Is New Zealand really clean and green?

New Zealand is a clean and green country. New Zealand is a clean country due to its strict Bio-security, to ensure unwanted pests and diseases are not introduced to the country. It is also a green country as it protects its natural heritage through the use of national parks and protection of its native animals.

Bio-security is a set of preventive measures designed to reduce the risk of intentional removal (theft) of a valuable biological material. This simply means that in New Zealand, before you arrive into the country, you are checked at the airport for illegal or harmful objects that could endanger our flora and fauna. Been clean is all about making sure our country is free from harmful pests and diseases that could destroy our native plants and animals. The reason why bio-security is so important is that pests and diseases poses serious threat to our economy, environment, health and cultural identity. In fact many of the worst weeds and pests that are harmful in other countries can cause us serious damage. This could be because New Zealand is so isolated from the other countries and so has no immune to foreign pests and diseases. To help keep the country clean, bio-security measures are taken very seriously.

There are many national parks in New Zealand. One of the most significant ones are Tongariro national park, the first national park in New Zealand. This park is a place to explore as it ranges from tranquil lakes, plateaus and active volcanoes like Mount Ruapehu. The green image behind this, is that these parks are aimed at the recognition of Maori heritage, be it cultural and/or spiritual. The other green image of New Zealand is its sensitivity towards its native species. Many of them are found nowhere else in the world and a perfect example of this is the Kiwi. In fact New Zealand is so proud, they call themselves Kiwis! Safe from predatory mammals, native animals roam free on the ground and several species even lost use of their wings.

To conclude New Zealand is a clean and green country as it cares for its flora and fauna, through the use of bio-security and the recognition of Maori heritage through National parks.

The Drinking Age Should Be Raised To 21

I firmly support the idea for the drinking age to be raised to 21. The reasons why I think this is because of drink driving, binge drinking and vulnerability to other drugs and other behavioural pattern.

'If you drink then drive, you're a bloody idiot'. Does this sound familiar to you? This popular advertisement as seen on TV is to make teenagers aware of the dangers associated with drink driving. According to the New Zealand Land Transport Agency, drink driving killed 135 people on New Zealand roads in 2004. That is an outrageous amount of people who had to lose their lives to irresponsible teens who refuses to stay sober. The scientific fact behind this is once alcohol is absorbed into your bloodstream, it is taken up by cells in your brain and other vital organs slowing your reactions. It over shadows your judgement, dulling your vision and impairing your ability to drive.

Binge drinking is when you have 6 or more drinks on one occasion. The worst that some people expect from a night of binge drinking is a blackout and a really bad hangover but what they do not know is that they can die from alcohol poisoning. Alcohol poisoning is associated with binge drinking and that is when parts of your brain shuts down, because there is too much alcohol in the blood. It can make the person very ill and sometimes fatal. The really absurd thing is fact that many teens do not think about the negative side of binge drinking, although they might have the idea of getting drunk and having less consideration of getting a hung-over. In fact there have been situations where people have choked on their own vomit, because as a result of binge drinking, their gag reflex are not working properly.

Research shows that teens under the age of 21 are more vulnerable in involving themselves in unsafe sexual behaviour, committing suicide, having a low self esteem and are also more tempted into taking drugs like marijuana and been drug addicted. All these have a long term effect of liver disease, increased risk of some cancers, heart disorder, hypertension, pancreatitis and cirrhosis. Fact is the younger the person is under the influence of alcohol, the greater the risk of these long term effects.

To conclude, I stand my ground on supporting the idea of raising the drinking age to 21. It is very absurd for any teenager to risk taking alcohol at the age when the brain is still developing and incurring short and long term effects that is totally avoidable.

Social Networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook are endangering NZ teenagers

Social Networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook has truly transformed the way we interact and communicate with each other. The claims of these social networking sites is to build communities of people who share common interests and activities or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of the other. In my opinion it is not a safe virtual meeting place for NZ teenagers to hang out. I firmly believe that they are endangering NZ teenagers because of identity theft, cyberstalking and sexual predators.

'Identity theft'. Myspace and Facebook requires or gives you the option to give out your personal details like your name, where you live and your email address. In real life, you would not give out these details to people you do not know, so why do it on the net? This is when identity theft comes in. As a virtual public meeting place, anyone can view your profile and pretend to be you. Someone can copy down your information and pretend to be 'you' when taking part in illegal activities like crime, theft and so on. When legal authorities like the police gets involved and investigate the source of the illegal activity, they will find your name and all your other personal details and track you down. This is why I find social networking sites a dangerous playground to hang out.

