The new decade of the 2010′s is proving to be a rather bad start for the regions of South America. First Port-au-Prince, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 200,000 and displaced many more, and now an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the central regions of Chile, mostly affecting Concepción and sending out slight tremors to other cities such as the capital city of Santiago. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake is a bump compared to an earthquake of an 8.5 or higher magnitude.

February 27th, 2010, the 8.8 magnitude lasted for approximately 3 minutes. The tremors of the earthquake could be felt as far as Ica, Peru. It is the seventh most strongest earthquake ever.

 The death toll is estimated by other sources to be around 800 (possibly more as casualties are counted) it is a very small casualty figure next to Haiti’s. Yet the number of displaced individuals far surpass the death toll at a solemn amount of 1.8-2.0 million. The scenes of the places hit by the worst shaking is like something out of the movie 2012, where the ground has massive cracks and damage can be seen everywhere. Surprisingly, while many power lines and telephone cables littered the streets of the worst-affected cities with roads and vehicles mangled, most cities retained their composure with old buildings including homes crashing down here and there. Some buildings folded slightly while other had cracks appearing down on the outside.

While many would expect total collapse of infrastructure in buildings in many South American countries after seeing the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Chile as a country is a veteran to any p-waves or s-waves. Its buildings have foundations of strong material such as concrete that can resist high-level’ed earthquakes, not to mention that the fairly modern buildings including homes, offices, and such were designed and built to strictly and stubbornly remain intact if such an earthquake occured.

Desperate looters go into supermarkets and carry away as much as they can carry before the Chilean police or military arrive. EPA/LEO LA VALLE

The Internet, domestic transporation, phone service, and international travel including seaports were ”closed” down due to the fierce earthquake’s damaging effects. American President Barack Obama and Chile President Michelle Bachelet expressed concern on the earthquake’s short-term and long-term effects and offered aid along with condolences to the relatives of the victims while calling this earthquake as “an unfortunate tragedy”.

Yet those who know Chile more than anyone else should know that this country is one of the most prosperous and stable South American countries and is a leader of standard of living, few political corruption, low poverty rates, and a very potential economic market along with being one of the most democratic countries. Unlike Haiti, even if a few services such as communication is cut off, Chile and its government could rise up on its feet in no time with or without foreign aid.

President Michelle Bachelet (left) will have her presidential term end on March 11th. She raised concerns about the growing numbers of missing people and raised the death toll to the 700's.

 However Chile’s President Bachelet accepted some of the foreign aid offered and urged necessary action for the wounded and against looters at markets in the city of Concepción. While the dead are being counted up, the number of missing individuals are rising leading to an estimated 2 million individuals seriously affected by the earthquake’s effects. Financial estimates are yet to come out regarding property damage

This massive earthquake not only affected Chile, but as with many other natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, the effects of the disaster have literally spread ‘around the world’. Hawaii along with other regions put out a tsunami-warning out for its people, Costa Rica, Russia, Japan, Phillipines, Australia, and many other countries issued tsunami warnings and even evacuated coastal populations at some point, even Antarctica was issued this warning. Although abnormal waves hit some South America locations, no large tsunamis have caused deaths or injury and all the warnings have been cancelled in most countries. According to the records of earthquakes, this 8.8 magnitude earthquake is the first to raise such a large tsunami warning ever since the year of 1964. Furthermore a tsunami that hit the city of Talcahuano spilled mild-sized ships onto shore, destroying homes and giving people there enough reason to carry away what goods there were on the shore. Most of the looting however, took place in Concepción.

Global response to this has not been as fervent as the response was to the January earthquake in Haiti. The U.N naturally with Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon offered aid if Chile ever needed it. Other heads of state such as Lee Myung Bak of South Korea offered help due to Chile’s economic ties with the Asian country. The Red Cross, AmeriCares and the famous World Vision organizations have offered support ranging from pledges of 50,000$ to medical relief including the sending of emergency medical staff to Chile. Other countries from the U.N and the European Union also took part in giving help to Chile.

The U.N, the E.U, and perhaps the Union of South American Nations have set out forth to help Chile and the people affected in terms of medical supplies and teams along with pledged money to help revival.

Yet some of the other humanitarian and religious organizations have not been so quick to answer the call compared to Haiti, perhaps showing Chile’s situation is better than the devastation wreaked on Haiti. Meanwhile Google itself has set up another Crisis Response on its front page as it did for Haiti.

