Hi everyone! So for this morning, I would like to share to you the essay that my cousin and I drafted few days ago for her English class.
The cousin that I am talking about is Athena. I would not post her photo though for privacy reasons. Anyway, they were tasked to make an essay about almost-anything-that-their-teacher-has-thought-of. Well, kidding aside, the teacher wanted them to write a somewhat comprehensive essay on drugs and how it has affected the world in terms of life expectancy. For me, that was pretty heavy for Grade 8 students. But yeah, my cousin was able to make a good essay so I should not be complaining.
I would like to put emphasis on that because she might end up her paper being plagiarized if their turnitin (or whatever the program that their school is using for plagiarism detection) would mark her paper plagiarize. Anyway, the final form of her essay has already been summarized before she submitted it.
Also, please take note that this is her work and I was just tasked to direct her and help with her structure (in application to parallelism). If you find it offending, please do not be bothered with it as this came from a mind of a 14 year old girl. Soon, she might change her perspective about the world.
In the start of human civilization, human interaction has already existed. These factors has been a limiting factor for the said human interaction: landscape and borders, existence of islands and archipelagos, and difference of languages and culture. According to studies conducted by a number of historians, conflicts have already existed as it was evident on the cracks of the bones of the early human beings that were found on caves and other exploration sites. Evidence of the culture and arts of the people in the past can be seen in different museums across the world.
In line with substance addiction which is of significance to human existence, a lot of people were addicted to alcohol, opium, marijuana or cannabis, and morphine. Although they had been viewed negatively by some people, these substances has also helped shaped the culture of different civilizations and even up to date. Alcohol for one has been said to be made thousands of years ago. It has been said to be first made in Egypt from the process of fermenting beverages. In China, there is an evidence of early alcohol drink around 7000 B.C. In South Asia particularly in India around 3000 and 2000B.C., distilled wine has been served as an alcoholic drink. It is believed by many that these alcoholic substances were only accessible by the elite people in the society because it has been found out by some researchers that people who usually experience gout are the ones who are rich. gout has also been considered as "disease of the kings". On the other hand, in Greek literature, different writers warned about the consequences of excessive drinking.
Nowadays, alcohol is considered to be the most abused substance. A lot of teenagers has resorted to excessive drinking and other addictive subtances due to peer pressure, depression, and anxiety. The rate of teenagers being engaged to excessive drinking is appalling. A lot of violence and crime has been committed by the youth who had excessive drinking of alcohol. Some of these cases are rape, aggressive behavior or violence, destruction of private property, road accidents, and a lot more.
Opium on the other hand was said to be first used in 3400 B.C. as a medicinal substance. It later became a form of sedative during the reign of Alexander the Great in different parts of the world, particularly in the Arab World, Greece, and in Roman Empire. As the number of ships travelling the world increased, it has reached China. Britain and other western countries used opium as a form of leverage against the Chinese. At that point in history, a lot of Chinese men become addicted to this substance which sooner led these Chinese men to becoming less effective workers. The said addicting substance has then led to Opium war.
In 1918, when the world was shocked by the aftermath of World War I, the world population declined. Major countries and its colonies who joined the said war were stricken with poverty, hunger, and unemployment. Europe was also invaded by the Spanish flu which has affected one-third of the population of the world.These catastrophes has then resulted to some civil wars in some parts of the world as the effects of the war has crippled. People have revolted against their political leaders because of the latter's inadequacy to counter the problems that the communities faced, particularly those who are on the lower portion of the socio-economic status. With the said circumstances, a lot of people have died.
Although globalization and transnationalism already existed in the Post-World War I era, a lot of people opted to remain nationalists, hence their interactions with other ethnicities has been limited. It was also expected that during this period, people across the globe were aware of the fact that poverty might strike anytime so purchasing of products from other areas were limited. On the other hand, Philippines on this point of time was under the Insular Government of United States of America aft. There was no data backed up by research in regard with the demography of the Philippines.
It is important to note that the health care system is still evolving, particularly the mental health. Meanwhile, the incidence of the substance addiction has increased because most of the people felt anxious and depressed after seeing the horrors of the wars and catastrophes. Morphine on one hand is regarded as the "soldier's disease". A lot of soldiers got addicted to morphine to avoid physical pain.
When World War II occured, a lot of children became orphans and wives became widows. The gender ratio became imbalanced. Men at that time were viewed as key players in the war as soldiers. It has been said that the death count has reached to more than 80 million people. Five (5) million of these were the Jewish people who died because of genocide or ethnic cleansing committed by the Nazi. Because of this incident, racism has remained today that in Germany, Semitic (Jewish nationals) businessmen were targeted with violence by some anti-semitism movements across the country.
