Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Controversial Problems in UN net summit

According to “Controversy blights UN net summit”, by Jo Twist, the World Summit tried to bring technology to poor countries, but it is not going well. They decided to hold a meeting in Tunisia at a conference they first had in Geneva two years earlier. At the end of the summit, they decided to meet again in a few years to discuss progress in bringing technology to poor countries. There is a problem with censorship and who is the controller of the net. No one has enough money to help poor countries to bring technology. United States representatives used the summit to argue for electronic freedom, as well as civil rights in Tunisia anf the rest of the world. Huang Ju, the Chinese representative, said in order to protect the government against criminal action, they need to censor the Internet. Yoshio Utsumi, international Telecommunications Union secretary, disagreed with Huang Ju. Utsumi said everyone is supposed to have freedom to use internet. He said that must be done to have an information society.

There are many controversial issues in this article, such as censorship on the internet, bringing technology to poor countries, and freedom of speech.

Censorship is good under certain conditions. If I have children, it is my responsibilities to tell them what they can or cannot see on the internet, not the governments. In addition to age of the child, the content is important for deciding on what to censor. For example, how to make a bomb should not be on the internet. Safety concerns are appropriate for the internet.

Bringing technology dose not help poor countries. Poor countries don’t need technology yet, but it depends on how poor they are. If they are starving to death, internet is not even worth discussing. If they are ready for education, developed countries should help poor countries. I don’t believe that developed countries are lacking the money to help poor countries, because I read an article about computers powered by a hand crank that were sent by someone to poor countries.

Everyone has to have freedom of speech. We have right to say anything, but some countries don’t have it. So we have to make the right for other people too. If there are bad things going on, we have to be able to change. Governments should not limit people’s freedom, because some countries’ people are free, and it is not fair that people are forced to do what they don’t want to do.

In conclusion, there are three controversial problems, which are that censorship is good in moderation, that technology should be brought only to countries that will use it to educate people, and that freedom of speech needs to be everyone’s right. Censorship keeps us safe from criminal activity, but should not limit our discovering the world. Technology is not as important as food, and developed countries need to realize that. Finally, freedom of speech is very important to make the world better.

Twist, J. (2005, November 18). “Controversy blights UN net summit.” BBC News. Retrieved March 19, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4450474.stm

Monday, March 3, 2008

Premarital Sex

1. Introduction

Premarital sex is having sex at least one time before getting married. Do you have premarital sex? Do any of your friends? Should we be allowed to have sex at any age, or free to experiment from any religion? What is your opinion? There are many risks to having premarital sex, including sexually transmitted diseases if you don’t know your partner well enough, injuries, and unwanted pregnancy. Nevertheless, huge amounts of young people are having sex at early ages, before marriage. Some governments recommend having safe sex. Some religions strictly ban premarital sex; however, a lot of people don’t follow these religions. Too much constriction on premarital sex from religion is not good because some people break the rules. Some people who are restricted from having sex by their parents or their religions use it as a reason to go ahead and give it a try. “More than nine out of ten Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex...” (Premarital Sex, 2006, para.1). Premarital sex is widely done, it seems, even if it is not accepted.

2. Purpose

Our group, J. Piao, J. Yoo, M. Alsharif, and I decided to find out what Americans think about premarital sex. I wanted to examine the relationship between gender and when people start having sex. Also, I wanted to know the relationship between religion and premarital sex. Moreover, I wanted to examine the relationship between gender and who influenced their opinion about premarital sex.

3. Hypothesis

I had three hypotheses about having premartial sex in America. First, I believed that females started having sex earlier than males. Next, parents gave females influence on their opinion about having sex before marriage. Third, I believed that most Americans disagree with religions that ban sex before marriage.

4. Methods and Procedures

Our group asked thirty-nine people who are different gender, age, and religion in Carbondale to get a different opinion. Our intention was to ask the same amount of men as women, but unfortunately a group member misplaced one male survey participant’s data. In addition, we were looking for both people who have had sex and have not because we wanted to know how differently they are thinking about premarital sex. We prepared a survey that has ten questions. Those questions were almost all yes or no questions, so it was easy for respondents to answer the questions.

5. Data

Here is the result of survey http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/03/practice-survey-results.html

6. Result

Actually, women started having sex earlier than men. 2 out of 15 males (13%) and 4 out of 12 females (33%) started having sex at under 15 years old. Also, most Americans, 10 of 15 males (67%) and 9 out of 12 females (75%), started having sex before 19 years old. Only 9 out of 19 (47%) males said that they agree with religions that ban premarital sex; on the other hand, 12 out of 20 (60%) females said so. Friends have the most influence on both male’s (37%) and female’s (40%) opinion about premarital sex.

7. Conclusion and Discussion

I believed that females started having sex earlier than males, and my prediction was correct because our survey showed almost the same number as my prediction. I wasn’t surprised at that fact, because I thought girls grew up earlier than boys in both ranges, physically and psychologically. However, I was surprised at the fact that friends have the greatest influence on Americans’ opinions about premarital sex. I expected that parents had more influence than friends for females, but it was not true. Also, our survey surprised me about the relationship between religion and premarital sex, because almost half of males and over half of females agreed with religions that ban premarital sex. I thought that most Americans disagreed with religions that ban sex before marriage.

If I can do this survey another time, I would like to ask a lot of older people, because most respondents were 19 to 25-year-old people. Also, if I ask older people, I will be able to get different opinions from younger people’s opinion about premarital sex. Some of our survey’s results couldn’t be used because some respondents checked none of the alternatives and some respondents checked more than two. Therefore, next time I would like to tell them to please check on ONE choice for each question, before giving the paper to respondents.

8. Reference

Premarital Sex: Almost Everyone's Doing It. (2006, December 19). CBS NEWS. Retrieved February 29, 2008, from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/19/national/main2282940.shtml

9. Appendix
Copy of Survey at http://eap1.blogspot.com/2008/03/having-premarital-sex_03.html