THese fucking expats are too much, if they don't like the haze, they can fuck off home. Can't believe WSJ publishes this shit from her. She is here as a guest of this country. Its not her god given right to live here. Want to complain, then fuck off.
Guns at Home or Air Pollution Abroad: An Expat Ponders Her Options
I’m an American citizen who has been living abroad since 2007 – seven years in China, six months in Indonesia and now in Singapore. My husband and I left New York for better job opportunities, and look forward to the day we return.
But each time we’ve sat down to consider when is the right time, our decision has mainly boiled down to this: Which location is safest for our young family? Stated another way, which do we feel is more dangerous: Asia’s air pollution or America’s gun problem?
On the surface, this may seem an apples-to-oranges comparison. Statistically, air pollution is more dangerous, according to researchers at Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit organization that researches climate science. Last year China’s former Health Minister, Chen Zhu, put the cost of air pollution at 350,000 to 500,000 lives a year, or 0.03% to 0.04% of the population. In Indonesia, forests are routinely torched to clear land for palm oil plantations and other planting. The smoke causes a terrible haze that stretches to Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive shows guns hurt only 0.02% of American’s population a year.
But both threats feel equally real and able to affect my family. This is in part because gun violence in America is rising, alarmingly. According to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 994 mass shootings since 2013–or almost one a day. Another study by the Center for American Progress, which uses Centers for Disease Control data, predicts guns will kill more Americans under 25 this year than cars. FBI background-check data show 2015 is a record-setting year for gun sales.
Also, both are indiscriminate killers. Air pollution in Asia and guns in America can affect everyone, irrespective of address, race or income. They’re out of our control, rob us of our peace of mind and have no signs of ending any time soon.
For now, I choose Asia. Here are three reasons why:
1. Air pollution is something I can fight against. Guns aren’t.
Air pollution is almost everywhere in Asia. Most countries in the region update their air particle readings online every hour. I often know the air quality reading before I know the weather. While this information is worrying, it helps me to prepare. I can decide how much time my children should spend outside. I can use air masks, air filters and allergy medicines to fight the toxins. I know this is no guarantee of safety, but I don’t feel powerless against the problem.
What can I do to protect my children against guns when they’re in America? There’s no way to gauge which day is more dangerous than another. I can’t load an app to help me decide when to suit them in bulletproof gear. I can’t give them a pill that will protect them from gunshot wounds. All I can do is teach them how to duck and call 911, which doesn’t feel like enough.
2. I understand why air pollution exists in Asia. I don’t understand why tighter gun regulations in America don’t.
Air pollution is a tried and tested stage of every country’s development. In the 1950s in England, London’s air was so black, the particles looked like snow hanging in the air. Los Angeles in the ’70s was famous for its brown smog.
History tells us air pollution’s life cycle is predictable. Poor countries want to develop quickly to increase prosperity and lift living standards. Companies cut environmental corners until emissions problems become so big and intolerable that governments start introducing more expensive regulation. Sadly, all of human kind has put economic prosperity first and environmental protection second.
However, there’s no similar pattern to guns or gun control. If anything, more developed countries are safer and the people there are in less need of personal guns. Yet America has more guns per capita than any other nation on earth—by a long shot.
Why do so many people in the U.S. feel the need to own so many firearms when no other nation on earth shares the same logic? I can’t understand it, which makes guns and the violence they cause feel that much more unpredictable and scary than air pollution
3. Asia’s leaders are fighting their air pollution problem. America’s aren’t.
After much debate and outrage, Asia’s leaders are finally working to clean up the air. Last year, China declared a war on air pollution. Official data shows the levels of fine-particle matter damaging to human health – known as PM2.5 – fell more than 15% in the first half of 2015. In 2014, Indonesia became the 10th country to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. These countries still have far to go, but they’re doing something.
In the U.S., leaders have many choices to improve the situation; they don’t have to eliminate guns altogether to make America safer. Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of change too. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans currently support expanded background checks for people who want a gun. Yet in Washington, the passage of real gun control legislation remains blocked by competing political interests, so much so that President Obama is exploring ways to move forward without congressional approval.
This is what saddens me the most. I grew up in a country whose safety and security I took for granted. My childhood America would never tolerate for so long the loss of so many innocent lives. I deeply want that America back so someday I can return home to it.