Though industrialization started in the 18th century, it was only in 1950s when industrialization has been rapidly changing. The farms were turned into industries as factories were built and old technologies has been improved. People at that time were viewed as workers as capitalism became stronger and has spread out across the world. After World War II, Western Europe was able to recover with the Marshall Plan which was laid out to alleviate poverty and help the Western Europe recover. Western Europe has been liberated and was able to recover economically and socially. On the other hand, Eastern Europe and Eastern Germany has been managed by Russia with communism as a form of government. Communism as a form of government was not really helpful for a lot of people remained unemployed and hungry. The same thing happened to other parts of the world as communism spread throughout Asia, particularly in China, Vietnam, Korea, and Philippines. A lot of insurgencies occurred which has affected not just the security of the people but also the movement of good and services catered by the government. Certain political leaders reigned terror to its constituents. In the Philippines, a lot of women were turned into comfort women during the World War II. These women's rights were violated and that some of them were even killed by the members of the Axis Powers, particularly the Japanese soldiers.
Through time, a lot of changes had been made and the world has changed a lot. Nowadays, countries who are underdeveloped has lower life expectancy for the very reason that only a few of their population has access to medical healthcare services, treated water, education, and all of other factors and needs that help shape the person into a healthier individual. Meanwhile, most people living on the countries in the West and in the Middle East have their privilege to access these necessities without even being stressed out where to get the resources to pay for their needs.
According to the ourworldindata.org in its recent study which was of 2017, there were 49.6% women across the world. This shows that there were more men at this period, but the difference of the gender ratio is not that big. We must bear in mind that this gender ratio have been affected in the start of December 2019 to present, especially that the existence of the pandemic cause by COVID19 might have change this data, there is a decline of world population. The decline of population is not only directly caused by the pandemic but other consequences that the pandemic has created. To name a few of the consequences, limitation of the movement of goods and other essentials has led developing countries such as Yemen, Venezuela, countries in North America, and a lot more to experience extreme hunger which led to deaths of more children and women. Limited access to water supply has also affected a huge population of the world as personal hygiene is one of the effective countermeasure against COVID-19.
The pandemic surely has not only affected the global economic structure but rather also the entire gender ratio of the world as it has appeared that the co-morbidities relating to COVID19 is affected with gender-based diseases. This means that there are diseases that are more prevalent in a certain gender. To put, gender ratio through time is not stable but rather it is shaped by different factors such as socio-economic, political, biological, and cultural forces. On the other hand, the gender ratio of every State/ nation in the world affects it's economy, society, and demography. Undoubtedly, with history, we could see that the life expectancy of human is evolving and varies through time and across the world.
The world view towards human existence also changed as a lot of countries push for human dignity. A lot of people, especially the youth has pushed for a change in the system. The youth are leaning towards a purpose-driven life instead of just following the status quo. A lot of the youth nowadays are also aware of the issues across the globe and are more engaged particularly in social media. I know for a fact that a lot of you who are here are also aware of the issues that the world is facing.
It does not necessarily mean though that when a country is developed, its citizens would always feel alright about themselves, take Japan as an example. Despite the fact that it has been and is still a developed country, a number of their students and workers commit suicide. Bullying has been and still an issue in South Korea. Sulli, a member of F(X), a kpop idol group committed suicide she has received derogatory remarks online by her bashers. The problem of South Korea is also becoming a problem in the Philippines. With the rise of different social media platforms, online bullying is becoming a major problem to the youth. The segmented population in terms of political parties has led to a never ending on social media particularly in Facebook. This is not just annoying but also alarming at the same time as people have been attacking each other with "ad hominem" and "strawman" statements.
With those problems being mentioned, a lot of people across the globe has opted for things that would somehow help them feel better or even just feel okay by being able to evade their issues. As mentioned, a lot of the youth has resorted to alcohol and illegal drugs. Even though the administration has been pushing for campaigns and programs for those who got addicted to these substances, it is still not enough.
We, as youth and hope of our country and of the world, must do something about the said issues. The first thing we need to do is that we must make a stand and do our part. Joining in a discourse with other people who are experiencing problems in life would be of great help. With that being said, we can somehow do something to make them feel better. Also, it helps the person being freed from anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression seldom push a person on becoming violence, anxious, and even depressed. To put it, we must keep ourselves in being empathic as we try to understand other people, especially those who have resorted to excessive use of addictive substances. The second thing we need to do so that somehow the world would become a better place not just to others but to ourselves as well is that we must always keep our feet on the ground and try to put ourselves on the shoes of others. By allowing ourselves to be humble, it usually sets you from possible conflicts. In summary, we are living in an ever changing world which makes it very predictable to everyone, hence we must at all time be inspired to live a life the way how Jesus Christ lived his life on earth.
Source(s):
https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/alcohol/a-short-history.html
https://www.michaelshouse.com/opiate-rehab/history-of-opiates/#opiate-use-in-the-1800s
Photos are taken from pixabay.com
