YOG Opening Ceremony

The Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony is held on 14th August 2010, at the floating platform at the Marina Bay. It took Singapore around 350 million dollars and two years of preparation just for this event.

The opening ceremony is led by young talent, who displayed the "can do" spirit of youth. The opening ceremony involved around 7000 performers who were mostly 18 years old. It also had effects such as water effects and is watched by around 27000 spectators from the stands and many more from their homes.

There were many interesting segments such as the part called "Playing with Fire". However, I liked the part whereby the torch was lit by Singapore sailor Darren Choy. Upon docking from a float, Amanda Lim, who is a Asian Youth Games and SEA Games medalist, passed on the torch to other torch bearers which ended up with Darren. When he reached the cauldron, he placed the torch at the edge of it and fire burst from the cauldron, firing up the cauldron. This was dubbed the "vortex flame".

I feel that the opening ceremony was a success as I felt that it was very grand and spectacular. I also felt that the fireworks was quite spectacular even though the one done during the National Day Parade just a few days ago was much better. Overall, I think that the opening ceremony was a success and I hope that the Games would be a success too.

Abortion - Is it Immoral?

This is a hotly debated topic and this topic was also discussed during one of my "Thinking" lessons. We shared our views on how we felt about this topic and in this blog post, I am going to share my views about this topic. I would talk about the pros and cons of abortion.

There are pros of abortion and one of it is that, if a child has a high chance of contracting a disease, for example, aids, it would be the right thing to do to abort the birth of the child as if it was to be conceived, the child would suffer with that particular disease. Another situation whereby abortion is alright is when a child suffers from some disabilities such as mentally or physically, like loosing a limb. This would cause them to have a social stigma when born and they cannot live a full life. Another circumstance is that if conceiving the child would put the mother's life in danger, aborting the child would be an option to save a life.

However, one of the objection to the child having a mental illness and suffering after being born, is that the child might not even know that it has the disease and would thing that everything in his daily life is normal, even when being bullied or mocked by other children.

There are also cons of abortion and one of it is that, it is immoral as it is depriving the child to have a chance to live. A child might be aborted for some reasons like the parents not having enough money to raise and give the child a good life. Furthermore, depriving a child the right to live is immoral and the child could be put up for adoptions after being born.

However, an objection to that point is that the child might have some disabilities like having a missing limb and the child would not be able to enjoy a happy childhood and is unable to live a full life. Thus, abortion might be considered to prevent the sufferings the child would experience after being born.

In conclusion, I feel that abortion is immoral in certain circumstances such as when the life of the mother is in danger. I feel that abortion is a matter not to be lightly taken as it determines whether a child gets to live. Thus, I am alright with abortion but to a certain extent.

Feel free to comment on this post.

YOG Torch Relay Ceremony

On August 11th, the YOG torch relay finally came to our school. I was very excited to see the torch as it was a once in a life time chance to do so. However, I was required to perform for the YOG torch relay as I was in the Lion dance.

After morning assembly, students started flooding the Kah Kee Drive and waited along the side of the road for the torch to arrive. As we waited for the VIP, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, to arrive. And when he arrived, we started playing and even though we started too early earlier on, we managed to finish our performance. We quickly carried our things like drums away so as not to block the cars. I was very disappointed as when we had put the things back to the room, the torch had already passed. However, according to one of my friends who saw the “torch”, he said it was really a let-down. He said that the “torch” was actually a lantern and furthermore, he said that the runner was actually walking.

If what my friend had said was true, I would rather not see the ceremony as the runner should be holding the flame with pride and not walking while holding it. It tells a person that the flame is either embarrassing to hold or it does not show any significance. I was really disappointed with this ceremony as I did not get to see the torch and also, the runner had no pride in doing so.

National Day Parade 2010 - Live Our Dream, Fly Our Flag

This year's national day toook place at the Padang rather than at the Floating Platform at the Marina Bay. This year's theme is "Live our Dream, Fly our Flag".

Some highlights for this year's National Day Parade was the aerial display. Fighter jets such as the F15SG multirole fighter. The mobile column was also very spectacular as new additions of tanks such as the Leopard 2A4 tanks and also artilerries was displayed. This year's NDP song was composed and sang by Corrinne May. The fireworks display was also equally spectacular as it was set at nine different positions - Padang, City Hall, Esplanade Theatre, Marina Bay, Suntec City, Pan Pacific hotel, Ritz Calton Millenia Hotel and UOB Plaza & Mayband Tower. Thus, even though many people didn't get to get tickets to see the National Day Parade at Padang, they could get a glimpse of the fireworks from the other places such as the Marina Bay by watching nearby.

I personally feel that this year's NDP was a success as it was very spectecular and it showed the success Singapore has such as in military. I was amazed by the fireowrks display as it was very grand and was very interesting and I hope that the next NDP would be as good as this one.

Peranakan Museum

As the Barclays Premier League has not started, I will be posting on recent activities like the upcoming YOG torch relay and also the National Day Parade. For this blog post, I would be posting about the recent field trip I had with my class to the Peranakan Museum. The objective of this trip was to have a deeper understanding of Peranakan Culture and also, to understand the book we are reading now, Emily of Emerald Hill.

On 27th of July, we went to the Peranakan Museum after school at 1.40pm. We boarded a chartered bus there and arrived there at around 2.30. Our English teacher briefed us on what the museum had and gave us a worksheet and we were asked to go in pairs or groups. I went with a group of my classmates and the first place I went to was the history of Peranakans. It told us the history of their people. After that, we went to the second floor, where we were required to draw a sketch of a traditional chair and also a table. Then, we got to see Sarong Kebayas and were also required to draw a sketch of it and also, we saw traditional wedding costumes. Then, we went up another level where we saw a traditional table setting of a Tok Pajang. Then, we saw other items commonly used in a peranakan household such as the mortar and pestle and also tengkats, which were tiered containers which are used to store food. After that, it was already around 3 and we gathered back at the lobby of the museum where we waited for the bus to bring us back to school.

From this field trip, I got to understand the culture of a Peranakan and I could better understand the text of the book Emily of the Emerald Hill. It gave me an in-depth knowledge of the book as for example, we understood that making certain recipes like the Babi Buah Keluar is a very tedious and a time consuming thing to do. Thus, we were given a chance to get a insight to a different culture and also the book.