NTU valedictorian F-word slip

23-year-old communication studies graduate Trinetta Chong was addressing about 170 of her classmates and slightly less than 300 post-graduate students at the Nanyang Auditorium, located in the university campus, and concluded her rousing six-minute speech with "We f**king did it!"

-sg.yahoo.com

She said she used the word in the "spur of the moment", and it was not in her script. She said it was a said "in the spirit of the moment", letting the f-word slip out.

She has since apologized for her actions.

There were mix views on this issue. Some netizens say that there isn't a need for such a vulgar word to be said even in such an occasion, saying that she should have used other words to express her feelings. On the other hand, some were rather supportive of her, not criticizing her over her saying a vulgar word.

In my opinion, I feel that she should not have done so. Even though it was a spur of the moment thing, even though she was just trying to express herself, she should have practiced some sort of self-restraint, she should have known that using such words might be offensive for some. By doing so, she is somehow being inconsiderate, not thinking of those who might be sensitive to those words.

I understand that she meant no ill-intention and that it was a spur of a moment thing, but I hope that she would practice more self-retraint next time round.

IT'S NATIONAL DAY!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

So today is Singapore's 46th birthday. The high spirits from the celebration is fading and everything is going back to how it used to be. But before that, lets talk about how the parade had gone.

Firstly, about the unique part of this year's parade. This parade was "special" in the way that it is putting up a skit in front of the audience. The 50 minute story was mainly about a boy who was born the same year as Singapore's independence, growing up together with Singapore, telling the Singapore story with his mother. During the musical as it was said to be, many mascots ran around the stage, with the stage lighted up with colours. Music relating to Singapore was played. It was quite spectacular and it was quite interesting to see something new in a parade.

However, the usuals did not fail to impress. There was the parade march in contingents and it was very nice to see so many people on the stage at once. All their actions were synchronized and furthermore, some of the contingents even marched into the crowd. This was rather interesting and I felt it worked really well in bringing the audience closer to the parade literally. The parachuters, the Red Lions, also did not fail to shine and the show put up by the Home Team and the Singapore Armed Forces was also very spectacular. The best was still saved for the last. The fireworks display was very nice and it was a very spectacular sight.

Overall, this year's parade was a success and I would like to say this again HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE!

Leadership - What makes a good leader

What makes a good leader? There are indeed many traits to make a good leader. Some of you might say it is oratorical skills. Some of you might say charisma. But to me, a good leader must possess the following few traits to be able to lead his people to success, to be able to gain the support of his people.

Firstly, a good leader must have moral courage. A leader must have the moral courage to make decisions and carry out those decisions based on what is right, and not what is popular among the people. A good leader must be able to make correct decisions, and not be influenced by the opinion of the people as those opinions might not be always beneficial for everyone. By having moral courage, decisions made would be for the better of the people, and might not be always made to please the people. Hence, by having moral courage, a country would be lead to success with right decisions made by the leader.

Secondly, a good leader must have confidence. By having confidence, a leader would be able to trust himself in whatever he is doing. With confidence, a leader would not have to rely of others influence to make decisions. With confidence, a leader would be able to carry out decisions properly, not hesitating to do anything. A leader would be able to gain the trust of the people by letting people see that he knows what he is doing. A leader would also be able to get his message across to his people much more easily if one had confidence. Hence, a leader with confidence would be able to gain the support of the people, and would be able to carry out decisions without fail.

Lastly, a good leader must have honesty. Being incorruptible and honest is important as by doing so, people would be able to trust their livelihoods to that particular leader. Being honest, a leader would not lie to the population, which might make them lose their trust. Hence, by being honest, a leader would be able to gain the support of his people.

In conclusions, in my opinion, to be a good leader, one must have moral courage, honesty and confidence.

