creativity and mental illness

by Jiin, Lee

Have you heard about ‘the pain of creation’? Creating something is not easy work. Whenever I do my homeworks from writing classes, I feel tortured. I believe you have experienced this kind of painful feeling at least once. Sometimes, when the aforesaid feeling is accumulated so long, it develops to the mental illness. In general, artists who have to create something new all the time complain of the mental diseases. This can be illustrated by Vincent van Gogh’s story that he cut of his ear after an argument with his friend Paul Gauguin, and finally killed himself. In his diary, he says “I am unable to describe exactly what is the matter with me. Now and then there are horrible fits of anxiety, apparently without cause.” He was becoming mad.

According to the article ‘The dark side of creativity: Depression + anxiety x madness = genius?’ written by William Lee Adams for CNN, psychologists have tried to find the relationship between creativity and madness for decades. As a matter of fact, well-known artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch suffered from mental problems. Studies recently have presented that people whose work asks for great creativities were more likely to have mental problems such as bipolarity. Researches also indicate that there could be an inherited trait that increases creativity and mental disorder. However, the writer says that we cannot be sure that all creativities contribute to mental illness because there are other studies that counter this idea. For instance, Kyaga, the Swedish academic, claims that artists such as dancers, directors, and visual artists point out that they have less frequent mental illnesses than the general people.

From my perspective, I partially agree on the assertion that creativities related to the madness. I often hear that most of artists are crazy and it is true that some artists suffer from mental illness. Therefore, it might be true that there is certain relationship between creativity and mental disorder. However, as there are also many artists who don’t seem to have the foregoing problem, we cannot accept it as a fact, but we can be more concerned about this problem and prepare solutions.

 

The dark side of creativity: Depression + anxiety x madness = genius? (01/22/14), William Lee Adams, CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/22/world/the-dark-side-of-creativity-vincent-van-gogh/index.html?hpt=wo_mid

 

 

Gender Gap at Workplace in Japan

by: Natsumi

In these days, women have human rights as much as men have; the right to choose your job, the right to vote, the right to choose their partner. However, women were not allowed these rights in many countries just hundred years ago. Especially, women’s rights in Japan are internationally behind in male and female participating life's tasks together, especially in the workplace. Actually, I often see the article about women who are in the workplace still suffering from　underrepresentation in senior management.

According to a "Gender Gap Report,” prepared by the World Economic Forum, Japan is ranked 43rd in world ranking which is close to the lowest among the advanced countries. Why Japan is internationally behind about women’s rights even though the basic act for gender-equal movement has been promoted since 1960s? I guess there are two reasons; the systems for women for continuous work, like childcare leave, haven’t been common enough and the negative outlook on work by young generation.

As for the systems of companies, according to the official report of Japanese government, the reasons are the lack or insufficient in support system for work and housework, raising children, looking after elderly. As a matter of fact, most of women are still tend to quit their job after got pregnant. In such situation, the number of the proportion of women among employees and in management positions wouldn’t be increased. For example, the ratio of women members to total members of the National Diet is only 11.3%. Japanese government has to have interference in private enterprises about supporting continuous employment or promoting re-hiring of who is willing to work, promotes positive balance of work and life, providing the adequate child care, most importantly supporting continuous work.

In regards to the negative outlook on work by young generation, the reason is the unstable Japanese economy. According to the survey of gender equality by the Cabinet Office, 51.6 per cent of respondents supported traditional roles for married couples. It means more than half of the public supports the idea that husbands should be the breadwinners, while wives should stay home and do housework. Prof. Kakuko Miyata of Meiji Gakuin University said prolonged economic uncertainty may be one factor behind the changing trend among young people. "I suspect young people today are deeply concerned about their futures because of prolonged difficulty in finding jobs and the sluggish economy, so they may wish for the home to be a source of emotional support." Actually, it has been a hard time for job seekers in Japan in these days. However I expect from new Japanese president Abe’s aggressive policy; he swear that he makes Japanese economy moves up in two years.

Being in the forefront nation of population aging, today’s Japanese society cannot be maintained without female labor force. Japanese society should have structural reform to improve women’s right, that is working situation as quickly as possible.

