Water Resources and Environmental Problems

What is water? Water is a form of molecule that is consisted of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Seen from outer space, the world we live in looks almost like a globe of water. Every living organism needs water for its survival. Without water, plants, animals, humans, microbes and everything will perish. Do you know why water is very important to us?

Our body is composed of about 75% of water. Thus, we are literally walking with bags of water. Water allows our blood to flow through the blood vessels and thus supplying our body with various nutrients. It also allows waste matter to be eliminated from our body via the excretory system as waste matter is toxic to our body. Besides that, water also plays a critical role in controlling our body temperature and ensures that the temperature neither drop nor increase or we will be under weather. Everyday we drink glasses of this precious transparent liquid just to relieve thirst. Water is certainly vital to our life.

Water is not only important for the needs of our body. About two thirds of the total surface of the earth is covered with water. Our main source of water is the bountiful skyjuice. Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans have always been our major means of travel. People often use boats and ships to cross the waterways easily to another destination. Before the advent of roads and railways, rivers and other waterways were highways linking people and places. From the cradle of civilization, man has depended on water.

Another importance of water is that we use water to do almost all daily activities such as cooking, bathing, washing and others. Green plants also need water for photosynthesis process which is important to maintain the equilibrium of an ecosystem. Apart from that, water has become an important resource in industries like textile dipping industry, canning industry and food processing industry. Nowadays, hydropower uses water to generate electricity. Hydroelectric power comes from water driving a water turbine connected to a generator. It is a low cost, non-polluting and renewable energy source.

Earth’s water is filled with life. Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans have become the habitat of various kinds of fishes. Nearly all fishes live exclusively in water, and there are many types of marine mammals such as dolphins and whales that also live in water. Plants like plankton and algae grow in the water and are the basis for some underwater ecosystems. Nowadays, fishes have become our major source of food. They provide us an abundant of protein.

However, water pollution has become a serious problem in the world we live in today. It is a hard nut to crack. Our crystal-clear water nowadays has become more and more polluted. Most of our rivers and lakes today are extremely polluted. Piles of rubbish and toxic waste from factories and industrial plants can be found in these dirty rivers and lakes. It is done by irresponsible people who think that rivers and lakes are the suitable dumping ground. As a result, many fishes die from diseases. Polluted water can be a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies. What more if we use the rivers and lakes as our main source of water. Besides that, oil spilling on the seas and oceans is another serious environmental problem. Thick layer of oil formed on the water surface blocks the sunlight and oxygen from reaching underwater. As a result, many aquatic life die from suffocation.

In the nut shell, as long as there is life on this planet, water will be here. Without water, life as we know it is impossible. Thus, it is important for us to know how precious water is. We ought not to waste it or pollute it by any means. Wasteful habits must cease and reckless development has to be controlled in the nick of time. As saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”. As civic-minded and responsible people, we should always keep our water as clean as a new pin and put an end to the undesirable environmental problems as we know that water is just too precious.

Different Aspects of Culture

Malaysia is a special country as it is a multicultural and multilingual country. The population as on February Year 2007 is 26.6 million citizens consisting of 62% Malays, 24% Chinese, 8% Indians, and other minorities and indigenous peoples. Different races have different culture and tradition.

A multiracial country like Malaysia with a myriad of races, religions and cultures celebrates an array of festivals. The Malays celebrate Hari Raya Puasa, a festival honoured by the Muslims worldwide marking the end of Ramadan, the fasting month. In addition to Hari Raya Puasa, they also celebrate Hari Raya Haji. For the Chinese, Chinese New Year is the most celebrated among the Chinese festivals which lasts for fifteen days and ends with Chap Goh Mei. Other festivals celebrated by Chinese are the Mooncake Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lantern Festival. The majority of Indians in Malaysia are Hindus and they celebrate Deepavali, the festival of light, while Thaipusam is a celebration which pilgrims from all over the country flock to Batu Caves, Selangor. Other festivals like Good Friday, Christmas, Hari Gawai of the Ibans and Pesta Kaamatan of the Kadazan-Dusuns are also celebrated in Malaysia.

From the attire aspect, the Malay women wear baju kurung, kebaya and baju kebarung while the Malay men wear baju melayu with a songkok or cap on their head. Most of the clothing is made up of bright and bold colours. For the Chinese, the women wear the cheongsam. The cheongsam is especially popular around the time of the Chinese New Year and other formal gatherings. On the other hand, the Chinese men wear silk blouses, silk jackets and samfu that are made from one piece of fabric. Colourful saris are often worn by Indian women during ritual prayer in the temple and for everyday living while Indian men wear the same attire as the Malay men.

