Hey all just a quick personal update after a few months away from my blog. First, sorry for not being very active for the few weeks before as I was too busy mugging for the tests, but now that it's over, there's the EOY exams!! YIPEE! So , I would probably be away for the rest of this year, yeah, don't expect too much.

Anyways, now that we have gotten most of our results back, I have calculated my current MSG in the worst case scenario to be:

2.67

Wait what? No no no that can't be. Best case scenario:

1.67

ahh, that's much better.

What's yours?
Leave a comment or leave a response in the tagboard.
Alright, that's all for today, bye
-DHY




With reference to one of the reading materials for Friday's English Current Affairs Discussion (How Dare He make the MRT look nicer?), I would like to express my opinions about the recent MRT vandalism case.

First of all, kudos to the writer who wrote the article on his blog and the witty title. Sarcasm never gets old. It made me laugh for quite a while, so thanks. :D

So, for those of you who do not know already, 2 foreigners, Oliver Fricker and Lloyd Dane Alexander, broke into the Changi MRT depot and sprayed MRT trains with graffiti. The incident was reported by commuters who noticed the vandalised MRT and already, there are footage of it posted on the Internet.



So, what's the big deal about it? It's just vandalism. Happens all the time. Exactly, so what is all the fuss over this incident?

The sentence.

For decorating the MRT, Oliver Fricker would receive a sentence of 3-8 strokes of the cane, 3 years in jail and a 2000 dollar fine.

What? 3-8 Strokes of the cane? Are you kidding? I totally agree with what the post mentioned-for having an artistic flair and painting the MRT, he has to sit on a rubber float a pillow for the rest of his life. However, that is the truth, sadly. It is written in black and white on the law book of Singapore that vandalism warrants caning. In my opinion, it is a far too harsh and barbaric of a punishment. Besides, he did not even paint anything offensive on the train. I mean I would have understood if he was given a slightly harsher treatment if he printed out the "f" word and a one-finger-salute on the train but all he wrote was "McKoy Banos", the artists' signatures on the train in an intricate, artistic manner. The colorful MRT trains was seen by many commuters and many of them thought that it was a publicity stunt my SMRT and thought that it was a refreshing change from the dull, ordinary trains.

Then, why is he being persecuted if his actions had done potentially no harm and given such a harsh punishment? In my opinion, this is all due to Singapore's old-fashioned ways - the punishment act was based on the Vandalism Act of 1966. 1966! Think about it, the punishment is 44 years old! In the course of 4 and a half decades, human rights have already took a great leap of advancement and physical punishment is not used anymore and maybe even criticised by other democratic nations. Singapore should update its laws accordingly instead of risk being criticised by other nations just because they caned a foreigner. Already, angry netizens are commenting about this incident and how barbaric Singapore is:

"YES Singapore DOES impose FLOGGINGS (which is mandatory) for vandalism. Two different considerations here. Fricker sentenced to be FLOGGED FOR VANDALISM--which is written into Singapores violent laws. He was also convicted for trespassing, which is a security breach, but NO beating for that. Beating anyone to inflict bodily harm and or injury IS VIOLENT, SADISTIC, and BARBARIC! Oliver Fricker is no terrorist and the judge knew it acknowledging there was no sinister agenda"

"Many countries have strict laws but only a few in the world (SINGAPORE IS ONE OF THEM) has sadistic MANDATORY FLOGGINGs for minor things such as illegals overstaying a visa must be beaten at least three lashes with a wood rattan stick, vandalism is mandatory beating of 3 lashes, selling fireworks etc. This country is fanatical with beating people namely the male population. Brutality is a sad way of life here. Look at youtube Malaysia whip -More of the same type VIOLENCE. "

"OKAY KIDS, DADDY'S GONNA CANCEL OUR TRIP TO SINGAPORE, THAT PLACE IS JUST TOO INAPPROPRIATE FOR U KIDS, JUZ LOOK AT THEIR ECCENTRIC ATTITUDE TO FOREIGNERS. BUT NVM, DADDY'S JUZ BOOK TICKETS TO ISRAEL...! MUCH MORE SAFER AND MODERNIZED! "

However, it is still true that vandalism and trespassing of protected property are offences and maybe some of the comment above are a little over exaggerated but Fricker should have been given a lighter punishment, maybe a heavier fine but slight reduction of his imprisonment and no caning. Furthermore, he trespassed protected property and should be lawfully punished for that offence as that breach in security could lead to terrorists realizing how easy it was to break in to the depots and perhaps target them.

To conclude, I would just like to say that graffiti can be viewed as a form of contemporary art that should be appreciated or as a sign of rebellion and an offence punishable by law. Singapore simply views it as the latter.


