week 6 blog post

The fault does NOT entirely lies within the news media, although I agree it is partially. Most of the arrows actually points to the puplic who actually encouraged the news media into doing so.
In this phone hacking scandal, although it was the news media, in this case , the news of the world who went to the extreme and hacked into phones of family members of victims of accidents, they were doing it due to the number of people reading such "interesting" reports written from the information they have gotten from phone-hacking.
Phone hacking is one of the obvious examples of going into the extreme, there are other cases when the news media actually sneaked into celebrities' houses and report about their home. These acts are invading others privacy. The public should have reacted sooner instead waiting until they realised that civilians are the victims too. if they have reacted faster, perhaps the media would have learnt their lessons earlier and lesser people would be involved in this scandal.
They obvious reason why the media hacked into phones was to hunt for valueable and interesting informations that could help in increasing its readers and earn more. the civilians should change their mind set of only celebrities are worth watching or reading and perhaps these paparazzi actions would decrease .
The fault lies within the news media, but not totally. civilians are at fault too.

week 5 blog post

I do not think true justice exists. At the end of the trial scene, Shylock did not manage to get his deserved piece of flesh from Antonio. He was further questioned and dared by Portia not to drop a drip a vlood if he wanted to cut the flesh of Antonio. Justice seems to be achieve from the scene but I think, perhaps not.
I agree that to the Christians including Antonia and Portia, Shylock deserves the punishments he got in the end-- converting to Christianity. However, think from Shylock's point of view-----is it true justice or even mercy?
Shylock signed a bond with Shylock and is legally supported by law that Shylock ought to get Antonio's flesh.However, Portia managed to change the whole situation despite we know that Shylock deserves the flesh. Although Portia asked Shylock for mercy which he rejected, Portia herself neither granted the "holy" mercy she mentioned in her speech to Shylock in the end.
Now at the start of the post, I mentioned that there is no real justice. Shylock thinks that justice is the law and it is firm and always right. The Christians, however, thinks another way. They think that justice is bringing Shylock to the hell. Justice has a variety of meaning to other people.
There is also no true mercy. Mercy seasons Justice. This is what Portia said but did she herself achieved this? I doubt so. She made Shylock into a living skeleton and took away most of his happiness in life.

Response to open letter to education minister

I totally disagree with her point of view.

Only from my OWN point of view, I think that she is not a hardworking student.

She claims that her chemistry teacher didnt explain why carbon is a non metal and it appears that she was taught that anything right of the staircase line in the periodic table, is metal. I think even if her teacher didnt teach her, basic knowledge is always available in chemistry textbooks, why didnt she read and start complaining about bad teachers forcing rote memory work? A student has responsiblity to find out on his own certain things too, and not to be grumbling about the system without a positive effort on her own part. Sometimes it could be that a specific chemistry teacher is lousy, but i find her article is really criticising the education too much.

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Mr Heng, we are taught Civics and Moral Education from a FILE, and from TEXTBOOKS. We are given CME EXAMS. Surely you would agree this is not the way to go about teaching values? Values cannot be taught, so the education system tries to force it down our throats by teaching us morally-correct behaviour.

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Granted, who am I to make a generalisation and say that all teenagers are this way? I know that there are teenagers and youths out there who are truly compassionate, who would truly go out of their way to help, but I have no arguments in my bag of tricks to argue for the stand that this behaviour is taught by Civics and Moral Education lessons in schools. Rather, more often than not, it is good parenting that leads a child to do so, not CME lessons.

"

As a student myself, I think that there is no wrong memorising facts. In fact , if she thinks that the current education system is focusing on the academics too much, then what is the need to go to school? She might as well ask her own parents to teach her the appropriate moral values at home!

"

Since Social Studies in primary school, we have been fed the system’s easy way out. Instead of actually having values instilled into us, we are taught to give morally-correct answers. We are taught to help old ladies cross roads when they look like they need assistance. Though the last sentence may be a bit of an exaggeration, one cannot deny that it is true. Character is not the knowledge that we should help the old lady cross the road, but the actual act of helping her do it.

"

This is not true. The thought of helping the lady lies within ourselves. There is nothing wrong in the school or the educational system. Or is she meaning that the school should quit teaching us CME on text book, instead spent one whole day out of the week to teach us what to do in every posible situation? I am not trying to boast or what but if I were to see an old lady crossing the road, I would try to offer help if help is NEEDED. Whats the point helping an old lady in a healthy state crossing the road briskly? However, if she really give a reasonable method to teach us the teenagers the right way to teach us morals, I might considder stand on her side.

"

As a Secondary Four student, I experience first-hand the ugliness of the flaws the education system has. In fact, I spent one hour and forty-five minutes writing you this letter. Though I am not sure if you will ever get to read it ever in this lifetime, but this is something that I believe in. I believe in being the change I want to see in the world, or at least in my environment, as cliched as that sounds. Every one else will tell me that this is a waste of time, because I have Preliminary examinations next week and I could have been studying instead of typing this long Facebook note out.

