ESL Web Site for Students and Teachers 

"Informational Essays" 

Automobile Accidents

The need for automobiles increased in the last century because of the tremendous progress in the different aspects of our life. The increased use of automobiles has been accompanied by an increase in automobile accidents. The second highest cause of death in the United States is automobile accidents. The number of accidents on freeways and streets is increasing at an alarming rate. These accidents injure millions every year and affect nearly every one. Even though it’s hard to count the causes of these accidents, most of the accidents happen because of the lack of sleep, driving under the influence of alcohol, and high speed.

One cause is the lack of sleep. People need to work because of economic reasons. Some people have to work more than twelve hours per day; others have to study and work at the same time. Accordingly, they don’t have enough time to sleep. Watching too much TV and spending a long time at night on the internet may also lead to less sleep. Sleepiness during driving affects the ability to concentrate and maintain attention.

According to the BBC News, People who suffer from a common sleep disorder are much more likely to have a road accident than other drivers, according to a study. A recent Gallup survey showed that 11% of people admitted to having fallen asleep when driving. Therefore, when some of these drivers become sleepy or may be “having fallen asleep when driving” that could contribute to terrible automobile accidents.

Driving is a daily skill that requires a strong concentration. When people don’t  concentrate while they are driving, an accident might take place. Hundreds of people think that drinking alcohol may relax them, so some of them begin to drink. Step by step they might run the risk of becoming alcoholic. When people become drunk, their eyes become blurry, and they lose their concentration. Joseph R. Volpicelli, M.D., Ph.D. in his article Alcohol Dependence states,

“Loss of control. Some people have defined addiction by focusing on the degree of control over alcohol. In the past, addiction experts called this psychological dependence. For example, a business executive may plan to have 1 or 2 beers after work, but he ends up having 5 or 6. Loss of control also becomes evident when a person makes repeated, but unsuccessful, attempts to cut down or stop drug use. Finally, loss of control is marked by compulsive thoughts and actions.”

Consequently, this “loss of control” leads to a big problem which may arise when they can’t control their cars; an accident may occur and people may lose their lives. Driving under the influence of alcohol then is another cause of automobile accidents.

In addition to lack of sleep and driving under the influence of alcohol, high speed is one of the causes of automobile accidents. 

According to the statistics, “speeding - the NO.1 cause of traffic accidents - accounted for 39% of fatal accidents last year. The proportion of speeding-related accidents throughout the years is a key concern for the Traffic Police.” 

Some drivers are in rush to get to their destination. They drive very fast without paying attention to the other cars. Smart Motorist states, 

“The faster the speed of a vehicle, the greater the risk of an accident. The forces experienced by the human body in a collision increase exponentially as the speed increases. Most people agree that going 100 mph is foolhardy and will lead to disaster. The problem is that exceeding the speed limit by only 5 mph in the wrong place can be just as dangerous. Traffic engineers and local governments have determined the maximum speeds allowable for safe travel on the nations roadways. Speeding is a deliberate and calculated behavior where the driver knows the risk but ignores the danger.”

Not only is “going 100 mph foolhardy and will lead to disaster” but also that may affect other cars because these aggressive drivers react foolishly toward others. They may become angry or impatient with other drivers who are too slow or who are in their way. Such behaviors may lead to accidents. Moreover, small cars cannot go very fast because of their size. So when someone drives his/her small car very fast a bad accident can happen.

In short, the number of automobile accidents is still increasing because of these factors. Furthermore, accidents are problems that can’t completely be solved; however, it can be controlled. Every person can lower the number of accidents by avoiding driving when he/she is drunk or sleepy, by controlling his/her speed, and by learning how to drive safely. If we keep these ideas as a reminder and a warning we can keep our society safe and healthy.

Lamies Al Nazzal, Syria

Professor Chuck

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During the past four decades, international student enrollment in the United States has increased rapidly. Many foreign students have been dreaming of studying in the U.S.A for a long time, or maybe they have discovered that they need to improve their English in order to continue their studies to start careers or to learn about American life. Some of them come to the U.S.A to learn “English as a Second Language” (ESL) which normally helps students to read, write, understand, and speak English and/or prepares them to succeed in their studies at colleges or universities in the U.S.A. There are many different kinds of ESL programs in the U.S.A; some are full-time “intensive” courses, which are for beginners as well as for students who know some English. Others are for international students who take regular university classes but want to improve their language skills or are required by the school to study English. For many international students, being accepted at universities and living in the U.S.A is the hardest processes in their lives. The reasons for this are problems communicating and forming relationships with others, difficulties adjusting to a different culture and a system of education, the high costs of education for foreign students, and the necessity to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

First, when international students come to the U.S.A, they have problems communicating, and it is very difficult for them to form relationships with others. It happens because they are not familiar with the language but are given advice to “speak the foreign language as often as possible” (Rohrlich & Kohls, 1999, p. 2). The best way to be involved with others and to learn the new language is to live with an American family or to live in the dormitories on university campuses because the student can practice English with his or her host family or with the university students. However, for some students who come to an English Program with little or no English skills, it becomes harder for them because they can be afraid and frustrated to communicate with others. Kanae Takeya, a Japanese student who wrote an article about her experience studying in the U.S.A, says, “For the first few months I studied in American school, I was tense because my teacher asked me questions very often. I used to turn my eyes away from teachers’ eyes immediately after they asked something of students”(Takeya, 2000, p. 2). In my case, when I came to an Intensive Language Program, American Culture and Language Program (ACLP) last spring, I could not speak a word in English. I was not only afraid of talking to others but also afraid of making mistakes and making people misunderstand me. Things became better for me when I started speaking English and stopped worrying about mistakes, but this was still a very difficult thing to learn to do.

Other difficulties that international students find are adjusting to a different culture and a system of education. According to Mason, “whenever someone travels overseas they are like ‘a fish out of water.’ Like the fish, they have been swimming in their own culture all their lives.” Most students who live abroad for an extended period experience “culture shock” which is “a disorientation that can cause severe stress.” (Manson, 2000, p.1). Living in another country can “become difficult because students do not know how to behave, their actions and words do not get expected responses, and they do not understand the messages that they are getting” (Rohrlich & Kohls, 1999, p. 1). The initial symptoms experienced during this phase include: irritation, frustration, anger, and depression. How should one cope with culture shock? Sometimes can students avoid culture shock by finding someone who understands the U.S.A and the host culture and by asking them about some of the things that are frustrating them, or they can make friends with other international students who are in the same situation. However, it is still hard because students from different countries have different customs and behavior. For instance, in my class, I am the only person from South America. I have friends from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, and Saudi Arabia, but their cultures and traditions are very different from mine. Also, I know that it is difficult for them to understand my way of living.

Furthermore, the American system of education differs from that of other countries. For example, Takeya says that “teachers in the U.S.A seldom write everything; they just explain orally. Japanese students are very quiet during classes, and all they do is listen to teachers and copy what teachers write on blackboards. They seldom ask questions during classes but ask friends and teachers after class”(Takeya, 2000, p. 1). In my own experience, I too have found that university education in the U.S.A is different than in my country. Here, to get my undergraduate degree, I will have to study two years of General Education (GE) and then, two years of specific classes in my major. However, in my country the university system of education is five years of studying only specific classes in my major. In Brazil, I have already completed seven semesters toward my international business degree, but here I have to start over again to do general education courses.

Another difficulty for international students is the high costs of education. If they want to study and accomplish their goals in the U.S.A in an ESL program, or in colleges or universities, even with financial support from their families or others sources, it is still very hard for them because it is very expensive. For example, the cost of the tuition in the ACLP, which has a ten-week program, is $1,880, plus $100 fees, $117 health insurance, $36 parking, about $150 books, and $450 homestay per month or $1350 dormitory per quarter (iep.csusb.edu web site). For foreign students who intend to study in an undergraduate or in a graduate program at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), the cost of education is even more expensive. For example, according to the Immigration Naturalization Service (INS), international students have to be “full time” and take a minimum of twelve units. Each unit has a cost of $164 (twelve units $1,968 per quarter), plus $619,50 fees, $55 application fee, $160 health insurance, about $300 books, and dormitory $1,350 per quarter (International Students Admission Office). Also, The INS allows international students to work only on campus and only for twenty hours per week. This makes it even more difficult for them to succeed in their studies in the U.S.A because they cannot work off campus and make money to help them with their expenses.

Finally, the most difficult obstacle for international students is the requirement to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) to be admitted as an undergraduate or graduate student at any U. S. university. An Internet resource guide for international students called “Study in the U.S.A.” provides information about the TOEFL test. There are two types of TOEFL tests, which are the paper-based test or the computer-based test. The paper-based TOEFL test has three sections, which are Listening Comprehension, Structure and Writing Expression, and Reading Comprehension.

