You’ll recall we linked a rather puerile piece of writing from a Brown University student yesterday. One can be forgiven for thinking that the intellectual depth of today’s youth is somewhat comparable to a rain puddle on an Arizona sidewalk in August.
But that isn’t quite the case. One reason we shared Mr. Makhlouf’s screed was because it was such a poorly written piece.
On the other hand, there are young Americans who can write quite well. CIMSEC, the Center For International Maritime Security, sponsored a high school essay contest. And lo, Mr. Templin, a senior at South Lake High School in Groveland, Florida, has won the prize.
One can find a few grammatical errors, and questionable word choices. One could also find fault with his conclusions and proposals. But overall, this is a well thought out piece that correctly identifies a problem, the environment that causes the problem, and possible corrective courses of action.
The nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore all share a unique strength. Despite being third world countries and overall economically weak, they have strength in their geographic position; each are located on crucial waterways. These waterways consist of some of the most heavily traveled commercial shipping routes in the world. In terms of crude oil alone, the strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia has an estimated 15 million barrels a day, while the strait of Hormuz that links the Arabian Gulf to the Indian Ocean has an even larger amount of oil cargo, estimated at 17 million barrels per day.
Do read the whole thing.
XBradTC 
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