Discourse Analysis of Trumps North Korea Interactions

Discourse Analysis of Trumps North Korea Interactions The projection of power in United States-North Korea contemporary interactions Introduction Language has an essential role in the projection of political power (Foucault in Pitsoe and Letseka, 2012). Besides being an instrument for communication, it also serves as a tool for projecting power, (Bordieu, 1977), portraying certain image to the audience and turning the publics attention to particular matters (Behr, Iyengar and Cohen cited in Sirin and Villalobos, 2018). Also, language can be a tool for power to realize what it is known as the ‘holding of common sense’ (Jones and  Wareing, 1999, p. 34), so as to convey certain ideology to the extent of it being voluntarily considered by the public as part of shared system of principles, what Fairclough calls ‘the manufacture of consent’ (2001, p. 3). Already a controversial public figure, Donald Trump, since the very beginning of his mandate, has been known for his contentious discourse. His inaugural speech showed the first signs of the ‘rhetorical rift’ (Sirin and Villalobos, 2018) from his predecessor, whose positive rhetoric greatly differs from Trumps negative and sharp statements. Even though it is not rare seeing Trump explicitly addressing other countries in a discrediting way (Watkins and Phillip, 2018) and despite the fact that US-North Korean relations have been tense since the Cold War (IBP USA, 2005), new forms of communication, combined with the new US presidents fondness of public attention, among other factors, have generated a tug-of-war situation around such risky issues as international security. The aim of this essay, thus, is to analyse how power is being projected in US-North Korea interactions through discourse analysis. In terms of methodology, several texts will be studied. Speeches pronounced by US President Donald Trump and North Korean government statements have been chosen for this matter. Prior to our analysis, it is important to address the fact that North Korea public communication features a high level of censorship, scoring the last place in the Reporters without Borders â€Å"2017 World Press Freedom Index† (Reporters Without Borders, 2017). Regarding texts issued by the United States side, the sources consulted have official status (The White House and Donald Trumps official Twitter) but the Government of North Korea does not have an open-access official website in English. For this reason, the only primary source is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers Party of Korea: Rodong Sunmun. In terms of the procedure, the essay will be focused firstly on a general study of the elements of communication; secondly, it will consider grammar analysis; and thirdly, as pects related to the lexical level will be addressed. This way, the projection of power will be assessed through these elements following a Critical Discourse Analysis model, as according to Simpson and Mayr ‘it is the most comprehensive attempt to develop a theory of the interconnectedness of discourse, power, ideology and social structure’ (2010, p. 51). Discourse Analysis Elements of communication For this section, we will use, among others, the Jakobson criteria model presented in Barbara Johnstones book Discourse Analysis (Jakobson in Johnstone, 2002, p.220), which includes an ‘addresser’, an ‘addressee’ and ‘message’. In the first speech presented, Remarks by President Trump to the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (Trump, 2017) these components will play a very important role. The addresser is Donald Trump in the sense that he is the direct source. However, in the first line, he states that ‘it is a profound honor to stand here in my home city, as a representative of the American people, to address the people of the world.’ (Trump, 2017). This is the first sign of power projection: with this statement, Trump is implying that everything he will mention comes not only from him but is also endorsed by the people in his country. In other words, his message is not personal; it comes from the United States to the world and, indirectly, to North Korea. This is not the case with State of the Union Speech, as it is targeted at the United States in particular and not at an international organization as the United Nations. Thus, due to the different nature of both communications, both messages will have different repercussions in terms of projection of power as there is an increase in legitimacy by including addressees in the message (Johnstone, 2002, p.46). In the case of North Korea examples, we see that Kim Jong-Un himself is hardly ever the person who directly conveys the message but a government official. In the first example, the addresser is the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Nonetheless, in the other selected text, he is the one to deliver the response to Trump’s speech in the Office of the United Nations, fact which could be considered as a way to project power itself, as he only speaks in