The Listening section is the first section and it “measures the ability to understand English as it is spoken in North American. The section includes listening material such as dialogues, short conversations, academic discussions and talks”. Also, it measures the comprehension of main ideas, supporting ideas, and important details in conversation about academic topics and situations. The second section is structure, which “measures the ability to recognize language that is appropriate for standard written English”. It examines the understanding of English grammar and usage. Writing Expression is also included in the structure section, and it “measures the ability to generate, organize, and develop ideas and to support those ideas with examples of evidence” (studyusa.com).

Writing can be one of the most difficult sections in the TOEFL for the international students because it tests their knowledge in writing the language and in the Structure section. Also, it is very difficult because the student needs to have a very good vocabulary, formal communication skills, be well prepared to organize and support his or her ideas.

The last part of the TOEFL is the Reading section, which “measures the ability to understand short passages similar in topic and style to academic texts used in North American colleges and universities” (studyusa.com). It is a very stressful section for many international students because it takes a lot of time to read and analyze the reading passage. The time given for the Reading section of the test is 55 minutes to read five passages with about ten questions per each one. The scores for the TOEFL are from 310 to 677; most universities only consider students with 500 to 550 or higher. However, some of the best universities in the U.S.A such as Harvard or Stanford only consider students with a minimum of 600 or higher.

Another way to take the TOEFL test is through the computer. “In 1998, the TOEFL began to move from the paper-based testing to computerized testing”(studyusa.com). Particularly, I do not like the computer-based test because students have to spend approximately four hours to take the test looking at the computer, and it makes the students even more tired. In addition, in the Structure section of the paper-based test, there are 40 questions and the students have more chances to get correct answers while in the computer-based test there are about 20 to 25 questions in the same section. The computer-based TOEFL developed by Educational Testing Service (ETS) tests the same skills as the paper-based TOEFL, but many of the multiple-choice questions can be offered only on the computer. According to Bruce Rogers in his Complete Guide to the TOEFL Test, the computer-based test scores for most undergraduate programs are from 173 to 213, the equivalent of between 500 and 550 on the paper-based test, and most graduate programs require scores from 195 to 250, the equivalent of between 525 and 600 on the paper-based test (p.xii-xiii, 2001).

In conclusion, being an international student in the U.S.A is not just a matter of realizing a dream. It requires that an international student be determined to surpass culture shock, be patient in learning a new language, have financial support to pay for his or her studies, and be able to pass the TOEFL achieving the necessary score. Since being an international student is very difficult, ESL programs should provide well-trained professionals and an excellent level of education which would prepare foreign students to succeed and accomplish their academic goals. Only in this way do I believe that it is worthwhile for us to come to this country, invest our money, and overcome all the difficulties we must face.

References

California State University, San Bernardino. (1999). International Student Admission Office. In Estimated Cost [Online]. Available: http://enrollment.csusb.edu/cost.html [2001, May 4].

International Extension Programs. (2001). In American Culture and Language Program [Online]. Available: http://iep.csusb.edu [2001, May 4].

Manson, Duncan. (2000). In Culture Shock: A fish Out of Water [Online]. Available: http//www.faced.okanagan.bc.ca/cultureshock/printext.htm Duncan Mason. [2001, May 4].

Rogers, Bruce. (2001). Complete Guide to the TOEFL Test. (CBT ed.). Boston: Heinle & Heinle’s.

Rohrlich, Beulah and Kohls, L. (1999). Culture Shock. In What is Culture Shock? [Online]. Available: http://www.whitman.edu/offices_departaments/study_abroad/cultureshock.htm [2001, May 4].

Study in the U.S.A (1999). Intensive English Program, and TOEFL Description. In Resource Guide [Online]. Available: http://studyusa.com/articles/toefl.htm [2001, May 4].

Takeya, Kanae. (2000). In Culture Shock: Schools in the U.S. and Japan [Online]. Available: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/kaleidoscope/volume3/cultureshock.html Kanae Takeya. [2001, May 4].

Fabiana Hilgert, Brazil

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     Education: Home or Public school?

    The first reason why public schools are better than home school is that going to school is a mainstream idea among people. Some people letting children go to school say that home school is so difficult to teach. People should think about why many people who want to be teacher go to University and get a teaching license. Parents are just parents. If they have a license or education, it’s O.K. However, if not, how do they teach special subjects such as Music, Art, and Physical education? On the contrary public school teachers have learned special skills, many of whom have a lot of experiences in teaching children. In addition, schools have many teaching materials and facilities: experimental materials, music instruments and gymnasiums. If home schools try to have all of this, they will need much money and difficulties may occur.

    Furthermore, children can learn not only how to study but also how to function in school life. In school, there are lots of students. They sometimes compete, sometimes help each other, thus improving themselves in the group in school. What’s more, school has many activities, such as festivals, fieldtrips, and group works. Sharing these times with friends makes their friendships and memories more precious. In addition, school life affects children very much. Children can be strong, and children can get lots of ability for the future.

    However, the most important thing is after school. Maybe, sometimes, children will be worried about something: for example, relationships with their friends or teacher, studies, or laws of school. At this time, parents must not think this is responsibility of school. At first, they have to listen to what happened to them or how they feel everyday. Of course, school has to be a trustworthy place, but both schools and houses are places where children grow up. If parents have questions or are unconvinced after talking with children, they have to talk with schoolteachers. School and each family have to always be friendly.

    Most people think crimes and accidents sound scary. However, is it good to protect children at home all the time for children? There are crimes or accidents everywhere. If children are brought up in too conservative places (in here, at home), they will know nothing of the world. When children meet bad things in school, teachers do their best to help them, and parents can help after school. Sometimes, this will be learning for children’s life.

    The second reason why many parents choose home schooling is that public schools don’t teach religion. In western culture, religion means Christianity. The novelist, Ayn Rand said, "The most profoundly revolutionary achievement of the United States of America was the subordination of society to moral law that moral law, of course, was the biblical law" (Vital Speeches of the Day). Christianity isn’t bad; however, does Bible teach any subject such as Math, Social study, and English, or does Bible talk and play with children? Bible is a kind of textbook in our life. People learn about religion through their lives and don’t need to be hurried up to teach. It is neither a general subject in school nor a friend who talks and plays with someone. What’s more, Christianity is most important for Christians, but it’s not so important for people who have different religions. If all Christians chose home schooling, what would happen to people? People can understand who is Christian or not. Then, Christian people think if children are going to public school, those children are not given a good education because of no religion. It will occur many kinds of discrimination because even if children go to public school, they can be given a good education. Public schools are equal to every child regardless about religion, and religion can be taught at home not on school time. Religion is important in a person’s life; however, children have to learn to communicate equally regardless of religion.

Blumenfeld, Samuel L. "Why home schooling for important to America

Guterson, David "No longer a fringe movement"

p.98, 99  

Interview of people who live in America Lyman, Isabel

Yasuyo Morita, Japan

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Since the first computers were invented in 1947 until now, a new digital world has development. As technological developments transformed the industry's economics, time-tested precepts became as obsolete as vacuum tubes. The changes overwhelmed such some head companies as IBM and Compaq Computer. In the process it has destroyed thousands of thousands of jobs, unseated CEOs at world-renowned companies, reshuffled billions of dollars of investor value, and set off convulsions that will wrack the 50,000 companies in computing (Sherman, Furth p56).

``This is the information age,'' says Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft (p I). The Information Revolution is beginning to stretch its battlefield to the whole world. From the highest technology industries to the traditional markets, all of which are the participators in this warfare, this revolution is the biggest event, which has ever happened in business history.

More than any other agent of change, information technology is transforming the way business works. It is helping companies get leaner, smarter, and closer to the customer. Those who seize the opportunities inherent in this revolution are capturing important competitive advantages. A prediction by Intel cofounder Gordon Morre predicted that chip capacity would double every two years. Capacity has actually doubled every 18 months. Since then, and this rate of doubling capacity is popularly referred called Moore’s Law. As Moore’s Law says, when the chip is doubling every 18 months, so do information. When the computer becomes faster and faster, people’s grasping greed of information becomes bigger and bigger.

Computers, particularly PCs linked into networks, play a dual part in business's search for faster, more flexible responses to the shifting marketplace. They have helped unleash that quest, but at the same time they have made the goal more attainable. Until recently, computers have held a key place; companies rely on network to connect their customer to give faster and complete service in order to has incentive of company’s business growth rate. As people know since the year 2000, the circumspect Internet network is giving new nerve centers to all the industries, astonishing development of industries in communication, and creating new and different structures from interior management to exterior competition.

There are a few theories can tell people that how the information revolution works in business world. In the first part of this paper, I will mention three menaces that are high unemployment rate, electronic currency vogue, and global economic community. Second, I would like to give some point issues of the information revolution. Third, I will point out how the information revolution helps industry-economic; also, three problems the information revolution might cause. Finally, personally, I will like to give some suggestions for company managers to have appropriate decisions.

