If you ask me: " Do you dream of your marriage?" I'll think that you're living in a totally different world from me, but I won't tell you that, because I'm not very sure whether I'll be one of you or not one day.

I'm always wondering what the meaning of a woman who exists in this world is. Is she a sort of tool to generate new generations? Or should she satisfy the man because the whole world is almost controlled by the male?

Sometimes I fell marriage is kind of contract. Somehow you have got married with someone; you got to have babies if your partner commend. Otherwise, you divorce. Since you two can't keep on living with each other, why should you get married?

Most people are conservative. Under their influence, women think what they are expected to think, and do what they are tough to do. If you don't do so, they might give you special eyesight, or say something you may have already heard over thousand times. That's because you're strange!

Take myself for example, I never think that I don't need to be ambitious, and all I have to do is find a good man to marry him. Why should women depend on men? If you rely on someone, you'll be looked down on by them. I have good health and clear brains. I work hard for my future. If I'm diligent enough, I can stand on my own two feet. I'll never need a man to give me food in charity. Hence, I think that men raising women is a definitely mistake. Everyone should take responsibility for himself or herself. Nobody should expect someone to give him or her a comfortable life. Marriage is not a contract that you can rely on someone absolutely.

On my opinion, true love never needs to be proved. If someone ought to prove their love through marriage, I can tell you, that is not real love. So, why should women get married?

Jenny 7a

In Japan, a lot of farmers have been using pesticides to prevent diseases of crops. I also have used a kind of pesticide called bordeaux. If it were not for pesticide, more and more crops would suffer from serious diseases derived from insects, fungi, and bacterias, it would be impossible to harvest some crops like the Japanese pear, Nijisseiki. Therefore, pesticides are necessary to agriculture.
Many people, however, think that pesticides are dangerous because they might be concentrated through a food chain. It used to be true in Japan and America. I heard a kind of pesticide DDT was concentrated through a food chain and many birds died in America. Are pesticides dangerous even now? No, I don't think so. In Japan, there are many kinds of stringent tests to check the security using mice and rats. If they are concentrated in their body or they cause even slight cancer, they will never be produced. Pesticides produced in Japan must be safe even if mice and rats have them in their whole life. The contexts of pesticides have been changed. They used to have chemical substances to kill insects, fungi, and bacterias. The current pesticides also have substances to control plant growth. Can you understand the safety of current pesticides? They are safe as long as we use them properly.
Have you heard of organic fruits or vegetables? They say they are produced without pesticides. As I type, however, if we try to produce crops without them completely, they will suffer from more diseases and the amount of crops will be decreased or quality the of them will be degraded. It isn't easy to keep health of crops without pesticides. Therefore, organic fruits and vegetables are more expensive. In Japan, we can see many kinds of organic vegetables in supermarkets. I would also like to buy organic fruits and vegetables but I believe that we don't have to be nervous about the safety of pesticides.

Eiichi 7c

Public transportation is the most important thing to serve people who do not want to use, or do not have, their own transportation. Further more, people want to use it, if they feel comfortable, convenient, secure and also on time.
Melbourne is the one of cities in Australia which provides good public transportation, such as buses, trains and trams as well. In this city it is easy to travel from suburbs to the city and vice versa by using public transportation .
On the other hand, in Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia), people prefer to use their own cars, because the government does not provide as good transportation as Melbourne, even if it causes a lot of traffic jams and air pollution.
This means that Melbourne is quite a pleasant city to live in, even if you do not have a car.
Rico 3177

