ILLEGAL MINING IN THE PHILIPPINES

A destruction of environment due to mining. It has various advantages and

disadvantages that affects the environment and the lives of every human being
in the Philippines. Mining is the process of digging mines to obtain minerals,
metals, and jewels that serves as the livelihood to every human being. It gives
people some of the resources needed for modern civilization, but it can lead to
environmental harm. Some are opposite and based on opposition to destructive
mining practices and others dislike mining in general. Humans need a wide
range of natural resources to create the products modern civilization needs.
While alternative forms of energy are becoming more worthwhile, most of the
areas need coal, natural gas, and uranium to provide energy. Similarly, oil is
necessary for powering vehicles and the transportation industry. Mining allows
people to use these resources.
Mining is one of the resources that mostly common Filipinos choose as their
source of living. A mine is a pit of tunnel wherein a miner used to dig in getting
minerals such as coal, gold, and diamonds are taken. According to Josephine
C. Maguad, Senior Environmental Management Specialist of EMB- Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) mining is an employment for
economic growth in a certain country, it increase also the revenue for the miners
as well as for the government fund, it is a source of livelihood for the people
around a certain area, the social development for the community and other
stakeholders and in the larger community. She also mentioned that it could also
transform into other uses, used for natural resources, can alter and for
enhancement for the area, it is also for the rehabilitation to bring back healthy
condition of the soil after they used it. The people around the community need
also to plant more trees for renewable resources and for the carbon dioxide.
So, at the end of every mining, there will be the possibility of gaining more
nutrients from the soil. There are a lot of advantages of mining that could give
to the lives of every person. It is a little bit unfamiliar to those people who are
new about this matter. But, it helps a lot to the economic growth of the
Philippines as to the other stakeholders all over the country. It is indeed a
stepping stone to faster earnings. It is a development for the community
certainly the rapid out-growth of resources. She also discussed about the
negativity of mining such as it decreases the natural resource that is supplied
by nature, if it is irresponsible and have mismanagement in mining, there is also
a possibility of pollution in land, air, and water. It is bound in the Republic Act
(RA) 7942 law or the Philippine Mining act that speaks about the environmental
act in land, air, and water if a single person is irresponsible and not maintaining
the growth of natural resources. Mining is definitely having a lot of
disadvantages that could trigger the crisis that is very rampant in the country.
Just like every time there is landslides and floods that softens the soil in the
mountainous part. The miners themselves need to take risks so that they could
raise their own families and help them out to survive. Just like if there is an
earthquake, the lives of the miners will be in danger because there is the
possibility that the place will be destroyed and broken down that could lead to
death. It is a matter of taking risks and a matter of choice for them because in
some areas it is the easiest way to uplift their own lives as well as for their
family. According to a research of rappler.com, representatives from the mining
sector expressed their reservations about the plan to declare eight provinces
as mining-free zones during a Senate hearing. These areas are: Cagayan de
Oro City, Catanduanes, Nueva Vizcaya, Eastern Samar, Nueva Ecija, Biliran,
Davao City, and Second District of Sorsogon. Chamber of mines of the
Philippines vice president for policy Ronald Recidoro said that banning mining
from those areas will “set a bad precedent” for the Philippine government and
also added that mineral resources are limited, finite and do not occur
everywhere. They are concentrated in only a few blessed provinces. This
deprives the national government of the chance to develop a national
industrialization plan. Around 65% of the Philippines cannot be mined under
current laws and executive orders despite the vast potential of the country as a
source of minerals. Meanwhile, mining is destructive to the environment but
Representative Carlos Padilla of the lone district of Nueva Vizcaya is prioritizing
the agriculture over the mining.
There are various advantages and disadvantages of mining in the Philippines
that has different functions and uses which can profit the community in the
society. In conclusion, mining should be stop so that the destruction of the
environment will be minimize and the lives of the next generation will be saved,
more enjoyable and preserve.
 Video Game Violence

Should young children be allowed to play violent role-play and 1st person shooter games?

When I was little, I used to watch my 16-year-old cousin play Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat day in, day
out, his huge, calloused hands attacking the controller with unprecedented agility and precision, while on
the screen, his avatar fired an endless stream of bullets from his rifle at the enemy soldiers. Everyone
thought he was a game addict, and for most of my life, so did I. That is, until the day he received a letter
from a university he had applied to that offered him a scholarship for his excellent analytical thinking
skills and uncanny ability for spotting patterns. My cousin is now happily studying computer
programming and design in university and applying his gifts for better purposes, all thanks to video
games. Though some may argue that his abilities may have been generated by other means, studies show
that people who play video games, like Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat, learn to think quickly and critically
in a pressured situation and analyze the best solution for a problem. These games are, though subtle,
repetitive in one aspect or another, also teaching the players to look for clues and connect complex
patterns together. Video games, whether or not they contain violence, aren’t harmful towards children
and can truly be beneficial to them.

Children are too young to draw the fine line between what is virtual and what is reality. That is the mantra
that concerned parents and scientists alike have repeated about violent video gaming. While this may be
true to the children of 20 years ago, we must take into consideration that these are children of the 21st
century, and adults tend to overlook their children’s true level of understanding and maturity. They live
in a decade where social media and technology reigns, exposing children from as early as toddlerhood to
themes of sex and violence, even if their hands never find the controller of a PS4. The exposure to mature
topics, like violence, through television and the media can help children develop a stronger sense of
awareness and understanding than their parents had at the same age, thus enabling them to better tell the
difference between the pixelated, virtual landscapes of a video game and reality.

