EZUIN- Organically grown foods are becoming more popular as people worry more about their health and the safety of the food they eat. But why organic? This is because Organic food advocates claim that organically grown foods are safer and more nutritious than foods raised with non-organic methods such as pesticides, non-organic fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones. Many people just don't trust these chemicals and don't want to put them into their bodies. Since virtually all non-organically produced foods contain residues of pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals, the only way to avoid them is to buy organic foods.

Is this really true?? Despite reading the Asiaone article, I am going to go for 50-50 on this. I am not saying that industrial farming is not good. It is because of industrial farming, that we can enjoy chicken and eggs at every meal. The other part of the argument is that we are already struggling to produce enough food for the world's growing population even with industrial farming, how can we justify going Organic and growing foods that only the rich can afford?

Recently, a Food Standards Agency in the UK, found that there was no significant difference in the nutritional aspects of organic veggies, milk, meat and eggs. If I were to believe that organic is not healthier, then should we buy organic products because it tastes better than the conventional products?? I don’t think so. I recently bought a tray of 10 organic eggs for around S$11 as compared to approximately S$3 conventional, battery eggs. It actually tastes the same, but just that the color and the size of the egg (larger) differ.

In conclusion, going “Organic” to reap health benefits is a personal thing. If it makes you feel good and you can afford it, buy organics. If you want reasonably priced food, don’t. As mentioned above, it says organic products are no safer, healthier or more nutritious than their non-organic counterparts. And they’re much more expensive.
Organics are more expensive because, since the farmer can’t use pesticides or commercial fertilizers, he produces less and loses more of his crop to pests. So he has to charge more for what he brings to market.


Below, I’ve attached the article I’ve mention about the ‘Food Standards Agency in the UK’, article so you can read on it.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/news/organic-food-no-healthier-than-conventional-1764448.html

Organic food is healthier than Conventional food

In my opinion, I prefer to consume organic food than oonventional food. Organic food has scientific proven that is much healtier than conventional food. Organic food is rich in minerals, vitamins and fibers. It retains nutrients for longer period.Researches prove that the organic food contains 10 to 15% more phyto nutrients than non-organic food. It can minimize the risk of several health problems. The phenoic compounds found in organic food protect your heart from cardiovascular diseases and also prevent the risk of cancer.Organic fruits and vegetables contain higher amounts of antioxidants and consuming them can help you to enjoy overall wellbeing.

Organic food produced without the use of synthetics, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics is not only environmentally friendly but also affable to health. Pesticides in conventional foods have links to obesity, cancer, Alzheimer and some birth defects. Organic food, on the other hand, does not contain any harmful substances

Humans that diagnosed with obesity & other health problems are highly encourage to consume organic food than conventional food. Consuming plenty of raw organic food can provide you the best health improving remedy. People who are overweight, can lose your weight by eating raw organic foods. They also ensure proper bowel movements.

The advantages of consuming organic foods are tastier than conventional food, improve blood circulation help you to have a better sleep throughout the night. It boasts higher amounts of vitamins and minerals, which help provide good health, beautiful skin and hair.

Consumers may worry the cost of organic food. However, if planned properly, leading an organic lifestyle can be really affordable. Let's not hestitate consuming organic products, lead a healthy lifestyle from now! Say goodbye to conventional food. Cheers!



Reference: Advantages Of Organic Food. 29th November 2010 http://www.thegreenlivingexpert.com/advantages-of-organic-food.html

From: Ho Chee How

Going Organic to reap health benefits: Jia Yan

Going Organic to reap health benefits: Jia Yan
Personally i think having organic food is more preferred then conventional food. I believe that organic products are more healthier choice compared to conventional foods. This is because organic foods like organic butter do not contain pesticides and a strict rule to follow environmental standards to become certified, thus to be sold to public consumptions. In addition, organic farming employs compost to fertilize the soil and manure. As for Conventional products it is being produced by using chemical fertilizers to promote plant growth. I believe that nowadays, majority of the population would be choosing organic products due to healthier reason, but however i think there is a limitation, which is organic foods take a longer time to be produce and more expensive to be purchased given the strict guidelines to be sold to public. Making people to choose not only organic food but mostly conventional products as well.

