Undaunted is a thought provoking novel. It brings up question, about life. That, no man can equivocate. Throughout the novel, the author (Zoya Phan), goes through suffering, that other people don’t have to go through, simply because she was born in a situation where she had to run, and be in constant fear of the government. “I had been a Karen and had faced fear, persecution, and oppression. By accident of their birth, those students at the St. Theresa  Institute of Technology had never faced one fraction of the hardship that we Karen had experienced.” (Phan pg 187)…………..

This statement really questions the attitude people have about themselves being entitled to a great education, and other things simply because they are part of a certain family or have a certain amount of money, or live in a certain country. Because, if a person sees themselves as better than a person who has not had the same opportunities in education and other things, then that person is only thinking about how the other person should’ve just been able to rise up against war, and famine, and no education in their country, and somehow become successful. While this happens for some people, in war torn country’s like Zoya’s Burma, right now it is very improbable for the lots of Burmese people to get a higher education, and be successful like Zoya because of the situation in Burma and in Thailand’s refugee camps. In Thailand’s refugee camps, there are thousands of “ghost refugees”, of which Zoya was one. “Ghost refugees” are refugees in Thailand from Burma who are in Thailand but trapped in the refugee camps. They’re “ghost” because they are not officially refugees in Thailand, and have no way to become citizens of Thailand, so technically they don’t exist in Thailand. This novel was a great novel because it was sad, thought provoking, enlightening, angering, and inspiring. It was sad because of the things Zoya went through, and the things she saw. For instance, when she went back to Burma after living in the UK, and saw the same things that had happened to her happening to children, the same age as she was. These children were starving, had become orphans, and were in constant fear of the Burmese government the same way Zoya was when she was a child. I learned so much from this book, that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. People in Burma have been suffering like this since the early 80’s and had almost no idea, that has made me want to help donate some things I have to the Phan foundation, and other groups to help Burma.

Undaunted by Zoya Phan’s is an autobiography about Phan’s life in Burma, her childhood in a halcyon village secluded from Burma’s military-government, and her eventual immigration to Britain. I’ve been able to learn some things from the book just from it’s cover, structure and opening pages. The book cover shows a picture of Phan as a child who’s eyes are fixed in a smile, but her eyes and the rest of her face show pain as if she is hiding pain within herself. I deduct from the first twenty pages that because of this photo the rest of the book will be about Phan’s struggle with the pain that she seems to be holding in in the picture, and the pain that she carries for the plight of her people, the Karens. I got the insight about the pain Phan holds for her people because she discussed this in the introduction. “Millions (of my people) have been forced to flee their home.”(pg XV )

The first photo in the book (19) shows Zoya’s family.The picture shows no one smiling except two of Phan’s siblings. I think most of the family does not smile in the picture because Phan wants to reveal with this picture, how many hardships her family had to go through simply because they are Karen. Also, how they had to go to such a secluded place -hence the trees, and nature like setting of  Phan’s home,just so Phan and her family could be safe. Phan calls it a “tranquil paradise” (23).

The book begins with Phan talking about her parents life as Karen,and their life as soliders in the Karen National Union. The KNU is a nationalist group that fights against the astringent Burmese dicatorship.(pg 3)

Phan then talks about the modicum attention other countries worldwide pay to Burma by the media. I can identify with Phan’s frustration of the media virtually ignoring Burma’s struggle because I have seen a type of devestation that the media ignored in Africa. Kibera; the largest slum in Africa located in Kenya, millions of people living without electricity and clean water. When I saw this I thought how could anyone ignore this, much the same as how Phan saw atroctices commited against her people and then thought how could anyone ignore this. The only thing I knew about Burma before starting this book was that they became independent of British India in 1948, proving Phan’s point that the political turmoil in Burma has been largely ignored by people. “More villages have been destroyed in Burma than in Darfur in Sudan, but the world has seemed content to ignore our suffering.”(intro XV) This book has taught me how uninformed I am about Burma, and also about the some of the suffering  people face in this country.