very rare occasions (Smith, 2017) and this is one of them. Regarding the addressee, it is important to underline that there are some differences in terms of direct referencing. North Koreas discourse displays direct explicit references of the United States. In Trump speeches, however, this is highly dependent on the context where the discourse takes place. While speeches thought to be delivered in an international scenario, such as the one pronounced in the Office of the United Nations, feature a more serious rhetoric, it is not uncommon to find direct descriptions, like Rocket Man in communications coming directly from Trump in more informal contexts or channels of communication, such as Twitter. On the other hand, as stated before, North Korea lacks this individual dimension as statements hardly ever come from its leader himself. It terms of projection of power, this clearly states a difference: Donald Trump is a public figure, as the president of the United States but also, as an individual persona with his own opinions. Kim Jong-Un, on t he other hand, not only is not separated from his position (he does not have a private channel of communication) but does not appear in the public international scenario. This way, an image of unreachability is portrayed, as if he did not participate directly in this issue.  Ã‚   Finally, the channel of communication is also worth mentioning. Donald Trump is an avid Twitter user (36,900 tweets) (Trump, 2018b), which can be used not only as a way of communication but also as a way of portraying influence. The very same act of communicating by social media has a strong connotation in terms of projecting power. In the first place, due to its spontaneous nature, this tool enables to reach a high number of people (Sirin and Villalobos, 2008) in seconds. Most importantly, ‘joint discourse activitycreates and affirmed shared membership in a community of practice’ (Wenger in Johnstone, 2002, p.116). Twitter has its own textual conventions. Due to its capacity of reach the public and the brevity of the messages, language tends to be direct and informal. Even though political discourse is ‘highly stylized and predictable most of the time’ (Edelman in Lim, 2008, p. 4), it is highly noticeable how Trumps discourse through social media is nowhere near traditional presidential rhetoric and his remarks feature almost bantering language. We can see this in the well-known nuclear button tweet, where he states that his button ‘is bigger than the North Korean leaders’ (Trump, 2018b). It would be relevant to think that this is part of a political strategy in the sense that power can be projected by highly intellectual rhetoric but also by disregarding the formality aspect expected taking into account the type of interaction (Fairclough, 2001). In simpler words, informal language could be used to downplay North Korean threats. On the other hand, North Koreas official channel of communication is a perfect example of one of Faircloughs ideas. He supports that the access to discourse itself is as much of a good as economic wealth (Fairclough, 2001). If one were to access the Korea Central News Agency, it would be impossible to find much information, as access is highly restricted and the system does not allow to search for more than a couple of statements if subscription is not paid. Thus, the channel of communication is this case is a tool for projecting power by not providing information, being the exact opposite of Trumps case.   Grammar Agency in voices In the first place, we are going to analyse these texts in terms of grammar as ‘grammatical and semantic forms can be used as ideological instruments’ (Fowler et al. cited in Simpson and Mayr, 2010, p. 50). To start with, our study will focus on agency. Agency is expressed in grammar through the use of the passive or the active voice as this is a way to determine which participants are actors and which ones are the recipients of the action. One significant trait of the selected extracts from Trump is the lack of use of passive voice except for two cases which will be later addressed. We can see that in ‘Authority and authoritarian powers seek to collapse the values, the systems, and alliances that prevented conflict’ (Trump, 2018a), where the fact that North Korea (or authoritarian regimes) is trying to end with the current state of peace is stated indirectly. Also Trump is making an implicit reference, which can be used in political discourse as a way to ev ade responsibility (Simpson and Mayr, 2010, p.43). We find another example in this same text: ‘no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea’. Again, the regime is the main actor through the use of personalization and the use of active voice. There is a change of meaning between ‘citizens have been oppressed by the regime’ and ‘the regime has oppressed the citizens’ as the centre of the action has been shifted. However, it is significant to point out that the passive voice is used twice in the extract related to North Korea in the State of the Union speech (Trump, 2018a) and it is when Trump tells the story of a North Korean defector (‘he was tortured by North Korean authorities’ and ‘his father was caught trying to escape’). In this part of the speech, the centre of the action has shifted through the use of passive voice and it is not the North Korean regi me anymore but the defector. We can see how here the human factor is what is important, appealing to the more emotional aspect by making this defector the passive subject of the sentence. There are similar strategies in North Korean’s response. While the majority of sentences in the text are introduced by verbs in active voice, there are some cases where subjects have been changed into objects. We can see this in ‘the prevailing serious circumstances, in which the situation on the Korean peninsula has been rendered tense as never before’ (The New York Times, 2017). The agent is unknown, which can be, according to Johnstone, due to the fact that it is ‘unknown,  obvious  or  unimportant’ as well as a way of hiding  Ã¢â‚¬Ëœan  agent  who  is  known’ (2002, p. 46). However, although the attempt to conceal the agent could be argued, it is noticeable that the same verb (to render) has been used just a line below (‘Trump has rendered the world restless through threats and blackmail against all countries in the world’), this time in active voice, with a clear agent, establishing thus a direct link between the existing tension and the President’s actions. There is a similar case: ‘Should the Korean peninsula and the world be embroiled in the crucible of nuclear war because of the reckless nuclear war mania of the U.S.’ (Rodong News Team, 2017), where the use of the passive voice and the verb â€Å"embroil† suggest that this situation is almost circumstantial, as neither Korea nor the world would be taking part in this conflict and would find themselves in the middle of a war. Agency in pronouns As Fairclough mentions, pronouns in English can establish different relations (2001). In Trumps statements, it is worth noting that the first person of the plural form appears throughout the whole text (i.e. ‘our military will soon be the strongest’ or ‘the scourge of our planet’). The sentence ‘I intend to address some of the very serious threats before us today’, which belongs to the United Nations speech, is particularly revealing. With this statement, Trump is essentially conveying that North Korean threat is not only an attack to his country, but the addressees as well: this matter involves the world and not just one nation. However, it is also important to point out that the use of the pronoun â€Å"we†, especially as inclusive, can be used to ‘obscure responsibility and agency’ and a method to ‘share responsibilities’ (Simpson and Mayr, 2010, p. 44). In this case, taking into consideration that the address ee is the United Nations and that Donald Trump does not usually hide his intentions towards North Korea, it would be more appropriate to think that he is trying to convey a message of unity against this country, an attempt to engage the rest of nations, instead of aiming at concealing his opinions. In consequence, by using this pronoun, power has shifted, as now it would not be US against North Korea but North Korea against the United Nations. Unlike Trumps statement at the United Nations, Kim Jong-Un response contains just one inclusive pronoun. As it has been mentioned, it is very rare that the Korean leader himself delivers a speech personally. Nonetheless, he is the direct addresser in this response and he shows it by always using the pronoun I. This way, Kim Jong-Un’s statement is portrayed as a reaction to a personal attack. Trumps words were not only targeted at North Korea but his leader himself. Thus, the figure of the leader, already very prominent in this nation, is even more enhanced. Power, in this case, is portrayed by focusing the interaction solely on one (or two, with Trump) participants. Lexical aspects We have also regarded the analysis of vocabulary as something very relevant, as ‘choices about naming and wording deciding what to call something can constitute a claim about it’ (Johnstone, 2002, p. 46) In this regard, we will consider referencing and metaphors. In other words, we will focus in the way each participant refers to the other. It is usual to find implicit referencing to North Korea in Trump’s discourse and many times this is done using metaphors, which are well-known to the public such as the famous ‘fire and fury’ (NBC News, 2017). In the selected texts, we can find that Trump talks about authoritarian regimes as ‘the scourge of our planet’ (Trump, 2017) without mentioning directly North Korea. However, he mentions it a line below as a way of example. This strategy appears in Johnstone’s book Discourse Analysis under the name of â€Å"presupposition†, where the public is ‘delivering information implicitl y and leaving it to the hearer to deduce meaning and make assumptions’ (Johnstone, 2002, p.43). The same strategy is used the same text: ‘if the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph’. In this case, he refers to these regimes (and, ultimately, North Korea) as â€Å"wicked† but, more importantly, he is implicitly referring with the word â€Å"righteous† not only to himself, as taking into account that this speech is pronounced at the United Nations, this serves as an appeal to engage for the rest of countries.    