News Article

Recently, I read a news article about the maid carrying the NS man's backpack. This article has sparked a lot of commotion and I have my own thoughts about this article. Even though the man is already in NS, he still needs his maid to carry his bag for him. I feel that this man is over reliant of his maid and that he needs to start learning how to take care of himself. If it was a young primary school boy, it would still be tolerated; but having already in NS, this man should start taking care of himself. I think that the now NS man had a maid when he was young and he got reliant of having a maid helping him since young. Thus, he still is reliant of a maid when he is older.

Link: http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/caught_in_the_act/588060/nsmen_trained_to_be_fit_strong_soldiers__yet_this_one_makes_maid.html

Letter to The Straits Times Editor

Dear Sir/Madam,

I feel that Singaporeans can learn a great deal from the recent Japanese earthquakes and tsunami incidents. During the earthquake, I read that the Japanese did not freak out, rather, they orderly crawled under the table and waited till the earthquake was over. I feel that we can learn from this. Even though Singapore does not have any natural disasters, it would be great with we can learn to always be calm and cool when any accident happens. We can also learn to be vigilant and on the look-out at all times. For example, we should be always be on the alert in case of a terrorist attack.

I feel that Singaporeans have the potential to handle a similar situation if one arises. We should just be calm and and do what is necessary. Only by being calm can we think sensibly and handle the situation. Most of the time, we would be too freaked out to think straight and end up not doing something sensible like crawling under the table. The Japanese were calm and cool during the earthquake and I think that Singaporeans could do that too.

From,

Lee Weng Khin

Literature

I think that literature means to understand a language completely. Understanding a language means to learn its history and how it is used. For example, we learned that there are other forms of writing, such as poetry, persuasive writing and so on. Understanding a language also mean to understand the meaning under a story. For example, in To Kill A Mockingbird, some underlying message and moral values can be drawn from the story. I feel that there is much more to fully understanding a language than to just speaking it.

Fight Racism!

I think that not enough has been done to combat racism yet. Even though racism has significantly over the years, there are still cases of prejudice against the other race, for example whites towards blacks. I think that racism can be completely stopped just if everyone cooperates with one another. More campaigns can be organised to engage the people from different races to come together and be peaceful. For example, "white" Americans still loathe the "black" African Americans in the United States. They "whites" loathe the "blacks" just for who they are no matter how innocent they are and this has been going on for many, many years.

The Singapore government has done many things to stop racism. Singapore had once witnessed a terrible period of race riots when she was still part of Malaysia. The huge population of Chinese in Singapore and the huge population of Malays in Malaysia were unable to co-exist harmony at that period of time and many race riots started sprouting out. In order for history not to repeat itself, the Singapore Government spent a lot of effort to make peace between the people in Singapore.

For example, Racial Harmony Day is celebrated every year to educate the people of Singapore about the importance of racial harmony. In my primary school, we were allowed to dress up as someone of a different culture to celebrate Racial Harmony Day. There were also game booths set up to test ourselves about the different races. This would ensure that everyone knows about the importance of racial harmony.

The Singapore Government also arranged the people living in HDB Flats so that in every floor, there would be a number of Chinese families, Indian families and so on. This ensure that everyone living in the HDB Flats get to interact with people of different races, and hopefully the they would learn to appreciate one another.

Reflection on CIP Event

On Monday, 21st March, the class went to the St Andrew's Cathedral for the aged for a CIP (Community Involvement Programme) event. It was a very tiring day at the home but it was still meaningful. It was an eye-opener to me as this was my first time doing such a CIP programme.

Firstly, some of us went to clean the windows of the home while the others spent time chatting with the elderly. I was a bit embarrassed at first, but I soon found out that the elderly were quite friendly even though some of them plainly ignored me. Some of the elderly spoke different dialects such as Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien, so it was sometimes quite difficult to converse with them. However, there were some of them who knew how to speak English and Chinese. I spoke to them about many things such as about their routine and stuff like that, but sometimes they might even turn the conversation around and ask me about my life. Many of the conversation were very interesting. Even though they might be old, but they still know how to strike up a conversation.

After that, the whole class sang five Chinese songs for the elderly before we left.

The biggest thing I took back from the visit is that it feels good to make someone feel happy. Through the chat, I found out that the elderly lived a very boring and routine life at the home. I think that our class going to the home certainly raised the elderlies' spirit as well as made them happy. During the sing-along session, all the elderly actively took part in it and I saw that all of them were smiling. It was the first time I ever did such a CIP programme and it certainly felt good to make someone happy, even though we may not know them.

This event also taught me about caring for the elderly. I felt very sad for the elderly living there as it was very boring and many of them had nothing much to do. Thus, I told myself that when my parents grow old, I would not just toss them into an old folks' home and not care about them. I would support them and make them happy. My school should organise more of these events as I feel that it is important in our character development.

Reflection on Mississippi Burning

During the last few LA lessons, Mr Lundberg has allowed us to watch the movie "Mississippi Burning". From this movie, I feel that prejudice is a very frightful thing. In the movie, the whites from Mississippi were prejudice against the coloured folk, they burnt down their houses, kidnapped them and even killed some of them. The whites and coloured folks were not even allowed to share a water fountain. I feel that it was very cruel of the whites to treat the coloured people like this. Even though they might look different, they are still humans and thus should be treated equally like everyone else. The coloured folks lived in fear that the whites might come and kill them. Instead of reporting to the FBI, the coloured folks did not try to fight back, rather, they thought that if they did not disturb the whites, the whites would not come to disturb them, which was not at all true. It would be much better and peaceful for everyone if everyone lived in harmony, no fighting and no prejudice.