I would like to talk about the recent incident of a girl ( who was a looter or might have been ) shot by police. Some say it was on purpose, others say it was a warning shot gone astray and also whether looting is correct.
Well firstly i feel that it is ridiculous that people say it was on purpose that the police shot her. The whole world is out to help them get out of this crisis. This is a relief effort, the police didnt come to shoot people, they came to HELP. Besides you cant be sure if the police did it on purpose, so they should not just to conclusions so quickly, making the police the bad guys, when they are actually helping out in the relief efforts.
When we come to the root of the problem, it is all about the looters. I do not think what they are doing is correct. They are not the only ones who are waiting for food. Everyone is desperate, everyone wants to get the supplies. What gives them the right to jump the queue and loot the supplies? I feel that they should wait like everyone else, and that looting is an extremely selfish act.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Prison + Luxury? That's a no-no.
Well the article on this incident is extremely long. Long story short? An indonesian woman in jail bribed the prison individuals into making her prison life into a 5-year long hotel stay. Her prison cell is probably 5 times nicer than my own room.... *no comment* Do you think this should go unallowed? Letting a woman stay in a 7-star hotel prison cell, enjoying premium food and private toilets, while others share cells, share toilets and live in a -3 star prison cell? In my opinion, this whole thing is just plain WRONG.
Firstly, why are people sent to prison? They are sent to repent for the crimes that they have commited and in the process if they still are really stubborn, a dirty prison cell is chucked in to add salt to the wound. Not my cup of tea i would say.However, when we look at this woman, it is like she is living in a free hotel with good services, and why is that so? Because she had money to bribe. I think that if you dare to do the crime, you should do the time for it too. But this woman treats it like it is nothing, even having a meeting room for herself. I find this absolutely ridiculous and should not be condoned. In my point of view, I think that she should have her sentence doubled and brought to a normal cell, where she will have to live in prison like everyone else does
However if we look at the root of the problem, who allowed all this to happen? The corrupt officers. I feel that if crime rate is to be lowered, we must make sure that the ones who are in charge of doing so are pure and not corrupted. If they were, would it not just make everything worst?
Firstly, why are people sent to prison? They are sent to repent for the crimes that they have commited and in the process if they still are really stubborn, a dirty prison cell is chucked in to add salt to the wound. Not my cup of tea i would say.However, when we look at this woman, it is like she is living in a free hotel with good services, and why is that so? Because she had money to bribe. I think that if you dare to do the crime, you should do the time for it too. But this woman treats it like it is nothing, even having a meeting room for herself. I find this absolutely ridiculous and should not be condoned. In my point of view, I think that she should have her sentence doubled and brought to a normal cell, where she will have to live in prison like everyone else does
However if we look at the root of the problem, who allowed all this to happen? The corrupt officers. I feel that if crime rate is to be lowered, we must make sure that the ones who are in charge of doing so are pure and not corrupted. If they were, would it not just make everything worst?
MOE ah MOE, do we really need "this"?
This is one topic i have been dying to share about :P. The "this" i am talking about is chinese paper 1 ( in secondary school ). In secondary one, i stepped into my classroom only to find out we were going to be doing letters, such as private and business.
Well i just really do not like the fact we have to learn about private letters since it does not have any real life application. In our age, when we talk to each other, it's either calling, SMS or MSN. Letters? That's so out-dated. Furthermore, the topics we write about are like, persuading someone to not quit school, to get someone out their addiction. Let's face it, we don't talk about things like that between friends. That's why now counsellors exist, to guide and help people who are in need of mental support and guidance that their parents cannot give. I mean, probably we ourselves have problems of our own, like a lazy attitude etc. Are we really in the position to help others out when we cannot even help ourselves?
As for business letters, people mostly use e-mails and the format is provided for you. Letters would take so long to travel to one another, and with the current tools we have, who would even be in the right mind to use letters to communicate? E-mailing is definitely the way to go. We are told to memorise formats etc etc. However, if it is provided, why memorise? ( waste of time, is it not? )
I mean if they say we need to intergrate ourselves with chinese , i would not mind learning about chinese history etc, at least it's interesting. So i feel that MOE should change their way of teaching to more effective method.
