The Origin of Conflict

Conflict has been going on since the beginning of this earth, but it has many factors and variables that people don’t take into consideration. The main one is the origin of conflict. When there is conflict, people don’t care too much about how it started or who created it; all they want to do is find a way to end it. Conflict can be as insignificant as a fight in the playground between two children, or it can be as serious as two or more countries going into war.

                Children can start a fight over anything. Let´s say two kids are playing in a ground and they both want to go down the slide, but they both want to be first. This causes an argument which then escalates into a fight. When a teacher sees them the first thing he/she tries to do is stop the conflict. They don’t bother to ask how the argument began or who started; all they want is for the conflict to end. As children can have these arguments, so can adults; but the problem is that conflicts between adults tend to have greater consequences.

                Conflicts between adults have the power to affect more people, than children´s arguments can. Take the conflict that happened in Rwanda some years ago. The problem was between the Hutu and the Tutsi. These are the two major tribes in Rwanda. When Belgium took over Rwanda they divided the people into two groups, Hutus and Tutsis. Even though the majority were Hutus, Belgium decided to give the Tutsis the all the power because the thought the Tutsis had “leadership values.” The Hutus resented the Tutsis for what Belgium granted them. The Hutus then wanted to get pay back so they mass slaughtered thousands of Tutsis. The problem became so big that in turned into a genocide. This demonstrates how the conflict between two different groups that are made by the same race of people can result in an atrocious genocide. When the UN got involved they weren´t looking for how the conflict started or who was responsible, all they wanted was to stop the mass slaughter caused by the Hutus.

                Conflict can surface because of many different reasons, but they last thing people care about doing when conflict comes about is the origin of the problem. In the case of Rwanda, the origin of the problem happened so many years in the past that the people who were trying to end the conflict didn’t care about why it started; all the wanted was to stop the slaughter. The origin of conflict is not the most important thing when it comes to major issues; the most important thing is to preserve the peace.

Refugees in Saudi Arabia

Refugees in Saudi Arabia

I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years, and saw many things that most people don't get to see in their life. Many were great things, but others were things that really made me grateful for my life and for what I have. Life there is a little bit different than it is here in Colombia. Here we are used to see female maids in our house, but over there that is very rare. Because women couldn't be maids for non-saudi families, then the men had to do it. The male maids were called house boys, and they would do everything a normal maid would do. Most house boys over there were from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The house boy and gardener communities were extremely poor, and they had to pay most of their salary to the sponsor that sent them to Saudi, while the other part of their salary was sent it to their families. This meant that they had very little money to buy food or clothes for themselves. It was awful to see them working under the 50 degree arabia sun. It was especially hard for them during Ramadan because they had to fast for the entire day without drinking water, and then they had to eat with the little money they had left when fasting was over. I remember seeing their exhausted faces while they worked; it made me feel terrible. I can't even begin to imagine what they have to go through everyday because I am use to being in my little air conditioned bubble where I only had to go to school and back; while they had to work all day in the awful heat. 

Now that I read an article of the refugees from Syria, Sudan, and Iraq; I see the house boy, the gardeners and the refugees sort of similar. In a way the gardeners and the house boys are some sort of refugees too. When a person goes to a another country and gets refugee status, they get very little money, which has to serve an entire family. I remember having a conversation with one of our house boys a long time ago. His name was Shree, and he would tell me about his family back in India. He told me that he had to work for 6-8 months before he could go back home and see his family. He could only be with his family for 2 months before he had to go back to work. He also told me that it was really difficult to maintain a connection with his kids and his wife. This broke my heart. That's what all the gardeners and house boys have to go through to support their family. This needs to change, because entire families are being affected by this lack of care in people,s behave. If I could go back I would give more things to them like: food, clothes, and toys, so they can send to their families. This act of giving back is what the world needs right now, so little kids that don't have the opportunities we have today can have a chance to have a real childhood.

Work Cited

Unknown, . Saudi Arabian Flag. N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 9 Mar 2014.                 <http://flagpedia.net/data/flags/big/sa.png>.

Biography

My name is Mateo Salinas. Im an 18 years old student that goes to Colegio Panamericano. I was born in Denver, Colorado, but right now I live in Buacaramanga, Colombia. I live in Saudi Arabia for 5 years and then came back to Colombia. Overseas I travel to many places like: Egypt, South Africa, Dubai, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, etc. My hobbies are working out, break dancing, running, traveling, and hanging out with my friends. My dream in life is to become a professional actor. I want to study in Los Angeles, so I can get all the training necessary to fulfill my dream.