Summary and respond to "Conquering Food Deserts With Green Carts"

Summary

In the article "Conquering Food Deserts With Green Carts", the writer provides evidences that the government tries to overcome the problems of "food deserts" , which areas in the U.S. that do not have enough access to healthy food. The writer points out that the government wants to solve the problem by bringing in new vendors to provide more locations for the people in the grocery-deprived zone to buy fresh food. The New York City's Green Cart initiative is one of the program. Despite there are several problems need to be solved,such as the vendors repeatedly being ticketed for minor issues, the vendors are restricted to sell their products in specific places, many vendors are succeeding and providing more choices for the people. The government also tries to tackle the problems by issuing electronic food stamps and coupons which boost the purchasing power in the low-income area to buy fresh produce. The government also subsidizes people who want to start grocery stores in the "food deserts". It enables people to buy fresh food in their local areas.

Response

Even though the writer provides many evidences that government tries to provide low-income areas access to fresh food and produce. He seems to neglect the cost of the government to initiate all these programs. We all know that the U.S. government has already in deep debt. To keep these programs running will create a huge burden to the government. Instead of providing a large amount of  fund to people who want to start up a grocery store in the aforementioned areas, I believe that bring more new vendors is a more applicable way to solve the problem. The cost of running the carts is not as high as running a grocery store. The government can think of grouping  create a bigger market, which sell various stuffs , such as seafood, fresh fruit, poultry, and other daily necessities.

Summary and response to "Soda Tax Battle"

Summary

The article "Soda Tax Battle" discusses about levying tax on soft drinks in America. The beverage industry states that there is no connections between sugary beverages and obesity as well as people will not support taxing of grocery items such as soft drinks. However, other people and researchers claim that there are dozens research and studies point out that sugary drinks significantly increase the risk of obesity, as well as Type 2 diabetes. Taxing on soft drinks can reduce people consumption of sugar and help people to become healthier. Also, U.S. Rep. Delauro proposes a federal tax on sugary drinks called the SWEET Act. The tax revenue will be about $10 billion and will set up a fund to help prevention, treatment and research for diet-related health conditions. Delauro also points out that we should not rely on industry to deal with the problem voluntarily. This implies that people should do something to change the situation.

Response

After reading various articles and studies, I believe that sugar is one of the causes of obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. However, the U.S. government does not have enough regulations on controlling people to consume sugary drinks. The government can enact laws to force the soft drinks companies to put warning labels on the sugary drinks to remind the consumer. Also, it is acceptable to levy tax on soft drinks as they are not daily necessities.  Taxes on soft drinks will not bring a huge burden to the general public as there are lots of substitutes in the market.Levying tax on sugary drinks can greatly reduce the sugar intake of America. Government can use the tax revenue to help people rid of obesity and doing research on obesity problems.

Text-based questions

1. Other than sugar, are there any other ingredients in the soft drinks that will lead to obesity?

2. How much tax is suitable to put on the soft drinks?

Summary and response to "Should foods linked to diet-related disease be regulated?"

Summary

The essay "Should foods linked to diet-related disease be regulated?" is an essay which provides the readers different point of views from various professionals towards the topic. First of all, a researcher from a global policy think tank, points out that there is so much food marketing and advertising to convince us to eat, especially junk food. This implies people are consuming too much sugar and leads to a public health crisis because high doses of sugar can be as toxic as high doses of alcohol. As such, some food activists and scholar advocate to put warning labels on junk food, restricting portion sizes and removing candy bars from checkout lines and limit sugar consumption like alcohol and tobacco. However, the food industry representatives argue that it will limit consumers choice if more regulations are being enforced. There is groups of people support the idea that " the less government regulation, the better"and the consumer should take more responsibility for what they eat. Apart from that, there are people from different groups point out that food bans or taxes can do more harm than good to the society.This act will grant the government the right to make choices for consumers and the food taxes will be a huge burden to the lower-income families.

Response

I agree that the government should put warning labels on junk food to remind the consumers that they will have health problems if they continue to consume too much sugar from junk food. The government should also play the leading role to regulate the child food advertisement because the children do not have enough self-awareness to control what messages they want to receive. However, the portion size and variety of food should not be restricted as people have the freedom of choice in their food. Also, food taxes will create a huge burden to the poor families which makes the food not affordable for everyone anymore. Apart from this, the people should put more awareness on choosing their own food. People should change their eating habits in order to avoid obesity.

Text-based questions

1. Why is the consequences if we put regulations on food?

2. Why the government do not more implement incentives programs for people like discount in medical insurance for normal weight people?

Three possible topics for research paper

1.Should the government put more regulations on distribution of internet pornography?

2.Should cyber weapons be regulated?

3.Should prostitution be legal?