First menace is high Unemployment rate. From 1997 to 2000, the unemployment rate was higher than 5% which means in every 100 people 5 people have no job (Robert p56), since the information revolution has begun, computers replace human’s place, especially when the Internet network has been building, company saves billion dollars on engineer resource that cause many people have no work to do, which those people have done before. Second is global economic community. If a country has an economic crisis then that will affect the whole world, in the 1993, when the Asian economic crisis has happened, this disaster has spread into whole world, which means, whether Europe, America, and Asia’s economic systems have been crashing down. Last is electronic currency vogue. The paper bill will not be used much longer in the bank and change to liquidate exchange of currency, credit card, ATM card, and IC card, all of which belong to Electronic currency. People use credit card and ATM card all the time. Why they only put a few cash in their wallet? When people have gotten the conveniences from those easy and simple using cards, they think money is easy to use; therefore, they don’t consider too much. However, when people are using those cards, a lot of number is running on computer that will bring up a confusion of money using to people and cause some potential crisis of remuneration problem.

Giving different issues of revolution in order to let people know that the information revolution is processing, five theories which are destruction and restoration, B2C, the byte replacement of substance, zero distance, and whole life learning, will present three periods: before the revolution, during the revolution, and the future of revolution.

First theory is destruction and restoration. The information revolution causes enormous destruction, for example, when the Y2K problem had been discovered, many industry companies spent millions and millions of dollars to prevent this awful crisis, yet they still spent vast resources and brought up a lot of problems. However, after destruction causes by Y2K problem, the chance has come for people to know that information revolution is a necessary period in 21st century.

Second theory is B2C (Business to Customer) Before this information revolution coming, IBM earned 2 billion dollars in 1999 go through by network shopping and service, its prime cost have been reducing 250 million dollars and IBM’s human cost decrease 300 million dollars. Wanting more information and complete services, people are using network service instead of by company’s workers.

Third theory is the byte replacement of substance. When company’s exterior and interior Internet information highway has built, the paper work, energy used, and real dollar communication will reduce gradually and change to electronic data. In this wave, many financial institutions have to face this impact. In today business world, 130 billion dollars flow in every day, but only 10% is a real commodities deal; meanwhile, the rest of the money is moving by electronic way everyday.

Fourth theory is zero distance. Including data, sound, picture, and media, information transmission has speeded up the revolution of business. Video Conference is the most popular thing between companies; many company leaders have particular Video Conference addresses for other company leaders to make contact with them. A German company SAP gives two Video Conference systems, one betweens customers and the company and another between the different company leaders. This lets its customers and other partner companies have more participation and interaction. From the above example, companies and customers have no distance between them so it is very easy for companies to improve their business.

Last theory is whole life learning. People are born in a digital world and their learning, communication, and thinking is influence by this digital environment; as a result, we call those people "Net Generation". Net Generation people are using parallel thinking instead of following authority, which only sees what they can do, not what can they say. Their knowledge has even more than their parents. In this rapidly changing environment, every seven years the new knowledge doubles, and new knowledge only can be used for 2or 3 years and then that new knowledge falls behind. In addition, only learning new knowledge in people’s whole lifetime can hold this new world.

Positive Influence on IBM

The biggest product of this information revolution is the Internet network. People rely on the Internet to absorb knowledge and information. Also, when the business companies are using network to improve their business, those companies can get a lot of benefits and economize some unnecessary spending.

From 1980 to 1990, IBM loses its first place and is transferred to a simple terminal station produce company. Nevertheless, accidentally, at the end of the 20th century the chance has arrived for IBM. Because the Internet has popularized, IBM is beginning to hold its first place again purely on network service. Facing the new business world, IBM has its complete production line, perfect internal network software, and complex hardware system. Since 1980, IBM has been the biggest company, which has more than 400,000 employees ( ). Accordingly, IBM had a complete and complex network system, which was used on the internal management system. Being a network company, IBM has a mature network management system, perfect management abilities, and long time experiences, all of which are the best weapons of counterattack.

First, from 1980, IBM already had its internal management system, so now, IBM just brings up this internal system to becomes an external system such as using customers management system as an employees system, network financial system as employees salary system, and world product needs as single product information control. Of course, there are many changes about the size of data, about communication with the whole world parallel structure, and about financial settlement, but there is an advantage for IBM, which is that from 1980 to 1990 IBM, still improved their network system and strengthened their managerial efficiency.

Second, managing the huge number of data and resource, IBM totally changes its expanded path. During 1974 to 1992, IBM didn’t like to cooperate with other companies; IBM thought that it was the head of computer industry, so that stubborn IBM lost its first place when Microsoft showed up. Even though, IBM lost its situation, IBM still has strong structure of system management model and very abundant resources. At the beginning of this information revolution, IBM adept uses its employees who almost cover the whole world to cooperates with other companies which want to join this revolution in order to extend IBM’s antenna to whole Internet world. Then IBM is beginning to go back to its first place.

Last, helping many industries companies to computerize their management work systems, IBM has a lot of experiences from those companies; thus, today, IBM has 13,000 counselors to help more companies to analyze, scheme, and construct the Internet network systems. From those helping experiences, IBM is growing again ( ).

Realizing the information revolution’s future, in the present day, the general manager of IBM Louis V. Gerstner says: IBM has 25% of profits from network business and 20 billion dollars from building network system for other companies. How can IBM be so successful at business network system? Changing the operating mode of companies is the most useful way to save IBM self (p3).

Negative Influence on Compaq

Even though, this information revolution changes old business world and improves the communication between companies and customers. When a company manager cannot immediately responds and makes decision to enter the newest revolution, this company will lose the critical point of time. Before the Dell computer has appeared, Compaq, which was the biggest retail company in this world, has earned 43 billion dollars. Nonetheless, from 1998 to 2000, the Compaq has experienced a series of frustrations because of enter the information revolution too late. In 1999, Dell computer’s growth rate has increased to 243%; besides, Compaq has decreased 44%. The former general manager E. Pfeiffer says: his inexpediency, which careless about the network power on business, is the major reason to make Compaq failed ( ).

First. From 1994 to 2000, the information has developed in an incredible speed. Relying on computer’s great communication function, people whether giving or gaining a huge number of knowledge and information. In the Compaq computer case, because this former big computer company didn’t hold this information revolution wave directly then in next two years, Compaq almost loses its all customers crowd. This revolution is running in a very fast situation, every thing is changing in every minute so if a company lose once chance that company will spend many times of effort to get the chance back. Running business from 1997, Dell computer defeat Compaq computer in two years. Why did the Compaq fail? Ignoring the power of this great revolution, now Compaq spends triple time than Dell computer in order to recapture its old customers who has run into Dell computer come back to its embrace.

Last. Under this violent impact wave, clienteles only care what they see on computer and what they can learn from computer that cause many tradition companies have tried to transfer their business structure yet, most of companies are failed. In 1998, because of Dell’s establishment, Compaq turned itself into a hastily and amiss position that made a contrary result. Compaq’s investors blindly invested a lot of money to expect to have a fast payoff period without long time consideration. As people can see, Compaq’s stock point is keeping go down from 1998 to 2000, its stock point has been reduced 56 points that influence more and more customers who lost the confidence of Compaq.

In a fast and multiple information revolution, a mistake might cause an irretrievable wrong position. In Compaq this case, this hasty and complex generation lets a huge computer almost close down. If a company doesn’t have sufficient preparation and just muddleheaded enter this revolution that we can see outcome of this company very obviously. Every week in the Silicon Valley, 40 new Internet companies have developed and a year has almost 500 companies there; however, only 3 or 4 companies can survive each year. Why? Only has unequivocal decision and correct perspicacity, those companies can stay in this newest information revolution.

Having lived with electronic products for a long period, human life cannot separate from those electronic products. Science and technology history is changing in every moment, so how can people get used to those improvement becomes a huge problem. Right now, the most popular and newest technology is called Internet network and how does it work and what kind of benefits it can bring up present serious series issue. I believe that this information revolution is growing faster and faster and cannot stop. For companies managers, the most important thing is not involve this revolution quickly; instead, leaning and realizing then using is most serious topic. Since this tendency is not going to change; as a result, people just follow this revolution’s step to see how extensive this new world is?

Work Cited

Sherman, Stratford; Furth, Jane. "COMPUTER industry -- United States" 

Fortune, 6/14/93, Vol. 127 Issue 12, p56, 20p, 3 graphs, 10c

Bill gates." Digital World" book, 4/3/97. "Big Blue"

Crockett, Roger. "CHOW ON LINE". Business Week, 06/05/2000, Issue 3684, 

pEB84, 4p, 4c

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MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR CAMPAIGN "Editor & Publisher,

 03/06/2000, Vol. 

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E-BUSINESS". 

