Saturday, July 29, 2006
Today is the 2nd official time that I am booking out of Tekong, and we booked out at 11am, reaching Pasir Ris at 12pm. Life in camp is pretty much starting to become routine, punishments starting to increase steadily.
Well, since I've gone to camp, I can only book out of camp once a week to go home, and I'e started a paper diary to document my life in camp, a short paragraph or statement each day and I don't have the time to write long reflective entries. Last week I was taken ill so I didn't update this diary. But today I can try to write a little more about camp life.
Well in the army, we rush to wait and wait to rush. A lot of things are done inefficiently because of the rank system, commanders take their time to make decisions, the commands take time to pass down the chain of command down to us and we get fucked for it in the end. When we have free time, we idle around being unproductive because we do not know when immediate orders will come, as such a lot of time is wasted when it could have been put to better use, hence the term we rush to wait and wait to rush.
As a recruit, you are the lowest life form on earth in the army. The focus of the army is regimentation and psychological torture to ensure complete obedience to all commands because in times of war, you don't want your soldiers to be questioning your orders. But unfortunately because of mandatory National Service, all of us have come from civilian backgrounds and take time to adjust to communal living and regimentation.
But life in today's BMT is far better from all our ancestors, we have near-modern buildings to bunk in, ceiling fans, better food from NTUC, but still there will always be complaints. Still there has to be a lot of getting used to.
Before entering NS, I thought I was fit, but little do I know, when I have to serve, I am not that fit after all. I always get gold for my Napfa fitness proficiency tests, but for NS IPPT you have to run a 9.44min 2.4km run to get the gold, every station has to be gold as well, as long as one station is not gold standard you don't get the gold, and I ran a 10.15min for the first IPPT categorization test, getting Silver for the first time my life! You need to pull 12 pull ups as well. These are the 2 stations that I really need improvement on.
Well more about Army life to come! It's just that I don't have the time to sit down properly and pen my thoughts and reflections for the day.
6:15 PM
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
What do American soldiers in Iraq, Israelis in Lebanon and Russians in Chechnya have in common? We could also ask the same question about Americans during the Vietnam war, Pakistanis during the East Pakistan civil war and Serbs in Bosnia a decade ago.
In each case, soldiers went into battle convinced they were fighting an enemy who was not only inferior, but also represented a threat to their countries. Hatred and fear drive otherwise decent human beings to commit butchery on a scale they would normally be incapable of. How do ordinary people reach such a state of bestiality?
Their indoctrination starts long before they enter military academies and training camps. Subtly and incessantly, the media and school textbooks drum home the message that their country, their civilization and their particular faith are superior to all others.
More importantly, the establishment keeps its population in ignorance about a potential adversary. Travel is made difficult, and the import of newspapers, books and magazines from the opposing country is restricted. News in the home media is heavily slanted. The perception of threat is magnified, the common elements blurred over.
Against this backdrop, hatred is easy to generate. The "other" is shown as somehow less than human. Perjorative names are routinely applied: Thus "gooks", "ragheads", "niggers" and "bingos"become part of everyday vocabulary. Even when a soldier kills an innocent civilian in enemy territory, this act is somehow not a crime because after all, one"haji" looks like another.
This de-humanising of the adversary goes a long way to explaining horrors like Abu Ghraib, Haditha and Mai Lai. From hatred to violence is a very short step. In Russia today, violence against non-Europeans and non-Slavs are common. This racism is widespread and goes largely unpunished.
In America after 9/11, anybody who appeared like a muslim was fair game for rednecks. These attitudes and prejudices are shaped by culture and history, and are given currency by the reactionary media as well as by a populist establishment seeking to gain support.
Some TV channels whip up the crudest form of patriotism to gain market share, and politicians use the flag shamelessly to garner votes.
So when instructors receive raw young recruits in military training establishments, half their work is already done. All that remains is to erase a soldier's individuality, and instill instant, unquestioning obedience in him. This is done through systematic and savage bullying or 'ragging' or 'hazing'.
When a young man of 20 is sent to do battle in a faraway land, he has a lifetime of indoctrination behind him. He truly believes he has right on his side, and that God will watch over him. He has also been totally convinced that he is fighting to protect his country and his family, never mind that they are thousands of miles away.
