My 20th birthday bash

One great birthday celebration with my friends

25th of November is the day when I wished my teenage days good bye and welcomed my adulthood. Those years of playing, fooling around and taking things for granted came to an end on that very day. I wasn't really sad despite the fact that my teenage years were over; my days from the early days of secondary school to the beginning of college were hardly pleasant and always rough. Things only became better in the 2nd semester of college for me when I got to know my good friend Chai Ann and her friends; it wasn't long before we started the Strike Team together. Having the Strike Team was not the only memorable event in my teenage years; the W.I. 106th Regiment, one of the finest regiment I've ever served in gave me a new perspective on my social life. The comradeship that I have experienced during the months in the Regiment taught me that not everyone around me were assholes, bastards and bitches similar to those in my secondary school. The Regiment also made me feel how important I am to them with the utmost support and warm friendship harvested during those days. Besides that, the Regiment opened my eyes to global events and issues that made this world unique. The W.I. 106th Regiment wasn't the only class that made my teenage days joyful; Miss Rohwena's Organizational Behavior classes gave a nice introduction to business organizations around the world which prepared me for my future corporate career. Her class gave me an opportunity to work with some of the finest business students from Touche Inc which comprised Chin Yen, Eugenia and Michelle. Those are the days I'll clearly remember and will deeply miss as my teenage days are outnumbered. Although the fun days of my teenage days are over, my arrival into adulthood was welcomed with a great birthday celebration organized by my good friends from Hong Kong and Japan. Although we were recently acquainted this semester, my foreign friends took a lot of initiative and effort to organize one great birthday bash for me.

My birthday celebration actually begin a day earlier. Celebrating my birthday one day earlier was something I never really like as I hardly look forward to getting old. However, after realizing that my friends instilled a great amount of effort into my birthday celebration, I knew it was wrong of me not to play along. The celebration begin with a movie outing in the evening; my friends managed to get tickets for the movie I was really looking forward to this year: Hitman. Although most of them were not really a big fan of movies like these, they still decided to watch it with me as they wanted to make my day. Shelley, Calvin, Maaya and my roommate accompanied me for the movie. Although Cindy couldn't make it for the movie (which I was disappointed...), her neighbor Adrian (which I recently knew) replaced her. Adrian brought a friend of his to the party on that day as well; his name was Kenny and he was a Korean living in Vancouver. After the movie ended, night approached with the escort of light snow which delighted everyone; the snowing scenery in Kamloops can sometimes be a sight for sore eyes. Seeing that the next bus to downtown was arriving soon, we hurried together to the nearest bus stop. My friends thought of buying me dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in downtown which I thought was really nice of them.

Most of my friends were new to Mexican cuisine. Consequently that night, I had to personally suggest Mexican dishes to every one of them according to what they love and what they don't. Fortunately, with the help and suggestion of the restaurant's owner, my tedious task became easier. After ordering our dinner, we started our friendly conversation with topics ranging from school work to gossips. Although I could have started my talk on global politics with my friends, I feared that I will put all of them to sleep which will then jeopardize my celebration; therefore, I thought about letting it go for tonight. Half an hour later, Cindy joined us for dinner; she then apologized to us for being late. Dinner that night was awesome, I was glad everyone enjoyed their meal and had a great time hanging out together. After dinner, I thanked everyone personally for their dinner treat.

Before we celebrated my 20th birthday, my Hong Kong and Japanese friends insisted that I must get drunk on the night of my birthday. Knowing that I was a lousy drinker, I wasn't really comfortable with that idea; on the other hand, seeing that I mustn't disappoint my friends, I decided to play along. Consequently after leaving the Mexican restaurant, we visited the liquor store which was a stone's throw from the restaurant. As I entered the shop, I became nervous as the "lethal" look of the alcohol bottles welcomed me. From mild alcohols like beer and shandy to the extreme ones like whiskey, vodka and tequila, I knew that I will be chugging down one of them later on that night. Adrian was the only one among us who bought from the shop which surprised me as initially everyone was eager to get me drunk. When I asked the rest of my friends why didn't they buy anything, they said that they stocked up vodkas and other heavy booze a couple of days ago. They added that they wouldn't mind buying some more if I can finish all of their booze by that night. I knew I was getting myself into more trouble if I continued talking about booze, so I thought maybe I should shut up before they get more funny ideas about making me drunk. Adrian bought 2 bottles of rum that night and he smiled at me sinisterly which made me felt that he expected me to finish this 2 bottles of rum that night. After our brief visit to the liquor store, my fear escalated that night knowing that I will have to face a couple of drinks that would make me sick.

