Corruption

"You drove on the wrong lane," says the man in pale yellow uniform, "Show me your license!"
"Oh," the smiling short man hands his license, "Here, officer."
The officer takes and looks at the license, then put some green paper under the license into his pocket. "Ok", the officer gives the man back his license, "I'll let you go this time."

The short story above may be true, may be not. However, corruption is an obvious issue around the world. Although there are many types of corruptions (petty, grand, systemic), defined based on situations, corruption, in general, is the use of money to illegally obtain something, whether in large scale or small scale.

1. What are the causes?
I don't know. Why are we people so greedy? It's in our nature! There is always something wrong with people! Prosperity is never enough. People want MORE money and power, and some of them don't mind getting their hands dirty. Those people are supported the immoral governments around the world. Despite the fact that corruption occurs everywhere, corruption seems to have higher rate in developing countries, such as Somalia, North Korea, and Afghanistan. As a consequence, poverty becomes both cause and result of corruption, and the vicious cycle begins, pulling the country down.

2. What are the effects?
Effects of corruption are both economically and socially detrimental. (Source: Transparency Ethiopia)
a. Economic effect: Corruption will lead to depletion to national wealth by conversing public wealth into personal wealth. It will also raise the costs of goods.
b. Social effect: Due to dishonesty, corruption "discourages people to work together for the common good." It also leads to inequality, increases gap between rich and poor.

3. What are the solutions?
- Change the government system: reduce monopoly and increase competition. The more centralized power is, the more likely corruption will happen.
- Report corruption: A hotline for reporting corruption should be held. Citizen should not be afraid to speak for themselves. However, reporting only works in a democratic government.

Natural Disasters

Many people were, are, and will be killed by the children of Mother Nature. Usually, they sleep. However, once they wake up, no one is safe from them - they will crush everything with their destructive forces without mercy. These deadly aggressive children are called "Natural Disaster".

 That was a pretty nice story for a children book, right? Let's get serious.
Natural disaster, according to Basic Planet, is "any catastrophic event caused by nature or the natural process of the Earth." Some examples are ...
Earthquake is sudden movement of the Earth's crust (outside layer) and followed by vibrations (seismic waves).

Volcanic Eruption: a disaster in which volcano releases gas, lava, and volcanic bomb. Volcanic eruption is caused by decompression of gas and magma-building process deep inside the Earth.

Drought is a abnormally prolonged dry season in which land loses water, causing damage to agriculture and ecosystem.

As the name describes itself, natural disaster is damaged cause by NATURE. However, HUMAN can actually worsen the situation, fostering the development of natural disaster. Blogger Ben Dennison highlighted six cases of human-made "natural" disasters. Here are example 3 cases from those 6.
#1 The Draining of Lake Peigneur 
in 1980, a group of ignorant drillers dug a whole on the salt mine, creating a whirlpool. Fortunately, no one died.

#2 The Boston Molassacre
In 1919, a molasses tank leaked. However, the worker ignored it. As the fermentation carried on, carbon dioxide began to build up. Under pressure, rivets eventually shot out of the tank, resulting in a disaster.

#3 Vajont Dam
In 1963, due to the stubborn ignorance of SADE (an Italian energy company) who built a massive dam, the dam was broken by landslide and rain, creating 750 foot-tall wave that wiped out the villages of Erto and Casso.

These 3 case are disasters that were caused by human stupidity and damaged as much as a natural disaster could do. As the famous Einstein said, "two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity".

Well said, Einstein!
So, how can people stop or at least alleviate "natural" and "human made" disasters?
For natural disaster, we cannot stop it since we do not actually "cause" it. However, we can reduce the damage in several ways:
1. Staying away from disaster-prone areas. It is common sense: people see danger, people run away.
2. Preparing for the disasters. It is obviously stupid to live in places where disasters definitely occur. However, sometimes, we don't have choice. For example, Vietnamese who live in middle of the countries have nowhere else to go. It is their homeland where they are born. Therefore, to survive in such a place of flood, they must have some ways to protect themselves. For instance, they built lake to contain extra water from flood season to use later in dry season. Also, they are used to the flood, therefore survive easily: it's the amazing gift of adaptation!

For disasters caused by human stupidity, well, what is the solution? Get smart, I guess...

Clean Water Crisis for Human

Do you know that ... 

1. "884 million people in the world lack access to safe water supplies.