When an officer says "jump!", you don't ask "Why?", You jump as high as you can.
But the downside of this behaviour is that it makes a soldier suspend his sense of morality, and his grasp of right and wrong.
This training works in a defined battlefield where the enemy is wearing a different uniform and fighting under a different flag. The problem arises when the foe is elusive and usually dressed as a civilian.
In such a theatre, everybody not wearing a uniform like yours is a potential enemy. A woman wearing a burqa could conceal a weapon, and a young boy could be carrying ammunition for a militant. All men of course, are immediately suspect.
On patrol, with a heightened sense of danger and with adrenaline coursing through the system, the first instinct is to shoot first at any sign of possible danger. "Better safe than sorry" becomes the battlefield maxim.
So when we read that American soldiers recently shot a pregnant Iraqi woman dead as she was being rushed to a nearby hospital, we can only guess at what went through their minds as they manned a checkpoint. On average, seven Iraqi civilians are killed in similar incidents every week.
More and more, warfare will be an asymmetrical affair, conducted between regular armies and irregular forces. Soldiers trained to shoot clearly identifiable enemies are ill-equipped to fight the shadow war that is the "war on terror".
But as a generation of Vietnam veterans learned after they returned home, you do not just walk away after buying the dead. For many, committing nameless horrors because you are ordered to leaves deep psychological scars that you carry your whole life.
The ultimate axis of evil is the one between ignorance, fear, hatred and violence.
10:23 PM
Thursday, July 06, 2006
The time has come, for me to put down my civilian clothes and to don my soldier's garments. It's the time to serve the Nation, so put away all the gripes and complains and just do it. You can't escape. The Army is out to get you, might as well bite the bullet for 2 years.
BMT is about a month or so. So see you in about a month or so, if i do decide to come back and write. Meanwhile take care.
NS Enlistment. 7/7/2006
Au Revior.
9:12 AM
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
FX QuestI guess it's finally time to conclude and write a summary on the past 3 years on my life in polytechnic. It may just be another phase in life, but nevertheless and important one worth documenting, all the significant milestones during the past 4 years. This may well be one of the last few entries that I am going to be writing.
Pre-NP, OIOI was summarized before and won't be repeated, but here is a short excerpt, honestly speaking it was the best time of my life then. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and met different kinds of people, and for once after 4 lousy years in secondary school, I was really happy. But like all happy times, they don't last and you got to move on. I was never a "star student", most of the time was always last in class when it came to Chinese class or other classes, my grades always fluctuated, but what remained constant was usually my sciences and my English language. Even then, there was always someone with better grades and straight A's.
After 4 years or struggling through secondary school, the last and final hurdle was finally crossed but with limited success. Ok, so my O levels weren't as good as expected by others, honestly then I was more happy than disappointed, but I cant remember whether I was feeling down or elated then, that was almost 4 years ago! Even so, I did qualify for JC, but opted for the polytechnic route instead, chiefly because I didn't wish to struggle with mother tongue all over again. With that, I applied for 6 different courses in 2 different polytechnics all with my chief strength in mind. Biology, which was my strongest subject, even among my sciences. Unfortunately, in got into my 2nd choice, NP's Biomedical Engineering (BME) instead of BIO in SP. Their aggregate cutoff was 9 points, guess I wasn't good enough. Little did I know that it will change my life not in the least. I met different people, experience different things, went to different places, learnt new things, and realized what life really was more and more.
Year 1 The first year wasn't significant, like all matriculation times, you feel lost initially, wandering around the seemingly endless corridors trying to find your next class location, what notes to get, who the hell to find, you suddenly seem alone, there's no one to talk to, everyone around you seem to be in a small clique with their groups of friends chatting happily and then suddenly you plonk yourself into an empty seat in an unfamiliar classroom with a weird address and everyone around you seem like aliens with the same anxious, worried "am-I-in-the-right-class" kinda look.
But gradually as time passes you get to know them and life becomes easier. I was taking it easy during my first year. Apparently BME is a small cohort with about 40 students and only 3 classes. G1, G2 and H1. The G1s were does who got an A for A-maths, and the G2s were those who didn't. I was a G2. I met new friends, started a new cca, my old passion, TKD, had a lot of fun in that club and met more people there. The days then were pretty much going out after school, and going for cca. People hardly talked about their work or tutorials they had to do then, everyone took it easy.
