Fat People are Disabled?

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/european-court-rules-that-obesity-can-be-a-disability-1.2153286

Vitnija Saldava, The Associated Press

Published Thursday, December 18, 2014 7:26AM EST

Last Updated Thursday, December 18, 2014 12:16PM EST

The European Court of Justice ruled, obesity can be a form of disability.

A Danish childcare worker Karsten Kaltoft, weighs 350 pounds, claimed he got laid off for his obesity. Kaltoft had been a childcare worker for 15 years in the Municipality of Billund in Denmark until he was dismissed in 2010.The municipality refutes as a result declining number of children, Kaltoft's position became unnecessary. The ruling said if obesity interferes a "full and effective participation in professional life," it could be categorized to disability.

Jacob Sand, Kaltoft's lawyer, pointed out under European Union law, employers will require providing special services for their obese staff members who are considered disabled because discrimination on the grounds of disability is illegal.

The special service could be providing car parking spaces closer to the office, change workers' desks for their fit and other changes that need to be done. The ruling could make it difficult for employers to fire or lay off overweight workers.

My Opinion...

Obesity itself is not a disability. However, if obesity interferes with effective conduct of individual or efficient performance of obese workers, obesity can be considered as a form of disability. It does not seem like an accurate decision to define fat people as disabled. Classifying obese as disability should take the cause of obesity into account.

If one’s obesity is genetic or caused by a disease, I do not think the person should receive penalize discrimination in his/her workplaces. However, in many cases obesity comes from bad eating habits, food intake regulation failure, or lack of exercise. Such facets of a person’s failed self-management are personal responsibility.

If obesity wasn’t inevitably caused from a disease or genetically inherited, I think there is no need to give a particular benefit to obese people who are classified as disabled.

Just the fact obesity interfered with performance of work should not be served as a benchmark for judging obesity as a disability. The cause of obesity should be included as the basis as well. For instance, if an employee’s obesity was from neglecting personal health care and his/her work was not carried out properly, in this case the employee should not consider as a disabled nor deserve benefits.

Determining obese as a form disability should be judged more carefully

Doctor Monkey

http://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/monkey-turns-doctor-to-save-his-electrocuted-friend-in-kanpur-45482.html

India TV News Desk [Updated 22 Dec 2014, 09:58:31]

On December 22^nd at the Kanpur Central railway station, a monkey was electrocuted on high tension wires. As the monkey got knocked unconscious from the shock, a friend monkey quickly ran to his fallen buddy. Around 20 minutes, the friend monkey tried everything he could to bring back his friend. He bit him in the face, slapped him, and dipped his friend into a puddle of water. Then the unconscious monkey finally regained consciousness in the water and onlookers cheered.

My Thoughts...

From watching Doctor Monkey clip, I realized great intelligence and companionship of animals. Monkeys’ desperateness of trying to save electrified friend had shown a much better heart caring about their colleague than humans. 

Humans would not be able to show such effort as monkeys. In times of danger, we tend to care ourselves before others or put off dangerous work to others, but these monkeys did not spare themselves to rescue their friend. We should repent our egoistic mind. 

Humans have said we are much more advanced species and abuse animals and kill them for individual’s benefit. We have been treating them as if they got no emotion and thoughts. However, the animals we ignored showed heroic figure. 

People at the train station did not bother call for help or volunteer to help the poor monkeys. What they did was pressing camera shutters. We claim to be more advanced and we can’t afford some mercy to save “benighted” animals? How absurd? After watching this I want to ask people, “Can we really call ourselves the greatest species to ever exist?”

Google Stopped Nexus 5 Production

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/nexus.5.news.google.to.kill.nexus.5.says.report/44291.htm

christiantoday.com

Kristin Mariano. Published on 13 December 2014

According to AndroidPit, the tech giant, on December 13^th, Google has decided to stop its 2013 flagship smartphone sales from this point.


Consumers looked forward to purchase last year’s Nexus 5 must hustle before N5 stock clears out. Google had already removed red and white N5 models from the Google Play Store and there are only few black units left. Once all the remaining units are sold out, there won’t be any Nexus 5 available in market. Once it’s gone, it is gone.

Google is discontinuing the Nexus 5 to encourage consumers to buy their new Nexus 6 model. However, many consumers are reluctant to Nexus 6 because of burdensome price. Previous N5 has been opted for reasonable pricing regardless of its faintly minor specs and features difference. Other ways to get the Nexus 5 are via Craigslist, Amazon, or eBay where pre-owned units are re-sold.

Here is What I Think...

Google announced they will discontinue all previous Nexus models for sale. Nexus phones are Google’s flagship smartphones and their reference phones. Reference phones are guideline phones for all android software devices. They are very important because Google shows its new path for Android environment with its reference phones. Therefore, customers who own reference phones receive direct support and firmware update from Google, so they have opportunities to experience new features faster than any other Android phone users.

Google was successful in Nexus 5 phone sales because the price compared to performance had been excellent. However, after tasting such big hit, they launched Nexus 6 with high price to maximize their marginal benefit. By discontinuing previous “low price high quality phones” Google narrowed the range of choices for consumers.

I do not understand why Google would not remain their successful marketing and want to risk changes. If I was an executive member of Google, I would keep the succeeded Nexus 5 for many consumers who prefer it and have the new Nexus 6 aside it. It is not respectful for Google to disregard consumers’ voices and narrow their options for profit. Google may think their sales plan was a smart move to sell more expensive product, but that is just an arrogant marketing strategy. A good marketing is considering what public wants.

Korean Air's 'Nut Rage'

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/korean-airlines-flight-delayed-by-executive-s-first-class-spat-over-nuts-1.2139664

Youkyung Lee, The Associated Press

Published Tuesday, December 9, 2014 12:53PM EST

Last Updated Tuesday, December 9, 2014 1:27PM EST

On December 5^th 2014, a Korean Air flight heading to Incheon, South Korea was delayed at John F Kennedy Airport for 20 minutes because of Korean Air chairman’s daughter Hyun-ah Cho. She is vice-president in charge of cabin service of Korean airline. Hyun-ah Cho ordered the plane to return to gate and made the head of the cabin crew get off the plane because a flight attendant did not serve macadamia nuts on a plate. According to the Korean Airline manual, this bagged snack must be served on a plate for passengers in first class seats, but when the flight attendant was not aware of the rule, Hyun-ah Cho raged. This incident is being called as a “Nut Rage in First Class”.

My Opinion...

There are obvious reasons why many people are angry about the incident. I was angry as well after reading this article and I found Hyun-ah Cho’s behavior was clearly a critical issue. This is not only on Korean media, it appeared on Canada CTV News as well. The Nut Rage in First Class case is large enough issue to handle in multiple countries.

Hyun-ah Cho is vice-president responsible for cabin service of one of the largest Airline in the world, Korean Air. It is recognizable that she remembers even little details in the manual and tried to notify the mistake the flight attendant made, but there are many problems in her behaviour.

Even if she had found a problem and wanted to discipline the flight attendant, she shouldn’t have exercised her power during flight. Hyun-ah argued with flight attendants loudly on the plane and she had changed the route of the flight as if the plane was her private jet rather than public transportation. Her act infringed the rights of other passengers and violated the rules in a plane.

Hyun-ah’s behavior attempted to improve services for passengers. However, it was acted with complete disregard for the safety of all passengers. No matter how intention was good, the interference with the work of the captain and crew with her authority was an extreme excess.