The Right of A Fetus

Many years ago, people did not think fetuses have life. In that period, they did not have any right, even the right to get born sometimes was also a extravagant hope to them. Nowadays, with the development of technology, designing baby is going on the stage, which evoke us thinking about questions like "dose a fetus have the right to prevent genetic changes?"

"The tern "designer baby" refers to a baby whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilisation to ensure the presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics."(from wikipedia ) The technology can allowed parents to decided their babies' gender, appearance, even personality. Parents may think that they are helping their babies to have a better future. 

In my opinion, designing babies is a violation of fetuses' right. This kind of changing is the same with abortion. If a person's appearance and even personalities are changed, we can hardly assume that the original one and the change one are the same. Therefore, if a person are changed when he or she are still a fetus. I think the another possibility is murdered. On the other hand, designer babies can cause many social problem, if a person's appearance, intelligence and personalities can be change or improved by the choice of their parents, then parents will under a big pressure especially who cannot afford a designing. Because their babies' futures depend on them, but they cannot make their babes more competitive in the future,which in turn makes the poor generation more poor and the rich richer.

Should we design babies?

    As the development of science and technology, people now have the power to design babies. They can put genes in an egg to make a baby with expected features. In my view, however, we should not use this power in our daily life. In other words, we should design babies.、

    The reason why we should not do it is that we are against the rules of the nature. First of all, any of the species experiences a long time of evaluation. Therefore, there are many reasons why they are like that today. What we know now are only a few of the reasons. So, we do not know how much effect we will make on the creatures if we design them as we like, including human being. Another problem of designing babies is the privacy. Gene now is also considered a private thing, which contains much information of the owner. In addition, I think it is not wrong for us to do experiments to get knowledge, but our aim must be confirmed. We should use science to make the world more balanced, but not to benefit ourselves. There are many examples showing that if we use these powers to benefit ourselves, the nature will punish us, and the environmental problem is one. In my opinion, designing creature project can only be allowed in lab, and we should not try to design babies.

    There is an old saying that creating people is gods’ job. Now people consider themselves as the most intelligent creature on earth, and have got a lot of knowledge. Because of the knowledge, people have powers to change the world. The more powerful we are, the more responsibilities we should take. Thus, as we use our knowledge to make our life colorful, we should also follow the rules and be the servants of the nature.

Cloning？a problem in my mind

If you are cloned one day, in your opinion what will happen to you? Today we talk about the cloning. It has been one of the most popular issues these days. Some people think it is good to research on cloning because cloned people can be considered as substitute for original ones. However, I have some different opinion. I think cloning brings the society two problems.

Ethical relationship is the biggest problem if someone is cloned. Suppose that one man was cloned one day, so what is the relationship between the original one and the cloned one? Are they brothers? Or are they father and son? If I think deeply, what is the relationship between the man’s wife with the cloned one? Are they pair bond? Oh, God! Everything is in a mess! Even worse, if someday a person was cloned for many times just like what in “Star Wars”, there might be wars between original people and cloned people due to unavoidable contradiction.

In addition, some people insisted that if people use cloning in organ transplantation, more people can get benefit from it. On other hand, only if people kill some cloned baby, they can succeed in organ transplantation. Here is the problem. Do people have the right to kill these cloned babies? I think they do not. However, some people argue that these cloned babies cannot be considered as real lives. So when can a baby be considered as a life? I think this is a rather more difficult problem.

In summary, if people want to benefit from cloning, they can take these two problems into account. Otherwise cloning is still a dream, which cannot be realized.

who am I?

  In 2112, the centurial debate came to an end; the research of human cloning was accepted all over the world. Scientists, who had fought for the right to study human cloning for a long time, finally won the chance to do it and I was one of them. Soon after the law had taken effect, staying away from others, I began to create a clone by myself and the original was myself; I wanted to be the first scientist who cloned human being successfully and the first man in the world who was cloned.