As the year passed, the G2s and G1s interacted more with combined lectures, but the H1s were more anti-social. So throughout my first semester, we were taking it easy, horsing around rather than seriously taking note of our studies. But there was this barrier between the G2s and the G1s. The G1s were perceived as the "more elite", half the class was foreigners, and everyone always got an "A" in every test. There was a slight tension in comparison as the G2s will try fervently hard to catch up academically.
Year 2 Then came along Year 2 and the BME centre became our full-time home. We ate there, studied there, played there, watch TV there, did our projects there, lazed there, stoned there. The clubhouse became the icon of the BME centre, being the only centre in the whole of the electronic division to have it's own rest-house for their students to relax and just do whatever they want. Other students from other courses would always comment at how privileged BME students were to have their very own clubhouse to call their own. We had a sofa, 2 tables and a TV inside the clubhouse and it was air-conditioned. =)
We had more G2 and G1 interaction, but the H1s were still drifting in and out, and the rift was still present. G1 and G2 had students who were "exchanging" classes, and amongst several students, we became dubbed as "G1.5" students because we swapped classes here and there. Sometimes I would get into the G1 class to take some of their lessons, sometimes back in G2 to do practical lessons. And the G1s and 2s would have the same lecture because course material was the same.
Year 3 IAP Year 3 came, being final year students, work load tripled accordingly and stress levels rose just as exponentially. After much discussion and thinking, I decided to do my IAP first, on the mindset that the skills learnt from my attachment could be put to better use for my final year project. IBN taught me a whole new set of skills. I was the first person from Ngee Ann to go there. Half of us were split to do FYP first, and the other half IAP.
In fact during one of the YRP (youth research program) open houses at IBN, I was already awed by the level of technology I've seen there. I can vividly recount and remember the first time I went there, my impression of the labs make it looks space-age and only something that you would see in a movie.
I expressed my idea, and 6 others from BME copied it, wanting to go to IBN with me when I first voiced it out. 6 of us went for the interview. I was the only one who got in, and was the first pioneer from Ngee Ann to ever go to IBN, the 13th and youngest institute of A*STAR.
My performance at IBN was considered exemplary. Bruce was happy, Noreena was happy and so was Prof Ying. Yes, I had one or two hiccups there, but I learnt my lesson. And subsequently they wanted me to go back! I got the coveted "Promising Young Researcher" award, which was given out to primary, secondary, poly and university levels. 4-5 prizes, only one for each level. I gave a presentation about the work I did on ZnO nanoparticles for biosensing applications to an audience at a Matrix auditorium the night I received the award.
Because of my performance, my pioneering at IBN became known at BME. The emails were circulated, and even Dr Lim Choon Min, ECE director got to know about it, became talked about and got featured in a magazine. I gave a really good impression about Ngee Ann back at IBN and IBN replied wanting 10 more students from Ngee Ann.
Deon was the next student that got in and he was the only one that got in too, the 2nd batch from NP BME. He got an award there as well. 3rd Prize winner for UK-Singapore Workshop on Bioelectronics Poster Competition. It was because of me and later Deon, that they wanted 10 more, and the year 2s, almost 19 of them went for an interview, but only 2 got in due to their high-expectations and screening, the current top student for year 2 Shin Han and Suaidah, they were later both on my magazine team for ECE mag 2006.
I came back to Ngee Ann to embark on my FYP project, which was my own original idea.
Year 3 FYP I thought of a medical portable device that could record your blood pulse, and even pulse oximetry, detect falls and physical shocks and temperature and then broadcast the information wirelessly to a base station that can be configured for different applications. After many revisions, it became "the lifesaver watch" and Qinyi was my partner.
I had planned it all from the start, it was this period that I learnt a whole lot more about the G1s and who I could really trust. It was this period that I also interacted with the H1s.
The duration was crazy, and I worked harder than ever before, often the first to come to school, we were always the first to come and last to leave, we chose that bench because of the "feng shui", Efin and deon sat there the previous semester and they got ADs for their ECG project. Martin continued their project, and we started our project a new.
I also got my chairman post for NP BME club, and Nahiddah was the secretary, Michelle the treasurer, Qinyi the Logistics, martin level 3 head, and Lionel Publicity. The rest were assistants, Joanne, Anle etc. I pushed everyone, I pushed my committee and we churned out 4 different events, more than any other BME committee previously in position.
