A Dream for a Better World

On the 15th March of this year, the Canadian Fisheries Minister, Gail Shea claimed that more than 50000 Greenland seals would be permitted to be killed by fishermen in the commercial hunting activities in late March of the year 2010. Gail Shea said that 330,000 Greenland seals would be killed in this year, increasing 50000 seals compared with the 280000 Greenland seals killed last year. The number of gray seals and hooded seals hunting in this year will not change and the quantity is 50000 and 8200 respectively. The minister explained that Greenland seals in Gulf of St Lawrence and East Newfoundland Waters increased this year so they would kill more Greenland seals. She also said that Greenland seal hunting would assist those fishermen who live on fishing along costal regions to support their families.
Commercial activity of seal hunting in Canada is the largest hunting for marine mammal animals in the world. Last year, 280000 baby seals about two months old underwent the fate of being hunted. An observer said that Canadian government ignored strong protest from European countries and Canadians. He also said that Seal market was shrinking and its price was also decreasing so the Canadian government’s behavior was very stupid. In the year 2009, Russia has decided to stop seal hunting in the area of the White Sea but the Canadian government still takes their own course. In the past several years, more than 1 million seals have been killed by Canadians.
As for the process for seal killing, it is very cruel. If the killed seal is a seal mother, she would be cut open on the spot. If it is a seal father, it would be hooked through the hole in the skull and taken to processing factories. As for baby seals, they would be taken away from their mothers by force and be beaten to death. Besides human hunting, seals have to face up the danger from ice because there is not enough thick ice. The ice is very thin so the seal mother has to litter on the land. When the babies come out and go back to the ice on which they live, they would drown because of lack of ice. According to a report from Environment Department in Canada, the thinnest ice appeared in the year 2006. In 1981, the phenomenon of thin ice also happened in Canada and many Greenland seal mothers moved to the Prince Edward Island and the beech of Nova Scotia to produce babies. Consequently, those babies drowned when they went back to the thin ice. Warm weather can hinder the conformation of ice. As the temperature has been increasing in recent years, much ice has melted so seals can find less and less habitats. If human continues hunting in a large number, extinction of seals can be expected soon.
Seal hunting is strongly protested by European countries so the hunters turn to Asian and Eastern European market. In Russia, Poland and Ukraine etc, hats, shawls and other decorations made from seal skin are fashionable. Health products made from seal oil and whip are sold very well in China, Japan and Korea. Like European countries, maybe countries in Asia also protest seal hunting and seal products, the Canada would consider killing seals less.

Rhino, with height from 1.5m to 2m and weight up to 1.5tons to 3.5tons, is a kind of big mammal animal. It seems very heavy but the speed can be up to 40km/h when it runs. It is said that rhino, with 5000 years’ history, is one of the animals which can live the longest time among all animals. At first, there were kinds of rhinos scattering at many places. After long-time natural selection and survival competition, 18700 survive and 17500 are wild ones.
Black rhino and black rhino are the two rhinos in Africa. Actually, the black rhino is not black and the white rhino, whose skin around mouth is white, is also not white. According to the estimation from the International Rhino Foundation, there are 11670 odd white rhinos in the south part of Africa and the number of rhinos which mainly live in the south part of Sudan and northeast part of Zaire is just 30. The white rhinos could be found in the north west of Uganda at first but they have become extinction due to continuous wars and hunting. As for black rhinos, there were about 65000 living in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, South Africa etc during 1960s. But in the 1980s, no more than 20000 black rhinos could be found. The International Rhino Foundation estimated that the number of African black rhinos was no more than 3100. Many wildlife biologists claimed that African rhinos, especially black rhinos were become extinct.
During the past 30 years, African rhinos have decreased too many. They were killed by human beings not because of natural death or kills between themselves. On the one hand, people have cut a large number of trees so rhinos do not have enough space for survival. On the other hand, people hunt rhinos at random. In the past, people wanted to get the skin and meat of rhinos but nowadays, people prefer the ivory of rhinos because it is priceless. A doctor from Kenya said that from the beginning of the 20th century to 1975, the wholesale price of the ivory increased by 20 times. From the year 1976 to 1979, the wholesale price increased by 20 times again and it was 675$ per kg and the retail price was up to 8707$ in Southeast Asia. At present, ivory of rhinos are forbidden to sell so the price goes up too much. It is said that it can be sold by 30000$ per kg in black market of Middle East. Due to the high price and profit, many people in Africa or other countries take risks to hunt rhinos. African rhinos, especially black rhinos are easily killed because of their poor eyesight. From 1970 to 1980, 90% black rhinos were killed in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
As for rhinos hunting, many countries have formulated laws to punish hunters severely. For example, Swaziland legislation stimulated that the hunter would be put into prison for 5 years as well as much penalty. Many other countries also start to set up trans-national zoos to protect rhinos together. To some extent, rhinos have been protected but the news of rhinos hunting is heard occasionally. Therefore, struggling with rhino hunters should never stop.

