A vigilante, as defined by Wiktionary is “[o]ne who takes the law into one's own hands”. Internet Vigilantism is a very recent phenomenon that came into existence as a result of the formation of the web community with the birth of the internet and the World Wide Web.
Though the word vigilante has good intention tied with it, the Internet Vigilantism phenomenon is somewhat disturbing, due to many cases of it being similar as to the harassment of a lynch mob. The most notable method of Internet Vigilantism is public shaming, where the violator’s crime is publicized widely across the web, almost always followed by personal information of the perpetrator such as name, photos and even email and home address. Social networking tools as well as forums are utilized, thus leading to the public shaming spreading faster than an epidemic across the world.
Dog Poop Girl
One of the most widely publicized and talked about example of public shaming tied to Internet Vigilantism and followed by harassment of a lynch mob is South Korea’s “Dog Poop Girl”. In 2005, a commuter in Seoul took a photograph of a fellow commuter who refused (using colorful language) to clean up her dog’s defacement on the floor of a subway car. The photo showed the dog owner, a Korean woman, seated in the subway car with her dog in her lap; it’s defacement on the floor in front of her. Fellow passengers surrounding her look down upon the sight with disgust plainly visible on their faces. The commuter who took the photograph posted it on a popular Korean website, voicing his anger and disgust.
Within hours, Internet Vigilantes quickly sprang into action, labeling her as “Dog Poop Girl” (it being the less colorful version of the woman’s new title) and began spreading the photo across the web. Within days, as further punishment for her violation, she was identified and much of her personal information was exposed on the internet, as well as more pictures of her. Parodies of the incident were even made. The story reached mainstream media, and the public humiliation and harassment, even against her own family, lead the woman to quit her university and issue a public apology online.
Breaking the norm
It is interesting to note that the Dog Poop Girl case stemmed due to not following the norm, rather than breaking the law. The lady was expected to clean up after her dog. Instead, she refused and in a very offensive manner. Usually, this would follow with norm enforcement such as an angry scowl or someone telling off the lady. Dog Poop Girl’s norm enforcement was rather extreme, as she was tracked down by a cyber-posse, who took matters into their own hands and publicly humiliated her. She is forever branded as Dog Poop Girl.
A similar example is of 16-year-old New Yorker Sasha Gomez. She decided to steal a Sidekick II cell phone she found in the back of a cab rather than turning it in. Gomez was exposed and publicly humiliated by Evan Guttmann (friend of the cell phone owner), who tracked her down by means of the web. Another case is of Jesse McPherson tracking the person who stole his laptop, television and Xbox down after posting an obtained picture of the thief to his blog. The blog entry was then posted on Digg.com, a popular social news website, resulting in an angry mob of internet users tracking the thief’s name, home address and even high school. The violator was constantly harassed, until he confessed his crime and returned the stolen goods.
Patrick Pogan
Internet Vigilantism, in this case, was used to expose the wrong doing of public law enforcer. Critical Mass is a bicycling event held on a monthly basis in cities all over the world. It is perceived as a political protest activity, while participants claim it’s more of a gathering of people and a celebration. Critical Mass events can legally occur with no advance notification of local police, which leads to traffic problems and hence disgruntled road commuters.
During a Critical Mass rally in the streets of New York in July, 2008, Patrick Pogan, an NYPD rookie, intercepted Christopher Long, a participant in the rally, to the ground. Pogan filed a criminal complaint, outlining that Long:
was weaving in and out of traffic, disturbing normal flow of the cars
purposely veered into him, knocking him down and injuring him
resisted arrest, kicking and screaming while doing so.
Long was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. However, within days, a video surfaces on YouTube of the incident in question that completely contradicts Pogan’s report.
The video clearly showed that:
there was no car traffic on the road.
Long in fact attempted to veer away from the officer, while Pogan clearly ran into the cyclist, body-slamming him to the ground, while the officer remained on his feet.
All charges against Long were dropped, and Pogan was stripped of his gun and badge and given a desk job instead. Seven months later, the police department suspended him, and he now faces criminal charges including filing a false instrument and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault.
