Saturday, May 2, 2009

Farnaz Asadi: Globalization

The world we live in has changed a lot since we were born. No matter how old we are, we have seen numerous changes in the world. This change is the effect of Globalization. It is a very good process that helps different countries, especially the third world countries to develop and learn good things from other developed countries. One of the countries that has benefited from globalization is Iran. Globalization has had at least two important advantages for Iran and for its people so far.
First advantage of globalization is on job opportunities. When Iran tried to globalize, a lot of new jobs appeared and these jobs helped people to find the job they wanted more easily. Also it has increased the amount of monthly salary. Another effect of globalization on jobs is on the increased number of people who go are sent to other countries for work. This is a good opportunity for people to work with higher salaries and excel in their jobs and also other opportunities for living, studying and using the benefits of that country.
The second advantage of globalization is on the culture. This is one of the most important effects that globalized countries have had on Iran. When we compare our today’s lives in Iran with twenty years ago, we see a big difference in people’s thoughts and behaviors. Nowadays, people have become more open-minded. To illustrate, in a family, members have the opportunity to approach and get closer to each other. In the past, it was so hard to talk about a subject that nobody in a family agreed on. When something was banned in a family, all members had to obey that rule and nobody could object. Thanks to the globalization, today, people are more flexible in their ideas, and they can talk about their ideas to each other even if other members of the family do not agree. Furthermore, now women have more freedom than before. They can vote, study and work just men, and nobody has the right to force them not to. Globalization has had other effects on our daily lives, too. To illustrate, we should compare our today’s lifestyle with our grandparents’. The way that people used to dress in the past was totally different from that of today. In the past, people would wear Iranian style clothes more, but today we try to wear clothes that are in vogue in other countries. Moreover, globalization has affected our food culture and what we would eat in the past. Nowadays, people are used to eating fast food more than ever before. There are many different restaurants that serve the cuisine of other countries. Such an Indian, Chinese, Italian, Greek and other favorite eateries that have appeared during the last two decades.
These effects were just some of the impacts of globalization that are changing people’s lives. Most of these effects are as beneficial as mentioned before and help people to live better and more easily. In my idea, no county must try to protect itself against becoming globalized if they do not want to be left behind. Because our world is thriving so fast that is hard for third world countries to reach them, they have to let this process happen and help them to improve, too.

Farnaz Asadi: Military Service

Defending the country is one of the most important duties of each citizen in all countries around the world. For some people, defending the country has another meaning. Most people believe that all people must be ready to protect their countries if war happens. As a result, some countries have made the military service compulsory. Every day a lot of people go to military service not because they love their countries, but because they are forced to go. There are two important reasons why I personally disagree with military service.
Firstly, military service has a bad influence on young people. It increases the hatred in people’s hearts and makes them very insensitive. Also, during the military service, these people learn how to hate others and fight and kill in order to survive. Sometimes, they even begin to hate their own country; because in some countries people are forced to attend the military service and in some cases they run away before their term. The reason is, sometimes they have to be far from their families for a long time and they cannot tolerate this situation. Furthermore, young people go to the military in their teenage. In addition, when they are in the company of their peers, they get a lot of bad effects and sometimes they cannot distinguish what is right and what is wrong. For instance, most teenagers start smoking in the period of military service, because all the time they are with their peers and they get distracted.
Secondly, in Iran the way military service is administered by the government is not fair to everyone. To illustrate, some people who are well-to do can buy the years of military service and most of them help their children to avoid draft by paying the cost of is. Also, some people can get dismissed because of very basic and simple problems like having a sweaty palm or poor eye sight. On the other hand, some people have no chance to get dismissed even if they have very bad considerable circumstances, like being the only person in the family who can work and help the family.
The facts that mentioned before are just some of the bad effects of attending military service. Certainly there are other ways to protect a country rather than homicide and teaching it to people. People can defend their countries by finding a good way to have relationship with other people and tell them that they are looking for peace in the world and fight and war is the worst way.