Hamburger is one of the most common foods eaten around the world. It is composed of a patty put between two slices of bread and garnished with vegetables and other spices. It all started in the early 1200s when the Mongol army placed slabs of lamb and mutton under their horse saddles as they rode into battle. After the meat was tenderized by the saddle and the back of the horse, they would consume it raw, as if it were an uncooked beef patty. This strange but practical method eventually developed into the creation of modern ground beef. Now that you have ground beef, you know what has to come next: the hamburger.
Some believe that the hamburger came from a meatball stand owner who flattened his meatballs between two slices of bread. He then called his new on-the-go creation “Charlie’s Hamburgers”. Others believe that the hamburger originated from a hotdog vendor who decided to substitute their hotdogs for beef, naming this invention the “hamburger” after their location, Hamburg, New York. On the other hand, Texans believe that the burger was a reincarnation of the breakfast patty- a beef sandwich squeezed between two slices of French toast and garnished with glazed onions.
Although all of these instances have hit hamburger history, it is still uncertain which one of them is the true story behind the birth of the hamburger. However, no matter how you sliced it, the hamburger industry nowadays is nothing as it was before. Hamburger franchises have spread their ways across the nation and continue to find innovative ways to turn their customers into loyal burger-fanatics. The hamburger industry is beefin’ up for good. This competition gave the idea to the proponents to innovate the product.
They use the banana blossom or bud with smoked fish as substitute for beef patty. They chose these as the major ingredients because these are abundant in Tagaytay. Though it literally translates to “heart of banana,” puso ng saging is technically the banana blossom or bud. Known as “banana bell” in Australia, and “plantain flower” in Sri Lanka, the blossom protects the sterile male flowers of the banana plant, and is found hanging at the end of the stem that holds the banana cluster.
The actual heart of the banana is located at the center of the tree trunk. You may have heard of the folklore behind puso ng saging: it blooms during a full moon, and swallowing the sap or agimat that falls from it bestows one with superpowers. But myth is not necessarily far from fact when it comes to this crimson-colored vegetable. The puso ng saging is a rich source of energy, micronutrients, and fiber, according to health and wellness educator Maribel Jane Galang of Manila Adventist Medical Center.
Banana Heart Burger uses a homemade patty and a transformation of the common burger that we have now. The proponents decided not to change the name of the product so that the customers will easily know that the product is nutritious. The patty is not made up of meat. Instead, the proponents used banana blossom and smoked fish (tinapa) as substitute for meat patty to make it more nutritious. This burger is very suitable for vegetarians and health conscious people. They also consider adding different flavors in the near future.
Comparative: Greed And Corruption In “The Pardoners Tale” And “A Simple Plan”
Both Geoffrey Chaucer in “The Pardoners Tale” and Sam Raimi in the film “A Simple Plan” present moral tales that delve into the theme of greed and corruption. They both convey the idea that greed has the ability to corrupt a person’s morals, and they both examine the catastrophic outcomes that result from succumbing to greed and corruption. This reinforces the significance of upholding a society with strong moral values.
However, Chaucer conveys in a medieval context that greed and corruption can arise from a lack of material comfort or wealth, suggesting that moral standing comes from a deep religious foundation. On the other hand, Raimi, composing within a contemporary timeframe, suggests that when physical circumstances are inadequate, the temptation to be greedy increases. This implies that moral code is formed in a secular society where boundaries can shift depending on the situation. Therefore, studying both the differences and similarities between these texts is crucial in understanding the issues they explore.
Despite the different mediums, both composers explore the theme of greed undermining virtues like loyalty, respect, and trust. They also examine the human condition, where individuals struggle with ethical dilemmas. In Chaucer’s 14th-century poem “The Pardoner’s Tale,” the Pardoner’s role within the church and the prevalent abuse challenge the hypocrisy of individuals within the church community. This hypocrisy is skillfully portrayed through irony in lines 916 to 1918: “And Jesus Christ, that is our soul’s physician. So grant you to receive his pardon for that is best; I will not deceive you.”
Chaucer’s manipulation of the responder is apparent in their conflicting emotions towards the pardoner. The irony lies in the pardoner’s self-awareness as a scoundrel, yet he fails to recognize the impending doom that also awaits him. This moment of truth forces the pardoner to acknowledge the spiritual consequences of his actions, but he quickly reverts back to his greed-driven pursuit and tests the reaction of his audience by attempting to sell his fraudulent relics.
