Monday, August 2, 2010
Floods in Singapore
Let's start of this blog post with a short video of Singapore flood at Orchard.
This video was made as part of an entertainment of the recent flash floods that occur in several parts of Singapore, mainly in Orchard and Marina area. Singapore used to be known as a country that is free from disaster but recently flooding have broken that record.
Freak floods that happen only once in 50 years have struck the nation 4 times in just 2 months.
A lot of damages has been done and shops like Starbucks, are incurring a lot of losses. In times like this, who is to be blame for this?
We can't really pin-point who is really at fault. The reason? This is a situation where we can't really control. We cannot control the weather. We can't simply put the blame on PUB. Everyone have a part to play in this matter. We can't control but we can prevent it from happening again. Like Mr PM Lee said "Singapore is not a zero flood country."
Labels: Amirul
Racial Harmony? Does it still exist in Singapore?
What is Racial Harmony? Do we still celebrate it in Singapore? Is it really important?Racial Harmony is a day where we commemorate Singapore's success as a racially harmonious nation and a society built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage. It is a must for us to maintain peace and harmony between one another especially in a country like Singapore where there is a diverse mix of races and culture.
Primary and Secondary schools emphasize on the need of having racial harmony in the school by setting a side a day every year to commemorate this event. Students were ask to wear their traditional clothing to school and it would be better if they come in a different culture clothing. Junior College in Singapore do celebrate it too but Polytechnics does not emphasize that much on celebrating racial harmony.
As a student and a Singaporean, I'm thankful that Singapore is a peaceful country that does not have racial riots or conflicts among the people. However, we should not take things for granted. We should continue in prolonging this peace that we have and maintaining harmony between one another.
If a country is not in harmony, others make see these as an opportunity for them to do wrongdoings. Take for example the 9/11 attacks. No one saw it coming and predicted that it will ever happen. Unfortunately, it did.
This could happen if there's no racial harmony in the world.
The 9/11 serves as a wake up call for the entire world of the importance of racial harmony. 9/11 could eventually happen again (*touchwood) if everyone could not be bothered about it.
Labels: Amirul
Social Networking Website, Where's the Privacy?
Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, MySpace and Youtube, to name a few, are social networking websites that allows user to post informations about themselves such as their photos, videos and personal information. Users of these social networking website are vulnerable as they are literally 'click away' from being found under the search engines. For example, if we want to find out more about our idols, all we have to do is google their names and all of the information we need will appear.
For example, this guy, Park Jaebom, a korean artist and leader of the popular boy band group, 2PM, was forced to quit and leave his group when a post he make on MySpace few years ago got leaked out into the internet. He posted his views of Korea showbiz while he was a trainee there, obviously something not nice. Eventually, anti-Jaebom hacked into his account and leak that information to the internet. He was ashamed of his act and eventually left Korea for Seattle.
Park Jaebom is a classic example of invasion of privacy. His post were meant for his friends to see but eventually people manage to get hold of that piece of information. I personally think that the internet is never safe. We have to be mindful of what we post as we don't want unwanted threats against ourselves. I do have a Facebook account but I am mindful of what I can or cannot share on the internet.
Labels: Amirul
World cup 2010
World Cup is a very popular topic among all ages and happen once every 4 years. This year, World Cup is held in South Africa, from 11 june to 11 july. Everyone would want to watch it as they would want to support their favorite team. For me, I supported team South Korea. One of the reason is that I'm a Korean pop fanatic and that's why I supported them. The matches were aired lives at 2.30am and many of us would stay up late just to watch it. For a student like me, I tend to put aside my studies to watch the match. Even my parents stayed up with me to watch the match together.
This goes on for quite a while and I feel lethargic the next day. This caused me to dread going to school as I often fall asleep during lectures. I missed out on a lot of things my lecturer told me and I often skipped school because I was too lazy to get out of bed. This affected my studies and attitude.
World Cup also meant as a source of income for some people. People place bets on the teams they think will win on different matches. However, there are some who resort to illegal booking especially the underage, teenagers like me. Illegal booking is prohibited by law. Chances of winning is 50-50. Its either you win or you lose. When you win, it triggers a stimulus inside you to bet again. An addiction for gambling. However, when you lose, you owe people a sum of money and this would lead to individual borrowing money from others such as friends, siblings, relatives and to a worst extent even the loan sharks.
