5/17 study group
Actually, I feel uneasy about this topic. It reminds me how bad the relation between me and my parents was, and I don’t want to talk about that.
Now a day, Mother’s Day becomes more and more important and commercial. There are big sales everywhere and mass media keep reminding us we should do something to our mother on that special day. It’s not a bad thing. Families have a reason to get together. Mothers can get some luxurious things they won’t buy in daily lives.
The meaning of Mother’s Day has been talked too much, so our group changed to discuss “will you want to be a mother?” However, we all more care about the willing to be a wife. Maybe as time going by, the question of being a mother or not will become more urgent than being a wife because of the age. XD
It seems that our society pay more attention to Mother’s Day then Father’s Day. The first reason is that it’s easier to sell gifts for mothers than for fathers, so the businessman will push Mother’s Day more than Father’s Day. Second, the intimacy between mothers and children is stronger than fathers and children. Third, Father’s Day is on summer vacation. There are no teachers to ask children to make cards and teach them the meaning of Father’s Day.:P However, I think the most important reason is that we chose a special day to honor a great character and we all think mothers are greater than fathers because they devote more and sacrifice more. On the other hand, fathers already get all the resource and power in a family, so it’s not necessary to treat them special on Father’s Day.
2007年5月19日 星期六
2007年5月11日 星期五
Vegetarian
Study Group 05/10
Our human beings are an omnivorous species, so I think being a vegetarian is a little bit unnatural. Many experts said we can get all the nutrition we need from vegetables, if we have well-planned diets. However, why should we choose those substitute nutrition from vegetables instead of just eating meat?
We read three articles this time and they provided three different reasons.
First of all, those slices of meat we ate came from the animals which were treated cruelly. They were crammed into tiny spaces, drugged to keep them alive or to grow faster, and slaughtered in pain.
Second, vegetarians are less likely to develop heart disease and to be obese. In other words, they are healthier.
Third, raising animals for food wastes more resources and produces more pollutions than growing vegetables.
In my opinion, we can choose to eat meat from animals which are treated well and slaughtered humanely. By doing this, we can encourage those factory farms to adjust their balance between low cost and high quality.
Concerning the second reason, I think people who choose to be a vegetarian (no matter out of health or religions) more care about their health than other people. That’s why they are healthier. XD
Going to the third one, we should turn off the light, use the public transportation system, not waste food, not waste paper …etc. to protect our environment. However, changing to a vegetarian? I don’t think it’s necessary to put it on the list.
We also discussed about the inconvenience of being a vegetarian, how people who have different diet habits can get along well…etc. and had a simply conclusion: the diet habit is an import parameter to influence our daily life, and it’s hard for everyone to change their own diet habits.
Our human beings are an omnivorous species, so I think being a vegetarian is a little bit unnatural. Many experts said we can get all the nutrition we need from vegetables, if we have well-planned diets. However, why should we choose those substitute nutrition from vegetables instead of just eating meat?
We read three articles this time and they provided three different reasons.
First of all, those slices of meat we ate came from the animals which were treated cruelly. They were crammed into tiny spaces, drugged to keep them alive or to grow faster, and slaughtered in pain.
Second, vegetarians are less likely to develop heart disease and to be obese. In other words, they are healthier.
Third, raising animals for food wastes more resources and produces more pollutions than growing vegetables.
In my opinion, we can choose to eat meat from animals which are treated well and slaughtered humanely. By doing this, we can encourage those factory farms to adjust their balance between low cost and high quality.
Concerning the second reason, I think people who choose to be a vegetarian (no matter out of health or religions) more care about their health than other people. That’s why they are healthier. XD
Going to the third one, we should turn off the light, use the public transportation system, not waste food, not waste paper …etc. to protect our environment. However, changing to a vegetarian? I don’t think it’s necessary to put it on the list.
We also discussed about the inconvenience of being a vegetarian, how people who have different diet habits can get along well…etc. and had a simply conclusion: the diet habit is an import parameter to influence our daily life, and it’s hard for everyone to change their own diet habits.
