Natural disasters

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/opinion/sunday/hurricane-harvey-climate-change.html

Despite the occurrences of natural disasters, we still keep denying climate change. How can we, as citizens of planet earth prevent future danger (natural disasters)? We as citizens of this planet should be looking out for each other, helping those who need help so we can be able to prevent future damages in our world. According to Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times Article, ‘We Don’t Deny Harvey, So Why Do We Deny Climate Change’, many people lose their homes because of natural disaster, but several others lose more than that, they lose a life. According to my own experience, support is important for those who are suffering because of natural disasters, and I can say that as a Cape Verdean and citizen of Earth.

I came from one of the southernmost islands in Cape Verde named Fogo. Fogo is located between the islands of Santiago and Brava. Practically the whole island is a stratovolcano that has been periodically active: it last erupted in 2014. Lava from the volcano has reached the eastern coast of the island within historical times, but there are also clear signs of past volcanism here. “For example, numerous craters can still be identified on these islands and the crater floor of the salt pans near Pedra de Lume on Sal has a temperature that is very warm to hot. This can easily be felt when entering the basin. The “heating” of the salt pan floor can probably be attributed to the volcano’s residual heat.” The (Pico de) Fogo on the island of the same name – whose last eruption in 1995 created the Pequeno Fogo – is the only active volcano at the moment. (How can you connect this interesting info on CV with the next paragraph? The transition is important. What is your government doing/not doing it? That would be a good way to transition.

Consequently, we can’t talk about preventing future damages or even minimizing the damage those victims pass through without mentioning the government – how many times the governments are present with extraordinary financial support for those victims of natural disasters, and how many times they actually did something to help them? I can stand for my country and say they don’t move one finger for those people.

I can’t say that I’m not frustrated when I realize that humans can be so vile and corrupt to their own race and even blood – I remember like it was yesterday, the last eruption, but it was 3 years ago. In that time, I was on an island called Santiago very close to Fogo. In fact, I was in class, so I didn't know anything about it, but when I went home I found my mom in a state of shock, she told me everything, detail, by detail, and I couldn't stop worrying about my family in that situation and what they were passing through. According to what I said, we can realize that being part of history is different than reading it or watching it happen.

After the eruption in Fogo between 2014 and now, the population of that island is suffering in the government's hand by waiting for a promise they made – the government got a lot of help (financial help) from many countries, and it was more than enough money to help the population of Fogo by building their house. They said they would, but after that, they decided to sell the houses instead of honoring their promise. I know that is something that doesn't happen only in my country, but we must stand up to situations like that because if we don’t who will. Even Though it is not possible to avoid natural disasters, we can still decrease the damage. For example, using more electric cars, avoiding pollution, and not burning anything.

In conclusion, natural disasters can now happen in any place at any time and we know that it can’t be avoided, but we can still reduce the damages of it. As we know many of us underestimated natural disaster because they never passed through it – for those who did, we know it’s something terrifying and that is beyond our understanding – and for many is God’s work. In moments like that, we realize the true character of humans and we see who is with us and who is not. Fortunately, many people realize that God is on their side, and only him.

“Drug Dealers In Lab Coats”

The most of us think that opioids addictions star in the street corner.

Do you agree or disagree?.

                     The opioids addiction is a national epidemic. “75 percent of Americans hooked on opioid addictions began with prescription painkillers, The slide starts not on a street corner, but in a doctor’s office”. This is a message from Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times article “Drug Dealers in Lab Coats”. Most of us think that opioids addiction starts in the street corner, however, the real hidden danger exists in the doctor’s office.

        Most of us think that addiction to the drugs, in general, starts in the street. Personally, I have friends that got addicted to drugs by themselves or by friends in workplaces and schools. I think that the fact of getting addicted changes depending on the country.  Back home in Morocco, most addicted to the drugs are by themselves or they were affected by other friends.  In the United States, there are many ways to get addicted to the drugs, people become addicted in the street, Workplaces, schools and the most dangerous one is who starts in the Doctor's offices.  In some clinics, doctors began handing out suboxone without examinations or follow up,  Moving desperate people through with assembly-line efficiency.  Drug overdose deaths and  Opioid involved deaths continue to increase in the United States.

         Every day more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on Opioids, As bad as the opioid epidemic is across the nation, it is even worse in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia who collectively have a rate of opioid-related deaths that is more than twice the national average.

West Virginia is one of the hardest hit areas for babies born with what’s known as neonatal abstinence syndrome. Five percent of babies born in West Virginia last year were born drug affected. Last year 5,306 people died from opioid overdoses in the three states, 15 deaths a

day. That means that 13 percent of all opioid deaths in the nation occurred in a region with just over 5 percent of the country’s population.The misuse of an addiction to Opioids, including prescription pain relievers, heroin and synthetic Opioids such as Fentanyl is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare.

American pharmaceutical companies are the biggest drug pushers of all, in the 1990s,

pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription Opioids pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.