I think that more conventional method of farming are to be used, one of the factor is to encourage crops growth using pesticide to conform the increasing world population which takes lesser time spend to harvest the crops. The problem right now is that we are not sure if conventional food such as Genetic Modified Food(GM) would cause long-term harmful effect on human body. Because Conventional food is produced by conventional farming which is done by, for example: Using chemical fertzilizers to promote growth, Giving animals antibiotics, growth hormones and medications to spur growth and to prevent diseases. On the other hand, the food chain in the animal population could change drastically, take for example, a genetic material(Bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis) is being injected into corns to protect them from pests who eats it. Sciencist have found out that the corn pollen dispersed by the wind are deposited on other plants which are ingested by the non-target organisms that consume these plants. One of the non-target organisms is Monach Butterfly. They have found out that when these butterfly fed on corn pollen, it causes them to grow more slowly and suffered higher mortality than larvae reared on leaves dusted with untransformed corn pollen or on leaves without pollen. It is now a question that would these chemicals that we consume into our body cause any harm or long time effect we had yet to known?
Here is a video of how to differentiate between Organic and Conventional Food products.

Going organic to reap health benefits: Samson

In the 21st century, organic products are gaining its popularity. Not only just fruits, vegetables and meat, it also comes in the forms of snacks and dessert. Studies have shown pesticides and chemical fertilizers have many side effects. Some examples of the side effects are headaches, nausea, vomiting, as well as skin and eye problems. Hence, more people prefer organic food.

Comparing the taste and nutrition value, organic food has a higher nutrition value to normal food that has used pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Of course, because of its freshness, organic fruits and vegetable taste much more crunchy and juicier.

However, one factor organic lost to non-organic food is that the cost to buy organic food is much higher. This is because there are limited organic food being grown and hence the price is higher.

I ate organic food every day. My family cooks organic rice rather than normal white rice. Organic rice is much healthier because it contains more potassium and magnesium that are good for our body. Organic rice contains less fat and will also be more filling than normal white rice. This is definitely a good choice for people who are on diet.

In conclusion, organic products are good for our health. But I believe that without a balance diet, you will not be healthy. Thus everyone should eat in moderation and exercise at least twice a week. With a positive mindset, everyone will work towards a healthier diet.

Going organic to reap health benefits: SAFEENABANU

Going organic to reap health benefits: SAFEENABANU

Organic products are in high demand almost everywhere in the world. Consumers prefer them than conventional products. This is because they believe that organic products are healthier.

Organic and conventional products are different in only one way. That is their methods of farming. Unlike conventional products, organic products are naturally grown. Organic farming does not use artificial chemicals to fertilize the soil and control pests and diseases. On the other hand, conventional farming uses chemicals which kill microscopic bacteria. Many of these bacteria enhance the plant's ability to absorb nutrients. Therefore this tells us why organic products are more nutritional than conventional products.

Since organic farming adopts natural methods, machines are not use.  Therefore more labour is needed to operate the farm. This causes organic products to cost more than conventional products. In spite of that, consumers do not mind paying more or even double for these products. They are more concern about their health than anything else.

However there are also some groups of people who believe otherwise. They believe that the nutritional quality of a food does not depend on how it is grown.  Rather, how it is being cooked and stored. The methods of cooking affect the level of nutrition in a food. For example, deep frying involves the use of a lot of fat or oil to cook resulting in unhealthy end product.  Steaming on the other hand is the healthiest form of cooking as it does not require oil or fat.

After reading many articles on organic products, I feel that it does not matter if we eat organic or conventional products. What is more important is our diet. If we still do include food with high sugar or salt content in our daily diet then it does not serve the whole purpose.

The following videos are on organic farming. Do watch it as it gives you an idea of what organic farming is all about.

Facebook Cop (Ezuin) - Facebook is one of the popular usages of social networking website for interaction between a group of people who share a common interest and for some Finding and making friends online. Users usually reveal personal information such as contact number, home address, date of birth, citizenship and etc which will leave themselves open to crime. For instant, this article, where a man allegedly used a fake profile to lure Ms Nona Belomesoff, 18, to an isolated bushland area and murder her. It was believed that he preyed on her using the interests openly listed her on her Facebook page.

To prevent such cases from continuing, a dedicated officer SHOULD monitor this social networking giant Facebook. Facebook can be a community building tool, but it could also negatively impact. We can do our part by restricting access to our profile. If the site allows it, it’s a good idea to limit access to your profile. Don’t allow strangers to learn everything they can about us. It’s just not safe! Also, keep private information private. Never post full name, address, phone number, full birth date, or schedule. These will make you vulnerable to identity thieves, scams, burglars, or worse.