Modern Life and Waste of Factories

By: Hisham Alshehri　

Whatever life evolved, it remains difficult. We always try to find ways and means to facilitate our lives. Technology one of the best ways to provide comfortable and easy life to the person in this generation and next generations. With the evolution and revolution of technology, it has become very necessary to rely on machinery and modern appliances . Modern equipment and advanced technology has made life easier than before and than it was. Devices have became indispensable  because of facilitate to the  person's life . In contrast, there are damages of this development to our life, especially environmental damage .

Technological revolution has hurt us and the environment. Resulting in rely on the equipment and technology to increase factories in recent years , which led to air pollution, water pollution, and noise.This is industrial development reflected on our health and the environment. Factories   have hurt many animals. Many of the animals died because of a chemical spill in the sea or in the air. A lot of birds and fish have migrated to other places far from the city to live away from environmental pollution .

In the end, technological development imperative to provide a decent life , and to facilitate the life of living. Industrial and technological development led to increase the income per capita due to the increase in the number of jobs , and led to decrease of the prices because of the ease of manufacturing . On the other hand, we are now we inhale polluted air and carcinogenic air. Governments in all the world must provide alternative ways to reduce the polluted air that come out of the factories. Governments must seeking to reduce the waste of chemicals in the sea or in the air.

Severe Punishment of Children

By: Abdullah Aljafary

What is the severe punishment of children? It is using harmful physical force in a long term by parents and teachers to discipline, teach children the good manners, or even when a child disobeys in the simplest order. Parents and teachers usually use tools such as a stick, belt, or their pair hands to hit the children in order to teach them what the parents or teachers want them to learn or to do. This kind of punishment could lead to have unconfident, smashed, isolated, or even handicapped youngs.

In the near past, this action from parents and teachers was an acceptable outrage even when it was seen in public places, and some people who witnessed the scene would encourage this kind of actions or do nothing against it. To illustrate, many young students had been hit harmfully because they did not do the homework, did not pass the class, or any reason related to learning. The society, furthermore, did not condemn these punishers.

Today, most of the organizations and governments from any country prohibit hitting children for any reason or purpose. For example, many of children's rights organizations around the world agree unanimously that anyone hits any child physically should be facing a legal process and punishment. As a result, children rarely be hit, and anyone would interrupt when he or she sees any harmful physical action towards any child because it has become an unusual scene these days.

Instead, there are many ways of useful punishments which are not harmful physically and mentally, and many television programs, magazines, and parenting books have provided the parents and educators new ways of how to punish positively. Some of the positive punishment depends on encouraging, and some depends on forbidding. For example, parents and educators would promise the child a present or candy or anything would be a reward for his or her effort, and the parents or educators would not give the child anything if he did not do what is expected from him or her. Moreover, if a student, for instance, sees the teacher gives his or her colleagues rewards to encourage them for their work and he did not get anything, he would do his or her best in order to get rewarded as his or her colleagues. Another example, parents would not let their child play or do what he or she likes mostly if he or she did something that let the parents have decided to punish him or her.

Abortion is One's Death

by: Beisenbay

We live in a time when people cast a doubt on any value which contradicts their personal interests. Many people have become the slaves of money which, in their opinion, is warranted way to happiness. Therefore, they are consciously ready to reject anything that might put a crimp in getting a big house or a prestigious car or even a beautiful dress. But, how far can they go along this slippery way?   And, is it possible to be happy at the cost of another human being’s life? Let’s think. Nowadays, many countries have legalized abortion and the government permission for the phenomenon in question is keeping a proliferation around the world. However, whether abortion is an acceptable medical procedure remains a matter of the heated debates among different peoples.  In my opinion, abortion is the subjection to death a human being or passive killing, so it is one of the most horrible outrages in our contemporary world.

The first reason for my position is that the aforementioned appearance is actually a murder. According to Oxford Dictionaries, abortion is the expulsion of a fetus from the woman uterus by natural causes before it is able to survive independently. Based on medicine’s knowledge, after fertilization, a new one-celled entity called a zygote starts dividing rapidly. Soon, on the eighteenth day a primitive heart begins and on the twentieth day the baby's brain, spinal cord and other organs begin to form. Undoubtedly, this is a live organism growing inside the mother and hopping to see the outside world. However, the mother and many people agree to discontinue his or her only the beginning of life. On the other hand, nobody supports the killing of newborns or little children which are the same babies that cannot survive independently as those who are not yet born. Therefore, people have not to separate them from each other in order to exculpate abortion.

