Esteban's Online Journal

Torture

“The use of torture is necessary to protect lives.”

Torture has been about for hundreds of thousands of years as a form of punishment for those who defied orders or broke the law. Modern forms of torture are used for extracting information. Early forms of torture used by the Romans was crucifiction, yes the same way that Jesus “Died”, the jews had stoning, no, not the hippy type of stoning, and the Egyptians had Desert sun death. These were deemed necessary (to deter people) or good (to punish the immoral).

There are people who agree with torture because it is a way to put off evil doers and its also necessary to extract vital information, for example, Sam Harris from the Huffington Post said and I’m paraphrasing “Imagine you have a terrorist in your custody and he gloats about having planted an explosive in the heart of a nearby city and all forms of negotiation have failed, there is still time to stop this unfortunate event from unfolding”. In this situation it seems that subjecting this unpleasant fellow to torture is justifiable. Obviously there are people who disagree with the use of torture because it is unethical or it’s morally wrong to harm someone to prevent harm to others, Reverend Nicholas Mercer for example, he says that the Christians oppose the use of torture because “Our lord was tortured.” Suffering is an inevitability. Someone hurts you or someone you care about, you hurt them back. There is no way you are going to let them harm you or others, that is why torture is necessary… to punish the immoral.

As a christian it may be morally wrong to bring suffering to others but then does the bible not say “treat others like you expect to be treated”. Does this not mean that if a terrorist, for example, caused harm to others, would he not be treated the same. If not then these so called “Christians” are defying the commands of the Lord. Every person on this planet has human rights and the right to remain silent when questioned but when tortured it dehumanizes people to make them easier to manipulate, like a pawn.

Torture is sometimes used to destroy the autonomy of the victim some societies have used torture to suppress independent thought and convert people to ‘right-thinking’. The individual is tortured until they abandon their own views and beliefs and adopt those of the torturers. The victim ceases to be an ‘end in themselves’ but becomes just another means to support the regime of the torturer.
This is an example, from a BBC report on Ethics, as to what torture could do to a person. An extremist may decide to enforce torture because the person being tortured may have different religious beliefs or may not want to be an extremist. Hence, the reason the extremist will do all he can to convert this person into an extremist by breaking down the person until they are ‘Reborn’. This is the reason why I disagree that torture is necessary to protect the lives of others as torture can be used to destroy someone’s life.

Esteban Velasquez

Bare Vexed

Dear Elizabeth Kerr

Whilst I was reading your article on the modern day slang, towards the end of the
article one thing stood out like a sore thumb. The sentence “Shakespeare will be turning in his
grave.” I could not help but think to myself, he was the innovator of slang why would this cause
him disturbance? Shakespeare’s plays contained over 2200 words that the people of his time
had never heard. These included foreign words, modified existing words and nouns turned into
verbs.
Swagger: Henry V, Act II, Scene IV/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene I

“An’t please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered with me last night.” – Williams
“What hempen home-spuns have we swaggering here, so near the cradle of the fairy queen?” – Puck

You may be surprised to see the word “Swagger” in one of Shakespeare’s plays but as a member of the youth I thank William Shakespeare for such a “Sick” word. The definition of the word itself could be used as a noun or a verb for example – Verb: walk or behave in a very confident and arrogant or self-important way. “He swaggered along the corridor.”
Noun- a very confident and arrogant or self-important gait or manner.

“They strolled around the camp with an exaggerated swagger”

Today to the youth it’s urban definition has been tweaked, not by a lot though. To us, the youth,
it also includes the way a person dresses for example “His swag is on point.”
In my opinion i believe that the slang words bring out the creativity in a person. After all, every
word in the English language, or any language for that matter, would have had to be made up at some point and to people at the time would also have found this word strange and it would have taken them time to adjust. Same principle applies to everyone else, including me, it took me quite a while to adjust to the slang term “ahlie” which is a way of agreeing with someones statement. For example: “You are such a neek” said Simeon to David. “Ahlie.” Jed said agreeingly.