   

  After a great deal of failed attempts, I succeed. He grew up fast and healthily in the state of lethargy. In a short time, he was the same age as I was. But there was one unexpected thing, after I tested his brain, he not only looked the same as me, but also had all my memory. It was very dangerous because he knew very thing about me; no, to some extent, he was another me. I could hardly control a man with knowledge and self-awareness. I should kill him before others knew it, but I could not; he was a man with thought and life, and had the right to live. But if I did not kill him, I would . . .. When I was struggling, he revived and find me beside him with a medical syringe in my hand. I knew from his eyes that he understood everything. Before I could do anything, he hit me; when I come to myself, he was nowhere to be found. I did not dare to ask for help from others because I was afraid that my career would be influenced and I would be punished. I just hoped he ran away and never appear in my life.

  

  But it was not as easy as I thought. Several months later, when I thought the clone man would never come back, I returned back to my former life. But when I was outside my house, I found someone was having dinner with my family; it was he! Just at that moment, I realized that he had replaced me in my life: my family, my friends and all my possession did not belong to me anymore. And even if I knew this, I could do nothing; no one would believe me because he earned their trust during my absent days. It seemed that I did not belong to this world anymore. Then what was the meaning of my life? What should I do? Who was I? Maybe I was the clone and he was the original. When I come back to reality, I just find he stood in front of me and the knife in his hand was in my heart. “Who am I? Who am I? !” It was the last thought in my mind before I fell into darkness. 

Designing babies

Designing babies

     It is amazing that babies can be designed before they are born, but advanced science and technology show that it will come true one day. Only with changing specific genes, parents can get a perfect baby, who they have dreamed of. How the world will be changed if babies can be designed?

     One change is that the definitions of “disadvantage” and “advantage” will fade away, since all the later generations can be designed perfectly. Designed babies break the saying “there is no perfect people in the world”, and with the parents’ desire for perfect children, the designed babies will increase crazily. When all people worldwide are perfect, their perfect cannot be highlighted because they are in common with one another. The “perfect” people pursued vanish eventually. As the saying goes, “Sometimes regret is also a kind of beauty”, so the world need people with different shortcomings.

     The other change is that many genes problems will occur. The perfect genes are taken from some people with ideal characteristics, that means designed babies’ genes are not totally hereditary from their parents. So the genes are in a mess, and with the contribution of marriage, genes problems will be more serious. Marriage cannot happen between close relatives because of the big chance of getting genes diseases. Designed babies, however, cannot avoid this accident.

     In conclusion, designing babies not only causes the fading of the concept “perfect”, but also leads to genes problems. Designing babies had better not put into effect before all the incidental problems can be solved.

    

Merits of Being a Civil Engineer

    As this week's topic is science and technology and also we are required to choose our majors these days, I want to write something relevant to these two events, which is civil engineering. In fact, I used to major in civil engineering in my original university in China. Though I am not passionate about this major, I did find some attractive merits of being a civil engineer when I studied it.      First, civil engineers accomplish concrete goals, which is to build whether a building, a bridge or a road. Because they can directly see their works appear in this world due to their design. In other words, civil engineers create real things which physically exist, but many other occupations like teachers, analysis and sellers cannot realize that. Because of this, civil engineers can feel the sense of achievement easier.     Second, civil engineers can enjoy creating variable structures. Because every building is required to meet a unique demand for the people who using it and different buildings are located in places with various geographical circumstance, each building has its unique structure and no building is totally the same as another one. Therefore, civil engineers do different analyzing, different calculating and different designing in every single tasks. They are easy to keep their passion towards their jobs as they will not be bored by the same routines in everyday.    Lastly, civil engineers can shift working circumstance. Unlike many other jobs which whether keep working in labs like scientific researchers or spend whole day in front of computers like the analysis or accountants, civil engineers never lack chances to visit construction sites in their work time. They do not do manual work in the construction sites but examine whether the workers follow their instruction. In this way, they gain chance to stretch their bodies during work instead of sitting all the time with ache in their necks or waists.      These three merits of being civil engineers can serve as references to those who are considering civil engineering. However, one's personal interest should always be the decisive reason for choosing majors.

