Capital Punishment

  Capital punishment is also known as death penalty or execution. It refers to the sentence of death upon a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offence. Capital punishment has in the past been practiced by most societies. Although currently only 58 nations actively practice it, with 95 countries having abolished it. A study by Isaac Ehrlich which found that the murder rate responded to change in the likelihood of execution. He concluded that 7 or 8 murders were prevented by each execution from 1933 to 1967. Crimes that would be punished by capital punishment are murder, burger, act of terrorism, treason and human trafficking. I support capital punishment because of retribution, incapacitation and deterrence.

  First and foremost, retribution is an act of punishment or taking vengeance for wrong doing, sin or injury. The purpose of retribution is actively to injure criminal offenders, ideally in proportion with their injuries to society and so expiate them of guilty. Retribution states that real justice requires people to suffer for their wrongdoing and to suffer in a way appropriate for the crime. Each criminal should get what crime deserves and in the case of a murderer what their crime deserves is death. Friends or family of the victims feels that a wrong has been committed and demands “equal” suffering to “repay” that wrong. Retribution has its basis in religions values, which have historically maintained that it is proper to take “an eye for an eye” and a life for a life.

  Besides, incapacitation is an argument for capital punishment. Incapacitation refers to the effect of a sentence in term of positively preventing future offending. It takes away a person’s freedom so that he or she cannot commit another crime.  Incapacitation permanently removes the worst criminal from society and should prove much safer for the rest of us than long term or permanent incarceration. It is self evident that dead criminal cannot commit any further crimes.

  Furthermore, deterrence is the notion that by administering punishment to offenders. It can cause fear in both the offenders and others so that they will not want to commit crimes in the future. According to the argument, the presence of the death penalty ought to reduce a wide variety of criminal acts. The death penalty is much more likely to be a deterrent where the crime requires planning and the potential criminal has time to think about the consequences. When the crime is committed there is no likelihood that any punishment will act as a deterrent.

  In conclusion, I strongly support capital punishment because of the above reason. However, we must have strong evidence to tell that the person have done the criminal. Without verification we cannot prove that the person is wrong or right. Someone maybe is an innocent people.

Should euthanasia be legalized?

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life to relieve pain and suffering for his or her alleged benefit. Euthanasia has become an issue that highly controversial in this few years. Euthanasia should be legalized because it let people leave this world with dignity instead of dying slowly and painfully. Life is different to every people. It is a good idea for people to end their pain due to they will suffered very much if they alive. So, I think people should have choice to end their life instead of suffering their pain. It is because everyone has their choice not to suffer from pain, reduce their family financial burden and allows people to die with dignity.

  Firstly, everyone has their right to choose not to suffer from pain, they have the right to decide how there are going to live their life. We do not know how their pain and we cannot reduce their pain, so we must let them choose their choice. When they suffer from illness or diseases, there are no medicines to cure their diseases or illnesses, it is better for them to end their life. This is because we can let them die peacefully and then do not need to suffer for a few years lying on the bed. It is difficult for them to lie on the bed and could not do any things.

  Next, euthanasia should be legalizes due to it reduce the patient’s family financial burden. This can be a very real reason to stop the medical treatment. Some family cannot afford the medical fees and the medical is very expensive as the patients live in the hospital for a few years. If a teenager gets into a car accident and there is no chance for him to live outside the hospital, why we do not let him end his life? We can use his organ to save more people in the world. It is beneficial. First, the family does not need to have financial burden and next, we can save the other people life as we donate that person organ.

  Furthermore, I support euthanasia should be allowed because it allows people die with dignity.  Some diseases already cannot cure by medicine and the diseases may let the patient suffer for their rest on their life. Slowly the diseases becoming more serious, the patient will probably could not walk. It is not meaningful for people who live in the world but cannot do anything. They only can lie on the bed and sleep most of the time. It will cause them feel sad about what their life is. Therefore, euthanasia will help them die with dignity.

