Reportedly it controls an area the size of Great Britain and commands around 20,000 armed fighters ( 3 times the size of Ireland’s army ). ISIS takes in over $1 million a day it’s biggest sources of income being it’s control of banks, oil and gas , extortion,ransom ,anonymous donations, and robbery of the economic assets of the countries it takes over making it very wealthy and therefore well armed .It is becoming more and more like a state ,It now controls education ,discipline ,electricity, water and has an organised government with a leader a cabinet and 12 local governors within the area it controls making it well established and unlikely to be easily removed from power. ISIS is now more like a highly militarised ,aggressive little country who has recently added us to their list of enemies than a small group of radicals and should not be easily dismissed .
ISIS stands for islamic state of Iraq and syria ,most people write it off as “a crazy bunch of terrorists” and seem to be under the impression that if they ignore it ,it will be sorted out by someone else but right now though it may not involve ireland yet over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging war against ISIS.
Reportedly it controls an area the size of Great Britain and commands around 20,000 armed fighters ( 3 times the size of Ireland’s army ). ISIS takes in over $1 million a day it’s biggest sources of income being it’s control of banks, oil and gas , extortion,ransom ,anonymous donations, and robbery of the economic assets of the countries it takes over making it very wealthy and therefore well armed .It is becoming more and more like a state ,It now controls education ,discipline ,electricity, water and has an organised government with a leader a cabinet and 12 local governors within the area it controls making it well established and unlikely to be easily removed from power. ISIS is now more like a highly militarised ,aggressive little country who has recently added us to their list of enemies than a small group of radicals and should not be easily dismissed .
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Seaworld began capturing wild Orcas in the 1960s to be used commercially in circus style performances because of their unique beauty, mesmerising size, trainability and high intelligence. Hundreds of wild orcas were captured in Pacific, Icelandic and Russian waters and sold on to parks like Seaworld. Sea cowboys hunted pods of orcas for miles until they had them surrounded with nets or cornered. The orca calves would then be ripped from their mother’s sides as they were easier to transport and to train. This would be the first of many cruel and traumatic experiences inflicted on these wild orcas. Over the years at least 44 Orcas have died at the hands of Seaworld. This is due to their poor qualities of life and Seaworld’s inadequate breeding programme. SeaWorld is a United States chain of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, and animal theme parks owned by SeaWorld Entertainment. There are currently three Seaworld Parks located in San Antonio Texas, Orlando, Florida and San Diego, California. They currently own 24 orcas in their parks and have at least four on loan to Loro Parque in Spain. Anyone who has seen the documentary ‘Blackfish’ will be well aware of Seaworld and it’s actions as it was a very successful documentary that really opened the eyes of the public to the suffering of Orcas in captivity. This week Seaworld announced that they would be changing their Orca performances to be less degrading and have a more educational approach. Of course one only has to dig a little deeper to find that these shows will still include jump and splash tricks and this is just another attempt by Seaworld PR to try repair the damage caused after the release of ‘Blackfish’. Seaworld San Diego have also agreed to end their breeding of captive orcas in order to expand the size and quality of their tanks. Once again if you do a little research you’ll notice that very little funding has been invested in this project and there’s virtually no improvements to the environments or quality of the tanks bar size. The tanks these animals live in resemble nothing of their natural habitats. They’re literally swimming pools with no stimulation to keep these orcas interested, occupied and happy. Your goldfish’s tank at home is more stimulating than an orca’s in captivity. Besides having no stimulation these tanks are far too small. An orca in these tanks has to swim at least 1,400 laps of their pool to match the equivalent distance travelled daily by an orca in the wild. Since these tanks are so small the orcas are usually far too close to the surface of the water which often results in sun burn and the trademark of an orca in captivity which is the collapsed dorsal fin. There’s less than 1% reported collapsed dorsal fins in the wild and almost 100% collapsed dorsal fins in captivity. This is due to the prolonged period these whales spend just lounging aimlessly at the water surface. The fin collapses as a culmination of gravity, a lack of exercise and poor nutrition work together. The human equivalent to one of the orca’s pool is 2.1 metres in height, 5.7 metres in width and 9.2 metres in length. Imagine being trapped in such a confined space with nothing but your thoughts and tourists banging on your enclosure’s glass to entertain you. This is another psychological trauma suffered by Orcas in captivity. This particular whale is kept mainly in isolation and only integrated with other orcas for breeding purposes. Orcas are extremely social creatures who live in close family units of up to 15 orcas. They hunt, play and feed together. They bond for life and have unique vocalisations and calls within their pods. In captivity however orcas are forced into tightly spaced tanks with other orcas whom they’ve no relationship with. These orcas are often from different environments and have difficulty communicating with each other. This creates stressful, frustrating and tense situations and conflicts between the orcas which often results in altercations which cause injury as the orcas cannot flee from attacks in their confined tanks. I started typing this almost an hour ago and only now I realise how far my ranting has gone so I apologise for that and I’m going to try and wrap it up now because it’s way too late. Seaworld presents itself as a caring organisation towards sea life but in reality they’re a greedy company exploiting animals for profit. For every $1,000,000 made by Seaworld only $600 goes towards Conservation ( that’s approximately 5c a ticket for anyone not so mathematically gifted like myself) Seaworld’s Orcas are subjected to a lot of cruelty and may be a significant factor in their lashing out. There have been 4 human deaths in captivity by orcas and none in the wild. There have been 100+ attacks on humans by orcas in captivity and only one reported in the wild. These statistics speak for themselves. These orcas are clearly unhappy in their