Comments
Monday, 22 August 2011
Below are the links to all my 10 comments. Thank you.http://calcal1997.blogspot.com/2011/08/mp-penny-low-apologises-for-behaviour.html
I personally feel that with the National Anthem played, as a proud Singaporean, the only thing she could have done is to respect the occasion and sing along with the anthem. By texting, it is utterly disrespectful and thus insensitive. I feel that to bring this issue to the school level, while the national anthem is played, many of our classmates are often caught fooling around. Some of them are pushing and shoving each other during the anthem or purposely singing the wrong lyrics as a joke. This is as bad as, if not worse than MP penny low's actions as there is simply no justification.
http://chuachengtat.blogspot.com/2011/05/ride-in-right-direction.html
Personally, I am quite cynical about the MP's actions, I feel it is an effort into pleasing the public, but rightfully so as he aims to gain the public's trust in the few weeks in charge. Personally, I do not see anything wrong with Singapore's transport system and thus ministers cannot be held responsible. I refuse to join in the bandwagon of complaining about packed public transport. Having had the privilege of going overseas to Japan, the MRTs there are much more crowded, having to hire staff to push people into the carriage during peak hours. Besides, as compared to neighbours Malaysia, Singapore's MRT is also very convenient especially adding in the new circle line and downtown line. Thus, I feel that what people are really complaining about is the influx of foreign talent in Singapore. While I think that foreign talent diversifies and provides economical and social benefits, they definitely have to be controlled to ensure Singapore has the necessary resources to deal with a growing and aging population.
http://chuachengtat.blogspot.com/2011/08/india-education-crisis.html
After reading your article, i feel that Singapore's education has done a good job in a sense that no child is left behind and that every child gets at least primary school education, which would suffice for labour intensive jobs. However, I would like to enquire your personal view on brain drain as a problem having mentioned that,
Indian students are choosing to study aboard in Europe, Australia and New Zealand as the universities there are more attractive. Thus, these students will be working for those countries instead of their home country, India.Personally, I feel that brain drain is an extremely huge problem. In a small country like Singapore whereby talents are limited, and top students are often going to overseas universities in the United States of America and United Kingdom, it is important that these students come back to serve the country. And one way of doing so, is through scholarship bonds. Another question, is by increasing the enrollment of Universities, will the make the university degree decrease in value. If the country was to be filled with university students, what makes you special?
http://bansiang2i3.blogspot.com/2011/07/future-school-programme-does-it-really.html#comment-form
I personally feel that your post is too subjective. Although i entirely agree that FS@SG is unnecessary if the teacher is forced to incorporate technology into their lessons, it is a waste of time. However, I feel that FS@SG is a welcome break from boring lessons as multimedia on the net allows for a variation in education platforms. This is also inline with the "teach less, learn more" scheme that the government has pushed out in order to make students more independent learners. As a non-gamer myself, I feel that it has benefited my studies and learn things the way I want. For example, in a recent chinese online reading assignment, a story could be expressed in various ways, a picturebook, a essay or thru a storyteller. Such is the different interaction that cannot be achieved during lessons. I feel that ultimately the issue comes back down to discipline, everything has its temptations. During lessons, who says that students do not doze off in class as the teacher tries to pass on her knowledge?
http://bansiang2i3.blogspot.com/2011/08/bullying-name-calling.html
Having read your post, I think you should consider that perhaps bullying is not solely blamed on the bully, but maybe the "victim" too. Sometimes, bullies are aggravated by the victims and thus causing an reaction, which is deemed as bullying. Bullying is a rather subjective term and its meaning can differ from one person to another. For example, if person A was to anger person B and person B reacts by calling person A names. Is that really bullying? Just like everything else, i think there is always two sides to a situation and both parties must be somehow involved. While I admit there is no excuse to bully and that bullies should be punished harshly? It is vital that we also ask, why was I the victim? What did i do wrong?
http://leeliakghee2i310.blogspot.com/2011/07/euthanasia.html
I personally disagree with you, I think that ethical is not very well defined. In my opinion, it is not right to compare euthanasia and the act of committing murder. Euthanasia is only approved assuming the patient is terminally ill and will die in 6 months. And this is after having two doctors' opinions, ensuring its reliability. Murder is not a choice while euthanasia is a self decision knowing that you were gonna die sooner or later with no chance of survival. Thus, it can be implied that the freedom of choice to live is already taken away from you. Hence, I personally feel that euthanasia should be allowed, in order to end the suffering early and not burden his/her family and relatives even more.
http://2i3-12.blogspot.com/2011/08/plagiarism-10.html#comment-form
I think that plagarism is a very evident problem even in secondary schools as students undermine the problem of copy-right issues and the idea of plagarism. While i totally agree with your posts about the two types of people who plagarise, I would like to point out that no matter which time of person you are, plagarism is just not right and hence cannot be accepted. So what if you did not know, it does not make the mistake just as much severe.
http://lwh2i3sec2la.blogspot.com/2011/07/ministerial-pay.html
While I disagree that with a higher ministerial pay, the chance of corruption will drop, I feel that it is important that the Ministers are given high pays.
The ministers are often faced with massive amounts of social pressure, more so than the CEOs of multi-national companies. Thus, with the job that they do, they probably deserve the high pay. That being said, it is important for the public sector to attract the brightest talents in Singapore. If the Ministers are the best talents in Singapore, then they should get the highest pay right? To receive only 2/3 of the private sector's top earners is quite fair.
I feel that the problem is that Ministers are often like celebrities whom people are constantly trying to find fault with. The fact that their pays are well publicised makes the problem worse than it is.
http://2i321.blogspot.com/2011/08/meritocracy.html
I agree that meritocracy is a good system as it encourages people to put in effort and do their best for the work they do. On top of that, it rewards those people who work hard and therefore are deserving.
Assuming everyone was given equal chances and promotion are not purely based on merit, this discourages people to put in effort. Without competition, it is very hard for people to want to change and improve. If people never improve, ultimately the country will be stagnant with no progress while other countries strive for progress. In chinese, 逆水行舟，不进则退。
NOTE: Utilitarianism is a concept where things are done for the greater good for everyone; what you have explained in your post is communism.
http://2i321.blogspot.com/2011/08/stomp.html
I totally agree, STOMP has became a public tabloid site that reflects everything bad that happens in Singapore. Personally, as a student with the recent STOMP appearances our school has been involved in. When i am in view of the public, i have learned to respect my uniform and behave myself in order to not disgrace myself and thus my school.
However, that being said, STOMP has restricted our freedom, and thus stopped me from doing many things. And i feel that it is a bit extreme and is a bit fake. For example, at a concert that is open to public, in uniform, I often find myself not wanting to clap or cheer loudly in order to maintain our school's reputation of well-educated children. Cheering and clapping was meant to be a positive thing, but is now restricted due to unwanted gossip from the public.
I honestly feel that Singaporeans have to be less critical and look more at their own flaws. For example, I would think that the case of a NS men carrying a girl's handbag has got nothing wrong. If it was not sensationalised by the fact that he was a NS men, it would be fine. I am sure we have all seen husband's carrying his wife's handbag and it is their way of showing affection. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.