Can Koreas be reunified?

In 1950, the Korean Peninsula has been divided into two countries affected by the cold war; the communist authority in the north and the democratic state in the south (Wikipedia, 2014). There are some people, especially with Koreans who also have their families in the other state, that really want North totalitarian regime be unified with the South regime, which will bring peace to the peninsular after long disputes for seven decades. However, this is such a difficult issue to deal with while there are more players in the scene than we might thought before.

In Charles Scanlon's article "North and South Korea exchange fire across western sea border" (Scanlon, 2014), North Korea held live-fire drills in seven parts of the border area while South Korea returned fire after North Korea shells landed in its territorial water, which both sides, according to Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-soek, exchanged hundreds of shells. Historically, there were numbers of incidents which both countries had borderland disputes over five-year period, which there is still unclear on the North Korea's nuclear threat.

Despite of difficulties of how Koreans emerge their two authorities in one, there are so many superpowers who still play in this "proxy war" which made this more complicated though the cold war era have ended for near three decades. China, for example, is still supporting North Korea as the major trade partner in order to solve her borderland risk around the peninsular area from the US which has influenced in the South for more than sixty years ago. Managing such "buffer state" is much safer than confronting with the US's ally and would be a good strategy from the bird-eye view; to let the North Korea do anything to protect China in return, then she will have more time and resources to focus on another border and ethnic conflicts with others such as Tibet, Russia, Xinjiang Uyghur ethnic and islands conflict with Japan, Chinese Taipei and several South East Asian countries; Viet Nam, Malaysia and Philippines.

Also, USA is another major state actor in this conflict. Although she has won the cold war after the collapse of Berlin wall in 1989 (Wikipedia, 2014), it seems that USA have planned to seize opportunity to take control China and Asia-Pacific countries in order to restore her hegemony power again. There are several multilateral and bilateral negotiations among six countries such as North and South Korea, USA, Russia, Japan and China, however, the situation is unsatisfactory for the USA and her allies. Once my friend who studied in international relations had told me a radical comment that USA doesn't really want to solve this conflict but maintain it in order to make stability in US internal politic, which this reason can be applied to explain the Iran's nuclear threat as well.

I have no idea with these conspiracy theories in the international politics. Perhaps I should think about the Southern Thailand and compare it with this case. If there will be a new state in the south, I think it will be better than what had occurred in the Korean Peninsular because of there is no such intervention from the superpowers as like as in the Korea, which means that peace negotiation between stakeholders (Thai government and the new one) is easier than both Koreas and their players. Also, this case can be applied with our recent political conflicts in Thailand; broken glass cannot be the same one and early negotiation between each sides is required. However, there are some problems which still exist and to find the truth may cause more conflict than what had occurred nowadays.

__________

Reference

Cold War. (2014, March 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:53, March 31, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cold_War&oldid=602108253.

Korean War. (2014, March 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 13:24, March 31, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Korean_War&oldid=601964898.

Scanlon, C. (2014, March 31). North and South Korea exchange fire across western sea border. BBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26815041.

Not in my home

I never let people smoke in my home. A dinner guest who needs a quick puff has to go and sit out on the balcony, with closed doors shutting them and their filthy smoke out of my home. But I welcome them back in when they have finished getting their drug hit.

The article "Smoking bans cut asthma and premature births by 10%, study says" (2014) says that, although there is opposition to the proposals for stronger bans on cigarette smoking based on the research, laws that have limited smoking in public places over recent decades have significantly benefited not only adults, but also unborn and newly born babies, who are particularly at risk of long term harm from exposure to cigarette smoke.

I can't imagine that there is anyone today who thinks that cigarettes are harmless. Like that other very popular drug so many people regularly enjoy, alcohol, whether Singha beer, French champagne, Johnny Walker whisky or a nice bottle of Merlot, the serious harmful effects, both on the drug user as well as on other people and society, are well known. I don't think there is any need to debate this, but for those who might be in any doubt that cigarettes are seriously harmful, the expert opinion is clear: cigarettes might be much less harmful than alcohol, but they are only a little less harmful than methamphetamine (yaa baa) and cocaine ("Scoring Drugs," 2010).

