Category Archives: rintaro

My comment about the alcohol tax increase

According to the article, alcohol taxes will increase in the United States. Contrary to what we can imagine, some studies show that this rise will create some jobs. Money not spent on alcohol, coupled with the newly raised tax revenues, will be used on other goods and services which will create jobs in non-alcohol sectors. Moreover this increase will help reduce heavy drinkers. David Jernigan, director, Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth said that “Alcohol tax increases are an evidence-based approach to improving health, and importantly, yield a small net increase in jobs” .
I think that increasing the alcohol taxes is not an effective solution to prevent excessive drinkers from consuming alcohol. Person who are dependent of alcohol will not stop drinking because of small tax increase. They will probably buy cheaper alcohol, which are much more bad for health. As the result, instead of reaching a helping hand to heavy drinkers, this new anti-alcoholic policy may contribute to deteriorate their health… The best way to save alcoholic people is to persuade them, and make realize how drinking too much dose of alcohol is dangerous for human’s organism.
Only their determination will be able to change their mind. Increasing alcohol tax will be pointless concerning the improvement of alcoholics health.

However, I think that this increase will be effective to lessen normal drinkers’s consumption. It is evident that this plan will contribute to the amelioration of people’s health. Furthermore I have to admit that this plan is very interesting and successful to tackle the problem of unemployment. Thanks to this project, the economy of the United States will certainly grow!
…at the expense of alcohol sector’s workers.

My audio essay about education

Our future is unpredictable. Nobody know what our society will look like in 10 years. According to Ken Robinson, education is a system which is designed to help us deal which the change of the society. Effective education should help children to discover and develop their creativity. For him, creativity is as important as literacy.
That is why he strongly criticizes the current state of today’s educational system. He flame that the education in our time has lost its objective. Instead of evaluating the potential and special ability of children, teachers only judge capacity of children in accordance with the result of their exam. Because of that we are forced to believe firmly that mistake is bad, and therefore we are not prepared to be wrong and we are tend to be reluctant to create something new.
I totally agree with his argument. Biased education which only think about producing university professor will certainly kill our creativity. Today’s education misunderstand the meaning of the word intelligence. Intelligence does not only indicate being brilliant at mathematics, or having success in an examination. Intelligence is a diverse, dynamic, and distinct concept. As Ken Robinson has pointed out, we sometimes misunderstand what does intelligent exactly means. Different from what we believe, the way of being of intelligence is not fixed, and there are countless form of intelligence.
Especially in Japanese school, learning means memorizing a mysterious magic formula by heart. For example in japan, students learn the multiplication table like a poem. The greater majority of lessons in Japanese university consist in glancing at the professor repeating the textbook word for word. What a intelligent and interesting practice! So grad to be entitled to attend such informative and educational class, it is as exiting as counting sheep when i can’t sleep.
In those system you don’t need to consider to be qualified as an intelligent person, you just have to memorize the entire textbook, like completing monotonous work in a fordist industries. Such a restrictive view of intelligent should be corrected. Adopting a new conception of education, putting emphasis on the richness of the human’s capacity is required.

How ever I want to notice that, bringing out the hidden talent in a person is very difficult for both school side and student side. First, school will have a duty to look at children’s potential very attentively, and should furnish some diverse class.

Concerning the students, things are more complex. To clarify the problem, I’ll tell you about my childhood.
I was born in 1992 in France because both of my parents were artists. At the time I wanted to be an artist like them and I used to spent all my time painting pictures. At school I was really hopeless, I never did my homework and I never listened to my teacher. I was planning to be a painter so I didn’t mind about my result at school. But when I enter to the junior high school I understand that I wasn’t talented enough to have a successful life as an artist and I gave up. Furnishing effort is sometimes not sufficient to cover your talent. In exchange for my dream I start studying at school and it was really pleasant for me because effort expended on study is almost always rewarded.
In study, the result is in most cases proportional to the effort. In contrast in artistic field, talent is the most essential element.

It very easy to encourage young children to develop their individuality but, school should teach children that bringing out the hidden talent is one hundred time more difficult than studying. Every children born artist but to stay an artist you should be strong and determined.

My opinion about organ black market

I apologize for my absence and the delay… I came down with a cold.

 

Today, nearly 120,000 people are waiting for an organ in the United States, and just one donor has the ability to save up to 8 lives. Unfortunately the demand for transplant organs is far outstrips the supply… More than 30 patients die every day while waiting. As the result, the organ black market has expanded all around the world. Approximately 7,000 kidneys are illegally harvested annually by traffickers. Sometimes organs are harvested from a living victim for compensation. In the worst case it involves kidnapping or murder…
Donors of organs include usually impoverished citizens who are tempted to sell one of their kidneys to earn money, and victims of human trafficking are young children from developing countries in most cases. For example In 2012, a young African girl was kidnapped and brought to the UK for the sole purpose of harvesting her organs…

I think that the problem of organ donation is very complex.
First I’ll consider about the solution to resolve this problem and then, I’ll give my opinion about the human trafficking.