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Anonymous, Taiwan

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Have you ever heard about "Child Abuse"? Most people will say "Yes". Child abuse means that parents or caretakers ill-treats children (CAPNA). For example, psychological abuse breaks self-esteem of the child’s mind. Child abuse is a serious problem in our nation (Child Abuse & Report Card). Actually, in Norway and Sweden, it is illegal for parents, teachers, or anyone else to spank a child (Jan Hunt. M. Sc.). Now, In Japan, the numbers of child abuse cases are increasing rapidly, and it is one of the big social problems (CAPNA). In addition, this problem can’t be solved easily, because most of the cases occur among the intimate relationship of the home. Also, other people can’t decide what is abuse and what is not.

According to Internet sources (U.S.A. CPS and National Date), there are four types of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. When people hear about child abuse, they tend to think about only physical abuse. However, not all child abuse is visible such as violence. Each abuse has typical symptoms and signals through children’s actions or appearances.

First of all, physical abuse means a non-accidental injury to a child by parents or caretakers. This abuse can be discovered easily, because children have unexplained and frequent bruises, cuts, and injuries. What’s more, those children may be overly afraid of the reaction to misbehavior of parents or caretakers, and they tend to be anxious not to go home. This abuse makes the personality of the child extremely negative or aggressive. To make matters worse, there are cases which parents kill their children.

    Secondly, sexual abuse means parents or caretakers molest or promote prostitution of the child. According to circumstances this leads to rape. In this abuse, children have pain or itching, bruises or bleeding in the genital area, and some children will have venereal disease or pregnancy in adolescence. Also, sexual abuse destroys not only the child’s body, but also his or her mind. Children, who have suffered sexual abuse, cannot marry easily, because they are afraid of the other gender or adult people. Some children will be depressed or will attempt suicide because of mental anguish.

    Thirdly, emotional abuse means parents or caretakers make the child confused, fear, or extreme guilt in a child by using bad word or ignore. For example, when parents are angry with the child, they yell "bad" or "stupid" to them. This action erodes the child’s self-esteem, then these children have troubles such as diet, slumber, or speech. Some children have habits such as biting their nails, jiggling their legs, and sucking their thumb. Also, these children tend not to get along with other people because of the fear of other people, further those children become extremely aggressive or negative.

    Fourthly, neglect means that parents’ or caretaker’s failure to give the child’s the necessities of life such as food, clothing, hygiene, medical care, and supervision. Some people think neglect isn’t abuse, because parents just don’t do anything bad to children (CAPNA). Can children grow up alone without older people’s help? Sometimes neglect is related to death of children. In fact, about 5 years ago, there was an accident by neglect, one parent went to pachinko (A Japanese game and kind of gamble), and they kept the child, under one year old, in a car. They were so absorbed in playing pachinko that they forget about their child’s situation, thus the child died of sunstroke and dehydration in a car.

    Child abuse causes a lot of damage to children, yet some Japanese people say, "sometimes people need punishment." There are three reasons; first, the necessity for the child’s consciousness, second, for emergencies, and third, the stress of older people.

    The first reason of necessity of abuse is that when children don’t obey their parents or caretaker, they are emotionally unstable, therefore they can’t understand in words and what is good or bad. Then, parents or caretaker hit the child to make them realize where the correct way is. Parents who have this kind of parenting policy say, "punishment is a kind of affectionate behavior." However, is it true that punishing child who is emotionally unstable lead to the correct way? It will be the opposite effect; moreover it induces revengeful mind. For preventing this situation, parents or caretakers should think how to state of explain to make children understand. It is difficult, but children are humans, who have brains. If older people explain why it is bad, or how to change to the correct way easily, children can understand little by little.

    The second reason is that if children try to do something which are matters of life or death, such as touching a hot stove, a knife and so on, older people hit them and make them understand by feeling. I can understand this situation, actually I had these experiences. However, if they do that, they have to moderate how far they hit. Even if this action is to protect children from danger, too strong hits or training will be abuse.

    The third reason is that stress of parents or caretakers. They are also human, and parenting is very difficult work for them. It is natural that they will have much stress, but that doesn’t mean that child abuse has to be excused and promoted. It is important that they have to give support, which is affectionate behavior after punishment. Strict education may make children obey, yet after they grow up, nothing remains in their mind. In those children’s minds, there is only painful feeling. Whatever the reason, abuses, which leave hurt in children’s minds, have to be stopped, because children are also human who have human rights.

    Many people such as teachers, government, or public or private facilities are an making effort against this problem now. In America, there is the law that if somebody find that parents or caretakers punishing children, they can report it. Then most cases are settled in court. Japan also has this kind of law (the twenty-fifth article of the law of child welfare), and child guidance clinics accept those reports. What’s more these clinics appeal to the public by TV or radio, because many civilians don’t know about this systems. Child guidance clinics connect with hospitals and public health centers. If they discover child abuse, they rescue the suffered children as soon as possible.

    However, only rescuing a child isn’t enough. People need to care not only for children but also for parents or caretakers. There are solutions; one is thinking about changing environment, and another one is caring for parents or caretaker’s minds.

    To begin, people need think about the changing of the environment. For example, in my mother’s generation, most families were large, and grandmothers and grandfathers live together. Usually, they took care of children with their parents, and they were very good about parenting. However, now, most families are nuclear, and some mothers have a job. They don’t have enough time and space of their mind; therefore, they treat children harshly in spite of themselves. Furthermore, when they have a question or are confused, they have no one to turn to for advice. With large families decreasing, parents need the help of other people such as teachers, doctors, relatives, or facility people. People need to make more sociable facility and parents have to have open minds.

    Because many people think going to facility is for deviant people. Also, people think about the importance of large family.  Another solution is that people have to care parents or caretaker’s mind. Some parents have mental problems, and there are three kinds of problems: first, PTSD, second, parenting policy, and third, using drugs or alcoholism.

    The first problem is PTSD. PTSD means Post-traumatic stress disorder. Many parents who abuse children suffered abuse when they were children. According U.S.A. CPS, about more than 30 to 40 % of parents who abuse children suffered abuse. Memory of childhood makes them abuse. These people need counseling or therapy by professional people. The second problem is that some parents or caretakers have a wrong policy. For example, some parents think their children have to be perfect. They care about the child’s grades or good behavior. They think it is good for the future of the child, but is it truly good? If the child cannot do anything very well, they will be angry, and they blame to the child. Even if they could, they don’t praise, because they think it is a matter of course. Children, who aren’t offered praise, will lose ambitious personality, and they will have low self –esteem. Sometimes, parents need to find good things from children, and they should praise them. Then children can feel challenged to do new things. The third problem is that some parents use drugs or they have alcoholism. This is a very big problem. People need to protect not only children but also parents. If not, at the worst, parents will kill children.

    Some parents notice these causes and some parents do not. Both types of parents cannot control the problems by them selves. People have to care about these people, because just protecting children doesn’t fix whole problems.

    In conclusion, child abuse is very sad, because not every parent dislike children. On the contrary, they do abuse because they love children too much. What’s more, child who suffered abuse will have lots of problem especially mental problems. When they become parents, they will do the same things. It is can be called " the generation transmission" and people have to cut it off somewhere.

Yasuyo Morita, Japan

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Computer Crime

When people hear the word computer crime, they often bring up some bad pictures of the Internet that is similar to many crimes involving computers. Those tapes of crime are no different from crimes without computers. The computer is only a tool that a criminal uses to commit a crime. There are no precise, reliable statistics on the amount of computer crime and the economic loss to victims because of many of these computer crimes are apparently not detected by victims. Many of these crimes are never reported to authorities partly because the losses are often difficult to calculate. Nevertheless, there is a consensus among both law enforcement personnel and computer scientists who specialize in security that both the number of computer crime incidents and the sophistication of computer criminals are increasing rapidly. Estimates are that computer crime costs victims at least US$ five billion dollars each year in the USA, and the true value of such crimes might be substantially higher.

In computer security, there is a new word "information warfare" While the "information warfare" is just another name for computer crime, the word "warfare" does fairly indicate the amount of damage inflicted on society. There are three major classes of criminal activity with computers: 1.Unauthorized use of a computer. 2.Releasing a malicious computer program, which means computer virus. 3. Harassment in the Internet. That is in contrast to merely using computer equipment as a tool to commit old crimes.

Unauthorized Use to computers generally takes the following forms: Unauthorized views of computer files, changing data, deleting data, and denying service to authorized users. Most unauthorized use is accomplished by a person, who uses a modem to access a remote computer in his house. In this way, the computer criminal is acting analogous to a thief. To successfully use a remote computer, any user must have both a valid user name and valid password. The criminals who change or delete data, or who gobble large amounts of computer resources and also might use other people's data such as credit card number, social security number, and other personal information, have a more sinister motive and are capable of doing immense damage.