Comment on Facebook cop

Facebook is the most popular social network nowadays. In every streets and corners, you can see a
teenager logging on to facebook to interact with their peers or friends.As of July 2010, Facebook has more than 500 million active users. Facebook act as a medium for people all around the world to get interconnected. Facebook users can do microblogging, upload and share their photos and videos with their peers or friends. If facebook does not have any high security measures for its users, user's privacy can be at risked.

In this article, Australia to push for 'Facebook cop', mentioned Australian police have investigated that the murder of teenager who met her alleged attacker on facebook. The authority have to come out with strategies to address how to stop attackers from abusing facebook to create crimes.The police are pushing for Facebook-book law enforcement guidelines to match Australian law as well as discuss the possibility of banning anyone under the age of 13 from joining the social network.Mr Neil Guaghan, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commisioner added, "I'd also like to see a 'report abuse' button on each profile page to make it easier for people to report their concern to law enforcement... and some age verification software placed on the system so we don't have people under 13 becoming members of facebook.

In my opinion, I feel that the under age of 13 should be banned becoming  a member of facebook. It is because they are still young and could be innocent. Any mishap can happen to them if they are blinded by the words from a stranger. Those young kids may get harm or hurt easily or even to the worst extent that they are being abused but they does not know about it. Imposing a 'report abuse button' can help the authority in tracking down abusers. The authority can then take action against the abusers. Web users can work in hand with the authority to keep low crime rates.

There have been increasing stalking and grooming people for sexual activity, and where illegal content is being shared among users. Please be alert when you are surfing the web if you find any suspicious web user report to the authority immdiately. Please be vigilant of your privacy settings. You may not know your privacy is at risked!



From: Ho Chee How

Facebook cop: Safeenabanu

Facebook cop: Safeenabanu
 Facebook has become a very openbook site. User usually expose a lot of imformation for all to see. These include personal information, for 
example, birthdate and self-interest.  Exposing these information increase
the potential of online crime.
Many online crimes are taking place without the users knowing. One
recent case is a murder of a female Australian Nona Belomesoff,18. She was
lured to an isolated bushland area by a man through Fcaebook. The man
was believe to have preyed on her by using the interests openly listed on
her Facebook page.
In regard to this incident, I think that we need to have a dedicated officer
"patrolling" this giant social site. This is to prevent or at least minimize
criminal activites from taking place. As a saying goes, prevention is better
than cure. It is true that Facebook does holds many advantages and has
affect many lifes in a positive way. However, to avoid unecessary attention
,we have to play our part by being vigilant. Try not to expose too many
personal information to stalkers and hackers.

FaceBook Cop: Jia Yan

Personally I think that face-book is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode because anything could happen to the kids who are not mature or clever enough to handle difficult situation by their own.  It totally disregards the safety and privacy that face-book users needed to protect themselves from stalkers online. As stated in the article, face-book media have caused an 18 year old girl to be murder in an isolated bush land by a man. I think that without the privacy of the face-book being emplace, stalkers such as the man in the article will use this to his advantage to ask a person out. This might be done by telling the victims he have common interests in-between them and would like to meet in real life to have a chat.  I totally agree that face-book security must step up to prevent such things from happening. Thus with the stringent of Face-book in such as in Australia; the introductions of face-book ‘cop’, it will prevent these things from happening. Face-book ‘cop’ have impose a prevention of function link such as the Report Abuse which users could report their concerns to law enforcement. I think face-book would affect human relationships, take for example; face-book could be the connection with friends and family that can count on. No matter how far away you are from another person, face-book can still help you to connect to him/her right at that moment. This would build and strengthened via the face-book with each other; however you will tend to feel of having a distance with your friends/family, less emotional and weaker when physical contact is made. As previously comments I have made on the article (big bully), I think this would increase the percentage of cyber bullying. These people might even send others procrastination such as to bully other students who are weaker in mind via the cyber world. Hence, cyber bullying via face-book which could lead to victims to have emotional distress and may even have the idea of suicide, if the bully post a seriously problematic to them.    

Here is a case of a failed attempt teen kidnap caught by the local state police, which one of the kidnappers have communicated with a 14 year old girl for around a year via social networking; FaceBook.

Feedback control was being imposed to tighten up the secruity not just this school but all the schools in Kentucky 

Week 5: Facebook Cop SAMSON

I strongly agreed that we should have facebook cops to help us fight crimes committed through these online social networks website. Ever since the creation of facebook, people around the world are more interconnected and this gives criminals great chances to attack. For example, people have their address, emails and even mobile phone to be post on facebook. This gives criminal information about the victims’ background. Of course, criminal will be able to know their family backgrounds, schools, favorite place, friends and family. Hence, having facebook cops is necessary. Below is an article from BBC NEWS about one of the most horrible crime made in the country whereby women and men sex abuse babies.

