Corruption

Corruption is present everywhere. Where there is power, there is corruption. What is corruption?
- Corruption (n): dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.

The world suffer corruption because people want power and money satisfy their greed. Countries that are developing face corruption inside the government. The government has the power to do anything, and the people must comply to the government's demands to be able to get something done. Our country, Vietnam, is a perfect example of horrific corruption of government officials. There are 3 types of corruptions: Petty corruption, grand corruption, and systematic corruption.

Petty corruption is corruption that are not major and serious. This usually happens with police, small officials, etc. In Vietnam. when a police calls a person over because that person violated a traffic law, the police will receive a bribe from that person so the police will let them go.

Systematic corruption is where agents or officials of a company act corruptly in the system. Extortion, bribery, and embezzlement are common in systematic corruption. For example, a household agent would ask for more money so that the buyers do not to have to take care of the paper work.

All things that happen must have at least an effect that comes afterwards. Corruptions have many.

Economic effects: Depletion of national and private wealth. Money will pure into the corrupted officials, while the citizens will have little wealth left. This will lead to unfair distribution of wealth. Inflation will happen, and the price of goods will surely increase.

Social effects: Dishonesty, shortcuts, no incentives to work to produce goods that are high quality and cheap. People that have power will have more power. People that have no power will remain in the same position. Inequality between the rich and the poor. 

Solutions to the problems:

Collaboration between countries to help filter out and punish corrupted officials. Create a hotline for people to report corrupted individuals to the government. There are many other solutions that are implemented to prevent corruption.

Natural Disaster

Natural disasters are unavoidable. It is nature's doing, and we can only try to avoid it. Natural disasters are unstoppable forces of nature that have immense, destructive power. There are many different types of natural disasters in the world. Some areas have been named based on the natural disaster that frequently happens there. For example, the Ring of Fire in the Pacific Ocean, which has multiple earthquakes and volcanic eruptions every year. The types of disasters are: Volcano eruption, Tsunami, Earthquakes, and Typhoon.

Volcano eruption: 

Volcanoes are spread out around the world, but they are mostly concentrated at the Ring of Fire. When a volcano erupts, spewing out lava and magma around it, along with rocks and minerals. There is also ashes that are emitted. The lava and magma would melt almost anything that they come in contact with for they have an extremely high temperature. The ashes will destroy crops, make the air become unbreathable. The areas around the volcano would be evacuated for it is dangerous for people to stay there. Recently, there had been a volcano eruption in Japan at Mount Ontake, which killed 57 people. Experts now say that there is a new volcano that has a chance of eruption. If it would happen, 95% of Japan would be uninhabitable. For the next hundred year, Japan has a 1% odd of the volcano erupts.

Tsunami: 

Tsunami are huge tidal waves that are created by earthquakes or explosions in the ocean bed. Tsunami can be as tall as 30 feet (9m) tall. They can invade the inland by up to 300 meters or more.

Tsunamis are extremely fast so you only have couple of minutes before they hit the inland. Tsunamis wipe out anything that it comes in contact with, and then pulling everything back into the ocean. 

Earthquakes:

Earthquakes happen when there are lands that clash together, creating shockwaves that spread throughout the area. They also create tsunamis if the lands clash under water. Earthquakes shatter the ground under houses and buildings.

It is dangerous and buildings can collapse on the people inside. The best way to avoid earthquakes is to run outside and get to a secure evacuation area.

In 2011, a huge 8.9-magnitude earthquake happened in Hiroshima. After the earthquake came the tsunamis which added up to the terribleness of the event. Furthermore, the earthquake weakened the nuclear plant, causing a meltdown. 

Here are some pictures of the aftermath.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366126/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-Chilling-echoes-

Hiroshimas-destruction.html

Typhoon:

These are hurricanes that happen mostly at the Pacific Ocean. Philippines is one of the countries that suffer most from typhoons. Recently, the Haiyan typhoon caused severe damage to Philippines. 

7 million people were affected by the typhoon, and 600,000 people are homeless. The total costs were estimated at $15 billion.

These are natural disasters, and they can barely be prevented. The only way is that the government need to improve on how to predict disasters a long time before it could even happen. This would help evacuate the citizens and provide plans to deal with the disasters.