 Assuming Pat Robertson does not point an accusing finger of religious authority at the population of Chile (More than 70% Roman Catholic), then this earthquake was simply a natural disaster due to tectonic-plate movement and not set forth as a divine punishment for selling souls to the devil.

Although this colossal earthquake has grim consequences for the affected people of Chile and the best of wishes of the world are with them, this incident is still a relief especially after Haiti and is much more better off than the other South American country.

- Bera Te.

2/28/10

With a 6-1 drubbing of Finland, The United States moved into the gold medal match, concluding their dream run throughout the Olympics. Their opponent is none other than Canada, who snuck by Slovakia 3-2.
The stage is perhaps the most epic since the “Miracle on Ice: The pre-Olympic gold medal favorite vs. the new gold medal. Canada is in it’s own country against a team they lost to earlier in the games.
Regardless of home ice and revenge on their minds, I believe the United States will win the gold medal in Men’s Hockey. The sole difference will be the X-factor of the last game: Ryan Miller.

The Coveted Gold Medal

Miller has allowed one goal in his last two matches, against quality opponents in Switzerland and Finland. Compare this to Martin Brodeur, who has allowed five goals in his last two outings, against equally worthy opponents in Russia and Slovakia. However,unlike last match, I don’t believe that the US will be horribly out shot, thus taking the pressure off Miller and perhaps putting more pressure on Brodeur. The defense of the United States can produce goals similar to the last performance, they will win the game.As I’ve said, there can be no better match up for the gold medal game. It’s the Cream of the Crop.

Tennessee's JP Prince, Who Led the Game With 20 Points

Lead by J.P Prince with 20 points and Scotty Hopson with 15, the Tennessee Volunteers (21-7, 9-5 SEC) snapped Kentucky’s (27-2, 12-2 SEC) eight game win streak in a 74-65 upset victory at Thompson-Boling Area in Knoxville Tennessee. This was the second victory for Tennessee over top two ranked opponents after the Volunteers defeated number one Kansas on their own floor a month ago. Tennessee had built a lead of up to 16 midway through the first half on a huge run ignited by three point shooting by Bobby Maze and Skylar McBee. Regardless of the large deficit, Kentucky clawed their way back to tie the game at 65 with 2:13 to play in the second half. Prince and Hopson accounted for the game’s final nine points, with Prince scoring seven and assisting Hopson’s two points. In this game however, what killed Kentucky was their field goal percentage from all aspects. From three point range, the Wildcats shot a horrific 2-22, and from all shots total, only 35% were successful. The top performers for the Wildcats were thier two fabulous freshmen. One was John Wall, who had a team high 19 points. The other was Demarcus Cousins, who scored 15 points and pulled down 14 rebounds. Later, Kentucky coach John Calipari remarked that the SEC title “means nothing”. In other college basketball news, Notre Dame improved it’s NCAA tournament chances with a 78-64 crushing of #13 ranked Georgetown. In Big Ten play, Ohio State put pressure on Purdue after a decisive 66-55 victory over rival Michigan. To make things worse for Purdue, Robbie Hummel is gone for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, a tragic injury that could cripple Purdue’s NCAA title run.

…Specifically in the country of Niger, where President Tandja once said “no people are starving” in the population. Or at least that’s what he wanted audiences to think back then. Ever since the famine-struck year of 2005 and before where 3.6 million people were face to face with food shortages and 150,000 to 12 million starved to death or faced starvation, the government of Niger have kept quiet about the disastrous famines both great and small.

The country of Niger, like many other African countries that was once touched by the white man’s burden had a turbulent history. The people suffered from constant famines that wreaked havoc on their crops and harvests, the breaking point came when a military coup d’etat successfully took place in the 1970′s. The ones behind the coup justified their action by saying that the government at that time was not able to take care of its population.

One of the more prominent photos taken during the year 2005 showing an obviously healthy boy, just like what the government said.

Although famine does exist and starvation always occur in some part of Niger, the Niger goverment was very reluctant to accept humanitarian aid as it made the government look incapable of supporting its own people. And once you’re unable to take care of your people as a ruler, then the possibility of a coup or social unrest isn’t far away. Despite the news feeds back then, President Tandja of Niger persistently insisted that the starvation and malnutrition is all just propaganda and had even ‘banished’ some humanitarian organizations.

Fortunately, President Mamadou Tandja was overthrown in Niger’s fourth military coup d’etat on the 18th of February and was replaced by the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (a military committee) led by former squadran leader Salou Djibo that’s currently working towards a democratic government.

