Monster or Savior? Let Kosovo decide.

On November 1, 2009, former President of the United States Bill Clinton was awarded a statue in his honor in Kosovo.  Thousands of cheering Albanians showed up for the event. The eleven foot statue of Clinton travelled down Clinton Boulevard before the red curtain was pulled off.

“I never expected that anywhere, someone would make such a big statue of me,” said Clinton moments after the unveiling.

Many see the reasons for this honorable event to be quite controversial. In 1999, Serbian forces had commenced the cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Yugoslavia. Clinton gave the order for NATO to begin the bombing campaign of Yugoslavia. From March 22 to June 11, 1999 NATO repeatedly bombed villages and towns in various parts of Yugoslavia in an attempt to rid the area of Serbian forces determined to slaughter independence seeking Albanians.

Within the first week of bombing, the Serbian forces had stepped up the ethnic cleansing of Albanians and an estimated 300,000 Albanians had fled their homes in Kosovo to seek refuge in Albania. By April 850,000 people had fled for their lives.

NATO increased the attacks to individual targets such as tanks and artillery placements.  On May 7, NATO accidentally bombed a Chinese Embassy, killing three journalists. The US and NATO later apologized for the mistake, blaming it on an outdated map.

There was talk of a ground invasion in the start of April which would bring the conflict to a quick organized resolution. Clinton opposed a ground invasion and suggested de-stabilizing the Serbian government under Slobodan Milošević. However it was agreed that a military invasion was the only option, and the UN headed the operation along with NATO.

British and Norwegian Special Forces were the first ones to cross the border into Kosovo, two days before the other militaries. Their mission was to clean up and to implement peace between the Albanians and Serbians. This was completed under very complicated circumstances.

At the end of the war an estimated 500,000 Kosovo Albanians were missing and most likely dead. In 2000 Milošević was arrested and charged with various war crimes. 1,900 US troops are still stationed in Kosovo as a peacekeeping force along with NATO and many other countries.  Over the past few years thousands of troops from various countries have been taken out of Kosovo.

There is still a civil war in Kosovo, hate still rages on between Serbs and Albanians. Children go to separate schools in separate neighborhoods and are raised to hate one another. Violence is still a major factor for the people in Kosovo.

Zombie fever hits RB

Seniors Matt Landess, Ryan Chodora, and Dave Maslowski have started the long grueling process of starting a club at Riverside Brookfield High School. Their club is called the zombie club; it consists of watching zombie movies and reading zombie books and occasionally playing zombie video games. This club is anything but a joke and if you join, you should expect to have some serious conversations about survival during a zombie apocalypse.

Starting a club is not an easy task. To start a club you must first have an original idea. Landess had the idea of starting a club where students would be able to come together and discuss their ideas about survival during a zombie apocalypse. He had taken his idea to Chodora and the ball started rolling. Maslowski jumped on board and they started working on their presentation.

Once they had developed their power point presentation they needed to find a sponsor to support their club. You need a sponsor to supervise your club and also to use their classroom. In their case they found two co-sponsors, Applied Arts department chair Patty Sarkady and English teacher John Izaguirre.

After a sponsor is on board (in this case two sponsors) he or she must talk to assistant principal John Passaralla about the club and provide reasons as to why it should be approved. The zombie club has yet to undergo this crucial step and will do so shortly.

Hopefully the zombie club will be approved and the zombie fans of Riverside Brookfield can rejoice and enjoy their favorite zombie books, movies and video games together. So remember: if you’ve got zombie fever, zombie club just might be the cure you’ve been looking for.

Left 4 Dead has not been left for dead

As Halloween approaches, so do the inevitable swarm of flesh hungry zombies. Just in time for the scary season, Valve Software’s mega-hit Left 4 Dead has released new content for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Left 4 Dead is all about Co-Op, whether it’s two players or four players. The new content stays true to that, but it is more focused on a streamlined versus experience where there are two teams of four (four survivors and four infected). It will also support the survival game mode where swarms of the undead constantly bombard you and three other survivors until your inevitable demise.

The new campaign entitled “Crash Course” connects the first two campaigns of the story. After you escape the zombie infested Mercy Hospital in a helicopter it soon crashes in the outskirts of Riverside, and your objective is to make your way through the infested town to escape safely in a fortified bus.

Consider “Crash Course” to be a shot of adrenaline to your zombie killing experience. It’s a great two chapter campaign that only lasts about thirty minutes but should hold your appetite until Left 4 Dead 2 hits the shelves this November.

Left 4 Dead is arguably the best zombie apocalypse video game to ever be released and Crash Course only extends the zombie killing romp that we all know and love.

The Halls are alive with the sound of music

As students clamber out of their 55 minute lectures, they have to endure various types of music for four minutes every passing period.

Due to the inflow of student and teacher requests, new music will now be played. Secretary Betty Sharp in the principal’s office explained the process of how the hallway music works. When a compact disc is delivered to the office, it must first be listened to make sure it lacks any vulgarities.

“Anything that goes onto that machine must be cleared by Mr. Passeralla,” she said.

Anyone can give a CD into the office, but they should make sure it’s clean. Sharp suggests attaching a sheet with the lyrics to all of the songs. When the disc is declared vulgarity free, it is taken to room 163 where a CD player is constantly playing. The CD player is constantly playing because once the bell goes off the speakers are turned on and the CD plays for exactly 4 minutes. This is why listeners may notice the same song always plays at a certain time; the disc is always on a loop.

Regarding the lack of musical variety, Sharp said “As soon as things calm down [we hope to have a lot more of it].”

Hopefully things will calm down fast.