1. Criticism on Television

A lot of people believe that television has a harmful effect on chldren. A few years ago, the same criticisms were made of the cinema. But although child psychoilogists have spent a great deal of time studying his problem, there is not much evidence that television brings about teenager’s crimes.

For people in the modern worlds share the views of parents a hundred years ago. In those days, writers for children carefully avoided any reference to sex in their books, but had not inhibitions about including scenes of violence.

The evidence collected suggests, however, that neither the subject, nor the action in itself frightens children. The context in which cruely or violence occurs is much more important.

A good guide to what is psychologically healthy for a small child is therefore provided by a television series in which a boy and a girl are supposed to be exploring distant planets with their parents. In each story, they encounter strange monsters and find themselves in dangerous situations but the parents are reassuring and sensible, as a child’s paprents should be in real life. There is an adult character who is a coward and liar, but both the children are brave and , of course, every story ends happily.

In my view, children should be exposed to the problems of real life as soon as possible, but they cannont help seeing these through news programs. When they are being entertained, the healthiest atmosphere is one which the hero and heroine are children like themselves who behave naturally and confidently in any situation.

2. The ony thing people are interesed in today is earing more money

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful young woman and a handsome young man. They were very poor, but as they were deeply in love, they wanted to get married. The young people’s parents shook their heads. “You can’t get married yet.” They said. Wait till you get a good job with good prospects. So the young people waited until they found good jobs with good prospects and they were able to get married. They were still poor, of course, they didn’t have a house to live in or any furniture, but that did’t matter. They young man had a good job with good prospects, so large organizations lent him the money he needed to buy a house, some furniture, all the latest electrical appliances and a car. The couple lived happily ever after paying off debts for the rest of their lves. And so ends another modern romantic fable.

We live in a materialistic society and are trained from our earlist years to be acquistive. Our possessions, yours and mine are clearly labeled from early childhood. When we grow old enough to earn a living, it does not surpise us to discover that success is measured in terms of the money you

earn. We spend the whole of ourlives keeping up with our neighbors, the Joneses. If we buy a new television set , Jones is bound to buy a bigger and better one. If we buy a new car, we can be sure that Jones will go one better and get two new cars: one for his wife and one for himself. The most amusing thing about this game is that Joneses and all the neighbors who are struggling frantically to keep up with them are spending borrowed money kindly provided, at a suitable rate of interest, of course, by friendly banks, insurance companies, etc.

It is not only affluent societies that people are obsessed with the idea of making more money. Consumer goods are desirable everywhere and modern industry deliberately sets out to create new markets. Gone are the days when industrial goods were made to last forever. The wheels of industry must be kept turning. Built-in obsolescence provides the means; goods are made to be discarded. Cars get tinnier and tinnier. You no sooner acquire this year’s model than you are thinking about its replacement.

This materialistic outlook has seriously influenced education. Fewer and fewer young people these days acquire knowledge only for its own sake. Every course of studies must lead somewhere. i.e. to a bigger wage packet. The demand for skilled personnel for exceeds the supply and big companies compete with each other to recruit students before they have completed their studies. Tempting salaries and “fringe benefits” are offered to them. Recruiting tactics of this kind have led to the brain drain, the process by which highly skilled people offer their services to the highest bidder. The wealthier nations deprive their poorer neighbors of their most able citizens. While Mammon is worshipped as never before, the rich get richers and the poor, poorer.

3. Communication and Language

One of the first things we think about when we hear the word communication language. There are thousands of languages spoken around the world today. In fact, linguistis say that there may be as many as 10000.

Speaking with others is an important means of communication, but we can also communicate without using words, that is by nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication includes voice quality, eyes movement, facial expression and body movements such as gestures and change in body position. But many people do not realize that everyone uses nonverbal communication. Sometimes, we “say” more with our face and gestures that we do with our voices.

Books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, are other means of communication. Today we can also communicate over long distance with the help of communications satellites. Some scientists say that soon machines will be developed for sending message through the earth. The technology necessary to build these machines is very complex. But the language we speak every day is much more complex than the most modern communication technology.

4. Cooperation Goes with Competition

In our times, cooperation and competition spread over the world. Both of them speed up the wheel of economy and enrich the intelligence of mankind. It is possible to accomplish a complicated program by only one person now. As we know, the more cooperation a company depends on, the more efficient it will become in business.

Furthermore, we can’t avoid competition in our exchanges. From time to time, we compare ourselves with others, expecting to catch up with others. This is the spirit of competition, by which we pursue the highest goal. It is only by competition in the market that a company can raise its reputation. Were it not for competition, say, all of us would not enjoy what we have achieved.

5. The Rise of Intellectual Property Protection

Intellectural property scarcely existed in the vocabularies of academic researchers and administrators even 15 years ago. Now it is an ever-present part of discussions on research policies and directions. This new importance of intellectual property in academia reflects a changing view on ther relationships of research at universities to the surrounding society. Until recently, research at universities has been relatively isolated from demands of economic utility,and education of graduate students has emphasized a career in academic research as the final goal.

Now almost all research universities in the United States have technology licensing operations. The number of U.S. patents granted to American universities in a year rose from about 300 in 1980 to almost 2000 in 1995. The direct economic impact of technology licensing on the universities themselves has been relatively small. In contrast, the impact of university technology transfer on the local and national economies has been substantial, and leads to the concusion that the Licensing Act () is one of the most successful pieces of economic development in recent history. It has been estimated that more than 200000 jobs have been created in the United States in product development and manufacturing of products from university licenses, with the number increasing fairly rapidly as the licenses mature.

Intellectual property terms have become vitally important. The company wants to be assured that it can use the results of the research-and that these results will not be available to their competitors. But most universities insist that transfer of research results is key to their identity and mission and will not agree to keep the project results secret. The key to resolving this dilemman is to grant patents: the university will publish the results, but will first agree to file patents that will protect the company’s privilege in the commercial market place.