Well i just really do not like the fact we have to learn about private letters since it does not have any real life application. In our age, when we talk to each other, it's either calling, SMS or MSN. Letters? That's so out-dated. Furthermore, the topics we write about are like, persuading someone to not quit school, to get someone out their addiction. Let's face it, we don't talk about things like that between friends. That's why now counsellors exist, to guide and help people who are in need of mental support and guidance that their parents cannot give. I mean, probably we ourselves have problems of our own, like a lazy attitude etc. Are we really in the position to help others out when we cannot even help ourselves?
As for business letters, people mostly use e-mails and the format is provided for you. Letters would take so long to travel to one another, and with the current tools we have, who would even be in the right mind to use letters to communicate? E-mailing is definitely the way to go. We are told to memorise formats etc etc. However, if it is provided, why memorise? ( waste of time, is it not? )
I mean if they say we need to intergrate ourselves with chinese , i would not mind learning about chinese history etc, at least it's interesting. So i feel that MOE should change their way of teaching to more effective method.
Too Little For Haiti?
Well as most of you would know there has been an earthquake in Haiti, destroying homes and families, real tragic. However this particular image taken from the Straits time made me really curious. It shows the contributions made by multiple countries. So lets take a look:
So from this we can see that most major nations are being your friendly neighbourhood helper. As we go down the list, the figures are pretty big, impressive. Then at the bottom of the list. We see US---- THE SINGAPOREANS ( well our government ). Fifty thousand for the relief efforts. Compared to other countries, isn't that figure real pathetic? I mean, even a single private company raised more funds than that, surely the government can do better?Lets look at the possible reasons for this pathetic donation:
1. Singapore is in bad financial times?
Answer: I wouldn't think so, with all the celebrations going on about the recession being over and everyone is happy. Besides, worst come to worst, there is always the reliable national reserve isnt there? ^^
2. An important ratio procedure to follow?
Answer: Quite possible. But i do not think it would be so strict till we can only donate a five-digit figure. Since when was Singapore such a poor country? NEVER.
3.Worries of misuse of funds?
Answer: Well we cannot really blame them for worrying that way. However, it that is the case, why not send medical help and people to help out? So i do not think this is a valid excuse.
In the end i can only presume that singapore government just did not want to donate that much.
Anyone disagree?
Thursday, January 14, 2010
File Hosting!
Today i just read an article in the straits times on file hosting sites such as megaupload and rapidshare. The movie industry voiced their concerns about these websites because people upload the episodes/movies(might be pirated) onto internet and let them watch at extremely low prices. Basically, their worried because they lose money from this.
There have been speeches that say file sharing is bad, as it destroys profits of movies, that is a bad thing to do and cannot be condoned. However i tend to disagree. When i look in the point of view of the movie makers, sure it's bad, since i would lose money and my wallet would be thinner.
However looking the point of the viewer, it is not a bad thing. In this world there is naturally rich and poor people. Poor people may not be able to enjoy the luxuries of an extremely big hit show, however with file sharing, they will be also able to enjoy it, at a lower affordable price for them. This kind of makes it fair for them, to make up for them not be able to see it in the theathers, dont you think?
Thinking long term, especially for those movies with sequels and prequels, this in some ways actually is good for them (in my opinion). If more people were to be able to watch it, the movie would get more publicity. Also then, when the movie makers released out a trailer, those who may have watched the prequel, may find it worth saving up for, to watch in the theathers. Thus there may be more viewers. Of course this is assuming the people wont just watched the pirated version. But if the movie really was good, wont people want to watch it on a big screen?
There have been speeches that say file sharing is bad, as it destroys profits of movies, that is a bad thing to do and cannot be condoned. However i tend to disagree. When i look in the point of view of the movie makers, sure it's bad, since i would lose money and my wallet would be thinner.
However looking the point of the viewer, it is not a bad thing. In this world there is naturally rich and poor people. Poor people may not be able to enjoy the luxuries of an extremely big hit show, however with file sharing, they will be also able to enjoy it, at a lower affordable price for them. This kind of makes it fair for them, to make up for them not be able to see it in the theathers, dont you think?
Thinking long term, especially for those movies with sequels and prequels, this in some ways actually is good for them (in my opinion). If more people were to be able to watch it, the movie would get more publicity. Also then, when the movie makers released out a trailer, those who may have watched the prequel, may find it worth saving up for, to watch in the theathers. Thus there may be more viewers. Of course this is assuming the people wont just watched the pirated version. But if the movie really was good, wont people want to watch it on a big screen?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Loansharks and the borrowers!