Lastly, in his speech for the State of the Union of 2018, several references are made through metaphors which are related to the idea of North Korea being a nation deprived from freedom. We can see that in the final part, where Trump tells the story of a North Korean defector, is a metaphor itself. This is becomes clear in the final sentence he states saying that Seong-hos tale is a ‘testament to the yearning of every human soul to live in freedom’. Regarding North Korea, Kim Jong-Un’s use of metaphors is also quite relevant. In the response speech (The New York Times, 2017), a constant metaphor exists in which the North Korean leader associates Trump with an animal, specifically, a dog. We can see that in the idiomatic sentence ‘a frightened dog barks louder’. This implicit reference becomes explicit at the end of the speech, (‘I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire’), through the use of the verb â€Å"to tame† which, according to the Oxford Dictionary online, means ‘make less powerful and easier to control’ but also ‘to domesticate (an animal)’. He also uses the expression ‘with fire’, retaking Trump’s statement (‘fire and fury’), which could be considered as a response. Also in this speech, we can see that, while he refers to himself as ‘a man representing the DPRK’, appealing to the â€Å"Democratic† in ‘Democratic Popular Korean Republic’ he calls Trump ‘the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the US’, appealing to the fact that he is the sole person holding the power. In terms of projection of power, metaphors are an essential part of political discourse as they can ‘change the addressee’s perspective on the referent or topic that is the target of the metaphor, by making the addressee look at it from a different conceptual domain or space’ (Steen, 2008, p.22) and ‘an important means of conceptualizing political issues and constructing world views’ (Charteris-Black, 2004, p. 48). In this case, we can state that they are a resource to engrain in public opinion a certain association so the audience can identify an idea with a concept belonging to their reality, which Simpson and Mayr refer to as â€Å"target domain† and â€Å"source domain† respectively (2010, p.43). Conclusions From our analysis we can conclude that power is being portrayed in the language of North Korea-US interactions in different ways: in the first place, by an increase of legitimacy on the part of Donald Trump by including the American people and the United Nations as addressers. Secondly, by making explicit references. We see a change in the language of Donald Trump in cases where the addressees differ. While in an international context, references are more implicit, we see an â€Å"explicitation† process when the speech is pronounced at a national event or come through a personal way channel of communication. Thirdly, by restricting access to information. Finding official statements made by Donald Trump is much easier than finding North Korean official sources. Information from this country, thus, would be reserved only to a few people. In this regard, the exposure to the public is also relevant. The North Korean leader does not appear usually in the media which, on the one hand, portrays an image of unreachability and, on the other, increases the importance of the occasions when he does. Fourthly, by the position of agency through the use of active and voice and pronouns. Shifting agency is useful when portraying to the audience who does what. Lastly, through the use of metaphors, also present on both sides. While Trump intends to lead the public to assumptions and evoke the emotional side of the story, Kim Jong-Un uses this resource for the portrayal of authority downplaying Trump’s and this, establishing an asymmetrical relation of power. As Simpson and Mayr state (2010, p.4) ‘language is influenced by ideology’. By analysing the elements studied in this essay, it can be said that ideology can also be affected by language. In the case of United States-North Korean interactions, where current events keep changing the international scenario and taking into account that ‘discourse is one of the principal activities through which ideology is circulated and reproduced’ (Foucault in Johnstone, 2002, p.45), it will be relevant to keep observing both countries’ discourse from the projection of power perspective.    Bibliography Bourdieu, P. (1977)  Outline  of  a  theory  of  practice. Cambridge: Cambridge  University  Press   Charteris-Black, J. (2004) Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave. Macmillan Fairclough, N. (2001)  Language  and  power. 