Hong Kong, Palestine, Israel, Ukraine, And Russia. That's Right. All The Sensitive Topics.

I've slowly found myself realizing there are kids in my generation, in my school, and in my own home who don't realize all the many places around the world that need the attention from the rest of the world. As sad as it may be sometimes, we need to lend our hearts to some of these people who are trying to make a difference despite the fact that we may not be.

So I've decided to go over some of these places today, and maybe provide some insight into some of these country's struggles for reform and change.

I'll start off with the country of Ukraine.

If you aren't aware of the situation in Ukraine it is a truly aggravating event to hear about.

The state split off from the USSR after the final collapse of the Soviet Union and became modern day Ukraine. They still relied heavily on Russia to support them after their branch and never became overwhelmingly independent.

Months back, there was a split in attitude between whether or not Ukraine should become a part of the European Union, which would help the country modernize. However, Russia didn't want this change to happen.

The situation escalated to the point that citizens were throwing molotovs at the police, burning tires to cloud the air, and taking over government buildings to show their power.

It kept getting more and more aggressive to the point that there were Russian-speaking, military men in Russian uniforms who said they were Russian that Vladimir Putin said "weren't Russians but Ukrainian self-defense units" fighting against the citizens.

Here we are several months later, and now the Russian military has made huge leaps against the citizens fighting for their freedom against this very aggressive state. Meanwhile, the majority of citizens (and governments) have completely ignored the situation at any extent possible.

Here is an interactive map of the current Russia-Ukrainian situation that I find particularly fascinating.

Next up, we have the Palestinian-Israel conflict, one that has gained more attention, but no one can agree on.

The fact is, this battle has been going on for so long that anyone alive would ever remember the beginning of it, but that's probably because no one alive can remember the beginning of it.

The two have a major dispute over the "occupied territory" which is the land shared by the two states.

Lately, though, fighting has sparked into violence once more with the two nations firing rockets back and forth at each other.

One side of the argument argues that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle east so we should remain allies with them, and that the ruling force of Palestine is Hamas (a notorious group with extremist methods). However, the issue with this argument is much like saying the citizens of Syria are at fault because they are ruled by Assad. I've also come across the argument "because God said so", but I wouldn't hold too strongly to that one.

The other side bases their argument on the fact that Israel has regularly killed citizens of Palestine in attacks on the country, and the moral outlook for that isn't awesome, as you might imagine. The fact is, Israel is stronger and it's force obliterates the weak Palestinian country. However, the activists on this side of the argument often have more passion and the public relates to it better.

Now that the aggression has stepped up there are dead citizens on both sides of the walls, and it is terribly heartbreaking to watch.

Finally, there is Hong Kong.

It all started as a protest of students against the lack of democracy in the Chinese-controlled Hong Kong.

The city became Chinese-controlled when Britain gave it back to the Chinese after controlling it for years. The Chinese promised to have a democratic system of electing representatives, but now all candidates must be pre-approved by China, which sort of defeats the purpose of a democracy.

This led to the student protests which quickly grew stronger and stronger. Police were told to use force, and as always, when you use force against a protest the protest only becomes stronger.

This led to the so called "Umbrella Revolution", named from the use of umbrellas by citizens to block falling tear gas cannisters.

These are all very important situations to keep in mind. Just because we do not see active change in this country of ours, doesn't mean that change isn't happening and possible. We have the power to change what we decide we want to. Maybe it's not always easy and maybe everyone will be against you, but someone has to take the first step and it might as well be you, and by you I mean us.

That's all for today, I''ll be back with another post tomorrow!

"It is dangerous to be right, when government is wrong." -Voltaire