St. Barnabas High School
writing contest winner
BMNAR gives generously during the holidays
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 26 ANUARY 11-17, 2019 BTR
Action
Association
The Saint Barnabas High
School community is proud
to announce that sophomore
Ominique Pinder was recently
selected as a winner
of the “Stranger Sagas” story
writing contest. The contest is
sponsored by Young Writers,
and Ominique was one of hundreds
of entries nationwide.
The ‘Stranger Sagas’ contest
is more diffi cult than most
writing contests in that the
authors are restricted in the
number of words they can use.
The entrants are given a story
starter sentence and then
Ominique Pinder Photo courtesy of SBHS
must write their sagas using
exactly one hundred words.
“The entry form consists
of one hundred boxes, each
containing one word until the
end. Ominique’s story will be
published the young writer’s
anthology, ‘Stranger Sagas,’
and a copy will be available at
school,” stated Donald Boyce,
English teacher.
“Congratulations Ominique
on winning the “Stranger
Sagas” Story Writing Contest.
You are well on your way to
joining ranks of distinguished
Barnabite authors. We are very
proud of you”, stated Theresa
Napoli, principal.
Young Writers was established
in 1991 in a small warehouse
in Eastern England and
has blossomed into a worldwide
brand! They pride themselves
on encouraging young
writers to read, write and enjoy
poetry as well as creative
writing.
Having work published
boosts confi dence, nurtures
creative talent and showcases
creativity. Young Writers is
part of the award-winning Bonacia
family.
The Bronx-Manhattan
North Association of Realtors
and the Bronx YMCA are
working together for the seventh
straight year to bring joy
during the holiday season to
families living in the Bronx.
On December 12, over 200
members and friends attended
BMNAR’s Holiday Party and
Toy Drive. The party was a
hit and hundreds of toys were
dropped off by the guests at-
tending the best Holiday
Party in the Bronx. Many of
the guests also donated money
to be used to purchase additional
toys.
According to Ellen Feld,
2018 BMNAR president, Exclusive
Properties Sotheby’s
International Realty, “Our
members and friends give generously
during the holiday
season to help our neighbors
in need. Realtors are committed
to building communities
as well as sustaining them.
The many gifts we received
will go to families who need a
little help during this joyous
time of the year.”
On December 25, ‘Operation
REALTORS’ Kids’ made
its rounds through the Bronx
visiting 21 homes. According
to Sharlene Brown, executive
director, Bronx YMCA: “Over
the years, we have spread the
holiday spirit to some families
who need a little help. That’s
what Christmas is all about.”
Eliezer Rodriguez, Esq.,
BMNAR’s association executive
offi cer, said, “This year
we celebrate the memory of
Perry Gault who passed away
on December 9, 2017. Mr. Gault
was the leading force behind
our Toy Drive because he
wanted to put a smile on the
faces of many kids, his kids.
Since he was a Realtor, he referred
to them as ‘Realtors’
Kids.’ This year, his son, Jeffrey
Gault, stepped in to keep
the memory of his father alive
by sponsoring this year’s toy
drive. There’s no better way
to promote our motto, ‘There’s
no place like home,’ than to
have Bronx Realtors deliver
gifts to our Bronx neighbors
on Christmas Day. ‘God bless
us, everyone!’”
BY FRANK V. VERNUCCIO, JR.
The potential of armed
confl ict with China exceeds
the danger posed by the Cold
War threat of confl ict with the
Soviet Union. With a weak
economy, Moscow faced, despite
the vast size of its powerful
conventional military,
a substantial dependence on
nuclear arms, a fact of life that
exists for the Kremlin today as
well. But the reality of a counterstrike
by the American
nuclear arsenal would have
made any gains Russia hoped
to obtain from a fi rst strike a
Pyrrhic victory, at best.
Beijing neither suffers
from a weak economy, nor is
it dependent solely on nuclear
arms to gain military superiority.
China’s leaders have another
advantage: a recognition
that the use of ‘soft power’
can win allies, a tactic the
USSR didn’t quite master. The
Soviet Union depended on allying
with western leftists,
particularly in the nuclear
freeze movement, and with
revolutionaries in a number
of regions. However, its failed
economy and its overt belligerence
failed to sway much of the
global population, aside from
those blinded by allegiance to
socialist propaganda.
China has commenced a
cold war with the west, but
many seem reluctant to acknowledge
that reality. However,
Beijing displays no
reticence in its threatening
actions. In a speech broadcast
On China Central Television,
monitored by The Scottish
Sun leader-for-life President
Xi told offi cers of his Southern
Theatre Command: “It’s necessary
to strengthen the mission
… and concentrate preparations
for fi ghting a war…
We need to take all complex
situations into consideration
and make emergency plans accordingly…”
China expert Seth Cropsey,
in a Wall Street Journal article
noted that “Vice President
Mike Pence announced
a turning point in Washington’s
relations with Beijing.
In a speech October 4 at the
Hudson Institute, he acknowledged
that four decades of attempts
by the U.S. to make
China a ‘stakeholder’ in global
norms and institutions had
failed. The White House now
promises to shift relations accordingly.”
An Economic Times analysis
fi nds that “The bitter trade
dispute between China and
the US is increasingly spilling
into the military domain.”
The Rand Institute’s Michael
Spirtas reports that
“China has built island outposts
in the South China Sea,
has challenged Japan, the Philippines
and other East Asian
states over territorial claims
and continues to threaten Taiwan.
Both Russia and China
have invested in capabilities
to defeat U.S. aircraft and
threaten its air bases and aircraft
carriers that would raise
the cost of opposing them, and
could even defeat the United
States in a major war.”
America’s Asian allies
have taken note of China’s
growing belligerence. J.
Berkshire Miller, writing
for the Nikkei Asian Review
states that “Japan must respond
to China’s growing naval
power… China is upgrading
its People’s Liberation
Army Navy as it confronts Japan…
China also continues to
expand military capabilities
in the South China Sea to put
itself in the position to potentially
deny access to a region
that is criss-crossed by trade
routes…”
Bill Gertz, in a Free Beacon
review, notes that China is
rapidly building space weapons
and other advanced arms
infused with artifi cial intelligence
capabilities as part of its
bid for military dominance,
according to a Congressional
sponsored study. Antisatellite
missiles and orbiting
killer satellites, swarms
of attack drones, hypersonic
missiles, maneuvering warheads,
lasers, and high-speed
rail guns are key systems
China is fi elding in the coming
years in a bid to leap ahead
of the U.S. military supremacy…
The advanced weapons
are part of a shift in Beijing’s
military focus from deploying
high-technology ‘informatized’
weapons to ‘intelligentized’
arms—revolutionary
capabilities boosted by artifi -
cial intelligence and machine
learning, the report said. …
The report also concludes the
United States is falling behind
China in the development of
advanced weapons and will
have to hurry to avoid being
overtaken. “The United States
has a small window, only a decade
at most, to develop new
capabilities and concepts for
countering China’s advanced
weapons programs,” the report
said.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ben
Hodges, writing in the Military
Times, notes the Associated
Press’s Vanessa Gera, believes
the U.S. is likely to be in
a military confl ict with China
within 15 years.