The premier from Australia Kevin Rudd warned Japan again on the 12th, Dec 2009 and he told Japanese people that if they still didn’t stop whale hunting, Australia would take legal actions to Japan. Actually, many countries including Australia have warned Japan but in vain. According to some statistics, Japanese people send ships to Antarctic waters and hunt more than 1000 whales every year and they hunt more and more year by year. Japanese government always claims that whale hunting is for research. Actually, whales are put into their plates for delicious food.
Japanese people have a kind of special sentiment to whales. Japan is an island nation surrounded by sea so they are used to eating marine animals. Japan is the leading country for whale hunting and they have the history of eating whales for more than 1300 years. Some Japanese ancient books write down dishes of whales. Half century ago, whales are the main source for Japanese people to get protein. Whale meat often can be found in students’ lunches offered by schools. Compared with beef and pork, whale meat can be got more easily. Japanese people not only eat whales, they also make use of the skin, whalebone, whale oil and other parts of whales. Some media in Australia ever reported that whale meat hamburgers can be found easily in many fast food restaurants and the shape is similar with beef hamburgers in McDonald’s. People can buy flesh whale meat which can be made Sushi in supermarkets in Tokyo and most whale meat is from Antarctic waters. In recent years, whale meat supply has decreased too much due to international community ban to whale hunting. As a result, the price of whale meat goes up a lot and Japanese people have stronger desire to hunt whales.
As for Japanese people’s despicable acts for whale hunting, many countries have expressed diplomatic protest and in the January of the year 2006, 17 countries including Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium etc. combined and submitted diplomatic protest letter to Japanese government. However, after Japanese government got the protest letter, they said that they would not stop hunting whales and some Japanese officials said that they hunted whales in accordance with international rules and their aim was to research the ecosystem of whales.
Australia even claimed that they would sue Japan after failure of protest and Australia government sent a ship to follow a whaling fleet from Japan. They also took photos and videos of the whale hunting. Australia government thought that that was the great evidence to reveal despicable acts of Japan but no more news was heard afterwards. Many environmental organizations also involved into whale protection. In the year 2008, some people who from different countries, oppose whale hunting protected whales when 6 whaling fleets were chasing whales. A man from Greenpeace Organization said that they settled their hovercraft between whales and forks and he could even protect the whale with his own body.
The number of whales is still decreasing and they need more protection. As for whale hunting in Japan, the international community should take strong measures. After all, protest in written is far enough. If they really are doing research, where are the research journals? What new research has been produced? They need to quit hiding behind the laws and admit that they are just hunting the whales for food.

