http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-myanmar-army-releases-child-soldiers-20130807,0,7398316.story

I must say, that as I first read this article, I was very glad and relieved to hear of the release of the child soldiers. But as I read on, that sense of happiness and relief diminished more and more.

To be completely honest, I did not think that countries still drafted their children into their armies. I though that was a practice long gone. I could not believe that there may be about 5,000 child soldiers still enlisted in Myanmar's Army. I cannot believe that the army was so desperate as to resort to kidnapping young men and boys to fill their ranks. I was not surprised to hear that Myanmar's society was that of a rebellious one.

I am happy that the U.N decided to intervene in this particular matter. Hopefully, through them, the practice of using children as soldiers will be abolished.

I also wonder what will happen to the corrupt government officials who were behind this egregious scheme. Will they be properly punished for their deeds, or will they get away with this? I think that they will be brought to justice, but that it will be a while due to the obscurity of data.

Also, though I am confident that the U.N personnel are very capable people, I do not believe that the release of every child soldier will be accomplished by the end of the year. This doubt is in part due to the last statement of the article, "Without complete access, it is impossible to assess the situation as far as armed groups are concerned." How will they even be sure that every child was released when they do not even have complete access to the data? Although I am very much hopeful, I doubt that this feat can be accomplished in this short time-span. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-chinese-rock-singer-terrorism-20130731,0,4642558.story

I would like to begin by saying Wu Hongfei's has been quite reckless by spreading these terrorism threats. Criticism is one thing but I feel that she may have crossed the line with the bombing threats. I understand that she might harvest some anger towards the government, but this action seems like it was highly impulsive in nature. As a grown woman I would've thought she would be more responsible and in control of herself.

 It might just be a coincidence that the threats and the bombing happened to coincide, but could she really have been behind it? I do not think so. It is much more plausible that the singer could have been posting these threats for image and publicity.

The next thing I would like to say is that the situation of former taxi  is upsetting. Why hasn't the Chinese government taken action to bring justice to the police officers who have taken away his means of livelihood? I find it very strange that even after eight years, nothing has been done to help him.

Although I can sympathize with Ji's (the taxi driver) anger, it is not right for him to have detonated the bomb in the airport terminal. It is fortunate that many people were not injured.

I would now like to conclude by saying that hopefully something good may come out of these incidents. Maybe people will learn to think before acting rashly. I also hope that the plight of Ji Zhongxing will shed light to the other injustices of the world.