Get a JC diploma

I do not agree that JC diploma is an adequate substitute for the A Levels.

Firstly, the objective of JC diploma is to separate people who are holistically developed from students who only have interest in their studies. Hence, this diploma reflects the character, leadership, and citizenship development. However, this system once made compulsory would not be effective in discriminating the cream from the crop. Let’s compare the objective of A Levels and the JC diploma; both of them have the main objective in showing the performance of a student but in terms of academic and non-academic terms. However, when the A Levels where compulsory, every student would strive for the best and in the end, everyone does so well that the better students cannot be picked out. What makes the JC diploma any different? As the system starts to become more common, it becomes easier and easier for the students to achieve commendable results in the JC diploma as they would start to alter their development to suit the requirements of the diploma. Hence, when everyone starts to show that all of them are holistically developed, it would take us back to square one: How to separate the cream from the crop? Therefore, I do not agree that the JC diploma is a good substitute for A Levels for discriminating more capable students.

Secondly, if the JC diploma were to be made compulsory, the education of the students would lean more towards non-academic learning. However, this may not be helpful as the main objective of the students would be to obtain the diploma instead of really experiencing an learning from what they are going through. Hence, even students with the JC diploma might not be consistent in their holistic development as once they have the key to universities in their hands; they could let their hair down and thus, not having the real quality of a JC diploma holder. However, for the A Levels system, even if the students were mug just for good grades and straight A’s, the knowledge they acquire will still remain and would be their pass to prestigious universities. Therefore, A Levels should not be replaced by the JC diploma as the A Levels show the permanent and solid academic development of a student while the JC diploma shows a temporary and deceptive façade of a holistic student which would be unreliable for assessment of the universities.

However, a suggestion is to maintain the A Level system and also have the JC diploma as an optional assessment. This would verify the performances of students who excelled academically and also for the students who are already holistically developed; they could sign up for the JC diploma as an extra boost for his portfolio. This way, not all students would put up a fake façade to show their external development since it is not compulsory for all students. This would also solve the problem of having too many student getting commendable results in the JC diploma since only students who are really consistent in their holistic development would register for the diploma.

Today's library, tomorrow's 'googlary'?

Yes, there is clearly no doubt that the world has made a gigantic leap forward after the great invention of the computer, internet and most importantly, a globalised, easily accessible search engine with almost infinite archives in it called Google. Due to the change brought to the world, students would of course need to advance along with it to maintain updated and informed. However, having a facility which eases us in sourcing for information compared to libraries might not be all advantageous. Especially regarding the source and integrity research papers from students have been quite an issue once Google was internationalised.

Firstly due to easy access to the impossibly large archive of information supplied by the world, students can easily make use of information discovered by others, put it into their own research and take the credit as their own. Unless the authorities have specialised programmes or systems in solving this particular problem, trying to recreate the method these students source out the information and trying to catch them would be like trying to find a needle in a sea of haystack. The worst thing is, information on the net can be instantly added or removed, hence, even if we had the ability to find a needle in a sea of haystack, it might not even be there in the first place. On the other hand, if only hard-printed books in particular libraries were to be allowed to used for research, it would be a lot easier to check whether the students have been cheating as every book which enters the library would have already been clearly categorised into the nature of its information and also the book would not just disappear without knowing.

Also, due to the easy access to write onto and edit information on the internet without being required to reveal your own identity, the internet is greatly infested with unreliable facts provided by unknown people around the world who do not verify their statements with proper evidence. Hence, this makes our findings from the internet used to assist the research of students or even professional researchers faulty, which would be a great flaw as it might be the main factor which leads to incorrect information spread to the world if the internet were to be depended on too much. Hence, printed books would of course be more reliable as it has already been processed by people and the writer would definitely be identified, hence preventing anyone from stating unsubstantiated facts.

However, the good thing about Google compared to the library is that we are able to source out relevent information we require very quickly and effectively. Imagine you were to find the size of the liver of an average Japanese snow monkey in a library, finding the the part of snow monkeys is already a great challenge, not to mention their liver's size. However, with Google, just a few seconds of typing and processing, and the information appears instantaneously in front of you.

Hence, I think that Googling is very effective in sourcing information but we must be cautious in selecting reliable and useful ones and not inflict copyright issues.

