Korea Armistice Anniversary: Families Still Separated 60 Years After War

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/korean-armistice-anniversary-families-separated_n_3643602.html?utm_hp_ref=north-korea

                        60 years passed since Korea War took place and separated abundant family. Reunions among the family who split during Korean War had been controversial subject in Korea for several decades. The article contained myriad examples of couples who were forcefully separated during chaotic era of Korean War while seeking for refugees. Most of the time, people never acquire opportunities to reunite ever since due to the symbolic, physical wall that exists between North and South Korea.  Due to the barricade that has been blocking the communication between South and North, they have been postponing the reunions since 2010. The article starts with personal anecdote of a survivor of Korean War. Grief and sorrow she has could be clearly seen in the picture attached to the article and jerked tears from the readers’ eyes.

                         The stories that survivors shared reflected the agony they received throughout their lives from longing for the missing family members and efforts they made to raise their children on their own. Regardless of the discordant relationship North Korea and South Korea has at the moment, the reunions of the families should be done.

                         Family appears as the most basic structure of human relationships. Especially, in such competitive societies of modern days, family is where people obtain encouragements and strength from.  Due to the Korean War, survivors lost their family, residence, in other word, everything. Korea should make amends and support to the survivors, who are now aged and weak, and had to cope with catastrophe, such as death of acquaintance, during war time. Planning family reunions for them to reunite with the family they lost during war time would be the best reparation they could prepare, for majority of survivors dedicated their lifetime on seeking for the lost family member.

legalization of marijuana?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/marijuana-legalization_n_3529986.html?utm_hp_ref=drug-war

 

                The article reported that Colorado began applying the drug rules ever since the Zimmerman trial occurred and the disparities among the races emerged as a frequently debated topic. The rules specifically contained the required labels for marijuana, instructions for proper usage, list of pesticides as the state legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use.  Regarding certain facts, changed marijuana label rules will decrease the number of disputes that happen revolving around marijuana, even though the legalizations of marijuana don’t seem like a good idea.  

                Though it may seem irrelevant, the another article that discussed president Obama attempting to enhance the disparities among the races indicated that only African Americans were accused and imprisoned for a long time for cocaine or marijuana issue. On the contrary, White people were never accused nor punished. However, new policy that requires marijuana and drugs to be properly instructed will decrease the danger of abuse of marijuana, which leads to consequence of decrease in incidents where people use marijuana illegally will naturally on a decreasing rate and the disparities among races that revolve around marijuana will slowly cease.

                Also, even though teenagers are not allowed to access drugs, it is widely known that abundant teenagers overdose drugs or smoke marijuana illegally. Not fully aware of the proper usage, bountiful teenagers died from drug abuse and such. Publication of newly constructed laws will instruct and lead less teenagers to death caused from drugs.

                Regardless, the legalization of sales of marijuana will most likely cause more disputes and chaos in the states. People who don’t meet requirements to legally buy marijuana will attempt to buy illegally and will tend to ignore the instructions suggested.

Do "diet" sodas really help your diet?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/24/diet-soda-health-risks_n_3606906.html?ir=Healthy+Living

                This article will shock the people who had been avoiding drinking non-diet sodas to not gain weights. Surprisingly, the article reported that the diet sodas, which are supposedly healthier than the non-diet sodas, turned out to be more harmful to one’s health than the non-diet sodas are.  Brain expects the calories as one’s body drinks sweet. However, when one drinks diet sodas, no calorie is absorbed yet only sweetened artificial flavor comes in, which motivates brain to seek calories that would satisfy the need brain felt.

                After hearing this, I began questioning if what we perceive is what it really is. The word “diet” attached in front of the word gave a positive tone to the word. Myriad customers were deceived by the word “diet” , believing it would be a better choice for their own body. Consequently, I began wondering if the labels “diet” would be the best choice. Since obesity emerged as one of the biggest problems in America, people began attempting to eat as healthy as possible.  Naturally, the word “diet”, which contains the meaning “less calories”, will definitely attract people.  People will grab a box of “diet-coke”, expecting it to be less fattening than the regular sodas do. However, diet sodas will crush their expectation by signaling brain a need of calories.

