Africa Today

Ive always known africa as a poverty striken country. From television adds wanting money to help kids, and the fact that everything id ever seen was either poor people struggling to survive or amazing animals in the jungles and safari's. Now i see africa as still an amazing beautiful country, but also as a country that has riches and poverty. War striken area's with violence everywhere it seems to be a very dangerouse place in some parts. Genocide between tribes has happend for example the tutsi and hutu tribes in rawanda.Many difficutlties have come through colonization. The European countries saw africa as a huge country filled with resources and wealth to be made. The did not care for the African people. The enslaved them, made them work, took their land split them appart and turned them against eachother. For many years you rarely saw one of the africans leading or being the boss. The Europeans came in late 1980's and early 1900's looking for money and resources. This beautiful country torn appart. The african people have been struggling for a long time and now they are still struggling because the colonizers either moved on or were forced out by rebels. The industry was run by Europeans now the resourses they have left are being taken and sold for wealth of small groups not entire city's. The politics are improving, more africans are now in power and things are getting back on track. The way i see it now is actually in many different ways. I want to visit africa because it is not only beautiful but very divers. Most young people before they look at a map would never even asociate egypt and the pyramides with africa. Or even think that they could have so many diamonds that they could be very wealthy. Some things i wish i could help with the poverty but i wish they could set themselves straight. Being taken over and then left with nothing is the biggest challenge i believe. Now my thoughts are changed not for better or worse but different.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is a widely known sport today. I do it myself and i see day to day how many people are trying to learn or how many people already skate. Once a sport that almost disappeared, to a sport that every knows of. It all started in the 1950's when surfers from all across California began to have the need to bring surfing to the streets. They would use planks of wood even boxes and throw on some roller skate wheels and off they went. Many people were injured during the first years because the boards were not stable and the wheels were made of clay. If they hit a rock a crack or anything they would pretty much be air born and hitting the pavement soon after. In about 1965 skateboarding died out. The company's stopped making boards. People who wanted to skate had to go back to creating their own. But people were still dedicated. In 1972 an amazing invention was created. The urethane skate wheel, similar to what are used today this made people change their minds about skateboarding. These wheels were a lot smoother, faster, and more absorbing. They were now able to ride faster over cracks and things but rocks are still always a challenge. The sport grew popular with many teams, a legendary one known as the Zephyr team. They rocked the competitions and were amazing on their boards. The team members such as Jay Adams, Stacey Peralta, and Tony Alva were the best back in the late 1970's. Now skateboarding is at a whole new level. The tricks are unbelievable there are so many skaters that are just amazing. Its really hard to keep up and sponsors are looking for the best of the best. Its definitely a revolutionary sport and anyone can do it. Every type of personality click or group has skaters. There’s punk, jock, nerd, hippie, emo, gangster, weirdo, quiet, and even some dogs can skate. It just amazes me and i believe its one of the fastest grown sports. It is my favourite sport and i believe one of the greatest creations in history today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdAKw0MBlo

This is a video of a 21 stair gap and handrail skaters have mastered. Amazing!