I chose health care because this topic is very important to me. One of my family members was very sick once, and couldn’t go to the doctor’s office because they couldn’t pay for the hospital bill. That is the first time health care became important to me. On a larger scale, people die in America sometimes only because they do not have healthcare. Elsewhere this would not be true. Honestly, I think that taxes should be raised a little bit so the government can pay for health care for all citizens of the U.S. I also think more money should be focused on healthcare because two much money is spent on other things that could go towards health care. My satirical argument is saying that healthcare should be based on how much money you have, and if you don’t have enough money you should have to do crazy things like hold up a Blue Cross/Blue Shield place, so you can get medical care. The type of person who would read my article would be a person who believes everyone should have healthcare paid by the government. I chose an article format simply because I wanted to make fun of people who say you should be able to get better healthcare then someone else because you have money to pay for it. I have seen articles saying that the public option is evil because it is a socialist ideology. I satirized the issue by showing that people don’t look at statistics when they say they don’t want the public option. I feel as if they ignore the statistisics simply because they don’t want to have anything to do with socialism, and I think that’s foolish, as I showed in my article.

I used Onomatopoeia by saying Roar about the American healthcare system. I used an understatement when I said America’s health care is better than every third world countries, when really the survey said that America is last in terms of healthcare in industrialized countries. Lastly, I used a hyperbole, when Jane Rowley said she hadn’t had healthcare since Joe Biden was five years old.

  "I’ve never had healthcare,” said Jane Rowley. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t had it sense Joe Biden was five years old, and I’m only forty, but it doesn’t matter that I don’t have no health care because I’ve got commercials on TV. about ways I can get health care. For example: begging in the streets, being a hustler (aka slanging some rocks) robbing an old lady, yes the list goes on and on but paying for it is not on the list because no one can unless their name is Bill Gates.” Next the Daily Gazette talked to another citizen, about how he gets health care, he says that he doesn’t want to reveal his whole name, because some of the things he does to get health care are extra shady, and occasionally illegal. “I needed a tonsil replacement, so me and a couple of my guys held up Blue Cross/Blue Shield until they gave me a tonsil replacement.” “The trick to getting health care is to take it from different places, so you know one day me and my boys will take from Kaiser Permante, then the next day, Children’s Care of Atlanta. You got keep your priorities man. When you’re doing this type of thing, you got to keep variety.   If health cares going to stay as high as it is now, then I’ll keep stealing from these rich people who have as much health care as they want. Some people think of me as a thief, but how could someone doing so much to get free health care for himself and others be a thief. I’m a Robin Hood of sorts, if anything the health care companies will thank me as soon as they realize how much better it would be if everyone in America could afford health care.”

Now we will bring you to Joe, a wealthy person who has no problem paying for health care. “You know, America’s the only industrialized nation that does not ensure that all its citizens have coverage. That’s unfortunate, but what can I do about it, it does not matter because I can’t do anything about it, it does not concern me. Also, not many people don’t have health care, and if they don’t its their problem. I’m here to suck up all the health care so no one else can get, it’s the American way. In quality of health care, they say that the U.S. is better than all third world countries, so what does it matter what the British and all those other industrialized countries say about the U.S.? Capitalism’s medical system is obviously better than socialized medicine. I mean look at the numbers, sixteen percent of people in America have no health care, and about five percent in Germany don’t have healthcare. Roar, screams Americas health care system, outraged at all of those who doubt it.  Americas health care system is obviously the best. Plus, look at me, I’m living it up and I have health care therefore I conclude that high health care costs are good for my pocketbook and everyone else’s.” Thank for your well thought out opinion Joe. I want all of you out there reading this to know that Joe is right, and America’s health care system is the best, despite what numbers tell you. Thank you and good day.