The thoughts of a designed man

           My name is Steven, a so-called perfect man. I have many things that others are eager to get-----high intelligence, handsome appearance, and a wealthy family. It seems that I am the luckiest one in the world. However, one day, I heard from my parent accidently, “Look at our child, what a sensible decision we have made to design his genes.” I was shocked at the words. I realized that I am not myself, but someone who is faked by my parents!

          Then what does everything that I own mean to me? All the things around me give me a sense of unreality. My life is perfect, but it is not what it should have been.

In a morning, I could not hold back my feeling at all. I asked my mother: “Do you love me, Mom?” My mother was surprised at my question, and then smiled. She said: “Of course! You are my son.” “But why did you design my genes?” My mother was shocked this time. I asked again: “Do you love me or do you just love the one designed by you? If I was not designed and was born ugly, would you still love me so much?” “What are you thinking about? You are yourself now, aren’t you?” I smiled bitterly, and said: “What do I mean to you? Your child who you love so much no matter who he is or a piece of work of art that was created by yourself?” My mother’s face was pale and could say nothing.

          I cannot blame my parents. After all, they just want to give me the best. But what is wonderful may be not what I want most. I just want to be myself, the original one, which is the only thing I want but also the one that is impossible to get.

Not be afraid of new science and technology

As science and technology develop quickly, arguments about that appear at the same time. An increasing number of people are worried about certain aspects of science and technology, such as genius engineering.  I do agree that it is essential to be cautious, but I believe these developments would be beneficial to the society in the long term. There are two reasons for that.

Although some new developments have bad effects, they are still of great use to the society. Almost everything is a double-edged sword, and this can be applied to science and technology as well.  It is better to know the correct way of using them rather than just avoid them. Large quantities of people cannot accept a designed baby. They think it is ridiculous to change some genes in their babies. On the other aspect, however, if some genes in a baby can be changed before he/she is born, it means it is possible to cure or avoid some genetic diseases, which could ensure the health of each unborn baby. Thus, people can actually enjoy the benefits as long as the new science and technology are used appropriately.

Another reason is that the real value of the new development in science and technology is now unsure to most of the people. When Faraday invented the first electric generator, many people are doubtful about the use of this machine. Faraday answered that people would never how much a new baby could contribute to the society. During the early stage, people may disagree with some research, such as cloning, but they would never know how they would benefit from that. There are usually much potential in the development of science and technology.

It is no need to be afraid of new science and technology. I do believe people would ultimately benefit from these new developments. They may now have bad effects or seem useless, but they will become beneficial after enough efforts.

Paradox of our times

    Google has just released a concept video, which introduce their concept product-project glasses. The glasses use a micro-camera to scan in the image ahead, then display on the surface of the glasses. Although it is just a concept product, Google claim that they have made a breakthrough in this area. There is no doubt that his project glasses has drawn public’s enormous attention, but also cause debate about whether it is good to overuse the virtual technology, the technology to simulate the real world.

    Actually, virtual technology has permeated into every aspect of our daily life. Social networks, as a typical example, show the common function of virtual technology. It is just like the personal networks in real world and even more efficient and powerful than in real world. You can freely communicate with your old friends and find new friends that you will probably never know without the social networks. Because of these advantages, social networks become increasingly popular; hence comes the series of troubles that people tend to spend more time on virtual world instead of the real world. This gradually grows to a global issue with the development of the virtual technology. Of course, this is merely an example; there are a great deal of other examples of this paradox: which one is better, real or reel? Virtual technology is like a aisle connect the virtual world and real world, when you go through it for so many times, you may find yourself puzzle about which side is reality.

    This is a confusing and strange age. Advance of the virtual technologies make people have the sense the same as in reality, but also make them fall into dilemma baffle of distinguishing real and reel. There are so many paradoxes with the development of the virtual technology in our time that we hardly know who we are, where we are and where to go. Maybe we have to consider what on earth the virtual technology brings us more seriously.