All of us decided to return to our apartment after our visit from the liquor store. Unfortunately for us, we missed the bus and we had to wait for an hour before the next one arrives. The night was getting cold and non of us were willing to wait for the bus in the open; therefore, we decided to get ourselves indoor before we catch a cold. Most shops were closed that night and there were not many places to visit; however, Calvin came up with an idea of visiting the casino. All of us agreed to Calvin's plan as most of us never visited the casino in Kamloops before. The casino was located in a 5 star hotel (...out of 10 star) which was a couple of blocks from the bus stop. Although we were eager to visit the casino, none of us thought about gambling since we wouldn't want to put our student's allowance at stake. As we entered the casino, the security asked us for our ID before letting us in. Shelley was the first one to be asked because she look the youngest among us. Although it wasn't exactly Vegas, the neon glittering colorful slot machines and fancy looking poker tables mesmerized us. Our tour around the casino reminded me of my gaming days in Rainbow Six Vegas; only there wasn't any gun battle in the casino that day. As the bus was almost coming, all of us decided to leave the casino; we took a 10 minutes walk back to the bus stop hoping that we would not be late again only to miss the bus. Fortunate for us, we still had 7 or 8 more minutes before the bus came, consequently, we thought of getting some coffee from Tim Horton's which was just beside the bus stop. As the bus arrived, we hopped on and headed back for our apartment.

It was already 11pm the moment we reached the apartment. Most of us look tired and sleepy so they thought about taking a nap before we continued partying. Like the rest of them, my roommate was also dead tired, so he took a nap as well. On the other hand, seeing I was still energetic, I thought about spending some time with my Play Station 3; I played Ghost Recon and Call Of Duty 4 that night while waiting for my friends. After what seem to be a long night of gaming, I then wondered whether my friends were coming down to my place to continue partying. I was worried that their nap turned into a long sleep so I immediately phoned them to wake them up; unfortunately for me, none of them answered my call and I knew it was the end of my celebration. I submitted into disappointment with a huge sigh and I thought about calling it a day as well. As I prepared myself for bed, a loud knock on my door was heard; the knock was continuously and I thought it was some drunk sucker playing a fool. Feeling a bit agitated, I rushed to the door clenching my fist getting ready to deal with that annoying idiot. As I opened the door, surprised caught hold of me as I witnessed Cindy, Shelley and Maaya standing outside my door. It was 12 am in the morning on the 25th of November when they appeared at the door; their surprise was right on time. Shelley had a big birthday cake on her hand and the girls started to sing "Happy Birthday"; they sang it very loudly which showed that they were really dedicated to my celebration. I almost broke down in tears as I was so touched but I struggled to keep the waters behind my eyes since I wouldn't want to present an emotional impression to my friends. Just a minute earlier on, I was slightly angry with my friends as I thought they forgotten about my birthday but at that moment, I felt like an idiot for mistrusting my dear friends.

The birthday cake was simply beautiful. It was Tiramisu cake with nice creaming decorations and coffee sprinkles; in the middle of the cake was a big white chocolate flake in a shape of a heart which had the words, " SWAT Lim". The cake was really gorgeous and I really loved it so much; according to my friends, Shelley took a lot of initiative in making the cake. My friends snapped some photos of me with the cake and we all had a group photo together later on. As I blew the candles on the cake after making a wish, more photo flashes blinded me which really made me feel like a star that night. Adrian joined in later on as he woke up slightly later than the rest of them. With him, he brought Illa( new acquaintance from Russia) along. Adrian wasn't the only one who had guest, Maaya brought her friend Alex whom I knew this semester at a paintball match. Seeing that everyone was here, we started off the party with drinking games.We played SNAP for our drinking game that night and all of us had a great time. That night, my friends did a great job making me drunk; it wasn't even 3o minutes in the game and I was already feeling tipsy. Fortunately for me, I did not do anything embarrassing that night regardless of my drunken state. We celebrated my birthday until 3 in the morning and by then, all of us were dead tired. Before everyone left, I thank everyone of them personally for attending my party; as for Shelley, I gave her a big hug as I couldn't be thankful enough for the cake she made for me. My 20th birthday party was a great one to remember.

Although we were recently acquainted this semester, my foreign friends took a lot of initiative and effort to organize one great birthday bash for me. My 20th birthday celebration was awesome since the ones held for me by my Strike Team and Touche Inc. last year. Ever since the celebration, I became closer to my Hong Kee and Japanese friends. It was really unexpected as I never thought that they would treasure my friendship so much despite I knew most of them this semester only. This illustrated that I meant a lot to them.