1. 3.5 million people die each year from water-related disease.

1. Almost 2 in 3 people who need safe drinking water survive on less than $2 a day.

1. In many developing countries, women and girls walk on average over 3.5 miles each day to fetch water. Women often spend more than 15 hours per week gathering water.

1. Every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related disease."

DoSomething

Clean water crisis is a truly serious problem that modern world has to face. The name itself describes the problem: many people around the world do not have access to water, a fundamental element of human needs. According to DrinkingWater, 

"Each person on Earth requires at least 20 to 50 liters of clean, safe water a day for drinking, cooking, and simply keeping themselves clean."

Unprocessed (dirty) water is cleant through sanitation.

However, in some poor areas, the sanitation is not effective or not even available. Those "poor areas" include...

... Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, and many other African countries. People, especially children and women, in those areas experienced severe diarrhea and even death because there are a lot of bacteria in the water that are not sterile.

What can we do to help? Governments around the world are trying to improve the sanitation systems and make them available for everyone. In small scale, each of us can help alleviating the clean water crisis by saving water:
- Turn tap off while brushing teeth, shaving,...
- Take short shower
- Do not overwater the garden

Deforestation

What is it that destroys human lungs? Smoking. What is it that destroys world lungs? Deforestation. According to LiveScience, deforestation is the "permanent destruction of forests". In other words, deforestation appeals as the form of malicious vapor of nicotine to forests, the world lungs.
1. Where are this vapor going to? Everywhere.

"Deforestation occurs around the world, though tropical rainforests are particularly targeted. Countries with significant deforestation currently or in the recent past include Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other parts of Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe"

LiveScience 

2. What are the causes of deforestation? Why are we killing ourselves? AGRICULTURE! Areas of forests have been decreased for farming land and daily consumption of goods (such as paper)

Basically, we are killing ourselves to feed ourselves. Such a paradox! Another cause for deforestation is desertification in which sand blown by wind stops trees from growing and expands desert area. Simply put, desert "eats" forest.

3. Why is deforestation a serious problem? According to LiveScience, there are 5 effects:
Loss of species: Without habitats, animals will go extinct.
Water Cycle Disruption: Without trees holding back water, land will become drier.
Increase in Carbon Emission: Without natural lungs, amount of CO2 increases,
Soil Erosion: Without roots anchoring soil, loss of soil is inevitable.
Degradation of Life Quality: Without trees providing oxygen and holding water, human life will be damaged.

4. What are people doing to help?
Governments are establishing policies to protect the forest.
New farming method is developed to save space - Vertical Farming.
5. What can YOU do to help?
Save paper.

" If every US home replaced just one roll of paper towel with recycled paper towel, we would save 544,000 trees."

" Did you know that recycling one ton of paper saves 20 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, three cubic yards of landfill space, 60 pounds of air pollutants, and saves enough energy to power the average home for six months?"

GoingGreenToday 

Human Trafficking

What is the difference between a person and a box? What is the quality that distinguishes humans from things? CONSCIOUSNESS. Humans have the ability to think and feel. A "thing" that has intelligence and emotion should be appreciated, not sold around like piece of good. In the American Declaration of Independence and Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, 3 basic human rights are clearly stated: Liberty, Equality, and Pursuit of Happiness. However, there are devils around the worlds, in the form of humans, reaching their dirty sordid claws to innocent people. Those dirty hands are called HUMAN TRAFFICKING. People, just like you whoever is reading this, are being sold all over the world, like goods.

United Nations provides a closer look at human trafficking:

How is current worldwide situation? According to Combat Human Trafficking...

In 2012, in East Asia, about 1200 cases of Human Trafficking were RECORDED (even more cases were NOT recorded or remained unknown). How ignorant I was! When I was doing ordinary things of an ordinary life, many innocent people around the world was captured, beaten, and treated as sex slaves.
So why are these problems still around even when there are security forces?
Reason #1: Human trafficking is super lucrative.
Reason #2: Criminals are getting stealthier and adapting constantly to the regulation of laws and security.
Reason #3: Human trafficking is international, using the difference in laws as an advantage.
What are the solutions?
Solution #1: Donate to non-profit organizations to free slaves. This solution only works temporarily, and cannot put an end to human trafficking.
Solution #2: Use forces to oppress human trafficking. As mentioned above, criminals always becomes more clever and eventually find a way to hide from laws. Therefore, this solution is not an absolute one.
Solution #3: Educate people. Yes, smart people are harder to be tricked. However, knowledge only is not enough to fight against human trafficking. One still can be kidnapped no matter how smart she is since there is always someone smarter.
What are other solutions? What do I offer solutions to prove they don't work efficiently? I want to stress the point that human trafficking is based on human nature. The ugly truth: Humans are motivated by sex and money. Human trafficking offers both. If human nature doesn't change (which I personally believe is cannot change), human trafficking will still exist, known and unknown. It's all about HUMAN. Period.