Moreover, the foregoing procedure is not only simple assassination but is the killing of an innocent human being. In this case, the unborn yet baby has to be punished for other people’s mistakes. This is extremely unfair. Today, many people argue to prohibit penalty of death even for serious crimes such as willful murder and brutal rape. All we want to be considered as civilized persons. If so, we have not to tolerate the killing of innocent children.  

In addition, advocates of abortion assert that abortion is a human right which should be legalized by the government. Nevertheless, the unborn yet children have the same rights as other individuals, and it is unacceptable that rights of their parents outweigh their right especially in a life or death issue. Thereby, it is the government’s duty to protect its helpless little citizens.

To sum up, in its history, people have experienced a number of terrible outranges. Unfortunately, many of them were resolute the acts against humanity after a long time of existing. However, I strongly believe that we will soon able to see the evil in abortion, and as a result to save the lives of our children.

 

gender discrimination- woman's suffrage

by soyeon

In our world, there have been some outrages now as ages past. According to dictionary.com, outrage is referred to as a powerful feeling of resentment or anger aroused by something perceived as an injury, insult, or injustice like slavery, racism and colonization. Regarding an outrage that I’m most interested in, I would like to talk about gender discrimination. Above all woman’s suffrage can be exemplified representative gender discrimination. Woman’s suffrage refers to the right of women to vote and to hold public office.

 Absolutism was collapsed because of western European revolution. Therefore democracy was on the rise and people can get the right to participate in the politics. But women and from certain classes or races were still unable to vote due to the patriarchal social atmosphere. Women was demanded part of housekeeping. Women had been involved with the movement for the woman’s suffrage for a long time. And finally they got an equal right with men.

 In the past, men thought that females may be worse in ability than males and females have to do the housekeeping. Therefore, They claimed only men have to enter the field of politics. However, the contention is far out of reason that right was given to only men. First of all, woman is not inferior to man. Of course, some female is physically weaker than man. And sometime some female is inferior than some male in some cases. However I believe it is related to the issues and problem based on individual’s environment and education not gender. Besides, housekeeping is not woman’s duty. For a long time, women have been working mainly for family but it is not vocation. Not to participate in politics is not their choice, it was limitation of law. It is not right to prevent women’s political participation for that reason. And politics is led by a good policy not by strong man. Hence we can’t speak whether politic activity is more appropriate for woman or for man. In addition, at that time, women had to pay tax. Government granted women duty to pay the money that was required to run the country. But they didn’t grant women right to come in politics and vote. It was irrational. To conclude, It was outrageous thing to prevent the right for gender.  

Colonialism and Outrage - Won-gyung

By: Won-gyung

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. regards history chronicles as acceptable outrages. What is outrage? Literally, outrage means an intense feeling of anger and shock; in addition, acceptable outrage means that it was normal and allowed in the past, but it doesn’t concede anymore. Many outrages still exist in our society; for example, gladiators, slavery, racism and colonialism. I believe colonialism is acceptable outrage in the past and the present.

Above all, let’s talk about what colonialism is. Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a set of unequal relationships between the colonial power and the colony and often between the colonists and the indigenous population. Colonialism is also connected with imperialism. From the 18th century to mid-20th century, several European countries such as Spain, England and France concentrated on establishing and expending colonies in Asia, Africa and America. At that time, it was acceptable in the perspective of countries which had colonies. They needed more resources to make products and more markets where they could sell the products. Therefore, the powers stole small countries’ national sovereignty, and made the people who lived in small countries their slaves. However, now people don’t think that colonialism isn’t acceptable. The nation is given one country’s national sovereignty. It is natural these days.

Colonialism seems to disappear after the Second World War; however, it still remains, and there are two reasons why I mentioned that colonialism is acceptable outrage in the present at first.

First, there is a colony so far. Western Sahara which is situated at the western of Africa struggles for independence up to now. Second, there is a new type of colonialism so called cultural colonialism. Each country has its own culture and tradition, but at some points, western culture or some the powers’ culture occupies room instead of own culture. For example, Korea has own tradition and culture. However, Korean youth generation doesn’t have interest about tradition because they think tradition is old thing; they are enthusiastic west culture instead of own tradition. If they aren’t concerned about their own tradition and culture, the tradition and culture will disappear in history and only one culture holds all over the world. It can become colonialism in the present and the future. In conclusion, this is why that colonialism is an acceptable outrage.