A Gift of a Programme

In my opinion, the aim of the GEP should be is to nurture people to being leaders of the Singapore society who are not just able to be good in their studies, but also developed in terms of socialising skills, creative thinking ability and have great compassion towards others, especially his followers. With these three attributes complete, a leader would be able to lead others into the right way effectively while maintaining his follower's trust in him. Thus, GEP should not just focus their assessments on purely results, but also these factors.

To start off, creative thinking is definitely more important than being intelligent when picking a leader. Very often, people regard smart students as hard working people who are able to solve any problem they face with the information they have. However, in this rapidly changing society where information is always being updated, technology is constantly upgraded and news are obsolete after a few days, and where everything is unpredictable, storing information in your heads would not help much as it would not be applicable for the situation you face would not be as simple and straight forward we think. We must be able to have the ability to think creatively and to source out useful information available during that point of time which is helpful in solving that particular problem. Having knowledge of the past 1 million years would be a waste of time memorising if we are not able to selectively pick out those which we can use. Hence, a good leader for the society should be able to think creatively so as to be able to adapt to different situations without wasting too much resources.

Also, charisma is also a crucial factor when one person is to give the population of a whole nation instructions and expect them to follow it. When a leader has done an ingeniously planned out idea which is able to solve a whole nation's problem, the leader would require the cooperation of its citizens to be able to push his idea forward so that words become action. However, not all of the people in the society is able to understand the goals and means of the leader as which how it is going to progress and help the society in the end. Thus, as an elite, the leader should have great socialising skills and persuasivness to be able to convince the masses to follow his path. But of course, no leader ever lives forever and he would need to be replaced some time. Thus, there should be no elitism in the society and the leader should work together alongside the people instead of ahead of them. This way, the people would be clearer in the leader's motives and be able to learn from him hence nurturing new leaders as well as gaining the trust of the people.

Lastly but most importantly, a good leader should be able to be compassionate towards his followers and not exploit them. Just like in the holocaust, Hitler was a leader with creative thinking as well as charisma, however, the only thing which made him fail as a leader was his inability to think for the people and not have elitism. In the holocaust, he clearly stated a "hierarchy" whereby Jews were seen as inferior to others and the Nazis were the elites and should be worshipped. It is due to his non-thoughfulness towards his followers, that lead to the people being frustrated and not coorperate with him. Thus, a leader must remember that his work is to lead the people to the goal, so that the living standards of the people would be improved and using a pragmatic way of exploiting the people to achieve the goal is not an appropriate way to go.

However, I also think that the results of a student in his studies is quite important as to som extent, it is able to reflect his ability to think creatively as well as to be able to socialise with others especially with the improvement of the education system nowadays where students are tested whole-roundedly. However, the GEP must remember that although they are training out elites to lead the nation, these leaders should be humble and not show elitism at all.

Don't Slay The Goose That Lays Golden Eggs

In my opinion, I think that the writer is correct in saying that Singapore should not make hasty and risky actions in hope of bringing instant but unstable wealth to the nation. For the past few years, Singapore's economy has already been considered one of the top few in the world due to our carefully planned out economic system, good international relations which were developed through time and a suitable governing system contributed by Lee Kuan Yew which removed all corruption from reeking in our country causing lost of government funds which were collected from the tax payers. However, if the government were to allow the Intergrated Resorts to be built, were gambling would be greatly held, it would waste all the works and achievements Singapore have obtained so far.

Firstly, if gambling were to be encouraged to the public, the people would be addicted to gambling, wasting their money into a risk and hence, have no motivation in putting in effort in their own proper jobs. Who would not want to hit the jackpot if they have the chance rather than to continue their usual lives working for years, hoping to get promoted one day. Hence, This would then lead to low productivity and effeciency of Singaporean workers and thus, lack of supply in the Singapore economy. As you know, for an economy to be successful, demand and supply have to be high so that there is a liquid flow of cash. However, if the supply were to be low, the economy which was developed after all these years would be totally ruined and wasted.

Secondly, Singapore has a very small but open economy. Hence, maintaining a good image in the globalised world is a very crucial point in having close and good relations with other successful counrtries, especially developed countries, so that there would be more international trade and thus, maintaining a healthy economy in Singapore. However, if Singapore were to be to built casinos around the country making it the main attraction and icon of Singapore, it would be just like blatantly shouting to the world that Singapore has become a country with people addicted to gambling and risking money. Thus, foreign businessmen would think twice before deciding to trade alongside with Singapore tradesmen as they would have less trust on us. This would then lead to a bad image portrayed by Singapore's businessmen and thus, lead to less growth in our economy due to less international tradings.