  In conclusion, euthanasia should be legalized with the above reason. However, some rules and regulation must follow in order to legalize the euthanasia. For example, doctor and family signature must have with the purpose of people abuse euthanasia.  

Analyze the possible cause of conflict?

Nowadays, we can find conflict everywhere and every time. So, we must avoid conflict happen and we must learn how to deal with it. Conflict can be arising between couples, peer, political government and coworkers. What is conflict? Conflict can be defined as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs. Conflict arises because of fighting over something with perceived value, ignorance or indifference to the other people’s needs and feeling, and misunderstanding.

  Firstly, fighting over something with perceived value can cause the conflict to arise. It can cause by fighting over boys or girls and career position. For example, workers do not satisfy with their position or salary in the company. They think they can get higher income and can have a higher position in the company. Sometimes, they might think they can have a higher position than the other coworkers because they have more experience than the others. There is only one possible position to them but all the workers want to have it. Therefore, conflict can arise fighting.

  Next, conflict can arise because of ignorance or indifference to the majority people’s needs and feelings. Sometimes, smoking in the room cause quarrel between roommates. Many people do not like the fames of smoke because it is unhealthy for everybody. They will not like the smell of smoke. So, people smoke inside the room that do not care of the other roommate feeling will cause the conflict to be happen. Another example is teammate do not want to participate in the project, he or she contribute the workload to the leader. The workload would feel no happy about that because he needs to do all the teammate’s work.

  Moreover, misunderstanding also other causes would cause the conflict to happen. White lies being discovered is the example of the conflict happen. People who tell white lies is because they do not want the people feel sad. So, they force to tell white lies to them but the people think they are being cheated. Misunderstanding will take place in this case. Misunderstanding will not occur if we think the other ways and that people’s point of view.

  In conclusion, we can reduce conflict happen by learning how to deal with it. Conflict will not happen when we have a discussion with another people. This is because we can reduce the conflict happen.

Movie Review – Life is Beautiful

Plot Synopsis:

Life is beautiful is 1997 Italian film. This movie is about a Jewish man, Guido who employs his fertile imagination to help his family during their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.

Plot Outline:

 The story begins with two young men, Guido and Ferruccio driving car to an Italian city, Tuscan. The car suddenly breaks down. Ferruccio repairs the car where as Guido went to a nearby farm. A girl, Dora falls from a barn. She falls into Guido’s arm. He called her princess because Guido does not know her name. When they reach the city, Guido wants to open a bookstore but he need to have permission by the councilor but he make the councilor angry. Guido always meets Dora. At a time, he falls into Dora from a bike. This make them fall in love with each other. He fall in love to the princess, Dora but she is going to marry to the councilor that he wanted to get the permission from. Dora likes Guido but she wants to remain faithful to her fiancé. When Guido works as a waiter, he meets a school inspector who is going to visit a school –Dora is a teacher in that school. He wake up early and acts as the inspector. In the school, Guido makes funny action to make Dora laugh. Guido knows Dora is going to marry the councilor, he went to their party and rescue her from marrying that guy. After five years, Guido and Dora have a son, Joshua. Guido owns a bookstore. He always sends Dora to work then he will go to open the shop. One day, The Germans come to bring Guido and Joshua away because they are Jewish but his wife is not a Jewish and she chooses to go with them. They need to go for a German concentration camp. Guido and Joshua separate with Dora. Dora forces to go with the other female prisoners. Guido tells Joshua that the concentration camp is only a game and they need to win the game. Guido forces to work in the iron works at the concentration camp. He feels tired after he work for the whole day but he always make himself happy because he want Joshua to know this is only a game. On the other hand, Dora wants to with their family so she chooses to go the camp.

Character:

Guido

He is a Jewish man. He is Dora’s husband and father of Joshua. He protects his family when they face obstacles. When his son and he forced to the concentration camp, he tells his son that this is a game if they win the competition they can take a big tank back home as a present for his son. He tries to tell lies to his son because he does not want Joshua to what bad thing is really happening. Besides that, he also wants to protect his son from the horrors they are undergoing.