Smoking in Public Area - Jay

By: Jay

Henry Louse Gates Jr. sees history as "a chronicle of formerly acceptable outrages". Outrages means, according to the free dictionary, an act of extreme violence or viciousness or resentful anger aroused by a violent or offensive act.  Plus an acceptable outrages means, at the past it was acceptable however it is not acceptable; for example, slavery, racism, communism, sexual discrimination and smoking in public area etc.  Although I believe smoking in public area is the part that I get most interested.

Most of the things has advantages and disadvantages, but I believe there are no advantages in smoking and has only disadvantages.  Frist, the typical disadvantage of smoking is second hand smoking.  Now people know that the second hand smoking is worse than the first hand smoking.  Suppose parent is smoking and the children gets second hand smoking or somebody is smoking at the road and I or you get second hand smoking.  Smoking in public area harms our health and makes us to be sick.
 

Second, we can’t always sure there is no fire at the smoking butt, therefore there is possibility to make a fire by little smoking butt.  If one of smokers accidently throws the smoking butt at the mountain while climbing or throw it beside the road that has combustible thing.

Last disadvantage is the accidents when people bump together while walking on the road.  I have read the article that when the smoker is smoking while walking and if the child passes him the smoking butt could harm the child by burning; also there is capability to burn the clothes if we bump or when we passes by. 

In the past, smokers can smoke anywhere they want including public area; however, they can’t smoke anywhere, except their own house.  They have to smoke in the specific area that has allowed smoking.  If they smoke anywhere like public areas, than they have to pay the fines.  Therefore many paces publicize that their building or their schools are tabaco free.  Conclusion, smokers used to smoke anywhere like their home or public places, but now they can only smoke at the place which allowed smoking.  This is why smoking in public area is acceptable outrages

 

 

Young Marriage -By Nana Zheng

Nowadays, according to marriage law, people are allowed to get married after they are 20 years old in the most of countries and areas.However,there were numerous people getting married earlyer than 20 years old in the past.

In the ancient age in China, women used to be married to men before 16 years old. More than that, some girls and boys get married with  people who are older than them a lot when they are still children.In my opinion, the most significant reason is about culture. Usually, this condition always happened between two families that have totally different financial abilities.On the one hand, a poor young girl is married to a rich old men so that she can reduce the burden on family. On the other hand, a rich young boy married a older women due to the woman not only is regarded as his first wife, but also do be regarded as his baby sister. By the way, the rich men could marry more than one wife legally.

To be estimated by professors,annually, there are around 12 millions underage girls get married  in recent 10 years. To our surprised is, the youngest bride of them is only 5 years old.

Adjani,a 7 years old girl in India,who was married two years ago.In addition,have you ever heard of or read a book named Moi Nojoud, 10 Ans, Divorcee ? It is a real story and talk about a Yemenese girl divorced when she was a second grade class of the primary school. This book has been shocking the whole world.

Fortunately,there are fewer young marriage than before because marriage laws limit the minimum age of marriage. However, young marriage still occur  by covert, especially in some advancing countries.Instead of forcing young girls,most of girls are willing to get married when they are teens.They consider that finding a good person is more important than coming into an excellent college.

In short,I am for marriage if you are 20 or older. I can't accept children get married , and I also don't think teens should allow to get married.To children , it is harmful to their mind and body. As for teens,it is easy to divorce with they becoming more and more mature.

veterans extra point system in Korea

by Jiin, Lee

As for formerly acceptable outrages, I would talk about veterans extra point system in my country. In Korea, military service is mandatory to men for 2 years. So, when men are over 18, they should get a physical examination and they go to the army unless there is any special excuse such as very poor eyesight or bad health conditions. Since the military service in Korea is a duty, Korean government had given extra points to the men who were discharged from the military service when they apply the tests for the public jobs like teachers or the public servants in order to compensate for the time in the army. For instance, a man who finished his duty in the army took a test for the job, one or two points could be added to his score.