Fed Up (2014) Summary, Response and Text-based questions

Summary

Fed Up is a documentary movie directed by Stephanie Soechtig in 2014. The main theme of this movie is obesity. The trend of obesity thorough out the world especially America, is spreading so fast that it is threatening people's health. The argument of this film is that the food industry and government should take responsibilities in controlling people's food intake in order to help people rid of obesity. The movie includes a lot facts, statistics and stories to show that how the food industry as well as the government affecting people's health. The film talks about how the big companies put more concerns on their profits rather than the public health by showing that they reduce the fat in the food, but increase the amount of sugar. The film also shows that the government does not do enough work by putting more regulations on child advertisement as well as promoting its agriculture products to make the obesity problem worse.This movie contains interviews with renowned people such as Bill Clinton and Michael Bloomberg. And they interview the kids who have obesity problems to show the general public concerns on the obesity problem. The last part of the movie shows the estimated statistics that by 2050 about 1/3 of the Americans will have diabetes raise the awareness on this issue. 

Response

Based on the given facts and statistics that obesity problem in America is undoubtedly getting worse. I agree that both the government and food industry do not do enough work to protect the general public from obesity. The government should put more regulations on child food advertisements and the sugar intake of the children. The food industry should put the public health concerns before their own profit. The companies should list the nutrition of their food as well as daily recommended intakes on the food label to prevent giving an illusion of fast food or soft drinks are healthy.  However, the people themselves should put more awareness on choosing the food they eat. The fast food culture is deeply rooted in American's mind. In order to change this situation, education on this issue is needed. The schools should implement programs to help the kids that have obesity problems to lose weight. Also, the schools can organize activities to promote the importance of eating healthy and start offering healthier food in the cafeteria. The people have to show that they have the determination in tackling this problem and urge the government as well as food industry to change this situation.

Text-based questions

1. Is advertisement and regulations on food the main factors that make people consume high amount of unhealthy food?

2. How will the people react if the government put more regulations on food?

Response to my video and my essay

This video gives us insights on how the writers working on their novels or essays. It shows that even the writers need to make lots of drafts before they write. And during writing, they will keep reviewing what they have already written. I used to write essays without having a draft. However, after watching this video and writing this textual analysis essay, I think that writing drafts can really improve the quality of my essay. Also, we should make sure who is going to be our target audience carefully before we write any essay. Otherwise, no matter how good our essays are, we are not responding to the right topic that our readers want and the whole essay will become a failure.

Summary and response to "Stop Googling . Let's Talk."

  The writer of this essay Sherry Turkle is a professor from M.I.T. who is a professional in the field of people's relationship with technology.In essay she introduces several ideas and reasons why people rely on communicate by using technology and provides solution to try to solve the problem generated by the them.

 The first idea that she introduces is that the "rule of three " mentioned in the essay. She explains that this rule can make the people feel they can drop in and out freely and keep the conversation relatively light. She also shares similar idea in her TED talk "Connected, but alone?" by using the term " Goldilocks effect". This explain why the people tend to use their phone while having a conversation because when using their phone, they can feel they they are in their comfort zone: not too close with your friends but also not too distant either. However, I agrees to that over-relying on technology to communicate can bring a huge problem in shaping people's characteristic. She mentioned a few examples and the most profound example is that the loss of empathy among children. As we all know, empathy is one of the most precious values in human being. Imagine what will happen to the world if our empathy gradually disappeared from us, we then have no differences between us and robots and bring huge problems to the society.

The second idea that she implicated that people seldom want to be alone but actually loneliness can help us to find ourselves. She said that "We turn time alone into a problem that needs to be solved with technology." which she think it is not right. We learn to concentrate and listen to ourselves in loneliness and this the skills we also need to involve in a conversation. I strongly agrees to this idea because only during lonely time, we will have the time to sit down and review our mistakes and improve ourselves to be a better person.

  

  

  The third idea she mentions is that human are vulnerable. During the time we are with our phones, we can always choose what we want. However, in conversations, it is harder for us to control the information that we want to receive. So that we tend to stay in our comfort zone and stay tune with the phone which always have similar thoughts and ideas with you.

  I strongly believe that the several ideas above explain why the people tend to use their phones instead of involving a real conversation among their friends and families. I also agrees the writer's view that with the changing the use of technology, it can help us to communicate with each other better. Nonetheless, I think this is improtant for us to take this problem serious and think about the use of technology in the future.

Response to Dear White America by George Yancy

  George in the essay is writing to the Americans especially the white community which he think they are privilege in the U.S. society to open themselves up and admit that they have racism inside of them. George explains this idea through quoting the legal scholar Stephanie M. Wildman and the journalism professor Robert Jensen. I think the underlying message of quoting their words is that racism among the white people is similar to the idea of original sin of the people introduced by the Christian. The white people cannot avoid that with the environments in favor of them.