Worried parents may also feel that their children may be being sent the wrong message on what is morally
right if they get lost in the virtual world of video games. It is true that almost all of today’s popular video
games depict stunningly graphics of fake blood and gore. Fake people drop dead in a sticky pool of fake
crimson blood when you shoot them. All these images of violence would seem to influence children to
emulate the same lifestyle, however, the keyword here is fake. That is what all this is. As realistic as these
games are, they cannot simulate the real world, and are limited to two senses; sight and sound. Without
the smells of smoke reeking out from the missiles they just launched, or touching the rust coloured blood
that has crusted over the fallen soldier’s head, the games can hardly convince their players that what they
are seeing on the screen is real. Children are very aware that they are holding a controller in their hands,
not an AK-47. They know that the red button doesn’t really fire real bullets, and that lines of specifically
programmed code in the game are what’s making the resounding gunshots. If you were to hand a gun to
every child who has played video games and ask them to fire it at someone, I highly doubt any of them
would pull the trigger.
Many argue that early exposure the violent 1st person and role-play video games can influence children
to commit crimes of violence in the future, however studies have shown the violent video games may
actually stop children from crime and can even be beneficial to them. Video games can consume hours
ofthe player’s time, time which should be spent doing more productive things, were it not for the alluring
pull of the game. Steven Levitt, a well renowned American economist with an expertise for analysing crime
has a sound theory that if children are so hooked on these video games they will “...stop watching TV,
they’ll stop doing homework, and they’ll stop going out and creating mayhem on the street.” As stated
before, video games can be addicting and take up a lot of time. Despite this, the evidence still points to the
fact that those who play video games aren’t actually motivated into violent behaviour, they are merely
couch potatoes.

As a society, we are blaming incidents like school shootings and mad killing sprees on a few lines of code
and an XBOX, using the insubstantial evidence that the violence they see on screen is the only thing causing
them to lead a life of violence. There is also the case of the people surrounding the video gaming child that
truly have an impact on what kind of lifestyle they will lead. Abuse at home or being bullied as a child can
lead to the child growing up with fear of being subjected to cruel treatment and consequently develop a
sense of self preservation, causing them to strike out violently when provoked. A child growing up in a
family where his parents constantly fight and cause each other physical harm is more likely to lead a
violent lifestyle than those who delve into the simulated world of video games. We see news of young boys
beaming with pride and holding a severed head, proclaiming their allegiance to ISIS. Just a few weeks ago,
three teenage girls left their quaint school lives to join the ISIS militants in their quest for victory. Their
parents, the people around them and the media are more likely to influence these children and young
adolescents into lives of crime and violence than Halo or The Battlefield.

Despite the fact that there are other factors in play that can cause a child to become violent, parents can’t
help but feel a gut-wrenching guilt at having bought the new Playstation when they see their six-year-old
boy’s fingers flying across the controller pressing the multi-coloured buttons, eyes glued to the screen
which depicts a bloody scene of a guerilla war. His fingers fly across the controller with highly developed,
lightning quick reflexes that are rarely found in the hands of a small child. The machete in the avatar’s
hand hacks mercilessly through trees and human limbs with an assured swiftness. Being too wrapped up
in this irrational fear of turning children into bloodthirsty hunters leads parents to ignore the benefits
that video gaming can have on their child. Video games can not only improve the physical reaction time of
children, but can also stimulate the neurons in their brains to transmit messages faster to different parts
of the body, hence the gamers have better control over their body and faster reflexes.

As stated previously, video games can actually be beneficial to the children who play them. These games
are set in very realistic, blood and gore filled scenarios, which is what terrifies the worried parents of the
children. However, take it this way. Military based and first-shooter games contain actions of shooting
“the enemy”, which may at first glance seem harmful to the mental stability of our children, but can
actually teach them about the real world. The real world has problems that these children, the next
generation, need to fix. But in order to fix these problems of violence, they must first open their eyes to
see them. Parents are at fault, partially, for trying to shield their precious little children from the harsh
truth of reality. Schools are a sheltered environment where children can feel safe, they don’t know that
the moment they leave the nest, the world outside is not as kind and forgiving. The real world does have
guns and war and crime and countless other horrendous things in it. If we don’t start to slowly expose our
children to the truth, they may find themselves knocked over by the tsunami of reality when it is their
time to face the real world. Video games feed the truth bit by bit, and as stated before, the children know
the things they see on screen aren’t actually being caused by them, but are still learning at the same time
that violence and war on this scale does occur in real life.
Violence is so ingrained into our modern day culture that we don’t even realise how early our children are
being exposed to it. Dozens of fairytales that we read to our beloved children include the dismemberment
of the feet of Cinderella’s stepsisters, the murder of the Evil Queen by the dwarves as they pushed her in
the lake and the kidnapping of Rapunzel by a conniving creep of a witch. We whisper tales of decapitation
and execution into their innocent ears before we tuck them into bed, yet we recoil in fear as we watch
them play Grand Theft Auto and Postal 2. I used to think that video games didn’t benefit children, but there
more I investigated, I realised that these games are underrated and misunderstood. Not only can video
games teach children to develop faster reflexes and think critically in a pressured environment, but it can
also expose them to the harsh and truthful reality of our world slowly, instead of forcing it onto them all
at once.