Chaucer effectively uses animal imagery in lines 556 to 557, stating that someone “fallest like a stuck pig,” to emphasize how greed and corruption can degrade a person’s morals, making them behave like animals. Chaucer’s intention is to show that greed can easily corrupt even someone with good morals, causing them to lose loyalty, respect, and trust. The consequences of greed can push individuals to engage in irrational and unusual behavior, appearing more like wild animals than civilized humans.
Sam Raimi explores the concept of greed causing moral individuals to become immoral in his 20th century film “A Simple Plan”. The film’s portrayal of greed and corruption is heavily influenced by the temporal concerns of secular society. This can be observed in the scene where Sarah is being framed in the bookshelf.
Here, the filmmaker employs an extreme close-up to convey the impression to the viewer that nothing has altered. However, the reality is that due to the characters’ overwhelming greed, their lives have undergone substantial transformations. This effect is further accentuated through the clever utilization of voice-over, particularly in the mill scene where Hank’s retrospective narrative offers an explanation of the events and maintains the illusion of constancy while in fact life has significantly changed. The film effectively positions us to comprehend the malevolence and transformative impact that greed can have.
Both Chaucer and Raimi suggest that everyone has the ability to be wicked and dishonest. However, there are differences in their perspectives. Chaucer believes that greed and corruption can exploit goodwill and take place in a spiritual context, as exemplified by the characters’ journey to a shrine in Canterbury. On the other hand, Raimi argues that greed and corruption can lead to various forms of evilness, causing even good and innocent individuals to become immoral. Chaucer wrote during the fourteenth century when corruption within the church, which should promote honesty, was prevalent. In contrast, Raimi wrote during the twentieth century when society was more focused on worldly matters that are temporary rather than spiritual ones.
Chaucer examines the concept that storytelling has a corrupting influence in The Pardoner’s Tale. Through the clever use of emotive language, he skillfully manipulates the audience, creating a straightforward and impactful narrative that elicits the same emotions experienced by the characters in the story. This immersive approach effectively involves the audience in a journey of corruption, engendering a profound and bewildering emotional response.
In contrast, Sam Raimi shows that the viewer becomes complicit in the corruption. This can be seen in the effective use of extreme close-up in the scene featuring the fox and the crow, who are depicted as predators. This reflects the association of death and cunningness with these stereotypical animal traits, and how the innocent nature of the characters is later tainted by immoral actions. Raimi positions the viewer to acknowledge that one’s moral values can be corrupted by greed and lead to malevolent intentions.
While Chaucer indicates that individuals who are inherently evil will be easily enticed by greed, both Geoffrey Chaucer and Sam Raimi depict greed and corruption to remind the audience of the dire repercussions they can have, highlighting the significance of a morally upright society. However, Chaucer emphasizes that a strong moral compass stems from a profound religious base, whereas Raimi suggests that moral principles are shaped within a non-religious society where boundaries can flex depending on the circumstances. Despite their contrasting contexts, both viewpoints offer valuable insights and remain pertinent.
Explain Why Waste Management Is Such A Problem In World Cities
Explain why waste management is such a problem in world cities and, referring to UK cities and other examples, explain how targets could be met. For a city to be sustainable, managing its waste efficiently whilst causing the least possible damage to the environment is imperative. The amount of waste produced by the global population is steadily increasing resulting in a continual problem over how and where to dispose of this waste. Targets have already been made such as European Union laws, UK national plans and strategies and at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 (Agenda 21).
Currently, most domestic waste ends up in landfill sites, and the general aim has been to avoid this as much as possible. Waste management methods vary widely according to different areas due to various reasons such as type of waste material, nearby land uses and the area available. Methods could include reducing the amount of waste, reusing goods to extend their lifespan, recovering value and disposing of waste in landfill sites. Waste management has become an issue of great importance across world cities with growing populations, greater consumerism yet failing incentives.
In the UK, 28 million tonnes of municipal waste are produced each year with this figure increasing at 3% per year. The disposal of this waste across the world has local, natural and global consequences. The conditions, issues and problems of urban waste management in the industrialized and developing worlds are different. Though the developed countries generate larger amounts of waste, they have developed adequate facilities and competent government institutions to manage their wastes.