Lastly, Singapore's current legal system which is very effective in solving corruption and crime within the country is also one of the factors why Singapore is able to control and account the movement of its currency within the country accurately. This helps a lot in avoiding government funds from being taken away illegally by officers or the citizens not paying their taxes. It is not new that whenever casinos are built in a city in large numbers, the crime rate of the area would increase due to more people going bankkrupt and the large sum of money readily available to be stealed in the casinos. This is why tv shows such as CSI:Miami was inspired. Thus, casinos would thus affect the integrity of government officers and also the citizens, leading to a downfall of the governance in Singapore.

However, I think that this article's argument is slightly biased as it does not show that in this stage, the world is in a economic crisis which affect our country greatly. To compensate for that, the government has no chioce but to boost the attraction of Singapore persuading more people to invest in tourism in Singapore which would give us an economic advantage. But the govenrment would have to ensure that these casinos do have a great significance and uniqueness to it so as to be different from other cities such as Los Angelas which is already very successful in this field. this is so that people would decide to come to Singapore's casinos instead of those of other countries.

Swine Flu, H1N1, Influenza A

Recently, there has been a outbreak on the swine flu which originated from Mexico. Swine flu, H1N1 or Influenza A whatever you decide to call it, would still be regcognized as a lethal airborne infection, without symptoms very easily mistaken as the symptoms of the common flu, and has spread to over 43 countries all over the world, infected 12022 people and caused 86 deaths. This reminds us of the SARS incident a few years back or even the infamous spread of plague. However, as such infections threaten the existence of humanity again and again, are countries in the world putting in enough effort and using a suitable strategy in tackling the issue?

The uniqueness of this specific incident is that it was found to be able to spread through both birds as well as pigs. Humans have always been known to the spread of bird flu and have put up many cautions and prevention such as checking the hygiene of food related with birds. This has created wuite a fuss to the economy as trades such as restaurants or food markets are greatly affected as the people are disillusioned by the incident, thus, they are more fearful of buying any product which are "bird-based". This creates a form of "protectionism" among the people and thus, is not beneficial for the country. Hence, as this event does not involve birds but also pigs, it amplifies the effect of "protectionism".

On top of that, in recent years, the world has faced the global economic crisis due to the break down of American currency. This has caused much problems to the economy of many countries as the flow of cash is getting slower and slower, which is not favorable for the economic growth of the country. Thus to solve this problem, many government has encouraged the people to not be fearful of risking their money and not to support protectionism. However, with the occurrence of Influenza A, this has caused many international trades and businesses to slow down and many international relationships would need to be put to a stop for the moment to prevent further spread of this lethal virus, especially when this virus is able to mutate more as it spreads. This puts the countries in a difficult position as they are not able to cater to the two issue of global economic crisis and prevention of spread of the swine flu at the same time as it would contradict each other. This is a very big issue for countries with a very open economy such as Hong Kong and Singapore because these countries' economy are greatly dependent on foreign relations. This is why the chances of these country having swine flu cases are high as seen by the 3 cases of infected in Hong Kong and one in Singapore just this morning. It puts the government of these countries at a very difficult position as they would need ensure security of its citizens at the expense of the economic growth of the countries which might lead to unemployment.

However, due to the advance technology of today, any living or non-living being travelling in and out of countries can be screened and checked to ensure that they do not carry any sign of the swine flu and would not be a potential threat to the community. However, technologies can provide security and safety for a country but they do not do miracles. Especially when the H1N1 virus is an airborne virus, it would be extremely hard to detect even with todays technology, thus, resulting of risk of the virus spreading into the country.

All in all, I feel that countries imposing quarantine order, having temperature checks in school and reducing public events and gatherings is already an adequate action done by the government although it may not be effective enough. To me, it is forgivable that some countries may not be able to completely protect its citizens from the flu as they themselves have many restrains and limitations such as economic problems and the rate at which this virus is spreading.

Advance Medical Directive Act

There are many patients in the world who are terminally ill and has lost their consciousness and state of mind. Thus, to help support their bodies to function as usual so that their physical being still lives on although their mental consciousness might be already dead or non-active, doctors make use of modern technology to replace the malfunctioned brain or other organs to run properly. Without the aide of these machines, these paients would then die. However, the government has come out with the Advance Medical Directive Act whereby the patient, or the patient's relatives (if the patient were to be unconscious), can decide to stop the treatment by the hospital and allow the patient to die a dignified, peaceful death without having need to continue suffering with their medical conditions day by day. However, this act is only valid if the patient's medical condition is cannot be improved by further support.

