Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)

Right now I am listening to the song Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill) by Wyclef Jean. I never really realized the true meaning of this song until now. This song talks about a girl who used to be really sweet. But when she got older all that mattered was money. This song talks about how in our world money is everything and people do anything to get it.
Lyrics:
[Verse 1: (Wyclef Jean)]
High school she was that girl that make me do the hula hoop around the gym
(Just to get a peek again, she's a 10)
High school she was
That girl that make me do the hula hoop around the gym
(Just to get a peek again, she's a 10)
Never thought she would come and work for the president
Mr. George Washington (where my money at?)
She thought he'd call (where my money at?)
She had a good day, bad day, sunny day, rainy day
All she wanna know is (where my money at?)
Closed legs don't get fed, go out there and make my bread
All you wanna know is (where my money at?)
She ended up in a road car, bruised up, scarred hard
All you wanna know is (where my money at?)
She thought he'd call (where my money at?)

[Chorus: (Akon) ]
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)

[Verse 2: (Akon)]
Pimpin' got harder cos, hoes got smarter
On the strip is something they don't wanna be a part of
Rather be up in the club shakin' for a thug
For triple times the money and spending it how they wanna
They got they mind on they money, money on they mind
They got they finger on the trigger, hand on the nines
See everyday they feel the struggle, but staying on they grind
And ain’t nobody takin’ from us, and that’s the bottom line

But I know there's a drop in the block
You move slow
You getting' pressure from cops
You don't know not to lay low
Because 25 to life is no joke
To all my real gorillas thuggin'
On top of corners every day strugglin'
[ Sweetest Girl lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
All the beautiful women getting' money
Washin' them dollar bills like laundry

[Chorus: (Akon) ] (x2)
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)

[Bridge: (Wyclef Jean)]
Money, money-money-money
Money, money-money-money
It drives the world crazy

[Verse 3: (Lil Wayne)]
(Weezy) She used to be (she used to be the sweetest girl)

She used to be the sweetest girl ever
Now she like sour ameretta
She wears a dress to the T like the letter
And if you make it rain she will be under the weather
She used to run track back in high school
Now she tricks off the track right by school
She takes a loss cos she don't wanna see her child lose
So respect her, I'll pay up for the time used
And then she runs to the pastor
And he tells her there will be a new chapter
But she feels no different after
And then she asks him…

[Chorus: (Akon) ] (x2)
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Cos I'mma tell you like you told me
Cash rules everything around me
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)
Singin' dollar dollar bill yall(dollar, dollar bill yall)

[Outro: (Wyclef Jean)]
Some live for the bill
Some kill for the bill (where my money at?)
She wined for the bill
Grind for the bill (where my money at?)
Some steal for the bill, if they got to pay the bill (where my money at?)

The parts that stood out to me the most were the chorus, the bridge, and the outro. These stood out most because they are the main things that affect and are a part of my life. All three of these are so true and i dont want to believe it, but that is how our world is. In the old days, it used to be moral values that were important, but now everything revolves around money. It really does "drive the world crazy."

Thoughts...

Today in english when we were discussing the Woman Warrior, we went off topic and we started talking about the US government/military. We were talking about what happens to a US citizen when they fight against the US in a war. We talked about how we send them off to prisons outside of US teritory and then they secretly torture them. I think this is so disgusing. We in general as US citizens are very sick people. Torture is illegal in the US and so just because we want to beat someone to see them suffer, we go and find a way to do that. It just sickens me to know that people would do something like that. How could they stand life knowing that they tortured someone till they almost died? How can they not feel guilty about something like that? Do they have no feelings? I dont understand how people are amused by seeing someone else suffer. What if it was happening to them, would they still be amused? I doubt it. This was just a thought that popped up in my head when someone asked the question, "What happens to traitors?" I hate to believe it, but it's true.

Ally's Picture

I thought ally's picture of the little girl smoking was really good and interesting. I thought it was good because it has a good meaning behind it and it is a really creative way of showing people what will happen to you if you smoke. This picture makes the onlooker have a sense of the bad things that will happen to you if you do this to yourself. The picture conveys a good meaning to the person looking at the picture.