Malicious computer programs: everyone has heard the words "computer virus", but few know a precise definition. The general term is "rogue program" or "malicious program", which is divided into the following classes: 1. Destroying Files. 2. Self - Replicating. 3. Data congestion. All of them can delete and destroy pertinent data. Not requiring a professional programmer, most malicious programs are made by a person or a small group. Relying on the Internet world very much, nowadays, people get more chances to be influenced by virus.

In general, the harasser intends to cause emotional distress and has no legitimate purpose to his communications. Harassment can be as simple as continuing to send e-mail to someone who has said they want no further contact with the sender. Harassment may also include threats, sexual remarks, pejorative labels. A particularly disturbing form of harassment is sending a forged e-mail that appears to be from the victim and contains racist remarks, or other embarrassing text, which will tarnish the reputation of the victim.

In the today's society, computer crimes become very serious, which often cost a lot of fortunes and destroy important data from companies and people. Therefore, there are some easy and simple ways to teach people and companies how to protect their data and computers by select a good password, install anti-virus software, set firewall, use alias or fake identification, and back up files.

First, to access an online computer service or Internet service provider (ISP) one needs both a user name and password. ISPs typically select a user name that is the same as the last name of the subscriber. This means that user names are easy to guess; therefore, one must be especially careful with the password. There are a few ways to teach how to select a good password: 1. Make the length of your password at least five characters. 2. If people can’t have a long password, then they would better have a short password which cross capital letters and small letter. When people are setting their passwords, they should avoid any personal words. Changing passwords every few weeks is also standard advice from computer security experts.

Second, computer viruses were generally passed from one user to another user via floppy disks or the Internet which made anti-virus software essential for all computer users. This software is very fast and easy. 1. It became common to distribute software and update via downloads from the Internet and 2. Hackers developed viruses that were delivered inside macros for Microsoft Word, which rogue macros could be hidden inside a document sent by e-mail. Since everyone uses e-mail and nearly everyone will download executable software from the Internet, everyone should have a good anti-virus program running on his or her machine to further solve problems with computer crime.

Third, it is common to erect a firewall between parts of a computer system that an external user can access and parts that are supposedly accessible only by a local user. Now that computers are relatively inexpensive, it makes more sense to have totally separate and isolated machines for external access. The cost of having a separate computer that is dedicated solely to receiving incoming modem connections and requests from the Internet is offset by the increase in security with minimum inconvenience to authorized users inside the building. When a secure computer and a computer for external access are in the same building, communications between them should be via floppy disk, not via wire or cable.

Four, having on-line activities, you can establish a free e-mail account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or some other provider, and use an alias for that account. If someone harasses or stalks you, then you simply close that account and chose another alias. In other words, you adopt a disposable identity for your life in the Internet world. Never give out your real name, address, city, telephone number, or other identifying information to a stranger in a chat room, computer bulletin board, or other public place.

Last, if a computer virus or an invading hacker deletes or corrupts one's files, the easiest way to restore his / her computer may be to reformat the hard drive and then copy files from a recent backup. Backups also offer protection from more common threats such as accidental deletion of a file by an authorized user or failure of a hard disk drive.

When criminals commit crimes, they are likely to say that the criminal did everyone a favor by calling attention to check computer security loophole. However, one should recognize that even if the victim behaved in an imprudent way, a victim never invites a crime. I am more concerned with computer crimes that are new ways to harm people, instead of the old crimes, which are assaulting in nature. I do realize that is very hard to prevent the computer crime. In order to decrease serious damage of computer crime, I hope my paper can help people know how to prevent computer crime by those simple solutions.

Anonymous, Taiwan

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Prostitution Problem in Japan

    Have you ever heard "Enjyo-Kousai" in Japanese? To put it simply, Support (Enjyo) Association (Kousai) and the meaning is that ordinary teenagers sell their body to middle-age businessmen and get an average of 300 dollars to 500 dollars (Daigo Sato). In other words, it is teenage prostitution. "Enjyo-Kousai" is very popular in Japan because it sounds better than prostitution. Most girls who prostitute themselves are not at all poor; on the contrary, they are just ordinary high school students. Being able to earn a lot of money, they sell their bodies without a care. After getting money, they buy famous brands (such as Prada, Gucci, and Channel) clothes, bags, and shoes. Also, some girls don’t think that it is not bad, in fact, according to Jamine Smyth’s data, 17% thought there was nothing wrong with enjyo-kousai and 13 % replied that they felt no reluctance in practicing it. They don’t realize prostitution brings dangers and problems.

    Some people say that prostitution is not bad and not a problem because men who buy sex from girls don’t force them. They have consentual sexual intercourse benefit each other. It is a business transaction. However, is that true? Teenage prostitution has bad effects for people.

    One effect is infection such as venereal disease. Especially, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a worldwide problem. If they are prostitutes and catch AIDS, it is too late for regret.

    Another effect is that prostitution deeply hurts feelings. Even if they don’t feel anything before or during the exchange of sexual favors, some day they will realize it was a crime and immoral. In one case, one girl got repeatedly pregnant because of prostitution, and then she had an abortion after each pregnancy. However, unfortunately, her womb being damaged, she lost the ability to have any future children. She suffered physically and emotionally because she killed herbabies. This incident hurt not only her future, but also her mind. If this happens to a prostitute, it is also too late for regret.

    Then, why has teenage prostitution become so popular? There are three causes: first the changing of the environment, second, the creating of the Telephone club, and third, the changing of young people’s minds. First of all, Japanese technology and economy has increased sharply, and this situation has changed people’s minds. There is lots of mass media around us. For example, if people use the Internet, they can easily view the explicit images. Even though there is a warning, "over 18 only", people who are under 18 can look at them without permission. In addition, as the economy becomes stronger, people become richer, and then they get more discretionary income, thus having a more luxurious life. Similarly, many teenage prostitutes desire more money so they can have access to expensive things as well. Additionally, family members don’t communicate to each other as much as they did a long time ago because women have begun to get jobs, and the nuclear family has been increasing. Of course, parents love children, but they tend to be unconcerned about children because of their busy work schedules.

    Secondly, about 10 years ago, " Telephone club" began to open (Daigo Sato). This provides conversation for people who need talk with someone by telephone. In this process, many people began to use this for sexual relationships with girls. Middle-age men talked with girls there, and tempted the girls to have sex with them in return for a lot of money. This system brought teenager prostitution.

    Finally, people’s minds are changing. Many girls think sex is very easy to earn much money because many girls prostitute themselves, and it tend to be an ordinary idea. Also, young people don’t have dreams or goals. Therefore, empty and unsatisfied, they fall into temporary happiness such as luxury.

    Fortunately, people are trying to make some effort in order to reduce teenage prostitution. The first solution is that police patrol in the city for protection and guidance of youth at night.  However, it is so difficult to guide them because there are too many girls who are prostitutes in cities. Also, police can’t distinguish easily on the road who is doing Enjyo-Kousai and who is not.

    The second solution is that government made some laws and ordinances against prostitution: for example, "Any person who rapes women of 13 years and over using violence or intimidation will be imprisoned for 2 years or over. Any person who rapes women under 13 years old will be punished in the same way"(Article 176: The Criminal Laws). "Any person who does the following acts for the purpose of prostitution will imprisoned for less than 6 months or fined less than 10,000 yen (about 100 dollars). The soliciting to be a buyer in a public way. For the purpose of the soliciting, following or standing in anyone’s way in a public place. Waiting for anyone or soliciting a buyer using an advertisement in a public place"(Article 5:The Anti-Prostitution Law). There are other laws and ordinance besides these laws; however, everything punishes the person on the buyer’s side more than on the seller’s side. Moreover, most laws are intended for children under the age of 13 years. It is not good because most cases of teenage prostitution occur among 16 to 18 years old girls.

    Third, schools or families try to teach morality to teenage girls. It is good idea, but most people don’t know how to teach morality. Parents say to schools that teachers need to teach morality, and teachers say to parents that parents should teach morality. They put the blame for education each other. Both schools and families are important for girls. At first, they have to learn how to teach morality from counselor, professor, and grandparents. Also, they must know about teenage people. Explaining those things is easy, and people need to study about morality and teenage people too.  Now, there are lots of mass media around us. If I ‘m just sitting, much information comes  into my eyes and ears from TV, radio, computer, and so on. In fact, more than 60% of high-school girls watch TV more than two hours in a day (Jun Nagatomo).  If people make full use of mass media, young people might be able to understand. Actually, the following example willdemonstrate this point.

