Euthanasia

Today during GP lesson, we had a hot discussion around the moral dilemma of Euthanasia. Admittedly, it is an issue that is profoundly controvertial and allows divergent points of view to exist. However, there is one case that incured conflicting stances and vigorous debate that mostly hurt my personal feelings. It's a senario given by our GP teacher: Your father is suffering from a severe terminating cancer and have fell into unconsciousness for two weeks. The only reason that he is still alive is that the hospital is using a life-support machine which had costs almost half of you deposits in the bank. Your 18-year old kid has been recruited into a well-known universities with a bright future. He needs your financial support otherswise will not be able to afford his university fee. There's only a slim chance that your father will wake up again and even so he would only survive for a very short time. What would be your decision at this moment? continue his treatment or give him an euthanasia and give your son a bright future?

I feel very disappointed and deeply hurt when my fellow classmates are vigorously debating on this issue. In my opinion, it can not be even called a moral dilemma because we don't have alternative choice if we are still moral: save your father at the expense of everthing.

Of course there are opposing views: "we are adults and ought to be responsible for the future of our kids; we need to make rational choice since we have other moral obligations; it's meaningless to risk your child's future for a slim chance of your father's waking up. "

Does it sound like remarks from a civilized society???

I said to my friend next to me quietly: As our great civilization advances, our moral standard is moving backward. Let's honestly ask ourselves, what's the point of sending your kid to the top university in the world at the expense of the life of the person who brought you into this world and cared about your in their whole life?

If ending your father's life is based on rationale and logical choice, then there is something wrong with the existence of our mankind. All of our thousands of years of glorious civilization will be even less significant than a falling leave which still gives itself back to the ground even before its death.

I'm going to start this blog again!

It's a great pleasure of me to restart this blog as a personal reflection of my life in Singapore. As the title suggested, the offspring of dragon, will never succumb to any challenges and of course will never be satisfied to just get a B for A-level GP. I hope and will score an A, one year later. Therefore, this blog is also a platform for me to practise my English language and express my personal stance on certain issues, from a conservative Chinese youth's perspective of course, haha...ok, wait and check it out!

"made in China" crisis

'Brand China' at risk after toy recall
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6948274.stm

“Made in China”

Recently, a furious “China-made recalling” storm was sweeping the world. Many companies in western countries like US and Canada recalled their China-made products such as toy, food and medicine. A severe “credit crisis” is threatening this huge “world factory”. Let’s see a series of product scandals:
{Pet food - tainted with chemical melamine
Toothpaste - tainted with chemical diethylene glycol and bacteria
Farmed fish - traces of banned drugs and pesticides found
Tyres - fault may cause blow-outs
Toys - contain lead or pose choking hazard
Children's jewellery - contains lead
Ceramic heaters - pose fire safety risk} (from bbc website)

As a Chinese, I’m very shamed of the existence of these scandals. From the above incidents, I saw a country which are not responsible to others rather than an ancient civilized country with thousands of years of splendid history.
As China’s economics rise rapidly, some Chinese always compare China to a lion that was just waken up or a dragon that is speeding across the sky. Too many Chinese are blinded by a sightless patriotism. As a result, lots of acute issues are hidden behind the rapidly increased economics.
However, in my opinion, currently, China is no more than an arrogant millionaire overnight. In recent decades, China has plumped up his wallet at the expanse of low-cost labor and severely damaged environment. However, the standard of product quality and the ethos of the society are obviously not in tandem with the economic increase. For example, in China, large amount of piratical VCD or DVD are flooding into the market every day; fake medicine, drugs and toys are threatening people’s health without being noticed. “Made in China” has already been a pronoun of fake and low quality. It’s really a shame to China, which has thousands of years of gorgeous culture and history.
Now, China is at the crossroad of history. The government must take action, to save China on the verge of degeneration, to save the brand of “made in China” and develop it to “made by China”.