So, what is a rational and just (morally right) response? Obviously, many people think that our response is obvious: things that harm other people (and the users?) must be banned or at least restricted. Cigarette smoking harms people, therefore, it must be banned or restricted in various ways. The authors of the study that the BBC News reports appear to accept this argument. But if you accept an argument in situation A., you must also rationally accept the same argument in situations B. and C. if those situations are relevantly the same. When we look at our argument, it has two parts that lead to the conclusion that we must ban or restrict smoking:

1. If something is harmful to people others, it must be banned or restricted in public places. 
2. Cigarette smoking is harmful to others.
   These two premisses lead to the conclusion that 
3. Cigarette smoking must be banned in public places. 

Now, alcohol drinking is also harmful to others. When people drink, many become violent, leading to fights, and even murders, as well as domestic abuse of wives and children. The conclusion from our argument is clear: alcohol must be banned in public places, so no more white wine with your fish, and no more beer at the pub. This ban on alcohol will protect innocent non-alcohol users from the harmful effects of alcohol. It is also likely to have serious results for hotels and clubs! In fact, according to expert opinion, alcohol is much more harmful than heroin, cocaine, yaa baa and every other popular drug of addiction, which means that for rational, moral people, the punishment for the sale and use of alcohol must be much more severe than the punishment for the sale and use of every other drug human beings enjoy using. 

Slightly less obviously, a similar argument bans eating sweet foods in public places: the sight encourages and tempts other people to eat the sweets, which harms them, causing obesity, heart disease and other serious health problems, and therefore must be banned or restricted, so no more desserts in restaurants, and no more ice cream at McDonalds. 

Are you starting to think there is something very silly in this sort of argument? So, where is the silliness? Is the idea that cigarette smoking is harmful to other people silly? I don't think so. It's just a statement of fact. That means the silliness must come from the other part of the argument, that if something is harmful to other people, it must be banned or restricted in public places. But if we throw this out, what reason can we have for banning cigarette smoking in public places? Either we think that things that harm others should be banned in public places, or we do not. We can't just use this premiss sometimes and ignore it the rest of the time. 

Can you help us to solve the problem here? What might we need to look at? Or must we really ban ice-cream, champagne and chocolate cake from public places? 

__________

Reference

Scoring drugs: Drugs that cause most harm. (2010, November 2). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/drugs_cause_most_harm

Smoking bans cut asthma and premature births by 10%, study says. (2014, March 28). BBC News Health. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26770009

‘I’ve got a lot of living to do’

I personally enjoy reading articles about how to rewire my mind for positivity and happiness and then I found this article when I was trying to find sometime interesting to read on BBC News. This article really inspired me. I've been trying to find out how can be optimistic even when the situation surrounds us is terrible? Maybe it is true that we never realize what we have until you lose it. For example, we might never realize how good our lives are until we found out that we have cancer.

According to this article, when Kis Hallenga was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer at the age of 23, she decided to channel her fear and her anger into inspiring young women on a very personal mission. She battles her illness and tirelessly promotes her charity CoppaFee which energetic and fearless awareness raising campaign dedicated to making sure other young women and their doctors are made more aware of the risks.



I questioned myself about how life would be like when we can never predict what is going to happen from one day to the next, and we can never say "I'm fine" (Hallenga, 2014). Sometimes we just ignore how extremely importance our well-being are, until we are unexpectedly found out that we lost it. Therefore, my question towards this situation is how  we can deal with it, I totally admire not only her courage but also her mission, as an inspirational young woman who enhances fight against cancer, even she doesn't want to be described by anyone as a fighting or suffering, she would just rather be a woman who has a simply living.