Most people acknowledge that drugs can kill you. Have you ever thought that the same kind of drugs can save your life? That cigarettes and alcohol can be worse than marihuana? For years and years we have been living in this enormous drug war and we never know what to do. Should we follow the ‘zero-tolerance’ strategies- like in The U.S.A- to stop the drugs? In my opinion, no.
In the first place; it is obvious that when something is illegal, the desire is bigger. I believe that society is not prepared to legalize drugs except marihuana. It is like the Law of Physics: For every action, you have one reaction. Legalizing drugs now can cause a very shocking reaction and, for this reason we should go slowly step-by-step.
To begin with, we need to separate the drugs. Considering the studies about marihuana, it is completely clear that is more beneficial than harmful. Many people don’t know, but cannabis can be effective as a medicine.
It is proved that marihuana reduces nausea, stimulates appetite, relaxes muscle spasms, delays the onset of blindness in Glaucoma patients, helps combat the side - effects of AIDS drugs, helps epilepsy and arthritis sufferers and improves the life of terminally ill patients. Marihuana is less addictive than alcohol and cigarettes and is as chemically addictive as coffee.
‘To Keith Stroup, who heads the National Organization for the Repeal of Marihuana Laws (NORML), the issue has nothing to do with whether or not drugs hurts those who consume them. Alcohol highway fatalities, yet politicians are only too happy to accept money from liquor manufactures’- The Sunday Age, June 3, 2001.
Furthermore, many pharmaceutical companies are afraid to lose their power if marihuana becomes legal, and this will decrease the price and replace other medicines.
It is proved that heroin can help in Medicine too, but in my view it is too early to legalize seeing that heroin is much stronger than marihuana.
For drugs like heroin the best thing to do is provide a place that people can go, like the safe injection room. A hundred years ago heroin was found 4% pure, and now it is above 65%. The problem is; buying these drugs in the Black Market, you can use heroin with filler or, you never know how pure it is and you can die from an overdose of 80-85% pure thinking that was only 65% pure.
Millions of dollars are spent every month to care for people who have suffered an overdose or even in people who are infected with HIV or other diseases for using contaminated material for drugs.
By providing safe injection rooms; the addicted people can be helped using safe material. It is impossible to fight with drugs if we don’t have information about the problem. Opening these places, we don’t need to find them, the problem comes to us. Knowing better what kind of people use drugs; why do they use them; and by obtaining all this information it can became easier to find a good solution as to combat drugs and later decide if ‘all’ the drugs should be legalized or not.
There are those who argue, on the other hand, that marihuana should continue to be illegal. It is true that once legal, they will became easier to find; it is true that the price will be reduced and that some people can be addicted. But remember once more that, marihuana is as addictive as coffee and that alcohol is worse and it is legal.
Taking this point of view into consideration, you have to understand that being legalized doesn’t mean to find marihuana like cigarettes on the street (even this -cigarettes- being worse) but this means helping people who really need it and emphasizing the medicinal with all benefits that marihuana can offer.
With addiction, some people will say that by opening safe injection rooms it is absolutely stupid looking at the fact that these people still use drugs; that they don’t need to pay and it is very comfortable and easy to do this. But can we turn our back on the fact that every day people die in the streets because they don’t have this kind of assistance, and more; giving no attention, the problem will continue. If we don’t make this first step, this drug war will never stop and we will continue blind and ignorant thinking that is enough to say “no” while people die without support.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that we must fight to stop this drug war. If almost everything has been done to try to stop the abuse of drugs and nothing has been effective; we need try to do something little by little because it is like what the people say: ‘If every day you start to collect one grain of sand; one day you will have a desert’.

Aubrey Piratello, CAE class.

Drugs, should they be legalized?

Last week was absolutely the first time for me to think carefully about drugs. Drugs have not been a serious matter for Japanese society until now, and I suppose that the majority of Japanese are not familiar with drugs or aware of their problems. On the other hand, drugs have threatened the societies around the world and nowadays those problems seem to be more serious than ever before. I think that it might be better for the future society to legalize drugs, because the situation may possibly be worse or nothing can be solved.

Actually, among drugs, marijuana especially should be legalized because of its availability as medicine and lower risk to public health. Using this drug medicinally can help a large number of patients who suffer from disease. Once it is legalized, people will not need to grow it or obtain it illegally any more and therefore fear of prosecution will be gone. It would be really effective for medical treatments. I wonder why this drug has been prohibited in most countries while cigarettes are officially legalized. In Holland, people can buy a small amount of marijuana legally, and I heard that since the law has been enforced, the number of users has decreased.

Obviously, the black market or the underground has had huge power and given society bad influences. I believe that it is due to the prohibition of drugs: the price of drugs has risen while users will never give them up and continue to use them at any risk. Nothing is good for ordinary people to have a relationship with the underground. Then, changing the laws to legalize drugs and observe carefully if this dark side of society will diminish or not. It may possibly work.

In addition, drugs were originally introduced as medicine, therefore they are very useful only if they are taken appropriately. I think that it is unfair and something morally wrong people to take drugs for medical purposes to be penalized as well as recreational users. If the government and community can educate people, especially young people, completely about the risk and usefulness of drugs, it may be time to consider new legislation. The law should be weaker for people like sufferers.

On the other hand, if drugs are available to the public, it is likely to put innocent people at greater risk. It will be dangerous for particular people because of its harmfulness of misuse. In addition, the number of drug related crimes would possibly rise. Maybe Class A drugs should not be legalized because they are too dangerous for people. It is true that each government has struggled with drugs for a long time, and as a result, drugs have been illegal.

Taking these points into consideration, I would say that drugs should be legalized despite their harmfulness. Because governments have struggled enough, but the underground is so huge they cannot control drugs. Now the circumstance around drugs needs to be changed. It is time to test the morals of the individual and governments’ ability.

Maki Kuwana, CAE class