Due to this coup, humanitarian aid is more likely to flow more easily into the population of Niger, where the country is now facing one of the most deadliest food shortages in recent years. Many humanitarian organizations are pressing for “pre-emptive” action before the food shortages get out of hand which may lead to a repeat of the year 2005.

No immediate response to this chain of food shortages by the current ‘government’ has been made.

- Authored By: Linxy

2/27/10

Under the treaty of Westphalia in 1648 Switzerland was recognized as an independent state by other European countries and have upheld their famous neutrality since then. Yet Switzerland may have a holy war on their hands.

Yes, the long-neutral country faced a declaration of jihad (holy war) made by Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya on the 26th of February. In a rather..unprecedented situation, Switzerland finds itself in a very strange and at the same time a little-humorous political situation. Very recently, the people of Switzerland voted (with a 55.75% favor) to ban the construction of minarets which provoked many reactions of shock and bitterness by countries in both Europe and the Middle East.

Pakistan’s Kurshid Ahmad commented on the ban as a “reflection of extreme Islamicphobia among the people in the West”.

German Parliament member Wolfgang Bosbach, similarly said that the Swiss ban was a growing fear of Islamization and should not be lightly taken.

Minarets are towers on the top of mosques, the houses of worship for Moslems. The ban was passed due to the ‘controversy of minarets’, regardless if the ban was right or wrong, Colonel al-Qaddafi nevertheless declared jihad on Switzerland and called for support against Switzerland and the boycott of its goods due to the ban on the construction of minarets.

An example of a minaret.

Moslem leaders kind of scoffed at Colonel Qaddafi’s declaration of jihad as the leader of Libya has no religious right nor power to declare a jihad. Yet to make sure he had a few radicals on his side, Colonel Qaddafi made this declaration on the day of Prophet Mohammed’s birthday which should get a few extremists to stop buying Swatches. This struggle is hardly religious at all and doesn’t really involve Islam and its followers, but rather this confrontation between al-Gaddafi and the government of Switzerland is purely political and partly because of a grudge supposedly held by the Libyan leader since 2008.

Pathetically, al-Qaddafi’s son was charged with beating his two servants to a pulp and his family was detained leading to his grudge which prompted him to take revenge by withdrawing funds (billions of dollars) from Swiss banks, stalling the transportation of oil to Switzerland for a time, and most controversially withholding two Swiss businessmen from leaving the country of Libya.

The Swiss ban on Moslem minarets seems to have provided Colonel al-Qaddafi with gunpowder to ignite with his fire of grudges. The government of Switzerland pretty seems to have brushed this off after considering the situation. No security measures were taken after the declaration of holy war but diplomacy at this point is just scuffling and fighting between the two governments. This situation seems totally unrelated to the Swiss ban on minarets but looks to be more strongly related to the Libyan leader’s family’s “humiliation” in Switzerland.

An example of al-Qaddafi's showing off and dissaproval of how women are treated in the Islamic world. His 40-some female bodyguards are said to have sworn allegiance to him and sweared virginity forever.

Although he has been “bashed” by other countries and organizations such as the European Union, Colonel al-Qaddafi is considered to be one of the more moderate, leaders of the Moslem world as in the year of 2009, June he had personally visited Italy in peacock fashion to conduct a government affair and openly criticized the Moslem world’s abuse of women’s rights. He had also hosted in the peace conference between the Sudan government and the Darfur rebels.

Colonel al-Qaddafi hosting the peace conference between the Sudan government and the rebels of Darfur. It had little effect on the situation.

On the other hand, he is considered to be a huge hypocrite on certain topics such as democracy and is known to be ambitious as he aspires to be one of the more influential leaders in the Islamic world. Overall he is a semi-respectable leader and may lose what remains of his respect after this ordeal.

- Gordon Aldridge

Ask anyone out there. The question of what country is the greatest threat in the Middle East. Many will say Afghanistan due to the surges of U.S troops being sent there to fight against guerilla fighters in the mountains of the country, others will declare Pakistan is the greatest threat due to its hotbed of extremist groups, Iran because of its recent actions to enrich uranium, or even Israel concerning its neighbors’ attitudes towards the state’s existence. Perhaps many will wittingly say the United States of America is the greatest threat in the Middle East due to its military presence.

 Few, if any, will ever say Lebanon is the greatest threat in the Middle East.