Bibliography:

• http://kixes.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/how-dare-he-make-the-mrt-look-nicer/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CV4JYKBEQo
  

In my opinion, foreign talents are more of a boon to Singapore in some areas while less of so in others.

Firstly, I feel that foreign talents are more of a bane than a boon to Singapore in the workforce. In the workforce, foreign talents deprive locals of their jobs as they are usually more capable and talented than the latter, and expect lower incomes than the locals as the cost of living at their homes are usually less and they would therefore expect and require less. These factors coupled with the fact that the society we live in today is extremely mercenary and competitive would mean that bosses would be more inclined to hire foreign talents than to hire locals. While some may say that one's success is measured by his capability and that Singapore has many capable, talented people too, we have to accept the fact that everything is based on money and with foreign talents available at a much lower cost, which boss would not want to hire foreigners instead of locals if given the option? Furthermore, with the limited amount of jobs available in Singapore and the influx of foreign talents, there is a very low chance of finding enough jobs for both foreigners and locals. As a result, social problems might arise in the long run from the unemployed locals.

Secondly, I feel that Foreign talents are more of a boon than of a bane in the education system. Here, the competition is not so intense and the consequences are not as severe as compared to the workforce. In fact, the presence of foreign talents would encourage locals to perform better in order to catch up with them. However, problems would still arise; due to their cultural and other differences, locals and foreigners might find it hard to socialize with each other and lead to isolation or maybe even bullying of foreigners or locals, whichever is the minority.

To conclude, I feel that foreign talents are more advantageous to Singapore in some areas than in others.




After the principal dialogue's section yesterday, I feel obliged to write about the topic of plagiarism.
So what exactly is plagiarism? The word itself derived from a Latin word which means "to-kidnap". As it suggest, plagiarism is "The action or practice of plagiarizing; the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another." according to the Oxford English Dictionary Online ( I quoted my sources so this is not plagiarism). Basically, stealing.

So, if stealing is immoral, why do so many people still plagiarise? As mentioned yesterday at the Dialogue session, time constraints and laziness are primary factors-Why bother to think of your own ideas when you have it readily available on the Internet? Furthermore, the dawn of the Information Age and the mass production of computers have also encouraged plagiarism. Computer functions such as copy and paste and the huge variety of content on the Internet, it is difficult to avoid plagiarism, even when unintentional.

But if we are not supposed to copy ideas from the Internet, what is the bibliography section at the end of the research assignment for? True, it is to cite sources but not of sources which you simply copy and paste to your Microsoft Word document, but sources that you have read thoroughly and understood completely, along with what you have deduced from studying these sources. Yes, it is difficult and time-consuming and all of us have been tempted to plagiarise many times but it is better to spend 6 mundane hours studying 10 articles than spending much more time behind bars for being caught plagiarising.

So, what could we do to avoid plagiarism? Firstly, we could refer to hard copy sources such as books for research materials instead of information on the Internet. This would slightly discourage us from plagiarising material. Furthermore, hard copy sources are usually more reliable than those on the Internet as the latter might be written by people who might not have even read about the subject before and has been up on the web for such a short period of time that it might not even have been accurately assessed. Secondly, we could develop our critical thinking skills more so we would rely less on external sources but think of equally good ideas ourselves.

Above all, it comes down to one's moral integrity-everyone has the choice to plagiarise or not to do so.

Bibliography:
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/howto/infoskills_plagiarism.shtml
http://ezproxy.lib.ed.ac.uk/login?url=http://dictionary.oed.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism
Principal's dialogue session, 29/ 6/10
See, I cited my sources I'm not plagiarising.:D





Well, so I have been to Shanghai and have visited the World Expo. How was it? I only have 1 word to describe it:

PEOPLE



Yes, fortunately or unfortunately. Need I say more? The Expo grounds were filled to the brim, or maybe even more, with people and where did those people go? Yes, to the pavilions, so now you have virtually all the queues to the pavilions completely taken up. It is no wonder that a Chinese politician made a joke saying that the World Expo is nothing but for bored people to kill time by queuing. Due to the overwhelming crowd, I regret to say that I have only visited a mere 8 pavilions, a drop in the ocean and I did not even visit the Singapore pavilion. However, I did visit the "untouchable" China pavilion. As its name suggests, people have to queue or even camp for hours before even granted mere entry to the pavilion. However, I feel that it was worth it (not just because of the fact that our tour group was granted instant access to the secondary queue). The pavilion did indeed exhibit China's superior technology and economy through the bombardment of cutting-edge modern facilities and exhibits, the manifestation of the country's prosperity, and needless to say, the pavilion alone was enough to make my day through its interactive and fun features.

I also visited the less well known corporate pavilions situated at the other bank of the river and wanted to visit the Coca-Cola pavilion, partly in order to get a bottle of free coke, but my spirits were dampened by the relentless queue. However, I did enter an aerospace pavilion which was still quite entertaining despite its small size.