                Since diet sodas appeared to be more harmful to one’s health than regular sodas are, the diseases sodas would bring (although the article stated that the direct relationship between diseases and sodas are unclear) are unimaginable. For example, Coke is often used as a toilet washer due to the strong artificial flavor and chemicals included in it. One should try to avoid drinking sodas, even the “Diet” ones.

Calling for change

http://www.economist.com/blogs/pomegranate/2013/07/sexual-violence-egypt

                The article reported that Egyptian women have been constantly raped by men. Egyptian women stated that Egypt is not a secured country where the government would make efforts to prevent rape cases from happening. However, Egyptian women began a movement in order to acquire more protections as in means of prevention of rape incidents. The organization named Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault Initiative, a.k.a OpAntiSH, began officially submitting sexually abused case.

                However, despite the attempts OpAntiSH make to claim more protections for women, the situation has not been changed yet. The government has never been fully engrossed deeply in searching for the enhancements.  Such reports encouraged me to pose a question: is the government concerned with rape cases happening wherever and whenever? The answer I came up with was: no.

 The unaffected response of government was shown in the following quote: “Mr Morsi’s regime have done little to protect women from abuse” irated me. Although women might appear as less powerful gender due to the prejudice that was inherited from the ancestors, women deserved to be protected equally. Women were also citizens that deserve equal rights and protections.  

Establishment of new laws could not be an immediate solution, for it takes a copious amount of time to build laws and such. However, the government should gradually construct the laws that prohibit men from raping women. Additionally, people who violate such laws should receive punishments for invading other’s rights. Women should, instead of hiding, speak out by joining organizations such as OpAntiSH that are purposed to claim more protection over women.

Contaminated Lunches Kill 22 Children in India

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/18/world/asia/children-die-from-tainted-lunches-at-indian-school.html?pagewanted=2&hp

                I couldn’t hide my grief when I saw the title of the article. This tragic incident happened in India stole twenty two innocent children’s lives away. Majority of poisoned children’s parents had to watch their children helplessly dying in their arms. The reason turned out to be food containment. The cooking oil used to fry food was identified as the oil that had been used in insecticides.

            India government began serving free meals to over 120 million children in India. As free meals were served, attendance of children increased and rate of children suffering from malnutrition drastically decreased. It was relieving to learn such program has been supporting children who suffer from poverty and dearth of food source. However, after this incident, I posed a question: “is government really concerned with children’s health? Are they truly determined to dedicate money on enhancing the situation in India?”  

            However, doing fundraisers and making food donations could embellish a situation a little. India government is putting efforts to abet children who are in need of help. Yet, the government is facing scarcity of money. Naturally, government bought cheap oils, which engendered numerous children's death. Donation of food resources, especially food edible supplies, will decrease the possibility of such tragedy from occurring again.  Hopefully India government will pay closer attention on free meals that are distributed to children after this incident.

            Besides food provision, lack of medical support seemed to be another urgent problem as well. Clinical centers were crowded from suddenly increased poisoned children. Consequently, a chaos was created and bountiful children died while waiting for doctor's help. 

            The article consists of factual “hook”. At the beginning of the article, the brief explanation of the incident is suggested, which helps readers’ overall understanding.

2 New Plans to Upgrade Smartphones After a Year

Smartphone industries are flourishing as the time processes.  More advanced phones are released and what a single phone can do resembles that of computer’s nowadays. Phone appliers search for ways to provide faster, innovative phone service. Naturally, as people are getting more accustomed to smartphones, people tend to rush and live restless lives.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/technology/personaltech/2-new-plans-to-upgrade-smartphones-after-a-year.html?ref=technology

            People’s restless lifestyle is now affecting policy of phone appliers. Phone applier company AT&T stated that survey result indicated people’s opinion that 2 years of waiting for a new phone is too long. Consequently, phone appliers are reflecting people’s opinion and are shortening the time people have to wait to get a new phone.