日本,搭個便車吧
我又開始看遊記了
之前在圖書館總是跳過這一區
深怕我看一看又想幹麻幹麻
這種想法其實也很奇怪
好像是要用一種認命的態度來過自己並不樂意過的生活,所以拋棄了一切會讓自己改變主意的東西
其實也沒辦法啊,東碰西碰之後還是在原地
只能換個作法
可是啊....憂鬱的快死掉了
所以(反覆記號,請跳到第一行)
日本這個念頭最近突然跳到我的腦袋裡
免簽證耶,去日本找masako, misa, yuri....吧
kozue不知啥時回日本
總之啊,我在圖書館裡就拿起這本書翻了
寫的很無聊的遊記很多
這本倒是挺好看的
搭便車這種方式可以遇到很多當地人,發生很多故事
在加上作者是個"老外",又有更多的衝突可以描述
重點是作者粉幽默,如果換了其他人可能會寫出完全不一樣的感覺
P.S.這本沒有讓你馬上開始查詢日本機票價錢的危險性
不會擾亂你過日常生活的步調,可安心服用
2007年5月8日 星期二
Comfort Women
當作參加5/3英文讀書會的homework吧
I must say that I haven’t studied this issue or even thought about it before. After our group discussion, I realize that this issue is not only about the existence of comfort women or they need an apology. It has very complicate aspects include politics and human rights.
It started from a piece of news. The Japan’s leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his visit to the United States offered an apology but used pointedly vague language to sidestep the issues of Japan’s responsibility toward the comfort women. He said he had ”deep-hearted sympathies that the people who had to serve as comfort women were placed in extreme hardships” and expressed his “apologies for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance.”
It was very weird that Mr. Bush said, “I accept the prime minister’s apology.” Is he a comfort woman?
I think no one will doubt the existence of comfort women, but one of us said some Japanese do. They have no idea what was going on during the World War II. Their government didn’t put those things into their history textbooks. However, comfort women were not ghosts lived in the pass, some of them are still alive and they open their stories to public. Therefore, I think those Japanese can say they don’t know but they can’t say they don’t believe.
Why can’t Japan just say they were wrong and give an appropriate apology? No one will blame them. However, the victims’ countries especially China may ask huge compensation and use this issue to get political benefits. That’s what Japan want to avoid. I think that’s why they choose to give apologies in the United States instead of the victims’ countries.
Another debate is Mr. Abe claimed there was no evidence that the Japanese military had coerced women into sex slavery. In my opinion, no matter those comfort women were volunteers or coerced, the fact is they became sex slaves instead of just providing sex service. There were many sex providers during the wars, but they didn’t become sex slaves. I think this proved Japan lacked human rights during that time and this comfort women issue will always be a prickle on their back when Japan talk about human rights.
I must say that I haven’t studied this issue or even thought about it before. After our group discussion, I realize that this issue is not only about the existence of comfort women or they need an apology. It has very complicate aspects include politics and human rights.
It started from a piece of news. The Japan’s leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his visit to the United States offered an apology but used pointedly vague language to sidestep the issues of Japan’s responsibility toward the comfort women. He said he had ”deep-hearted sympathies that the people who had to serve as comfort women were placed in extreme hardships” and expressed his “apologies for the fact that they were placed in that sort of circumstance.”
It was very weird that Mr. Bush said, “I accept the prime minister’s apology.” Is he a comfort woman?
I think no one will doubt the existence of comfort women, but one of us said some Japanese do. They have no idea what was going on during the World War II. Their government didn’t put those things into their history textbooks. However, comfort women were not ghosts lived in the pass, some of them are still alive and they open their stories to public. Therefore, I think those Japanese can say they don’t know but they can’t say they don’t believe.
Why can’t Japan just say they were wrong and give an appropriate apology? No one will blame them. However, the victims’ countries especially China may ask huge compensation and use this issue to get political benefits. That’s what Japan want to avoid. I think that’s why they choose to give apologies in the United States instead of the victims’ countries.
Another debate is Mr. Abe claimed there was no evidence that the Japanese military had coerced women into sex slavery. In my opinion, no matter those comfort women were volunteers or coerced, the fact is they became sex slaves instead of just providing sex service. There were many sex providers during the wars, but they didn’t become sex slaves. I think this proved Japan lacked human rights during that time and this comfort women issue will always be a prickle on their back when Japan talk about human rights.
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