However, Korean women felt that they are discriminated and made a loss because of this system. The reason was that the competition for the public jobs was so fierce that the results could be changed by one or two points. In other words, if a man did a military service, he could get through the test although he got a lower score than a woman’s, whereas a woman, who took a same test, failed the test. So, Korean women had claimed that veterans extra point system should be abolished since 1999 and finally Korean government accepted it in 2001. Now, in Korea, the military service is still mandatory, but there isn’t any compensation for it. However, this issue is still controversial in Korea.

In my opinion, as a woman in Korea, I oppose to veterans extra point system. Of course I admit Korean men’s contribution, so they should be compensated for their commitment. However, I think no one should be affected negatively because of the excuse to indemnify for men’ commitment. Especially, as far as a job which is directly related to a means of living is concerned, it should be considered seriously. There can be another way to give them benefits. To exemplify, the Korean government can give them higher pension or various tax benefits. To conclude, I assert that the Korean government should find a way to compensate for the veterans’ contribution which both men and women can be satisfied with.

Dictatorship and Brainwashing by Miu Toyota

About 70 years ago in Japan, and I think also in many countries, people- it means ordinary people- did not have rights for politics, education and so on. We Japanese had a formal law establishing universal suffrage to show that Japan was an advanced nation but actually it did not have any power after the government had decided to intervene in the Second World War. The government forced students to leave school, and men were conscripted and women worked at factories a whole day. We just had one political party which was supported by the emperor and ordinary people could not know every decision what they decided.  However Japanese people had educated for emperor worship since they started to go to school, so no Japanese people thought that what the government and emperor did at that time was doubtful. It is said that all Japanese people got down on their hands and knees and apologized on the road to the emperor for a defeat when the emperor made a concession speech.

This story was told with undiminished admiration at that time, but today I feel outrage at this story. We must have our birthright.  Nobody can look under someone and nobody can be looked under by someone.  But all Japanese people believed that the emperor was a living god at that time and the god could decide their destiny. I do not know what Japanese people at that time would answer if I asked their opinion. They might answer that they really love and want to work for the emperor and they want to die for him. Many Japanese people at that time might support to join the Second World War. I cannot say that the Japanese government at that time forced all Japanese people to go to war. And also I cannot say that blind devotion or blind faith is always bad. It is happened anywhere and anytime, but people who believe something blindly always seem to be happy. However I can say that nobody can violate human rights. We have rights to join our politics, learn about whatever we want, say our opinions and so on.

Today Japanese government wants to hide some information and change the Constitution of Japan. I am not exactly sure that why they want to do but I hope that tragedy will be never happened. 

Child Labourer--Shaw

For my own idea, the child labourer is the outrage of our society whenever we are in any time. Children can't use their gold age to do the labor

There are several reasons for children become the labourer. But the core idea is that the government should take the responsibility of this outrage. Two sides of why every period has the child labourer, external and internal reasons. First of all, the most critical external cause of that situation is the government. Many undeveloped countries haven't enough social welfare or  guarantee for the poor family's children get the education. A lot of family can't afford their children tuition. So, many children have to enter the adult world. They haven't choice for their own life. In addition, some areas in the world still in the war, many young men take part in the battle. There is a shortage of the labor market. Therefore, the children have to fill the empty of adult's job. Secondly, the internal reason of this situation is that children haven't motivation to continue their school life. Not everyone born for studying, standard curriculum is not suit for everyone. Maybe some children like the research and others like do the handwork. Unfortunately, most of the education system can't care every children's interest. So, it may cause many children leave the school. To have a job will give them much more interest life than the school life. Obviously, government should take the responsibility of this problem.

Of course, there are so many problems in our society. Education still should be the first place. Children labourer will have a short term economic effect. However, through the long term, the child labourer only has the negative part to the world. There is no reason for a children at his golden age to be the labor. For reasons which mentioned, child labourer is a global problem, like the world organization, such as UN, those international groups must take the most responsibility to guide the poor or underdeveloped country to aware the child labouer is unnecessary. Also, the international organization can help some country to fix their education systems. That also will reduce the child labourer happened.

