History Performance Task

Epidemics can have severe impacts on the country, and even the whole world. Therefore,it is important to understand the impacts that happened to the countries that were affected. Firstly, I would like to define what is ïmpact of external events". It can mean the direct effect from the events that happened externally. Therefore, I would like to illustrate the event that happened recently which is H1N1. From the source, News.XinhuaNet,I can infer that the impact on Mexico is really great as seen from the provenance of the source, Over 70,000 cases of A/H1N1 flu confirmed in Mexico. The numbers of the confirmed cases are increasing since the past year when the flu first broke out in Mexico and as quoted, "including 1,1o8 deaths" . The huge number of deaths struck the people in Mexico and there is chaos in the country. The impact on the people was severe as people are living in fear that the illness may be spread to them anytime and they worry for their families for they are in danger as well. This illness has also spread to the entire world, and the world is currently in a crisis.
More and more cases reported to the news each day and the sight of the sick patients just makes the people more frightened and therefore they take safety precautions to take care of their health and others around them too.



Secondly, there has been another illness that broke out a few years back which is SARS. It was another severe event which shook the entire world as it was more fatal. It is a rare disease and as soon one has got it, it could spread to the world in a few days. People were wearing masks and sanitizing their hands to prevent this disease. From the source, Wikipedia, it says that SARS has affected several events that was to have taken place in the year of 2003. The FIFA Women"s world Cup was to be moved to the United States which caused a greater inconvenience as people are in fear that the illness might strike them at anytime of the day. Also, "the WHO advised against all but essential travel to Toronto" which caused more disturbance to the flights and the people who are being quarantined in the country. Those people who yearn to go back home and see their families were unable to go home and therefore resulting in great unhappiness amongst the people who traveled to Toronto.



Thirdly, which is the last pandemic, is the Bird Flu. As seen from the source, it is seen that the workers are disposing the affected birds which I can infer that the Bird Flu"s impact was serious.
The chickens, to be more specific are sick with the flu and this illness caused them to die, therefore indirectly affecting the food chain. As chicken is one of the most common poultry that people eat, the people in the world get more wary of the chickens that are imported from the other countries as there is no doubt that any chicken could be affected with the flu.
In addition, the Bird Flu could be spread to the humans as well, therefore it is more dangerous to go to places where birds are in and this affects the tourism of the countries as well.


In conclusion, How do these external events affect us Singaporeans? Some of us Singapore citizens may have relatives or family members that have been affected by the illnesses therefore causing emotional hurt and worry. Also, Singaporeans themselves may have been affected physically, they might have the illness themselves and have the potential danger of spreading to the other people. Last but not least, these events might affect the mindsets of Singapore citizens and make us more aware of these external events and how we also can contribute to society. These impacts have affected us in many ways and therefore also gave us more awareness about these events as well.

Bibliography
Source 1: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2010-03/16/c-13212832.htm
Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severe_acute_respiratory_syndrome
Source 3: http://www.quietrockland.com/tag/bird-flu/

Done by: Tricia Loh (20) 2PE