Developing countries are still in the transition towards better waste management but they currently have insufficient collection and improper disposal methods of waste. Urbanization can occur at such rapid rates that the local authorities have yet to decide how to cope with the waste disposal, such as in the favelas in the outskirts of South American cities, which don’t have adequate strategies. With a heightened reliance on land fill sites around the world the shortage of space will become more acute if the amount of waste continues to grow.
The trouble with urban areas is that they are becoming increasingly densely populated and there is a greater demand for space. By burying biodegradable waste, such as food, it decomposes and releases methane, which, as a greenhouse gas, contributes to global warming and is even explosive. In addition, chemicals and heavy metals can pollute the soil and groundwater. For example, leachate, produced from organic waste, breaks down causing the same problem. The management of waste through incineration also proves to be problematic.
Incineration of waste is used primarily as an energy source. In some cases, recyclables are removed before incineration of waste. By incinerating things that could have been reused, resources are lost. Also, Incinerators release dioxins/furans, sulfur dioxide, hydrochloride, cadmium, lead, mercury, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and carbon oxide into the air, contributing to global climate change. Ultimately, Incineration can’t make waste disappear. There is always ash left and metals. This waste is considered hazardous by the Environmental Protection Agency.
In terms of water pollution, Incineration also liquefies some materials that can end up in watersheds, as sewage treatment plants can’t process the wastewater effectively. Furthermore, in areas where employment is required, incineration removes products from recycling streams and can potentially reduce the number of jobs in an area. Recycling, that being the extraction of value or products from waste, in urban areas is also a problem. The collection of the recyclable materials is time consuming, complicated and costly. It is also difficult to motivate entire populations to abide by the precise rules.
Large amounts of energy are required to reproduce or extract the useful materials. In cities, the collection of recyclable goods is also complex and the citizens need to be educated on the matter. The collected material also has to be transported to a factory that is most probably outside of the urban area therefore there is environmental damage as the recycling cannot be done locally. Waste reduction is another type of waste management and it is at the top of the waste management hierarchy but it doesn’t prove to be as efficient as the other methods.
It is very difficult to control the amount of waste produced by individuals especially in urban areas where consumerism is far greater than in rural areas. The increase of waste production in the UK is becoming an increasingly worrying issue and for this reason it has undertaken initiatives to stop this. The government response to the problem of waste began in 2000 with the publication of the first ever waste strategy. It was driven by an EU Landfill Directive. The government had translated this directive into one initial target – to recycle 40% of household waste by 2010.
The UK hoped to meet this target by adopting the concept of the waste hierarchy, which is summarized by the phrase ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. The key idea is that waste is seen as a resource. Any waste that is unsuitable for these purposes may be incinerated to generate energy, or put into landfill. Under EU rules, after 2010 local authorities will be fined £150 for every tonne of waste they put into landfill over the prescribed limit. However, central government does encourage local councils to be proactive in diverting waste away from landfill by operating a landfill tax, which goes up annually.
This puts pressure on local councils to promote the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ message as the more waste that goes to landfill the greater local taxes become. Local authorities adopted a number of strategies to reduce the waste and encourage recycling such as making businesses more responsible for environmental impacts by charging them more for waste they send to landfill. This landfill tax was expected to rise every year until at least 2011. Also, laws to tackle the illegal dumping of waste were introduced in 2007.
There were new measures introduced in Northern Ireland to cut down on unauthorized operators, including organized criminal gangs who can generate profits of around £100 per tonne of illegal waste. If laws like these and many more are continually reinforced and controlled then the targets of reducing the waste in the UK could be met in the future. In other parts of the world, especially LEDC urban areas, the issue of waste disposal impacts the society and environment to a greater extent.
In order to reduce the waste produced LEDC cities can follow the example of one of Belo Horizonte’s strategies in Brazil. A program was introduced and even praised for having improved recycling and the quality of life of the homeless. In 1993 the municipal administration joined forces with the homeless to formalize the work that they were already doing in an attempt to recycle more of the waste produced by Belo Horizonte. Before this, the homeless were collecting recyclable goods by cart and sorting it on the streets. An organized selective handling and treatment system was introduced.
Drop off points around the city encourage public participation in the scheme which has expanded rapidly – collection of recyclable material growing from 15 to 500 tonnes per month. There are now three permanent sorting warehouses. The key to success with waste disposal is the selection of the appropriate strategies for the area. The right funds, planning and motivation are required all to different extents. For targets to be met, an incentive is required. The national government of a country may not be enough, but in the case of the UK, it is the EU, which further encourages better waste management.