                  In conclusion, people get addicted on the street or in doctor’s office, therefore we need to help them before they start, the big issue is that the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies who are responsible for this epidemic won’t stop their business, every year they receive billions of dollars.  How can the government face this issue when it’s a big part of the economy?.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/opinion/opioid-pharmaceutical-addiction-pain.html

Why is it important to avoid having a single story regarding North Korea?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/opinion/sunday/propaganda-north-korea.html

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”  (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ) . North Korea is one of the most powerful countries we do know so far, Because having a single story about something can make you blind, and forget the real things about it. According to Nicholas Kristof in his New York Times article ‘Why I Went to North Korea’, “Being on the ground in a country lets you see things and absorb their power”  What  we do need  is to know the two countries, the United States and the North Korea, and try to humanize everything about North Korea.

A country should be a place where people feel like themselves, where parents should not fear any threats by talking with their kids about any kind of subjects. A place where you should feel free to leave and to come back to without any idea that we can be bumped any time by another country, knowing that we are not safe. It should not be like that. North Korea is a Communist country and different than the United States of America which has been a democratic country.  For more than eight years, both countries have been dealing with some diplomatic issues and, since that time they are either white or black about some views not only not agreeing with the other, but not  liking the way thing goes there which means they need some explanation. As Kristof said why go to such place? yes, we must carefully weigh the risks, physical risks and the danger of being used by propagandists and work to mitigate them. By him being in the ground made him realize that things are not what he had expected because when you stay outside the bridge and having your own opinion about something will probably make you confused about some wrong ideas. Like Kristof said you probably think that people living in North Koreans are like robots , people with no living, no joy, no laugh, no hope, we always think about them like they have been captured, which means they need our help.

Kristof has wanted more than that, more than what we can assume that's why he went there. We can’t stay in our own place and let a country be destroyed by our own, simply because we just made a story about them. The danger of the single story most of the times is just a Thought. By being aware of it, it can help us to escape the risk by having a cataclysm or crime against humanity. We can be wrong sometimes by having a single story about something, let’s humanize, let's take a step to the ground and by that, we can see if the country is a place of living or otherwise a place of the walking dead.

The right of every single person in the world should not be something we are begging for. Either something we have to make a Rally for, it should be valuable, and something we have, not something we should fight for. We know the world is not fair, the United States government has its own issues and, like North Korea, both of them have some issues about human right. In that case, the job of journalists is to go out and report, however imperfectly, and try to ring alarm bells in the night. According to Kristof, we must see the danger of going to any kind of war if we don't have had our own visions of everything between them both.

Climate Change

   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/opinion/sunday/hurricane-harvey-climate-change.html                  

                  Climate Change after all the devastating Hurricanes

`We can not have an intelligent conversation about Harvey without also discussing climate change`. This is the statement from Nicholas Kristof, in his New York Times article/passage `Why Don`t Deny Harvey, So why Deny Climate Change?`. The recent natural disasters happened in the US like Hurricanes, but we still keep denying climate change, and as a citizen of Planet Earth, we need to prevent future damages and/or natural disasters. A natural disaster is due to climate change such as Hurricane Harvey in Texas.  While we have climate change we should not forget about other things that cause it:  warm water, burning CO2 by using fuel for the cars and factories by other meaning air warms, and risks of war.

First of all, as Kristof mentions the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate agreement, that has been signed and effective November 4, 2016, and signatories are from 195 countries. `As of November 2017, 195 states and the European Union have signed the Agreement. 169 of those parties have ratified or acceded to the Agreement, including China, the United States (who is intent on leaving) and India, the countries with three of the four largest greenhouse gas emission of the UNFCC members total (about 42% together)` (Wikipedia). With some of the circumstances and many causes, we have to prevent this and we have to have plans, but, as of now, we do not have any plan to prevent climate change.  Even Pope Francis has spoken and slams `stupid` about people who are climate-change deniers even after all of those powerful Hurricanes that have happened in USA, and earthquakes in Mexico and the Caribbean. Recent Hurricanes have shown to climate change deniers that climate change exists and we have to combine all our power and strength to prevent Earth from dying, because, as scientists say, Planet Earth needs just 57 years to recover if humans did not exist, but with humans it is never going to happen, because- `No place for climate change deniers to hide,` - as Jay Inslee, says.

Secondly, our concerns will still keep us worried about our future, future of our children, and future of the Planet.  Potentially this situation gives us warm air which causes warm waters which then means melting icebergs and Hurricanes.The whole world reacted to Donald Trump’s speech about pulling out of the Agreement and many of Presidents and High-Profile Level of people have combined against him because they wanted for their kids a prosperous future. As a citizen of Planet Earth, I strongly suggest to American government their consideration about this theme. Environmental issues we are facing are going to make our birthplace face an awful destruction. USA Today reported of increasing percentage of weather-related disasters from 2000-2016 has been increased 46%. Millions of people were affected by natural disasters caused by climate change.

As NYTimes writer Nicholas Kristof has his point, indeed many countries such as USA, China, EU (European Union), Russia, and many rich countries produce more chemical and nuclear things. Producing more trash and C02 to the air and we clearly can see who is making the world worse every year.

Kristof described that Trump should make a fair arrangement with people and make the World and the US better and cleaner places. In my opinion, people were right and I agree and support people who fight for making some changes in the world and want to live without pollution. By acknowledging Climate change,  we can change the World and live without worries.