Fast food culture – calories that make you happy

   Who have never been to the McDonald’s in his or her life? Or never ate in that hot-dog stand nearby? I suppose hardly anyone. Modern lifestyle revolving around tasks and deadlines, makes us more impatient, caring more about the speed than about quality. It can be applied not only to food, but also to the work done or services. But is this the only reason why we spend so much time and money in such restaurants?

   Junk food overflows the world. We don’t want (or we cannot afford) to eat in fancy restaurants where you have to spend quite a sum on a dinner which will be probably too small for your liking. Let alone time required to prepare that boeuf stroganoff you ordered. We want our food to be quick, cheap and in large size. The fact that it is harmful for our health, containing a lot of calories and saturated fats is only a minor drawback. If you only have twenty minutes to eat something in between two meetings with clients who ensure your safe place at work, you won’t be worried about how healthy your diet is. But as you think of it, fast foods are not stuffed with businessmen and women. It is full of teenagers.  
  Let’s not forget that the main reason we eat out is to socialise. Young people crowd in Mc Donald’s after school or during holidays as there is not many places to go, especially if you don’t live in a big city. Besides, since early childhood we were taken for a cheeseburger and cola by our parents as a reward for being polite or doing some houseworks. This way, we always see junk food as something special and when we can go there by our own, we do it a lot. Sometimes I see mothers with children as young as four or five years, ordering Happy Meals with a nice toy. That’s just another reason why we like to eat junk food that much – we associate it with that careless times when we had so much fun playing and spending time with our parents.   

The popularity of fast food restaurants, which is part and parcel of our globalized world, makes local food industry disappear. Some countries defend themselves against this phenomenon, as France does, but of little avail. Even in Israel the burger industry is big, swerving the kosher meat – as the religious tradition requires. There’s no way of stopping it. Fast food culture is something we associate with modern world as much as social media, smartphones and watching TV every evening.

   As a result, the percentage of obese people with health problems is constantly growing. Those whose habit is to drop by and leave with a paper bag full of salt, sugar, fats and calories are susceptible to future weight problems, heart attacks, high blood pressure and many more. But healthy food is not necessarily expensive, although in some cases  may be, but it surely requires time and effort. But for the good physique and general condition it is worth it. Cook something by yourself on a regular basis and enjoy some burger now and then. All within reason and you will be in good shape for a long time.   

America’s dream of Independence

Today is the Fourth of July. Two hundred and thirty eight years ago United States ceased to be only a British colony, becoming an independent country. Back in XVIth century, considered a land of wilderness and new opportunities, a land where the Pilgrim Fathers hoped to find their own place, free from England’s ‘ungodliness’. Today, America is probably the most important and most powerful country in the world, having the newest technology, the most popular ( and controversial at the same time) stars and celebrities and being one of the richest countries in the world.

American culture may be experienced everywhere – we, Europeans are as much influenced by United States as United States are influenced by us. It is not only about the endless fast food chains that overflow all countris of the Old World. It is much more than that. We would miss a lot, had the country not been born. It gave birth to so many influential figures, ideas and inventions. Maybe we wouldn’t argue about whether modern art is rubbish or not if Andy Warhol hadn’t  shocked the whole art world saying that anything is art, presenting soup cans as his new work of art. And how different the way we create films could be if we hadn’t our beloved Hollywood. No Citizen Kane, no Casablanca, no Marilyn Monroe. And some of the most thought-provoking books as Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Walt Whitman’s groundbreaking poem Leaves of Grass, which changed the way people look at poetry to this day. During more than two hundred days Americans created their very own identity.

The American's Old Glory. Source: http://www.whatistruth.info

The culture is an important part of the nation, but not the only one. Let’s not forget how many inventions we have now due to American people. In today’s world almost everybody owns a car – we can mostly owe this to the Henry Ford’s dream that every worker can afford an automobile. Samuel Colt’s made the mass production of revolvers and pistols possible, making rich himself and the generations after (whether it brought good or not, I cannot answer, but it was certainly pivotal point for world’s history). Also, you probably wouldn’t be reading this now if Americans didn’t came up with the idea of connecting the computers by a network, called now Interbet. Sounds banal? Well, it has not always been that way.

One of the first things that comes to mind when we think about United States is the beautiful concept of ‘American Dream’ and ‘rags to riches’. No matter how unrealistic your aims are, through hard work, motivation and belief you can do everything. You are your own key to success and you can, and even are expected to, strive to be better version of yourself. Just follow your dream and get it.    But America’s not the paradise on earth, even if it may appear so. It also have social problems, political wars, famous stupid laws and social stratification as the gap between the rich and the poor is enormous. But they are, without a shadow of doubt, a brave nation who value freedom and justice very much. So, happy independence day, my dear Americans!