Water

In World Civ. the other day, we were discussing the middle east. It brought us to the topic of water and water scarcity. We talked about how so many places in this world don't have fresh water. We talked about the Middle East being one of the main places that is running out of water because there is more and more people, but less and less water. Our teacher, Mr. Georgi, told us that they are starting to desalinate water from the Mediterranean Sea and in their reservoirs they pour a layer of olive oil over the water to keep it from evaporating. This disscussion made me think about three main things. 1. Middle Easterners are really smart. 2. What's going to happen when we run out of water? 3. Are we going to do anything to prevent our water from dissapearing (in Hawaii)? I was thinking about these questions, and i dont really know how to answer them. I guess if we run out of water, we are all going to die unless by then we found another planet with water or some other genius scientific discovery. For the other question, i dont know what we will do, but i really hope that we do something. Personally, i would like to stop people from moving here, but that is not possible since it's unconctitutional. Another thing i think we should do, not only for hawaii but also for the mainland, is control water usage. Rigth now they are doing this in some of the east coast states that are in a drought. They are only aloowing people to use water for certain things. An alternative to this could be to increase the price of water, because if the price goes higher, people will most likely use less water. This solution may not work as well as the others though. In conclusion, what i am basically trying to say is that we need to watch how we use our water because if we dont, water will be scarce for us just like in the middle east. I dont want to get into that situation, or at least not in my lifetime.

Sustainable Classroom: Max Nu'uhiwa

I read this article on ePunahou. It is about Maxine Nu'uhiwa, a third grade teacher at punahou who is trying to make the third grade a more sustainable environment. She is trying "to reduce facilities wear and tear" by leaving shoes and slippers outside the classroom and putting tennis balls on the bottom of chairs. Ms. Nu'uhiwa is trying to "target the reduction of food waste." She purchased reusable lunch bags and plastic containers for her students and made reusable bags out of recycled CapriSun containers. "We can reduce lunch waste by 90 percent and total waste by 50 percent by the end of this year," she says. The class has already achieved a 75 percent reduction. I think this is a really great step in sustainability. If she teaches all her kids to be this sustainable, they will grow up and make a difference in our island. I look up to her for doing this because she actually is making a difference. I always think to myself that i will try to be more sustainable. I try to reuse and recycle things, but whe i actually think about what i do, i dont really do that much. The only sustainable thing that i always do is recycle my cans. I know i can do alot more, but i dont really set my mind to it. Another thing i do is waste alot of food. At home, we (my family and i) try not to get so much food so that we will finish it all, but in the end we usually end up tossing something in the trash. Not only is this unsustainable but extremely wasteful. We throw away so much food and we take it for granted. We dont realize how lucky we are to have food whenever we want. There are millions of homeless people in our world that rarely get food. This is the reason i am so glad she is doing what she is doing with her students.

Al Harington

At chapel on wednesday, Al Harington came to talk to us. He is a former Punahou student, that used to live in Halawa. He told us his life story and told us about how he grew up really poor. He told us about how sometimes he had to steal to get food to survive. This was all quite sad, but then he started to talk about identity. "How ironic," I thought. He said, "You are what you think, not what you environment is." This turned on a lightbulb in my head because in class we never really brought up this point. We had some similar things, but no one ever mentioned this. I thought about this for a while, and I would like it to be true, but life isn't always what you want it to be. I agree with him, but i also dissagree with him. what you think you are is definately part of you identity, but what your environment is can affect your identity. For example, if you grew up with drug addict parents who never had enough money to buy you food because they would spend it all on drugs, then you would probably have much less opportunities and resources. You might not be able to go to school, so you wouldn't be educated, causing a huge lack of opportunity. Another example is his own life story. He grew up poor, so he had to steal. This makes part of his identity a stealer. Even if he stole for crucial reasons, it doesnt make it right, he still stole. My point is, a person's identity can be what they think of themselves, but it is also based on other factors.

Hotel Rwanda

We are watching Hotel Rwanda in world civ. and it is one of the saddest movies i have ever seen. The movie is about the war between the Hutus and Tutsis. The Hutus are the majority population so the movie is basically about the massacre of the Tutsis. There is one Hutu man, Paul who is trying to help the Tutsis, but he is running out of resources. There was a newsman that got footage of part of a massacre. Paul was glad because he thought if they showed that on TV, people would try to send help, but the newsman told him that people would see it and say 'thats so sad' and just go back to eating their dinners. This line was especially deep to me. I thought about it and realized how true it is. Whenever I watch the news and they are talking about a war. I just think to myself, "Wow, thats really terrible," but i dont do anything about it. Eventually i just forget about it. this made me feel so bad because i'm sure that most people do this. They feel sad for others, but because it is not happening to them, they just forget about it. I think that its really hard to understand what's happening to less furtuante people because we have so much. We have never gone through anything like them.