Is Right, Right

               

Why must you drive on the right side of the road in some countries and on the left side of the road in other countries? Investigate the question, and you find a lot of confusion on right versus left. About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and most of those countries used to be British colonies. In England people drive on the left, but on escalators they stand on the right, so that people who are in a hurry can go up on the left. In Japan, they drive on the left on escalators.

There are different explanations for the use of right versus left. Some people believe that it is a natural tendency to walk or drive on the right. This is because most people are right. This is because most people are right-handed.

We can look back in history for reasons people move on the right or left of the road. Some people say that in Europe hundreds of years ago, people rode their horses on the left. This way, their sword was between them and anyone who was coming toward ready to pull out their sword and fight to defend themselves with their right arm. But there is evidence that people used the right side, too. In 1300, some say that Pope Boniface ordered pilgrims on the way to St. Peter’s Basilica to stay to the right when they crossed a nearby bridge.

Another idea is that in the 1700s, people in France and in the United States started to use wagons with several pairs of horses and to drive on the right side of the road. It was easier for the drivers to sit on the left and control the horse with a whip in the right hand, and it was safer if other vehicles passed on the left so the drivers could see the distance between vehicles. Some people say that in England, people always drove on the right.

In any case, Napoleon, a ruler of France, ordered people to drive on the right side in the early 1800s. France conquered many countries at that time, and so these countries drove on the right. But France didn’t conquer England, so England kept its custom of driving on the left.

In the twentieth century, there was a trend to the right. Many cars were made for driving on the right side of the road. As recently as 1967, Sweden changed its laws. Now people in Sweden must drive on the right.

So right or left? Just follow the customs of the country where you are-and be sure to drive carefully on that side!

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Simple Ideas

Muhammed Yunus, Nobel Peace prize Winner                                                           

Muhammed Yunus, often called “the world’s banker to the poor,” received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering work against poverty. Yunus said he would use the $ 1.35 million prize money to “find more innovative ways” to help the poor. Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in 1976 with just $27 from this own pucket. the idea came to him while he was teaching economics at Chittagong University in southern Bangladesh, which is one of the poorest nations in the world. He and his students started an experimental project: They lent poor women small amounts of money. The women used the money to their own small businesses, for example, to buy straw to make stools. Until then, the local women relied on local money lenders who charged them high interest rates. Since then, the Grameen Bank model has been duplicated in more than 100 countries. Today, the bank has 6.61 million borrowers and over 2,400 branches in over 80,000 villages in Bangladesh. Recently the bank started a program to give beggars lives of credit of about $9 to purchase small times such as bread, candy, pickles, and toys. Receivers of the loans then resell the goods to supplement their begging. The bank reports that it has lent $6.55 billion over the past 30 years and claims a high repayment rate-98 percent. Nowadays Grameen Banks are also in developed counties. One hundred women in Queen, New York, were among the first borrowers of Grameen America. The total number of borrowers worldwide is 7.84 million 97 percent of whom are women.

   Sabine Werth, Social Worker                                                                             

Hunger is usually associated with developing countries, and not with places like Germany. However, even in a wealthy country like Germany, there are many who live in desperation. At the same time, the country wastes approximately 20 percent of all its foodstuffs. Bread that was baked the previous day, dairy products that are about to expire, and fruit and vegetables with small blemishes are normally taken off supermarket shelves and thrown away. This happens even though the food is in perfectly good condition for consumption.

Social worker Sabine Werth saw this waste and started the Berliner Tate (Table) organization in 1993, in order to give the food to those who needed it. The problem was collecting all the food, which also included “remains” from parties and buffets, and distributing it to needy men, women, and children. Sabine organized groups of voluteers with ars and vans to do this work. At first, the Berliner Tafel provided food only for homeless people, but mowadays anybody in need can pick up a bag of groceries for a low price-the symbolic price of one euro. Today, Berliner Tafel feeds up to 15,000 needy people a day, and there are approximately 800 food banks all over Germany.     

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Why should Cambodian youth protect their traditional and cultural heritages?

                Cambodian youth should help to protect their tradition and culture heritages, because of traditional is an identity of Cambodia and cultural heritages can help to develop county but they are almost eliminated by foreign culture.

            The world knew Cambodia by its identity that showed by traditional and cultural. Cambodia has had this since a long time and until now those tradition and culture are becoming more and more deteriorate. Moreover many of people didn’t care about them. They even get interesting with foreign culture that is a chance leading foreign culture flow into a county and even some of TV’s program announces only other foreign culture into Cambodia. These tradition and culture will lose if no one helps to protect them and when they are disappeared Cambodia will lose also. Therefore Cambodian youth should be a strong power to protect and conserve them. Other hand if our culture has more development our country will also. If youth can do this Cambodia will be stronger and have more interesting in the world. So these are the reason youth should help to protect their tradition and cultural heritages.

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