Literature? Who on earth reads books?

Computers make the world go around. We cannot live without technology, and I don’t mean the teenagers who wouldn’t be able to check their facebook and instagram accounts anymore. It is everywhere and we are completely dependent on it, as it is necessary in so many areas of life – a doctor use their computer programs to analyze the progress of chemotherapy, a stockbroker needs the Internet to observe changes on the market, a librarian use achieves to find a particular book. Most schools use various programs and tools which facilitate the learning process. Some teachers are even unable to make lessons without their notebook with access to Internet. Moreover, we should bear in mind that in the world there’s more ‘virtual’ money than we can back up by the real currency. If the system goes down, our money stored in banks will simply disappear, leading in riot and social unrest.

Generally speaking, technology makes our lives easier and is a very positive phenomenon. But since we can do almost everything with it, we are getting more and more lazy. What’s the point in calculating anything if a computer can do it for you and in addition will highlight the most important figures? The danger starts when one doesn’t see the reason in reading books if he can surf the net instead.

Young people tend to spend more time behind the screen (on their PCs, tablets, smartphones or other devices enabling quick connection to the Web) than the adults, wasting huge amounts of time playing Angry Birds, liking their friends’ photos on facebook or chatting online. It is said that the generations that grew up with computers are less intelligent, less sociable and less read. Teenagers take no interest in reading books. Their knowledge about literature ends with some information about set books the teachers told them, because few of them have read it themselves. And if they have some story on paper ( or online, e-books are becoming more and more popular) it is mostly not Waiting for Godot, but something more like Twilight or Fifty shades of grey. The popularity of these kind of literature is unbelievable. Even if there are novels written by young ambitious writers, it usually doesn’t receive great popularity, which only vampire stories can attain. But maybe what is popular should not be of quality, but be written in simple language and tell the simple stories – of romance, cheating, family feud or school life. And all the characters are just like hundred similar before and after. Plastic hero in plastic story for plastic people in plastic world. The literature has been dethroned. Using the newest iPad is cool, reading books is not.

We cannot ascribe this phenomenon only to the Internet, although it is responsible for enormous part of it. The second is the way we are educated – since every employer wants a specialist in one particular domain, nobody cares about general knowledge. Nobody requires a lawyer to know how many orbitals the atom of hydrogen has or the chemist to know who the Frederick Nietzsche was. Nobody ain’t time for reading, especially if the set books were an unpleasant experience back in the day. Since that time, novels and poetry are things considered ‘for swots only’. But wouldn’t it be good if all citizens of a country knew the most important figures for their homeland’s history? One might ask what for. For the sake of knowledge itself. An educated person should know certain things.

There is, though, a lot of social campaigns encouraging people to read and they have been largely successful in many countries of Europe. It is very important to emphasize the importance of reading in our lives, as the activity that enriches our vocabulary and imagination, simultaneously widening our horizons and sometimes even changing our views on world. Let’s not forget that literature makes the culture.

 

Dress code

The summer has begun. The scorching sun makes people all sweaty and looking for a fan or a seat near the window. It is natural the higher the temperature goes, the scantier the people dress (within reason, of course). But the problem appears when men are allowed to go shirtless and women are frowned upon when they put on shorts or a top with moderate cleavage. It is especially visible in schools, as in workplaces people are usually dressed in a way it is acceptable for the company, although it is not always a rule. But when a teenager, who already kicks against all possible rules, is told what he is to wear, it cannot end well.

Dress code is sometimes necessary and understandable, as for example in politics or marketing, in situations when you have to deal with customer or represent a big company or political party. Then you must look professional, but being professional doesn’t have to mean that you must wear the same attire in summer and in winter. For example French police officers have two kinds of uniforms – one with light materials and with short sleeves for the warmer part of the year and one more ‘heavy’, for wintertime. It is a solution which is very good for both image of institution and for people working on behalf of it. There are also some initiatives to make employees more comfortable not only in their clothes, but in company in general, such as allowing the workers to dress more casually on Fridays.
The way one dress is very important for an individual, and the right to wear whatever you want is as important as the freedom of speaking your mind.

