It seems like the melamine issue have toned down a bit already, but a recent door-to-door survey conducted in Beijing from September 20th to October 24th showed that one-fourth of Beijing babies have been fed my the tainted milk. That’s more than 75,500 babies!
It seems the melamine tsunami has also hit Hong Kong. On 25th of October, the Hong Kong health officials revealed that excess amount of melamine was found in eggs supplied by a mainland manufacturer and not the check has been extended to meat. It is suspected it was caused by a problem with the food they feed the chicken.
Also, not only babies are suffering from the aftermath of melamine, even a fur farm in China that breeds racoon dogs for their fur has been impacted. 1,500 racoon dogs have died after kidney failure after eating contaminated food with melamine. Autopsy has shown that a quarter of the kidney stone was made out of melamine.
It seems that the problem has already went WAY more than just junk food. Even basic food, eggs and meat, food we eat normally everyday is contaminated. How scary is that. Even businesses that is remotely related to the food industry is being affected by this. To be honest, the scope of this has way exceeded my expectation. As much as I don’t want to admit, I have to agree with Siaolan’s comment to some extent. Countries such as the U.S. also get bashed. However, I still stand by my point of view that the media have been over magnifying the whole situation, and trying to manipulate the audience’s point of view of China by implying biased idea.
I sincerely hope that the Chinese and Hong Kong government can work together and tighter to combat this situation because it is a very sad fact that one should worry whether it’s safe when they’re eating their breakfast or having a sandwich, especially in a city as developed as ours.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
BONUS ASSIGNMENT! -- "PEACE BUILDING - AFGHANISTAN" BY DR. DANIEL TAYLOR
Listening to Dr. Daniel Taylor, the president of Future Generation Afghanistan, talk about “Afghanistan: Peace Building” gave me a much clearer idea of what actually is happening in Afghanistan. After the event of 911, America waged the War on Terror in response to the terrorist attacks, aiming to wipe terrorism out. At the very beginning of the lecture, Dr. Taylor explains how people mistaken the war on terror and the Afghanistan war. The war now is no longer merely about counteracting terrorism, but the fight to bring peace to Afghan people. People in Afghanistan are not only fighting external influences, such as the U.S, but also among themselves.
Back from the times when Alexander the Great ruled, Afghanistan had been a place of importance. It was the fastest route to India, what was then a rich source of spices, very valuable to trade. Now it is greatly valued and desired for its energy sources, such as its rich supply of oil, especially at times like this when energy is scarce. This war has now involved not only the U.S, but around 40 countries such as the Britain and Canada. Their number of casualties is building up, along with the number of casualties of Afghan people. According to an article from International Herald Tribune, around 4000 Afghan civilians have already been killed in 2008.
Dr. Daniel Taylor brought up key issues worth thinking about related to the Afghan situation. Foreign aid, mostly military, has now been viewed by the Afghan people as a problem rather than help. Highland people have actually mobilized to fight against them, and mentioned in the lecture, 20 people from Dr. Taylor’s organization have been held as hostage but have now been released along withe an apology letter. This distrust towards foreign countries is understandable. For 2500 years, they have listened and attempted to believe in hollow promises that never came true; this in turn made them suspicious. And now, America had promised them to drive out the Taliban, ensuring them a better life. Instead, they did drove the Taliban out of the government, however, this lead to even more problems, problems such as Taliban insurgency. In turn, Afghan people’s confidence level in foreign help plummeted. They now only trust people in their sub-clan level. This is were Dr. Taylor's organisation comes in and help them develop problem solving skills and increase their literacy rate (especially among woman) hoping that it would help improve their livelihood.
Still remember the woman who made a very bold comment? Saying that it is wrong to step into other country’s affair and meddle with it, it will only result in no good. To a certain extent, I do believe in this part of her speech (not the part when she thinks the world have no evil, that’s just absurd). The Americans, (at least some of them) actually do want to help and I believe in that wholeheartedly. However, they are now taking the wrong approach. I believe that judging by the current circumstance in Afghanistan, military is needed to ensure a certain amount of safety, however when excessive military is present, the citizens becomes intimidated. He said in his speech that military jackets is not the right uniform when you want to help, I think this metaphor serves a good point. Also, implementing a country’s policy on another country may not work, the nature of the people are different therefore I think politically, it is best for them to figure it out themselves. I agree with Dr. Taylor’s point that we should not view the Afghan people as a helpless crowd, that they are capable.
I am sure that if one is looking from a military point of view, the Americans are doing a great job and that they are winning the war, however, this can never make up for the destruction they have brought upon the people in Afghanistan. They have disrupted their country, brought down their economy to shreds and sabotaged the livelihood of the Afghan people. Gerard Baker, an editor of the Times newspaper, thinks that America is without a doubt, winning the war of terror.(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4221376.ece)
He does not see the casualties as a loss but a pride, that the reason to fight the war on terror is “to protect ourselves from the immediate threat of terrorist carnage, but also we know that extending the embrace of civilization that liberates everyone makes us all safer”. However, I doubt that the latter reason is really what the Americans are trying to do and achieve in Afghanistan. There is no certain answer for that. After reading this article, my opinion on this issue have not changed, instead I feel a bit enraged that Mr. Baker has no sympathy for people of other race and neglects to see how the people are suffering.
