Nasirov 1
Islam Nasirov
Molly Fenn
9/15/2017
Period 4
Grassy Perception
In “Song of myself” by Walt Whitman, uses subliminal uses of repetition to prove that everyone perceives grass different.
First off, he starts out his poem with a connection to his other poems, saying “I now thirty-seven years old in perfect health”(1). He uses this to relate with the readers and will be used later in the poem after his random death. It might come off as arrogant to other people but to me it seemed to connect with the ending. Later throughout the poem he talks about grass and when a child asks what grass is he says, “How could I answer the child, I do not know what it is any more than he”(6). A grown man who went to harvard like him would definitely know what grass is, but Philosophically looking at this he's talking about how the child and him may have different perceptions so he says he doesn’t know. I’m assuming he included this because he wanted something to start off with in the beginning.
Walt continues on through his poem to talk about the discrepancies in today’s communities.“Growing among black folk as among white” (6). What he’s trying to get with this is that black and white people both know what grass is, but they also seem to look at it differently and it could be taken as symbolism of the breaking of racism, he was in the middle of the civil war when writing this as well so it could do something with that.
Continuing on with this idea he has, he starts to talk about death and life itself. “The smallest sprout shows that there really is no death”(6)...”And to die is different from what anyone supposed , and luckier”(6). If you look in depth to see what he’s really saying, he’s trying to get at the fact that death is really how you look at it, but to him it was lucky to die because as a transcendentalist he doesn’t die, he simply turns into a sprout, aka he reincarnates as nature itself. It’s really beautiful and I’m glad Walt created this poem for us to enjoy.
Azhar Dahri, Alex Xie, and Islam Nasirov
Molly Fenn
English 3/4
7 March 2018
Azhar, Alex, and Islam’s Collaborative Essay
On January 13, 1999, Hae Min Lee was murdered in small city of Maryland Baltimore. Hae was an 18 year finding her way through life before this tragedy. The primary suspect in the murder case was Adnan Syed, a former classmate and her ex-boyfriend. Adnan Syed was a nice boy , but could his past reveal a more twisted side to him? While going through evidence and interviews it seems he could be hiding a dark secret. Adnan was later convicted sometime in February 2000 for first degree murder and was giving a life sentencing of plus 30 years. Adnan is guilty for the murder of Hae Min Lee due his past actions, his probability of having a personality disorder, and Adnan’s call logs.
Many people argue that Adnan’s past is a huge part of his guilt. Sarah started to interview people the who knew Adnan, starting at the Mosque he use to attend. Through the interview tapes find out that most people from the Mosque favor Adnan. Like Ali, who looked up to Adnan and saw him as a older brother. Or Atif Iqbal, who said that Adnan diffused tension out of situations he was in. But there are others in the Mosque who don’t favor Adnan as much. A man who did not want to be named described him as a sneaky guy, who would try to talk his way out of a situation. That man also claims that Adnan has stolen from the donation bins at the Mosque. This wasn't just a one time thing, the man claimed he saw Adnan steal every Friday. When questioned about stealing money, Adnan started to get very upset at Sarah. He felt that Sarah was targeting him by looking for bad things he has done in the past. “I mean, and it’s a very uncomfortable thing for me to talk about, you know cfcc what I’m saying? It’s a very shameful thing that I did. I’ve never denied it. I don’t see, I don’t understand. I just think it’s really unfair to me.”(ep11) said Adnan. Sarah recalled Adnan saying that “He never claimed to be innocent of killing Hae because he was perfect. Or that he was a good person.” (ep11) Even Adnan himself Admits that he wasn’t perfect or even good, despite what the people at the Mosque and his ex-classmates say. If he got mad just because Sarah asked him a simple question about his past then something is going on, because only guilty people do that. Consider the evidence is a huge possibility that he could have snapped and killed Ha. As Adnan said himself after a break up she would come crawling back. What if once Hae broke up with Adnan and she started dating Don she forgot about Adnan. At this point Adnan realises that Hae isn't coming back to him, so he flips and kills her. [Alex]
Another very important viewpoint we must take a look at is the possibility of Adnan having rare personality disorders. During this whole podcast, we’ve not once seen different emotion from Adnan, he showed no anger, no sadness, he was simply stale. When Adnan says “Oh no, uh, I do remember that phone call and I do remember being high at the time because the craziest thing is to be high and have the police call your phone. I’ll never forget that.”(e6) When he says this, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s trying to fake a surprised voice and just the way he worded the sentence made me feel as if I was having a conversation with him and he said that I would automatically assume that he was either lying or is debating in his mind whether to even say that or not. Psychopaths were made like this, they imitate regular humans to take advantage of them for their own agenda. After watching a documentary about the “Iceman” a professional hitman for the mafia with over 200 kills who didn’t have any type of fear. He was interviewed by a professional psychiatrist and it was determined that he was born with the anti-social and paranoid personality disorder which could have, but after his horrible parents raised him terribly he ended up being a murderer. In my opinion Adnan shows some of these traits, He may not have been anti-social but he probably felt no fear or remorse and the constant pain of being broken up, strict parents, and teenage drama plus the possible personality disorder led him to kill Hae. I also see evidence of this when It’s said that Adnan smokes marijuana and also constantly wants to check in on his girlfriend, according to Aisha, ‘“Oh! It’s so cute! Your boyfriend’s dropping by.” But then the tenth time, it’s like, “Really?”’(e2) These are symptoms of paranoid personality disorder, he felt as if Hae was out to cheat so he constantly called, he couldn’t relax so he smoked marijuana, he feels like he’s indifferent so he’s needy. All this added only lead to one thing in the end, Adnan is guilty. [Islam]