Lebanon’s government is a mere shadow after Lebanon’s 15 year civil war and the Hezbollah’s war with Israel in the year of 2006, in that context it is only natural that dangerous groups such as Hezbollah have enough power to virtually take over the country both politically and economically as shown by the group’s hold on western Beirut during the 2008 internal conflict that took place and its members being in the government. This Shi’a ”militia” emerged to take action against the Israeli occupation of Lebanon and up until this day have launched rocket attacks against Israel.

Hezollah is considered to be either a legitimate resistance movement against Israel or as a terrorist organization. Some Western countries disputed over Hezbollah's official status but others have given Hezbollah either the status of a terrorist organization or a resistance movement.

Although the rocket attacks are a mere irritation to Israel, it shows and does two things.

It shatters the image of an invincible Israel in the eyes of other Middle Eastern countries that are belligerents toward Israel. Israel, on an interesting note, is the only country besides Pakistan to have nuclear weapons which gives off a ‘back-off’ warning to the other Middle Eastern countries and further reinforces itself with America’s support.

The rocket attacks show Iran’s markings on the weapons. Although it is known that Iran and Syria helps Hezbollah financially it shows a scarier side to what Iran also gives(weapons). Knowing this piece of information, the news of Iran’s uranium enrichment programs becomes much more grim and serious.

Iran’s stubborness to enrich uranium for “civilian purposes” has obviously made the entire world nervous. Others goes on and on about the possibility of Iran gaining nuclear weapons despite international sanctions and threats. Although that is a problem, it is a smaller problem when compared to the situation of Iran NOT using the nuclear weapons.

What?

Putting it all together, Iran can achieve the status of a nuclear state and produce nuclear weapons in the form of dirty bombs, a much smaller and a more convinient form of a nuclear bomb with a smaller blast radius with the same effects of a nuke. No Kim Jung Il nuclear missiles? Of course not.

Once Iran can produce such weapons, it is only natural to predict that the country will gift-wrap the bombs and send them to Hezbollah stationed in the country of Lebanon… which is above Israel.

It is very easy to sneak people into countries especially if the countries are right next to each other. It is also very easy to smuggle in bombs with the people.

- Authored By; Indigneous

Finally, the Queen of Figure Skating has been declared; Kim Yu Na the South Korean superstar athlete.

Kim Yuna’s  free skate score reached 150.06, an astonishing 13% higher than her previous world record of 133.95. This is truly a world record, and Kim Yuna won over Michelle Kwan who was her role model for figure skating. However, there is a feeling of sadness and happiness in the air.

Figure skating is hardly cheap nor easy. Figure skaters train daily for many years to perform in a competition that lasts less than 7 minutes for them on the ice. To figure skate, it also costs much money and many athletes in some countries cannot afford the money and this reality pushes them to quit their career and dreams immediately.

The same case applies to Kim Yu Na. Although she was a “brilliant genius” according to her first coach, her middle-class Korean family could not afford the money for Kim Yu Na’s training fee. She also couldn’t find a suitable training place so she went to the Lotte Playground Ice Rink to practice there while other kids skated.

Compared to her rivals in Korea’s rival country, Japan, Asada Mao and  Miki Ando were sponsored earlier because figure skating is popular in that country, and while they practiced on the ice rink rented for individual, Kim Yu Na could not rent a place to practice.

Tears of relief came after she finished her figure skating, as she relieved the pressure put on her by her country and by the Olympics.

The hardest obstacle that Kim Yu Na overcame was the financials. Since the Winter Olympics is the party for ‘white’ people’ the only competition that Koreans could get was the short track skating and the country/athletes put full effort on the short track to get a gold medal which explains the South Korean team’s surprising ability to outskate other athletes. Kim Yu Na could not get the attention of a sponsor before winning the Junior World’s Figure Skating. As part of their culture back then, Koreans did not care much about other winter sports.

Kim Yu Na was finally sponsored including by a small town chiroprotactic hospital who did not help her financially but still gave free treatment for her injuries.

Back in the 1950′s, the Korean police arrested two figure skaters practicing on a frozen river due to their appearence being too sexually vulgar in public. Most of the Korean people did not care about figure skating before Kim Yu Na arrived, even if there was a figure skating show on the television, they would say “Wow, they must practice really hard~ Let’s change the channel.”

As Kim Yu Na progressed, many South Koreans began to hope for her to win the country’s first gold medal for figure skating and so Kim Yu Na began to garner attention from the Korean media. After the Korean media looked into Kim Yu Na’s background, they were very shocked about Kim’s financial situation as a figure skating athlete. Kim Yu Na wasn’t able to change her skates at all and was forced to stick with skates that were worn out beyond their expiration date, thus her feet hurt frequently for that reason.

