. She thought everything was going to be magical like her mother told her, but it was not like that. Over time, things started to change, and her relationship became full of violence, verbal and physical. When my aunt was twenty-one years old, the oldest at that time, she decided to marry a United States citizen and bring my grandmother with her, so that she could get away from that terrible situation that was affecting the whole family. Everybody knows that marriage was made for love not to abuse others. As my grandmother came to the United States, her life started to change for good. There was nothing that could stop her from getting the best in this country of opportunities.

             Also, my grandmother’s bad experiences and difficulties made her immigrate to the United States for better opportunities and to recover from the violence. Leaving her family in the Dominican Republic was really hard for her, but it was the best decision she could ever make. My grandmother was a fighter. She would do anything she could to protect her family from everything. Immigrating to the United States helped her to overcome her frustrations and depression, and at the same time she became stronger and happier. I will be happy to as my mom about my grandmother’s past. My mom always told me, “Your grandmother was amazing. She became the happiest and strongest member of the family after that bad situation”. My mom’s tears came out in each word she tells me. It was as if she was in my grandmother’s body and she could feel all the happiness of finally being a free person without abuse. My mom also told me that my grandmother’s words were full of happiness and smiles. They were able to notice through her voice.

          Moreover, my grandmother had an opportunity to begin a new life and career in the United States without violence. As my grandmother started to get stronger, her economic situation started to improve. After three years of being here, she was finally able to create a small beauty business inside her house only for family and friends. Approximately after two more years, she was able to summit the immigration papers for her children, so they could be here with her in the United States and have better opportunities. My grandmother was a nice stylist. She started her beauty business doing her oldest daughter hair and nails and then with friends of the family. She was happy that she was sable to pay bills and buy food with the money she was making in her small business. The United States was really the country of success in her life. She got everything she needed and nothing could stop her from doing what she liked and enjoyed to do.

            Nevertheless, as she got older, my grandmother begin to lose her strength and will to live. This made things change again, because there was no way to help her. My grandmother started to get sick to the point that she was not able to stand up from her bed or do anything by herself. Problems with her heart, asthma, and diabetes started to surface. This was something that had a big impact on my family.  After all the members of the family started to create their own lives in different places, she started to get worse. The slow separation of her family was the reason of her sickness, because she brought her family to the United States to be together not for everybody to go alone on their lives and never came back to visit her. When she was finally very ill, everybody decided to come a visit. As a result of this, my family thought my grandmother was only waiting for them to come and visit her again so that she could rest in peace because after they came back, she died a week later. The way my grandmother used to act and face obstacles was admirable for the entire family.

            Her immigration to the United States, the difficulties of beginning a new life and overcoming the obstacles make her the woman my family and I will always remember. That woman fought for a better future not just for her, but for her family. My grandmother’s decisions were admirable and it is just awesome to know how a little bit of help changed her life completely and made her a better woman. It is inspiring to see how a woman can take out good things from a bad experience. There is nothing that can change the image of that fighting woman from my head. She will always be in my mind as the bravest person I have ever met.