Adnan was questioned about the day of the murder and he claimed that he lent both his car and phone to Jay and said he did not kill Hae. Jay’s testimony about Adnan murdering Hae have been corroborated by Adnan’s call log and have been coherent with all events that Jay have mentioned about what happened on January 13, 1999 and “the Nisha call”. “The Nisha call” was a called made from Adnan's phone to Nisha’s (Adnan’s friend, that Jay doesn’t know) while Adnan claimed to be at school. If Adnan did not have possession of his phone, then why was there a phone call made that had a duration of “2:22 at 3:32pm” (Call Log). There can be a possibility of Jay calling Nisha, but he does not know her so it would not make much sense. When Nisha was getting questioned, she said “ I remember him telling me that Jay invite- invited him over to a video store that he worked at. And, he basically well Adnan walked in with his cell phone and then like- he told me to speak with Jay and I was like ‘okay’ cause Jay wanted to say hi so I said hi to Jay” (Ep. 6). People can say that this is false due to the fact that “ Jay didn’t have that job yet on January 13” (Ep. 6), but she was questioned later in the investigation and she might have just been confused. This call along with others puts Adnan out of school during the murder while he claims he was at school. [Azhar]
With all evidence presented, many people are still skeptical about his guilt. Either they still deny Jay as a viable witness or they hang on the fact that the evidence at Hae’s body was never tested. Jay isn’t the most trustworthy guy, no one is denying that. His friends have said he has a tendency to lie about small things, but nothing severe. Could it be a possibility that Jay lied about this whole thing? He can't keep a straight story after all. Although this may be a considerable possibility, but I simply cannot believe it. Jay has been one of the most cooperative people during the entire investigation. Jay has told police where Adnan and himself were located at specific times. There are other eyewitnesses that collaborate with Jay’s claims, like Cathy, Nisha etc.
People are also very skeptical about Don’s innocence. When Don was questioned on where he was the day she was murdered, Don said he was working at lenscrafters with a timestamp to back it up. This is should have put him But there is evidence that he was working at another lenscrafter at the time with someone punching the clock for him. Let’s just say that Don did murder Hae and he was the one who had Hae body in her car. It would impossible since Jay was the one who pointed out where Hae’s car was. Unless they were working together to kill her and frame Adnan. But it doesn't add up, Jay didn't have any connections to Don. Pretty sure Jay never meet Don in his entire life. As Don was an older guy and was not attending Woodland High at the time.
While there may be holes in this case whether it was reliability or a questioned alibi, it is clear that Adnan is guilty with all the evidence presented. Through Sarah Koenig’s podcast about Hae Min Lee’s murder case she speaks to those involved in the case, looks at the evidence collected in depth, and either conforms or debunks holes in the case. There are numerous points she has made that leaves Adnan looking extremely guilty, she even brings some professionals to speak upon him being a sociopath, along with the testimony from the star witness (Jay) about Adnan's actions on January 13, 1999. This all has been coherent to Adnan being the murderer of Hae Min Lee. Adnan is currently in prison for plus 30 years in Maryland and that's where he belongs.
Bibliography
Koenig, Sarah. “Serial Season One”. Serial 2014, https://serialpodcast.org/season-one
Koenig, Sarah. “Serial .” Serial, docs.google.com/document/d/1P_mKbKLmYSnDolYTt-xa-RDROO68zTFbpxCUPWATGEw/edit.o
Azhar:
Adnan is guilty because he had motive to kill Hae Min Lee. It’s clear from Jay’s testimony about what Adnan told him, “he told me that she had broke his heart, that it was extremely wrong for anyone to treat him that way....that he couldn’t believe how she stood and looked him face to face and told him she didn’t love him and could be that heartless” and he even went out of his way to mention “I’m going to killer her”(ep. 2). His testimony shows that Adnan was upset and thought the only way out was by killing Hae. Jay and Adnan are friends, smoke together most times, and we’re actually together the day of the murder when Adnan killed Hae.
Adnan lying to the police is another reason to why Adnan is guilty. Adnan told the detective that he did not ask Hae for a ride on January 13, 1999 but [QUOTE]. Her statement has been corroborated by others. Adnan after the fact says that [HE DOESN’T REMEMBER QUOTE] but for someone who has received a call from a detective the same day asking about his ex-girlfriend, one might think of the last place they seen them and when. Adnan lied to the police about important information that supports in him being the last person to see Hae Min Lee.
