The hidden side of Human nature

In response to Melvrick's blog on "Where's the love?Economic Pragmatism overrides humanity" dated 20 May 2007, I totally agree with his view point about the great powers being overly concerned with the government system Iraq and invading in the nameof concern for the people there when they are living quite normally there while on the other side of the world,citizens of Somalia and South Africa are suffering,living off each day with less than a dollar or even not a single cent at all! Although the international and regional organisations know about these problems,it has always been left at the back of their minds and humanitarian and economic aid that are sent to these needy people are very minimal which is not really sufficient to even sustain them for more than a week.


With the recent outbreak of the Iraq War which I strongly believe that it has no real threat towrads the world or any other countries to the extent that troops need to be deployed to Iraq and cause an armed conflict in the region. I really do not see the purpose of the actions of great powers except that they are just doing it for the sake of doing and showing it to the rest of the world that they are still in power at this point of time. Even though it is stated in the charter of the UN that it is an international body where every single member country is represented in the General Assembly and are able to voice their problems to the rest and ask for aid and help,but the U.S and the other 4 Superpowers are the ones that have the final say in the decisions made in every resolution,who would really listen to the representatives of the poorer countries when they can give nothing in return to the superpowers? Human beings in nature are selfish ones, they would do everything in their stride to protect their own interests before they consider extending their help to these countrie s that are truly in "bad shape". It's always me or my own country before the others,there are hardly any governments that looks after the other poorer countries before their own as all governments are set up with the primary interests to protect their people and make sure their economies benefits from every decision they make. It's just the way things are,we may just have to accept it and carry on with life in this culture.

The effectivenes of punishment to enforce law and order

Law and order, as the term explains, is to ensure the obedience of one and that nobody dose anything to harm another or even commit a crime that betrays one's conscience.

I do agree that punishment is required to a certain extent so as to enforce the firmness of the government to protect the safety of the people under their charge. However, i do not agree to it being used as the main form of rehabilation process of a person when he or she commits a crime. This is because, the people that commit crimes usually only does that when they are left with no choice due to some causes they do not wish to go through. Who would enjoy going against their conscience or commit a crime and be indifferent after that?

Therefore, i believe that the most effective method to change the thinking of a person or help them out of their crisis is to talk to them, understand them and from there work out a solution to help them get through. Yes, punishment is inevitable, but it is to be used to a small extent and not as a method to force them to change for the better as it may cause them to become worse in terms of their conduct and mentality.

And of course, i would also not agree that any form of punishment in terms of maintaining law and order must be justified as laws are also written and passed by fellow human beings and it may contain mistakes in these laws too. I strongly disagree to the one life for another law where a murder will also be killed as a punishment for taking the life of another. Why do the judges have the authority to take alife of another when it is stated in their book of laws that it is very wrong to kill someone? Furthermore, there are many othjer ways you can punish someone, regardless of whether it is mentally or physically but i think killing someone for the mistake he have made is a little too much.

In conclusion, i strongly believe that certain principles of the present society should be revised and look into yet again so as not to slap our own face with our hands.

The acceptance of the two ideologies..

The first crossing between the penisular of Korea in 56 years since the Korean War in the mist of the Cold War between the US and the USSR left Korea separated up till date. Does it mean that the two ideologies that were previously unwilling to give in to the other are now able to tolerate the differences they have held strongly to decades ago?

I do not agree so,communst activities are not widely used and in states that adopt communist values of giving everything to the state and not leave any surplus to be sold for their own profit has not been enforced after the fall of USSR. Instead,ideas of capitalism have been inducted into the communist states that survived through the Cold War like Vietnam and North Korea. They are now mostly democratic so as to remain in the race of this ever-changing and continually globalising world that cannot wait for these states to catch up if they stick very closely to the basic principles of socialism.

However, the crossing of the trains from both states signifies an important event in history where it is the first time the two ideological blocs opened up to each other, especially in Korea. The conflict in Korea was so heated during the Cold War that it had evolved from a proxy war between the US and the USSR to one that involved the UN in sending in peackeeping forces that included soldiers from member countries and China, a Soviet ally. The tension arising from the tension has kept the two states strangers to each other made this train service quite unbelivable. It thus shows that nothing is really impossible and that the era of communist is fading into the shadows of capitalism.

The 21st century 'weapon'

In the recent decade, technology has evolved so rapidly that our lives are evolviong around it. Although it was invented to improve the lives of the people, some have made used of it to climb up the ranks,bully and even get famous.All you need is a click of the mouse on the 'send' button on the screen.
Teens nowadays s within reach of publishing their thoughts even faster than an entire newsroom 10 years ago. Furthermore, there is no need to go through a series of editiors and executives to get the article publish,its all a one man show and they are responsible for what they have posted on the internet.However, only a handful are punished for the issues they published on the internet through their websites and blogs which leaves them feeling nothing for the things they type and ignorant about the feelings of the people they are referring to especially those that are humiliating their 'enemies' through the net.All these are due to the unnecessity to use our real identities in the world of cyberspace.
If this misuse of the luxury of freedom is to be carried into the next 2 decades, everyone will just be unfeeling beings, indifferent to the feelings of the people and soon the world will be filled with selfishness and hatred. Until then, we can still make changes to the lifestyle and the issues we discuss through the internet.It would be alright if we discuss and exchange ideas with people from around the world, as it is what the internet was invented for, but to use as a tool to hurt someone else or to climb the ladder of successes, it will be an insult to the personality of mankind.