'Cyberstalking'. Cyberstalking is the use of electronic communication like pagers, cellphones, emails and the internet to bully, harass, threaten and intimidate a victim. Whether it is done in person or over a computer, the effects of being stalked can be very devastating to anyone who endures it. Cyberstalking is a real and fast increasing global problem with most of its victims targeted at young and females. How this is associated with social networking sites? When you post your profile on facebook and myspace, it helps you to connect with your friends more easily as well as making you vulnerable to these cyber predators. The difference between cyberstalking and identity theft is that cyberstalking does evolve into physical stalking, unlike identity theft where you never get to meet the person or see the person. Cyberstalkers also search for their victims by using search engines, online forums, discussion boards and chat rooms. The scary thing about being cyberstalked is that most of the victims never know that they are being followed.

'Sexual predators'. Myspace is in the spotlight today after revealing that 90,000 registered sex offenders have been kicked off its site in the past two years! This is a ridiculously huge amount of low lifes who would do whatever it takes to crush the freedom of others. Again, letting out your details and posting your pictures on these sites makes you vulnerable to these sick people. There is a true story about a 13 year old girl who got murdered by an internet sexual predator. She was just like any other teenager, a good student and co-captain of her Catholic school cheerleading team. Christina Long lead a double life online, pretending to be a tough girl who boasted that she was ready to face anything. She was strangled by a married restaurant worker, who she met in the chat room. The name of this sexual predator is Saul Dos Reis, 25 years of age and an undocumented immigrant from Brazil.

Social networking sites really are a threat to NZ teenagers. What teenagers like Christina Long tend to forget, is that "little drops of water makes a mighty ocean". What this means is that every little piece of information you leak out in facebook or myspace makes you the more vulnerable to the world of cyber crime. So Beware!

The Internet Should Be banned

I firmly disagree with the fact that the internet should be banned. The reasons why I think this is because it is an easier way of researching information, reuniting with relatives through cheap communication and shopping online.

This 21st century is a whole new world of technology. It is a virtual era where knowledge is always power and can be easily obtained through the internet. It provides search engines such as Google, dictionary.com, ask.com, Google maps and Wikipedia. Google is one of the biggest search engine on the net, providing access to a wide range of information ranging from the latest flu epidemic occurring in another country to watching the latest movie online. Another example of researching information is through Wikipedia a very effective online encyclopedia. I personally find it very helpful in doing my history assignments because it has got all the chronological dates and events in one place.

The internet has given the word 'communication' a whole different meaning. Talk is cheap online because the net enables instantaneous contact with people all over the world without spending a dime. Examples of this is emails and skype. Email is basically an electronic way of sending messages or letters. It is extremely fast and inexpensive and there are no long distant bills for you to pay. Another example of cheap communication is through skype. Skype is quite similar to emails. It is a software that allows its users to make person-to-person calls over the internet. I find skype very useful and cheap when contacting my relatives in Ghana. Other than calling them though skype, the only other option I have is to buy a calling card which costs me 10 dollars, an amount of money I can use to buy fish and chips. I would rather much prefer the easier, cheaper, simpler way through skype over the internet.

Shopping.Shopping.Shopping. Shopping could not get anymore convenient. Why? Well because you can shop 24/7 from the comfort of your own home within a few clicks browsing a whole range of stores and shop whenever you want. If you want to buy a new Alexander McQueen smoke jacquard dress at 3a.m you can! Another reason why it is so effective is because of privacy. There are times when privacy really matters especially when you need to buy condoms, tampons or Viagra. Many of us will be too embarassed to buy these things in a store where we would have to make some eye contact with at least one other person who knows what we are buying. So when we buy these kind of things online, that embarrassment is very, very minimised.

However, as the saying goes, 'for every positive, there will be an equal and balancing negative'. Hackers, sexual predators and cyber bullying are all problems associated with the internet. Any program that is communicating over the internet, can be tricked into downloading and installing unwanted programs on your computer. Chatting programs, surfing programs and even the program that enables us to connect to our internet provider fall victims to hackers. A way this problem can be solved is by downloading the latest security service pack for your windows version. I highly recommend ZoneAlarm. This software is a seriously good firewall and it actually works. When you connect your computer to the internet it prevents hackers from getting into your system at all.

To conclude, the positives such as researching information, reuniting with relatives through cheap communication and shopping online definitely outweighs the negatives such as been worried of your system getting hacked into, cyber bulling and sexual predators. After all, just like anything in this world, you have to take precautions. on the net, you have to make sure you do not give out your private details and you have to make sure you have downloaded or installed some kind of trusted firewall to ensure security.