In my opinions, three main steps should be taken to solve this crisis: First, the government should reinforce the supervision of the product quality and establish a complete set of product supervision system. Secondly, the government should communicate with the Western government and come out with an eligible quality standard which adapts to both countries. Thirdly, enhance the ability of revolution of technologies, so as to transform the economic mode from MADE IN CHINA to MADE BY CHINA.
Above is my opinion, however, I think it’s not easy to achieve it in a short time since the situation of China is quite different from those western countries. In China, most of the consumers are peasants and workers. Therefore, if China’s food quality standard is the same as US’s, most of the Chinese consumers won’t afford it. This for sure will reduce the living level of people. Besides, due to the lack of financial income, the revolution of technologies will also be challenged. Therefore, it’s not easy for China to solve this issue.
As a Chinese, I sincerely hope that one day “Made in China” can get rid of its stains and is welcomed all over the world. I believe that day will come soon, with the efforts of all the Chinese people.

Life vs money

Miners' families angry at disaster
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6959844.stm

Life vs money?

Recently, one of the worst mining disaster happened in eastern Shandong Province. 181 miners have been trapped underground since last Friday.

These miners were working at two mine shafts when the torrential rain caused a river to burst the banks, sending water flooding in.

Although the rescue workers were trying to save the miners out by pumping the underground water out, their hope for survival faded as the time ran out.

The response from the mine officials arise the fury among the relatives of those trapped miners. They told the reports indignantly that they could not get information about their relatives on time from the officials. When they went to find the officials in charge, they either told them to wait or disappeared. The mine officials only care about the output of the mine in spite the lives of their relatives.

This accident was one of the worst mining disasters in China. It reflects one of the acutest conflicts existing in China society. In China, especially Shandong and Shanxi Province, a deluge of private small collieries were producing mines due to the huge demand of mines in China. In order to maximize the profits, nearly all the private small collieries have no security facility. The mine officials exploit their miners atrociously to fill their pockets. However, those government officials, who are supposed to supervise the management and security of the collieries, colluded with the mine officials so that they could gain a big share of the profits. As a result, those miners who live in an abyss of suffering became the biggest victim of this scam. However, they had no choice, this was their fate.

In my opinion, the mine issues revealed two severe conflicts existing in China society. First, the gap between the rich and the poor: in Southeast of China, people's living conditions are being ameliorated a great deal while in the rest of China, large amount of people are still suffering from hunger. In order to scrape a living, those people are forced to accept the unfair and rigor treatment from the rich. In the mine officials' mind, those peasants are the same as the slave labor. They have no welfare, no medical insurance, more importantly, no dignity. In order to feed their families, they have to abide the insult and abuse from the miner officials. We can say, that was not merely the misfortune of those miners, but also the shame of our society and race.


The second conflict is the conflict between the central government and the local government. In 2007, in order to meliorate the security conditions of China’s mine industry, the central government had promulgated several documents which order the local government to shut down those collieries that don’t have eligible security facilities. However, due to the huge profit of mine industry and the financial income of the local government, the local governments didn’t carry out the order form the central government. What they did was a symbolistic check after informing the mining officials. This certainly makes no sense.

All in all, mine issues is one of the acutest problems that hinder the stable economic development of China. Without solving these severe problems, China's peaceful grow-up will be merely a castle in the air; without solving it, China's society will never be peaceful.

Take action or die!!!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6532323.stm
From BBC.com 06/04/2007
Title: Billions face climate change risk

Take action or die !

Nowadays, what is the biggest enermy to human beings? War? Diseases?Shortage of food and oil,or something else? In my opinion, the answer is global warming.
Let's see some data and evidences first:
1. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.2
2. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.4
3. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet above sea level.3
4. At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming, moving closer to the poles.5
5. The Arctic Ocean could be ice free in summer by 2050.8
7. More than a million species worldwide could be driven to extinction by 2050.9(from http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/ )



You may doubt: “Is it true?”
I can tell you firmly: “Yes, it is true!!”