For the first topic in this blog, i shall talk about the article mentioned in the straits times on the 13 January. It mentioned that there was a proposal of the idea that to try to stop the loansharks and the borrowing of money, the idea of counting the people who borrow the money as criminals was brought up. There was some who agreed to this and while others did not. What do you think?
For me i find that this idea is unfair to the borrowers and should not be taken into consideration. Why? First i feel that we ought to put ourselves in the shoes of the borrowers. People know full well that loansharks are bad, especially from the bad image created by the press and media, where loansharks kill, set houses on fire to those who dont pay up. However, people will still end up borrowing money because they are desperate, they have no one else to turn to but the loan sharks and can only put up with the killing interest rate.
At this point you would think, why not just ask bank for loan? Well it would be a pretty naive thinking that banks just give loans out like water. Banks will give loans to people who they are very confident will pay back. But if the person's future or past didnt look all that bright, theres a good chance that the bank wouldnt give a loan. Also it might not be the person's fault that he/she is in dire need of money. It could have been for the sake of a family member who had gone haywire, but still very important to he/she.
One scenario could be, a pretty poor family were getting along just fine. They had stable jobs, their kids were studying, getting average results, basically your average joe family. However, what if a kid just made one mistake and landed himself a debt and did not have the financial means for it. Naturally the parents would still want to save him, since he is their flesh and blood.
However, what if the bank was not willing to give them a loan? Who could they turn to? Loan-sharks. This is because loan-sharks operate much simpler. They give you the money, charge you the interest, you pay back the money, everything is good. The only problem would be if the payment was not fast enough.
So from this i thus feel that we should make it harder for loan-sharks by tracking them down etc. ( singapore police is good of course ^^) Whereas the government could help the families who are in unfortunate situations more, preventing the families from turning to loan sharks. In this way, business will go downhill and loansharks hopefully will be discouraged from going on any further!
P.S. Please comment ^^
For me i find that this idea is unfair to the borrowers and should not be taken into consideration. Why? First i feel that we ought to put ourselves in the shoes of the borrowers. People know full well that loansharks are bad, especially from the bad image created by the press and media, where loansharks kill, set houses on fire to those who dont pay up. However, people will still end up borrowing money because they are desperate, they have no one else to turn to but the loan sharks and can only put up with the killing interest rate.
At this point you would think, why not just ask bank for loan? Well it would be a pretty naive thinking that banks just give loans out like water. Banks will give loans to people who they are very confident will pay back. But if the person's future or past didnt look all that bright, theres a good chance that the bank wouldnt give a loan. Also it might not be the person's fault that he/she is in dire need of money. It could have been for the sake of a family member who had gone haywire, but still very important to he/she.
One scenario could be, a pretty poor family were getting along just fine. They had stable jobs, their kids were studying, getting average results, basically your average joe family. However, what if a kid just made one mistake and landed himself a debt and did not have the financial means for it. Naturally the parents would still want to save him, since he is their flesh and blood.
However, what if the bank was not willing to give them a loan? Who could they turn to? Loan-sharks. This is because loan-sharks operate much simpler. They give you the money, charge you the interest, you pay back the money, everything is good. The only problem would be if the payment was not fast enough.
So from this i thus feel that we should make it harder for loan-sharks by tracking them down etc. ( singapore police is good of course ^^) Whereas the government could help the families who are in unfortunate situations more, preventing the families from turning to loan sharks. In this way, business will go downhill and loansharks hopefully will be discouraged from going on any further!
P.S. Please comment ^^
Why do i blog?
Well for all those who are curious about me ( which i doubt there are any), here is why i made this blog. Basically i usually have A LOT of opinions about things happening around me, and i sometimes cant help but express it!( Nothing offensive of course) Thus I'm using this blog as the tool to do so.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
First Blog Post!
Hi Hi all!
Not exactly sure who or if ANYONE even reads this, but hi. Making this blog for my sec2 life. Pretty boring when there are some things that you cant tell your parents and there isnt anyone else around you for you to share it with.
On this blog i will be posting my various opinions of different articles or books i read.
Not exactly sure who or if ANYONE even reads this, but hi. Making this blog for my sec2 life. Pretty boring when there are some things that you cant tell your parents and there isnt anyone else around you for you to share it with.
On this blog i will be posting my various opinions of different articles or books i read.
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