Blood Diamond

The movie titled Blood Diamond is about the story of diamond trade in Africa – Liberia during the civil war of the 1990’s. Africa, at that time was rich with diamonds that people were hunting for. Two hero’s were presented in the movie; Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a village fisher man dreaming of his son going to college, and Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is a former mercenary fetching for diamonds in Africa.

Danny, a young businessman who seeks his way to wealth was searching for Diamonds in Africa to achieve his dreams, However, he was captured on the Liberian borders. Solomon, on the other hand, was facing rebels attack in his village and was captured and became a slave, and was sent to prison later on. Before Solomon was sent to prison though, he found a rare huge Diamond that he kept and secretly hid.

In prison, Danny was released before Solomon. Then Danny heard that Solomon knew the way to the pink Diamond. Therefore, Danny got Solomon out of prison, and asked him of the diamonds location. Solomon refused to lead him to the diamond unless they make an agreement. Solomon was ready to lead the white man Danny to the pink Diamond in order for Danny to help him find his wife and his children. This was difficult because at the time, Solomon’s son was taken hostage by the rebels and was brain washed to kill other innocent villagers.

After many obstacles, Danny was able to find Solomon’s family and in return, Solomon rewarded him with what he promised; the pink Diamond.

I would like to conclude that the movie showed a lot of suffering, and death scenes that captured people’s hearts. I think that the main message behind the movie was to show how greed for wealth affects people and makes them capable of doing many terrible things to each other. Although the movie was about the search for diamonds, it showed another side to the story, Solomon’s family. Solomon found a diamond that was priceless; however, the only thing that mattered to him was finding his wife and son and being re-united with them and the price for that was exchanging this precious diamond for his family.

Severe Weather in the UK

Severe Weather hits the UK

The weather in the UK has become terribly windy. Gail force winds and rain affected roads, air
travel, rail and nearly every kind of transportation. About 12,000 homes are without electricity
and it is said that on Tuesday the flood will increase. More then 41 flights from Heathrow airport
have been cancelled and 14 flood warnings have been spread across the UK causing travel
desruption and power cuts. A wind speed of 82 mph was recorded in Swansea and South Devon.
Parts of England and Scotland have been hit by snowfall as well as high winds with
snow ploughs needed to keep some roads open. The high wind has caused sonsiderable damage,
blowing off garage roofs, and flooding city’s and towns that are by the coast.


My Opinion:

People think of wind as something that cools you off when the sun is hot or gives you chills in
the cold. Gail winds can be very deadly and can actually blow a house right out of the ground.
Thers is nothing much people can do when there is strong wind except to stay safe and wait until
it calms down. This is all part of mother nature. I just hope that the weather calms down and
nobody else gets hurt until things settle down.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7288975.stm

FloRida ft. T-pain - Low

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OTN2fFgb17s

Lebanon

Introduction:

Lebanon, a country that was called,”the land of milk and honey” in the bible. A country that has mountains, the sea and a lot of beautiful landscapes. Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon, it is also called “Paris of the East” because if it’s beautiful scenery and landscapes. The country’s which surround Lebanon are Jordan, Syria, Israel, Cyprus and Turkey. The famous singer Shakira is half Lebanese, and another famous person that was born there is the actor Keanu Reeves.

Modern History:

There has always been a conflict in Lebanon between the Muslims and Christians. In the 1940’s, after Lebanon gained independence from France, Christians held the balance of power and Muslims had little say in the running of their country. This caused a war between the two religions. In the mid 1970’s, there was a lot of tension after a bus full of Palestinians were killed in downtown Beirut. Revenge of killings followed and the country became a city of war and death. Syria soon sent in their army of about 20,000 troops that were invited by the Christians to kill the Muslims. Over two thousand people were killed. “No man’s land” developed between the Christian East and the Muslim West. In the early 1980’s the Israeli army invaded Beirut and aimed in removing the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). Eventually, the Israeli troops surrounded West Beirut and drove out the PLO. Thousands of innocent people were killed. Lebanon’s civil war wasn’t just about war between Muslims and Christians, there were a lot of different groups that formed their own armies and went to war.