Volcano Eruption

Clean Water

We live our daily lives with all the water we need. We are not in need of water, so we do not care if we waste water at all. At this moment, somewhere in the world, people are in need of fresh water to hygiene, drink, etc. But they do not have clean water to do so. They can only find contaminated water which contains many bacteria which could be deleterious to their body. 

This problem is present especially in Africa. Many countries like South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia, etc. do not have access to fresh water. Women and children have to go to rivers to get water, but the water quality is terrible. The trip usually takes 2 hours to get to the river, and 2 hours to get back. That's 4 hours wasted just to walk. Besides, it is not safe because of predators and criminals on the road. They put their lives in danger to save their lives.

The children do not go to school, but they have to go get water for their families. They do not have the rights to have an education. We can change the world though. Many solutions are given by the government to improve the population's life. Wells are being created, pumpers are implanted into underground rivers. Charity foundations are always raising funds to help fight against diseases caused by dirty water, as well as creating new fresh water sources for cities and villages. We can also contribute. We can start by being aware of conserving clean water. Close any tap when we are brushing our teeth, take enough water that we need for any activities, do not overuse water and waste it. Funding charity foundations would also boost the amount of lives that we could save.

Help make the world a better place! Save water!

Deforestation

Forests are important to the world that we live in. It is the home of many animals, and it helps regulate the climate and air around the world.

One of the biggest forests in the world is the Amazon Rain Forest. It is dubbed as "Lungs of the Earth." However, the forest is now slowly destroyed for agricultural use.

Developing agriculture is useful to the economy, but harmful to the environment. From the figure above many areas are affected, causing the climate to change and the spots to increase temperatures (hot spots.) This affect the biodiversity of the animals in the forest, the people's life at the rear of the forest, and temperature of the Earth. 

Deforestation does not only happen in Amazon, it happens all around the world. Some causes of deforestation are: Agricultural activities, logging (legal or illegal), urbanization, desertification of land, forest fires, etc. We have been blindly exploiting nature to satisfy our needs, and we have only taken this matter seriously since lately. The more we destroy the sooner our extinction will come. The effects of deforestation have shown more clearly now than ever. Changing climates, global warming, release of Green House gases, soil erosion, wildlife extinction, etc. are all present.

Imagine a world where chaos takes place. The Earth is too hot, extreme weather happen around the world, animals are almost extinct, and humans cling to themselves hopelessly. Every minute, 36 football fields worth of trees are cut down. This means that 18921600 football fields worth of trees are gone EACH YEAR! The damage is not trivial, it is gargantuan. The effect that we most fear is that increase of temperature would lead to ice melting at both polar. This would rises the sea level and flood any countries that are near the sea level at the moment. Sadly, Vietnam is one of the countries. We would be wiped off of history in the 21st century if we do not do anything to prevent sea rising.

All in all, do not lose hope. There is always a solution for it, even though it would not solve the problem 100%. Replant forests, constrict the laws to be more harsh when it comes to logging, and raise awareness of the problems we have at hand.

Let us rebuild a better world!

Human Trafficking

          In ancient history, slavery was common around the world. Many people were used as slaves, for labor and sexual use. Slavery was publicly shown, but now in the modern world, slavery would be outrageous. Although slavery in the modern day aren't shown, they are hidden in the dark shadows of the underground world. It is called Human Trafficking. Human Trafficking can be called modern slavery, and the victims of this movement are mostly women and children. The victims are used for forced labor, sexual slavery, and prostitution.

There are 20.9 million victims, 13 millions are children that are victims of human trafficking. 80% of these people are used as sexual slaves. The human trafficking industry makes $150 billion dollars, worldwide. 

The origins of these victims are mostly from countries that are developing. The traffickers lure the victims into believing that there are jobs in other countries without any risks. They also use threats, physical violence, or kidnap the victims then sell them to buyers. These traffickers have a common background and know how to exploit weaknesses of their own people. They are usually pimps, family members, gangs, mobs, etc.

The victims are forced into brothels, become sex slaves, or work in factories. The conditions that they endure are cruel and against any human rights. They are rarely fed, not paid, physically abused, no medication, and harsh living environments.