BBC NEWS ON CHILD SEX ABUSE

This crime is also cause by social networking website facebook. As such, facebook cops will definitely help to minimize crimes and prevent criminals to attack. Also, there is statistic that shows, with the creation of facebook, there is a huge increase in crimes being made. With facebook, we know that individual privacy is being exposed. Hence, we all need to take precautions to prevent each of ourselves being harm. I agreed with the article that children below the age of 13 should not have access to facebook. This is because; facebook allows people to share their photos and thoughts. And very often these photos promote sexual activities and might influence children who are innocent.

Next, thoughts such as racialism, religious negative view, will also cause huge impact to people. But if facebook cops are in place, I believe that it will stop all these activities and crime rings. Nevertheless, it is still individual’s effort to protect themselves by not putting personal contacts, emails, address and all individual information on facebook. I hope that everyone will love themselves and help report criminals.
Week 5: Facebook Cop SAMSON

Big Bully: Ezuin

School bullying has always been a problem. To me, ‘Bullying’ simply means making someone feels hurt, afraid, or uncomfortable. The reason why oneself would want to bully another person is, to make themselves feel good, get attention or gain power. But why bully? First, we must know that everyone is different and lives with different experiences. We cannot expect everyone to live life happily or how they wanted their to be. In this Spring article, Justin’s (Bully) reason for being involved in bullying is because no one gives him attention at home as both his parents are busy with their work and didn’t bother to talk to him. In contrast, his parents showed their love and concern towards his brother as he is good at studying. Thus, Justin concluded that to his parents he is just useless.

Sooner, Justin who used to be a quiet and meek boy, became rebellious by breaking every school rules as possible. He even uses physical and verbal bully to pick on his victims. The physical bully he did was pulling his school girls’ hair and hid their school bag. The verbal bully he did was making his victims do what they refuse to do like ordering them to let him copy their school assignments and force them to do homework for him. He also enjoyed picking on those that came from the well-to-do families. To him, it reminded him of his own happiness that he didn’t get from his family. However he did all this for reason/s. He just wanted to gain power and makes him stand out from the crowd. It's a way to get his parents’ attention towards him. Personally, it’s not wrong to do something to divert our parents’ attention towards us but in his case this is not the right thing to do. By hurting someone else is not going to solve the problems. He should find a better alternative way to attract his parents’ attention by doing something that they want him to be. Regretting in the end is pointless and crying over spilled milk pointless as you can’t turn back the time and the maximum you can do is to turn over a new leaf. In Justin’s case his parents and him are to blame. As parents, they are entitled to take care of their child’s welfare, ensuring their happiness, spending time with their kids equally and most importantly is, to show them love and concern. The main person to blame is the individual. He/she has the control of his/her body and mindset and can’t blame anyone for his/her doings. Hope these youths would find better alternatives than to commit themselves into ‘Bullying’ and hurt innocent people.

Below is a clip showing how parents and teachers could stop these bully cases.

1 in 4 secondary school students bullied: Safeena

1 in 4 secondary school students bullied: Safeena
From the article '1 in 4 secondary school students bullied', it tells us that bullying is rampant in schools today. Bullying simply means hurting others physically and emotionally. Examples of forms of bullying mentioned in the article were vulgar language,name-calling,spreading rumours,insulting victims in front of others,throwing things at victims and making things up to get victims into trouble. Why do teenagers resort to such acts?
  In my opinion, the root of bullying is home. The two common factors are lack of quality time spent between parents and child and domestic
violence. Lets talk about the first factor. In th 21st century, in many
households, both parents are working. They focus on earning more and
more money for their children  forgetting that what their children need more is quality time spend together with the parents. By spending time together, parents will have a chance to instill moral values in their
children. We do not expect parents to raise angels as children is always up to mischiefs. However when mischief crosses the line into the territory of harming other,this is where bullying comes into occurance.
Next is domestic violence. A child may be observing or experiencing
violence at home and eventually act it out upon others. In other words,
violence beget violence. Example, when parents fight frequently, children feel
frustrated. When they got no one to talk to, they will let out their
frustrations on smaller kids in school.  Another possibility might be, they
are being beaten up by abusive parents who might be suffering from
stress. As a result, a child might  feel that his or her self-esteem is being
threaten and therefore they bully others to feel good once again.
Therefore, I personally feel that parents play and important role in eliminating or at least
reducing the number of bullying cases in our country.
 Below is a video on how parents' behaviour may affects their children's behaviour.