            Such change made me wonder if smartphones could be classified as either a “good” or a “bad” change. Emergence of smartphones brought convenience to people and encouraged the online communications among the people. However, smartphones ironically are blockades of people’s communications in real life. Now, people fully engrossed in smartphones can be usually seen in restaurant. Clearly, people now are deprived of conversations and interactions due to the invention of smartphones.

            On a bright side, smartphones provide shortcuts to people in a way of accessing information. Now various app markets suggest abundant ways to acquire needed information. Despite such advantages smartphones brought to human’s lives, disconnections in human’s lives appearing as a major problem in a society makes me doubt if advantages of smartphones are powerful enough to overthrow the disadvantages smartphones have. People should rather spend time on having conversations than occupying themselves in a tiny little smartphone that ceases people from communications.  

Use of coal to generate power rises; greenhouse gas emissions next?

LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-coal-electricity-20130711,0,1786862.story

Pollution is arising as an urgent matter. Currently increased amount of greenhouse gas indicates that global warming issue grew more severe. In fact, Global Warming Potential (GWP) and amount of  greenhouse gas are directly proportional to each other. Coal, which emits greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, unavoidably emerged as a main energy source since natural gas, possibly the most efficient and environmentally friendly energy source, is limited. Such environmental problems concerned me for natural problems directly affect humans.

After reading the article, I posed a question to myself: is it better to spend more money, searching for natural gas that is less harmful to nature or to save up more money by using coal, which is deadly to both human and nature? My answer to the question was to dedicate more money by making earth to a less polluted place to live in. 

Human has been using up the natural resources since a long time ago. Inevitably, natural resources have been drastically decreasing in its amount, for it is limited. Consequently, as the amount decreased, the price charged on the remaining resources naturally began rising. Especially oil, which is essential for cars, prices have been dramatically changing. For example, according to the article, "Coal's share of total domestic power generation in the first four months of 2013 averaged 39.5%, compared with 35.4% during the same period last year". 

President Obama persisting on a project targeting to decrease amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere gives me hope, for it refers to how government is putting an effort to enhance the situation. However, the plan has not been quite fruitful. Ironically, rate of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rather increased.Less usage of power plant, a main exit of carbon dioxide, is the main policy that President Obama tends to pursue. 

Attempting to use public transportation instead of your own car, turning lights off that are not in use and such will bring down the needed amount of electricity. As the amount of required electricity decreases, usage of coal will naturally diminish, concluding in less pollution.
 
 

Mississippi Gay Bar Denied License

Huffington post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-dinielli/mississippi-gay-bar-denied-license_b_3562741.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices

The article "Mississippi Gay Bar Denied License"demonstrated the incident occurred in Mississippi that displayed the discrimination targeted at Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, a.k.a LGBT community. A woman named Pat "PJ" Newton attempted to revive the Gay Bar she operated decades ago. However, Ms. Newton confronted denial in opening the gay bar although Ms. Newton met all the requirements for the operation of business. The residents of Ms. Newton's town placed an obstacle in her way with a reason being her homosexuality.

As California legalized the gay marriages, acceptance of and controversy on homosexuality aroused as one of the most arguable subjects among the people. Denial to Ms. Newton's operation in business with an unfair reason of her sexual identity violated the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under law. Even though, in modern society, as clearly depicted,  homosexuals are equally protected under the law,  Mississippi incident showed that not everyone agrees with LGBT being classified as "normal". The justification people who signed the petition to prevent from Ms. Newton operating a bar suggested was to prevent their children entering "that kind of" bar. Such statement contains the animosity against homosexuality that is buried deep down in one's heart. 

Whether people consider LGBT as "normal" may depend on one's perspective. Christians perceive homosexual as a sin, for it defeats the reason why God created human. However, in personal opinion, being homosexual should neither be interfered nor be embarrassed by the others. Being homosexual is not a malevolent or harmful action, but just being truthful to oneself. Clearly, Mississippi incident exemplified how people hurt other people's rights. Despite it may not contain any malevolent intention, people insisted to interlope in one's business just because that business was relative to LBGT. Homosexual people should receive equal rights as everyone else.