Week Six Blog Prompt

The news media should be blamed for the unhealthy paparazzi culture and going to the extremes for sensational news. How far do you agree?

I agree because when the term paparazzi come to peoples' minds, they would be known as a stalker. This is because even though they are movie stars, these celebrities are still people. Everyone needs their own comfort zone and privacy. These paparazzi follow them everywhere they go, shopping, spa and to exaggerate, they may have a campsite outside the homes of celebrities. From the perspective of a celebrity, wouldn't it be creepy to know that there would be paparazzi following behind wherever you go. One may even have the sound of a camera shutter stuck in their head whilst the thought of people following them everywhere.

A counter argument may be that it is because of the social status of these people that keeps the paparazzi on their move. The fact that these people have a higher status may be why so many people are curious of what they do or did. They may think that they are the same species yet there's a difference in status. Some people may inflict insulting comments to demote the celebrities because of jealousy. They are jealous that they could not have the same fame, wealth or attention and wants the celebrities to feel the same. Thus this may be tentative from the point of view of this issue.

Week Five Blog Prompt

No, I believe that there was in some way a form of justice but not true justice. In the trail scene after Portia came in, she asked Shylock three times whether or not he was going to show some mercy towards Antonio by not taking his pound of flesh but the money instead. The vengeful Shylock wanted that pound of flesh so much because he knows that Antonio would surely bleed to death, thus rejecting the money for the flesh. The manipulative Portia then found a way to save Antonio's life after seeing a loophole in the bond they made. It stated that a pound of flesh is Shylock's to take but, it did not state that he could have any of Antonio's blood. Once Shylock heard Portia's point, he immediately wanted the money instead of the flesh because clearly, there would be bleeding once the knife goes into Antonio and being trapped in a corner and out of desperation, he pleaded to have his ducats instead. Using the Venetian law, Portia said that Shylock was to give up his life, but the Duke spared him mercy but took away his entire assets. There was justice towards Shylock because he clearly wanted to claim a life but did not succeed so he was punished yet justice was not done towards Antonio for not paying back Shylock.

Persons of power, authority, and wealth can easily manipulate Justice and Law. They bribe and bribe even more just to save their title and to keep away from embarrassment. A perfect example is corruption in certain countries. Using their power and the authority they have in the government, they take taxpayers' money as they wish, spending them like no one's business when in fact, they are themselves are in the wrong the they were suppose to be examples for the nation to follow, how ironic.

Week Four Blog Prompt

The letter written to the Education Minister, Mr Heng, was pretty impressive to me personally. First of all, the fact the teenager, Janelle Lee, had the courage to write to someone of such a high status impresses me already. She mentioned a couple of key subjects that many students in Singapore also have but do not have the guts to write a letter to the Minister himself. However, I do not totally agree with one of her points, that is the point that student these days do not ask, 'Why?' With the technology advancement today, students can simply go on the net and search for the answers on their own. So why bother someone else when the answers are already available on the worldwide web? However, maybe a handful may only go ask teachers or parents for more information that they could not find, or maybe just a better understanding of it or more in depth information in simple English. Whatever the case, I believe that students these days have not stop asking, 'Why?'

Her tone in the open letter was rather casual. I think that probably she told that no one would actually read it and furthermore, that it would not be made public. Maybe it was just her way of expressing her unsatisfactory of the education system, with some points she recommends to improve the whole system. However, she said that 'As a Secondary Four student, I experience first-hand the ugliness of the flaws the education system has'. This sounds as if she is saying that there are no good points about the education system. This is the system that made many Singaporeans top scholars, made them create companies that may be leading the industry in the world, this is the system that made students in Singapore who they are including Janelle herself and all she see are flaws in the Education system? I beg to differ.

If I were to write a letter to the Education Minister, I would mention that teachers should give us more practical than just notes and worksheet, as most students would remember better through first-hand account. I would also include the fact that tests and examinations pose a too big importance in the system as only when it comes to the tests and exams, the students will then rush to memorise and revise all that has been learnt just because they were told that these were going to determine where they would be going in future, what they would be doing and who they are.

Week Three Blog Prompt

Money, money, money. A saying goes, 'Money makes the world go round', but is this actually true? I personally have absolutely no idea. Money is indeed a big deal in our current lives and without money, there's nothing you can get and nothing you can do.

What about money and marriage? In the past, the Chinese would put up their daughters in for a 'transaction'. In this 'transaction', the groom has to give the bride's family a certain amount of money or something that has some sort of value in exchange for the bride's hand in marriage. In these cases, money is indeed involved but some may consider this as a sort of custom rather than greed over money since it has already happened for hundreds of years in China.