Sleep

Today, we discussed something about sleep. As far as I know, it is common to feel tired and sleepy after sleeping either too little or too much.
As for me, when I sleep after 2:00 a.m. and get up at about 7:10, I will feel tired the whole day. Besides, if I do not have enough sleep after lunch, I will be lackadaisical in the afternoon. The brain works like a computer. When a computer has been used for a long time without a break, it may break down. Our brain cannot work keep working for a long time either, or it will not be energetic enough to work well. Therefore, enough sleep is necessary.
It is easy to explain why we feel tired without enough sleep, but it is strange that we still feel tired after too much sleep. When I wake up on weekends, I still want to sleep. After sleeping for another one hour, I feel too tired to get up and the whole day will be an inactive and sleepy day. I searched it on the internet and got the answer. The reason is that our body keeps relaxed when we are sleeping, but too much sleep make it get used to the relaxed condition. Therefore, when we get up after sleeping too long, our body is not energetic. In addition, the sleeping part of our brain keeps active during sleeping while other parts are repressed. When we get up, our brain cannot recover from that condition, which results in our sleepiness.
Sometimes, however, we cannot avoid staying up late. To be energetic the next day, sleeping for about 30 minutes when we feel sleepy during the day is helpful.

My Opinions about Designer Babies

Now many young couples are dreaming about having a perfect baby, which means they want their baby handsome, beautiful and intelligent and they even hope to decide the baby’s gender or character in advance. With the development of science and technology, designer baby is no longer a dream now. In my opinion, I do not agree to design a baby before their birth.

First, I think gender selection should not be allowed. In many countries, couples prefer to have a boy rather than girl. If they can choose the gender of their babies, they will only give birth to a boy and women will have an abortion when they conceive a girl. Such behavior does great harm to a woman’s body. Moreover, it will cause the imbalanced number of boys and girls and contribute to the development of unequal status of women.

Second, I cannot accept the design of a baby’s appearance, intelligence or personality before their birth. When babies are under design, part of their genes should be changed. The technology is not advanced enough to promise the one hundred percent of success rate, so some babies may become the white mice and many fertilized eggs may be sacrificed. I think it is a huge waste of life. Besides, if every couple wants their baby beautiful or handsome, I think every baby will have a similar appearance, and then people will still pursue more beautiful or handsome appearance, which results in unending pursuit. For me, if my baby’s appearance is designed, I feel it is not my real kid. The baby is not authentic and not produced from the original “factory”, so I will suffer for it. In addition, I think intelligence and personality is a random selection, and I want it be in accordance with its natural tendency or parents may change it after the babies’ birth by educating them.
With the development of science and technology, many seemingly impossible things have become possible now, but I think not every new product of advanced technology is acceptable. For me, at least I do not agree to design a baby, and I think babies should not become consumer
goods for people to choose from a market. In short, I cannot accept designer babies.

Some weird science facts

Science and technology are developing at a high pace in recent years. Almost every day, scientists can invent a new medicine and experts can come up with new treatments to certain diseases. Some researches show that there are many weird science facts about human body that you will be amazed to know.

The first thing that you will be surprised to know is that more than half of the household dust consists of human skin, which seems unbelievable. It is because human skin renews quickly; the old skin falls off the body, and then becomes dust. The second amazing fact is that the nerve impulses that run to and from the brain can travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. No wonder the human brain is considered as the most intelligent machine, because it functions fast and has a swift response. Another astonishing thing is about the acid in the stomach. Experts indicate that the acid present in the stomach for digestion of food is so concentrated that it can dissolve a razor blade. You can imagine how sour the acid is. The last weird fact I want to introduce is that eyes of a person remain of the same size since birth, but the nose and ears never stop growing. Maybe that is why some small children’s eyes look big and shinny.

Apart from these weird facts, there are many more. Reading such science journals keeps people informed of latest discoveries about human body. Science keeps advancing every day and there will be more amazing discoveries in the future.

Human cloning

This week we have discussed a lot about clone and we know that there were several animals being cloned successfully, including Dolly and CC. The fundamental theory of clone is making an identical creature by using one’s genes, so the success of animal cloning means that it is not impossible to clone humans. Several months ago, I read from a newspaper that some scientists were going to start human clone experiment in the few months. However, some people, including me, think that human clone may cause some serious problems.