The expansion of illegal black market is related to the organ shortage crisis. In other word, the best solution to fight against illegal trade is to tackle the problem of organ shortage.
The Organ Transplant Law only allows donation in the case of brain death and with prior written consent, as well as the consent of the donor’s family. Furthermore transferring any human organ for human transplantation in exchange for money or consideration is against the law and can be punished with prison time.
Such restrictive rules contribute significantly to the deterioration of the organ shortage crisis. Making a radical amendment of the present Code is required.
I strongly believe that developing an altruistic system of donation from a living donor to an unknown recipient (obtaining organs from the living and the dead donor), and accepting the concept of a rewarded donor system (a paid donor model) will be a very effective remedy.

Now, I’ll give you my opinion about the organ black market.
For a utilitarian the measure of right and wrong is “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”. According to this theory, the proper course of action is the one that maximizes total benefit and reduces suffering. Consequently “saving 8 lives at the expense of one” is good. Personally I don’t like this argument because it ignores justice.

However we have to keep in mind that WE DON’T DESERVE TO SAY “I think human trafficking is a terrible business” because deep inside us we ABSOLUTELY don’t care about this.
Contrary to our hypocritical ideal, there are too many unfair affair in the world provoked by our egoism.
In the Southern Hemisphere, people die of hunger, in contrast in the northern hemisphere, many people die from obesity…
On the one hand there are people in underdeveloped country victim of illegal organ harvesting, in the other hand there are people in developed country who obtain their organs via an international black market web.

We always assume the air of indifference and we pretend not to see the existence of poor people in the world because we don’t want to admit that we are a cruel egoistic person. We all know that there are lot of people in the world who don’t have access to clean water, but we pretend not to see, and instead of helping them we hunt for expensive clothes to go to party.
Every one know that there are some poor children who are victims of human trafficking, but instead of extending them a helping hand (by donating money for instance) they run to Apple Store to buy the current iPhone model.

It is very easy to act or speak like a ethical upright man, but in bottom we are absolutely not interested in another people’s misfortune.
The cruel and immoral organ black market has grown in response to our selfish demand (supply and demand theory). We often imagine that illegal organ brokers are the only evil, but it is a serious misunderstanding. We should keep in mind that we all are indirect wrongdoers, and potential black market consumer.

Think about this case:
Your parents are affected by a serious disease. To survive your parents need an organ transplant surgery, but you learned that the organ intended to be used come from an illegal trade market.
Would you be able to cancel the operation to contribute to the eradication of illegal trades (if no demand no supply)?
At least I wouldn’t.
Our selfishness, that is the true culprit not organ blocker.

 

My comment about Chinese political corruption

As a result of greater economic freedom, China suffers from widespread corruption including graft, bribery, embezzlement, backdoor deals, nepotism, patronage, and statistical falsification. In order to put the brakes on this increasing malversation, a key meeting of Chinese Communist Party leaders focusing on the rule of law and fighting corruption has begun in Beijing.
Xi Jinping who is the president of the party, has taken measures to fight against political corruption since assuming the position in 2013. His anti corruption campaigns are very effective and some improvements are expected. He said that no one is beyond his reach and all offender will be punished regardless of their rank.

 

I think that a swift and specific solution plan is indispensable because growing corruption among public officials produces two serious negative consequences.

First, corruption leads to socio-political instability and a legitimacy crisis for the regime.
If officials use their power to satisfy their selfish desires at the expense of public interests, people will not believe in them anymore. In consequence, their authority and legitimacy will decline and the government will lose its influence. Furthermore, corruption will lowers the moral standards and cohesion of the entire society, cause public officer’s behavior may set a bad example for society and may stimulate others to follow.

Second, corruption may disturb economic growth.
By imposing their power, corrupt officials will get a big sum of money easily. In contrast, a big majority of people in china will have to work hard for little money… Such a unfairness will probably kill people’s motivation to go to work. The death of meritocratic system means the collapse of the society. Injustice among rewards should be corrected.

In this way, corruption will have negative influences in individuals’ economic behavior and will hurt the government’s legitimacy and jeopardized economic growth. Its prevention and eradication is an absolute requirement for better social and public life in china.
HOWEVER, I want to stress that corruption is a strong temptation that any one may succumb to if we get the chance (if you are a bureaucrat for instance).
After all, politicians(who take bribes)
are neither more nor less than the representative of the Chinese Nation…
Instead of wasting time cursing at the crowd of uncountable corrupt politicians(who are their own reflexion), Chinese people may need to examine themselves.