Euthanasia as literally translated from its original greek term, means a "good death". It is different from this as euthanasia is the act whereby one advances the rate of the patients facing their death after they have a terminal, incurable illness which causes great pain and suffering to the patient. It is also called mercy killing as the patient is actually liberated from his pain. However, euthanasia is seen as an immoral act compared to the Advance Medical Directive Act as it does not just allow the illness to take over and kill the patient naturally, it actually kills the patient immediately by using cruel methods to speed up the process. This is bad as it does not give the patient a dignified and peaceful death. Thus, I think that the Advance Medical Directive Act is better compared to this barbaric action.

However, for this act, I think that the decision to stop treatment for the patient and to allow him to die should be agreed by not just the patient, but also the people who are directly related to the patient. This is because this type of death may seem "unfair" to some people and may cause deep mental scars and disorders to the love ones of the patient. Thus, to prevent this the death of the patient to cause more sadness to the relatives and even maybe suicides, this act should only be run with the approval of every closely related person to the patient.

Also, the technology and resources required to sustain ones life when they already have a terminal illness is great and this would not be beneficial to both the government and the family of the patient as the longer the person lives, the more resources is "wasted" on him. Although this might seem to be cruel as to label one's life with a price, we must still remember that the patient too, is suffering great pain every moment he lives and would be relieved to have a more meaningful and peaceful death than to suffer on bed all day, knowing that they would still die one day. Thus, this act would be able to kill two birds with one stone.

Integrated Resorts

Recently, due o the global economic crisis, Prime Minister Lee has decided to build the Intergrated Resorts to be a tourist attraction for foreigners so as to persuade more people into visiting and spending more time as well as money in Singapore, hence, putting in money into the Singapore economy, decreasing the unemployment and improving the living conditions and quality of Singaporeas' lives. However, due to the presence of casinos in the Intergrated Resorts, there has been much argument over the building of this resorts as it might cause increase of local Singaporean's gambling, thus, putting the people's welfare at risk. However, I think that the advantages of this Intergrated Resorts greatly outweigh its disadvantages.
Firstly, the Intergrated Resort, as said by PM Lee, is not just a gambling attraction, it also comprises of many other facilities for foreigners such as restaurants, hotels, sports and so on. Thus, the success of this Intergrated Resort would lead to approximately 35,000 new jobs created and vacant for the Singapore unemployed. As Singapore has a knowledge-based, small and open economy which was the foundation of our economic success all these years, we should make use of this advantage through earning income by facility and service which is provided by the Intergrated Resorts. Also, in the business of a casino, not much resources is required as the calculations and probabilities has already proven that the casino would gain in the end, its just a matter of how much can they earn and how popular is the casino. This is why tourist spots such as Los Angelas are so successful. Singapore should support the Intergrated Resorts as it wastes low amount of resources for a much greater gain.
Secondly, the image of Singapore in the world have always been conservative and "boring" in the sense that we do not think out of the box and are not daring enough to have radical actions which are beyond the government's "outline" of a Singaporean. This is the main issue why tourism in Singapore is not very successful as the lifestyle and culture here is not as interesting and unique compared to other countries. Since Singapore is a small country limited of land and resources, we could not rely on the Singapore Merlion and Sentosa Island alone for our tourism as we are unlike other countries where people can spend weeks or months travelling around the country just to visit the various tourist sites. In Singapore, 2-3 days is the maximum for a tourist and they would not even bother to come again. Thus, we need to make a big change in the tourism to show that Singapore has a unique tourist spot where you can spend weeks in just to have fun in the casino as well as the facilities in the Intergrated Resorts.
To add on, since the intergrated Resorts is a private project, the failure of this project would not affect the economy at all as the government's fund would not be at risk. Also, there have been regulations such as higher fees for local gamblers and no access for citizens who are receiving government economic support or are in bankruptcy. All this could prevent the cons of the Intergrated Resorts into negatively influencing the habits of Singaopreans and also the economy.
To solve the worries of many Singaporeans, the government should put in more education about gambling and its consequences to the students and also through media so that the locals would be convinced not to gamble.

HOTA

Currently, there have been proposed amendments to the Human Organ Transplant Act to give incentives to donors after their organ transplant to compensate for the expenses or loss of earnings which may be incurred by a person reasonably or directly due to his donation. The rationale of this proposal is to raise the organ transplant rate to improve the overall living condition of the people by providing them a healthy and strong life. However, there are many flaws to this proposal as people would use the donation as an excuse to gain “payments” from the government.

