How would it feel if you, a friend, or even a family member was being bullied at school or even in the workplace because you were overweight? Not a very pleasant experience for those who go through it, or at least see this type of thing happen almost every day. Now, how would you feel if your own government thought you were overweight, because it was now considered illegal to be overweight? And not just obesely overweight, but overweight to what the government considered to be overweight?
Since September 2009, it is now illegal to be overweight in Japan. For men, if you are over the age of 40 you must have a waistline of 85 centimetres (33.5 inches). For women it’s 90 centimetres (35.4 inches). Now according to this law if you are found out to be overweight, you must undergo counselling. If companies do not reduce the number of overweight employees by 25 percent by the year 2015, they could pay more money into a healthcare program for the elderly.
Now I’m all for companies being involved for their employees to be fit and healthy and to introduce it within the daily work routine. Especially within an office environment. When you’ve hardly move from your desk all day getting up to go for a walk when you’ve been staring at a screen all day is an amazing feeling. You don’t even have to go for a large walk. Just to feel some fresh air makes you feel good. What I don’t like is that the government decided to step in and make it illegal. Illegal? Really? Why does it have to be illegal? Couldn’t they just pass a law to make it part of the work routine to do some exercise?
Even in most countries throughout the world if a child is obese, it is now considered child abuse and the parents could either be given a fine or have their child taken away from them due to ‘neglect’. Even the teachers have to report any child who is overweight to the authorities. Has it really come down to this? Can you just imagine how the child feels for being overweight? The poor child most likely gets picked on at school. Now they have to make the parents feel awful because their son or daughter is on the heavy side.
I’m honestly happy in a way that there are things in place to get us to move and to lose weight and make us healthy. It just seems a little drastic to me. Instead of making it illegal to be overweight or shaming the parents because their child is overweight, why not limit the amount of fast food places within a certain distance. Like maybe not have two or three McDonalds within viewing distance of each other, and have them a lot further apart. Or maybe within a shopping centre, allow the limit of maybe one or two fast food places and the rest health food stores. Or just simply do not allow major fast food chains to have such fatty foods. Just allow us to make this choice on our own, don’t make it illegal. Or even simpler enough, make healthy food cheaper! For the same price I could buy a sandwich, I could get a large Big Mac meal and that comes with a drink! I know it isn’t good for me, but if I am on a budget, I’d rather have fast food than to starve because healthy food can be expensive.
Now in places like Japan and China, everyone knows that population is one of the major problems in these countries. Honestly, population seems to be a major factor throughout the world and not only just these countries. So if the world is becoming too overcrowded, and obesity is considered one of the major killers next to cancer why make it a concern? Especially when doctors believe that living unhealthy is considered a form of suicide.
I find it funny how everyone is told to eat and be healthy when Australia is considered the second fattest country next to the USA. Yet, we’ve been getting older and older each year. It is believed that we will be living longer lives, and a child that is born this year could live to be 150 years old.
What does being healthy even really mean? Does it mean being a certain weight? Exercising and eating right? I’m sure it means all these things. We all at least know one person who does eat healthy, they may not exercise frequently due to an injury, and they cannot keep their weight down. I love a good conspiracy theory, so the little part of me that tends to not believe when the government is trying to help me, thinks there may be a secret agenda. But that’s just me thinking the government doesn’t do something for a reason and not just for the good of the people.
Why is it when something is increasing throughout the world, instead of moderating it we either have to remove it completely, make it illegal or put a tax on it? Whatever happened to freedom of choosing for ourselves and letting us pay for the consequences of what we decide to do? It’s like smoking in a way, we all know it’s bad for you, we all know that it does damage to us and can kill us, but there is still many people who still smoke. You can put all the taxes on it that you want and make the thing illegal, there will still be people who smoke.
What is going to happen next? We all live in a world where everyone is fit and healthy? If history is any example to anything, a lot of people have tried that in the past and it didn’t work out. Or maybe is this a way to remove healthcare altogether? Who knows what the real agenda is, or if there is any at all. All I know is that when something seems too good to be true, it tends to be no good at all.
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