I believe

I believe that racism will disappear one day.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character,” said Nelson Mandela. Unfortunately, people of the time didn’t realize how cruel racism is. To discriminate people because of skin color, or cultural differences were a matter of course.
But things have changed. The world is now setting against racism. Nowadays, only a tiny minority of people support racism, separated toilet facilities according to race don’t exist anymore, equal opportunity in education is assured. In addition Barack Obama became the first African-American president in 2008. However, complete eradication of racism is not yet achieved. There are still violent racism all round the world (of course in Japan too). For instance an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were victims of genocide in 1994, racial discrimination is on rise in India and Australia. Further more, in France the rise of far-right wing parties with Marine Le Pen known of her discriminative speeches can be mentioned.
Racism has been a part of human history since time immemorial. It stems out of a tendency to create racial stereotypes on the basis of race, colour, nationality, religion and other factors. Often racial discrimination is practiced without even being conscious, It seems to be like human’s nature. We live in a world in which we are surrounded by things that cause us to develop associations that produce stereotypes. So maybe racism will never disappear. However discrimination can be reduced significantly by education.
Education at school should help us realize how racism is immoral. Educating young people and revise stereotypes are effective solutions, in other word transforming the school’s culture is required. For example, it is desirable that school encourage children making a cross-race friend in order to tackle prejudice, because discrimination can not prevail over firm friendship. In addition, school should take a firm stance against racism. Racial incidents must be monitored more attentively and If students exhibit racist behavior, teachers should deal with it immediately and strictly, because by not reacting swiftly and by not giving severe punishment, we send the message that racism is acceptable.
Instead of being colorblind, we should celebrate differences. Educational organization should not assume the air of indifference, because Ignorance is at the bottom of racism. I think that we also have to make efforts to be open-minded and strive to make Nelson Mandela’s dream come true.
If we believe that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, if we believe in love for humanity, we should not tolerate racial discrimination.

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My reaction about ivory trade

The very future of the African elephant, the largest land animal on Earth, could be at risk. The number of elephants in Africa is declining because of illegal hunts.  Alarmingly, elephant population is being hit hardest, with thousands of elephants killed each year. According to the article existence of a legal trade is contributing to provide cover for a much more extensive black market. These markets are patronised by ex-pat communities and Chinese business, and almost ninety per cent of all the people arrested at the airports ferrying ivory are Chinese. It’s conclude that China’s booming economy means there will be an ever-growing market.
Food chain. Animals kill other animals to survive, so I don’t think killing animals for food is wrong. But in the event of poaching in Africa,  MONEY is at the heart of the killing of elephants. Killing animal to earn money(or to calm down excessive desire) and killing animals for meat are definitely different. It must be difficult to fight against poaching but we should react rapidly to help elephant from the risk of extinction. I want to stress that, reinforcing the monitoring system to detect poachers or toughening the law to punish poachers more strictly could be a strong deterrent to crime, but those measures are not effective enough to abolish illegal ivory trades. Securing the future of Africa’s elephant will mean not just beating the poachers but also tackling black-market sales in China(we don’t have to forget punishing buyers of tusks). In addition, I think that international cooperation is required to control poaching in Africa. We should realize how it is difficult to arrest poachers and have to extend a helping hand.
Normally ivories are helpful to protect elephants’s life. Ironically having too beautiful ivories is today their primary cause of death…

Pollution in developing country

This topic is about china’s waste plant protest in hagzhou. It says that atmospheric pollution caused by planned waste incineration is getting worse. According to the topic, a lot of people were injured because of violent protest against pollution.

I’ll discuss about this problem from 2 different point of view.
First I’ll analyze the cause of these serious pollution in developing country. At second time I’ll try to find solution to resolve those problems related to pollution.
Why pollution is increasing in developing country (like china or India)? In my opinion, I think that environmental pollution  deteriorate correspondingly to the economy growth. When the consumption increase, industries have to rise their production to satisfy demand which require a massive consumption of energy (this exploitation of energy is nowadays regarded as one of the cause of pollution). As a result, the overuse of energy supported by the growing economy lead developing country to pollution.
How can we prevent pollution? I think the lack of technologic strength is the principal cause of pollution in developing country, which explains why contamination level of those country is higher than advanced country’s. Furthermore, I think less attention is paid to environmental protection and environmental standards are often inappropriate or not effective.Reducing environment pollution through innovation is required. Develop and improve pollution control techniques is a feasible solution to prevent pollution.