One of the most serious problems is about ethics. Since cloned humans are artificial, what should the relationship be between them and their genes providers? Children and parents? Brothers or sisters? No one can give a correct answer and persuasive evidence until now. Moreover, it is also indeterminate that who should take the responsibly of these cloned people’s behaviours. They are made by scientists and they may grow up with their “fathers/mothers”. If they crime before they are adults, it may be caused by the mistakes in their creating process made by scientists or the incorrect family atmosphere and education from their “parents”. Thus, it is hard to say who should be blamed for.

Besides ethics, many people also think that it is a resistance of nature. We human beings should come from our parents not from a lab; we should be natural not artificial. It is an offence of human rights; no one should have this right to determine others genes which should be determined by nature. Furthermore, many people who believe in religions claim that it is also an offence of their gods, because in their belief, we are made by gods. If we make humans by our own, it is showing that these people can do what should be done by gods.

In conclusion, I do not think human clone as a beneficial technology. Once cloned humans are made, there will be more problems coming with them.

Another me

  When I was a child, I used to hope that I could be cloned, so that I can get another person who has the same appearance with me. If that, I can ask her to go to school and do the homework for me, and when I did something wrong I could say that it was her fault, so I would not be punished.

  That was the dreamlike life in my childish imagination. Now I do not want to get the "copy" of myself. Because now I think I will be in trouble if I get cloned. It is true that life I dreamed when I was a child is really attractive, because I can leave all the bad and unwilling tasks to "another me", and I can do what I like to do. At that time, I only thought of the benefits I can get from the "copy", but I never thought of how I could control the “another me” and make her do what I asked her to do. She is a real and alive person, and what makes her different is that she looks the same as me. Except that, she is nothing different from a normal person. She has her own thoughts and values, so it is impossible for me to control her just as I cannot control any other people in the world. I cannot make her obey my instructors, that is to say I cannot promise that she will not do something bad to me. She may break the law and make me in jail instead of her. She may also rob my job, my family, my friends and even my boyfriend from me. That is extremely horrible.

  Cloning is coping, but far more than coping, because what it copied is not a file or an essay, but a living creature. This means that you cannot throw it away easily even it is not what you really need. To get a successful cloning person, lots of failed creatures might be created. Some may even be disabled or have diseases. It is immoral to kill them after giving lives to them, but it is really difficult to look after these creatures.  Clone can make technology into a dilemma, so it would be better that no reproductive cloning will be allowed.

IMAX-3D movies

This week our topic is “Science and Technology”. After reading the supplementary material, I suddenly came up with an interesting idea and I would like to share it with all of you. In last fifty years, the technology has developed at a rapid speed beyond our imaginations. Cell phones, computers and televisions became parts of our life; I-phones, I-pads and 3D movies became increasingly popular all over the world. Compared to our earlier life, our life is more fruitful with such high-technology products now. Today, I would like to tell you something about one the most interesting innovations, the IMAX-3D movies.
Recently, my friends asked me to watch an IMAX-3D movie at Golden Village. He excitedly told me that Imax-3D movies were amazing and it was fantastic to see a movie on such a huge screen. However, I had no idea of what he said and even felt shocked, because I never heard IMAX-3D movies before. After surfing the Internet, I got a rough idea about what the IMAX movie was and I develop an interest in it.
According to Wikipedia, “IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMAX)” As for “IMAX-3D”, I comprehend that audience can watch a 3-dimensional IMAX movie on a 2-dimensional screen. The image, sound and actions are clear and verisimilitude. This fantastic movie can give people a feeling that they are situated in the movie. It is great fun for people enjoying an IMAX-3D movie and they are likely to be impressed by the grand scenes. At present, many more IMAX-3D movies are being made, and it has gradually led movie industry into a new epoch.
Last Thursday, Simon told me that the first IMAX-3D cinema had been established 3 months before. As long as the first IMAX-3D movie came out, all the tickets were sold out only in one day. Many people squeezed their time to sit in the crowd cinema; they only expect to enjoy this type of movie. Moreover, after seeing this movie, many people decided to watch it again because they were deeply impressed by the magnificent movie. IMAX-3D movies were highly appraised; it becomes popular in Changsha now.
After hearing all these interesting news, I get to know about what the IMAX-3D movie is. It is a new type of movie that is three-dimensional and display on a big screen. It provides visual and auditory enjoyment for the audience. Though it is a new thing in China, I believe it will become much more popular in the future. I am looking forward to watching an IMAX-3D movie with my friends now; I am sure it will be a wonderful experience for me.