Agriculture, which is the main source of cereals, industrial materials, job opportunities and foreign exchanges, plays an important role in Southeast countries. They have made great achievement in agriculture but large areas of forest have been destroyed. In order to enlarge the area of crops, nearly all southeast countries hew down trees and destroy forest.
Since the Second World War, arable land in all Southeast countries has increased. Though the population has become lager, arable land per capita doesn’t decrease and it even increases in some countries. From the year 1980 to 1996, population in Cambodia increased from 6.4 million to 10.27 million and arable land per capita was up to 0.37 ha from 0.3 ha. The arable land per capita increased to 0.09 ha from 0.07 ha in Malaysia when the population increased from 13.76 million to 21.17 million. Philippine mainly developed agriculture by destroying forest before 1970s and in 1950s, arable land increased by 3.45% on average. In 1960s, the increase was 1.3%. Even Philippine tried to develop agriculture by destroying forest; they still couldn’t get great success because of the low productivity. Thailand also had the same mistake. Arable land increased from 41.4 million ha to 93.245 ha from the year 1950 to 1982 with the rate of 12.3% of national land to 29%. In 1990, arable land increased by 47.4%. Meanwhile, forest area decreased by 37.2% from the year 1951 to 1995.
Forest is a kind of renewable resource but the growth cycle needs some decades or even more than a hundred years. So the speed of growth is far behind that of human destroying. In fact, those countries have been punished by the results of deforestation. Soil has been washed away because of lack of protection from forest. Sediment deposition imposed bad effects on transportation and hydropower so people often can not get enough and stable electricity. Deforestation results in flood, drought and other natural disasters. Cambodia, located in the lower reaches of Mekong River, often suffers from flood if the rainfall is too much. At the end of 2000, terrible flood occurred in the country with 400 people lost and more than 1 billion dollars loss. In 2001, more than 108 people in Vietnam died from flood and the number of homeless people was more than 60,000. Forest decrease has reduced land fertility. In 1980s, 18 million ha land suffered from salinization in northeast part of Thailand and 260 ha land in south part suffered from salinization or acidification. Such phenomenon can be found in other Asian countries. Deforestation, at the same time, has destroyed biodiversity. Tropical rain forest, mangroves, wetlands and animals are on the brink of annihilation. In 1997, endangered birds take 11% in Indonesia, 24% in Philippine, 10% in Vietnam and 9% in Malaysia and Thailand.
In recent years, deforestation has decreased compared with that of before because most countries have realized the terrible result caused by deforestation. In addition, technology development also provides ways to improve productivity. However, deforestation still exists in the world and we have more work to do.

When we talk about elephant, we will associate it with beautiful ivory in high value. We even compare universities as beautiful “Ivory Tower”. Actually, elephants can help people do much work besides their priceless ivory. However, many kinds of animals are confronted with hunting and elephant is not the exception. Here we can focus on elephant hunting in Africa.
Since the year 2003, Africa has become the biggest market for ivory trading in excess of the ivory trade in Asia for the first time. Institution of Elephant Trade Information System and organization of Monitoring of Illegal of Elephant Hunting, for the first time, tried to systematically investigate buyers and sellers for ivory trading. They found that most African ivories were smuggled and wholesaled to Japan and some states in America near to Gulf of Mexico etc. After engraved, beautiful ivories were sold to those markets. But situation has changed since 2003. Various types of ivories could be found in African small markets. Organization of Monitoring of Illegal of Elephant Hunting revealed that the “hot spots” for elephant hunting were mainly located in East part of Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the north part of Gabon, the south part of Chad etc. As for Nigeria, elephant hunting is particularly serious and ivory trading market in the country is quite large because the government can not offer strict control.
Elephant hunting is also very terrible in South Africa though there is Kruger National Park which is a wildlife protective zone with the best natural environment and the most kinds of animals in the world. The park has provided the paradise of rehabilitation for more than 140,000 African elephants. Those elephants are gradually eating up the whole park because of over-reproduction. In order to maintain the ecological balance, South African authorities have killed in a large number. During the year 1967, the number of elephants in Kruger increased up to 6500. The government started to kill elephants to control the growth at that time but the hunting was forced to stop because of strong protest from conservationists. In the year 2005, according to the report from the Times, South authorities planed to kill 7000 to 10000 elephants. Helicopters would drive them to a small and narrow place and rangers would shoot them by darts daubed with anesthetic. Then adult elephants would be killed by bullets and small ones would be removed to other protective zones. In the year 2008, the South African government also dismantled the laws of forbidding elephant killing. However, deliberate hunting was considered to be protested by conservationists again at time because they thought that elephant was a kind of gregarious animal with wisdom and sentiments and they had complicated social structure. If they were killed in large number, they would revenge human beings. Actually, conservationists’ anxiety is quite true. In 2007, a local man in Zambia and his two daughters were killed by elephants. Another woman and her daughter from England stayed in Zambia for holiday were crushed to death in the National Park.
Overproducing of elephant hunting would bring bad effects for human but deliberate elephant killing in a large number also causes unexpected results for human security.

