2012 Messenger – What will happen?

Posts Tagged ‘article’

I saw the article on the Yahoo homepage:

http://men.style.com/details/features/full?id=content_9817&

I admire him a lot. I’m a recent university graduate, and I feel like my life as it is lacks meaning. Sure, I need a job, but even if I had one, so what? I’d just be spending most of my life working for someone who’ll be paying me but at best would never really care about me. Is there any intrinsic meaning to it? I personally don’t care about being rich, it’s not like having a house or nice car or nice clothes would make me happier. But I live in a society where that’s valued. I lack passion in anything in life, and without a job will be nothing more than something to pay the bills.

However I have two problems with living that lifestyle:

1. I’m still an intellectual person. Even if I were homeless I’d still want to go to the library sometimes and read.
2. I might never find a girlfriend/wife, but even if I lived with money I might not find one either.

But even if I don’t exactly live like him, how do I get his life experiences – working in an Ecuadorean village, living in a Buddhist monastery, etc? I don’t know where to look for that sort of thing and with my degree in computer science I doubt I’ll be qualified for a job or volunteering.

And if I do, how do I get his survival skills?

A news article stated an Eagle scout had employed survival skills while lost in the mountains by “jump-starting fires with hand sanitizer gel”. How do you do that?

The Boy Scouts of America, known for teaching young people about good citizenship and survival skills, is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary. As the venerable youth organization approaches this big birthday, however, it is preparing for its own survival test: Can it draw Hispanic children into its declining ranks? The group’s goal is to double its Hispanic membership by the time it turns 100.

“One hundred years—that’s a great [target] for us,” said Marcos Nava. Nava is director of the Boy Scouts program’s National Hispanic Initiatives Division.

The Boy Scouts of America remains the largest youth organization in the U.S. However, the club’s membership numbers have been declining steadily. Today, about 2.8 million youths belong to the group. However, that is only about half its peak membership. It reached its peak membership in 1972.

The club’s declining popularity is primarily a result of young people’s changing interests over the years. Many teenagers today are more interested in activities like watching TV and playing video games. Teens today are less interested in the activities for which the Scouts have become famous. These activities include learning to build campfires and memorizing the Scout oath.

In an effort to boost membership, the Boy Scouts organization is attempting to draw into the program more Hispanic children. These children are currently underrepresented in the organization. According to the U.S. Census, 1 in 5 children under age 18 in the U.S. is Hispanic, but only 1 in 33 Scouts is Hispanic. Drawing this growing population to the Boy Scouts could be the key to the organization’s survival.

Rick Cronk is the chairman of the World Scout Committee. Cronk was disappointed to learn that Hispanics were underrepresented in the organization. In the past, the Boy Scouts tried to reach out to Hispanic communities by translating program brochures into Spanish. This effort, Cronk realized, had proven insufficient to help the organization meet its goal of doubling its Hispanic membership by its 100th anniversary.

Cronk, a seasoned business executive, pondered the problem of Hispanic underrepresentation in the Boy Scouts program. He knew the Boy Scouts had a good product. However, much of the organization’s new target group, Hispanics, had never even heard of it. So Cronk made Hispanic outreach a main focus. He set out to “sell” Boy Scouts as if it were any other consumer product. The Boy Scouts organization hired a media and marketing company that reaches out specifically to Hispanic communities. The Boy Scouts also conducted a yearlong survey of Hispanic attitudes toward the Scouts.

“We knew very little about the Hispanic family, how they see us, what they value,” Cronk said.

Based on the results of the survey, the Boy Scouts is now adopting a new approach. Its goal is to create awareness about the organization among parents in Hispanic communities. The organization is kicking off pilot programs in six heavily Hispanic cities to test its new methods. The group is planning radio and television ads and hiring bicultural, Spanish-speaking staffers. It is also partnering with other organizations that serve Hispanics.

“We’re serious about this,” said Rob Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive. “This is a reinventing of the Boy Scouts of America.”

The Boy Scouts organization is confident that its renewed effort will successfully reach the Hispanic group. Carlos Alcazar serves on the Boy Scouts National Scoutreach Committee. According to Alcazar, the organization’s traditional values dovetail well with those of Hispanic families. These values include respect, discipline, and community involvement.

“We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, [active] organization for Hispanic kids, or we’re going to be out of business,” said Cronk.

Article 38 is pursued every moment in my life. It is never violated in my own eyes unlike some other kids around the globe. I wake up with a perception of security. I do not need my survival skills nor would I need to use them.
I do not need to make a decision about whether to take a position in the army or become a wife to one of the officials unlike the kids who were abducted by the Lord Resistance Army (LRA). Being a child solider does not invariably indicate that they only carry a gun and endanger their lives; it also means they also work as runners who deliver messages and run errands, guards, sex slaves, cooks or spies. There is a motive to child soldiers. They want (the opposing army) to terminate the family and the community relationship by forcing them to attack their families and communities. At some point they are hoping the relationship will be destroyed for ever and will have to build a contemporary relationship within the army. They are given drugs and alcohol, because addictions to these substances make it easier for the leaders to lead them. (CHILDREN AND WAR).
The part that starts a new paragraph is the one that has a source. Do I put the in-text citation at the back or at the end of every sentence. If wrong can someone please tell me how to correct it?

This article compares the survival skills of human babbies to other species and apparently our babbies are severely lacking in survival intelligence or defensive maneuvers. How can I make my babby intelligent?

http://www.onion.demon.co.uk/theonion/other/babies/stupidbabies.htm

Also, I’m a bit concerned by the mothers who allowed their babbies to take part in these test situations.