First of all, if the donor were to be in a career whereby his health is crucial for good performance, such as laborers, they could abuse this new act. For example, if the worker was to decide to have a short break from his work and yet get the same or even more pay, he could decide to donate one of his functioning kidneys. Then, he would be considered as partially disabled and would not be able to run his work well. Loss in payment due to this would be counted as “loss of earnings incurred by a person directly due to his donation” and the government would have to pay the donor to compensate for the loss in his income. Therefore, the worker would be able to work less for maybe a few years and yet get the same salary. He might even be able to donate another organ after he is considered partially disabled to gain that “privilege” again. Therefore, this act is inadequate as workers might make use of this law to slack off in their jobs and get money from the government as “reward” for their “kind” acts.

Also, one flaw in the act is that it did not specify about donations from already disabled donors. As some donors might already have medical disabilities which do not affect the organ which they would like to donate, they would have more loss caused by the donation compared to normal healthy people as their body would be further weakened and thus, resulting in a poor living condition. Therefore, the government should provide more incentives to these donors as their loss due to the donation is not just financial and physical, but also mental and social. This extra incentive can also serve as recognition of their brave act even when they are already medically deprived. Hence, I believe that there should be more incentives given to already disabled organ donors to compensate for their greater loss and also medical benefits should be provided for his current partially disabled organ as well as the previously disabled organ to reward them for their courage.

Therefore, to better the Human Organ Transplant Act, there should be it should be limited to only one organ from one donor to reduce the occurrences whereby there incentives are abused. However, an exception should be given to organs which are needed from relatives during emergencies so that there would be a supply of organs in a short notice. The second amendment to this proposal is to provide donors who were previously medically disabled with more incentives and insurance to compensate for their greater loss due to the transplant as well as to take care of their welfare so that their lives would not be that greatly affected by two medical conditions.

National Service

Currently, there are many queries about national service in Singapore, this is because the government is actually punishing those who left the country and have not served National Service due to study or business opportunities. These punishments include working for the Singapore government for a few years or in terms of fines. However, I do not think that these methods are effective in retaining people to serve the country.

First of all, giving fines and forcing the people to work for the country for a few miserable years would not be an effective way in frightening the others into serving NS. This instead, would pose as a threat to the people and hence, they would become disillusioned from the government and hence, have no sense of patriotism and loyalty to Singapore. This would lead to even more people trying to leave the country to avoid NS and encourage them to stay as foreign immigrants so as to prevent any punishments from the government to. Thus, this is a counter-productive move. On the other hand, the government should instead solve the problem from the roots, to instill pride and nationalism into the minds of the everyday Singaporean so that they would have an inner calling to support their motherland in any way possible. Then, only would they eagerly pick up the job of NS. This can be brought up through constant propaganda in education or the media.

Secondly, one of the reasons Singaporeans do not want to serve NS is because they have the misconception that NS is just a boisterous event whereby everyone train up their muscles while a small portion of potential people develop from there into their future career while the other weaklings leave the place after two years just to lose out to girls in universities and to fatten up again. Thus, an effective way to solve this problem is to convince the people that NS is actually a good opportunity to gain manhood as there are many good characteristics which can be obtained through the trainings such as leadership, discipline, camaraderie, teamwork and perseverance. All these quality are not just applicable in military life, but also the everyday life of the ordinary people especially in their career. These are common but useful attributes of a person which would help him to excel in anything he may wish to accomplish in life. Thus, the government would have to educate the people more about the gains of National Service and how these benefits could be useful in their lives beyond the workforce.

Also, there are many skills which can be learnt through the course of National Service. Things such as medical skills, survival skills, technological skills and problem solving skills can all be found through the events in National Service such as camping in jungles, use of fighter planes and when treating a wounded comrade. These are also very useful technical skills which can be picked up when serving the country as they can also be used in future areas of development. There are a wide range of careers which involve medication, IT knowledge and especially solving problems. Thus, the government should advertise National Service such that it is shown as a conducive area to develop those techniques so that people would have the stable fundamentals for future jobs.

To sum up, the government should not use force to “encourage” the people to serve the country as this would provoke anger among the people and hence, would result in a rebellious attitude. The government should instead use a softer approach to convince the people through propaganda of the pros of NS and how It could benefit them in many ways.