    The number of tests for HIV-1 done at public health centers in Japan more than doubled between July and September in 1998, the increase being a result of a popular television drama that broached the taboo subject. Kamisama Mo Sukoshidake (please God, Just A Little More Time) featured a high school girl infected with HIV through prostitution. Broadcast by Fuji TV, it had the second-highest audience rating of the summer (Lancet). When this drama was broadcasted, I was a teenager too. At first, we didn’t know what dramas were like, but then we thought about what teenagers should be. This drama was very easily to accept for teenagers, and it had a strong influence. Conversely if somebody teaches about this topic in a lecture, it will be boring. Long time ago, in Japan, TV broadcast companies avoided topics about sex or prostitution directly because some people say it is not good for children. However, now, the way of thinking has changed. Children can view pornography easily on the Internet without using television as a medium. Furthermore, programs for education and pornography are totally different.

    In conclusion, I don’t say teenagers who prostitute themselves, and men who exploit them are bad people. But they are people who have problems. Girls don’t have goals in their mind, and they don’t know what is most important for them. Sexual intercourse is not a tool to earn money. Rather it is an expression of love and prosperity of descendants. In addition, men are lonely in their family, and they have much stress about business and relationships. This problem can’t be solved quickly. On the other hand, relationship with family, teacher, friends and lover will be a clue of how to solve this problem. If people don’t prostitute themselves, they will have morality and love. At first, we have to think what we should be.

Digo Sato. "What’s Teenage Prostitution in Japan?"  EF core Course Home Page, 

Ethical Issues in Japan, Teenage Prostitution. Fall, 1997.

http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~jay/1997/Prost/what.html   

Jamie Smyth "Op-Ed: Enjyo kousai: teen prostitution, a reflection of society’s 

ills"

Tokyo Weekender Home Page, Latest Edition. 4, Sep. 1998

"http://www.weekender.co.jp/LastestEdition/980904/index.htm"  

Jun Nagatomo. "Introduction"

EF core Course Home Page, Ethical Issues in Japan, Teenage Prostitution. Fall 

1997

"http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~jay/1997/Prost/intro.htm" Kaori "High school girl 

Prostitution"

JAPANESE TEENAGER’S SUMMER PAGE. 1, May. 2000.

http://www.icc.ac.jp/shion/english/spag/mickaori/jts.htm  

Watts, Jonathan "Popular drama prompts interest in HIV in Japan"

Lancet. 12, May. 1998, vol.352 Issue 9143,p1840,1/3p,1

Yasuyo, Morita, Japan

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The Doctors Kill a Life.

Does life have value and significance of existence? Naturally, humans should expect natural death, cause of illness, and accidents; however, when someone purposefully ends your life, can you accept it? Euthanasia is a medical treatment used when the patient is going to die because they cannot tolerate the pain any more so that a doctor injects the patient with some medication or takes off the patient’s life support to stop the patient’s life (British Medical Association). When this illness happens, should we let the doctor stop the patient’s life? More importantly, the most controversial argument is, should laws give those doctors the power to decide the patient’s life and death? The definition of life is when a person can move even when there are no matter just brain waves, eyes open, and heart beats, all of which demonstrate life (Gregory Koukl). I oppose euthanasia on by personal, moral, religious, societal, and familial levels and if euthanasia becomes legal that means our society is destroyed. Thus, I am going to use three cases that are family, society, and a real case who is about Jack Kevorkian who is called "DR. Death" to prove euthanasia is a wrong behavior in our society. Before we start talking about euthanasia, there is a situation you should worry about: If euthanasia happens in your family, what are you going to do? Are you going to let a doctor kill your family? Should laws be legalized in order to help a doctor kill a patient? Furthermore, you might be the doctor who decides to kill the patient who is in your family.

First, family is the biggest reason to oppose euthanasia. Who are the closest people to us? It is our family. Who can always stay with us? It is our family. Who can we totally believe in? It also is our family. From those facts, we can realize family is the most important issue to everyone; therefore, no one can give a decision to agree and permit a doctor to kill his/her family. On the other hand, in Switzerland, there was a couple that the husband became maimed and only relied on life support in order to live for 11 years because of a car accident. His wife, Dagger, has never given up and always held a hope that her husband would wake up one day. After 11 years, that hope came true when her husband awaked and even though he couldn’t move very well, it was a miracle. From this example, we can understand if we don’t lose our hope then the hope will arrive to us. Financial problems also are a main issue, which most people will be concerned about. Do we have enough money to support the patient’s life? No doubt, many people lose a family fortune or borrow money from someone, who just wants to save their family life. A billion dollars still is less than a life (Bruce A Robinson). Try imagining a doctor who informs by another doctor to perform euthanasia on his own family. Then what is the doctor going to do? If you are the doctor.

Second, since euthanasia has been popularized, people have begun to argue about its value on law and morality. We all know human beings have the freedom, and the law is there to protect human beings. The law is giving leeway for people to manipulate their rights. When euthanasia becomes legal, it will make a contradiction between human rights and law. Should euthanasia be legal or illegal? In order to answer this question, people must remember that law is used to protect human rights and when a law may possibly infringe upon human rights, then that law will not keep as long as possible. Human society is basically built on human rights; when the society behaves against the human rights, people should know what the basic theory is we are following. Why do some people want euthanasia legalized? They might think those patients in comas are wasting society’s resources, affecting society’s economics, encumbering their families, and having no contributions. Why should we let patients survive? Instead of hoping those patients survive by a little chance, we have to end their life; also, we need a law to protect those doctors who kill those patients. Humans have a very a priceless treasure which is self-control by human’s morality (Evangelium Vitae); thus, the value of human life is higher than that of other animals. By ending a patient’s life because of some material benefits such as society’s resource and money, a doctor is similar to wild animals, which kill a life with out reason and behavior. As a result, euthanasia is a kind of murder

Lastly, there is a real serious case which did Michigan court decided to give a person whose name is Jack Kevorkia second-degree murder. In the November 22, 1998, the first euthanasia tape was broadcasted into air by CBS’s "60 Minutes" ,showing Jack Kevorkian giving a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, 52, who suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. Jack Kevorkian had taken part in more than 130 deaths since 1990 (Vatz, Richard E.; Weinberg, Lee S. 66). Jack Kevorkian recorded the process of injected poison into Thomas Youk and put it on TV; meanwhile, he knew he had broken laws when he talked with John Skrzynski, who said "Jack Kevorkian came like a medical hitman in the night with a bag of poison to do his job. ", is the prosecutor of Michigan court (Justin Hyde). Even though, Thomas’s wife Melody and Thomas’s brother Terry had been allowed to testify under exceptions to rules against hearsay testimony. Jack Kevorkian still got 10-25 years in prison (Justin Hyde) because he killed Thomas’s Youk; regardless, he thought euthanasia could help his patient. .

People do know and also hear some advantages of euthanasia such as dignified death, saving resources and reducing patient’s suffering (Campbell, Courtney S), (Bruce A Robinson). Some people think that is a good thing that you are kill a valueless life in order to release those patients from life. Nevertheless, those people are using material benefit to replace life. A patient’s life belongs to himself and any kind of life style is his choice (Ernest Martinez).

We do know life is very fragile; however, life should not be destroyed. Future is unknowable and every minute has many possibilities. Even though we only have 1% chance to survive, we should never give up. Being a life is not just having a body; a life also connects to spiritual civilization. Combining material and spiritual civilization, humans have become a rational creature. If euthanasia is legalized, then doctors can kill patients without legal sanctions because society has legalized euthanasia.

Bruce A Robinson. "Euthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide." Nov 22 1999. Apr 

24 2000 http://www.religioustolerance.org/euthanas.htm.

Luke Gormally. "Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Seven Reasons Why They Should 

Not Be Legalized." 1997. Apr 25 2000  

http://www.linacre.org/newsle~1.htm#anchor186480.

"Islam and Euthanasia." Apr 25 2000 <http://www.islamctr.org/icsc/euth.txt>.

Gregory Koukl. "I'm Not Dead Yet." Apr 20 2000 

http://www.str.org/free/commentaries/euthanasia/imnotdea.htm .

Patricia Campos Mello. "We don't need euthanasia." June 1995. Apr 22 2000 <http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~harvan/e306/euthanasia/euthanasia1a.html>.

Ernest Martinez. "People Have The Right To Choose." 1991. Apr 20 2000 <http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~harvan/e306/euthanasia/ernest.html>.

Evangelium Vitae. "On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life."1994. Apr 25 2000. < http://listserv.american.edu/catholic/church/papal/jp.ii/jp2evanv.html>.

British Medical Association. "Medical Ethics Today." Medical World 1993.

Larue, Gerald A. "Euthanasia and religion: a survey of the attitudes of world religions to 

the right to die" Los Angeles 14 Aug 1985.

Downie R & Charlton B. "The Making of a Doctor." Oxford University Press Jun 1992.

