Betrayal

“Betray” is the breaking or violation of trust, confidence and self-morality. Nobody likes people who betray or backstab. When this happens, the trust bonding between the relationships ends instantly.

“Trust” is a hard thing to just give someone, and it is an even harder thing to handle when someone breaks that trust. When trust is betrayed to a serious extent; the affected individual can suffer from psychological betrayal trauma.

The fact is that, all of us have a betrayal nature inborn within ourselves, it is only whether one decides to use if to hurt others or not. When Betrayal is done – the outcome is always NEGATIVE. Someone around oneself is definitely going to get hurt. There is no reason ever to betray for a positive issue.

Betrayers usually betray people because of sudden greed or fear that something might happen to them (i.e. One’s human instinct of self-protection). We are born by nature to think of ourselves first and then of others. The betrayer doesn’t care of what consequences might be brought about to the victim’s feelings. Thus causing the betrayer to lose his inborn morality and conscience in return.

Researches show that Betrayal is found most commonly amongst “love issues”. Then ranking second is “Business relationships”. I personally have encountered a betrayal relationship, but instead of looking at the impact negatively, I have learnt my lesson and betrayal has helped me grow up to not be naïve anymore and that I have to really open my eyes to see that if one’s born with a kind-heart you won’t choose this method to face your problems. If one chooses to do so, it’s either because of sudden wrong made decisions or the person didn’t deserve your love in the first place as he/she was not serene at heart.

When one always betrays, they automatically lose trust with their fellow mates and confidence in one-self also instantly degrades. Following symptoms are they will become quiet and won’t like talking too many people. They will become very sensitive on certain issues. Before they make any important decisions they will clearly think about the results or the purpose of their counterparts.

Since they themselves have betrayed others; they will also lose trust that others have for them as they will be afraid of being betrayed by their closest loved ones or business partners. They then only believe in themselves. Betrayers usually have loss of control over their emotions this way and become afflicted and angry very easily. Eventually, they will gradually disengage from the community!!!

Tougher Sanctions urged on Road Deaths

Following a series of incidents of drunk driving, legislators propose to enforce stricter laws to curb further increase in the number of innocent victims. The most unforgettable incident occurred at Lok Ma Chau, it was a catastrophic accident. Besides, a man being drunk and insisted driving under his conscience; had caused a taxi driver and a passenger to die for his irresponsibility. Clearly, the man was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

Some say though the convicted in this case received a light punishment compared to past examples. On account of this light penalty, the families of the victims considered it to be unfair to the fatality. Henceforth, they decided to appeal to a higher court. They along with lawmakers believe that a heavier sentence should be imposed for drink driving to reflect the seriousness of the offense.

According to the current legislation, the maximum penalty for dangerous driving is 5 years imprisonment and a fine of $5000; the maximum penalty for drunk driving is 3 years imprisonment and a fine of $25000. Due to the unbalanced punishment, the number of car accidents keep increasing, thus the growing number of casualties can reflect that the current legislation can’t make offenders to deter from committing speed or drunk driving. The legislation’s main aim is for road users to be alert and to reduce offenders from committing dangerous driving.

This arouses the government and public concern towards the policy of traffic rules and we hope to adopt a stricter penalty. Therefore, the government has enacted a new traffic policy. Especially, emphasizing on drunk driving. The police have adopted the zero-tolerated strategy, where they can randomly test any drivers. If the instrument used for testing alcohol goes over standard, the driver will be charged drunk driving.

All in all, the police are doing their best to combat unsafe driving but it is merely anything when compared to your desire to keeping responsibility over one’s own action. Education is the fundamental measure for combating related crimes. The fundamental solution is to solve one’s driving attitude. In my opinion, if you choose to drive, you are in charge of those using the road - not only considering yourself, but to those you pose danger on namely: passengers, other drivers and pedestrians. Doubtless, drunk driving can never be tolerated!

Savings on menu to stop food waste

Ordering too much food and leaving an ample amount on your plate, is not such a great site. Have you ever had the same experience?