My 20th birthday dinner in a Mexican restaurant with my Japanese and Hong Kee friends.

Cheers!

The guys at my dinner. (Next to me) Robin, (Bottom left to right), Calvin, Adrian and Kenny

The girls at my dinner. (From left to right) Shelley, Maaya and Cindy

My 20th birthday cake.

One happy birthday boy

My beloved cake maker, Shelley. The girl who I cannot thank enough for her wonderful cake that placed a big smile on my face

Getting drunk tonight!

Illa and Cindy with their booze

Alex and me...Don't mind the finger, buddy

Maaya and me, two drunk heads

We've got a man down! I repeat: we've got a man down! Adrian was the first drunk head to KO

Maaya and Shelley taking advantage of the drunk guy. Gang bang!

A Mix of Steak and Vodka on Friday Night

No matter how quiet or sleepy the town of Kamloops is, my day will always be fun with the presence of my Japanese and Hong Kong friends. Just last Friday, what thought to be dull evening turned out surprisingly and extremely fun when Shelley, one of my Hong Kong friends thought about preparing steak for dinner. Cindy, another friend of mine volunteered her place for our dining area that night which I thought was a nice change for once seeing that most dinners were held at my room all the while. Things got merrier when Maaya, my buddy from the land of the rising sun decided to join us; with her, was Kentaroh, another common friend Maaya and I both shared from Japan as well. To add the combo of the fun (for them), Cindy told us that we should all stay longer at her place after dinner for a couple of drinks. That made me slightly nervous as I was never a good drinker. Overall, the dinner and the alcohol party over at Cindy's place was spectacular which was what we all needed to welcome our long weekend (no school on the following Monday due to Canada's Remembrance Day).

It was 4:30pm on the Friday and I was working on my second part of my Sociology research paper, my work came to a pause when Shelley knocked on my door. Delighted to see her, I let her in before showing her the grade A steak I purchased for dinner tonight. After getting complimented for my standard of taste, Shelley unwrapped the plastic box containing steaks before seasoning them with garlic salt. Before she forget, she handed me her Nintendo DS seeing that her secondary reason for coming over to my room was to fulfill my lust for a game I was looking forward to play on her hand held game. Consequently, instead of helping her with the seasoning of the steaks, I occupied myself with her DS. 10 minutes later, Shelley told me that the steaks have been seasoned and she'll come back down again at 7:30pm. She told me to enjoy myself with her DS and don't forget to resume my research paper before leaving my room. I did listened to the part where she told me to enjoy her hand held gaming console but I guess I forgot about the "resuming my research paper" part as I continued playing until 7:30 pm.

At half past 7pm, Cindy gave me a rang and she told me to come over her room. Reluctantly, I turned off Shelley's DS and grab whole of the seasoned steak. Before, leaving for Cindy's room, I gave Shelley a call letting her know that I'll be over at Cindy's room with the steak in case she can't find me at my place. After taking an elevator ride to the 10th floor where Cindy stays, I begin my long walk to the other corner of the floor trying to look for her room. Her room's door was unlocked so I wasn't sure how to enter. I could have knock on the door letting her know that I am here; however, both my hands were occupied with the steaks. On the other hand, I thought about just entering but if she happens to be changing or putting on clothes, it would be a heck of trouble for the both of us (...well trouble only for her, but pleasure for me given the rare sight of her). Seeing that it was her place and it was an obligation to show some respect for the girl, I knocked on the door (...with my right foot, of course) hoping that she would know I am here. It wasn't long for her to welcomed me to her room. After placing the steaks on her dining table, Cindy told me that her neighbor, Adrian will be also joining us for dinner. Adrian was a Canadian born Chinese from Vancouver that I know from a paintball match I had last month in Kamloops. Usually, I will dread if there's an extra guest joining us for dinner, especially guys but I had no problem for Adrian as he was a nice guy.

As Adrian arrived, we traded greetings and got ourselves ready for the preparation of dinner. Shelley, the main chef for tonight wasn't here yet, so we didn't start the preparation. On the other hand, Cindy and Adrian began slicing those red peppers and onions they got from grocery shopping today. Seeing that I'm not proficient in kitchen work, Cindy told me to make myself at home instead. 5 minutes later, Shelley came marching with my roommate to Cindy's place with the frying pan and other cooking utensils which looked like alien technology to me given the fact that I hardly spend the time in kitchens to know the utensils. We then brought all of our cooking ingredients and kitchen utensils to the common kitchen on the 10th floor to begin cooking. Shelley brought something extra for the dinner: chicken wings with barbecued sauce, which I thought was a nice add on for dinner. As the frying pans with oil sizzled, the preparation for dinner began.