The victims can sometimes be saved by the officials, but then when they come back home, they are not accepted in the family. The victims are disgusted by their own families, pushed away by the societies. They are supposed to gain support, but instead rebuked by the socially biased views. They did not wanted such a terrible event to happen to them. Who would want to be sold to someone and used a sex slave? They never asked for it, and family is expected to give the most encouragement.

There are ways to help people that are victims of human trafficking, and there are ways to prevent this from happening. First is the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). It is made to ensure protection for people that are victims of human trafficking. Second, there are organizations that help victims and prevent this from happening. One of the international organizations is National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) that is under Polaris. They provide information about human trafficking, centers for victims, and preparations to help someone that are involved.

The population needs to know more about modern slavery, and we need to further our efforts in preventing human trafficking. People need to know how fallacious this industry is, and how to avoid it. We can educate people, raise awareness, and be attentive to what's happening around us and the people that we know.

International Trade

International trade is the core of the economy. It keeps the flow going, but there is always a downside, no matter how beneficial international trade is. WTO is the only global organization dealing with rules of trading, but behind the curtains lies the cons that some people do not know.

The cons of WTO are:

1. Increasing inequality between developed countries and developing countries.

2. WTO allows corporations to sue countries. This means that juggernaut companies can bend a country as they see fit for the "free" market.

3. The WTO has immense power and influence on the world. It can manipulate countries by controlling that country's trade.

4. WTO tramples on labor and human rights.

These are just some examples of the down side of WTO. The gap between wealthy countries and poor countries are getting bigger, and WTO is pushing it to even go faster. 

The major companies around the world are crushing the ones that are growing, taking all the profits to themselves by establishing branches all around the world. Foreign companies do not stand a chance against these corporations. Consequently, little wealth is generated for the foreign countries but most of them are in the pocket of big companies. 

Human labor is another factor. China is "loved" for its cheap labor, as well as India. The result is that people are paid less, but have to work for a longer period of time comparing to the standards. Children labor is being used as well. They do not get the privilege to go to school, but instead they have to work to make money.

Free trades give countries more wealth and power. The WTO needs to be controlled. They cannot violate any rights, abuse children, and further the gap between wealthy and impecunious nations. Since the WTO is an international organization, all the countries that are involved should have the right to speak their opinion, and be taken seriously from the top nations. This would prevent any misuse of power and unfair advantages for the leading countries.

Health Service

       People need health care to repair their physical and psychological erroneousness. Governments establish health services to provide prevention and cure of diseases. Different countries have different types of health service. The more developed a country is, the better the health care system. There are 4 types of health care: Bismarck Model, Beveridge Model, National Health Insurance Model, Out-of-pocket Model.

In Britain, the government uses the Beveridge Model. The health care system is financed by government (tax payment). Hospitals are owned by government and private companies. Low cost per capita.

The people are 100% insured. Only the government pays. This leads to high deficit (£700 in 2006.) Public insurance accounts for 90%, and private insurance accounts for 10%. Physicians are limited; only the government chooses the doctors. The problem that occurs is that there is a long waiting list. 750,000 people waiting for hospital administration.

In Germany, the government uses the Bismarck Model. Public insurance are for people that has low income ( <  €4,350 monthly.) The funds for health care are taken from salary (tax.) The patient only pays 10% of the bill. It is a simple and stress-free system. On the other hand, people with higher income ( > €52,200 a year.) There is no waiting but the procedure is complicated. You need proofs to get this. 

In Canada, the government uses the National Insurance Model, which is the model that people feel happy with the most. 90% of the population in Canada feels happy with their current health care system. It is a non-profit, fully insured, equality, potability, and reasonable access. Private health care is also available as a supplement to public healthcare. It is offered as a part of employee package. 

In poor, developing countries, there isn't a proper health care system. It is mostly out-of-pocket model. People have to pay for their health care, and they have to rely on international aid. The government of Liberia collapsed due to civil war, which led to health care system disbandment. 

The general rule is that developed countries have high-quality health care system, and developing countries have a low-quality health care system. People should have an equal chance to get health care. Even people who are not employed, to a degree, can have health care. The solution is that there should be equality. Everyone deserves an equal chance. Unemployed people can get health care, but they can only be treated to a certain degree. They would not get access to higher health care if they do not pay for it. Preventing diseases is another possibility. Rather than curing, we should prevent diseases before they go viral. The Ebola outbreak recently is a serious problem in the world at the moment, but if we prevented it, the disease would not have been contagious. We will see many development in the field of medical, and it would be much more effective than the current systems that we have right now.