More to come
I only demonstrated a few cases of Internet Vigilantism in this article, however it is clear to me that this is a phenomenon that will grow more in scope as the internet and web continues growing and become more tied to our lives. It is somewhat worrying though, due to the public shaming being worldwide rather than just in the local community. Once branded or tainted on the web, humiliation and public scorn is hard to forget due to it always existing on the web, easily retrieved by Google. The Korean lady will always be known as Dog Poop Girl, Gomez always remembered for stealing a cell phone and Pogan will always be known for his criminal actions as a police officer. Internet Vigilantes exist in the cyber world, where laws and limitations of the normal world are not applicable and anything is possible.
Science, as define by Wikitonary is “the fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth” in the broad sense. More specifically, science is the “knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area.” It is difficult to imagine a world without science. There would be no medicine to cure our diseases, no electricity to light and warm our houses, no cars to transport us around, no computers and internet. We would be struggling with life. Our interests would only involve trying to survive each day, not understanding and learning about the world around us. Darkness is what mostly comes to mind.
How it all began?
The seeking of knowledge has always been a part of human nature. We are naturally curious beings, blessed with an intelligence deeming us capable of comprehending the world surrounding us.
In the early ages, knowledge was passed orally, from person to person, generation to generation. This posed a problem, as the main tool this method is dependent on is the human memory, which is for the most part not reliable at all. People tend to forget or mix up crucial points, thus corrupting the knowledge. In addition, the death of a wise man/woman would mean that all the knowledge he/she gained would disappear as well.
Another more reliable tool had to be used in the passing and storing of knowledge. The earliest of such is symbols. Symbols represent an idea or a concept. The earliest example of these is:
* Cave paintings * Petro glyphs * Pictograms * Ideograms
With the birth of the alphabet and writing, the storage as well as communication of knowledge improved greatly. Natural Philosophers, the earliest scientists, came into existence, questioning the world surrounding them, noting down their ideas, observations and breakthroughs in the form of a scroll, and later on in the form of a book. With the introduction of mass printing, new ideas and scientific discoveries were allowed to propagate faster, becoming more widely available for other knowledge seekers.
Natural Philosophy began to separate from philosophy, and became what is known today as science. Discovery after discovery were made in the name of science, a vast set of laws were associated with it, from Galileo’s laws to Newton’s law of motions. Science branched out into distinct communities:
* Natural Science, which deals with natural phenomena, with disciples such as biology and physics.
* Social Science, which deals with human behavior and societies, with disciples such as anthropology and political science.
Fast forwarding a bit to just before the birth of the internet, we see science become what we know it as today, where the role of being a scientist is a profession that you can become by earning a degree from a university. Science is taught to young children in a broad sense from an early age as they attend school, and narrows down into disciplines during intermediate and high school. The storage of the scientific knowledge is still being done in books. However, all of this is available only to communities with the resources needed, such as a university, schools and even books. This caused a serious gap in the world, as countries with resources developed faster than countries with none, creating stark differences financially as well as intellectually.
What is the internet?
The internet, as defined by Wikipedia is a “global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels.” People with a computer, a modem and web browser program were able to access the World Wide Web (WWW) or more commonly abbreviated as the Web, via the internet.
The Web consisted of a very large set of interlinked hypertext documents ranging in all topics. It started off slow, being very expensive to use and only available to educational institutions and the people whom can afford it. Fast forwarding here as well, we see the Web develop and morph into what we know it as today: an indispensable tool for information and part of our daily interactions. We use it to seek knowledge, to communicate, to shop, to watch movies, to listen to music.
Science and the internet
An information revolution is in the works.
The internet, and the Web along with it, changed the face of how knowledge can be stored and sought after. It opened a whole world of information available throughout all corners of the globe. All one needs is a device with internet access, such as a computer, and a browser.
Scientists are able to communicate with others that share similar interests, but live in another part of the world. They are able to share thoughts and ideas rapidly, which leads to more questions being answered and more breakthroughs accomplished. Scientific journals as well as news from the scientific community are propagated into the world at a pace never dreamed of before. Scientific knowledge is no longer contained with Educational institutions such as universities and libraries. It is readily available to all those who seek it via the internet.
An individual could learn about science, read online scientific journals, and keep track of all the latest research and breakthroughs from the scientific community. Having scientific knowledge is becoming “cool” with the newest generation, where you can find hundreds of blogs dealing with the different areas of science, such as biology or astronomy, written by teenagers or young adults. A quick search on YouTube will yield video upon video of scientific experiments conducted by curious individuals.
