Disturbances to the efforts of solving poverty

Disturbances to the efforts of solving poverty

YanGee

Solutions of poverty are seemed to be easy to do them. Also, many helpers are keeping doing those for their purposes. However the poverty is still going and the solutions seem not to work because of some interventions: domestic, international, and ideological sections. Therefore this chapter finds out what makes those barricaded.

            First of all, the intervention occurs in domestic section. Poor countries often involve in inefficient governance. They use the aid to the wrong ways such as promoting military or headers’ wealth of their nations. According to SBS, the major broadcasting company said the South Korea supported almost 100 billion dollars to the North Korea for 8 years. These aids were humanitarian ways for the North Korean kids and adults who have been in the poverty for long times. However it said those aids were used for military such as nuclear weapon and private wealth of headers  (Kim, 2006). This example shows that even though there are enough help to make their citizen get out from the poverty, in fact the headers just use those for satisfaction of their greed.

            Besides, international disturbance also exists. The interference does not occur in the domestic part. It also spring in the international section. According to Danaka, The rich and powerful countries used to lend their money with small interests. However suddenly America raised up the interests and the poor countries that were borrowing the loan, could not be afford to pay back since, at the same time, the price of first level production such as crops were dramatically decreased, that the poor countries were exporting. As this circumstance, they could not pay back the loan. The countries, that borrowed money from international bank, are also in the same problems. In fact the money that is borrowed from the international bnak should be paid back. There is no exception even if the country declares that it is bankrupted (優, 2007). Also the transnational corporations are working same way to the poor countries. For example, when the Allende Gossens was elected as the president of Chile, he insisted that the government would support powdered milk for poor children who were in starvation. To achieve this insistence, the government of Chile should cooperate with the Nessler, the most biggest powdered milk corporation in the earth. However the Nessler had close relationship with the United States and the USA did not want to lose its power in the Chile. The Nessler refused the Chile’s ask and the USA supported the military coup to change the head of the Chile. Finally Allende was killed and the poor situation came back (Ziegler, 2011). This shows that international forces also have roles to interfere with solving the poverty.

            Lastly, ideology also takes a role of disturbing end of the poverty. Ideology makes people rationalize themselves from unacceptable reality. The most representative theory is the Natural selection. Tomas Malthus who was priest of the English church made this theory. According to his book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, the poverty comes from the over population and any social structure cannot solve this problem. He insisted that the earth automatically controls the world’s population (Malthus, 1998). It sounds like a ridiculous thing. However when it first came, it was very popular in the people who were in high position. People tried to avoid their duties to help the poor through this theory. Also the capitalism takes a role. It gives idea of that people, who are lazy, should be in poor situation. It makes people think that indigence comes from one’s personality. This proves that some ideologies brainwash people that poverty is merely a personal problem. Those people who were brainwashed would not react to help the poverty positively.

            There are so many supports for poverty in the world. However there are also many disturbances such as poor domestic governance, international interference, some theories and so on as many aids exist. It would be hard to solve those problems, but we should solve those slowly but surely.

Reference

Kim, W. (Performer) (2006). "햇볕이 핵폭탄으로?" 국감서 '대북지원' 논란 [Television series episode]. In SBS, (Executive Producer), SBS News. Seoul, South Korea: SBS. Retrieved from http://news.sbs.co.kr/section_news/news_read.jsp?news_id=N1000175685

Malthus, T. (1998). An essay on the principle of population. London, England: Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project. Retrieved from http://129.237.201.53/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf

Ziegler, J. (2011).La faim dans le monde expliquée à mon fils. (2 ed., p.1- 74). Seuil.

優, 田中. (2007). おカネで世界を変える30の方法. (pp. 1-141). 合同出版.

MacDonald enables you to enjoy learning local cultures

 -MacDonald is not necessarily an example of negative impacts of globalization-

Does Macdonald represent one of the bad effects made by globalization? Saying negative point of its effect, MacDonald tends to be discussed as one of bad examples of it. Some people urge that it is a negative influence and it has been eroding national culture identities. [1]Yet, does it really do that?

One of principles on the matter of new globalization is thought in a way in which world cultures are Americanized so that the other countries would completely be gotten involved in it and can be no longer their own traditionally unique cultures because of the globalization. U.S. restaurants including Macdonald is also said to take away uniqueness of cultures in products and try to make products Americanized. Even a sociologist George Ritzer expresses his concern about a bad impact of globalization stating “the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world.” Moreover, there is the fact that American fast food chains has dramatically and obviously been spreading out all over the world as looking at the actual increase in number which is the expansion of McDonalds has risen up to over 31,000 restaurants worldwide within the last fifty years.[2]

If we look at only the numbers, and evaluate the value of Macdonald, it can be said to be McDonalized meaning Americanized contributing to a negative impact of globalization spreading all over the world. Such a “surface’ evaluation is also done when you just find that McDonalds are everywhere in your country or even in other countries. However, is that all about McDonald?