Malaysian traditional music is heavily influenced by Chinese and Islamic forms. The music is based largely around the gendang (drum) and includes other percussion instruments such as the rebab, a bowed string instrument; the serunai, a double-reed oboe-like instrument, flutes and trumpets. Besides that, the country has a strong tradition of dance and dance drama influenced by Thai, Indian and Portuguese culture. Other artistic forms include wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) and silat (a stylised martial art). Crafts like batik, weaving, and silver and brass work are also popular in Malaysia.

The bottom line is that Malaysia is consist of people with different races, religions and cultures, living together in a peaceful and harmonious country where modern technologies have improved by leaps and bounds. It makes Malaysia globally recognized and has attracted many tourists from far and wide. Malaysia is truly a special country.

I Have A Dream

Everybody has a dream. There are some people who dream to have a huge mansion guarded by huge Dobermans and sophisticated burglar alarm. Some people dream to take a vacation at the most beautiful resort far away from the crowded city. There are even some people who dream to travel far away from earth to outer space. I have a dream too. My dream is to graduate with a first class honours degree in Physics from the top ranking university in Oceania. I want to become an excellent educator and physicist to contribute to my country.

Speaking of my country, the 50th National Day is coming soon. We have enjoyed in an independent country where technologies have improved by leaps and bounds, for 50 years. Thus, we as civic-minded Malaysian citizens, should be thankful to our national heroes who have made this world a better place for others and bring hope and light to our country when there seems to be none. They somehow give us, the young generation, to achieve the dream of experiencing the life in a peaceful, harmonious and prosperous country.

As something in return, I promise that I will try my very best to achieve my dream and become an excellent educator and physicist to contribute to my own country.

Work, Attitudes and Beliefs, and Social Changes

Today, we live in a world full of technological wonders. Colour televisions, supersonic jets, personal computers and mobile phones are common things. We enjoy a high level of living that our ancestors have never even dreamed of. Nowadays, there is no doubt that almost everybody works just to earn money to make a living. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, scientists and policemen are common jobs.

In this modern hectic world of ours, the number of wealthy people has increased while the number of poor people has decreased. It is because most people nowadays work to make a living for themselves and their families. Some of them are wealthy and have many wealthy materials like expensive cars, furniture, jewelleries, paintings and a huge mansion guarded by huge Dobermans and sophisticated burglar alarm. They are also materialistic and have their hands full with jobs. Making money is the only thing they care about as they place money as their top priority in their lives. Besides that, the number of working women nowadays has increased tremendously.

How working affects the social changes? We know that money can bring us luxuries and pleasures. Many people nowadays only care about making money to buy almost everything they want. However, most of them do not care about their eating habit. They are materialistic and become so busy with their jobs that they do not have any time to prepare nutritious meals. As a result, they take fast food as their meals. They think that eating fast food can save their time. It is important for us to know that eating fast food can damage our health. Besides making us fat and prone to all sorts of illnesses, fast food can cause various diseases like anaemia and skin diseases. Apart from that, they are too busy with their jobs that they also do not have time to do exercise which is the key of good health. What more if the number of working women nowadays is sky-rocketing. They certainly do not have any time to spend with their children and prepare nutritious meals for their families. Therefore, hiring a maid is the best solution to their problems.

For some people, the lure of money becomes overwhelming. Greed blinds them and they spend their whole lives pursuing money. As long as they make profit, they will do it even though they might hurt themselves in the process. There are some people who work extra hours in the offices and factories and there are even some people who work as an engineer and tuition tutor at the same time just to earn extra salaries. These are the examples of people who have allowed money to be the most important thing in their lives. As a result of overworking, they become tired and face pressure and tension all the time. They also go to bed late at night after working. It is really not worth it to damage our health just to earn extra money as health is wealth. They started out trying to make a living and they ended up forgetting to live. Thus, the life of wealth without health is not what we want to follow.

The bottom line is moderation is the key to life. It is the way to live our lives as it is meant to be lived. Therefore, we should put an end to this bad working habit in the nick of time by working in moderation.

Money (Financial Matters) And Natural Resources

Today, we live in a world full of technological wonders. Colour televisions, supersonic jets, personal computers and mobile phones are common things. We enjoy a high level of living that our ancestors have never even dreamed of. Nowadays, natural resources have become important and vital for our life. Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their relatively unmodified natural form. Mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, hunting and forestry are generally considered as natural-resource industries.