How advertising informs to our benefit

In business, there is always competition between companies which are of a common market. Thus, when information in advertisements shows how one product is fairly better than the other, the rivaling companies would try to get the head lead by improving their product to be even better than the ones advertised. Hence, this cycle goes on, thus leading only to products being of better quality and more creative inventions which would surely benefit the purchasers. On the other hand, if there were no advertisements, the quality of products would not develop as companies would have no idea how creative and useful ideas have been implemented onto the item to improve it as there is no information available on how they make themselves more attracting to customers and their domain of research to upgrade the conventional products. Without this, companies would be oblivious and could not establish as they are not sure of where to take their first step and which dimension of their product they should develop on. Also, they would not know what the specific needs and wants of the public are as without the information given by advertisements, companies would only know which products were sold successfully but not the reason why they were more successful and which cravings of the customers they satisfied. Same for trade in tobacco, with advertisement, companies would gain better knowledge that the people want healthier and less risky cigarettes. They would also know more on what type materials could be used to substitute the normal cigarettes to make it safer. Thereafter, companies would build on the ideas of other products and make theirs better. Thus, this would improve the quality of products and hence, benefit us.

For most companies, there would always be a specialty in their products and reason why their products are better or unique compared to the products of other companies within the similar domain of business. This is to ensure that they stand out and the masses would be more attracted to their products and hence, increasing the demand. Due to this, the content of their products would be clearly boasted on the billboards showing their superiority. Hence, this would give us a better insight on the origins of not just the product being advertised, but also how other similar products are being made as most advertisements would compare and contrast their new innovations with other conventional brands. For example in tobacco trading, some people tend to be fearful of getting hoarseness or wheezing which symptoms lead to cancer and death. Thus, to get these people to not quit smoking and to throw in their money, tobacco companies exhibit how their cigarettes are a healthier choice compared to other brands due to its composition. Therefore, this could educate not just the smokers, but also the public on the materials which could lessen the risk of cancer when smoking. Hence, it is clear that advertising informs to our benefit.

However, it is undeniable that some information might not be entirely accurate or not all the truth is revealed. Very simply, when companies create new items, there might be flaws or disadvantages to it. However, when they launch their product and advertise it, obviously they would broom the dirty secrets under the carpet and only give the desired but false front. Hence, this would make the information given on advertisements to be unreliable and deceptive, which would lead to misconception of the public. However, after the product is spread out to the public and is applied, its true effects can never be hidden and would eventually surface. This would then defame the company selling these products and hence labeling their advertisements as not trust-worthy. Also, there are also inspections done on the products to check whether they correspond to how they advertise them. This would also discriminate the reliable companies from those who are corrupt. Hence, not all advertisements are beneficial the all.

Thus, advertisements can be beneficial to the public in direct and indirect ways such as educating them and improving the products. However, we should be cautious when receiving information from advertisements and question the source in which they come from.

Is science a menace of civilization?

I think that science is clearly not a menace to civilization, although due to the development of science, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons which would bring mental and physical destruction to the civilization have been greatly produced, its benefits greatly overweigh its consequences. Thanks to the advancement of science, miraculous discoveries such as pasteurization, vaccination, antibiotics, anesthetics, the obliteration of smallpox, transplant surgery, genetic engineering, and many more which have saved trillions. Just like religion, politics or philosophies, there is no doubt that mistakes would be made but if we do not continue to practice them, we would never know the right from the wrong, only when we learn from our mistakes can we get a step closer to success. In science, some sacrifices are bound to be made to gain better understanding. Hence, the act of medical research in systematic torture and exploitation of animals for the past 200 years is clearly justified by the millions of lives of people as well as animals saved.
In fact, science has made a great contribution to the stability of civilization compared to the practices of religion and philosophy. As science is the investigation, manipulation and prediction of natural phenomena, the objective of science is to enlighten people of what is in this world based on solid proof and support from the researches. However, religion on the other hand might actually delude the masses with their “knowledge” as they are all just the beliefs of a small minority of people which are not substantiated by hardcore facts. Thus, religion is actually a sanctuary for belief and hope for the people to have faith in but science is where truth and facts are. In ancient past, due to the domination of the Church and their great influence over the society, people had the belief that Earth was actually the center of the universe with the sun orbiting around it. However, with Galileo Galilei’s determination to think beyond the scriptures, he proven the theory Heliocentrism which stated that the sun was the center of the solar system with Earth orbiting it. Thus, it is clear that from early times, science has been the fundamentals of the development of the human race. Therefore, it is definitely not a menace to civilization as it brings the masses to the real facts and figures in life rather than to provide them with people’s own perception of life and nature.
However, although science has brought much comfort to the lives of humans, comfort itself might lead to degrading of the capabilities of humans. After Bill Gates invented the computer, the world changed around. Everything became reliant on IT such as education, information, communication, and so on. Thus, in a world where computers and chips do the work for us, what can we do, or rather, what needs to be done by us? Due to the great ease brought in by development of science, human life is becoming too pleasurable hence, making us become more attached and dependent on technology. Thus, this would deprive us of the opportunities to exercise our own capabilities physically as well as mentally. This would lead to the degrading of the human thinking and thus the domination of technology in our world just like the dystopia depicted in the novel “Brave New World” where humans did not actually have any thoughts and where literally mass produced like machines. Thus, to some extent, science is a menace to civilization as it makes it depend more on technology, hence, crippling it.
To round up, science is beneficial to our civilization as it could bring great improvements in living conditions and enlighten us on the truths of life and nature. However, when the advancement is too great and humans become reliant on it, it would be counterproductive.

