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Democracy Creates Stability in a Society

Democracy is widely regarded as the best form of government, due to the equality it brings to everyone who practices this common form of government. There are many forms of democracies. These include representative democracy, parliamentary democracy, liberal democracy and direct democracy. Of all the forms of democracy stated, representative democracy is probably the most relevant to the topic at hand because it is the most common form of democracy in the world. Countries that use this form of democracy include USA, UK and of course Singapore. Representative democracy involves representatives of certain communities in a society being elected by their own people through voting. These representatives would then form a ruling body, which would act in people’s interests, but not necessarily their wishes.

Stability is vital for a society to survive. There are many meanings that can be derived from the word ‘stability’. Of all these meanings, resistance to sudden changes or deterioration in economy and society as a whole as well as steadiness in terms of progress would probably be the most pertinent to the subject at hand. In order to attain stability, a society would definitely have to have a consistent level of development along with a measure of equality in the society itself, so as to prevent social unrest and tension between different communities.

First of all, democracy brings about a sense of equality in society. Because the different communities elect their own representatives, the minority groups would then also have a fair share of power and can have their own views and problems taken care of by the government. Through democracy, the government would consist of people who would take care of the minority groups, even if the government mostly consisted of people from the majority group. Furthermore, by using the system, the minorities are indirectly giving themselves certain liberties that they otherwise would not have gotten, such as freedom to choose their religion. Take our very own country, Singapore, for example. Even though the majority of the country is Chinese, there are people in the government who represent the minority races. This system has worked so far, as seen from the successful multiracial society in Singapore.

Secondly, democracy grants people many rights that other forms of governments do not, such as the right to vote for their own leader. In democracy, the people vote for who they want to be in the government, so they are basically ruling themselves by deciding who would be the best in acting according to their interests. This contributes to stability in society because the people have more power in deciding their fate. Unlike other forms of governments such as dictatorship, where the needs of the people are rarely taken into account when creating policies, this system would help to eliminate social unrest in the society.

Nevertheless, there are still problems that can be brought about through democracy. First and foremost, the process of voting is not always fair. ‘Vote buying’, where some candidates give out money or gifts so that people would vote for them, happens quite a lot in certain parts of the world. This would sway the voters who are not really firm in their choice towards the candidate who gave them something, and would also lead to an unfair election. If this happens, the representatives of the people would probably not be the right person to act in the interests of the people, as he or she would have gotten that position without really earning it.

Another problem that could come up is if the winning party wins by only a small margin. For example, party A gets 100 votes, while party B gets 99 votes. If this happens, it could lead to social as well as political unrest because the people in the society would be split in terms of their choice of leaders. The government could also become a warzone if the two parties have conflicting points of view. For example, even if party A wants a certain policy to be implemented and party B does not, it could lead to a large debate and could lead to the instability of a country instead.

All in all, there are definitely noticeable advantages and disadvantages that democracy brings about to society. However, democracy certainly creates stability in society because the needs of the people are indirectly decided by themselves, so every community would have a fair and equal say in the government. The advantages of democracy far outweigh the disadvantages, thus leading to a peaceful and stable society.

Staying Slim without the Cigarette Diet

Article


No Homer, cigarettes won't make you lose weight...
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In this article, the author talks about how some female teenagers smoke in order to lose weight due to a widespread belief that smoking helps you to control your weight. The author also gives statistics that show that the number of young women who smoke is increasing, and that they use the weight control theory as an excuse to not quit smoking, to prove his point.

This article talks about the link between smoking and weight control. For example, the author gives an example of Charmaine, who believes that smoking helps her control her weight. She says that if she doesn't smoke she tends to eat a lot and gives an example of the last time she tried to stop smoking and gained weight.

However, I do not think that gaining weight was caused by her abstinence from smoking. Anyway, just a few kilograms of extra weight are such an insubstantial price to pay for saving your life from the extremely harmful effects of smoking, which includes various forms of cancer and even death.

Basically, research done has proven that smokers generally gain the same amount of weight that non-smokers gain and that smoking does not directly affect weight gain. However, Dr Chris Steele, an expert in the field of smoking for more than 30 years, states that “nicotine suppresses the appetite and increases metabolic rate” and also that “nicotine delays gastric-emptying, it slows down the emptying of the stomach.” He also says that smokers indirectly lose weight because they cannot eat or drink while the cigarette is in his or her mouth, which is usually for about 60 to 100 minutes a day. Thus, I feel that he is practically saying that smoking does help you with weight control.

In my opinion, I agree with the last part of the article that states that smoking itself does not directly help to control one’s weight. Instead, the healthiest choice is to not start smoking at all, as people who have never smoked in their life will not suffer the harmful effects of smoking while at the same time will have complete control over his or her own weight.

While smoking indirectly helps to control someone’s weight, like stated above, not smoking at all is the best choice in every way. Even though you might gain a few kilograms, getting rid of the immense health risks that smoking poses is far more important. This is also supported by Dr Helen Truby, a certified expert in nutrition and dietetics, who says that you can focus on the extra weight after you stop smoking, as smoking “has a far worse impact on your overall health”.

All in all, I feel that smoking only indirectly helps to control one’s weight only if that person had already been smoking, but refraining from that first puff would not affect your weight negatively and you also avoid the serious health problems that smoking brings.

So please, do what the article says – exercise and adopt a healthy diet.

Oh no its exactly 500 words! It must be an omen...