Dora

She is Guido’s wife and Joshua’s mother. She is beautiful woman. Guido calls her princess at the first time he meets her. She loves her family very much. Although she is not a Jewish, she chooses to go to the concentration camp with her family because she does not want to separate from her husband and son.

Joshua

He is 5 years old children. He is Guido and Dora’s son. He is also a Jewish therefore he needs to go for the concentration camp with his father.

Reviewer’s Respond:

At first, I thought the movie is not good but after I watch it I realize that the movie sound interesting. The movie is interesting because it tells me about family is important and loves between family. In the movie, Dora chooses to go to the concentration camp because she wants to be with her family.  In addition, it also portray where there is a will, there is a way. At the first of the movie, Guido wants to open a bookstore but he does not success. After a few years, he has his own bookstore. So, if we want to success, we must try our best to get it. Overall I think this is a good movie for the reason that it portrays love and protect family from facing obstacles.

How does an individual’s definition of “needs” differ from one another?

  Need is something that is important and essential for us. We lack of something so we want a need to fulfill it. Everyone has their own opinion and point of view about the definition of needs. It refers to things that we must have and it must with us whenever we go. Different need is essential for people when they are in different situation. For example, some people lack love from their family therefore they need love from family. Need will change after we get the thing that we needed. According to Maslow hierarchy of needs, we can category needs into physiological needs, safety needs and esteem needs.

  Firstly, physiological needs are the needs that we required in our life for our body. It is the most important things for us. Air, food and water are the example of physiological needs. Physiological needs are located at the bottom of the pyramid in the Maslow hierarchy of needs. It needed to function our body system and it is the basis things that we needed as well as we are surviving.  In South America, many people do not have enough food to eat. So, they need food to survive. Everybody also needs sleep. They need enough sleep to conserve energy. According to a University of California, San Diego’s study, sleeping more than 7 to 8 hours per day has been consistently associated with increased mortality.

  Furthermore, safety needs such as health is closely tied to the consequence of satisfying the physiological needs. It can refer to both psychological and physical needs. Safety needs located in the second of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in the pyramid. Safety needs include safety of family, safety of health, and safety of morality. We need to have a comfortable shelter likes a house to sleep and avoid from the sun and rain. People who have a poor health need more money to treat their illness to lead to a healthier body. Therefore health is important to us and we need to take good care of our body to avoid from disease.

  In addition, esteem needs is on the second top of the pyramid and it refers to more individualistic needs for accomplishment. This is only essential for us after we had satisfied all three needs. Self-esteem, confidence, achievement, and respect by others are example of esteem needs. We desire to have a success achievement thus we can have a nice memory and will not feel regretful. For example, students need confident in their test and they need confident when they participate in the competition. This need will come after they have fulfilled the physiological, safety and love needs and it is not an essential for everyone.

  In the nutshell, Maslow has categorized need into five category such as physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs. Physiological needs will come first whereas self-actualization will come after. Everyone have different needs and they will decide which need they are going to have. So, everyone have their own opinion about needs. We need to satisfy the bottom needs that located in the pyramid before going to the higher level of the pyramid.

    

How can success be defined?

  Everyone wants to success but not a failure. Everyone have their own point of view about success. How can success be defined? Success can be categorized into 6 different. There are puritan, materialistic, power, spiritual, contributor and escapist. According to Stephen Covey, “Success is when the response meets the challenge”. Success is a journey, not a destination. After we have success, we want to be more success than before. People can succeed in many different ways like materialistic, contributor and power.

  Firstly, many people would like to have materialistic success because they can buy what they like such as luxury house and car as well as things that other people cannot have. Materialistic success is they want to gain as much luxury and status as possible so they fill they are success in their life. Bill Gates, Walt Disney and Henry Ford are famous business people who earn a lot of money in their life. They are success because of , earning a lot of money. They face a big obstacles before they success.