Once you yourself go to foreign countries and try food at MacDonald, you will be able to find a local culture including food habits, each practice and religious that each country has.

Talking of the case of India, the first vegetarian outlet located near the Golden temple located in the Siklh holy city of Amritsar in northern India will be open. [3]The country is known for one of the countries which have many religions. Above all, Hindu having more than 85 % of population is the significant religion as well as the rest such as Muslim. [4]It means most of people in India are forbidden to eat pork or meat because of religion. Under such a limitation of food, the purpose of this attempt is to make vegetarian people enjoy their meals even at Macdonald.

Besides the Indian local products of Macdonald, let me introduce some of local meals being sold in other countries.

McRice Burger; in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Indonesia etc.

Image taken from http://goddisguisedasralphierce.blogspot.jp/2012/01/strange-side-of-burgers.html

McSwarama: turkey shawarma in pita bread in Israel

Image taken from http://www.yousaytoo.com/10-unique-mcdonalds-menu-thats-on-the-country-specific-only/1545206

Some of products sold in India

Image taken from http://gazetteazur.fr/tag/mccurry-pan/#

Gallo Pinto in Costa Rica

Image taken from http://www.nysemagazine.com/arcos-dorados

Laksewrap (salmon wrap in Norwegian) in Norway

image taken from http://www.littleoslo.com/eng/home/mcdonalds-norwegian-salmon-wrap

 

MacBeer in Germany and a few countries in Europe

Image taken from http://whatisthehaps.com/2012/04/08/australia-is-where-the-party-is-at/

I myself also found some differences between Macdonald in Japan and in Hong Kong. For instance, though we can get some a Chile source with meals in Hong Kong, we can’t get it in Japan. Of cause languages they speak is different from Japanese and they use both Cantonese and English. I also have never done self-service including throwing away trashes because cleaners would do it, while we have to do self-service after eating in Japan. What’s more, delivery services are widely used in Hong Kong although it is unusual in Japan. I remember seeing many delivery motorcycles running on street in Hong Kong. Most of McDonalds in Hong Kong are open for 24 hours as well. Looking around and you can recognize that customers are from all over the world. You can always hear people talking not only in Cantonese but in English, Tagalog, Hindi, Chinese and the like. I definitely could feel the differences and enjoyed comparing McDonalds in Hong Kong to ones in Japan.

Thus, the opinion that Macdonald’s expansion, as one of the negative impact from globalization, has being losing a culture identity is not necessarily so. Rather saying, McDonalds can teach us cultures since you can learn something different from food of Macdonald in your country including food habits, cultures, and practices of a country where you visit. What about McDonalds in your own country? Each country should have creativeness of its own. Are there any meals different from Japan? What about customer’s behaviors and atmospheres? I’ve never been to visited foreign countries except Hong Kong and China, so I would like to hear about McDonalds in other countries from you guys!

---

[1] Levin Institute.(n.d.) Culture and globalization .Retrieved from http://www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/Culture/cultall2011.pdf

[2] Ibid.

[3] Daily mail reporter. (2012). Mcdonald's to open first ever vegetarian-only restaurant next to golden temple in indian holy city of amritsar.. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2198197/McDonalds-open-vegetarian-restaurant-Golden-Temple-Indian-holy-city-Amritsar.html

[4] Indiaonlinepage.com .(2012).Hindu population in india.. Retrieved from http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/hindu-population-in-india.html

In-country experience and second langauge learning By Candy

In-country experience and second langauge learning

In the last blog entry, I was talking about the benefits of learning a second language. In today’s blog entry, I will talk about the relationship between in-country experience and languages by using my own experience.

There is always a statement in the debate of second language learning, “Is in-country experience essential while learning a second language?” Some people say no but some people say yes. In my points of view, I surely think that in-country experience is very important to every second language learner.

I have been studying Japanese for nearly two years. I started studying Japanese while I was in Australia taking it as one of my high school subject. The teacher was Australian and there was only one Japanese exchange student in our school each year. Most of the time in the Japanese class was spoken in English as well. Therefore, I could not really get many chances to speak Japanese or to make use of the skills I learn from classes to practice in daily life. Even I have been studying for two years, I could not speak fluent Japanese.

