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Omari Harvey Ms. Caruso English 1102 22 April 2013 3/20/2013 Memo: While researching for this project, I found a quote in an article that talked about the most active and inactive countries on the planet. This quote I disagreed with, and found it to be very questionable in its reliability, so I chose to respond to the author of it, through a private letter, since I thought it would be the most direct way to talk to him. The context of this letter would be the stereotype that I was responding to. My audience is the author of the quote, who was Dr. Pedro C. Hallal. Then the purpose is to prove to him why the statement he made was not completely correct, and why he should not make such a generalized statement. Melnick, Meredith. "The Countries That Work Out The Most (And Least)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 July 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/exercise-countries_n_1683435.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/19/exercise-countries_n_1683435.html Letter Dear Dr. Pedro C. Hallal, Today I am here to privately address you on the research that you did on which countries were the least active. This research was featured in an article called, In your previous research,

Comment [BC1]: - Be sure to review the MLA handout on Moodle for the correct format of an MLA-style document. Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

Comment [BC2]: Be sure you give all the specifics your reader would need to know. Is this a public letter to him, or is this a privately-mailed letter? Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

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The Countries That Work Out The Most (And Least)., which was about the countries that were the most physically active and inactive., In this article you were quoted as saying "In most countries, inactivity rises with age and is higher in women than in men. Inactivity is also increased in high-income countries. This is not completely true and I would like to show you why. First look at the list of the 25 most inactive countries, only two truly "affluent" countries appear in the higher part of the list, which was Kuwait at number 7, and the United Arab Emirates at number 9, other than that none of the other countries are in the top 10 wealthiest countries list according to the International Monetary Fund. This is clearly the contrary of your statement, since in your quote you said that the higher earning countries were more inactive than the countries that did not earn as much, and the data shows otherwise. This could also possibly mislead anyone who read the article into believing something that is not completely true. It also shows that the more wealthy countries are getting at least the bare minimum amount of exercise in order to stay off of the inactive list. This is one reason why jumping to a conclusion can be detrimental, not only for the one performing the research, but also for the audience who will see the research as well. Even though while performing a study it can be easier to just stereotype the smallest pattern that is seen in order to save time, if that claim is not completely true, it can then mislead a person into believing something that is not completely correct. Now Now in the next part of your statement that mentions inactivity increasing with age, if you take a look at the Euromonitor International World's Oldest Population's list, out of the top ten countries on that list only 3 of them appear on the top 25 list of inactive countries, with the highest appearance being Japan at number 11.This shows that the majority of the elders clearly must be participating in some form of physical activity, in order to help keep their country off of

Comment [BC3]: This was not his article, but because of the positioning of the items in this sentence, it reads as though it is. Consider revising this sentence for clarity. Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt Comment [BC4]: Where is this quote from? Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

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Comment [BC5]: This sounds as though you are reprimanding him, and could be taken the wrong way. Work to finesse these sentences so you can make your point to someone you are arguing against. Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

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the top 25 most inactive list. In the last part of the quote it mentioned inactivity being higher with women as opposed to men. However if you look at the statistics for the countries with the largest female populations according to Nation Master, in the top 25, only 5 countries from that list appear on the list of inactive countries, with the highest being the United Kingdom at number 8. Once again this contradicts your statement, and shows that the majority of women are also getting the physical activity that is required for them to keep their respective countries off of the top 25 list. While there is some truth to the statement that was made, I do however believe that there is not completely enough, in order to make a generalized statement of that nature, since there are plenty of other factors that could affect a countrys physical activity level, such as unemployment, the climate that the country is in, and many more. For example did you know that the average temperature in Malta usually leans towards the hotter side and the humidity there is rather high? This could be a reason why they do not want to be physically active, since it is uncomfortable to go outside and exercise. The same could be said for a lot of the other countries on the list. But for the other countries that are not in a hotter climate on the list, it is very possible that they are somewhere where is either cold or gets both the extremes temperature wise. For example Serbia is known to have hot summers, and frigid winters, which makes it harder to go out and exercise. On the other hand weather is not the only possible factor that could keep people away from exercising. Take unemployment as another example. According to the C.I.A. World Fact Book in Saudi Arabia the unemployment rate for men alone is at roughly 10%. This is rather high especially considering that women are not even included in that percentage. So that could make it even higher, in fact some believe that with women included it could be closer to 25%. So with this lack of Employment, it could cause people to focus more on
Comment [BC6]: Expanding upon these could significantly strengthen your letter and your argument. Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