Censorship of Pornography

In my opinion, pornography should definitely be censored from view of public. Firstly, this is because in almost all pornography, the character of the behavior and attitude almost always suggests that females are raped object which would willingly give their body to men. Hence, pornography actually degrades the position of women as they are portrayed as lowly beings that are meant to be used as inanimate sex objects for the men. Therefore, pornography should be censored since it would influence to minds of people into thinking the traditional way which is when men were superior over women which contradicts with our newly discovered philosophy that both genders are equal.

With no doubt, males are more attracted to sexuality compared to females and thus, pornography today is mostly targeted at the sexual fantasies of men and would cater to the desires of the males and would only show what males would want. Therefore, pornography would in a way “support” the male more than females hence, going in line with the traditional belief of sex roles which where males should dominate females. Therefore, if pornography were to be shown to the public openly, the uneducated population who are exposed would blindly follow the idea that males should overpower females in society. This would then obstruct healthy development of the people’s thinking, especially for children since most of them are not enlightened in things related to sex as they are not mature enough.

According to many researches, most cases of raping are caused by pornography. "I went to a porno bookstore, put a quarter in a slot, and saw this porn movie. It was just a guy coming up from behind a girl and attacking her and raping her. That's when I started having rape fantasies. When I saw that movie, it was like somebody lit a fuse from my childhood on up... I just went for it, went out and raped." Rapist interviewed by Beneke, 1982, pp. It is obvious that when pornography is exposed to people, especially males, although they might not have an urge to have sex or to rape for that matter, watching these movies, intentionally or unintentionally, would arouse a desire to have sex with another. Then, people would start to watch pornography to feed their hunger. This would gradually expand their craving until when pornography is not enough in satisfying them, hence, they start doing radical things such as raping or sexual child abuse. This could also result in occurrences of premarital sex or immature sex which would lead to abortion or abandonment of children which are both undesirable. Therefore, pornography should be strictly censored as to prevent any cases like these to happen.

Although I agree that pornography is speech, words, and pictures about sexuality, not all things are appropriate to be shared with the public as sex is considered a very private, and in some beliefs sacred, act. It should not be directly revealed to the masses as that would be suggests everyone to have sex since pornography reflects and encourages sexual fantasies. Hence, when people who are not fully enlightened in the true dangers and consequences of sex, which are never shown in pornography, are exposed to these materials, they would be tempted to have sex themselves just like in the pornography as they have to satisfy their hunger. Therefore, pornography should be censored as it promotes sex without clearly stating the possible consequences to come and also whether it is appropriate for the viewers to have sex since it is not suitable for people who are not physically mature enough to have sex.

President’s Star Charity Show

Personally, I think that the President's Star Charity Show should not have artistes to perform stunts to milk the public’s compassion for more generous donations as it defeats the purpose of hosting the show in the first place. The ultimate objective of the President's Star Charity show is to gain a large amount of donations from the Singapore public to support people with great medical, economical or social need. The show has many events and performances to reach to the viewers hearts and show them how deprived these people are and how our every contribution can help their lives tremendously. However, instead of having simple performances such as singing or dancing, it is including more outstanding shows such as stunts from the artiste to grasp the attention of the viewers. On the other hand, this move would also create a counter-effect which would reduce the amount of support from the public for the needy.