  In addition, people can succeed as a contributor. Bill Gates also is a contributor who creates a better world for other people. Bill Gates has founded a charity organization that donates hundreds of millions of dollars a year. He is a success contributor. Some people who had success and became a business person, he will do charity to help adults and children in South Africa. They think financial is not a success and they want the world to be better and live a happy life.

  Last but not least, there are people who success in power. They want to gain as much control as possible to control all the people. Barack Obama is the president of the United States. He has many powers such as administrative powers, juridical powers and war and foreign affairs powers. People who have power think that they are success because they can control people’s money and control people by law.

  In conclusion, success is not an easy thing we can easily achieve. We need to work hard to become a successful person. According to Albert Schweitzer “success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful”. I think success is having a happy life and a healthy body.

Stress

  Nowadays, over 19 million Americans are currently suffering from stress. According to the National Health Interview Survey, there are 75% of the general population experiences at least “some stress” every two weeks. People suffer from stress has increase rapidly this few years. What is stress? Stress is a normal physical response to events that make us feel threatened or upset. There are positive stress and negative stress. Positive stress is useful and needed because it can motivate us whereas negative stress can lead us to serious mental problems. Therefore, suitable and enough stress is essential for everyone. Stress can cause by financial problems, academics and time management.

  First and foremost, financial problem is the main cause for all adults. They need to create a family budget to avoid over expenses. Financial stress is a sadly experience. According to several polls, roughly 7 in 10 of the respondents are “stressful” about money and the amounts of people feel stress about financial problem is increasing. This problem can cause people to have health problem such as unable to sleep, headache and feel sad. Debt is a big problem for adults because they have credit card payments. Rising prices of food this days and education fees of their children are other problems for the poor. Therefore they need to minimize their expenditure. Besides, they need to have a higher income to avoid financial stress. The best ways to deal with financial stress is develop an investment plan and learn about implementing system that can help us.

  Furthermore, alphabetically first among the causes of stress on students is academic stress. Young people experience stress at a high rate in a survey shown by Associated Press / MTV. Among 13-17 year olds, academic is the most commonly stress for them. Students feel stress about their assignment, exams, fear of failure and the amounts of schoolwork. Students also need to engage in extracurricular activities and they need to get good results in their academic. So, they will feel stress about it. Students can control the impact of academic stress on their life by organize how they use their time. They can involve activities and people that they enjoy with to reduce their stress. They also need to schedule when to start their assignment. Every problem has its solution; the problem is where to find it.

  In addition, a lack of time management also cause stress on people. They need to balance their work, peer activities, home life and others. It can be difficult for us to balance it. Time and tide wait for no men. So, we need to organize time. Effective time management will help us get more done each day. By managing our time wisely, we can minimize our stress beside improve our quality of life. On the other hand, time management stress can motivate us to complete things on time. So we can be at peace with time. We can set long term goals which is challenging but realistic. Moreover, we can plan and write a to-do list. This can reduce our last-minute rushes. We can also take a short break when doing heavy task. We need to structure time for healthy living habits such as exercise and swimming. All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.

  In a nutshell, stress may be affecting our health even though we do not realize it. Stress can affect our body, feelings and behavior. We cannot eliminate stress from our life, but we can control how much stress can affect us. Yoga, deep breathing can help us to relax. A strong network of supportive friends and family members is an enormous buffer against stress. Long-term expose to stress can lead to a serious health problem. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain and leaving us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. Last, laughter is the best medicine for stress.