Sex-the new mode of expressing freedom?

China becoming more democratic after the Mao generation is facing the epidemic of coping with the increasing numbers in people having sex freely.The Mao generation,taking after the Soviet Union when it was first formed,controlled almost every single aspect of people's lives.And 3 decades after the end of the Mao era,China took a more democratic model in order to keep up with the pace of the world and to ensure its survival.
The side effecs, the change in the lifestyles and attitude towards life of the Chinese has been bothering the government especially when these made drastic changes like woman trying to get free sex through blogging, a recent phenomenum that took the world by wave. The statistic showed the increase in percentages of Beijing residents having sexual relations even before marriage(Sex,Please-We're young and Chinese,Time,23 Jan 2006)Furthermore, the knowledge that the Chinese have about birth control is littleand thus explains the increament in the rate of single mothers and sexually transmitted diseases.
This is possibly due to the temptation of "trying" the new trend for many as expressed by Li,the blogger interviewed by Time that has performed sexual relations with more than 100 men, " Maybe in the past,everyone was obedient and listened to the old grannies who lectured on who you could have sex with and in what position.But now they are busy having sex and no time to listen."
But,is it really what's happening in China today?Only time will tell.

Global Warming:The Upcoming threat

For thousands of years,people have been taking the resources provided by Mother Earth for granted,using them as though they had limitless supplies of it and not thinking of the consequences.Recently,awareness has been raised around the world in response to the significant rise in global temperatures and sea levels.Is it too late to only realise the effects now?Or is there a glimpse of hope in surviving with all that we have left,not knowing how long these will last...

Although governments of countries that are huge users of fossil fuels are trying their best to cut the country's reliance on these resources,they are still far from success.And two such countries will be the U.S. and China.China,being a rapidly developing country in the last decade is one of the main contributors to the great emitters of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and its citites is one of the most polluted around the world.

So,what are the governments doing?What are we doing?

Little,we can do very little as this problem was neglected for too long that it is now almost irrevisible.All that we can do is to reduce the rate we use and emit from this point in time,settle down, and adapt to the conditions we have 'deserved' from our carelessness.

However,there's always the group of people that would not give up till the last bit. Discussions and dabates are starting to try and solve this global problem.An example will be the U.S. who has recently acknowledged global warming after bing years behind all other countries for so long. Actions are also taken, take the Netherlands for exampl.they have the strongest flood defenses yet they are still making them stronger so as to better prevent their cities and homelands from being destroyed by the floods that may occur with the continuous rise in sea levels.Bangladash, being the most vulnerable low-lying country that faces the sea and drains 92%of the snowmelt from the vast Himalayan mountain range,farmers are switching land over to prawn farming which tolerates saltier waterto stay in the race for survival.

Above are only few of the many countries and groups of people that are adapting and changing their lifestyles to the effects of global warming.I believe that salvaging the whole situation is possible only if every single country,every single population,every single human being plays their respective part in saving Mother Earth, our home,regardless of how significant or how minor the contribution is because like the old saying goes,every single droplet of water makes the mighty ocean.

Torturing: Is it the only way?

Al-Qaeda memebers that have been arrested by the U.S government were mostly tortured so as to gather information about their organisation and furture attacks. These has gave rise to the people debating on whether it is the right way that a liberal and civilised conutry to be carrying out these investigation techniques just to get information as there may be many other ways to do too.
Torutring,might be one of the worst methods of gathering information as the gathered data from these terrorists are not worth the high price of going against the jailers' self-conscience of doing harm to another fellow human being which I believe is also mentally torturing to them too listening to the detainees' screams of pain,whimpers and voices of defiance to them. The results produced by the FBI who does not adopt methods of torturing but interrogated the al-Qaeda members with a tough yet very human face has confused them totally as they have expected theinterrogators to dismember them were much more useful than what the CIA can produce in their haste to force the terrorists to speak up.Furthermore,most of the data gathered were common knowledge and were not of much help in capturing any truly significant players in this game of terrorising. [The unofficial story of the al-Qaeda 14, Sep 10,2006]
However,there are also the few that opposes these ideas and are for torturing as an acceptable investigative technique so long as the jailers are sure that the detainee possesses the valuable information the agency required to save the life of another or many others, such application of pain is reasonable and justified.
In my opinion on the issue,I believe that torturing is still quite unacceptable who is there to acknowledge how much pain applied to the suspect is 'reasonable'? I torturing does not work,what can the jailer do?find the detainee's child and wife and do harm to them in front of him? as claimed by Mr Paris Aristotle in his response to Mr Faris. Furthermore,after torture is applied and the result turns out to be negative, we will never get it, so why go through so much trouble when we can get more reults through the use of other methods that more civilised and morally right?