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2012년 10월 29일 월요일

Monthly TOEFL #2: Illness- a dramatic change


     What is the most fatal, inevitable enemy of all living things? Of all life-threatening matters, the answer is disease. Humans, especially, have coexisted with it, trying to research, find treatments, and overcome it. Thus, as technology developed more and more, people were able to find better and more effective cure for diseases, resulting in lengthened life expectancy. Similarly, I believe the largest change in 21st century is disease, in both positive and negative ways.
     To begin with, some of the incurable diseases wouldn’t be called the same in 21st century. As I mentioned earlier, humans are able to conquer diverse illnesses through constantly growing technology. Humans have done so until today, so there’s no doubt that more diseases would be overcome. To give an example of the incurable disease in past, pest, best known as black plague, was one of the biggest threats to Europeans in mid-14th century. Millions of people lost their lives, and there was no hope at the time, as no one could figure out the cause of it. However, today, pest isn’t even conceived as a serious disease since vaccine was invented. Scientists were able to verify the cause through microscope, and inhibited the potentially dangerous germs from harming humans. Likewise, in 2012, there are lots of diseases thought to be formidable and insurmountable, such as AIDS and cancer. Though countless people are suffering from them these days, through extreme advance in technology in this century, I expect these diseases to take the same path as pest, and even longer life expectancy for humans.
     On the other hand, developments in 21st century may even worsen the ‘disease matter’. To be specific, extreme developments today have harmed the environment largely. The thing is that the environment is not the only target. Humans are also influenced by boomerang effect, and the best example is cancer. Although cancer is known to be a contemporary disease, it is not, as an ancient Egyptian was found to have carried cancer when he was alive. However, it was not a usual disease for Egyptians, and such informs us that some change brought increase in occurrence of cancer, which is human activity. In fact, there are numerous evidences showing how human activity can affect cancer cells to be more active. As humans are always looking forward to advance in their civilizations, more pollution is being generated every second. Although humans might overcome the present diseases in the future, at the same time, it is possible for them to resurrect the deadly illnesses that haven’t been found yet.
     To sum up, 21st century will open up a new age for diseases through vast enhancement in technology and development. However, it is not sure whether the situation would improve or deteriorate, as the chances are fifty-fifty. Whether it would be an innovation or a disaster, humans must be ready to absorb such changes in disease on the upcoming 21st century.
2012년 10월 25일 목요일

Earthlings movie review


As a student in KMLA, I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at this school. Every time I do, there is always meat to meet the nutrition balance. Similarly, most of people cannot imagine their meals without meat. The point is that the humankind is just accustomed to eating it, from the beginning of human’s existence. Though it wasn’t the same method, humans did hunt, feed, and enjoyed entertainment on animals in the long past. Thus, my opinion is that modern humans cannot blame themselves of feeding on animals. It is not a problem, and the mass livestock industry itself is understandable as the human population has increased massively nowadays. Instead, the issues I want to bring up are the inhumane, modern method of livestock industry, and people’s perception about these matters.
           The first serious matter in today’s livestock industry is the brutal method of it. Mainly, it can be divided into two parts: breeding and killing. To begin with breeding, animals are kept in captivity, inhibiting their will to move freely. Moreover, often, there is not much space in a cage, providing livestock extremely crowded and uncomfortable environment. Consequently, animals develop body parts humans want, and sometimes, one gets slaughtered without experiencing anything other than the cage. This fact that animals are locked up in a factory and get killed makes the relationship between animals and humans unfair. In past, the justification people proposed after killing animals was ‘coexistence’. Saying all animals are in the same position, humans emphasized that animal meats are just products of competition between species. They also mentioned that it is reversible, that animals can always take humans. However, is it really reversible today? Taking a glimpse at the livestock industry proves it is not. Technology has developed, and so did the weaponry. Along with the captivation techniques, weaponry allows human literally to control over any animal, and jail it. Such an unjust, cruel breeding method differentiates the positions human and animals are in, even inflicting tremendous pain to animals. If humans want to make an excuse for utilizing and feeding on animals, they should stop using these breeding methods, and let animals absorb into nature.
           To add, humans better choose alternative means to kill these animals when utilizing and eating them. As I mentioned earlier, humans breed these animals, so that they can do anything they want, whenever they want to. If that’s so, isn’t it the least courtesy to do kill them without pain? According to the movie, ‘Earthlings’, it is stated that due to monetary problems, livestock industries cannot adopt anesthesia in their process. Humans, therefore, are not even providing animals the least favor they can. As a result, animals are being massacred with such an enormous agony that humans can’t even think of. Moreover, there was this one killing method called, ’shecita’, in other words ‘kosher slaughter’, which is claimed to be religious and sacred. It uses special equipment for killing, which allows humans to drain the blood out first without touching it. The thing is, I’ve seen these kinds of equipment only in gore movies like ‘Saw’, not in real. I’ve never imagined such delicate, cruel equipment designed for butchery would exist in real. Such apparatus’s existence displays us the cruelty of human nature, suggesting how brutal humans can be if the subject is not humankind. This action, I believe, will not be limited to animals, and such violent nature has potential to cause lots of problems if it’s expressed to humans directly in the future. Consequently, these cruel equipment and methods of killing should be inhibited before more people get influenced through them. Ultimately, if modern humans want to make the least justification and not cause problems to overall society, humans should find less-painful means when slaughtering animals.
           Last, but most importantly, people’s perception about livestock industries must change. Some of the shocking scenes in the movie were that children and all people working in such industries consider animal slaughter as a natural process. Especially, it was surprising to see how children were considering killing dolphins as a spectacle. What such reality tells us is that problems I stated above are not being recognized by people, even the ones who kill animals. However, awareness is the most essential factor to fix these problems. If it doesn’t exist, the reality will continue until the balance between nature and humans collapse. It would be too late when we realize it, so humans must try hard to see the reality critically right now. Through various means such as campaigns, people should stop thinking brutal animal slaughter as a reasonable affair.
           Since humans walked on two feet and used tools by hands, they attained higher position than any other animals. The thing is, however, it does not mean they can breed, captivate, and kill them so brutally. Though people got accustomed to eating meat, they should never get used to doing these cruel things. Therefore, the movie ‘Earthlings’ is a great, extreme warning towards people considering slaughter as a natural work. As it suggests people to change their perspectives, not their eating habits, I firmly believe it is a well-motivating film to change the world.





No links used. All my thought! :)