Natural resources are often classified into renewable and non-renewable resource. Renewable resources are the resources that can restock themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Natural resources that qualify as renewable resources include oxygen, fresh water, timber, biomass, soil and forests. Flow renewable resources like solar power, wind power and hydropower are used to generate electricity. On the other hand, non-renewable resources are natural resources that cannot be re-made, re-grown or regenerated on a scale comparative to their consumption. They exist in a fixed amount that are being renewed or are used up faster than they can be made by nature. Fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas are considered as non-renewable resources, as they do not naturally re-form at a rate that makes the way we use them sustainable.

Nowadays, natural resources have become more and more important in international trading. Countries export and import natural resources with one another to gain profits. Forest is one of the most important natural resources. Underdeveloped country like Papua New Guinea has huge area of reserved forest. As people in Papua New Guinea do not have the technology to process the wood from the forest, they depend on logging companies from Malaysia that use heavy machines with high technology. After processing the wood, they send the wood to other countries like Malaysia, China and European countries to be made into furniture. However, people in Papua New Guinea benefit only from manual jobs provided by logging companies with low pays. It does not contribute much to the country economically.

Petroleum is another important natural resource. Countries which are rich in petroleum like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Brunei depend on companies like Shell and Exon from developed and rich countries like America and England for oil drilling and processing the petroleum into petrol, diesel, kerosene, cooking gas, and tar. Countries with rich natural resources usually make other developed countries wealthier and politically more powerful. We have heard from news that America once invaded Iraq and exploited the oil in Iraq for personal gain and left the country poor and undeveloped.

Surprisingly, Japan with limited natural resources, emerges as the world’s second economically developed country after America because of its strong financial resources. Its car production industry, Toyota is the best car producer in the world. Japan imports its natural resources like iron, coal and petroleum from poor country like Africa. Besides Japan, Singapore which is a small country with practically no natural resources, emerges as one of the fastest economy growing country in Asia. It depends heavily on developed countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia for natural resources like water, coal, natural gas and petroleum.

In the nut shell, our world is running out of natural resources. New technologies have been invented, enabling resources that are now of little importance to replace those that people are using up. Alternative resources and new technologies alone are not enough. We as human being should also take some actions to conserve the natural resources to prevent them from vanish. As saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”.

The Way People Live Together and Share of the World’s Resources

Today, we as human beings with different races and religions live together in a world full of technological wonders. Colour televisions, supersonic jets, personal computers and mobile phones are common things. We enjoy a high level of living that our ancestors have never even dreamed of. As we live together in the same planet, we often share the world’s resources. Without world’s resources, plants, animals, humans, microbes and everything will perish.

Water is an important world’s resource. Our main source of water is the bountiful skyjuice. About two thirds of the total surface of the earth is covered with water. Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans have always been our major sources of food and means of travel. We often share and use the water for our daily activities such as cooking, bathing, washing and others. We also drink glasses of this precious transparent liquid everyday when we are thirsty. Water is certainly vital for our life. However, there are some of us who share the same water, do not care about the cleanliness of our water. Nowadays, our crystal-clear rivers have become more and more polluted. Most of our rivers today are filled with rubbish and toxic waste from factories done by irresponsible people who think that rivers are the perfect dumping ground. What more if we use the rivers as our source of water.

Another important world’s resource is the air. We share and breathe in the same air everyday for our survival. The air, however, must be clean and fresh. Nowadays, there are some people who do not really appreciate the clean air given to them. Air pollution has become more and more serious. It is certainly a hard nut to crack. The causes of air pollution are factories, vehicles and open burning. Sulfur dioxide gas, carbon monoxide gas and smoke from factories, vehicles and open burning have polluted the air in some part of our world today.

Food is also an important essential that human beings need to survive. We eat food everyday just to prevent ourselves from being hungry. Besides developing or maintaining physical fitness and overall health, balanced and nutritious food is an important component in the prevention of some of the dreaded diseases. There are plenty of foods in the world we live today. Different food comes from different sources. We often share our food together as we live in the same world. However, starvation has become a serious problem. It happens in the poor country like Africa. We often hear from the news that many African have suffered and died from starvation. Where is our value of sharing and humanity? Why are we being so selfish and individualistic as we are now living in a modern world where everyone is treated equally?

In the nut shell, we should know that world’s resources are the precious things that God has created for us. Thus, we have been given the responsibility to take care and protect them. We ought not to waste them or pollute them by any means. Without world’s resources, life as we know it is impossible. Besides taking care of the world’s resources, we should also share them equally as we are now living together in a world where modern technologies have improved by leaps and bounds. Sharing and integrity certainly can unite us.