World Cup have its pros and cons. It allows family and friends to gather together and watch something that they share in common which is football. On the other side, it makes people to start gambling and bet on the games.
Nonetheless, CONGRATULATIONS TO SPAIN FOR WINNING WORLD CUP 2010!!!!!!! =D
Labels: Amirul
Flyers like chewing gum?
Wrigley, Dentyne, Trident and Extra are a few brands of chewing gum. I love chewing gums as I can blow a huge bubble with it. They are different flavors to choose from for example watermelon, apple, orange, mango and blueberry to name a few. However, chewing gums was ban in Singapore an only approved pharmacy are allowed to sell it for therapeutic value . The reason for the ban is that people do not dispose of their gum properly and like to stick it at chairs and tables. This have cause several complaints among the citizens about chewing gum sticking onto their hair or clothes.
What have flyers have in common with chewing gums? Well, like chewing gums, flyers can also be seen as something annoying and irritating. It serves for a temporary purpose which is to inform passer-by on whatever they have to offer and then they either end up on the floor or the garbage bin. Why is this so? In my opinion, I think that Singaporeans doesn't like to receive something that wont benefit them. For flyers, it may contain certain informations but it might not be important to the individual. The reason that they end up on the floor is that once passer-by receive the flyer, they intend to throw it away after reading it and if there's no garbage bin in sight, they will just let it slide off their hands.
So, should we ban flyers like we did with chewing gums? Is the severity of flyers the same as that of chewing gums? I personally think that we should not ban flyers. It does not harm anyone when it is not dispose off properly. Yes, its true that it will create a mess if its not thrown into the garbage bin but that problem can be fix, for example, the government can educate the citizens on disposing the flyers properly or to take the flyers only if they need it.
Hence, I don't think that flyers is equal to chewing gums.
Labels: Amirul
Foreign Talent
I am really proud of team Singapore for winning the World Team Table Tennis Championships held at Moscow. It is their first win and they have made the country proud with the win. CONGRATULATIONS TO THEM!!!! However, there have been a recent discussion on whether there's a need to celebrate the victory. As we all know it, our table tennis is represented by foreign talents, and they are from China. What made it more hillarious is that at the finals of the game, Team Singapore is going against Team China!!!! Its like I'm from China but I'm representing Singapore. Most Singaporeans gave a negative view on this issue.
Singapore have a very small talent pool of people and that's why they open their door to the world and invite foreign talents into the country. Should we depend mainly on Singapore's own local talent, we won't be in the state we are in now. Thanks to these foreign talent, Singapore have progress and develop into a dynamic and modern country.
Look around us. The shelter above our head was built by a group of Bangladeshi workers who came to Singapore for a living. Some of us needs maid to do household chores and take care of our grandparents. If we don't have this people to do this jobs, who can we depend on?
We should really set aside the negative thought and probably stop stereotyping people. The fact that they are contributing to the economy or other sector of Singapore, they are still considered Singaporeans.
Labels: Amirul
Teenagers Out Of Control???
Gossip Girl, one of the most watched teen drama in the US and here in Singapore. The drama series portrays the lives of privileged teenagers going through their normal lives while overcoming obstacles that normal teenagers like us face. However, the lives that they portray on tv is way much different for a normal teenager lives. See the videos below to find out:
General scope of their lives
In general, these privileged teenagers went clubbing, get themselves embroiled with the media, have premarital sex, backstabbed each other, did not respect their parents and display a lot of affection in public. Is it alright for teenagers like us follow their kind of lifestyle?
In a society like the US, it have become a social norm to hear teenagers getting pregnant at the age of 16 and already have a family. However, Singapore's society is very conservative. They are really particular about the teenagers' lives and afraid that the west might influence the teenagers. But even so, if we were to look around or even read up the news, this thing is already happening in Singapore.
Have the younger generation become too bold in expressing their emotion to the opposite sex? Public display of affection has become a common sight here in Singapore. In the train, bus interchange, shopping malls and even on the void deck. Their acts have made the adults worry about them. Is it time for teenagers to attend good etiquette behavior?
I personally think that it is every parents duty to educate and teach their children the right thing since young. Shaping the teenagers character and attitude since young is better than asking them to change when they reach their teenage years.
Labels: Amirul