In the middle of our preparation, we all began to wonder where was Maaya. A couple of hours ago, Maaya informed us that she will meet us in the kitchen 10 minutes ago. Knowing that I wasn't doing any cooking, my Hong Kong friends dispatched me to Maaya's room on the 9th floor for some "recon" mission. As I reached the door of her apartment room, I knocked hoping that she was still in her room. As she opened the door, she greeted me and told me she was about to head for the kitchen on the 10th floor. Maaya needed me to carry her kitchen utensils, so she asked me in to start grabbing her stuff. The second I entered, Kentaroh who was hiding behind the door tried to close the door to crush and prevent me from coming in. Kentaroh was always the cheeky one who loves bullying me; he's 3 years older than us nevertheless the age gap between us wasn't a problem at all for our friendship. After grabbing on her utensils, the 3 of us marched to the kitchen to resume our preparation for dinner. Shelley was cooking the beef steaks and heating her chicken wings in the oven while Cindy was preparing shredded beef with pepper. Maaya on the other hand began preparing some Chinese dish that featured beef. Our dishes that night was mostly...beef. In the process of her cooking, Shelley accidentally dropped a piece of steak into the kitchen's sink while she was trying to transfer the meat from the frying pan to the dining plate. Knowing that one piece of beef cost me a lot, I insisted that we washed the meat with hot water before serving it. The fact that we were washing a piece of meat was simply humorous. An hour later, dinner was prepared and we transfered the meals from the main kitchen back to Cindy's place.

Before we started digging in, the girls snapped a photo of their proud work...like always. The dinner we had that night was great. The girls cooked well however we failed to finish the beef steaks. As a result, I thought about packing the steaks up and use it for dinner again tomorrow. After dinner, Maaya set up her laptop near Cindy's kitchen and Kentaroh hooked up his Play Station controller to her laptop.We played some video games on Maaya's laptop together; we challenged each other through a variety of games like Street Fighter, Mario Kart and Donkey Kong. The games weren't interesting for the most of us so it was a matter of time before we did something else. Kentaroh and I decided to wash Cindy's plate while the girls on the other hand thought about serving the internet together and looking at some photos together. Kentaroh had to leave early as the day was late and the last bus was about to leave; unlike us, Kentaroh lives somewhere else. The night was late for Kentaroh, but the night was still young for us.

Later that night, all of us were looking at Maaya's photo album in her laptop. She showed us the photos of her recent trip to Guam as well as the photos we had from the Halloween, Latin Fiesta and my trip to Vancouver with her. Most of her photos were funny and interesting and I was very surprised that all of us actually enjoyed ourselves by only looking at Maaya's photo album. Maaya later on suggested that we play O2 Jam together, consequently we took turns playing the game on her laptop. Everyone was laughing and giggling their asses off when they saw me played O2 Jam. I had several "missed" and "bad" in the beginning but I managed to get the hang of the game later on that night. After the game, Cindy then threw a drinking party by opening the bottles of alcohol she recently purchased. Everyone started digging in on the heavy booze except for me as I feared the taste of it. I asked Cindy's permission to use her laptop as I wanted to crank up some clubbing songs from YouTube to boost the environment for my friends. After getting the green light from Cindy, I opened YouTube and played the songs. They weren't exactly clubbing music but they were some "chao ah beng" rap music videos. Despite the vulgarity and the awkward rapping, everyone gathered at Cindy's laptop to view the video that I just played. Surprisingly the girls love it, especially Maaya; Cindy then cranked her thousand dollars speakers with heavy base and all of us were dancing wildly that night.

Cindy invited me to have some vodka with her but I declined her nice offer. Instead, I just asked her for "wata" (that's how the Hong Kong people pronounce "water" in their Cantonese accent). She insisted that I have "waka" (that's how they pronounce "vodka" which sounded almost like "wata") and seeing that I have to respect her (cos she's older than me), I went for it and we drank together that night. Later on in the night, we played some drinking games. We played a variety of games but everyone enjoyed "Snap" the most. We played until 2 in the morning and it was one wild night for us. After realizing the time, Shelley and my roommate dreaded as they feared they have difficulty waking up tomorrow for work. We thank Cindy for her place that night before we all left. As I was about to leave, Cindy generously gave me a box of cake and she told me to have them for breakfast later on. Confused about her generosity, I then wonder why she gave it to me only instead of the rest as well. On the other hand, knowing that I've got free breakfast, I didn't think much so I just accepted her generous gift.