In the present context, this Chinese tradition still exists and some families having a low income, would find the more wealthy families to marry their daughter off. However, this is not as simply as in the olden days as the youngsters wants their own say and would not marry to someone for the rest of her life just because the family wants that little bit more money.

Is there an upward trend in relationships and marriages because of money? I really do not think so. This is because, nowadays, women can also be independent and be out there working along side the men. They can even support a family alone, so why would they want to marry because of money since they already have money. Personally, I think that people marry to one another is simply because of love, the simple yet complicated and subjective, topic.

Week Two Blog Prompt

Difference between war in the past and war in the present has changed quite drastically. In the past, war was fought using nothing other than hands. Then, Man became smarter and used the things around us to create items, they created weapons such as using the branches and trunks from trees to create spears, wooden swords and perhaps clubs. After the discovery of metal, Man used it to arm them with the weapons they previously created to make them even more dangerous, causes more damage and more effective in killing enemies.

To make things worse, Man found that the use of combustion is effective in making things move at high speeds to penetrate things and the human body, and the gun was invented. The gun has changed umpteen times and changed the way we fight. From the close range fist-fight to now, long range shooting, this changed all in the name of efficiency and effectiveness. Make types of handheld guns exists including machine guns, sniper rifles and pistols. All have different types of uses but all lead to a common goal, to kill.

Land combat was still not enough for the human race. We invented fighter jets, submarines and ships to have more control over what's mine and theirs'. Altogether, the human, weapons, guns were placed together into one common thing, a fighter jet or the ship, all add up to make a deadly combination.

All in all, we can safely say that the way we fight in battles today have vastly changed since the time of the stone age.

Week One Blog Prompt

I think National Service in Singapore is compulsory because every men in Singapore should have that chance to show their patriotism and love for the country they live in, Singapore. It is important because in the world we live in today, there are so many threats, especially terrorist threats. Since the 9/11 incident that happened to the United States of America in the year 2001, every country in the world has stepped up security measures to prevent such horrible incidents from happening in their country and even if they are unable to prevent such incidents, they would be able to respond quickly enough to catch the culprits, save the victims and assure everyone that it is save once again. Singapore being Singapore, we have faced couple of threats. The one that most people would remember is the plane hijack done by Mas Selamat bin Kastari, the leader of terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiah. After his escape from the Whitley Road Detention Centre, the Singapore Arm Forces, Singapore Navy as well as the Singapore Police Force were deployed. These men went through the National Service and came out as fit young soldiers and policemen, and in times of need, they will be sent out for task in order to keep Singapore safe. That's my explanation for why we have National Service compulsory in Singapore.

Do I think I am patriotic to Singapore? Personally, I have absolutely no idea. I can't say that I am patriotic at times because I really hate somethings on the island. Yet, I cannot say that I am not patriotic towards Singapore because I do indeed like or even love things in Singapore. So it's actually quite contradicting.

2011 Term 2 Online Lesson 25/5 Task 1

The poem that I will be doing on is Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson.

Difficulty Rating: * *Rainbow Death

America did not foreseeGreen, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!Expecting others to pay a high price.Now thinking twice?Toll on the innocent and unborn.Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.All the deceit continues to spread.Nefariously America led astray -Generations untold WILL pay -Execrable effects of agent orange spray!Hubert Wilson

About the poet:

He was a Vietnam War veteran (as were his four brothers) who served in the USAF Security Service. He, along with a dozen or so intelligence school grads, prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating to be sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia in 1970. About half of them ended up in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. The rest of them, along with Hubert Wilson, were assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, and what eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang!
Hubert Wilson’s health problems started approximately 15 years ago with unexplained headaches and limb pains. Four years ago his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc. No physician has everdiagnosed the specific illness. No physician has ever rendered any form of medical assistance! Hubert Wilson’s number one educated guess is the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst.
Fortunately, since his brain still functions moderately well (and I have mobility issues), he had turned to writing.

About the Poem:

Hubert Wilson’s Rainbow Death speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering – not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”, which appears to be the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD (Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin) —used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

“From 1962 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called "Rainbow Herbicides" employed in the herbicidal warfare program. During the production of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused numerous health problems for the millions of people who have been exposed. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.” -- Wikipedia

Thus, we can see from this quote why Hubert Wilson had written a poem entitled Rainbow Death. This poem, Rainbow Death, may remind us that wars actually are not over when the wars are over.

Source : www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html