The final reason to why Adnan is guilty of the murder of Hae Min Lee, is the call logs of Adnan’s phone. On January 13, 1999 Hae went missing and Adnan was questioned about that day, he claims that he lent both his car and phone to Jay and said he did not kill Hae, but there is a problem. Jay’s testimony about Adnan murdered Hae has been corroborated by Adnan’s call log and “the Nisha call”. If Adnan did not have possession of his phone, then why was there a phone call made that had a duration of “2:22 at 3:32pm” (Call Log). When Nisha was getting questioned, she said “ I remember him telling me that Jay invite- invited him over to a video store that he worked at. And, he basically well Adnan walked in with his cell phone and then like- he told me to speak with Jay and I was like ‘okay’ cause Jay wanted to say hi so I said hi to Jay” (Ep. 6). People can say that this is false due to the fact that “ Jay didn’t have that job yet on January 13” (Ep. 6), but she was questioned later in the investigation. This call puts Adnan out of school while he claims he was at school.
Alex:
Due to Adnan’s past it might seem that he was a nice kid, with a bright future ahead of him. But through interviews and reviewing evidence it seems that Adnan had a darker side to him and that the possible murder of Hae Min Lee is irrefutable.
Adnan Syed was a bright, athletic, charming high schooler in the year of 1999. He had lots of friends in and outside of school, as he went to mosque regularly. Many people who knew him would describe him as a nice guy, someone who wouldn’t or couldn’t hurt a living soul. While others like Jay, believe he was more sinister than people can imagine. As Jay, a former classmate promptly accused Adnan for the murder of Hae Min Lee. But how could such a nice guy with such a bright future ahead of him become the prime suspect of a murder case?
While reviewing some of the interviews that Sarah has done with various interviewees, we find out that most of the people did not know Adnan very well. But they thought that he was a nice kid. But what people didn’t know was that Adnan was not always the good/nice guy that they imagined him to be. Adnan was a Muslim who went to the Mosque regularly, as part of the the Muslim religion it is said you're not allowed to date, you are either married or unmarried. When Adnan started to date Hae, he lied to his parents and most likely people at the Mosque. Although lying doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you seem untrustworthy. When Sarah Interviewed some people from the Mosque, a man who did not want to be named, stated that he spotted Adnan steal thousands of dollars from the donation bin.While other members of the Mosque said they have never seen Adnan do such a thing, as he was a good kid. If he was such a good kid why did he steal? Adnan admits he stole money, but not thousands like the man said. Sarah was informed from Ali that “ their community is judgmental. Right and wrong is drummed into you early and often. Adults judge kids’ behavior, which then gets reflected back onto their parents.” It makes no sense for Adnan to steal or to break tradition to dating Hae. Adnan's parents were very strict, so they would have taught him. But Adnan stated “ he just wasn’t that religious. He was going to clubs and having sex with girls, and smoking weed from the time he was fourteen or fifteen. Culturally, yes a Muslim, but the rest, he says, not so much. So passages like this, he says he doesn’t recognize himself in them.” If Adnan could have gotten away with smoking, stealing and having sex it is a big possibility that he could have hidden a murder.
When Sarah asked many professionals what they thought about the case and if it was similar to other cases. They all described this case as very messy, with a lot of holes. An example of this would be how all the evidence is so stacked against Adnan. It's really hard to believe that Adnan just lent Jay his car or how he just so happened to ask Hae for a ride the day she died. Even Adnan thinks that there is a lot of evidence that incriminated him. The key evidence that put Adnan away was Jay. He was supposedly an accomplice in Hae’s murder. Jay accurately described what Adnan did when they were together. He located almost all the calls logs correctly and told the police where Hae’s car was stashed. Some can argue that Jay is untrustworthy and how he is lying about everything and trying to protect someone else. There is no reason for Jay to lie, he gave the police everything that he knew. Stella Armstrong a juror for Adnan's case said “why would you admit to doing something that drastic if you hadn’t done it?” You know what I mean? For what reason? What was he going to gain from that? He still had to go to jail.” She brought up a really good point. Since Jay admitted that he was an accomplice, giving information about his involvement would result in prison time. Although Jay walked, it is still a huge risk for him to take.
Islam:
Adnan the bad boy
One very important stance we must take a look at is the possibility of Adnan having rare personality disorders. During this whole podcast, we’ve not once seen different emotion from Adnan, he showed no anger, no sadness, he was simply stale. When Adnan says “Oh no, uh, I do remember that phone call and I do remember being high at the time because the craziest thing is to be high and have the police call your phone. I’ll never forget that.”(e6) When he says this, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s trying to fake a surprised voice and just the way he worded the sentence made me feel as if I was having a conversation with him and he said that I would automatically assume that he was either lying or is debating in his mind whether to even say that or not. Psychopaths were made like this, they imitate regular humans to take advantage of them for their own agenda. After watching a documentary about the “Iceman” a professional hitman for the mafia with over 200 kills who didn’t have any type of nervousness or fear. He was interviewed by a professional psychiatrist and it was determined that due to the anti-social and paranoid personality disorder he was born with no fear, but after his horrible parents raised him terribly he ended up being a murderer. In my opinion Adnan shows some of these traits, He may not have been anti-social but he probably felt no fear or remorse and the constant pain of being broken up, strict parents, and teenage drama led him to kill Hae. I also see evidence of this when It’s said that Adnan smokes marijuana and also constantly wants to check in on his girlfriend, according to Aisha, ‘“Oh! It’s so cute! Your boyfriend’s dropping by.” But then the tenth time, it’s like, “Really?”’(e2) These are symptoms of paranoid personality disorder, he felt as if Hae was out to cheat so he constantly called, he couldn’t relax so he smoked marijuana, he feels like he’s different so he’s needy. All this added up in the end only lead to one thing, Adnan is guilty.