Overall, the dinner and the alcohol party over at Cindy's place was spectacular which was what we all needed to welcome our long weekend (no school on the following Monday due to Canada's Remembrance Day). Despite drinking a lot to the extent that I was almost drunk, I woke up early the next day. My roommate surprisingly managed to get up early for work despite his sloppiness. Shelly, on the other hand had to call in sick for work as she couldn't wake up.

My roommate (on the far left) and me looking at how Shelley cooks the steak.

All eyes on me. How nice...We were playing video games on Maaya's laptop

Shelley took a picture of me puring vodka into my drink. Either she finds me drinking "memorable" or she's trying to snap a controversial photo of me so that she could send it to my parents for future blackmail.

Yam Seng!

How to Kill a Million

From the gas chambers of the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War to the bloody streets of Darfur today, the presence of genocide is clearly visible. What thought to be the end of these ruthless killings since the Nuremberg Trials, the world is shocked and once again disturbed by the continuation of mass murders illustrated by the civil dispute in Rwanda, the Khemer Rouge regime in Cambodia and the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in the late twentieth century. Behind the piles of corpses stacked high, the curiosity of what constitutes such acts sparks the study of genocide. In order to study genocide, an understanding of its various definitions, history, causes and most importantly—its stages of achievement, is essential.

The term “genocide” is referred to the systematic attempt to annihilate people simply because of their presumed race and ethnicity (Henslin, Glenday, Duffy and Pupo,2007). However, genocide is not only restricted to this definition as different groups ranging from legal organizations to scholars and the common people enclose their own definitions. For instance, the legal definition of genocide can be obtained from the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPG) which labels genocide as any action directed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, racial, ethnical or a religious group as such killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group’s conditions of life, premeditated to bring about its physical devastation in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to avert births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 2002). Genocide scholars on the other hand defines, genocide as a form of one sided mass killing in which a government or other authority intends to destroy a group as that group and membership in it are defined by a perpetrator ( Frank and Chalk, 1990). Commonly, genocide can be labeled as the intentional killing by government of people due to their group’s identity. The origin of the term was coined by Raphael Lempkin in 1943 where he combined the Greek word, genos (family, tribe or race) and the Latin word, cide (to massacre). Various definitions of genocide are established in order to facilitate the CPPG’s broad definition which comprises a variety of behavior like murder, prevention of birth and transferring children to other groups and their narrow definition that does not include the annihilation of political, economic and other non-indelible groups (Rummel, 2002).

Under the legal definition of United Nations, the history of genocide can be traced from the twentieth century where the Rape of Nanking and the Nazi Holocaust which took place during the second World War to the current genocide in Darfur (The History Place, 2000). On the other hand, the common definition of genocide will reveal that the systematic annihilation of people based on their group’s identity had taken place more than a hundred years ago in human history. Throughout the fourteen ancient dynasties in China beginning from the Xia Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, with emperors overthrowing each other and wars erupting frequently, millions were murdered because of their political affiliation (Liang, 2006). The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was another infamous example of genocide that took place before the 20^th century. As the Christian converted administration led by Hongxiu Quan revolted against the Qing government in China, between seven hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand Taiping soldiers under the Christian converted administration marched their way to Nanjing before slaughtering thousands Imperial soldiers and non Christian civilians. The rebellion was successfully suppressed by the Qing government with the help of British and French military forces at the cost of an estimated twenty to thirty million deaths (Spence, 1996). Genocide was not only restricted in ancient China; in feudal Japan, a ruthless Shogun by the name of Oda Nobunaga devastated a Buddhist monastery on Mount Hiei as his measure to remove any “thorns” that would hinder him from unifying the entire regions of Japan. The massacre cost the lives of twenty thousand to thirty thousand men, women and children (Samurai Archives Wiki, 2007). Another example of genocide during the medieval times can be illustrated by the famous Mongolian warlord called Temujin or better known as Genghis Khan. With his Mongol Empire and his aggressive conquests policies, Genghis Khan and his successors had brought death and destruction to millions of people in the large sections of Persia, Middle East, China and Europe (Macro History, 2004). Millions of people have been murdered by their governments throughout human history because of their ethnic, racial, religion, national or political identity which was perceived to be a threat by the state (Rummel, 2002).