Living with uncertainly could be a definition of our lives. Especially, for people who have a chronic illness, because you now know that your life is likely to be shorter than you expected, you may have limits on things that you want to do and you can do. Also, you may find yourself grieving the loss of what is going to happen in the future, this is hard for anyone to handle without emotional support. However, the key is living with cancer not dying or surviving with cancer, always be optimistic for what you have and then you might find the meaning of your life easily.

 

 

Reference

 Wallis, L. (2014, March 25). ‘I’ve got a lot of living to do’. BBC News Health. Retrieved March 29, 2014 from  http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26648163

Kris: Dying to live. (A.D., 2014). BBC Three. Retrieved March 29, 2014 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03zf3tg
 

Mommy cloning

In Thai culture, there is one idiom said that if you want to know a girl's personality, you just have to look at her mother. This make you understand about the relationship between mother and her child that reflected not only from the appearance external, but also include their habit too. These make us to think about how much that mother can effect to their children?

The study published in Pediatrics say "Children are not 'just naturally active'', means parents is a important role to develop habits for their early life,when they saw mother do activity and copy their pattern, learn to do the same as her active that the research showed their data in positive association between physical activity in children and their mothers. And from the article, the study also tell that if the women who become mother decrease their activity level, this would also decrease children activity too.

This is just a research about how mother effect their young child, that doesn't include the other environment; such as kinder-garden society, friend society, or so on, which can also be a pattern for them. We can control our children in basically term, make the best thing to them and avoid bad environment that may cause a bad habit for them to learn. Everything couldn't be under control all the time and this will make a lot of experience to grow-up then in adult society in their future live.

Actually, this is one of the facts that everyone have to know before becoming mother or father, so you can change your lifestyle that can influence your children in a good or bad way. It doesn't mean to change your activities immediately, but you should make it change smoothly like your natural habit.

_________

Reference

Activity levels in mums and children 'directly linked'. (2014, March 24). BBC News Health. Retrieved March 27,2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26679906

Bomb Explodes in Car in Creggan Area of Derry

In the era of civilization, many effective devices have been launched. These technologies have been tested for several times to make sure its efficiency. In the case of armed weapons, militarists also have to use the similar procedures as regular gadgets. The generating of violent arms is due to criminal occurrences. In contrast, these might be a concerned gap for military; as a result, the weapons such bombs or firearms are also owned by terrorists. These probably affect to individuals who are innocent.

According to the article from BBC, " Bomb Explodes in Car in Creggan Area of Derry ", this news is about the bomb's explosion in car in the outskirt of Northern Ireland which is called Creggan; however; fortunately, no one injures in the explosion.

This worrisome circumstance occurs in several different regions. To illustrate, this kind of situation has happened in some of the Middle-East nations - Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria-. Yet, nowadays, it takes place in South East Asia "Thailand" yes, this is my country. This violent situations occur because of political conflicts which lead to many serious issues particularly in bombing. Approximately a week ago, the bombing's news appeared on the newspaper page almost every day. This reminds me to think of a quote that if we don't end the war, war will end us.(Herbert George Wells, 1936) I heard this catch phrase for the first time when I read a novel; therefore, it makes me to recall the issue which now is occurring in my nation.

At the present time, violence perhaps becomes a part of people's live due to the occurrence of serious problems as we can see from the news which is shown in the second paragraph. Furthermore, This massive explosion is related to political issues both in the main and local government. In order to reach the political goal, politicians might behave inappropriately; for instance, they may threaten citizens if they do not support or elect. Hence, ones cannot deny the fact that this circumstance takes place frequently in any places.

To summarize, harmful situations can be occurred everywhere; thus, individuals ought to realize and care yourselves firstly. In my viewpoint, we might address this issue if persons aware of equality and reverence or we probably get rid of the elderly political system.


Reference :
Bomb Explodes in Car in Creggan Area of Derry. (2014, March 27). BBC News Northern Ireland. Retrieved March 28, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-26762617.