The high schools and their expectations of how their attendants should look like is a completely different story. Firstly, we have young people who aren’t necessarily willing to comply with what the principal says is allowed and what is not. Some schools have their uniforms and nobody have any problem with it. But in most of them, there are only some rules what you cannot dress, rules which majority breaks. The question is if these regulation follow the common sense or not, and if they treat everybody the same way. Making girls put on so-called modest attire when boys are allowed to wear almost anything and giving an argument that any part of women’s (girls in high school age are almost adult, at least in terms of appearance) body which is not covered would distract their male peers or male teachers is ridiculous. It is a claim that men have no brain to tell them that they shouldn’t touch anyone without their consent and excusing such actions by putting the guilt on females.

The problem also lies in the language we use while addressing such issues. Few moths ago, all Internet talked about a 16-year-old girl who was offended when their principal used the phrase ‘the modest the hottest’, as a mean to get the girls to cover their bodies. But it is somehow inappropriate to use such sexually-connotated word to get what he wants. Especially as most girls in that age already have low self-esteem and such sentences are very unlikely to improve their situation, making them ashamed of their bodies.
Another thing is how teachers address these who violate these rules and for example come to school in shorts or leggings – some make humiliating remarks like ‘why you are wearing panties in school?’ or even tell them to put on shorts when they have leggings (but that one is extreme). Let’s have some mutual respect, teachers towards pupils and vice versa.

It is obvious that we cannot let everything pass without a word, some rules must be followed in order to ensure safety and good atmosphere in class. But going too far in one or other way will do no good. Neither very strict nor very liberal policy towards the clothes is good. School should ensure that their pupils know how to dress appropriately for it will be required of them afterwards, and also that each of them have some freedom to express himself or herself through their clothing. Both things should be learned at high school and be obvious in adult life.

Five Lab – an application who knows you well

Recently, I stumbled upon something very interesting which seem to become very popular, especially among social media enthusiasts – a Five Labs Personality Test. It is a tool created by a San Francisco company Five that analyses the words you use in your facebook posts and determines which traits of personality you have. It is based on five characteristics – extraversion, openness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness.

The popularity of personality tests of various kinds – from the ones that you find in  magazines for teenagers to those of the “which character of your favorite TV series you are” is overwhelming. After answering few simple questions you have the result which you can share with your friends. Thus, it is no surprise that new Five Lab’s tool is spreading thought the internet like a wildfire, even if it works in a little different way. The algorithm does not enquire you about anything – it simply digs into all your facebook activity and counts the words that are ascribed to one particular character trait.

As simple as that, it already attracted giant number of users. People love statistics, especially if they touch them personally. And you can get more than that – seeing your friends’ profiles, comparing personalities with famous people like Barack Obama or Andy Warhol is among activities that you can do using this tool. . I

It shows you the chart and describes you in five words

The idea behind it is to show people how they create their image in social networking sites, such as facebook. Many try to be perceived in a different way than they are in real life, they create kind of avatar of themselves. But the data you receive after analysis is meant to be a kind of reflection of your profile – it extracts as many information as it can to determine who you are. The only problem with Five labs is that it only counts the words which are ascribed to one particular trait, not taking into consideration the context. It would be probably impossible to do this. But is it possible to truly label one’s personality? And even if, what for?

Five labs were designed mostly for fun of its users, like most of the tests of this kind. I suppose the huge part of the results doesn’t correspond to the real characters. But when we think of it – do we try to upload our everyday life on facebook? I think we want to share everything that is interesting to us and to certain extent try to appear better, richer and friendlier than they really are. But it’s nothing wrong with it – it is only our human nature, the want to be popular and respected. It is the form that is new.

One thing that worries me a little is the warning before you can get the results – you give access to your friend list, your posts, your email, your family, your relationship status, etc. We once again are asked to give so many information about our lives. The creators probably have now a lot of data about several millions of people. And they gave it voluntary. I cannot answer the question if an application can show in few moments how people are like. But one I can tell for sure, considering how fast the phenomenon of this application has spread throughout the Internet, is that the social media really carry enormous influence. It is only up to us how we will use it.  It is still a bit frightening when an engine shows you how sociable or reliable you are based on few hundred words you posted, in many cases without thinking much about it, on your facebook profile.

