Monthly TOEFL Essay #1: "Nature is all we have"

  Describe a custom from your country that you would like people from other countries to adopt. Explain your choice, using specific reasons and examples.

  "This basically shows all there is need to know about Korea." This comment is what Pearl Buck; famous writer of the "The Good Earth" exclaimed after she saw our ancestors wisdom of leaving few persimmon on the branch for the other birds such as Magpie to eat. From the very beginning the thought of protecting the nature have been blended into our ancestors mind, which still exists in our roots. Keeping in mind about protecting the nature can benefit the human race in two folds; interacting and making harmony with the mother nature, and the fact that protecting the nature could actually lead us to a greater benefit.

  First, there is a point that this custom; protecting nature could help develop more profound relationship between human being and the rest of the mother nature. In today's modern society, the human beings have started to put themselves at the top of the food chain. Forgetting the fact that they are just mere particles, not the owners of the nature itself. And this misleading mere as it might seem, have caused tremendous amount of destruction across the globe in just a few centuries. For example there is the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forest. The Amazon Rain Forest is a vital area needed for the continuous health of the planet Earth. However, due to the greed of the Brazil Government this rain forest have been estimated to have been lost more than 70,000km^ in a couple of decades. Causing serious lack of fresh oxygen in the atmosphere. Therefore, it becomes crystal clear that the very custom of Korea; caring for the nature could trigger a change that is needed in today's situation.

  Moving on, the next advantage that this Korean custom can provide is the fact that it could increase the benefits humans can gain from a limited amount of resources. If we use up all the resources without leaving any behind, that itself would be the maxim amounts of benefits you could get. On the other hand if you leave some of the resources behind, the used up resources could be reproduced based on the leftover resources, leading to continuous benefit. For this example, I would like to simulate the situation of a fishing boat. When fishers haul up their catching they go through the creatures, selecting only the ones fully grown and releasing the younger ones. And this action of selection is the reason why fishing is still possible even though it has been more than several thousand years since the very start of fishing. So by this we can see that Korea's custom of saving few resources behind would lead to a greater benefit.

  So to put this into a nutshell, for these two folds; realizing that humans are mere part of the nature, and the fact that it could conjure as much benefit humans can possibly get from a limited resources. I strongly recommend and believe that it is necessary for the global world to adopt Korean custom. "Nature is all we have."

Can a fiscal and monetary splurge reboot Japan’s recessionary economy?

Japan’s economy

Keynes, trains and automobiles

Can a fiscal and monetary splurge reboot Japan’s recessionary economy?

Jan 12th 2013 | TOKYO | from the print edition (The Economist)

The disaster played into the hands of Shinzo Abe, who two days later launched his successful campaign to become prime minister partly on a promise of renovating Japan’s rusting infrastructure. As promised, on January 10th Mr Abe approved a massive public-spending bonanza, expected to exceed ¥13 trillion ($150 billion)—more than was spent in emergency measures after the 2011 earthquake, and about 2.6% of GDP.

Much of the cash will go towards making tunnels, railway lines and other infrastructure safer. Those are the sort of public-works projects that Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was famous for during much of post-war Japan’s history. His supporters believe it will help jolt the economy out of recession. Critics argue that it is a rehash of the concrete-slathering policies that helped saddle Japan with the biggest public debt in the world.

It is being accompanied by pressure on the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to print more money to weaken the yen and help exporters, such as Japan’s carmakers and electronics firms. The architect of that policy is Koichi Hamada, a Yale University professor and cabinet adviser who is a former mentor (and recently tormentor) of Masaaki Shirakawa, the governor of the BoJ. The government’s supporters have christened the fiscal and monetary strategy “Abenomics”. But it appears to be ripped largely from John Maynard Keynes.

In principle, there is nothing wrong with the plan, provided that the government’s spending generates higher returns than the borrowing costs. Robert Feldman of Morgan Stanley says that if the money is spent well, on projects like energy-saving technologies, the rewards could be huge, bolstering efficiency and tax revenues.

But if the cash is wasted on projects with no economic merit, it will add to a gross public debt without materially boosting output, raising a debt-to-GDP ratio that already exceeds 200%. Although deficit-financed stimulus is justifiable in the short run, Mr Abe has spoken of the need for ¥200 trillion of public works over the next ten years, with less talk of how to pay for it. Those sums easily exceed the additional ¥12.5 trillion a year that Japan hopes to collect by eventually doubling the consumption, or sales, tax. Mr Feldman notes that in Mr Abe’s campaign documents there was no mention of debt.