"

I really do not know why is this paragraph neccessary . If she really want the minister to read it, why post it on facebook? Personnaly, I feel that she is just trying to gain attention from the public. Also, if she really want to show that she had put in effort in this letter and she had really consider a lot for this letter, why mention she spent 1 hr 40 mins for this letter? She is just trying to say that she can write such good or long(she thinks) "essay" in such "short " time.

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Have we lost the true meaning of education somewhere in the paper chase, buried under all the degrees and diplomas and paychecks? Or were we lost all along as to what education truly means?

"

If that is the case, why complain to the minister of Singapore? Which country need you not to get a degree and diploma? Complain to the whole world rather than only complaining to Singapore.

"an education is not about pure academics."

Perhaps this is the only point that I agree with her.

Is money important in relationship?

Not all relationships end with "happily ever after". Real life is not like a movie or a romantic story. There is almost zero possibility that someone will pick a handsome beggar as a lover than a handsome millionaire. No doubt that money serve as an important factor in an relationship. I believe most of the couples would quarrel on matters about money.

Yes money is important in a relationship but it is not everything in a relationship. Relationship includes many other factors. Money is a must in current society. Without money, even if a relationship is maintained, it would be broken apart very soon.

In a relationship like marriage, money is spent in everyway-- from honeymoon or wedding costumes. All these are extremely costly but these are musts in a marriage. Perhaps relationship without money only exists in fairytales.

how has war evolved from the past to present

Before nuclear bombs and tanks or even fighter planes are invented, war had existed in the society from the day the first humans existed. How has war evolved from the past to present?

Let us look into depths of this question. "past" is a general term that can be anything that happened before. In this post, my "past" refers to the days before modern tanks and machinaries was invented.

The most significant factors of the comparison is technology. Technology here mostly refers to the internet and the amunitions. However, despite the differences, the main objectives of war still remains the same--- to defend or conquer.

Current wars are more civilized and most is done to affect the lives of the publics. The use of technology allows wars to be more globalised and this results in more damage to earth. Although nuclear bombs are baned, it is still possible for countries to use them without caring about the rules. Just imagine , if a nuclear bomb land in Singapore, the whole island would sink or be destroyed within seconds. Due to the fatal consequences, wars nowadays are more reasonable in a way that the government will consider a lot of things before launching a war.

Post reflection on "The Soldier"

Young men in Singapore, including you, will have to do National Serivce. Why do you think National Service is compulsory in Singapore and why is it important? In the poem, the speaker expresses his love for his country, England. Do you find this same spirit of passion and patriotism Singaporeans have for our country? Why? Do you have this same spirit of patriotism for Singapore? Why?

National service is compulsary in Singapore as it helps in promoting national loyalty and as well as enough manpower to defend the nation in times of need. National service is an important proccess every man has to go through. It is an identity, a symbol and a life. It signifies the growth of a youth to a patrotic citizen of the nation and it also is the main force in defending Singapore.

"All citizens love their country. " Someone told me that when I was a kid. Now recalling this sentence, I realise that it is not true. Yes majority of the citizens love their coountry, but not all. Passionate for the nation only lies within those who really been through the hard times with Singapore before it has been developed into today's successful nation. The youths like us are not as patrotic as the older generations. Perhaps this is why Singapore has made national service compulsary.

Dracula

Jonathan Harker is sent by his employer to Transylvania to conclude some house-purchasing business with a foreign nobleman. Dracula the count seemed like an ideal host: welcoming, hospitable, and genuinely interested in everything his guest can tell him about England.

However, this count never eats, drinks, or appears by daylight; he has neither mirrors nor servants; he delivers strange warnings and has a peculiar reaction to the sight of blood....

Soon Jonathan realises that he’s literally imprisoned in a nightmare from which his only escape could well be death - if not at the hands (or teeth) of Dracula, then at those of the castle’s other residents..

In Whitby, Mina Murray is becoming increasingly worried. Her fiancé is missing somewhere in Eastern Europe, and her friend Lucy Westenra is behaving oddly. She has become vaguely anxious and has resumed her childhood habit of sleepwalking. Things get worse after a violent storm and the accompanying arrival of a Russian ship occupied only by a large dog and a dead captain. The dog disappears, and soon so does Lucy, whom Mina discovers in the churchyard across the bay with a tall dark figure bending over her.... After this latest sleepwalking misadventure, Lucy goes into a decline. she has become vaguely anxious and has resumed her childhood habit of sleepwalking. Things get worse after a violent storm and the accompanying arrival of a Russian ship occupied only by a large dog and a dead captain. The dog disappears, and soon so does Lucy, whom Mina discovers in the churchyard across the bay with a tall dark figure bending over her.... After this latest sleepwalking misadventure, Lucy goes into a decline.

Mina went to Van Helsing and the real battle began. ( Due the story being too complicated, I might have interpreted certain parts wrongly.)

This story is extremely hard to read as it has got a lot a lot of point of views and I got muddled halfway through. And I do not really get how Jonathan escaped in the end.