The book is slowly becoming redundant, as more people turn to the web, rather than the libraries to gain knowledge. The storage of knowledge first started as simple symbols, evolved into books, and is now starting to be stored electronically on internet servers. It is highly likely that in the future, the book will become completely redundant and all knowledge will be stored in internet servers and the Web.
The downside to all this
Due to the Web being an open library that anyone can edit, it has led to many false scientific information being published on to it. This may lead the naïve reader to believing this false information as being true. In order to not fall in such a trap, many different websites should be used as sources when looking for information or only the most reliable of scientific websites is to be consulted, such as Britannica or the Encylopedia of Life.
There is certain etiquette when it comes to searching for information through the internet. One must only consult the most reliable of websites. If unable to find the information being sought after, a certain degree of skepticism should be kept in mind while browsing websites until completely sure of the integrity of the knowledge. Search engines, such as Google, return the most popular hits first, which may not always turn out to be reliable. The web is ever expanding, with more websites coming up day by day. There is still no way to index and keep track of all of this growth, meaning there is no guarantee that everything one reads on the Web is true.
Brightness is what mostly comes to mind
We are living in an age of enlightenment such as the world has never seen before. The pace at which science as well as intelligence is evolving at is rapid, the standard of living improving in a couple of years rather than decades.
The future of science looks a lot brighter than before the birth of the internet.
I had Maths after English. I walked out of the classroom and realized I don't know where the classroom for Math is. I looked around for a fellow classmate but couldn't find one. Instead, I found a swarm of older students pass by me. They were all staring at my face, some laughing and pointing me out to their friends. I rubbed my nose, looked at my hand and found nothing. Again I looked up and still people were staring at me.
"Oh no!" I thought to myself "What is wrong? Do I have a bogey stuck on my face!?"
I remembered Corrine telling me where the toilets were. I dashed in and up to a mirror, checking my face for anything that wasn't supposed to be there. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary.
I walked out of the toilet and along the corridors, looking in on every classroom through the door's window to see if my classmates were in any of them. Just when I thought I was going to cry out of frustration, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a large, rosy cheeked, blond haired, middle aged lady with soft blue eyes staring back at me. She smiled, and asked what was I doing wandering through the deserted corridors.
I told her that I was a new student and that I wasn't able to find my Math's class. She asked me why none of my classmates showed me the way. I shrugged and she clucked her tongue. Five minutes later I entered the class with the rosy-cheeked lady behind me. The teacher, Mr. Gibbons, didn't seem happy that I was fifteen minutes late for his class. He told me off , and I heard some sniggering as I walked to the back of the class and sat down. Miss Heather ( the rosy-cheeked lady) told Mr.Gibbons that it wasn't my fault as I was a new student and nobody showed me the way to his class. He merely nodded his hand and sternly thanked Miss Heather.
Math is my favourite subject. I soon found myself lost in numbers and calculation, my embarrassment at being told off on my first day of school gone. Math does not rely wholly on memorization, but a deep understanding in order to answer questions. A character in a novel I once read said that no matter how different the world's culture and language is, Math still stays the universal way to communicate as it is the same in every language. I believe that maybe one day numbers will be our tool to communicate with extraterrestrial beings. We took simultaneous equations today, and I aced the principle to solving it immediately.
the bell rand and it was time for the lunch break. Everyone filed out into the playground and I followed last. I walked out, looked around, saw Corrine walking a little ahead of me and I ran to catch up with her. She smiled and asked me how I liked the school until now. I said it wasn't bad but it was confusing to get around. She laughed and said that I'll get used to it in a week. We joined a group of girls and boys from our class whom were picking teams for Red Rovers.
Red Rovers is a two team game. Each team must hold unto one another hand, creating a chain. The opposing teams face each other. One side starts by picking a person from the other team to try and break through their chain. The chosen person will rush headlong into a link in the chain, and if they manage to make the link break (the people holding unto each other's hands let go) then the person can go back to their team and choose someone else from the opposing team to join them., making their chain longer. However, if unsuccessful in making the link break, the person must join the opposing team.
Two captains were chosen, and each began picking people for their team turn by turn. I was picked last. To my surprise and confusion, none of the teams wanted me. Why? Do I have some type of disease that they are trying to avoid or do I look like a monster with eight eyes and six hairy legs?
Or worse! Maybe this time there defiantly is something stick to my face!