The study of genocide will be greatly facilitated by the factors that cause the mass murders. The government structure within which genocide occurs, the context, the motives of the person responsible and the nature of the victims are the factors which explain the causes of genocide. Based on historical findings and research, totalitarian governments are the frequent parties responsible for genocide. Apart from that, countries that lack respect for human rights have the tendency to resort to mass murders. The context of which genocide occurs are one of the reasons behind the ignition of genocide; the probability of mass murder occurring is very high in the event that a country is experiencing civil or foreign wars regardless of the country’s political structure. Motives of the perpetrators are also one of the few causes of genocide. They are usually intertwined and complex, nevertheless a major motive can be extracted behind the mixtures of intentions. The objective of destroying a group that is seen as a peril to the ruling power is an example of the variety of motives behind genocide. Besides that, the hope of destroying those who are hated, despised or envied is the second motive behind genocide. Unlike the earlier motive, this motive is highly emotional. The intention of pursuing an ideological transformation of society is another genocide motive. This motive revolves around perceiving those who resist the ideological transformation as enemies worthy of death. Economic gain is another motive that sparks genocide. The implementation of death to those who resisted the rape of the colony’s wealth and the mass murder conducted indirectly through harsh labor conditions are featured in this last motive. With a thorough understanding of the government’s structure within which genocide occurs, the context, the five motives of the person responsible for genocide and the nature of the victims, the reasons behind such mass murders can be explained (Rummel, 2002).

The study of genocide will not be completed without understanding the stages of achieving genocide. Shortly after the Rwanda genocide, a study regarding the stages of genocide was presented at the United States Department of State. The study mainly revolved around the recent eruption of mass killings in Rwanda and the achievement of genocide can be broken down to eight stages; these stages are predictable yet unavoidable (Wikipedia, 2006). The early symptom of genocide can be illustrated by the classifications of group among society. There is a clear boundary that differentiates both the groups in subject. As the classification intensifies, both of the groups in subject construct symbols on one another which bear negative connotations in the second stage. In the event which the hatred still continues, the third stage which involves dehumanization occurs. At this point, there is a presence of reducing people to objects that do not deserve the humane treatments. The persisted conflict will escalate to the fourth stage which forces the dominant group to organize. Governments or the ruling force will establish Gestapo like SWAT teams as the first step of annihilating the minority. As the hatred intensifies, polarization is presented in the fifth stage. The ruling class or the government will shower the society with propaganda depicting their hate for the minority group with the objective of influencing the people to take severe action against the minority. The minority or the victims are then identified and separated based on their group’s identity at the sixth stage. This stage prepares the dominant group for their next step in annihilating the minorities. The seventh stage ignites the extermination process of the minorities by the dominant group. Lastly, the genocide process is completed with denial by the ruling class that any act of genocide ever occurred. The eight stages of genocide begin with classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and ends with denial (Stanton, 1996)

Behind the piles of corpses stacked high, the curiosity of what constitutes such acts sparks the study of genocide. In order to study genocide, an understanding of its various definitions, history, causes and most importantly—its stages of achievement, is essential. Genocide is spawned from the prejudice, discrimination and the abuse of power by the ruling class. It also indicates that human life is expandable and justifies killings through its dehumanization process. To prevent future genocide in human history, mankind will have to learn to decline any form of discrimination and value the human life.

Completing Operation Hydra Slaying only to be Welcomed by a Nice Halloween Party

Indulging the dark side on the night of Halloween in hell with my Hong Kong and Japanese friends

That's it! The 3rd and last target executed! Mission accomplish!Time to wrap up and prepare for evacuation. In case you're wondering what the heck am I talking about and what in God's name is Operation Hydra Slaying, allow me to explain them to you to dispel any confusion you're experiencing. Operation Hydra Slaying is the operation codename for my 2nd midterms in TRU. The reason behind this codename can be illustrated by 3 midterms I had on the same day 2 days ago. Seeing that a hydra is a vicious and scary monster, just like my exams and also it has 3 heads, just like the number of exams I had on that day; thus, I call my midterms a hydra. Since it was my obligation to perform or execute (my kind of Special Forces jargon) these 3 exams as best as I can, I added the word "slaying" to the operation's codename; hence, I call my midterms Operation Hydra Slaying. Preparing for this ops wasn't easy; it was physically and mentally tormenting like any other special ops. Nevertheless, after a long day in the operational theater, a nice Halloween party was what I needed to unwind myself from a stressful day. The Halloween party that I celebrated on the 31st of October this year can be described in a word: Awesome!