The most useful but terrible invention

Plastic bags have been used in many areas. Since they were invented, People do not need to carry a bag to buy something at all. Because of the low price and usefulness, plastic bag was considered as the greatest invention in the world many years ago.

However, today people regret inventing the plastic bags, because it is hard to dispose the used plastic bags. When people try to burn them, the smoke can damage the air. Before all plastic bags are burned over, the earth maybe has already been destroyed. They also cannot be broke down easily. It takes 300 years to break down one plastic bag on average. Therefore, it is impossible to bury them and wait them to be disappeared. The plant hardly can grow up, and the building cannot be built in the area where people bury plastic bags. Some animal might grub in the earth for food and eat the plastic bags, which can make the animal die soon.

Governments want to avoid using plastic bags, after realize the bad effects, but they fail. Plastic bags have already become necessary products. People are no longer used to bring their own bags to supermarket. Even though some markets do not provide plastic bags for free, people are still willing to pay for them.

It is a joke that people can invent new products first, regardless of the bad effects, and then if the products are harmful to the world, governors can prohibit producing them. Therefore, for these controvert technology, like clone, people should think twice, in case of making irrevocable mistakes.   

Diminished sense of identity

Imagine that a man is lying on the bed with his eyes closing. Then, he suddenly feels that someone is pointing a gun at him. He opens his eyes and finds it is his “brother”­­－a genetic and thinking duplicate of himself. No matter how hard he is trying to escape, his “brother” can easily find him. It is impossible for him to get rid of being killed, because his “brother” is the person who on earth knows him best.

The scene above seems ridiculous in recent days; however, with the development of cloning technology, it will finally come true. What I cannot accept most is the diminished sense of identity after the cloning development. For example, when I come across a friend on the street, I don’t want to figure out whether he is a real one or a duplicated one. Also, it is hard to imagine that many people who look exactly the same as me. Two weeks ago, our class had a discussion about transplant, and most of our classmates chose not to donate their face. “Who am I” has already been a tough question in human history, no one want to add another question like “who am real I.”

I like what Wayne Pacelle said: “Just because you are capable of something, does not mean you should act on it.” I believe that what beneficial effects of cloning can be replaced by other biologic technology. It is no need for scientists to choose an adventurous one.

Not essay, just few reflections on values

    Recently, blogs instead of essays have become something that makes me suffer a lot although personality and value are all very general topics. Values refer to people’s life goals, reflecting what is most important to them. Values are established throughout one’s life as a result of accumulating life experiences, and one’s values tend to be relatively stable as he or she become more mature. Let me share two points of my reflections on values.

    The values of different people depend on different ages. For children, they are inclined to have some great expectations based on their interest, such as becoming the richest man in the world, becoming a scientist like Einstein, inventing a time machine and so on. If a child suffers from a severe cold, he may want to make a omnipotent medicine. University students’ expectations are more realistic. They begin to care about salaries and listen to other people’s experience for reference, while middle-aged people are more mature and set sights on practical objectives.
    It is insensible to judge a person by his or her values. Someone may pursue money for all of his life, while some people may just want to earn sufficient money to fulfill their expense on daily must. On the one hand, everybody just seeks his own happiness in different ways. What we want in life is happiness. If money is so important that it is the resource of happiness, then it’s perfect to earn more money and try the best to seek the happiness. On the other hand, people are rarely absolutely black or white but usually involve shades of gray. It is unreasonable to judge someone only by part of his thoughts, because other parts of his values may be helpful to others.