After I came to Japan, there is an obvious change in my Japanese skills. I could not really communicate with Japanese before I came here. But in here, I am forced to use Japanese every day and this help to improve my skills. Since the Japanese classes are all teaching in Japanese and the teachers could not really understand English, Japanese become the only language we use in classes. Also, in here, I hear and see Japanese almost most of the time, which help me to consolidate what I have learned in class every day. I am quite surprised that I can actually communicate with Japanese now, even though sometimes I still do not understand. I think this is all because of immerging in the country of the language.

Another advantage of in-country experience is I can also understand and learn the culture of the language better. While I was studying Japanese in Australia, we were asked to do a research homework based on one of the traditional martial arts of Japan. I chose tea ceremony as my topic. However, internet and book is the only method I can use to get information at that time. What I have learnt about tea ceremony was just what is written in there. I did not know much about it at the end. Now that I am in Japan, I was asked to do another presentation on tea ceremony again few weeks ago. However, what I have learnt this time was so much more than last time. I did not know there were so many types of tea and sweets for tea ceremony. I did not know wearing a kimono is also part of tea ceremony. But because I am in Japan, I am exposed to all these information everyday and it is so much easier to get access to tea ceremony, it helps better understanding. Also, while I was researching the information from my friends, or on the internet, it is also helping me to learn more Japanese words. Therefore, in-country experience is a very special way of learning a new language.

The example of myself having an in-country experience while learning a second language is to show you this in-country experience is an important part of learning a new language. What you can get back from there is something you cannot imagine. Being in the language’s country not only helping you to consolidate your language skills, but also to understand the language and its culture better. Thus, in-country experience is essential for second language learning.

which right do you want protect?

In today’s post, I want to show my own experience I had a week ago. And I will be really glad if you readers give your idea about this fact and question.

DO YOU THINK PUTTING PHOTOGRAPHS OF WARFARE, FAMINE OR OTHER TRAGEDIES ON SNS (social network services) IS VIOLATING THE TAKEN PERSON’S PRIVICY RIGHTS?

A week ago, on a social network service, I found a friend of mine writing a following statement.

“It’s about a photograph of warfare everyone is talking about these days. The person who took and put it on SNS probably had a purpose. But where is the kid’s human right and privacy? He (or she, I’m not sure) is not on exhibition. What happens to his/hers personal rights when his/hers photograph is retwetted in all over the world, to unknown people?”

It shocked me a lot reading this post because what my friend said was totally true. And I realized this post opened a door for me to see the world from a different angle.

Indeed, when you put photograph of somebody without the person’s permission, it is seriously violating the privacy of the person. The friend of mine told me, “If the photograph’s person was me, I will be embarrassed and don’t feel well about the fact my photograph is going around all over the world”.

I came to a conclusion after a consideration of this opinion and her first post that what she said was totally right. I cannot deny it. Still, I also understand what people who put these photographs on SNS thought and hoped. I build an idea about the power of Photographs in my first blog entry of this semester. I showed how the photographer think and expect from the photographs. In the second post, I showed how the photographs could be used to change and contribute for this world. People who put these photographs probably (from my perspective) trust the power of photographs and the possibility of it. There are happening a lot of tragedies in this world, which we do not know well. From my point of view, these people putting those photographs on SNS, and who retweet or share it, are willing to make people aware about what is happening in the other side of the world           and think about that. Only after knowing what is going on in this world, people can make a decision to contribute to help those people or situations.

Additionally, I also thought about the feelings the person who was taken on the photograph could have. Did he/she really care about his/her own privacy when his/her family’s life and his/her own life are in a danger? This was a questions came on my mind. When you are in these situations that you do not know where is a safe place, or you do not know when you will die (now? After a second? Am I alive tomorrow?), you probably pray, “Whoever, please save us”. What do you think?

Indeed, the action to put photograph on SNS and share it to unknown people all over the world can violate the person’s privacy. But before that, we have to think about the fact that the fundamental rights of human beings is violated, too. For my perspective, these people who share or put photographs on SNS, choose to violate the privacy right in order to protect the fundamental humans rights of the person who was taken a photograph.

These were my idea, and what we discussed about after I read my friend’s post. Since this was really powerful experience for me, and it is related to my blog post, I thought to share it here. I am glad if my friend and my idea can open you a door of a new perspective. 