As the alarm clock struck 5 am, it gave a loud buzz insisting that I get my lazy butt out from cozy bed. After disabling the clock's alarm, I thought about sneaking in a few more minutes to sleep. However, realizing that this undisciplined act could cost me my last minute revision for my exams, I struggled to pull myself out from my blanket that has been keeping me warm, cozy and comfortable for the past 5 hours. My early morning was greeted harshly by the cold winds of the dawn that forced me to shiver in discomfort; although, I had the choice of closing the window in my room, I decided to let it stay open as the cold uncomfortable wind will keep my sleepy butt awake. I then dragged myself who was still half asleep to the kitchen of my apartment before reaching for a bowl and a cereal box. After preparing myself a simple breakfast, I immediately wolfed down the cereal as I know time was on the essence. Although my first paper which was Calculus begins in 7 and a half hours time, I decided not to underestimate the required preparation time. Besides, I had another 2 more subject to prepare which was Organizational Behavior and Intermediate Sociology. Immediately after the last drop of milk went down my stomach, I quickly washed up and took a nice hot shower. As usual time was on the essence, so I limit myself to a 5 minute shower instead of a full 10 minute shower (you have no idea how a nice hot shower can keep you in the bathroom forever especially on a harsh cold day). After a nice hot shower, I felt more alert which was what I needed to start my revision.

As I got into my clothes, I quickly grab my Calculus notes and began my revision. An hour later, I was convince that "taking out" Calculus later on wouldn't be a big deal. Next preparation: my Organizational Behavior (OB). This subject is one of the most feared subject this semester. My last midterm for OB which horribly went wrong resulting 70% only terrified me a lot. This OB adversary wasn't an easy one, therefore I paid additional dedication for my preparation. As I completed 4 chapters ( one more chapter to go), it was already 12:00; 30 minutes more before my Calculus exam and at this point I stopped studying and listened to my favorite songs on my laptop while getting ready to load up for my first "head hunting". My roommate then approached me and wished me all the best for my Calculus. After thanking him and telling him that I will miss him and his Hong Kong friends if anything bad happened to me during Operation Hydra Slaying, I strapped on my bag and put on my jacket before I left for the "operational theater". My roommate who was clueless and awkward didn't know how to respond to my exaggerated words, so he awkwardly gave me a military salute seconds before I left. As I was deployed into the "battlefield" with the rest of my "comrades", we armed ourselves with our pencil, calculator and eraser. The moment our Calculus instructor handed the exam paper to us, I told myself that this was it. All the techniques and skills for "engaging" mathematical questions better work for my sake. An hour of pencil slashing, eraser rubbing and calculator mashing the first head of the hydra was severed; 1 down, 2 more to go. Although I could do my first paper, something was telling me that I made some careless mistakes back then.

Couldn't be bothered much seeing that there was no use on dwelling over the past, I immediately went back to my apartment and finished off my last chapter for OB. In the middle of my final preparation for OB, Calvin, my Hong Kong friend dropped in unexpectedly. Fuck! What a bad time to visit me! He was carrying some shopping bags and he said that he needed a room at my apartment seeing that he wanted to try on his Halloween costume he just bought. After convincing me that he won't hinder my exam preparation, I let him in. Just like Calvin promised, I managed to study without any interference and as a result, I completed my final chapter for OB. An hour more before my OB exam, I thought about reviewing my Sociology notes. After completing 2 chapters of Sociology, it was time for my OB exam. Like my roommate, Calvin wished me all the best for my OB exam before I got ready for "deployment". At the "operational theater", my comrades and I were trembling in fear and nervousness. Gripping onto our pencils tightly, we feared of getting "ambushed" by unexpected questions that might appear later on in the exam. The second my OB lecturer handed us the exam sheet and informed us to start "engaging", we immediately ripped open the first page and started stabbing the multiple choice questions with our pencils. As I finished "killing" all 10 multiple questions, I waited for the next wave of "enemies" with utmost caution. As the next wave of enemies appeared in the form of short answer questions, I started charging at them with my pencil. Ha! those questions looked familiar; immediately I attacked the questions with my answers. Like the multiple questions, the short answer questions all died at the edge of my pencil. After "reloading" my pencil with a fresh new pencil lead, 3 essay questions appeared and snarled at me. Each of them were worth 6 marks therefore I knew this fight wouldn't be easy. However, after reading the questions carefully, I knew how to answer them. 30 minutes remaining in the "battle" and I knew that exceeding more that 10 minutes on each essay question is unacceptable. Consequently, I kept my answers short and simple and the next thing I knew, time was up the second I finished the last essay question. Phew...just in time. The battle was over and another hydra's head was severed. 2 down, last one to go.

Sociology was my final paper and it didn't take long to prepare for it. What even surprised me about the exam was it, only had 85 multiple choice questions and 3 short answer questions. The lecturer was kind enough with the questions as there were "easter eggs" everywhere. The paper was 2 hours long and I manage to finish it within and hour time. Although I could leave the exam hall earlier, I decided to spend the remaining time going through all of my questions again in order to prevent any silly mistakes. As the exam completed, joy struck me good and I was thrown into a state of relief since I completed all of my midterms. Operation Hydra Slaying completed. Mission accomplished! After returning from the "war zone", I was welcomed back home by my roommate and Calvin. It was now time to prepare for the Halloween party.

