Simple Deeds

Open any social medium or reputable news source and you will find an outpouring of hatred, crime, death, and grief. As important as it is to be informed and stay educated, it is equally as important to seek positivity and take comfort in the fact that good persists despite all the bad in the world. With that said, I would like to take this opportunity to report some elusive good news!

This week in Kenya, a science teacher named Peter Tabichi won the Global Teacher Prize for being an exceptional educator. He currently teaches children in the village Pwani. Classroom conditions are poor, famine and drought persist in the village, and many of the children are orphaned. He was recognized not simply for being an exceptional teacher, but for being a kind and wholehearted person. Peter Tabichi had spent much of his career giving his earnings away to the poor and unprivileged.

Under Peter Tabichi’s encouragement and guidance, his students became diligent, motivated, and many went on to receive a college education. Tabichi spoke of his own misfortunes during his acceptance speech: his mother died when he was young and his father worked hard to instill good work ethic and strong Christian values in him. When commenting on Tabichi’s strength as an educator, the Kenyan president said his story was the “story of Africa”. In a speech addressing Tabichi’s success in the competition for the Global Teacher Prize, the president expressed his wish for Tabichi’s kindness to light the way for future generations and encourage altruism. The winnings for the competition were one million dollars. I can’t say for certain, but I can speculate that much of this money will be passed from Tabichi to those in need.

The story is a short one, but a sweet one. It speaks volumes about compassion, altruism, and the importance of helping those in need. Tabichi did something which goes above and beyond what most of us will ever do. He prioritized the personal wealth of others at the expensive of the quality of his own life. He gave away most of his earnings to those in need and worked tirelessly to be a mentor and an inspiration to his students. Tabichi and others like him are a reminder that all of us are capable of kindness. So, having read this post, I now encourage you to do some good. Do a small and simple act of kindness to remind both yourself and others that positivity and love and compassion exist so long as we keep them alive. 

South Korea’s Spycam Problem

The next time you stay in a hotel, you may want to check your room for spy cameras. In South Korea, over 1,600 hotel guests were secretly filmed. According to The Guardian, two suspects secretly set up spy cameras in 42 hotel rooms at 30 hotels in 10 different cities between November of last year to the beginning of this month.

Through the use of mini cameras with 1mm lenses installed in hair dryer holders and wall sockets, over 800 illegally filmed videos of hotel guests were being live-streamed via a server overseas. The website that streamed these videos was taken down, but the suspects made 7m won ($6,200 USD) from 97 users who paid a monthly fee to access these videos.

Being filmed without consent isn’t something new to South Korean citizens. They are currently battling the “molka” epidemic. The molka epidemic is the secret filming of women in changing rooms, bathrooms, and sometimes in their own private homes.

The Guardian reports that one South Korean woman who worked for a trading company in Seoul received a toilet-seat cover as a gift from the firm’s vice president. However, when she noticed a hole in the toilet seat cover, she lifted it and found a camera. It had been recording her going to the bathroom.

South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, recognizes that these spycams have become part of daily life for his citizens and is demanding stricter penalties.

Unfortunately, the offenders of this crime barely face any punishment. They are either forced to pay a fine up to 10m won ($8,800 USD) or serve up to five years in prison. However, many campaigners say that most of the times these offenders simply have to pay modest fines and the crime goes unpunished.

The molka epidemic is horrifyingly invasive. It is wrong that so many South Korean citizens have to accept that spycams play a part in their daily lives. Everyone is entitled to their own privacy, but it seems as time goes on, citizens are stripped from it more and more. I truly hope that the South Korean president takes more action against these crimes and puts a lot more effort in making his citizens feel safe in their own country.

– Sam

Follow Up on Mueller

Well, there it is if you want to take a look at it. Mueller has finished up, and I felt it was my job to follow up on what has gone on. So, basically Robert Mueller III, Special Counsel assigned to investigate the reports of foreign intervention in the 2016 presidential election and the possible attempts at obstruction of justice that followed, after two years of subpoenas, indictments, and accusations of overreach, has finally completed his investigation and reports. He’s sent them in to Attorney General William Barr for confidential review of what he recommends for the DOJ to do and how to follow up on what has been found. What has been found? Well…

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/24/us/politics/mueller-report-summary.amp.html

Hmm, for some reason, the preview isn’t coming up, so I’ll summarize: it seems Mueller has not found any substantial evidence that Donald Trump has colluded with a foreign power during the election, but hasn’t exonerated him of obstructing justice. I want to say I didn’t see this coming, I really do, but I suppose I just really didn’t want this to be so. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I would have been glad that the highest office in the land was being held by a traitor, but let’s be honest here, he’s a criminal. He does a lot of shady stuff. And to honestly editorialize (and you know I always will) this feels like the Iran-Contra situation all over again. Were Oliver North or Ronald Reagan ever sent to prison for committing what was basically high treason? No, and in fact are practically canonized saints today among conservatives, but we know that’s not because they were innocent, but because someone shredded all the right documents in time. That’s what this feels like, not a final vindication of someone wrongfully accused, just another Teflon Don getting off easy. That’s not to say, necessarily, I’m thinking like these guys though.

Again, I’ll explain: there are currently Democrats in Congress who are making it very clear that they will continue to investigate the possibility of corruption amidst the Trump campaign and administration, regardless of whether or not Mueller has declared proof of wrongdoing (which we now know he pretty much sort of hasn’t). Now, this presents some interesting predicaments for the Democratic party, most glaringly, the optics, especially in the light of certain past actions. I don’t think there’s anyone now who can hear the word “Benghazi” without cringing. The incident itself was tragic, but the following, exceedingly long and tedious investigation after was so painful as to be like trying to pull teeth by ripping them out by the roots backwards. Part of that was because, despite numerous times coming up with a lack of evidence for malfeasance or negligence on the part of President Obama or Senator Clinton, Republicans insisted on continuing follow ups, always insisting on conspiracy and that the next probe was sure to unearth the truth. The blatant falseness of this, and the true attempts at simply trying to gain political points, was something Democrats never lost a step in addressing. Worse, there are other investigations and scandals that place the Democrats in an awkward spot, such as the one that unearthed the Monica Lewinsky scandal, where many on the left insisted that it was a needless snowjob by Republicans, to the 1984 midterm fight over Indiana’s “Bloody Eighth” district that had Republicans hereafter calling Democrats undemocratic tyrants. To keep up this investigation would have the large likelihood of having the entire Democratic party being called out as hypocrites, willing to crucify a political opponent even without due process or evidence.

I can’t exactly speak objectively as to the truth of all these perspectives. People who know me know where I stand, and not too far back I expressed as much. I believe in democracy and the rule of law. I don’t want the law to be made a cudgel for the heads of those who are considered dissidents or enemies. Yet, I also don’t want a miscarriage of justice, especially one that allows someone so dangerous to still maintain so much power. Those in Congress who say it is well within their right to make new committees and start or continue their own investigations aren’t wrong. They haven’t stepped outside the letter of the law, nor exactly violated its spirit, but it’s an incredibly fine line they’re treading. It’s one that those already poised to disagree have claimed they’ve already leaped off of, and to be fair, we shouldn’t take our eyes off them for fear at some point they might end up being right. Believe me, I hate that we have to be the side that still cares about doing the right thing, as well as doing it the right way, but the game plays on, and it would take quite a shift to change the rules.

– Mike R.