My reputation of being with extremely high-expectations became notorious and people would recognize me for the stress that I put on myself and on others. We won two prizes at the ECE Christmas Party, one best teamwork and another overall champion, bought and decorated a Christmas tree that competed against the other courses in ECE. ECE, MicroE, ETE, INC and Alpha.
My project had more components and modules and expectations than initially expected. And they wanted to push a LCD for temperature readout, lecturers that came to see the project got excited and started suggesting we put in GPS! I wanted the pulse-sensor to work (PPG), the accelerometer, (force sensor or MMA), and the temperature sensor. Turns out that I had bitten more that I could chew and I was killing myself with the hardware, yes, I may be proficient in electronics, but it is the first time I am doing something on such a large scale and the first time I am dealing with Surface-Mount technology and components.
I learnt a whole new set of soldering skills, research, purchase and acquisition. Played with GB60 ARM 8-bit microcontroller from Motorola, Bluetooth from Initium (Samsung subsidiary), Maxim, Texas Instruments, Freescale, Analog and many other electronic ICs. I learnt more about filtering, did research-style experiments with the MMA (I am also the first in the BME centre to play with tri-axis accelerometry), the first to integrate 3 sensory components into 1 and do wireless data transmission. We had a lot of work cut out for us and it was obvious we didn't have enough time or man power.
A lot of problems, optical transistor saturation and PPG non-linearity, MMA peak-shock detection, temperature insensitivity. In spite of all the problems, I was able to showcase my dream to others and show that my concept could work in the technofair exhibition. The shock detection worked and the wireless alarm was the new concepts that was successfully displayed then. Even then I was able to inspire others with what I was trying to achieve with my project. We got Merit recognition for our project, even though we didn't win any of the top 3 prizes.
My only regret is that I couldn't finish the final working watch. We only had 4 months and 2 team members (my partner and I)! But I can dare say I would have definitely finished it if we had 4 people working on it, and 1 year to complete this project. Still we managed to overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds and the technical challenges never before faced by a student with a project of this scale. And to think I wanted to include a lithium battery charger and a radio-frequency wireless oscillating charger or a inductance charger! I took this quite personally, and have resolved to help the next batch with the project on take-over, to help them finish what I never finished.
For the project, we had worked had, juggling FYP with 6 other modules, each of them with it's own challenges and projects, staying late, going home at 10pm didn't really seem so crazy after all but became an every-other day occurrence. I got a distinction for that project.
The students who drifted in and out were the "better" students of G2 and the "lousier" students from G1 as seen from both sides. I got into the "AD" race big time and was struggling to get to the top. I was never like this in secondary school, to be so competitive academically. I got into the top 10 of BME and it was always a struggle.
The top spot for our cohort has been extremely competitive, no one holding the top spot for consecutive times. Efin, William, Kenneth, Qinyi, Martin, Hairul, Jia Hui, Deon, were some of those that have tasted the top 3. I've never been in the top three, by my estimate, my position hovered somewhere from the 4th to the 8th. Nevertheless, I got 3 book prizes and ADs, guess I just wasnt that smart.
Post-Year 3 and Graduation After graduation, I went back to IBN for a few months, before finally calling it quits and taking a break.
I was thrust into the middle of a minor politic and power struggle when I was appointed the Chief Editor of the Ece magazine, but even then we overcome all the odds, and with my 10-member strong team, we managed to produce a brilliant magazine considering that we're all from Engineering backgrounds with no training in design or graphics whatsoever. We were just students, some year1, some year2, all from ece, all without any magazine experience. The content of that magazine stunned all the ece staff, and we got praises and raves from just about everyone who saw it. The ece mag 2006 pushed the limits of what we could do and raised the bar of standards for the next editorial team, Ms Nancy was very supportive all the way, so was Mr Liew Chong Pow. The magazine has now been printed and distributed to staff members and all 600 graduating students this year.
I graduated from Ngee Ann with a Certificate of Merit diploma in biomedical engineering, Gold certificate of achievement in CCA and Certificate of Merit in project achievement. I was one of the 6 to get COM. Efin got the top position with 17 distinctions, William 2nd, both of them medalists, a gold and a silver, Deon third, me fourth, Kenneth fifth and Martin sixth. I was the only original G2 to win a COM, the other 3 were G1s and 2 H1s.