The site itself: http://labs.five.com

When American president visits Polish capital city

This week, the President of the United States visited Poland for the first time since 2011. He came on the 4th of  July not without a reason – this date is particularly important for the Polish history, as it is the anniversary of abolishing the communist system there. Twenty five years ago the first free elections took place. It is not surprising that such a huge amount of people came to see Mr President making a speech, then.

generally speaking, Poles view Americans positively. Although we cannot say that about all the population, the 2013 BBC World Service Poll showed that 55% of Poles view U.S. influence positively, the highest rating for any surveyed European country. A lot of Polish people have their families in United States and vice versa. Poland is perceived as one of the most pro-American nations, with deep political, economical and military bond between these two. But why do Poles and Americans seem to like each other so much?

Every post-1989 Polish government has been a strong supporter of America’s presence in the country. It is obvious  that no political body does favours and gives support for free. But this relationship is mutual – a lot of Polish soldiers sacrificed their lives in American Army and died for the ideology of the U.S. Besides, these two countries were allies during Second World War. We should also keep in mind that just when Poland lost its independence America became a free country.

The importance of immigration is also not to be underestimated. Today, in many countries America is the synonym for the better life and opportunities, a place where everything is perfect and it is easy to get rich. The myth of ‘rags to riches’ has always been very alluring. Although “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”, a lot of ordinary people have stayed there, having found the job that their mother country couldn’t offer and founded the family with an American spouse. And the connections are created.

The values of both countries are also very similar. Both American and Polish people deem freedom very precious and are very religious and rather conservative nation. It seems as though they are basically the same kind of people, additionally entangled in mutual historical alliances. That’s the reason why it is always such a big event when American president comes to Polish soil – no matter if we are in 1972, fighting with deep communism and greeting Richard Nixon or in 2014, still tackling many issues, but as an independent country, gathering to greet Barack Obama.

Let’s abolish all the final exams!

The May is coming to an end and the final exams are something that now occupies minds of most of young people. Some of them have already passed all of them, while others are still cramming for the remaining ones. But are these big tests really that important?

The answer for that question is not as simple as you may think. There’s been a lot of criticism of schools lately, because they are said to be getting more and more exam-oriented. They are simply focusing on the end of year examination and everything they do throughout the year has some connections with it.

On the other hand, it is very important for the students to get the best marks possible. Why? The most obvious reason is that the better your marks are now, the wider will be the range of universities wanting you and the more likely you are to get a well-paid job on today’s unstable job market. The next would probably be the parents’ expectations and personal ambitions. The A levels or the equivalents are treated as the most important moment in one’s education. Not everyone will go further to get a degree and there’s a lot of pressure on getting the highest marks possible.

Teachers are judged on grounds of their students’ achievement, so it is perfectly understandable why they put so much emphasis on doing all types of exercises that improve learners’ ability to do well on an exam rather than on learning more facts and information that are useful in the future studies or work. The tests themselves are getting more and more complicated as it comes to structure, and less reliable as an indicator of potential of a future attendant of university. The exams are bad, bad, bad – everybody complains about them, but let’s be realistic – what other possibility do the we have to select the best pupils? Talking with each student would take too much time as the candidates almost always outnumber the places available. Setting entrance exam is basically doing the same thing, but in other time. And using personal statement and teacher’s reference as the only requirement would be simply foolish.

But what’s so wrong with it? It’s long been that way – you are taught, you learn, and you are required to show how much you’ve learned. And it works just like that since our first years in school. And since we don’t have any choice, we should just lay it to rest.And if you want to rebel – you’ll end up failing a year. At least, it is how I see it.

Do the big world and normal people really go together?

People spend great deal of time scrolling down the BBC or PBS , reading newspapers or glued to the screen during evening news. The certainly want to know what’s going on – not only locally, but also globally. But I observe that we acknowledge the facts, complain about politicians – who they previously elected – and stop caring about it.  We do not even question the accuracy of all the information that filter through different parts of the world to us – and it is not uncommon to watch the same fact presented in different stations in a completely different way.  Where you stand depends on where you sit, as the saying goes.  We don’t want to meddle in political life – we may argue with our  fathers-in-law about who should win in the next elections, but let’s be honest – how many of us really do a research which politician did most for improving our lives or passed the bills that we deem right?

We’ve got to understand that our current situation is unstable – we’ve got military conflicts, high unemployment rate  and big corporations exploiting their workers. There is also an issue of safety – in 2011 in more than 30,000 people died from  gunfire, and recently more than two hundred schoolgirls were kidnapped from schools in Nigeria. Moreover, we are constantly being watched – we aren’t really anonymous while surfing the net.

But what an ordinary citizen of this planet can do? Our only duty to question everything that we are told and think about it. Too many people walk away from problems that don’t affect them directly. Let’s not let the infocalypse flood us and ensure that we will never live in year 1984.