Nasirov 1
Islam Nasirov
Priscila Rodriguez
U.S. History
2/13/18
The domino effect
Imperialism is the act of a country spreading influence and power through various methods. Based on this definition, America was a full blown imperialist power back in the day. It’s important for us to understand that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost simply for the egotistical gain that came with imperialism. America witnessed European countries imperializing, they also realized the potential financial and political gain so they took action and went through different methods to imperialize as seen in the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
On 1819, U.S. Missionaries arrive in hawaii to spread christianity. This was America’s first step into cultural, economic, and militaristic imperialism. King Kamehameha III allowed foreign citizens to own land for the 1st time, very shortly after, 80% of land is owned by non-Hawaiians. Then a group of American businessmen known as the Hawaiian league lead a coup against Kalakaua to force him to sign the Bayonet Constitution which reduced the monarchy's power. This evidence is crucial because it shows the power of control. Once the Hawaiian land was legally sold to foreigners, they were in the grips of institutions, obviously the American businessmen would want their profits to sustain and what better way than to control the island yourself? Hawaii gave this opportunity to the American’s and they suffered because of it. Furthermore, the Hawaiian League continued to lead yet another coup against Liliuokalani to gain full control of the monarchy, yet America did not want to annex the islands until 1898, the year when the Spanish-American war began and when America realized they could have imperialistic benefits from having Hawaii. In the end this was 100% a form of imperialism because America managed to put
Nasirov 2
Hawaii in an economic and cultural chokehold, and controlled it later through militaristic means, this goes with the definition of imperialism which is the spread of influence and power through various methods.
On February 4th, 1899 United States Soldiers fire the first shots to begin the Philippine-American War. This war is a prime example of America’s cut and clear imperialism. We can clearly see the atrocities committed under the pretense that they were combating communism, a result of the imperialization of the Philippines through a soldier’s letter home, “Last night one of our boys was found shot … orders were received from Gen. Wheaton to burn the town and kill every native in sight,” (Barnes) Consider this, Americans obtained the Philippines through a cash settlement, they fired the first shot, and the Philippines have been fighting for independence for a long time. It’s without a doubt imperialism, but the atrocities they committed in acts of revenge was completely unnecessary and shows you the result of imperialism. Some Americans even believed that they had the right to imperialize the nation because they were incapable of governing themselves, an argument that stemmed from ethnocentrism. We notice this in Frederick Funston’s letter when he says that “The Filipinos have a certain number of educated leaders-educated, however, about the same way a parrot is. They are as a rule, an illiterate, semi-savage people who are waging a war not against tyranny, but against Anglo Saxon order…” They imperialized the philippines through militaristic means, committed atrocities while doing so, all while believing they were doing this for the good of the people.
Although whether or not Guatemala was imperialized by America is still being argued by historians today, I firmly believe it was a form of imperialism. The economic interests in Guatemala were too great for America to ignore it. Similar to Hawaii, a United States owned corporation called United Fruit Company controlled most of the banana plantations in Guatemala, they were making a ton of money, at one point they had almost double the revenue of Guatemala’s government. In 1931, the “United
Nasirov 3
Fruit Company signed a 99 year lease … which is exempt from taxes … pay workers up to 50 cents per day,”(timeline). Similar to Hawaii, they were caught in a chokehold, most of Guatemala was owned by
this U.S. corporation and the U.S. itself was gaining from it too. They were already done for, there was no escaping. So when “Jacobo Arbenz Guzman [was] democratically elected … due to his military experience and advocacy for agrarian reform,”(timeline) America reacted exactly how you would think, they put up the argument that they were fighting communism and backed a coup against Arbenz. This was an example of both militaristic and economic imperialism. America’s influence was spread through the corporations that were making tons of profit in Guatemala, and then they spread their power through the coup that put Castillo in charge who reversed reforms that helped poor farmers and removed voting rights for illiterate Guatemalans.
America was without a doubt an imperialist power back in the 1900’s. They witnessed European countries imperializing, they also realized the potential financial and political gain so they took action and went through different methods to imperialize as seen in the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.It’s important for us to understand that America caused the suffering of millions for their own gain, when they could have been helping develop the countries they imperialized so we could have world peace. We see the long term effects of imperialism today, cuba is still shunned by the United States and we may never have an alliance with them. Imperialism only benefits those who already have power and influence, if it were to continue in today’s time only 1st world and some 2nd world countries would see benefit while 3rd world countries suffered.