Current Affairs - Loan Sharks Hiring Teens

Be it in FACEBOOK, in online games, coffee shops and schools, loan sharks are striking with various means to get hold of teenagers to do their dirty work. Getting them to distribute name cards, or giving fliers advertising their illegal services. A report on "The New Paper", stated that one 13-year-old student had gotten a job after responding to an adertisment made on Facebook during the school holidays. She dialled the number and was told to meet at an MRT station, where she was given a stack of name cards and made to sign a "job contract". Apparently, these were the name cards of those of loan sharks. Hence, by doing so, she had unknowingly violated the law.

I feel that these loan sharks are very despicable. They use various means just for the sake of money. Even if it meant ruining the lives of teenagers. They target teenagers as they are young and naive, easy to be tricked. And by doing their dirty work, these teenagers has inadvertently ruined their lives, getting themselves a criminal record.

Hence, I feel that teenagers should be more cautious. They should not be blinded by that single moment whereby they might have the chance to get a job and earn some money. They should not make a mistake by taking a job blindly and they might unknowingly ruin their own future. Thus, they should run a deep check on those supposed "companies" or consult any adult as they might know better. They can also check the website for information regarding the job offer. By doing so, these teenagers might save themselves from potentially ruining their future.

The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club is a novel written by asian-american author Amy Tan, and this book has also been made into a movie. Amy Tan's works are mostly on exploring the relationship between mother-and-daughter, which is also what this book is talking about.

This book focuses on four mother and daughter pair. The mothers had immigrated from China and set up families in America. They started a club called Joy Luck Club, where they played mahjong and ate together. The book has a total of 16 stories, divided into 4 sections with 4 stories in each sections, which might be structured like a mahjong game, which also has 4 players.

The main characters are Suyuan(who passed away before the start) and Jing-Mei Woo, An-mei and Rose Hsu, Ying-ying and Lena St. Clair, Waverly and Lindo Jong. There is a total of 8 main characters but only 7 are still present in the novel. The stories are told individually by each character, with each section having all the mothers(accept Suyuan being replaced by Jing-mei) sharing their experience or all the daughters sharing their experience.

The novel is mostly talking about the relationship the mother and daughters have. And one significant similarity to their relationships, as seen from the stories, was that all are rather strained. This was partly due to their cultural differences whereby the mothers were born and raised in a Chinese influenced family, whereas the daughters are brought up in a rather westernized environment. This stories and experience shared from both mother's and daughter's point of view would further show how their views on matters and their ways of thinking differ greatly. Like for one, the daughters would dare to talk back to their mothers, who were their elders. This was a sign of disrespect in their mother's times, doing such things were not even thought of. The mothers were taught to follow instructions and not complain. This was due to them having a more traditional way of thinking, or some would say the Chinese way of thinking. This is just one of the many cultural gaps that could be seen in the novel.

Overall, this book is rather enjoyable as it keeps changing the point of view of characters and would not be so plain and boring. I really recommend this book if one likes to know more about the cultural differences between Westerners and Chinese.

After a maid carrying NS man's backpack, now it's a father's turn

It seems that carrying of backpacks for national servicemen continues to make the news among Singaporeans.

The latest comes on Thursday when a reader of the popular Singapore citizen journalism website Stomp sent a picture of a serviceman in army uniform, making an older man - apparently his father - carry his backpack.

In March, a reader had sent to Stomp, a picture of a national serviceman making his maid carry his army backpack. It generated much buzz on and off the internet, with people criticizing NS man of being "spoilt" and too "soft" whereas some gave the NS man the benefit of the doubt, citing possible reasons like having injuries.

However, in this case, it is no longer a maid, it seems like it is a father. A person supposedly the elder of the NS man is helping him carry his heavy backpack. Some might say that it is fatherly love, but to me, it shows that the NS man is really spoilt. He should have carried the load and not led his father, who is older and supposedly weaker.

I feel that the NS man should be the one blamed. Some might blame the father too but I feel that the NS man should have refused if his father offered to carry his heavy load. He should not have allowed his father to carry his burden for him.

I feel that NS man should really watch what they do in public as in their uniforms, even the slightest of mistakes, people would be able to pick it up and make a fuss about it. I really hope that no such cases surface anymore, or it will really leave a bad impression of other NS man whom I believe are capable of doing such simple task of carrying their own load, and not being so "spoilt".

