Article 4 URl:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=drink%20driving&id=275329
Recently, newspapers have been screaming over the punishment for Christopher Lee. He was charged with drink driving, and as such causing injury to a motorcyclist and the pillion rider in his hit and run accident. The jail and fine term for the famed actor will no doubt tarnish his reputation and leave his future in doubt. No doubt, he is appealing against the sentence.
For this article, I would like to respond to the issues of drink driving, escape from the scene and the appealing.
The problem with drink driving occurs after one tries to unwind after a hard day’s work by having a cup or two. There is certainly no problem in doing so, but there certainly is with drink driving.
After one is drunk, one should never drive, as drinking blurs your vision and slows down your reaction speed. If he drives, all h*ll breaks loose, as he might knock down many pedestrians, ending the future endeavors of many and causing their families grief. This act of irresponsibility should be condoned; for it is easy to get a cab or one’s friend to send you home after drinking. Given the saying “Drink-Driving shatters lives”, I have come to realized that not only drivers are not caring for others, but also their own lives too.
The underlying reason as to why people drink and drive is simply due to laziness. They are unwilling to pay extra money for a cab to get home, or having to go back to the pub yesterday to retrieve their car. It could also be due to peer pressure, where everyone is driving after drinking.
However, those reasons are not acceptable and are merely just excuses. If one gets killed by a drunk driver, how is the latter going to explain to the deceased family? "I wanted to save $15..." Those reasons are unacceptable and the driver's point of view should be condemned.
Personally, I feel that it is very unfair for the deceased families to bear the full brunt of a stranger’s actions, which could have been prevented easily. If the driver’s relative were to get knocked down by a drunk driver, he too would feel the same amount of emotional angst as what other families would feel too. Placing himself in other people’s perspective would suffice to stop one form drink-driving anymore.
Now, after an accident, the worst thing Christopher could do is to escape from the scene. Fleeing reflects the cowardice, irresponsibility of one and proves even more that the offender should never be forgiven. I know that the subsequent punishment will bleak one’s future, and waste all his hard work in the past. If a guy dies from your moment of foolishness and irresponsibility, the least one could do would be owning up and receive punishment. To the estranged family, no matter how much gold or accomplishments would never bring their loved ones back.
On to the appeal itself, Christopher has no right to appeal. He did not even suffer any injury; and that the fines to such a huge local celebrity like him is nothing. Next, for celebrities like him, acquitting him would only set a bad example for his fans, and he himself would never learn from his own mistakes. Although he may not have caused any casualties, he might cause some the next time if he does not learn hard from this lesson.
Not only that, given the recent spate of drink driving accidents, a message must be sent to the public that such risks are not acceptable and will continue to be sternly treated. If not, everyone would start to go drink-driving and causing even more unnecessary deaths. Those drivers would then use Christopher’s case ‘If he can get away scot-free, why can’t I?’
Hence, I firmly believe in prosecuting Christopher. Only then, will others follow suit and check their own behavior. Only then will we be able to walk peacefully on the roads.
*At this point in time, I might still not know how important career is to me, since I am not in the working world yet. To a few, being sentenced to jail would mean the end of their hard work and their slogging and sacrifices for the past few years. As such, we should have a general sense of pity for the accused. Not only that, we all always feel that drink-driving is a condemnable action, but what if the driver what not at fault, and that the pedestrian was jay-walking? So, we should not always be biased agianst the drivers in road accidents, but instead analyze on a case-by-case basis.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Friday, May 11, 2007
BloG PoSt 3- Fat Teenagers
Article 3 URL:
http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4564905
This article shows that teenage years decide whether one becomes an obese adult. Researchers have deduced that fat teenagers have a higher chance of growing up to be obese.
In response to the article which highlights that obese teenagers are also going to remain as obese adults, I feel that the teenagers are facing a difficult prospect in life ahead; they would still be laughed at, but only to a lesser extent. The chances of one finding a life-mate would be lower then.
Nowadays, we see the number of teenagers turning fat, due to simple reasons like unhealthy eating habits and laziness. I believe that nobody would like to be fat, since one would always be in great inconvenience and being constantly made a mockery of. Not only that, they would also be more prone to chronic diseases like heart attack & diabetes, and also have a long history of illnesses.