According to logic, people should be more civilized and accepting when it comes to different religions, because we are in an age of diversity and we should be open to things different than ours. However, we seem to be even more conservative than the people living at the time where Rome ruled. During that time, countries that had been colonized by Rome were allowed to conserve their religion and some even had a mixture of religion, identifying gods that were similar. I guess the reason that people nowadays are “veering to the wings of religious thinking” and so intolerant of people of other religions is because that people are fearful of other races, especially those of Middle East. They see them as danger and terrorist, thanks to the vast propaganda by the media. Because of this fear and possibly the doubt whether what they supporting is right, they turn to their religion and fundamental values. It provides them a safe state of mind and perhaps those values justify what they want to believe in.
Back from the times when Alexander the Great ruled, Afghanistan had been a place of importance. It was the fastest route to India, what was then a rich source of spices, very valuable to trade. Now it is greatly valued and desired for its energy sources, such as its rich supply of oil, especially at times like this when energy is scarce. This war has now involved not only the U.S, but around 40 countries such as the Britain and Canada. Their number of casualties is building up, along with the number of casualties of Afghan people. According to an article from International Herald Tribune, around 4000 Afghan civilians have already been killed in 2008.
Dr. Daniel Taylor brought up key issues worth thinking about related to the Afghan situation. Foreign aid, mostly military, has now been viewed by the Afghan people as a problem rather than help. Highland people have actually mobilized to fight against them, and mentioned in the lecture, 20 people from Dr. Taylor’s organization have been held as hostage but have now been released along withe an apology letter. This distrust towards foreign countries is understandable. For 2500 years, they have listened and attempted to believe in hollow promises that never came true; this in turn made them suspicious. And now, America had promised them to drive out the Taliban, ensuring them a better life. Instead, they did drove the Taliban out of the government, however, this lead to even more problems, problems such as Taliban insurgency. In turn, Afghan people’s confidence level in foreign help plummeted. They now only trust people in their sub-clan level. This is were Dr. Taylor's organisation comes in and help them develop problem solving skills and increase their literacy rate (especially among woman) hoping that it would help improve their livelihood.
Still remember the woman who made a very bold comment? Saying that it is wrong to step into other country’s affair and meddle with it, it will only result in no good. To a certain extent, I do believe in this part of her speech (not the part when she thinks the world have no evil, that’s just absurd). The Americans, (at least some of them) actually do want to help and I believe in that wholeheartedly. However, they are now taking the wrong approach. I believe that judging by the current circumstance in Afghanistan, military is needed to ensure a certain amount of safety, however when excessive military is present, the citizens becomes intimidated. He said in his speech that military jackets is not the right uniform when you want to help, I think this metaphor serves a good point. Also, implementing a country’s policy on another country may not work, the nature of the people are different therefore I think politically, it is best for them to figure it out themselves. I agree with Dr. Taylor’s point that we should not view the Afghan people as a helpless crowd, that they are capable.
I am sure that if one is looking from a military point of view, the Americans are doing a great job and that they are winning the war, however, this can never make up for the destruction they have brought upon the people in Afghanistan. They have disrupted their country, brought down their economy to shreds and sabotaged the livelihood of the Afghan people. Gerard Baker, an editor of the Times newspaper, thinks that America is without a doubt, winning the war of terror.(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4221376.ece)
He does not see the casualties as a loss but a pride, that the reason to fight the war on terror is “to protect ourselves from the immediate threat of terrorist carnage, but also we know that extending the embrace of civilization that liberates everyone makes us all safer”. However, I doubt that the latter reason is really what the Americans are trying to do and achieve in Afghanistan. There is no certain answer for that. After reading this article, my opinion on this issue have not changed, instead I feel a bit enraged that Mr. Baker has no sympathy for people of other race and neglects to see how the people are suffering.
According to logic, people should be more civilized and accepting when it comes to different religions, because we are in an age of diversity and we should be open to things different than ours. However, we seem to be even more conservative than the people living at the time where Rome ruled. During that time, countries that had been colonized by Rome were allowed to conserve their religion and some even had a mixture of religion, identifying gods that were similar. I guess the reason that people nowadays are “veering to the wings of religious thinking” and so intolerant of people of other religions is because that people are fearful of other races, especially those of Middle East. They see them as danger and terrorist, thanks to the vast propaganda by the media. Because of this fear and possibly the doubt whether what they supporting is right, they turn to their religion and fundamental values. It provides them a safe state of mind and perhaps those values justify what they want to believe in.
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