U.S.A where the MLB and base ball were created-No.6

Masakazu Kimura

 

              Have you ever heard the place name St. Louis ? I think only few of you guys heard this name. St. Louis is the city in Missouri State, U.S. and although the place is not that famous, this city has baseball team in MLB. The name of this team is St. Louis Cardinals.

 

 

 

 



            This team is a member of the Central Division in the National League of MLB. This team changed its name several times before. At first, the name of this team was “St. Louis Brown Stockings” in 1882. When you hear the name of this team, you might laugh but at that time, there were several teams that has “stocking” in their team name like for example, Boston Red Sox used to be Red Stockings. In 1892, this team joined MLB and changed its name to “Perfectors” but in 1990, this team changed its name again to “Cardinals”. Cardinals won 11 World Series which is the championship of MLB and also this team produced a lot of superstars like Stan Musial, Bob Gibson etc. This team is well known to MLB fans and I should had known this team well but actually, I didn’t really know about this team and I learned a lot when I searched this team. Then why did I choose this team? When I first heard “Cardinals”, I imagined one team in NFL (National Football League). There is one football team which has same name as St. Louis Cardinals in Arizona State. That is Arizona Cardinals.

 

The symbols of both teams are bird which has “Cardinal” as a name and both look similar. However, team Cardinals of MLB is located in St. Louis and Cardinals of NFL is located in Arizona. It was interested for me that both teams have same name and symbol, but locating in different places.

              Let’s move on to area study of St. Louis.

 

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of State Missouri. This city is the second biggest city in Missouri State. The population of this city expanded after American Civil War and the city itself became the fourth largest city in U.S. in the late 19^th century. However, city’s population peaked in 1950 and it began to decline that continue in the 21th century. The economy of St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. Several popular corporations like Express Scripts, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Graybar electric were born in this city St. Louis. In addition, St. Louis has three professional sports teams; St. Louis Cardinals (MLB), St. Louis Blues (NHL) and St. Louis Rams (NFL). U.S. has huge land and there are many places which are not that popular to foreign people. When people hear that place, they might consider those places have no popular thing, but actually most of city in each state has something important thing. I didn’t know about St. Louis well, but because I had opportunity to open up the web site of St. Louis, I discovered new facts. Thus, what I wanted to say is don’t think it is not important place by just hearing new places. If you search carefully, you will find some important thing of that place.



 

 



The conditions in Poverty (No.6)

Mayumi

          Today I am looking on the conditions that people faced because of poverty.

         We see on dramas that being rich is unhappy and being in the condition of poor is happier. I thought that is it really true? Many questions come to my mind. Well, it is hard to think about it unless we experience to be so. As I said about the children doing their best, doing works at young age. Do you think poverty life starts because people are born poor? Is that the reason why children need to work? Maybe the answer is yes and some no. Yes in a way from what I see there are some parents rely on their children to save them from the situation poverty. No, in the way that even though parents are in the poor state they tried to borrow money and tries anything just to lead their children to schools.

          Letting children to education is one way to have development (Jo,2012)[1]. There will be improvement in a way that they could have the opportunity to choose their dream and to have those dreams come true. Being poor make us stronger to do our best to carry on for a better life. In contrast they also make us feel miserable in a way that they can’t carry on the situation of being poor which leads to no progress. The importance of education is to learn how to write and read (Hariss, 1999)[2]. Learning these elements will make the children do the daily needs to the social world.  We may not think about it yet but we can think about it as we grow older. For those children who are not lucky to have a parent to send those to school are people who experience poverty in later life. This kind of condition is hard to solve that even if they want to avoid the state of poverty because they do not have the chance to.

         People facing poverty for some reasons is losing a job that leads to lack of money of what they need for themselves and for their family. Having no jobs makes us think what are we going to have for our living? The suffering of lack of daily necessities for their livings is lying on whether they can afford it or not (Hariss, 1999)[3]. Many people want to find job for better life but it is hard because there is less compensation on the jobs available for they don’t have the education needed for the job with good salary. Still the problem of poverty just goes by cycle as we face this problem if we are not eager to do our best. We should have some solutions about this and make improvements to the people who are experiencing poverty.

         As I said education is needed but how can we afford the expenses for education when we are at the state of poverty. The government of the country should make action and we need their help to solve it as soon as possible. We still have to know what really poverty means to us and why they really occur I will tell more as I could to find those answers.

---

[1]Jo, B. & Bourdillon, M. (2012). Childhood Poverty: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Oxford University.

[2]Hariss, M. and Hatano, G., (1999). Learning how to read and write.CambridgeUniversity.

[3]Ibid.