Opposition

A very good morning I bid to the Chairperson, the honourable judges, the meticulous timekeeper, my dearest opponents and members of the floor.

Dear audience,

The Prime Minister indicated that, “…”. However, this house strongly disagrees with that point.

The words “leading cause” in the title clearly implies that social networking is the main and utmost important factor that causes social illness. This is not entirely true. As stated by the first speaker just now, poverty is a much more important cause compared to social networking. Allow me to open up your views on this topic.

Talking about poverty, I would like to state that there are many chain reactions from this. Politic instability is one of them. When a government is broke or bankrupt, they will not be able to govern the country effectively as the resources in the country is not able to meet the needs of the people. When this happens, the people will not vote for the government and this is when social illness especially financial crimes such as robbing, bribing, bank fraud, theft, money laundering, and producing counterfeit money comes in.

Given the explaination above, I would like to stress that social networking is not the leading cause for social illness. Compared to poverty, the impact of social networking on the happening of social illness is not as great as that of poverty. With that, I rest my case.

Dear members of the floor,

The second minister stated, “…”. However, I have concrete believe that the point stated by the second minister is definitely not true. Again I would like to state another chain reaction caused by poverty.

Due to poverty, an invisible gap will be created in the earnings of people of a certain country. This is called imbalance in economic status. I am sure you all agree with me when I say variance in socioeconomic status, including disparities in the distribution of wealth, income, and access to resources, affects almost everyone. Society that is divided into the rich, the moderate and the poor will not be united. As a result, the poor and sometimes the moderate will resort to crime as a stepping stone to survive in this competitive world. As the saying goes, “United we stand, divided we fall”, imbalance in economic status causes the absence of unity among the people and this causes the country to be unable to maintain peace.

With this, I give way to the Chairperson.

My beloved audiences,

My following argument is that homelessness is another crucial cause in the happening of social illness compared to social networking.

Homelessness is an acute version of residental instability, which can be compared or contrasted with definitions of poverty.

Hidden Homelessness, a survey of more than 400 rough sleepers by Sheffield Hallam University, reveals that the result of homelessness is that they resort to extreme steps to put a roof over their heads.

Studies researching the incidence, distribution and control of a disease in a population find that between one-third and one half of homeless people have mental health disorders and approximately two thirds have either a mental health or substance use disorder. Phychiatric disorders exacerbate many types of problems, including housing instability, morbidity and mortality.

As a result from the problems above, more social illness will arise. Unwanted sex will become a way out of homelessness for many. Others have ventured into prostitution, with almost a fifth of women taking up "sex work" because this offered an opportunity to spend the night off the streets. Besides, nearly 30% admitted to committing a "minor crime such as shoplifting or anti-social behaviour" in the hope of being taken into custody for the night. And a fifth of those questioned said they had avoided being given bail or committed an imprisonable offence with the express purpose of receiving a custodial sentence as a means to resolving their housing problems.

After having stated all this, I emphasize that homelessness plays an important role in social illness. Therefore, I once again state that this house does not agree that social networking is the leading cause of social illness.

Thank you.