My Letter to UNEP

December 12, 2011

UNEP Headquarters

Gigiri complex

Nairobi, Kenya

Dear Achim Steiner,

I am sure that you are already aware about the PT Freeport Indonesia case. I, as a citizen of Indonesia, am definitely very concerned about this. My name is Darlene Leon, and I am a student in HighScope Highschool Program. My purpose of writing this is to inform you of what I think is important in resolving about the environment in Papua right now regarding the effect of Grasberg’s mining.

Grasberg mining in Papua has caused the surroundings destroyed and demolished. With all the digging in search for silver, copper and gold, heavy trucks and machines damage everything in the area. With more minerals found, they would want to find more so they dig deeper and wider. In result of their mistreatment, they have left a mess in the environment.

Because of their lack of attention towards the surroundings, it is very important to be aware that nature needs to be brought back; planting more trees and restoring what once was there. Global warming has been a real and serious issue. We wouldn’t want to make the earth’s condition worse than it is now by neglecting what we humans have done. Nature provide for us more than we can ask for. We need to do something in order to rebuild all the greens that we have wiped out.

Let us start here. Let us make a change. Let us restore everything we humans destroyed. I am suggesting UNEP to take action concerning this case by making an official program that will be agreed and executed by both Indonesia and Freeport. To make a better future for our generation, we need to take charge and begin to understand that sooner or later, if we don’t start to plant more trees and care for our environment, it will all disappear. Day by day we owe nature our care for their resources. We can’t just take and not give back. Day by day we are actually killing ourselves by not giving enough attention to our environment. Restoring nature is a must!

Sincerely,

Darlene Leon

Industrial Revolution

With the invention of one thing, it always leads to the invention of another; especially for technology. Technology develops as people began to invent more devices that could help them such as for communication and in their daily life. People would always find something new to invent or upgrade. The Industrial Revolution has made a huge impact in the social life. Before the Revolution most people lived in small villages, working either in agriculture or as skilled craftsmen. They lived and often worked as a family, doing everything by hand. Industrialization caused everything to change. The new enclosure laws—which required that all grazing grounds be fenced in at the owner's expense—had left many poor farmers bankrupt and unemployed, and machines were capable of doing more than they could. As a result, there were many people who were forced to work at the new factories. This required them to move to towns and cities so that they could be close to their new jobs. It also meant that they made less money for working longer hours.

Child labor was one of the social problems of the Industrial Revolution. Children of only 4 and 5 years old would be forced to work in the factories from dawn to dusk. They would be paid only a very small amount of money that can barely buy enough food for them to eat. Physical problems outside the factories were pollution. The smokes from factories would pollute the air. Other factory wastes would litter places around the factory making it insanitary for people to live.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution has affected the world very much ‘till today. Lots of people depend on technological devices to assist them in doing most of their work. Some people can’t live without them. The negative side to it is that there would be a lot of lazy people. Since they don’t find it necessary for them to do the work themselves when there are inventions that could help them do their work.

The benefits of the Industrial Revolution were that people began to invent a lot of things that are useful for us ‘till today. Inventions that aided us with our work; that even help us with small things.

10 years from now, the world would probably be very a high-tech place. Maybe there will be flying cars and more new inventions. The bright side to it is that mostly everything would be very easy because there would at least be a machine that can help us with anything. If not, then the kind of revolution that could happen in the next 10 years would be very disturbing. It’s possible that by then the world would no longer be a suitable place to live. There would probably be an energy crisis. We would have less electricity to power up everything such as transportation, communication, and technology.

Interview with Robespierre

Q: Why was your nickname ‘The Incorruptible’?

A: I, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, gain my nickname from my honesty and commitment to transforming France into a republic of Virtue. My main goal was to defend people’s rights, especially the more modest people's ones; therefore, I became a lawyer. I am also the most important member of the Committee of Public Safety. Its role is to protect France from the people who disagree with my idea of revolution. Thus, being that, I have the power to eliminate people.

Q: Can you explain to me what “Reign of Terror” is?

A: I knew that it was really horrible, but at least we all needed it. My goal is to clean up the French Revolution’s enemies and protect the country from those who didn’t agree with our idea of revolution.

Q: Why was King Louis XVI considered a traitor?

A: He tried to run away by writing letters together with Marie Antoinette to all European monarchs asking for their help. I consider that as betrayal.

Q: Who were the Sans-Culottes and the Jacobins?

A: They are some people who wanted to remove all of the differences social class such as like monarchy, and I agree with them.

Q: What is the purpose of your decapitation device, the Guillotine? And more importantly, what does it symbolize?

A: The idea is execution for the death penalty by decapitation. Since King Louis XVI banned the usage of the breaking wheel, the guillotine was purposely build for execution; for the intention of ending a person’s life rather than just torturing them with pain. The guillotine symbolizes the Reign of Terror and how cheap a person’s life is, for it to be able to end a life in a very fast way. It symbolizes how hard the people of France had fought to earn their liberty.

What is Revolution?