Immediately my left hand shot up to my face and I began to rub at my nose. A murmur of disgust rose from the crowd surrounding me. Too late, I realized the oddness of what I was doing, and I dropped my arm limply to my side, feeling utterly embarrassed.
Finally, after much arguing about which team should choose the snotty nosed girl, Corrine convinced her team's captain to choose me, and reluctantly he agreed. I stood on the left end of the chain, and I held unto Corrine with my right hand, not daring to use my left in case I frightened her off.
It was a fun game, and everyone had a go at trying to break the link, except for me. Corrine's turn came and she was chosen to try and break the link of the other team. She didn't succeed and so had to join them. The girl who held unto Corrine's other hand wasn't too keen to hold unto mine and said she will on one condition: that's 'd pull my shirt's long sleeve over my hand. This was a bit too much, and I thought to myself that if I'm not wanted somewhere then I might as well not be there.
I walked off, mumbling that I am feeling tired and don't want to play anymore. There was still a few minutes left until the end of the the morning break. I walked over to the benches. I noticed heads turning in my direction, and whispers behind me saying "... yeah she's new, only just arrived ... what a strange color, so like chocolate, definatly not the bronze color of tan"
I sat down and watched the kids strolling around the playground. There wasn't much going on, mostly people strolling around and talking. I pondered the reason of why my classmates were behaving so strangely. Back home, I was rather liked by everyone. Even strangers instantly got attracted to me because of my charm and smile, as my Mother would put it. Here, I used all the charm and smiles I could muster but still it seems that no one cared about being my friend. Well, I can't really say no one Corrine sure is trying to make me feel at home I guess. I tried to find a reason for why that girl didn't want to touch my hand. I guessed it was because of me rubbing my nose. To tell the truth, if I was in her place I wouldn't like to touch the hand of someone whom might have some snot on their fingers.
Happy with my conclusion, I made my way back into the school's building as the bell signalling for the end of the morning break clanged loudly.
Mr. Carter opened this door slowly, for there was little noise coming from inside the classroom. He called out for the teacher to join us in the corridor . I tried to smooth down my clothes and hair so that I'd look presentable but it seems thatI had lost control of my arm at that point of time, for all I ended up doing was giving myself a sharp smack on the thigh.
The teacher also beckoned me into class the same way Hammed's teacher did. However, my mother got a hold of me first. She grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me around to face her. She looked deeply into my eyes, gave me a strong hug and a kiss on my cheek, finally releasing me. My father patted me on the head and wished me good luck.
The teacher called out my name this time as she beckoned me to her once more. She was much younger than Hammed's teacher. Her features were delicate, her smile really gentle. She reminded me of the fair maidens often mentioned in children's nursery rhymes and fairy tales. She put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a little squeeze.
I looked back, wanting to catch a last glance of my parents, but Mr.Carter was standing in the doorway's frame blocking the whole view. He was speaking to the students; something about welcoming new students and making them feel at home.
STUDENTS!
I turned my head jerkily towards the entire classroom. Eyes were all on me, everywhere I looked. I heard someone whisper "black" but I wasn't paying much attention to actually realize what they meant. I remember thinking they were probably referring to my clothes, as I wasn't wearing the school's uniform.
The teacher told me to sit at a desk located at the front of the class. She informed me that her name is Mrs. Mills, followed by her introducing me to the students, telling them my name and where I come from . She then asked the students to introduce themselves individually to me. Many of the girls smiled shyly as they told me their names and I smiled back at them. Corrine, the girl who was sitting next to me in class, got asked by Mrs.Mills to show me where to hang my coat and bag. Corrine was a very pretty girl, with fair skin, light hazel eyes and a long sheet of auburn hair. I followed her to the corridor outside the classroom and she showed me where all the lockers were. She gave me a key and the combination number to one of the lockers ( I suppose she got given these earlier by Mrs. Mills). Finally, Corrine showed me where the toilets were and informed me the school's break timings.
We walked back into the classroom, and I felt myself turn hot in the face due the noise level subsiding distinctively as soon as I entered the class. I seated myself at my desk and concentrated on checking wether my nails were neatly trimmed or not.
Mrs. Mills told me that for three quarters of an hour every morning, the class has"Quiet Moment" where students are to read any book they chose. I loved the idea because I love reading. I have my own personal collection of books stacked on the shelf above my bed, and every night before my bedtime I'd read for an hour. I felt this relaxed me, and I end up with a good night's sleep.