Then it was all fun and games! I went for a Holiday to South Korea, and later to Pulau Redang, Malaysia. Now that I've finished my summary of my 3 years in Ngee Ann, I can say that I've learnt a lot of things, a lot about life, the way it goes, how ugly humans can be and more, the politics in all management positions, improved my management and leadership skills.
I definitely matured even more and I think far beyond my 20-year old and many a times I joke that I have grown old. Throughout the 3 years, I've lost friends, but made even more and learnt more about this aspect of life along the way.
I know throughout my entire life, people have been telling me that I do not look like this or that. I've been told I don't look Singaporean, don't sound local, have an European accent, don't have the "creative' face, don't look "the art-type", don't this, don't that. Well. It all depends on how you think, what’s more important is that you find your niche, and what you like to do, combine it with what you’re good at, and you've got a winning formula. Then work on it. Work hard, and you will be successful.
Major Achievements 2004-2006-COM
-Gold CCA
-Project Merit
-IBN Promising Young Researcher
-Black Belt 1st DAN
-11 Distinctions
-TKD IVP Bronze 2005
-Conquered Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Positions held 2004-2006-NP ECE Mag Team Chief Editor
-NP BME Chairman
-NP YEP Sabah Group leader
-NP Tkd Secretary
-NP Tkd Publicity
Features on the WebNP BME school site
http://soe.np.edu.sg/soe/ece/intro_bme.htm
NP BME club site
http://soe.np.edu.sg/ece/bme/index.html
27th Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) 2005
http://www.ee.cuhk.edu.hk/EMBC05shanghai/activities.htm
The Near future Well, FX blog has gone through nearly 5 revisions in 3 years to reflect the different times. And now I am going to embark on the next phase of my life this Friday, National Service. But I don't have the time to do a new layout, and possibly will no longer have the time to write for this blog anymore. In any case 2 years is a long time and many things can change. I may grow tired of blogging and cease to blog and move on further in life.
What next? I have a place at NUS. But I am still contemplating the prospect of going overseas because of the better and brighter opportunities there. Cost is one concern. Maybe I can get a A*STAR scholarship? But the long 6-year bond is another cause for concern as well. Well at least I know my limitations, my needs, my wants, what I have to do, my expectations, 2 years in NS will give me ample amount of time to think through what I really want in the near future, something that can exemplify my current achievements and help boost my expectations and magnify my qualities so that my further education will give me the added edge and skills to achieve more and do more in my life. What do I really want to do in life other than just collecting achievements? There must be more to life than just than and I intend to find out.
If this is one of my last entries, I wish everyone all the best in all their endeavors. Dont compare yourself with others, it will only make you unhappy.
Life is simple, you make choices and you don't look back.
FX
4:24 PM
The path to NS.
Well, I've been thinking about NS, I will be enlisting for my 2 year National Service this Friday and it will be another milestone for me.
Well, up till now, from the 2nd half of year 3 when I am doing my FYP, till IBN, till now, I've been feeling the smartest I have ever felt in my lifetime. and at 20, I am definitely more mature that I have ever been. Now that I am going into NS, I will no longer be a civilian, I will become a soldier, and subject to military law.
I will definitely change, more for the worst. I will come out more uncouth, darker, more tanned, possibly more violent and more lame, my voice will be more rough and my brain significantly slower and more stupid. The objective of the Army is to instill submissiveness and remove individuality.
Well that leads me to my summary of the short history of my life during the 3 years that I've spent in poly. As always with all life milestones, we always learn something from it.
7:53 AM
Monday, July 03, 2006
Will today's computer-game generation even know of superman?
Children know who he is from certain iconography like the shield, and the idea of flight and strength and power. You take the "S" into the jungle and you're going to have about 50-50 recognition.
First introduced in 1938, now 70 years since his creation, we have been through World War II, the feminist revolution, the hippie movement, a Gulf War, a dotcom boom, 9/11, a dotcom bust, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, Jihad, Sars and tsunamis. Can super gosh-darn square Superman and his truth, justice and the American way be of any further relevance?