The New Year was coming. Two boys with ragged clothes were opening car door for rich people in cold winter. It seemed that they were incompatible with the bustling city. The scene didn’t occur in novels but in the real world of Chengdu. Since the end of the 20th century, the number of street boys has increased too much. Street boys can not only be found in India and China, which are two big countries with large population but also can be found in other countries, especially those undergoing great changes in economy and politics. From 1980s to the beginning of the 21st century, we can find more and more street boys who beg, work or do other hard work.
Why so many kids have become street children? Actually, they should stay at home and enjoy the love from their parents. But the destiny gives them another life. There are several causes which change lovely kids into poor street children. Firstly, they are from poor families. We can find that most street children are from poor families and they have to drop out and earn money to support family though they are very young. Secondly, family is an important and indispensable part for kids’ growth. Divorce and family violence impose bad effect on children’s growth. So some kids have to leave home because they can not bear unharmonious family. Thirdly, street children can not get care from the society. They are neglected, discriminated and even maltreated by other people. However, some people also give a little money to street children because of compassion. But such kind of benefaction will result more and more street children. Fourthly, social security is not perfect. Most street children are from rural or poor regions where social security is far enough. If the government can provide enough social security for poor families, there will be no street children. After all, street children do have human dignity in others’ mind. Fifthly, government should publish favorable policies to supply assistance to street children. As for Help Station, the government can not offer reasonable education which is quite necessary for children.
Street children can also cause some social problems. For example, they may set up organizations to steal or rob other people. Different organizations consisted of street children from different regions also fight for domains. In addition, street children are made use of selling drugs by drug traffickers. In order to live in the world, they have to do that to get a little money though they do not know what they do is illegal.
In order to reduce the number of street children, government ought to take the following pressures. First, government should develop economy rapidly. If a country becomes rich, perfect assistance can be offered to street children. Second, functional departments have to perform their duties. Some departments often ignore their duties and Help Station seems to exist in name only. Third, perfect social security system should be set up as soon as possible. Many kids become street children because they are poor. In addition, disabled kids need social security more.

College students, as we all know, are those people who can accept higher education. And they are considered as rational and educated people. However, in recent years, college students’ crime occupies headlines of newspaper. A student from Tsinghua University poured drink with caustic soda and sulfuric acid to the body and the mouth of bears to verify the results of his experiment. Naturally, bears are terribly injured. Another student, from Yunnan University, killed 4 of his classmates who, like the killer, were also from poor families because he was discriminated by others. Ma Xiaoming, a student from a university in Tianjin, killed his father and grandmother after he was flunked out of school because he thought that after he committed suicide, his father and grandma would be very sad so he killed them. An investigation shows that in the year 1965, college students’ crime occupied 1% of the total criminal cases in the society. During the Cultural Revolution, the rate was up to 2.5%. In the recent years, the rate Jumped up to 17%. Why college students’ crime has occurred so much?
Firstly, many college students have strong desire for pleasure no matter they are from rich family or poor family. We can find few students study in the classroom but they can be easily found in restaurants, games hall, bar and other entertainment places. They also pursue expensive clothes, mobile phones, laptops and other items. What is worse, they have pathological psychology to compare those items which they can not afford. Some students are from poor families so they do not have enough money to buy those expensive items. In order to satisfy their vanity, they start to steal and even rob. According to some survey, 70% college students are put into prison for stealing. Secondly, many college students commit crimes because they are controlled by unhealthy sentiment. It is reported that 16% to 25.4% college students suffer from mental illness such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, neurasthenia etc. Some students bear much pressure because they are highly expected by parents. When they can not get relaxation, they would turn to commit crimes. Thirdly, college students are young people and they are impulsive. They are also easily beaten by failure. A student from Beijing, he intruded into girls’ dormitory with knife and imitation guns. He tied up the two girls and asked for money. But he even talked to the girls and helped them to call the police. Actually, he told police that he just wanted to seek relief after he was caught. He was an impulsive guy. Some other students are spoiled by families so when they are in difficulty, they are also likely to break laws.
If a college student commits crimes when they are at university, his life may be destroyed in future. That is not an exaggeration. Therefore, college students ought to set up healthy value for life. Universities should also offer psychology and law courses for students and teach them to struggle for ideals which can help them know the significance of life.