Nowadays, climate changes have been one of the acutest issues in the world. Glaciers are melting; thousands of creatures disappear from this world forever every day; tsunami, hurricanes and droughts are damaging our homeland. It's not a rumor; it's the true things happening surrounding us. Some one may laugh:"Global warming has nothing with me, why I need spend my time concerning about it?" However, I can tell you seriouly, global warming does have something to you, it can damage your life just in one second. It is like a cronic disease, you won't even feel it most of the time, however, when you realize the destructiveness of it, it's too late already.Let's take the tsunami in2004 as an example, the merciless disaster took away hundreds of thousands of lives just in a few minutes,even not leaving their corpses. It is not a joke, it is a warning signal to our human beings. We must take action, we are so fragile that we can't bear any more catastrophe like that, we really can't bear another loss of millions of lives.


A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary called “An inconvenient truth” .It tells the enormous climate changes in our world since 1950. After watching this show, I was shocked. If the earth's climate condition continues to deteriorate, enormous areas of America will be under water, Japan and Singapore will disappear, the eastern part of China will be submerged, etc. It is not a matter of economy; it is the matter of the existence of human beings.
There is an idiom: what you sow, what you reap. Since last century, our human beings have emitted large amounts of CO2 and greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. As a result, the atmosphere can not function properly and gradually become an enormous heater. We are responsible to the harm that we did to our mother nature and nowadays, our “mother” is punishing us with calamity and death.

However, it's a pity that some governments like America and China are still not aware of the destructiveness of global warming, to protect their own interests, they renege their pledges and ignore their obligations and duties. Everyone should know that : in front of the mother nature, no country is a winner, we are all losers.
We should ask ourselves: “What can we do to protect our earth, the only paradise we are living in?” We must take action or we will die out.
Facing the climate crisis, all of us should get together, regardless of race, religion and all discriminations. The governments should cooperate and communicate with each others, carry out the strategies of sustainable development to protect our earth as well as ourselves. There is no doubt we can solve this problem. In fact, we have a moral obligation to do so.
Friends, from now on, leave your room with the fans and lights off; buy energy-saving electric equipments; tell all your friends and relatives: take action or die!
Friends, to protect the earth is to protect ourselves. Let's do it from now on, take action, to build a more beautiful world!

NO GUN!!!!!

Link:
http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?
From Economist.com 16/04/2007
Title: Murder at school
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6562259.stm
From BBC.com 17/04/2007
Title: Anger over US shooting warnings

No gun!!!!

ON MONDAY April 16th, a gunman killed as many as 32 people at Virginia Tech University, in Blacksburg, Virginia. It is the deadliest university shooting in American history.
At around 7.15 in the morning, the man entered a student dormitory and shot several people, killing at least one. Two hours later, the gunman at large killed another 31 teachers and students at engineering building that filled with classrooms. This massacre shocked the whole world. A student in Virginia Tech University said that the university had blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident." Besides, many people also "pointed their fingers at the country's lax gun laws. "
The report said Virginia State has the laxest laws in restricting the gun trade in America. After this campus massacre, I think the American government should adjust its gun laws and in my opinion, guns should be banned by law forever.

Gun is a symbol of violence which breaks the social security and regulations. It is usually abused when people lost their control and rations, some men even shot their wives and children when they were drunk. That caused large amounts of tragedies which should have been avoided by some actions. Although gun does have some other useful properties in our life like sefe-defence, it is always a potential uncertain elements. It is like a an arsenal which can explore any time. Therefore, as a highly-civilized democratic country, American government has the obligation to ban or restrict the gun trade to ensure the social security, so as to offer a safe, peaceful and harmonious environment for American people. It's a pity that after this massacre, American government still doesn'y have a firm stance of banning the gun trade.
One of my Vietnamese friends who had been in America for 4 years told me that to prevent school murder, students from high schools and primary schools must have gun check every day!! Those innocent children are forced to walk through a strange machine to prove that they are not potential murders! How ridiculous it is ! As a result, children's innocent soul will be distorted and they will lose their passion and trust to school. We are very reluctant to see that this is what is happening in American schools, which should be the most peaceful and saftest place in a country.