Waste is a common problem of affluent societies. Especially when people can afford greater convenience and more purchases they tend to throw away more rubbish. Hong Kong is no exception to this. Even being in our prospering society, food wasting still remains to be one of our major problems. Our waste loads have grown in ratio to our economy.

In order to deal with the excessive rubbish pollution; including leftover food, Hong Kong has already built two landfills. However, both existing landfills will be filled up one by one as the waste levels continuously intensifies. Unless solutions are identified immediately, we could face a crisis in the next decade of having nowhere to put the thousands of tons of waste thrown away each day.

New landfill sites must be identified. However, the community has become more resistant to having waste facilities near their neighborhoods. To cope with the issue, the Government has thought of a scheme that helps reduce the issue of food waste.

In this scheme, eateries were encouraged to take part actively and in return they could pay a lower tariff rate. At first, it was hard to run this scheme as a mainstream action so it was under major criticism. People doubted whether it really helped to ease the problem. Since the scheme caused the eateries’ administrative problems such as employing more staff and costing immense funds, it was not the most popular option for them. It would be more favorable if the Government came up with a more cost-effective scheme.

Until then, for the time-being, we as individuals need to raise our own awareness and take responsibility for our actions. For instance, we can reduce waste by buying items with less packaging, use reusable bags for shopping, and separating waste paper, metals and plastics from our daily waste for recycling.

Let’s all work together to make Hong Kong a cleaner place to live in.
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“Dehumanization”

“Dehumanization”

In human nature there are a set of characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting. All 'normal' humans have these in common. But how can humans lose control over their minds? For money? For power? People can lose humanity and fall into dehumanization. Eliezer realized from personal experience that people can change their thoughts, feelings or acts quickly; this phase of people changing is called “Dehumanization”.

For instance: “Dehumanization” of Jews by Germans during the World War, i.e. Germans stripping Jews of their humanity and having control and power over their human counterparts. How do you feel about it? The ability to make decisions on our own is also an important trait we human have. Jews were forced to work, were given little or no food, clothes, and slept in cots or did not even sleep sometimes. They were being tortured and were not able to resist. This caused them to lose their basic human qualities and they suffered physical dehumamization. Eliezer was one of them who stood up against and fought with all her might, thus losing his humanity.

Jews were involuntarily deported from their homes and villages back then. They were separated from their families and didn’t know what would happen to them. They only could pretend that they would still be alive. "She must be in a labor camp and Eliezer is a big girl now. She must be in a camp.” Eliezer’s father said that to himself looking at her photo.

A lot of Jews died from illness, weakness or was even starved to death. The frequent deaths of the concentration camps had numbed their feelings and stripped them of their ability to express their emotions. Death was no longer an appalling matter to the atrocious personality that the captives had developed over time. Some of them started to lose their hopes. They suffered emotional dehumanization. But Eliezer still fought for hope.

Some of them were dehumaninated when they were alive; without food, love, hope and rights. They killed each other even for a little food. They didn’t care anymore of who was to die, they were only thinking about themselves. When humans are dehumanizated, they are comparable to animals. Without feelings or thoughts, it is all the obduracy of a human act. Survival for them was the only way out!

Savings on menu to stop food waste

Do you know what food waste means? Food waste includes uneaten portions of meals and trimmings from food preparation activities at kitchens, restaurants and cafeterias.

Food waste is the third largest proportion of waste stream in Hong Kong. That indicates an enormous ratio of our landfill. In order to reduce food-waste problems, the concerning department of the Hong Kong government has decided to test a pilot scheme about reducing food waste. There has been intensified discussions about the pilot scheme by a group of eateries offering discounts to diners who order a smaller portion of rice. A potential obstacle though is the administrative cost involved in the scheme.

Due to performance pledge, hotels always provide surplus food to their customers in buffet lunches and dinners. However, the food will be trashed into rubbish bin because of hygienic considerations. This set of mind must be adjusted.

The hotel’s administrative stratum listens to the government’s advice, they will follow their suggestions: such as to improve food preparation procedures, keep an eye on inventory, train the employees to collect the extra food and try to donate the surplus food. The food saved can be donated to the needy.