MATH
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/twwetiw5nz
Islam Nasirov
Molly Fenn
9/15/2017
Period 4
Grassy Perception
In “Song of myself” by Walt Whitman, uses subliminal uses of repetition to prove that everyone perceives grass different.
First off, he starts out his poem with a connection to his other poems, saying “I now thirty-seven years old in perfect health”(1). He uses this to relate with the readers and will be used later in the poem after his random death. It might come off as arrogant to other people but to me it seemed to connect with the ending. Later throughout the poem he talks about grass and when a child asks what grass is he says, “How could I answer the child, I do not know what it is any more than he”(6). A grown man who went to harvard like him would definitely know what grass is, but Philosophically looking at this he's talking about how the child and him may have different perceptions so he says he doesn’t know. I’m assuming he included this because he wanted something to start off with in the beginning.
Walt continues on through his poem to talk about the discrepancies in today’s communities.“Growing among black folk as among white” (6). What he’s trying to get with this is that black and white people both know what grass is, but they also seem to look at it differently and it could be taken as symbolism of the breaking of racism, he was in the middle of the civil war when writing this as well so it could do something with that.
Continuing on with this idea he has, he starts to talk about death and life itself. “The smallest sprout shows that there really is no death”(6)...”And to die is different from what anyone supposed , and luckier”(6). If you look in depth to see what he’s really saying, he’s trying to get at the fact that death is really how you look at it, but to him it was lucky to die because as a transcendentalist he doesn’t die, he simply turns into a sprout, aka he reincarnates as nature itself. It’s really beautiful and I’m glad Walt created this poem for us to enjoy.
Azhar Dahri, Alex Xie, and Islam Nasirov
Molly Fenn
English 3/4
7 March 2018
Azhar, Alex, and Islam’s Collaborative Essay
On January 13, 1999, Hae Min Lee was murdered in small city of Maryland Baltimore. Hae was an 18 year finding her way through life before this tragedy. The primary suspect in the murder case was Adnan Syed, a former classmate and her ex-boyfriend. Adnan Syed was a nice boy , but could his past reveal a more twisted side to him? While going through evidence and interviews it seems he could be hiding a dark secret. Adnan was later convicted sometime in February 2000 for first degree murder and was giving a life sentencing of plus 30 years. Adnan is guilty for the murder of Hae Min Lee due his past actions, his probability of having a personality disorder, and Adnan’s call logs.
Many people argue that Adnan’s past is a huge part of his guilt. Sarah started to interview people the who knew Adnan, starting at the Mosque he use to attend. Through the interview tapes find out that most people from the Mosque favor Adnan. Like Ali, who looked up to Adnan and saw him as a older brother. Or Atif Iqbal, who said that Adnan diffused tension out of situations he was in. But there are others in the Mosque who don’t favor Adnan as much. A man who did not want to be named described him as a sneaky guy, who would try to talk his way out of a situation. That man also claims that Adnan has stolen from the donation bins at the Mosque. This wasn't just a one time thing, the man claimed he saw Adnan steal every Friday. When questioned about stealing money, Adnan started to get very upset at Sarah. He felt that Sarah was targeting him by looking for bad things he has done in the past. “I mean, and it’s a very uncomfortable thing for me to talk about, you know cfcc what I’m saying? It’s a very shameful thing that I did. I’ve never denied it. I don’t see, I don’t understand. I just think it’s really unfair to me.”(ep11) said Adnan. Sarah recalled Adnan saying that “He never claimed to be innocent of killing Hae because he was perfect. Or that he was a good person.” (ep11) Even Adnan himself Admits that he wasn’t perfect or even good, despite what the people at the Mosque and his ex-classmates say. If he got mad just because Sarah asked him a simple question about his past then something is going on, because only guilty people do that. Consider the evidence is a huge possibility that he could have snapped and killed Ha. As Adnan said himself after a break up she would come crawling back. What if once Hae broke up with Adnan and she started dating Don she forgot about Adnan. At this point Adnan realises that Hae isn't coming back to him, so he flips and kills her. [Alex]
Another very important viewpoint we must take a look at is the possibility of Adnan having rare personality disorders. During this whole podcast, we’ve not once seen different emotion from Adnan, he showed no anger, no sadness, he was simply stale. When Adnan says “Oh no, uh, I do remember that phone call and I do remember being high at the time because the craziest thing is to be high and have the police call your phone. I’ll never forget that.”(e6) When he says this, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s trying to fake a surprised voice and just the way he worded the sentence made me feel as if I was having a conversation with him and he said that I would automatically assume that he was either lying or is debating in his mind whether to even say that or not. Psychopaths were made like this, they imitate regular humans to take advantage of them for their own agenda. After watching a documentary about the “Iceman” a professional hitman for the mafia with over 200 kills who didn’t have any type of fear. He was interviewed by a professional psychiatrist and it was determined that he was born with the anti-social and paranoid personality disorder which could have, but after his horrible parents raised him terribly he ended up being a murderer. In my opinion Adnan shows some of these traits, He may not have been anti-social but he probably felt no fear or remorse and the constant pain of being broken up, strict parents, and teenage drama plus the possible personality disorder led him to kill Hae. I also see evidence of this when It’s said that Adnan smokes marijuana and also constantly wants to check in on his girlfriend, according to Aisha, ‘“Oh! It’s so cute! Your boyfriend’s dropping by.” But then the tenth time, it’s like, “Really?”’(e2) These are symptoms of paranoid personality disorder, he felt as if Hae was out to cheat so he constantly called, he couldn’t relax so he smoked marijuana, he feels like he’s indifferent so he’s needy. All this added only lead to one thing in the end, Adnan is guilty. [Islam]