Uncover the mask

It is fantastic that when referred to personality, people are likely to use positive words such as “outgoing”, ”talkative”, etc. to describe their own personalities. But sometimes, however, a person’s real personality does not correspond to his/her description. From my personal experience, I deduce that there are two main reasons for this phenomenon: not courageous enough to accept their real personalities and shy to telling them to their friends.

One of the main reasons is that people are unwilling to admit what they actually like. Everyone has his/her dark side of personality. Some people are too neurotic about even the smallest things; some people always feel desperate about life. But these are the characteristics that they do not want; because of their reluctance, they usually tend to talk about the positive side of their personalities instead of mentioning their weakness in personality.

The other main reason is that people are too shy to tell their real personality to friends. Suppose I am a sensitive person, I may not want my friends to be aware about that coz it will make my friends away from me. It is tough for people to hide their real personality in front of their friends and it is also a kind of insincerity to wear a “mask” when faced with your friends.

So why don’t we just uncover our mask and face our friends more sincere. It surely takes time and efforts to overcome the difficulties I mentioned, but it is worth doing so.

Whether born kind or not

  This week’s theme is about personality. So today I want to talk about babies’ personality. In ancient China, there was an argument about whether babies were born kind or evil. And I will tell you about the two theories.

  One ancient Chinese philosopher called Mengzi said that human-beings were born with kindness. In his opinion, all the people had a potential desire to be kind. He stated this theory in his books. He thought all human-beings had personalities of sympathy. Because of sympathy, people would show their kindness to who were suffering from misfortune. This action is the difference that distinguishes human-beings from animals.

  In contrast, anther ancient Chinese philosopher called Xunzi thought human-beings were born evil. In his opinion, human-beings easily became bad due to temptation outside. This phenomenon can testify that human-beings were born evil. As a result, people needed laws and morality to restrict their behaviors. That is to say, in his theory law played a rather important role. In this way they were able to be kind step by step.

  However, I think maybe babies are born with nothing. They know nothing about the world, the society and others. And the environment plays an extremely role in their personality’s forming. For example, if Hitler was born at present, he could not become such a horrifying person like whom in world war two. That is to say, for me it is the environment factors babies’ personality; they are born with nothing.

Personality and Persona

The word person,which derives from Latin, is a conjugate of personality. Literally, persona means mask, which is considered a kind of disguise in front of people. In psychology, "persona is a term given to describe the versions of self that all individuals possess. Behaviours are selected according to the desired impression an individual wishes to create when interacting with other people." (from wikipedia) in my a pinion, one's personaliy is somehow related to one's persona. Or should I say one's personality is somehow concealed by one's persona.

How dose that happen? In psychology, " the persona one presents to other people varies according to the social environment the person is engaged in, in particular the persona presented before others will differ from the persona an individual will present when he/she happens to be alone." (from wikipedia) which means people who you meet and communicate everyday, you might still know very little about them. Because the only thing you see, and the only thing you can see(those excellent "actors") are their personas. Therefore, for some people, it is hard to find out their personalities. I am not sure whether it is good or not to have personas, but, sometimes, people put on their personas, because they are afraid that other cannot accept who they really are. 

Face judgement

On Monday, we had an activity to describe our partner’s personality. I was surprised that though I cannot come up with some specific things to demonstrate my judgements towards my classmates, some of what they thought about themselves is the same as what I thought. This reminded me of what Qingshuo has told me before. He said that there is a book which could teach people how to judge a person by his or her face. In China, we called this method “face judgement.” After the discussion about personality, I began to take this kind of method seriously. However, face judgement just likes fengshui, it is hard for me to tell whether it is true or not.

In most of Chinese movies or TV dramas, people could see that a person who has a round face and big ears usually acts as a warm-hearted or comical role; in contrast, a person whose face looks like monkey’s is commonly considered as a cunning person. These judgements may sound funny to some extent, but they appeared in my life experiences. For example, when I was in junior high school, a classmate who looks like Maitreya Buddha is exactly a kind and funny person.