Campbell, Courtney S. Euthanasia and Religion. Jan 1 2000

Vatz, Richard E.; Weinberg, Lee S. USA Today Magazine, May99, Vol. 127 Issue 

2648, p66, 3p, 1bw

Justin Hyde. "Associated Press." Thursday, March 25, 1999

Anonymous, Taiwan

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EATING DISORDERS

"Eating disorders refer to a variety of disturbed eating behaviors, all associated with misusing food for emotional reasons" (Therapistfinder.net). The four frequents problems are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and anorexia athletic (Eating Disorders awareness an prevention, SF)

In the next part of this document, I will present definitions about eating disorder, to offer a better insight of the context. First of all, I will discuss three important causes of the current problem. Secondly, I show some statistics results, and finally, I will present conclusions and recommendations.

First, Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa often include depression, irritability, withdrawal, and peculiar behaviors such as compulsive rituals, strange eating habits, and division of foods into "good/safe" and "bad/dangerous" categories.

Second, people who have binge eating disorder do not regularly vomit, over-exercise, or abuse laxatives like bulimics do. They may be genetically predisposed to weigh more than the cultural ideal (which at present is exceedingly unrealistic), so they diet, make themselves hungry, and then binge in response to that hunger. Or they may eat for emotional reasons: to comfort themselves, avoid threatening situations, and numb emotional pain. Regardless of the reason, diet programs are not the answer. In fact, diets almost always make matters worse.

Why, in countries that have achieved a high standard of living, do some of the best and brightest people starve themselves, sometimes to death? Why do others gorge on huge amounts of food? Why do some folks vomit, abuse laxatives, or exercise to exhaustion to control their weight? What causes eating disorders?

Biological factors

Psychological factors

Family factors

In addition, research suggests that daughters of mothers with histories of eating disorders may be at higher risk of eating disorders themselves than are children of mothers with few food and weight issues.

Social Factors

Causes of eating disorders seem to proceed of any typical family or person. In the next part, the statistics analysis, permit us, to have a better view of the real problem.

Because physicians are not required to report eating disorders to a health agency, and because people with these problems tend to be secretive, denying that they even have a disorder, I do not have way of knowing exactly how many people in this country are affected.

The American Bulimia Association, can study small groups of people, determine how many of them are eating disordered, and then extrapolate to the general population. The numbers are usually given as percentages, and they are as close as they can get to an accurate estimate of the total number of people affected by eating disorders.

Because anorexia athletic is not a formal diagnosis, it has not been studied as rigorously as the eating disorders. We have no idea how many people exercise compulsively.

Eating disorders are treatable, and people do recover from them. Recovery is a difficult process that can take several months or even years. Some people do better than others. The folks who do best, work with physicians and counselors who help them resolve medical and psychological issues that contribute to, or result from, disordered eating.

Schools should take an active role in preventing eating disorders by educating the students on the dangers of eating disorders and helping to teach them that in order to succeed in life, their weight does not matter. People do not have to be thin, in order to succeed in the career of their choice. Teachers and school counselors should also be made aware of the signs to look for.

If eating disorders are caught early, and the person is willing to accept the help that is available to them, the chances of recovery are greater.

They need to be able to express all types of emotions and know that they will have your unconditional love. They should be encouraged to do their best, but they should not be expected to be perfect. They need to be encouraged to be themselves and to be proud of who they are, so that they will not give into the pressures from their peers to try and fit in. If they are happy with themselves and love that they are, they will be less likely to try and attain society's unattainable "ideal" body image, because they will accept their bodies just the way they are.

Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, Inc.

Http://www.sfwed.com/

Academy for Eating Disorders. Http://www.acadeatdis.org/

Luisa Cardenas, Colombia

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Several years ago computers have been developed to proved their usefulness. They save time, and permit peoples to be better organized. They provided people with easy access to information, and also they help to create better quality products. In general computers improve the quality of our everyday lives.

The software computer is a lucrative business to who develop and coordinate their operations and programs. Computers need to work operating systems (complex set of sentences or instructions. Currently, Microsoft has a monopoly in this niche of the software industry. Windows is the most popular operating system in the world, and Bill Gates is its pioneer. Actually, Microsoft has been called into a question for unfair business practices. Has Bill Gates crossed the line?

The Department of Justice executed an antitrust lawsuit to protect consumers against Microsoft monopoly (Government Printing Office, 98-1233). On the other hand, a number of conservative writers and organizations have gone to Microsoft's defense. Microsoft uses its position in the operating system market to monopolize access to Internet, while preventing others providers from having the same access.

In addition, a Microsoft demand that its program has to be installed on the computer during consumer purchase in order to offers special services. This practice is unfair. The result is the consumer is not free to choose any other operating system than Microsoft.

A monopolist, by definition is a business with the power to restrict entry by new firms and to control the price.

Microsoft not only has the control today, Microsoft are expanding every day their products into the markets because the manufacturers must be preinstall on the computers Windows and Internet Explorer, and every other software have to be completely compatible with Microsoft's Windows (Wall Street Journal, Jun 1998).

However, Microsoft must be to publish the whole specification of the "windows programs interface". Situation that to lock out any other software rival provider to create new and different solutions. All providers have to use restriction and limits to impose by Microsoft.

One significant problem with the Microsoft monopoly is that Microsoft never perfects an application. They buy companies, but the software doesn't improve. They buy many successful companies, which disappear after a few years. For example, FoxPro and dBase, those had good software, but they became bankrupt due to Microsoft's strong arm on the software market. Furthermore, many developers are still waiting for a DOS version without bugs. But, unbelievably the Windows operating system has one primitive DOS version into it.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson decided that Microsoft is guilty of Monopoly. Microsoft abused its monopoly in the Windows operating system. The government proposal would split the company in two, with one part making the Windows operating system (Los Angeles Times, April 2000)

"Fast Track Microsoft appeal Eyed." Los Angeles Times 5 April, 2000

"That’s Unfair." Wall Street Journal June 25, 1988

"United States of America v. Microsoft Corporation." Government Printing Office 

April 3,2000; 98-1232

Luisa Cardenas, Colombia

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Islam and Women

Islam and women

What is the status of women in Islam? The answer to this controversial question differs depending on who you ask. To some fundamental Islamics, women are viewed as being inferior to men and are often treated as second class citizens. Others in Islamic countries see women as changing in their roles. They view women as being equal to men. This group argues for more equal rights between the sexes. Each of the two sides points to the Kuran in its arguments. However, their interpretation of the doctrines in the Kuran regarding the role of women differs radically. First, in this essay I will present the side of the debate which interprets the Kuran to put women on equal status with men. Then I will present the other side of the debate which interprets the Kuran to view women as being the inferior of the two sexes. To accomplish these objectives, I will also talk about the Islamic rules for women such as Hijab and other social rules. Then I will give you some evidence from the Quran and some information about some Islamic countries such as Iran.

What does the Quran say about Women? According to the Quran, women are not inferior to men. Both of them are created equally in the sight of Allah. Allah says in the Quran, "Oh people we have created you from a male and female and divided you into groups and tribes so that you may know each other. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah are the most righteous among you" (Alhujurat, 49:131). According to Islam, men and women complement each other, and they are equal members of the society, each of whom have their responsibilities. It is not the tone or language of the Quran that brands a women as the product of the devil or the seed of evil. Nor does the Quran place men as the dominant lord of the woman who has no choice but to surrender to his dominance. Islam does not blame Eve alone for the first sin. The Quran makes it very clear that both Adam and Eve were tempted; that they both sinned; that god’s pardon was granted to both of them after their repentance. The Quran says both Adam and Eve were equally in error and if we are to blame Eve we should blame Adam just as much as Eve. This interpretation recognizes women in Islam as a full and equal partner of a man in the procreation of human kind. He is the father, and she is the mother and both are essential for life. Her role is not any less vital than his. By this partnership, she has an equal share in every aspect. She is entitled to equal rights. Undertaking equal responsibilities, she has as many qualities and as much humanity as has her partner. She is equal to man in the pursuit of education and knowledge. When Islam enjoins the seeking of knowledge upon Muslims, it makes no distinction between men and women. Almost fourteen centuries ago, Muhammad declared that the pursuit of knowledge is incumbent on every Muslim, male or female. In the Quran it has been make clear, many times, that a woman is entitled to freedom of statement as much as a man is. Her sound opinions are taken into consideration and cannot be disregarded because she happens to belong to the female gender (Hammuda Abdul-Ati). The attitudes expressed thus far are obviously contraversial and another view which I will now present will offer a different interpretation.

The Kuran: Women are not equal

Such interpretations of the verses in the Quran have all been subject to individual understanding. Many practices of Islamic law are now an interpretation of what is said in a very broad and non-specific manner in the Quran. Many limitations place the female gender all in the name of the Quran and yet two people may understand the Quran very differently. In addition, many conflicting views exist about a women in the Quran. In different parts of the Quran, it is clearly stated that the man is known as the superior gender and that a women should follow and obey this superior gender. According to the Quran, "It is for the women to act as they (their husbands act) by them in all fairness but the men are a step above them. Men have authority over women because Allah has made the men superior to the women (Quran, 2:228).