Lebanon Now:

Beirut has been rebuilt and destroyed about seven times now. Beirut is being recovered now after the wars that have been going on. A lot of the Arab countries are helping it in becoming the beautiful country it once was and also a tourist attraction. Young people are living in a changing city with new hopes and challenges. More and more people are being employed and are able to feed their families. Hopefully it will once again become a growing country.

My Profile

My name is Rayan Ebrahim Al Haddar. I was born on July the 9th 1984 (so that would make me 2twenty three years old now) in Abu Dhabi. I live in Al Karama area with my mother, father and baby brother.





I was born in the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, which is Abu Dhabi. I still remember the first day I went to school which my small brother is now studying in. It's called Al Rabeeya School. I remember my mother telling me that we were going to go somewhere different that day and that it will be so much fun. I was really excited about where we were going and what would be there. We stopped in front of a fairly large building, it looked scary at first. My mother held my hand as she was walking towards the office, and once we stepped in, it seemed that everyone was happy to see me, as if they all new me somehow. As for me, I was still confused about where I was and why all these people were happy to see me. I wish I never asked where I was but when I did, my mother knelt down to me and said, "This is your new school and where I will leave you to play with all the children for the day". After I heard those words coming out of my mother's mouth, I just burst into tears. I didn’t want my mother to leave me all alone with all those weird people, I wanted to go back home with her, but that of course did not happen. I was escorted to my class by a nice little old lady. I don’t remember her name but I remember that she was very nice and very convincing. She took me to a class where there were about 15 kids running about and screaming and basically just having fun. I blended in with the kids and became friends with a few of them that day. While the days went by I got used to school and started liking it day by day.





As a teenager my life was simple. I used to go to school in the morning, come back home in the afternoon, then go to the Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club in the evening. I used to ride for the Abu Dhabi show jumping team and I was also in the UAE show jumping team. I started riding since I was about four years old. Until now I love anything to do with horses, but I don’t ride as much anymore. I also used to ride in the endurance races, which is about 120 kms in the desert. I would ride everyday for about two hours and every weekend we would have a competition either in Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Sharjah.





I have traveled to many places in my life. I can't really pin point one because they were all a blast. Some summers I would fly with the show jumping team to Europe and compete in various show jumping competitions around the region. Other summers I would fly with my friends either to the United States or to Europe again. These last few summers, my friends and I ship our cars from Abu Dhabi to Germany, and from there we would go on a Euro trip. Last summer we started off from Munich, stayed there for a few weeks, then headed towards Geneva, Switzerland. There was a carnival going on at that time so we stayed there for about five days then headed off again towards Paris. Again we stayed in Paris for 5about 6 days and drove off to Cannes. I think the best part of the trip was in Cannes. It was so beautiful there, and ext to it is Monte Carlo and Santro Pez. We had so much fun. We kept going from one city to the other. At the end of our journey we went back to Munich, then back to Abu Dhabi.


I don’t really have much free time nowadays. I'm always busy with either my businesses or my dad's. About a year ago I opened a factory with my friend in Mussafah and it is really stressful. Sometimes when I can I go to Dubai for a change and just hang out with the guys. On some weekends I go with my friends to the jet ski races where a lot of them participate. I used to participate but now because of all the work I have, there is no time for me to practice anymore.

Someone that has really influenced me in life is my father. Everyday I see my father working really hard and getting new ideas. He goes from place to place and always meets new people. My father can never sit down and just do nothing, he has to be thinking of something. He never rests and doesn’t sleep a lot wither, he's always on the move. I really want to be like him, what I mean by that is that I want to be smart like my father. Thinking of so many things at once and knowing what to do next. Jumping from business to business.

In the future I wish to open more companies and become self employed. I want to run my own businesses and help people out. I don’t want to depend on a salary and live on it for the rest of my life. I want to become someone one day. I want to live my dreams and go far in life. I want to make my family proud, and help the world. There are not a lot of things that need to be changed in the UAE. There might be a few things that could help us live easier. Maybe I won't be able to change them by myself, but hopefully one day with the help of the UAE citizens, we will make this country a much easier place to live in.