Movie Review - Grave of the Fireflies

Synopsis :

It is a Japanese animated war movie. It talks about the relationship between two siblings. Seita is a pre-teen boy and Setsuko is his sister. She is only a kid. Their parents die when they are young. After their parents die, they live with their aunt. Their aunt sells their mother’s kimono to get white rice. At first, their aunt give white rice for them to eat, after some time their aunt refuse to give them rice. The aunt call them write letter to their relative in Tokyo and call them to leave. They move out to a shelter and leave on their own. Setsuko has diarrhea. Her body is full of red dots. The doctor says her sister needs food to recover. Seita go down the mountain to buy some food for his sister. When he comes back Setsuko lying on the floor and there is a marble in her mouth. Seita give her food and lastly she die. He feels sad for his sister. Seita put his sister’s ashes in the sweet box.

Plot Outline :

Exposition
The story takes place in Japan when it is World War 2 on Kobe, 5 June 1945. The movie begins in a station, which Seita lying on the floor. Then, he dies at there. A man come to wake up him but he already die. That man takes a tin from his pocket and throws it out from the window. After that, Seita, Setsuko and fireflies come out from the candy tin.
Rising Action
Setsuko and Seita’s mother leave the house first to a bomb shelter. Seita bury their leftover supplies in front of their house’s ground. After he had buried the food, he quickly brings his sister, Setsuko to leave the house. When they are going to the shelter, they caught by firebombs and air raid but they are survive. All the house is burned only left Kaisei Hospital survive. Their mother has heart problem. Unluckily, their mother dies. She is brought to a hospital and she dies at there. There are many worms on their mother’s body. Seita keeps his mother’s ring. Seita writes letter to his father. They move to aunt’s aunt house. Their aunt convinces them to sell their mother’s kimonos to buy white rice. Seita go back home to take the leftover that bury on the ground. Then, he gives all the food to his aunt.
Climax
After the foods do not left much, their aunt does not want to give food to them because they do not do anything. Their aunt tells them to find their relative in Tokyo. Seita has 7000 yen so they can live on their own. Seita goes to buy stove and he finds an abandoned shelter. So, they move in. At night, Setsuko cry because there is no light. They fill the shelter with fireflies. The next day, all the fireflies die. Setsuko digs a hole and bury them. She asks why fireflies die and why her mother dies. Seita feels sad about that.
Falling Action
The farmer does not want to sell food to Seito, so Seita want to steal food. He catches by the farmer. The farmer beats him seriously and brings him to police station. After that, Setsuko ill. She has red spots on her body. She has diarrhea. Seita brings Setsuko to see the doctor. The doctor says his sister only needs food to recover. Seita withdraws his mother’s money. At that time, he only knows that his father had died.
Resolution
Seita goes down the mountain to buy many foods for his sister. When he returns to the shelter, he sees his sister lying on the floor. Setsuko put a marble in her mouth. Seita gives his sister a piece of watermelon. Unfortunately, Setsuko die because of hungry. Seita put his sister ashes in the candy tin.

Character Description :


Seita
He is a pre-teen boy. About 14 years old. He is Setsuko’s Brother. His mother dies in the war. After the bomb and the black rain, he becomes an orphan.
Setsuko
She is a kid and she is only 4 years old. Her brother is Seita. She also an orphan after the bomb. She loves to cry. She always cry because she miss her mother.
Aunt
She is Seita and Setsuko’s aunt. They live with their aunt after their mother dies.
Farmer
Seita buys food from him after he moves out from his aunt’s house.
Doctor
When Setsuko ill, Seita brings her to see the doctor.
Mother
She has heart problem. She dies because of the air raid.

Character Analysis :

Seita
He is a caring person. When the war is coming, he quickly calls his mother to go to the shelter first while he will bring his sister to go to the shelter later. Besides, he brings his sister to see the doctor when Setsuko ill. He also takes good care of his sister. He always makes his sister happy when she cries. When they live in the abandoned shelter there is no light in, he fills the shelter with fireflies to let his sister feels comfortable to sleep. He brings his sister to beach to play and cooks for his sister. He does not want to let Setsuko knows their mother dies because he scares she will feels sad. He is also a brave person. Although he is only 14 years old, he lives with his sister in an abandoned shelter.
Setsuko
She is helpful. She helps his brother to collect some branches for cooking. She is also an intelligent girl. Even though Seita does not tell her that mother had passed away, she knows about that and she does not want to let her brother know she knows about that.

