Avaliable on Amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/Dolly-Cloned-Sheep-You-Nah-Jeon/dp/1463645635/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1319767108&sr=8-5

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heigt:10cm, leaf: 8x7cm, petal:1.6~2cm & radius=1cm

After I watched the movie, I came to think about what kind of standards should we put to art. Shuhei’s skills and ability are awesome and should be appreciated while Kai’s natural talent is also interesting and amazing. I concluded that there is no standard in art because art is derived from individuality. From the ancient time when humans drew on the cave wall, they derived the source of their ideas from ‘surrounding’ nature and their lives. There is no exact measure of art though there are competitions which measure it. However, these competitions are based on common beliefs and thoughts. The reason Kai gets applaud from the audience because his own music imprinted with his own emotion moved their hearts. Copies cannot move others’ heart much. That is the difference between Shuhei and Kai.

“Be careful what you post on Facebook. Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life.”

It was surprising that what Obama mentioned was actually occurring in Korea with its popular idol, Jaebeom Park. Jaebeom Park, a leader of the dance group called ‘2pm’ was accused of writing statements that belittled Koreans on ‘Myspace’, a renowned social networking system. Although written some years ago, those statements including “Korea is gay… “ led a huge uproar among public. Since the disclosure, Jaebeom was denounced harshly by so-called ‘Nuri-gguns(누리꾼)’ and mass media. People criticized him as “only foreign labor who came to Korea to earn money,” “bastard who does not appreciate his country,” or other insulting remarks. Now, he has gone to his hometown in United States seceding from the position as the leader of 2pm.

He is the unfortunate example of not following Obama’s guideline.

   Social network system (SNS) is a system which enables people to form social relationship network in Internet and to interact with others who are not in reach physically. This includes Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Cyworld and other blogs, cafes or web bulletin boards. SNS is one of the most thriving programs in modern intellectual era which most Internet users have tried it at least once. It is the major passageway of communication. However, there is definite danger of using SNS as Jaebeom event has shown. The pitfall is the exposure of your expressions to strangers.

   Some people often have an illusion that what they post on SNS websites cannot be revealed to other strangers. They believe their opinions are directed to their friends. This is the pitfall of SNS; making people to feel too comfortable as they do in face-to-face conversation with their friends and deep internal speculation. Real life conversations with beloved friends and lone contemplation are trustful ways of expressing opinions. However, web posts through SNS are likely to be read and seen by the distrustful. Someone not close enough or someone not fond of us may use them as weapons.   

   There have been lots of incidences- excluding Jaebeom’s- on the risk of these web based network which Internet users find out other’s earlier days at SNS and publish them. For example, a lot of stars have been hiding their love affairs and sometimes netizens(internet+citizens) caught photos on stars’ minihompi at Cyworld. Those stars were simply ‘judged’ by netizens and had to suffer criticism of having secret love affairs. Besides celebrities, information of some common citizens has been illegally leaked out through SNS.

   Who says that Internet is the space for free expressions? The better description for Internet is space for free expressions and “free access.” We can show what we think, but we can also know what others think. We can excavate traces that other people have left and sniff their pasts. The role of cyber police has become almost general; we all have become “nuri-gguns”, the Internet inspectors under the advantage of anonymity. Internet can never be space for free expressions until the power of nuri-gguns diminish to the level which everyone’s rights of privacy and reckless ‘witch hunting.’ The role of nuri-gguns does not lie at the arrogance that we can judge others’ words and deeds based on their SNS records and exaggeration of information. It lies at the fairness of discussing the significant social issues regarding one’s behaviors. It would be ironic that nuri-gguns demand morality while not applying it to themselves since disparaging others using their information does not mean true morality we seek.

   Web based social network system is not a safe place of storing information we have. There are people who constantly monitor traces left on 0 and 1. Like Obama suggested, Facebook and other SNSs are ubiquitous; everyone in the world is able to access to them in the same period of time. The ubiquity is the major source of gaining knowledge and information, but also of utilizing them. It depends on what values we, nuri-gguns pursue. That is the fundamental question leading how Internet will develop in the future.

   We should always remember; we can sit at the judge’s bench, but also the accused’ bar.

Position: leader of the Opposition & reply speaker

Speech of the leader of the Opposition:

   I’m the leader of the opposition side on this motion “THBT score ranking system should be applied to high shcools.” Before I go over my rebuttal and arguments,  I’d like to outline the main points of the Opposition team. As the first speaker, I will clarify the definition of real learning which is the key theme of this side’s opinion. I will talk about how real learning is beneficial to high school students, and to the society. The deputy leader, Ji-In Choi will provide two main arguments: that it puts too much pressure on high school students and it is not the best way to determine one student’s ability and  future progression. She will elaborate on how real learning is more effective in learning for students and testing what values they possess. Then, the third speaker, whip, Ms. Yeni Park will summarize key clashes in this debate and strength our main arguments.

   I would like to make rebuttals on the Prime Minister of the Government. The Prime Minister stated that score ranking system motivates students to work better on their studyings. She said that score ranking shows how good they are and how their ability has been promoted, thus making students be encouraged to study harder. However, this is not true. Score reports do not motivate students, they give pressure to them. Motivation and putting pressure are fundamentally different. Motivation is  something that gives people will to study, passion to study harder. Putting pressure, on the other hand, just forces students to study because they are afraid of the bad results like not getting into universities. It makes students feel undervalued because scores seem to decide their lives.

    But, is this real learning? Real learning is based on two things: real passion and for all. First of all, real passion is needed for students to deeply understand the real values of learning and all kinds of subjects. Schools must provide students classes that can inspire students to develop their interests and further knowledge about subjects which score ranking systems cannot. Second of all, real learning is openn to everyone. Score ranking systems line up students from the top to the bottom  and discriminate them. Top students have more chances of accessing to knowledge while bottom students are sometimes treated as less than human being. Scores that distinguish students by the same tests cannot be the best measure of real values of students. 

    Also, score ranking leads to increase in private education. South Korea is having troubles with huge amount of consumption on private education. High school students take private academy classes to make up their grades at schools. Increase in private educaiton dimishes students’ self-studying ability because most of the private academies focus only on getting good grades on the school tests. They make a kind of ‘jokbo(족보)’ which is believed to contain all possible problems.  It is a huge waste of money and many individual houses spend about 40% of their income in it. Money we pay for those academies should be used to encourage students’ real ability of solving problems.
 

Reply Speech

   The opposition team clearly won this debate because we have provided logical reasons of the disadvantages of score ranking system. We stated that it leads to increase in private education which diminishes student’s ability to study by themselves, prevents students from knowing real passion is, puts too much pressure on students which make them sometimes feel hopeless, is not the best way to measure students’ potential competence.

   Students are the future leaders of this society. They should enhance their potentials through real learning, through independent studying, through enthusiasm about learning something. High schools must be the pools of human resources; who can turn the society into better one, who possess firm standard of values that do not discriminate others by numbers, who can develop themselves with integrity and passion. We are lack of these kinds of students. Thank you.