 Most recently, pertaining to the health care system, President Obama introduced a new bill that gives uninsured and self-employed people a chance to purchase insurance through the state (Nolen and Jackson). However, it is not a national Health Care Bill like Truman’s or Clintons. On one side of the healthcare argument there are people who think that everyone should be required to pay higher taxes and other things in exchange for health care from the government (Appleby). “We can’t have as a nation 40 million people-or in my state, half a million- saying “I don’t have insurance and if I get sick I want someone else to pay” said former Massachusetts Governor Mit Romney. Romney thinks that everyone must buy health care and they will get good treatment because they’ve bought it from the government (Appleby). This is compared to having to buy car insurance in this article (Appleby). However, others against Romney’s view say that the government is the cause of problems like people being without health care in the first place (Universal Health Care: What’s the Debate About?). People who argue for no government intervention say that the government causes the problems in the first place (Weeks). Free Market Cure is dedicated to correctly diagnosing the problems with the U.S. health care system and promoting solutions which preserve and extend individual liberty. Our central premise is that many problems in our medical system are either caused or exacerbated by government intervention — and that a strong dose of Capitalism is the cure for what ails the U.S. health care system.” What people recognize in America as modern health care began in the 1920’s when doctors began to charge more for their services than people could pay easily. An administrator at Baylor University in Texas wanted to help those who couldn’t afford doctors, so he created Blue Cross, which spread to other parts of the country as a non-profit (Noah). The Blues/Blue Cross kept their costs low in exchange for tax breaks. In the 1940’s commercial insurers came in to the medical market. During the second world war private insurers began to come more into the medical market, businesses began to offer their workers health insurance, so private insurers did the same (Noah). By this time the U.S. government intervened in health care for the first time, by exempting businesses (including private ones) from income tax related to health care. During Truman’s presidency-after the Second World War, he proposed a national health care plan. It failed because his opponents said there was no need for national health care with the existence of Blue Cross. After this private insurers became larger in the medical market. Eventually the private insurers began to turn away patients who would have not been previously been turned away. The private insurers grew larger than the private insurers by the 1970’s, until Blue Cross begin doing the same thing as the private insurers to get money (Noah).

So new, so beautiful, so sudden. I saw her and that was all their was in life. I saw her beautiful face and her perfect body, and that was all I wanted. I wanted her, I wanted all of her, maybe just for today, but maybe I wanted her perhaps .............. forever. Yes forever seems right because that is how long I will love her. When I glanced into her eyes, I saw that I would love her forever, and my love would never die. But now, a tragic thought comes to my mind what if she does not love me, what if I am an afterthought to her. She
did look at me, but I couldn't tell if it was disgust or intimacy on her face. They called her to the kitchen now, so I'll go offer to help her, and this will be my chance to get my heart broken, or to find my love. "Tita I love you" I said. "Do you love me?" And then came the best word ever spoken to me. "Yes" she said. That was all I needed. I left that day triumphant. Now, I have waited a year and will ask today for what I want the most: Tita's hand in marriage. Of course, I will have to ask her mom first-though Tita told me not to I can't imagine why she would do that, I am honorable so I will do this. As soon as I got to Tita's family's ranch, I knew something was wrong. Her mom, Elena told me I could not marry Tita but instead her sister Rosaurau. From that statement I knew Elena was a fool, but if I wanted Tita my best shot at getting close to Tita would be to marry Rosaurau I accepted Elena's evil offer. I knew it gave Tita pain to see me with Rosaurau; I often saw her crying in the kitchen, it gave me an equal amount of pain. I had to find happiness in this terrible ordeal; I found that in Tita's cooking and her breast feeding of Roberto, her nephew. So, I was able to find some love, and a way around Elena's evil schemes.

