{Topics on 3.19} Please Make Sure to Study Hard in Advance & Post a Comment＜정참,지참,불참＞

[ana(효정)]

Discussion TOPIC > Living Forever: Good or Bad?

  Immortality, it is something unreachable for just about anyone living in the real world. Then again, it has been a huge ambition for many people. The reality of the matter is we are getting closer as medicine and science are curing countless diseases. Who knows? Perhaps in time we will find a way to stop or turn back aging. If this happens would it be right for us to go ahead and do it? Could you imagine the immense consequences such as population problems, greater expenses, and inequality as some are able to take advantage of this new technology? While immortality is unlikely to affect anyone soon, the ethics behind it are quite fantastical. However, it may be something that affects our children’s children.

   Pros >

-. 1st Statement : Death is not the greatest leveler. Because the rich can die and then pass on their wealth to their children, the gap between rich and poor becomes greater. It is for this reason that we have so many debates revolving around inheritance tax. One way to resolve this inequality would be to raise the inheritance tax to 100 percent. But hypothetically, immortality is in fact another way of reducing the difference. If the rich lived forever, then their wealth would be needed to sustain their own lives. Therefore the wealth would not be passed on to their children. If their children failed to make their own money, the wealth would have to be divided. As they lived forever and the family got bigger due to more children being born the wealth would have to be split amongst more people. This would reduce the wealth divide. Therefore this is ethical.

-. 2nd Statement : Immortality could mean indefinite cell replenishment that, if taken at a young age, keeps ones mind and body forever young. In this situation, would one have a ‘young’ mentality due to the young brain and active, lively body, or an ‘old’ brain because of the many years of experience? Immortality may make age irrelevant - a form of existence only as information on a computer. Or humanity may start to value youth more if it is seen to be rare - just like how we value standards of beauty that very few humans can actually live up to.

-. 3rd Statement : Human beings do not only have the desire to avoid death. We have many interests and hobbies; there are a million things worthing to be discover about ourselves and the worlds around us. The survival instinct has become softer as less effort is required to survive. If no effort is required to live, we can concentrate on other things (not carnal ephemeral ideas). To claim that we’ll be bored and therefore should die is presumptuous as human beings are naturally organized which makes us favour repetitive patterns and readable logic. A voyage of discovery may end in a thousand years but creativity, design and consistent change as a result of boredom and recorded anguish could go on forever.

< Cons >

-. 1st Statement : The difference in life expectancy is already massive between those who can afford a decent standard of living, quality health care and those who can’t. Immortality, however it is attained, will have a cost. Some will be able to afford it and some won’t. Death is the ‘great leveler’ as it comes to everyone equally, and if there is such thing as immortality the difference between rich and poor will be so great we may even become two different species.

  -. 2nd Statement : In our society, adults already oppress and undermine the values of young people, because adults are generally in positions of power and young people aren’t. Immortality will mean that there are far more old people than there are young, as people will be living to more advanced ages and not necessary wanting to have children. Age and experience would to an even greater extent mean dominance in a heirarchy; people wouldn’t be able to empathize with youth. We would become a stagnant society with no fresh ideas, or newcomers might even die out altogether. We would be left with only the same people, like a dying Internet forum.

-. 3rd Statement : Imagine if your problem was nothing to do with sickness or old age - if you had a non-organic mental health problem, for instance, or a long term problem with your life that you couldn’t sort out, such as if your partner died before the immortality treatment became available and you were left without him or her and it ended up lasting for thousands of years. You would go completely insane. Such a situation would not exist without immortality, and so if we choose to create the situation by introducing immortality, we would be responsible for the suffering it brings with it, and so this is an ethical consideration. People with mental health conditions should not feel they need to kill themselves in order to relieve a burden on others. Nor should outcasts feel that they are less important than ‘everyone else.’

< Questions >

1.      Think about living for keeps, How could the world be changed ?

2.      Have you ever experience a Vampire’s life through movies or books? How do you feel ?

3.      If you can buy youth by paying enormous amounts of money, will you do that ?

4.      somebody say that death with lover can be happiness, Do you agree with that ?

5.      Talk more about living forever !!

Discussion TOPIC > Concerned About Children From Multicultural Families

  With increasing international marriage, Korean society is rapidly moving towards becoming a multicultural society these days. The majority of intercultural marriages are between Korean men and foreign women from elsewhere in Asia. In several years, a big chunk of elementary students in rural areas are expected to be from multicultural families. Unfortunately, Korean society has yet to come to terms with the cultural diversity of its people. Children from multicultural families often face problems such as bullying, identity confusion and educational obstacles.

  As a result of these issues a gathering was held on August 11, when about 50 high school students attended a workshop held at the Overseas Volunteers Training Center of Korean International Cooperation Agency(KOICA) in Seoul. These students were the high school volunteers of the Hope Kids program that was set up last April to support the children of multicultural families through one-to-one mentoring programs. They opened the discussion with the topic of ‘Making a Multicultural Society That Can Communicate with Itself’ and then sharing ideas about ways to help children from multicultural families adapt to Korean schools.

  Before the discussion, special lectures were given by Lee EunSuk, the KOICA Global Village Theme Park Director and Park Jungsuk, the ambassador for KOICA on the subjects of ‘Multiculturalism and Tolerance’ and ‘The 21st century International Cooperation and Multicultural Society’. The student volunteers also had an opportunity to experience different Asian cultures like Mongolia in the Global Village Theme Park that was built in the training center.

  Diverse opinions were expressed during the discussion. Oh HyunSung (Youngin Foreign Language High School) who has been helping children from multicultural families for the past few months, pointed out that the biggest problem is a lack of communication between foreign mothers and their children. “When we think of how communication with mothers in early childhood provides children with emotional stability and linguistic development, overcoming this language barrier is an urgent priority,” he said.

  Kim Sungjung (Myungduk Foreign Language High School) said, “I’ve helped teach children about culture and history in their mother’s countries and I found it helpful to draw a dialogue between them. I think building a multicultural society in which different cultures exist equally with the same respect and importance rather than acculturating them into Korean society is true multiculturalism. If we acknowledge their cultural or ethnic identity and reiterate its equal preciousness and importance , they will be self-confident children representing their unique culture.”

  All the attendees agreed that to overcome discrimination and prejudice raising public awareness through large-scale campaigns is as important as the one-to-one mentoring programs. It was also said that for effective study, long-term education programs specially tailored to these children should be created.

  We must realize that children from multicultural families are part of our society’s human resources.

< Questions >

1. Do you agree that communicating with mothers in early childhood provides children with emotional stability? How was your relationship with your mother in your childhood?

2. How proud are you of your Korean heritage and culture? Would you like to see multicultural families increase in your city?

3. If you had a multicultural friend, how would you help him or her to live a better life in Korea? If somebody bullied him/her, what would you do?

4. Let's say you were given a chance to be a multicultural person [this is just pretend!] Aside from being half-Korean, what other nationality would you choose and why? Be creative! [Example: "I'd choose to be half-Korean and half-French because I think I would be very beautiful!"]

[Gina(진아)]

오우... 토론하기 좋은 주제^^/ 땡큐^^/

[Joe(조형섭)]

수고 하셨으~~~

[Teddy(두희)]

오래오래 행복하게 살고파요~ 좋은의견나눠볼까요? 로또하나사서? ^*

[Vincent]

Thank you for this topic^^

[로미]

wowㅋ

[Doo ^^]

수고... 수고...^^

[액션가면]

쌩유~~아나

[jaguar]

굿잡...^^

[일구비(진호)]

효정아... 고마워...!!