Isabella also states that these slang terms come and go and uses the term “Groovy” along with the rhetorical question “After all, when was the last time you heard someone describe something as “groovy”? I agree with this statement and I will use the word “Skeen” to back up my reason for agreeing. “Skeen” was a term used for when someone said something either vain or a blatant lie. For example: “I’m dating a Victoria Secret model”

“Skeen!”

Just like “Groovy” it’s a term that vanished just as quick as it arrived. “Skeen” was very popular when i was in year 6, i am now in year 11, and not only was it used in context to the conversation but also used to annoy people. The more blatant the lie, the more you would prolong the word, it went from “Skeen” to “SKEEEEEEEEEN” to “Skn” in less than a year before become another forgotten trend. In conclusion I stand in favour of the young people and their use of modern slang as a way of expression and creativity. I believe they are following in the footsteps of W. Shakespeare himself. Coming up with these trendy words that spread across the 4 corners of the globe requires a lot of creativity that every single young person has the power to unlock, they just need a spark to light them up, Mr William Shakespeare is that spark. Shakespeare will be looking down from heaven, or up from hell, and smiling proud that he was The Innovator of Slang.

6AM: South West Konotop, Ukraine – Based on Conflict Poetry

The day was like most days here in Ukraine, during the winter. Dark, foggy and the whole city looked like heaven, covered metaphorically from head to toe with snow.

I woke up this morning to find 5 teenagers hiding in my room, i stared at them with a look of astonishment. one of them put a grimy finger to his white, cracked lips which produced a soft “Shhh”. He pointed towards the window. i stood up and carefully walked towards it, outside, about 3 soldiers, from the Russian army, looking through the windows up every floor. I thought they are not looking for me so i continued like every other day.

As I was watching TV I heard a click from inside the apartment, I walked to my room, looked around only to find the kids were all gone and were replaced by the 3 grown Russian soldiers pointing their AK-47s at my head, more specifically right in between my eyes. Instantly i put my hands up and dropped to my knees. The last thing i remember is looking up and hearing my skull crack as the wooden stock smashed into the side of my temple.

I woke up beside the motorway leading out of Konotop, Ukraine, located NE of Kiev the capital. As I stood up I noticed a sign that said “Под властью России армии,” meaning “Under Russian army rule.” I realised I couldn’t just walk back home, they threw me out for a reason. I was posted at Konotop 3 months ago to collect and deliver intel on “Louise le pullier,” a french drug trafficker, one of the biggest since Pablo Escobar and I have followed him from Moscow, Russia to Kiev, Ukraine up to Konotop, where he was staying in a hotel across the road from the apartment that I had rented. Now the surveillance Op was compromised, courtesy of the Russian army. According to my intel he should be doing another deal 48 hours from now in Odessa, on the coast of Ukraine and south of Kiev.

I looked about to see if I had my phone but the soldiers most probably destroyed it so I walked along the motorway towards Sumy hoping to find a village in between where I could use a pay phone and get my contact to pick me up. 6 and a half miles later I found myself in a village asking a woman, approximately in her late twenties, where I could find a pay phone, “доброе утро, где я могу найти телефон-автомат? Good morning, where can I find a pay phone?” The woman pointed down the road and said “left” in a really strong Eastern European accent. I thanked her before continuing my journey down the road to reach the pay phone.

I was now 26 hours into my journey to Odessa. I looked at my watch, 8AM. I was taken to Kiev by my contact and picked up a pair of fresh, clean clothes, a new mobile (IPhone 5s, modified to send and receive encrypted calls and text messages), approximately ₴20,000 (£1015.15p British pound sterling) in order to buy a plane ticket to Odessa from Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany).

I made it to Odessa with 8 and a half hours to spare so I decided to tour the catacombs and try the local cuisine. I decided to try a traditional crockery dish called Deruny or Draniki, which are potato pancakes and were unbelievably delicious.

6:30PM: I am at the catacombs, where the exchange is going to take place, with an hour and a half to spare. I was here earlier, scouting the area, looking for a spot where I could watch the exchange go down and call for backup, when the time is right, to arrest Louise and his men. Along with the Serbians he would be supplying the drugs. I found a ledge where I had a clear vision of everything. All I had to do now… Was wait…