Adnan was questioned about the day of the murder and he claimed that he lent both his car and phone to Jay and said he did not kill Hae. Jay’s testimony about Adnan murdering Hae have been corroborated by Adnan’s call log and have been coherent with all events that Jay have mentioned about what happened on January 13, 1999 and “the Nisha call”. “The Nisha call” was a called made from Adnan's phone to Nisha’s (Adnan’s friend, that Jay doesn’t know) while Adnan claimed to be at school. If Adnan did not have possession of his phone, then why was there a phone call made that had a duration of “2:22 at 3:32pm” (Call Log). There can be a possibility of Jay calling Nisha, but he does not know her so it would not make much sense. When Nisha was getting questioned, she said “ I remember him telling me that Jay invite- invited him over to a video store that he worked at. And, he basically well Adnan walked in with his cell phone and then like- he told me to speak with Jay and I was like ‘okay’ cause Jay wanted to say hi so I said hi to Jay” (Ep. 6). People can say that this is false due to the fact that “ Jay didn’t have that job yet on January 13” (Ep. 6), but she was questioned later in the investigation and she might have just been confused. This call along with others puts Adnan out of school during the murder while he claims he was at school. [Azhar]
With all evidence presented, many people are still skeptical about his guilt. Either they still deny Jay as a viable witness or they hang on the fact that the evidence at Hae’s body was never tested. Jay isn’t the most trustworthy guy, no one is denying that. His friends have said he has a tendency to lie about small things, but nothing severe. Could it be a possibility that Jay lied about this whole thing? He can't keep a straight story after all. Although this may be a considerable possibility, but I simply cannot believe it. Jay has been one of the most cooperative people during the entire investigation. Jay has told police where Adnan and himself were located at specific times. There are other eyewitnesses that collaborate with Jay’s claims, like Cathy, Nisha etc.
People are also very skeptical about Don’s innocence. When Don was questioned on where he was the day she was murdered, Don said he was working at lenscrafters with a timestamp to back it up. This is should have put him But there is evidence that he was working at another lenscrafter at the time with someone punching the clock for him. Let’s just say that Don did murder Hae and he was the one who had Hae body in her car. It would impossible since Jay was the one who pointed out where Hae’s car was. Unless they were working together to kill her and frame Adnan. But it doesn't add up, Jay didn't have any connections to Don. Pretty sure Jay never meet Don in his entire life. As Don was an older guy and was not attending Woodland High at the time.
While there may be holes in this case whether it was reliability or a questioned alibi, it is clear that Adnan is guilty with all the evidence presented. Through Sarah Koenig’s podcast about Hae Min Lee’s murder case she speaks to those involved in the case, looks at the evidence collected in depth, and either conforms or debunks holes in the case. There are numerous points she has made that leaves Adnan looking extremely guilty, she even brings some professionals to speak upon him being a sociopath, along with the testimony from the star witness (Jay) about Adnan's actions on January 13, 1999. This all has been coherent to Adnan being the murderer of Hae Min Lee. Adnan is currently in prison for plus 30 years in Maryland and that's where he belongs.
Bibliography
Koenig, Sarah. “Serial Season One”. Serial 2014, https://serialpodcast.org/season-one
Koenig, Sarah. “Serial .” Serial, docs.google.com/document/d/1P_mKbKLmYSnDolYTt-xa-RDROO68zTFbpxCUPWATGEw/edit.o
Azhar:
Adnan is guilty because he had motive to kill Hae Min Lee. It’s clear from Jay’s testimony about what Adnan told him, “he told me that she had broke his heart, that it was extremely wrong for anyone to treat him that way....that he couldn’t believe how she stood and looked him face to face and told him she didn’t love him and could be that heartless” and he even went out of his way to mention “I’m going to killer her”(ep. 2). His testimony shows that Adnan was upset and thought the only way out was by killing Hae. Jay and Adnan are friends, smoke together most times, and we’re actually together the day of the murder when Adnan killed Hae.
Adnan lying to the police is another reason to why Adnan is guilty. Adnan told the detective that he did not ask Hae for a ride on January 13, 1999 but [QUOTE]. Her statement has been corroborated by others. Adnan after the fact says that [HE DOESN’T REMEMBER QUOTE] but for someone who has received a call from a detective the same day asking about his ex-girlfriend, one might think of the last place they seen them and when. Adnan lied to the police about important information that supports in him being the last person to see Hae Min Lee.
