WRITE A LETTER

Dear Jake,

How are you? How’s it going? It was long since we met, wasn’t it? I miss elementary; it was fun playing together. Well, it’s not like I don’t like middle school. Actually, it’s really fun here in American International School (AIS, for short). We get to do lots of exciting stuffs, and I got to make new awesome friends. I’m doing very fine here, so please don’t worry about me. Oh yeah! I always forget the main point I write to you…

You know, yesterday, our whole eight- grade classes went all together to Cu Chi wildlife rescue center. It’s not a zoo; I’ll tell you before you get your hopes up. It does look like a zoo, but it’s not. It’s a place where animals come and rest until they recover- yeah, it’s like a hospital- then they can break free into the jungle or wherever they came from. The people there release them willingly. I know, cool, huh? The spaces for the animals are large- much larger than the cage people let them in and then kill them for medicine. There were bears, monkeys, baby leopards, sea otters, turtles… They looked really sick (except for the monkeys, they just started grabbing my friend’s shoulder and swing around wildly). Without Cu Chi, they’d start dying. This place is really helpful, you should come, too. I wanted to thank them for what they’ve done for the animals. Your family use bear biles- the medicine that were supposed to cure sicknesses and stuffs- right? Well, those biles come from hunting, killing, and making bears suffer. It doesn’t have any effect, so please don’t use them. It would decrease the bears’ population, affect the food chain, and hurt the animals. They are also living things just like us human, so what’s the point in killing them?

Oh, right! There’s also some articles that talks about them. I’ll put it right below the letter, okay? Yes, yes, I know you really, really hate reading. But deal with it.

Hey, can you help us? You can donate money to the wildlife rescue center, so they can improve. Tell people to stop hunting and killing endangered animals. Or you can do whatever you can to help them. Thanks so much!

Sorry I wrote too much. Hope we can meet soon. Say hi to your family for me.

Best wishes! Love you. Miss you.

Your best friend forever,

Anna Bui

P.S.: Remember what I told you. I’ll visit you soon… probably.

http://www.freethebears.org/web/About-us

http://www.savethebears.co.uk/

http://www.savenjbears.com/home.html

There are lots of videos like these on YouTube. You can find them if you click bear bile, or animal torture. Really good stuffs that might change your mind.
Yeah, well, anyway, reply!

HOMEWORK 2-11-2010 ;)

1. How does advertising influence consumption?
Advertising tells people to buy their products so that they would get money for themselves, but they don't really care much about the environment and how it effects it. They tell people their things are the best, so they'd buy it.

2. Do you think citizens are sufficiently informed about the sustainability of our consumption habits? If not, how can we become more informed about sustainability issues?I think some of them know about how it effects negatively to the environment, but their habits don't let them. When they see the advertisements that they like, people'll try to buy it. It's their habits from when they were young. Therefore, the school can teach students what sustainability is and how we can prevent it from happening. Parents should do that, too. It's not like they shouldn't buy a product that they really love, they can just buy less. For example, some certain people have lots of converse shoes, but he can just buy like two or three.

3. Do you think these advertising techniques influence what you and your friends purchase?Yes, somehow. I don't, because I don't really like things that people present for their own good, but I think my friends do. They love it. When they see something new that they like, they'll ask their parents or buy it themselves. Usually, if they see a model or someone they admire in the advertisement, they'd really want to have it.