Undetectable Enviornment Disruption - Marshes and Foreshores Reclamation

by: Alex Zhao

Just as professor Henry Louis Grates Jr.'s word, human history is established by various outrageously crimes which might be totally acceptable and reasonable at that time for most of people, no mater whether they were aware of that or not. As an Environmental Science student, I immediately reminded of a lot of terrible destruction human beings did, or still doing, to our planet. Land reclamation, which I'm going to talk about here, is an emerging environmental concern.

This kind of environmental disruption I'm going to talk about is not about the pollution we produce now and then, but more about the process how human reconstruct the earth without enough knowledge and prudence.

For accommodating more and more people, for satisfying people's desire of space and for lots and lots of other reasons, we started reclaiming land by burning forest, filling marshes and foreshores and transforming hills long ago.

The environmental and ecological hazards of devastation primeval forest were quickly proved by degraded soil and ecotope. However, But it might be new to us that filling marshes and foreshores for land is even more harmful to the planet.

Marshes play a great role on the purification of water and air, so that, scientists call marshes "t,he kidney of the earth". The foreshores, besides, are actually extremely important to marine organism and water self-purification. But, different from forest degradation, the destructive impacts of marshes and foreshores reclamation are undetectable. Scientists started paying attention to them until the end of last century because the harm was disguised by off-shore exploration, such as urban and shipping pollution. According to their researches, the region created by reclaiming and its surrounding regions show horrible environmental crises such as pollutants accumulation, ecological degradation, eutrophication and so on.

Nowadays, fortunately,more and more countries, like Netherlands and Japan, have realized the appalling consequences of land-fill and have started to restore land form.

Alex Zhao
Jan 19, 2014

The marriage in ancient China for women

By: Jinny

With the advancement of human civilization, most of us now could enjoy our rights of citizen according the law, such as the right to vote, the right to education, and the freedom of speech. Even the vulnerable groups  such as women could have more rights to enjoy their lives. But in ancient China, it was not same as now, for women had little rights about themselves. They had to be obedient to their parents, and even the rights to choose husband were deprived from them.So many women's lives in ancient China were miserable.

In feudal society, the young couple especially the woman could not decide the marrige, because it was the parents' right to do. So the desire of parents is the prerequisite and the foundation of setting up a marriage, which raises the risk of future unfortunate marriage.The women could not meet strangers and when they reached the age for marriage, the matchmaker would come to her house to see her parents and introduce some young men to her parents. Then her parents would consider if the wealth of the two families were similar and how the other family's social status was. If all of the conditions could be matched, then the marriage procedure went on. But during the process, the attitude of women was not taken into account and they even didn't know what their husband looks like.They also did not have right to divorce, only the husband had right to  abandon their wifes. Divorce is a disaster for ancient women which could ruin their lives.

The status of women was so low that they even lost their words of their own marriage. This is the true outrage to my way of thinking.

Firstly, in my opinion, life belongs to individuals themselves, so nobody has the right to take charge of other people's destinies.  Freedom is the essential right for a person regardless of the gender or the age. Women should have the right to decide which person to marry and who they will spend the rest life with.

Secondly, the deprivation of rights to choose for women is outrage which not only severely sets obstacles to social development but also weakens women's contributions to civilation. Women have no choice but obey their parents and husband, so they become self-abased, passive, and pessimistic. They are not good at expressing opinions and dealing with problems alone. This kind of attachment psychology could lead to their art vision enclosed and result in creative ability destruction.

WELCOME!

Welcome to the EAP-Reading-Writing class blog!

You are encouraged to use this blog as a place to keep notes, to present your ideas and opinions, or to start a discussion about a topic that you find interesting or important.

Here is a basic truth about writing:

The more you write in different contexts and situations, and the more you spend time writing, the faster your writing improves! 

Much like learning to play the piano or ride a bicycle, writing is a physical process; more than most people think! Consequently, the more you write, the more comfortable you'll feel about writing in English, and when you get more comfortable, you can better concentrate on improving specific skills, like paying more attention to word choices, or finding different ways of developing an idea, as well as learning how to find your own grammar and syntax problems.

Writing is the best way to get a deeper understanding of the complexities and flexibilities of a language. It can also help you organize your thoughts and ideas, or let think through situations you don't feel comfortable discussing with others. Writing can even help you create alternate realities. Some say that you don't know what you really think about something until you write about it!

Best wishes to everybody, and I hope we will have a great learning experience this quarter!