Herbert George Wells. (1936). Things to Come. London: Hutchinson.

   

Wave the Rainbow Flag

To love, to be loved and also marriage are something that people always celebrate for. But when we put the word; gay, lesbian, and transvestite and so on into this sentence, some people are reluctant to celebrate for, and some totally show some resentment. But this not happens anymore in United Kingdom where all kind of love and marriages will be recognized legally soon.  

According to “Rainbow flag will fly over Whitehall to mark first same-sex marriages” The Guardian (2014) says that this coming weekend is the first same-sex marriage ceremonies in UK because March, 29 is the first day of the legal same-sex marriage. Therefore, they will allow the rainbow flag which represent gay marriage flown over Whitehall Road in City of Westminster including Cabinet Office and Scotland Office.

Moreover, 2014 will be marked as the year of legalizing same-sex marriage in UK., this was called “historic moment” (Stonewall, 2014) – same-sex marriage will be legally recognized in both England, and Wales in this coming weekend, and in Scotland this will happened in the autumn of this year.

Back to my beloved motherland - Thailand where has been recognized as the country with a divergence of gender, LGBTs people have normal life, even though, in terms of legalizing gay-marriage, this has been overlooked for a period of time. Personally, legalizing gay-marriage seems to be the very long distant goal- how can people discuss about marriage equality during the time that Thai society still doubt about their equality – should all Thais has equal rights to vote? It also seems that the fundamental rights have not been established in this society yet. So, what is the “normal” life of LGBTs people, yes of course they are those who can work, play, and also love like straight people, however, there are some boundaries which separate and categorize things that only straight people can do and LGBTs are not allow to do, not to cross the lines. 

The delayed legalization of same-sex marriage is one of examples of the boundaries. Public and private are significant and different boundaries that lead to the differences between LGBTs and straight people. Gay people are placed in private sphere, they can love and have sexual relationship in a non-orthodoxy way, but keep this privately – don't ask, don't tell mentality, and some gay also couples presume that their relationship is all about two people (for example, the ending plot of Yes or No 2). 

However, when we think that it is all about love of two people, not a third party, this can lead to the crucial function of the boundaries, private and public sphere, in terms of public sphere, entering this sphere is the way that you can gain social awareness about something, and transform the issue into politics. Same-sex marriage campaign is politics and of course politics is the art of how to distribute a myriad of people’s interests. In legal term, marriage is about a couple's interest and commitment, especially in financial term and priority of who will make decision. For example, if your partner need to have an operation urgently which its paper's work requires family acceptance, even though you are twenty-year couple, you are not a member of family in the eye of legal term. This is how marriage matters. 

Hopefully, one day, rainbow flag will flown over Thai parliament building. Let's keep our finger cross and conduct the campaign. 

__________

Reference

Rainbow flag will fly over Whitehall to mark first same-sex marriages (2014, March 27). The Guardian Society. Retrieved March 27, 2014 from http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/26/rainbow-flag-whitehall-same-sex-marriages 

The passage of equal marriage. Stonewall. Retrieved March 27, 2014 from https://www.stonewall.org.uk/what_we_do/parliamentary/5714.asp

We know, we still do the same.

Everyone know what is global warming right?  If not, the global warming is the phenomenon that temperature slightly changes everyday, some places temperature might higher while some are lower.  This phenomenon also cause consequent effects.

According to Dissent among scientists over key climate impact report,  it says that humans were the dominant cause.  Moreover, the impact that rising temperatures will have on living things and ecosystems over the next century.  The range of negative effects that will be irreversible.

Do you think that we are the real cause of global warming?  Nowadays, as world has higher development, daily life of humans can be one part of global warming causes.  Just one click turning of light use one shot of electricity.  Pumping water for showering, water pump use hight power pumping water up.  Power plant make heavy amount of carbon-dioxide burning coals for electric power.  Driving car also cause pollution problem too, as gas that come out from exhaust pipe.  We know this, why we still doing same things everyday!?