Drugs: Weapons of Mass Destruction

        Throughout history, drugs were created mostly for medical use, like heroin, LSD, etc., but eventually they were abused to satisfy the human need for satisfaction, profound sensational feelings that are "out of this world."

       Drugs are commonly referred to medicines in the field of health and pharmacy, but drugs can also be addictive substances that cause many terrible effects. A brief history about drugs to show how human have turned to misuse these narcotics.

In 1839, the British Empire started a war with China because China rejected the legalization of opium in their country. Another war started in 1856; Britain, United States, and France allied to defeat China for the same reason: legalizing opium trade.

Heroin was created by a chemist in 1874, but not commercially produced until 1898 by Bayer Pharmaceutical Company. Heroin was created to replace morphine due to addictive problem, but heroin turned out to be even more addictive than morphine and was first classified illegal by the US.

LSD are used in psychological treatment, religious usage, etc. but people used it for recreational use as well.

Drugs were developed, and abused by human to satisfy their needs. Consequently, they are blinded by their lust for ecstasy. Detrimental effects invaded their bodies, destroying vital organs and creating illusions. For example: Heroin can destroy the liver, heart, lungs, brain. There are many other effects than change the appearance of an individual. Here is an example:

Methamphetamine is another common drug. Crystal meth is illegal around the world. It has terrible effects on human: Increased sweating, dry mouth, high blood pressure, dizziness, etc. One virulent effect of meth is meth mouth. People who uses meth frequently lose their teeth after a certain period of time. Before losing them their teeth would turn yellow and look like they are rotten.

Drugs can have malicious effect on human when abused, but they are used as a tool to make illicit wealth as well. The drug industry is the most profitable illegal industry. Many wars and clashes happened because of it. People trying to buy drugs, or take over territory to expand their drug trading activities. In Columbia about 6 months ago, police captured 7 tons of cocaine on its way to Netherlands port. They were labelled as motors part such as KIA, Yamaha, etc.

Drug should always prohibited for its belligerent effects. Many lives have changed due to drug addiction, and they would never feel the same way before again.

Science and Technology

         Science and technology have advanced to another level that we have never seen before. In the late 1990's, people could only dream of mobile cellular phones from Star Trek, flying cars, surfing boards, etc. But some of them had came true, and we now live in a world full of technology. We have inclined them in our daily use, and human kind would never be the same if there weren't any advancement in the field of technological science.

       We do not truly pay attention to the objects that are around us, but they are the technological advance that many people in the past did not have. Laptops, smartphones, wifi, internet, air conditioner, earphones, smart watch, 4K TV, etc. These inventions helped our lives get easier in so many ways. That help us work more efficient, be more productive, and more transcendent. Since the 20th century, thousands of inventions were invented, and they drastically changed our lives. One of the most popular innovations was the television.

In 1925, John Logie Baird showcased the first working television. The television evolved through periods of time, now we see the most advanced TVs with various display panels (LED, OLED, etc.)

Amongst these popular inventions, there is one exceptional, peculiar innovation: Instant noodle. Instant noodle can be misunderstood as a product of China since they are famous for noodle. But instant noodle came from Japan. A brief history of the product is when Japan was trying to recover their country after World War II, the government tried to subsidize the population with bread for food. But the Japanese people are inclined to eating ramen noodles, they refused to eat bread. There would be a long line of people waiting for noodles. Momofuku Ando saw this scenario and thought of instant noodle. He invented it under the brand Nissin. At that time, instant noodle was sold for 35 Yen, and was considered a luxury.

Without instant noodle, Japan might have been crippled with its work force too starved to work. Instant noodle saved lives, and when the Japan was asked which invention was the pride of their country, Japan said: "Instant noodle." As fascinating as inventions are, there are detrimental weapons that have been developed and could one day eradicate humanity.

After World War II and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US had introduced to the world the beginning of nuclear warfare. Followed up after the World War was the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. They developed many different kinds of weapons and methods of defense against one another, in fear of a mass invasion. Now many countries possessed nuclear weapons, and it is estimated that each person on Earth, including children and infants, are living on 10 megaton of TNT.