Superman is the anti-terrorist, he represents an idealism that we, as Americans aspire to. Instead of taking dysfunctional people like the mutants of X-men and placing them in a normal world, you take a dysfunctional world and place this virtuous character into it, and that's what makes it interesting. Superman doesn't go overseas to clean up the war problem. Instead he does heroic things and leads by example. At a time of moral ambiguity, he is a breath of fresh air.
Welcome to the 21st century superman. We do need a hero, more than ever.
10:05 AM
Sunday, July 02, 2006
War? Or just plain human brutality. What do American soldiers in Iraq, Israelis in Palestine and Russians in Chechnya have in common? We could also ask the same question about Americans during the Vietnam war, Pakistanis during the East Pakistan civil war and Serbs in Bosnia a decade ago.
In each case, soldiers went into battle convinced they were fighting an enemy who was not only inferior, but also represented a threat to their countries. Hatred and fear drive otherwise decent human beings to commit butchery on a scale they would normally be incapable of. How do ordinary people reach such a state of bestiality?
Their indoctrination starts long before they enter military academies and training camps. Subtly and incessantly, the media and school textbooks drum home the message that their country, their civilization and their particular faith are superior to all others.
More importantly, the establishment keeps its population in ignorance about a potential adversary. Travel is made difficult, and the import of newspapers, books and magazines from the opposing country is restricted. News in the home media is heavily slanted. The perception of threat is magnified, the common elements blurred over.
Against this backdrop, hatred is easy to generate. The 'other' is shown as somehow less than human. Perjorative names are routinely applied: Thus "gooks", "ragheads", "niggers" and "bingos" become part of everyday vocabulary. Even when a soldier kills an innocent civilian in enemy territory, this act is somehow not a crime because after all, one'haji' looks like another.
This de-humanising of the adversary goes a long way to explaining horrors like Abu Ghraib, Haditha and Mai Lai. From hatred to violence is a very short step. In Russia today, violence against non-Europeans and non-Slavs are common. This racism is widespread and goes largely unpunished.
In America after 9/11, anybody who appeared like a muslim was fair game for rednecks. These attitudes and prejudices are shaped by culture and history, and are given currency by the reactionary media as well as by a populist establishment seeking to gain support.
Some TV channels whip up the crudest form of patriotism to gain market share, and politicians use the flag shamelessly to garner votes.
So when instructors receive raw young recruits in military training establishments, half their work is already done. All that remains is to erase a soldier's individuality, and instill instant, unquestioning obedience in him. This is done through systematic and savage bullying or "ragging" or "hazing".
When a young man of 20 is sent to do battle in a faraway land, he has a lifetime of indoctrination behind him. He truly believes he has right on his side, and that God will watch over him. He has also been totally convinced that he is fighting to protect his country and his family, never mind that they are thousands of miles away.
When an officer says "jump!", you don't ask "Why?", You jump as high as you can.
But the downside of this behaviour is that it makes a soldier suspend his sense of morality, and his grasp of right and wrong.
This training works in a defined battlefield where the enemy is wearing a different uniform and fighting under a different flag. The problem arises when the foe is elusive and usually dressed as a civilian.
In such a theatre, everybody not wearing a uniform like yours is a potential enemy. A woman wearing a burqa could conceal a weapon, and a young boy could be carrying ammunition for a militant. All men of course, are immediately suspect.
On patrol, with a heightened sense of danger and with adrenaline coursing through the system, the first instinct is to shoot first at any sign of possible danger. "Better safe than sorry" becomes the battlefield maxim.
So when we read that American soldiers recently shot a pregnant Iraqi woman dead as she was being rushed to a nearby hospital, we can only guess at what went through their minds as they manned a checkpoint. On average, seven Iraqi civilians are killed in similar incidents every week.
More and more, warfare will be an asymmetrical affair, conducted between regular armies and irregular forces. Soldiers trained to shoot clearly identifiable enemies are ill-equipped to fight the shadow war that is the "war on terror".
But as a generation of Vietnam veterans learned after they returned home, you do not just walk away after buying the dead. For many, committing nameless horrors because you are ordered to leaves deep psychological scars that you carry your whole life.
The ultimate axis of evil is not WWII Germany, Italy or Japan, neither is it modern Iraq, Iran or North Korea. It is one between ignorance, fear, hatred and violence.
- Adapted from TODAY.
4:06 AM