2nd edition. London: Longman IBP USA (2005) Us Korea North Political and Economic Relations Handbook. Washington DC: International Business Publications. Johnstone,  B. (2002)  Discourse  Analysis.  Oxford:  Blackwell   Jones, J., S. Wareing (1999) Language and politics. In: Thomas, L. and S. Wareing. eds. Language, society and power. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 31-47. Lim, E.T. (2008)  The  anti-intellectual presidency. New York: Oxford University Press   NBC News (2017) Donald Trump: North Korea Will Be Met With Fire And Fury [online]. Available from: Youtube [accessed 3 February 2017] Pitsoe, V.   M.,  Letseka  (2012)  Foucault’s Discourse and Power: Implications for Classroom Management. Open Journal of Philosophy, 3(1), pp. 23-28 Reporters without Borders (2017) 2017 World Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders [online], 26 April. Available from: https://rsf.org/en/ranking {accessed 1 February 2018] Rodong News Team, (2017) FM Spokesman on Planned Joint Aerial Drill by U.S. and S. Korea. Rodong Sinmun [online], 5 December. Available from: [accessed 31 January 2018] Semino, E. (2008): Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Simpson, P., A. Mayr (2010) Language and power: A resource book for students. London: Routledge Sirin, C. and Villalobos, J. (2018)  Rhetoric,  Public  Politics, and Security. In: Conley, R. ed.  Presidential  Leadership  and  National  Security:  The  Obama  Legacy  and Trump  Trajectory. New York: Routledge, pp. 19-42   Smith, M. (2017) Kim Jong-Un calls Trumps UN speech declaration of war and brands US president mentally deranged in rare speech. The Daily Mirror [online], 21 September. Available from: [accessed 3 February 2018] Steen, G.J. (2008) The paradox of metaphor: â€Å"Why we need a three-dimensional model for metaphor† in Metaphor & Symbol 23(4), 213-241. The New York Times (2017) Full Text of Kim Jong-un’s Response to President Trump. The New York Times [online], 22 September. Available from: [accessed 27 January 2018] Trump, D. (2018a) President Donald J. Trump’s State of the Union Address. Capitol Building, Washington, 31 January. Trump, D. (2017) Remarks by President Trump to the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Office of the United Nations in New York, 19 September. Trump, D. (2018b) 2 January. Available at: [accessed: 23 January] Watkins, E., A. Phillip (2018) Trump decries immigrants from shithole countries coming to US. CNN [online] , 12 January. Available from: [accessed 5 February 2018]

Mitch Albom’s, The Five People You Meet in Heaven Essay -- The Five Pe

In Mitch Albom’s, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the author centers the story around Eddie’s life, beginning with his death. â€Å"It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time† (1, paragraph 1). The most important thing in this story that we must all understand is that although we may not know it, somehow our lives all have a common intersection. â€Å"No story sits by itself. Sometimes stories meet at corners and sometimes they cover one another completely, like stones beneath a river (16, paragraph 8). Eddie’s life ends tragically at Ruby Pier, the amusement park, where he has felt trapped for so many, long years, with what he thinks of as â€Å"a meaningless life†. When Eddie opens his eyes, he thinks that he is in heaven. He sees the sky changing many, beautiful colors as he is floating through the air. Eddie eventually lands in the place that he has come to think of as his own hell, Ruby Pier. He questions why he has been sent back here. He wonders if he had really been so bad of a person on earth that God would send him here to live for eternity. Once Eddie meets the side show â€Å"freak†, The Blue Man, he begins to understand why he has come here again. The Blue Man explains that Eddie will meet five people in heaven that will explain the meaning of his life. The Blue Man tells Eddie the story of a young boy, and how that young boy darted out into the road in front of a man, causing him to have a heart attack and crash. He realizes that the man was The Blue Man and the boy had been himself. The Blue Man tells Eddie that he must understand â€Å"That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than... ... to all the children that entered Ruby Pier. They all knew that they would be safe because they had someone watching over them, like an angel. Eddie had been the children’s angel. Everyone Eddie met in heaven taught him something about his life. They were all connected to him in different ways, whether it was someone close to him once, or a complete stranger. Somehow, all of their lives had crossed Eddie’s and helped make him the person that he had become. When you think about this lesson, you truly understand. One decision causes an effect, maybe on your life or maybe on someone else’s life. That effect will cause something else. It’s what I think of as a ripple effect. Everything happens for a reason, and all of the events that lead up to our â€Å"now† makes us who we are. Works Cited Albom, Mitch. The Five People You Meet in Heaven. New York: Hyperion. 2003.