Bullying

Bullying can be seen in school commonly. Why is this so? Are the students lack of supervision from their parents so they went astray? In this article, Big Bully, from Spring Magazine Sept/Oct 2010 this boy who is the bully mentioned that his parents are busy working and have neglected him. Adolescene like him are in stages of growing up to adulthood is easily led to astray because teenagers will resort through playing tyrant to seek parents attention. Especially, when we feel our parents are neglecting us & we lack of parental loves & concern.

In my opinion, parents should spend more time with us despite their heavy workloads & they should treat each & every sliblings fairly. If parents favour the smartest or the most obedient one, the other sliblings will feel they are not being love & blame their parents for being baised. The boy in this article felt he is useless & good for nothing as compared to his younger brother who are smarter. His parents favour the younger brother and so he became rebellious to gain his parents attention.

Eventually, he formed a gang and recruiting his peers or the younger ones to join him. His gang members looking highly on him, and called him "Big Brother". He loves the attention given by his members in the gang because he couldn't get the attention from his parents at home. They play tryant in school, bullying the weaker ones to earn their respects.

When the accident had happened, his parent then felt regret for lacking supervision on him. It may be too late. Fortunately, the boy have realised his mistakes & willing to turn over a new leaf. He was given a second chance back to school to study.

I feel that parents & the school should work together to reduce bullying in school. Talks about bullying can be held in school, to gain awareness on the seriousness of bullying. The schools can arrange parents and teachers meeting session, so they can discuss on how their children behave in school and at home.Then correcting the students behaviour can be done. The media can also help to create awareness of bullying through advertisment or slogans.



From: HO CHEE HOW
Comment on Big Bullying Article

Big Bully: Jia Yan

Big Bully: Jia Yan

Personally i think that bullies such as the one in the article are caused by more then just the ignorance of parents who are busy with their work. I think in schools, Teachers also play an important role in determining the extent of student's behaviour, poor self esteem, insecurity and lack of empathy.

I think that empathy is a mechanism that prevents people from hurting other people's feeling, which is missing for bullies; they seems to be unable to feel bad or recognize when they hurt their feelings. Like the bully in the Spring Magazine he felt highly respected, when people called him 'terror' because of the much attention that was given to him. He would disturb girls and calling them with anonymous names instead of their real name. Because he wanted to be known as the big 'boss', he was unable to feel that he was hurting their feeling, thus lacking of empathy in themselves. If you got bullied, maybe you could try to learn Taekwondo, although it may sounds weird but it sure comes in handy if a fight you knew is inevitable.

I think Bullies are bound to be there, as long as there are humans and no matter what kind of programmes or teaching are to emplace, bullies cannot be stopped but only can be reduced. Nowadays common bullying is via computor which is known as cyberbullying; this is done by texting, posting and commenting online which could hurt people feelings.

Here is a clip on what causes bullying, either online via for example facebook or in a real life situation and the impacts that bullying happened on students.


In conclusion, with reference to the video, a principle/teachers should not be totally blamed on for kids bullying on others, basically it should be the kids and everyone getting around together to figure things out, hence no kids would be left out.

BIG BULLY :Samson

WEEK 4: BLOG TOPIC: BIG BULLY: Samson

School Bullying is very common in school. In fact, almost everyone might have experience it before. School Bullying is not just saying hurtful remarks or physically bully. Cyber- bullying could be also another way that will affect and hurt someone adversely. For example, hurtful remarks on people’s blog could destroy someone’s reputation. This will definitely hurt the person and might cause them to be mentally bully. In such cases, School Bullying might also lead to unforeseen situations such as suicide.

After reading the “Big Bully” article, I am very glad that in the end, the bully has change a new leaf and promise not to repeat such a childish act. Everyone faces different challenges in life, if you are unable to cope with it. What makes you think that being a “Big brother” is something proud? In the article, the bully mentions about his neglection from his parents and he wanted attention. To me, I believe that it all started from individual belief. If he thinks that getting good results in school will gain attention from his parents. He should have study hard enough. Why must he be a bully? If he can’t even pass through the challenges in school, what makes him think that in future, he is able to cope with the challenges ahead?

Below is a video about a boy being called “Stupid”, unable to cope with this emotional stress being build up, he thought of killing himself.

After looking at this video, we can see that even calling names could have hurt someone badly and unnecessary troubles to them. To conclude, I urge everyone out there to be brave enough to fight back against bully. And to those bullies, change a new leaf and be brave enough to face challenges in life.

Samson