I didn't have a book with me at that moment, so Mrs. Mills told me that I could choose a book from the class' small library in the corner. There were many colorful titles to choose from, but my eyes dropped on a particular book called "Kiss the Dust".
It's written by Elizabeth Laird and told the story of a thirteen-year-old Kurdish girl names Tara, along with her family, as they struffle to stay alive and together in a time ravaged by war. In the opening, Tara and her best friend Leila are walking back from school when suddenly two army Jeeps appear. Their horns blaring, the two Jeeps screech to a halt infront of a mosque. There are boys standing infront of the mosque, one of them holding a paper. An officer grabs the paper, tears it, then gets ready to shoot at the young boy who was holding it. Suddenly, an old mullah runs out of the mosque waving his arms and pleading with the officer not to shoot at the boys. The officer fumbles with the revolver, points it at the old man and shoots. The young boy tries to escape, but was not fast enough. A soldier stuck his foot out and tripped the young boy, and shoots him as he lay face down on the ground. Tara and Leila watched all this happen right before their eyes, hardly believeing what they saw.
The street with all the shocked peeople, the dead old mullah, the dead young boy, Tara and Leila suddenly melted into the classroom as I heared the voice of Mrs. Mills break in. She announced that "Quiet Moment" was over. The bell rang and we had English for the first period with Mrs. Mills.
I woke up in the morning four days later and immediately ran into the toilet to throw up. I felt terrible. I was my first day in a new school in a whole other country. Plus, I was just starting highschool. Woe is me.
I looked at myself in the mirror and noticed some bags forming under my eyes. I sighed, splashed some water on my face, brushed my teeth and started to dress up for school. I hardly slept in the night. I had many nightmares, and always woke up jerkily after each one. I think I got out of bed four times just to make sure that I had everything ready and that nothing had mysteriously disappeared; clothes, accessories, books and school shoes. I looked through every single item one more time and, happy that everything seemed to be in order, dressed up.
I finally went down to have breakfast after another two emergency trips to the toilet. I slouched down in my chair and started at the bowl of cereal infront of me, whatever left of last night's dinner threatening to come up. I tried to concentrate on something else, looking around our newly decorated kitchen.
The last three days have been very busy. We went to the local mall and spent an entire day looking through all the shops, especially the furniture one. I have chosen the color green as the theme for my new bedroom and so far managed to replace the brown curtains with pale green ones, in addition to purchasing lime green wall paper (which I am yet to cover my walls with). I also bought appropriate clothing, as winter was looming close and all I had with me were light summer clothes.
I was considering purchasing more furniture to fill in all the empty corners of my bedroom, when the entrance of my brother, whom I noticed had a very off glum expression on his face, interrupted my thoughts.
"Geez" I thought to myself "Why won't he just lighten up a bit?"
Both of our parents accompanied us as it was our first day in a brand new school. The headmaster, Mr. Carter, welcomes us graciously, with as many a bow, a wave and a smile that I was beginning to think that he must have mistaken us for the royal family. He took us on a short tour around the school, showing us all the trophies and awards the school has won in its past 23 years.
We took Hammed first to his class. the classroom sounded very noisy from the outside, but once Mr. Carter namged the door open all turned silent. A rather shaken dark haired lady greeted us, Hammed's homeroom teacher. She beckoned him into the classroom with an encouraging smile. Hammed looked rather pale and was chewing his bottom lip nervously as he entered the classroom. I heard him mutter under his breath "Be cool like a fish in a pool".
I smiled. This was one of the mottoes my father lived by and always used it whenever my mother or I were panicking. I tried to get a glance of the students but my parent's large bodies blocked it from sight. My mother was waving and blowing kisses frantically at Hammed. Mr. Carter finally shut the door after a few words to the students about welcoming newcomers. I managed to catch a glimpse of Hammed through the classroom door's glass window. His face was buried in his left hand and the tops of his ears were red. Poor guy, my parents made a real show of embarrassing him.
I was grinning while we walked through the school, thinking about how humiliated my brother must be feeling, when we suddenly came to a halt. I looked around my parent's back to see what was the hold up.
Suddenly, a jolt went though my body and I came crashing down to earth with a sinking feeling in the pit of stomach. I felt sick and wanted to throw up again.