Crisis and Opportunity Essay

1) Introduction Nowadays, we have created our own world of technology. Convenience and efficiency are catered through it. Yet, the earth, the natural world, seems to rebel against such artificial world, by sending signals of natural crises to us. In this project, we are going to talk about â€Å"How people benefit from Water Crisis† surrounding the theme â€Å"Crisis and Opportunity†. The water crisis is branched out as two sections, namely water shortage and water pollution. The amount of water in the world is stable; it just changes its physical forms. Nonetheless, the problem of water shortages still exists. In fact, what we lack is clean water. With rapid advancing of human activities and technology, and unfavorable natural features like uneven distribution of rivers, the water crisis is growingly affecting our lives negatively and takes them at risk. Water is polluted by increasing human activities. Industrial wastes which include heavy metals like mercury and lead, harmful to living things, are illegally dumped into water sources; Sewage is directly deposited into rivers, which normally is a source of clean water. Ultimately, global warming, was elicited by human too, depletes clean water. With changing of climates, some countries face more floods which pollute clean water while other countries face more droughts which cause massive drying out of clean water. Now, we start worrying about the crisis because water controls our lives tightly as we could not survive without it. On the other hand, people are developing more and more solutions. By approaching the problem optimistically, this ought to turn this crisis into an opportunity so that we and the world can proceed sustainably. Scientists from all around the world have come up with ideas to solve the problem piecemeal. 2) Literature Review We used secondary research in this paper as there is simply no way for us to conduct our own research on water crisis. We mainly consulted online websites and read some online books. We also read articles from credible magazines such as National Geographic There is also a website called Global Water Intelligence which is a Market-Leading website for the analysis of International water industry. From these sources, we mainly found out that water is very limited around the world and there are people dying from consuming polluted water or simply dehydration. We also found out that the water crisis brought out some new technologies that changed the water pattern of the world. Have you ever thought of turning water from your basin into drinking water? Some people may think that it is impossible, or even a disaster. However, in Singapore, scientists have developed some methods, which can change waste water into pure water. The reused water is called the â€Å"New Water†. How to purify used water? Used water is collected from residence, companies, and schools, and then it is purified by three steps. First, it undergoes microfiltration. Large particles can be filtered away in this step. Afterwards, it undergoes reverse osmosis. Differentially-permeable membranes are used in reverse osmosis. These membranes contain tiny holes, which can only allow water molecules to pass through, so contaminated substances, such as viruses, bacteria can be removed. Lastly, ultraviolet light is used as a back-up to ensure the remaining micro-organisms were completely killed. This makes â€Å"New Water†. On the other hand, some people might worry that â€Å"New Water† was unclean, and thus may affect the health of citizens. However, research conducted, as shown in figure 1 and 2, the level of organic substance and amount of bacteria in â€Å"New Water† was much lower than the local reservoir water. Indeed, this shows that the â€Å"New Water† meets the requirement of drinking water so its safety was ensured. Compare to the other sources of water, â€Å"New Water† is even cleaner. Therefore, it was awarded many global water awards among these years, and this can surely tackle the problem of water shortage without polluting. There is another way to tackle water shortage and pollution. Do you know how sailors obtain fresh water when they are on a voyage? They obtain fresh water by changing sea water into drinking water. This method is called desalination. Sea water accounts for 97% of the world’s water resource. Only the remaining 3% is consumable for humans. In some countries like Saudi Arabia, there is water shortage. They only have a small amount of consumable fresh water. However, they have a large supply of sea water. However the salinity of sea water is four times higher than our body fluids. When we drink salt water, water molecules in our cells will move out of the cell due to osmosis. This net transfer of water may cause our cells to shrink, which may lead to dehydration, and death in serious situations. So how can this modern technology help us to turn this crisis into another opportunity? Desalination refers to the removal of salt and other minerals of saline water to make it consumable. It has become increasingly popular in recent years due to enhancement in technology. There are two methods for desalination. The most common type is work by reverse osmosis, which is based on osmosis- the movement of substances from a lower concentration to a higher concentration. It is a membrane-technology filtration and removes salt and minerals by pressurizing the sea water, forcing them to move through the selective membrane. The selective membrane has pores that allow only water particle to pass through, so that salt molecules and other pollutants are trapped behind the membrane. The by-product produced in the process is salt. It creates an economic opportunity. The process in a desalination plant Thermal distillation is another way of desalination other than reverse osmosis. It is known as the multi-stage flash distillation. It distillates water by flashing a portion of water into steam in multiple stages and then condense