environments and these attacks and deaths will continue until orcas are no longer used in shows and are moved to sea pens where they have some chance at a normal and happy life. In 2013 a trainer was killed during a private performance for an audience at Seaworld Orlando. This male killer whale known as Tilikum had been involved in several previous attacks but is still used today in performances and has sired 21 calves who could all carry his genetically predisposed aggressive tendencies. This is the same orca I previously mentioned who is kept in isolation. I visited Seaworld two years ago before I was aware of it’s cruelty and it was honestly one of the worst sights I’ve ever seen. I’m ashamed to say I supported such a place so I implore you to never visit Seaworld. I’d advise everyone to watch ‘Blackfish’ to educate themselves on the issue and form their own opinions. Below is the link to the trailer for Blackfish, if you agree with the cause against Seaworld I’d urge you to sign one of the many Petitions the WDC or PETA have or to donate to the WDC to help them save and protect whales and dolphins in the wild. https://youtu.be/G93beiYiE74 AQ Lately you can notice the stress levels of the year group rising,bit by bit the leaving cert breaking us down, it's early days yet but there's already been girls crying (me included). What some of us don't really think of is where we would be if it wasn't for the leaving cert or the education we've gotten for the past 14 years and for some, the education we will continue to get in college. Despite progress in recent years, girls continue to suffer severe disadvantage and exclusion in education system throughout their lives. An estimated 31 million girls of primary school age and 32 millions girls of lower secondary school age were out of school in 2013. There are various barriers to girls education throughout the world spanning from school fees to household obligations and child labour to child marriage. We need to realise that we are the lucky ones, we are of the few girls that have the privilege of getting an education, getting a job, becoming successful and living our lives the way we decide and not a way that is decided for us "educating a girl educates a nation. It unleashes a ripple effect that changes the world unmistakably for the better" AW I chose to write about this subject because I see it in the news often and it makes me angry every time. So before writing I did some research on the laws about animal cruelty in ireland and found: that the maximum sentence in ireland for animal cruelty, no matter how many animals or how bad you treated them or abuse them is just six months in prison and the maximum is rarely given, the maximum fine is €10,00, this is not justice, having relations in the ISPCA we have often fostered abused dogs and cats to try and bring them back to almost normality so they can find proper homes, and those are only the ones that survive the abuse but when you see what people do to them you see the fear in their eyes or the burns on their skin you know that someone deserves more then a fine or half a year in prison. Apparently most of our laws date back to 1911 , so I think it is definitely time that we updated them as they are clearly not adequate. To compare I looked up the longest prison sentence given in America for animal cruelty and found a case where a man was given 99 years for letting his dogs starve to death, that might be extreme but it's still better then our laws.
So, when I sat down to write this blog post I considered the brief: "write whatever you want." It seems like a pretty simple thing to do, right? But then I started thinking and overthinking, as I do, and came to the conclusion that it wasn't all that simple after all. When I get a free reign on any piece of writing it usually ends up being about one person: Taylor Swift. Now, I could easily sit here and write 101 reasons why I love Taylor Swift, but don't worry, I'm not going to, I'll save that for my own blog (which she follows!). So, while I was trying to figure out what to write, I got side tracked and started contemplating how contradictory and judgemental society is. In society people say one thing but mean another, all the time. Nothing is ever a simple as it seems. And if one person tells you something, you can be sure the next person you talk to will tell you something different.
The world is full of major contradictions. Most children are taught that violence is never the answer, yet when people go out and fight for their country they are considered heroes, even if they're the reason some child in Syria or Afghanistan is missing a parent. Another huge contradiction that I see in society is, as children most of us are encouraged to be ourselves, not to follow the crowd or give in to peer pressure, yet 68% of LGBTQA+ Youth have experienced family rejection for being themselves and 40% of these young people are left homeless. One of the most common reasons that LGBT people are rejected by their families is because of religious beliefs which is a whole new level of contradiction. God told us to "Love thy neighbour..." not to "Love thy neighbour...unless they're not heterosexual." (But I won't rant about that right now, that would take too long!) We also live in a very judgemental society. We are judged for the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, where we live, what we do, pretty much everything, and people form opinions on our character based on this. We are all both the culprits and the victims of it (some more than others). Girls judge each other all the time but it's even worse when it's coming from your family: "what on earth are you wearing?" "you can't go out like that!". Everyone is entitle to their own opinions, ideas and style, which people seem to find difficult to accept. If girls use their clothes to express themselves and they choose to wear short skirts or tight shorts they're judged, subject to derogatory names and are accused of looking for attention. The idea that we dress to feel comfortable and boost our own confidence, and not for other people's enjoyment, seems ludicrous to some people. I don't know what it is about people that makes us so judgemental, it's just society I guess. So I guess the bottom line is, no matter what you do in life, someobody is going to contradict you, or judge you or tell you that what you're doing is wrong, and there is nothing you can do about it. so the only thing that you can do is be yourself. Wear what you want, love who you love and do what makes you happy. Do what you believe in and follow your own values. If someone wants to contradict you or tell you that you're wrong, that's their own problem not yours. If you live your life trying to avoid contradiction, and trying to be the person that others expect you to be then you're going to live a very boring life... Your happiness is the most important thing, remember that. Be yourself, there's no-one better. O McD |
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