Hostage Simulation....We started World War III

I'm a little behind in my bloggings due to some technical difficulties, mainly, I am a Mac user, not a PC user, so things come slower to me in regards to all this computer stuff. But I would like to address my thoughts toward our first Honors group activity our second day here.

So here it goes...

When I first found out that I was going to be doing this, I was totally confused on what it was supposed to look like. And then I found out I was supposed to be a terrorist, and that's when I was really confused. First of all, I can't be mean. I am a homeschooler for goodness sake! We are supposed to be the shy, quiet, delicate type. The ones that haven't been toughened by the real world. And second, I'm a girl, a blond girl to be exact. I don't think I'm very intimidating. I found out later from experience that I was right, I'm not.

I get my pamphlet that explains all I need to know about Keibar and Needok, and why I'm supposed to be mad at the US, and I read it that night. I was, oh I don't even remember my name, an unemployed lawyer, my fiance died in the war, I have family in Detroit, and I'm 25. I am also an expert on weapons and torture and all that mean stuff. In fact I trained other terrorists. This is sounding more and more...not like me. Great... :)

The scenario plays out and we all do our jobs. I think the breakdown occurred somewhere during the second part. Negotiations were not going very well. Our offers were not considered and what they offered was not what we wanted. I think we used the media very well, though. When I was a terrorist, I didn't see any of the US government officials the whole time. I had no idea that there was so much discussion and confusion on their part until I found out at the end. To us, it seemed like the US was being very stubborn and non-negotiable, and that they didn't take us seriously or cared for their citizens.

The hardest job, I think, were the middle-men, the Business man and the other guy...don't remember his job title. They had to make sure they could relate everything to either side. That would be so tricky.

In the end we killed a couple hostages and started a war because neither side had a agreed to a compromise. I think that if the US government had tried to speak to us in person, there had been accurate information for the US, and more communication on the Government's side, the outcome would have been very different. Communication was key to this exercise.