The final reason to why Adnan is guilty of the murder of Hae Min Lee, is the call logs of Adnan’s phone. On January 13, 1999 Hae went missing and Adnan was questioned about that day, he claims that he lent both his car and phone to Jay and said he did not kill Hae, but there is a problem. Jay’s testimony about Adnan murdered Hae has been corroborated by Adnan’s call log and “the Nisha call”. If Adnan did not have possession of his phone, then why was there a phone call made that had a duration of “2:22 at 3:32pm” (Call Log). When Nisha was getting questioned, she said “ I remember him telling me that Jay invite- invited him over to a video store that he worked at. And, he basically well Adnan walked in with his cell phone and then like- he told me to speak with Jay and I was like ‘okay’ cause Jay wanted to say hi so I said hi to Jay” (Ep. 6). People can say that this is false due to the fact that “ Jay didn’t have that job yet on January 13” (Ep. 6), but she was questioned later in the investigation. This call puts Adnan out of school while he claims he was at school.
Alex:
Due to Adnan’s past it might seem that he was a nice kid, with a bright future ahead of him. But through interviews and reviewing evidence it seems that Adnan had a darker side to him and that the possible murder of Hae Min Lee is irrefutable.
Adnan Syed was a bright, athletic, charming high schooler in the year of 1999. He had lots of friends in and outside of school, as he went to mosque regularly. Many people who knew him would describe him as a nice guy, someone who wouldn’t or couldn’t hurt a living soul. While others like Jay, believe he was more sinister than people can imagine. As Jay, a former classmate promptly accused Adnan for the murder of Hae Min Lee. But how could such a nice guy with such a bright future ahead of him become the prime suspect of a murder case?
While reviewing some of the interviews that Sarah has done with various interviewees, we find out that most of the people did not know Adnan very well. But they thought that he was a nice kid. But what people didn’t know was that Adnan was not always the good/nice guy that they imagined him to be. Adnan was a Muslim who went to the Mosque regularly, as part of the the Muslim religion it is said you're not allowed to date, you are either married or unmarried. When Adnan started to date Hae, he lied to his parents and most likely people at the Mosque. Although lying doesn't make you a bad person, it makes you seem untrustworthy. When Sarah Interviewed some people from the Mosque, a man who did not want to be named, stated that he spotted Adnan steal thousands of dollars from the donation bin.While other members of the Mosque said they have never seen Adnan do such a thing, as he was a good kid. If he was such a good kid why did he steal? Adnan admits he stole money, but not thousands like the man said. Sarah was informed from Ali that “ their community is judgmental. Right and wrong is drummed into you early and often. Adults judge kids’ behavior, which then gets reflected back onto their parents.” It makes no sense for Adnan to steal or to break tradition to dating Hae. Adnan's parents were very strict, so they would have taught him. But Adnan stated “ he just wasn’t that religious. He was going to clubs and having sex with girls, and smoking weed from the time he was fourteen or fifteen. Culturally, yes a Muslim, but the rest, he says, not so much. So passages like this, he says he doesn’t recognize himself in them.” If Adnan could have gotten away with smoking, stealing and having sex it is a big possibility that he could have hidden a murder.
When Sarah asked many professionals what they thought about the case and if it was similar to other cases. They all described this case as very messy, with a lot of holes. An example of this would be how all the evidence is so stacked against Adnan. It's really hard to believe that Adnan just lent Jay his car or how he just so happened to ask Hae for a ride the day she died. Even Adnan thinks that there is a lot of evidence that incriminated him. The key evidence that put Adnan away was Jay. He was supposedly an accomplice in Hae’s murder. Jay accurately described what Adnan did when they were together. He located almost all the calls logs correctly and told the police where Hae’s car was stashed. Some can argue that Jay is untrustworthy and how he is lying about everything and trying to protect someone else. There is no reason for Jay to lie, he gave the police everything that he knew. Stella Armstrong a juror for Adnan's case said “why would you admit to doing something that drastic if you hadn’t done it?” You know what I mean? For what reason? What was he going to gain from that? He still had to go to jail.” She brought up a really good point. Since Jay admitted that he was an accomplice, giving information about his involvement would result in prison time. Although Jay walked, it is still a huge risk for him to take.
Islam:
Adnan the bad boy
One very important stance we must take a look at is the possibility of Adnan having rare personality disorders. During this whole podcast, we’ve not once seen different emotion from Adnan, he showed no anger, no sadness, he was simply stale. When Adnan says “Oh no, uh, I do remember that phone call and I do remember being high at the time because the craziest thing is to be high and have the police call your phone. I’ll never forget that.”(e6) When he says this, it’s pretty clear to me that he’s trying to fake a surprised voice and just the way he worded the sentence made me feel as if I was having a conversation with him and he said that I would automatically assume that he was either lying or is debating in his mind whether to even say that or not. Psychopaths were made like this, they imitate regular humans to take advantage of them for their own agenda. After watching a documentary about the “Iceman” a professional hitman for the mafia with over 200 kills who didn’t have any type of nervousness or fear. He was interviewed by a professional psychiatrist and it was determined that due to the anti-social and paranoid personality disorder he was born with no fear, but after his horrible parents raised him terribly he ended up being a murderer. In my opinion Adnan shows some of these traits, He may not have been anti-social but he probably felt no fear or remorse and the constant pain of being broken up, strict parents, and teenage drama led him to kill Hae. I also see evidence of this when It’s said that Adnan smokes marijuana and also constantly wants to check in on his girlfriend, according to Aisha, ‘“Oh! It’s so cute! Your boyfriend’s dropping by.” But then the tenth time, it’s like, “Really?”’(e2) These are symptoms of paranoid personality disorder, he felt as if Hae was out to cheat so he constantly called, he couldn’t relax so he smoked marijuana, he feels like he’s different so he’s needy. All this added up in the end only lead to one thing, Adnan is guilty.