them into portable water. Where do we find desalination plant? In Hong Kong, the Water Supplies Department has two desalination plants which use reverse osmosis. The first one is located in Ap Lei Chau and the other one located in Tuen Mun. The government is also planning to build another desalination plant in Tseung Kwan O. There are 100 countries around the world which uses this technology. Saudi Arabia accounts for 25% of the world’s desalination output, with over 2000 desalination plants around the country. A desalination plant in Saudi Arabia. Apart from the problem of water pollution and water shortage, water crisis itself can also be an opportunity, if we look at it from another perspective. It can raise global awareness and promote international cooperation. Thus it drives globalization. Water crisis is a global issue. It cannot be solved by only the cooperation of a few countries; full cooperation from countries all around the world is required. Therefore, some international cooperation was established in order to help countries joining hands to solve water crisis. One of the examples is the World Water Council. The World Water Council organizes the World Water Forum once every three years. In the forum, representatives from different countries join together and come up with some solutions to solve the water crisis. It includes signing of protocols, reducing pollutants in order to help geographic areas that are facing an immediate water shortage. This can not only help to solve the water crisis, but also create peace among countries. 3) Discussion and Analysis What are the benefits of using â€Å"New Water† instead of local reservoir water? First, it can solve the problem of water shortage. In Singapore, there is not enough water because there are only a few rivers running through this small country, but it is densely populated. Reused water is using the same amount of water many times, so we can have unlimited water source without worrying being used up. Moreover, using â€Å"New Water† can help protecting the environment. Waste water cause water pollution, which can contaminate fresh water source; by using â€Å"New Water†, water can be reused and it will not cause any further pollution. This is beneficial to the environment. Furthermore, â€Å"New Water† can boost tourism. In Singapore, the â€Å"NEw Water† visitors centre is a new attraction. It attracts tourists to visit as it provides opportunities for them to explore Science and learn more about water. Last but not least, â€Å"New Water† can help Singapore to make money, as it can sell this technology to other countries. Some countries, such as, China and Europe has already started using â€Å"New Water† instead, as it is purer than local reservoir water. In conclusion, â€Å"New Water† is alternate solution, which can change water pollution and shortage into a profitable opportunity. Now, let us move on to desalination. Some people think that although desalination may seem to be a solution to our current water crisis, it has certain potential implications that cause harm to our environment. Fossil fuels or nuclear power are used in the majority of desalination plants. The burning of fossil fuels releases a large amount of carbon dioxide into the air. The increase in this disastrous greenhouse gas consequently makes global warming worse. Alternatively, but still, nuclear power is dangerous. The radiation leakage in Japan had spread concerns all over the world. Radiation is carcinogenic. People living near the nuclear power plant had to be relocated. It even made Japanese seafood un-consumable. Besides, the food chain is affected since water and soil is polluted by radiation. Furthermore, membrane-technology is expensive. The production cost of water per meter cube is HK$7.8- HK$8.4. However, the advantages of desalination outweights its costs because it can make water available to areas that have a scarce supply of fresh water. Why Saudi Arabia needs a lot of desalination plant? It is because it is located in a place where there is short supply of water. With desalination, they can change sea water into fresh water. It provides a reliable and sufficient supply of water to the growing communities, which reduces the crisis of water shortage. More people will have a steady supply of water and lives will be saved. People will no longer die from the lackage of water. The costs of human lives are much more important than the costs of desalination. The cost of desalination is only short-term and it can be solved by using renewable energy instead, such as solar energy and wind power. Also, the cost of desalination will be lowered once it is developed and widely used around the world. To sum up, desalination is another effective way to change water crisis into an opportunity. â€Å"A coin has two sides†. Water crisis does not only bring disadvantages, but it is also an opportunity for countries to join together and solve this global issue. This can improve international relationships and bring peace to countries. On the one hand, some people may argue that water crisis would not bring any peace to countries, but instead it brings conflicts and chaos. Some research show that as water crisis is getting more and more serious, water source becomes a weapon, and it may be a threat to other countries. Therefore, if one country is located at the upper course, while the other is located at the lower course, the one at the upper course can control the flow of water. However, the establishments of international organizations help to solve this problem together by promoting the saving of water supply and improvement of technology. This can create communication channels and may help to maintain peace in certain countries. For example, the 6th Water Forum held in Marseille, from 12 to 17 March 2012 was a great success. Participants from over 145 countries join this event. They discuss global water problems together. Through debates and in-depth dialogue, they were able