The Korean people started to help Kim Yu Na by requesting corporations to have Kim sponsored and appear on commercials. KB Kookmin Bank started become a financial sponsor of Kim Yu Na so she could concentrate on her skating only.

Kim Yu Na shows much potential as proven by the Vancouver Winter Olympics to both Koreans and the world. She started to become the ‘citizen’s fairy’ in South Korea and she began to gain at least 23 commercial contracts per year and get even more sponsors.

Myriam Loriol Oberwiler (Switzerland) became one of Kim Yu Na’s obstacles as well. Myriam described Kim Yu Na as an overrated athlete and judged Kim Yu Na unfairly. In the 2008 Grand Free Series ‘Cup Of China’, Myriam gave a “wrong edge” judgement on Kim Yu Na’s triple flip combination and gave a warning to Kim Yu Na to mark up her practice on her technique.

However, Myriam raised a white flag to Kim Yu Na in this year’s Winter Olympic as Kim Yu Na was very careful and smoothly skated as not to get lowered in score or receive any warning. In short, she was nothing short of perfect in terms of figure skating.

From her humble background to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, Kim Yu Na was not the only person who gained a gold medal. Her coach Brian Orser also achieved a gold medal for her and his goal.

Brian Orser was the  Canadian figure skater. He is the 1984 and 1988 Olympic silver medalist, 1987 World champion and the 1981-1988 Canadian national champion, however he never had any connection with a gold medal or gold medalist. When Orser saw Kim Yu Na, he saw the potential of her skating and began to coach her, which paid off this year as the team won the gold medal for figure skating.

Brian Orser (Right) lift his head up to the ceiling in both relief and happiness as the score is announced for Kim Yu Na's skating which had her win the gold medal.

Definitely the precursor of all that was to become Western, Greece with its schools of philosophies, arts, military, and overall qualities led it to hammer an impact on the world back then and today. From the successful marches of Alexander the Great to the battles against Fascist Italy, this once great country faces worrying obstacles such as the huge amount of debt that covers their Mount Olympus from shining with Greek glory along with the very controversial austerity that is being ordered by the PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) with the Prime Minister Papandreou pushing it from behind.

The amount of debt in Greece is startling, it is such a huge crisis that the European Union with Germany at its front voted to help Greece with 25 billion Euros, (around 33 billion U.S Dollars). All the EU countries will share the burden of assisting Greece with this package of money, however Greece will still have to pay off their debt of 53 billion Euros very soon.

Keeping that in mind, the government of Greece had little choice as it complied with the European Union along with the international banks to drastically decrease wages, social programs of benefits, jobs, and other public budgets so that government debt can be lowered by lowering Greece’s budget deficit. Basically, the standard of living in Greece will have to hover a bit low until the Greek economy can improve and achieve fiscal balance.                                            

 According to the World Socialist Web Site, two million Greek workers hit the streets and roads to protest the recent austerity policies that PASOK recently implemented. Protestors included students, teachers, journalists, air control staff, pilots, public transport workers even including ferry drivers and other civilians as well.

One of the peaceful protests, the banner says "Let the Plutocracy Pay The Crisis!" showing stressed friction between the middle-class people and the higher-classes including the government.

On Thursday, 25th of February, Greece as a nation is basically closed down. All plane flights concerning Greece were cancelled, public schools, governmental offices, hospitals, and other facilities were closed down as well. From Athens to Thessaloniki and in other towns and cities in the Greek peninsula, protestors marched with homemade banners and chanted slogans, sometimes riveting against the higher class and of course the government’s economical actions. Some actions were taken by the Greek riot police with tear gas and gave out a few beatings here and there. 

Violence breaks out as police launches tear gas and pepper spray onto some protestors.

Despite all these protests, PASOK announced that it will take further austerity measures next week. Is there room for optimism? Erm…No, Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that countries like Greece up to their neck in debt will face a period of extreme budget difficulty for 20 years or so. Also…social unrest will get worse and worse.

On further note: Great spot for a vacation over here, really. Had a fantastic time being stuck without the metro in Athens.

Authored By: Bera Te.