Rashmi J. Dalai is a Singapore-based freelance writer who just completed a seven-year stint in Shanghai. She blogs at Rashmi Jolly Dalai.
Guns at Home or Air Pollution Abroad: An Expat Ponders Her Options
I’m an American citizen who has been living abroad since 2007 – seven years in China, six months in Indonesia and now in Singapore. My husband and I left New York for better job opportunities, and look forward to the day we return.
But each time we’ve sat down to consider when is the right time, our decision has mainly boiled down to this: Which location is safest for our young family? Stated another way, which do we feel is more dangerous: Asia’s air pollution or America’s gun problem?
On the surface, this may seem an apples-to-oranges comparison. Statistically, air pollution is more dangerous, according to researchers at Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit organization that researches climate science. Last year China’s former Health Minister, Chen Zhu, put the cost of air pollution at 350,000 to 500,000 lives a year, or 0.03% to 0.04% of the population. In Indonesia, forests are routinely torched to clear land for palm oil plantations and other planting. The smoke causes a terrible haze that stretches to Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive shows guns hurt only 0.02% of American’s population a year.
But both threats feel equally real and able to affect my family. This is in part because gun violence in America is rising, alarmingly. According to Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 994 mass shootings since 2013–or almost one a day. Another study by the Center for American Progress, which uses Centers for Disease Control data, predicts guns will kill more Americans under 25 this year than cars. FBI background-check data show 2015 is a record-setting year for gun sales.
Also, both are indiscriminate killers. Air pollution in Asia and guns in America can affect everyone, irrespective of address, race or income. They’re out of our control, rob us of our peace of mind and have no signs of ending any time soon.
For now, I choose Asia. Here are three reasons why:
1. Air pollution is something I can fight against. Guns aren’t.
Air pollution is almost everywhere in Asia. Most countries in the region update their air particle readings online every hour. I often know the air quality reading before I know the weather. While this information is worrying, it helps me to prepare. I can decide how much time my children should spend outside. I can use air masks, air filters and allergy medicines to fight the toxins. I know this is no guarantee of safety, but I don’t feel powerless against the problem.
What can I do to protect my children against guns when they’re in America? There’s no way to gauge which day is more dangerous than another. I can’t load an app to help me decide when to suit them in bulletproof gear. I can’t give them a pill that will protect them from gunshot wounds. All I can do is teach them how to duck and call 911, which doesn’t feel like enough.
2. I understand why air pollution exists in Asia. I don’t understand why tighter gun regulations in America don’t.
Air pollution is a tried and tested stage of every country’s development. In the 1950s in England, London’s air was so black, the particles looked like snow hanging in the air. Los Angeles in the ’70s was famous for its brown smog.
History tells us air pollution’s life cycle is predictable. Poor countries want to develop quickly to increase prosperity and lift living standards. Companies cut environmental corners until emissions problems become so big and intolerable that governments start introducing more expensive regulation. Sadly, all of human kind has put economic prosperity first and environmental protection second.
However, there’s no similar pattern to guns or gun control. If anything, more developed countries are safer and the people there are in less need of personal guns. Yet America has more guns per capita than any other nation on earth—by a long shot.
Why do so many people in the U.S. feel the need to own so many firearms when no other nation on earth shares the same logic? I can’t understand it, which makes guns and the violence they cause feel that much more unpredictable and scary than air pollution
3. Asia’s leaders are fighting their air pollution problem. America’s aren’t.
After much debate and outrage, Asia’s leaders are finally working to clean up the air. Last year, China declared a war on air pollution. Official data shows the levels of fine-particle matter damaging to human health – known as PM2.5 – fell more than 15% in the first half of 2015. In 2014, Indonesia became the 10th country to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution. These countries still have far to go, but they’re doing something.
In the U.S., leaders have many choices to improve the situation; they don’t have to eliminate guns altogether to make America safer. Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of change too. According to the Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans currently support expanded background checks for people who want a gun. Yet in Washington, the passage of real gun control legislation remains blocked by competing political interests, so much so that President Obama is exploring ways to move forward without congressional approval.
This is what saddens me the most. I grew up in a country whose safety and security I took for granted. My childhood America would never tolerate for so long the loss of so many innocent lives. I deeply want that America back so someday I can return home to it.
Rashmi J. Dalai is a Singapore-based freelance writer who just completed a seven-year stint in Shanghai. She blogs at Rashmi Jolly Dalai.