International Trade

Nobody is perfect. Everyone needs help and relies on others.
Let's zoom out. What if a country is considered as a person? Does the rule of dependence still apply? Yes. Countries still need help from each other. A form of aid between countries is international trade - the exchange of goods and services between countries. "This type of trade gives rise to a world economy, in which prices, or supply and demand, affect and are affected by global events." (Investopedia)  International trade seems to be an ideal way for the whole world to develop.

However, there are certain limits of international trade. According to Preservearticles, there are 12 problems:
1. Distance
2. Different languages
3. Difficult in transportation and communication
4. Risk in transit
5. Lack of information about foreign businessmen
6. Import and export restriction
7. Documentation
8. Study of foreign markets
9. Frequent market changes
10.  Investment for long period
12. Intense competition
Those are just limits. But what makes international trade an issue? CHILD LABOR. World Trade Organization (WTO) does not prohibit child labor to produce good. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. However, according to  Global Exchange, WTO has some disadvantages, such as:
1. The WTO is basically undemocratic.
2. WTO will not make us safer due to free trade.
3. WTO will tramples labor and human rights.
4. WTO also brings disadvantages to undeveloped countries, since every countries are equal.

So, how can we make it better?  To be honest, there is no perfect solution. If WTO is eliminated, countries closed their trading, world economy collapse. If WTO continues to exist, free trade will give countries with oil a lot of advantages. There is always a cost to something. There is NO ABSOLUTE solution...

Healthcare

Healthcare is different around the world.
  That's an overlook of healthcare around the world. Countries around the world clearly have issues with their healthcare system. What is the solution?
For the poor countries, there is no solution except receiving international aid until the governments' can take care of their own countries.
How about developed countries? What is the best healthcare system? I am torn by fairness (German System) and humaneness (Obama Care). It will be unfair if people who CAN WORK but DON'T WORK are paid equally with people who have to work hard. However, it will be inhumane if people who CAN'T afford insurance are IGNORED. I think the best solution is in the middle: a combination of fairness and humaneness. People who can work but don't have a job should be given a certain amount of years (about 10 years after age of 18). After that, they have to pay for themselves if they are still unemployed. They are given a chance, and it's up to them how to use it. It is both fair and humane, right? However, there is no experiment if this system works or not, may be in future there will be, may be ... :)

Drug - An Issue or Not?

What is drug actually? Why are some people so obsessed with drug?
Not all drug is bad and harmful. According to ScienceMuseum, drug is any chemical taken that affects body functions. Following this concept, drug is not completely bad. Good drugs are called "medicine", things that one takes when he is sick, such as antibiotics.

However, medicine is not considered in this article. "Bad drugs" are the center now. "Bad drugs", as usually referred as illegal drugs, are controlled by government. These kinds of drugs is sometimes legal, depending on the situations and the governments, such as heroin, marijuana, PCP, LSD, etc. So, why are these drugs illegal? They damage human organs, and cause confusion, anxiety, nausea, headache, hostile behaviors without apparent reasons.

Harmful and deadly, right? Illegal drugs should not be legalized for any reason. They costs time and money. Drug users can attack and harm normal people, or they can steal to get money for drugs. Have you ever seen pale skinny people who use drugs?

Before and After Using Meth

Do you really want yourself or anybody in your family to become like them ....

Technology - A step to innovation or destruction?

What does technology actually mean? According to Cambridge American Dictionary, technology is "the method for using scientific discovery for practical purpose". In other words, technology is the use of science to serve human needs (communication, comfort, security, etc.) So is the advance of technology good? Not really.
Advanced technology is a sign for human intelligence AND human laziness. People who are born with car, computers, microwave oven, instant food, etc. tend to be lazier than people who are not. If you have a car, what is the point of walking? If you can have food instantly, what is the point of cooking for hours? "Use it or loose". People start losing their abilities due to laziness. Walking helps strengthening legs muscle. Cooking is an important skill for surviving because food is not always there. And example is the movie "Wall-E". The chatting language also affects human writing skills by shortening words and sentences. As technology evolves, humans degrade.