2/25/10

Canada needed some momentum to coast on while trying to fulfill their expectations as gold medalists. Canada got just what the doctor ordered, in a 7-3 quarterfinal spanking of Russia. Ryan Getzlaf put Canada on the board just 2:21 into the game on a goal assisted by Dan Boyle and Chris Pronger. Boyle scored the next goal for Canada, with the assists going to Dany Heatly and Patrick Marleau. Rick Nash put Canada up 3-nil on a goal assisted by Jonathan Toews  and Mike Richards. Russia finally scored on a goal by Dmitri Kalinin with the assists credited to Sergei Federov. Brenden Morrow closed out the first period scoring with a goal fro Canada with the assists going to Boyle and Duncan Keith. Canada picked up where it left off on a goal by Corey Perry, assisted by Getzlaf and Keith.

Ryan Getzlaf along with Dan Boyle and Pronger started it off a couple of minutes into the game.

Dan Boyle; assisted Ryan Getzlaf and Brenden Morrow on their two goals.

Marcus Vinnerborg, one of the two officials for the match between Canada and Russia.

Dmitri Kalinin with an assist by Federov scored Russia's first goal.

Shea Weber only added to the humiliation on a goal assisted by Toews and Jarome Iginla. Russia cut the lead to 6-2 on a Maxim Afinogenov goal, which was assisted by Ilya Kovalchuk and Denis Grebeshkov. Perry scored later in the period on a goal assisted by Eric Staal and Getzlaf. Russia scored a meaningless consolation goal on a power play, with Sergei Gonchar scoring and Evgeni Malkin assisting. The third period was a scoreless one, as Canada was content with the lead and Russia was already put away. The officials for the match were Dennis Larue and Marcus Vinnerborg.

Zach Parise, scored two goals for Team U.S.A in the other quarterfinal against Team Switzerland.

In another quarterfinal, the United States Men’s hockey team continued their dream run in a 2-0 defeat of Switzerland. Throughout the first and second periods, both teams had near goals on many occasions. Zach Parise had both goals for the USA, his first coming on a power play 2:58 into it on a goal assisted by Brian Rafalski and Paul Stastny. Parise got his second on an unassisted empty net goal with 12 seconds to play. The officials for the match were Paul Devorski and Peter Orszag.

Authored By: Dave H.

Bram Stoker would’ve been impressed at the recent developments of the character of the vampire today. After Bram Stoker’s Dracula made its influence throughout the past generations, authors and producers of multiple books and movies/hit shows arose from this build-up of human fascination with the supernatural.

Bram Stoker; author of Dracula, although the idea of vampires have been around for as long as human civilization's existence, Bram Stoker brought it to the table with a 'fresh' idea at that time.

Well, most of us guys aren’t very impressed. In my opinion, we’d like to see more fangs and splashing of blood, tense plots, et cetera instead of vampires that shine like diamonds in the sun, have corny love interactions with worn-out characters, and really do not get forced to sit through Twilight movies with the girls who dragged us along and squealed the entire time of the movie making it inaudible.

So, our question is: Are we done yet with this vampire business?

Heaving a big sigh, and pouting mightily, I say: No we’re not done yet.

From Interview With The Vampire to the current dramas on American television, Trueblood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer along with the exasperating Twilight novels and movies, this obsession with the new generation of vampires keep piling up. While all these works portray vampires in somewhat of their original form, they have the most boring plot ever. For instance, Trueblood and Twilight focus entirely on a lone human girl in an enviroment of, you guessed it, vampires. The whole thing is redundant and it becomes obvious to viewers that the works are mirror images of each other. Incredibly, it just seems that Twilight is the root of all this. Stephenie Myers stirred up hordes of female fans for her ‘fresh’ plot and basically covered all the previous vampire hits such as 30 Day of Night.

Recently a new movie called Daybreakers came out on January 5th, and is basically about the vampire race being the majority while humanity is the minority due to a global plague that turns people into vampires. The remnants of humanity left are forced to fight for their survival and are targeted for the harvestation of blood for the vampires’ survival.

Seriously, Blade much? Still I must admit that Daybreakers at least breaks away from this sissy vampire hype. It hasn’t garnered much attention in terms of profit-wise/audience-wise compared to the Twilight movies, so it’s expected that this fragile plant of hope is buried by the last movie of the Twilight trilogy along with the other vampire shows…

Although ideas of the supernatural tend to change over the centuries such as the zombie from the voodoo origins to the fast, teeming hordes of zombies brought upon by infection in modern forms such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Dawn of the Dead (Romero), it is startingly different (and better(much much better)) from the change of vampires in terms of plots, characteristics, and media.