In Quran, verse 34, the women are told that the men are the protectors and maintainers of women because God has given men more intelligence and strength. The man should protect the woman and take care of her. In return, the woman should follow and obey her husband and in his absence take care of his possessions. If the woman does not follow her husband, the man should first counsel her. If she does not obey again, the man should stay away from her and if she decided not to follow her husband after the second warning, she should be punished by being beaten. Such versus in the Quran have led to interpretations that are very unfair to women in general. According to the great Muslim philosopher, Razi, the males shares is equal to two females. Man is more perfect than the woman in intelligence and in the religious spheres such as the suitability to be a judge and a leader in worship. Additionally, the testimony of the man is twice to that of a woman so that whenever a man is given great responsibilities, he must be given correspondingly great privileges. Since the woman is deficient in intelligence and of great lust if she is given much money, much corruption will be the result. The male is mentioned first in the Quran because of his superiority over the female. This interpretation argues that this superiority is due to the man’s natural domination because the man gives his wife the dowry and spends money on her (the place of women in pure Islam page 2 ).

Further support to the view of women as not being equal is found in the Sonna, the traditional rules which Muhammad established in Islam doctrine. Islam’s prophet Muhammad said that a woman is a toy. Whoever takes her must care for her and should not lose her. It is said that one of the Islamic leaders once spoke of his wife as a toy that will be called upon when ever she is needed. It is clear from such examples that the belief that a woman is a toy is of vital importance for the psychological and spiritual superiority of man, and men are a step above the woman (place of women in pure islam page 5).

Thus, because of these views, Islam women can’t be judges or leaders, the women being very fragile and sensitive creatures. Therefore, they are not capable of staying impartial to matters that judges may have to hear. Since religious leaders should some times judge, women also fail to participate as religious leaders as well. In Islamic court system, the testimony of the women is not equal to that of the man. Her testimony is half the testimony of the man. Two female witnesses were considered as one male witness. The Quran (19) states, "An call in to witness, two witnesses, men or if the two were not men than one man and two women, such witness as you approve of that if one woman errors the other will remind her." Some Muslims try to explain excuses as to why the testimony of the women is half that of the man, so they say that women were made to bear and feed children. Therefore, she is very emotional and forgetful because if she did not forget how is it to give birth, she would not have another child. That is why she will not be a reliable a witness as a man (M.Rafiqul-Haqq and p.newton page 5).

According to the Islamic laws, one can replace another’s life with a certain amount of money and a woman life is worth half as much as the man. The interpretation of Islam is that man is more important the women for their family because man is a source of income.

In some Islamic countries such as Iran, women also can’t divorce and gain custody of their children. A man can divorce his wife in any situation, but a woman can get a divorce only if her husband is an addict, is mentally unstable, cannot have any children, or is abusive. The woman has to prove her claim with reliable reasons. Otherwise, she is not allowed to divorce. After divorce, a woman can have custody of her son only until he is three years old and in the case of her daughter, her husband can reclaim the child after she is seven years old.

The word "Hijab" comes form the Arabic word hajab, meaning to hide form view. In the present time the context of hijab is the modest covering of the Muslim woman. The question now is what is the extent of the covering? Why do Muslim women have to cover their heads? This question is one that is asked by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. For many women, it is the truest symbol of being a Muslim. The answer to the question is simple. Muslim women observe hijab, the covering of the head and body, because Allah has told them to do so. According to the Quran, "Prophet tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men that is better in order that they may be known to be Muslim and not annoyed (Quran, 33:59). In Islam, women are introduced as beautiful and fragile creatures that need protection. A woman should not show her beauty so that men are not sexually attracted and men should be protected from falling into temptation. The clothing should be modest, not excessively fancy to gain men’s admiration. Many Muslim women who cover themselves are filled with dignity and self esteem; they are pleased to be identified as a Muslim woman. As a chaste, modest, pure woman, she does not want her sexuality to enter into interactions with men in the smallest degree. A woman who covers herself is concealing her sexuality but allowing her femininity to be brought up(What is Hijab page 1 and 2).

However, some people disagree with Hijab. They think Hijab is a limitation for a woman . They contend that if women’s appearance can attract men, men’s beauty can attract women too. So why do women have to cover themselves all the time? What about men? In Saudi Arabia and most other Gulf countries, women must follow strict rules and noncompliance is severely punished. Every woman that goes to these countries especially Saudi Arabia must cover herself. In Iran, the establishment of the Islamic government is probably best recognized by the fact that women in society have to wear hijab. It has also been an indirect obstacle for women to overcome. Women are forced to cover their hair and all their body parts except their hands and faces so they cannot participate in many sports such as swimming, ice skating, gymnastics even though they may have the skills. Because it is impossible to wear hijab and still participate in such activities, they could no longer compete with men in the job market. They were restricted from certain professions such as chemical/petroleum engineering, vocal artistic activities, and modeling and police services. Because of these limitations, women were forced to take secondary roles in society. They were urged to stay at home and perform their duties as a wife and mother rather than seeking active public roles. Women’s lives in Iran became very restricted because of the gender biased Islamic views (the status of Iranian women page3 and 4 by Kourosh Eshghipour). Supporters of the Islamic beliefs say that women enjoy wearing hijab and welcome the restrictive nature of the Islamic rule. Because it provides security and structure for them, through hijab women are no longer viewed by men as sexual objects. The reason behind this view is that since men are not tempted by women’s figure and shape, women can conduct themselves as equal.

In conclusion, after considering different aspects of the debate regarding the presence and role of women in Islam, I think Islam is not as restrictive as one may think. Many Muslim traditions root back to their old customs and culture. But we have to consider that Islam like most other religions follows a traditional and conservative path. It started thirteen hundred years ago with all the customs of that time. As years have passed, life styles have changed and the roles of men and women have adjusted to the new demands. It is difficult and unfair to try to force the rules set thirteen hundred years ago on today’s society. Women’s roles in the society have changed dramatically. No longer forces in the background, women are active participants in today’s society. Europeans ended mixed religious and political governing 300 years ago so Islamic countries should not allow religion influences to affect their policy making. It might be better to leave the interpretation of religion to each individual.

Afagh Khorashadi

Professor:Gerda Randolph

Level five Academic Writing

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In the last five years, the number of Internet users in the U.S., and Canada has reached 120 million, according to a Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet study (Nielsen Media Dec, 1999). The study also shows that the number of Web shopper's (people buying or comparing products and services on the Web) is now 48 million.

The Internet permits access either publicly or privately for many kinds of services. Actually the Internet has more than 65 million computers connected in more than 100 countries. Huge companies and small children can use The Internet without discrimination. For example, Scientists can access specialized data instantly and compare their results with others around the world. Businesses can send reports to branches for free. Workers can work at home and send the results by e-mail to their companies. Banks are providing banking services at home, which permits the customers to manage their finances in real time. Children can use the Internet to do homework or to play their favorite games. As logic result the Internet is now expanding faster than television, radio and the printing press did. It is sure to continue to transform virtually every area of our lives.

The problem now is defined in terms of privacy. As more people use the Internet as an information source, chances that someone will use this data become higher. This use can be negative or positive. For most people the most valuable information is their own personal information. Some believe that there is a potential that someone misuse of personal data, and demand protection to their privacy. However, considering the Internet completely safe and secure, merchant companies need to know all of the people personal information, in order to offers their products.

I will analyze and present some points of view of each position, people criteria and merchants criteria. In the last part of this paper, I present extended conclusions about the two positions.

Many Americans are using the Internet a lot now, and they are enjoying its complexity and enormous capacity. But many believe that with every click they are being watched, as they have never been watched before.

In fact, the U.S. contains the most recent legal code balancing privacy against other interests such as public disclosure on one hand, and protective surveillance on the other. In the past century when computer systems began to arrive with large-scale databases, and remote terminals no one was concerned. Now, the Internet is transforming the way people reveal themselves (http: // www .acs .ohio-state. Edu /units /law /swire1 / psintpri. htm.).

Ron Sege who is the executive president of Lycos and is responsible for the web sites in the Lycos Network (the Internet Company) said:

My company serves about half of the country's Internet users on a monthly basis-some 32 million users out of a total of 70 million. Like any good business, we survey our users to try to understand the aspects of our service they like most and would like to see us improve. Far and away the leading features our users are interested in are related to personalization. The very power of the Internet is its ability to get you what you want and what you need. For me to give you MyLycos, you have to tell me something about yourself. Our users understand that. We have a strict opt-in policy for all of the individual data that we collect about our users. You volunteer to tell us everything. Yes, we cookie you, but we cookie you strictly for the purpose of gathering broad, statistically significant information. We don't target individual users based on information that we collect about them without their knowledge (qtd, in Weston, np)

Furthermore, the merchant's companies are using encryptors (software or hardware to protect the sensitive data from disclosur