Book Review - The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner is a book written by Khaled Hosseini. It was published in 2003 and it was even made into a flim with the same name.

The Kite Runner is basically talking about the story of a boy, Amir, who is from Afghanistan. It starts off by talking about Amir and his friend, Hassan, who was also the son of his servant Hazara's son. The story then turns to Amir betraying Hassan because he wanted love from his father, Baba. Many incidents occur before Amir is able to redeem himself for the guilt he had to endure after witnessing an incident.

The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet Invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

The Kite Runner has many themes to it, including friendship, father and son relationships, and also war. But in my opinion, the quest for self redemption was the main theme for this book. This can be seen as most incidents of the story is driven by this theme. For example, Amir tries to redeem himself by going back to help Sohrab, the child of Hassan, get out of the hands of a evil Taliban official.

Overall, this book is very interesting to read. I really liked this book as it also portrayed some real like scenarios like the one in Afghanistan, which had violence. I really recommend this book to others.

Does modern technology has made us lazy?

Modern technology has indeed made us humans lazy. Lazy is defined as being disinclined to work or do a certain thing. Modern technology has brought us convenience and with that, it resulted in laziness in terms of physical, mental and also, in terms of human contact.

Modern technology has made us lazy physically. Modern technology such as cars and elevators has made things convenient for us humans. It has replaced walking and climbing stars respectively. As humans would choose to do things the easier way, they would resort to driving, taking the elevators etc. This would make them lazy as even simple task like climbing up the stairs are replaced by elevators. The introduction of the internet also makes it easy for humans to research. As almost all information could be found on the internet with technology advancing so rapidly, the convenience would result in humans not feeling the need to go down to libraries to find information. Computers also give humans a way to type out things like homework. This replaces the act of writing. This would allow humans to complete work without tiring out their hands. Thus, this examples of technology gives us humans convenience and would make us lazy as humans would not feel the need to take the more physically tiring option if they had something to make it easier for them.

Modern technology has made us lazy mentally. For example, the internet also makes researching for information easy. With internet access near us, humans do not see the need to go down to use hard copy materials. Internet also has many information which decreases the creativity of humans as most things are already available on the net and humans would not feel the need to think of new ideas again if something similar is already done by someone else. Many information and notes on the internet would also make humans mentally lazy as with the notes on internet, for example, students would not feel the need to listen and take down notes in class. Hence, as modern technology has given humans so much convenience, this has made us mentally lazy, making us humans lazy to use our minds.

Modern technology has also made us lazy in terms of human contact. Emails and phones has given humans an easier way of communicating and replaces talking face to face. Introduction of instant messaging programmes like MSN and Facebook has given humans a much more easier way of “talking” to their friends without the need to meet up and go face to face just to pass a message or to simply have a chat. The introduction of video conferencing and video-chatting has also given a much more easier to communicate. Relatives could talk to each other via video-chatting and do not need to meet up somewhere. As most people have access to these technology, being humans, people would rather choose to stay in the confort of their homes to socialize than to go out and socialize. Without much human contact, relationships between humans would not be as good as before as some expressions could not be expressed through those means. Furthermore, if one spends too much time socializing using technology, they would slowly lose the ability to communicate with others face to face as they would be too used to using typed out words to express their thoughts. Thus, as these new technologies has given us convenience, we are becoming lazy to socialize and communicate face to face.

In conclusion, modern technology has made us lazy physically, mentally and also in human contact mainly due to inventions giving us convenience.