Oh agony, oh path why do you haunt me?  Why does everyone hate me?  I am the king’s son and should be treated as such.  My father’s first wife, Sassouma, thinks me to be a fool.  She thinks that I came from fools because my face is only my mother’s and Sassouma thinks my mother is a fool.  This pains me because all around me I see folly and see children inferior to me.  They think because they can walk and because they use their tongues to relay their thoughts that they are better than me.  But they are fools speaking foolishly all the time.  Fools, they are all the same, young or old, kings, wives or not kings’ wives.  Sassouma is just as much a fool as the children.  But she should not be so foolish.  She has been on the earth longer than the children.  She uses her tongue to lash harmful words at my mother, Soglon Kedjou, with insults also directed at me.  She says, “Why does your son not walk yet Soglon?”  He is seven years of age and should have walked long ago.  Well, a slow son takes after his mother she says.  But she can not see that while she speaks before analyzing what she’s about to say.  I speak very little and analyze everything about the world and therefore I do not speak unless I feel it is needed.  That is why I know these words can only be the words of one like Sassouma who is an evil snake with no vision.  Evil because she wishes only to hurt my mother and I but foolish to prey on someone such as myself and my family.  Though she is an evil snake and a fool like the other children my mom makes me play with who are not evil but just foolish.   My pain comes from this source, their spring of hatred, of rejection.  They do both to me without cause and I long to be accepted by them.  For years, when my mom went to get a baobab leaf, I heard this insult from Sassouma:  “I have plenty leaves, because my son, unlike yours, can walk and got these for me.”  My mom came home sobbing and I resolved to go and walk. But I would need an iron rod to stand on, and then I would walk and grasp the baboob tree. I crawled to the tree and stood up on the iron rod, my knees began to shake until I got used to walking.  I then walked to the tree and uprooted it. Now Sassouma and the children’s spring of rejection and hatred would run dry.  They will have only respect for me now.  I now know what I am and what I shall be.  I am the “Lion” fierce and powerful.  I have awakened and my people will fear me, Sassouma most of all.

This article is representative of Prometheus. I think that he and Kanye West are similar in that they both defied the person over seeing what they were doing. Prometheus defied Zeus by having compassion on humans and giving them fire, this resulted in him being tortured for many years. Though not as extreme, the same thing happened to Kanye West when he stated his opinion while talking about Hurricane Katrina,that the U.S. government is not set up to help those who are poor and/or black. Also he said that the President of the United States at that time did not care about what happened to black and poor people. Kanye made a direct comment against those in power, like the president and the government when he knew that he would face heavy criticism for saying what he thought was right. In this way Kanye West and Prometheus are similar.

Why does she leave me,
This is the question I asked when rejected

But now it seems oh so foolish to ask.
She was not perfectand passed me by because of this.
She was like every other woman I knew.
Sheput her own interest above mine.
She had mud over her eye similar to a swine.
She could not see my perfect art was more important than her,
so I had to lether go.
My sculptors were carved in stone showing loneliness but also my love.
My love, those I’ve knowns love and the love of gods above.
I sculpted picturesof life itself, or what I thought that life should be. Sometimes man withoutwomen alone and weary but sometimes the two together in sheer beauty.
Life wasthis way, because some find love while others don’t.
This is what she hadwanted me to give up, this was her terrible fee,
My sculptures of life andbeauty
Who could be so cruel?
Who could think I would consider them above mydivine gift?
Did she think me a fool?
Surely though, I was not and I could not agreewith these women’s demand,
I paid a price for my sacrifice of not gettingmarried, loneliness was it,
but I thought that loneliness was a price fair, sostay lonely I dared.
I wanted a woman who would have her own feelings but lovemy sculptures above all else, and consider them what they were, wealth.
So with my divine gift for sculpting stone I began to sculpt a womanwith human features and perfection,
she would have this, even if she could nothave bones.
Finally, my creation was done, I stood looking at its beauty,stunned.
It was the most beautiful of all my creations and I fell in love. Shewas perfect and had no blemish like the other women.
I wanted her to be real somuch that I prayed to the gods above.
I wanted her to be like me, and love me,I wanted her to feel.
I wanted her to see me and love me.
My wish was grantedand together we live on this earth in happiness still.