Not only that, in a social sense, fat people tend to have less friends as people are also biased against them for their large body mass. The latter are also regarded as ‘dumb’ and always be a victim of the relentless and evil teasing by others. It would be hard to prove others wrong with their accomplishment, due to the bias opinions against them. Having to endure being laughed at all the time without retaliating is no mean feat, and I really take my hat off to those who do so.
However, some of us are envious of fat people. They have the 6th freedom, Freedom of Eating, which enables them to enjoy all the heavenly delicacies which mortals would strive to avoid due to health issues. For example, when we see unhealthy but delicious food, but a physical test is round the corner, we would not abstain from eating it. However, to them, they would eat it, since they know that they would fail anyway.
Having this freedom also has a price to pay. If an overweight guy enters National Service, he will be suffering much more than others, since he would not be able to take the grueling physical demands. As such, with or without this freedom, everybody is still ‘equal’ overall.
Now, some may argue that being overweight is not a problem, as with the springing of many slimming centers; it would be extremely easy to burn those lipids, despite eating as much at the same time. Personally, I feel that it is pointless to gorge on food then waste money by going to slimming centers. Being overweight is a sign of unhealthiness, and one should watch out for one’s diet.
In the past, I used to habitually insult a fat person in my class. Until one day, I placed myself in his perspective, and found out what a miserable life he was leading, having to face a class, and a mean person who would call him names. As such, when I realized the atrocity of my actions, I stopped bullying him at once. From then on, I believed that 'fat' people should never be laughed at, for they have emotions as well and that no parent would want their child laughed at.
*I realised that coping with bullies is never an easy thing. Only by being a weel-built person can one then gain a bird's eye view of this incident.
http://www.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=4564905
This article shows that teenage years decide whether one becomes an obese adult. Researchers have deduced that fat teenagers have a higher chance of growing up to be obese.
In response to the article which highlights that obese teenagers are also going to remain as obese adults, I feel that the teenagers are facing a difficult prospect in life ahead; they would still be laughed at, but only to a lesser extent. The chances of one finding a life-mate would be lower then.
Nowadays, we see the number of teenagers turning fat, due to simple reasons like unhealthy eating habits and laziness. I believe that nobody would like to be fat, since one would always be in great inconvenience and being constantly made a mockery of. Not only that, they would also be more prone to chronic diseases like heart attack & diabetes, and also have a long history of illnesses.
Not only that, in a social sense, fat people tend to have less friends as people are also biased against them for their large body mass. The latter are also regarded as ‘dumb’ and always be a victim of the relentless and evil teasing by others. It would be hard to prove others wrong with their accomplishment, due to the bias opinions against them. Having to endure being laughed at all the time without retaliating is no mean feat, and I really take my hat off to those who do so.
However, some of us are envious of fat people. They have the 6th freedom, Freedom of Eating, which enables them to enjoy all the heavenly delicacies which mortals would strive to avoid due to health issues. For example, when we see unhealthy but delicious food, but a physical test is round the corner, we would not abstain from eating it. However, to them, they would eat it, since they know that they would fail anyway.
Having this freedom also has a price to pay. If an overweight guy enters National Service, he will be suffering much more than others, since he would not be able to take the grueling physical demands. As such, with or without this freedom, everybody is still ‘equal’ overall.
Now, some may argue that being overweight is not a problem, as with the springing of many slimming centers; it would be extremely easy to burn those lipids, despite eating as much at the same time. Personally, I feel that it is pointless to gorge on food then waste money by going to slimming centers. Being overweight is a sign of unhealthiness, and one should watch out for one’s diet.
In the past, I used to habitually insult a fat person in my class. Until one day, I placed myself in his perspective, and found out what a miserable life he was leading, having to face a class, and a mean person who would call him names. As such, when I realized the atrocity of my actions, I stopped bullying him at once. From then on, I believed that 'fat' people should never be laughed at, for they have emotions as well and that no parent would want their child laughed at.
*I realised that coping with bullies is never an easy thing. Only by being a weel-built person can one then gain a bird's eye view of this incident.
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