However, as a saying tells me that you cannot judge a book by its cover, there are still some facts against face judgement theory. I cannot figure out the truth, but I tend to regard a stranger as a kind person despite his or her face. This will let me live more happy and have a positive attitude towards future.

Personality Percieved in Different Ways

  A person's personality can hardly be defined, because while the person thinks he or she is like this, others may consider him or her as totally different one. This case has happened in our class this week. Actually, one's personality is perceived by two objects: other people and oneself. These two objects use different way to judge one's personality. Rigorously speaking, the other people can only perceive someone by his behavior, as human beings do not have the ability to read others's mind; this so called 'behavior' has a very wide domain including one's habits, gesture, facial expression, words spoken out, etc. That is to say, one's personality is judged via one's behavior by others. However, While others know one's personality by one's behavior, a person(supposed a male) perceives his own personality by feeling it. Usually, people will not judge themselves by evaluating their own behaviors, instead, when they are asked to depict their personality, they may begin with the words"I think I am a ...". Their perception on their personality is based on their feelings. For example, a person who always believe things will be better may consider himself a optimistic person, because he can feel that he usually think in a positive way. However, when he discusses a plan with others, he may point out some possible restricting factors many times, and thus others may think he is a pessimistic person due to his behavior. Yet, even he finds out so many restricting factors, he still believes this plan will work out. This case apparently shows the different ways others and he himself use to percept his personality. Therefore, how we see ourselves may not be the same as how others do. One's personality can be perceived differently between oneself and others.

Personality is not an excuse

This Friday, I went to a school to teach pupils Chinese composition. After the experience, I learnt that personality could not consider as an excuse. This class was my first experience to teach, so I was nervous about it. I thought I was good at logic and clear thinking mind, but not hooking. Therefore I was afraid I could not catch students’ interest and they would feel boring. Also, I scared no communication and had a long distance with my class. In the one-hour class, however, they were attracted by me. When I felt they were a little tired, I thought of our tutors. I tried to do what they did in our class. I used some gestures, expressed difficult words with simple sentences, moved around, listened to their discussions carefully and encouraged them on their work. I did not think I did all of them naturally enough, but they worked well. There was no long awkward slience and they all shared their thoughts with me. I was extremely happy when I saw them interested with what I was saying. In my view, we all have bias about ourselves. Sometimes, we think that we cannot do a job well, but in fact, we are afraid to do it. We are escaping difficulties with excuses of personality. If we can face the difficulties, some of them are not that difficult actually, and we have the ability to solve them. Thus, we need confidence and do not use personality as an excuse.

Reflections about Organ Donation Policy in Singapore

This Wednesday, we discussed Organ Donation. I felt shocked when I heard the Organ Donation Policy in Singapore. Those who do not agree to donate their organs cannot receive others’ organ either. At first, I think it is unfair, because it violates people’s right to transplant organs. After thinking about it, however, I consider it quite fair.

If I agree to donate my organs in China, I will feel sad when my organ is used to save a rich man who is so greedy that he only wants to receive organs but never considers donating. I will note on my agreement that my organs are only used for those who agreed to donate their organs before. That is exactly the content of the Organ Donation Policy in Singapore.

If someone does not what to contribute, how can he receive? Donating organs does not like donating blood. Those who donate blood can receive blood free when necessary, while those who did not donate can buy it in a high price. The difference is that blood is enough to use while the organs are far from enough. If organs are only from those who are noble enough to contribute their organs to the society, fewer people can have a chance to transplant organs. In further, if everyone only wants to receive and hate donating, there will be no organs available in hospital. Before he enjoys the right to receive others’ organs, he must fulfill his duty to agree to donate his organ.

What is more, agreeing to donate organs does not mean his organs will be certainly taken after death. Organs are usually taken from donator when accidents happen. Most people die of oldness, in which case, organs will not be taken from them. Therefore, there is no need to worry about organ donation, which does no harm to the life of donators.