Advanced technology creates more dangerous problem. Nuclear war is a result of advanced science. Internet piracy is a result of advanced computer science. Extremely dangerous new viruses are results of failure experiments in advanced medical science. As technology evolves, dangers evolve.

What are the solutions? The problems are not about how advanced technology is. The actual problems are about how HUMANS use technology. The "solutions" are not specific, but rather determined on the purpose of using technology and the reliance on technology. If we can use technology for constructive purposes and minimize the reliance on technology, there will be no "problems".

Piracy

Piracy is the act of robbery and stealing.
Most people see pirates as sea robbers.

Pirate in the past

Pirate in presence

When the Internet is spreading out, there is a new type of pirates created. Internet piracy is the use of works protected by copyright without permission, harming the right of copyright holders.

So why is privacy important issues? How would you feel if one day all the private data in your laptop were published on the Internet? How would a musician feel if his work, which requires tons of hours working and creativity work, was given for free? It's like the situation in which someone sneaks in your house, steal your TV, and gives it away for free. Piracy, or stealing in general, is not good for whatever reasons.
What are the solutions?
1. Let the customers decide to whether pay or not. If the customers find the product worth to pay, they will pay anyway.
2. Reduce the price of the products.

As you see above, those solutions are not for direct prevention, instead discouragement to Internet privacy. Privacy cannot be stop directly, for pirates will find their way no matter how many barriers there are. The only way to stop Internet piracy is eliminating the motivation of piracy.

Political Spectrum

I don't usually talk about politics. However, I just took Political Compass.

This is a political compass. The horizontal line is economic: from left (communism) to right (liberalism). The vertical line is social scale: from up (fascism) to down (anarchism). The test basically asked me a bunch of multiple choice questions. I had to answer whether "Strongly agree", "Agree", "Don't agree", or "Strongly against". You can do the test yourself.
There are 3 question that my teacher asked me to answer about the test:
1. Do you think the questions are fair and valid?
To some degree, yes. They cover many part in politics (drugs, trade, military, etc.).
2. Do you think that the test gave an accurate representation of the person or character that you entered data for?
Based on my result and how I evaluate myself, I think that the test is accurate.
3. How could this test help to make predictions over how a government or politician will approach a problem? 
Each question in this test gives a clue of how a politician approaches a problem. Just by reading question, one can easily predict what a politician would do if he is in mentioned-situations.

My result: Libertarian Left, a combination of anarchism and communism. I favor social freedom and a well-planned economy.

Income Inequality

Do you know that the world's 300 Richest have more than 300,000,000 Poorest?
Do you know that the bottom 80% of population own 6% of global wealth?
How much money do you earn a year? $1,000,000? $100,000? $10,000? $1,000? Or none at all?

Having been around since ancient time, income inequality is becoming a global issue. Some people tend to earn more money than others. Why, since "all men are equal" is stated clearly in The US Independent Declaration?

One ancient example of income inequality is the system of empire: The emperor live based the work of his people. This kind of employer-employee model has been spread out over time.
The European colonialism since 15th century is another form of employer-employee model. During The Scramble for Africa (1876 - 1914), Europeans used African workers as cheap labors and maximized the use of natural depletion. As a result, empires became stronger overtime, and restrained the development of African countries. The colonialism, although it ends, still leaves a long-term effect on Africa - African countries are still behind European countries nowadays.
Personally, I do not think that there is an specific cause for income equality. Life is not fair, and it will never be. There are some people who are more fortunate than others. Since there is no actual cause, no long-term solution works. With that being said, people, however, can do something.

1. Tax: Rich people get taxed more than poor people do.
2. Donation: If one wishes, he can donate for charity (GoFundMe, UNICEF, etc.)
Those 2 solutions cannot completely solve the puzzle of income inequality, but at least alleviate the situation.
:)

Healthcare-Related Organization

I. World Healthcare Organization (WHO)

What is World Healthcare Organization?

"WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends."

WHO 

History of World Healthcare Organization? 