My Opinion - North Korea Food Aid

I feel that food aid should not be given to North Korea. First and foremost, this is because the food aid given might be diverted to the military rather than the needy as before mentioned. Furthermore, North Korea, upon receiving food aid, might cut even more spending on food to buy more military weapons or even the nuclear program. This would be a waste of resources as the US and South Korea would be indirectly helping in the military efforts of North Korea which both US and South Korea opposed while the needy people in North Korea will continue to suffer. I also feel that if food aid was given, the people of North Korea would not be suffering, and that the government might not feel the effects of what they are currently doing, like focusing of the military and nuclear efforts. Hence, it would be like a reward for bad behaviour and they might not stop their bad behaviours and might launch other attacks on South Korea or other countries in the future. Furthermore, the reports by the UN to me was unreliable. The information gathered by the UN are from interviewing around hundred households and most of their informations are also from the government. Firstly, the households, even though might report that they are suffering, might not represent the whole nation as the rest of the country might be well off. Secondly, the government, as we all know, are not so trustworthy. They might be exaggerating the figures in hope of getting more food aid. Scholars specializing in the study of North Korea also questioned the credibility of the information gathered from the government, and also the lack of accountability of the government, stating that such details are often used for propaganda.

However, in view of human rights, I do feel that North Korea should be given food aid. Gving the benefit of the doubt to North Korea citizens, I believe that there are really people suffering in North Korea that goes unreported. One reason is that North Korea is really concerned about their image, trying to potray a very glorious image and they would keep outsiders from seeing the true sufferings of their people. Hence, I feel that food aid should be given to these people, only if monitors from US or South Korea or any other countries giving food aid are allowed into the country. This is to ensure that the food supplies reach the intended recipients and not reach the wrong hands.

However, there is still the issue that even if food aid is given, North Korea might not accept it as they had previously refused a few food aids. They might not allow outsiders to monitor the food aid to the places that need it most as they do not want outsiders to see the bad side of their country. I feel that no matter how air-tight protocol may be, they will still cheat as the regime’s transparency cannot be guaranteed. Hence, even if food aid was given, there would be issues of the food aid reaching the intended recipients properly.

In conclusion, I feel that food aid should not be given to North Korea, but giving the benefit of the doubt to the needy people, I feel that food aid should be given, just for the human rights of the people. Thank you.

Current Affairs - North Korea Food Aid

The UN have reported that around six million North Koreans have been affected by this crisis and are in urgent need of food aid. US televangelist Franklin Graham has also had talks with North Korea about food aids. Former US president Jimmy Carter has also expressed his concern and even said that South Korea and United States withholding food aid is a violation of human rights as having food to eat is basic human rights. The UN has also called for 430 thousand tonnes of food aid to be send and urged US and South Korea to put aside diplomatic relations to help the people suffering in North Korea. Furthermore, there was also a concern that there would be a repeat of the 1990s famine whereby around a million people starved due to decades-long mismanagement and disasters which brought devastation to the people living in North Korea during that time.

However, on the other hand, the US and South Korea are not so willing in providing food aid to North Korea. Firstly, they say that the figures by the UN are exaggerated. South Korean interlligence estimates that food production was 5.1 million tonnes in 2010, while the total need of North Korea is around 5.3 million tonnes. There isn't a big difference and there should not be a case of famine. There is also a suspicion that North Korea exaggerated the food shortages to seek more food aid and a reason to this was so that they could build a properous society ahead of the century birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Furthermore, there were also concerns that food production in North Korea are underreported. For example, farmers in North Korea under-report their food production so as to sell more products to earn more money to buy more equipments and other things. So by right, there should be enough food to go around in North Korea. A concern to food aid being send to North Korea is that the food aid would be shipped to North Korea's elite and military, instead of the people who really need it. This might occur as North Korea is somewhat ruled by the military and they might put the military ahead of the citizens and this claim is further supported by the fact that the country had cut spending on food imports by 40 percent but not cut spending on ballistic missile programs or imports of luxury items. This might also be the current situation whereby the government channels most of the food production away from remote and less populated areas to more wealthy and important places, and also to the military. Hence, helping the North Koreans might seem like a waste of resources to South Korea and US. South Korea has said that they would provide food aid only if North Korea apologises for the attacks on a South Korean warship and on island of South Korea. US also worries that giving food aid would be a sign of reward for bad behaviour after stopping providing food aid in 2009 following the expelling of monitors in North Korea.