Taliban Gun Down Girl Who Spoke Up for Rights

?KARACHI, Pakistan ? At the age of 11, Malala Yousafzai took on the Taliban by giving voice to her dreams.??The tiny schoolgirl spoke out about her passion for education ? she wanted to become a doctor, she said ? and became a symbol of defiance against Taliban subjugation.?

?Masked Taliban gunmen answered Ms. Yousafzai?s courage with bullets, singling out the 14-year-old on a bus filled with terrified schoolchildren, then shooting her in the head and neck.??She survived after being in critical condition at a hospital in Peshawar, with a bullet possibly lodged close to her brain. ?

-DECLAN WALSH,?NYTIMES.COM

Malala was then quoted saying, ?I don?t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school.??All I want is education.??I am afraid of no one.

A LONG WALK TO SCHOOL?-Nairobi (IRIN)

Many Ugandans in the north have left the overcrowded displaced camps to start their lives over in the villages.??But little provision has been made for their return.??Children now living in the resettlement site of Orapwoyo, in Gulu district, have to make a two-and-a-half hour trek, wading across muddy rivers, to the nearest school.?

They arrive, tired and hungry, even before the lessons start.

In the school year of 2011-2012 the Bronx averaged an 89.49% public school attendance rate. nycenet.edu

The American dream appears to no longer be for Americans. In 2007 the amount of Bronx high school graduates averaged 57.5% with a dropout rate of 15.6%.

????????????????In the past doing an average job could earn an average lifestyle.??However, being average just won’t earn you what it used to. So many employers now have more access to much more above-average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius.

New technology has been eating jobs forever, and always will. There’s been acceleration. “In the 10 years ending in 2009, (U.S.) factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs ? about 6 million in total ? disappeared.”(http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Friedman-Americans-need-more-education-2705370.php#ixzz2CsgLWNXF)

?Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7.7 percent; and those with bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.

Through education and education alone will students greatly lower their chances of future unemployment.???School might not be for everyone.??However, knowledge should be for everyone.??School is the stepping stone that will allow students to eventually study what they want, how they want.???Although repetitively learning the basics may be frustrating, students must continue on with education.?Knowing the basics is average.??Average is officially over.

Written By,

Contributing editor: Kathleen Kalambay