Nasirov 1
Islam Nasirov
Priscila Rodriguez
U.S. History
2/13/18
The domino effect
Imperialism is the act of a country spreading influence and power through various methods. Based on this definition, America was a full blown imperialist power back in the day. It’s important for us to understand that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost simply for the egotistical gain that came with imperialism. America witnessed European countries imperializing, they also realized the potential financial and political gain so they took action and went through different methods to imperialize as seen in the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
On 1819, U.S. Missionaries arrive in hawaii to spread christianity. This was America’s first step into cultural, economic, and militaristic imperialism. King Kamehameha III allowed foreign citizens to own land for the 1st time, very shortly after, 80% of land is owned by non-Hawaiians. Then a group of American businessmen known as the Hawaiian league lead a coup against Kalakaua to force him to sign the Bayonet Constitution which reduced the monarchy's power. This evidence is crucial because it shows the power of control. Once the Hawaiian land was legally sold to foreigners, they were in the grips of institutions, obviously the American businessmen would want their profits to sustain and what better way than to control the island yourself? Hawaii gave this opportunity to the American’s and they suffered because of it. Furthermore, the Hawaiian League continued to lead yet another coup against Liliuokalani to gain full control of the monarchy, yet America did not want to annex the islands until 1898, the year when the Spanish-American war began and when America realized they could have imperialistic benefits from having Hawaii. In the end this was 100% a form of imperialism because America managed to put
Nasirov 2
Hawaii in an economic and cultural chokehold, and controlled it later through militaristic means, this goes with the definition of imperialism which is the spread of influence and power through various methods.
On February 4th, 1899 United States Soldiers fire the first shots to begin the Philippine-American War. This war is a prime example of America’s cut and clear imperialism. We can clearly see the atrocities committed under the pretense that they were combating communism, a result of the imperialization of the Philippines through a soldier’s letter home, “Last night one of our boys was found shot … orders were received from Gen. Wheaton to burn the town and kill every native in sight,” (Barnes) Consider this, Americans obtained the Philippines through a cash settlement, they fired the first shot, and the Philippines have been fighting for independence for a long time. It’s without a doubt imperialism, but the atrocities they committed in acts of revenge was completely unnecessary and shows you the result of imperialism. Some Americans even believed that they had the right to imperialize the nation because they were incapable of governing themselves, an argument that stemmed from ethnocentrism. We notice this in Frederick Funston’s letter when he says that “The Filipinos have a certain number of educated leaders-educated, however, about the same way a parrot is. They are as a rule, an illiterate, semi-savage people who are waging a war not against tyranny, but against Anglo Saxon order…” They imperialized the philippines through militaristic means, committed atrocities while doing so, all while believing they were doing this for the good of the people.
Although whether or not Guatemala was imperialized by America is still being argued by historians today, I firmly believe it was a form of imperialism. The economic interests in Guatemala were too great for America to ignore it. Similar to Hawaii, a United States owned corporation called United Fruit Company controlled most of the banana plantations in Guatemala, they were making a ton of money, at one point they had almost double the revenue of Guatemala’s government. In 1931, the “United
Nasirov 3
Fruit Company signed a 99 year lease … which is exempt from taxes … pay workers up to 50 cents per day,”(timeline). Similar to Hawaii, they were caught in a chokehold, most of Guatemala was owned by
this U.S. corporation and the U.S. itself was gaining from it too. They were already done for, there was no escaping. So when “Jacobo Arbenz Guzman [was] democratically elected … due to his military experience and advocacy for agrarian reform,”(timeline) America reacted exactly how you would think, they put up the argument that they were fighting communism and backed a coup against Arbenz. This was an example of both militaristic and economic imperialism. America’s influence was spread through the corporations that were making tons of profit in Guatemala, and then they spread their power through the coup that put Castillo in charge who reversed reforms that helped poor farmers and removed voting rights for illiterate Guatemalans.
America was without a doubt an imperialist power back in the 1900’s. They witnessed European countries imperializing, they also realized the potential financial and political gain so they took action and went through different methods to imperialize as seen in the Philippines, Cuba, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.It’s important for us to understand that America caused the suffering of millions for their own gain, when they could have been helping develop the countries they imperialized so we could have world peace. We see the long term effects of imperialism today, cuba is still shunned by the United States and we may never have an alliance with them. Imperialism only benefits those who already have power and influence, if it were to continue in today’s time only 1st world and some 2nd world countries would see benefit while 3rd world countries suffered.
MATH
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/twwetiw5nz