 
  However, I do not think I totally agrees with that. It is because the problems are not come from the white people. It comes from the government. You can't blame people's just by saying that you are not right just by personal insult or saying that you are privileged. Say an example, you can blame for the rich kids are doing bad things like vadalism or beat up a guy and getting all the things fixed by spending money. But it is not fair to blame them that they have more money to spend and assume that they look down on us because they are rich. Another example, you cannot just blame an ugly looking person for being ugly and tell him don not walk on the street. This is unfair. The important thing is that we need to do something to make the system in the society more fair but not focusing on a particular person or race that he is privileged.
 

  Even though, I admire that the last part of the essay "I want you to imagine that your child is black." in order to tell the white people to put themselves in the point of view of the black people and make themselves a better person. Yet, I also want the writer or the black to put themselves in the point of view of others and think about if it is good to tell the others that they have racism inside their mind no matter how hard you work at not being a racist. It is frustrating, isn't it? I suggest that we should focus on how to improve the society be more equal rather than having conflicts on people are born with sin or goodness because I think telling people positive things always better than negative things.

Summary of Dear White America by George Yancy

In the letter of Dear America by George Yancy mentioned that he wants the Americans especially the white community to open themselves up, to accept and admit that racism is actually within themselves. He suggests that racism is not only personal but also come from the society by quoting the legal scholar Stephanie M. Wildman's writing - "I simply believe that no matter how hard I work at not being racist, I still am. Because part of the racism is systemic, I benefit from the privilege that I am struggling to see." In that he tells the readers to see themselves in ways that they have not seen before. At last, he said that " And then, with as much vision as you can muster, I want you to imagine that your childern is black. " which he hopes that the white community can put themselves into others point of view and accept them as their own child.

Reading strategies that I will take AFTER reading The Norton Field Guide To Writing

Annotating

Not only highlighting the key words or phrases, but also try to write some short notes besides the ideas to help myself to reorganize and understand the ideas from the essays. It also makes reading more interesting when you put some of your own ideas in the essay. Also, using coding system as you go through your reading is also very useful. I can refer to the ideas in the essay quickly and make reading easier.

Analyzing the Argument

Always question myself what is the writer's main point and analyze the reasons and the evidence provided by the writer.  And also try to find out counter arguments from the essay to see if the writer can express his ideas accurately and logically. Apart from that, try to find out the source of evidence the writer used and how well they support the argument.

Rhetorical Situation

Write down the writer's purpose and target audience. This will help you to get the general ideas of the essay quickly. Identify the genre of the essay as well as the stance of the writer. This will help you to understand the essay thoroughly.

My reading process BEFORE I read The Norton Field Guide To Writing

Skimming through the text

Reading is one of my hobbies in the leisure time and I always enjoy reading especially fictions and magazines. First of all, when I received a reading assignment, I would look at the topic first and scan through the text before I read it to get a rough idea of  the essay.


Read the book in details and look up the dictionary

After that I will read the text thoroughly and at the same time looking at the questions from the assignment to see if there is any part from the text that can answer the questions. When I encounter words that I don't know and also very important in explaining the ideas of the essay, I will look up the dictionary. You may also find some interesting examples on  how to use the word differently in the dictionary which always makes reading fun and interesting.


Try to highlight the central idea of each paragraph

If you still have some answer you don't know how to do in the assignment, try to highlight the main idea of each paragraph because it will help you a lot to understand the whole picture of the ideas in the essay. Also, it will help you to answer the questions quickly as you have already broken down all the ideas come from the essay.

Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail

Reading Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail

Difficulties about this reading for me

The ideas involve in the reading is quite complicated. For example the difference between just and unjust laws. Also, the vocabularies in the reading are quite complicated. It has specific term like anarchy and segregation which makes the ideas of the reading more complicated and more difficult to read.

What makes this letter successful?

First of all, King not only quotes what his critics have said but also things they might have said so that he can have sounded arguments and set the stage for what he want to say.
Secondly, he use specific terms to express his ideas such as anarchy and segregation, which makes him sound professional and persuasive.
Thirdly, he uses bunch of evidences to support his ideas. He talks about how the Negro-community were being discriminated.
He also reassures his ideas he mentioned before at the last part to leave the readers a strong impression.

Introduction

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog!

  My name is Lee Ka Hung or you can call me Brian. I come from Hong Kong which is a big city that belongs to China.Hong Kong is a very interesting city that has its unique culture mixed with people from all walks of life and if you are interested in exploring Hong Kong just feel free to ask me! I lived with my parents and younger sister in Hong Kong. My younger sister - Emily is now currently studying in one of the universities in U.K.

This is her fifth year studying in U.K so if you are planning to travel to U.K. just leave a comment here and we will answer as soon as possible!

  I am currently a student at Foothill College which located in California, USA.

I will study here for two years and planning to transfer to other universities in USA. The reason I come to USA to study is that I like to challenge myself with new environments and meeting new friends. I love hanging out with friends, playing different kinds of sports like soccer, table tennis, basketball, etc. I also like reading, listening to music and watching movies.

  I hope we can meet each other in the future and feel free to leave a comment below!