For now, the financial markets are happy. In just over a month, the stockmarket has climbed by 10%. It has been pushed higher by a weakening currency, with the yen falling from around 82 per dollar to 88 in the same period. Some of the credit for this may go to the pressure on the central bank, which is expected shortly to double its inflation target to 2% in an effort to forestall Mr Abe’s threat to change the BoJ law guaranteeing its independence. Just as much of a factor, though, is Japan’s current account, which is sailing closer and closer to the red (see chart). Analysts say it is likely to deteriorate further because of a burgeoning need for energy imports.

The risk is if government-bond yields rise without an increase in inflationary expectations. The latest stimulus package will reportedly be part-financed by ¥5.2 trillion of construction bonds; the new finance minister, Taro Aso, shows no allegiance to the last government’s efforts to cap bond emissions this fiscal year at ¥44 trillion. Some fret that if the market’s appetite for these bonds weakens, the Abe administration will ask the BoJ to buy them, something it is loth to do under duress.

A bigger concern, however, is that a fiscal and monetary splurge may give the government an excuse to postpone more sensitive measures such as deregulating the economy and opening the country to international competition through free-trade deals. Business leaders hammer away at the urgent need for structural reform. Mr Abe may offer some corporate-tax relief, but frustratingly, he seems keen to wait until after upper-house elections in July before making more progress.

Goals to achieve

To do something a motivation is needed, therefore for this task; managing the blog also needs a motivation. And I believe that setting the goals to achieve through this blog is the appropriate motivation needed. 

  So to make the long story short there are basically three things which I would like to gain from this activity. 

  First, I would like to change and improve the style of my writing. It is a fact which I admit to my shame that the style of my writing is very limited, due to the many tests I prepared for. Therefore I would like to take the most advantage of this class to change my writing style to be more fluid and have more literature factors blended in. 

  Moving on, the next part is about pinning the key points. If we stumble across a very well written article the whole point of the article become clearer the more lines we read. On the contrast the article which I write lacks the ability to directly pin the key points, making the article less organized. And this factor is the thing which I hope to achieve by continuously posting articles and essays on this blog.

  Lastly, I would like to shorten the time needed to write an essay. I guess this would naturally follow the more article or essays I write in or out of this blog. 

  To put it into a nutshell; Style, Organization, and Time these three factors are the main goal which I hope to achieve by the end of 2013. 

Intro

This is actually the very first time that I set up a blog and started to manage it. So you might wanna keep that in mind while you read along, for I might need some time before I begin to get the nag of posting something on my blog. 

So to start with the 'obvious' self introduction. My name is 노형석, currently attending the KMLA as the 18th wavers. The academic(?) group which I'm associated with is International, Natural Science. I have interest in playing the basketball, listening to music, hanging out with my friends, etc..

But I wouldn't want to waste my first post talking about those kinds of things, I would like to start mentioning the important factors that needs to be known for you guys to grasp what kind of a person I am.

First my personality is very outgoing, getting stuck in the same place for several hours is the very thing which I distaste the most. And this personality is actually the one of the main reason why I wanted to attend KMLA as the International group. For I figured that KMLA would provide much more interactive activities than any other high-schools suiting my taste.

Moving on, there is actually a cause for my so outgoing style. I lived in New Zealand for 19 months when I was still in elementary school. Young as it might seem for a person to be that greatly influenced but I can still remember clearly what happened during my stay. I was kind of a personal cultural shock to me. Short as I have lived meeting and interacting with so many foreign students destroyed completely the universe which I have set up around me. This gave me the chance to start clean and to adapt to the life style of New Zealand and I suppose that I'm still in the shade of that experience.

 Lastly, the field which I'm interested in is Biology; Genetic Modification. Starting when I was little I've always dreamed of curing other people, and as a matter of fact for some time I dreamed of becoming a doctor. But some point during my life I realized that being a doctor could not solve the very reason why people suffered and started to look for the very way to cut the roots of disease. As it turned out the answer was somewhat very simple. I have long since been interested in Biology and in the field of biology there is the part of genetic modification. Suddenly it became clear to me that the thing which longed and needed me to do. And I have been devoting to that field of study ever since.

Anyway I believe that this would be enough talking about me, and I really do hope that you guys(especially Mr. Menard) enjoys and finds the upcoming essays or articles that I would post very useful.

Good day to you all.:)