Valentine's Day

Whether you are in the Italian city of Verona and writing one of the one thousand letters addressed to Juliet, or one of the twenty two hundred thousand people who are popping the question of marriage, Valentine’s Day is going to cost you a lot of many if you are planning to buy a gift for that special someone.

The most popular theory about Valentine’s Day origin was when the emperor Claudius II did not want his Roman men to marry during a time of war. Therefore, Bishop Valentine took action, went against the wishes of the emperor and performed wedding ceremonies in secret. After the emperor discovered this betrayal, Bishop Valentine was jailed and executed. During his time in jail, Bishop Valentine wrote a note to the jailer's daughter and signed it “from your valentine”.

How do we celebrate Valentines? By buying expensive gifts that they would not buy themselves such as candy hearts, roses which die in two weeks after purchasing them, tacky Valentine’s day cards which would hold a deeper meaning if you made one yourself, and diamond jewelry in the shape of a heart.

According to Weau: Fun Valentine's Day Facts more than thirty six million boxes of candy are sold during Valentine’s Day and on average men spend 130 dollars on Valentine’s Day. About eight billion candy hearts will be produced, one billion Valentine’s Day cards will be bought, and 50 million roses will be given on Valentine’s Day.

A day to remind your partner and yourself that you both love each other is a waste of money economically; unless you are single then you can buy all the candy you want after Valentine’s Day when everything is half off because the stores need to get rid of their merchandise.

The Japanese Journalist beheaded by Isis

The beheading of the freelance veteran reporter, Kenji Goto by Isis is one of the many killed by the terrorist group. The United States of America reporter, James Foley and American-Israeli Journalist Steven Sotloff were among the various Westerners who have been murdered by Isis. Goto would often work with other filmmakers and Japanese television producers.

Freelance reporter, Kenji Goto

Isis, the Islamic Terror Organization, clams it has beheaded Japanese reporter, Kenji Goto weeks after they had behaded another Japanese hostage. The forty-seven year old journalist left Japan last fall when his youngest daughter was three weeks old. His wife, Rinko Jogo first heard from his Isis captors on December 2^nd. According to Rinko and others who had spoken to Kenji Goto, he had gone to Syria to try to save the other Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.   When Isis first captured Kenji Goto, they demanded ransom money for his release. They demanded that the Japanese government pay two hundred million dollars within 72 hours of the video for the release of Kenji Goto.  However, negations changed when the Japanese government did not comply with Isis’s demands. An audio recording of Kenji Goto was released soon after.

The audio recording, which has surfaced online, was the voice of a person who claims to be Kenji Goto speaking in English. In the recording Goto stated that Haruna Yukawa had already been murdered by Isis and blames Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for not preventing Yukawa’s death. Goto also says that Isis has changed their demands instead of money; Isis wants the release of an attempted suicide bomber, Sajida al-Rishawi. Sajida al-Rishawi failed to detonate in a string of deadly terror attacks at Jordanian hotels in 2005. When Shinzo Abe said Japan would not give into terrorism and would not give into Isis demands, Kenji Goto was beheaded on Saturday.

Like many other cases where civilians are held hostage by terrorist extremists groups, the negotiations between terrorists depend on morals. Is it right to give into the terrorists and give them something they want such as money so they can gather more resources to become stronger and cause more chaos? Is it right to let an innocent civilian die when you know you can save him? When we all know that a life is precious, what’s the right thing to do?

The mother of Kenji Goto, Junko Ishido

Resources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2924582/Have-ISIS-beheaded-Japanese-hostage-Country-expresses-outrage-new-video-emerges-appearing-captive-holding-picture-fellow-captive.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31075769

http://nypost.com/2015/02/01/japan-mourns-journalist-beheaded-killed-by-islamic-state/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/world/middleeast/islamic-state-militants-japanese-hostage.html?_r=0

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/31/middleeast/isis-japan-jordan-hostages/