We also know that global warming has powerful effect in green house effect.  The ecosystems might destroy and complete food chains may broken down.  After this, living things slightly die out.  Millions of people living in coastal areas in Asia will be affected by flooding, and displaced due to land loss.  Think that new generation of babies born everyday, more people in this world, but land slowly flooded.  How can we live in the future?

__________

Reference

McGrath. M.  Dissent among scientists over key climate impact report. (2014, March 25).  BBC News Science & Environment.Retrieved date March, 2014 from http://m.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26655779

Cancer discoverd from the past

Cancer is a group of diseases that caused by uncontrollable cell growth (Crosta, 2013) and mostly stimulated by unhealthy life style and stressed. (Ghosh, 2014) Also, it usually believes as the modern disease. However, the new discovery of cancer in ancient skeleton can change our today's believed.

According to "Ancient skeleton is the earliest case of cancer yet detected" article, Michaela Binder, a PhD student at Durham University, has discovered the ancient skeleton of young Egyptian man which is riddled with hole as a result of a type of cancer. Additionally, this research is also interested by Dr. Kat Arney, a cancer researcher, who think that this discovery can tell about the gene mutations of this person by the analysis of the DNA from skeleton and "That could shed light on the evolution of the disease, along with the evolution of humankind."(Ghosh, 2014)

This article is surprising me. Since, I always think that cancer is diseases that has just appeared in the past few decades, not 2,000 years ago. I think this discovery is very useful. Accordingly, cancer might not only be caused by the simple reason such as smoking, eating unhealthy food, and so on, but it may be caused by undiscovered complex reason. Therefore, I think if we can analyze this cancer and find its cause, we can study and understand more. As a result, we can find how to cope with and the easier way to prevent and cure it.


This discovery is just the initial step for us to understand more about the cancer; however, it may take a long period of time. Therefore, now I think the easiest way to get away from or slow down the cancer is to change the unhealthy habit and have a yearly check-up.

__________

References

Crosta. P. What Is Cancer? What Causes Cancer?. (2013, July 19). Medical News Today. Retrieved date March, 2014 from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/cancer-oncology/

 Ghosh.P. Ancient skeleton is the earliest case of cancer yet detected. (2014, March 18). BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved date March, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26627941

A novel challenge: Yes or No?

This morning you did very well analysing Hartmann's introduction (2007, p. 41) which sets the scene for the reading excerpt from Bitter Lemons, a book in which author Lawrence Durrell tells the story of a part of his life. In Quest 3, there is a unit on literature (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, Unit 3), a traditional academic field where the subject studied is works of written art of a culture, whether the epics of Homer, the tragedy that is Shakespeare's Hamlet, the poetry of Tu Fu (杜甫), or the masterful essays of David Hume.

Another common  form of literature is the novel, where authors often do much more than tell a story: Harry Potter captured the imagination of millions, not merely because it is a story well told, but because it explores themes that humans have cared about since before the Iliad. Reading a novel provides valuable practice in a range of academic skills, as we had a short example of this morning;  the length is itself good practice at extended reading, and it might even be enjoyable, if challenging.

We will finish our somewhat patchy reading of Law tomorrow, with an exam on it next Monday. This fairly short essay by an academic who is writing for an educated audience who welcome an intellectual challenge will provide some valuable examples when we come to write an essay next week. That essay will be our expanded version of Hartmann's academic writing in Part 5 (2007, pp. 60 - 64) of chapter 2, which we will also finish over the weekend, apart from Part 5. We will work on the academic writing exercise next week as we also work through chapter 3, "Themes and Purposes", Hartmann's first chapter on the topic of art.

The remaining two weeks of our six week term should be more than enough for us to complete chapter 3, and it doesn't worry me if we don't finish, or even start, chapter 4. I think it would be more productive, more useful practice, to also spend some time on a careful reading of a classic modern English novel. The one I have in mind is relatively short: it is 51 pages (A4) in the version I've prepared, so we would aim to read 5 - 6 pages a day, starting on Monday next week.