Many more weapons of mass destruction are produced and experimented everyday. They could keep us safe, but they could be our demise. Humans have created weapons that would help them defend, but also help them destroy what they want to defend. We all need to be careful of what we fiddle with, for it will come back and bring us utter fear. Technology and Science can help us have an easier life, but not necessarily a better life. We will abuse these inventions. We will protrude our limitations, and surely we will face the consequences that we do not know.

Piracy

Piracy has been around for a long time, tracing back to 14th century BC. But piracy has two forms: Physical and Intellectual. Physical piracy involves robbing and killing people at sea. In the old days, pirates used ships with cannons to take down other ships, along with boarding that ship and raiding for goods. Infamously, Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart) was the most successful pirate in history. He successfully captured 470 vessels in the Golden Age of Pirate.

Now, in the modern world, pirate is mostly associated with Somalia. Since the central government collapsed, and the Somali Navy was disbanded, pirates decimated the sea of Somali. The pirates target any ships that slip into their zone. Hollywood had brought this situation to us through the movie "Captain Phillips" which truly gained the attention of many viewers as well as emphasizing the severity of the situation in Somali.

Next is Intellectual piracy. This is the piracy which people steal from producers of programs, movies, etc. and publish them for free for the programs require payment to access. ThePirateBay is a notable example of intellectual piracy. Started since 2003, ThePirateBay has established a network that specialize in pirating any programs, movies, music, etc. out there and release them on the internet so everyone can access them. 

Piracy has led to companies losing millions of dollars. Pirates have a belief that materials should be free on the internet for everyone to use. For example: An Adobe software package would cost 1000$, but go to thepiratebay.se right now and get it for FREE! The founders of the site had been trialed and imprisoned for mass piracy. They are Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, and Carl Lundstrom. Although they have all been imprisoned, the site kept on living since the founders have established servers all around the world, meaning that it would go on to live forever. The government had tried to take down the sight but failed miserably. In the US, piracy is fought immensely by many companies, but they have the largest number of people pirating: 3 million people.

Failing to fight the trend, companies changed their tactics to adapt to the situation. Nothing could stop the army of piracy, even the government. Piracy, although considered a crime, if used with innocuous purpose would be a boon to many people that do not have suitable condition to pay for these products. In our lives, we probably had pirated a product from the internet, one way or another, so are we all criminals that have committed a "felony?"

Unfair Distribution of Wealth

Unfair distribution of wealth has created a big difference between the rich and the poor. 80% of the world population has only 20% of the wealth, but 20% of the world population has up to 80% of the wealth.

There are no actual cause, but the difference of wealth between rich and poor people started to increase after the Industrial Revolution. Rich countries say that they invest in poor countries and help them develop, but in fact, they take out from developing countries 2 trillion dollars each year. The top 20% of the wealthiest people have almost all the wealth, while the bottom 20% do not have enough money for medications, education, etc.

 Some people might say a CEO that makes 1 million a year works harder than a construction worker that makes 40,000$ a year, but that is a misunderstanding that people do not know about. CEOs do not necessarily work harder than construction workers. A CEO might sit at their office for 8 hours a day, have other people do their work, and still get paid with top notch salary. While the construction worker works 8 hours a day, that person does not make enough to pay for their basic needs, which leads to this person working overtime, summing up 12 hours a day. The construction worker has to work in harsh condition under extreme weather. There are also risks of getting injured, or lost of life. Why do CEOs get paid higher than construction workers while clearly the workers do much more work? CEOs need high demand of intellectual knowledge to be able to run a company and control the people under them, while a construction worker just receive an order and do as the higher ranking commander says. Impecunious has lead people into poverty, and without any proper needs provided.

The government steps in to somewhat bring balance to society. The government taxes rich people a higher rate. The bigger the salary, the bigger the tax. Charity could be opened to support people in dire needs. Many other solutions have been provided to extricate the bottom 20% from poverty.

Unfair distribution is a problem that is debated in the world at the moment. It is a necessity that we take it with utmost seriousness and obligation. We need to act now, for every second we waste, more people are falling under the poverty line, and the people that are under that line are despondent for our aid.

Update: Our class has started a donation campaign and we have raised 1,085,000 VNĐ along with 1 dollar. Some of the members had been very generous with their donation and showed great elan towards this project. Thank you all.