This year was my very first time celebrating Halloween, therefore; I was pretty excited about it. Like me, my Hong Kong friends were also excited about it. Calvin was trying on different costumes (more like girl's dress) while my roommate on the other hand just decided to try the different scary masks, Calvin bought for all of us. Earlier that day, Robin got a plastic bloody looking machete from a one dollar store for his Halloween accessory. It looked very real and the fact that it had pieces of meat and smudges of blood over the knife freaked me out at first sight. As for me, I just thought about dressing casually. Calvin persuaded me to put on a dress as my Halloween costume but seeing that I didn't want to look like a fag, I passed on his offer. An hour later, Maaya and Shelley dropped by to my room as they were going to follow us to the Halloween party as well. Like Calvin, the both of them persuaded me to at least do some make up or put on a costume since it was Halloween. As usual, I declined their suggestion as I just wanted to look normal. Conversely when my roommate told me that looking normal is against the Halloween theme which I have to say he had a point; eventually, I decided to do something about myself. At the end, I decided to put on a military camouflage face paint to join my weird friends. Calvin gave me this black make up paint he purchased from a one dollar store which I couldn't help but to feel skeptical about it. For all I know that cheap face paint might give me rashes or something worst. Since there's not much time because the Halloween party was about to start, I just used the black paint Calvin bought for me. Shelley volunteered to paint my face and I really have to give her credit for the great job she did. Maaya did a great job on her scary appearance as well; she looked like a Japanese pontianak that night. Minutes later on, Cindy, another Hong Kong friend of mine joined us; she appeared with her casual outfit and a devil's horn on her head. She brought additional make up supplies for her and all of us made sure we used every drop of it. After an hour of making up, we all looked horribly ugly which was a good thing and we then snapped photos together.

Since we were running late, all of us immediately rushed to the venue of the Halloween party which took place at the university's Campus Activity Center. The party was just like any ordinary clubbing night only with people in weird freaky costumes. Pizzas were provided for us and I immediately grab as many slices I could since I was damn hungry. We bumped into our friends at the party and we snapped several photos together. Friends weren't the only limit to our photo taking activity as we also decided to take photos with strangers who had nice Halloween costumes. As the music grew louder, all of us dance wildly and violently together and it seems as if everyone at the party were in a stage of trance. The 6 of us spend 4 hours partying that night and we really enjoyed ourselves. After the party ended, we went back to my room for a while to take a short rest before everyone headed for their own home.

The Halloween party that I celebrated on the 31st of October this year can be described in a word: Awesome! Despite having a rough morning that day, my patience and my preserverance finally paid off when I managed to enjoy myself with my friends at a Halloween party later on that night. I didn't expected that my first Halloween celebration was going to be that great.

Staring at the mirror, the 5 of us were planning to summon Bloody Mary by saying her name 3 times. However, we were still afraid to do that despite there were 5 of us.

Shelley volunteering herself to help me with my military camouflage face paint

Surviving an attacked by my roommate.

...fortunately my Teep Khang ( that is side kick in Thai) saved me from the mad butcher.

...then Maaya, the Japanese pontianak appeared next to me.

Thirsty for blood, Maaya then mutilated me starting from my neck
Fueled with redemption, Shelley immediately "repaid the favor" by severing the head of Maaya

Revenge begets more revenge, the butcher then hacks Shelley up into pieces for severing Maaya's head.

After getting massacred by the Japanese pontianak, my soul wonder aimlessly around the corridor only to be guided by the devil's minion who had shiny horns to "hell".

Like me, Shelley's wondering soul was also escorted to hell. That is how we bump into each other.

Upon reaching hell, I bumped into a variety of characters. (From left to right) Cindy the devil, Maaya the pontianak, a Soviet Hazmat trooper, Shelley, Calvin the pussy boy , a female firefighter and me

...there was even a bunny girl in hell.

...and a cowgirl

we even saw Batman and Supergirl there. Wonder how did they ended up here in hell.

When they say hell is scary, they do mean it.

Get me out of hell, or I'll kill this "pussy" boy. Wait...he's already dead, that's why he's here. Ahh, what the
hell...

Ahhh...not again you bloody pontianak. You've already kill me once and now you're doing it again in hell? What's wrong with you?

Touch Shenji again and you'll lose more than a head!


Why do I have to be next to the rat carrying pontianak that massacred me in this group photo?

All of us in hell