My Cogitation Chamber

1. Collonialism and Facism

2. No Olympics on Stolen Land
The government continues to sell, lease and develop native land for the benefit of corporate resource extraction and ski resorts.

3.Ecological Destruction
2010 game is one of the most environmentally destructive. 100,000 tress have been cut for the highway expansion in whistler which results in habitat loss for sensitive animals and bird species. Winter Olympics 2010 generated more than 3.7million tonnes of CO2 emission.

4. Homelessness and Poverty
The Vancouver City homeless rates have increased by 370%. In 2007, the fair play housing rights report over 2 million people have been displaced by the Olympics games in various host cities since 1980s.

Host cities began to campaign to criminalize the poor. In Vancouver, project civil city was launched, this project featured strict new by laws targeting street vending  and sleeping outdoors; with thousands of impoverish people less than 1km from the venue of the opening ceremony.

5. Impact on Women

6. 2010 Police State

7. Public Debt
The original budget of $2 billion put forward by the VANOC for 2010 didn’t include the highway expansion, the skytrain line to the airport, or the new convention center. These projects were necessary to win the bid. Bringing the tab up to $6 billion in public debt

8. Corporate Invasion
Government and business use the Olympic as a mean to attract corporate investment

Resist 2010: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics. (HIGH RES) from BurningFist Media on Vimeo.

This is actually my second time calculating it and I definately don’t remember the results. However, the followings are my current results:

I’m actually quite surprised how my long distance travel took up so much of the pie chart. But after all, if you ask me whether it bothers me or not? I’m going to say no. I’ve seen it before and I’m looking at it again, it still doesn’t matter to me. I’m not disagreeing with being green but I’m just saying being green is not that easy especially when the world is improving with all the technology innovations and educations. As the generations keeps developing, the world has to keep improving in order to keep the population. We cannot do this by cutting down on our daily activities such as biking instead of driving or eat more organic food. We need to create things that reduce greenhouse gas emission. For instance, the hybrid cars.

So carbon footprint after all is not an effective way to “change our minds”. 🙁

Class 20 which was about metrics and performance evaluation reminded me of my IB TOK presentation my partner and I did last year. Our topic was about “how accurate are the teachers at grading their students?” I had to say that it was one of the best things I did in high school!

I wouldn’t speak for everyone but I knew majority of my high school students have felt like they didn’t deserve the grade they got. So my partner and I took this opportunity to voice our feelings towards the grading system of IB. We did lots of research on all the grading criterions, student survey and types of tests (eg. Multiple choices, essays and short answer questions)

Overall, the conclusion of our presentation was that there’s never an accurate way of evaluating a person. We all are given a system to follow because there’s nothing else. Someone once said that “grade is just a tool in your life but what you have learned is the most important”.

The Thinker

We all have heard about the NEW 12% HST tax that includes 5% GST plus 7%PST. I know 5% + 7% = 12% but this time, I don’t get to ask for “ONE TAX, PLEASE”!

I don’t know what the BC government thinking by implementing more tax into restaurant meals, airline tickets and others which were previously exempt from the PST. Do they not know what the consequences will be for student employment and low-income households?

Based on the HST official site, the subtitle is “creating jobs, lowering prices”. EXCUSE ME?!?! That is the world’s most contradictory phrase!

How is a 12% HST tax of a $800,000 home which is $36,000 “lowering prices”? I wonder how this implementation will hit the real estate market. “They have absolutely lost their minds if they expect people to pay that sort of a tax. I don’t understand why on earth the government would do that to the housing economy, seeing as housing is one of the staples of a healthy economy, as you can attest to by checking out what’s happening in the U.S.,” Tom Everett, a Vancouver realtor said.

Now, let’s all go and stop HST.

In January 2010, Toyota has recalled more than 2.3 million vehicles around the world due to break pedal and accelerator problems.

“The recall affects the 2009-2010 RAV4, the 2009-2010 Corolla, the 2009-2010 Matrix, the 2005-2010 Avalon, the 2007-2010 Camry, the 2010 Highlander, the 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia.”

Before this 2010 recall, a previous recalls concern that accelerator pedals could become lodged under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration, which has already caused several crashes, including an accident in San Diego involving a Lexus that accelerated to more than 190 kilometres before and killing four people.

However, “this time, the recall is due to problems with the actual gas pedal mechanism, causing the accelerator to become stuck regardless of whether the vehicle contains a floor mat. Toyota said in certain rare cases, the gas pedal mechanism wears down, causing the accelerator to become harder to press, slower to return or, in some cases, stuck.”