to know more about water crisis and many stakeholders commit that they would try their best to conserve water in order to help the needy. This shows that water crisis can raise global awareness and promote international cooperation. (+ but piecemeal and suggestion) (favourable risk and insight) 4) Conclusion The water crisis does not have to be devastating. Flipside, there are advantages of it on bringing opportunities to communities, the world and to us. In face with the same problem, people unite and untangle the cluttered yarn of puzzle, mystery and problems. Because of the water crisis, people start organizing Water Forums so that opinions all around are synthesized, analyzed and become a grand solution. Working scientists, assisting each other and aiming at the target, invented ways like the New water and desalination of water. ‘Even the darkest night will end. And the sun will rise.’ There is always a solution to a problem. However, we could not just rely on the technology to solve this problem but we should also help conserving water and raise the global awareness. To solve the problem entirely we must start from its roots. Take a shower instead of a bath. Don’t leave the water running when you are brushing your teeth. Switch off any dripping taps. This will also decrease your electricity bill and help to build a greener environment where water is plentiful. If we still consume water at a stage like this, we are exploiting resources from our next generations, which doesn’t make the planet sustainable. With the cooperation of everybody, we strongly believe that water crisis will definitely change into an opportunity and the world would be a better place to live in. 5) Reference and Appendices Asia’s Water Crisis†¦and Opportunity (No.2 2011) Solutions http://solutions.bv.com/asias-water-crisis-and-opportunity/ Peak Water: Crisis or Opportunity? (Tuesday, December 1, 2009) Carbon Foresight http://carbonforesight.blogspot.hk/2009/12/peak-water-crisis-or-opportunity.html â€Å"Turning China’s Water Crisis into Investment Opportunity† Market Brief Water August 2009, New Ventures http://www.new-ventures.org.cn/sites/default/files/upload/turning_chinas_water_crisis_into_investment_opportunity.pdf â€Å"Who profiting from the water crisis†, Issue 452, New Internationalist Magazine http://www.newint.org/features/2012/05/01/water-crisis-profit-opportunity/ Singapore National water agency http://www.pub.gov.sg/water/newater/Pages/default.aspx Graphs: Fig1 and 2 http://www.pub.gov.sg/water/newater/quality/Pages/default.aspx How Desalination works http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/how-does-desalination-work.htm http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/desalination.htm Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desalination Fdu Magazine online 2003 http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/03su/desalination.html The World water Council http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/ â€Å"Solving the World Water Crisis Takes International Cooperation†, Suite101 http://suite101.com/article/solving-the-world-water-crisis-takes-international-cooperation-a265088

Analysis Of Randy Pausch Speech - 1033 Words

â€Å"Life is like a rollercoaster, live it, be happy and enjoy life.† Advised Avril Lavigne. In 2008, Dr. Randy Pausch gave a speech at Carnegie Mellon University titled â€Å"Achieving Childhood Dream†, which he called â€Å"The Last Lecture.† The purpose of this speech was to put everyone in a position where they would think of everything they would like to achieve before their deaths. Ironically, Pausch appeared to be inspired by his own life and dreams since he was on the verge of passing. The event was happening right around a new school year, which required facts and tricks base on how to be prepared. Dr. Pausch’s speech was rather on life enjoyments, dream achievements, and enabling others’ dreams. He talked about how he dreamt to be in zero†¦show more content†¦He went to two different ivy schools, he achieved most of his dreams; most of them because he did not get to play in the NFL, but he did learn a few tricks. He also did not get to be his childhood dream character, Captain Kirk, but he was satisfied when he met the actor who portrayed the Captain Kirk. Life is not meant to take seriously, but to live through. He purposely utilized logos to support his argument on childhood dream achievement. He implied that throughout his life, he never forgot to have fun despite his illness. The lecture was extremely appealing, he could have done like a lot of speakers do (boring their audiences), but he made things interesting. He talked about his experience at carnivals and how he never missed out on having fun. At one point, he brought stuffed animals to the stage to prove to his audience that no matter how old he gets or how sick he gets, he never missed out on enjoying life. According to Dr. Pausch, it is always good to take a leap of faith because people can either chose to say where they are or jump to where they want to be because life is not only about the science we study and the book we read. Life is also about the things we have achieved, the dreams we have fulfilled. Dr. Pausch talked about how after getting his Ph.D. from Carnegie M ellon, he was rejected from Disney, a place that is, according to him, famous for guys who sweep the floor. HeShow MoreRelatedRandy Pausch s Last Lecture : A Video Summary And Analysis969 Words   |  4 PagesRandy Pausch s Last Lecture: A Video Summary and Analysis Madison Bulla Lifespan Psychology East Tennessee State University October 3, 2016â€Æ' Introduction In Randy Pausch s Last Lecture, Randy discusses how he achieved all of his childhood dreams throughout his life and how he helped others achieve their dreams. Often times, childhood dreams are forgotten due to life stressors, other opportunities and interests that come along and, ultimately, believing that those childhood dreams are unachievable