Reviewer’s Response :

I like the movie because it is very touching. I think Seita is very caring and he looks like Setsuko’s father. Although he is only pre-teen he can takes good care of his sister. I feel sympathy for them because they become orphan. They are young and they already become orphan. I do not like their aunt because she does not like them. She sells their mother’s kimono to get white rice for all of them. At last, she does not want to let them eat white rice because she thinks they do nothing and everyday live at home. She calls them write letter to their relative in Tokyo.

Likes

In the era of urbanization and globalization, computer and internet is now popular in the whole world. Therefore, I like to search information through the internet. It is faster and convenient for me because I need not need to go library to find information. I just need to type some words and then press the button “search”, the answer will come out rapidly on the screen. I also like to online my facebook account and MSN or Skype to have a conversation with my friends. It is free and easy to access. I can access it by my hand phone or computer. Nowadays, many restaurants have Wi-Fi, so we can just online after we enjoy our dinner. In addition, I can keep in touch with my friends that live in other country. I like it because I can do it my past time.
Moreover, I enjoy watching movie with my friends and family. In my country, the ticket on every Wednesday is the cheapest and we can get discount on Monday to Friday whereas Saturday and Sunday‘s ticket is on the original price. So, I will go to cinema on Wednesday and sometimes I go to cinema on Monday. It can enhance my relationship with my family. Therefore, I can know more about my family likes what movie they will like to watch. This can show I know how much about them. I like to watch movie with my friends too! In consequence of this I can build my friendship with them while going out with friends for a movie or a cup of tea. Next, if I watch English movie, I can also learn English from the movie.
Travel all over the world is also one of my likes. I like to view the scene of the world because every place have different scene and I enjoy that feel. By travelling I can view the sightseeing of the country. Besides that, I can know their culture and the history of the country after I go to their museum. Travel can let me relax after I had study in the whole year. A school holiday is the time for me to travel. I can increase my knowledge after I go to the country. For an example, I went to the Dubai on the school holiday. I like their desert because the sand is very fine and soft. I like it very much. I have camel riding and henna painting in Dubai. I did not have this experience before. I also have sunset photographs when they drive us on the desert. The car went up and down. It was very exciting! I enjoy the tour very much.
Last but not least, I like to go to the beach because the wind there is very cold and cool. I can have many activities there such as picnic, swimming, build sand castle, and collect seashell. I enjoy the activities with my family members. I can go swimming with my siblings. I can keep my body slim and healthy by doing this exercise. Besides, I can take many pictures there for my memory. The sea is very clean and clear. I can collect many beautiful and unique seashells on the beach. The air in the beach is very fresh. It is not polluted by others. That is the time to let me breath in the fresh air that I could not breathe in the city.

Attitude toward writing

   I like and dislike writing because writing is slower than reading and talking. I like writing due to I do not need to pronounce it. If I read or talk I need to pronounce it accurately so that others will know what I am talking about. Besides, after I write, I can read it again and again to see whether it is correct or not. I can also remember it if I write it down. My handwriting can improve if I practice every day. On the other hands, I dislike writing because I need to spell all the words correctly. For an example, I use the word frequently but I could not remember how to spell it and I need to check it every time when I use it. Furthermore, I dislike writing because I do not have confident about what I want to write. As English is my second language in my country, so it is challenge for me to write. Sometimes, when writing an essay, I need to think very long and what I am going to write. I think writing has many stress for a student. As a student, I do not want to be stressful when I am studying. I want to have a memorable day in school and in my collage life. Nowadays, parents want their children to become clever and have a high performance in their studies, so they want their children work hard and write more. It is neutral for me on my attitude towards writing.