"When diplomats met to form the United Nations in 1945, one of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization. WHO’s Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day"

WHO

What has World Healthcare Organization done?

"WHO has played a very pivotal role in setting health policies, as well as providing technical cooperation to its member states. Life expectancy rose from 48 years in 1955 to 69 years in1985. ...the infant mortality rate fell from 148 per 1000 live births to below 59 per 1000. Population growth has been slowed dramatically .... Smallpox, the ancient scourge, has disappeared. ...control of lice-borne typhus and yaws. Polio and guinea worms are on the verge of total elimination. A number of other communicable and tropical diseases, ... are in retreat. With universal salt iodization in place, the prospect of virtually eliminating iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), the major cause for brain damage among young children, is also in sight."

Encylopedia

II. United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)

What is United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund?

"UNICEF is the driving force that helps build a world where the rights of every child are realized. We have the global authority to influence decision-makers, and the variety of partners at grassroots level to turn the most innovative ideas into reality.  That makes us unique among world organizations, and unique among those working with the young. "

"UNICEF was created with this purpose in mind – to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. "

UNICEF

History of United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund? Read more from Timeline.

"In 1953, UNICEF becomes permanent part of the UN.
The UN General Assembly extends UNICEF’s mandate indefinitely. UNICEF begins a successful global campaign against yaws, a disfiguring disease affecting millions of children, and one that can be cured with penicillin."

UNICEF

What has United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund done?

"One area in which UNICEF has made great strides to help children is in the prevention of disease. Each year worldwide, millions of children die of preventable illnesses such as malaria, cholera, pneumonia and the measles. The organization has worked to provide children with vaccines against many illnesses. It has also helped to provide communities with safe drinking water."

"UNICEF has worked not only to improve the education of women and girls, but also to educate boys and men on the importance of gender equality and empowering women to make household decisions. By helping to educate women and reduce gender discrimination, the organization has been able to help children, since women are their primary caregivers."

Ioannis Mistrou 

How to support United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund?

One can support UNICEF by going to its website and donating through credit card.

So, above are the information about WHO and UNICEF that I've taken from many sources (linked). Why am I even doing this? I am working on a project that I am very concerned with - Healthcare. The information above gives me an overview of what people around the world are doing right now, and what I can do to help them.

You are not alone

You are not the only one living in this universe. You are not the only one living in Solar system. You are not the only one living in the Earth. You are not the only one living in your country.
Human population is increasing every day, every hour, every minute, every second. We are getting more crowed overtime. Eventually, the increase of population is no more beneficial, instead, becomes a problem called OVERPOPULATION.
Many articles have been published and discussed. These are 3 articles that basically have the same idea:

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-overpopulation.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-tal/overpopulation-is-still-t_b_3990646.html

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/causes-of-overpopulation.html

In short, there are 2 causes for overpopulation: Advance in technology and Lack in family planing. Advance in technology, such as medical facilities, decreases death rate, keeping people live longer and healthier. Lack in family planing means that parents have children in a "spontaneous" way, without any plan, rapidly increasing birth rate. These 2 factors together increase the total population.
Effects of overpopulation are obvious: depletion of natural resources, pollution to environment, massive unemployment, etc.
Some solutions are improvement in (sex) education, family planning, tax, etc.
Those ideas are obvious, and people talk about them over and over, right? What truly makes me think, however, is the idea presented in this article:

https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2006/09/overpopulation.php

This article really brings out a completely new and interesting about overpopulation. The author states that advance in technology and wealth will actually reduce birth rate. For example, in Japan, the population growth rate is negative. They have machines that can replace workers; therefore, they do not need to have more children since they have enough wealth, and also giving birth is the most difficult task (you know what I mean). The second point the author makes is that the Earth is capable to support ten billion people. That argument, to me, is quite weak: just because the Earth is capable, we do not have to push to the limit. The third point is that natural resource depletion is a result of corruption, ignorance, and greed. This is true to some degree. What bother me is that to fight against corruption, ignorance, and greed (which are human natures), we need better education, which cannot be provided efficiently with a large number of people. Overpopulation, therefore, has a indirect relationship with the depletion of natural sources.
Above are both sides of a coin named overpopulation. It's up to you to decide your belief. It is fine if you see overpopulation is not a serious issue. However, if you are worried about overpopulation, which I personally predict will get more serious if nothing is done, I gave you the solutions. Be smart...