The proliferation of private weapons especially guns has terrible influence on American society. First, lax gun laws cause much social unrest in America. It hinders the sustainable development of America. Keeping private guns mobilizes people's desire to use violence. As a result, when a persons recieves unjustifiable treatmeats and can not solve it through proper means, they certainly incline to use violence. This will result in innumberable tragedies even among family members. Besides, lax gun laws also give the criminals opportunities to commit crimes and will increase the difficulties for American government to defeat terrorism.
Secondly, if this kind of school murder happens on end, the students will lost their trust to the school and government, thus they will live in fears and worries every second and surely can not put their whole effects on acadamic study. Futher more, students from all over the world will also lose their interests and passions to America since even their security can not be guaranteed. As a result, the education of America will be affected seriously and America will loss its competitiveness of attracting the foreign talents in the world.
Thirdly, the government will loss its prestige and its citizens'support. We can imagine, if one loss his freedom from fear and his safety can not be guaranteed, how can he believe the government and serve for the country? Therefore, the gun trade in America should be banned and new policies should be carried out soon to ensure the security of campus.
The university should also be responsible for this massacre. It didn't give any warning or information to the school after the first murder. This resulted in the second tragedy two hours later. After this accident, I think American schools should wake up, take action to hammer out a valiable school security system, so as to offer students a truly peaceful compus.
Friends, brothers, campus is a paradise of studying and communication. Let's say no to school murder. Let's all get together, to beat terrorism, to keep our beautiful paradise away from fear and massacre!

Health is the largest wealth

Link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18122308/site/newsweek/
From Newsweek-- Health
Artilcle title: Rise assessment

Health is the largest wealth

Nowadays, health issues have become one of the main problems in human society. Most of the people, no matter the rich or poor, are all bothered by different kinds of disease and health problems. Cancer, leukemia, kidney disease, diabetes, these diseases invades our body and attempt to occupy our happiness of health. We can say, our human beings are facing a big war against “devil of disease”.

Since human civilization has been established, human beings have been fighting with disease all the time. As our technologies develop rapidly, people have invented all different kinds of “weapons” to defend the attack by disease. For example, recently, a simple new blood test has been invented to help to predict whether a patient has predisposition for diabetes. “Researchers have discovered several genes that also influence risk, including one on chromosome 10 that regulates how much insulin the body produces”(from the article).
In this way, a patient can predict his future risk of diabetes. However, some scientists claim that it can also cause some social problems like human right. For example, if you don’t have the bad genes, it doesn’t mean that you have no risk of having diabetes. Besides it can also cause social discrimination if one is proved that he or she has the risk.

Therefore, we can say, “new hope, new worry”. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages. In my opinion, the best way of defending the disease is exercise. For example, in the modern world, many fat people worry about high cholesterols for it can cause heart disease. However, the risk of having heart disease is affected by two factors. One is HDL, the other is LDL. HDL means the cholesterols you obtain while LDL means how much exercise you do. Some scientists say that even though your HDL is high, if your LDL is also high and these two are balanced, you are still health and have no risk of having heart disease. These examples tell us exercise is the best weapon to best the “devil of disease”.
There is a famous old story in ancient China. One day, a young man went to a wooden bridge and wanted to commit suicide. He met a old man and complained about his thorny life. He told the old man that he failed the Imperial civil service examination test (a very important test in ancient China for those who want to become an official) and his wife abandoned him. He opened a shop and also bankrupted. He has no money and was ridiculed by his friends. He complained about his unfair life and wanted to commit suicide. The old man smiled and said: “Young man, don’t be upset, if you give me your two eyes, I can give you 1 million kg gold; if you give me your two legs and two arms, I can give you 1 billion kg gold. Do you agree, young man?” “No, I won’t sell my health, it’s more expensive that any other thing in the world.” The old man smiled again and said “That’s right, young man; health is your largest wealth!”
The story told us that health is the biggest treasure in our life.

Nowadays, most of the governments put a lot of effects to keep its people healthy. For example, in China, the medical cost is rather expensive. To help the poverty to get cheap treatment, the government carried out a policy that the poverties can get normal treatment in the big hospitals in the city and only need to pay 1 to 5 Singapore dollars. The government will pay the rest of the fees. Therefore, the health of the poverties can be protected. It’s a big progress for Chinese government to help the poverties to become rich.
In conclusion, health is the largest wealth in our life. It is the foundation of the success. Therefore, let's get together, to declare war to the disease!!!