They had a hard time in the airport. We were required to open our entire luggage so security guards could search through them, even though they had been through the luggage X-ray twice. After that each member of my family was individually searched. They even searched me while I was dozing on the bench. My father had the hardest time as he was required to take his coat off, empty all his pockets and even take his shoes and socks off. Finally, the guards were convinced that we were free of whatever they were looking for and they let us go. None of the other passengers were treated in such a manner.
The security search caused us so much delay the rental cab my father ordered was nowhere in sight when we stepped out of the airport's arrival terminal. My father searched and searched for another taxi to take us to our new home but none were willing. However, after forty minutes of inquiring one of the drivers finally agreed but only if we payed extra.
That was all the insight I got, as my brother looked down at the grass deep in thought again. At that particular moment I did not understand why he was so upset. I guessed he was just ticked off because of the holdup the security guards caused. As the days passed in our new foreign "home", I slowly came to realize the real reason for why he was so upset.
I was so excited about the prospect of moving. I've never moved houses in my entire life, let alone countries. I tried to smuggle out all my belongings but my mother caught me red handed. I was given three large boxes to fill in with pretty much my life, and I made sure they were used up to their maximum capacity. The hardest thing of all was leaving my friends. I felt tears threatening to form in my eyes when we had to say farewell at our last get together. I really wished that my friends were like my belongings, and that I could pack them and take them wherever I desire with me.
Come flight day and all my unhappy thoughts were wiped clean out of my mind. I was practically brainwashed with excitement, It was a really long journey; in the range of eleven hours. I couldn't sleep due to all the butterflies that fluttered in my stomach. Eventually all the fluttering and queasy feelings must have drove me to exhaustion for I finally nodded off during the last hour of flight on my brother's shoulder.
I woke up the next morning to find myself in a strange little room. It was bare except for the bed I was lying on, a wardrobe and ugly brown curtains. I made a mental note of getting rid of the ugly curtains. I walked down the stairs and heared some voices down the hall at the bottom of the staircase. I found my family sitting around a square dinning table, having eggs and toast. I joined them and for a while we discussed how were to decorate the house. I then asked my father when was I due to start school. My brother and I were to attend our new school four days later. We would have to walk instead of being dropped off in a car. This was a shock to me as back home we were always dropped off and picked up from school with a car.
My father showed us the way to school in the afternoon. It was a short five mintues stroll, but we had to walk up a hill which was very tiring. By the time we reached the top we were huffing and puffing so badly we had to rest a little on the grass. I looked around and smiled. Everything was so green, unlike back home. There were snails everywhere! The creatures amazed me, for the only one I saw was a tiny midget when I was about six years old. The snails here were so big! I looked up at my brother to tell him this, but I stopped dead. He had his serious expression on and I knew better than to interrupt his chain of throughts. However, I mustered up the courage to do so this time, and thankfully didn't get a swear word for an answer. I asked what was bothering him so much, as everything felt perfect and good to me. Hammed filled me in on the details of the rest of our journey adter I've fallen asleep.
I woke up with a start and instantly groped for the alarm clock on my bedside table. I finally located it, switched it off and turned stiffly in bed to face my bedroom window. I pulled th pale green curtains apart, and a world enveloped in warm golden sunshine opened up before me. I yawned, stretched my body and sat on my bed, watching the birds chirp and bask in the warm glow. I watched a group of infants holding unto each other's hands with smling faces behind their supervising adult. The lollypop lady holds up the bright yellow stop sign for the cars to wait as the infants walk across the street. Everything outside looked so peaceful and perfect; too bad this wasn't how I felt inside me.
My name is Dana, and for the past few months life hasn't been good to me. It all started when we moved away from home to a foreign country. That was about a year ago. I'm twelve and my older brother, Hammed, is fifteen. My father is a surgical doctor. He deals with the removal of tumors and other alien bodies mostly around the abdomen area. My mother does not work, and spends most of her time with chores around the house.
Being a doctor, my Father wished to broaden his specalizing horizon, therefore choosing a universty in a foreign country as his fortress of education. My mother wasn't thrilled about moving away from our home. Then again, she wasn't keen either on the idea of spending the next three years of her life without my father. She relelnted in the end, but I'm pretty sure that deep down inside her she was glad that she hadn't conquered this argument. So naturally my brother and I just tagged along, since we were definatly not going to be left behind.