Moreover, the forecast of the degree of impact is too early but it is clear that Toyota sales have been pulled down. This is the reason why Toyota may lose it’s shares in the US market.

According to Himanshu Patel, an analyst at JPMorgan, said in an e- mail yesterday accompanying a report, “the damage to the automaker’s reputation may be repaired, and we are not that pessimistic about Toyota’s long-term brand damage”.

“Toyota’s recalls will affect its U.S. market share in the near term, but they are unlikely to have a material impact in the long term,” the report said. “Toyota’s share losses will primarily accrue to Honda and, perhaps, Nissan and Hyundai.”

Business firms sell their products effectively by promoting their products to consumers through various types of advertising channel. We see them on billboards, magazines, newspapers, television, mobile and more but one channel that earns the most responsiveness is through social media.

According to an article written by Christina Ledesma in May 9, 2007, social network marketing will hit $2.5 billion in 2011, where in 2007 was $900 million. This means that the advertising spending on social network will grow 180%. “The increase comes from two factors: increased revenue projections for Facebook and additional spending on niche and marketer-sponsored social networks.”

The largest player by far is MySpace and the second is Facebook. “MySpace generated $525 million in the US in 2007 and Facebook is expected to generate $125 million”.

However, Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst and author of the report questioned the issues that are beginning to emerge. “Is there enough interest among consumers to support so many ventures? Does every company need a social network? Indubitably, many of the hundreds of social networking ventures pouring into the market will not survive.”

And my question is, if there isn’t enough interest among consumers, where are the ventures going to turn their advertising channel to? Could it be worse? Or better? Who knows…

As most of us know, the learning of business ethics in the global economy is very important. It allows us to be aware of social responsibility and the environmental impacts that businesses have on a community. It teaches us about ethical and legal ramifications of decisions made in business.

Everytime when I hear people discuss about business ethics, I’d always thought, “isn’t business ethics common sense?” This statement, however, turned out to be misleading when I looked at the society in Vietnam. I then truly believe people with different learning environment have different principles on decision-making.

During my 6 years in Ho Chi Minh City, I’ve met different kinds of nationality and people. I have to say, certain Vietnamese did give me an different impression towards them. Their negligence towards business ethics has become an issue for companies in HCMC: high turnovers, lack of trustworthy and loyalty.

Besides, a Vietnamese, Anh Nguyen Hoang has written an essay about Business Ethics in Vietnam, which has supported my conception. The writer has also explained that business ethics were not taught properly in high school and universities.

Below is a brief introduction taken from www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com which is based on an animal rights group, PETA:

“KFC suppliers cram birds into huge waste-filled factories, breed and drug them to grow so large that they can’t even walk, and often break their wings and legs. At slaughter, the birds’ throats are slit and they are dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water—often while they are still conscious. It would be illegal for KFC to abuse dogs, cats, pigs, or cows in these ways.

KFC’s own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so. Many advisors have now resigned in frustration.”

Animal slaughtering happens all around the world. Factories need to kill animals in order to provide food for us. But according to the video, it clearly shows the way KFC treats the chickens and I have no doubt in those stories at all, based on other videos of dog-slaughtering in China and cow-slaughtering in the US. Which is why I agree with Friedman’s statement: “there is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use it resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” In terms of this statement, PETA claims that “it’s easy to follow the rules when there are no rules. Farmed animals are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act, and chickens are not covered by the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. Thus, KFC suppliers can use farming practices that are inhumane to chickens without fear of criminal prosecution and can claim that they operate in compliance with the law.”

Another interesting statement found in www.kentuckyfriedcruelty.com that emphasizes the ethical issue:
KFC’s Claim: “Prior to slaughter, birds are stunned so they are insensible to pain. … Chickens are stunned and killed before they are introduced into the defeathering tanks.”

The Reality: All chickens killed by KFC suppliers are conscious when their throats are cut. The electrified bath only renders birds immobile, not unconscious or insensible to pain. In many cases, the voltage in the water bath is too low, giving birds painful shocks and failing to cause immobility. These birds attempt to avoid the killing machine, which can result in severe mutilation or in the birds’ missing the blade completely, meaning they are conscious when they are sent into the scalding tank. The USDA reports that nearly 3 million chickens every year are scalded alive.

I guess I just didn’t expect KFC, a well-known international fast food company, to allow such procedure to happen in their factory. But overall, who are we (non-vegan) to criticize and to judge about animal cruelty? We are the ones who are asking for food, for meat, for chicken, for pork, for beef…