If this scheme can work, it is a great potential for restaurants, eateries and other businesses to make good use of their food waste and deal with this problem; because the government will provide preferential duty when the hotels and eateries follow this scheme. In the meantime, it can also help them reduce disposal costs. This plan can definitely assist companies to have a cost-effective effect.

On the other hand, the government can praise these companies and promote this campaign through television advertisements. But, in my opinion, I think this action is in double quick time because the solid pollution is in great jeopardy, so I would urge more hotels and eateries to participate in this campaign actively.

Juvenile delinquency

Living standards in Hong Kong are better than ever, but a comfortable upbringing is not breeding a generation of happy teenagers. Relevant researches show that some of the major youth problems in Hong Kong are unemployment, violent crimes and suicides.

Juvenile delinquency is one of the pressing problems in our society nowadays. Social workers and police reveal an increasing number of youngsters who run away from home, join triad societies and commit anti-social acts: such as theft, gang fights harassing people and extorting money from them. In some cases, take drugs, engage in drugs pending or become drug dealers in the process. They themselves causing serious jeopardy to their lives.

Recent news popping up covering related cases have caused many parents to have doubt in our ‘pillars of tomorrow’ and are indeed becoming more aware and raising utmost concern to their futures. Does the young generation realize the harm they are causing not only to themselves but also to society and those around them?

Sociologists and psychologists explain that youngsters tend to go astray because of parental negligence, since some parents are enduring war and economic hardship with work. They have no leisure time with their children. These children feel lonely and crave for their parent’s attention. This causes a pool of juveniles to group together having the same background. These youngsters seek the company of other companions with similar problems; they play and support each other in the group. These group of teenagers make an easy prey for predators of the gangland. Thus, they become little brothers or sisters and develop a sense of high self-esteem in the gang. However, they would do things that go against their moral values.

Moreover, the exam-oriented educational system has also been critisied for putting stress on students. Those who are weak and cannot cope with the demands of school work; lose interest in studies and desire to seek comfort in the gang. Today’s young people thus suffer from low self-esteem. They are bombarded by an image-obsessed media to the extent that many teens use their physical appearances as the only yardstick against which to measure their self-confidence. In the gang they make irrational decisions and learn corrupted methods to make fast money.

But, whatever factors are to blame, many feel it is time young people take responsibility for their actions and take charge of their own lives. As there is no denying that the problems of these youths not only affect their families but also society as a whole. Therefore, it is high time that school authorities and parents maintained an open communication, so that they could help tackle these youths’ problems together. Juvenile delinquency cannot be solved by one party alone; both sides have their own faults.

CCTV to help prevent “missile” attacks

CCTV is a common surveillance tool used in certain districts in Hong Kong recently due to anonymous “missile attacks”; hurting innocent pedestrians. In the past, surveillance cameras were mostly used in banks, shops or lifts, the purpose of being to minimize unsuspected crimes.

Recently, missiles with corrosive liquid were thrown off old buildings which don’t have latches to their terrace doors. The most recent incident happened on Temple Street in Yau Ma Tei where 20 people were injured and their clothes disintegrated. These unprecedented acts injured many culpable pedestrians. All the police have done is to urge the public to help arrest the offender and indicated this crime is very serious and cannot be tolerated at any costs.

Unfortunately, since the string of incidents doesn’t seem to have a particular target, they can be thrown off any buildings, at any districts, and can cover any area and hurting the whole society.

The police have also installed CCTV in selected buildings immediately. It is aimed to monitor and hoping to be able to catch the suspect. Though, sad to say, the CCTV has many shortage drawbacks, such as: videos can’t be intensely clear as it may intrude the privacy of individuals, in addition, due to the many big advertisement billboards with sharp bright lights does affect surveillance cameras causing them to have many blind spots.

What can we do to prevent these continuous absurd strikes? All we can hope for at the moment to that we can come up with a decent explanation after the stronger collaboration of the enforcement of CCTV officers.