The World Around Us, by Evangeline.
American Amanda Knox and Italian Raffaele Sollecito are finally free. They were convicted of murdering British student Meredith Kercher but an appeals court overturned the conviction after overwhelming evidence and testimony presented by independent experts and defense teams. I am exceedingly glad that they have been released from this nightmarish ride.
The Italian police and prosecutors, particularly a certain Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, totally bungled the whole case. Thanks to the Italian police who either failed to follow proper forensic procedure or mishandled evidence 54 times, thanks to the Italian prosecution wild hypothesis and suggestions ranging from Kercher being killed during a Satanic ritual orgy to her being the victim of marijuana-induced rage, and thanks to the police, prosecutors, and Italian and British media for being wholly-bent on pinning Knox and Sollecito as the murderers, both of these young people had to live through a four-year ordeal.
Nevertheless, the truth has won over the outrageous lies and accusations. Kercher has been almost forgotten and buried under this circus of a case. No one deserves to be as brutally murdered as she was and her family has been put under tremendous pain because of this trial. The question on everyone’s mind now is this – who is to be blamed? The actual murderer (Rudy Guede who had his sentence reduced to a lenient 16 years), media, police or prosecutors?
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Ashton Kutcher landed in hot soup (or should I say hot tub?) again. I’ve always wondered why Demi Moore married a man 15 years her junior. To give her the cougar effect perhaps? But that doesn’t matter much now. I am not a big fan of women who marry men more than 10 years younger than them, but I can’t help feeling sorry for Moore. No woman, cougar or not, deserves to be cheated on.
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On October 5, 2011, the world lost a great entrepreneur and inventor. Steve Jobs, the co-founder and driving force behind Apple, died of respiratory arrest at the age of 56. Jobs was a visionary and a technology genius who gave us what we want even when we did not know what we want. The world, especially the technology world, will definitely miss this man with a brilliant mind. He was one of a kind. RIP Steve Jobs.
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The Hamas Palestinian government after more than five years has finally freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Shalit was abducted at the Kerem Shalom border crossing June 25, 2006. He was not allowed visits from humanitarian organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross and was used as a pawn in negotiations for the release of Hamas and Palestinian prisoners. So that Israel would know that he still lives, 20 Palestinian women prisoners were released in exchange for a DVD of Shalit.
On October 11, 2011, a prisoner swap was agreed upon in negotiations and the deal signed in Egypt. In exchange for the release of Shalit, 1,027 prisoners would be released from Israeli jails. Among the 1,027 prisoners are 280 serving life sentences. This deal was met with mixed reactions in Israel. Although the majority supported the deal, there were some against it as they viewed it as a victory for Hamas.
Shalit was released on October 18. While his release is a joyous occasion, there are concerns that Hamas will resort to capturing more Israeli soldiers to free the more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Only time will tell if there are more pros or cons to the release. Nevertheless, Israel has just showed to the world the worth of one of their soldiers.
Evangeline is a 17-year old homeschooler from Malaysia. She likes reading, writing, editing Wikipedia, listening to music and surfing the net. She is always on the lookout for new posts for her blog: http://sugarpeach.wordpress.com
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