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Today, I’ll talk about Burma. Do you know Burma? I went to Ritsumeikan University to take a lecture about Burma on Saturday before last. That day, Mr.ココラット,a Burmese living in Japan, talked to us about his country desperately. I didn’t know all about the country. Then I thought I should tell the real to many people, so I’ll tell.

Burma is so terrible country now, because there is a mad government. Burma is Myanmar. Burma is Southeast Asian country bordered by China, India, Thailand and Bangladesh. Before the year 1962, Burma was so rich country. However, now, people of Burma live under autocratic military regime. Government of Burma use 50 % of its revenue for military affairs, and less than 10% is for health and education, so only 10% is for citizen! And government kills people who have anti-government, and harm their citizen by extrajudicial execution, rape, torture, summary or arbitrary executions, enforced disappearances, inhumane treatment, mass arrest, forced labor, forced relocations and denial of freedom of assembly, association, expression and movement. (法廷外の強制執行、レイプ、拷問、即決処刑、強制失踪、非人道的扱い、大量逮捕、強制労働、集会・組合・表現・移住の自由の否認). It is notorious for the news which Nagai Kenji(長井健司),a free journalist, was killed by military in Burma in 2007. Therefore, we can’t go there and citizen can’t live peacefully.

This topic was written by using “Burma”, not “Myanmar”, because Myanmar is imitation. There are so many severe histories in Burma. In 1962, autocratic military regime robbed political power of Burma. In 1989, citizen had anti-government movement, but more than 1,000 people were killed by the then government for only three days. And the military government fired into the crowds, massacred Burmese, imposed strict regulation and changed the name of country from Burma to Myanmar arbitrarily, so, citizens don’t admit the name yet. A lot of Japanese may know only Myanmar, but it’s not Myanmar.

There are so many Burmese refugees in Burma and other countries because they have no way or escaping. Now refugees in other countries are about135, 000 people, and there are 9 refugee camps at a nearby border in Thailand side. In the camp, they can receive education, but they have no job. And they can live, but can’t go out from the camp during theirs lifetime, so Children in the camp have no dream. They can live, but can’t live freely. However, people who can reach the camps are so lucky because a lot of people who escape from Burma are killed on the way by military of Burma. So, Burmese refugees are suffering large pain.

Now, Japan support Burma by giving big money; in 2006, the total of Japanese fund to Burma was 10, 35 billion yen. The money must be used for military, so Japan torments Burmese. Do you know this fact? I didn’t know, and I was surprised. We, Japanese don’t know anything about Burma and use the name, “Myanmar”. I feel ignorance is dangerous.

TOYAMA (revise version)

　　 I love Toyama prefecture because it has so nice places, before all, there is my hometown. Toyama is located in Hokuriku and it’s between Ishikawa and Niigata prefecture, and it surrounded with mountains and the Sea of Japan which has rough seas. The mountains are called Tateyama peaks (立山連邦) or the north Alps and their altitude is 3’015 meters. Therefore, they have snow at the top of them all years around. Citizen can see it every day without bad weather day. We can go mountains soon and sea too. Toyama prefecture has great nature and places for sightseeing, for example, “Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route” in spring, “The World Heritage-The Historic Village of Gokayama”, “Kurobe Gorge” and so on. And there clear water, clear air, delicious rice (KOSHIHIKARI) and fresh seafood, just them. But, it’s enough. Toyama is good place for many people to visit or live, and it will make us relax.

Problem and Solution

Lack of parking lot for bicycle is serious problem in Osaka. First, using bicycle is a good thing for environment, but there is no plan to support it in Osaka. Osaka has a big population, thus so many people use a bicycle when they go to the station, office, school, supermarket and so on. However, there are not enough parking lots for bicycles. Second, illegal parking is increasing. People don’t have enough parking lots for bicycle, so they park their bicycle on road or wherever they like. It causes other problems which prevent walking or hinder driving. Then, each city strictly prohibits illegal parking and removes them, but people do it again and again because parking lots don’t increase. Finally, we, each city and citizen, don’t have benefit together. Each city has to pay a lot of money for removing bicycles, keeping bicycles and personnel cost. And we, citizen have to pay 1’500 yen per a bicycle in Hirakata when we want to recover our bicycle from the city. This vicious cycle will continue, as long as each city doesn’t have solution.
One solution is increasing of parking lots for bicycles and decreasing the charge of　the parking. First, cities should use citizen’s money more usefully. It costs a lot of money to build parking lots of bicycles, but it also costs big money to remove illegal bicycles! And charge of parking is little expensive for us. It is one reason of illegal parking, so cities should not prohibit them, but think about the way of decreasing them. Second, Osaka has small ground and so many buildings, but we can make parking lot if we use ground effectively. Other prefecture have parking lot for bicycle under ground and have a solid one. If we use them, we don’t need large ground. We have many ways to solve the problem. If there are enough parking lots for bicycles, citizen can live with no worry.

Beauty

The early woman’s face is different from last one. First, makeup changes her face. The last face is clearer and sharper than the early face. Second, her hair style is changed by some ways, for example, wig, hair iron, hair wax and so on. The early hair is straight, though the last hair is curlier and more voluminous. Finally, her face changed by technology of personal computers. Her last eyes are larger than her early eyes, and her neck is drawn by operation of a mouse. Her silhouette is turned into a more small face as a finish. She is beautiful, but already imitation. Although the early eyes face and the last face are the same woman’s faces, her faces before and after modifications are completely different.

My Opinion

The top of North Korea should change or he must change his rules, because he is mad and dangerous person. Kim Jongil (金正日) is the very person. Now, he is ordering people under him to make nuclear bombs. He is also commanding to take away people from other countries, including Japan. He should stop them soon, because they are not good idea to have power in the world. In North Korea, people can’t go out from their country because Kim Jongil wants to prevent outflow of information of North Korea. Because he does this, we know there are a lot of terrible circumstances there. I’m sorry that nation of North Korean have no freedom. They can’t know information of other countries. Therefore, they have one way to believe information by Kim Jongil. So many people die of hunger and some people were given wealth by Kim Jongil, for example, people who is near Kim Jongil, beautiful women who ware selected by Kim Jongil, athletes who win in big game and so on. He rules his nation. He is not good leader, so he should alter the present policy or he should quit.