For example in 20^th July in 2008, there was a monk, Venerable Ming Yi, from Ren Ci Hospital and Medical Centre who made a radical move in order to get the attention of the public. He walked across parallel beams which were 66 storeys high. That was not all, in the past, Ming Yi also did many dare devil performances such as immersing himself in a container full of ice, balancing on a five-storey high structure for nearly two hours and pulling himself up 23 storeys using a rope and pulley. He did all this in the name of his organization and his patients.

Attempts to raise fund for the needy in such a way is actually counterproductive as most people would see these actions not as brave but rather idiotic because they are risking their lives just to grab the audience’s attention. Hence, this would bring shame and defame the charity organization’s image which would then lead to a decrease in support from the masses and hence, shortage in funds to improve the living standards of the poor. Also, as these performances are highly dangerous and are not healthy to be seen by children, to avoid such occurrences, people would tend to not support the organization at all.

Besides that, even if these stunts were able to gain donations, this is due to the hunger of the public for more stunts in shows instead of true care for the needy of Singapore. These performances mislead the masses and also alter the ultimate objective of the President’s Star Charity Show as it becomes an event to entertain others through any means necessary than to reach into their hearts and get them to empathize the poor and needy. Therefore, when this show is unable to meet to the demands of the public, it would then fail and obtaining funds would then become an issue. However, if these shows could leave a mark in the hearts of the public, then even though the show may not be as exciting and fascinating as the one in previous years, the public would not fail to support these organizations because they already know the importance of their donations no matter how minute it may seem.

However, I do agree that with these stunts performed by the artistes, the President’s Star Charity Show would be able to get more viewers and hence, spread their ideas more quickly and effectively. Without these attention grabbing shows, most people would not even bother to watch the show, therefore, leading to large loss in funding and inability to spread the idea that help is needed.

Hence, I think that one or two stunts would be sufficient for making people start watching the show but the main content should be to show how much the public’s support is needed.

Regulation of political commentary on the Internet in Singapore

I think that political commentary on the internet should be restricted to only political leaders who are involved in elections or political parties. This is because when these politicians post comments about their party, the opposing party or the political system of the country, they would have evidence and proof of their arguments so that their comments would not affect the politics of the country unhealthily. I think that this restriction should be imposed also because politicians would not remain anonymous on the internet as they would want to show that it is their party who is on the right. Hence, this would eradicate any problem in irresponsible people in the web who posts political comments without any proof and yet remain anonymous, which would lead to false rumors spreading like wild fire across the globe as the internet is a fast, easily accessible, global communicating system. False comments from these anonymous people would also arouse doubt in the readers of a particular political party and hence, affecting the polls of the election unhealthily.

In some countries, political comments posted onto the internet which is considered false to the political parties referred to would be chased down by the government of the country even when the commenter is a foreigner. As many foreigners do not get the full picture of the political state which the country is in and the political history, most foreign commenter on the web would tend to give out false, biased or inaccurate information about the particular party or politician. However, I do not think that it is a suitable regulation in Singapore for political advertising as when the government tries to impose a punishment to the foreign commenter, the sovereignty of the foreign country would be violated since all countries have different degrees and types of punishment for this particular problem. Since the internet is a global communicating system which cuts across different countries, this regulation would never be successful unless every country in the world have a common rule for these political commenter. Also, this system may also fail because online commenters are not easy to track down as they are anonymous and hunting down every one of them would be a great consumption in time and resources as the internet is too easily accessed by the masses and Singapore has limited resources.

There is another way which governments can prevent political comments on the internet, which is to target the service providers, browsers, networks, and financial supporters of the internet in the country. They impose regulations onto these supporters of the web to filter out any unacknowledged political comments which may be a threat to the political stability of the country. Hence, readers would not be able to see these comments, therefore, the comments whether true or false would not spread and cause any inconvenience. However, I do not think that this regulation is suitable for Singapore as Singapore is a developed and advanced country which heavily relies on technology. Hence, setting up restrictions onto these internet supporters would, in one way or another, affect the usefulness of the web as there would only be limited information on it. This would then lead to damage in the country’s other developments which would not be desirable for Singapore.

However, eradicating unsubstantiated and unacknowledged political comments from the internet has its weaknesses too. As these comments brings shows the perspective of the local people who experience the political systems of the country. Hence, without these information, readers on the internet would only see the politicians’ point of view on the issue and not the holistic picture.