Overall, I feel that the 2010 Shanghai World Expo has been a successful event so far and I would have thoroughly enjoyed it....

....If not for the overwhelming number of people.




As you all know, the World Expo has began. Actually it began a month ago but I was too busy to update my blog about the World Expo, so pardon my "lag". Anyways, so the World Expo kicked off on the 1st of May with an explosive start. Literally. If you don't believe me just watch this video:



See what I meant?
The mouth-gaping 10 minute fireworks display is not all, the opening ceremony of the World Expo had other various colourful performances contributed by not just China, but countries all over the world, signifying the main reason for this event-unity amongst all nations. Indeed, it was an eye-opener and a visual treat for all those who mange to catch it on Television. I was no exception, unwilling to miss such a huge-scaled global event.

In my opinion, the opening ceremony reflected China's prosperity and was even better than the opening ceremony of the last mega event China hosted, the Beijing Olympics, showing the nation's constant growth and improvement. However, only time will tell whether it reflects the success of the actual event itself or not; due to the recent economic crisis, many countries are short of funds and are unable to build lavish pavilions for the event to showcase their culture. Even superpowers like the United States are hardly able to come up with anything up to standard due to a shortage of funds. Greece was a particular example. Due to a failure in the country's economy and the collapse of their currency, Greece was unable to come up with anything more than a painted rectangular building, hardly enough to showcase its rich history which dates back even to the Stone Age. Furthermore, many people are unwilling to visit the World Expo due to the complaints of long queues and the sweltering summer weather.

Despite these, I believe the World Expo would still be a successful event and China and the world's efforts would not go down the drain. I would be visiting the World Expo during the June holidays, so stay tuned for part 2!


Happy Holidays everyone! :D




1. Point of view
Point- A war veteran of the Vietnam war who has personal experience in handling agent orange.
Evidence - "Toll on the innocent and unborn.", “Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.”,
Elaboration – The writer feels that the war not only takes its toll on the soldiers who took part in the war but also the unborn child of those soldiers. These children, although had no part in the war, but still have to suffer the consequences. This expresses how the writer empathizes with such innocent beings, as they have to pay the price for their forefathers mistake- to join the war, when they themselves had not done anything wrong.

2. Situation and Setting
Point - The nature of this conflict is a combination of ethics and social characteristics.
Evidence - "Generations untold WILL pay", "Execrable effects of the Orange Spray"
Elaboration - The evidences shows the horrific effects of the Orange Spray which will be passed on to the next generation of Vietnamese people, affecting the lives of of the children about to be born. Thus, low ethic level of the Americans can be seen as they did not seem to care about the next generation. The social characteristics is that the conflict involving the herbicides will leave a mark, permanently scar society forever.

3.Language/Diction
Point-The author wanted to show and reveal the truth behind the America's herbicidal weapon in the Vietnam War through his language. The diction shows the speaker's sarcastic attitude towards the Americans.
Evidence- "America did not foresee", "Now thinking twice?"
Elaboration: Despite America not being able to foresee the pain and agony that herbicides will caused towards the people, they did not reconsider as seen from the question mark in the evidence, which implies that even after they realised the horrific effects of the Orange Spray, they did not take any actions and still continue with the original measure, and this signifies their little sense of guilt.

4)Personal response- War is cruel and inhumane. In a war, no one benefits. The Rainbow Herbicides were originally used by the Americans against Vietnamese crops. However, it also had an undesirable side effect. Many Americans came in contact with the Herbicides and as a result they had incurable health problems. The children of these Americans were born with many health defects. Despite being innocent, they will have to suffer for the rest of their lives, for reasons they can’t comprehend.




Rainbow Death:

America did not foresee Green, 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

Conflict represented in the poem:
Firstly, let's start off with the poet's background. Hubert Wilson was a soldier who served in the Vietnam war in the USAF service. He was sent to Shemya island in Alaska, a place heavily contaminated with Agent Orange, a type of herbicidal gas used to clear forests in Vietnam in order to expose the hiding spots of the Vietnamese guerillas. It is part of the "Rainbow herbicides", a group of herbicides used for herbicidal warfare and as its name suggests, it consists of gases which had names such as "Agent Blue" and "Agent Purple", which were all highly toxic and indeed, he contracted numerous disease after his service. He begin to suffer from Parkinson-like symptoms and lose control of his central nervous system yet no physician or doctor could diagnose his condition. However, his mind still functions well despite the Agent-Orange poisoning and he has thus turned to writing.

His poems are dedicated to exposing the horrors of chemical warfare, especially those used in the Vietnam War which he had personal experience of. Rainbow Death is one such example, in order to display the inhumane use of Agent Orange.. Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant, contaminated with TCDD 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.


Bibliography:
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange