Stephanie Trinidad

History, Language, and 1984 When the government can control everything, who can control the true history of the world? That’s one of the many questions brought up by George Orwell’s novel 1984 , in which the reader follows an average man in a not so average situation. Winston Smith lives in a fantasy world that most western readers wouldn’t think to be real, his life, his job, and the concept of Big Brother are at the center of the story. His job is to alter newspaper articles to match the current history of the storyline, but in the end the history is being rewritten with alternative facts. When the government can control everything, they can also control the flow of information even when the information is false. Through the story we’re introduced to the concept that history is something that existed for a certain time before the new world order took over. There is nothing beyond a certain time period because the past existed but the moment Big Brother took over everythin...

Security in the Cyber Era Introduction The debate over a free and unobstructed internet has been brewing over the last decade as countries have adopted laws in order to secure its borders. Many countries have adopted draconian laws in order to ensure that their citizens are protected but the laws restrict the free flow of information in an effort to keep others from having access to the country’s inner secrets. How these laws would impact the country’s national security against terrorism or other attacks is unknown. Yet the increased demand on the cyber world has made many countries open to any kind of attack from any source around the world. Terrorism is no long a singular attack against a specific target, it can now effect targets from multiple arenas with just the click of a button. The source of the attack may not even be terror related, it can in the end be one man attempting to reveal how one country is spying on all the others. 

Review – Haruki Murakami’s Underground The people of terrorist attacks, which stem from breaches in the security of a city or nation are often the last to be seen when reading about the securitization of the world. Often times their voices are left out by those who seek to understand their story, and the impact it has on the security of the survivors. Haruki Murakami’s book Underground seeks to give a voice to the people affected by the attack on the Tokyo Subway in 1994. The first part of the book was originally published in 1997, with the testimonies of the victims of the sarin gas attack, the second part was published in 1998 with the testimonies of those involved with the cult Aum Shinrikyo. The translation came out two years later giving the world a look at the victims of a crime that most didn’t know about.