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survival with food, and finding shelter, as opposed to trying to exercise. Saudi Arabia is not the only country on the list with unemployment trouble, for example Swaziland has an unemployment rate of 40%. Another factor that could also possibly be an explanation to these 25 countries not exercising is that some of these countries could be missing exercise programs for their children. Since if they are not exposed to exercise as children they may learn the benefits to exercise, and may exercise even less as a result. For example in Saudi Arabia they have a ban on physical education for women. Which is wrong and many different ways, but coming from the fitness aspect of it, this could set those girls up for failure with not knowing how to properly exercise. With some of the other countries on this list lacking a prominent fitness program for children, it can increase childhood obesity, and also make it more difficult for those children to learn how to properly exercise, and perform it more often. Plus the facts clearly show otherwise. Now at this point you are probably wondering what I think is more close to the truth. Well I believe that inactivity does not rise with the more affluent countries, in fact I believe that there is the possibility that the more affluent countries are more active ones. Take a look at the top 25 highest GDP per capita according to the C.I.A. World Fact Book; only two countries appear from the top 25 most inactive list. If you take a look at that same list again and crossreference all of those countries with the lowest unemployment rate list by those C.I.A. World Fact Book, Many of them are in the top 25 of that list. For example Qatar which had the highest GDP, was number three in terms of the lowest unemployment rate. With these countries being financially well off, that allows them to exercise more often than the other countries. As a personal example since I am financially stable, I often do not worry about money and all of those other stressors such as trying to find food and shelter, so I try to exercise as often as possible. So in conclusion, while I am not trying to condone these countries for their lack of exercise, since it

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is vital to living a long healthy life, I however just wanted to bring awareness to the fact that there may be some underlying reason as to why people do not exercise, and that no one should jump to a conclusion before more further extensive research is done, in order to see if it is correct. In conclusion, after being shown the statistics of how age, gender, and wealth do not necessarily affect how physically active or inactive a country is, I hope you will consider performing more extensive research before coming up with a statement such as this one in the future. Sincerely,

Omari Harvey

Comment [BC7]: Omari, Although you begin to hint at key pieces of information, I dont see much engagement in this article, and it certainly does not show that you have been working for four months to develop your opinions on this subject. You do speak with an informed tone to the researcher, but you dont give much information to show that you are informed in the discourse about physical activity, and seem to base your ideas only off of the list of most affluent countries. As you work to revise, I would suggest that you more thoroughly develop your points and incorporate research to back up those points. Expand upon your ideas, include others, and show your reader why you disagree with his argument. -Ms. C Formatted: Font: (Default) Times New Roman, 12 pt

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Works Cited Melnick, Meredith. "The Countries That Work Out The Most (And Least)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 July 2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2013. "Special Report: The Worlds Oldest Populations." Analyst Insight from Euromonitor International. Euromonitor International, 9 Sept. 2011. Web. 03 Apr. 2013. "Top Ten Richest Countries of the World." Mapsofworld.com. Maps of World, 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 03 Apr. 2013. Center, US Census Bureau, Population Division, International Programs. "Female Total Population Statistics - Countries Compared." NationMaster.com. NationMaster, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013. "Central Intelligence Agency." CIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html>. "Central Intelligence Agency." CIA. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2129rank.html>. "Central Intelligence Agency." Welcome to the CIA Web Site . N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2129.html>. "MaltaWeather.com." MaltaWeather.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <http://www.maltaweather.com/climate.shtml>. "Serbia and Montenegro." Climate Information for. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <http://www.climate-zone.com/climate/serbia-montenegro/>.

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Tsai, Tiffany. "Saudi Arabias Boys Only Sports Regulation Withering Under Olympics Heat." Open Equal Free. N.p., 11 June 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. <http://www.openequalfree.org/saudi-arabias-boys-only-sports-regulation-witheringunder-olympics-heat/12232>.