Although I haven't given all of my reasons, you've probably already inferred that I favour reading a novel. I do this with most AEP classes, except in the final level where we might instead read longer and more academic works, such as US Supreme Court opinions and journal papers.

However, as the title suggests, I'm also interested in your ideas on this. So, what do you think?

• Should we read a short novel or not? 
• What do you think are the reasons for and against? 
• Which are stronger? 
• What other points do you think are relevant? What should be considered? 
• Do you have a different suggestion? 

__________

Reference

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill.

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2^nd ed.). London: McGraw-Hill.

In your opinion, ... ?

I think that "Such talk in a constitution seems to me [italics added] a serious threat both to democratic principle and to moral good," (Filicietti, 2014) includes a phrase, the one I've italicized, very much like Law's "I suspect" (2003, p. 128). And as Pa-naeng reminded us yesterday, exam questions very often use such language as: In your opinion, Do you think, Give your opinion, Do you agree, and so on. Clearly, such language is used and is presumably thought useful in academic settings.

I thought (!) it might be useful for us to discuss some of the issues raised a little more. For example, what exactly is an opinion? What does the noun opinion mean? In my opinion, we might also find it useful to explore how these sorts of question relate to what academics, including ourselves, do. When, where and why do we use the sorts of phrases that prompted Pa-naeng's questions? When, where and why don't we use such phrases?

But feel welcome to respond with whatever idea comes to your mind, whether a statement or a question.

__________

Reference

Filicietti, P. [Peter F AUA]. (2014, March 25 at 8:30 AM). Re: In court we trust [Blog comment]. Class Blog - AEP at AUA. Retrieved from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2014/03/in-court-we-trust.html

Law, S. (2003). The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Dangerous Air Pollution

Nowadays, many countries, including Thailand, face air pollution, a big problem. This pollution mostly comes from transportation, industries and also our house.  We all know it can harm us; it causes many serious health problems that can make us die, but many people ignore it.  

According to NPR article “WHO: Pollution Kills 7 Million People Every Year”, air pollution kills about 7 million people each year because it can cause irritation in lung, chronic problem, and cancer. Over a half of these people died from indoor air pollution, and women and children tend to have higher risk than men because they spend more time at home.

I know that air pollution is very dangerous, but I have never known that each year many people died because of it. When I was young, I watched one program about health on television and I can’t forget it. It’s a story of one woman. She spent her life in a healthy way, eating healthy foods and having a lot of exercises. She walked to her office instead of driving almost every day for many years. But one day, she felt sick, a doctor said she had a cancer because of air pollution that she took in during her traveling to office. After watching this, I am more careful about air pollution when I go out. I will use my handkerchief as face mask if I am in the place that has air pollution because I really hate that smell; moreover, I want to protect myself.

I am surprised when I read “more than half of the fatalities due to fumes from indoor stoves”.   I have never thought indoor air pollution before, but I think it’s true. For example, my grandmother cooks by using a charcoal stove, which we have to light it with small branch, paper, and sometimes some plastic. I think it looks like burning trash that cause hazardous air pollution because there are some dangerous substances in plastic. This can cause serious health problem. I think many people in Thailand, especially older people, still use charcoals stoves, so they take in high level of air pollution.

Air pollution is an important problem which we have to solve it together.  I agree with Frank Kelly, director of the environmental research group at King's College London, that wearing face masks is not a good way to solve this problem.  I think it’s like we delude ourselves, don’t try to change anything, and there is still the problem. As Kelly said “The real problem is that wearing masks sends out the message we can live with polluted air, we need to change our way of life entirely to reduce pollution”  

__________

Reference

The Associated Press. (2014, March 24). WHO: Pollution Kills 7 Million People Every Year. NPR. Retrieved March 25, 2014 from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=293999528